Book doesn't even explain what is meant by "Java IDL" until page 91, and even there the definition is a poor one. A pretty good definition finally appears on p 241.

This ia good material on CORBA with some useful discussions on CORBA services and architectural concepts. I have been doing a lot of CORBA and find this book to be a good guide.

This book is truly an astonishing piece of work. Considering its grotesque factual errors and bizarre misreadings of source material (more than I have ever seen in a single work of non-fiction,) the pompous writing style, the author's grating tendency to make childishly snide (and irrelevant) side comments, and--most bafflingly--the remarkable hatchet-job he does on Grant's wife Julia, I think I can state unhesitatingly that this is the most thoroughly unprofessional biography of anyone I have ever read. I find myself genuinely baffled that Perret evidently still has a career as a historian.

As appalled as I am by the thought that readers who had no prior knowledge about Grant will be led to take some of this tripe seriously, I am even more stunned by reviewers who state unblushingly that Perret's allergy to accuracy does not matter, as long as he is pro-Grant and writes in what is, to them, an appealing writing style! There are few people who defend Grant more wholeheartedly than I do (hey, I even maintain he was a pretty good President,) but I believe that a bad defense of USG can, in the long run, be as damaging to his reputation as no defense at all. My advice to Grant neophytes? Read the man's own words, in his acclaimed memoirs and fascinating private letters, as well as first person accounts like "Campaigning With Grant," and give this silliness a wide berth.

And those cracks of his about Julia REALLY set my teeth on edge.

Without a doubt this is the most poorly-researched historical biography I have ever read. It's amusing that other reviewers here dismiss the criticism that the book is laden with errors and have a "don't care" attitude about it. Why would anyone want to read a book that has hundreds of factual mistakes? Curious indeed.

Perret specializes in breezy and fairly incompetent treatments of historical personalities. He moves from icon to icon, skimming the surface, engaging in haphazard research and producing pop biographies which are always compromised by egregious errors. He's written books on Ike, MacArthur and his new study will examine JFK. The old adage "Jack of all trades, master of none" immediately comes to mind. There is never anything new in his books and one can always count the mistakes on nearly every page.

Perret's limitations with Grant are obvious to anyone with even a peripheral interest in the subject. Others have listed and detailed the mistakes, but they cripple the book and ultimately make it something of a joke. Dates, personalities, people and battles are constantly being mangled, mixed up and treated incompetently. Perret's analysis of Grant's complex personality is something out of "17 magazine," it's so wide of the mark it's ludicrous.

None of the major players in Grant's life are profiled correctly. His take on Grant's wife, Julia is incorrect and mistake-ridden. Similarly, his profiles of Sherman, Rawlins and Lincoln are also facile and obtuse.

His writing style is mid-Victorian and quirky. There are some passages that are rather moving and beautifully written, but then a misstatement of fact is thrown in to ruin the mood. For anyone with an interest in Grant or the civil war, this is a primary book to avoid. It's the nadir of scholarship, devoid of any revelations about Grant as a man or military entity. It is also crippled with mistakes of the most rudimentary nature. Grant deserved much better than this treatment.

There are already several reviews of this book printed here, with which I agree heartily, so I'll keep my comments brief. Perret's "Ulysses S. Grant, Soldier and President," is the twelfth book on Grant that I've read (I can't seem to get enough of this topic). Perret's writing is crisp and intelligent. He doesn't drag out his thesis in long jumbled sentences, rather, he keeps his reader focused on the point he is trying to make on each phase of Grant's personal and professional life. He exposes flaws in previous Grant biographies by proving their lack of documented evidence and holding the authors to task for their shoddy scholarship. At the same time, he does not give the impression that he intends to "show up" other Grant biographers, he just sets the record straight.

I recommend this biography to anyone who wants to understand America in the Nineteenth century. Ulysses S. Grant is the key: he saved the Union, he fought for the rights of the freedmen during Reconstruction, he was always honest-though he did make his share of mistakes - and when he erred, he accepted the responsibility for his mistakes. Grant was a devoted family man, was loyal to his friends and forgiving of his enemies. He was humble and appeared ordinary, yet he achieved amazing things. Perret's most insightful point in this work is his statement that Grant's religion was patiotism. I agree. No one ever loved this country more.

Ugghhh....! On the surface, this book promises a great deal of technical insight into the design and operation of satellite systems - particularly the ground segment.

However the variable quality of the subject matter presented completely fails to do justice to the scope of the book. Topics that the author is most familiar with, such as television broadcasting formats, are treated in great detail (complete with circuit-level diagrams!). However in the treatment of wider system issues - such as satellite characteristics, orbits and link budgets - the author is hopelessly out of his depth.

The most irritating feature is the totally misleading title. It would have made much more sense to call this book something like "Introduction to Satellite TV Equipment Service and Maintainance" and cut out the mediocre system-level material.