Books about Precisely from Amazon.com

This concise guide to the Java programming language, version 5.0, offers a quick reference for the reader who wants to know the language in greater detail than that provided by the standard text or language reference book. It presents the entire Java programming language and essential parts of the class libraries -- the collection classes and the input-output classes.

The second edition adds material on autoboxing of primitive types, string formatting, variable-arity methods, the enhanced for statement, enum types, generic types and methods, reflection, and meta-data annotations. It has been updated throughout to reflect the changes from Java 1.4 to Java 5.0. The final section summarizes and illustrates the new features of Java 5.0 and compares them to the C# programming language. General rules are shown on left-hand pages and corresponding examples on right-hand pages. All examples are fragments of legal Java programs and the complete ready-to-run example programs can be found at the book's Web site, http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~sestoft/javaprecisely/..
Price: $11.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In this slender volume, Stephen Jay Gould addresses three questions about the millennium with his typical combination of erudition, warmth, and whimsy: As a calendrical event, what is the concept of a millennium and how has its meaning shifted over time? How did the projection of Christ's 1,000-year reign become a secular measure? And when exactly will the millennium begin--January 1, 2000, or January 2, 2001?

"Our urge to know is so great, but our common errors cut so deep. You just gotta love us," he states disarmingly in the preface. "And you gotta view misguided millennial passion as a primary example of our uniqueness and our absurdity--in other words, of our humanity." Gould's own curiosity about time and calendars was triggered by a 1950 issue of Life magazine, which cut the century in half with its evaluation of what had happened and its prediction of things to come, propelling his third-grade mind to the year 2000. In Questioning the Millennium, Gould promises to make no predictions (other than "an orgy of millennial books"); court no millennial epiphanies; and put forth no theories on the collective angst that typically accompanies a century's end. Instead, he answers the millennial questions which, for him, represent the intersection of undeniable reality (i.e., natural fact) and human interpretation. Gould's questions and learned answers, weaving many historical and scientific facts, are a loving inquiry into the human need for order in a vast and teeming universe..
Price: $1.88 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Too many business executives, argues Leonard Lodish, have no idea how effective their advertising and promotion efforts really are. In this book, he examines a variety of ways such efforts can be tested and arrives at some surprising conclusions that will challenge conventional notions about the way advertising dollars should be spent.

Lodish contends that companies too often make judgment on the basis of meeting targeted sales goals--without sufficient analysis to determine whether the advertising money spent to meet those goals will contribute to, or detract from, their profitability. Sales figures are easy to measure, Lodish contends, but they say too little about the real effectiveness of advertising. The things that are harder to measure--whether an ad campaign generated new customers or incremental sales, for example--tend to be neglected.

Citing numerous examples from actual campaigns, Lodish looks at different kinds of advertising and promotion--including institutional and product advertising--and how each is used. He discusses product positioning, product mix, setting advertising objectives, budgeting, decisions on copy, decisions on media, and choosing the right way to obtain advertising services. It is more important, he argues, for businesses to look for the usually imprecise measures of advertising effectiveness than at reams of statistical data that hide the real truth. Thus it is better to be "vaguely right" than "precisely wrong."

About the Author:

Leonard M. Lodish is Professor and Chairman of the Marketing Department at the Wharton School..
Price: $0.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

You don't have to hate children to want a vacation, weekend or elegant dinner...without the patter of little feet. Jennifer Lawler, author and curmudgeon extraordinaire, will give you some good laughs as she shares her years of experience shunning kids while traveling. She shows exactly how to plan and where to go to enjoy time away, child-free. Lawler covers the full range of adults-only vacation possibilities including sections on trips that highlight: romance, adventure, learning, culture, special events, senior interests, locations off the beaten track, alternative vacations ... even 'do- good' vacations. Each segment is arranged geographically with detailed descriptions including price range and best time to travel. CHILD-FREE TRAVEL, in addition to being a lot of fun, is the first comprehensive Guide to places to go and sights to see ... without encountering anyone who still thinks Mickey Mouse is their best friend. .
Price: $10.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]