Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America (Kaufman Field Guides) Review

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(More customer reviews)Alas, a good insect field guide is hard to come by. When I ordered the Kaufman guide I was optomistic that it could replace the badly outdated Peterson's guide; sadly this is not the case.

For a neophyte looking to ID your common backyard bugs this would suffice. There are plenty of wonderful pictures that can't otherwise be found in printed form. But for a serious student of entomology this 'guide' is of minimal use. There is virtually no information given to help in IDing a specimen. The guide goes with a purely visual approach which is simply not efficient for studying the great diversity of North American Hexapoda; unfortunately there is still no good choice for an up-to-date compact guide. For exhaustiveness, try picking up a copy of Borror & Delong's.

Even with its faults, I would still recommend picking this one up. The Kaufman guide is a good value, even if it will only be useful for the weekend entomologists out there.

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Product Description:
Many insects are difficult even for the experts to identify. In the new Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America, readers will find a wealth of information on the amazing observable behaviors of insects and their fascinating life histories. Naturalists Kenn Kaufman and Eric R. Eaton use a broad ecological approach rather than overly technical terms, making the book accessible and understandable for everyone. The lively and engaging text emphasizes the insects that are most likely to catch our attention but includes information on all groups that can be recognized. The guide is lavishly illustrated, with more than 2,350 digitally enhanced photographs representing every major group of insects found in North America north of Mexico. Comprehensive yet compact, authoritative yet easy to understand, this is the perfect guide for anyone who wants to know more about the fascinating and diverse insects of North America.

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Learning About and Living With Insects of the Southwest: How to Identify Helpful, Harmful and Venomous Insects Review

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(More customer reviews)the book is just what i wanted......information was a littleshort, but covered the basics.the only thing that could have made it better would be to have had actual pictures of the real species.it wasn't disappointing at all!

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Insects of the Southwest describes over 120 of the most common bugs and "creepy crawlies" you're likely to share your house or yard with from day to day.
Provides interesting and important facts and historical information on the many fascinating insects and arthropods that inhabit the Southwest-the region ranging from Southern California through Arizona to Central Texas, and north into Utah, Colorado and Nevada.
Introduces both adults and children to the wonders of observation-while never needing to go more than a few yards from home. Easy-to-read and understand.
Drawings and text help you learn about and identify these tiny creatures and know the difference between some of the fearsome-looking-but-harmless bugs and those that are venomous. Plus, household "pets and pests" and which bugs are which.
Learn about the Africanized "killer" bee spiders and the real pests they eat, the many varieties of cockroaches, crop pests and "flashy bugs" found in the desert and mountains.
Floyd Werner, Ph.D. and Carl Olson, M.S., entomologists at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, share their affection for the diversity and necessity of all creatures. They'll arm us with a fuller knowledge to help us appreciate and respect the role insects play as the recyclers in nature and even dispell some of the fears and misconceptions many of us have about the earth's most numerous inhabitants.

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Groovy in Action Review

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(More customer reviews)Scripting languages, although initially derided as "toy languages", have continued to evolve and mature over time.Now, no serious programmer (in my opinion) would deny that a scripting language can save a ton of time and effort for many programming problems. Groovy In Action by Dierk Konig with Andrew Glover, Paul King, Guillaume Laforge, and Jon Skeet covers the Java scripting language known as Groovy, and does an excellent job in doing so.

Contents:
Your Way to Groovy
Part 1 - The Groovy Language: Overture - The Groovy Basics; The Simple Groovy Datatypes; The Collective Groovy Datatypes; Working With Closures; Groovy Control Structures; Dynamic Object Orientation - Groovy Style
Part 2 - Around The Groovy Library: Working With Builders; Working With The GDK; Database Programming With Groovy; Integrating Groovy; Working With XML
Part 3 - Everyday Groovy: Tips And Tricks; Unit Testing With Groovy; Groovy On Windows; Seeing The Grails Light
Appendix A - Installation And Documentation; Appendix B - Groovy Language Info; Appendix C - GDK API Quick Reference; Appendix D - Cheat Sheets; Index

If you're familiar with the Java language and syntax, then you've already conquered a great deal of what you need to know about Groovy.The authors show how simple a Groovy script can be, and how much can be accomplished in many fewer lines than an equivalent Java program.In part 1, you get the mental framework for how Groovy works, the model for scripts, and many examples of code that cover a broad spectrum of what's possible.Part 2 goes a bit more into the guts of the language, giving you a reference guide to the different language features.This is where you'll spend a lot of time as you start to work with the language and explore the various methods and properties that are available.And finally, the last part shows real-life solutions and scenarios that you can use to either learn how to solve your particular problem or get ideas on solutions you may not have thought about before.When you look at this as a combination tutorial/reference/cookbook title all in a single volume, you start to grasp what a great job they did...

I was especially intrigued with the integration material.Compiled Groovy scripts are actually turned into Java bytecode the same as a compiled Java program would be.With the addition of the Groovy jar files into your project, you can use the scripts in your own programs with no additional effort.I'm really wondering if adding the Groovy jar files to a Domino application would allow you to use Groovy scripts for agents.If so, that gives me a powerful new addition to the Domino development toolbox.Now if I can only find some time to give it a try...

It goes without saying that if you're interested in Groovy, you'll want this book.And if you're interested in leveraging your Java knowledge into a whole new area, I'd completely recommend checking this out.It's very good...

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Product Description:
"... a clear and detailed exposition of what is groovy about Groovy. I'm glad to have it on my bookshelf."
--From the Foreword by James Gosling
Groovy, the brand-new language for the Java platform, brings to Java many of the features that have made Ruby popular. Groovy in Action is a comprehensive guide to Groovy programming, introducing Java developers to the new dynamic features that Groovy provides. To bring you Groovy in Action, Manning again went to the source by working with a team of expert authors including both members and the Manager of the Groovy Project team. The result is the true definitive guide to the new Groovy language.
Groovy in Action introduces Groovy by example, presenting lots of reusable code while explaining the underlying concepts. Java developers new to Groovy find a smooth transition into the dynamic programming world. Groovy experts gain a solid reference that challenges them to explore Groovy deeply and creatively.
Because Groovy is so new, most readers will be learning it from scratch. Groovy in Action quickly moves through the Groovy basics, including:
* Simple and collective Groovy data types
* Working with Closures and Groovy Control Structures
* Dynamic Object Orientation, Groovy style
Readers are presented with rich and detailed examples illustrating Groovy's enhancements to Java, including
* How to Work with Builders and the GDK
* Database programming with Groovy
Groovy in Action then demonstrates how to Integrate Groovy with XML, and provides,
* Tips and Tricks
* Unit Testing and Build Support
* Groovy on Windows
An additional bonus is a chapter dedicated to Grails, the Groovy Web Application Framework.

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