This is well worth the price just for the humor. It is a slapstick approach to the subject matter, mixing in reality (very little) with light heartedness (quite a bit). If you're looking for a book to help you know what to do on your first night, don't buy this one.

Insightful, informative and thought provoking. In a sense a Maverick, by standing up to APICS and finding fault with MRP, Lilly provides a very good historical perspective on how he came to fulfill a "make to order" systems software need. In spite of a mild product "sell", it is must reading for anyone in manufacturing with throughput concerns. Is it up there with The Goal? No. But it certainly makes a very good companion to Goldratt's book and Everything I Learned About Manufacturing, I Learned in Joe's Garage. Jim Altfeld, Altfeld, Inc. Strategic Corporate, Marketing and Sales Planning

A good overview of US law. There are issues which are matters of opinion and not explained well enough (ex. ethics), and perhaps needn't be addressed at all in a law book. The examples and the references make it a worthy purchase overall.

This book provides an interesting approach to the problem of mixed-initiative dialog systems. The example is always present and helps to understand. It describes a prolog-based task oriented dialog system in which the missing axiom paradigm is used to reach the goal of each dialog system : make the user happy. Really interesting and helpful ...

This book will open your eyes, to the secrets and inhabitants of the Hollow Earth. Derro, dwarves, UFOs, just who is down there? Evidence is given. A must for collectors of occult or just plain odd books. Very ahrd to get a hold of, if you find one keep it!

The story deals with Red Sonja getting mixed up with a prison break. The prisoners are made up of a band of thugs and a wizard who has sold his soul to an ancient and very powerful Hell spawned demon. Needless to say, Sonja joins forces with a military expedition set out to bring the convicts back in line. This story has it all, adventure on the high seas, acts of piracy, loads of action, character development(a rarity for this series), and an overgrown mud monster. Also in this story, we finally learn the origin of Sonja's famous, or rather infamous, metal bikini battle armor. But bummer of all bummers, as soon as we learn it's origin, it's destroyed in battle, and Sonja replaces it with more practical armor:( To date, this is the best Red Sonja novel I have read. I was strongly tempted to give it 5 stars, but it just falls short of this lofty rank. As with all Red Sonja novels this item is long out of print. But if you are diligent in your search, you will be well rewarded. As with all books in the series, renowned fantasy artist Boris provides a truly gorgeous cover painting. Fortunately, Boris chose to depict Sonja in her more famous metal bikini on the cover rather than in her knew practical armor:)

We just got back from 5 days in New Orleans, and this was the only guide we took with us. It was a mistake. It's a difficult book to navigate, has limited maps, limited selection of accomodation & restaurants. If you go outside of Madi Gras & with children (two teenagers in our case) half the book is irrelevent. The restaurant '100 best' list doesn't match Zagats (always reliable). It warns against solo visits to the cemeteries (they're not safe, go on a tour), but doesn't explain why! Pity there isn't a Michelin Green Guide.

If you are going to New Orleans to enjoy the truly (as opposed to superficially) diverse culture of the United States' most distinctive city, then read this book before your trip.

Bultman's history of the city (perhaps the book's strongest feature) is fascinating and the neighborhood descriptions will help you decide what to see. More importantly, the information on N.O.'s unique slang, customs and food is essential. The dozens of great photographs will whet your anticipation before you go and remind you of the Crescent City's pleasures when you're back home.

I've used this book on three trips to N.O., and I still enjoy reading it. The restaurant and hotel recommendations aren't perfect (hey, tastes vary and things change) but they give you a place to start before you discover your own favorite spots.
Buy this book, make your reservations and let the good times roll!

This is really more than a just a guidebook but a very informative and entertaining history and cultural guide of New Orleans. Even though I had been to New Orleans before, the trip I made with this book as my companion was my best.

On past trips to New Orleans, I never could successfully determine what was real and what was for the tourists. I was especially impressed by the restaurant picks in the book which were outstanding.

I purchased this book with the idea a boat cradle would be a unique gift from boat crazy Uncle Bill for my soon to be niece or nephew. Although not extensive, I do have some experience building strip built sea kayaks; very similar to the method used for the Bahama dinghy cradle discussed in the book.

Overall, the instructions are fairly clear and easy to follow. There are, however, a few pitfalls to avoid before construction starts. If you plan to enlarge the plans and patterns included in the back of the book with an architectural reprographics firm (as I did), be cautioned. The 600% enlargement specified by the book proved inaccurate. 548% brought them to scale without distortion and this was expensive (over $50). Once the plans were to scale, any stated measurements on the plans were not necessarily accurate so again, beware. Some measurements had to be coaxed from the plans and the exact placement of the transom mold still eludes me. Also a little confusing is that all the patterns are not square on the graph and, in fact, some patterns are not symmetrical. In particular the transom and rocker patterns. Purchasing the available full size plans may be the way to go.

Again the book is fairly well written as an instructional guide, even for someone like me with little boat building or woodcrafting experience. I'd have rated it much higher had the supporting plans and patterns better lent themselves to more rapid and better construction and less head scatching.

I've built the pram twice. Lots of fun! To build this boat you may have to learn a little about epoxy. Although it can be built without epoxy. I highly recommend buying the plans. If you already have the plans, then the book will help greatly in building the boat.

This book is a wonderful inspiration, and even the expectant moms can make the boat taking into account modifications to eliminate ANY exposure to the various toxins in epoxy etc. The boats are beautiful especially the historic examples. The instructions are excellent and diagrams clear. But be warned you may have trouble enlarging the plans. I went to all the blue print copying firms in a major metropolitan area and none of them had printing capabilities above 36" and I had no reply to the answer-phone messages left on the number to order plans. Time and time again. Otherwise it's got the be the best thing to focus on before baby arrives and nothing else can tell the baby(or mother) that you love them more!

I tried to learn from an electronic version of this book called Using Visual Basic 6. After you make the Calendar project, you'll be scratching your head saying, well I don't understand what the code is for, but you will be starving for more step by step projects. After all it is rewarding to make a project, and see it work. Then you look farther into the book, and there are not so many projects really. They just go on and on about stuff that you will never remember, not even using it in a real implementation. Too much at once. Take the chapter on "What's New in VB6"? Its All New to me. I could not finish because I am new to all this.

That being said, When I got this book, you can imagine my surprise when It was that same book I already had, but with a new name! I have to say the book was much nicer in real life. It looked good compared to the electronic version. But I was not about to read it again. Therefor, I give it 3 stars for the fact I did not read it all the way, and it says its for Beginners, that I don't believe. Maybe Programers beginning VB6? I guess Using VB6 (Former Name) wasn't for beginners, I don't know?

I have a shelf full of books on Visual Basic. Many of them are over-priced thousand page monsters that simply collect dust because the information I need is too hard to find. This book is not only a great value at a reasonable price, it is also a useful reference for a beginning to intermediate level programmer. I can easily find the information I am looking for. The steps are spelled out clearly and code examples are provided as well. This book would be a worthy addition to anyones Visual Basic library. I highly recommend it.

You've just bought VB6 so now what? Practical Visual Basic 6 that's what. It is cheaper than other books and covers usefull topics in depth, rather than try to gloss over everything. It has a language reference section which is a good thing for a begginer, and it has a CD with all the code examples - saves time typing - also includes working model VB6. A clear choice all round.

I really don't understand why instead of just defending their opinion about the novel certain would-be 'reviewers' attack other reviewers who didn't like the novel, declaring them bitter 'unpublished forty year olds' jealous of this good-looking kid's success (and for the record, it was Roland Barthes who declared that 'the author is dead'. Has that guy even read Derrida or does he just like to toss around the name in the most pretentious way possible?). I myself am 27 and published but I still didn't like this book. Mason has a talent for intrigue & compelling story-telling but his attempt to re-invent Henry James/Edith Wharton for the 1990's fell flat -- the dialogue struck me as so silly, the musings of the protagonist so obvious and uninteresting (sandbagging the flow of the narrative) that I ended up skimming the second half of the novel. I do think Mason is very precocious, very talented, and I look forward to reading his stuff in the future -- but once upon a time, a 'literary phenom' meant Truman Capote or Scott F Fitgerald or even, dare I say it, Brett Easton Ellis. These guys produced first novels that impressed you apart from the ridiculously young age of their authors. I don't see 'Drowning People' as a part of that tradition, but as a major find by sales & marketing people who -- in their considerable power in the publishing industry -- saw a good-looking Oxford twenty-year-old with a really cute accent and knew they had something to sell. Mason has a great deal going for him, and he has an opportunity to develop into a powerful novelist if the pressures of his own success don't trip him up. People will be watching now to see if he can beat the fabled 'sophomore slump' -- I wish him well.

Richard Mason should be proud. It is hard to believe that a 20 year old university student can produce such sumptious prose in his first novel ('The Drowning People'). The words flow beautifully. Not only is it an effortless read, the prose is on par with the best of today's fiction writers. So yes, I loved this book. However the story itself isn't exactly flawless.

The story is a about a love triangle (actually, a quadrangle) set in modern London. A talented violinist falls in love with a troubled young woman with a bizarre past. The bane of this woman's existence is her identical cousin (..hmmm, sounds like 'The Patty Duke Show'). Further complicating matters is the relationship of a (very close) male friend. Sounds like a soap opera? Well, it actually works better than it sounds. A bit contrived, but thanks to the prose it is all compulsive reading.

Bottom line: a fantastic debut of a promising writer. Recommended.

I listened to the book, and liked the narration. Even though the first few lines tell one what happens at the end of the story, the author did a good job of getting us there. He meets Ella Harcourt in a park, and the story takes off from there. I never really got to like her, and was not sure why he loved her so much. But then, that is life, and one can never see what others see.
The tragedy of Eric is not dealt with in a convincing manner (eg, how could his parents swallow such a weak story). Also, cousins can never look so alike that they are mistaken for each other as they share only 25% of their genes. I found that a little problematic. At the end, I felt that I had a view of the evil that men (and women) are capable of, and that was not a comforting feeling.

If you are able to take a few assumptions with a pinch of salt, this book is worth reading and definitely worth listening to. I look forward to his next book.