3 comments about Technician's Guide To Programmable Controllers.

1. This book is intended for the beginner, it has so may misprints and errors in it makes a hard subject for the beginner to an impossible one to understand! This 4th edition has many of the same misprints in it from the first edition! I would never recommend this book to anyone!



2. I used this book with great success in the course, Introduction to Programmable Logic Controllers, which I developed for a leading aircraft manufacturer. This book was recommended reading prior to attending other PLC courses offered in my training business.



3. I used this book to train industrial electricians and recommended it in the PLC course I designed at Coyne American Institute in Chicago in 1989. They still use the book along with a lab manual and Allen Bradley PLC's in the electrical maintenance course. I reviewed other books and felt this one was the right choice for the length of course, training level and content. It is clearly written with hardware and instruction set examples from various PLC manufacturers, troubleshooting, number systems, start-up hints and some useful general computer information. Also included is a chapter on understanding MS-DOS commands-very handy for people (a lot of them around) with no computer background except a point-and-click once in a while. The soft cover format, number of pages (372) and size make it easy to carry and throw in a brief case. If you are learning PLC's for the first time, this is a good place to start. If I was going to add anything to it for the next edition, I would include things like data highway, serial communications, remote displays and PID loop. Maybe a little more about programming details involving analog I/O would be nice.

1 comments about New Perspectives: Cafes, Bars and Restaurants (New Perspectives).

1. That's a good picture book for architects. The best bars, cafes and restaurants of the world, with cool pictures.

5 comments about The MIDI Companion: The Ins, Outs and Throughs.

1. This book was published in 1987 and reprinted in 1994. The book does recognize that it is really when the MIDI-instruments are connected to a computer that MIDI takes on its real power, but only 10% of the book talks about MIDI and computers. The chapter on computer tells you about the choice between PC, MAC, Atrari and Commodore, and explains in length what a CD-rom is, and why we need it (not all programs fit on a floppy disk...) Sequencer program are mentioned, but barely so.
   
   The book does a fair job in explaining the MIDI standard and how it works, but it does not help me at all when I want to get started in connecting the components to my PC. I do think this was an excellent book in 1987, but digital music has moved on a long way since then.



2. I am a student at musicians Institute in LA. I wanted to learn more about MIDI and bought this book.
   
   It has old pictures and couple sections are out of date. But if your are able to tell the difference between todays computers used in Music, you'll be fine>
   
   Great explanation. Very easy discription how MIDI messages are sent, how to use them and how to put together a MIDI System>
   
   All in all a great book. Helped me a lot



3. This book is thin and concise, I have read many books on MIDI and have found none to be as useful as this and has my full recommendation.
   
   I was prompted to write a review due the poor and inaccurate reviews that say it is out dated. Sure maybe buying a book about Microsoft operating system that is 10 years old would be considered out dated but that is far from the case here.
   
   I challenge anyone to find a more concise book explaining MIDI anywhere. If you have read another MIDI book better than this, I most likely have read it and disagree with you! All the info in this book applies to working with MIDI in this year 2005 in any audio work station today or your Akai MPC or whatever.
   
   As far as the reviewer that said their pages were stuck together, I am sorry, mine was not like that and you just got a bad copy.



4. This book really should be removed from circulation. While basic MIDI information is in there, it is so out of date it just makes it hard to read. Examples are of obsolete or vintage gear and has no real relation to todays musician.
   Illustrations are all cheesy and look like bad microsoft clipart. Photographs are all poor and dated. The section on MIDI and a personal computers lists atari and commodore as possible good choices - get the picture!
   If you are looking for charts of Control codes etc, - they are in here, but you can find those anywhere. If you are trying to get information on MIDI in the last decade or so, buy a different book.



5. This is a great book by the long-time contributor to Keyboard Magazine Jeff Rona. It eases the beginner into the basics and thoroughly covers everything you'll need to know to get started in the whacky and wonderful world of MIDI. It's a very decent reference book that should be on the shelf of all musicians who would like to take advantage of all the creative possibilities that MIDI offers.

1 comments about Blueprint Reading for Electricians.

1. I am totally disappointed in this book. It would be alot easier to do a Goggle search of electrician symbols than to try and use this book. It is suppose to be for electricians but it lacks any foundation for the electrician. The main reason I dislike this book, it has no substance just electricial symbols, no explanations, no discussion of what the electrician needs to focus on, and the worst part, the graphics are small and not well done at all. Full of useless information, for example, I want to learn about electrical blueprints so they had to include door schedules,etc.etc. just fill material to sell a book.

1 comments about Mexico City: Architecture & Design (And Guides).

1. Good. Still pretty up to date, all though they will have to release a new one very soon. Mexico City is changing constantly and new, beautiful buildings are being build. But its a good guide, and a good little present too.

2 comments about Structure Systems.

1. This is ASTRONOMICALLY THE BEST architectural structures book of all time!! This is the second book for a serious architecture student or architect to buy after Deplazes' foundation book. My structures education was so frustrating because it was not VISUAL. I longed for a book like this 20 years ago!! But better than I could have ever imagined, this book is intensely visual, almost no numbers, instead an encyclopedic catalogue of structural spanning options in a maniacally ordered logic, drawn with a sweet German version of Ching's style. Just skimming this book several times will aquaint you with the logic, the systems, the options, and the breathtaking possibilities this great book throws at your feet. "Take that", it says, "and go do something great!"



2. This is almost the only graphically illustrated book on structural principles for architect.
   
   Most of the structure book concentrate on calculation which are more important to structural engineer than to architect. However, this book put emphasis on structural principals and structural typology. The author uses very clear drawn illustration + table + text to illustrate different structural types.
   
   This is a helpful resources if readers are architects interesting in structural design. The book could be more complete if real building examples are illustrated together with the diagrams.

1 comments about Family Houses.

1. I am an interior designer and I bought three of these books. The photography is nice, the interiors are clean line, the furnishings are simple. All three of the books are very similiar, one would have been enough to get the feel.

3 comments about Design for Victory: World War II Poster on the American Home Front.

1. This beautifully designed small coffee table paperback is the perfect guide thru US WW2 patriotic industrial and gov't posters. Yes, sometimes one may have felt "Big Brother" is watching, since these artistic posters decorated the walls of factories, building sides, and seemingly near everywhere during the war years. The message invariably was "Be A Nurse", "Help the Troops", "Contribute to the effort", and most important "Don'T SHIRK ON THE JOB..MAKE EVERY MOMENT COUNT FOR THE BOYS OVERSEAS!" Of course similar posters were designed and displayed by all combatants, and their messages were all near identical. The postwar industrial posters are also noted, and they were definitely childish at worst, compared with the noble and heroic aspirations sought in the best of the War Posters!



2. "Are you doing all that you can?"

   That simple question, asked in a popular WWII, finger-pointing poster, captures the patriotic spirit that pervaded America.

   Posters, according to the authors, deserve credit as "the ideal agent for making war aims the personal mission of every citizen." Further, "Poster campaigns aimed not only to increase productivity in factories, but to enlarge people's views of their wartime responsibilities." Rockwell's enduring classic images, The Four Freedoms, illuminate this ideological trend.

   How did wartime posters inspire military recruits, help increase domestic production, and sell war bonds during WWII? What were the different strategies used by government agencies to promote American ideals, self sacrifice, and gas rationing to a scared and confused public? Which advertising methods and artistic techniques worked best? Why?

   This concise, colorful guide examines the power, poetry, and politics of American WWII posters in five thematic chapters. Delving beneath the surface of over 150 colorful posters, the authors showcase and analysis the zig-zag evolution of wartime posters.

   Personally, I found chapter three (Art, Advertising, and Audience) to be a fascinating summary of vigorous debate among message makers. How should the war effort be framed? Is it a struggle for truth and democracy against terror and fascism? Is it a battle for survival? Should the focus be on personal fears, national achievements, or heroic freedom fighting?

   George Gallup, later of pollster fame, urged posters be designed to appeal to "the lower third" of the population. Other analysts warned that the Office Of Facts and Figures early communication efforts were too abstract and contained too much information. "It would be wonderful indeed if the psychological war could be fought on an intellectual basis," warned two critics "if the American people who will win or lose this war were so educated and conditioned that we could bring them understanding on the terms we all prefer. But, through no fault of ours, they unfortunately are so educated. And in pitting the strategy of truth against the strategy of terror, we cannot stop to educate - we must win a war. We must state the truth in terms that will be understood by all levels of intelligence. Further, we must dramatize the truth." Powerful images soon replaced statistics in posters.

   The considerable efforts to coordinate wartime messages across departments also generated vigorous debate. Eventually, the newly formed Office of Wartime Information identified six basic propaganda themes for general information programs: The nature of the Enemy; the nature of our Allies; the need to work; the need to fight; the need to sacrifice; and Americans and our ideals.

   This visually appealing book also carefully examines the proliferation of wartime posters, full of patriotic messages, created by non-profit organizations, unions, and corporations. The last chapter, Postwar Aims and Private Aspirations, focuses on the impact of Sheldon-Claire company posters celebrating the middle class home, the traditional nuclear family, consumerism, and free enterprise. It also features a haunting gas mask poster produced and distributed by Kroger Grocery store chain.

   The epilogue, the weakest section by far, argues that the change in postwar workplace posters reflected a more condescending air toward workers, explicit anti-union messages, and the renewnal of industrial conflict between management and labor. This thin section seems both out-of-place and a disjointed conclusion.

   Design for Victory, despite this somewhat weak ending, should satisfy the curiousities of graphic designers, artists, historians, and scholars interested in advertising methods and persuasive communication.




3. Anyone intersted in the graphic stylism, the stark imagery, the sometimes disturbing and sometimes hilarious generalizations made in American Propaganda during World War Two should check out this book. It contains many posters that I've not seen in print before, but unfortunately leaves many others out. From an academic, historical perspective the documentation and historical explanations for the U.S. propaganda machine are too brief. Still, the poster reproductions are fantastic, mostly in color. I would also reccomend Anthony Rhodes "Propaganda: The Art of Persuasion" for a look at other countries' propaganda from the same time period.

No comments about Mastering AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 (Mastering).

2 comments about Just Enough AutoCAD 2007.

1. Just Enough AutoCAD 2007 is an excellent purchase. It does just what it's title entails, it give the user just enough information on the use of autocad to give them a fairly decent jumping off point. It is extremely easy to use and read and offers a more inexpensive way of finding out what you need to know/



2. I have not used my high school drafting lessons since 1968, when I last attended Maricosta College in California. The computer was not very popular in that field, at the time, and now that it is, working with it is interesting and rewarding.
   Auto Cad makes it simple, easy, and quick, to produce drawings from specifications. The T-Square and Drawing Board, are truely things of the past; and the protractor,compass and various other devices used for measureing angles, are very neatly displayed in the configuration of the program itself.
   sylvspst@aol.com
   01/06/2007