Cloud Application Architectures: Building Applications and Infrastructure in the Cloud (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)) Review

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(More customer reviews)All it talks about is Amazon's EC2, S3, MapReduce. It does not talk about "Application Architecture". It does not have ideas about how to break up traditional programs into MapReduce paradigm. It should be called Cloud Operations Architecture. If it was named by that title, I'd give it 5 stars. The book itself is not bad, but it will get obsolete very quickly due to its specificity to Amazon.
subtitle should be :Building Applications and Infrastructure in Amazon Cloud

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If you're involved in planning IT infrastructure as a network or system architect, system administrator, or developer, this book will help you adapt your skills to work with these highly scalable, highly redundant infrastructure services. While analysts hotly debate the advantages and risks of cloud computing, IT staff and programmers are left to determine whether and how to put their applications into these virtualized services. Cloud Application Architectures provides answers -- and critical guidance -- on issues of cost, availability, performance, scaling, privacy, and security. With Cloud Application Architectures, you will:



Understand the differences between traditional deployment and cloud computing
Determine whether moving existing applications to the cloud makes technical and business sense
Analyze and compare the long-term costs of cloud services, traditional hosting, and owning dedicated servers
Learn how to build a transactional web application for the cloud or migrate one to it
Understand how the cloud helps you better prepare for disaster recovery
Change your perspective on application scaling

To provide realistic examples of the book's principles in action, the author delves into some of the choices and operations available on Amazon Web Services, and includes high-level summaries of several of the other services available on the market today.Cloud Application Architectures provides best practices that apply to every available cloud service. Learn how to make the transition to the cloud and prepare your web applications to succeed.

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High Performance MySQL: Optimization, Backups, Replication, and More Review

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(More customer reviews)Well, the first thing you want to do when you finish a book like this is go on and on about how impressed you are. This is one of the best database technology books I've read, and the best one on MySQL.
Digging into the book I would say I was an intermediate DBA. With 12 years experience on Oracle I was a seasoned DBA. And although I've used MySQL for about 10 years, I had not used all of the high end or newest 5.0 and 5.1 features. After reading this book, or while reading it, you'll be ready to dig into everything from MySQL master-master replication (not to be confused with multi-master), creating a logging server, optimizing your query cache, or even using some of the Google MySQL patches to add some much needed but missing feature to MySQL.
The book is organized pretty well. Keep in mind that this is not a beginner book. If you're looking for more general across the board MySQL book, I'd recommend the APress Pro MySQL by Kruckenberg and Pipes Pro MySQL (Expert's Voice in Open Source). It is also very good, but hits more of the beginning topics (as well as some advanced ones). So given the intermediate to advanced audience, this book dives right into benchmarking and profiling at the beginning.
Queries... those pesky SQL commands that you send to your database. They're so important to performance, yet so sadly misunderstood. This book devotes two chapters to the topic, one about schema and index optimization, and one about query performance. These two work together. You need to understand indexing to make best use of them, and how to write good queries to get only the data you need. The indexing chapter hit on index types supported by MyISAM, and ones for InnoDB. It talked about rebuilding, and when it's important, and statistics, and how they are different across the different storage engines. And this is a key point. Going into this book with my Oracle background, I had a lot of questions about how the optimizing engine aka the cost-based optimizer, works and interacts with the storage engines. It's all laid out here in clear detail. It was pretty obvious that these others are closely involved with the actual database development, and/or interviewed some of them to get the information correct. This is something I've had a hard time finding in other books, and really key to understanding how to optimize and tune queries. Where does the query cache sit, when and how are queries parsed, when does the optimizer pickup statistics, and how does it use them. You'll learn all the ins and outs of the explain facility, which you'll of course need to know to tune queries.
The next chapter on advanced features covered the query cache in detail, how to set it up, how to tune it, and how to monitor it. The chapter also covers UDFs, cursors, stored procedures, views, full-text searching, merge tables, partitioning and so on. One other topic it really investigated was distributed (XA) transactions. You might at first think these are an advanced topic that most users don't need to know about unless your application uses them. After all, who needs to query tables in a remote database when your application can connect and do that? Well it turns out MySQL is using XA transactions internally all the time within it's storage engine architecture. One case is when you have a transaction which uses two storage engines, ie tables with different storage engine attributes. But that's not all. MySQL also treats the binary log mechanism to be a storage engine in it's own right, so interaction between your InnoDB table transactions, and the binary log is effectively an XA transaction.
The next two chapters talk about server settings, and optimizing the OS and Hardware. All important topics, and given substantial coverage. Hand these chapters to your storage engine guru, system administrator or read them yourself if you wear all those hats!
A chapter on Replication, of course we expected to find a. What you'll be glad about is that it's 65 pages of the nuts and bolts of using replication after the five minutes it took you to set it up in MySQL. It'll help you keep your databases in sync, and help you identify them when they're not. What, my replication slaves might be out of sync? There is also coverage of the new row-based replication, and how it may help alleviate many of the current limitations of MySQL replication. There is also solid coverage of various replication topologies, from single master and many slaves, to distributed master, master-master, and how to create a logging server. You'll also learn why MySQL doesn't support multi-master replication, which is where both masters received updates, and are forced to resolve conflicts, and a whole host of new problems.
After that come a few chapters on topics outside the database tier, but equally important, from load balancing, to HA, tuning your webserver to caching and so on.
The finishing chapters include backup, security, and using the built-in server status commands. And finally a chapter on other tools for interacting with and monitoring your MySQL database.
Ok, great... a wonderful book. Any criticisms. Well I save those for last because they're really minor. If you read the book cover-to-cover you'll probably take notes like I did, so you'll be doing your own summarization. But at the end of various chapters, so chock full of new and very useful information, I sometimes wished there was exactly that, a summary of the topics, and quick list of bulletpoints. That would give one an easy way to look up advice for tuning specific areas and so on.
All-in-all though this book is really a tour de force for understanding MySQL database technology. Go get a copy!

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High Performance MySQL is the definitive guide to building fast, reliable systems with MySQL. Written by noted experts with years of real-world experience building very large systems, this book covers every aspect of MySQL performance in detail, and focuses on robustness, security, and data integrity. High Performance MySQL teaches you advanced techniques in depth so you can bring out MySQL's full power. Learn how to design schemas, indexes, queries and advanced MySQL features for maximum performance, and get detailed guidance for tuning your MySQL server, operating system, and hardware to their fullest potential. You'll also learn practical, safe, high-performance ways to scale your applications with replication, load balancing, high availability, and failover. This second edition is completely revised and greatly expanded, with deeper coverage in all areas. Major additions include:
Emphasis throughout on both performance and reliability
Thorough coverage of storage engines, including in-depth tuning and optimizations for the InnoDB storage engine
Effects of new features in MySQL 5.0 and 5.1, including stored procedures, partitioned databases, triggers, and views
A detailed discussion on how to build very large, highly scalable systems with MySQL
New options for backups and replication
Optimization of advanced querying features, such as full-text searches
Four new appendices
The book also includes chapters on benchmarking, profiling, backups, security, and tools and techniques to help you measure, monitor, and manage your MySQL installations.

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Digital Modelling for Urban Design Review

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(More customer reviews)President Obama's establishment of an Urban Affairs Office again spotlights the need for design of the urban environment which goes far beyond economic exploitation dominated by the real estate and construction industries which has produced ugly chaos in buildings and infrastructure. Mastering the complexities of cities and the forces which shape them is difficult but necessary for sound comprehensive design; otherwise piecemeal endeavors so beloved by dealmakers seeking favorable privileges produce projects of reduced public benefit. To counter aggressive, narrowly-interested manipulators of the urban fabric, design tools are needed to research, study, explore and propose benefits for city dwellers. Brian McGrath's "Digital Modelling for Urban Design" will be welcomed by urban designers faced with daily barrages of commercial demands to forgo overall public interest and concentrate on the avarice of property developers and their batteries of biased financial, legal and design professionals. With the tools he describes it will be possible to reinforce the original purpose for founding urban design: the design, production and preservation of livable, healthy, safe and beautiful cities for all their inhabitants not merely the few who think they rule as their own what belongs to all.

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While there is a rich array of urban theory, design, and representation books available, there is currently no book which brings together, in a single volume, urban design theory and new digital technologies in urban information mapping, modeling, and 3D simulation. Based on two decades of practicing and teaching architecture, author Brian McGrath's Digital Modelling for Urban Design explores the new theories and technologies of digital modelling, focusing on how to create moving and interactive 3D drawing, skills useful in the context of urban theory, and design and representation. Fully illustrated with original maps, 3D models, and drawings and photographs, this innovative work introduces digital modelling to students, architects, designers, and planners interested in the processes key to shaping the urban environment.

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Architecture and Principles of Systems Engineering (CRC Complex and Enterprise Systems Engineering) Review

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(More customer reviews)This text is a broad high level survey of systems engineering in the age of model-driven system development. Looking at the table of contents the coverage is extensive, but the depth on any given topic is pretty shallow. If you are a university student who hasn't had any exposure to systems engineering concepts (or software engineering concepts for that matter), then this text isn't a bad introduction to the terminology, (some of the)tools and process descriptions in modern systems engineering, especially if coupled with a project-based course where you can have a chance to apply some of these concepts directly. For such an audience, add one star to my rating. If, on the other hand, you are a practicing systems engineer (or software engineer), even if you're not all that familiar with the model-driven systems engineering paradigm, then this text is likely to come up a bit short, given its lack of depth on any given topic. For this second group of potential readers, take one star away from my rating. I was going to be cheeky and say that this is a great book for talking about systems engineering, but not so much if your interest is in doing systems engineering.
The description on the back cover is definitely over-hyped - publisher's perogative, I guess. You will not learn the obstacles, both technical and cultural, that model-driven systems engineering faces today. You will not learn UML or SysML. Executable models are introduced in the case studies, but again with little depth. Domain-specific modeling versus generic modeling (with say UML) is a hot topic not covered in the text. The advantages and disadvantages of auto-generated software are also not covered. Problems of integrating the model-based paradigm with legacy sysems is also missing. Pattern-based architectural development is also not covered. The case studies themselves specifically address classroom exercises with assignments and intructor responses, so depth seems intended to be obtained beyond the text through instructor interaction and hands on development. Each chapter could be expanded into an entire book.
What would I recommend as a more bit more practical introduction to model-driven systems engineering which addresses an audience both inside and outside the university classroom? Your favorite book on UML, A Practial Guide to SysML by Friedenthal, Moore and Steiner, and Systems Engineering with SysML/UML by Weilkiens. The Friedenthal et al. book has an introductory section which motivates the model-based systems engineering paradigm. I'd also recommend software architecture books, Documenting Software Architectures 2nd ed by Clements, Bachman, Bass and Garlan and Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice by Taylor, Medvidovic and Dashofy (a bit more theoretical and not particularly model-based).
Don't be surprised if you see my copy available soon on Amazon Marketplace. I guarantee that it is in like new condition :)

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The rapid evolution of technical capabilities in the systems engineering (SE) community requires constant clarification of how to answer the following questions: What is Systems Architecture? How does it relate to Systems Engineering? What is the role of a Systems Architect? How should Systems Architecture be practiced?A perpetual reassessment of concepts and practices is taking place across various systems disciplines at every level in the SE community. Architecture and Principles of Systems Engineering addresses these integral issues and prepares you for changes that will be occurring for years to come. With their simplified discussion of SE, the authors avoid an overly broad analysis of concepts and terminology. Applying their substantial experience in the academic, government, and commercial R&D sectors, this book is organized into detailed sections on: Foundations of Architecture and Systems EngineeringModeling Languages, Frameworks, and Graphical ToolsUsing Architecture Models in Systems Analysis and DesignAerospace and Defense Systems EngineeringDescribing ways to improve methods of reasoning and thinking about architecture and systems, the text integrates concepts, standards, and terminologies that embody emerging model-based approaches but remain rooted in the long-standing practices of engineering, science, and mathematics. With an emphasis on maintaining conceptual integrity in system design, this text describes succinct practical approaches that can be applied to the vast array of issues that readers must resolve on a regular basis. An exploration of the important questions above, this book presents the authors' invaluable experience and insights regarding the path to the future, based on what they have seen work through the power of model-based approaches to architecture and systems engineering.

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Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011: No Experience Required Review

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(More customer reviews)Although I was proficient with AutoCAD, I didn't have any experience with Revit before I purchased this book. I have now gone through the entire volume, reading every word and following along with every example.
The book takes the form of a step-by-step tutorial: the author gives you instructions, and you follow his instructions in order to learn the software. For the most part, this system works well. The tutorial addresses most aspects of Revit, and by the end of the book I felt that I could use the software proficiently in an office environment. The author gives good explanations of why you are doing each process, although he omits to tell you the purpose of each step. (For example, he might tell you to click a specific checkbox in a dialog box, without explaining what that checkbox is for. Brief parenthetic comments to that end would have been nice.)
There is a real problem with quality control in the book, however. Other readers have commented on the east-west discrepancies in the book; the author might tell you to modify the east entrance when he means the west entrance, for example. This flaw didn't really bother me, as there are plenty of helpful illustrations in the book, so it's usually possible to figure out which side of the building he really means. The bigger issue has to do with the sloppiness of the tutorial procedures. Many of the steps that the author tells you to make do not work properly. That is, he might say "do X, and Y will happen," but the program might not allow you to do X, or when you do X, Y does NOT happen. Other times, the instructions are confusing or even incomplete. I once spent 30 minutes trying to troubleshoot my model, only to realize that the author had omitted to tell me to click a certain button. These errors are rare in the first few chapters, but become increasingly common later in the book. Chapter 21 is particularly bad in this regard; the author even has you modifying a wall that does not exist, if you follow his instructions! It seems likely that the book's procedures were never independently tested by someone untrained in Revit.
I don't know if there is a better book for learning Revit. This one will certainly work - just be prepared to encounter a fair number of unexpected problems, and to figure out solutions to them on your own.

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Learn Revit Architecture step by step with this project-based tutorial
Revit Architecture is the leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) software for architects and others in related fields. Written by renowned Revit trainer Eric Wing, this simple, yet engaging tutorial teaches you the program's basics.

You'll find concise explanations, focused examples, step-by-step instructions, and an engaging hands-on tutorial project that will take you from an introduction to the interface and Revit conventions right in to modeling a four-story office building.

Explains views, grids, and the program's editing capabilities, and then progresses as the building's design would in the real world
Encourages you to work with structural grids, beams, and foundations and shows you how to add text and dimensions, as well as understand how to use dimensions as a design tool
Walks you through building floors layer by layer and joining them to exterior and interior walls, and creating and editing roofs and ceilings as well as stairs, ramps, and railings

Even with no experience, Revit Architecture and its accompanying Web site will support you as you learn Revit at your own pace.

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Architectural Graphic Standards for Residential Construction (Ramsey/Sleeper Architectural Graphic Standards Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)Whether you're designing a new residential structure or renovating an existing one, this book is a must-have. Found exactly what I needed, including a reference to the building code--what a time-saver! Also have the CD-ROM version so that I could have the details to work with(Architectural Graphic Standards for Residential Construction 1.0 CD-ROM (Ramsey/Sleeper Architectural Graphic Standards Series)
And, as I delve deeper into Building Information Modeling (BIM), I can really appreciate the organization. BIM needs you to think in terms of building elements, and that is exactly how this book is organized.

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Mastering Revit Architecture 2009 Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this title after purchasing and working through _Introducing Revit Architecture 2009: BIM for Beginners_. I had already built a case study building model and needed a reference for the things I wanted to do that weren't covered in the beginner book. Mastering Revit Architecture 2009 has fulfilled that role. I find it more readable than most computer books, a lot less of "insert tab A into Slot 2" instruction that leaves you lost in the middle of it. Still, it isn't about "mastering" the application. Maybe it should be titled _Wrestling with Revit Architecture 2009_ as the more I use Revit the more I realize just how far from mastery I am. For anyone wanting to learn, however, Mastering Revit Architecture 2009 will help you get through.

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Move beyond the basics of Revit and BIM and redefine your designs with this new edition of Mastering Revit Architecture. With updated coverage of Revit Architecture 2009 features, this comprehensive guide will help you discover best practices and tips that will make your projects smoother and their implementation easier. You'll learn how applying key Revit and BIM priniciples to your designs will increase your productivity and improve your workflow plus develop a more thorough understanding of topics like design options and features, advanced modeling, and presentation techniques with the clear explanations and practical examples found in this book.

For Instructors: Teaching supplements are available for this title.

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How to Build Scale Models: Basic Techniques-Advanced Results (Scale Modeling Handbook) Review

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(More customer reviews)Text and picture for any book about R/C model

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Introducing Revit Architecture 2010: BIM for Beginners Review

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(More customer reviews)The "Introducing Revit Architecture 2010-BIM for beginners" is a well-put together book. I am rating this book 4 star because it's a book I have be able to really understand and be able to refer back to often and get quick and easy feed back.
PROS:
What I found to be good about this book is, that it's in fact a beginners book, so the layout is very simple, organized and easy to follow. The placement of sub categories in each chapter makes finding the right material very easy. I liked that most sub categories have a step-by-step run through of the process with images (such as modeling images, as well as window box screen shots) that correspond with the process your going through.
CONS:
The bad part of this book is also the good part...the fact that it's a beginner's book. I have found on multiple occasions that I had trouble with a certain situation during the designing process that I referred back to the book and it only provided an overview of the process and suggested I get a more advanced book (go figure).
OVERALL:
Overall I'm am glad I got this book, it is helpful and very easy to follow, I am one of those people that have a hard time following text books so I was surprised at my ability to navigate and actually continue to refer back to this book on multiple occasion. The program its self is relatively simple to grasp especially if you have dealt with other BIM software's that do have as much and are twice as hard to figure out.

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Learn the leading BIM software quickly and easily with this book's detailed discussions and practical exercises

Introducing Revit Architecture 2010 presents the core features of this industry-leading building information modeling (BIM) software with focused discussions and practical exercises to get you up to speed quickly.

Real-world tutorials from the expert authors' extensive experience, along with straightforward explanations and examples, focus squarely on accomplishing vital Revit tasks. Fully illustrated and including a 16-page color insert, Introducing Revit Architecture 2010 explains BIM principles and thoroughly covers Revit's concepts, interface, tools, and process.

Teaches Revit's essential concepts with a no-nonsense, real-world approach
Explains the principles of BIM, then provides a thorough overview of Revit's concepts and interface conventions before delving into crucial Revit tools and tasks
Focuses on accomplishing vital Revit tasks, using practical explanations, real-world architectural scenarios, and in-depth, focused tutorials
Uses in-depth discussions reinforced by comprehensive, step-by-step exercises that demonstrate how to model, document, present, and share your designs
Written by Revit experts, this book is fully updated for Revit 2010 and features an inspirational 16-page color insert

Introducing Revit Architecture 2010 is the essential resource for both students and professionals in the architecture and construction fields.

For Instructors: Teaching supplements are available for this title.

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Mastering Revit Architecture 2010 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)With each release of Revit, more and more publishers are starting to print Revit Architecture books. Finding the correct book that meets your needs can be difficult, especially if you are ordering online and don't have an opportunity to skim through. And to be perfectly honest, one book may not meet all your needs.
I teach Revit Architecture at the community college level and choosing either a textbook or supplemental text is pretty important. I don't want my students spending money on something they won't use when the class is over, so I have chosen not to use a textbook. Instead, I encourage my students to buy a supplemental text that will help them during the class and on the job.
For that reason and several other, I recommend the "Mastering Revit Architecture" series and the Mastering Revit Architecture 2010 title is now available. Having read and used previous version of the Mastering Revit Architecture series in the classroom and at work, I have come to expect very high standards from the latest title "Mastering Revit Architecture 2010". I am pleased to report I was not disappointed. In short, the book is well organized and the material is presented in a manner that it can be used as an easy-to-follow tutorial or as an in-depth and knowledgeable reference. Each of the 20 chapters takes you through the subject matter from the basics to the more advanced features.
Why is this book different? I think what sets this book apart is the authors. You have your Autodesk insiders who are working for the company and know how each individual tool is intended to work. But you also have a practicing Architect as part of the writing team, Eddy Krygiel.
Eddy has worked on large complex projects like the IRS Center in Kansas City to much smaller projects like the renovation of his home (send me model pic to post Eddy). So what does that mean. Well, we have all seen the Autodesk demos of Revit. Sometimes the workflow makes sense and well, sometimes it does not. Sometimes Autodesk intends a tool to be used in a particular manner but in the real production world it gets used differently. That's what Eddy brings to the table. He helps you understand and learn the tools the way an Architect will use them. Not the way a programmer thinks you will use them. And he knows this because he is actually working on projects from pursuit to commissioning. He's not a consultant who may touch a project briefly or a application developer.
If you want a book that is going to teach you about the buttons on the ribbon, then find the cheapest one. If you want a book that is going to teach you how to properly use the tool so that you are successful with BIM, then I think you would be very happy with "Mastering Revit Architecture 2010" series.

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As Autodesk's fastest-growing software package, Revit Architecture offers a new version that will require Revit users of all areas of expertise—architects, project managers, designers, contractors, and building owners—to learn new skills. As the only complete tutorial and reference for the newest version of Revit software, this book provides you with a hands-on look at the Revit interface, explores key modeling principles, looks at design options and features, and shows how to best present designs, and discusses proven workflows and best practices. The in-depth discussions, real-world examples, and detailed tutorials are drawn from the author's professional experience using the program.

For Instructors: Teaching supplements are available for this title.

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BIG BIM little bim - The practical approach to Building Information Modeling - Integrated practice done the right way Review

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(More customer reviews)To most people, BIM just means "Building Information Modeling." For Finith E. Jernigan, AIA, BIM is "Beyond Information Modeling."
"bim (lower case) is used to represent applications-focused topics; i.e. ArchiCad, Bentley, and Revit are bim tools." Finith E. Jernigan, AIA wrote, "BIM (upper case) is the management of information and the complex relationships between the social and technical resources that represent the complexity, collaboration, and interrelations of today's organizations and environment. The focus is on managing projects to get the right information to the right place at the right time."
"BIG BIM little bim" is one of the best books on the subject of integrated practice. It covers framework for success (four phases to integration: initiate, design, construct and manage phases, seven steps guide your way), the process day to day (certainty is your mantra, validation, design and construction prototypes, procurement, construction, operation & maintenance, firm, people, time, benefits and cautions), and proof that integration works including a number of case studies like Fire Headquarters and Station 16, Capital Improvement Program, Children's Theater of Delmarva, and Armory Community Center.
Finith E. Jernigan, AIA discussed many useful and creative ideas and tools, like design and implementation can work in parallel, forewarned is forearmed, Facility Development and Operation (FDO), Facility Specialty Alliance (FSA), Onuma Planning System (OPS), Web Feature Service (WFS), Theory of Constraint (TOC), Toyota Production System (TPS), 4SiteSystems, etc. There are also some useful appendixes at the end of the book, including "Recommended links" and "Toolkit."
"BIG BIM little bim" has 295 pages and many diagrams and screen-shots. It is a must-have for students, architects, landscape architects, urban planners, engineers, owners, facility managers, and contractors.
Gang Chen, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Author of "LEED GA Exam Guide," "Architectural Practice Simplified," "Planting Design Illustrated," and other books on various LEED exams, architecture, and landscape architecture

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This book provides the tools architects need to synthesize and reuse complex data, solve problems early in the design-build process, save costs, and increase profits and productivity. Using virtual information models and the latest technology, Jernigan is able to streamline decision making, improve project visualization, and achieve superior results during design and construction phases.The book shows you how to effectively use BIM to overcome design challenges and apply an integrated practice approach for successful architectural projects.

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BIM Content Development: Standards, Strategies, and Best Practices Review

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(More customer reviews)Simply put, this is a thorough, understandable, and incredibly insightful book. I have been working daily with BIM software and processes for almost 10 years now and this book kept my interest throughout and made me think about things in ways I had not thought of them before. At the same time, the examples are concise and written in such a way that they can be understood by even the newest BIM user.
My only `complaint' about the book is that the title suggests that it is just a content development book when it is so much more. While there is certainly a focus on content, the best part of this book for me is that it takes the reader through the basic theories of BIM and how it relates to the future of the construction industry, giving the user not only the best practices, but an understanding of WHY they are best practices.
With his background in specifications, Robert has developed a very deep level insight into the classification of construction materials and systems, from how they were developed to where they are now to how they can be used to bring about the future of the industry. It's exciting to see this level of detail and understanding put into print; this book will be an invaluable resource to our industry for a long time.
To sum up, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about BIM. Thank you Robert for the good read!


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A must-have reference to create content-rich BIM objects and models
A cutting-edge technology, Building Information Modeling (BIM) software allows AEC professionals to produce data-intensive 3D building models that far exceed those rendered with the 2D limitations of CAD, today's industry standard. Unlike CAD, however, no consensus has been reached among AEC industries for agreed upon guidelines directing BIM models. To fill this void, this book explores the different approaches used in designing a BIM model and incorporates them into one cohesive strategy that serves as a digital road map going forward.
BIM Content Development:

Details the various types of information (graphic and data) that Building Information Modeling (BIM) can gather about a building, such as its dimensions and material, its performance, its functionality, its interaction with other structures, and how often it must be maintained

Presents a vendor-neutral approach to thinking about, organizing, and managing data used to create a 3D building model

Covers the different methods for organizing content, such as CSI's MasterFormat®, Uniformat, OmniClass, and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)

Providing the means and methods for effective content creation, BIM Content Development offers sound guidance for graphic standards and data management solutions to maximize the ability of professionals to operate on any BIM software platform—and shows how to strengthen the decision-making process to unleash powerful tools for modeling a building's informational profile.

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Enhancing Architectural Drawings and Models with Photoshop Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I was so happily surprised by how good this book was as I went through the projects. It is concise, thorough and never boring.
My only nit picky complaint is with the publisher: they used very poor quality paper on this. Why they did that, I can't imagine
as it is the best I've read on enhancing one's CAD programs. And it is up to speed with the latest CS5.

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Transform your CAD drawings into powerful presentation
This one-of-a-kind book shows you how to use Photoshop to turn CAD drawings and BIM models into artistic presentations with captivating animations, videos, and dynamic 3D imagery. The techniques apply to all leading architectural design software including AutoCAD, Revit, and 3ds Max Design. Video tutorials on the DVD improve your learning curve and let you compare your work with the author's.
Turn CAD drawings and BIM models into powerful presentations featuring animation, videos, and 3D imagery for enhanced client appeal
Craft interactive panoramas for your Web site, add people and objects to your models, and integrate 3D object models inside architectural interiors
Build 3D models from photos and turn them into videos with AfterEffects, add depth of field and atmospheric effects to 3D models, create stereographic images, and much more
See how it's done with the video tutorials on the DVD

Take full advantage of Photoshop's power to present your architectural drawings in a new and exciting way.

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SOA Cookbook: Master SOA process architecture, modeling, and simulation in BPEL, TIBCO's BusinessWorks, and BEA's Weblogic Integration Review

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(More customer reviews)Michael does an outstanding job of explaining to the readers how to successfully design a service oriented architecture. This book is for technical folks like architects, developers, and test leads. If you are not technical, this book is not for you. If you are technical, this is a must have. There are enough books about SOA vision. This book is the "how" for technicians. Great stuff!

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In DetailSOA Cookbook covers process-oriented SOA. BPEL is the best-known language in this area, and this book presents numerous BPEL examples. It also studies proprietary vendor process languages such as TIBCO's BusinessWorks and BEA's Weblogic Integration. If you are building SOA processes in the field, chances are you are using one of the languages discussed in SOA Cookbook. The book assumes that the reader is comfortable with XML and web services.Author Michael Havey works with SOA in the field for TIBCO (and previously for IBM, BEA, and Chordiant). SOA Cookbook is Michael's second book. Essential Business Process Modeling, his first book, was published in 2005.What you will learn from this book?
Document a process-based SOA architecture using "enhanced 4+1", ARIS, SCA, UML, and BPMN
Learn by example how to separate BPM and SOA processes
Model choreography and orchestration in BPMN and BPEL
Divide a process that involves both manual and automated activities between BPM and SOA
Manage state in short- and long-running processes
Model processes intelligently using three variants of a structured "flat form" approach: event-based, state-based, and flow-based
Develop dynamic processes to manage the "change problem": problems that arise when you need to change the definition of a process that has live cases in production
Simulate SOA processes using concepts from discrete event simulation and the Poisson process
Measure the complexity of SOA processes
ApproachAs a cookbook, this book can be regarded as a set of gourmet recipes for SOA. Each of the eight chapters that follow the introductory chapter covers an important concept in process-based SOA and teaches techniques to build solutions based on the concept. Working examples are developed in BPEL, TIBCO's BusinessWorks and BEA's Weblogic Integration.Who this book is written for?The book is intended for hands-on SOA architects, designers, and developers who want to learn techniques in process orchestration. Many of these readers use, or will soon start using, languages such as BPEL, TIBCO's BusinessWorks, or BEA's Weblogic Integration in their projects. This intermediate-level book assumes that the reader is comfortable reading XML and knows the basic concepts of web services. The book presents several BPEL and BPMN examples, but it explains specific language constructs on the fly; the reader need not have background in these languages.

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Integrated Practice in Architecture: Mastering Design-Build, Fast-Track, and Building Information Modeling Review

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(More customer reviews)The term "integrated practice" was quickly dispatched in 2007 when the California Council of the AIA presented "Integrated Project Delivery - A Working Definition" at the AIA National Convention - and for good reason. Integrated practice is an internal affair for each of the Owner, Architect and Contractor. Integrated Project Delivery brings all parties involved in the development of a project into the discussion. In addition, for the time being - and for some time into the future - any practice is going to involve both traditional and integrated project delivery. Finally, I found the book confusing in the way it tends to equate BIM with Integrated Practice, when the two are certainly seperable, if not independent. I don't know of a better book out there at present, but I wish I'd waited for one before buying.

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Get the only comprehensive book about integrated practice in architecture, which is the collaborative design, construction and life-cycle management of buildings. Chapters are clearly organized around critical issues in integrated architectural practice, including teambuilding, project planning, communication, risk management, and implementation.
Content from this book is available as an online continuing professional education course at http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-320255.html#integrated_practice . WileyCPE courses are available on demand, 24 hours a day, and are approved by the American Institute of Architects.

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Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in Architecture, Urban Design and City Theory Review

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(More customer reviews)Pragmatic exploitation of cities and their dwellers may be an ineradicable disease that drives the squalor and eventual decline of urban agglommerations, but those who take on diagnosis of the seemingly incurable become saviors if successful. There have been only a handful of modern-era thinkers with the knowledge, insight and creativity on what's wrong with the design of cities and what might be done to make it better, Viollet le Duc, Lewis Mumford, Kevin Lynch among them. It is an unexpected pleasure to encounter a new deep thinker standing on these giants' shoulders in Grahame Shane's magisterial "Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in Architecture, Urban Design and City Theory." The volume is comprehensive on urbanism, historically and intellectually, and will amply reward the student, scholar and professional who reads it in parts or most beneficially, in whole -- more than once. Prepare to be highly educated by this book, not merely advised what to do to get or keep a job or get a project funded by public taxation. If read and comprehended by urban policy makers it will contribute to their escape from real estate development hell, or if not that, it will arm honorable officials against the weasels who want to claim cities as their own profitmaking playpens. Shane wonderfully reminds what it is like to learn from a deeply thoughtful scholar offering open wisdom compared to a city-exploiter pitching secret schemes. Still, one might imagine land developers and good buddy officials searching Shane's compendium for nuggets to use in their next snake oil presentation to suspicious citizen groups rightfully fed up with unceasing demands for bailouts.

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This book provides a simple but comprehensive framework for the emerging academic discipline of urban design, from its origins in Europe and America, to contemporary issues of imagery, finance and marketing in an age of globalisation
There is currently no contemporary textbook for urban design that includes a general history and theory of the subject.
Internationally, urban design is more and more becoming a core subject taught in architecture schools. The AIA (US) and the RIBA (UK) both require undergraduates and graduates to study the urban dimension of architectural design. On a wider scale, in Europe, the EU is developing a common architectural curriculum, which includes an urban component for under-graduates. The situation is similar in schools across Asia and Australia.
Aimed at both students and teachers, this book provides a simple and accessible framework, from the origins of urban design and the main techniques developed to deal with the design of fragments of cities, to participatory planning processes, codes, imagery, finance and marketing. Finally, it proposes an innovative vision of contemporary practice based on the work of leading actors and projects in the field.
This book is set to become the key textbook at undergraduate and graduate levels
It is written in an accessible and direct tone, and highly illustrated with many colour and black and white diagrams
It includes a general history and theory of urban design and provides an up-to-date account of contemporary urban conditions

Praise for Recombinant Urbanism:
"Documents a major intellectual advance…eagerly awaited by academics and practitioners all around the world… should become a standard text for schools of architecture and urbanism." Leon Van Schaik, Innovation Professor of Architecture, RMIT, Australia
" …both unique and instrumentally positive. The book is the result of many years of research and writing, and is a small masterpiece in urban studies. It has already proved its worth in the teaching of urban studies, at Columbia, the AA, the Bartlett School, and Cooper Union, to mention only a few of the universities where Dr Shane has had a powerful influence...It is, indeed, one of the very best manuscripts I have read in the field in the last few years." Anthony Vidler, Professor and Dean, Irwin S Chanin School of Architecture, Cooper Union, New York, USA
"I can say without hesitation that I fully endorse Grahame's work…the issues it covers are highly topical and such a book would indeed be widely read by architecture students, urban designers and planners." Colin Fournier, Professor of Architecture &Urbanism, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, UK
"Of great necessity for undergraduate and postgraduate students, scientists and professionals in urban planning and design [This] publication will certainly inspire work with city models in a wide range of practice." Henrik W Jensen, Associate Professor in Town Planning, Aarhus School of Architecture, The Netherlands
"A very important book. Shane … has made legible and sensible the reams of recent urban discourse for a general college reader. Because of this labor-intensive effort, this book will be accessible by undergrad architecture programs as well as graduate seminars in urban design and planning. Additionally there is a big interest in UD and UP theory in ecology and social science now, and because of Grahame's generous writing style the book will cross over to these other disciplines. … I can also speak to the international interest in this book; … again Shane has made important urban theories and thinking more widely available to an international student audience. … The legacy the book will have (will be in) convincing people that the design of cities matters, not in the overbearing and over-controlling sense of new urbanism, but in reinforcing the multiple possibilities of contemporary life. Brian McGrath, Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture, Columbia University, USA

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Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist: Effective Modeling in RDFS and OWL Review

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(More customer reviews)There are maybe half a dozen or so books in my library that have defined the body of knowledge that has been the subject of my career. All the others are interesting (or not) but not the definitive description of the subject. It is very rare when a new one comes along. But when one does succinctly and clearly define and describe a subject area I have been struggling to master for several years, this is worth celebrating.

This is such a book. For the last several years, I have been studying OWL and the Semantic Web, recognizing that there is something there that is important. But it's been a struggle to get on top of it. For example, the books I've found so far (and indeed, the OWL specification itself) describes the language in terms of XML. That's ok, and I was able to understand bits and pieces of it. And I did get the fundamental difference between semantic modeling as done in OWL and semantic modeling as I have been doing with entity/relationship modeling. But I never really felt comfortable that I "got it".
This book, however, very clearly starts at the beginning and takes the reader through the steps required to understand not just the languages involved, but why they are important and why they are significant to the Semantic Web. Indeed this is the first time I can say that I really understand the semantic web.
One of the reviews complains that the book doesn't go far enough. Perhaps not. But if you are looking for a place not just to start your education and to get a through grounding in fundamental concepts, this is the book for you.
I strongly recommend this book.


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The promise of the Semantic Web to provide a universal medium to exchange data information and knowledge has been well publicized.There are many sources too for basic information on the extensions to the WWW that permit content to be expressed in natural language yet used by software agents to easily find, share and integrate information. Until now individuals engaged in creating ontologies-- formal descriptions of the concepts, terms, and relationships within a given knowledge domain-- have had no sources beyond the technical standards documents.Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist transforms this information into the practical knowledge that programmers and subject domain experts need.Authors Allemang and Hendler begin with solutions to the basic problems, but don't stop there:they demonstrate how to develop your own solutions to problems of increasing complexity and ensure that your skills will keep pace with the continued evolution of the Semantic Web. . Provides practical information for all programmers and subject matter experts engaged in modeling data to fit the requirements of the Semantic Web.. De-emphasizes algorithms and proofs, focusing instead on real-world problems, creative solutions, and highly illustrative examples. . Presents detailed, ready-to-apply "recipes" for use in many specific situations.. Shows how to create new recipes from RDF, RDFS, and OWL constructs.

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