Modeling

This book doesn't even mention UML. It may be good if you want to use author's modeling.

First, remember that this book was published in 1994 - it was probably written in the 1992-3 era. The OO design world was still in the "warring states" period before unification under UML. The company that created ROOM tools, if I understand correctly, was absorbed by another company that was absorbed by another company - I'm not sure how much of ROOM in its pure form is still left.

That doesn't matter. In its time, ROOM was wild, innovative, and a topic of heated debate. It created a visual, highly abstracted language (back then, a questionable novelty) around an intensely parallelized model of computing (also a questionable novelty), at a time when "real-time" often meant lots of assembly programming in command-line environments. I was doing embedded development back about then - based on the mind-set of the time, I'm surprised that ROOM had the success and influence that it did.

Surprised but pleased. Lots of the ROOM techniques and notations survive in UML and other development tools. Modern component programming environments, JavaBeans included, show many signs of direct descent from the ROOM techniques. Still, there's a long way to go. ROOM may have been way ahead of its time, and languages still haven't caught up fully to its models of communication and parallelism.

As impressive an achievement as ROOM was (and is), I have some reservations about it. It relies pretty heavily of state machines for modelling the interacting components. State machines are a good tool, but quite unfamiliar to most software developers these days. I'm not sure whether that's a fault of the methodology or of today's programmers. I also have reservations about any methodology that requires me to buy someone's tools. The authors state that the design methodology can be used without their tools - based on ROOM's complexity, I doubt it. Also, I have a serious distrust of any programming environment that takes over so much of the process. Such tool sets tend to leave me feeling cramped, with little way to express my ideas in different terms. Finally, I'm sure it does all it says it does. Even so, the moment always comes when the tool-generated subsystems need to be opened up for debugging, or when the system has to be open to interaction with other development tools. Real-time and embedded systems tend to be so idiosyncratic and demanding that both kinds of openness in an IDE are compulsory. I just don't see the way out of the closed ROOM.

My present interest is not so much in the ROOM methodology itself, although I'm interested in methodology in general. Instead, I'm studying the visual notation it developed for expressing complex computations. Whatever ROOM's faults and whatever its later history, it's still worth attention.

The eminently practical, usable, powerful, elegant and - once understood - simple concepts behind ROOM deserve the broadest audience amongst real-time and even non-real-time developers. It has been a couple of years since I cracked the cover and I recall the reading being dry. Nonetheless, if you are considering a move to Rational Rose RealTime as a development tool (into which ObjecTime evolved), then this book is truly helpful as a reference for the modeling concepts. The example used throughout is simple enough that it is easy to grasp allowing you to dedicate your time to conceptual understanding rather than getting your head around some obtuse example. At the same time, the example is a natural vehicle for the inclusion of advanced concepts as each is intoduced.

The concepts of ROOM are finding/have found their way into the UML and the "it's not UML" darts of years ago are a little tired at this juncture.

ROOM is brilliant.

(from a former ObjecTime/Rational type though with no association for a few years)

I was disappointed after reading 3 chapters of this book. Leafing forward, the book is saturated with SAS examples that I not only cannot understand but do not care about. It seems the whole book was written just to promote the (sold separately)...CD ROM with source SAS code. If you are going to write a SAS book, label it as such.

I have been doing SAS for 11 years. So the SAS code does not bother me.

The best value of this book is that it is very practical; as the title suggests, it is a cookbook. I finished reading about 200 pages in 4 hours and I reviewed it many times when writing SAS coding. If you have deep engineering background, you probably will look for more to dig into after finishing the book. If you are statistical, this is not a book that teachs you how to be rigorous. It is not a book for academidians in any way.

I would rename the title as Data Mining cookbook using SAS software if I can; I concur that the book's value is decisively discounted if the reader does not know SAS software. I, on the other hand, do recommend SAS as a good DM tool.

Logistic Regression From A - Z! This book has it all.

The author lays out clear, concise methodologies to build robust predictive models using SAS. The nice thing is this book lays out the process step by step with SAS code examples. You do not have to be a statistics major to understand how to use the built in SAS functionality.

The modeling methods are unbelievably detailed including topics like defining the objective function, testing variables for predictability using chi squared, fitting continuous variables using the most linear variable transformation format (squared, cubed, cubed root, log, exponent, tangent, sine, cosine, etc... 19 total formats), changing categorical variables to continuous indicator variables for logistic regression use, using stepwise, backward, and score regression methods to further eliminate less predictive variables, defining deciles, and model testing methods like bootstrapping, jackknifing and gains tables to validate the model.

I do not fully understand the mathematical concepts involved throughout the entire process nor do I want to. The book provides a consistent repeatable programming methodology to follow that is broken down into very quantifiable steps.

I would recommend this book for anyone with limited statistical knowledge and a need to understand predictive modeling programming methodologies. Knowledge of the SAS programming language is essential to make full use of this material. The book uses real life examples from the banking, insurance, and marketing industries and contains additional valuable information related to these fields.

It appears there are two sets of reviews for this book, some for an earlier paperback version. The 2nd release is actually pretty good. The overall layout, organization and graphics are well done and the content is quite thorough. The authors go beyond what is needed for the exam hence my belief that you can use this book for general reference. The book can be a little wordy but with a topic like subnetting, you have no choice. This book goes beyond your basic study guide so if that's all you're looking for, it may be much. Overall a good job!

I used this book as my primary study guide for the TCP/IP exam. Just as most of the other New Riders training guides I used, this book is concise, accurate most of time, and well-organized around the exam objectives. The screen shots are very detailed. Unlike the lame end-of-chapter "exam questions" in other New Riders guides, this book features "exam questions" that mimic the real exam questions much closer - well, not those "best solution" type of questions, though.

I think the best-written chapters are those for subnetting and troubleshooting. Think you've mastered subnetting after reading the chapter (and Exam Cram's subnetting chapter, too)? Try the exercises at the end of the chapter. It's very unlikely that you don't understand the concept thoroughly after those exercises.

If you want to pass the TCP/IP exam to get your MCSE, just study this book and you'll be fine. Written very well, I'm very impressed.

This book is for Rhinoceros Release 2.0 however the current version of Rhino is 3.0. This might sound like a minor detail but a lot of the illustrations in the book will not match what is showing on your screen which makes learning frustrating.

100% a great book for beginner to start how to use Rhinoceros Version 2.0
This is the best book with a lot of pratical example,picture & very detail instruction.
It will be great tht if Mr.Ron K. C. Cheng can write the version 3.0 in future with a hard cover book.
Thank you !!!

Being a person who does alot of self studying (All Technical materials from networking to 3d)I would say this is one of the best books I've ever read. The explenation matches step by step to the excersizes given to practice. I've finished the book once and will try it one more time because of the volume of the info that has been explained in the book. There are very minor misstakes where a step or two have been droped by the author and makes the reader a little confuse ( the result of the excersize will not match the one in the book). But I have not seen or read any other book without those small misstakes.
Good Job Mr. Cheng.

This book is turgid and poorly written. I could not manage to get more than 1/2 way through the text as the concepts are poorly explained and the use of UML is surprisingly bad.

To summarise:

Poor use of UML
Concepts and ideas badly explained.
Difficult to read.

A colleague (an oracle DBA) did not even manage to get as far as I did before giving up!

I would recommend this book. I have experience with database design (ORACLE) but object oriented design was more a mystery for me. Mr. Muller showed me that there is only a little step from entity-relationship modelling to modelling with UML. UML design also solves a lot of database design problems like reaching a 3rd (or higher) normal form. Another plus of this book is his in depth tutorial to apply the technics of UML to a relational database, to a object-relational and a object oriented database. Examples are for oracle databases and POET ODL for an object oriented database.

Excellent intermediate text, but you should know at least the basic Universal Modeling Language symbols and have some knowledge of database architectures.
I read it when I'd been programming Oracle for a few months and wanted to learn UML as well as more about db design. What a deal, the same two topics in one book!
I came away with a deeper, and useful, understanding of both the structure of databases, and some practical uses for UML.

This book has several serious problems.

The most glaring is that a significant number of the examples are coded in the "Renderman shading language". This language serves, in this book, to hide detail, detail specifically related to producing textures. Of course, if you know the language, you're fine - but most won't know the language and so this is a grievous error.

By way of welcome contrast, other examples in this same book are instead presented as C code fragments or functions. That's just the ticket - using a broadly known, freely available, relatively low-level language with no recourse to unknown hidden graphics functionality is precisely the way to go when explaining ideas in the domain of those this book is intended to convey.

The second problem is one of content. While being concise to the level of a math text is not desirable, this book contains a very sparse field of useful information considering the number of pages. The margins are too wide, the text too large, the form factor of the book too small, and the authors too wordy to possibly convey a good basis for texturing in general - it is a broad and fascinating field, touched only in the briefest and most unsatisfying manner by this book.

I do take issue with the reviewer who complained about the exposition on how to make a brick texture; that area of the text, while it may be already quite familiar to many who are interested in texturing, contains precisely the level of detail that needs to pervade a book of this type, and detail about steps that underly critical basic texturing ideas. Without understanding those basic texturing tools, a novice misses the first step on the stairs and fall on their face. The problem is, this approach is not consistent for more complex ideas in this volume, few as those actually are.

The book is entitled "Texturing and Modeling". While there is a moderate amount of texturing information in it, whatever you do, don't get it if modeling is your goal. It is very nearly devoid of modeling information, and what there is (smoke, a planet simulation, a few other items) is very basic indeed.

Finally, as a general critique, the authors (all of them) need to learn the basic idea that when presenting a function in any language to a new audience, one should precisely define the domain (and rationale) of the inputs and outputs of the function. As an example, one might encode the function for Perlin noise, and have no idea whatsoever as to what values to feed it to get particular types of results. For those of us who can read and understand what the function is actually doing (which is esoteric, make no mistake about it) the answers will eventually be illuminated by careful study of the function. However, this is very advanced material, and I am absolutely certain that many readers will be unable to figure out how to effectively use this function without a great deal of trial and error. You can also read that as "wasting a great deal of their time." That is because they won't be learning anything that could not have been conveyed by the author(s) in a single short paragraph of domain information.

In summary:

The 2 stars is because I didn't think this was a very good book. On the other hand, it is one of the very few books that deals with the subject at all, and for that reason, you should definitely own it if textures are an interest of yours.

If you're newly interested in textures, this will give you a basis for further exploration. It won't give you a cookbook by any means.

If you're looking for cookbook and "how to" approaches, get on the web and the newsgroups.

Finally, if you're considering writing a good book about creating textures, by all means, please do. The world needs a good one: this most definitely isn't it. I'd be delighted to be one of the first owners of your new book.

This book covers all of the CG aspects needed to code material and texture applications. Many commercial CG softwares are using the essential theory and practice given in this book. This book seems as if the compilation of the best Siggraph papers of the pionering researchers of the subject.

If you need to learn the procedural textures and materials: this is THE book.

The only reason I am writing this review, is because of all the negative reviews previously posted.

I really find it irrational to complain for the content of the book claiming that it is poor or incomplete, just because it does not cover everything about the subject. This is a broad field and many topics might be too advanced ot too specific to be covered, it does provide however a lot of references for anyone interested in further reading. I strongly believe that this book is a lot more than an introductory, with straighforward explanations to several advanced topics and many well documented examples. I also like the "wordy" approach that some of the authors use for advanced topics, which makes the text a lot more comprehensible regardless of the reader being mathematically inclined or not.

And I also have to mention that all previous posts refer to earlier editions, so many information are not valid anymore (e.g. there is a thorough desctiption of Worley's cellular texturing in the third edition).

Concerning all this moaning for the high price, I think it's totally unfair, as besides anything else it is of exceptional print quality (great paper, full color, etc). I personally consider this book one of the most valuable that I have ever had, so it wouldn't matter to me even if it was a lot more expensive.

I was not impressed with the lack of real information. I could have gotten more information by talking to a model for 10 min.

Solid, but by no means detailed book of the modeling industry. I read this book in one day. The font is pretty big and a lot of the advice can be very vague at times. I highly recommend you look into Roshumba Williams book regarding modeling. It's fantastic, and a much better book. I'm a famous male model, and I learned it all from reading Roshumba's book.

I have been modeling for almost three years now; I wish I had read this book when I first started out! It does cover the business pretty well: how to get started, how to pick up speed and get ahead of the competition, etc. Very detailed advice on things YOU NEED TO KNOW, including what is expected from you by agencies and photograpers. I would especially recommend this book to all the aspiring models and New Faces out there!! Just remember that if you want to model, look up a few agencies and contact them TODAY! Never put off something so important that it can change your life forever!

I thought this book was completely lacking in what should have been it's primary focus: teaching the constructs and methodology of coding in VHDL, specifically for synthesizable hardware descriptions. The only thing the author did succeed in doing regularly was regurgitating VHDL syntax and standard packages while including pages and pages of code that was extremely poorly explained.

I had already learned Verilog so I am comfortable with what an HDL looks like and I could basically follow what Chang was trying to convey in his code, but not once did I feel that he adequately explain the mechanics or reasoning behind any of his code. The entire book used poor English, and clearly was not proof-read thoroughly by a competent editor. Here is an example passage picked at random:

"The latch enable signal LATCH_EN is generated as follows. A signal FRAMEn_DELAY is generated by delaying FRAMEn by one clock cycle using an inferred D-type flipflop, as shown in lines 22 to 29. LATCH_EN is obtained in line 30."

That's wonderful. This "explanation" is completely useless. It says nothing that isn't already apparent from the code listing. No further explanation is given as to what LATCH_EN is doing, why it's needed, etc. This example is par for the course. Furthermore, NOT A SINGLE COMMENT EXISTS IN ANY CODE LISTING, except when comment syntax is explained or as just a section separator.

I found this book completely inadequate for learning VHDL as a first HDL. If I hadn't already known Verilog, I would have to buy another book to get any insight into anything other than syntax and standard packages, but the use of English was so shaky and distracting that I wouldn't even recommend the book for that purpose. Almost anything would be better than this. Try "A VHDL Primer" or "A VHDL Synthesis Primer" from Bhasker. He wrote clear and concise Verilog books (of the same titles) and I'm sure he would not disappoint.

I agree with previous author that this book is not for beginner and the intention of this book is not for beginner. I will recommend that a beginner read other VHDL books and get familiar with VHDL then read "VHDL - Coding and Logic Synthesis with Synopsys" by Weng Fook Lee and then this book if you want to go into logic synthesis.

The weakness of this book is that it is a little verbose and some of the sentences are not clear. Also the typesetting is not as good as other books, but considering all those great content (and thick too) along with a cheap price, it is an excellent book!

The book organization is unique in that the codes are all complete from beginning to end with line numbers. The author explains the relevant codes line by line. However, as the book progresses, he explains less details of the codes. Another unique feature (the best feature) is that every code comes with synthesized circuits along with synthesis commands of how to optimize for different goals (i.e. best timing or best area). The practical examples are real life examples (i.e. microprocessor, FIFO, FIR filter, DRAM etc.) The reader will also get design fundamentals of the above examples. Overall, an excellent book!

This book requires that you can already work with FormZ and seems to be intended for people who are using FormZ to create models to be animated with 3DS or Electric Image. FormZ was at version 3 when this book was written (1999). The approach seems to be that of a person who makes a living building models destined for an animation production environment.

The book starts with a heady discussion called "Digital Production Pipeline and 3D Modeling Process" and continues in the vein of managing workflow for several chapters.

It then progresses to chapters containing "Exercises" which are follow along tutorial-style and include such things as engine exhaust nozzles, auto wheels and tires, auto interiors, and a human hand. The exercises show lots of techniques for using FormZ to its fullest, particularly when modeling surface meshes.

Rindner has done a spendid job with this advanced book on formZ. He offers valuable process methods, advanced modeling descriptions through real world examples and how to prepare formZ for standard Animation apps. Rinders' modeling techniques alone are invaluable to the intermediate to advanced formZ user. What impresses me most about the book is that it is not just for digital visual effects and animation. Many design disciplines will find this book to be a strong technical resources.

Finally your FZ book arrived this morning. What can I say except 'thankyou' for writing this book. I think it's the only one in the market that reveals such advanced techniques for modelling. Truly your hard-earned career experience is shared here without reservations. I could not accept FZ's claim that 'Anything you can imagine can be modelled in FZ' before, but now after seeing your working techniques, I can. My eyes are opened. Instead of simple examples that rehash the User's manual, this book's examples are quite complex, typical of real-world requirements. Learning the techniques from the Automobile chapters alone will enable one to use the concepts presented there to build any other model thereafter. Cons? Maybe absolute beginners will find this book a bit daunting, but it's stuff that every beginner must learn to progress.

This book is chocked full of great examples. The sample code alone is a VERY usefull and worth the money that the book costs.
It's for the beginning and intermediate Flash and ADO.NET person alike. It even goes into to detail about setting up your program and application delivery envoirnment. Very complete resource.

The complaints I see from other reviewers shows me their limited knoweledge of Flash, .NET, and Action Scripting and it's use it the real world. I have a hard time believing any of them read this book. I believe they are here promoting their own agenda.

I found this book very useful. It shows how to make the connection between flash and databases. Contrary to a couple of the reviews, I was able to use their example with SQL Server 2000 and ASP.Net. It showed me how to integrate flash easily into my user interface.

My only gripe with the book is that it seems they cover to many technologies (ASP, ASP.net, Access, SQL). I can kind of understand why they did that, but I would have like more depth on my technologies.

I understood Flash and vb.net, but I never really could grasp how to put the two together. I really like the way this book shows me how. It's easy to understand, but not so remedial that I didn't learn. Awesome examples also.
Great Job.