A little treasure this. Especially the first part, which concentrates fully on the object itself and the intricacies of meaning. When it gets on to Michael Graves (the 'author') it gets a bit hagiographic - why does the author make any difference to the object at all?

"Water on Mars" is an excellent source for basic and intermediate theories on the Martian geologic and atmospheric history. The book clearly shows Carr's bias towards a wet, warm early Mars but he does suggest alternative theories, if only briefly. The book includes many fabulous images from Viking and other sources, clearly defines the important aspects of Martian topology, and in general provides a fluid and easily readable description. "Water on Mars" is an excellent text book for any Mars related class, or important reference for anyone interested in Mars.

This work takes what has been the sad loss of an American fighting man, and would have the reader believe that there have been sinister government cover-ups and plotting to keep evidence of his alleged imprisoment concealed from the public.

A nice try at creating a story, but it unfortunately lacks any real evidence to support the tale.

There's a genre out there that is morbid to say the least, but is also compelling. It achieves this because it manages to grab us at a gut level by evoking the equivalent of the boogie man under our bed. We fear it's true.

I'm talking about the issue of POWs being left behind with their captors. While it's been a topic for decades, it became a cottage industry after Vietnam, when so few of the reported captives returned. These books posit the premise that American POWs were retained by the Russians, the Koreans, the Vietnamese for their knowledge, or as bargaining chips, or as trophies.

The books - Mark Sauter's "The Men We Left Behind" and Scott Barnes' "BOHICA", to name two - present an enormous amount of data that varies greatly on a qualitiative basis (second or third person accounts, assumptions based on foreign articles, or interpretations of classidied documents), and often with thin linkages to other facts presented. Yes, it's a lot like the UFO genre.

This is not to say all POW books are like this. McConnell and Schweitzer with "Inside Hanoi's Secreat Archives" used very careful research techniques and documentation to lay out the premise that The North Vietnamese killed most of the POWs that did not return either during torture or heat-of-battle encounters with villagers and/or soldiers just after shoot-down.

So, it can be done - presenting the case for what happened to POW's who do not return - in a reasonable manner.

"No One Left Behind: The Lt. Commander Scott Speicher Story" does not fulfill this requirement. <... The story drifts along, grabbing a data point here, a personal reflection there, acknowledged poor recollections, then puts it in a pan of government cover-up. After baking it, we have...a half baked story.<...

...

This is a masterfully crafted story of the bittersweet story of a Navy pilot lost in the first Gulf War only to become a hot-button story in the second Gulf War action. Today, the American military reports Special Forces assets inside Iraq to help locate this pilot, brought back to the living largely through the work of this author and her meticulous research of his case. The book is brilliantly written narrative nonfiction.

I have 4 years VB programming experience, but after read 7 chapters of this book, I'm still feel confusing. Everything are talked a little bit, but nothing is discussed in detail.
Each chapter is not well connected, this not like a book but like a huge magazine with a bunch of articles -- too many authers can mess up a good name book. They seems never talk to each other before and after writing this book. for examble, in beginning of chapter 9, it says: "By now you have learned how Active Server Page (ASP) use components." -- False! I never learned, at least in this book!
In chapter 6 -- DHTML Application. The example application is only working in VB IDE even after making the package. It's either the author's problem or Microsoft's problem.
As a "Professional VB Web programming book", it neither explains how to deploy a Web application well in general, nor teach you programming in detail.
This book turns me to read other ASP book.

Having purchased many other WROX books, I was eagerly awaiting this one for a current project. When it arrived I read through it like a mad man. Soaking up everything I possibly could. The examples are very clear and there are plenty of them! It covers everything from IIS, ASP and ADO to RDS, SQL, DHTML, MTS and WebClasses. All in one book! Plenty of examples with detailed descriptions and tables explaining the various methods for each function. I definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about using VB6 for web development.

I rated this 5 stars because it has the most useful writeup on writing Server Components in VB for use with ASP - chapters 9-11. I wanted to do this and had trouble getting working samples and explanations. I feel that industrial strength ASP is very ugly and unweildy if you don't encapsulate the code into components. MSDN has lots of reference material about this but little, if any, useful "how to" stuff that i could find.

This book showed me how to do exactly what i wanted to do.

Other than that, it is a good introduction into a good number of web concepts, old and new. The first 3 chapters were a good overview of Microsoft web concepts and techniques. The writeup on web classes, if you like them, is good. I really liked the CGI case study including how to implement standard input/output via the win32 API.

The relatively free use of various win32 API functions in VB help overcome a general fear of mixing VB and CC++ functionality.

The book was a bit large but was well organized. In general it gave me a much higher opinion of Wrox books.

The book is quite interesting to read. People who are into water sports would enjoy this the most. A short summery: A sixteen year-old Bonnie Chamberlain wants to be a proffesional diver. On one of her practices she has an accident injuring her scalp. Fortunetly she is is alright and is still determined to practice, practice and practice. Now it's even harder for her to concentrate on the dives that her farther's in trouble with the law, and it ends with... well,I won't tell you, if u wanna find out,read the book!

Heat, by Michael Cadnum, is a different book than most. It has a different rhythm-a new way of explaining things in words and phrases other than what you would normally hear, so that you have to concentrate on the novel, which helps you really get into it. I liked this book because it travels through everyday scenarios in life, but with a unique outlook and taste that gives you a good view of Bonnie's experiences as a competetive diver with an injury and coping with her father's arrest. This is a great book for someone looking for an intriguing read and a great story.

This book is about a girl named Bonnie. She is about 16 or 17 years old. In the begining Bonnie gets into an accident. She does not remember much of it but she mostly recovers. The accident happened when she was at practice for her diving team. She is very good and everyone likes her. My favorite part of the book was when Bonnie and her best friend were fighting over something really stupid. It reminds me of me and my best friend. In this book Bonnie's parents are devoriced. Her dad has a new girlfriend now and her mom is still single. Dads girlfriend and Bonnie have some fights but for the most part they get along very well. I would reccomend this book to mostly girls because it is told by a girl and about what happens to a girl. On the other hand I think anyone would like it.

The information is very basic... too basic. Though the writer's diving experience is pretty useful, I can get these information when I talk to other divers. If you are going to move into advance diving courses, such as Advance Open Water, forget about this book, the information presented in the Advance OW manual is more detailed. If you want to get other divers' dive experience, get onto the Net (e.g. News groups rec.suba) or just talk to other divers/your instructor. Don't waste your money on this book.

As a novice to the sport of Scuba Diving I attempted to purchase every book I could find on the subject. Most of the books I read were very informative, but a little like reading reference manuals. 'Diving on the Edge' is informative and a very good read. 'Diving on the Edge' is not meant to be a 'How to Book', it is meant to bring the mystery of Scuba Diving to the real world through humor and information. "...a prerequisite to becoming truly educated about the sport." I wish I had found this book first! Not many pictures, but loads of honest insight into the world of Scuba Diving. I really enjoyed reading it!

Michael Bane is a gifted writer who presents an informed and informative overview of diving. It's an interesting overview of this great activity. It's directed at new divers, but there are tidbits and insights that experienced divers will appreciate too.

The latest edition of Fuel From Water does not contain any specific instructions for constructing an electrolyzer. It does not encourage anyone without sufficient technical background to do so.
The unit conversion errors in a previous edition have been corrected. The book has been in print since 1985 and covers research since 1970. In the recent edition, 25 of the 186 footnotes are later than 1994. This book has been used as one of the texts for courses conducted by professional engineers who are capable of evaluating its scientific accuracy.

"Fuel From Water" is an exceptional book, containing anything the mind desires when entering the field of a hydrogen econonmy and/or technology. The book covers electroylsers; solid state polymer catalysts, 2 container seperation, and sulfur types.

Peavy goes into the fuel cell technologies such as pem, sofc. The types of storage of hydrogen with a non-bias opinion on the advantages and disadvantages of the storage devices. The book has more information on this topic than many others in its class. It is definately worth every penny, even if it is to open your eyes or to expand on this fuel technology.

I learned more in five minutes of reading this book than in months of wading through subject indexes in the library (much of the information cannot be found with on-line sources). More people should be made aware of the ideas this book offers in helping solve the world problem of energy. Fuel From Water is what I was looking for and I will put it to good use. Having always been interested in alternate energy sources, and since I am involved in electronics manufacturing, I find the production of electrical energy a fascinating subject. Peavey has done much of the work for me. A friend borrowed the book. He was thrilled to find that much information in one volume. He didn't return it. He just handed me the money to buy another.

If you are writing about the Falklands War, this would be an important source book for details on some aspects. But if you want to know about the war, pick another book. Michael Clapp was Commodore (permanent rank was Captain) of the amphibious assault force, the naval officer in overall command of getting the marines a soldiers ashore along with their supplies. His book, written with a colleague, is a numbing and intensive description of logistical matters liberally strewn with incomprehensible acronyms. Much muted complaining about bad communications and fuzzy organization. It's a wonder the Argentines lost! Events outside his immediate concern get little notice. Sinking of the Belgrano and its consequences merits a mere dismissal as left wing whining. There is no sense of humanity here at all. Still, one has to give credit for the enormous logistical task successfully completed at such a distance from home base. But it's easy to put down.

1. I had read this book about two years ago and liked it great deal....Falkland war was a unique war in many respects. It was a war fought on doorsteps of adversary by a nation thousands of miles away. To regain a piece of land (or should I say an island) captured by not so weak enemy, whose logistics train was much much shorter was per-se a military operation, but in true sense it was first of all a major logistics exercise to make that military might reach that far from UK and then make that military might fight the battle. Operations actually were a much smaller part of the whole game.

2. Commodore Michael Clapp, was Commander of Amphibious Task Force of Royal Navy. He was the man at the most happening part of the war. It was very easy for him to push all the shortcomings and problems under the carpet and brag about the successes, which were by no means small. The virtues of the Victor are generally remembered and the vices forgotten. One must however remember that the ones who do not learn from history (past lessons) soon themselves become history. Commodore Clapp has been forthright in his approach and has very systematically brought out the chaos and problems of such operations. In the fog of war confusion and chaos would reign, but a side that minimises it, generally fares better.

3. He has highlighted as to how the then strategic perspective of UK had resulted into cutting of forces. How a maritime nation had become land centric and was reducing its naval forces. In such circumstances, it received a jolt at Falklands, which was contrary to the perception prevailing at that time. This jolt forced an ill prepared nation to gather itself and brace up for war. What was achieved in such a short span was commendable, but Cmde Clapp has done an essential service by putting the preparations and the war in correct perspective. Highlighting the plus and the minus dispassionately. Britain won the war, but few set backs due to logistics problems would have turned the tables. When at war one must fight whole-heartedly, but an analysis in retrospect is always very important to learn from them and not to repeat the same mistakes next time. Cmde Clapp deserves praise for doing that essential task, though it might have been unpleasant to do so.

4. A must read for those having interest in maritime affairs in general and in amphibious operations in particular.

I found the book "Amphibious Assault falklands" very interesting. It gives us the perspective of one of the leaders of the campain, and shows us all the considerations and planning before the assult. Together with the book "No picninc" I think this in one of the most informative books about the war, if you want to know the war from the top.

I expected more from this book after reading the reviews in Amazon.com. This book was self-published and quite rightly so - no self-respecting publisher would touch it! Target audience seems to be 8th graders and the author has probably reached them. Anyone older will only groan at the juvenile writing style. If anyone edited this book it is not evident, but the author should acknowledge his limitations and seek help! I think the storyline is interesting, but I'll not be wasting my money on any more of this author's efforts.

A book for surfers. The dialog, surfing passages, and friendships seem right-on. Can be over-descriptive in places.

There is never a dull second in this book. After I started this book I HAD to finish it. I recommend everyone read this book! It is excellently written, very detailed and vivid. You feel like you are really there. It's SPECTACULAR! ------Serena Hanson

Agree with the "pretty but shallow" assessment below. On a recent trip to the Abacos, found it completely useless without map coordinates. There must be a market out there for dive guides without maps or GPS coordinates (people who don't actually want to dive? the clairvoyant?) but...

There's some good things about this book: in typical Lonely Planet style you've got great general travel information for the area (which if I really wanted, I'd buy a general travel book).

It does also cover a large number of sites - though is still far from comprehensive.

And it has some nice additional information occasionally through the book.

Two main peeves though. And they're killers:

- Each description is a paragraph, or two at most. You can't tell me very much about a dive site in so few words.

- There are no maps / diagrams for specific dive sites (just area overview maps) - a dive guide fails totally without these.

It's a pretty book, but to be any use you need to include maps and more detail per site (if this was done it could be forgiven for not being totally comprehensive).

In short, it's nice, but it's no use as a tool for researching a dive holiday.

What'S further is I now own two of these (Red Sea and Bahamas) - I certainly will not buy another.

I've just used the new dive guide by Lonely Planet on my recent dive trip to the Bahamas (Eleuthera). It was an excellent resource - solid dive site descriptions of 108 sites, which were organized by dive region. For someone not familiar with the Bahamas prior to going there, I found the book an invaluable tool for helping me plan where to go.The sidebars were entertaining to read as well (and useful), and the color photos are pretty inspiring too. Recommended highly!