The idea behind the book is great, but it lacks the satirical bite of The Wandering Jew. As a "realistic" novel it suffers from the fact it has only one source, the Bible

An amazing portrayal of an honest man caught in the forces of a history driven by less-upright minds.

This is another masterpiece from Stefan Heym, the pseudonym for Helmut Flieg. The author is an East German/American Jewish writer, known for his controversial political standing, and as an advocate of "real socialism" he has been a victim of totalitarism and western democracy alike. In "The King David Report," Hyem has retold the old biblical/legendary/historical story of King David. The main character, who personifies the author, is Ethan of Ezra, a wise, truthful man who has been entrusted by King Solomon to write the official version of King David's life and deeds. Ethan is the intellectual who must face the conflicts of time and who is tormented by the limitations which are set to his writing the truth, who soon realizes that learned men are an annoyance to the people and a bother to the servants of the King. To what extent should he expose the truth of King David's life, who setting aside his political glory can also be accused of being a murderer, adulterer, and a machiavellic leader? How does history deal with a King whose only purpose was power, who only loved himself, whose God was made exclusive to himself and justified his crimes in the name of the Holy One? Ethan soon realizes that the outlaw will cover his tracks rather than leave behind accounts of his exploits, and a high price is to be paid by those who are willing to bring forth the truth.

How are we to deal with historical undesirable matter? Tell it all, tell it with discretion, or don't tell it. Heym's intention is to extrapolate the story of King David to events taken place in our recent history, something that comes out quite easily for the reader. But despite oppression, torture, false witnesses, perversion of the facts, plariarism, and the death of the innocent, the author is a positive, optimistic thinker. He believes that it is impossible to entirely divorce history from truth and expect it to remain credible. "As the sun breaks through the clouds, truth will break through words..."

"The King David Report" has a complex structure, a well-documented background, and a clear ironic transparency. It is a well-elaborated piece of literature, which must be seen as a historical novel, a biblical account, and a political satire.

i just got this for christmas, and i like it; the only gripe i have is it doesn't have the readings of the characters: just the compounds it can fit into. but aside from that, VERY cool: gives the stroke #, all the common/some uncommon compounds, stroke order, and all 1945 kanji, so it's good by me ^_^

This is possibly the most useful Japanese dictionary. It allows lookup of Kanji by Radical, on/kun readings (kana), or total stroke number. It gives numerous compounds for each kanji, and includes rarely used kana readings. It shows the stroke order. It also has Business usage for each character. There is no romanji, so that is definitely a plus. And since it contains the Jouyou Kanji, most Kanji that you encounter will be in this dictionary. I highly recommend it to intermediate-advanced students of Japanese, or if you just wanna read some stuff, or build up your vocabulary. Looks nice as well.

Seems to be essentially an updated version of "Kodansha's Compact Kanji Guide: A New Character Dictionary for Students and Professionals"

Just what I was looking for. The 1,945 common kanji in a compact dictionary that I can use for school.

Has kanji with kana for pronouciations and English meaning. No messing around with Romanji. This is a blessing for me as my classes are using very little Romanji and it helps to just stay clear of it and get used to reading things in kanji/kana.

Very happy with it.

This book is a collection of case studies, like Jakob Nielsen's Homepage Usability. The explanations from one chapter to another tends to be repetitive, and not all of the 24 websites are really-really cool, BUT unlike Jakob's book that just attempted to make long distance intepretations, this glossy hard cover book takes us into the design processes complete with each designers' thinkings, from the early paper sketches, the sitemaps, and the final screenshots. And those insights are good enough for me buy this book.

Whether you are designing professionally or just for your own sites this attractive volume is worth mining for some usefully creative design strategies you may not have considered. Stefan Mumaw not only offers his perspectives on the sites but shares original drafts, schematics, ven diagrams, and other structural strategizing notes of the sites? creators. You may work better in some of these modes than others, but at least you?ll be encouraged to see new possibilities for working through complex designs.

The twenty-four example sites discussed are corporate but certainly not staid - even those required to be quite serious. The clients range from retail mountaineering equipment to winery to interactive education and even to ad agency; the types of issues, the complexity of information, and necessary ?feel? of the site are therefore quite different. But author Mumaw is taking you back to the *process* with which the sites? designers had to match design and structure to content and mission.

Note that this is NOT a book about *how to* make a design function (i.e., no HTML, DHTML, Flash, etc.), but on how to conceptionalize *what* functions / designs one needs: taking a complex business or organizational message or process and putting an attractive and effective face on it. As a designer, you?ll probably admire some of the results more than others, but I think *almost anyone?s* design savy could benefit by seeing how the experienced artists here tackled some interesting design challenges.

This book is a great source and provides some of the most valuable information on how to achieve a clear information architecture that incorporates good usability and is visually compelling. A real must have.

Bova is a master at writing readable prose for a general readership. He's been at it for fifty years or more, and is among the best at making science fascinating. One is reminded of the work of the late, great, and sorely missed Isaac Asimov. Like Asimov, Bova is the author of over a hundred books, both fiction and nonfiction, and is especially celebrated for his innovative science fiction. I have only one small criticism. In his touting of the Strategic Defense Initiative from the Reagan administration and how lasers can be used to knock down ballistic missiles, he fails to mention how easily they can be fooled by dummy targets while failing to point out how ineffectual lasers are against "suitcase" nuclear bombs. To his credit Bova admits his bias on page 282, a bias that came about because he was employed as a marketing manager for the Avco Everett Research Laboratory in Massachusetts, a company that was in the business of making high-powered lasers.

The chapters on the development of photography from the pinhole camera obscura to lasers, holography and fiber optics are among the most interesting. The fourth part of the book, "Book IV: To Seek," beginning on page 323 is a readable, concise update on how electromagnetic radiation is helping us to explore the universe. In other words, Bova gets to talk about subjects he loves dearly, cosmology, physics and astronomy. This is not a work for scientists; instead there is a clear emphasis on satisfying the needs of the general reader by providing a wealth of information about light and just about anything to do with light, including painting, perception, how the eye works, photography, photosynthesis--indeed, even the origin of life--the search for extraterrestrial life, extrasolar planets, radiation, LASIK surgery, relativity, quantum mechanics, gemstones and their uses, time travel, the ozone layer, nuclear fission and fusion...etc. His enthusiasm for solar power and especially for Solar-Powered Satellites, "huge satellites that can generate gigawatts of solar electricity and send it to Earth through microwave beams" (p. 310) is infectious and welcome.

There is a modest bibliography and a short glossary and an index. One is occasionally amused at Bova's asides and quaint cultural references (e.g., Jimmy Durante!). He keeps a light-hearted tone and mixes in bits of toastmaster humor. I'm thinking of the "Hungarian recipe" for an omelette: "First, steal some eggs..." (p. 291) or his description of the active element fluorine in contrast to the relatively inert xenon, as "a used-car salesman who is running for mayor." (p. 271)

The Story of Light can be profitably read by teenagers as well as by lay persons looking to keep up with recent developments set in a clear historical context.

A very entertaining look at light and its related functions, including lasers, telescopes and other hardware. Easy read without too much technical jargon, in the same vein as Asimov's older science essays. A page turner!

I admit to prejudice.
I have known Bova for some time and share his views on many things, still I found this to be one of the best text/references I have ever seen.

It is certainly worth a look for any Parent unhappy with some of the lowest common denominator school dreck and seeking answers to questions like 'why do the stars shine' and 'why is the sky blue' add to that answers FAR beyond why we sometimes feel sad on a rainy day and you have a wonder of information at hand to answer questions for both the small people and yourself. Comprehensible all the way through.

Highly recommended.

When looking into books for any tech-related topic, I look for two qualities to assess the value of the book. The first is the depth of the subject matter of the work. I look for books that teach me new technologies, technique, or process. The second is the book's lasting value as a reference for future work. When spending money, I'd like to be sure that the lasting value of the book is at least potentially there. This book has neither of those qualities, here's why:

- Depth of Subject Matter -
It's difficult to determine who this book is written to educate. The forward identifies the audience as existing software testers looking for education in the finer points of web software testing. That's legitimate, but it falls far short of this or any other unstated goals. The delivery of material in this work is quick and dirty. There's no topic that extends beyond a single-digit number of pages. This makes plenty of sense in the early chapters where the discussion of things like hardware compatibility are discussed. Other areas deserve far better coverage. The topics of browser compatibility, performance testing, and scalability testing, for example, are scantly explained. It's a disservice to the reader, since these are paramount topics for the intended audience. Another downfall to this approach is its failure to discuss the organizational differences between an IT team deploying software frequently versus one deploying incremental releases on a yearly timeframe. To be fair, the authors touch on this topic, but it's nothing comprehensive.

- Reference Value -
The reference value of this book is almost zero. I run a test team for a web based business of considerable size, and I have to say I found some actually misleading advice in the work. A lot of the explanations of what's smart and what's avoidable fall completely off the mark. Even worse, and this is actually enough of a reason to start looking for a different book right away, is the poor quality of the references throughout the book. While they spend some considerable time explaining the difference between the time in a normal software development cycle and one that operates under 'web time', they cite sources from two and three years ago that are completely irrelevant considering the widespread and fundamental changes to the online software development domain. They establish 'web time' as an accelerated, hectic calendar where nothing is the same after two months of churning, but then cite references from 1999 market research studies to back up their points. Though definitely not intentional, it's very neglectful. I turned to the front of the book at one point to re-verify the copyright date. ...

So, for me and for my needs, this book is essentially worthless and I'm sad to have spent [$$] to learn this. The topics are covered only as summaries, but those that deserve and in some cases completely require a much deeper explanation are treated similarly. Regarding the intended audience, it's still a head scratcher because of the delivery of the material. It's not heavy in any one area, so it's difficult to determine if this is for a QA manager (can't work, not enough attention to process), the new tester (can't work, not enough detail on the actual testing), the converting tester (might work, but the high-level descriptions coupled with the indescriminate delivery of the subjects would confuse anyone without due insight), or the experienced web tester (can't work, too much of the data is elementary to those already functioning as a tester in the web space). I don't suggest it, and I wouldn't suggest it in a future edition if they work to update the references.

Testing Web-based applications and web interfaces is a new focus for many companies. Web-based application testing is different from the traditional client / server, PC, and / or mainframe system software products. Also factored in are code quality, browser compatibility, site navigation, user interaction, performance, and scalability.

Recognizing that companies need to conduct evaluation as they develop their "next generation" web sites and applications, The authors have written an insightful introduction to the concepts and techniques for conducting various tests. The book starts with an introduction to web programming, servers, architecture, and all those something 2 something terms (Business to Business (B2B) and Market to Market (M2M) for example). To select and conduct appropriate tests requires an understanding the purpose of the application and the architecture that supports it.

The authors reference a study by Creative Good during the 1998 holiday season on 10 leading Web shopping sites. The study found that for every US$1 spent on advertising generated US$5 in additional review while US$1 spent on "customer experience" improvements yielded more than US$60 in additional review. What more motivation is needed to ensure your Web site is usable?

This handbook guides you through the web testing process. The book is easy to follow and avoids dry "theory" talk that you find in many technical books. How often have you read such a book and found yourself unable to apply it to real world situations? You'll find a handy checklist of test conditions along with URLs for further references associated with the section to help you apply the test concepts. You can take the relevant items from the checklists and create your test case templates. The authors took another step and created a companion Web site using an imaginary company as a case study and included downloadable sample business requirements and test plans associated with the case study.

Covering all of the possible bases, the book offers guidelines and checklists for conducting all kinds of testing that applies to web-based applications, from interface usability to server functionality. It also includes common software development scenarios and provides possible options for handling them. For example, a team may require everyone to work on the weekend to test the Web site's ability to handle a large number of users. However, it may not be the best way to go functionally and financially. The authors explain the reasoning and present available options.

While traditional software developers are probably most familiar with concepts like load testing (determining how much load a server can handle) and software testing (making sure that all of the functionality works), human factors professionals have touted the concept of usability testing as a way of determining how well a user might be able to navigate and use a web site or application. Jakob Nielsen has been one of the most vocal in this. The book provides a variety of methods for testing usability.

The book provides something for everyone in a software development shop including developers, testers, managers, and project managers. Testers get help on how and where to begin. Managers can benefit from the test strategies and planning. Companies new to testing and not knowing which tools and resources to use will want to review the book's unbiased discussion and resources of such tools. You won't feel overwhelmed by the resources because it's organized by sections, which helps you focus on current needs.

The book is well laid out and it's a fast read. It would be difficult to miss its concepts. This well-rounded book would be a boon to any software development team's library even if it were only one person playing all the parts.

The Web Testing Handbook is an excellent guide to 'real world' testing of web sites and web applications. The book includes techniques, tips, checklists and - what I found really useful - lists of relevant URLs giving me instant opportunities to obtain up-to-date research, statistics and further expert opinion. The book also overcomes the problems many people have with endless acronyms by containing explanations of underlying web technologies. As a tester, I found the level just right - not over my head and not (like many Internet books) around my boots.
The book's approach is pragmatic and doesn't seek to give instant answers where none exist. Neither does it push academic approaches, which are never going to work in a high-pressure industry. I found the discussions of issues and solutions to be practical and useful. There is also a case study to reinforce the points made by the author - as well as making the topics more interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone directly or indirectly involved in web testing. It shows testers what to test and how. It gives test managers a framework and an approach to managing web testing - even including information on software tools. It is informative, understandable and, above all, readable.

NMR spectroscopy is a powerful tool for chemists interested in structure, dynamics and function of molecular systems. The success of this technique has lead to a proliferation of experiments yielding a wealth of data about chemical structure ranging from small molecules to not-so-small proteins and beyond. The authors have compiled a core of NMR experiments that will serve a student new to the field or an old-hand who has forgotten the phase-cycle of a particular pulse sequence. The book is sectioned into 14 chapters with the 1st two being introductory ( What is a NMR spectrometer and why is it sitting away from everything else? or If I have radiation dampening do I need to get a mop?). The next 10 chapters take the reader from routine spectroscopy experiments to a variety of 1- and 2- dimensional liquid NMR experiments with and without magnetic field gradients. The last two chapters introduce the reader to some basic 3-dimensional liquid sequences and solids NMR spectroscopy. These two subjects could have been extended but I imagine we will see that in the next volume, 150 to 300 NMR experiments. There are 160 (according to my count) different experiments and measurements discussed and each is organized to familarize the experimenter with the purpose of the experiment, the procedure to perform it, and some expected results for the experiment. The authors have wisely included a readers observation area for each section. This allows the utility of the book to grow as the reader gains experience with each NMR method. This book should be in any NMR laboratory and would be an added help to any course using NMR spectroscopy. I know any undergraduate organic chemistry course should get an attendance boost from experiment 8.15 where the students would determine the alcohol content in polish vodka. (As a student I would have suggested a more hands on approach.) The final upshot is this is an great compendium and should be a staple in any NMR laboratory period.

100 and more basic NMR experiments is an essential book for anyone working in an NMR lab, who occasionally has to do more than a repetitive basic 1D protocol. Braun et. al. cover everything from a brief introduction to a spectrometer, to calibrations and standard tests, right through homo and heteronuclear 1,2, and 3 dimentional nmr.

Each experiment is set out with a schematic of the pulse program, phase cycling,and processing parameters, as well as literature citations and practical examples. It is particularily useful for users of Bruker spectrometers, as a lot of the nomenclature is identical to those of the Bruker instruments.

People who have never done a heteronuclear 2D experiment could get an acceptable spectrum with very little other lterature.

I bought this book for my 78-year-old mother who's never used a computer on a regular basis, and the reviews are mixed. On the one hand, the book gives lots of basic information about what to look for when buying and setting up a computer, Mac vs. PC, tips on saving files in a word processor, and simply what a computer is capable of.

That said, I found two big drawbacks:

1. In trying to cover so much material, it may be overwhelming for someone who's just getting started and who's afraid of the computer. Sections on MIDI music and virtual reality may provide more information than is necessary. And ironically, having covered so much material, one glaring omission is a section on how to simply USE a mouse!

2. This is no fault of the authors, but the book is noticeably out-of-date. Technology changes so fast, and a 1996 book about computers is akin to a 1965 book on automobiles: basically the same driving instructions, but enough differences to make you scratch your head or just laugh. True, many seniors probably end up inheriting second-hand computers running Windows 95 or other older operation systems. But the section on the World Wide Web feels as though it was written in a different century (which it was!).

Overall, the book is good, but I would supplement it with hands-on basic training and perhaps another, more up-to-date book about the Internet.

Young@Heart - Computing for Seniors is an excellent book for anybody who needs to know every little itty bitty detail, in order to really get started with computers. All other books that I have read have frustrating gaps that leave one not knowing how to get from A to B; not so with this book.
Everything imaginable is covered, leaving no mystery unturned.
My only two gripes are what I consider to be quite important though.
First of all the title does not encourage other age groups to consider this book, and that is a big mistake. This book is about the best I've come across, and it shouldn't be assumed by the authors that the rest of us simply don't need it; we DO.
Another really sad drawback about this book is that it was originally published in 1996, and I can't understand why it hasn't been updated since then.
Please, Ms. Furlong and Mr. Lipson, can you do something about this????????

As an instructor of an "Internet for Beginners" class, I was a little stumped when one of my students asked for a *really* basic beginners guide to computers in general--everything from vs. key, to using a floppy disk and opening and closing software, etc.--a book that truly starts at the beginning for someone totally new to computers.

While there are numerous guides out there that attempt to address this need, my student had been frustrated with every one he had tried (including ones that came immediately to my mind such as the Dummies series). I came across Young@ Heart as a very promising text, and suggested the title to my student. He was thrilled with it. He said it was the only book of the many he had tried that really addressed personal computing from square one.

Based on this successful "road test", I will be carrying around my own copy to the classes I teach, and recommend it highly. Hopefully the "for seniors" aspect won't put off people of all ages with a need for a very well done beginners' guide to computing.

If you are reading this, maybe YOU aren't a beginner, but I bet you know someone who has asked for help getting started. You may not remember all the stuff that is confusing and mysterious as a beginner. Or you may not be geographically close enough to look over their shoulder as they work. Try using this book--or give it as a gift.

This is the first book of Leiber's that I have read and I am very impressed. Though the book was written in the 1950's it is able to transend 40 odd years and still be relevent in todays thinking. The most interesting twist is how Leiber moved away from science explaining the supernatural to science using the supernatural to maintain control on an ignorant society of peasents. Another impressive twist to the book was Leiber's ability to move the focus of the novel from between three different, yet important characters, without any interuption. I can not wait to read more of his books.

In this post world war three novel, the class system has been re-enacted on earth and God has taken a new role over the poor public. The book brings together the uninformed technological public with the advanced brotherhood of God. But one brother has a different take on things and deffects from the order to join the witches of the dark underground. IN the end, the oppresive brotherhood is overrun by the witches in a spectacular show of technology power. The book took a new approach to the sometimes dull sci-fi books. The dark world was unlike any other and many times the reader felt like the book didn't have any point. But in any case it made you think about the setting and a new world of the mind. A good read for the sci-fi fan who wants something a bit different.

Over thirty years ago this novel grabbed me with its themes of technology, politics, and religion. Naturally, over the years it has lost its initial impact on my imagination, but retains interest with a fascinating and imaginative description of a world struggling with issues of political and religious freedom. Sci-fi/fantasy fans will enjoy the intermingling of supernatural and technological phenomena.

Pokorski starts the book with a very pedagogical spirit, giving an overview of classical field theory needed for the sequel and providing detail in his presentation. His treatment of functional integrals is one of the best I've seem in a field theory textbook and he does a better job of deriving the Feynman rules for QCD than I have seen elsewhere. But somewhere around half-way to two-thirds into the book it seems as though the author starts to get a little lazy, applying a more descriptive approach to the material rather than careful derivations. More is left to the reader to work through and his discussions tend to give one a sense of knowing about the material more than the actual material itself.

Its not that self contained. For instance scattering problems are presented without the development of a scattering formula and are very sketchy. Knowledge of group theory and spinors is required although they are discussed briefly in an appendix.

For a book of this level it would have been nice to see some topics included that were not covered: a deeper treatment of renormalization, proof of Coleman's theorem, proof of BRS invariance, derivations for asymptotic freedom of QCD.

Topics I thought were handled well are: the proofs of Goldstone's theorem and the treatment of spontaneous symmetry breaking in general, development of the non-abelian gauge theory, renormalization group and the general Ward identities.

This book covers the following subjects: 1. A brief introduction to QFT formalism 2. Feynman rules for YM thy 3. RG 4.QED 5. OPE 6. QCD 7.Spontaneous and explicit symmetry breaking 8. Higgs mechanism 9. SM of EW interactions 10. Chiral anomalies 11. Eff. Lagrangians and 11. a brief introduction to susy. The derivations are in general very detailed. At the end of every chapter, there are exercices (without solutions). The appendices are very useful, specially appendix C, which collects the SM feynman rules in a concise manner.

I learned from cheng and li, which aint bad itself, but i found myself frequenting this book because of it's structure.

basically, i think that the path integral viewpoint should be stressed because of renormalizing gauge theories and more advanced topics. If i taught field theory i think this would be an ideal second semester book, first semester something more mundane.

it's strong points are
1) this approach i like
2) starting with basically no prereqs
3) details that cant be found elsewhere (theta vacua, some calculations in GWS theory that others dont do).

weakness: no traditional operator-style QFT, not a lot on representing groups.

I had a lot of fun reading this book. At a 160 pages, it's not too big, not too small and Petrucha does an admirable job of creating and populating a world where God is dead and big business and fear rule the world - sound vaguely familiar? This book is a funny, intelligent, compelling read that is well worth anyone's time.

I think this book is one of the most interesting I have found on the subject of religion and where it comes from. Petrucha writes a successful book that makes you question all religion and where it came from while at the same time making an entertaining story. He could have expanded his story and I think it develops too fast. I found myself with an excess of momentum at the end of the novel and wondering where to go from there, but all in all, I think the book is worth it.

"Making God" was a wonderful read. Often thought-provoking, often humorous, this book can be read in one sitting.