I ran across this book at the library looking for substantive books on chickens--the cute cover caught my eye. This is a very entertaining and enjoyable read!

I'd recommend this book as one you'll finish quickly, share with a friend or two, and want to read again yourself one day.

This extremely short book really qualifies as more essay than "book," and as much as I enjoyed it, I wondered who would shell out hard-earned cash for its slim contents.

Then I found myself handing it around to people as I would share a cartoon or funny email. "Zip through it over lunch," I said, "Take it instead of a magazine while you're waiting for your oil change or dentist appointment."

And so I learned what this book is best for: for a few bucks, you can pass a smile around to your friends. The eye-catching cover is hard for anyone to resist, and the illustrations are great. If you know someone who's been adopted by a stray animal, this is perfect for them. But if not, pass it on anyway. It's a light, funny read that will make anyone smile.

In Grime's hands this unusual bird manages a truly universal appeal. I loved the pleasure it seemed to take in sneaking up behind a skittish cat and sending the cat vertically airborne with a sudden cackle. Then there's the pet store employee who tries to explain that they don't carry chicken feed, because a chicken is not a "particular animal." Grimes has an eye and ear for gem moments like these.

This is an absolutely adorable story about a man who comes to know and love a chicken who suddenly appeared in his backyard. I first read the authors article about the enigmatic and willful chicken in the New York Times and I actually saved that article because I enjoyed it so thoroughly. My Fine Feathered Friend is just as charming as that article was and better since the author is able to elaborate more on the chicken's fantastic personality and the personalities of the numerous cats that interact with the tenacious bird. The author really knows how to describe animals and the cats encounters with the chicken are truly vivid and terribly amusing. You will not forget this chicken. Its personality lingers long after the final page. The book is a joy and I highly recommend it. Thank you, Mr. Grimes, for sharing such a delightful story!

Keeping up with computer security is a full time job. Grimes has given a clear, precise primer of one aspect of computer security - viruses, trojans, worms - collectively known as malicious mobile code. The book is DOS/Windows centric, but this focus helps you see a) where the threats for the most part, and b) allows you to extend the types of threats into other operating systems. You are taken step by step through the development of malicious code and how and why they can work on some systems, but less effectively on others. The constant refrain of the book shows the author's philosophy: Use an up to date anti-virus product. But if somethign slips by, Grimes shows you ways to react, and lessen the impact if not to this once computer, but to the rest on the network. It is easily one of the most readable books I have encountered on the subject.

This book is an essential reference for any computer manager's toolkit. We can't stop the code writers from producing thier output, but we can work to lessen the impact they can have on us.

I confess to some bias - I was one of the tech reviewers on this book. I work with network security all of the time, but one area I'm not an expert on is viruses. Reviewing Roger's book was a real education - I learned quite a bit. I also known from experience that writing about technical subjects can be difficult and dry - this book was an easy read all the way through. If you're interested in learning more about viruses, this is a must-have.

This book offers one of the best and most complete look at viruses, worms, Trojans, and any other type of program designed to "infect" a computer. It describes not only the various types of "malicious programs" out there, but also the environments in which they run. The book's second chapter discusses DOS based viruses, and even if DOS is not that popular anymore, it is good for a historical reference.

The book goes on to discuss Windows-related viruses, macro viruses, as well as Trojans and worms. Each chapter gives examples of what to look for if you suspect you have been infected, and the early chapters give summaries of "famous viruses of the past." Also discussed are attacks involving IRC and other instant messaging programs, browser technologies, malicious Java applets, and what types of attacks can occur with Active X. There's also a chapter devoted to email attacks.

The book finishes off with chapters on hoax viruses, which can be just as dangerous sometimes as real viruses, when people assume the hoaxes are true, how to defend against malicious code, and finally what the future entails.

Malicious code unfortunately is a way of life and this book offers lots of information on how to avoid them and also what to do if your computer does get infected.

I don't know Barry Grimes. I know somebody who knows Grimes, though, and that's how I got ahold of This Green, which is, along with Kevin Miller's Everywhere Was Far, one of the two best titles that Blue Begonia has ever published. "Driving the Canyon Road" and "Letter to Miller Written with Rickie Lee Jones, Flying Cowboys, and Horses in Mind" are two of my favorite poems, full of what Grimes calls "the silence of no distinction." Everything is fair game here, everything on this green.

And how can you not love a book whose epigraph is from a Greg Brown song?

Thank you, Barry, for this one. I come back to it again and again.

eric must be a former student...breathe in the details of a life that has bumped into yours and then wonder of all the lives that could be...a lovely inch...

Some would classify this work as a "5". That which reaches beyond the daily complications, and steps back to view the larger picture, assembling the details. Barry Grimes has done a superb job of detailing the passion of teaching and learning. Beautiful work!

My 18 month old son and I both love this book. I think he can really relate to the illustrations for several reasons. First of all, the characters, like his family and himself, are black people. Secondly, the book shows the family doing things that we do as a family such as reading, singing, giving the baby a bath, and giving the baby a good night kiss. This book reflects a normal, two parent family who have a lot of love for their child. What could be healthier?

Even though my daughter is only 15 months old, this is definitely one of her favorite books and has been since she was old enough to pick her own books out. The story is simple and short, teaching healthy family values. The pictures are bright, colorful and genuine. Each page has just a few lines which are all a young child can handle. And the book itself is constructed of sturdy hardboard, making it easy for her to turn the pages, just like in the story. She makes me read this story every night and appears to listen intently each time. I highly recommend it for even the youngest infants.

This is one of the sweetest little bedtime books for babies. It is short, with colorful pictures, and a nice rhythmical rhyme. It is one of a series featuring African-American families. But, like any good book, it is written for all colors! I applud the authors and publisher. If you cannot purchase it, find it in your library. This is a good book to introduce your baby to the world of reading!

I personally never liked Sendak's WTWTA. Or In the Night Kitchen. Or Chicken Soup with Rice. Or anything ever illustrated or written by him. So, I'm not a fan. Got it?

But WOW, was I ever wrong. I just didn't get it before, but listening to Tammy Grimes narrate and with the addition of Herr Mozart, it's like being transported into what must have been a fascinating mind who could write so well for children.

Buy this CD for your 4 year old + child with imagination to spare and he'll be begging for it. It's become a TREAT 'round these parts.

My siblings and I listened to this wonderful cassette as children and to this day treasure it. We have passed it's wonders onto our own young relatives and soon to our own children. It will stay with you forever for the words of Maurice Sendak make your imagination take flight and the voice of Tammy Grimes is so captivating; the best I have ever heard these fabulous stories read! The addition of the music of Mozart truly inspires the mind of children and adults alike.

The Sendak stories read by Tammy Grimes capture the spirit and fun of the text and pictures without "talking down" to children. My kids have loved it from age 18 months to 7 (and counting). A wonderful interpretation of wonderful stories.

This early Richard Jury novel is more comic than most of the others in this series--the scenes in Littlebourne, despite the fact that this is a mystery, are quite funny, with stock characters who end up being likeable and affecting. However, the strength of this book is in the scenes in The Anodyne Necklace and its surrounding London slum neighborhood, which is full of eccentrics, odd as can be, but fully enjoying their sordid lives.

The murderer is a surprise here as well.

This is also the novel that introduces Jenny Kennington, who is as enigmatic at the beginning of this series as she is later on. I am not sure of her appeal for Richard Jury!

This is the book that began the Jury/Plant series, where all of the books are named after pubs. This is one of the very few books in my experience where I remember who the muderer was because it was a flawless mystery, perfectly logical, nothing held back, but still I couldn't guess the culprit! Definitely NOT the "had I but known" school. There are some wonderfully gory scenes, if you appreciate that in your mudrer mysteries, in adition to wonderful character moments and real humor. I found this book to be the best of all of M.Grimes's marvelous books. I hope they republish! I read this book for the first time when I was nine (child of a mystery reader)and it has not lost its charm with successive readings over the years. My old copy finally fell to bits!

I have a bookshelf full of programming books, and this is the first time I'm motivated to post a positive review online about a book.

The author did a great job guiding readers through .Net technology with clear explanations leaving no assumptions about readers' skill levels. I loved the way the author planned the fun poker example which utilizes all of .Net's main features (database access, xml, remoting, message queue, web, etc).

After you are done with the book, you will also know better to stay away from video poker machines at casinos.

On a scale of "Don't Waste Your Time" to "Buy This Book", this book rates a "Buy This Book!" Grimes does an excellent job of detailing .NET in a clear and concise text. Using a real world example, Grimes covers all the major points of .NET, Win and Web Forms, Web Services, ASP.NET, and ADO.NET.

There are also some small details about the layout of the book that I think make the book very reader friendly. The section headings each have a gray bar that easily distinguished the sections and each chapter has a quick index of what is covered and where, which gives readers like myself a cheat sheet to jump ahead to particular topics that interest me the most. And while the book reads well from front to back, it also works well as a reference. I was able to jump around and pick up bits and pieces, kind of like tips and tricks for .NET.

The one drawback, if you can call it that, is the choice of the author to go with C# for code illustrations. I actually loved learning a new language, but I could see some hard core VB guys being alienated by the choice.

All in all, the book does an excellent job of putting the behemoth of .NET into a nice package that is easily digestible. My recommendation is to "Buy this book"!

This book is very well written, both technically and grammatically (which is something you can't say for all computer books). While it would be next to impossible to cover .NET in it's entirety, this books does an excellent job covering the fundamentals of .NET in a reasonable number of pages:

The CLR - This section is dedicated to the CLR, it's types (there is a descriptive explanation on the difference between value and reference types), System.Object (the base class of every .NET type), deterministic finalization, assemblies (multi-file, private, global and downloadable assemblies are all covered), reflection (dynamically examining a type at runtime), and the basics of intermediate language. At the end, the author builds a very simple compiler to demonstrate how the compilers for .NET translate instructions into intermediate language, which in turn is executed by the CLR at runtime.

ADO.NET - Through many code samples, ADO.NET is given adequate coverage. The DataSet (equivalent to a disconnected ADO Recordset) and DataReader (equivalent to a server side forward-only ADO Recordset) are both covered. Updating a database, both via the DataSetAdapter and directly through Command objects is also covered. This chapter also covers using a DataSet to produce XML and how to serialize (an exciting new topic in .NET) object instances to XML. It would be impossible to cover every aspect of ADO.NET in a single chapter, but this chapter does provide enough information to get acquainted with your available data access options. The MSDN documentation included with the .NET framework or VS.NET should be your next step in figuring out what each property and method does. If you have used ADO in the past, because they share similar interfaces, ADO.NET shouldn't seem that foreign to you.

Remoting - This was my favorite chapter. Remoting in .NET is the means for communication between assemblies, processes and remote computers. It's the replacement for DCOM, and because it is able to work using HTTP, it's finally able to work over corporate firewalls without too much hassle. There are a ton of code samples and diagrams to help understand nearly every aspect of Remoting: the available options (Client Activated, SingleCall, and Singleton), configuration, leasing and handling remote events. If your interested about Remoting, it would be in your best interest to code up the samples in this chapter and run them to see what is actually happening with each different option (Client Activate, SingleCall and Singleton) and configuration setting (leasing, channel type, events, etc...).

Web Services - Web Services are a new option in .NET. The closest comparison from days of old (feels kind of funny saying that) would be XML over HTTP or Soap. I never used the VB Soap toolkit, so I can't comment on it, but I've found Web Services in .NET extremely easy to use. The basics of creating a Web Service are covered, as are more advanced topics such as WSDL, Discovery and UDDI. The chapter also covers writing clients to communicate with the Web Services and how to manage session state between Web Service calls.

ASP.NET - The coverage of ASP.NET will be most beneficial to someone who has done web programming before, because it assumes a certain level of core competencies. Those who have used ASP in the past will have the easiest time learning ASP.NET from the material covered here. To show how things have changed, the author starts out with a dynamic page written in ASP and ports it to ASP.NET outlining the steps taken. Your also treated to instructions on how to create custom HTTP handlers and modules (similar to an ISAPI extensions and filters), which I found to be interesting. Finally, coverage is given to creating ASP.NET pages in the VS.NET IDE.

Windows Forms - Windows Forms allows you to create rich Win32 client applications in .NET. This section starts of with the basics: forms, controls, and event handling and then shows in-depth how to build an example application. At the end of the chapter, you are shown how to use the VS.NET IDE to make building Windows Forms applications quicker and easier.

Other - Other topics covered, but not in as much detail as those topics outlined above, include: Windows NT/2000 event logging, COM Interop, MSMQ, Windows Services, XSL transformations and using the new mobile controls in ASP.NET.

There are a large number of code samples, ranging from simple proof of concept exercises to multiple class case studies. The code samples go hand in hand with the presented explanations and topic discussions located in each chapter. For best results, I'd recommend keying them in, compiling, and testing them out.

If you're an intermediate/advanced C++, Java or Visual Basic programmer, who hasn't yet made the journey to .NET, this book is the tour guide you need. In a clear and concise manner it presents what is possible in the new world of .NET, what you need to be effective with the new tools and technologies, and a generous helping of useful code examples to get you started.

It should be noted that the book samples are written in C#. For those new to C# (which should be just about everyone) an included appendix is required reading. That said, the rest of the book, while written in C#, mainly covers the fundamentals of .NET and the Framework Class Libraries which for most part are language agnostic.

This is a great book. The book is very fast paced and teaches great life lessons. Although, I was sometimes bored with the same repetitive moral in each chapter, "Don't judge a book by it's cover." I thought Grimes rode that line a little too much in this book, but still overall it's a great read!

I am the library/media specialist at a middle school. This book was easily the best piece of YA fiction that I've read all year. The teachers with whom I shared it were similarly impressed. One teacher just couldn't put it down, so she began reading it aloud to her class. (Fortunately they were in the middle of their poetry unit!) After class several of her students came to the media center looking for copies they could check out. The characters' voices ring true to readers of all ages and the message the book sends is timeless. I highly recommend this book to all!

I really loved this book it was about highschool students and their intrest in poetry! Their poerty connected all of the them together. There were whites,blacks,latinos,and italians. I think this book taught me alot about race and how there is always a place for someone to fit in, but you just gotta serach for it. I really recommend this book to anybody who love poerty or just likes to read. I finished the book in TWO days.It usually takes me about 4 days but this book was so good i just couldn't put it down!!!So check it out and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!!

The protagonist has the realest life I've ever read in an amateur detective series. Please bring back this believable and admirable state bureaucrat in a third book.

The author's first mystery, SOMEBODY ELSE'S CHILD, was a excellent introduction to Theresa Galloway, her husband Templeton, children Aisha and Shawn, and her demanding, familiar mother. BLOOD WILL TELL continues the Galloway series by keeping all of the performers in perfect characterization and by throwing in a mysterious love child in the mix, which leads to theft, spying, and murder. The book was fast-paced and smart, without a lot of ultra-heroics thrown in. With what Theresa had to endure with her pressure-cooker job, her husband's failing business, and her over-opinioned mother calling the shots behind her back, she didn't need it. This was a fun book that won't take long to read, and, hopefully, will expand into several more mysteries involving this group of delightful characters.

I loved both of Ms. Grimes books and I'm amazed that she hasn't written any others? Where are you? I live in Sacramento and work for the State and my oh my I know the people she works with!

Calling this book "The Little Web Cam Book" is a bit of a misnomer. The book is huge, totaling 356 pages including the index. It is crammed full of useful information, lists of webcam sites, and places where one can download everything you need except a camera.

This is a great book! Ms Parker's writing style makes it seem like she is right there with you, explaining each portion. More advanced users will know which parts to skip over, and most chapters stand on their own, so you don't have to read every word to make sense of later chapters.

This was good for me, since I was not the least bit interested in reading about the screen savers or how to make a photo my background. This part seemed to drag out, but that is from the viewpoint of an expert; if you have never done those things, you might need to spend the time reading about them. For that reason, the book spends quite a bit on the basics of these ideas. So if you still have the same background picture on your desktop that came with it, check out this portion of the book.

Other chapters cover tips for setting up the cam and choosing the best spots for broadcasting. If you want to start another "cat-cam" or other pet-related site, it is worth reading her tips on how to make it exciting for your viewers even when the animals don't feel like being photographed. There are also some other considerations you might want to read about before you invite anyone and everyone into your home or office through a live webcam.

Another section tells about how to use the still pictures you can capture with a cam to make GIF animations. This could be for fun, e-mail, or for your web page. The author also goes into creating and editing movies and how to insert GIF animations and movies into web pages. This could save you from tons of angry e-mail when your dog refuses to go near the webcam once it's live.

There is a chapter on troubleshooting problems and it seems to be rather complete. Just about every problem I can imagine occuring is listed here with possible solutions and resources.

I expected a list of other people who have webcam, but a nice feature I didn't expect was interviews with some of the pioneers and leaders in webcamming. This turned out to be quite a treat.

Supplementary information in the book about videoconferencing was great. I didn't expect to find it here either; the author could have written that separately and she and the publisher could have made a lot more money selling it as another book. They didn't, so I think a "hats off" is in order. Thanks!

I don't have a Web cam, but maybe everyone online should have one. It is a good way to find out if you are really talking to who you think you are talking to. I think anyway. Since this is an Internet craze and I'm crazy about the Internet, you would think I'd have one already.

So, if you are like me and are completely threatened by not only the thought of people peering into your private life of typing away at your computer (ha, ha) or you have NO idea where to start looking or what to even look for in a Web cam, this is a great place to start.

You will find out:

How to choose the best Web cam (who doesn't want the best?)
Set up and install your cam
Communicate with Friends and Family
Create a live-cam Web Page - this is intriguing, cooking show? Mmm
Meet famous Web cammers in interviews
Design you own cam screen saver
Use easy videoconferencing software
Design you own cam desktop patterns
Take pictures with your cam (see, now that would be helpful for site building and cheaper in the long run)
Find great cam Web sites (ok, so I did go to a few to see if any cats were about)
Record sounds with your cam

The author gives you the basics. Like you should have at least a 120 MHz processor and a minimum of 16MB of RAM. It is possible that you might have to buy a new computer before getting a Web cam but the author says most computers made in the past few years should be fine. Since I don't learn anything until I need to, I now see how to look up how much RAM and free space my computer still has. Hey, some of us didn't care before.

At the end of the chapters there is a Summary section.

The Cams discussed in this book include: QuickCam by Logitech, Compro Dcam, VideoBlaster WebCamII, VideoLabs FlexCam and Planet View, CU-SeeMe Cam Kit for Windows. The author explains which is best for various situations. If you are looking for videoconferencing or want a crisp picture a various distance or want a cam that works with a large variety of programs, then you can decide which is best for you. There is plenty of website information so you can go do more research and find the newest versions.

This book also includes information on how to organize your pictures. I loved the section on where to get free images on the Web. Elisabeth Parker really is into "pictures." She will also show you how to convert a picture into an icon.

Then, onward to creating and editing movies. This tells you which programs to buy and what you need to download.

Ok, finally a great chapter on "Putting Pictures and Movies on Web Pages." I like that she recommends Microsoft FrontPage. Hey the author wrote: "The Complete Idiot's Guide to FrontPage 2000." While Elizabeth doesn't delve too deeply into HTML (you don't need to with FrontPage Thank God!), she does give a few tips here and there. There is also information on embedding a movie with HTML and Creating a Web Page Slide Show. The "plug in" feature... yeah, we can do that! I've seen that on FrontPage.

"Web Cams: Examples, Ideas, and Inspiration" is filled with all sorts of places you can go to see other Web cams in action. But then again, who has time to sit around watching the Amazing Fish Cam? I did think the Cat House idea was cute. You could probably get major visitors to your site to see if your cats are napping or running about wildly.

One thing I didn't realize was that to use the sound features you need to purchase a separate microphone. I think they might have some web cams with more features now.

Anyway, if you really want to learn some useful information without the headache of the learn-as-you-go-by-yourself routine, then this is your book. There are plenty of examples and truthfully, you could take a look through this book and learn something even if you don't have a Web cam.

Definitely recommended BEFORE you buy a Web cam.

Ok, so I'm still a little nervous about all this Web cam stuff. Can't I just get someone to come over and install it for me? Sigh...

One of the most popular Internet activities to make a splash on our screens recently has been that of "webcamming." Just about anyone can now set up a suitable camera, including a video camera, and publish nearly real-time audio and video clips online for a variety of purposes for profit, fun, and pleasure. Elisabeth Parker has written The Little Web Cam Book to give members of the online community some real insight into how they can make creative use of this latest Web craze.

Webcamming has really taken off during the last two years. Schools, businesses, companies, corporations, and news reporting services have gone online to provide a number of essential services such as news and weather reporting, online education, building security, Webcasting, Webconferencing, and the monitoring of children at home and in daycare facilities. Imagine if you will, being able to log on the Internet and check up on your kids at home or as they are being cared for by others from the comfort of your office! Other family members will be able to keep in touch hundreds or thousands of miles away! Hobbyists have also provided some thoughtful uses as well, such as wiring homes, offices, and other sites with cameras to provide all sorts of intriguing, but sometimes highly suspect video coverage!

Webcamming has certainly made an impact on our society and Elisabeth Parker will walk her readers through the steps necessary to give them the opportunity experience this exciting technology firsthand. She makes a number of solid recommendations for buying cameras, software, and services, helping her readers to make the better choices and help them save time and money in the process. Many of the programs she reviews in the book are available online for immediate trial use. Buying, installation, and detailed operating instructions are provided to get readers up and running in the shortest amount of time. I can hardly wait to join in the fun myself!

Parker's instruction, laced with humor, her own personal interest, and the illustrations of John Grimes makes this book fun, enjoyful, and easy to read. Plenty of creative ideas and resource information is provided - be sure to checkout the list of Webcam sites located at the back of the book! This book serves as an excellent introduction to webcamming and is must reading for anyone interested in learning about this innovative technology and how it can be put to exciting and productive use!