One of my favorite essay collections of all time. I give it to my friends all the time, and have had to buy it over and over. From the perspective of an "x-gen" writers toward life itself -- the baby boomers, feminist awakening (as a porn star), getting a job, etc. Postmodern american youth. Wish there were more collections of this sort of young thought about our american life.

This book covers fields of analogue integrated circuit synthesis, IC physical design and constrained optimization. It collects major contributions of UC Berkeley Analog Group for about last 10 years. It brings field of analogue design into a totally new main stream and is still leading the trend. It comprehensively presents the whole developed methodology of mixed-signal circuit design to considerably detail level. For electronic engineer, it is an excellent reference book informing you the current progress in this field and for postgraduate engineering students, it is a very valuable text book. It is so far the best book in this field that collects latest inventions based on those widely published papers.

"The Accidental Asian" is a deeply introspective collection of essays on growing up as a second generation Chinese American. However, the essays constitute much more than that, being a brilliant and heartfelt series of arguments in support of what Eric Liu appropriately calls "omniculturalism" and what others, with derisory connotations, call "assimilationism". It is a book which has as much to say about what it means to be an American, and where American culture and society are heading, as it does about the specific struggles of its author.

There is a scene which Liu describes in his essay, "The Chinatown Idea", which particularly struck me and which illustrates Liu's view of ethnicity and the claims of tradition. When Liu was a young boy, he and his family took a day trip to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a trip which Liu remembers vividly. "[W]hat I remember most is meeting the eyes of an Amish boy about my age. He stared back at me, pale and expressionless, as if from a history book. To me, this was a boy already dead, consigned to live out his days in someone else's past."

This memory, like many others, form the ground for Liu's compelling arguments for individual choice and against the claustrophobic, lock-step claims of ethnic and cultural traditions. Since "[e]very identity is a social construction, a drawing of arbitrary lines," each generation (indeed, each individual within each generation), must establish his or her own cultural identity, drawing on traditions of the past, but ultimately deriving authenticity from the exercise of freedom. As Liu writes, with thinly veiled gratitude to his parents, "[i]t just happens that I was raised with great latitude--to preserve, discard, combine, and create." Thus, Liu proffers a kind of existential argument for assimilation, or at least for having the freedom to choose the degree of one's ethnic identity. As Liu notes, "Chineseness isn't a mystical, more authentic way of being; it's just a decision to act Chinese."

In arguing for "omniculturalism" or "assimiliation", Liu provides a particularly insightful discussion and analysis of the development, since the 1970's, of the so-called "Asian American" identity, an imagined community that has sought to unify the interests and cultures of the polyglot Asian ethnic groups. He also notes the compelling demographic trends which establish, "that America is white no longer, and it will never be white again." Thus assimilation in America no longer has the same meaning, and rejecting the past in favor of a future in an omnicultural society "is an act of creation, as much as destruction."

While you may disagree with Liu's ultimate position, "The Accidental Asian" is a lucidly written, thoughtful examination of the issues raised by ethnicity and the claims of tradition, a memoir which deeply mirrors the cultural and social turmoil of America at the dawn of this new millenium.

As a second generation Chinese American, Eric Liu has spent much of his young life confronting issues of race, assimilation, and cultural identity, whether he wanted to or not. The MSNBC commentator, Washington Post contributor, and former Clinton speechwriter has assembled a thoughtful and introspective collection of essays on what it means to be "Asian" in America today, and the role race plays in our society. "The Accidental Asian" is Liu's successful attempt to explain the struggle many Asian Americans face as they attempt to balance a multicultural existence. The author provides well-balanced arguments for what can be described as his own multi-cultural personality complex. He defines the many cultural dilemmas he and many Asian Americans face - he "feels" American, however he "looks" Chinese, and is sometimes treated differently because of his appearance. He discusses the many facets of race and its role in American society, and how culture shapes who we are and how others perceive us.

Liu brightly and candidly explores ethical, racial and societal questions that are often not addressed outright by the Asian community or others. His essays are intelligent, inquisitive, and thought provoking, and his writing style is clean and elegant. He manages to delve deep into racial ethics without coming off as preachy, whiney or defensive. This book must have been very cathartic for Liu to write - he explores and discusses issues of race that have shaped how others perceive him, and he seems at peace with his multi-cultural roles. I got the sense that a lifetime of thought had gone into Liu's essays, and that by publishing this book he was sharing his most private and candid views on race, his own ethnicity, and his one-time desire to assimilate into "white" culture. He is unafraid to share his thoughts on all sides of racial issues, and it is refreshing to have an author be so up front about race and culture. I am not of Asian descent, and I feel that "The Accidental Asian" is a powerful and though-provoking read for people of all cultural backgrounds.

The Accidental Asian makes for quick, fascinating reading. Eric Liu is very eloquent and his viewpoints are very thought provoking. I really recommend the book. But however, his viewpoint is of an "ABC" who grew up primarily in a white suburb and occasionally visits the "Old Chinatown" (in NY). He does mention Monterey Park and the new Little Taipei but lacks experience in that community. There's a whole new world of Asian Americans out there in Southern California left to be explored hopefully by other authors. We immigrated to the U.S. when we're in grade school and grew up in the U.S. in mixed culture and race neighborhoods unlike the polar extremes presented in Eric's book: white suburban neighborhood or a very Chinesee-Chinatown. We grow up fully aware and accepting of our dual-cultural upbringing and identity...and quite comfortable at that. It's like the Irish Americans and the Italian Americans...we're Chinese Americans. We also grew! up in affluent, professional Asian American neighborhoods, with friends who all attend prestigious universities and graduate school. Eric does make a good point that the "Asian American" is an artificial and contrived term.

This is the worst java book I've ever read. The book is unorganized and the content is not suitable for the beginner at all.

The companion CD-ROM is useless.

If the authors would like to publish the new version for JDK 1.2, there will be a lot of works they need to get accomplished.

Simple words from me.... Don't buy this book.

Covers alot of fancy staff but has a great lack of contents. It seems like the author has rushed through the book just to fill it out with the Java 1.1 features and forgot to describe the import basics behind the language. There's now way you're gonna be a Java guru by reading this book!

It is very thorough. Almost everything important about java is in there including JDBC, JNI, Java Beans, Servlets, security management, even the specification of the virtual machine and most is explained well understandble. It is the best java book I ever saw!