Strategy

When this book came out in the mid-eighties it was basically blasphemy to the U.S. Marine Corp and the other services. Because it discussed in detail the very kind of warstyle and chain of command that had recently defeated the U.S. in Vietnam. That is, it detailed a maneuver style of warfare utilizing an extremely decentralized chain of command. The Marines at that time were still primarily focused on the cold war, with attrition warfare strategies and a corresponding rigid, centralized chain of command type command and control structure. As were the other services.

This book along with other books gradually led to the Marine Corp formally adopting maneuver warfare as its warfighting doctrine. And the formal writing of Marine Corp Doctrinal Publiclication-1..."Warfighting." This occurred under the tenure of General Al Gray in the late eighties. General Gray was a huge fan of William Lind and his maneuver warfare ideas.

You want to understand how the US got its butt kicked in Vietnam? You want to understand how the US steamrolled thru Iraq recently? You want to understand how the German Army had such extreme success with its blitzkrieg operations in the early stages of WW2? Then read this book.

This book goes well with several other books. Principle among them would include Marine Corp Doctrinal Publication-1 "Warfighting. Which has been published commercially on a large scale. Another book Lind's publication goes well with is Sun Tzu, "The Art of War." H. Liddel Hart's "Strategy" goes extremely well with this book. Mao Tse Tung's works on guerilla warfare also goes well with this book.

Bill Lind has written the bible of manuever war. This consise little book is used as a text by the US Marine Corps. They must know something and you would be well-advised to follow their example. Get this book, otherwise manuever war will be just another phrased you will hear from talking heads.

This is a truly influential book. It explains the concept of "Maneuver Warfare" and contrasts it with the US Army's attrition based "AirLand Battle Doctrine". It covers topics such as mission orders, recon pull, decision cycles and tempo, use of the reserve, commander's intent, and other key concepts that teach a junior military leader HOW (vs what) to think.

Based on Boyd's revolutionary OODA cycle theories, it shows how a quick acting, agile force can constantly beat larger, heavier equipped foes. After reading this book you will understand exactly why the German Army of 1940-1941 was so effective against the larger and better equipped French-British, and Soviet Armies.

The book is divided into two halves. The critical part is the first half which explains in clear, understandable terms how maneuver warfare works. The second half is a series of tactical decision games that offer practical examples to teach junior leaders these concepts.

This ideas in this small book were adopted almost verbatim by the USMC for their land war doctrine. This doctrine was so effective in combat against the Iraqi's in 1990 that the US VII Corps had to move up its attack by approx 48 hours to prevent the Iraqi's from completely escaping before the marines pushed them completely out of Kuwait.

This book has served for years as an underground "bible" by maneuver warfare officers looking for a resource to help train junior leaders critical maneuver warfare concepts. While many look to technological answers to 4th Generation Warfare, this book give ideas that apply instead to people and tactics. It leaves the reader with a solid understanding on how men make decisions in combat, as well as how to translate that knowledge to a military advantage. It is a MUST HAVE book for Combat Arms officers and junior leaders.

Master Rules covers and even replaces most of the rules this book but its so well orgnised and comprehsive it does fall into the famed 'Must Have' catagorie. Also, who reading this dosn't want that cover as a huge poster hanging on there wall?

This is a great book for any serious battletech player. Inside, there are many different optional rules that bring compexity to the game. The equipment provided is also top notch. Two Thumbs Up

Other than the Compendium, I use this book most. It is filled with expanded rules for heat, movement, and vehicles. These rules improve game play removing abuses and inconsistancies. Included in the book is much of the old level three information that is out of print. The new rules are also great for individual battles and campaigns, especially if you use Mechwarrior. Best of all however is the new battle value system, which is leaps and bounds above the old combat value system. When you add in the price list for mechs, this book's value goes even higher. Definitely a good buy!

This is an excellent work. It would be perfect for a student
project with a focus on Middle Ages building designs. The author
provides detailed engineering specifications for castles, forts,
a motte and rising towers. The engineering statics implications
are explained in the detailed design process. The work covers
action implementalities; such as, the ram, siege and cannon.
The author spends a portion of the book explaining how
war objects were constructed during the Middle Age period.

In addition, he concludes that an increase in wall size
necessarily means weakening the overall superstructure.
Some time is spent explaining the model diet for the period
which consisted of wheat, barley, oats and fish. This work
will help readers understand the building requirements
for structures created during the Middle Ages. The book would
be valuable for historians, art buffs, architects, engineers
and a wide constituency of other readers.

It does not matter if you all ready are a "fort-geek" or some one, who just want a book on the topic: This book will for sure please you.

"The Medieval Fortress" is a nice big (app. 11" x 8.5" or 28,5 x 22 cm), 319p. book, which covers the development of fortified places through out Europe and North-Africa from the early to the late middle ages - when the forts had their glory.
The book is built up of five main chapters. The First deals with the elements of a fortification; the Second deals in general with the different kind of fortifications in different parts of Europe (Islamic, Byzantine, Frankish, British, Norse, Slavic and Magyar (Hungarian)); the Third does the same, but with emphasis on the emerging castle; the Fourth chapter introduces gunpowder and the decline of the high castle walls through the description of several sieges (Constantinople, Rhodes, and siege of fortifications during the Reconquista); Chapter Five goes in depth with some selected fortifications in Europe: Some of the more famous ones and some more obscure. The reader is guided through fortifications/castles in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Low Countries, Switzerland, Holy Roman Empire, Scandinavia, Central Europe (present day Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, and Slovenia) Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Eastern Mediterranean, Italy, Spain&Portugal, and North Africa. The appendixes gives the names of some more important builders and architects and their titles in different languages (French, Portugese, Spanish, Duch, Sweedish, and Russian), a chronology of important sieges from 623 (Constantinople) to 1529 (Vienna), a history of medival artillery and a glossary.
There are endless amounts of B/W pictures alongside with even more B/W line drawings and plans of forts, just like on the front cover of the book.

This book is a very good buy!

(Review based on First DaCapo Edition, 2001)

If you liked Sydney Toy's book on Castles, you will love this one. Covering the earliest origins of castles to their decline at about the time of the Rennaisance, this book is a must-have for anyone fond of castles or interested in the middle ages. Although it has only black & white pictures and other books may contain a larger number of castles, this book is incredible in its scope of the subject and covers much history of the important castles and towns of Europe in the middle ages. Reading about this history and seeing pictures of the fortresses & towns gives me a feeling of how it was like to be there. I now have a wish-list of ancient towns & strongholds I would like to visit. The book has many 'basic' floorplans of castles & towns as well as rough maps of the regions talked about. Enough info for many book reports; great for design ideas since the coverage spans hundreds of years & styles of construction from All over Europe.

If you have ever struggled with statistical concepts and books that only partially explain the sources of each variable in statstical equations, then this is the book for you. Their constant repetition of statistical concepts with each example case study was VERY helpful in cementing these concepts in my mind.

Confidence levels, 1-tailed, 2-tailed tests and the application of these concepts in real world marketing situations can be quite confusing. This book once again came through with clearly explained examples and scenarios.

Having read many books on database marketing, direct marketing, data mining & CRM as a consultant, I appreciate the story line approach heading up each chapter most. Many books fall prone to teaching "at you" rather than guiding the user along "through the experience of doing it".

A second critical factor to look for - once you've gotten through all the introductory books - is finding concrete info on how-to, best practices providing significant content and knowledge. This is the true value-add from the masters: learning is incremental and there must be true takeaways to get the 5 stars.

This said, the authors have made an extremely broad, detailed and well spun story out of a subject matter that can be to say the least, challenging... Moreover, the disciplines of customer analysis, database management & modeling, data mining, statistical analysis, marketing planning are all the focus of reengineering by many of today's major businesses.

Consequently, this book leads nicely and rather naturally into a major subject of the day for many IT & marketeers -- Analytical CRM. As such it is a must read for anyone interested in understanding how A-CRM works in many companies practicing DBM today.

A great next step would be to go from the marketing-IT function(-ing) to the broader enterprise, long-term (relational) infrastructure & practices preached by CRM. Show how the DBM process evolves in to and is transformed by meeting Customer Mgmt strategies. How would DBM work in a enterprise integration, near/real-time, customer interaction CRM initiative?

Finally, as an aside, in reviewing MANY course syllabi across the world in DM/DBM, I've OFTEN found this book as the course text if not mandatory-suggested reading.

I agree -- for all & anyone wanting a good complement to Shepard's seminal work - you can't do any better.

Buy it ! Good reading...

When I first became involved with database marketing in the mid-1990s, and through my tour of graduate school a few years later, books on the subject fell into two categories: basic and trivial, or advanced and impossible to comprehend. OPTIMAL DATABASE MARKETING is the perfect reference for what is probably the majority audience segment: marketing managers, senior executives, list professionals, data processors, professors, and students who want to understand all the elements of strategic planning and analysis *and* gain practical knowledge to apply professionally or in research endeavors.

In OPTIMAL DATABASE MARKETING, you get a wealth of material on two aspects of the process - for the price of one. Co-author Ron Drozdenko does a great job defining concepts and detailing potential objectives when building files. His coverage of technical specifications and issues is particularly useful.

As for the subsequent chapters: I don't think there has ever been a book written which covers database modeling, and statistical techniques germane to direct marketing, as comprehensively and clearly. Co-author Perry Drake manages to leave no stone unturned and yet convey knowledge in a style that's both understandable and easy to follow. This part of the book is worth the cost alone.

Reviewer: The author, Charles M. Cottle *** charles@RiskDoctor.com
Although this original text was written for professional market makers, it proved to be a valuable resource for sophisticated retail investors and hedgers. I therefore created a new book, "Coulda Woulda Shoulda" (available for free download at www.riskdoctor.com) which borrowed about 80% of the original text and added more tools for non-professionals including an email dialogue with a relative novice, spanning 2 months. Most of the strict market making tools have been removed but will be resurrected in book 3; "Taming Your Portfolio" due out later this year.

There are basically two types of options books: mathematical
books on valuation that tend to be filled with solutions
for ever more exotic contracts, and books for traders that
go over the practical workings of positions in various
concrete scenarios. Cottle is definitely of the second type.
There's not really much math in it, unless you're intimidated
by three-dimensional graphs. What it does have is an incredible
wealth of insight, from experience, into the tricks and the

exceptions--the rent-a-call, the dividend plays, contract
risk and post-expo deltas, complicated synthetics, the
interrelations between greeks.

That said, what moved me to write a review was to take
exception with a previous reviewer's comment: "No lazy
editing or prose here". The prose is okay, but the editing
is worse than lazy--it's horrendous. Flipping my copy open
at random I come to p.151-152 on Break-Even analysis. Try
finding column 7 in exhibit 4-23, or the supposed arrow in
column 4. It's all a mess. That's an extreme case, but
throughout the text, it's hard enough trying to pick up
the bond options lingo (futures in 32nds but futures-options
in 64ths--all "ticks"; and the different multipliers for
indexes and futures), without having to deal with missing
words, inaccurate references, etc, etc. But ultimately, working
to figure it all out gets you to understand it all the better.

With five years of floor trading as an equity options market
maker, and having read and reread and rereread... Natenberg,
Baird, Hull, Connolly, Cox Ross Rubinstein, Chriss, Taleb--and
others--I'd say Cottle is clearly the best book. That said,
however, I don't know how much use a non-professional--someone
who doesn't manage a large, actively traded book of options--
will get out of it. It should be intellectually rewarding if you
can figure it out. Maybe inspire you to go look for a minimum
wage clerking job in Chicago, NY, Philly, or SF to get abused
for a year or so and then maybe get a badge.

I read Options: Perception and Deception at least 3-4 times before many of the advanced concepts began to sink in. This is not a book for an options novice; in fact, I would suggest that most people read Natenberg's book on options prior to engaging in this incredible text. While many of the advanced 3-D graphs were beyond my grasp, I particularly liked Cottle's description of "real world" options positions, how he executed them and how he managed them throughout their duration. Of particular interest to many readers should be the concept of "gamma scalping", and the section on wingspreads and adjusting positions. This text is so far beyond "mainstream" options books, that words do not describe how important this book will become.

I haven't played many games of this type, but I'm a huge Tolkien fan so I decided to try the game. I have to be honest-I couldn't even get out of the Shire ( the first level) until I bought this guide! I ended up using it religiously along the way, because there were many sections where I wouldn't have had any idea what I was supposed to do otherwise. For instance, there's a section in Moria where, without the guide, I would *never* have figured out where I was supposed to go, even though I religiously explore every nook and cranny when playing these types of games.

Once I bought the guide, it took me about a week to finish the game. Since then, I've decided to play it again, without referring to the guide, to see if I can make it all the way through by memory.

The book is very comprehensive, and avoids using terms that the casual gamer wouldn't understand-it doesn't talk over your head, and it's very straight forward and easy to understand. The screen shots are helpful, so that you can see what sections of the game they're referring to.

As a little added perk, this book, while showing you all of the ins and outs, still leaves a couple of tiny goodies out-not essential ones, just a couple little perks, so it still pays to explore as much as possible to see if you can find them. To me, that added to the fun, and I didn't feel like the book was doing *all* of the work for me. For instance, the book doesn't mention that, if you can find Gollum, you can get a little treat from him!

I highly recommend this game guide; in fact, I'm off to the bookstore today to pick up Prima's game guide to another LOTR game!

This is the first of the three books in the series The Lord of the Rings. In the beginning, a hobbit called Bilbo Baggins celebrates 111th birthday. He then disappears to go live with the Elves in a place called Rivendell, and leaves everything to his nephew, Frodo Baggins, including a mysterious and magical ring that he found long time ago. Frodo is advised by Gandalf to go to Rivendell, and to take the ring, and to never wear it. Gandalf fears that it might be the Ring of Power (the ring that belongs to the evil lord Sauron), so he goes to Rivendell where a council is met. Frodo agrees to take the ring to Mount Doom with the help of others this group form the Fellowship. As they go, they meet various encounters, and in the end of the book, Sauron's army fights the group and steals some of the Hobbits.
I chose to read this book because I heard it was very popular. Also, I heard that the book was a fantasy book tied in with magic, battles, and a great quest. I liked reading it and I knew what was happening because I read the book The Hobbit. Then I decided to read the prologue. I also liked to read the book because it was full of adventure and danger.
My favorite part was when Gandalf faced off the monster in the shadow of the mines of Moria. It started when the Fellowship began to make their way to Isengard. Gandalf decided to lead the group into a climb through the mountains. They noticed a large group of crows flying their way. Figuring that it was some of Sauron's spies, they tried to go through the ice caps of other mountains. Then Saruman the wizard tried to stop them. So they had no choice but to go through the mines of Moria where a monster lives. This is a fire-demon monster that lives. Gandalf tried to fight the monster but Gandalf and the monster fell and the Fellowship thought Gandalf died.

Lord of the Rings:
The Fellowship of the Ring
By J.R.R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring is an action packed magical thriller. It keeps you on edge with every flip of the page.
The book begins with the old Bilbo Baggins planning for his one hundredth and eleventh birthday. Half the Shire's been invited! It looks as though it'll be a night to remember. When Bilbo vanishes during his birthday speech, he leaves the crowd in awe. Seeing as how he is now leaving, for another adventure, and shan't be returning, he leaves his precious Bag End and all his possessions behind. His heir and second cousin one-removed, Frodo Baggins now has to carry the responsibility of taking the One Ring to Mordor to be destroyed.
To get to Mordor, Frodo must leave his beloved Shire and travel through Old forests, empty plains, and rocky mountains. He soon reaches Rivendale, with the help of a strange Rider, Aragorn, and an elf named Arwin. From there, Frodo and his three faithful companions, Merry, Pippin, and Sam become part of the Fellowship of the Ring.
To find out more, read the book!

I found this book to be delightful at all hours of the day for all ages! I highly recommend it if you're looking for a great adventure with out even leaving your couch!

Shows you how to create object models (analysis models) through indepth examples and guidance by presenting strategies and patterns as you need them as you work through the examples. The strategies tell you how to approach a task such as how to select objects. Strategies are short, focused. For example, a strategy may have three or four one-sentence things to do to accomplish a goal. The patterns present template objects and their typical interactions.

The examples are relevant to business analysts.

After working through even just one example, you will be able to create object models and using the strategies and patterns.

Includes reference section containing all of the strategies and patterns.

The book uses COAD notation to present the examples, so for people familiar with UML it takes a little getting used to.

The strategies and patterns mentioned in the book are really helpful. They improve the object think. The examples explain the author's point of view clearly. This book complements other books in OOAD and patterns by Craig Larmen, GoF, Martin Fowler etc.

One interesting point is that the author shows how same strategy or pattern helps in design in various problems. Most of the books do not show this. For beginners, it is often difficult to grasp a strategy or pattern with just one example.

One drawback is it uses UML notation very less. But Coad notation is simple and we can easily grasp to understand the diagrams in the book. If you want to learn from solid examples, this is a good choice. If you are very new to OOAD, this is NOT the one you can start with.

"This book makes a significant contribution to the world of business computing by providing familiar business application examples. The strategies and patterns make it easy to extend the practitioner's current knowledge and mental models. Working professionals in business who want to learn how to 'object think' will find concrete examples of applications development, along with practical 'how to' guidance. The result? Accelerated learning!" -- Peter Fingar, Dir. of Information Technology, U of Tampa,

This book was a godsend that ended up making my overall experience with Riven much more enjoyable and overcoming the sense of being really dense that I had felt many times in the first half year of playing Riven. All this by not giving too much away in the early sections of the book.

I am an extremely infrequent adventure player (I fiddled with a text-based game about a mad dwarf and princess when the Mac first came out). However, I installed Riven when I bought a Mac G4 450, wanting to try something new.

After dabbling with Riven for half a year or so, I had been almost everywhere, taken copious notes, read a couple of the game's characters' journals, and created detailed, annotated maps of Riven using illustration software. Despite which, I still felt that I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing or if I was making any progress. I had grown to be more interested in understanding what it was all about than in actually completing the game. I had a sneaky suscpicion that there wasn't really an end, that it was all just supposed to be an 'experience'. Maddeningly frustrating!

Then I stumbled on this Player's Guide book while browsing in a computer store and bought it. I stubbornly read only the introduction and first chapter, not wanting to spoil the game, but also taking great comfort in knowing that I wasn't missing something really obvious or doing something really wrong. Thankfully, the introduction spells out what is to come in subsequent chapters of the book so you won't have a fear of too much being revealed.

I spent another good number of months continuing to explore with an open mind and made some more discoveries before feeling I'd hit another wall. I then read the 2nd chapter in the book which talked about geography and mentioning the things you'd need to accomplish in different areas. I was pleased to learn that I'd really done most of what I'd needed, lacking one.

When I focused my efforts on that one thing, I was able to solve it and then the game opened to a new level--I hadn't read the specific location or a description of the task or a solution--I was able to enjoy finding and solving it on my own after a gentle nudge in the general direction.

All of a sudden things started making sense, and the overall structure and direction of play started coming together. I hit another wall and sought help after another half year had passed by--this time I needed very specific help on how to solve one aspect of a puzzle that I had to dig into one of the later chapters of the book for.

Then I was able to complete the game (with help from 'Saved' scenarios) without additional help from the book.

After all was said and done, I went back to read the complete walkthrough chapter and enjoyed seeing how it all fit together and how my two-years of working on the game had been very productive overall. How I'd missed some of the more logical flow of events that had made the game more difficult to solve. And that with just two missing pieces I just plain couldn't figure out, the book had been there to get me over the hump when I was ready for (or MORE than ready for!)

Bottom line: I won't buy the Brady Games guide for Myst IIII: Exile right away. But I'll probably end up buying it gladly after a while... Unless I can figure out Myst III on my own! And even then, I might buy it anyway to get "the rest of the story!"

Book Contents
Chapter 1: Roaming Through Riven
Chapter 2: The Islands of Riven: Maps and Specifics (where you should've been and what you should've seen)
Chapter 3: Puzzles and Problems: The Solutions (puzzle-by-puzzle detailed hints, and then guidelines for how to solve them)
Chapter 4: Walkthrough: All Revealed (The title says it all and the chapter does reaveal the quickest, most efficient way to get through the whole game)

How about offering the computer game of Riven or Myst 111?

ABSOLUTELY A MUST HAVE! It fills in tons of blanks and gives you so much more understanding of the whole fantasy story with out giveing you answers...unless you want them. It is totally planned and well laid out so that you have your choice of what you need or want to know (if you like to cheat) Even after you finish the game, the book is awesome to read!! Please get this book if you are going to play the game and read the intro!

This insightful book looks at how companies build a businesses on "network effects". The key case studies are MS, Intel and Cisco. If I had to summarize this book in 1 sentence: build a platform and a business model where multiple companies can add value and be profitable (constellation of ISVs, VARs and Service Providers). Book also covers NTT 3G, Palm, Linux.

Case studies are analyzed on how they used the "4 levers of Platform Leadership": 1) Scope of Firm, 2) Product Technology/Architecture, 3) Relationships with external complementors, and 4) Internal Organization.

Very well written.

I bought this book as part of my MBA thesis. This is an excellent read and full of useful insights. Mssrs Gawer and Cusumano are clearly gurus in this subject.

"a highly effective way of skirting antitrust law" - Professor Ross Anderson. This brilliant book shows how to lock in your customers and lock-out your competitors without falling foul of anti-trust law. Read, learn, inwardly digest ... then go out and make a killing. No serious marketing executive can ignore this book.

It's the first entertaining as well as teaching bridge book for advanced bridge players i've read. Maybe there are some others I haven't read them yet. :-) I will recommend this book to all my friends. Congratulations neighbor...

got many new ideas from this book

Amazing bridge book with intintriguing hands. Rookie together with his twin Gordon brothers and his elder brother Darwin are enjoying themselves playing bridge with a unique way. Our heroes believe that at the bridge table all your wishes come true, together occasionaly with some of your worst fears.