Modeling

This book covers e-mail efficiency for Eudora users. It does an excellent job both in covering the topic of overcoming overload and in demonstrating the techniques with examples for Eudora users.

Kaitlin Sherwood's Overcome Email Overload With Eudora 5: Get Through Your Electronic Mail Faster is the ideal "how to" guide for getting the most out of the Eudora 5 email software. Readers will learn how to organize and priortize messages automatically; cut down on junk email and mailing list messages; navigate through your messages quickly; discourage jokes and chain letter emails from friends; get fewer and more meaningful responses to their own emails; reduce the number of follow-up messages; and generally improve a company's email culture and practices. The "user friendly" text is enhanced with a glossary and an index. If you are using Eudora 5, give a careful reading to Kaitlin Sherwood's Overcome Email Overload With Eudora 5 -- it will save you substantial amounts of both time and aggravation!

"Overcome Email Overload with Eudora 5" is by far one of the best books I've read on the Eudora Email client. This book it much more than the "missing manual" to accompany Eudora. It goes beyond the nuts and bolts of the technical features of Eudora to really address HOW one can unlock the true power of this Email program. If Eudora users buy this book what they will get is an easy to follow, quick to read guide that is written from a practical user standpoint rather than an academic or technical one. Ms. Sherwood has taken what is for many people an intimidating subject and presented it in a very friendly, useful format. I highly recommend this book!"

Adam Boettiger
Founder & CEO, Email911.com

Hudson and Fullerton definately come through in their presentation of Active Directory! Their clear and concise approach, drawing from their experience in training and consulting shines through! I am in the process of upgrading the network where I now work from Windows NT and this book is an invaluable resource!

The authors have done a very good jobs of explaining several complex matters. More importantly, the authors have clearly shown that they have trenmendous amount of real-world experiece. It's good to know that we still have some authors like that instead of too many professional writers, who have no real world experience and who just paraphase what M$ says about their product on the online help.

Thanks.

Tam T. Nguyen, MCSE

This book is very helpful if you are planning a Windows 2000 Active Directory design or already have one and need to get the most out of your AD. The authors have organized the book very well making it easy to find the information you need. The book is very useful as a quick reference. Additionally, material is presented in a logical order making it easily readable cover-to-cover if you need a comprehesive understanding of AD.

The authors stress the importance of a solid DNS design and drive home the point just how critical DNS is for good AD operation. There is a good description of forests, trees, and domains as well as much helpful information on planning sites and site replication. The book also goes into detail on printers and scripting.

I found the book very useful for setting up and administering different features of Windows 2000 such as group policy. There are good chapters on Group Policy Architecture and Managing Group Policy.

As an MCSE+Internet certified analyst assigned to the AD design team for a Fortune 500 company, I highly recommend this book. It makes a good operational reference for your bookshelf. Although not geared specifically for Windows 2000 certification tests, it is worth reading if you are preparing for the exams.

No where have I found such informative and correct information on use case modeling, this book can be read from start to finish by the complete newbie and then keep it as a biblical reference whilst working with projects.

I was completely mysified about many aspects of Use Case and now I know when to apply it, and when not to, how to apply it and how not to and if I do not know, I can always refer back to this book!

The forward by Ivar Jacobson assures good content to follow, the introduction to Use Case modeling left me stunned with all the stuff that I did not know or had not considered! The connection to requirements are explained and even help on how to group requirements as well as tracebility from them to the Use Case.

The writing style is something to be admired, something I have taken as the honest truth on how to write proper use case.

If you have many questions about use case left unanswered, this book has them all.

I bought this book after attending a conference where one of the Authors of this book had a presentation. I was so impressed by his presentation that I immediately bought his book. It was well spent money for sure.
This book not only explains what use cases are and how to model them in a very clear and easy to understand way, it also reflects on bad and good practices when writing use cases. I have been writing use cases in several projects and have had a lot of help from this book. I also frequently use the book as a reference when participating in reviews of use cases.
This book is my guide in the early stages of each project when working with use cases.
You can read it quickly and it will give you lots of advise.

Given the many misconceptions in the software community regarding what use cases are, and how to develop and apply them, Bittner and Spence present a clear, pragmatic approach to use cases that focuses on the process of synthesizing use cases rather than simply the analytics of syntax, semantics, and diagrams. More than ample time is devoted to use case structure, syntax, semantics, and style. A significant percentage of the book addresses the process and logistical issues associated with team development of a use case model. Comprehensive process discussions are included regarding discovery of actors and use cases,preparing and conducting a use case workshop, finding use case mentors, building a representative team of stakeholders, reviewing use cases, and applying use cases across the lifecycle.

Chapter 10, Here There Be Dragons, will strike a chord with every experienced use case practitioner. As a consultant that develops and reviews use case models for customers, I found this chapter to be on the money. Bittner and Spence identify many improperly-used modeling techniques that often plague organizations during their initial adoption of use cases. Specifically, the sections regarding overuse of extend, include, and generalization relationships deserves much attention.

The Use Case syntax and semantics presented in Bittner and Spence's book is based on the foundational work developed by Ivar Jacobson. Straightforward and useful examples are presented for all of the use case artifacts discussed in the book. Unlike other use case texts that emphasize use case structure, form, and analytically oriented techniques, this book presents sufficient attention to notational elements and invests significantly more in describing pragmatic activities focused on synthesizing use cases that can be effectively leveraged across the lifecycle.

I have recommended Use Case Modeling to my clients as both an introductory as reference book for any project using use cases. The writing style lends itself to the entire spectrum of stakeholders involved in use case development from end users, architects, project managers, and developers.

If you are currently employing use cases, or are considering applying use cases on a project, this book is a MUST HAVE. It de-mystifies much of the confusion surrounding the practical application of use cases, and should be put on par with the early Object Oriented texts of Booch ,Rumbaugh, and Jacobson.

Don has a terrific ability to teach. I had the good fortune of having him show me the essentials of 3d, while he was working on this book. He was working at News in Motion at the time, which had such a tight schedule that he not only was able to knock out the daily animation, but was also able to explain to me the basics of 3d modelling and animation in the few minutes between processing. He is a true expert in the field, and from his thorough understanding of the subject, is able to simplify some very complicated and confusing concepts. Thanks again, Don, you've been a big help.

This is a great book to get you familiar with the concepts behind 3D modeling and animation for the Macintosh. 3D modeling and animation is growing on the Macintosh because the machines are getting faster and the OS is getting more robust. Now is a great time to start learning the art of creating 3D worlds and animations.

For the complete dummy to concepts in 3D, the full-color illustrations and explanations are top notch. If you're looking to get your feet wet on how 3D is handled by computers this IS the book for you. PC owners can benefit from it also (just disregard the Mac specific concepts located near the end of the book). It covers most of the big concepts found in virtually all 3D applications such as modeling, textures, shadows, lighting, and animation. Seasoned animators will want to look elsewhere unless unless you're in need of filling "holes" in your knowledge of the basics.

Great for advanced students. Easy to understand with thousands of pictures to help guide you through your studies.

I like reading AutoCAD books. I think Shumaker and Madsen are the best authors'. This book guides you through advance designing such as Technical drawings and other information for fast tips.

The one book you'll need to use AutoCAD-14 efficiantly.It makes the task, of learning one of the most difficult programs, manageable. It's the text most used at collage. Get it!!

Schumacker and Lomax make for a good first course in SEM. Although they are somewhat less technical than Bollen (1989), they are a little more up-to-date, and very good reading for a beginning student of SEM. I found the sections on confirmatory factor analysis and identification very useful.

This is a very good book about SEM for the beginners and advanced. The book gives a clear and concise principles and examples about SEM. This book definitely enables the readers clearly understand the subject.

The authors present remarkably the basic principles and concepts underlying SEQ, but also give numerous notions about technical aspects. An Excellent book, even for people who are not very keen on statistical writings.

This is a great book, definitely the best among the various books on geometric design and CAGD (other good ones include Farin, Mortsenson, Piegl and Tiller, Hoscheck and Lasser). It is not as encyclopedic as the sources listed above, but it a lot more coherent and a lot clearer, because it follows the unifying concept of blossoming. As a result, one gets multiple complementary views of polynomial curves and surfaces: algebraic, geometric, combinatorial, and algorithmic. For example, we can see where the Bernstein polynomials come from, instead of mysteriously being dropped from the sky. The systematic use of blossoms (polar forms) is particularly elegant in the presentation of surfaces, where it clarifies greatly the differences between rectangular and triangular patches. The discussion of subdivision versions of the de Casteljau algorithm is very thorough and unique. Gallier's book is also the only book to discuss subdivision surfaces in some detail (Doo-Sabin, Catmull-Clark, and Loop). In particular, an analysis of the convergence of Loop's scheme is given. For this, the author gives a remarkable crash course on the discrete Fourier transform. However, this chapter is too dense and should have been split. Also, much more pictures are needed. It seems that the author was in a rush. The appendix on vector spaces is gorgeous, and the one on differentials is also excellent. This book is highly recommended to mathematically inclined readers interested in geometric modeling and computer graphics. Too bad that applications to medicine such as organ modeling, or to computer animation, are not presented. Nevertheless, Mathematica code is provided for most of the algorithms. A web site would be helpful.

This book is a good review of the concepts of geometry for Modeling. The presentation is original. The mathematical treatment is sound. This a "required reading" for those in Computer Graphics research and did not have a good course in geometry. Those who have had a good course in geometry will appreciate the original style of presentation. This book fills a long felt gap in the treatment of geometry from the perspective of Computer Graphics. The book assumes minimal background in mathematics, and is almost self-contained.

There are fewer graphics programmers who have an adequate understanding of the underlying mathematical concepts. This book can partially help the graphics programmers to cross over to that select group. Problems at the end of each chapter enhance the value of the book. The material is updated with latest developments in the field such as subdivision surfaces.

People interested in Computer Graphics, Geometric Modeling, Computer Vision, and Robotics will benefit from studying this book.

I found this book an exellent introduction to advanced geometry concepts used in computer graphics, vision, robotics, geometric modeling and many other related areas. Gallier has struck a perfect balance between formal mathematical rigour and intuition and readability which the book lends easily with its many beautiful illustrations and examples. The concept of "blossoming" is a rarely-seen but extremely elegant way of presenting the curves and surfaces. This book is a must for anyone who loves the elegance of geometry.

This is a well-written, well-organized guide to the practice of data base administration. Unlike other books on general database theory or relational database theory, this book focuses more directly on the theory and reality of database administration as practiced by database professionals today, and does so without catering too much to any specific product implementation. As such, Database Administration is very well suited to anyone interested in surveying the job of a DBA or those in similar but more specific roles such as data modeler or database performance analyst.

Yet, even with that direct focus on database administration, the author succeeds in covering a great deal of ground and cutting a rather wide swathe across the database spectrum, doing so with rigor and expertise and the benefit of experience. While the book will not and is not intended to serve as a reference substitute for product documentation, it will nonetheless enhance your knowledge, and I find it of such quality and utility that I recommend it to anyone in the database field in general. Consider it a base text to serve alongside Date and Codd.

Among the nice touches, the author includes discussion of database denormalization, often missing in discussions on database design. Chapters end with both a set of review questions and a Suggested Reading section, and I find myself in agreement with most of the suggestions. An excellent Bibliography section follows the text. I would have liked to see some discussion of the difference between relational domains in theory and their implementation in practice, particularly as it impacts the design of integrity constraints. Even so, Database Administration is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.

- Sal Ricciardi

1.This is one of very few titles on general database administration. Most other similar books focus on particular DBMS products.
2.It has a very comprehensive and broad coverage on the subject. The table of contents speaks for itself. Due to its extensiveness, the coverage by and large stays at the strategic and conceptual level, which serves its purpose very well.
3.It compares features of major database products on handling similar jobs.
4.The author clearly has extensive real life DBA experience with different DBMS products and has shared that with a very easy to understand language.
5.It has good resource links.
6.This book would be a great introduction and reference to those who are not only interested in a particular DBMS product but would also like to have a holistic view of database administration.
7.Finally the book has 660 pages before the index rather than 352 pages as stated on this site.

This book has three things going for it:
(1) It describes the DBA function as it exists in the real world. More importantly, it breaks the categories of "DBA" out into specialities, such as system DBA, data architect, analysts and modelers, developers and data warehouse DBAs - each speciality is vastly different in practice - and provides skill profiles and roles and responsibilities for each.

(2) Proposes an organizational structure in which all DBAs, regardless of database (DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, etc.) and skill. As a consultant who specializes in IT organizational management and processes I heartily endorse this structure. It's also consistent with recommendations made in "IT Organization: Building A Worldclass Infrastructure " by Harris Kern, Stuart Galup and Guy Nemiro, and "Building Operational Excellence: Strategies to Improve It People and Processes" by Dale Kutnick and Bruce Allen.

(3) A complete and comprehensive listing of tasks and responsibilities for DBAs, ranging from creating the database environment to data warehouse administration, and everything in between (data modelling, performance and capacity management, tuning, back-up and recovery, etc.)

While achieving the recommendations for organizational structure is a daunting and complex task, assimilating the extensive list of tasks and recommendations can be accomplished quickly. One way to attain immediate value from this book at the organizational level is to derive database administration policies and processes from this book, and refer to this book for the procedures.

The ideal audience for this book includes IT managers who need to understand the complexity and scope of the DBA function under their cognizance, senior DBAs who want to implement consistent procedures, and HR specialists who develop job descriptions and recruit DBAs.

I liked this book from the start because it explains how to start up a database from scratch to finalization and with great detail. 426 pages of good information for the amateur or pro. Comes with a CD full of examples and sql scripts to use and two full length, coded example databases.

The authors have probably done a favour to the database designer community with this book. Wonder why nobody thought about a book of this kind before. There are numerous books on generic DBMS but very few on Database Design. The book is equally useful for managers and developers. The examples are superb and have been thoughtfully presented and analysed.

Also the fact that the authors decided to use UML as the data modeling notation instead of traditional notations makes this book more "in tune with times" and "practically applicable" in a software development environment.

This book strikes just the right balance between theoretic rigour and practical examples/advice. The book defines an explicit, multi-step methodology, covering everything from requirements analysis, to logical modeling, to physical implementation, then shows how the methodology can be used in two involved, yet accessible, practice cases. The authors also sensibly show how this is implemented in common DBMSs (Access and Oracle).

If that wasn't worthwhile enough, the book contains two superb appendixes: one shows alternative modelling notations, the other provides diagrams and tables for 15 common data models. These in particular are an excellent idea -- I'm surprised more database design books don't provide them.

At any rate, this is the one database design book that I tend to recommend to my students. For students who are finding the formal computer science database design textbook too abstract, this book is a good counterweight; for students who need a single overview of database design, this book too is a great choice.

Very readable and highly useful book. One major hit. It is ironic that the author complains about the symbols in other books. For queueing he invents his own, instead of sticking with standard practices. This is very fustrating to readers that have other books on queueing and need to compare.

Although this book's full value will be realized if you understand the C programming language (he uses source code it illustrate points throughout the book and provides a C library for performance analysis on the accompanying disk), anyone with good math skills will gain much from this outstanding book.

The core approach is Performance By Design, which is aligned to product development. His approach, if used properly, will ensure that performance goals are established in the design phase, and are met as a system or software evolves through the development life cycle.

Highlights of the book are:
(1) Through introduction to the foundation of performance: queuing, parallelism and multiprocessor systems.
(2) Coverage of contemporary issues, such as client/server and web system performance,
(3) Unexpected forays into performance characteristics and considerations that I've encountered in no other book. For example, Part 3 of this book addresses subtle issues such as transient analysis, scaling behavior and similar topics. Here the author integrates theoretical physics into performance analysis - while this may seem odd, it only reinforces that much can be added to the performance analysis body of knowledge by drawing from sources outside of computer science. His qualifications for this material includes a Ph.D in theoretical physics, and his ability to clearly explain concepts that are foreign to the average computer scientist or performance practitioner is excellent.

I like the conversation style that the author employs, the way he starts with the basics and builds upon them and the thoroughness in which all aspects of performance are discussed. More importantly, although advanced math concepts are introduced the way they are presented can be understood by anyone with high school or college freshman knowledge of probability and calculus.

If understanding and managing computer systems performance is in your job description and you can only buy two books, this is one of the two (the other is Raj Jain's, "The Art of Computer Systems Performance..."). Neil Gunther's book is not just another tome on queueing theory. Immediately useful methods and formulas are presented in the context of real problems. The two chapters on instability in systems and scaling of multiprocessor systems alone make the book worth its price. Readers need to know that there is some math in the book (there is just no escaping it) and that some of the cited vendor products are becoming dated. The Web site associated with the book contains many items of current interest, an errata sheet correcting minor errors in the book, and downloadable programs related to performance evaluation.