"A must read for those who deliver software solutions, as well as their customers." -- David P. Norton, co-author of The Balanced Scorecard

"Le Clair provides that 'interdependent view' required for success. An excellent set of tools for the consultant or business analyst." -- James Watson, CEO, Doculabs, Inc.

"The book fills a much needed gap in the software industry." -- Peter Morgan, Vice President Marketing, OpenPages

"The first book I've read that really understands the issues of building an enterprise software business." -- Bill Wright, President,WrightSoft

The reasons that businesses have difficulty implementing enterprise-level information systems are explained in this overview of the enterprise software market. Helping software companies understand the implementation experience, this guide provides a framework for companies to build software products that are compatible with organizations, humans, and complex customer environments. Case studies on emerging companies are featured, including OpenMarket, Inc., E-Docs, ObjectStore, NewRiver, Inc., and BBN Communications.

About the Author

Craig LeClair is a vice president at ADP where he develops next-generation solutions for the brokerage and financial services market. He lives in Lexington, Maryland.

This magnificent atlas contains the most attractive and interesting double and multiple stars for viewing with binoculars and telescopes. It is a must-have for stargazers who want to explore these fascinating objects. The first modern star atlas devoted to double and multiple stars, it plots over 2,000 selected pairs of stars, each labeled with discoverer, catalog, and/or observatory designations. A superb introduction to this important class of celestial objects, it is spiral bound and printed in red-light friendly colors, making it ideal for use in the field. Written by experienced observer James Mullaney, and beautifully illustrated by renowned celestial cartographer Wil Tirion, it provides an easy-to-use 'celestial roadmap' to locate and identify double and multiple stars. Other deep-sky objects such as star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies are also included, and are color-coded for easy recognition and identification, making this an all-purpose observing reference.

Over 2,000 selected pairs of stars are plotted in this magnificent atlas, each labeled with discoverer, catalog, and/or observatory designations. Spiral bound and printed in red-light friendly colors, it is a must-have for stargazers who want to explore these fascinating objects.

About the Author

James Mullaney, former assistant editor at Sky & Telescope magazine, is an astronomy writer, lecturer, and consultant, who has published more than 500 articles and seven books on observing the wonders of the heavens.

Wil Tirion is a full-time uranographer. He is famous for the numerous star charts he has created for astronomy books, atlases, and magazines.

The principles of quantum mechanics were formulated by many people during a short period of time at the beginning of the twentieth century. Max Planck wrote down his formula for the spectrum of blackbody radiation and introduced the constant that now bears his name in 1900. By 1924, through the work of Einstein, Rutherford and Bohr, Schrodinger and Heisenberg, Born, Dirac, and many others, the principles of quantum mechanics were discovered much as we know them today. They have become the framework for thinking about most of the phenomena that physicists study, from simple systems like atoms, molecules, and nuclei to more exotic ones like neutron stars, superfluids, and elementary particles.

This book is a text for an advanced course in quantum mechanics and, indeed, started out as notes for a graduate course at UCLA. Usually students in any field of physics must study quantum mechanics at this level before undertaking more specialized subjects.

The first part covers some of the formalism of quantum mechanics, especially the mathematics of rotations and other symmetries. It begins with a brief review of the Hamiltonian formulation of classical mechanics, which has become a trustworthy guide to finding the form of the quantum rules. The second chapter explains how the canonical quantum rules follow from the superposition principle and some form of the correspondence principle. It ends with the Schrodinger equation and the uncertainty principle.

The third chapter is about stationary states and the energy eigenvalue problem, with particular emphasis on spherical symmetry. It includes the theory of orbital angular momentum and the famous hydrogen atom problem. The latter will serve as a wonderful example over and over again.

The next two chapters are about the role of symmetry transformations in quantum mechanics, and how they restrict the possible values of some observables. There is a detailed discussion of three-dimensional rotations, the general theory of angular momentum, addition of angular momentum and selection rules. A good understanding of rotations in quantum mechanical systems is important for what follows. Rotations are an example for all sorts of other symmetries we have discovered or invented. The techniques learned in this context can be recycled many times.

These first five chapters contain the mathematical foundation of our subject. I have tried to be fairly rigorous, understanding that this is the students' second course in quantum mechanics

Mac users are passionate and loyal and these books capture that same feeling in pedagogy and series style. Titles in the Portable Genius series are not comprehensive; instead they aim to provide readers with the most accessible, useful information possible by giving readers tips and techniques for the most used features in a product or software. A handy smaller trim size makes it easy for readers to carry with them essential information on the hottest tips and tricks for their Mac. They'll find essential information coupled with savvy advice on everything from simple tasks like getting started, to intermediate information, and hip tips that cover how to use all the applications in iLife. As many iLife users initially find iMovie, GarageBand, and iWeb somewhat daunting, this book offers fast-moving coverage of the essentials of these applications as well as more advanced features.

The Genius is in.

You don't have to be a genius to use iLife apps. But if you want to get the very most out of yours, put this savvy Portable Genius guide to work and start ramping up the pace. Want to share your photos with the world or post them to your website? Make home movies with iMovie and iDVD? Become a rock star with GarageBand? Have a blast with podcasts? You'll find cool and useful Genius tips, full-color screenshots, and pages of easy-to-access shortcuts and tools that will save you loads of time and let you enjoy all your iLife '09 applications to the max.

Portable GENIUS

Fun, hip, and straightforward, the new Portable Genius series gives forward-thinking Apple users useful information in handy, compact books that are easy to navigate and don't skimp on the essentials. Collect the whole series and make the most of your Apple digital lifestyle.

About the Author

Guy Hart-Davis is the author of more than 40 computing books, including Mac OS X Leopard QuickSteps, How to Do Everything with Your iPod & iTunes, and co-author of iMac Portable Genius. He has been working with Macs for over 20 years.

Do you remember your radio and "Captain Midnight," "The Lone Ranger," "Junior Miss" and "Let's Pretend"? The first time you inhaled a cigarette? Your first swallow of hard liquor? The thrill of the first exploration of the body of your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife... your own body? Your first orgasm? Remember when as a people we loved America, and showed it? Then you might be ready for a nostalgic, funny, romantic, sexually frustrating novel. A novel that may remind many of us of ourselves, "way back then," when God's most mysterious creation was the opposite sex. A novel about life and the often funny, sometimes sad, day-to-day things that stir the memories of our lives. Reminiscent of the Neil Simon trilogy, Philip Roth's "Portnoy's Complaint" and the humorous writing of Jean Shepherd in the mid and late sixties; uniquely original, we are introduced to five-yearold Mitchie in 1939 in an ethnically diverse, lower middle-class neighborhood on the west side of Chicago. As children do, subtly growing over the next sixteen years,seeing World War Two through the eyes of this Jewish child, and later, lying about his age, joining the National Guard, "'cause girls love guys in uniform." Accidentally getting caught up in the Korean war at age fifteen, "Becoming" follows Mitchell's life in a series of nostalgic, comical, romantic, sad and - because "those" situations with girls, and later women, rarely conclude as young men hope - vividly described, extremely funny sexual situations. "Becoming" climaxes hilariously in 1955, in Brighton Beach, New York, when Mitchell is twenty-one and a man. or, because it takes more than age and size to "become" one... the semblance of a man.

"The science is accurate, and the story is well told in terms of both presenting the history of the investigation of black holes and providing some insights into the scientists themselves. The illustrations placed throughout the volume help readers understand the intricacies associated with these strange phenomena...A glossary and three reading lists, two of them annotated, enable an inquisitive reader to go much further in his or her reading, with the solid foundation of this book as the starting point. An index facilitates the quick location of pertinent discussions.
This title is a very good addition to a school or public library, a teacher?s classroom, or a student?s personal library."
--Science Books & Films (October 2004) (Science Books & Films )

The remains of collapsed stars, black holes possess enormous gravities that pull in and annihilate any matter that strays too close. The latest evidence and theories for these bizarre objects are presented in this intriguing book, including how black holes were first predicted, how they form, their physical properties, and how scientists detect them. Also covered are the giant black holes now known to lurk at the centers of most galaxies and the possibility of using these objects as cosmic gateways.

"This first volume a ] focuses on crystal structure and lattice dynamics. a ] provides a substantial amount of theoretical material at an advanced graduate level. a ] There is more material here than can be covered in a single semester, and this book is more detailed than the well-known books a ] . This volume would be most attractive for a one- or even two-semester advanced graduate course, and is a desirable reference work anywhere condensed matter/solid state/materials research is conducted. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students through professionals." (M. C. Ogilvie, CHOICE, Vol. 45 (11), 2008)

This book is the first of a three-volume series written by the same author that aims to deliver a comprehensive and self-contained account of the vast field of solid-state physics. It goes far beyond most classic texts in the presentation of the properties of solids and experimentally observed phenomena, along with the basic concepts and theoretical methods used to understand them and the essential features of various experimental techniques.

The first volume deals with the atomic and magnetic structure and the dynamics of solids, the second with those electric properties that can be understood in terms of the one-particle approximation, and the third with the effects due to interactions and correlations among electrons.

This volume covers four major topics. After a brief history of solid-state physics, the introductory part presents the classification of condensed phases, describes the basic features of atoms as building blocks of solids, and analyzes how atoms bind together to form solids.

The second part deals with structural aspects. The symmetries of crystalline solids and their consequences are covered in detail.

Deviations from crystalline order either due to defects or in form of quasicrystalline or noncrystalline structures are also discussed. The third part is devoted to the theoretical description and experimental observation of lattice vibrations. Finally, magnetism due to localized magnetic moments is treated both phenomenologically and quantum mechanically.

The text provides ample material for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses. The book also serves as a valuable reference for researchers in the field of condensed matter physics.