I read this book while doing research on my Great-Great Grandfather, who fought in the War and was a member of the 11th Virginia Infantry, Company B. The author of this book being of Company C, 11th Virginia, I was able to trace somewhat the actions of my Great-Great Grandfather during the war. A compelling book from the perspective of the young men of the South who bravely fought to defend their invaded homeland. It only pains me that the truth written in this antiquted volume has been all but forgotten in todays "history" lessons.

In this book, Captain William H. Morgan, (a member of "The Immortal 600"), relates personal experience "in camp, in bivouac, on the march, on picket, on the skirmish line, on the battlefield, and in prison" -- and also gives a history not only of his own company, but of the Eleventh Regiment, Kemper's Brigade, and Pickett's Division. Captain Morgan's writing is delightful and a valuable addition to the story of the war. He tells his story in a direct, pleasant, graphic way which conveys his thoughts, opinions, and the facts very distinctly -- and holds the interest of his readers in a very engaging way. A complete index adds to its value.

I build scale model cars and this book is a great reference tool. It covers all of Porsche's racing cars of the '60s leading toward the development of the 917 and recounts all the roadblocks and pitfalls along the way. People who are not saavy about the real world of large-stakes motorsport can be surprised to learn about how much rule-bending goes on. "Unfair advantages" are aggressiviely sought through research and experimentation. An interesting aspect of the 917 is much refinement and modification was needed to turn this complicated and dangerous car into a successful racer.

"Porsche 917: The Winning Formula" traces the history of the engineering and development of the Porsche 917, from its origins as a challenger to Ferrari through victory at LeMans and onto the later development of the all-conquering Can Am Porsche 917-30. Morgan uses interviews with those most closely tied to the project development and provides insights far beyond the typical photo-history and race history books. This is one of the best written, best researched and most enjoyable books of its type I have read in a long time. Highly recommended.

Ayyub provides an excellent systemic context for the exposition of reliability theory, especially as it relates to applications for decision-makers and decision-making. The mathematical basis of reliability in probability and statisitics is clearly presented and is suitable for engineering students and managers.

In preparing this book, we strove to achieve the following educational objectives: (1) introducing probability, statistics, and reliability methods to engineering students and practicing engineers, (2) emphasizing the practical use of these methods, and (3) establishing the limitations, advantages, and disadvantages of the methods. Although, the book was developed with emphasis on engineering and technological problems, the methods can also be used to solve problems in other fields of sciences.

Problems that are commonly encountered by engineers require decision making under conditions of uncertainty. The uncertainty can be in the definition of a problem, the available information, the alternative solution methodologies and their results, and the random nature of the solution outcomes. Studies show that in the future engineers will need to solve more complex design problems with decisions made under conditions of limited resources, thus necessitating increased reliance on the proper treatment of uncertainty. Therefore, this book is intended to better prepare future engineers, as well as assist practicing engineers, in understanding the fundamentals of probability, statistics, and reliability methods, especially their applications, limitations, and potentials.

STRUCTURE, FORMAT, AND MAIN FEATURES

We have developed this book with a dual use in mind, as both a self-learning guidebook and as a required textbook for a course. In either case, the text has been designed to achieve important educational objectives.

The nine chapters of the book cover of the following subjects: (1) an introduction to the text that covers uncertainty types, decision analysis, and Taylor series expansion; (2) graphical analysis of data, and the computation of important characteristics of sample measurements and basic statistical characteristics; (3) the fundamentals of probability; (4) the joint behavior of random variables and the probabilistic characteristics of functions of random variables; (5) statistical analyses that include parameter estimation, hypothesis testing, confidence-interval estimation, sample-size determination, and probability-model selection; (6) curve fitting or model development based on data using regression analysis; (7) a formal presentation of Monte Carlo simulation; (8) reliability, risk, and decision analysis; and (9) the use of Bayesian methods in engineering. The book was designed for an introductory course in probability, statistics, and reliability with emphasis on applications. In developing the book, a set of educational outcomes as detailed in Chapter 1 motivated the structure and content of this text. Ultimately, serious readers will find the content of the book to be very useful in engineering problem solving and decision making. One of the most difficult to grasp aspects of probability and statistics is the concept of sampling variation. In engineering practice, an engineer typically has only one sample of data. It is important to recognize that the statistical results would be somewhat different if he or she had collected a different sample, even if that sample were equally likely to have occurred. Simulation is a means of demonstrating the sample-to-sample, or sampling, variation that can be expected. For this reason, we have incorporated a section on simulation at the end of each chapter (Chapters 1 to 6). Performing some simulations is one way of generating a better appreciation for sampling variation that is inherent in statistical problems presented in Chapters 1 to 6. Omitting the sections on simulation does not diminish a reader's understanding of the other sections or chapters. In each chapter of the book, computational examples are given in the individual sections of the chapter, with more detailed engineering applications given in a concluding section. Also, each chapter includes a set of exercise problems that cover the materials of the chapter. The problems were carefully designed to meet the needs of instructors in assigning homework and the readers in practicing the fundamental concepts. The book can be covered in one or two semesters depending the level of a course or the time allocated for topics covered in the book. The chapter sequence can be followed as a recommended sequence. However, if needed, instructors can choose a subset of the chapters for courses that do not permit a complete coverage of all chapters or a coverage that cannot follow the presented order. After completing Chapters 1, 2, and 3, the readers will have sufficient background to follow and understand the materials in the following tracks of chapters: Chapter 4; Chapters 5 and 6; Chapters 7 and 8; and Chapter 9 according to the indicated sequence.

I took this course as a part of staff development offered by GMU. This book is so much better than the one I learned from in college. There is so much more offered to the teacher in a very easy to follow format. There are plenty of examples at every grade level to satisfy anyone. I wouldn't be without this book. Thanks to Ms. Richardson,et al. for writing it and thanks to my school district for offering it. This book will stay with me forever. If you are having reading problems in your class then get this book and quit pulling your hair out.

As an assistant principal, I have been witness to the positive effects of the strategies in this book, both for teaschers and students. The strategies are practical and more importantly they work. Students get a much more in depth understanding of their reading if these strategies are used. I would recommend this book to anyone teaching or studying.

The following review of "Rendering with Radiance" was published in the November 1998 issue of "Lighting Design + Application" magazine. It has been posted to AMAZON.COM by the author.

Ian Ashdown, P. Eng., LC byHeart Consultants Limited 620 Ballantree Road West Vancouver, BC Canada V7S 1W3 e-mail: byheart@acm.org

Lighting Design + Application contact:

Mark Newman, Editor Lighting Design + Application Illuminating Engineering Society of North America 120 Wall Street, 17th Floor New York, NY 10005 Tel: (212) 248-5000

Rendering with Radiance Greg Ward Larson and Rob Shakespeare ISBN 1-55860-499-5, Hard Cover 664 pages; 1998; Morgan Kaufmann Publishers

Many LD+A readers know Radiance as a lighting design and analysis program that was developed by Greg Ward (Larson) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Those who have investigated Radiance know that it is freely available, but usable only if you have a UNIX workstation and the patience to master more than 50 software tools. In ten years, it has attracted a coterie of fewer than 400 dedicated users.

Rendering with Radiance will undoubtedly change this. Originally conceived as a UNIX-style technical manual, the book is much more. It offers several tutorials, numerous application examples, and detailed discussions of the program's underlying mathematical algorithms. The accompanying CD-ROM includes example images, Radiance models and material libraries, reference manuals, and fully commented C source code for Radiance 3.1.

Despite first impressions, this book is not about computer graphics. The Radiance Lighting Simulation and Rendering System was created for advanced lighting designers and academic researchers, and more than half of the book is devoted to applying Radiance to real-world lighting problems. Ward Larson, Shakespeare and three contributing experts discuss luminaire modeling and lighting analysis, daylight simulation, animation, roadway lighting, theatre lighting, and exterior lighting. Even if you have committed yourself to using architectural visualization programs such as Lightscape and RadioRay, you will find an abundance of useful information in this book.

Radiance is the only software program that faithfully models the physical behavior of light, especially specular and semispecular reflections. It has a steep learning curve, but the quality of the architectural renderings it produces is unequalled by any commercial product. With Rendering with Radiance, we now have a user's manual that fully complements the capabilities of its namesake.

This truly is a remarkable book. Unlike most computer graphics texts, it presents lengthy discussions of IES photometric data files, luminance meters and spectrophotometers, the CIE overcast sky model, roadway light metrics, veiling luminance, spectral transmission data, and much more. The major algorithms used by Radiance are fully documented, including discussions of their limitations. There is more information in this book on lighting software use and design than can be found in all other books combined.

The major disadvantage of Radiance is that it was developed for UNIX workstations. In the past, this restricted the use of the program (really a set of UNIX tools) mostly to academic researchers. However, the freely-available and popular UNIX clone Linux now allows Radiance to be run with few difficulties on Windows and Macintosh computers.

As a contributor to the text, I am a bit biased, but I do think you will find the book's numerous chapters very helpful for folks of a wide range of skill levels. It is a great resource guide, reference book and tutorial. It includes the Radiance executables for a few Unix platforms on the CD-ROM! These alone will save you an hour or two. The book is well worth the money, but don't take my word for it.

For some reason the British have the best graphics magazines...always the best reviews and tutorials. Thus it is no surprise that the book, Revolutionary - Final Cut Pro 2 by Blissett et al, is such a fine book. About the first third of the book deals with planning a production, actually shooting the footage, and preparing the footage for editing. All of these discussions are accompanied by examples and real world comments.
The rest of the book deals with Final Cut Pro 2 (FCP2) in a logical progression from clip capture to editing, then on to special effects and concluding with sound. Throughout the discussions are examples to work along with as well as a continuing project called "yootclub."
This book gives an excellent introduction to video production, in general, and FCP2 in particular.

Then this is the book for you. I've made 8 shorts now...and I wish I had this book 2 years ago! I've bought dozens of books over the last 3 years but this is the first one that's been wrote by real filmakers. How do I know? There are REAL tips in it. I mean those ones that come from really making a film...not the same moron advice that everyone gives.

There's a real good case study too. It reminds me of my first video shoot for 'The Clan'. There's real good focus in there, but I think they could go further with putting things together.

Buy this book if you're an editor or a director. Definitely if you're a director! I started out editing and some of the directors I worked with could really do with reading this book ;o)

Great book, it grabbed my attention from the first few pages and couldn't put it down. What a great story!

Though I'm not one to read a novel (I prefer non-fiction), I found this story to be so close to real life that I could not put it down. Entirely involving! Off the pillow and on the edge of my bed all night...what a good read!!!

This a familiar story for children with a special twist. Baby bear is in a wheelchair. The story talks about his special equipment and his therapy but still tells the basic story familiar to the children. The pictures are delightful and the words are 'just right'. It is an excellent addition to our Head Start library.

As an RN I feel this book is useful in using an established storyline to introduce children to others who have a disability. Children who read this already know and can relate to the story, and therefore can use this information to better understand a friend or family member who may be confined to a wheelchair.

This book may be small, but it has a big meaning. It's about a girl named Sadie who made a snowman in her back yard. Unfortunately, some birds ate the "eyes", a squirrel ate the "nose", and a raccoon stole the "mouth", and the snowman melted down. So the next time it snowed, Sadie made the snowman all over again, but the same thing happened again. The animals stole all the ingredients, and the snowman melted away. This happens to her a few other times, but she never gave up. To find out how Sadie resolved her problem, read the book today!

This is a great book to read to children. It helps to show them that no matter how many times you may fail, or however many times something goes wrong, to keep on trying because things will work out in the end.

This story has real nice illustrations. Here's what the book's about: Sadie is a girl who is trying to make a snowman. The first time she makes a snowman some animals eat what she used for the eyes, mouth, etc. and then he melts. Sadie gets depressed but the next time it snows, Sadie makes another snowman. Problems come up for each one she makes. Can Sadie find a way to solve her snowmen problems? Find out when you read this book.

This illustrated history of the California coastal navy will intrigue any with a special affection for either Southern California or the Navy: San Diego's Navy provides over a hundred fifty years of maritime history and traces a relationship between the city and the navy which began during the opening days of the Mexican War and continues to modern times. Anticipate many black and white photos, a centerfold of color photos, and much detail on San Diego.

If you are a California history fan or a Naval history fan - or both - this is an innovative, colorful treatise on the Navy in San Diego. Bruce Linder clearly knows his stuff, and this book shows his inimitable style.

Definitely not a 'coffee table book', and well worth the read, I recommend it highly. :)