Software Ecosystem: Understanding an Indispensable Technology and Industry

Book Description

Software has gone from obscurity to indispensability in less than fifty years. Although other industries have followed a similar trajectory, software and its supporting industry are different. In this book the authors explain, from a variety of perspectives, how software and the software industry are different--technologically, organizationally, and socially.

The growing importance of software requires professionals in all fields to deal with both its technical and social aspects; therefore, users and producers of software need a common vocabulary to discuss software issues. In Software Ecosystem, Messerschmitt and Szyperski address the overlapping and related perspectives of technologists and nontechnologists. After an introductory chapter on technology, the book is organized around six points of view: users, and what they need software to accomplish for them; software engineers and developers, who translate the user's needs into program code; managers, who must orchestrate the resources, material and human, to operate the software; industrialists, who organize companies to produce and distribute software; policy experts and lawyers, who must resolve conflicts inside and outside the industry without discouraging growth and innovation; and economists, who offer insights into how the software market works. Each chapter considers not only the issues most relevant to that perspective but also relates those issues to the other perspectives as well. Nontechnologists will appreciate the context in which technology is discussed; technical professionals will gain more understanding of the social issues that should be considered in order to make software more useful and successful.

Customer Reviews:

Tedious and basic.......2005-09-10

I'm a university student who purchased this book to get a little more insight into how software works / is designed / is integrated into IT. Based on other reviews, I felt this book would do the trick, and would be engaging.

However... this book only describes software in the most rudimentary way. It is essentially a big glossary of basic terms and principles and never probes the dynamics of the relationship between software and the designer, and software and the user.

Furthermore, it is a tedious read. It discusses software with the monotony of my most hated accounting texts.

Bottom-line, if you want the facts and just the facts, buy this book. If you truly want to understand how software is created, the role it plays in our lives, and its potential, keep looking.

Insightful, highly recommended.......2005-02-04

*intersection* of software and business, and the business of software. The authors draw on research in economics, IT, and strategy and bring them together to draw excellent insights at thier intersection. The book is not really about business or software per se. Depending on your background, you might want to skip entire sections that are right up your own alley. If you are a manager looking to REALLY understand how the architecture of IT systems (e.g., at the enterprise level) interacts with business strategy, this book will provide a good exposure. If you are a propellerhead or uber-geek wanting to understand more about how your work shapes, hinders, or facilitates business strategy, this book is just right. I keep up with new research developments in the business of software and feel comfortable saying that the insights in this book are not to be found in other books that exist on the market. The book is very well written, but be forewarned, it is deep. Fully appreciating it requires thought, reflection on what the authors are saying, and a tempered pace. It is not a quick read and not a "how-to" book. My only quibble with this book has nothing to do with its content: Once you get rid of the dust jacket, the quality of its binding and cover printing is absolutely shoddy. Very highly recommended and worth every penny of the forty dollar price.

Complexity Simplified.......2004-08-02

The authors write with uncommon clarity about an industry known for its complexity. Even experienced software developers can get lost in the shifting tides of technology change that periodically sweep the software industry. This book provides a way to get above the waves, and see the whole ocean.

(...)

The authors elegantly write about the interdependency of technology infrastructure and applications. Their presentation of the "chicken-and-egg conundrum" was a little depressing. I had hoped my great "CycleFree Software" invention would revolutionize software infrastructure, but after reading this book I have decided to take up writing plays for children!

Recommended as the basic work on IT industry.......2003-12-13

Varian - Shapiro "Information rules" made it worldwide. Now comes - actually from UC Berkely again - a systematic work about the things many people believe to understand.

Software creation is here seen in context of industry, govrnement and economy - not only business, not merely science.

Excellent reading to get the correct ideas behind the buzzwords. Very good for people, who already got the hunch of important changes happening from Castells (Network Society).

Must Reading for Anyone in Information Technology.......2003-08-15

Messerschmitt and Szyperski have collaborated on a unique book, that provides a snapshot of the software industry from many different vantage points at a time of rapid change in both technology (components and objected oriented programming) and business models (Internet as a channel). The different vantage points they use suggest a number of trends that the software industry will follow over the next decade that are far different from that in the popular trade press or business press. They highlight why software is different intrinsically from an economics vantage point: the first release of a software product can cost significant time and money, yet further copies take relatively little to no time or money to generate; the more copies of software in use, the more valuable the software can become; experience has shown that as the number of people increases to get software product releases done, it can take more time, not less, to finish the work. This book will be like a fine wine: as it ages, it should get better.

Software Ecosystem : Understanding an Indispensable Technology And Industry

Average customer rating:

Software Ecosystem : Understanding an Indispensable Technology And Industry
David G./ Szyperski, Clemens Messerschmitt
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQUT74

Average customer rating:

Software Ecosystem: Understanding an Indispensable Technology and Industry
Clemens Szyperski, Charles D. Ameringer David G. Messerschmitt
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQB856

Book Description

Managing Innovation and Change is the fascinating study of a cutting-edge automation project undertaken at Pirelli General. Written specifically for teaching/learning purposes, this engaging and illuminating book offers an ideal introduction to the processes and issues of managing organizational innovation and change. The story covers 10 years of highs and lows in a major initiative by Pirelli General--the creation and operation of an automated "factory of the future," using the most advanced computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems possible, coupled with innovative human resource management of a "multiskilled" workforce. Carrying implications for the company's international competitive sector strategy, the development holds a worldwide strategic significance for Pirelli. Each chapter explores and illustrates a particular theme, introduced by concise overviews of the main theories, concepts, and debates in the relevant literature, and concludes with questions for discussion. Managing Innovation and Change provides superb material for undergraduate and MBA students of human resources management, organizational behavior, industrial relations, technology management and strategic management and those requiring an initial introduction to management studies.

Book Description

Agricultural markets have entered a long-term process of liberalization, with the aim of reducing imposed market imperfections such as monopolistic public trade, entry barriers and subsidies. The experience of more than a decade of agriculture liberalization offers a good opportunity to review and analyze the outcome of this process and to draw lessons for the future. The central topic in Agricultural Markets Beyond Liberalization is the relationship between market structure and how markets perform in a dynamic context during a liberalization process. The topic is studied from both a micro and macro viewpoint and refers to different types of agricultural markets. This volume brings together the dynamics of agricultural markets in several parts of the world, with a special focus on transition economics and Africa. The different studies cover geographical areas as wide as a district as well as a group of countries, and institutions from individual contracts to multi-national organizations. The analysis of liberalization under different circumstances, and the different methods of analysis used by the authors provide a valuable foundation for the assessment of liberalization.

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Beyond Market Liberalization

Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

What do biologists want? If, unlike their counterparts in physics, biologists are generally wary of a grand, overarching theory, at what kinds of explanation do biologists aim? How will we know when we have "made sense" of life? Such questions, Evelyn Fox Keller suggests, offer no simple answers. Explanations in the biological sciences are typically provisional and partial, judged by criteria as heterogeneous as their subject matter. It is Keller's aim in this bold and challenging book to account for this epistemological diversity--particularly in the discipline of developmental biology.

In particular, Keller asks, what counts as an "explanation" of biological development in individual organisms? Her inquiry ranges from physical and mathematical models to more familiar explanatory metaphors to the dramatic contributions of recent technological developments, especially in imaging, recombinant DNA, and computer modeling and simulations.

A history of the diverse and changing nature of biological explanation in a particularly charged field, Making Sense of Life draws our attention to the temporal, disciplinary, and cultural components of what biologists mean, and what they understand, when they propose to explain life.

Customer Reviews:

Clear, interesting writing style.......2006-11-06

The method of material presentation made reading clear, understandable and interest as well as curiowity provoking.

A question biologists rarely ask any more.......2005-05-10

Modern biologists rarely concern themselves with what life is. As François Jacob put it, "today we don't interrogate life in our laboratories", and Henri Atlan put it even more plainly: "Today a molecular biologist does not need to use the word 'life' for his work." Nonetheless, at the beginning of the twentieth century there was a lot of interest in defining life, with what now seem to be incredibly optimistic predictions of how long it would take to create life artificially. A little of this interest has survived until now, though Jacob and Atlan are right in regarding it as being far removed from the everyday preoccupations of practising biologists. In this interesting but demanding book, Evelyn Fox Keller traces the development from Stéphane Leduc at the beginning of the twentieth century to the artificial life enthusiasts of today.

Leduc thought that the appearance of forms resembling plants produced by osmotic effects in concentrated colloidal mixtures of inorganic salts had something to tell us about the emergence of life. Although he did not claim that these forms were actually living, some of his supporters were less restrained, and even during his lifetime Leduc became completely marginalized. A different fate awaited his near contemporary d'Arcy Thompson, whose famous book On Growth and Form has retained its appeal up to the present day. Keller is probably right, however, when she writes "yet, for all its fame, I suspect that few people today actually read On Growth and Form, and fewer still know what to make of it". Certainly, few of his admirers appreciate how far removed was his thinking from the neo-darwinism that dominates modern biology.

Keller's careful analysis of Leduc's and Thompson's ideas in the earlier part of the book is not, unfortunately, matched by an equally thorough examination of their successors in theoretical biology. Although she devotes several pages to the career of Nicolas Rashevsky, for example, she barely mentions Rashevsky's ideas, concentrating almost entirely on the political aspects of his career, describing how his early success in establishing a school of theoretical biology in Chicago collapsed in 1954 when his funding evaporated. More serious still, Keller ignores Robert Rosen completely -- mentioning him only in the notes at the end of the book, and then not as a major thinker in his own right but simply as Rashevsky's former student and the writer of his obituary. Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, do not even rate the minimal recognition accorded to Rosen: their names are not mentioned, and neither is their theory of autopoiesis.

In the latter part of the book, therefore, Keller appears to have missed the opportunity to examine ideas of complexity and the importance of treating systems as systems rather than as no more than as collections of components. She takes modern "systems biology" (which is concerned more with complicatedness than with complexity) essentially at its practioners' own valuation; likewise with other trendy ideas like cellular automata, artificial life and so on.

Keller's Life and Times of Genetics.......2003-03-01

Keller's book is a fascinating read about genetics today, but just as fascinating about the intellectual developments that preceded today's thinking. She appreciates the thrill of the chase, but also provides the longer view, showing how scientific explanations that were satisfying to the scientists of a given day have frequently turned out to have little bearing on subsequent science-as our museums, T. Kuhn and Keller herself show. And the explanatory nuggets that scientists mine, which put science at the head of society's power train, often turn into the dusty errata of ensuing decades for reasons connected with researcher's attitudes. (This seems to be a factor some ambitious scientists resent contemplating.) She tracks the inclination of researchers and thinkers to project intentions on the gene-an ingrained "agentic" factor. Particularly interesting is what happened when physicists (she's one herself) tried to apply their particular skills and world view on biology-it seems that the powerful, overall formulas of physics, so brilliant in particle analysis and thinking about the universe on a grand scale, simply don't reach down to the particular instances of biology (Turing's theoretical description of the development of Drosophilia may be highly elegant and efficient, but as it turns out the fly, like Frank Sinatra, prefers to do it its own way). Keller writes clearly and well about her subject-her book also gives a rundown of future directions for genetic research-but for me the fun is in Keller's tracing how the search for knowledge is shaped differently from era to era; Keller's book gives us a glimpse of the waters that knowledge swims in.

History, but no explaining.......2002-11-24

I was rather disappointed in this book. Keller's view of 'explanation' is that it is relative to the needs of each particular culture and their historical time (p. 5). As such, she does not really critique or analyze the various historical concepts to any degree. Essentially, she presents what happened, and who did it, and how some things fell in or out of favor at a given time.

The result is that this book is essentially a narrative of approximately the last century of the history of biology. In that regard, it does succeed somewhat at attempting to condense the efforts of 100+ years of biology into about 300 pages. That is why I gave it two stars.

However, as Keller is a MIT philosopher of science and also trained in theoretical physics, I had expected more analytic depth, and some kind of "edge" - some thesis or thread or some other kind of thematic reason for her to be telling us all this history. Even on the most fundamental question of biology, "what is life?", Keller equivocates, calling it "a historical question, answerable only in terms of the categories that we as human actors choose to honor, and not in logical, scientific or technical terms." (p.294) Indeed, she does not even mention Schrodinger's 1943 lecture, "What is Life?"

The chapters on AI/AL are quite weak, focusing heavily on cellular automata (she mentions Wolfram several times). These tinker-toy computer games are about as close to life as a simulation of an earthquake is to an actual earthquake, in my opinion. Keller, however, describes computer simulations as being part of the 'revitalized' mathematical biology program.

She recounts the 'original' mathematical biology program as the one primarily led by Rashevsky, but also mentions Waddington and Turing. I find it odd that she did not mention Robert Rosen at all, considering he continued on after Rashevsky. I admit I am an admirer of Rosen's works, but her failure to even mention him seems odd considering she devotes an overly large number of pages to Turing's addition to mathematical biology.

Further, had she read Rosen's _Essays on Life Itself_, she would see that mimetic attempts at creating life with computer simulations is utterly ill-conceived. But, then again, since Keller engages in no analysis anyway, I should not be surprised at this.

Finally, Keller claims she shares some similarity to the philosopher of science Nancy Cartwright in believing that there is no set of universal laws of physics (and hence, in Keller's view, no universal set of laws of biology). Cartwright (who's books I admire) makes a good case for there being ontological reasons for this view (see Cartwright's _The Dappled World_). By contrast, Keller sees it as an epistemological problem, because the world is "irreducibly complex" and because of the "disunity of human interests". (p. 301) I think Keller misconstrues Cartwright completely when Keller contrasts her position with one alleging "an underlying incoherence" to the world. Cartwright never supposed, or proposed, 'incoherence' of nature in her writing; rather, Cartwright attempts to make sense of the ontological basis for the patchwork manner of physical laws.

Amazon.com

It's true, Robert Utley writes, that mountain men such as "Crazy Bill" Williams and Jeremiah "Liver-Eating" Johnson were an unlearned, unwashed, drunk, and violent bunch who tore a bloody swath across the then-unconquered American West from the 1810s to the 1840s. Yet their travels across deserts and plains and over high mountains yielded a huge body of geographical knowledge that would enable American pioneers to cross the Mississippi and traverse the continent in relative security. Utley, a historian with a fluent narrative style, tells the stories of hard-fighting men like Jim Bridger, Benjamin Bonneville, Kit Carson, and Joseph Walker, whose names now figure prominently on maps of the region but are otherwise little remembered.

Customer Reviews:

Great base-level review of history of the mountain men.......2006-01-22

Utley provides plenty of color mixed with easy reading and a biographical narrative style.

The biographical style, with each chapter focused on one or two mountain men, brings the personal color and larger-than-life characters of these rugged individualists to the forefront. It keeps the story as history moving forward at the same time, with the irony that these runaways from Eastern U.S. civilization often wound up serving as scouts for the U.S. Army, the vanguard of the very civilization they had earlier fled.

Scholarly Approach, but Somewhat Dry.......2005-03-12

A Life Wild and Perilous is a thorough and scholarly work of the mapping and settlement of the West. However, it is not dedicated exclusively to the mountain men and how they opened the path to the Pacific, which is the stated premise of the book. I recommend this if you are interested in the efforts of fur business and the military in opening the West, but not as a description of the life of the mountain men. At the times, the detail and prose bog down the narrative, but this book is educational nevertheless.

And You Think You've Roughed It!.......2004-12-31

Robert Utley's "A Life Wild and Perilous..." is a wonderful story of just about the most iconoclastic Americans produced by this country of ours.

The Mountain Men were risk takers, rugged individualists, optimists and American patriots rolled into one (although being patriots did not interfere with some of them taking Mexican or British citizenship when it would help them settle in parts of the West that were not ours before the Mexican-American War).

Utley begins right after the Lewis and Clark expedition, when two of those intrepid expedition members returned to the new lands in search of beaver pelts. The story progresses through the fur trading companies, the likes of Jim Bridger, Kit Carson and ends shortly after the time of Charles Fremont. By the time of the Gold Rush, the mountain men had spent their moment, the victims to changing fashions (beaver pelts were in demand for men's hats primarily) and over trapping as well as growing popular interest in settlement and exploitation of the land.

This book is mostly a chapter examination of the doings of the most famous of the mountain men. Their hard life in the open, scrapes and alliances with natives (many had Indian wives and families), habits of trade and merriment and their epic journeys from there to there are explored in well written and at times riveting detail.

Utley has added to an understanding of the American West by bringing back to life the men who established trade routes, guided the first settlers and importantly mapped and explored the great interior lands of the American continent. This is a great and interesting story told well.

Formidable achievement but not for the uninitiated.......2002-10-13

This is a serious work that gives a complete
chronicle of every detail you could ever want
to know about how the mountain men lived
their perilous lives.
Color maps are a very helpful addition too. It
amazes me how so many books like this
actually leave out any pictorial illustration.
I do wish they were reproduced with the state boundaries
superimposed over them to give you a better idea
where the locations are. (Yes of course those states
weren't founded yet, but we are reading this book at
a time after they WERE; it would help immensely to
know what state the Green River runs through, for example....)

Author Utley appears to have a profound love for the
subject about which he reveals no end of knowledge.
It would be a little difficult to recommend this though
to the casual reader, mainly because Utley doesn't attempt to
reach out to a wide audience. He assumes
a predisposition to the subject, making this book
perhaps not an easy introduction to the mountain men.
There is nothing at all wrong with that, but I feel the
need to take off one point (from what would otherwise
be a sure five-star grade) for his focus on concrete detail,
at the expense of placing the subject into a larger context,
to give the broader significance of what the mountain
men did and what it meant for the country as a whole
-- how their accomplishments shaped our attitudes towards
the idea of westward expansion, and changed (if at all) our
symbolic image of ourselves as a people. Maybe
they didn't change our attitudes about ourselves
at all.

Exellent book..........2002-04-03

I've read several about this time period and this one was very good, easy to read, interesting.

A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific!

Average customer rating:

A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific!
Robert M. Utley
Manufacturer: Recorded Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: 0788720406

Product Description

If you have ever wondered what is was like to be an explorer in the unspoiled American West of the early 1800s, then this is the audiobook for you. Not only a groundbreaking work of American history by critically acclaimed author Robert M. Utley, A Life Wild and Perilous is also a dramatic story of innovation and survival. Here is your chance to live in the very heart of the American wilderness with legendary trappers and mountain men like Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Tom Fitzpatrick, and Jedediah Smith. You will also see how these men played a major role in pushing our national frontier from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, and fulfilling our nations ideal of Manifest Destiny. Breathtaking in scope, yet filled with the seemingly small decisions that changed the course of a nation, A Life Wild and Perilous is a compelling and fascinating piece of Americana. Travelogue buffs and historians alike will delight in Richard M. Davidsons inspired telling of how the West was really won.

Book Description

Based entirely on research from peer-reviewed journals and randomized controlled trials, Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff is a complete program to prevent and rehabilitate rotator cuff injuries for athletes and non-athletes alike. In less than 100 pages, readers will learn precisely how the rotator cuff works, what can go wrong with it, and then are guided step-by-step through an evidence-based program that takes just minutes a week to complete. Drawing from the latest rotator cuff research, Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff is especially useful for those who have been diagnosed with either a partial or full-thickness rotator cuff tear, experience shoulder pain, do upper body weight lifting, play a sport or have a job that involves repeated arm motions above shoulder level, have been diagnosed with "impingement syndrome," or for anyone simply wanting a healthy and properly functioning rotator cuff.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent resource on treating and preventing injuries..........2007-09-06

This is a great book that concisely explains the anatomy and physiology of the rotator cuff including the bones, muscles, biomechanics, etc. in just enough detail for the average person to understand. It also describes how to distinguish between different types of injuries, how to approach rehabilitating them and collects a lot of rotator cuff injuries in one small volume. While the book is rather expensive for its size, it packs a lot of well-explained information into a small space.

I'm an ex-physiology teaching fellow and scientist. I thought this book was great and turned something that is often difficult to explain into something anyone who can read can understand. The diagrams are good and the book contains no unnecessary detail.

I also agree with other reviewers that while Jim Johnson isn't an expert on rotator cuffs, his book is thoroughly researched and he does have a PT credential and has undoubtedly had 15 years of clinical experience in a teaching hospital environment. This suggests he has a very good nuts and bolts understanding and hands-on experience.

Johnson is "magic"!.......2007-07-09

This is the second book of Jim Johnson's that I have bought. The first one fixed my back pains with a simple exercise to strengthen the Multifidus muscles.

The exercises in this book has significantly reduced pain and increased mobility in my left shoulder, allowing me to sleep through the night and lift my arm over my shoulder.

Review of, "Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff".......2007-06-13

I ordered this book for my brother-in-law who has experienced shoulder pain and not being able to lift his arm higher than shoulder level due to a rotator cuff injury he received in the past. I recommended it to him because of the wonderful results I got using the information in this book to treat my own right shoulder pain.

Having previously read, Jim Johnson's, The Sixty-Second Motivator, and finding it very helpful, I can tell you that I certainly had the motivation to try and stick with an exercise that would relieve my painful and restricting condition. And it sounded to me like my brother-in-law was in the same boat.

I used the Sidelying External Rotation exercise on page 55 of the rotator cuff book and got great results. The first time I tried it I could only manage to raise a 20 ounce can of pineapple about half way up less than ten times. I found the detailed instruction, precautions and notes particularly helpful and feel that carefully following them was why I experienced the gradual recovery. My wife sat beside me making sure I did the exercise slowly and exactly as the book states. After about four weeks I actually worked up to fully raising the can of pineapple 20 times. Later on I increased the weight little by little and began to feel good enough to resume some of the more physically demanding activities on our small farm.

Last week I was actually able to assist with harvesting our hay and didn't suffer during or afterward from any of the shoulder pain or stiffness that I had previously experienced many times. Yes, I was careful about what I did and how I worked, but for me to even attempt to try stacking a 60 pound bale of hay was completely out of the question a few months ago. I went from shoulder pain that caused me sleepless nites and not being able to lift my right arm any higher than shoulder level, to what I consider a darned good day's work.

This book is a real bargain and indeed I consider it invaluable when I think about how it helped me. And as you can see, I heartily recommend it.

So far, so good.......2007-05-11

Just as the book promised, I had a eureka! moment the other day. I bought this book because I have been having unidentified rotator cuff problems for years (I was a baseball and now am an avid softball player). Because everyone talks about rotator cuff tears, I assumed that's what my problem was. After reading Johnson's book, I was surprised and pleased to discover that my problem was most likely simply an impingement, and that no matter what your unspecified problem it is, it is likely to improve from his exercises (he cites the studies that prove this claim). Prior to starting his exercises, it was painful to soap up in the shower, sleep or do anything where I had to reach my back. Now, after just a month of the stretches and strengthening exercises I realized all of a sudden the other day (eureka!) that I have no pain in my shoulders! My range of motion is not where it should be yet in one shoulder, but it's improving. I still have a ways to go, but I'm encouraged by my progress so far.

Johnson's book is written to help people with all severity of rotator cuff problems. Anywhere from being unable to lift an arm overhead to near full utility of the joint. He also gives you measurements by which you can judge your flexibility, which is also nice to help you figure out what "normal" is.

I suppose the question still remains: why don't you just go to a doctor, idiot? I suppose the real answer is the inconvenience of going, the cost, and primarily, just that I'm a DIYer type my nature, and like to fix things on my own when I can.

The only reason I didn't go to 5 stars was because I got the impression from the book that Johnson is really just a guy (in the field) who reviewed some studies and came up with a program. Now, that's a great way to go about things, but I would not call him an *expert* on rotator cuffs. On the plus side, that does make him very easy to understand, as opposed to some of the surgeons out there who have written on the subject.

Dumbbell Training for Strength And Fitness

Average customer rating:

Great little book
Small, low-resolution photos, too wordy
Dumbbell Training for Strength and Fitness
Good Book
Great workouts

Dumbbell Training for Strength And Fitness
Matt Brzycki , and Fred Fornicola
Manufacturer: Blue River Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0976336138

Customer Reviews:

Great little book.......2007-08-25

The book is well illistrated and clearly show how to do a wide variety of exercises with bumbells. Great addition to anyones weight training libary.

Small, low-resolution photos, too wordy.......2007-08-21

This book has too much wordy text that takes too long to get to its points (if any.) The exercises are illustrated with very small, low-resolution blurry black-and-white photos that show little or nothing about the fine points of proper form in doing the movements involved. You can find the same info covered elsewhere just as well or better and illustrated more clearly.

Bottom line: there's added value in dumbell workout but this book doesn't help much, if any.

Dumbbell Training for Strength and Fitness.......2007-08-17

Excellent book for anyone who wants to train with Dumbbells at home. I love this book!
Dumbbell Training for Strength And Fitness

Good Book.......2007-08-17

Good book to show all the basics of dumbells. I was impressed that the people in the book did not look like professional actors but real people.

Great workouts.......2007-07-29

I was a little confused at first because this book calls a deadlift what I would call a squat: a squat what I would call a Bulgarian squat: and a lunge what I would call a split squat. I got that terminology from the Home Workout Bible which I have used for sometime. I recommend that you buy the Home Workout Bible for it's extensive easy to follow list of exercises and variations of each exercise; and also buy this book for its workout programs. I use these programs as a base and the exercises in the Workout Bible for
putting variety in the workouts

Book Description

English Simplified is a concise—only 64 pages—and inexpensive grammar handbook that covers every aspect of grammar and usage, as well as paragraphs, essays, and an introduction to research and documentation. English Simplified has long been the choice of instructors searching for a brief, inexpensive, easy-to-use handbook. English Simplified, 10/e continues to provide comprehensive coverage of grammar and usage, and also includes new material: tips for ESL writers, easy-to-read tables that clarify verb tenses and forms, expanded coverage of word choice, the latest updates on documentation style, and expanded material on note taking, source evaluation, and avoiding plagiarism. A separate, inexpensive exercise book is also available.For anyone interested in improving basic grammar skills.

Customer Reviews:

Simply the Best!.......2007-09-10

This is the best concise reference for English grammar I have seen. It will get you through high school, college, graduate school, and life. Everyone needs to have a copy of this book.

Perfect size reference for grammar and MLA.......2007-07-31

Since I had been out of school for 20 years, I needed something to refresh my grammar skills. This is the perfect size handbook for all grammar and MLA needs.

great.......2005-09-25

the book was in excellent condition, and was shipped to my house right on time.

English Simplified - An Escape from the Boring Grammar Book.......2002-10-27

I'm in tenth grade and am using this book in my English class. Take it from me, a girl who has lived through many a boring and completely useless grammar book, that this book is gold. Not only does it explain grammar and mechanics in a simple (hence the title) way, but it actually is interesting (well, as far as grammar goes...). It appeals to the average reader because it uses modern examples, not the junk from the fifties ("Julie helped her mother in the kitchen while Dan helped his father with the car"). For example, on the first "grammar" day, all of my fellow classmates were astounded that it mentioned "Shakespeare In Love" (the movie).

The book is also very well organized and it is easy to find what you are looking for. There is a good index in the back and a "Quick Locator Chart" on the back cover. Each section is easy to understand with useful charts and examples. And the book is very thin, so for all of us who are suffering from horrible backs due to our heavy backpacks, this book is a gift from heaven.

I urge all teachers to use this book in class, and students who need extra help with grammar of mechanics. Some of my friends from other schools actually use this book so that they can understand the grammar they are leaning from their grammar books.

An editor's dream come true!.......2002-08-28

This book is my bible. It's concise, easy to understand, yet absolutely complete. For the natural-born editors and the ESL students alike. No other book simplifies English better.

Book Description

Illuminated manuscripts are among the richest and most revealing relics of the pre-print Western world, and are central to our understanding of medieval social and cultural history. The British Library boasts the world's finest collection of medieval manuscripts, and in this new and lavishly illustrated survey, Janet Backhouse draws on these collections to provide a comprehensive introduction to these exciting and colourful materials.

The manuscripts featured include bestiaries, psalters, Bibles, books of hours, and medical and herbal collections that originated in workrooms as geographically diverse as the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria and the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem. There is also a great chronological diversity among the selected manuscripts, with examples ranging from the seventh century AD and the Lindisfarne Gospels to early Renaissance offerings.

Each of the almost 220 illluminations presented are accompanied by a caption and have been reproduced in colour. Many of the immages chosen have been reproduced here for the first time.

Customer Reviews:

The most beautiful books from 10 Centuries.......2006-02-27

What a marvellous collection of Illustrated Manuscripts. A couple of other reviewers stated that this was one of the best books of this kind ever published.I certainly have no dispute with them as it is the best I've seen.
Going through this book gives one the feeling of viewing the greatest illustrated books that were the domain of the rich and powerful from the 7th. Century to the 17th.Century. Unless you were of that class,you had little chance of ever seeing,touching and certainly no chance whatsoever of owning one of these books.
Until the Gutenberg press of the 1450's there were no printed books,which meant that any book had to be drawn and lettered printed by hand,taking years of painstaking and highly talented work.Hence,they were extremely expensive and available to the very few.Even someone who owned or had access to books like these,even they would be very lucky if they saw more than a few in their lifetime.In this book we get to see hundreds of the manuscripts from literally hundreds of these rare masterpieces.They come from all over Europe and from a span of roughly a thousand years.
It'as amazing to think that in the 14th.Century,it was possible to build massive Cathedrals;but a book like this for the masses was not even imaginable.

Recommended.......2002-04-27

This is one of the best books on illuminated manuscripts currently available. The book is hardcover, full color throughout, and many nice reproductions. There is a nice variety in the work shown and good commentary. If you get this at the discounted price, this is a hard book to beat in quantity and quality. Along with A History of Illuminated Manuscripts this is a must-have book.

Beautifully reproduced. Excellent clarity and colour!.......1999-10-18

What can I say? I have been researching this specific field now for the last five years, and rarely find such a magnificent reproduction as this! Excellent job on the colour balance, and many miniatures I have not seen in any other books. Well done.

Best "bang for the buck" period illumination book on market........1998-04-08

Best "bang for the buck" period illumination book on the market. Every page is crammed with beautiful, clear color photos of ten centuries of period illumination styles. There are 'leaves' and 'hours' in there that I have never seen before. Best of all (and unlike other books I could name) it's affordable and within the reach of the true 'starving artist' (and it's about time).

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