No comments about Handbook of Physical Testing of Paper Volume 2.

1 comments about Handbook of Reliability Engineering and Management.

1. "Handbook of Reliability Engineering and Management", Second Edition, Edited by W. Grant Ireson, Clyde F. Coombs, Jr. and Richard Y. Moss, McGraw Hill, 1996.

   This is the second edition of the Handbook, which first appeared in 1988. There are individual contributing authors for each of the 27 chapters; the resultant is already out of date. The current "Limbo" status of military documents, such as Military Standard 105 and Military Handbook 217F, makes this present edition of the Handbook out of date in 2000. Will Military Handbook 217F ever be revised to provide up-to-date models for the failure rates of modern electronic components?

   This Handbook would benefit from better editing. For example, as a Handbook, it is expected that the index in the back of the physical book would contain page references to pertinent reliability terms and techniques. Today's technology emphasizes Environmental Stress Screening, ESS. The term, ESS, has been around for at least 15 years (or so: I recall doing an IEEE paper on ESS in 1988). It is expected that ESS and related terms such as HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Testing) and HASS, would be readily found in the Handbook's index. They are not.

   Same thing holds true for Software Reliability, where the chapter's author uses the cute term, "SMERFS Model" (p. 22.15), but this term will not be found in the index. (SMERFS = Statistical Modeling and estimation of reliability functions for software.) By the way, from a technical point of view, this chapter's half page on the various models for software reliability is very skimpy. For example, Dr. Michael Elbert has written an entire IEEE paper on the selection of the proper model for software reliability. It would be expected that a Handbook would be more complete than just a small portion of a page. In Chapter 22, on Software Reliability, the author references a paper on the Rayleigh curve by "Gaffney" (p. 22.13). The reference at the back of Chapter 22 gives the reference's name as "John Gafney". This is a discrepancy that should have been caught by the editors. I suspect that the correct spelling is "Gaffney", but both can not be correct.

   There are other editorial lapses: on page 16.24, Bellcore failure rates are compared to MIL-HDBK-217, and it is state that Bellcore "... provides generally better failure rates than does MIL-HDBK-217F, which is supposedly based on field experience in communications equipment." The way this sentence is presented implies that MIL-HDBK-217F is based upon experience in communications equipment, when, as most reliability practitioners know, MIL-HDBK-217F failure rates are based on environments from Ground, Fixed, to Ground, Benign, to Naval Sheltered and Airborne, etc, and on equipment from radios to radars to sonars, air data computers and fire control units. This inconsistency in the use of the language ought to have been caught by the editors.

   On page 16.6, there is a nice comparison of FITs to failures per million hours to %failure per 1000 hours. The Editors should make the reader aware that a billion in American usage (1 with nine zeroes after it) is not the same as European usage. Chapter 6, on FMEAs is totally into the Risk Priority Number method where "gray beards" sit around and use the "Delphi" approach to ascertain the probability of an event, the severity of that failure and whether or not the failure can be detected. This is a very subjective method, and, in my humble opinion, RPN is being superceded by more objective, quantitative methods (see IEC 61508).

   In summary, prudent purchasers should await the next edition of this Handbook, if that edition considers all the changes taking place in the availability of military standards and the new leadership role of international standards in the reliability arena. For example, IEC 300, on "Dependability" is not even mentioned.

   John Peter Rooney, ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer #2425.

2 comments about Structured Fluids: Polymers, Colloids, Surfactants.

1. For errata and further information on Structured Fluids, see the author's web site
   http://jfi.uchicago.edu/~tten/StructuredFluids/
   
   I hope you find this useful.... T. Witten, Author.



2. Structured Fluids relies more on presenting the physical picture than mathematical machinery, stresses more on intuition and scaling concepts than on derivations and obstrusive pages of equations. In doing so, it makes itself easier to grasp than say the texts by Chaikin and Lubensky or for that matter by Kleman and Lavrentovich. The formalism is done with enough depth, to benefit both beginners and experts of the field, and thus the book is better suited for graduate student course than say RAL Jones or Hamley's texts.
   
   The essential knowledge related to polymers, colloids and surfactants is in here, and the book is fairly upto date with recent advances in these areas. The references listed at the end of each chapter are most useful pointers for anyone who seeks to delve deeper into the mysteries of soft matter. In fact, reading this text reminds one of the style of de Gennes, and having been written in the same spirit by these very illustrous scientists, the book is comprehensive and erudite in content and presentation.
   
   The book starts off by talking about fundamentals, including elements of statistical physics and experimental probes used to investigate the soft matter. This sets stage for discussion of various themes related to say
   
   polymers, where random walk statistics capture essential physics required to describe a coil, scaling concepts and basic thermodynamics tells about coil dimensions in different solvents and extension of brownian dynamics explains mobility of chains. The corresponding experimental tools of light scattering and viscosity highlight how these can be measured.
   
   colloids, where the nature of interaction between colloidal particles determines their static and dynamic behavior, leading to experimentally observed self-assembly and aggregation.
   
   interfaces, where basics of surface tension come in to explain behavior of colloids and polymers near walls and interfaces.
   
   surfactants, which borrows principles from previous chapters, exhibiting rich phase behavior dictated by statistical thermodynamics, dynamics related to solvent quality and aggregation dependent on aggregation.
   
   A must read for everyone interested, active (and maybe even for experts) in the field!

1 comments about Electric Motor Control.

1. This is one of those books that spends more time telling you what you will learn from a chapter than what is actually presented in the material. It also asks review questions at the end of chapters that isn't explained until further in the book, if at all. Misprints are numerous and in some cases the material is just plain wrong, such as paragraph 1 on page 137 which claims that figure 23-1 can be locked off for safety reasons. Even if locked the start button would cause the motor to run if held in the on position. Hardly a 'safe' circuit. Our school required this book as part of its motors control course and every single student in our class is totally fed up with the errors and mistakes as well as the brevity of explanations.

No comments about Biomass for Renewable Energy, Fuels, and Chemicals.

5 comments about The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure (The Humanure Hand Book, 2).

1. Due to a plumbing fault in the house, my family have been composting in the back garden on a daily basis for over a year. What a bonus to stumble upon this book and find out that our actions have been helping to preserve the future of our planet! A number of residents in our street have complainined that the local environment has been suffering from some kind of unpleasant air pollution of late, so we feel proud to be putting something back.



2. Everyone should read this book, even if they have no intention or ability to use a humanure composting system. It provides a wealth of information on a subject that has been ignored for too long...human waste - how to dispose of it in a sensible, sustainable, practical, useful manner. We haven't flushed a toilet in this house in eight months, since we got this book and built our own sawdust toilet and composting box out back. We had a serious drought here this summer and our well was REAL low, but we had no problems because we weren't FLUSHING FOUR GALLONS OF CLEAN DRINKING WATER UNDERGROUND each time we went in the bathroom. I always wondered why we eliminate in water, anyway. And it doesn't stink, the compost box doesn't stink, it's simple and straightforward and clean and the humanure toilet's time has come! Everybody who comes in our house gets dragged into the bathroom by my husband to meet our new humanure toilet! Then I drag them outside to meet my wonderful compost box! So far we've had one convert, a couple with a camp who were using a stinking old outhouse, and they are just thrilled with the idea of using a humanure toilet next summer when they move back to camp. As a bonus, our electric bill dropped substantially, just because the water pump doesn't have to kick on every time a toilet is flushed. Buy this book, read it, start using a humanure toilet, tell all your friends, lend the book to your friends, do it now! Then read Joe Jenkins' other book, "Balance Point."



3. Fascinating and intelligent book that holds the key to sustainable practices that will help protect our drinking water supply. Why use 1.5 -5 gallons of precious drinking water to wash our poop away? It's a shameful and wasteful practice and this book provides the best solution to managing our excrement in a way that is healthy for us and for the planet.



4. the true revolution is in our poop! its a great read and is a vital piece to the new sustainable culture we are growing. thanks joe!



5. I wish my parents had known about this so they could have taught me instead of me having to teach them. Shame on anyone that has discouraged this sort of creative thinking. Let the rigor with which Joseph Jenkins has researched this topic be a lesson to anyone who wants to make a claim about the validity of any of our social norms.

No comments about Quick Selection Guide to Chemical Protective Clothing.

5 comments about Product and Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation.

1. Covering the main topics in chemical process synthesis an design, this book present a broad view of the state of the art techniques and methods to achieve an optimum design.

   With this work, Dr. Seider, et al, have given an invaluable contribution to the teaching of this field, presenting a logical an principle based approach for the "basic plant design", in contrast to the experience based traditional view.

   Focusing on the extensive use of commercial process simulators, the book presents an overview of the conceptual basis of process simulation and optimization,but not its mathematical detail, giving the engineer the opportunity to focus on the process instead of focus on the mathematical and computational problem.




2. This book is really good for process engineers. I don't know if there is a different edition of the one I have but there's little about CHEMCAD, the book is too focused on other simulation softwares and if you don't have one of those; solving some proposed problems gets really difficult and frustating. Packed with heuriustics on process and equipment design.Excellent choice!



3. As for using this book for design - I would say that it is marginal at best. If you happen to use Aspen and do everything using a process simulator, this book is pretty good. From and economics/costing standpoint, this book doesn't even come close to Peters & Timmerhaus. Does not have much of a discussion on material selection - a definite drawback. It does include a nice appendix on design heuristics that draws from Walas and other sources.



4. This book is a rehash of the same old stuff every other bood on process simulation has. It's heavily biased towards Aspen and Hysys to boot. More information about Chemcad and Pro II would have been very helpful. It would have given the reader a wider view of the discipline.



5. I was a student of Dr. Seider at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1970's. Reviewing the table of contents for this book, I recognize a lot of the material from courses I took with Dr. Seider at Penn. We studied material in Dr. Seider's class that was later published.
   
   Dr. Seider is a very knowledgeable professor of chemical engineering.
   He combined the academic aspects with the industrial field experience, and showed his students how to use the numerical methods to solve chemical engineeing problems.
   
   The authors have used some of the new technologies and software packages to help undergraduate students master this material quicker than we could with the computation tools available in 1974. Sample code is available in the textbook that allows a student to concentrate on the process aspects of plant design, and not spend time writing and debugging computer code.
   
   My own career took me into areas outside of chemical process design.
   But the systematic, analytical methods taught by Dr. Seider still help me in resolving power plant performance problems.
   
   C. W. Martin
   Senior Engineer
   James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant

2 comments about Introduction to Enzyme and Coenzyme Chemistry.

1. This book provides a concise and readable account of the mechanisms of action of the main classes of enzyme-catalysed reactions; organic chemists familiar with mechanisms for hydrolysis, redox reactions, making and breaking carbon-carbon bonds, and so on, will readily recognize their counterparts in enzyme chemistry. The problems at the ends of the chapters are a particularly attractive feature, as thought has been given to making them intelligent and challenging. At the end of chapter 6 on redox chemistry, for example, the six problems occupy two full pages of the book, enough space being taken to set them out properly without trivializing them; the thoughtful answers given to the same six problems at the end of the book occupy almost another page.
   
   Though in general I liked the last two-thirds of the book, it is worth commenting on a missed opportunity to illustrate why it is useful to know about the different kinds of enzyme inhibition. The well known herbicide glyphosate ("Roundup") acts by inhibiting 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase, but I don't believe that its toxicity is due to the inability of treated plants to make lignin; it kills plants much too fast for that to be plausible, and it seems much more likely that they are killed by the huge increases in the shikimate concentration produced by the type of inhibition, which is uncompetitive, not competitive.
   
   Another attractive feature is the intelligent use of colour in the structural drawings. Some books use colour just because they can, and the essential point of an illustration is lost in a gaudy mass of irrelevant colour. Here, in contrast, the structures are mainly presented in shades of grey, with red and black used to draw attention to particular features. To my mind this works very well, and probably far better than expensive use of a wider range of colours would have worked. Having said this, I'm not sure how far the author really agrees with me, because at the beginning of the book he refers wistfully to the "wide range of colours" available on the computer screen, contrasting with the "only red and black" used in the book.
   
   So far I have concentrated on the things that I liked. Unfortunately the introductory chapters at the beginning are much less satisfactory than the later ones, and I should be reluctant to let a student read these without supervision. The description of the structures of aminoacids could have come straight from a book of the 1960s, and vagueness about ionic structures persists throughout the book.
   
   The treatment of elementary kinetics is similarly unsatisfactory, and includes the common student blunder of supposing that the standard Michaelis-Menten treatment assumes that product formation is irreversible. On the same page, the curve that purports to illustrate Michaelis-Menten kinetics approaches its asymptote too quickly -- another common student error, still encouraged by a depressing number of textbooks. Two pages later we are told that the limit can be "roughly visualised" from the plot of rate against substrate concentration, so presumably the author has been misled by his own drawing, unless by "roughly" he means "very roughly indeed."



2. Bugg has done an excellent job of elucidating the unique characteristics of families of enzymes and reactions. Mechanisms are clearly and plainly represented, complete with pertinent active site amino acid residues.
   This book is a formidable adjunct to any biochemistry student's (grad or undergrad) bookshelf. In addition, those interested in nutritional chemistry may find this book interesting.

5 comments about The Windows CE Technology Tutorial: Windows Powered Solutions for the Developer (Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series).

1. I mainly bought this book for the networking chapter. The winsock code was very helpful and easy to understand.



2. There are some useful information in this book, however, this book does not go into great details on each particular subject. The section on writing an activesync provider, as an example, is really scant. The book merely points out what code to change in a cookbook method without ever explaining why its doing it, or explaining the whole architecture clearly for that matter. IF you've ever read LINUX HOWTO materials, you'll know what I mean. It shows you what to do, but it doesn't explain to you why you're doing it.

   The most useful chapter is the last chapter (11 - Miscellaneous topics). As for the rest of the chapters, you can live by reading the online manuals.




3. Unfortunately a lot of examples in this book are not for PocketPC platform. I tested them on x86emu, Compaq iPAQ and Casio PocketPC devices and analized MFC code. Some examples must be strongly modified to work on this platform.



4. This book is a poor choice if you want to learn to program in the Pocket PC environment. The back cover calls this a "practical guide" but the book spends most of the first six chapters describing how Windows CE programming evolved from Windows programming. You must be fluent in Windows application development in C++ for this book to be useful. The examples are poor and do not work with the Visual Tools software available at the Microsoft site.



5. This book reminds me of the fluff book that gordon letwin wrote at the dawn of OS/2. Like that one this book is full of hopeless drivel.

   The amount of VB is miniscule, the book is mostly C++. But, It really dosent matter if your looking for VB, or C++ examples, since the chopped up code examples in this book will just confuse you. They have also become outdated in the two years since this book came out.

   Dont bother with this book unless your getting it on the 50% off clearance rack.