My Road to Microsoft: One Woman's Success Story

Book Description

My road to Microsoft is a chronicle of a young woman rise as an engineer in the male-dominated field of technology and how her concept became Microsoft Expedia, the first successful Internet travel site.

Woven throughout this memoir is her personal story of coming out as a lesbian and sharing her life for 20 years with her partner.

The book starts in Brazil covering the struggle of becoming an engineer despite society's limited ideas about what girls could achieve. Hitting the glass ceiling at age 23, she immigrates to America, works as a cleaning woman to survive until obtaining papers to work as an engineer.

Eventually her idea became the nucleus of Expedia when her disillusion with Microsoft makes her leave in 1998, as a millionaire.

Customer Reviews:

PERSEVERANCE.......2003-09-20

This book touched my heart as soon as I read the first chapter.
It's easy to read with excellent continuity. Being in the IT field, I loved how it chronicled the technology. I also loved how it told the truth about the difficulty breaking the glass ceiling even when you're the smartest kid on the block.
This book is honest, moving, and triumphant. I can relate to all of Soraya's emotions - our circumstances may have been different, but the emotions are very much the same. I'm recommending it to all my friends.

An enthralling memoir that I didn't want to end!.......2003-08-23

___________________*****_____________________

I couldn't put book this down and as a rersult I read it until the wee hours. This wonderful book made me laugh and cry and left me longing for more.

Soraya overcame the imposed limitations of growing up in Brazil's male dominated society . She launched the first satellite in Brazil and became a famous Engineer. She came to America where she started all over by washing dishes. Soraya went to create and orchestrate one of the most successful websites for Microsoft.

Soraya is a brilliant visionary with a pioneers sense of adventure.
I wish there were more books of this caliber. I hope that Soraya continues to write more books.

What a message of hope and perseverance!.......2003-08-11

I read a lot and it is rare that I find a book like this one. The story is engaging, easy to read, and really encouraging! It made me think on the many things I did not do for lack of courage and now I fell like I need to focus on those goals and just do them. If you are looking for a good read, read this one. It shows how is important to fight for what you beleive in!

Book Description

The story of how and why stroke survivor Tommye-K. Mayer taught her stroke-paralyzed body to run culminating with finishing Boston's Tufts 10K.

Mayer will run the 2001 Kona Marathon as a member of the American Stroke Association "Train to End Stroke" marathon team.

Customer Reviews:

An Amazing Must-Read Book.......2001-07-07

Teaching Me To Run is the true story of one woman's struggle back from a debilitating stroke. Against all odds she not only taught herself to walk but taught herself to run. For anyone who is struggling through life, for anyone who thinks they're having a bad day or a tough time, this book is an eye-opener. Tommy-K. Mayer is an inspiration and her story should be read, reread and shared.

Customer Reviews:

Like Andrew from New York says..........2006-02-01

Way back in 1958, long before The Time Out Film Guide or Videohounds Golden Movie Retriever were a twinkle in anyone's eye and a full decade before Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide first appeared on the market was this Movie Review guide by Steven Scheuer. From the 1960's through the 1980's it was basically a choice between this book or Maltin's for those of us wanting a comprehensive movie guide with capsule reviews and ratings. As of 1994 this guide mysteriously ceased publication, an event so unexpected that rumors began circulating as to the death of Mr. Scheuer himself! These rumors appear to have been greatly exagerrated as he recently edited a book on building a DVD library that is now for sale right here on Amazon.com.

Maltin's annual Movie guide is of course indispensable but I fear that at times people take what amounts to one critic's opinion as gospel. Comparing the two books is instructive as to the ultimately subjective nature of film viewing. Scheuer's guide gives Brazil(1985)*1/2 stars while Maltin gives it ***, Scheuer gives Blade Runner(1982)**** while Maltin gives it *1/2, Scheuer gives the gay art film Sebastiane(1979)***1/2, John Waters' Pink Flamigos(1973)**1/2 and cult sci-fi film Punishment Park(1971)*** while none are even included in Maltin's guide. That's the most surprising thing in flipping through this book...the odd, art-house omissions that have never been included in Maltin's book and apparantly never will.

When you step into a used bookstore to browse through the film section and see hundreds of obscure, out of print tomes that have unfortunately "died" due to not being read anymore please remember that there are a few titles out there that desperately SHOULD be in print again. Books like Danny Peary's Guide for The Film Fanatic, Lotte Eisner's bio of the great German director Murnau and this guide by Steven Scheuer.

Best Comprehensive Film Guide EVER.......2003-12-31

I bought every edition of this film guide until they apparently stopped making it in 1994. What a shame! The reviews are almost always dead-on and occasionally very funny. Also, the reviews are thoughtful and insightful despite being relatively brief. Still, this is one of the few movie guides that managed to say everything it needed to in a single paragraph to get its point across.

In the later editions (like this one) there was an appendix included so you could easily see all films made by a certain actor or director, which was very helpful.

The four star rating system was expertly used in this guide as well (generally, I prefer the 4-star system to the somewhat more prevalent 5-star), and small indicators let you know if the film is available on video or not.

One of the best features of this book was that it included made-for-TV films as well as those getting a theatrical release, plus many, many foreign films.

This book should be revised, updated, and published again!

Book Description

New Buffalo was one of the most successful of the collective farms that dotted the country in the 1960s and 1970s. Arthur Kopecky's journals take us back to that era as he and his comrades wend their way to the area near Taos, New Mexico, where they encounter magic, wisdom, a mix of people, the Peyote Church, planting, and hard winters.

The journals trace the group's evolution to adulthood as the party mood of the early 1970s gives way to the concerns of maintaining a growing farm. By 1975, several hundred people had called New Buffalo home and the business turned away from their counterculture goats, focusing, instead, on dairy cows.

“New Buffalo was emblematic of any number of communes where people came together by happenstance and `grew' a life together. The struggle and costs, the hard work, the endless labor and attention required to be self-sufficient; the learning of new skills, social and physical, that made every day an adventure are all here. . . . Remember or learn what it felt like to be young, optimistic, empowered and dedicated to making a better life. You will be amazed to see what persistent, dedicated, selfless, hard work can accomplish.”—Peter Coyote, actor, activist, and former resident of the Olema commune

Visit Kopecky's web site at www.arthurkopecky.com

Kopecky's journals take us back to the beginnings of New Buffalo, one of the most successful of the communes that dotted the country in the 1960s and 1970s, where he and his comrades encountered magic, wisdom, a mix of people, the Peyote Church, planting, and hard winters.

Customer Reviews:

History or Harbinger?.......2005-01-04

For those who believe that the prosperity-driven individualism, materialism, and (dare I say it) Calvinism, always present though rarely so triumphant as in the last general election, may have become a permanent American cultural monopoly, I have two recommendations. The first is "Collapse" by Jared Diamond, author of "Guns,Germs and Steel", who describes the demise of cultures whose citizens may likewise have thought their material success permanent, and "New Buffalo" by Arthur Kopecky, who chronicles as a Principal and key participant, the everyday experience of "Aquarian Age" communards who prophecied an alternative future, and labored mightily to master it's challenges. This group of uprooted young adventurers were linked with thousands across the country and the world,who committed themselves to a life of struggle, of voluntary renunciation of luxury, of fun and high times too, and they hoped for, and many worked hard for communitarian self-sufficiency. In part the movement was a rebuke to the smug and thoughtless triumphalism of capitalism and its depradations of the human soul, partly it was a search for a practical alternative, and partly it was a journey of discovery, blasting away the race, class, regional, cultural, boundaries between people, getting pretty "blasted" in the process,(positively and negatively) but living intensely, and experiencing intimate human relations not available under the protections of ordinary life.

I knew Artie in those days. He and I often disagreed. But in the end I was not prepared to make the sacrifices he and his core "bothers" and "sisters" made routinely, without feeling themselves anything but blessed (most of the time) to be able to make them. These were some people!

Artie's rock-steady and selfless devotion to a beautiful ideal, his careful, diligent, daily account of the experience of his community, are no mere memoire or hippy-dippy nostalgic indulgence. They are,in my opinion, a unique contribution to the sum of human experiential learning and were made at some considerable cost. It may be that some time in the future the experience of New Buffalo, so honestly presented here, will prove to be more precious than a memory. We all may yet need those skills, we all may yet need that mind, to master what may come.

Dan Cohn

Communes coming again ?.......2004-09-18

After reading New Buffalo By Art Kopecky I was relieved to find it more of a documentary than one persons quest . My generation seemed to be inbetwix any real cause or reason for anti-anything !and his book brought me to a time that was for me , A mythical time where quests for a better way of living was read about not went for . . I now have a view not biased by media , ego , or fuzzy recollections . Although the later may be in dispute . I enjoyed looking into a culture that I was not yet old enough to be in , but had siblings in the middle of . It allowed me to go where I was , I suppose , Embarassed to admit that I had no knowledge of . Art's description of putting up (finally) a wall , or getting proper drainage around the garden area , The gatherings around supper time and his introductions of all the different people put a vivid picture of exactly how it looked and felt right down to the many aromas waifing about !I think it's a great time to read how we can survive together and keep the environment in which we all depend on healthy for a few more millenia . One more thing , Peter Coyote's intro was a pleasant surprise and he's not the only person who pops in either !!! Sincerly , Samuel E.

My history.......2004-09-08

I would like to thank Arty for putting my history in print so that people can better understand a time in America that is worth writing about.
Reading this book gave me a better realization of the life i have lived.Learning certain accounts of my life through another's perspective has given me greater appreciation of the lifestyle I was born into. This journal gives accounts of the day to day life of communal living.

Threads of Gold.......2004-09-01

This book is unique. It is like nothing else you are likely to read. There are incidents, anecdotes, and life situations that have much in common with other chronicles of the times, most especially, *Scrapbook of a Taos Hippie* by Iris Keltz. Indeed, the latter work makes a splendid companion volume to this one because it mentions many of the same people, places and events of the time. Does it with engaging interviews and an overvoice that glues it all together.

Arthur Kopecky's faithful recording of life at the New Buffalo commune from 1971 to 1976, however, is unique in that it is a true journal with the energy and immediacy of real-time events.

The commune itself is the narrative voice. During the times when Kopecky left to visit other communes or to go hunting with other communards or to bring his own mother from New York, other people took up the journal and filled in the gaps of day-to-day existence on the scene. Sometimes they left their names, sometimes not. Sometimes they agreed with Arty (or An Swei as he called himself then), and sometimes they struck chords of dissent and argument. But it's all here.

Here you will find accounts of making adobe bricks to add on more rooms to the pueblo, accounts of their problems and successes with their many farm animals - cows, pigs, chickens, goats, mules - their craft activity to make money on the side - jewelry-making, candle-making, weaving, carpentry, bee-keeping, cooking, canning, drying, storing and harvesting their crops, stories of their wild parties with music and dancing, chronicles of the peyote meetings at and around Buffalo, accounts of cooperating with locals for their water rights for irrigation, their relationship with other communes in the area (Morningstar, Reality, Lama, Five Star) their struggles with taxes and with making New Buffalo a legal corporation (finally successful), diaries of their children and home birthing, their famous hospitality to so many visitors from all over this country and other countries, their problems with outdated machinery and vehicles. All this and still there are introspective passages about their lives, the war in Viet Nam, and their marriages, love affairs, births, and deaths.

Various entries speak for themselves of the life and flavor of New Buffalo.

"We got a refrigerator out of the dump for a smoke house. Pepe taught me to cut a hole in the bottom, connect with stovepipe to a covered fruit wood fire twelve feet away. This provides cold smoke for best taste."

"Larry started hooking up the new hot water tank to run off the wood cook stove. He worked all day on it. The thirty-gallon tank sits behind the firebox, the smoke goes where the insulation used to be, and a water pipe goes right in the fire and back out. If you were on a colony spaceship, you'd want this guy with you."

"Full moon. Wild party here started in the afternoon. Mick butchered five chickens. Jason from the Hog Farm helped do the cooking. We had cars, trucks, longhaired hippies, dark-skinned gypsies and big-chested, long-legged dancing girls getting it on in the front yard. Guitars, a banjo, three or four drums, a saxophone, a clarinet, and perhaps 80 people here. Fire in the courtyard at night. Joseph Cruz from the Pueblo came with Phil, Joe, Henry and Benjamin, all local Indians. They sing really fine. I went to bed early in the moonlight, under a cedar tree on the hill, listening to their ancient songs."

"Yesterday we stepped into a Van Gogh painting and cut the golden wheat field. Five sickles and two stackers worked much of the day. Incredibly beautiful. Also weeded and watered the cornfield. We have a pretty good harvest."

"County Fair tomorrow! Carol baked coffeecakes for the contest, and she's really got a chance to produce the best. Kim is bringing fresh carrots, beets, onions, yellow squash, and lettuce. He is already putting carrots away - colors so lush in the humid air - beautiful produce. John intends to enter cheese, butter and maybe some goats."

"This mudding we can do. Old way good way. Basically grab a handful with the straw and some sand mixed in, and slap it on the wall. Next smooth it out a bit. To keep the clothes clean, it's best to take them off."

"We live in such abundance. A bunch of poor people, we are still able to scrape up what we need to patch and glue this scene together."

"Recommended: Don't store the apples and rutabagas in the same cellar."

"Mercy mission to Lama; they have some sick ones. We gave them a five-pound cheese, elk meat, candles..."

"The huge teepee is up and the floor is covered with sheepskins, blankets and rugs. Tonight we go in to pray for a good spring and for this place. New buffalo was started with a peyote meeting. The ceremony joins the spirit of the new arrivals and the Indians, and gives thanks to mother earth, father sky and Jesus, for our life."

"The commune is a natural alternative to the lifestyle of consumption. I've still got a notion in the back of my head that this may play a role in the future of this country's economics. With roots in the soil, with people being close to some essentials, there would be less insecurity about the often-slipping number of jobs. With more working people not so dependent on the jobs offered by the big corporations, we would perhaps be able to depose those people who guide our economy into such conspicuous consumption."

Even though New Buffalo is no longer a commune, its legacy and vision continue. In my experience, it takes a long time to read a journal. It's different from a story, since there's no narrative thread per se. But the time is well worth it. The threads you do find are of solid gold.

An Accurate Representation.......2004-07-15

I'm struggling my way through this book, determined to read it all as a tribute to the people that built and lived at the New Buffalo. The daily struggle that these folks went through to attempt to invent a better way of living is apparent in the journal entries reproduced here - a statement on joy, boredom, love, angst, fear, loathing, peace, and happiness. It clearly was not a piece of cake nor an always fun adventure - neither is this book, but ultimately those that lived it, and those that read about it will be richer for the experience.

Average customer rating:

World Hisory in Brief

World development from the beginning of time through 1450

World History in Brief: Major Patterns of Change and Continuity, Combined Volume (with Study Card) (5th Edition) (MyHistoryLab Series)
Peter Stearns
Manufacturer: Longman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Documents in World History, Volume I: The Great Tradition: From Ancient Times to 1500 (4th Edition)

Documents in World History, Volume II: The Modern Centuries: From 1500 to the Present (4th Edition)

Personalities & Problems: Interpretive Essays in World Civilization, Volume II

The Human Record: Sources of Global History : To 1700

World History in Documents: A Comparative Reader

ASIN: 032134586X

Book Description

With a brief, global approach, this book explores world history to 1450, showing how different civilizations developed in a global context and then encountered the various forces of contemporary life. This book presents the big picture of world history, highlighting the major developments in the world's history to 1450 and presenting the global interactions of major civilizations. For anyone interested in world history to 1450.

Customer Reviews:

World Hisory in Brief.......2005-09-26

Exceeded my expectations. Book was on time and in very good condition.

World development from the beginning of time through 1450.......2000-01-12

I recently decided to return to college after being away for nearly 20 years raising a family. This text was one of my first courses and I found it easy to understand, well laid-out, and concise. Generally speaking, it dealt with issues thoroughly, though I would have liked to have seen more coverage on gender issues through the ages. Early civilization was primarily patriarchal, yet women played an intricate part in the development of society through the ages. I think any student interested in learning about the origins of civilization would benefit greatly by using this text. The chapters covered topics well, but weren't excessively lengthy. The companion document book worked well with this text, preventing any confusion as to the time table involved. This book should be included as a reference or required reading for any history major. Mr. Stearns did a wonderful job covering a large span of time in simple terms and in few pages. Having a wonderful professor, along with easy-to-understand text, influenced me to add history as one of my majors--along with my major of English. I only hope my second semester in history goes as well as my first!

5-Card Major Stayman (Master Bridge Series)

Average customer rating:

5-Card Major Stayman (Master Bridge Series)
Ron Klinger
Manufacturer: Cassell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0304368083

Book Description

In bridge, there are definite benefits in allowing a One No-Trump opening to include a 5-card major. More and more experts at international level have adopted such a style. If you are an ambitious player and are keen to improve the range of your no-trump bidding, you will need help from this easily structured book.

Average customer rating:

Another great book from Ron Klinger

5-card Majors
Ron Klinger
Manufacturer: Orion Publishing Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Ron Klinger's Master Class (Master Bridge Series)

ASIN: 0575052511

Book Description

Most international bridge players use five-card majors in their bidding systems. This excellent book provides a comprehensive account of five-card majors in the modern style, and is valuable whether you wish to play the system yourself or want to know the methods of your opponents.

Customer Reviews:

Another great book from Ron Klinger.......2000-09-09

For many people (myself included), Ron Klinger writes the best books on bridge bidding. His 'Guide to Better Bridge' (both Standard American and Acol editions) and 'Beginning Bridge' co-authored with Kambites and husband are outstanding examples of how bidding books should be written: each chapter starts with several clearly stated principles and moves straight into just the right number of self-tests to enable the reader to check their progress.

'Five-Card Majors' -- now in its second edition -- is another outstanding volume in the series. Acol players may be a little disturbed that Klinger says here that 5-card majors are clearly better than Acol, when he gives the impression in his Acol books that Acol contains all you need.

The book isn't quite comprehensive enough for me: I am still waiting for Ron to give the Two-over-One system of 5-card Majors a thorough treatment, as the Mike Lawrence book on the subject is flawed.

But this is still a great book, and a significant improvement on the first edition.

Average customer rating:
Keyfax 5: A Guide to Every Major Digital Piano, General MIDI Module, Home Keyboard, and Computer Sound Card
Julian Colbeck
Manufacturer: Special Interest Model Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Piano | Instruments & Performers | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1872601650

Average customer rating:
5 Card Major Bedding in Contract Bridge
Harold Feldman
Manufacturer: Devyn Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JJWMGW

Average customer rating:

Five Card Majors

5 Card Major Bidding in Contract Bridge
Harold Feldheim
Manufacturer: Baron Barclay Bridge Supplies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Card Games | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0681909412

Customer Reviews:

Five Card Majors.......2000-02-17

A total bidding system in an easy-to-understand format. We used this text to teach bidding to an advanced intermediate class. The result was a vast improvement in reaching an accurate contract.

Average customer rating:

5-Card Major Stayman
Ron Klinger
Manufacturer: GOLLANCZ (ORIO)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K1YIB6

Average customer rating:

5-Card Majors (Master Bridge Series)
Ron Klinger
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NO3KDM

Bridge Lessons : American Standard 5 Card Major

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Bridge Lessons : American Standard 5 Card Major
Bob Sanders
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
ASIN: B000JMC4BM

Product Description

Microsoft Office Access 2003 - Step by Step - self-training course - CD, English

Customer Reviews:

Review.......2007-09-03

thi9s is a quite useful book that covers a range of detailed information. at times i find it difficult t olocate exactly what i want and i feel the book is written with an expectation that you will undestand a great deal of the technical terms before embarking on this work book.

Microsoft Office Access 2003 Step by Step.......2007-06-27

It is an easy to follow book
plain English with good practical examples
more exercises will increase the benefit of it

Outstanding Book!.......2007-05-17

This book is well written and provides very exacting details to ensure a firm understanding of Microsoft Access. I found the CD-Rom with the example files to be extremely helpful as well. This book is an excellent reference source for those just beginning Access, to those who have a more advanced grasp of Access already.

Not a very good book despite the name.......2007-03-08

This book doesn't teach you access to any depth. Lots of fluff but no real meat. Don't spend $27 and waste your time. If you want to learn or master access, check out Alison Balter book "Mastering Microsoft Office Access 2003".

The perfect book to learn Ms Access.......2007-01-21

This book is perfect to learn MsAccess from scratch. It is clear, as its title says, it is step by step. Also included a CD with all the exemples required to understand and make exercises.

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