If you have ever had the task of migrating legacy code and data to a new system you know how complex that task can be. "Modernizing Legacy Systems" covers all the bases of migrating a legacy system in wonderful detail without being overly wordy or obscure. System and software engineers will recognize and appreciate the fact that this book bases its advice on real world experience - the kind you get only from working on complex projects.

A well-defined plan of migration is presented early on for a complex retail supply system migration. Each phase of the plan is presented and explained in detail - covering both management and development perspectives equally well. For those of us who spend our days in a developer's world, the additional information on managing the migration effort contributes the right mix of information for what we are tasked to accomplish. I appreciated the technical specifics that were included throughout (i.e., utilizing Enterprise Java Beans) so that I didn't need to use my imagination as to how this plan would fit into my current project. Everything you need to know about legacy migration and then some is covered in this book. I knew that when I started to agree with what I was reading (aka Been There Done That) and could relate what was in the book to my own experience that I had found a winner.

This book is a good read and a great reference guide to help you get through a large, complex legacy migration. When you finally finish the book, take another look to capture all the detail you missed on your first read-through.

Addressing a timely and vital topic, 'Modernizing Legacy Systems' is an excellent book from the standpoints of both content and presentation. The advocated approach, which is termed the Risk-Managed Modernization (RMM) Approach, is synopsized on page 28 in UML activity diagram form. The exposition in the subsequent chapters is keyed to corresponding activities in this diagram. This key makes it quite easy to situate and interrelate the coverage of the respective chapters in the context of the RMM Approach. I found this recurring orientation feature to be very helpful in understanding and integrating the book's content.

The book describes, rationalizes, and selectively illustrates the RMM Approach, where the continued availability of the legacy system capabilities is necessary over the sequence of modernization increments. While the approach is illustrated through an incremental transformation of a legacy COBOL-based system to a Java-based derivative, the RMM Approach is nevertheless applicable to other modernization problems or technologies. Moreover, the book does an exceptionally good job of interweaving explanations with examples. These examples are modest but salient and revealing, thereby avoiding unwarranted detail or distractions.

The advocated approach is at once both architecture-centric and component-centric. Architecture centricity captures and sustains a rather specific vision of the as-desired system, and the associated target architecture provides a stable reference over the various modernization activities. Component centricity enables the identification, analysis, grouping, and ultimate realization of system elements that are allocated to the respective modernization increments. Overall then, the target architecture establishes the initial and termination points of a modernization project, and the componentization installments determine the actual redevelopment trajectory connecting the project end points.

For me, the most intriguing, innovative, and vital parts of the approach appear under the RMM activities labeled Define Modernization Strategy and Reconcile Strategy with Stakeholder Needs (Chapters 13-15 and Chapter 16, respectively). Basically, the modernization strategy provides a systematic approach to delineating, analyzing, and grouping modernization elements through an examination of the legacy system implementation, subject to project constraints and certain prior higher-level technical decisions. Then, the finalization of element groupings into sequential increments is determined using programmatic preferences of the various stakeholders. This two-stage definition of modernization increments is driven prominently by cost and risk considerations, as well as by programmatic and technical factors. Ultimately, the designated increments establish waypoints on the aforementioned redevelopment trajectory, thereby identifying interim architectural configurations that facilitate closure on the target architecture, while simultaneously maintaining user capabilities during the modernization effort.

In all, 'Modernizing Legacy Systems' is a readable, coherent, illuminating, and surprisingly broad treatment of a vital topic. Hopefully, the RMM Approach or variants thereof will see widespread use in industry, thereby exploiting "a systematic and fact-based method that avoids arbitrary, intuitive decision making..."

This book and this woman have completely changed my life and my devotion to the Lord. Elizabeth Prentiss is such a figure of godliness and piety to me, and God has used her letters and journals to mold and try my heart in blessed and glorious ways. Read Read Read.

This is a wonderful and inspiring book! It consists mainly of Mrs. Prentiss' letters and journal entries interspersed with comments and explanations by her husband, giving a greater and deeper picture of her life than a typical bigoraphy would. Her insights on prayer and suffering are amazing and truly inspire the reader to draw closer to Christ. It has revolutionized my devotional life and I highly recommend it!

I read this book slowly, for I'm 80 years old. The plight of the young boy raised by relatives and mistreated is a heartbreaking fact of life. I felt his rejection, for the author has a way with words, creating such a connection to her characters, I could not put it down. The end was amazing and rewarding, confirming that with God, all things are possible. I would recommend this book, for it is inspiring, touching. The beautiful poems only added to my enjoyment, for I could plainly see what it cost the author emotionally to write such words. Only someone who had been there could possibly describe such feelings of pain as Mrs. Lewis has done. I loved it! Wish she would write a sequel!

Although newly published, the author exhibits amazing skill in her ability to involve the reader in the passions and pain of her characters. The young boy, Matthew Carlisle, portrayed as a victim of his environment, seems unable to understand his own anger and hatred. Does a child necessarily exhibit such ingrained hostilities as an adult due to influences from childhood? Is it possible for the dark side of a personality to be affected by prayer and faith in God? The reader must decide this for himself, for the theme of this book points to that conclusion. As a man, I enjoyed the smooth, flowing, poetry of this book. Possibly considered a woman's preferred reading, based on the author's personal experiences as the wife of the character of Matthew Carlisle, I nevertheless was caught up in the struggle between the dark side of his character and the light. This is a book of fiction, but the events are true to life. There is a message of determined comittment to marriage, which is not too popular today. Also, the character of Amelia, the long suffering wife, could be labeled a fool by feminists. Its all in the perspective of the reader's view of God, faith, prayer, and real, tough, love. I rated this book five stars because I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Whether as fiction or fact, it is deeply moving, invoking sympathy and empathy.All in all, a good read.

I came across this treasure of a book in my local community library. It reads like a heartfelt letter from a friend, who have gone through the joyous and apprehensive experience of being a first-time mother. This is a great book for those of us who do not know exactly what to expect and sometimes do not have the foggiest idea what questions to ask. Read on and know that you are not the only odd one around!

In doing research in deciding to become a parent or not, I have read MANY books, but this is the only one that "tells it like it is". It is informative and realistic - just what I had been looking for.

I think this book should be required reading for young women and any couples thinking about or entering into parenthood.

This is the only Tax Book Ive ever read that didnt put me to sleep. Easy to read, lots of great tax advice and lots of humor to keep it interesting. If your an investor, I highly recommend this book. It could save you thousands of dollars!

This book is worth reading cover-to-cover to learn what you need to know before filing your taxes, and it's also a handy reference that can be used to answer specific questions (I've used it for both). The examples are humorous and clear, and the book does a good job of anticipating what questions will come to mind as you prepare for your tax filing. If your tax situation is getting complicated because of your investments, this book should really help.

It is a very long time since I've read a mystery novel with so stunning an opening, and what is so good about this mystery, is that it fulfills that promise: it is fast moving and filled with new incidents throughout. The geographical and chronological axes are also unusually wide and well-researched: from Mackinaw to Hawaii and from WWII and Finland's history to the present day. Sense of place is wonderfully conveyed, and the contrasts between the physical characteristics and differing life-styles of Mackinac and Oahu are portrayed with a wealth of convincing detail and local color. I loved this novel; it is gripping and compelling from page 1 to page 238. I will certainly read it again."

Ronald Lewis has written a wonderful novel with intrigue and mystery. He takes the reader from Mackinaw Island to Hawaii, complete with wonderful descriptions of the locations. You can tell that he has actually traveled to the places he writes about. A fun read!

With this work Grizzard departs from his usual mileu of homespun humor and examines the special relationship between fathers and sons. In doing so, the author takes the reader on a bittersweet trip through his father's life to include his military experiences during the Korean War, return to the United States as a combat hero, declining success in the business world, divorce, and finally his early death brought about by alcoholism. The story operates on two levels first by examining Grizzard's relationship with his father and, of greater importance to the reader, in unraveling the intricate interaction between all fathers and sons. On this second level, the work reveals that sons see their fathers as heros regardless of their circumstances. The author makes his best point in the early pages of the work in a discussion of, of all things, the various degrees of intoxication. First there are belligerent drunks, followed by rowdy drunks, followed by the "crank up the Enola Gay" drunks. In describing the most inebrieated level, Grizzard coins the phrase "crying about your daddy drunk", a point at which pent up emotions surge from that special place in the male psyche where men hide their most painful wounds. Any man who has lost a father can relate to this final level. I would recommend this work to two groups of readers--men who have suffered through the death of a father as well as those who wish to understand the depression and post traumatic shock of combat. Grizzard provides more insight to these readers than the best researched psychology book on the shelf. A powerful work with an eternal message, it is a shame that this work is no longer in print.

Lewis Grizzard writes about his memories of his daddy in this sometimes sad, sometimes hilarious book. This is what got me started reading Grizzard's books, and made me a loyal fan. You can't help but like it.

rather than the typical modern myths about mankind and its evolution - evoked by TV-series like "The X-Files" - this great book - as an amazing anthology of the human intellect - shows the "whole truth" ( that is not outhere by the way, but in our brains ) and how much we are going to lose of our human capacilities if we adore the principle of the machine!

This superb book discusses why language was mans most valuable tool ever developed and critiques opinions that say other wise. Enjoy, Mumford was a true geniu

I am always browsing Amazon and I have never taken the time to write a review, but this book deserves it! I have read many books on WWII and Italy and this is the only one that made me REALLY feel like I was there. Excellent writing and shocking details. Must read!

This is quite possibly the best book about World War II AND the best book about Italy you're likely to find... Full of striking telling detail from the opening confusion of the Allied invasion on the beaches of Salerno (the author, a young British intelligence officer posted to Italy behind his knowledge of Spanish, finds himself under fire in a wilderness of typewriters and other randomly strewn office equipment) to the improbable eruption of Vesuvius (and the Neapolitans' belief, amply demonstrated by historical prededent, that otherwise inexorable flows of lava could be stopped by the relics of Catholic saints)... Lewis is a master observer of the particular and this book, written after a mid-1950s perusal of his old wartime notebooks following publication of half a dozen other volumes, shows off his unmatched gift for quiet understatement. The residents of Naples were reduced to medieval conditions of famine and hygiene and were heartily sick of the war in 1944, prostitution was rampant with young girls often the only employables in a family, electric lines and even manholes were plundered for their scrap value. A clandestine mail service between Naples and still-Nazi-occupied Rome was a particular vexation to Lewis and his intelligence collegues, especially as some of Naples' most prominent citizens (including a midget gynecologist who was able to use both hands for non-incision internal surgery, and who specialized in restoration of virginity), were among the amateur postmen. The doings of Lucky Luciano and other characters on the late-WWII scene in Italy, and the incredible bungling and callousness of the occupation authorities are ably chronicled. Don't miss this one.

In my senior year of college, we were assigned Natural Obsessions for the relevance to oncology as a science. I had expected, as with all other undergraduate literature, to find only academic value in the book and approached it as such. But what unfolded instead was a journey through the strange and passionate world of research. It is what made me want to become an oncologist.

The nature of the story is of the many races during the 1980s to identify the genes causative of cancer. The narrative largely follows one lab, that of Robert Weinberg at MIT, and details their many setbacks and their even more groundbreaking victories. The author takes an active part, effectively becoming absorbed into the research and drawing the readers with her.

What the book offers, then, is a daily tread through the lives of basic researchers: not filled with sterile labs and stuffy professors, but with the drama, intrigue, and bittersweet triumphs normally found only in fiction. As there are no outright heroes or villains (except perhaps cancer itself), the moral ambiguity of each of the subplots makes the struggles more human. There is as much backstabbing, cut-throat competitiveness, and outright selfishness in the research world shown here as in any other professional field. But there is also collaboration, celebration, and respect. Anyone who thinks basic science is boring should be convinced otherwise.

The other side of the story is, indeed, academic in nature, though interwoven seamlessly with the stories. Despite the heavy scientific concepts throughout the book, Natalie Angier -- a non-scientistist herself -- has taken great pains to evince the most convoluted theories in a light, colorful language. Not all of it will be clear immediately, but the essence of the book doesn't require total familiarity with the technicalities. It is the humanity of the researchers that drives this book, not the research itself.

For undergraduates unsure of thier career choices, I can recommend no better book than Natural Obsessions for deciding if scientific research is for them. For some, like one of my friends who chose med school over grad school, the themes of competitiveness and failure can be disheartening. For others, like myself, it can open up a new perspective on science, one that can be exciting as well as rewarding if you have a passion for it.

This book covers all the in-depth information a person could want to know about cancer, while at the same time not burying the reading in technical jargon and biological confusion. I enjoyed reading this book for the information presented, but also the method in which it was conveyed. A must buy for anyone interested in this terrible disease.