A very useful reference book, especially if your Mac is earlier than September 1995. Of course a lot of the information about software and hardware in general is applicable to later machines as well. I would have given it a 10 when it was published first, but now I only give it an 8 because it has not been updated. I would hope that a new edition will be published that includes the many Macs and Mac clones brought out since August 1995.

Having problems with your Mac? Need to add a video card, install RAM, or just wondering how all those components work together? MacWeek Upgrading and Repairing Your Mac has a wealth of useful information for the novice and pro alike.

Lisa Lee discusses everything from troubleshooting to choosing software to buying the right Mac. Her writing is generally accessible and easy to understand. She tackles difficult and "techie" subjects with aplomb. Most techniques for fixing the Mac are here, though I did notice a few curious omissions (for example, only one reference to zapping the PRAM and no details about how to accomplish it or when doing so might be helpful. There was also no mention of replacing a dead backup battery, which has become a common fix for aging Macs.) I found the index incomplete and occasionally incorrect, a problem for any reference tome. Still, the book serves well as a fix-it guide.

Mac books become quickly outdated with Apple's introduction of new models and System software, and this guide is no exception. If you have a newer machine, check that it is covered before you shell out for this volume. Minor caveats aside, I recommend it to anyone who needs hardware help with their Mac.

This book has aided me greatly in configuring, installing and repairing every aspect of the Mac that I am at all familiar with from my experience during the past 15+ years.

I will refrain from using lots of sports cliches to describe this book...but the temptation is there.

This is very good collection of mystery writers and (for reasons I fail to grasp) Mike Lupica. I have read the works of over half the authors and a big fan of some of them.

The book was a pleasant diversion from the normal selection of mysteries and thrillers I read...especially as the major league season winds down.

Most of the stories were quick reads with a couple of surprise endings. Short stories are a different way to enjoy a writer when you are used to the whole novel. It was amazing to see how well some of these novelists could develop characters and plot in such a short format.

I found the stories by Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman, Elmore Leonard, Henry Slesar, Troy Soos and Robert Parker the best. Other than the Lupica the only other one that I found lacking was the one by K.C. Constantine.

Now this is what I call mystery book. It has all the elements of a fantastic read. Thank Otto Penzler well done.

As a mystery writer with my debut novel in initial release, an author of numerous short stories published over the years, and an educator who regularly teaches the writing of short mystery fiction within the California State University system, I believe Otto Penzler did an excellent job assembling original mystery stories for MURDERERS' ROW. This anthology features big name authors such as Lawrence Block, Robert B. Parker, Michael Connelly, and Thomas Perry. The collection covers the subject of baseball from a variety perspectives ranging from Little League to the Majors and from benchwarming little boys and baseball parents to historic superstars and sports agents. Highlights include "Harlem Nocturne" by Robert Parker, a story featuring some fellows named Rickey and Robinson and "Pick-Off Play" by Troy Soos starring his series character baseball journeyman/everyman Mickey Rawlings. I recommend MURDERERS' ROW for any mystery reader interested in baseball (as all good people are).

I have to admit, this book contains an impressive overview of all the Windows DNA technologies. As a reminder, DNA has been there for years and was working under NT4. It has been revamped with trumpets with a new name, .Net, with all those new services. The authors do have this in mind and they will tell you where .Net will be improving features.

I would recommend this book to anybody that wants to know what is Windows DNA/.Net (beside thinking it's everything that Microsoft is providing for developers!). Of course, you cannot have all those technologies into one book and expect the best coverage on all of them. Having that in mind, the authors create an incredible reference for developers that wants to upgrade to a more scalable & distributed environment as well as to take leverage of the new technologies that came with Windows 2000 (for developers that is).

The only thing that I have to mention (and I did to Wrox) was that I personnaly believe that this book, though the readers needs to have professional knowledge of development, would be better inside the Beginning series since this book serves as an overview reference of all those technologies. Wrox will undoubtfully then release multiple Professional books that will go further in those new technologies (such as doing COM+ events or asynchronous components, having XML Business Objects, etc.).

As a bottom line, most of the authors wrote in a confident programming style and it is a very interesting book to go through. ... But I can't wait for the .Net one!

This book comes in handy as a great reference for utilizing these technologies in the real world. If you're looking for a book that you can sit down and read cover to cover to understand the basics, this is not it. If you're an experienced developer who wants to dive into the guts of the technologies, then this is for you.

I recommend this book a chapter at a time (after reading the first 2 review chapters), in order to learn how to implement a technology (like MTS, MSMQ, etc) in the real world.

Windows DNA is an platform and methodology for Enterprise development. It is taking all of what Microsoft offers for industry : server software (SQL Server, Biztalk), development software (Visual Studio) and productivity software (Office, Viso) and making them tightly inter operatable to produce scaleable solutions that can be development very rapidly.

This book covers Microsoft DNA and does so very well. If you have been following the evolution of Microsoft's Enterprise development methodology and related technologies (MTS, COM, etc..) then you should flip though this one before buying to make sure it offers enough new information for your investment. Do this especially if you already have the Wrox title: Professional MTS/MSMQ and you have a good book on ASP or Visual Basic.

If however you are a beginner/intermediate level Visual Basic, ASP or VC++ developer and you want to expand you knowledge from how to build small-to mid-sized client-server or desktop applications to building scalable Enterprise solutions then this book is for you.

I really liked this book. It contains Wolverine issues 24 through 47 and a lot of heart. Like the first Essential Wolverine, it really showcases Wolverine's personality. This book made me laugh and got my blood flowing. No Wolverine fan should be without it.

I've bought numerous books on Flash and the Dynamic Scripting that can be intermingled with Flash.... Flash 5 ActionScript F/X and Design, Flash 4 Creative Web Animation, and different Wrox books on ASP, ASP databases, and ADO. This book ties ALL of them together. It explains motion scripting for beginners, and then it shows how to import variables from ASP, PHP, Perl, and Cold Fusion. These 1000+ pages contain EVERYTHING you want to know about Flash, it it with out a doubt, THE BEST FLASH BOOK EVER CREATED!!!! It even branches out Flash to other programs like Dreamweaver UltraDev and Generator, it explains how to display information from databases using Flash Turbine. If you read this book, you will be a master at Flash.

An excellent book! Well worth the investment! It transitions well from more basic concepts to more complex topics -- With lots of substance for people at all levels of experience. Even those with more expertise can learn a thing or two from the different conceptual approaches presented. The book is not just about "here's how to do the same old boring X, Y & Z, just in the updated version of Flash", it also says "here's some different ways of thinking about solutions that takes greater advantage of new features of Flash". I also really enjoyed the mini math and geometry lessons... it's good to know that years of high school algebra and geometry could be put to some use!

The interface design chapters were particularly outstanding; judging by how awful so many Flash sites are at integrating interactivity, PLEASE!! I BEG YOU!!! everybody read the chapters on designing interfaces! They are a "must read" for anyone who wants to improve their site's interactivity.

The game design chapters are also incredibly helpful as well, and I think are some of the first useful explanations of game design I've ever seen for Flash. Even if you're not designing games in Flash, using a familiar game like Asteroids as a vehicle for explaining some pretty clever design elements works very well. Not to mention, it's very cool to be able to make your own video games! Flash isn't just for dull corporate websites anymore!

I'll be incorporating the lessons learned from those chapters into all the stuff I do... even though I only get to do very boring stuff for a corporate site. And if I use what this book teaches, maybe someday I can get hired to make games and do cool interfaces!!! :)

If you are a newbie,......their are other alternatives that will get your feet wet, but if you are a practicing Flash developer and have a firm understanding of ActionScript...this book will inspire you to build real dynamic Flash apps. It touches on Flash Javascript methods, Flash and textfiles and goes into server side middleware solutions like, CGI,Perl and PHP. It also introduces you to database integration. This book gives you real world solutions, which maybe a bit elementary, but overall it lays the foundation for you. I found this book to be inspiring and to be the book which pushed me to learn CGI,PERL,PHP and MySQL. If your looking to build real dynamic/interactive Flash applications or websites this is the book.

The books fails to cover the security aspects
of the Wen Ho Lee case accurately. This is
more dissappointing considering Hoffman did
covered the security aspects at the Los Alamos Labs
in his original newspaper articles but such
coverage did not make it to this book.

Hoffman and Stober incorrectly refers to Wen Ho Lee's
data as classified when infact the data was technically
not considered classifed when Wen Ho Lee was working
on them. Data security at Los Alamos is defined at
multiple levels. While Wen Ho Lee had a very high
security clearance, the software and data Wen Ho
Lee was working with was defined as "Protected As
Restricted Data"(PARD) which is not considered
classified but one step below it. Classified data
at the lab was defined as "Classified Restricted
Data" (CRD). The files that Wen Ho Lee copied onto
the infamous tapes were all PARD; however, after
the FBI found his backup tape notebook - the DOE
retroactively redefined the tapebackup data files
as CRD and "Top Secret"(TS). This allowed the
FBI to prosecute Wen Ho Lee as a felon. The
government ploy was to intimidate Wen Ho Lee
in hopes that they could get Wen Ho Lee to
disclose a spy handler or a spy ring.

Much of the data at Los Alamos is listed as PARD
because none of the researchers wants to go over
the many lines of code to determine if there were
any secrets worth protecting. In the past, efforts
by DOE intelligence to eliminate the PARD
classification has met with resistance from most
of the scientists at the atomic labs because
researchers found PARD useful in reducing the
security workload (so they could focus on their
work at advancing science and weapon technologies).
IIRC while the installation of PARD data on non
classified computers was against security
regulations - it was not a felony - one might
could lose one's security level or at worst be
dismissed. Reportedly more often than not the

mishandling of PARD data would only bring a
reprimand. Prosecution's argument for treating
the Wen Ho Lee case differently was that a
massive amount of data was involve. However,
Many of the lab scientists who normally work
with massive amounts of data felt that the
prosecution of Wen Ho Lee amounted to an
abuse of power by security. To make such
matters worst, it was disclosed that CIA Dir
John Deutch was caught editing Top Secret documents
on home computer which was not approved
as a classified computer ( FBI officials were
relucant to prosecute Deutch. Deutch's case
was a source of embarassment to the Clinton
administration. John Deutch case was
closed when he was pardon by President Clinton.
Wen Ho Lee however was unable to get a
presidential pardon. )

Hoffman and Stober's puts a great deal of effort in
describing the case against Wen Ho Lee. The book
reads rather unevenly. In general, when the book
describes possible error or problems with government
agents like Trulock and Dan Bruno, the authors
immediately provide a defenses or alibi to deny
any wrongdoing or dismissing any error. However,
in general when the book presences evidence against
Wen Ho Lee the author do not provide any immediate
defense for Wen Ho Lee but rather tries to build
up Wen Ho Lee as the mystery man; the reader has
to wait until the end of the book for Wen Ho Lee's
defense. I suppose this was for dramatic buildup?
In writing this book the authors acknowlegde
they had immediate access to the government agents.
The book's acknowlegdement seems to indicate
that the authors did not have immediate access
to Wen Ho Lee - who was writing his own book
about his experience.

The characters are so alive. It's almost like watching a movie.

In one occasion, Wen Ho¡¦s son, Chung, was questioned about any gambling loss their family had on their stops in Las Vegas, so that a connection between huge gambling loss and a motive to spy can be drawn. But only to find out yes, there was loss, about 50 dollars. And that made Wen Ho very upset and stop playing for a long time. Dud. I can imagine how this scene can be played in a movie.

Authors went through a large variety of sources to write this book. This book is well titled: ¡§¡Kand the politics of Nuclear Espionage¡¨

Due to the fact that authors were not able to interview Lee for first hand information, (probably at the advice of Lee's lawyers) there is an apparent lacking of Lee¡¦s view. But that perspective is complimented in his own book: ¡§My Country versus Me¡¨, which I just read, a wonderful book too.

However, there is a more serious aspect. Although authors examined in detail about Las Alamos Lab, FBI, DOE, DOJ, there is a unbalanced lacking of behind the scene stories on news media. Among all the mighty powers controlling the fate of Lee, New York Times, Washington Post and Times were as influential as DOE, DOJ and FBI. There is no scrutiny of any of them at all, neither media bosses nor the corresponds. Authors missed that part of the democracy system completely. Well, to be optimistic, we might expect those stories to appear in ¡§A Convenient Spy II¡¨. Just like those popular movies.

It was a difficult job to write a book which completely, and yet readably, presents the background and all aspects of the Wen Ho Lee controversy.
On the one hand, Wen Ho Lee's supporters present a view of a scientist who, for no reason except his national origin, was persecuted by the government.
On the other hand, the Justice Department portrayed Lee as an evil and incredibly dangerous master spy.
The truth is not just in the middle, but multi-faceted.
Wen Ho Lee acted suspiciously. He contacted, and gave non-classified information to, foreign governments. He repeatedly downloaded very comprehensive and secret information on the US atomic bomb program to non-secure computers and tape drives - a security lapse which could have been devastating.
On the other hand, the Justice Department was operating under political pressure to find a scapegoat to prove the administration was not "soft on China." They held Lee without bail, in solitary confinement, under threat of life imprisonment, for 278 days, with no evidence that Lee gave secret information to a foreign government. (In comparison, when John Deutch, former CIA Director, was discovered to have stored very sensitive national security secrets on his internet-connected home computer, which was used by a household member to access pornographic internet sites, nothing was done to him except that he lost his security clearance.)
The book gives plausible reasons that Lee may have downloaded the information, consistent with Lee's character and past actions, which do not involve spying.
This is a very well-written, balanced, and thorough book; I recommend it to anyone who wishes to learn more about the Wen Ho Lee controversy.

Overall I thought this was a great book. It went into great detail concerning even the most mundane details of VC/NVA life (I consider this an asset, not a liability). I enjoyed reading about how they fought, what kind of weapons they used, and the tactical and logistical details of the various VC/NVA units discussed. This book is limited in scope, after all it is called "Inside the VC and the NVA", so of course it's not going to go into detail about the ARVN fighting ability and THEIR details, nor does it address allied "atrocities". There were some drawbacks however. The VC and NVA interviews were interesting, but I think the information contained in them needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Although the authors address and dismiss the possibility of coercion, I think that's a very real possibility. Secondly, the book could have done without the input of the generals. For the most part, I thought the comments of the generals were suspect. After all, they had the kill ratio/body count agenda. All in all, a great book.

This book is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Vietnam war. The first review complains that this "reads like a school book. Ideal for the scholar, maybe less than ideal for the casual reader." Well, what did that "casual" reader expect from a book whose cover proclaims that it "fills a huge gap in the historiography of the Vietnam War" ??

This is NOT a dull or difficult book for anyone interested in the subject. The facts, figures, and background the authors include are very helpful in understanding what led the several armed forces to come into battlefield contact, and why they acted as they did. Particularly helpful is the authors' technique of letting participants tell their own stories -- even stories that contradict each other. The book has a helpful index, and extensive source notes and bibliography for those who wish to read further.

Perhaps the major fault of the book is that the authors detail the terror and coercive tactics of North Vietnamese forces, and the failings of North Vietnamese leadership, while omitting any mention of similar tactics and the failings of the US/South Vietnamese forces (except the inescapable acknowledgment of My Lai). By this omission, the authors leave the mistaken impression that South Vietnam had a legitimate and widely-supported democratic government with civil rights, whose secret police, ARVN, and US troops never engaged in abuse of the population and enemy prisoners. The VC/NVA actions should at least have been put in context by mention of the South Vietnamese/USA Phoenix program, corruption, tiger cages, etc. The reader may wish to also read _Our Vietnam/Nuoc Viet Ta: A History of the War 1954-1975_ by A. J. Langguth to get additional perspective on the failings of the South Vietnamese government.

The authors' limited use of their own feelings about the war, combined with a skillful combination of others' personal narratives and official reports and information, results in a very readable, informative and valuable book. Particularly moving is the Afterword, which reads in part, "We questioned each other and ourselves about whether we were 'going soft' on the VC/NVA who were dedicated to the deaths of our friends.... Yet, the more we researched and wrote, the more we learned that the majority of the VC/NVA did their duty as they saw it -- not unlike ourselves and our fellow soldiers....
"Slowly, and despite our efforts to do otherwise, we began to feel more kinship with the VC/NVA than we did with many of our fellow [civilian] Americans.... Even more sobering to us was the moment when we finally realized that we had more in common with our former enemies than with the politicians who had sent us to war."

Having studied political, religious, and social extremist groups for over 15 yrs, I found this book to be a good primer for not just information on the VC and the NVA, but I saw parallels between the methods used by the VC/NVA and other extremist groups. Be they religious extremist groups or right wing militia type groups. Obviously the parallel breaks down if you take it too far, but it was very interesting and I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in extremist groups - especially with the asymmetrical threat environment nowadays.

The back of the box advertises with this: "you will Learn to develop a file-cabinet-like memory, Create a pain-barrier, Teach you body to burn fat the same way it did when you were in your teens, Become irresistible to the opposite sex and elevate your sexual capacity to many times normal, Rejuvinate your body and drive disease from it at will. Banish worries, fears and anxieties from your life, permanently. Achieve personal and financial success" THIS IS NOT TRUE, what this does is it tells you how to reach lifes goals, for example, If you want to learn spanish it will tell you the steps to getting to that goal with hardly any thinking. If you had a past life experience so horrible it keeps you from doing something in life, it can tell you how to fix it. In short, it can be very useful, JUST NOT TO WHAT IT ADVERTISISES....however what he does show will probably work (Reason why I didn't give it a totally bad grade). But this did NOT work for me simply because it couldn't do as advertised. I wanted the "pain barrier" they advertised but there was no way of getting to that goal with the techniques they where using. Not only that but the lesson of the cassettes seem to suddenly stop and gives an "unfinished" feeling (For he mentioned more techniques in other sessions when your on the last cassette).

I think these tapes are so powerful. The information not only is simple but effective. If you are looking to make changes in your life...this will get you on the right track..BBE

My grandmother once taught me: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days (Mormons) teaches its members that if they want to know whether the Book of Mormon is true or not they should pray about the matter. If they receive a "burning in their bosom" they will know that the book and the accounts depicted inside are accurate. For faithful members of the church this is the only way to discover the "truth" of the Book of Mormon.

Brent Metcalfe and Dan Vogel take a different approach. They present a number of articles from scholars who have attempted to get at "the truth" of the Book of Mormon in a totally different manner. They apply the tools of the scientific method, historical research, and logical analysis to formulate hypotheses and draw conclusions. As a result, people who use logic and science to resolve issues are likely to be impressed by this book. On the other hand, those who believe in a religion purely because of faith and answers they have received in prayer are not likely to be impressed by this work, or to want to read it for that matter.

The articles are quite interesting. My favorite three included the one on "automatic writing", Tom Murphy's article on DNA and the Lamanites (which he came close to being excommunicated for writing), and the article on former "Seventy" B.H. Roberts and what he really believed about the Book of Mormon.

What comes through to the educated person is that many things that have long been presented "as facts" by the church are not. The truth is far more complicated. One can read the Book of Mormon and conclude that Nephites and Lamanites were supposedly the only groups present in the Americas between 600 BC and 400 AD. However, DNA testing shows this is simply impossible. The vast, vast bulk of Native Americans are related to groups in Asia that crossed the Bering Straits into this continent 10,000 to 50,000 years ago. In fact, its virtually impossible to find any connection between Native Americans and either Jews or Egyptians as claimed in the Book of Mormon.

The article on automatic writing challenges the allegation that it would be impossible for one uneducated person to "invent" or "write" the Book of Mormon by himself. In fact, such things have been documented to have been done several times in the past and perhaps on a more impressive scale.

This is a good book for a scholarly person who has questions about Mormon doctrine and seeks an answer that is not "faith-based". Whether all the writers have arrived at the correct conclusions or not, it does stimulate alot of powerful thinking.

Yet another in a fairly recent series of works designed to confront mormonism from a scholarly approach. While I appreciate the work these writers have put forth, this is not a book designed for the casual researcher into the murky world of mormon history and theology. These essays are ideally suited for a reader with a solid background in both Christianity as well as mormonism. For the average individual just looking for an intro to the fallacies of mormonism, Bill McKeever's "Mormonism 101" or Richard Abanes "One Nation Under Gods" are good materials.

I do find the approach of this book, along with "The New Mormon Challenge" to be a bit disturbing. They purport to discard the "tired old arguments" against mormonism, but these arguments still are as valid as ever. One cannot understand mormonism without looking at the history and character (or lack thereof) of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young (see Fawn Brodie's "No Man Knows My History" on Smith), looking critically at the temple ceremony, the absolute laughable quality of the Book of Mormon and especially at Smith's bogus translation that makes up the "Book of Abraham". There are an awful lot of books on mormonism, of varying quality and it seems that many authors are trying too hard to look at new information, when the existing information is more than enough to quash mormonism as a serious theology.

As a side note, take some of these preceding reviews with a sizable grain of salt. One reviewer, John Tvedtnes, is a "professional" mormon apologist who gets his paycheck from Brigham Young University, so he has a vested financial interest in maintaining the mormon illusion. Kevin Christensen's review also mentions Tvedtnes and his "scholarly" friends at FARMS as sources. Anyone familiar with FARMS reviews of books will notice that a) they tend to be polemic and nasty in tone toward the authors and b) FARMS reviewers have a pretty mixed bag of backgrounds, including: "coordinator of performance tours at Brigham Young University", "self-employed artist currently writing a book on scrollsaw art " and "director of Parking and Transportation Services at the University of Utah". Certainly there is nothing wrong with these professions, but it makes you wonder how much of their reviews are mere parroting of what the top dogs at FARMS tell them to write.

If you are looking for a straight-forward walk down memory lane, forget this book. It rambles disjointedly, like someone just writing down random thoughts as they occur to him. I wanted to read this book because I was a former student of the author, and the person that came through in this book is certainly not the person, the professor, that I remember. What may have been an appealing topic gets lost in the hodgepodge of literary devices. Who (unless you are "in" on the jokes) needs the interminable list of names? I can't recommend this book, and I'm very disappointed that it is not the book I thought it would be.