This was my second 3D Studio max book. Buying it then was a mistake. There are many introductory books out there and this is one of the best but the problem is that the followup to this book; Inside 3DSMax vol 2, has everything vol 1 does and more. Get it if you are just starting out, and then I hope you are not scared of big books because this is where you start off, and start off well. If you already know your way around Max and just want to know advanced stuff like material manipulation and smoother models, get volume 2.

Many books on the market will give you step by step instructions how how to create a scene, or create certain effects. Although this is sometimes handy, it doesn't easially allow the user to incorperate the skills they learned into their own work.

Inside 3D Studio Max shows you the concepts behind how the program works, and allows you to apply these concepts, and skills to your own work, rather than a preformatted tutorial. It is this fact, however, that makes the book not extremely useful for modelers who are new to the program. This book often speaks of the manual which ships with 3DS Max, and the writer made it clear that this was not yet ANOTHER MANUAL. Inside 3D Studio Max explores how to expand your ability.

If you have no prior modeling practice, read the manual which ships with Max, then buy this book. If you do that, you will appreciate what is taught in this massive book.

This is an overall GREAT book, and it has really helped me to become a much better 3D artist.

Inside 3DStudio MAX At last!The book we all waited for.Inside 3DStudio MAX,writtten by Steven Elliot & Phillip Miller;authors of Inside 3DStudio Release 3 & 4.Some said that Inside series is better than the manuals.Well,to tell you the truth,they are quite right. The book is very well structured.It has 29 chapters,starting from explaining the core concepts of MAX,and ending in Network Rendering.Every chapter has its introduction and summary,that's very good 'cause you know what's the chapter about and the summary reminds you the most importants parts. It is not a book that throws you some tutorials only.On the contrary,the writers pay attention to general knowledge an animator must have.Mixing colors and light,story boarding,etc.. Every button is explained thouroughly in the book.It teaches you the best way to model and animate efficiently every model you can think of. Of course,it has some drawbacks.Material editor,Video Post,Space Warps & Particles are not explained in depth.Although there is a solution to that(in February 2 more Volumes will be published:Inside3DStudio MAX Volume II:Advanced Modelling & Material Editor,Volume III:Animation & Character Studio),who wants to buy 2 more books that costs 110$ additionally?(Answear:Me..:P).Another drawback is that the book has color photos only in the chapters that refer to Material Editor(although some will say that's no big deal).And the CD that is included with the book has 200mb of textures.O.k ,where's the drawback?:) Only a few of them are useful.90% of them are very artistic and extend beyond the needs of traditional animators.I think that whoever makes the textures(by the way Tim Forcade,who included textures in 3DStudio 4 Hollywood & Gaming Effects & Indide 3DStudio 4),should have in mind that animators need practical textures like wood,metals and stuff and not abstract paintings.... Inside is for the novice and for the experienced animator,and it is by far the No.1 if you want to master MAX. "Inside 3D Studio MAX should be a part of every serious animator's library"(Larry Crume,Vice President,Autodesk and General MAnager,Kinetix)

I bot this and found it difficult to get myself to read thru it.
So, I loaned it to a CCNP (v2) cert. friend, who read it throughly. He FAILED the ccdp exam, much to his surprize! Today, we were looking at the new Cisco Press CCIE written book, and my friend noticed the answers to the CCDP exam questions are well covered in that book (by Bruno). So, I'll try that one.

While certainly easy to read and follow, Padjen's Cisco Internetwork Design Study Guide is not a complete study guide for the CID test. Although I did pass (by quite a bit) the first time taking the test, I found myself refering to the class notes to fill out holes in this study guide. X.25, Stratacom ATM switches, and SNA are big parts of the exam, and they are only briefly covered here.

This study guide would have better served its purchasers by dropping sections on DSL, Cable Modems, and other "advanced" design topics that are not covered and beefing up the sections on the material the exam actually covers. Overall, a good introduction to Cisco Internetwork Design and lots of good coverage on the desktop protocols, TCP/IP, and the network design models.

You can pass the exam with just this book, just make sure you supplement the SNA and X.25 material from Cisco's website.

Also, be aware that Cisco is rolling out a new version of the exam (it is in beta starting on Nov. 27th) and this book may become out of date depending on what exactly the new exam covers.

Well, passed with a nice 922 out of 1000. Honestly, I read all of Todd Lammle's books for my Cisco tests, and I've yet to score below an 880!

HIGHLY recommend this book (and other Sybex Cisco study guides) as they are easy to read, thorough, and don't have too many technical mistakes. Pair this with the (now defunct) Exam Cram series by Coriolis and you're ready to PASS!

This book was a disappointment. Mostly it shows how to create packages using the Enterprise Mgr interface. I don't need a book to do that. Right now I am coding a VB app using DTS, and this book was definitely not enough. This is a beginner book, introductory in nature. There is an Object reference, but I can see that in the Object Browser. The examples are simplistic and not real-world. The examples on the SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit are better. I am moving large amounts of data data and have to deal with permissions, constraints, dependency tables -- none of this is covered. You can manipulate the object model thousands of ways; without any guidance on these advanced topics (not covered by MSDN) you are adrift... and your packages will fail every time.
If you are a programmer, don't bother with this one.

This book does a good job of explaining all the things about DTS you could have worked out yourself. However when it comes to anything more advanced like programming with the DTS object model (which is what I wanted the book for inthe first place) the information is very sparse and few examples are provided. If you want to do anything useful with DTS then don't buy this book. If however you just want to confirm in writing all the obvious features of the graphical interface (already written in the online documentation) then this is for you.

An example of the type of irrelevant stuff which was clearly inserted in this book just to pad it out are the chapter and half dedicated to teaching vbscript from scratch (I suppose we should be grateful the authors didn't put in a description of the entire VB IDE when the got to the custom tasks chapter), and the 100 pages of index's at the back which give no more information then the SQL server books online.

Wrox usually publish excellent technical books, this is a disappointment.

My company just started using DTS and I needed to learn the technology rapidly. While many Wrox books are 1000+ pages, this book is actually 683. The rest of the pages are devoted to appendixes on the object models.

Another strength of this book is the construction of the chapters. After the introductory 2 chapters, the rest can be read in any order or skipped. This book covered many diverse topics, including data warehouse loading, the DTS object model, VBScript, and even using VB to build new custom tasks.

The book is primarily focused on DBAs. Therefore, there is more coverage of VBScript and COM object development than a programmer would require. However, given the strong chapter cohesiveness, it is easy to skip this material without missing important information.

I got this as part of a CCNA course so that we can practice at home. For most practice labs used in the Sybex Book by Todd Lammle it is quite adequate. However given the expensive price of this it irks me no end that one of the biggest problems is with the help and the autocompletion with tab on the cisco router. Often you press a command such as log? and it will only show a couple of the options or say ambiguous command. I think this a big failing considering that people using it are learners. You definitely need to use a real router as well

I used this lab plus the Sybex CCNA e-Trainer for 3 weeks and passed 640-507 with a 945/1000 score. This lab isn't perfect as it doesn't replicate the entire IOS command set, but it does give you what you need to become a CCNA.

Instead of buying routers, I bought the Sybex CCNA Virtual Lab. It was good and I gave it a great Amazon rating. However, this is, and I am guesing here, the Second edition, which basically is just more routers, switches and hosts to configure and work within a fixed network environment. Works great, with more supported commands and worth every cent --much better then any Cisco software product! You MUST get the Todd Lammle Sybex CCNA Study Guide to read along with this product and then practice the labs. Good luck!

I bought this book to keep it as a source to depend on when needed, when it was time to use with reading for the MCSE windows 2000 pro exam I did help me to answer some questions that I couldnt found answers for them in the training kit.This book takes u from the basic level up to higher levels of knowledge.In brief good for real problems not so good as a study material.

If I only had one book on Win2000 Professional, this 2nd edition would be it!

Note: The first edition of this book was good for beginners but did not go deep enough for power users. However, in the second edition, the Minasi we all love from his classic "Win2000 Server" is back--and he is at his best. The 2nd edition is still useful for beginners, but it also has the meat that power users are looking for. Very clear and totally comprehensive.

Just the premise of using an operating system daily for critical content and not having a resource like Minasi's MW2k is setting yourself up for trouble. Murphy's Law has never been proven as authentic as often as in the world of computers, and it is only by offering a great review for this book and heartfelt thanks to Minasi for writing it that I can hope to persuade people to realize the priceless value of this tome. Priceless, because a signature talent of system failure is to make whatever irreplaceable work you have disappear forever. Even though I backup religiously, twice I had found myself in the situation of loosing client material at the hands of system errors, both of which I was able to solve just by referencing Mastering Win 2k. Just the chapter "Fixing Windows 2000 When It Breaks" alone justifies the price of this book. I had originally planned to use this book only when needed, but after experiencing the wealth of valuable information in one chapter I am now reading it cover to cover. If you use Windows 2000 professionally or just somewhat regularly, you need "Mastering Windows 2000", period.

It is always a pleasant surprise to find new books relating to presidents that are rarely covered in modern day print. This biography of Grover Cleveland does an excellent job of covering the issues and events which dominated the late 1800s. In contrast, the details of Cleveland's personal and political life are treated in a cold and sterile manner. You never really get the sense that this book provides any real insight into the character and persona that the author perpetrates on the cover "An Honest President". The book starts out by describing a little of his family background and quickly jumps into his role as mayor of Buffalo New York. From there, he soon becomes the first democratic president elected after the civil war. During his presidencies, Grover Cleveland takes controversial stands. His position to lower tariffs on imported goods was particularly unpopular and the author cites this as one of the contributing factors that led to his defeat in the presidential election of 1888. During his second term he handles the Pullman's strike in a quick and decisive manner but leaves many to question the federal government's role in the intervention of affairs at the state level. If anything else, Jeffers successfully conveys the fact that Cleveland was a man of ideals and principals. His decisions were based on the greater good and not on party stance or public opinion. He favored the gold standard, opposed the anexation of Hawaii and fought for reform against the political machines of his day. A strong supporter of the Monroe Doctrine, Cleveland asserted his views against the sequestration of Venezuela by Great Britain. On a final note, I found the author's comparison of Cleveland to Bill Clinton in the last chapter to be somewhat inappropriate. These are two different men from two different eras and it is unfair to speculate how each would have performed in each others time. His closing comments only serve to detract from his scholarly efforts.

This work by H. Paul Jeffers is one of two recent accounts of Grover Cleveland's spectacular life. President Cleveland was the only elected Democrat between the Civil War and the first World War. He was a conservative in that he advocated fiscal responsibility, but was a liberal in that he advocated reform. He worked hand in hand with Republican reformers like Theodore Roosevelt who wanted clean government regardless of the political costs. He advocated a strong defense without the bullying aspects that McKinley and Roosevelt followed. He worked hard for consolidation between broken southern dreams and Unionist aspirations. He sought unity in all things especially in labor disputes which marred his presidency. He was not a puritan. He was responsible for a child out of wedlock, but he took responsibility for that and provided for the child's well-being. He enjoyed his cigars and his alcohol, but his sobor guidance made this country a better place to live in as he took on corruption wherever he faced it. His two divided terms never stopped his desire to accomplish building a newly growing America. This book is written for the common man who wants a slice of life in the gilded age. Cleveland's gold was however his personality and his dedication to honesty in government. He's a rare jewel in America's politics in this degraded age. We were lucky to have him and he made the country a better place. Can we say that about our current leaders? We need a Grover Cleveland now.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered this long-awaited biography of our 22nd and 24th president! As a release from the hundreds of redundant titles about Lincoln or Washington that are produced each year, this book provided me an opportunity to visit with a man too many ignore or misunderstand. The author provides a clean, concise account of his life (usually hitting only the high points rather than indulging in endless detail), and provides a fair, balanced description of his presidency. Still, it was most fascinating to read about Cleveland's rapid ascent from obscurity to the White House. Here was a man, who within three years (1881-1884), went from mayor of Buffalo to become a successful presidential candidate against powerful Republican James G. Blaine. As a politician, whether on the local or national level, Cleveland took controversial stands, challenged established members of his party, vetoed popular bills (risking always an override), and revealed private, potentially harmful information in the name of truth an openness. The author by no means paints a picture of perfection (his decisions as president are up for historical debate), but whatever position he took, Cleveland never betrayed his sense of duty and loyalty to the social good. That sense might have been wrong on several occasions (his handling of the 1894 Pullman strike, for example, which pushed the envelope of federal intervention in state matters), but he never compromised out of fear or a desire to cater to party officials. While there are many accounts of Cleveland's happy marriage to Frances (almost thirty years his junior) and their children (one of whom was, in a first, born in the White House), the book is an important contribution primarily because of its reassessment of his political life. Additionally, the author gives us a vivid representation of the late 19th century itself (as all presidential biographies must); a time rife with labor wars, economic crises (the Panic of 1893 was one of the nation's worst depressions), racial conflict, immigration debates (Cleveland signed the Chinese Exclusion Act yet vetoed a bill forbidding illiterate immigrants), imperialism abroad, and impending war with Spain. While the author resorts to a few cheap shots against President Clinton in the end (I suppose no contemporary book about politics would be complete without it), the book maintains a satisfactory level of detachment throughout. While books such as these will never light up the bestseller lists, I am thankful that they are written. Mr. Jeffers should be applauded for tackling a forgotten man while always keeping it accessible, appealing, and worthy of the subject.

Just took the CCNP Support exam and did not pass. I based my whole preparation on this book and its exam prep software. I read the book twice and went over problem areas on a nightly basis. I was scoring 100% on the sybex edge test prep. Was confident of at least passing. The information in the book did not match up with the exam. Frankly, this book came up short. Though I failed by a calculated two questions, I can say practical job experience contributed more than this book. Things were worded in Cisconese and seemed to be centered around that company's learning objectives with no deviation. The main commands taught in this book were scarcely referred to by any of the test questions.

In conclusion, I would recommend obtaining training materials from Cisco. If they are not available, wait.

This has got to be the hardest exam in the CCNP series. I was sweating bullets. I am thankful for this book, as it did prepare me, but you really have to study hard to pass this exam. If it wasn't for this book, I would have failed for sure, but I did get a 890, which is awesome for this exam. This exam hits hard on ISDN troublshooting. Read the ISDN chapter in this book at least twice before taking the exam. You'll pass, but you have to do some work too! Good luck

This is a great written book and it really helped my understand the ISDN troublshooting technique that is so difficult on this exam. To pass the Cisco CCNP Support exam, you MUST know your troubleshooting techiques for ISDN and Frame Relay realy, really well. Everything on the exam was in this book. I recommend this book for the exam and for a desk reference as well. It is the largest Cisco book I have bought from Sybex, so be prepared to read and read some more. Also, having routers and switches is the key to sucess on this exam.

If you are seeking The Authoritative Volume on The Doolittle Raid this book is not it. (I'm not convinced that book has yet been written.)

As a war story I found this book enjoyable. It is well paced, not dry, and will hold the attention of a casual reader.

As a history of the Raid, I found it uneven. HEROES does have value as a fair entry point for those - like the author himself -who like a good action story but start with little knowledge of the topic. Nelson has captured in book form a lot of oral history and other material that I have not seen in print before. Start here - but move on and read some of the many other books on this topic too.

I was surprised at the author's assertion (in the Introduction, and again to an audience at the Smithsonian in October 2002) that he had never heard of the Doolittle Raid as a child. I remember from about age 10 on devouring Edwin Stafford's 'The Big E', Ted Lawson's '30 Seconds over Tokyo', and Robert Welch's 'Life of John Birch', as just 3 examples of books about or including the Raid. (Parts of the 1944 movie version of '30 Seconds' also made it into 1975's 'Midway,' billed as 'actual wartime footage'!)

Much of Nelson's book - and much of his research work too, one suspects - is background information only tangentially relevant to the actual Raid. I would have liked to see more about the Raid, the Raiders, and their mission, and less about FDR, Ernie King, and other power players far from the front line.

The book does contain errors of fact, and I also found some other needless distractions. The endnotes in particular are in my opinion unusable. His convention of placing Japanese surnames before given names is a politically (and technically) correct affectation, but is confusing to English-speaking readers, unusual in American writing, and almost unique in books on this topic. Discussions of FDR's 'back door to war' and the placing of blame for Pearl Harbor are unbalanced, of minimal relevance, and appear (rightly or wrongly) to be here only to allow the author to advance his favorite position and casually dismiss the work of those who take opposing views.

First Heros is an exciting and complete book about enormously courageous and heroic men. It is an excellent book about a dark hour in our country's history. I was well acquainted with Doolittle's raid on Tokyo, and there was quite a bit of new information for me. I would recommend it to anyone interested in WWII or to anyone who wants to read about some real heros. There were a few inaccuracies, however, which I found bothersome: the B25 had radial engines, not diesels; the landing gear was retractable, therefore the pilots couldn't have flow so low that the "wheels almost hit the trees;" the altitude of a plane does not in and of itself determine whether it picks up ice. I, too, found it surprising that the author had never before heard of the Doolittle raid -- I guess this says something about our educational system. Also, in a serious and rigorous book I found it surprising that the author uses such colloquialisms as "Doolittle had balls of steel," and "he woke up" instead of "he awakened." Nonetheless, these are relatively minor complaints about what is, on the whole, an absorbing book.

I feel this is the most accurate book on the Doolittle Raid. You are not wasting your time with this book. What has happened is that most military historians read one account of an event and make that the truth. Some people get one idea in their head and that is just the way it is regardless if ten others that were present dispute that thought. This author did much research. Over 80,000 documents. Interviewed ALL the living members of the raid. He was also was able to obtain original manuscripts of the interviews of 30 additional members ( Including Doolittle) while they were living from the Military Library in Alabama ( I think that is where it is located ). The names of Japanese Military that is listed backwards is such a small arguing point but this author did it correctly. This is a prime example of others not really knowing what they are talking about. In this custom, It is proper for the sir name - the last name- to be listed first. That he lists the names in such a way is a sign of respect. I assure you anyone that can get rid of all preconceived events and do countless hours of research with over 80,000 documents and interviews and present a more accurate presentation of this event would not let in error list the names of the important players names wrong. If that is all you can pick out??? Well that should tell prospective readers something. - This is an unbiased, most realistic account of the events of the Doolittle Raid.

Seeking to reprise his earlier success with The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper went on to write several other tales built around his heroic character Natty Bumppo (called "Hawkeye" in Mohicans and "Pathfinder" in the book of THAT name). In this one our hero is known as "Deerslayer" for his facility on the hunt and is shown as the younger incarnation of that paragon of frontier virtue we got to know in the earlier books. In this one, too, we see how he got his most famous appellation: "Hawkeye". But, this time out, our hero comes across as woefully tiresome (perhaps it's because we see too much of him in this book, where he's almost a side character in Mohicans). Yet some of Cooper's writing skills seem sharper here (he no longer avers that Natty is the taciturn type, for instance, while having the fellow forever running off at the mouth). But, while there are some good moments & excitement, this tale really doesn't go all that far...and its rife with cliches already overworked from the earlier books. The worst part is the verbose, simple-minded self-righteousness of our hero, himself, taken to the point of absolute unbelievability. He spurns the love of a beautiful young woman (though he obviously admires her) for the forester's life (as though he couldn't really have both), yet we're expected to believe he's a full-blooded young American male. And he's insufferably "moral", a veritable goody two-shoes of the woodlands. At the same time, the Indians huff & puff a lot on the shore of the lake where Deerslayer finds himself in this tale (in alliance with a settler, his two daughters, a boorish fellow woodsman, and Deerslayer's own erstwhile but loyal Indian companion Chingachgook -- "The Big Sarpent," as Natty translates his name). But the native Americans seem ultimately unable to overwhelm the less numerous settlers who have taken refuge from them in the middle of Lake Glimmerglass (inside a frontier house built of logs and set in the lake bed on stilts). There is much racing around the lake as Deerslayer and the others strive to keep the few canoes in the vicinity from falling into the hands of the tribe of marauding Hurons who have stopped in the nearby woods on their way back up to Canada (fleeing the American colonists and the British at the outbreak of English-French hostilities -- since these Hurons are allied with the French). And there are lots of dramatic encounters, with some deaths, but the Indians seem to take it all with relative equanimity, while trying to find a way to get at the whites who are precariously ensconced out on the lake. (It seems to take them the better part of two days, for instance, to figure out they can build rafts to make up for their lack of canoes -- and why couldn't they just build their own canoes, in any case -- and how is it they don't have any along with them since it's obvious they'll have to cross a number of waterways to successfully make it back to the homeland in Canada?) The settler and the boorish woodsman, for their part, do their stupid best to attack the Indians unnecessarily, getting captured then ransomed in the process, while Deerslayer and Chingachgook contrive to get the loyal Indian's betrothed free from the Hurons (it seems she has been kidnapped by them -- the reason Deerslayer and Chingachgook are in the vicinity in the first place). In the meantime the simple-minded younger daughter of the settler (Cooper seems to like this motif since he used a strong daughter and a simpler sister in Mohicans, as well) wanders in and out of the Indian's encampment without sustaining any hurt on the grounds that the noble red men recognize the "special" nature of this poor afflicted young woman (Cooper used this motif in Mohicans, too). In the end there's lots of sturm und drang but not much of a tale -- at least not one which rings true or touches the right chords for the modern reader. Cooper tried to give us more of Hawkeye in keeping with what he thought his readers wanted but, in this case, more is definately too much. --- Stuart W. Mirsk

"The Deerslayer" is, chronologically, the first of Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, although the last to be written. It takes place in the early 1740s on the Lake Glimmerglass. Natty Bumppo, called Deerslayer, and his friend Hurry Harry March go to Tom Hutter's "Castle," which is a house built on stilts on a shoal in the middle of the lake, and it is practically impregnable. March intends to get Tom's daughter Judith to marry him. More love is in the air, for Deerslayer plans to meet Chingachgook at a point on the lake in a few days in order to help him rescue his bride-to-be, Wah-ta-Wah, who is a prisoner of the Hurons.

War breaks out, Tom and Harry are captured by Hurons, and the untested Deerslayer must go on his first warpath to rescue them. That sets up the plot, and there follows many twists and turns, ending with a very haunting conclusion. Although the book drags in parts, it's still pretty good.

I would caution you not to expect realism in this book. "It is a myth," D. H. Lawrence writes, "not a realistic tale. Read it as a lovely myth." Yes, Deerslayer is fond of talking, but take his soliloquies the same way as you take Shakespeare's: characters in both men's works meditate and reflect on what they are going through. So toss out your modern preconceptions aside and just enjoy the myth!

Cooper's final Leatherstocking Tale, The Deerslayer, depicts young Natty Bumppo on his first warpath with lifelong friend-to-be, Chingachgook. The story centers around a lake used as the chronologically subsequent setting for Cooper's first Leatherstocking Tale, The Pioneers. Tom Hutter lives on the lake with his daughters and it is here that Deerslayer (Bumppo) intends to meet Chingachgook to rescue Chingachgook's betrothed from a band of roving Iroquois. A desperate battle for control of the lake and it's immediate environs ensues and consumes the remainder of the story.

Throughout this ultimate Leatherstocking Tale, Cooper provides Natty much to postulate upon. Seemingly desiring a comprehensive finality to the philosophy of Bumppo, Cooper has Natty "speechify" in The Deerslayer more so than in any other book, though the character could hardly be considered laconic in any. Though the reason for this is obvious and expected (it is, after all, Cooper's last book of the series), it still detracts a tad from the pace of the story as Natty picks some highly inappropriate moments within the plot to elaborate his position. And, thus, somewhat incongruently, Cooper is forced to award accumulated wisdom to Bummpo at the beginning of his career rather than have him achieve it through chronological accrual.

All things considered, however, The Deerslayer is not remarkably less fun than any other Leatherstalking Tale and deserves a similar rating. Thus, I award The Deerslayer 4+ stars and the entire Leatherstocking Tales series, one of the better examples of historical fiction of the romantic style, the ultimate rating of 5. It was well worth my time.

This book is an OK introduction Flash MX. Specifically, I have to build a game with it, and the one chapter that leads you through constructing a game is very enlightening. However, it is not a very good reference; often points are glossed over entirely, and you only have a vague sense of how to complete your task. Additionally, there are tons (and I mean TONS) of editorial mistakes. Here are some examples:
1.) On Page 765, a paragraph starts mid-sentence. I have no idea what the first half of this paragraph was supposed to say, but it isn't there.
2.) On page 622, the name of the website has not been inserted where it should have been. Instead you see: "". That is laughably poor.

Additionally, the web site is not even finished! They don't include the content from chapters 21 onward yet (the link is inactive). That's ridiculous! How much effort does it take to post a .zip file with all the material they've supposedly already written?
If I were you, I'd purchase someone else's Flash MX book. I can't recommend one, as I spent [money] on this one, and I don't plan on doing that again.

I picked up this book about three weeks ago, and I can put it down. The exercises and examples in this book are written clearly, and in a way that makes sense.
It covers everything from drawing in Flash, to animation, to ActionScript, to advanced database integration. The authors clearly are masters of Flash, with all the information and knowledge in this book, it's one of the best values in Flash books.
I've watched some of the QuickTime movies on the companion web site, and they're awesome. If you're confused about a topic, these are the best way to get a clear understanding of the difficult topics. A+++
Unleashed breaks down all concepts, and makes total sense. I've used Flash 4 briefly, and now need to start working with MX for work. This book as been a tremendous help, and I would encourage anyone looking to learn Flash to pick up this book.

I looked over the reviews for this book and they go either way 5 stars or 1 star - not much in between. Well..I'm a five star guy and can't believe the 1 star ratings. I sat down and did about 7 or 8 of the lessons all without a hitch. The text is streamlined so you get the most information without a draining amount of novice information. If you're new to web development this book is not for you, if you're new to Flash this book may not be for you as well. The topics covered in this book, start off pretty basic, but ramp up quickly.

I think the poor reviews this book got where from people who shouldn't have been reading it in the first place. On the back of the book it indicates that this book is for intermediate to advanced users. However, this book does have it's problems. There are some typos, which are annoying more than anything else and I wish it had a CD instead of a web site. I was reading this book on a plane. These problems, in my opinion, don't take away from the value of this book. Kudos to Sams.