Making More Wooden Mechanical Models Review

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(More customer reviews)The authors have done it again, an inspirational book for woodworkers. Their are 13 designs of maechanisms which can be made in a workshop with basic woodworking tools. They tell you what they are and how they work. The projects range from easy to make to a little more difficult. They give you working drawings and templates, picture to show you step by step procedure, suggestions for choosing the wood, and each project is beautifully photographed which will inspire you to get started on such projects as a Steam Crank Mechanism,Wheel and Worm Gear Mechanism and more. These projects and the ones in their previous book would make great teaching aids for those who teach mechanical design. The one criticizm I have is that I am accustomed to working with dimentional drawings and not templates.This book is a pleasure just to page through and even a greater pleasur to get started on one of the machines and see it develop from scratch and then to operate it.

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Mechanical models are always a favorite at woodworkingshows, catching the attention of countless woodworkers who like tomake these ingenious pieces come alive. Despite their seeminglyelaborate configurations, these projects are surprisingly simple tomake following this guide's complete step-by-step instructions.Everyproject features a full-color close up of the drawings, cutting listsand special tips for making difficult steps easier.

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Model-Making: Materials and Methods Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an excellent choice for artists or designers in the areas of theatre production or film production.

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Models can be used in a wide variety of situations, including theater production, architecture design, animation, and set design. For each different situation a specific material is often preferable, and this handy guide addresses the best model-making materials, from the standard and traditional to the new and innovative. Tips are provided on how each of the materials behaves and how best to use them, and illustrated instructions demonstrate methods of building, shaping, surfacing, and painting each material. A number of examples are also included along with step-by-step accounts of what materials were used and how they were manipulated without the need for expensive tools or workshop facilities. A directory covering the full range of materials involved in model-making together with an extensive list of suppliers complete this essential resource.

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An Introduction to Data Structures and Algorithms (Progress in Theoretical Computer Science) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you have cut your teeth on Donald Knuth's classic three volumes, "The Art of Computer Programming", and you want more detail, at a similar level of complexity, then consider Storer's book.
It delves into lists, recursion, trees, graphs, heaps and sets. Like Knuth, Storer thoughtfully supplies an extensive list of questions at the end of each chapter that will greatly deepen your appreciation of the field if you tackle them. Ok, he doesn't give answers, but think of that as greater incentive on your part to solve them. There are almost 400 questions in the book.
The teaching style is similar to Knuth, in that it has all the rigour needed by an algorithm designer like yourself, without drowning you in epsilon-delta ultra rigour like a pure maths text.
Note that the only code fragments are in pseudocode. This should not be a problem for you. I am assuming you are experienced enough that what you need is understanding of an algorithm, and that manually converting it to code is straightforward and a purely secondary issue.
The take home message is that this is excellent for anyone doing serious programming.

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Data structures and algorithms are presented at the college level in a highly accessible format that presents material with one-page displays in a way that will appeal to both teachers and students. The thirteen chapters cover: Models of Computation, Lists, Induction and Recursion, Trees, Algorithm Design, Hashing, Heaps, Balanced Trees, Sets Over a Small Universe, Graphs, Strings, Discrete Fourier Transform, Parallel Computation. Key features: Complicated concepts are expressed clearly in a single page with minimal notation and without the "clutter" of the syntax of a particular programming language; algorithms are presented with self-explanatory "pseudo-code." * Chapters 1-4 focus on elementary concepts, the exposition unfolding at a slower pace. Sample exercises with solutions are provided. Sections that may be skipped for an introductory course are starred. Requires only some basic mathematics background and some computer programming experience. * Chapters 5-13 progress at a faster pace. The material is suitable for undergraduates or first-year graduates who need only review Chapters 1 -4. * This book may be used for a one-semester introductory course (based on Chapters 1-4 and portions of the chapters on algorithm design, hashing, and graph algorithms) and for a one-semester advanced course that starts at Chapter 5. A year-long course may be based on the entire book. * Sorting, often perceived as rather technical, is not treated as a separate chapter, but is used in many examples (including bubble sort, merge sort, tree sort, heap sort, quick sort, and several parallel algorithms). Also, lower bounds on sorting by comparisons are included with the presentation of heaps in the context of lower bounds for comparison-based structures. * Chapter 13 on parallel models of computation is something of a mini-book itself, and a good way to end a course. Although it is not clear what parallel

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An Introduction to Programming with IDL: Interactive Data Language Review

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(More customer reviews)Nothing is more intimidating to a new user of IDL than to sit down at a computer with an empty command line prompt and a stack of manuals on their desk and be told to write an IDL program. Where to begin!? And the experience is especially frightening to a new user with little or no programming experience in any language, let alone IDL.
Ken Bowman has written an IDL book specifically for this user. It is intended as an introductory computer programming course for the research user with little or no training in any computer language, and it evolved from notes Ken uses in his own undergraduate IDL programming courses. It is meant to get the new IDL user analyzing and plotting data as soon as possible.
It is a narrow path he treads, because it is just as easy to offer too much detail as it is to offer too little information to the beginning user. Ken, for the most part, gets it exactly right in covering a broad selection of topics. I quibble with just two chapters. He sweeps aside the complexity of PostScript output by offering the new user two utility programs he fails to explain in the text, and his theoretical explanation of the FFT function left me gasping for breath and lamenting I hadn't paid closer attention in those long-ago math classes.
This is a book that will get you started, but probably won't answer all your questions when you turn your attention to more difficult research problems. Ken doesn't pretend it is anything other than what it is, however, and provides generous and helpful suggestions for where you can find additional information as you become ready for it. Readers already familiar with another programming language will appreciate this introduction to IDL, but might become frustrated with the slower pace and lack of specific detail on many topics.
The book has an associated web page, where you can find, among other things, the source code for all the programs mentioned in the book. Pay particular attention to the Errata section, especially if you are interested in structures in IDL. A printer glitch removed all the curly brackets from Ken's IDL code in the structure chapter and none of the examples will work as written in the book. A software problem, no doubt. (The example programs for the chapter are correct.) It serves as a reminder to me of how complex a topic software programming can be. This friendly book will be a welcome introduction to the subject for many a potential IDL programmer.

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In today's information age, scientists and engineers must quickly and efficiently analyze extremely large sets of data. One of the best tools to accomplish this is Interactive Data Language (IDLÂ), a programming and visualization environment that facilitates numerical modeling, data analysis, and image processing.IDL's high-level language and powerful graphics capabilities allow users to write more flexible programs much faster than is possible with other programming languages.An Introduction to Programming with IDL enables students new to programming, as well as those with experience in other programming languages, to rapidly harness IDL's capabilities: fast, interactive performance; array syntax; dynamic data typing; and built-in graphics. Each concept is illustrated with sample code, including many complete short programs. ÂMargin notes throughout the text quickly point readers to the relevant sections of IDL manualsÂEnd-of-chapter summaries and exercises help reinforce learningÂStudents who purchase the book are eligible for a substantial discount on a student version of the IDL software

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A Manager's Guide to Database Technology: Building and Purchasing Better Applications Review

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(More customer reviews)"A Manager's Guide to Database Technology" provides a straightforward introduction and overview of important database concepts. Utilizing real-life scenarios, this book highlights the importance of databases and database technology.
Databases in general will play an increasingly important role in our increasingly digital world, in my opinion. Along these lines, I recommend this book as a good primer for a wide audience to the field of database technology.

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This is a start-to-finish decision-maker's guide to making the most of database technology: from selecting the right product through optimizing performance, and beyond. In non-technical, highly accessible language, this book helps business decision-makers master all the database strategies, applications, principles, and paradigms they need to understand -- regardless of their previous experience with databases. Managers will discover where databases fit in the enterprise and in the IT infrastructure; how databases can best be architected to meet changing business requirements; and how to compare and choose among competitive offerings. Then, they'll walk step-by-step through the database development process, learning project management techniques that deliver maximum business value in the shortest time. A Manager's Guide to Database Technology even includes detailed briefings on the latest advances in the field, including distributed and object-oriented databases.

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Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step (DV-DLT Fundamentals) Review

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(More customer reviews)This Step by Step guide serves as a great starting point for getting familiar with Microsoft's Analysis services. It starts with a quick introduction to data warehousing (without resorting to giving an entire history of the subject, as seems so common today) and how it relates to OLAP and then moves right into the Analysis Servies tools.
The chapters are well written and get you the information you need, without missing any major details. Even if you don't plan to take the "step by step" approach, this book is worth having by your side.
All right... now for the downsides. At best this book is good for beginners. These are some of the areas where I found it came up short:
- Sizing systems that will support Analysis Services. The book talks a bit about how big cubes are, but there is no information about cube performance/cube sizing, etc. Basically, this book won't help you develop a hardware plan for hosting Analysis Services.
- Accessing Analysis Services via the web. All of Microsoft's literature talks about how SQL Server 2000's great support for the web/XML. Strangely, it is very hard to find this information for Analysis Services, and this book doesn't provide any guidance. Right now it seems that the best you can do to find this information is hunt around Microsoft's site.
Overall I still think this is good book. However, if you are going to be building a large Analysis Services system, expect to be looking for other sources to answer all of your questions.

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MICROSOFT® SQL SERVER™ 2000 ANALYSIS SERVICES STEP BY STEP shows Microsoft Excel and Access experts, IS managers, and database developers how to build applications that take advantage of the powerful data-analysis services in Microsoft SQL Server 2000. You'll discover why these services make it easier to analyze huge amounts of data quickly, and you'll learn how to develop a wide range of advanced dimensional-data applications-from enterprise reporting tools to advanced decision-support systems. The book's easy-to-follow lessons begin with clear objectives and include real-world business examples, with a companion CD full of sample files that support each lesson.

This title shows you how to:

Administer the Analysis Manager: Understand the fundamentals behind data dimensions and hierarchies, data warehousing, and the Microsoft Analysis Services architecture, and use the Microsoft Analysis Manager application to define and populate data cubes.
Create and display cubes: Define and modify measures and dimensions. Design, build, process, and view cubes, from simple to advanced, with cube and dimension editors. Use Microsoft Excel PivotTable® Reports and the PivotTable List in Microsoft Excel to browse cubes, and create cubes using Microsoft Office.
Query cubes: Use multidimensional expressions (MDX) values and sets and the MDX Sample application to query and display dimensional data.
Perform advanced administration: Choose data storage options and the Storage Design Wizard to optimize, manage, and update data efficiently. Automate the Analysis server to process an OLAP database. Work with partitions and automate updates, and apply security to cubes.

A Note Regarding the CD or DVD

The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to booktech@oreilly.com.

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Business Analysis Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been recently transitioned asa business analyst at work and have been combing through all sorts of BA material to learn more about my new field. I've been through at least 7 different BA books and this one is by far my favorite. I keep it with me all the time... it's a great reference book. It also presents the material in an easy and understandable way. I highly recommend this book to any business analyst... new or seasoned.

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Improving the effectiveness of your IT through better alignment with the business is a precursor to increasing profitability. This practical, introductory guide provides you with the tools to achieve this. It teaches you about strategy analysis and how to model business systems and processes and covers other topics including business case development, change management, and engineering/information resource management. The book also supports the ISEB qualifications in Business Analysis.

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Developing Software with UML: Object-Oriented Analysis and Design in Practice (2nd Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)Surely this book is not the absolute reference for the UML. Someone seeking for such a book, should check up on: "The Unified Modeling Language User Guide", "The Unified Modeling Language Reference Manual" both by the 3 amigos, and "UML Distilled, Second Ed." by Martin Fowler et al.
I gave 5 stars because, to my opinion, the author has catched the main need of someone who uses the UML for the first time; to design/develop software. Formalizations and abstractions are absolutely necessary in real applications, but really destructing during the first steps simply because anything usefull is interspersed in several chapters. On the other hand, the coverage of both the UML and the OO S/W development in this book is definitely not shallow.
"Developing Software with UML" is perhaps the best choise for beginning with UML. It is well-structured, intuitive and easy.

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Practical guide to exploiting the power of Object Technology & UML in your software development process.

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Marketing ROI : The Path to Campaign, Customer, and Corporate Profitability Review

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(More customer reviews)With Marketing ROI, Jim Lenskold has introduced a very useful level of financial rigor into what the typically imprecise process of targeting investments in marketing and then measuring their impact on company profits. Two key concepts introduced are how Marketing ROI is correctly calculated (many companies do it wrong), and more importantly, how the Marketing ROI informantion is used to manage marketing investments, looking at the incremental investment in marketing, and its incremental effect on sales and profitablity. Jim covers the subject from a big company perspective, focusing on multi-product, multi-customer segment environments, but the concepts in the book can also be applied to small companies concerned with spending marketing dollars most effectively.
This is a key text to be used along with the latest in customer relationship management techniques and customer information technology to manage the profitability of a company's demand chain.

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ROI (Return on Investment) is today's key business tool for measuring how effectively money was spent--yet few marketing managers receive any ROI training at all. Marketing ROIchanges all that, showing marketing pros at every level how to use ROI and other financial metrics to support their strategic decision making.

This comprehensive book details how an accurate working knowledge of ROI is essential for using the latest marketing measurements, and provides insights for gaining the greatest competitive advantage from the skilled use and understanding of ROI concepts.

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Dynamic Models in Biology Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an excellent book for students or faculty interested in learning more about the current state of the art in modeling of biological systems. The authors make a great effort to keep the mathematical sophistication at a level that students (or faculty) who primarily have a biological background will still be able to follow in some detail. They are also able to suggest some of the exciting current areas of research and new areas for the future. All in all, well worth reading if you are interested in the topic of modeling of biological systems.

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Bayes and Empirical Bayes Methods for Data Analysis, Second Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)This book features a deep and focused lesson on Bayes and Empirical Bayes Methods. It goes through the key topics as conjugate priors, MCMC methods (non iteratives and iteratives as the well known Gibbs samplining and metropolitis hastings algorithms), model selection methods (as bayes factor) and issues related as model robusteness.
The Approach is increasingly formal and deeply complex, allowing for getting the basics or diving into more complex knowledge according to your former background. You need at least a good understanding of Frequentist statistic to be able to follow the reasonings. Each chapter allow you to stop at some point without losing the thread. Last part of the book is in fact deep knowledge demanding.
The most interesting point of this book according to my very limited statistics background is that it makes good comparations with the frequentist approach (classical approaches as confidence intervals and point estimators), checking performance of either method. Even, it features some combination of both approaches getting some bayessian intervals.
As a negative point, I would say that examples are hard to follow for someone with limited bakground and too much complex. They really do not clear me up enough.
All in all, is a very profitable book for jumping into bayesian methods.

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In recent years, Bayes and empirical Bayes (EB) methods have continued to increase in popularity and impact. Building on the first edition of their popular text, Carlin and Louis introduce these methods, demonstrate their usefulness in challenging applied settings, and show how they can be implemented using modern Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. Their presentation is accessible to those new to Bayes and empirical Bayes methods, while providing in-depth coverage valuable to seasoned practitioners.With its broad appeal as a text for those in biomedical science, education, social science, agriculture, and engineering, this second edition offers a relatively gentle and comprehensive introduction for students and practitioners already familiar with more traditional frequentist statistical methods. Focusing on practical tools for data analysis, the book shows how properly structured Bayes and EB procedures typically have good frequentist and Bayesian performance, both in theory and in practice.

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Crystal Reports 2008: The Complete Reference (Osborne Complete Reference Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)The text is one of the first available for Crystal Reports 2008, and is a major revision of much of the same material which has been presented in previous editions (which covered earlier versions of Crystal Reports). As you would expect, it does a solid job of covering all the basics. It even goes into intermediate and some advanced details in a few sections.
If you are a beginner to Crystal Reports, then the book will be an extremely valuable reference to you. Even if you're an experienced Crystal Reports developer or you have used previous versions of Crystal Reports this book will get a lot of use. If you're familiar with the earlier renditions of this book (i.e., for Crystal Reports XI, etc.), then you will find this rendition similar, but greatly expanded and better organized. The book has been through several major revisions and this is clearly evident in the accessible, intelligible, and organized materials. Chapters that have been particularly strengthened from previous editions include charts and maps; a new chapter on integrating with Flash in compelling. Parameters and report export formats are covered in detail. Especially useful is the section on reporting from proprietary (e.g., non-SQL) data sources, including OLAP cubes and .NET integration. Finally, the concluding Formula Language Reference is encyclopedic and authoritative. At about 1,000 pages, the book is really heavy--but really useful, too.

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Your One-Stop Guide to Enterprise Reporting with Crystal Reports 2008

Transform disconnected corporate data into compelling, interactive business intelligence using all of the powerful tools available in Crystal Reports 2008. Through detailed explanations, real-world examples, and expert advice, this comprehensive guide shows you how to create, maintain, and distribute dynamic, visually appealing enterprise database reports.

Crystal Reports 2008: The Complete Reference explains how to select and gather pertinent business data, organize it into manageable groups, and assemble it into user-friendly business reports. You will learn how to improve report interactivity with sort controls and the parameter panel; solve complex reporting problems with cross-tabs and subreports; integrate Crystal Xcelsius dashboards; reduce development time; and publish your results to Web and Windows applications.

Integrate pictures, multimedia files, graphs, and charts

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Database Design Review

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(More customer reviews)Recently, I worked with a few developers who were tasked with developing their own database, and soon realized that many developers are not disciplined database designers (myself included). Instead of struggling through ambiguous database designs and creating more work in the coding of business objects, I picked up a book. Database Design, by Ryan K. Stephens and Ronald R. Plew, provided a great foundation for me, and would probably be a good reference for many levels of developers, business analysts, and DBAs.
The book starts with an overview of the database design process. At times this section seemed basic for someone that has been through countless development cycles, but the section reiterates concepts that many may take for granted. For instance, the database design process of requirements gathering, logical modeling, and normalization is discussed. Also, from an academic perspective some history and non-traditional methods are reviewed that provide interesting contrasts to how the process of database design has evolved over time.
The second section begins to get into the technical meat. The second section discusses gathering business and system requirements. This also provides many good examples of how to translate the business model into database entities. The different forms of normalization are discussed with examples from the first, second, third, Boyce-Codd, fourth, and fifth normal forms. The authors also take the readers through the process of developing Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) and uses accompanying examples.
The third section takes the concepts that are used from part two to design tables within the database. Consideration of storage, referential integrity, ownership, performance is all discussed as part of the physical design process. The authors also discuss enforcing business rules and view designs as well. The final chapter of this section ends in a real world scenario of a grocery store owner that wants to model his business activities into a live database. The book provides step by step re-iteration of the process involved in collecting business requirements, modeling data, normalization, and design. The author walks the reader through the process and shows how a designer would create a database from the information provided by the business owner. I thought this was a great example of how the books brought together concepts into real world situations. Kudos for the authors including some non-academic material.
Last, the authors discuss other areas that affect the database after the initial design. These areas include security, change control, analyzing legacy data. Each area includes examples and scenarios a DBA might encounter.
Overall, I thought this book laid down the foundations for database design very well. I think the authors had some very specific real world experiences that seemed useful during the discussions of the design process. The only con of this book was brief discussions about toolsets being used. It seemed apparent after a few of these examples that the authors are used to working in high budget software shops. Also, some of the tools may have been a bit outdated (2001). No mention of open source options was given which was a bit disappointing for someone who uses and develops open source products regularly (yes I am biased). The cons however, seemed minor in the big picture. This book lays down the framework for good process and also is very practical in its examples of the nuts and bolts of the database design process. I will definitely keep this somewhere close on my shelf, and do not expect the design aspects of the book to become outdated anytime soon. I think the authors did a great job at providing a good reference book on database design. I only wish more developers would read it :)

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Database Design is the book you need to master the fundamentals of relational database design in today's ever-evolving world of database technologies.This book takes an approach to database design to teach the reader how to reach into the inner depths of an organization to understand the business needs, data, and daily processes that will all blend together to formulate a successful database.Much emphasis is placed on logical design as it is imperative to understand the inner workings of an organization to produce the highest quality database, while proactively eliminating future problems that are not so easy for a beginner to foresee.Additionally, topics such as change control, business rule integration, database security implementation, and legacy database redesign are covered in detail.Examples of SQL code are shown to portray implementation tasks of a relational database.Examples are compliant with ANSI standard.

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Essential LightWave v9: The Fastest and Easiest Way to Master LightWave 3D Review

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(More customer reviews)Well, I'll keep this pretty short. I can't really recommend this book enough. I'm fairly new to LW and this book has been a tremendous help. Even on areas where I though I was up to speed I keep on learning new things. The book starts off with a general introduction to 3d, and then has main chapters covering topics such as modeling, lighting, animating, texturing, rendering, etc. Then it moves onto more intermediate and advanced chapters and projects.
What I like best is that each mini-area is followed by a simple illustrated example that makes it very easy to understand and see it in use. Also, the way the book is broken up into sections, if you don't really want to read up on animation right that second you can just move on to the next area without feeling too lost (and hopefully go back to that section later).
I will also point out that the book comes with hours and hours (about 14 I think) of tutorial videos that cover a broad range of topics including new 9.2 features. These videos alone are worth the price of the book. (Just as a note, if there are any videos that don't work on your DVD, go to publishers website for info on how to get them) As this book covers so many areas, especially many 9.2 new features, it really is good for all different levels.
Have fun riding the Wave...

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Includes companion DVD with trial versions of LightWave v9.2!Essential LightWave v9 offers an unparalleled guide to LightWave 3D. Written to help users quickly take control of the software, this book is filled with easy-to-understand explanations, time-saving tips and tricks, and detailed tutorials on nearly every aspect of the software, including the new features in LightWave v9.2!Key features:Learn to model, light, surface animate, and render within the first seven chapters! Master the LightWave v9 Node Editor for advanced surfacing, texturing, and deformations. Learn to model with polygons, Catmull-Clark/Subpatch SubDs, and splines. Uncover the secrets of distortion-free UV mapping and high-quality texturing. Learn to seamlessly composite 3D objects with real-world images. Create professional-quality character animation using FK, IK, and IK Booster. Enhance your animations with expressions, particle effects, and dynamics. Set up a render farm to rip through complex rendering tasks.

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Ceramics for Beginners: Wheel Throwing (A Lark Ceramics Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)The book is easy to use and very informative for a new potter. I've tried several of the projects and have had good success following the tutorials.

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In the same bright, open design as the well-received Ceramics for Beginners: Hand Building, this second entry in the series offers an introduction to the mechanics of wheel-thrown ceramics. Artist Emily Reason takes the beginner ceramist through nine projects, starting from one of two fundamental forms (cylinder or bowl). Color bands throughout point the reader to related information on various techniques, while gallery sections provide inspiration.

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Clayworks in Art Therapy: Plying the Sacred Circle Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a well-researched and thought out book, filled with interesting examples taken from clinical practice and presented in an immensely readable fashion. It's an important addition to the library of any clinician who introduces clay work with patients/clients, or is planning to. There are all levels of skills presented here, and one need not have a strong background in clay to benefit from this book. I highly recommend it.

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Clay is universally recognized as a medium of creative expression, and it also has great potential for therapeutic application. These two properties of clay are celebrated together in a book that explores the history, theory and techniques of claywork in eliciting therapeutic outcomes. Vignettes and case material explain and expand the text, which interweaves an appreciation of clay in art with many practical suggestions for its use in therapy. By according equal status to aesthetic outcomes and artistic integrity, the author offers a new and holistic approach to claywork. Practitioners and educators in the fields of therapy and art will find his book to be an essential source of information and ideas.

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Create Dynamic Charts in Microsoft® Office Excel® 2007 Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this book because it addressed a need I have - how to make better charts with the newest version of Excel (2007), and do it in a dynamic manner, i.e. with data that changes.
This is a typical computer book, with many hundreds of pages and an included CD of examples and other things.
One of the other things on the CD is an explanation of the author's "rS1.method" methodology (even the name should be a clue), which is used throughout the book and is used "in all the author's books" as though it were some kind of standard. In it the author prescribes a very set methodology and structure for laying out your multi-worksheet spreadsheets, and all the examples are based on it. If you need some discipline and like methodology, you will like this.
But if you are like me, impatient for results and not willing to be bound by a rigid framework, you will not like it.
The other thing I didn't like was the author's rambling and lecturing style. It was hard to wade through a long discourse on every subject before getting to the meat. One place in the small print it mentions that this book is "somewhat unusual" and is a "translation from the German" so that might explain why this is. I have read other books (history) that are direct translations from other languages (German in particular), and also from the one foreign language that I can read directly I know that the writing style differs by country and can seem quite strange to a reader in a different country. That seems to be the case with this book so it made tough going for me.
Anyway, there is useful material here and the book has helped me some, thus a generous 3 stars, but I wouldn't have bought it if I had known then what I know now.

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Extend your Excel 2007 skills—and create more-powerful and compelling charts in less time. Guided by an Excel expert, you'll learn how to turn flat, static charts into dynamic solutions—where you can visualize and manipulate data countless ways with a simple mouse click. Get the hands-on practice and examples you need to produce your own, professional-quality results. No programming required!

Maximize the impact of your ideas and data!

Learn how your design decisions affect perception and comprehension
Match the right chart type to your communication objective
Visualize—then build—your solution using the author's five-step approach
Apply the science of color to make the right things pop
Add controls—such as drop-down lists and scroll bars—without coding
Use conditional formatting to dynamically highlight and analyze data
Unleash your chart-making creativity—and bring numbers to life!

CD includes:

More than 150 sample, customizable charts for various business scenarios
Helpful worksheets and job aids
Bonus content and resources
Fully searchable eBook

A Note Regarding the CD or DVD

The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via OReilly Medias Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit OReillys web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to booktech@oreilly.com.

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