Builder

If you are expecting a history of cathedral building, look elsewhere. This is slow and a bit dull, concentrates on extraneous issues ( the ego od Suger gets more coverage than St Denis itself), and even worse -- it's political. Yes, marxist-french anti-American screeds in a book on cathedrals. Oy.

This is the best book I read on the mysterious movement known as the gothic era, which has long fascinated me. It is written by an independent scholar with a quirky, yet erudite, point of view who writes very well, with the Cartesian clarity that we expect of French intellectuals.

I found it absolutely fascinating, as he explained the politics that gave rise to the astonishing building projects that involved entire communities for centuries and whose artisans are, with the exception of Villard, wholly unkown. Gimpel then goes through the crytic notebook of Villard - the only true record of the era's methods besides the works themselves - deciphering it for non-specialists like myself. In his view, built during a late-medieval economic boom, the cathedrals used a new kind of geometry and practical experimentation that foreshadowed the discoveries of the Renaissance. Some would even argue that the gothic cathedral architects and builders presaged the scientific method that emerged during the Enlightenment. Gimpel provides plenty of fodder for that interpretation.

Warmly recommended.

The book's subtitle is "A Complete Reference for Project Builders". It should be "A Glossing Over for People Who Already Know About Electronics".

The first half of the book is an (incomplete) in-depth explanation about electricity, resistance, capacitance, and inductance. The next 75 pages cover semiconductors, going in-depth about junctions then diodes, then glossing over the various transistor types.

The last third of the book is a thorough glossing over of various ICs, transducers, and 10 pages on switches.

In other words, don't get this book if you're a beginner, because you will be confused by what it leaves out. Don't get this book if you are looking for a reference, because you will be frustrated by what it leaves out. And don't get it if you are looking for a refresher on electronics theory, as you will be dissatisfied with it's overly simplistic explanations.

The book is an excellent basic reference book on electronic components. It would probably be a bit complex for someone without some background in electronics, but it is MUCH easier to understand than any electronics textbooks I have read

This book opened my mine. In never realized what little percentage of our brain we use. I now see things that were already there that I did not see before.

The "game" format makes this book very user-friendly and not threatening. The Sharper Mind had a similar approach was was more practical in its approach to everyday situations: remembering names, dates, etc.

Save your money -- this one is well below the usual Kalmbach standards. While the opening essay on the birth, life and end of Model Builder magazine and its editor is fine, the rest of book is a slew of poorly reproduced articles from old issues of the magazine itself. Too many of these reprinted pages have photos that are very dark or muddy (especially in the second half of the book), other pages are reproduced so small they're unreadable. Several reprinted articles are truncated, so you can't even read the full text of the original. There's no index, bibliography, or even a list of contents of Model Builder issues. To cap it off, there's an incredibly self-serving reprint about another magazine entirely -- Model Railroader -- that has nothing to do with Lionel: it's a complete waste of space in what is already a thin and expensive little publication.

This great book is filled with nostalgia. See how the guys did it in the old days! It even had an article and photos by Frank Ellison. You're sure to enjoy this look into the past.

I actually rather enjoyed reading this book. Unlike previous popularizations of this subject such as Silverberg's much-overrated Mound Builders, it does not blindly adopt any particular scientific dogma.

Unfortunately, the authors, despite their assertions to the contrary, seem determined to find in Edgar Cayce a well-nigh infallible guide to the prehistory of the Americas, and are all too willing to distort scientific evidence to conform to their own New Age dogma of truth, much as academic archaeologists have so often done. The book, like most sensational books for the masses, tries to treat so many different topics that there is not enough room for supporting evidence for their assertions. They would have been better advised to choose one of their 20 or 30 topics and treat it in depth.

Perhaps the nadir of the book is chapter 12, where the Book of Mormon is used as
scientific evidence without any investigation of the origins of this highly suspect text..., and the existence of such mythical figures as Noah, Abraham and Jesus is assumed as hard historical fact. Even the Tower of Babel is dragged in. Reading this rigmarole one feels as if centuries of scientific progress have vanished, and one is back in the middle ages.

In a certain sense however, the book reads like a college-text. That is to say, its language is at once bland and politically correct ad nauseam. American indians are fulsomely praised as possessing a culture of unexampled richness, and a rather nervous note warns readers against experimenting with psychelic mushrooms (one of the authors is a psychologist involved in official evaluations of drug-war offenders.) The grammar is often confused.

The authors seem unaware of much of the evidence for pre-Columbian visitors in America. For example, they ignore the quite substantial evidence for Phoenicians on the Brazilian coast (they built a massive fortress there which is still standing.) In fact, the authors include precious little hard fact even about the Mound Builders. They should have at least added a bibliography. In chapter 13 the authors provide a list of 30 Cayce assertions concerning pre-Columbian America, and claim that science has validated virtually all of them. This is not true. It is correct however that man was present in the Americas long before 9500 B.C., and Cayce's information on the Norse appears valid, although I believe several researchers had found evidence for this long before Cayce. But the other Cayce information concerning American prehistory remains in the category of 'unproven'. The authors betray at every turn an extreme bias in Cayce's favor. In their minds apparently, if his assertions have not or cannot be disproven, then they are probably true.

In spite of all these grievous faults, the book still has something to contribute. It may help to
counteract the academic dogmatists who still cling to the theory that the Americas were
exclusively settled via the Bering Strait, and it may contribute to sustain interest in Edgar
Cayce, who was certainly a fascinating character, who successfully treated many illnesses by remedies he prescribed while in a trance. The book offers very many black-and-white illustrations and maps of the mounds that are otherwise unobtainable at such a reasonable price. There are much better books on pre-Columbian contact, but none to my knowledge on the Cayce connection

You know what you know - don't you? Do you know what you don't know? You probably know by now everything the teachers told you in school was not true, a product of ignorance or just plan wrong (if not then you are indeed in for a shock with this book). Get ready to learn some truth from this book. These authors are not shy about being straight forward with their assertions, for example: "...just about everything archaeologists have ardently believed about ancient America is wrong" or "Finally, it is important for readers to understand that the vast majority of 'facts' recorded in history books about ancient America simply aren't true. Since 1997, almost all of the most sacred 'truths' in academic archaeology have been proven false by archaeologists willing to risk their reputation and academic standing." The authors report, "...the events that occurred in the Americas in the remote past were far more complex than had ever been imagined." This work of Greg Little, John Van Auken and Lora Little further the 1960s adage "question authority" while following the key principle of get your facts straight and document your facts. This book is a shot across the bow of established archaeology, anthropology, history, political correctness, and those who think of psychic phenomena in general and the famous American psychic Edgar Cayce as nothing but nutty business perpetrated by nutty people. The evidence is very carefully presented in this book. This evidence will be very difficult for the orthodox scientist to reject if they are interested in truth and the scientific method. I bet your teachers did not teach you about Atlantis, Mu, and ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Japanese or the Lost Tribes of Israel involvement in ancient America and how that influenced the mound building cultures of America (shucks, my teachers never even told me about mound builders period). Your teachers may have mentioned the Norse people visited America a few hundred years before Columbus - although they probably did not tell you of evidence of the Norse being in Oklahoma! Mine sure did not. The authors are intellectually honest saying clearly when the evidence is lacking and/or Cayce was wrong (not that Cayce ever claimed to be infallible). For me the underlying context of this book is spiritual. Yes I was interested in the archeology, anthropology, historical and educational aspects of this book, however, the book gives rational/scientific evidence that support spiritual concepts that I have interest in as well. All the above is a long way to say I found the book a good factual read and food for though that will grow me spiritually. Who could ask for more than that from a book?

I expected more from this books after going through its contents. The database sections is invaluable for DB beginners, but the basics as far as ANSISTRING, STRINGLISTS, and/or integrating C++ Builder, C++, and real-world solutions to application development never rears its head. This book is not consistent and is choppy in its presentation. Overall, it is good for the advanced Visual C++ programmer as an intro to C++ builder.

The only two things that prevent this book from getting and 8 or above rating are 1) the errors and 2) the absence of updated code as promised. As for the content, this is a book to read if you are aspiring to be an application programmer and believe that Internet, Microsoft (surprise), and Database programming are things to learn in the new future. Why?? because it explains in depth about SQL, it serves a healthy dose of DCOM, Internet programming, even Game Programming. If you are even slightly interested in one or more of those areas, you ought to check this book out. The example programs are also interesting albeit rather hard to compile. I have checked out other Borland C++ Builder books and none of them is close to this one in terms of contents and original ideas presented

I am a computer professional who was being left behind by all the new technology that I was not getting a chance to work with. I needed to upgrade my skills. My company happened to have a Developer version of C++ builder 4 sitting around (I am primarily a C/C++ programmer) and decided to go for this for no other reason as I could get it for nothing! I was also writing some VB code at the time

I surfed the Net for some good doco on the language and I found this book (the full text in the form of a free eBook).

OH JOY!

I love this book. It certainly doesn't tell you everything. But with the richness of a language like C++, the merging of the Object pascal visual components library (VCL) and all the other stuff you need to know these days how can any ONE book possibly do that.

What it does do however is to concentrate on the new aspects of Borland's C++ language which are introduced with C++ Builder (namely the VCL and the associated components). Just what you need if you are already familiar with the older libraries and do not want yet another book that describes libraries that are in every other reference book. Ad infinitum!

I have thumbed through several C++ Builder books in bookstores that simply regurgitate the same old material. One in particular had just a few pages on the VCL. A waste of my hard earned money!

What does this book have that the others don't?: Well besides detailed overview's, explanation's, information, examples and some great trivia (some don't like this 'property' of the author, but personally I find it refreshing ... and often enlightening). HE CONCENTRATES ON THE "VCL". Yay team!

Look to put it bluntly! The man - Charlie - and the language is my dupli-hero! (I have to roll them up into a big ball of enlightenment which is greater than the sum of its parts). With their help I was able to build a plethora (...What is a plethora Jose?...) of useful utilities at work, that actually improved our efficiency and allowed me to go home at a reasonable hour.

I am so grateful for a really useful text that I have decided to purchase a real copy of this book (as opposed to the free ebook that I was using as a reference) as homage to the man. This book is my Bible!

Note 1: His subsequent work covering C++ Builder 3 Unleashed is also a rip snorter (that's Aussie for 'excellent'). Again, this does NOT retrace all the stuff from his previous book, but takes us even deeper.

Note 2: To all you VB programmer's out there ... C++ builder is Visual basic with GRUNT. No. Sorry. I mean MEGA GRUNT!

Gotta go now. See what's in his "C++ Builder 4 Unleashed"!

Thanks Charlie. Hope to thank you personally soon!

When I bought this thing, I couldn't wait to open it and learn all the cool secrets I thought I'd find.

I didn't find much.

This guide has a few cool benefits, especially for novice DM's and DM's who need to throw together a semi-believable dungeon hack in a hurry. However, it serves no other rewarding purpose. The concept of tracing and piecing together the different geomorphs is a great starter if you suffer occasional imagination block, but don't use it as a crutch. It's not comprehensive enough for that.

The suggested traps are absolutely ludicrous. If you're the kind of DM who likes to torment your players with lots of "instant death" situations and completely absurd concepts, then this is your kind of book.

Also, the common-sense explanations and insights into the logic of a dungeon are worthless to all but the most inexperienced DM's. Experience and forethought will teach you more effectively than the guide could hope to do.

So, if you're a rookie DM or even a veteran who can't get the thoughts flowing once in a while, this thing might be worth your while. Other than that, though, save your cash.

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting when I bought this book. Whatever it was I was a little disappointed. Many of the ideas in the book seem obvious, and not very useful to roleplay veterans. However I did find some use in the random roll chart for traps, gave me a few ideas to use in my campaign, though I'd recomend not leaving traps up to pure chance, take what you like and makes sense and incorporate it. Also as I find myself to be a horrible cartographer I found some map pieces (little bits of a dungeon layout that can be fit together like a puzzle) to be of use when designing dungeons.

Tried-and-true dungeon building ideas, guidelines, and tactics are incorporated into Dungeon Builder's Guidebook, a 64-page accessory that will be appreciated by experienced and novice DMs alike.

One of the nicest features of this accessory are a collection of 78 geomorphs, sections of dungeon that can be joined to each other directly or via connecting passageways (a ruin/tomb geomorph appears below). Six sorts of dungeon environments--mine/natural cavern, interdimensional, aerial, castle, ruin/tomb, and underwater--are provided, along with guidelines on how to use them. Each type has a "founding" geomorph that provides an outside or overall view of the dungeon, and a "focus" geomorph, or the initial dungeon section from which the others of its type can be reached. Each focus geomorph is fully keyed with monsters, traps, and treasure.

Other features of Dungeon Builder's Guidebook include an "Autodungeon Engine" random dungeon generator; general characteristics and (brief) encounter tables for each dungeon type; a section on traps along with a trap generator; a section on dungeon permutations; and sections on dungeon lore and approaches to design.

All-in-all, Dungeon Builder's Guidebook can be useful in many ways to many gamemasters, from a source of maps for experienced DMs who need a quick home for their monsters to a comprehensive how-to guide for DMs are just getting started.

With a few exceptions, the houses in this book were made into ghastly Modernist homes, or were so overdone as to not be viable to any but the rich. I do not recommend this book.

Here's what happens when you take a typical post-WWII American suburban home, add some design ingenuity, a lot of labor and a ton of money: you get a unique, livable and classy home. At least that's what's shown in this book--though I wish some of the homes had more photos and detailed floor plans.

As a residential architect I have been using this book for years as a starting point to show my clients the possibilities and transformations that are possible to their typical, tired, suburban home. Most of my clients want to expand their home in someway while renovating and updating to modern looks, conveniences and finishes. This book provides all that and more. And while there are some homes that upon careful observation would be considered torn down and reconstructed on the original foundation, they are still well done in scale and respect for the lot and very likely the neighborhood. Don't look to this book for detailed information but for inspiration!

This was the first book I found on PFC. It started along ok but the further I got into it the worst it got. The concepts about PFC were fine but using the exercises were a mess. There was an exercise that was telling the reader to change a datawindow but that window would't get used because the menu was calling some other window. It wasn't just mis-spellings but at times the instructions were just wrong. One exercise towards the end wouldn't work because the PBL wouldn't compile. You had to actually edit one of the object's source code to get it to work, which you shouldn't have to do. I am a PB newbie but this book was run through several coworkers, including an experienced PowerBuilder programmer and they all had troubles. It went a little easier for them since I wrote notes in the book about what was wrong. I also emailed the author about the mistakes and he said a free copy of the next version would be coming (that was Dec 2001 and now almost April 2002). When the next revision comes out I hope it's done better. I hope no one else has the frustration I had.

Great tutorial for PFC beginners. Do beware though that PBLs change depending on the chapter. After an e-mail to the publisher, this was clear. Who actually looks at directions anyway. OPPS!... Did I feel stupid.

I liked it. Having programmed in PowerBuilder for 5 years now, I never touched the PFC. This was a good start. The PFC help with PB is very poor. This manual did a good job of leading you through building PFC applications.

On the downside, this is not a good reference. If you have a year or so experience with the PFC, this book is pretty basic.

Please be advised that this book asks you to change PBL files every now and then, otherwise the labs will not work. I e-mailed the author who reminded me that the PBL files used for the labs are listed on the front page. Then all worked fine.

All in all, not a bad job.

I really need to direct this review to two audiences. First, the newcomer. You've heard about role-playing, but never really looked into it. Fantasy settings are pretty foreign to you and you don't know the difference between a gnome and a dwarf. For you, treat this as a 4 star review.

The concepts in here will help you get an idea of what the basic, fairly stereotypical character types are. For any combination of race (human, elf, dwarf, etc) and class (fighter, wizard, bard, etc.) a brief summary is given, giving you an idea or two as to how to play your character (or to avoid, if you want to break type). This is especially helpful to newcomers, since this newest set of rules allows for characters not common to mainstream fantasy (for example, a gnome barbarian)that vcan be fun, but daunting for newer players.

Other info helps create a background for your character (a dounting task for some, easy for others), and understand alignment. There is a lot of info on the game mechanics as far as getting the most out of your character, helpful to beginners but boring to my next audience...

If on the other hand you are like me and remember dice you had to use a crayon on to see the numbers, this book gets a single star- well, maybe two if you have newer players in your group. Don't waste your time if you're getting it for yourself. I found nothing in this book that was an aid to my play. Now, if you want to bring new players into your group, this may be worth the investment. It will definately help newbies or casual beginners get into the game a little more (hence the second star).

When I first cracked the cover of this book, I realized almost immediately that I wasn't going to get much use from it. I was sort of expecting some rules clarifications and as such was really disappointed. For veterans of D&D, the Hero Builder's Guide is pretty much a waste of cash. The only thing that looked remotely useful to me were the character origin generators and the names lists at the end of the book. As far as origin generators are concerned, the Heroes of Legend does as much, much better job, in my opinion. The one is this book is way too simplistic for my tastes. Aside from a few nuggets, this book probably won't get used much.

On the plus side, the Hero Builder Guide would be extremely useful for novice players and DMs. The sections on defining roles (half-orc sorcerers, elven monks, etc.) looked to be quite handy for breaking traditional fantasy stereotypes. Enough can't be said about the aforementioned origin generators and name lists. There also tons of tips and advice for making PCs more three-dimensional and less paper characters.

In summary: very worthwhile for newbies, veterans can take a pass.

I first bought the Hero Builder's Guide with great expectations for it to do something for future characters for me and the characters that I created. Now that I look back on my expectations for it at the time, this was about the worst investment for what I had in mind.

Let me say this right off the back: If you are a player and you like sticking it through with one character and developing him from Lv. 1 to Lv. 20, this book is not going to do a whole lot for you.

If you are like me and you find yourself creating a multitude of characters because yours keep dying or because you play D&D with a lot of different parties and have to create multiple adventurers for different campaigns, this book is slightly more useful. Especially the chapter labeled "Creating Your Personal History". If you're like me you want to get into your character and provide him with a background. This provides you with a lot of different scenarios that your adventurer can come from, whether you want to role a dice to determine a background or you want to get more ideas.

Now for us dungeon masters out there, I would highly recommend this book to those that find themselves teaching newbies how to build a character and how to build a character history. With this book you can have players scan the "Choosing Your Race And Class" chapter of the book to provide descriptions for each race's class. You want to be a half-orc cleric? Get a quick history of the things that they go through and their motivation.

This book is especially useful when the newbies are creating a personal history of their character. I can't tell you how many times I ask my player to think of a history for their newly developed character, and 4 out of 5 of them describe how their parents were killed by some sort of evil and they're on vengeance quests. Variety is an important key to a DM's campaign, and this book is great at providing an alternative way to "force" your players to take a pre-determined basic history and use their imagination to build it from there.

There's a quiz in the, "Selecting Your Alignment" area that I find useful here and there, but I typically don't use since the Player's Handbook has a pretty self-explanatory alignment description anyway.

The "Planning Your Future" chapter is rather basic and gives beginners a peak into prestige classes, but it's the most useless chapter of the book, and is the reason why I give it a 4 out of 5.

The "Appendix of Names" is helpful when I or others start running out of names to use for our characters. There's definitely plenty in there for you to choose from.

Altogether, I suggest buying this if you are a DM that anticipates teaching newbies the game, or if you are constantly creating new characters. If you aren't these two, you're better off sticking with the core books...