This book seems as if the author hasn't seen Linux in 3 years. Though it covers a lot of topics, it doesn't really go in depth on any of them. The networking chapter isn't too bad, but the X Windows section is definately dated. I wouldn't recommend this unless a user just wantes to find out what Linux is. Definately not the best Linux book avalible. I had to have a friend translate part of it from German just to understand how Modules are controled.

This is a handy book to have when working with Linux on the PC. Covers just about everything, and has a excellent commands reference section.

This is a good overview book, that provides enough depth to get the job done in most cases. It is very well organised and indexed allowing information to be found quickly. In most cases it will allow you to install and configure Linux, but sometimes you will need to go to the how-to's. At the least, it will point you in the right direction. If you are only interested in doing more sophisticated things like chaining, setting up internet services or firewalls, this is not the book for you. It's a good first place to look for fast answers book. If you only plan to buy one book to tell you everything, don't buy this one, however, it's a great book to keep by the monitor and to get you through 90-95% of overview, configuration and installation type issues. It is also a good road map to common commands with a good overview of many applications that can be added.

I found that the cassettes and book started out slowly and well but then became extremely difficult around the 3rd and 4th chapters. For example, in the 3rd lesson on tape, the dialog was taped with a lot of background noise (realistic for the restaurant setting). This makes it very difficult for a beginner to understand the new words! The beginning spent a lot of time on phonemes and the alphabet- both very helpful.

Ukrainian as a second language for English speakers is especially difficult, because the student must learn a new phonetic system via a cyrillic alphabet. "Colloquial Ukrainian" starts with understanding the cyrillic phonex and teaches beginning grammar through common dialogue.

Great book to begin self-instruction of the language. It would be improved if the dictionary pages included more vocabulary.

I gave this book three stars for it's works sited, and amount of material covered. However, it amazes me how so much can be written about a document that does not even exist.

The book itself is very technical and detailed regarding the origins, character, composition, and genre of the so called 'Q' document. The authors discuss 'Q' as it relates to the Synoptic problem (i.e. source criticism), the reconstruction of 'Q' (i.e. it's wording, order and extent), the dating of 'Q,' and the language in which 'Q' is believed to have been written. Moreover, the authors discuss the origins of 'Q' and what they call "the people of Q" (i.e. physical locale, social location, and the people who allegedly wrote the 'Q' document).

The second half of the book deals with theology and ideology regarding Q. The authors cover a history of dogma or trends in the Synoptic problem throughout the last 200 or so years (i.e. what certain New Testament scholars espoused regarding the sources of the N.T. documents). What's more, this book fits 'Q' into the already present source hypotheses. Another aspect which surrounds this book's study of 'Q' is the influence of the Cynics. Is 'Q' a Cynic document? Thus, Greco-Roman Cynicism is discussed in some detail and how 'Q' might possibly have it's origins in Cynicism.

At the back of the book is a very small glossary which was somewhat helpful. However, the works cited section is huge, going from page 460 to 518. Overall, this book contained a tremendous amount of detail about a document that is merely speculative. There is no evidence (physical, traditional, or otherwise) for the 'Q' document, and yet hundreds of pages can be produce about all the details surrounding it. Go figure. Nonetheless, if you are wanting to study 'Q' then in my estimation this is the best book to read.

If there were a contest to find the top scholar on Q today (however we might configure that contest), then John S Kloppenborg Verbin might well come out the champion. His thesis on Q is often found to be the thesis of choice for many scholars (particular those of North American or Jesus Seminar hue). Here we are presented with a prodigious book split into two parts, broadly historical and broadly ideological, about Q, the hypothetical (and so far completely non-material) source behind the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. I imagine that if you aren't prepared to make that scholarly jump to believe in Q then you won't be too interested in reading this book.

I basically liked this book - but then I am a graduate student in biblical studies and so already committed to being interested in technical studies about obscure "data" which fit into the narrow specialisms of today's biblical academy. What I'm saying is that this book will not have broad appeal since its VERY technical. That said, the discussions, particularly the ones on "The Q document and the Q people" and "Reading Q in the Galilee" I found to be stimulating explorations into the possible as regards Q and the sources for the sayings of Jesus. Perhaps that's all that such discussions can hope to be. Certainly any taking of this book's contents for the final word on the subject should be shelved: tomorrow will bring newer conclusions.

One point I really liked from this book was its emphasis and concentration on the social location of both Q's interpreters and also the writers/collaters and readers of the Q document itself. This "social" criticism of the Bible has been going on for a while now and this book continues that tradition admirably in exploring the links between Q and the Greco-Roman Cynics hypothesized of Galilee. Such questions are worthy of study and essential to an understanding of Q (should the hypothesis ever become so genuinely held that such theories attain more than their current provisional status).

In his introduction to the book the author writes that his offering is to be about Q "and the difference its existence makes". I think the offering of hypotheses like the ones this book offers about Q are valuable talking points and this book is another valuable addition to debates about Q.

PoSTmodERnFoOL

I've been studying music theory for (too) many years and out of all the books on this subject I would say that this is the most user friendly for the beginning student. It's easy to understand; it has a FABULOUS format and its cheaper then most textbooks out there. The authors defiantly understand that the reader will most likely be a BEGINNER and so it is written that way.
It starts with the basics of pitch (it even explains how the keyboard is sometimes used as a TOOL for those who don't study keyboard). It also clearly states how scales are used/studied, what scales are more popular then others and why, and what can be done with scales. How chords are constructed, where they come from, why they are the way they are, the different ways to make a chord. Trust me, it's all here.
I suppose I should just say that format is the key with this book. Pretty much the difference between a good textbook on theory and a bad one is just that: format. If things are in order and explained systematically, anything can be taught/learned.

I've used this book for my first-year theory class for nine years, through three editions. I haven't found any better but that doesn't mean I think it's perfect. I agree with some of the other commentaries about the errors and the poor choice of musical examples. Students of mine have frequently complained about this. In addition, the book is very keyboard-centric and thus creates difficulties for people who don't play the piano and who aren't used to reading keyboard score. One can argue, of course, that keyboard facility is a skill any serious musician ought to have (being a pianist myself, I agree in principle), but still, there ARE good musicians who are not pianists who will struggle unnecessarily with this material.

Other, specific things I would change about the book: 1) The chapters on part-writing emphasize too heavily the minutiae of voice-leading and thus obscure the point that we're talking about the relative motion of complete melodic lines. More exercises involving only two parts, to give students a thorough grounding in the basics (i.e., no parallel fifths and octaves), would really help. 2) Although including discussions and examples from popular music is a good idea, the section that tries to explain the concept of "suspension" in pop chord symbols is skimpy and confusing. 3) I find the whole explanation of harmonic progression, based on the circle-of-fifths progression, unconvincing. Piston's looser cataloging for me better fits the reality of tonal music.

I am quite amused by the complaints I hear from students and professors about this text. Perhaps these folks who exude grunts and groans about this text have not had the grave misfortune of encountering Gauldin's bare-bones tonal-harmony survey. I would jump quickly to recommend Piston's original text, but the deVoto bastardization destroyed any sense of "fun" or instructional continuity present in the original version (which I am lucky - and old enough - to own).

Let's face it: expository writing is tedious. It is not meant by nature or design to be a page-turning writing device. Nonetheless, Kostka's survey is complete, providing adequate and clear examples, and written in a very succinct manner. True, Kostka does dwell in a few places, but these minutiae-explanations are necessary (if you have ever taught elementary theory, you will understand immediately). The organization of the text is second to none, and the authors are consistent in explanations and refrain from "inventing" jargon or becoming unnecessarily nebulous (Gauldin, for one, is notorious in this regard).

For developers involved with web-based projects, whether it be an online store for electronic commerce or an Intranet site for accessing and modifying company data, the powerful blend of JavaServer Pages (JSP) and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) technologies can really make life simple. Once you've mastered them, creating new components that encapsulate business logic, or new web interfaces to existing systems, is easy. The trick, for developers, is mastering the technologies.

Professional JSP is one way to get up to speed. Like many of the books published by Wrox Press, Professional JSP covers a specific technology in-depth, as well as the various ancillary topics relating to it such as databases, servlets, and XML. While not every developer will need every web technology covered by the book (and there are many), the book works both as a tutorial to cover the basics and a reference for technologies that you may encounter later.

Professional JSP starts by covering the basics of Java Server Pages, and how they relate to other web technologies. Embedded in HTML pages, JSP provides an easy mechanism for creating interactive web interfaces that draws on server-side components, known as Enterprise JavaBeans. While the presentation logic is written in JSP, the processing occurs within these JavaBean components. The book takes a balanced approach, covering both JSP and its syntax, as well as how to write and interact with JavaBeans to perform useful tasks, like accessing databases through JDBC and using other Java technologies. However, if you've read other Wrox titles, you may find there is some overlap in the topics covered.

One of the nice things about Professional JSP is that, in addition to covering theory, it goes further and examines practical applications of JSP, and issues for programmers like security and debugging. Like other titles in the Professional series, there are case studies of real projects using JSP and related technologies. My favorite would have to be the case study on porting Active Server Pages to JSP -- something that is extremely important for developers with "legacy" web systems. On the whole, Professional JSP is an excellent book for web developers wanting to get up to speed with Java Server Pages, web development, and Enterprise JavaBeans. However, developers with less of a web presentation focus and more of back-end server view may also want to consider the excellent Professional Java Server Programming title, which also covers JSP. -- David Reilly, reviewed for the Java Coffee Break

This is a book for programmers who have a solid background in servlets programming and some experience in JSP. For beginners and for people who wish to learn those techniques on a standalone machine, they will be better off with Hall's "core servlets & JSP" or Fields&Kolb's "web development & JSP".

The book consists of 20 chapters. The first 12 chapters discuss the various salient aspects of JSP and the rest ( about two third of the whole book) is devoted to case studies.

A. THE BOOK'S STRENGTH:

By adopting Tomcat as its main testing software, the editors of "Professional JSP" have assured that most of the code examples will work. This is a big improvement over the past wrox books.

There are some excellent chapters in the first part. The discussion on session tracking is a real gem although the author failed to make a showcase of the code examples. The chapter on JSP Architecture contains some of the clearest explaination on the techniques of redirecting, forwarding and requestdispatcher. The chapter on customtags is equally very well done. But my favorite is the chapter on Global Settings, the idea is so practical. I also like the idea of emphasizing the importance of authentication which showed in many chapters of the book.

The case studies will serve as an excellent reference. Its coverage ranges from (1) the front end of an insurance company (2) a good pictures website which use JSP to publish its data (3) Security with JNDI (4) a online store using LDAP and JSP (5) J@EE, EIBs and Customtags (6) Multimedia and JSP (7) Weather website with JSP, XSLT and WAP (8) Porting ASP to JSP.

2. BOOK'S WEAKNESS:

The book is a combined effort of many authours and its unevenness showed. The first three chapters to introduce to JSP are out of place and a real waste. The chapter on Dynamic GUIs is a great idea which turned into a joke: after showing the general diea how to do it, the author sent readers to his website to learn the rest(?). And the chapter on JDBC connectivity and Pooling is a big disappointment: most of the chapter devoted to get connection, create databse,editing it and make query; and the rest the author explained how to use his own pool manager package, PoolMan. This wouldn't be too bad if PoolMan worked, with Tomcat.

The richness of the case studies is also its weakness. Unless you are experienced and have the facilities, you can't test them all. These techniques become obsolete pretty quick.

Probably the strongest objection to the book is its price. Buy it for your company and share with your colleague.

This books lives up to its title in that it provides both real-world JSP techniques (through 7 very informative case studies chapters), as well as JSP background information that serves as a quick start guide. I rank it as one of the top 2 JSP books currently available (the other one is Web Development With JavaServer Pages by Messrs. Fields and Kolb).

After the JSP fundamentals are out of the way (which I am sure any JSP newcomer will appreciate and can benefit from), the book picks up pace with discussion on JDBC connection pooling, and the best practice for data access from JSP. Then comes the chapter on custom tags. My favorite chapters are the ones on debugging JSP's and implementing the MVC design pattern in JSP/servlets.

The case studies are very comprehensive and closely correlated to the earlier chapters. In one case study the design methodology is clearly explained with UML diagrams, which are very helpful to someone who is currently architecting an enterprise Java Web application. Other case studies cover such a wide area of topics such as JSP in combination with LDAP, EJB, XSL, and WAP.

For ASP developers, this books has two enormously useful chapters to get them started on JSP right away. One is a case study showing how to port an ASP app to JSP, and the other compares and contrasts the object model and syntax between ASP and JSP.

Having said all the above, this book does suffer from certain weaknesses. One is typical of any multi-author book, i.e., repeat of the same topic in different chapters. This is the case with JDBC, which shows up in both chapters 4 and 7. Another problem is the lack of the use of a standard servlet/JSP container, which will help new users to run all samples under the same software setting (although there is an appendix on setting up Tomcat server). Finally, a few chapters seem to be out of place in term of the logic flow of concept, such as the ones on dynamic GUI's and JNDI.

Finally, this book is still thin on heavy-duty J2EE topics, such as EJB, distributed transactions, message service, and interoperability with CORBA. This is why I consider it as an intermediate level book, not an advanced one. Hopefully we will see another Wrox book in the near future that addresses some of these issues.

i guess brevity isn't always a good thing. many of these stories are silly or cute -- in the oh, he was a serial killer/vampire/crazy guy vein. though there are some that manage to create a chill in a very short space (a hard thing to do), most of them left me frustrated and/or bored.
maybe it's that i sat down and read half the book in one sitting - not advised. your best bet is to skim, there are a few treasures in here. when it's good, it's very, very good. when it's bad, it's just awful.

If you're into horror, get it. If you're not into horror, take a look at it and read few right there in the store (which is easier than it sounds since most of the stories are only about 3 pages in length, max). It's a cool collection of tales that you can kind of treat like a literary snack, a horror-d'vour, so to speak. Plus, it really helps to get you interested in the genre and reading in general; you feel as though you're accomplishing some serious reading, even if some of the stories aren't that great.

There's so many stories, you really can't go wrong; there's going to be something in there for you, and if you run across a couple of stinkers, so what? They were only 3 pages long anyway!
A must for writers looking to hone their voice down to a sharp point.

The stories in this book are short but they have the same impact as any story three times their length. The endings were unexpected and that is what i look for in a good book. Each story is unique and has you checking under your bed twice before cutting the lights out.

This is an entertaining book. I agree with some of the other reviews here that it is a bit light on research (it would have been nice to have more source notes), but it covers Groucho and the other Marx Brothers well without being exhaustively analytic. Like most comedians, it seems, Groucho was not a happy or a nice man. His humor seems to have come from a dark strain of insecurity and ego that grew worse as he got older. Kanfer does not try to gloss this over. One point this book does have over the 1979 biography by Hector Arce--it covers Groucho's last years in detail and details the results of the lawsuit between the Marx children and Erin Fleming, Groucho's secretary and companion.

Fans of Groucho will also want to seek out the essay Adam Gopnick published in the New Yorker in March 2000.

I also enjoyed both of Arthur Marx'es books about his Dad: Life With Groucho and Son of Groucho. Both of these books are now out of print, but well worth seeking out.

This book does a nice job of putting together bits of information and stories from a variety of sources into one volume. The author's style is strong and brisk and keeps you reading. The best parts of the book are his discussions of the plays and movies, although he pads things out with a few too many pages of direct film dialogue transcription. Even when the material was very funny on its own, the Marxes' delivery is what made their movies classics, and no amount of quoting can really bring Groucho's performances to life on the page. The first part of the book is, by necessity, also largely about Chico and Harpo, and Kanfer keeps all the brothers in focus as long as they remain important to Groucho; Kanfer also nicely charts the various rises and declines of Groucho's later life.

There are two main problems: one is that there are virtually no notes, despite the vast amount of direct quotes from various sources. There is a list of major published works on Groucho, with some given helpful annotation, but more detailed notes should have been present. The other problem is that, too often, Kanfer forgets to let us know what year he's talking about, or how much time is passing between sections. Several times, I found myself flipping back and forth, trying to place an incident in time. The book is strictly chronological, but the details get slippery. I would also have liked a few more photographs. Overall, recommended--almost certainly the best bio yet about a cherished and never to be forgotten man.

I have to start by saying that while I absolutely love the 4 or 5 Marx Brother's films that I've seen, I'm not a die hard fan in the sense that I'm not an expert on the Brothers, their careers or their lives, and this is the first book related to them that I've read.

That being said, I don't see many of the flaws in this book that some previous reviewers have mentioned, in that I can't really comment on the author's accuracy or lack of.

What I can say is that this is an interesting book, and certainly portrays Groucho in what is to me an unacustomed light, a far cry from the absolute character that he is in the films. Intead, we see a man who, because of the demands and treatment he received during his childhood, has difficulty dealing with women and children on many levels to the point where he seems to drive three of the most important women in his life (two wives and one of his daughters) into severe alchoholism.

What I found to be most interesting about this book (to its credit) is it portrays Groucho's fears and sensitivities, especially to critics reviews (although, in the end, for Groucho the bottom line was always the box office, and not the critics). Its ironic then that based on this book's descriptions of Groucho's reactions to things written about him, its quite clear that this book probably would have outraged Groucho since its overall depiction of him is far from flattering in many respects.

Well for a computer book on web design that touts this great web site to get examples and download scripts, it would be nice if the site was kept up. Not worth the money, and I for one would never recommend the book to anyone.

This book handles the "Why" of Web Design, where so many authors are hung up on the "How" and the technology. This book allowed our content developers to "get on the same page" with our Web Development Team. There are great sections helping you analyze the correct process of thinking through a corporate WebSite from an Information Design approach. I wish I had had this book 6 months ago, It would have been much easier to train the first content developers in our company. -Jonathan Cyr, WebMaster NEES companies, Westborough, MA, USA (The opinions expressed are those of the author, not those of the NEES companies or their subsidiaries)

Giving an overview of essential web-site design proceedures, Creating... shows how customer driven research and objectives come together to make sites that are intelligent and engaging. A book for those who want to create, pitch and sell. The psychology of web based marketing. Its where we're all headed.

"Serious Business" is generally a good book, though with a few major flaws. It distinguishes itself by providing not only an overview of the history of cinematic animation in the US, but also places the rise and fall of animation in a historical and cultural context. It gives a clearer picture of how the politics and economics of the times influenced and steered not only the creation and content of animated pictures, but also the business aspects as well.

On the plus side, Kanfer does indeed delve beyond the standard name-and-dates syndrome of other animation histories. He attempts to provide a broad overview of the early years of animation and how non-Disney studios were to eventually fall to the Mouse. When focused, Kanfer's writing is extremely engaging and his accounts of the various political maneuverings are facsinating.

Unfortunately, Kanfer attempts to squeeze too much into to little space. One could easily see this book being twice the size it is now. As such, the very aspects one wants to explore most - how such things as economics, war, race and politics in America effected animation - are never really fleshed out for any given studio/cartoon beyond a few pages, or paragraphs. Significant space is given to Disney's story (perhaps deservedly so), but I would've liked to learn more about 'outsider' studios as well.

Kanfer also has a habit of not staying focused in his chapters and bouncing suddenly from place to place. It doesn't make the book unreadable by any means, but it does distract from the over-all flow of the narritave.

All in all though, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a general historical overview of animation.

A good read, but not the great book it could have been. It could easily have been twice as long. Early chapters are strongest. Strong on Disney. Would like to have seen more on Looney Tunes

Well written, concise survey of American animation history. The only slights are that he doesn't have much to say on non-Disney animated efforts of the past decade, especially television animation, and that too many pages praise the horrendous UPA 'toons. Otherwise, this is a great intro to a neglected sector of American culture. If you want to learn about cartoons without buying a separate book on each major company, this should be your choice

I bought this book in hope that I could find some interesting monologues I could use for theatre class and various auditions, but it was of no use! Most items in this book are in verse and are too short in length to be of much use to the average actor. Also, the range isn't overwhelmingly broad and the written text is poor. The different works all manage to present women in a similar and cliché way, somehow it is overly apparent that the "collector" of these pieces is a male. Some selections are interesting or by famous authors, however, they're out numbered greatly by B.S. wastes of ink and trees. I encourage anyone who is considering buying this book to keep looking because they don't deserve the disappointment I suffered after reading this collection. Good Luck in finding the "perfect" monologue (unless I'm auditioning against you, just kidding! ;) )!

I am writing mostly to refute the previous reviewer. Unlike her, I found this book to be quite useful and interesting. Yes, it is heavily skewed toward older works, many of which would be unsuitable for auditions for contemporary plays, but there are many other uses for monologues besides auditions. As for the monologues being too short for auditions, in my experience these days, most auditions require a 2 minute monologue or less, with many requesting only one minute, and some directors prefer only 30 seconds! So I am happy to find shorter monologues. In addition, I found one of the best audition pieces ever in this book -- "Telling Mom" by Karen Dale Wolman. I wish this book contained more witty contemporary essays such as this one, but perhaps Mr. Rudnicki will grace us with another book that is more oriented toward modern pieces. That said, it is certainly useful to have a book full of monologues which you can be virtually sure that no-one else has seen, and I'm glad somebody thought of compiling a collection from "non-dramatic sources."

I thought this was a great book!