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Book reviews for "Blakney,_Raymond_D." sorted by average review score:

A First Course in Coding Theory
Published in Paperback by Clarendon Pr (February, 1993)
Author: Raymond Hill
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Satisfied Customer
Prompt delivery, book was in great shape. I'd buy my next textbook this way!

Great Introduction to Coding Theory
The greatest quality of this book is that all the author expects the reader to have is a basic mathematics background (a Discrete Structures background of basic Set Theory). It contains consise explanations and straightforward proofs to all the essential theorems of the subject,but, fortunately, is NOT too elementary that it loses its true mathematical appeal. To top it all, it is chock-full of excellent applied problems in communications, image transmission, and even a party trick here or there (oh yes, friends WILL be impressed when you can error-correct an ISBN!).
In short, I think this book serves as a wonderful textbook into introductory Coding theory. And as for the subject of Coding Theory in general, maybe to spark a bit more interest in some potential customers, a thorough study of the theory will bring together all types of Mathematics (from algebra, calculus, number theory, set theory, finite geometry, and linear algebra).
All will be revealed!


Fossils: A Guide to Prehistoric Life
Published in Paperback by Golden Books Pub Co (Adult) (August, 1900)
Authors: Frank Harold Trevor Rhodes, Paul R. Shaffer, Raymond Perlman, and Herbert Spencer Zim
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Fossil Hunting- Hide and Seek for the New Millenium
I can remember pouring over the pictures in this book,using my book light,long after the final lights out call from my parents. I traveled back in time, imagining dinosaur growls and prehistoric seashells. By day, I would wander the acreage on my Grandma's farm, scouring the weedy earth for the slightest hint of ancient rock or dinosaur footprint. I wanted my school-age children to enjoy the imaginative art of archeology and paleantology and immediately remembered my favorite book, Fossils: A Guide to Prehistoric Life. I was delighted to see that it was still in print with the same exciting drawings. I immediatley ordered my copy! I then decided to order a copy for my kids! This is a great book that will encourage your children to look beyond the video games and satellite channels and into the fascinating world of the ancient past.

Only For Beginners!
This little guide is the best choice for beginners and children. Book gives the reader an idea about what a fossil is, where and how they can be found, and some information about major fossils. All the pictures are hand drawn illustrations, so that they are not very detailed but still OK for kids and beginers. (I liked it when I was young!)


The Glass Industry in Sandwich
Published in Hardcover by Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. (January, 1999)
Authors: Raymond E. Barlow and Joan E. Kaiser
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THE "BIBLE" FOR EARLY LIGHTING COLLECTORS
This is a superb tome, neatly documenting the history of the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company's beginnings, struggles, and successes, as well as providing reference on glass whale-oil and burning-fluid devices. Photographs are many and clear, details amply given on the Company's products of the time, and pointers offered throughout on recognition between Boston and Sandwich items, other manufacturer's products, and reproductions. Any student, collector, or devotee of early lighting devices should own this volume.

I am 43 years old
I am glass engineer I want to buy the magazine(glass industry


Godel's Incompleteness Theorems (Oxford Logic Guides, No 19)
Published in Hardcover by Oxford University Press (August, 1992)
Author: Raymond M. Smullyan
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Finally -- Straight Talk About Incompleteness!
Well. This is the book. Read this instead of, or before you read Goedel's paper. Within 20 pages you will know the 'trick' that Goedel used. It's a beauty, but it is far easier to see it under Smullyan's tutelage than by coming to the classic paper cold, since Goedel uses a more difficult scheme to achieve his ends. Much work has been done since 1931, and we get the benefit of the stripping-down to essentials that such as Tarski (and Smullyan himself) have contributed.

The book has much of interest to those who wish to pursue the subject of the incompleteness and/or consistency of mathematics, or to come at Goedel from a number of angles. For me, though, the first 3 chapters were enough. I just wanted to find out how K.G. did what he did. Now I know, and I know where to go if I need even more.

The exercises are helpful to keep you on track and test your understanding. They also contribute materially to the exposition. A stumbling-block for many readers will be the extremely abstract nature of the discussion, and the new notations and definitions that constantly come at one. Viewing numbers as strings and strings as numbers (and knowing when to switch from one view to another) will be confusing at first. This is the hard part: what Goedel did, in essence, is demonstrate that one can view proofs in two ways ' as numbers, and as strings of characters. As in viewing an optical illusion, it is sometimes tough to hold the proper picture in mind.

Smullyan's book 'First-Order Logic' is enough preparation for this work. One must here, even more than there, keep straight the difference between the 'proofs' that are part of the subject matter (and so are strings of characters), and the proofs we go through that verify facts about these strings. Before we started reading this book, of course, we had some informal sense that we were going to prove something about proofs. What we are REALLY doing, though, is proving something about 'proofs'. You get the picture. Goedel must have been a lot of fun at parties.

Mainline Incompleteness with this Book!
I highly recommend this title because it supplys all the necessary proofs for a nuts and bolts understanding of incompleteness, including incompleteness proofs for Peano arithmetic and the unprovability of consistency.

This title is a difficult read but the only prerequisite is a familiarity of first-order logic equivalent to a one semester college course.

A lot of the proofs are based on new material and are easier to understand than the original work by KG.

An added benefit is the exercises. They are not impossible and aid in one's understanding.

This book is well worth the work in demands.


Handbook of Material and Capacity Requirements Planning
Published in Hardcover by McGraw-Hill Trade (01 June, 1993)
Authors: Howard W. Oden, Gary A. Langenwalter, and Raymond A. Lucier
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Keys to understanding ERP
Although this book is focused on material and capacity requirements planning from an MRP perspective, the information directly translates into ERP, making this book essential reading for anyone, business- or technically-oriented, in ERP. The reason is the techniques, issues and factors that this book covers are the same for either environment.

First, this book thoroughly describes materials management, workflow and production capacity, and does so in a clear manner. I especially appreciate the fact that the authors take pains to define and explain every term and concept that they introduce. This is a refreshing change from many book in which assumptions about the reader's knowledge is made, which often leads to frustration or misunderstanding. It also removes any ambiguity and ensures that terms that can have multiple meaning are placed into their proper context.

Second, some of the material is out of date. For example the cited limitations of MRP software applications that existed when this book was written in 1993 have long since been rectified in the newer ERP packages from SAP, Baan and J.D. Edwards. However, even in the obviously out-of-date sections of this book are hidden gems, such as the Class ABCD System that was first developed by Oliver Wright as a means of classifying the maturity of MRP implementations based on answers to a 35 question checklist. This checklist can be applied with virtually no modification to ERP systems. Other gems include the way the authors distill major concepts into their salient points, such as TQM, and show how they relate to MRP, again, the same comparisons can be applied to ERP.

The best thing about this book, however, is the detailed treatment of inventory control, materials requirements management, capacity planning and workflow - all of which are as integral to ERP as they are to the older MRP systems that this book describes. As you read this book you will gain an intimate knowledge of how everything works and fits together instead of a high-level conceptual understanding. That, in my opinion, is the best reason to get this book and thoroughly read it. In addition to this book I also recommend "Manufacturing Data Structures: Building Foundations for Excellence With Bills of Materials and Process Information" by Jerry Clement, John Sari and Andy Coldrick. That book adds the information systems perspective that is based on modern ERP systems and seamlessly augments the material in this book.

Usefull and meaningfull book for MRPII practitioners
It provides elementary and important knowledge to those who are interested in implementation of MRPII/ ERP on factories


Harlem Gallery and Other Poems of Melvin B. Tolson
Published in Hardcover by University Press of Virginia (October, 1999)
Authors: Melvin Beaunorus Tolson, Raymond Nelson, and Rita Dove
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A superb anthology of an outstanding Black poet.
Raymond Nelson edits Harlem Gallery And Other Poems Of Melvin B. Tolson (1865-0), which presents works from one of the most recognized black voices in American poetry. His poems are here organized by topic and include notes for further study.

The Melvin B. Tolosian Review
Melvin B. Tolson was recognized as one of the first African American poets whose poetry has been classified as being in the esoteric category. The implication of this statement means that Tolson was writing poetry in a format which would be acceptable by the greatest English and American poets. One of them who recognized Tolson was W.H. Auden, who wrote favorable reviews about Tolson's poetry. Tolson, who came after the last years of the Harlem Renissance era, knew many of the prominent writers and poets of that era, which lasted from the 1920s through the 1930s. He knew many of the well known writers and poets of that period, including Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Zora Hurston, V.F. Cavington, Ralph Ellison, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker, W.E.B. Dubios, James Weldon Johnson and Charles S. Johnson. While he was at Wiley College, Marshall, Texas, Tolson established his reputation by publishing his first book of poems entitled, Rendezvous with America, in 1944. For years prior to that date, Tolson taught English classes to thousands of students since his arrival there from Lincoln University, Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1923. Also he was the coach of the famous Wiley College Debate Team, which included, James Farmer, who later became the founder of the CORE Civil Rights Organization.


Hearing God: The Ultimate Blessing
Published in Hardcover by Destiny Image (01 June, 2002)
Author: Raymond Ho
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Testing the Spirits- This one passes the test
The Bible says to test the Spirits, whether they are of God. This book passes that test.
Raymond shares what the Lord has shared with him and when I read it, I had a real sense that it SOUNDED like what God Would Say.

Raymond Ho hears the voice of God and writes what he hears, as it seems, few people are open enough to do. Most of us hear something quietly within ourselves and blame it a bad day or something else or more often ignore it altogether because we don't count ourselves spiritual enough to rate hearing from God's Spirit.

There are tremendous insights in the art of living with a heart toward God in this book.

I would caution those who are steeped in Church Doctrine to maybe find another selection. But if you are hungry to hear the voice of a Loving God who, as Raymond shows, is always speaking to us, this book is for you.

I learned alot and have some new nuggets of truth to hang onto as I get to know a speaking God who, as it turns out, is not a religious Spirit.

I give this book two thumbs up, but I agree with the other reviewer, this ain't for the organized religion set, but for those who want to know what God is saying to the people today.

Refreshingly non-religious
This book is a jewel and it's definitely not written for the staunchly legalistic religious set. I was comfortable with his down-to-earth approach.
I found it to be written for the average person seeking more of an understanding about God and Raymond Ho gently teaches how to walk down that path. What is refreshing to me is that I didn't find a bunch of organized religion in this book.
He makes hearings God's voice understandable and accessible to anyone who really wants to hear from God. I would recommend this book to anyone with a hunger for more Spirituality and an aversion to organized religion


Hospitality Industry Managerial Accounting
Published in Paperback by Educational Institute of the American Hotel Motel Assoc (August, 2002)
Author: Raymond S. Schmidgall
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Hospitality Industry Managerial Accounting
The ratio analysis section of this book is very helpful. But this is an older version of the book. I think a new edition of this book may be available.

Hospitality Industry Managerial Accounting
If Hospitality Finance is your Major, then this book is a must have. Schmidgall is the authority on accounting for the Hotel Industry. This book is used in all of the top Hotel Management programs in the nation including Cornell, MSU, Florida International and etc.

The ratio analysis section is one of the best explainations I have seen to date. I use this book myself and love it.


House of Games
Published in Paperback by Grove Press (September, 1987)
Authors: David Mamet, Raymond Bertrand, and Emmanuelle Arsan
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Tough, tense, gritty and terse. Pure Mamet.
As far as screenplays go, House of Games is a work of great cutting quality; written in Mamet's recognized concise style, House of Games permeates with a foreboding, volatile aura. When a too structured and career-driven yet refined and scholarly Dr. Margaret Ford, psychiatrist and author of the best-selling self-help book, Driven, is duped into helping Billy Hahn, a young man with a gambling addiction, she gets more than what is bargained for. She is led into the seedy underworld of the con man and all the baggage associated with him: drinking, unabashed gambling, lasciviousness, intricately woven lies, extremity upon extremity. But it is all cleaverly camouflaged by the many defrauders whom she encounters as exciting danger, rebellion against the smothering laws that only "good" citizens adhere to and being on the outer fringes of decency, good breeding and highbrowism. Ford, who gravely lacks any form of enjoyment in her life, is immediately drawn to the pulsating raw truth and "think quick" lifestyle of the brazen swindlers, for they gradually convince her-through a series of cons-that all humanity are imbued-one way or the other-with absolute cold indifference, for if you get bamboozled, it's your own fault and you probably deserved it. Dr. Margaret Ford exemplifies that for everybody. But she does not merely epitomize as a victim, she typifies it, through her own unsettling metamorphosis, as a kleptomaniac, murderess, and ultimately, a con woman. She evolves from good, introverted intellectual and respectable doctor to a cunning, manipulative, vindictive killer with a proclivity for thievery. So then the question is posed: Was Dr. Ford inherently a repressed criminal or was she the product of the sleezy environment and those in it? As Ford penetrates to what she genuinely believes is the psychological core of the sharpie personality, she is led by the leader, Mike, into a smoothly orchestrated plot that eventually bilks her out of $80,000; soon after, the scheme goes terribly awry when Mike holds a mirror to Dr. Ford's face, a mirror that she long avoided looking into.

Mike: I "used" you. I did. I'm sorry. And you learned some things about yourself that you'd rather not know. I'm sorry for that, too. You say I acted atrociously. Yes. I did. I do it for a living. (He gives her a salute and starts for the door.)

Ford: You sit down.

Mike: I'd love to, but I've got some things to do.

She cocks the gun.

(Of gun:) You can't bluff someone who's not paying attention.

Ford shoots him. He falls.

Mike: Are you nuts? What are you...nuts...?

Ford: I want you to beg me.

A radical turnabout occurs whereby the aloof victimizer becomes the casuality of his own folly, only to be replaced by Ford, who progresses onward to hone and define his criminal teachings, meticulously making them more her own. Ford's criminality is even more severe, for she turns into one of the criminally addicted patients that she (by her medical practice) is designated to help; her overall presence is refined, classy, learned, delicate, vulnerable, unsuspecting. Those are the worst kinds of lawbreakers: A friendy face on the outside, and something entirely different on the inside.

The script.....
There came a moment in House of Games, in the movie, where I knew I'd heard something. I rewound, played, heard it, rewound played, heard it, and found that about the fourth time around, I was patting my thigh, in tune with something or other; the Mamet-speak. It's rhythm.

And then the script. I read that same scene (it's the one: "you gotta tell. Your telling which hand the coin is in") and the same thing. Aha! yes. But I had heard the scene. I remebered the scene. What about the others? Back to page one. The same thing. And then it became not what they were saying, but how they were saying it, and then it became WHO was saying it. And sometimes I wished they hadn't said it. But then the thought occurs with starry eyes: "thank God they did".

You like the movie, read the script. There's soemthing to be said for just you and the pages.


In search of Dracula : a true history of Dracula and vampire legends
Published in Hardcover by Galahad Books ()
Authors: Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu
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The True History of Vlad the Impaler, the Man who was Dracul
Any serious student of vampire legends or of Eastern European medieval history will not want to miss this book. First published over twenty years ago and now reprinted and expanded, this book in my opinion remains, along with Florescu's and McNally's other work on Dracula, "Dracula: Prince of Many Faces: His Life and Times," the standard introduction to Vlad the Impaler and his connection with Bram Stoker's classic Gothic horror novel "Dracula." Writing as historians, McNally and Florescu have been criticised by other authors for what appears to be their grudging admiration for the Impaler's political savvy and military skill; they do not praise him for his many atrocities however, but, like good historians, attempt to remain as dispassionate as possible towards their subject, attemting to understand and explian him. In the appendices they do compare the various medieval Dracula traditions, analysing the various reports of his atrocities by medieval Romanian, German and Russian writers-all of whom wrote from a biased position. Also refreshing to me is the fact that the authors do not share the now prevalent view that Bram Stoker was a sexually repressed Victorian author whose novel is filled with thinly veiled sexual undertones; to me, this is a result of modern authors reading the modern obsession with sex back onto Stoker. (For anyone who is ONLY familiar with the Coppola film-read the novel! Though more faithful to Stoker's original than any production to date (Florescu and McNally give it high marks, and so do I), it nevertheless portrays the novel as essentially a love story, with the Impaler being driven to his acts of cruelty by the death of his wife-in reality he had several wives and mistresses, and was reportedly as cruel to them as his enemies.) Thankfully McNally and Florescu do not waste any time on these theories. The book will be of value to students of Eastern European folklore as well as horror film buffs, as it sets forth much information on vampire lore from Eastern Europe and also contains a detailed film guide to Dracula films-from Murnau's silent classic "Nosferatu" to Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula". There is also much information on Bram Stoker and Dracula and Vampires in literature.

All the information you'll ever want
If you have an interest in Vlad the Impaler (or an obsession like myself)read this book! It has all the possible information you could ever want on this guy. From how he was revered in the past to how he is known today in Romania. It has some good vampire info too.


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