101 Spy Gadgets for the Evil Genius

Book Description

101 projects that appeal to the spy in you

Utilizing inexpensive, easily obtainable components, you can build the same information gathering, covert sleuthing devices used by your favorite film secret agent. Projects range from simple to sophisticated and come complete with a list of required parts and tools, numerous illustrations, and step-by-step assembly instructions.

Projects include: scanners and radios, night vision devices, telephone devices, computer monitoring, audio eavesdropping, hidden cameras, video transmitters, and more

Customer Reviews:

Wow, must read!.......2006-12-16

Doesn't matter what your interest is, you can learn something from this book.

I had no intention of building any of the projects, but after reading the book through, and realizing how easy and honestly fun some of them are, I just have to give them a try.

Great pictures, and easy to read text not only help you build your projects but also include detailed explanations of why it actually works and what could be changed to fit your needs.
Unlike some of the other Evil Genius books authors, Graham actually uses parts from old electronics that normally cost you next to nothing. And his website and forum will help you with any problems you have, as well as update anything new he wants to add.

Easily the best book in the Genius series. Much enjoyed!

great book, great support.......2006-08-09

I've had this book for a couple of weeks and already had some questions. I went on the Atomic Zombie support spy gadgets forum and found the answers to my questions right away. It's nice to know that the authors do provide support and answer your questions in a day or so. There are some others on the forum that also help. It's a great community so if you buy this book make sure you also join the forum. There's a great section on where to find parts used in the projects. What more could a person ask for!? A great book and great support right from the authors. I'm very impressed.

Great book!.......2006-07-21

Love it. Must have. Not much else to say.

Working on the laser listener, so don't talk nasty about me - you just never know!

Mike

It's about time!.......2006-07-20

This kind of Evil Genius book is long overdue. I like the series for the variety of projects, but honestly most are expensive, complicated and forget finding all the parts you need unless you work at a research centre or university. This book is refreshingly different from the rest of the series.

101 Spy Gadgets is great! Reminds me of Popular Science projects I used to love making in my parents' basement. My favorite projects so far include the spy robot, computer hacking tips and the countermeasures. I used to make gadgets even more evil than these when I was a kid and believe me, my friends and I created some pretty dangerous stuff. Don't get me wrong - lots of the projects in this book are pretty intriguing for the mischevious minds, but it will appeal to many people of all ages.

Wait until you learn about baby monitors and hacking cameras! The countermeasures gadgets are very cool! Makes you want to try your hand at being a super sleuth just to try out your inventions. I like the fact that there are many pictures, diagrams and schematics that are clear and easy to follow.

These spy gadgets are useful, functional and encourage you to learn along the way. There is an excellent progression of projects throughout the book. I can tell that alot of thought was put into choosing and organizing projects logically.

You don't have to be an expert in anything but you will learn quite a bit throughout the book because there is alot of theory explaining various technologies and principles along the way. What a refreshing addition to the Evil Genius collection. I'm glad to see that McGraw is getting back to the real Evil Genius roots. Hope to see more books in this series like this spy gadgets book.

Two well deserved thumbs up!

Fascinating addition to the Evil Genius series of hobbyist books.......2006-07-20

At first I thought that this particular book in the Evil Genius series might be a bit too cheesy for my taste, but it does have some very interesting content. As with all of the evil genius books, you should not expect a deep amount of theory on the inner workings of the various electronic devices discussed, but there is enough theory and construction detail that you will learn much about how to modify and control devices and be able to produce some interesting projects. The book does spend quite a bit of space on the operational details of cameras including digital photo enhancement, hooking up a web cam, and long range digital photography. This book has the quality and attention to detail in the instructions, diagrams, and photographs that, quite frankly, have been missing from recent entries in the Evil Genius project books.

Since in many ways this book is aimed at teens that want to learn by being mischievous, if you are a parent you need to look through the book carefully to make sure nothing dangerous is going on before turning your teenager loose with it. Oddly enough, the chapter on laser gadgets was fairly innocuous. It mainly consisted of using laser pointers to control devices remotely. The chapter that worries me is the chapter on "Protection and Countermeasures", since there are several projects that are variations of remote shocking devices using tasers. The most interesting chapter is the final one that is basically just one big project - building a spy robot - that is broken down into eleven smaller projects and builds on all of the material presented in the previous chapters. I especially recommend this book for adult hobbyists as well as parents and teachers who want some material on electronics that will likely hold a teenager's attention and teach them something at the same time. The table of contents is as follows:

Section One: Introduction
Section Two: Audio Eavesdropping and Recording
Project 1--Microrecorder Hacking
Project 2--Ultrahigh-Gain Microphone Preamp
Project 3--Bionic Stereo Spy Ears
Project 4--Parabolic Dish Microphone
Project 5--Working with Audio on Your Computer
Project 6--Filtering Out Background Noises
Project 7: Wiring Your Body to Record Audio

Section Three: Hard Wired Telephone Devices
Project 8--Telephone Audio Interface
Project 9--Automatic Call Recorder
Project 10--Sound Activated Computer Call Logger
Project 11--Super Stealth Line Tap
Project 12--Telephone Input/Output Box
Project 13--Using Computer Effects to Disguise Your Voice
Project 14--Simple Digital Voice Disguiser Circuit
Project 15--Ultimate Telephone Voice Changer
Project 16--Let Your Computer Do the Talking
Project 17--World Wide Telephone Tap

Section Four: Digital Camera Hacking
Project 18--Enhancing Digital Photos
Project 19--Hacking the Digital Camera's Trigger
Project 20--Covert Handbag Digital Camera
Project 21--Time Lapse Camera Trigger
Project 22--Motion Sensing Camera Trigger
Project 23--Digital Camera Gun Sight
Project 24--Long-Range Digital Photography

Section Five: Video Cameras and Recording
Project 25--Video Signal and Camera Basics
Project 26--Recording Video Signals
Project 27: Hack a VCR for Time-Lapse Recording
Project 28--Motion Controlled Audio Record
Project 29--Multiple Camera Auto Switcher
Project 30--Working with Video on a Computer
Project 31--Web Cameras as Security Cameras

Section Six: Covert and Hidden Spy Cameras
Project 32--Working with Microvideo Cameras
Project 33--Classic Nanny Cam
Project 34--Night Vision Fire Detector Cam
Project 35--Covert Marker Cam
Project 36--WYSIWYG Sunglasses
Project 37--Long-Range Video Camera
Project 38--Microscope Video Camera

Section Seven: Video Camera Pan and Tilt Control
Project 39--RC Servo Pan and Tilt Camera Base
Project 40--Remote Controlled Servo Base
Project 41--Manual Controlled Servo Base
Project 42--Microcontroller Controlled Servo Base
Project 43--Motion Tracking Camera

Section Eight: Night Vision Devices
Project 44--Using Low Lux Cameras
Project 45--Infrared, the Invisible Light
Project 46--LED Night Vision Illuminator
Project 47--Pulsed LEDS for Higher Output
Project 48--Outdoor Night Vision Illuminator
Project 49--Infrared Laser Illuminator
Project 50--Long-Range Laser Illuminator
Project 51--Night Vision Headgear

Section Nine: Audio Bugs and Transmitters
Project 52--Hacked Baby Monitor Bug
Project 53--FRS Radio Long-Range Bug
Project 54--Simple FM Room Bug
Project 55--Ultrasensitive Room Bug
Project 56--Micro Stealth Transmitter
Project 57--Telephone Line Transmitter
Project 58--Invisible Light Transmitter

Section Ten: Video Transmitters
Project 59--Hacking a Video Sender
Project 60--Micro Spy Transmitters
Project 61--Simple TV Transmitter
Project 62--TV Transmitter with Audio
Project 63--The Movie That Watches You
Project 64--Wall Wart Video Bug
Project 65--Cover Hat Cam
Project 66--Wall Clock Camera
Project 67--Kamikaze Video Transmitter

Section Eleven: Computer Monitoring
Project 68--Where Have You Been Today?
Project 69--Resurrecting Deleted Data
Project 70--Installing a Software Key Logger
Project 71--Build a High-Tech Hardware Key Logger
Project 72--Computer Screen Transmitter

Section Twelve: RF Scanners
Project 73--Scanning the Neighborhood
Project 74--Scanner Auto Recording Switch
Project 75--Scanner-to-Computer Interface
Project 76--Better Reception
Project 77--Bug Detection

Section Thirteen: Protection and Countermeasures
Project 78--Intruder Sentinel
Project 79--White Noise Generator
Project 80--Infrared Device Jammer
Project 81--Spy Camera Killer
Project 82--Shocking Device
Project 83--Ultra Small Shocking Device
Project 84--Motion Activated Shocker

Section Fourteen: Laser Spy Gadgets
Project 85--Lasernoculars
Project 86--Laser Beam Transmitter
Project 87--Laser Beam Receiver
Project 88--Laser Microphone Experiment
Project 89--Laser Perimeter Alarm
Project 90--Remote Control Sniper

Section Fifteen: Build a Mini Video Controlled Spy Robot
Project 91--Hacking a Remote Control Toy Base
Project 92--Creating the Weatherproof Shell
Project 93--Adding a Panning Camera Head
Project 94--Video Camera and Night Vision System
Project 95--RC Receiver to Servo Bridge Circuit
Project 96--Adding an Ultrasensitive Audio Preamp
Project 97--Payload Delivery Function
Project 98--Payload Delivery Hardware
Project 99--Creating a Portable Base Station
Project 100--Base Station Wiring and Installation
Project 101--Spy Robot Mission Testing

The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era

Average customer rating:

A must for anyone interested in hollywoods's golden age
Fascinating, but buyer beware
A refreshing take on Hollywood where business men are stars!
Fantastic resource of film history, and a fun read to boot
Just an excellent book on the subject

The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era
Thomas Schatz
Manufacturer: Owl Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805046666

Book Description

At a time when the studio is making a stunning comeback, film historian Thomas Schatz provides an indispensable account of Hollywood's tradional blend of business and art. This book lays to rest the persistent myth that businesspeople and producers stifle artistic talent and reveals instead the genius of a system of collaboration and conflict. Working from industry documents, Schatz traces the development of house styles, the rise and fall of careers, and the making-and unmaking-of movies, from Frankenstein to Spellbound to Grand Hotel. Richly illustrated and highly readable, The Genius of the System gives the definitive view of the workings of the Old Hollywood and the foundations of the New.

Customer Reviews:

A must for anyone interested in hollywoods's golden age.......2005-03-08

Thomas Schatz does a remarkable job of diagraming the rise of the studio system in Hollywood. The book is remarkably easy to follow (compared to any of Andrew Sarris's works) and includes numerous photographs. He focuses most on the trials and tribulations of Universal Studios, Warner Bros. and MGM and their distinct, integrated studio styles (He mentions RKO as well).

Irving Thalberg, David O. Selznick, Daryl Zanuck and Hitchcock are featured prominently and rightfully so. Also, includes many of the behind the scene battles between studios and directors/ producers.

There are some minor criticisms though. He almost completely ignores Paramount and Colombia. And the decline of the studio system is sparse compared to the rise of. But aside from that, this book is an enjoyable read and recommend it to anyone who is fascinated with early hollywood

Fascinating, but buyer beware.......2004-08-02

Schatz's book is well-rounded and nicely structured. It was a good decision on his part to take a round-robin focus on each studio instead of trying to mix them together, as some authors have. All of the studios had different ideas about what they wanted to achieve in their work, so this approach makes sense. Twentieth-Century Fox and Paramount were left out completely, but Schatz was clearly trying to choose one studio of each type of size and characteristic so as to keep control of the scope of the book.

I did find a glaring error--the finale to "Babes in Arms" was not the minstral number, but the song, "God's Country." In a book of this size, or of any size for that matter, errors will creep in, so it isn't the kiss of death. However, if the reader is familiar with MGM musicals, it may be a small turn-off.

Also, I wasn't satisfied with the epilogue. Instead of citing examples of the comeback of the studio system (LucasFilm, for instance), Schatz simply outlines the creative decline of Alfred Hitchcock. Huh.

Slight shortcomings aside, this book is very entertaining. I wish my film studies textbooks had been this interesting.

A refreshing take on Hollywood where business men are stars!.......2003-11-26

Film theorist Andre Bazin once wrote "The American cinema is a classical art, but why not then admire in it what is most admirable, i.e., not only the talent of this or that filmmaker, but the genius of the system." Quite simply author Thomas Schatz had done just that with this groundbreaking and wondrously entertaining history of the Hollywood studio era.

Up until its publication in 1988, film history had been defined by the "auteur" school of thinking where the director is the supreme artist who nurtured the art form. The studio executives- the money men- were relegated to the background and often depicted as crass capitalist who often hindered the creative process.

In Schatz's eyes, men like Carl Laemmle, Darryl F. Zanuck, David O. Selznick, Harry Warner, and Irving Thalberg were intuitive geniuses who understood the art of storytelling and were able to systematically deliver that art to the masses with drive and innovation. From the low rent beginnings of the Nickelodeon to steady decline of the studio system amid the dawn of Television, these men set standards that are sadly not met by today's faceless conglomerates. They all created "the movies" as we fondly perceive it and Schatz lets the creation of 20th century popular culture unfold with a finely turned narrative sweep.

Fantastic resource of film history, and a fun read to boot.......2003-01-07

It's rare that one can read a book containing so much dry information such as the budgetary concerns of many many films, and still be captivated by the storytelling enough to make it work. This book reads like a well-crafted novel, with the main characters being a handful of studio executives. What results is an utterly readable, insider's look into the business of filmmaking in the studio era. The artistic genius of some of these men is acknowledged, but largely, their business dealings are highlighted. If you're afraid of such business talk, don't be. The author makes budgets and salaries an interesting and integral part of the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who just loves movies and wants to learn more about how it all started. I also recommend this book to anyone who is in or getting into the producing biz now. What a helpful and inspirational resource. My only regret is that there is just no way that I can remember all of the information that I read in this book. That's why I refer to it as a resource in the title of this review and why I will use it as such for years to come.

Just an excellent book on the subject.......2000-07-28

Prof. Schatz does not suffer from the scholar's disease of academic-speak and writes a book that clearly demonstrates his expertise on the studio structure. Most books I have read extended the view of the outsider looking in at the star system and not the economics of the studios. "Genius of the System" chronicles the history of the studio's business, that is to say the economics and the people behind the economics.

Book Description

The best-selling Evil Genius format provides hobbyists with a fun and inexpensive way to learn bionics via 25 complete projects. Once the focus of popular 70's TV, bionics (integrating mechanical and electronic materials with living matter) are being used more than ever to replace or repair physiological or anatomical functions or disorders.

Customer Reviews:

Great projects for anyone interested in getting started.......2006-03-09

I thought this was a great book, full of interesting and educational projects. You get right into the projects with information about how to begin, what you need, and how to put it together. It's not an academic book or a theory book. This is for people (young and old) who want to get their hands into the projects and learn by doing. Excellent for parents to do with their kids. I recommend it.

Good hobbyist book on an interesting subject.......2006-01-19

A contraction of the words, "biology" and "electronics," bionics is the science of how the living emit, receive, and treat various signals so that life processes can be mimicked in machines and robots. For example, sonar illustrates a technology based on the navigation system of the bat.
This book takes the hobbyist approach to bionics in the same style as Newton Braga's other "evil genius" books do. The "Evil Genius" series of books have several different authors, and I think that Braga's efforts are the best in this series of hobbyist project-centric books, in that they tend to strike a happy medium between construction details and theory. The construction details for each project are adequate as always. However, do not expect much in the way of biology or electronic theory. The descriptions of each project tell you basically the mechanism of operation but do not delve deeply into equations. However, if you are just interested in building some interesting projects, and perhaps using it to get a high schooler interested in the subject, this book is recommended. There are just no other readable books on this subject, unless you include the classic "Cybernetics, Second Edition: or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine" by Wiener, which has an academic tone and involves a moderate amount of mathematics. I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here:
SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION
SECTION TWO: BIOLOGY AND ELECTRONICS
SECTION THREE: 25 PRACTICAL PROJECTS
Project 1: Experiments with an Electric Fish
Project 2: Visual Biofeedback
Project 3: Audio Biofeedback
Project 4: Nerves Stimulator
Project 5: Stroboscopic Lamp
Project 6: Bio-Amplifier
Project 7: Panic Generator
Project 8: Magnetic Field Generator
Project 9: Hypnotic LEDs
Project 10: Insect Repellent
Project 11: Bionic Trap
Project 12: Animal Conditioner
Project 13: White Noise Generator
Project 14: Bionic Ear
Project 15: Insect Killer
Project 16: Bionic Tactile Organ
Project 17: Lie Detector
Project 18: Bionic Smell Generator
Project 19: Experimenting with Oscillators
Project 20: Ionizer
Project 21: Tactile Hearing Aid
Project 22: Using the Multimeter in Bionic Experiments
Project 23: Bionic Vision
Project 24: Ecological Monitor
Project 25: Bat Ear
SECTION FOUR: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
SECTION FIVE: RESOURCES
INDEX

The Genius Within: Discovering the Intelligence of Every Living Thing

Average customer rating:

An intelligent look at life
Good but boring at times
Life is more then a Blind Algorithmic Process
Simply wonderful
An Ode to Creativity (aka "emergent properties")

The Genius Within: Discovering the Intelligence of Every Living Thing
Jr., Frank T. Vertosick
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0151005516

Amazon.com

If we're so smart, why are we still at the mercy of treacherous microorganisms? The Genius Within: Discovering the Intelligence of Every Living Thing asks readers to let go of brain worship and look at the incredible problem-solving skills of viruses, ants, and other lowly creatures. Neurosurgeon Frank T. Vertosick Jr. seems an unlikely candidate to write a book celebrating noncerebral intelligence, but his knowledge helps him draw comparisons that others might miss. The fast-moving genetic intelligence of bacteria and immune systems might not match the precision of digital computers, but they have devised arms races much more complex--and deadly--than our comparatively paltry efforts. Vertosick's grasp of what it means to behave intelligently comes through clearly, even if he is as stumped as anyone trying to define the I word. Exploring parallels between neural networks, insect colonies, and our own brains, he finds common ground and shows that, as far as evolution is concerned, we're not so bright. It's not all bad, though: we're very good at what we do, and Vertosick hopes that we can learn to use our intelligence more wisely. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

Can bacteria be as smart as we are? Can ants think? And fish? Yes, says Frank Vertosick, a neurosurgeon who combats our elitism about intelligence in this brilliant book.
A gifted writer and author of the widely praised Why We Hurt, Vertosick shows us that intelligence--the ability to react to the outside world, to change behavior, and survive-can be found wherever life exists. He demonstrates the keen intelligence of our immune system, how lowly bacteria mutate and outwit antibiotics, and how canny cancer cells elude our natural defenses.
A fascinating journey through worlds of unknown science and an unsettling argument against our valuing of brain intelligence above all else, The Genius Within tells a fascinating scientific story, one that could shake our ethical foundation to its core.

Customer Reviews:

An intelligent look at life.......2006-02-23

"The Genius Within" is a must read for the non-specialist interested in science. It is a thought provoking work; very speculative, but grounded in mainstream scientific fact and theory. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it...twice. It's a bit technical at times, so some familiarity with the science involved is recommended. Also, if you happen to be more interested in "intelligent" animal behavior as such, rather than in its biochemical, microbiological and systemic underpinnings, you may want to look elsewhere.

In this book, the author explores the notion the "networks" underlie the phenomenon we call life, and that life is synonymous with the information processing - intelligence - they architect. We tend to think of intelligence as a unique feature of brains, our conscious ones in particular (he calls this "brain chauvinism"), but he contends that all life is intelligent, or at least as "intelligent as it needs to be", and sets out to prove it.

In simplest terms, he defines intelligence as the ability to solve problems related to survival. This seems to run counter to mainstream evolutionary theory, where the survival of species is basically as matter of, well, "dumb luck". But the author views intelligence as a collective phenomenon firmly embedded within this framework; as an "emergent behavior" of large groups of highly interactive biological entities (Including sub-cellular enzymes) otherwise engaged in a contingency-driven, random struggle for survival. The architecture that endows such groups with "emergent properties" is called, for want of a better word, a "network" by the author.

The details of what the author means by a "network" is closely argued and beyond the scope of this review. In general, a biological "network" is a large collection of "selfish", randomly interacting entities whose components are capable of two or more relatively stable, but reversible, states (more active/less active, faster/slower, stronger/weaker), and whose components can variously enhance or impede each other's status over time, resulting in a collective "energy landscape" patterned by forces impinging on the network. The former allows for basic information storage (the biological equivalent of zeros and ones), and the latter for collective information storage (pattern recognition/memory) concerning the environment, allowing the collective to respond to environmental stimuli in, ultimately, a manner conducive to its survival. Overall, the architecture of a "network" harnesses the random, contingent interactions of its constituents into the directed or, as the author would claim, intelligent actions we associate with life at every level of biological organization.

The author spends much of the book "fleshing out" these and other abstractions, particularly with respects to interacting aggregates composed of things such as cellular enzymes, bacteria and somatic cells, what he calls "party networks" as opposed to "hard wired networks", though he does give ample attention to the latter (he is, after all, a brain surgeon). To assess intelligence from the "outside in", he employs a modified version of the Touring Test throughout these forays. Without making any assumptions about them based on what they are or how they're organized, he queries each system with a problem, and waits for a response. He queries an infectious bacterial species with a new antibiotic and, within months, it develops immunity. He queries the human immune system with the aforementioned bacteria and, within weeks, it develops an effective resistance. In these and other instances, he argues for an "intelligent" response from each based on their participation in network architecture, no more or less effective for the overall survival of its hosts than the quickened responses of "hard wired" brains.

I gave this book a five-star rating, and with good reason, but I'm not entirely in agreement with its conclusions. Although "networking" is arguably a characteristic of all living systems, it seems somewhat disingenuous to define intelligence as the ability to solve problems regardless of the time frame involved. Given enough time and numbers, "dumb luck" will achieve results that appear intelligent, and so will tempt teleological interpretations. Mainstream evolutionists have long had to contend with our compulsion to put a "forger" between the hammers of chance and the anvil of necessity. Like them, I suspect the author's hypothesis, however plausible, is just another in a series of attempts to inject Vitalism into biology, "networks" here replacing the less than scientific musings of an earlier age.

But then again, maybe I'm just a "brain chauvinist".

Good but boring at times.......2004-09-02

This is a relatively good book to read. However, the promise
that the author makes in not being technical is only partically
true. First, he concentrates too much on the medical explanations
that, at times, are not entirely relevant. Second, his analogies
are silly at times particularly when the concept is
already well understood without the analogy. One has to know
that the number of analogies given is not directly proportional
to how clear the concept will become to the reader.

But as I said, this is a good book and if you can live by
the parts of the book that are irrelevant you may learn
something new about the concept of intelligence and how
intelligence can be observed in seemingly "dumb" things.

Life is more then a Blind Algorithmic Process.......2003-11-15

Though Vertosick does not focus on the more technical and strictly academic foundations of his major thesis (life=intelligence), he does a beautiful job of using analogies and metaphors to describe how even a cell can exhibit "intelligent" behaviour. This book should be required reading for anyone who is remotely interested in biology, or anything to do with nature. Vertosick is able to successfully synthesize a completely different, yet strongly persuasive argument for the basis of life itself. He admits that his thesis may be flawed, but personally I think that most of his points are well thought out and strongly supported. This is one of the most interesting books on life and intelligence I have ever read.

Simply wonderful.......2003-11-08

As easy to read as a novel and just as enjoyable, it will forever change the way you see the world around you. It is one of those rare books that links together a number of more or less well known ideas and arrives at an extraordinary and inescapable set of conclusions. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

An Ode to Creativity (aka "emergent properties").......2003-07-18

If you want to know why Darwin might be "needlessy nihilistic" and what is at the core of Vertosick's carefully built case to explain--nothing less than--the possisble meaning of everything, then check this out. I thought the beginning was a little tedious, but the pay-off for hanging in there with his carefully crafted case was well worth it. I've bought several copies to share with friends and have had many lively debates. Thanks Dr. Vertosick for your emergent property--it's marvelous!

So That's How! 2007 Microsoft Office System: Timesavers, Breakthroughs, & Everyday Genius

Average customer rating:

The title says it all...

So That's How! 2007 Microsoft Office System: Timesavers, Breakthroughs, & Everyday Genius
Evan Archilla , and Tiffany Songvilay
Manufacturer: Microsoft Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0735622744
Release Date: 2007-01-10

Book Description

Youre upgrading to the 2007 Microsoft Office systemcongratulations! Now learn the tips and tricks to make Microsoft Office work for you. With this fun, easy-to-read guide, you get step by step instructions for tackling common productivity problems.

Customer Reviews:

The title says it all..........2007-06-25

Evan and Tiffany have done it! From dealing with volumes of daily emails, getting the most from your meetings, preparing your documents and working on shared-docs, this book has put it all in one place. They quickly, effectively run thru the new 2007 MS Office suite, showing new items, like the ribbon - which is the key in all the new Office product tool bars. I found the enclosed CD a great time-saver and a good way to see how Evan and Tiffany put their words into action.
If you are the Office guru in the office and want the jump on your fellow workers (or just want people to ask how do you do THAT in MS Office) then pick up a copy...

Genius of the System Hollywood Filmmakin

Average customer rating:

Genius of the System Hollywood Filmmakin
Thomas Schatz
Manufacturer: Faber Faber Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0571195962

Signor Marconi's Magic Box: The Most Remarkable Invention of the 19th Century & the Amateur Inventor Whose Genius Sparked a Revolution

Average customer rating:

the Tesla thief, still glorified...?
We learn much about aerials, but not much about inventions.
Like Early Wireless Itself: Useful, but Flawed
Looking (and thinking) inside the box
A good look at the early 20th century

Signor Marconi's Magic Box: The Most Remarkable Invention of the 19th Century & the Amateur Inventor Whose Genius Sparked a Revolution
Gavin Weightman
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306813785
Release Date: 2004-09-21

Book Description

The world at the turn of the twentieth century was in the throes of "Marconi-mania"-brought on by an incredible invention that no one could quite explain, and by a dapper and eccentric figure (who would one day win the newly minted Nobel Prize) at the center of it all. At a time when the telephone, telegraph, and electricity made the whole world wonder just what science would think of next, the startling answer had come in 1896 in the form of two mysterious wooden boxes containing a device Marconi had rigged up to transmit messages "through the ether." It was the birth of the radio, and no scientist in Europe or America, not even Marconi himself, could at first explain how it worked...it just did.

Here is a rich portrait of the man and his era-a captivating tale of British blowhards, American con artists, and Marconi himself-a character par excellence, who eventually winds up a virtual prisoner of his worldwide fame and fortune.

Customer Reviews:

the Tesla thief, still glorified...?.......2005-12-10

Surprised that the book fails on a major point: to talk about the highly supportable contention that Marconi stole Tesla's technological ideas, since Marconi visited Tesla and since Tesla was such a "businessman innocent" that he let people root around in his papers for ideas as a friendship gesture.

Still, an intersting read on the early 20th century through various technological vingnettes about the effects of radio that you would find no where else--until a better book is published of course, in my opinion.

We learn much about aerials, but not much about inventions........2005-02-22

This book, at 291 pages, is a quick read. It can be read in about two hours. We learn that Marconi's main contribution was to combine Heinrich Hertz's invention of radio waves with Oliver Lodge's invention of the coherer. We learn of Marconi's discovery of radio waves bouncing off the upper atmosphere, an effect essential for trans-Atlantic radio waves (paves 53-55, 258). We learn of Marconi's "spark method" which worked better than Edison's jumping current method. We learn that it was actually David Hughes (pages 97-98) and Oliver Heaviside (pages 128-131), not Marconi, who built the first wireless. We also learn that Nathan Stubblefield was the inventor of a wireless that could transmit not just Morse code, but also voices and music.

Much of the book tells about Marconi's efforts at building higher aerials and scouting out locations to build aerials, e.g., on various ships, in Cape Cod, Newfoundland, or Santa Catalina Island. In fact, this is the major thrust of the book: scouting out locations for building aerials. The book should not have been called "Signor Marconi's Magic Box," since we learn nothing about the "spark method" or the "coherer" beyond their names. Instead, the book should have been called "Signor Marconi Builder of Aerials." The word "patent" occurs 19 times in the book, but here the word patent is just used in passing, and we learn nothing about the patents, or how they represented improvements over the earlier state of the radio art. "Patent" does not even occur in the index.

The book spends a good deal of time utilizing literary devices, especially the literary device of describing the weather, and the literary device of naming personalities with little or no direct relevance to Marconi. For example, we are told that "on a misty morning three days later a Russian hospital ship sighted another vessel" (page 200). We learn that "the men who were working ran out into the snow in mad rejoicing" (page 146). We find that "day after day through the hot summer months of 1895 . . ."(page 16). We are told that "tens of thousands of chimneys filled the air with the sooty haze" (page 21). We read that "this was a deeply romantic corner of England, a treacherous rocky coast. . . where people still talked of lost bounties of wrecked . . . Spanish galleons" (page 72). We also read that "outside, his men braved the icy winds which blew small icebergs into Glace Bay" (page 100). Moreover, we learn about "out on the snowy wastes of Brant Rock . . ." (page 208). Additionally, we read that "in the summer heat the stony earth shimmers" (page 281) and that "a storm blew up from the northwest" (page 264). The author is a confirmed name-dropper. We learn the names of Marconi's competitors, and the names of Marconi's love interests, literary figures, sports figures, and political figures of the time (e.g., King Victor Emmanuel; Reginald Fessenden; Nevil Maskelyne; Frank Fayant; Alexander Popov; Gordon Bennett; Eugene Ducretet; Inez Milholland; Thomas Lipton; Lionel James; Rossini; Chopin; Arthur Conan Doyle; Frederick Treves; Amos Dolbear; Alaxandre Dumas; Nellie Melba; Beatrice O'Brien; Edmund Gurney; Frederic Myers; Leonore Piper; George Bernard Shaw; Joseph Pulitzer; and Cristina Bezza-Scali; Rudyard Kipling; Bob Fitzsimmons; Jim Jeffries; Jack Dempsey; Henry McClure; just to name a few). On and on and on goes the list of irrelevant names. The book devotes atleast ten times more space describing Marconi's romantic interests than describing the engineers who work for Marconi.

To conclude, the author Gavin Weightman provides us with a book having a misleading title (Signor Marconi's Magic Box) and a misleading subtitle (The Most Remarkable Invention of the 19th Century). The book contains only a moderate amount of interesting material, but a huge amount of fluff. The book does not explain the nature of a coherer, a Herzian wave, or the spark method, and reveals very little about Marconi's collaborators and coworkers, essentially nothing about Marconi's business partners, and essentially nothing about what Marconi had actually invented. In striking contrast is Tom Lewis' book Empire of the Air. Tom Lewis covers the history of radio with the insight expected of somebody who is an electrical engineer having a J.D. and an M.B.A. Five stars to Tom Lewis' book Empire of the Air.

Like Early Wireless Itself: Useful, but Flawed.......2005-02-08

From the title, you might suppose this book to be a history of early wireless, with an emphasis on Marconi's work. And so it is, to some degree. It is much more a biography of Marconi, for whom Weightman has an evident fondness. But it is a weak biography, in that it does not delve into Marconi's life too deeply, or too long. Indeed, the book effectively ends (or rather, just stops) at the First World War, with a final chapter or two about the last years of Marconi's life 20 years later. And it's a somewhat incomplete story of early wireless, concentrating (understandably) mostly on Marconi's work, with only glimpses of the advances made by so many other pioneers. Still, it is an interesting and informative read, fleshing out the bare bones of the earliest years of an emerging technology. It just left me wondering what happened to the second half of the book.

Looking (and thinking) inside the box.......2004-04-08

The story of the development of wireless technology is complicated and surrounded by claim and counter claim. Marconi is undoubtedly the central figure of this story but the main characters are interwoven like the twisted pair wires that were replaced by the increasing use of telegraph communications.

Einstein has said that scientific advance is opaque with foresight, transparent with hindsight, and this book amply illustrates the point. It is easy to look back on the breakthroughs of Guiglielmo Marconi and belittle the impact. Yet much of the enormous advances at the end of the 20th century would not have been possible without Marconi (or rather the technology STARTED by Marconi's discoveries). Marconi was a strange mixture of modern and ancient, and did not understand the theoretical background of his advances. Nor does the reader need to understand the science of signal transmission to thoroughly enjoy the book. It is interesting and enlightening to see the attempts to rationalise how `radio' worked, particularly by some of his contemporaries. I suspect that some of our own imperfect understandings will be viewed with similar wonder when viewed from the other side of lucid explanations.

The story is generally well told, and is particularly effective when describing three Atlantic dramas in the years just before the First World War. The passengers rescued from the steam ships Republic and Titanic owed their rescue to both the technology, and to the seriously dedicated wireless operators. Indeed, the operators from the Titanic only ceased transmitting about 20 minutes before the vessel went down, and one of the pair perished. In the third drama, Dr Crippen was apprehended in New York after `escaping' on a trans-Atlantic voyage - the ship's captain recognised the man who had murdered his wife, and the `Marconi men' on board informed the authorities. Both English and French newspapers published the `chase', charting the positions of both Crippen's vessel, and that of the following Inspector Drew (in a faster vessel, which arrived first in New York).

Marconi's advances shine through the pages of the book, but even though it is not dwelt upon, Marconi as a man receives very much less favourable coverage. I suppose if he had been a `better' person, he would not have made the breakthroughs of which we are all grateful.

Peter Morgan (morganp@supanet.com)

A good look at the early 20th century.......2004-01-27

This book is easily read and handles technical issues without getting bogged down in detail. An amateur radio enthusiast would be left hungering for more on the devices, antennas, etc. that Marconi used, but those who are not familiar with the principles of radio should find this book very satisfying. Hertz, Maxwell, Heaviside, DeForest are all here but, as the author makes clear, Marconi himself had no idea about the science underlying his success but was persistent nonetheless. The author ventures into personalities and sensations of the period that will keep you moving through the chapters. Imagine projecting news headlines onto the clouds with high powered lights! Weightman will tell you about it. I had no idea that there was a successful broadcasting service by telephone in Budapest before 1900, with music and news. Threading it all together is Marconi's remarkable life of staying ahead of the pack until the development of the electron tube. You'll get a wonderful sense of the optimism, excitement and wonder of the pre-WWI period in a well told story. I closed the book amazed that all that I had read took place only 100 years, such a short time, ago.

Real Christianity: Contrasted With the Prevailing Religious System

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Real Christianity: Contrasted With the Prevailing Religious System
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The Bible against slavery, or, An inquiry into the genius of the Mosaic system, and the teachings of the Old Testament on the subject of human rights

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The Bible against slavery, or, An inquiry into the genius of the Mosaic system, and the teachings of the Old Testament on the subject of human rights
Theodore Dwight Weld
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This volume is produced from digital images from the Cornell University Library Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection

Criminal Law, Tradition and Legal Order: Crime and the Genius of Scots Law, 1747 to the Present

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Criminal Law, Tradition and Legal Order: Crime and the Genius of Scots Law, 1747 to the Present
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