1 comments about Sun-Face Buddha: The Teachings of Ma-Tsu and the Hung-Chou School of Ch'an.

1. Combined with the very informative introduction this book gives great insight into the Hung-Chou School of Ch'an and its most beloved Ancestor. In addition, we have translations from many of Ma Tsu's friends and disciples (nice since Ma Tsu's record is very short compared to other records)and this really makes the difference in this presentation! Thanks to Cheng Chien Bhikshu we now have a fine translation of a Grand Master of Ch'an to go along side the likes of Huang Po ('...traditionally regarded as Ma Tsu's grandson in the Dharma...') and Lin-chi (Huang Po's most famous disciple thru whom this school has been remembered to this day). I am not surprised at the lack of reviews for this book, most of the excitement about Ch'an centers on its Japanese cousin (Zen) and the 'Living Masters' who have made their way to America. However, for those interested in the roots of 'Zen' and the answers to some of the questions surrounding modern Zen, look no further. (Not overly academic, nicely bound, hard to find used.)

5 comments about Pocket Manual of Homeopathic Materia Medica and Repertory and a Chapter on Rare and Uncommon Remedies.

1. It is a exellent book for the Physicians practising Homoeopathy. It gives wonderful guidelines about using the repertory to all people. I have used this book during my Homoeopathic eduation all through the five years, for Materia Medica and Repertory. I would highly recommend this book to those studying Homoeopathy and also to those are Practising .It has a very precise way of explaining the drugs, and also the relation of that drog to other drugs. At the end of every drug the author has given the doseage of that drug in which it would best acts,the remedies that are best followed after that and lastly also the antidotes to a few drugs.



2. An excellent complete reference book. Materia Medica section lists symptoms by body part including respiratory, circulatory, mind and sleep descriptions. Corresponding Repretory is divided into physical sections, including genralities, and modalities. This is the first and foremost book I reach for when researching any case. Easy to use and well organized, unlike many of the other classic and contempoary manuals on homeopathy. This is my homeopathy bible!



3. Great reference book. Not quite as complete as Kent's Repertory, but it does have a Materia Medica, which Kent's does not. One of the books I always refer to. Has interesting section of Indian remedies, not normally seen. Pretty good index.



4. This is a great book and indispensable for the lay and professional practitioner alike. Note that Amazon is selling the Indian edition. The American edition has better binding, clearer print, is not as thick and costs more--a forewarning to those of you who expect the Amer. version, which is most common in health stores. Nonetheless, a great reference.



5. I have had this for a number of years. It was the first homeopathic book I bought. My copy is slowly disintegrating from hard use and its weak Indian binding.
   This is the best (and was the first) single-volume reference for beginning homeopaths and home practitioners. It includes both a repertory and materia medica, plus relationships of remedies and other reference material. More advanced prescribers will want something more extensive, but nothing beats this for compactness.
   It does have its drawbacks: it uses turn-of-the-century medical language (get Yasgur's homeopathic dictionary), it does not include new remedies, and it is of limited depth.
   By the way, it includes nothing about HOW TO USE IT, so get another book on prescribing (can't remember a good title).

No comments about Jain Desi khana.

1 comments about Homoeopathic Therapeutics.

1. A very detailed and good book from one of the pioneers of Homoeopathy.

3 comments about Management of Research and Development Organizations: Managing the Unmanageable.

1. R&D is not only important to organizations whose names do not include the words research or development or technology; it is important to managers whose job titles do not include the terms researcher, scientist or engineer. The transformation of our industrial society into an informational society requires research; and a thorough understanding of the R&D function has become a critical issue for every manager. Unfortunately, the R&D function is difficult to manage. This is partly due to the nature of the work, and partly due to the nature of the people. One of the major lifelong dreams of a scientist or engineer is to develop a leap-ahead technology that will cause previous scientific dogma to become obsolete. This revolution causes the management systems and organizational infrastructure that supports the old technology to also become outmoded.

   Though there are many books citing the importance and unique aspects of R&D, there is a paucity of books on how to manage it. Most R&D management books are not broad enough in scope...they are project management books that detail PERT and budgetary control mechanisms. They are oft-times written in technical jargon making them inaccessible to the lay reader.

   This book is unique in that it takes management concepts and innovatively applies them to an R&D environment in an easy-to-understand and easy-to replicate way. It bravely examines topics that are typically taboo in R&D organizations. The ethos of a scientific community espouses universalism and the sharing of scientific knowledge. To acknowledge, much less prescribe, remedial steps for all the various ways that conflict can manifest itself (conflict within individuals, between individuals, between groups, and inter-culturally) is very revealing...and healing. Beyond being very informative, there are aspects to the book that are entertaining. There's a structure questionnaire on "Identifying Your Leadership Style." In one of the sections, you must rate your level of agreement with statements like: "The people I supervise have trouble getting along with each other." There's also questions at the end of each chapter which can be used to stimulate further thinking and discussion; and case studies for group review and analysis. This book is unique in that it is entertaining to read; and can also be used as a textbook. It brings to mind Samuelson' book (Economics, McGraw-Hill, 1976), not only because of its format but because it is a landmark book that breaks from the tradition of boring, technically-jargonned books that are inaccessible or unappealing to the reading public...This book operationalizes the "High Touch" that John Naisbitt said "High Tech" (Megatrends, Warner Books, 1982) necessitates.

   I have recommended this book to my colleagues at Motorola, and I recommend it to you as well.




2. As the Training Manager for a DOE contracted physics lab, I am concerned with increasing the management skills of our scientists, engineers, and technicians. This book was indispensable in providing the rationale for valuing management skills in an environment like ours, and also provided excellent advice on how to use them with our unique workforce. It is practical, user-friendly, and well-written. It can easily be adapted as a support text for management development since it has study questions and a review at the end of every chapter. We have 30 copies of the book on site, both in our Library and in the hands of individual managers. I highly recommend it.



3. This book as many of the characteristics of academic papers. It contains a very detailed and complete review of issues and literature on the problem of managing R&D. However, each and every chapter typically ends with more or less generic recommendations and prescriptions on how to 'manage the unmanageable'. For one thing, the authors show a clear bias in favor of researchers and scientists as opposed to business managers. This is the most popular view commonly held in academia today, where professional management is considered ultimately a burden to creativity and true R&D. This position emerges especially in chapter 13 on "The University Research Enterprise". The concluding comments in this chapters match the simplistic views on R&D held in academia today, like: the largest and most creative segment of the basic research enterprise resides at academic institution, the public and Congress need to be "educated" about the importance of research", society and science 'need' research. Such conclusions are not only simplistic, but also very inconsistent with the history of R&D in this country. In particular, they miss completely the historical and political perspective on how research and science have evolved especially after World War II. It does not take much analysis to recognize that the big boost to basic research in the last 50 years has been motivated by political factors like World War II itself, and the ensuing Cold War (think of the big competition for space exploration). It was not an act of an 'educated' Congress, and it is not fortuitous that government funding of research has been decreasing in recent years as the Cold War came to an end. Similarly, a lot of technological advances have originated in companies, as more and more talented people have been leaving universities to seek better employment in rich industries. Failing to see the links between basic research and the current political and economical environment is a typical mistake that most people in academia make, and one that is causing a lot of academic research to become increasingly irrelevant to industries, because academic researchers fail to see the links between their work and the surrouding environment.

   The authors also miss completely to analyze the relationship between the issues they treat in the book, efficient leadership, decision making, conflict resolution, and the actual managerial structure of academic and laboratory institutions. They never examine, for example, whether or not the current tenure system is actually compatible with effective management of R&D projects. The tenure system, where tenure faculties are basically 'untouchables' and hold much power over the rest of the researchers, is one of the causes that hinder rapid change and innovation of ideas in academia. Too often, in fact, the younger researchers have to limit their creative abilities in order to produce papers that are acceptable to their older peers, so that they can be promoted to the higher academic ranks (tenure). In this respect, research groups in academia are very different from groups in industry. Academic research groups are more like little feudal systems, where a single (tenured) faculty rules over the group. The ability to conduct technical research is routinely confused with the ability to manage, with disastrous consequences for the efficiency of the laboratories, and even more disastrous wastes of federal money. Furthermore, academia typically rewards individual contributions rather than teamwork, a practice that limits enourmously the management of large-scale projects. These issues are well known, and have been discussed in many professional publications.

   In summary, I found this book much less useful than other books on R&D management written by consultants and project leaders involved with industry (e.g., the book by Roussel et al.). While it is a comprehensive source of references and data, it remains simplistic and generic in addressing the really complex issues of innovation and change in R&D organizations. Furthermore, it fails to discuss the hard managerial issues related to the current organizational structure of research institutions like universities, where the very notion of efficient management is totally absent.

1 comments about Abhisamayalamkara with Vrtti and Aloka - Vol. 2.

1. With volume 2 we reach the halfway mark of Maitreya's Abhisamayalamkara, "Ornament for the Clear Realizations," with its two major Indian commentaries. (See my review of vol. 1.) Gareth Sparham has also separately translated the detailed Tibetan commentary on this by Tsong kha pa, the Golden Garland of Eloquence. These demanding books are for the serious student of the Buddhist path to enlightenment.

5 comments about Handbook of Face Recognition.

1. This book contains math and pattern recognition concepts that are not for the faint of heart. However, given that you have some background in pattern recognition and computer vision this book is an invaluable resource for face detection and recognition algorithms and technologies.
   Chapter one is a fast paced introduction and goes over face recognition processing from the standpoint of analysis in "face subspaces" along with the technical challenges and solutions that are current.
   Chapters two through twelve are all about the many algorithms needed for face recognition and the considerations behind them. First the book tackles how to detect human faces within images. Next the issues of modeling face shape and appearance and tracking faces are explored. Examples of tracker implementations are given. The next few chapters deal with varying conditions and face recognition such as illumination modeling and facial skin color. Chapter seven is a lengthy one on face recognition in subspaces which includes the famous eigenfaces, tensorfaces, and fisherfaces methods. Chapter eight deals with the real-world problem of face tracking and recognition from video and how one does the simultaneous tracking and recognition which is necessary when dealing with video. Chapter 9 is about face recognition in the presence of changing pose and illumination. The concepts of and solutions for normalizing for illumination differences and of modeling pose and illumination are presented. Chapters 10 and 11 round out the algorithmic portion of the book and talk about the more advanced topics of morphable models of faces and facial expression analysis. The math here is quite advanced especially on the topic of morphable models. Chapter 12 is a very short chapter about face synthesis, and seems to be a review of the previous ten chapters on face recognition algorithms along with some new material.
   Chapter 13 goes on to the much less mathematical topic of face databases.The various databases of face recognition, detection, and expression analysis are listed and discussed. Chapters 14, 15, and 16 are very accessible and can be understood by both practitioners and by managers wishing to investigate the larger less technical issues of face recogniton. These three chapters are about performance evaluation, psychological and neural perspectives, and face recognition applications respectively.
   I would highly recommend this book to individuals who are interested in the implementation of facial recognition systems. Even though it is an edited volume written by a variety of specialists in the field, it has the well-composed feel of a book written by a single author and moves smoothly from one topic to another. You will probably need to supplement your reading if you are trying to design an entire system from scratch, but many of the algorithms needed are detailed in this book. Also, there is an outstanding bibliography for further investigation of various subjects. I have found that a good supplement to the facial expression analysis and the MPEG-4 sections of this book is "MPEG-4 Facial Animation: The Standard, Implementation and Applications" by Pandzic & Forchheimer. It goes into great detail on subjects for which there is simply no practical amount of space in this book.



2. Not quite as good as the handbook of fingerprint technology, but still a fairly good summary of the state of the art in todays facial recognition technology. It seemed like it could have been a little deeper in places such as the area of justice with mugshots.



3. This book is a compilation of academic papers on biometrics with very little value for the practitioners.



4. One could probably gleen all the information here by reading a couple of dozen conference proceedings and journal articles, but one of the values of this book is that the information is condensed together into one volume. While some math and algorithms are given, most processes are simply described in general terms so the practitioner may still need to go dig up the referenced articles but at least you'll know where to start digging.
   
   The Internet is constantly changing, so some of the URLs given for image databases in Chapter 13 have already changed. In addition, that chapter fails to mention that not all databases are free and most of them have very restrictive usage licenses that must be agreed to.
   
   Overall I found this text to be a good overview or literature review of recent developments in the technologies of face detection, skin color modeling, face tracking, face modeling, facial expression analysis, and face recognition. As time goes by it will be less and less useful as technology moves forward but for now it is a good starting place for those interested in the field of study.



5. Don't expect to learn much with this book since the topics are discussed only superficially and with many details laking. In the end, if you really want to understand or implement the methods described in the book, you have to read the original papers that proposed the methods. In this sense, it is a good reference book. Another annoying problem is the difference in notation from one chapter to another.

2 comments about The Jains (Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices).

1. This book gets really detailed, and it's hard to keep track of some of the histories and nuances in philosophy. Nonetheless, my mother was amazed at how completely the author covered Jainism, and I'm learning alot myself (we're both Jain).



2. The author does a very thorough job introducing the reader to Jainism, its history, its sacred days, its customs and its sects. Indian language vocabulary is also well-explained (mostly Sanskrit). The one thing grossly lacking in this book is citation of scripture. As I recall, there may be a sentence or two of Jain scripture in the entire book. It has long been my belief that the best way to learn about the beliefs of any religion is through its own source text(s). The author does state that there is no definitive canon of Jain scripture, but the book could have been made about 25% larger through some reasonable scriptural selection, or, alternatively, 25% of the existing content could have been cut to provide the reader some feel for Jain scripture. This is the only negative critcism that I have to offer. Aside from this one criticism, this is an excellent book and I recommend it highly.

5 comments about Insider Seo & Ppc: Get Your Website to the Top of the Search Engines.

1. This book was a little on the skimpy side, but the information that was covered was nicely written. I wish this book had been more for SEO's than people trying to do SEO themselves. There are a lot of details in the book that an optimizer doesn't have to deal with. On the other hand, it did give me several good ideas for the future. I only took off 1 star because I skipped several chapters. I would recommend this book to others, in fact, I already have.



2. This book has a big problem, i.e. mixing SEO with PPC. They are not the same! Any professoinal in the field can tell you that. The author also has a bad taste about shooting down competitor's book. He wrote bad review for Andrew Goodman's Winning with Google Adwords. The fact is that this book is also partly obsolete as Google has changed Adwords keywords tool, tracking results, etc.



3. Want to get your business listing at the top of the search engines? It's essential, then, to have Insider SEO & PPC on your side: its chapters juxtapose case study examples with insights on bids, paid ads, positioning, strategies for landing pages, and relevant categories, and provide the best in applied logic and real-world examples.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



4. I'm one of the authors of this book. The book covers four topics: a) online marketing (the Buying Cycle, ROI, and so on), b) SEO (how to modify the HTML to improve indexing), c) PPC (how to create and manage your ads in Google and other search engines), and d) analytics (how to use analytics to evaluate your ad campaigns, plus a comparison of three analytics packages).
   
   We're co-founders and directors of an SEM company with 45 employees. The book is based on our internal notes on how to set up and manage campaigns. It also includes 26 case studies, with our recommendations and the results for the campaigns. We wrote the book so other PPC managers and people who manage their own PPC for their websites could learn how to do it professionally.
   
   Yes, I wrote a review of Goodman's book, and it includes a negative statement because he made a glaring error. But my review of his is overall positive and I recommend his book. I've written a number of long reviews of other SEO and PPC books so customers and friends would know what to buy or avoid. Search for those on the web and you'll find a collection of useful reviews of SEO and PPC books.
   
   The book is only $20 at Amazon. It'll save you a great deal of money in Google. You'll also understand more about PPC if you decide to hire someone to manage your PPC campaigns.



5. We have been in the IT service industry for 17 years, we were looking to increase the marketing performance of our website. This book put us right on track and saved us from getting sand boxed. Insider SEO & PPC also gave us the larger picture from google's perspective.
   
   We were able to apply what we learned from the book to our website and increased our ranking dramatically. We our now providing SEO and PPC services to our clients. I hear the authors are writing a new book, I will be first in line.

No comments about Handbook of Multibiometrics (International Series on Biometrics).