Open City consistently publishes great stories, poems, essays, and artwork. I look forward to each issue, because each one is so different, and because this magazine continues to be vital and relevant, esp. because many literary magazines are so staid and dull....

A great book for gardeners! Concise and to the point. Does not waste a lot of space with wordy explanations. Basically shows picture of plant, explanation, how to care for, how to propogate, and how to care for "out of season." I loved it and use it yearly!!!

Sorry, this is not a review, I need information on the history of Postcards for a project I am doing as part of my Bachelor of Fine Arts (Graphic Design) degree in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi - Ghana. I will be very delighted if I can recieve help from you. Thank you in anticipation.

The concise Prague, 20th Century Architecture is easily the best current guide to an architecture that until 1989 was mostly inaccessible to the culture vultures of the heroic period of architecture (the period between the wars, to others). Arranged in geographical order, the entries spiral clockwise from the center of Prague's old and new town (Stare and Nove Mesto). Collected are veritable gems from Art Nouveau (a style that flourished during the Belle Époque is Prague with equal facility as is Paris and Bruxelles), each illustrated with a small photograph, basic information, and its location on a map keyed by numerical order. A summary overview of Prague's development precedes the entries, and these are followed by a useful chronological register, list of architects, and list by functional groups (housing, schools, etc.)

This may be one of the best textbooks about the topic. However, the translation is not done properly. The new edition is supposed to be published three years ago with corrections to the major errors, but the publication date has been postponed several times and it is still not available today. Anybody capable of reading German is recommended to read its original edition in German.

This is probably the single best overview of the intersection of real estate and technology from an industry perspective. The bulk of the book is two page overviews of 75 leading firms, comprising a broad competitive landscape. Though there is good data on these companies and some analysis of their functionality/proposition, this does not have the teeth of an analysts report nor provides deep insight into their business models or viability (FYI, that would be a lot to ask). Nonetheless, for anybody seriously trying to make sense of the changes going on, this is a very good start. For those involved in the business, it is pretty much essential if for no other reason than to keep straight the myriad of offerings containing the word 'home'.

The other essays are interesting, some informative because they are written by insiders and influentials, but I found more of the value in the company profiles (cheaper than a pass to Real Connect). Lastly, because of changes in the industry, this is a perishable good. I'd recommend buying it sooner rather than later. For a good overview of the last period of real estate and technology, the author's previous title (R.E. Confronts Reality) provides good context.

Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates is Brand's Ph.D. thesis.

The book is a fascinating overview of the cryptography and underpinnings of PKI. Brand's focuses more on PKI from the perspective of privacy, as opposed to authentication and confidentiality.

Brand's has come up with a number of new cryptographic communication techniques that can enable applications to limit the information provided to other parties. This is hugely crucial in that information leakage is a huge threat to personal privacy.

This book is a good complement to Schneier's Applied Cryptography ...

Either way, Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates is an original and innovative look at how to use PKI to enhance personal privacy and is highly recommended for anyone attempting to use PKI within their technology infrastructure.

This is a collection of short horror/weird stories orginally published in various pulp magazines from 1920's to 1950's. Some are better than others, but all are very entertaining. The stories are obviously dated, but they give a sense of nostalgia...like sitting in your grandparents' attic and discovering long forgotten treasures that someone once dearly loved. If your into that Lovecraft meets Twilight Zone genre, then you'll love this one.

The 31 chapters in this seven-part book are articles that cover the spectrum of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) from history to epilouge. NOTE: Tthere is a not-so-hidden agenda to "sell the RUP" as the book unfolds. There is nothing particularly evil about that, but you need to know this when making a purchasing decision.

Part 1 is a brief three chapter introduction that gives the philosophy behind the RUP. This is followed by Part 2, which is a brief history, a large commercial success story and the unfolding of a goal (industrial-style development using OO techniques). There is one recurring feature that I like about this book - each part ends with a brief summary titled, "In Inar's Words", which provides deeper insights into the true spirit and philosophy of the RUP to augment the more practical information given in each chapter. Part 3 takes you a bit further into the evolution of the RUP, starting with a chapter titled "The Seeds of a Vision", and proceeds with a chapter that pleads for a cease fire in the methods war, and finally gets down to business with chapters on BPR with object technology, building components and reuse. Part 3 also makes a case for UML as an object modeling standard.

Process and tools are the theme of Part 4, which opens with an article discussing the software engineering process and support environment. This is a lead-in for three articles that cover "Reengineering Your Software Engineering Process", "Designing a Software Engineering Process", "Designing an Integrated Software Engineering Process Support Environment" and "Building Your Own Process by Specializing a Process Framework". These firmly define the RUP as a framework.

Part 5 is titled "Use-Case Engineering" and is comprised of seven articles on use cases. I particularly liked all of the articles in this part. They cover the basics through advanced techniques. Regardless of whether you are committed to the RUP it's probably a given that you have or will employ use cases and this section of the book alone is of value to a much wider audience.

My favorite part of the book, Part 6, covers architecture and large-scale systems. I have a professional interest in this topic and the seven articles are uniformly excellent. Again, even if you are not interested in the RUP, the material here fits within a number of methodologies and frameworks and is essential reading for anyone who is interested in architecture. Of course these articles are biased towards the RUP, and particularly how use cases can be employed in architecture. The strongest article is Chapter 28 titled "The Steps to an Architecture" and is the one from which I I learned a lot.

The final part, 7, is almost anti-climatic. there are two chapters titled "Objectory Is the Unified Process" and "The Unified Process Is Iterative", capped off with the recurring "In Ivar's Words" that ends each part of the book.

If you are exploring the RUP, or are seeking a framework of processes for OO development, this book will be interesting. If you are your organization's RUP champion then this is an essential book because it will strengthen your case for the RUP. The articles are short and they cover such a wide number of topics that there is something for everyone. I personally liked the way philosophy and practical aspects of the Unified Process were interwoven. However, some may feel that the book tried too hard to sell the Unified Process. For the right audience this is a 5-star resource.

"Die Schachnovelle" or "Chess Short Story" is an excellent little book. As far as I am aware, it is one of the few books in modern German "classic" literature that directly deal with the Nazi past (some others are "Mephisto" by Klaus Mann, "The Seventh Cross" by Anna Seghers, and "The Tin Drum" by Guenther Grass). The "Schachnovelle" is the short story of an Austrian gentleman travelling by ship during the time of the Third Reich. This gentleman is chess amateur. By chance, the unbeaten world champion in chess, an arrogent, conceited, unlikeable man, is also on board the ship. The Austrian gentleman passes his time on board watching chess matches between passengers and the chess master. As the Austrian gets drawn into some losing chess matches between himself with a group of passengers and the chess master, an interesting little man appears in the group just in time to offer the playing passengers asounding insight and advice so that the seemingly hopeless match ends a draw. It becomes clear that the mysterious stranger is a chess guru whose knowledge of the game well exceeds that of the champion. However, the stranger visibly suffers when in contact with chess...it absorbs him and possesses him until he exaustingly pulls himself away. The Austrian traveller notices that the stranger is also Austrian and enters into a discussion with him. Here the stranger recounts his haunting story of how he was arrested by the Nazi Gestapo, put in prison and interrogated day after day, suffering under the physical and psychological pressure of the Nazis. He tells how the sole thing he had in his foresaken prison cell was a book on chess stratagies and manouvers that he had managed to steal during his incarceration. He studied this book inside and out, mentally expanded past its examples and played chess in his mind against himself. Though this kept him sane and able to resist the Nazi's treatment, it eventually became excessive and led to a schizophrenic breakdown as his mind was engaged in a chess battle against itself. Thereafter it was necessary for him to avoid chess like a former drug addict must avoid his drug.
The author, Stefan Zweig, is one of Austria's greatest writers. As a man of culture and a jew, he greatly suffered under the Nazi regime; mostly his suffering was psychological and emotional as he saw his beloved Vienna, Austria, and Europe sink into barbarism. He eventually fled to Brazil where he committed suicide towards the end of World War II.