This dictionary is a wonderful resource for the composition of Latin prose. Dr. Smith has, indeed, been very full in his definitions, and shades of meaning are distinguished very well, easily steering the user away from careless mistakes that might occur with smaller dictionaries. I have no criticism for Dr. Smith's dictionary.

Wimbledon Publishers have not given Smith his due in this edition, though, and I must recommend against their edition. I have neither seen nor used the Bolchazy edition, but it should be preferred to this one, because Wimbledon has been careless in the preparation of theirs. In using the book only briefly, I have come across two duplicated pages, i.e., page 202 is a duplicate of page 203 (and so the real page 202 is omitted entirely), likewise with pages 182 and 183. I have not yet combed the book for similar repetitions, but one word omitted on page 202 was DESTROY, a loss which any student of Latin composition (or literature) will recognize as a significant hole in the Latin language. Moreover, in several attempts to find redress, I have not yet received any response from the press.

I would suggest this dictionary to any scrupulous student of Latin composition who wishes to avoid the pitfalls and oversimplifications of a Cassell's (or the like), but likewise the unavoidably mannered vocabulary of Bradley's Arnold.

This is a great book to see how countries like Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Mexico made their structural reforms to fight for a democracy and to be part of the most potential countries in the region. Definitely, this is a book that the congressman in Paraguay should be reading, and every other country in Latin America that wants to follow potential countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico.

Only after I received the book I figured out it was nothing but a printout of one of the manuals that come with the R installation in html and PDF formats, only that this paperback version is 2 years outdated (based on version 1.4.1).
Anyway, given the low price and the shortage of R books, it still can have some value as a reference book, as long as you are aware of the changes from version 1.4.1.

I bought this book, hoping to find a tutorial approach. The book claims to have 'working code examples on disk', with 'hundreds of code examples'. Note that each of these code examples is around 10 lines.

While these two claims are true, the buyer should be aware that this is not intended to be a tutorial book, more a reference. It is a reference of exactly how to write the syntax of every WordBasic language element. Once you know the command you want to use, and what you want to use it for, this book will tell you the setup and exact syntax to use that command. For this purpose, it is excellent.

This book is not intended to be a guide or tutorial for what commands you should use, and it is not useful for that purpose.

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.

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.

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.

This book is a disturbing look into a deeply troubled mind. Unfortunately that is all I can say about William Morain. The fact that a man with a Phd has the nerve to wright what is clearly an attempt at psychological slander is amazing. If you truely want to find out FACTS about Joseph Smith and the Mormon religion, then check out some books that wouldn't be displayed at the local Moromon linching. However, if you just want a good "Bash The Mormons" book then you have a winner.

I give the book two stars because the work does demonstrate some portion of creativity.

But about Joseph Smith and his remarkable work, I expected much more analysis. Smith, with no formal education, wrote a book in his early 20s that millions two centuries later revere as others do the Bible or the Koran. He singlehandedly conceived, designed, initiated, recruited leadership for, and wrote policies and standards for a whole new religion with few subsequent changes that has florished for two centuries and seems destined in this century to become the third largest Christian religion in North America(after Catholics and Baptists). Great leaders such as Brigham Young, Sidney Rigdon, and intellectuals like Eliza R. Snow and John Taylor looked up to him and revered him. He may yet be widely regarded as the most influential man of his time.

To write Smith and the Book of Mormon off as shallow and simply a result of an excrutiating childhood trauma seems itself shallow and may reveal Morian's own psychological expession of self hatred. Marian's roots trace back to Smith, at least indirectly, as a multigenerational decendent of a splinter group founded by Joseph Smith's wife and son.

Smith's childhood trauma was important and no doubt did influence his subsequent psyche and behavior to some extent but it seems downright goofy to suppose that it defined his whole life or explained his extraordinary capability. Smith is one of the few young people in history to create a whole new philosophy, let alone one that has moved millions for centuries. Marian does little or nothing to explain the psycholgical underpinnings of how the man was able to do that. Rather he says the Book of Mormon is shallow and that Smith's work was driven by the horror from a sharp blade and his resonses and family relationships associated with that experience.

Marian may have a valid point about the trauma, but, like the people who think birth order explains everything, this is WAY overblown! Its worth a page, not a book!

This is a quick and easy read, perfect for after dinner reading. The argument intriguing, but one shouldn't take it so seriously. It's best to read this book with the same healthy skepticism one would bring to a "JFK assassination conspiracy" book. The author is simply connecting dots in Joseph Smith's life to construct his theory that Smith had a personality disorder, and that this disorder was the essence of his religious genius. The book's critical flaw is methodological: Morain never really compares Smith with other case studies from the literature on dissociative disorders, rendering his conclusions pure speculation. Still, Morain scores a few interesting points, and made me say "hmmmmmmmm" more than once. Five stars for readability. Three stars for scholarship. That's an average of 4.

I was very disappointed with this book. I had thought we would get some insight into the failure and reasons for the failure of Andersen. This would have included why was David Duncan left in charge of the Enron audit after the restatement occurred, how could the shredding incident have occurred [did not Andersen know how to address potential litigation], where was the head of Andersen's risk practice, what did the practice do, how was the Houston office run if in fact Andersen's offices had considerable latitude to run engagements. None of this was covered.

What we get is chapter upon chapter of history with references to the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal and the First 60 Years of Arthur Andersen. Oh yeah, we also get comments from some manager in Asia about how he was surprised about the downfall of his firm.

No interviews with key members of the Enron engagement team or the Houston office. No insight on why the firm failed. The book tries to lead us to think that the creation of Andersen Consulting [Accenture] led to the firm's demise. Hardly, did not the other Big 5 all have consulting practices, and none of these firms has failed. What made Andersen different then the other Big 5? David Duncan did not bring in Enron as a client. Who did? Who were the members of the engagement team? How did Duncan, a relatively junior partner, get to be the lead partner on the engagement? Who was really running the show? [The book makes it sound like Duncan reported to a practice director, which was hardly the case. In fact, this practice director was not even part of the Houston office.]

Still considerable room for someone to step in and do some investigative journalism, and some real work to find out what caused the demise of Andersen stemming from the Houston Enron incident.

The majority of this book was a mere recast of the history of Andersen and a chronology of events. Comments by a few Andersen folks, most of whom go unnamed. [Who really cares what some manager in Asia thinks about the downfall of Andersen?]. Was keeping up with Accenture [Andersen Consulting] really the cause. AC was gone 3 years earlier. Footnote after footnote of references to the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune and Andersen's History Book.

As a past partner in the Houston office of Andersen [not involved in Enron], I can say that the book clearly misses the mark. To really know what was happening one should explore the culture of the Andersen Houston office, the key players and those who have not been highlighted in the press, the review process, the reason that management did not step in when there was an obvious problem [Enron restatement]. How could the shredding occur? Why did Andersen send down some flunky attorney to Houston[who was only with the firm 2 years and was not even a partner], rather then send the partner in charge of legal. Where were the procedures to replace/remove a partner when litigation was threatened? How could Dave Duncun be left in control? Isn't there a conflict here when Dave continues to run the engagement when litigation is threatened [and possibly against him] and he remains in charge? Where was the head of risk, and what was he doing? Was Dave Duncan really in charge of the audit, or was that just what the assignments showed? How did Dave Duncan, only a partner for about 5 years, get in charge of the Enron audit? certainly he did not sell the work.

There is so much missing, and the conclusions are, for the most part, unsupportable leaps.

Loved it! By taking the view of culture the authors hit at the marrow of the Arthur Andersen debacle. Arthur Andersen created a phenomenal franchise in a sector that demands integrity as a precept. The cultural erosion of that precept inside our public accounting sector is a particularly chilling realization for an average 401k investor.

This book is awful! I know the fundamentals of programming in Flash and ASP.NET so regardless, if you are advanced or know the basics this book is still AWFUL!!! Trust me do not buy it! The Poll in the first chapter does not even work. I went to peachpress to find the updates for the book and the Poll sill will not work. The book constantly points to the CD and the CD is missing the files the chapter is pointing to. The Poll.XML on the CD does not match that in the book, I mean come on! This was all before I even got through the 1st chapter! ...

... I am sure that some of these examples worked, but only in the head of the author who authored the chapter. I am so upset about this one; ...

I couldn't agree more with the reviews that have already been posted. This book assumes WAY too much knowledge and leaves large chunks unexplained (like the #include .as files that don't even get a mention...)

The layout is sloppy and poorly thought out - eg they have 2 pages of code and THEN they describe what is happening in the previous 2 pages, requiring you to be costantly flicking back and forth. Simply repeating each line of code with its explanation would have made it so much easier to read (authors should check out "OOP with Actionscript" to see how it SHOULD be done).

The code that is included is full of stuff like

gotoAndPlay("whatever");//used to be gotoAndStop

making it obvious that the author hasn't even bothered to clean up their code before slapping it in the book. When covering a complicated topic like this, having comments that reveal the "mistakes" that the author made along the way is confusing, annoying and inexcusable (not to mention very revealing about the amount of effort [or lack thereof] that went into this book).

Save your money

cheers

I came into reading this book with very little Flash experience. All I'd done was simple timeline based flash movies. I chose to read this book to help get an understanding of Flash's capabilities and how to further the skills I had, enabling me to create dynamic content in my Flash movies.

I thought this book was unique in that it didn't get into the hows and whats of Flash, but straight into some very interesting example code. It also doesn't focus purely on Flash, but integrating flash with web application server products like ColdFusion and ASP.

While I'd never be able to create any of these examples on my own, it was quite cool being able to walk through each code example and see how everything works. Some of the Flash code was a bit hairy to follow, but they did attempt to explain it. Rather than learning what the code meant, I just read the comments stating what the code does and moved on. Unless you're experienced in flash, you won't be able to follow the code line for line. However, wading in example apps above your capabilities is a great place to learn.

Each chapter is a different example application, focusing on a dynamic backend. Some use ASP, some use ColdFusion, etc. So you can pick your middleware of choice and they'll be an example here for you where you can view both the Flash code, as well as the code it interfaces with to achieve dynamic content.

I wouldn't recommend this book as your soul source of Flash instruction, but it is a unique book rich with very usable example code. I didn't learn much Flash actionscript from this book, but I did come out of it with a good understanding of how Flash can be dynamic, using XML to communicate back and forth to your scripting language of choice. If that's what you're after, this might be a good book for you.

I'm planning on re-siding my own house, and I was looking for a comprehensive guide to help me through the process. This book brushes over the basics of siding and roofing, touching on the choices available and the different tools and accessories that are used in the process, but it fails to provide the step-by-step guidance that I was hoping for. If you're looking for a comprehensive reference, look elsewhere. A better title would have been "The Basics of Roofs and Sidings".