In His first book to discuss the life and career of a local kids tv wraparound host/performer.Birmingham,Al. based kids tv historian:Tim Hollis takes the reader thru the life of "Cousin Cliff"Holman.The MC of "Tip Top Clubhouse!"/"Cousin Cliff's Clubhouse!","The Popeye Show"and "The Cousin Cliff Show!".From his humble beginnings as a amature magician.Who performed in High School and at local functions.To his appearing in radio plays and at entertaining nightclubs patrons and servicemen in the l940's and during The Korien War.To his early days in local Birmingham,Al. Kids tv as a puppeteer.Mr.Hollis gives us insight into this talented man's career.He also looks at the creation and development of his tv series and tells us all how the character of "Cousin Cliff"was created by an executive from The J.Walter Thompson Ad Agentcy.The story continues.As we learn about "Cousin Cliff's"Personal appearances,dealing with difficult kids and animals in the audiences of his shows.His years following the cancellation of his Birmingham,Al kids tv show.An unsuccessful attemp to revive his kids tv show on another tv station in Anninston,Al. and his post kids tv show efforts as a pollitcian and hotel exec.Filled with photos from the private collections of both the author and his subjects,plus copies of ads,rare artwork and some thoughts and photos from local fans."Cousin Cliff:40 Magical Years In Television!"is a wonderful biography of a career of a unique talent and a rare document of local Birmingham,Al.Kids TV History.Next To Mr.Hollis' latest book:"Hi There!:Boys & Girls!"..This is one kids tv history book worth having!

Tim Hollis' book is an entertaining, informative, and evocative tour of the glory days of tourism in the South -- mostly before the arrival of the interstate highway system, but certainly, as the title suggests, before the opening of Walt Disney World in 1965 changed the nature of vacations. A veteran of many of the roads and roadside stops pictured here, Hollis has a real feel ... and a real affection ... for his topic. In these hip days, when so many writers feel the need to ridicule or treat with arched eyebrow anything less sophisticated and post-modern than *right now,* it's very pleasant to read a book about popular culture and "commercial archaeology" that's not encrusted in irony.

This book is also a celebration of Southern culture, especially that part of Southern culture that developed in order to separate visiting Yankees from their money. For, as Hollis notes, it was the arrival in the South of northern vacationers seeking warmer weather that prompted the birth and growth of the attractions listed here. It also promoted a number of important, and lasting, businesses. Among the companies born in the South to capitalize on the tourist trade, KFC (of course), Popeye's Chicken, Long John Silver, Red Lobster, Burger King, Hardee's, and Holiday Inn are just some of the more recognizable names.

From water parks to Wild West shows, Cypress Gardens to Stone Mountain, Dogpatch USA and the Grand Ole Opry to Stuckey's and countless attractions now nearly forgotten, this book is a great nostalgia ride through a largely vanished time. If you were fortunate enough to have seen that time, this book may bring back some happy memories. And if this is your first time through you may find yourself wondering what you're missing as you cruise in air-conditioned comfort on the soulless interstate.

Tim Hollis has done a great job of showcasing the unique, quirky, and sometimes down right bizarre, attractions of the South. I, too, am a Southerner and I miss the days when Gulf Shores was not more than a few cottages on the beach. I enjoyed reading about the places I remember and the ones I never knew. This writer has done a wonderful service by perserving the memories of a bygone era.

What a refreshing look at family travel! Even though many of the places mentioned are either greatly altered, torn down (or should be), Mr. Hollis's delightful peep into the past provides insight as to why we Southerner's are so eccentric and also makes many wonder about the eccentricity of those Yankees who were flocking to our aquarium-ski-lodge-Indian-reservation-botanical-gardens complete with wild-west-shoot-outs-in-the-sky! Mr. Hollis's humorous descriptions of the many 'um... "interesting" things the South had to offer families was like traveling with my brother!

This book was so much fun to read! I can't believe all the info Hollis was able to uncover. His passion for the subject of kids shows is obvious, as is his excellent and humorous writing style. The book is a must for every 'kid' over the age of 35 who grew up watching TV. All of us can find a pleasant memory or two here. It's fascinating to read about the origins of these shows, and sadly, their demise. There is something here for either the nostalgia or history buff.

Tim has truly done a tremendous amount of homework putting together this walk down memory lane (three years' worth).Sure, not every station is mentioned; however, I am impressed by the histories, reviews and interviews he has amassed. You, the buying public have already read a couple of stories of some hometown TV personalities that went on to more fame.One sidekick, dressed as a clown, from my original hometown's affiliate, later went on to become a successful announcer on many game shows, including a short hosting job of two game shows. (Ah, ah, ah, you'll have to buy the book to find out who it is!)As the author wrote on this announcer/host, "Perhaps being a clown was good training for such a show."Well done, Tim! We hope you'll continue adding more information on more editions, as they become available. Most of today's youngsters really missed out on wonderful, quality childrens' programming, mentioned in this book, and were not videotaped...it is a part of our lives we shouldn't forget!

This is one great nostalgia book! It is incredible the flood of memories that this volume brings back. Remember the hundreds of hours that you spent watching the local kid's show on T.V.? Well, I can almost guarantee that this book will open the floodgates of long negected memories- so much in my own life was linked to the time I spent watching these shows. The author really did his research, there are obscure local shows that you never hear mentioned anywhere else. In my own case it was Roddy Mac in Rockford, and Captain Vern and his Cartoon Showboat in the Quad Cities. It seems that practically no documentation, let alone tape, remains of these local shows because they were just locally produced "time fillers." Then there is the mention of the old shorts and cartoons that you forgot about (remember Roger Ramjet, Funny Company, Space Angel, or Clutch Cargo?)

As someone who has spent over five years as a professional Visual Basic programmer I don't want to throw away all my knowledge when I move to VB.NET. Fortunately, this (big) book doesn't bother teaching you programming from scratch (you should definitely look elsewhere if you're a complete beginner) but will help you make sense of not only what's changed in the move from VB6 to VB.NET (a lot!) but also what you can take with you from VB6 (a surprisingly large amount actually). This means that you don't have to spend your time working through stuff like "this is a variable", "this is an if statement". Instead the book gets stuck into what makes the .NET Framework and Common Language Runtime tick - and explains how you can relate all of it to VB6.

The first third of the book serves as a reference to the VB.NET language - syntax, error handling, objects, inheritance, interfaces, and the differences between variables and types. While this means that you don't get to create many exciting applications early on it does mean that you have a thorough grounding in the essentials of the language.

Then the rest of the book takes a look at the most important features of .NET in turn: ADO.NET, XML, Windows Forms, Web Services, Data Binding, Remoting, Networking, Threading, Security, Web Forms, etc. You won't be an expert in any of these areas after you've read the book but you will have a much better idea of what VB.NET is capable of and how to get started using the advanced features of the .NET Framework Class Library.

Although there are a lot of authors that wrote on this book, which can spell trouble in my experience, the editors have managed to maintain a consistent voice throughout and there's surprisingly little overlap between chapters. Well worth the money.

This book is for experienced developers who need to make the transition to VB.NET. It will also help programmers with previous knowledge of VB.NET who want to move up to the professional level.

The book begins with an introduction to the .NET Framework and common language RunTime(CLR). The CLR is responsible for managing the execution of code compiled for the .NET platform. The next few chapters focus on object oriented programming and how to derive classes from base classes using inheritance. Chapter 9 gives a detailed discussion on how error handling works in VB.NET by discussing the CLR exception handler in detail and the new Try...Catch...Finally structure. An entire chapter is devoted to multi-threading. You will learn how threads can be created, and the differences between multitasking and multi-threading. Chapter 16 discusses COM and .NET component interoperability, and the tools provided to help link the two technologies together. Chapter 18 gives detailed coverage of the ADO.NET data access technology. You will learn how to build flexible, fast, and scalable data access objects and applications.

The final chapters discuss building web applications with web forms, creating custom controls for Windows Forms and Web Forms, and finally, creating and consuming Web Services.

If you're an experienced VB developer and would like to make the transition to VB.NET, then this book is a must.

The .Net platform has undoubtedly revolutionized the world of software development, whether web based or traditional windows. Professional VB.Net like other WROX books (pardon my bias) does complete justice to the subject matter, explaining every nuance and subtlety with the typical lucidness that WROX books have been come to be known for. I used this book to pass the 70-305 certification exam. Great book for learning the language and the .Net platform.

This book is not based on Visual Studio.Net Final Release!

I have read the book front to back including introduction page. I just realized that the book was based on beta 2 of Visual Studio.Net, too late for a refund. Anyway, I went on to read it and found out that the book was not very much organised as tons of '...we'll discuss this on chapter xx ... ' appear no less than 5 times in a single chapter (on some chapters). Mispelled words also are catching enough to say that this book was in a hurry to be printed.

If you're looking for a book that covers thorough details on window forms and web form control howtos, this wouldn't give you enough detail on those topics. Web Services is equally a mere introduction, with about two pages of discussion on UDDI as well as WSDL. Not much on ADO.Net and XML.

I should have borrowed this book instead and skim through it or should have bought it for 20 bucks less. Besides, it's already outdated. I hope the same authors would come up with a second edition that has richer detail...and send me a free copy.

I was planning on buying this book and noticed the out of print note on the Wrox site. Not exactly sure what out of print means.
Looks like other books based on the betas say out of print on the Wrox site.
If this book was released in August 2001 then it should have been based on the beta. They might plan on releasing an updated version.

I'd say this is the best Professional VB.NET book so far. I like the the ADO.NET part and VB control part of this book. Better than O'really ASP and VB book.