Modeling

I have just browsed through "Basics of Structural Equation Modeling." Quite frankly, I am very disappointed. The title implies the book is concerned with SEM; however, SEM is actually addressed from Chapter 8 on, as explicitly stated by the author in the first paragraph on page 178: "This chapter presents the basics of latent variable SEM." Pages 29-173 (61% of the book) is spent addressing path analysis, with one chapter addressing factor analysis. Pages 177-270 (39% of the book) is spent addressing SEM. If I had wanted to buy a book on path analysis, I would have bought a book on path analysis!

I'm a doctoral student in a longitudinal data analysis class and have really appreciated this book. I don't have the extensive stats background of some of my peers, and this book is very helpful as it explains matrix algebra, latent variable SEM etc. in a way I can understand. If you are struggling with reading the "classics" in this field, you want this book. (Of course, you do need some background in stats...at least thru multiple regression. It doesn't make SEM so easy that you don't need that!)

I'm working on my Ph.D. using SEM. This book was very, very helpful. In fact out of about 20 books that I used, this was the most simple and easy to understand.

Buy it!

I was excited to see this book when it first came out. Read it the same day and had mixed thoughts. It is useful if you have never made a mold... but helpless if you have moderate to high experience. It is visually layed out better than anything else out there... and I keep it on the shelf for student reference. If you teach ceramics, keep it around. If you are seeking to learn mold making...it is just one of many books that you will need to peice together the real information that you will need to be a confident mold maker.

Michael Joy
chicagomoldschool.com

This well thought out guide gets right to work explaining in clear, concise steps how to construct various types of clay molds. From basic one-piece molds to complex multi-piece molds, Clayton describes their design, construction, and infinite utility. The book is loaded with excellent color and black and white photographs. Some depict the tools and process. Others show a magnificent sampling of finished products. This guide can take the average pot-throwers hobby to the next level. Makes a pretty decent coffee table book too. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.

Author Pierce Clayton and Editor Chris Rich have assembled instructions, guidelines and black/white assembly illustrations to make both plaster and rubber molds. Eye appeal in the form of dashingly colorful photos of ceramics of many accomplished artists is also included. His easy-to-follow instructions and pictures have answered every question I had about making plaster molds. I do have one suggestion: trying to keep your copy clean with a plastic book cover might be a good idea!

This is the worst DB design book that I've come across. The first few chapters is supposed to 'guide' you through the db design process, but the example is too lengthy and not to the point. The concepts that is to be explained is illustrated by contrived(using the author's own word) examples. Explanation is confusing. Luckily, I got this from a library and nothing to lose

I'm glad I took a chance on this book...it was well worth it! The author's clear, concise writing style is accessible to novices, yet provides a knowledgeable overview of data modeling. The book navigates you through the finer points of the process, deconstructing the design steps in easy-to-understand language. Highly recommended!

I found this book to be very useful in guiding me through some fundamental data modeling principals. Easy to use, very concise. Good reference tool.

I guess everybody's an expert, but I found the hair and make-up techniques recommended in this book silly and outdated. Models today wear no make-up (maybe moisturizer or lip balm)to castings unless they're coming directly from a booking. Ditto for hair-'do's. The book could have addressed skin care and healthy lifestyle for today's young people rather than touting superficial strategies from the 'experts'. Do you want to know how to become a model or how to get a date?

This book is quite useful for anyone who knows very little about the modeling industry, and wants to know exactly what to expect if they decide to persue modeling, as either a hobby or a career. This book is extremely thorough, answering any questions you may have about the modeling industry. It even gives names and addresses of popular modeling agencies around the world!!! The make-up tips were somewhat useful, as well. After reading this book, I had the confidence to send my portfolio to a local agency. I have been in 5 print advertising ads and 2 television commercials here in Detroit. I am so greatful I read this book!!!

My wife and I have been in the modeling business for over 15 years and have started thousdands of models and actors. Marie's book is one that we suggest to all our aspiring talent. It is a great overview of the industry!

This book concentrates both in text and photographs, on runway modeling. Generally, runway models (outside small towns) are models who have already 'made it' in print modeling (editorial and advertising). This book is sorely lacking in the fundamentals of modeling -- like finding out where you fit and where your potential lies.

I think this book can help me a lot for what i want to do in my career because i had always wanted to be a model. People always say that i should be a model because of my body and beauty i really want to get into a school of modeling but i dont know which one i cant find one right now i'm 16 yrs old and i want to start now. So i wish to order that book to know whats up in modeling.
Thank You

Because I am in New york I have a lot of chances to get into the modeling world. Finally I have a good guide to help me get started. I especially love the runway photos which are exciting and very well done. This is a great book.

extremely bad book. In other words complete waste. I am a cs major and this book was an option for the course. There are so many topics presented in this tiny book and none of the chapters cover particular topic nowhere near as they should. If You are a begginer or a professional this book shouldn't be on Your shelf. It is a waste of money, and even the paper that is written on. I am surprised that a publisher can put something like this out. I guess that is why the author who is originaly from Windsor, Ont would go German based publisher.

This book is a must have for university students....it is a good reference material and the concepts are very clear. teaching data structures in java is as important as in c++... again a must have.....who ever doesnt get his concept clear after reading this book must change his field .....
a must have book

Book for programmers who know Java language well, but still find themselves weak in using it for different data structures. Sound coverage though some may consider incomplete. Easy reading and scientific in look and feel.

Everyone seems to be trying to capitalize on celebrity these days, why should a model be any different? But rather than spill her heart out in juicy tell all, Campbell, obviously figuring there were not enough photographs of her in circulation, toots her own horn in this sappy, silly exercise in narcissism by publishing "never-before-seen photographs" of--who else?--herself! There is Naomi in Thailand, Naomi sans make up, Naomi with family. By the time we read about Naomi's friendship with Nelson Mandela (captioned, of course, under a photo of the two together--who says supermodels have no conscience?) we appreciate why these photos have never been seen before, and further, why they should never be seen again.

By putting this book together with taste and great fun, N. demonstrates she is a brainy & nice lady. She also seems to be such a prima donna (in the best sense of the expression, really, that is deserving it) that she defies the more mundane categories of talent & beauty -- she really creates herself with determination &, I think, a huge dose of humor. This book is as pleasant an experience to read/look at than looking from time to time at a favorite painting on the wall of a museum. I don't think it will ever age and that it can illuminate an otherwise dull day.

All the pictures are of high quality.The layout is great. There is also an interview with Naomi.A book you would treasure for years.

I was very excited to read this book and I was highly disappointed. The content was great but the editor and author needs to be slapped. The layout was ridiculously confusing, the chapters had no flow, pictures didn't correspond with the stories, some of the interviews bordered on the foolish, etc.... The was a two paragraph mention about black male models. what about children models? What about the effects of we are portrayed in advertisements through history? Where is the history? A chronological timeline? I've read articles in white mags about black models that gave more information that this book. Don't buy it.

The author has spent admirable energy collecting images, interviews, and historical data. But she has been ill-served by her editor and publisher. The text and images are made incoherent by not having been shaped, as if the author's note cards had spilled on to the page in no particular order (a simple chronological narrative might have been best). Sadly, the result is a book about beauty that is not beautiful. The publisher seems not to have hired a book designer; the images neither flow esthetically nor relate integrally to the text. Even the index shows lack of care for the material, with the font unadjusted to distinguish between pages with images and those containing only text. Black beauty deserves better than this. And yet, since this is the only book of its kind, it is still worth buying... It is a joy to see these fantastic women all in one place. Kudos to Barbara Summers for introducing them to each other and to us.

This is a first and the most compelling, comprehensive and enligtening book on the subject. I applaud the author and publisher for their vision, tenacity and courage. A must for every library. Kudos!!

While I have to agree with some earlier reviews that criticize the book for not being a complete reference, I found it far more useful than the LogicWorks/Platinum manuals as a guide to getting started and developing an intelligent approach to getting work done using ERwin. Ms. De Angelis has a clear writing style and does not hesitate to tell the reader how she thinks things should be done. She spends a good bit of time in explaining the fundamentals of data modeling, which is appropriate and useful for the book's intended audience. Not expensive, and probably a good investment for someone trying to get up to speed or who has used the product for a while and would like some guidance in how to use it more effectively.

Considering the thousands you'll spend on data modeling tools and the tens of thousands on salaries, you can't go too far wrong by spending...on a book about a data modeling tool.

"Data Modeling with Erwin" is a hybrid between a data modeling text and one of those "MS-Word for Dummies" books which shows all the dialog boxes in an application and explains what they mean. It does a fine job in both explaining data modeling as well as walking through the Erwin's features.

That said, I was hoping for much more "real world" tips and techniques from this book, i.e. more practice to supplement the theory. Specifically, I would have been interested in best practices for use of "subject areas," and "stored displays." Is there a defacto standard on these things? Also, I would have been interested in some simple guidelines for keeping your model (i.e. the main subject area) "clean looking" when your application has 100+ tables and more relationships. Another example: the "Reverse Engineering" section could use some guidelines on importing a model from a database (e.g Oracle) into Erwin for subsequent development. Things you should do, avoid, etc.

Again, this book might be helpful in the long run. I don't know how it measures up with the Erwin documentation. For me, however, I'll need to pick the hive-mind of the newsgroups for more "real world" advice.

p.s. This book also has one too many references such as "Claude Frankenstein, in his book *IE for a New Tomorrow* defines an entity as..." It gets a bit old after a while.

p.p.s This book lacks a 'lay-flat' binding, so it's hard to read on your desktop while you're eating lunch.

ERwin users finally have an independent text to use in addition to application documentation.

The work's introduction does a clear job of defining the target audience: "_Data Modeling with ERwin_ is intended for use by novice modelers who are interested in producing quality logical and physical data models using ERwin."

...and it does a good job on the logical side, along with providing a good walkthough of ERwin, specificly ERwin version 3.5.x. Concepts presented are what I would call generaly accepted practices - many organizations follow them with successful results. There are plenty of screenshots of ERwin, as well as data model examples...and it *doesn't* use the common video store sample data model.

Part I, Modeling Concepts, includes a high-level overview of a systems development methdology, albeit of the waterfall approach that is not as popular today. It also covers normalization, a topic that I believe is premature at this point of the work. This overview draws heavily on works by Chen, Finkelstein, and Date.

This text includes Best Practices, Tips, and basic functionality of ERwin. It does not address any workarounds for known problems, which I find to be its greatest weakness. However, if you are new to ERwin the Best Practices, Tips, and Cautions will be a valuable and timesaving resource.

This book is primarily a Logical Data Modelling resource, but it does cover Physical Data Modelling from the ERwin point of view. Only 89 of the 384 pages of the work are devoted to Physical Modelling.

If you are new to data modelling as well as ERwin, you will need additional resources on data modelling to support your new skillset. If you are looking for a resource for managing physical data models and databases, you'll have to rely on ERwin documentation and resources such as the ERwin Users Discussion Group.

If you are an experienced data modeller or ERwin user, this book might not add value to your reading....but it would be great to have around as a resource for others: developers working to understand modelling, DBAs who are looking to understand logical data modelling, and project managers wanting to understand why this modelling stuff is taking so long....[g].

This book makes a better door stop, than a academic text book. Having taken the classes at PSU I know this book front to back. The dosent really explain the subjects well, the book as a whole lacks focus. The first half of the book is horribly written, and abismal when actually compated to a discrete mathmatics, and/or group theory book. So much so there is a bit of a running joke about it in the math department. I would recomend to any CS student to avoid the text book and study from a regular math book instead.

I've taught from this text for 8 years. The excellent students have no problem with it. The average students complain that it is hard to understand. I don't think any text covering these topics could be easier to understand, actually.

There are plenty of examples in the text. However, the exercises tend to be significantly more complex than the examples. The answers to many exercises are in the back of the book, which is a great help to students.

This is an excellent book! Easy to read and understand. I am an "A" student, at Portland State University and I think that people who wrote bad reviewes of this book did not read the book (just like they might read every 50th page of any other book). Bill Gates once said that every person is born to be able to understand only up to a certain level of abstraction. Just like some of us are born to be able to lift 500 lbs. and some only 50 lbs. In addition, a person has to have some background to be able to understand more advanced topics. The book is most excellent.