Managing Your Personal Finances with Quicken: Visual QuickProject Guide

Book Description

It used to be that to begin working with Quicken, you had to hand-enter all sorts of information--a process so laborious that many people eschewed personal finance software altogether. Not so today: With Quicken 2004's Express Account Setup, all you have to do is select your bank (from a list of more than 2,000), supply your account IDs and PINs, and the software does the rest! All you really need, then, to start wrangling your finances immediately is this pint-sized project-based guide to the software! Rather than cover every last Quicken feature and option, veteran author Tom Negrino selects the quickest, easiest route to accomplishing a given objective-from setting up accounts and entering transactions to writing and printing checks, scheduling automatic bill payment, and securing loans-and presents it through full-page-width screen shots and simple step-by-step instructions. Throughout, you'll learn by doing as you complete the book's projects. By the end of the day, you will have mastered not just Quicken but your finances as well!

Customer Reviews:

Bakari Chavanu's MyMac.com Review.......2006-01-22

When I purchased my Mac mini several months ago, I was surprised to see a copy of Intuit's Quicken 2005 personal finance software fully installed. I had been shopping around for such a program, but didn't want shell a lot of money for one. So I decided that even it didn't have all the features I wanted or needed, I'd make it work because I didn't have to spend extra money for it.

Opening and starting program wasn't that difficult and I could have accessed online guides and help, but I don't like reading manuals online, and most them of I find tedious to read anyway. No doubt I could have learned how to use Quicken without a manual, but I like to learn as much as I can about program so that I can get the most out of it.

So I turned to Tom Negrino's Managing Your Personal Finances with Quicken, an affordably priced book that would get me up and running with Quicken in no time. Like other Visual QuickProject guides, Negrino's book is well laid out with large, color coded chapter headings and concise instructions.

There's no need to read this book from cover to cover. Its design and structure are for accessing what you need to know as you work through the program. The book is written for both Mac and Window's users, the latter getting a little more instruction--perhaps because those users need it.

Beyond setting up my accounts, what I found most useful are instructions on many time saving features of the program like setting scheduled transactions and downloads, setting up categories for income and spending, and creating reports for tax purposes. Wish I could say I used the section on setting up investment portfolios, but unfortunately it's not a book on how make that kind of money-only how to record what you make, which in my case is nothing. At least for now anyhow.

Negrino, who has written other QuickProject guides, including Quicken 2003 for Mac, also provides instruction for using Quicken's main features: check writing, balancing transactions, managing credit cards and mortgage payments, paying bills online, and making split transactions. Handy colorful screenshots of the software are used throughout the book. And his "extra bits" sections provide useful tidbits of personal finance advice for and beyond the program.

If you've never used an accounting program and you're wanting to get more efficient with your personal or small business financing, this QuickProject book will be useful. I have to admit, though, I haven't referenced the book beyond the first few times I used to learn the program. Thus the book lives up to its subtitle--a visual guide that will save you the time and headache of learning a particular program.

MyMac.com Rating: 5 out of 5

Managing Your Personal Finances with Quicken Visual QuickProject Guide

Average customer rating:

Managing Your Personal Finances with Quicken Visual QuickProject Guide
TOM NEGRINO
Manufacturer: Peachpit Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OUINW8

Amazon.com

Alan Greenspan started his term as chairman of the United States Federal Reserve two months before the devastating stock market crash of 1987. Record deficits, severe banking crises, continuing corporate shakeups, massive exchange rate variations, and serious credit crunches have marked the intervening period. Steven Beckner, who has covered the central bank for 20 years, presents the intriguing story of Greenspan's tenure--and what it means to the system's operation and policies.

Book Description

"Steven Beckner, as knowledgeable a 'Fed watcher' as there is in the land, has done a great job telling the story of the challenging and successful Greenspan years. If you want to accurately forecast what the Fed will do with interest rates in the future, read this book and understand its powerful chairman." — L. William Seidman. Chief Commentator, CNBC and former head of the FDIC

Praise for Steven Beckner and Back From the Brink

"This highly informative book provides a penetrating look inside the Greenspan Fed and the policy workings and personalities that successfully defanged inflation and achieved an economic 'soft landing' that resulted in spectacular bond and stock market rallies." — David M. Jones Vice Chairman and Chief Economist, Aubrey G. Langston & Co., Inc.

"Steven Beckner has fashioned a vivid account of central banking and policymaking that gets at the heart of what really happens." — John Crow, Senior Advisor, AIG Inc. and former Governor, Bank of Canada

"Back From the Brink is an intriguing, detailed critique by an experienced market observer of some of the Federal Reserve's finest monetary policy under the leadership of one of the world's greatest central bankers." — Robert P. Black, former President, Richmond Federal Reserve Bank

"[Beckner] arrives in the markets like a bolt from the blue and launches his rockets directly onto the neon green screens of the New York trading desks through something called Market News Service. . . . No matter what he writes these days, people on Wall Street assign magical properties to his words." — Michael Lewis, New York Times Magazine

"He's the best chairman the Fed has ever had." — Allan Meltzer, Professor, Carnegie Mellon University

He is the most powerful man in Washington. His decisions sway world markets. He holds the fate of the U.S. economy in his hands—and you don't even get to vote for him. He is Alan Greenspan, the powerful, highly respected head of the Federal Reserve whose impressive record of accomplishments belies the turbulent events of his tenure. Like a brilliant military strategist, Greenspan has commanded and maneuvered through an economic minefield dotted with fiscal explosives ready to wreak havoc on national and global markets, single-handedly bringing the U.S. economy Back From the Brink. Now, read how he did it.

Written by Steven Beckner, a respected financial journalist who has covered the Fed for more than twenty years, Back From the Brink is a compelling and intricate portrait of the enigmatic Greenspan and the powerful institution he heads. In a gripping, blow-by-blow account of the Fed's role during the Greenspan years—perhaps "the most difficult time to make monetary policy in the Fed's 83-year history"—Beckner skillfully weaves the subtleties of the Fed's complex inner workings with details of the Chairman's rise to—and phenomenal stay at—the top.

Like most central bankers, Alan Greenspan the Chairman was made, not born. In fact, one of the most influential figures in Washington is, actually, a quiet, somewhat shy man whose childhood dream was to be a musician. Alan Greenspan entered the political arena in 1968 as director of domestic policy research for Richard Nixon's presidential campaign. He would go on to serve as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Ford and be named to Ronald Reagan's Economic Advisory Board. His impeccable credentials, along with his extraordinarily well-detailed understanding of both domestic and international economies made him the first—if not the only—choice to replace Paul Volcker as Fed chairman in 1987.

Since taking office, Greenspan has been bombarded with potentially disastrous economic time bombs: from the ferocious crash of '87 and the recession of '90 to ongoing trade deficits, debt burdens, banking problems, swinging exchange rates, and severe credit crunches. Constantly battling inflation, he has also had to contend with enormous pressures from three different administrations to hold interest rates as low as possible. With exacting detail, Beckner deftly elucidates the myriad intricacies of monetary policy and the sometimes risky strategies of the Fed. Along the way, he charts the brilliant moves its Chairman has made to jumpstart the economy, create thousands of new jobs, and keep inflation in check.

Expansive in scope, Back From the Brink exposes previously unrevealed facts about the Fed and its behind-the-scenes operations. A wholly accessible and illuminating work, this is the enthralling story of how the nation's economy was pushed to the precipice, but rescued from disaster by the world's most important central bank and the impressive man at its helm.

Customer Reviews:

This book is horrible.......2001-07-18

There are no insights to Greenspan or the Fed. No interviews with Fed officials. Its like reading newspaper clippings. He has absolutely zero access to Greenspan and some of his facts are false. I work on Wall Street and for us this book was a joke.

Excellent and informative.......1998-11-18

We always watch the yield curve and try to unsuccesfully predict how changes in its slope might affect market expectations. Knowing about the person who indirectly draws it makes a lot of sense. Undoubtly, Alan Greenspan will be remembered for many years to come as one of the greatest economic minds of this century. Highly recommended. Not very technical which makes it an easy read.

Excellent and informative.......1998-11-18

Wells Esq. reviews Back for the Brink by Steve Beckner.......1997-08-16

We became familiar with Steven Beckner as reporter on the U.S. economy for National Public Radio. However, reading his most recent book: Back for the Brink: The Greenspan Years the reading public may not be reminded of a voice emanating from the radio as much as reminded of William Greider's wonderful book, Secrets of the Temple.

Published in 1987, Greider's book gave us a brief history of the Federal Reserve System in the United States and carried the survey of its history up to the October 1987 crash of the stock market spending a great deal of the book discussing the administration of Paul Volcker as the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. That book left the present author wanting more. Steve Beckner's book is the answer to that prayer.

Picking up almost exactly at the time of the October 1987 crash, Beckner brings the story of the Federal Reserve up to September of 1995. The book has already become one of those books which is referred back to even after it has been completely read, spending as little time on the shelf as the dictionary and other reference materials in this house.

Heavily into the subject, Beckner spends little time explaining his terminology. Even for readers with some background in economics this can be distracting as readers break off in the middle of a good read to look up Germany's Bundesbank Lombard rate to understand what Beckner is trying to say.

Still in all, some reviewers may have been unfair to Beckner to state that he fawns over the actions of Alan Greenspan. What may appear as fawning on the surface may actually be the writing style a reporter who has learned to take care in the statements he makes to avoid sending misinterpreted ripples to the markets which have in the past been characterized as "the Beckner effect" by the New York Times as noted in the dust cover of the book. Reading the book in light of this reserve means playing tennis with the net up rather than down. Nonetheless, a careful reading of the book reveals clear criticism of Greenspan for his lack of independence from the policies of the Clinton Administration and for his over reation to the so-called "credit crunch of 1992" a phenomenon whose very existence is still being debated. The book is, therefore, an important addition to every current affairs collection.

Brian Wayne Wells
Attorney at Law
Charleston, West Virginia

Book Description

Demanda Infalible narra las peripecias de Robbie Feaver, abogado especialista en demandas por daños y perjuicios con fama de ganar la mayoría de los casos. Turow logra una trama compleja e inteligente donde las muchas piezas de lo que parece un rompecabeza se empiezan a ver.

Book Description

The best-selling power system operation manual ever published--NOW IN AN ALL-NEW EDITION! For over 30 years more electrical power professionals have used this guide for safe, economical system operation than any other in print. Why? Because Power System Operation, by Robert Miller and James Malinowski, presents more of the fundamental principles and methods dispatchers and operators need in a clear, easy-to-understand style. Now this third edition has been expanded by 50% to cover even more: VAR flows; Power system control; Telemetering methods; Supervisory control and data acquisition methods; System control, protection and stability; System reliability factors, Power system energy transfer; Energy accounting in interconnected operations; Operating systems most economically; EHV operation; Power system communications; Impedance of parallel circuits; Effects of resistance on impedance.

Customer Reviews:

Practice book.......2007-07-09

Power System Operation is an important book for people that operate grids. It could be a support for electric engineering students.

Solid Introduction to Power System Ops.......2005-10-23

I purchased this book because it was reccommended reading for NERC certification. To pass that exam, it is enough to spend 3-5 days studying the NERC operating manual. There were no questions from either this book or the others reccommended for the exam.

With that out of the way, I thought Power System Operations covered a nice range of topics concisely and in non-technical terms. It is not comprehensive enough to be a good reference book once you become knowledgable in this area. The material is not presented with mathematical rigor. However, if you work for a utility, and are seeking a non-intimidating introduction to power system ops, this book is perfect. As a sidenote: There is also a wealth of information available on the reliability region and ISO websites that will complement this text.

Great Little Primer for Load Dispatchers.......2003-07-09

Part of my job with a large midwestern power company is to train load dispatchers. I'm constantly on the lookout for good material. Power System Operations by Miller is one of the best textbooks I've found to train non-degreed system operators. I used the first edition myself when I was a new load dispatcher, and I found it to be a great self-study guide.

One problem with the latest (third) edition, there are no answers provided for the questions at the end of the chapter. This is no problem if the book is used in a classroom as the instructor should be able to figure them out. But for self-study it is absolutely necessary for the publisher to provide the answers to the chapter tests. Also, there are a few typos in the chapter on reactive power that could be very misleading to students who are already struggling.

The book concentrates mainly on transmission but the first four chapters are useful for distribution dispatchers as well. They provide a good foundation for teaching system overview, AC fundamentals and reactive power. The chapters on protective relaying, while still giving a basic overview of the various schemes, are a bit dated because they don't cover some of the latest microprocessor-based relays that have been replacing the electro-mechanical ones over the past several years.

This is not the be-all and end-all for training system operators, but when combined with on-the-job training and other supplementary material it can help establish a solid training program.

Excellent developmental tool for Power System Operators.......1998-04-20

Power System Operation provides a well structured knowledge base and reference for the new and seasoned power system operator. It will serve as the foundational and theoretical basis for many of the experienced based knowledge that is passed from operator to operator. I would recommend that all power system operators be equipped with this book as must read material.

Average customer rating:

Wowsers!
All about Ethnobotany

Ethnobotany - Evolution of a Discipline
R.E. Schultes , and S. von Reis
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0412722704
Release Date: 2007-05-25

Book Description

Ethnobotany offers a timely and authoritative exploration and evaluation of the status of ethnobotany today - and a reminder of its importance for the welfare of future generations.

Customer Reviews:

Wowsers!.......2002-09-25

Great book for you plant nerds out there...a book edited by the late great Richard Schultes?...what more can you ask for?

All about Ethnobotany.......1998-03-13

This book is a great compilation from leading ethnobotanists, describing the field, and bringing pertinent issues to the fore. It is an excellent collection, with well-renowned ethnobotanists like Plotkin, Balick, and Naranjo. It is an excellent source, and tells all about ethnobotany, the science that may preserve human existence now, and in the future.

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The Plant Protection Discipline
Webster H. Still
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Horticulture | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0470264438

Book Description

Light-Harvesting Antennas in Photosynthesis is concerned with the most important process on earth - the harvesting of light energy by photosynthetic organisms. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of all aspects of photosynthetic light-harvesting antennas, from the biophysical mechanisms of light absorption and energy transfer to the structure, biosynthesis and regulation of antenna systems in whole organisms. It sets the great variety of antenna pigment-protein complexes in their evolutionary context and at the same time brings in the latest hi-tech developments. The book is unique in the degree to which it emphasizes the integration of molecular biological, biochemical and biophysical approaches. Overall, a well-organized, understandable, and comprehensive volume. It will be a valuable resource for both graduate students and their professors, and a helpful library reference book for undergraduates.

Book Description

New Directions in Cognitive Information Retrieval presents an exciting new direction for research into cognitive oriented information retrieval (IR) research, a direction based on an analysis of the user’s problem situation and cognitive behavior when using the IR system. This contrasts with the current dominant IR research paradigm which concentrates on improving IR system matching performance.

The chapters describe the leading edge concepts and models of cognitive IR that explore the nexus between human cognition, information and the social conditions that drive humans to seek information using IR systems. Chapter topics include: Polyrepresentation, cognitive overlap and the boomerang effect, Multitasking while conducting the search, Knowledge Diagram Visualizations of the topic space to facilitate user assimilation of information, Task, relevance, selection state, knowledge need and knowledge behavior, search training built into the search, children’s collaboration for school projects, and other cognitive perspectives on IR concepts and issues.

This book is directly relevant to information scientists, librarians, social scientists and computer scientists interested in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) usability issues. Undergraduate and graduate students, academics.

New Directions in Cognitive Information Retrieval Edited by Amanda Spink and Charles Cole. Netherlands: Springer, 2005.250 p. $99.00. ISBN: 1-4020-4013-X ... Library and Information Science Research]

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New Directions in Cognitive Information Retrieval Edited by Amanda Spink and Charles Cole. Netherlands: Springer, 2005.250 p. $99.00. ISBN: 1-4020-4013-X ... Library and Information Science Research]
J.E. Andrews
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Online Books | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000PKHZW6

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Library and Information Science Research, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:

Book Description

In recent decades, the study of signal processing has become increasingly complex, with new techniques and applications constantly being developed for the processing, transformation, and interpretation of signals. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the traditional and modern methods used in signal processing. It is designed to impart to the reader the mathematical techniques used in modelling signals and systems, encompassing standard mathematical tools as well as newer techniques such as wavelets and neural networks. C++ and Java implementations furnish these descriptions. The book offers an excellent balance of theory and application, beginning with a complete framework of discrete-time signal processing.

Book Description

Dark Horse Comics and Playboy Enterprises are proud to present for the first time ever the more than 400 pages of the late, great Harvey Kurtzman's Little Annie Fanny, collected in two deluxe volumes. Kurtzman, creator of Mad magazine and godfather of underground comix, teamed with longtime E.C. Comics collaborator Will Elder (and sometimes Frank Frazetta, Russ Heath, and Jack Davis!) to create a Playboy icon second only to the bunny and a risque comics icon second to none! Each volume showcases over 200 pages of stunningly rendered stories from the sexy strip's 25-year run. Trend setting in its use of color, irreverent in its satirical look at the changing face of America, and a masterpiece of technique, this definitive collection of one of world's most controversial comic strips is long overdue. This first volume takes us through the swinging Sixties with the Beatles, Civil Rights, and the beginning of the Sexual Revolution. Also included, a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the strip's creative process, featuring never-before-seen art and preliminary drawings!

Customer Reviews:

Delicious.......2007-08-30

Little Annie Fanny is the creation of some members of the usual gang of idiots at Mad magazine. Sumptuously drawn, we see caricatures of the media figures of the day, including the Kennedys, the Beatles, J.D. Salinger, Kirk Douglas, and many more. The art might be the most slaved over in the history of comics: each panel was painstakingly painted. Annie herself is a wondrous achievement in erotic art. Particularly striking panels include: bottom panels p. 143 and 186, full page p. 190). Annie's amazingly built, has an almost constant expression of naïve surprise and her disposition is always pleasant against all manner of hypocrisy, false values and sin. Though a fantasy character, seemingly as unreal as can be, she grows on us and turns out to have a consistent personality buoyant enough to sustain an inextinguishable naiveté that is deeply charming - she's not just T&A. She's a wide-eyed heroine of innocence. I have seen children with such personalities and it's a shame that it never survives unscathed through adulthood.

Little Annie Fanny is satire, which does not always elicit raucous laughter: a reader who expects to laugh out loud will be disappointed. I didn't laugh once throughout the book (which loses it one star). The cluttered and frantic aspect of the panels rapidly became irritating. The reader who wants beautiful erotic satire will be sated by this one, though. As a historical document, it has great value, especially for those of us who want the marking events, mores and individuals of our lifetime in a satirical light. The now of then is the then of now...

Explanatory notes come at the end of the book, and very interestingly, there is a work-in-progress Beatles episode, on their peccadillo in India, that looks like it could have been the most beautiful of all. It was aborted because, the Beatles having abandoned the Maharishi, it was no longer topical: already the then of then.

Since writing the above review, I received the second volume. Though I recommend both highly, the first is a little better than the second.

what a good cartoon sould be.......2006-11-10

i enjayed the book very well and the color was nothing i ever saw the cartoons in the book, they reminded me of when i first saw them in a popular magazine.

Nostalgia revisited.......2005-09-16

Having acquired vol 2 I had tremendous problems locating vol 1 - Amazon UK were a washout but Amazon USA did the trick. Annie Fanny was the ideal woman to a young man waking up to the delights of Playboy in the 1960s and this series of reprints says a lot about what was going on in politics and film at the time. Apart from Annie's obvious delights, the books are a masterpiece of penmanship and design and are a constant reminder of how innocent life was then.

This book made it worth growing up in the 60s.......2005-08-03

I bought this book because I'm a former devoted Mad Magazine reader, and remember Little Annie Fannie from when I used to sneak peeks at Playboy Magazine. Reading the collection is like reading a Mad Magazine collection with playful adult content.

Because I grew up in the 60s, I recognize the jokes and faces that were in the spotlight and in the news. It's a joy to have these collected in two books. I've got to buy the other volume as well.

The book's production is beautiful, as is Little Annie Fannie. I couldn't have asked for better.

Geniuses in Limbo.......2002-03-23

One of the most frustrating creations in all of comix. No question this is the most big-budget (big-busted), lavished-over (slathered-over), gorgeous (engorged) strip ever made. Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder and some spiffy helpers had all the resources they needed at last. There are many hilarious, cutting, zany and fun-nostalgic moments here. Yet finally, it feels like a defeat. "Playboy" is just a smaller, and more small-focus universe than the old "Mad." Harvey wanted to run his own show, and being a hired hand even in a gilded palace like the Playboy Mansion ground him down. The strips almost imperceptibly become more mechanical, more resigned. Horribly enough, the satires in issues of "Mad" from this era eventually come to seem wilder, freer, more penetrating than "Little Annie Fanny." The hugest overall problem is that male lust is simply not Kurtzman's best subject (especially by today's standards, he doesn't have much perspective on it). Weakness, venality, folly and self-deception are closer to his heart, and for whatever reason, Annie could never bring him as close to those subjects as her earlier, male incarnation, Goodman Beaver. But man, is that art beautiful.

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