1 comments about The Architectural Pattern Book: A Tool for Building Great Neighborhoods.

1. Most of us like architectural books because we think, or possibly just dream of building our own ULTIMATE house. Here, however, is a book not on building a house, but on building an entire neighborhood.
   
   It starts with a bit of history, the pattern books written in roman times. It brings them up to date with a survey of several American neighborhoods dating from turn of the century times. And finally it goes on to show what the authors have done as they designed blocks, sub-divisions and the like. It is intended to show what can be done to replace the common cookie cutter houses common in recent developments. It is a fascinating book that leads to thinking.

No comments about Eco Skyscrapers.

No comments about The AutoCAD 2008 Tutor for Engineering Graphics.

4 comments about SystemVerilog for Design Second Edition: A Guide to Using SystemVerilog for Hardware Design and Modeling.

1. (My review is about the 2006 2nd-edition, not the older 1st edition!)
   
   In general, I agree with the other reviews. This book is written for an audience of Verilog designers, who know the Verilog language (and its limitations) all to well. The book covers Systemverilog's new features like, enum, struct, interfaces, etc., from the perspective of "how to write better RTL-code using Systemverilog instead of Verilog.' For example, it explains the pros/cons of the (Systemverilog) "interface" construct, vs a flat group of (Verilog) module-port declarations. The discussion helps designers appreciate RTL-coding from a (slightly) higher levle of abstraction.
   
   You don't need a specific background (i.e. design-engineer) to benefit from this book; you just need a good familiarity with conventional Verilog.
   
   As others have said, this book is not suitable as a reference. The paragraphs flow well, but it's hard to lookup an arbitrary topic from the index. So far, no hardcover-book can displace the official IEEE Systemverilog LRM as the best reference.
   
   And since the book focuses on the 'design' (synthesizeable) aspect of Systemverilog, it doesn't cover non-synthesizeable language features (like classes, constrained random variables, etc.)



2. System Verilog is the ASIC HDL of the future, and this is one of the first books specifically addressing its use for Design, as opposed to Assertions or Testbenches. As such, it is an important book. And the authors are certainly Verilog experts.
   
   My main criticism of the book is that it's not so useful as a reference. I pull it off this shelf, flip to the back, and often find the Index lacking. It's only four pages long, which is awfully short for such a long technical textbook.



3. As an experienced hardware designer who wants to know what SV is all about, this book was great. It introduced the langauge in a natural way, explained what is synthesisable and is more readable than the LRM. You can also download the book examples from the author's website. This is the audience that this book aimed at and it hits the mark, especially as most designers can get the company to pay the high price of the book.
   
   Downsides: there are some differences from the LRM, as this book was written before the final draft, and despite the book saying the chapter 10 complete design example simulates, it doesn't.



4. Here are my opinions after buying and reading the book.
   - If you are student / fresher who wants to "learn" System Verilog then skip this book. This book assumes that you already know Verilog well.
   - This book deals only with design. Authors plan to come up with one more for Verification.
   - If you have plenty of cash ($130 for design and $130 for verification book) or your rich company pays for your books then go ahead and add this book to your library. If not then read free LRM http://www.eda.org/sv/SystemVerilog_3.1a.pdf
   - Practice, practice, practice. Just by reading Verilog books no one has become a good design/verification engineer.

   (...)Verilog won't become IEEE standard as it is. Thus this book will be superceded by a version which is slightly different anyway.

5 comments about It Is Beautiful -- Then Gone.

1. Typographic inspiration at its best. Effortlessly combines interviews and stories with images of Venezky's work...every graphic designer should own this book.



2. Martin Venezky's It Is Beautiful Then Gone (1568984561, $40.00) provides an unusual artistic approach: Venezky hones 'Slow Design', using raw materials and old design tools of collage and cut-and-paste to create an artwork which will intentionally age and decay over time. By this process, Martin Venezky maintains, the art evolves and changes and the artist develops a closer connection with the tool over the machine. It Is Beautiful...then Gone provides his commercial design work plus new graphics created just for this book: some 700 images in all.



3. Martin is brilliant, this book is beautifully designed and his work is amazing. Definately a very inspirational book for all graphic designers out there, especially for those experiemental typographers.



4. If you are looking for experimental and intiguing imagery this is the book for you! I don't understand how Martin got looked over so bad? His work is from the school of Cranbrook. If you like collage work and fun typography buy it!!!



5. this book is the most beautifulest, gorgeousest, most awesome kickass book EVAR. it is heartily recommended. keep a lookout for martin's cat, "baby girl", who makes frequent appearances. WORD.
   
   -fish

1 comments about Everything but the Walls.

1. Excellent book for one of the most famous new product designers. With small and understandable mentions of Jasper Morrison to all of his works. Explains how he inspired to do all of this works. From lightening equipment to chairs and tables, Jasper Morrison knows very well how to do the things look simpler and also functional.

1 comments about Writing Testbenches using SystemVerilog.

1. The book's title is a bit misleading. It does NOT teach you Systemverilog (for Verification) -- there is a separate book by Chris Spear ("Systemverilog for Verification") sold by the same publisher that focuses more on Systemverilog syntax and language features. This book is NOT a tutorial (i.e. beginner's guide) on how to write testbenches -- although it does go through the basic concepts, objectives, and challenges in writing maintainable/re-usable testbench environments, most of the textbook examples are too cryptic/advanced for an entry-level engineer.
   
   So then, what does this book focus on? Well, the book focuses on general guidelines to writing re-usuable, high-level testbenches. The author uses Systemverilog as the language to communicate his concepts, but as I said before, the book does NOT teach you Systemverilog. (To the author's credit, he is very upfront about that in foreward/intro section.)
   
   Who should read it:
   Experienced verification engineers with a basic understanding of Systemverilog (and why it's superior to Verilog), who want some ideas/examples of how to deploy Systemverilog's advanced features (like classes, structs, random vars) in a verification environment.
   
   What I liked:
   The use of classes to encapsulate bus-functional-models (BFMs), how to create and manage variations of a basic BFM (using extended/derived classes), etc. He also shows how to combine randomization with classes, to create random stimulus-sequences.
   
   What could have been improved:
   I was hoping the book would cover SVA (systemverilog assertions) in greater depth, but I guess there are other books for that. He also superficially mentions "configurations" -- that is a feature in Verilog-2001 and VHDL-93. The book should have covered that in more depth (even though it's not a new Systemverilog feature), as it pertains to testcase management and organization.
   
   What you should have:
   You need a good background and experience in ASIC/RTL-verification -- this book is not an introduction to testbench concepts, or the Systemverilog language! You need to know some Systemverilog language, so either have a different book (like Chris Spear's "Systemverilog for Verification"), or the official IEEE Systemverilog 1800-2005 LRM next to your side. Though not necessary, it's helpful to have a basic understanding about object-oriented programming, because the examples in the book use Systemverilog's classes (and inheritance) to illustrate a lot of points. Object-oriented concepts would otherwise be foreign to most engineers working in the hardware field.
   
   Ohter notes:
   The book makes numerous references to the VMM (Verilog Methodology Manual), which is a separate book by the same author. VMM is probably as close to a 'canned' (i.e. pre-built) testbench environment as you can get. If you run Synopsys VCS in your company, then VMM is worth investigatation. Unfortunately, I've heard it doesn't run well on competing simulators (Cadence, Mentor), as Systemverilog support is still in its infancy.

1 comments about Successful Injection Molding: Process, Design, and Simulation.

1. This is sure to be the best book in your reference collection. As a former student of John Beaumont's, I have learned a tremendous amount about the plastics industry from that book.

1 comments about Sketch Plan Build: World Class Architects Show How It's Done.

1. If you are an architect, interior designer or a student this book is a must. It is an amazing book to have and add to your collection.

2 comments about The AutoCADET's Guide to Visual LISP.

1. Unlike many technical and programming books, the author of this book shows his love and dedication to programming, and sets down the ground rules with a little bit of history to help understand exactly what it is that you are doing. This book is so full of good information, you almost have to read it one paragraph at a time, yet it is so intriguing that it's hard to put down.



2. I found Bill Kramer's book to be very helpful in really understanding how the lisp language for AutoCad works. I would not say it is for the absolute beginner. It does not contain tons of non-useful, simple code to use as a tutorial. It does, however, contain a lot of truly useful functions and detailed explanations on how the code actually works. From the very start, it discusses how to use AutoCad's Visual Lisp Integrated Design Environment, one of the best tools for helping programmers write functions. This is something other books, inexplicably, leave till the end. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It is one of the better books out there.