This well-written, fun book is definitely required reading for any would-be Macintosh expert. Although it's now far too outdated to be of very much practical use, it is full of colorful tidbits, descriptions, pointers and secrets from the Mac's "middle period" -- when System 7 was state-of-the-art, when Steve Jobs, the chair behind his desk at Apple still warm, was trying to make NeXT Computing the next big thing, when the PowerPC processor was years into the future. Perhaps the most interesting thing about "Inside Track to the Mac," however, is that its author, John Dvorak, is now notorious for his anti-Macintosh opinions as a columnist for a prominent computer magazine and website. That makes this book fascinating as a relic of Dvorak's past, as well as of the Macintosh's.

This is a good book introducing the global economics

From the title, I expected this book to be an anthology of mystery and horror tales concerning cats. This book does contain a number of short stories by first-rate horror and mystery authors such as Robert Bloch, H.P. Lovecraft, Wilbur Daniel Steele and Lillian Jackson Braun. A good portion of this book is devoted to cat folklore, nonfiction and occult writings. The folklore is interesting and well-researched. The introductory comments to the folklore selections are very informative. However, the nonfiction and occult writings are just too weird. I recommend this book for the fiction and the folklore only.

Having just moved to San Francisco, and being a fan of mysteries and crime novels, I figured this collection of thirteen short stories and excerpts would be a nice way to get to know my new surroundings. Unfortunately, only a few of the stories really attempt to evoke their setting, and on the whole, the book is a bit flat.

Bill Pronzini's contribution is a tragic (and rather predictable) little story set in Glen Park and the Mission. Dashiell Hammet's 1928 Continental Op story, "Fly Paper" is the longest, and perhaps best fiction in the book. Hildegarde Teilhet's "Demon in the Belfry," which recounts a savage double murder that occurred in 1895 is interesting reportage, but pales next to Oscar Lewis' 1924 true crime article, "The Phosphorescent Bride." His retelling of a famous murder and legal battle is the most engrossing bit of writing in the collection. Joe Gores contributes an early story from 1966, in which two hipsters decide to go witness an execution at San Quentin for kicks. It's an effectively creepy story, but not as evocative of the city as one of his DKA stories (which are collected in the volume Stakeout on Page Street) would have been.

The editors note that Jim Thompson's story "Ironside", is one of his few that has fallen out of print. However, after reading it here, one can understand why as it exhibits a few of the harsh sentences he excelled at, but none of the coherence. Scenes from the 1958 film Vertigo are included, and although one may concede that Alfred Hitchcock "made" the movie, it's nonetheless irritating that the actual authors of the screenplay which is being excerpted, Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor, are buried. Ambrose Bierce's Poe-inspired ghost story is a decent inclusion, but Mark Twain's brief ghost piece is not. Marcia Muller's "Deceptions" is a so-so story set amidst the city's elite and the Golden Gate Bridge. The excerpt from Mabel Maney's "The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse" is atrocious, while those from Gloria White's "Murder on the Run" and John Lantigua's "Heat Lightning" are more interesting, especially the latter, whose action is set in the Mission.

On the whole, the collection is a very mixed bag, one I found rather disappointing. There's no real sense of the city to be gained from it, nor was I introduced to any outstanding talent I wasn't familiar with. Oh well, I guess I'll stick it in the guest bedroom.

I read this book with an open mind - my only prior knowledge of Steve Wynn was that he was the guy that built the Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio - the Mirage having ushered in the new era of modern luxury casino hotels in Vegas, and the $1.6 billion dollar Bellagio having upped the ante.
That said, I can see why Steve Wynn fought so hard to prevent this book from being released. Wynn sued the the original publisher and apparently helped force it into bankruptcy.
Any reader of this book will likely come away believing that:
1) Wynn rubbed elbows with mob figures, and may have served as a front man in some of his early dealings, before he accrued enough juice on his own,
2) Wynn leveraged his money-making capacity into a large measure of control over the local and state government and judiciary,
3) Wynn is an egomaniac,
4) Wynn kicks puppies....
You get the idea. Although the book makes a fair attempt at biography, its real purpose is to be an expose'. After 350 pages, it has the effect of beating a dead horse.
Wynn may indeed be all of those things, and certainly some of the things he's accused of could result in the loss of his Gaming License - although it seems Nevada is far too invested in him to ever let that happen. I wish there was a more balanced, well-rounded account of Steve Wynn's story out there.

This book really needed to be written. It's well-documented, impeccably researched, and it's about time somebody stood up to the mighty Steve Wynn and the gambling industry. Where else but Nevada can Wynn and Governor Bob Miller state, in the libel trial on this book, that they recently spent the weekend with Michael Milken, a convicted felon, without anyone taking notice? Book readers, take note! Wynn is placing all his finances into stopping this book from printing. He has already put the publisher of this book out of business. The First Amendment must prevail, and all of us must be vigilant so we don't lose those rights to write and/or read what we please.

Contrary to your notice, this book is in print and has been since early October 1995. The book is a quick read and tells a compelling story about the rise of Wynn in the gaming industry. It's tought but fair in its description of him as a creative guy who also is a ruthless business man capable of overcoming many law enforcement investigations of his business and personal life. The author also is under fire in Las Vegas for daring to write about the most powerful man in Nevada.

The book's description on the back cover doesn't even match the content nor does the CD-ROM. It looks and reads like a thrown together blob of stuff ... can someone tell me where to find the durn spreadsheet widget .. its mentioned on the back cover but not in the index, the table of contents nor on the CD-ROM....

I don't recommend purchase lightly. I've been wearing out its pages for two weeks now, with occasional bouts of furrowed brows and impatient snorting. I've come, though, to a conclusion in which I'm confident: if you're a Tcl user, you should invest in *Tcl/Tk Tools*.

Why? Because you'll use it, and use it well. Almost everyone involved in Tcl has questions (so how do I really compile a Tcl script? How much does it take to do drag-and-drop and tool tips? Are the RDBMS extensions current with vendor features? ...) answered here. Simplify your life by putting these 650+ pages on your shelf.

What is *Tcl/Tk Tools*? It's a collection of descriptions of different popular extensions to Tcl and Tk. While lead author Harrison gives the impression they're written by "the extension authors themselves", there are a few exceptions to this pattern. The book is not written as a tutorial or introduction to Tcl, sagely pointing to John Ousterhout and Brent Welch's books for that role (although I've been thinking of experimenting with putting *Tcl/Tk Tools* in the hands of novices, to see what would happen. I suspect they'd survive in good shape).

*Tcl/Tk Tools* isn't exhaustive. It doesn't include several of my favorite extensions, including Scotty, NeoWebScript, stooop, tclMsql, the PlusPatches, ... It doesn't matter. If you care about only *one* of the extensions described here, you'll do well to have your own copy.

Harrison and his co-authors do a good job of hitting the target of telling "Here's the philosophy behind this package, and here are some examples of how to use it effectively" that he lays out in the Preface. While it's easy to move from one chapter to another, it's not at the expense of the authors and their personalities. D. Richard Hipp's thoughtful precision and De Clarke's care in engineering effective solutions come through, as do the assurance and lucidity those in the Tcl community expect of Don Libes. Less successful is the forward look that Harrison intended, toward "the plans the extension authors had for future enhancements and extensions." I assume this was in part a casualty of the realities of the publishing cycle; certainly many of the chapters appear to have been finished before the appearance a year ago of 7.6's betas.

Two unglamorous aspects of the book multiply its value: the index is sound (that's saying a lot for me; I have high standards in indexing), and Harrison's Chapter 17 on what he calls "Configuration Management" lays out much valuable wisdom that newcomers need to learn. Reading the latter is painful: it has all the important, tedious subjects ("Combining Extensions ...", command-line munging, ...) one wants--but without mention of Win* or loadable libraries! These frailties are inevitable when broadcasting on dead trees, of course. What's disappointing is that *Tcl/Tk Tools* doesn't go farther in joining the Internet Age: although a two-page Appendix lauds news:comp.lang.tcl and lists the FAQs and nine URLs (some of which have already moved, of course), and individual authors take it on themselves to provide appropriate references,
* it's not apparent that there is any page where Harrison and/or O'Reilly maintain errata, updates, new examples, funny animal GIFs, or any of the other resources readers might be expected to exploit--I couldn't find one at the URL the Preface gave, nor elsewhere at www.ora.com;
* some authors supply no e-mail addresses;
* some authors give references ("look in the archives") that will be inscrutable for those not already in the know; and
* there is wide variation in the quality of information authors give about extension prospects, bug lists (a particular sore point with me), mailing lists, and so on.
Understand, please, that I'm not labeling these moral faults; as on every project, the good engineering comes in deciding where to make the cuts, and what definite values to deliver. I personally look forward to seeing books that build a more dynamic relationship with online sources, and am simply noting that *Tcl/Tk Tools* doesn't achieve that standard.

The quality of production is high, higher even than the elevated expectations I have of O'Reilly. Typos, mistakes in word choice, and code errors seem to sum to around zero to five per chapter. Screen shots are judicious and illuminating, rather than gratuitously space-filling. The CD-ROM (with binaries for indeterminate but predictable releases of Solaris and Linux) does the little I asked of it.

Summary: whether you're a full-time Tcl-er or a greenhorn, you'll profit from having *Tcl/Tk Tools* at hand. Whenever you're in a pinch, there's a fair chance the Index and/or Table of Contents will quickly lead you to a useful datum. During more contemplative moments, you'll want to read the chapters in a connected fashion, and the accuracy and insight of the authors will make you glad that you do.

This was the first book I read on Tcl/TK (a mistake), but it was nonetheless helpful. I do refer it often. I particularly found the introduction to Expect useful.

I read the book cover to cover. My impression is that this book contains exhaust and intake design information that was current in the 50's and '60s. Very little information for modern 4 or 5 valve per cylinder engines, and fuel injection tuned intake systems. No information on practical design of V8 performance exhaust system for street emmissions legal exhaust. Needs updated.

When my copy ofScientific Design of Exhaust & Intake Systems by John C. Morrison(Contributor), Philip Hubert Smith arrived I was quite excited. A scholarly text on intakes and exhaust! When I went to put it with others like it on my book shelf I realized that it was written by the same author that wrote The Design and Tuning of Competition Engines, Philip Smith. Both books are opaque, and aren't very logical when it comes to the flow of the explanations. There are lots of equations without explanation. It could use a rewrite.

I have designed race cars for years and I definitely recommend this book. I found information in this book that I have not seen published anywhere else. It explains how tri-y headers work. It explains the theory behind pulse tuning of exhaust and intakes. The intake pulse tuning is the basis of why Porsche created intake manifolds that effectively change between several intake runner lengths. These theories are even backed up by proven test results performed by engineers. There are even simple equations that are directly applicable to designing an intake or exhaust. This book is "old" but then so is the 4-stroke engine and although today's engines may seem "new" they are fundamentally the same as the "old" ones which makes the material in this book very worthwhile. If you want to know more than what intake or exhaust you should *buy* and are possibly thinking about creating your own intake or exhaust system, definitely buy this book. If you are looking for a book like this but even more technical, I suggest the 2 volumes titled "The Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and Practice" by Charles Fayette Taylor.

Well it is clear that this concept has long since run out of steam with this the fourth, and easily the weakest of the series. It boggles the mind that the garbage that is in this collection could be the best of the "hundreds" of submissions. In fact many of the stories in this collection are either pointless drivel or obvious plagarism from original scripts. (* I can't help wonder what the original writers of the shows must think when they see their ideas trashed by well meaning but misguided fans !) Of course much of the blame must be directed at the editors who choose the works that go into these books, as it was their job to assemble original, exciting and worthwhile contributions. Unfortunately this collection has few worthy efforts and as for a fifth book, well I think they should quit now, before they do any more damage to the Star Trek legend.

This is the fourth installment of the Strange New Worlds series highlighting new talent writing the the genre of TREK. Talented fans submit short stories written for a contest for publication.

In the past, we saw some exceptional talent and originality, storylines that took you to areas of TREK that only short stories could. This anthology was engaging but fell a tad short of the prevoius three. I'm sure the fans have not lost interest, but I'm wondering if the editor has or maybe his direction and view of the TREK universe has been skewed.

There are 22 short stories contained in the anthology that continue in the different genre of the TREK series. I found that these stories to be good and thoughtfully written. Entertaining to a degree but a spark missing.

I wouldn't pass this volume up though as it will show the maturing process of some very promissing writers... future of TREK is in these pages a little recondite, but emerging nonetheless.

If you ever wanted to grow up to write Star Trek books or movies-- get this book. I must disagree with most of the other reviews-- this book IS worth having for any Trek fan. (For non-fans you probably won't be interested.)

I will agree on the point that this book is not as strong as the first three, but that it is only off by a little. However, to say that the stories were not as strong, or somehow less than the other three is not true.

You will enjoy at least one story from each section, The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager for sure. For die hard fans you get to read stories by other fans! For would-be writers, actors or producers, the series shows you how 20+ people with no publishing experience can write a story and get it published.

Bottom Line: Its worth the paperback price and more.

I found nothing in this book that would help me, a newcomer to betting on horses, make an intelligent decision at the track. I'd prefer to give it less than a star. I will continue to search for a good book that will give me the information I need.

A fun read with little or no information about the gaming aspects of this exciting sport. Railbirds and lifetime fans will learn quite a bit about the sport and the athletes (both equine and human), while being shortchanged on the wagering aspects of the game. Look elsewhere if your interest lies in the wagering aspects of horseracing.

This is a great guide for all the new fans , as well a back to basics refresher manual for the oldtimers. It is quite comprehensive starting from first step up to including methods or systems for selection of winning horses. Just one system in the book may pay for it, with the first bet.

Although I certainly enjoy most books and articles by Maynard Smith, this book was a tremendous disappointment. He argues against self-organization in biology in a very bad way. Instead of a good argument, one finds a subjective, totally biased and unscientific argument (what a splash pattern has to do with morphogenesis? no idea, really ... that's a funny picture but nothing to do with development). Still worse, Maynard Smith tries to "put down" previous and current work on development from the point of view of complexity by claiming that it has to do with some obscure disappointment with Marxism and with some feminist-like reasoning (? ). I find this strategy really unfair and not appropiate for a great scientist and writer such as Maynard Smith. I think that it is clear that selforganization is, **together with information and adaptation** a fundamental part of the understanding of life. In trying to ridiculize complexity and selforganization, the author is (perhaps uncounsciously) acting in a way not far from "scientific creationists".

I picked this tiny book up hoping to get a decent introduction to contemporary theories of development. To an extent, that's what this book imparts; Smith compares and attempts to compromise the theories of self-organization and genetic instruction. The "compromise," however, is stilted, and despite my lack of in-depth biology knowledge I could clearly tell that Smith's lip service to the self-organization theory was quite lacking. The last section, an examination of the theories' political relevance, was utterly catastrophic and could probably have contained a more meaningful synthesis of the book's ideas.

I was prompted to write this after reading the review below from the New Mexico reader. He misses the point, not Maynard-Smith. This little book (45 pages)is based on a lecture given by Smith at the London School of Economics. The central theme of his lecture was to make the point that the two views in developmental biology i.e. dynamic-holistic view and the local-reductionist view are both important. But, he extends this thinking by suggesting that this dichotomy in biology is a pattern that exists in all aspects/spheres/disciplines in life. This is what I found so revealing. Gore Vs Bush could not be a better (current) example that comes to mind when reading the final chapter 5 - Reductionists to the right, Holists to the left.