Book Description
Ben Casnocha discovered he was entrepreneur at age 12 and hasn't slowed down since. In this remarkably instructive book, Ben dissects the entrepreneurship "gene," explaining that everyone has inherited it if they have an idea to make the world a better place. In Casnocha's case, he found a better way for city governments to communicate with constituents on the Web. Six years later, Comcate has dozens of municipal clients, a growing staff, and a record of excellence. This book is the story of his start-up, but also a conversation with his mentors, clients and fellow entrepreneurs about how to make a business idea workand how to have the time of your life trying. From Pat Lencioni to Marc Benioff of salesforce.com, Ben has won over the best and brightest of the business worldnow it's your turn!
Customer Reviews:
Frontline entrepreneurship .......2007-09-30
A captivating read and a candid story of Ben's startup experience with Comcate. If you thought your young age and `lack of business acumen and experience' was working against you, think twice after learning how Ben handled his business pitches at the ripe business age of fourteen. The story comes to life on every page and offers countless advice - I couldn't help it, I read it in one sitting. A must read for any entrepreneur, both seasoned and new to the game.
PARENTING A PRODIGY.......2007-07-19
FASCINATING BOOK, FASCINATING KID. AS A PARENT I WOULD HAVE LIKED MORE INFORMATION ON HOW HIS PARENTS NURTURED HIN AS A VERY SPECIAL CHILD
Hype machine.......2007-07-15
Lots of hype in promoting this book, almost no content to speak about. Maybe useful for teenagers...
Profound, sensible and compact........2007-07-11
Mr. Casnocha does an excellent job at pulling out the intrinsic meaning behind moments in his own life and illustrates how that meaning has played a role in his growth and development. Moreso, I found it very inspiring. It really encourages one to get up and DO something in their life, whether that be to write a book, paint a picture, go travelling, or start up a business. It is a very enjoyable read.
Useless........2007-06-28
The more I read of the book, the more I realized it was useless. First, it would have been nice if Mr. Casnocha had given us a little more information as to his business success. About all he mentions is that he started two companies. The first is apparently defunct, and no evidence is given that the second is profitable. Frankly, I wonder why we're supposed to take the advice of someone who seems unqualified to give it.
Second, as you might have guessed, the advice is useless. It would be nice to think Mr. Casnocha has learned a lot in the business world, but the knowledge he passes on in this book is on the level of ANY nineteen-year-old.
There are thousands of books on entrepreneurship that are worth your time. This isn't one. In fact, I'd recommend to Mr. Casnocha that if he wants any of his businesses to succeed over the long term, he should stop writing and start reading.
Book Description
In this eloquent first-person account of a family drama that changed the face of American business, the man who transformed IBM into the world's largest computer company reflects on his lifelong partnership with his father--and how their management style and shared dedication to excellence united to create a unique corporate culture that became the blueprint for the entire technology boom.
In the course of sixty years Thomas J. Watson Sr. and his son, Thomas J. Watson Jr., together built the international colossus that is IBM. This is their story: a riveting and revealing account of two men who loved each other--and fought each other--with a terrible fierceness.
But along with the story of a father and son, this is IBM's story too. It chronicles the management insights that shaped its course and its unique corporate culture, the style that made Thomas Watson Sr. one of America's most charismatic bosses, and the daring decisions by Thomas Watson Jr. that transformed IBM into the world's largest computing company. One of the greatest business-success stories of all time,
Father, Son & Co. is a moving lesson for fathers who dream for their children, as well as a testament to American ingenuity and values, told in a disarmingly frank and eloquent voice.
Promising to remain an important business reference as we move into the next century, FATHER, SON & CO. takes a look at the management insight that helped to shape IBM's course and unique corporate culture. It looks at Watson, Sr., one of America's most charismatic bosses, and Watson, Jr., who spurred IBM into the computer age.
Ten years after its original publication, FATHER, SON & CO. remains a uniquely honest book. Watson's willingness to write about the loving but ferociously combative relationship he had with his father and the turbulent battles behind some of IBM's most far-reaching decisions gives readers rare insights into the realities of leadership. -->
Customer Reviews:
A warm tale behind a cold company.......2005-09-06
Indeed a truly heart-warming, rivetting story. One of the best - possibly the best - bios that I have ever read. This is a story about IBM, the big blue corporate monolith. Yet in its core, this is really the story of a Son, a father and the relationship between them. Once into the pages of the book, you will soon realise that IBM is just a necessary but incidental backdrop to a father-son relationship..It's a book that talks of a strict yet loving father, and a son working his way up to gain his father's approval and affection. A very humane tale, devoid of any overt management jargon or mantra that seems to be the norm in most bios by business leaders, it is a surprise that nobody has thought of making a movie out of this story.
Touching. Warmly recommend to everyone.
Where Destiny Takes You.......2005-06-22
This is not a story that I had really expected to enjoy; I found this book in a hostel in Europe, and with nothing in English to read I gladly snapped it up. Father, Son & Co wound up being a very interesting and enjoyable book, and even though it is more than 15 years old now, it still gives tremendous insights into the rise of IBM and the evolution of the computer. Within two generations of the Watson family, business advanced from the Robber Barons of the 19th century to the big corporations of the 20th, and during this same period the computer advanced from punch-card machines into the electronic machines we use today. It is hard to look at a PC and see a direct connection to horse-and-buggy days, but that is the story Thomas Watson and Peter Petre tell.
A huge swath of American history is encompassed within this book; major events are witnessed and lived out by Watson and his family. But Watson also shows how family relationships have changed over the last hundred years by comparing his relationship with his father and siblings to those of his own children. Those older among us empathize with Watson completely-we took for granted, even thrived, within familial relationships that probably would not be tolerated today. But Watson also shows how primogeniture aids the affluent whether the offspring are gifted or not. To his credit, Watson admits this and does not set himself up as any more special than anyone else. He (and curiously his father as well) is rare in American business: he is a liberal and believes he owes something to his country. Would that this sentiment was felt more widely in the higher levels of business, government, and society.
Readable portrait of an IT empire.......2003-01-13
It is always interesting to read what sons have to write about their fathers. Thomas J. Watson Jr.'s book is no exception to this rule. Although in many ways the book is a business biography, the relationship between the two men creeps in between the lines (almost more than you could imagine that the author had intended it to). Watson Jr. was clearly influenced by his iconic father, both for better and for worse. The book is a lot about how that influence (and the escape from that influence) shaped the company that is IBM today.
Obviously the company has gone through many changes since this book has written-- Gerstner, downsizing, eBusiness, Business Consulting Services, etc. But still, it is remarkable how much of the culture is recognizable back to the very earliest days.
I have a special interest in the subject matter, so it is hard for me to say how fascinating someone without an IBM attachment would find the book. If you do have that special interest in IBM history, however, it is an interesting book and well executed.
A somewhat interesting and fairly candid account of IBM.......2002-11-18
Although not exactly riveting, this book does provide an interesting and readable history of IBM from the view of Thomas Watson Jr. who took over control of IBM after his father, Thomas Watson Sr.. Although much has happened to IBM since then (the job cuts, the internet boom, etc.), this is a fascinating glimpse at the evolution of big blue and the culture it once had.
The Watsons did not start IBM but they did oversee its growth into "Big Blue". Some of the anecdotes are quite memorable, the strict sales "uniform" (including sock suspenders), the refining and gentrifiying of the sales staff & executives, Thomas Sr. teaching his son to clean-up the bathroom on the train, the high-flyer told to forgo his tenant problems by Watson Sr.. It seems all tycoons and corporations have some skeletons in their cupboards and IBM is no exception. According to the book, Thomas Sr. and other senior executives at IBM started a business buying up old IBM equipment so prevent a second-hand market developing that would eat into IBM's market. It almost landed the Thomas Sr. and his colleagues in prison. Watson Sr. spent a great deal of time developing himself and his people to become refined, gentlemen with values and priorities. In these sad days of scum CEOs & executives, duplicitous companies, corrupt accountants & lawyers and valueless company "books" (Enron, WorldComm, Tyco, Merrill-Lynch, Arthur-Anderson, Martha Stewart,...) the incident may seem like grist to the mill but at that time it must have been a huge blow to the man and the company. A decent book if you have an interest in IBM or the history of the computer business.
better than a novel.......2002-01-09
This book tells one of the most fascinating, indeed rivetting, stories that I have ever read. It is about the building of one of the great American businesses of the 20C, but also much much more: it is about the conflict of an extraordinarily hard-driving father and his talented though psychologically burdened and rebellious son. From the beginning, they were at eachothers' throats and never relented in their conflict, even when it became evident that the son's genius surpassed that of his father to build an empire that can only be compared to the accomplishments of the first two Caesars, Julius and Augustus. The book also covers a good deal of American business history from the great depression to the beginning of the stagnation of the 1970s and early 1980s. Thus, it can be read on numerous levels.
There are so many insights in it that it will bear re-reading for a long time to come. Watson Jr. was acutely aware of the cost of success and was brutally honest about his own failings as a manager and family man. I find myself remembering scenes in that book, running them in my mind as examples from which to learn.
Warmly recommended.
Book Description
FINALLY, THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM BUG!
Through a bizarre disaster (nothing unusual for our boy blunder), Wally accidentally fries the circuits of Ol' Betsy, his laptop computer.
Suddenly, whatever he types turns into reality. . . Including Wally becoming the city's Chief of Police, and finally the Governor of the state. It's 11:59, New Year's Eve, when our hero tries retyping the truth into his computer - a commendable effort which, unfortunately, manages to short out every computer in the world! By midnight, the entire universe has credited Wally's mishap to the MILLENNIUM BUG! Panic, chaos and hilarity start the new century, thanks to our beloved Wally.
Customer Reviews:
Good Christian Message, a bit out-dated?.......2001-09-18
As a little shaver, I never especially enjoyed this type of light, comical book. Yes, I was a bit of a nerd, even back then. So, now that I'm a 24-year-old nerd, why did I decide to read a book intended for 4th graders? 1) because I teach fifth and sixth grade now and the reading level of the book wasn't that far off. Why not see what the kids are reading these days? 2) because it was sitting on the desk of the former 4th grade teacher's classroom where I eat my lunch and I was bored. So, why not read it.
The book really wasn't that bad considering it was written for someone 14 years younger than me. The hero of this line of books, Wally McDoogle, is a klutz and, quite often, he trips or stumbles, etc. setting off a chain of events culminating in some great disaster. Bill Myers is very talented when it comes to explaining in a believable way (to the ten-year-old mind) how sneezing can humorously result in a destroyed room and a computer that has a unique glich--whatever is typed into the computer becomes reality.
Myers also inserts a moral, Christian message in this and every other of the Wally McDoogle books, making it a fun read and assisting in character education. It's nice to see the redeeming, Christian social value of the book. Myers also develops some humorous moments. My personal favorite, although I'm not sure if it's intended, is when Myers shamelessly plugged another book in the Wally McDoogle series into the narrative of this book.
While the idea of a compuer that creates reality is an excellent idea, I'm not sure that 4th graders of 2001 would appreciate the importance of the computer bug being a Millennium Bug. I really doubt that he or she would even understand the now-historical term. Aside from that, the book is pretty entertaining. If I were to buy one of Myers's books of the Wally McDoogle line for a youngster, I'm not sure I would pick the Millennium Bug one, but would look to others. All-in-all, I would probably recommend to a kid, a different book, but would not be disappointed at all if the kid chose to read this book.
My Life As a Mixed-Up Millennium Bug, by Bill Myers.......2000-06-17
In this hilarious book, salt water gets spilled on 'Ol Betsy (Wally's computer). Then everything he writes about on his computer really happens! Choas insues and Wally learns that he should never cheat because it could cause serious problems!
Customer Reviews:
Excellent guideline.......2000-01-05
This book is an excellent guideline if you're having trouble working with your father or son in the family business... Entertaining...
Average customer rating:
- Interesting Book
- Fair
- Nah
- Don't support this greedy publisher's tricks
- Katie.com
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Katie.com: My Story
Katherine Tarbox
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A Girl's Life Online
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Treacherous Love: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager
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Circle of Friends
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Leslie's Journal
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ASIN: 0452282535
Release Date: 2001-06-05 |
Amazon.com
"Our lips met... I felt a few stray whiskers... and suddenly I realized that this was a grown man who was giving me my first real kiss... Something inside me snapped. Now I didn't want this at all. But I couldn't speak." Fourteen-year-old Katherine Tarbox wasn't sure how things had gone so wrong. She had planned to slip away during a school trip to meet 27-year-old Mark, whom she had corresponded with on the Internet for the last six months. Instead, she discovered that "Mark" was actually Frank Kufrovich, a man in his forties with a history of pedophilia. Katie.com is Katherine Tarbox's true story of how Kufrovich used the Internet to manipulate and molest her, and how she fought back by prosecuting him under the Communications Decency Act of 1996 and sharing her experiences so that other teens might avoid a similar situation.
The saddest thing about Katie's memoir are the reasons she sought company on the Internet in the first place. Over and over she states that her mother was a workaholic who had little time for her. She was growing apart from her childhood friends and her oldest sister and confidante was always away at school. Like most teens, Katie was searching for someone or something to connect with--a search her own parents tragically didn't seem to recognize. Articulate, strong and brutally honest, Katie.com should be shared between adults and teens alike, not only as a warning against Internet dangers, but also as a reminder that a computer can never be a replacement for a caring, listening parent. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert
Book Description
Katherine Tarbox was thirteen when she met twenty-three-year-old "Mark" in an online chat room. A top student and nationally ranked swimmer attending an elite school in an affluent Connecticut town, Katie was also a lonely and self-conscious eighth-grader who craved the attention her workaholic parents couldn't give her. "Mark" seemed to understand her; he told her she was smart and wonderful. When they set a date to finally meet while Katie was in Texas for a swim competition, she walked into a hotel room and discovered who-and what-her cyber soul mate really was.
In Katie.com, Tarbox, now eighteen, tells her story-an eye-opening tale of one teenager's descent into the seductive world of the Internet. Tarbox's harrowing experience with her online boyfriend would affect her life for years to come and result in her becoming the first "unnamed minor" to test a federal law enacted to protect kids from online sexual predators.
In an age when a new generation is growing up online, Tarbox's memoir is a cautionary tale for the Internet Age.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting Book.......2007-10-21
Some have been critical of the author, but keep in mind, she was only a teenager, and it is told from her perspective. I enjoyed the story, and it is a quick read.
Fair.......2007-08-06
Plot: 14 year old chats with older guy on AOL...they meet in person.
Pros: Engaging, quick read, no big words, appeals to teens, adults, parents. The mother and stepfather come off as jerks, and I love reading about messed up folks
Cons: Ending wasn't enough of a "conclusion" for me, I would've liked to know more and was kind of let down.
Other Thoughts: Although the title did catch my eye, it is essentially a lie as no .com figures into the story and the book isn't about a specific web site. The book reads like it was written by a teenager. Granted it was written by a teenager but the writing made me very aware of this fact. While not badly written, the prose is unimpressive
Nah.......2007-01-28
This book was poorly written and plain old boring. It's like just sitting there going through a teen girls email inbox. I could do that for free. None of the characters are likeable and you really can't feel sorry for the protagonist.
Don't support this greedy publisher's tricks.......2006-08-25
Regardless of the content of this book, the publisher Penguin has deliberately 'hijacked' the katie.com domain from its legitimate UK owner - Mrs Katie Jones.
They have ruined her small online business by deliberately naming the book and an ensuing TV program "Katie.com" even though they knew the domain belonged to someone else. So a hard-pressed mother gets thousands of often unpleasant emails, while the 'heroine' of the book enjoys TV celebrity.
Please don't support this type of greedy commercial behaviour. Buy another book.
Katie.com.......2006-04-06
Katie.com was a very good book in my opinion. I think that Katherine Tarbox was very brave for writing about the troubles she experienced when she was younger. I don't know many people that would be brave enough to do that. Me, personally, I would be too afraid. She took on her situation full speed ahead. Instead of dwelling in the past she moved on. She moved on to become a wonderful author and possibly a role model for young girls everywhere. Yes it is bad that she had to experience such a truamatic event, but in a way it just made her a stronger individual. She can know look back at what happened to herself and think, "I've been through that. I made it and just look at me now." Seriously though, many people would just stay in a little whole and not come out for the rest of their lives. Those people are not cowards, they are just afraid that they will be judged for their actions. Katie was judged yes, but she proved to those people judging her that she wasn't afraid of them or the person that helped bring her up to point of her life.
Book Description
For the first time, the story of America Online is told from the perspective of an employee in the trenches. Learn what it was really like to be at this company that was at the epicenter of the Internet revolution.
Customer Reviews:
Great Writing by a Great Writer.......2001-12-24
This book is great for anyone interested in finding out about how it feels to work at a small iffy start-up company. The author lets us climb on for the rollercoaster as the company goes through the initial ups and downs, on its way to becoming the largest internet provider in the world. It's filled with interesting facts and spiced up with enough personal accounts to make the reader feel like a real insider. Bravo!
A Real Insiders View.......2001-07-24
I worked with Julia at AOL and she offers tales from a perspective I guarantee you haven't read anywhere else.
Kara Swisher's "AOL.COM" told the story from the executive level. Julia's "My Life At AOL" tells it from the perspective of the regular employees who made the service run on a day to day basis. It's a look at things that happened when AOL was a wacky little company; very different from today's media behemoth.
An Insider's Tale.......2001-05-24
This book is a lively read--a brisk account of the energetic, imaginative and bright young people at the birth of AOL. It's enlivened by Ms. Wilkinson's breezy and engaging "voice." She mangages to give a sense of the atmosphere in the offices of the growing company with descriptions of brainstorming sessions illustrated with lots of colorful quotes. She presents well-thought out examples of the Internet as a powerful double-edged sword. While acknowledging its potentially negative aspects, she makes a strong case for it as a positive and highly beneficial tool. Being technologically challenged, I esepcially enjoyed the Appendix--A Cyber-Lingo Glossary:How To Speak AOL and the list of "smilies" and "emoticons," those wacky little lighthearted symbols that are shorthand ways of expressing emotions.
Amazon.com
In the early '90s, after a stint as a senior editor at the groundbreaking lesbian sex journal On Our Backs, Lisa Palac took charge of a new magazine called Future Sex. Tapping into the "cyber" ethos that permeated the Bay Area scene--Mondo 2000 was in its ascendancy, while Wired was still a full year away--the magazine achieved a quick burst of mainstream notoriety and became a longterm underground icon. But you won't need to don a full-body cybersex interface to appreciate Palac's The Edge of the Bed.
With disarming honesty and self-deprecating humor, Palac writes about how she began to gain control of her sexuality. When she found a boyfriend's stash of pornography, her kneejerk reaction was to tell him that if it didn't go, she would. He managed to convince her to watch a video with her; that led to another, and another...soon, Palac was renting her own tapes and started writing her own erotic stories.
Although sex-positive feminism can be a powerfully liberating philosophy, Palac does not sugarcoat the hardships. Not every sexual encounter was wonderful; sometimes there wasn't even any sex. ("I was a perfect candidate for cybersex," she drolly comments at one point. "I wasn't getting laid, I liked to masturbate, and I could type.") But the story of Palac's spiritual and physical awakening and her efforts to maintain honesty and integrity will continue to inspire long after they've finished titillating--and that's a mighty long time.
Customer Reviews:
A life worth reading.......2001-11-17
In February of 1994, I, along with many other horny college students around the nation, was fascinated by an Esquire article documenting "feminists who don't hate sex!" Lisa Palac had one of the more memorable lines as she attempted to describe the appeal of S/M; she called for her men to "degrade me when I ask you to." Obviously, this was not your average pundit, a fact emphasized by her résumé: co-founder of Future Sex magazine, producer of the Cyborgasm CD series and now author of an excellent memoir, The Edge of the Bed. Palac relates her upbringing, revisiting her Catholic childhood, her parents' loveless marriage and her subsequent attempts at establishing romantic relationships in the stormy sexual climate of San Francisco with an energetically bouncing prose and a self-deprecating gift for the dramatic. Along the way, she finds time to state her views on pornography, cybersex and sexual honesty, drawing you into her life with a magnetic charisma. She writes with a uniquely modern voice, one capable of tackling thorny issues with intelligence, irreverence and a quick wit. Hers is a life worth reading, and, with only 35 years behind her, there should be plenty more to come.
A Welcome Voice on Sex and Who We Are.......2001-01-24
I really enjoyed this book. Palac's approach to what can be such a loaded subject is playful and light. Her core idea is that each of our sexual identities is unique, and that we have a right, almost an obligation, to honor and explore it. She is tolerant of diversity, but at the same time she pulls no punches in condemning those who would belittle and shame us for our natural drives. Palac is/was a Roman Catholic, as am I, and her chapter on the role of the Church in robbing her of her sexual identity is very compelling. The idea that pornography can be healthy, and that women have a right to enjoy it, is an idea whose time has come. I give this book 5 stars because it is a welcome look at an aspect of our lives which is frequently stunted and shrouded with shame. Palac has opened a window letting in fresh air.
good but not great.......1999-10-01
Palac's book is good and gives us insight into her mind, but I was hoping to find more of a debate about whether pornography is good or evil. She doesn't really get into that. (If she did, yes, I know she'd come out on the side of good, but the point is to figure out _how_ she came to that conclusion.) The book is a little too much the story of her life -- but actually, that's what the title/blurb promise us, so really, I shouldn't be complaining.
A fantastic book that is guaranteed to resonate with you........1999-08-05
Lisa Palac has produced an incredibly honest portrayal of life. Though she is likely more well-known than most of us, her stories sound like they could be anyone's, regardless of sex, sexual orientation, sexual experiences, upbringing, religious beliefs, and whatever else you've got. Everyone has experiened a struggle between what they desire and what they feel is right for them to desire, and she tells of this struggle beatifully and without compromise. EVERYONE should read this.
A wonderful autobiography.......1998-09-16
Some people seem to think that being a feminist means that one is anti-erotic. This book is a chronicle of the life (to date) of a feminist woman who (gasp!) thinks that being turned on is good. It is more than that, of course -- The book tells of her childhood in a middle-class Catholic family, her feminist awakening, her erotic awakening, her professional and personal lives. It is well and clearly written, and provides a wondeful look at Ms. Palac's life and adventures.
Amazon.com
This is the story of one user's experience at a virtual-reality community called LambdaMOO. A MOO--short for multiuser dungeon, object oriented--is a virtual place where participants can construct human-like graphical representations of themselves to interact in a simulated world. Author Julian Dibbell begins by relating the facts surrounding the case of Mr. Bungle, a character who committed the crime of "virtual rape" in this fantastic electronic world, shocking LambdaMOO's members. However, the thread of discussion about this case is minimal and the book ultimately becomes Dibbell's diary of his "research" of this virtual world, which grows gradually more obsessive, and how it affects his RL (real life).
Dibbell offers glimpses of his RL between rich, colorful, and entertaining chapters describing the online community's gossip, his interactions and relationships with the other members, and his first experience with cybersex. What is interesting is that the brief snatches of RL are bland and boring, written in a kind of script format with little more than stage directions for descriptions. This device, plus Dibbell's discussions of his dreams about the MOO, show the reader how deeply involved Dibbell becomes in this community. The turning point comes when Dibbell's membership at LambdaMOO threatens to ruin one of his closest RL relationships. --Cristina Vaamonde
Book Description
Being a true account of the infamous Mr. Bungle and of the author's journey, in consequence thereof, to the heart of a half-real world called LambdaMoo.
From In Cold Blood to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, readers have been gripped by the novelistic rering of eccentric communities torn apart by violent crime.
Julian Dibbell's reporting of the "Mr. Bungle" rape case first appeared as the cover story in The Village Voice. Since that time it has become a cause célèbre, cited as a landmark case in numerous books and articles and a source of less discussion on the Internet. That's because the scene of the crime was a "Multi-User Domain," an electronic "salon" where Internet junkies have created their own interactive fantasy realm. In a "place" where race, ger, and identity are infinitely malleable, the addictive denizens had thought they'd escaped all traditional cultural and moral limits. Yet Mr. Bungle's primal transgression challenged all their illusions, confronting even this electronic utopia with the same issues of order and social norms that humanity has faced since the Stone Age. When this fantasy imbroglio threatens Dibbell's actual marriage, we see how the virtual world at once mirrors and mocks real life.
Customer Reviews:
Do not buy........2006-05-22
Pretentious, meandering, and bereft of anything that could be mistaken for value. I question its use even as a cautionary tale of a man who has lost all ability to distinguish between the real world and a world of pretend.
Virtuality: The New World.......2001-03-10
The author presents a tour of cyberspace. During this journey, we learn how the author feels, and what their priorities are. Cyber communites are the logical extension of chat sites, and web/ mail exchanges. In the real world, where restrictions can be placed on our daily lives, virtual reality provides an escape. Exploring this venue, we can learn more about ourselves as we interact with others, and the new environment. I'm glad the author documented their experiences!
"Laurel" speaks.......2000-01-20
I was the character that Dibbell called "Laurel" in his book. I was "there" though the entire story he describes, reading what he read in real time, although I never "spoke" with him (on-line or off). His book is remarkably accurate, although he does not have all the facts straight of the people behind the LambdaMOO characters. He deserves a lot of credit -- he got it closer than anyone else possibly could have.
Okay, it's biased, but who cares?.......1999-12-28
I found this book compulsively readable. I was a regular on LambdaMOO at around the same time that Dibbell was, and I found his descriptions of the experience of MOO-ing (what it's like to be there and participate in various ways) quite accurate. As for his version of MOO history, I wouldn't take it too seriously, but then, he makes it pretty clear that the motivations behind and significance of the events that he recounts are disputed. What impresses me about this book is the way it captures the feeling of being in the MOO, and the analysis of the issues that got raised in various conflicts.
Cyber sociology.......1999-12-16
Aside from his own personal, short-term journeys in and out of LambdaMOO and fairly mundane conflict and resolution with his significant other, which provide part of the hook to the reader, Dibbell writes in an engaging way about the sociology of the MOO community. Of particular interest are the immediate and long term reactions of the community to acts, virtual though they may be, that affect the fabric of the MOO society. The book's inability to fully demonstrate the complexity of the MOO society, demonstrated by MOOers' castigation of the work, is irrelevant to the points made by the author about the relationships of the wizard power class to the other, parallel MOO societies, and to the constituent class. The strong reactions of members of the MOO society to events and characters that are perceived as harmful elements, and the attempts to call for, impose and/or resist virtual law and order in an unruly and perhaps ungovernable society provide the real conflict. Dibbell's observations of the tensions of anarchy and order in the MOO unfold in counterpoint to the author's RL events and relationships, which are described in MOOspeak, but which must inevitably follow societal rules and expectations of long standing.
I found it to be a page-turner well after the narration of the motivating event was finished.
Average customer rating:
- Outstanding autobiography of a most unusual, talented couple
- A fun and important book
- An Old (and ýpolitically incorrectý) saying ...
- A rich, complex, extraordinary shared life.
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My Life and Travels with the Father of Fuzzy Logic
Fay Zadeh
Manufacturer: T S I Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Fuzzy Logic
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ASIN: 1889335053 |
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding autobiography of a most unusual, talented couple.......2000-03-05
Fay Zadeh has done a truly marvelous job in recording everything wonderful that has happened through her life and her great many trips with Lotfi. It is an outstanding autobiography of a most unusual and talented couple who know the world and human beings so well. Her humorous but critical observations of people and their way of life are really unique, acute and amusing. We read the volume with a great deal of interest.
A fun and important book.......2000-03-05
Fay Zadeh has written a fun and important book that gives a rare glimpse into the personal side of scientific discovery. It is at once both a thoughtful travelogue through the recent history of the information sciences and a contribution to the sociology of science itself.
An Old (and ýpolitically incorrectý) saying ..........2000-03-05
An Old (and "politically incorrect") saying states that behind every successful man, there is a supporting woman. Now, we all have a pleasurable possibility to once again confirm this saying by reading this wonderful book by Fay Zadeh, the wife of Professor Lotfi Zadeh.
This book is definitely not an Ode of a proverbial Oriental wife to her Husband and Master. It is full of love and joy and support, but with this love, she portrays her husband as she sees him, never hesitating to laugh at funny situations caused, e.g., by Zadeh's absent-mindedness or his collector spirit.
With numerous countries and continents visited, reading this book is like going on a wonderful world tour (often even with useful tips for fellow travelers). The descriptions of different countries and cities are charmingly subjective: Fay never hesitates to emphasize that, e.g., in her art preferences, she describes her own view; however, whether she describes places she enjoyed or places where her stay was not exactly relaxing, her descriptions are always funny and cheerful.
The book has lots of photos, and since the travels were mainly to the conferences, the reader has an extra pleasure, in addition to seeing the younger Zadeh, of seeing, in these photos, many well-known fuzzy researchers. Anecdotal stories contributed by several colleagues form a special appendix to the book. And please do not miss the last chapter, with culinary recipes: they are real and they are delightful.
Thanks to Mo Jamshidi, who inspired this book and helped publish it; thanks to Fay for writing it, and may I wish her and Lotfi good luck and many-many more years of happy life and happy travels together.
A rich, complex, extraordinary shared life........1998-09-01
Fay Zadeh has written an intimate, charming, and revealing account of her life with Lotfi Zadeh. Lotfi Zadeh is one of the most important computer scientists living today. Lotfi Zadeh has received numerous honours for his scientific work. He is best known for developing "Fuzzy Logic" along with its expansion into possibility theory and other aspects of "Soft Computing". These achievements enable people to computationally deal with impreciness.
While Zadeh's work is well known, his personal life and background are less so. Both Zadeh's are people of unusual character with many hobbies, interests, and hidden passions.
Fay Zadeh describes their life togeather; how they met in Tehran; how they later met again in New York; and, how they came to be a couple. Fay was born in Japan and lived in Manchuria, Latvia, and Germany. After Hitler's rise to power, her parent's moved to Tehran. Lotfi was born in Baku, Azerbaijan and moved to Tehran to study; where they first met.
While he is scientifically world reknown, it is also well known that Lotfi Zadeh is very courteous, kind, and generous. However, before this book, his private life was not well known. Fay has opened the door wide to reveal a rich and complex shared life.
Average customer rating:
- Rare
- Trinity B Jones rocks Podunk High
- Refreshing New Novel for Teens
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My Alternate Life
Lee McClain
Manufacturer: Smooch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Similar Items:
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My Abnormal Life
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My Loco Life
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Parents Wanted
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The Ocean Within
ASIN: 0843954515 |
Book Description
This fast-paced teen novel tells the story of Trinity B. Jones, a tough foster teen trying to survive life in a snobbish suburb and find a way to reunite with her birth mom. "Trinity stands up and lives on the page: gutsy, vulnerable, street-smart, people-smart--okay, just plain smart, a survivor with a heart," says award-winning author Nancy Springer.
Customer Reviews:
Rare.......2005-07-26
This book is so rare. It's rare you can find books that are real and people are not goody goodies. But not juvenile deliquents. Trinty speaks a life where things aren't ideal. But she can make the best of it. She used to live isn't the hood but now she has to go to some smalltown countryplace. Trinity tries her best to track down her mother and gets to know herself while doing it.
Trinity B Jones rocks Podunk High.......2004-10-26
Tough, smart Trinity B. Jones bounced between foster homes and St. Helen's Home for Girls until she landed in Linden Falls. Her foster mother Susan and her daughter Kelly are nice enough but life as a country girl in "Podunk High" is a total bore. Luckily Fred, her latest in a string of case workers, gives her a web address for ALTLIVES.com, a mysterious computer game that allows her to peer into the lives of the people in her past, including her real mom. She discovers her mom is married to a wealthy man in nearby Pittsburgh and she becomes obsessed with finding a way to get back into her life.
When she finds out Josh Johnson is sure to be elected King of the Fall Dance, Trinity devises a scheme to get him to ask her to the dance. But she knows it'll take more than becoming Fall Queen to get her social climbing mother's attention. Undaunted, Trinity works out another plan. Since Linden High lacks a planning committee or a theme for the dance, she and Kelly take over and convince everyone to make it a charity event to benefit St. Helen's. Trinity uses Kelly's name to trick her mom into donating $2,000 to their school's charity and an invitation to be the star of the show. As plans often do, this one grows larger in its dimension until it blows up in her face. Trinity is forced to decide between the real world and ALTLIVES.
Trinity's ability to spy on her real mom through the Internet adds a satisfying element of fantasy to the heart wrenching reality of her life. It seems perfectly fair and reasonable that a foster child should have the right to peer into the life of the parent who abandoned her and make her own judgments. While "My Alternate Life" is an inside look at the life of a foster teen, McClain skillfully weaves the common issues of self-esteem and self defense for young women into the plot. Teen readers will be drawn to Trinity's rough edges and identify with her independent spirit as she makes the biggest decision of her life.
Copyright (c) 2004 by Peggy Tibbetts
Refreshing New Novel for Teens.......2004-09-04
Fifteen-year-old urban tough girl, Trinity B. Jones, was perfectly happy with her life. Sure, she didn't have her birth Mother at home with her, and her foster parents didn't really care about her, but she was able to do what she wanted, and her boyfriend, Nate, loved her. But suddenly, her foster parents got sick of teenagers, and threw them all out, leaving Trinity with no home. Now, Trinity is forced to move to the suburbs with a family court lawyer named Susan, who's looking to do a good deed, and her 15-year-old daughter, Kelly, who's miss popularity, and a total phony. But when Trinity places the computer game that her social worker, Fred, gives her, she's suddenly able to experience her alternate life. The life that she would have had with her birth Mother, had she decided to keep her, instead of throw her away like an old t-shirt. Everything Trinity is experiencing is a dream come true. Now if only she could escape this life, and live forever in her alternate life.
Lee McClain has created a diamond among cubic zirconia, with MY ALTERNATE LIFE, as it is one of the only teen books on the market about a foster child. Trinity is a fast-talking teenager, filled with the usual angst that overtakes most kids over the age of thirteen, who knows exactly where she wants to go in life, and that's back to urbania. Her quick wit, and hilarious remarks will keep readers flipping the pages, while the sadness that overtakes her at times over the abandonment by her Mother, will have readers sympathizing with her, and hoping that she finds the family life that she so rightfully deserves. Filled with wonderful characters, both main and supporting, as well as an extremely fresh, and original plot, this is sure to be a winner in the eyes of teenage readers the world over.
Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper
Books:
- Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain
- Neuroscience
- Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Create Your Life, Your Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values (Nonviolent Communication Guides)
- Painting People: Figure Painting Today
- Phenomenology of Spirit (Galaxy Books)
- Phenomenology of Spirit (Galaxy Books)
- Phenomenology of Spirit (Galaxy Books)
- Philosophers Stone P
- Philosophical Investigations (3rd Edition)
- Physical Chemistry
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