From the standpoint of a cyclist who doesn't live near Baltimore, this book is no help at all. It offers a description of 16 bike rides, most of them near Baltimore or Anne Arundel county, and a few rides in Pennsylvania and Virginia. This may be helpful for anyone near the city, but I feel calling it a guide for Maryland is misleading.....However, their descriptions do go into great detail about directions, what kind of traffic you can expect, and the wildlife you may encounter. There are about 10 pages for each trail described.

If you're looking for good biking near the city then I highly recommend this book.....

At last a perfect guide for hiking and biking in Maryland! I don't have children but found this book to be a great resource for the short hikes and bike trips I enjoy with my husband. We went to the Cranesville swamp and had a difficult time finding information. This guide had the trails, directions, and plenty of interesting info on the natural history and ecology of the sites. I have used it for two of the other sites and have dogged-eared several more. I find it to be the perfect companion.

I bought the book based on the cover, so I was disappointed to see that there were just few color photographs, which are gorgeous nonetheless. Because the majority of the photographs & the illustrations are in black & white, the intricate details of the costume were not enhanced as well as the colored photos.

I love this book--I've worn out two copies of it already. A great mixture of text (the description of a Winter Palace ball is heaven) and glorious pictures. I wish there was a bit more about the royal family and some detail photos for the clothes (which are stunning--if you love vintage costume this book is a must have!) but those are quibbles. Great if you love old Russia, Royalty/Court Life.

When I first flipped through the contents of this book, my first impression was, "Cool, it covers everything!" However, my second impression, after looking though it, was that it covers it all so shallowly, that it's not worth the time to read it. But then, my THIRD impression was that that's probably what the authors had in mind - give a broad overview of the topic(s), then let you purchase other books or training to go in depth on the areas you need.

And it does just that - gives a great background into all (or at least most) of the technologies needed to get going in this field, using Dreamweaver as the tool. But if you're looking for a detailed step-by-step tutorial into database-driven webpage development, then this probably isn't the book for you. Try Dreamweaver MX Dynamic Applications, by Jeffrey Bardzell if that's what you want.

This book is broken down into four sections:

1) Data-driven Web Pages -- an intro to the topic, to Dreamweaver MX, HTML forms, and a great section on good coding practices. Coming from a design background, I especially liked that coding section.

2) The Databases -- a description and comparison of the major databases in use, including Oracle, MySQL and those ones by Microsoft that I don't know why anyone would use.

3) The Languages -- an intro on connections and scripting and *very* brief tutorials on the major scripting languages in use, including ColdFusion, JSP, PHP and some dribble about Microsoft. As for this section, you will definately need to get additional training/books/tutorials about your language of choice. This is a 700+ page book, with small fonts, but it doesn't cover these languages very well, nor should it. Those should be left to their own books.

4) Using and Manipulating the Data -- this is where the book finally starts giving some step-by-step info on accessing data, building forms, master-detail page sets, search pages, etc. Again, these sections are brief, but usable. However, having just gone through Bardzell's book (mentioned above), I chose to skip these. Plus, the one section I did look at, the master-detail page set section, had several typos and errors in it. Code errors are completely unacceptable in a tech book, in my opinion. Don't you have editors for that?

Anyway, if you want a good overview of the subject matter, this book really covers an awful lot of area. But it does so at the expense of real depth. However, I think that was the whole intent of the book. This is a real good book for someone just starting in the field, that's not sure what everything is. After going through this book, you could then branch off, in depth, into the area of your choice. (And that area should probably be JSP or PHP/MySQL, since we all know Microsoft is going out of business soon, and open source is king!)

MASTERING DREAMWEAVER MX DATABASES
AUTHOR: Susan Sales Harkins, Bryan Chamberlain, Darren McGee
PUBLISHER: Sybex
REVIEWED BY: Barbara Rhoades

BOOK REVIEW: The first thing I look for when purchasing a software instructional book is whether or not it has a CD. Then, whether or not the CD has trial versions of the software the book is written about. In the case of MASTERING DREAMWEAVER MS DATABASES, both are true. The CD contains ColdFusion MX, Dreamweaver MX, Fireworks MX, Flash MX JRun4 as well as the files to work through the material given in the chapters.

The next thing I check out is the Contents and Index. Is it written in a manner that allows a reader to locate a specific topic with ease? The Contents of Mastering Dreamweaver MX Databases has two Contents sections. The first is "At a Glance" and the second is the more detailed version. The Index has 35 pages of information. Both the Contents and Index are written in enough detail to allow the reader to find what they are looking for.

Each chapter ends with a summary of what the reader should have learned in that chapter. The chapters themselves have very few graphics and lots of technical reading. Before buying this book, the reader should be fairly well versed on HTML and Javascript. If things like ColdFusion, JavaSever Pages, PHP and Oracle mean something to you, then this book is at your level of understanding.

MASTERING DREAMWEAVER MC DATABASES is a good technical manual for intermediate to upper level of knowledge about web design. Along with having a very good CD, this book will boost your knowledge on how to handle the upper end of web design.

This was a moderately interesting real-life account of a British sea captain contemporaneous with the Hornblower books. As such, it makes for an interesting comparison between fact and fiction, and, as the author says, sometimes the former is even more extraordinary than the latter.

The author doesn't fully prove his case that Hornblower was based on Gordon, though there are some striking parallels. The most notable one is that Gordon came up the Chesapeake as a commodore with a small fleet very similar to the one that Hornblower led into the Baltic. (What the author finds suspicious is that Forester wrote a naval history of this period that glosses over this incident, perhaps due to the similarities with Hornblower.) The author uses footnotes and an introduction to point out other points of commonality.

As I said, moderately interesting, particularly to a Hornblower reader, but not particularly a page-turner.

"The Real Hornblower" is a surprisingly in-depth book following and examining the life of Admiral Sir James Gordon. Perrett has obviously researched Gordon under a microscope, as there is very few sections of his life that are not covered. The book begins with a short examination of C. S. Forester, and his creation of Horatio Hornblower, and then delves into Gordon's life, through newpaper articals, personal letters, ship logs, and Gordon's own unpublished auto-biography. In addition to following Gordon, Perrett gives a very acurate historical account of the wars and politics (which revolve around the European and American naval fleets) during the time that Gordon was alive, make this an excellent naval history or reference book as well. For anyone who has read C. S. Forester's series on Horatio Hornblower, this book is an excellent supplement, allowing you to see a different side of 'Hornblower' in Admiral Sir James Gordon.

The pictures were very nice, but my daughter was very upset by the part in which two geese are shot and killed by hunters. The illustration shows the two dead geese lying in the water with holes in them and blood flowing out of the holes into the water. I really think this little section could have been left out. I wish I had purchased a different version of the story.

We liked the story of The Ugly Duckling. He turned into a beautiful swan. We loved the detail and colors of the pictures in this version of The Ugly Duckling. We would encourage others to read this version because we have been reading this book in our 2nd grade class.

If you're really looking to learn how to play Smackdown SYM, then this guide isn't for you. I bought it hoping to find out the tricks to actually WINNING matches, and was sorely disappointed. It mentions nothing about effective ways to counter your opponent or score a pinfall. Frankly, it contradicts itself in several places in terms of what button to press to execute a move!

On the positive side, if you want to just see a full list of moves for each wrestler, then this guide can be helpful. It also lists the different match types and what wins the match for you (pin fall, submit, put opponent through table, etc). Beyond that this really doesn't tell strategies at all.

this book gives you details of wrestlers and let you learn of each wrestlers moves.Get yours now

The book is rambling and disorganized. The main point is that you need tested backups and a recovery plan. Too bad that's not what the blurbs say.

I kept waiting to reach the meat, the info on the social impact of all this disappearing data. The author quotes a few stories and talks about disappearing media and no backup disasters. The new admin with no backups sad story. Yes it happens, no one thinks backups are important until a failure, but that's not what this book is advertised about. You may want to point out a chart or story to a senior manager, but there's little of value here for anyone in the IT business.

I enjoyed the book for its overview of the evolution of consumer and telecommunications electronics. I believe, however that the message of the book could be put into one phrase of "save and save often". The book focused mostly on backing up data and keeping the data in the proper and current format. Not much of the apocalyptic doom that the cover and title portrayed, but I suppose a book titled "back up your data" wouldn't sell many copies.

Good book. Well written. Quick read. I think this book will surprise many readers who think that simply backing up their data is enough. I work in a university library, but didn't have a good idea of how the National Archives and other agencies deal with their intellectual property. The author correctly points out that there is much more to consider when purchasing a backup device than price. There's longevity of media, which isn't as great as I thought it was, especially given that I don't store my archives in a constant temperature/humidity environment, and, more importantly, the compatibility of the hardware. I'm on my third PC, and already can't read some of my early work because I don't have syquest drive on my latest PC. As a result of reading this book, I've changed my archiving process and place little trust in my CD-ROM burner.
This book is a good - and overdue - wakeup call.

I haven't yet finished this book. It started out o.k., much like his earlier books, but after a few chapters he strayed wildly off of the subject (subliminal manipulation) and I've been waiting for him to get back to it. At this point he has talked about politics, the nature of truth, philosophy, language, Aristotelian logic.......all without any support for his opinions. Read his earlier books instead.

I stumbled across this book by mere chance. Ironically enough, the title lured me in. This book is not for the faint of heart. The author is incredibly well educated in his field of study and experience. The reality he sets before us can be mind numbing and liberating. A phoenix from the ashes. Should be required reading for all middle school students because of the education the author poses. Consumer debt grows in proportion with industries growth and Wilson Bryan Key explains the techniques ad agencies use to rape the American people. As the author stresses throughout "theories are not fact" and that we need to "watch ourselves". I wholly agree with the authors approach because it is not subtle nor intimidating... it is just powerful. Truth in advertising is about as meaningful as Politics being considered a science. This is a must read for every individual in the United States and abroad. This can help you realize that not only are you not alone but that advertising is not a "victimless crime". DO NOT SUPPORT YOUR OWN DEMISE. I cannot stress enough that Dr. Key is the closest thing to a consumer advocate if there ever was one. I only hope there will one day be someone as well versed and competent as Dr. Key to fill the shoes of the "Master of Exposure". Some of us are truely endebted to the wonderful insight Dr. Key has given. Endulge your senses and explore the real world in which you live. All we can ask is, "Dr. Key, when does the next lesson begin?"

this book is really waking up to real reality,how they construct reality thro our mind,or how they control us thro....so if you want to be alive for real it is time to begin before you only will see what they want you to see,if it is not happening now.there is another book called matrix v master work on reality creation etc.books by eldon taylor tells nothing and are verry poor in reality.

For the price you gain a lot of knowledge in a short amount of time. 21 days or less it's easy to read thru a chapter or 3 and only spend an hour doing it. I wouldn't turn anyone away from this book, but a Novice or low level user should be aware that they may need to re-read a chapter more then once.

it's a good book. covers a lot of information in a basic fashion with simple examples.

Great if you understand some programming or basic Database concepts and you just want to get up to speed on some more advanced topics. Could also be good for novice users looking to start learning about SQL, I just think some of the examples and explanations might be a little hard for someone who's never used databases before. But, if they read each chapter twice if they feel like they are missing something, I think they will be fine and be happy with this book.

It's an excellent book but most readers may need some sql knowledge before reading this book. This book is a very good source and reference for creating queries within application like MsAccess. It's also an OK source for creating queries in SQL Server or Oracle, but not for stored procedure. Their no reference or text on stored procedures within this book.

If the book came with a CD I would of rated this book more than 4 stars.

SQL is a powerful Language to know and also to understand how to managing database, i bought a book called teach yourself SQL in 21 days, it is a great book to learn and how to use it. But, the only thing is, it needed a CD that come with the book, this way we can just use it like other books that with SQL scripts and sample tables or a pre-compiler so and so..or by creating many different table's from day 1,and using the same tables sample from day 1 and work all the way within the whole book.just like the same one (teach yourself in 24 hours).

I don't want to be harsh. I'm fairly certain that many people put a lot of effort into this book. I just didn't think that it was really a worth the effort though.

Essentially the only chapter I found useful was chapter 5. Of course, one chapter doesn't make the book worthwhile though.

This book [stinks]!

I bought this book trying to merge my knowledge of ColdFusion and Flash. It disappointed me. It gives you step-by-step instructions but doesn't give you the "whys".

It will not teach you ColdFusion or Flash or other techniques like generating XML to crate objects in Flash.

If you want to learn ColdFusion get other book (like Forta's or Brooks'). If you want to learn Flash well this is the wrong book because 80 % of it is pure HTML

I just wasted my time and money with this book.

Long ago I wrote in a review of a Flash book that I intended to write a book showing how to use ColdFusion and Flash together. I finally got to co-write and publish a ColdFusion book albeit not the intended book. Afterwards, Macromedia and Allaire merged. I then thought that my intended book would become even more important. In fact it is (see the coming ColdFusion MX product).

So when I learned about this book, I was excited to see that such attempt was finally made. To my great disappointment (see also other similar review here) this book is poor in content, writing style and in understanding. I am not reviewing the authors (who could well be experts in their fields) and nor is this the goal of any reviews here. But this book itself is a great frustation and shows a lack of understanding of ColdFusion and, most important, of the power of bringing together Flash and ColdFusion. The examples in the book are also far from satisfying.

Flash experts with little or no knowledge of databases and application servers like ColdFusion may unfortunately get the wrong idea and understanding of them.

I just hope that experts from both fields (ColdFusion and Flash) will not think that what they see and understand from this book is any signal of the real potential behind bringing these two tools together.

This possibility alone is certainly one of the major flaws of this book.