Although this is basically an good book, it is not in the same class as Stephen J. Bigelow's "Troubleshooting, Maintaining & Repairing Pcs, 2nd Ed." or "Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing Pcs, 10th Ed." As an example of Johnson and Stauffer's inaccuracies, note the discussion about types of mice in Chapter 5 where they write: "A bus mouse typically uses an IBM PS/2 style connector ..." and "A bus mouse, when connected to a PS/2 port...". Compare these statements with Bigelow's care (page 834) in distinguishing the bus mouse with a 9-pin DIN (circular) connector from a PS/2 mouse with a 6-pin DIN (circular) connector. Therefore, one could NEVER connect a bus mouse to a PS/2 connector. Note also that Johnson and Stauffer state "Many PS/2 mice come with adapters that plug into the PS/2 connector and turn into serial connectors." The authors fail to warn the reader that a PS/2 mouse can NEVER be attached to the serial port using such an adapter if the design of the mouse does not include the special detection circuits that permit the mouse to determine if it is connected to a PS/2 port or a serial port. Most PS/2 mice DO NOT contain such detection circuits. The book by Johnson and Stauffer is certainly easier to read, but the average reader would be better off to spend additional money to purchase the Bigelow book. The result would be that that of owning a book that is harder to read, but the knowledge found therein is more accurate and more complete and therefore worth the additional effort required to read the book.

Have read through this book, and it is one of the best I have seen that is written is plain english. It is very easy to understand and the information is very up to date.

Great for beginners with lots of examples to get you there. Divided well into sections of increasing difficulty, so you can find the level that's right for you.

I liked the easy, leisurely approach to explaining the misteries of HTML and creating your Web SIte.

It explains with easy to follow examples all the important aspects and syntax of the current HTML standards.

With this book and a good editor you can start creating Web sites fast. Just enter your samples and view them immediately in your favorite browser, without even having to connect to the net.

Once you have them looking the way you want them, you can then publish in the net.

Highly recommended

"The Whole World is Watching," is Todd Gitlin's doctoral dissertation modified for publication. Gitlin was president of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the early 1960's before moving on to other radical causes. Gitlin was educated at Harvard and is currently (I think) a professor at NYU in media studies and journalism. This book deals with the influence of the media on SDS during the 1960's. He's written other works on media studies as well an epic history of the 1960's. Gitlin is definitely the intellectual, and it shows in this book.

In "The Whole World is Watching," Gitlin argues that the theory of hegemony as articulated by Antonio Gramsci can be applied to the media and its operations. Gitlin argues that the media is a tool of the corporate liberal apparatus and that the media acts as a sort of "middle-man" between elites and the masses. The media controls and directs how people think by using "frames." These frames limit the parameters in which discourse can take place in the public sphere. Frames can and do change, however, as elites change their opinions. Gitlin uses SDS as a test case for his theory. He argues that SDS, once it came to media attention in 1965, was framed by the media as an anti-war group, totally ignoring all of the other things SDS stood for (participatory democracy, etc.). This frame attracted thousands of people who joined SDS without any knowledge of what SDS was all about. This influx of people ended up changing the group for the worse, and SDS died a painful death several years later due to sectarian Marxist wackos.

Along the way, Gitlin looks at various other traits of the media. For me, the most important was his examination of how media creates celebrity. This treatment is particularly important in relation to SDS because it contributed to its downfall. Gitlin shows how SDS's schizophrenic attitudes toward leadership (where organization was needed and advocated by some but opposed by those who hated hierarchy) allowed the media to create harmful divisions. The media tends to profile only the people who are photogenic or those who make good copy. Unfortunately for SDS, these were usually not the best qualified or most stable people. Those that got the attention parlayed their success into monetary gains, alienating other people in the organization. Mark Rudd comes to mind as one who best personifies this problem. Rudd, who sported a comb over that would make Senator Carl Levin jealous, went on to fame and glory with the Weatherman organization. His claims to media celebrity went so deep that when he turned himself in to the authorities in 1977, reporters turned out in droves for what turned out to be a non-event. What is important here is that the media concentrate on image over substance. This can be very harmful to an organization with serious issues to debate.

Gitlin ends his dissertation with a critique of the sources he used for his research. Gitlin was only able to peruse the CBS archives, as ABC didn't have any and NBC wouldn't let him look at theirs. The other main media source for the dissertation was the New York Times. Despite the limited scope of his sources, I think Gitlin has gone a long way towards exposing the hypocrisy any right thinking person knows exists in our media systems. Gitlin even goes so far as to imply that the 1968 Democratic Convention fiasco in Chicago was a media creation. For anyone interested in media studies, this book is a must have.

Todd Gitlin is a media crtic extraordinaire. His teachings in journalism and media departments across North America are unmatched, and he is well-known as a writer on Salon.

The Whole World is Watching is an indepth and scholarly look at how the media portrayed left-leaning student protest in New York and Washington in the 1960s. The words that the New York Times used to describe the protests were as important as the amount of ink they received. Gitlin demonstrates how the coverage the student protests received in the mainstream media determined how the general public perceived their cause.

Gitlin is an excellent writer and The Whole World is Watching is highly researched and well executed.

The book gives an excellent analysis of feminist theory. It offers very helpful insights that help in the understanding of concepts like feminization of poverty, center and decenter for somebody who is new in the study of feminist theory.

An excellent introduction to femist theory reinforced by real life cross-cultural experiences. An eye opener in as far as the intersection of race, class, and gender goes. The author gives an insightful original analysis of the concepts of center and decenter and their application to feminist theory.

I used this book for an introductory level religious study course, so I read the entire book and had lectures in addition to the book. And I'm very glad that I had those lectures, otherwise I don't think I would have a very good idea about the main world religions covered in this book (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, far east religoins ie. Confucianism, Daoism). The authors of this book ramble on and on, with no general direction. The organization of the book is done fairly well, but at times the text makes no sense, skipping back and forth in time with no structure. I found that an extremely frustrating aspect of this book. It was impossible for me to get a general overview of each religion without reading many pages of inane details.

The book does provide a wealth of information on each of the religions covered, however. The chapter on Islam is particularly good, but it's easy to get lost in the vastness of information provided. Every period of history is covered for each religion, so there is plenty of good material covered.

But overall, the book did present each religion from its pre-modern start to its post-modern state today. Just sometimes, it wasn't clear on what direction the authors were heading.

I have used this book in an introductory class in World Religions. I have found the book to be very usable and filled with the kind of information one needs. At the same time, the authors do not lose sight of the central ideas, practices, and trends of each major religion.
In reading the book, one needs to keep in mind the structure of each chapter, which begins with general ideas of religious practices and beliefs today, then goes back in time to show how they got the way they are. When one reads thoroughly, one gets a good picture of where the major religions are today and possibly where they are going.
The index is thorough, and there are two appendices, one a vocabulary for each major religion, the other a time line of major developments for each religion. These are very useful. Also helpful are the review questions at the end of each chapter
The theme of the book is the confrontation of each religion with modernism, and its status now in a postmodern (postcolonial)world. This approach is highly informative and increases the interest of the reader. There is an introductory chapter on religion in general, and the first chapter on Christianity includes a discussion of how the modern era was born out of Protestantism. This means that Christianity is shortchanged somewhat because much of the discussion is on "modernism". There are some printing errors that need to be fixed.
I was very pleased with this book, and I highly recommend it.

Abe Lincoln gets sent into a time machine and doesn't rembember anything. If they don't get Abe Lincoln back to the past, time will be totally be changed. Brian doesn't want Abe to go back because if he doesn't Brian gets rich and Cody and Max will disappear.

This review book reminds me of the NCLEX reviews. It is concise, divides the questions into the key content areas and provides answers with the rationale.

Of particular help is the second chapter "Test-taking skills and designing your study plan". Here the authors give you seven strategies for test-taking. Included are the points "Understanding and analyzing the anatomy of a test question" and the ever helpful "Selecting the best answer when you do not know the answer". There is an analysis of learning styles and an example schedule for preparation.

This review has been very helpful in lowering my test anxiety while in school. Too bad Amazon won't package it with Gawlinski and Hamwi at a reduced price ;-) ;-) This one really complements G&H. I can't give it 5 stars until I take the certification exam!

This is an academic treatment on the use of propaganda, chiefly art and monuments, in glorifying the Napoleonic exploits and being used to further France's continuing imperial pursuits. The text is quite readable and the book is graced by some good looking but rather kitschy pictures, many drawn by the leading Romantic painters of their day. These pictures and paraphernalia collectively led France to continue revelling in the Napoleonic myth long after the legend had passed on.
The notes and bibliography take up more than a third of the book!

Reading this book allowed me to knock down another wall in understandings of what knowledge and social change is about. I commend the author, Todd Boyd, for putting blakc popular culture in an academic context. If nothing else this made reading the book worth it. But there was much more contained within its chapters. The author discusses several aspects of black popular culture including rap music, hip-hop, film, and even basketball. Boyd illustrates that these are some forms of expression employed by African Americans, which often go unnoticed by official acadmians (as if there is such a thing). There were so many interesting concepts presented. Anyone questioning the function of controversial art forms such as gangsta rap should read this book, as should those who recognize its legitimacy and would like to be better able to articulate its significance to others.

Arithmetic, a novel by Todd McEwen, concerns a young boy who seems wise beyond his years but who experiences enormous difficulty with the subject of the title. Efforts by others to assist him in understanding arithmetic only make matters worse. The reader is drawn into the boy's world and may smile with recognition at some of the situations in which he finds himself. I highly recommend this tragicomic and very literate view of a young student's life and times.