Australia: Nation, Belonging, and Globalization (Globalizing Regions)

Book Description

In the past quarter century, Australia has become fully integrated into the globalizing world. Adjacent to the explosive economies of Southeast Asia, Australia has become even more connected to Anglo-American culture. Of greatest importance its population has grown increasingly diverse.
Anthony Moran traces the development of contemporary Australian society in the global age, focusing on four major themes: settler/indigenous relations; economics and culture since the 1980s and their impact on national identity; the effects of increasing diversity fostered by globalization; and the transformation of Australian social space wrought by globalization.
The book is ideal for students studying globalization, Australia and Southeast Asia's place in the wider world.
Books in this series look at how nations and regions across the world are navigating the tumultuous currents of globalization. Concise, descriptive, interdisciplinary, and theoretically informed, they serve as ideal introductions to the peoples and places of our increasingly globalized world.

Book Description

Written prior to adoption of the Euro, this volume explores the likely impact of monetary union. Some of the best European and American economists use available theories and data, including historical evidence, to look at the operation of monetary and fiscal policy, at the effects of shocks and at the international role of the euro. This book serves as the reference for understanding the early challenges of EMU.Kenneth Rogoff (Princeton University) discusses the role of the EU in the world's underground economy, suggesting that it is quite plausible for approximately one-half of euro currency to be held outside the legal domestic economy of Europe, and this is fostered by the plan of issuing large euro denomination notes.Barry Eichengreen (University of California, Berkeley) and Charles Wyplosz (Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva) analyze whether a Stability Pact is really needed in order to underpin EMU, provide new evidence on whether the Pact will reduce financial contagion, and assess how much the ceiling on budget deficits will exacerbate normal cyclical recessions.Antonio Fatés (INSEAD, Fontainebleau) examines the correlation and persistence of shocks, and their implications for potential fiscal flows within EMU. He argues that the benefits that a European-wide fiscal federation would add to the output smoothing that individual countries can achieve via their own fiscal policy do not compensate the costs associated with its implementation.Rudiger Dornbusch (MIT), Carlo Favero (IGIER, Universita Bocconi) and Francesco Giavazzi (IGIER, Universita Bocconi) challenge previous estimates of asymmetries in monetary transmission across potential EMU members, relate their new estimates of asymmetry to differences in financial structure, and discuss implications for a common monetary policy in EMU.Richard Portes (London Business School) and Hélène Rey (Centre for Economic Performance, LSE) examine whether the euro will displace the US dollar as the world's leading currency. Looking at synergies between financial and foreign exchange markets, they conclude that the most likely ultimate outcome is a bipolar world, where the euro and the dollar share leadership.Marc Flandreau (OFCE, Paris), Jacques Le Cacheux (OFCE, Paris) and Frédéric Zumer (Service d'Étude de l'Activitie Economique, Paris) ask if there are lessons to be learnt from the Gold Standard period when all currencies were 'permanently' tied to gold, yet there were no policy rules similar to the Stability Pact. They find that numerous countries at the periphery of Europe were forced to suspend convertibility in the wake of serious public debt build-ups in the mid-1890s, but that once they re-entered, fiscal discipline was strictly enforced.Maurice Obstfeld and Giovanni Peri (both at University of California, Berkeley) use regional data to document how slowly regions within European countries respond to shocks, discuss consequent pressures for fiscal transfers, and assess the extent to which EMU exacerbates these problems.

Book Description

An IT decision-maker's road map to creating scalable and reliable Windows 2000 clustered systems.

Clustering Windows 2000 explains what a cluster is and what it is not. It explains the concepts and technology from the perspective of Microsoft's Windows family of operating systems. Mauler and Beebe thoroughly explore the critical interaction and integration of state-of-the-art computer hardware with these operating systems and also with third-party layered solutions. However, more than teaching technology, the book provides a unique framework by which readers can evaluate their organizations' own clustering needs. The new Cluster Configuration MatrixC presented here allows them to determine the utility of the many clustering products and solutions given their companies' specific requirements for high availability. Clustering Windows 2000 enables IT professionals to create a highly effective clustering strategy that can grow with their organizations' needs and accommodate ongoing developments in clustering technology.

This unique book is for everyone from system designers to IT managers who want a solid understanding of the optimal products and technologies they can use in creating "clusters" of computers to support truly enterprise-caliber programs.

Demystifies Windows clustering from both a hardware and software viewpointDefines clustering terminology and concepts from a vendor-neutral perspectiveProvides a matrix for evaluating the multitude of cluster technology offerings

Customer Reviews:

Cannot Stick to a topic.......2003-06-29

This gave almost no information about clustering windows servers. I believe that if you gathered up all of the information on Windows Cluster server out of this book you might fill a couple of pages. Most information is on technologies (Hardware) and theories. This book may also be good for someone who needs to build a budjet for the job. but as far as real world information goes.... Just another book on the shelf

Book Description

SmartStart was designed to eliminate financial and bureaucratic confusion by providing you with the most current contact information for federal, state, and local agencies. Its appendices contain brief descriptions of each regulatory agency and include addresses, phone numbers, and links to World Wide Web information. Detailed, accurate, and jargon-free, SmartStart is an invaluable reference for any business.

SmartStart leads the reader through the legal and practical considerations of setting up a small business, and contains a long list of up-to-the-minute regulatory requirements that can help you to determine the best structure for your company, find necessary financing, develop a marketing strategy, choose the right insurance, hire and keep loyal employees, and even set up and equip your office efficiently. Small Business Development Centers and entrepreneurial education programs throughout the country currently use and recommend SmartStart books to professionals and students alike.

Just look at what SmartStart includes: sample forms, sample business plan, detailed economic and demographic information, and comprehensive guide to money resources.

SmartStart is designed to help you: determine if you should operate as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or incorporation, register trademarks and apply for local permits, protect yourself and your business through proper tax planning, anticipate the basic issues of expansion, relocation, and interstate commerce.

Average customer rating:
Delaware (Smartstart Your Business in)
Michael D. Jenkins , and PSI Research
Manufacturer: Oasis Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1555712142

Book Description

If you've ever been part of a dull, unproductive, go-nowhere meeting and wished you could do something about it, this book is for you. Here is a simple, down-to-earth guide for making meetings more productive by putting lighthearted humor and fun to work.

Humor sparks creativity, the "stuff" of effective meetings. And like any other skill, humor can be nurtured and cultivated. Whether your meetings are for decision making or learning, whether you want to network or celebrate, whether you are a facilitator or a participant, use the positive power of humor to bring energy and productivity to both your large- or small-group gatherings.

Sheila Feigelson presents time-tested, proven tips and techniques for energizing meetings. With vivid anecdotes and practical examples, she shows how you can meaningfully and purposefully plan for laughter in any segment of your meeting: from arrivals, introductions, and agendas through reports, refreshments, and small-group discussions. She also shows how to use breaks and thank-you's to keep participants interested and active. Professionals and volunteers alike will find dozens of ways to energize their meetings with laughter.

Customer Reviews:

to laugh or not to laugh!.......2002-09-11

When your meetings have become grey with dullness, consider a little humor.

When the seriousness of business seems to have sunk everyone into boredom, try a little comedy.

When your co-workers are sitting like bumps on a log, get the energy going again with a morsel of mania.

Sheila Feigelson comes from a long line of appreciators of humor, & her book offers you ways in which to liven up those dreaded hours of dry statistics & logistics.

She also lets you know when NOT to crack a joke!

Well written, lightly treating a serious subject. Try ENERGIZE YOUR MEETINGS WITH LAUGHTER, you will like it!

to laugh or not to laugh!.......2002-09-04

When your meetings have become grey with dullness, consider a little humor.

When the seriousness of business seems to have sunk everyone into boredom, try a little comedy.

When your co-workers are sitting like bumps on a log, get the energy going again with a morsel of mania.

Sheila Feigelson comes from a long line of appreciators of humor, & her book offers you ways in which to liven up those dreaded hours of dry statistics & logistics.

She also lets you know when NOT to crack a joke!

Well written, lightly treating a serious subject. Try ENERGIZE YOUR MEETINGS WITH LAUGHTER, you will like it, & you will like the change in your meetings!

Wow, my meetings were sooooo energized! Pep! Verve! Pizazz!.......1999-07-27

Sheila Feigelson is incredible, and this book is a knockout. It's chocked full of so many great ideas that the meetings of my corporate board have become the most productive they've ever been. People don't dread coming to the meetings anymore; instead, they start thinking--weeks ahead of time--for ways to be funny and find opportunities for laughing together.

Feigelson's methods could and should revolutionize your meetings. Buy a copy today!

Terrific advice for improving your meetings.......1999-07-01

Sheila Feigelson is an all-star humor-in-meetings innovator. Her book is overflowing with great ideas. I recently tried one of her tips for nametags and increased donations from my non-profit board by 25 percent. Our meetings have become more productive, and nobody throws things anymore. Thank you, Sheila! Everyone should buy this book. I'm buying ten more copies right now!

Book Description

An easy-to- follow 10-step strategy helps job hunters land rewarding work in the mile-high city.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent tips and information!.......2001-10-24

I found this book to be an excellent resource! It has helped me find many companies in the Denver area that I would like to work for. I also really like the extra details that were provided with most of the companies' description -- like the types of positions they have, and common desired qualifications. It helped me narrow down my list of potential employers.

My only wish is that they update this book soon and release a new Edition! Yet, information from 1999 is still relevant today, for the most part.

Book Description

Quick Cash explores seven fundamental strategies that can be used to raise funds and manage financial hurdles during life's bumps in the road. This motivational, how-to guide goes beyond the standard personal finance book. It offers advice and instruction for those who have experienced some unplanned change-a job loss, unexpected death or divorce-and what a person can do to meet day-to-day living expenses when these sudden changes occur. It also offers advice for planned transitions where current income does not meet current expenses-going back to school, getting married or starting a family.

This consumer-friendly, nuts-and-bolts guide is designed to help the reader focus on what he or she has-instead of on what is not available. It urges the reader to explore several options in order to raise Quick Cash: -- Borrow-from friends and/or family with pointers to keep both sides on friendly terms -- Borrow-against good credit, iffy credit or no credit -- Pawn something-how to do it -- Cash something in-borrowing against life insurance or your 401(k) -- Sell something-collectibles, antiques, garage sales -- Earn it-overtime, freelancing, temping -- Find it-track down money that people have lost

Customer Reviews:

First step to making your comeback................2007-10-12

As the author of Extraordinary Comebacks, how very well I know that financial setbacks are one of the most common. But they can be overcome. One of our 201 comeback story subjects started with $200, and built a reported $20 million business (Paula Deen)! A trader lost $800,000 in one day, and spent years working two jobs to pay it back -- but when he did, he was on the road to becoming a top futures trader (Mark D. Cook). Even Donald Trump faced insolvency, and bankruptcy (1990). So if you've been knocked down, financially, you're in good company indeed. They all made a comeback, so can you.

But how to raise a few hundred or a few thousand if you're strapped? Author Richard E. Schell has done a yeomen's duty here of cataloging literally scores of ways to come up with cash that may not have occurred to you under the major headings: ask for it, borrow it, sell it, earn it, find it. Extensive lists onboard will fire your gray matter and get you brainstorming. Many helpful links to creative web sites as well. Just as important: advice on what NOT to do during your financial crisis (you don't want legal problems in addition; the author is an attorney). Highly recommended.

The worst nonfiction book I've ever read by far........2005-08-27

Apparently nobody proofreaded this book. Worse, it contains nothing you don't know already. It's just a short list of the most obvious ways to raise money anyone's ever devised. The author spends 39 pages of this tiny, well-padded book BSing about obvious loan sources.

This is the worst nonfiction book I've ever read. (The worst fiction book I've ever read was "House on Mango Street", by Sandra Cisneros. Cisneros's book was worse than "Quick Cash".)

Helps You Breathe Easier During Tough Financial Times.......2004-06-01

This book is a no-nonsense, user friendly guide with great suggestions for finding and making quick money when you need it most - like when you're out of work or about to be "downsized." The author knows what he's talking about and it shows. His advice and instructions can make the difference between holding on or falling apart. I highly recommend Richard Schell's book, Quick Cash, to anyone in financially draining circumstances. And these days, that seems to be more and more of us!

Quick Read for Quick Cash.......2004-05-28

I heard author Richard Schell speak about Quick Cash, and found the book as easy to read as Schell was to listen to -- and just as self-deprecating and humorous at times.

Schell is right, the strategies to raise cash -- whether it is to pay off bills or decide whether your child is going to Camp Timberwolf or Camp Nickelodeon for the summer are with in reach -- just so long as you don't wait for someone to hand you money for doing nothing! Schell tells you just what to do.

Quick Read for Quick Cash.......2004-05-28

I heard author Richard Schell speak about Quick Cash, and found the book as easy to read as Schell was to listen to -- and just as self-deprecating and humorous at times.

Average customer rating:

Waiting for something better

So you think your colleagues are hard to work with...?

Pass on this One

Hyperbole of personality overshadows the tech inside.

Real life Microserfs

Renegades of the Empire: How Three Software Warriors Started a Revolution Behind the Walls of Fortress Microsoft
Michael Drummond
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Company Profiles | Biography & History | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0609807455

Amazon.com

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is by no accounts a kind, nurturing type of manager. In conversation, according to Renegades of the Empire, Gates is said to challenge and goad people just to see how robustly they'll defend a position. He may not know whether they're right or wrong, but he likes to see how confident they are. In that environment, the meek don't do particularly well. But the three "software warriors" portrayed in Renegades of the Empire were over the top, even by Microsoft standards.

Alex St. John, Eric Engstrom, and Craig Eisler started at Microsoft as evangelists, the guys who persuade companies to create products to run on Microsoft operating systems. All three, separately and together, would end up giving the company fits with their cockiness and contrarian ways. Eventually, they would team up on a project called Chrome, a revolutionary technology designed to bring three-dimensional graphics to the Web. While these three bigger-than-life characters are vividly portrayed, this is mostly a story about technology: where the ideas come from, how it's developed, how internal company politics affects its development, and how outside companies are courted and cajoled to participate. Drummond, a skillful writer and dogged journalist, thoroughly explains all the technology--but, in the end, the acronyms take over. This makes for a tough read if you're not technologically inclined. Still, anyone with the slightest tech background should enjoy this peek behind Microsoft's silicon curtain. --Lou Schuler

Book Description

Competing in the high-tech computer market is a lot like a war -- especially if you work at Microsoft. Bill Gates's gladiators -- his engineers, evangelists, and programmers -- were famous for seizing new terrain and new technology, converting nonbelievers, and always winning . . . no matter what the cost. No one took the lessons of Microsoft more to heart than Craig Eisler, Eric Engstrom, and Alex St. John, a trio of software engineers who were willing to do almost anything to conquer a market of their own, even if that meant disregarding procedure and protocol.

Michael Drummond gained exclusive access to their story, and the result -- in this updated edition -- is a revealing glimpse into the world's most successful company. Renegades of the Empire isn't just a tale of technology and power -- it's a story of fascinating science, of high-tech boys and their toys. Even more, though, it's a tantalizing, behind-the-scenes look at how three engineers conquered an empire.

Customer Reviews:

Waiting for something better.......2005-08-30

One gets the sense from this book that all the great stories of the foundation of the computer age have been told. The rise and fall and rise of Apple, Netscape, Microsoft, et al. I suppose we're still waiting for a gripping account of the rise (and fall?) of Google. Until then, we might have to content ourselves with authors like Drummond who dig up B-list characters and try to cast their marginal contributions to the world of computing as if these men were the chief architects of the Apollo moon landing. You know, they wrote DirectX.

I guess if DirectX was the only solution to some mind bending problem of 3D graphics and we didn't have OpenGL as an example of there being different and arguably better ways to skin a cat, there might be something to this story that would merit Drummond's over-the-top apple polishing. What next, some 300 page history of the guy who wrote the first mouse driver for Windows?

Simply put we have the story of three software developers with such middling talent that Microsoft gave them jobs as "technology evangelists", which is Microsoft's term for "pre-sales engineer" or something. They go out, convince people they should invest in some new Microsoft technology, and they don't write a line of code. Microsoft isn't the kind of company that got anywhere by taking brilliant, innovative software engineers and making them sales guys.

So you think your colleagues are hard to work with...?.......2005-04-02

First and moremost: This is an excellent book which I believe everyone would find enjoyable, especially if you like computers. It is the story of 3 guys who happen to be at Microsoft, but the interesting part is not about Microsoft itself. If it was fiction and the company was made up, the plot would still be interesting it itself.
The books tells how the known predatory tatics Microsoft uses against rival companies are used inside Microsoft between competing teams. How taking a couple of sick days can mean when you come back your project has been cancelled.
This is the price you pay when you work in the same company as the top notch guys. They are the best, but they are also the most ambitious - they will do anything to get it their way. And Microsoft was willing to accept wild parties and huge expense bills as long and it helped its plans ...
I've read a few books about company internals. If I could only own this this would be it.

Pass on this One.......2002-11-22

If you want to read a book on the egotistical founders of DirectX and Chrome and learn how NOT to manage a technology and your employees then this book is for you. They just happened to be at the right place at the right time and rode the msft wave. Save your money.

Hyperbole of personality overshadows the tech inside........2002-07-10

It's nice to know what happened inside of Microsoft for the DirectX and Chrome development drama, but I found author patronising these warriors in a way which is not convincing. It keeps saying that "they are smart, they are super..." but never really showed me why they were so.

It's a book that doesn't have in depth technical juice, and fails to uncover the business acuman in context.

Real life Microserfs.......2001-12-30

I was slightly disappointed with the style and the completion of the book. The author seems very smitten with the main protagonist (St Johns) which led to some boring exchanges and I felt ruined some of it.

Being a person that breifly used Chrome (the Java tool released by Microsoft to do graphics on the Internet) before it was pulled I had always wondered about the people and politics behind it.

The history and development of DirectX is interesting as are the characters that shaped it.

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