Great idea, but has several mistakes
358198
I really like the idea of this book, and in fact most of it is good.  The only disappointment is that it has several mistakes (spelling and grammar) in the Spanish words and phrases it highlights throughout the book.
2889543
I really want to love this thermostat, but there are some fundamental problems with it that should have been corrected at this stage in the lifecycle of the product. The installation and setup were very easy and went quickly. It's very attractive and easy to use. The website and the iPhone app work very well and have been totally reliable.

But then, the misses begin to add up...The Nest has the ability to estimate (somewhat accurately) how long until the desired temperature is reached, but it didn't occur to anyone to use that information to determine when to begin heating or cooling to reach the scheduled temperature. On other comment boards, Nest employees (in 2011) say that this isn't implemented and that the estimate is to give you an idea about when you should program it to turn on. Some of the cheapest programmable thermostats do this simple function already. This is functionality that I've lost by installing Nest, which is an annoyance. The auto-away feature is promising, but when I'm forced to  compensate for the absurdity of Nest not knowing when to turn on to reach the desired temperature, the auto-away kicks in and turns it off. The house is then roasting until I come home and it senses me and turns back on. I've had to turn off auto-away (and do some math) to get the basic functionality of my 12-year old programmable thermostat back. Basic testing should have seen gaps like this and they can't be hard to correct.

It feels as though the developers have been furloughed at Nest and all that's left are the marketing guys. This is like the iPhone, where one piece of hardware can have a zillion OS updates and morph quickly into an amazing product. A genius idea in product design, but this isn't happening at Nest. The product is essentially unchanged since it was first introduced with nothing evidently on the horizon.

I'm ok waiting for Nest to wake up or be bought by someone who will put the resources into it to finish the product, but I wouldn't buy it again after seeing such silly gaps in functionality. Cheap programmable thermostats are easily beating Nest in functionality. That shouldn't be, Nest should be at least capable of the same functions that other programmable thermostats are.
328707
The imaginative premise of this book was fun, and I really enjoyed that. However, on another level, it had certain elements that kept taking me out of the moment. Incorrect grammar that should have been caught in editing and the formatting for the Kindle edition were distracting. Thought changes indicated by a dash were the exact same as the dash between compunded words which caused me to have to re-read many parts to understand what was happening. Time and location changes within a chapter had literally no space between paragraphing, again causing me to have to re-read to understand that a change had occured with no indications. Also, childish names and too many child-like creations in the imagined world created a book that felt that it was written for young adult fiction, but the themes were clearly meant for an older audience with more life experience and culture understanding. I would like to see more from this author, but with a better editor.
717516
I saw this product on Indigogo as well as on YouTube - The idea is brilliant - A door bell with a camera that lets you interact with the person at your door, and have a one-way video conference over a plethora of devices that begin with the letter 'i' or run that robot operating system with some devices named after celestial objects.  Again, brilliant.

Brilliant in idea.  Not in execution.

Here are the product's failings:
- The instructions are inconsistent.  They state to hold down the main button for 20 seconds to enter setup mode.  My unit blinked red for 2 hours before finally going solid red, which is what's required before the 20-second push.

- There are no settings in the unit to configure at this point besides silent ring.  The photo you can assign the door bell is cute but worthless.  That's dev time that could've been spent elsewhere.

- The camera is NOT wide angle by any stretch of the imagination.  Its adjustability will render it mostly useless in all but the highest of door bells.  In my home, I get a nice view of  half of someone's chest and stomach along with one of the front posts of my home.  I cannot fix this.  I have to tell whomever is at the door to crouch down and look directly into the camera.  This is inexcusable given the fact that wide angle lenses are cheap and readily available, and a product like this will not have a uniform location on every home.  A wide angle lens would mitigate this significantly.  The few millimeters that the camera can be adjusted are trivial and ultimately useless.

- The audio that comes out of the unit (using an iPhone 5s) is low bitrate and played back at a slower pace.  Imagine playing a tape at slow speed, or slowing down an MP3 for you newfangled kids reading these reviews (shakes his cane atcha) - It makes you sound like you're heavily intoxicated while talking to half of whomever's chest is at your door.

- There is often a lengthy delay in getting a ring notification, if you get one at all.  Sometimes, I can hear the door bell but get nothing on my phone.  Sometimes, it just takes 20-30 seconds.  And I'm on LTE on my phone with 50Mbits down/10Mbits up on a business class line in my home, with new 802.11 AC Airport Extremes - I get 4 bars at my front door for both LTE and 802.11n.

- The retention mechanism to keep the doorbell on its plastic mount is laughable.  It's the tiniest, cutest little screw with the tiniest, cutest, most bendable allen wrench ever.  You have to unscrew this little screw out into a little hole in the outer shell to lock it on.  It's like SkyBell included the most unfun minigame ever as an added anti-bonus.

-Support isn't replying to forum responses or youtube videos showing failures.  Guys, user experience is key. When techies are having difficulty with these, once your initial batches are sold, do you think these technical thought leaders will get their mothers one for Christmas?  Certainly, if they hate their mothers.

Ultimately, the SkyBell's raison d'etre is to serve as proof that a product cannot be successful based on marketing and development requirements alone.  Technical quality assurance processes must to be put in place to ensure the product delivers on its promises in a way that enables the technology to get out of a user's way and enhance their lives, not needlessly complicate it with mediocre documentation, poor camera choices, bare-bones software design, and Smurf-sized allen keys.

I have two NEST thermostats as well as a zWave network in my home.  Not to mention 3 Litter Robots.  I love when technology serves me and enhances my life.  This is technology that makes me sad both because of what it promised, and how it ultimately fails to deliver on those promises.

I will likely be returning my unit soon.  If I can find another tiniest little allen key ever, since mine was bent during installation.
1023890
Although "Home Economics" is a cute little book created from a sound premise, based upon our experience with the cake recipe on page 80, we are hesitant to follow any other bits of its advice.

The first problem is that the recipe fails to tell the baker when to add the milk and to what mixture.  It completely omits any reference to milk outside of the list of ingredients at the top.  Second, the reference to "sugar mixture" in step 2 is quite confusing because at that point in the process, the baker has two mixtures before her and both of them have sugar in them - the one with butter and sugar and the other with egg whites and sugar.  We added the yolks and vanilla to the sugar mixture with the egg whites which we soon found out was incorrect.  We continued on, but our cake turned out quite badly, especially given that we didn't know when/where to add the milk.

This is a compilation from old home economics textbooks and lessons, but the reader would hope that the compiler of such a new text would at least carefully review the advice provided therein.  For example, actually making the cake by following the recipe on page 80 would have revealed the weaknesses that we discovered and would have given the careful compiler pause before including it, or at least prompted careful editing or footnoting to help clarify the recipe.
1916032
Sorry, this is a great idea, but there are some serious flaws.  I like the idea of incorporating a beginning sound picture into the shape of the letter, but as a kindergarten teacher, I see problems.

1 - The words are printed in all capitals, which is a big no-no. All words should be printed in lowercase, except for a beginning capital for proper nouns. This would certainly get kids more ready for "real" reading.

2 - Some of the associative pictures begin with long vowel sounds. All major phonemic awareness, phonics, and reading programs introduce the short vowel sounds first. Long vowel sounds are introduced after short vowels are well established.

3 - The coloring pages are not really kid-friendly.  The letters are too dark to color in.

4 - Some of the associative pictures in obvious letters are not so OBVIOUS ("inside" for the letter i).

This product could be great if these problems were worked out.  The concept is great.
1955480
Interesting concept, but somewhat poor execution.
699946
The author should really post an errata. There are several puzzles with errors and it is pretty annoying that a correction is not available anywhere.

For example, one puzzle (#243) needs the reader to figure out the sizes of smaller squares inside a bigger square. The given length of one side of the big square adds up to to 176. But according to the solution, the length of another side of the big square (that the reader needs to figure out) is 177. How is 176 equal to 177? How is this a square? The solution is completely wrong. Errors like this are frustrating occur in several places throughout the book.
909332
Lidia is a gem and I was looking forward to this latest effort, but this volume is sorely in need of a good editor! I have only tried three recipes, thus far, and two of them had errors that should have been caught and corrected (e.g. the "Vegetarian Meatballs" are in reality, veggie patties (it says PATTIES in the first paragraph, and why they were called MEATballs is anyone's guess. Another recipe calls for "1/4 basil leaves--teaspoon, tablespoon, cup?--it is left to the cook to decide.
1184977
This little book includes some lovely lace patterns; however, I've tried two patterns so far and found errors in both!! In one, the multiple of cast-on stitches is incorrect (Leaf and Trellis has a multiple of 20 + 3, but it should be 18 + 7--something I discovered AFTER I had cast on the wrong number and knitted two rows for a border). Also, one of the patterns is missing a stitch at the end of row 11: Diamond and Leaf. Even though I love the patterns in this book, I'm pretty disgusted that there are so many errors, and because I've been burned twice now, I'm really reluctant to attempt any of the other patterns.

For these reasons, I'd recommend foregoing this book and buying a different lace pattern book--one that's had it's patterns tested and is trustworthy!
2769433
The book begins by indicating Robert has two dads. One by birth, the superintendent of Hawiai public schools and his playmate's father. He's caught in a quandry of weather to follow his biological but "poor" dad's financial advice or his friend's fathers. He has come up with a great idea for writing a book. Too bad there are so many errors in regards to financial concepts. Also, this "character" seems to be writing quite a lot of finction that he attempts to pass off as truths. Check out these online resources for more info about this book
[. . . and . . .]
4685162
There are numerous errors. The author should review each problem statement and solution, make revisions where needed, and send a FREE copy of the revised edition to the people who bought the first edition.
1552334
The idea's great -- I use my phone's GPS to keep tabs on how far and fast I bike (as well as to make sure I don't get irrevocably lost) so having my phone in front of my face while I bike sounds awesome.

It is pretty awesome, honestly -- but there are two major problems with this sucker that keep me from giving it a glowing review.

1) The release button on the back, which opens the arms (releasing the phone) *sticks*. And it's pretty hard to get that button dislodged. Thus, if you have to remove the phone in the middle of the ride, it's sometimes impossible to get it back in the holster without going at the stuck button with a screwdriver.

2) As others have said, the strap that's used to secure this to the bike handlebars is about an inch too short to get good leverage when you're pulling it taut. Once it *is* locked in, it usually stays put -- but getting it there can be tricky.

Other than these two things -- one of which is due to shoddy construction, and the other to poor engineering -- I do like this, and the price is good, too. Just be prepared to lever out the button, and be prepared to maneuver the strap onto your bike!
1552174
This Bible is a fantastic idea, unfortunately not carried out with enough care by the publishers. After only a few months with my 2007 leather bound version, I've already discovered 5 editing/printing errors. For instance Eph 1:23, "which is his body" has been rendered "what is his body". Also Jer 7:22, "nor commanded them" has been printed as "not commanded them".
Very disappointing for such an expensive Bible. I tried to contact Mathis publishers, but emails just bounce back.
The above notwithstanding, if I knew that previous versions were error free, I'd buy one.
4570366
Baker's text is pretty decent, but there are some problems.  In the chapter  on verbs, the first strong and weak verb endings paradigm is labeled incorrectly--strong verbs are labeled as weak and vice-versa.  This is a horrible blunder. There are other errors as well, but this is the worst one I think.
  Furthermore, Baker compresses weeks and weeks of learning into a few chapters, which is irritating.  The chapters are listed something like, "Nouns," "Verbs," "Adjectives," etc.  For an inflected language, this means tons of info crammed into single chapters.  Not the way I like to learn.
  The choice of texts in the reader is good, and the mini-text translation exercises are an interesting accoutrement, but the lack of intermittent vocabulary is disappointing.  If you have studied Wheelock's Latin Grammar or Bright's Old English Grammar, you know what I mean.
3247195
I like the story line, I like the voice, I like the characters and the way they're filled out. But grammatical mistakes really get in the way of the enjoyment.

There are numerous problems with subject/verb agreement. Quotations marks are left out, or out in the wrong place, or put in where none are needed. There are run-on sentences. There are partial sentences. There are commas where semi-colons are needed and vice versa. Not once or twice, but at least one of these problems on each and every page. Most word processing programs have a grammar check function, which would fix most of the problems, or at least point them out so that the author/editor could fix them. Please, please, please, someone re-edit this book so that it's readable!
3936659
I love the concept: Javascript is a diamond in the rough. Discard the rough and you will be working with a diamond.

I also like the concrete advice: the parts of Javascript to use, the parts to discard, and the parts to beware of.

I also like the explanations: how and why the good parts work. But this is where I begin to have reservations about the book. Some of the explanations are incomprehensible because of poor editing. How is it possible that a collection of technology pace-setters (Crockford, O'Reilly, Amazon) can leave numerous "confirmed serious technical mistakes" in their work uncorrected for at least 4 years (I bought it in 2012)?

O'Reilly's errata website for this book lists 157 'confirmed' errata, of which 9 are classified as "Serious Technical Mistake." There are also  22 "unconfirmed errata." Most of the confirmed errata were marked as fixed shortly after publication, but at least one of them ("beget") is still in the Kindle edition. O'Reilly helpfully provides downloadable copies of the example code online, but the current version still contains errors that prevent the code from running (mode/node).

I keep going back and re-reading this book, so looking past all my wasted time trying to make sense of the errors, I would give a correctly edited edition of this book five stars for the educational insights sprinkled through it. Or maybe not any more. The state of the art has changed. For example, as many one-star reviewers point out, the whole section on Object.create is outdated. This book needs a rewrite.