There is a wealth of information in this book. Many engineers will enjoy having this reference. However, if you are not in the industry, or still a little low on the mathmatics totem pole. This book will appear to you as though it is written in Greek! It practically is with all of the differential notation. When I am finished with my CSE degree, I will try to read it again. Until then, it will stay on the shelf. Definitely NOT light reading!

I'm using this book to relearn core CS material in preparation for the CS GRE after several years in the industry. I can't recommend it highly enough.

This is not a book from which to learn concepts for the first time. If you've never heard of (e.g.) "undecidability", don't get this book intending to learn about it. However, if you know enough to know what you don't know, this book will efficiently fill in the gaps.

The book consists of over 100 chapters covering material across nearly major area of computer science. Each chapter is 20-30 pages long and is geared to someone who has seen the material before but is in need of a review and summary of core terminology and historical context. Someone experienced in one field who wants to be able to read current technical material in another field will also find it useful.

Most of the authors are academics; the remainder are members of major research labs. Some of their chapters, like James Feldman's piece on Digital Logic, are truly extraordinary. Most others range from solid to exceptional. The material isn't just that of concern to traditional academic CS; I was pleasantly surprised to see an entire section (8 chapters worth) on practical software engineering topics (development process and lifecycle models, requirements and specification, design, validation, tools, testing, project management, etc). The material was authored around 1995 or 1996, and nearly all of it is still relevant and as up-to-date as is appropriate for this sort of collection.

One minor weakness is there's no cross-chapter index or glossary. The book is organized as a collection of papers, and each paper includes its own index, bibliography, and glossary. To find material about the web, for instance, you have to hunt through the (excellent) 20-page table of contents for the relevant subsections scattered throughout. This weakness is far from fatal, however. Should the next edition add an index, it will only add value to an already exceptional collection, by making it easier to locate references to material that spans subfields.

Again, highly recommended for targeted learning.

Dance, Kayla! starts out as Kayla does--full of promise. Kayla's life on her grandparents' farm is interesting as are the people in her life, but the story slows down when she reaches the big city. While the characters were sometimes flat, the story fills an important function in that it shows the strength of an extended African American family. It also serves to inspire young girls of color to follow their dreams, no matter how many roadblocks stand in their way.

I read this book while visiting my aunt. She gave it to my sister for Christmas. I give the book five stars because there are many good lessons kids can get from Kayla besides just enjoying the book. Kayla was brave and funny. I liked the other people in the book a lot. I am a boy and don't usually read girs's books but Kayla had a lot for boys to read about.She had a lot of courage and worked for what she wanted. Lots of girls and boys don't have daddys and could see how Kayla did okay even if her daddy didn't come home yet.

Don't read this book expecting computer programming instruction in the "linear" language. It's a whole different animal of operations research. Linear programming concerns minimizing and maximizing linear functions under a set of linear constraints. This book brings the best problems to linear programming solves and the recent theorems. I found it's handling of the Karmarkar algorithm easier to follow than most other I've seen. It's hard to find information this current outside of journals.

As an undergrad math major, I found this book incredibly helpful in understanding the Karmarker Algorithm or, more specifically, their twist on it. Some sections require many rereadings and the differences between their explanations and the original Karmarkar article are stark. But, overall, it's a clear a read as can be expected from an math/operations research text.

Overall this book is a good overview of the american political system. The structures of the beurocracy, executive, congressional, and judicial branches are covered very thoroughly. However, I found that the author inserted a bit too much of his own Republican biases in it. There is a whole section devoted to "government waste" - a common election tactic by Republicans. While it is true that the government is wasteful- all beurocracies are to some extent- a recent survey showed the US gov't to be the 3rd most efficient in the world. Also, sprinkled throughout the book are convinient three paragraph long and very shallow "Counterpoints" which try to convince readers of republican principles from the flat tax to the abolition of affirmative action. The most egragrious offenses come in various profiles "people in polics" of various leaders in politics. Invariably, the Republicans profiled have their personal strengths asserted with a folksy charm, while the Democrats are given a far away overview as well as mention of some trivial personal faults (Barbara Boxer's overdrafts from the House banks- a trivial issue in the big picture of things- is in her bio). And of course there are also the "Liberal ratings" in it- with the late Paul Wellstone topping the list. In addition to all of this, the general wording of the book and word choice used betrays the clearly Republican biases of the author. Overall the book is not a bad book, it does a good and thorough job at outlining the structure of the federal government, however, reader beware of the biases of the author.

I just finished taking a class called "Introduction to American Politics" and this was our only textbook. I found the textbook to be easy to read, clearly written, and factually accurate. I fear that many students, like myself, who have already studied some in this area may find the book to be too simplified, and will get bored reading about the basics of material which is already familiar to them. The book is great for the novice, but is definitely not upperclassmen material.

The history of Vietnam is obscure to most Westerners, at least prior to the Indo-China war of the fifties. This book attempts to fill that gap, and provide a short overview of the history of the nation over the last thousand years or so. Given that it's a short book (text runs to just over 200 pages) it does a good job.

Vietnam has been wracked by wars and conquests during most of the period covered by the book, and make no mistake, that's the author's focus. There's nothing about culture, literature, art, science, or ordinary life in this book: it's about politics, and warfare. The author spends one chapter dealing with the period pre-French conquest, and a second covering the period of French colonialism. The rest of the book covers the Vietnam Wars from 1946-1975, with a brief chapter after chronicling the country's history since the end of the war.

This is a good book, given its limited scope. The author has much to say about the war, most of it critical of American and South Vietnamese leadership. Hey, they did lose the war! The book also doesn't flinch from recounting atrocities by both sides, recounting them judiciously, and not taking sides.

If I have a criticism of the book, it's that it's too short. Two hundred pages doesn't do justice to the history of the war at less than an overview level, and trying to fit the last thousand years in there too was perhaps a bit much. I found myself wishing for more.

As someone who grew up during the Vietnam era, I wanted to read a book that would give me some understanding of what went on during the Vietnam war. I was a bit too young to really comprehend the current events as they were happening but too old for the Vietnam war to be covered in the history books I studied in school.

This book provides a good, succinct overview of the military aspects of the war. While there are allusions to events outside the military realm (the protests back in the U.S., Kennedy's assasination, etc.) the focus is definitely on the war itself. While the main focus is on the period in which the U.S. was involved in Vietnam, a significant part of the book is devoted to setting the context for that period (wars in Vietnam during ancient times and, especially the French Indo-China wars). There is also a short section on what happened after the U.S. left Vietnam. This context is interesting since the author points out how many of the mistakes made by the U.S. had been made by others during earlier times.

The book is quite brief (204 pages), so the author does not go into great depth on anything. For example, the My Lai massacre takes up only a very brief paragraph. If you're looking for an in depth analysis of the war, you would probably be better off with another book. However, as a brief overview, I thought the book was quite well done.

This book is really divided into two parts. The first part chronicles the author's experiences and struggles with anti-semetism in school, neighborhood and employment. The author's sensitivity regarding his relationship with humans of various age groups was constantly challenged. In the second part, the author describes many instances of prejudice and bigotry while serving in the U.S.Army during WW Two. This book is well worth reading as it allows the reader to share the author's mental pain and suffering as he was forced to contend with not only his but others human emotions.

This is a lovely, poignant story of a scrappy young Jewish boy who will not be intimidated by teachers or superior officers during World War II. It is so well written and weaves such a marvelous story it is hard to believe that this man didn't finish high school. Read it. You'll love it.

I like the book, it kept my interest and captured my imagination.

This anthology covers the American anarcho-individualists gathered around Benjamin Tucker in the latter part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The essays do a pretty good job covering different aspects of these figures, their acts and disagreements and so forth. Those with a particular interest in these individuals will want this book, but it lacks wider relevance. Anarchists of other stripes may also find it of interest.

I enjoyed the book overall, but found it lacking in someperspectives. It's wonderful from a multi-cultural standpoint, butthere is very little information about rural bisexuals, or those _not_ living out, queer lives. It's a good place to start reading on the subject, though, and the historical perspective was interesting.

Brainstorm! is a great book about child inventors. Children in grades 3 through 6 will enjoy it. Each chapter -- averaging 2 to 5 pages -- focuses on a child and his or her inventions. There are plenty of female inventors, and the book includes some inventions that are modest as well as ground-breaking. This book will inspire children to have confidence in their ideas.