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Reviews

Not a whole lot to say about Chalk - but it works on his Melissa and Doug double easel, and my son loves being able do do things in different colors.

There was a good selection of colors in the chalk. The only problem we have is with the color "black". It won't come off the board, even with a wet cloth.

chalk has held up to a baby who likes to taste test... chalk looks vibrant on the chalk board, erases just as easy. definitely worth the money.

The sticks broke up fairly easily when handled by my 3 1/2 year old daughter. I much prefer the thicker chalks for children this age.

I've rarely met an M&D product that I didn't love, but... For starters, despite being shipped in a ridiculous amount of packaging, most of the pieces of chalk were shattered when it arrived, and the ones that weren't broke easily in my child's hand as she wrote. The colors are wonderful and vibrant, but it's coated with something, presumably to keep down the dust, but it's really difficult (even for me) to "break through" that layer to actually write with the chalk. So - we'll try crayola next time!

Reviews

This shower curtain unfortunately is not as pictured, or even as pictured on the packaging. Both the picture on Amazon and on the curtain's packaging show a bright spring green, but the curtain itself is more of an electric neon yellow-green. Not so much bright as blinding. In addition, the design is not white, but rather clear, so that it doesn't really show up well even with a white shower curtain liner behind it. Finally, this curtain smelled just awful. I am not usually that sensitive to chemical smells, I often see reviews were people complain about that and I've found it to be no big deal once something airs out. This, however, was so overpowering that my husband commented on it from across the hall, and I couldn't even stand it for a minute. I returned the curtain, which is a shame, if it had been as pictured I think I would have loved it.

Reviews

I hate this video - But my grand daughter loves it. It is great the first time through but my grand daughter and I have watched it at least five times and I am positive that bananas are yellow and I know what hair is and that it comes in all styles and colors. Seriously she is 3 years old and she loves Elmo and these DVDs. I watched Alvin and Chipmonks at least 25 times.

My daughter is 16 months now. I bought this dvd to her when she was 7 months. And still this Elmo's movie is her favorite.

My 2 1/2 years old daughter is so obsessed with elmo. It doesnt matter what it is if its elmo she has to have it to for Christmas I bought her this dvd and put it in for her and my 1 month old daughter to watch and for 45 minutes I can do what ever house work I need to do and the kids are happy. Plus this dvd also helped me explain to my 2 1/2 years old daughter that she was going to be a big sister and it is so educational I was able to sit and watch the dvd with my kids and not fall asleep as I do with the Barney dvds I have purched for my daughter I would highly recomend this dvd to anyone who is expecting a baby it makes the transition super easy from only child to older child.

We bought this DVD along with "Elmo Loves You" and "Elmopalooza" for our 18-month old. This is by far his favorite. He is fascinated by all the animals and babies. I think this DVD would really appeal to most kids in this age group (18-24 months).

Elmo is so entrancing, I have no idea how he does it, but when this DVD is on, my daughter can't help but stare at the TV and talk to Elmo (even at only 6 months old!) This episode of Elmo's World is particularly cute because he explores the world of adorable babies-humans and animals. Something about babies makes other babies want to watch. Thanks to Elmo, I get some much needed "Me time"...Although this DVD gets old for me some days, it's worth it because my daughter is glued to it and just can't seem to get enough of this fuzzy little monster and his cute little friends!!

Reviews

My son really likes the "Sid the Science Kid" series on PBS, and these DVDs appear to be those PBS shows on DVD. So far i have 3 of the DVDs and have pre-ordered "Weather Kid Sid" due out in the summer.

My 8 month old is in love with SID. No matter how much of a mood he is in; I just press play and his eyes light up with happiness and he smiles and giggles throughout..... My family couldn't survive without SID. Thanks SID

Love the Sid the Science Kid series, totally exceeds expectations, makes science fun for me and my daughter!

I tell you the more I am getting to know "Sid" the more that this little guy is growing on me. I love the characters, I love the concept and I love the fact that Sid and his friends clearly and easily explain the scientific dynamics on how things change. I am sure if you are a parent you have heard the "How does..." and "Why does..." questions a million times. With my twins I get questions thrown at me at a double rate. Sid the Science Kid is a perfect video for little ones and entertaining enough to keep grown ups listening as well. With 115 minutes of video and four episodes: My Mushy Banana, My Shrinking Shoes, My Ice Pops and The Perfect Pancake...you not only receive entertainment but a wonderful start on teaching your children to love science. I hated the annual science fair at school during my elementary years but if there were cartoons like "Sid the Science Kid - Change Happens" there may have been a lot of change in my views of science. I must be honest and say that I wasn't really sure what makes a Banana turn brown until I saw this video. I know sad, huh? But hey, now I know and so do the twins! Seems like Sid is doing his job! Sid the Science Kid: Change Happens

[...] This DVD contains the episode: My mushy banana, My Shrinking Shoes, My Ice Pops, and The Perfect Pancake. Sid the Science Kid wants to know why things have to change. Why does his yellow banana turn brown? How come his shoes are shrinking? What made his ice pop melt and just how does Grandma know how to make a pancake this is not too squishy or burnt? Sid and his friends work together to discover the efects of time, temperature and the environment with the help of some revealing experiments and songs. My three year old boy and 5 year old girl love Sid, and prefer this collection "Change Happens" over the other just released collection The Bug Club. The rotten banana episode is a particular favorite, with the kids talking about "decay" the whole day long. This DVD is almost two hours long (115 minutes) but if you act now you will get a bonus DVD disk containing an additional 2 hours of content (134 minutes). Early purchasers will also an additional DVD called Front Row Fun starring an additional episode of Sid (on our disk we got the episode Why do we need Charts) as well as episodes of WorldWorld, Dive Olly Dive!, Hermie and Friends, Pocoyo and Hopla. This is a real bargain for the price. A super show produced by Jim Henson's studio and directed by his son Brian Henson. Highly recommended.

Reviews

We got this for our son (5 yrs old) for Christmas this year. He loves it! The quality of sound, video footage and overall performance by John is excellent. Definitely worth the money and enjoyable for the whole family.

This was a fantastic production recorded at a soundstage in New York City in 1995. Well produced, it sounds wonderful and John was in great form. However, this was from 1995 so it was from later in John's life. I just ordered the new 5 DVD box set called "Around the World Live", which contains concerts dating back to 1977 - from the prime of his career.

I love this DVD. While I am not a huge fan of John Denver's, I have so appreciated his music, talent and his spirit over the years. This DVD was really impressive-- and I think it really showed us the John Denver of his later years. My absolute favorite song on this DVD is "Eagles and Horses"--- it's so amazingly beautiful and he sings it effortlessly and magically. He was a great talent-- with a beautiful voice -- and a unique style and presence--- He made a lot of people very very happy--- as he as done for me.

The clarity of sound as well as the photography are excellent. I am thankful that I purchased the dvd.

What can you say that everyone else has said. When I received the DVD I thought to myself, I'll just put it on, I probably won't watch all of it,I might watch a bit now and another bit later in the week, well let me tell you, I was enthralled, I could not move away for the DVD. It was briliant, his voice is a gift to the world. I read some of the reviews and I was impressed enough to buy it. I have always loved John Denver, I never really listened properly to his words and their meaning behind every song he sings. He is truly inspirational, I found him to be gentle, genuine, humble and most importantly he loved his audience, he loved what he did, and gave of himself totally. I have had a casette tape of his for over 30 years, when I saw that I could see him on a DVD, I jumped at the chance. I am so sorry that he left us so early in the piece, for what he did for humanity and for conservation, I pray that he and Steve Erwin exchange notes up there, for they were both humanatarian leaders both loved and truly missed. Have a wonderful day ! Lyna (Safewaters) Victoria Australia

Reviews

10 year old grandson received this collection to augment his Storm Trooper helmet. A week in sick bay provided the perfect excuse to view them all. He loved the scene in the bar in I, loved Princess Laeah, and has collected all the Star Wars Fleet Ships with figurines to fly them. The Storm Trooper Clones are cool and fun, but the 30 year old classics still hit the spot.

This dvd set was just what we wanted, my son loved it as a Christmas gift!

If you didn't like all of the changes to the original trilogy in the 1997 "special editions," you'll be happy to know that some of them have been toned down for the release onto DVD. Unfortunately, Greedo shoots first and that stupid rock band is still in Jabba's palace. However, the shootout scene is reworked to make it a bit more plausible (well, a bit) and some of the other changes were simply removed (such as Luke's scream when he falls at the end of Empire). The Jabba the Hutt encounter in A New Hope has also been redone to make Jabba look more realistic. The special effects have all been cleaned up and look incredible. It's still so hard to believe they were made 30 years ago. If you can just ignore the Greedo scene and fast-forward over Jabba's rock band, I think this is the best version of Star Wars yet. A more substantive complaint with this DVD set is that it doesn't include any deleted scenes. I'm not sure why there aren't any deleted scenes included in the Bonus Features, because they are rumored to exist. I would love to see the scenes with Biggs on Tatooine, or wampas attacking stormtroopers. I sure hope Lucas releases them at some point - it would be a tragedy if they simply went to waste.

We enjoyed the first (1st) set so much, we wore them out. Liked the changes (additions).

Of course this is awesome! I was fourteen when I saw Star Wars when it was first introduced in 1977 and it is still a wonderful movie. I love the new special effects, I think this is what George Lucas orignally wanted to do with the movies but the technology hadn't been invented yet (boy I'm dating myself here). Enjoy!

Reviews

George Lucas was rusty for the first installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. From 1984 to 1998, there were no Star Wars movies. Was it because George was waiting for technology to catch up, so he could make the type of movie that he envisioned in the early 70's? Whatever the case, Episode I has many frustrating moments, and some cool and relevant sequences that tell the story well. First, the bad: Starting with the script.....this movie isn't one that the average person is going to memorize, because it isn't simplistic like episodes 4, 5, and 6. Did George deliberately make the script a sophisticated one, to go with the high tech environment? With so much sophistication in the environment, as well as all of the high-tech gadgets, etc., could one really say, "Can someone get this big walking carpet out of my way?" Sure, life was simpler and more tangible a few decades ago, and movies were a reflection of it. The problem with The Phantom Menace is that there's too much emphasis on certain scenes, such as the pod races, and droid battles. A large chunk of the movie is spent highlighting Anakin's talents, but nothing in the form of depicting any hint of forthcoming evil that would contribute to his downfall in the next two films. I found myself getting bored during the pod race sequence, because too much time was spent on the special effects. I believe in telling a part of a story in a much shorter format, and not dwell on it, such as the Jabba the Hutt sequence in Return of the Jedi. Phantom Menace doesn't move along as efficiently as episodes 4-6, and boredom is the result. Boredom also stems from not initially following the sophisticated (and somewhat complicated) script. Like I mentioned, it isn't as tangible as one would want when it comes to the Star Wars franchise, which I think is a reflection of the times, as well as George's vision. It's very interesting that this movie (despite its complexities) is more or less a kid's movie. Now, the good: I certainly like the much higher level of skill that the jedi knights and sith lords display in lightsaber duels. Darth Maul is spectacular, and it is the duel with Qui-Gon that actually saves this movie from plunging into the abyss. I can't help but laugh when seeing the lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader in Episode 4--It was absolutely PATHETIC in terms of skill level. I know that Darth and Obi-Wan are older then, but their skill level is very inferior to what we see in 1,2,3,5, and 6. But George gets away with these things, and the loyal fans don't mind. I like the fact that he built the jedis and siths into skilled warriors, but it represents one of several things that don't transition well in subsequent films. Again, we give George a free pass. It's too bad that Yoda is a puppet in this one, and looks so different from the Yoda in the rest of the movies. This movie lacks attitude, for the most part, but it's understandable in a way, because it features a child, and the story has to be built around that. The musical score is fantastic as usual, as John Williams turns out another masterpiece that's a lot different from the the first 3 movies. I particularly like the music during the lightsaber battles. The Phantom Menace is a movie that I've come to appreciate a little more in the past few years, after the next two movies were completed. I expect its popularity to grow a little in the coming years. 5.75/10

Star Wars Episode 1. The biggest box office smash since the 1989 Batman. Widely considered to be the biggest disappointment in the history of cinema. In 1999, George Lucas finally released the first of a prequel trilogy, which had been in development for sixteen years, since the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983. Lucas had sixteen years to write this thing. And this was the best he could do? I still don't hate this movie, but couldn't it have been a lot better? But as I said, I don't think this is anywhere near as bad as the second and third episode. The movie starts off with the following information. The Galactic Republic is in a period of decline, with its economy corrupt and deteriorating. In response to a taxation on trade routes, the Trade Federation organizes a blockade of battleships around the peaceful planet of Naboo. No one gets in, and no one gets out. Hoping to resolve the matter, the Supreme Chancellor has sent two Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, to negotiate with Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray. So, what is the Trade Federation doing? They're unhappy with some taxes, so now they decided to become terrorists? It is revealed later that they're working with Darth Sidious, a Sith Lord, whatever that is. But still, they decide to become full-blown terrorists just because they're frustrated with some taxes? And if they're terrorists, why didn't the Chancellor send an army to take out the battleships? And why is a Jedi-in-training suddenly called a Padawan? In the old movies, Yoda never called Luke that, and neither did Obi-Wan. Anyway, Darth Sidious orders the Viceroy to kill the Jedi. Even though he has to know how hard it is to kill Jedi. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon escape, and discover that the Federation is planning to invade Naboo. They head down to the planet to warn the people. It is there that they meet Jar Jar Binks, the most despised character in the franchise. The thing is, he didn't really bother me that much. He's supposed to be the comic relief, which he actually is, occasionally. I understand the point of view of people who hate him, but I didn't really feel that way about him. I didn't love him, but I didn't hate him. So then the Jedi go to the Naboo capital city and find that the invasion has already taken place. The planet has been taken over. The Trade Federation wants the Queen to sign a treaty so their invasion will be made legal. The Jedi rescue the Queen (why is there a Queen in a Democratic system of government?) and escape the planet. They want to head for Coruscant, but they are too low on fuel. They have to stop at the nearby planet of Tatooine, a planet that is not a part of the Federation. They meet a young Anakin Skywalker here. Here's another thing I have a problem with. At the end of Return of the Jedi, when Darth Vader is unmasked, he looks to be about at least sixty years old. And since they decided to set this movie tirty years before "A New Hope", he would be at least in his late twenties at this point. Anakin is a young nine-year-old slave kid. When Qui-Gon hears that, he isn't shocked that there is still slavery in the Galaaxy. He doesn't call Coruscant and have them send over a huge relief effort to free the slaves. See, Jedi only help when there are trade or border disputes. Not with stuff that actually matters, like this. Qui-Gon can't get the parts for the ship that they need. He doesn't have the correct money he needs on this world, so they are stuck for the time being. Anakin then offers a solution. He does Podracing, a sport than humans are not usually able to do. He can enter the race, win, and give them the winnings. They make a convoluted deal with Anakin's owner, Watto. Qui-Gon has deduced that Anakin has Jedi reflexes. He also makes a side bet with Watto. If Anakin wins, the race, he is free. Now, I have to say, even though this race was just a CGI version of the chariot race from Ben-Hur, I thought it was very good. I don't know why so may people hate it so much. After the race, Anakin is free. They now have money for the parts they need. Anakin has to leave his mother, and tells her that he will come back and free her one day. As Anakin and Qui-Gon are about to leave, they are attacked by Darth Maul, who is a Sith, whatever that is. After a short fight, they manage to escape unharmed. Qui-Gon deduces that the Sith have returned. When he returns to Coruscant, he reports this to the Jedi Coucil. He also tells them about Anakin, and how he has a lot of iron in his blood, or something like that. He thinks that Anakin is the chosen one, the one who was prophesied to bring balance to the force. The same prophecy which , in the old movies, was never mentioned by Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, Yoda, or the Emperor. Qui-Gon requests that the council agree to Anakin's training, but they refuse, claiming that he is too old. Even though Luke Skywalker is later trained at about age twenty. Meanwhile, the Queen cannot get the senate to act quickly enough. Acting on advice from Palpatine, the Naboo senator, Amidala calls out the Chancellor as a weak leader who needs to be replaced. In the meantime, she decides to go back to Naboo to try to help her people herself. The Jedi council sends Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan with her to assist her and to try to meet Darth Maul again. Instead, of, say, sending a few hundred Jedi Kights to assist the Queen. The last half hour was the highlight for me. They weren't really up to coherent storytelling in this movie, but they could at least do decent action scenes. Padme, a handmaiden who befriended Anakin but is really the Queen in disguise, but who cares since she wasn't really developed a whole lot, devises an elaborate plan to capture the Viceroy. When did she become such a great military strategist? I thought Naboo was a peaceful planet. Anyway, the ending battle was visually stunning. It would have been a lot better if there had been an interesting story leading up to it. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon battle Darth Maul. Qui-Gon is killed, but Obi-Wan is able to defeat Maul. Before dying, Qui-Gon makes Obi-Wan promise that he will train Anakin. This completely disarms what Obi-Wan told Luke in the old movies. In Return of the Jedi, Obi-Wan told Luke that he wanted to train Anakin because he saw a potentially great Jedi Knight. Not because Anakin was some chosen one or something. And not because his old master asked him to do it. Making this Obi-Wan's primary motivation for training Anakin makes his relationship with Anakin less meaningful, and doesn't establish the father/son-like relationship that they were supposed to have. What they should have done is have Obi-Wan be the one arguing with the council that Anakin should be trained. So Naboo is liberated, Obi-Wan becomes Anakin's master, Palpatine becomes Chancellor, and the movie ends. This is no where near the worst thing to carry the name Star Wars. It's certainly not the best, but it did have a few things going for it that puts it above the other two in this trilogy. First of all, Qui-Gon is awesome. Liam Neeson plays the fatherly mentor very well, and it was a shame that he could only be in one movie. He could have possibly played Obi-Wan, even though Ewan Mcgreggor did a phenomenal job in that role. Ewan wasn't too great in this movie, though. He just seemed kind of wooden. But maybe he was just playing the role he was given. Another positive thing about this movie was the utter lack of Hayden Christensen. Granted, Jake Lloyd wasn't a good actor either, but I have more sympathy for him. He's just a kid, wheras Christensen is a grown man. And Lloyd didn't whine nearly as much as Christensen. Another thing I liked about the movie was Darth Maul. Some people complain that he wasn't developed enough. The thing is, that's what made him so interesting. He's scary and mysterious. Unfortunately, we never really learn what a Sith is. I guess it's just a Jedi who turned to the dark side, but why didn't they call them that in the old trilogy? For this prequel trilogy, they made up a bunch of names for thing that had different names in the old trilogy. The Phantom Menace suffers from a lack of coherent plotlines, and the fact that it disarms what was supposed to happen based on the classic series. However, there is some great CGI work done here. I like to pretend that this prequel trilogy never was made, but this is the one movie from that trilogy that I can actually stand.

So my girlfriend had me watch this movie for the first time since I saw it in the theatre, and I realize, it's actually not a bad sci-fi adventure flick. It has an interesting premise, fun chase and combat scenes, and some interesting if underdeveloped characters. The problem, I now see, is not that it's a poor film. It's just a poor Star Wars film. The success of Star Wars Episode IV was in no small part its harkening back to the classic Flash Gordon serials of the 1940's and 50's. This movie only harkens back to Star Wars. It starts with no Act One and drops us into an ill-defined conflict, depending on our familiarity with the original trilogy to stay abreast of events. It's confusing. More than that, it's unnecessary. The point of this movie is to introduce Obi-Wan Kenobi to Anakin Skywalker. The kid is the biggest drag on the film, always squealing and giggling like a punch-drunk teenybopper. Everybody wants more of Darth Maul chasing the Jedi up and down the galaxy; that stuff is fun. The kid just gets in the way. And the characters can be called mixed. Though Qui-Gon Jinn is interesting, Jar-Jar Binks is inarguably one of the biggest miscalculations in movie history. The other Jedi hang around dragging their heels. And Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu, potentially the most interesting new character, is wasted sitting in a beanbag chair, nodding like Solomon. If Lucas had started the prequel trilogy with Episode II, nothing important would be lost. Of course, we'd miss the slick fight scenes where the Jedi and Darth Maul kicked each other up and down the galaxy, and that stuff is okay. But we don't need it. This is a fun sci-fi action movie. But as a Star Wars film it's a wash.

I am a huge fan of star wars. My top movies are the movies one through six. Mr. Lucas could have not done better in making all these great movies, such as "Indiana Jones" and "American Graffiti" and most importantly "Star Wars" Right now, I am kind of upset about Lucas leaving his movies with Dave Filloni. I personally think Filloni is ruining everything Lucas set out to do. But enough about that. MOVIE TIME!!! Although this movie is far from the six (A new hope my favoite and The fantom mennace is 3rd) but still even though it seems it belongs with two and three, I like to think of it as a median bettween the first three and the last two. In graphics for example; they are far beyond four five and six. But inferrior to two and three. Also how they made the movie is a similar situation. The plot is hard to follow, which is a good thing, if you did not see the last two this one sets up Darth Vaders past but it sets you wondering and craving for the next movie. In fact in my oppinon it is the hardest untill two came around. I was four years old when this magnificent movie came out, but I did not understand the whole plot once I was twelve. But don't worry, if you think about it after the movie is over, there is allot more going on than it appears. The trade Federation is blockaded by the greedy nemodians and the Suppreme chanselor of the glactic republic sends two Jedi's (obi-wan kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn) to investigate the matter and hopefully come to a diplomatic end. That is as far as I go. But there is much more to come. Lucas did a phenominal job. As for the disc itself, it comes with a bonus disc with at least three hours of bonus material. Both discs came in without a scratch. There is an easter egg as well. When you hit "play movie" the twentieth century fox logo comes right away. There, hit the skip button (not fast forward) twice in a row. Then it has blopers of the movie. This trick works as well for the other two newer movies. May the force be with you.

I just got this to replace my Fiancé's VHS copy and on Christmas morning she was happy to see that I had replaced it because her VHS copy started showing wear. Fast shipping and the DVD was cheap too!

Reviews

For those of us who grew up in the 80's this is of the Best , Brings back A lot of Memories.

Reviews

This book takes an introductory look at objective-C based on the reader already knowing C programming. It does an excellent job of presenting the major features and building on top of what went before. It includes some examples using Cocoa (I can't imagine that you could otherwise). It correctly makes a major point in its treatment of memory management throughout the book and details the difference between retain-release method, memory pool method, and garbage collection (new in ObjC 2.0). It also makes note that iPhone development primarily requires use of the retain-release method. As C is a minimalist language and Objective-C is a minimal layer on top of C, there is not a huge amount of material to cover (Almost 1/3 of the book covers ObjC 2.0.) This makes the book a quick read, but does not diminish its value. Compared to shorter treatments of Objective-C, this provides a much better explanation.

I have read many programming books, and this is by far the worst of the lot. Look at the table of contents, to see that a) OOP in Objective C is covered too early b) The basics of the language itself is never covered (loops, data structures, conditionals etc.) c) There is *no* treatment on exception handling The list goes on. This book does not teach or present anything a way that can't be easier learnt from the XCode documentation or found online. Buy something else.

I consider myself to be an intermediate to upper level programmer. My expertise has been in Java and C++, doing mostly Windows applications. I decided to try to pick up Objective-C and later iPhone programming after buying a new mac. I absolutely loved this book. It plays very well to the intermediate level programmers who have done a lot with object oriented programming and object oriented languages. It gives fantastic detail about the Objective-C framework and really walks you through it. I just finished this book about 30 minutes ago and already feel very empowered. I also loved that this book explains a lot of the Xcode features, as they're very helpful. If you're a programmer looking to start out into the Mac world, I would highly recommend this as a good starting place. It's a pretty quick read and will teach you a lot.

I'm hoping the rest of this book is better than the beginning. The very first "Hello World" example cannot be built as directed. The Xcode development environment doesn't offer the selections the authors tell you to use. That is really lame. Since the book assumes we're using the Xcode tools, this is a really bad start. Instead of writing the code in Objective-c and using a function from the foundation framework, you have to build it in straight "C"; duh, how helpful:( *** UPDATE *** The post by M. Robinson solves this problem. Choose "Command Line Tool", and before clicking the "Choose" button, look for a small drop down box in the lower pain labeled "Type". Set this to "Foundation", and you get the desired boiler plate code. Charlie

First of all, I'm a big fan of both these authors. Scott Knaster wrote all the books I read when I first started programming for Macs in the 90s. Those books were best of breed and were widely considered necessary reading for all new and experienced Mac programmers. Mark Dalrymple is one of the authors of Core Mac OS X and Unic Programming, one of my favorite books for advanced programming topics for Mac OS X. I've been programming in Objective C for about 8 years when I got this book. Although I had lots of Objective C experience, I hadn't looked into Objective C 2.0 yet. This book covers all of Objective C, and I was able to quickly find all the new 2.0 stuff and have it explained in a clear manner. It was all I was hoping it would be.

Reviews

Some of the code examples given do not run properly any longer. For instance if you try to use the \b command for printf they speak about in chapter 5 it simply doesn't work. It adds the numbers to the end of your value instead of backing up and replacing them like it says it should. (For example 50\b5 should give a value of 55, not 505 which is the output in the current version of xCode.) It doesn't inspire a lot of confidence about finishing the book when some of the basic the code doesn't compile properly. I bought this book used so it wasn't a huge loss, but I was less then impressed.

When it comes to technical books, Apress makes some of my favorite and most useful books. Being in IT, and being a proud Mac owner and Snow Leopard user for about a year now, I figured I should start learning more about developing for Mac's, so I purchased Learn C on the Mac. When purchasing this book, we must keep in mind that just learning C will not allow us to create the coolest looking applications and software for OS X. C is what C++, the more popular Java, and what Objective-C are based on. The goal of this book is teach us the basic fundamentals that prepare us for C++, Objective-C or Java, and to allow us to feel comfortable with Xcode (Xcode is where we code, it's like Visual Studio or Eclipse for the Mac). For the beginner, this book is perfect, as the author clearly states that to his surprise, he's found children and soccer moms are interested in learning how to code - so it should be really easy to follow. For those that already know VB and C#, the book will be even easier to follow along, and you'll learn the basics of developing for the Mac or iPhone. Overall, this book is an intro to programing (regardless of which language or platform you plan to use) and a guide to using Xcode for programing. Anything exercises the book has us do, are all ran and debugged in Xcode. Once you finish this book, you'll be able to understand Learn Objective-C on the Mac, also by Apress. Objective-C, based on C (this book), is what Mac's actually run on, and allows for scrolling, menu's, etc... The last step, after understanding Objective C, is to decide what you want to do. Do you want to develop for the Mac or the iPhone? If you choose Mac, Learn Cocoa on the Mac by Apress would be the right book, if you choose to learn mobile Cocoa instead, for the iPhone, you would want Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK by Apress too. Cocoa would be what we really need to learn to be able and create iPhone applications and software as we know it today. Anyways, I don't think it'll matter if your a beginner, or already a developer (non C or Java), you will likely learn from this book. Sure, Java developers might be able to review too, and learn how to use Xcode, but if your already developing in C, Java you might be ready to move on to Objective-C. Have fun learning, and remember, this is not a PC only world anymore!!

As someone who has never programmed on the Mac or in C, I found this book to be a godsend. The author starts with the preliminary steps for getting started with Xcode on the Mac, and then takes you across to the language itself. I liked the engaging and simple style in which it is written. To a newcomer to C, even a simple "hello World" program in C appears terrifying as it is always surrounded by a host of arcane statements that make no sense. The author tackles this situation in a pedagogically sound manner. The author gets the reader to focus on the central concepts that matter in the program code rather than all the distracting details. The book builds up gradually and gives you a solid platform for going on to Objective C. Highly recommended. Thanks form a grateful programmer !

Very Good Book simple and easy also good for who konws C and need some abount Mac world and Xcode. Simple English good for strangers

We at the iPhone Boot Camp [...]have three day intensive workshops in iPhone development in eleven cities. We selected this book as recommended reading material to prepare the students for the workshop. We've read all the book on the subject and feel this book is one of the best ones out there in the marketplace. The authors explain how to develop for the iPhone in very clear terms and it's helped our students learn some challenging programming concepts. With the right preparation for the workshops such as reading this book and the workshops themselves with hand on training, exercises and lots of Q & A with the instructors, all longtime Mac developers our students have been able to develop their own apps for the iPhone store

Reviews

I bought this book because I wanted to see code that successful iPhone developers had written. I guess I was looking for "best practices" sort of information and I was hoping that I might get insight on how to tackle some problems I have run into when developing my own applications. Book Flow The biggest disappointment in this book is that developers wrote it (I am assuming). The book lacks the continuity you would normally find when one or two people collaborate on an entire book. When a different person writes each chapter, you get seven different styles in this book. I found a couple of the chapters very well written, but the rest I found to be, well, written by developers. I'm not saying that developers are inherently bad at writing, but it takes a certain something to relay information to other developers effectively. Most of the writers of this book just do not have it. Code Samples I got very frustrated reading chapters with code snippets from applications the various authors had written. If a working application had been available to provide context to the snippets, then I would have been less frustrated. For example, in Chapter 5, the first 12 pages of the chapter provide code snippets with very brief explanations of what the code is supposed to do. No working example is provided for context. I couldn't even play with the code to see what was going on. It was almost like I was expected just to know the context because I was on the team that wrote the application. The last 10 pages actually create a working sample. I would have rather spent the entire chapter creating the application with better explanations of each step and theory behind the code. Proofreading I wish I had a dollar for all the typos I've seen in this book. Again, in chapter 5, page 118 there is a screen shot of the application the author wrote. The caption says it's a screen shot of the application that you will be writing at the end of the chapter. Sloppy. Conclusion I feel like I did get some useful information from this book. Was it worth the frustration of reading poorly written text, no context for code snippets, and numerous errors? Not in my opinion.

I bought this after seeing the high reviews from others on this site. Unfortunately, the content doesn't quite live up to the hype for me. I got this in particular wanting more details about threading having come from the Windows world where I have implemented very robust networking applications that require UI responsiveness while results are cached in the background. I was hoping this book would shed some light on how to go about doing this in the iPhone paradigm, but the example is so rudimentary that it almost isn't even worth putting into the book. Plus, the instructions for building the app are incorrect and contain glaring omissions as well as references to code objects that don't even exist. What's worse is the code itself as listed in the book doesn't even run when built! It causes an unhandled exception due to objects created in the header file not being instantiated or initialized in the implementation file. And no where in the chapter does it say you must download the source code for the example. It walks you through it as if it has been checked and is guaranteed to work as printed. Once you download the source code, it becomes apparent how rushed or poorly thought through this portion of the book was. Whole sections of the header and implementation files are glaringly omitted from the book. Did Bennett even bother proofreading this part of the book, and if so, where were the editors in this process? It's shameful for a book that is marketed as a technical tome to increase a developer's proficiency on the platform. I'll admit that I haven't delved into other parts of the book in great detail, but the game portion did look pretty interesting at first glance. However, the hands on experience I had with the threading chapter left a very bad first impression and does not leave me all too optimistic on either the usefulness or accuracy of the additional content in the book.

I have enjoyed this series of books from Apress, this one in particular was good for the depth it provided and the views from developers of actual products. Often when trying to solve problems it is nice to see examples from code that has been successfully used. It was a quick read and I certainly would have enjoyed having a book twice as large so that I had more examples and ideas to look through. If you've read the other books in this series (in particular the Beginning iPhone 3 SDK book) and enjoyed it, you will probably find some value here.

Overall, a very interesting read. Each of the chapters contains very useful information that I found to be quite valuable to as up and coming iPhone developer.

When reading introductory books in any language, it is easy to learn the language elements and concepts, but it is hard to see how everything fits together. What is great about the cool projects series from Apress is being able to see the elements and concepts in practice with projects from professionals who are active in the field. Each chapter is written by a different author, so every project covers a different experience and topic. These range from touch interfaces to streaming audio over the network. Some of the projects presented are based on the author's live applications that are currently available through the App Store. A wide range of the topics are covered in the book with practical examples of the concepts. This book is definitely not an introduction to Cocoa or iPhone programming. It is more geared toward the intermediate reader who has learned the basics and needs practical, real-life examples. It can also be of use to a more experienced iPhone programmer who wants to explore some of the topics in the book without having to dig through the documentation. I would highly recommend this book because it is easy to read and does not get bogged down with basic concepts. Code is provided on the book's site and is easy to follow the code with the explanations in the book. As a beginning iPhone programmer, I found this book to be a lot of help to work out some of the concepts I was having trouble with.

Reviews

I read this book cover to cover. Not terrible, just really uninspired. I really could've put this book down at any moment, because it failed to draw me in. I was really expecting it to get interesting since I found it in "Award Winning Fantasy". It's a very inoffensive and easy read. You could keep this in a classroom as a loaner, or burn through it in a couple of hours.

I had heard from lots of folks that I needed to check this one out. I'm a book nerd and read a lot. However i really struggled with this one. It really couldn't keep my interest. The strange thing is I love paranormal style books but this one just wasn't my style. I found the writing to drag a bit and in some cases i was drifting thinking of other things. I was easily distracted with this one. Perhaps it is just me but i felt this wasn't one of his better novels.

I finished this the other night, and I did enjoy it very much. It was a bit like, as other reviews said, Neverwhere for kids. I did feel the end was a bit rushed. It read a bit like a movie to me. A movie which I would go see.All and all a good read for Gaiman fans.

The Graveyard Book is apropos of nothing. The plot is like sand falling through your fingers and considering the basic idea, Gaiman reveals a shocking lack of creativity. Neil Gaiman is a vain writer who relies on little tricks of speech and labored "wit" rather than building memorable characters. You'd think ghosts in a graveyard would be exciting but the reader is confronted with an array of helpless and unmemorable stock characters. Gaiman's writing is soulless, just cold manipulation. Gaiman's cynicism shows in the awful way his protagonist seeks revenge and betrays his only friend. J.K. Rowling and even Stephanie Meyer have a lot of heart compared to Gaiman's morbid and miserable stories. I wouldn't foist this piece of misery on any kid. Although Gaiman has adapted a serviceable prose style, his writing is ultimately childish and well... goofy. Over and over, Gaiman's characters are victims, paralyzed emotionally, unable to conclude anything, detached observers who speak ambiguously as if ambiguity was depth, which it is not. Gaiman uses the same stock characters; all powerful gods who will smite you, mean villains who chase you down, woman as props or witches. There is no complexity in Gaiman's characters, and therefore his plots are derivative and plod along, eventually dissolving in a wave of ennui. No wonder he appeals to depressed teen goths. Gaiman has also made a study of throwing together a manuscript with the least amount of effort or thought, every novel reads as if he can't be bothered to do a rewrite, they are disappointing with lame plots and forgettable characters.

The Graveyard Book is my first Neil Gaiman book, and I'm definitely planning on reading more. I'd heard a lot of praise of this book, but it still didn't prepare me for the elegance of his style. Though I liked the drawings, the real charm of this book is the writing. Gaiman has woven a really beautiful coming-of-age tale in which Nobody Owens, the main character, learns some harsh lessons about the nature of life and love. As most people are probably aware by now, there is some violence in the book and it may not be for the younger audience. However, I am not one of those parents who thinks that children need to be protected from everything scary in life. In fact, I'm willing to wager that the average Wii game has more graphic violence than what is portrayed in this book. Some of it is quite scary, that is true, but children need to learn how to control fear and how to recognize when fear is real and important and when it's something they just need to overlook. One of the things I liked best about the book is that Gaiman never really comes out and tells the reader exactly what the other characters are, leaving you to piece together the clues he drops and figure this out for yourself. This is particularly true of Silas, and I was probably around a third of the way into the book before I realized what his character was. I really admire this as it demands that the reader pay attention to what he or she is reading. It's also a perfect example of an author showing rather than telling. Lastly, it lends to the idea of the book that what people are on the outside isn't really as important on the inside. Is it really that vital that the reader know what Silas is, or is it more significant that the reader sees just how Silas helps Bod learn and grow, and how seriously Silas takes his role as guardian and protector of Bod. As for Bod, I found him to be an excellent character. He is a very typical boy, with a boy's characteristic curiosity. He occasionally acts out of sheer pettiness and must suffer the consequences. Through Bod, Gaiman also teaches children some important lessons. Sometimes, even though we do what is right, it does not earn us the admiration of those about whose opinions we care the most. This is a painful lesson, but a very valuable lesson--especially in a society such as ours, that emphasizes instant gratification. Bod is a very moral character, but the things he does don't always end well for him and sometimes cause him more trouble than anticipated. Isn't this true of life in general? Sometimes our actions do set many unintended consequences into motion. Another strong aspect of the book is the unconventional relationships within it. While they are certainly fantastical, this book has a lot to say about the true meaning of the word "family", and how families can form amongst the unlikeliest groups of people. As The Graveyard Book shows, families take responsibility for one another, and care for one another without asking for something in return. Just as his guardian does, Bod learns that he ultimately must make sacrifices for his family, that he must place their needs above those of his own at times. It is a responsibility that he does not shirk, and I think that's an excellent message for anyone. I highly recommend this book. It is a subtle, sometimes funny, and sometimes sad read. It is a book that will make children think, just as all great literature makes a reader think.

Reviews

My wife is a sixth-grade teacher and has taught this book for many years. She's told me that I'd like it and so finally my daughter and I read it at the same time as part of a class project. I found it to be rambling and vague at its worst and uninteresting at its best. Intellectually, I understand its appeal and educational value. I thought my daughter might connect with the main character, Meg, but there was nothing there for her. I do, however, understand why Meg would be a draw for some children. For the purposes of an educational exercise, the book is full of symbolism and solid characterization. For adults, it's a quick read, but start with tempered expectations.

As a story, I found this book fascinating. I hadn't read it in over 25 years, and forgot how gripping it was. (It actually scared me as a kid, though I didn't know why.) I give Madeleine L'Engle a lot of credit---her creativity is boundless. Her characters are powerful, her leaps of fancy and time and plot are superior, and she takes what could so easily be a cheesy and unworkable story and makes it work. Kudos to her. My only criticism with the story itself came at the end, when Meg returns to rescue Charles Wallace from IT. I don't want to kill the plot by revealing details, so I'll keep this general, but I felt L'Engle handled this quite ineffectively. The rescue was simplistic and inconsequential compared with the power of the rest of the story. It was like she used a little device to solve the plot, whereas the whole rest of the story distinctly avoided devices. I found this quite unsatisfying, even annoying. Again, without going into detail, the words that Meg used to rescue Charles Wallace had actually been implicit in her behavior throughout the whole story. Thus, L'Engle's implication at the end is that words count more than behavior. And I couldn't agree with this less. That's why I found the book's climax moment distasteful. (Oh, and I also found L'Engle's little religious pro-Jesus lines icky and unnecessary.) But the deeper point of my review is about the metaphorical content of this book---L'Engle's UNCONSCIOUS intention for writing the story. In the story parents---Meg's parents, at least (not Calvin's)---are consistently idealized. I felt that at some level this was L'Engle expressing her idealization of one or both of her own parents, or at least expressing her split-off, dissociative need to idealize parents---or perhaps even herself as a parent. (I just read that she had three children of her own---plus an adopted one---and also that relatives noted that she was in denial of her father's alcoholism. And I wonder what else she was in denial of.) Meg's parents are presented as perfect, and "The Black Thing" and the vicious, authoritarian, all-knowing "IT" are presented as the complete antithesis to perfection---as evil incarnate. My sense is that these evils represent the evil L'Engle could not face in her own parents, and thus in her own self as a parent. And the think part of the reason this book has been so popular---and so lauded by teachers in schools---is that most people, psychologically, are not really that different from L'Engle. They idealize their parents and themselves as parents to one degree or other, and they deny their own split-off, sick, traumatized, broken, damaged, abusive, conforming (aka EVIL) sides. How much easier as a storyteller to take that denied side and place it on another planet, in another galaxy so far away, in another being. And also, how convenient to view this EVIL force as having captured and encased the perfect, idealized father that the little child dreams of having... And also, what a perfect fantasy for the little child (Meg, aka L'Engle herself) to have the power to come along, with magic powers, and rescue her perfect father from the grip of the evil forces (aka his sick, wounded behavior, such as...his alcoholism). It's an age-old lie that so many people tell themselves over and over again: that the child's only hope is to be there for his or her parents, to rescue them and make them perfect, and in so doing, to finally get fully loved by them. Utter fantasy. It never happens. It can't.

I read this book first as a child, and then throughout my lifetime of 57 years. This is my all-time favorite book in the world. More young women should read this book, to realize that being out of step with one's peers isn't necessarily a bad thing. L'Engle gave me a view of a real girl, back when other authors weren't as liberated.

A Wrinkle in Time was one of my favorite books as a child. Growing up, I read it and its sequels over and over, but it must be at least 20 years since I last read this oh so formative novel. It was librarian Nancy Pearl mentioning this classic on NPR recently that made me want to rush out and re-read the book--which is exactly what I did. Re-reading A Wrinkle in Time--more than 30 years after I first read it--I had several surprises. First, a lot of what I remembered was actually from the sequel, A Wind at the Door. I didn't remember this story well at all, but it sort of came back as I read. And second, I didn't love it the way I did when I was a girl. Don't get me wrong, I liked it a lot. But as a child I LOVED these books. I can still see why, but it's a different experience and I'm reading with different eyes. The story concerns the Murray family. Mr. and Mrs. Murray are both scientists, but Mr. Murray has had to leave his family because of his work for the government. The family hasn't heard from him in over a year. That is the situation as the novel opens on the proverbial "dark and stormy night." The eldest Murray child, Meg, winds up in the kitchen that night with her mother and Charles Wallace, her youngest brother. They are indulging in a comforting mug of late-night cocoa when an unexpected visitor shows up. Mrs. Whatsit is the first of a series of bizarre characters with bizarre names. Before she leaves the Murrays' that night, she provides a clue that she just might know where Mr. Murray is. The following day, Meg and Charles Wallace plan to seek out Mrs. Whatsit and demand further information. Along the way, they meet Meg's schoolmate Calvin O'Keefe who seems to be somehow destined to join them. So begins a great, weird, adventure through time and space. I will always have great affection for L'Engle's novels. Even though this one no longer has quite the same effect on me, I'm sorely tempted to continue re-reading the series and L'Engle's other works. These are some of my oldest friends, and it's been far too long since my last visit.

Reviewed by middle school students. The beginning of the book started off slow and boring. It was hard to get into, however it became more interesting near the end when more action was happening. It was not a book that we would read again, because it was strange and hard to follow. There is no explanation for the ending the characters just poof magically back to their garden. The reader is left with a lot of unanswered questions. Maybe there are answers in the sequals.

Reviews

This is a good calculator. The ability to to scroll back through previous calculations is awesome. You can set this thing to give answers as a fraction or decimal, and either way you set the default to be, you can switch your answer back and forth. I use an HP 48S, but it was not allowed in the PPE exam, so I needed to have this for preparation to get used to entering formulas/calculations (awesome feature) just like you see them on the page.

Wow. That's what they want to know about the calculator; do I like its appearance? Wait, let me crunch the numbers on that! It seems to perform the functions it has just fine, and the layout is fairly reasonable.

This calculator is very effective and performs alot of very useful calculations including; matrices, vector calculations, definiete integrals, statistcs-standard deviation and normal distribution. It also has a number of conversions including fractions, unit conversions. I highly recommend it for any high school or college student needing a calculator for a test when graphing calculators are not allowed, this one is the next best option. Not to mention the fact that it is under $20 and completely outperforms the TI30XIIS. Definitely a buy.

I got this for my son he is 7th grade and in honors and he is studying pre-algebra. I've got to say that this calculator did better than any calculator i had before. Truly worth the buy

I am a die-hard TI 35 guy, from my Navy schools, which strongly recommended them. This Casio is MUCH easier to understand, I love the display method, which mirrors the way our College computer classes display and expect math input. It's my GO TO calculator. I am glad I risked it / bought this one.

Reviews

I got this for my then 5 year old daughter. She took it into school as her "show and tell" each week and the kids got to witness a couple of the butterflies hatch. She's never been so excited about a present in her life. She wants another kit for her birthday this year. We'll definitely be doing this again. Great experience and hands on learning.

i bought this for my 9 yr old niece for her birthday. She was so thrilled with it. Very educational and entertaining!

I bought this 3 or 4 years ago for my son. Sent away for the caterpillars and had two delighted kids watching the whole process happen. Each summer this has also been our lightening bug container each night in June and July. We've caught local caterpillars and had varying degrees of success having them turn to butterflies or moths. My son's preschool and kindergarten class have also borrowed it for a month at a time when they were doing butterfly projects. So it wore out. Hence we are happily buying another one and will start over with sending away for caterpillars this spring and I'm sure it will house many more creepy crawlies to come. It is easy to store (folds down and velcro holds together). The zipper is easy to use (both my son and daughter could manage it at 3 1/2. It is way more humane than the plastic bug holders with a magnifying glass because air circulates and temperature is less likely to get hot. We highly recommend.

I just opened this up to see that you have to pay extra $$ for the shipping and handling o the butterflies. Sorry, but this should be included in the price. I already paid for this and should not have to pay more! I am looking forward to doing this with my daughterm but disappointed that I have to shell out more money to get what I already should have purchased.

This is a great educational toy! Bought it for my niece who loves butterflies and am thrilled with it!

Reviews

My grandchildren love this product--they are 5 and 7. The 5 year old carries the pen around with him and listens to the stories that way!

This is a great concept but stopped working after one use. The "pen" won't turn on even after changing the batteries. According to the "warranty info" I can't just return it to the store of purchase. I have to go through Leap Frog's customer service dept. Of course they are under staffed- they are "experiencing unusually high call volumes" (I bet that recording runs 24/7) and my hold time "may exceed 20 minutes" before getting to speak to someone (I've been here for 15 mins so far). This is criminal in my opinion. I shouldn't have to go through hoops and spend tons of time on the phone to get my [...] toy to work. I have 4 kids. No time for this. No more Leap frog toys for us!

I bought this for my son who will be 3 in a few months. I know that the product says 4 and up but he already knows all of his colors, shapes, letters and numbers so I felt that he would be able to use the Tag longer than the Tag junior. After comparing them I really felt that the more advanced parts of the Tag junior can be down with the Tag. The biggest difference is the device that you use on the books. I think that the kids will have to be careful with the pen tip because it is small it may break.... mine hasn't yet and my son can be a little rough with things. :-) He understands to point to the different pictures to make them talk and to point to the purple circle that will read the whole page. We played with the demo that Leapfrog has on their website and he really loved repeating all the words that the computer said so I knew that he would like it. They have a few videos of the Tag Junior there as well so you can see a comparison.

Quite misleading: the picture on the box shows a Tag Reader (Pen reader) so I was expecting one but when I opened the box : it just contained the books! At the least, warn the customer that the Tag Reader is SOLD SEPARATELY!

My daughter received the tag with a few books for her 4th birthday. It is a source of entertainment and learning everyday. She loves to "read" a few books everyday, which gives me some quiet time!

Reviews

This is a great educational toy. The kids love it and helps them with all kinds lof learning. I would reccomend it for anyone.

This is a good addition to an already existing collection of books and toys. My twin boys (2.5 years old) enjoy this product and often ask for their "talking books." I don't know about Mac users, but this was a cinch to set up for a PC user and my guys love that it calls them by name. They go through spurts of wanting it often and forgetting it exists, and still prefer their old school books. I suppose they are educational in the sense that it asks a child questions and they have to find the answers, and my boys will also repeat the words and songs they hear so I think it helps broaden their vocabulary. Otherwise, I think it's mostly just fun for them right now. I'm happy we purchased them, we continue to add new books to our collection, and I would recommend it to other parents.

My daughter loved the Tag Jr. She uses it all the time. When we ordered the product, it was delivered within 3 days!

I was please with the product. My 2 year old granddaughter is enjoying it and takes it with her everywhere.

We really wanted to try this toy so we investigated the reviews and were excited to buy it. It is all the hype and more. My is 3 and figured it out VERY quickly. He loves books and now he is enthralled with the Leapfrog Jr. He loves that it tells you everything going on on the page and has songs he enjoys. It is really durable and easy to download books to. He reads his books over and over and gets into the characters and songs! My ONLY gripe is that it only holds 5 books worth of memory. I know eventually he will grow bored of the books, but I was hoping we could download more than that. For the cost of the books, it seems that there should be more memory to store them. But otherwise, I couldn't be happier with my purchase!