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Book reviews for "Smith,_Brian" sorted by average review score:
Fortran 95 Handbook (Scientific and Engineering Computation)
Published in Paperback by MIT Press (25 September, 1997)
Authors: Jeanne C. Adams, Walter S. Brainerd, Jeanne T. Martin, Brian T. Smith, and Jerrold L. Wagener
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Useful, but needed information hard to find
I am an experienced user of Fortran 77, who is returning to Fortran after several years absence. I qualified as language lawyer for Fortran 77 and could quote chapter and verse of the standard.

The new syntax for Fortran 90/95 is fairly straightforward. I need to no how the new elements of the language inter-relate. For example, when assumed shape arrays are used in a subroutine, an interface definition is required. I tried reading this book before attempting this and could not find the requirement. Even after learning this experimentally and from another book, I still can't locate the requirement in this book. I have had similar experiences with other syntactical inter-relationships.

This book contains a lot of information on Fortran 90/95, but I can't recommend it either as a tutorial or as an advanced reference. Unfortunately, there are no other good alternatives in print and this may be the best of the bunch.

Complete language reference, but not for rookies
This book covers the complete FORTRAN 95 language definition. The author apparentely intended it as clarifification of the ISO/J3 standard. And that's just what it is. This book even reproduces the complete official F95 grammar in one of its appendices. It has a more-than-complete index, which helps you find what you're looking for most of the time. Don't expect examples in this book; there aren't any.

If you're new to programming and you wish to learn FORTRAN, don't buy this book. You cannot learn the language from it, unless you already have a lot of programming experience in F77 or other languages. If you want to know all the capabilities and limitations of F95, or if you're going to write an F95 compiler, this book has got to be the number one book on your wishlist.

A thorough reference to Fortran 95.
This is not a textbook, but it is an important reference for the Fortran 95 programmer. It covers the features inherited from Fortran 77 as well as the new features in Fortran 90 and 95.

Basic Chemical Thermodynamics
Published in Paperback by Oxford University Press (1997)
Authors: Ali Smith and E. Brian Smith
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A great start...
This book is a great way to introduce ones self to the area of thermodynamics as applied to chemistry. The text is very informal, yet covers everything one would expect to see in an undergraduate physical chemistry or thermodynamics corse. The layout of the book is simple starting with simple physical analogs of the systems to be examined and from there developing the more complicated relationships between thermodynamic quantities. This book is excellent for those who wish to have a good basis going into further studies in the field or else wish to have a reference of the material.

Decision Making in Anesthesiology
Published in Hardcover by C.V. Mosby (1997)
Authors: Lois L. Bready and Brian Smith
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The Down and Dirty
I've used this book on the run to clinical sites, and for keyword type presentations.
I have the usual suspects on my book shelf,.. Big Miller, Baby Miller, Morgan and Mikhail, Barash, Secrets, and that terrific Benumof tome, Anesthesia and Uncommon Diseases.
Have to say that this is an ultra concise resource, and worth a place on the bookshelf for its sheer timesaving qualities.

Expert Advice
Published in Paperback by Kensington Pub Corp (1995)
Author: Brian D. Smith
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I'm Probably Prejudice (Brian's my son)
I thought the book provided great insight into many different fields. Just knowing personally the problems that Brian encountered, not in writing each article, but in getting the 120 people to sign release forms so the material could be published were amazing. Brian is Senior Editor for the Indianapolis Monthly Magazine, 42 years old, and graduated from Franklin College, Franklin, Indiana.

Jenius: The Amazing Guinea Pig
Published in Library Binding by Bt Bound (1999)
Authors: Dick King-Smith and Brian Floca
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Light and easy!
This is a simply told tale for guinea pig lovers and beginning chapter book readers. Likable.

King Max
Published in Library Binding by Bt Bound (1999)
Authors: Dick King-Smith and Brian Floca
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This book is short but satisfying
This book is about a hedgehog who is captured by scientists that are studying how hedgehogs live. They put a trnsmittor on him so they can track his movements. All the other hegehogs think that he is a king, king of hedgehogs. He wants a 'queen' so he sends his sisters out in search of one. He cannot find one. Then he meets an albino hedgehog. He thinks she is beautiful and wants her for his queen. He tries talking to her but she doesn't like him. Then something happens that probably woudn't have happened if it weren't for her. He crosses the road and..... And you should read the book if you want to know what happened!

4x4 Photoshop and 3D: Geometry/Chaos
Published in Paperback by friends of Ed (2001)
Authors: Tom Muller, Brian Taylor, Nathan Flood, and Dave Smith
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many pics, little knowledge
High hopes, big disappointment. I expected to find some deep knowledge on composition and design strategies. What i found were many pictures, but no real design secrets. The text is a little bit like "i created this strange object, i kinda liked it so i then did this and that. That was not quite it, so i did another this and that, looks better now."
The authors are good designers, no doubt, but this book won't help you improve your own work. There is no concept behind this book, the authors don't even know why they are writing this book. There already isn't much text in this book and about a third of that is being wasted with the authors wondering what the publisher and the readers actually expect of them and what the other three authors will come up with.
And about chaostheory and nanotechnology and all that: you'll learn more by reading an editorial review on the back of a book on these...

missing the point!
people dismissing this book because it does not provide step by step instructions are entirely missing the point of Brian and the other designers motivation in this book. You only have to look at a quote from him to see what I mean...

"If you want to develop an individual look to your work, my advice is not to take the accepted capabilities of a piece of software. Decide what you want to achieve first, and figure out a way of making it happen." - Brian Taylor

The book is inspirational, it shows what can be achieved, I find it strange that people expect a step-by-step account of how to create a work of art?!?!

Its a shame.......
that the first review written for this book is so negative.....
with that much said, if you are looking to learn, training manual style, this book will not help you. If that is what you want,buy a New Rider's 3DMax book and a Photoshop classroom in a book, study art and design for about a year, get cozy with the software, terms, etc, then come back and make this purchase, at $34.99 it is a steal.

So, if you are interested in reading how some of the most creative(Brian Taylor is awesome - - check www.rustboy.com) minds in the design/graphic industry function, get this book quick. It is a book done buy creative folks for creative folks, it is not written by software technicians.

IT IS NOT A USERS MANUAL!!!!

I found the writing style of this book, like most Friends of Ed books (I have two others) to be extremely personal and inviting, I couldnt put it down. Add to that the gorgeous look, and HIGH QUALITY of the works displayed, it is truly a treasure. As a graduating design student working on my SeniorProject, this book could not have come along at a better time.

chaos theory, nanotechnology, geometric analogies, awesome!!!!
the CD which accompanies the book is also excellent, it comes with fully editable Photoshop files, etc, so the tutorials are in there, and they are excellent!!!

remeber all design/art students and admirers, the learning process behind the creation is more valuable than the software which carries it out. concepts..........................

this book is steroids for the designers mind.

Professional SQL Server 2000 XML
Published in Paperback by Wrox Press Inc (2001)
Authors: Paul J. Burke, Sam Ferguson, Denise Gosnell, Paul Morris, Karli Watson, Darshan Singh, Brian Smith, Carvin Wilson, Warren Wiltsie, and Jan Narkiewicz
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All that glitters is not Rob Vieira
I had mistakenly thought that Wrox books were held to a higher standard. First getting a taste for them going through both of Rob Vieira's two SQL Server Programming books and regarding them as the finest technical books I've ever seen. However this Professional SQL Server 2000 XML is a disappointment. Part of the problem lies with having 12 different authors because it seems a bit jumpy. I think I'll really try to limit my future purchases to single source efforts. Also, no care was taken with the code examples that you can download from the Wrox website. The book shows the source but there is really no way of really matching the example to the source other than guessing the name. Often I've needed to open up all 15 or so files in the directory to realize that the particular example is not included. I'm picking my way through but it is not pleasant.

Not that good for .Net developers
It is a good book as far as explaning what SQL Server has to offer regarding XML capabilities but it should have covered the case studies fully with the .Net Framework. Also, it covers very good the IIS configuration, and how to manage XML Templates, XPath and Schemas. The book has a migration example from ASP to ASP.Net which does not cover ADO.Net. If you want a rich source on how to integrate SQLXML and the .Net Framework THIS IS NOT THE BOOK.

No other book covers SQL XML features like this one does
I looked at two other SQL Server 2000 XML books, but found this one to be the best - covering almost everything on SQL Server 2000 XML. Very well written, nice examples help understand the technology better. The chapter on Updategrams is very useful. I wanted to learn updategrams and this chapter covers it nicely to get started using them in production.

The Truelove (O'Brian, Patrick, Aubrey/Maturin Novels (New York, N.Y.), 15.)
Published in Audio Cassette by Bantam Books-Audio (09 October, 2001)
Authors: Patrick O'Brian and Tim Pigott-Smith
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Not at all his best . . .
This fifteenth novel in the series is not one of the author's better efforts, I'm afraid. The SURPRISE has just left Sidney Cove when a female stowaway is discovered in the cable tier. She turns out to be Clarissa, a transported convict under the protection of Midshipman Oakes (for which almost no explanation is given), to whom she is quickly married. ("Clarissa Oakes," in fact, was the English title of this volume, and I hve no idea why they changed it.) Most of the remainder of the book is taken up with the ship's progress across the South Seas and, although there is a land battle at the very end (and even that experienced at one remove), the bulk of the story is an exploration of Clarissa's character and how it was formed, as well as the extremely divisive effect of her somewhat warped personality on the ship's officers and company. As usual, O'Brian shows great skill in narrating a plethora of overlapping subplots, both supporting and complementary, most of them depending on the shifting relationships among the inhabitants of a closed universe -- a ship at sea for weeks and months at a time out of sight of land -- and for that reason the book is certainly worth reading. But if you're in search of a more usual naval adventure, this isn't quite it.

Grumpy Old Seafarers Fall for Stowaway [Woman]
This is, in my estimation, the funniest of OBrian's Aubrey-Maturin series. The American title is itself one of O'Brian's punning jokes; even though it refers to a vessel encountered late in the volume, the over-riding subject here is the changeable nature of human desire, the effects on aging to a dashing captain's self esteem, what "women really want," and the cures for long-voyage constipation. The plot is just a good excuse to get around to the dialogue. The arts of conversation are most prized about the long voyages, and these are some of the best of the entire series. While by itself, this quote won't mean much, but in context, it's the biggest laugh of the entire series; Stephen answers Jack's vociferous, self-pitying, multi-paged diatribe against the bad luck brought to sea-going vessels by the on-board presense of women with, "I think, my dear, your animosity toward women is largely theoretical." Jack's retort is excruciatingly tortured and sidesplittingly true. A true gem.

Another gripping narrative by Patrick O'Brian

The late Patrick O'Brian had no peer when it came to sea stories. This is another in his series with Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin as his protagonists. The two, although dissimilar in every way, are great friends and sail together, Aubrey as commander, and Maturin as ship's physician--and intelligence agent for the Admiralty.

The period is the Napoleonic wars, the ship is His Majesty's hired vessel, the Surprise, a brig, and this story begins in Australian waters, having just left the penal colony there. Shortly after leaving, the Surprise is overhauled by a packet with orders to proceed to the Hawaiian (Sandwich) Islands, to protect British whaling interests there. Oh, and an ex-convict stowaway (Clarissa Harvill) is discovered in the cable-tier, hiding in the anchor rope. It takes Stephen Maturin to discover her past.

Thus the story begins, and O'Brian, with his usual brisk narrative pace maintains your interest throughout.

Patrick O'Brian had few, if any equals when it came to knowledge of square-rigged vessels and their history in battle. Many of his stories reflect actual actions, taken directly from British Admiralty history. Not only is his nautical terminology accurate, but he also uses period expressions that lend reality to his tales. I cannot find it in my heart to award anything he has written with less than 5 stars.

Let me suggest that the reader would do well to start with the first book in the series, Master and Commander, and take them in order. The series is a saga that provides untold hours of pleasure.

Joseph H. Pierre
Author of The Road to Damascus, Our Journey Through Eternity

A Programmer's Guide to Fortran 90 (Computing That Works)
Published in Paperback by Computing McGraw-Hill (1990)
Authors: Walter S. Brainerd, Charles H. Goldberg, Jeanne C. Adams, Jerrold L. Wagener, and Brian T. Smith
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The worst tech book I've seen in years...
A book to steer clear of: a programming book without a single figure or drawing, with the poorest pagination I've ever seen. Impossible to find the options for open for instance. Worthless.

A solid, well-written introduction to the language
After looking through most of the available texts, we chose this this book to teach a course on Fortran-90 to scientists and engineers at NASA. It is especially helpful to programmers with a good understanding of Fortran-77 who want to make the transition to this powerful revision of the language. The book covers the most useful new features (array processing, allocateable memory, derived types, encapsulation) very thoroughly. The writing is generally clear, cogent, and understandable. The only thing lacking is a complete treatment of language intrinsic functions, for which you need the large (and expensive) language handbook.

Excellent
I use this book over the Compaq fortran 90 language manual sometimes. Examples are easy to follow and the writing is very clear. Many examples. There is a nice section at the back on obsolete fortran 77 conventions, and their replacements. It's a nice compact book too - you don't realize how much information it contains because it's not enormous and heavy. I recommend it to anybody

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