Average customer rating:
- Always Looking for New Tips to Make Life Easier?
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Shameless Shortcuts: 1,027 Tips and Techniques That Help You Save Time, Save Money, and Save Work Every Day!
Manufacturer: Rodale Books
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Cut the Clutter and Stow the Stuff: The Q.U.I.C.K. Way to Bring Lasting Order to Household Chaos
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Ben Franklin's Almanac of Wit, Wisdom, and Practical Advice: Useful Tips and Fascinating Facts for Every Day of the Year
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Yankee Magazine Vinegar, Duct Tape, Milk Jugs & More: 1,001 Ingenious Ways to Use Common Household Items to Repair, Restore, Revive, or Replace Just about ... in Your Life (Yankee Magazine Guidebook)
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Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things: 2,317 Ways to Save Money and Time
ASIN: 0899093914
Release Date: 2005-05-12 |
Book Description
Ingenious ways to save precious minutes and hours on daily tasks and household routines Short on time but long on chores? If your housework is driv-ing you crazy, you need to get shameless. Shameless Shortcuts, that is. This clever book gives you the secrets you need to do the job you want-while saving time, money, and effort. In Shameless Shortcuts you will discover: -The top 10 shortcuts for the 5 worst time-wasters -Strategic ways to use email to save time -5 simple tax return shortcuts that save you time-and money -Fast fixes for clogged toilets, blocked drains, and faulty faucets -Gift ideas that take 2 minutes
Customer Reviews:
Always Looking for New Tips to Make Life Easier?.......2006-03-08
You get 18 chapters covering topics like:
"Going Places Without Going Crazy"
"Shop Smart, Shop Fast"
"Great Garden Shortcuts"
"Bathrooms and Laundry Room,"
"Hassle-Free Holidays All Year Round"
Each tip is short, so keep this around to dip into when you have a few minutes now and then. Some of the ideas may be familiar (put baking soda/vinegar in drains to keep them clear of clogs, or save unwanted gifts to give to others). Others will surprise you (you can ask funeral homes for left over flower arrangements).
Book Description
Everyone’s heard tales of sexual performers who can enjoy marathons of six or more hours without fading, yawning, or getting a cramp. But unless you’re a Hollywood star, who has the time? In Life’s Too Short for Tantric Sex, author Kate Taylor offers couples a range of techniques to help them have fun and fulfilling sex that doesn’t take all day (or all night). Divided into nine thematic sections, Life’s Too Short for Tantric Sex takes readers from foreplay using handcraft and mouthwork to the main event, and even includes a section on activities readers may not have thought of—or heard of—before. Short, lighthearted, and to-the-point, Life’s Too Short for Tantric Sex is perfect for couples longing to discover the pleasures of tantric sex without spending hours on meditation, candle staring, and slow massage. Over 120 artful, instructive drawings and vividly descriptive text tells readers exactly what to do and how to do it, and themed chapters provide quick direction to an appropriate activity for any romantic occasion.
Customer Reviews:
A must read for Sensual Students seeking Pleasure and Joy.......2007-07-23
Great little book filled with wonderful, tantalizing and DOABLE sexy things to improve your pleasure with your partner. I recommend it to all my girlfriends with flying colors!
The Best.......2006-03-30
This is the best book you can have for great and fun sex...should be in everyone's library! This book is straight to the point, very easy to understand and completely fun to read. Hits all the things lovers are really interested in!
Got A Minute?.......2004-03-31
If you're short of time but looking for some divine inspiration, this book is for you. Snappy, two-page write-ups describe each of 50 techniques guaranteed to stir up some heat in the bedroom department. Adding to the lessons are some very funky illustrations by Sarah Young. Yummy! A word of warning, though: Although this would make a GREAT Valentine's gift for longtime couples, a new partner might find some of it a little on the kinky side. Then again, why not give them a copy and find out?
My main complaint with the book is that it seems to have vanished from the literary scene so soon. As I write this, it isn't even available at Amazon.com anymore. If it doesn't reappear, look for a copy at one of the big online used book vendors (where I snagged my cherished copy).
Book Description
SHORTCUTS FOR SMART MANAGERS Checklists, Worksheets, and Action Plans for Managers with No Time to Waste
Maria has to present her first budget in less than a month, but she works from 8 to 6 as it is. Pat has to conduct a performance appraisal...of a very difficult employee. Don has to put together a 'quality' report for his area (something he has not done in years). Where can they all turn? For managers who out of time, out of information, or just out of patience, Shortcuts for Smart Managers provides solutions and preventive cures for many typical challenges. This concise managerial toolbox contains just the essential, how-to information, including checklists, worksheets, and action plans for 30 key issues managers face. These interactive, capsulized chapters help time-pressed managers with subjects like:
* coaching * conference planning * decision making * meetings * goal setting * communication * project planning * the Internet * negotiation * presentations * marketing * public relations * strategic planning * teams * training * crisis management * delegating * and more! LISA DAVIS (Wallsend, U.K.) is an international management consultant, training designer, and training materials developer. Her clients include Bristol-Myers Squib, BMW, Ford, and Mitsubishi.
Customer Reviews:
Handy punch lists to focus your thinking........1999-04-17
Shortcuts for Smart Managers presents checklists and fill-in-the-blank forms for just about every imaginable task a manager would want to accoplish, from a marketing plan to a prep sheet for negotiation. They help you focus on the critical points and cut to the chase. I bought it for the prep sheet on how to deal with difficult people! I like to be prepared, but don't think I have time--- these shortcuts really appeal to me.
Book Description
Charles Dickinson's novels and short stories have won widespread acclaim for their deft characterization, humanity, and humor. Now Dickinson slips beyond the bounds of mundane realism to create a poignant tale that bears comparison to the works of Jack Finney and Jonathan Carroll. Euclid, Illinois, is a town of many shortcuts. Josh Wink-ler, a local artist and longtime resident, knows these irregular pathways well, but is thoroughly taken aback when a hasty dash down a familiar walk deposits him fifteen minutes in the past-literally. At first, Josh is more intrigued than alarmed by this accidental time travel. Then a lost young woman appears, claiming to be from 1908. . . . A Shortcut in Time is a moving and unforgettable book about the way the past can affect the present, as well as, sometimes, the other way around.
Customer Reviews:
Don't blink...........2007-04-27
This book was entertaining but it's sad ending overshadowed the storyline.
It made me think... what? Don't blink at the end or you'll miss it. I went back and reread the last few pages a couple of times hoping that I had missed something but alas, that is how it ends. It's too bad because it really was good up to that point. I would not recommend this book.
A Shortcut in Time.......2007-01-20
Based on the reviews I read here in Amazon, I decided to check this book out of the library. I liked it quite a bit while I was reading it and even recommended it to my sister. We both happened to finish the book on the same day and spoke on the phone that night. It seems we had the exact same reaction when it came to the last page: "Is that it?!!??'.
It was SUCH an unsatisfying ending (the worse I've ever come across) that I even checked to make sure no pages were torn from the book.
I gave it two stars instead of one because I didn't hate the book, just the very last page.
One I'd recommend strongly is Jack Finney's book Time and Again. I started on that after A Shortcut in Time. It's a fiction novel but includes drawings of late 1800 New York City done by the main character in the book.
Great story, unsatisfying conclusion.......2006-10-04
As others mention, any fan of Jack Finny's TIME AND AGAIN will enjoy A SHORTCUT IN TIME. It's a fine example of a story with a strong narrative drive which keeps one turning pages in anticipation of something happens.
The work is flawed by an unsatisfying ending, with the protagonist's marriage replaced by a marriage to another woman in an alternate future. This is fine for those who speculate on the conseqences of changing the past, but dumping wife #1, with whom the reader has invested some rapport, and replacing her in the last few pages with wife #2, whom the reader doesn't have enough time to care about is not good storytelling. When the lost daughter is finally recovered, there are questions left unanswered, and the reader is left with an unsettling lack of closure. One senses the writer just said the hell with it and arbitrarily finished the story.
Had this been a conventional novel, I would have rated it two stars because of these plot flaws, and the pedestrian character voices. But stll I kept turning the pages because I wanted to see what happened--and that's basically what a book like this is about.
A Must Read for Time Travel fans.......2006-06-16
It took me three months to read Time and Again by Jack Finney, which I liked but it was a long haul. A Shortcut in Time cranked at record speed. I read it in two days - could not put it down! I'm a huge fan of time travel books with The Mirror and The Time Traveler's Wife as two of my favorites. A Shortcut in Time has quickly been added to my favorites list. What a great find. What a great read. Extremely well written. I loved this book!
NO Stars - Disappointing.......2006-05-25
The premise of the story is good - time travel, back and forth. The characters are weak and unbelievable. They don't speak to each other in a normal way - and the girl from 1908 is totally stiff. The ending was so disappointing that I threw the book on a chair and when I came back my puppy had torn it to shreds --- that was the best ending for this farse of a piece of literature. Save your money for something else.
Book Description
The banner in Rafe Esquith’s classroom at Hobart Elementary School reads: “There are no shortcuts.” And his students are a testament to the power of that philosophy. These are kids who speak English as a second language, fourth--and fifth--graders who go to school in a part of Los Angeles where violence and despair are the norms of the neighborhood.
But the statistics are not what you’d expect: Esquith’s students score in the country’s top 10 percent on standardized tests and go on to colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, University of Chicago, Swarthmore, Stanford, and UCLA. How do they do it?
Esquith’s view—that learning isn’t easy and that it shouldn’t be—is an increasingly unusual take among educators. Success, he believes, comes from a strong work ethic and from dedication and perseverance on the part of children, teachers, and parents alike. But such ideas prove to be a hard sell to those who believe that hard work and fun must be mutually exclusive. On the other hand, visitors from all over the world have made a pilgrimage to this astonishing classroom.
Esquith’s students work hard. They are in the classroom at 6:30 a.m. and stay until 5:00 p.m. They come to school during their vacations. Each year the Hobart Shakespeareans, as Esquith’s students are known, perform one of the Bard’s plays—Sir Ian McKellen and Hal Holbrook are passionate patrons. These Renaissance children are outstanding mathematicians and scientists; they read Steinbeck and Malcolm X; they are artists; they play classical music and blistering rock 'n' roll. Above all, they are recognized for their impeccable manners, which serve them well as Esquith accompanies them all over the United States. They are, as many observers have commented, the gold standard in American education.
His former students in middle and high school return on Saturdays, where they read Ibsen, Chekhov, and eight Shakespeare plays a year. In their “Wake Up with Will” program, these eager youngsters travel the world with Esquith and his wife, from London to Paris to colleges all over the country. It’s a classroom where the American Dream really does come true.
There have been no shortcuts for Rafe Esquith, either. He had to learn the hard way: dealing with bureaucratic administrators, antagonistic colleagues, and his own impetuous and occasionally tactless, even confrontational, nature. But his history, peppered with funny and painful incidents, and a gallery of incisive portraits--Miss Mothball, Miss Busy-As-a-Bee, Mr. Incompetent--explains his extraordinary success as a teacher.
His scathing yet loving view from the front lines is the most trenchant look at American education to appear
in many years. It’s a full-alert warning signal, an inspiration, and a guide for teachers, parents, and all the rest of us who care about our country’s children.
Customer Reviews:
Must read!.......2007-08-27
Anyone who has children, cares about how we educate them, proposes to teach, MUST meet Rafe Esquith. Achieving his level of dedication may be impossible for most, hut he can inspire us all to greater performance. His imaginative insights to helping fifth graders to new levels of self-esteem and real accomplishment is astonishing. Unafraid of bureaucracy, indeed scornful of it, he has managed to do things most classroom teachers only dream of. In addition to breaking old molds, he offers considerable hope, as he clearly tells us that the fault is not in the children, but in ourselves.
motivating?.......2007-08-15
I wasn't as motivated as I thought I would be after reading this book. This book left me empty and feeling sorry for Rafe's wife and family.
Teacher Helps.......2007-08-13
This is a must read for any classroom teacher. Mr. Esquith has many insights and ideas that help the classroom teacher. Some of it you may have heard before but it is a good reminder of what great teachers do or can do for their students.
Big on image, low on facts.......2007-08-03
Yes, this man is a dedicated teacher. No, his methods are not the wave of the future for educational reform or methods that would often work elsewhere. The writer skews the perspective of this book (which is very self-serving and slanted towards his own ego) by describing his inner-city school as "The Jungle" (ooh, scary) and his students as underprivileged inner city kids. Actually they are mostly Asian and Latino immigrant students. As a successful teacher of underprivileged children myself, I can tell you that it is relatively easy to teach students from immigrant families, even those just barely learning English, because their families came to this country for more opportunity and are usually highly motivated to succeed. The true underprivileged and most challenging students are those whose impoverished families have lived in American housing projects for generations, have little faith left in the system and are often unmotivated as students and parents. Families from this demographic are conspicuously absent from this model teacher's class. This is an important distinction to make, because when when the author touts himself as a "hero" and portrays himself as an expert on inner-city education, all too often people with less knowledge about the educational system will be awestruck and believe everything he says. There are many dedicated teachers in this country who use more sustainable methods of instruction and who are valiantly struggling with much more challenging students than the ones in this book.
Get Ron Clark's Essential 55 instead........2007-07-08
I felt that from the moment i started reading this book, it should have been named "All About Rafe". He makes mention at the beginning of this book how he wanted to be known as the best teacher whenever he walks down the street. His wife-to-be lets him know eventually that it's really moronic to think that way. Although he says this changed him, from the cover to the end of the book, it's obvious that his original mission never really changed.
As a new teacher, that disgusts me. In the 3 years I have taught, I have cultivated very successful readers and outstanding citizens in my own "jungle"(Newark, NJ). I have had my share of losses as well, that's life. However, whenever teachers/administrators compliment me on my classroom management or test scores, I give all the credit to my kids(they WANT to do well, and behave well, I just steer them the proper way by giving a consistent, caring adult to believe in.) All I've ever asked of them in return is to focus on becoming the best they can be.
All teachers should be selfless. We are cultivating the next generation of this Earth, not attempting to break into Hollywood. I'm disappointed that a teacher the caliber of Mr. Esquith is such a narcissist.
Book Description
'After Effects 6 On the Spot' delivers immediate solutions!
Packed with over 350 techniques, this book gets motion graphics and visual effects artists up to speed efficiently in After Effects by letting them learn what they need to know, when they need to know it. All of the essential methods that professionals use to get the job done are clearly and concisely detailed and illustrated.
Experienced editors will find the book sufficiently comprehensive to orient themselves to After Effects version 6 and novices will find an invaluable reference filled with techniques to improve their efficiency and creativity.
Packed with more than 400 techniques, this book delivers what you need to know—on the spot. Experienced editors and novices alike discover an invaluable reference filled with ways to improve efficiency and creativity.
Customer Reviews:
What you need, when you need it!.......2005-12-21
This book is a gem for After Effects users. After Effects' features go so deep no one can remember every shortcut, filter or technique! That's where this book comes in. Keep it in your suite, it is a quick reference guide to almost every helpful bit of information you'd need. Some tips are simple, some take you deeper into filters you didn't know had greater depth. From navigating the interface to optimizing your render que. This book will improve the look of your work and the speed at which you do it! Did you know After Effects can call your cell phone when a render is done? It's in there! A must for any compositing or graphics suite.
sweet.......2005-08-09
This book is a great help I found other after effects books overwhelming but this one is really helpful and gives information in a really simple way.
After effects on the spot is Anything but on the spot.......2005-06-21
I do not care for this book at all. I didn't find any of the tips and shortcuts to be for anything I use after effects for (special effects). I don't have an answer as to what book I will purchase next, but save a tree and pass this one by.
Click on the Search Inside Button First.......2005-01-11
There are lots of excellent books for new users getting into AE. Take a look ay books by Taylor and Harlan for example. This book is targeted for Intermediate to Advanced users looking to take their skills and speed up a notch. The negative review is unwarranted.
Click on the Search Inside the Book button and you will see the Table of Contents, the back cover, and a chapter excerpt. The title says it all "Time-Saving Tips and Shortcuts from the Pros." If you look at the sample pages and index, you discover that this book is DEFINITELY for the intermediate to Advanced user. Don't knock the book becuase you clicked buy before looking at it.
Its not the publishers fault that the book is above your level. Put it on the shelf, pick up the AE classroom in a book, Angie Taylor's, Rod Harlan's, or the Meyer's volume 1 as a place to start. No matter what your level, this book will make you faster and showcases several techniques that all levels of users can enjoy. But tips and shortcuts do not take a beginner into the land of being a full fledged user.
AE is a great program... stick to it and you'll be rewarded!
Not for beginners in After Effects.......2005-01-08
I just got After Effects 6.5 and thought this book looked like what I needed to reduce the high learning curve of this software. Wrong! The description doesn't mention what is printed on the back cover "FOR INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED USERS". So the book sits there unused, and so does the software as the Adobe Manual is useless for newbies too.
Average customer rating:
- An abridged guide to genius!
- Shortcuts to Success
|
Shortcuts to Success: The Absolute Best Ways to Master Your Money, Time, Health, and Relationships
Jonathan Robinson
Manufacturer: Red Wheel/Weiser
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Binding: Paperback
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Book Description
Motivational author and speaker Jonathan Robinson shares his recipe for surefire success in a book designed to help any reader revitalize relationships, enhance health, and achieve a peak-performance life. Robinson has distilled his own experience and that of his teachers and peers, from Anthony Robinson to Ram Dass, into a roadmap to the quickest and smartest ways to achieve happiness, fulfillment, and a healthy, prosperous life. In clear, no-nonsense terms, the author encourages readers to remove the roadblocks to personal success and to realize their dreams, while taking more vacations, finding greater intimacy in relationships, and living more healthfully. In his most vital book to date, Robinson shows that success is not a destination but a journey.
Customer Reviews:
An abridged guide to genius!.......2005-03-01
Jonathan Robinson shares his powerful tools of organization, effectiveness, self-acutalization and how to create/maintain loving relationships all in this friendly little book. It is as grounded and approachable as he is and I highly recommend this book to Everyone! I'm currently reordering, as my own copy has been given out as the best present I can give a friend.
Shortcuts to Success.......2000-04-24
I found this book to be very informative. It covers all the basics in a brief way. I am sending this book to a friend.
Customer Reviews:
Animal pests to Wildflowers.......2002-03-28
This book is a handy companion come spring time and it is prep time for your yard. There are many useful ideas, some not exactly practical , like a "handy" cart that looks like one of those golf carts(but made of wood)to haul your gardening tools and supplies around the yard, but there are enough to make this book worth your time. Myself I just use a 5 gallon bucket to haul around my most used tools. Good ideas often spawn new insights leading to one's own ideas which can be better or more suited for one's needs, thus is the case with this book. The book has illustrations to compliment the ideas which are often tips offered from real gardeners. My feeling is if one can pull a few time saving ideas from a season of chores it is time well spent resting in the shade between jobs browsing this book. Browsing is the right word because it is a book that can be read in sections according to needs. There are suggestions for low maintenance plants that are proven to minimize time spent caring for, including annuals that replant themselves, and perrenials that just keep on giving and suggestions for problem areas. This book is a reference source that will give you a quick fix for problems that come with maintaining a yard. One of the beauties of this book is the use of seemingly unrelated materials for the yard, like 2-liter bottles with holes burried in the vegetable garden for concise watering near each plants to keep weeds down. I have read many Rondale Press garden books and this one rates right up with the best of them. Recommended for practical gardeners who like "new" ideas that work.
concise, well organized info for the typical garden.......1999-09-22
This well organized volume provides concise, easily accessible info on specific plants for the average garden as well as suggestions for mixing varieties into complementary gardens. Definately a must have for a serious gardener as a reference volume for a garden library.
Book Description
In this remarkably illustrative and thoroughly accessible look at one of the most intriguing frontiers in science and computers, award-winning New York Times writer George Johnson reveals the fascinating world of quantum computing—the holy grail of super computers where the computing power of single atoms is harnassed to create machines capable of almost unimaginable calculations in the blink of an eye.
As computer chips continue to shrink in size, scientists anticipate the end of the road: A computer in which each switch is comprised of a single atom. Such a device would operate under a different set of physical laws: The laws of quantum mechanics. Johnson gently leads the curious outsider through the surprisingly simple ideas needed to understand this dream, discussing the current state of the revolution, and ultimately assessing the awesome power these machines could have to change our world.
Customer Reviews:
NP=P.......2007-05-31
The hardest problem is revealing how protein folding occurs. "Some of the amino acid beads are `hydrophobic' or water-fearing, avoiding the cellular fluids by congregating inside the cell. Others are hydrophilic, migrating to the outer edge of the protein." There is a 3D tug-of-war to find the path that leads to the correct form. Searching though the labyrinth of possible foldings suffers from exponential explosion.
1. Quantum Computers could be used to simulation simplified proteins. The Quantum machine may be able to predict how the protein would fold.
2. The traveling saleman problem is a Non-Determinist Polynomial problem require exponential amounts of time that too solve. Conventional computers for 10 cities would require exploring 10X9X8X7X6
X5X4X3X2X1 = 3,628,800 trajectories with 1,814,400 unique trajectories.
3. "Satisfiability Problem", the classic problem is planning a party. A will only attend if C does and E doesn't, while C requires that B and G be there. 10 invitations will have 2^10 combinations to explore. 40 invitations results in a trillion combinations.
4. Shors algorithm of calculating large number factors offers hope that an quantum computer would be able to crack the domain of NP complete. In Shor's algorithm a number wave can be formed. Factors for 15, find a seed value 7 by random selection, raise 7 by I and mod by 15 resulting in the series: 1,7,4,13, 1, divide the period of the wave in half, at 4 and divide by 2 and then apply as a power to 7, 7^2 yielding 49, pick two integers to the left and right, 48 and 50 and mod by 15, resulting in the factors 3 and 5. With large and longer numbers, the rapidly increasing load of calculations is overbearing. A load that only a quantum computer could handle.
5. A fourier transform could run on a quantum computer. Fourier transform involves generating a bunch of test waves, each with a different period, and trying them to see if they match the wave you want to analyze.
6. "Unlike the head of the Turning machine, the laser in the quantum cellular automation doesn't read the information on the tape. It fires off order to be carried out, simple rules. The qubits essentially read each other (entanglement)." The atoms don't need to adjacent, atom a might be entangled with atom D, or E with B. In quantum CA, the rules are internal, consequences of the ways the qubits interact." The result is the quantum equivalent of AND, OR, and NOT gates. Given a problem to solve, coded as an initial pattern of qubits, and the proper program of laser pulses, the system will evolve to produce the answer, in happy isolation from the outside world."
7. Grover's algorithm can be used to perform a quantum search for data. Suppose names with a binary rank, Gina 00001 through Lolly 10000 (16 names, 16 binary ranks). Using 5 qubits all the ranks can be represented simultaneously. Suppose your searching for Grover 01001. Find by subtracting 01001 from the names. When it found the right match, it would amplify its wavelet, and juxtapose the others, peak to trough, canceled each other out. "The quantum computer examines the entries simultaneously and picks out the ciphertext we are seeking, which is linked to the key that produced it. Step by step, this wavelet's amplitude is inflated while the others are squeezed down."
simple metaphors.......2006-01-18
Johnson tackles a difficult subject. One that is very non-intuitive to a reader unversed in physics. Yet in simple but clear metaphors, he seems to succeed.
He shows the difference between a Turing machine implemented via classical physics and a hypothetical quantum computer. The idea of a parallel computation acting on a superposition of states is shown not to be too awkward to grasp. This is enhanced by a discussion of Shor's algorithm and why factorising large numbers is vital to code breaking.
Hoping for more..........2006-01-02
Even though Richard Feynman once quipped, "...nobody understands quantum mechanics," I was still hoping to come away with a better understanding of quantum computing than Johnson provides. The author spends too much time covering the general principles of computing and not enough time on quantum computing. Specifically, he beats the reader over the head with the rather clear concept of the Turing machine. He forays into the tinkertoy computer -- an interesting historical curiosity, to be sure -- but does not make clear how the tinkertoy computer relates to quantum computing, other than that it is an example of a Turing machine, and does not even explain the tinkertoy machine well enough to get a clear idea of its functioning. Much the same is true for the simple Geniac switch, love of his childhood, which occupies an unseemly number of pages. At the same time, quantum computing is not covered precisely enough for the reader to digest and express the gist of it.
What is interesting to the computer programmer is a) how the program is loaded, b) how processing is accomplished, and c) how the output is read. We can set an initial state by shining a laser on a bunch of particles (Johnson pretty much leaves it at that). The problem here is that setting the initial state of a program is not the same as loading the program itself, in other words, somewhere there must be a distinction between loading code and loading data, as well as code operating on data. It seemed to me that Johnson skirts the issue by ignoring this distinction and leaving the processing "black-box" to the collapse of probability waves of entangled particles whose initial state was set by a laser. The probability waves' collapse -- by what mechanism we never find out -- is somehow controlled by a poorly explained mathematical theory that normally governs the behavior of cellular automata. On the other hand, if code and data are one and the same, then it seems at first blush that the output should deterministically be known at the start, or that the output would be no more helpful than the input.
My feeling persists, however unfair, that science writing should be left to the rare scientists in each field who possess the pedagogic and literary skill to explain their work to a lay audience, and not left to science journalists. Throughout the text, I kept waiting for that spark that synthesizes the concepts into some feeling of real comprehension, but never got it. Perhaps, given Feynman's assessment of quantum mechanics, that elusive spark is impossible -- especially for a popular science book. On the other hand, maybe it is and "A Shortcut Through Time" isn't it.
Like a video game walk through for applied quantum theory!.......2004-08-10
Most "beginner" books on quantum theory I've tried to read take the reader on a chronological tour of who discovered or developed what. I hate that. Just becase B happened before A doesn't mean that it's easiest to understand if you describe B before A!
Well, Johnson doesn't cheat the reader by taking this easy way out. He's distilled all the background necessary to understand the key concepts behind quantum theory and how it can be used in a crazy revolutionary way to compute, boiled it down to the bare minimum required and organized it in such a way as to make things crystal clear.
No oblique anecdotes. No historical "human-interest" segues dumped in for filler. Just applied quantum theory 101, pure and simple.
Reading this very compact book took me all of half a day and after that I felt like I had just climbed a set of stairs from darkness to illumination. Before: "What's quantum theory?" After: "I get it now."
There is some sensationalism, but it's easy to read around that. Besides, hype is engaging! It makes you go "Wow, cool!"
-- Insert Superlative Here --.......2004-07-25
This guy not only describes quantum computing in a way that should be accessible to nearly everyone, but he does it in a highly entertaining, highly readable way. By appealing to a healthy dose of abstraction, the author is able to seamlessly touch on an amazing array of topics from computational theory to quantum mechanics to cryptography. Occasionally he sinks deeper into the quantum quagmire to examine a few quantum algorithms, but he never loses sight of his intended audience: the scientifically curious layman.
This book does contain a large amount of hype, but to his credit the author includes the opinions of a few noteworthy skeptics to lace all the optimism with a sprinkle of doubt. If you are looking for a quantum appetizer, or to bring yourself up to speed on the buzz behind quantum computing, I couldn't recommend this book more highly.
Book Description
The On the Spot series delivers immediate solutions to the reader with a concise presentation of over 350 expert techniques for working proficiently with the respective application. Avid Xpress Pro and DV On the Spot provides experienced editors with complete coverage of both applications' capabilities, and less experienced users get tips and tricks to enhance their productivity and creativity.
Packed with more than 300 techniques, this book delivers what you need to know-on the spot.
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