This little interior design kit is well worth the money. In contrast to many computer programs, it's simple and easy to use. There are multiple of symbols for every room and item in your house - appliances, kitchen and bath fixtures, windows, doors and other architectural elements and of course furniture. You'll even be able to mark switches, outlets and phone jacks on your floor plan. The best thing about this kit is that it reminds me of my grade school days and all the fun I had with just scissors, paste and paper.

She really liked this one. She created her own interior home setting.

You can really improve your chess feeling in playing thru the interesting games only if you try to solve all the questions (a question a move) without looking at the answer. But if you do it, success is guaranted. The introduction to the games is interesting also and gives an inner view of the grandmasters world.

This book contains twenty games played in the 1990s by world-class players (like Shirov, Anand and Kramnik) with questions and points awarded at critical move decisions. GM Daniel King's commentary is entertaining and insightful. In Christiansen-Browne 1990, game 4 entitled "Roll of the Dice," for example, he notes after move 17 "if by some brainstorm you came up with this move, take two points, a couple of tranquilizers, and rest of the week off work" before pointing out the positional considerations involved "the bishop on f4 is the one worth preserving as it is settled on such a good square." I am not claiming, however, this is a comprehensive chess self-improvement course. There is a didactic quality throughout the book but it is not in the style of Nunn's Understanding Chess or Chernev's Logical Chess. Just enjoy the games, watch how the pros do it, and take the rest of the week off work.

This book did a great job of really explaining how the Mac and all the stuff inside it work. It's really good if you want a broad knowledge base for how the computer works inside and out. You'll learn about memory, CPU's, drives, peripherals (monitors, keyboards, mices) and all kinds of other stuff. What this book DOESN'T do is tell you how to work it. You won't learn how to run the operating system or how to set up an ethernet network, for example.
However, you WILL understand how that stuff works with your computer and what's going on behind the scenes when you're word processing. There's lots of pictures to describe the stuff they're talking about, too. One thing I didn't like was that the pictures were often numbered out of order which meant I had to go searching for the next numbered picture to read. It's quibbling, I know, but it happened a lot and made the book harder to read.
I recommend this book if you have a fear of computers and want to know just what the heck is going on. I'm glad I got it. For example, why do you have to shut down your computer? Why is it bad if it loses power or you unplug it? Because the hard drive must park. If it doesn't park, the wafer thin disks inside could become damaged if the read head touches them. Then your computer dies. I learned that from the book! It's kinda rudimentary, and if you knew that already, and you know what a processor cache is then you can probably skip this book. But, if you're dying to know, then pick it up!

This book was written by two gentlemen with whom I had the good fortune to work at MacUser Magazine (before it was acquired by MacWorld). John Rizzo was Technical Editor at MacUser, and he's easily the most accurate and informed author available for this kind of book. Dan Clark is one of America's most gifted technical illustrators; his "see through" drawings of computers & components always AMAZE other artists and even the most hardcore techies. True to the Mac tradition, this book feels like a looking-glass that lets you float knowlingly through complex electronics, instead of boring you with Windoze-style "hardware documentation." A great gift for budding young geeks and undecided potential Mac owners.

What if you developed a product and nobody came? That's one of the problems with the software industry -- the most talented are often the least known. That's because we are so busy developing products, we tend to push marketing chores into the background.

If you think it is time to put away your compiler for a while and focus on how to sell your beautiful creations, then this book will help. It covers useful topics like press releases, press kits, attending conventions, and following up with potential clients and press contacts. This is good stuff. You need to know this.

There are lots of examples of effective business letters, review sheets, publicity photos, etc.

The book is a bit dated (it mentions "making your 8088 run like a 80386!") but the material it contains is as relevant now as it was then. Effective marketing materials can make or break a product. If you think you need help in this area, this book is a good place to start.

There is certainly an advantage in hiring a good PR firm--very few firms can succeed without it. However, you may be with a small firm that has minimal resources, or you might be part of a discrete business unit that needs better PR but doesn't have corporate support. In either case, you are on your own. Even if you do have the assistance of full-time specialists, having a better understanding of what they do and how they do it will better enable you to choose and direct them.

There is nothing profound or novel in this book. It is just good, solid advice on how to promote your firm or your service. It takes a very practical, hands-on approach.

How to effectively write an release a press release, how to run a product review (wow, so many young software firms fail at this one!), making the most productive use of a trade show, and holding a press conference. It is all here.

I've used and modified several of the worksheets in this book at multiple employers.

I strongly recommend this book for Product Marketing Managers, Product Managers, Practice Leaders, speakers, writers, etc. Even if you have formal training in marketing, if you haven't had the opportunity of being mentored, you'll find a lot of helpful material in this book.

It is simple, but effective. Good common sense techniques for building awareness of your firm and its products.

This is a good book: easy to understand and apply. However, some changes are in order. In the Special Topics sectionl, a table presents the thermal stresses and thermal durability of several materials--without specifying the temperature and pressure for the materials. As material properties change drastically at high temperatures, such tables are incomplete without the above information. I hesitated in using the information in my design report, and asked my materials and manufacturing professor about it as well. He agreed that this information must be provided for the table to be of any use. It would also help if you specify the units after presenting an equation. Yes, we can figure it out, but try sitting on your behind for hours on end and having to stop every so often in your design to figure out the units for an equation! Colorful language flows like anything!

A clearly-written, logically-organized overview of aircraft jet engine design including thermodynamics, cycle analysis, and component design and evaluation. Includes an overview of how jet engine design fits into the overall process of aircraft design.

ed koch, america's best known mayor in modern times, continues his sucess as a fascinating author. this book offers insights into how he moved from mayor of new york city, into jobs keeping him equally motivated and renowned. if character is everything, then ed koch has everything. a page turner of the first order, it pulls you in from the first page. anyone who has dreamed of coming to new york, been to new york, flown over new york, or heard of ed koch will find the book fascinating. we should all be as relevant and involved as ed koch.

To use the favorite word by which Ed Koch describes his life experiences -- this book is "enjoyable." It is autobiographical/philosophical, revealing, funny; I couldn't put it down. If you like Ed Koch (which I do -- I'm envious of his self-absorption), you can hear him on every page, ultimately as the educator that he is. It is a must-read, particularly for Post-War Baby Boomers, to see a view of age 75 that most of us didn't see/don't see in our parents. The book is truly inspirational in a very realistic way. "Ed Koch, I hope you live forever, and if you can't, I hope God takes you all at once as is your desire and not in pieces like 'salami.'"

this book has a very rich content on the cutting edge of multimedia design. I really appreciate the CD ROM with related web sites

This is the best book for digital design. Covers CD-ROM, Websites , DVD and Kiosks. Great inspiration. This is not a how-to book neither a lots-of-text book. It's perfect for web designers who want to create and innovate web graphics.

Another month, another secret baby, this time little Ivy O'Malley in B.J. Daniels' "Intimate Secrets." Two years ago, Josie O'Malley fled her home in Texas. Pregnant, in danger, and unwilling to be forced into marriage with a man who didn't love her, she made a new life for herself and her baby daughter in Montana. Then Clay Jackson turned up in town. Clay Jackson, who she's known all her life. Clay, the father of her child. He's been trying to solve a jewel theft that happened shortly before she left town, and he's sure it can't be a coincidence that the trail has led him to Josie. He knows she's keeping something from him. But what?

"Intimate Secrets" features all the conventions about secret child books that make me and most people I know throw up their hands at this overused device. I groaned at every one of the annoying complications the author threw on to justify the baby secret and drag out the revelation for as long as she could. The number of misunderstandings are insanely convoluted. The book even contains one of those irritating sequences where Josie has something to tell Clay, but no, he says she can tell him later. Anyone who cringes at the very mention of a secret baby should be warned, there is nothing here to convince you this plot should ever be used again.

That said, the story still worked its way under my skin, enough for me to say that it is the best of this month's Intrigues. It's also probably Daniels' best book since "Undercover Christmas." My main complaint about some of her more recent work ("A Father for Her Baby," "Stolen Moments") is that, in keeping her characters constantly on the run, I never got the impression that they got to know each other well enough to make the sort of life-changing decisions they inevitably did in the end (especially in "Stolen Moments"). It's different this time, as Josie and Clay's relationship changes and evolves enough to make us believe they have a lasting future together. Even when I was annoyed by the cliche they were trapped in, I kept reading. Daniels writes with warmth and charm and her characters are likable. Josie and Clay are both strong and intelligent, and their passion feels real. I came to care about them both. The secondary characters are developed in a few deft strokes that brings them to life without overshadowing the leads. The mystery is well done, an equal part of the story with the romance as it should be in an Intrigue. The final twist is a surprise because we've been expertly mislead to believe things were more straightforward than they are. Nicely done.

The book is still seriously underwritten, even more so than usual for this author, with some moments and emotions skimped on. Judging by the huge page margins and large type, there was more than enough room to flesh out this tale some more. (Normal type and margins would probably make this more of a 220 page book than the 248 it clocks in at). Still, I would recommend it as a solid example of romantic suspense. Anyone who can still stomach this plot hook will find "Intimate Secrets" to be a satisfying romance and mystery.

I guess I am not so critical or jaded -- I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the situations -- I can't always agree with the decisions of the ladies who hide their pregnancy or baby from the fathers [always seems to be in their interests] but then where would the story be?? Fear makes people do stupid things. But Clay seemed to be a perfect hero even with his hang-ups - I would like to have had his emotions be a little more intense but it would be hard to get into an authors idea of what is or should be happening. Little Ivy was an enchanting child but I would have like to find out how Josie and Ivy was tracked down by Degas and Burton. I definitely recommend this book and you may want to read it a second time. Happy reading to those who enjoy a decent mystery.

All it took to get Fichte to collapse into a claim that he was merely a philosopher by 1800, when he wrote a few of his defenses in this book, was the charge that he was being atheistic in his faith in a moral world order rather than the kind of proofs of God that Kant had found unconvincing. His ideas about a moral world order make more sense to me as a philosophy than the concepts that make up more of this book. In our time, being considered an atheist has its defenders among those who consider themselves as respectable as other people, so I can't sympathize with those educated people who believe that God can't be defined in a moral way. There still is a tendency to condemn individuals for clinging to their own views, and Fichte's admission that any minister who declared from the pulpit that Fichte now has it right, while the church has been wrong all these years, could be removed from his pulpit for official incompetence. Philosophy is not really being defended against much when the main defense is that it is just a philosophy. The moral world order may be even less believable now, since Kafka and Walter Kaufmann in EXISTENTIALISM FROM DOSTOEVSKY TO SARTRE declare that the moral order is based on a lie. Fichte is lucky he didn't try saying that in 1800.

Breazeale,perhaps the foremost Fichte scholar in the English speaking world, gives a lucid translation of Fichte's classic, but sadly, underexamined work. Most notably, Breazeale's informative introduction provides the reader with a synopsis of Fichtean thought and the historical background in which it developed. Will be of interest to anyone interested in German philosophy after Kant. Highly recommended.

If you want to be comfortable and continue to feel all warm and fuzzy with your Christian faith, don't read this book! John Dears read on the Christian message hits home hard and in a big way. It challenged me on many levels, as material consumer, as peace maker, as one person challenging the system, whether it be political or religious. It clearly outlined the mission, as a call to work for justice at every point in our life. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is searching for the deeper meaning of the Christian message. Mary Routh Ankeny, Ia joyfam@dwx.com

I was amazed at this book, and the impact it has had on my life, and choices I have orignally made. This book tells of the Gospel of Jesus and relates it to everyday modern life, and choices we must all make. I never really understood the messages behind the gospels I read this book. This book relates the Christian message behind the death penalty, civil disobediance, belief in faith, and your sprititual journey in life. The book is well written and easy to understand. Each chapter starts out with a chapter in one of the Gospels and then relates it to modern day life. I will be forever changed by the reading of this book.