Reviews Written By: A1QNYLBG73QRNFprovided by Amazon.com |
 | ||
 | CANON EF 35MM f/1.4L Wide Angle Lens | |
 | "delightful, especially for outdoor photos" | 2009-10-05 |
| I expect many people buy this as a "L" equivalent to a 50mm lens on a camera with an APS-C sensor. However, I use it with a full frame digital camera or with 35mm film, and for me, this is one of Canon's essential primes. Together with their 135mm f2L, and a good 50mm lens, the 35mm f1.4L completes the kit. The angle is sometimes too wide for good coverage with a single flash, and I almost never use more elaborate lighting setups, so I am typically left using this lens in natural light. It is best in those cases where you can get relatively close to the subject (else the background becomes overwhelming). As with all L lenses, it feels solid and produces excellent results. The crispness of the image all the way to the corner of the frame allows me to compose an image however I like without worrying much about optical 'sweet spots' in the lens.
I have also photographed urban settings with this lens -- Times Square at night; the ruins of the Renaissance ballroom at dusk. Such photos don't drive my photography but I take them sometimes for context or because an image strikes me, and this lens handles them beautifully. | ||
 | Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure | |
 | "review from the perspective of 2009" | 2009-07-23 |
| We know a lot more now than Jerry Kaplan could possibly have known when he wrote this book. We know, for example, that pen-based computing never took off the way he expected, that personal digital assistants had a moment in the sun, but were then replaced by cellphones that do not use pen interfaces. In this book, Kaplan describes the rapid rise of Go Computing, its amazing success in fundraising, but ultimate failure in the face of withering competition from Microsoft, and lack of sales. The book is worthwhile for anybody considering launching a technology company, or investing in, or working for a startup. It is not, however, perfect. Kaplan take shortcuts -- one page they're sketching the parameters of the operating system, and the next page they're introducing two dozen independent software companies that plan to develop for the platform. Where did they come from? How were they signed up? How many ever shipped product? We know that Go shipped both its hardware and software very late, but there is basically no discussion of why. Kaplan saves most of his text for fundraising and the frustrations of working with large corporate partners, with occasional personal asides about his fiance or employees. Kaplan seems to blame the failure of the company on competition from Microsoft and slow delivery of product, but I think other lessons can also be learned from the experience of Go. For example, though Kaplan & co. elected to build the hardware, operating system, and hardware themselves (also signing up third party developers and ultimately spinning off the hardware arm), they could probably have developed the most compelling parts of their system as applications that ran on existing operating systems, greatly simplifying their task. Their lack of compatibility with existing applications was a real problem, not just "FUD" from Microsoft. Demos of PenPoint can be found online (check YouTube and Google Video in particular). It is clear that PenPoint was worthless for text entry, which would have made it largely worthless for e-mail as well as writing notes and memos. This would seem to render the device largely useless for their target "on the go" business customers, except for very narrow vertical applications that would generally not justify the high price that their machines carried. Anyway, a worthwhile book, even if somewhat lacking in analysis. | ||
 | Citizen Men's Skyhawk Eco-Drive Watch #JR3060-59F | |
 | "an odd watch" | 2009-06-19 |
| What's to like: I find the watch to be attractive, though not everybody agrees (my wife, for one, thinks it looks cheap). It's surprisingly light, given the size, and it keeps good time. What's not to like: Setting the time and other settings is an almost comically elaborate process, compared to other watches. It will involve at least a few of the following steps: make sure the 'zero' setting is accurate, fix it if needed, set your city and time zone offset, set the time digitally, and swapping the digital and analog times. Though there are three inset dials on the face, one shows what mode the watch is in, and the other two both show the time (one in 24 hour mode, and the other in UTC). It's a waste of two complications, showing the time in three places at once (four, if you have the digital windows set to show the time also). Also, if you wear a suit or otherwise wear long sleeves much of the time, your watch may not get enough sunlight to keep on working. You may have to take it off your wrist and set it under light for a few hours each day, which eliminates any advantage this watch might have in convenience over battery-powered alternatives. | ||
 | Plantronics Calisto Pro Series DECT 6.0 Cordless Landline/VoIP Phone with Bluetooth Headset | |
 | "headset broke in a year. handset broke the next." | 2009-05-05 |
| First the phone could not connect to its own headset. Then it started missing buttons when dialing. Finally, it has stopped recharging the handset. The phone is a doorstop after two years of normal use. It's expensive enough that I think it ought to still be working. I won't be buying another. | ||
 | Ulysses S. Grant : Memoirs and Selected Letters : Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant / Selected Letters, 1839-1865 (Library of America) | |
| "decent edition of an important book" | 2009-04-15 |
| Grant had a fine memory for details, and writes about the decisions that won the Civil War while referring to individual soldiers and trails through the forest. This book will be of most interest to those who follow the Civil War and military theory. I find interesting that Grant virtually never discusses technology in his tactical and strategic planning. The U.S. Civil War introduced machine guns to the battlefield, and observational balloons, and ironclads, but from Grant's point of view, none of these mattered. He worried about moving men from place to place, and probably would have preferred a single roadroad to all the machine guns in the Confederate Army. The book may also be useful as a study of management style, as Grant obsessed over identifying great leaders and enabling them to realize their potential. This edition is well bound, but the maps are too small and are basically impossible to read. | ||
 | 2port USB KVM Switch With 2-cables Non-osd | |
| "works with Macs, PCs, oddball keyboards, and a Wacom tablet" | 2008-09-22 |
| I have used a number of KVM switches, and there are often problems with them. In my experience, the fancier they are, they worse they work. Avoid KVMs that require proprietary cables, or that rely on driver software for "hotkey switching" instead of having buttons. The ConnectPro is no nonsense, and works with everything I've connected it to. I'm upgrading to the four-port version soon. | ||
 | Brother TZ145 3/4" Labeling Tape | |
| "new, normal TZ tape for a fair price" | 2008-03-24 |
| Not much to say -- this is new, name brand TZ tape with a split down the back so that it's easy to remove from the wax paper. | ||
 | Kensington Lightweight, Slim line 120 Watt AC/DC Mac or PC, Cell Phone, DVD, PDA, or iPod Power Adapter (33197) | |
| "works for me on planes trains and in foreign hotel rooms" | 2008-03-09 |
| I use this with my laptop (a thinkpad), my cellphone (treo), and my iPod. It does everything it's supposed to, and extra tips for are both less expensive and easier to pack than entire travel chargers, as I used to bring. As others have complained, the short cord from the transformer to the all outlet is odd. Also, given the modular design of this thing, you would think Kensington would sell versions of that cord designed for different sorts of international outlets. As it is, I sometimes need to bring several outlet adapters along, in addition to the K33197. As the adapters never sit in the wall very well, and the transformer ends up hanging from them via its super-short cord, it often pops out of the wall unless I prop it up on a pile of books, or hang it from the arm of a chair with the loop of velcro intended to help control the cable for packing. It works, but it's not elegant. On balance, I am pleased with it. With a bit more polish, it could have been a lot more useful for international travelers. Also, why no Apple Macbook tip? | ||
 | Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM Lens for Canon SLR Cameras | |
| "The best EF lens I own, by far" | 2008-03-03 |
| Previously, I relied on Canon's EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens for modest telephoto images. There is *no comparison* between the images that the 135mm lens produces and that zoom. The difference is not merely that the fixed lens is a lot faster (in practice, I rarely go wider than f2.8 anyway; the depth of field becomes too narrow for my taste). Rather, the pictures are sharper, colors are brighter, and people seem to have a strong preference for the bokeh in pictures taken with this lens. More than once, I've been asked "How do you blur the background like that?"
You might expect that a fast lens is particularly useful indoors in natural light, and it does produce great results in such conditions, but I've also taken wonderful photos with this lens of children playing outdoors. No image stabilization, but I've never missed it. I've had mixed results with other Canon lenses but this is by far the best of the lot, I've no criticism of it at all. | ||
 | Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras | |
| "Useful but not a great or special lens" | 2008-03-03 |
| I have been using this lens for five years, and have probably taken over 1000 photographs with it, film and full-frame digital, with sky filters, colored filters for black & white film, and polarizing filters as appropriate. As time has passed, I find that I use it less and less, because I can almost always get better results with something else.
The quality of the images is nothing special, and I have often found a kind of harsh contrast to the photographs. When using it, I have to be particularly diligent about lighting as a result. Zoom is convenient for composing but the camera is not optimal for controlling distracting backgrounds; this lens is certainly not appropriate for portraits. Only once did I get pictures with this lens that were much better than I expected, when handheld photos at maximum zoom on slow film in a dark temple came out perfectly. That's entirely a credit to the image stabilizer. Nowadays, I regard this as a snapshot lens; as such, it's often superseded by a point-and-shoot camera which takes pictures almost as well and is a lot easier to carry around. | ||
 | Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras | |
| "disappointing, especially for a fixed lens" | 2008-03-03 |
| This is one of the first two lenses I bought when I switched to a Canon SLR about five years ago. I've had plenty of opportunity to use it since then, both with film and (full frame) digital.
The idea behind this lens is a good one -- 20mm is wide enough to allow for landscape and architectural photos, and it focuses close enough for entertaining photos of people's faces, taken about a foot away from their noses (note that you'll need either a ring light or lucky ambient light to pull off the latter). There is some pincushion distortion, but nobody would accuse the results of looking like a funhouse mirror, as would be the case with a fisheye lens, for example. f2.8 is fast enough; I've no complaints there. Unfortunately, this camera consistently vignettes -- the corners of every image are dim. This is true even with a bare lens, and filters make it worse. You can correct the problem in image editing software, or just crop the image, but what's the point of buying a 20mm lens if you're going to have to crop every photo you take with it? If this had been a cheap zoom lens, I'd have expected the problem and not been bothered by it. With a fixed lens, however, I think there isn't much excuse. Canon still charges about the same ($400) that I paid for this lens years ago. By now, they ought to have upgraded this thing, or dropped the price. It is the worst EF lens I own. | ||
 | Velcro Industrial Strength Hook & Loop Fastener - 15 ft. x 2 in. Roll - Black | |
| "I have velcroed my computer equipment to the back of my desk" | 2008-03-03 |
| Great stuff, super-practical. Local hardware shops had small pieces of velcro for sale, but these 2-inch strips are much more useful for my purposes. I've used this to attach hubs, switches, and even a network drive to the back of my desk, out of sight. Sometimes tape is not reliable and hot melt is too permanent, and velcro is perfect. | ||
 | Apple iPod touch (32Gb) | |
| "excellent, though it would be nice if it had some hard buttons" | 2008-02-19 |
| This is my fourth MP3 player; I've been using a second generation 20Gb iPod since 2002 but it died last year. I can tell already that music will be a small fraction of use to which this device gets put. It does a great job with photos, and has after one day replaced my Treo in that respect. It's good for video as well, though (1) you have to convert the video to its preferred format, which is time consuming, (2) it takes a while to copy them over, and (3) since you interact with the device by rubbing your fingers across it, you end up looking at images through your own greasy fingerprints. I look forward to using it in the gym or when running, though the lack of hard buttons will reduce its value there.
I haven't used it much for web surfing or e-mail; I think my Treo will see more use there, but for video and music, it's great. When Apple releases the iPhone SDK, versions of VNC, Scrabble, and other applications may become available that will make it even more useful. Those may push my evaluation up to five stars. Even without that, I am pleased. | ||
 | Canon PowerShot G9 12.1MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom | |
| "Fine camera, excellent manual control but high grain" | 2008-02-12 |
| I've had the opportunity to put this camera through some heavy use and perhaps my experience will be of use to others.
The Powershot G9 has been with me through India, East Africa, Dubai, and New York City. It has logged about 25,000 air miles and taken photographs as varied as babies playing inside museums (no flash photography allowed), to slum dwellers playing soccer in Mumbai. Generally, I found that the camera works well. The "usage modes" do less than you might suppose; I ended up going with aperture-priority much of the time. The ability to shoot videos was nice, but only at slow velocity (an attempt to film the ground speeding by underneath a flying helicopter resulted in a long, green blur). Audio annotations worked well. The camera is easy to use, at least if you've dealt with Canon's digital cameras before. I've not had to read the manual yet. The range of the zoom lens has been adequate and, at the wide end, f2.8 is a usefully quick lens. What's not to like? Images become unacceptably grainy above iso400. The built-in flash gives lousy results most of the time; subjects close to the camera get overexposed unless you partially obstruct the flash with a finger. Manual focus is hopeless and it is essentially impossible to dictate where the camera should focus, especially in low light. Despite the option of full manual control and producing RAW files, this is still a point-and-shoot camera at heart. | ||
 | Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda | |
| "The opinionated review of Rwandan history is the best part" | 2007-10-18 |
| This book should be thought of as having three sections: First, an opinionated history of Rwanda, in which Ulvin shortcuts some highly politicized debates by simply stating his opinion as to, for example, the actual origin of the Hutu and Tutsi groups. This section continues through 1994, and is the strongest part of the book. Second, the book contains a long rumination of the complicity of nongovernmental organizations and aid groups in Rwanda's racial turmoil and genocide. This would have been a good three page discussion, here spread over about 90 pages. Finally, there is a sociological examination of the roots of the Rwandan genocide. Where Ulvin points out the weaknesses in popular theories, this is worthwhile. Unfortunately, too much reads like a college paper and contains little of value for a reader.
Overall, the history section redeems the book. The book is certainly useful for those interested in Rwanda, probably less useful to those interested in racial violence generally. | ||
 | Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda | |
| "The opinionated review of Rwandan history is the best part" | 2007-10-18 |
| This book should be thought of as having three sections: First, an opinionated history of Rwanda, in which Ulvin shortcuts some highly politicized debates by simply stating his opinion as to, for example, the actual origin of the Hutu and Tutsi groups. This section continues through 1994, and is the strongest part of the book. Second, the book contains a long rumination of the complicity of nongovernmental organizations and aid groups in Rwanda's racial turmoil and genocide. This would have been a good three page discussion, here spread over about 90 pages. Finally, there is a sociological examination of the roots of the Rwandan genocide. Where Ulvin points out the weaknesses in popular theories, this is worthwhile. Unfortunately, too much reads like a college paper and contains little of value for a reader. Overall, the history section redeems the book. The book is certainly useful for those interested in Rwanda, probably less useful to those interested in racial violence generally. | ||
 | The Beautiful Machine: A Life in Cycling, from Tour de France to Cinder Hill | |
| "an exceedingly odd book" | 2007-09-02 |
| Fife set out to write a book discussing his lifelong love of bicycles, but the result reads as though it were an autobiography in which the chapters not involving bikes were simply cut out. A girlfriend with whom he rode gets a chapter. The woman to whom he was married from 1980 to 1987 is mentioned only twice; apparently she didn't ride. The daughter they had together is discussed in the context of some riding vacations she took with her father when she was young, but then is never mentioned again. Fife comes across as insecure, trying to prove his bona fides and his intellect to the reader. Extended digressions seem to serve no purpose except to allow Fife to tell us that he can speak some foreign languages and quote various classic texts. Some great cyclists make appearances, but Fife is fringe character in the world of professional riding, and knows only a few champions. His efforts to write a chapter about his ties to Lance Armstrong, a man he has never met, were frankly sad. The book is not entirely pointless; I enjoyed the chapter about his visit to Mali. Otherwise, it's a bizarre collection of anecdotes and braggadocio. | ||
 | Nikon Super CoolScan 9000 ED Film Scanner | |
| "For medium format negatives, easily better than my local pro lab" | 2006-12-21 |
| I was astonished at what this scanner could do, in terms of preserving the gentle tones of my black and white negatives. My only regret is that there is no equivalent to Digital ICE for black and white. That problem is not unique to this scanner, of course. The quality of the images I get from this scanner, with negatives from a basic 1970-vintage twin lens camera, trounces the images I get with a Canon 5D SLR. The 9000ED comes with a 35MM carriage, 35MM slide carriage, and basic MF carriage. For the price, I would have preferred if they had included a larger variety, including the glass-covered or the rotating 120 unit. | ||
 | Polar S610i Heart Rate Monitor | |
| "Terrible design, but it works" | 2006-09-20 |
| This is my third heart rate monitor; I decided to upgrade to a model that could upload workout data to a PC, and this was the least expensive Polar model with that ability. Specialized versions that can double as bicycle computers cost only a little more, but I don't ride much anymore, and my road bike already has a computer, so I decided those capabilities were worth nothing to me. Pro: * The s610i works. Period. * The "WearLink" chest strap is more comfortable than other chest straps I have used. * It comes with logging and training software, and you can upload performance data to a website run by Polar for comparing with friends. * It works with either "sonic" or infrared connection to your PC or PDA. I use infared. Transferring data for a one-hour workout takes only a couple of seconds, and the watch can store many workouts between uploads. * You can set the watch's time, date, and other variables from the PC, which is much more convenient than trying to program it with the buttons on the watch itself. * It is easy to get extra parts, so that you can keep a heart-strap at home, and another in the gym, for example. * Though I will never be a competitive athlete, I find that this monitor, and the knowledge that it logs all my workouts, help me stay motivated. I work out harder and more often, as I feel the watch is looking over my shoulder, and I don't want to leave a blank spot in the automatic training diary. Anti: * The watch's software design is terrible. You have to click buttons over and over again to get anything done, and it's not always clear which button will have what effect. * The documentation was clearly not written by a native speaker of English, and many passages are opaque. You will end up figuring out how to use features of the watch by trial and error. I failed to log most of my first workout entirely because of bizarrely phrased directions about how to pause the monitor. * The watch is garish and looks silly with a suit. * The software is PC only and doesn't seem to export everything if you want to analyze your heart rate data in other software, or on another machine (it will export some of the information that was recorded, including heart rates, but not others, including time stamps or workout descriptions). * Polar's USB/Infrared adapter, which costs extra, is completely incompatible with Macintosh. You can buy software that will analyze Polar's data on the Mac, but you can't use this adapter to move the data over. Instead, you need to buy a serial to infrared adapter, and a USB-serial adapter, and connect them together. This is slower and somewhat maddening. * If Polar were to publish all APIs and make their drivers and software open source, they wouldn't lose a dime in hardware sales, and people who would be able to make much better software for their monitors, running on many more platforms. | ||
 | Computational Financial Mathematics using Mathematica | |
| "Tough book but very useful" | 2006-08-08 |
| This book is merciless; very complex, very dense. It is also, however, extremely useful. If Stojanovic were to publish ten more books on the topic, he would probably revolutionize the use of Mathematica in finance. The enclosed CD was also useful; such things are usually worthless but in this case, the book contains so much code that it would not be practical to implement without a digital copy.
The book is certainly a bargain at $70. | ||
 | Probability: The Science of Uncertainty with Applications to Investments, Insurance, and Engineering | |
| "I use this book almost every day" | 2006-07-21 |
| I appreciate that many people will be buying this because it has been endorsed by the Society of Actuaries. My review is for those who aren't being compelled to use the book in exam prep. I find "The Science of Uncertainty" to be the most consistently useful of the statistics texts in my office. The examples are clear, it has the right equations, and it's well organized. Some people here are complaining of inaccuracies but they provide no examples and, frankly, I've never noticed a problem. I like that authors provided an appendix explaining how to manipulate the distributions they discuss in the book using Mathematica. This was not new to me, but I can imagine it would save others some headaches. | ||
 | Creative Photography: Aesthetic Trends, 1839-1960 | |
| "An excellent, if somewhat dated, history of photography" | 2006-06-13 |
| Gernsheim writes a history of photography concerned with aesthetic trends, especially the evolution of visual styles in photography in response to changing styles in painted art, and vice versa. His central argument is that photography is a legitimate art form and ought to have its own standards and mores. This point may have been more controversial in 1961, when the book was first published, but I suspect Gernsheim's insistence dates to an even earlier era, perhaps the 1930s, when the role of photography in art was less settled. Gernshein's contempt for photographic technology is refreshing; this book is the inverse of a typical "buy hot gear!" photo magazine. The book contains many photos, all black and white, reasonably well printed. The cover is very cheap and my copy showed a marked crease after only one reading. | ||
 | Rubbermaid Tough Tools 70313 Heavy Duty Glue Gun | |
| "Inexpensive, no-nonsense glue gun" | 2006-05-19 |
| I've been using mine for about six months and have no complaints. It's a basic approach to a simple tool and it works. No safety switch, as far as I can tell, so remember to unplug it when you're done. I can't pretend this thing competes with $100 contractors' models, but it's certainly worth the $8 Amazon charges for it. We've used it mostly for minor home repairs, indoors and out. | ||
 | CANON EF 50MM f/1.4 USM Autofocus Lens | |
| "I am delighted to have bought this lens" | 2006-05-18 |
| There is a tendency, especially among those who have started recently with SLRs, to rely heavily on zoom lenses. However, even the best zoom lenses are slower and less sharp than a good prime lens like this one. More importantly, prime lenses encourage good composition and many people who use them end up taking better pictures as a result. Don't make the mistake of thinking a lens like this, for being fixed, is inflexible. Quite to the contrary, with its stunningly fast focus and its ability to work in low light conditions, this lens will produce worthwhile pictures in conditions where an f.3.5 or f4 zoom would be a clunky alternative. Some of the other reviews here emphasize the usefulness of the 1.4 aperture in taking indoor sports photos, or other specialized applications. This may be true, though it seems to me that a lens like this should not be thought of as a specialized tool, to be used only in especially low light conditions or where narrow depth of field is needed. It serves beautifully as a general purpose lens. I have not used Canon's less expensive 50mm f1.8 lens; it is my experience that you never regret getting better glass. | ||
 | Robert Polidori: Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl | |
| "An admirable photo book" | 2006-05-18 |
| The photos are poetic, well composed and beautifully printed. Those interested in images of Chernobyl, or in architectural photography, will find this worthwhile. However, the book contains almost no text, and this weakens it. There is no discussion of the places shown in the photographs, or what happened in each setting. There is no pairing of before and after photographs. There is no discussion of how, technically, Polidori took the photographs. I would have preferred to see all three of these things. There are other sources, of course. A recent issue of National Geographic used the 20th anniversary of the disaster as its cue to cover this ground (and with some very similar photos too). However, this was a missed chance by Polidori. Also, I found the array of photographs of little houses being reclaimed by the forest to be less interesting than Polidori probably expected. The urban photos were much more compelling. | ||
 | VELBON MAXi 343E Lightweight Photographic Tripod | |
| "Has done exactly what it is supposed to do, for four years now" | 2006-03-28 |
| I use this camera with my film SLR and now with my newly purchased digital SLR. I have carried it to the tops of mountains in ten states, and dragged it through the Canadian Rockies and the Japanese Alps. For such a small and light tripod, it does a stellar job. It's very quick to set up and easy to adjust. Remember that this is a lightweight tripod, not intended to support a long telephoto lens in a heavy breeze. If you use it as intended, you will be delighted with it. | ||
 | Digital Retro: The Evolution And Design Of The Personal Computer | |
| "Pretty pictures, worthless text" | 2006-02-16 |
| It's riddled with errors and shows every sign of having been copied from websites or other sources that were not authoritative themselves. All sorts of rumors mixed in with fact, and no effort to distinguish between them. Also, curiously, though the book contains lovely photographs of all the machines it discusses, Laing never shows any of them turned on or running software. A missed chance, I think. | ||
 | The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need | |
| "Excellent research, and beautifully written" | 2004-08-04 |
| Other reviewers have complained about the section of the book that advises the reader to 'down-shift' and join what amount to anti-consumerist clubs. I agree that these passages are not particularly interesting. However, the research that preceeds it is first rate, and amply rewards the reader for taking the time to read this book. Schor's goal is to define the variables that predict overspeading among Americans, and thereby to illuminate why the trend to live beyond our means has increased so rapidly in recent years. Her examinations also suggest a variety of steps we can take to make ourselves happier (since, make no mistake, people who make more money and buy more things are no happier than people of more modest desires). She illustrates the patterns revealed by her studies with a number of anecdotal discussions with Americans of different backgrounds. Though some of her conclusions may seem like common sense, they represent a great deal of scholarly labor. Schor catalogs research by her colleagues and her students, as well as studies she has completed herself. Almost any reader would benefit from the time spent with this book. | ||
 | The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony | |
| "This should be required reading for anybody marrying young." | 2003-11-23 |
| Marriage is so vital -- why do people treat it lightly? I recently saw author Pamela Paul on an old episode of the television show "Politically Incorrect" in which she was pitted against a man who was trying to sell marriage seminars based on his patented "three As". "All you need for a happy marriage," he insisted, was for the man to be "attentive, appreciative, and accommodating". This, he felt, would get a relationship past financial difficulties, ethical differences, family opposition, health problems, loss of mutual attraction, or any other problems the world can dish out on a young marriage (or that the couple can dish out on each other). Pamela Paul knows better, and she cut this guy down in a sentence that had the audience laughing to tears. Her book describes the complex trends that have led to younger marriages in the United States and younger divorces. She confounds simplistic politics by simultaneously supporting marriage and divorce -- even quick divorce if that can minimize the damage to the people involved, and get them apart before they have kids. The "reviewer misses the point" review mentions a second important dichotomy in this book -- it is both rational and emotional. The book reveals massive research and an understanding of the deep hurt suffered by those who divorce young. You can't help but wish them all better than they got. This is a fascinating book that I recommend to all. | ||
 | Differential Equations with Mathematica | |
| "A very useful book" | 2003-04-22 |
| Abell and Braselton strike a nice balance between the analytical solution of differential equations by hand, and numerical solution by computer. Mathematica is used to simplify some of the details, but they teach how to do everything by hand, including programming runge-kutta solution methods, fourier series, and other topics that lazier authors might have skipped over. Every chapter starts with basic definitions and builds to useful solution techniques. The book is packed with fully worked examples. My edition is a few years old and talks about the "newly released" Mathematica 3.0, but everything applies just as well to version 4.2. | ||
| © 2009 GoSale.com (S1) |