A charlatan

This twerp thinks that Richard Dawkins is a charlatan - which is proof that Taleb himself is a charlatan.<br />The rest is just pop politics, guff economics and pomposity.

The New Rules... clearly a reference book

Great book, very well written, with a lot of well chosen references and examples. Definitely provides much food for thought for any communications professional willing to use at best the potential of the Web and on-line interaction with his/her key audiences.

FANTASTIC!

A real bible for those learning their way through Ebay. Lots of tips and plenty of advise on how to make the most of your buying and seller powers!!

A remarkable achievement

Simon Singh provides the reader with an overview of the history of cryptology and brings to the reader's attention events in history that would probably have had different outcomes had it not been for the achievements of some historical figures - mostly unknown to us today - like Thomas Phelippes who deciphered and forged an encrypted message to Mary, Queen of Scots, thereby forcing her to effectively sign her own death warrant, and Marian Rejewski who provided the groundwork on deciphering the Enigma machine before handing his research over to the British; his enthusiasm for the subject shines through at every page. He also aims to set the record straight for a few unsung heroes, mainly from recent history who, due to the secrecy act, were forbidden from publicly claiming credit for their work in cryptology at the time. Most notably amongst them is Alan Turing who helped crack the Enigma cipher, but also Tommy Flowers who single-handedly built Colossus, the precursor to the modern digital computer but who had to destroy the blueprints after the war, as well as Clifford Cocks and Malcolm Williamson who invented the asymmetric cipher and public-key cryptography four years before the Americans but were sworn to secrecy. I also enjoyed his brief foray into the decipherment of ancient texts like the Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Minoan script of Linear B, but Simon Singh's main achievement lies in his ability to bring across such tricky issues like key distribution, public-key cryptography and quantum cryptography in a simple and lucid manner to a mainly non-technically minded person like me. My only criticism and one that has got nothing to do with the author, is the fact that this book was written more than ten years ago when e-commerce was still in its infancy; since then the world has seen a massive leap in terms of financial transactions being conducted over the internet and even seen the arrival of internet banking and with it the need for ever better security for the individual and companies trading over the internet. I would be most interested to read a topical update in which he covers the last ten years and the impact this has had on cryptography.

Good basic primer on social media

I liked this book and it was easy to read and very informative. <br /><br />It is a good basic primer for anyone wanting to quickly understand what is social media and how to take the first steps into the world of social media. <br /><br />The challenge that this book faces is the fast pace of technology means that some of the information included is now out of date. For example, Bebo is about to be shut down by its owners. This was the reason I gave it 4 rather than 5 stars.

Easy Read and Interesting

Thought this was a great book, really interesting. Worth every penny, even if it is just to enhance your understanding of inbound marketing.

Accessible, interesting, incredibly useful

I can't recommend this book highly enough - Kaushik has such an engaging style and gives a great overview of the world of analytics. Very good indeed.

Must Have

Great book with everything you need to know but were afraid to ask.<br />A must have.

thought-provoking stuff

To be honest, when I bought this book it was more out of curiosity, as there appeared to be a great number of positive comments about it so I was intrigued.<br /><br />Anyway from the time I opened the packaging and opened it to the first page I couldn't put the book down and read it in one sitting, and so enthused by what I read, I immediately sent an e-mail to the author and to his credit, he responded.<br /><br />This book is the reality of working in a 21st-century, after all, we are all living in an information thirsty age, and our knowledge will be the traded commodity.<br /><br />Read the book, and more importantly, put it in action.

A great little pocket book!

I bought this book as I started a new job that required me to be awear ITIL version 3. I thought this was book was well written and concise dispite the subject matter.<br /><br />All in all if you are looking at getting an insight in ITSM this is a very good place to start however I would not recomment this book to anyone who is new to ITIL as I though the book assumes some prior awaerness ITSM.

Making the most of Twitter

Given that Twitter is a 140 character micro blog, you would be forgiven for wondering why you need a book to be able to make the most of it.<br /><br />However, Joel Comm's book provides real insight for the virgin twitterer who plans to use Twitter as a marketing tool for business. He fully explores all the built in Twitter features and shows you everything from maxing your Twitter appearance to keeping your tweets on the right side of libel!<br /><br />He also explores the profusion of applications created to help you make the most of Twitter. However, bear in mind that the app list will have been superceded almost as soon as the ink dried on the printed page. I'd advise checking out the current selection of apps IN ADDITION to those outlined in the book. <br /><br />Good book - absolutely worth the money if you plan to use Twitter in a business capacity. Not heavy on the jargon - I found it easy to read and I'm not a techie minded person at all.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the whole business world is switching on to Twitter and it is increasingly being used in this way - which gets a bit annoying for everyone else on there who doesn't want a marketing man selling them anything. Read the etiquette section carefully so that you don't end up annoying people.<br /><br />The Anthony Robbins involvement is the Foreword - he doesn't contribute actual copy to the book content.<br /><br /><br />AX

Mark Porter, Client Relationship Director, Tonic

I thoroughly recommend this book to those looking to gain a map of the territory that lies between information presentation, behavioural responses, interaction design and the universal game of gentle persuasion. This is a great introduction to the user experience. It can be read and its wisdom applied to designing, planning and user profiling by those of us who create for the web environment. It is easy to read and absorb. I have also found it especially helpful with colleagues who are setting out on the journey to grow their understanding of how the mind perceives the web interface. With 30 years experience in the field of human factors/usability/user experience Susan really knows how to tell this story.

Good concept but most the value in execution

The Long Tail proposes an alternative economics model for a world of abundance, as opposed to scarcity focused economics, which have been the focus for the field more or less since inception. The idea is reasonably sound and the author does a good work of explaining it and supporting it with relevant examples. <br /><br />One thing I did enjoy is that the author looked at non-internet based examples as well, broadening the appeal. <br /><br />However the work suffers from several flaws, as well. Several examples of lacking numeracy spoil some of the enjoyment (as the author is a physicist by training, these are hardly excusable). On top of that, the message, even supported b relevant examples could be squeezed into less than 40% of the book's length - I found the rest to be unnecessary repetition. <br /><br />If you expect an interesting discussion about web economics, you'll be served well, if you are looking for prescriptive advice on how to really take advantage of the phenomenon, there s none. I do not find tht a problem per se but some readers might.<br /><br />The reason why I give it 4 stars and not 3, is that the book demonstrates very well that the author believes his own concept - countless examples of trying to make the work more 'findable', or 'linkable' are strewn throughout - I imagine hoping to take advantage of Amazon's text crawling, opefully linking it to very other popular works, which are quoted inside, even if there is no real content need to reference to them. Looking for these was relatively amusing, which eased the frustration of endless repetition of the basic message.

Full of nice insights!

For people who have stuck with traditional marketing for to long, this is truly mind-opening. Easy to grasp the concepts of the field presented in this book. <br /><br />For people already in the business of SMM, there is probably not much to gain by reading this book.<br /><br />I enjoyed reading it.

VERY INFORMATIVE READING

The book was good value for money and would definately recommend to people new to Ebay

Whan to engage?

I have just red this book and I found it very interesting, and i would like to advice it to people looking to engage.<br />The only point i didnt like on the book was the fact that the images, that are so important in understand some topics, are in black and white and some of them are not so clear.<br />Besides that everything is great.

Very, very good book

If you think you can't learn anything about creating a presentation, think again. If you think presentations are dull, think again. This book really does offer an expert insight into something many business people do (very badly) every day.

A very helpful guide

Most people are overwhelmned when facing the need to manage their website presence.<br /><br />Through practical advice, lots of personal experiences, the author provides an intelligent yet easy-to-understand roadmap for anyone managing a web site for their business.<br /><br />Lots of 'why-aren't-I-doing-this' moments.<br /><br />A really good read

Great Adwords Book

I thoroughly recommend this book. I've been using Adwords for over 4 years now so I consider myself quite knowledgeable. However whilst reading the book I learned many new things and it also clarified things I thought I new. The book is very clear and well written and I particularly appreciated the chapter on Quality Score which debunks many of the myths that abound on the internet.