Modeling

The book rehashes familiar material involving estimation.
Unfortunately, no attempt is made to accompany this with
either error or sensitivity analysis. Thus the "conclusions"
drawn are so loose they may well not even be correct to a
single significant figure.
On top of this the steady stream of biblical quotes is
offputting and ungermane. Add to this a mind boggling
infelicity to begin chapter two and you have a real mess.
In terms of technique the author commits the beginner's

mistake of using 'd' for a parameter inside calculus
problems thus making it impossible to distinguish between
multiplication and differentiation.
Readers interested in a far superior treatment may wish to
look at "The Parsimonious Universe" by Tromba & Hildebrandt.

For those of us who admire nature and see it as a product of processes both beautiful and rational, Adam's book is the perfect bedside long-termer for anyone more than casually interested in math or the intricate patterns in nature.

This book is chock full of ponderous examples of mathematical simplicity and complexity in nature, and reading it I was constantly reading only one topic and then putting the book down for days to think about and tinker with the question myself.

Good pictures, solid math (I prefer clean, modelistic equations to numerical approximations anyday), and a charming, conversational writing style make this book highly readable and highly inspiring in the way it makes you reexamine your perception of nature as unintegrated or inelegant. The very repetition of mathematical themes throughout nature - such as the omnipresent Golden Ration - proves otherwise.

For me, this is staying on my "constantly referenced" shelf.

I disagree strongly with the previous reviewer. The book is well presented, with some lovely photos, and is nicely produced and attractive. The actual content of the book is equally good. Some of the material is familiar, but the author always seems to take a good fresh look at these topics so I still enjoyed them. There was some new material too, which I particularly enjoyed. This is an excellent book, and I hope that the negative review on Amazon will not discourage potential readers from buying a copy.

One of the worst technical books I read recently. Among plenty of stupid, badly written sentences just one thing: I never found in the book a well wrriten definition - the author tends to define "unknown by unknown" from the first page of the book. If you are new to the subject the book will frustrate you. If you are already familiar with AD poor organization and style will frustrate you as well.

This is an excellent book and exceptionally useful! I've read it from over to cover and found countless nuggets that helped me out. Overall, this book is well organized. It's content flows well and subject matter is very well written. This book serves as a reference on the topic of Active Server Directory administration.

This is exactly what I was looking for to understand Active Directory. It is very concise on the abilities of the product. Very Useful.

It was long... overly detailed... and almost a "how-to" guide for someone that would like to be in a Jackie Collins story. It was disappointing, and out of date.... the clothes and pictures are a time-warp back to the 80's!!!

I'm a professional photographer wanting to know more about taking models photos for their portfolio. The modeling biz has always been kind of baffling to me but this book opens it all up for me. It even has great tips on how to shoot better shots of the models! Several aspiring model friends of mine recommended it to me!

Very informative book about how-to get our kids into professional modeling. Great content and lots of photos. The advice is stuff you can actually use!

A valiant effort, but I found this book hard to follow...many of the essential steps seem to be missing...perhaps the book is geered towards only the advanced. I was dissapointed by the characterish results of the approach and was hoping for more of an attempt at "fine" art.

The author gives a step by step approach for modeling a likeness in clay. Very helpful and good at using calapers to get the correct demensions to start with. I would recommend Bruno Lucchesi's books also as he is a modern day master.

Mrs Grubbs has lots of talent, being a pedagogue is not the least of them. As she shares her technique with the reader, every step is thoroughly illustrated and commented. Numerous examples of specific situations are shown in detail along with the sculptor's comments.

The first sections establishes the general principles governing the achievement of a likeness, going step by step through the measurements and accurate mass and volume placement, with practical demonstration.

Further sections detail the progress of the work, and the end sections are practical examples of different portrait renditions of models which vary in age, sex, ethnic features, all being taken from actual work carried out by the artist.

As Mrs Grubbs favors kiln-firing of her clay portraits, readers interested in this technique will also find very valuable information, and will learn how to properly prepare a portrait for this purpose.

This review took almost one year. Unlike many previous referees (rank them by Amazon.com's "most helpful" feature) I read all 1197 pages including notes. Just to make sure I won't miss the odd novel insight hidden among a million trivial platitudes.

On page 27 Wolfram explains "probably the single most surprising discovery I have ever made:" a simple program can produce output that seems irregular and complex.

This has been known for six decades. Every computer science (CS) student knows the dovetailer, a very simple 2 line program that systematically lists and executes all possible programs for a universal computer such as a Turing machine (TM). It computes all computable patterns, including all those in Wolfram's book, embodies the well-known limits of computability, and is basis of uncountable CS exercises.

Wolfram does know (page 1119) Minsky's very simple universal TMs from the 1960s. Using extensive simulations, he finds a slightly simpler one. New science? Small addition to old science. On page 675 we find a particularly simple cellular automaton (CA) and Matthew Cook's universality proof(?). This might be the most interesting chapter. It reflects that today's PCs are more powerful systematic searchers for simple rules than those of 40 years ago. No new paradigm though.

Was Wolfram at least first to view programs as potential explanations of everything? Nope. That was Zuse. Wolfram mentions him in exactly one line (page 1026): "Konrad Zuse suggested that [the universe] could be a continuous CA." This is totally misleading. Zuse's 1967 paper suggested the universe is DISCRETELY computable, possibly on a DISCRETE CA just like Wolfram's. Wolfram's causal networks (CA's with variable toplogy, chapter 9) will run on any universal CA a la Ulam & von Neumann & Conway & Zuse. Page 715 explains Wolfram's "key unifying idea" of the "principle of computational equivalence:" all processes can be viewed as computations. Well, that's exactly what Zuse wrote 3 decades ago.

Chapter 9 (2nd law of thermodynamics) elaborates (without reference) on Zuse's old insight that entropy cannot really increase in deterministically computed systems, although it often SEEMS to increase. Wolfram extends Zuse's work by a tiny margin, using today's more powerful computers to perform experiments as suggested in Zuse's 1969 book. I find it embarassing how Wolfram tries to suggest it was him who shifted a paradigm, not the legendary Zuse.

Some reviews cite Wolfram's previous reputation as a physicist and software entrepreneur, giving him the benefit of the doubt instead of immediately dismissing him as just another plagiator. Zuse's reputation is in a different league though: He built world's very first general purpose computers (1935-1941), while Wolfram is just one of many creators of useful software (Mathematica). Remarkably, in his history of computing (page 1107) Wolfram appears to try to diminuish Zuse's contributions by only mentioning Aiken's later 1944 machine.

On page 465 ff (and 505 ff on multiway systems) Wolfram asks whether there is a simple program that computes the universe. Here he sounds like Schmidhuber in his 1997 paper "A Computer Scientist's View of Life, the Universe, and Everything." Schmidhuber applied the above-mentioned simple dovetailer to all computable universes. His widely known writings come out on top when you google for "computable universes" etc, so Wolfram must have known them too, for he read an "immense number of articles books and web sites" (page xii) and executed "more than a hundred thousand mouse miles" (page xiv). He endorses Schmidhuber's "no-CA-but-TM approach" (page 486, no reference) but not his suggestion of using Levin's asymptotically optimal program searcher (1973) to find our universe's code.

On page 469 we are told that the simplest program for the data is the most probable one. No mention of the very science based on this ancient principle: Solomonoff's inductive inference theory (1960-1978); recent optimality results by Merhav & Feder & Hutter. Following Schmidhuber's "algorithmic theories of everything" (2000), short world-explaining programs are necessarily more likely, provided the world is sampled from a limit-computable prior distribution. Compare Li & Vitanyi's excellent 1997 textbook on Kolmogorov complexity.

On page 628 ff we find a lot of words on human thinking and short programs. As if this was novel! Wolfram seems totally unaware of Hutter's optimal universal rational agents (2001) based on simple programs a la Solomonoff & Kolmogorov & Levin & Chaitin.

Wolfram suggests his simple programs will contribute to fine arts (page 11), neither mentioning existing, widely used, very short, fractal-based programs for computing realistic images of mountains and plants, nor the only existing art form explicitly based on simple programs: Schmidhuber's low-complexity art.

Wolfram talks a lot about reversible CAs but little about Edward Fredkin & Tom Toffoli who pioneered this field. He ignores Wheeler's "it from bit," Tegmark & Greenspan & Petrov & Marchal's papers, Moravec & Kurzweil's somewhat related books, and Greg Egan's fun SF on CA-based universes (Permutation City, 1995).

When the book came out some non-expert journalists hyped it without knowing its contents. Then cognoscenti had a look at it and recognized it as a rehash of old ideas, plus pretty pictures. And the reviews got worse and worse. As far as I can judge, positive reviews were written only by people without basic CS education and little knowledge of CS history. Some biologists and even a few physicists initially were impressed because to them it really seemed new. Maybe Wolfram's switch from physics to CS explains why he believes his thoughts are radical, not just reinventions of the wheel.

But he does know Goedel and Zuse and Turing. He must see that his own work is minor in comparison. Why does he desparately try to convince us otherwise? When I read Wolfram's first praise of the originality of his own ideas I just had to laugh. The tenth time was annoying. The hundredth time was boring. And that was my final feeling when I laid down this extremely repetitive book:exhaustion and boredom. In hindsight I know I could have saved my time. But at least I can warn others.

Okay, so the Abominable Snowman walks up and asks if you'd like to see his family photo albums. All 1200+ pages of them. Maybe you don't quite 'get' what Sasquatch is about or why he'd want to share intimate family moments with a complete stranger, but, still, you KNOW you have to have a LOOK.

This is very much the case with Stephen Wolfram's A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE. I picked up my copy from amazon.com for considerably less than $50.00 (US), which, by weight, makes it one of the most reasonably priced books I have ever purchased -- especially among relatively limited printings, which include many, if not the vast majority, of 'standard' works in computer science.

(Hey, for under fifty bucks we should all sample anything capable of creating as much uproar among scientifically literate folks as, say, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST created among the [selectively] scientifically oblivious.)

Unlike some other reviewers, I don't fault Wolfram if he fails to communicate as smoothly or as tersely as every reader might like. After all, we are taking part in an information transfer (mind dump?) from a man who, seeking the counsel of intellectual peers, has likely, in the apparent paucity of such during 10 years of secretive research, all too often ended up talking only to HIMSELF!

Nor do I fault Wolfram for a possible titular allusion to Galileo's DIALOGUES ON TWO NEW SCIENCES. Absent gods, pride is not "hubris," in the classical sense. Alas, Wolfram, like Darwin, has pointed the way to mechanisms that explain organized complex structures without apparent intentional, external 'design.' (Doubtless, Darwin didn't invent evolution any more than Wolfram invented cellular automata. But both men are accomplished synthesizers, discovering and/or articulating simple and elegant organizing principles where others encounter only chaos and befuddlement.)

Furthermore, even if we were to sift Wolfram's entire volume and find it devoid of any truly new or original insight, the work would still be invaluable as a compendium of ideas from the fields already referenced, especially chaos, complexity, and self-organizing structures. (If we are sometimes unable to discern between Wolfram's own ideas and someone else's, we can, at least, rejoice in his championing ideas that are important and timely, regardless of 'authorship.')

Not to belabor this point, but, depending on the direction from which one approaches a problem, it isn't always clear that s/he has traversed the identical thought processes (or courses of study) as someone else. With no malice aforethought, in mathematics and science we often encounter 'opportunities' for inadvertent reinvention and rediscovery. One author has referred to such as "mathematical epiphanies", alluding to the joy of finding even well-worn truths by and for oneself. In this sense, I feel, Wolfram might be expressing his own delight in making certain ideas his 'own,' even if, in the end, they turn out to be ideas that, with or without his knowledge, he might not have originated. In this respect, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, realizing that others have, for their own reaons, been less charitable. At the same time, I am likewise unwilling to venture a guess regarding that (and how much) of which someone researching and writing in any of Wolfram's many field(s) should or should not have been aware.

In his further defense, however, successful business leaders are often oriented towards results rather than toward bestowing either credit or blame. (I am reminded that the great American patriot Thomas Paine added little to the thoughts of Voltaire, Rousseau, and others from the French Enlightenment. Nevertheless, his popular re-packaging of the 'higher criticism' in THE AGE OF REASON freed minds and pens and tongues that, otherwise, might never have come to know, via the original French, what Paine so eloquently set forth in an iconoclastic salvo the likes of which had not been heard since Luther's theses ignited the Reformation. And, then, even Luther benefitted from a sympathetic publisher!)

If my discussion, up till now, has been somewhat oblique, I have probably read more of Wolfram's book than many of the other reviewers -- far enough, actually, to have made it through the crucial section on "The Principle of Computational Equivalence." Until that point, I must confess, I had been viewing cellular automata as models of and, as such, merely ISOMORPHIC TO... certain natural processes. The great realization, at which we finally arrive, is that THESE machines and the machines at work in natural processes are the SAME [ABSTRACT] MACHINES! (The equivalence of two machines that produce identical outputs from identical inputs is not a revelation -- What is exciting is how Wolfram bridges the gap between the behaviors of man-made machines and naturally occuring 'machines.') Much as Darwin used a brilliant analogy to bridge the apparent gap between artificial and natural selection, Wolfram has articulated a bridge between artificial and natural 'machines' via a unifying computational principle.

I greatly appreciate Wolfram's exposition of some of his own intellectual 'epiphanies' in a form considerably more entertaining than most academic papers... and better organized than many personal journals or research notebooks. If time attests to the impact of these ideas (as I have intimated via comparisons to Galileo, Paine, and Darwin), I believe the time the reader invests to understand them will be well rewarded.

After I got the past the first few pages where Wolfram kept repeating himself about how this book described a new kind of science, and that he was going to describe the new kind of science in the book, I got into the examples which are quite exhaustive and meticulously researched. So far I think his observations are quite interesting. I haven't gotten to the heavy metaphysical insights yet, but given what I've seen so far, I am very much looking forward to reading them. Wolfram ties together results from several computer science (and other) fields and paints a picture of unified underlying concepts which may very well do as he predicts: change the way we understand the world (and educate the next generation about it) in a way which is as substantial and novel as Copernicus, Newton, Einstein etc. He proposes a worldview which is similar to Chaos, Complexity, Catastrophe, Fractals etc, but unified, rather than a tower of Babel.

Please excuse my review of a book I have not yet finished, but Amazon.com had the "be the first to review the book" button staring me in the face, so I had to do it since I like the book and who nose? Maybe I'll win a prize.

This book is okay to start with. It definitely does what it sets out to do. I am an MCSD and have eight years experience in software development and I was of the opinion that the examples used in the book, were not well thought out and showed lack of experience on the part of the authors, both of whom are attached to universities, which reminded me of the saying: "those who can't do, teach".

I was able to complete this book in two evenings, and it does serve as a good introduction to UML and object oriented programming. I just wish it went a little deeper, and I found some of the authors design choices suspect to say the least. I just didn't get how a video (one of the classes explored) could search for other videos. This should be a function of a container class (video_collection or something), yet the authors treated the video class as an instance of a video and a collection at the same time. If you're looking to get started learning OOP and UML, this is a decent start, but just don't expect much more than the basics.

I have recently started to use this book in an undergraduate application development course which I have taught for the past 5 years. I must have looked at around 30 books before I chose this one. The book I used before this was Rumbaugh's Object-oriented modeling and design copyright 1990. The administration was on me to get a newer textbook.

This book is easy to read and covers quite nicely the standard OO concepts of encapsulation, inheritance, aggregation, polymorphism, message sending, etc. I like the way it starts with a simple application, then adds complexity.

It does not overload the student with details of UML but covers the main constructs. It does not present a lot of actual implementation code. One 20 page chapter is devoted to OO programming in Java.

A good introductory text but not suitable for graduate work.

Othe 250 pages of this book there may be 30 pages of actual content about doing database programming with eVB. The rest is padding built with incredibly drawn out tutorials on basic SQL.

If you are a serious developer, more sooner than later you'll need databases and this book gives you a quick start on how to develop them, with the enclosed examples you get answers on (almost) everything, chapter 7 has a good DB Manager, which is worth the money all by itself. You'll be developing databases, even on the road, quicker than others can prepare instant coffee. Only thing that's missing is a review of Pocket SQL and how to develop networked databases, but for that you can get: Developer's Guide With Microsoft Embedded Visual Basic and you are all set. Both books together cover it all, but this one is the easiest and very comprehensive for all kinds of tasks, don't miss it, it's a two thumbs up.

I first heard about this book a few month ago from Rob Tiffany and was very enthuisiastic and happy to hear it was in development since eVB really needs a book dealing with database programming. I received my copy of the book last week (Aug 1st 2001) and was very impressed. The book is concise, with the chapters and content laid out in a succinct and logical manner making for an easy read. Rob discusses the limitations and approach to Pocket SQL from both a data definition and data manipulation perspective. He also discusses the architectural framework required to build Pocket Access based applications from a practical "this is what will work" point of view; for example how to address the infamous ADOCE connection memory leak. The book rounds out with the construction of a graphical eVB application which you can use to manage Pocket Access databases on your Pocket PC. If you are starting out using eVB and Pocket Access this book is a must have in your library!

This book nicely sets forth a detailed methodology for doing swimlane diagramming for workflow business processing. This book is for analysts; the discussion is about the nature of business processes that have workflow as a key characteristic. It is not about the architecture of computer solutions for such processes. If you follow the methodology in this book and flesh out the diagrams with use cases (just briefly touched on here), you will have captured most of the requirements for a business workflow process.

The book is nicely bound and well written. The authors have been around a while and the vocabulary and approach fit nicely with older concepts like business process reengineering. The authors are not unaware of the latest developments and "UML" crops up here and there but not in the index. The diagramming is very simple compared to UML activity diagrams.

This is good reading for the domain experts on a team working on the requirements document and a nice primer for geeks who are forced for the first time to talk to the business side of an enterprise.

If you've ever asked the question: Is there a great book that teaches an excellent methodology for analyzing real world workflow, and then designing the application that will implement that workflow into an application? I've found the book that answers that question.

Workflow Modeling is the book. It is the best book on the subject that I have read to date, and I've read dozens. It teaches you how to build visual models that illustrate the workflow process, and shows how to implement the model into an application. Superb! But it before it goes out of print.

Rarely do I get excited about books on workflow modeling. I have a few good books on the subject, all of which provide solid approaches and most of which are well written. This book stands out because it goes beyond merely "solid" or "well written" by giving one of the most comprehensive approaches to workflow modeling I've had the pleasure of reading.

First, like most books on the topic, none of the components of the approach are new. What makes the approach refreshing is the way the authors take standard techniques and tie them together into a coherent process. Second, this book can be used as a workbook during a workflow modeling project, and is well suited to this because of the numerous checklists and diagrams that will prove invaluable every step of the way. Finally, this is the first book of its kind that incorporates use cases, making it invaluable to project teams that have standardized on UML (Unified Modeling Language)or wish to integrate an object-oriented approach into a workflow modeling project. If you're not familiar with use cases I strongly recommend Writing Effective Use Cases by Alistar Cockburn (the best book on the subject in my opinion); UML Distilled by Fowler and Scott is an excellent introduction to that subject if it's new to you.

The approach is straightforward: frame the process and define its scope, understand the existing process (if there is one), design the "to-be" process and develop use case scenarios. I wish to offer one caveat at this point: if you are reengineering a process that is seriously broken you might consider skipping the "as-is" process. Understanding the existing process is useful if your goal is incremental improvement. Reengineering efforts usually radically transform existing processes, making efforts to understand them both moot and wasted.

Some of the highlights of this book include the authors' clear definitions and way of decomposing complex systems into discrete steps and components. For example, they use a five tier view of processes that ensures you have a complete view of all issues and factors. The views are: (1) mission, strategy and goals (I personally extend goals further into Goal-Question-Metric), (2)business processes, (3) presentation, (4) application logic and (5) data. Note that the last three align nicely to a 3-tier client/server architecture. This observation clearly shows how coherent the authors' approach is and how it can foster alignment of technology to business requirements.

I also like how the authors clarify the key issues in process design by pointing out six enablers that you need to account for during the analysis and design phase: (1)workflow, (2) technology, (3) human resources, (4) motivations and measurements, (5) policies and rules and (6) environmental constraints (facilities, external process capabilities, etc.). There is one minor point of disagreement I have between their workflow modeling technique and the one I use. The authors use swimlane diagrams (also called Rummler-Brache diagrams), while I use deployment diagrams. The difference? Swimlane diagrams do not capture phases or cycles. I always place workflows into the context of Entry Criteria-Task-Validation-Exit Criteria (ETVX), which is nearly identical to the TQM Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle. I insist on ETVX because it allows me to spot missing validation points in an existing workflow, and ensures that I clearly define entry and exit criteria, as well as validation points in a "to-be" workflow. Of course I am stating personal preferences - following the authors' approach verbatim will definitely result in a workflow design that is not only "bulletproof", but will align information systems and business process almost perfectly.

This book is a gem. It's readable, full of ideas and, with the incorporation of use cases into the approach, completely up-to-date with respect to IS/IT methodologies. If you want a fresh, modern approach to workflow design this book is the only one that will provide it.

I used this title as one of my sources to teach myself Mechanical Desktop. I found it to be very good in guiding you step by step through procedures. I did not find in-depth explination of operations.

As a former CAD instructor, I would rate this manual as an excellent primer for users new to the world of 3D design, but less usefull for a 3D pro trying to come up to speed quickly in MD3.0.

There are many, many excellent examples of user/command interaction that will give the student a pretty quick handle on the flow of the program. Unfortunately, many of the more advanced concepts and/or functions are almost completely glossed over. A notable example is "toolbodys" which has only one minor reference in the entire 419 pages.

Also the accompanying CD has many examples, that while explaining the function/command at hand, do little or nothing to reinforce prerequisites for (if necessary) for the function/command being demonstrated.

While I haven't seen the instructor's manual, I sure hope it has a lot of backup info for an instructor in this topic. If it doesn't, a weak instructor will not be able to provide the requisite theory necessary for a student to adequately understand parametric solid modeling.

I am a beginner-intermediate without formal training. I would recommend this book for those who are self taught, and are not past the intermediate stage of using MDT. The lessons are clear and logical but the tips sections are the best part. The tricks I learned there were well worth the price of the book. Speaking of price... Complaints: 1) High price. 2) The book doesn't go too deep into concepts. 3) The graphics were only fair.

I plan on ordering the assembly book today.

The book covers the basics of solid modeling using I-DEAS Master Series 7. Using this as a guide, you could learn the software within 2 weeks. It however lacks in challenging the reader.

This book is a good introduction to solid modeling and I-DEAS Master Series 7. The tutorials in the book are easy to follow.

The concepts and techniques described in this book are well worth the money. I used other 2D CAD software in the past and was struggling when I switched to high-end CAD software. This book is very helpful to new I-DEAS users.