Showing posts with label nonfiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nonfiction. Show all posts

The Communal Experience: Anarchist and Mystical Communities in Twentieth Century America (Phoenix Book) Review

The Communal Experience: Anarchist and Mystical Communities in Twentieth Century America (Phoenix Book)
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The Communal Experience: Anarchist and Mystical Communities in Twentieth Century America (Phoenix Book) ReviewLooking for books that mention the commune scene of Placitas, New Mexico?
If so, check out this book.
It's got a good chapter on them, and good chapters on other communes elsewhere--in New York, Vermont, northern New Mexico, and elsewhere, with insightful essays that tie everything together.
The book is well enough written that it was nominated for a National Book Award in 1973, though it lost to John William's Roman epic "Augustus."
I recommend it.The Communal Experience: Anarchist and Mystical Communities in Twentieth Century America (Phoenix Book) OverviewThe original impulse for groups to separate from society and establish communities of their own was religious. Though the religious side of this drive toward separation remains strong, the last two centuries have seen the appearance of secular communities with a socialist or anarchist orientation. In The Communal Experience, nominated for a National Book Award in 1973, Laurence Veysey explores the close resemblances between the secular and religious forms of cultural radicalism through intensive observation of four little-known communities. Veysey compares the history of secular communities such as the early Ferrer Colony and Modern School, of Shelton, New Jersey, with contemporary anarchist communities in New York, Vermont, and New Mexico. Religious communes—"Communities of Discipline"—such as the Vedanta monasteries of the early twentieth century are compared with contemporary mystical communities in New Mexico. Distinctions between the anarchist and the mystical groups are most obvious from their approach to communal life. As Veysey shows, anarchist communities are loose, unstructured, voluntaristic; the mystics establish more rigid life-styles, focus on spiritual leaders, and hold community a secondary goal to self-realization. In a new preface written for this Phoenix Edition, he describes his return to a New Mexican mystical community and the changes that have occurred in the six years since his last visit.

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Trance Formation: The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of Global Rave Culture Review

Trance Formation: The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of Global Rave Culture
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Trance Formation: The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of Global Rave Culture ReviewI love trance music. I love non-fiction reading. But I didn't really enjoy reading this book. Its really more of a longer thesis than a book. The beginning of the book is actually very very compelling, giving a history of how raving began, and how it unites many together.
I didn't finish this book. I got about 80% through and it got weird. The general feeling of the book changed greatly. Focusing more on spirit-ism and good vs evil spirit vibes. In addition the interviews were often times duplicated or only partially re-quoted as the book continued on. Sometimes even the short interjections from the author repeated.
Overall, if you are looking for a new way of looking at religion or music even, you may want to pick this book up, (it's kinda pricey for only ~180 pages) but if you are looking for information about raves / electronic music, or even a brief history of said music, look elsewhere.Trance Formation: The Spiritual and Religious Dimensions of Global Rave Culture OverviewRobin Sylvan combines colorful firsthand accounts, extensive interviews with ravers, and cutting edge scholarly analysis to paint a compelling portrait of global rave culture as an important new religious and spiritual phenomenon that also serves as a template for mapping the future evolution of new forms of religion and spirituality in the twenty-first century.

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Mastering Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0 Review

Mastering Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0
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Mastering Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0 ReviewI've had this book for more than two weeks now and I should tell this book not much detail enough than the free ejb tutorial from sun site. The coverage is too shallow in detail and the authors comfortably skipped several newer features and using java persistance api in relation with using hibernate framework. if you are look to familiarise with ejb 3.0 this book will be nothing but a disappointment.Mastering Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0 OverviewAn invaluable tutorial on the dramatic changes to Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 3.0Featuring myriad changes from its previous versions, EJB 3.0 boasts a very different programming and deployment model, with nearly every aspect of development affected. Even the most experienced EBJ and J2EE developers will need to relearn how to best use EJB to develop mission-critical applications. This author team of experts has taken their combined skills in architecture, development, consulting, and knowledge transfer to explain the various changes to EJB 3.0 as well as the rationale behind these changes. You'll learn the concepts and techniques for authoring distributed, enterprise components in Java from the ground up.Covering basic through advanced subjects, Mastering Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0 is more than 50 percent new and revised. Four new chapters and one new appendix cover the latest features of this new release, and in-depth coverage of the Java Persistence API and the entities defined therein is provided. The authors' main goal is to get you programming with EJB immediately. To that end, you'll learn:* How to implement EJB 3.0 beans, with emphasis on session beans (stateful and stateless) and message-driven beans* Both basic and advanced concepts (such as inheritance, relationships, and so on) of Java Persistence API defined entities* How to develop and deploy EJB 3.0 Web services* How to secure EJB applications* How to integrate EJB applications with the outside world via the Java EE Connector technology* Tips and techniques for designing and deploying EJB for better performance* How clustering in large-scale EJB systems works* Best practices for EJB application design, development, and testingThe companion Web site provides all the source code, updates to the source code examples, and a PDF version of the book.Wiley Technology Publishing Timely. Practical. Reliable.Visit the companion Web site at www.wiley.com/go/sriganesh

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The SAS Workbook Review

The SAS Workbook
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The SAS Workbook ReviewGood examples, but there is no discussion to explain the logic in the steps, which is verrrrryyyy frustrating. You might be able to copy the example, but then can't expand on that with a problem that slightly deviates from the example because you're not really sure what you're doing. It's like learning a language without a dictionary. You can get parts, but others are missing. Annoying. Oh and by the way, if you buy this workbook it comes with the solution book.The SAS Workbook OverviewLearn by doing as you work through the programming problems offered in this unique book! Beginning with problems related to the DATA step, moving to elementary and then advanced exercises on frequently used SAS procedures, and also covering problems in statistical analysis, the book offers challenges for beginning, intermediate, and advanced programmers. Students, teachers, and trainers will be able to work with Base SAS procedures such as FORMAT, PRINT, TABULATE, and PLOT; solve simple descriptive statistics problems as well as those using the FREQ, TTEST, GLM, ANOVA, and NPAR1WAY procedures; and have fun with some SAS brainteasers in the book's last section. Each chapter gives readers a good start on solving the problem by providing directions and hints about useful programming tools. As a service to our educational market, this book is available separately. It can also be ordered packaged with the solutions volume.

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The Nick of Time: Politics, Evolution, and the Untimely Review

The Nick of Time: Politics, Evolution, and the Untimely
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The Nick of Time: Politics, Evolution, and the Untimely ReviewI first became interested in this book after seeing it in a bookshop. Having read some Darwin and a fair bit of Bergson I was interested. It is rare indeed nowadays to see any work at all on the concept of time in any other form than the typical linear classical physics/relativity idea. This posits time as something that either acts as a medium through which matter moves or in the case of relativity as another dimension much like the three known space dimensions. In both cases time is strongly spatialised i.e. thought of in the same way that space is.
Time is of course strongly linked to change whether it is the idea of change prevalent in ancient times e.g. Plato and Aristotle, Heraclitus or the more modern versions used in science. Grosz has studied time's presence through three well known figures Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche and Henri Bergson. Darwin's concern was how organisms evolved over time, Nietzsche how the human being uses the "Will to Power" to become more and Bergson was interested in both. That is in how organisms evolved and what duration (time) actually is, especially in comparison to space.
Grosz analyses all of them in turn. She does something unexpected with Darwin, she suggests that natural selection is in fact a positive "force" rather than a purely negative influence on species. I did not find myself believing this, it makes more of natural selection that it is originally posited to be. In turn she considers the ideas of Nietzsche who did foresee Bergson to some degree in that he proposed "The Will to Power" which can be recognised a little in Bergson's elan vital. Finally she discusses Bergson's ideas on time/duration, evolution, intelligence, instinct and so on. She studies Bergson far more deeply than either of the other two.
She also relates these concepts to politics especially those of feminism, racism and other forms of political struggle. Her discussion of Bergson is deep and she understands his work well. At times I found myself impressed at her whole grasp of Bergson's issues. She locates a kind of complete whole within his work which eluded me. I had read Creative Evolution, Time and Free Will and The Creative Mind but have not as yet covered Duration and Simultaneity or Mind-Energy.
I find that she takes the most from Bergson and relates it at the highest level to much else in our current cultural and political reality. However I did not feel convinced by her study of Darwin and the earlier parts of the book felt a little disjointed. Some parts, especially those on Bergson flowed well together. A good piece of work with more potential.The Nick of Time: Politics, Evolution, and the Untimely OverviewIn this pathbreaking philosophical work, Elizabeth Grosz points the way toward a theory of becoming to replace the prevailing ontologies of being in social, political, and biological discourse. Arguing that theories of temporality have significant and underappreciated relevance to the social dimensions of science and the political dimensions of struggle, Grosz engages key theoretical concerns related to the reality of time. She explores the effect of time on the organization of matter and on the emergence and development of biological life. Considering how the relentless forward movement of time might be conceived in political and social terms, she begins to formulate a model of time that incorporates the future and its capacity to supersede and transform the past and present.Grosz develops her argument by juxtaposing the work of three major figures in Western thought: Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Henri Bergson. She reveals that in theorizing time as an active, positive phenomenon with its own characteristics and specific effects, each of these thinkers had a profound effect on contemporary understandings of the body in relation to time. She shows how their allied concepts of life, evolution, and becoming are manifest in the work of Gilles Deleuze and Luce Irigaray. Throughout The Nick of Time, Grosz emphasizes the political and cultural imperative to fundamentally rethink time: the more clearly we understand our temporal location as beings straddling the past and the future without the security of a stable and abiding present, the more transformation becomes conceivable.

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Soul Whispers: Collective Wisdom from Soul Coaches around the World Review

Soul Whispers: Collective Wisdom from Soul Coaches around the World
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Soul Whispers: Collective Wisdom from Soul Coaches around the World ReviewSoul Whispers is not only an excellent read, it brings together ideas from the practices of Soul Coaches from around the world. Their wisdom and experience support practitioners in the coaching and holistic fields as well as one who wants a richer life.Soul Whispers: Collective Wisdom from Soul Coaches around the World OverviewWhat is your soul whispering to you?Constant whisperings from your soul are steadily guiding you on your life's journey - but what if you cannot hear them? For the first time, professional Soul Coaches have gathered from all over the globe to help you decipher these loving messages. This feast of collective wisdom will help you discover your true life direction - a life filled with deep meaning and great joy! Discover proven techniques in Decision Making, Clutter Clearing, Collage, Vision Quest and Past Life journeying. Includes little-known Soul Coaching(R) secrets to assist you and your clients to live a more joyful, authentic life! Learn how to ~ ~ Confront fear ~ Trust in yourself ~ Develop your intuition ~ Heal yourself and your relationships ~ Boost your business and personal success ~ Live a more adventurous and prosperous life! CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS ~ Sherrie Ataide, Ulrike Behre-Brandes, Roberta Ashkawa Binder, Kimberly Carroll, Carol Daigneault, Sophia Fairchild, Misasha, Rebecca Nelson, Barbara Robitaille, P.W. Servais, Wendy Sheppard, Deborah Janelle Smith, Helen Mumford Sole, Irene Speirs-Caskie, Vicky Sweetlove, Catherine Turner, Cheryl Umberger, and Berte Winding-Sørensen.

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Learning Java Review

Learning Java
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Learning Java ReviewI had purchased "Learning Java" out of the conviction that some patience and thought was all that was needed to make sense of the book. "Learning Perl" (also published by O'Reilly) had a somewhat steep but manageable learning curve-I thought "Learning Java" would be more of the same. Unfortunately, I found "Learning Java" to be a disappointment. The book begins by creating a simple "Hello, Java!" pop-up box along with brief explanations of the basic concepts of Java (class, methods, etc). The book, however, then gives an overview of syntax and tools with no practice exercises. The book essentially went like this: "This is what a class is. This is what a method is. This is what an exception is." And so on. The book spends a few paragraphs describing many important concepts of Java without adequate examples and no practice exercises. The author's organization and presentation of the materials made the book more of a dictionary than a tutorial.
Don't get me wrong, the book does provide an excellent overview of Java's history and heritage. It also serves as a handy (but incomplete) reference, although "Java in a Nutshell" is a much more complete reference. However, like some reviewers, I believe that the title was a bit misleading for those wanting to actually learn to program in Java. This book is not for someone new to programming. "Learning Java" is actually more like an overview or tour of Java that introduces the program's features and tools. It is not a tutorial.
My recommendation: See if you can get a hold of "Learning Java" and take a look at a few chapters. If you like the author's approach (and several reviewers did), then by all means purchase the book. I was originally going to recommend that only those with C or C++ programming experience give the book a try, but I've noticed several reviewers with such experience giving the book a poor review. If you are looking for a tutorial, try the deceptively named but excellent "Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days" by Laura Lemay.Learning Java Overview

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Bash Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Bash Users (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) Review

Bash Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Bash Users (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))
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Bash Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Bash Users (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) ReviewThis book covers the GNU Bourne Again Shell, which is a member of the Bourne family of shells that includes the original Bourne shell sh, the Korn shell ksh, and the Public Domain Korn Shell pdksh. This book is for anyone who uses a Unix or Linux system, as well as system administrators who may use several systems on any given day. Thus, there are solutions and useful sections for all levels of users including newcomers. This book is full of recipes for creating scripts and interacting with the shell that will allow you to greatly increase your productivity.
Chapter 1, "Beginning bash" covers what a shell is, why you should care about it, and then the basics of bash including how you get it on your system. The next five chapters are on the basics that you would need when working with any shell - standard I/O, command execution, shell variables, and shell logic and arithmetic. Next there are two chapters on "Intermediate Shell Tools". These chapters' recipes use some utilities that are not part of the shell, but which are so useful that it is hard to imagine using the shell without them, such as "sort" and "grep", for example. Chapter nine features recipes that allow you to find files by case, date, type, size, etc. Chapter 10, "Additional Features for Scripting" has much to do with code reuse, which is something you find even in scripting. Chapter 11, "Working with Dates and Times", seems like it would be very simple, but it's not. This chapter helps you get through the complexities of dealing with different formats for displaying the time and date and converting between various date formats.
Chapter 12, "End-User Tasks As Shell Scripts", shows you a few larger though not large examples of scripts. They are meant to give you useful, real world examples of actual uses of shell scripts beyond just system administration tasks. Chapter 13, "Parsing and Similar Tasks", is about tasks that will be familiar to programmers. It's not necessarily full of more advanced scripts than the other recipes in the book, but if you are not a programmer, these tasks might seem obscure or irrelevant to your use of bash. Topics covered include parsing HTML, setting up a database with MySQL, and both trimming and compressing whitespace. Chapter 14 is on dealing with the security of your shell scripts. Chapters 15 through 19 finish up the book starting with a chapter on advanced scripting that focuses on script portability. Chapter 16 is related to the previous chapter on portability and is concerned with configuring and customizing your bash environment. Chapter 17 is about miscellaneous items that didn't fit well into any other chapter. The subjects include capturing file metadata for recovery, sharing and logging sessions, and unzipping many ZIP files at once. Chapter 18 deals with shortcuts aimed at the limiting factor of many uses of bash - the typing speed of the user and shortcuts that cut down on the amount of typing necessary. The final chapter in the book, "Tips and Traps", deals with the common mistakes that bash users make.
All in all this is a very handy reference for a vast number of the tasks that you'll come across when scripting with the bash shell along with well-commented code. Highly recommended.Bash Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Bash Users (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) Overview
The key to mastering any Unix system, especially Linux and Mac OS X, is a thorough knowledge of shell scripting. Scripting is a way to harness and customize the power of any Unix system, and it's an essential skill for any Unix users, including system administrators and professional OS X developers. But beneath this simple promise lies a treacherous ocean of variations in Unix commands and standards.

bash Cookbook teaches shell scripting the way Unix masters practice the craft. It presents a variety of recipes and tricks for all levels of shell programmers so that anyone can become a proficient user of the most common Unix shell -- the bash shell -- and cygwin or other popular Unix emulation packages. Packed full of useful scripts, along with examples that explain how to create better scripts, this new cookbook gives professionals and power users everything they need to automate routine tasks and enable them to truly manage their systems -- rather than have their systems manage them.


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J2EE Open Source Toolkit : Building an Enterprise Platform with Open Source Tools (Java Open Source Library) Review

J2EE Open Source Toolkit : Building an Enterprise Platform with Open Source Tools (Java Open Source Library)
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J2EE Open Source Toolkit : Building an Enterprise Platform with Open Source Tools (Java Open Source Library) ReviewThis book is not only good conceptually and instructionally, but it's also a great reference text. Aside from reading very well, the content presentation is straightforward and concise. Using this book the reader can quickly throw together everything needed for development of this nature. The book is worth it for the chapter on developer tools (chapter 4) alone. After sitting down and going through it once, I was finally able to get a complete development environment up and running under Linux. I had made a few attempts before but couldn't set up the environment correctly nor had any good choice for an IDE. Under Linux (my preferred development platform) I had always just used the command line compilation tools and text editors (like vi). Now the IDE is set up and I can test, debug, write, and deploy code easily and I'm considerably more productive.
The book is incredibly useful for experienced programmers and indispensable for anyone trying out Java and J2EE (particularly if you don't have access commercial development environment or testing platform... as a grad student I rely heavily on open source for development in all languages). It also explains how open source solutions can enhance production environments as well. And I've not found another reference that had everything I needed all in one place. This text is thoroughly recommended to anyone with an interest in J2EE or Open Source.J2EE Open Source Toolkit : Building an Enterprise Platform with Open Source Tools (Java Open Source Library) Overview
The first book that shows how to harness the full power of open-source tools to build a free J2EE development platform without using any commercial products
Tools covered include Apache Tomcat, Struts, Jetspeed, MySQL, Joram, and jBoss
Shows developers how to integrate all of the most popular open-source tools into a single, integrated platform
Companion Web site provides source code plus a fully working example of the development platform created in the book


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