Reviews (2)

A roadmap for process innovation and improvement
Davenport presents a practical roadmap for process improvement and process innovation which I have found very useful as a practitioner. Although not prescriptive, the text provides practitioners with useful very insights which can form the basis of an organisation's business process innovation/improvement methodology.

Must read
This is a well-written book on the subject of process or business reengineering. It is written in a non-technical language, wastes few words, and covers the entire spectrum of topics that are essential to a successful reengineering effort. The discussions place a significant emphasis on the role that information or computer technology play today in the reengineering effort, particularly how this technology can facilitate the overall effort. I found the book largely sticking to the overall thread however at times it did become a wee bit academic to flip through the sections. All in all, a very good read. ... Read more

Book Description

This eminently readable book focuses on the people of mathematics and draws the reader into their fascinating world. In a monumental address, given to the International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris in 1900, David Hilbert, perhaps the most respected mathematician of his time developed a blueprint for mathematical research in the new century. Jokingly called a natural introduction to thesis writing with examples, this collection of problems has indeed become a guiding inspiration to many mathematicians, and those who succeeded in solving or advancing their solutions form an Honors Class among research mathematicians of this century. In a remarkable labor of love and with the support of many of the major players in the field, Ben Yandell has written a fascinating account of the achievements of this Honors Class, covering mathematical substance and biographical aspects. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

A great work
Due to rapid development of mathemtics in the last century, now one cannot master all subfects of mathematics. This is also true for those historians. Most of the boods of " History of Mathematics " end in the beginning of 20th century. So we know very little about the conteporary mathematicians. This book can be described as a gap for it. After readiming this book, not only you have a knowledge about the life of the great mathemaitcians, you also get the period in World War II how Nazis forced those mathematicians out of Germany and the reason why U. S. A. is now the leading centre of mathematics.

Useful and insightful
The book is well written with the right mix of anecdote and theory. What I do like about it is the fact that we find out a little more about the lives of mathematicians, and they are portrayed as people rather than idols.

Where the book falls down is that it goes into a little too much detail of the theorems, something which the non-mathematician will undoubtedly find hard to follow.

A page turner
Fascinating historical comments, lively portraits of mathematicians, and their times. While the narrative is about the lives of some great mathematicians, it sucessfully outlines main ideas in the subject,--the personal and scientific context. The author does a great job in sharing his fascination with the rest of us. The book covers roughly the past hundred years. It is a great service to the mathematics community,-- and especially, it is an enjoyment for everyone.
It reads like a novel, fast paced, and it is hard to put down. I meant to look at it before going to sleep, but instead read it to the end, finishing in the morning. As a professional mathematician, I am often saddened by how little our work is perhaps understood and appreciated. Books like this can do a lot of good. I can now tell my children that dad does stuff like that.
The author brings the events and the mathematical people to life, and he has a story to tell. This book is and will be a success for a long time to come.

Best since "Fermat's Enigma"
In 1900, David Hilbert gave an address to the International Congress of Mathematicians that outlined the twenty three most important unsolved problems of mathematics, as he saw them. In "The Honors Class", Benjamin Yandell describes the problems and the very remarkable people who worked on them. More than a century later, there are still a few that remain unsolved, and some of those that have been successfully attacked withstood assault for many decades. I was familiar with many of the names in book because they are associated with equations that I have used and that I teach my students about. It was not until reading this attractive and well-written history that I was able to put those names and their contributions into context. This is the best popular book about mathematics that I have read since "Fermat's Enigma" by Simon Singh.

Almost a biography of math itself
The "Honors Class" is the set of mathematicians who have solved, or heftily contributed to solving, one of the famous 23 problems proposed by David Hilbert a hundred years ago.

Energetically researched, Yandell's book naturally presents numerous morsels of biography, spotlighting the eccentricities, the sobrieties, the childhoods, travails, philosophies (he got me to understand, finally, why the intuitionists cared so much about their program), and politics of the members of the Honors Class. But from all these snippets, what emerges is a biography of mathematics itself in the 20th century; a sense for the marvelous, moving, growing organism that has been the mathematical quest.

Many bright men and women, many geniuses, populate these pages. But with two exceptions (Georg Cantor, the mystical grandfather of modern logic and set theory; and the remarkable Teiji Takagi, who built Japanese mathematical culture, and the class field theory that led to solutions for three of Hilbert's 23, all seemingly with his bare hands) they didn't wield their chalk in solitary splendor. They formed a web made of learning, mentoring, competing, collaborating, inspiring; a web that converged on and spread out from two tumultuous epicenters of the century's math activity: Goettingen in Germany (until Hitler drove out all its best minds), and Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies.

There are four parts biography to one part math here. That should make the book as approachable for laymen as it is delightful for the math sophisticates who'll get to put faces on all those familiar old names. The address in which Hilbert set out his problems is given in full as an appendix; and those who wish to pursue the technical topics further get a bibliography rich enough to keep them occupied for years.

You'll get only tantalizing tastes, best in the earliest and latest chapters, of the nitty-gritty content of 20th century mathematics. But you will get a doubleplusgood, full-length portrait of what it became as a social and cultural enterprise. ... Read more

Book Description

This invaluable guide - newly revised and enlarged due to popular demand - is intended for those concerned with the raising, care and maintenance of Angora goats. It supplies much useful, practical information on how to get started in the goat business, the facilities needed, the importance of record keeping, nutrition, shearing, marketing and, in the most detailed section, clear and precise guidance in recognising and dealing with the diseases and parasites which can afflict Angoras. This new and enlarded addition also provides additional fascinating historical facts about Angoras, a detailed explanation of the ins and outs of producing the increasingly popular colored Angoras, as well as - in the chapter entitled "Food for Thought" - a selection of succulent recipes for goat meat. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Novice and Expert alike
One does not have to be an expert to love this book. It is a treasure trove of information on all kinds of English boxes from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. Packed with photographs and intelligent text, it is simply the best, most informative, most comprehensive book on the subject. It's easy to tell the writers are not only experts with vast experience but lovers of these boxes too.
I'm particularly interested in writing boxes, and I could wish for more chapters on these, but that is purely out of a sense of greed. The whole book is fascinating, whether one is browsing or studying. Thanks.

A great resource on the subject
This book is an exceptional resource for information and insights about writing boxes, lap desks, etc., from authors who clearly know the subject extremely well. The photography of examples is consistent with the high quality of the rest of this book. Definitely a must have for those of us interested in the subject and worth the price.

Boxes: Touching the Past
Anyone who's ever touched a small box or tea caddy or folding writing desk from several hundred years ago knows the thrill of holding that object, one used by ancient sets of hands. Or maybe it's the thrill of seeing rare and ancient woods -- amboina or coromandel or burled yew or satinwood -- up close. Whatever leads you to boxes, lead yourself to this book. The pictures are gorgeous, but even better is the precision of the social history which surrounds them, whether it's the intricacies of the tea-opium trade, or the influence of the penny post, or the Prince Regent's taste. Many books I've seen before -- small "Shire" studies of writing antiquities, for example -- are good but small, and almost impossible to find in the States except at occasional antique shows. This is both scholarly in its documentation and readable, even enjoyable, in the portrait of Britain it unfolds. And the pictures are a refreshing change from the blurry amateurism that marks too many specialized "guides." Pricey but worth it.

A BOOK BEGGING TO BE OPENED!
Like a box begs to be opened, so does this book!

The history of antique boxes is finally told in a comprehensive way with wonderful photos of quality boxes and details of the contemporary events and fashions that influenced their design and construction.

Whether you are a collector or not, this book will captivate you as it takes you back to a time when the box was as necessary in society as today's computer. The box is now a time piece that represents the artistic flair and superb craftsmanship prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries. This book gives antique boxes the admiration they deserve! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Guilty of errors its authors accuses businesses of makingn
The collection of articles from 1991 to 1996 primarily focuses on differently seeing in manufacturing. They have missed a major discontinuity, and used the fatal strategy in a time of change - listening to the HRB customer's needs, the Hardware industries, with no prescience of E-commerce or Web as vehicles for innovation. Harvard B School, like Sears, had missed the change

Great anthology of important ideas in strategy
John Seely Brown has done us a big favor: he weeded through the business literature, picked a few authors that really help us "see differently," found works that describe their ideas in tight little packages, and put it all in one book. JSB's own framing comments are also valuable.

Selected highlights: Brian Arthur on increasing returns, Gary Hamel's Strategy as Revolution, Morris and Ferguson on the power of platforms, Brandenburger and Nalebuff on Game Theory for strategy, sections on competitive advantage and managing innovation.

I'm having my interaction design students read this, to add to their palette of points of view. ... Read more

Book Description

This book presents a new way of seeing the business value of information, people and IT as well as a way of measuring and managing these capabilities in order to improve business performance. Packed with real-world examples, the book presents the best and worst practices companies have implemented to address these issues. Case studies from more than thirty international companies are strategically used throughout the book, including Banco Bilbao Vizcayo, Philips Business Electronics, Amazon, Dell Europe, Ernst Young, General Electric, IKEA, Ritz Carlton Hotels, and Wal Mart. This fascinating guide offers a diagnostic tool that senior managers can use to evaluate the three information capabilities of their company. Plus, the book provides hands-on management prescriptions on how to improve a company s information capabilities and how to use these capabilities in achieving business strategies and in the implementating change.
We are all experiencing an information overload, be it internal to the organization or due to external influences of our own information intensive society. Much has been written on how companies should "tame the beast of information" and make it work in the organization's favour. What has not yet been covered is how an organization can actually comprehensively measure whether or not they are using information effectively to achieve better business performance, or in other words, how senior managers within an organization can measure "Information Orientation".
Following a major 2 year global research project in conjunction with Andersen Consulting, the authors of this book have been able to demonstrate that when a company is high on IO it will be high on business performance. However, beyond just using IO as a diagnostic tool or a benchmark for the effective use of an organization's information, it can also predict the organization's business performance. Invariably, a company does not make the best use of available information. Having assessed why and where the failings are, this book will provide ways in which senior managers can actively manage the different elements of their Information Capabilities to improve the usage of information.
Information Capabilities are defined in three ways: 1. Information Behaviours/Values 2. Information Management Practices 3. Information Technology practices. It is the total interaction of these three elements and the effective management of them that permits superior business performance. IO Maturity can be gained, but the authors illustrate that it is an iterative process that grows and changes in line with a turbulent environment. Managers of a high IO company realize the need to continually refine and improve their information use and to keep learning more about their business. IO begins at the top. It takes more than authorizing an IT investment and training staff to use information. It calls for different behaviours, values and practices by senior managers. This book provides the means to move towards IO maturity. It is the step beyond Information Technology to actually managing information.
The aim of this book is to make a previously invisible dimension of business management visible. A manager, after reading this book, will be able to see, measure and manage the information resources, people and IT in the company and improve business performance. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Breakthrough thinking
An important work that takes the technology areas so necessary to information management, and places them exactly where industry needs to view them right now!Based on solid examples of solutions pioneeers, this book offers a view toward integration and application in an area that now generates real winners.

Highly Recommended!
Donald A. Marchand, William J. Kettinger and John D. Rollins, professors and consultants on information technology and management, explain how your company can improve its business performance using information orientation (IO). The authors present ways to improve corporate capabilities in information management, information technology and employee use of information. The authors draw from interviews with about 1,000 senior managers from more than 100 companies, representing two dozen countries and two dozen industries. The book uses case histories and examples from these interviews to support its central model, which is based on building, using and measuring these three information capabilities. The authors present innovative answers to the perpetual question of how to quantify subjective measures. The one shortcoming, beyond explanatory repetition, is the problem of sorting out programs with initials instead of names. Yet, we [...] found this book quite solid, albeit academically written, and suggest it to all managers and executives involved with IT initiatives at large companies.

The Missing Link
This is a book that I consider to be one of the most refreshing business texts that I've had the pleasure to read in a long time. It was something of an epiphany for me as concepts I had always instinctively known to exist and to be right were suddenly being detailed and consolidated in a way I have never had the vision to do, and in a way I have never read before.

Time will tell, but the methodology presented here may just provide the hitherto missing link between what we pay for information and what we get from it. Remember that by the end of 2001, the US alone will have spent the lion's share of a trillion dollars on Information Technology, and though we may not like to admit it, much of that money will disappear down a black hole of failed projects and mis-used systems.

If the case studies are anything to go by, the company that has the foresight to apply the principles of "Information Orientation" will not only offer itself the best chance of avoiding the IT gravity well, but will also be putting itself on track to derive the maximum possible value from its expenditure on information systems, in a way that will be measurable in the real business terms of growth, margin and bottom line.

That's a claim I find pretty exciting and I'm looking forward to applying it in my own environment. The authors say it's no fad, and my gut feeling is to agree. I recommend you get a copy of this book before your competitors do! ... Read more

Book Description

“Nobody knows better than Bruce Sterling how thin the membrane between science fiction and real life has become, a state he correctly depicts as both thrilling and terrifying in this frisky, literate, clear-eyed sketch of the next half-century. Like all of the most interesting futurists, Sterling isn’t just talking about machines and biochemistry: what he really cares about are the interstices of technology with culture and human history.” -Kurt Andersen, author of Turn of the Century

Visionary author Bruce Sterling views the future like no other writer. In his first nonfiction book since his classic The Hacker Crackdown, Sterling describes the world our children might be living in over the next fifty years and what to expect next in culture, geopolitics, and business.

Time calls Bruce Sterling “one of America’s best-known science fiction writers and perhaps the sharpest observer of our media-choked culture working today in any genre.” Tomorrow Now is, as Sterling wryly describes it, “an ambitious, sprawling effort in thundering futurist punditry, in the pulsing vein of the futurists I’ve read and admired over the years: H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, and Alvin Toffler; Lewis Mumford, Reyner Banham, Peter Drucker, and Michael Dertouzos. This book asks the future two questions: What does it mean? and How does it feel? ”

Taking a cue from one of William Shakespeare’s greatest soliloquies, Sterling devotes one chapter to each of the seven stages of humanity: birth, school, love, war, politics, business, and old age. As our children progress through Sterling’s Shakespearean life cycle, they will encounter new products; new weapons; new crimes; new moral conundrums, such as cloning and genetic alteration; and new political movements, which will augur the way wars of the future will be fought.

Here are some of the author’s predictions:

• Human clone babies will grow into the bitterest and surliest adolescents ever.
• Microbes will be more important than the family farm.
• Consumer items will look more and more like cuddly, squeezable pets.
• Tomorrow’s kids will learn more from randomly clicking the Internet than they ever will from their textbooks.
• Enemy governments will be nice to you and will badly want your tourist money, but global outlaws will scheme to kill you, loudly and publicly, on their Jihad TVs.
• The future of politics is blandness punctuated with insanity.
The future of activism belongs to a sophisticated, urbane global network that can make money—the Disney World version of Al Qaeda.

Tomorrow Now will change the way you think about the future and our place in it. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Sterling delivers
Sterling's science fiction is characterized by a keen appreciation for social forces and the increasingly intimate realtionship between things seen and unseen (the latter being anything from genetically tailored microbes to omnipresent cultural agendas). In "Tomorrow Now," his first book-length nonfiction work since the dated but fascinating "The Hacker Crackdown" (a tome on computer crime and digital culture written in the Internet's infancy), Sterling envisions the trends, technologies, and mutant ideologies that will define the first half of the 21st century.

"Tomorrow Now" is Sterling at his chatty, global-headed best. He writes about the future with skill and heartfelt exuberance, avoiding the perils of dystopian science fiction. Readers expecting biotech holocaust or maurauding robots will probably be disappointed in Sterling's close-to-home approach. But for readers into the political ramifications of computer networks, "ubicomp," and postindustrial design philosophy, "Tomorrow Now" delivers in spades.

The future, in Sterling's eyes, is merely an alternate way of looking at history. As such, it's an artifact of our own desires and creative stamina: a perplexing realm where "dystopia" and "utopia" blend and ignite with incandescent results. True to his science-fictional visions, "Tomorrow Now" is both laugh-out-loud funny--read his commentary on the pervasive techno-ecology of pseudo-organic "blobjects"--and grimly cautionary. "Tomorrow Now" unveils a world that thrives off future-shock, held together by neobiological systems and threatened by greenhouse catastrophe. Along the way, we meet angst-ridden clones, digitally savvy terrorists, and our own posthuman descendants.

"Tomorrow Now" is imminently readable, thoughtful, and soundly structured. Required reading for postcyberpunks and curious bystanders alike.

Brilliant Futurist Architecture Built on Weak Foundations
Bruce Sterling is, without doubt, a brilliant futurist. In "Tomorrow Now", he serves up a feast of clever and entertaining prognostications about humanity's near future. But reader beware! The book is like a gleaming, new building whose stunning design, lavish decoration and gleaming contours can blind observers to many small architectural flaws and the crucial fact that it's built on shaky foundations.

To take one example, Sterling tells us in one paragraph that a "cruise missile ... is just a rich guy's truck bomb". But in the very next paragraph he emphasizes that there are in fact huge differences between cruise missiles and truck bombs that go far beyond the class background of their users. Cruise missiles are produced and deployed by complex, industrially advanced societies, while truck bombs are used by terrorists who operate beyond the ken of settled governments and civilized society.

Another, more serious example of some of the less-than-deep thinking that went into this book is its overall organizational gimmick, which is based on the "Seven Ages of Man" so poetically described by Shakespeare and Marlowe. Sterling emhasizes the chronological aspect of these "Ages" by labelling his chapters as stages. Stage 1 is the Infant, Stage 2 is the Student, and so on. He uses these stages as conceptual launching pads for fascinating riffs on a variety of subjects related to 21st century technology, culture and politics. In the chapter on the Infant, for instance, he writes at length about future bioengineering not just for babies but also adults and what this will mean for huminaty as a whole. In "Stage 4: The Soldier" he speculates on the nature of future warfare. Thus, Sterling is really often talking about cross-cutting themes rather that chronological ages, which is more than a little confusing. Why he did this, except that it is so cool to quote from Shakespeare, escapes me.

A final example of Sterling's inconsistency is the subtitle of the book itself: "Envisioning the Next 50 Years". In fact, he often describes trends from the late 21st century, which puts us more than 50 years ahead. So why didn't he just call the book "Envisioning the 21st Century"? Search me.

This is a great book, but Sterling's slickness can't completely compensate for these weaknesses. Cool soundbytes, technological virtuosity, cute wordplay and even large dollops of honest-to-God weighty insight are not enough to make up for some rather shoddy underlying illogic and conceptual weaknesses.

Not very good...
Not very good... tries to examine the social and institutional trends, but goes into much self-serving prose.

Tomorrow Never Knows
Paradigm-shifts can stick in our collective craw like jawbreakers in a goose-neck. Galileo's carpet-pull on Ptolemy was no amateur-hour prank, and Darwin trumping Yahweh left a cantelope-sized goiter that still makes religious fundies bark and fume. Earth-shaking, yes, but taking decades, sometimes centuries to evolve their total, terraforming, reality-torquing impact -- slow-flying dreadnaughts of cultural metamorphosis whose meaning and trajectory still won't let us sleep at night.

Sterling's question is: What happens when the winds of change start storming the reality-studio at supersonic speeds? When whiplash upgrades seem to convulse the Zeitgeist every other minute? When dimensions start spinning like nerve-cells in a centrifuge, when ontology itself becomes as fluid as the global market? Leaning into the stormwinds of these queries, *Tomorrow Now* is less a bland Tofflerian forecast than a smoking flak-helmet pocked with the dents, scars, and impact-profiles of paradigm-shifts concussing like hot shrapnel.

"Apocalypse is boring," as Sterling likes to say, the last-ditch noctuary of the evangelical, the helpless, the neo-Luddite, the future-shocked. Better to encounter futurity with all the Olympian resources of the secular visionary imagination, with conceptual thaumaturgy and high comedy, with new languages to be learned and created, new disciplines picked up and dropped on the fly, a new world racing a hairsbreadth ahead of social and environmental holocausts that have always accompanied technological innovation....

But hey, enough of my hero-worshipping agit-prop, here are some snapshots from Sterling's globalist Bazaar of the Bizarre:

BIOTECH: Let's learn a lesson from our ancestor and brethren, the prokaryote -- let's pay homage to the two pounds of living bacteria that all humans carry within. In the microbe-literate society of the future, the elasticity and survival-skills of the bacterial swarm will make human cloning look like "a simpleminded stunt"(27) by comparison. Genetic engineering will heal the sick, fortify new deadly viruses, darken and transfigure every certainty, pump ontological coolants into the icy elysium of the posthuman. When evolution is reverse-engineered, becoming another stock-option in the industrial market sweep, Homo Prometheus will tap into genetic realms of unprecedented freedom, complexity, beauty, disfigurement, and terror.

EDUCATION: Whisked and pummeled by constant change, traditions will corrode, protocols will deliquesce, and canons will bloom with rot like beached whales. Fields of learning and praxis will ooze squishily from discipline to discipline, producing a steady stream of dynamic hybrids to stay on top of the market. Cultural memory will become like Leonard in *Memento* trying to reassemble and deploy his rapidly obsolescing past, swimming inside of whirlpool of innovation, competition, ecological catastrophe, and an elephant's graveyard of accumulating dead tech.

DESIGN: When things start to think, when domestic objects "love" you, when Shopping starts to look like Art and Philosophy, "visionary materialism" becomes a tasteless euphemism for a phase of cybernetic immersion that would have given McLuhan the spins. We will all be owned by our machines the way tribal peoples feel "owned" by the horizon, by the regenerative landscape of moon and tide, river and mountain, animal and insect. (In case you mistake my tone, this is not a "good" thing. It is simply inevitable.) We will all be passionate, obsessed fetishists. Think of the current ubiquity of cell-phones and telecom gear, and multiply it a thousandfold, in every direction. Trying to write "predictive" science-fiction in this maelstrom of voices and priorities will be like trying to set up a house of cards inside a wind-tunnel.

WAR: Cocksure superpowers trying to net a swarm of locusts in Fourth World zones run by pirates, drug-runners, mercs, ethnic-genociders, and cold-eyed Arab theology students jumping from wreckage to wreckage in the transnational narco-arms bazaar. Just think Belgrade, Kabul, Chechnya, Baghdad, and Mogadishu on crack. And the Third World zones of controlled anarchy embedded in every First World technocracy.

LAW, BUSINESS, POLITICS: Will there be much for governments to do in a post-ideological world, where public policy simpers beneath the windfalls of corporate underwriting, where human rights become a browser plug-in, where success and happiness is sold in terraced upgrades to graduated bidders? Will lawyers and legislators and police superstructures be installed as ornamental horticulture, migrant tenants surfing the crest of technology's raw, surging power? Will a democratic electorate retain its passion for activism and involvement, or will we vote with our money, our investments, our channel flipping, our site surfing, our zodiac of recorded purchases and credit histories?

DEATH: Sure, the Atomic Age may have decked us out in a cozy, suburban Cold War where mutually assured destruction and commie witchhunts could guarantee rigid cultural identity, war-fever eschatology, and a sober sense of imperialist mission (in short, the technocratic inheritor of Judaeo-Christian End Times), but where's the corporate payoff in that? Why not treat human mortality as another marketing-scenario to be spun, merchandized, glossed and sold? But if Sterling is right, our species may, in the end, "outsmart itself to death, [if] human knowledge is...not compatible with human survival"(264). We've burrowed too deep and too greedily into the planet to give birth and sustenance to our machines. Every species lost in the quest to infect the ecosystem with our ubiquity is a piece of the planetary survival-plan that's been irretrievably eroded by our narcissism, our fear, our all-too-human frenzy for mastery and technique, our Faustian gamble with machine-interface....

All in all, Mr. Sterling puts the Zeit in Geist, and *Tomorrow Now* has enough Plutarchan zing, erudition, and vervy wisdom to keep you buzzing for weeks. Some awesome riffs here. Kept me on tenterhooks throughout. Highest recommendation.

--for Ian Vance

"Organic behavior in a technological matrix"
This is about today, of course. As every science fiction writer knows, any futuristic venture, either in fiction or nonfiction, is an extrapolation from the present. How prescient the writer is depends partly on how well he understands and observes the present and on how lucky he is. I don't know how lucky sci-fi novelist Bruce Sterling is going to be as a visionary, but he definitely has a keen insight into the present. To use his words, "the victorious futurist is not a prophet. He or she does not defeat the future but predicts the present." (p. xvii)

I have read recently, Pierre Baldi's The Shattered Self: The End of Natural Evolution (2001); Howard Bloom's Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century (2000); The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century (2002), a collection of essays edited by John Brockman; Francis Fukuyama's Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution (2002); Ray Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence (1999), and others; and I can tell you this is as impressive (in its own way of course) as any of those very impressive books, and has the considerable virtue of being beautifully and compellingly written in a style that is polished, lively and sparkles with deft turns of phrase and a cornucopia of bon mots and apt neologisms. Furthermore, Sterling really is a visionary of the present in that he sees connections and developments that most of us miss. Here are some examples:

"The sense of wonder has a short shelf life." (p. xvii)

Speaking of SUVs and cross-training shoes: "Modern devices are overstuffed with functionality..." (p. 81)

"The right wing wants to leave the market alone but to regulate sex. The left...[tolerates] domestic license but wants to regulate private industry." (p. 160)

"...[F]oreign investors are entirely indifferent to...[the] phony-baloney national mythology" of any given country. "They may feel very ardent about their own country, but they won't tolerate any pretension from" someone else's country. (p. 162)

"Garage sales became Ebay." (p. 224)

Speaking of the abundance of "giant armadillos, sloths as big as hippos, three kinds of elephants," etc., and other fauna in North America before humans arrived: "A natural Texas would look like the Serengeti on steroids." (p. 270)

On what is causing the glaciers to melt: we are "digging up fossils...and setting fire to them." (p. 279)

"The actual likelihood of people...getting atomically bombed is much higher today than it was during the cold war." (p. 260)

On the human-caused "extinctions, and the sheer air-borne filth that comes from burning fossils": "It will...[transform] the whole Earth into something like a grim mining town in East Germany, only without frogs." (p. 281)

Sterling sees the first "superbaby" as a very sad creature indeed because it will be superceded almost immediately by a superior version, and then by a super-superbaby, and will be superior only to its "moronic parents." (p. 30)

"Blobjects...are computer-modeled objects manufactured out of blown goo." They "tend to be fleshy, pseudo-alive, and seductive..." Some examples: "the Gillette Mach 3 razor. The Oral-B toothbrush... The Handspring Visor PDA. Gelatinous wrist rests. The curvy, slithery Microsoft Explorer mouse..." (p. 75)

In addition to "blobjects" there are also "gizmos" which are "small, faddish, buzzy machine[s] with a brief life span." A computer is a gizmo. There are also "blobject gizmos." (p. 89)

And on and on. What Sterling is really writing here is social criticism. He is revealing us to ourselves by highlighting our technology, our consumerism, and the way the various economic and political players--governments, corportions, terrorists, NGOs, etc.--are all out to manipulate us to their advantage. His take on what he calls the dichotomy between the New World Order (the technological haves who are able to effectively manage information) and the New World Disorder (blighted areas of the planet taken over by terrorists, drug dealers and other high risk takers) is especially interesting. He sees the weapons of the unconventional warfare that is now, and will continue to be, the norm in a revealing way. He notes, for example, that terrorist-induced plagues, sometimes called "the poor man's bomb," will only lead to the "poor man's doom" because "Areas with organized governments and public health systems will be the last to collapse from germs and viruses, not the first." (p. 262)

Sterling's vision is of the postmodern world giving way to the posthuman. He sees the disadvantage of our becoming part machine and part biologically-enhanced beings: we will "still have some kind of everyday treadmill" to negotiate, and we may even acquire a renewed respect for death. (pp. 299-300)

In the final chapter he touches on the notion of a "Vingean Singularity" (from Vernor Vinge) which is a place in the future "impossible to describe, simply because" we as human beings "cannot comprehend" such a posthuman environment. In other words, like the event horizon of a black hole, the singularity allows no communication between us and that future world, and that it why it is called a singularity. (pp. 295-296)

Bottom line: be not dissuaded by the nay-sayers about this book, who may not like the unnecessary use of the extended metaphor from Shakespeare's As You Like It, which Sterling uses to frame the text ("All the world's a stage..."), or who are put off by Sterling's sometimes paternal and self-centered expression. This is a terrific read. I enjoyed it from first page to last and found myself nodding in agreement and surprise with much of what he writes. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Bill Gates
I would give this book a five-star rating. The title is Bill Gates and the author is Jeanne M. Lesinski. Bill Gates had a dream. His dream was to create his own computer. Bill does complete his goal. On different kinds of computers he created, he did them with other friends. Throughout the story, it tells about his life, his wife, and three kids. Read the book and find out about his life and the start of Microsoft.

An excellent read.
A & E produces a daily Biography show about famous people in all categories, this book is based on that series. Bill Gates is more than a story about the richest man in the world, is an accounting of where this fame and fortune came from and the vision of the future of the software giant.

While the book is only about 100 pages there is enough information about Gates' roots, his ride to the top of the software industry and his recent battles with the Justice department to give this reader a new look into the man himself.

The author gives you pictures from early childhood to his start with Microsoft in Albuquerque to his work with the Bill Gates Library Foundation. I must admit most of the photos have already been seen, however they're a few new and interesting ones, especially his new house.

I personally liked the way the author put together the story, not running over of boring you with details in any one are. The storyline flows from start to finish. Granted there is a lot more that could have gone into the book, however this one was an excellent read. ... Read more

Book Description

These thirteen essays explore a crucial historical question that has been notoriously hard to pin down: To what extent, and by what means, does a society's technology determine its political, social, economic, and cultural forms?

Karl Marx launched the modern debate on determinism with his provocative remark that "the hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill, society with the industrial capitalist," and a classic article by Robert Heilbroner (reprinted here) renewed the debate within the context of the history of technology. This book clarifies the debate and carries it forward.

Marx's position has become embedded in our culture, in the form of constant reminders as to how our fast-changing technologies will alter our lives. Yet historians who have looked closely at where technologies really come from generally support the proposition that technologies are not autonomous but are social products, susceptible to democratic controls. The issue is crucial for democratic theory. These essays tackle it head-on, offering a deep look at all the shadings of determinism and assessing determinist models in a wide variety of historical contexts.

Contributors: Bruce Bimber. Richard W. Bulliet. Robert L. Heilbroner. Thomas P. Hughes. Leo Marx. Thomas J. Misa. Peter C. Perdue. Philip Scranton. Merritt Roe Smith. Michael L. Smith. John M. Staudenmaier. Rosalind Williams. ... Read more

Book Description

The most widely read military classic in human history, newly translated and revised in accordance with newly discovered materials of unprecedented historical significance. Fluid, crisp and rigorously faithful to the original, this new text is destined to stand as the definitive version of this cornerstone work of Classical Chinese. Of compelling importance not only to students of Chinese history and literature, but to all readers interested in the art or the philosophy of war.
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Reviews (10)

"If you want peace, understand war..."
I haven't read or even so much as glanced at any other translations or publications of Sun-Tzu's Art of Warfare, and as far as I'm concerned I didn't need to. This edition is a wonderful translation, easily readable and understandable while remaining true to the Chinese. In fact, for verification purposes, the original text is contained opposite nearly every page.

The translator starts off with a very interesting introduction probably longer than the book itself; while a little boring at times, it was a very necessary addition. He explains to the reader the history of the various finds that have gone towards completing the text, the structure of the text, the historical background and anecdotes of Sun-Tzu, compares fundamental western beliefs and mindsets to eastern, and generally just analyzes this work and puts it into perspective for the reader.

As for Sun-Tzu's work itself -- it's great. If you read it carefully, you'll be surprised to not how much of this stuff you already know, how much is simply common sense -- but the format and presentation and conciseness of it is astounding. It presents the material in an accessible way that's understandable and readable. Also including here, alongside the initial 13 chapters, are all kinds of Art of Warfare fragments which have been unearthed, most of which are pretty interesting.

This book is a must read if you are at all interesting in war or the context thereof.

Excellent
Although thousands of years old, this text is still probably the best study of warfare as we know it. Most of it is still very applicable to modern war. It also provides good philosophical anecdotes occasionaly. One must remember that the authors of this text were not only military men, they were philsophers as well. Also very applicable to the business world, and many CEOs are known to read it. Much more simple and straightforward than Von Clausawitz, and is required reading for anyone looking to better understand how war is truly properly conducted.

It's A Classic, What Can I Say To Add To Its Appeal
This book is superb. What this edition offers that others may not is geared toward the interests of anthropologists: pictures, explanations, and diagrams of/from the excavated sites in China that materials used in this book originated from. In addition, this book offers fragments of other writings related to "The Art Of Warfare" that in the case of some are great supplements to "The Art of Warfare" proper. What a great read.

Real Pearls Of Wisdom -- Sans Fortune Cookie Overtones
If ever there was a philosophical work worth reading, this is it. The lessons in The Art Of Warfare can be applied to myriad contexts that have nothing to do with conflict just as well as they can be applied to the context for which they were written. Ames' judicious use of background information and supporting footnotes leaves interpretation to the reader (where it belongs) and his translation is completely devoid of any Charlie Chan-esque dialogue. Covering everything from morale to logistics to leadership, Master Sun's discourses are not just a guide to effective warfare -- they are a guide to effecting success.

business is warfare
"business is warfare" - this term has been heard consistently... what does it mean? the answers lie in this book!

this version of "the art of warfare" is a spectacular investigation/translation of the writings recovered from one of china's greatest historical periods. pictures of weapons, the original chinese texts and commentary are amongst the many rich features found in this version.

you will find that the teachings of sun tzu on warfare are simple, effective and very applicable. reading the writings will make you realize the obvious, yet the more difficult part is applying "the deeper meaning" behind his words to business.

warfare, much like business, requires an effective plan, capable people and the right "terrain" (or marketplace). sun tzu explains different kinds of "terrains" and how best to conduct battle on them - although it is hard to correlate these teachings on terrain-strategy to the business marketplace, one can manage to bridge ideas worth investigating/practicing.

finding this book in business sections at bookstores is no coincidence! read, absorb, conceive, create and act... there is much that can be learned from here. ... Read more

Book Description

8 x 11 Complete criteria for every Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine awards since 1939. All decorations, service medals, and ribbons shown in full-color and accompanied by dates and campaigns as well as detailed descriptions on proper wear and display. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great reference for military, veterans, and awards officers
Since I've had this book, I've used it time and time again as a quick reference guide for the order of precedence and the proper wear of military ribbons and their attachments. The book contains full-color photographs of all the current and previous military medals and ribbons (except the four or five most recent awards) along with a history, proper order of precedence, occasions for wear, and a full explanation of the proper wear of the attachments for each award broken down by each individual service.

If you are an awards officer/clerk, then you will appreciate the full-color guide with each of these awards in order and guide for wear. This book beats looking up the official instruction for your particular branch.

If you are in the military, a veteran, or an awards officer/clerk in any of the four branches, Coast Guard or Merchant Marines, I'd recommend this book to you.

A compendium of honor and beauty
"A Complete Guide to All United States Military Medals 1939 to Present," here in its fifth edition, is an authoritative reference work which should be on the shelves of every library--school, public, and military--in the United States. Co-authors Frank Foster and Lawrence Borts have an obvious love and respect for their subject, and this commitment shows on every one of the book's pages.

This is as complete a guide to U.S. military ribbons and medals as I could imagine. The authors describe the history and criteria of each award and provide clear full-color photographs of each one. The book also contains detailed information about the various devices worn on each ribbon, guides to the proper wear of medals and ribbons on the uniform, and much more. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine awards are all covered. There is even a special section on United Nations mission medals.

This book would make a great gift for veterans, currently serving military personnel, and amateur military historians. The many illustrations make this book a truly beautiful reference work. But more than that, this book is a meaningful tribute to the women and men who have actually earned these medals and ribbons over the years. As a veteran myself, I want to thank and congratulate Frank Foster and Lawrence Borts for a stunning achievement. I look forward to the sixth edition. ... Read more

Book Description

In kitchens and living rooms, in garages and labs and basements, even in converted chicken coops, women and girls have invented ingenious innovations that have made our lives simpler and better. Their creations are some of the most enduring (the windshield wiper) and best loved (the chocolate chip cookie). What inspired these women, and just how did they turn their ideas into realities? ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Loved it. Very inspirational.
I first read the book with my daughter and then shared it with my Girl Scout troop. It was very inspirational and a joy to see some many innovations coming from women.

Inventive & Imaginative
A fascinating collection with just the right tone. And MelissaSweet's inventive illustrations will inspire creative thinking byfuture inventors!

Wow! Girls are amazing!
The inspiring nuggets of information in Catherine Thimmesh's book have my mind racing--do I have an invention lurking somewhere inside of me? The author's concise, information-packed, yet fun narrative will intrigue children and adults alike, many of whom will turn page after page saying, "I never knew that!" Judging from the chronology of inventions on the endpapers, Ms. Thimmesh has many more stories to tell, and I can't wait to read them. Melissa Sweet's collage illustrations are the perfect complement, fascinating in their detail and ingenious in the textures and materials she chooses. I've already bought several copies of this book; one to keep and others to give as gifts. I can think of many children who will pore over this book with great interest.

Entertaining and Enlightening Stories
Girls Think of Everything is truly captivating. The "Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women" are told in a manner which will delight the target audience. The writing is crisp, interesting and sophisticated and will hold the interest of bright children and interested adults alike; while at the same time, the stories are quite accessible for even younger children. The book is not a dry compilation of biographies of inventors or a boring recitals of the history of various inventions; but, instead, an ingenious approach to telling important (and fun) "Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women." ... Read more

Book Description

Today, in a world in which news flashes around the globe in an instant, time lags are inconceivable. In the mid-nineteenth century, communication between the United States and Europe -- the center of world affairs -- was only as quick as the fastest ship could cross the Atlantic, making the United States isolated and vulnerable.

But in 1866, the Old and New Worlds were united by the successful laying of a cable across the Atlantic. John Steele Gordon's book chronicles this extraordinary achievement -- the brainchild of American businessman Cyrus Field and one of the greatest engineering feats of the nineteenth century. An epic struggle, it required a decade of effort, numerous failed attempts, millions of dollars in capital, a near disaster at sea, the overcoming of seemingly insurmountable technological problems, and uncommon physical, financial, and intellectual courage. Bringing to life an overlooked story in the annals of technology, John Steele Gordon sheds fascinating new light on this American saga that literally changed the world.

Reviews (19)

Suprisingly fascinating!
In 1853, entrepreneur Cyrus Field was introduced to Frederick Gisbourne, a man whose idea of laying a telegraph cable across the Atlantic, from Ireland to Newfoundland, had collapsed. Realizing the potential in such an undertaking, Field set up a corporation, and with unflagging energy he set out to make the transatlantic cable a reality. The New York Herald hailed the undertaking as, 'the grandest work which has ever been attempted by the genius and enterprise of man.' The project captured the imagination of the United States and United Kingdom, but few could foresee the trouble and hardships that the project would encounter.

I must admit that my wife gave me a strange look when I showed her this book. How could a book about a cable be interesting? Well, the fact is that author John Steele Gordon succeeds at making the story absolutely fascinating! After a rather confusing first chapter, the book launches into the story of the Atlantic Cable, the men who built it, and the society in which it appeared. The author succeeds in grabbing your imagination, making you turn page after page, dying to see what happens next. I really enjoyed this book, and recommend it to everyone!

An Era is Captured
As the title indicates, this book is about the laying of the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean. Gordon relates this story well from the pie in the sky innocent dreaming of those who first promoted the idea, to the amateurish first attempts to finally, the professional successful laying of the cable. He is concise and interesting. The book is filled with contemporaneous quotes from pro-techies and and anti-techies of the time.

I enjoyed the "big picture" better. Gordon relates well the era of the early industrial age when fortunes were seemingly made in minutes and Americans and Englishmen thought anything possible. He conveys to the reader the huge leaps and bounds made in technology during the first half of the nineteenth century and uses the laying of the Atlantic cable as not only a shining example of such advances, but also a crowning achievement of the age.

The book is as readable a history as one will ever find. Gordon takes his subject, puts it in perspective and sprinkles the book with off-topic history that aids in the telling of his story.

Persistence of vision
The first transatlantic cable was a Victorian era triumph that enchanted the world with its glory. The story is one of the courage and persistence of its director-in-charge, Cyrus Field, born in 1819 to a prominent family of Massachusetts. Cyrus began the charge to span the ocean when he was only 33 years old, and after several attempts, finally managed to overcome all obstacles 14 years later. The story that unfolds is one that extolls the virtuous and honorable men who made it all happen, giants whose word was their bond.

Mr. Gordon tells the story with all the enthusiasm of a child, unsullied by any trace of a fashionable cynicism or awareness of the betrayals to come. The book is nicely illustrated with lots of photos and diagrams that contribute mightily to the immediacy of reading it.

I especially enjoyed the chapter in which the final triumph occurs, and, I kid you not, at one point actually had chills run along my spine. This is a story that will awe and inspire you. Cynics and phonies need not apply.

Heroic Efforts In An Age Of Heros
This is a great story about the gutsy application of new technology in the pursuit of ideas considered laughable until they are proved doable. The conjunction of the development of steam ships, with the discovery of a substance called Gutta Percha, with the invention of telegraphy, reduced the time to get a message across the Atlantic from 8 weeks to near instantaneous. This book tells the gutsy story, complete with relevant as well as entertaining details.

Enjoyed the read, wished for more
It was a lot of fun to read Gordon's narrative. My only complaint was the brevity of it all, but that's the problem with a page-turner, they are over too quickly.

The story is retold in terms that might remind you of the 'moon program'. A non-techie evangelist's son gets caught up in an impossible dream, but find the people that can do the job and succeeds. It is a bit too simple, but works. Like JFK, our hero Cyrus Field refuses to give up. As in 'The Right Stuff', we wade through one disaster after another, all the while waiting for victory to yield her treasures. The biographical pictures of various inventors, quacks and robber-barons ought to fascinate any but the die hard soap-opera fan. Sorry, the only marital issues I noticed were questions about how our heroic men stayed married while obsessed with this project. In very un-politically correct style, there isn't a single woman mentioned in a non-supportive spousal role.

Despite my enjoyment, I wish the book had been about 4 times longer. There was little real detail regarding the competition, science, inventions or economics. There is another page-turner available, 'Signal & Noise: A Novel by John Griesemer. It covers exactly the same territory, with more character development and female roles. Otherwise, there isn't much more than material published by the participants. The Atlantic telegraph (1865) by William Howard Russell; The story of the Atlantic Telegraph by Henry M. Field and Submarine Telegraphs: Their History, Construction and Working by Charles Bright. All three are long out of press. ... Read more

Book Description

Did you know that the ice cream sundae was invented because of a law forbidding the sale of ice cream on Sundays?Or that the first motorcycle was really just a tricycle with a motor? Would you believe that Mickey Mouse started out as a rabbit? Arranged in alphabetical order with anecdotal, fun-to-read text, this fascinating book is packed with the stories behind these— and over 100 more— inventions."[An] entertaining volume of trivia." — Kirkus Reviews ... Read more

Book Description

Each volume in this series presents more than 150 stimulating hands-on activities in an easy-to-follow format to teach thinking and reasoning skills along with basic science concepts and facts. Over 500 activities in all! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Get Kids Psyched About Science.
This book is a must-have for any elementary teacher.In fact, the entireseries of "hands-on science activities" books is outstanding. Each book addresses specific areas of the science curriculum in anorganized fashion.The experiments are guaranteed to get kids interestedin science. ... Read more