I hesitate to contradict the highly qualified reader who considers this book a masterpiece. Indeed, the book should be read widely, as it is a penetrating and sensitive reading of the Apostle Paul's work, and it surfaces and analyses some key issues, such as the likelihood that what led to Paul's Damascus experience was his search for an answer to the question of how the One God of Israel could deliver salvation to all the world, not just Jews but also Gentiles. Boyarin's work is thoughtful and generous (although there is more bite in his footnotes than in the text itself). Boyarin considers himself a post-modern Talmudic scholar, and it is the influence of Derrida and de Man, however attenuated, that lumbers his otherwise brilliant analysis. Boyarin himself privileges, to use his own post-modern jargon, the theme of "difference" over all the other themes he surfaces. This struck this reader as a passing (post-modern) fad, and these sections will date in a way that the rest of this extremely interesting book will not.

This work is one of the most insightful to appear upon Paul the Apostle in years. Recognizing that specifically Lutheran and generally Protestant understandings of Paul have been knowingly or unknowingly anti-Jewish, Boyarin sees beyond mere church theologizing toward the issues that motivated Paul to write: the exclusive nature of a community based on Jewish lineage vs. transcultural worship of a universal God. Not only does Boyarin explicate the significance of these issues for ancient Mediterranean religion; he also profoundly explains their contemporary significance.

This is a masterpiece in Pauline studies. Boyarin is a Talmudic scholar whose non-Christian approach to a well-worn discipline is refreshing and necessary. He locates the heart of Pauline theology in a platonic dualism of spirit and flesh, where flesh, though necessary and not evil, is regarded as less significant and inferior to spirit. The most challenging sections of the book are those that deal with Paul's attitude to sexuality and a penetrating critique of anti-Semitic German scholars like Kasemann and Hamerton-Kelly. I was shocked to discover that Kasemann - one of the great Paulinists of our time - used to speak pejoratively about "the Jew in every one of us", the "Jew" here representing perverse self-righteousness.

The twentieth century has witnessed some outstanding contributions by Jewish scholars to Pauline research. In particular the works of R.L. Rubenstein, My Brother Paul, and H.J. Schoeps, Paul: The Theology of the Apostle in the Light of Jewish Religious History. More recently is the work of Alan Segal. Boyarin stands in a proud tradition and makes his own invaluable contribution. The only cautionary note for those unfamiliar with Pauline scholarship: read the introduction only after you have read the book. It is tough going. The book itself, written mostly for scholars, is compelling reading.

Although it may seem simple, so far computers did not actually do work for us, the did the work instead of other tools. Word ist just an electronic typewriter, but did it write the text for me? No! The next generation of computers will be different. They will actually do work for us, they will make their own decisions and execute predefined work tasks in an intelligent way. Sounds spooky? Maybe, but if you trust your secretary, you should also trust your computer. Hayes-Roth and Amor show us how this brave, new world may look like. Very interesting read, indeed!

Roth and Amor provide a great book on how to simplify technology. If we do not try to simplify it, it will become unmanageable in the future. The book shows what the problems are and how to solve them. Unfortunately, production was weak and there are some figures are not very well readable. Please change this in the reprint.

This book talks about a radical change in IT. It shows how computers should be programmed. Not in a tool-centric way, but in a user-centric way, meaning that not the functionality is the main focus, but the usefulness of the system towards the user. In many cases, you can see systems that are full of features everyone and nobody needs. If these systems would only provide the functionality that I need at a given time, it would reduce the complexity of that system and would enable me to do my work faster. By connecting all sorts of devices and services, it is possible to create new me-centric service chains that can give better value to me.

The book provides a lot of good ideas how this can look like in the future, but also shows what is necessary from a development point of view to make this happen. Technical, social and business aspects are introduced and enable the solution architect for a new product/service to make it me-centric.

A must for product development!

This biography makes the reader realize that hard work can bring riches to one's life and I don't mean just money. Anyone who loves her job and saves money can accomplish anything. Kids should read this book and take Ola's message to heart. Find something you enjoy doing and make that your life's work!

I am so proud that this biography about the life of Oseola McCarty made the Texas Bluebonnet Reading List for 2000-2001! While reviewing this book for the library, I thought that Oseola's attitude about working hard, saving money, getting a good education, and sharing with others is exactly the kind of examples that we want to share with our children. Whenever I hear her name today and think about her generous gift to the University of Southern Mississippi, I am reminded that there is still honor, dignity, and value in doing work that brings pleasure. This wonderful biography about a remarkable woman's spirit is an inspiration to us all!

Ms. McCarty is exactly the type of person to which we, as parents, teachers, or librarians, should be exposing our children. This short book tells the story of how an uneducated black woman, who worked at only menial jobs, saved enough money to establish a college scholarship fund. There are important lessons about work ethic, education, saving money, and particularly about faith in God. This story should be read aloud to third grade and up. The book also includes information on setting up savings accounts.

Written shortly after the major events surrounding the Rushdie Conflict (though not before the murder of the Japanese translator of the Satanic Verses), Daniel Pipes provides major insight and perspective into the root causes of this international conflagration. He provides both a breakdown of Rushdie's work, and an explanation of the translation difficulties that further encouraged misunderstanding about the Book's actual contents. He appears to have a steady grasp of Arabic by the bibliography and transliteration, consonant with a fair amount of expertise in analyzing Islam. He provides the Islamic rationales for trying Salman Rushdie for apostasy, and indicates the questionableness of Khomeini's method (not the penalty itself) even under Islamic standards.(Gotta give 'em a trial, a chance to repent over three days, and then chop-chop- at least for the Sunni variety of Islam, though the various madhdhabs or schools of jurisprudence differ on the exact details of divinely sanctioned murder.) After reading the Satanic Verses, I whole heartedly concur that because of its level of erudition and numerous allusions to less familiar (to Westerners) stories from the salvation history of Islam to South Asian culture, it is no surprise how few people actually read the entire novel. But what is rather disturbing about human nature, is that this didn't stop complete Ignoramuses from opining- Pipes provides a multitude of quotes indicating the level of hearsay fed to the masses. Pipes also emphasizes the unprecedented scale of this eruption of world-wide riots and protests, citing works critical of Islam with far graver blasphemies. One blasphemous volume mentioned by Pipes that I found enjoyable was 23 years- a critical biography of the Prophet Muhammad by Ali Dashti, who although Pipes doesn't make reference to it, "disappeared" in 1980's Iran.

Pipes also mentions some of the effects the conflict had on the front lines of bookselling and publishing, pondering over the possible changes the death threats and bombings inaugrated by religious fervor. A decade later, I don't know how to guage his power of prophecy, but his commentary on the complex intersecting issues remain both incisive and fascinating.

Here is one example: the title of Rushdie's book. Pipes explains that while in English "the Satanic verses" is a plain ordinary phrase that refers to an embaraasing event in Islamic history, this phrase is not used in Arabic. Most Muslims won't recognize the event by that designation; Muslims call it something quite different. But when "verses" is translated into Arabic the word used refers specifically to Quranic verses. So the title is translated roughly as "The Satanic Verses of the Quran" or "The Satanic Quran".

Don't assume from this that Pipes if profferring an apologetic. He is not; this book is critical of "fundamentalist Islam". But Pipes is careful to explain how such Muslims think and react.

Salman Rushdie is brilliant. He knows who to derive from and steal from: James Joyce being one of his main sources. Good for him. If you're going to steal, steal from the best. Joyce's footprints are all over THE SATANIC VERSES. I felt at home. And Rushdie's tough and demanding like Joyce. Even moreso because he's dealing with issues western readers are not familiar with. So you have to go slow and get internet help (plenty available). Slowly, the novel begins to take shape. It's a book of dreams and nightmares bounded by the first and last very moving chapters about Chamcha's domestic crises with his father and ensuing alienation. Chamcha's torn between cultures, a lost searching soul, an alienated man. He's also an intellectual prig who wears many protective masks to conceal his sufferings and with which he explores religious and emotional wanderings. Read the first and last chapters to make contact with the down to earth domestic issues of the novel. Very moving. In between, you have this massive and intensive and witty and funny and dark and brilliant exploration of Muslim religion as seen from a willing/unwilling, searching unbeliever's point of view. He mocks and participates all at the same time. The language is gorgeous because it moves on many levels--from slang to pop to literary to religious, back and forth--and from the point of view of two languages and cultures. At one minute it's blasphemous, at another it's holy...and it's always a rich and makes the reader smile, smile, smile at the author's brilliance and learning. It's linguistic magic. What does it all add up to? You got me. I haven't scratched the surface. It may or may not add up. Talk to me in a year.

I picked up the book when moving to Red Hat 8, which includes Apache 2 by default. My knowledge of web administration is limited to Apache 1.3 and this book does a good job of explaining what has changed which is what I was looking for. The book covers everything you would expect from a beginner Apache book such as installation, configuration, logging and some others that I did not such as PHP, mod_perl and Tomcat. I only use PHP, so I cannot comment on the others. I liked the simple, no-nonsense approach of the author to the topics and you can also tell he knows his stuff.
The SSL chapter is the best one I have read on the topic.

I wasn't sure about this book at first. I am usually a big fan of the O'Reilly books, however there Apache Book is garbage. This book, had quite a bit of useful information. It has a whole chapter devoted to WebDav, which is nice. It is full of good recommendations. If you are new to apache, then this is a great book. There isn't much information in the book that can't be found on the web, however, if you are not familar with Apache finding the information you need would be very difficult.

This is an excellent book if you are interested in learning how to administer Apache based servers. It helped me get started with the Apache that came with my Red Hat Linux and to install it in my Windows laptop for testing. The book focuses on Apache 2 but it is fine for Apache 1.3, though if you run Apache on Windows it is recommended that you use Apache 2. I found the book more detailed and easier to read than the O'reilly one.
It covers installation of PHP but not how to program PHP.

A silly parody of The Night Before Christmas for the young at heart. I especially recommend this book to all bovine enthusiasts. Santa Claus..........Mo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ve over!

I'm 19 with two kids of my own and have had this book since I was little! I loved it then & my kids love it now! My oldest daughter loves it so much she makes daddy read it EVERY NIGHT before bed!! It's a fun & silly twist on a classic!

If you want to read an excellent Christmas Book, the book Santa Cows is the book for you. This amazing book was created by an wonderful author Cooper Edens. It is an exciting and adventurous picture book. I strongly suggest you read it.

The setting in this story is on Christmas Eve. The children were watching television and eating crackers chips etc. Outside there is a noise and you might have guessed it, it wasd the Santa Cows. The cows come through the chimney with a surprise. After the surprise is discovered the cows go outside with the people and play a well known sport.

I was very excited the first time I read this amazing book. I enjoyed it very much. I really think you should read it. It has many wonderful features, features such as rhymes and similies. The sound of Twas The Night Before Christmas kicks it up a knoch. It really has beautiful illustrations. I strongly encourage you to read this fantastic book.

This is a completly thorough book on every type of US Savings Bonds with good advice on how to purchase them, when to purchase them, and when to redeem them as well as how to redeem them. It has good structural content, with easy to follow guidelines. It also contains addresses to send to for more information. Like any book in this field, by the time an author has it published, it has some obsolete material, but I must say I still found it very useful. The reason for my most current purchase is that I have purchesed two other copies and have given them each away as gifts.

Surprisingly,this book is enjoyable and easy to read. It contains information, I have not found anywhere else, that is vital to know before investing in savings bonds. If you already own savings bonds, you will benefit from reading this book before you sell them. Savings bonds are not the simple investment most people believe they are. I checked this book out from the library, but found it so valuable I am purchasing a copy for myself.

This book contains more in-depth information than theinformation available from government publications or the website. Use that information and thatwebsite, but also get this book. I use the free downloadable SavingsBond Wizard from the government website, and also set up an Excelspreadsheet to keep up bond statements as outlined in this book--whichis a more effective statement to aid decision-making. Some of theissues covered in this book: don't trust your bank to know whatthey're doing / understanding interest rates / timing issues re:redemption and maturity / organizing your bonds and keeping records /recovering lost bonds / tracking your investment (using the wizardand/or a statement you develop yourself or purchase from a service) /deciding to hold or fold -- evaluating performance of your bonds /comparing savings bonds to other investment options / taxation issuesinluding estate/gift/inheritance tax issues / using savings bonds forretirement / exchanging for HH current-income bonds / purchasing /reissuing / redeeming / tax-free for higher education feature / bondsas gifts / the new I bond / forms of ownership / bonds for minors /resources. Highly recommend. END

If you're looking for in-depth detailed information on RDF, XML Schema, DAML + OIL etc., then don't buy this book.
If you're interested in DAML + OIL, and applications of it, then you don't want this book. (It covers DAML + OIL, but only touches its surface.)
If you want to read about new standars rising from the XML community, and you don't have any particular preference, then this might be a book you like.
If you can't cope with minimal cohesion, then you definitely should not buy this book. There's no single message in this book.

By now, I guess most of IT professionals have atleast heard about XML and know what problems XML can help solve, however it's challenging to keep up with fast evolving technologies around XML, like RDF, Topic Maps, Schemas, etc. I myself had heard about these technologies, but didn't quite understand them fully till I read Professional XML Meta Data from Wrox. As far as I know, this is the only book available in the market today that covers technologies useful for data description, discovery and exchange, in so much detail. The book covers XML Schemas, XML Linking and Querying, both the RDF specifications, Topic Maps and more. All the topics are explained in detail, the book is very well connected and the chapters flow nicely in sequence. I personally liked the final chapter "Advanced Meta Data Use Cases" that covers couple of areas where meta data can enhance the applications.

If you need to know about the latest XML metadata technologies or concepts like the Semantic Web and machine readable metadata, you need this book. I found it very useful in explaining RDF (there are three excellent chapters on RDF) and Topic Maps, which are potentially difficult subjects to understand. The book also suggests some interesting uses for metadata in the future, and has a useful chapter on extracting metadata from databases.

A friend gave this book to my 7 year old second grader. Her son had liked it. I was initially hesitant to read an abridged version of a classic because I'd seen such books that didn't seem very well done. My son and I both loved this version. The adapter did an excellent job. I read most of it to him but it was at a level that he could read it himself too.

My 7 year old loved this shorter version of the classic. He is just getting into chapter books and this was a great read aloud book that we could read together. It kept both his interest and my own through out the story. Maybe when he's older, we'll read the classic together, but for now this is a GREAT book for his age. The other books in this series are also just as good as this one. I recommend them all.

My son, a 10 year old, needed a book which he could read easily and independently, but, more importantly, would not talk down to his intellect. This book is a great fit. It tells a gripping adventure story in plain, accessable language - which would not be too difficult for children in younger grades to read on their own. However, I would not reccommend this book for a child younger than 4th or 5th grade to read independently. It has quite a bit of understated death and violence in it - for instance, a man gets his head chopped off - pet animals die and get eaten - and hungry cannibals abound. Thus, it may be more appropriate for the older reader. I also worried that it was not a good idea give a child a condensed version of a classic - but then, this one seems to maintain the integrity of the original. I think the book is a real find - and I am happy that my son finds it the first book he read (on his own) that he was "really in to."