Great book, but second edition failed to correct two blatant mistakes of the first edition
933428
I liked and recommend this book.

However I was very surprised to read two blatant mistakes in this second edition of a bestseller written by an experienced and informed author:
p. 66 "This is called the normal distribution or, in mathematical terms, the log-normal distribution." (wrong, those are two distinct distributions by any token).
p. 71 "There were too many extreme readings, ... that random distribution could not explain." (wrong, one should read "normal distribution" instead of "random distribution").
I wrote to the editor and wish they could heed those remarks.
4059467
Great book! Don't "listen" to the review that says it's worse than the first edition! I bought both because of this  (it said that the first edition had more information) and regret it. Read both in parallel, and the second edition is much better, more information and better illustrated.
1034774
This is a fantastic book! I love chef's style and techniques and have defiantly spawned some ideas from just looking at the formulas and flavor combinations he does. HOWEVER, beware... There are ALOT of errors in this book. Formulas for chocolate glaze, without a quantity for chocolate; strawberry jelly using pineapple juice?! And numerous spelling errors, etc. Come on guys.. Let's make a Bachour 2.0 version with a better approach.
654911
I use this book as a part of advanced ug micro component at one of the UK universities. The book uses a clear concept-building approach with examples. I give B/F four stars since the fifth star is yet to be earned in  subsequent editions. Why? There are simply far too many mistakes left in  this edition. Which cannot be tolerated when game theory is the subject of  discussion. Just try to work through examples involving perfect Bayesian  equilibria. Your solution just won't match the one provided in the text.  And it turns out it is not you who is stupid. The game tree has a wrong  payoff at one of the terminal nodes. :)))
449188
I found this book invaluable while taking the author's course Coding the Matrix  on coursera.org. However, this first version was rushed to press with insufficient editing. It is rife with typos, some of which could mislead readers not already familiar with linear algebra. The index is both skimpy and inaccurate. Unless you currently need this book for a course, I recommend waiting for a corrected edition.
1890982
I am aware that there is now a 3rd edition (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Programming-Python/dp/0596009259/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Programming Python</a>) out now of this series, but I cannot in good conscience not comment about the problem with this particular edition.

I own the first and second editions. I heartily recommend the 1st over the 2nd. In fact, the 2nd edition is actually missing material from the first - even though the 2nd is ALMOST TWICE THE SIZE of the first.

This is the worst part.. the best reason to even own the 1st edition (the only reason basically IMHO) is a section near the back of the book. And get this.. thats the only part they took out for the second edition.

Thats right, they added a bunch of useless text, and gutted the only thing that made the first edition of any value.

I have both on my bookshelf, the 2nd edition is in perfect condition and collects dust. The 1st is worn from use. Take from that what you will.
703715
I'm a novice in the world of macrobiotic cooking and purchased this book in order to educate myself.  It supplies just the information I need.  The edition I purchased is the 2002, Ninth Revised Edition and, whether it's a one time aberration affecting just the book I received or a larger problem caused when the printer was binding the books, Chapter 6 (pages 115 -130) was missing altogether.  I would recommend this book highly, but you might want to physically examine one before buying it.
834538
This is the earlier, and flawed, edition of a great book.  Shamos himself has specifically disowned this book for many reasons.  Among other things, the publisher forgot to include a crucial diagram which illustrates the meaning of various terms used to describe markings and locations on the table.  For example, head string, billiard spot, balk line, etc. This is the only such diagram in print, and the publisher forgot it!  The next edition, The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards, rectifies this.

This book is not an instruction manual on how to play pool or billiards, but is instead a first- rate guide to all of the language used in every cue sport. Terms are clearly defined and, where appropriate, well illustrated. If you want to know what word the British use for "English," or where the often misunderstood "tangent line" actually is, this book will give you a clear and authoritative answer. The author is a true scholar and is the curator of The Billiard Archive, the most complete collection of books and periodicals about pool, billiards, and snooker.
3558625
This book is so fantastic! But it has some errors. We Korean say, "dirt on diamond'. First of all, in p68, there are wrong photomicrographs about muscle types. 2nd one is of skeletal muscle, not cardiac muscle as typed in this book. And third one is of cardiac muscle, not visceral or smooth muscle. But still I really love this book as a professor of anatomy.
1566409
This book is great, however, the reason it's currently getting a lot of attention is that a newly revised third edition has been published, which has been significantly updated. The audiobook, however, is from the Second Edition.

The second edition is still useful, full of great insight, but its outdated examples are REALLY distracting, and anyone listening who is under 30-35 will not really understand references to OS/2 Warp, Wang Computers, or word processors before the advent of Microsoft Word.

Also - This narrator is just one of my least favorite. He just barfs his words in this really condescending tone that makes me think, "the author must think we're all morons."
1034220
I was looking to this book as an expansion on Levinson's first "Charlotte Mason Education."  While it does provide more "meat" than the first, I can't get past some of the glaring grammatical errors.  Her misuse of the comma has plagued the first half of the book, to the point where I have to re-read sentences to figure out what the idea was supposed to be.  At another point, she means to refer to a "vicious" cycle, yet she spells it "viscous."  It is so hard to respect the information coming from one of the "Charlotte Mason experts" when she can't even proofread her work or find a good editor to do it for her.  I'm not trying to be nasty, but I think it gives homeschoolers a bad name when books claiming that we "know how to teach our kids" are published and then contain so many glaring errors.  I hope that future editions will correct the problems so that others don't lose respect for Levinson like I have.  On the positive side, her book lists are excellent, and are an amazing resource for those looking for living books in each subject area. It is worth the purchase for that reason alone.
2501740
Great book but the edition we got has at least 2 pages out of order. Will a corrected book be made available? Otherwise, a very nice book.
3227535
The second edition is vastly improved over the first, which I did not recommend.  I give a solid 4-star recommendation to the second edition of this text.  The second edition is a good, but not perfect selection from world religious traditions.  I think the average student will find it has helpful resources in bringing further insight into the moral, spiritual and religious beliefs of a variety of world religions.  The text is solid all-around in its representation of religion, with the exception of the introductory chapter, which is still badly fragmented and too-brief in its overview of thinkers and perspectives in religion.  I wish the chapter on Hinduism had at least a fragment on the Bhagavad-Gita, but overall I would say this is a good selection of religious texts.
2881571
While this book seems thorough and informative, the editor of the book clearly missed quite a few errors. Many of the mathematical equations/concepts within the book are missing one or more operator (= < > * ^ + -, etc). I bought this book as a textbook for one of my classes, and we are required to use many of these equations, and understand the concepts. It is quite frustrating when the equations are incomplete, and I must go online to determine the complete equation. Not to mention, some of the exercise questions are also missing parts of the equations. The content of the book is excellent and the concepts are presented in a manner easy to understand, but the lack of proof-reading is a glaring mistake. I do not expect such sloppy and lazy editing to be present in a graduate-level textbook. It makes this book difficult and choppy to read, as I am constantly having to stop and figure out if an equation should have a '=' or a '<' symbol in it, or if two number should be added or multiplied together.
1085268
This comment is for those who have seen the first edition and is planning to buy the second edition. TAKE NOTE:-- The chapter on Fantasy Scene (Chapter 7 in first edition IS IN THE DVD OF 2nd edition. Yes, it's not on paper print anymore and No, I'm not complaining. I just want all who expect to see the Fantasy Scene Chapter knows where to find it in the 2nd edition.

Honestly, I almost breakdown and cry when I couldn't find that chapter in the new edition, wondering why the author took it out from the book. I almost want to launch a complain to Amazon.com until I flip the book again and again and again and... er... until I saw the print saying, "the Fantasy Scene chapter in in the DVD..."

Oh boy! I stopped whining immediately. :p

Over all, it's a good book for anyone who WANTS TO LEARN PHOTOSHOP and TEXTURING. For those who thinks they know something, or in fact know it all, then you can don't bother to look at it. Go write your own book! Period.

Five Stars for the book! Amen! ^_^Y
3541801
Carnie does a good job of explaining the theories of syntax, but even on the fourth printing of the second edition there are still many typos and inconsistencies. The third edition (coming soon) should resolve many of these problems.
2740635
I'd make it three stars BUT... there's an error in at least the *first* edition of this book that makes you question the editing for content in the rest of the book. The first edition's solution to problem 3.5 leaves out the *one-half* in the formula for distance based on the acceleration.  (That doesn't mean the answer is twice what they say but I'll leave you to figure that out, there's a square root to take care of... in any case it's more than 2.3 seconds... 50 meters is pretty high, picture it in your mind.)

I worked that problem in both English and metric so I'm confident I'm right, but if I'm wrong blast me and I'll tank the review.  If they put the 1/2 in the Edition 2 solution then they fixed it and I'll withdraw the review also.

It's always troubling when you hit something like this, because it puts the rest of the book into question.  Since it's such an elementary mistake, the equivalent of a typo, it seems  pretty harmless... even so....

Otherwise the book is useful except the part on angular momentum (Chapter 6).  It doesn't clarify it...  despite that I've taken high school physics and 2 terms of calculus and now I still don't understand it. But of course every time I see trigonometry embedded in an exponential equation I take fright.  Good luck!

Aside from the blunder I'd give it 3 stars.