Customer Reviews (1)

Very funny, very entertaining
I was pleasantly surprised at how totally funny and entertaining this book was.
Steve Martin is definitely a very talented writer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Delightful, whimsical, funny, funny movies - great to read
I am a big fan of both these movies - they have such funny and warm centers and Martin's humor is deceptively deep. It took him seven years to write L A Story and the number of in jokes prove the same. For those who don't know, L A Story is loosely (very loosely) based on A Midsummer Night's Dream and even has a scene from Hamlet it in (at the graveyard). Favorite line:
Harris: You know, normally I don't like being around interesting people, because that means I have to be interesting.
Sarah: Does that mean you find me interesting?
Harris: All I know is that I find myself showing off when you're around, which is the idiot's version of being interesting.

Roxanne is a pretty straightforward 20th century version of the classic Cyrano de Bergerac (if you havent seen Depardieu as Cyrano, run out now and rent it - I can wait). My favorite line from it is the scene where he comes up with 20 insults about his nose.

Steve Martin has a way of being funny without being mean. And that means something. The same can be see in his later movies like Bowfinger (even though it was a bit uneven) and LA Story, in particular, sheds some light on his philosophical leanings as well!

Subtlety Evades Some
I have been a fan of LA Story from the first viewing.Everything
about the movie is solid, from the superb casting to the subtle
and extremely witty script, and fine performances turned in by everyone.I disagree wholeheartedly with whoever wrote the review and admitted to being thickheaded enough to walk out half way through the movie.But, as we all know, a man with a pointy nose is a little more direct than a subtle slice of Martin insight and hilarious angelean social commentary/satire.Subtlety escapes some and these are the people who are running to
see horrible movies in droves.If you consider yourself funny or an intellect or both, see this movie.

L.A. Story and Roxanne : Two Screenplays
In response to the other review, LA story is one of my very favorite movies. The screenplay is excellent, and the story is beautiful. There is nothing terrible or long-winded about it. Though I must say, I am not from California...

Mixed
ROXANNE is a wonderful script/film. How could Martin go wrong adapting andputting a spin on one of the great classic plays ("Cyrano DeBergerac")? But L A STORY shows Martin is weak when originating a longnarrative. It's really a quite terrible script/film. In fact--while I sawROXANNE 3 times--I walked out of L A STORY half-way through.

Another way to enjoy a good movie
One of the movies in this book I had seen and the other I had not."Roxanne" I remembered as a wonderful movie, and I very much enjoyed being able to pick out my favorite parts and favorite lines in thebook. "L.A. Story" is a very amusing satire and I have not seenthe movie.At first, reading a screenplay is confusing, but I adjustedquickly and found the reading very enjoyable. ... Read more

Product Description
Praise for Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom

"Steve Martin takes a much-needed look at how successful executives read verbal and nonverbal messages, which allows them to quickly understand the subtext of their customers' minds. The best part is that the author shares effective strategies that put more fun into selling and more money into salespeople's pockets."
—Gerhard Gschwandtner Founder and Publisher, Selling Power magazine

"Steve Martin's interesting examination of great leaders in history and the parallels he draws between waging a war and waging a sales campaign should be required reading for enterprise salespeople."
—Jay Fulcher, Chief Executive Officer, Agile Software

"This powerful book provides real-world strategies you can use to increase sales immediately!"
—Brian Tracy, President, Brian Tracy International, author, Getting Rich Your Own Way

"Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom goes beyond the traditional description of sales cycles to the heart of selling. It's about the emotional connection with the customer, but also the attack and destruction of the competition."
—Olivier Helleboid, Vice President, Software Operations, Hewlett-Packard

"Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom provides field sales generals and sales soldiers with tons of strategy, persuasion techniques, and common-sense approaches to winning the hearts and minds of prospects. This book will add new weapons to your arsenal."
—Tim Kelliher, Senior Vice President, Sales, DHL Global Mail ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

I only paid $2.99 and that was too much!
As far as selling advice, it might as well be a cook book.
The book has not much to offer, unless you like war history.
If you have to battle with your customers, get out of sales, it will wear you out.
In short.........disappointing.

Heavy Hitter Indeed!
Many 'sales books' are sales 101. This one is not. If you have been at it for a while and would like to hear from a guy who has done the same -- this is the book. From a guy who really does not like to read -- I thouroughly enjoyed this book.

Steve does a nice job comparing war strategies to sales -- and it works. Steve also brings in some great communicators and likens their starategies to selling. Again -- it works great for the business we are in -- selling, communicating, having conversations with people.

Not a heavy read -- he makes his point and keeps moving along. You can tell as you turn the pages that this guy carried a bag. He has been there.

Chapter by Chapter Review of Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom
Chapter 1 - The Grand Strategy of War
The first chapter introduces the "indirect strategy" of warfare. The indirect strategy is based upon intelligence, finesse, and the element of surprise, rather than frontal assault. This time-tested strategy is involves understanding one's own abilities and concentrating resources on the enemy's weaknesses. Above all, the strategy truly appreciates the importance of time, momentum, and the role human nature plays in determining the winner. The chapter uses examples of strategy from some of the most important military leaders of all time (Sun Tzu, Napoleon Bonaparte, and George Patton).

Chapter 2 - Battlefield Tactics
This chapterreviews the components of the grand strategy: battles and battlefield maneuvers. In order to win the war, salespeople must maneuver into fighting position and execute different battlefield tactics to gain the advantage and neutralize enemies.Examples from important military battles from Roman Times to the first Gulf War are used to illustrate tactics.

Chapter 3 - The Five Steps to Victory
This chapter introduces the five steps it takes to develop a winning indirect strategy: understanding how the objective is organized, going after leaders, focusing on human nature, enlisting spies, and setting the tempo.

Chapter 4 - Real Persuasion
After salespeople have formulated their strategy, they use the second element of sales wisdom, persuasion, to turn skeptics into believers. This chapter focuses on mastering soft skills--understanding how to build rapport with skeptics, presenting arguments in a nonthreatening way, and dovetailing ideas with the customer's personal desires.

Chapter 5 - Meeting of the Minds
This chapter is based upon the premise that the language we use is not truly universal. The source of all language is the mind, and since everyone's mind is so distinct, people actually talk in their own dialects. Therefore, in order to communicate persuasively and make a lasting impression, salespeople need to use neurolinguistics to speak the customers' different dialects. Examples from politicians including Presidents Reagan, Clinton, and Bush are used to highlight persuasiveness.

Chapter 6 - Common-Sense Selling
This chapter is based upon metaphors-- stories that are told to convey a point. The metaphors cover common-sense subjects salespeople need to know, such as handling price objections, forecasting, and avoiding the seven deadly sins of salespeople.

Chapter 7 - The Life of a Salesperson
The stories and advice in this chapter cover a broad range of sales-related topics. These stories are grouped into lessons for a successful sales career and important lessons about the life of a salesperson.

Not for Toaster Salespeople...
Ifyou sell toasters at a department store this book is not for you... Because you don't have to know how to penetrate large accounts, navigate to c-level decision makers, and persuade them to buy in life-or-death presentations that make or break your deal. However, if you sell high technology or other complex intangible solutions like I do, I would highly recommend Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom.The first section on sales warfare strategies is extremely interesting reading on sales strategy through the study of military historyand man kind's worst battles. I found this to be a very novel and entertaining way of discussing complex account strategy.

One very misinformed chapter sinks an otherwise solid book
I'll just cut to the chase: Author Steve Martin devoted a chapter of this book to a case study of something he doesn't fully understand, the 2004 Presidential Election. The issues surrounding that time were complex and interwoven and Martin's analysis is simplistic, naive, and just plain wrong. I read the entire chapter and thought "If he's wrong about this, why am I going to believe him when it comes to anything else?"

My pick for an excellent book that integrates Sun Tzu, warfare, and the art of sales...WITHOUT discussing the 2004 Presidential Election...is Sun Tzu's The Art of War Plus The Art of Sales: Strategy for Salespeople (Sun Tzus the Art of War Plus).

Martin also tackles NLP, but this is not a subject that can be covered with any great impact in a chapter.

If you're the kind of person who feels comfortable cherry-picking strong chapters from a mixed bag, this is the book for you. Otherwise, caveat emptor. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents a wide range of graphical representations of some speech signals and allows current speech analysis techniques to be assessed and directly compared. Describes time-frequency representations, auditory modeling, neural networks, pitch and multi-channel analysis. The study of over 40 different analyses of speech is represented in myriad images found throughout. ... Read more

Product Description
A collaboration between a philosopher and an international relations scholar, this work examines the philosophical issues that underlie the theory of international relations. Part I focuses on the dominant theories of Idealism, Realism, and Behavioralism, and Part II examines the international system, the state, bureaucracies, and the individual--four factors commonly assumed to account for international behavior. The authors conclude with a summary of the links between the two forms of analysis and an open-ended assessment of their relative merits which will stimulate further discussion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A great teaching tool
This review by a philospher of science and an International Relations theorist of the range of debates in International Relations theory is one of the more useful advanced teaching tools in the discipline. What distinguingshes this book from the usual run-of-the-mill IR theory textbook is the authors' concern to locate IR theory within the broader questions of philosophy of the sciences. The conclusions will certainly not please those who believe in positivism, and provides one of the most convincing critiques of positivist approaches in IR. This is a book for those who take theory serious, and are prepared to put some thought into their reading, and who believe that epistemology and ontology are important.

I have used this book in a postgraduate IR theory course virtually since it was published, and year after year my students find it the most useful and interesting piece of reading in the course

Explaining or Understanding
A ponderous treatment of the question whether international politics can best be studies scientifically--like say physics or chemistry--or by writing journalistic and historical accounts that may not exaplain things as prcesicely as scientific theories, yet provide a lot of real "understanding" of politics. The two authors take opposing views and drag out this pointless discussion to the point of no resolution. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the closest book to an autobiography thatmillions of Steve Martin fans will be able to find! This bookdocuments the wild & crazy years the author spent growing up with thesuperstar of comedy, Steve Martin. No one could better chronicleSteve's life than his oldest friend, Morris Walker.

From Steve's early days as the class clown through his struggling years on the road to his phenomenal success as stand-up comic, movie star and producer - Morris Walker was Steve's best friend, and the only person authorized to tell this tale! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (34)

Read Steve's memoir instead
Walker seems obsessed with how successful Martin is and how much money he's made.He comes across as envious and at time resentful (which he actually says on the first page.)How could so many readers/reviewers here have missed this? Walker returns to the topic of Martin's income REPEATEDLY.

He frequently refers to his friend as "Steve Martin" or "The Steve Martin," giving the impression that his old buddy's celebrity status is more important than who Steve is as a person.

Many of his stories are laborious in detail and analysis. Where was the editor?

I only listened to this book after reading Steve's memoir, "Born Standing Up" and while Martin had a specific focus in his book (the development of his stand-up act,) I found it more enjoyable reading.Walker does tell many stories Martin didn't, but they were often childhood pranks and don't add much to the story of how Martin created the unique comedy act he did.Though Walker would clearly like to take the credit for the origin of MANY of Steve's routines.
Skip this one!

A truly Wonderful Story!
I loved this book, thank you!

Pathetic.Leech-Like
I've never seen such a perfect example of a childhood friend trying to exploit someone's success.

Note to the author: you sir are a leech.

This book is not funny.It lacks even basic structure.It is just sad.

How could Amazon even agree to sell this rubbish?

As a celebrity myself, I've actually given this to my famous friends as a guide and life lesson on choosing friends and the way it could haunt you later in life.

Only for use as kindling to start a fire
The quality of this book can best be descibed as follows: a literary argument for book burning.

Garbage In, Garbage Out!Utter TRASH.
"DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK."

These are the words I wish someone would have said to me.

As a Steve Martin fan, I feel duped.No doubt, Steve feels used.

So, the only thing I have in common with Steve Martin is that we were both taken advantage of and abused by this ridiculous failure of words on a page by a neverwas that was his childhood friend.Pathetic.

Sincerely, save your money and valuable seconds of your life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

the history of a comic legend
This book is dope it tells of steves life in a very readable way.It tells you all you need to know about Mr steve martain.This is an old book but one of the best on steve martain.It is not so long though.You will love it a lot it is the goodest. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Divine Absurdity
Some, well many things in this play don't make a great deal of sense. The characters are first painted to be stereotypical versions of 1950's family members. At first it looks like a sketch. But it immeadiately goes into a series of scenes in which all of the characters live in their own insane world... but they each have a moment of honesty.

And that's why I love this play. You can laugh or be confused by it's absurdity (I laughed... most of the time) but the ongoing theme is that only honesty matters. The people in this play were written to make me feel like they meant every word of nonsense. ... Read more

Product Description
When the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad was built across Montana, it was lauded as an engineering marvel.When it went electric in 1914, it was the envy of the world.Spanning Montana's rugged beauty with scientific precision, "The Milwaukee Road" was ahead of its time, cutting its twentieth-century swath through the breadbasket of the Old West, providing Montana's grangers with increased access to distant markets. Once heralding the future, The Milwaukee Road is now part of the past, resigned since 1980 to photographs, corporate takeovers, and fleeting memories.The land remembers, too:from road grades to mountain tunnels, Montana recalls the bold Milwaukee. From east to west across Montana and up and down the branch lines, this guide will take you where the Milwaukee dared to go and won't let you miss the places it stopped:the depots, hotels, and roundhouses, as well as the substations that electrified The Milwaukee Road and that now power the imagination. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

One of the best references for finding ghosts of the old Milwaukee Road
While not exhaustive, Mr McCarter gives a nice description of the remnants of the Milwaukee Road in Montana.From east to west borders, there is a short narrative for each online town, and what's left to see.There's directions for driving to some of them, and reasonably-accurate distances for finding these structures, etc.Don't go to Montana in search of the MILW without it, as there is so much you cannot see from the interstate!

Railroad History Buffs take a look at this one!
The Iron Horse, a fire-breathing, smoke belching, steam hissing giant that dared to rumble through the Montana Wilderness on a pair of steel rails less than five feet apart, coursed its way into the history and hearts of Americans.Read this wonderful History and Guide as you retrace the path of the Milwaukee Railroad'selectric iron horse through the Montana wilderness.Filled with pictures and loads of information.A must read for Railroad buffs all over the world ... Read more

Product Description
Award Winning Skit with Steve Martin ... Read more

Product Description
Fourteen year old Ben Summers has started seeing things. When he moves into a big city apartment with his dad and older brother, Ben meets a young neighbor who keeps disappearing. When he finally follows her, she leads him into danger! ... Read more

Product Description
Between the 16th and 19th centuries, European traders transported 10 million enslaved Africans to the New World. Britain's part in this trade is rarely acknowledged. Through interviews with Britons who have discovered their slave ancestry, this volume explores the implications on British identity. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
J2ME is an exciting set of technologies that provide integration of Java with wireless devices, and bring Java back to its design roots. Wireless device types, operating systems, and networks will proliferate, but Java provides a unifying programming platform for these devices.

The potential of a flexible and secure run-time environment on these new devices is immense. Mobile code, context or location-sensitive web-based services, and inter-device communication are all possible between differing devices.

The recognition that 'one size doesn't fit all', however, and the resulting introduction of configurations and profiles, is confusing. Java is still 'write once, test everywhere,' in developers' minds. This book answers in one volume the need for a detailed examination of the differences and similarities between implementations of J2ME.

Currently, deployable context based services are only possible through WAP. The book covers this exciting new area of providing location-based services.Amazon.com Review
For any developer writing mobile applications on the Java platform, from smart cards to pagers to PDAs, Professional Java Mobile Programming provides both a "big picture" perspective on Java running on all these platforms, as well as some practical detail on the APIs and design strategies you'll need to get started.

This book's principal strength is probably its complete coverage of mobile Java's possibilities. From tiny smart cards to Java-aware phones to pagers and even full-fledged PDAs, the authors cover the dizzying array of acronyms involved in the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME). The actual source code here concentrates on two flavors (called profiles) of J2ME: the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP), for PDAs, and the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC), for pagers. To this end, this text covers both high-level controls available on the MIDP platform, and then lower-level graphical calls. They provide a case study for a contact manager then port it to the more restricted form factor of the CLDC standard.

Coverage of smart card programming will help get you started there. Smart cards have just a few bytes of memory, so programming them requires a very different mindset, and this text shows you how to work with these devices. Coverage of additional abilities in mobile Java from the Java Message Service (JMS) and telephony APIs rounds out the text. The authors anchor their sometimes wide-ranging discussion with some larger case studies, including a Towers of Hanoi simulation and a mobile application that uses global positioning information.

Later samples integrate mobile applications into the larger J2EE platform on the server-side. The code here mixes in technologies like servlets, EJBs, XML, and XSLT with mobile user interfaces. A discussion of the software design process geared toward mobile development closes out this book. Useful reference sections compare the MIDP and CLDC APIs, as well as listing all available classes and methods in each.

Though this text at times adopts a somewhat scattershot approach in its organization, its overall coverage of the rich possibilities of today's different mobile Java standards will help make it a useful resource for understanding what Java has to offer when it comes to mobile computing. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Introduction to the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), current J2ME implementations: the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) and the K Virtual Machine (KVM), the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP), the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) profile; overview of mobile and wireless networking standards (including Bluetooth and 802.11), designing J2ME software (including architecture and use cases), CDC and the Foundation Profile (supported classes), programming with sockets and POP3 in CDC (basic e-mail), comparison of various J2ME profiles, high-level APIs for controls in CLDC, low-level graphics APIs for CLDC apps, the MIDP record management system, networking, using timers, downloading images, a sample case study for a contact database mobile application in MIDP (and a CDC/CLDC version), synchronization between mobile devices and desktops (a custom protocol and SyncML), the JavaPhone API (architecture and programming concepts), writing smart card applications (including the Java Card Development Kit), integrating mobile devices and J2EE servlet Web applications (downloading a file via a servlet), asynchronous message and the Java Message Service (JMS), case studies for a mobile version of the Towers of Hanoi problem, an expert system and mobile positioning; security issues for mobile devices and systems, overview of the software design process for mobile devices, reference with a comparison of mobile device APIs, and API listing for CLDC and MIDP classes and methods. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great coverage and good case studies
I found this book very useful for getting to grips with the wide range of technologies available for Java platform on mobile devices. It's strong point is the breadth of subjects covered and not the depth. However, if like me, you prefer to get on to a quick start and the get deeper into the subject on a "as needed" basis this book will provide it. It got me up to date and able to continue on my own from the first three chapters.
If you are already an experienced J2ME developer then the case studies will show how others have tackled some J2ME problems. If you are a beginner then you will get a complete treatment of the range of technologies.

What a Lousy Book!!!
This is the worst book I have read so far. There are so many errors in the book! And all descriptions about J2ME are vague. It's really a pity that I spent my money on this useless book.
Don't buy this book!!!

Don't expect too much on this book
If you are a developer and eager to find resource on Java Mobile development, this book must disappoint you.This book just give you a general java mobile concept.May be this technology is too green so that all topics are not in depth to discuss with very limited examples.

The worse of this book is some examples just show the source code only with no any demonstration of the program running or even the complied result and that made people hard to understand what the source code mean.

If you see the content that this book cover MIDP for Palm.Don't believe this, this book is only cover the early stage of java KVM in Palm but not included the current Sun MIDP for Palm OS ... Read more