This book is written for a college classroom setting. It describes the roots and the development of ATM from a communication point of view. Nortel networks and Cisco networks are not mentioned.

According to Stefan Zweig's friend and editor, Richard Friedenthal, his biography of Balzac was intended to be a much more monumental work than this, the culminating achievement of all his biographies. However, the not-altogether-finished manuscript was left behind in Bath when Zweig went to South America in 1940. Zweig continued to work on it briefly, but he quickly lost interest, and eventually he committed suicide in 1941. On at least one occasion the manuscript was narrowly saved from destruction during German air raids before it saw its way to publication in 1946.

Balzac was a prolific writer with a marvellous constitution which he proceeded to abuse mercilessly for most of his adult life. At the age of 33 he dedicated himself to writing a comprehensive collection of novels that would attempt to realistically describe every aspect of mid-19th century French society for posterity. This major work he called "La comedie humaine" (The Human Comedy). This monumental opus was projected to consist of 150 novels comprising some 2000 characters. In fact, Balzac achieved about two-thirds of this remarkably ambitious undertaking, which includes such well-known titles as "Le pere Goriot," "La cousine Bette," and "La recherce de l'absolu."

Balzac wrote thousands of words virtually every day of his adult life. Or, to be more exact, every night: he slept by day until late afternoon at which time he allowed himself to socialize and, more importantly, to absorb every detail of that which he saw and heard; then at midnight, he would sit down at his desk -- for years in unheated garrets in the poorer neighborhoods of Paris -- and write prodigiously until dawn.

During this time Balzac seemed to almost revel in living a life on the edge of financial disaster and emotional collapse; for most of his life he was constantly evading his creditors: "...he adopted a hundred devious ways of holding his creditors at bay, aided by his intimate knowledge of the laws, his inventive skill, and his unscrupulous effrontery."

Yet this remarkably intelligent man always remained optimistic that some day he would finish his great undertaking and eventually would be able to live a life of luxury. To assist him to attain that end, Balzac went through a succession of relationships with women (usually older, usually wealthy, usually married) with whom he had affairs and upon whom he relied for financial assistance and emotional support. He used these women to obtain his objectives. Eventually the tables turned, and it appears as if one of these women ended up using him.

In 1833 a bored baroness in the Ukrainian hinterlands, one Eva de Hanska, for a lark sent a panegyrical letter of admiration to Balzac. They entered into a lengthy correspondence, arranged to meet in Switzerland where they had an affair virtually under the very nose of her unsuspecting husband, who they both expected would die soon. Unfortunately, it took 10 years for the Baron to die, during which time Balzac, while swearing eternal devotion to Eva, was philandering all over Paris. The very wealthy Baroness Hanska was astute enough and cynical enough to keep Balzac waiting another seven years after her husband's death before finally consenting to marry him.

In the meantime, while Balzac waited and daydreamed that his life of financial security would finally be realized, he stopped writing and instead became preoccupied in preparing an elegant house in Paris (Pavillon Beaujon on rue Fortunee) for his future bride to be, which he filled with all kinds of over-priced objets d'art. Baroness Hanska finally consented to leave Russia and marry Balzac in March 1850 only when it was apparent to her that he too would not live long. Although ailing rapidly, Balzac returned in triumph to Paris with his wife, but they hardly took up occupation of Pavillon Beaujon when he became confined to his deathbed; he died on August 18. The Baroness lived another 32 years, shrewdly holding on to his correspondence and unfinished manuscripts, fully aware that these products of Europe's (then) most famous writer, would most certainly some day fetch a fair price.

This is a well-written book and it reads like a novel. (One would hardly guess this was translated, by William and Dorothy Rose, from German into English.) It was difficult for me to sympathize with Balzac when reading this account: he is a snob, he shows callous disregard about incurring indebtedness, he uses women, and he never succeeds in looking reality in the face in his own personal life, even though he has done a remarkable job of doing so in the lives of his fictitious characters. Balzac was a remarkably flawed genius.

Robert Taylor has done a good job collecting essays from a variety of experts on Burma, the country formally known as Myanmar. The writings in this collection range from a discussion of human rights in burma, to the work of international non-governmental organizations, to a discussion on the liklihood of reforming burma's political economy. A very short but interesting essay towards the back by Seng Raw gives a look into the ethnic minority perspective -- a perspective by many accounts often discounted by burma's current military government. Contributors to this collection include a number of renowned asian studies scholars including david steinberg of georgetown university and josef silverstein of rutgers. In addition, a number of journalists and scholars who commute back and forth to burma have contributed essays and their work gives this book an up-to-the-minute feel.
While this book is fairly academic it is very interesting. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs a serious collection of essays on burma. For a more emotional read try The Stone of Heaven by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark. It details the corrupt business of jade mining in Burma and is a real heart wrencher. Anyway, for Taylor, A-.

To some listeners, country blues might appear as a laid-back approach to life's encounters to be merely used as a backdrop in documentaries, but behind this superfical interpretation there is a substantial message behind it. This book educates the reader with a wealth of insightful information & understanding in an intelligent, captivating manner.

Additionally, the information provided is often as fascinating as the music itself.

A must read for the serious blues afficianado!

Anyone wanting to improve the quality and increase the longevity of their feline companion's life should own this reference book. Based on the teachings of Dr. Edward Bach, a prominent physician in the early 1900s, who was concerned not only with the physical problems of his patients, but with their emotional outlook as well. This book reminds us that cats are as individual as humans--each with their own set of emotional and health issues. The 38 Bach Flower Essences are listed alphabetically, with a general description as well as specific behavioral traits exhibited by cats that each remedy could correct. Suggested remedies for humans having difficulty dealing with injured or ailing cats are also given. No previous knowledge or experience with flower essences is needed to start using this information immediately.

This book is aimed towards the experienced Java developer who is familiar with distributed environments, Servlets, JSPs, and JDBC and wants to get a good in-depth introduction into Enterprise JavaBeans. The book starts with an introduction to EJB technology and the EJB architecture in general. This book is translated into English and these beginning chapters seem to suffer a little bit in the translation as some of the sentences are poorly constructed. The later chapters don't have this problem however. After the introduction, the book covers each of the different types of beans (session, entity, and message) in detail with a discussion of when and how to use them. Examples of their use from both the server and client side are provided. The deployment descriptors for each type are also covered. Transactions and security are discussed with examples that help to clearly explain how these mechanisms work in EJBs. The authors then discuss some of the practical issues that arise when developing an EJB application such as performance and bean interaction. In the final chapter, the authors explain where EJB fits in with Web Services and then give a brief discussion of the standard timer service added to EJB 2.1. The authors do a good job of not just showing how to use EJBs but also explaining what it is and why you would want to use it. The level of detail makes this a good book for both developers and architects.

By reading this book, I fill I was in a real world project. It made a very good presentation on the real project that everyone might experience.

The most impostant arguments on RNN are treated in this book. Expert scientist have wrote book's chapters. I'm interesting on the problem of vanishing gradient

I bought the 1999 version of the book from Barcelona and made use of in my thesis research that is related to the topic of "Glass Surfaces in Architecture". The book edited by Behling consists of selected issues about glass production and its use in architecture with the latest innovations, which have already been discussed in the international conferences held in glasstec fair in Düsseldorf. It is beneficial to have such a selection that I would otherwise be unaware of the discussed issues about glass unless joining the conferences. The selection is edited under four topic as "Craft, Industry Facades", Structural Use of Glass", "Structural Experiments with Glass", and "Materials and Systems". The way organising the information and cases of glass seems very practical so that the necessary parts of the topics could be picked. Besides, the paragraphs were organised as interrelated with the illustrations, which also provide ease to read. The language is not too technical and but the technical information is clearly understood. Therefore, I like the book in general. Yet, one thing to criticise, it is could have been more concentrating on glass facade systems surface applications such as printing techniques that transform architectural appearance, to appeal my topic. Another thing might be that, the architectural examples could be more emphasised, even some buildings can be given with their drawings not only in details but also plans and sections.

This is an unique exposition of important but neglected developments in Western history. Rossbach focusses on the philosophical and spiritual underpinnings of the Cold War, and shows how the main protagonists in the conflict, who represented themselves as the "Third Rome" and the "New World," drew on traditions of apocalypticism, millennarianism, and "gnostic" spirituality to articulate their self-understanding as THE providential movers of world history, and how both sides consequently had to externalize radically the "evil" of the other side. Rossbach's analysis follows what he calls the "lines of meaning" that extend through the millennarianism of the Late Middle Ages and the Hermeticism and "Christian Cabala" of the Renaissance, right up to the present. The spectre of a man-made nuclear apocalypse, from this long term perspective, looms as the most dramatic expression of an outlook on the human condition that by its nature refuses to live within human limits. This work not only succeeds to present an unusually profound understanding of the roots of Cold War ideology, but also succeeds in making this rich material available in the analysis of contemporary international politics.