No comments about Aviation Maintenance Technician: Airframe: Volume 1: Structures (Aviation Maintenance Technician series).

4 comments about Dynamics of Fluids in Porous Media (Dover Books on Physics and Chemistry).

1. The definitive, classic text on the subject



2. You may never need any other text other than this one. This is a comprehensive text covering everything from defining and classifying aquifers to fluid transport, continuity and conservation, boundary-value problems, flow of immiscible fluids and heat and mass transport. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to know the basics and beyond.



3. This book was not easy to read for me. Takes too many words and formulas to explain simple concepts. But I'm not an engineer, maybe engineers will find it delightful.



4. An exceptional resource. Well written and thorough. Even includes mathematical techniques for solving classes of PDEs relating to porous flow.

5 comments about Theory and Design for Mechanical Measurements.

1. I used the 2nd edition of this book while in engineering labs at Clemson and now use the 2nd and now 3rd edition in my test engineering work. I find myself being able to go into it and pulling out enough information to get me going on a new test design project. The stuff on uncertainty cannot be found elsewhere and useful. One of the better real-world texts.



2. By the middle of the second chapter I realised that a monkey proofread this book. I couldnt believe there were as many stupid mistakes as there actually were.
   Buy it only if you're not actually going to read it.



3. This book is well written but it does require that you pay attention and think. I found this book to be very useful to understand engineering measurements. After three engineering coop internships, I enjoyed some rationale for methods I learned in practice. Lots of examples. Some of the Labview programs were helpful. One of the more useful texts.



4. I would recommend this book to every beginning engineer and experimentalist. The book is full of examples, derivations, and lots of questions. It does require that you actually read it to get anything out of it, but the best feature is the online material, with MATLAB programs, videos, and additional material. I have found this book is very enjoyable to teach out of, and given future opportunities I will use it much more.



5. I bought this textbook so I wouldn't have to pay the University's terrible prices (more than twice the price actually). I received the book in the exact same condition advertised, very promptly, and for a much better price... I'm very pleased!

5 comments about Parallel Programming With MPI.

1. This book is a great introduction not only to MPI but to parallel programming itself. Initially, one learns essential concepts of parallel programming, including hardware and network topologies. An MPI version of ``Hello World!'' gently introduces the reader to the mechanics of running MPI programs (if you haven't set up your parallel computing environment yet, this may well be the most time consuming chapter of the book!) In what follows, the author lays out the basics of each topic in parallel programming, followed by MPI-specific details (i.e. which MPI function is used in that situation). Particularly worthy of praise is the example-driven approach, whereby in each chapter a problem is presented (like numerical integration or matrix multiplication), and the author shows how to solve them with techniques taught in that chapter. Some problems are rehashed in other sections/chapters, in order to show different PP techniques to solve them. The book doesn't suffer from the black-box syndrome of hiding implementation details: the reader is usually shown the inner workings of, say, each communication technique, while being advised to use MPI's built-in functions instead of rolling out his own versions.

   Topics covered include collective communication methods, I/O, debugging, design, performance, parallel algorithms and libraries, and advanced topics in communication. A handy appendix on MPI functions wraps up the book.

   As an aside, I will be forever grateful to this book due to its clear exposition of the butterfly broadcast method, which helped me understand the Cooley-Tukey iterative version of the FFT (which uses the same butterfly idea), something I had been struggling with for a couple of years. I would have gladly bought the book for this explanation alone.




2. The book is written very well and goes through how the MPI functions work and all their parameters in pretty fine detail. He even talks about the simpler things many books overlook. The only thing I wish was in this book, and this has nothing to do with the quality of the book, is some C++ reference or talk of the C++ MPI calls. This book is written with examples in C only (I think FORTRAN one may be available online), but the theory he teaches and the design of the programs will work for any language, of course. It would be nice to have a good reference chapter that lists the FORTRAN MPI functions and the C++ ones too though.



3. I was looking for a good introduction into MPI to parallelize some software I had written. Somehow, no online resources seemed to cover the topic well, so $30 seemed like a worthwhile investment, compared to my time. I got this book and the more recent one by Quinn (PP in C with MPI and OpenMP). This one's the hands-down winner. I basically scanned it in bed for three nights, and two weeks later my code is running like a charm. Just the right mix of reference and tutorial, very little distraction, and a pleasant read throughout.
   
   Highly recommended.



4. I read this book over the past week, covering chapters 1 through 6, skimming 7-10, and reading 11 through the final chapter 16. Its basically applied MPI programming, done up very well and clearly, starting with architectural history & motivations and leading into a simple numerical integrator example program in chapter 4 (chapter 3 was the MPI `hello, world'). The coding used is C, and I wrote my own integrator after finishing chapter 4 to also explore floating point numbers in calculations, loop control, and to integrate arbitrary functions on arbitrary intervals with adjustable resolution. The integrator is developed more fully throughout the book wherein MPI performance issues of the original design are pointed out and polished off as additional MPI functions and techniques are introduced. Some of these techniques included tree-structured initialization & broadcasts, data communication optimizations (such as derived types, packing / unpacking, etc), and guidance as to when certain techniques would be more useful than others offered by MPI. Communications are further advanced later in the book where the important non-blocking forms and more advanced concepts are brought to light & illustrated. Empirical analysis of algorithmic performance occupies two full chapters and is very interesting, including a detailed look into Amdahl's law. Its an excellent example of why we should keeps our eyes open in research. Program design & troubleshooting are also covered, but I only skimmed those chapters. Several parallel algorithms and some parallel libraries are also treated well in the text. At only 362 pages, (minus appendices) this book is a quick read and a superb lab manual. If you are a software developer just now getting into MPI, this book will certainly accelerate you onto MPI with the confidence that you can do anything with it. Just give it a week of your time. Its the perfect self-study manual.
   5-stars



5. Pacheco's book is a strong, gently paced introduction to a very complex API. MPI, the message passing interface, is the most common coordination tool for parallel scientific computing. When a Blue Gene programmer has 1,000 or 100,000 processors all working on different parts of one calculation, there's a big problem in getting partial results from where they're computed to where they're needed. That's what MPI is for.
   
   When the problem is so complicated, the solution is also complicated. Pacheco does a good job of breaking MPI down into digestible pieces, starting with the basic send and receive primitives that you'll use most often. He presents each new part of the API in terms of some problem to be solved, keeping a concrete and practical tone to this book. He gradually adds more pieces in terms of more practical exercises: broadcasts and reductions, scatter and gather, data structuring, communicators, and asynchronous IO.
   
   Along the way, Pacheco introduces algorithms that even experienced uniprocessor programmers may not be familiar with, including bitonic sorting and Fox's algorithm for matrix multiplication. This isn't gratuitous intellectual showmanship. It's a pointed demonstration that, when communication barriers change the computation landscape, old paths to solutions may not be the best routes any more. After finishing with the MPI API itself, Pacheco presents debugging techniques and common kinds of support libraries, as well as basic techniques for analyzing the potential and actual acceleration possible for a given problem.
   
   If you're serious about MPI, you'll need the official standard for understanding the fussy details of these complex APIs. That's a pretty brutal way for a beginner to get going, though. This introduces not only the basic concepts of MPI, but also the basics of how to think about highly parallel programming. And, as multi-threaded multi-core multi-processor systems become common, that's an increasing percentage of all programming.
   
   //wiredweird

5 comments about Business & Corporate Aviation Management : On Demand Air Travel.

1. I am in management for a major airline, among the most profitable in the world and consistently rated the best. Opened this book, browsed through and decided to sell it. It certainly covers a lot of ground in terms of opening your eyes to managing in aviation, but alas, only for non-aviation experienced personnel. There is mostly only mentions of what is there to run but nothing on how to run something. A long list of LISTS practically on what you need to run and then nothing that puts them together. Readability is not too pretty either. Dry style and lack of visuals will surely make this look like your college engineering textbooks, the ones you dreaded reading.



2. I had recently moved into the position of Aviation Manager/Chief Pilot of a mid-size, midwestern corporate flight department when I purchased this book. I was looking for a one stop shop to cover the basics of corporate aviation and a resource for studying for the NBAA's Certified Aviation Manager (CAM) Exam.
   Though I had a solid foundation as a corporate pilot for 15 years, I was very impressed at the content of this book. This book covered very well the administration and operations side of a flight department as well as the technical and facilities side. Also included were great chapters on personnel and leadership components of managing a flight department. Though I did study other sources as well, I credit Business and Corporate Aviation and Management by John J. Sheehan as the primary reason I passed the CAM exam on the first try.
   This book brings many resources together. As I went through this book, I developed a checklist of things I needed to get working on in my department.
   Business and Corporate Aviation and Management was surprisingly easy and enjoyable reading, though a little larger print would have been appreciated.
   All in all, this is an outstanding resource for anyone in corporate or business aviation including charter. And if you aspire to manage a flight department or take the CAM Exam, it's a must read and a must keep on your shelf.



3. This book was the best reference I had while preparing for the NBAA Certified Aviation Manager's exam in 2004.
   
   It is also a very useful read for the business executive who must deal with an aviation department but has little experience in that particular field.



4. There are a very few books covering the Corporate Aviation Management topic.I had been waiting for some corporate aviation material for a while, because the existent texts were not updated with the new facts and changes of the business aviation since the 9/11 events.
   
   I think the author has done a great and serious job putting this information all together.I purchased the book with very high expectations and I must say that I was not disappointed. The contents are well organized and elaborated.
   
   The book is written from a realistic perspective with many references to official sources (FAA, NBAA, etc) and other text books.Although not in deep detail, the book covers all the aspects of a corporate flight department, from planning to operation to maintenance to legal issues, making it, I believe, an excellent guide for starters or experienced professionals.
   
   I like the book format except for its size and fonts.For this type of book I'd prefer a "letter" size with bigger fonts.
   For each important matter there are side bars inserted with checklists, which I think are great.
   
   As the author states, this book is a reference guide and should be considered supplementary reading because not all the basics are covered.



5. I read the first half of the book and during the entire course of the book, all the author does is "See Corporate Aviation". I would not recommend this book to anyone seriously wanting to get insights into the working and economics of corporate aviation. I guess the author wrote the book to popularise corporate aviaiton.

2 comments about Small Gas Engines: Fundamentals, Service, Troubleshooting, Repair, Applications.

1. This is the best book on Small Gas Engines that we have found. This is the text for our Small Gas Engines course at Clark State Community College. This is a good place for anyone to learn about the basics of small gas engines and how they operate.



2. The book is well written and orgainized.
   It exhaustively covers the subject.

5 comments about Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons.

1. While everyone knows that the early days of rocket science were full of good CHRISTIAN PATRIOTIC MEN like Werner Von Braun, this book lays out the very scary case that one of the pioneers of rocket science, indeed, one of the VERY FOUNDERS of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was NOT a CHRISTIAN at all, and was, in fact, a WORSHIPPER OF SATAN, and, a fanatical follower of one of the wickedest men of the entire 20th century! According to this book, Jack Parsons even tried to create his OWN SCARLET WOMAN (Rotting Goddess: The Origins of the Witch in Classical Antiquity), with whome to conceive a "magical childe" (a supreme BLASPHEME if I ever heard one). He is alledged to have commited SEX ACTS which would shock even the most hardened LIBERAL HOMOSEXUAAL, and then proceded to try to sell AMERICAN GOVERNMENT SECRETS to the ISRAEL Government when the jews were trying to get a leg-up! His sickness was finaly put an end to when he (OR GOD) blew Himself up inside his own home, in a laboratory in his garden shed while handeling rocket fuel. (Talk about the SPARK OF DIVINE JUSTICE.) Altogether a disquieting, disturbing tale of one of the lesser known, but more improtant (if the aurther is to be believed) pioneers of what would become NASA. CHILLING.



2. By day, Jack Parsons was one of the founders of Jet Propulsion Laboratories and basically single-handedly invented the rocket. By night, he was Frater 210, the self-proclaimed Antichrist, a member of the Ordo Templi Orientis, and a follower of Aleister Crowley (rhymes with 'holy'.) Oddly enough, he was a very meticulous, if reckless scientist, but a very sloppy and reckless magician. (Though his death might suggest otherwise. He was killed in an explosion in his home when he was 37.)
   
   The information in the book was great and I drank it up, but Carter's writing is simply bad and uninteresting. His speculations are often spotty and he blindly repeats some untrue myths about Crowley as fact. Otherwise, it was a nice view into the early years of the OTO and Thelema in America. My favorite parts, I think, were the excerpts from Crowley's correspondence. He was intelligent and witty till the very end. (Jack Parsons sent large amount of money to Crowley on a regular basis, supporting Crowley in his last years.) Much of this time period was not covered in Crowley's autobiography, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley.
   
   L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, also appears in quite a large chunk of this book as a magical scribe and con man. Parsons and Hubbard performed some powerful rituals that were well beyond their skill levels and there is a whole branch of conspiracies that say they opened a sort of magical portal and that's where UFOs came from. Considering that Aleister Crowley once contacted an entity named LAM who looked much like a modern grey alien, it's an interesting story to delve into, which this book only touches upon. Parsons and Hubbard also had strange connections with John Dee & Edward Kelley. (Hubbard stole a very large sum of money and ran off with Parsons' wife. Kelley did the same to Dee way back in the ye olde 1500s.)
   
   Hopefully further books will be better written. I can see why this is the only book John carter has written.



3. Sex and Rockets is an illuminating and inspiring book that provides a detailed account of the rich and bizarre world of Parsons. The reader takes a mind-bending mystical journey through a dynamic realm of magic and science that reads more like great fiction than reality. Parsons was as interesting as any character in a science fiction novel of the time.
   
   He was a visionary in the world of the occult and an accomplished iconoclastic rocket scientist. The author confidently conveys the humanity behind Parsons and the extent of his influence upon many diverse realms of thought. Additionally, the author uncovers miraculous details.
   
   This penetrating work offers a straightforward portrayal of events and includes a thoroughly entertaining foreword by RAW and extensive photographs. I preferred the elegantly written "Strange Angel," for the language and the insights into the relationships, but this well-researched and enjoyable book was certainly worth the time. The author and his publisher deserve much credit for their accomplishment.
   
   Strongly recommended to science, occult and literary enthusiasts.



4. Fascinating man, boring biography--author John Carter's turgid prose style--the man apparently has no sense of humor--and the lengthy quotations from Thelemic rites, etc.--make this read One Big Snooze. Indeed, the sections about Parsons-as-rocket-scientist are much more lively, and they're not why I picked up a copy of the book at all. Carter apparently didn't gain access to a host of source documents, and that may not be a bad thing--he'd have quoted them lengthily.
   
   In the end, one gets little sense of the man nor of what drove him into the metaphorical arms of Aleister Crowley and Black Magic. Carter's sense of proportion is best-represented by his statement toward the end of the book, that Parsons had achieved more in five years as a rocket scientist than Robert Goddard did in a lifetime. Well, of course he did; he stood upon the shoulders of a giant--Goddard.
   
   Few footnotes, no endnotes, flawed index: a hugely important character appearing on many of the book's pages--Wilfred T. Smith--is missing in action. Not that many will want to re-thumb their way through this. If magick is indeed this boring, few will follow The Path.



5. An absolutely fascinating story about the world of Jack Parsons, both his rocket expertise and his journey into the occult. Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard puts in a brief appearance as a shadowy occultist and con man. The book suffers, unfortunately, from being poorly written and presented. The scientific sections have all the charm of a Unix manual, and the occult sections are tedious - too heavy on the fine points of arcana and not enough on the human foibles and interactions.

5 comments about Mechanical Engineering Design.

1. Good book, alot of useful reference info but not too clear on a lot of subjects. A good machinery handbook I'd recommend instead.



2. I have found having this book again useful and a great addition to my library.



3. A good general mechanical engineering reference book. Mechanical Engineering Design, by Shigley contains a wealth of useful reference information, but lacks clarity in a few subjects. It is a good quick reference book, not too big, and not too small for mechanical engineers, as it covered most of the important desgin topics. In general, the topics are easy to find and apply.



4. This is the single most useful engineering design book I have found. It has a very broad scope of design information. As some of the other reviews have stated, it does not go into much depth in a lot of the subjects, but I have never come across a structural design problem I couldn't solve using this book. As a mechanical engineer, if I could only use one book as a reference, it would be this book.



5. As an engineering student who is trying to learn and understand the concepts in this book, I have found it nearly impossible to get clear and concise explanations of the concepts covered in this book. Many of the examples are incomplete. They take short cuts and don't explain why they did what they did. This book makes WAY too many assumptions that you just magically already knew what they were talking about. For each chapter, I've had to go through and spend hours deciphering what in the world they were trying to say. There is little consistency in notation. The notation chosen doesn't always coincide with standard notation. They rarely clearly define the notation. Many of the figures are mediocre at best and poorly labeled.
   
   The concepts in this book are very important, so they need to be presented in a simple, easy to understand way. The concepts are not necessarily difficult, but they are difficult to learn from this book's explanations. From what I've heard, the next edition isn't much better if any. The editors need to work their way through this book and fill in the gaps, making sure everything is clearly illustrated, labeled, and explained.

5 comments about Flight in America: From the Wrights to the Astronauts.

1. This is one of those books that you look for, but seldom find. It is written so that it is easily read, easily understood, and easily absorbed. It is well researched, full of interesting facts and personal stories, and never lets up the pace of delivering an interesting, informative and educational narrative. I found it so much fun to read and understand, that I finished the entire book in three days, then read it again to reap what I might have missed the first time through. The author did an outstanding job of compiling and presenting complicated facts, dry figures, and personal stories into one very interesting and fun narrative. I recommend this book highly to anyone who wants to know every step of the race to flight history in the United states from the Wright brothers, to space exploration. The author managed to include almost every detail in this history of flight that you could ever want to know and still keep the story line from becoming boring, or slowing down once throughout the entire book. This wonderful work would be worth twice the asking price. I am glad that I found it, and am really glad that I now own it as part of my historical collection.



2. No one writes better syntheses of major topics in the history of air and space than Roger E. Bilstein, now retired from the University of Houston-Clear Lake. "Flight in America" is one of those exceptionally powerful syntheses that lays out a broad master narrative of the subject. Originally published in 1984, this work has now been through three editions, each refining and expanding the work to incorporate new understandings and broader perspectives. Indeed, "Flight in America" is THE place to start in any serious investigation of the development of air and space in the United States. Along with two other broad interpretive works-"Enterprise of Flight: The American Aviation and Aerospace Industry" (Smithsonian, 2001) and "Testing Aircraft, Exploring Space: An Illustrated History of NACA and NASA" (Johns Hopkins, 2003)-"Flight in America" offers a comprehensive narrative of the subject.

   In this volume Bilstein progresses chronologically from the time of the Wright brothers, barnstorming, and early military aviation to the rise of aviation as a business, the advent of airlines, and the technological progress of the airplane. He then spend considerable effort discussing the role of the airplane in World War II before moving into post-war developments with jet airliners, global military reach made possible with aircraft, and the beginning and development of the space age. In every sense, he offers a satisfying survey of aerospace issues that is useful both to students and scholars alike.

   At a fundamental level, "Flight in America" represents an attempt to help coalesce a "New Aerospace History." Like the "New Western History" or the "New Social History" that has been so important in the last twenty years, this approach represents a significant transformation that has largely been, although not exclusively, taking place in the field. Specifically, the "New Aerospace History" is committed to relating the subject to the larger issues of society, politics, and culture, taking a more sophisticated view of the technology than historians previously held. In the past, many writers on aerospace history held a fascination with the machinery, which has been largely anthropomorphized and often seen as "magical."

   The "New Aerospace History" embodied in this work moves beyond a fetish for the artifact to emphasize the broader role of the air- and spacecraft, and more importantly the whole technological system including not just the vehicle but also the other components that make up the aerospace climate, as an integral part of the human experience. This is not to be understood as lacking an interest in the artifact, or being artifactless. Rather it is an affirmation that one moves through reason and study to a larger understanding. It suggests that many unanswered questions are present in helping the development of modern flight, and that inquisitive individuals seek to know that which they do not understand. This assumption arises within historians and is based on their understanding of humans, for technological systems are constructions of the human mind or minds.

   This work emphasizes, therefore, research in aerospace topics that are no longer limited to the vehicle-centered, internalist, style of history that had gone before. "Flight in America" offers all of us an opportunity to immerse ourselves in this truly challenging new approach to the field. Highly recommended.




3. A very readable, quick and general history of flight in the United States. Bilstein is a noted historian and provides a narrative history of aviation that while comprehensive is a little disjointed in parts.



4. The book itself is great but I was missing pages from 52 to 87. I am not sure if the book is printed that way or of my book was the exception. Just make sure when you first get the book to check for missing pages.



5. this is a great book for any aviation enthusiasts and history buffs alike. The book starts off with the ornithopter and ends in space travel/missels, with complete detail. the author does a great job of explaining political, military and economic impacts on the aviation industry. The only bad part is im on the 3rd chapter and the book is practically falling apart and i bought it new.

2 comments about Schaum's Outline of Fluid Dynamics (Schaum's).

1. Fluid mechanics is a vast field. It can be considered a branch of applied physics. Highly mathematical, as can be seen in the problems given in this book by Hughes. He takes you through the field, giving the salient equations used to describe various fluid phenomena.
   
   Foremost amongst these is the Navier-Stokes equation. A nonlinear partial differential equation that describes the balancing or conservation of momentum and energy in a fluid. Most of fluid mechanics builds on Navier-Stokes. So you need to get your understanding of it down pat. The problems given for these should be tackled and hopefully solved by you, before going onto later sections in the book. You need a solid grasp of this. It can make the rest much easier.
   
   Other chapters describe various important special cases. Like incompressible flow. Or one dimensional flow of a fluid that is compressible. Then expanding this discussion into 2 dimensions.
   
   Boundary layer problems are also heavily studied. Important in practice, because these relate to the designing of surfaces of planes or boats or missiles. Which leads naturally into problems of turbulence.
   
   Then what if the fluid is charged? Electromagnetic effects [currents] then come into consideration. So Hughes devotes a chapter to magnetohydrodynamics. Students of nuclear fusion or stellar evolution may find this chapter germane.
   
   Overall, Hughes gives a broad span of the field. Many problems to sharpen your understanding.



2. I have this book first edition; this third edition is not much different from the first one. No CFD, no computer applications and almost the same subjects of 30 years ago. The chapters about MHD, non-newtonian flows and hyper-sonic flows are all but too short; they are almost useless.
   There is a new chapter about waves which figures are not as good as the older ones.
   Well, the book is cheap and certenly worths the price.