This is my favorite book on sail trim. It not only explains what to do, but why to do it. It is organized well and has great illustations. It is not just for novices, but has information that more experienced sailors will find useful. For example, it has pages with illustrations showing the comparative (in percentages) sail drafts to use for various winds strengths and conditions.

The excellent ilustrations in this book make it stand apart. Easy to understand, a great reference to refer back to. Also includes problems with lists of solutions. For example, too much weather helm has solutions like 1) tighten outhaul 2) reduce mast rake etc.

finally a book that brings togeter the jargon with pictures to explain the nuances of sail tuning. Very helpful.

I read Year-LongDay over twelve year ago.As a matter of fact I read it twice.In the interim I've read hundreds of books and forgotten the authors and titles.I still remember the Year-LongDay and the effect it had on me.The memory of the two hunters meeting after almost a year of no human contact and happy when the day was over so they could return to their solitude. The best yarn I've ever read.A book that can be read,re-read and read again and still be enjoyed.

Ever since I got this book, I have been reading and rereading it about once every other month. To show you how good it is, my dad, before he gave it to me, gave it to a friend, who gave it to another friend, etc., etc. He didn't get it back until six years later when he had to hunt it down. This is a book anyone would love.

I spent a year in the Arctic while in the service and even though that is 30 years in the past I keep reading books like this about people who have the courage and strength to pit themselves against the forces of nature, sometimes winning other times losing, but always on their terms. My overwhelming feeling about the book is admiration for a man who has lived his life to the fullest.

Get this updated edition even if you have the paperback 1988 edition. There are quite a few updated topics in this edition. While I still prefer the four volume Newmann classic, "World Of Mathematics", this book gives a fast but full overview of the subject.

Beginning with the world of numbers one is enchanted chapter by chapter into the labryinth. Some effort is required on the reader's part but that is rewarded in full measure. It is something to ponder the sheer beauty of ideas and proofs. Patterns and their "invention" surprisingly correspond to aspects of nature.

The presentation here is excellent. I found this book a great joy to read. While much that is presented here I have read before, the work still gives me further insight on things that I missed. This book is a gem.

The journey begins.Attention Passengers!We first arrive at Numeralis..

What a way to start the journey to the world of Mathematics.You open the book and start reading it.True to the title he takes you to a guided tour into the world of Mathematics considering each pillar of Mathematics as a country on its own.
I have a read a four Volume series on the World of Mathematics by Newmann and I did wonder how beautifully the Mathematical areas with its own *Scenic beauty* has been described.But when I read this one,Yes ! I did get a feeling of having travelled to Mathematics World visited each place and had a good insight into each one.
Ivars Peterson starts the journey by first visiting the Number World.He names this as the "Prime pursuit" and then slowly into the *theory of mathematical spaces* -topology and minimal surfaces.Wait!I hear you asking if it is all about pure mathematics.Certainly not,then and there to make the passengers feel comfortable ,just like a real guide ,he introduces the usefulness of the concepts in the emperical world.Be it quantum computing-the century's scientific thirst or the age-old yet golden primes ,the journey is very smooth ,no harsh surprises what one would term as mathematics of the mathematicians.This one is for the layman..A cool and lucid entry and exit in the world of Mathematics.
After reading this book you will wonder,"have I visited so many *places* " but you will feel that you have learnt so many Mathematical stuffs,what this world is all about and mind you ,all these without even the slightest fatigue:)

A must read Popular Maths Book!

Writing popular mathematics well is a very hard task. While some poetic license is allowed, the quality of the book is always dependent on how well the mathematics is explained. The good ones never write themselves into a corner, but always seem to be moving along the side of a Moebius strip, so that even the old appears new. This book, an update of the original published ten years ago, is self-referential in that regard.
If you have read any popular works in mathematics over the last decade, then many of the topics in this book will be familiar. However, Peterson writes so well that even that which should be routine becomes interesting once again. There is also new material covering recent advances such as the "proof" of Fermat's Last Theorem, using quantum computers to solve combinatorially explosive problems and multi-dimensional string theory. Written at a level accessible to the interested lay person, this book is a smooth journey through the labyrinth of current mathematical progress. ....

This book I have never forgotten. I first was introduced to it in the Reader's Digest Condensed Book Section when it first came out. I was so fascinated by the writing style and well-documented information that we went to the library and read the entire book; but that was not the end of it. I figured if my Father could entice me to read "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" than he could appreciate my "great read". He did and because he enjoyed it as much as I did,it made the book doubly attractive and memorable to me. The survivalist thrill that is all the rage now has nothing on Ivar Ruud's adventures! Ann and Evan Maxwell did a great job making this a reading experience never to be duplicated.

The book begins with Ivar Rudd setting on a 9 month trapping journey on an Isle in the North Atlantic. This was the days when good wages could still be made from trapping fur bearing animals, especially polar bear. I remember reading until 4:00 am the first day because I was riveted to the story. It is worth the reading to be reminded that life is precious and worth the fight. You'll not be disappointed if you enjoy the outdoors or humanitarian true to life stories. My local library has a book, but it is hard to find.

I loved this book! It was able to hold my attention as I read about one man's survival in the wild arctic. It showed me that humans can survive even the most extreme circumstances. If you can find yourself a copy of this book...you should give it a try! Who knows? You might just like it too!

This is an excellent book for developers, architects, project managers, and development managers. It clearly explains how to adjust your development practices to achieve reuse at all levels. I found it particularly helpful in diagnosing common management issues that hinder reuse practices. This book has helped me gather the information needed to effectively establish reusability.

Don't limit yourself to code reusability. This book goes further. Think about reusability from the beginning, put it into your analysis and design models.

The book talks about an _architecture_ and a _process_ to achieve software reusability. I found the book hard to read. Sometimes I felt they did not "hit-the-ground". My problem? I was thinking in code. Don't let that happen to you.

The authors talk about a complete organized process to achieve reusability. The book is a must if you are thinking in reusability.

Read it!

Having reviewed this book before and after it's publication, I can say without a doubt that this is the best book to date on how to implement a effective, systematic reuse program. The book addresses all aspects of Software Reuse, from organizational factors to implementation technologies. All the authors have experience with implementing reuse programs in the real world, and they speak from experience as well as from expertise. If you are at all interested in Software Reuse, or with improving software development productivity, you need this book.

Ivar Ekeland is one of the better writers of popular mathematics. In "The Broken Dice," he continues with the themes explored in "Mathematics and the Unexpected." Divided into six chapters (Chance, Fate, Anticipation, Chaos, Risk and Statistics) the book is an elegant examination of the human struggle to find order in the seeming contingency that is the natural world. Mixed with the mathematical discussions are excerpts from Icelandic sagas, the Bible, and Shakespeare that reinforce the message that our analytical search for meaning is still fundamentally a humanistic endeavor.

If you had to go through it in graduate school you'd probably agree with me that behaviour under uncertainty is usually handled rather mechanically by professors. You may even have considered that, anyway, not much intuition could be behind those theories. Ivar Ekeland shows in this book that dealing with the fundamentals of expectations, probabilities, games, and risk can be fun, and you get the intuition to start thinking by yourself as well. Early morning reading, though.

After searching through several university libraries I have found that this book is by far the best ever written on the topic of tensor analysis. It is extremely unfortunate that it is out of print...if you find it used definitely pick it up!

In a week, I've already been through 120 pages. Although it is so hard a topic that I will drop most books on tensor which I can hardly step into, this one is really a very plain one and easy to understand. I appreciate its clarity and admire its author I. S. Sokolnikoff. He makes it a piece of cake for me to enter the tensor field. Oh heaven, how can I put my gratitude to him?

Given the many misconceptions in the software community regarding what use cases are, and how to develop and apply them, Bittner and Spence present a clear, pragmatic approach to use cases that focuses on the process of synthesizing use cases rather than simply the analytics of syntax, semantics, and diagrams. More than ample time is devoted to use case structure, syntax, semantics, and style. A significant percentage of the book addresses the process and logistical issues associated with team development of a use case model. Comprehensive process discussions are included regarding discovery of actors and use cases,preparing and conducting a use case workshop, finding use case mentors, building a representative team of stakeholders, reviewing use cases, and applying use cases across the lifecycle.

Chapter 10, Here There Be Dragons, will strike a chord with every experienced use case practitioner. As a consultant that develops and reviews use case models for customers, I found this chapter to be on the money. Bittner and Spence identify many improperly-used modeling techniques that often plague organizations during their initial adoption of use cases. Specifically, the sections regarding overuse of extend, include, and generalization relationships deserves much attention.

The Use Case syntax and semantics presented in Bittner and Spence's book is based on the foundational work developed by Ivar Jacobson. Straightforward and useful examples are presented for all of the use case artifacts discussed in the book. Unlike other use case texts that emphasize use case structure, form, and analytically oriented techniques, this book presents sufficient attention to notational elements and invests significantly more in describing pragmatic activities focused on synthesizing use cases that can be effectively leveraged across the lifecycle.

I have recommended Use Case Modeling to my clients as both an introductory as reference book for any project using use cases. The writing style lends itself to the entire spectrum of stakeholders involved in use case development from end users, architects, project managers, and developers.

If you are currently employing use cases, or are considering applying use cases on a project, this book is a MUST HAVE. It de-mystifies much of the confusion surrounding the practical application of use cases, and should be put on par with the early Object Oriented texts of Booch ,Rumbaugh, and Jacobson.

This book is just brilliant. Easy to read and filled with gems of advice. I highly recommend this book for beginners, intermediate and even advanced readers.Gives the theory and applies it an ATM case study to illustrate all the concepts.
If there is one book that you should own on use cases, this is THE one.

This book is "reader friendly!" It is excellent as both a reference book and a study tool. The explanations are clear and concise along with the accomplying graphs, charts and photographs. All combine perfectly to enhance ones understanding and comprehension of the topic. It delves into the biochemical aspects, biocompatability and application of dental materials. Each chapter is accompanied by a glossary of terms, discussion questions, study questions and a thorough list of recommended readings. After reading this book, you should have no problems of understanding and working with dental materials. The author even offers a historical perspective on older, outdated dental materials as well as the future of dental materials. I like the author's style of writing and his ability to organize themes in a logical manner. (I actually came across this book by accident in my dental school's library after being somewhat disappointed by Ferracane's book that I had been using for school. It is a good book, but it just did not quite reach the depth of explanation required for the test exams.)

From the subtitle, "Chasing Killer Computer Bugs," you would think that this would be a book about software testing. It isn't. Rather, it's a book about things going wrong with software. The author tells readable stories about some infamous software bugs, at least one of which I've never been able to forget. This is the story of the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine, which caused deaths and injuries due to a software problem. Some of these stories have morals which software professionals would do well to keep in mind--and not just developers, but the people who give them their marching orders. For instance, the Therac-25 story makes clear in a very sobering way how an apparently VERY minor change to a program can have VERY unanticipated consequences. The A320 story makes a convincing case for thinking hard about user interface design.

Other parts of the book talk about why building good software can be so hard, and about some of the people and organizations that work towards developing approaches to issues in software quality and construction. You wouldn't think that these would be particularly interesting subjects, but for the most part the author makes them come alive.

This is not a technical book--don't expect to come away from it with any new debugging techniques. Rather, expect it to give you lots of food for thought.

Ivars Peterson has written a well thought-out and interesting book that provides just the right amount of depth to this fascinating subject. Both the layman and the software engineer will find Fatal Defect interesting reading.

This book should be required reading for everybody in the IT industry!

Henry Petroski has written several books that explore his dictum, "Form follows failure." His thesis is that improvements in engineering are made to overcome the failures of previous design. Petroski's books cover advances in civil and mechanical engineering. Ivars Petersen has written a similar book covering some of the notorious failures in software engineering and the efforts by a few leading engineers to define practices and design methods that can prevent such failures from recurring.

Fatal Defect describes dozens of software failures, how they happened, and the efforts to correct them. The defects occur in banking systems, stock exchange mechanisms, aircraft and spacecraft guidance computers, medical equipment, telecommuncations, and scientific computation. Some of these failures are famous; others are little known. Regardless, the descriptions always provide the kind of technical detail that you need to really appreciate the situation. Petersen is a journalist for science news and is clearly a professional when it comes to describing technical issues for the intelligent layman.

Moreover, he tells the stories of people who found the errors, lead the efforts to correct them, or who tried to raise the standards of the industry. Nancy Leveson investigated the Therac-25 defect that lead to several deaths in 1986. This influenced her efforts to design software safety standards. Learning from failures requires knowing about them. But the details of many failures are often kept quiet, being marked proprietary or secret to avoid embarrassment or litigation. Peter Neumann tried to open up the discussion of computer failures with RISKS digest. He started it in 1985 but even today it remains one the best places to learn about the technical details behind dangerous system failures. David Parnas took the lead in criticizing the Star Wars strategic defense initiative. He noted that there would inevitably be defects in the software and that there was no way to conduct a comprehensive system test, short of a nuclear war. He then moved on to overseeing the engineering processes at the Darlington nuclear plant, ensuring that the software was correct, even though this delayed the project completion by three years. Vic Basili was one of the first to conduct controlled experiments with programming teams to determine which development methods actually produced the most reliable software. For example, in 1982, he established that code reviews were far more effective than functional testing, a result that is only beginning to be regularly applied to engineering practice today. These results lead he and Harlan Mills to develop the Cleanroom process which Mills taught at NASA and IBM.

Petersen tells the stories of these and other engineers, describing their background and how their careers lead them on the paths that they ended up. I'd been familiar with the ideas of many of these people, but i found it very interesting to learn of the experiences that had lead them to formulate and articulate these ideas.

The issue of what constitutes effective means for developing reliable software is becoming more than just a practical matter with recent events. Earlier this year the Texas board of professional engineers started licensing software engineers and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers plans to start certifying software engineers in 2000. Licensing means more than just professionalism and status. It also means acknowledging accepted practice and deviating from it at the risk of malpractice. If the licensing process is done well, it will base itself on the fine, but tentative work done by the people described in this book. If it is done poorly, it may merely enshrine the latest fad in law.