This book is simply the best for your bookcase if you are a voice dialogue designer. I would strongly recommend it to novice and expert alike, especially for those learning VoiceXML for the first time, or working with it day to day.

Grounded in hours of human-computer experiments, and a multi-disciplinary approach to user interface design - this book is a rare combination of a careful ear for human language and dialogue, extensive engineering experience, and pragmatic knowledge of the strengths and limitations of current voice recognition technology.

The second edition has brought it bang up-to-date. It cuts through the hype that has always surrounded each successive generation of voice technology - focussing always on the building of robust useable interfaces which work with the user rather than against them.

This book is so well organized and articulated it's bound to be of value to anyone doing ASR application development. My own experience in voice response runs from end-user representative to application designer and I found every chapter enlightening. In this second edition of Bruce and David's ASR style guide, I believe the end users will find the new sections on voice portals and managing your voice talent of particular interest. And all users should take particular note of the expanded discussions of usability testing and performance reporting.

I found the first version of How to Build a Speech Recognition Application so useful that I actually took the time to compared the new edition, page for page, with the original. That was a relatively easy task, because the authors retained the original section numbering wherever possible. My comparison showed that the original guidelines have been substantially updated, based on continuing research and the hands-on experiences of both the authors and other acknowledged experts. In addition, I believe the new sections and expanded discussions of critical design considerations are going to prove valuable to both novice and seasoned developers.

In short, developing effective telephony dialogues is a complex, rapidly evolving and downright expensive task. Given that reality, every development team ought to have at least one copy of this landmark style guide.

David Morgan's hisory of the Mongols is a "must read" for anyone serioussly interested in Mongolian history and culture. This is a well written, highly readable and comprehensive study of the largest empire the world has ever seen.

I believe this is the book I read about the Great Mongol hordes several years back. The authors name does appear to ring a bell in my head. I know the book was simply titled "The Mongols". I have looked around for it, and can't find it now. So, it would be a safe assumption that it is out of print, as this book is.

The Mongols were one of the oddities of history. A people that conqoured most of the world. Note, they didn't become the rulers of just a large part, or all the world they knew about. But pretty much all the of the world. From Korea and China in the east, to Eastern Europe in the west. With Persia, Iraq, Russia, northern India, and of course, Mongolia, all inbetween. Alexander the Great's Empire was small in comparision... and Alexander ruled a lot of the world.

It was the Mongol empire that brought about the downfall of the power structures that held up the Islamic States in the middle east and persia. China was brought to a realitive low point in her power. India, Russia, Poland, Mummaluke Egypt, China, and the Byzantine Empire were all brought to their knees in the face of the Mongols.

Also, the Mongols brought an early version of free trade to bare from China to Europe and all parts inbetween. People knew that folks thosands of miles away had good stuff to trade for. The lack of political boarders made this possible.

The nations of Western Europe were pretty much the only peoples who didn't have the fire and sword of the Mongols lowered on to their heads. Because of this, the back water that was Western Europe was able to reach out to the world, and finding a lot of weak nations conquorer and control much of what they found there.

The Mongol's got bad press for years, as they were the stuff the legends of evil hordes were made of. This world would be a very different place if Ghengis Khan and the rest of them were to have never existed. Understand them is something every true student of world history needs. This book can provide a very good start to understanding the Mongols and what they did.

David P. Morgan's editorship and molding of "Trains" Magazine have outlasted him, a true testament to a visionary. He took the founder's concept and gave it discipline, vitality and credibility.

This volume draws together the best of his writing. Whether he is describing a mundane ride on a now-forgotten train or the thrill of seeing a streamliner at speed, his prose is riveting. The photos, while not Mr. Morgan's, all complement each story and open windows on the past, proving that black-and-white pictures can have as much impact as the best in color.

Thankfully, Mr. Drury has memorialized Mr. Morgan and his stellar contributions in this work, so that future generations who are attracted to the rails, and to the magzine, can understand who made it possible. (Would that Mr. Morgan's successors at the magazine remember his contributions as beautifully as Mr. Drury has.)

These books are a very practical guide. Very useful and easy to understand. They simplify what could otherwise be a very unmanageable process.

As you read through this masterful yet succinct examination of the state of the family in Britain today, you are struck, in part at least that despite the social upheaval in Britain in the post war years, much of our social structure remains intact.

Despite the many freedoms won by women and by men particularly in the last forty years or so, what is more surprising than anything else is how conservative Britain has turned out to be. True, the work excludes factors such as race and ethnicity as well as immigration and the impact these may have had on the overall figures, but despite everything, to a degree, the traditional behaviours of marriage hold good to a great extent.

Before anyone should think that I am a supporter of this conservative picture, let me assure readers that I am not. While I think that the study here is a good one, I also am of the belief that the notion of a traditional family is an artificial construct which does not have real meaning.

For instance, it is only about 150 years agao roughly speaking that women were considered to be mere chattels once they became married or put it another way, what is mine is mine and what is hers (including her) is mine too.Female sexuality was under male control as was reproduction. Divorce laws were changed such that women could divorce their husbands. The point here is that this artifact of the family, far from it being something to aspire to has been endowed with a mythological significance which cannot be supported. The breadwinning husband is a construct to, denying women the right to work and the right to financial independence. The conclusion I draw from this is that diversity is good and that all men and women should be free to make their own choices.

I find that the conservatives of all parties who purport to produce evidence to establish the suffering of children and the handicaps in life that they must endure as a result of the lack of married parents are also setting up a straw man. To be sure suffering children are found in many families but often that suffering is a result of insufficient income. The benefits of proper family life are bound to win through if the comparator is a time when most people were in marriages whether they liked it or not. It would not be surprising if mothers in bad marriages devoted their time and energies to their children.

My biggest objection to this book lies in the dogmatic approach set out by Patricia Morgan who seems to be on a crusade against what she terms the atomistic society. This surely must be a topic all on it's own but it does seem to me that the opponents of freedom and liberty are casting their eyes back to a golden age of marriage where none existed. Education is rightly seen as a liberator for women who are as good, if not better than men in many respects. Why should they not have the same freedoms and responsibilities as men for all aspects of their lives. The question really is one of choice. Everyone should have the ability to decide for themselves what they do given the facts available.

In this case, social structure will be determined by those choices and we should be prepared for change whether people like Morgan want to deride it as post-modern or not. The conservatives case is too simplistic and seeks to use emotion and blackmail to return us to an age where men are subjugated to men. For myself, I want to see a time when all people are free to make the most of any opportunities which may be presented to them regardless of sex or colour.

Every student or interested observer of society should read this book and make up their own minds.

Most children of Protestant families, like myself, are probably familiar with Warner Sallman's "Head of Christ" and have seen it many times. However, Morgan and his fellow authors give us a reason to actually look at Sallman's work. They debunk the myth that Protestant privelage of the word has brought forth no visual culture and that popular visual piety has no place in scholarship. The writings in this book give the reader a clearer picture of Protestant immigrant visual piety and a man named Warner Sallman, who created a Jesus Christ Superstar for a conservative Christian movie era audience.

The Mongol empire was founded early in the thirteenth century by Chinggis Khan and within the span of two generations embraced most of Asia, becoming the largest land based state in history. The united empire lasted only until around 1260 but the major successor states continued on in the Middle East, present day Russia, Central Asia and China for generations, leaving a lasting impact much of which was far from negative on these areas and their peoples. The papers in this volume present new perspectives on the establishment of the Mongol empire, Mongol rule in the eastern Islamic world, Central Asia and China, and the legacy of this rule. The various authors approach these subjects from the view of political, military, social, cultural and intellectual history. Most of the essays offer original research and visit major controversies in Mongol studies. Now that the volume is priced for individual purchase the volume should become an optional text for class use. The book is a must-read for the specialist and worth a close look by generalists.

This was a wonderful book. It has short stories, even cartoons, about Oz and its characters. All of these are written by famous Oz authors, such as Baum (of course), Denslow (who illustrated the original "Wizard of Oz"), Thompson, and many others. For anyone who loves Oz, or any other good read, this book is for you. P.S. I have to say, some of the stories in here seemed like they were written by Baum himself, though in fact, only 2 out of the 16 were actually written by him. If you decide to buy this book (which I recommend) read "THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ" by Walt Spouse. It's a funny comic strip about the book, The Emerald City of Oz.

I recommend this book to all my sleep-deprived customers. The author's great advantage is that he has been there and done that. The book not only contains general information on sleep, sleeping pills and health but also insider tips on creating the ideal bedroom and maintaining family life. A practical, easy-to-read guide.

Dr. Morgan's magnum opus on left-handed German Socialists delves into the untapped absurdity of continental politics. While he fails to remain within the mid-1917-1922 timeframe, his description of Babylonian mythological tithe system was nonetheless apt. While Dr. Morgan professes to be unbiased, in light of his upbringing, his chapter on the German lawn-gnome fetish seems a bit peculiar.

Of interest was his meticulous account of the German handicraft looming industry in a time of great upheaval and phlox. His account of material oppression by German loomers against the Socialists was particularly draconian. While Morgan avoided the didactic style of his colleagues who profess to write in a "concise and precise" style, his writing issued forth with wisdom and witticisms, particularly his metaphor representing German Socialists as a smelly shoe.

Dr. Morgan's post-modern style leads the attentive reader to question "Does this book mean anything?" However when viewed in light of it's companion novel "Whips and Whipmaking, With a Practical Introduction to Braiding" Dr. Morgan's magnificent account of Babylo-German Socialists and their favorite pastime bursts in a crescendo of unsurpassed yonic imagery and historicity. novel