Overall, I enjoyed an inside look at the history of how the computer industry got where it is today. Only a techno geek would like this book though. Luckily I happen to be one!

I absolutely loved this book. The included stories and easter eggs in software are great. I really like the pictures of shirts handed out at some conventions that are pretty funny. In short, the book rules and its worth it if you work in this computer industry. Even if your a word processor you'll find this book funny! (Joke!)

I love this book. I've reread it several times since I bought it. The stories are hilarious, the behind-the-scenes information fascinating, and it's fun to reminisce over products of days gone by. The book is sitting in my lap...I came to Amazon.com hoping to find a sequel...if you've been around computers for a few years, you must buy this book!

This is a comprehensive account of the contentious genesis of the Los Angeles Class attack sub, a warship normally described as one of the most advanced in the world, but under suspicion here. Though this story will most likely appeal to those familiar with the terminology and technology of military submarines, it also has much to offer for those studying the military acquisitions process.

The Los Angeles class attack sub was borne of attempts to combat two implacable enemies - the Soviet Navy and America's own Hyman Rickover, the so-called father of the nuclear navy. Facing the combined soviet threats of submarine launched anti-ship missiles (previous Russian subs could only fire their missiles only after an elaborate process while on the surface where they were visible and vulnerable) and faster submarines equipped with more powerful reactors, American planners now find themselves desperate to reclaim an edge on speed. (Though setting the benchmark with the Skipjack class, progressive gains in the size and weight of latter subs using the same powerplant eroded this advantage). The switch to a newer reactor (actually one redesigned after use on the USS Long Beach, one of the world's first nuclear-powered surface ships) wasn't enough, and submarine vets had no choice but to make compromises, like reducing hull thickness and conseuqently reducing maximum safe operating depth. Conflict with the headstrong Admiral Rickover occurs when the winning design for the new sub is chosen by a firm other than General Dynamics, the established industry leader. Also complicating things is Takis Veliotis, a wily genius who is the only man who can stand up to greedy corporate reps eager to cut any corner and Rickover himself. Veliotis, unfortunately, has some of his own secrets to hide, resulting in his flight to Greece to avoid charges stemming from millions of dollars in kickbacks. What nearly dooms the program are the extensive compromises made to the construction schedules - resulting in ships being launched half-finished only to be quietly returned to the factory for completion. Millions of dollars in overruns are quietly overlooked, with the hope that a government bailout will convert these losses into profits. When that prospect begins to look unlikely, the corporate heads of GD begin turning on each other, while unskilled and unreliable labor, low morale and impossible construction schedules mix to spell the likely doom of the US submarine force.

This book tackled an unlikely subject - the LA Class is the backbone of America's submarine navy, not something you've heard described as essentially "Unsafe at any depth". However, the book is marred for two reasons - the author spends much more time concentrating on each specific transaction or exchange between characters (like Veliotis and either the head of GD or Rickover) without connecting these exchanges into a cohesive picture of a collapsing defense program. A more glaring flaw is the book being incomplete. "When it was over, there were just the submarines" but the submarines managed to operate at much higher safety standards than the Russian boats they confronted - the author never connecting these boats to the seeming time-bombs produced by GD. What had happened? Who can take credit for the success of the LA Class - or is even that perceived success an illusion? Even the supreme irony of speedy submarines is never addressed adequately, though the information was probably unavailable. Though developments in sub-launched missiles and their submarines themselves did substantiate the need for faster US subs, the threat of high-speed Russian subs was a cold war mirage. The Russians never gave much production priority to their high-powered reactors. Those installed in experimental versions of the November and Papa classes, and regularly in the Alfa class proved more trouble prone than realized. Though more compact than comparable western designs, these reactors were at least as loud, and, using molten metal as a coolant, had to be operated around the clock, even while in port, lest the coolant be allowed to "freeze" into solid metal and ruin the piping. Either of these two ommissions (the post-construction history of the LA class and the real threat posed by the Russians) is fatal to the subject. Nevertheless, I found it important reading. I'm hoping the author will revisit the subject again using the information he had no access to at first.

One of the best books on the 688 program and how it influenced the 726-class. The best part is the back of the book with transcripts of telephone conversations between Takis Veliotis (GM for GD/EB) and Rickover. Also a good summary of the engineering and operations analysis that led to the 688 design. Portions on the "holy grail" of speed, depth and stealth are great, particularly on how/why the hull wound up getting shaved to meet speed, but sacrificing depth. Overall, a great book, as good or better than Dalguish and Schwickert's (sp?) book, Trident.

Probrably the definitve book on the origin of the 688 submarine program and the corruption involved in the overspending by General Dynamics(Electric Boat). Some really good insights on Adm. Rickover not seen in other books. Very technically accurate. I believe at the time this book was written the government tried to ban the book. The first third of the book about the advent of Soviet fast subs and and the history of modern submarine design is a must read for anyone interested in submarine history. Cronicles some of the classic story's such as the USS Philidelphia being launched for the Congressmen and then pulled back into shipyard for another year to finish since it was so far behind schedule.

Purrloom Popcorn, the odd-eyed Cornish Rex, was perfectly happy to spend his days primping and preening before the cat-show judges and winning blue ribbons. After all, everyone just loves a winner! But one day, Popcorn is suddenly taken far from the show life he knows and consiters home, to a big old house in a strange city. The family there doesn't recognize Popcorn's value. Nor does the lonely, sad little girl who tries so desperately to befriend him. But as Popcorn attempts to return to the cat shows, he makes an amazing discovery - through his blue eye, he can see ghosts, and there are many! Through them, memories and old longings begin to surface. And soon, Popcorn must answer some difficult questions about seeing and being seen. An interesting novella, with a developed main character and wonderful illustrations (I happen to know the illustrater personally - she's a wonderful artist!). And ghosts are always cool :-)

If you have not read Ghost Eye, I think you should. In one chapter there is a fabulous action scene. It was like I was the cat, Popcorn. "Listen to this. Just ahead a man was walking out the front door, his arms loaded with odds and ends. Popcorn took his chance. He charged up the stairs, bolted between the mans feet,and slid to a stop in the middle of the front of the vestibule." Did that make you feel like you were the cat.

I liked Ghost Eye because it was challenging book. Ghost Eye had college words and a few similes. The cover looks spooky but the story is really cute and interesting. I like Popcorn because he's a champion in every contest. I hope you will read this fabulous, wonderful book, too. I give this book an 8.

I discovered this book in my school library while scanning the "beverly cleary" section for a new book to read. This was back in 1995. After i had continuously taken the book out, for years until i graduated gr 8 in 98. It is such an amazing story, if you love cats, and ghost stories its the best book. i currently don't own it. But I am looking.

I first read the book because I had seen a play based on it, and it (the play) had made no sense. However, the topic of the book sounded good, so I wanted to find out more. So I picked up one of the FUNNIEST books I have ever read. If anyone is interested in WWII, or any aspect of war, and want some comedy, this is the book for you.

I don't remember when I first read this book, but I do remember laughing out loud during certain parts (something I rarely ever do!) If you've seen the movie starring Andy Griffith you have the basic idea as to what it's about, but the book adds a lot of little things which I found immensely amusing. Needless to say, it's not complimentary to the military, but it's more of an attack on the bureaucracy surrounding the armed forces than it is on anything else. A very funny book!

Beautiful book. Love the sketches coupled with the selected quotes and excerpts. Makes you feel like you're there, through the ages. A nice, before bed or coffee table book.

When does a city lose its "realness" and start to become a Disneyland-type attraction? Could we say that when the number of visitors or tourists exceeds its regular number of inhabitants, then it risks this demise ? This book allows us to see through the eyes of some of this and last century's greats; Hemmingway, Gertrude Stein, Albert Camus etc. It's the best guide book around if you want to discover why Paris became great before crass commercialism invaded to meet the demands of the perinneal waves of tourists.....

I was quite surprised after reading this book. It is an excellent history of Rickover and US Navy Nuclear propulsion. I had always wondered why nuclear power was always so safe for the Navy but the public utilities had so much trouble with it. This is an interesting history of moving up the ranks in the Navy and how you can advance. I was surprised at all the people who seemed to hate Rickover because he wanted to have his way and never to go below his specifications. This is why Rickover was never on the biography channel was because he was contriversial. The story really makes you want to know more and more about Nuclear submarines especially the times at Oak Ridge and when they were building the Nautilus. It's hard to think of a time when all the subs before that ran on the surface most of the time. I was glad that Rickover just took over and got the job done. The only part I did not like was that they were not specific enough about the design of the subs. I do not mean engineering drawings or national secrets but at least some general layouts of the submarines and the propulsion system in a layman's terms to have a better understanding of this. Richard Rhodes did a good job of this in his book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" explaining the first nuclear reactor that went critical in Chicago. I would like to also know more about that light water breeder reactor that ran on thorium instead of uranium at Shippingport. Why haven't we made more of those instead of depending on fossil fuels? Rickover was in on the most exciting technology of the 20th century, how exciting must that have been.

Many biographies have been written over the past 40 years about the impact that the life of Admiral H.G. Rickover has had on the United States Navy ' one in which redefined the role of the Navy in the post World II era. All of these works have focused on his many accomplishments and the controversies that surrounded him, which often conflicted with the executive branch of the Federal government, naval shipbuilders, and the U.S. Navy itself. Few, if any, clearly demonstrate who Rickover was, and how his principles evolved. No doubt, the author of 'Rickover: The Struggle for Excellence,' Francis Duncan, is the only biographer afforded enough access to the Rickover as an outsider to the Navy and its Naval Reactors program, to know him well enough to accomplish a detailed account of what shaped the man. This book, the third in a series by Duncan, tells the stories from birth till his death, remarking on events that shaped his priorities and principles, and addresses many of the unanswered questions or mysteries that readers of other biographers may have found in the story of Rickover's career. Some of the misconceptions about Rickover that Duncan's work clears up are concerns such that Rickover had lied about his age or that Rickover had been for the most part unsuccessful and out of place in the Navy prior to his work with Naval Reactors. Unlike the Polmar and Allen 'Rickover' biography, which often appears lengthy and intimidating as an all encompassing view of Rickover's life, Duncan's work is very readable and pleasant. I assume that Duncan knew that the larger than life Rickover story could never be captured in single volume, and separated his works, which describes his evolution; 'Nuclear Navy, 1946-1962' which deals with the influence of Atomic Energy on the modern U.S. Navy,' and the 'Rickover and the Nuclear Navy: The Discipline of Technology,' describing the founding and management of Rickover's technical program.

Although the emphasis of most Rickover biographies has been his impact on the Navy, his story serves two other main purposes. First, from a management and organizational behavior perspective Rickover seems to break all the rules and still maintain a highly committed program that integrated safety, reliability and high-performance He embedded principles and expectations that continue to exist today, and are the core of the Naval Nuclear program. This is the ultimate measure of a founder's success, for an organization to remain relatively static around what principles and values drive its core mission. The second of course, is Rickover's influence on the operation of civilian nuclear power plants, an accomplishment that Rickover thought he was unlikely to achieve when he was forced to withdraw from Shippingport. However, his influence and principles have filtered down through the personnel he trained through 'NR,' and have subsequently redefined nuclear power operations in the Post-TMI era of nuclear power, and forced a paradigm shift in nuclear power operations and realigned the thinking about the discipline required to operate high-risk technologies.

My only criticism of Duncan is perhaps his fondness of Rickover, which comes through in his writing. Considering all of the negative stories of Rickover, I would expect more negatives in his depiction of Rickover as well. However, biographies are written about the life and accomplishments of great men, and gossip and scandals best left for supermarket tabloids.

Now in an fully updated third edition, The Entrepreneur's Guide To Equity Compensation from the Foundation for Enterprise Development provides an excellent and highly recommended introduction to the hows, whys, and wherefores of employee ownership, as well as how empowered employees can help build a cutting-edge, proactive organization. Individual chapters address both individual-based and company-wide stock plans, savings plans that can hold employer stocks, crucial issues that can interfere with success, and much, much more. A recommended primer for any employer, for The Entrepreneur's Guide To Equity Compensation costs far less than what an unwise stock options decision would impose upon a corporate bottom line!

This excellent and clear explanation of approaches to equity plans, provides a guide to creating an employee ownership strategy. The book covers: stock grants; direct stock purchase programs; stock option plans; qualified employee stock purchase programs (ESPPs); employee stock ownership programs (ESOPs); 401(k) and other qualified retirement plans; nonqualified deferred compensation plans; stock appreciation rights and phantom plans; stock programs for American companies operating abroad; and the most suitable equity arrangement for various types of legal forms of companies. Explains the concept, pros and cons, and tax and cost implications. Viewing this work as a compensation consultant, I find it to be an outstanding reference, providing highly accessible explanations. Very highly recommended.

I have used the Entrepreneur's Guide for several years. It is an excellent tool - comprehensive yet easy to understand and logically organized. It presents a very complex area in a clear fashion that goes a long way to helping the interested person decide on a general approach to equity compensation that will fit their needs and help reach their goals for a very reasonable cost. I recommend it to anyone considering exploring an equity compensation strategy of any kind.

It's a great book for first year business students and all those who want to learn something about basic principles of macroeconomics and the influence it has on everyday business activities

In comparison with other macroeconomic texts around it should get 5 stars. It starts with a historical perspective of the crisis in economics at the time of Keynes, setting the picture for why anyone bothered to invent macroeconomics in the first place. It then rapidly proceeds to introduce the major schools of macroeconomics and to develop the relevant ideas and models. It is an ideal introduction for the interested or serious student and manages to be exciting as well as fairly comprehensive. If you're taking an introductory macroeconomics course, get this book instead of your text. If you're coming from outside the economics profession and have a mind of your own, this ones for you.

This is a classic Macro text used for many Intro to Macro-Econ.

I used a similiar text (many editions before) when I took my first econ class in college over 10 yrs ago.

This is a great book, easy to understand and fluid reading.

Thumbs Up!!!

"The Rickover Effect" is a fascinating depiction of Admiral Hyman Rickover's efforts to build the nuclear Navy. This book is not intended to serve as a comprehensive chronicle of Rickover's career and private life, but as a chronicle of Rickover's accomplishments in bringing nuclear power to the Navy as viewed by a subordinate. Within these self-admitted limitations, the book succeeds, but Theodore Rockwell also attempts to turn Rickover's leadership style into some sort of management primer.

Rockwell examines various anecdotes and discusses the effectiveness of Rickover's management acumen in dealing with both political and technical problems. This attempt to explain "The Rickover Effect" is rather clumsy and unnecessary. The reader can judge for him or herself the success of Rickover's abilities.

Readers unfamiliar with Rickover's personality must keep in mind that this account is written by someone who obviously admired and respected Rickover a great deal. Rockwell's close association with Rickover has caused him to see the Admiral through biased eyes. Rockwell sees Rickover as firm but fair, which isn't entirely accurate. Although truly a visionary, Rickover was extremely difficult for most military personnel to get along with and prone to frightening fits of rage. Although he was often the target of attacks on his character, Rickover often treated his political enemies and detractors cruelly, and at times led his own vicious attacks. Rockwell appears sincere in his treatment of Rickover, but it is obvious he doesn't see the Admiral as an outsider would.

With these limitations in mind, this is actually a very entertaining account of how the nuclear Navy started.

The author holds Admiral Rickover in extremely high regard, so much so that the book reads more like advertising than non-fiction. I can't recall a single case in the book where Rickover is described as making a mistake, being unreasonable, or doing something dumb! People in a position to know tell me that Rickover was extremely difficult to work with, especially when challenged by a subordinate, but you'd never guess at such problems from Rockwell's book! Rickover is presented as stern and demanding, but always fair. Despite my nit-picking, this is still a worthwhile book for someone interested in the subject. Rickover definitely knew how to get things done, and deserves great credit for his work on making nuclear power reactors into a working concept. It is highly readable, and the Rickover quotes sprinkled through the pages are worth the purchase price. A lengthy, but more balanced account is in Norman Polmar's book, Rickover.

I thought the book was well written by a man that knew and worked with this very remarkable genius. Rickover probably contributed more than any other person to bringing the USN to the forefront as a world power. Ted Rockwell gave us a good view of how the man made this all possible and even brought out his humorous side. Most refreshing and entertaining.

This book is a fitting testament to Shirley Jackson, as the selections span her entire literary career. It is tragic that a writer of Jackson's caliber should be called away during her productive years, but we are quite fortunate to be allowed a taste of the novel Jackson was working on when she died. That taste is a short one, consisting of six chapters (roughly 27 pages), the final three of which are the first draft. The protagonist is a thoroughly Jacksonian character, sometimes spontaneous and sometimes nostalgic, making a new life for herself in her own peculiar way. Her attempts at shoplifting are particularly telling of her character, but unfortunately her story ends at just about that point. The other stories included here are a special treat. While "The Lottery" is included (just in case someone may not be familiar with it, as Jackson's husband tells us in his preface), the other stories are poignant looks into the lives of rather ordinary people. Jackson had an amazing talent for characterization; the smallest actions can tell us more about a person than his/her overt actions and words, and such little things make Jackson's stories incredibly vivid, illuminating, and personal. Shirley Jackson was a wife and mother whose writing always took second place behind her family. Many of these stories center on family life in all its aspects. "The Beautiful Stranger" and "A Day in the Jungle" deals with the sense of unfulfillment and unhappiness that one partner may come to feel in his/her marriage, "The Rock" speaks to the strength of a brother-sister relationship, "Island" is a somber story about one's end-of-life years. "Pajama Party" is a simple tale of a young girl's birthday slumber party. The story sounds so much like real life that it could be a neighbor telling you about it firsthand; it is also the funniest story Jackson ever wrote There are darker stories where characters become "lost," hopeless, and frightfully alone--"The Bus," "The Little House, "A Visitor" (which is a strange ghost story of sorts). The best stories here, in my mind, are "Louisa, Please Come Home," which has a uniquely Jacksonian twist of the prodigal son motif, and "I Know Who I Love," which illustrates the fact that parents can be much too overprotective of their children.

The true highlight of this book, though, are the three "lectures." One gives Jackson's response to the old "where do you get your ideas?" question. Another one addresses the techniques of writing effective fiction. My favorite, though, is an essay describing the reaction of readers to the publication of "The Lottery" in New Yorker Magazine. Jackson includes comments from all sorts of readers, almost all of it negative, which she breaks down into three different categories. While "The Lottery" is certainly an original, successful story, I cannot imagine that so many people would have been so affected that they felt compelled to put their shock and disapproval into words. The responses that Jackson describes to us offer a vivid look at American culture at mid-century.

If you are a Jackson fan, you (should) already own this book. If you want an introduction to Jackson, the stories included here will certainly delight you and win you over to Jackson's unique way of telling stories. These stories clearly reveal Jackson's humanity and family devotion, and the reader comes away with great respect for the author as both a writer and as a human being.

Shirely Jackson was a gifted writer who deserves to be regarded with the same prestige heaped upon Ray Bradbury and others. Come Along With Me, a posthumous collection gathering together early works with lectures and a novel fragment, not only allows readers to shiver and giggle as only Ms. Jackson could make us do, it also offers the reader an intimate glimpse into the creative process (compare the sharp focus in the revised segments of Come Along With Me with the somewhat blurred unrevised sections) and, by printing short stories in order of their publication, the growth of Ms. Jackson's considerable talent for the intelligently ghoulish can be seen and savored. As with her other, more famous stories (i.e The Haunting of Hill House), it is what is implied in the methodical unfolding of the tales that makes for the chills rather than in your face grue. This book, along with Jackson's others, is an essential in any literature loving bookworm's library. Highest recommendation.

This book is amazing! If you love short stories with a twist (or twisted short stories), you will be mezmerized by this book. The real gems in this collection are the short stories--you will find it difficult to put this book down. If you loved "The Lottery", get this book! The collection was assembled posthumously by Shirley Jackson's most trusted critic--husband Stanley Hyman--and it is pure gold!