I read this book as a part of a class. In this class we discussed Washington's work as written from the 'trickster' perspective. In this light it was quite interesting to see how he points out hypocrasies indirectly, while apparently stating the opposite. Thus, creating a self-aware hypocrasy within the text itself. I'm not sure that I am yet convinced, however. The work often seems a little bit on the acquiescent side to me.

This 1996 Harvard Business Review article, by Harvard Business School professor Robert Kaplan and David Norton, president of Nolan, Norton & Co., is an extension to their articles 'The Balanced Scorecard: Measures that Drive Performance' (1992) and 'Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work' (1993). The balanced scorecard made it possible for managers to express and measure operational performance.

This article discusses the integration of the four balanced scorecard perspectives (financial, customer, internal-business-process, and learning-and-growth) into strategic planning. In order to do this the authors introduce four (new) processes. The first process is called 'translating the vision' and helps managers to build a consensus around the organization's vision and strategy. The second process - communicating and linking - allows managers to communicate their strategy throughout the organization and link it to departmental and individual objectives. The third process - business planning - enables companies to integrate their business and financial plans. The fourth and final process - feedback and learning - gives companies that capacity for strategic learning (single-loop and Chris Argyris' double-loop learning). Each of these processes are discussed using various companies as examples. The aim of the authors is to enable managers to use the balanced scorecard as a framework for managing the strategy and vision, thereby linking long-term strategic objectives with short-term actions.

I did enjoy the authors' original balanced scorecard-article, I did not enjoy their second and I am disappointed by this third article. This article does not focus that much on the balanced scorecard, therefore readers expecting more information and knowledge on the balanced scorecard will be disappointed (like me). The article is more about the strategic planning/budgeting process, and how companies should use the balanced scorecard within this process. But I am in the opinion that those processes are better discussed by other sources/authors. The article is written in simple US-English.

This volume is narrated by Kemoc Tregarth, for whom Jaelithe asked at his birth that he be a sage. "...Though the thirst for learning has ever been in me...I have done no more than nibble at the edges of knowledge's rich cake, liplicked the goblet rim of true wisdom. But perhaps to know one's limitations is, in itself, a kind of sagecraft." A promising beginning, but Kemoc isn't given as much to work with as I'd like in this story.

Kemoc, the 2nd of the Tregarth triplets, picks up where Kyllan left off in _Three Against the Witch World_, after a brief recap. (The ending of the book, as you might begin to suspect, indicates that Kaththea will conclude the story in _Sorceress of the Witch World_.) Each of these 3 books can stand on its own, since each tells a different story, but this is the weakest of the three, since it not only has to tell its own story, but bridge the gap between Kyllan's story (the cool one about the flight from Estcarp into Escore on the night of the Turning) and Kaththea's (about her recovery from the events in this story).

Just as Kyllan brought in allies from Estcarp in the previous book, Kemoc sets out on a journey to rouse the various peoples of Escore (using the term a bit loosely). Many of the more interesting entries on the map of Escore come from this book - Kemoc meets the Mosswives, who send him to the seer Loskeetha, for instance.

Some interesting tidbits in this book lay the groundwork for other books in the series. We have our first glimpse of Ha-Harc, the ruined city near the Valley of Green Silences, whose story we will hear in _Trey of Swords_, as well as our first meeting with some of the characters who feature in that story.

As it happens, we don't get to see much of any one place on Kemoc's journey; his primary concern is with his sister, Kaththea. She is a particularly tempting target for the forces of darkness, being Witch-trained but not under the final seal of the Jewel Oath. The bad guy who's after her here, unfortunately, carries an aroma of Villains-R-Us - no real personality, and what little we know of his background isn't fleshed out. It's hard to care about him.

Two races of people share the world of Zacar: a telepathic mountain-dwelling folk called the Yurth; and a farming folk called the Raski who do not possess the Upper Sense that is a Yurth child's gift from birth.

The farmers hate the telepathic mountain-dwellers and blame them for the destruction of a Raski civilization that once flourished on Zacar. Every thousand years or so a Raski warrior king attempts to annihilate the Yurth, but his armies flee back out of the mountains under the spell of Yurth illusions.

The normal state of affairs is a stalemate between a powerless underclass and a race of peaceful supermen who are clueless as to why anyone should hate them---

At least until the Yurth makes his or her journey to the sacred mountain.

Each Yurth child is expected to go on a pilgrimage as a ritual of passage into adulthood. Some do not return from their journey, and the ones who do come back are burdened with a terrible secret.

When Elossa, the heroine of 'Yurth Burden' is called to the sacred mountain, her pilgrimage is complicated by a Raski warrior who trails her into near-death, deadly illusion, and beyond.

Together they learn the secret within a secret that fuels the enmity between their people, but not before the Raski warrior, Stans has made several attempts to kill Elossa.

Read 'Yurth Burden' for Norton's eerie descriptions of the Dark king whose hatred long survived the accidental destruction of his people.

I am a high school student with no previous interest in the subject of unification in physics until this book. It was written plainly and so it was easy to read, but it was also too concise. The only problem was that, and the fact superstrings are discussed towards the end of the book. Also, probably from being new to the subject, I did not see why he had to describe group theory, it would have been better if he explained what the importance of group theory was and why he put it in the book. I do not think the book is horrible, but many better books exist as an introduction to unification. Search for a Supertheory by Barry Parker is better in that it doesn't suffer from conciseness. Particle Garden by Gordon Kane actually describes the particles in an understandable manner, rather than just listing particle after particle with little explanation as in this book. Too many questions remained to someone like me, new to the subject after reading this. Unless you already are familiar with the subject and want a quick review, this book is not worth the money.

If you are looking for more than " Oh, Golly" physics with some real mathematics, then this will be disappointing, but if you like Richard Feynman type informative lectures that name the names and give an understandable overview, then this is a well written book with history and facts and references. I got is as a gift from a friend who was trying to be of help! It was more help than some of my Google searches on the Internet!

Popular books on quantum theory are like cheap toilet paper, they fall apart easily. Gribbin's latest book is a triumph for the quantum wanabees who think they know some of the basic concepts, but in reality can only recite what they've read. Gribbin has a way of giving the reader an insight into what can only be properly understood mathematically. This book was written for those who don't know the math, but wish they did. The only thing "cheap" about this book is the price. Excellent!

I'd never had any accounting courses before. This textbook was required for my financial accounting course in an MBA program. The book does a good job of logically explaining all the important topics. Unfortunately, it takes a Herculean effort to sit down and study the material due to the dry subject matter.

The authors did a good job of using examples from real firms, which, I think, makes it more interesting. I've decided to keep this book after the course for a reference.

Many people get this book wrong. This is a book for graduate students, not for undergraduates. It introduces the concepts of financial accounting in a condensed way, which does require more time and patient to understand it, like the way we study in MBA program. Since this book assumes its reader as future statement readers, it introduces finanical statements, including balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement,in the first few chapters to let student understand the linkage among them. It is usually very difficult to understand for those without background, though. Plus, given the fact that this book is required by most of top MBA programs, like Chicago, Columbia, and NYU, I'd like to say that accounting professors have told us the quality of this book. For those who have a hard time on this, I would also recommend its accompanied study guide and solution manuals (used one available on amazon website ISBN 0030269695& ASIN: 0030182697; make sure get the right edition!!). After all, this is a good book, but requires more practices. Good luck.

I recently used this book for an accounting class. I am not really an "accounting head", having come from a computing background, and I had to do the course as a graduate degree requirement. I found the book to be very thorough and well written. The authors took their time to explain every new term throughout. The book also has numerous exercises [maybe too many]. I do not expect to "do accounting" in the future, but if I have to, I'll get a copy of this book again. In reading this book, I found my professor's advice quite handy: 1. start off with the learning objectives for each chapter; 2. read the chapter summary; 3. check all the diagrams in the chapter; 4. read the text; 5. practice as many exercises as you can; 6. finally, review your work. I did this and smashed the course [B+--not bad for a "non-accounting head"]. I found the accompanying study guide [By LeBronne Harris and James Moon] invaluable also. This is probably the best book out there on Financial Accounting.

My advice to the publisher of "Built Hard" is to read a book with a title like "Edited Right". In at three instances, the descriptive text clearly doesn't match the exercise depicted. This is no minor shortcoming because even when there is no obvious descrepancy between text and photos, it leaves a virtual novice like myself wondering if the exercise is properly presented. The exercise presentations are medicore at best, even when there is no obvious discrepancy between text and photos. There are plenty of exercises depicted though, but a few are described only in a text and others with a only single photo. Though useful, the photos are on the dark side. One welcome bright spot is this: the book explains how exercises that are essentially similar differ in their effect on the same muscle or muscle group. Still this does not redeem this sloppy and disappointing book. There are much better choices.

This book does show the proper form of exercises, but it lacks the emphasis on some of the exercises. The workout routines for beginners are way too advanced and will lead many people down the wrong path.

This book is very good for beginner's I thought. I have just expressed an interest in weight lifting and training. I was very confused as what type of schedule to do and how to do it. I got this book, and I'm starting their requested routines. There are plans as to how to do it and what muscle group it works. The only negative aspect is that I don't have all the equipment it shows, so many excercises can not be achieved, unless at a gym.

This is the first of what promises to be a slew of new books coming out on Web Services. As the first book out I guess it's what you'd expect from a book rushed to press. The examples are frequently flawed. If you're already familiar with most of the technology, or you're willing to read the documentation of the WSTK and various Apache documents along with this book you'll find this book a good primer. However, if you're new don't go for this book. The examples tend to be a mixed jumble flowing from COM, Java, NET and even Perl occasionally with in the same example. If you're planning on using all those technologies (and have them all set up) you might be ok. However, if you just want to build a Java webservice, well this isn't the book for you.

This is a good intro to various topics related to web services, probably the best one available so far (admittedly a pretty small field at this time). It covers the standards behind the technology and proceeds to practical working examples of how to put web services into use. There is some coverage of projected future technologies, but mostly sticks to systems that are currently available (skipping, for example, Apache Axis). The author-per-chapter approach means the chapters are somewhat independent, so you can select a topic of interest and go right to that chapter, without having to read everything that came before it. On the other hand, it means some material is covered in multiple places in the book.

This book is another quality edition to the Wrox library. If you are thinking about buying this book, make sure you have some knowledge about XML, since the authors don't delve too much into the basics of XML. However, XML is a huge piece of the Web Services mix.

Be ready to learn some new tech jargon and to memorize and decipher a plethora of acronyms (SOAP, UDDI, XML, etc.) but Web Services are very likely the future of distributed programming, so the knowledge is very valuable no matter how long it takes you to figure it all out.

The only other possible downer about this book is that some of the specifications the authors detail are not full recommendations by the W3C and are subject to change...but my take is that after you learn the technology once, the changes you will see with final drafts are not drastic enough to require further learning.

David Kearns, the actual author of this hound, has produced another of his yawners. He's pointlessly snide and irritating - viz, his insistence on "octet" where anyone else would call eight bits a "byte"- but at least he's incomplete: he essentially ignores Linux, gives the cold-shoulder to Unix, and is flat wrong in his limited knowledge of MacOS. This falls somewhat short of most definitions of "Complete", especially with the rapid growth of Linux as a low-cost network server alternative. If you're new to networking, you may get the impression this book is over your head. It isn't. It is incomplete, irritating, and wrong. Keep looking.

I knew I wasn't going to like this book as soon as the author complained that 8 bits were an octet, not a byte, and to beware of experts who used the second term ('they've been spending too much time with programmers' he laments). I was thereafter reminded of this unjustifiable and incorrect moaning every time he used the word octet. I would have gotten over it if I had ever been distracted by actually learning something from this book. Some people have a gift for teaching, that is, an ability and desire to explain things well, this author does not. I suspect the author's motive here was primarily to be published.

I realy hate this book. A lot of errors, no word about Linux. I will never bye any other "Norton" book. I also tried to get some answers from the author but the silence was the answer. There are so many good book around! Buy someone else.