John Alcock brings us with him on a tour of the Usery Ridge (north of Mesa, near Phoenix, Arizona) after the winter rains, but before the harsh heat of summer. The book mostly discusses evolutionary behavior of plants and animals found there. There are a few humorous passages which add an unexpected laugh. Dr. Alcock is concerned with the disappearance of the desert and its treasures.

Sonoran Desert Summer is another of John Alcock's easy to read introductions to this desert's more fascinating creatures. The reader not only gets to experience the desert inhabitants' comings and goings during a typical summer in the Sonoran Desert, he or she does it in comfort! As informative as it is entertaining, this book gives the reader valuable insights into the wonderful adaptations of some of the desert's most interesting plants and animals. Written by a biologist who can also write, this book is fun to read, easy to digest, and makes every jaunt into the desert just that much more meaningful. And, the illustrations are charming as well. All in all, a good buy whether you are a tourist or a long-time desert rat.

This book helped me a lot, I didn't always understand the lessons but with this book my problems were solved, I had more practice and if i did not get the answer it showed me how and why. I recommend it.

I have just finished reading The Time of the Gypsies with great interest. I lived in Hungary for two years and my knowledge of the Hungarian Gypsies (Rom) was based entirely on a Magyar perspective. After returning to the US I read Angus Fraser's book The Gypsies, which was a good introduction to contemporary Western scholarship concerning the Rom.

What Fraser's book left out was an understanding of how the Rom viewed themselves and how their self-concept was defined. The present volume fills that gap. It has caused me to consider the varying viewpoints of Magyars and Rom and how conflicting viewpoints lead to radically different interpretations of the economic and social activities of the Rom. Many stories I heard from Magyars now "make sense" because I can see what the other side of the story was.

The Time of the Gypsies does an excellent job of showing the very real roots of conflicts between Rom and other people without either vilifying or romanticising either side. Although not aimed at mending the rifts between the Rom and non-Rom the book does an excellent job of promoting the mutual understanding and recognition that is needed to prevent further discord.

This book is just mesmerizing - it is so beautiful. Mark Rothko took art to a spiritual level that has seldom been achieved. The beauty of his colors and the simplicity of his work mesh to dominate the field of art, and make him a true master of our times. This particular book is full of color pictures of his work. Highly recommended for any art lover.

American artist Mark Rothko's artworks represents the very foundations of the Abstract Expressionist movement, and his key works are here presented in full-page color, introduced by essays from his contemporaries. This superbly produced volume with its exquisite presentation considers all of Rothko's works and contributions and is an essential acquisition for any serious collection on the Abstract Expressionist movement.

Yes, the reviewer who commented on the quality of the prints needs to get their specs looked at. This book is wonderfully produced, from the quality of the printing to the quality of the paper. It will sit alongside Anfan's wonderful catalogue raisonee on my shelves. I only wish I had followed my urge to hop on the Eurostar train from London to Paris on a day trip to see the exhibition. The last full Rothko exhibition I saw was in London in 1987, a mind expanding experience. This book is a world better than the catalogue of that exhibition and is definitely a must for any Rothko admirer. I will be in the Rothko room of the new Tate Modern gallery almost every day.

This is a good book iff you're interested in puzzles as toys, or puzzles as art, or puzzles as anything other than a playground for mathematics. Even the recreational mathematician will be disappointed if he or she is hoping for much math content, because there's none whatsoever. And don't interpret "none" as "low level" or "elementary"; we're talking about the empty set here. The only reason I give 2 or 3 stars is that I'm sure the book would be useful to those wanting to see the designs of a number of different puzzles. It does that. It's more of a history and showcase. The author seems to make no pretense about the mathematical content, expect, perhaps, through the title, but the reviews I had read here at Amazon and elsewhere sure did lead me to expect good stuff. T'was a real disappointment.

The reviewer who said this book has zero mathematical content must have a different definition of mathematics than I do. True, the book has no formulas, no algebra, no arithmetic, and very few numbers, but it's FULL of combinatorics and geometry, especially symmetry, dissections, and polyhedra. In a sense, this book is nothing BUT math!

If you're at all interested in mathematical puzzles, or symmetry, or geometry, or woodworking, you MUST buy this beautiful book! But if you're looking for a book of numbers and formulas, buy something else.

Has all the math you may need without getting bogged down in formulas. This CD is perfect for both a beginner or a seasoned pro of puzzle theory. This the best resource I have found to date for those interested in either puzzles or geometric studies for fun.

John Stuart Mill was one of the leading thinkers of the beginning of the 19th century in almost all fields of scientific interest. Closely educated by his father James Mill he acquires an astounding knowledge of philosophy, economy, psychology and whatever one calls education at that time. As he says in the book, he was far ahead (25 years) of people his age. In all of his modesty (he thought he was only average in matter of intelectual powers)he lists that he began to learn Greek by 3, Latin by 7 and so on. The result for the Sociological Sciences was the work done in many fields and most notably in Economy and Philosophy. But, what was the outcome of all this to the man John Stuart Mill? Did he enjoy himself doing what he did? Did he find his father had educated right?
Just read the book and find for yourself.

In my estimation, John Stuart Mill is one of the great great geniuses in history. He is in that top echelon (from what I've read) right up there with Aristotle, David Hume, and Ayn Rand. There is alot to learn from reading his writing, both in terms of content, and most importantly, method. His approach is to see all sides, be open to new evidence, and honestly search after truth.

In this concise 205 page autobiography, Mill gives us a mainly intellectual autobiography of his intellectual development and his writings, as well as the tremendous influence of his father, James Mill, and his wife and most intimate friend, Harriet Taylor. What I got it from it was a picture of a man constantly growing, constantly open to learning, honest, searching, willing to be fallible, and desiring to know the truth. I don't agree with some of Mill's conclusions concerning socialism and probably some others, but I have the utmost respect for the his reasoning ability and intellectual honesty. This book touched me far deeper than did Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography because while Franklin just seems to relate his own life and events, there seems to be more relection and insight in Mill. As someone who has only read "On Liberty" and "Utilitarianism", this is also a great introduction to Mill's thought because he discusess all his writings and he gives alot of background in terms of what was going on his life, in the times, etc... Brand Blanshard wrote a book entitled "Four Reasonable Men" and John Stuart Mill was one of them; I couldn't agree more.

Greg Feirman...

Rivels the great philosophical autobiographies of all time: namely, Rousseau, Ben Franklin, Sartre, Russell. The book is a fascinating inspiration; responsible for my decision to change my college major to philosophy, politics, and economics. To criticize the work is to not understand it.

I think it's safe to say that this will be one of the most popular Aberrant supplements. Featuring the stats for some of the biggest featured NPC's, like Totentanz, "Elites" finally reveals the lifestyle that players are usually drawn to: that of the "Badass for hire".

While a large portion of the book is dedicated to military campaigns and the agencies that engage in them, Elites also expands it's definition to include more benign Nova's for hire. There are guidlines for players who wish to create their own Elite organization with all the advantages and pitfalls. It also explains the code of the Elite and how they have created a sort of "Bushido" that includes a code of conduct and even licensing arrangements. I like the idea of a mask as a trademark. Batman wouldn't be Batman without that mask and the big bat on his chest.

The coolest thing about the book is some of the more realistic portrayals of warfare and the ethical delemma's. The mercenary lifestyle is something common in almost every RPG, but as always, White Wolf tries to take a thoughtful and complicated approach. Stories of Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder and the horrors of war are handled with class. It's a nice approach to an old, and in my opinion, pretty tired idea.

A book like this you tend to suspect to be well boring. Since it deals entirely with people that kill for a living it's not unreasonable to think that this we'll just be another supplement with Bigger Guns Bigger Powers and Bigger Penises. But it's not! I'm not denying that there is some of that in here (if there wasn't at least a few people would through a hissy fit) but this isn't the focus of the book. What this is about are the effects of war. What's more (and for a game about superheroes this is odd) it's brutally realistic. This is a vital resource for anyone who plans on running an elites series, or wants to be an elite, because it tells what its like. The day to day wearing when you fight morally gray enemies for morally bankrupt superiors. What can happen to people caught in the middle? This is book is a lot more than you think it is.

A great general discussion that boils the RFC down to something readable. If this is your first journey into BGP then this book does an excellent job of giving a broad overview of the protocol without burying the reader in the details.

The first 30 (or 116) pages gives IMHO redundant background on IP addressing, CIDR, Distance Vector protocols, and other information I believe anyone learning BGP should already know.

The book gives an excellent treament on the different message types and what they look like, but I would have preferred more details on how IBGP and EBGP differ i.e. resetting MEDs or local-pref, appending local AS, modifying NEXT_HOP attribute, etc.

The route selection process (one of my personal favorite parts of BGP) only deals with a subset (6) of the 10 or 11 options Cisco or Juniper will use. There is no mention of comparing Cisco's weight, prefix origin, MEDs between AS, cluster-list, or comparing IGP metric. To be fair though, weights are vendor specific and some of these options may have been introduced after the 1999 publication date.

My biggest frustration with the book is that being vendor agnsotic there are no details as to configuration or how one would actually implelement any of the information given. There is also no discussion on troubleshooting BGP, what typical configurations would look like, best practices in filtering or installation.

For those who already have an understanding of BGP or who have used the protocol in the field, I would recommend the Complete Reference Juniper Network Routers chapter 12 on Interdomain routing Theory or as a fall-back the much more dry and difficult to get through, Internet Routing Architectures by Halabi.

This book is best for the BGP beginner or someone who needs a refresher on what BGP is trying to accomplish and is willing to read other books on how to configure their actual routers.

As the title suggests, this book is about BGP4, period. Don't expect a big discussion about anything else. There is an obligatory intro to internet routing and TCP/IP, but that's not the focus of the book. What it is is a great first book on BGP for anyone looking to use multiple ISPs for corporate internet access, or looking to implement BGP4 on larger corporate intranets.

The description of the BGP4 routing protocol is extremely detailed and would probably serve as an excellent reference guide. There are enough examples to give you a pretty good idea of how BGP is used, but if you're looking to create your own autonomous system(s), you'll need more information. Check out Bassam Halabi's book - Internet Routing Architectures and talk to your ISPs routing experts. btw: Halabi's book focuses on Cisco's implementation of BGP4 and includes lots of example configs, but that's fine since the internet is dominated by Cisco anyway.

I found this book to be excellent and recommend it to anyone who is interested in implementing BGP4 in their network, or to anyone who just wants to expand their knowledge base. The book is short but that's a positive attribute in this case. Kudos to Mr. Stewart.

This book must be as close to perfect as a book on this topic can be.
My previous experience with BGP is zero.
I have a fair knowledge of general routing and TCP/IP and some, mostly theoretical, knowledge of other routing protocols such as RIP and OSPF.

This book, with it's extraordinary simplicity on such an advanced topic, really hit the spot for me.

I read it over two days and now I feel that I have a big deal of understanding for routing issues concerning ISPs, and their customers for that part. It also explained some of the behaviour on this network we call the Internet.

Simple symbolic illustrations also did their part of the overall impression.

All details were covered and I recommend reading through the whole book in a fairly short period of time (it's not one of those bricks that take forever to read and never gets to the point) and then use it as a reference when needed after that.

The only thing missing is the practical training. I guess when interactive electronic books develop, that will be available as well.
After all, practice makes perfect.
But this book is perfect as far as the theory goes.

I loved this book! The Net's everything! I do my papers, shopping, absolutely everything on it! I also adored Micheal Levin's Guerila PR: Wired. More Net!

John Patrick's book makes significant points about the rising expectations of consumers and the sometimes slow response of business to meet those Internet expectations. He provides a good review of current and upcoming Internet technology. Although much of this review may not be original, he exploits this review to push ahead companies' internal expectations. He harps on, and rightly so, on websites which lack integration of data and still offer "print and fax this form" customer service. If there is a weakness in his argument, it is a more complete discussion of the backend databases and infrastructures required to make the "fast, always on, everywhere, easy, Next Generation Internet" possible.

Patrick could have spent more time on technologies such as web services which industry has been slow to adopt. However, the technical details are more appropriate for other volumes. The strength of this book is its clear explanations of how Internet technologies are now available to meet the business strategies of pervasive, trusted, natural Internet. The book adequately addresses trust and secure technologies, yet the implementation of these technologies takes time. Once businesses and consumers are ready to accept and trust the technology and the people behind the technology, much of the Net Attitude can move forward.

One final limitation of the book: many of the examples are from the airline and financial services sector. More could have been said about healthcare, non-profit and government services, which need this attitude as much.

Overall, the book provides a current view which companies and consumers need to get. Whether the term "Next Generation Internet" will catch on remains to be seen but certainly the concepts need adoption now.

This is perhaps the best book I have read in a long time. Many tech-heads like myself will read it and say, "That is already happening. Why would anybody say this book is good?" Well, I have two things to say to answer that question. First is gimme a break. The book was published in 2001 and, obviously, there have been advancements in technology and some of the things Patrick mentions are already in place or are being put in place. That said, people should still read the book because a lot of what he writes about concerning the NGi (Next Generation Internet) is still not fulfilled yet.

Secondly, and more importantly, is that people should read the book for what it is really about: Net Attitude. One of the most important parts of net attitude Patrick presents is the concept of "outside-in thinking." Those of us in technology--whether we are code crunchers or CTO's--should be thinking about our customers and clients and what sorts of things they would want to be able to do over the Internet from our web sites. Read the book for more details. I am sure you will not be disappointed.