Living Knowledge: The Dynamics of Professional Service Work

Book Description

What should the next generation of knowledge management practices be? Living Knowledge offers an empirical perspective on the dynamic and living nature of knowledge in organizations, based on research on professional service work. The book starts from a perspective on knowledge as being constituted in practice and guides the reader through a diverse set of organizational experiences. These cases present a series of new concepts for understanding and managing knowledge, such as half-worked boundary objects, knowledge hyperstories, activity centered knowledge support and knowledge dramas.

Customer Reviews:

Knowledge management revisited.......2004-08-23

This timely and important book is a highly unusual contribution in the field of knowledge management. The authors have identified the implicit dilemma in most knowledge management texts, i.e. while we know that organizational knowledge exists in practice and processes, it is most often treated as information to be gathered, stored and managed. In this book, the contributing authors have taken corrective action, and with good results. They treat knowledge as a property of living and breathing people and the social interaction they engage in.

The book is useful in a number of ways:

- First, the authors have developed a personal and unique viewpoint to knowledge management, which they validate through the extensive use of empirical insights, as experienced by the researchers themselves.

- Second, the authors make use of theories from continental philosophy and literature research in an accessible manner, thus offering introductions to theories and viewpoints novel to management scientists as well as practicing managers.

- Third, the book may also serve as a successful example of making good science out of organization development processes in which a researcher participates as an active change agent. While many management researchers are involved in such projects, we see too few academically satisfactory publications of such work.

I recommend this book to all adventurous practitioners and scholars interested or involved in knowledge management.

Book Description

At last! The nuts and bolts of building robotics. . .MECHANICAL DEVICES FOR THE ELECTRONICS EXPERIMENTER Here's the book electronics experimenters have been waiting for. . .a how-to book for designing and fabricating the mechnical devices for motion and positioning in robotic applications--as well as others. Filled with easy-to-understand illustrations, this unique guide describes in detail how to: design robot propulsion systems; fabricate components for pneumatic systems; design simple hydraulic systems and motor controller circuits; design and fabricate solenoids, gear trains and cams; adapt parts and components for use in electronics experiments. Harness the use of electromechanical forces with plenty of practical advice and applicable theoretical information. Explore the possiblities of ingenious invention. . .

Customer Reviews:

Valuable supplementary resource.......2001-07-09

As I understand it, Rorabaugh wrote this book as a supplementary resource for robotics hobbyists, rather than as a primary tool meant to stand on its own. It is valuable within this context. If you have a background in basic electronics and robotics, or are reading this book concurrently with others in these areas, Rorabaugh's book will make sense and add to your understanding. Yes, it is true that I have seen clearer discussions of vector math in other books. The examples on pages 25 and 89 are not very clear. Rorabaugh uses terms like 'annulus' (p. 108) without explaining them ('annulus' refers to any ring or ringlike mark), and on p. 109, he refers to planetary gear trains, which are not described and explained until p. 118. All this being said, for those interested in topics such as levers, gears, wheels and pulleys, encoders, solenoids, springs, and linkages, Rorabaugh will provide you with the introductory theory, formulas, and design ideas you are seeking. I thought the section on pneumatics was good, and I found materials in that section that I have not seen duplicated elsewhere. There are plenty of drawings, and the explanations are concise. You can spend your time hunting through various engineering texts and scattered Web sites and numerous other places for the same material, or you can get a concise introduction to these topics in this one book, and use it as the basis for learning more. I opted for the book, and I am pleased with my decision.

Great Intro. to Mechanical Design.......2000-10-10

The book is a great intro to basic mechanical design needed to make simple devices with DC motors, gears, pullies, and pneumatic pistons. The author covers the theory in an easy to understand fashion in a very practical way. I use it in my freshmen level design class, where students build simple robots.

I selected one star cos there was nothing lower........1999-08-07

I opened the first page and it came off in my hands. You would need a doctrate degree in Nuclear Physics to understand but only just barely. How long did it take you to build up this pile of meaningless pages? 5 minutes? Next time you think about putting pen to paper, heres a small piece of advice, don't.

Nothing practical.......1999-07-23

I bought this book, but regretted it. There is nothing practical in this book. Mostly introduces lots and lots of different, unrelated, mechanical things such as gears, pulleys, etc. Has a completely useless chapter on walking robots, mostly about linkabes.

Principles of Electronic Devices And Circuits Experiments

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Principles of Electronic Devices And Circuits Experiments
David E. Lalond
Manufacturer: Delmar Thomson Learning
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Vocational Guidance | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Women's Careers explores contexts and strategies that advance or hinder women's career development. It brings readers up-to-date on the intersection of the cross-disciplinary fields of career development, women's studies, and human resources. The applied focus and broad range of topics covered will appeal to scholars and professionals in these fields. Women's Careers examines four key topic areas. Part I presents an introduction to current issues and research. Part II discusses planning and preparation and includes insights into topics such as mentors' roles, cultural differences, women and leadership, and career versus family conflicts. Part III investigates challenges in the work environment for women entrepreneurs and supervisors, and discusses affirmative action and sexual harassment. Each chapter opens with a preview that places the material in the author's personal experience.

Customer Reviews:

Miss Piggy Rules.......2007-06-30

If you love Miss Piggy, you will enjoy this book, for some of her wit, charm and karate-chopping style come through loud and clear, emphasis on loud. While not as insightful or enjoyable as "Miss Piggy's Guide to Life," which seems more consistent with The Diva Herself, this is a very funny read. It won't do you any good to read with an eye for consistency--you simply can't reconcile Piggy's rules with her undying love for Kermit--but if you read with an eye for humour, you won't be disappointed.

Desperate SP Seeks SF. Any SF........2002-03-23

At the used price, I'd say it makes a splendid alternative to a card. Grab one and include it in a basket with some Godiva`s and smelly bubble bath, and TA DAAH!! You've got a fabo gift for one of your close, single girlfriends. She'll love the writing in oh-so-true Miss Piggy voice. I could actually hear her "HI-YA's" a couple of times. Artwork is funky and fun, too.

This is soooooo %$^&* funny!.......1999-02-11

I found a used copy of this book and wish they would put it back in print. It totally debunks that ridiculous book "The Rules". Don't take it too seriously, but read it for its sheer wit and whimsy. I don't think this book is sexist at all--it is supposed to be FUNNY! To everyone that reads it and takes it seriously...LIGHTEN UP! It was supposed to be written by Miss Piggy, for heaven's sake! This is a perfect book to give as a gift to girlfriends and share with boyfriends--most of the guys I know have found this book funny too. Classic.

brilliant.......1998-11-13

This is funny, funny stuff. Acerbic, witty, ironic. Porcine

Deliciously wicked!.......1998-01-15

Miss Piggy thumbs her more-than-generous nose at the so-called "Rules" and provides us with a rippingly good time. Read this book with your tongue firmly planted in your cheek!

Book Description

With a new preface by the author.

Ten years after his murder, Tupac Shakur is even more loved, contested, and celebrated than he was in life. His posthumously released albums, poetry, and motion pictures have catapulted him into the upper echelon of American cultural icons. In Holler If You Hear Me, "hip-hop intellectual" Michael Eric Dyson, acclaimed author of the bestselling Is Bill Cosby Right?, offers a wholly original way of looking at Tupac that will thrill those who already love the artist and enlighten those who want to understand him.

Customer Reviews:

Hip Hop can be intellectual .......2007-04-26

Micheal Dyson's book "Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur" was a pleasant and refreshing surprise. I purchased the book thinking it would be another biography of my favorite artist and I got so much more. It spoke to me intellectually as well as making me culturally aware of the issues and concerns of the black community yesterday, today, and tommorrow. I felt like this is the best book about Tupac out there today, not because it follows every step of his life, but because I got to take a look at him as a protagonist and an antagonist in urban socieity. I found out what books he read, what people thought of him outside of his culture, the influence he had on society outside of rap, and most importantly I figured out about his thought process and honesty. Michael even gives us an interesting perspective of Tupac as a child of a Black Panther, the last of the Shakurs'. This book is for anyone who is a real fan of Tupac and wants to see him from every angle possible.

Solid book on the fallen rap star.......2007-01-09

I must give props to Micheal Eric Dyson. He did a good job on this autobiography of this rebel of the underground. Michael Eric Dyson writes pretty good detailed accounts on Tupac's life without the being bias or partial(something a lot of these trash ragazines couldnt do to save their puny lives!). This son of a Black Panther was a lot deeper than these egocentric clowns you compare him to in the rap game. Tupac was giving you gems since his first magnum opus 2pacalypse Now. A lot of the rappers you compare him to still talk abou absolutely nothing. Its sad that there are still some childish jackals out there trying to desecrate the memory of this conscious poet. Even though he was a flawed character(like everybody else!) he was still giving you treasures like Part Time Mutha, Trapped, Violent, Keep Your Head Up, Point Tha Finga, Dear Mother etc and Micheal Eric Dyson notes this. I strongly recommend Holla If You Hear Me. REST IN PEACE TUPAC AMARU SHAKUR AND PEACE TO MICHAEL ERIC DYSON

Would have been a better book If he actually would have TALKED ABOUT TUPAC MORE!.......2006-01-31

Tupac Amaru Shakur may not have been Hip Hop's "best" rapper of all time, but he is hands down, without question, the greatest and most compelling Hip Hop FIGURE, of all time. what amazes me so much about Tupac is how he seems to represent so many different things to so many different people.Some people see Tupac as nothing more then a foul mouthed Thug who got what he deserved when he was killed. Other people see him as a Hip Hop Martyr/revolutionary who was on the verge of becoming a great leader, when he was killed. Then their are those who who don't think of Tupac as anything more then a dead rapper. While others see 2pac as not only the voice for his genre, but rather the voice for his generation.To me, the truth is, Tupac was/is probably a combination of all those things to some degree. He is and probably will always remain the only true ICON in rap.Like I said earlier, he wasn't the best rapper, he wasn't the best lyricist, he didn't have the best metaphors, he wasn't the best battle rapper, but it was just somthing about him, something about his charisma, someting about his passion, something about his emotion, something about his words, something about his voice, that just somehow seemed to separate him from everyone else.If their was one M.C. who deserved a book written about them and their life, Pac was clearly that person.

I gave this book 4 stars, but it really deserves about a 3.5 star rating. The book is supposed to be about Tupac, but Tupac only seems to be a vehicle for Michael Dyson to discuss Young Black Males as a whole. That's all fine and dandy, but I didn't buy this book for that.I bought this book to get insight on Tuapc, and in terms of that, this book dissapointed to a certain degree.But what really grabed me in this book was when they were talking about his experiance in prison. They talked about how he may or may not have been raped. To me, that was nothing more then what it was, a rumer. A lot of people don't know this, and something they should have added in the book, right before he went to prison and after he was shot 5 times, he was suicidal.In fact, at his house one day, his family caught him sitting in a living room with F**k the world written across his forehead and a 45 pistal he was pointing at his head. Now imagine, on top of everything else, how he would have reacted, if the most degrading, humiliating thing that could possibly happen to a man(or women for that matter), happened to him, on top of everything else.Ive digressed.

The bottom line is, this would have been a very enjoyible book, sans all of the big words as well as all the interviews with people who not only didn't know Tupac but in all likelihood, never even so much as seen or came in contact with the brother before(Stanly crouch,Kephra Burns,Mos def Talib Kweli, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Ray Jay, Sonia Sanchez,ect.).In fact, I really don't even know what buisiness they had even being put in this book(W/ all do respect to all of them).The book Title is called; "Searching For Tupac Shakur" not, "What people who never even knew Tupac Shakur think about him". If you want a real book on Tupac Shakur, and only Tupac Shakur, Then you should pick up Darrin Bastfields book on Tupac.This, buy no means,is a bad book however.

I must confess that I am only half way through the book.......2005-10-18

and so it may be unfair for me to give an opinion but sense i am a book worm, the kind that prides myself on reading a book in one day, I feel that I am experienced enough to pick up a certain sense of the author by the first chapter.
Now, in saying that, so far, from what I've read, I feel the authoer (Mr. Dyson) is trying to appeal to people outside of hip hop because it is as if he's saying that Tupac was more than a thug, or there was something very dynamic about his thug formula at the same time tragic (to say the least).
There's no doubt in my man that Tupac (r.i.p.) was an intelligent person to some level because of how he articulated his words and I knew he had some grass root flavor because the brother was straight up real in what he was saying (interviews, appearences) outside of his music. But I feel that Mr. Dyson is trying to tell the world (white world?) that Tupac was a very soulful and artistic person who was gotten trapped inside of his art that lead to a very tragic ending; that he (tupac had more to offer the world) before his early death.
I feel that who ever Mr. Dyson was trying to reach with his semi-autobiography of the slain star is very least insulting towards the average person's intelligence because history dictates that once a person is stuck with interest by a person, place or thing, that person will go out on their own to find out more information about the object of their attention (be it elderly white rock n' roll types, blues people, whoever) and in saying that, perhaps, this type of mindset is who Mr. Dyson was aiming at.
Another thing that bothers me about hip hop journalism in general is that in general, I don't know who were the true ideal reader that these books are meant for: are they for the true hip hopper or is it the true hippor and a more broader reading base (with high literary skills?) because whenever I read this types of books (3 so far) I need a thesaurus next to me. And I figure hip hop isn't about using big words, and so if one wants to write about the art form, they have to also think like the fan and not like themselves to make a core impact. Not that I'm saying this book hasn't made a good impact (look at the other reviews) but when one makes a comparison (and you should), I like Chuck D's book, "Fight the Power" because it's simple, down to earth, and honest. Infact, I was surprised how Chuck D honest approach throughout the whole book because he was humble and not egotistical or biased.
Anyway, read the book, like I'm continuing to do so and judge for yourself.

The metaphysic of Tupac Shakur .......2005-02-21

Here is an overview of some of the issues and ideas expressed by the Reverend Professor Dyson in this book about Tupac Shakur.

Tupac's mother was a Black Panther, who had served as her own lawyer to acquit herself out of a COINTELPRO frameup. For the most part, it seems from the mid-70's onward, her involvement with the Panthers, had blacklisted her from the mainstream. By the early 80's, she had developed a severe addiction to crack cocaine. But she nonetheless managed to cultivate in Tupac a precocious intellect. He became a very literate young fellow, interested in political issues, art, literature and the theater. Tupac's family moved to Baltimore in 1986 and there he entered a School of Arts where he excelled. According to Dyson, he organized Stop the Violence and AIDS awareness campaigns as a student. However his mother was getting more crazy and kicked Tupac out on the street. He ended up in Marin City CA outside of Oakland in the home of the wife of the then wrongfully imprisoned Geronimo Pratt. The Pratt home was apparently very broken. According to Dyson, Tupac had a great difficult fitting in upon arriving in Marin City. He didn't know how to play basketball, wrote poetry, dressed like a hippy, and was a target of gangs. According to the taped interview of Tupac at age 17, that Dyson quotes extensively from, Tupac complained that he was rejected by a girl on the ground that he was "too nice." Tupac in the tape declares that he will keep treating the girls right and maybe they won't fall for the bad boys anymore and turn to sensitive, decent fellows like him. Tupac fled the Pratt house, and ended up in an abandoned apartment with some of his friends. He got a job at a pizza parlor. He started selling drugs but apparently some street people dissuaded him from it. He had just turned seventeen, when he met Leila Steinberg, a lovely young white woman with an admixture of Jewish and Chicano ancestry. Steinberg conducted workshops in the inner city high schools in the area that allowed youth to engage in various artistic forms. Tupac moved in with her and her then husband, a black rap promoter and children. He became her assistant.

By the early 90's Tupac with Steinberg as reading partner, was consuming religious tracts of all the religions, such novelists as Alice Walker, Herman Meliville and William Styron, the poetry of Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelou, books of investigative journalism, Nietzsche,W.E.B. Dubois. He read Eurocentric works and tried to discredit them. He also read Sigmund Freud to discredit him, according to Steinberg; he held the opinion that Freud was "a frustrated homosexual who never fully formulated his opinions."

Beyond the great intellect, Dyson writes, Tupac struggled with some mighty demons. His relationship with his mother had really wrecked havoc with him psychologically. Like a lot of ghetto youth, he had identity problems. He came of age in an era of the "white blacklash" and "white flight",of the deregulation that allowed the fleeing of working class manufacturing jobs to poor countries, of declining government subsidies. Meanwhile, more and more blacks were hoarded into prison on such principles of justice that places harsh justice on the consumer of crack but relatively light sentences on the predominantly wealthy white users of powder cocaine.

According to Dyson, Tupac defined thuggery in terms of someone who is trying to survive and be a man in a society that shuns and oppress them. Tupac made an acronym of thug life-"the hate you give little infants f-ks everyone." Dyson quotes Vijay Prashad on the interesting roots of the word "thug." It apparently is rooted in the Indian subcontinent and referred to brigands who robbed bullion cargos being looted by the British imperialists.

The thug life gives ghetto youth self-esteem and fellowship with other males. Tupac had similar motivations according to Dyson for entering the gangsta rap world with his second album. He tried to live that life to the fullest, getting drunk and high a lot. He lived life very recklessly, challenging god to bring death on him. In this flirting with death, Tupac expressed the psychological state of all too many ghetto residents, including chiliastic impulses, a deep down severe pain with life on this earth.

Dyson writes that most folks don't really consider Tupac really guilty of the offense for which he spent eleven months in prison. The woman claimed that Tupac had participated in a gang rape of her. He was only convicted of "forcibly" touching her buttocks. The prison experience damaged him. He might have been raped there. Dyson discusses sexism in the black community. He writes that the Million Man March sponsored by Farrakhan was an example of black men getting together to affirm that they going to live constructive lives.

Tupac's embrace of thuggery seems pretty silly to say the least. No doubt he was trying to make some money by cultivating the image, as the Notorious B.I.G. later claimed Tupac told him.

Dyson at times writes clearly and simply, even musically; much of the rest of the time, he writes in a rambling, gnarled, bookish style. There are times particularly in the last chapter, when he is almost unreadable. Nonetheless, he paints of moving picture of Tupac, who, in the true style of the poet, could evoke profound emotion with simple words and his vocal skills in his songs.

Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. ( Unabridged Audio Cass)

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Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. ( Unabridged Audio Cass)
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: 1402512376

Book Description

London, 1921. The world's greatest wax sculptor watches in horror as flames consume his museum and melt his uncannily lifelike creations. Twelve years later, he opens a wax museum in New York. Crippled, disfigured, and driven mad by the fire, he resorts to body snatching and murder to populate his displays, preserving the bodies in wax. "In a thousand years you will be as lovely as you are now," he assures one victim. In The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), director Michael Curtiz perfectly captures the macabre essence of realistic wax figures that have excited the darker aspects of the public's imagination ever since Madame Tussaud established her famous museum in London in 1802.

Artists, too, have been fascinated by wax sculptures, seeing in them-and in the unique properties of wax itself-an eerie metaphoric power with which to address sexual anxiety, fears of mortality, and other morbid subjects. In Waxworks, Michelle E. Bloom explores the motif of the wax figure in European and American literature and art. In particular, she connects the myth of Pygmalion to the obsession with wax statues of women in the nineteenth-century fetishization of prostitutes and female corpses and as depicted in such "wax fictions" as Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop (1841). Filmmakers, too, have sought inspiration from wax museums, and Bloom analyzes works from the silent era to such waxwork-themed Hollywood horror films as Mad Love (1935) and House of Wax (1953). Bringing her discussion to the present, Bloom examines the work of contemporary artists who use the medium of wax in ways never imagined by Madame Tussaud. As extravagant new wax museums open in Las Vegas, Times Square, and Paris, Waxworks offers a provocative cultural history of this enduring-and disturbing-art form.

Michelle E. Bloom is assistant professor of French and comparative literature at the University of California, Riverside.

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Refined by Fire: Secrets of Becoming a Champion of Life Challenges

Manufacturer: GMA Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

Refined by Fire: Finding Purpose in Your Pain

Refined by Fire: Discovering Victory through Adversity

ASIN: 1592680798

Book Description

Refined by Fire: Secrets of Becoming a Champion of Life Challenges is a collection of successful Christian women from around the nation, representing all arenas of life, with the sole purpose of experiencing the full manifest riches that we have available in Jesus Christ. They share heart stopping testimonies of breaking the bonds of depression, low self-esteem, poverty, disease, divorce, generational curses, and more. Learn how these women have been loosed from spiritual, emotional, and relational bondage. These women have risen to prominence in their walk with Jesus, their home, and their ministry to the world. They share their most intimate secrets of success and teach you how to apply them to your own life! This book will produce in you: *Faith that will produce more fruit *Tenacity that will outlive the enemy's testing periods *Holiness that will produce the glory of Jesus in your everyday life *Discernment concerning decision-making in tough circumstances *Forgiveness that frees your spirit and demonstrates Christ's model to us Read this book today and become the Champion that God created you to be! Refined by Fire is inspired by 1 Peter 1:7 -That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be refined by fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

Spelling Challenges (word lists for champion spellers)

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Spelling Challenges (word lists for champion spellers)

Manufacturer: a beka book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FNJ6UC

Product Description

a list of words for class spelling bees and inter-class contests to challenge students to improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, and develop a love for words.

Black Champions Challenge American Sports

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Black Champions Challenge American Sports
Wally Jones
Manufacturer: David McKay Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0679502416

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Black Champions Challenge American Sports
Wally Jones; And Jim Washington
Manufacturer: DAVID MCKAY COMPANY, INC.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OK1QTA

Challenges for Champions (Super Hero Role Playing, Stock No. 404)

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Ten Scenarios for Super-Hero Role Playing

Challenges for Champions (Super Hero Role Playing, Stock No. 404)

Manufacturer: Berkley Pub Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1558060464

Customer Reviews:

Ten Scenarios for Super-Hero Role Playing.......2001-05-21

I was a comic book fan before the Batman TV show launched the Silver Age, and a Role-playing fan since the original White Box version of Dungeons & Dragons. The Hero System is an excelent role playing system. It allowed one to simulate the comic book genra, among other things it was the first system (as far as I know of) that allowed non-fatal damage, making it possible to knock out a character without killing them.

Challenges for Champions is ten unconnected miminalist scenarios for the Champions Super Hero role playing system. These are good to fill in if a prepared scenario finishes more quickly than anticipated, or scenarios in a running campagine, or as a jump start for the GameMaster's imagination.

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A good concise Judo book for the aspiring Judoka

Judo: How to become a champion (The Challenge series)
John Goodbody
Manufacturer: W. Luscombe
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0860020088

Customer Reviews:

A good concise Judo book for the aspiring Judoka.......1998-02-25

A concise Judo book written by a professional writer with Judo skills. Many of the fighters illustrating his techniques have become British judo champions.

Lawn tennis: How to become a champion (The Challenge series)

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Lawn tennis: How to become a champion (The Challenge series)
Mark Cox
Manufacturer: W. Luscombe
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0860021327

A Pictorial History of Bandera County: 150 Years of Challenges and Courage, Champions and Characters

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A Pictorial History of Bandera County: 150 Years of Challenges and Courage, Champions and Characters

Manufacturer: Donning Company Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Robo Machine Featuring Challenge of the Gobots: Champions of LIXIL (Mini World)

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Robo Machine Featuring Challenge of the Gobots: Champions of LIXIL (Mini World)

Manufacturer: World International Publishing Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0723578109

Snooker: How to become a champion (The Challenge series)

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Snooker: How to become a champion (The Challenge series)
Rex Williams
Manufacturer: Transatlantic Arts, distributor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0860020096

Product Description

Learn lethally effective, real-world debugging techniques for Microsoft Windows-based applications. John Robbins, known for his popular "Bugslayer" column in MSDN Magazine, expands this book's classic first edition with all-new scenarios and bug-killing t

Amazon.com

In the predecessor volume of Debugging Applications for Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Windows, which dealt with Visual Basic 6, John Robbins broke new ground by codifying the techniques and strategies involved in debugging Microsoft Windows applications. In this tremendously revised and much longer version (in keeping with Microsoft's substantial shift to the .NET architecture), Robbins achieves great progress in making a proper professional discipline out of debugging--and in showing how to design software to keep bugs from appearing in the first place.

The greatest value of Robbins' work is in his treatment of bugs' origins in flawed software design and their later manifestation in faulty coding practice. He explains in great detail, for example, how to use assertions (in concert with error handling) to keep bad data from getting into software modules and causing trouble. This coverage is why your development team should read this book before getting too far down the development path.

If you're already done with your software system and just can't make it work right (and, naturally, the Deadline of Death is looming), this book offers hope as well. Want to write a method that you invoke manually only when the program is at a breakpoint in the debugger? This book shows how. Need lots of details on how to add assembly-language code to your Visual C++ .NET software? You'll find them here. There's a lot of information about how debuggers do their work in general, too. To put it concisely, this book contains a career's worth of information on how to keep bugs to a minimum and track them down when they occur. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to design Microsoft Windows software to minimize design flaws, implement designs with as few software errors as possible, and use diagnostic tools and techniques to squash bugs that make it into your systems. All the latest Visual Studio .NET tools get attention, as do techniques for getting the most out of those tools. Specific coverage goes to strategies for fixing thread deadlock problems, resolving memory troubles, and reading Dr. Watson dumps.

Customer Reviews:

Definitive guide to Windows debugging.......2006-03-09

I have bought all of John's books. He is the guy Microsoft calls when they can't solve a problem. On top of that he has a great writing style, is easy to understand, and has some great war stories. His books are always the top of my recommended reading list.

A very useful discussion of Windows debugging practices.......2005-01-08

This book brings a vast amount of Windows-specific debugging information together in one place and has been very helpful to me. Some of this info could be found elsewhere, but only by sorting through dozens of documentation pages and magazine articles, some many years old, and additionally the author adds value by giving very explicit instructions (even providing source code) on how to do things that are often only hinted at in the Microsoft documentation.

Most useful to me were the symbol-server tips, the SuperAssert macro and seeing how it does it what it does, crash handling in general, and the author's insight into why certain things are so slow (like OutputDebugString).

This book does have a not-so-subtle anti-C++ bias, there are little digs at C++ coding techniques throughout the book, which seem a little antiquated and inappropriate in 2005.

In the chapter on the debug C-runtime, I'm really surprised the author does not suggest writing a leak-detection system that captures the callstack at the time of allocation, I've found the C-runtime's file-and-line-oriented leak report fairly useless since the allocation is often deep inside some container class, you really need to know what code caused the allocation, not what code actually did the allocation. And the recommended feature that walks the entire heap every N allocations is unusable (it's too slow) in a large C++ program which might have many thousands of allocations. Also, redefining C++ keywords as suggested seems so evil, there are better ways of doing this.

I believe Windows XP Service Pack 2 changed some Windows internals that affect crash handling/debugging/stack walking, I wouldn't mind seeing an updated volume that covers these changes in detail.

Overall though, an excellent book, the most useful debugging book I've found so far.

Good sequel, hope to see the next one too.......2004-09-18

I'm writing this to thank that guy who posted the table of contents in an effort to show how this book is the same as John Robbins' prior - since that is what convinced me to buy it :-)

Not just that it costs a lot less then what people ask for a copy of out of print "first edition", but also seeing the TOC told me that this book made not a small step forward - in particular by ditching that VB thing and opening the doors to windbg -- THE TOOL, if you don't have the money or reason for SoftICE.

Books covering hi-tech need rejuvenation every once in a while and the way John Robbins did it could actually serve as an example on how to do it right.

So, if I see the 3rd sequel this or next year I'm probably going to buy it too - if it gives windbg a 50-50 split with Visual Studio, and a chapter on kd maybe? :-)

As for a "a complete knowledge of the .NET framework debugging" - if you know how to anything under Visual Studio debugger you already know it - say you forget half of what this book is trying to teach you and you are still fine :-). Managed code is so shielded that there's nothing on earth new for debugging - unless you want to dig two levels bellow and go into JIT or PInvoke - in which case you are going to need this book.

Very well done book!.......2004-05-08

This book is a book for the advanced programmer who says "I already know how to build a halfway decent windows app, how do I take my debugging to the next level and deliver truly good apps?"

This book covers real-world debugging issues that plague programmers and are difficult to solve, such as multi-threading and memory issues amongst others. Also this book has several entertaining real-world scenarios that can help give you perspective on debugging.

However this book is not for the beginner, a solid grasp of programming is essential for this book. However those with a good grasp of what programming is about with at least a basic knowledge of .NET will be right at home with this book.

Very good book, must read for every Windows developer.......2004-01-01

This book contains a lot of useful information not only about debugging Windows and .NET applications, but also about real-life problems, scenarios and solutions. The author shares his stories that sometimes are very entertaining and useful.

Although this is exceptionally good book, I wish it had more content for the specifics of .NET debugging. I think another missing topic is `debugging mixed managed and unmanaged code'.

After reading most of the book, I disliked only one thing, which is author's strong opinion about using exceptions in the applications.

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