The field of patent searching has changed greatly over the last few years -- mainly due to the fact that all searching is done electronically now. Any book on this topic more than a year or so old is necessarily going to be dated. This probably wasn't a bad book when it came out, but you cannot learn to patent search properly with this book now.

If you have a decent command of computers, have performed searches on the internet before, are capable of following basic instructions, and are familiar with libraries, then don't bother buying this book. All of the information in the book is readily available from the PTO website and it's links. While the information is available elsewhere, this book does do a fine job of compiling it all in one source that is accessible to everyone (read lowest common denominator).

Many references that speak of Internet sites require updating, and Mr. Hitchcock and crew have done just that for this second edition. Inventors have various levels of expertise; some need more instructions than do others. This book puts all on a nearly- equal footing. It takes the mystery (and a lot of work) out of what once was a daunting and truly tedious task. Kudos to David and to Nolo Press -- and to the Internet and those agencies and companies [e.g., IBM] putting their data on-line for free access!

A decent analysis of baseball statistics, full of all of the numbers you'd want to read. However, not nearly as valuable as the Bill James Baseball Abstracts, which goes beyond Elias to provide thought provoking and ground breaking discussions.

I've got a lot of gambling books. Not as many as some but quite a bit. The main focus of my collection is poker. For starters, let me say that most of the books on Amazon are way overrated. The Sklansky/Malmuth books along with a few others (Cooke, Caro, Brunson, Zee) excepted. So while this book gets a low ranking from me it is probably better than most. Most of the information is more or less correct as far as it goes. It does not go nearly far enough. It tries to cover too many different forms of poker and ends up not doing a good job on any of them. To make up for the lack of detailed exposition of concepts and the ways they interrelate there is too much emphasis on charts and starting hand guidelines.

Elias Collegiate Dictionary: Arabic English has not been updated since the 1960's. I do not advise anyone to buy it as many of the new words of technolgy, computer and such fields are not found in it.Although it was one of the best Arabic English dictionaries when it first appeared, it is now one of the worst.

Unfortunately, Elias et al continue to try to sell the same concepts with new packaging. There is little new here, and I find it a bit disconcerting that the EQ wave continues to be exploited for personal gain by academics, of all people.

Shame on "Johnny come lately" academics trying to follow in Dan Goleman's success. Give us something new, or at least, stick to your science.

nothing new here. Read it already in Goleman's books. Can psychologists stop stealing ideas to make a buck?

This book is flat out terrible. If you need a book to tell you starting hand rankings that would be obvious to even a novice, go ahead and buy it. If you are looking for sound advice skip this one. The grammar was so poor I decided to see what editor would possibly allow the mistakes, surprise the author published it himself. ...

This may be the worst poker book ever written. The stylistic problems are legion. If that was the only problem, I could overlook it. The fact is that there is simply no useful, understandable information to be found here. You're better off with Sklanksy, Malmuth, Jones or Krieger.

Apparently well-intentioned but inept presentation, this is
a step backward in poker publishing. The English syntax alone
is disqualifying. Disappointing, because the world needs a
great book about low-limit high-low split.

This book is pure nonsense. I am sorry I wasted my money on this wishy washy title. People with weight problems should use certified programs for dieting and not waste their time on make believe nonsense! She makes no sense this womam. It's a shame she is using Angels to sell her books and self. For shame Miss Eileen!!!

Angered by what she believes is Elias Cannetti's "coy treatment" of women in his writings, especially in Die Blendung (1935), Foell assails Canetti in her study, which is "highly personal" in its stimulus. Foell heavily relies on the beliefs of "gender theorists" Sigmund Freud, Karl Kraus, and especially Otto Weininger to support her comments about misogyny in Die Blendung. She also extensively theorizes about the psychoanalytic inferences she sees in Die Blendung, an extension of her arbitrary pronouncements on gender/sex in the novel. Foell, a college teacher of German, incomprehensibly assumes that all readers of her book know German as well as she does. Throughout Blind Reflections, Foell excessively quotes German without any translations, not only for short phrases but also for German passages that take up one third of a page. Overall, Foell's Blind Reflections too often is a work of over-authoritative, arbitrary pronouncements and interpretations, even admonitions to Canetti: Foell writes " ... an enlightened thinker like Canetti should have refrained from exploiting this stereotype." As this reviewer earlier has written, "Elias Canetti, for most American critics, presents numerous difficulties for adequate and accurate discussions." Resultantly, Foell in her study does little to explicate the enigmas of Canetti and his writings. Not recommended.

Though the book's title indicates that it is about applied computational design methods in control, the book is not for the practicioner. It is essentially an extension of the now old L1 control theory (See Dahleh's other book).

For the engineer, little of use is in this book. For the functional analyst, the mathematics are known: Apply the Hahn Banach theorem, obtain a linear program, look at duality gaps, etc., and the book gives little insight into control design issues.