Book Description
You've no doubt seen or heard talk of
"IT Doesn't Matter" in the May 2003 issue of Harvard Business Review. It's one of those rare pieces of Harvard-speak that will be heard around the world, the likes of which hasn't been seen since HBR published Michael Hammer's "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate!" in 1990. As Bob Evans of Information Week reported, "Carr's unshakeable belief [that IT is now a commodity] leads him to a conclusion that's no doubt provocative, but also profoundly short sighted and dangerous."
Has IT has reached the Winter of its life as an enabler of competitive advantage? Or is it Springtime, the season of growth for forward-thinking companies like GE, Dell, Wal-Mart and others determined to dominate their industries in the decade ahead? Read Smith & Fingar's critical analysis, and you decide.
Smith & Fingar are authors of the landmark book, Business Process Management: The Third Wave. They posit that a new approach to business automation centered on business process management, instead of the data-centric world of the past fifty years that Carr describes, portends the greatest growth opportunity companies have ever seen.
Customer Reviews:
Replace IT with Architecture.......2003-09-23
Having browsed through both sides of the story, i have to say that Howard Smith and Peter Fingar do an excellent job bringing the importance of business processes to the forefront. In the systems of tomorrow, business processes will play an important role but that role has to be supported and realized by a sound architecture. IT in this context will be important but will perhaps assume a slightly different flavour.
An interesting monograph on the state of IT.......2003-09-17
Smith and Fingar present an interesting monograph on the current state, and future possibilities, of IT.
Their premise is that IT, as we know it is over, Business Process Management (BPM) represents the next wave of corporate computing. They do a good job of defining IT but never do they adequately define BPM. We are told what it isn't; it's not data, it's not hardware or software, and it's not Web services. But what is it? It is loosely defined, first, as a value-chain that encompasses suppliers and then as the white space between the boxes on an organization chart (referencing Rummler's terrific book on managing process).
Regardless, I believe they make a valid argument. It's not how many servers you have, it's about how you're using the data and applications to make money and trounce the competition.
But Carr also makes valid arguments, after all, who screws things up like IT? Who would think that in this day and age we still have runaway IT projects and projects that lack business value? There is a dearth of business sense among IT managers and there are too many business managers who find computers a mystery and abdicate business decisions to IT managers.
At times the book becomes strident and takes on the spirit of a manifesto. The section on IT investments, and how they're going to soar again, references a science fiction writer and talk show host as sources. Later on, Smith and Fingar lament that Carr's article will destroy economic growth by giving CEOs justification for withholding IT investment. Perhaps the silver lining here is that vendors will offer products and services that add business value and IT and business managers will have to make solid business arguments to justify purchases.
What is implicit but not explicitly stated in this book or Carr's article is the importance of governance: businesses must articulate strategy and align IT with that strategy. Organizations must select and manage IT projects as business projects managed by capable and IT savvy business leaders and business savvy IT managers. This will distinguish those firms that can effectively utilize IT resources from those that cannot.
Plan Ahead.......2003-09-17
The examples and solutions within Fingar and Smith's book clearly illustrate that the future of business process exists within a framework that reaches beyond the box that now defines IT.
For any one that wants a glimpse into the bright future of e-commerce and the marriage of IT & Business, this is a must read.
good information for business strategists.......2003-09-12
As anyone who is responsible for strategic IT planning can tell you, it's a new dawn in IT these days - especially as IT spending relates to improved business efficiencies and the bottom line. While Carr's HBR article is a simplistic and flawed interpretation of where IT is heading, Smith and Fingar present a well thought and presented, point by point analysis of, not only what is wrong with Carr's misguided vision, but also solutions offered by new directions in IT of paramount importance to strategic corporate management. A significant element of my company's competitive edge came from developing advanced business processes, so we are already up to speed on the directions towards business process management espoused by Smith and Fingar. I do, however, know of many examples of companies and organizations that might be looking for excuses to minimize their IT expenditures due to problems with previous flawed IT strategies and execution. For those companies, Carr's article might provide the perfect justification to retrench. This book, on the other hand, is for forward thinking strategists who are looking to optimize and innovate to maintain and improve their efficiency and competitive edge.
Correct thinking about IT.......2003-09-10
Nicholas Carr's article in the Harvard Business Review has taken the backlash wave from the IT overspend in the 1990s to spin a sensational story, a story that some rebuttals have called "dangerous," for it distorts the role of IT in creating competitive advantage. Companies are indeed struggling with the issue of IT's role, and it is difficult to break out of existing misconceptions of IT. This is evident in David Forbes' review of this book. He seems so locked into his perceptions that he distorts what the book actually says. For example, he says the Smith & Fingar's vision is that of expensive ERP sysems of the past. He must be so busy railing against ERP systems that he failed to actually read the book's related discussions that are in fact in agreement with him. And, about Forbes' comments about usability... did he actually read the section on amenity? Again, agreement.
The point is that when it comes to IT, many people bring much baggage to the subject, for IT means many things to many people and is an emotiaonally charged subject for those with a particular stake in IT. Many read a book like this and filter it through their individual bias to the point where they distort what the book actually says.
As a business manager using the book to foster discussion in our company, I suggest readers go through it twice: once quickly with their defensive mechanizms in place, and then again with a keen eye on what the IT issues portend for their company going forward. We are doing precisely that in our company and find the book to be the focal point of our deliberations, for it covers all the key issues of the past and those setting the stage for the future. Correct thining about IT, not preconcieved notions or turf bias, is essential for companies to move forward, for as the book says, IT is not about the past fity years of business automation and its inherent limitations, IT is about a "change in kind" in business automation where the focus is not on data and record keeping, but on the way business is conducted. And yes, the authors totally agree that usibility is key to that, for it's business people who must manage their own business processes.
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MRI Atlas of Human White Matter
S. Mori ,
S. Wakana ,
P.C.M. van Zijl , and
L.M. Nagae-Poetscher
Manufacturer: Elsevier Science
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Fiber Pathways of the Brain
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Introduction to Diffusion Tensor Imaging
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Statistical Parametric Mapping: The Analysis of Functional Brain Images
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Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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Clinical MR Neuroimaging: Diffusion, Perfusion and Spectroscopy
ASIN: 0444517413
Release Date: 2005-06-16 |
Book Description
Recent advances in modern imaging techniques that can be used non-invasively for the visualization of the human brain have greatly enhanced the knowledge of brain anatomy and the understanding of its relationship to brain function. A unique new MRI modality, called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) allows the three-dimensional study of the large white matter (WM) fiber bundles at macroscopic resolution (millimeter scale).
MRI Atlas of Human White Matter provides a three-dimensional and two-dimensional in vivo atlas of various white matter tracts in the human brain. The images are based on diffusion tensor imaging and various tracts are reconstructed three-dimensionally from the data. Following an introduction and description of the methodology (Chapters 1 and 2), the 3D anatomy of individual tracts is delineated in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 consists of a series of color-coded orientation maps to delineate white matter anatomy in a slice-by-slice manner, in which the structures are extensively annotated. This richly illustrated Atlas is a valuable resource for students studying white matter anatomy and researchers working in brain research and radiology. This book also provides the structural assignment, which will assist neuroradiologists when interpreting diffusion tensor images in routine clinical studies.
* Contains information demonstrating the clear separation of grey matter and white matter structures in the living human brain
* 3D white matter tract reconstruction, with extensive 2D panels in all three viewing angles
* Comprehensive annotations of white matter structures
Customer Reviews:
Nice DTI Atlas.......2007-02-20
Although the book arrived looking like it might have gotten slightly damp, it is a lovely high quality atlas. Nice intro to diffusion and large color images in all three planes with annotations.
The online version is a good supplement, as you can access it when you don't have the print version, and you can do a search through the whole text of the thing and find every page with, for example, a reference to a particular tract.
Good choice.
Book Description
Current developments in optical technologies are being directed toward nanoscale devices with subwavelength dimensions, in which photons are manipulated on the nanoscale. Although light is clearly the fastest means to send information to and from the nanoscale, there is a fundamental incompatibility between light at the microscale and devices and processes at the nanoscale. Nanostructured metals which support surface plasmon modes can concentrate electromagnetic (EM) fields to a small fraction of a wavelength while enhancing local field strengths by several orders of magnitude. For this reason, plasmonic nanostructures can serve as optical couplers across the nanomicro interface: metaldielectric and metalsemiconductor nanostructures can act as optical nanoantennae and enhance light matter coupling in nanoscale devices. This book describes how one can fully integrate plasmonic nanostructures into dielectric, semiconductor, and molecular photonic devices, for guiding photons across the nanomicro interface and for detecting molecules with unsurpassed sensitivity.
·Nanophotonics and Nanoplasmonics
·Metamaterials and negative-index materials
·Plasmon-enhanced sensing and spectroscopy
·Imaging and sensing on the nanoscale
·Metal Optics
Average customer rating:
- It took them long enough!
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Optical Spectroscopy of Inorganic Solids (Monographs on the Physics and Chemistry of Materials)
B. Henderson , and
G. F. Imbusch
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0199298629 |
Book Description
The beautiful colors of many inorganic compounds, including minerals and gemstones, as well as the mysterious cold light of luminescence emitted by these materials, have attracted the inquisitiveness of natural philosophers for centuries. The scientific study of such phenomena - the optical
spectroscopy of solids - has paid rich dividends in technological advances such as lasers and other optronic devices. This is a book on the art of optical spectroscopy of solids, establishing a theoretical and experimental framework for the subject, which is well illustrated with relevant spectra
and experimental data.
Chapters 1 to 5 set down the quantum description of atoms, ions and defects in solids, and the interaction of such centers with electromagnetic radiation. Considerations of symmetry and the effects of lattice vibrations on the spectroscopic properties are treated in detail. The physical bases of
prominent experimental techniques are presented in Chapter 6 and their application to color centers, dopant rare-earth and transition-metal ions are described in Chapters 7 -9. The spectroscopic behaviors of magnetic ions at high concentration are detailed in Chapter 10, followed by a brief review
of the operational features of solid state lasers that rely on the foregoing discussion of their optical characteristics. Finally, Chapter 12 describes the application of magneto-optical double resonance techniques to the elucidation of the optical properties of insulating and semi-conducting
materials. The authors emphasize that their own interests have guided the selection of topics from the panoply of available choices. They have written the book with senior undergraduates and postgraduates in mind: it is expected also to be useful to seasoned investigators from solid state physics
and engineering from inorganic chemistry, and from materials and geological sciences.
Customer Reviews:
It took them long enough!.......2007-02-14
I bought it before Amazon raised the price. Fortunately, I received an ad from Oxford University Press the day I purchased it. It took them almost twenty years to realize that it was getting hard to obtain. Few Universities around the world had a copy of the book. Best book of the very few available on this subject. Unfortunately it's a reprint and not a revised edition of the book. The book needs updating on experimental techniques, and broadening of materials being studied, specially now that nanoscience and nanotechnology is the hot topic of this new born millenium. Also, research into the luminescence of un-doped and doped semiconductors has been in the forefront for quite some time, so there you have some more material to be added. The chapter on rare earth luminescence also needs updating and expansion, among other things. This book should enjoy extended life through new editions like classical textbooks, ex. gr. Halliday & Resnick's physics book, E. Kreyszig's engineering mathematics book, etc.
Average customer rating:
- Decent Book on Convective Heat Transfer
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Introduction to Convective Heat Transfer Analysis
P.H. Oosthuizen , and
David Naylor
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0071166092 |
Book Description
A student-oriented approach in which basic ideas and assumptions are stressed and discussed in detail and full developments of all important analyses are provided. The book contains many worked examples that illustrate the methods of analysis discussed. The book also contains a comprehensive set of problems and a Solutions Manual, written by the text authors.
Customer Reviews:
Decent Book on Convective Heat Transfer.......2001-03-16
I purchased 3 convective heat transfer books from Amazon on behalf of my company - including this book. IMHO the other two were duds, but this one is pretty good. I myself own 3 other similar books and I can think of only one other (Bejan) that is as useful.
This a textbook for college students, but it is a nice reference as well.
I like that it mixes theory with some computational methods (finite difference), because after all, theory is critical to understanding but in many cases we will compute the results. This not really a book for learning CFD, but the numerical results are a nice complement to the theory - and extend the discussion to geometries without closed form solutions.
For those interested, the authors offer the Fortran source from a website for several programs referenced in the book.
The book is sensibly organized by classes of flows, internal & external for laminar, turbulent and natural convection. Plus porous media and condensation. I particularily like the chapter on natural convection inside of enclosures.
There are several really good analyses and scale arguments developed in this book, a lot of solutions to NSE's for many real situations.
Overall I'd say it is really a good introduction for someone who wants to do more than look up a few formulae.
Book Description
While most amateur astronomers know about the red shift, have a general idea of the way that the emission and absorption lines in stellar spectra provide an insight into the atomic processes of the star, it is unusual to find someone who has any kind of detailed knowledge. The reason isn’t lack on interest – far from it – but is because all the books currently available are pitched at professional astronomers and degree students, and are to say the least, difficult to read.
This is the first non-technical book on this subject, written specifically for practical amateur astronomers. It includes all the science necessary for a qualitative understanding of stellar spectra, but avoids a mathematical treatment which would alienate many of its intended readers.
Any amateur astronomer who carries out (or who is interested in) observational spectroscopy and who wants a non-technical account of the physical processes which determine the intensity and profile morphology of lines in stellar spectra will find this is the only book written specially for him. And of course, "armchair astronomers" who simply want to understand the physical processes which shape lines in stellar spectra will find this book equally fascinating.
Customer Reviews:
The dawn of a new epoch of amateur astronomy.......2007-08-05
This is the book that I was expecting for along time. As Professor of Surgery I have to read medical textbooks, and I appreciate those concise volumes dedicated to medical students that can help me, then I suppose that this book could be useful to astrophysics too, not only to amateur astronomers like me. The aims of Robinson's book have been successful: to explain the physical processes that cause the stellar spectra with a language understandable. I am very grateful to Robinson that the important concepts are showed repeatedly along the book. He teaches us how the quantum theory explains all spectral mysteries. Starting with the electromagnetic radiation, the black body concept, Robinson expounds in great detail, but very understandable, the electron transition, the energy levels (the famous Ha line), and the consequences when a photon collides with an atom (excitation, ionisation). The quantum numbers are depicted very well with clear diagrams, and how they determine the energy levels and the spectral series. Up to here, it is the atom lab information; but the stellar objects are very complexes: objects with velocity (the famous Doppler effect), and atmospheres with temperature, pressure, and turbulence..., physical processes that cause the broadening of spectral lines. Robinson details the spectral line profiles with examples useful to amateur astronomers. After to expound the absorption lines and the emission lines, Robinson explains the whys the nebulae, with gas that absorb the photons of the central star, have emission lines instead of absorption lines. Robinson use the chapter of accretion disks as pretext of to speak us that amateurs astronomers could performer astrophysical modelling. The book finishes with the exposition of the P Cygni profile, and the world of magnetic field. Robinson has been very clever with this difficult task, the magnetic field, in order to teach the important marks for the amateur. Finally my modest recommendations for those amateurs that would like to start in this field: to read the Tonkin's book "Practical Amateur Spectroscopy", and the course of Aude Peltier "Initiation a la spectographie" (tutorial of astrosurf.com).
Dr. Barneo
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Fundamentals of Surface Thin Film Analysis
Leonard C. Feldman
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0135005701 |
Book Description
With contributions by Paul F. Fewster and Christoph Genzel
While X-ray diffraction investigation of powders and polycrystalline matter was at the forefront of materials science in the 1960s and 70s, high-tech applications at the beginning of the 21st century are driven by the materials science of thin films. Very much an interdisciplinary field, chemists, biochemists, materials scientists, physicists and engineers all have a common interest in thin films and their manifold uses and applications.
Grain size, porosity, density, preferred orientation and other properties are important to know: whether thin films fulfill their intended function depends crucially on their structure and morphology once a chemical composition has been chosen. Although their backgrounds differ greatly, all the involved specialists a profound understanding of how structural properties may be determined in order to perform their respective tasks in search of new and modern materials, coatings and functions. The author undertakes this in-depth introduction to the field of thin film X-ray characterization in a clear and precise manner.
Book Description
The book describes the physical basis of all of the principal and the majority of the more specialized techniques used today in studies of well-characterized solid surfaces. The techniques are grouped according to the underlying physics and are described in nine chapters. The treatment of each technique concentrates on the basic physical principles, and illustrates its use with selected examples with an emphasis on understanding the concepts. Included in each of these discussions is a view of the strengths, the weaknesses, and the complementary aspects of the individual methods. Although some mention is included of the potential use of some of the methods to study technical surfaces, the emphasis of the examples is taken from studies of the basic chemistry and physics of well-characterized surfaces under ultra-high vacuum conditions, aimed at elucidating their structural, compositional, electronic, and vibrational properties. This edition includes new material on synchrotron radiation related techniques, scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy.
Book Description
Austin Richards takes readers on a visual tour of the electromagnetic spectrum beyond the range of human sight, using imaging technology as the means to 'see' invisible light. Dozens of colorful images and clear, concise descriptions make this an intriguing, accessible technical book. Richards explains the light spectrum, including visible light, and describes the advanced imaging technologies that enable humans to synthesize our own version of 'alien' vision at different wavelengths, with applications ranging from fire fighting and law enforcement to botany and medicine.
Customer Reviews:
Great book, great vision!.......2007-08-29
The book disappointed me at first, a little, because I thought I was getting something more of physics, more mathematical, like a high school study book. But as it turned out, it is quite fascinating and pretty! The images taken there are so beautiful, it will not disappoint anyone even if they're into plane physics and not images. I recommend it to everyone who likes physics and light!
ROI markets.......2007-05-27
Austin is one the foremost scientists in the exciting field of electronic imaging. It was my pleasure to review this book when I was an editor in chief for a trade pub several years back and it is one of my favorites. It is not a tech heavy book, rather well written and a favorite in my personal library. Buy it and you will learn so much and get in on a growing field of applications that now includes ultraviolet imaging in Austin's vast knowledge of emerging photonic and electronic imaging.
Alien Vision What a book!! Austin Richards has done it........2001-08-09
The real life effects of Thermal Images and Electromagnetic Spectrum Imaging by Dr. Richards is the best-kept secret. The amount color images and the current technology are incredible.
This is one you will not be able to put down.
Books:
- Lie Algebras in Particle Physics (Frontiers in Physics)
- Lie Algebras in Particle Physics (Frontiers in Physics)
- Lubricant Additives: Chemistry and Applications (Chemical Industries)
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine (2 Volume Set)
- Many Particle Physics (Physics of Solids and Liquids)
- Many Particle Physics (Physics of Solids and Liquids)
- Many Particle Physics (Physics of Solids and Liquids)
- Mirror Symmetry (Clay Mathematics Monographs, V. 1)
- Noise and Vibration Control Engineering: Principles and Applications
- Nonlinear Finite Elements for Continua and Structures
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Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage
Business Process Management: The Third Wave
IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results
Managing IT as a Business: A Survival Guide for CEOs
IT Doesn't Matter (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)
