J. R. Simplot: A billion the hard way

Average customer rating:

revealing

First Became a Millionaire by WWII Contracts

Starts out okay ... loses ALL steam in the 2nd half

a billion the hard way by louie attebery

J. R. Simplot: A billion the hard way
Louie Attebery
Manufacturer: Caxton Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0870043994

Book Description

This is the story of John Richard "Jack" Simplot-who dropped out of school at age 14 to parlay a few pigs into one of the largest privately-held companies in America.

Today public stock offerings for new "dot com" companies make their young founders rich (at least on paper) overnight. J. R. Simplot is one of the last classic Horatio Alger success stories. He spent 75 years building his empire the hard way.

The 90-year-old Simplot also is one of the few 20th century industrialists to successfully make the transition to the high tech business world of the new millennium.

Dr. Louie Attebery uses hundreds of hours of research and interviews to paint a fascinating word portrait of this colorful, outspoken billionaire.

Customer Reviews:

revealing.......2007-06-14

I had thought that Henry Ford was the most egotistical ignoramus
who ever lived, until I read this book.

J.R. Simplot has made lots of money growing and selling potatoes.
He ignored his children and wives along the way.

He now tells us that he "did it all for the family".

He believes that he is qualified to lecture us on the future of the universe. He also believes that he can shape that future.

I think I'm going to throw up.

First Became a Millionaire by WWII Contracts.......2007-01-27

What has Mr. Simplot done for veterans, in Idaho, especially, and nationwide?

Surely a man of his reputation, character, and background would want to leave a clear, well-defined legacy of 'giving back' to those tens of thousands of young American soldiers, sailors, and airmen whose blood paved the way for his early fortune and established his company.

Surely his family line will want 'returning a debt to veterans' to be prominent on his historical record?

Starts out okay ... loses ALL steam in the 2nd half.......2007-01-11

When I first moved to Idaho in 1998 that's all I heard about was J.R. Simplot. He's not only Idaho's wealthiest resident, he also owns more private land in the state than anyone else. And his name is everywhere: There's the Simplot Games, Simplot Stadium, and Simplot Center for Decision Support, and the Esther Simplot Performing Arts Academy, just to name a few.

I write these things to let people unfamiliar with the man know what a giant he is in this state. He's is--and ought to be--an inspiration to many.

But how did he get wealthy? Obviously he set his sights on something and then went out and got it. So, in hopes of learning how J.R. Simplot thought, I bought this book . . I wanted to learn about how he made decisions, how he managed, and how he overcame the obstacles that each of us face.

Sadly, this book offers no such insight. It opens promising enough, with a background on the man's early childhood and humble beginnings. I thought this was going to be an excellent springboard into how Simplot used those difficulties to develop his business principles and decision making processes. Alas -- notta. No such luck.

About midway though I had serious doubts I was going to get what I wanted from this book. Three quarters of the way through I was convinced. It ended up feeling like a collection of inert, generic "I remember when" stories with no meat just to have "x" number of pages in a book. Nothing to chew on. Nothing to digest.

The fact that the book was published here in Idaho is even more of a let down. I would think that an Idaho-based publisher would insist on more 'umph' to ensure that such a handsome, well-bound book about the state's most famous resident would be beefier in its content. Two stars ... but only because it gave an interesting look into Simplot's early years.

a billion the hard way by louie attebery.......2002-10-16

This books title promises so much more than it delivers....An extremely disappointing bio....lacks detail....we want to know how j.r. does business....this book won't give you any insight...dull reading....one of the first times i've read a book about a business leader that provided no personal insight into how this person does what he does....or thinks the way he does....too bad !! j.r. seems like a cool dude...would have liked to get to know him....!

Book Description

a chronicle of the "pilot-man of the jungle" and his adventures while bringing humanitarian aid to third world countries.

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The ONLY book on the Matrix you need

Superb writing, accessible and insightful

A Good Read

Jacking in to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation

Manufacturer: Continuum International Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present

Like a Splinter in Your Mind: The Philosophy Behind the Matrix Trilogy

Matrix Warrior: Being the One

More Matrix and Philosophy: Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded (Popular Culture and Philosophy)

Beyond the Matrix: Revolutions and Revelations

ASIN: 0826415881

Book Description

Few media franchises can match The Matrix for enthusiasm of reception and subsequent proliferation. Who in 1999 could have imagined that the momentum of a single film would sustain two more major theatrical releases in a single year, a collection of nine anime cartoons, a best-selling computer game, and more websites than can be counted? Jacking In To The Matrix Trilogy will be the first academic study to take an in-depth look at all of these products, a coherent overview of the franchise as a whole.

The Matrix films are rich with mythological and religious references, as well as drawing upon futuristic fiction. Such richness demands a variety of decoding interpreting skills, and the array of talent in this volume will lay bare many of the strand that have given the Matrix creations such a sense of magic. The book gathers original articles that comment on the cultural and religious implications of The Matrix trilogy, its place within the cyberworlds of contemporary literature and philosophy, and its portrayal of gender and race. The volume also makes conjectures about the ethical and social consequences of taking either the red of the blue pill.

Customer Reviews:

The ONLY book on the Matrix you need.......2005-01-08

This is far and away the best work on the Matrix films. It is the only one that covers the entire franchise; the films, the games, the pop culture aspects. Doty's introduction is amazing, while the other chapters manage to cover just about every aspect of the series you can imagine.

Highly useful for anyone interested in figuring out which colored pill to take.

Superb writing, accessible and insightful.......2004-06-27

This is unquestionably the best quality book in a field crowded with poseurs and worse. See particularly the essays by Wilhelm & Kapell, John Shelton Lawrence, Flannery-Dailey & Wagner, and Mizelle & Baker. Accessibly written, enlightening, intellectually stimulating, with touches of humor that delight and intrigue, this book is worth every penny. The primary editor, Kapell, along with the highly competent Dr. Doty, have selected papers which are reflexive, more than capably developed, and multi-faceted in their approaches to the Matrix franchise. Enjoy this literate and worthy book!

A Good Read.......2004-06-09

Jacking In to the Matrix Franchise is the red pill that makes us understand the world of the Matrix in ways we could not while we were immersed in it, since the volume's essays serve as a comprehensive look into the Matrix franchise, not just the film trilogy composed by The Matrix, The Matrix: Reloaded, and The Matrix: Revolutions. For the Matrix directors, Andy and Larry Wachowski, orchestrated an array of artistic endeavors, including a collection of short anime stories entitled The Animatrix, the video game Enter The Matrix and the The Matrix comics as alternative texts that provide background or side narratives to Reloaded and Revolutions. In the Fall of 2004, the Matrix saga will continue in the form of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, The Matrix Online.

As co-editor William G. Doty claims in the introduction, Jacking In situates the franchise in the context of "the history of thought"-from Romanticism to Postmodernism and the posthuman-and in the context of cinema. Accordingly, the volume is multidisciplinary in scope, though it remains firmly set in the humanities and social sciences, as shown by the authors' credentials: Religion and Culture, Comparative Ethnic Studies, English, Philosophy, History, Anthropology...

Besides Doty's introduction, other highlights of Jacking In include John Shelton Lawrence's reading of the film trilogy as a fascist narrative, and Frances Flannery-Dailey and Rachel L. Wagner's analysis of the franchise's problematic connection of violence and religious themes.

Jacking In also includes a useful appendix with a glossary of names and terms used in the franchise, plus a collection of internet sites by theme and a short bibliography of recommended readings.

Average customer rating:
Jacking in to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation.(Book review): An article from: Extrapolation
Tim McCarthy
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B000HXDACA
Release Date: 2006-08-18

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This digital document is an article from Extrapolation, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2006. The length of the article is 2934 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Jacking in to the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation.(Book review)
Author: Tim McCarthy
Publication: Extrapolation (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Page: 154(7)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

Great Pictures, Warm Memories.......2004-11-05

I'm not old enough to recognize all of the places featured here, but it is interesting to see all of the restaurants. Here you'll find everything from haute cuisine to roadside diners. A wonderful collection of memories that captures the spirit of eras gone by.

Wonderful and colorful nostalgia!.......2003-09-13

Fellow Minnesota oldsters and yuppies alike will have a ball browsing through this lovely coffee table book of the historic eateries in our home state. I was delighted to find a photo of the menu for my Dad's Minneapolis restaurant, the 620 Club, which he owned and operated with partners Max & Henry Winter from 1935 to 1965. (Max and Dad had been among the partners in the Minneapolis Lakers basketball team, and Max went on to found the Minnesota Vikings.) And then there was Charlie's Cafe Exceptionale. Ohhhh, how I miss Charlie's! Chuck Saunders' chef, Russian emigre Harry Walkowitz, also headed up the 620's kitchen for a number of years both before and after his stint at Charlie's. No wonder the food was so good at both places. Harry's secret: "I use lots of booouuter."

Book Description

This book explains the meaning of the Psy-Card System which is based on Jungian psychology, myths, poetry, and folk wisdom. The cards are defined by the creator, along with their relevance to making key decisions in the voyage of life.

Average customer rating:

Psycards Book
N. Hobson
Manufacturer: David Westnedge Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

If you're a developer working with XML, you know there's a lot to know about XML, and the XML space is evolving almost moment by moment. But you don't need to commit every XML syntax, API, or XSLT transformation to memory; you only need to know where to find it. And if it's a detail that has to do with XML or its companion standards, you'll find it--clear, concise, useful, and well-organized--in the updated third edition of XML in a Nutshell. With XML in a Nutshell beside your keyboard, you'll be able to:

Quick-reference syntax rules and usage examples for the core XML technologies, including XML, DTDs, Xpath, XSLT, SAX, and DOM
Develop an understanding of well-formed XML, DTDs, namespaces, Unicode, and W3C XML Schema
Gain a working knowledge of key technologies used for narrative XML documents such as web pages, books, and articles technologies like XSLT, Xpath, Xlink, Xpointer, CSS, and XSL-FO
Build data-intensive XML applications
Understand the tools and APIs necessary to build data-intensive XML applications and process XML documents, including the event-based Simple API for XML (SAX2) and the tree-oriented Document Object Model (DOM)

This powerful new edition is the comprehensive XML reference. Serious users of XML will find coverage on just about everything they need, from fundamental syntax rules, to details of DTD and XML Schema creation, to XSLT transformations, to APIs used for processing XML documents. XML in a Nutshell also covers XML 1.1, as well as updates to SAX2 and DOM Level 3 coverage. If you need explanation of how a technology works, or just need to quickly find the precise syntax for a particular piece, XML in a Nutshell puts the information at your fingertips. Simply put, XML in a Nutshell is the critical, must-have reference for any XML developer.

Customer Reviews:

Best XML reference I ever saw.......2007-03-04

This book claims to be your only needed guide in XML and related topics. It covers almost all you can imagine. I liked it very much and glad, that I have a book, that I can use like XML reference.
I have just nothing to say about this book except it contains ALL information one can need on XML.

A reference useful for a limited audience among those who already know XML basics.......2006-07-31

O'Reilly's XML IN A NUTSHELL is, like all entries in the Nutshell series, a desktop quick reference. It provides concise information about nearly all matters of XML, and is split into roughly four parts. The first introduces XML, the concept of tags, well-formedness, Unicode, DTD's and schemas, namespaces, and so forth. The second provides an overview for the many formats that are built upon XML, such as XHTML, XSL:FO, Docbook, etc., and technologies that plug-in into XML, namely XSLT, XPath, XLinks, XPointers, XInclude, and CSS. The fourth covers DOM and SAX, the APIs for dealing with XML. Finally, the book ends with a "Reference section" for various technologies covered earlier in the book, structured much like O'Reilly's pocket guides. I found the Reference section somewhat inconvenient, it causes flipping back and forth when each section could have been simply integrated with the previous discussion of the relevant technology earlier in the book. Furthermore, the book ends with a long series of Unicode character tables, which are of limited utility, as they cover only a portion of Unicode, which has already expanded in the time since, and these tables simply bloat the book a little.

This third edition is especially admirable for its advocation of schemas, whereas many other XHTML publications would mention only DTDs.

XML IN A NUTSHELL is emphatically not a tutorial for XML, in spite of the friendly introduction to the markup language that opens the book. For each of the technologies mentioned herein, you'll want a separate book. For XPath especially, O'Reilly's XPATH AND XPOINTER is worth getting. XML IN A NUTSHELL instead provides only a quick reference for matters the reader is already acquainted with. Now, much of this quick reference information can be freely had on the Web. I'd recommend the book only to those who are fortunate enough to have someone else cover their book expenses, or can get it from their library, or those who simply adore print documentation.

Strictly a Reference book only..........2006-03-11

I took this book as it was a recommended book for one my courses.. i thought it would be same as other text books, where you actually LEARN THRU THE BOOK..

But this book is STRICTLY for a reference purpose.. I had to take another book to learn the basics of XML.. also, the net tutorials helped a lot..

Though, as a reference book, I'll give full points to it.. once you have the basic knowledge about XML, you can really use this book to its optimum level, and it really helps you to refer ALL the types in XML..

So if you are starting to learn XML, I would advise to take a simpler book, like "XML Applications" and go through the net too.. but once you are done with the basics, buy this book the very next day, and check out what all wonders you can do through XML!!!...

Not an introductory tutorial.......2006-02-01

I chose this book after reading the glowing reviews here at Amazon, hoping to use it as an introductory tutorial to XML. I was disappointed!

The writing style chosen by the author is terse, as if writing space is at a premium - and this for a book which is 600+ pages long. The examples are badly chosen in my opinion, and the explanation of basic concepts is presented in the style of a reference manual. Take for example the explanation of the NOTATION element attribute: "A notation type attribute contains the name of a notation declared in the document's DTD... In theory, it could be used to associate types with particular elements, as well as limiting the types associated with the elements".

At this stage, I gave up on this book and went instead to Hunter's "Beginning XML". Still, all wasn't lost: I read a colleague's copy, so at least I wasn't out of pocket.

XML in a Nutshell.......2005-05-01

The organization of the book is great. Very useful and well written. It provides quick-reference syntax rules and usage examples for the core XML technologies, including XML, DTDs, Xpath, XSLT, SAX, and DOM. Develop an understanding of well-formed XML, DTDs, namespaces, Unicode, and W3C XML Schema.

This new edition is the comprehensive XML reference. Serious users of XML will find coverage on just about everything they need, from fundamental syntax rules, to details of DTD and XML Schema creation, to XSLT transformations, to APIs used for processing XML documents.

The initial chapter on SAX along with the reference chapter would give me a solid foundational base from which to work. If you need explanation of how a technology works, or just need to quickly find the precise syntax for a particular piece, XML in a Nutshell puts the information at your fingertips. I would recommend this book to someone interested in its topic. This book has earned a valued place on my reference shelf.

Average customer rating:

Maybe I'm just a different kind of webmaster...
IT IS A REFERENCE :)
Provides a lot of information over a wide subject
Life easier, desktop manageable with 2003 THIRD edition
A DEPENDABLE MINI-REFERENCE

Webmaster in a Nutshell, Third Edition
Stephen Spainhour
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596003579

Amazon.com

Today's Webmasters must be literate in a number of different--and ever-evolving-- languages and technologies. Webmaster in a Nutshell is meant as a tool for dealing with this demanding requirement. Although this title leans a bit toward freeware tools, it offers plenty of universal information as well.

This guide briefly tours the Web and covers basic HTML, tables, forms, and frames in a series of quick reads. (This discussion offers just enough information to jog the memory to proper HTML usage.) You'll get in-depth coverage of cascading style sheets (CSS), the Extensible Markup Language (XML), JavaScript, HTTP, CGI, and Perl. Stephen Spainhour and Robert Eckstein explore CSS in brief but do cover the pending W3C standard. They also provide a refreshingly quick overview of XML. To present JavaScript, the book makes excellent use of diagrams to illustrate the object hierarchy and the way the language works with windows and frames.

Webmaster takes on a decidedly public domain slant in its presentation of server configuration, primarily aimed at the freeware Apache server, and PHP, the freeware server-side scripting language. Even if you don't code with these tools, however, this book offers plenty of industry-standard reference. --Stephen Plain

Book Description

First, there was HTML. Then along came JavaScript. Close on the heels of JavaScript came CSS and before you mastered that, along came XML. Behind every successful web page is an overworked and underappreciated webmaster with a big pile of books about various web technologies spilling out across their desk. That collection of books is a valuable resource for delving into the topics at depth (and at leisure). But when you need an answer fast, the dog-eared book you'll turn to again and again is the new third edition of Webmaster in a Nutshell. This concise and portable quick reference distills an immense amount of information on several languages and technologies into one compact reference book. This is one book that will pay for itself a thousand times over in time saved and increased productivity. Webmaster in a Nutshell puts a fast-paced introduction, detailed reference section, and quick reference guide to each technology all within easy reach. It's packed full of the genuinely useful information a webmaster needs daily, whatever the technology, including:

HTML
CSS
XML
CGI
JavaScript
HTTP
PHP
Apache

This thorough, clear, and accessible reference makes it easy to find the information you want about the technologies you use. You'll keep your other books on the shelf; you'll keep Webmaster in a Nutshell next to your keyboard.

Customer Reviews:

Maybe I'm just a different kind of webmaster..........2006-07-17

But I haven't found this book to be nearly as useful as I had hoped to after reading all these glowing reviews. My biggest problem with it is the lack of a simple Apache section governing all the real-world mods you might have to do on a regular basis. NOTHING in the book on, for instance, implementing SSL via .htaccess. In fact, it's because of the lack of treatment on SSL that I have to give this thing three stars. The CGI section is useful, the XML stuff is nice, the JavaScript reference is very valuable. But I have to say that without a comprehensive section on implementing SSL, this isn't a "real-world-ready" reference.

IT IS A REFERENCE :).......2004-12-11

Perl in a Nutshell is quite complete. The 2nd addition covers CGI and Perl. This covers things that are specific to using perl on CGI. It is not a perl reference, it is a CGI reference.

This is not a tutorial for newbies but it is a fine book to get when you are a newbie. Obviously, since it is titled as a reference you will also want a book that is titled as a tutorial. (duh?)

Provides a lot of information over a wide subject.......2003-07-06

The book includes reference on HTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, PHP, HTTP, Apache modules and configuration, and web server performance. While all of the material is covered in O'Reilly's other books, I was impressed with the layout and presentation of this book. I also found that the reference material that is buried deep in O'Reilly's other books, was very easy to find in this one. I was especially impressed with the JavaScript and HTTP reference, and feel that these two sections will be used by the majority of this book's readers.

Life easier, desktop manageable with 2003 THIRD edition.......2003-03-04

I invested in a copy of the THIRD edition and am DELIGHTED. This reference does a good job of putting all the day-to-day needed information in one place. It saves me froming having to keep separate references on HTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, CGI/Perl, HTTP, PHP, Apache functions, etc. right in my face.

I really applaud the compact and accessible way each chapter organizes and presents the details of syntax: they are clear yet take up much less space (1/5 the pages of books that are billed as references to each of the subjects included here) while giving you 95% of what a "comprehensive reference" might. I had been concerned that the information might be too compressed to be accessible, but in fact this volume is so much easier to scan through for an answer than many other reference styles. (Kudos to the book designers at O'Reilly!)

Although a reference work, it is not only a listing of syntax (as helpful as those lists are). The authors have compiled pretty readable and thorough mini-backgrounds and basic principles for each of the enormous realms that they document here. These are providing some reminders for me as I am ramp up my knowledgebase and skills; plus there are hints that I have not yet seen elsewhere in weightier tomes (e.g., on performance).

Readers may save themselves some money and desktop/bookshelf space + save some trees: this Nutshell is a vast storehouse that may enable you to forestall buying reference volumes for each of the topics covered here. Thanks to Spainhour & Eckstein for some careful work!

Note to aspiring (novice) webmasters: this IS a REFERENCE book. That is not a bad thing. You'll still appreciate having it by your side because you're regularly going to have basic questions about formating ("how do I say this in CSS instead of HTML?"). However, as one young reviewer below discovered, to BECOME a webmaster (or master) is going to require some "Quickstart" books, some instruction in DESIGN, and STRATEGY, etc. Bon voyage!

[ Further note from my earlier review: be sure you are NOT getting EARLIER edition. Complaints mentioned (below) in reviews of this book are rectified in the THIRD edition (ISBN 0596003579 ). It's probably a good idea to be watching as the reviews of that December 20002 volume to see how the work has changed.
In any event, with browsers and markup languages changing so fast almost everyone can be advised to jump to considering the most current edition -- even though (as of this writing) new copies of this 1999 second edition are still available. ]

A DEPENDABLE MINI-REFERENCE.......2003-01-12

This newly released Third Edition of "Webmaster in a Nutshell" indicates a promising improvement over the Second Edition. It is one of the few books that completely analysed all the contemporary web technologies we use today: JavaScript, Apache, XML, HTML, HTTP, PHP, CSS, and CGI. This book will benefit any web-developer (or enthusiast) who pays close attention to it. Most of the chapters have been revised, and additional updates embraced JavaScript, PHP, Apache, and CSS. The book's wide coverage makes it a dependable mini-reference text.

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