No comments about JavaScript and Ajax for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide (7th Edition) (Visual QuickStart Guide).

No comments about Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 QuickSteps (Quicksteps).

1 comments about Physiological Control Systems: Analysis, Simulation, and Estimation (IEEE Press Series on Biomedical Engineering).

1. I have been using this text for a class in Physiological Control Systems, but have been largely disappointed. One of my disappointing experiences is on p. 170-1, where Khoo shows how to get an RLC model transfer function out of MATLAB's ss(). Since the MATLAB documentation on ss() is skimpy, this is a place where Khoo could have added value, illuminating what the A, B, C, and D matrices represent to ss(), but Khoo simply brushes past the opportunity. Khoo also discusses bifurcation in the logistic map, but if you look for 'logistic' in the index, you won't find it. Khoo mentions Fitzhugh-Nagumo and Hodgkin-Huxley within the context of his section on Bonhoeffer-van der Pol, but those four authors are not in the index (Bonhoeffer and van der Pol are). I admit to not having made a comprehensive study of the MATLAB examples, but I downloaded his code for sensitivity analysis (sensanl.m and two supporting .m files) mentioned in section 7.3.2, and consider the code to be poorly written. If I didn't have Dorf & Bishop's "Modern Control Systems, 9th Edition" to fall back on, I would have been in dire straights getting anything beyond a cursory reading out of Khoo's text. In short, this book should command a price in the $50 to $60 range, not the stellar $110-120 its priced at. Dorf & Bishop is priced about the same and delivers three times the value that Khoo does. Every chapter where I made an effort to get to the bottom of some discussion, I found Khoo's exposition wanting. The index is exasperatingly useless. There are only two entries under 'H', one under 'K', one under 'W', etc. That's alarming for a book with 307 pages.

1 comments about Electromagnetic Fields (IEEE Press Series on Electromagnetic Wave Theory).

1. I specialize in Electromagnetic Theory and have read many texts on this subject matter. There are many very good texts out there but nothing even compares with this one. I thought this would be a copy from various other excellent books by Collin, Jackson, Felsen, etc. but I was wrong. Prof. Bladel has written everything of his own originality. There is a spark of his originality in everything ranging from the quality of explanations, the choice of subject matter, the extreme mathematical depth involved and the choice of unsolved problems. In every way, this book alone can replace five to six other ordinary books.
   
   In elecromagnetics, the biggest problem lies in understanding. The more you learn, the lesser you understand and the mathematics can be demoralizing. And also a vast portion of the literature is scattered throughout so many books. But Dr.Bladel has beautifully brought all that together under one roof and has presented the subject in a very theoretically fine manner doing complete justice to the mathematical intricacies.
   
   This book is a MUST if you want to call yourself a specialist in electromagnetics. It is a tome and the epitome of all good EM books !!!!!!!!! It is the "Stratton" of the 21st century !!!!!!!

5 comments about Understanding Telephone Electronics, Fourth Edition (Newnes).

1. I found this book to be completely outdated and useless. I had expected to find some state of the art data, or at least recent information. When it came to the best modems, 2400 baud was the best available but 14,400 baud might offer some potential.

   It was my fault for buying this dog as I had assumed that it was updated as of 1997 - it was only copyrighted then.




2. The title is accurate. If you want to learn about telephone electronics, this is a great book. It's easy to read, comprehensive and well structured. No, it doesn't go into great detail about state of the art modems or attempt to teach the finepoints of wireless telephony, but it does cover basic fax, modem and telephone electronics very well.



3. Hi,
   
   Went thru this book, it cover all the basic element of telephone network, it's most sutiable for someone with 0% of telephone circuirty
   
   The example (of schmatic) uses older chip's, that mean if you plan to purchase this book for some project then do not put your hope.
   
   M.Pathma



4. If you are coming from a position of having no knowledge of how the fields of electronics and telephony merge and you need an accessible book on the basics, this book certainly fits the bill. I think lots of people are disappointed by this book because they are expecting something more from a standpoint of engineering modern projects involving telephony, and this book's content is wedged half way between technician and engineering-level. To understand why this book is put together this way you need to know its history. The first edition came out in 1983 and was sold at Radio Shack back when they sold electronics parts and kits for hobbyists and technicians, not wireless phones. Thus, its origins are still evident even in its fourth edition. There is very little mathematics in this book, and what is there consists of very simple calculations. Most everything is explained via block diagrams and then detailed diagrams of the electronics within each block. You'll need to remember your basic electronics before diving into this book - the operation of diodes, transistors, and opamps - because the illustrations make heavy use of them and the book assumes you know their usage and operation. Each chapter has a quiz at the end of it and the answers to all of the questions are in the back of the book. The book fills a needed niche - no other book I know of really addresses this subject - but the fourth edition is now six years old and it could use an update.



5. Telephone Electronics Engineer: Douglas Mallach
   So, where did Douglas Mallach go to high school? That's all you really need to know about a native St. Louisan, right? Douglas Mallach grew up in St. Louis county and graduated from Chaminade High School in 1977 (draw your own conclusions!). Douglas Mallach got a degree in political science from St. Louis University in 1981 and spent eight years working as an editor for the Journals and then in corporate public relations for McDonnell Douglas and Martin Marietta aerospace companies.
   In 1989, Douglas Mallach bought the Word and moved back to St. Louis from Texas. The newspaper originally was part of a family business called World Broadcasting. The company is named for Douglas Mallach's mother, Ginny Globe. Douglas Mallach's business expanded in 1992 when he started publishing books on local history. One recent book, not surprisingly, is: World Word. Douglas Mallach's company also publishes special event programs for historic city house tours and performances.

1 comments about Mobile Interaction Design.

1. Jones and Marsden offer us a high level way to design mobile devices. The emphasis is on cell phones. But there is the broader scope of various types of handheld devices, like PDAs. They suggest how to design within the typically severe constraints imposed upon you. Like low power, small screen, a limited keyboard or keypad. The small screen means that menus have to be carefully thought out.
   
   Various ways of prototyping are given.
   
   The book has informal case studies of actual product design methods used by Nokia, HP and other companies. Some of you will find these valuable, as a tangible focus for study. All of this is explained at a level understandable to a broad audience.

4 comments about Global Positioning Systems, Inertial Navigation, and Integration.

1. Of course the experience of the authors is great but none of it you can use either in your study or research. It is impossible to learn about Kalman filtering from this book as well as to improve your knowledge in this area. Book is intended for professionals in this area but professionals will not need it. Many intersting facts but no detailed information. For example one can know that the square root filtering method came from James Potter but there is nothing more about this method from this book. Otherwise you have to study sources of the software (included). Book is written as advertizing of author's skills and nothing else. Too much about nothing ...



2. Here are some quotes from a review of this book in GPS World, July 2001, pp 46-47, by Dr. John Angus, a consultant and researcher in the area of GPS-aided navigation systems, AND professor at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA. Dr. Angus' credentials qualify him to review this book.

   "Noteworthy is the comprehensiveness of the material on GPS, Kalman filtering and Kalman filter engineering, and the appendix on coordinate transforms...An instructor could easily develop a one-semester course on basic GPS or a full year course on GPS and inertial navigation, each of them "glued" together by the Kalman filter and enlivened by computer experiments with the MATLAB code provided."

   "The writing...tends to be concise and the mathematics is kept to the minimum necessary to expose the theory and methods of filtering, GPS, and INS."

   "...effectively addresses most of the basic engineering and performance issues relating to GPS/INS."

   "...recommended for personal and professional libraries."

   This is an application-oriented book, which as such, does not include detailed mathematical derivations. It does provide Kalman filter algorithms (on floppy and in text), but if one needs the theory of Kalman filtering behind these, one needs to use a Kalman filtering text, such as Kalman Filtering Theory & Practice Using MATLAB (Second Edition), Wiley 2001, by Grewal and Andrews. The latter book gives all of the methods in square root filtering algorithms and derivations and more. If the "Asian Reviewer" is most interested in Kalman filtering, he/she would be better advised to buy a book on Kalman filtering.




3. Here are some quotes from a review of this book in GPS World, July 2001, pp 46-47, by Dr. John Angus, a consultant and researcher in the area of GPS-aided navigation systems, AND professor at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA. Dr. Angus' credentials qualify him to review this book.

   "Noteworthy is the comprehensiveness of the material on GPS, Kalman filtering and Kalman filter engineering, and the appendix on coordinate transforms...An instructor could easily develop a one-semester course on basic GPS or a full year course on GPS and inertial navigation, each of them "glued" together by the Kalman filter and enlivened by computer experiments with the MATLAB code provided."

   "The writing...tends to be concise and the mathematics is kept to the minimum necessary to expose the theory and methods of filtering, GPS, and INS."

   "...effectively addresses most of the basic engineering and performance issues relating to GPS/INS."

   "...recommended for personal and professional libraries."

   This is an application-oriented book, which as such, does not include detailed mathematical derivations. It does provide Kalman filter algorithms (on floppy and in text), but if one needs the theory of Kalman filtering behind these, one needs to use a Kalman filtering text, such as Kalman Filtering Theory & Practice Using MATLAB (Second Edition), Wiley 2001, by Grewal and Andrews. The latter book gives all of the methods in square root filtering algorithms and derivations and more. If the "Asian Reviewer" is most interested in Kalman filtering, he/she would be better advised to buy a book on Kalman filtering.




4. One of the students in my lecture came up to me and said he had studied this book all summer to learn about GPS. He found it to be very helpful to him and he said it was the best source of information on GPS he had come across.

No comments about Wind Turbines: Fundamentals, Technologies, Application, Economics.

5 comments about Building Electro-Optical Systems: Making It All Work.

1. When I meet someone new-to-me in the field, I have taken to the habit of eyeing up their bookshelf, looking for the books that they use. Whenever I see this incredible tome from Phil Hobbs, I know they have an excellent resource. Frankly, I believe that you should be embarased if this book is not on your shelf. This book is simply too good to miss. I recommend that you stop reading this review and buy it!

   Phil has managed to cram information of a 100,000+ academic pages into this 727 page gem. His mastery of separating the chemicral from the root of the information is truly amazing. This guy understands what it takes to make a system work and astutely put it into this work. He gives pointers for lab rats as to the number of "post-it" notes to use to elevate an optical component, as well as detail theoretical discussions of detector sensitivity and the practical impact of the electronics.

   The writing is sometimes folksy and hip. I find this an incredible relief from the academic 3rd person passive forced by many publishers. Phil occasionally gets funny and at least a few times, his folksy style is only used to clearly underscore the salient point that he is making.

   My negative criticism of Hobbs is primarily why it took him until 2000 to publish this book---I could have used it 25 years ago, and whis I had this book in college! Also, a glossary would have been nice to include.




2. I believe I have one of the largest personal libraries on electro-optics, how in the heck did I miss this book?

   Highly recommended!




3. This is an excellent how-to book. It's the Home Depot of optics. But the almost complete lack of references (at least in the edition I reviewed) is a HUGE disappointment. This general text could have been so much more useful with a few selected hooks into the specialized literature. I hope the author and publisher consider this seriously for future editions.



4. Briefly speaking, everybody dealing seriiously with optical design, or even doing academic research, should keep this book on the desk all the time.



5. I've had this book for around a month, and I've already been able to apply its lessons in the lab on several occasions. Hobbs has a way of anticipating the things that will trip you up ahead of time, allowing you to learn lessons the easy way instead of the hard way. Some of the stuff in here would probably have taken me a decade to realize on my own (i.e. how bad etaloning can be in a polarizing beam splitting cube.) He covers many topics in just enough detail to make we want to find out more.
   
   [...]
   
   Occasionally, Hobbs offers advice without making it obvious why you should follow it. Most of it can be cleared up by a careful rereading or consultation of references, but one would do well to avoid following advice without understanding it. Hobbs advocates "dead bug" circuit prototyping, but provides only the the vaguest description of how to do it (and one crummy picture). I googled the subject and found very little useful supplemental material, and I'm not sure how to research the topic further.
   
   Overall, it's hard for me to imagine someone who works with optics who wouldn't benefit from carefully reading this book. A real gem.

No comments about Network Coding: An Introduction.