Product Description
Multimedia and Image Management prepares students for a business world in which they will be expected to use business-standard software applications and to complete projects and solve problems.The applications include word processing, presentation, digital photography, image manipulation, animation, and speech recognition.This text teaches students the more creative end of business technology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

for the artistically inclined
The book is geared towards an artistically inclined reader, rather than a programmer type. It brings together methods for enhancing images and manipulating video. A very visual book. The methods do not involve programming. Even the sections of designing web sites are just that. The coding of those designs is delegated to the programmer.

The authors keep technical jargon to a minimum. Which may appeal to some readers. The methods described are not covered in as much detail as in book devoted to Photoshop, say. But one lesson conveyed here is that you don't need comprehensive knowledge to start doing useful and creative work. ... Read more

Product Description
Designed as the foundation text in multimedia, this comprehensive resource covers basic principles of each media type - text, graphics, audio, animation and video - describing their digitization and progressing onto issues that arise when media are combined.

This edition includes completely revised and re-written pedagogy which takes account of substantial instructor feedback, as well as market research and development on other Chapman titles. There is also a web/Flash emphasis and proper coverage of MPEG4 and DVD in line with current technology trends. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Comprehensive and up-to-date
Digital multimedia (third edition) is clear and well-written with excellent illustrations.

The range of topics is impressive, covering vector graphics, video and animation, typography, sound, hypermedia, scripting and more.Each topic is given careful, thorough treatment but presented in an easily digestible format so the reader doesn't get lost in the details.All chapters are illustrated with many helpful examples.

I liked the chapters on visual design, interactivity and accessibility which explain the importance of well-chosen signs, symbols, layout, colours, fonts etc. and how these contribute to understanding (puts me in mind of Edward Tufte).

Each section is usefully summarised by brief "key points" and the book ends with an extensive glossary.

A very readable and informative book.Five stars.

Digital Multimedia by Nigel Chapman
This book is very thorough and does show a diverse descriptive of multimedia. I would recommend it to any student or professional to use as a reference tool. The technical aspects of the book are very detailed and well illustrated.

An impossible Read
Poorly written by an Ivory Tower Intellectual with a Silicon Chip on his Shoulder.My personal guess is that he was assigned this text, and thinks himself wasted on a mere introductory course, so he has deliberately made this tome as dense and incomprehensible as possible.

My first time in college I was an English Major, and since became a computer technician with fourteen years of field experience under my belt.The Author's technology is dated, but as the new edition is slated to come out in a couple of months, I think I can give him a pass on that one.What I cannot forgive is the obviously deliberate way in which he sought out the most obscure and rarely seen verbiage to describe his common non-technical analogies.My professor dismisses this with the comment that the Authors are British, but I fear it goes deeper then that.

However, in the final analysis, it does not matter.This is not a text that anyone will choose for fun.It will be assigned to you, and you will be stuck with it.You have my sympathies.

textbook
This is a textbook for a graduate course... at this point any review of the book is a reflection of the instructor and their use of it. It will be handy to have around in the future for personal reference on multimedia projects.

Digital Multimedia
Very good book.Well written with good examples and real world applications. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (10)

Very good intro
This isn't quite as to-the-point as "Shirtmaking" by the same author, but this is still a fine book.The disc that comes with it, however, is outdated (Quicktime?Give me a break!).

recommended
I just bought this book . . . and it looks [not having read it through completely] very good.[I own the other shirt making book by this author.It's good too.]When I ordered it,I did not know that it came with a DVD.And also some templates for pockets. I have not seen everything on the DVD, but what I did see was produced nicely, very clear, and a great complement to the book.This book plus the DVD are great guides to remind me how to sew pockets, zipper and button flies, etc.I make my own pants and skirts, and this book gives me the techniques I need and explains why I need them. The pocket templates [like the templates provided in the shirt making book by this author] are valuable to me because it's usually pockets and seam detailing that add the designer look to my custom-made pants and skirts.I also, like the other reviewers, have other books to help me fit and make pants patterns, as this one concentrates on construction techniques.

Making Trousers for Men and Women
When I heard that David Coffin had written a book on trouser making I ordered it at once.His book on shirt-making has been like a bible for me and I anticipated good things from his new book.I have not been disappointed.This book is filled with suggestions for construction techniques and ideas for details such as pocket, waistband, fly fronts etc.I have already tried out his techniques for welt pocketsand fly fronts and have been happy with the results. His step-by-step construction process is so logical and easy to follow you can just throw out the instructions that come with commercial patterns. I was a little disappointed that there were no tips on fitting but he states that fitting was not his intention in writing this book.He recommends having a individually drafted pattern to work with. I highly recommend this volume to the home or professional sewer.

Boring cover: beautiful book inside
The cover is unassuming but Making Trousers is amazing on the inside--full of gorgeous photos and clear illustrations. I don't own this book (yet) but got to spend some serious time with it in person.

It's true, Making Trousers is not for beginners and it doesn't cover fitting. (There are plenty of books that will teach you how to fit pants or the basics of sewing.) But every aspect of pants construction--every detail you could possibly imagine--is in here, explained in clear, concise language and lavishly illustrated. Anyone who is serious about pants design and construction will find this book useful.

Making Trousers for Men and Women
I'd highly recommend this book for anyone who is serious about making trousers.It comes w/an instructional dvd and very detailed instructions along with wonderful color photos.I have a few of Charles Coffin's books and this, like all of the others, has NOT been a disappointment.This man strives for perfection and I think he's found it!Great reference book to keep in your sewing library. ... Read more

Product Description

This volume introduces machine learning techniques that are particularly powerful and effective for modeling multimedia data and common tasks of multimedia content analysis. It systematically covers key machine learning techniques in an intuitive fashion and demonstrates their applications through case studies. Coverage includes examples of unsupervised learning, generative models and discriminative models. In addition, the book examines Maximum Margin Markov (M3) networks, which strive to combine the advantages of both the graphical models and Support Vector Machines (SVM).

Product Description
Pro Tools for Video, Film, and Multimedia offers comprehensive coverage of the extensive multimedia features of Pro Tools, giving you the skills you need to take any multimedia soundtrack project from concept to completion. It covers a wide range of audio topics, including the equipment you need to use Pro Tools with video, tips for efficient trimming and timing of audio, and processing outside the mixing environment. You'll also get in-depth coverage of film mixing file formats as you prepare to wrap up your project and deliver the master recordings. The author's thorough coverage of the amazing features of Pro Tools breaks down complex tasks, allowing you to create professional-quality audio you can be proud of! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

I guess it's ok for beginners
I had to buy this book for my Audio Production class. I can see why some people like this book. It's very basic and is probably an easy read for beginners. However, I'm a film student with prior knowledge of the subject area. I find this book very frustrating. It's definitely not a reference book for the software; it's more like an introduction to audio in general. Sometimes I just need to figure out how to use certain features of Pro Tools and every time I've turned to this book for help, I'm always disappointed. I end up using the pdf files that came with the software instead. This book talks about all the great things that Pro Tools can do but doesn't really teach you how to do it. I've also used A LOT of reference books for software before, so I have high expectations. I thought it would be like the Visual Quickstart guide for Flash or like "Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects" book by Trish and Chris Meyer. Now THOSE are great books that give you detailed instructions on how to make use of the software. If you're looking for a reference book on Pro Tools, this isn't it.

Good but OUTDATED - please save your money
This book was written in 2003, and whereas it gives a pretty solid THEORETICAL overview of using ProTools in film, video and multimedia settings, and some historical background on audio/video synchronization, it is not at all useful for hands-on modern day applications. Personally, I have resorted to online / streaming instruction (or interactive DVD instruction) at any number of places on the web (search for pro tools tutorials).

Fantastic
This book was highly recommended to me by a Supervising Sound Editor and Mixer working in North Hollywood as the best book on Pro Tools. I would have to agree.
From the very, very basic, to the extremely detailed, it will cover just about anything you need.
I am a student currently studying Sound Editing, and I have recommended it to not only my peers, but also my instructors.
Stop thinking considering other books, buy this one.

I also highly recommend The Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound, by David Lewis Yewdall M.P.S.E.

A practical and "user-friendly" introduction to Pro Tools
A practical and "user-friendly" introduction to Pro Tools, whether by itself or in conjunction with compatible softwares such as QuickTime, Pro Tools For Video, Film, And Multimedia by Ashley Shepherd is an excellent and very nicely organized guide to the features of Pro Tools software, including how to make optimal use of it when working on the phases of a multimedia soundtrack project. Meticulous and down-to-earth examples and suggestions make Pro Tools For Video, Film, And Multimedia a first-rate and highly recommended guide for music engineers making the transition into multimedia, as well as independent filmmakers doing their post-production in-house; web designers adding audio content to their web pages; musicians composing for film, TV, or the Internet.

A must-have for budding recordists!
This is a terrific guide that covers all the basics of how to set up a ProTools audio system to for syncing and mixing to picture. Whether you're doing a soundtrack for a low-budget film, amateur DV video, or a big-budget TV show or feature film, there's a lot of information covered here. And it's much more thorough than the Digidesign manuals, and deals with "real world" situations that come up on a daily basis for anybody in the business.

The book is not intended for a ProTools novice -- you'll need to already have a reasonable grasp of all the basics before you dive into Shepherd's book -- but the information covered there is concise, to the point, and best of all, it's very current (at least as of Summer 2003).

I'd consider this book to be a must-have for anyone considering doing any mixing of sound effects, dialog, and/or music to video or film. Along with David Yewdall's excellent "Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound" (which covers a much broader scope of information), both books should be on the shelves of anybody in the movie/TV sound business. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description

This is a comprehensive, practical guide to the most effective use of video and multimedia in open and distance learning. Illustrated throughout, it considers pedagogic design principles for the highest quality learning material, covering:

• what to teach on video and how to teach it
• when to choose and how to use other media for teaching
• a framework of pedagogic design principles for video and multimedia
• practical development advice for interactive multimedia.

With insights into the comprehensive process of designing, developing and managing distance learning materials, this book will appeal to those involved in course development, educational video, audiovision and interactive multimedia design, as well as to students of general video and multimedia production.

Product Description
In this exciting, full-color book, Stephen Pite creates a collaborative forum aimed at engaging readers in digital design while offering a point of entry into a process in which innovation and communication are being continually refined. Central to the book is a series of progressively challenging projects, ranging from traditional print to sophisticated websites, interactive CD-ROMs and multimedia, and 3-D motion graphics. Heavily illustrated with compelling work by students enrolled in Graphic Design programs across the U.S., The Digital Designer takes readers step-by-step through the design process with unprecedented attention to developing and refining the design concept, as well as the execution strategy. Narrative solicited directly from Graphic Design instructors accompanies illustrations of high-quality student work, helping to explain and reinforce important digital design principles and methods. The result is a book that empowers 21st century Graphic Designers, enabling them to work effectively across a wide range of fully digital and exponentially expansive media as they promote goods and services and build links between present and future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The other books
Unfortunatly I arrived at Virginia Commonwealth University's graphic design program after Phil Meggs had passed away. His legacy still lives on. Rob Carter on the other hand has been my professor. He is a great man who pushes his students into experimenting and becoming comfortable with their own styles of design. He is by no means a "stuffy" guy. I have some of their books and I don't have one problem with them at all.

By the way, this book is a good one!

A Very Useful Book
The Digital Designer is a quality publication , plus it covers enough ground to be useful in all of the classes we teach, so students going through the program will probably keep it and use it in several classes.

Your text is written in a friendly, accessible tone, and is a relief from some of the stuffy "Design is the Center of the Universe" books out there. As an example stuffy books are anything by Stephen Heller, Phil Meggs, or Rob Carter.

Their books are really good, of course, but frankly too focused on defining design as an official profession. Their books to me always seem like they are stiffly trying to define design as a formal, codified, yet creative event.

You seem to have achieved that friendly informative tone with ease. Kudos to you on your well resolved text. Frankly, this book is more useful to our program than any Rob Carter book, because of its accessibility. ... Read more

Product Description
Third edition of this best-selling guide to IMS: fully revised, and updated with brand new material

The IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) is the technology that merges the Internet with the cellular world. It makes Internet technologies such as the web, email, instant messaging, presence, and videoconferencing available nearly everywhere at any time.

The third edition of this bestselling book is fully updated and provides comprehensively expanded content, including new chapters on emergency calls and on Voice Call Continuity (VCC). As well as this, The 3G IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) presents updated material including a comprehensive picture of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) as well as its applicability to IMS. As most of the protocols have been designed in the IETF, this book explains how the IETF developed these protocols and describes how these protocols are used in the IMS architecture.

This is an indispensable guide for engineers, programmers, business managers, marketing representatives and technically aware users who want to understand how the IMS works and explore the business model behind it.

• New chapters on emergency calls, Voice Call Continuity (VCC), service configuration (XCAP, XDM), and conferencing
• Fully updated throughout, including Policy and Charging Control (PCC), QoS, Presence, Instant Messaging, Multimedia Telephony Services, and Push-to-talk over Cellular (PoC)
• Describes the IP Multimedia Subsystem from two different perspectives: from the IETF perspective, and from the 3GPP perspective.
• Provides details on the latest policy technology and security architecture
• Written by experienced professionals in the field.

Customer Reviews (11)

this book is dated
the standards are now 3 versions past the time when this book was current.
buyer beware

broad and deep, but not quite up to date
I teach IMS courses for 6 years now. This is my favorite book. It's a good introduction to IMS and covers many topics in suffcient detail.
Still IMS is evolving fast and you have to check with the specs for the latest updates and changes.

A well written, easy to read reference on IMS
A good and thorough intoduction to IMS and SIP. Easy to read and written in a manner that the book can be re-read over and over again. Has detailed examples on SIP Call flows with sufficient explanations. The book also acts as a bridge for some of us who are unfamiliar withmobile/cellular networks.
Hopefully the book will be updated with each revision of IMS.
Congratulations to the author.

A must have if you start with IMS
Possibly the best technical book I've ever read.

I work with IMS technology and we use the book in our department to introduce IMS to newcomers. But I also work in European projects on IMS and the book is the main reference for most of the other teams involved.

You just need this book and the 3GPP specifications for anything you want to do with IMS.

Very Good Book
This is a very good book on SIP-based Internet Multimedia Subsystem. The book nicely depicts both the Internet and the IMS architecture implementation of SIP, AAA, VoIP centric security and policy, QoS, presence service, media encoding and transport, and instant messaging. By reviewing this book, a reader will acquire comprehensive knowledge of emerging VoIP and Video Telephony Layer 5 architecture in wireless network. The book can be used as a senior or master-level text book, a useful review guide for the provider engineers, architects, technology strategist, product managers, and technical managers. SIP programmers, implementers, and standard engineers may find the book "not detailed enough". Since technology described in this book and their standards are rapidly changing, authors need to keep the book regularly updated.

Sohel Khan, Principal Technology Strategist, Sprint-Nextel ... Read more

Product Description
This book shows how to use computers in educational settings by combining learning theory and instructional strategies to help the reader design software for learning and instruction. The book has been extensively revised to include new approaches to multimedia instruction as well as updating established methods such as tutorials, drills, simulations, games, and computer-based tests. Constructivist and instructivist approaches are analyzed and presented. The book is not equipment or software specific.For people interested in Educational Multimedia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Multimedia for Learning
Dense and confusing text. Made learning multimedia a chore rather than interesting. Gave up reading it for class halfway through and it didn't affect me.

Multimedia for Learning Textbook
book had water damage and was bent in places undescribed by seller.However, text was completely readable and price was fair.Delivery of item was on time and acceptable.

Intructional Technology at it's best.
Had to buy it for a class; execellent resource for it's target audience.Make sure you're a memeber of that target audience (instructional technologists) before you buy :)

The First Book on My Reading List!
If I could only put one multimedia learning book on my bookshelf, this would be it. The "General Principles" section provides one of the best overviews I've read of Behavioral, Cognitive, and Constructivist approaches to learning (although I do think they misrepresent the Instructional Systems Design process and treat it as a purely Behavioralist approach).This section also presents an excellent overview of the learning process.The book moves on to discuss methodologies and learning sequences at an unparalleled level, including a brilliant discussion of simulations and educational games.The book closes with an overview of an approach to Design and Development that's worth reading, but far less valuable than the previous sections.Of all my design books, this one has the most dog-eared pages and underlined text; the chapter-level bibliographies alone are worth the book's price!Anyone looking to delve deep into multimedia design for learning should have this book on his or her shelf.

Excellent breadth and and depth of coverage
This is an excellent text in terms of coverage and pacing.If you are interested in human-computer interaction, this is a 'must have' text. What astonished me about this book is that it covered more issues in HCI than many dedicated user interface design books. The text admirably blends practical considerations with theoretical concerns and trends. It strongly focuses on motivational issues surrounding users of learning packages(an area largely ignored in the bulk of standard HCI texts). Don't pass over this book. ... Read more

Product Description
B> This book addresses the main subject areas associated with multimedia communications (applications, networks, protocols, and standards) at a level that enables the reader to develop an in-depth understanding of the technical issues associated with this rapidly evolving subject. It is an updated approach to the author's Data Communications, Computer Networks and Open Systems, Fourth Edition, set in the context of the increasingly important area of multimedia.The book identifies the different types of multimedia applications, quantifies their communication requirements, and describes the operation and protocols of the different kinds of networks that are used to support them. These networks include LANs, the Internet and World Wide Web, and home-entertainment networks such as cable and satellite. It also includes coverage of the main compression algorithms used with text, images, speech, audio, and video.This book is suitable for programmers interested in learning the integral multimedia aspects of networked communications. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Good reference, but info is dated
This book has tons of good info on tried and true historical standards in networking, but its material is getting dated at this point and could use a serious revision.Covers subjects such as Token Ring and FDDI as if they are as relevant as Ethernet today.Hits on SONET, T-Carrier and ATM, but developments in Integrated Services, Diff-Serv, and MPLS are beyond its issue date.

Good for protocols but badly needs an update
This has pretty much become the standard text in graduate courses on multimedia systems over the last six years. Its main focuses are the individual technologies involved in multimedia systems with an emphasis on compression standards and the various types of networks involved in multimedia systems and their advantages in each case. Its emphasis is on engineering, not software algorithms, thus there is more prose than math in the compression chapters, and the chapter on the Internet is placed in the book three chapters before the one on transport protocols. The book is starting to show its age, since there is a whole chapter on ATM, which has been displaced by Fast Ethernet for a number of years. Also, there is no discussion of wireless networks and their place in multimedia systems, and the chapters on Internet Applications and the World Wide Web are looking very aged and in need of an update at this point. In summary, if you need a book that emphasizes protocols and standards, this might be a good choice. If you are looking for a book on capacity planning in multimedia systems or a more modern book on networks as they are employed in multimedia systems, this book is not recommended. The following is the table of contents:

1. Multimedia Communications
2. Multimedia Information Representation
3. Text and Image Compression
4. Audio and Video Compression
5. Standards for Multimedia Communications
6. Digital Communication Basics
7. Circuit-switched networks
8. Enterprise Networks
9. The Internet
10. Broadband ATM Networks
11. Entertainment Networks and High-Speed Modems
12. Transport Protocols
13. Application Support Functions
14. Internet Applications
15. The World Wide Web

Beware, looks nice but strange errors abound
After seing the previous reviews giving full marks to this title I felt compelled to make some remarks. The book does cover a great deal of material and should be very useful. However, besides the usaual typos and stuff there are several passages in this book that are really bad since they are nowhere near a correct description of the topic. For example sections 3.3.4 and 3.3.5 on LZ and LZW coding. Totally mixed up... (They dont even mention that there are TWO very different LZ algorithms ie LZ77 and LZ78, they just describe some strange mixture of them without any foundation in reality...). Same thing on pg 883-884 with regards to recursive and iterative name resolution. Wrong, plain and simple.Compare their description to any DataComm textbook and you'll see. However these parts are written informatively and with figures and examples making it all very believable. And this is the big problem for me. How can I be sure that other parts of the book, which cover material I am not so familiar with, does not contain more of this false and erroneous descriptions....

Superb book on Multimedia!
I have got this book along with quite a few more on Multimedia. I am VERY happy with this title, I can easily select it as the bext text available to date. The book is quite complete and brings a good number of exercises. The companion web-site allows one to get material which makes it easier to prepare a course based on this title. I have very sucessfully adopted this book on a pos-graduated course on Multimedia Systems (with the aid of additional material as well).

I would recommend Addison Wesley to make this book more broadly available though (I ordered my copy from Amazon.com but for some students it is desirable to find it in local bookstores too).

Wow, every protocol in one place
This is a very impressive reference.

Sparing you the excessive application information, it provides the logic and call flow of numerous protocols. It contained every protocol I could think of, and then some. If you are engineering or testing/certifying anything from an ATM network, Voice over IP telephone system, Distributed Mail System or Unified Messaging System to a Packet over Sonet or GigE Infrastructure with streaming multimedia, from transmission systems to routing protocols and switch logic, this is the book for you.

This reference book easily gets 5 stars, and replaces several other books with one concise and detailed volume.

Hats off to you Fred, you did an outstanding job! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Highly Recommend!
A colleague lent me his copy of this book when I told him I was interested in having my students put together multimedia projects in my language arts class. I found this book to be straight forward and practical. Great tips about how to have your students develop their own multimedia projects that meet content and technology standards. I've read other books on this subject and quite frankly found them to be exhausting to read. Way too much stuff that didn't seem necessary. Besids being well written, the book is also reasonably priced!

Great Purchase
Clear and easy to understand book! Get a copy of it if you have been struggling to incorporate technology in meaningful ways in your curriculum. You will be happy you did.

Well Done and Practical
I'm a middle school teacher who has been reluctant to use computers with my students. After reading the book by Green and Brown, I took the challenge of having my students do computer-based projects. Their book made the entire process so easy! I can't believe I was so hesitant. I highly recommend this book to all K-12 teachers who want to incorporate computer-based projects with their students.

Well written and practical!
This is a great book for teachers on how to set up multimedia projects with your students. It was well written and provided practical ideas on how to organize projects, manage students, and how to grade the projects. I highly recommend this book for all teachers. ... Read more

Product Description
Exploring Multimedia for Designers covers the essential concepts and technologies of text, graphics, animation, audio, and video and how they are interwoven to create multimedia products. This user-friendly book introduces the essential concepts and technologies without heavy technical complexities. Every reader will receive a solid introduction to the field of multimedia - - including design principles, storyboarding, comp development, motion graphics, animation principles, camera moves, and storytelling techniques. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Overview
This book covers all aspects in multimedia completely but concisely. I had to get it for a class but it has terrific general information for someone just learning about the different avenues available in multimedia. And it's a fantastic price for a college textbook!!!

Just what I needed
This book arrived just in time for school & was just what I needed for class. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Horrible Book to read!!!
This is the worst engineering book I have read! The authors do not care to explain any concepts properly. The book is written very badly, no structure and it is hard to comprehend what they are saying. Im sure there are better books to learn about multimedia fundamentals. As far as Iam concerned, Im making a bonfire out of this book once Im done with my semester. Do not buy this book...ever.

Badly written, hard to follow.
This book just lists up most of the topics related to multimedia, and it's really hard to follow the authors' writing. The organization is bad, so I got frequently lost while reading the book. Too much errta, and wrong figures. The ugliest scientic and/or engineering book I've ever read!!!

Good book for an introduction
This is a good book for providing an introductory overview of data compression (image, video, audio)...The chapters are well written and easily understood.

.
Ditto,Dr. Tis the best CS Professor Ever!

Live Long and Prosper MINIX!

Good content but rather poorly written
This book is pretty good in that it has everything you need to know about multimedia systems. However as a text book it isn't very good. The authors could improve their style by taking tips from books by Andrew S. Tanenbaum. ... Read more

Product Description
"This book is like a good tour guide.It doesn't just describe the major attractions; you share in the history, spirit, language, and culture of the place."
--Henning Schulzrinne, Professor, Columbia University

Since its birth in 1996, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) has grown up. As a richer, much more robust technology, SIP today is fully capable of supporting the communication systems that power our twenty-first century work and life.

This second edition handbook has been revamped to cover the newest standards, services, and products. You'll find the latest on SIP usage beyond VoIP, including Presence, instant messaging (IM), mobility, and emergency services, as well as peer-to-peer SIP applications, quality-of-service, and security issues--everything you need to build and deploy today's SIP services.

This book will help you
* Work with SIP in Presence and event-based communications
* Handle SIP-based application-level mobility issues
* Develop applications to facilitate communications access for users with disabilities
* Set up Internet-based emergency services
* Explore how peer-to-peer SIP systems may change VoIP
* Understand the critical importance of Internet transparency
* Identify relevant standards and specifications
* Handle potential quality-of-service and security problems ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Good introduction to SIP
I found this book very helpful, descriptive and a very good introduction to SIP and it's services.

Good coverage, not too technical
This book gives good insight into the commercial and business aspects of SIP usage, but this is not a technical book on SIP. Also some of the claims the author makes on penetration of SIP in the industry are debatable. Carrier Grade VoIP by Danial Collins is more useful technical book(despite being a non SIP centric book).

Well worth the read
Very interesting approach to SIP had a lot of good information about what the future may bring

Disorganized and too shallow
This books presents SIP, the protocol for Session Initiation. It covers many aspects, including conferencing, security, Internet telephony, user preferences.

The book is not 400+ pages as Amazon indicates but just below 300. Why does this matter? Because, with 17 chapters, this gives an average of less than 20 pages per chapter. As you can guess, 20 pages are not sufficient to explain topics such as Internet telephony, or conferencing. Even the SIP protocol is not presented fully. Only the major messages are listed with a short description of their use.

I was also disappointed by the book organization. The SIP Overview chapter which explains how SIP works is chapter 5. All the preceeding chapters mention SIP before we even know what SIP is. This is most confusing unless you have already some SIP knowledge.

The book tries to cover too much. We get a whirlwind tour of many topics, none of them explained appropriately. The book opens many issues that remain unanswered. If you want a shallow overview of SIP, this book may meet your need. But you are likely to quickly need something more in-depth.

Excelelnt orientation
I am new to the SIP protocol and thisi book gave me exactly what i was seeking: a comprehensive explanation of the SIP architecture and the uses of SIP. The specific chapters on SIP and User Services, Security, IP telephony, DNS and QoS all provided the basics necessary to understand the tradeoffs and issues with implementing SIP. ... Read more

Product Description

Guzdial introduces programming as a way of creating and manipulating media—a context familiar and intriguing to today's readers. Starts readers with actual programming early on. Puts programming in a relevant context (Computing for Communications). Includes implementing Photoshop-like effects, reversing/splicing sounds, creating animations. Acknowledges that readers in this audience care about the Web; introduces HTML and covers writing programs that generate HTML. Uses the Web as a Data Source; shows readers how to read from files, but also how to write programs to directly read Web pages and distill information from there for use in other calculations, other Web pages, etc. (examples include temperature from a weather page, stock prices from a financials page). A comprehensive guide for anyone interested in learning the basics of programming with one of the best web languages, Python.

Customer Reviews (5)

Good entry level book
This book takes that you have some basic understanding of computer programs, but is very introductory.

Very Nice Hands-on Multimedia Book for Learning Python
Not knowing Python, I read the book from cover to cover, doing many of the examples as interactive exercises.The book comes with a CD and includes a bunch of files (.jpg, .wav, .html) to experiment with (same files as the examples in the book).So, right off the bat, the reader is engaged in the material.

The CD that comes with the book runs on any PC and is easy to install and use.Because it's a multimedia-based book and self-study course, you get to do neat things like:

- manipulate images (.jpg files):understand bit representations of colors in a pixel, loop through pixels in an image, change colors in a photo, create a sunset (darken, lighten), convert to grayscale, remove red eye, repair photos, perform mirroring (symmetry in a photo)

- manipulate sounds (.wav files):understand the bit representation of sounds; view signals; change the volume; sample sounds at various rates; create echoes; splice sounds together; and learn a bit about compression, MP3, and MIDI

- manipulate strings and html pages:scrape Web pages for specific data and create your own Web pages based on the data you've pulled from other pages, perform string searches, work with files, deal with lookup tables (dictionaries) to act as primitive databases

- manipulate videos (series of .jpg images): there are tools on the CD that let you create simple animations (including fade outs and chroma key) and see how a stream of images combines to form a simple 3-second video

Overall, it's a great book, and a fun way to learn programming.

strong image analysis
Guzdial teaches Python from the angle that you want to use it to easily manipulate various types of multimedia files. The files might contain images, sounds, video or even just plain text. This gives some of you extra motivation to learn the material.

Along the way, you can learn how images are encoded in JPG, and how colours are represented, either in RGB or HSB. There is a fair amount of image analysis and modifications that can be easily done in Python. This does not approach the sophistication of what Photoshop provides. But being able to do a lot yourself, instead of invoking canned Photoshop routines, might appeal to you.

Audio manipulation is also covered, though perhaps not as extensively. There are more specialised audio tools available elsewhere, especially for music synthesis.

The discussion of movies is very weak. Due to the complexity of what is required. Here I suggest you turn to what Apple and others offer.

best python as a first language book so far
This book achieves both of the things you would want a Python as a first language book to do - it engages the beginner with things they might actually want to do, but doesn't fail to introduce the deeper concepts that are needed to come to appreciate the beauty and elegance of Python.

Focusing on computing applications in the arts, this book uses a clever approach to enable the beginner to do really interesting stuff, very quickly. There are things in there that would be of interest to any photographer, not just a software beginner.

Yes, Photoshop is faster and easier, but it hasn't got this level of control! If you ever wanted to write your own Photoshop plugins, this book might be of interest just as an alternative way to get to design your own effects.

The end of the book gets carried away, trying to pack too much in. It tries to explain OOP and Swing, HTML, Javascript and SQL. I think this is too much to get into one book, and if you are working through the text yourself without any mentors you should probably not give yourself too much grief if you don't get all the way through it.

Admittedly, it is also pretty darned expensive.

Otherwise great stuff! This book fills a gaping hole in the Python literature. If you are an intelligent beginner, it is a great place to get started in getting real control over your computer!

Great Book
Guzdial presents concepts in simple form that is easy for beginners to understand. Actually entertaining to read. Worth every penny! ... Read more

Product Description

Demonstrate how the Parallel Curriculum Model helps educators refine their understanding of a high-quality, comprehensive curriculum to dramatically improve learning and achievement for diverse groups of students.

Includes: DVD (69 min.), Facilitator’s Guide, CD-ROM, Companion Book

Product Description
Practitioners in the helping professions make life-affecting judgements and decisions. This new integrated learning package seeks to improve practice reasoning through principles of logical thinking and evidence-based practice. EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE FOR THE HELPING PROFESSIONS gives students access to a robust companion Web site, linked to the best databases of use across all the helping professions. Also accompanying this book is a CD-ROM that contains three enactments of evidence-based practice: one of a hospital team, one of a courtroom testimony, and one of a school's individual education plan team meeting. Through viewing the videos on the CD-ROM and completing the interactive assignments, students will learn how to integrate practice and research. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Mandatory text, great condition
Excellent condition, as advertised, and delivered promptly.The book itself I don't care for, but it's a required text for class, so....

great content, bad software
The book is amazing, there is so much about this content that the previous reviewer already mentioned that I won't get into that.The 3 stars is because of the software, of which I am required to do a bit of homework on for my MSW program.If you own a mac, do not be deceived when you see the system requirements say "OS X starting with 10.1".This software was made before the Intel-Based macs came out and "classic mode" is no longer a component of the Intel-Based macs.Essentially, for anybody who's bought a mac in the last 4 years this software is obsolete.The cleanest way to get it to work is to install some parallel and run Windows XP (the newest Windows OS that its easily compatible with.Tech support has no software upgrades either.

As much money as this book costs, the publishers should release it with software that can actually be used by current technology.If you can find it cheaper second hand without the CD I would advise you to do that because the book, as I said earlier, is great.

Evidence based practicre
Reading this book will save you hours of frustration conducting on-line literature seraches for university and professional writing. Improve your professional practice by knowing what works. Get the results you are looking for by following the recommendations. It works! ... Read more

Product Description

The Routledge Advanced Chinese Multimedia Course: Crossing Cultural Boundaries is an innovative multimedia course for advanced students of Chinese. Written by a team of highly experienced teachers, the book offers advanced learners of Chinese a chance to consolidate their foundation in the language through a variety of activities, which are designed to develop both language skills and cultural literacy.

Divided into four thematic units covering popular culture, social change, cultural traditions and politics and history, each unit contains three lessons providing the student with a structured course which supports the transition from an intermediate to advanced level.

The 12 lessons are comprised of texts which present interesting and accurate information about contemporary China, introducing the student to useful vocabulary, speech patterns, and idiosyncratic language usage.

Key features include:

• lively and detailed discussions of grammatical points and sentence patterns
• exercises for developing grammatical concepts and insight into the character writing system
• systematic review of earlier material to ensure consolidation of learning
• extensive cultural and historical notes providing background to the subjects presented.
• complimentary CDs to enhance listening skills.

Further material can be found on the accompanying website at: http://duke.edu/web/chinesesoc/. The site is also linked to a multimedia website with a wealth of video content which forms the basis of many of the listening activities linked to topics within the book.  In addition, the Teacher's Handbook can be requested at www.routledgelanguages.com/9780415774079.

Kunshan Carolyn Lee is an Associate Professor of the Practice and the Director of the Chinese language program in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University.

Hsin-hsin Liang is an Assistant Professor of Chinese and the Director of Modern Chinese Studies in the Department of East Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Virginia.

Liwei Jiao is a Lecturer of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania.

Julian K. Wheatley is currently a Visiting Associate Professor in Chinese at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Formerly he spent 10 years each at Cornell University and MIT in the dual roles of Senior Lecturer and Chinese Program Coordinator.

Product Description
Formerly titled Gardner's Guide to Computer Graphics, Animation and Multimedia Schools. With over 5 years of researched information, the third edition profiles over 460 colleges and universities in the USA that offers computer graphics related degrees through the arts and science departments. The book details the programs of these schools along with information in the following categories: Degrees Offered in VFX; Facilities of the school including hardware and software; Student body; Faculty profile; Financial aid and deadlines; Expense of tuition; Contact information and more. This book comes highly recommended by several top producers at Pixar, PDI and others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The best book for finding Animation Colleges
This book is well worth the money. Good reference book.

A Useful Book for All College Seekers
his book is really a time saver.I got to see the facts on animation schools in BLACK and WHITE.This is a reliable source. It is great to see the TUITION of various schools and be able to compare this information.But the true value of this book is the equipment section. I was able to screen out CG schools from Design and film schools. And apply to the ones that relate to me.This is a Great Reference.

Don't bother.The internet is a better tool.
Don't bother. The internet is better.
I purchased this book expecting to get some useful information about 3D animation colleges (since I'm planning to finish getting my BFA soon). While the book does do a decent job in covering tution costs, fees, etc. It lacks in giving the reader useful information about the actual courses offered and what that school's particular cirriculum covers. The book was also missing several (established) art schools that I have located doing my own research on the internet. This book provides nothing more than what a simple search on the internet can provide through such sites as (name)list of schools. A very disappointing book.

The Best College Book
This book does an excellent job of outline the schools where one can receive an animation degree.I have used the book to find a college for studying animation. It is the only book of its kind on the market today.I have tried looking up animation schools on the Web and was confused by the various jargons that are used.Some colleges house their animation programs in various departments making it difficult for anyone to identify all the schools.It is great to have had this book.Five Stars all the way and it is well worth the money if time is important to you.

Very little information...
This book is simply a list of schools with contact information.It only has a short description of curriculum (which is not complete), a short section about facilities, and some other information about admissions and tuition.All this information can be obtained from the school's website and it will be more complete and up to date.If you want information on the best schools to go to for animation go the sites of the big F/X and animation companies like Pixar, Digital Domain, and Rythm + Hues.They have lists of schools that they frequently hire from. I was hoping for some more insight and recommendations for choosing a school based on what your field of interest is and where your talents lie.This book is worth about $5, simply because it can save some time in creating a list of possible schools.When you obtain that list or buy this book there is still a lot of research that you need to do, because this book provides very little additional information. ... Read more

Product Description
For hundreds of years verbal messages such as lectures and printed lessons have been the primary means of explaining ideas to learners. Although verbal learning offers a powerful tool, this book explores ways of going beyond the purely verbal. Recent advances in graphics technology and information technology have prompted new efforts to understand the potential of multimedia learning as a means of promoting human understanding. In Multimedia Learning, Second Edition, Richard E. Mayer examines whether people learn more deeply when ideas are expressed in words and pictures rather than in words alone. He reviews 12 principles of instructional design that are based on experimental research studies and grounded in a theory of how people learn from words and pictures. The result is what Mayer calls the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, a theory first developed in the first edition of Multimedia Learning and further developed in The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Fantastic second edition
Mayer is the expert when it comes to multimedia and its relationship to learning. The first edition was fundamental in my studies on personalized narration in the online environment. Mayer presents information in a sensible, clear manner that is easy to follow and makes sense. I am excited to see a second edition and look forward to reading it cover to cover. I highly recommend anything by Richard Mayer--you will not be disappointed!

Expand my understanding of Learner-Centered Design
In my opinion, Mayer has successfully explained how Learner-Centered Design(LCD) principles can be used in creating multimedia presentation that will result in better learning. Just because a course or lesson is presented in multimedia does not automatically make it good. One needs to apply LCD principles to make it good.

Review
This book was necessary for a class I'm taking. It arrived in plenty of time and in good shape. Thanks!
The content is easy to read and very helpful when creating multimedia instruction.

too much 'water'
I think this book could be 7 times thinner and it would not loose its value. I appreciate thecontents, but the author seems to repeat same stuff over and over and I am skimming through it instead of really reading...

A must read for any presenter
If you present, it's imperative that you understand the physiology behind how people retain information. This book is of particular help when it comes to using media tools -- like PowerPoint. ... Read more