A Mixed Bag--with a major flaw
580953
Pittman gives a fine, brief, overview on alcoholism, temperance movements, and medical fashions in the (mis)treatment of alcoholism before AA.

Unfortunately, like most current 'AA History' enthusiasts, Pittman appears to be trying to whitewash the Oxford Group. e.g.: He lists 'The Fool Hath Said,' by Beverly Nichols as a source on the Group. This is a gushing account of Nichols' recruitment into the OG. Less than a year later, in 'All I Could Never Be,' Nichols recounted his mental breakdown after discovering the deceptive manner in which he had been manipulated by the group.

Nichols sharply criticised the group again in a later autobiography, and contributed an interview to Tom Driberg's 'The Mystery of Moral Re-Armament,' (1965) the most thorough expose of the Group to date
2846523
This book is a mixed bag.
The fact that this book represents one specific and accutely sectarian viewpoint is made abundantly clear by both the translators and Kelsang himself throughout the book. This is unfortunate and detracts from its readability for anyone who is not a member of the New Kadampa Tradition that Kelsang heads.
This book is a translation and commentary on the Entrance to the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara) by Indian Madhyamika Chandrakirti. Chandrakirti offers a strong interpretation of Nagarjuna in this work and in his commentary to Nagarjuna's Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way entitled Clear Words.
The root text translated herein is a summation of what Chandrakirti saw to be the philosophical essence of Nagarjuna's teachings. The presentation is organized using the structure of the ten progressive Bodhisattva Grounds by which the yogi is said to progress on the path to Buddhahood. Most of this book is occupied with an analysis of the Sixth Bodhisattva Ground, wherein the yogi completes the perfection of wisdom.
Chandrakirti (and Kelsang) present their interpretation of emptiness, which came to be called Prasangika-Madhyamaka by Tibetans, and seek to refute rival interpretations of Buddhist scripture, particularly those espoused by the Mind Only idealist school of Indian philosophy.
Kelsang Gyatso's commentary does not view itself as an interpretation; rather it is framed as an explication of the actual meaning of Chandrakirti's text.  A reader new to the material may be surprised to learn that the commentary goes well beyond the scope of what Chandrakirti could have argued.  Nor does he distinguish between issues that Chandrakirti may have been addressing and those which arose centuries later in Tibet.
The result of this is that the reader is left with little sense of the widely divergent uses to which Nagarjuna's thought has been put throughout the Buddhist world.
One might think from reading this book that the arguments which Kelsang recasts against holders of other tenet systems are current.  In fact, no Buddhist school has defined itself as Cittamatrin for many centuries, and no school has defined itself as Svatantrika ever.
I wonder why so much energy is spent reliving debates that have been over for more than a thousand years, and so little energy is spent understanding competing views that are actually propounded by living people.
In any case, this book contains a strong translation of the root verses, and the commentary is serviceable, though it is strongly patterned after Je Tsong Khapa's commentary and is not particularly orignal.
I am personally turned off by the quiet (but ubiquitous)  sectarianism of this work, but I value it as a good translation of an important Madhyamaka text.  The commentary is also useful as a methodical presentation based on Ge-luk-ba sources.
For an very different (but also flawed) translation and commentary of the Madhyamakavatara, see Huntington's The Emptiness of Emptiness. For a Ge-luk presentation of the sixth chapter, see Geshe Rabten's Echoes of Voidness.  The first through the fifth chapter are translated with Tsong-kha-pa's commentary in Jeffrey Hopkins' Compassion in Tibetan Buddhism.  A wonderful but extremely challenging study of the issues can be found in the magnificent Path to the Middle by Kensur Yeshe Thubten and Anne Klein.
1419376
Many of the integrated circuits are defective.  The product would be a good deal if it were composed of working parts, but since it is a mixed bag, it really isn't worth the money.
2239963
This unit is beautiful to look at but has major flaws in the MSN Direct implementation.  I bought this unit mainly for the Traffic feature - which has proved useless and terrible.

PROS:
* Big beautiful screen.
* Speakerphone is excellent, although Bluetooth can be buggy.
* Satellite acquisition is very fast.

CONS:
* Before you purchase, do a search to see if your area is covered by MSN Direct - and do NOT trust the MSN maps on their website.  Coverage in NYC, NJ, and Staten Island is terrible - basically non-existent and useless - even though the MSN Direct website shows full coverage.  I am on my third MSN Direct receiver after being sent 2 replacement cables by Garmin, and all three have had the same issues.  California seems better.

* MSN Direct Traffic (when it is actually receivable) content is often completely wrong in and around New York City - particularly on weekends, and especially for the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels.

* Charger cable needs to basically be attached to the unit (which is only possible by using the vehicle mount) continually for content to be updated.  This makes removal from the vehicle undesirable in order to get updated content, but of course leaving the unit in the car raises that danger of theft.  A catch-22.

* If the charger is disconnected from the Nuvi unit for more than a day or two, a reconnection process appears to take place and the Nuvi does not have new usable information for 20-30 minutes.

* Cannot program custom avoidances for undesirable roads/areas.

* No saving of routes.

SUMMARY:
The unit looks beautiful, but it's features are sorely lacking and definitely not worth the premium price charged for the MSN content.
4112448
The concept of a pen combined with a USB flash drive is an appealing one.  Unfortunately this particular implementation has some issues that limit its usability.  First and most annoying is that this drive insists on having a powered USB outlet, which can be very inconvenient.  Second, powered USB outlets are frequently situated very close to one another, and the drive housing is quite fat, thus it won't plug in alongside an occupied USB slot in many situations.  Aesthetically the pen is pleasing and has a nice heft in the hand (though I dislike the "Disk2GO" logo which appears on the drive section and is not easily removable).  I can still use this for bringing photos to the local kiosk, but its limitations make it inappropriate for daily use in a professional situation.
1436816
This attractive, light-weight computer has serious flaws, the most outstanding being that it is not portable!  It reads "Plugged in, not charging," and even when constantly plugged in, the percentage diminishes slowly but surely. We have tried to remedy this problem repeatedly  (apparently it happens with some frequency as there are many suggested remedies on line) but the battery cannot be removed by the owner, only a Toshiba professional (warranty issues), and even when the problem has been resolved, it returns the first time one tries to use the computer as portable.  In addition, there are Window issues, little quirks that aren't important in and of themselves but only as an indication that something wrong  is lurking below the keyboard. For example, I can't display a desktop photo, but when the computer is shutting down, it appears for an instant, and, sometimes the volume adjust icon works--and sometimes not! More importantly, I have lost work, and recovery techniques show aborted save attempts, even those done automatically every five minutes. Toshiba technicians--at least in Florence, Italy, where I live--aren't keen to do work under guarantee, they want to be paid for their time, and so what might be a resolvable problem continues to plague this flawed computer. I am sorry to have spent 1,275 for this computer. It has been a bad investment.
3116149
This is a book that could have been great. The concept is compelling: a storm is brewing at a distance between those who embrace change, embrace technology and innovation, whom she calls dynamists, and those who fear change, believe it's corrosive on our way of life, and, like the Unabomber, want to stifle technological innovation and revert us all back to an agrarian, self-sufficient society, in effect. An eclectic mix of political factions -- the Pat Buchanan anti-free-traders, the Al Gore environmentalists, the Ralph Nader anti-industrialists, Bill Bennett cultural conservatives, the Hillary Clinton technocrats (who want to fiddle with everything to make it "better", Theodore Kaczynski luddites, and others are awkwardly but inevitably coalescing into a new party or faction that will oppose/is opposing the free development of technology and the like, ostensibly to protect consumers and in their minds, to protect a "status quo" standard of living or way of live, that in their mind is superior to whatever may lie
 ahead. In contrast, a separate cast of political factions -- Milton Friedman freemarketeers, "genomic" liberals (who want free rein in biotech research), Harry Browne libertarians, Cher social-liberal types, militant Timothy McVeigh federalists, the Howard Schultz entrepreneurs, investment bankers, and others. Weird bedfellows, to be sure. But recent protests at
WTO conferences, acts of sabotage by Earth Liberation Front cells, the popularity of isolationist rhetoric by Ross Perot or Pat Buchanan here and counterparts abroad are symptomatic of an escalating tension driven by the accelerating adoption of technology worldwide. Things are moving fast, and not everyone
  is comfortable.
The author argues that dynamism, the label she gives the pro-technology/pro-progress faction, is innate in each of us: we crave learning, and trial and error is part of learning, and technology is a logical result of trial and error, starting
  with early man's need to make stone tools all the way to a young engineer's need today to build a better ultralight aircraft. Much of what we do is utilitarian, but the author makes a forceful argument that play, or challenging ourselves
  just for the sake of challenging ourselves, is innate in each of us and thus argues that the dynamic path, not the stasist (status quo/anti-progress) path,
is our natural destiny. The implications for all of this are profound, and it will be fascinating to watch existing centers of power grapple with this issue as the transition to the "new order" oriented around this issue will be awkward and contentious, but I would agree the day is inevitable
  when this issue will be front and center.
My main, and significant, problem with this book is the quality of the writing: it meanders, could be more forceful, seems unclear in its purpose at times, and misses many opportunities to make earth-shattering points. For this reason, it's not a super-page-turner, but rather is something that can be power-read without missing important pieces of learning.
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!
3988784
I really wanted to like this product.  It is certainly a very cool idea.  A self-contained camera with an mpeg encoder that can connect wirelessly (or wired) to a standard home network, and broadcast video to any laptop over a web browser.  And, indeed, it does try to do all that, but only partially succeeds.

First, kudos on the packaging.  It is high quality, has all the necessary parts, including a short ethernet cable, a metal swivel mount, and even a couple of zip ties to keep things neat.  I was very excited to unwrap the goodies!

The first snag I hit was that the wireless ability only works on a WEP network, not WPA.  I moved all my routers to WPA security long ago because WEP is no longer considered secure.  Because I'm not going to downgrade the security of my home network, wireless is out for me as an option.  Still, it isn't so bad for me because I have lots of available hardwired ethernet ports in my house, and I figure that since I have to plug in the power adapter anyway, it won't really be wireless regardless.  So, I went ahead with it but be sure and check that you have a port near where you intend to mount the camera before ordering one.

The part I was most worried about, the software, actually installed effortlessly and found the camera on my network without any trouble.  One click and I was getting a streaming video feed right to my laptop, which was very cool!  The image itself was color, but very blurry.  That's because the lens has to be focused by turning it left or right, like a projector lens.  That wasn't as easy to do as it sounded from on top of a step stool while trying to see my laptop screen (where the feed was) at the same time as turning the lens.  I think a helper may have made this easier, but I was never able to get the focus sharp, and even when I got some things in the image somewhat in focus, other parts further or closer away would be blurry.  So, I wasn't very successful with the lens focusing.

I also gave up trying to see the image from outside my network.  It is clear that it is possible to do so, and the company has gone to great lengths to allow it.  However, it requires service from Lorex as well as from a different company (Yoics), and by the time I had accounts with both and had installed the Yoics software, the whole thing just became too complex for me to keep fiddling with.  So, while it is possible to do this, I wouldn't say it was easy.

Overall, because of the focus issue (I'm watching my blurry image type this right now), the lack of WPA support for wireless connection, and the complexity behind viewing it from outside the home, I recommend passing on this product.  If you do go ahead and get one to play with, just be aware of its limitations in advance.  It is a cool idea, and I'm sure the products in this space will continue to improve.

Sean P. Logue, 2009
561962
This is a very professionally produced book, with a lovely cover, adequate to good photography, a wide range of buildings and neighborhoods, and lots of information on the city, its history, its neighborhoods, and the buildings themselves.

That said, the decision to organize the book by building types -- churches, high rises, etc. -- is utterly inexplicable.  Books of this type are first and foremost guides to the city, and organization by any method except neighborhoods does a serious disservice to anyone trying to learn about the cityscape.

The bulk of the book's detail is expended on entries about individual buildings.  Then near the end, a series of walking tours finally start exploring various neighborhoods... with lengthy texts that reference both the previous buildings and additional ones, requiring one to flip back and forth constantly.  Still more buildings are mentioned (and even shown in photographs) only in a series of essays on various architectural styles -- that means still more flipping around!

Hopefully a future edition will straighten out this mess, sorting everything out the way it should be: by neighborhood.
961001
After using this set for a while, I have discovered that this set is a mixed bag. First, two of out of the three brushes (the Insane Detail and Regiment) have a triangular shape to them. The Small Drybrush is a standard round-handled brush. The triangle brush handles  serve two purposes: the first is that it is more comfortable to hold in a standard "pencil" grip and the second is that they do not roll on the table when you lay them flat.

The Insane Detail brush has a very fine point, but unfortunately has a tendency to "fishtail" or have the point split into two lines when drawing a brush stroke. You can easily shape it back to a fine point, but it will occasionally repeat this behavior, even with minimal pressure. For detail work, such as eyes, this is very annoying. I have tried thinning the paint down quite a bit, and this helps a little bit but not enough. Also, because the point is so small, paint tends to dry on the brush even before you get to lay it down. This is really not the fault of this brush in particular, just an observation.

The Small Drybrush is neither great nor terrible, it is decidedly average. I have used similar style stubby synthetic brushes and I do not notice any perceivable difference. Not a whole lot to say about it, really. It holds its shape reasonably well, and being synthetic means it can take a bit more abuse than a natural hair brush can. This is useful since drybrushing itself is a bit rough of brushes.

The Regiment is a natural Rotmarder hair (Weasel; Kolinsky) brush that has shined in this set. I have used it extensively, and it keeps a nice fine point and doesn't tend to split or fish-tail much. I haven't had the opportunity to compare it to the gold standard Kolinsky sable brushes out there (W&N Series 7, Raphael 8404), but compared to the inexpensive hobby brushes I have purchased thus far, it is outstanding. It is a very good size for base-coating smaller miniatures, such as Warhammer infantry or D&D-style figurines. The point is suitable for most applications, save very small eyes. All in all, a very good brush for the application.

All in all, the Regiment brush alone in my pack is very good - quality might differ from package to package, but from my experience the Regiment brush is an easy recommendation, especially for the price.
4209627
I did significant research before buying this backpack. I wanted a good compromise between accessibility, ability to hold upwards of 3-4 lenses, to hold my laptop and personal items; and then the obvious, like comfort, durability, etc. First impressions upon receiving this backpack were that it's designed and built well, and had a good feel overall. However, after taking it on a three-hour trek to test it out at full capacity, I've discovered a few issues with it.

First, the good. As mentioned, the build and design appears to be of very nice quality. Nice, seemingly durable materials. Plenty of cushioning--particularly for the camera and laptop areas. I'd be confident my gear would not be hurt in this bag. Also, the colored interior pockets is a nice feature, it makes it much easier to see and organize your items. The zippers seem smooth and well designed, all the seams appear to be well stitched. Also, another positive with this backpack is it distributes weight well, and there's very little sway or movement (with or without the chest/waist straps). It feels solid against your back.

Now to the bad. The backpack is uncomfortable after just an hour or so of use at full capacity. Packed in it, I had my Pentax K100D with lens attached, two additional lenses, a few small accessories, my 13" Macbook laptop, two sets of AA batteries, a first aid kit, a small lunch, and a small bottle of water. This was about all I could fit in the bag, and it made it of significant (not unbearable) weight. However, it didn't take long for me to feel the wear of the straps on my shoulders, pressing into them. The shoulder straps seem like they should maybe be wider, to distribute the weight more. To me, they're relatively narrow for what this backpack should be expected to carry. Also, while the waist strap does definitely help, it isn't much. A nicer strap would be nicer, for a more snug fit.

Another significant complaint with this backpack is the completely inadequate mesh pocket on the side. It's helpful for carrying a monopod, or maybe a very small/skinny water bottle. But any remotely normal size water bottle has no chance of fitting. To me, this is a major oversight. An accessible water bottle is one of the things I'd like most when out hiking with heavy gear. There's a couple other minor design issues I discovered. The top "big" pocket for personal items isn't so big. Don't expect to fit more than a small lunch and maybe a very light jacket or t-shirt. Small accessories are no problem, though. Also, don't expect to fit any longer telephoto lenses in the camera compartment. My 70-300mm barely fit.

Overall, honestly, if you're not too hung up on having a lot of space for personal items, and you don't have bony shoulders (like I do), this backpack might be a great deal for you. The build quality is very nice, and you can't beat a lifetime guarantee (optional through the Kata website). However, if you're looking for the best photography backpack out there with no compromises, or you're particularly worried about comfort over long periods, or about plenty of space for personal items, I'd look elsewhere. I'm planning to return this backpack for a refund and researching for a different one. Overall, I was disappointed.
1669948
For the most part I like it, I think.  I mean, I'm not blown away though I do recognize that for what it is, this is really a quality device.  Trouble is, right now we live in a sea of Bluetooth speakers.  So in using this, I kept looking for a way this was differentiating itself from the umpteen hundreds if not thousands of other speakers out there, and truth be told I didn't see much that was compelling.

It's a handy device, to be certain.  It's not overly large, with a number of functions built into it as a way to give it some versatility.  There's the Bluetooth mode of course, but there's also a built in radio (complete with cable antenna) and an aux-in as well as speakerphone capabilities.  So it promises to be more than a one-trick pony.

The initial draw here is the plug system, in that you can keep this plugged directly into a wall outlet.  On one hand that's kind of a nifty thing, but then on the other I kept scratching my head with it.  First, the plug on the speaker is situated that when plugged into a standard 2 outlet household drop,, it renders the other outlet unusable.  If you plug it into the top outlet the speaker entirely covers the bottom outlet, and if you plug it into the bottom outlet then it comes right up to just under the bottom of the top outlet, again making it unusable.  So you'll pretty much have to use a dedicated outlet for this...unless you go the extension cord route, but if you do that then why bother with a built-in plug on the speaker to begin with...?

You could also go the charging route, as this device has a built in battery and you can play off that.  But again, there are other speakers out there that do the same thing without the built-in plug.

See what I mean? Head scratching.

Another oddity is the radio.  Oh, not the sound or anything...it picks up radio stations just fine, especially with the cable antenna deployed.  Unfortunately there's no good way to actually tune the radio.  There isn't a display telling you what frequency you're on, so you kind of have to guess.  The default mode is a scan mode where the device will store the first 20 stations it finds.  You can also manually tune the unit, but again since there's no display you aren't always sure what station you're catching.  So this makes tuning and listening a little difficult.

I had best luck and results using this as a straight Bluetooth speaker.  As a small speaker I wasn't expecting full symphonic reproduction, but for what it is the unit did a good job.  It's good enough to where you know what you're listening to, certainly.  Throwing in the speakerphone capability is nice, although honestly I usually stream music from my phone and I don't like when my phone rings and interrupts the music.  I wish there were an easy way to turn that feature off.

It also offers a charging USB port with the built in battery rated at 1,000 mAh.  This was enough to bring my dead iPhone 6 to 50%, in a form factor that's much larger than a higher-capacity battery that fully charges my iPhone 2 times.

So see what I mean?  On paper this device looks great, offers all these features, and so on. But after a time I got the opinion that this device is a jack of all trades, master of none.  I look at it and can't think of one thing it does better than anyone else.  It's not *bad*, definitely not.  But is it something that stands out?  No, sadly not for me.  So I think it's OK...but that's about it for me.
4768663
The wavetables sound richer and more interesting that those of the Virus TI to me, and the overall depth and character of the sound is fantastic. The synth engine is unbelievably feature-rich at this price.

However, there are several significant drawbacks: the knobs are jittery and the synth crashes pretty regularly. Worse, there's no official librarian program to manage 1,000 sounds, which makes this an ergonomic nightmare. Similarly, the sample loading software is clunky and extremely slow, and Mac users can forget about the alleged user wavetables. The very worst part, though, is that using wavetables and/or comb filters (the bits that make this synth unique) bring the polyphony down to 3 voices. Yes, just 3 voices. Forget pads or any sounds with long release times.

I used Q is a better deal, since its polyphony is fixed and since its two wavetables contain most of the interesting waveforms from this synth. The Q lacks all the drive/overdrive options of the Blofeld, but distorted and grungy sounds will go back out of fashion any day now.
843848
AN INSIGHTFUL BOOK, very well written, but with its sets of flaws...
3285354
I want to like it.  I love the color and feel and do not find that there is a smell as others experienced. I am fine with the larger dimensions, it's not that big, not much more than a regular notebook.  It is not that heavy, which is very nice.  However, there are serious design flaws that make it far less useful than I need it to be.

The accordion file holder does not hold tabbed 8.5 x 11" file folders.  The design flaw seems to be where it is stitched toward the spine. It is too high up by 1/4" causing the tabs of file folders to stick 1/4"+ out, which blocks the zipper from being able to close.  The bottom of the accordion pocket is also stitched flat down, and does not expand out.  It is such a tight fit that I can not get more than about 20 sheets of paper to actually fit into the space without doing damage to my papers.  I am very disappointed by this as I bought this entirely because of the accordion pocket.

It is certainly big enough to allow file folders.  File folders do fit in it if you simply lay them in the center, but that is getting messy with small papers coming loose.

The second design flaw that could be fixed are the  row of small pockets.  They are 1/8 - 1/4" too small to fit 3x5" index cards , horizontally.  They do fit vertically, but it looks messy.

The notepad holder only holds top loading notepads, which I suspected.  Upon looking at the design in person, it would take very little to redesign the area to allow for a notepad to be loaded at the top or bottom or side, which would make it much nicer and more useable for a variety of occasions.

I am debating whether to modify it myself in the areas I can, or just send it back.  I love the color, but is it worth $29 (what I paid) for such a poorly designed "professional" padfolio?  I am mostly disappointed about the inability to hold file folders in the space provided for such a thing.
1531549
I bought this product hoping to use it as an all-day music source in a noisy factory. My main hope was that it'd both be louder than and last longer in heavy use than an iMaingoX or iMaingo2, both of which are pretty good products. While this is a very impressive design in some ways and might be great for someone making, say, formal business presentations it's not at all suitable to my needs. When the speakers are deployed the whole unit becomes delicate and awkward and takes up far too much bench-space. The batteries began to fade in four or five hours at full volume, even sooner than the smaller iMaingo's batteries, and the sound isn't noticeably louder in my work environment. The _real_ fly in the ointment, however, is the size/weight/convenience factor. I very often use my iPad as an e-reader, especially at restaurants, and that's virtually impossible with this device in place unless you're willing to dedicate a large percentage of your available table-space to the system's oversized footprint and be sure to remember to bring along the separate, easy-to-lose tripod. While there are many good things to say about this system-- it's certainly cleverly engineered and the sound is of decent quality, for example-- I'll be giving mine away to an iPad owning friend sometime very soon. And you know what? I bet _she_ won't find a real-world use for it, either.

Buy yourself a good pair of rechargeable bluetooth speakers instead, unless you're out to visually impress clients or something like that. After trying many different makes and models of bluetooth speakers I've found the Monster Clarity's to be the best value available at this time. They're a bit louder than this gadget, much smaller and lighter to carry, have longer-lasting batteries, and allow you to carry your iPad in a more user-friendly case. Best of all, while the price seems to bounce around a lot I've seen them go for as little as fifty bucks here on Amazon.