This is a great source when one is concerned about choosing the right, necessary and useful equipment. It is easy to read and right to the fundamental information. Nonetheless, I find the book should do a better job regarding illustrations and photos. Another potential problem is that the projects in the second part of the book might be quite difficult even for serious beginners. Perhaps, the authors should have included a few inspirational (less demanding) projects besides those ones. Putting those few details aside, I thing I did well in buying this book.

The title really says it. I don't really like woodworking classes, because there never seems to be enough time in each session. Just when you get rolling, it's time to go. This book helped me take steps to get out of the classroom and start creating my own shop at home. I like the fact that the authors not only advised which power tools I needed first, but they reasoned why I didn't need other power tools, some to begin with, some not at all. That's great when you consider the money involved.

Getting two perspectives from the authors (woodworker hobbyist and master woodworker) is nice. I got a sense of learning from true, personal experience. It's not the only book I read in the shop, just part of my foundation. If they came out with another one, I'd read it.

As a neophyte to woodworking, I found the book helpful in determining what I needed to get started. The suggested order of purchasing tools was helpful in that it made me plan my purchases on the most versatile tools first, without initially spending money on single use or specialty tools. Also, the projects outlined at the end of the book were useful in outfitting my shop

This is NOT a book for the beginners. This book is sort of an exam cram book which is designed for the people who want to pass Inline Skate Exam, if such thing ever exists.

Probably most of the techniques in inline skating are described in this book - very succinctly, but to the point. You really have to sit down, and STUDY this book. I skate on ice (since when I was 10), and have been inline-skating for more than 5 years (well, on and off). And I wanted to get the proper techniques of inline skating. Because of my experience, I could study this book, and get the feeling of what it is talking about most of the time, but I wonder whether beginners would have any idea.

As noted by other reviewers, this book lacks pictures. Beginners NEED pictures. If this book was titled as "Inline Skate Exam Preparation Summary Book", I would give three or four stars. But since it was titled as "The beginner's guide to in-line skating", I have to give only 1 star. There is no way beginners can learn any skating technique from this book. I know since I have been teaching my kids and my friends how to skate/rollerblade. They need demonstration. They need EASY demonstration. Words alone just don't work for beginners.

While there are good succinct descriptions which really get to the point, there are other ridiculous descriptions, like: . Essentially the paragraph was saying, "Avoid them or roll over". I mean, what's the point ? Obviously, you should also avoid hitting against the cars or other bikers on the street.

In general, I do NOT think that this is a good book about inline skating, and especially beginners should avoid this book.

One day, I went to a used book store, and found this amazing book that other reviewers talked about: "How To Skate" by Inline Skate Magazine. For each technique, it shows at least more than 10 pictures(step-by-step photographs) with four or five paragraphs of explanation. This IS what you (beginners) should buy. Unfortunately, this book won't be available now, since it says "Summer 1995, Display until July 31".

The author of this book should actually have had some experience of teaching BEGINNERS how to skate, before they publish a book for them. If they have had, they wouldn't have written this way.

They say, "A picture is worth a thousand words." In the case of rollerblading, this adage certainly holds true. As previous reviewers have stated, this book is sorely lacking in pictures. Sure, every few pages it has a black and white picture of a skating technique, but the quanitity of pictures is not enough. Another problem is that the book does not have STEP by STEP pictures. To illustrate a technique, the author only places one photograph from only one angle. A more helpful approach would have been to demonstrate a technique by showing the technique from start to finish with a series of freeze frame photographs. I'm guessing that placing more pictures would have driven up the cost of the book, but I for one would have shelled out more money for the extra photographs. However, despite this seemingly fatal flaw of not enough photographs, the book makes up for it with very clear prose. The author has an uncanny talent for describing skating techniques with the right words. Most of the time I had no trouble following the author's descriptions; however, the lack of step by step pictures made it very hard for me to know if I was doing the technique correctly despite the clear writing style. Originally, I was tempted to give this book three stars but the extraordinary writing of the author pushes the book up to four stars, but the lack of diagrams ultimately is too big of a stumbling block to merit the book five stars. However, to put the score in perspective, other roller blading books I have checked out also did not have step by step diagrams for each technique so this book, "Get Rolling," is the best among them until someone produces a book with step by step diagrams -- preferably colorful, glossy ones. Until then, I'm gonna continue looking -- and skating.

Liz Miller has written a great book for the beginner skater. It covers what you need, how to avoid injuries, maintenance of equipment and over a dozen of skills.

Now some people think you can learn to skate by just reading a book, and that is wishfull thinking and NOT what this book is about! If you want to learn inline skating, take a lesson from a certified instructor.( ...) When taking those lessons, you can read through this book and it will give you excellent insights on how and what.

This book makes great reading for both instructors as well as the general skater. This second edition (1998) is a very good improvement on the first edition (1992).

Dennett makes excellent points throughout this little book, especially from an evolutionary standpoint. But at the end, it appears that Dennett holds that nothing is a mind untill someone adds language, as if a brain was kool-aid and language water. Things are not so simple. For example, Dennett tries to conclude that since minds are made up of what he calls little "machines" then a mind is just a machine until proven otherwise. His proof seems to be language. But I fail to see if that is the logical conclusion from his early arguments. Isn't language at the end also made up of "machines"? Dennett does not only use an emergent theory in support of his conclusions, but I doubt that would make a difference.
So at the end, humans are conscious because of language and direct evidence for individuals, but animals are not because thay do not have language and we cannot directly see what is like to bo one. There are times in the book where Dennett even puts into question wether deaf-mutes would really have a true human mind! There is a trend among theorists that holds that language tranforms inert matter into conscious matter. Now, truly, language separates human consicousness from other kinds of minds, but it does not follow that language is a necesary condition for consciousness itself. Dennett, who is a strong A.I supporter, should know this. I mean, does a computer has to have language to be conscious? Or for that matter is language then also a sufficient condition for consciousness?
Dennett also fails to discuss many important things that should be considered when talking about animal minds- language studies in higher primates, working memory in animals, etc...- Granted, these are all inconclusive, but should not be ignored. I think Dennets view of consciousness is really strange and confused...He once denied the existence of qualia! But this is no argument. I can confidently say that one does not emerge knowing much about minds after readind this book.

I got started on Dennett's many books when a friend recommended Consciousness Explained and I haven't been able to put the topic down ever since. Dennett continues his clear, straightforward style in this book which is much more readable than Consciousness Explained, but still provides ample challenge for the reader.

Dennett starts with the statement, "I am a philosopher, not a scientist," yet his command of what is going on in the sciences is most impressive. His ability to make incredibly complex ideas of evolution understandable to the lay person is amazing and consistent. Through the use of words and diagrams, we are brought up to date on the latest thinking on what mind is and how it is evolving.

Kinds of Minds tackles very emotional and controversial topics such as "are we so sure that all humans have minds? . . . Could it be that all animals and even plants and even bacteria have minds?. . . What kinds of minds are there?" The reader is then lead through a series of logical steps, replete with information on the latest scientific and philosophical thought, and left to finally decide these big questions on his or her own.

This is definitely a must read book for those interested in the human mind, consciousness, and ethical treatment of our fellow beings in this interconnected web of all existence.

If you aren't familiar with the works of Daniel Dennett, this is the starting point of choice. This American philosopher's ability to pose thought-provoking questions is unmatched. In this collection, the focus is on "what is a mind?" How do we define "the mind" and are humans the sole possessors of it? Dennett is not only deft at posing these posers, he presents the questions and his explanations with philosophy's finest prose and wit. His other advantage over his fellow cognitive scientists is his use of Darwin's "dangerous idea," evolution by natural selection. As products of that process, humans are not exempt from its rules. That framework raises the issue of whether other creatures can be said to have "minds." Dennett explores this issue with skillfully chosen examples. These are part of the list of "kinds of minds."

Dennett is famous among philosophers for devising the concept of "the intentional stance." The intentional stance is interpreting the behaviour of an entity." The range of entities is extensive - a simple thermostat has predictable behaviour - when the room is cool, the device closes a circuit turning on the heat. According to Dennett, the simplest creatures exhibited similar "robotic" behaviour, but as life evolved, more complex patterns developed. Dennett argues that "adopting the intentional stance is not just a good idea but the key to unraveling the mysteries of the mind - all kinds of minds." In his view, intentional systems have progressed along the course of evolution in ever complex steps. Humans, with the development of language, have achieved the highest level of cognitive abilities.

Dennett addresses what many philosophers call the "mind-body" question. Those who feel the mind and body must be considered separately will face some challenging assertions here. Perhaps more importantly, those who may not feel disposed to read philosophy, will find much stimulate thinking about who they really are. Dennett keeps his presentation clearly formulated and easily readable. Quick, simple answers to questions about thinking are not Dennett's style. This is a slim tome, but the few pages are packed with rigorously conceived concepts. The words flow easily, but the content will bear repeated readings. As Dennett reminds us, there are countless questions about what a mind is, with many answers remaining to be derived. This book provides the starting point for that quest.

OK .. I haven't completed the book yet! But, I have skimmed it entirely. The is one of the best computer books that I have read! WebObjects is deep, there is a lot to it. To use WebObjects one cannot not simply skim documentation and then start to hack away on a project. I started with one of the other books which was good, but effort wasn't yeilding my desired results.

After going throuh the work of reading, doing the excercises and digesting, I need to produce! I kept thinking, just go back to using servlets this ain't worth it. The other book wasn't exposing WebObjects well enough to get me psyched.

The quality of this book and clarity that it is giving me, has kept me working through the chapters. It is well detailed and fun to read. The book's projects are very good, and worthwhile. I feel that when done, my work will have been justified. This is not just a 50 pound redo of readily available product documentation, like so many other books. Most nerds can't write, these guys do, and they did an excellent job.

Next, I'd like to see a refernece manual.

I've been using WebObjects for several years now (since pre-1.0 days) and this is a terrific addition to my reference material. The authors are well known WebObjects developers, and have an excellent grasp on the topic.

The chapters on the DirectToWeb technology are worth the price of the book alone. Direct2Web allows you to provide substantial functionality without writing large amounts of code. This book has the only DirectToWeb tutorials that I'm aware of other than an article by Max Muller (one of the authors of this book) which was published on Stepwise.com.

The DirectToJava coverage could have been more extensive (read that as more chapters... more coverage) but the one tutorial is certainly a good introduction of what is possible with that technology..

Another strong point about this book is that it covers the released version of WebObjects 5.0 for Java, not a beta version... and both Mac OS X and Windows development environments are given equal space.

The very eager to have my own web site that helps me organize many lab chores made me buy WO software. I was shocked at nice interfaces of tools first, and more shocked at little tutorial resources of provider, Apple(though it is very often the case with this company, good product, poor documents/resources) . I've read through this book, which made me a near-intermediate WO programmer. (though becoming a wizard is another-actually learning curve for this framework-especially EOF-seems sigmoidal)

Frankly, I think any book like this should be included in the sw package. Vendor should provide much reading/practicing material, I think. This book is well organized, and teaches much of the basic concept and coding/structuring techniques. But, as for me, a novice in this WO field, this book is somewhat hard to follow at first. So I've read whole documents the Apple provided, and then I could follow the way this book points out.

Though making distinction is somewhat obscure, this book is for from 1/2 beginners to 3/4 intermediates. To make a long story short, this book won't disappoint you.

We have 3 other FrontPage 98 books--we found this book to not only hit on some topics the others missed such as "publishing", but also tackled some of the complicated subjects with ease!

My colleagues and I discovered many features of FrontPage 98 by using this book. Documentation provided by Microsoft is not as in-depth or detailed. We consider this book a MUST BUY!

I skimmed through 4 other books before deciding to buy this book. Every other book seemed like a larger version of the weak documentaion that comes with the software. This book provided the insight on advanced subjects necessary for administering a web. A must buy for FrontPage users.

I am a big fan of the Rough Guide series and of their philosophy of including socio-political commentary, to remind travelers that the world isn't just for show. And what the China guide does well it does VERY well, with great detail. But my wife and I took both this book and a competitor's guidebook for our monthlong China trip, and Rough Guide contained maybe 1/3 as many things to see and do, and left many places to stay off the list altogether. Worse, some maps were just plain wrong. A travel guidebook that you find yourself leaving in the hotel room is not a good one.

The second edition of this outstanding guidebook has been produced by people who were rightly content in general terms with the style and content of the first. Twelve pages of colour photographs have been added - calculated more to increase sales than to be of use to the traveller on the road.

Of the three sections, Part One, The Basics and Part Three, Contexts, are little changed. Between them, Part Two, The Guide, at 1005 pages is 76 pages longer. Regions which get an increase of twenty per cent or more are Dongbei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hong Kong and Macau.

A few new routes have been added, including the roads from Chengdu to Shaanxi and from Mangshi south-east along the Burma border. The book notes the opening of western Sichuan and north-western Yunnan, but unfortunately and oddly provides little information about these important regions. In fact there is very little mention of a vast tract stretching generally south from the Xining-Lhasa road, through Qinghai, the Tibetan "Autonomous" Region and western Sichuan to north-western Yunnan.

Although that region warrants much more attention, it is inevitable that there will be some substantial regions that do receive little or no attention. All of north-eastern Sichuan/Chongqing, for example, is a blank. Perhaps it deserves to be; but a traveller is unlikely to find out unless he ventures there and explores for himself. This raises another unfortunate omission - any comprehensive account of which parts of China are still closed to foreign visitors without special permits. That matter is of little importance to travellers wishing to visit the "sights" listed in this guidebook, because few of those "sights" are in closed areas. That is, I expect, why the whole matter of what is closed amounts almost to a non-issue for the popular guidebooks. But it is certainly of importance to the traveller who, having reached this or that province with the help of a guidebook, wishes to go off to see what is in one of the blank areas. Comprehensive lists of what is closed are available, but hard to get, and available nowhere that I know of in English. Such a list, or better still a map of China showing the counties which are closed would be invaluable. That is exactly the kind of information that a guidebook of this kind should provide.

The great majority of the changes in this edition are in the detail - admission prices, opening hours, accommodation addresses and prices. Whether the new information is accurate will have to wait for on-the-road testing. But the very large number of detailed changes suggests that the revision has been thorough.

There is, of course, the usual and almost inevitable smattering of errors - Dehong described as an "Autonomous Region" (it is an autonomous prefecture) at page 810, Hubei abutting Sichuan (p503: it used to, but not since Chongqing was excised from Sichuan province in about 1997), the map on p773 showing part of Guanxi as incorporated in Guizhou province, Anhui not named on the map at p470, Macau omitted from the table of contents. An important error is the map on p898, showing the "Desert Highway" across the Taklamakan as joining the southern highway at Khotan, more than three hundred kilometres west of the actual junction, which is east of Minfeng (Niya).

I would have liked to see more attention to the regional maps rather than the twelve pages of pictures. The maps are, on the whole for their given scope, reasonably well done, fitting in well with the text. Their scale bars are sometimes awry, and maps of adjoining regions are sometimes incompatible - most notably the map of the north-west, which does not fit with the other maps at any scale.

So now I come to another special plea. Planning a trip through several regions calls for an overall map. In times gone by, fold-out or loose sheet maps were sometimes provided with guidebooks. Perhaps the practice was abandoned on the grounds of cost; it was not abandoned for lack of usefulness. Of course separate maps are available, but they are much less useful than a map would be if specially prepared for a particular guidebook - less useful because they include so many places not mentioned in the book, omit some that are, and in China may even use different names. After wrestling with adjustments to scales different from those indicated by scale bars I produced a single map of China from the regional maps in the new Rough Guide, and a most useful map it is for use in conjunction with the book.

When next I travel to China, the new edition of the Rough Guide will be the one I shall take, supplemented where needed and possible by information from other sources. ()

The Rough Guides are considered among the "cream of the crop" in the guidebook world, and this book is no exception. I used it extensively in the planning phase of my recent month-long trip to China, and it was very helpful.

The background sections of the book are outstanding, giving the reader a solid overview of Chinese history and culture. The primary sites of interest to travelers are adequately covered as well, and so the book is very helpful in planning one's itinerary.

The main drawback of the volume is it's weight. If you are backpacking in China, as I was, this book is pretty heavy to be lugging around. Therefore, unless you are staying in China more than a couple of weeks, you might consider looking at the smaller city guides.....or ripping the necessary sections out of this book and packing only those in your rucksack.

Highly recommended for pre-trip planning at home. Recommended for packing and taking to China *if* you are going on an extended trip to the country.

I was checking to see if there was a new edition of the Scholarship Book, and I was surprised by someone's review that it wasn't useful to people with Internet access. I have tried to use the online search engines for funding, but a lot of the organizations that came up for me were completely wrong. And out of the ones that I seemed eligible for, many came back with no forwarding address. While online searches are a good idea in theory, it doesn't work if the information isn't updated. I found this book much more useful. I was able to look up in the index what I qualified for, and only one place I wrote to came back as a wrong address. When I called the number listed in the book, I was able to get the current information. I'm still waiting to hear if I get any money for school, but I think this is a great book with a lot of opportunities listed.

There are about 4,000 listed but many are redundant. Example: Look up the ones of for San Mateo residents. Expect to find only 100 or so scholarships that suit you but even if you received one scholarship it would be worth it. I found the descriptions very clear and concise. Buy this book!

I gave The Scholarship Book to my nephew in high school, who wants to be an artist, and he found a lot of places with contests or awards that he could apply to. There is a lot of good information, and I recommend it to anyone going to college.

Take the title of this book seriously: it really _only_ teaches colloquial Finnish, and the colloquial Finnish of only one region at that!

While this might be of use to someone interested in learning to converse ONLY, it is of no help to anyone who actually wants to learn to write and read Finnish. The problem is that the written form of Finnish is not spoken in any particular part of Finland. The usual approach is to learn to speak this written form (which everyone does understand, even though no native speaker uses it in daily life) while learning grammar rules. Once a student has done that he/she goes on to learn the colloquial Finnish of a specific area. A student who uses this book is going backwards...and will be hurt by that approach. Not only does the book contain almost no clear explanations of some of the most complex grammatical systems in the world, it also offers no introduction to standard written forms of some very common words.

A student who completes this book will be able to chat in a Helsinki bar (maybe?), but won't be able to read a newspaper or understand a radio DJ...nor will he or she have the basis to continue on to other books, which presuppose an understanding of Finnish grammar. The books recommended by other reviewers are better choices, as is Suomen Kielen Alkeisoppikirja by Anna-Liisa Lepasmaa and Leena Silfverberg.

Although interesting, I find Panu's review way out of line. Saying that the language in this book is that of Helsinki Skinheads is absurd altogether. The Finnish in this book is simply the Finnish used in Helsinki (and most major cities), I can't see how on earth this has anything to do with skinheads.. This is the language used by youngsters in Disco's, clubs, on the streests, in the schools and universities etc. One could only hope that the visitor to this site will take Panu's comments for what they're worth.

For the book itself, it is quite good even if the way of describing Finnish grammar is highly un-orthodox. The vocabulary is quite comprehensive and most dialouges are well wuited for the learner.When completing this course, the reader will be able to converse with nativr Finnish speakers and take part in normal life.

Is Finnish the most difficult language in Europe? Quite possibly, yes. Is it one of the most interesting? Definitely!

Unlike almost every other language in Europe (English, French, Russian, Welsh, Swedish etc etc) Finnish is not an Indo-European language. This means that it is unrelated to most other European languages except Estonian and Hungarian. Thus it is not surprising to find that the language is very different indeed, what about 14 cases for nouns?! The vocabulary is also very different from most other European languages. Given this, trying to learn Finnish is a real challenge.

So why do it? One reason is that Europe's largest collection of folk-tales is in Finnish since old stories lived on here for a very long time. The national epic of Finland, Kalevala, has rightly been considered equal to the Celtic and Greek Epics. Finnish is also a very beautiful languages, and the linguist J.R.R Tolkien (author of The Lord of the Rings) based his alven-speech upon Finnish, considering Finnish to be the most beautiful language in the world. Then there is also the joy of visiting Finland - one of the richest, cleanest and most developed countries in Europe Most people under 40 speak as good as fluent English but you don't get to know the culture in the same way without some knowledge of Finnish.

Colloquial Finnish is definitely your best guide to natural, spoken Finnish. It presents the grammar in a somewhat unconventional way, but it does manage to give a very thorough guide to all aspects of the Finnish grammar. The lessons are not too long, and are packed with conversations to help you learn the spoken language. In all, the book is a very good mix of grammar explanations, exercises, dialouges and miscs. Learning to pronounce Finnish is not too hard, but the audio-version is very helpful.

As can be seen from my review, I have fallen in love with both the country and the language, and this book has done more than any other to help me learn Finnish.

This book was published in 1998, and that should tell you plenty about what is covered in it. Doesn't cover much of the new protocols such as WRR, DSCP, MGCP, policing, NBAR etc. etc. Where on the other had it goes into great detail on vocoding and different packetized speech traffic models.

In our opinion, this book is more useful as a reference tool than a practical guide. The authors obviously have a high opinion of themselves, and this shows through in their style of writing.

Nevertheless, the book successfully documents the quantifiable aspects of the technology; rare in a VoIP book. Two chapters deal with voice coding issues in very great detail, and this alone makes the book a useful addition to a technical library.

We all know it's just a matter of time before VoIP gets ramped up, so I was really pleased to see this book on the shelf. It's best to be prepared-that's what I say. This book will definitely give you a leg up.

We used Lonely Planets for holiday travel in southern France for the first (and possible last) time. The recommended restaurant of Peter Mayle fame, Gu et Fils, on Frederick Mistral in Aix was either a typo or non-existent as we located the street but no restaurant to be found. Restaurant Le Merou Bleu of Marsailles was a mediocre tourist trap with despicable service. The impersonal nature of the LP recommendations for hotels merely define the facilities, but do not say enough about the character or level of cleanliness. We checked in (and out of) one of Lonely Planet's recommended two star hotels in Avignon and for about five euros more per night, found a potential three star hotel that was much better siutated, cleaner, bigger and quieter.

Boy was this book a disappointment. Other LP guides weren't this bad. It seems this book only tries to get you to those places every other tourist is at, and only by public transportation. It skips out-of-the-way places that locals know and love, chooses hotels in noisy central sections of larger towns only. Worse, my 2002 edition still didn't give costs in Euro! Thanks to friends living in various areas of France, I was able to visit wonderful places that aren't even mentioned in the book. Restaurants were poorly chosen, and almost always tourist traps. If you rented a car (which is a really smart way as a group) you won't find any info in this book about getting around, or doing such duh! activities as wine-tasting routes, swimming holes, you-pick farms, sound-and-light shows. LP, if you're reading this: ever heard of the Puy-du-Fou? Everyone in Europe seems to have been there!

I expect to use a book like this to help me plan a trip. It should be organized by region so I can decide among things that are close by. And I need the kind of information that goes beyond just listing the sites: is it crowded, charming, dangerous, special?

This book tries to answer these questions with a personal tone. As I read it I start to get a sense of the writers personalities and tastes, so that I can gauge my agreement with their opinions.

I wish the hotel and restaurant reviews shaded towards the high end a bit more. But I haven't found a series (I also have their guides to Europe and Mexico) that I can trust as well as this one.