2 comments about Around the World: Who's Been Here?: Who's Been Here?.

1. Great story about a teacher traveling across different continents and sending letters back. Story includes clues to guess what animal she came across. Great illustrations.



2. This is an excellent book for the classroom or home-schooler. This book is on the National Science Teacher Association Outstanding Trade Books List. Use it for writing, science, or social studies. Lindsay Barrett George is on my "author watch list".

No comments about Exploring 3D Animation With 3ds Max 8.

5 comments about Mommy, Why?.

1. Lin Fong O'Neill's book deals with life issues that are heart felt in a clear and compelling way. Her story is accessible to both children and to the adults who love (and read) to them.
   
   The prose and illustrations compliment each other perfectly. The story accomplishes what all good writing should accomplish -it teaches and moves us emotionally at the same time.
   
   I sincerely hope this is the first in a series.



2. Lin Fong-O'Neill writes with tenderness and grace when exploring the famous 'why' question posed so often by little ones. What child has not, at least once in their life, felt ill at ease due to a perceived difference? This book explains, in simple language, the reasons why little children feel confused by differences, and how to remedy those feelings. This brightly illustrated children's book is sure to be a winner amongst children of every race and nationality!



3. This is a fun story that covers many questions that a child would ask. The world is getting smaller, and our diversity is growing by leaps and bounds. The awareness of such diversity starting at a young age will prepare our children to deal better in their growing world. And we as adults must lead by example.



4. "Mommy Why" is a beautifully written and illustrated book about the beauty and uniqueness each of us possess. It facilitates the explanation of differences in people to children. Diversity is cherished in this book. It's a must have in your children's library.



5. Ms. O,Neill's book is one of my daughter's favorites!!! It deals with the hard issues of race in a very sensitive manner. After reading the book a child will understand that everyone is different, not necessarily "better" but different and that different is GOOD. This book should be on all the bookshelves in every school(children need to learn to be tolerant of one another, not hateful or envious or inferior)!!! This book is a good find.

5 comments about Introduction to 3D Game Engine Design Using DirectX 9 and C#.

1. This book is not an introduction to DirectX, D3D, or C#. It is a very high-level introduction to game engine design. One could almost gain as much from saying "Compartmentalise your objects" several times a day.
   
   The title implies that it will give you some help understanding how DirextX and C# work together to create a game engine. This is false. There is a lot of uncommented code in this book (half the first chapter of 26 pages is uncommented code). The explanations given are abstract to the point of being worthless to someone who truly needs an introduction, giving only light glances at the example code. It is impossible to get a clear picture of everything involved.
   
   There are doubtless those for whom this book is the perfect level of abstract discussion. However, I believe this is the exception rather than the rule. Highly not recommended.



2. For those who have already had an introduction into DirectX, this book is a godsend. If you know a little bit about DirectX and are ready to take the next step in designing your own engine this is the book to get. Just for the engine structural knowledge I have gained from reading this book it was well worth it, and that's not including all of the implementation examples it gives you, such as Terrains, Meshes, Cameras, and Particle Effects to name a few that I liked. If you don't know anything about DirectX, this book will probably be hard to follow. If you do know DirectX then this book will be very easy to follow. What isn't in comments is explained enough (in my opinion) in the paragraphs preceding each class and method. If you are still having trouble understanding this book then I would recommend reading an 'Introduction to DirectX' book, not an 'Introduction to Game Engine Design USING DirectX' book. All in all, this book was extremely worth it. The author definitely has experience in this field. The book's title may be deceiving to some, if you only read the first and last couple words and skip the 5 words in the middle. The previous reviews were incorrect about this book. If you have a little bit of understanding of DirectX, and would like to see how to implement some elements of a game, like the ones i mentioned previously(and there are more than that), then definitely buy this book.



3. If you're looking at engines like axiom, ogre, irrlicht, etc... and wondering how they do that... THIS is the book for you.
   
   Just make sure you've read at least an intro c# book and 1 or 2 direct3d books.
   
   I'm loving this book, I've read 1/4th of it over the period of my workshift... just can't put it down.
   
   Things like octrees were completely confusing me, and lynn does a great job explaining it.
   
   -1 star for not doing an octree implementation instead of a quad tree (so far... i haven't read the whole book yet), oh and i saw a "GOTO" statement in his code, which always urks me in OOP.



4. This was a total waste of my money. If you plan on compiling the code then dont purchase this book. It will not compile and they have known it for a while. But refuse to release a code update.
   
   If you dont believe this visit the Apress website. They know the code is bad.



5. I purchased this book in hopes that I would be able to use the code for examples and as a guidance. However, the code is outdated and unusable. You can download a more updated version of it off of a "fan" website, though still doesn't work. I contacted the author on the matter, and he said, "I'm afraid it is now becomes an exercise for you and the other readers to take the concepts in the book and work out the latest implementation. " I don't see how one can work out the exercises on their own when they're trying to learn the exercise itself!
   
   
   The concepts in the book are a little useful, though without working code it seems so close yet so far away.
   
   I would not recommend this book to those looking to learn from it.

2 comments about A Beginner's Guide To Mathematica.

1. It stands to reason that this book needs other reviews. First of all, it's co-authored by the author
   of several of the 'DeMystified' guides to subjects in physics and math (linear algebra, in particular).
   These are fairly clear and concise, if slightly truncated (the linear algebra). The larger size of this
   book would then lead one to see it with great anticipation.
   Needless to say, it was a very BIG disappointment. The layout and discourse of the subject matter
   make its initial acquaintance very unengaging. Various topics in Mathematica are hard to find, and
   less than helpful explanations are often provided (if at all). Potential purchasers need not be misled
   here! The text, in NO WAY resembles the appearance and organization of the co-author's other pub-
   lications. Even some of the print was missing in later pages of the book. There are some Mathematica
   files to which I was led, from the author's suggestions accompanying the 'promotion' of this book.
   These are overly complicated, esoteric, and very hard to understand ... hardly 'grist' for ANY kind of
   'beginner'! Let that further disuade you. Much better 'Intros to Mathematica' available (for example,
   Cheung, Keough, et al). In light of my knowledge of, and the efforts I've been making in searching
   for quality Mathematica materials, this is THE most disappointing, and among the worst, published
   works on the subject.



2. The number of bugs, errors, typos, misplaced code snippets and screenshots must be seen to be believed. In many cases text that is supposed to be formatted Mathematica -style is printed as plain text within the flow of the normal text, leading to isolated words or code fragments between sentences (pp. 43). In some places screenshots have nothing to do with the content at all (p. 25), then again screenshots are repeated pointlessly (pp. 19 and pp. 79). There are several instances where code snippets are repeated verbatim over a range of pages, almost placeholder-like (e.g. pp. 28, where the same snippet is printed three and a half times).
   
   Until a corrected edition is available, save your money.

5 comments about How To Do Everything With Macromedia Flash(TM) MX.

1. . . this book is so terribly written and edited that it was impossible to begin to tackle Flash MX with it, I don't know why I didn't check Amazon first. By the first chapter I knew this book was going to be useless; three pages into Chapter One she begins a segment called, "Get a Flash File Up On The Web". Now, why would you concern yourself with this step, in the beginning of the first chapter of a book on how to use Flash? That's the way the whole book goes. A disaster.



2. This is simply a terrible book. As a few reviewers have mentioned, the organization is atrocious. There are sections on putting Flash on the web before you learn ANYTHING about Flash. Early chapters continuously assume that you know subjects from later on. Many of the descriptions of how to do things are simply wrong; I frequently had to stare at the screen agonizing over how to make something work, because following the description did nothing.

   Do yourself a big favor and stay far away from this book.




3. This book is extremely well written and organized with precision. The few questions that I had while reading this book were due to my simple oversights. The author, Bonnie Blake, is an excellent author who uses precise examples and leaves nothing unexplained. Bravo Ms. Blake!!



4. For those that have written bad reviews on this book... I think your worries are far over exagerated. The organization isn't a problem because there's a majical thing called "a table of content"... usually that's placed: "At the begining of a book"... smart... very smart...
   
   Next, the way this author explains things is quite simple to understand. You'd have to be 50 years old and never have touched a computer in your life in order to be frustrated with this.
   
   I recomend it



5. I got all the way to page 210 before figuring out that I wasn't going to learn Flash from this book. I learned more in 30 seconds from a YouTube video than I got out of a few hours of trying to understand this writer. Not good.

No comments about Advanced Programmer's Guide to Supervgas/Book and Disk.

2 comments about Focus On Mod Programming in Quake III Arena (The Premier Press Game Development Series).

1. Don't let the size of this book fool you.
   ID put together an incredible program with Quake series,
   and this is THE book to read about it!
   Good Job.



2. The Book refers you to a web site for additional code; however, the web site does not contain any information about the book. This makes it difficult to follow the instruction.

4 comments about Getting StartED with Mac OS X Leopard.

1. This is the worst book I have ever read, regardless of subject.
   
   This book fails to deliver on its promises. The author skims through the new features in Leopard telling the basics and that's pretty much it. He doesn't go into any detail of the inner workings or how to make the best out of new features like Time Machine. I have read this book two days after I got my new MacBook Pro (my first ever Mac) and only using the OS taught me more in these two days than the actual book.
   
   The also is very patronizing, assuming the reader has no knowledge of computers, which for someone like me who has spent half of my life working with computers as software engineer was pretty frustrating. He makes remarks about Windows that I have no idea where he took from.
   
   I was hoping the introduction to Mac chapter (Chapter 2: Mac Basics) would give me a good basis on how to use the single-button trackpad or mouse, how to use the command, option and control keys, some shortcuts and ways to better navigate the operating system, but he doesn't do any of that. He limits himself to listing what are the base applications that come with the OS and giving a brief introduction to each one.
   
   If the shipping costs from the UK weren't actually more expensive than the book I would have returned it, but I think it will be a pretty good addition to my next bonfire. If you're looking for a book to learn how to use a Mac or learn how to use the new features of Leopard I would say steer away from this. There must be better texts on the subject out there.



2. Getting StartED with Mac OS X Leopard arrived and I haven't had a moment since. This book by Justin Williams is crammed full of new interesting material... While not the encyclopedia of all the nuances of "Leopard" it is an excellent resource and a must for any new Macintosh user. I was surprised that Justin is such a new graduate of Purdue, I and my three children all attended Purdue... I feel that I bought and paid for a part of the university, so reading Justin's bio made me a fan before I ever read a page. I consider myself a "Power User" having owned Macs since the first 128K in 1984 (which I still own), so I have seen and tried to master each iteration of the system software over the years, but reading and rereading Mac OS Leopard has taught me a thing or two. It has sent me back to some of my other machines and OS's to test out a feature that I wasn't sure didn't exist before. I did highly recommend this book to our membership at our last MUG meeting when I introduced Leopard.



3. Getting StartED with Mac OS X Leopard
   
   Apress and the freindsofed division is a fairly new player to the Mac book industry, having focused in the past on heavier topics for programmers and hard core web designers. They are a welcome addition to the Mac Family.
   
   Justin Williams wrote a very first-person account of his adventures with OS X Leopard. This should not be considered a beginners book, especially given the family this book is in. The book is designed for Tiger or other OS X users wanting to know what is new in Leopard. The book is a great effort, but at points I got annoyed that he was stating the obvious things a OS X user knows. Williams writing however was spot-on: easy to understand with plenty of screen shots and detailed examples. He also includes the basics of iLife '08, which is a bonus, though makes the title a bit misleading and leaves the reader with the assumption Leopard includes iLife '08. Unless you upgraded to iLife '08 and Leopard, 30% of the book isn't applicable to you. Even with the iLife '08 the book is refreshingly short and can't be used a child's booster seat like so many technical books can be.
   
   Though I'm an experienced Leopard user, I even learned a few tricks from this book, based on Williams personal experience with the operating system. This would be a good book to give a experienced Mac user that wants to know "what's new" in Leopard. It was quick, straightforward and to the point: a good book for people who don't like to read manuals.
   
   Pros: Excellent tips, easy to understand for a experienced OS X user new to Leopard
   Cons: Covers iLife '08 which adds unnecessarily to the book, covers thins many in the target audience would consider obvious
   
   Three out of Five DogCows



4. Microsoft Windows has been my operating system of choice for years. But Apple's OS X product caught my attention from Day One. After the Intel-based Macs were on the market for awhile, I decided it was time for me to take the plunge.
   
   "Getting StartED with Mac OS X Leopard" has proved to be an invaluable tool to ease transition between Windows and Leopard. Don't get me wrong: I still have a soft spot in my heart for Windows and have installed Vista Home Premium on my iMac. But now with Microsoft's awesome Office 2008 for Macintosh, I am finding myself visiting the Vista partition less and less.
   
   If you are a person who was "brought up" on Windows, but now looking into a Mac, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book as a good source to get the ball rolling. After you put in your order for your Mac, the very next thing you'll want to do is order this book.

No comments about Virtual Reality in Geography (Geographic Information Systems Workshop).