This book should be the reference for any engineer involved in todays transition into the digital TV world.
It goes to the guts of analog and digital signal processing and its complex interactions. It really helps us in setting up -and mantain healthy- our daily workplace: the citadin HFC network.
You can't expect less from an Hewlett-Packard book.

An excellent introductory book describing the characteristics of digital transmission. I picked up this book based on the review from the Boston, MA reader with the expectation that it would provide me with the basics of digital transmission theory.

The topics are organized in logical order with the basics of signal transmission, conversion from analog to digital data streams, digital modulation, error correction, power measurements, and interference sources.

What really impressed me was the simple to understand descriptions and drawings used to convey the underlying theory without getting the reader bogged down in engineering type equations.

I definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in a general understanding of digital signal applicaitons. Even though the book is geared towards cable TV, it provided me with a strong foundation in digital communications!

Digital Basics for Cable TV Systems is an extremely valuable source for learning about how Analog and Digital data is created and tested. The differences between Analog and Digital channels is described using very basic concepts. Complex modulation and measurement considerations are explained in an easy-to-understand format, with terrific examples. The test set-up procedures definitely help anyone who needs to learn how to test Cable systems with Analog and/or Digital Channels.

Explanations of the interractions between existing Analog and new Digital channels are very clear and relate well to the Cable TV population.

Digital Basics for Cable TV Systems is a great reference tool for teaching engineers and technicians!! The Chapter quizzes and summaries really help the reader to organize their learning and prove to themselves that they grasp the concepts. The Glossary provides definitions of all of the industry terms.

I read and learned from every chapter! I recommend this book to anyone who works with Analog or Digital Broadcast Systems--it is a MUST!

a wonderful, very well-written biography at the caliber of Flashbacks, by Timothy Leary. It is similarly designed, which is also nice.

This book provides great insights and highly interesting forays that lend respect to a man so worth it.

Lilly was a visionary, a true genius at the cutting edge of science. His influence in the world of human-dolphin communication, environmentalism, physics, psychology and philosophy shall be felt for the duration of this troubled species.

Lilly gave us such hope and wisdom through which, in addition to enhancing our communications with higher mammals, taught us how to relate to one another and our very selves.

I highly recommend the purchase of this sorely underappreciated book and then go tell all your friends. They will thank you in immense ways.

Jockey Kelly Hughes and trainer Dexter Cranfield have their licenses suspended by the Oxford stewards for supposedly throwing a race. Hughes believes that they were framed and he sets out to clear their names and get the licenses restored. Who would want to ruin their careers? As the truth is revealed we hear a story of sexual deviation, blackmail, fixed evidence and attempted murder.

"Yesterday I lost my licence."

That's how the book begins ... and indeed Kelly Hughes, a leading jump jockey , has been indefinitely suspended from racing after being found guilty of deliberately losing a race.

He knows that someone has rigged evidence against him, and rather than sit back and wait for the ban to be lifted , he sets out to find his secret enemy.

Hughes isn't a detective, and just as he doesn't really know how to carry out an investigation, the reader can't guess at how the plot will develop. My favourite highlight is when Hughes is driving home after a dance. At first it seems to be just a 'filler' scene, but it turns into something more dramatic - and the writing here is particularly well-crafted.

The two main characters are Hughes himself , a widower, and Roberta, the snooty daughter of his employer. Near the start of the book Roberta asks him:

" "That picture .. that's your wife isn't it?"
I nodded.
"I remember her". She said. "She was always so sweet to me. She seemed to know what I was feeling. I was really awfully sorry when she was killed"
I looked at her in surprise. The people Rosalind had been sweetest to had invariably been unhappy. She had had a knack of sensing it, and giving succour without being asked. "

Unfortunately Roberta has been brought up by her father to regard jockeys as an inferior social class, and it takes a long time for the two of them to kindle any real friendship, let alone romance.

Francis is particularly good in this book with the minor characters - such as the aristocratic Bobbie, who clearly is very fond of Roberta but can't help hinting that Hughes is a better match for her, or Derek the diffident mechanic who kept most of his brains in his fingertips.

The plot doesn't flag, the tale builds to a satisfactory climax and I only wish Hughes had appeared in another of Francis' books.

The primary reason I continue to seek out and read Dick Francis is that he continually creates heroes that are efficacious and rational. He avoids the common pitfalls of most modern writers, and instead invents characters who pass the ultimate test: "Would I like to meet and know this person?" If you can answer "yes" to that question then there is great potential for enjoyment in the fiction centered around that character. If you answer "no" to that question, why even bother reading further?

Dick Francis' characters almost always recieve an unreserved "YES!" Read "Enquiry," it's not the best from Francis but it's still furlongs beyond the rest.

Uneventful fluff about british horse racing. No mystery, no murder, a good way to kill time as well as brain cells.

High Stakes was an excellent novel. I chose to read it because it focuses on horses and because I have read other books by this author. This novel was a page-turner because there were several twists in the plot. It was easy to relate to the main character and feel what he was feeling, as if his life was yours. The book had certain sections that the reader really had to think about, because the plot was complicated at times. Also, the author has a way of not describing something until the last possible moment. For example, the characters discussed a critically important plan, and the reader themselves did not know what it was until the plan was executed. At times this made the novel some-what confusing, but did not result in the book being misunderstood. In the future I would read another book by this author.

High Stakes marks the beginning of Dick Francis' (or Mrs. Dick Francis, depending upon who actually writes his books) writing for the American market. Tho' not the bone-cruncher the earlier books were, his toy maker is one of the more likable protagonists and the beginning zings!

As a former police reserve officer, I spent years requesting CSI with little understanding of just what they do. This book goes well beyond lifting fingerprints and other routine tasks that police officers are typically limited to. I now have a better awareness of the capabilities of CSI and conciderations about how to protect a scene and how CSI can be used to investigate certain crimes. I also have a greater appreciation for CSI personnel and the difficult job they have. I liked the book and believe it would be helpful to anyone in law enforcement.

This is a very good introductory Criminal Justice text. It is easy to see that the authors targeted the general introductory cj students and those interested in exploring the field of crime scene investigation. Basic terms and proceedures are presented in clear everyday science based applications. This text uses understandable charts, graphs and photos to enhance crime scene applications. This text is clearly not for those who are working at the graduate level, but it clearly meets the needs of the student who is surveing forensic opportunties. Good job

I found this book to be a solid introduction into the varied and complex field of CSI. It presented a balance between basic and advanced techniques. The authors state this book was written for students considering CSI and those currently in the field and I agree. It provided a refresher in some areas and exposed me to new concepts in others. I also liked the community-policing feel of this text as it relates to addressing the needs of victims. The book is easy to follow and contains many photographs. I recommend it to anyone considering a job in CSI or to enhance their skills. I also read the first edition. This one seems to be much improved.

An instant classic historical novel. This reads like a bizarre amalgam of The Diary of a Nobody and The Flashman papers. How can such a marvelous novel have fallen out of print? Learn about life in the North West Mounted Police and in the shadow of a famous relative as Dickens deadpans his way along the "medicine line". Reprint this book now!

Gene Hawkins has a longstanding desire for committing suicide. That is very unlikely for a Dick Francis hero. Indeed, Hawkins is a typical Francis hero; a man of a strong will, an indomitable spirit and a detached mind, yet he bears a wish for killing himself. That's too odd. The story is not bad as a mystery, but I can't tolerate such inconsistency in the hero's character.

Considering it is a 1967 publication, Blood Sport portrays a man who suffers from depression and from a person (me)who also has and does can say the portrayal is very realistic. I'm amazed Francis could write like this in the mid-60's and wonder a bit now if Dick didn't go through some bouts of depression because you almost have to to portray it correctly. A worthwhile read for more than one reason. Aches, cold feet, full of malaise, life seeming worthless and confusing...Francis knew what he was talking about.

Dick Francis has earned a well deserved reputation as one of the best suspense writers around--based more on his writing skills and character development that any real talent for suspense. This is because virtually all his books, regardless of character and milieu, follow a well developed formula. By the third or forth Francis book one has a pretty good feel for how things will proceed. His average books are well enough crafted to keep your attention, his better books--such as Banker, Reflex and Proof--grab you by the throat and won't let go till you are done.

Blood Sport is a significant departure for Francis. The formula is gone, the action aspects of his work take back seat to a much more cerebral style and the main character is far from the iconoclastic, self reliant individualist we normally expect from Francis.

Gene Hawkins is a "screener" for the British Government-essentially a "mole" hunter. He is also suicidal-his previous relationship has shattered and left the man a psychological mess. He has sublimated his troubles into his work-until now. Faced with a mandatory three week leave his boss, fearful for his employee's life-sets him onto the trail of the thieves of one of his pals thoroughbred race horses in America.

What follows is one of the more bizarre, compelling chase stories I have ever read. It is also the most unusual novel Francis has written to date.

Not all Francis fans will like this book-as the previous reviews will attest. However, I found the story very compelling and felt more of a real connection to the characters than is the norm with a Francis novel. I also found it to be more of a true suspense novel than is usually the case with Francis.

I urge Francis fans to give it a try.

While a good biography should give us insight into what a person was like, Meyers apparently thinks himself qualified to tell us what Fitzgerald was thinking and feeling throughout his life, and those mind-reading attempts ring false.

Fitzgerald once said that all the characters in his novels were based on him. Meyers seems to believe the reverse - that Fitzgerald's personality can be illustrated almost entirely by the characters in his novels. Thus, Meyers provides the reader with a shallow caricature of Fitzgerald - where all his faults are enhanced and the real person underneath is passed over completely.

For a better glimpse of the person F. Scott Fitzgerald was, I strongly recommend F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters.

I found Jeffrey's Meyers' biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald dismaying. Not that Meyers' doesn't write well (he does), or capture the essence of Fitzgerald's dissipation, but the book seemed a deliberate hack job. It is largely a continuous stream of references to Fitzgerald's obstinacy, egotism, inferiority, outrageousness, drunkenness and worse. I don't know where anyone got the idea that Meyers' wrote with any compassion in this biography. This work only makes Fitzgerald look pathetic. Of course, in many ways he was...but I see no scholarly effort to recognize the quality and enduring value of much of his work. While they pull few punches themselves, I'd recommend Mizener's The Far Side of Paradise, and Bruccoli's Some Sort of Epic Grandeur for a more balanced perspective.

I've spent the last six months working my way through Scott Fitzgerald's novels and short stories. It became fairly obvious early on that a lot of what he was writing about in his fiction was autobiographical. I became interested in purchasing a biography so that I could get a feel for how much of his life he actually put into his work. I usually shy away from buying them because I find they are usually sensational or bland and almost never in between, but this book certainly runs against the norm. The many anecdotes (not all of them flattering) Meyer's includes in this biography give great insight into Fitzgerald's world and all of the inner demons that he struggled with within himself, not to mention those of his wife. Where other authors may have focused on his alcoholism, etc., Meyers never loses site of Fitzgerald, the extraordinary writer.