No comments about Beyond Archigram: The Structure of Circulation.

No comments about Tropical Sustainable Architecture: Social and Environmental Dimensions.

No comments about Mastering CAD/CAM with Engineering Subscription Card.

1 comments about Principles of Engineering Graphics (2nd Edition).

1. When I studied drafting in school, we used a text by the same authors. I found it great, as it gave enough detail on how to draw, without being wordy, and there were ample pictures & diagrams to help. I'm no artist, by the way, but every now & then I did a couple of problems to do something different.

   Time came when I wanted to get back into re-learning drafting, but due to family, and time constraints, there's no way I could again take courses. So, I bought the book.

   If you're a beginner, don't be put off by the title.
   This is exactly the same as the text and workbooks, by the same authors.
   Start at the beginning, and pay attention to basics.

   If you're a pro, it will refresh your skills.
   This has a workbook with it, so practice isn't a problem.
   It's all too true, that one shouldn't attempt to draw CAD until the "Board" has been mastered. Without the basics, you're building on a house of cards. My husband works in an engineering firm and sees this all the time. Some of the ideas inside, may seem outdated, but trust me, the priciples are still the same.

   I highly recommend it. Personally, I found it practical, challenging and affordable.

2 comments about Dreams Through the Glass: Windows from Bergdorf Goodman.

1. If I won the Lottery tomorrow, I would use some of my winnings to buy copies of this book for ALL of my artist/friends. Blessed to be a mere
   two-hour train ride away from Bergdorf's window displays, I consider "the windows" to be every bit as inpsiring and informative as the Fine Art exhibits in NYC museums and galleries. Best of all, they are Public Art, available to anyone who passes. This book, full of beautiful photography, will deeply inspire and inform anyone who loves to open their mind to the creative possibilities of every object, shape, texture, surface, and color. If you are an advocate for "More is more",
   this book will affirm your belief in visual abundance and lavish excess;
   but also remind you of the charms of "ordinary" objects. The text, by Linda Fargo, gives the fascinating backstory about many of her window displays and reveals her design approach and (many!) enthusiasms. Fargo is a New York City treasure, and this book explains why. Treat yourself!



2. This book is a gem of a resource guide for visual artists (or anyone responsible for retail displays). Fargo's innovative approach and resourceful applications as well as entertaining descriptions give us a unique view of her creative process. She uses everyday objects in unexpected applications to ensure that her "sidewalk shadowboxes play on the stage of world-class theatre in a world-class city."

5 comments about System Design with SystemC.

1. I read this whole book trying to figure out who it was written for, and failed.
   
   To all outward appearance, it seems to address the C++ programmer who, for reasons unknown, has been thrown into the task of creating executable specifications for complex HW/SW systems. Well, it happens. That poor slob's problems are never really addressed.
   
   The authors spend significant time discussing bit-accurate, cycle-accurate, both-accurate, and neither-accurate simulations. Those topics all deserve attention, as does optimization of the model for faster simulation time. The typical programmer, however, just won't be ready for concepts of sensitivity and some of the weirder forms of assignment. Straight-up hardware guys won't get the classing structures, and won't see all the discussion they need to translate statements into cycles; software guys won't get enough of the class hierarchy to follow along, and will need to sit down with someone for a long time to understand why all those fixed-point formats deserve to exist. (You wouldn't believe some of the questions I've gotten. For example, "0.56 isn't a fraction with power-of-two denominator - so why does that scaling logic assume I can just shift?" Lawd lumme, what kids don't learn these days.)
   
   There's not enough here of hardware system analysis for the software guys, and not enough of the C++/SystemC strangeness for a logic designer to grab hold of. On the whole, it looks like a fair answer to a question that I didn't hear asked.
   
   -- wiredweird



2. This book is not meant to be a introductory book or
   about the SystemC language or coding guidelines.
   For that please refer to other elementary or primer
   book or the user guide available for download from
   systemc website.
   
   This book is mainly useful for researchers to understand
   the philosophy behind the SystemC language and
   interesting problems addressed by the language.



3. SystemC is my bread and butter and I bought this book with great hopes to understand both the language and the underlying concepts of the language, unfortunately the book provides neither. I think it is a grossly overpriced useless book.



4. A very good book, if it is used as a reference material, specially for TLM modeling, it helps along with the code for simple_bus available at www.systemc.org. For starters, I will recommend to add more examples in the text of the book as the systemC library is huge. It is sometimes very hard to remove the bugs, if sufficient examples are not available. A suggestion will be to add a functional model example of a CPU based system design, so that the ideas can be extracted out of the text easily.



5. I am a active user of SystemC, so had great hopes for either a real reference or even an introductory book. Unfortunately, this book provides neither a introduction to the language, real world help for coders, or even reference material. The free manual with SystemC better then this. Worse, it badly needs editing to clean up awkward sentances.

   Generally I expense technical books, but I feel too guilty to bear the company with this overpriced book. Back it goes.

2 comments about Elements of Architecture.

1. It is difficult to find an intelligent analysis of the essential elements and characteristics of architecture. Chings' books are decent at giving the basics in graphic form and books by architects usually offer their own way of understanding architecture. However, for a good overview of what architecture is and how it can be approached, this is the best I have found.



2. I have a general fascination of architecture and as a game level designer / 3d modeler this is one of those books you need to have in your image repository. If you don't have a repository this book is an excellent start. Who knows, you may even learn something about renascence architecture.

1 comments about Senior Residences: Designing Retirement Communities for the Future (Wiley Series in Healthcare and Senior Living Design).

1. The book doesn't deliver on presenting a computer application system for evaluating performance. It takes the CCRC's accredition questions and just expands on them. From the information that was presented I not sure if the authors know what an application system is. In any event the book lacks any hard technical information, or performance standards, that can be used for evaluating and designing a project. It's presentation is more like a general business plan from a recent MBA graduate.

No comments about Staircases Selection and Details.

No comments about Introduction to AutoCAD 2009: A Modern Perspective (Autodesk Design Institute Press).