The Microsoft Edge: Inside Strategies for Building Success

Amazon.com

The Microsoft Edge, by former Microsoft manager Julie Bick, outlines approximately five dozen business tactics that are successfully used within the company. Based upon her own experiences and those of 40 other managers, it presents them in short lessons that focus on hiring and retaining top employees, introducing new products and maintaining their momentum, conducting business online, and developing positive relationships with both internal and external partners. Some lessons (such as "On the Web you can alter your product or promotion daily by measuring responses and tweaking as you go") may seem obvious, but Bick's supplementary details (explaining, for example, exactly how the CarPoint site's option-pricing feature was reconfigured when logs showed few visitors were using it) are truly instructive. And while the book definitely shows Microsoft in the best possible light, some of its most illuminating material concerns the handling of notable problems--such as the total failure of the highly publicized Bob software, and the inability to debug a consumer tax-preparation program in time for its intended launch. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

Behind the scenes at Microsoft, some of the nation's most savvy and successful managers are at work every day. How can their innovative perspectives and daily practices help guide your own journey in the road to success? Microsoft veteran Julie Bick reveals these insider strategies, in this book packed with on-the-job insights and practical techniques. Here are the lessons and secrets that can give you the edge in any industry.

How did the team at Microsofrt pioneer, build, and shepherd the company through exponential growth in a constantly changing market? What are the qualities, the habits, the quirks that keep them moving ahead? And how can you apply what they've discovered to your own career?

From vice presidents to front-line managers, Bick interviews Microsofties to learn how they:

Launch new products and get the most out of not-so-new products

Design websites and do business on the Internet

Work with service agencies, dealers, coworkers, and the press

Hire the best people they can and keep them happy

The Microsoft Edge is an entertaining read for seasoned managers. It's a smart business tool kit for the new kid on the block. Apply these tips, stories, and answers to managerial conundrums, to your career in any business. Take it on your next plane ride!

Customer Reviews:

"The Microsoft Edge-Insider Strategies for Building Success".......2003-08-08

Every Leader /Manager will learn reading this book to create bench strength of their teams and be able to elavate organizational capability of their organizations.

EXCELLENT WORK - A MUST READ.......2003-01-30

Julie Bick does an amazing job at giving the reader invaluable insights into one of the most successful companies of the century.

Get it, read it. It's worthy of your time.

Disappointing after having read "Microsoft Secrets".......2002-12-24

This book doesn't have the analytical sharpness of "Microsoft Secrets". To me it seemed like a collection of more or less related anecdotes/interviews.
Lots of the advice is not Microsoft sepecific e.g. "Be Nice, Even When They're Not in the Room"

Must read for all budding professionals.......2002-03-06

Loved the way ideas are presented. Thanks to the author for giving us such a wonderful book and helping the budding careers of so many professionals!

A Perfect Power Read For Executive Travelers!.......2001-06-17

Julie Bick provides a powerful insight into the inner dwellings of one of the world's most dynamic companies. Executives of small and large companies alike will enjoy this as a perfect power read while travelling. I liked it so much, I ordered the first book as soon as I got off the plane!

Inside Microsoft.(Review) (book review): An article from: Alaska Business Monthly

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Inside Microsoft.(Review) (book review): An article from: Alaska Business Monthly
Henry Holtzman
Manufacturer: Alaska Business Publishing Company, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008GW9ZU
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Alaska Business Monthly, published by Alaska Business Publishing Company, Inc. on February 1, 2000. The length of the article is 654 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Inside Microsoft.(Review) (book review)
Author: Henry Holtzman
Publication: Alaska Business Monthly (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2000
Publisher: Alaska Business Publishing Company, Inc.
Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Page: 56

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Incorporates the many tools needed for modeling and pricing in finance and insurance

Introductory Stochastic Analysis for Finance and Insurance introduces readers to the topics needed to master and use basic stochastic analysis techniques for mathematical finance. The author presents the theories of stochastic processes and stochastic calculus and provides the necessary tools for modeling and pricing in finance and insurance. Practical in focus, the book's emphasis is on application, intuition, and computation, rather than theory.

Consequently, the text is of interest to graduate students, researchers, and practitioners interested in these areas. While the text is self-contained, an introductory course in probability theory is beneficial to prospective readers.

This book evolved from the author's experience as an instructor and has been thoroughly classroom-tested. Following an introduction, the author sets forth the fundamental information and tools needed by researchers and practitioners working in the financial and insurance industries:
* Overview of Probability Theory
* Discrete-Time stochastic processes
* Continuous-time stochastic processes
* Stochastic calculus: basic topics

The final two chapters, Stochastic Calculus: Advanced Topics and Applications in Insurance, are devoted to more advanced topics. Readers learn the Feynman-Kac formula, the Girsanov's theorem, and complex barrier hitting times distributions. Finally, readers discover how stochastic analysis and principles are applied in practice through two insurance examples: valuation of equity-linked annuities under a stochastic interest rate environment and calculation of reserves for universal life insurance.

Throughout the text, figures and tables are used to help simplify complex theory and pro-cesses. An extensive bibliography opens up additional avenues of research to specialized topics.

Ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, this text is recommended for one-semester courses in stochastic finance and calculus. It is also recommended as a study guide for professionals taking Causality Actuarial Society (CAS) and Society of Actuaries (SOA) actuarial examinations.

Download Description

Incorporates the many tools needed for modeling and pricing in finance and insurance Introductory Stochastic Analysis for Finance and Insurance introduces readers to the topics needed to master and use basic stochastic analysis techniques for mathematical finance. The author presents the theories of stochastic processes and stochastic calculus and provides the necessary tools for modeling and pricing in finance and insurance. Practical in focus, the bok's emphasis is on application, intuition, and computation, rather than theory. Consequently, the text is of interest to graduate students, researchers, and practitioners interested in these areas. While the text is self-contained, an introductory course in probability theory is beneficial to prospective readers. This book evolved from the author's experience as an instructor and has been thoroughly classroom-tested. Following an introduction, the author sets forth the fundamental information and tools needed by researchers and practitioners working in the financial and insurance industries: Overview of Probability Theory Discrete-Time stochastic processes Continuous-time stochastic processes Stochastic calculus: basic topics The final two chapters, Stochastic Calculus: Advanced Topics and Applications in Insurance, are devoted to more advanced topics. Readers learn the Feynman-Kac formula, the Girsanov's theorem, and complex barrier hitting times distributions. Finally, readers discover how stochastic analysis and principles are applied in practice through two insurance examples: valuation of equity-linked annuities under a stochastic interest rate environment and calculation of reserves for universal life insurance. Throughout the text, figures and tables are used to help simplify complex theory and pro-cesses. An extensive bibliography opens up additional avenues of research to specialized topics. Ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, this text is recommended for one-semester courses in stochastic finance and calculus. It is also recommended as a study guide for professionals taking Causality Actuarial Society (CAS) and Society of Actuaries (SOA) actuarial examinations.

Book Description

Hiermit wird eine Ubersetzung der Bucher 6, 7 und 7A des niederlandischen Burgerlichen Gesetzbuches vorgelegt. Der Band enthalt den aktuellen Gesetzestext im Original und -- in direkter Gegenuberstellung -- die vom niederlandischen Justizministerium authorisierte deutsche Ubersetzung. Die Ubersetzung erfolgte durch ein Team niederlandischer und deutscher Juristen, die durch Studien im jeweils anderen Land rechtsvergleichende Erfahrung gesammelt haben. Buch 6 des `Burgerlijk Wetboek' enthalt das Allgemeine Schuldrecht einschlieslich des allgemeinen Vertragsrechts, in das das Recht der Allgemeinen Geschaftsbedingungen integriert worden ist. Zum allgemeinen Schuldrecht zahlen auch das Deliktsrecht und das Bereicherungsrecht. Buch 7 umfast Regelungen des Besonderen Vertragsrechts: Kauf und Tausch, Auftrag (incl. Vermittlungsvertrag, Handelsvertretervertrag, Vertrag uber medizinische Behandlung), Reisevertrag, Verwahrung, Burgschaft, Feststellungsvertrag (incl. Vergleich). Buch 7A ist als Fortsetzung von Buch 7 zu begreifen. Es enthalt insbesondere den Abzahlungskauf, Miete, Arbeits- und Werkvertrag, Gesellschaft, Schenkung, Leihe und Darlehen. Die Bucher 6 und 7 gehoren zu dem am 1.1.1992 in Kraft getretenen `Nieuw Burgerlijk Wetboek', das die modernste Kodifikation Europas darstellt. Eine Einfuhrung in die Materie gibt einen Uberblick uber die gesetzlichen Regelungen und assoziiert mit ihnen Vorschriften aus BGB und HGB. Mit Hilfe der zweisprachigen Gliederung des Gesetzestextes und des zweisprachigen Stichwortregisters last sich der Text leicht erschliessen. Der Band bildet einen Teil der in derselben Reihe erscheinenden Ubersetzung des gesamten niederlandischen Burgerlichen Gesetzbuches.

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The rabbit skin cap: A tale of a Norfolk countryman's youth (The Norfolk library)
George Baldry
Manufacturer: Waveney Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Agricultural Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
General | England | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0851150454

Average customer rating:
THE RABBIT SKIN CAP: A TALE OF A NORFOLK COUNTRYMAN'S YOUTH.

Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GR9CAQ

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The Rabbit Skin Cap. A Tale Of A Norfolk Countryman's Youth
GEORGE ( Ed. Lilias Rider Haggard) BALDRY
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CHTQA

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The Rabbit Skin Cap: A Tale of a Norfolk Countryman's Youth
George Baldry and Lilias Rider Haggard
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HE9RUI

Book Description

This is an exciting time to produce an overview of the systematics and evolution of the fungi. Molecular and subcellular characters have given us our first view of the true phylogeny of the fungi. The systematic chapters present detailed illustrated treatments of specific fungal groups with the authors' interpretation of the systematics of that group as well as a survey of specific economic, ecological, morphological, ultrastructural, molecular and cultural data. Other chapters, in addition to treating techniques useful in modern mycology, provide the reader with views of the place of the fungi among the Eukaryotes and relationships within the Mycota. Volume VII, Part A, includes an overview of the fungal hierarchy, Pseudomycota, Chytridiomycota, Zygomycota, Ascomycota and their yeasts, and anamorphic states. Volume VII, Part B, includes the Basidiomycota and their yeasts, and chapters on speciation, molecular evolution, preservation, computer techniques, and nomenclature.

Book Description

This guide enables students of human geography to take a critical look at the theory and practices that together comprise GIS. It outlines the value - both intellectual and technical - of GIS for human geographers, recognising the positive effects GIS has had on the discipline but also pointing out its limitations.The guide addresses issues important to human geographers such as how data are represented through digital models and how different ontologies emerge from different data models. It explores the influence of cultural and social context on the development of theory in GIS. As a means of illustrating the analytical, interpretative and methodological issues associated with GIS problem solving, the text describes two sets of challenges that GIS users and researchers face. The first includes data collection, organization, standardization and the difficulties inherent in interpreting semantics. The second refers to the problem of developing spatial analysis and models Both sets of challenges draw on contemporary research and use examples from on-going research. It also includes a close reading of a GIS analysis from health geography in order to elucidate the conceptual and operational bases of GIS. A final chapter provides an inventory of tools and information related to GIS, covering web-based resources, current texts, and theoretical approaches and critiques of GIS. The guide is supported by a website featuring contemporary GIS scholars and the intellectual territory they tread.

Customer Reviews:

GIS: A Short Introduction .......2005-08-10

I started my foray into the book by reading the back cover blurb. A seemingly undelivered promise comes up immediately. The back cover states "A final chapter provides an inventory of tools and information related to GIS, covering web-based resources, current texts, and theoretical approaches and critiques of GIS". I was not able to find such a chapter and the accompanying website had only colour figures when I checked.

Next, I turned to the font cover and focused my attention to the graphic. Usually a graphic or sign is intended to convey some meaning, information, or message (semiotics). The graphic on the book's font cover is a blurred collage of seemingly unrelated images. The pasting together of the images shows clearly at the middle of the cover where there is an overlapping image join. In a postmodern world, image is paramount and the font and back cover misses begin to cast doubts about the attention to detail that one can expect in the book's contents. Thumbing through the book and finding little by way of intricate arguments, I decided to gave chapter 2 a detailed read. Here is what I found:

p.24
"Mark Monmonier's book 'How to lie with maps', had tackled precisely the same issues, illustrating that maps are a means to exercise and enforce relations of power".
- The use of this reference to illustrate power relations is weak. 'How to lie with maps' is an excellent book that focuses on documenting how maps can and has been modified to communicate diverse and competing messages, and stops short of discussing power relations in detail. The lesser known book - Denis Wood's (The power of maps) - would have been a more convincing choice.

p.27
Figure 2.1 gives the impression that the time order of occurence of the paradigms are social constructivism, positivism, and realism. That implicit time order may not be correct. Also, positivism, realism, etc are referred to as epistemologies (this is the source of much confusion in the GIS ontology literature); these are philosophical paradigms that differ on ontologies, epistemologies and praxis.

p.28
"... conduct analysis in an attempt to prove the null hypothesis false"
- This statement misrepresents the logic of hypothesis testing. A hypothesis is never proved - i.e. we cannot determine its essential truth. The best we can do is accumulate enough evidence that would either confirm or reject the null hypothesis.

p.29
"Moreover, very little GIS research is conducted under the assumption of positivist scientific method"
- There seems to be no recognition about the differences between fundamental/theoretical and applied research. In fundamental/theoretical GIS research, positivist methods are used sparingly. However, in applied GIS research, positivist methods are used extensively. Even exploratory data analysis can be taken as a positivist approach as its purpose is in pattern analysis and hypothesis formation.

p.34
Figure 2.3 shows all the points as (X,Y)
- Using (X1,Y1) and (X2,Y2) to clearly distinguish the data points would be an improvement. As the figure stands, all the points are mathematically the same, which conveys the wrong message. Relate this to p.137 where figure 5.1 is referred to as a histogram when it is more of a bar graph.

I would hesitate to recommend this book to readers exploring GIS for the first time. It may be suitable for seasoned GIS readers who would better able to nagivate the oversights that appear subtly in the paths across the 5 chapters.

There are some good aspects of the book especially in the philosophical foundations of GIScience, but the technical and conceptual oversights cast a dark shadow over them. Any of the following books would do a more systematic job at informing the uninitiated GIS user and learner:

DeMers, Michael N. 2003. Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems, 2nd. ed. (update edition), John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

Ian Heywood, Sarah Cornelius, and Steve Carver (2002), An introduction to geographical information systems, New York: Prentice Hall, 2002

C.P. Lo and Albert K.W. Yeung, (2002), Concepts and techniques of geographic information systems, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

An excellent book on the intellectual territory of GIS.......2004-03-26

I like this book and I think it needs to be widely read. But, I believe that the title is misleading. There are many people who will read the title and think it is a simple or light introduction to GIS. It may be short, but it is neither simple nor light reading. Make no mistake, this is not "GIS for Dummies."

This book is a highly intelligent discussion of some of the philosophical underpinnings of GIS. For anyone interested in or concerned about the social consequences of using geographic technologies to inform decisions that affect public welfare, this book is the place to start, whether they come from the GIS or human geography community.

Chapter 1 does a fine job of introducing the context and content of GIS. Chapter 2 introduces the reader to the epistemology and ontologies of GIS. While this is an excellent overview of these topics, it is not for everyone. There are many in the GIS community who will not want to be introduced to the ontologies of space, no matter how important some of us feel it is. Chapter 3 introduces some of the problems with geographic and is one of the best discussion of GIS that I have read. Chapter 4 introduces the reader to what I feel is the heart of GIS, spatial analysis. This is an area that deserves several hundred pages, but the coverage here appropriate given the scope of the book. The last chapter discusses training and research. I would have preferred more emphasis on spatial literacy, but it does make the point of the importance of geographic science education. Software training is simply an inadequate basis for intelligent use of GIS.

I recommend this book for all students in GIS degree programs. Also, it is an excellent beginning for those in the field of human geography or social theory who are interested in the applications of this new technology. Of course, anyone teaching GIS needs to have a clear understanding of the concepts presented in this book.

Average customer rating:
GIS: a Short Introduction.(Book Review) : An article from: The Canadian Geographer
Ladona Knigge
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000CR8M7Y
Release Date: 2005-12-08

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Canadian Geographer, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2005. The length of the article is 678 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: GIS: a Short Introduction.(Book Review)
Author: Ladona Knigge
Publication: The Canadian Geographer (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Page: 314(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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A bright, shining light...

One Equall Light: An Anthology of the Writings of John Donne
Rowan Williams
Manufacturer: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0802827721

Customer Reviews:

A bright, shining light..........2004-06-11

John Donne, in addition to being one of the leading lights in Anglican church history as well as the art of use of the English language, was once Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, London - a distinction he shares with John Moses, the editor of this great volume of his work. The volume begins on an auspicious note, with a Foreword by the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who likens Donne to both a saint and sinner (which, of course, he was); his contribution to the English language is rare in both poetry and prose, and his legacy as part of the Anglican tradition and ethos is unending.

John Moses begins with a three-part introduction about Donne, his life, work, and spirit. Dating events and writings are difficult, but the overall development is fairly clear. Donne's poetry is much better known than his sermons (despite the fact that some excerpts - 'For whom the bell tolls', for example - come from sermon and meditation sources), but Donne's popularity has experienced a resurgence of late. This is part of the impetus for this volume. There is an irony here, since Donne apparently was interested and well organised in preserving his sermons, but didn't seem to care much to preserve his poetry.

Moses' introductory essays (which include a piece on Donne's time at St. Paul's, undoubtedly a labour of love in contrast and comparison with Moses' own experience) are only a small portion of the volume. By far the greatest portion is the collection of quotations, more than 1000 of them, organised topically. Throughout the texts, some as short as a few lines, and some which go on for pages, there is a tension between the sacred and secular, the worldly and the otherworldly. Donne's fitful life, full of passion and despair, triumph and failure, provides a very fertile field from which Donne's poetic voice and prose compositions spring.

Donne married his love, Ann, against the wishes of her father, who cut them off and cost Donne his job. Years of poverty and the reliance on strangers gave Donne both a sense of grace and gratitude as well as a sense of despair and tragedy; through love and generosity, anger and passion, foolishness and sublime creativity, Donne experienced life fully, and incorporated this into his writing. Ann's relatively early death most likely inspired Donne to a deeper religious sense of vocation and connection with God.

As part of the group of writers who formed the English Renaissance, Donne was a true artist, even though he didn't acknowledge his early poetry later in his life. Along with writers such as Marlowe, Spenser, Bacon, and Shakespeare, Donne's influence continues to be felt in diverse ways throughout ages of poets and writers, to the present generations. T.S. Eliot is but the brightest of twentieth century lights to owe much to Donne.

Donne's Anglican sensibilities also help define the present via media of the church - living at a time between solid Roman Catholicism and solid state Anglicanism, he learned to navigate a middle path with skill and sensitivity, never being contrived or forced in directions lacking spiritual integrity. This sense is greatly needed in the church today.

This is a glorious volume, full of life, and light.

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