Software Product Lines : Practices and Patterns

Customer Reviews:

An Impressive book.......2007-02-12

This is a very good book on product line development. I learned a lot, especially in the area of design patterns and architectures. I would definitely recommend it.

The Product Line Engineering Bible.......2005-12-20

This is the leading authority on Product Line Engineering (PLE). No other book comes close. This book breaks down the three PLE practice areas of Software Engineering, Technical Management, and Organizational Management and describes each in great detail. The book provides guidelines on each area and how to achieve institutionalization of your PLE process.

The book has a great patterns catalog, Software Product Line Practice Patterns. The catalog includes The Essentials Coverage pattern, Each Asset pattern, Build pattern, Product Parts pattern, Assembly Line pattern, Monitor pattern, Product Builder pattern, Cold Start pattern, In Motion pattern, Process pattern, and Factory pattern.

If you are involved with Product Line Engineering or Software Factories at all, this is a must have. You cannot do without it. If you aren't involved with Product Line Engineering or Software Factories, this is still a great read because it covers a process that should be implemented on every project. Implementing PLE makes a project reusable, predictable, maintainable, and manageable. Overall it adds measurable metrics to all the assets of a project.

very good book .......2005-09-26

simple to understand language. Nice diagrams and the content is really arranged in a nice way

Great book if you already know Software Product Lines, but.........2004-05-21

If you have the concept of software product lines down, this is a great book, but if not you can easily get lost or confused, so it becomes difficult reading. If you want to explore software product lines, buy this book, then while you are waiting for the book to arrive read the website http://www.softwareproductlines.com to get up to speed on the concepts.

Software product lines will become a must whether you develop enterprise software or embedded software. This is so much more than we ever discussed about software resue.....

If you're already doing this, a great book; otherwise, not.......2003-12-22

So, if you've already made the decision to go with software product lines, this is an excellent book. It's got a huge amount of reference material, is well-edited, and clearly has the benefit of a lot of practical experience.

Unfortunately, if you're debating with or just want to learn about software product lines, this book isn't for you. I didn't see a single example of when software product lines are *not* appropriate for a set of work that needs to be done and, in general, this just assumes that you already have the sort of work that fits this model and dives right into the details. Also, the "29 practices" are spread over just under 300 pages, and make it hard to understand the big picture. It would've been nice to see even one-page descriptions of the patterns in context to be able to pull it all together more easily.

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Software Product Lines Practices and Patterns
Paul Clements
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N7KSYS

Average customer rating:

Good detail

Capturing Texture in Your Drawing and Painting
Michael Warr
Manufacturer: North Light Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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The Pencil Box: A Treasury of Time-Tested Drawing Techniques And Advice

ASIN: 1581803710

Customer Reviews:

Good detail.......2007-06-12

A very good book for the price. Lots of info for young artist's. The pages are full of color and fun. I enjoy having it in my collection.

Book Description

Kim Levin's documentary-style black-and-white photographs capture the pure essence of doghood in a way that dog lovers recognize and appreciate from the first instant they view her work. Like the most successful photojournalists, Levin's greatest gift is timing. Never posed or anthropomorphized, her subjects guide her process; she allows them to simply be themselves as she waits patiently for the perfect shot. Levin's photographs, complemented by thoughtful, concise text, have yielded a series of successful gift books and garnered her a loyal fan base. Her latest book honors the theme of growing up and the lifelong process of becoming oneself. Like Dogma, the book that preceded it, Growing Up ventures beyond celebrating the canine species to explore the kinship and commonalities between dogs and humanity. The candid style of the photographs and economy of the text make the comparison elegant, endearing, and poignant without relying on saccharine cuteness or sentimentality.Growing Up is Levin's third collaboration with her husband, writer-musician John O'Neill. It will be warmly greeted by an established audience of Bark & Smile fans and collectors, and will also appeal to animal lovers who are not yet familiar with the brand. Also, the theme of the book makes it a distinctive gift for a variety of milestone occasions, particularly birthdays.

Average customer rating:
Growing Up: The Dog Years
John O'Neill; Photographer Kim Levin
Manufacturer: BARNES & NOBLE BOOKS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLMRA6

Book Description

At the end of World War II, American costumed-adventurer Lobster Johnson led an Allied attack on Hitler's space program, but not before the Nazis were able to launch the first man into space. Now, after sixty years, Hellboy and Roger the Homunculus, who's been implanted by Bureau scientists with a bomb, travel to a ruined castle in Norway to intercept the returning capsule and its single passenger, the Conqueror Worm! 2001 EISNER WINNER, BEST LIMITED SERIES

Customer Reviews:

Finally, the spiritual side of the news...!.......2003-07-02

This collection of inspiring stories by this award winning LDS broadcast journalist, is hopefully not Art Rascon's last compilation effort. Rascon's journalist wit and his compassionate and profound understanding of people combine to set the stage for his spiritual back-stories of the several memorable events he covered as a CBS news correspondent during the later half of the 1990's. Highly recommended reading for members of all faiths.

A GREAT BOOK.......2001-06-29

This book is the greatest! I'm not under 13 but I'm writing in this space anyways... I read this book and it is very insperational! I love how he shared his experiences of his life and his news stories and tied it in with his belief and church standards. It's a great book and recomend it to everyone! I love the story of the him getting stuck in a locker by some of his "friends". It was sad and mooved me. I also like how he always followed what the church wanted him to do. I believe this man is a great person! I recommend you reading this fantastic book of truth!

Great Book.......2000-04-26

In this book, Art Rascon CBS news corespondent shares faith promoting stories about his career as a journalist and the stories he has covered. It is extremely well written. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it. I especialy liked the story of how he got locked in a school locker for over an hour, how could kids be so mean? Buy it.

Great Book.......2000-04-26

Excellent Piece of Work.......2000-01-22

The stories in this book are motivational, inspiational, and exciting. This is one of the best books that I have ever read. Art Rascon is the greatest writer on the face of the earth.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book - Must read!.......2007-07-11

My father was friends with the author Bill Butler and this is most definitely a true story. It is horrible for readers who do not know the author to speculate about the authenticity of the story. And to further show there ignorance by criticizing Mr. Butlers decisions about killing "endangered' sea life to survive. In a situation such as this I truly believe anyone would do the same thing. I know I would and I am an animal lover in every sense of the word. This is a fantastic story about the human spirit and the will to survive. Like some of the other readers who posted comments about the book I too read it in a matter of hours. I could not put it down. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

TOO DRAWN OUT.......2003-12-02

This book became too drawn out detailing every day. Some of the episodes of "shark attacks" were unbelievable. Bill could have saved the detailed explainations of his naked wife and lust for her during this stressfull time. I would have thrown him overboard by day 2. Ugh I was glad to finally finish it.

Most Compelling True Story I've Ever Read.......2003-07-18

I actually bought this at a boat show shortly after purchasing my first boat. it "almost" made me buy the heavy duty liferaft. Like one of the other reviewers here, I could not put this book down. I practically read the whole thing in one sitting. I have also seen the author interviewed, so yes, it is a true story.

one of the most riveting..........2003-02-23

...sea survivals books i have ever read!! On my first read-through (i re-read about once a year), i think i finished the entire book in 3-4 hours. The detail & narrative style make you feel like you are actually taking part in Bill & Simonne's daily survival & heart stopping situations. The boats, sharks & dolphin dangers are riveting; even the part about the drug boat. the finale is wonderful, the spirituality very uplifting. William Davis's comments are laughable: yes, Simmonne is annoying...but as a person who has spent time at sea on a sailboat, i know this is all non-fiction. Mr. Davis would soon follow suit with regard to the sea turtles, sharks & sea birds if in a similar scenario.

Please do not read this book.......2002-01-30

Please do not read this book. The writing is atrocious and full of grammatical errors. The author claims to kill all kinds of protected marine animals some like endangered sea turtles just out of spite. The wife character is so annoying that I almost could not finish the book just because I found her so annoying. Worst of all this is book is so unbelievable that it is certainly a work of fiction and the author claims that this is a real life survival story. For the love of all that is good in this world, do not waste your time reading this book.

Book Description

In recent years, psychological interest in the cultural dimensions of parents' beliefs has been stimulated by studies of ethnic differences in developmental expectations and the identification of cultural themes in childrearing. This volume offers a multifaceted view of parents' cultural belief systems, their origins in culturally constructed parental experience, their expressions in parental practices, and their consequences for children's well-being and growth. Discussing issues with implications beyond the study of parenthood, the book shows how the analysis of child outcomes related to parents' cultural belief systems (or parental ethnotheories) can provide valuable insights into the nature and meaning of family and self in society and, in some cases, a basis for culturally sensitive therapeutic interventions.

Book Description

"One of the great personal memoirs of the Second World War" (John Keegan) by the creator of the Flashman books.

Customer Reviews:

Made Me Feel at Home.......2007-04-26

This is not your so called war stories. It is about a man and the men he served with without any liberal gibberish (see his references to more modern times)and the fact that wars happen and will happen, just or unjust depending on one's views. But, they won't go away like some Utopian dreamers think just because other "Utopians" weren't up to it. There were so many pages that hit me in the gut because one could so readily identify with things on the page. I never expected such a great book from a journalist / media person which proves that there is good in every crowd. I salute Fraser and I wish I could tell him so in person.

A pure delight.......2006-08-10

I read this entire book with a smile on my face, punctuated by frequent outbursts of laughter. George MacDonald Fraser's memories of his WWII service with the British Commonwealth Army in the Burma campaign was the first of his non-Flashman works I've read. Although it's impossible to really compare two completely different literary genres, I'll just say that "Quartered Safe Out Here" was-in its own unique way- as hilarious, if not more so, than the best of the Flashman novels. The difference is that in the Flashman novels, Fraser's obvious respect for the sacrifices and achievements of the British soldier had to be viewed as a backdrop to the foreground humor while the opposite is true in this work, where the humor plays a supporting role to his tribute, which is explicit.

Unlike his Flashman creation, Fraser was an honest-to-goodness war hero- courageous, honorable, and immensely proud of his country, regiment and platoon section. Like old Flashie though, Fraser cuts through the B.S. and shows no tolerance for armchair generals, civilian second guessing, and the nattering classes' politically correct sympathizing for Britain's enemies, so long as they were black, brown or yellow. It was amusing how Fraser's account of his argument with a bleeding-heart over the atomic bombing of Japan exactly echoes Flashman's dustup with a supercilious academic at the beginning of "Flashman and the Redskins". The alert reader will notice other such episodes in this memoir that seem to have found life in that series, but as Fraser noted, sometimes real life in Burma was so bizarre that he would have been laughed out of town if he had tried to slip some of those stories or dialogue into his fictional novels or screenplays. That's why I'm glad he finally got around to writing this book. It would have been a real shame if this story had not been told.

Fraser details his time as a 19 year old soldier in Burma during the last months of the war. His writing is brilliant, as usual, his stories engrossing, his attention to detail is fascinating, and the characters we meet, from the lovably obscene Cumbrians to the unbelievable Captain Grief, are unforgettable, the more so for being real. Apart from the entertainment value, which is considerable, Fraser's insights into the nature of war and the warrior are poignant and valuable as a historical record of, and paean to, a lost Britain. He bemoans the fact that that Britain (not to mention America) has been replaced by a therapeutic society of hypersensitive p.c. twits who have been severed from the warrior tradition and stoic ethos which made their existence possible in the first place. As with most of Fraser's books, it's not for someone who thinks that the world has improved much in the last 50 years. What else is there to say? This is simply a great book. Read it and love it.

George Fraser's Excellent Recounting Of A Burma Grunt. .......2006-07-23

This book had been brought to my attention by the author John McKinna ("The Sen-Toku Raid" and others) when it was learned we both had been combat infantry. And a great recommendation it was. The name of the book was taken from a Rudyard Kipling phrase in "Gunga Din", and outlines the infantryman's life during the final days of WWII as the Black Cat Division pushed down the Burma road towards Rangoon.

His book is unique in that it recounts the perspective of the war-fighter on the ground, who's entire knowledge of a world conflict is about 300 yards. At one point, he described every piece of equipment on his person, a bit of historical information I found of great interest.

Interspersed with this narrative however, was Fraser's meticulous research of after action reports of the units involved to weave a mosaic for the reader that helped round out the full picture of the campaign itself.

Overall, a great read.

Extraordinary Memoir of "The Forgotten Army".......2006-06-27

George MacDonald Fraser, best known for his Flashman novels, and, in my opinion, one of our best writers, gives us here his nearly fifty-year-old memories of his service in Burma in 1945.

There is so much to like about this book that it's difficult to know where to begin. There is Fraser's absolute honesty about his fears, his mistakes, his attitude toward the Japanese, and the virtues and vices of his comrades. There is his ability to place his unit's activities within the context of larger campaigns and yet give a vivid impression of what fighting with his unit must have been like. There is his brief but compelling portrait of General William Slim, for whom he has an unabashed admiration. There are moments of low humor, of heroism, and of tragic loss of life, and there is an unapologetic pride in what he, his comrades, and the rest of the British and Allied forces accomplished.

This is one of the best books that I have ever read, and I recommend that you make it one of yours.

A Great Book about a forgotten war & now vanished great Army.......2005-06-20

GMF has outdone himself with this book about his part in the Horrific war in Burma during War II. He tells of his time as a junior enlist then junior NCO with the Border Regiment. He spins his tale extremely well about the story of the last great War fought by the Old Anglo-Indian Army of the Raj. So if you want to get a feel for a bygone Army, its various & exotic troops, weapons and some great characters like the Iron Duke and the Impressive FM Slim then this is the place for you.

Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma

Average customer rating:

Great stuff
One of the best written books about the "Forgotten" Army
Classic military memoir
The Greatest Burma War Memoir
GMF is one of a kind...bless him!

Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma
George Macdonald-Fraser , and George MacDonald Fraser
Manufacturer: Akadine Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Military & Spies | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Myanmar | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1585790249

Customer Reviews:

Great stuff.......2005-12-25

A great memoir, a different view of WWII, to all those who think Steven Speiberg told the story of the war, Read this

One of the best written books about the "Forgotten" Army.......2005-07-30

I had frist read the Authors novels about that cad Flashman & was immediately hooked on his great writing skills and historical research. (I just wish that I could write 1/10 as well as he.)
Then I have discovered this gem of a book about his time in the 14th Army fighting the Japanese in Burma during War Two as a young enlisted man. It is just marvelous in that it gives one the feeling of the grit, heat, dirt and loss of war without drowning one in self pity while being in the Border Regiment.
This book is one of the best war story of a British Tommy that I have ever read. The book is well worth the time and coin!

Classic military memoir.......2003-07-18

If you wish to understand the common British soldier in World War II, his virtues and his vices, this book is essential. In spare prose the author, a celebrated novelist, recalls his service in Burma as an enlisted man in the British Army. As he conjures up his long ago comrades, their marches, the food they ate, their fights with the enemy and each other, the reader gains much needed insight into a world that is rapidly slipping from living memory. A fitting tribute to the tough British "Tommies" who did more than their share in rescuing the world from the evil of the Axis in World War II. Funny, exciting, moving, this is a book that I predict will join the ranks of other classic military memoirs such as Graves' Good-bye To All That. For an added treat read this book in tandem with Field Marshal Slim's memoir Defeat Into Victory.

The Greatest Burma War Memoir.......2003-03-10

George MacDonald Fraser, creator of the Flashman series takes on not 19th Century history, but rather himself this time out. Here, in just over 200 pages, he paints a highly evocative picture of the British Tommy slugging his way through Burma and to victory in 1945. His memory he admits, has its gaps. He recalls meeting General Slim, the famed commander of the 14th Army, but cannot recall the day. He can't remember what he was doing on V-J day. But he recalls details, but not the dates of them; a 15 inch centipede in his tent, when his canoe floundered on the Sittang, when Nine section captured its first Japanese POW, he definitely remembers a section member taking the man's watch.
These are probably fallible memories, but it's their honesty that makes Fraser human, and it's what makes this memoir worth reading.

Fraser has captured the enlisted man's war in Burma for all time. It would be nice to see an 8th Army veteran recall the Desert War.

Fraser also like Audie Murphy's "To Hell and Back" uses a great deal of dialogue in catching the eccentrities of the Cumbrian borderers of his section. He changes their names (Murphy did too) something common in war memoirs. However, American readers might stumble over what the men are saying, but while GMF admits that it's not an exact reconstruction of what was spoken, "most of it {the dialogue) obviously is not...it is entirely faithful in gist, subject and style." This is of course, true, but one feels that GMF caught the higher truth of what life was like and as it was lived in the British Army in Burma. The eminent historian John Keegan rates "Quartered Safe Out Here" better than Manchester's "Goodbye Darkness" and E.B. Sledge's "With the Old Breed," an opinion I do not necessarily share, but I do admire this book tremendously.

This is a great introduction to the war in Burma and a wonderful glimpse into life in the British Army in World War II.

GMF is one of a kind...bless him!.......2003-01-05

It's been years since I first read "Quartered Safe Out Here" by the creator of Harry Paget Flashman, VC. (And I won't rehash everything the previous reviewers have written.) Having read and reread all of the Flashman novels before picking it up, and being a card carrying Flashmaniac myself, I was very anxious to know more about GMF. This book certainly didn't disappoint me. After I had finished it, though, I wanted to find out more. I didn't realize I'd have to wait until December 2002 to finally read the next chapter in the life of GMF in "The Light's On At Signpost" (which I found at amazon.com.uk for 20.13GBP). The two books are quite different, except for Fraser's Anti-PC rants, the one tells the story of a young GMF serving in WWII and the other an older, but still funny, GMF telling tales of his years writing movie scripts in Hollywood and the famous and not-so-famous people he worked with during those years. At the end of "The Light's On At Signpost," he briefly writes more about his family, his schooling in Scotland, and how he became a writer. GMF is almost 78 now (He was born on April 2, 1925.) and I only hope he will live long and write more wonderfully funny books.

Average customer rating:

Quartered Safe Out Here: a Recollection of the War in Burma
George MacDonald Fraser
Manufacturer: Harper Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K7HRQ8

Quartered Safe Out of Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma

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Quartered Safe Out of Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma
George Macdonald-Fraser
Manufacturer: Akadine Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBOWE2

Book Description

Beautiful, vivacious, and fearless, Agnes Leclerc was twenty-one years old when she met Prince Felix Salm, a Prussian officer in the Union Army at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War. Their marriage took Agnes from smalltown America to battlegrounds around the world and finally to the royal palaces of Europe. The Prince and the Yankee is a Cinderella story that goes beyond happily ever after to show how strong Cinderella actually became.

Customer Reviews:

A larger than life tale from the young American Republic.......2004-06-29

This gem of a book deserves to be read by more people. Ostensibly this book is the story of a woman born in New England who goes on to become a princess in Germany and along the way play an important role in both the US Civil War and Mexican Civil War.

But this book is more than just a simple biography of a remarkable woman. It gives the reader a very good sense of the US as a young Republic and the type of society it was then.

It is interesting to read, for example, that on the eve of Civil War, the US, a Republic which was suspicious of a large standing army, had an army of only 50,000 men and had to depend partly on imported professional soldiers from Europe to sustain its war effort.

Or that The White House was not an imperial place in those days and had open house parties for its citizens, some of whom were in the habit of snipping off bits of curtains as souvenirs.

Robert White has done his research well, telling the story of a girl who from humble beginnings makes it to the top by sheer force of personality and a bit of luck, and doing it all in a racy, page turning, style. The story is well anchored in the social and political currents of the times, which were very much in turmoil.

The book describes in detail a cast of colorful characters ranging from a pretender to the throne of Mexico to an assortment noble and evil people from the military and the aristocracy of both Europe and the US.

The author, who hails from New England himself and who has travelled to the far corners of the world, writes with a keen eye for details of the locations and characters. One can discern in the book a sense of regret at the passing of an age, which for whatever its faults, was a more gracious era than the one we live and where people took their duties and responsibilities seriously, instead looking for reasons to evade them.

The maxim for a good story teller has always been that he should "show and not tell". This book, by weaving the story of a real woman, educates us in conditions of nineteenth century Europe, America, and Mexico more than any history book that I have read.

Readers who are interested in the formative years of the American republic, as well as those who are looking for a good story are well advised to go out and buy this book.

N. Balakrishan - Hong Kong.

Book Description

An original investigation into the social and technological history of solar power

From the days of Archimedes and Leonardo, the earliest efforts to harness the power of the sun have become the stuff of legend.

But it was not until the industrial revolution, with its great demands for fuel, that inventors --like Prometheus carrying fire from Mt. Olympus--began to build machines capable of channeling the sun's rays into usable energy.

In The Power of Light, solar energy expert Frank Kryza recounts the dramatic saga of solar invention, from its optimistic dawning in the mid-19th century to its impending triumph today. With a fervent passion for his subject, the author introduces solar pioneers such as Auguste Mouchot, whose solar-powered steam engine amazed Napoleon III, and Frank Shuman, whose solar pumping station, in 1911, became the largest and most cost-effective machine prior to the space age.

While presenting a thorough and original investigation into this little-known chapter of science history, The Power of Light offers a sober meditation on the revolutionary impact technology often has on society.

Download Description

An original investigation into the social and technological history of solar power.

Customer Reviews:

Lighting the way thru man's history.......2006-03-19

The various ways of energy creation and consumption have dictated the various paths of human societies throughout our history. And with any journey, the paths not taken are often as interesting as those that were. This then is the subject of this book; the path of solar energy as a viable energy source for western society. The Power of Light describes the use of sunlight to provide mechanical energy for simple uses such as moving objects and boiling water, within the context of recorded Western society.

The book is written in the format of alternating chapters. Half the chapters describe specific time periods when solar energy was in vogue and a lot of activity, scientific and/or economic, was noted. These chapters alternate with the other half of the chapters which tell the story of one man, Frank Shuman, who lived from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, and his lifelong passion of research and development of solar energy. Mr. Shuman's life took him to Europe, America, and North Africa, where he met up with royalty, scientists, and engineers of various nationalities and purposes. In the course of his travels, he readily and constantly pushed the use of solar energy, whether it be in agriculture, moving vehicles, providing power for lighting, or other uses great and small.

The efforts inspired by Mr. Shuman were great and many. One accomplishment close to this reviewer was his meeting with Dr. A. J. Chandler, the businessman who started the city of Chandler, Arizona, which I lived in for 6 years. Dr. Chandler acquired several thousand acres of desert land. To make it profitable, he acquired solar-powered machines to pump water from the Salt River to his land, thereby creating a farm oasis in the middle of the Sonoran desert. Similar successes were repeated in North Africa and the Eastern US.

The book includes diagrams and pictures of the various apparatuses used to harness sunlight. The book also provides a good history of the intellectual property issues that followed the development of solar power. Most importantly, the book shows how the nascent solar power industry in the early 1920s was proving more efficient than coal, but could not outcompete with the rise of the oil industry.

All in all a great book, though I give it only 4 out of 5 stars because it says little about the use of solar power in Asian, African, or Native American societies.

Very enlightening book---no pun intended.......2003-07-09

Because I live a block or so from Frank Shuman's inventor's compound in the Tacony community of Philadelphia, and due to my involvement in the local Historical Society, I was compelled to get this book. I read it in its entirety during last week's vacation and I was very impressed. It turned out that the localized focus on Shuman was but a bonus compared to the knowledge I've gained about the history of solar energy development in world history. Not only am I now more astute when it comes to this topic, but I've gained a new perspective on the local legend of Frank Shuman and his place in the evolution of solar power as a legitimate energy source. Mr. Kryza is to be commended for taking a scientific topic and making it interesting to someone like myself.

A fascinating foray into 19th century solar technology.......2003-02-28

This book tells an amazing story -- that of solar powered steam engines, great BIG ones -- on the banks of the Nile in Egypt before the First World War. Who would have thunk it?

The writing is gripping and reads like an Indiana Jones adventure yarn -- this isn't a textbook. And yet, though told like a story, this is nonfiction, and all this stuff really happened. The author points out that the science stories we remember widely from the 19th century, like those of Edison and Marconi, are those that impact our lives today. The story of solar power a century ago has been forgotten because most of us dismiss solar as a marginal technology, one that doesn't (or maybe can't) have a big impact on our lives. That view appears to be changing.

The writer traces the practical applications of solar power technology back to the Greeks and takes us through the 'burning mirrors' of the Middle Ages, but the main focus of the story is on an American entrepreneur who, having made millions from patenting safety devices as a young man, devoted the rest of his life to building huge solar-powered steam engines -- machines he believed could supply most of the energy the world would need in the 20th century.

Solar-powered steam fell into the doldrums during after World War I, but now it is experiencing a revival. There are solar-powered steam plants in California and Spain today (one in Barstow here in CA, which I have seen myself) that can produce 12 megawatts, enough to power 10,000 houses, and it appears that solar powered steam may give PV a run for its money in some locations.

This was a great read. I couldn't put it down.

Average customer rating:
Power of Light, The: The Epic Story of Man's Quest to Harness the Sun
Frank Kryza
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OFZAOW

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