Product Description
White Monkey LLC has published Not SARS Just SEX!
by Gits Ferrari.Mr. Ferrari has just finished its sequel
called The Oil Sands of Alberta, which follows our hero
to the Energy Capital of North America.

Follow a US expatriate living in downtown Taipei during
the breakout of the SARS virus.

From 2001 to 2003, our antagonist goes from hero to
zero in this line up of bad luck and crazy times enjoying
the night life of Taiwan.

A true story of a modern day pioneer following his dream,
who gets sideswiped but not stopped, by the reality of life
in Asia.

Gits Ferrari takes a Gonzo approach to tell his unique story
about life in Asia before, during, and after Sars.

Land of wicked ass.Formosa. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (11)

Dated and a lot of filler
Not awful, but suffers from two faults:

(1) It's very dated: mostly covers GWT 1.3, and we are on, what, 2.1 now? Huge changes, including Java 5 support, make much of what is said incorrect.

(2) There's a lot of filler: server push/pull models explained, servlets, JUnit... completely unnecessary. The book could have been reduced by a third if this material were omitted.

That said, I learned quite abit from reading the book. The authors' writing style is quite good and it's mostly a pleasant read. The low rating is mostly due to the material being dated, and honestly, Manning should have brought out a second edition by now.

Very disappointing as time goes on
I was looking for a book to give a rapid introduction to GWT. I have a lot of experience with JAVA GUI and hard core javascript so I was hoping to find something that I could use not only an introduction but also as a reference. Initially I found it good as it had a pretty good write up on JSNI. However, I find myself more and more disappointed as I try and use it as a reference. The examples are partial. The book provides examples on how to do something which at first glance seem fine, but then when you try to use them you realize the setup is missing so additional research is needed. Also, things that should be covered in detail are not. Examples:
1. GWT history. Vaguely talks about how to record it but not how to handle it (History.addValueChangeHandler is not mentioned)
2. Properties. The section on providing and extending properties is exceedingly confusing. I didn't have the time to try and make sense of it and went elsewhere for information.
Unfortunately it took me too long to find out how crappy this book so I can't send it back to get my money back. As I've paid for it I will still attempt to use it as a reference when I need to, but I suspect before long it will end up gathering dust with the other out of date books that I can't bare to throw out and the crappy books I've bought over the years that I try and justify ownership of.

Good Book, Easy To Follow
I started to learn about GWT for the first time about 6 months ago, and this was one of three GWT textbooks that I purchased (The others were GWT In Practice and Google Web Toolkit Applications).

Overall, I used GWT In Action as a book to go to when GWT In Practice was a little harder to understand.GWT In Practice teaches GWT, but at a faster pace and using stronger software development techniques.When I needed to dive in deeper to a specific subject, GWT In Action was the perfect book.

I found the explanations easy, straight to the point, and very thorough - something which wasn't quite the same in other textbooks.Whereas GWT In Action may not be an advanced textbook in creating commercial applications, it is a perfect intro book to get the core concepts learned thoroughly and well.

The textbook is a little dated now, and the sample applications show it.However, as of the time of this review, most of the material is still perfectly relevant.There are some new features / objects available in GWT now that were not before, but all the old ones are still there.The textbook is not too outdated - it's still worth the purchase if you want a thorough coverage of the core GWT features.

Simply put - an easy to understand, thorough book on GWT.

Impressive writing
I was very impressed with the quality of the writing as well as the depth of coverage.The authors explain them well and it is easy to follow the examples.I especially liked the fact that authors present GWT code using design pattern, e.g. Facade - I was able to re-factor my own code.

Using this book, I was able to teach myself GWT and also successfully build a GWT based Ajax application at work.

Excellent practical introduction to GWT
I am starting with GWT with this book after using various internet tutorials. The book proved really helpful to get me started. As an added bonus, the authors really like to write and provide small yet inspiring examples which you can download and test yourself.

Some reviewer criticized the order of the chapters. I did not have any problems with that - there is a very useful short introduction in the beginning. I could jump ahead to interesting chapters like RPC without any problem. ... Read more

Product Description
"Exciting, original, and highly readable. . . . This is a rich, challenging, original and beautifully written account of Muir's inner development as an environmental thinker."-John A. Tallmadge, president of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment

As a founder of the Sierra Club and promoter of the national parks, as a passionate nature writer and as a principal figure of the environmental movement, John Muir stands as a powerful symbol of connection with the natural world. But how did Muir's own relationship with nature begin? In this pioneering book, Steven J. Holmes offers a dramatically new interpretation of Muir's formative years, one that reveals the agony as well as the elation of his earliest experiences of nature.

From his childhood in Scotland and Wisconsin through his young adulthood in the Midwest and Canada, Muir struggled-often without success-to find a place for himself both in nature and in society. Far from granting comfort, the natural world confronted the young Muir with a full range of practical, emotional, and religious conflicts. Only with the help of his family, his religion, and the extraordinary power of nature itself could Muir in his late twenties find a welcoming vision of nature as home-a vision that would shape his lifelong environmental experience, most immediately in his transformative travels through the South and to the Yosemite Valley.

More than a biography, The Young John Muir is a remarkable exploration of the human relationship with wilderness. Accessible and engaging, the book will appeal to anyone interested in the individual struggle to come to terms with the power of nature.

For the first time placing the development of Muir's environmental consciousness in the context of his human relationships, this major reinterpretation of the early life of John Muir emphasizes Muir's childhood and youth rather than adulthood. Holmes shows how Muir's youthful experiences and influences caused him to perceive his natural surroundings as a religiously-charged "home," continuous with the emotional and cultural meanings of his actual home. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Masterfully, Intricately-Done Biography
Environmental History is a growing and much-needed field of Academia. John Muir, a peaceful yet titanic figure in America's own enviromental movement, like Rachel Carson, like, in his own right-Teddy Roosevelt, is a Pioneer of this movement. Professor Steven J.Holmes. Lecturer in History and Literature at Harvard University, has produced a deeply poignant book about this deeply thoughtful man, i.e. in Muir's "formative" years, wherein his Scottish roots clashed, then melded and germinated beautifully with the ever-more wild Wisconsin of Muir's American years. Yet this child of Dunbar, Scotland, was to, even at the "tadpole's age" of five, begin having transformative and even existential experiences, mostly derived from and spawned by the "Wilderness," by Nature, but too by Muir's love for his beloved mother. According to Holmes' carefully-documented and sourced biographical history of Muir, the young Lad had, even at a VERY young(before age 2)age, an UNCANNY ability to interact with, respond to, and above all, Deeply TRUST his Mother-especially, began when John Muir was just two months of age. Yet to me, with Mother Earth being THE all-powerful and nurturing, kindly force that this species MUST needs be recognize(i.e., Patriarchal societies are NOW too destructive, for Mother Earth to sustain, much longer), these Youthful, formative instinctive developments on Muir's part would become incredibly important in and to that "ecocentric perspective,"(182) as Holmes terms it, that would dominate this quixotically wild but peace-loving man's entire Life's viewpoint, all to the LONG-TERM betterment(IF we can only LISTEN-NOW, if not SOONER) of this Nation-State, and this species.

An Excellent Biography!
I have been an admirer of John Muir since I was a young child.This book is excellent in the way in which Steven J. Holmes captures the essence of a man who continues to inspire persons of all ages and backgrounds with his life. It offers intimate glimpses into Muir's experiences as well as a new perspective into understanding Muir as a universalist humanitarian and hero. ... Read more

Product Description
Drawing on the powerful Norse sagas, the author tells the true stories of Eric the Red, Leif and the other daring Vikings who journeyed to North America and their attempts to settle in that rich new land. Recently republished by Random House. 145pg ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great historical fiction!
Janeway is a wonderful storyteller making Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky come alive. My kids all enjoyed the book and my 8 year old son begged to read more about the Viking adventures. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed and learned from this book. It also inspired us to learn more about Norse mythology. What a great way to study history!

Way too tough for a fourth grader
This book would probably be more for a fifth or sixth grader.Very long and complex for a 10-year old. The book was interesting but too wordy to hold his interest all the way through.

Book captivates and informs childrem!
"The Vikings" is a very informative book which captivated my childrens attention!They could hardly wait for each day's new reading.My 2nd-7th grade children enjoyed learning about the exciting adventures ofLeif Erikson and the Viking explorers.We all learned much from this wellwritten introduction to America's earliest explorers and we highlyrecommend it! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (17)

Excellent book!
This is a well written, informative book for getting started using GWT. It is advanced enough to be useful and concise and easy to read. It also covers the full spectrum of GWT development with examples and discussion around the technology.

Useless book -- Good if you want to know how NOT to use GWT
The samples used in this are so outdated that they are utterly useless.You would have to modify them to get them to work with the new GWT, which wouldn't be bad but they are a far departure from the new GWT.GWT has changed so much since this was printed that you would have to unlearn much of this.Many of the samples use deprecated methods.The whole structure of how a project is put together has changed.This references executables within the toolkit that are simply not used any more and not included.You would think that the author would at least have the courtesy to update the samples on the website, but there are no updates there.I wasted my money on this book.I would suggest using the online resources offered by Google.They are much more useful and will get you moving much faster.The PDF version of the book that is included with the book is a great idea, but this information is too outdated to be of any real value.

GWT
The book came on time and was in excellent condition. The price was good too.

Excellent - must read book for serious GWT programming
I don't have to work with java as part of my job. However I like to check out new things happening to the language and technologies based on it. When GWT came out, I started playing with it and though the tutorials at their website were good enough to get you started, if you are developing more complex applications you need to understand more about how GWT works. You need to know how to integrate GWT with the existing javascript and java based tools. Since GWT allows you to develop applications that have characteristics of a standalone desktop application (e.g. Swing) and also characteristics of a server based application (e.g. JSF), the way you implement the MVC patternwith GWT will be slightly different. So not only do you need to know MVC you also have to know how to implement the pattern using GWT. You need to know how to do unit tests and code coverage with GWT.

This book covers all of the above aspects and much more. I wish more programming books were written the way this book is written. According to some survey that I read recently, 70% of programmers working with J2EE have no clue about J2EE. After reading this book I felt that if there were J2EE books written in this style, where the focus is not on showing a 'hello world' example and presenting compilable code but on explaining why something is done in the context of design patterns, maybe just maybe we might have better Java programmers.

Though this book is based on an older version of GWT, I could follow the topics and play with a variation of the exercises with the version of GWT I am using (2.0). All the code used in the examples is also hosted at[...]. The authors use different IDEs (and also no IDE!) in different examples in book. This helps in setting up your IDE to work with GWT.

Overall a very well written book. It certainly helped a novice like me to be productive with GWT.

Examples are outdated already
Some of the code examples use the GWT Maven plugin.Bad idea for two reasons: 1) It complicates the GWT application creation process, which doesn't need any more complications and 2) The GWT Maven plugin is ALREADY outdated and not compiled. Meaning you can use the old source from the GWT-Maven plugin, try to compile it, try to integrate it with Cooper/Collin's source code, try to get the projects to build...do ya see where I'm going with this? I'm not saying the GWT is a bad project, nor that Maven is a bad project. But when you start piling frameworks on top of frameworks when you're trying to learn something it becomes this big mess. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Worth the Read
Wildebeest in a Rainstom is a collection of profiles of conservationists, artists, and sportsmen that were previously published in various magazines over that past twenty years. Some are well known (Sir Richard Branson), and some are not (Winona LaDuke), but all are remarkable people who are dedicated to the environment and taking risks.

With such a unique cross-section of "environmentalists," from the conservationists to the adventurers, the subject matter is fascinating, but the book's format does not live up to expectations. The book lacks cohesion and depth of purpose. The brief updates at the end of the profiles fail to answer the myriad of questions raised by the profiles. Even though the writing is dry, the reader becomes curious about what the people are doing now. For example, the article on Renee Askins was written before the return of wolves to Yellowstone. Is the project as successful as she hoped?

Wildebeest in a Rainstorm would have benefited from fewer, more in-depth profiles. In particular, the last few profiles of skiers and snowboarding seem out of place and unnecessary compared to the other adventurers.

Wildebeest in a Rainstorm succeeds in bringing these people and the issues to a broader audience. The book serves as a good starting point for further reading on the people, their causes, and the extreme, exotic locations. ... Read more

Product Description
"At Verdun I thought of you, and the friendly hearth of Hollis 15 seemed very far away from the deserted, snow-swept streets of the tragic city. Then suddenly I remembered how you had encouraged me and many others to go over and help in any way that we could; I remembered your keen understanding of the Epic, and the deep sympathy with human beings which you taught those whose privilege it was to be your pupils. And so you did not seem so far away after all, but closer to the heart of the war than any other friend I had." ... Read more