DISC

You gotta be kidding? Author ran a little stand alone AM station, and guided another stand alone FM into a forced sale due to poor ratings and sales. $35 for this? And, why does the author work for the Wisconsin Lottery today, instead of broadcasting?

Jock itch is chock full of useless information, most of which can be obtained by simply calling any radio station and speaking with the receptionist. Definitely not worth the $35 price tag, and definitely does not live up to it's overblown claims made by the author.

I wasn't sure if I really wanted to get into this business or not. This book really helped me make my decision to go for it. I had a lot of questions and Jock Itch had the answers. I recommend it for anyone looking to become a DJ.

Published in 2000, Videohound's DVD Guide is already outdated. Why? Because so many DVD titles -- both old and new-- are being released on a weekly basis that it is simply impossible to keep current. Anyone using this guide is bound to be disappointed in the large number of currently available DVDs not listed. Until studios complete the transition of all -- or at least most -- titles from VHS to DVD, such guides will continue to be out of date and of little use. As for the actual content of Videohound's Guide; it is adequate. The reviews, which are all subjective, will strike a chord with some readers, while striking a nerve with others. One useful aspect is the rating of extra features (outtakes, documentaries, trailers, etc.) which make DVDs so much fun. Unfortuneately, Videohound is inconsistent with its extras reviews. For example, the entry for the James Bond classic "Goldfinger" fails to mention the two commentaries and two documentaries featured on the "Special Edition" release. However, the entry for another Bond film, "Thunderball", does list all the extras. Overall, this guide is a great idea. However, it needs fine tuning. Videohound's VHS guides are very good and I suspect that in a couple years -- when the transition from VHS to DVD is complete -- that Videohound's DVD Guide will also be up to par. Until then, I'd wait this one out.

Having been an avid and exclusive user of the VideoHound Golden Movie Retriever (GMR) since 1996, I had high expectations of this DVD review guide sporting the VideoHound moniker. Unfortunately, many of the qualities I'd come to appreciate in the venerable Hound are largely lacking in this DVD guide - most notably, a sense of objectivity... First, it should be pointed out that each entry in this guide is comprised of two reviews: a review of the movie and a review of technical qualities of the DVD. As far as the technical DVD reviews are concerned, the editor(s) confesses in the one of the introductory chapters: "It would be wonderful if all of us - reviewers and readers - could have state-of-the-art 'reference' systems... But that's not the case, and so we don't presume to make definitive judgements." The problem is, one *must* have reference quality equipment to properly review DVDs. Otherwise, why bother going to the trouble of "reviewing" the technical aspects of each disc if the unknown quality of the reviewer's equipment is going to cast a questionable shadow on each review? That said, one good thing I can say about the technical aspects of the reviews in this guide is that each review list all of the special features of each disc, as well as the aspect ratio, the packaging format (i.e., snap case, keep case, jewel case etc.), the list price and so on. Most useful were the reviewers' comments on the cast/crew commentary tracks included on many DVDs, which seemed to be less biased than the reviewers' comments on the movies themselves. As for bias, the actual movie reviews presented in this DVD Guide were what was most disappointing to me. One of the advantages of the classic VideoHound GMR is that there are many contributors, a practice which seems to engender balanced, fair reviews. Although this guide also features contributions from several reviewers (the vast majority, however, being handled by editor Mayo and chief contributor Jim Olenski), I noticed a very odd and disconcerting practice that was employed numerous times: that of taking a film review from the classic VideoHound GMR and changing a couple of words here and there to support a newly altered rating (changing the 'spin' if you will); or else, incredibly, changing the rating without changing a word of the review. In a few cases, the movie was completely re-reviewed, and a different "verdict" passed on its merits, which would be fine except that we now have two inconsistent reviews of the same movie, both of which are apparently advocated by The Hound. Also, when an oddball euro-cult flick such as 'Lisa and the Devil' (originally dismissed with a "woof" by the GMR, which was perhaps a bit extreme) is suddenly bestowed a "four-bone" rating (a Masterpiece!) by the reviewer; or conversely, a moderately successful, more well-received movie such as 'Mystery Men' is given a "woof" (the actual VideoHound GMR gives it a more fair rating of 2-1/2 bones) - one tends to become wary of excessive bias in the reviewer. It goes beyond one person's opinion of this or that movie: a reviewer should try to put aside their likes and dislikes and concentrate on the movie's objective merits and demerits. Having used this VideoHound DVD guide now for about eight months, this annoying tendency towards subjective bias is something that is seen to come through in the reviews all too frequently. So my advice is: For good and fair movie reviews, buy the latest VideoHound Golden Movie Retriever instead. For good technical DVD reviews, try the Widescreen Review.

Want to read the reviews for a movie that has not been in the theatre for while then one should buy/use this source/reference tool/book in question,i.e., Videohound's Dvd Guide by Mike Mayo, Jim Olensk. In here one will find titles such as the stigmata and other classics. Recomended.

I bought this product a few months ago.I started using the cds and everything seemed ok at first.I also take classes in russian.My teacher is russian.I'm taking classes for 6 months now.As i was getting better i realized that some of the words where pronounced very wierd.For example the female speaker pronounces the word "shto" which means "what" as "chto" while the male speaker pronounces it regularly as "shto".This is not standard russian accent.I've never heard of any russian saying "chto".So i thaught that this must be some regional accent.I even asked my teacher about this and she laughed.She said that she is not aware of any region in Russia where "shto" is pronounced as "chto".Also some word endings are pronounced wrong.For example a "b" at the end of a word should be pronounced as p,while a b in this course is always a "b" no matter where it is positioned in a word.Has anyone else noticed these?A review of a native speaker of russian would help a lot.

This series is great if you really want to set the foundations for truly learning Russian. This is not for travellers who just want phrases and a basic "gist" of the language. They take you step by step so that you can actually learn to read the language starting with the pronunciation of each letter and its possible sounds so you can sound out words if you are stuck and need to bring out a dictionary. This is a great series to start out with if you have the will power to dedicate yourself to being a student of the language and not just a parrot.

The first review of this product is incorrectly intended for the "Ultimate" series by Living Language, which has 4 cassettes (or CDs) to accompany the text, and 4 to "learn on the go." The product on this page is the very basic, intro course into Russian and it is quite good. 40 simple, digestable lessons to get you up and running, and to move on to intermediate or other beginner books to reinforce what you learn. Here you get a full review of the Russian alphabet, lots of vocabulary, sentence structure, and listening practice with the tapes. For under $20.00, I found this to be a great deal, and the next Living Language series a good next step. For beginner's, Barron's "Listen and Learn the Fun Way" is comparable, though more expensive with 4 cassettes and lots of pictures. The review also laments that lack of good Russian tapes aside from Penton to learn in the car, has he/she heard of Pimsleur or Instant Immersion? The former is good enough to take a trip to Russia, the latter MUCH better than Penton, the phrases are grouped in more sensible style. That having been said, I give it 5 stars for the value and general solid footing it offers for a beginner learning the language. After this I recommend the Ultimate Beginner-Intermediate, then the Advanced, while simultaneously doing the full Pimsleur 48 CDs (available at most libraries). If you make it this far, go for the full deal at audio-forum, and at this point YOU'LL be teaching Russian!

The author aims to prove the use of circular pattern on the Phaistos disk, but manages to come up with circular evidence. Pardon the pun, couldn't resist. The basic observations are valid and useful, such as the 30 fields on one side and 31 on the other, but his conclusions beyond this are essentially unsubstantiated. For example: He is assuming a certain number of degrees on the circle (366), and a certain number of arc-seconds per degree, and furthermore that the length measure is a foot, and that there are 36.6 feet per arc-second. If it is so, then the result corresponds to within a kilometre with the circumference of the Earth, which is remarkble. Since it is remarkble, he concludes that it must be true, which is of course a circular argument to say the least. The book is full of similar units and measures that are unsubstantiated. I can not recommend it.

The book is easy and enjoyable to read, even for those without an archaeology background. It also combines some good social description with an intriguing hypothesis: that ancient Crete, with a simple round stone, could calculate time, distance and position as accurately as any watch, calendar or map that would be developed in the next 2,000 years. Neverthess, I found the proof a bit lacking in substance and heavy in supposition.

The Bronze Age Computer Disc impressed me greatly. As much as a detective story into the ancient past it is a rich and fascinating travelog of a little understood and fabulous ancient culture - the Minoans. The book shows how the mysterious symbols of the Phaistos Disc, found in Crete at the beginning of the 20th century, can be used to demonstrate a fantastic system of measuring time, space and distance, that existed as early as 3,500 BC in the Far West of Europe. This book is an easy to follow read, beautifully crafted, and with parenthesis to sift out the mathematics for people who are willing to take the author's word. The Bronze Age Computer Disc ends with a promise of many more revelations to come. I honestly cannot wait. Within the book lie some of the most incredible assertions regarding our ancient ancestors ever proposed.

I had already been trying to teach myself German for a little while before I bought this course. I primarily purchased it for the CDs, so I could listen to German while driving to work. I have found the CDs quite helpful; they are a great way to practice pronunciation and after listening to them over and over I've unconsciously memorized many phrases. My major problem with this course is with the written materials. Compared to the other German coursebook my friend brought me from Germany (Deutsch in 30 Tagen/German in 30 Days by Langenscheidt) the Living Language course is abysmal. For example, the book never once mentions the existence of the double 's' letter (it looks like a capital B), which is a common German letter. The grammar explanations are hopelessly inadequate for a beginner, and if I hadn't had the other more helpful text I would have had no idea what they were talking about. I asked my German friend about some of the words and phrases, and found out they have included many old-fashioned words--like teaching people learning English to say "my Lady." The dictionary also is just terrible compared to the other German dictionary I've purchased, and I gave up using it altogether after consistently trying to look up words that weren't included. I would only recommend this course if you, like me, want CDs to listen to; however, I would highly recommend finding a superior text to learn from.

I've been living in Germany for two months now and bought this before I left the US to start learning a little German. The lessons consist of hearing & repeating and short explanations of the rules of grammar. To get the most of this, my advice is to imagine yourself actually using & hearing a word/sentence in conversation.
Shortcomings: 1. There are a few typos in the text...which is unprofessional. 2. A few of the terms in the book aren't really used in practice. (I've tried them out and have gotten blank stares.) 3. The explanations of grammar are TOO concise to be especially helpful.
You'll end up learning some German, but not enough to "put it all together." I ended up buying Na Klar! and am teaching myself from a more comprehensive source (textbook). My German friends approve.
All in all, this Living Language package will get you started, but you'll need to do more if you want a two-way dialogue in German.

I plan on working towards being a diplomat after leaving college, so I take learning languages very seriously. I can only assume I'm the kind of person this course was designed for: there's no english on the cd, you need to follow along w/ the book to make any progress, and there are 40 lessons in the coursebook, which is about 400 pages long. I usually come home from school and spend about 30 minutes to an hour to go over 1 lesson several times until I understand everying in that lesson. Having said that, dont buy this if you just want to learn a few quick phrases in your car, but for someone like me this is a godsend. It takes a long time but it works (I have several german friends and can function perfectly well with them in german). So, to anyone considering this book, I warn you- FOR THE ENTHUSIASTIC LEARNER ONLY!

I've struggled to read this text, since it contains many very recent results distilled into intelligently organized chapters. Unfortunately, even though this book is intended for a savvy audience, the text is often too detailed and technical, while important "big picture" intuition is never relayed. Frequent errors in the algorithms and proofs, ranging from simple subscript swaps to more subtle errors in logic to the (rarer) complete lack of logic make this a difficult book to recommend. In addition, the exercises are frequently too vague (sometimes meaningless) -- this book is definitely not recommended for class work.

I used this book for teaching an under-graduate primer course in distributed computing. The book is readable, coherent, well-structured and very efficient as a textbook. It strikes a good balance between the sea of details and the basic principles. I am familiar with the core of this book since it was a collection of lecture notes (alas, no longer available). It's a pity that some important topics have been omitted from the book version (e.g., Gallager, Humblett, Spira alg). There are some minor errors and imperfections in pseudocodes and exercise definitions which are a little bit annoying. That's why I'm giving this book four points and not five. Bottom line: I would recommend this book as a course textbook.

I bought this thinking I could beef-up my knowledge on DVD-Audio and SACD. This is not what your looking for for in-depth info, its more of a technical engineers manual if anything with hardly any info on DVD-A or SACD with very, very small articles on these topics. I has more charts and technical data on very scientific data that only an engineer can decipher. Its put out by the people at Sony and Philips and gives you the same info that you can get in a tech magazine. Save your money, its not worth it.

Don't expect to learn about small details of songs in this book. It's more focused on learning the overall ideas of song forms, trends, and traditions. Easy to follow layout with outline subjects in the margins.

This book is not one of Goldmine's best issues but for the most part it gets the job done. The listings are many but detailed they are not. The part that bothered me the most was the general price guidelines...for example if you look under an artist and you do not see the album listed it might say in small print the record label and a general price value. It would be more helpful to list more album titles for the artists instead of giving a general price. It was also disappointing that only NM values are given. How many records from the 1950's do you have that are NM?

On a good note I have not seen any other promo guides so I guess it gets the job done more or less.

This is not Les Trois Mousquetaires of Alexandre Dumas; it is "adapted in simple French by R. de Roussy de Sales." It includes marginal notes, usually not on the most challenging vocabulary in the paragraph, and a set of writing exercises in English in the back.

However, this is a good adaptation, if you are looking for something to challenge rusty French skills.

Dumas' characters and action are exciting and compellingly drawn, and the boundary between history and fiction is blurred enough to make Dumas' version the more persuasive.

This is still a terrific story.