Disappointing, hack, and a poor copy
931993
I purchased this book due to the cover endorsement by Laurell K. Hamilton.  I hate to admit it, but that was the best and most interesting part of this mess.

A werewolf hitman falls in love with a lottery winner.  Whoopdedoo.  The writers attempt to create a 'Were' society that underlays ours at the same time juggling a very unpleasant hero who is apparently a mafia hitman. I am led to believe the authors were trying to create a male version of Anita Blake.  Unfortunately, they miss that which makes Anita appealing, her humanity and struggle to be who she is.

Laurell K Hamilton, Sherylin Kenyon and Charlaine Harris do a far better job with more likable characters, more believable plots, and less annoying heroines.

I'm afraid I tossed the book with less than 10 pages to go because I simply could not care less what happened to ANYONE in this book.
670191
What a rip off. Essentially, the author has read MongoDB documentation and has decided to re-tell it in his own words.  There is zero practical advice, zero original content, zero learning from someone else's experience - most of the book consists of mongodb documentation URL references wrapped in 2 to 5 sentences of some filler verbiage. I am not a MongoDB expert, but I have been working with it hands on daily for the past 7 months, and the few places where the author does venture to give his opinion, he is just plain wrong. Overall, the book feels like it was written by a college student who has "looked it up" somewhere, and moved some words around, incorrectly, in some cases.  It is such a blatant case of quick and dirty workmanship, I am simply disgusted how this crap can be put out.
I am going to try to get my money back.
266661
I have to fundamentally agree with the other review - the absolute bare-bones quality of this disc is a huge disappointment, and anyone placing this against any of the earlier entries in either the original "Welcome to the Grindhouse" double features or the newer "Exploitation Cinema" releases is in for a big disappointment.

In addition to a lack of trailers or option to play the films back to back, there is virtually no restoration at all on these prints, so you get films (especially Superargo) with severe vinegar effects (washing out of color and reddening of blacks) making the print quality about on par with a dollar store title, or something from videoasia.  That makes a sad contrast to the great restoration done (primarily to the Crown Films library) when the series was young, and just seems like a "we-don't-care" attitude on the part of Code Red.  Even the menu system is different, and believe me when I say it resembles dollar store junk as much as the print quality and lack of restoration of these films.

I own every other disc in this series, as well as the aforementioned Grindhouse series, so I have a measure to go by.  I will not be buying these new in the future based on the shoddy quality of this one, maybe used copies, but not new ones, as they are no longer worth the modest price if they are virtually slapped together with no effort to present them well or restore the source prints.

Lastly, the 'comedy commentary" by Cinema Head Cheese is a complete waste of an audio track.  Compare that to Bobby Bresee doing commentary for Mausoleum earlier in the series - here we get just some ordinary guys with absolutely no connection to the picture trying to crack lame jokes without giving any insight into the movie at all.  Utterly stupid, and another reason to pass on this one.  It's too bad, as I loved this series, but it really has hit the skids.  We know these were marginal pictures to begin with - we don't need smarmy comments and lack of print restoration to remind us.
4359137
Was not impressed with this book, although it might be ok if you know absolutely nothing about software. Not a very big volume, and over half is devoted to basic SQL programming. Basic SQL is available all over the web, for free. The book should probably be called Hacking for total newbies, since it does not go into depth at all about how to hack specific architectures or platforms. It's really just a description of hacking, not an instruction manual. Very little in the way of actual code, except for some very basic SQL queries, once again, pretty generic and useless. This book is a hack on your wallet! I would not recommend.
2925550
I am a fan of the original book, but this is so poorly adapted to Java that someone ought to be ashamed. How do whole segments start with "In C and C++ ..." in this book? How come this introduces a completely irrelevant memory management method (free lists, which would have been handy in C)? Someone clearly took "Algorithms in C++" and did the quickest possible adaptation that is still technical correct. And man, how stuffy in places. Back in the 80s being as stuffy as Knuth's books about programming was sort of cool, not so much now. The code is dense and comments are absent. Needs overhaul.

The analysis sections and graphics are nice. The little side tables are handy.
2138081
Printed on someone's computer? Terrible reproduction. Avoid.
1651058
Sort of a let down that they decided to remix a few of the songs when there was nothing wrong with the original release.

This is clearly an instance where less is more, less cowbell, (sax flourishes) and less remixing with less, (not more) cowbell, (sax flourishes) added as if the remix engineer made the sax recordings themselves, then decided to make sure their sax flourishes dominated most if not all the remixed versions I listed bellow.

I still own the original release on LP and I made several attempts to convert to digital, but I had trouble with surface imperfections giving me endless hops, skips and jumps during the transfer process.

So, without listening to the tracks, I bought it as an MP3 assuming that there is 2 additional tracks, what I didn't expect was the sax flourishes at the beginning of two river(s), the title on Amazon has it down as "two river", but the original was listed as "two rivers" like the lyrics in the song clearly indicate.

I went ahead and bought the CD with the assumption that Wounded Bird used the, (original) master tapes, not the remixed stuff that the MP3 producers, (black rose records) used.

After listening to all the tracks, the CD is probably an LP transfer just like the MP3's and CD of "Love's Imperfection"

Here's what I found problematic for the tracks on the MP3 version of this album:

Tokyo Rose : It has a different albeit, slower tempo, you can tell it's either a remix, a demo or a rerecording.

Two River : Sax flourishes as I noted earlier, this is remixed as the original track did not have this component within the song.

Wait for me : Slower, almost a demo quality to this version of the original released song.

Important Man : Demo sounding, almost half the tempo speed of the original, borderline "unplugged" style of play.

Drawing pictures : Slower, too many sax flourishes, to the point of overkill, it distracts from all the other elements/instruments within the song.

To a vote : lots of sax flourishes that were not present in the original version, slower tempo.

I won't forget : Slower than original, (if that's even possible as it's a slow ballad to begin with) once more, lot's of superfluous sax flourishes.

The songs I didn't critique appear to have been left alone in their original mixed state or they are the 2 added songs which I've never heard before, so I don't know which version I ended up with, demo or cutting floor filler songs.
18756
Vanity Press/Desktop Publishing at its absolute worst.  Re-typeset text misses content and introduces errors.  This should have been done facsimile from the original magazine pages.  Blurred images.  A disservice to the original.  No name or publisher evident or listed.  (Ray Cummings is one of the original contributors--not the new editor.)  I wouldn't claim this either.  A fast attempt at making a buck by defaming the original archetypal magazine.
2595145
The book's formatting appears to have been crudely done through the use of MS Word.  It's abundantly apparent that this text is no more than a copy and paste from internet sources with no actual authentication at any level being conducted.  Now, with that harsh sentence, may I add another: yes, it appears Forgotten Books did indeed find several editions of the The Key of Solomon the King through various online sources.  These pdf and text documents were likely cross-examined and compared with one another.  However, just by reading this work, it is obvious it does not come from King Solomon or was it placed under the scrutiny that I would expect when purchasing a book entitled, "The Key of Solomon the King".

The text is horribly inconsistent, shoddy, and unlike the other translated works of MacGregor Mathers.  Please DO check out other books about the work and even the practices of King Solomon.  I am sure you will find them horribly informative and interesting.  I even recommend "Abramelin the Mage" if you want a very decent perspective into those particular workings.  But please, DO NOT encourage these sorts of pedantic plagiarism as have been evidenced by Forgotten Books' printing of the Key of Solomon the King.  WHOMEVER they stole their source material from, they should properly source vice claiming origin.
4683701
Beware critical flaws concerning optical character recognition (OCR) for this particular edition due to the original text consisting of English, French and Greek.

French words are sometimes auto-corrected (incorrectly) into English.  Accented "" becomes 6, "d'Achille" becomes "dachille", etc.  Greek mostly appears as jumbled sequences of Roman characters.  Footnotes are intermixed with main text.  Headings are indistinguishable from main text.  There is no table of contents and no index.  And so on.

Their OCR process seems to be completely automated, such that no human ever examined the resulting pages that were scanned, printed, bound, sold and shipped.  This is an example of automation failure, which is both illustrative and ironic considering the nature of this particular text.  Oh, the humanity!

Apparently, this book is in the public domain as its copyright has expired, so other publishers should have quality editions.

This edition should be removed from market.
540987
Our entire family are huge Llama Llama fans, but this one, which on our cover says "an Anna Dewdney book" vs actually *by* Anna Dewdney, is more like a shady counterfeit version of our beloved character. Given her date of death and the publication date of this book, I suspect that this is a continuation taken up by another author. Not only are the illustrations not quite as good as the "real" Llama Llama books, but the writing is--I don't want to be mean--just bad. The joyfulness of the original Llama Llama books is missing. The childhood excitement is gone. The rhyming scheme doesn't even work. This book is painful to read aloud. I strongly recommend fans stick to the earlier books. Llama Llama Red Pajama is straight up genius. Get that one instead.
2840098
Received this just-published manual with an enclosed DVD containing lesson files.  Although the book appears to be a potentially useful guide, the lesson files on the DVD are defective.  All attempts to load them following exactly the instructions in the book, result in messages that the files are not in a format which can be read by FCP X.  Surely the author deserves better than this, Peachpit.  The book jacket indicates there are updated lessons at the page [..], but where are usably formatted data files?&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Apple-Pro-Training-Series-Final-Cut-Pro-X/dp/0321774671/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro X</a>
1999826
I own the original exhibit catalogue from which this facsimile edition was produced.  To begin with, the copying of the original text and illustrations is so poor as to make the book illegible and virtually unusable. Secondly, the scan from the original is reduced so that the content of the pages floats, surrounded by massive white borders.  If I had seen this, I would not have purchased the book. Lastly, the book I received begins with the odd numbered pages on the left facing pages and the even numbered pages are on the right. Not a huge deal, but the book does not correspond to the original source material.
1508928
This review is specifically for the Chinese import DVD version of "Song of the South" produced by the company Bo Ying. It has English and Chinese text on the front and back cover.

I was excited to see an official (looking) release of this classic film on DVD. Unfortunately, this is not the one you're looking for.

It is a factory pressed DVD (not a burned copy), but the quality is substandard. By seeing the picture quality and occasional video dropouts, it was clear to me that this was made from a PAL VHS tape version of the film converted to NTSC. To make matters worse, there is a blue animated logo that appears EVERY 4 minutes and 45 seconds. It starts at the top right and moves across the screen to the left and stays on the screen for 20 seconds at a time. Really? Who wants to see that every 5 minutes? Certainly not me. (Click on "View and share related images" for a screenshot of this.)

However, if you're so inclined, there are a few good things about the disc. There are optional dubbed languages in Chinese and Mandarin as well as subtitles for those languages. There are surprisingly good English subtitles, too. They duplicate the natural "dialect" of all of the characters. Other than these things, the DVD is bare boned. Just the movie and no special features.

I doubt that this is authorized by Disney as there is no mention of the Disney company anywhere on the cover, the disc, or in the DVD content itself. In fact, the very beginning of the opening credits are cut to avoid "Distributed by Buena Vista" and even "Walt Disney Presents".

Bottom line, if you love the movie, you're better off getting an un-authorized copy of it from a place like MayanCastleDVD dot net or just doing research and downloading it from the internet. There are versions out there that are much better than this Chinese import.
3974252
God, what a hack Stephen Mitchell is!  This butchered, mutilated, despoiled version of the Iliad is a disgrace.  Mitchell is no scholar, and he has so misunderstood the current status quaestionis regarding textual interpolations that he has taken it upon himself to excise vast portions of the poem that he idiotically assumes have been proved "inauthentic" or that offend his mincing sensibilities.  All the ringing lovely Homeric epithets, so crucial to the music and atmosphere of the epic, have been removed, Book 10 (which is actually an indispensable linking narrative and not a clumsy interpolation, as Mitchell imagines) is entirely missing, and the whole thing is rendered in that sickly sugar-water verse that is Mitchell's forte.  This is easily the worst translation of Homer ever to appear in English.  If you buy this book, do it only to burn it, for the sake of posterity.
4699983
What is this, then?  It's a rip-off of a wonderful game; the technology trees make no sense, the graphics are horrible, and it adds nearly nothing to Civilization II in terms of gameplay.  In many superficial aspects, the designers tried to make a complete break from Civilization II; however, they tried to do so while making as few changes to the underlying engine as possible.  The result is a somewhat muddled mess.
Graphics first.  The graphics engine, in fact the entire game engine, is virtually the same as that for Civilization II.  This is an engine that was made in 1996; made, essentially, for 640x480 resolution, and it suffers greatly.  This isn't helped by the poor quality of the graphics.
The learning curve can be difficult, to say the least.  Many of the games have multiple worlds, each with their own separate terrain types, none of whose effects can be easily learned.  In Civilization II, the task of remembering which terrain type does what is reasonably simple, since terrain types correspond to terrain in real life:  there are mountains, hills, grasslands, plains, rivers, swamps, tundra, deserts, and glaciers.  Imagine trying to remember that many terrain types for each of four different worlds, without being able to refer to real life.  What sort of effects do you think metallic hydrogen would produce?  Without the terrain chart and the technology tree poster, things rapidly become ridiculous.
This was a game made without Sid Meier or Brian Reynolds, and it shows; though there is some promise to the concept, the execution seems to have consisted of taking the buildings, units, and technology of Civ II and scrambling it all up; it's Civilization II with new names for everything.  Not even that much; in scrambling everything around, it loses the excellent game-design of Civilization II, and punishes prior knowledge of Civilization;  if you've played Civilization, you know that all of the buildings and wonders are simply renamed versions of the old ones, and to know that, and to know that you'll have to relearn the names of the scrambled buildings, is a depressing thought.
If you truly want a follow-up to Civilization II, buy Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, or wait for Civilization III, both from Firaxis and both done with Sid Meier.  If you like the idea of a fantasy game, or like the idea of multiple parallel worlds, the concept was done much better in Master of Magic, a game, that, though five years older than Test of Time, looks and plays much better.  It's simply too bad that the sequel was never completed.
2491471
This edition of the Principia Discordia is obviously a total rip-off. Written by Steve Jackson? Gimme a break. Do a search and buy the original by the originals.<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Principia-Discordia-Or-How-I-Found-Goddess-and-What-I-Did-to-Her-When-I-Found-Her-The-Magnum-Opiate-of-Malaclypse-the-Younger/dp/1559500409/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Principia Discordia, Or, How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her: The Magnum Opiate of Malaclypse the Younger</a>&nbsp;Or read it for nothing online. Either way, don't drop any cash into Steve Jackson's gaping maw or risk offending Hir Erisness vewy vewy much!