Designing Your Natural House (Wiley-Vnr)

Book Description

"Everyone who designs a house should have to memorize the rules in this book … before being allowed to purchase a drafting pencil. Mac and Charles have managed to consolidate most everything they know about residential design with wit, Clarity, and excellent sketches" — David Wright, Noted Solar Designer and Environmental Architect • Designing Your Natural House Charles G. Woods and Malcolm Wells As concerns about our mistreatment of the environment keep growing, the trend toward housing that blends with rather than works against natural surroundings continues to accelerate. This important guide explores and illustrates all aspects of how to integrate dwellings with their natural settings. The authors are leading names in the natural design field whose work has been inspired by the contour-friendly, organic style of Frank Lloyd Wright. Charles G. Woods and Mclcolm Wells offer a wide range of invaluable design tips for both constructing new houses and remodeling existing ones. Every design they cover is in accordance with today's ecological and environmental concerns. Beautifully illustrated and hand lettered throughout, this guide explains how to choose the best site design, lay out floor plans, landscape, and incorporate energy-efficient features wherever possible. You're shown how to solve many design, ecological, and environmental problems, as well as how to keep design costs as low as possible. Numerous before-and-after graphics clarify every stage in the design process, and do and don't examples help you avoid common mistakes encountered when designing natural dwellings. Included are 150 money- and energy-saving tips more than 200 tricks of the trade that help assure exemplary results, and sample house plans (which you can order) that promote further understanding of how to integrate designs with the natural site. Designing Your Natural House is timely, comprehensive, and visually appealing, making it an ideal source for architects, contractors, interior designers, landscape architects, do -it-yourselfers, and remodelers.

Customer Reviews:

Creatively written with provocative ideas.......2002-04-01

Malcolm Wells' dry wit and characteristic hand-written style appear once again in this collaboration with fellow natural architect, Charles Woods. Well and Woods share common goals of architecture that complements rather than covers the land, and offer myriad ideas and pointers to help you design a cohesive attractive structure, filled with visual balance and not-so-common good sense.

Although the authors don't always agree on the specifics of visual aspects, their playful banter reveals that not all their ideas are steadfast rules, and allows you to witness the brainstorming give-and-take between the authors while offering you enough information to make your own decision.

Few complete home designs are displayed, but they are reprinted from the authors' other books (Natural Architecture by Woods, Underground Designs by Wells), and are placed in context of demonstrating a point. Otherwise, pages are filled with illuminating commentary and ideas on specific components of homes, including roof lines, light fixtures, proportions, window types, door placement, siding, and lot layout.

You will not be told how to build a house, but rather you will develop a designer's critical eye and help you to understand why so many modern homes have visual aspects that just don't look "right". (Example: narrow shutters on wide windows -- how will the shutters ever cover the window space if they are not proportional?...you'd be surprised how often I see this faux pas in local posh neighborhoods).

A helpful bibliography points to other books to fill out your home design repertoir.

(Wells is the grandfather of earth-sheltered/underground architecture and still offers design services from Cape Cod. You can write to him (via snail mail) and he'll kindly reply.)

convincing & well illustrated book on home design.......1999-05-30

This inspiring book shows very clearly what kind of decisions can be made in home design.

Whilst not getting into the nuts & bolts of building, innovative ideas are shared page after page.

Humour and how-not-to examples effectively tackle the otherwise so-subjective topic of aesthetics.

An entertaining coffee-table book for wanna-be home builders and a good reference for teams bogged down by discussions of good taste in architecture.

Excellent overview and comparison of architectural concepts.......1999-05-10

This book is great for someone who is thinking about building a home with common sense.It explains and compares good and bad architecture, and gives examples and sketches of why it is good and bad. Now when I look at buildings and homes that have always seemed unpleasant,I say to myself "Oh, if the roofline was only at a little less of an angle", and so on. It makes you wake up and be more aware of the aesthetic relationship of a stucture to the earth. There are also exciting and innovative home plans in it that you will find nowhere else. The authors respond to inquiries and have a great sense of humor.

Average customer rating:

Designing Your Natural Home
David Pearson
Manufacturer: Collins Design
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Design & Construction | Home Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Home Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0060761431
Release Date: 2005-11-22

Book Description

One of the pioneers of incorporating the green movement into home design, David Pearson now offers a complete guide for creating an eco-home. Informative, clear, and with factual advice, tips, and beautiful color photos, Designing Your Natural Home takes readers through each step of the process, from defining the scope of the project to choosing materials and building methods to decorating the new abode.

Along with practical, how-to information, photo essays present inspiring and stylish examples of natural design. The ten innovative homes featured in this book exemplify different solutions for every situation and budget, from apartments to sprawling dwellings. Readers will learn how to make the most of small spaces, find a builder, draw up plans, purchase low energy appliances, and much more.

Whether they're renovating an existing space, expanding a house, or starting from scratch, readers will be inspired to create the natural home of their dreams with this indispensable guide and source for fresh ideas.

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Designing Your Natural House
Charles G and Malcolm Wells Woods
Manufacturer: Van Nostrade Reinhold
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBP7OQ

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William Henry Fox Talbot: Pioneer of Photography and Man of Science
H. J. P. Arnold
Manufacturer: Hutchinson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000R3GOZ0

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An Outstanding Book

Superb book on the free software movement

Some good info

Fascinating topic, boring book

Poorly written introduction to story of Linux

Free for All: How Linux and the Free Software Movement Undercut the High-Tech Titans
Peter Wayner
Manufacturer: Diane Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Linux | Operating Systems | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
General | Operating Systems | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0756761840

Amazon.com

Can you get rich selling free software? It's a question that's got Wall Street excited, computer makers curious, and Bill Gates nervous. Peter Wayner's Free for All explores the history of open-source programming, its emerging threat to Microsoft, and its struggle to retain its ideals in the face of big money.

Like Eric Raymond's The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Free for All outlines the arguments for leaving software source code open and free for anyone to tinker with. But Wayner's account delves deeper into the politics of the movement, reading like a high-tech soap opera. Brash and colorful characters populate the pages: Richard Stallman, the quasi-communist coder who has done as much to inspire open source as he has to alienate big business; Linus Torvalds, the self-effacing grad student whose talent for organizing the work of others resulted in the bombproof operating system Linux; and libertarian techno-philosopher Eric Raymond, whose passion for free source code is matched only by his passion for the freedom to own guns. Each has a different vision of what it means to collaborate on software development, and their clashes over the "rules" of a largely unregulated process have created fault lines that run deep.

But what may ultimately prove more challenging than these differences, says Wayner, is the open-source movement's own success. As big names like IBM and Dell court the largely volunteer community, and companies like Red Hat produce stock-option millionaires, uncomfortable questions arise. "Getting people to join together for the group is easy to do when no one is getting rich," says Wayner. "What happens when more money starts pouring into some folks' pockets? Will people defect? Will they stop contributing?" Wayner leaves the question open, and only time will provide the answer. In the meantime, Free for All offers as thorough and engaging an account of the open-source movement--and the pitfalls in its path--as readers are likely to find anywhere. --Demian McLean

Book Description

Linux: Poised for World Domination?

A revolution is sweeping the software world -- one that threatens to pull even the mighty Microsoft Corporation from its throne. Bill Gates and his company's rule over the software industry through their tight control of Microsoft Windows is facing their biggest challenge ever -- a new competitor that can't be bought, coopted, or manipulated with any of the traditional tools of corporate power. Its name:

Linux.

Free for All is the story of a group of dedicated software hackers from around the world who, in their spare time, created an "open" operating system that rivals and in many ways surpasses Microsoft's.

Peter Wayner, a writer whose coverage of technology appears frequently in the New York Times and Salon magazine, tells a fascinating tale of how a simple idea creating and giving away an "open" operating system that people can change and customize -- sparked a grass-roots movement among programmers and revolutionized the software business.Free for All goes behind the scenes, telling us about the creators and users of Linux. Along the way you will meet the leaders of this revolution, including Richard Stallman, who founded the free software movement , Linus Torvalds, the coding genius and Stallman disciple, who became the master and coordinator of the evolving system (and named it after himself), and many others who aided and nurtured the growing free software movement. You'll learn how and why they gave their code away for free, threatening the Redmond, Washington, giant's hegemony and spawning a whole new industry of Linux-related companies and software.

You will also learn where the Linux movement is going and how it is likely to affect the high-tech industry and, ultimately, the computers you use at home and on the job. As fresh and exciting as today's headlines and tomorrow's IPOs, the story of Linux is just beginning. Here is Act I.

Customer Reviews:

An Outstanding Book.......2006-09-07

I cannot believe how well this book goes through the history of open source, and I have never known so much

Superb book on the free software movement.......2005-06-15

When I think about books about the free software movement, two books come to mind -- Peter Wayner's Free For All and Glyn Moody's Rebel Code. Both are superb.

Free For All is a gripping book that compels you to keep the pages turning from the start to the finish. The book is a comprehensive story on the history of the open source movement and is extremely well-written. For me, this was one of the best non-fiction books that I've ever read.

Wayner talks about the people behind the movement and offers a balanced view of the free software movement, somewhat of a rarity now-a-days. I think that this book is a must-read to learn about and understand the philosophies and stories behind the free software movement.

Some good info.......2004-02-05

Some brief history, albeit disorganized, accompanied by rambling editorials about free beer and communism.

Fascinating topic, boring book.......2001-07-07

As the subject header says, the topic is quite fascinating, but this book just didn't do it for me. It does not make for a compelling narrative, the way the author chose to structure the book. To technically oriented people it may read better, but not being one I couldn't possibly tell. For the non-technical person, it does not make a terribly interesting read. And there is no narrative to follow whatsoever and no linear story either.

Poorly written introduction to story of Linux.......2001-07-06

As someone who is very familiar with the free software movement, I may be unduly critical of this book. My major criticism of _Free For All_ is the organization and writing tone. For the newbie it is too folksy, using really stretched analogies and attempted witticisms to explain a phenomenon that is extremely interesting on its own terms. This is NY Times Magazine-style writing that has little faith in the readers' attention spans or intelligence. For the reader who knows a bit about free software, it simply does not add anything new. Some parts held m y interest, and I give Wayner credit for seeing the most significant aspects of Linux: the GPL, the "bazaar" style of programming, and intellectual property concerns. His conclusions, though, need much more work. Citing Gilder, for example, as a spokesman for some type of "wise capitalism" stuck in my craw--the best thing about free software is that it recognizes the innumerable debts programmers have to previous programmers and the many people globally who contribute to its development, so it is everyone's property and free information. The problem Wayner points to, in which programmers are making little money from their efforts, is not the fault of the GPL. It lies with some of the foundations of the current intellectual property system.

Free for All : How Linux and the Free Software Movement Undercut the High-Tech Titans

Average customer rating:

Free for All : How Linux and the Free Software Movement Undercut the High-Tech Titans
Peter Wayner
Manufacturer: HarperBusiness
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

1921. In this book, Mr. Klein proposes that private fortunes should be limited so that the surplus or excess over a certain amount, goes to the government. In this way, government becomes the principal stockholder and bondholder in all monopoly and draws the bulk of revenue therefrom; the cost of government is defrayed out of income on public property, the cost of living reduced, the wages of employees increased, and the interests of small stockholders and bondholders benefited. Taxation in time disappears and government and business become simplified.

Customer Reviews:

Unlearned lessons.......2006-12-05

The outcome of a war between the world's biggest, most advanced power and a nation -- if that's what Iraq is -- of mostly illiterate barley farmers should not have been in doubt. For many it was.
Will Americans, as a group, do any better at what Norman Friedman calls 'lessons learned and mislearned' after the fact? Maybe a little. Friedman's 'Desert Victory' is more sensible than 99% of the prewar commentary.
However, it is less a quick history of the war than a summary of 1980s military philosophy, a subject Friedman has been covering all along. Thus, for every paragraph about events in the gulf, we get a couple of pages of instruction in elementary strategy and tactics. This is not a criticism: If we learned anything for sure from this little war, it is that the American public understands next to nothing about the practical problems of using force and violence in international affairs.
'Perhaps the most interesting lesson of the war,' writes Friedman, 'is that the sort of conventional analysis used to project Iraqi performance failed to take into account the structural problems inherent in Saddam's Iraq.' He is not writing about hysterical journalists or frightened civilians but about the experts in the Defense and State departments and the National Security Council. They failed to correctly estimate the likelihood that Iraq would be an aggressor or the ability of Iraq to mismanage what Friedman likes to call 'national assets.'
While noting the failure, Friedman fails to offer a cure; yet it was obvious to anyone who has studied the history of the 20th century that a state structured like Saddam's was likely to be adventuristic and that a society like Iraq's -- that is, a medieval society -- could not seriously engage modern states on any grounds except ideological and propagandistic. Didn't we learn anything in Vietnam? Evidently not.
Well, maybe George W. Bush learned a negative lesson from Lyndon Johnson. After making the decision to use force, he let the professionals decide how. Friedman says many in Washington were 'irked' by that. No doubt.
The best part of 'Desert Victory' is Friedman's complex analysis of the factors arguing for and against use of force. The apparent international unanimity need not be taken too seriously, but Bush was a clear winner in the propaganda battle.
Concerning the actual fighting, Friedman's touch is much less certain. In large part this is because he is wedded to a Reagan-era Navy policy of using aircraft carriers to defeat the world's largest land power -- surely a more dubious concept than Friedman thinks, although probably we'll never have to put it to the test.
Anyway, he attempts to use the gulf results to prove the idea has merit, but the circumstances were hardly relevant. America's big flattops probably saved Saudi Arabia; and even if they didn't, we didn't have anything else that could have. Score one for Friedman and the Navy.
But if you read his accounts carefully, a lesson of the gulf becomes apparent, one Friedman does not learn. Antiship missiles are so dangerous to carriers that, against a competent opponent, they would have to operate so far offshore that their combat options would be few. Even against the incompetent Iraqis, the American carriers were wary. Score one against Friedman and the Navy.
Of course, the big story was the air war. Friedman depicts this as much more difficult operation than we were told at the time.
First, there was a shortage of bombs.
Second, reconnaissance was very deficient.
Third, even though the Iraqi air defense was very bad, its mere existence ate up a large proportion (nearly half?) of the American air effort.
And, of course, most of the bombs didn't hit anything. One quarter of the bombs were dropped by B-52s, which cannot hit anything except by luck.
To damage a target, an iron bomb has to hit within about 100 feet. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that a pilot traveling at 500 miles per hour cannot know his position within 100 feet within any usable interval of time, and therefore he cannot aim.
The Air Force learned this after World War II, when a survey found that more than 99% of bombs missed, despite heroic efforts to aim. The logical conclusion would have been to stop bombing, which was too much to ask; but the military did adopt the next most logical conclusion -- it stopped aiming.
Friedman puts it delicately: 'In many cases . . . accurate weapon delivery was impossible except at low altitude.'
Certainly, America went to war with the finest armed forces that deficit financing could buy, and the equipment and the people performed very well, although the combat units that depended on making up strength from the Reserves never did get going.
The real triumph was delivering a mighty army halfway around the world in just a few months. Thank Jimmy Carter for that.
'Desert Victory' is strongly opinionated, well backgrounded and clearly expressed. Even when Friedman is wrong -- and he certainly is in his admiration for Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf's switching of his front -- he is worth reading.
An interesting omission from his book is a discussion of women in the armed forces. For theorists like Friedman, that battle was fought long ago. The women won.

Good analysis of Gulf War I, but a bit dry...........2003-12-20

Military history comes in various flavors, just like ice cream. On one side of the spectrum, you can find books that analyze the wider strategic and tactical aspects of a conflict, with emphasis on politics and the commanders on both sides. On the other, you find books that not only deal with the "big picture" but also strive to show the conflict from the combatants' vantage point.

Desert Victory is one of those "big picture" books that focuses more on the strategies and tactics used by both Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and President George H.W. Bush and their respective military commanders. Written shortly after the war (it was published in the fall of 1991) by noted historian and military analyst Norman Friedman, Desert Victory traces the roots of the first Persian Gulf War to Saddam's rise to power in the late 1970s, his disastrous foray into Iran in 1980, the misguided policies of moderate Arab countries and two U.S. administrations to support Iraq (a mostly Shi'a Muslim country ruled by a Sunni Arab minority) against the perceived threat from Shiite Iran and the genesis of Saddam's invasion of the tiny but oil-rich emirate on his southern border.

Friedman explains the events of the Persian Gulf War ably and intelligently, analyzing the tactics, strategies and forces employed by both sides. It is a well-researched account of both Operations Desert Shield (the buildup) and Desert Storm, with particular attention being paid to the diplomatic and military forging of the coalition that would liberate Kuwait in February of 1991.

However, readers who prefer the "Cornelius Ryan/Stephen Ambrose" approach are going to be disappointed. There are few eyewitness anecdotes in the text, and the prose does tend to be rather dry.

Friedman scores again!.......2003-05-12

Friedman is one of America's best military autohrs and historians. His FIFTY YEAR WAR is the best account of the strategies and politics of the cold war. This DESERT VICTORY is an excellent, though somewhat short, review of the Kuwait war.

I'm rather hoping Friedman writes an account of last month's Iraq war ASAP, it is sure to be the best of the dozens of books sure to come out of the war.

Average customer rating:

An excellent cross-cultural study

Islamic & European Expansion: The Forging of a Global Order (Critical Perspectives on the Past)

Manufacturer: Temple University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Relations | International | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious Transformation in Egypt (Comparative Studies on Muslim Societies , No 25)

The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century

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World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction (A John Hope Franklin Center Book)

ASIN: 1566390680

Book Description

This volume of essays makes available the essential background information and methods for effective teaching and writing on cross-cultural history. The contributors—some of the most distinguished writers of global and comparative history—chart the advances in understanding in their fields of concentration, revealing both specific findings and broad patterns that have emerged.

The cover image, "The Arrival of the Dutch at Patane," from Theodore de Bry, India Orientals, Part VIII (Frankfurt: W. Richteri, 1607) depicts the two key phases of global history that are covered by the essays. Muslim inhabitants of the town of Patane on the Malayan peninsula warily confront a Dutch landing party whose bearing suggests that it is engaged in yet another episode in the saga of European overseas exploration and discovery. The presence of the Muslims in Malaya reflects an earlier process of expansion that saw Islamic civilization spread from Spain and Morocco in the west to the Philippines in the east in the millennium between the 7th and 17th centuries. The Dutch came by sea to an area on the coastal and island fringes of Asia, the one zone where their warships gave them a decisive edge in this era. The citizens of Patane had good reason to distrust the European intruders, since the Portuguese who had preceded the Dutch had used force whenever possible to control the formerly peaceful trade in the region and often to persecute Muslim Peoples.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent cross-cultural study.......2000-05-29

This historiographical study about Islamic and European colonization gives me insight into how colonizers assimilated with indigenous peoples and its ultimate effects. This book recognizes the ethnocentrisms prevalent in European history. The author argues for a more all-inclusive approach for studying European history, including the woman's role in societies. The maps and statistical analyses added to my understanding about how European history as taught in schools has in the past neglected gender and multiethnic interpretations.

Book Description

A combination of illustrated field guide, fact book, and folklore collection, "Hummingbirds" is a new kind of wildlife book. This concise, illustrated handbook presents an accurate, informative portrait of hummingbirds in their natural habitat, along with an examination of their relationship to man.

America's most popular bird, the hummingbird is also unique to this hemisphere. Native cultures—including Aztec, Mayan, and North American Indian—have long revered this tiny creature for its amazing iridescent colors and fearless behavior. Once killed by the millions to provide feathers for European fashions, hummingbirds—noted for being the smallest birds with the biggest appetites—are now a favorite of backyard bird watchers in North America.

"Hummingbirds" is a user-friendly guide to these winged creatures, providing an illustrated examination of their behavior, biology, and individual characteristics. A practical resource for both the backyard and the field.

Customer Reviews:

We Have Found Better Days!.......2004-02-18

Prospecting for Better Days? Feeling Blue on the Bus everyday? This little book about the colorful humming birds will brighten your day and put a twinkle in your eye! Highly recommended :-)

Answers all your Hummingbird questions.......2000-04-21

This is the best reference book on hummingbirds I own. Small enough to use as a field guide yet covers everything you need to know to study hummingbirds. Good drawings,vital statistics, and range maps of the United States Hummingbirds plus information about the hummingbird family [Trochilidae]

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