Open

This book provides a solid introduction to using open source software for ebusiness. The authors have a strong fundamental grasp of what ebusiness is, something that many so-called "ebusiness experts" fail at. They describe ebusiness as 5 interlocking categories: enterprise apps, internal and external integration, and business & consumer e-commerce. They then describe how open source software can be used in these categories.

The book is written for technical types, but really more for managers than developers. I'd like to have seen some code in this book, but nonetheless it did give me a good idea on where to begin looking and using open source software.

The chapters on integration and e-commerce are very good, with lots of details that many programmers would find useful. The authors also seem to have a good grasp of the state of open source and what types of decisions technical folks need to make when evaluating the software.

A good book if you want to find out what this whole open source and linux thing is and how to go about using it for your projects.

Short review of Open Systems Standardization, A Business Approach, Carl F. Cargill, Prentice Hall, 1997.

Mr. Cargill is a long time information technology standards participant who writes with a considerable depth of experience on standard development organizations and corporate standards departments. This book builds on his previous book, Information Technology Standardization: Theory, Process and Organizations. It appears targeted towards those active in the standards professions as it quickly jumps into the language of the field without benefit of a glossary or definitions section.

The over 300 page book is divided into three sections. The first section of the book explores the basis for standardization and discusses the need for open systems and the concomitant need for open standards and open organizations. Chapter 5 explains two dimensions of standards: practice/conceptual standards and process/product standards and then develops a four state model of standards. Chapter 6 identifies and develops two different views of standards: user and provider, which is expanded in the following chapters into a useful standardization planning model consisting of five elements: reference model, industry standards, functional profile, systems profile and applications implementation. The extensive discussion of company organizational structures in Chapters 6, 7 and 8, while interesting and related to the idea of open organizations, seemed a bit off-topic.

In section two, The Application of Standardization, the author's considerable background in standards development shows. He provides an insider's view of the operation of a company standards department, a detailed explanation of how a standardization development organization (SDO) operates, and explains the operation of different SDOs with a focus on the American National Standards Institute procedures. This section also offers a business-oriented view of standards discussing standards as "infratechnologies," the effect of standards on the product life cycle, and business expenditures on standardization.

In section three, The Organizations, again the author's depth is evident as he describes the operation of the major international SDOs (ISO, IEC and ITU), consortia (not formal SDOs: Open Software Foundation [OSF], X/Open Company, Limited, Unix International, Object Management Group and others), Regional Standards Bodies (ECMA, CEN, CENELEC and ETSI), along with IETF, ANSI, IEEE and US governmental standards bodies. This reviewer finds this the most detailed and accurate tour of the information technology and telecommunications standards world (US-centric) available in a single volume. The only formal US organization left out was the Telecommunications Industry Association.

In summary, Carl Cargill is a "Standards Man", steeped in the legends, language and lore of his field. If standards are your chosen field, this work is worth reading.

This is a short and easily read book about the social sciences, how they evolved, what basic topical and methodological issues defined them, how they found their place between natural science and the humanities, and how they developed their internal relations. The book is not just descriptive, but also critical in its analysis. It discusses the special kind of narrow view that dominates these sciences, and argues for a new organization of the social sciences. It basic argument is that one cannot meaningfully study a problem in one of the social sciences without regarding perspectives from the other. One could wish some more details of the single social sciences (e.g. psychology and educational research) and about epistemological influences (e.g. behaviorism and cognitivism).

The book should be of interest to science studies and to people concerned with the classification of the sciences and the organization of knowledge. It is one element in what I have christened "domain analysis" in library and information science.

It was a good example of inquiry-based teaching. A model for future possibilities in education.

It was John Calvin who suggested that the N. T. is commentary on the Hebrew scriptures, while Karl Barth insisted on repeated and renewed exegesis. The long years of history have a tendency to develop into hardened dogma and Christianity is no exception. In the light of the above, "The Open Tomb" should be seriously considered as a candidate for exegetical debate. Also, since Christianity has its roots in the Hebrew scriptures, "The Open Tomb" could well serve as a door for ecumenical relations. Instead of trying to piece together the fractions of Christianity, it may be more appropriate and in the long run more advantageous, to begin with its roots, in Israel.

This book was created as a text book on Operating Systems, using OpenVMS as their example. It has a few, short, demonstration programs in 'C' (one for each of 10 chapters). It covers the theory and VMS implementation of many OS mechanisms, including Processes, Security, I/O, and VMS Disk useage. It has an excellent summary of the history of DEC operating systems.
It is an excellent tutorial for VMS theory and mechanics.
However, you should be aware that there are not enough coding examples for this to serve as a coding resource for VMS.

Finally, open adoption gets its due in this comprehensive study of its effects on all triad members. The research seems to prove that more openness is better; and that adoptees who have ongoing relationships with their birthfamilies have stronger, better bonds with their adoptive families, too. This isn't easy reading--as the results of a research study, it's written in academic style--but it should still be required reading for all prospective adoptive parents.

For the legion of "Beautiful Thing" fans, this is the closest project to the theme of Harvey's earlier instant classic. There is much fun along the way and the character of Leah in "Beautiful Thing" has a delightful long lost sister spirit in this play. Essential for Jonathan Harvey play collections.

I read this book as part of a research project I was doing about the design of college campuses. I found it to be extremely helpful in my project and I plan on refering to it in the future; I am pursuing a Master's of Landscape Architecture. What I liked about this book is two-fold:

1. Each chapter is a self-contained guide to designing a plaza, park, campus, or playground with people in mind. This important to me becuase I try to focus my designs around the people who will be using them. Each chapter gives useful design tips and helps about the given topic.

2. This book was academic while remaining readable. The authors refer to studies relevent to the topic at hand, but do not become bogged down in theoretical nonsense.

I recommend buying it to anyone who would like a well-organized general design reference book. I would not recommend it to anyone who needs in depth information on any specific topic covered in the book. Check it out from the library if that is your intent.

More than just a travel book, these Journeys take us into the territory of what it means to be human.

Pfister at his best makes you wish you could have been there with him... and met those people whose lives have touched his.

But he also dares achieve something few other travel books risk. He is quite willing to put you off going somewhere for ever. I crossed Morocco off my personal list of dream trips after reading Patrick's section on that country.

I hear rumours of Volume Two.... and look forward to learning more about this born traveller's particular inner and outer travels.