"In the end, the real distinction between digital winners and losers is always found in the boardroom" are saying to us Larry Downes and Chunka Mui in their book: Unleashing the Killer App. They think that too often senior managers still believe that technology is essentially a tool to implement strategy rather than the basis of forming it. These executives did not realize that technology became a disruptive force shaking their industrial strategies previously defined in a more stable business environment.

How this could happen? The authors explained in the first chapter that, in a new networked environment, joined Moore's law -every 18 months, processing power doubles while cost holds constant- and Metcalfe's law -the utility of a network equals the square of the number of its users- are dropping exponentially the transaction costs. As transaction costs discovered in the 30's by the economist Ronald Coase are defining the size of the organizations, we can easily understand the increase of mergers, downsizing and outsourcing to keep industrial firms competitive to face new appearing competitors using all the potential of the technology.

In the industrial age, sustainable competitive advantage required leverage over at least one of the Michael Porter's "Five Forces" customers, suppliers, competitors, new entrants, and substitutes. In the digital age, surrounding these five forces are three new forces: digitization, globalization, and deregulation giving harder time to achieve competitive advantage. The value chain is under extreme pressure and is asking to implement a new digital strategy. Such strategy must be constantly rethought and shared by the total organization. Strategy time frame is shrinking from three, five years to 18 months and well thought plans are replaced by moving projects and experiments to test new ideas.

In the second chapter the authors are asking us to design our own killer apps to avoid somebody else to do it. A killer app is a new good or service that establishes an entirely new category not in a scheme of an incremental change but in discontinuity and in big leaps.

Three categories of killer apps are proposed, each one including four killer apps from the external of the organization to networks and to the internal, from the customers to your partners and to your employees.

External -reshaping the landscape- asked to outsource to the customer to integrate the customer in your production process, to cannibalize your market before somebody else is doing it, to treat each customer as a market segment of one for personalization - customization, and to create communities of value for enlarging customer experience.

Networks -building new connections- asked to replace rude interfaces with learning interfaces to gain mutual trust, to ensure continuity for the customer not for yourself to transfer him the advantages of new technology applications, to give away as much information as you can to add value to your information assets, and to structure any transaction as a joint-venture to build long-term relationships.

Internal -redefining the interior- asked to treat your assets as liabilities to concentrate on your information assets; to destroy your value chain to make sure to stay competitive, to manage innovation as a portfolio of options to make sure to be at the forefront of technology, and to hire the children to keep freshness of mind.

In the third chapter the authors are giving us advises from their own experience to unleash the killer app.

To make sure that digital strategy will be implemented the creation of a digital strategy team is recommended with a total involvement of senior managers. A technology radar, a technology pipeline and technical partnerships are other ideas to introduce in the organization to create the necessary environment to surf on the wave of new technologies. Last message from the authors, just do it, means experiment your ideas and your killer app will be coming out.

This book is a real value for CEOs who want to compete in the cyberspace the new marketspace of our common future. Moving to the New Economy is not easy, but we have there, with this book a base to work on the transformation that need our industrial organizations.

The stirrup in the Medieval Ages, the Model T automobile in the Industrial Age, and PCs, electronic funds transfer, word processors and Web search engines in the Information Age are all examples of "killer apps" - new goods or services that establish entirely new categories and reshape existing power structures.

"Like the Hindu god Shiva, they are both regenerative and destructive," explain consultants Larry Downes and Chunka Mui in their highly compelling digital strategy manual, "Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance" (1998 Harvard Business School Press). The book is chock full of case studies of companies who are either riding the Internet wave to fortune and fame - or have been sidelined and marginalised.

The new forces of our age are globalisation, digitisation and deregulation. Traditional corporate strategies are getting replaced by digital strategies, which are more dynamic, intuitive, and participatory.

The Internet (along with its intra-organisational manifestation, the Intranet) has firmly occupied centre stage in the global marketspace thanks to three fundamental laws: Moore's law, Metcalfe's law, and Coase's law. Moore's law maintains that processing power doubles every 18 months while costs hold constant. According to Metcalfe's law, the utility of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users.

And economist Ronald Coase observes that as markets become more efficient, there is an increasing organisational trend towards downsizing, outsourcing, and decentralisation ("The Law of Diminishing Firms"). Killer apps are now the result of these three principles operating together in cyberspace. To these three laws, the authors add one more: the Law of Disruption, accounting for the disruption caused by exponentially-changing technology on incrementally-changing social systems.

The Internet is taking every advantage of every new advance in communications, interface design, computer architecture and information sharing software via a combination of Moore's and Metcalfe's laws. The explosive growth of the multimedia Internet is redefining business-to-consumer and business-to-business services across the globe; for instance, it enables suppliers and distributors - and even prospective mates - to directly find one another across international borders, sidestepping many intermediaries.

"The Web is currently tearing apart the financial services and telecom industries, among others, inspiring civil wars there much as the steam engine did years ago," the authors explain.

Via killer apps, cutting edge companies in the Internet age are transforming their businesses from producers of commodity goods to providers of sophisticated services. Companies like Dell Computers, Cisco Systems, Federal Express, Charles Schwab and Amazon.com are successfully re-aligning relationships with and among consumers via Internet technologies and building unprecedented brand loyalty in cyberspace.

The Web is creating "shock waves in information components of every industry," so much so that digital technologies are not just enablers of change, but disrupters of current operating models.

Digital age strategies need not be the preserve only of IT companies - Nike, for instance, is progressively divorcing itself from production, distribution, advertising, and even design; most of these operations are being outsourced. "We decided we're a sports company, not just a shoe company," CEO Phil Knight has remarked. "What Nike has kept for itself is brand management, the relentless development of the Nike world view, the Nike lifestyle, and the Nike experience," the authors explain.

To be able to develop digital strategies, a company must improve its ability to spot, internalise, shape and exploit killer apps, the authors claim. Organisations have to be become more nimble, open, fun, and take on a new incarnation.

Traditional organisations need to focus on three key areas of change for digital strategy in the network age: re-shaping the organisational environment, building new connections with business partners and customers, and re-defining their core structure and strategy.

Re-shaping the business environment can take place via features like mass customisation, user empowerment, and online communities. For instance, Federal Express is reaping tens of millions of dollars of savings in customer service costs thanks to enhanced features on its Web site such as letting customers print their own airbills, complete with bar code.

Experimenting with digital strategies may even involve "cannibalisation" of one's own products and services, a fear shared by many print publications initially venturing online. The key, the authors claim, is to use the online channel as an entry point for higher-value services, such as searchable and customisable financial data feeds. Otherwise, a competitor may cannibalise your products. "Jumpstart new markets with the credibility and goodwill you already have," the authors urge.

Notable success stories in this regard include U.S. electronics parts distributor Marshall Industries, which seemingly cannibalised its own business by setting up a Web site which put its suppliers and buyers directly in touch with one another. But in effect, it created a new global channel - it now receives 2,000 inquiries a day from 52 countries via its Web site. Thus inspired, Marshall Industries is now getting into the Extranet services business for the electronics industry.

Examples of successful online personalisation services include PointCast, the Wall Street Journal's Personal Journal, Intuit's Quicken, and Hallmark Greeting Cards' online reminder service for special anniversaries.

"The closer you can get to activities about which the community feels passionate, the greater the potential value you can capture," the authors claim (much on the lines of John Hagel and Arthur Armstrong's earlier bestseller, "Net Gain"). Sites like PlumbNet and Barter Systems are tapping into "Do It Yourself" trends - the growing desire for people to take charge of activities themselves and save money.

Successful examples of virtual community building include online gaming, ESPN SportsZone's fantasy leagues, online dating services, and America Online's People Connection service and Buddy Lists. "Brand management in cyberspace requires real engagement with customers," the authors say. Customer service is being replaced by "customer intimacy."

Forming partnerships and building new organisational connections are key in the digital age. These can cover the full gamut from strategic alliances and joint ventures to equity stakes and outright ownership - well exemplified by Microsoft's buying out of WebTV, and its 25 percent stake in cable TV giant ComCast.

Managing innovation as portfolio management using risk analysis calls for new skills, leadership, and will, the authors explain. For instance, while it was in the era of first generation spreadsheets, Lotus spun off a separate company called Iris to develop the Notes product.

Another source of new ideas and fresh inspiration can come from hiring young people, and tapping into the skillsets and aptitudes of children (probably better addressed in other books like "Growing Up Digital" by Dan Tapscott).

Acquiring the killer app mindset requires a strong degree of technology alignment. "Organisations cannot unleash killer apps until they can harness their own business and technology expertise," the authors say.

For this, organisations need to invest in IT and skillset-building. This can be aided by fostering an e-mail culture and reliable tools for document sharing and collaboration. "It becomes impossible to determine where the business stops and the technology starts," the authors explain, citing examples like Amazon.com and Cisco.

Companies also need to constantly innovate. The online mall MCI Marketplace died a slow death because it became stale; cybermalls will need to continually add new features and create new shopping experiences on the Web.

"The organisation with the healthiest environment for identifying, nurturing and redefining killer apps, whether their own or those invented by others (perhaps for entirely different purposes), is the organisation that will translate its digital strategy into market dominance," the authors conclude.

In sum, this is a conceptually breathtaking overview of the context within which the Web paradigm is changing business the way we know it. An online companion and an online discussion group would have helped extend the shelf-life of this book.

I've just re-read this book and think more highly of it now than I did previously. Larry Downes & Chunka Mui define a "killer application" as "a new good or service that establishes an entirely new category and, by being first, dominates it, returning several hundred percent on the initial investment." As they explain, the primary forces at work in spawning today's "killer apps" are both technological and economic in nature. "The technology we are concerned with is the transformation of information into digital form, where it can be manipulated by computers and transmitted by networks." Digital strategies are needed to achieve market dominance.

The co-authors divide their book into three parts: Digital Strategy, Designing the Killer App, and Unleashing the Killer App. In Part I, there is a brief discussion of one "killer app" in the Middle Ages, the stirrup, which added mounted cavalry to the battle equation. The "lowly stirrup" played a singular role in rearranging the political, social, and economic structure of medieval Europe.

In The Lever of Riches, Joel Mokyr identifies countless other "killer apps" throughout history such as paved streets and sewerage disposal; the lever, wedge, and screw; the heavy plow and three-field system; the weight-driven mechanical clock; spectacles; the printing press; the steam engine; the telegraph; the bicycle; ...each of which also had a truly profound impact.

To repeat, Larry Downes & Chunka Mui concern themselves with the technology of transforming information into digital form. Thus in Part I, they examine the "killer app", explain what they call "the new economics", and then shift their attention to the nature of a digital strategy. They dully acknowledge the disruptive power of "killer apps" which can suddenly destroy the equilibrium of what appeared to be stable systems of commerce and government. For them, business change now originates with digital technology; more specifically, with "killer apps." Strategies are needed to manage (to the extent possible) their impact to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. These strategies must accommodate three new forces: digitization, globalization, and deregulation. The "dirty little secret" to which Gary Hamel has referred is that the strategy industry "doesn't have any theory of strategy creation." The success of any digital strategy may well be the result of what Hamel calls "lucky foresight." Downes & Mui seem to agree with Hamel while offering, in Part II, what they refer to as "a few rules of thumb." They suggest three stages of "killer app" design and carefully explain each. They identify 12 specific principles on which to base the design process. In Part III, they shift their attention to "Unleashing the Killer App" and correctly stress the importance of communication, one which "speaks with the language of ideas, scenarios, options, and what-ifs."

In Chapter 7, the reader's attention is directed to two major corporations, McDonald's and VEBA AG, which illustrate digital strategy in practice. These are, in effect, mini-case studies. It is important to point out, however, that effective digital strategies are not the sole province of major corporations such as these. A "killer app" can quickly increase or reduce the size of any company. Consider the fact that a single dry goods store in Kemmerer (Wyoming) can become the J.C. Penney Company which, in turn, now struggles (with mixed results) to compete successfully with a company whose own history can be traced back to the Walton 5&10 in Bentonville (Arkansas). Downes & Mui assert that "Developing digital strategy...requires components of both problem-pull and technology-push...operating together in a well-functioning organization [in which] the process becomes not only circular but indistinguishable...in a pragmatic, indeed opportunistic, response to the new digital environment."

In the final chapter of their brilliant analysis, Downes & Mui suggest that cyberspace "is fueled by free computing power and free bandwidth...and free software." Consequently, "the social conditions that resulted are raw, and the nature of the business climate, by necessity, less developed." As with The Golden Rule dry goods store (in 1902) and then the Walton 5&10 (in 1950), today's companies must seek out new areas of opportunity and start doing business there. "Those who make the transformation by developing a digital strategy are choosing to engage the frontier on its own terms, just as their counterparts from Europe did in settling the New World."

Larry Downes & Chunka Mui have outlined the process of digital strategy, explained the twelve design principles, and described the experiences of organizations that are transforming themselves so that they can unleash "killer apps." Which companies will conquer the "frontier", whatever and wherever it may be? Which companies will not? In the Digital Marketplace, we won't have to wait very long for the answers. Probably in what seems to be about five minutes. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point.

Pygmalion is a brilliant success by George Bernard Shaw to modernize the legendary Greek tale of a sculptor who falls in love with his artsitic creation and wishes to bring her to life. The rags-to-riches tale of Eliza Doolittle captivates the reader with its fast paced storyline, and witty dialogue. Shaw fascinates the reader with complicated characters such as Henry Higgins, Doolittle, and Colonel Pickering. Set in England, during a period of sophistication and elegance, Higgins and Pickering were faced with the seemingly impossible task of transforming a filthy flower girl (Eliza) into a beautiful duchess. The outrageous antics that ensue are both humorous and entertaining. Shaw's playful dialogue and timeless plot have been updated to fit the social and cultural standards of our time. For example, Alan Jay Lerner's My Fair Lady is an internationally acclaimed musical adaptation of Shaw's classic play. 1999 brought yet another adaptation of Pygmalion, in the form of the film She's All That, penned by R. Lee Fleming Jr. This teen comedy brings a new twist to the classic characters of Shaw's play. Pygmalion is a quick read and an enjoyable way to spend the day, and the characters in the story will remain with you forever.

It started out as a play by George Bernard Shaw based on the Greek myth of a man who created a statue and then fell in love with it. The play, which was a spoof on the British upper class, was an immediate success and several movie versions followed. This 1938 version, in black and white, was nominated for four academy awards in 1939 and won an Oscar for best screenplay. Later, it was adapted to the musical hit, "My Fair Lady." The rest, as they say, is history. But Pygmalion should certainly not be forgotten.

The cast is excellent. Leslie Howard is perfect as Henry Higgins, the professor of dialects who transforms a flower girl into a lady. And Wendy Hiller is sensational as Eliza Doolittle. There's a certain regal freshness and her British authenticity comes across beautifully. Even though "the rain in Spain" is spoken, rather than sung, it still keeps the same quality. And there is music throughout as background, lively original music created especially for the film. The supporting cast was excellent too. I particularly loved the performance by Wilfrid Larson as Eliza's father. The film moved fast and kept me totally captivated. The costumes were wonderful and the timing for the comedic moments perfect. I found myself laughing out loud in places and smiling to myself throughout. Certainly, this film has stood the test of time and even though it will always be compared to the musical we all know and love, I must say that Pygmalion can definitely stand on its own. Give yourself a treat and check it out. Highly recommended.

This is an enchanting film for which George Bernard Shaw won an Oscar (which I believe he displayed proudly) for best screenplay after adapting the play "Pygmalion." It is true that the movie lacks the grand production values of "My Fair Lady," but it is much closer to the drama that Shaw had in mind. The dialogue is much richer than "My Fair Lady," which still managed to keep much of the language of the play and some of the movie.

Like many of Shaw's plays, it is built around his pet ideas -- here (in a simple form) the notion that class distinctions are not genuine and could be overcome through education. Unlike some of Shaw's plays which read like socialist tracts, this one has very human characters who keep your interest throughout (in contrast to "Major Barabara" which was a rather tedious movie).

For me, Wendy Hiller make a marvelous Eliza Doolittle. Although Leslie Howard is very good (and presumably what Shaw had in mind), it is hard to forget the bluster Rex Harrison -- a great actor himself -- brought to the role of Professor Higgins. Hiller brings a wonderful dignity and pathos to the role of Eliza Doolittle. The rest of the cast is very good and the sets are very authentically set in Edwardian England.

This is definite buy if you like Shaw, theatre in general, good movies from the 30s, or want to see a richer version of "My Fair Lady."

Jim Hawkins, a young man living in rural England with his parents, helps run an inn with his parents. His life changes forever when a mysterious dying pirate takes residence at the inn. The shadowy pirate is often on the lookout for strangers who begin to show up in search of the pirate. Rum finally takes its toll on the pirate and he dies, leaving behind a mysterious chest that the strangers are interested in. Upon examination, Jim discovers a treasure map.

With the help of Jim's adult friends, a crew is formed to go in search of the pirate's buried treasure on a remote tropical island. The journey is uneventful until, Jim saves the day when he realizes that their crew consists mainly of pirates who hope to cause mutiny upon reaching the island. Ultimately, a raging battle takes place on the island where Jim and his friends must outwit the pirates who are led by the one-legged Long John Silver.

For a children's book, this book had a lot of inappropriate material - drinking and violence. I also had a tough time with the old-English writing style and the nautical terms. This book was ahead of its time, though, in terms of the adventure it described, but I was hoping for more. Fans of H. Rider Haggard (ala King Solomon's Mines) will enjoy this book but I was sort of happy to be done with it as some parts were engaging and others were muddled.

"Treasure Island" is the classic adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. Set on the high seas amid treasures and pirates, it is the story of a young boy's adventure. "Treasure Island" has been done by everyone from Disney to the Muppets. It's been imitated many times and influenced countless books and movies.

A mysterious pirate shows up at an inn owned by Jim Hawkin's mother. The pirate is killed by a gang of rogues, but Jim finds a treasure map belonging to the pirate. Jim then embarks on a journey to far away island to find the treasure. Of course, nobody can be trusted - especially the cook, Long John Silver. With his peg leg and parrot, Silver is the stereotypical pirate. Once the island is reached, sides are chosen - the mutinous pirates against the ship's crew. Jim goes on a journey within a journey on the island, going from one side to another, as the treasure is hunted for.

Everyone should read this book at some point. It's especially good for young boys, due to the fact that the main character (Jim) is a young boy. It's well crafted, and easy to read. And it's hard to put down once you get going. What else can you ask for?

I never did read this book as I was growing up and have now read it for the first time as an adult. I always thought that this book would not be very good but I was wrong.

I write this review for those students who may hesitate to read Treasure Island. This book is a story of high adventure. In it is the tale of a young boy who comes to possess a treasure map and goes off on a whirlwind adventure filled with sea voyages, pirates, island adventure and treasure. Stevenson wonderfully portrays the characters of young Jim Hawkins, the hero of the book, the fabled Long John Silver, Billy Bones and Ben Gunn. Each adds their own sense of mystery and suspense to the story. The settings of the story from the Admiral Benbow Inn to the Hispaniola, their sailing vessel, to the island itself are very vivid and make you feel as if you are really there. The adventure to and finally on Treasure Island is filled with secret meetings, battle scenes and a quest to find a long since buried fortune in gold. The novel is truly great and is a very entertaining and interesting read.

For those adults who have never read this novel definitely read it and for those who have already read it, read it again it is well worth it. The swashbuckling adventures of Long John Silver and his men, along with Jim Hawkins, are truly timeless. If you have children of age, share the story with them. It is truly a family classic worth sharing with generations to come.

This book is the first of its kind, covering topics that haven't been explored this directly anywhere. It does a remarkable job, covering not just the tools but the philosophy behind good unit tests and frequent, automated builds.

The book is divided into three major parts. Part I presents a foundation for the ideas in the rest of the book, exploring the philosophy behind XP, J2EE project development and deployment, and demonstrating the process with a simple Model 2 Web application. Part II spends its first three chapters (4-6) looking at ANT, first with a high-level look at continuous integration practices and then at more concrete examples. Chapters 7-11 look more closely at testing, with chapters on JUnit, Cactus, HttpUnit, JMeter, and JUnitPerf. Part III is a series of reference chapters for ANT, JUnit, Cactus, and HttpUnit. The coverage is exceptionally good and the material is comprehensive.

There's no question that a book like this is unlikely to stimulate readers to suddenly adopt these techniques. Instead, you should consider applying those things that make sense to you and focus on those chapters. The book is written well enough to make that possible, in part thanks to the flexibility, modularity, and effectiveness of the tools being discussed. Serious projects need to take testing seriously and few books approach the topics with this kind of practicality and experience.

If you're doing rapid development, and who isn't these days, this books is well worth a look. It goes beyond simple solutions and may be of interest to QA or testing groups. The philosophy behind this material is modern and forward thinking. It captures some of the best practices and clarifies the application of current tools in the Java community, and has the potential to make you a better programmer and better able to deliver higher-quality code on a shorter timeline. It's not a panacea, but it is a good investment, and inexpensive considering the book's content.

Regardless of whether you subscribe to the practice of Extreme Programming (XP) or not, you're likely to be interested in tools that can help you perform better unit tests and improve your build environment. Good unit tests can make the difference between discovering problems at an early stage (when debugging is least expensive) and less flexible, more expensive projects. If you make heavy use of Java, the ANT build tool is also important, enabling you to do much more than merely build classes. ANT has facilities that range from simple builds to sophisticated interactions with protocols, packaging, and much more.

I find if you are doing J2EE development this book is a must-have! Even if you are not doing XP. Don't let the XP title turn you off from this book.

At first glance at this book, I thought it was trying to be too many things to too many people. It seems to contain every buzzword: Opensource, Extreme Programming, Java, JSP, TagLibs, EJB, etc.

However the book focuses on applying Ant, JUnit and Cactus to J2EE development.

The book is very J2EE and web application centric. A small part of the book had very choppy flow--a few rough spots. Mostly (95%) the book is well written. Generally the book is easy to follow.
My favorite chapters are the ones on JUnitPerf and Cactus.

The case studies are a little long, but they can be skipped and returned to later.

The source code on the website is hidden in plain site. It took a while to find it.

The description above and title miss an important point. The book is J2EE/Jakarta centric. J2EE testing and continous integration can be very difficult without the use of Ant, JUnit, HttpUnit and Cactus.

The description of the book on the companion website clears up the missing points well. I found the description while searching for the source code.

From the companion website:

"Java Tools for eXtreme Programming describes techniques for implementing the Extreme Programming practices of Automated Testing and Continuous Integration using Open Source tools, e.g., Ant, JUnit, HttpUnit, JMeter, and much more."

"The book contains small examples and tutorials on each tool. The examples cover building, deploying, and testing Java and J2EE applications."

"In addition to small examples, there are larger case studies. The case studies are larger more realistic examples. We have case studies involving XSLT, EJB, Struts, JDBC, etc."

"Each case study is complete with an ant build script and several tests, written with JUnit, HttpUnit, Cactus, JUnitPerf and/or JMeter. The case studies focus on building, deploying and testing J2EE applications with Ant and JUnit."

"There is also a reference section for APIs. Instead of rehashing the API documentation, the reference section has example usage, i.e., code examples for the important classes and methods."

"Although this book speaks from an XP perspective, you need not practice XP to benefit from it. For example, you do not have to adopt the entire XP methodology to get value out of this book. Automated testing, for example, can help you refactor code regardless of whether you are doing pair programming or not. Continuous integration can help you detect and fix problems early in the lifecycle of the system regardless of whether your customer is on site or not."

Extreme Programming (XP), a methodology developed by Kent Beck and Eric Gamma, has joined CASE/UML as a core practice in professional software development. The central tools for XP (JUnit, Ant, Cactus, JMeter, HttpUnit) are now covered in a practical reference by Richard Hightower that explains how these open source tools should be integrated into a project to achieve XP's benefits.

The book follows the construction of an online pet store--similar to Sun's J2EE Blueprint Pet Store but instead of focusing on J2EE technologies, Hightower's example illustrates how XP tools are integrated into a project.

The tuturials work through several iterations of the pet store. The baseline version has no connection pooling and no EJBs. It has several JSPs, a few classes that use JDBC, and some tables in a database.

The second iteration of the case changes the content management piece of the system to a container managed persistence (CMP) entity bean that implements the backend product management. This iteration demonstrates how to incorporate EJB deployment into Web applications and how to ensure that the unit testing of the category systems still works after the addition of CMP entity bean support.

The third iteration of the case study uses an EJB stateless session bean to add pooling of connections and prepared statements. This iteration is used to demonstrate JUnitPerf and show the time savings from pooling prepared statements when the site is hit by many users.

The fourth iteration of the case study creates a Catalog TagLib. Cactus is used to test this TagLib. This is an excellent example to learn how to operate and run Cactus tests and how to integrate them into the build/deploy process.

The fifth iteration of the case study refactors JSPs using the Apache Struts project. Then, it uses HttpUnit to test that the application still works. The HttpUnit test is run against the baseline and new version to show that the requirements are still met.

The sixth and final iteration of the case study refactors the Web application to use Exstensible Style Language Transformation (XSLT) instead of JSP to build the catalog view. It then compares the throughput of the two approaches using JMeter.

I've found it very difficult to follow the partially finished documentation for many of the useful open source tools needed for full XP. Having a book like Hightower's is invaluable to fully leverage the benefits of the XP movement in mid to large scale development efforts.

I am a fan of Nicholas Sparks and loved A Bend in the Road, Message in a Bottle, and The Rescue, as well as his other novels. However, The Guardian is really really slow and I felt it was written on a junior high or high school level. Most of the dialogue was juvenile, including the dog's thoughts. The characters, aside from Julie, are merely all stereotypes. Most of the characters are portrayed as either hillbillies, or total [dimwit]s. It took forever for any action to occur, and the plot was completely obvious from the beginning. I almost gave up because the book dragged on so much. The end is definitely more exciting, but the final scene is anti-climactic. The romance between Julie and Mike is sweet but does not compare in emotion to his characters in other novels. Overall, I am sorry to say that this was a huge disappointment, considering I am a fan of Sparks, and I hope his editor will encourage better writing from him next time.

Suspense is not the reason I think we read novels by Nicholas Sparks. He is out of his element here with trying to intertwine a suspense novel and a romance novel.

A widdow at 29, Julie is not ready to give up on love quite yet. With the promise from her dead husband to always watch over her and the unexpected gift of a puppy to be her guardian, Julie must choose between a very sophisticated suitor and the man who used to be her husband's best friend. I think we all know how the story will end before we wvwn finish the first chapter. But this book offers hours of light, easy entertaining reading--the perfect book to relax on vacation with.

This novel was very unique in that it combined romance, abuse, and mystery all into one story. Sparks did a great job with his writing and it is a very worthwhile book to read.

Julie Berenson is a young widow at 25 years of age, and her husband left her with two unexpected gifts. He left her with a puppy named Singer and the promise that he would always be watching over her. Now, four years later, twenty-nine-year-old Julie is far too young to never have love again. She may be ready to risk caring for someone again. But who?

Should it be Richard Franklin, the sophisticated, handsome engineer who treats her like a queen? Or Mike Harris, the down-to-earth really loving guy who was her husband's best friend? Choosing one of them should bring Julie happiness. But instead,
Julie is fighting for her life because of a jealous nature which ignites a murderous desire.

I picked up a used copy of Veronica based solely on the praise found on its cover, knowing nothing about the novel or the author. I was pleasantly surprised by the book, and can honestly say that it was like nothing I've ever read before. I do read a bit of fantasy, but Veronica is different in that the plot is grounded very firmly in New York City. It's what happens in the city to Leo, an innocent bystander who gets caught up in a whirlwind of magic and time-travel, that's the fantastic part. Though I found the novel to be innovative and the plot intriguing, I found Mr. Cristopher's writing style a bit repetitive and forced. I don't want to spoil the book for anyone who might be wanting to read it, but the ending leaves one wondering what exactly happened to Veronica and Leo -- it's one of those endings I'm dying to discuss with someone else who's read the book. A fun, yet thoughtful, escape from reality.

this is an exhilirating, phantasmogorical novel that falls more into the "urban fantasy" genre than anything else, with a dash of magical realism thrown in, but it is really unique. nicholas christopher is obviously very erudite about Tibetan lore, history of alchemy and magic, and thus he imbues his wild inventiveness with acute historical detail which makes the fantastical world he creates in the surreal New York, from the starting point of the book, at the place in downtown where Waverly Place intersects itself to the spectacular climax battle atop the Empire State Building, seem weirdly real--not like you are transplanted into another world, as often happens with fantasy books, but as if this world he describes exists just around the corner from where you live, you just need to go to the right jazz club, or order from the right Tibetan restaurant. The plot involves the photographer Leo helping mysterious Veronica on a quest to find her father, a magician trapped in time by his former student/current nemesis; the book is endlessly entertaining, but at the same time bittersweet, and has one of the most satisfying endings i have ever had the pleasure to read.
note: i am currently reading christopher's next book called "a trip to the stars" which confirms for me that he is the umberto eco of fantasy--that should be a good indicator of his level of erudition, and the degree to which he uses history and cultural mythology to add dimensions to his books.

Veronica is more than a book - it's an experience! It is quite evident that Mr Christopher is a poet - this is one of the most visual books I have ever read. I "saw" this book in glorious technicolor! From the moment Leo meets Veronica by accident (or IS it by accident?) at the spot where Waverly Place intersects with Waverly Place in Manhattan, as she is looking for the keys she dropped in the snow, I was hooked - and you will be too! Leo's openness and sense of adventure make him the ideal person to help Veronica to get her father back. Dad is a famous magician who disappeared during a magic trick due to dastardly sabotage by a rival magician. I loved the feel of this quiet, empty New York, in parallel with the "real" noisy, crowded one! I found the feel of this book to be palpable. I inhabited the story while it was happening. There are things in it which will stay with me - for instance, the image, both visual and olfactory, of black tea seasoned with butter and salt. Such an exotic concept - for me, though probably not for a Tibetan! I tried it myself and found it to be quite tolerable, not at all the ghastly taste I was expecting! I loved the fact that Leo drinks endless cups of it during the time he has lost Veronica. Mr Christopher makes everything to do with Veronica seem cool, as viewed through Leo's eyes - the jazz combo she performs with, the clove cigarettes she smokes, the dress with "black holes" in it that she wears. The scenes with Keko are wonderful and the symbolism of the Empire State Building is perfect - what a great choice for "The Big Battle" between good and evil. Then there are the Elizabethan scenes, complete with tulpas with "eyeless eyes" and golden wings. (What a brilliant concept: that in a parallel world the "people" would be blurred and their voices muffled.) There are photographs that come to life and tricks that are not illusion but are on the level! Then there is the Tibetan connecti! on, including upside down triangular mirrors which reflect rooms other than the room one is in! I could go on and on (and have!!!) If you are looking for a book that will change your life (or, at least, the way you look at it) this may be the one! I also recommend highly Mr Christopher's poetry - 5 Degrees and Other Poems and In the Year of the Comet are both dazzling and mind-expanding!

I would have to say that the most confusing thing about this book would have been right in the beginning when talking about all of the atoms and bits per second. Other than that, I would have to say that this has been one of the easiest and most informative books that I have read. Being Digital was really easy to follow even for someone who is not all that computer literate. I thought Negroponte was ahead of his time when writing this book. When I read it, I saw what he was saying and many of the things he had said had already happened. I guess as the founder of MIT's media lab, he knew what was going on and could somewhat predict the future as far as technology is concerned. I would totally agree with Newsday when they stated that this book was "succinct and readable...If you suffer from digital anxiety," because I do suffer from this, yet I could follow along quite easily. I understood everything he was saying about the Internet, virtual reality, and multimedia. I also understood the innovations he discussed that have come about, such as the fax machine and CD-ROM, and how they have affected us in a positive manner. What he described in this book was the realism that we have faced and that we will face for the rest of our lives. I thought that this book made you think and it also explains what we will have to look forward to in our future. We need to realize how we are in an "information age" and how our world is changing faster than we can imagine.

I know, the title sounds so serious. But despite the fact that Being Digital was published and written five years ago does not lower its relevancy to the year 2000-and forward. Negroponte does a wonderful job on describing in recognizable and easy to understand language, the influence that computers, the internet, and digital media has been having over our lives...and how it will continue to grow.

There is almost a cynical touch to this book that certainly adds to its validity. Many people, (including me, when I can't get something to work) are fearful of technology and the rate at which it is growing. It is somewhat disquieting to see people spending thousands of dollars on a computer that will be obsolete in two years.

The quick synopsis on the back of this book begins with: "The book you are holding is probably obsolete: it consists of atoms, which are bulky and cumbersome to transport. And, increasingly, the dominant unit of human interaction are bits." Being Digital introduces the reader into the digital world-where bits (1's and 0's strung together) are hitting mainstream.

Bits are computer DNA, basically. Having a digital source (such as an mp3 or DVD) means that you can make perfect, exact copies of the strings of 1's and 0's on it. Thus, it is also an extremely high quality bit of media. (no pun intended, hehe) As more and more things are being transferred to bits-something I am just as guilty of as anyone else-it is becoming less and less important to actually have a physical (analog?) copy. For instance, since mp3s made their debut, many people have found no need for buying the CD-I mean, why? When you can download a perfectly equal copy, for free, no less, and either burn it to a CD, or put it on an mp3 player, or hell, even keep it in your hard drive.

The only (slight) problem with this book is the fact that it has been around for so long-well, a long time in technology standards. Published in 1995, it still remains relevant for us to explore where technology is taking us.

Book Report on Being Digital, by Nicholas Negroponte Nicholas Negroponte is the kind of individual who runs around the world in perpetual Scan mode. He is constantly putting things together in unusual combinations, seeing things that others have not, and inserting ideas that cause one to think, 'Where did he come up with that stuff?' Negroponte is the Director of the Media Lab at MIT. This Lab was founded when I was an undergraduate there, and had the reputation of containing far-out, creative people thinking far-out creative thoughts about the way the world perceives things. Being Digital is a quick read. The ideas inside are explained clearly and succinctly, as if he is talking to an intelligent layperson. (My smart PC just suggested that layperson is spelled wrong and suggests lepers as a good substitute.) This is not dense Stuart Kauffman prose, but more the level of 'Discover' magazine. As such, it is completely accessible. You can read it on a plane and not miss anything, but that does not lessen the quality of his ideas. For example, in discussing how to pack a lot of information into a CD, he mentions that you 'can change the color of the laser from red to blue, thereby shortening the wavelength and increasing the density by a factor of four.' The central thesis of the book can be stated in four words: 'Move bits, not atoms.' Negroponte's considers that bits come in such a nice, portable form that moving them around is an effortless, borderless and unregulated matter. Atoms, on the other hand, require Fedex, trucks and boats, are subject to taxation at border crossings, and take up room in airliner overhead compartments. 'The information superhighway is about the global movement of weightless bits at the speed of light.' When I ran E&Y's campus recruiting program, I developed back trouble from hauling around 40+ pounds of resumes all the time. When colleges began sending resume books on disks, it was wonderful being liberated from what people used to call my hernia kit. About half the book is a summary of how the bit business came to be, and what state it is in today. The second half talks about where all this could be going. Negroponte discusses the 'five paths for information and entertainment to get into the home: satellite, terrestrial broadcast, cable, telephone and packaged media (all those atoms like cassettes, CD-ROM and print).' These face some unwieldy regulation that hampers their utility and physical limits, like bandwidth. Then there is the whole matter of interface design--how you interact with your technology? 'Not only do I not want all the features on my telephone; I don't want to dial the telephone at all. Why can't telephone designers understand that none of us want to dial telephones? We want to reach people on the telephone!' The problem is that human voices are remarkably difficult to interpret by a computer. And humans use so many different languages. Negroponte develops the subject of the 'interface agent', that will be a highly personalized personal computer. 'The best metaphor I can conceive of for a human-computer interface is that of a well-trained English butler. . . . Enough people believe that such interface agents are buildable.' From here, he is into a discussion of what will probably be coming along down the information highway that I found the most exciting part of the book. 'Imagine a computer display of news stories with a knob that, like a volume control, allows you to crank personalization up or down.' He concludes with a list of dangerous things that lie ahead, but ultimately concludes that the digital direction is a very positive one and that humans will be able to solve the social challenges that are involved in increasing digitalization. Negroponte is clearly an optimist, but seems to be a very reality-based one. Some of his ideas: * 'Copyright law is totally out of date. It is a Gutenberg artifact. Since it is a reactive process, it will probably have to break down completely before it is corrected.' * 'Being digital will change the nature of mass media from a process of pushing bits at people to one of allowing people (or their computers) to pull at them. This is a radical change, because our entire concept of media is one of successive layers of filtering, which reduce information and entertainment to a collection of 'top stories' or 'best-sellers' to be thrown at different 'audiences'. . . The information industry will become more of a boutique business . . . but only if the interface between people and their computers improves to the point where talking to your computer is as easy as talking to another human being.' * 'My argument, perhaps arrogant, is that if you have to test something carefully to see the difference it makes, then it is not making enough of a difference in the first place.' * 'The fact that TV Guide has been known to make bigger profits than all four networks combined suggests that the value of information about information can be of greater value than the information itself.' * 'I was in an audience of 1200 people who were asked to start clapping and try to clap in unison. . . within less than two seconds, the room was clapping with a single beat. Try it yourself; even with much smaller groups the result can be startling. The surprise shown by participants brings home how little we understand or even recognize the emergence of coherence from the activity of independent agents.' * 'On-demand information will dominate digital life. We will ask explicitly and implicitly for what we want, when we want it. This will require a radical rethinking of advertiser-supported programming.' * 'I think that videocassette-rental stores will go out of business in less than ten years.' * 'The fax machine is a serious blemish on the information landscape, a step backward, whose ramifications will be felt for a long time.' * The difference between a primitive and an uneducated person? 'Primitive people are not uneducated at all, they simply use different means to convey their knowledge from generation to generation, within a supportive and tightly knit social fabric. By contrast, an uneducated person is the product of a modern society whose fabric has unraveled and whose system is not supportive.' * Why can't UPC codes radiate data, too? *'Most examples of 'intelligent environments' I have seen are missing the ability to sense human presence. Future rooms will know if you . . . just took the dog for a walk. A phone would never ring. If you are not there, it won't ring because you are not there. . . A toaster should not be able to burn toast.' *'The only hazard (to the Web) is government in the form of politicians who want to control it. Usually under the banner of sanitizing the Net for children, people all over the world are trying to censor its contents. Worse, some countries, including the United States, want to make sure there is some means for them to listen into messages, like wiretapping. If that does not give you the willies, it should. Having less than the best security and privacy would be a grave error. Because of its digital nature, the digital world is potentially far more secure than the analog world. But we have to want it to be so. We have to knowingly create a safe digital environment.' Chip Saltsman (chip.saltsman@ey.com)

Dr. Perricone offers excellent advice in this book on the benefits of healthy eating habits, regular exercise, vitamin use and recommendations for skin care products. I have spoken to other dermatologists and find him to be well regarded in his field by those who know him. I have followed his advise and eliminated most sugar, salt and starch from my diet and have added vitamins and antioxident supplements based on his clear descriptions of the resulting damage to our skin and body from eating foods high in those characteristics. Most important, he scared me into using sun screen every day! However, I believe that the author exagerates as to the benefits of his program. He is generous with extravagent adjectives which, if taken literally, will probably leave the reader disappointed as to the results. Further, I was surprised that he, as a dermatologist, did not advise the reader to try a patch test of new products to test for allergic reactions. I had a bad reaction to one of his recommended products and am more cautious to follow his advise as a result. Overall, a good book, but one to be taken with a large grain of salt.

This is the first time I've ever been persuaded to alter my diet or to try such costly skin care products. Lack of persistence and consistency is a weakness of mine and the claims sound like implausible hyperbole, until you actually try it.

I breezed through the book the first night I bought it, bought two of his products soon thereafter (one product to firm around the eyes and another to firm the face), and didn't bother with the nutritional supplements (I thought the list was too long and there was no way I was going to figure out which ones were more helpful and the right amount of each to take, and when to take them throughout the day). Instead of rigorously following the diet, I just loosely tried to take his advice, drinking more water so I don't dry up and look like a prune, eating more fruit and veggies, eating more fish (especially salmon), and less red meat (though still stopping in McDonalds every now and then).

Two weeks later I was out with a fellow I had dated a few times and he said I looked particularly attractive that evening. I told him I had had my teeth whitened. He said, no, it's not that, it's my skin, something is beautiful and different about it, he didn't know what. Then I told him I had been trying something new and that it must work, though he was the first person to say anything. The following weekend, my mother told me I looked nice, contented - perhaps it was something else? Last week I took two days off from work and the first day a guy flirted with me in the bookstore and gave me his business card, then the next day I was hanging out in the park and a guy introduced himself to me and kept hanging around me 'til I made it clear I was going my own way, without him. That kind of attention in two days hadn't happened in a long time.

I'm not sure that I see a difference as quickly as 10 minutes, but I would lean toward saying yes, it works quickly. And even if it didn't, it's well worth reading the book and trying some of the recommendations.

P.S. Saw the author on public television tonight and he said which 4 supplements are more important to take, so I'll try those soon (vitamins C and E, DMAE, and alpha lipoic acid), though I won't take them on a schedule as he suggested, but will instead be more random, maybe I'll take them all before work.

I saw Dr. Perricone on Good Morning America. Several volunteers agreed to go on his "three day skin diet." They were instructed on which foods were best for healthy skin. They used no special products, just followed the food plan. In three days they returned to the show and their skin was AMAZING. Diminished lines, smoother texture, just younger looking in general. Diane Sawyer said he was a dermatologist from Yale University. With those credentials and the really stunning results I bought the book. I've been following the program and taking some of the nutritional supplements he suggests, and I love the difference in my skin. I highly recommend The Wrinkle Cure.

I read this play first for pleasure and years later for a English composition II class several years ago and as I read some of the reviews before writing and posting this one I can see that a lot of reviewers that came before me didnt understand the play at all. This play took place over a hundred years ago. The choices for women then were limited plus Nora and Tovald lived In Norway whose laws are sgnificantly different from ours due to time and culture. Nora certainly had her faults but sometimes we are just found stuck in roles society gives us. And what would take more courage to remain in a bad role after a moment of self discovery is made or to walk out of that role and try to grow as a person and discover things about yourself on your own? Nora's choices were very limited. It was stated in the play that by walking away from the marriage she would also have to disclaim any rights to her children in Norway. She had no choice but to give up the rights to her children. Neither Nora nor Tovald knew who she was very well. Sometimes it is much better for the children if a marriage ends because it is bad and has no foundation. But Nora is a very strong and determined character. She forged a bank note to save her husbands life when no one else could. She saves and earns money to pay back the loan. But also she is trapped in the facade of her marriage with Tovald who neither respects her or knows who she really is. Lies beget lies and it is out of the lie of the marriage she is in that she is made to conceal what she did to save her husbands life and tell lies herself. Finally after her husband finds out and is so consumed with how it will look to others that he tells her that the marriage for now on will just be a cover for the benefit of the outside world but he can no longer trust her nor shall she be trusted with her children etc a self discovery moment occurs. Nora and Tovald didnt really know each other nor was the marriage real in any meaning of the word. But when something happens and he has a change of heart about Nora in the blink of an eye Nora realizes that the whole marriage was a lie and in a moment of strength and determination she decides to leave the situation to find something better and grow as a person. But here is the rub Tovald said that she can not be trusted after what she did was revealed to him and that she has lost his respect but this is just a circumstance we are made well aware of in the play . Tovald shows us that he never did trust or respect Nora in the first place so what she is rejecting is a fruadulent marriage. She refused to go on living in that lie any longer. And that decision takes more courage , strength and determination than anyone who has never been in that place will know. I say three cheers for Nora for finally waking up and doing what she had to do!

The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen subjects his writing to the intricacies of marriage time and time again. He seems to have an omniscient power and ability to observe the sacrament itself, along with the fictional characters whom he creates to engage in these marital affairs. Such is the case with his classic drama, A Doll's House.

The play raises questions about female self-sacrifice in a male-dominated world. Nora is a "wife and child" to Torvald Helmer, and nothing more. She is his doll, a plaything on display to the world, of little intellectual value and even less utility in his life. Thus it is logical for Helmer to act so shockingly upon his discovery that Nora has managed financial affairs (typically a family responsibility reserved for the patriarch) without so much as his consent or knowledge. What, then, is the play saying about women by allowing Nora to act alone and independently, all the while allowing her to achieve little success in doing so?

Such an apparent doubt by the playwright of the abilities of women is quickly redeemed by Nora's sudden mental fruition, as though she, in the course of a day or so, accomplishes the amount of growing up to which most persons devote years and years. She has developed the intuition and motivation to leave behind everything she has lived for during she and Helmer's eight years of marriage in exchange for an independent life and the much-sought virtue of independent thought. Nora suddenly wishes to be alone in the world, responsible for only her own well-being and success or failure. She is breaking free of her crutches (Helmer, her deceased father, the ill-obtained finances from Krogstad) and is now appetent to walk tall and proud.

Through the marital madness of Helmer and Nora, Ibsen is questioning the roles of both husband and wife, and what happens when one person dominates such a relationship in a manner that is demeaning to the other, regardless of whether such degradation is carried out in a conscious, intended frame of mind. Ibsen is truly a master playwright, and his play A Doll's House is truly a masterpiece.

The Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen wrote an insightful play about marriage and the role of women in Ibsens time (19th century Europe). I am sure that "A dolls house" must have been a shock to the European society when Ibsen first published this book. He criticised the system that demoted women to mere property and this must have been an outrageous statement in a society where women didn't even have the right to vote!

The author himself said that this play was about human rights, not women's rights. While I believe this to be true, I still have no problems understanding why the female rights groups says that "A dolls house" is about women's rights. Whilst this play was written over a hundred years ago, many of the issues about women discussed in "A dolls house" are still applicable today. I think Nora is a *great* role model for a woman of the new millennium!

If you, like me, had to read this as a part of your college literature requirements, give it another try! It is a wonderful book.

In his book, Nicholas Dunbar attempts the ambitious task of describing and explaining both the rise and fall of Long Term Capital Management and the underlying financial transactions that brought it down.

While he succeeds relatively well in the former, he fails in the latter. I can guarantee that unless you are a Wall Street arbitrageur or have a very strong quantitative background in graduate level economics or finance, you will not understand half of what this guy is talking about. I know I didn't. (I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but I am a practicing attorney with an international law firm and have an MBA degree.) And without understanding the financial theory, a reader won't understand why LTCM failed, which is the whole point of the book.

The sad fact is: Either Dunbar doesn't understand this stuff himself (which is what I suspect), or he just doesn't have the knack for making complex ideas simple for the reader.

Nice try, though.

This book definitely chronicles what you are looking for from the beginnings of option pricing to the LTCM liquidity crisis in Aug/Sep 98. Also, the book gets better as you read on as Dunbar fills in the story quite well by linking events together and relating their significance. My only material criticism is that the book is dumbed down too much. I imagine this is so that the book will appeal to a broader audience than just Wall St types. But, for Wall St types, it drags at times as Dunbar explains basic option pricing, and portfolio and risk management theories. On the other hand, if you are not familiar with these concepts, you should not fear this book for not understanding those concepts - they are explained quite deftly.

All in all, certainly worth the read. A great story! I recommend it to anyone interested in LTCM.

Inventing Money is a compelling read to everybody interested in the inner workings of wall street and the derivatives industry in general. It gives an excellent history of the development of the financial markets, with interesting examples, such as the role of the CBOT grain markets during the civil war. In great detail it covers the development of option theory, and the role that Black, Scholes and Merton had. Meriwether's rise at Soloman (see Liars Poker) and the events leading to his departure are also detailed. Finally the details of LTCM and their 'money making machines' are discussed, along with the events that finally brought about LTCM's downfall. In places the book gets very technical but in general Dunbar does an excellent job of explaining and simplifying some extremely complicated principles. I highly recommend this book. It now sits on my bookshelf next to some other great financial reads such as Liars Poker, Barbarians at the Gate, Market Wizards and Den of Thieves. Enjoy