Robert Thurman, the Tibetan Schoolar said that Buddhism is "an education system", not a religion. Then the steps that one takes reading this book are like clear concise course work. The authors explain modern quatum mechanics and shows how the notion of
"inherent emptiness" is reflected in a scientific theory that has been rigorously tested.

What I learned from this book is a new way of looking at reality.
This reality is a non-material , non -linear reality that somehow coincides with modern scientific test results. We begin to see how the discipline and rigour with which science is held up to applies just as well to Buddhist thought processes. So that is the beauty of the book. Buddhism is not about faith, the practice is about finding what works through learning and practical experience.

You will paint vivid color images in your mind from Megan's lyrical writing. The challenge lies to NOT laugh out loud or NOT find yourself wiping tears from your cheek as Megan describes the good times AND the not-so-good times. She philosophically understands that to reach the real truth and the absolute freedom of your dreams, you must synthesize all times - good, bad, happy, sad - all of them part of the enlightenment ahead.

The books' style is more journalistic that academic. It reads something like an extended newspaper article, with some fine writing. The book concentrates mostly on a kind of anecdotal and human accounting with a smattering of theory and stuff thrown in. Howard Rheingold eloquently lays out many of the salient issues and does an excellent job of arguing for the importance of recognizing the growth of online social groups. Also, he provides an intriguing treatment of cultural issues. The depth and breadth of his experience with the medium is clearly evident.

Generally, book is more historical than theoretical or practical. Howard admits to wanting to popularize the notion of virtual communities, which he does effectively. But, there is little that would help you set up a virtual community or really understand why they work that way. His basis is more in his experience than in theory or rigorous research.

The original book has been widely commented on, so perhaps just two comments on the 2000 version are in order. First, the book seems a little dated. The new material for this new version seems mostly added in the last two chapters, leaving the preceding 10 tinged with the state of affairs in 1992, which was pre-web and pre- a large bit of corporate development of e-business and virtual communities on the web. Of course, most of the issues are still relevant, but one has to keep the age of the material in mind. Second, the new material, although comprehensive and certainly based on Howard's considerable experience, seems a little rushed. Howard qualifies this by saying it would need another book, but this leaves the book feeling like an older book with a lengthy afterward tacked on later.

Everyone seems to miss what I think is the most important the point of Howard's book. First published in 1993 and now in the expanded edition, the bottom line on this book is that the Internet has finally made it possible for individuals to own the fruits of their own labor--the power has shifted from the industrial age aggregators of labor, capital, and hard resources to the individual knowledge workers. The virtual community is the social manifestation of this new access to one another, but the real revolution is manifested in the freedom that cyberspace makes possible--as John Perry Barlow has said, the Internet interprets censorship (including corporate attempts to "own" employee knowledge) as an outage, and *routes around it*. Not only are communities possible, but so also are short-term aggregations of interest, remote bartering, on the fly hiring of world-class experts at a fraction of their "physical presence price". If Howard's first big book, Tools for Thought, was the window on what is possible at the desktop, this book is the window on what is possible in cyberspace, transcending physical, legal, cultural, and financial barriers. This is not quite the watershed that The Communist Manifesto was, but in many ways this book foreshadowed all of the netgain, infinite wealth, and other electronic frontier books coming out of the fevered brains around Boston--a guy in Mill Valley wearing hand-painted cowboy boots was there long before those carpetbaggers (smile).

Part 1 sets the stage by positing the adversarial nature of financial accounting. Unlike the textbook approach, in which rational companies disclose audited statements in order to convey impartial data about their financial condition, "Financial Statement Analysis" begins with the proposition that the producers of financial statements have motives other than those suggested by traditional texts. Although you would find few people who would argue against this proposition today, it is still valuable to be reminded of the potential agency issues facing corporate officers and auditors.

Part 2 provides an intoduction to the financial statements, devoting a chapter to each. The main emphasis here is on helping the analyst develop judgement. For example, the balance sheet chapter provides insights into problems that arise from the difficulty of assigning a value to an asset, while the income statement chapter details the many pitfalls of pro-forma earnings. Throughout, the authors note critical issues to consider that go beyond the numbers.

Part 3 discusses the thorny problem of profits. Beginning with the simple formulation that "profit = revenue - costs," the authors discuss the myriad of complexities that arise in distinguishing real, economic profits from accounting profits. The first chapter discusses various tools used to manipulate the revenue recognition process; diverse examples include a software company, a lay-away program at a major retailer, and memberships at a health club. The next chapter discusses expense recognition using a similar framework. Perhaps the most interesting chapter in this section discusses the role of auditors. In light of the Enron fiasco, which post-dates this book's publication, the discussion is prescient and will no doubt need to be expanded in future editions!

Part 4 ties the previous sections together to illustrate how to use your new found scepticism to make forecasts. The first chapter provides a step-by-step illustration of how combine an existing set of statements with your assumptions about the future to produce your own forecasts. Each projected statement (income, cash flow, and balance sheet) is accompanied by a line-by-line description of relevant issues (economic, historic, etc...) to consider. The chapter also discusses how to construct a sensitivity analysis under varying assumptions. Unlike the previous chapters, this one provides a detailed explanation of how to actually go through the process, and was particularly appreciated by this reader. The other chapters in the section focus on the computation of the various ratios used in credit and equity analysis. Importantly, however, they move beyond the mechanics by providing the reader with insight into how to use, interpret, and recast the ratios under varying assumptions. As stated at the outset, the focus remains on helping the reader develop insight.

Finally, the book contains a useful glossary that provides definitions and examples for many economic, financial, and accounting terms and concepts.

One caveat, however. If your accounting skills are weak or rusty (like mine), you might might find the lack of more step-by-step examples and problem sets frustrating. In this case, you might consider supplementing the book with a more traditional textbook. (In the author's defense, they state in the introduction that accounting is assumed, so it's not really fair to fault them for this). Overall, however, the book is a very useful tool.

What is impressive about this book is that Mr. Osborn has done extensive research on this subject and has documented his findings within the book with appropriate references. These historical references make the book believable and well worth buying it and reading it. No one truly interested in learning about American history cannot afford not to read this wonderful book.

It should be required reading for those interested in the Indian Wars.

Anyone who loves a good heroic yarn will love this book. I totally recommend you try and find a copy. (If I don't find it first!)

The first three chapters say the same thing over and over again but with different word patterns. The gist is we¹re under attack and you better get ready for it. When your computers go down, so will your business. True, but that could be covered with one paragraph, and perhaps a couple war stories.

Ernst and Young's experts Mark W. Doll, Saiay Rai and Jose Granado propose that we can achieve homeland security with their 3 R¹s of the Security Agenda: Restrict, Run and Recover(SM). While it certainly is not that simple in practice, I really like the catchy slogan, it is perfect for communicating with senior executives.

The writing style is a bit dry, the repetition and lack of depth hurt the work, but the topic is very important. It does a great job of convincing a CEO class executive that they need a well founded security program. It just doesn't help them get it started. I want to be very specific with my concerns since I am scoring the book lower that the other (mostly anonymous) reviewers. I am a senior manager, the target audience for the book. People ask me for decisions or try to sell me on their product or solution all the time. It isn't that they tell me lies, they just do not give me all the information I need to make an informed decision. After a while you learn to be very careful about making decisions without all the facts. This work needs more case studies, more specific, proven examples. It also needs more takeaways, information I can use. Granted it is very unfair to ask E&Y to give away intellectual capital that took them a lot of sweat and blood to create, but at least give the reader enough information to assess our condition and understand what the next steps are.

I encourage Ernst and Young to do a second edition with some "show me the beef" hardnosed technical reviewers and produce a great book.

"Defending the Digital Frontier: A Security Agenda" is the first book i've read, and I've read plenty, that is written so the right people can understand it. The "techies" already understand this stuff, but the people who make the decisions (e.g. how much budget those techies get to keep your netwrok secure), like the CEO and CFO, have never had it portrayed as a priority, like Mark Doll has been able to do in this book.

I usually don't review books, but with all of the recent news about networks being compromised, like the 8 million credit cards stollen this past week, I felt it was my responsibility to make sure I said my piece.

Buy it, read it, and use it, for yourself and for your customers.

This book is quite fascinating, showing the joys and dangers in the life of an immigrant to the United States in the Nineteenth Century. Kirsten is adorable, and yet teaches the young reader. As an added bonus, the book contains a final chapter that provides a great deal of information on the experiences of immigrants in that time. As always, Renee Graef's illustrations are plentiful and beautifully done, adding greatly to the story. My nine-year-old daughter loves these books, and I must admit that reading them with her has kindled my own interest in my Swedish ancestors. This is a great book!