Best Science Projects

Essentials of Project Control

2012-02-22T08:30:00.001-08:00

Project managers who regard hall monitors and drill sergeants as role models need to spend some time with Essentials of Project Control. This book civilizes and humanizes the conventional view of control. No longer the bad boy in a manager’s plan-organize- direct-control job description, modern control envelops us like the wise advice of a country doctor. We readily comply with the doctor’s sensible prescription because it is good for us, and it works. Essentials of Project Control contains 13 articles published between 1985 and 1998 in the Project Management Journal® and PM Network®. Chosen and organized by Pinto and Trailer, the two-to-ten page selections are best read consecutively. There is a thoughtful integration of ideas, and the articles flow and build nicely upon each other. This is the second book in Project Management Institute’s (PMI®) Editors’ Choice Series, a reprint series designed to supplement the Project Management Body of Knowledge.

Amazon Sales Rank: #402244 in Books Published on: 1999-08 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Binding: Paperback 203 pages

About the Author Jeffrey K. Pinto, Ph.D., is the Samuel A. and Elizabeth B. Breene University Endowed Fellow in Management and Professor of Management in the School of Business at Penn State-Erie. Jeffrey W. Trailer is assistant professor of management in the School of Business at Penn State-Erie.

Most helpful customer reviews 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. The basics and the essentials - great collection of articles By Mike Tarrani Project managers of all skill levels will find something useful in this collection of past articles from Project Management Journal and PM Network (Project Management Institute's quarterly professional journal and monthly magazine). As the title implies, the articles are about various aspects of project controls, with an emphasis on earned value and related techniques.No book about project controls would be complete without a chapter on controlling scope creep, which is the topic of Chapter 1. However, this article has a unique perspective that shows how it's "Not Necessarily a Bad Thing". The next two chapters provide broad views of project controls, with a collection of best practices for technology projects in Chapter 2, and a bottom-up approach in Chapter 3. Rework cycles are covered in chapters 4 and 5. The inclusion of these chapters adds much to this book because rework is not a mainstream topic, yet it has everything to do with controlling cost, quality and schedule. I like the succinct treatment of critical success factors across the life cycle that is provided in Chapter 6.The remainder of the book addresses earned value project management and related controls. The articles that cover earned value project management are thorough and complete. Each should be carefully read. I was delighted to see Stephen Devaux's "When the DIPP* Dips: A P&L Index for Project Decisions" in this collection. DIPP is [Devaux's] Index of Project Performance. This index is aimed at project selection and prioritization techniques, and is particularly useful in product-based projects because it computes the cost of lost opportunity and the impact of being late to market. For internal projects it provides a clear link to business imperatives, which can bridge the gap between IT and the business. As an aside not related to this book, Devaux has found flaws in the way earned value's schedule performance index can mislead.Chapters 10-13 wrap up the book with articles on planning for crises, avoiding large-scale IS project failures, an analysis of cost overruns on defense acquisition contracts and project monitoring for early termination. This carefully selected collection of articles covers all of the major issues, challenges and techniques associated with project control. If you want to master the complexities of earned value project management I recommend "Earned Value Project Management (2nd edition) by Quentin W. Fleming and Joel M. Koppelman. I also strongly recommend reading "Total Project Control: A Manager's Guide to Integrated Project Planning, Measuring, and Tracking" by Stephen A. Devaux, which will provide a complete and comprehensive approach to controlling projects, including portfolios of projects at the program management office level. See all 1 customer reviews...

Science Adventures: Nature Activities for Young Children

2012-02-21T08:15:00.001-08:00

With more than 125 activities, Science Adventures will open up an amazing world of exploration and discovery through nature activities in urban, suburban, or rural settings. Each chapter focuses on one of the standards set by the National Academy of Sciences as adapted by the authors to address the developmental and educational needs of preschoolers. The activities within each chapter progress from simple to more complex. Each activity has information on how it relates to other curriculum areas, plus an assessment component and related science standards. Many of the activities feature suggestions for including families, adaptations for ESL students, modifications for children with special needs, or appropriate ways to use technology with young children. Children need to explore their environments, and this book makes it an adventure!

Amazon Sales Rank: #750385 in Books Brand: GRYPHON HOUSE Published on: 2008-05-01 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.65 pounds Binding: Paperback 272 pages Satisfaction Ensured Design is stylish and innovative. Functionality that is Unbeatable.

About the Author Elizabeth Sherwood, Ed.D., is a regular contributor to the science section of Children and Families, a quarterly magazine for teachers published by the National Head Start Association. She has worked with both teachers and young children in a variety of early childhood settings, including early childhood special education, childcare, and state-funded pre-kindergarten. Robert Williams is the author of numerous books and articles addressing early childhood science and environmental education. He is in demand as a speaker and has traveled and conducted workshops throughout the United States, Asia, Europe, and Australia. He has also been a frequent guest on radio and television programs where he discusses science and environmental issues. Robert Rockwell is the author of numerous books and articles addressing early childhood topics, including science education, language and literacy, fitness and nutrition, and parent involvement. He has conducted workshops throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. He has been a frequent guest on radio and television programs advocating for young children and their caregivers.

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Contractors Guide to Green Building Construction: Management, Project Delivery, Documentation, and Risk Reduction

2012-02-20T08:00:00.001-08:00

Written for contractors and endorsed by the Associated General Contractors of AmericaWritten specifically for contractors, this "how-to" book enables you to meet the challenges of green building construction. You'll discover how constructing environmentally friendly, sustainable buildings influences project management, delivery, documentation, and risk. Moreover, the book guides you through these important considerations at all phases of a green construction project, including:Bidding and contractingManaging green design when the contractor works as a design builderSubcontractingProcurementConstruction managementProject commissioning and closeoutThis book is endorsed by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) and was written with the assistance and advice of a specially assembled AGC task force. With a focus on the green building process from the contractor's viewpoint, the book avoids endorsing any one green building rating system in favor of presenting the business fundamentals common to them all.Throughout the presentation, flowcharts and other features offer working tools for successfully managing green construction projects. Plus, real-world case studies developed through discussions with the actual contractors involved help you understand exactly what to expect and how to best manage constructing a green building. In short, this is one book that you need to have on hand to be a part of the rapidly growing green building movement.

Amazon Sales Rank: #659941 in Books Published on: 2008-04-07 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .92" h x 8.16" w x 9.05" l, 1.76 pounds Binding: Hardcover 288 pages

From the Back Cover Written for contractors and endorsed by the Associated General Contractors of AmericaWritten specifically for contractors, this "how-to" book enables you to meet the challenges of green building construction. You'll discover how constructing environmentally friendly, sustainable buildings influences project management, delivery, documentation, and risk. Moreover, the book guides you through these important considerations at all phases of a green construction project, including: Bidding and contracting Managing green design when the contractor works as a design builder Subcontracting Procurement Construction management Project commissioning and closeoutThis book is endorsed by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) and was written with the assistance and advice of a specially assembled AGC task force. With a focus on the green building process from the contractor's viewpoint, the book avoids endorsing any one green building rating system in favor of presenting the business fundamentals common to them all.Throughout the presentation, flowcharts and other features offer working tools for successfully managing green construction projects. Plus, real-world case studies developed through discussions with the actual contractors involved help you understand exactly what to expect and how to best manage constructing a green building. In short, this is one book that you need to have on hand to be a part of the rapidly growing green building movement. About the Author Thomas E. Glavinich, DE, PE, is Associate Professor for the Schools of Engineering and Architecture and Urban Design at The University of Kansas. Prior to joining The University of Kansas, he worked in the design and construction of commercial, industrial, and institutional facilities. Mr. Glavinich is the past president of the ASCE Architectural Engineering Institute and a Fellow of the Institute.Associated General Contractors of America, founded in 1918, is the largest and oldest con-struction trade association in the U.S., comprised of over 33,000 members that include general contractors and specialty contractors as well as suppliers and service providers.

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Managing Your Documentation Projects

2012-02-19T07:45:00.001-08:00

Practical, authoritative, and the first comprehensive guide to managing every phase of your publication project. The only book devoted exclusively to technical publication project management, Managing Your Documentation Projects arms you with proven strategies and techniques for producing high-quality, extremely usable documentation, while cutting cost and time-to-market. Dr. JoAnn T. Hackos, a top documentation design and project management consultant to major corporations, including IBM and Hewlett-Packard, shares with you the fruit of her more than 15 years of experience in the field. She gives you:* Clear-cut, rational guidelines to managing every phase of the project from planning and development, through production, distribution, and project evaluation* Scores of usable templates, checklists, summaries, and forms* Dozens of real-life case studies and scenarios taken from the author's extensive experience at top corporations* Techniques applicable to virtually all fields of documentationManaging Your Documentation Projects was designed to function as a comprehensive guide for new managers and a daily tool of survival for veterans. It is also an invaluable resource for technical writers, editors, graphic designers, consultants, and anyone called upon to produce high-quality technical documentation on time and within budget. JOANN T. HACKOS, PhD, is President of Comtech Services, Inc., an information/design firm in Denver, Colorado and San Jose, California. She is also president of JoAnn Hackos & Associates, Inc., a strategic planning and management consulting firm. In 1993, she served as president of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and is a frequent conference keynote speaker on such topics as quality and usability of products and services, the importance of meeting the needs of the customer, and project management.

Amazon Sales Rank: #274742 in Books Published on: 1994-03-23 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.41" h x 7.42" w x 9.40" l, 2.14 pounds Binding: Paperback 656 pages

From the Publisher Technical communication encompasses many subject areas, from computers to medicine to the latest VCR. Technical information is explained by writers, editors, graphic artists, graphic designers, programmers, indexers and managers. This book is a practical, compact text that demonstrates the steps used in starting, maintaining and completing documentation projects in a timely, high-quality fashion.

Most helpful customer reviews 53 of 54 people found the following review helpful. Not the Gospel By A reader from Joanne Hackos is widely acknowledged as a leading authority on technical publications management, largely because (a) she has some good things to say and (b) her _Managing Your Documentation Projects_ is one of the few books on the topic. This book offers some valuable insights about basic project management, but tries to shoehorn publications project management into a particular software development methodology -- Carnegie-Mellon's Capabilities & Maturity Model. Hackos acknowledges her debt to CMM and warns that trying to implement the model described in this book is tough sledding if the development organization is not using CMM.After 20 years as a technical writer and publications manager, I've come to believe that all publications lifecycle systems are doomed unless they map directly to the development methodology engineering management supports and uses. (I've also come to believe that most development methodologies are more often than not honored in the breach.)If, as a publications manager, you're not aware of the development methodology your engineering managers have adopted, you need to get over and talk to them now. Even if they haven't adopted a formal, academic model, they do have some idea about how they produce technical products. Tailor your publications lifecycle to their lifecycle -- don't seek to impose an alien "order" on their process.(If your engineering managers can't articulate a methodology or say things like "We just code until we're done", you have bigger worries than your publications lifecycle, such as the near-term viability of your company.)Too often I've seen tech pubs managers adopt the "Hackos model" and fail because it doesn't fit the organization's development style. A organization that adopts the Rapid Application Development (RAD) or "Extreme Programming" model, for example, isn't going to be too thrilled about endless sign-offs on planning documents that take nearly as long to write as the manual itself. Instead, tailor your approach toward the high degree of interactivity inherent in such methods -- quick review cycles of small portions of text, for example, instead of waiting for a full draft of the book to be ready.Too many erstwhile pubs managers skim this book, then adopt the project documents provided as models in the book as "fill-in-the-blank" busywork for their writers.Tech pubs managers might be better served by learning the basics of project management (especially the interplay between resources, time, and scope) and reviewing the development model of the engineering organization than adopting the CMM-inspired approach Hackos describes in this book.There is no one-size-fits-all method for producing documentation. And Joanne Hackos would be the first to tell you that. 35 of 35 people found the following review helpful. A Key to Senior Technical Writing Positions By Sheldon S. Kohn Any technical writer seeking to move into the upper levels of the profession will find that "Managing Your Documentation Projects" is one of the most useful books to read. I agree with other reviewers' comments about the dreadful illustrations and the problems one would have putting the entire bulky method into place in many technical environments. Many of the sample conversations Hackos includes as examples of what can happen when the process is applied are almost unintentionally ironic. However, my experience is that the process and information that Hackos offers in this book will give you some of the tools you need to land a senior-level position. As Hackos herself writes, the ideas and material she offers are there for you to use, to try out, to modify so that they fit the requirements of your particular environment.Some readers may be a bit put off by Hackos' focus on planning and delivering print publications. I have found that the ideas are flexible enough to transfer to different

Faster Construction Projects with CPM Scheduling

2012-02-18T07:15:00.001-08:00

COMPLETE YOUR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS FASTER - USING THE LATEST CONCEPTS IN PERFORMANCE CONTROL A comprehensive review that gives you insight into the latest innovations in network-based project planning, scheduling, and control…saving you time and money on all construction projects. Faster Construction Projects with CPM Scheduling contains a full explanation of the new and innovative Scheduling Practice Paradigm, and translates it into tangible steps you can use to create powerful project schedules designed to boost productivity on any job. Completely compatible with the Collaborative Model, the new Scheduling Practice Paradigm provides, commitment planning, execution scheduling, and comprehensive performance control. Written in a friendly, conversational style, this ultimate guide explains: The new Scheduling Practice Paradigm: terminology, specialties, roles, and deliverables How dilemma forecasting can help you predict delays before they occur How to use change optimization processes for maximum project benefit How to produce a project schedule, including logic development sessions Helpful guidelines for performance recording Hundreds of “tricks of the trade” from a 30-year Scheduling veteran Inside: Keeping Your Eye on the Donut: The Allure of the Project Schedule • Understanding the Scheduling Theater • Why Our Schedules Disappoint Our Customers • The Changing Style of Project Management o Creating a Penchant for Change: The New Scheduling Practice Paradigm • Introduction to Dilemma Control • Introduction to Momentology • Recap of New Concepts and Terminology • The Scheduling Practice and Faster Projects • Preserving Project Schedule Integrity: Anatomy of a Schedule • Working at Cross-Purposes • Execution Scheduling and Performance Control: Schedule Design • Schedule Development • Schedule Components • Performance Reporting • Performance Control • Epilogue: Creating Schedules They'll Actually Want to Use! Praise for Faster Construction Projects with CPM Scheduling: “[A] very strong addition to our knowledge about construction contracting and project scheduling.” Matt Stevens, Author, Managing a Construction Firm on Just 24 Hours a Day “This is a seminal work which will shape this industry for generations to come.” Keith Pickavance, Senior Vice President, Hill International “Momentum Management may well be the most practical and straight-forward concept devised to date.” Mike Hopkins, Vice President, Fluor, ”I felt that the subject matter and style were appropriate for any scheduler who has “been in the trenches” more than a couple of times. After twenty plus years of scheduling, I was pleased to find that I was not out in a foxhole by myself.” Ted Douglas, President, ACTPMA, LLC “I told my boss that we will need to purchase a copy for every scheduling person at Alpha, due to the technical and practical accuracy and clarity.” Chris Carson, Corporate Director of Project Controls, Alpha Corporation “I was glad to see this in print. Many people monitor a schedule strictly by float and don’t understand that there is so much more involved in the analysis of a schedule that just looking at float or even earned value. I would recommend this book to all of the classes that I teach.” Jeff Huneycutt, US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District “I am just glad that I am not alone in the way I see the project controls business. I would like to buy a couple copies of the book for the staff to reads.” Craig Olsen, President, Scheduling Consultants, Ltd. “The book makes some very good points that the novice or even seasoned practitioner should read.” Keith Howard, Motorola Inc. “Just two weeks ago I was asked to recommend a quality book on scheduling practices. I suggested Murray's, even though the requestor doesn't work in construction. It's the book I turn to when I want to know the ‘right’ way to assemble and manage a schedule as well as the reasoning behind that practice. It also provides a candid look at the weaknesses of our current processes and recommendations for an improved path forward.” David Kaiser, President, Schedule Associates

Amazon Sales Rank: #954229 in Books Published on: 2007-03-20 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.17" h x 7.74" w x 9.32" l, 2.09 pounds Binding: Hardcover 456 pages

About the Author Murray B. Woolf, PMP, is president of the International Center for Scheduling, Inc. He founded ICS as his response to the number of challenges facing the Scheduling Practice in the United States and globally. ICS, although in its infancy, promises to change the face of the Scheduling Practice by providing coordinated support programs, products, and services to Scheduling Practitioners and their customers. Specifically, the ICS model includes education and training, job placement support, research, publications, credentialing, scheduling specifications software, objective quality scoring of schedules and scheduling programs, direct scheduling support, and consulting. Mr. Woolf has more than 30 years of project management, project controls, training, consulting, and expert witness experience. He spent the bulk of his career providing project management and project controls services on over 125 projects worldwide, with combined value estimated at around $28 billion. Mr. Woolf is a frequent lecturer and writer on Scheduling Practice topics, and is the inventor of numerous Scheduling Practice innovations, including Momentum Management and Dilemma Forecasting. He is a member and a vice president of the PMI College of Scheduling (CoS), and the first Managing Director of the Scheduling Excellence Initiative (a CoS endeavor to write best practice and guidelines for the Scheduling Practice).

Most helpful customer reviews 7 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Probably one of the best books on CPM ever written By N. Zonneveld This is by far the most interesting and comprehensive book I've ever read on project scheduling. The concept of Momentology is much more viable than Critical Chain and should really deserve more attention. Although not for the novice scheduler, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in CPM. 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Impressive - hope and wisdom for scheduling By Jake Keenan This was way better than I anticipated. After 20 years of construction scheduling experience I looked around for a wider perspective and picked this book. This is, as the author agrees, two books in one - a scheduling practice book and the laying out of a vision to save the scheduling "profession." He did both "books" admirably except that the second book is incomplete. After designing a whole new way to use and analyze schedules (the awkwardly worded "Momentum science") in a way that got me excited, he reveals that he plans to do two more volumes to finish out this first book. That was a disappointment, but in reading further I was still really satisfied with the amount of useful and wise insights to chew on. Usually, a scheduling book is something that one looks at once or twice or leaves on a reference shelf to collect dust. With this book I was shocked that I read and enjoyed the whole thing. Let me start over. The author is not just writing a book or even the first of three books; he is so frustrated with the state of scheduling (me too!) that he wants to completely reform how it is practiced. Apparently, he is also starting a scheduling college. This book could easily double as a textbook for that college-in-formation. As such it is written in extreme clarity and always back and forth from real project needs to decisions about how to schedule or track schedules. What did I find so valuable? He starts with a clear critique of today's practices to the point where schedules are being ignored. He begins again with the primary goal of scheduling - time management. He highlights the two different construction cultures - control versus collaborative where schedules must be much more people-focused. He gives the outline of the Momentum piece which appears to be (I need the next 2 volumes!) sorta like trending on the cost side. One half-joking example that he puts in here speaks of how a project schedule of 2 years duration that loses 2 days for 3 months in a row would show a negative float of 6 days to therefore predict, from the software alone, that the finish would be 6 days behind schedule. And of course, silly as it is, this points to a trap in thinking that can put total float ahead of some trending metric. Most of the book is about scheduling practices. He manages to make things like activity durations or relationship durations (lags) very interesting. He covers a variety of situations, practices, software settings, etc. always with the clear objective of building a better scheduling practice. In fact he also spends a good bit of energy saying what should not be included or done in schedules always with a reasoning of the pros and cons to the overall objective of better scheduling practices. So, the book is not a simple how-to (in fact he almost never mentions any software since he intends his practices to be good for any software); it assumes that one knows the basics and wants to review them in light of making better schedules and having schedules succeed in the project management world. He comes across as old school and part of the first generation of construction schedulers. But his respect for what scheduling could be seems to have given him the energy to imagine a rather brave new world of scheduling. It is a vision where schedule usefulness would rise over its being ignored or used for arguments. His focus and faith are admirable. The book gave me a big

Computer-Based Construction Project Management

2012-02-17T07:00:00.001-08:00

This guide helps professionals with basic computer knowledge improve their project management skills, and views basic project management concepts from an information technology perspective. All concepts are presented both manually and on computer applications with a unified case study throughout the book that clearly demonstrates the evolution of concepts in the successive chapters. Chapter topics contain comprehensive coverage of quantitative construction management techniques for planning, scheduling, estimating, cost optimization, cash flow analysis, bidding, and project control. For engineers, construction managers, project managers, and consulting engineers.

Amazon Sales Rank: #883506 in Books Published on: 2001-07-22 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .90" h x 8.20" w x 10.93" l, 2.09 pounds Binding: Paperback 398 pages

Most helpful customer reviews 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Huge dissapointment By Mike Computer-Based Construction Project ManagementAs can be seen the book doesn't come cheap. Therefore, one would expect that this title is worthy...but everybody i.e. Amazon and the publisher are not able to deliver the CD, for various reasons, consisting of a (worked) case study. Consequently, without the CD, the book is almost worthless. After one month of e-mail exchanges and two failed deliveries (deliveries without a CD), I've reached the bottom of my patience...Amazon has a pending investigation realted to this issue. For the time being..., no answer! Therefore, it is advisable to stay away from this title if you don't want to go through the same ordeal...However, the climax was the answer of the title's author... You don't want to know it... It seems that everyone can write a book in these days..., and bear no consequences. See all 1 customer reviews...

Project Mercury: NASA's First Manned Space Programme (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)

2012-02-16T06:45:00.001-08:00

A developmental history of the first American manned spaceflight programme and its associated infrastructure, including accounts of space launch vehicles. The book highlights the differences in Redstone/Atlas technology, drawing similar comparisons between ballistic capsules and alternative types of spacecraft. The book also covers astronaut selection and training, as well as tracking systems, flight control, basic principles of spaceflight and detailed accounts of individual flights.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1328278 in Books Published on: 2001-09-06 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.96 pounds Binding: Hardcover 512 pages

Review From the reviews: "John Catchpole’s new account of this pioneering project is most welcome. Catchpole’s account is not so much a chronological history … as it is a description of the project and its various elements – though of course there is a lot of historical material in it. … So all in all you get a lot for your money in these 485 pages … . this is a very good book … ." (David Maclennan, Liftoff, Issue 219, 2004) "This book describes the first US manned space program in sufficient detail, using not only NASA sources but also alternative sources. He has gathered all the information from the diverse places, sorted it out for us and has produced a history in sufficient detail … . A number of appendices provide some useful additional information, including … a number of useful tables. … And it contains some quite historic photos which I have not seen before. An extremely useful book, definitely worth the money." (Jos Heyman, News Bulletin of the Astronautical Society of Western Australia, Vol. 27 (2), 2001) "It’s a good read for the space buff and certainly fills in a lot of interesting background … . The production quality is good, with clear printing, good illustrations some of which I’ve never seen before and about the correct number of them to offset the text. … it’s quite easy to read and … it kept my attention pretty much to the end. … It does fill a gap by providing technical background, and some interesting asides … ." (John Davies, The Observatory, Vol. 122 (1167), 2002)

Most helpful customer reviews 3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Great Book! By Wilfred A. Roberge Like all of Springer Paxis Books I knew I had to have this one and I was not dissapointed in this one. The book covers all aspects of the program from launch vehicles to launch facilities as well as the astronauts themselves!! It goes into the design studies and concepts, as well as the selection process for the astronauts. 0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Detailed, Intelligent, and Authoritative By Kristine Catchpole's precise and delightful history of the developments that led to Project Mercury contributes both heat and light on the subject for the jet avation/space buff. Writing with obvious enthusiasm, with a scrupulous attention to detail, and clear descriptions of design principles, Catchpole leads the reader on a journey from the early days of rocket experimentation to the selection of the seven Mercury astronauts. A joy to read - very highly recommended. 1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Reads like a text book. By Robert A. Waltemate I was looking for more of a story, but there is a lot of information and history in this book. See all 3 customer reviews...

Digital Electronics Guidebook: With Projects!

2012-02-15T05:45:00.001-08:00

Unlike simpler analogue circuits, digital circuits are able to store and process bits of information needed to make logical decisions. This book is a practical guide to explaining how digital circuits are designed and interfaced. There are 20 plus projects to help explain the concepts of designing digital circuits to the reader as well as wiring them to various devices.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1798055 in Books Published on: 2001-11-19 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Binding: Paperback 528 pages

From the Back Cover PACKED WITH PROJECTS, THIS BOOK HELPS YOU MASTER DIGITAL ELECTRONICS FROMTHE INSIDE OUT! * Perfect for electronics hobbyists and students--even complete beginners--who want to understand digital logic and build their own low-cost logic circuits * Featuring more than 20 projects with step-by-step directions for designing, constructing, and interfacing easy-to-do TTL (Transistor-Transistor Logic) circuits * Everything you need to rediscover the neglected art of pure digital electronics and create working projects--even a simple computer! THE HEART OF DIGITAL ELECTRONICS Though ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) have largely replaced TTL chips, it is TTLs that gtive electronics enthusiasts the power to design and build logic circuits from scratch. The first Apple computers were run by rows and rows of TTLs--it's TTLs that expose how digital logic really works. THE BEST WAY TO EXPLORE DIGITAL ELECTRONICS--AND TO MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU--MYKE PREDKO'S DIGITAL ELECTRONICS GUIDEBOOK (WITH PROJECTS) IS A COMPLETE PACKAGE FOR THE EXPERIMENTER. * All the help you need-from directions for setting up your own digital electronics lab to explanations of needed math and basic electronics * Over 20 interesting projects, which demonstrate the power and possibilities of logic circuits you can build * Tips for making circuits that switch, count, time, measure, control, combine input and output, switch-bounce, "think," and much more * Learn how computers really work * Construct your own simple 8-bit computer * All the options you need to build sophisticated applications of your own design * Guidance on creating, prototyping, and debugging your applications * Reusable printed circuit board included * Additional parts easily available (from Radio Shack, for instance) * Demonstrations of project assembly techniques, such as wrapping and soldering * Appendix with useful tables, data, and formulas About the Author Myke Predko (Toronto, Ontario) is a graduate of Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. He is current a New Product Test Engineer at Celestica in Toronto where he works with new electronic product designers and has a patent pending regarding the automated test of PC Motherboards. He is the author of Programming & Customizing the PIC Microcontroller, Programming & Customizing the 8051 Microcontroller, the Handbook of Microcontroller, PC Ph.D. and PC Interfacing Pocket Reference.

Most helpful customer reviews 13 of 13 people found the following review helpful. TTL from the bottom up By A Customer I have a couple of myke's books (PIC, 8051) and this one is quite a departure from the normal run of the mill "microcontroller" books that he does. The book is devoted to explaining digital logic and he does a really good job and approaches it from a direction that I've never seen before. For example, I've never seen anybody actually build a TTL gate out of discrete transistors and resistors before. This was really helpful for me - I've never really understood how the built in pull ups in a TTL gate worked before I read this book. Myke has really latched onto the idea of including PCBs in his books and the power supply/TTL interface is really helpful to get the reader started in working with TTL. What I have always liked about Mykes books is that he really tries to provide circuits that the reader can build easily. With the power supply/interface PCBs included in the book, creating the experiments just takes a few moments. This is really nice.JD 10 of 11 people found the following review helpful. Typo's Galore By Scott Derrick I think the idea behind this book is fantastic and if there wern't so many typos and mistakes in the diagrams and project schematics it would be a 5 star book.The ground and power bus is mislabeld in almost every project. Some of the projects won't run without fixing the bugs in the diagrams.If there is a second edition, hopefully these issues will be resolved. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. good idea, tons of errors By GK The content of the book is good, and the included PCBs will be useful, but you MUST know enough about electronics to detect and correct the numerous errors in the wiring diagrams, etc. The text is a little disorganized and key points and concepts are not as clear as they could be, but the information is good. This is NOT a book for complete beginners. If you're new to electronics, try a NerdKit instead. See all 7 customer reviews...

Janice VanCleave's Chemistry for Every Kid: 101 Easy Experiments that Really Work

2012-02-14T05:15:00.001-08:00

Why do newspapers turn yellow?How does bleach make colors disappear?Why can't you mix oil and water?Find out the answers to these and other mysteries of chemistry in this fascinating collection of ideas, projects, and activities that teach the basics of chemistry theory and practice.Turn steel wool into a glutinous green blob. Separate an egg from its shell without breaking the shell. Make copper pennies turn green. Have fun while you learn simple chemistry from a solution of colored water, and the behavior of gases with the help of a soda bottle. Through these and other activities, you'll explore the structure of matter, the workings of acids, gases, and solutions . . . and much more.You'll find most of the materials you need around the house or classroom. Every activity has been pretested and can be performed safely and cheaply in the classroom, at a science fair, or at home.Also available in this series from Janice VanCleave: * ASTRONOMY FOR EVERY KID * BIOLOGY FOR EVERY KID * DINOSAURS FOR EVERY KID * EARTH SCIENCE FOR EVERY KID * GEOGRAPHY FOR EVERY KID * GEOMETRY FOR EVERY KID * THE HUMAN BODY FOR EVERY KID * MATH FOR EVERY KID * PHYSICS FOR EVERY KID.

Amazon Sales Rank: #41230 in Books Brand: Spring Arbor/Ingram Published on: 1989-03-13 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .67" h x 5.86" w x 8.95" l, .72 pounds Binding: Paperback 256 pages

From the Back Cover Why do newspapers turn yellow?How does bleach make colors disappear?Why can't you mix oil and water?Find out the answers to these and other mysteries of chemistry in this fascinating collection of ideas, projects, and activities that teach the basics of chemistry theory and practice.Turn steel wool into a glutinous green blob. Separate an egg from its shell without breaking the shell. Make copper pennies turn green. Have fun while you learn simple chemistry from a solution of colored water, and the behavior of gases with the help of a soda bottle. Through these and other activities, you'll explore the structure of matter, the workings of acids, gases, and solutions . . . and much more.You'll find most of the materials you need around the house or classroom. Every activity has been pretested and can be performed safely and cheaply in the classroom, at a science fair, or at home.Also available in this series from Janice VanCleave: ASTRONOMY FOR EVERY KID BIOLOGY FOR EVERY KID DINOSAURS FOR EVERY KID EARTH SCIENCE FOR EVERY KID GEOGRAPHY FOR EVERY KID GEOMETRY FOR EVERY KID THE HUMAN BODY FOR EVERY KID MATH FOR EVERY KID PHYSICS FOR EVERY KID. About the Author JANICE VANCLEAVE is a former school science teacher and a captivating presenter at museums, schools, and bookstores nationwide. She is the author of more than twenty other science books for children.

Most helpful customer reviews 23 of 23 people found the following review helpful. My kids LOVE chemistry now! By Robyn Cole Janice VanCleave's Chemistry For Every Kid is a must have book for upper elementary/middle school science teachers. The experiments are easy to set up and the kids LOVE them! Janice has tackled tough Chemistry concepts and come up with simple experiments that the kids ACTUALLY understand! I have used the activities in this book numerous times and couldn't recommend this book highly enough. The way I use the activities in this book, along with the others in the series, is set them up as stations and have the kids rotate through them. You will not be disappointed with this purchase and your kids will love you for it. 22 of 24 people found the following review helpful. simplistic By J. Brown No handwriting required and no over-the-head scientific explanations. It is clear, simple, and EASY to pull off the shelf and use. I recommend previewing the list of materials for the week to be sure you have the needed items. Substitutions can effect the experiment. I use this with ages 4-10 and they ALL enjoy the experiments. The experiments are simplistic and easy for young children to grasp the idea yet have enough information to get the parents thought process going! A great introduction to chemistry that takes very little time to prep and do. I even use this book as birthday party entertainment! A favorite with us. 14 of 14 people found the following review helpful. My eight year old daughter asked for a chemistry set ... By Luna Ville My eight year old daughter asked for a chemistry set for her birthday; a real chemistry set; one she could do real experiments with. There are no longer many quality chemistry sets on the market. I guess the safety regulations are too strict; making it unprofitable to sell "real" chemistry sets. I ordered this book. I was concerned I would end up having to mail order supplies, but I made one trip to the grocery store and my daughter was set to work through the book. The coolest part, to her, was the potential danger inherent with some of the supplies. She worked through six experiments in three days and proudly tells her younger neighborhood girlfriends "Sorry, You can't touch those things. It's too dangerous. It's Chemistry." The best part for me, the experiments are carefully arranged in a progressive manner so that they start from the simplest and safest activities. She can work through them in order, with supervision, safely building her confidence and skills. Unlike many books that purport to promote science, but are really just a collection of entertaining activities, this book includes the science concepts behind the wow. So, she really is learning. See all 8 customer reviews...

Project Factorisations in Partial Evaluation (Distinguished Dissertations in Computer Science)

2012-02-13T05:00:00.001-08:00

A partial evaluator is a function that takes a program, together with some of the input to the program, and produces a new program as a result. This new program is an optimized version of the old, having taken the input data into account. Prior to partial evaluation, the input program undergoes analysis. This binding-time analysis discovers which values within the program may be computed during partial evaluation--the static values--and which may not--the dynamic values. Partial evaluation has recently become the focus of attention for a rapidly increasing number of researchers because of its potential for global program optimization. It provides a detailed introduction and proceeds to a mathematical treatment of the technique. It is relevant to people interested in automatic program transformation, program optimization, compilers, program analysis, and theoretical computer science. This is the first complete book on the subject of partial evaluation.

Amazon Sales Rank: #4435119 in Books Published on: 1991-11-29 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .63" h x 7.12" w x 9.98" l, 1.07 pounds Binding: Hardcover 175 pages

Review "...a fascinating blend of a long pragmatic tradition in the art of writing partial evaluators with ML-style polymorphism and a dash of categorical concepts. The writing is exceptionally good and so I recommend this book also as a fine place to learn about partial evaluation." David B. Benson, Mathematical Reviews

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Theo Gray's Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do At Home - But Probably Shouldn't

2012-02-12T04:30:00.001-08:00

In the spirit of Discovery Channel's MythBusters and Smash Lab, Popular Science columnist Theo Gray demonstrates fundamental scientific principles through wacky, daredevil experiments that will have readers exclaiming, "Holy !!*$#!!" Witness as he makes subatomic radioactive particles dance in a cloud chamber, mixes sodium and chlorine to create a smoke that will salt a super-sized bag of popcorn, adds 500 pounds of quicklime to water to create a homemade hot tub, builds a liquid battery out of copper sulfate, launches a rocket with a Snickers bar, and uses liquid nitrogen to make a gallon of ice cream in record time. These are just a few of the 52 extreme experiments brought to life by Theo Gray in Mad Science. Culled from his column "Gray Matter," which has been a favorite of Popular Science readers for years, these experiments have been expanded to include even more of the fascinating science behind them, as well as hundreds of additional images. Every experiment is accompanied by stunning full-color photographs that provide a front-row seat to split-second chemical reactions and glorious subatomic activity. Gray's writing is fresh, hip, and makes the science exciting and easy to understand. Not only are the experiments visually arresting, each one explains a fascinating principle of elemental science in a unique and irresistibly compelling way. Mad Science is the perfect book for anyone—of any age, who is fascinated by all things electrical, chemical, or explosive, and who loves a vicarious thrill.

Amazon Sales Rank: #62075 in Books Published on: 2009-03-25 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .90" h x 9.25" w x 10.26" l, 2.43 pounds Binding: Hardcover 240 pages

Review “This is a fabulous book, and a real education, too – a beautiful introduction to hands-on chemistry. Theo Gray brings us dozens of experiments in minute, clear, and loving detail, and each one becomes a door onto the marvels of how chemicals react. Whether he is showing us how to make table salt from its violent elements, or, in a quieter vein, to make one’s own nylon thread or “lead” pencils, Gray’s encyclopedic knowledge and contagious enthusiasm transport us to deep intellectual realms, while never sacrificing a sense of wonder and, above all, fun.” —Oliver Sacks, author of Awakenings, Musicophillia, Uncle Tungsten, and many others (Oliver Sacks )“I've spent 22 years working with Theo Gray on creating software, seeing him find simple ways to do the seemingly impossible. You're in for a treat here when he applies the same creativity and insight to revealing the science of everyday things.”—Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica® and author of A New Kind of Science (Stephen Wolfram )“What a magnificent book. It's gorgeous, playful, and draws you in. Every single photo shows not only a deep love of science in the abstract, but also a tinkerer's love of the STUFF of science; the tools and glass, the clay and metal, and all the things that make science accessible to everyone.” —Adam Savage, star of MythBusters (Adam Savage )What good is this Nobel Prize around my neck if it doesn’t produce admiration for science writers such as Theo Gray, whose skillful work helps convert young students into serious researchers.” —Leon Lederman, winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics (Leon Lederman )“Theo's MAD SCIENCE is destined to inspire and spark the imaginations of the next generation of makers, tinkerers, engineers and mad scientists!” —Phillip Torrone, Senior Editor of Make magazine (Phillip Torrone )“Theodore Gray has attained a level of near superhuman geekery that the rest of us can only mutely admire.” —Cecil Adams, The Straight Dope (Cecil Adams ) About the Author Theodore Gray is the author of Popular Science magazine's “Gray Matter” column, the proprietor of periodictable.com and the creator of the iconic photographic periodic table poster seen in universities, schools, museums and TV shows from “MythBusters” to “Hannah Montana”. In his other life he is cofounder of the major software company Wolfram Research, creators of the world's leading technical software system, Mathematica™. He lives in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

Most helpful customer reviews 72 of 76 people found the following review helpful. Comments from a 13-year-old and an 88-year-old retired physicist By SocJan Who among us hasn't wanted to blow something up? I lent my copy of this book to a very distinguished 88-year-old who made pioneering measurements of the properties of single crystal metals. A week later I dropped in to see him. "I read the whole thing," he reported. "Every page. This guy is telling people how to do really DANGEROUS things! It's great! I just hope no one gets killed." Reminded by Gray's alkali metals explosions, he was eager to tell me about the time he himself threw a chunk of sodium into the stream near his house. He was 12 years old. It was 1933. ("We could get that sort of thing then; kids today can't. I took it from my brother's chemistry set when he was off at college.") "The explosion was enormous, much bigger than I expected. Glass pieces flew all around my head. I could have been killed." He paused, a big smile on his face. "I never told my mother." The rest of our conversation focused on how today's kids just don't get to tinker and experiment with materials the way we did in his day, and even in mine. He thinks the best thing about this book is that the excitement gets captured in Theo Gray's words (which are often funny) and the GREAT pictures; maybe reading this book can give kids -- and even adults who missed this part of growing up -- a feel for what those of us who survived those childhoods remember most fondly about them. Shortly after that conversation I was talking with a woman whose 13-year-old son bought a copy. He, too, read the whole thing. But he got mad when he realized that he couldn't really repeat these experiments in their kitchen. (I guess he'll just have to sign up for chemistry lab, if any school still has one.) So there they are -- 75 years apart in age: both read it from cover to cover and want to tell all about it. What more recommendation do you need? You don't even have to hear what I think. (But I'll tell you anyway: this is THE ULTIMATE GIFT BOOK and you should start by giving it to yourself.) Reading never killed anyone; the only way this book can kill you is from laughing. (And if you really must repeat any of the experiments, Gray is actually VERY CAREFUL to point out what the risks are and how to avoid them). 47 of 48 people found the following review helpful. "Experiments You'd Like to Do But Can't" By Babbles The subtitle of this book is, "Experiments You Can Do At Home But Probably Shouldn't." A better subtitle would be, "Experiments You Would Like to Do At Home But Can't." The experiments look totally cool, so I bought the book. I wanted to make the proposed Lightning Pattern. But the first item on the supply list is"Van de Graff static electric machine." Oh well, next experiment: "How to Make and Break Glass." Cool! Supply list for this experiment: Glass maker's furnace! Next? "How to Make a Match." Sounds good. Supply list: Red phosphorous, a chemical which, the book warns, is a federal crime to have in private possession. The few remaining viable experiments are quite cool to quickly read about, so it would make a good book to check out of a library rather than purchase. 27 of 28 people found the following review helpful. These experiments aren't done with household items By Joseph G. Kim It's a great book with great content--lots of large colorful photos and a variety of labs will definitely keep you interested. However, don't get too excited! You're not going to be able to do a majority of these experiments with common household items. Most of the labs require chemicals, metals, and parts that the average family would not possess. So if you're just curious and wanna play with chemistry, this isn't the best book for you. You'll be able to admire the concepts and pictures, but you won't get to carry out the actual experiments without access to some uncommon materials (which can be ordered online of course).

Engineering Design: A Project Based Introduction

2012-02-11T04:00:00.001-08:00

Engineers continue to turn to Engineering Design to learn the tools and techniques of formal design that will be useful in framing the design problems. Insights and tips on team dynamics are provided because design and research is increasingly done in teams. Readers are also introduced to conceptual design tools like objectives trees, morphological charts, and requirement matrices. Case studies are included that show the relevance of these tools to practical settings. The third edition offers a view of the design tools that even the greenest of engineers will have in their toolbox in the coming years.

Amazon Sales Rank: #209770 in Books Published on: 2008-08-18 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 9.23" h x .52" w x 7.50" l, 1.14 pounds Binding: Paperback 352 pages

Most helpful customer reviews 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. So Dry By B. Rowley Very dry, very long, very drawn out. Cluttered explanations followed be exhaustive case studies. Even my professors agree that this book is only good for skimming and getting ideas from, not as a detailed reference. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. purchased for senior design By Isabel Stevens This book is the format for my capstone design class. We had three assignments based on some design documents the text suggested. These were alright, but not overly helpful in guiding nor progressing our design. The other chapters, like the one on group management, were more helpful. Design is a difficult process to generalize or outline. The author does a good job with that part of it. I didn't care as much for the 'emotional' side of things, not because the information was false or unhelpful, but because the ideas are difficult to convey to engineers. Overall, this text guides the design process well. 0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Good book... By Reading4Me This book is very handy for my Engineering Innovation class! This book provides very useful information for not only engineering design, but also for other things too. For example, one chapter provides very helpful information about presenting designs in both oral and written forms, which is really nice. The book is very detailed and has an easy-to-understand format which makes taking notes and applying them to class discussion, projects, etc. so much easier! I think this book would be helpful for anyone in Engineering, and not just the people taking the class. It was so nice to get it for the price I did too. At my school's book store it would have cost a fortune! It is in almost brand new condition and doesn't have any marks. (yeaa for books in good condition!) See all 4 customer reviews...

The Coolest Wackiest Science Experiments Ever!: (with stuff from around the house or from your local grocery store)

2012-02-10T03:45:00.001-08:00

2nd Edition - now over 50 experiments! Slime, naked eggs, lava lamps, dinosaur toothpaste, and soap that grows to the size of a football! Run to the kitchen table and pull out the secret ingredients that will get your kids addicted to science. In this book you will find over 50 low cost science experiments that are rich in fun and learning.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1834366 in Books Published on: 2009-09-02 Binding: Paperback 116 pages

About the Author Adam Thornton is an educational entertainer who brings science alive through wacky experiments, brain challenges, and unlocking God's laws of Creation. Every weekend he gathers his seven kids around the kitchen table for Splat Science Saturday.

Most helpful customer reviews 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Love the Experiments!! By S. Brummett I picked this book up for my kids on a whim after looking at it online. What a great book!! The experiments were super easy to do, and my kids loved them. It's such a simple way to teach science and so much fun. I really love the added worksheets after each experiment. I tell all my homeschooling friends to check this one out because it is so easy. 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Super Cool By A Customer I asked my mom to buy this book so I could learn to make slime. It was a lot of fun and I like to play Star Wars in the slime. See all 2 customer reviews...

Electronics Sensors for the Evil Genius: 54 Electrifying Projects

2012-02-09T03:15:00.001-08:00

54 super-entertaining projects offer insights into the sights, sounds, and smells of nature Nature meets the Evil Genius via 54 fun, safe, and inexpensive projects that allow you to explore the fascinating and often mysterious world of natural phenomena using your own home-built sensors. Each project includes a list of materials, sources for parts, schematics, and lots of clear, well-illustrated instructions. Projects include: rain detector, air pressure sensor, cloud chamber, lightning detector, electronic gas sniffer, seismograph, radiation detector, and more

Amazon Sales Rank: #91381 in Books Published on: 2006-01-20 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .53" h x 8.52" w x 10.82" l, 1.54 pounds Binding: Paperback 330 pages

From the Back Cover 54 ELECTRONICS PROJECTS THAT VOYAGE BEYOND HUMAN SENSES! Reach beyond the limits of your own eyes, ears, nose, and sense of touch with these 54 exciting projects that enlist the uncanny talents of electronic sensors to probe dimensions beyond mere human powers of perception. With the help of popular electronics author Tom Petruzzellis, you can build your own fantastic projects that measure, touch, and explore the limits of the known natural world -- and the leading edges of the future of science and robotics! All 54 projects are fun, easy, and inexpensive to make at home and -- best of all -- seriously exciting and impressive! Petruzzellis takes the stuff of science fiction and science future, and brings it down to size for the home hobbyist or science fair project creator. With easy-to-follow plans, clear diagrams and schematics, and respect for your wallet, his Electronic Sensors for the Evil Genius gives you: Illustrated instructions and plans for amazing pretested projects advanced enough for sophisticated electronics enthusiasts but described in sufficient detail to be built even by newcomers. Explanations of the science and math behind each project. For instance, you can explore the technologies of vibration detection from intrusion to earthquakes Frustration -- factor removal -- needed parts are listed, along with sources -- and many of these projects can be built for $20 or less AN IDEA BONANZA With this book, you can build and explore sensing equipment that parallels devices used in today's most advanced robots, machine controls, and tools of scientific measurement. The mind-boggling possibilities for combining these sensors with other electronic and mechanical devices are literally endless! If these projects don't get your creative and inventive ideas cooking, nothing will! EXPLORE ELECTRONIC PERCEPTION This awesome book equips you with complete plans, instructions, parts lists, and sources for these wonderful projects: Jupiter radio telescope Research seismograph for monitoring tectonic plate movement Geiger counter for detecting atomic radiation Electronic stethoscope for hearing detailed heart and lung sounds Cloud chamber Combustible gas sniffer Earth field magnetometer Atmospheric charge (lightning potential) monitor Cloud charge monitor Low-cost ion chamber Advanced ion chamber Electromagnetic field detector Vibration alarm Infrared motion detector Flame detector Shortwave receiver Static tube pH meter Fluid/water level indicator Electronic temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure gauges Analog data logger Many, many more! EXPLORE THE BOUNDARIES OF NATURE WITH THE POWER OF ELECTRONICS About the Author Tom Petruzzellis is an electronics engineer with 30 years’ experience currently working with the geophysical field equipment department at the State University of New York—Binghamton. He is also an instructor at Binghamton. He has written extensively for industry publications, including Electronics Now, Modern Electronics, QST, Microcomputer Journal, and Nuts & Volts, and is the author of four earlier books: Build Your Own Electronics Workshop; STAMP 2 Communications and Control Projects; Optoelectronics, Fiber Optics, and Laser Cookbook; and Alarm, Sensor, and Security Circuit Cookbook, all from McGraw-Hill. Mr. Petruzzellis lives in Vestal, New York.

Most helpful customer reviews 104 of 105 people found the following review helpful. Good hobbyist book on sensors By calvinnme I own several books by the author, and like his other books, this one is focused on construction details and how each particular circuit works, along with datasheets, as opposed to theory. So if you are looking for the theory of operation on individual sensors, I think you will be disappointed. However, if you are just looking for interesting projects to build, this book is full of good ideas for circuits. The projects range from the more simple and inexpensive, such as the overtemperature alarm, to the more complex and costly advanced electronic ion chamber. If you want a good book on sensors and the theory behind them you might try Fraden's recent edition of "Handbook of Modern Sensors". I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents so I do that here: Chapter 1: Audio Projects Electronic stethoscope Underwater hydrophone Ultrasonic listener Chapter 2: Light Detection & Measurement Opto Listener Basic radiometer Digital ultraviolet radiometer Digital ozone-meter Sensitive optical tachometer Chapter 3: Heat Sensing Infrared flame detector Freeze alarm Over-temperature alarm Analog data-logger system LCD thermometer Infrared motion detector Chapter 4: Fluid Sensing Rain detector Fluid sensor Fluid/water level indicator Humidity monitor pH meter Chapter 5: Gas Sensing Air pressure switch Electronic sniffer Combustible gas sensor Electronic barometer Chapter 6: Vibration Monitoring Vibration hour monitor Vibration alarm Piezo seismic alarm Research seismograph Chapter 7: Magnetic Detection Mag-Ear amplifier ELF monitor Electronic compass Earth field magnetometer Chapter 8: Sensing Electric Fields Electroscope Static tube Simple electronic electroscope Atmospheric electricity monitor Cloud charge monitor Chapter 9: Radio Projects Lightning detector ELF natural radio Shortwave receiver Jupiter radio telescope Chapter 10: Radiation Detection Cloud chamber Low cost electronic ion chamber I Advanced electronic ion chamber II Geiger Counter Appendix A: Helpful Contact Information Appendix B: Data Sheets 44 of 47 people found the following review helpful. And I thought Electronic Projects Were Dead By John Matlock Back many, many years ago, when the earth was flat and the sun went around the earth, I built a whole series of crystal radios. It seemed to me that something was lost when everything electronic became a chip and nearly everything you could imagine was made in Japan. Now all of a sudden comes along this book. No, alas, there's not a crystal radio in it, but there's a short wave radio that's made with three chips. The complexity of the circuits is about the same as the old crystal sets. And the thrill of listening to WWV tell you the time as to be about the same as listening to the local radio station on the crystal set the first time. There are quite a number of projects suitable for science fairs and the like. Come to think of it, building one of those electronic compasses from page 178 might be a good project even for an old kid of my advanced age. 17 of 19 people found the following review helpful. Nice collection of sensor projects By Michael Gasperi Interesting collection of projects that require more than a simple trip to the Radio Shack to build. Each project has considerable scientific background information not just an electrical schematic and parts list. Many of the projects would make worthwhile science fair projects or other amateur science pursuits. See all 8 customer reviews...

Managing Residential Construction Projects: Strategies and Solutions

2012-02-08T03:00:00.001-08:00

Residential construction projects are notorious for being over budget and behind schedule, and the industry is in dire need of an effective solution. This highly visual resource provides just that--customizable solutions that work in a real-world construction environment. It is a solid blueprint for using project management to gain control over quality, cost, and schedule early in the process, before problems happen.

Amazon Sales Rank: #623988 in Books Published on: 2006-05-23 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.44" h x 7.34" w x 9.54" l, 2.61 pounds Binding: Hardcover 555 pages

From the Back Cover Use Project Management Tools to Control Quality, Cost, and Schedule on Any Residential Construction Project Managing Residential Construction Projects provides you with an effective, real-world blueprint for using the latest project management tools to gain control over quality, cost, and schedule. Construction expert Derek Graham addresses the practical issues behind budget and scheduling problems, providing you with the expertise to anticipate crises before they arise and develop a residential construction process that flows more smoothly and efficiently. Offering a unique visual presentation that delivers at-a-glance solutions, the author shows you step by step how to: Customize a project management strategy for your specific needs Create a model for bids and project cycles Establish administrative models for each project type Use staff and facilities to best advantage Deal effectively with clients, vendors, and subcontractors Resolve disputes among team members, clients, design professionals, and managers Troubleshoot problems such as errors and omissions, change orders, delays, quality control failures, and litigation Get the Skills Needed to Take Charge of Residential Construction Jobs: * Project Management Strategy * Cost Estimating * Scheduling and Planning * Contract Management * Construction Management * Business Tools * Crisis and Siege Management * Resolving Conflicts About the Author Derek Graham has more than 20 years of experience in construction and construction project management. Currently an independent consultant in the New York City high-end residential sector as an owner's representative, quality control inspector/specialist, planner, and expert witness, he has also worked extensively in the commercial and hospitality sectors. Mr. Graham is skilled in all aspects of construction, including building trades, cost estimating, contract negotiation, troubleshooting, financial reporting, and crisis management.

Most helpful customer reviews 3 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Stories but no theory By A customer This book is written by a practitioner who has little thought on theory, structure, and pedagogy, resulting in a rather disorganized book that has yet to be tested by students who demand much more than just scribbles and anecdotes. Several parts are also weak, such as feasibility, cash flows, and contract management. The author needs to think seriously about customers's needs rather than incidental stories. More depth is also required. 2 of 4 people found the following review helpful. this book is a great guide By T. KALDEN If you are a residential remodeler, preferably a high-end remodeler, (I think that Mr. Graham will agree with me here) this book is a great guide to the quality conscious remodeler. This book is not about accounting rather it is about what a good remodeler and his team should do and should have been doing all along. Buy a good accounting book, marketing book and buy this book. See all 2 customer reviews...

Environmental Pollution Studies

2012-02-07T01:30:00.001-08:00

This book examines a number of important contemporary environmental issues in an informative and easy-to-read style. The topics covered include sewage treatment, eutrophication, air pollution, acid rain, global warming and pollution from farming. A particularly valuable section of the book describes a range of tests that can be carried out on various environmental parameters. The procedures require relatively simple equipment and they have been pre-tested in a school laboratory. Environmental Pollution Studies will be of value to senior school pupils and students at college or university embarking on courses in environmental science. "An extremely useful introduction to a complex and important topic... I would have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone involved in teaching any aspect of the environmental sciences."—Teaching Earth Sciences

Amazon Sales Rank: #3892690 in Books Published on: 2000-01-01 Original language: English Binding: Paperback 192 pages

Review `An extremely useful introduction to a complex and important topic... I would have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone involved in teaching any aspect of the environmental sciences.' -- Teaching Earth Sciences (Teaching Earth Science )

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22 Radio and Receiver Projects for the Evil Genius

2012-02-06T01:00:00.001-08:00

MORE THAN JUST SLIGHTLY EVIL: SAFE, INEXPENSIVE, EDUCATIONAL . . . AND FUN! 22 Radio and Receiver Projects for the Evil Genius features a unique collection of projects that teach you radio and electronics essentials such as the radio spectrum, how to read schematics, and how to solder. After each project is completed, you can enjoy listening to and using their new receiver.

Amazon Sales Rank: #736128 in Books Published on: 2007-09-24 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .61" h x 8.61" w x 10.77" l, 1.53 pounds Binding: Paperback 281 pages

About the Author Tom Petruzzellis (Vestal, NY) is an electronics engineer with 30 years’ experience, currently working with the geophysical field equipment department at the State University of New York – Binghamton. He is also an instructor there. Tom has written extensively for industry publications, including Electronics Now, Modern Electronics, QST, Microcomputer Journal, and Nuts & Volts. He is the author of five earlier books: Electronic Sensors for the Evil Genius, Electronic Games for the Evil Genius, Build Your Own Electronics Workshop; STAMP 2 Communications and Control Projects; Optoelectronics, Fiber Optics, and Laser Cookbook, and Alarm, Sensor, and Security Cookbook, all from McGraw-Hill.

Most helpful customer reviews 38 of 39 people found the following review helpful. Disappointing... By Hugh D. Broomfield My wife knew I was interested in getting into radio electronics as a hobby and bought this for me as a Christmas gift. While the initial chapters provide some interesting background material, the chapters describing the projects have some serious issues. For example, I started with Chapter 8 IC Shortwave Radio Receiver, because I wanted to build a shortwave radio from scratch. While the chapter included a schematic (courtesy of Ramsay electronics), there was no pictorial layout, or checklist of construction order which can be frustraing to a beginner in electronics. The real shock came when I figured out that I could order the project described in this chapter as a kit from Ramsay electronics. At no point in this chapter is it stated that this project could be ordered as a kit, which would save much time and frustration. I ended up ordering the kit from Ramsay, and when I read the kit manual, I noticed that the manual text was identical to some of the text in this chapter!!! In summary: - some of the backgound information is interesting and useful - the lack of pictorial diagrams and checklists will make project building for the beginner difficult - the material for at least one of the chapters in this book has come from another source, which does not see to be properly acknowledged. Maybe the author, publisher and Ramsay electronics have an agreement, but if so why is it not stated that the project could be ordered in kit form? 12 of 12 people found the following review helpful. 22 radio and receiver projects for the evil genius By Dipl Ing Dr Froehling There are some interesting aspects of classical (antique) radio technology found. I did not know, that whistlers were first time detected by Austrian scientists in 1886. The explanations from crystal detectors to wheather satellite receivers are well made and helpfull for beginners, but the book can NOT be used directly for undergraduate/freshman-courses because: part lists sometimes incomplete, sometimes wrong some parts obsolete since 2004 - the book is printed in 2008 you can save a lot of space if you print the ceramic, mylar and mica capacitor code only once (I found it more than 10 times) it would be nice to read the metric values of lengths, wire diameters, ... the circuit diagrams are much more readable if you use standard symbols or symbols as used in data sheets or application reports. Don't use rectangles with pin numbers. Finally, it would be helpfull for foreign people (non US people) to get information about time code receivers outside the USA (there is one in Germany - DCF77 or in Great Britain) Fine book for the basics of radio receivers 10 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Not worth cover price, but some useful info By YPSL Webmaster I agree with some other reviewers that stated that there was some useful background information in the beginning of the book, but any of the actual projects utilizing solid-state components are next to useless. First of all, it appears to me that the author(s) simply took several Ramsey kits and reprinted the directions in whole or part, without the benefit of PCBs. In many, many, places, sentences and paragraphs are duplicated in the text, and each project includes several pages of redundant information on how to read parts values and how to solder and so forth, an artifact --I suspect-- of having ripped off the instruction booklets of these kits. One might suppose it would still be possible to build these projects from the book's instructions, but unfortunately all of the solid-state projects require ICs that are obsolete by several years, and generally unavailable. If you see this book in your local library, by all means check it out and give it a look, but don't pay for this. See all 6 customer reviews...

Science for All Americans

2012-02-05T00:45:00.001-08:00

In order to compete in the modern world, any society today must rank education in science, mathematics, and technology as one of its highest priorities. It's a sad but true fact, however, that most Americans are not scientifically literate. International studies of educational performance reveal that U.S. students consistently rank near the bottom in science and mathematics. The latest study of the National Assessment of Educational Progress has found that despite some small gains recently, the average performance of seventeen-year-olds in 1986 remained substantially lower than it had been in 1969. As the world approaches the twenty-first century, American schools--when it comes to the advancement of scientific knowledge--seem to be stuck in the Victorian age. In Science for All Americans, F. James Rutherford and Andrew Ahlgren brilliantly tackle this devastating problem. Based on Project 2061, a scientific literacy initiative sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, this wide-ranging, important volume explores what constitutes scientific literacy in a modern society; the knowledge, skills, and attitudes all students should acquire from their total school experience from kindergarten through high school; and what steps this country must take to begin reforming its system of education in science, mathematics, and technology. Science for All Americans describes the scientifically literate person as one who knows that science, mathematics, and technology are interdependent enterprises with strengths and limitations; who understands key concepts and principles of science; who recognizes both the diversity and unity of the natural world; and who uses scientific knowledge and scientific ways of thinking for personal and social purposes. Its recommendations for educational reform downplay traditional subject categories and instead highlight the connections between them. It also emphasizes ideas and thinking skills over the memorization of specialized vocabulary. For instance, basic scientific literacy means knowing that the chief function of living cells is assembling protein molecules according to the instructions coded in DNA molecules, but does not mean necessarily knowing the terms "ribosome" or "deoxyribonucleic acid." Science, mathematics, and technology will be at the center of the radical changes in the nature of human existence that will occur during the next life span; therefore, preparing today's children for tomorrow's world must entail a solid education in these areas. Science for All Americans will help pave the way for the necessary reforms in America's schools.

Amazon Sales Rank: #386486 in Books Published on: 1991-02-14 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.09 pounds Binding: Paperback 272 pages

Review "This text should be read by all pre-service and in service teachers, no matter what their major discipline. The content is relevant, readable, and addresses the issues that must be included in our science programs at all levels. If only current science texts were as succinct I am certain students would want to consider science and science-related courses."--Norman E. Dee, Lesley College"The content of the text follows the title beautifully."--James M. Migaki, Washington State University"Very good source for promoting thinking about the present and future of science in American society."--Duane Inman, Ph.D., Northwestern State University"Excellent overview of issues for graduate students."--Dr. Catherine Commins, Louisiana State University"An outline for comprehensive reform of science education that is based on a sound conceptual base." --Gerald Skoog, Texas Tech University"Very readable."--Leo R. Finkenbinder, Southern Nazarene University"Provides the type of background information needed by non-science majors who wish to teach. The principles and concepts discussed in this book form the information both parents and teachers should have. I would recommend this resource to beginning teachers, parents, older individuals who change careers to enter teaching, and others."--Marjorie W. Lee, Howard University"Very clearly written....It provides an understandable rationale for scientific literacy but also provides clear, identifiable standards for teaching." --Reene Alley, College of Education, University of Akron"An excellent presentation of basic science that should be required reading for all candidates for a teaching credential. It is clear, concise, and readable. Congratulations."--Walter F. Marshall, Point Loma Nazarene College"A comprehensive report on how to reform the U.S. education system to provide students with adequate training in science, mathematics and technology. The authors focus on Project 2061, an initiative sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science to increase children's scientific literacy and prepare them for the world that will exist when Halley's Comet returns in 2061. Includes recommendations about what future generations should know in these areas as well as specific reform suggestions."--Science News About the Author F. James Rutherford is Chief Education Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Director of Project 2061: Education for a Changing Future. He is the co-editor (with Margrete S. Klein) of Science Education in Global Perspective.Andrew Ahlgren, on leave as Professor of Education at the University of Minnesota, is presently Associate Director of Project 2061. He is the co-author (with Dr. Franz Halberg) of the forthcoming Cycles of Nature: An Introduction to Biological Rhythms.

Most helpful customer reviews 30 of 31 people found the following review helpful. Excellent summary of science for nonscientists By David Dathe "Science for All Americans" will appeal to two audiences: people who want to know something about science and science teachers. Written under the guidance of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the text describes what the average citizen or student needs to know to be reasonably scientifically literate. Science literacy is not knowing pages of facts, theories or equations. The book's organization helps define the basic components of science literacy. Chapters 1-3 describe what science is about. This includes defining the activity called science, introducing the language of science--mathematics, and the tools of science--technology. Chapters 4-9 present the fundamental base of scientific knowledge. The topics include: physical science (the universe, forces, motion), biological science (heridity, the cell, evolution), humans (the human organism, human society, technology), and mathematics. The information presented in these chapters is extremely well written in both a nontechnical and nonthreatening manner. If you've feared science or have forgotten all the science you have ever learned, you will still be able to enjoy and remember a surprising amount of the material presented. Chapter 10 summarizes the most fundamental discoveries of science. Finally, chapters 11-12 delve into the mind of a scientist. What patterns do we see in the world? And what type of mental habits should a scientist exhibit? The final 3 chapters of the book are on science teaching and reforming science education and so are of interest primarily to science teachers. The book achieves its aim of both defining science literacy and making the reader scientifically literate. In fact, the book does so well that I use it as the primary textbook in my college science class as part of the liberal arts education for nonscience majors. Speaking as a college instructor who spends most of my time teaching science to nonscientists, I emphasize again the organization, structure and writing of this book. Not only will you learn much from this book, you will develop a basis on which to increase your science literacy in the future. Science and technology are advancing rapidly--too rapidly for any one person to stay current in even one discipline. Yet citizens must make choices. This book will aid you in making informed choices when dealing with science and technology issues. As I try to explain to my students, it is not wrong to be feel discomfort at not knowing everything--no one does. The real error is to remain where you are now in your science literacy and not grow. This book will help you grow. 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Good, but there are better... By K. Sanders This is a good overview of what Project 2061 is all about, but I think there are better resources. "Science for All Americans" is a bit dry. I would recommend "Science Matters" for a more interesting overview of what Americans should know about science. 8 of 12 people found the following review helpful. The beginning book in Science reform for literacy. By K. L Sadler We have now entered a second time of deep concern for the science, math, and technological education for everyone. The first one occurred after the Sputnik fiasco, when the Russians beat us in the race to reach space. The concern now has risen due to what science groups such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and educators saw in comparison of assessments made of students in the U.S. and those in other developed countries, such as Japan. The answer to this concern was for the AAAS along with other groups to put out a guideline as to what constitutes scientific literacy, and what the public in the U.S. should at least know to be scientifically literate. As usual, though the AAAS addressed the fact that certain groups in the U.S. were

At Home With Science:Listen and See

2012-02-04T00:30:00.001-08:00

Listen and See! What's on TV? follows Archie the elephant, Frank the flamingo, Bob the duck and the rest of the gang while they explore the living room. How do things get dusty? Why is my sofa comfy? and What is a newspaper made of? are just some of the questions that the friends discuss. With accessible diagrams and 12 step-by-step experiments (plus some of the world's silliest jokes!), they find out the simple scientific explanations to these questions and many more. A uniquely unstuffy approach to science that gets kids involved with the world around them.

Published on: 2001-05-21 Original language: English Binding: Hardcover 32 pages

From Publishers Weekly With this addition to the At Home with Science series, Listen and See! What's on TV? by Janice Lobb, illus. by Peter Utton and Ann Savage, aspiring scientists can solve everyday mysteries (e.g., "How does a TV screen work?" "How does the light switch on?" and "How can I speak on the phone?"). Amiable animal characters, clear illustrations, riddles and hands-on experiments lead to the answers. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. About the Author Janice Lobb has been a lecturer for many years at the City of Westminster College, London, where she teaches science to all levels of ability. Her wide experience and enthusiasm makes her the perfect author for the At Home with Science series. This series reflects her interest in making science fun by treating it as a normal part of everyday life. Peter Utton is an acclaimed illustrator who won the Smarties Book Prize for Sally Grindley's book, Shhh! in 1992. His other titles include King Arthur, the Teddy Tales collection and Harry's Stormy Night, The Labours of Hercules, The Bible Storybook, The Nursery Storybook and The Good Shepherd Storybook. He has also written and illustrated The Witch's Hand and What if?.

The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives (American Empire Project)

2012-02-03T00:15:00.001-08:00

A mind-boggling investigation of the allpervasive, constantly morphing presence of the Pentagon in daily life—a real-world Matrix come alive Here is the new, hip, high-tech military-industrial complex—an omnipresent, hidden-in-plain-sight system of systems that penetrates all our lives. From iPods to Starbucks to Oakley sunglasses, historian Nick Turse explores the Pentagon’s little-noticed contacts (and contracts) with the products and companies that now form the fabric of America. Turse investigates the remarkable range of military incursions into the civilian world: the Pentagon’s collaborations with Hollywood filmmakers; its outlandish schemes to weaponize the wild kingdom; its joint ventures with the World Wrestling Federation and NASCAR. He shows the inventive ways the military, desperate for new recruits, now targets children and young adults, tapping into the “culture of cool” by making “friends” on MySpace. A striking vision of this brave new world of remote-controlled rats and super-soldiers who need no sleep, The Complex will change our understanding of the militarization of America. We are a long way from Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex: this is the essential book for understanding its twenty-first-century progeny.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1430855 in Books Published on: 2008-03-18 Released on: 2008-03-18 Format: Bargain Price Number of items: 1 Binding: Hardcover 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly In his exhaustively researched first book concerning the extent to which the "military industrial complex" has infiltrated the life of the average American, journalist Turse starts off by documenting how many times supposedly innocent consumer choices support major Pentagon contractors then covers similar ground in greater detail. Turse has up-to-date information on a previously well-covered subject and casts a wide net, including the movie industry, video gaming and military recruitment tactics in his analysis. Many of Turse's facts are purely economic, but some of them are astonishing. Who knew, for example, that in 2005, the Department of Defense spent $1.2 million on donuts in Kuwait? Or that Harvard received over $300 million in DoD funds in 2002, after being pressured, despite concerns about discrimination, to allow military recruiters access to its law school students? Though Turse offers plenty of interesting information, ultimately this book would have been more convincing if, instead of simply amassing and condensing such information, he had built a stronger argument about what it all means. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review “This is a deeply disturbing audit of the Pentagon’s influence on American life, especially its subtle conscription of popular imagination and entertainment technology. If Nick Turse is right, the ‘Matrix’ may be just around the corner.”—Mike Davis, author of Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb“When President Eisenhower warned of the dangers to democracy posed by the military-industrial complex, he had no idea how far it would penetrate into every aspect of our everyday lives. In impressive detail, Nick Turse shows how the military is now tied to everything from your morning cup of Starbucks to the video games your kids play before turning in for the night. It's not just political anymore—it’s personal. Turse sounds the alarm bell about the militarization of everyday life. Now it’s up to us to do something about it.”—Bill Hartung, author of How Much Are You Making on the War Daddy?“Nick Turse’s searing, investigative journalism reveals just how deeply embedded in our lives the war-making system is and why we should be viscerally alarmed. He exposes how, with a growing contingent of corporate/entertainment/academic/media collaborators, the Pentagon has not only garrisoned the globe, but come home to dominate the United States. For anyone interested in understanding the crisis this country is in, The Complex is indispensable reading.”—Dahr Jamail, author of Beyond the Green Zone“Americans who still think they can free themselves from the clutches of the military-industrial complex need to read this book. For example, the gimmicks the Pentagon uses to deceive, entrap, and sign up gullible 18 to 24 year-olds are anything but voluntary. Nick Turse has produced a brilliant exposé of the Pentagon’s pervasive influence in our lives.”—Chalmers Johnson, author of Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic

Most helpful customer reviews 44 of 48 people found the following review helpful. sobering, worrisome, thoughtful and scary By outraged parent This book begins with a short catalogue of the various products in your cupboard that are made by companies with huge Department of Defense contracts and continues by identifying the Navy technicians who helped design your child's computer games. In between, Nick Turse, an elegant writer, and clearly a fearsome researcher, details the ways the military has insinuated itself into all of our everyday lives -- from the products we buy, the toys our children play with to the institutions that we depend upon. It is a story that begins with President Eisenhower's famous parting words about the dangers posed by the military-industrial complex and continues through the Iraq debacle that we're now living through. This is an important book. 28 of 30 people found the following review helpful. An important read. By J. D. Henry An important read for all Americans. Well written, with an immense amount of details about, who, what, when and where the money goes. Obviousely a great deal of research went into this book, but it is written in such a way that you don't get bogged down in the details, they become a fluid part of a well told story. Open almost any page, and the documented, outragous spending and corruption, will stare you in the face. Nick Turse has put together a well documented account of the DoD, tax payer funded, feeding trough, that should alarm every American. At times he shows a flair for the humorous, ( the choices are, laugh or cry )but there is nothing at all funny about this book. A must read for all elected officials, ( and the press )who are not already well entrenched in the fleecing of America. 28 of 30 people found the following review helpful. Even Eisenhower Didn't See This Coming By Sergio This is a fast paced compelling read. Packed with startling revelations that will horrify some, while wowing others. Nick Turse opens our eyes, as to how pervasive the Military Industrial Complex has become in our lives. He lifts the curtain on billions of dollars of Pentagon waste that Americans tolerate without question. He details for the reader the extent of how the military has garrisoned the globe. Sounding a warning to teens that "Uncle Sam Wants You" and will do almost anything toward that end, makes this mandatory reading for young men and women as well as their parents. Sci-fi, buffs might find cool the idea of militarized moths, or spying spiders, but the programs Dr.Turse sheds light on, are cause for grave concern. Throughout the book the author's clever wit is apparent and the level of research admirable. If you think the Military Industrial Complex is all guns, planes, missiles and tanks you should read The Complex. If you think that we as citizens are in control of the military you must read The Complex. See all 13 customer reviews...

Radical Project Management

2012-02-02T00:00:00.001-08:00

Radical Project Management introduces eXtreme Project Management (xpm), the first radically new approach to project management in decades! Traditional project management is inward looking, static, and doesn't respond to rapid, constant change. xpm looks outward to stakeholders, management, and clients, and thoroughly involves them in an agile process that assumes everything will change. Rob Thomsett presents xpm from start to finish and introduces every tool and technique you need to make it work in your organization.

Amazon Sales Rank: #922379 in Books Published on: 2002-04-25 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .80" h x 7.02" w x 9.28" l, 1.33 pounds Binding: Paperback 384 pages

From the Back Cover Project management for today's complex, chaotic business environments. XPM: the first radically new approach to project management in decades! Designed from the ground up for today's high-speed, fast-changing projects Refocusing project management focused on people, relationships, and adding value! Innovative new XPM tools: how to make them work in your organizationTraditional project management doesn't work any more: it's inward-looking, static, and just can't respond to rapid, constant change. Radical Project Management looks outward to stakeholders, management, and clients—and thoroughly involves them from start to finish. Moreover, it assumes that everything will change—and defines a flexible, ongoing project management process that encompasses both project development and support. In this book, Rob Thomsett, one of the world's leading project management consultants, presents XPM from start to finish—and introduces every tool and technique you need to make it work in your organization. Refocusing project management on what matters most: people, relationships, and adding value 11 radically new rules for project managers to live by Innovative new XPM tools, and how to use them "Open Planning" and stakeholder ownership: the heart of successful project management New XPM metrics and project-tracking techniques Why project managers don't need to know the gory technical details Detailed case studies: how XPM is enabling creative people to do truly great workIf you've always suspected there's a more agile, flexible, intelligent way to manage projects, you're right—and XPM is it. Discover for yourself, with the most authoritative, complete, useful XPM guide ever written: Radical Project Management by Rob Thomsett. About the Author ROB THOMSETT is a Senior Consultant with Cutter Consortium's Agile Project Management and Business-IT Strategies Practices, a contributor to Cutter Consortium's Advisory Services, and director of The Thomsett Company. He has consulted in and taught project management since 1974. Over 20,000 professionals have attended his workshops in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Hong Kong, Italy, and Australia, and his radical approach to project management has been adopted by many major global organizations. Thomsett is author of People and Project Management and Third Wave Project Management, both from Prentice Hall PTR. Ed Yourdon has called him "one of the world's leading project management gurus." Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. IntroductionOn a recent trip to London, I was amazed as my cabbie, Steve, nudged forward into the face of three lanes of oncoming traffic to cross a busy intersection that we had been waiting at for over five minutes. "Only a cabbie could pull that off," I commented, as we avoided potential accidents. Steve laughed and replied, "I have been driving cabs for 23 years. We cabbies have a term. We use the road. Other people drive but we use the road."By bending rules, taking calculated risks, and using his experience of the many roads, lanes, and alleys of London, Steve made the journey faster, more efficiently, and safer by using rather than driving on the road.Later I thought about the difference between "using the road" and "driving on the road" and the difference between eXtreme project management and traditional project management.For people faced with too many projects, projects that seem to change every day, not enough good people, and not enough time and money, eXtreme project management is about using the road.Why Should You Read This Book? The simple answer to this question is for you to answer a couple of other questions: I have a completely stable and realistic project plan. My organization has a stable strategic plan. My stakeholders are fully committed to my project. My sponsor is fully effective and available to me quickly. I have a completely clear statement of scope and objectives. My team is loyal and devoted to the project. We have effective risk and quality management plans. My organization understands project management. I have access to a group of expert project managers. I have all the tools, technology, and techniques I need. My project and organization are not changing rapidly.If you answered "Yes" to all these questions, this book should be used to raise your Project Manager of the Century award higher for all to see and envy. If you answered "No" to any of these questions, this book will help you get a perfect score.This book is about a new and radical approach to managing projects and teams--project management (XPM). It represents a quantum leap in project management.Our group has been developing, implementing, and refining this approach over the past 25 years. This new project management approach is not based on academic theories or esoteric models. Rather, it has been forged through the experience of thousands of hours of practical experience in hundreds of real projects. The projects have been in virtually all sectors of business—most government areas, insurance, banking, health, computing software, information technology (IT) hardware and IT services, research and development, retail services, policy development, and manufacturing.What Makes This Book Different? eXtreme project management is fundamentally different from mainstream and traditional project management approaches.eXtreme Project Management TestTo show the radical difference between eXtreme project management and traditional project management, let's explore the answers to this question: How do you determine the progress of a project?The traditional project management answers to this question include: Is the project meeting agreed deadlines? Is the project in budget? Have there been changes to the scope and objectives?Indeed, most project management systems are based on reports only on budget and deadline compliance.eXtreme project management adopts a completely different approach to measuring project success and progress: Are stakeholders being informed and consulted about project status? Have there been unapproved changes to scope and objectives? Are the cost and benefits assumptions still valid? Has the agreed product quality been compromised? Are project risks unchanged? Is the sponsor completely aware of the project status? Are the team members satisfied with the project?In effect, traditional project management looks inward and downward whereas, eXtreme project management looks outward and upward.Over the past 25 years, we have studied and researched project management and related topics from as many perspectives as possible. We have read every book (currently more than 100) and article (many hundreds) on project management we can find. We have searched the Internet and have attended meetings of professional project management groups such as the Project Management Institute and the Australian Institute of Project Management. In addition, we have discussed our views and models with more than 20,000 project managers in our workshop series.The longer we look, the more we are convinced that most published project management material has missed the mark. Either the models are too basic and simplistic or too theoretical and complex. In many cases, they are just unrealistic. For example, many project management texts suggest that you have to acquire and implement complex system or project development methodologies (at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars). Critical management issues such as quality, benefits realization, and risk were either completely ignored or plugged in as afterthoughts.Sometimes we wonder whether the author or expert even lives on the same planet that we do! Their world seems so organized, so rational, so structured, and so devoid of the complex interpersonal politics we see every day in our clients that we wonder whether we have a distorted view of reality.However, 20,000 people cannot be wrong. Our workshop participants do live on the same planet as we do and in the same world of complex organization dynamics.Traditional project management approaches reflect the engineering and construction models of project management. They are based on a set of assumptions that are increasingly irrelevant in the chaotic and ambiguous world of organizations facing the new millennium. Concepts such as fixed requirements, long development time frames, stable teams and technology, and passive involvement of project stakeholders who trust their expert project managers have become historical myths.Our new project management approach has been continuously refined and expanded to reflect the realities of the new business paradigm. It is based on a different set of assumptions that include dynamic requirements, compressed development schedules, virtual teams, unstable technology, and total involvement of project stakeholders. Our project management approach is totally focused on the analysis, measurement, and realization of financial benefits from the project, managing the total whole-of-life project cycle, complete integration of quality issues, and proactive project risk management.We have evolved our project management approach to be as simple as it can be and as complex as it needs to be.In his terrific book, Management of the Absurd, Richard Frason (1996) described how James Watt saw something that millions of other people had also seen but "not seen." It was Watt's observation of how steam coming from his tea kettle could be used to power steam engines that sparked the Industrial Revolution. Watt also saw the "invisible obvious" that so many others could not.So much of this book is about the invisible obvious. Time and time again throughout this book, you'll find yourself saying "Of course! Why didn't I think of that? It's so obvious. It is so simple."However, as Richard Riodan said when he was mayor of Los Angeles, "Simple and easy aren't the same words."Most important, as we first stated in 1981 in People and Project Management (1981) and in Third Wave Project Management (Thomsett, 1992), our project management approach is totally focused on people and the relationships among the many people involved in projects.What This Book Is Not About This book is not about how to develop work breakdown structures and project schedules. It is not about developing simplistic and mechanical models such as project plans (which are never followed anyway). Most important, it is not boring. Many of the project management books that we have read present project management as some dry, cold, and quasi-scientific "pursuit."We totally reject this view of project management. Our experience is that project management is one of the most challenging, creative, and exciting activities you can undertake. We hope that this is reflected in this book.The Structure of the Book To assist our readers who are under eXtreme project deadlines and working conditions, we have structured the book into three parts for quick access.Part 1—eXtreme ConceptsThis covers the background to XPM. We look at the evolution of project management, the emerging project environment, and the forces driving the need for XPM.Part 2—eXtreme ToolsThis introduces the XPM tools such as RAP sessions, learning loops, success sliders, and the detailed techniques used in XPM planning and tracking.Part 3—Additional ResourcesThis includes readings that provide further tips; advanced tools; and related issues such as project sponsorship, negotiation, communication, ethics, and other critical project management concerns. There are additional readings available on our Web site www.thomsett.com.auEach part is related but they can be read independently if you are in a hurry; though we hope you get to read the entire book eventually. Great project managers will read all of this book.During our journey as consultants to major organizations, we have seen many strange and wonderful things. In many cases, what we observed put the bizarre events in the series The X Files to shame. At the end of the chapters in Part 2, we have included a section called The P Files (where P represents people or politics). The P Fil...

Most helpful customer reviews 24 of 24 people found the following review helpful. Today's guide on project management for the IT professional By David Williams Five years ago I read the most insightful and inspiring book on project management I had ever seen. This was morbidly titled "Deathmarch" due to the proliferation of unrealistic projects that I.T. teams found themselves caught up in.I have now found a new contender for my favourite book on the topic, in Radical Project Management by Rob Thomsett. Coincidentally, it is part of a series edited by Ed Yourdon, the author of Deathmarch!This book is novel in its approach by embracing two key facts.Firstly, project management is no longer a dry topic, best left to crusty managerial types. The modern I.T. professional needs to be all of network guru, web developer, database administrator, software developer and, of course, project manager. Hence, even the most hands-on techie has to grip this topic!Secondly, traditional project management methodologies are losing relevance in today's wired world where the only constant factor is change.Thomsett argues that such practices are inward-looking and static. Conversely, his "Radical" philosophy looks outward, embracing stakeholders, management and end-users, seeking to involve them in the project's development from conception to implementation.This is what Thomsett means by calling his philosophy "radical" - it departs from tradition. The term also, to my mind, plays on the "RAD" - Rapid Application Development - paradigm that boosted languages like Delphi and Visual Basic into the limelight. RAD languages also sought to involve end-users in the creative development process by allowing the rapid construction of functional prototypes.Of course, a mere philosophy by itself is insufficient (consider the USSR!) and pleasingly, Thomsett fills his pages with case studies, details of new project management tools and how to successfully use them, and just good common-sense and stories "from the chalk face". As one reads this book, it is abundantly evident that the author is writing from a wealth of experience - this book is by an I.T. professional for I.T. professionals.I wholeheartedly recommend it, and it certainly has found a place on my desk. 13 of 14 people found the following review helpful. Going beyond the Gannt Charts By J Pieters Finally a practical project management book that goes beyond Gannt charts, time lines or budgets. I have already found it useful in finding out why and where some of my projects went wrong and the lessons I can learn for the future. Thomsett has added principles to project management that have often been talked about, but that are rarely (and effectively) applied; for example quality, realisation of business objectives, distinction between project objectives and solutions.This is not just a book for project managers; anybody who is involved in projects in some way or another (business analysts, HR professionals, people who commission projects) will get a better understanding of what it takes to deliver projects successfully.And if you're a movie fanatic - you'll love the references to some great classics. 4 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Some good ideas, but heavy on jargon and distraction By A Customer This book loses its momentum by focusing on jargon and buzzwords intead of clear and solid points. The effort of reading this book is not a complete loss - there are some good suggestions and models, but any of Gerald Weinbergs books are shorter and better reads with 10x less pretension and unnecessary complexity. See all 4 customer reviews...

The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls

2012-01-31T23:45:00.001-08:00

"Timely and sympathetic . . . a work of impassioned advocacy." --PeopleA hundred years ago, women were lacing themselves into corsets and teaching their daughters to do the same. The ideal of the day, however, was inner beauty: a focus on good deeds and a pure heart. Today American women have more social choices and personal freedom than ever before. But fifty-three percent of our girls are dissatisfied with their bodies by the age of thirteen, and many begin a pattern of weight obsession and dieting as early as eight or nine. Why?In The Body Project, historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg answers this question, drawing on diary excerpts and media images from 1830 to the present. Tracing girls' attitudes toward topics ranging from breast size and menstruation to hair, clothing, and cosmetics, she exposes the shift from the Victorian concern with inner beauty to our modern focus on outward appearance--in particular, the desire to be model-thin and sexy. Compassionate, insightful, and gracefully written, The Body Project explores the gains and losses adolescent girls have inherited since they shed the corset and the ideal of virginity for a new world of sexual freedom and consumerism--a world in which the body is their primary project."Joan Brumberg's book offers us an insightful and entertaining history behind the destructive mantra of the '90s--'I hate my body!'" --Katie Couric

Amazon Sales Rank: #12737 in Books Published on: 1998-09-01 Released on: 1998-09-01 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 7.93" h x .68" w x 5.20" l, .74 pounds Binding: Paperback 336 pages

Amazon.com Review Adolescent girls today face the issues girls have always faced: "Who am I?" and "Who do I want to be?" Unfortunately their answers, now more than ever before, revolve around the body rather than the mind, heart, or soul. "The body is at the heart of the crisis that [Carol] Gilligan, [Mary] Pipher, and others describe.... The fact that American girls now make the body their central project is not an accident or a curiosity," writes Brumberg, "it is a symptom of historical changes that are only now beginning to be understood." The historical photos, thorough research, and political even-handedness make this a book of worth and sincerity. The Body Project is also comforting for women, adolescents, parents, lesbians, and male lovers of women--helping us sort out the roots of female insecurities, obsessions, and angst. From School Library Journal YA?From the most private method of sanitary protection to the most intimate place to pierce one's body, this history of feminine hygiene and fashion records young women's obsession with looks and how society has channeled and manipulated them to reflect the values of the times. From diaries, journal articles, advertising, and doctor's records, the author has amassed information about mainly middle-class American girls of the 19th and 20th century that shows how they have been raised first by overprotective, repressive adults to play a submissive role in society and, more recently, to be consumers in an ever-widening marketplace. From skin cream to dieting to figure-altering garments and body piercing, physical enhancements in the last 200 years are reported. Beginning with an account of Abigail Adams's concern about the early maturation of her 11-year-old granddaughter in 1806 and progressing to descriptions of today's independent young women grappling with numerous options of dress and sexual conduct, a thought-provoking social history is revealed. The author begins and ends her treatise with a passionate argument for advocacy for today's girls who are preyed upon by the media and allowed dangerous sexual options without emotional maturity and are lacking the protective umbrella of moral guidelines and supervision provided by earlier generations. Young women will enjoy the numerous photos and will have a giggle about the corsets and belts of earlier times. A fine choice for mother-daughter book groups.?Jackie Gropman, Kings Park Library, Burke, VACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Brumberg (women's studies, Cornell; Fasting Girls, LJ 3/1/89) notes in her present study that while girls today reach menarche at about age 12, several years earlier than a century ago, they do not mature emotionally or intellectually at the same early age. They are also extremely vulnerable to social and economic pressures to define themselves in terms of their bodies and to become sexually active, often with disastrous consequences. To counter such pressures, Brumberg calls for more societal support and nurturing of girls. This work complements such studies as Lyn Brown and Carol Gilligan's Meeting at the Crossroads: Women's Psychology and Girl's Development (Harvard Univ., 1992), Mary Pipher's Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (LJ 4/1/94), and Peggy Orenstein's School Girls (LJ 8/94). Appropriate for public, academic, and women's studies collections.?Patricia A. Beaber, Coll. of New Jersey Lib., TrentonCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Most helpful customer reviews 52 of 55 people found the following review helpful. Social history doesn't get better than this! By Hugo Schwyzer Joan Jacobs Brumberg has attracted her share of controversy for this book and her earlier work in the field of "body history". The criticism lies largely in the fact that Brumberg does not fit easily into the pro-sex feminist/anti-sex traditionalist dichotomy that characterizes far too much of the discussion about young women's sexuality and body identity these days.Using diary excerpts as her core sources of evidence, Brumberg charts the changing relationship between young women and their bodies over the past century and a half. Though the material on the 19th and early 20th century is fascinating, useful, and accessible for a general audience, the high point of the book comes over the final two chapters, which cover the period from the 1960s to the 1990s. Unlike cultural conservatives in the feminist world (think Christina Hoff Summers or Gertrude Himmelfarb), Brumberg is deeply appreciative of the enormous benefits of the sexual revolution, especially in terms of the availability of sexual information and the growing willingness of our society to see women as active sexual agents. On the other hand (unlike a Naomi Wolf), she is troubled (and rightly so, in my opinion) by the eagerness of our culture to sexualize and exploit the bodies of adolescent women who are simply not prepared to cope with the emotional, social, and physical impact of early sexual experience. In her final chapter, Brumberg writes: "Although I applaud the social freedom and economic opportunities enjoyed by the current cohort of high school and college girls, their "autonomy" seems to be oversold, if not illusory." Young men tend to only applaud young women's autonomy when it leads to sexual availability, not when it leads to the decision to postpone sex; advertisers certainly only applaud young women's autonomy when it leads them to buy their products, not when it leads them to question consumerism itself.The more I hear the stories of my female students, of all races and socio-economic backgrounds, about the prevalence of eating disorders, their anxiety about their own bodies, and the pain of our casual and exploitative "hook-up" culture, the more I realize that Brumberg is right when she notes, in her conclusion, "more than any other group in the population, girls and their bodies have borne the brunt of 20th century social change, and we ignore that fact at our peril." It is not anti-feminist to want to protect young women from sexual and commercial exploitation; indeed, it is the essence of what it means to believe in women. 24 of 25 people found the following review helpful. Sad but True By Melissa Solomon This book was referenced in a text that I read regarding teen sexuality, and since the reference sounded interesting I found a copy of it. Brumberg discusses here what she calls the "body projects" of teenage and adult women and how these projects have changed over time. By "body projects" she means what women are focused on changing about themselves at a particular place in history, whether it be the face, the body, or their sexuality. In describing these particular projects the author goes into detail about the history of menarche and menstruation, acne, and the hymen while also discussing the history of the social aspects of virginity and how female sexuality was (and is) perceived and discussed within a family and society. I really enjoyed reading this book for many reasons. First, it is rare that you can find a well-written social history text that covers such a variety of subjects. Second, the author uses diary entries from women from many different time periods to elucidate her points, and reading the first-person accounts of Victorian women can be very entertaining ("They thought what?!") while also enlightening and educational. Third, the author makes a major point to remind the reader that

Who's Missing?: 18 Tips : A Practical Guide to Including Everybody in Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

2012-01-30T23:30:00.001-08:00

This educational guide is prepared for anyone who works with girls and recognises the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) for young people. Who's Missing? will help: to dispel the idea that STEM is for nerds to unlock the door to a whole new world of excitement and confidence for girls to change attitudes to seek the opportunities that STEM offers.

Amazon Sales Rank: #10641426 in Books Published on: 1998-02-01 Original language: English Binding: Library Binding 32 pages

From the Publisher WHO'S MISSING? has been written all people working in the formal or informal educational setting with girls and young women. WHO'S MISSING? will help: - to dispel the idea that STEM is for nerds - to unlock the door to a while new world of excitement and confidence for girls - to change attitudes - to seek the opportunities that STEM offers. About the Author There is a need to ensure that the early experiences of girls and young women, gives them the opportunity to succeed in STEM. If the practical tips in this guide are used and implemented, then the opportunity for girls to succeed in science and technology will be provided.

The Kids' Science Book: Creative Experiences for Hands-On Fun (Williamson Kids Can! Series)

2012-01-29T22:45:00.001-08:00

Explains the advantages of using the box offense which, when properly executed, can pressure an opposing team into submission. Along with a written explanation of box offense strategies are hundreds of diagrams illustrating plays that can be used on fast breaks, against zone and man-to-man defensive sets, and in other special situations. Brown concludes with some tips on scouting other teams and what to look for when preparing for an opponent.

Amazon Sales Rank: #556668 in Books Brand: IDEALS PUBLICATIONS/WILLIAMSON PUB Published on: 1995-06 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 3.00 pounds Binding: Paperback 160 pages

From School Library Journal Grade 2-5?A compilation of experiments, games, and activities. Hirschfeld and White begin by offering basic information about making and recording observations, which will be helpful to readers looking to start science-fair projects. The authors provide clear explanations of common terms in the scientific method such as hypothesis, procedures, and data, and include examples. In addition, they explain that results don't always agree with their hypothesis, and that does not mean that the experiment was a failure. Safety precautions are included. There are labeled symbols prior to each experiment or activity, but no introductory explanation as to how this type of organizational symbol can be helpful. Black-and-white line drawings are simple and attractive. This is an excellent collection of many commonly requested experiments (growing seeds, making volcanoes, modeling the solar system using vegetables for relative size). There are also some not-so-common ideas here such as measuring the body heat of your hand inside a mitten; making a measuring wheel; and experimenting with opaque, transparent, and translucent paper.?Blair Christolon, Prince William Library, Manassas, VACopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review "Excellent collection ... Helpful to readers looking to start science fair projects." -- School Library JournalKids ages 4-10 are encouraged to explore the world using basic scientific viewpoints and principles of research using a title which invites the entire family to go outdoors and explore. Follow experiments which are fun to attempt and fairly fail-safe. -- Midwest Book Review About the Author Robert Hirschfeld and Nancy White

Caveman Chemistry: 28 Projects, from the Creation of Fire to the Production of Plastics

2012-01-28T22:30:00.001-08:00

Half a million years ago our ancestors learned to make fire from scratch. They crafted intricate tools from stone and brewed mind-altering elixirs from honey. Their descendants transformed clay into pottery, wool into clothing, and ashes into cleansers. In ceramic crucibles they won metal from rock, the metals lead to colored glazes and glass. Buildings of brick and mortar enshrined books of parchment and paper. Kings and queens demanded ever more colorful clothing and accessories in order to out-class clod-hoppers and call-girls. Kingdoms rose and fell by the power of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. And the demands of everyday folk for glass and paper and soap stimulated the first round of chemical industrialization. From sulfuric acid to sodium carbonate. From aniline dyes to analgesic drugs. From blasting powder to fertilizers and plastics. In a phrase, From Caveman to Chemist. Your guides on this journey are the four alchemical elements; Fire, Earth, Air and Water. These archetypical characters deliver first-hand accounts of the births of their respective technologies. The spirit of Fire, for example, was born in the first creature to cultivate the flame. This spirit passed from one person to another, from one generation to another, from one millennium to another, arriving at last in the pages of this book. The spirit of Earth taught folks to make tools of stone, the spirit of Air imparted knowledge of units and the spirit of Water began with the invention of spirits. Having traveled the world from age to age, who can say where they will find their next home? Perhaps they will find one in you.

Amazon Sales Rank: #175071 in Books Published on: 2003-08-01 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Binding: Paperback 428 pages

Review In Caveman Chemistry, Kevin Dunn presents a historically oriented hands-on introduction to chemistry and chemical technology that is tremendously entertaining. -- http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/Journal/Issues/2004/Apr/abs490.html The Journal of Chemical Education About the Author Kevin Dunn is the Elliott Professor of Chemistry at Hampden-Sydney College, where he teaches the course which inspired this book. He holds a BS degree from the University of Chicago and a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. He appears on The Learning Channel's "Mysteries of Magic" and is co-author of a dozen journal articles in theoretical chemistry. He lives in central Virginia with his wife and several cats.

Most helpful customer reviews 37 of 37 people found the following review helpful. Terrific. By L. Hoyt I'm using this book in a college chemistry class for nonscience majors. Dunn's writing is a bit eccentric, no doubt, but the projects are great and my students are engaged as never before, so--I win! Science books that are intended to be marketed both as trade books and as textbooks generally fail at both. Often the two goals are just incompatible. Dunn has achieved something special here: he has done a nice job of resolving the conflicts between these two goals. The text is rigorous enough to be used in a general-college class, yet accessible to any interested person looking for a nifty science project (or a handbook for surviving the collapse of civilization!)...and as a bonus, it's a great read. In addition he maintains an extremely helpful website for the book; I have learned almost as much about the projects from reading the comments of his students as from reading the book, and having a central place for errata to be posted online is very convenient for my students. I'd love to see a character in the next Mad-Max-style post-apocalypse movie pull out a copy of Caveman Chemistry and start a fire with two sticks, or make soap starting with ashes. But even if civilization survives, I will take consolation in this: with the projects in this book, we can participate in a tradition of human technology going back 500,000 years. 30 of 30 people found the following review helpful. Eccentricity aside... By W. Carver As a current chemistry major with a long and sordid history of odd compounds, this book is a JOY to read even for me. It is this type of writing that truly brings "normal" non-scientific readers into the realm of the laboratory. It is fact and procedure written in a style that is instantly comfortable and reasonably non-technical. As one reviewer stated, THIS is what required reading should be. Everyone is worried about the "brain drain" in the US right now. If books like this were present in the arena of primary education for the last ten years, we wouldn't have anything to worry about. For people that can't immediately "dream this stuff in color" it is books like this that create a first breach in the dam that is our current bureaucratic education system. 18 of 18 people found the following review helpful. Amazing I-dea By A Customer I just finished reading the book, and even though I admit I haven't gotten my hands "black with charcoal" on even a single project, this was probably the best science book I have ever read. The author's style was weird and entertaining, the concepts were well explained (though I had to go over chapter 7 a few times). I even learned an answer to a question I had as a child that no one knew how to answer (why did it hurt when I bit down on aluminum?).I was truly amazed at the evolution of history of chemicals and how industries came to be built from virtually nothing - and not only that, but how you can make the same chemicals and projects at home.I plan to read the book again and try some of the experiments.I wish I had had a course based on this book in college, in high school, in elementary school - at any point.In short, if you are interested in understanding the basic chemical processes in the world around you and their history, where common products you buy from the store come from and how to make them on your own, and of course, how to make fire, paper, pharmaceuticals, and explosives - then this is the book for you. See all 17 customer reviews...

50 Green Projects for the Evil Genius

2012-01-27T22:00:00.001-08:00

50 Ways to Be a Green Evil Genius!Who knew being environmentally conscious would ever be considered evil? With 50 Green Projects for the Evil Genius, you'll have wicked fun while reducing your impact on the planet and saving money.Using easy-to-find parts and tools, this do-it-yourself guide offers a wide variety of environmentally focused projects you can accomplish on your own. Topics covered include transportation, alternative fuels, solar, wind, and hydro power, home insulation, construction, and more. The projects in this unique guide range from easy to more complex and are designed to optimize your time and simplify your life! 50 Green Projects for the Evil Genius:Features step-by-step instructions for 50 environmentally friendly projects, complete with helpful illustrationsShows you how to design, build, and install your creationsAllows you to customize each project for your purposesRemoves the frustration factor-all required parts are listed, along with sources50 Green Projects for the Evil Genius provides you with all the plans and schematics you need to:Dramatically improve the fuel efficiency of your car

Amazon Sales Rank: #284739 in Books Published on: 2008-12-18 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .41" h x 8.40" w x 10.86" l, 1.05 pounds Binding: Paperback 208 pages

About the Author Jamil Shariff is a consultant with the Boxfish Group, a sustainable innovations incubator working with governments, businesses and advocacy groups to create policies and implement changes that achieve an efficient, healthier and more sustainable environment.

Most helpful customer reviews 6 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Fascinating book! By Adam Hunt I recently read this book and can recommend it wholeheartedly as a great broad-based introduction for anyone interested in getting started on making their lives more sustainable. Some of the projects are quite easy, others are more complex, but there is something for everyone here. Perhaps best of all adults will find lots of rainy-day projects that can be done with their kids, just watch out because you will probably discover that your kids are far ahead of you in understanding the need to make human habitation of this planet last longer. Overall the book is well written and easy to follow with a wealth of photographs. Even if you don't actually do any of the projects, just reading the book will expose you to a new philosophy of living, one that not only reduces waste, but will start you asking, "Instead of throwing that out, what can we make of it?" It is all contemplative food for thought, in a straightforward "how-to" book that is a call to think and then act! 5 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Love it. By Ron Rancourt I really enjoyed reading this book. The projects are well organized, from simple to more complex, and the additional background info into the energy+environment topics really drills home the message. I consider myself pretty well versed in the DIY stuff but I learned a few things from the book. Worthwhile purchase! 4 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Interesting But Not What I Was Looking For By J. Young This book has a lot of experiments you can try to see how different green concepts work and some theory behind them. It really seemed more like a primer on getting your head around some ideas rather than building useful everyday green solutions. For example, there are numerous examples on how to generate electricity but little in the way of how to store that energy or feed it back into the power grid, etc. See all 3 customer reviews...

I Fall Down (Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12)

2012-01-26T21:45:00.001-08:00

What happens when you trip or when you drop a ball? When something falls, which way does it fall? Down, down, down! Do you know what makes things fall? Renowned science author Vicki Cobb explains the weighty subject of gracity with such ease that even the youngest kids will understand. Follow this book with a child who loves to play. Have lots of dropping races. Together you'll learn how much fun falling for science can be. Exciting hands on activities and irresistible illustrations by Julia Gorton make Science Play a perfect way to learn about science...just for the fun of it!

Amazon Sales Rank: #637289 in Books Published on: 2004-10-26 Released on: 2004-10-26 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .40" h x 8.40" w x 10.26" l, .77 pounds Binding: Hardcover 30 pages

From School Library Journal PreSchool-K–Another winner from the author and illustrator of I Face the Wind (2003) and I See Myself (2002, both HarperCollins). This book tackles the subject of gravity. The language and sentence structure are simple, but the concept is never oversimplified. Using the same format as in the previous titles, Cobb presents a series of experiments for parents and children to do together, allowing youngsters to explore, discover, and then return to the text to have that learning reinforced. The clean lines and crisp colors in Gorton's graphic illustrations have lots of child appeal, and the creatively sized and colored typography further amplifies each concept. For example, when the text suggests that youngsters allow a spoonful of molasses to dribble back into the jar, the words, printed in a brown font, stretch, swirl, and descend accordingly. A refreshing and welcome addition to science collections.–Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist PreS-Gr. 1. This new entry in the Science Play series begins with a practical page for parents, urging them to gather the simple materials needed for the gravity exercises before beginning to read aloud to their children. The main text encourages kids to experiment with gravity by tossing different objects into the air and observing the comparative speed at which they fall and the force with which they land. Using white space well, the digital illustrations offer clearly defined images with a distinctive, retro look. Their eye-catching pizzazz will help hold the attention of the audience, but the book's real purpose will actually take place outside its pages. Attuned to the learning style of young children, Cobb's questions and suggestions offer kids the experience of the scientific process rather than the drone of simplified information. The text ends rather abruptly, but along the way it offers many chances for learning through play. Carolyn PhelanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved About the Author Vicki Cobb is a pro at explaining the cohesive and adhesive properties of water. but she can never seem to remember that plants like water too! She finally had to decorate her home with artificial plants to keep from killing the live ones. Ever since Science Experiments You Can Eat, Vicki Cobb has been delighting children, parents, and teachers with the fun of making science discoveries. Now, with the new Science Play series, she sets her sights on the youngest children. who are natural scientists and are always experimenting. Vicki Cobb and her husband divide their time between their homes in White Plains, New York. and Manchester, Vermont.

Most helpful customer reviews 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. all about gravity By Melissa Sack I Fall Down is part of the Science Play Series by Vicki Cobb. This book is part science information book and part experiment book. This book is on the topic of Gravity. The experiments use household objects such as balls, keys, blocks, shoes, honey and a few more. The book gave enough information on the topic of gravity to inform the reader with out overwhelming them. We would recommed this book to preschool aged children. This will introducte them to the concept of gravity in a way that they can easily understand. 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. For Ages 3-5 By TaxSlave I bought this book through Amazon for my 6 year old son, and he enjoyed the book but was quickly bored with it because it wasn't challenging enough for him. The words are really big with great pictures and educational do-it-yourself activities, but the book seems more for kids 3 to 5 years old. In fact, the book itself says it's for 3-5 year olds so I don't know why Amazon has it listed as a book appropriate for 4-8 year olds. I'm keeping the book anyway because I have a 2 year old who will definitely enjoy the book when he's old enough. Recommended! 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Educational and fun By Reader_SLC We use this book in our 3rd grade classroom to talk about the force of gravity. The book has lots of opportunities for the students to do experiments to find out about gravity. See all 5 customer reviews...

The Best of Make (Make 75 Projects from the pages of MAKE)

2012-01-25T21:00:00.001-08:00

After two years, MAKE has become one of most celebrated new magazines to hit the newsstands, and certainly one of the hottest reads. If you're just catching on to the MAKE phenomenon and wonder what you've missed, this book contains the best DIY projects from the magazine's first ten volumes -- a surefire collection of fun and challenging activities going back to MAKE's launch in early 2005. Find out why MAKE has attracted a passionate following of tech and DIY enthusiasts worldwide with one million web site visitors and a quarter of a million magazine readers. And why our podcasts consistently rank in the top-25 for computers and technology. With the Best of MAKE, you'll share the curiosity, zeal, and energy of Makers -- the citizen scientists, circuit benders, homemakers, students, automotive enthusiasts, roboticists, software developers, musicians, hackers, hobbyists, and crafters -- through this unique and inspiring assortment of DIY projects chosen by the magazine's editors. Learn to:Hack your gadgets and toys Program micontrollers to sense and react to things Take flight with rockets, planes, and other projectiles Make music from the most surprising of things Find new ways to take photos and make video Outfit yourself with the coolest tools Put together by popular demand, the Best of MAKE is the perfect gift for any maker, including current subscribers who missed early volumes of the magazine. Do you or someone you know have a passion for the magic of tinkering, hacking, and creation? Do you enjoy finding imaginative and unexpected uses for the technology and materials in your life? Then get on board with the Best of MAKE!

Amazon Sales Rank: #365258 in Books Published on: 2007-10-31 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .81" h x 6.68" w x 9.36" l, 1.78 pounds Binding: Paperback 384 pages

About the Author Mark Frauenfelder is a writer and illustrator living in Los Angeles, and the editor of MAKE. He is the cofounder of the popular Boing Boing weblog and was an editor at Wired from 1993-1998.

Most helpful customer reviews 19 of 19 people found the following review helpful. Plenty of fun and learning for very little financial outlay... By Thomas Duff I have enjoyed O'Reilly's MAKE magazine a lot, so when you get a full-length book of 75 of the "best" projects, it's worth reading. In The Best of MAKE by Mark Frauenfelder and Gareth Branwyn, you'll find a wide swath of projects and tips that are not only fun to work on, but that have practical purposes. And not all of them involve soldering irons and electronics... Contents: Tools; Electronics; Microcontrollers; Toys & Games; Robots; Music; Flight & Projectiles; Photography & Video; Cars & Engines; Index Chapter 1 - Tools - preps you for what you'll need to get started on DIY projects, such as breadboards, needlenose pliers, lots and lots of wire, etc. Even in this chapter, there are projects you can do, such as planning your own toolbench using Google's SketchUp software, making driver bits to unscrew "tamper-proof" fasteners, and what emergency items you might want to have on a keychain. I really liked the list of items you should include on a USB thumbdrive that you carry around with you. I have a "must do" project right there. The following chapters divide up the projects based on general topic. For instance, Electronics has you making LED "throwies", low-powered LED lamps, adding a rumble-pack to your mouse, and interfacing your digital clock radio to a gaming system gun. Imagine shooting your alarm clock each morning to turn it off... :) One of my favorite projects did not even require any real tools. The author of this particular project showed how you can use "urban camouflage" to make your car or truck appear to be a corporate fleet vehicle. With some strategically placed numbers, letters, and colored tape, your plain while SUV can become an official motor vehicle that appears to have some level of importance and can cause others to not question its presence. Not a bad ruse if you're needing to stop somewhere for 10 minutes, and the only option is the official "loading zone". Of course, I'm sure you'll never use this information to do anything illegal or wrong, either... :) If you're at all into off-beat hacks, strange contraptions, and unusual conversation pieces, you'll find plenty to consider in The Best of MAKE. If you're already adept with electronics and soldering irons, there's not much in there that you won't be able to do. And if this is your first foray into that world, you can afford to make plenty of mistakes, as most of the projects use cast-off items you can find in your local junk yard or thrift shop. Either way, you'll have fun and learn a few things in the process. 9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. Tinkerers Outlet!!! By Daniel McKinnon MAKE is a magazine for tinkerers and hobbyists that like to build fun projects with their spare time. If you are one of these people you will find 'The Best of MAKE' to be well worth your reading curriculum. With 75 projects that deal with technology, electronics, music, etc there is something in here for everyone!! This review is going to be short and simple. If you like to play with a variety of things and enjoy playing in your basement or garage building and experimenting, you WILL like this book. If this isn't your cup of tea, well stop reading and go do something else :^) Seriously, if you are interested in this type of stuff there is no way you won't find this book well worth your time for reading, enjoy!! ***** RECOMMENDED 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. projects By N. Lomen My husband saw this in a bookstore and later said he wished he'd bought it, so I found it on Amazon - and it was a bargain. My husband and 16 year old son have found a couple of neat projects to replicate. Now all the neighborhood boys are making ping pong ball shooters using cardboard tubes, plastic water bottles and hairspray. Next up is a potato launcher. See all 11 customer reviews...

What Magnets Can Do (Rookie Read-About Science)

2012-01-24T20:45:00.001-08:00

From friendly dolphins to giant pandas, from icebergs and glaciers to energy from the sun, from magnets to solids, liquids, and gases, Rookie Read-About Science is a natural addition to the primary-grade classroom with books that cover every part of the science curricula. Includes: animals, nature, scientific principles, the environment, weather, and much more!

Amazon Sales Rank: #55103 in Books Published on: 1995-09 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .9" h x 5.88" w x 7.22" l, .13 pounds Binding: Paperback 32 pages ISBN13: 9780516460345 Condition: New Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

About the Author Allan Fowler is the author of several nonfiction books for children.

Most helpful customer reviews 22 of 22 people found the following review helpful. Good reporting. By A Customer This book is like a brightly illustrated science report by a young student scientist. It shows simple magnets, with positive and negative poles, attracting and repelling. It shows what is attracted and repelled (metals, plastics, wood, etc.) It provides great re-inforcement or whrrat you child has learned or will learn by playing with real magnets.The book goes further, with identification of electro-magnets and where you might see them in use.It's simple and exciting and makes you (or your child) want to play with magnets! 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Excellent for Classroom Use By CreatedBy1 Donated this to a kindergarten class and the kids and the teacher loved it. Hopefully, it will inspire kids to go into science. 0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Tiny book but great information on magnets for young children By Z Hayes I admit I was a tad disappointed when this book arrived. It is so small and thin I wondered how it could possibly help my first grader understand what magnets are about. Well, I did purchase several other books on the subject but this provided the basis for understanding what magnets are about, at a level a young child can easily comprehend.The book covers basic information on magnets, and how magnets attract and repel, as well as the objects magnets repel and attract. I also purchased a simple magnet kit to go along with this and some iron filings. My husband and I found this to be an excellent primer on magnets for our daughter before embarking on her first science project, and yes, it is on magnets. See all 3 customer reviews...

STAMP 2 Communications and Control Projects

2012-01-23T20:30:00.001-08:00

* The perfect resource for hobbyists who've been searching for an opportunity to incorporate the versatile STAMP II controller into their projects * Step-by-step guidance needed to build, program, and customize 20 great communications-specific projects using the BASIC STAMP microprocessor * Teaches both building and programming with an emphasis on customization * Projects range from simple serial communications to complex, 12-channel, web-based alarm reporting * CD-ROM includes all the software, photos, and schematics needed to build the projects

Amazon Sales Rank: #1201834 in Books Published on: 2003-03-21 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .18 pounds Binding: Paperback 240 pages

From the Back Cover CD-ROM WITH SOFTWARE, PHOTOS, SCHEMATICS, AND MORE! EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO INCORPORATE THE STAMP II CONTROLLER INTO YOUR NEXT COMMUNICATIONS PROJECT When it comes to adding power to complex electronic circuits, the BASIC STAMP II microprocessor is the standard against which all others are judged. And now, thanks to STAMP II Communications and Control Projects, learning how to integrate this versatile technology with your next project is easier than ever. With the help of detailed schematics, informative photos, and an insightful CD-ROM, STAMP II Communications and Control Projects leads you step by step through 24 communications-specific projects. As a result, you’ll gain a firm understanding of STAMP II and its programming methodologies — as well as the ability to customize it for your own needs and operating system. Basic enough for hobbyists — yet detailed enough for designers and technicians — STAMP II Communications and Control Projects will help you add untold efficiencies and more fun to your projects. Just some of the exciting projects you’ll find inside: * Touch Tone Decoder for R/C Control * Cell-Alert * Caller ID * Morse Code Keyer * Ham Radio Mailbox * Ham Repeater Controller * Wireless Multichannel Alarm System * Lightning Monitoring System * Aerial R/C Photography * Xlink System * And much, much more! About the Author Tom Petruzzellis is an engineer whose assignments currently include working with geophysical field equipment at the University of Binghamton (NY). A resident of Vestal, NY, Tom has more than 30 years of experience in the field of electronics and has authored many articles and books on the subject.

Most helpful customer reviews 18 of 18 people found the following review helpful. Errors By A Customer I had high hopes for the book... but...There are some nice projects in the book, but as I attempt to load the programs into my stamp2 I note that many have errors. Most of them are minor. They used the wrong symbol for comments. Easy to fix, just change and the stamp program points them out to you. But...There were a couple of projects that I REALLY wanted to do, like the balloon telemetry device. Turns out the code is NOT for a stamp2.. it is for a stamp 1. As I understand it, the code is completely different. Another program wouldn't load either.. I haven't figured out why yet.. but I suspect it is the same problem.Why do so many books or magazine articles have errors. Why risk spending the money on all the parts when it may well not work due to errors. Could authors please triple check!?The book may still be worth it in that there are some fun prjects that DO seem to have good code. But.. are the parts diagrams right? 14 of 14 people found the following review helpful. A very strange book By Peter A. Stark This book has a lot of interesting ideas and information, but it also raises a lot of questions. First of all, the cover says that the enclosed "CD contains all the software, photos and schematics needed...", but that's not true - there are no photos or schematics on it. A lot of the schematics have errors, some of them very major - the kind that would blow a fuse. The text likewise has errors. It sometimes refers to custom parts, but often doesn't specify where or how to get them. Sometimes it omits pin numbers on ICs. In general, it is useful to someone who knows the field, but can be lethal to a true beginner. But my main problem is this -- where did the material come from? Some of the programs have other people's names in them. The text and some photos refer to printed circuit boards, but there are no pc board layouts in the book. At one point, the text says to mount the supplied components, suggesting that someone, somewhere markets that project as a kit of parts. In any case, I feel that there is just too much material in this book to be the work of a single author who also happens to have a full-time job. I think it would have been nice to specifically credit the source for each individual project, so that the reader would have a place to go for further information. 14 of 15 people found the following review helpful. Stamp this one off your wish list By A Customer A very catchy cover that promises to deliver some really interesting projects. Unfortunately, it is a dismal disappointment. I'm surprised that the "editor" even showed her name.The text is badly written, with a lot of sentences repeated. I found this feature quite annoying. The author's writing style is tedious, but if you can't fall asleep at night, try getting through a chapter of this and you'll be snoozing in no time!I guess you can use this book to "Stamp out insomnia"!Written by an engineer from central New York, its no wonder the style is awful and the code doesn't work! Engineers in CNY are always rushed to get product out the door, whatever the cost to quality, and the fact that this book is rife with errors and typos only shows the lack of technical skills of the "editor".Nice, pretty cover though. See all 7 customer reviews...

Preventive Diplomacy at the UN (United Nations Intellectual History Project Series)

2012-01-22T19:45:00.001-08:00

The concept of preventive diplomacy has captivated the United Nations since it was first articulated by Secretary-General Dag HammarskjÃ¶ld a half-century ago. Successive generations of diplomats and statesmen have invested in the idea that diplomatic efforts might be able to head off international conflicts and disasters. Dramatic successes, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, contrast with dramatic failures, such as the inability of UN efforts to halt the invasion of Iraq in 2003. In this careful study, distinguished former UN civil servant Bertrand G. Ramcharan traces the history of the practice of preventive diplomacy by UN Secretaries-General, the Security Council, and other UN organizations, and assesses the record of preventive diplomacy and examines its prospects in an age of genocide and terrorism.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1511668 in Books Published on: 2008-05-07 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.02 pounds Binding: Paperback 296 pages ISBN13: 9780253219831 Condition: New Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Review "A superb work of scholarship by one of the most versatile scholar/practitioners of the UN." —Margaret Vogt, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (Margaret Vogt, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs 2009)"No task is more fundamental to the United Nations than the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict. Prevention, in particular, must be central to all our efforts. —Kofi Annan, former UN Secretar" —GeneralThis book is the tenth volume in the United Nations Intellectual History Project. It covers the concept of preventive diplomacy at the UN, making it one of the few works in the series on the peace and security functions of the UN. After describing preventive diplomacy before the UN's formation, Ramcharan (international human rights law, Geneva Graduate Institute of International Studies) focuses on the work of the Security Council and the first seven Secretaries-General. This is followed by an informative chapter on Secretary-General U Thant's role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, perhaps the high point of UN preventive diplomatic negotiation. Subsequent chapters focus on preventive diplomacy by representatives of the Secretary-General, by UN subregional offices (e.g., in West Africa), by UN peacekeepers or observers, and by regional organizations. The author also broadens the concept's application of preventive diplomacy to economic, social, and human rights; to humanitarian affairs; and to genocide, terrorism, and nontraditional threats such as organized crime or nuclear smuggling. By broadening the notion of prevention, he argues for the relevance of the UN system. In the end, however, this is mostly a summary of UN speeches, memoranda, reports, and talking points that will not convince skeptics of the UN. Summing Up: Optional. Graduate and research collections. --ChoiceS. Waalkes, Malone College, Feb. 2009 (S. Waalkes, Malone College ) From the Publisher "A superb work of scholarship by one of the most versatile scholar/practitioners of the UN." --Margaret Vogt, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs "No task is more fundamental to the United Nations than the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict. Prevention, in particular, must be central to all our efforts." --Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General About the Author Bertrand G. Ramcharan is Professor of International Human Rights Law at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International Studies and Chancellor of the University of Guyana. He was a member of the UN Secretariat for 32 years and served as Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. He is the author or editor of more than 25 books on international law, human rights, and the United Nations.

Construction Project Management (3rd Edition)

2012-01-21T19:30:00.001-08:00

Construction Project Management, Third Edition provides readers with the “big picture” of the construction management process, giving a perspective as to how the construction industry functions in relation to the national economy and in the public's eye. This book focuses on the collaborative effort required to complete any public or private construction project, providing the construction professional with the skills needed to work with and alongside the owner representative, the designer, and within the public's eye. It explains in detail the project elements and environment, and the responsibilities of the varied project professionals, and follows in detail the chronology of a project.

Amazon Sales Rank: #12672 in Books Published on: 2008-04-18 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .2 pounds Binding: Hardcover 384 pages

Review "While reading Construction Project Management, I recalled the days early in my career as an architect/engineer. The description of weekly meetings and topics covered, estimates put together first by the architect on a square foot basis and the more detailed estimates of the general and subcontractors, and checking and coordination of shop drawings all rang true to my memory of how things actually happened on the job." — William W. Campbell, Montgomery College (retired) From the Back Cover To be successful in today's construction environment, project managers must utilize essential leadership, communication, and motivational skills. This book emphasizes these attributes as it systematically follows the construction process from beginning to end. Among topics examined are the roles of project participants, the bid process, planning, scheduling, estimating, controlling the project, safety issues, and legal and regulatory issues. Sidebars, authored by industry leaders, examine actual incidents and provide insights into the subject matter. This book will be invaluable to superintendents, estimators, and field managers, as well as project managers. Features of Construction Project Management, Professional Edition, include: Entire chapters devoted to leadership and construction law Comprehensive presentation of content from the project owner's viewpoint, as well as the contractor's perspective Coverage of conflict resolution About the Author Professor Gould is the Ahlborg Professor of Construction Management at Roger Williams University where he serves as the director of the Construction Management Program. He has over 20 years of teaching experience at the university level. His expertise lies in the field of Construction Project Management, Estimating, Scheduling and Project Control. He has authored two textbooks in these fields. In addition to his teaching, he actively consults in the field having worked with a wide range of public and private clients including the U.S. Air Force, Sears Roebuck, and NASA. He has developed and taught numerous seminar and short courses in both public and in-house settings. He has served as a seminar instructor for R.S. Means for over 15 years. He has served as the director for the Northeast region of the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) an organization established for the purpose of supporting and disseminating construction knowledge. He is also active in the American Council of Construction Education. (ACCE) where he has serves on the board of directors and as chair of the Guidance committee. ACCE is the organization that accredits Construction Management Programs. Ms. Joyce has over 30 years experience in the design and construction industry with a concentration on academic and cultural environments. She has served in the past in project management roles, focusing on teams, processes and strategic planning. In the past five years, she has overseen the development of over $500 Million in higher education and museum programs, designs and construction. She is presently working as a construction consultant on a large museum project in Canada.

Most helpful customer reviews 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. A good introductory overview - but a little weak on real world applications By J. F. Mccarthy This book uniquely covered the traditional construction management subjects of estimating, scheduling, control, then added preconstruction activities and project delivery methods, followed by construction law and safety. These subject, which are integrated together in the work world, are usally found in 3-4 different books. Some additional depth, such as adding order of magnitude estimating, and estimating by assemblies, was a welcome addition. A little more "this is how it is really done in the real world" would have been helpful.Choosing Project Success - A Guide for Building Professionals 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Good exposure to a lot of basic principles By johnnyb588 This can give you a basic idea of what management is going to be like, and the tasks that will be necessary, but in all reality, a book isn't going to tell you how to do your job. If you have to buy this for coursework, I still don't know if I would consider buying it unless it's mandatory. Even then, you could just check it out from the library if they've got one or two on reserve. There isn't a whole lot in this book that isn't common sense, and there isn't a whole lot that will really get you anywhere if you're already a professional. I spent my money on it because I always bought all my books for my classes, but this is one of those books that I rarely opened before and I will probably never open it again. 14 of 21 people found the following review helpful. Construction managment By mike defilippo This book was written by my old professor at wentworth institute of technology. Although he only gave me a B in the class i have to say the book was written very well ;). It is designed to give the reader important information of construction management in a very basic way. If you are a beginner in the construction business you can not go wrong with this book. See all 8 customer reviews...

The Man Who Ran the Moon: James E. Webb, NASA, and the Secret History of Project Apollo

2012-01-20T19:00:00.001-08:00

One man, more than any other, created the giant space agency we know today as NASA: James E. Webb. The Man Who Ran the Moon explores a time when Webb and an elite group of charismatic business associates took control of America's Apollo moon project, sometimes with disturbing results. In 1967, NASA was rocked by disaster and Apollo was grounded. Webb was savaged in a Congressional investigation. Not just a matter of broken hardware, there were accusations of corruption at the heart of America's space effort. Some of Webb's political allies had been caught up in the biggest scandal ever to hit Washington prior to Watergate. The backwash unfairly tainted NASA's chief. By the time of the first triumphant lunar landing, Webb had resigned and his name had all but been forgotten. But he's the man who got us to the moon, and the power base he forged in the 1960s has kept NASA on a solid footing to this day. Washington insiders now acknowledge Webb as one of the greatest leaders in modern American history. No space boss since his time has wielded so much power and such a powerful story.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1212046 in Books Published on: 2006-05-24 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.05 pounds Binding: Hardcover 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly Journalist Bizony's excellent corrective to NASA's mythologized history takes an unflinching look at how James Webb, a North Carolina farm boy turned Washington insider, ran his end of the space race as NASA's administrator under presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Presiding over the agency during its build-up to the Apollo moon mission, Webb grew the agency into a research and development behemoth by leaning heavily on the old boy network: he called in favors, brokered backroom deals, bullied those who weren't in lockstep with his vision and commandeered vast sums of federal budget money-all the while driven, Bizony contends, by "pure-hearted ideals." Bizony shows both the spectacular successes and failures leading up to the Apollo lunar landing and discusses success's cost in terms of dollars, human life and political ambition. The book closes with a chapter detailing the crippling blows dealt to NASA by the Nixon administration, a time period that saw the beginning of the space shuttle project. Hampered by budget restrictions, NASA engineers had to design a "dangerously imperfect piece of technology" that later resulted in two famous disasters. Bizony laments the militarizing of NASA under Reagan and the "wavering" public support for expanding the space program, but this firebrand of a book should rekindle interest.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist The prosaic side of space exploration--the politics of the aerospace industry--is insightfully illustrated in Bizony's biography of James Webb, who headed NASA from 1961 to 1968. Webb's imprint remains on the organization for good and ill, and Bizony's consciousness of Webb's legacy--a post-Apollo NASA unsure of its goals--enhances his retrospective on Webb's tenure. A lawyer who cut his political teeth as a New Dealer, Webb believed in large-scale government-industry coordination, and thought he was creating a model of "space age management" in his leadership of the crash program to land on the moon. His model collapsed with the 1967 space capsule fire that killed three Apollo astronauts; an investigation exposed deals cut by the manufacturer that snagged the contract. This pork-barrel underside to the history of Apollo is a crucial corrective to the traditional emphasis on astronauts and missions, and Bizony carries it off with investigative determination while retaining balance. Emerging from the bureaucratic thickets with an ultimately praiseworthy portrait of Webb, this should circulate with the space program set. Gilbert TaylorCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved About the Author Over the last decade, Piers Bizony has written about space exploration and cosmology for a wide variety of magazines in the U.S. and U.K., including Focus, Omni, Wired, and The Independent.Bizony's award-winning book on the making of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey has become a standard reference work for the movie's many fans around the world. In 1997, The Rivers of Mars, his critically acclaimed analysis of the life on Mars debate, was nominated for NASA's Eugene M. Emme Award for Astronautical Writing, while Island in the Sky investigated the politics of the International Space Station. Starman, produced as a book and a BBC film in partnership with TV producer Jamie Doran, told the real story of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's life for the first time.Bizony is also a creative consultant for science-related public projects, having helped design a planetarium in Poitiers, France, and a science complex in Bristol, England, where he lives.

Most helpful customer reviews 20 of 20 people found the following review helpful. "Space Age Management" By Robert I. Hedges This long overdue biography of Jim Webb fills a needed void in the literature of the Apollo program. Webb, a disarming but astute partisan Democrat from North Carolina ran NASA during the crucial years leading up to the Apollo program. This book not only details his personal life, but the wheeling and dealing that went on behind the scenes in Washington to get to the moon. Nobody doubts that Webb was brilliant, but Webb was not without flaws. He was totally infatuated with Roosevelt-era New Deal big government, and ran NASA accordingly, sometimes to the detriment of the program. He adopted the mantra of "Space Age Management" and took it to mean a giant, monolithic government run program straight from FDR's playbook. I think the book does a great job explaining Webb's less than savory relationships to politicians and others of questionable ethics in both the Kennedy and (especially) Johnson administrations such as Bobby Baker. It also recalls a less than savory battle with fellow Democrat and political climber, Walter Mondale, that exposes Washington political opportunism at its worst. I rate the book four stars as the book tends to downplay the significance of ethically borderline issues that occurred in Webb's tenure. To the credit of the book, Bizony does correctly point out that Kennedy was not the true champion of space he is revered to be today, but saw space exploration as a politically expedient course to follow, as did Johnson. On the plus side, the author absolutely nails the deplorable history of NASA since Apollo and presents an accurate and devastating portrait of the Shuttle and International Space Station programs. Mr. Bizony correctly identifies the root cause of the problems in both programs as an unholy alliance of political objectives and unfocused technology. Webb's stature rose significantly in my eyes when I read Bizony's account of the hostility Webb had for Robert McNamara, another big government technocrat, but one without the vision of either Kennedy or Webb. NASA veteran Bob Seamans comes off as a much needed moderating force within the administration, and this book also details the fascinating relationship between Seamans and Webb. Overall this is a noteworthy book. While it occasionally seems to come off the rails and get sidetracked, Piers Bizony always manages to tie up loose ends, resulting in a detailed and historically important book. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the space program, and further to students of management to learn not only the successes, but failures of the biggest single peacetime logistical puzzle in history. 16 of 18 people found the following review helpful. The Business and Political Side of Getting Man on the Moon By G. P. Roberts With "The Man Who Ran the Moon: James E. Webb, NASA, and the Secret History of Project Apollo" Piers Bizony has written a wide ranging history about the business side of getting man on the moon. While many books focus on the astronauts and some focus on engineering, this book covers the political side of space flight. There are times when the author sounds as though he is losing his perspective as a historian/biographer and begins to expound on the virtues of the democratic party (Jim Webb was a lifelong Democrat) but after a few quick barbs about how things could be better today if we only learned from our past he rapidly gets back to the subject at hand. The book does an excellent job of explaining John F. Kennedy and how he got behind the space program. The reader will see how without the soviets the American leadership would have never made space a priority. The "race" with the Russians has been well documented but this book goes deep into the American political system and how our government reacted to the race. The reader will see the give and take in Washington and how Webb spread the money around the

Done in the Sun: Solar Projects for Children

2012-01-19T18:45:00.001-08:00

In easy-to-read and easy-to-do style, Anne Hillerman gives us a wonderful how-to book for children ages 6 and up. The book teaches the basic principles of solar energy while providing fun experiments that can be done at home or in school. Fully illustrated, black and white line drawings, bibliography.

Amazon Sales Rank: #79467 in Books Published on: 1983-06-01 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .25" h x 8.28" w x 8.31" l, .19 pounds Binding: Paperback 32 pages

About the Author Anne Hillerman grew up and raised her own children in Santa Fe. A professional journalist for more than 20 years, Anne is the author of other books including Children's Guide to Santa Fe, also from Sunstone Press. She is the daughter of Southwest mystery writer Tony Hillerman and lives in Santa Fe with her photographer husband.

Most helpful customer reviews 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. More like a pamphlet than a book By K. Burns I overlooked the page length of this book and was shocked to find that it is not even 1/4" thick. It is more like a pamphlet than a book, and I'm not feeling very happy about having paid $6.95 for it. I haven't read it yet, so will post about the content later. See all 1 customer reviews...

The Laramie Project

2012-01-18T18:30:00.001-08:00

On October 7, 1998, a young gay man was discovered bound to a fence in the hills outside Laramie, Wyoming, savagely beaten and left to die in an act of hate that shocked the nation. Matthew Shepard’s death became a national symbol of intolerance, but for the people of Laramie the event was deeply personal, and it’s they we hear in this stunningly effective theater piece, a deeply complex portrait of a community.

Amazon Sales Rank: #3465 in Books Published on: 2001-09-11 Released on: 2001-09-11 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 7.95" h x .38" w x 5.13" l, .25 pounds Binding: Paperback 128 pages

From Publishers Weekly Moises Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Project have written a play documenting the aftermath of the savage killing of Matthew Shepard, including the perspectives of both friends and strangers: The Laramie Project. This innovative theatrical composition, structured not in scenes, but in "moments," addresses the various issues relating to the tragedy of Shepard, a young gay man whose murder has since become a symbol for America's struggle against intolerance. Kaufman's approach is actor-based, as opposed to text-based; a side-effect of this actor-based approach is that in print form it seems as though something is missing. However, the play promises to move the reader with its authentic portrayal of a small town facing a terrifying event. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal Adult/High School-This remarkable play takes the form of a series of juxtaposed monologues, culled from hundreds of interviews that the authors conducted with residents of Laramie, WY, after the fatal beating of Matthew Shepard in 1998. Additional speeches are taken from journals the authors kept while they were involved in this project. From these fragments, a powerful whole is created, giving readers and audiences a full and shimmering picture of a quiet town suddenly thrust into the media spotlight and hastily branded as "backward." Shepard's friends are heard from, as are the friends of his convicted killers. Masterfully woven together to breathtaking effect are statements from Laramie's religious leaders-some of whom condemn the murder, others of whom condemn the victim. A thoughtful and moving theatrical tour de force.Emily Lloyd, Fairfax County Public Library, VACopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal The savage murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard in October 1998 left deep wounds in the psyche of Laramie, WY, and in that of our entire nation. Soon after Matthew's death, Kaufman and members of his Tectonic Theater Project (also responsible for the highly acclaimed Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde) made a series of visits to Laramie over an 18-month period, conducting hundreds of face-to-face interviews with the town's citizens in order to create this piece. The words and voices of these people, including the college student who first discovered Matthew's broken body, Matthew's friends, teachers, the two young men responsible for his death, and Matthew's father, make this a deeply moving and brutally realistic dramatic experience. This true story of hate, fear, hope, and courage touched and changed many lives and will do so for everyone who reads or watches a performance of this theatrical masterpiece. Highly recommended for all collections. Howard Miller, St. Louis Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Most helpful customer reviews 20 of 20 people found the following review helpful. For a parent, almost unwatchable By Kenneth Wolman I am the 61-year-old father of a 24-year-old son who appeared in The Laramie Project two years ago, when he was a college senior. I sat in the front row of the theater in the round in which the play was produced. The play did not "get to me"--it dragged me into the worst What If a parent can have: what if my son were gay (he's not), what if he were murdered--how would I react, what would I feel? The question was answered via the actor who played Dennis Sheperd. When he delivered his monologue to the Aaron McKinney character, and referred to Matt Sheperd as his firstborn son and his hero, I absolutely lost it. Hatred, a desire for vengeance, but a recognition that this was the start of a time to heal. A message like this can go out of style...never. For any parent, The Laramie Project is terribly difficult to witness. But witness it you must. 21 of 23 people found the following review helpful. A powerful play about a pivotal American tragedy By Michael J. Mazza The 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was a watershed event. This tragedy stimulated debates on anti-gay prejudice and violence. "The Laramie Project," by Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project, attempts to find meaning in the murder and its aftermath.Kaufman and the other members of the theater group travelled to Laramie, Wyoming, which was the focal point of the Matthew Shepard tragedy, in order to interview the people of the town. As the play's opening states, the dialogue of the play is drawn from these interviews as well as from other sources. Thus the play's language has a raw authenticity. Many different voices are heard: a policewoman, Matthew's father, a Catholic priest, a lesbian college professor, Matthew's killers, a Unitarian minister, a viciously anti-gay protestor, etc.An interesting aspect of the play is the presence of Tony Kushner's play "Angels in America" as a sort of "background" text. "Angels" is mentioned more than once in this play, and indeed, there are significant parallels between the two texts. I recommend that people read both of these remarkable works.Many issues are addressed in "Project." One character notes that "we need to own this crime." This play is a not only a morally challenging attempt to deal with a high profile tragedy, but also a compelling work of art. 12 of 12 people found the following review helpful. A masterwork By A Customer This play defies words. You probably already know this, but this play is structured as a "docudrama," somewhere between a documentary and a plot/character driven play. Laramie weaves together threads of national strife, the eternal fight against hatred and a plethora of deep, powerful characters. One of my favorite moments in this play comes when a middle aged gay man sits in his apartment and describes the rapidly growing group of people marching in a parade honoring Matthew in his last days, how eventually more people are marching for Matthew than for the parade itself. This play is a triumph of the human spirit that has arisen from a truly dark moment in recent American history. The recent HBO movie is a well-done rendition, although, having seen three different productions and been involved in one, I must say that the play is a bit more moving. Read it, and for the sake of the late Matthew Shepard, if you get the chance, SEE IT. See all 32 customer reviews...

Robotics: Introduction, Programming, and Projects (2nd Edition)

2012-01-17T18:00:00.001-08:00

More descriptive, less mathematical, and easier to read than other books on the subject of robotics. Provides an introduction to robotics—definition, history, description, applications, maintenance, human safety, artificial intelligence, rationale, the future. Investigates the intelligence of the robot and reviews robot sensors. Focuses on software, but devotes considerable attention to the electronics (computer hardware) of the robot. Designed to meet the needs of those with or without extensive technical background.

Amazon Sales Rank: #773271 in Books Published on: 1998-09-06 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 2.10 pounds Binding: Paperback 489 pages

From the Publisher Presents basic themes and practical applications in the fields of robotics. From the Back Cover More descriptive, less mathematical, and easier to read than other books on the subject of robotics. Provides an introduction to robotics—definition, history, description, applications, maintenance, human safety, artificial intelligence, rationale, the future. Investigates the intelligence of the robot and reviews robot sensors. Focuses on software, but devotes considerable attention to the electronics (computer hardware) of the robot. Designed to meet the needs of those with or without extensive technical background.

Most helpful customer reviews 0 of 3 people found the following review helpful. The book was in good shape By P. Shenoy I bought the book for my son. He was happy with it. It was in good condition. See all 1 customer reviews...

Reference Data for Engineers, Ninth Edition: Radio, Electronics, Computers and Communications

2012-01-16T17:45:00.001-08:00

Reference Data for Engineers is the most respected, reliable, and indispensable reference tool for technical professionals around the globe. Written by professionals for professionals, this book is a complete reference for engineers, covering a broad range of topics. It is the combined effort of 96 engineers, scientists, educators, and other recognized specialists in the fields of electronics, radio, computer, and communications technology. By providing an abundance of information on essential, need-to-know topics without heavy emphasis on complicated mathematics, Reference Data for Engineers is an absolute "must-have" for every engineer who requires comprehensive electrical, electronics, and communications data at his or her fingertips. Featured in the Ninth Edition is updated coverage on intellectual property and patents, probability and design, antennas, power electronics, rectifiers, power supplies, and properties of materials. Useful information on units, constants and conversion factors, active filter design, antennas, integrated circuits, surface acoustic wave design, and digital signal processing is also included. The Ninth Edition also offers new knowledge in the fields of satellite technology, space communication, microwave science, telecommunication, global positioning systems, frequency data, and radar. * Widely acclaimed as the most practical reference ever published for a wide range of electronics and computer professionals, from technicians through post-graduate engineers.* Provides a great way to learn or review the basics of various technologies, with a minimum of tables, equations, and other heavy math.

Amazon Sales Rank: #146973 in Books Published on: 2001-10-10 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 2.71" h x 7.37" w x 10.26" l, 6.02 pounds Binding: Hardcover 1672 pages

Review This book provides both concise and in-depth coverage. It will benefit telecommunciation engineers, designers and business managers who need to know more about modern telecommunication technology. -Quality Progress, July 2002 From the Publisher By providing an abundance of information on essential, need-to-know topics without heavy emphasis on complicated mathematics, Reference Data for Engineers is an absolute "must-have" for every engineer who requires comprehensive electrical, electronics, and communications data at his or her fingertips. Featured in the Ninth Edition is updated coverage on intellectual property and patents, probability and design, antennas, power electronics, rectifiers, power supplies, and properties of materials. Useful information on units, constants and conversion factors, active filter design, antennas, integrated circuits, surface acoustic wave design, and digital signal processing is also included. The Ninth Edition also offers new knowledge in the fields of satellite technology, space communication, microwave science, telecommunication, global positioning systems, frequency data, and radar. About the Author Mac E. Van Valkenburg (Ph.D., Stanford University, 1952) was Grainger Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois from 1982 until his retirement in 1988. He was a member of the Dean's Advisory Board at Purdue University, the Advisory Board at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the Board of Directors of Engineering Information, Inc. In addition to serving as Vice President for IEEE publication activities in 1970 and 1971, Dr. Van Valkenburg was editor of the Proceedings of the IEEE and the IEEE Transactions on Circuit Theory, as well as editor-in-chief of the IEEE Press. Of the many distinguished books he has written, his first, Network Analysis, sold nearly a million copies.

Most helpful customer reviews 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Excellent reference tool By A Customer I really like this book! I bought the 4th edition (1956) at a used book store and was anxious to get the latest version. I purchased it in 2001 when it came out, and have been very pleased with it. I would recommend this book to anyone involved in electronics. 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Great Book! By Maurey L. Freifelder This book is jamb packed with information, so much it makes your head spin. Good refererence when your in a jamb. Great use for design and EMI solutions. 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Reference Data for Engineers - RF/Telecom/Electrical By M. C. Maguire I have a slightly earlier edition it is the first book I grab when I need to refresh my memory or answer that question that has my project team stumped. I bought the latest version for my summer intern - and he has been quite pleased with how much it has helped his 4th year electrical engineering studies. A good overall reference covering radio licensing to satellites, logic gates to protocols. Most thumbed reference book on my shelf. See all 3 customer reviews...

Inexpensive Science Experiments for Young Children, Grades K-1

2012-01-15T17:30:00.001-08:00

This series makes science fun for both you and your students. There are reproducible posters on laboratory safety and on the Scientific Process. Inexpensive Science Experiments for Young Children Grades K-1 is organized according to national science standards and includes inquiry-based learning with hands-on and minds-on activities. There are reproducible learning games that tap into prior knowledge and engage young science students. Experiments on the human body, the sun, structures and machines, and animals and plants are just a few of the inexpensive and engaging activities that will spark student learning.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1208605 in Books Published on: 2004-06-22 Original language: English Binding: Paperback 80 pages

Evaluating Mineral Projects: Applications and Misconceptions

2012-01-14T17:00:00.001-08:00

Whether you're an experienced evaluator of mineral projects, a student, or a decision maker who is not a practitioner but must use evaluation results, this new book is an essential reference for your bookshelf. Designed to complement traditional engineering texts, this book emphasizes the concepts of mineral project evaluation rather than computational details. It describes various economic evaluation techniques typically employed (including conventional cost analysis, discounted cash flow, and option analysis), their uses, and their relationships with geological, technological, and financial evaluations. Also discussed are the strengths and weaknesses of commonly practiced evaluation methods. This book explains the practical difficulties in conducting an analysis and correctly interpreting the results, as well as the use of alternative techniques. Because many existing texts do not adequately discuss the meanings and application of merit measures, such as net present value (NPV) or internal rate of return (IRR), this book represents an exciting departure from standard reference tools. Contents include: why NPV and IRR are both valid and useful merit measures the shortcomings of conventional NPV and IRR analysis the dangers of scenario analysis why conventional incremental analysis is not needed to correctly calculate IRR why the desire to achieve NPV-consistent IRR is misleading how competitive cost analysis is conducted and used why option pricing is an important addition to the evaluation process. When used correctly, evaluation methods are powerful tools to help us understand the economics of investment projects. Don't miss out on this new source. Contains glossary and full index.

Amazon Sales Rank: #365189 in Books Published on: 1998-03-01 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .39" h x 8.46" w x 10.98" l, 1.09 pounds Binding: Paperback 172 pages

Most helpful customer reviews 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Evaluating Mineral Projects By Seow It Sze The mineral evaluator has that peculiar necessity of requiring knowledge equally in the two fields of his discipline: the physical science that explains minerals and the financial science that arranges the numbers describing their configuration. This is a good introduction to financial side of the discipline of evaluating mineral resources. The concepts are described from scratch with great lucidity. Abstruse concepts of the financial apparatus are given a commonsensical turn which deftly assist the understanding. Methods of valuation which rely on geological and minerological investigations are unfortunately sparsely treated or absent. For a quick introduction to the subject, one that is easy to understand and thorough on the financial side of mineral appraisal, I do recommend this book. Seow It Sze 0 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Comments By Flavio I bought this book on September 11, 2011 and today, November 15, after more than two months have not yet received it. See all 2 customer reviews...

Now It Can Be Told: The Story Of The Manhattan Project (Quality Paperbacks Series)

2012-01-13T16:00:00.001-08:00

General Leslie Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer were the two men chiefly responsible for the building of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, code name "The Manhattan Project." As the ranking military officer in charge of marshalling men and material for what was to be the most ambitious, expensive engineering feat in history, it was General Groves who hired Oppenheimer (with knowledge of his left-wing past), planned facilities that would extract the necessary enriched uranium, and saw to it that nothing interfered with the accelerated research and swift assembly of the weapon.This is his story of the political, logistical, and personal problems of this enormous undertaking which involved foreign governments, sensitive issues of press censorship, the construction of huge plants at Hanford and Oak Ridge, and a race to build the bomb before the Nazis got wind of it. The role of groves in the Manhattan Project has always been controversial. In his new introduction the noted physicist Edward Teller, who was there at Los Alamos, candidly assesses the general's contributions—and Oppenheimer's—while reflecting on the awesome legacy of their work.

Amazon Sales Rank: #205451 in Books Published on: 1983-03-22 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.35 pounds Binding: Paperback 496 pages

Most helpful customer reviews 48 of 52 people found the following review helpful. One of the best Project Management books I have ever read By A Customer I read this book in the early 1960's when it was first published. I was in engineering school then, in India, and my interest in reading the book was to learn the story of the greatest scientific achievement of the 20th century. The book is so fascinating and so readable that I read it in four hours without interruption and then went back to the first page and read it again in the next four hours. I wanted to memorize every event in the book, word for word. What fascinated me about the book was not only the scientific aspects of atomic energy and the development of the atom bomb, which are described in layman's terms, but the extraordinary skills and drive of General Leslie Groves in taking the project from concept to fruition, notwithstanding the sinister goal of the project. It is one of the best project management books I have ever read. It built in me a tremendous respect for the ability of Americans to carry out such a complex project in a time critical situation. Oppenheimer got all the glory of being the father of the atom bomb, but it was General Leslie Groves who was the driving force behind it. Without him the project would not have succeeded in such difficult times. I think the book should be a required reading in all business management schools. 41 of 46 people found the following review helpful. The head of the project tells his story By Stephen M. St Onge Gen. Groves deputy on the Manhatten Project, Gen. Keith Nichols, was once asked what he thought of he thought of Groves. He began by saying "Leslie Groves is the biggest son-of-a $%&%* I ever met in my life" and ended by saying that of all the people he'd met in his life, he didn't think any of them could have done as well as Groves in running the Manhatten Project. I think that if he'd been put in charge in Jan. of '43, instead of Sept., the war probably would have ended earlier, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. This book shows him at his egotistical best and worst, and is essential for understanding how and why the U.S. got the bomb before Japan was invaded. Just don't expect any modesty at all. 17 of 18 people found the following review helpful. A worthwhile read for someone interested in the subject By kwarshaw@aol.com Groves has done a good job describing the aspects of the Manhattan Project outside of the Los Alamos facility. The scale and complexity of the project including material production (Hanford and Oak Ridge), security, air force preparations, etc. are the backbone of this book. If you're interested in the activities at Los Alamos, the immense technical hurdles that were overcome by probably the most brilliant team of scientists and engineers ever assembled, look elsewhere. Graves is also very short on emotion; for example his description of Trinity was like someone giving directions to the local McDonalds. See all 12 customer reviews...

Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius: 57 Lessons with Projects

2012-01-12T15:45:00.001-08:00

There is truly a lack of good, basic hardwire electronic "how-to" books. The market seems interested in this type of fun project compilation. This is another book in our extremely successful "Evil Genius" series. So far, each of the books has sold about $50,000 in less than 3 months. The perfect addition to our "Evil Genius" series, this book details everything an electronics hobbyist would want to know about circuits and circuit design through 57 Lessons. Readers work through 5 distinct, useful projects to reinforce their learning.

Amazon Sales Rank: #805489 in Books Published on: 2004-11-24 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.08 pounds Binding: Paperback 225 pages

From the Back Cover FROM CIRCUIT FAINT HEART TO CIRCUIT LION HEART IN 57 EASY AND FUN LESSONS Featuring everything an electronics hobbyist could want to learn about circuits and circuit design, Dave Cutcher's Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius makes it fun to achieve genuine mastery, one simple lesson at a time. What's more, when you're done, you'll have 5 complete projects to show for your efforts! 5 FUN AND INSTRUCTIVE PROJECTS Cutcher's 57 lessons build on each other and add up to projects you'll be proud to display, play with, and put to practical use. You don't need to know anything about electronics to begin building: A night light that turns itself on as darkness falls, and off at dawn's first light A professional-quality burglar alarm A toy that thinks for itself with logic gates An application that counts -- built on your own design A two-way intercom using transistors and op amps BUILD HANDS-ON EXPERTISE Designed to teach through doing, Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius provides hours of rewarding fun. That's not all. This book gives you valuable experience in circuit construction and design. You learn to test, modify, and observe results -- skills you can put to work in all the exciting circuit-building projects in your future. Dave Cutcher makes it easy for you to master electronic circuits. Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius gives you: Illustrated instructions and plans for amazing pretested projects advanced enough for sophisticated electronics enthusiasts but described in sufficient detail to be built easily by newcomers Frustration-free plans -- needed parts are listed, along with sources Full instructions on using a digital multimeter and turning your computer into an oscilloscope Templates for CAD work and a link to a great public domain CAD program Online access to an inexpensive kit (around $50) containing all the materials you need to build these projects (you can, of course, buy parts individually, wherever you choose) GO TO: www.books.mcgraw-hill.com/authors/cutcher for: Animations Answers to worksheet problems Links to other resources .WAV files to be used as frequency generators Freeware so you can apply your PC as an oscilloscope Complete kit (including a printed circuit board), tailored to the book and its projects, is available from ABRA Electronics, Inc. for $55. See coupon inside for details. DEVELOP POWERFUL CIRCUIT SKILLS THE FUN WAY! About the Author Dave Cutcher teaches electronics, technology, and industrial arts in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. An enthusiastic electronics hobbyist and member of the Vancouver Robotics Club and the Seattle Robotics Society, he shared the plans in this book with fellow teachers. They urged him to write this book.

Most helpful customer reviews 28 of 28 people found the following review helpful. A fine hands-on supplement By Kirk I just finished reading this book cover to cover. I also read most of the reviews here. First off, let me say that the points made by the 1 and 2 star reviews are correct. The style of the book is a little disorganized, the format is borderline awful, and it does look like something printed 20 years ago. The title might be misleading in that this is a very basic introduction to electronics book, and certainly not for Genius level anything. After the first couple of chapters, all of the above negative points had me rather angry. Why I kept reading, I don't know, but I did, and I ended up being pleasantly surprised. This is the first book I've encountered that presented electronic components and concepts in an applied, hands-on manner. My background is in physics, so I've learned something about the theory of electronics, and have studied transistors and op amps, but never knew what the darn things were used to do. For me, this book helped me connect the dots to actually understand the application of principles. I want to point out this books strong suit - it walks the reader through the design of the circuits presented, not just the final schematic. You can see the thought process that goes into choosing components, and how you add stages to a circuit to produce the overall desired result. For the beginner, this is critical. For example, I've seen many schematic diagrams that don't call out ground connections, or explain why certain parts of the circuit are wired to ground. To be able to design your own circuits, this is a critical piece of understanding. Advanced books assume you know it, and beginning books seem to assume you don't care. Am I qualified to design any functional circuit for myself now? No. But I do feel like I have the understanding to play with some ICs, and figure out what kinds of stages need to be added to produce the gizmos I want. (Incidentally, my desire to learn electronics stems from my hobby of building backyard haunted houses, and wanting to have some automation and animatronics) I was going to give this book 4 stars (was going to ding one star for the format), but after reading the others' criticisms, I find myself agreeing with their knocks on the book. Still, I have to say, having read several other books on electronics (including some of Horowitz and Hill) this was the book that finally lifted the veil for me and helped me understand the hows and whys of electronics - I plan on giving the book a thorough reread. So as a supplement to a text that give a little more theory, or for a practical hands-on first time exposure to electronics, I highly recommend this book to the beginning student or hobbyist. Update (Dec. 2010) - I originally wrote this review over two years ago and I've been steadily learning more and more about electronics. I can honestly reaffirm that this book was the one that really got me over the curve to understanding how circuits are designed and why particular components are added. It does not stand alone as a complete reference on building circuits and making your own electronic gizmos, but as a practical, hands-on, "this is how you make a circuit" guide, I've yet to find better. This book has a valuable place on the road to making your own circuits to do whatever you dream of having them do. 31 of 32 people found the following review helpful. Horribly written and illustrated By Malcontent This book sounded ideal, a beginner's book with clear explanations and projects to illustrate the electronics concepts taught in each chapter. The introduction lauds Mr. Cutcher's skill as a teacher so highly I was really anticipating a wonderful tour through the basics of electronics. Mr. Cutcher may indeed be a great teacher, but he is a very poor writer. His writing is disorganized and confusing, his instructions are unclear and sometimes incomplete, and he works so hard to

Build Your Own Humanoid Robots : 6 Amazing and Affordable Projects (TAB Robotics)

2012-01-11T15:30:00.001-08:00

This book features great droids, indeed! This unique guide to sophisticated robotics projects brings humanoid robot construction home to the hobbyist. Written by a well-known figure in the robotics community, "Build Your Own Humanoid Robots" provides step-by-step directions for 6 exciting projects, each costing less than $300. Together, they form the essential ingredients for making your own humanoid robot. If you are serious enough to interest robot professionals, the plans inside offer serious fun to hobbyists. They give you the power to breathe life into a mechanical being with amazingly human qualities, and feature all the instructions you need for programming the inexpensive chips that give your humanoid brains and sensitivity.It features 6 astounding projects: Robotic Arm, Wrist, and Hand - build a versatile robotic arm system to give your humanoid the ability to manipulate objects/ A PIC microcontroller provides motor control and feedback; Personal Computer Interface - learn how to interface the robot arm or any other robotics project to a personal computer for complete control and feedback; Visual Basic Control Software - develop flexible bidirectional communications software to control the robot arm or other projects from your personal computer; Voice Recognition Control - make your robotic arm and walking robot obey your spoken commands with this completely embedded control system that can also be used for many other applications; Expressive, Speaking Face - enable your robot to show happiness, surprise, excitement, anger, and more, as it speaks any words you transmit electronically; and, Bipedal Walking Robot - it's your own amazing small scale, fully autonomous robot! Learn about sensors, analog-to-digital converters, DC motor control, microcontrollers, feedback, and control systems. Also included is the background information regarding construction materials, test equipment, printed circuit board fabrication, microcontrollers, and programming and design considerations needed to create the humanoid robot projects.

Amazon Sales Rank: #79747 in Books Published on: 2004-03-26 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .60" h x 7.38" w x 9.16" l, .94 pounds Binding: Paperback 211 pages

From the Back Cover GREAT 'DROIDS, INDEED! This unique guide to sophisticated robotics projects brings humanoid robot construction home to the hobbyist. Written by a well-known figure in the robotics community, Build Your Own Humanoid Robots provides step-by-step directions for 6 exciting projects, each costing less than $300. Together, they form the essential ingredients for making your own humanoid robot. Build Your Own Humanoid Robots & Amazing and Affordable Projects Serious enough to interest robot professionals, the plans inside offer serious fun to hobbyists. They give you the power to breathe life into a mechanical being with amazingly human qualities, and feature all the instructions you need for programming the inexpensive chips that give your humanoid brains and sensitivity. 6 Astounding Projects: * Robotic Arm, Wrist, and Hand. Build a versatile robotic arm system to give your humanoid the ability to manipulate objects/ A PIC microcontroller provides motor control and feedback. * Personal Computer Interface. Learn how to interface the robot arm or any other robotics project to a personal computer for complete control and feedback. * Visual Basic Control Software. Develop flexible bidirectional communications software to control the robot arm or other projects from your personal computer. * Voice Recognition Control. Make your robotic arm and walking robot obey your spoken commands with this completely embedded control system that can also be used for many other applications. * Expressive, Speaking Face. Enable your robot to show happiness, surprise, excitement, anger, and more, as it speaks any words you transmit electronically. * Bipedal Walking Robot. It's your own amazing small scale, fully autonomous robot! Learn about sensors, analog-to-digital converters, DC motor control, microcontrollers, feedback, and control systems. Also included is the background information regarding construction materials, test equipment, printed circuit board fabrication, microcontrollers, and programming and design considerations needed to create the humanoid robot projects. About the Author Karl Williams is an independent robotics researcher, electronics guru, and software developer. He is the author of the popular robotics guide Insectronics: Build Your Own Six Legged Walking Robot and the follow-up Amphibionics: Build Your Own Biologically Inspired Robots, both from TAB/McGraw-Hill. A resident of Ontario, Canada, he has written for the magazines Nuts and Volts, SERVO, and Conformity. Winner of an IBM award for his design of a computer-controlled robotic arm, he hosts a robotics and electronics Website. He is with AGFA HealthCare Informatics, a leading medical imaging software company.

Most helpful customer reviews 33 of 33 people found the following review helpful. Robot Start to Finish By Mathmatics First off I'd like to say that this is a great book if you want to learn how to build a robot from start to finish. I personally waited till I was done building the robotic arm to write this review. The book was easy to read, and understand, and took me through the process with ease. It lists everything you need, and even tells you where some parts can be ordered, although I wish it could of listed more specs, and suppliers. I'm not sure if I would recommend this book to the clueless begginer because there were a couple of technical erros I found, but worked through. One of the errors was in the PCB artwork which caused an LED not to light in the test program. The book also says you can build it for under $300. I think I spent about $500. That's not including the pic programmer, software, Visual Basic, and tools. Which even though most of that isn't needed, you wouldn't really be learning much if you didn't have it. If you at least have the tools, I would say that with the software, and everything else that you should have for the project, it would cost in the neighborhood of $1,300. On the plus side you'll be able to build your next project for under $300 once you have the proper materials. Nobody said it would be cheap, so make sure you're serious. I'm already designing my own project with the knowledge I gained from building the arm. 19 of 20 people found the following review helpful. Another Really Great Book - Thanks!! By David Pullen In response to the last review I have to say that all of the files listed in the book actually ARE available on the authors website - just follow the links that are listed for the book support!! Go to the thinkbotics website and see for yourself.You can download all the files without any problems. Don't be confused about the PicBasic Pro compiler and Visual Basic - you do have to buy those packages from software companies (microengineering labs \ Microsoft) but getting the compiler makes PIC microcontroller programming painless and the author would be liable if he put it on his website for free. Be aware that building robots is going to cost you more money than the price of the book.PLEASE NOTE: You don't even need the compiler or Visual basic if you are building the robots as they are described in the book because the book lists the hex files needed to program the microcontrollers. The visual basic application that is built in chapter 6 (which completely explains how to do it) is also available for free on the authors website - Yep it is actually there. The great thing about this book is that it stands alone because all of the programs and the hex files are listed in the book so that you don't actually need to access the authors website at all - the book is complete on its own!! This is another great book by Williams - the diagrams, pictures and descriptions are very well done. 14 of 14 people found the following review helpful. Fabulous resource - Great robotics book!! By Stephen Carter This is actually a very well written and researched book!! It starts off with the fundamentals of PIC microcontrollers and how to program them. The first project is a great robot arm design. Like his other two books, the mechanical drawings and illustrations are beautiful and easy to follow. The arm includes a wrist and a human type of hand\gripper. After the mechanical portion of the arm is completed, an interface board is built. This interface board connects to your personal computer. Once again, all of the printed circuit board designs are presented making construction easy. The next chapter delves into writing visual basic software to control the arm - this was very valuable information for me and I'm sure many other roboticist who want to know how to program the PC to control robots or other devices. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book! The next chapter is all about

Projects in Scientific Computation

2012-01-10T15:15:00.001-08:00

This interdisciplinary book provides a compendium of projects, plus numerous example programs for readers to study and explore. Designed for advanced undergraduates or graduates of science, mathematics and engineering who will deal with scientific computation in their future studies and research, it also contains new and useful reference materials for researchers. The problem sets range from the tutorial to exploratory and, at times, to "the impossible". The projects were collected from research results and computational dilemmas during the authors tenure as Chief Scientist at NeXT Computer, and from his lectures at Reed College. The content assumes familiarity with such college topics as calculus, differential equations, and at least elementary programming. Each project focuses on computation, theory, graphics, or a combination of these, and is designed with an estimated level of difficulty. The support code for each takes the form of either C or Mathematica, and is included in the appendix and on the bundled diskette. The algorithms are clearly laid out within the projects, such that the book may be used with other symbolic numerical and algebraic manipulation products

Amazon Sales Rank: #2927365 in Books Published on: 2000-06-22 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.87 pounds Binding: Paperback 470 pages

From the Publisher This interdisciplinary book provides a compendium of projects, together with a large number of example programs for readers to study and explore. The book is designed for advanced undergraduate or graduate students of science, mathematics and engineering who will deal with scientific computation in their future studies and research. It also contains new and useful reference materials for researchers. These projects were collected from research results and computational dilemmas during the author's tenure as Chief Scientist at NeXT Computer, Inc. and from his scientific computation lectures in the Department of Physics at Reed College. The content assumes familiarity with such college topics as calculus, differential equations, and at no known direct competitors, but a paperbound book published by SIAM in 1990, "Scientific Computation on Mathematical Problems and Conjectures," CBMS 60, by Richard Varga from Kent State University, contains intellectual seed for Cran! dall's exposition; it is not a textbook, however.

American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto

2012-01-09T15:00:00.001-08:00

High-rise public housing developments were signature features of the post–World War II city. A hopeful experiment in providing temporary, inexpensive housing for all Americans, the "projects" soon became synonymous with the black urban poor, with isolation and overcrowding, with drugs, gang violence, and neglect. As the wrecking ball brings down some of these concrete monoliths, Sudhir Venkatesh seeks to reexamine public housing from the inside out, and to salvage its troubled legacy. Based on nearly a decade of fieldwork in Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes, American Project is the first comprehensive story of daily life in an American public housing complex. Venkatesh draws on his relationships with tenants, gang members, police officers, and local organizations to offer an intimate portrait of an inner-city community that journalists and the public have only viewed from a distance. Challenging the conventional notion of public housing as a failure, this startling book re-creates tenants' thirty-year effort to build a safe and secure neighborhood: their political battles for services from an indifferent city bureaucracy, their daily confrontation with entrenched poverty, their painful decisions about whether to work with or against the street gangs whose drug dealing both sustained and imperiled their lives. American Project explores the fundamental question of what makes a community viable. In his chronicle of tenants' political and personal struggles to create a decent place to live, Venkatesh brings us to the heart of the matter. (20010114)

Amazon Sales Rank: #209222 in Books Published on: 2002-04-15 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .1 pounds Binding: Paperback 360 pages

From Library Journal Venkatesh (sociology, Inst. for Research in African-American Studies, Columbia Univ.) began his extensive exploration of the history of the notorious Robert Taylor Homes public housing project as a graduate student at the University of Chicago. His methodology is to build a "collective history" by combining surveys, documentary research, and participant observation. This approach provides a fascinating and rigorous explanation of how a model of urban subsidized housing, which succeeded for 20 years, declined into disastrous conditions for its inhabitants. He looks, for example, at criminal activity in the project with an unflinching view of the contributions of such social structural changes as the economy and labor market, social services providers, city and state politicians, police practices, and residents. This is an important contribution to understanding urban poverty and will stand with classic work by Carol Stack and William Julius Wilson (who wrote the foreword). Highly recommended for public or academic collections in sociology, urban studies, and public policy.DPaula R. Dempsey, DePaul Univ. Lib., Chicago Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review Venkatesh spent hundreds of hours interviewing residents of Chicago's Robert Taylor Holmes housing project. Poorly designed, cheaply built, and isolated from surrounding neighborhoods by an expressway, the Holmes project was doomed almost from the start...Venkatesh describes the struggles of tenant leaders and social activists who resisted the gangs and sought to improve living conditions, but he can't point to any wholesale reform in what was a fatally flawed system from the get-go. (Kirkus Reviews 20001101)A fascinating and rigorous explanation of a how a model of urban subsidized housing, which succeeded for 20 years, declined into disastrous conditions for its inhabitants...[American Project] is an important contribution to understanding urban poverty and will stand with classic work by Carol Stack and William Julius Wilson (who wrote the foreword). Highly recommended. --Paula R. Dempsey (Library Journal 20011213)This book gets beyond academic analysis and gives voice to residents' concerns over education and health care, as well as the lack of employment opportunities, which in turn pushes young people to the streets in search of a means of earning money. By describing inhabitants' strident efforts to unify the community and fight political battles against an often indifferent bureaucracy, Venkatesh challenges the stereotypical notion that public housing fails because its residents do. (Doubletake 20010401)The demolition of high-rise public housing such as the Robert Taylor Homes can only improve the lives of those presently subjected to its debilitating and dangerous grasp, right? Wrong. That, at least, is the carefully thought-out view of Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh in American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto. Revivifying participant observation as a form of sociological research, Venkatesh...has produced an ethnography of the South Side's most infamous project that challenges much of what passes for conventional wisdom...In many ways, Venkatesh's study...appears as a brief against a policy of demolition and dispersal...Forced relocations with minimal assistance would uproot the social networks painstakingly created over the past generation and represent a retrogression...The problem, in short, lay not simply with the occupants of public housing but in their relationship with the larger society. --Arnold Hirsch (Chicago Tribune 20010409)The general public believes the Robert Taylor Homes are an unmistakable failure. But author Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh challenges that view...It's not that most communities are free of the social ills that infect public housing but 'that we ask more of the poor, and particularly those in public housing'...[whose] good intentions [are] thwarted by poor law enforcement, diminished federal funding, thriving underground economies and increased gang violence. (Chicago Reporter 20010226)Venkatesh wrote American Project to urge readers to get beyond the quantitative, statistical measure of the urban pathology of public housing and look at the 'collective memory' of the people who lived there. It's all too easy to disparage life in the projects, Venkatesh notes, but such thinking also disparages the forms of community, political organization, and ultimately the lives of those who made Robert Taylor their home...American Project is moving, thoughtful, and written with common-sense clarity. --Michael Corbin (Baltimore City Paper 20010201)The major contribution of this book is its focus. Most of the recent books on the life of the inner city ghetto focus exclusively on the individual behavior of poor urban residents, and stress the pathology of the inner city. American Project, however, documents continuous efforts of the project residents to create community, to pool resources and political muscle to insure the continuation of basic services, and to secure democratic representation. The ultimate failure of Robert Taylor Homes was not a lack of trying, but rather that the problems faced by the residents went beyond what they could address with limited resources. --G. Rabrenovic (Choice 20010615)[This] history of Chicago's notorious Robert Taylor Homes...[describes] how this once promising program fell so low and [offers] cautionary lessons for progressives who want to devise successful social policies...Venkatesh probes beyond the headlines about Robert Taylor Homes--the shootings, murders, accidental deaths, and police sweeps--and shows us how its residents used whatever resources were at hand to adjust to adverse circumstances. The brilliance of the author's approach is that he listens sympathetically to the people who lived and worked in this massive public housing development, yet he remains scrupulously objective. --Alexander von Hoffman (American Prospect 20010615)The results of Venkatesh's myriad experiences are encomapped in 332 rivetting, thought-provoking pages...Completely different from the usual sociological tracts, American Project proffers a strong narrative and vivid stories. It offers its readers challenging insights into the lives of people in the government-subsidised [Robert Taylor] Homes. Above all, it stunningly portrays the transformation of a curious Indian-American "outsider" into an "insider" who gradually comes to understand and appreciate "the beauty of human condition" amidst squalor and violence. --Arthur J. Pals (India Today International )American Project is a revealing look at what works (and what doesn't) in public housing--and why. Sudhur Alladi Venkatesh, one of the most promising young sociologists today, tells the story of one of America's most infamous housing projects, the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago...Based on nearly a decade of fieldwork within the projects themselves, American Project is the first comprehensive story of what went wrong in one of America's first and most famous public housing projects. By engaging himself with the community, Venkatesh gets beyond a purely academic analysis and is able to illustrate the benefits and pitfalls of urban public housing both in the Robert Taylor homes and within the larger realm of urban studies. He draws on his personal relationships with tenants, and local police officers and municipal organizations--to tell the real story of the besieged inner-city community that journalists and outsiders often never see. (Black Perspective )American Project examines the Robert Taylor Homes, a high-rise public housing complex in Chicago. It records the initial hopes when the development opened in 1962 and the deterioration that later occurred...[This book] is a rich and perceptive account of the inhabitants of the project, which brings us into close contact with everyone from poor tenants to drug peddling gangs...In this vivid and compelling portrait of the project, Venkatesh describes the breakdown of the public housing effort in 20th-century America. Most important is his observation that service providers and other officials often operated in a system that limited their ability to improve conditions. --Allan Winkler (Times Higher Education Supplement )American Project is a rich and perceptive account of the inhabitants of the project, which brings us into close contact with everyone from poor tenants to drug-peddling gangs. --Allan Winkler (Times Higher Education Supplement ) About the Author Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh is Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies at Columbia University.

Most helpful customer reviews 29 of 31 people found the following review helpful. Life at the CHA Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago By Don S. Samuelson Venkatesh describes his research experience at the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago in a readable and engaging style. His work, while at the University of Chicago, was a result of interviews, traditional research of literature and "hanging out." With the residents, the CHA staff, the resident leadership and the gangs which had a variety of community, business and narcotics interests.Traditional property management services were not provided to CHA residents as a matter of right. Instead, a complicated set of rules violations (reporting income, reporting household composition), payoffs, relationship brokering, "hustle," and an underground economy emerged to get basic services (repairs, heat, security, etc.) to the residents of Robert Taylor.In the beginning the "brokerage" was provided by the resident leadership (the Local Advisory Council)and the CHA staff. Gradually, with the emergence of the drug economy, the role was assumed by the gang/drug interests which really controlled conditions at the CHA family developments like Robert Taylor. The police and other traditional service institutions ceded their responsibilities to these interests. And public housing developments like Robert Taylor became "free crime" zones.The CHA is presently engaged in highly innovative "Plan for Transformation" whereby all of the 25000 units of family and senior housing has been put under private management during the past year, and the CHA high rises are being vacated as part of an effort to replace them with mixed income, mixed use communities, where resident services are provided as a matter of course, and the public housing developments are to be integrated into the larger community structure of which they are a part.It is in this area where the Venkatesh book falls short. How is the 30 year history of neglect, self help and petty crime at Robert Taylor to be integrated into this new future where marketplace services and safety will be the norm, and CHA residents will live in housing and community life which is thoroughly integrated into the mainstream economy and culture?This book is a "must read" for anyone interested in the transformation of public housing in America's major cities and the possibilities for bringing content to the concept of "compassionate conservatism" in the redevelopment of public housing dominated inner city communities.Don Samuelson - DSSA Lawyer, developer and private manager of CHA housing 24 of 26 people found the following review helpful. A sociologist explores life in a public housing high-rise By Alan Mills Venkatesh has done a superb job of describing the interrelationships between tenants, and the relationship between tenants and management, as well as chronicalling the changes in these relationships since Robert Taylor was constructed in the early 60's. Anyone who wants to move beyond the headlines, and find out more about the strengths and weaknesses of life in a public housing development should read this book.That said, the author's background and training as a sociologist comes through loud and clear, and ultimately limits his book. While Venkatesh does a good job of detailing the social relationships among the players, he virtually ignores the larger political issues. Why was management so inept as to be virtually non-existent? Why did the drug/crime culture take hold, and how did the gangs transfor themselves into multi-state corporate enterprises? Most importantly, given that CHA is now in the process of demolishing virtually everyone of the buildings which form Robert taylor Homes, how do we avoid creating the same problems in the next generation of public housing.Excellent bibliography, by the way. A very good place to dig for resources for anyone wanting to study the history of the Chicago Housing Authority since 1960. 36 of 45 people found the following

Prize-Winning Science Fair Projects for Curious Kids

2012-01-08T14:30:00.001-08:00

From thinking of a unique science fair experiment to putting fabulous finishing touches on the display, this cool collection of 50 smart and illustrated projects gives budding scientists everything they need to put together a winner—and have fun doing it, too. Kids have seen all the tricks, and they’re tired of science fair books that show them (yawn) how to make the “been there, done that” volcano or a boring model of the solar system. Here are experiments they really want to do, on subjects such as slime, magic sand, video games, mummies, dog germs, horoscopes, bicycles, and more. The whole science fair experience is broken down into small, manageable steps, so youngsters won’t feel overwhelmed. All safety precautions are taken, with notes on parental supervision, when necessary. The author lives in Asheville, NC.

Amazon Sales Rank: #851292 in Books Published on: 2004-08-01 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Binding: Hardcover 112 pages

From School Library Journal Grade 5-8 - Fifty experiments in biology, the physical sciences, and chemistry are presented in an attractive and easy-to-follow format and illustrated with sharp photographs of children and of the materials needed. One of the book's strengths is the first chapter about choosing and doing a project. Ideas include checking out the validity of horoscopes, mummifying fish, testing the effectiveness of sunscreens, and testing spray-on water repellents. Students are shown how to create their own equipment whenever possible, although some of the experiments require purchase of materials. Adult assistance is indicated when necessary. Extensions of experiments are suggested in sections titled "What Else You Can Do." Each project includes an open-ended question, a list of supplies, and step-by-step instructions. The spacious format is several cuts above average for this kind of book. This title adds to Rhatigan and Heather Smith's Sure-to-Win Science Fair Projects (Lark, 2001) and may even entice reluctant students to try more challenging projects. - Kathryn Kosiorek, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Brooklyn, OH Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Gr. 5-8. The authors approach the often-humdrum topic of science fair projects with energy, enthusiasm, and even humor. If even one of those qualities is infectious, students will be off to a good start. The excellent introduction offers advice and encouragement as well as structure for choosing a topic and using the scientific method. Divided into sections on biology, physical science, and chemistry, the dozens of projects help kids answer such questions as "How does being on a cell phone affect motor skills and reaction time?" (tested with a car-driving video game) and "Which cereals have the most iron?" Clear, colorful drawings, diagrams, and photos illustrate the text. Safety warnings are usually present: children are advised to ask for an adult's assistance with using a drill to make holes in a metal can, but not for using a craft knife to cut a slit in a plastic bottle. Libraries looking for child-friendly project books will find this one of the most upbeat, engaging, and practical collections of middle-school science fair projects available. Carolyn PhelanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved About the Author Joe Rhatigan has taught middle and high school, and was a copywriter and marketing manager for a major book publisher. He currently lives and works in Asheville, North Carolina, as the Children's Book Editor for Lark Books.

Most helpful customer reviews 11 of 11 people found the following review helpful. The BEST book for Elementary School Science Fair Projects By Andrea L. Polk I stumbled upon this book in a local store and got the chance to look it over before I bought it. It took me less than 20 seconds to decide: "This is a GREAT book!" and buy it. Prize-Winning Science Fair Projects for Curious Kids is a wonderful resource for elementary school (4th/5th grade students) science fair projects because the book is fun and engaging. Project names like "Bow-Wow Blood Pressure" and "Yeast Feast" catch your child's eye and then grab their attention. That spark of interest catches fire and you're off to the Science Fair with a great project that was fun to do. The first part of the book talks about science fairs. What the judges are looking for, how to be successful with your project, an 8-week checklist, what is a 'scientific method' of research, how to turn a topic into a question and how to write a good report. Graphs and tables are discussed, and examples of each are shown. LOTS of good, clear information for both students and their advisors. The next part of the book is all about the 52 projects in the book. -Biology (20 projects)with titles such as "Moldy Slices of Life" and "Pooch Smooch". -Physical Science (18 projects) with titles including "Parachute Power" and "Popcorn Fever". -Chemistry (15 projects) including "Shake It Up Baby!" and "Yeast Feast". Each project clearly outlines the problem or question to be answered by the experiment, experiment summary, what you need for the experiment, experimental procedure, how to formulate your conclusion, display tips and thought-provoking questions for varying the experiment. Fun photographs and drawings accompany the information which is laid out in way that's easy to read and understand. I highly recommend buying this book for any child who is interested in doing a Science Fair project or wants to simply have fun learning about simple science. 10 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Fun Science Book By virginiaamazonmom As soon as this book arrived from Amazon, my fifth grade son started reading it just for fun and telling me about the "cool" experiments he could do for this year's school science fair. The book is full of kid-engaging ideas e.g., whether dog saliva or human saliva has more germs; how talking on a cell phone affects performance on a car driving video game. It's also got lots of colorful photos and clear kid-friendly descriptions of the necessary materials and procedures. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Fabulous science projects By A Reader This book is great! It has a wide range of science projects from testing the accuracy of horoscopes to comparing the bacterial content of dog v. human mouths. All experiments can be done with inexpensive and readily available materials (some of them may need to be purchased, such as an agar plate for growing bacteria, but are available on Amazon.com ;-). The book has an excellent introductory section on how to design a good experiment and how to effectively present your experiment at a science fair. See all 4 customer reviews...

Object Solutions: Managing the Object-Oriented Project

2012-01-07T14:15:00.001-08:00

Object Solutions: Managing the Object-Oriented Project, by Grady Booch, gives developers and managers practical suggestions for applying object technology to their projects. This book is a valuable resource not only for those who are embarking on their first object-oriented project, but also for seasoned OO veterans. Drawing on his world-wide experience in object-oriented software engineering, Booch explains how to apply the sound principles of OO technology in order to make systems development more timely and effective. Booch presents the reader with pragmatic advice, including the recommended practices and rules of thumb that are the hallmarks of successful projects. Object Solutions is an exceptional resource that offers concise, practical advice from a noted OO practitioner.

Amazon Sales Rank: #956736 in Books Published on: 1995-10-22 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .64" h x 7.50" w x 9.32" l, 1.12 pounds Binding: Paperback 336 pages

From the Inside Flap Early adopters of object-oriented technology took it on faith that object orientation was A Good Thing, offering hope for improving some ugly aspect of software development. Some of these primordial efforts truly flourished, some failed, but overall, a number of such projects quietly began to experience the anticipated benefits of objects: better time to market, improved quality, greater resilience to change, and increased levels of reuse. Of course, any new technology is fun to play with for a short while. Indeed, there is a part of our industry that thrives on embracing the latest fad in software development. However, the real business case for any mature technology is that it delivers measurable and sustainable benefits for real projects.Object-oriented technology has demonstrated its value in a multitude of applications around the world. I have seen object-oriented languages and methods used successfully in such diverse problem domains as securities trading, medical electronics, enterprise-wide information management, air traffic control, semiconductor manufacturing, interactive video gaming, telecommunications network management, and astronomical research. Indeed, I can honestly say that in every industrialized country and in every conceivable application area, I have come across some use of object-oriented technology. Object-oriented stuff is indisputably a part of the mainstream of computing.There exists an ample and growing body of experience from projects that have applied object-oriented technology. This experience - both good and bad - is useful in guiding new projects. One important conclusion that I draw from all such projects is that object-orientation can have a very positive impact upon software development, but that a project requires much more than just an object-oriented veneer to be successful. Programmers must not abandon sound development principles all in the name of objects. Similarly, managers must understand the subtle impact that objects have upon traditional practices.ScopeIn almost every project I have come across, be it a modest two- or three-person effort, to undertakings of epic proportions wherein geopolitical issues dominate, a common set of questions always appears: How do I transition my organization to object-oriented practices? What artifacts should I manage to retain control? How should I organize my staff? How do I measure the quality of the software being produced? How can I reconcile the creative needs of my individual programmers with management's needs for stability and predictability? Can object-orientation help me help my customers better articulate what they really want? These are all reasonable questions, and their answers strike at the heart of what is different and special about object-oriented technology.This book serves to answer these and many other related questions, by offering pragmatic advice on the recommended practices and rules of thumb used by successful projects. This is not a theoretical book, nor is its purpose to explain all the dark corners of object-oriented analysis, design, and programming. My previous work, Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications, serves those purposes: it examines the theoretical underpinnings of all things object-oriented, and offers a comprehensive reference to a unified method of object-oriented analysis and design.Object Solutions provides a direct and balanced treatment on all the important issues of managing object-oriented projects. I have been engaged in hundreds of projects; this book draws upon that broad experience. My intent is to explain what has worked, what has not, and how to distinguish between the two.AudienceMy intended audience includes project managers and senior programmers who want to apply object-oriented technology successfully to their projects, while avoiding the common mistakes that can befall the unwary. Professional programmers will find this book useful as well, giving them insight into the larger issues of turning cool looking object-oriented code into real products; this book will also help to explain why their managers do what they do. Students on their way to becoming professional programmers will come to understand why software development is often not very tidy in the real world, and how industrial-strength projects cope with this disorder.OrganizationI have organized this book according to the various functional aspects of managing an object-oriented project. As such, it can either be read from cover to cover or selectively by topic. To make this material more accessible, my general style is to present an issue, discuss its implications, and then offer some recommended practices and rules of thumb. To distinguish these elements in the text, I use the following typographic conventions:This is an issue, usually stated in the form of a question followed by its answer, regarding some functional area of project management.This is a recommended practice, which represents a generally acceptable way of addressing a given issue.This is a rule of thumb, which represents some quantifiable measure about a particular practice.I've numbered these practices and rules sequentially, so that specific ones can be referred to easily.To reinforce certain lessons, I offer examples drawn from a variety of production object-oriented projects, whose details have been changed to protect the guilty. I highlight these examples in the following manner:This is an example, drawn from some production object-oriented project.AcknowledgmentsAs a compendium of object-oriented wisdom, Object Solutions owes an enormous debt to the many professional managers and programmers whose contributions have advanced the state of the practice in object-oriented technology.The following individuals deserve a special mention for reviewing my work in progress, and providing me with many useful comments and suggestions: Gregory Adams, Glen Andert, Andrew Baer, Dave Bernstein, Mike Dalpee, Rob Daly, Mike Devlin, Richard DuE, Jim Gillespie, Jim Hamilton, Larry Hartweg, Philippe Kruchten, Brian Lyons, Joe Marasco, Sue Mickel, Frank Pappas, Jim Purtilo, Rich Reitman, Walker Royce, Dave Tropeano, Mike Weeks, and Dr. William Wright.A special thanks goes to my wife, Jan, for keeping me sane during the development of yet another book, and who always gently shows me that there is a rich life beyond all things object-oriented. 0805305947P04062001 From the Back Cover Object Solutions: Managing the Object-Oriented Project, by Grady Booch, gives developers and managers practical suggestions for applying object technology to their projects. This book is a valuable resource not only for those who are embarking on their first object-oriented project, but also for seasoned OO veterans. Drawing on his world-wide experience in object-oriented software engineering, Booch explains how to apply the sound principles of OO technology in order to make systems development more timely and effective. Booch presents the reader with pragmatic advice, including the recommended practices and rules of thumb that are the hallmarks of successful projects. Object Solutions is an exceptional resource that offers concise, practical advice from a noted OO practitioner. Provides a direct and balanced treatment of the most important issues facing object technology managers and developers. Draws upon Booch's broad experience with hundreds of object-oriented projects around the world. Emphasizes the practical aspects of managing OO projects by presenting project issues, implications, recommended practices, and rules of thumb. Presents numerous examples of real-world projects and demonstrates a variety of approaches to developing object-oriented systems. 0805305947B04062001 About the Author Grady Booch, is the Chief Scientist at Rational Software Corporation and developer of the Booch Method of object-oriented analysis and design. He is also co-developer of the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Widely recognized for these and many contributions in the field, he is a popular speaker at technology conferences around the world. Booch has twice received Software Development magazine's coveted Jolt-Cola Product Excellence Award for his seminal text, Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications. 0805305947AB04062001

Most helpful customer reviews 19 of 19 people found the following review helpful. Fly On The Wall By Steven A. Bell I swear that Booch was spying on several of the so called "projects" that I was a developer on. It is simply amazing to me how many times the so-called "Harvard School of Business" techniques are used to manage an OO project! I have learned through the school of hard knocks what Booch has written about in this book (wish I had discovered it sooner, a couple of pointy haired bosses could have used it!). Anyway, Booch breaks OO management into seven chapters: First Principles, Products and Process, The Macro Process, The Micro Process, The Development Team, Management and Planning, and Special Topics. I especially found interesting his descriptions on how NOT to run an OO project (oh, and he gives plenty of examples on HOW to run one too!). Booch covers OOA, artifacts, OOD, methodolgies (a biggy with me even on a one person project), evolution (gosh! who would have thought you could have cyclical development???). Identification of classes, objects, symantecs, relationships, etc. He then tackles the team environment: roles and responsibilities (especially the manager's responsibilities!), resource allocation, and tools (this book is not a plug for Rational Rose BTW). Finally: managing risk, planning and scheduling, staffing, costing (a tough one), Quality Assurance (this is not testing!), and he talks some about projects in crisis and what to do. The last chapter is kind of a catch-all containing: User-centric, Data-centric, and Computation-centric systems discussions, along with Distributed, Legacy, Information Management, and Real Time Systems. The appendicies contain: a summary of recommended practices (for those wanting to create a methodology), and rules of thumb. There is a great index, bibliography and glossary to tie up the package nicely. Booch has a terrific writing style presenting what would normally be a dry subject! Definitely for the computer Project Manager's shelf! 32 of 35 people found the following review helpful. Booch takes no prisoners -- insightful, humerous, brilliant By Lou Agosta (lagosta@21stcentury.net) A strong claim: this book is to be compared to Frederick Brook's The Mythical Man Month [1]. It is that important. Regardless of the fate of object-oriented technology, and the prospects are bright, this text will is already a classic in the making. One insight readers will enjoy is that object-oriented projects benefit from the same good management and technical skills as all other projects. The reverse is also true. It is an example of what Booch previously described as the total "round trip" gestalt (structure) [2]. Booch delivers an account of what these are with the insight and humor likely to make this text a classic. The first chapter, entitled First Principles, explores "When Bad Things Happen to Good Projects". He associates project failure with lack of risk management; building the wrong thing (solving the wrong problem); and being blind-sided by technology. One solution? Be proactive. The "five habits of successful object-oriented projects" can be applied to any project: a ruthless focus on satisfying a well-understood collection of essential minimal features; a culture focused on results, communication, and yet not afraid to fail; the use of (object--oriented) modeling; a strong architectural vision; the application of an iterative and incremental life cycle (p. 25). Booch distinguishes calendar driven, quality driven; documentation driven, requirements driven, architecture driven. Suffice to say focus on one does not mean throwing the others away. To be sure, no project survives for long without making its dates. Yet a chronic obsession with unrealistic, short term dates is a sign of a purely calendar driven project. Yet at crunch time what is the dominant decision making criteria? He considers the strengths and weaknesses of each. Calendar driven will work in the short run.

Research Projects and Research Proposals: A Guide for Scientists Seeking Funding

2012-01-06T14:15:00.001-08:00

Paul Chapin's guide to writing proposals for scientific research can be used by scientists in any discipline who submit papers to funding agencies to gain support for their research projects. A longtime program officer at the National Science Foundation, Chapin treats the proposal as one part of a larger process of planning a research project, which makes it easier to write and more likely to be effective. The book differs from other guides by treating proposal writing in the larger context of project planning from an insider's perspective. Paul G. Chapin became the first director of the NSF Linguistics Program when it was established in October 1975. He continued as NSF's Program Director for Linguistics until 1999, with three interruptions: one year serving as Deputy Division Director for Behavioral and Neural Sciences, one year's detail as a staff associate to the head of the Office of Information Systems, and a year's sabbatical leave to study mathematics at George Washington University. From 1999 until his retirement in 2001, Chapin served as a senior program officer for cross-disciplinary activities at the NSF. On the occasion of his retirement, the NSF presented him with the Director's Superior Accomplishment Award, and the Linguistic Society of America awarded him the first annual Victoria A. Fromkin Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1312920 in Books Published on: 2004-07-19 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .50" h x 6.44" w x 9.02" l, .54 pounds Binding: Paperback 172 pages

Review "An absolute 'must-have' reference for any scientist faced with the difficult task of raising funds for their department or project." Bookwatch About the Author Paul G. Chapon was director of the National Science Foundation Linguistics Program. He is a member of the Linguistic Society of America and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Most helpful customer reviews 8 of 9 people found the following review helpful. A clear instructional emphasizing practical needs By Midwest Book Review Expertly written by Paul G. Chapin (a former director of the National Science Foundation Linguistics Program, and member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science), Research Projects And Research Proposals: A Guide For Scientists Seeking Funding is a no-nonsense, practical, methodically organized and "user friendly" guide to presenting professional-quality applications for grants and proposals. Individual chapters address how to identify appropriate funding sources, the nuts and bolts of writing a proposal with a budget and all the details a review board needs, ethical matters to remain aware of, how to manage a grand and renew a proposal when needed, and much more. A clear instructional emphasizing practical needs and responsibilities, Research Projects And Research Proposals is an absolute "must-have" reference for any scientist faced with the difficult task of raising funds for their department or project. See all 1 customer reviews...

Mega-Projects: The Changing Politics of Urban Public Investment

2012-01-05T14:15:00.001-08:00

In "Mega-Projects", Altshuler and Luberoff examine the forces that gave rise to a great wave of urban mega-projects in the US in the 1950s and 1960s, that broke this wave in the years around 1970 and that have shaped a new generation of such projects in the decades since. While focusing principally on transportation mega-projects such as Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel project (the "Big Dig"), the Denver International Airport and the Los Angeles subway, they consider as well the scores of new stadiums, arenas and convention centres built (mainly at public expense) in recent years. "Mega-Projects" includes narratives of both national policy-making and local mobilization to bring about highway, airport, rail-transit and downtown revitalization projects, particularly since the 1970s. The specific projects chronicled are drawn from numerous regions including Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Portland and Seattle. It also includes broad analyses, seeking to place the authors' findings in relation to leading theories of urban and American politics.

Amazon Sales Rank: #205610 in Books Published on: 2003-04-30 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .84" h x 6.40" w x 8.96" l, 1.17 pounds Binding: Paperback 352 pages

Review ". . .Mega-Projects is a major contribution to urban development policy. . ." -- Steven P. Erie, Perspectives on Politics"....necessary reading for students and professionals interested in creating vital urban environments of the future." -- Arthur C. Nelson, The Journal of Planning Education and Research"...insightfully blends urban political theory with detailed case studies to arrive at a new understanding of large public works projects...." -- Martin Wachs, University of California, Berkeley"A fascinating, theoretically rich study of the politics of public investment in urban America...." -- Jameson W. Doig, Princeton University"An important new book." -- Alan Ehrenhalt, Governing"[Mega-Projects] is a superb achievement sure to have a lasting impact on urban scholars and policymakers alike." -- Lynne Sagalyn, Columbia Business School About the Author Alan Altshuler is the Ruth and Frank Stanton Professor of Urban Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and its Graduate School of Design. He is also director of the Kennedy School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government. David E. Luberoff is the Taubman Center’s associate director and an adjunct lecturer at the Graduate School of Design.

Most helpful customer reviews 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. In-depth analysis of urban rojects and their prospects for the future By Don G. Schley Altschuler and Luberoff provide an in-depth analysis of urban mega-projects focusing on three major categories: highways, airports, and rail transit. They preface their treatment a first-rate discussion and analysis of the theoretical framework and evolving political context in which urban mega-projects are undertaken. In this sense, the book is invaluable for those persons in the project management sector who need to be able to deal with the politics of their own projects (despite the ongoing belief among students that politics are irrelevant to project success). The real driver of these projects is the demand for economic growth and prosperity by important political constituencies, particularly the business communities of these various cities, but also other groups (including neighborhoods and other local institutions) that are interested in promoting prosperity as well. The discussion here is balanced, thoughtful, informed and astute. The authors detail the era of carte-blanche and laissez-faire mega projects which lasted into the late 1960s, only to be confronted with resistance to groups (such as neighborhoods and environmentalists) that had heretofore been shut own, silenced, or overlooked. They treat the seventies, eighties and nineties as a time of retrenchment, and see the present era as one in which mega-projects will continue to drive forward in specific areas, but in which they will also be far more limited in scope than in the preceding years. They note the constraining force of the "do no harm" doctrine, and detail how this doctrine--promulgated as a consequence of the excesses of the mega-projects of the sixties, when neighborhood and environmental impacts were hardly ever considered (e.g., the ill-fated Jones Falls Expressway in Baltimore, which the book does not mention)--is being implemented in projects such as the Federal government's reconstruction and expansion of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on Washington DC's southern edge. The book ends with an analysis of the long-term impact of the legal retrenchment against mega-projects that occurred during the sixties, and its authors, while sympathetic with the democratic political tendencies generated by the opposition to these projecs, concludes that legitimate objections can still stop projects. Simple use of delaying tactics will not work, and projects will advance against such opposition, though far more slowly and with greatly increased costs. Their discussion of regime politics is especially important, and provides and essential caveat for any serious professional or activist seeking to halt a politically advanced, though publicly deleterious project. 0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. good read, very detailed By IMaRunner2 I had to read this book for grad school. If you need a lead on case studies related to city planning, this is the book for you. See all 2 customer reviews...

Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth

2012-01-04T13:45:00.001-08:00

THE HORRIFYING TRUE STORY OF A GOVERNMENT-AUTHORIZED CAMPAIGN OF DISINFORMATION THAT DEFINED AN ERA OF ALIEN PARANOIA AND DESTROYED ONE MAN'S LIFE. In 1978, Paul Bennewitz, an electrical physicist living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, engaged in some aggressive radio monitoring of the nearby Sandia Labs, then managed by the Department of Defense. When he became convinced that the strange lights hovering over the labs and Kirtland Air Force Base signaled the vanguard of an extraterrestrial alien invasion, he began writing TV stations, newspapers, senators -- and even President Reagan -- to alert them. For the most part Bennewitz received form-letter replies, but Air Force investigators paid him a visit, as did Bill Moore, author of the first book on the Roswell incident. Before long Moore -- then a new force in civilian UFO research -- was tapped by a group of intelligence agents and a deal was struck: Moore was to keep tabs on Bennewitz while the Air Force ran a psychological profile and disinformation campaign on the unsuspecting physicist. In return, Air Force Intelligence would let Moore in on classified UFO material. This is Bennewitz's harrowing tale, told by fringe-culture historian Greg Bishop. It is the troubling account of the custom-made hall of smoke and mirrors that eventually drove Bennewitz to a mental institution, as well as the story of the explosive propagation of disinformation that began in 1979 and reverberates through the UFO community and pop culture to this day.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1045726 in Books Published on: 2005-02-08 Released on: 2005-02-08 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .78" h x 6.54" w x 8.22" l, .55 pounds Binding: Paperback 288 pages ISBN13: 9780743470926 Condition: New Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

From Publishers Weekly This allegedly true tale of government secrecy reads like the entire story arc of the X-Files. Covering topics like alien invasion, UFOs, paranoia, cover-ups and smear campaigns, this book has all the elements of a compelling-though not entirely believable-yarn, but the narrative never gels into such a tale. In a nutshell, Bishop's story centers around the now-deceased Paul Bennewitz, a hapless electrical physicist living near Kirtland Air Force Base outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bennewitz detected what he believed to be signs of alien contact and began to grow alarmed, even panicked, by his observations. The book contends that while Bennewitz inadvertently did get close to something top secret, various government agencies fed him lies and disinformation to keep him believing in an imminent alien invasion until he was completely discredited and utterly insane. Eventually, author and UFO researcher Bill Moore was recruited as a mole to help in the disinformation campaign against Bennewitz. While hardcore UFO aficionados will no doubt salivate over the accusations, details and techie tidbits contained herein, Bishop never conveys a real sense of Bennewitz's personality and motivations, and neither Bennewitz nor Moore emerge as fully fleshed out individuals. Instead, Bishop tells readers that Bennewitz was a "genius at figuring things out" and "his Achilles heel was his credulity." It would have been nice to understand the broken man at the center of it all, but as it is, Mulder and Scully seem more three dimensional than the players in this narrative. Photos. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review "This is both a true story and a little known but extremely important event in the social history of the fringe movements that swept America during the 1990s." -- Paul Davids, Executive Producer for Showtime's Roswell Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter 1: Kirtland Very few venture outside at night during the New Mexico winter. The bone-chilling cold repels all but the hardiest or the inexperienced visitor. It was the way of this land even before 1630, when Alvaro Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca first stumbled onto the bewildered residents of an adobe pueblo hundreds of miles beyond the northernmost outpost of the Spanish empire. Cabeza de Vaca was greeted as a miracle worker, or some sort of god. It was not the first and certainly not the last time that the "Land of Enchantment" would befuddle its inhabitants. Since World War II, this enchanted land has also been home to some of the most secret and sensitive projects that the military and its scientists have dreamed up and produced. The world's first atomic bomb was detonated here in May of 1945, and like many choice areas of stark desolation throughout the Southwest, the test area is owned by the U.S. government and is still off-limits to the public. It was in this setting that Paul Bennewitz, armed with a master's degree in physics, started a small company in 1969 to manufacture specialized temperature and humidity instruments for high-profile clients such as NASA and the U.S. Air Force. He was trying to earn his Ph.D. but his company, Thunder Scientific, became so successful that he had to devote all of his time to the business. The lab was located right on the border of Kirtland Air Force Base, which made his dealings with the military much easier. If he wanted, he could almost reach over his back wall and shake hands with a guard on base. By a strange coincidence, he could also walk across the road bordering his backyard and if there was a hole in the tall, barbed wire-topped fence, shake hands with another guard patrolling the perimeter. Whether he was at home or the office, the Air Force was always his neighbor. With a devoted wife and two sons, Paul Bennewitz looked like he had achieved the dream. There was nowhere to go but up. He had joined the Coast Guard at seventeen during WWII, started Thunder Scientific, and was an accomplished aerobatics pilot and guitarist. The demands of his business now left little time for friends and socializing, but this did not bother him. Thunder Scientific and his family were all that he needed. What little time he had left was devoted to plowing through a small collection of Wild West novels, his only guilty pleasure. But he had a secret interest that would be kindled with a series of strange events that, in retrospect, almost seemed to have picked him out, rather than the other way around. It was on a freezing, windswept night in the winter of 1979 that Bennewitz stepped out on his exposed second-story deck in the exclusive Four Hills neighborhood of Albuquerque for what was quickly becoming a nightly ritual. Ever since September, he and his wife Cindy were seeing multicolored lights floating and swooping about the small mountain range inside the base about a mile from his home. Through telephoto lenses so large that they dwarfed his cameras, Bennewitz compiled hundreds of photographs and shot thousands of feet of 8-millimeter film of these tantalizing objects. At times, the lights streaked away as quickly as a magician's sleight of hand, only to reappear seconds later, apparently miles from where they had just been. To Bennewitz, this was irrefutable proof that something unearthly was playing cat-and-mouse with the human race, daring us to react. In time, the fifty-two-year-old electronics expert would present this mass of data to the authorities, which he thought would waste no time in confronting the threat. They would have no choice. The lights were flying around the Manzano Weapons Storage Complex, then the largest underground repository of nuclear weapons components in the Western world. The Manzano Mountains rise abruptly out of the sloping plateau on which the metropolis of Albuquerque lies, honeycombed with tunnels and shafts, which were crammed to their cavernous ceilings with nuclear weapons and replacement parts for all sorts of atomic devices. It was the most secretive and highly guarded area on the sprawling grounds of Kirtland. Summer storms often zap the peaks of the Manzanos with forks of lightning even when the area around it is clear, making it appear like some sort of mad scientist's aerie. In 1939 a group of prominent Albuquerque residents suggested that the U.S. government would be welcome to use the area south of their growing town, and so the Kirtland Army Base was founded just before WWII as a training facility. Rusting, fifty-year-old tanks still stand sentinel in remote areas of the base as remnants from this period. After the war, abandoned homesteads and ranches on Kirtland's massive "south forty" were used as safe houses for German scientists "liberated" through the Office of Strategic Services' Operation Paperclip. After debriefing, they were shuttled to the White Sands missile range and the Los Alamos labs to put valuable Nazi know-how to use in the burgeoning Cold War. The remoteness of the place and the easy security it offered began to attract the notice of Pentagon intelligence types. On the southeastern slopes of the Manzanos, concrete bunkers jut out from the mountainside -- some near the bottom, others on seemingly impossible slopes farther uphill. These are the entrances to tunnels and underground rooms that are safe from all prying eyes and aircraft and spy satellites. Seen from the main road through the base, the bunkers seem isolated. The access roads are not visible -- they are cut into the hill so as to be invisible from ground level. They are likewise camouflaged from above to foil observers in high-flying aircraft and from space. Satellite pictures of the area reveal no roads or structures. Are they just "painted" out, or are they hidden in some other way? Viewed from a trail through the sage and scrub brush near the Bennewitz home, the mountains start to lose their innocent look. The 50,000-volt electric double fence that rings the entire base of the hills can be seen snaking over a distant rise. Over the years, Base Security has found a few people tangled in the fence or crumpled next to it, electrocuted to death. In some areas, visible only when the sun is at just the right place in the sky, the mountain is covered with what looks from a distance like pieces of broken plate glass mirrors littering the hillside; in all probability these are devices to foil satellite and aerial photography, and perhaps even ground-penetrating radar. Some employees of private Air Force contractors Sandia National Laboratories and Phillips Laboratories (which share Kirtland real estate), as well as various Air Force personnel, have let slip that something else is, or was, stored in this impenetrable fortress. One former scientist who wishes to keep his anonymity recently said, "Some of the guys working on the base used to talk about other things that were in there." When pressed as to what this might be, his curt answer was "Flying saucers." There is really no way of knowing whether this was just a ploy or whether there really were captured UFOs sitting in the dark, tunneled recesses of the Manzano Mountains. Welcome to the first stop in the disinformation funhouse. The area southeast of these mountains and out of sight from any civilian viewpoint is known as Coyote Canyon and is also home to some of Sandia National Laboratories' research and test areas. Sandia scientists were (and are) consistently at the cutting edge of defense research. The facility, formerly owned by AT&T, is now owned by the Martin Marietta Corporation and run by the U.S. Department of Energy. Technologies such as laser-guided missiles and electromagnetic pulse defense systems were pioneered here. Anything not under the Air Force or its contractors' strict control is regarded with immediate suspicion. The National Atomic Museum was moved off base sometime after the terrorist attacks of 2001, and large LED signs at all entrances warn visitors of the daily security alert status. The security at Kirtland wasn't always so airtight. Sometime in the mid-1980s, an unidentified man pulled up to one of the entrances and announced, "Here's my ID" as he pulled a loaded pistol from his coat. He led the Kirtland security police on a wild chase and somehow managed to escape through a remote hole in the fence somewhere on the southern perimeter, although this may have been a sophisticated training exercise. On a recent visit to the base I counted nearly as many security vehicles patrolling about as all other cars and trucks combined, and at least three or four no-nonsense, bulletproof-vested-and-armed guards at every entrance. Hidden cameras and constant patrols are designed to keep the massive fenced perimeter secure. Anything or anyone that tries to fly in would likely be blasted out of the sky by hidden surface-to-air missiles. But if Bennewitz was correct, a few stealthy UFOs may have had better luck. It would not be the first time. New Mexico has long been home to many strange objects that dart across the sky. From 1948 to 1950, under a spreading blanket of the emerging Cold War, the Air Force was alarmed by sightings of "green fireballs" that entered New Mexico airspace from extreme altitudes and streaked silently across the night sky for a few seconds, finally fading into the blackness. Most of the sightings described these phenomena traveling at great altitudes and along a generally level path, which led investigators to guess that commie saboteurs might have found a way to launch missiles (or something else) over our most sensitive installations. Some of the objects were observed over the sensitive nuclear storage areas of Kirtland Air Force Base and Los Alamos, even as expatriated German rocket scientists were test-firing captured V2s at the newly commissioned White Sands missile range some 200 miles to the south. What if these strange green "comets" were being used to test the Russians' aim? If they could already hit targets in the continental United States while we were still tinkering with keeping our rockets from ...

Most helpful customer reviews 28 of 33 people found the following review helpful. One of the best contributions to UFO research By Nick Redfern The Excluded Middle editor, radio host, author and lecturer Greg Bishop has provided the field of UFO research with what is without doubt one if its major, published contributions. The subject matter of Project Beta is an unusual one; and were it not for the fact that the story is meticulously detailed, referenced and researched, the reader might be forgiven for thinking that they had stumbled upon a high-tech, X-Files-meets-Robert Ludlum-style thriller. But Project Beta tells a very real story - and one that is as harrowing as it is informative. In essence, the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction book relates the story of physicist Paul Bennewitz, who after stumbling upon Air Force and National Security Agency secrets that he believes are connected to the activities of sinister extraterrestrials and UFOs, is bombarded by the murky world of officialdom with a mass of disinformation, faked stories and outright lies in order to both divert him from his research and lead to his mental and psychological disintegration. While anyone and everyone with an interest in UFOs should read Greg's book, it is unlikely to please some - particularly the I-want-to-believe crowd that foam at the mouth whenever the words "underground base," "cattle mutilations," and "alien abductions" surface. As Greg shows, many of the cornerstones upon which today's ufological lore are built, had their origins in the fertile minds of military intelligence and the behind-the-scenes spook-brigade. The UFO truth might not be "out there" after all - it may all be one big con behind which a veritable plethora of classified, military projects have been hidden. Hopefully, Project Beta will open the floodgates that lead to questions being asked at a higher, official level about the Bennewitz affair, and those who manipulated the man to the point of collapse will be made to answer for their actions. 17 of 19 people found the following review helpful. Disinformation on disinformation By Stuart Miller Unfortunately, Greg Bishop's book has already been misinterpreted. It has been claimed in other reviews here and indeed elsewhere that the book alleges that the entire UFO story is one that has been made up by various US intelligence agencies. This is quite simply not true and not only does the book state this clearly but quotes the chief protaganist, Richard Doty as saying that he accepted there were real ETs, real UFOs, and that we have been visited. Please read the book carefully. And what you will read, if you do, is a masterful treatise on exactly how the US intelligence agencies have historically used the UFO phenomena for their own advantage in order to plant false information in the minds of those they want to target. And why would they do this? To lead them away from black budget activities that they would rather people didn't look at. It does mean though that as a result of the activities of AFOSI, some of the tennets of modern ufology are false. It is extremely unlikely for example that there ever was an underground base at Dulce and that means no firefight and no large jars of embryonic humans etc.. The book also strongly suggests that cattle mutilations and the way they were carried out are comfortably within the scope of human ability. This isn't a novel, it's a factual account of historical events with the main character already passed on at the time of writing and given these circumstances and the background this all falls into, Greg has done a marvelous job in bringing the personalities to light. Bennewitz is portrayed as brilliant, nay a genius, and yet at the same time deeply flawed by naivete. Bill Moore comes over as much a victim as anyone else and even Richard Doty is portrayed as having some humanity. What may indeed surprise some folk is that Greg does not paint the intelligence agencies as disgustingly evil. He

Effective Opportunity Management for Projects (Center for Business Practices, 6) (PM Solutions Research)

2012-01-03T13:30:00.001-08:00

With step-by-step guidelines, this bestselling reference discusses the management of project opportunities by expanding the traditional risk management process to address opportunities alongside threats. It offers valuable tools and techniques that expose and capture opportunities, minimize threats, and deal with all types of uncertainty in your business and projects. Written by an experienced consultant and risk management specialist, this guide emphasizes that risk processes must cover both opportunities and threats if they are to assist in accomplishing project objectives and maximizing business benefits.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1703362 in Books Published on: 2003-11-19 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.28 pounds Binding: Hardcover 340 pages

Most helpful customer reviews 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Excellent project risk management book By Alsina S. Jorge Even today as of November 2011 in my 3rd edition of this review, I believe this book to be the very best available in risk management with everything you need for you project risk knowledge. If you have listened to Dr Hillson in one of his lectures or presentations in a PMI Congress, you will be able to appreciate what to wait from the book. In my opinion, It is the best Project Risk Management book, which is one of my preferred knowledge areas, mostly due to the lack of attention by most of the project management community. The book is well structured and complies very well with the current 4th edition of the PMBoK and the "Practice Standard for Project Risk Management" (in which design core Dr Hillson participated), going deep into the six risk processes. The risk identification chapter is packed with problem solving techniques, explained with accurate detail. I also enjoyed the qualitative assessment process chapter. The quantitative risk analysis chapter is devoted to the Monte Carlo simulation basics , but misses Decision Tree analysis. Dr. Hillson does well describing how to feed data into a simulation, given the results of the qualitative risk assessment, and interpreting the outputs of the simulation. However, John Shuyler "Risk and Decision Analysis in Projects" is more suited for quantitative risk analysis.His exposition is perfectly clear, sometimes going into the subject over and over, so it is a great learning book suitable as a text book for Project Management masters or any postgraduate courses. Excellent as well for PMP and PMI-RMP candidates.Don't be fouled by the title. The author goes into negative risks as well as opportunities. The title was good for 2004, when Dr Hillson was in a "crusade" to persuade project managers to pro-actively pursuit opportunities as well as negative risk. Today this is history and all of us know that we have to lunch with positive risk as much as threats. Since 2004, David Hillson has published many other excellent books on project risk and contributed with innumerable public papers and monthly briefings and he has contributed with the development of the ATOM project risk management system.Jorge Alsina, PMP, Eng, PAG (review edited on November 21, 2011) 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Author's recommendation! By David Hillson I'm pleased to offer this long-awaited book to colleagues and peers interested in the developing world of risk management. The aim of the book is to explore the implications of extending the definition of "risk" to include opportunity. If the definition is broader, then the risk process should also be expanded to address upside uncertainties. This book presents the definition debate, then describes a generic process for risk management including both threats and opportunities together. A closing section on implementation issues deals with how to make it work in practice, including the role of psychology. Hopefully this book will move the debate forward, as well as giving practical guidelines allowing opportunities to be identified and captured more effectively. 0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Effective Opportunity Management for Projects By Jos Rafael Pulido This is a well researched and a well written book. I particularly liked the approach the author uses in the chapters related to quantitative analysis and planning responses.I think, however, that the terminology used regarding opportunity as positive risk is somehow misleading. The author makes us aware of this issue,though. A leading Oil company has been using risks and opportunities even before the 1990`s. So risks and opportunities are usually included in the Project Execution Plan (PEP) for all Major Projects. I highly recommend this book,I enjoyed reading it. Jose Pulido, Senior Planning Engineer See all 3 customer reviews...

Robots, Androids and Animatrons, Second Edition : 12 Incredible Projects You Can Build

2012-01-02T13:15:00.001-08:00

Bring a robot to life without programming or assembly language skills! There’s never been a better time to explore the world of the nearly human. With the complete directions supplied by popular electronics author John Iovine, you can: • Build your first walking, talking, sensing, thinking robot • Create 12 working robotic projects, using the fully illustrated instructions provided • Get the best available introduction to robotics, motion control, sensors, and neural intelligence • Put together basic modules to build sophisticated ‘bots of your own design • Construct a robotic arm that responds to your spoken commands • Build a realistic, functional robotic hand • Apply sensors to detect bumps, walls, inclines , and roads • Give your robot expertise and neural intelligence You geteverything you need to create 12 exciting robotic projects using off-the-shelf products and workshop-built devices, including a complete parts list. Also ideal for anyone interested in electronic and motion control, this cult classic gives you the building blocks you need to go practically anywhere in robotics. (20020401)

Amazon Sales Rank: #783873 in Books Published on: 2001-10-29 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .91" h x 7.36" w x 9.20" l, 1.53 pounds Binding: Paperback 270 pages

Review From New Literature Section: Build your own walking, talking, thinking robot with the projects covered in this book on amateur robotics. Providing you with the building blocks of electronics and motion control, the book enables you to construct a robotic arm that reponds to your spoken command, put together basic modules to create sophisticated robot designs of your own, and more. First-time robot-builders and advanced hobbyists can complete these projects without programming or assembly language skills. (Poptronics ) From the Back Cover “Bound to stir the imagination and inspire plans.”--Poptronics, on John Iovine’s PIC Microcontroller Project BookMORE SENSORS—MORE SMARTS—MORE MOVES—MORE POWER—MORE CONTROL—MORE PROJECTS—LOWER COSTS—AMATEUR ROBOTICS COMES INTO ITS OWN!Robots, Androids, and Animatrons Second EditionThe time has come for you to bring a robot to life! With the plummeting costs of microcontrollers, quantum improvements and price reductions in other technologies, and the availability of a slew of exciting components in the electronics marketplace, there’s never been a better time to explore the world of the nearly human. With the complete directions supplied by popular electronics author John Iovine in this revised Robots, Androids, and Animatrons, you can:• Build your first walking, talking, sensing, thinking robot• Create 12 working robotic projects, using the fully illustrated instructions provided• Get the best available introduction to robotics, motion control, sensors, and neural intelligence• Put together basic modules to build sophisticated ‘bots of your own design• Construct a robotic arm that responds to your spoken commands• Build a realistic, functional robotic hand• Apply sensors to detect bumps, walls, inclines , and roads• Give your robot expertise and neural intelligence• Do all of this without programming or assembly language skillsPERFECT FOR FIRST-TIME ROBOT BUILDERS—AND FOR MORE ADVANCED HOBBYISTS WHO WANT TO ADD TO THEIR SKILLS If you have basic electronics abilities, Robots, Androids, and Animatrons gives you everything you need to create 12 exciting robotic projects using off-the-shelf products and workshop-built devices—including a complete parts list. Also ideal for anyone interested in electronic and motion control, this book—already a cult classic—gives you the building blocks you need to go practically anywhere in robotics. You’ll find hours of amusement here —and perhaps the germ of your new best friend! About the Author John Iovine is the author of several popular TAB titles that explore the frontiers of scientific research. He has written Homemade Holograms: The Complete Guide to Inexpensive, Do-It-Yourself Holography; Kirlian Photography: A Hands-On Guide; Fantastic Electronics: Build Your Own Negative-Ion Generator and Other Projects; and A Step into Virtual Reality. He is also the “Amazing Science” columnist for Poptronics magazine.

Most helpful customer reviews 29 of 31 people found the following review helpful. Iovine's Robots,Androids and Animatrons:a great introduction By R. Porter If you are looking for a comprehensive yet easily understood review and guide to robotics, this is a perfect book. After an introduction and history, the author discusses the primary elements of robots: power, drives and sensors. Then he explains one of the central topics in hobby robotics: neural networks. Iovine does an excellent job of contrasting this type of robot with more traditional types, and in doing so can save the novice many hours of research. The remaining chapters are devoted to specific types of robots--everything from battery powered "walkers" and solar-bots, to underwater and blimp-like devices. He also describes robotic arms, how to control robots with computers, and finally, how to construct an android hand! For all of these projects, Iovine provides schematic electrical diagrams and directions for construction.This is indeed a terrific summary and guide to the fascinating field of hobby robotics. 14 of 14 people found the following review helpful. Interesting and worthwhile By E. Glenn Anaiscourt Robots, Androids and Animatrons covers a lot of bases. It provides tantalizing information and commentary on technology currently under development and envisioned for the coming few decades. The text is clear, and the projects are straightforward, creative and interesting. Iovine provides a taste of a variety of technologies, and ideas about where to go for additional, related information outside the scope of the book. This is not the consummate 'bot hobbyist's manual that McComb's Robot Builder's Bonanza is, but it will make a valuable addition to many an enthusiast's library. The style of the text is geared toward younger and less experienced readers. For example, Iovine discusses the BASIC Stamp, and does not discuss any other microcontrollers. He does not go into much detail or depth on any particular topic. I'd say that Iovine's audience is probably best represented by scientifically-inclined high-school students. However, there is an interesting section on employing DTMF (touch-tone dialing) for remote control which I think would tickle the fancy of any hobbyist. There are also sections on speech control, telepresence, pneumatics, and a robotic fish that contain information I haven't seen duplicated elsewhere. Not all of Iovine's projects are cheap. Some of the required parts are a little exotic, and may only be available through Images Company, to which John constantly refers. Readers seeking less expensive or alternative sources may have to get creative. But this is a minor inconvenience. Robotics isn't a cheap hobby, exotic parts are sometimes unavoidable, and Iovine's projects are super neat. His book is interesting and worthwhile. 7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Good Book if you have some electronics experience By A Customer This book is good for someone who has some electronic experience and seems to be geared toward a beginner in robotics (Not electronics).This book requires you know basic electronic components and gives a good platform to begin building robots. Not all the projects in this book are cheap and do require the purchase of the BASIC Stamp but the basic stamp is an important tool in building more complex robots as a person progresses into robotics.Overall it was well worth the money. See all 21 customer reviews...

Practical Ruby Projects: Ideas for the Eclectic Programmer (Books for Professionals by Professionals)

2012-01-01T12:45:00.001-08:00

This book is aimed at Ruby programmers who have already mastered the basics and want to learn higher level techniques. Practical Ruby Projects presents 9 diverse projects (including a turn-based adventure game, and a generative music creator) that will teach new and innovative techniques in a learn-by-example fashion. While there are many other Ruby titles, none of them take this unique project-based approach to teaching.

Amazon Sales Rank: #190588 in Books Published on: 2007-12-18 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .77" h x 7.08" w x 9.26" l, 1.38 pounds Binding: Paperback 328 pages ISBN13: 9781590599112 Condition: USED - Like New Notes: 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

About the Author Topher Cyll is a software engineer and writer living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Williams College and works for a small Boston-area startup. In reverse alphabetical order, he finds programming languages, music, Free Software, education, bioengineering and beer terribly exciting. Topher loves Ruby not only for the language itself, but also the light-hearted and intellectually curious community that surrounds it.

Most helpful customer reviews 12 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Finally a book for experienced Ruby developers By James Stewart The past few years have seen the English-language Ruby book market explode. Before the phenomenal success of Rails it was perfectly possible to own every available title (and not use much storage space), but now that would be quite a challenge and lead to considerable redundancy. Having worked my way through quite a few Rails books of late, reading Practical Ruby Projects--a Ruby book that doesn't even mention web frameworks--was both a pleasant diversion and a highly illuminating experience. Like the last volume I reviewed (Pro JavaScript Design Patterns), this book is unabashedly aimed at experienced programmers. There's a brief paragraph on "getting set up", but no detailed guide to obtaining the tools. Instead we dive right in to a sequence of projects that includes: making music (dipping into calling C code from ruby), animation, simulation, building a strategy game (and adding a RubyCocoa frontend), genetic algorithms, and even implementing lisp and parsers. Once again the "apress roadmap," a diagram intended to show how the skillsets in their different volumes build on one another, is misleading pitching this between "Beginning Ruby" and other volumes I've reviewed like Practical Ruby for System Administration and Pro Active Record. Don't believe it. Though there's little overlap in the material, this is a more advanced volume than either of those and readers should be prepared. The pace of the book is measured and Topher Cyll does a good job of gradually building up the projects a step at a time. Along the way a variety of practices are demonstrated with many methods stubbed out for demonstration purposes before being filled in when they are needed, and considerable time spent on decoupling code. That latter piece is particularly in evidence in the chapters on building a turn-based strategy game and then developing a RubyCocoa front-end. Despite careful design early on further refactoring is needed to make it easy to apply the front-end and that process is carefully worked through. Most of the book makes some use of existing libraries. The initial lisp chapter uses the sexp library and the subsequent section on writing a parse relies on rparsec. For the most part, however, use of the libraries is kept to a minimum, allowing for fairly self-contained code. Unit testing is largely ignored until the last chapter, where the need for tests when constructing a grammar/parser is explained and a test-first development model is encouraged. That works well to demonstrate the power of tests for complex (and often brittle) code. This is not a book designed for public transport reading. Working through chapters on the bus I frequently found myself wanting to reach for my laptop to get a better grasp of how a piece of code worked. While the explanation is generally very good, with material of this complexity there is nothing like running the code and tweaking it to make sure you've understood exactly what each transformation does. It's a book to take your time over, so be prepared! A few editorial errors have crept in, suggesting a re-organisation of the contents late in the day. In particular an early reference to s-expressions seemed to presume that the lisp and/or parsing chapters were featured early. That's not a big deal and will hopefully be corrected in later printings; the author does encourage skipping around within the book, but there is value in working through it roughly in order, and not just for the two "paired" chapters that explicitly build on one another. Perhaps the most striking thing about this book is the reminder that even for those of us whose primary programming activity is web development, studying other areas can be extremely helpful. Not only is it helpful to see how other developers structure their code, but tools like genetic algorithms and parsers are likely

Project Decisions: The Art and Science

2011-12-31T12:30:00.001-08:00

Project management is the art of making the right decisions. To be effective as a project manager, you must know how to make rational choices in project management, what processes can help you to improve these choices, and what tools are available to help you through the decision-making process. Project Decisions: The Art and Science is an entertaining and easy-to-read guide to a structured project decision analysis process. This valuable text presents the basics of cognitive psychology and quantitative analysis methods to help project managers make better decisions. Examples that portray different projects, real-life stories, and popular culture will help readers acquire the essential knowledge and skills required for effective project decision-making. Readers will be able to: -Understand psychological pitfalls related to project management -Establish a creative business environment in their organization -Identify project risks and uncertainties -Develop estimates of project time and cost based on an understanding of human psychology -Perform basic quantitative and qualitative risk and decision analysis -Use event chain methodology in managing projects -Communicate the results of decision analysis to decision-makers -Review project decisions and perform adaptive project management -Establish a project decision analysis process in their organization PLUS Test your own judgment through a quiz that examines your intuition!

Amazon Sales Rank: #140040 in Books Published on: 2007-10-01 Original language: English Dimensions: .2 pounds Binding: Paperback 344 pages

About the Author Lev Virine has more than 20 years of experience as a structural engineer, software developer, and project manager. In the past 10 years he has been involved in a number of major projects performed by Fortune 500 companies and government agencies to establish effective decision analysis and risk management processes as well as to conduct risk analyses of complex projects. Lev is the author of more than 25 scientific papers and patents. He received his doctoral degree in engineering and computer science from Moscow State University. Michael Trumper has worked in the fields of technical communications, marketing, and software development for the past 16 years. Over the past eight years, he has been involved in projects involving economic valuation and risk and project lifecycle modeling. Michael has authored several papers and articles on project risk management. He holds a bachelors degree from the University of Victoria and is currently a masters candidate at the University of Liverpools laureate program.

Most helpful customer reviews 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. A different take on decision analysis By J. McVean The main problem with many decision analysis books is that they are too academic and are intended for people with some operations research and management science background. "Project Decisions" is written for much broader audience. There is very little math in this book. Instead, the book is full of real-life project examples (e.g., NASA's X-33 single stage to orbit launch system and New Horizon mission to Pluto, ITER thermonuclear reactor, Toyota Prius hybrid car, new Bay bridge design and construction in San Francisco) and stories based on popular movies (e.g., Home Alone, Ocean's 11, Armageddon). As an interesting and entertaining introduction to the whole topic, the book starts off with a simple judgment test to help you assess you decision making skills. "Project Decisions: The Art and Science" is not an ordinary decision analysis book. It is a book for project managers who don't use decision analysis because they are unaware of decision analysis techniques and tools. Each part of the book describes a phase of the decision analysis process: decision framing, modeling, quantitative decision analysis, implementation monitoring and reviews. The book pays significant attention to risk management and risk analysis tools and techniques. Both quantitative and qualitative risk analysis techniques are described. The book includes separate chapters on sensitivity analysis, decision tree and value of information analysis, Monte Carlo simulations, and Event chain methodology. One of the most important and often overlooked areas of project management is related to psychology or judgment and decision-making. The authors introduce the basic principles of behavioral branch of the decision analysis theory. They dedicate separate chapters to decision-making in groups, reviews and evaluation of decisions, multi-criteria decision-making and other important aspects of decision analysis. 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. a must read for project managers By Igor Linkov "Project Decisions" is a must read for project managers trying to improve the decision making ability. Coming from both decision analysis theory and psychology, it offers some unique insights and practical recipes for more successful projects in a fun, easy to read style. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. We need help making decisions By Linda Rising I believe it's good for developers and managers in any industry to lift their heads from the day to day trench digging and look around to see if others know a better way. In this book, the authors not only share their expertise in decision analysis, but also their wonderful sense of humor, many compelling stories, and their knowledge of the cinema! I'm a believer in the power of project retrospectives--if we truly had the kind of data the authors recommend, we would certainly have a better understanding of what works well and what should be done differently in projects. This book will help you and your teams. Buy it; read it; apply it. See all 10 customer reviews...

Making & Enjoying Telescopes: 6 Complete Projects & A Stargazer's Guide

2011-12-30T12:00:00.001-08:00

"...follows a logical path through topics of safety, construction, sky coordinates, and, finally, design....Plans for each telescope are illustrated with both line drawings and photographs...procedures are laid out in an easy-to-follow technique...includes a rich gallery of illustrated telescopes that amateurs have built...a welcome addition as a source of ideas...well-written and well-illustrated book. The projects it presents are well within the skill level of a youngster...an asset to any school or public library."--Science Books & Films.

Amazon Sales Rank: #571922 in Books Published on: 1997-06-30 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Binding: Paperback 160 pages

About the Author Ian Wilson was born in London in 1941 and educated at Emanuel School, Wandsworth, and Magdalene College, Oxford, where he graduated in History in 1963. His previous books include The Turin Shroud, which became a worldwide bestseller when published in 1978 and Jesus: The Evidence (1984), a companion to the major three part TV series of the same name and another bestseller. The Blood and the Shroud was published in 1998. His biography of Shakespeare, Shakespeare: The Evidence was published in 1993 and The Bible is History in 1999. All of his books have attracted critical acclaim.

Most helpful customer reviews 29 of 29 people found the following review helpful. Complex but essential for INTERMEDIATE ATM'ers By Rob Simmons ( biofish@cdc.net ) I have to say at first i was dissapointed. I bought this book as a beginer telescope maker and i had to put it away. Then i bought Richard Berry's book and was enlightened. This is not to say that i don't like this book. If you have some experience with tools and wood i would suggest this book first. Or if you have made at least one telescope before, i would also suggest this book. Robert Miller & Wilson have many insights and examples but in many places they leave you on your own. Fortunately i have a degree in physics and was able to do fine on my own. One of my favoriate scopes was built using 3 of his plans mixed together. If you have a basic idea or have made scopes before... this is the best book to buy. If you have never made a scope before and are just getting into this field of astronomy, do yourself a favor and get Richard Berry's book.. (also here on amazon.com) But i promise that if you buy this book later on, you will be happy. If you buy it now,you will get frustrated. What Robert Miller & Wilson did teach me was to, above all, enjoy the scope you make!! 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Well worth the price By A Customer This book is very imformative and useful to the beginning telescope maker. It does not describe mirror grinding or optical testing but very thoroughly explains construction, design, and tips for making 10 inch or less telescopes 0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A very nice and useful book. By Charles Hall I've been reading a lot of older books on telescope making, and this is one of the better ones. It is new enough, 1995, to avoid wasting time on making your own mirror. It focuses on how to use telescopes, basic principles, and general plans for 6 telescopes with extensive notes on a 7th. It's especially nice that the author is not an expert woodworker and the skill level required to build these scopes appears to be within the reach of an average person. The projects described are as follows: - Star tracker mount for a camera - A simple 4-1/4" reflector with a PVC tube - A 4-1/4" reflector with a wooden tube - A 6-inch Equatorial mounted reflector - An 8-inch f/5 reflector - A 10" Dobsonian And extensive notes and photos of a portable 8" Dobsonian using only two aluminum struts instead of a 8-tube truss or solid tube. If you're thinking of building a telescope, this book is well worth a look. See all 4 customer reviews...

Information Development: Managing Your Documentation Projects, Portfolio, and People

2011-12-29T11:45:00.001-08:00

A revolutionary new resource that brings documentation product management ideas up to dateThe 1994 bestselling classic Managing Your Documentation Projects set the industry standard for technical documentation. However, since then, much has changed in the world of information development. With this new title, JoAnn Hackos looks beyond the structured project of the 1980s and 1990s. Instead, she focuses on the rapidly changing projects of the 21st century and addresses how to introduce agile information development without neglecting the central focus of planning information design and development around the needs of information users.As an information-development manager, you are expected to reduce costs and project time, do more work with fewer resources and less money, and increase the value of the information you deliver. Recognizing this, Hackos has carefully designed this book to help you do precisely that. She helps you make strategic decisions about information development and directs the discussion of project management toward smarter decision-making.An update of the original 1994 Information Process Maturity Model (IPMM) presents you with a method by which you can compare the state of your organization to others, evaluate your current status, and then consider what is necessary in order to move to the next level.Information Development offers a completely new look at best practices for all phases of the document development lifecycle, including:Managing a corporate information portfolioEvaluating process maturityPartnering with customers and developing user scenariosDeveloping team effectiveness and collaborationPlanning and monitoring information projectsManaging translation and productionEvaluating project performanceManaging for quality, efficiency, and cost-effectivenessThe companion Web site includes electronic versions of the templates and checklists featured in the book.Wiley Technology Publishing Timely. Practical. Reliable.Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/

Amazon Sales Rank: #247191 in Books Published on: 2006-12-26 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 9.22" h x 1.33" w x 7.40" l, 2.13 pounds Binding: Paperback 624 pages

From the Back Cover A revolutionary new resource that brings documentation product management ideas up to dateThe 1994 bestselling classic Managing Your Documentation Projects set the industry standard for technical documentation. However, since then, much has changed in the world of information development. With this new title, JoAnn Hackos looks beyond the structured project of the 1980s and 1990s. Instead, she focuses on the rapidly changing projects of the 21st century and addresses how to introduce agile information development without neglecting the central focus of planning information design and development around the needs of information users.As an information-development manager, you are expected to reduce costs and project time, do more work with fewer resources and less money, and increase the value of the information you deliver. Recognizing this, Hackos has carefully designed this book to help you do precisely that. She helps you make strategic decisions about information development and directs the discussion of project management toward smarter decision-making.An update of the original 1994 Information Process Maturity Model (IPMM) presents you with a method by which you can compare the state of your organization to others, evaluate your current status, and then consider what is necessary in order to move to the next level.Information Development offers a completely new look at best practices for all phases of the document development lifecycle, including:Managing a corporate information portfolioEvaluating process maturityPartnering with customers and developing user scenariosDeveloping team effectiveness and collaborationPlanning and monitoring information projectsManaging translation and productionEvaluating project performanceManaging for quality, efficiency, and cost-effectivenessThe companion Web site includes electronic versions of the templates and checklists featured in the book.Wiley Technology Publishing Timely. Practical. Reliable.Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/ About the Author JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD, is President of Comtech Services and director of the Center for Information-Development Management. She is also the author of Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery (Wiley), Managing Your Documentation Projects (Wiley), Standards for Online Communication (Wiley), and User and Task Analysis for Interface Design (Wiley).

Most helpful customer reviews 36 of 46 people found the following review helpful. Author has nothing to say and takes too long to say it By Mark on Amazon I bought this book because I liked the table of contents. I assumed this book would present concrete, actionable specifics on the subjects presented in the table of contents. I was disappointed. Under information planning, this book only tells you that you should do it. Gee, thanks. Under estimating and scheduling - you should estimate future project resources and you should request new resources and fund innovation. Oh, boy. Yippee. This book is an exercise in stating the blatantly obvious. I expected to see information on the nuts and bolts of producing technical documentation...I expected to see examples of budgets, examples of ways to create efficient systems for document production using single-sourcing, and to see examples of specific, important techniques for planning a document production process that allows for easy translation, revision, re-usability and transfer to different mediums. I expected to get a reference that would become well-worn on my desk. This book is as far from such a tome as it could possibly get while still being written in the English language. I want to improve the efficiency of my documentation projects. I'd like to know about technologies (XML?, VBA?) that might help me with separating content from layout and improving reusability. Is that here? Nope. But you do get way too much talk about how you should acquire good tools that support your business goals. There is nothing about what those tools should be or what specifically would make them good. One page tells you the difference between a "traditional" project and an "agile" project...things like: An agile project "responds to change" and has "minimal process documentation" as well as "reduced development schedules". That's nice. Who cares? Implementing a Topic Architecture is the only section that even makes a move in the direction of specific, concrete, useful material. But even it leaves you thinking, "Well, duh...yathink?" To sum up, this book tells you all the obvious things you ought to do...but that's it. It doesn't have anything to say about HOW you would actually do those things. I doubt the author has the foggiest idea how because I doubt she has a single hard skill to speak of. She definitely didn't write about any. 9 of 11 people found the following review helpful. Admit that you are a wasteaholic By Todd Eric Kelsey Any organization, large or small, that wants to get serious about growth should read this book, breathe it and master it. The first step is to admit you have a problem. "Hello, my name is Bob. I'm a wasteaholic."; "Hi Bob". I used to HATE process. HATE HATE HATE. I didn't want to be constrained; I rationalized saying "well it is a waste of time to invest time in process, it is just needless bureacracy". I was a creative person, still am. Then 10 years later I realized I was wasting a lot of time because things weren't organized, there wasn't accountability, the projects were driving me, instead of me being on top of things. Are you a wasteaholic? Answer this question: Do you feel on top of things? If answer = yes, close browser window. If answer = no, order book. Book is dead on. Several years ago I interviewed for a staff position at Cornell University, in a dept. run by a guy who had spent a number of years in industry; I wanted to impress him, so I asked, "are there any books you'd recommend, out of all you've come across, about project management and content?" And he said "Managing Documentation Projects" -- which is the precursor to this book. It rocks. 5 of 6 people found the following review helpful. How can a book be less useful than its predecessor?? By Timohuatl I've owned the previous version of this book for years. I was hopeful. The TOC you can read online indicated that the book had grown with the industry. This edition includes more space dedicated

Simple Science Object Talks

2011-12-28T11:30:00.001-08:00

This book has over 100 simple-to-do science demonstrations using items from your kitchen, craft basket, or tool chest to provide leaders with object lessons that fascinate kids and illustrate Bible truths.These resources are ideal for quick lessons or attention-getting visuals to supplement existing lesson materials. Just use items from your kitchen, craft basket, or tool chest to create lessons that fascinate children, illustrate a biblical truth, and deliver memorable messages your kids will love.

Amazon Sales Rank: #420639 in Books Published on: 2007-01-02 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.33 pounds Binding: Paperback 224 pages

About the Author Heno Head, Jr. teaches science at Monett High School in Monett, Missouri. He combines his love for God with his knowledge of science to reach the hearts of kids.

Most helpful customer reviews 0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Good resource for good simple Science and scripture By CTeacher It's organized well. It's clearly written. Most of the things you'll need are simple or easy to find. I think the hardest object to find is the Sterno can. There are little illustrations to show you what to do. A scripture kind of ties them together and there are a couple of bible story ideas given for each lesson so that you can tie in the lesson. If you have more than 25 minutes to fill you'd have to have something else planned as these are kind of short, but the kids love this kind of stuff as it's hands on if you let it be. You can stretch out the time by letting the kids do it themselves individually IF the class is small enough, homogeneous, and the materials are easy enough to have multiples. My only tiny "issue" would be that a few of the topics overlap a bit, but the suggestion of the stories at the end of the "talk" is good and is a way to make it last longer and change it up. It is so nice not to have to have a coloring sheet or crossword puzzle for them every Sunday! The kids really appreciate things like this! It is very EASY to use and what I've been looking for! See all 1 customer reviews...

Field Guide to Project Management

2011-12-27T11:00:00.001-08:00

One of the best-known authorities on project management, David Cleland developed this new edition for professionals who need a dependable, on-the-job resource to answer questions and solve problems as they arise. Field Guide to Project Management is unmatched in its wealth of reliable information on project management systems and its concise and accessible format, also making it the perfect volume to read cover to cover for a unique, up-to-date survey of the field. Every aspect of project management is addressed with practical explanations and advice by a who’s-who roster of expert authors who cover planning techniques, concepts, paradigms, processes, tools, and techniques.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1113610 in Books Published on: 2004-07-29 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.15" h x 6.00" w x 9.00" l, 1.89 pounds Binding: Paperback 652 pages

From the Publisher This hands-on guide to project team management features a who's-who roster of expert authors that present practical explanations and advice on all aspects of project management: planning techniques, concepts, paradigms, processes, tools, and techniques. No other volume offers such a wealth of reliable information on project management systems in such a concise, authoritative and accessible format. This is a must-own volume for project managers, product developers, team leaders, and executive personnel in all industries. From the Back Cover Up-to-date solutions to critical issues facing project managers on the jobThe skillful blend of conceptual basics and hands-on practice that made Field Guide to Project Management a cornerstone resource in the field is now completely updated in a new Second Edition. One of the best-known authorities on project management, David Cleland developed this new edition for professionals who need a dependable, on-the-job resource to answer questions and solve problems as they arise.Field Guide to Project Management, Second Edition is unmatched in its wealth of reliable information on project management systems and its concise and accessible format, also making it the perfect volume to read cover to cover for a unique, up-to-date survey of the field. Every aspect of project management is addressed with practical explanations and advice by a who’s-who roster of expert authors who cover planning techniques, concepts, paradigms, processes, tools, and techniques.A relevant book across all professional levels and industries, this Second Edition covers the areas of project management that are critical to successful implementation, as defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI). This revised edition includes new material on:The strategic context of projectsProject leadershipEffective project information systemsBuilding the project statement of workProject management softwareBuilding high-performance teamsProject selection and useProject management maturityImplementing earned valueMaintaining project oversightProject management systems are a primary means of dealing with organizational change and execution of enterprise strategies across a wide range of applications, such as construction management, benchmarking, competitive analysis, crisis management, new business development, quality management, and self-directed production teams.Now more than ever, Field Guide to Project Management, Second Edition is a must-own volume for project managers, product developers, team leaders, and executive personnel in all industries. About the Author DAVID I. CLELAND, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. He is a Fellow of the Project Management Institute and has received PMI’s Distinguished Contribution to Project Management Award three times. He is often described as the "Father of Project Management" and has been honored through the establishment of the annual David I. Cleland Excellence in Project Management Literature Award sponsored by PMI. He is the author or editor of thirty-six books in the fields of project and engineering management. His current research interests are in the evolution of project management and the strategic context of projects in the management of enterprises.

Most helpful customer reviews 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Valuable study aid & practical guide By Michael Garrett, PMP I struggled through months of preparation for the PMI exam until I ordered this book. In this one reference, I was able to find all of the detail that was required to master the practice exams and that wasn't included in the PMBOK.Since passing the PMI exam, this is the only PM book that remains on my desk. It is my key PM reference with pratical approaches to most of the issues faced by PM's today. Now that I am mentoring other PM's, this has become the first tool that I recommend for improving their day-to-day PM practices and preparing for the PMI Exam. 3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. A single point reference for day-to-day PM challenges By A Customer A very good collection of Project Management articles. This book covers most day-to-day challenges a Project Manager faces. I no longer have to refer to various textbooks and journals on PM all the times. On the flip side, the illustrations are tardy, at times illegible. 0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Excellent desk reference By S. Crawley This is an excellent desk reference for PM. Since receiving this book, I've read several chapters from random sections based on my current need. I've found the writing to be well organized and easy to skim. The in depth reading is enjoyable and informative. It is a keeper. --SWC See all 3 customer reviews...

Hiring The Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets & Science Of Hiring Technical People

2011-12-26T10:00:00.001-08:00

Good technical people are the foundation on which successful high technology organizations are built. Establishing a good process for hiring such workers is essential. Unfortunately, the generic methods so often used for hiring skill-based staff, who can apply standardized methods to almost any situation, are of little use to those charged with the task of hiring technical people. Unlike skill-based workers, technical people typically do not have access to cookie-cutter solutions to their problems. They need to adapt to any situation that arises, using their knowledge in new and creative ways to solve the problem at hand. As a result, one developer, tester, or technical manager is not interchangeable with another. This makes hiring technical people one of the most critical and difficult processes a technical manager can undertake. Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets & Science of Hiring Technical People takes the guesswork out of hiring and diminishes the risk of costly hiring mistakes. With the aid of step-by-step descriptions and detailed examples, you’ll learn how to * write a concise, targeted job description * source candidates * develop ads for mixed media * review résumés quickly to determine Yes, No, or Maybe candidates * develop intelligent, nondiscriminatory, interview techniques * create fool-proof phone-screens * check references with a view to reading between the lines * extend an offer that will attract a win-win acceptance or tender a gentle-but-decisive rejection * and more You, your team, and your organization will live with the long-term consequences of your hiring decision. Investing time in developing a hiring strategy will shorten your decision time and the ramp-up time needed for each new hire.

Amazon Sales Rank: #501898 in Books Published on: 2004-09-30 Original language: English Dimensions: .1 pounds Binding: Paperback 352 pages

Review ". . . practical, pragmatic advice on finding and hiring the right person." -- Esther Derby, President, Esther Derby Associates, Inc."This clear and comprehensive book joins Peopleware and The Mythical Man Month as must-reads for technical managers." -- Joel Spolsky, Founder, Fog Creek Software"a humane, yet tough-minded approach to hiring. Any technical manager who wants to hire well will be thankful for it." -- James Bach, CEO, Satisfice, Inc. About the Author Johanna Rothman is a highly regarded speaker, author, and consultant; she is known for her pragmatic approach to the problems of managing high technology product development and workers. During the past twenty years, she has been influential in the hiring of hundreds of technical people, including developers, testers, technical editors, technical support staff, and their managers. Based in Arlington, Massachusetts, she is the president of Rothman Consulting Group.

Most helpful customer reviews 16 of 16 people found the following review helpful. Hiring techies? Your competition is reading this book ... By Earl A. Everett If you are involved in any way with hiring techies, you need this book -- not just as a one-time read, but as one you will refer to repeatedly. (If you're a techie looking to get hired, it has considerable value, as well.) Some other recent books, such as How Would You Move Mt. Fuji? deal with the *entire* hiring process only lightly, if at all. This book covers everything, from coming up with the critical/optional requirements of the position (an especially favorite section), through finding and sourcing candidates, résumé review (é is alt-0233 on the numeric keypad, BTW), phone-screen techniques, and truly useful interviewing guidance (another outstanding section). It also covers the crucial decision-making process, reference checking, and making the job offer. It discerns the differences between hiring contributors and managers quite well indeed. Those of us who have lived painfully through a bad hiring decision know the tremendous cost in money, disruption, and angst. Risk is inherent in every hiring situation, but reading and applying this book will help you go a *long* way toward mitigating that risk. I bought this book for myself. I'll be buying it for my peer managers, my directors, and my team. It's *good*, and it's *useful*. 9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. Comprehensive, timely manual for technology sector By Henry Berry In this comprehensive, detailed handbook, Rothman recognizes what employers have to do to be able to attract the best technical workers. It's not enough simply to advertise for job openings, but the technical work has to be properly described to attract the right kind of prospective employees. Otherwise, the hiring process will be inefficient, murky, and errant. Reviewing resumes, screening potential candidates for interviews and preparing for these, and conducting an interview are other topics. A consultant to technical firms, Rothman also goes into a personal touch with individuals looking for employment which gives them a favorable impression of the company. This is desirable because a company might want to hire an applicant at a future time; and it creates a favorable image of the company among technical workers. This specialized hiring manual is timely considering the present pick-up in activity in the technology sector of the economy. Many technology companies have to start now preparing to hire new technical workers to be able to capitalize on the opportunities shaping up. 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. This is the book I wish I'd had when I was a hiring manager. By Esther Derby If you want to increase your ability to attract and hire people who will help build the company while avoiding costly hiring mistakes, Johanna Rothman's book, Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds, can help. The book is full of detailed guidance on each step of the hiring process, from creating a hiring strategy to making the new hire's first day a great one. The book provides templates and examples to help determine the required and desirable skills for a job, identify elimination factors, and articulate interpersonal and cultural fit qualities necessary for success. Assessing skills in an interview isn't sufficient; it's how people apply those skills and adapt to situations that determine success. So Johanna details how to use behavioral questions and auditions to gain a clear picture of how a person is likely to perform in your context. Hiring the Best will help you fine-tune your hiring process, make the best use of your time, and increase your hiring success. See all 10 customer reviews...

Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon

2011-12-25T09:45:00.001-08:00

Here is a rare perspective on a story we only thought we knew. For Apollo 11, the first moon landing, is a story that belongs to many, not just the few and famous. It belongs to the seamstress who put together twenty-two layers of fabric for each space suit. To the engineers who created a special heat shield to protect the capsule during its fiery reentry. It belongs to the flight directors, camera designers, software experts, suit testers, telescope crew, aerospace technicians, photo developers, engineers, and navigators.Gathering direct quotes from some of these folks who worked behind the scenes, Catherine Thimmesh reveals their very human worries and concerns. Culling NASA transcripts, national archives, and stunning NASA photos from Apollo 11, she captures not only the sheer magnitude of this feat but also the dedication, ingenuity, and perseverance of the greatest team ever—the team that worked to first put man on that great gray rock in the sky.

Amazon Sales Rank: #274023 in Books Published on: 2006-06-26 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .60" h x 10.20" w x 11.10" l, 1.65 pounds Binding: Hardcover 80 pages

From School Library Journal Grade 5 Up–In infectiously hyperbolic prose that's liberally interspersed with quotes and accompanied by sheaves of period photos, Thimmesh retraces the course of the space mission that landed an actual man, on the actual Moon. It's an oft-told tale, but the author tells it from the point of view not of astronauts or general observers, but of some of the 17,000 behind-the-scenes workers at Kennedy Space Center, the 7500 Grumman employees who built the lunar module, the 500 designers and seamstresses who actually constructed the space suits, and other low-profile contributors who made the historic flight possible. Despite occasional contrast issues when the white-on-black text is printed over blown-up photographs, this dramatic account will mesmerize even readers already familiar with the event–and also leave them awed by the level of care and dedication it took to surmount so many daunting technological challenges. Drawn from personal interviews and oral histories as well as a wide array of published sources, this stirring, authoritative tribute to the collective effort that left ...footprints, crisp and clear, pressed purposefully and magnificently into the lunar dust belongs in every collection.–John Peters, New York Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review "This behind-the-scenes look at the first Apollo moon landing has the feel of a public television documentary in its breadth and detail." Publishers Weekly, Starred"This beautiful and well-documented tribute will introduce a new generation to that triumphant time." Kirkus Reviews, Starred"This dramatic account will mesmerize even readers already familiar with the event–and also leave them awed by the level of care and dedication it took to surmount so many daunting technological challenges." –SLJ School Library Journal"Thimmesh gives names and voices to the army that got Neil Armstrong and company to the moon and back. The result is a spectacular and highly original addition to the literature of space exploration." Horn Book"Catherine Thimmesh tells us the stories of the 400,000 people it took to make...that 'one giant leap'...Their collective devotion to an exciting goal comes across strongly." - Chicago Tribune"Kids...probably feel they know quite a bit about the first manned moon landing. But until they've read Thimmesh's breathless behind-the-scenes account, they know zip." -Starred Review Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books"An edge-of-your-seat adventure...lavishly illustrated...this exhilarating book...will captivate." - Chicago Sun-Times"Thimmesh's enthusiasm for her subject is palpable, and the sense of excitement she brings is as vital to Team Moon's success the book's very premise." - Chris Barton, author

Most helpful customer reviews 40 of 42 people found the following review helpful. AUUUUGGGGHHH!! Moon germs! By E. R. Bird Thank God for children's literature blogs. Without them I swear I'd miss half the cool new children's books coming out each and every year. Now I'm a children's librarian of variegated tastes. I like my books fictional, preferably fantastical, and with a British sense of humor. Basically if you place a non-fiction book in my lap without warning me first, I scream and fly into a fit of severe heebie-jeebies. But when I heard about "Team Moon", it sounded too good to pass up. First of all, it was written by Catherine Thimmesh, who won my love when I read her, "The Sky's the Limit: Stories of Discovery By Women and Girls". At this point Thimmesh could write a book about how thrilling it is to learn about the history of mouthwash and I'd probably be all ah-twitter. I expected to find "Team Moon" fascinating. What I did not expect was to learn just how close to failure the launch was, how dangerous it became, the concerns that people had, and the sheer number of people and projects that had to work together to get it going. For kids today, the fact that human beings once walked on the moon is old news. But how did we even do it? How do you go from walking on the earth one day and skipping amongst the stars the next? What "Team Moon" does is take kids through the entire Apollo 11 experience, but in a remarkably immediate way. Right off the bat the ship is blasting off, and there are continual flashbacks to things like the construction of the spacesuits, the spaceship itself, and so on. There's also a lot of high drama. Did you know that hidden software testing alarms started going off during the mission when it was considered impossible that any of them would happen during a real flight? Did you know that the astronauts almost ran out of fuel when they were trying to land on the moon and almost died that way? Or that the temperature in the fuel tank started rising up and up and up and no one could figure out why? Through every detail and every nail-biting moment, Thimmesh guides the reader through a two-day period that had the world on the edge of its seat. Reading this book, I guarantee that you'll be there too. Children's television shows/ literature/ what have you, are always going on about the importance of teamwork and working together. Heck, that thought has inspired countless horrid motivational posters worldwide. It's awfully difficult to show such an idea in a concrete and understandable form that doesn't involve ants, though. Not anymore. "Team Moon" excels at showing just how reliant every aspect of this launch was on every single person working it. Had I given the project's team any prior consideration, I suppose I could have come up with the guys who made the space suits or the brainiacs in the black glasses at mission control. One fellow I never counted on was Cliff Smith. While Buzz, Neil, and Michael were traipsing their merry lunar path, Smith was down here on earth battling an Australian wind storm that nearly destroyed all television reception of the astronauts' videos from the moon. We would never have seen those historic shots had it not been for guys like Smith who, in danger to their life, remained posted on a huge satellite dish (despite the very serious threat of its collapse). And Smith's just ONE GUY out of 400,000 with stories like that to tell. And aside from all of this is the mind-blowing thought that this project was done basically before computers were at all common. When Thimmesh writes, "They had put man on the moon that day, true; but computers in 1969 barely had the computing power of today's hand-held calculators. So a lot of analysis was done the good old-fashioned way: paper, pencil, and brainpower". Tell the kids, to whom you booktalk this tale, to imagine a world without a public internet that STILL was able to go into outer space. It boggles the little grey cells, it

I Get Wet (Vicki Cobb Science Play)

2011-12-24T09:15:00.001-08:00

Know the fastest way to cool off on a hot summer day? You get wet!Know what happens when you stay out in the rain? You get wet!But do you know how and why you get wet? You will!Renowned science author Vicki Cobb has concocted just the right formula for making scientific principles easy for even the youngest kids to understand. Follow this book with a young child who loves to play, just add water, and -- presto! -- you have a science discovery that will forever change the way your child looks at the world.Discover science, and the world will never look the same.Fun hands-on activities and irresistible illustrations by Julia Gorton make this book a perfect excuse to learn about science...just for the fun of it!

Amazon Sales Rank: #533705 in Books Published on: 2002-08-06 Released on: 2002-08-06 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .39" h x 8.33" w x 10.30" l, .74 pounds Binding: Hardcover 40 pages

From Publishers Weekly Two accessible titles in the Vicki Cobb Science Play series by veteran educator Vicki Cobb, illus. by Julia Gorton, teach science basics. In I Get Wet, hands-on experiments and clear examples help youngsters discover the intricacies of H2O. I See Myself explores what makes mirrors work. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist *Starred Review* Reviewed with Vicki Cobb's I See Myself. PreS.-Gr.2. Cobb takes a fresh approach to science for young children in the Science Play series. Each book introduces a single, simple concept through words, pictures, and experimentation (or as the series title would have it, "play"). Indeed, Cobb encourages adults reading the book aloud to put the book aside whenever an activity is suggested and let the child explore and discover before continuing reading. The bold graphics feature strong, simplified forms, colors, and patterns as well as the creative use of typography to represent, say, the path of a bouncing beam of light or the shape of a drop of water dripping from a faucet. In I Get Wet, a boy learns some of the properties of water through pouring it into different containers, observing it drip and flow, and trying to absorb it with waxed paper and paper toweling. I See Myself features a girl who finds out a little about vision, light, and reflection by playing with a mirror, a flashlight, and a bouncing ball. The crisp, upbeat look of the digital illustrations contrasts sharply with the often posed and tired-looking photographs routinely used in books of science experiments for young children. This playful approach reflects the enthusiastic tone in Cobb's text, which encourages children to discover for themselves the properties of water and light. An eye-opening debut for a promising series. Carolyn PhelanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Review “Parents who want to interest their children in basic scientific concepts will find this series useful…” (Kirkus Reviews )

Most helpful customer reviews 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Great science for preschoolers! By A Customer 'I Get Wet' is an inspiring book that triggers scientific curiosity not only in preschoolers but adults as well! I started reading the book to my then 3 year-old in the living room and next thing I know, the entire family moved to the kitchen to perform the series of experiments suggested in the book. The experiments show simple concepts on water properties that are easily understood by kids even at an early age. See all 1 customer reviews...

Scheduling for Home Builders with Microsoft Project

2011-12-23T09:00:00.001-08:00

Control costs, pace construction, and fully utilize resources with Microsoft Project. An organized, well-planned schedule is a builder's best tool. Scheduling for Home Builders with Microsoft Project provides easy step-by-step instructions to help you master this powerful scheduling program. Every chapter of Scheduling for Home Builders with Microsoft Project helps you learn and practice each new skill. The CD offers sample residential schedules.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1365427 in Books Published on: 2006-08-08 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .36" h x 7.04" w x 9.10" l, .64 pounds Binding: Paperback 104 pages

About the Author David Marchman is Professor of Construction Engineering Technology at the University of Southern Mississippi and associate director of the School of Construction. He teaches construction scheduling to students in the classroom and to home builders in the field through seminars and workshops. Tuilo Sulbaran, PhD, teaches scheduling in the School of Construction at the University of Southern Mississippi. He shares his international expertise in residential architecture, engineering, and construction as a scheduling and estimating consultant to residential construction companies.

Effective Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme

2011-12-22T08:45:00.001-08:00

Unlock your potential and achieve breakthrough performance in project managementIf you're looking for a more robust approach to project management--one that recognizes the project environment and adapts accordingly--then this is the perfect resource. It not only guides you through the traditional methods, but also covers the adaptive and extreme approaches as well. You'll gain an in-depth understanding of each one and know exactly when and how to use them.You'll also be introduced to the Adaptive Project Framework, which arms you with a new project management methodology. And with the help of two new case studies, you'll be able to put these ideas into practice and experience some of the contemporary nuances of projects.This definitive guide to project management shows you how to:Take advantage of new variations on traditional project management methods, including risk assessment and controlDecide the best method for managing specific types of projects by analyzing all of the pros and consApply the Adaptive Project Framework to the world of fast-paced, high-change, and complex projectsCreate a war room to successfully manage multiple team projectsDetermine how project portfolio management approaches can help companies achieve a greater return on investmentUtilize all nine Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) standards advocated by the Project Management Institute (PMI)

Amazon Sales Rank: #773571 in Books Published on: 2006-12-18 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .2 pounds Binding: Paperback 672 pages

From the Back Cover Unlock your potential and achieve breakthrough performance in project managementIf you're looking for a more robust approach to project management—one that recognizes the project environment and adapts accordingly—then this is the perfect resource. It not only guides you through the traditional methods, but also covers the adaptive and extreme approaches as well. You'll gain an in-depth understanding of each one and know exactly when and how to use them.You'll also be introduced to the Adaptive Project Framework, which arms you with a new project management methodology. And with the help of two new case studies, you'll be able to put these ideas into practice and experience some of the contemporary nuances of projects.This definitive guide to project management shows you how to:Take advantage of new variations on traditional project management methods, including risk assessment and controlDecide the best method for managing specific types of projects by analyzing all of the pros and consApply the Adaptive Project Framework to the world of fast-paced, high-change, and complex projectsCreate a war room to successfully manage multiple team projectsDetermine how project portfolio management approaches can help companies achieve a greater return on investmentUtilize all nine Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) standards advocated by the Project Management Institute (PMI) About the Author Robert K. Wysocki, Ph.D., has over 40 years' experience as a project management consultant and trainer, information systems manager, systems and management consultant, and training developer and provider. He is the founder of Enterprise Information Insights, Inc., a project management consulting and training practice. Wysocki has also written 15 books on project management and information systems management.

Most helpful customer reviews 30 of 30 people found the following review helpful. Good introductory book By A Customer I purchased this book because I was looking for material to prepare the PMP certification exam. The book is easy to read and the concepts and key terms are clean and well explained. However, from my point of view, is too shallow to be fully "effective". I've been managing software projects for the last 6 years and, after reading the book, I felt that it didn't cover all my expectations, for example, treatment of Critical Chain Project Management is little more than a quote of its existence.Anyway, if you are looking for an introductory book on PM I think is a pretty good book, but remember, to gain more in depth knowledge on particular subject matters you'll have to look at the references. 27 of 27 people found the following review helpful. Excellent, yet succinct By A Customer An excellent book on management of IT projects. The author discusses three different kinds of project management: Traditional, Adaptive and Extreme. The book is worth the purchase price for just the discussion on the Traditional project management method. The material about "Adaptive" and "Extreme" variations are icing on the cake.What I like about this book is that the author effectively acknowledges the shortcomings of traditional project management and does not harp on its dogma. The material on adaptive project management offers a way out for those projects where the method of implementation is so unknown that traditional full-court project management practices will only hurt and not help. Much of the information on adaptive and extreme project management is similar to the "extreme programming" methodology, but specifically targeted towards a project manager.I think this book is an excellent purchase. It is well written and succinct (unlike the 1000 pages of bullet-points from a competing author). Other reasons to purchase the book are its reasonable price and the fact that you get a trial version of Microsoft Project 2002 with it. I wish the author had gone into greater depth about earned value. I have found earned value difficult to do without good support from the project management tool (calculating BCWS for example is tedious to do by hand); every time I tried to do earned value for a real project using MP98 or MP2000 the tool has crashed on me. In summary I believe that this is an excellent book, and should be read by every project manager. 17 of 18 people found the following review helpful. The third edition is excellent By A Customer There is a complete PM education in this fairly compact book. The third edition touches upon non-traditional project management. In other words, project management in real life as opposed to what is in most every textbook.To me the value of the third edition lies in Robert Wysocki's recognition of projects where either the goal is clear but the methods aren't, or where even the goal is unclear. These types of projects seem to predominate in IT. This book is worth purchasing for the insight that the authors bring into the non-traditional non-textbook real-life projects.The prose is clearly written and reads very tightly. Contrast this to the random collection of thoughts in Kerzner's book. This book is written for the practitioner, though someone taking a college course in project management would also benefit.Excellent book, at an excellent price. You can't go wrong. See all 24 customer reviews...

Project Earth Science: Geology

2011-12-21T08:45:00.001-08:00

Now you can literally explain what it's like between a rock and a hard place! Use Project Earth Science: Geology to introduce your students to plate tectonics and teach them what causes volcanoes and earthquakes. Lead explorations of these and other larger-than-the-classroom geological phenomena with the teacher-tested, Standards-based activities. Earth's physical evolution and dynamic processes are carefully explained in language accessible to students and teachers. Supplemental readings provide educators with the background information to answer student questions and concerns.

Amazon Sales Rank: #774444 in Books Published on: 1996-06-25 Original language: English Dimensions: .1 pounds Binding: Paperback 213 pages

Most helpful customer reviews 7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Project Earth Science: Geology By A Customer This is an excellent resource for middle school teachers who are looking for some good hands on activities and lessons in Geology. Most of the activities are easly reproduced at a minimal cost. The book contains both student and teacher pages. The content of the lessons are excellent and up to speed with current information. See all 1 customer reviews...

Projects for a Healthy Planet: Simple Environmental Experiments for Kids

2011-12-20T08:00:00.001-08:00

Simple and fun activities that inspire understanding and respect for the environment.* Discover what pollution is and what it does* Learn how you can limit pollution through conservation and recycling* Make your own environmentally friendly productsThe activities in this book will show you things like how to make scratch-and-sniff paper, how to build your own greenhouse, and how to sprout seeds in old tea bags. Each activity is fun to read and is explained in step-by-step drawings that are easy to follow, and all materials are readily available household items.

Amazon Sales Rank: #981777 in Books Published on: 1992-04-24 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .47" h x 8.32" w x 8.44" l, .37 pounds Binding: Paperback 96 pages ISBN13: 9780471554844 Condition: New Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

From School Library Journal Grade 3-6-- The authors' intent that readers ``. . . learn a lot about the science involved in the natural world'' has not been realized. Some statements are blatantly incorrect, and an activity called ``A Friendly Oil Spill'' does not re-create the effects of oil on water and is misleading. The deliberate defacing of U. S. coins in another activity may be of questionable legality. Despite the title, these are demonstrations, not experiments, and the list of real projects in the opening chapter may be beyond the abilities of the intended age group. The instructions and accompanying black-and-white drawings are exceptionally clear and easy to follow. However, the authors do not practice what they preach: plastics are used extensively in the demonstrations; boiled cabbage is discarded, neither eaten nor composted; and the book is not printed on recycled paper. Miller and Berry's Acid Rain (Messner, 1986) is a better choice, although for somewhat older readers, as is Javna's Fifty Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth (Andrews & McMeel, 1990). --Meryl Silverstein, American Museum of Natural History, New York CityCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From the Publisher Designed to help children understand the causes of pollution; examine alternatives to the use of non-renewable resources; and learn to create environmentally friendly products. In this process the child can learn about the science involved in the natural world and in the products we manufacture. Contains numerous illustrations and fun-to-do experiments. From the Back Cover Simple and fun activities that inspire understanding and respect for the environment…Discover what pollution is and what it doesLearn how you can limit pollution through conservation and recyclingMake your own environmentally friendly productsThe activities in this book will show you things like how to make scratch-and-sniff paper, how to build your own greenhouse, and how to sprout seeds in old tea bags. Each activity is fun to read and is explained in step-by-step drawings that are easy to follow, and all materials are readily available household items.

Nature's Champions: The Biggest, the Fastest, the Best (Dover Children's Science Books)

2011-12-19T07:30:00.001-08:00

Fascinating profiles of 29 of the world's most remarkable species of animal and plant life. Simple enough for young readers, this book abounds with intriguing information that will also captivate adults. Included are astonishing facts and illustrations of the world's fastest runner, the best jumper, and other natural wonders. 50 illustrations.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1785329 in Books Published on: 2003-08-05 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .19" h x 8.10" w x 10.90" l, .43 pounds Binding: Paperback 64 pages

Interpreting Construction Contracts: Fundamental Principles for Contractors, Project Managers, and Contract Administrators

2011-12-18T06:30:00.001-08:00

Every day, engineers and managers are called upon to understand and execute the terms of construction contracts. Often times these professionals have little or no legal training and find themselves relying upon intuition, common sense or hearsay with possibly unfortunate and expensive results. In Interpreting Construction Contracts, Thomas and Ellis seek to rescue these contractors, project managers, and contract administrators struggling to interpret these contracts. By using rules set forth by the judiciary and drawing upon decades of legal research and practical experience, the authors discuss the most troublesome contract clauses and present rules to construe them so as to avoid disputes that must be resolved in court. Diagrams and case studies appear, as well as over 70 discussion exercises and solutions, reinforcing the principles introduced in each chapter. As clear as it is pragmatic, Interpreting Construction Contracts is a welcome teaching resource and an essential reference for engineers and managers working in the construction industry.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1962522 in Books Published on: 2007-11-01 Original language: English Dimensions: .2 pounds Binding: Hardcover 464 pages

Janice VanCleave's Biology For Every Kid: 101 Easy Experiments That Really Work (Science for Every Kid Series)

2011-12-17T06:15:00.001-08:00

What's the effect of osmosis on a raisin?How is water transported through plant stems?What's the best way to grow penicillin?How are butterflies different from moths?Now you can discover answers to these and other fascinating questions about biologythe study of living organisms. In Biology for Every Kid, you'll learn how to talk with fireflies, watch bacteria wage war in a glass of milk, discover how to tell the temperature by counting cricket chirps, and find out how an apple and an onion can taste the same.Each of the 101 experiments is broken down into its purpose, a list of materials, step-by-step instructions, expected results, and an easy to understand explanation. Every activity has been pretested and can be performed safely and inexpensively in the classroom or at home.

Amazon Sales Rank: #232852 in Books Brand: Spring Arbor/Ingram Published on: 1990-01-02 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .66" h x 5.93" w x 9.02" l, .73 pounds Binding: Paperback 240 pages

From the Publisher A book for young readers, parents and teachers that teaches the basic principles of biology through fun and educational experiments, which can be performed at home or in the classroom with simple, common equipment. Two main sections cover plants and animals. Each chapter begins with an explanation of the principle to be studied (such as plant structure, tropism, anatomy or animal chemistry), followed by a short series of experiments which demonstrate that principle. From the Back Cover What's the effect of osmosis on a raisin?How is water transported through plant stems?What's the best way to grow penicillin?How are butterflies different from moths?Now you can discover answers to these and other fascinating questions about biologythe study of living organisms. In Biology for Every Kid, you'll learn how to talk with fireflies, watch bacteria wage war in a glass of milk, discover how to tell the temperature by counting cricket chirps, and find out how an apple and an onion can taste the same.Each of the 101 experiments is broken down into its purpose, a list of materials, step-by-step instructions, expected results, and an easy to understand explanation. Every activity has been pretested and can be performed safely and inexpensively in the classroom or at home. About the Author JANICE VANCLEAVE is a former school science teacher and a captivating presenter at museums, schools, and bookstores nationwide. She is the author of more than twenty other science books for children.

Most helpful customer reviews 62 of 64 people found the following review helpful. A little interest boost for elementary school biology By A Customer I reviewed this book in The Home School Manual ================Projects and activities to teach concepts, terminology, and (according to the author, Janice VanCleave) laboratory methods. This book and the others in the series each describe 101 experiments. For biology they are classified under plants, animals, and humans. Each is presented in a two-page spread with an illustration on the right. The order is logical. By working through the book doing some experiments and reading about the others, one would form significant concepts. An explanation is given for each activity. Growing carrots from carrot tops demonstrates that a plant can grow if it has portions of base, stem, and root, and if it receives food and water.The explanations are oversimplified in some cases (for "finger monocle" for example). Younger students need simpler explanations, but I believe the scientific principles could be stated more accurately. Also, some of the illustrations could be improved, but basically the book is good.For a total science program I would recommend a textbook or a number of broad topic books. Individual experiments miss some of the overall themes and some concepts are hard to demonstrate.I have not seen evolutionary concepts in the book. It and others in the series seem best for about grades 3 through 5. Younger kids could profit from most of the activities. The explanations don't bring out the scientific principles clearly enough for older ones.Part of a series from John Wiley & Sons. 18 of 18 people found the following review helpful. Never disappointed by a Janice VanCleave book By Robyn Cole You will not be disappointed with this book! Janice VanCleave's Biology For Every Kid is divided into these categories: plants, zoology, and the human body with tons of simple hands-on experiments that you can do for each. I use these experiments all the time in my 7th grade classroom and the kids love them. Learning is so much better when it's hands-on! I would highly recommend this book for upper elementary and middle school science teachers. 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. An Excellent, Concise Resource for Science Teachers By Jan Peczkis As an experienced public-school science teacher, I find this book invaluable. Its contents range from simple, few-second demonstrations all the way to many-week experiments. Some of the experiments, such as the study of osmosis through use of salty water-soaked potato or cucumber slices, are commonly found in science books. Others, such as the spray painting and study of spider webs, and the counting of rings on fish scales to determine the age of the fish, are quite unique to this book. Students can learn the parts of the bean seed, and how to grow yeast and bacteria. The book is profusely indexed. All experiments are each concisely listed on two facing pages. This makes it very convenient to photocopy and hand out to students--as when making suggestions for science projects. See all 5 customer reviews...

Science: Science Around Us

2011-12-16T05:30:00.001-08:00

This title offers a hands-on approach to helping children to explore, learn and understand about the world around them. Containing a range of safe, easy-to-do experiments, it aims to stimulate children's curiousity and challenge them to find out more through their own observations and discoveries.

Published on: 2001-11-19 Original language: English Binding: Paperback 96 pages

Project Management in New Product Development

2011-12-15T05:15:00.001-08:00

Turn Innovative Ideas into Products and Services—and Manage and Control Them Using Project Management Tools The first book to integrate project management and product development, Project Management in New Product Development shows you how to manage the translation of ideas into new products and services and get them to market cheaper, better, and faster using advanced project management tools and techniques. Packed with detailed case studies and illustrations, this unique book explains how to move new products and services quickly from concept to product to market as a managed and seamless process free of problems and delays. This project tool also shows how to ensure that bad products are stopped at gateway points, before they become product and project failures. Project Management in New Product Development features: The first integrated treatment of project management and new product development designed for modern, globally oriented firms Numerous case studies covering software, technology, electronics, construction, telecommunications, military, and aerospace 150 informative tables, figures, and graphics

Amazon Sales Rank: #1140806 in Books Published on: 2007-11-02 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 1.98 pounds Binding: Hardcover 397 pages

About the Author Bruce Barkley is more than 30 years' experience in project management in both industry and government. One of his recent assignments include working with Coca Cola's new product development process.

Most helpful customer reviews 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Lacks depth - OK as an overview only By T. Ward I was fairly disappointed by this book. Having experience in the product development field this offered me nothing new. I would only recommend this book to students who want an introductory book. Even then, the focus seemed more on the product development process and their are many books that cover this topic in greater depth. I didn't see much on how project management can be customized to fit the NPD process. 1 of 3 people found the following review helpful. photocopy By T. Bilgehan Gurlek I have dissappointed with the hard cover book printed in black and white and withh no colored figures and graphics. I think the original of the book should be in colored printed form. So, the copy sent to me seems to be a photocopy. I wouldn't expect such a thing with Amazon. Best Regards, Bilgehan Gurlek See all 2 customer reviews...

The World's Best Places: Classroom Explorations in Geography & Environmental Science

2011-12-14T04:45:00.001-08:00

Now you can foster an appreciation of the world's diverse cultures and environments at the same time that you teach science and social studies. With The World's Best Places, Mike Graf offers an intriguing alternative to traditional upper elementary and middle school lesson plans, using thirty-two of the world's most popular natural national parks as a springboard for activities. The activities in this book are divided into chapters that deal with particular topics of study: wildlife, plantlife, geography, and geology. The book can be easily organized around your own curriculum and is as flexible as you want to make it. You can explore the volcanic activity of a particular park to support a science unit on geology; or examine the effect of human activity on the environment to complement a social studies inquiry. Step-by-step instructions illustrate how the activities can be implemented to teach a range of other topics including: glaciers endangered species indigenous cultures forest preservation and destruction ecosystems biological diversity and much more. In short, The World's Best Places will help you lead your students from curiosity to experience, from questions to knowledge, and from information to grand classroom displays.

Amazon Sales Rank: #4327001 in Books Published on: 2000-08-18 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .70 pounds Binding: Paperback 114 pages

About the Author A classroom teacher of ten years who now trains teachers in science education, Mike Graf is the author of numerous teacher and children's books.

Construction Project Management: A Practical Guide to Field Construction Management

2011-12-13T04:45:00.001-08:00

For more than thirty years, Construction Project Management by Clough and Sears has been considered the preeminent guide to the Critical Path Method (CPM) of project scheduling. It combines a solid foundation in the principles and fundamentals of CPM with particular emphasis on project planning, demonstrated through an example project.This Fifth Edition features a range of improvements. New pedagogical devices improve absorption of the material. Updated labor, material, and equipment pricing is incorporated into the text. Coverage is enhanced by discussions of contemporary planning and management methods such as Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) and the Earned Value Management System (EVMS).A highway bridge with a complete cost estimate, including SI units, illustrates each of the principles of project management. Using this basic information and the case studies in the appendix, readers are given project management problems and hands-on project management experience.The Fifth Edition features include:Complete coverage of planning and scheduling principles that apply to every type of construction projectExpanded coverage of production planningLarge foldout illustrations conveniently integrated throughout the bookThorough and up to date, Construction Project Management, Fifth Edition is a superb text for students and an indispensable on-the-job reference for builders, architects, civil engineers, and other construction professionals.

Amazon Sales Rank: #166672 in Books Published on: 2008-04-25 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .2 pounds Binding: Hardcover 408 pages

From the Back Cover Master the essentials of planning, scheduling, and managing field construction projectsFor more than thirty years, Construction Project Management by Clough and Sears has been considered the preeminent guide to the Critical Path Method (CPM) of project scheduling. It combines a solid foundation in the principles and fundamentals of CPM with particular emphasis on project planning, demonstrated through an example project.This Fifth Edition features a range of improvements. New pedagogical devices improve absorption of the material. Updated labor, material, and equipment pricing is incorporated into the text. Coverage is enhanced by discussions of contemporary planning and management methods such as Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) and the Earned Value Management System (EVMS).A highway bridge with a complete cost estimate, including SI units, illustrates each of the principles of project management. Using this basic information and the case studies in the appendix, readers are given project management problems and hands-on project management experience.The Fifth Edition features include:Complete coverage of planning and scheduling principles that apply to every type of construction projectExpanded coverage of production planningLarge foldout illustrations conveniently integrated throughout the bookThorough and up to date, Construction Project Management, Fifth Edition is a superb text for students and an indispensable on-the-job reference for builders, architects, civil engineers, and other construction professionals. About the Author S. KEOKI SEARS is a Senior Program Manager for CH2M HILL on the London 2012 Olympic Park. He has extensive experience managing large construction projects worldwide.GLENN A. SEARS is an active consultant in construction engineering and management. He isEmeritus Professor of Civil Engineering, University of New Mexico.RICHARD H. CLOUGH, deceased, wasDean of the College of Engineering, University of New Mexico. He was a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and was considered one of the leading American educators in construction engineering and management.

Most helpful customer reviews 14 of 15 people found the following review helpful. you read and may become a consultant By Aldo Dorea Mattos I recommend this book for its full coverage on all the aspects of construction management, approaching the real field problems, solutions, tips and the very well explained example that is built chapter by chapter. Theory and practice merge in a very palatable way. Any one who read it carefully, may become a consultant on Construction Management. 8 of 50 people found the following review helpful. a useful book to who will devote oneself to PM egineer By drzsb this book is instructive! See all 2 customer reviews...

Effective Project Management Through Applied Cost and Schedule Control (Cost Engineering)

2011-12-12T04:00:00.001-08:00

This work outlines a state-of-the-art project control and trending programme, focusing on advanced applied-cost and schedule-control skills for all phases of a project at both owner and contractor level. It contains information on the three major aspects of the total project programme: the techniques and procedures utilized for a project; the experience and analytical ability of project personnel; and the commitment and teamwork of a project group.

Amazon Sales Rank: #1410462 in Books Published on: 1996-05-01 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: 2.85 pounds Binding: Hardcover 476 pages