I was really looking foward to getting this book only to be disappointed. The strategic information included was way to general in nature and the player ratings incomplete ( where were the ratings for the superbowl, all-time and pro-bowl teams?) OK, all the codes are included and thats nice, but this book was a little too light on strategy to suit my tastes. For rookies it my be a good source of general information. Anyone looking for some indepth strategies should look elsewhere.

It Tells you every thing you need to know and it is simple as that

White says he "will measure the book's success by the extent to which is surprises its readers, catches them offguard, and forces them to think about new ways not merely about the Columbia but about nature and its relation to human beings and human history."

Well if this is his standard he failed miserably. The book is an absolute bore because it focuses so much on ancient history. White tries to bring in Native Americans and salmon as a way of bridging the gap between nature and humans - it does so, but it is painfully slow, dull and uninteresting. The book changes a little as it moves into more modern times, but his ending thesis would have been just as strong had he not tortured the reader with a 50 page history lesson.

The last chapter also includes the term "Organic Machine" about a dozen too many times. We figured out from the title what the term meant, rampant repetition doesn't bring out his meaning any more.

Richard White's "Organic Machine" is a neat display of erudition and intelligence. Through the prism of the Columbia river, the book delves into the difficult relations between native Americans and white settlers. It shows the stronghold an aluminum multinational on local economy and politics. It informs us about the megalomania of giant state bureaucracies. It analyses the emergence and subsequent (enormously expensive) blunders in managing nuclear reactors, followed by the immense human and economic costs. It explores the society's attitudes to endangered species such as salmon, threatened with extinction because of technical progress. It shows us the power and resilience of a large river, unwilling to yield to the numerous dams built during the last 100 years.

The Organic Machine compares to John Barry's "Rising Tide", which treated the Mississippi's history as a classic epic in 400+ pages. "Rising Tide" is a compelling page-turner, not at all times sharp in its analysis, but centered around brilliantly narrated biographies and societal sketches. The Columbia's history has been just as rich, but Richard White took a totally different approach to explain the river. All elements which made Rising Tide such a fun read are there, and more. But Richard White chose to strip the story to the bone. What remains is 112 pages of crisp, flawless analysis. "Organic Machine" is very smart, but I thought the author was too dispassionate. Every page in this book screams for more illustrative anecdotes, it should have been at least three times its actual size.

Hands down the best history book written in English on a river. It rivals William Cronon's "Nature's Metropolis" as the best environmental history book I've read. Anyone who spends time near/on rivers (especially the Columbia) will appreciate this book. White tells a fascinating, compact story (~100 pages) that will force the consciencious reader to rethink his/her relationship with rivers as a source of energy. The book is also a lesson in form and style.

Most probably because it written by a number of people, the book lacks consistency. The first part is quite good and there is a no-nonsense approach. Important things are taught, and without much fuss.

However, the downfall starts from the "Advanced" section of the book. The chapter on API is takes just a cursory glance at VB and API, to say the least. This trend starts here and continues where OOP in VB is introduced. I have no clue why these important chapters were given so little space.

The problem with this book is, it tries to cover too much, with too little detail. In the end, you are left with a very much incomplete book. Example: Important concepts like early binding and late binding were nowhere discussed, at least not with the names.

I think Wrox's "Beginning VB 6" may be a better choice, but the problem with Wrox "Beginner" series is that, they just talk on and on and on till you are completely insane.

This book is tailored for ordinary users of VB only, not developers of VB. This book does not provide the necessary details of programming, and other advanced features. If you need to work on VB, probably this book is not for you. For novice users, this book can give you a smell of what VB is. The examples used in this book is rather small scaled.

I used this book as a beginner to VB6 with high hopes of getting a firm grasp on the language. However, I was a little disappointed. There is not a whole lot of sample code to look at. The information on ActiveX was skimpy as well. Some of the Microsoft Common Controls (MSFlexGrid for example) were not explained or illustrated adequately. This book will take your programming skills farther, but not as far as I thought it would.

See previous review. Anyone looking for information in this case may contact the prosecutor at wjpurdy@earthlink.net

I read this book and it does tell you what a evil & dishonest person his mother was but there is very little information about the women that were murdered. I just gave this book away shaking my head and wondering about the victims. I was looking for a lot more information that was not in this book, Eric was evil and a murderer but I did want to know more about these poor women he killed. I want to know about these woman. That information was not in the book. Ages, dates of birth etc. were not written about. I have read many true crime books and this one was one of the worst.

This is a good example of a writer who obviously spent an incredible amount of time researching his book. Not only does he give us an in-depth study of the murderer but his mama as well. I am fascinated by the background of criminals and Mr Pienciak provides a lot of detail in this area. He writes well and it is a true crime selection worth reading.

I suppose anybody can start a chess organization, write a rulebook, and declare the book to be the "official" rules of the organization. In this case the breakaway organization appears to be the Chess Education Association, whose All-America Cup in November 2000 drew 29 players to its high school section. Similar events run by the U.S. Chess Federation (USCF), the generally recognized governing body of American chess, regularly draw in the thousands. This book is certainly not for the beginner attempting to learn the rules of chess. Few beginners could figure out how the knight moves, based on the book's explanation: "The knight moves to one of the squares nearest to that on which it stands but not on the same rank, file or diagonal." The definition of checkmate is just plain wrong, as "a position such that the opponent's king has no legal move which would avoid the capture of the king on the following move". This definition overlooks interposition and capture as ways to get out of check, and fails to distinguish between checkmate and stalemate. The book is not for the aspiring tournament director, either, as the details are woefully inadequate, especially the discussion of Swiss pairings. The book might be acceptable for the player who already knows how the pieces move and is about to enter his first tournament, but even here there are pitfalls. For example, standard USCF rules state that, if both players run out of time before either notices, the game is drawn, while this CEA version tries to make the arbiter figure out which player's flag fell first. If this book has any strong points, they are the Etiquette section and the advice to Chess Teachers, Coaches, and Trainers. These sections fill a need in the often overlooked area of sportsmanship at scholastic chess events. The book would be improved by a more honest title, such as "Proper Procedures for Young Chess Players", and the removal of such words as "absurdity" in the discussion of USCF rules. If you buy this book for amusement, be sure to read it with a grain of salt. Greatly preferable is the USCF version, either the current 4th edition or the upcoming (in about a year) 5th edition.

The United States Chess Federation (USCF) publishes an "Official Rules of Chess" which is more generally thought of as "the" official US tournament rules. I wondered, therefore, whether publication of "another" set of "official rules" made any sense, other than as a marketing ploy. This book, though, proposes a workable set of rules for play. The authors take a small swipe at a flaw or two in the USCF rules, which swipe seems to me largely unnecessary. The authors do make the useful observation that most chess is not played under USCF auspices. However, most US "live" rated chess probably is, which this book obscures. But if the title "Official Rules of Chess" is a bit strong, given that the USCF "official rules" are probably used for more over-the-board rated games, the book is nonetheless an enjoyable read. I suppose I wish that the title were "Rules of Chess--a Proposal", but even that title would not quite work, as this set of rules is in use for at least one scholastic chess league.

Why should one buy this book when it is not a "USCF" official rules book? Perhaps because it's got good sections on chess etiquette, good suggestions for rule variations, and an easy, free flowing style. Mr. Schiller's smooth style remains quite readable.

I docked this book a star because of its title "Official Rules".
But I found it a fascinating read, nonetheless. It's a good buy for those interested in chess possibilities, but perhaps a less essential buy for those literally hunting US "official rules", who would do much better by buying the USCF official rules.

Caveat Emptor. I bought this book without really looking at it first... what a mistake! Of the 370 total pages, the first 114 pages are about installing the Slackware CD included in the back cover (installing and configuring Linux was covered in the first of this series of books). Those 114 pages might have been better used to cover "programming" in Linux. The 2nd chapter [C Programming Tools and Linux] goes from page 115 to page 134 (less than 18 pages of content). The 3rd chapter [X Windows Programming] goes from page 135 to page 179 (less than 44 pages of content). Chapter 4 [Using Tcl] goes from page 181 to page 201 (less than 19 pages). And so on... The book tries to cover too much. Most of the information is not even useful for doing anything, not even introductory in nature. I'm sorry I bought the book, and I hope this review will keep others from wasting their money on it. All in all, this is one of the worst computer books I've ever purchased, and I'm very sorry I got it.

I agree with the previous poster's comments on the viability of this book for learning programming. The title is all wrong; it's not specifically about programming! HOWEVER, it is a very good book for those new to Linux in that it answers alot of the questions that new users have. It highlights the many of the strengths of LINUX from a UNIX point of view. i.e. pipes, redirections, job-control, Xconfiguration, programming basics. Patrick Volkerding does a very good job of demonstrating Linux and detailing it's true power. This book should be renamed "Getting started in LINUX". If it was...I'd give it five starz!