3 comments about Risk Analysis and the Security Survey, Third Edition.

1. I have prepared several security surveys throughout the last couple of years and have always found that they were missing something. Once I started looking through this book I was given clear direction on the useful information required when conducting a security survey.
   This book describes all the main sections required for a security review: Scoop of the project, organization assesment and requirements, physical security, internal controls, data system and records, emergency planning, and proprietary information, business impact analysis, survey questionary, etc.
   This book goes into details on planning and analysis but does not give detailed techniques on aquireing information or what an effective security system looks like. It assumes the reader has a strong security background and is able to handle the details of investigation, interviewing, testing and evaluation. This book only touches on these topics.



2. I bought the book to use as a reference while doing my very first risk analysis. It helped me a lot with my project. I found it easy to read and use as a reference. I used the format in the book as a guide when writing up the risk analysis I did.

   If you haven't done one before and are looking for a good reference guide, this is a great resource.




3. Like many textbooks, this work is relatively well organized and easy to reference. My initial impression after my first reading of Mr. Broder's work is that this will be both an outstanding reference source amidst difficult projects and a good place to seek general guidance in previously unexplored facets of risk analysis, specifically risk analysis related to physical security.
   
   Part I of the book addresses risk analysis including a relatively thorough explanation of what risk, vulnerability and threats are. It goes on to explain common risk measurements and offers example formulas/systems for prioritizing loss after quantifying its potential. He very briefly touches on how to conduct an audit, assuming that the reader has a thorough understanding of common Security needs and the audit process. He spends a fair amount of time (in comparison to other topics covered) on the Survey Report which is fine for a consultant but in the Corporate world this is not very useful. The company you work for, unless it is completely new or wants to overhaul and/or start over from scratch in regards to security, will have its own style of report. Still, this was a good chapter to include since some of the readers will be in a consultative role.
   
   The second part of the book gives the reader an overview of emergency management and continuity planning. This is the real gem of the book. While I purchased this book with the hopes it would help me with conducting risk analysis surveys and reports for my employer, the reality is the author is expecting the reader to already have some experience (as I do) and does little to expand on common practices. That said, this second chapter launches right into very practical information for Security and Risk Managers.
   
   Broder spends a great deal of time addressing mitigation and response planning, addresses business continuity and does a relatively thorough job of providing an overview of impact analysis. He again provides information more useful for a consultant than a corporate professional, including a small chapter on documentation of your plans. Even if you are a consultant, the majority of your clients will have their own emergency plans that they will want your work to mirror in terms of appearance and organization. Broder wraps up the book with a difficult area that has spawned at least a hundred books of its own, Executives and planning for kidnap, ransom and Extortion. This is the one area of the book where this is truly an introduction, rather than an overview, of the subject.
   
   Appendices include a variety of worksheets to help you conduct surveys, signs of theft/fraud, communicating with the media, security system specifications and a few other very basic tools Broder hopes will help you utilize his concepts.
   
   I am giving this book 4/5 stars as it is an excellent work, very useful and overall very difficult to criticize.

5 comments about Applied Statistics and Probability for Engineers.

1. The answers it gives you are sporadic and some are hard to follow. I was expecting solutions to all the odd problems and a little more detail with the solutions. I would not recommend buying this unless it were $10 or less.



2. This book is not recommended for self study or distance courses. There are only sporadic answers to odd problems, most books of this type have answers for every odd problem. The student solution manual is even more worthless, some chapters have only 2 or 3 worked problems per chapter. Learning statistics with this book in a distance education course is really more painful than it should be. If you have to get this book, do not waste your money on the student solution manual.
   This book may be a good reference to someone who already knows statistics, but to someone learning, especially without the benefit of lectures, the description and examples are way too sparse.



3. This book covers almost everything useful about statistics and probability. It has good examples, good explanations and good applications to engineering problems. Useful for students, professors and profesionals.



4. Not enough solutions were selected to help me out for the class of Statistics that I was taking. Instead of every odd problem it was more like one out of every 5 or 6 problems.



5. I bought this book for my statistic class. this book is great. Examples are easy to follow and the theory is easy to read.

No comments about Kanban for the Shopfloor (Shopfloor Series).

1 comments about Mistake-Proofing for Operators: The ZQC System (Shopfloor Series).

1. Whether you start with JIT/Lean or Quick Response Manufacturing, you need to learn some simple tools helping you with the process improvement after any process analyze. Many books about operations management will teach you the interaction of workstations and the parameters influencing the performance of a workstation, line or even a factory. Furthermore good operations books will give you the insights how to analyze the performance of a system. What often misses (which is Ok), is to provide the knowledge, e.g. if lot size reduction will bring a huge improvement for cycle-time etc., how to do this? Most of the books of this series exactly deal with this questions and present some methods that work and will simplify your life reading more sophisticated literature about this issue later on.
   
   All the books of the productivity press series were a great help to me. The following books of this series provided a good start about:
   
   - SMED: how to reduce change-over time and to make small lot sizes happen
   - TPM: how to improve machine availability and breakdown variability
   - ZQC: overcoming the problem of other quality methods, that only measure what was done but w/o pre-active prevention for rework/ scrap (Six-Sigma, SPC etc. are more complicated and not pre-active..)
   
   The series includes as well 5s and Pull Production etc. Especially the 3 titles mentionned above are a good introduction to related fiels. As your experiences grows, you might read more specific books about the subject later on. The data collection, e.g. for machine availability and variation etc., is not the objective of this book, but the method itself, how to to do it.
   
   For beginners, 5 stars is fair enough.
   
   Best Regards,
   Oliver

5 comments about Designing Furniture (New Best of Fine Woodworking).

1. Though its no secret that I am a big fan of the Taunton Press, I feel that this book stands out as one of their best. Having been a serious home woodworker for a decade now, I benefitted greatly from the information contained in this book. As always, the illustrations and color photography are well done and often stunning. The editors did a great job of deciding what subjects to cover and then finding just the right articles to cover those subjects.
   
   The five major areas covered in this book are: design inspiration, design development, "construction by design", designing furniture, and designing for style and function. In just these five areas, there is a wealth of information that will help woodworkers of any level, from understanding elements of style to designing your own sideboard. I especially liked the tips given in the article "Models Help Projects Succeed".
   
   No matter if you are a novice or a self proclaimed expert, there is something of interest here for you. Highly recommended!



2. As with most books from Taunton of this type, this contains articles from Fine Woodworking(It's another "Best Of" series).
   
   The articles are informative and the images are good. It provides some good information on design elements in furniture. Though not inclusive of all areas, it provides good information and many areas.



3. The first have of the book is spent going over the history of furniture and how to draw up your designs for furniture. It even goes so far as to tell you how to make your own drafting table. I found the first have fairly uninformative and dry. The rest of the book does a decent job of describing furniture design.



4. The book is Fine but I bought it as a package deal with it's companion book (Practical Design Solutions and Strategies) and many of the areas are identcal - right down to the photographs a furniture pieces used. The information is good and is useful - clear and concise.



5. I just about decided to skip writing a review on this. While there is interesting and practical information; it just didn't seem to really come together. Most of the Fine Woodworking books are compilations of disjointed articles about a subject, and I usually like them a lot.
   
   This book is also a compilation but the title would have you believe they had added material to join the articles together into a continuous study of the subject. The result is somewhat disjointed and incomplete.
   
   The value of some of the material is the reason for the four stars overall.

3 comments about Marshall Brain's MORE How STUFF Works.

1. I bought the first "How Stuff Works" for my son. He is into the hows and whys of almost everything and he enjoyed the book very much. So when he asked for "More How Stuff Works", I got it without hesitation. This second book includes a lot of material that are now part of our everyday life. Even my husband and I found it useful when we had to open my computer to reset a jumper and we found what the jumper looked and where it is in the computer. I encourage adults to read this book, too. It's not full of technical jargon so it's real easy to understand.



2. This is a very informative book and it explains everything so you can understand it. you can learn how everything from video games to an apache helicopter and is great for all ages. It includes detailed illustrations and side panels with extra information. If you have a curious mind you should purchase this book.



3. Do you know how stuff works? If not this book is choc-full of information about everything you could think of. How emails work, questions you have about ATM's, and everything in between. He talks about it all using laymans terms, so it's fairly easy to understand. It's full of vibrant pictures as well and is his second book about How Stuff Works (this has made me want to go get the first book). Read this and then go and impress all your friends - they'll think you're even smarter than before. Great book and I highly recommend this.

5 comments about Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape.

1. A proviso that must be made is that this is a very-USA-centric book. No disrespect intended as it is a beautifully photographed and relatively detailed (plus references for a lot more information) tome. Just something to keep in mind as the world is not (yet?) flat in infrastructure.
   
   I like to think of myself as pretty knowledgeable, but I learned quite a bit in each chapter. I can imagine a similar book for Infrastructure 1925 (or so). Would be fun to see what has been lost (trains/streetcars/twice-daily-mail delivery) and gained (more obvious).



2. If you go for a walk and start actually looking around, you'll see a lot of things that most of us don't really understand -- power lines, sewer systems, the mysterious blue telephone junction boxes. This book explains why and what these things are -- think of it as a Nature Guide for the human-made environment. Do you have Sibley's Guide? Well, you should have one of these, too. My only quibble -- the pages are below standard quality for a hardback book. But never you mind -- don't be picky, like me! Get this book!



3. This engrossing book leads the reader on a tour of industrial features that one would encounter on both a cross-country or cross-town trip. After reading this book, you will find yourself---as I did---pointing out industrial installations and explaining their use to friends and family.
   
   The glossy, full-color pictures are the most striking feature of this large book. They superbly complement the already excellent, clear, and well-organized text. I was also particularly impressed by the further reading listed at the back of the book. It is organized by chapter and ranked from "Kids" to "Geeks". It filled my stack of reading for several weeks after I finished Infrastructure.
   
   My only criticism of the book echoes the author's apology in the preface: there are many technologies and industries necessarily absent from the book. I can only hope that the author will produce further books of similar quality in the future.



4. For me, this book brought a new level of fun to driving around. Another take on the many things that 'make civilized life possible.'



5. This book is a treasure. I am especially impressed with the strong reception it receives from some environmental activists, teachers and students I have shared it with.
   
   I hope someone like Ken Burns will want to make it into a TV documentary.
   
   Jack Malinowski
   Phila. Pa.

5 comments about Human Factors in Flight.

1. Concise, clear and through view of the inner and outer working environment of an aviators life. Very well researched and documented in an easy to understand format, no technojargon to confuse the novice. Required reading for any current or aspiring commercial pilots, and a must have for industry safety affiliates. Good use of informative and entertaining illustrations and graphs, not stuffy or boring. Up to date with current technology and encompasses history as well. This is an excellent book.



2. "Human Factors in Flight" is an excellent book in human factors for aviators that is well written in simple English making it easy to follow and understand by non-experts in the field. Human factors encompasses a wide range of knowledge, skills and attitudes including communications, situational awareness, problem solving, decision making, and teamwork.
   
   Human factors is concerned with the cognitive and interpersonal skills required to manage the flight within an organised aviation system. In this case, cognitive skills are the mental processes required for gaining and maintaining situational awareness, for solving problems and for taking decisions.
   
   Interpersonal skills include effective communications and good teamwork. Good interpersonal skills encourage the creation of synergy and the development of successful teamwork. Both cognitive and interpersonal skills are enhanced by a good emotional climate amongst the crew, but they are also easily degraded by stress, so management of the emotional climate and stress becomes and integral and important element of good human factors.
   
   Safe and efficient flight operations depend for their success not only on the attainment of sound technical knowledge and skills but also on the mastery by aircrew of the cognitive and interpersonal skills which form the basis of good human factors.
   
   Human factors is not merely an abstract management concept but rather is a discipline that embraces principles and skills which, when coupled with good technical knowledge and expertise, will allow the crew to make the best use of all available resources to realize optimum effectiveness in the conduct of operations whilst simultaneously maximising the safety of the flight.
   
   This excellent book is recommended for all pilots and cabin attendants, regulators, safety managers and aeronautical engineering students.



3. This is currently a required reading for ERAU. The author is very knowledgable; however, he needs a better editor. It is difficult to decipher the author's meaning at times due to his tendencies to ramble.



4. This book is by far the WORST book I have ever had to read. This book is required reading for ERAU. Our instructor said this is one of the most comprehensive books dealing with aviation safety, but it does not change the fact that the spelling and sentence structure is awful. It is full of contradictions and barely makes any sense. Do not buy it unless you absolutely, positively have to!



5. This book is a great aviation safety book because it describes why accidents occur in aviation and what is done to prevent them. I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys aeronautics.

4 comments about Johnson/Evinrude Outboards, 1-2 Cylinders, 1971-89 (Seloc's Johnson/Evinrude Outboard Tune-Up and Repair Manual).

1. A handy guide for the person wishing to know more about how their outboard operates, how to care for the same and plenty of good hints. Would be also suitable for a person wanting to take the engine apart and rebuild, written in simple style with good illustrations.



2. This is not an owner's manual for the product. The blurb is confusing. Probably not a good item to buy on line, it is hard to see what you are getting.



3. This book helped me rebuild a broken outboard w/o any prior knowledge. Well worth its weight in gold, not really, but its a good buy.



4. It doesnt beat an original factory service manual by any means, buit I must say this one is better than the Clymer manual covering a similar range of outboards. The information is a little old now in some sections and could use updating, but probably your best choice in the 3rd party manual offerings.

No comments about Master Electrician’s Review: Based on the National Electrical Code 2008: 6th Edition (Master Electrician's Review).