He fully understands the relationship between collaborative technology as it relates to project management in a large enterprise environment.

As he so well points out... "the speed which one implements technology relating to process management in order to accomplish large tasks" will differentiate success from failure. This is a "must read" for senior management if they wish to survive in a complex "project management", collaboration /Internet environment. How to utilize technology to accomplish this is the key!!

A great resource for management.

Mr. Shield clearly gets it!!".

He fully understands the relationship between collaborative technology as it relates to project management in a large enterprise environment.

As he so well points out... "the speed which one implements technology relating to process management in order to accomplish large tasks" will differentiate success from failure. This is a "must read" for senior management if they wish to survive in a complex "project management", collaboration /Internet environment. How to utilize technology to accomplish this is the key!!

A great resource for management.

An excellent overview of a very complex and timely subject. I especially liked the ERP/E-Business Matrix and the discussion of regions, companies and assumptions underlying it. I found the discussion of "adaptive" vs. "disruptive" changes helpful and insightful. Very concise and to-the-point, a quick & easy read, but one which should be internalized over a longer period of time. Covered a lot of ground in less than 200 pages. Overall, an excellent addition to my bookshelf.

Would, however, have liked to see a bibliography & some footnotes for the statistics cited

M. R. James was the master of subtle disquiet. The Victorians loved and perfected the ghost story genre. The unexpected intrusion of the weird and eerie into the carefully structured life of 19th century respectability was a favorite theme in these stories. James' protagonist was usually a discomfited scholar, clergyman or "antiquary," whose well-ordered existence was forever changed by a supernatural encounter.

M.R. James is nothing like Lovecraft, though he did influence H.P.L. in some respects ( though not as much as Dunsany, Blackwood, Machen and others ). James was a master of the subtle, 'antiquarian' ghost story, whereas Lovecraft was more interested in aeon-old daemonic unspeakable horrors and cyclopean eldritch shamblers from unnameable nether pits of cosmic unfathomable darkness, so to speak! He ( Lovecraft ) wrote some effective stories but they don't really bear comparison with those of James, who could elicit more fear in a couple of sentences than H.P.L. could in a whole story.

M.R. James may well be the most famous of early modern ghost/supernatural fiction writers but he certainly isn't the 'father' of the ghost or horror story, nor is he the best, in the opinion of many afficionados. In fact, he himself was directly influenced by the true father of the psychological ghost story, J.Sheridan LeFanu. James openly acknowledged his admiration and debt to LeFanu and those who enjoy James should definitely try reading LeFanu - his 'Best Ghost Stories' published by Dover are also available from Amazon.com and are a must for anyone with an interest in supernatural fiction. There are so many great writers who are the equal of or superior to James who have been unjustly neglected over the years, including Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Oliver Onions, Robert Aickman, and Fritz Leiber to name just a few. To all who've enjoyed the wonderfully creepy tales of the late provost, I whole-heartedly recommend these sadly forgotten masters of the ghostly tale.

great stories from the master. excellent at details, truly chilling, great descriptions, noone can make as much out of the traditional ghost story. james no that one change is enough to make a completely different story. changing objects, persons, places, angles, james shows the complete potential of the ghost story. built up excellent, these stories are among the best read in horror. lurking evil, suggestive evil, warning of evil, sudden icy touches by ghostly hands. i have read a lot of horror, but james almost startles me. like that scene in the well, i could almost feel a hand on my shoulder.

This book attempts to provide a unified theory of software architecture, their VRAPS (Vision, Rhythm, Anticipation, Partnering, Simplification) methodology. While the basic approach is reasonably sound, in order to prove their case, the authors delve into the highly speculative field of organizational patterns and antipatterns to provide justification for their model.

The book is divided into three parts. The first deals with and overview of the VRAPS model and the last deals with a presentation of its application in the context of the situation at Allaire. Both of these sections are fine. It is the middle portion, which attempts to "prove" the validity of their model with reference to object-oriented patterns, which stretches the credulity of the reader. The authors even admit that you can skip the chapters where these patterns are presented. Putting them in only serves to detract from the other meaningful chapters of their work.

Object-oriented analysis was developed to solve abstract problems in reusable code paradigms. Previously unknown to me, a group of eager souls has tried to extend this metaphor into the realm of individual and group psychology, with no attempts to provide an empirical basis for their efforts. Whimsical patterns such as "Antigravity Module," "Drop Pass," and "Loan Shark" are relied upon to produce a catalog of objectivist modes of development behavior.

Why a methodology with no basis in psychology is supposed to answer complex issues of organizational behavior is beyond me. Could anyone conceivably apply theories of database normalization or compiler design and hope that they would help you to manage your employees better? There is a vast body serious material in the business literature which deals with these issues in the proper context, and I see no evidence why adding a layer pseudo-scientific organizational patterns to the analysis can do anything but to add confusion to the problems.

If you want a pop psychology approach to managing behavior in a development environment, a book such as "Dynamics of Software Development," by Jim McCarthy provides a very entertaining and enlightening approach to the problem. If you want an exposure to serious software architecture methods, a tome such as "Software Architecture in Practice," By Len Bass, et al, from the Software Engineering Institute can provide deep insight.

The authors of "Software Architecture" are highly seasoned professionals with impressive experience. I find it difficult to understand why they would take a reasonable approach and burden it with a false sense of analytical rigor based on the patterns literature. They would have had a much better book had they simply focused on the case study of Allaire in the context of the VRAPS model.

Excellent summary of the relationship between architecture and organization. This will be a hot topic as organizations recover from attempts to do without serious architecture. The VRAPS organizational principles presented are a minimal set of dymanically related principles needed to understand the architecture building capabilities of an organization.

Not quite sure what to expect when I started the book, I was pleasantly surprised. The book explores 5 principles behind Software Architecture; namely Vision, Rhythm, Anticipation, Partnering, and Simplification; or VRAPS for short. Not only will you learn these principles, but you'll get an introduction to patterns and antipatterns as well. Yet it is not a "How To" on Software Architecture.

Much of the book is devoted to VRAPS. After a few introductory chapters, each principle is defined, explained, and then illuminated with criteria, antipatterns and patterns.

Chapter 8 introduces a case study, based upon a well known Internet company. Allaire's jouney through each principle is discussed, including successful practices and warning signs.

Chapter 9 is added for completeness. It presents a case study about building and implementing a benchmark framework for VRAPS. The authors surveyed many organisations in compiling this book, and their results are published here in a summary form.

The book is rounded off with useful Appendixes. One provides a quick reference principles, criteria, antipatterns and patterns, the other is an index of patterns and antipatterns cross-referenced to principles. Overall I found the book to be well structured and well organised - and not too hard too read.

This is the third book I've read from the Software Architecture Series, and the most practical and useful so far. This book should go far in establishing a basic process for Software Architecture that is both theoretical and practical.

We use this text (now in its 7th edition) for both our Analytical I (chemical analysis) and Analytical II (instrumental analysis) courses. They are both 1-semester courses at the sophomore year, and this text is just the correct level and length to cover both courses. There are a number of broad sections, each of which is divided into several chapters. Roughly the 1st half covers chemical methods and the second half covers the instrumental methods. There are also a few chapters devoted to statistical analysis.

The sections are reasonably independent and can be done in pretty much any order, giving a great degree of flexibility. The text itself is easy to read with numerous descriptive diagrams. I say this for second-year level courses - the text is too superficial for higher levels. There is a good mix of descriptive chemistry to give the student a feel for the chemistry behind the analyses. Finally, there are adequate exercises at the end of the chapters, some of which are cumulative with previous sections. There is also a very handy tutorial on the use of Microsoft's Excel for use in a course like this, including some specific exercises in using the spreadsheet. I find it very helpful, and not at all exclusive for those using Excel since Quatro-Pro (and Lotus?) is very similar and contains help files that translate from Excel parlance.

My biggest issue is lack of a section on mass spectroscopy. Skoog's own "Instrumental Analysis" text has a fine section on mass spec, but this text contains virtually no mention of the technique, in spite of the fact that it is an increasingly important technique for both quantitative and qualitative trace analysis. However, that's the only real negative point - this text is very good and useful for 2nd year level analytical courses. (P.S. students find it straightforward and clear as well.)

I want to buy OHP film of this book. But I could not find the way. Please let me know to order OHP for this book. If OHP for Instrumental analysis is avaliable, I want to order that too.

This text is a worthy contender to the classic "Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry' by Skoog and West. I feel it is easier to read, and the examples given in the inserts should provide students with a "real world" need for the topics covered. The coverage is very similar to Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry. The example problems and homework problems are illustrative and challanging. The experiments presented in the final chapters are well documented. My only observations for improvement would be the use of more detailed analysis of some of the insert examples. For example, a battery technology that is discussed in a step by step fashion in terms of equilibria, balancing redox equations, and problem solving. Also, a modernization of laboratory experiments to include topics in biochemistry, food and environmental science would be helpful in any future editon.

I read the last half of this book flying from Boston to Phoenix to coach one of my team members in a presentation. I was able to use the framework in this book immediately.

As a result of reading the book, I told my employee that I would be using a new system for coaching and I asked my employee what he wanted to work on and what I should watch for. This gave me a framework for my observations.

I also used the system they recommended to separate what I saw from my inferences.

The resulting discussion was useful for both of us. I was able to say things like "I saw that the audience was leaning forward and nodding. I took that to mean they were attentive. There was one woman who was leaning back and sort of looking around. I took that to mean she was bored." then the employee said that she had seen the presentation before.

I asked for his feedback at the end about my new coaching approach and he was very enthusiastic!

Excellent system!

I have read or seen most of the books written on coaching employees over the last 10 years. This book presents a practical and interesting approach to the caoching and development of your top performers, a group that usually gets ignored. Most books in this area focus on coaching the difficult or problem employees while in this book there is a definite focus on developing the best.
The Coaching manager is very readable and uses good examples and short cases to make the key points. The authors seem well-versed in business which I found refreshing after reading too many coaching books from former or current sports coaches who may have had one or two winning seasons before fading into oblivion.
I plan on using this book in our company's executive development programs. This book has great value for any manager.

I have read many of the recent books on leadership and coaching and I have found The Coaching Manager to be one of the best. The authors, James Hunt and Joseph Weintraub, are well-known consultants and professors from Babson College, the top-rated college in Entrepreneurship in the U.S. The book presents a model of developmental coaching that can be applied to many business and personal situations. It is also based on the authors' own research with over 2,000 coaches. Finally, there is a book on coaching that real managers can actually use. I recommend it highly.

This book makes you feel good about being "gifted" - you know you aren't the only one around in that situation. A lot of nice examples, and it's very uplifting. Too bad it couldn't cover overseas examples though.

This was truly an excellent book for any teen who is gifted. I've been gifted since I was very young and I've never fit in with any of the other kids. I've always been much more mature and on a much higher level than the rest of the kids my age. This book showed me that I should be proud about being gifted, and shouldn't worry about fitting in. This is a must read for any gifted teen.

My son was thrilled to receive this book. He immediately began to see himself described in every chapter. He has always felt different and out of sync with his peers. This book helped him to understand himself and feel good about his "gift".

Mr. Cannon wrote an excellent look into our most overlooked modern President. President Ford, never considered an "electric" leader, certainly deserves to have his story told. Being Watergate was the biggest Constitutional crises since the Civil War, we should know more about the one man who reassured the country that everything was o.k. Also, in retelling the Watergate story and Nixon's role in it, Mr. Cannon does so in a way that makes it easy to understand.

As a long time fan of Gerald Ford, I was pleased to read this excellent biography written by one who obviously also admires President Ford. Not only was it an interesting biography, but it was also a fascinating political thriller. Mr. Cannon pieced together a frightening, behind-the-scenes look of the Watergate break-in,the cover-up, the resignation of Spiro Agnew, and the machinations of Alexander Haig, during which time certain people (including Agnew) feared for their lives. He paints a picture of a President Nixon that is sinister and borderline mentally ill--who repeatedly used his office to intimidate his enemies and stop the investigation into Watergate. As I was reading the book and its details of Nixon's obstruciton of justice and illegal acts, the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton was ongoing. The issues surrounding the current impeachment appeared laughable in contrast to what I was reading of Nixon. Cannon supports Ford's claim that the pardon of Nixon was not the result of a deal with Nixon, but was Ford's only alternative to get the country moving again, with minute-by-minute accounts of those involved. Cannon makes the pardon seem as honorable as the man who gave it.

I have always been a fan of Gerald Ford's and this book did not disappoint! Cannon, an insider from Rockefeller's tenure as Governor of New York, presents a balanced and objective insight into the historic transfer or power in 1974. Cannon does not hesitate to present Ford in a heroic role and I am refreshed to see such an appraisal.

Steve Schockow, Rochester, NY

I will definitely admit that I enjoyed reading this book. Undeniably, Mr. James was an extraordinary writer for his day and age. And I am sure that back then these stories would have been the "bone-chilling terror" that the back of the book promised, but I found that most of the stories in here were not even remotely terrifying. They all had a good build up. A terrific story line and some really interesting ideas, but it was at just that point when you start getting really interested, that the story is suddenly over, and you are left with a somewhat empty feeling, knowing that it could have been better. I would still recommend this book to those who would read it purely for literary enjoyment. However, if you're looking for a good scare, as I was, look elsewhere.

I second most of what "hugh dignon" said below; he hit it on the head. I enjoy few authors more than James. I'm a full-grown, mostly rational, non-squeamish, non-superstitious adult, and these stories make my skin crawl, even on repeat readings.

One small caveat: It might be hard to resist devouring all the stories in a short period of time. Resist and ration them out. First, because these are (nearly?) all the ghost stories he wrote. Second, they're formulaic enough in structure that as you near the end of the book, they start to lose some impact if read all at once.

I've read "The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance" four or five times. I still can't follow the plot. It still keeps me awake at night. (Maybe this is because Punch & Judy puppets creep me out). Does anyone else get it?

M.R.James was a master of the British ghost story. In the Victorian and Edwardian eras the ghost story was a very popular genre with some wonderful writers contributing to it. Writers such as Algernon Blackwood, J.S. Le Fanu, H.R. Wakefield, Oliver Onions, Marion Crawford, Henry James and Edith Warton (who both dabbled successfully in the genre), W.W.Jacobs, E.F.Benson, R.H.Malden and E.G.Swain (who were both influenced by James), and William Hope Hodgson produced many ghost stories of merit, but at the top of such an illustrious list should be placed the name of Montague Rhodes James. He wrote short, exquisite stories of ordinary human beings' encounters with the supernatural; all of which exhibit such a disquietingly high level of verisimilitude that he very nearly succeeds in making us believe that the strange events in his stories have actually happened. Because he was a scholar and spent all of his adult life in academia, at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, James was naturally able to inject his stories with an integral element of scholarly detail. They are told in a matter- of-fact, rather dry style and, like an historical text, are peppered with latin phrases and footnotes with bibliographical references. In "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" he even audaciously begins the story with a first paragraph entirely written in latin which, thank God, he translates; though not before his protagonist slyly sighs, "I suppose I shall have to translate this." His protagonists are usually antiquarians; rigid, late-Victorian academics who are not in any way given to flights of fancy. When the type of unimaginative men such as these come across an old etching like "The Mezzotint", or an ancient book like "The Tractate Middoth" or "Canon Alberic's Scrapbook", objects which turn out to be haunted, the reader believes that they indeed are because such protagonists surely lack the imagination to make up such fantastical occurances. James is also a master of subtlety. Unlike horror writers of today who are all too willing to try to shock the reader with sadistic, nauseating, gore-drenched descriptions, James knows how to describe just enough and let the reader's imagination supply the rest. He also lulls the reader into a false sense of security by at first evoking a kind of even-handed normalcy about his characters and settings; so that when the ghost finally makes its appearance it comes as a shock. M.R.James' ghosts are never good. They do not appear to the living to warn them about some impending disaster. At best, they are indifferent to human beings as in "The Mezzotint", "The Haunted Doll's House", or "Number 13" in which the spirits act as if they were in a neverending tape loop. But, for the most part, they are utterly malevolent creatures which actively seek to do harm to the unsuspecting human beings who unknowingly happen to awaken them. Unlike many other ghost story writers of his time, in most of his tales James provides no satisfactory explanation for the ghost's malevolence. He knows that a tidy, pat answer weakens the impact of the anarchic idea that there are unseen forces, usually remaining dormant, which at any time could awaken to inflict harm upon the living. The implications of this idea are truly frightening. Upon finishing one of his stories, the reader is left with a nagging, unnerving suspicion that the events of the story, no matter how strange or "unreal", have actually happened and that James' story is really only a factual accounting of them.

Used as a textbook for MS program. Presented a good overview of logistics and how one part of teh supply chain effects the others.

I have found this book extremely useful and can reccommend it with the confidence that it will help every person involved in Logistics in either: 1) Revise personal experience in the light of customer service and marketing research. 2) For beginners in the field, to develop a sound conceptual basis in Logistics & Suply Chain Management. I used as reference for my own work and I can assure that following this approach will ensure that different persons with different background & experience can understand the key issues.
I have not rated this book with 5 stars since while it infuses concept, it will not provide system design tools. Perhaps this is better, since it will allow for creativity instead of clonation, the first being what I feel is the best engineering practice everywhere. If you want to contact me about this book, you are welcome.

Ensure quality supply of all products in a timely and cost effeicient manner.

This is an extremely readable introduction to the subject of calculus on arbitrary surfaces or manifolds. The author develops the subject from the beginning assuming only basic calculus and linear algebra - and then introduces concepts of integration and tensor analysis as the book progresses. Each segment is accompanied by a series of problems that does well to reinforce concepts. All in all, a good introduction.

This book is one of the most well written mathematics books I've ever read. I found it at a booksale at a local college bookstore, and I sat reading it for 15 minutes in the store. I found the subject matter enthrauling, and I would recommend it to anyone as an introduction to higher analysis. Perhaps the only objection that I might have to this book is the way that he segments his proofs. It seems to discretize what should be a well-flowing argument. Still, the proofs are excellent in spite of this barrier (though some might consider it an asset).