Other than that, this is a fine introduction to many aspects of Zope and well-known Zope products, though perhaps becoming a little outdated now (summer 2003) with the advent of Plone and the imminent(ish) release of Zope 3. There are some typos, and the book is written in a charming European English: these shouldn't cause you any real problems.

I was hoping that the book would spark his imagination. However, most of the projects were so simple that they only took a few minutes to complete.

Anyway, the drawings are good. Each project comes with a complete list of parts and several drawings. It is just like buying the individual kits.

While the translator is at fault, the publisher is guilty of not taking the blue pencil to this text. This gives such gems as:

Legend has praised one of the Bachs to the skies in particular:

... they made music that was not to be sneezed at.

That the sons would also become musicians was taken for granted.

Of their childhood there was nothing left.

Though time-consuming in any event, the experience was nonetheless rewarding...

To Luther's Reformation belonged above all the lively participation of the congregation in the worship service, especially the German hymns that were sung together, and therefore the cultivation of church music.

These sentences, all taken from the first couple of chapters, stand out like potholes in the road of reading. I couldn't go any further than page 18.

Save your money...

It would be difficult to overstate the influence B. B. King had on Blues music in the 1950's. B. B. was impressed by T-Bone Walker's sound. T-Bone recorded blues songs with jazz musicians in his band. The sound was light and swinging and T-Bone's singing was smooth and sophisticated. T-Bone featured his own guitar playing, using single note guitar solos, which blues players hadn't done before.

Compare T-Bone's approach to B. B. King's approach. B. B.'s band was made up of blues musicians instead of jazz musicians. The beat was heavier than T-Bone's. B. B.'s singing style was more emotionally intense and gospel flavored. His guitar phrases were shorter than T-Bone's.

Many of the young blues stars of the late 1950's liked B. B. King's sound and used B. B. King as a model for their own styles of singing, bandleading and guitar playing. Think of Freddie King, Otis Rush, Magic Sam and Buddy Guy.

Danchin is often dismissive of B. B. King's early records like "Three O'Clock Blues" which he calls "pretty unpolished" and "not a new song". Danchin summarizes B. B.'s early appeal as "the climax of his development as an interpreter; rather than the triumph of an originator." But Freddie King, Otis Rush, Magic Sam and Buddy Guy knew something that Danchin missed. Lowell Fulson's version of "Three O'Clock Blues" didn't sound like B. B. King's version. B. B. King had a new exciting sound that made other people want to play like B. B. King. B. B.'s success was absolutely 'the triumph of an originator.'

Danchin makes an egregious error when he writes "the importance of Jules Bihari in building B. B. King's career has been insufficiently appreciated. It was Jules, rather than King, who usually decided on the arrangements and the musicians, and sometimes it was his ideas that decided the repertoire, as his brother Joe explained in a rare interview: 'On some songs, they had them in their head, but couldn't quite get it together, and there was help. . .You might notice the name of Jules Taub on some songs. That was a pseudonym for Jules Bihari, who worked with the artists."

In the 1950's it was common practice among independent record label owners to collect songwriting royalties that should have been paid to the artist, by claiming phony songwriting credit. When questioned about this practice later the label owners often gave explanations like the one above. A writer familiar with industry practices of the time should have been suspicious, but Danchin isn't. B. B. King writes in his autobiography that the thing he liked best about recording for the Bihari Brothers was that they left him alone in the recording studio and allowed him to do whatever he wanted! Danchin makes B. B. sound like a puppet of Bihari, which the evidence of King's continued sucess after leaving Bihari's record label doesn't support.

The good news is that Sebastian Danchin wrote a book about blues guitar player Earl Hooker, which is much better than this book. The Earl Hooker book is well worth reading if you think you might be even slightly interested in the subject.

1. Each song provides the minimum bars that cover the vocals - - no introductions.
2. While a strum pattern is provided at the front of each song, the only staff for each song is the vocal. Guitar chord diagrams are there, but that is your only clue to the chord voicings. To put it in concrete terms, the music is just not explicit enough.

Now, I recognize that limited demand (or the simplicity of the music) has lead to streamlining in the publication. But prior editions of Sebastian's songbooks were more explicit. For instance, they wrote out the 'boom-chukka-boom-chukka-boom-chukka-boom-chukka' pattern for 'Nashville Cats.' They spelled out the "d'doom-pop, d'doom-pop" for "Daydream." More seriously, they provided the chords for the intro of "Do You Believe In Magic?" They gave you the notes for the intro to "Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?" (I could list others.) All of these songs are limited to two pages of vocal lines and guitar tabs, no intros.

I have only had the book for one day, but I have also seen a discrepancy between the chord symbols and the chord diagrams. On "Face of Appalachia" a diagram suggests the chord is a C w/ a D bass, while the symbol says G/D. I wouldn't ordinarily pick this bone, but when you don't have any other staves besides the vocal line, a listener is left to their ears to clarify. (Or guess.)

It makes me sad: Sebastian has written some beautiful songs, and these transcriptions just don't do them justice. But they will get you started, and you don't have any other choices.

This book is so poorly written, named, and editted, I actually lost faith in IDG Books as well as its authors. The book appears to be "Stuff I found on the web that I thought was cool".

Any CGI information is hidden in between endless entries on HTML, SGML, how the web first came about, or whatever; punctuaited by countless URLs to "interesting" sites with CGI content. Unfortunately, I found many of these URLs to be outdated. Worse, much of the meagar information actually on CGI turned out to be factually incorrect. (see use of "+" and space in input encoding)

All examples used in the book are in Perl. If you do not know Perl cold, and you intend to use this book as a learning tool, expect to spend a significant amount of time to studying that language. You will need to pick up a Perl primer as well since this book is not usefull as one.

The CD was highly disappointing The information on it is limited, and the packages are difficult to unpack and use. My UNIX (Solaris 2.5.1) workstation could read the CD directories but could not actually access the files in them. I had to open the CD on my PC, FTP the files across the LAN to my UNIX workstation and then un-tar them there.

Possibly the worst experience I had came when I sent a list of errors and issues to IDG Books and the authors. The response that I received from them unilaterally dismissed my concerns and was followed by a vague attempt to justify the original text.

This book almost seems to be beefed up to pass the dreaded "weight test". If you are looking for a book to explain CGI in an organized and succint manner, run away from this book. This is the only book that has ever moved me to write to a publisher to ask for a refund.

The only redeeming value of the book is that the CD is very shiny. 8-)

With a book on CGI, I want CGI, not whole sections on HTML validation tools. Thus, by the time the authors roll around to a discussion on CGI (and it comes across as a muddled discussion indeed), I discouragedly chucked the thing onto my (growing) pile of bad book investments.

In addition, the bundled CD-ROM disc totally blows! It is about as poorly formatted and badly laid out as I've ever seen. Files are wholly unidentifiable--until you open them and try to find out what the program is.

In overview, change the title to "Web Bible." If you're starting from the ground up, this book definitely touches base on everything one needs to know. But if you're looking solely for a CGI informatorium--take a pass.

Either way, as a Web rookie or veteran, if you buy this book, be prepared to use the CD as a drink coaster.

--W. Campbell, Encino, Calif., USA