First of all, I'd like to say that I had a hard time rating this book. I thought about giving the book anywhere from two to five stars. Even though, the book is extremely well written and very easy to read, I ended up giving it just three stars, since it only focused on a portion of NASA's activities, such as Apollo era manned space flight, mostly pre-Challenger Space Shuttle activities and unmanned planetary explorations. The book is totally devoid of any information related to how NASA operates, their research into aeronautics, space vehicle development and on and on (about a half a page total). In other words, the reader only gets a glimpse of NASA's activities. Furthermore, the book contains more than a few non-typographical errors, such as vehicle performance, launch dates, etc., which the author, a former astronaut, and the editor should have caught. If the book had titled something like "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Exploration of the Solar System," I'd have probably given it four or four and a half stars, because it is quite well written and is based on the author's (former astronaut Tom Jones) interesting and highly entertaining personal experiences.

The book opens with opens with a brief description of the author's four Shuttle flights and what he did of each mission. After this introductory chapter, the author describes how rockets works (Newton's laws of motion), the early pioneers and what it takes to become as astronaut. The book then proceeds into the early attempts of both NASA and the Russian Space Agency to put the first manned and unmanned vehicles into space. The book then presents NASA's effort to put the first man on the moon, from the first Mercury flights to the last Apollo mission. After this long section, which compromises approximately 50% of the book, the remainder of the book summarizes NASA's manned and unmanned adventures since Apollo, such as Skylab, the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle.

Even with the absence of information on NASA aeronautical and space vehicle development programs or even something on its general management style, I found the book to be quite enjoyable, since it is based on the author's fascinating and highly entertaining personal experiences as an astronaut. It provides a great summary on much of NASA's manned and unmanned space missions including hardware such as space suits and space food. The chapter dealing with the development of astronauts' meals was extremely interesting and I doubt if I have ever found so much information about this topic located in a single source.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a well written, entertaining and concise history of NASA's manned and unmanned endeavors to explore the solar system, this book is a very good start. On the other hand, if you're looking for a book about NASA, what it does and how it operates, this book is not for you.

I had the pleasure of reading Dr. Jones book after meeting him last year. He is from my hometown of Baltimore. Hardcore space junkies will probably know most of the historical material in the book already. However, like any book written by an astronaut, what makes his book enjoyable are his own personal experiences. I didn't know that Tabasco sauce was such an important part of a Shuttle Astronaut's diet! Kids with an interest in space exploration will find the book fun to read and it seems like that is the target audience. My son liked it.

"Both Pioneers 10 and 11 contain a gold plaque with etchings showing a man, a woman, and the location of our Sun..."

That's one of the dozens of factoids that appear in "Dr. Jones's Corner," one of several categories of sidebar in this general book about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, intended to inform and entertain those of us who are not rocket scientists --- although co-author Jones is, in fact, a real-life astronaut.

Anyone with a broad interest in the U.S. space program and in the space agency will want "The Complete Idiot's Guide to NASA" handy on the bookshelf. Yes, believe it or not, an "Idiot's Guide" can be used as a reference source and does come with an index. Want to know how Werner von Braun helped develop the ballistic missile? Want to remember who were the seven astronauts in the Mercury program? In fact, would you like to become an astronaut yourself? It's all in this volume.

Like many Americans, I have a general interest in knowing a little more about NASA and about space, but I'm not a technology geek and I'm not sufficiently interested to purchase, for example, a well-known 1,000-page guide to the space shuttle. This moderately sized and priced volume is the right book about NASA and space for someone like me with a general interest.

In a blurb on the cover, astronaut Story Musgrave, M. D. tells us that this book is "big and beautiful...[and]...has a monumental scope." That's a big of an exaggeration. Like I said, it's moderately sized and priced. But it's attractive, well illustrated, and well designed. Hey, it's a good book for the general reader about NASA and it appears to have the facts right. That, plus the entertainment value, seems enough for four stars if you ask me.

This book has short summaries on the different periods and styles of western classical music, the commonly used structures, and short(1 page) biographies of about 50 great composers along with descriptions of their most well known works. It can be a good start for a novice listener who wants to explore the rich world of classical music and who does not know what to start with.

For the more experienced listeners, however, the book does not provide anything new. The section on deconstruction of classical music, for example, barely scratches the surface and admittedly so. The book is well written but owing to its organization, more like an encyclopedia, it is hard to read from cover to cover.

I found this book to be a pleasent introduction to a greater understanding of the genre of classical music. It is helpful, but not necessary, to have some understanding of music theory. Knowing what such things as polyphony and monophony are about all that you need to know. The introduction nicley summarizes the book's theme. This is a much better and cheaper way to get introduced to classical music then through such other books as "Classical Music for Dummies," or the "Idiot's Guide to Classical Music." The only thing I found somewhat questionable about this book was the choice of cd's that have been selected for one to build a collection with; otherwise, this book is a valuble resource for liteners be they curious or even casual. For those serious about classical music this book will seem too elemental for their tastes.

I found this to be a very helpful, friendly over-all guide to classical music. It contains brief descriptions of major works, capsule bios of well-known composers, and lots of helpful information presented in an easy to understand, down to earth manner. As a novice to this type of music, I found the vast world of Classical repertoire a bit intimidating, but Mr. Smith is not the least bit pretentious, and I found his writings warm and welcoming. I'm sure that even seasoned classical music fans will find this book a handy reference.

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.

I started coding WO almost 2 years ago now and I sure wish I had this book sitting on my shelf when I started! To be honest I have not read this book from cover to cover, but I did browse all the chapters and the earlier chapters would have turned on the light bulb a lot quicker for me when starting out.

Having said that, this book is not limited to beginners. I have recently started the process of learning DirectToWeb and this book has already paid for itself with just the couple of D2W chapters there are. These chapters are especially important because D2W documentation is sorely lacking in the WO world.

A must have for any WO developers shelf.

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.

On this new installment Mr. Ford serves us more of his now well-honed recipe to describe his gay life trials, but with less pages than the previous opus. Some are quite amusing such as his self-tests on how to decide whether one should become a drag queen or a leatherman (in a way both are drag I suppose). It is perfect reading for a beach stay, or waiting at your dentist office and having people look weirdly at you while you hold the book in front. But it still feels the same as the previous ones: well written, slightly biting, but not that novel anymore. Though this time there is a slight change: Mr. Ford has moved to LA and he seems to comply more with your average gay-cliches: he works out now and wears sunglasses. Perhaps his early steps in his middle age crisis? In other words, under his cleansing tone we seem to detect a more personal, and perhaps insecure, persona. I hope that this bodes well for his next installment since I think that Mr. Ford is uniquely qualified to describe the aging process of gay men by lightening it up with his irony.

This was one book I was unable to put down. Michael Thomas Ford's THE LITTLE BOOK OF NEUROSES: ONGOING TRIALS FROM MY QUEER LIFE was a good read overall. Although I didn't like the quizzes, even though they were meant to poke fun and not be taken seriously. I thought he hit the nail with the hammer on so many issues, so many things that are relevent to everyday life. I found his thoughts on queer life interesting, and the misconceptions that come with it. For the first few short stories he discusses his neurotic behavior and how he believes its the way to be, which was quite humorous. His humor is a bit off center which is a good thing. He is quite humorous, and the short stories were nice to read. An easy book to read, and well worth the effort.

Michael Thomas Ford's latest collection of quirky essays has a wide range of topics (my favorites are the ones on gay monogamy and queer bookstores and being neurotic). I was surprised by the more serious ones, but I do feel they are a great progression for his voice. What I didn't like were the plethora of cutesy quizzes. After the third one, I felt they lost the attraction Ford probably meant, and they became tedious. Overall though, the collection is still vivacious and brilliant, but it does seem to lack a bit of that spunky skewering that he's most known for.

This book compares the political theorist/theologian Yves Simon with 'neoconservative' Catholics Michael Novak, Richard John Neuhaus and George Weigel. The author uses outdated political theory terminology, referring to Adam Smith's theories as liberal for instance, so is hard to follow when relying on such labels (as he often does). He also dwells, like all political theorists, on obscure notions and not on practical realities. He does offer good backgrounds on some of the issues, including a scathing criticism of Smith's lack of moral thought, the neoconservatives' unquestioning of the capitalist system and American conservatives' rejections of papal statements on an ideological basis. Mostly, though, this is for political scientists only.

Neoconservative economics is a supposedly Christianized Smithian free market economics where free actors do good things by following market forces alone. This is good if the market force is with you, but for everyone else - well, neoconservatives do not think there is anyone else, at least anyone else who deserves consideration. The Neoconservative position is held by its proponents as a development of Thomism, the most robust philosophical system available to Christian thought. Thomas Rourke has tested this claim by contrasting the position to that of Yves Simon, a prominent twentieth century Thomist who spent a major part of his life in North America. Rourke's choice is highly appropriate because he avoids the trap of comparing classical Thomism, couched as it was in an entirely different economic world, to the realities of a mature free market economy. Simon was very much a part of America. In doing so Rourke has set up a conceptual debate that effectively explores many of the issues that are central to the understanding of the philosophical/moral/political relationships between economic action and society. This book is more about society and its functioning, than about economics. It is about the conditions necessary for the perfecting of the human person with respect to the treatment of material goods. This is an aim more familiar to the moral philosopher or the theologian. For this reason it may at times be remote from the frames of reference familiar to the modern economist. Economics has drawn distant from these issues during the early part of the twentieth century, and this debate constitutes a reversal. Unfortunately, few economists now understand the categories necessary to locate economic action within the context of a truely human society. It remains as a central need. The neoconservative enterprise has provided such an undstanding and Rourke explores the relationship between this understnding and that of the more orthodox Thomistic position. In doing so he revives interest in the perennial issues of human society and raises important questions that neoconservative must address and The book is well ordered and the chapters constitute subtle analyses of specific topics. The format is regular and familiar to readers of St. Thomas. A topic is introduced, the neoconservative position is outlined, then Simon's position is put and the contrasts explored. The book will even serve as a useful quick reference for those simply wanting a well researched presentation of the neoconservative position. The book is careful not to stray beyond its scope and pass judgement on the positions presented, that is for the reader. To the neoconservative reader this may still prove very uncomfortable because it exposes many areas where the position is indefensible on its own terms of reference. The book is far more valuable than a mere presentation of opposing positions or a criticism of the opposition. It is necessary reading for anyone seriously interested in understanding the dimensions of a truely human economics.

I originally meant to buy Exam Cram not Exam Prep. When using Exam Prep I thought it did not prepare me for the tests. I have used one of the Exam Cram books for TCP/IP and thought it prepared me quite well. If your looking to take your MCSE test buy EXAM CRAM not Exam Prep.

I've been teaching the MCSE courses and on of my students brought the Exam Crams and Exam Prep books in the class, asked me to read and rate them. After reading through these books, I found these books are just excellent. They are full of technical stuffs, written in real English, and in a readable manner. I have even "talked" to one of the authors of the book as well (and his name is Ed). Ed was expert in the field and he was very fun to" talk" to. I definitely would recommend the books to all my students, friends.

This book tries to teach you how to fix 170 different cameras in 150 pages. Is it possible? Let's cut off the intructions, safty advice, notes, index, table of connets and others, one camera only gets a half page's description at most. Do you think you can become an expert by getting this little help? When dealing with Canon AE-1, the author says: "Remove the front cover as usual." What usual? Where is the "usual"? So far I have not been able to open my camera yet, but it can be a good thing because I am sure I will not able to put it back.

If you're staring at a busted or rusted camera and can't imagine any alternative to junking it, take heart. This terse, somewhat scattered guide will get you started, and if you have any talent for precision machinery, it's all the start you need. Not a lot of hand-holding and no fix-it recipes, but lots of good solid information.Let me add: clean clouded lenses with a q-tip and 50/50 ammonia and hydrogen peroxide

And what it intends to do is get one started in camera repair. It does this very well. It shows the necessary tools, gives precautions and explains the sequence of mechanical/electrical events between clicking the shutter button and winding for the next frame. All the basic stuff.

Since every camera is different, it cannot hope to be comprehensive on every make and model but it gives enough theory that one can fix most simple things.

My favorite part of the book is the hints and tips section in the back where it mentions many common camera problems and tricky disassembly points. This section has saved me much time.

This book did not quite meet my expectations. I have a daughter who is almost six and a son, who has ADHD, who is eight. Perhaps for an older child, this book would be appropriate. However, I found that I skimmed pages to try to find something that my daughter could relate to. More illustrations, in color, and less text would be more appropriate for children ages four to six. Perhaps more of a story line. Overall, I think she did get some useful insights out of it, but reading it to her was not an easy task. It is very wordy and comes across as written by an acadamician for a child. If I could, I would rate it 2.5 stars. I think the need is great for a book that addresses the siblings of children with ADHD. Perhaps one aimed at the younger child would help fill the need.

This would be a much better book if the author would change the title. While the title may accurately reflect the feelings of some siblings, the book might get left around the house and generate some hurt feelings. Because of this, I keep it in my closet bookshelf, not in my waiting room.

Once past the title, the book has wonderful, amusing illustrations and the text keeps elementary school siblings interested. The sister eventually does come to appreciate her impulsive brother, but kids will keep coming back to that title...

The big sister in this book is a great story teller! She explains in kids' words the condition her brother has and how they handle it. She is candid in saying it often bothers her, which is good because siblings can often bear the brunt of ADHD family/home problems. It's important that kids know what happens if they have a brother or sister with ADHD, what to expect, and how they can even help. My seven-year-old daughter has gained a lot of wisdom from it in trying to understand her cousin who has this condition! I recommend it.

Same old sceanrio in a Tarzan story, spend your valuable time reading the earlier books in the series, you'll be happy you did!

I eagerly awaited this book for about 15 years, ever since I learned that there was an unfinished Tarzan story by Burroughs, but I was quite disappointed by what was done with ERB's manuscript. Compare Lansdale's version with the synopsis of ERB's 80 page manuscript in the appendix to the Porges biography of ERB. Lansdale really butchered many elements already worked out by ERB. I understand it's very hard to match the quality of ERB's storytelling, and I don't like to overly criticize people, but it doesn't seem that Lansdale even tried to write a decent book. It reads to me like a hack job, with little regard for style or the character created by ERB. For example, would ERB have written "Keep your mind off the loincloth, dear?" I don't think so. Nor is ERB's Tarzan a braggart. His character is existential. But not so existential that he would just give up on Jane and enter Pellucidar. In the Dark Horse 4 part serial version of this book, there are so many errors as to believe that Lansdale was half asleep when he wrote this. For example, there are characters in certain scenes which are actually someplace else in Africa in a different part of the storyline. Tell me Lansdale didn't just write this book as quickly as he could. As for the reviewer who criticised ERB's supposedly dense style and praised Lansdale's stilted 3 word sentences and then said, "Well, I've read all the Tarzan, Barzoom, and Pellucidar novels at least twice, so I guess I'm well-informed also"... All I can respond to that is, if you've read Burroughs' Mars books so many times, why don't you know how to spell Barsoom? And one more thing, ERB's style is elegant, the thing which makes his stories immortal. Philip Jose Farmer should have been given the chance to finish ERB's last Tarzan novel (I'm not referring to his Tarzan pastiches A Feast Unknown and Lord of the Trees, which were meant to be humorous, not true adaptions of ERB's character). At least he understands the character better (read THE DARK HEART OF TIME for an example of this). This book gets 2 stars, not for Lansdale's efforts or lack thereof, but because of the occasional glimpse of a paragraph penned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Master of Adventure.

I've noted that some other reviewers did not like this book. Actually, I was very satisfied with it. One of my favorite characters, little Nkima, the monkey, has a prominent place in this book. The book also has pretty women, savage tribes, and a very spooky and decadent lost city, which is a setting for much action.

Some have criticized the new author's style. However, Burroughs himself writes a kind of very dense, 19th century style which makes it very hard for me to recommend Burroughs to teenagers. Unless they want to keep encountering unfamiliar five-syllable Latinate words, and 80-word complex sentences. Let's fact it, EGB wrote some pretty dense stuff. Lansdale's style is cleaner, and is more typified by short, direct sentences. The description is good, and the mood is well controlled by Lansdale.

I did think this book is more bloody and graphic in its violence than the original EGB Tarzan books. Tarzan always killed to defend himself or rescue "drop dead" girls, but the graphic details added by Lansdale are a bit grim at times.

I did feel the bad guys through the early book were not bad enough. They just seemed to be violent military deserters with no sinister or evil plans except to steal another safari's supplies. They are just foils, really.

I like Tarzan's new personality. He has a times a biting wit, expressed in the laconic few words that we would expect of him.

The writing surrounding the airplane crash and the "sparks" between the surviving passengers-- these seemed excellent writing.

If Mr. Lansdale writes more Tarzan books, I will buy them for sure. Alas, this was originally published in '96, and apparently nothing more has come out. So perhaps there will be no more Tarzan left to read.

By the way, another reviewer said he has read "everything Burroughs wrote." Well, I've read all the Tarzan, Barzoom, and Pellucidar novels at least twice, so I guess I'm well-informed also.

Try it-- you'll (probably) like it!

I found the audience for this book to be elusive. It appears to be aimed at those currently working in major film industry centers on one hand and then at the enthusiast with a digital camcorder on the other. Someone currently working in film-in whatever capacity-probably knows considerably more than is presented in this book. The enthusiast with a camcorder will learn a little, but much of the material assumes a level of knowledge that he may not have.

My background is in sound, both production and video post, and running a recording studio the 70s. I then migrated into computers. About five years ago I started getting back into multimedia via web audio and video. I have some clients who want to produce movies using 24p for distribution via film and was hoping to get a view of current industry practice. This book only lightly touches on current technical practice and is incomplete in this area. I have shot some 24p and almost all of my experieence with cvamera work is digital. The information on digital technology is incomplete and in some cases inaccurate and the information on originating on video and finishing on film is trivial.

While a few of the interviews are good, most just occupy space and a few are fatuous. Much of the material is dated-such as the interview with Larry Blake, and the references to DNLE (today there are only digital Non Linear Editors). This second edition appears to be some minor material plastered onto the first edition. The first edition was aparently from some time in the middle 90s. The bright spot of the book is an excellent description and explanation of 3:2 pulldown.

Overall I found this book very disapointing.

Written like a bad stereo manual and padded with self-serving industry interviews, this title is an in-house product of Avid Press, and is an unabashed commercial for their system. Just one chapter is devoted to HDTV, with nothing useful about how to actually shoot in this medium, and there is no coverage of DV moviemaking at all. If you plan to shoot on 35 mm and rent an expensive Avid nonlinear editing suite for all post-production, then you are the target audience for this book. If you don't have a multimillion dollar budget, and wish to shoot on DV, using the cutting-edge desktop editing systems that will soon put Avid out of business, then don't waste half a c-note on this book...

While the writing sytle and the overall style of the book seems to ramble, there's actually a whole lot of very important technical information being covered in this book.
It's reassuring to me to have industry specialists writing a technical book as well as interview other working professionals. While the 1st edition might seem a little dated, the 2nd edition includes more information on 24P HD, among other things. The film information is very thorough and well-explained, and that's not usually the case! The same is true for the various audio issues to consider both in the field and in post. It's also one of the few books that provides information on the use of film timecode.