5 comments about Master Handbook of Acoustics.

1. A great book, but can be too advanced for some. A lot of physics is included - which is great - but perhaps some previous knowledge or some side reading is a good idea.
   
   Over all, excellent book, and a goldmine to buy.



2. There are two common definitions of the word "acoustics." The most general is "an area of physics dealing with sound and sound waves" and the second is "the qualities of a room that determine audibility and fidelity of sound in it." This book is a very good reference for the latter, but if you're looking for the former, look elsewhere. Also, I'm not sure I would describe it as a Handbook, but rather as a reference text.
   
   It is good for what it does cover and is relatively easy to read.



3. I have found this a very usefull and well written book. It is being used as a reference for a college course I am studying. It does require some knowledge of electronic principles but is clear and understandable. I would recommend it to any serious student of sound and acoustics.



4. this book is an excellent overview and introspection into the world of usable acoustics. it tends to focus on the applicable, everyday world of acoustics instead of the completely theoretical--which was a huge help in my Church production job.
   i highly recommend it as a reference text and background book to anyone in music production.



5. I haven't read the whole book, but from the excerpts I have read, Everest covers a very broad range of topics at at least an acceptable level. Any related topic I've wanted to look up so far has good and relevant material. I'd call this best studio/acoustics design reference book I've seen so far. Well worth the price.

2 comments about F# for Scientists.

1. I wish more books were written at this level of quality. While this book can be used by anybody that wants to get up to speed with F#, it's also well suited for use as a text book for an undergraduate course in applied math or computer science (or reference for a graduate course). It's well organized, well written, and draws from classic examples in mathematical computing.
   
   It's not easy material, and deserves to be read slowly and perhaps a couple times - much like any sophisticated treatise on a difficult but powerful subject. Don't loose patience if you don't get it at first glance. If you enjoy this type of stuff, it's an absolutely pleasure to read - logical in flow and well articulated.
   
   Anyway, this is a must-have book if you're doing anything with F# - or just considering it.



2. I found this book to be very useful. Before reading this text I had already read portions of Expert F#, and have an extensive background with the older SML language that F# and Ocaml are related to. As someone who works in scientific computing, I have always wished for a reference that would explain how to use this family of languages in scientific contexts. This book provides an excellent discussion of this topic. The examples are familiar if you come from a scientific computing background, and it is useful to see examples framed in a mathematical or scientific context instead of the more abstract or simple examples found in texts aimed at more general audiences. I would highly recommend this book - it's a pleasure to read, and has proven to be a useful reference for me so far.

5 comments about LabVIEW 8 Student Edition.

1. Good book and software. I am currently a physics student taking a class that uses this software. I am fairly impressed with both the book and the software. If you plan on buying the full version don't bother with the student version. If however you are like me going to school and don't plan on buying the full version anytime soon then the student version is well worth the money.
   Book is pretty easy to understand. It is almost a little too basic and slow moving but it is fairly thorough which is good.
   It is nice to have the student version software so I can follow along with the examples in the book and try the exercises without having to head up to school to the lab.



2. The book was in brand new condition and arrived within the time frame as promised.



3. To get started learning about LabView, I ordered a copy of the Student Edition of Labview 8 in October. It arrived, I installed it, everything was happy for a bit. Then I upgraded to Leopard. The installer complained, claiming the media was bad (I was very careful with the media, and even copying the media works fine & without error).
   
   I called in to NI to see if they had any ideas.
   
   They explained that LabView version 8.5 came out in August (remember I purchased this from Amazon in October; I'd unfortunately made the assumption that Amazon would be carrying the latest edition), and 8.2, the version that came with the book I bought, is not supported on Leopard. And apparently NI's policy, at least on student editions, is to require customers to purchase the new revision rather than offering upgrades.
   
   I'm assuiming Amazon is still only selling the 8.2 edition (there's nothing I can find to indicate this book/software are 8.5).



4. This is a book and smart software to learn and work. Very good for engineering students and labs.
   http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0131999184/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title



5. I am a software engineer, new to Labview. I bought this one a few months ago for a limited-scale project at work. I now think that if I could get only one kit to get started with Labview, this would again be it.
   
   The book has a nice balance of simple and intermediate techniques. It is pretty concise yet has good scope of coverage. The included Labview Student edition is Excellent and includes a ton of examples and many of the advanced features of the full product versions of Labview to get you introduced to some more meaty capabilities.
   
   I highly regard reduncance in learning, but I knocked one star off the top because it is slightly too redundant, recycling thru previous material a little bit too much for my taste. The chapters appear to assume that there has been some time since your last session and you have forgoten a chunk of the last one. Or maybe they just wanted less linkage and interdependence between sessions. But do not let that stop you from getting this resource.

5 comments about Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective.

1. What a splendid book! I wish I had gone to CMU and take this course. This book is written by CMU professors after teaching Computer Systems course for few years. This book covers broad spectrum of topics from Operating Systems, Compilers, Computer Architecture, Assembly Level Programming, Kernel internals, Linkers, etc from a programmer's perspective (as the title aptly says).
   
   I am searching for words to describe the usefulness of this book. In my experience, I have had hard time learning some of the topics where Operating systems, Processor and Compilers intersect. For example, Linkers and Loaders, program disassembly using reverse-engineering, virtual memory in Kernel etc. After all the hard work, I found the right book which grinds all the famous books in different areas and gives the right juice for the real programmers to taste and digest.
   
   Those famous books are:
   [1] Computer Organization and Design Second Edition : The Hardware/Software Interface by David A. Patterson, John L. Hennessy
   [2] UNIX Internals: The New Frontiers by Uresh Vahalia
   [3] Linux Kernel Development by Robert Love
   [4] Linkers and Loaders by John R. Levine
   [5] GNU Binutils (GAS, objdump, ar, nm etc) Documentation
   
   Excellent job. I really appreciate the work and content of this book.



2. I just completed a college course using this textbook... the course was tough, but the book was very good and useful. This is one textbook I won't be selling any time soon!
   
   The practice problems provided in the book were usually very good, and the programming problems distributed with it were fun and educational, including topics like Buffer Overflows, Memory Optimizations, and Debugging with GDB, among others.
   
   There are *some* problems with this book, but it doesn't suffer from the devastating flaws that plague most computer science textbooks. Some sections lack thorough explanations and examples, and the writting is a bit unclear at times. Some solutions to the practice problems are vague and don't really provide much insight on how to solve the problems. Luckily, these flaws only creep up in a few places.
   
   Compared to most technical textbooks, however, this one really shines. It's not quite perfect, so I think 4 stars is appropriate.



3. Even though the topics of this book are absolutely great and crucial for any CS student, I dislike the entire book !, its hard to follow the writer, i find it hard to keep with him !
   too many complicated information with either Tiny explaination or more complicated explaination ,
   its a very big book with many topics , i prefer reading seperate books with specific topics rather than this book,



4. An excellent reference, but it is an embarassment of riches, and as such it can't completely cover every area exhaustively. This would probably be extremely frustrating for a casual reader to absorb. I used this as a text book for a class with an extremely good instructor who backed up the material in the book very well. As such, the class and the book were a joy.



5. Purchased this for a computer science course since it was required. Great price at Amazon!

5 comments about Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry.

1. This is a great book. It talks about the Photovoltaics industry in a way that avoids traditional cliches. The authors approach the subject from a strictly economic point of view, preaching the inevitability of "the Solar Revolution," and supporting it with a series of logical arguments. Props to the authors.



2. Great book. The problem is this technology requires fossil fuels in silicon raw materials and production. While newer solar thermal power may be better, cutting edge technology from companies like Nanosolar which use printing techniques and lighter thin surfaces for broad commercial use, will likely take lead.
   
   The simple economics and lower capital cost make it like to dominate alternative energy options.



3. What is unique about this solar proponent is that even without the usual social/environmental arguments, the author still makes a poignant, richly data-assisted projection that the paradigm energy shift from fossil fuel to solar power will be inevitable based on economic rewards and fossil fuel supply. In addition to the economic aspects he gives an overview of the main alternative energy sources.



4. This is a great read. Unlike many authors who've written about solar in relation to other forms of energy generation, Travis thoughtfully analyzes why solar will be a big part of the solution. He considers issues of changing energy costs, cleanup costs (carbon), and solar's declining costs in parallel with those. He explains why distributed generation will be increasingly important for energy delivery compbatibly with centralized generation. A compelling and thought-provoking book.



5. I think what sets this book apart from other literature about solar energy (or renewables in general) is that it seems the author has managed to separate emotion, political bias, environmental guilt-trips, and ulterior motives from the argument he's trying to establish - that solar energy dominance is inevitable. And no wonder - the author is said to have been a fund manager and corporate buyout specialist, which require discipline from one's own emotions to be successful. He manages to do this strictly on the principle of economics and self-interest, which if you think about it, are the primary drivers for market acceptance and policies.
   
   The book is very insightful, especially about the history of civilization and how energy figures into the picture (e.g. environmental problems forcing the Roman Empire to expand, Germany and Japan forced to make moves based on the lack of oil [I always wondered why Hitler chose to go for Russia when he nearly had Western Europe taken over and why Japan bombed Pearl Harbor when the US was mostly on the sidelines], etc.).
   
   I felt the author never strayed from the principle of economics and self-interest to establish his arguments throughout his book. Moreover, Bradford was very meticulous in providing references for the inquisitive reader to follow up on where there may be some doubt about where certain claims came from or who said what. I'm sure such details would've detracted from the main arguments of the book had they been explicitly integrated, which is why I suspect he had put in all those annotations in the first place.
   
   Indeed, all things considered, it's no wonder why I found Bradford's case for solar very convincing (and personally reassuring somewhat for our future).
   
   As for criticisms, I'm sure this book may have some flaws regarding certain assumptions that were made (though the author seemed to have done his best in being worst-case for solar by being very conservative with solar numbers while being very optimistic for status quo energy), but such is the nature of predictions. Besides, if all the information was readily available to make a bullet-proof argument for solar, it would've already been done. But we all know that there are political forces (mainly from Republicans) wanting to keep the status quo to protect their wealth, and they're stopping at nothing to ensure that's the case from misinformation, delays, or even going to war!
   
   I've read some of the critical reviews, and I question whether they're written by fossil-fuel apologists or Republican sympathizers who want us to remain dependent on some monopolizable form of energy (if not fossil fuels, then maybe nuclear, or some other centralized contrivance; all of which Bradford debunked, by the way).
   
   But seriously, read the book and see for yourself. And if you're real skeptical, follow up on his references and annotations of which there are plenty!

5 comments about Say Again, Please: Guide to Radio Communications (Focus Series).

1. I bought this book to prepare myself for my first flight to Class Charlie in years. I wrote a script from the information Bob has in the book. The communications with SPI went perfect. Low cost and high content make this a slam dunk.



2. Excellent book but it does require that the student pilot have some stick and radio time. Otherwise there will be information that simply doesn't make much sense.
   
   My one early beef with the book is that he doesn't talk about the essential mnemonic for radio communication with a tower: 1) Who are you calling? 2) Who are you? 3) Where are you? 4) What do you want? and, possibly, if you're taxiing, or inbound for landing 5) what ATIS information do you have?
   
   He does address these issues in a piecemeal fashion but I found the above memory device from my instructor extremely helpful.



3. I've been working with _Say Again, Please_ while studying for my US private pilot certificate, and it's been great. I live in a rural area, and there are no towered fields nearby for frequent radio practice. The book makes the different types of radio interaction much easier to understand.
   
   Gardner breaks down communications by airspace class, which seems pretty sensible. One thing I liked was its discussion of how to interact with Flight Watch, restricted areas, Military Operations Areas, etc. It has a chapter on IFR communications, though I'm not ready for it yet.
   
   The book explains clearly the reasons for saying things a particular way, and gives examples of correct practice. It's easy to understand, and well worth the price.



4. This book is the best way to learn the lingo expected of you, once in an aircraft. It will inform and educate you on all aspects of talking with towers, ground crews and the likes. As an aspiring pilot, I wouldn't have tried figuring it all out in the plane. Great read, and great instruction.



5. Should be required reading for all begining private pilots and some old pros could use it too.
   Clear and to the point. This will take you beyond just simple communication etiquette. I found the glossary alone to be worth the price of Bob Gardner's book.
   Communicating clearly makes all of us better and safer pilots.

No comments about Microelectronic Circuits Revised Edition (Oxford Series in Electrical and Computer Engineering).

5 comments about Electronics Projects For Dummies (For Dummies (Math & Science)).

1. If you're into electronics projects, this book gives you 10 great ones to play with-my favorite was the line-following go-kart that uses an optical sensor. The projects are well organized with parts lists and easy to read schematics. I especially like the clear explanations and the easy going writing style. My only complaint is there weren't more projects-where's the sequel?



2. I am a hands on handyman type of person. Electronics have always been something I have avoided because I felt it was too complicated. It delt with something, electrons, that I couldn't see or touch. Not like nails, pipes or wood etc. Saw the book and thought that I would give it a quick look. I now own it. It is funny, informative, covers more than just the basics. The book stresses fun and safety.
   I may not build my own computer, but I will build my own Go-Cart. If you have a problem you can actually contact the Authors at [...]



3. This book is well written and packed with fun, interesting electronics projects. This book provides a great hands-on way to learn the basics of electronics, how to set up your workspace, read circuits and get familiar with electronics components, especially for someone like me who is nervous about electrical things.



4. Years ago (many, many years...) I was an electronics hobbyist, and I even worked at Radio Shack. Recently, I came across some of my old "toys" and wanted to see what was going on in the world of electronics projects these days. A big fan of the "Dummies" books, I saw this title and took a shot.
   
   At first I was a little dismayed to find that there were only ten or so projects, and looking at them they all seemed pretty lame. But once I studied them I realized that these ten, fairly simple projects, were perfect examples of so many different concepts that were easily adoptable and transportable to many other uses, more like what I had in mind.
   
   Basically with these few projects you can learn about remote control, both IR and RF, speech recorder chips, speech synthesis chips, LED sequencing, light activated controls, motion activated controls, robotic propulsion, and even basics of radios and amplifiers, all using modern, easily obtainable parts.
   
   And in additon to great content, the writers have a great style, using an approach and language that is easily understandable to beginners but meaty enough for experts.
   
   If you are interested in an excellent book to give you a wide introduction to many different electronic concepts, this is the book for you!



5. This book offers no significant understanding of electronics or of the components used in it. Rather than encroach on the sales of his co-authored book Electronics For Dummies, Boysen simplifies his book of Electronic Projects to the point of incoherence. There is some explanation of what a component is doing in the circuit, but the explanations are very brief, and there is no background understanding provided for comprehending the significance of the explanation.
   
   There is no discussion of current flow (negative to positive vs positive to negative) and of how current flow determines where in a circuit a component is placed. There is only a brief discussion on how to read and interpret a schematic, the discussion being on the meaning of the symbols. The authors spend more time telling you how to use a soldering iron than how to understand what it is you're actually doing when you replicate the schematic on the breadboard. As they describe step-by-step (along with photos) how to layout and wire the breadboard, they do not associate the procedure back to the schematic. Never do they say anything such as: "Now here in the schematic we see x occurring, and so on our breadboard we do y."
   
   They very briefly explain how a breadboard itself is pre-wired but do not refer back to that explanation during the initial projects to clarify what it is they're doing. A study of the second project, a parabolic microphone, a less detailed project than the first, allows an easy comparison between schematic and completed breadboard and will clear up any confusion for the reader - no thanks to the authors. This completed breadboard is shown early in the book, with components labeled, as an example of what a completed board looks like, and shown again in the chapter on its project. But they don't take the trouble to be helpful to beginners and mention the IC is oriented top to the left. But then, the only help they're really giving anyway is telling you what to do, not why you do it.
   
   There are no design tips, such as: "If you want a circuit that does x then these are the electrical conditions under which x would occur and this is how you might go about designing a circuit to make x occur." They don't explain how they went about designing the various circuits in their projects. Nor is there is any mention of any useful conventions or possible mistakes in drafting a schematic. When a sub-circuit (potentiometer/IC amp/speaker) is literally duplicated from one project to another, they don't point that out. This modularity is significant and they see no reason to mention it.
   
   An advantage of the book, I suppose, is that you don't have to understand electronics to follow the step-by-step instructions for building the projects in it. Just skip the explanation of the schematic, which is only marginally helpful anyway, and connect the dots the way they show. Another analogy is painting by numbers. This color goes here, here and here, and this other color goes right there and nowhere else. You might learn how to paint that way, but it's a pretty mindless way to teach it.
   
   There is a glossary but it is elementary. The entry for current is: "The flow of an electrical charge", with no mention of Ohm's Law, which the authors stated on page 19. If you look up Ohm's Law in the glossary you read: "The equation that you use to calculate voltage, current, and resistance, or power", with no reference to what the law says or where it is given in the book.
   
   There are 10 projects. The first project results in LED lights that react to high or low frequencies of sound, so you get a blinking light show. That's followed by a parabolic microphone, then a circuit designed around a programmable IC sound chip that's activated by pressure switches which they put in a doll. Finally at project 4 you get to see the schematic for an AM radio, the first project that interested me, but since most of the electronics for it is on an integrated circuit, there isn't much to learn from this project.
   
   Next we get two plastic pumpkins, one of which transmits an infrared beam to the other. When the beam is broken, the other pumpkin is activated to speak or play a recorded sound. This has applications outside of pumpkins, for an alarm system, of course. So this project has some appeal.
   
   Project 6 involves timing a collection of LEDs to create a sequence of images, which they call Dancing Dolphins. Next they control a little 3-wheeled go-kart via infrared, which involves an infrared receiver and transmitter like in the pumpkins, although in this case the transmitter is a remote control for the electric motor in the go-kart.
   
   After that you get a metal detector with a maximum sensitivity range of about an inch, then a project called Sensitive Sam, which involves a motorized cart that can follow, via sensors, a track on the floor created by black electrical tape, as long as the floor is otherwise shiny or reflective. With a radio wave remote you build you can control the cart's speed, honk its horn or turn it off.
   
   The last project, which should have been one of the first, is a small box that detects its own motion off the horizontal via a tilt switch, which activates a sound chip. It contains a microphone for recording into the sound chip. This project does not require a computer to get your voice into the chip. It uses the same chip used in the talking pumpkin. In fact, the schematic for this is a slight simplification or variation of that for the pumpkin that receives the infrared beam. The authors do not mention this similarity, and because the schematics have to accommodate the few differences in the components they require, they are not drawn so that they mirror the similarities between them.
   
   They're of little help in gathering the components for the projects. An appendix with a comparative chart of the components used in the book would have been helpful. They list what you need within a project's chapter, such as "100 microfarad electrolytic capacitor", which does tell you what you need in this case, if you can figure out how to find that in the huge electronics catalogs online, but there's no general suggestions about capacitors and resistors for future projects using AA batteries or other low voltage projects. If you want to buy in bulk they don't point you in the right direction: "Get a bunch of these, and these, and a lesser amount of these, and you'll probably appreciate a wide assortment of these, and you won't need any of these for a while but you might as well get one or two of these." They're no help whatsoever in choosing a multimeter: what features would be useful to a hobbyist and which are superfluous.
   
   If you want merely to learn how to assemble some simple circuits and don't mind not learning any electronics along the way, and you like the projects the book offers, then this book can suffice. In the final chapters, the authors give helpful suggestions of where to go next. Among their suggestions the only two books they recommend are: Electronics For Dummies by Gordon McComb and Earl Boysen, and The Art of Electronics by Paul Horiwitz and Winfield Hill. I think I'll pass on the Dummy book.

5 comments about Handyman In-Your-Pocket.

1. This book is not what I expected. I saw it advertised in a newspaper for a good gift idea for a new homeowner. I thought it was a "how to" book for things around the house. I got two for my grandsons. But it is a very technical book; some of the topics it covers in the index are, Anchors, Belts, Pulleys and Gears; drafting symbols etc. and etc. I think it is for an engineer.



2. The "handyman" must be an engineer and you need to be one too! I was really disappointed as I was hoping for a "how to" manual. The are literally hundreds and hundreds of tables of, for me, totally useless numbers and specs. I don't even have any friends who might find this level of technical detail useful that I could give the book to. This is NOT the resource for your everyday handyman/woman.



3. This book provides the many little used or remembered variables to get projects completed correctly. Going to provide irrigation for your green house 118 feet out in your back yard? This book lets you know the friction losses of various types of water pipe you might use so that you end up with a stream instead of a trickle.
   Got 6/12 roof meeting a 10/12 and need to know how to use that combination square to get the right cut? This book has it. As Chuck Yeager says, don't wait for trouble; look it up and get it right the first time. A few bucks for this helpful little book can save you big in the long run.



4. We own a professional handyman service in Scottsdale, AZ and thought this might be handy to keep in the trucks. However, the information in this book is so technical, it is of no real use on a day-to-day basis. If you need to know (and even know that you need to know) the distance across squares and hexagons OR Maximum Horizontal Roof Rafter Spans, then this is the book for you. Otherwise stick to the practical books you can get at Home Depot or Lowes.



5. Thought it a real handyman's book that give a rule of thumb in simple tasks. It consists of pages upon pages of screw sizes and other very useless info. Buy for reference in regards to what size of this comes in, but for assistance in actual installation it's a big O.

3 comments about How to Test Almost Everything Electronic.

1. Doesn't cover a whole bunch, but does make for good bathroom reading. Good beginnner book. The section on DIODE TESTING has a mistake. Horn has the diode discription and schematic symbol completely backwards. Good starter book nonetheless.



2. I bought and read this book at a time when I wanted to understand electronics better. I also had an old shortwave radio made with vacuum tubes. I was eager to learn how to keep it and other things working. While I enjoyed reading it and it had some useful ideas, I never really used what I learned from the book on anything. The book will not hurt you and may even help you. How helpful the book ultimately is may depend on your own skills at reasoning out solutions to problems. It will not do that work for you.



3. My goal is circuit troubleshooting communication gear. There is one terrific idea in this book that is worth far more than what I paid. There is a very simple circuit to use in conjunction with an oscilloscope that proves to be a super way to test components. Buy this book one for that alone.