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Comment on All New Electronics Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self Teaching Guides) Reviews by Rion

Rion — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:59:54 +0000

54 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

excellent in some ways, but needs work, June 25, 2010

Rion (Alameda, CA USA) -

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This review is from: All New Electronics Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self Teaching Guides) (Paperback)

The basic design and direction of this book is absolutely excellent. The question and answer format engages the reader for better understanding, and the topics covered include a wide variety of essential areas. The book falls down, however, because of being 'rushed out without adequate editing' (nor usable index), thus leaving the reader confused at times. Other problems include incorrect answers to problems, and inadequate explanations. So while I know that I learned a lot from the book, I also know that if I recommended it to friends they would be calling me saying how frustrated they were with the mistakes. For that very reason my review is not a recommendation. I have strong hopes that the next edition will fix the problems here and I will THEN be able to recommend this book.

In case you are wondering (and I know I was), the third edition is actually written by Earl Boysen now since Harry Kybett, having written the first two editions, has passed away.

The Q & A format is one of those things that always seems to be a bit unique in any particular book, and this one is no exception. In the early chapters many of the questions may seem insulting in that they are so easy, and the reader can find themself wondering if the book was written for 8 year old kids! But the real beauty of that approach is that it forces your mind to change modes on a regular basis: instead of staying in a passive info-absorbing mode, it has to stop and become active at solving a problem, which results in better retention. So even if the question seems childish, the information is more firmly impressed on you. In the middle and latter chapters, the Q & A format usually sticks with problem solving, often asking you to repeat the same sort of calculations you have seen in examples. Most of the time the solutions include more than just answers, serving to explain just how the answer was arrived at. But the problems occur with that word "most"! It is also the case that many of the times when we need details, all we get is a numerical answer with no hint as to how it was arrived at. It is even more frustrating when the book's answer appears WRONG no matter how many times you recalculate it.

In addition to the Q & A presentation, the end of each chapter includes review questions along with answers, but no detailed solution. One clear editorial screwup is apparent where Chapter 1 calls this "pre-test" and all other chapters call it "self-test." That's why I say "rush job".

I found myself confused with the authors presentations on occasion and felt it necessary to consult other electronics books. Two I found particularly helpful were "Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics" by Stan Gibilisco, and "Electronics for Inventors" by Paul Scherz. Both of these guys' books are a lot more "wordy" with an emphasis on making electronics undestandable. While this book is supposed to demystify electronics, I have to say I felt mystfied enough to go out and get these other books. Three things Boysen's book were unclear about are: ground line in circuits, which doesn't even show up in the index and is assumed to be something the reader knows beforehand; combining AC and DC in the same circuit (way too brief); and the emitter-follower amplifier - the description was just plain baffling!.

This book does a great job of covering things like amplifiers, resonance, power supplies, along with AC and DC basics, but of course you have to start with fundamentals. Kirchoff's voltage and current laws are covered, but this books stops short of giving you a full complement of circuit analysis tools. It would be much better to have the method of loop currents presented here since without it, readers will be left scratching their heads when they run into many real-world circuits.

Another big plus is the list of internet references that are provided in the book. The author has his own website and you can send him questions about the book; I did that and got a response every time.

The book does have some experiments (five total), but they will require some equipment. At a minimum, you will need a breadboard and two digital multimeters, but normally you will also need an oscilloscope and a signal generator. Two of these experiments are called "optional" and are in the chapter on oscillators. I would not expect anyone to be able to perform those last two experiments simply because sufficient information is not given. The components are not specified and the author basically just suggests that you try to implement what is shown in a circuit diagram rather the providing the details (as he did in the other experiments). I think they are called "optional" because the author opted out! I would have preferred to see more experiments, maybe minimum of one per chapter?, and some alternative way of doing them without the expensive equipment.

The chapter on... Read more

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Comment on All New Electronics Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self Teaching Guides) Reviews by Ann C. Treacy

Ann C. Treacy — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:21:25 +0000

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

Socratic-like format, August 22, 2008

Ann C. Treacy -

This review is from: All New Electronics Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self Teaching Guides) (Paperback)

My husband wrote the following evaluation of this book. "As a former scientist (who now reviews theatre), I liked the authors' Socratic-like question-and-answer format for teaching this otherwise terrifying topic. It asks the thousand and one questions that need to be asked, in the right order, gives you a moment or two to come up with something, then instantly shares the right answer for quick comparison with your own impulsive thought waves. If you start at page one, relax, take your good old time with each and every question, you will emerge 12 chapters later with an amazing and practical grasp of electronics."

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Comment on All New Electronics Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self Teaching Guides) Reviews by Louise Curry "Louise Curry"

Louise Curry "Louise Curry" — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:25:53 +0000

67 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

Clear and Concise book on electronics, May 27, 2008

Louise Curry "Louise Curry" (Seattle, WA) -

This review is from: All New Electronics Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self Teaching Guides) (Paperback)

I am a little slow when it comes to electronics so I was surprised to find how easy it is to understand and grasp the principles that are discussed in this clear and concise self-teaching guide. It is a step-by-step guide that puts forth a reasonable amount of material, then sort of steps back and asks you questions about what you've just read. In this way, the book engages the reader more thoroughly than a lot of other books I've seen on this subject. (My husband is a computer programmer and owns quite a few books on elelctronics, circuit design, etc.) While the book is excellent at precise explanations - good for beginners - my husband and a few of his computer buddies found the book interesting as well. Overall, a great guide for the neophyte electronics person as well as for the more experienced...

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Comment on Kindle Touch, Wi-Fi, 6″ E Ink Display – includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers by Mediahound

Mediahound — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:27:28 +0000

3,851 of 3,941 people found the following review helpful:

A worthy upgrade over other Kindles!, November 20, 2011

Mediahound (SF Bay Area, CA United States) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Kindle Touch 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display - includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers (Electronics)

Customer Video Review Length:: 9:09 Mins

Please watch my video review here. Thanks for watching and I hope it helps.

General observations:

- Controlling/manipulating things on the screen is so much easier with the touch screen-it's a lot more intuitive!

- Athough I don't show it in the video, you can swipe instead of tap to turn pages. You may also use your left hand to page forward by tapping slightly more in from the left edge. It works quite well.

- Looking up a word is as easy as pressing on that word. No more fumbling with a 5-way controller. You can additionally highlight blocks of text quite easily by just swiping over it.

- Kindle Touch also has the new X-Ray feature which is really neat. It can be interesting to see a summary listing of facts from a given book about a person mentioned for instance. The Kindle Keyboard does not include this feature.

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Comment on Kindle Touch, Wi-Fi, 6″ E Ink Display – includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers by Writingtired

Writingtired — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:36:12 +0000

1,645 of 1,679 people found the following review helpful:

First Kindle: Chose Touch over the Keyboard, November 23, 2011

Writingtired -

This review is from: Kindle Touch, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display - includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers (Electronics)

I've had my Touch for almost a day now, and it's pretty awesome. I'm not a big reviewer, but I figured several people may be in a similar position as I was yesterday, so here we go...

I'm definitely an avid reader. Actually, as I type this, I have roughly 1000 books sitting on a wall of shelves behind me. E-readers have always intrigued me, but I've never felt like they were worth $199 or more; however, when the Kindle Fire was announced, I thought they had released the Kindle for me.

I watched video reviews, "hands-on" videos, read numerous reviews, etc. I was pretty sure that I wanted a Fire, but as I thought about it, I wasn't convinced that the Fire really provided me with access to anything that I couldn't do on my phone (HTC Inspire 4g). Other than a bigger screen, the Fire was actually pretty limited (for my purposes). I mean, I would only be able to use the browser and watch videos in areas with WiFi (i.e. at home, at work, or at retail location with WiFi). If I'm at home, I'll probably just watch videos on my tv and access the internet on my desktop or my laptop. At work I'm too busy for the Fire to get much use. And other than the occasional trip to Starbucks (and by occasional, I mean like once a month), I don't really make use of hot spots.

SOO...I decided the Fire didn't really justify the extra money for something I already have access to through my phone, laptop/desktop, or tv. This caused me to run the gambit of reviews for the Kindle Touch and the Kindle Keyboard. Best Buy was advertising the Kindle Keyboard 3G (with ads) for $89, so price wasn't really a distinguishing feature for me. My thoughts:

Touch:
- Kindle Touch is full-on touchscreen, and based on video reviews, it looked a little laggy
- Kindle Touch will probably drive me nuts with fingerprints/smudges
- Kindle Touch seems like a digress in touchscreen technology (like using a late 90s ATM)
- Kindle Touch doesn't have physical buttons for page turns, which seemed like it would be a negative
- The $99 doesn't have 3G, so I'd be limited to Wifi
- Highlighting and note-taking seems like it would be difficult on a laggy screen
- Looking up words will probably be easier

Keyboard:
- Kindle Keyboard has a decent keyboard and physical page turn buttons
- Kindle Keyboard has strong support through reviews (not many people don't love it)
- The Best Buy sale lets you have free 3G for cheap
- Fingerprints/smudges won't be an issue

After considering all of this, I went to Best Buy absolutely intending on buying a Kindle Keyboard. I got there, and of course, they had demo models of both. I figured, "What the heck...might as well make sure I like the Keyboard more."

I played with both for over an hour. I read books, made notes, made highlights, looked up words, went to the menu, back to a book, back to the menu. I went forward through a few pages. I went back through the same pages. I did everything I thought I would normally do while reading. My decision?
- The Kindle Touch touchscreen does have a slight delay, but it's definitely not a late 90s ATM. It's a delay, but just long enough for you to demonstrate a slight bit of patience (and to be honest, if you're an avid reader, patience is probably a virtue you can easily put into practice. There's a reason you're reading a book and not watching a movie.)
- Highlighting/note-taking is actually much more convenient on the Touch. Just press where you want to start, wait a second, drag to where you want to stop, and click highlight. Much easier (in my opinion) than moving the cursor down to where you want to start with the d-pad, clicking enter, dragging the cursor to where you want to stop, and then clicking enter again.
- Note-taking is slightly more convenient on the Keyboard simply because you can just start typing (if you're not overly concerned about the exact line the note is attached to). If you are concerned about the location of your notes, then using the d-pad to move the cursor was not only inconvenient but also uncomfortable (I have pretty big hands, so doing all of this one-handed required me to contort my thumb in a very odd way to use the d-pad).
- I didn't really like the keyboard on the Keyboard. The buttons are very heavy, so you have to give them a decent push to register a keystroke. Also, the qwerty layout is not a true qwerty layout, so beware of that. I had to be very conscious of the keys I was pushing otherwise I ended up with notes like: "The Kimdle keynoard is very mice." VERY ANNOYING (especially if you take a ton of notes...which I do).
- The page turn button on the Keyboard was very annoying. The page turn button on the demo model gave two very audible clicks when I pressed it. The clicks were distracting, taking me "out" of the book after every page.
- After thinking about it, the... Read more

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Comment on Kindle Touch, Wi-Fi, 6″ E Ink Display – includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers by Scott

Scott — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:27:45 +0000

4,828 of 4,917 people found the following review helpful:

A Solid Successor to the Kindle Keyboard, November 14, 2011

Scott -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Kindle Touch, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display - includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers (Electronics)

For my review, I'm going to focus it on the differences between the previous Kindle Keyboard, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display - includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers (which I'll refer to as the K3), and the Kindle Touch (KT)

USE - As far as the reading experience, I really like the touch compared to the physical buttons on the previous generation. At first I was worried that I would constantly be turning the page from accidentally touching the screen, but this didn't become much of an issue. The screen is broken up into mapped sections, so if you touch the far left side that covers about 1" of the left of the screen, it goes to the previous page. If you touch anywhere on the other 80% of the screen beside that, it goes forward. Touch the top 1" margin, and it will bring up the menu. There is also a physical button on the bottom of the touch that serves as the Home button and will take you straight to the Home menu. The area where I found the touch most useful is the dictionary. Previously, if I wanted to look up the definition of a word, I had to use the clunky joystick to navigate through the text. If a word was at the very bottom at the end of the sentence, sometimes I'd usually just ignore it rather than go through the trouble of pressing that joystick 15 times. With the Touch, I can simply touch the word and hold it down for about 1.5 seconds (so it knows I'm not trying to turn the page) to access the dictionary, which is incredibly useful and time-saving. Underlining phrases and highlighting works almost the same way. You hold down the first word in the sentence, then after two-three seconds it will recognize what you are doing, and then you drag your finger across the rest. I never used to do this before but now I do it all the time. The Kindle Fire actually handles the dictionary search much better. Though this is probably one of the only things the Fire does better than the Touch as far as ebooks. When you swipe your finger across the page or drag it down to change, the page changes just like it did with the Kindle Keyboard, in that it draws the next page. So there is a very short flash. It does not seamlessly and fluidly switch like it does with an iPad or what you would expect if you scrolled your mouse down a web site. This doesn't detract from it at all for me. There is a new X-Ray feature that you can click on to bring up more ideas and common features of the book, but it is apparently only available on select titles and none of my books had it so I couldn't try it out.

Form Factor - Even though the changes are fairly small, they feel significant. The KT is only .1" less width, and a little over half an inch shorter than the K3, but after several hours of using it, I feel like I can hold it longer with one hand than with the K3. I think the main contributor to this is that this Kindle is one ounce lighter than the K3. This is a very noticeable difference from the K3. One ounce adds up after hours of holding it in front of you with one hand. I never had a real problem holding the previous version, but this one seems even easier.

Real Page Numbers - the K3 only displayed a percentage of the book completed or some weird "location" setting that I never understood. The KT displays the actual page number, regardless of what zoom setting you have it on. This is a big improvement for me, especially after I realized how difficult it is for them to be able to do this. This does not work on every book, but most of the popular books I have checked it with have it.

Book Lending - This is another huge improvement and just another reason to make the jump from regular books to a Kindle. You can finally lend your books to other people with Kindles. You can lend a book only once, and only for 14 days. I am okay with that because I understand the need to curb piracy. My only problem is that the book has to be eligible for this option and so far, most of the books in my collection aren't.

Display - Same as before on the K3, with a few improvements. The short flash that you get when turning the page (although I never really notice it) while the Kindle loads up the next page, occurs less frequently. This makes the Touch feel a lot more like a real book. Even though the display is monochrome, the KT delivers very crisp black and white images, and renders photos and images very well. I have tried out the Kindle Fire as well, but I still prefer the Kindle Touch due to E-Ink, which I think looks much better than backlit text, especially since I like to read for 4-5 hours at a time. Reading in the sunlight with E-Ink compared to a backlit screen is no contest. It is the difference between night and day (pun intended). Newspapers, magazines, and PDFs all look better on the Fire though (although... Read more

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Comment on Toshiba Satellite L755-S5349 15.6-Inch LED Laptop – Fusion Finish in Matrix Silver Reviews by AMART

AMART — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:28:31 +0000

93 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

Fits my budget and need, November 11, 2011

AMART -

This review is from: Toshiba Satellite L755-S5349 15.6-Inch LED Laptop - Fusion Finish in Matrix Silver (Personal Computers)

This is my first personal Satellite purchase but had very good experience through previous Satellite work issued laptops. I mainly use it for email, internet, and managing personal files (pics, vids, etc.). I occassionaly use it for work via VPN and it has not given me any problems. The screen is nice and the images comes very clear, the keyboard and the fit just feels right. I consider myself an average user and this computer serves my need.

The price is another driving influence that made me purchase this laptop. I'ts nice to have the higher-end laptops, but this fits my budget and the features I need. I normally dont participate in reviews/surveys but this laptop has not given me any problems and hope to share my thoughts... another satisfied customer.

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Comment on Toshiba Satellite L755-S5349 15.6-Inch LED Laptop – Fusion Finish in Matrix Silver Reviews by JiggaEd

JiggaEd — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:58:52 +0000

81 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

Best laptop for the price..., November 9, 2011

JiggaEd -

This review is from: Toshiba Satellite L755-S5349 15.6-Inch LED Laptop - Fusion Finish in Matrix Silver (Personal Computers)

No laptop is perfect, but sometimes you just find a computer that works for you. This laptop does everything I need it to very well.

Positives:
I bought this laptop so that the entire family had a computer in the living room; the two of us use it regularly. I wanted something that had a new Intel Core processors and HDMI port so that we could hook it up directly to our TV. The best thing about this laptop is the price along with some of the newer features. The screen is bright and the keyboard is nice; I find myself using the 10-key more than I thought I would. Battery is lasting about 6 hours as I am surfing the web on Sundays while checking football scores and watching funny Youtube videos. For those that care about noise this thing doesn't really make any; the i3 processor doesn't seem to run hot and the fan rarely turns on.

Negatives:
I took off a star because the machine has a lot of junk software on it. I wish Toshiba would allow their customers to select an option that only boots the OS at setup and removes all the unnecessary stuff. Once I removed all the software the laptop loads in 15-20 seconds. This is not a serious gaming laptop or a serious media machine; my niece and nephew have played a few web games and it runs anything that doesn't require a dedicated video card.

Overall I am very satisfied with the purchase. I looked around and based off my price/features comparison from a brand I trusted I landed here.

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Comment on Toshiba Satellite L755-S5349 15.6-Inch LED Laptop – Fusion Finish in Matrix Silver Reviews by California Girl

California Girl — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:29:21 +0000

121 of 125 people found the following review helpful:

Teriffic value!, November 15, 2011

California Girl -

This review is from: Toshiba Satellite L755-S5349 15.6-Inch LED Laptop - Fusion Finish in Matrix Silver (Personal Computers)

My Dell died and this Toshiba was purchased as a replacement. FYI, the last computer cost a bit over $1,000 - this computer is $499. Perhaps the Toshiba doesn't look as slick, but it functions as well or better than the three-year-old Dell.

It was very fast to set this computer up, connecting to the wireless network and getting online took less than 10 minutes. The keyboard is full sized with nice key action. The screen is big, bright and really sharp. Nice.

It has some pretty cool features
- A button to deactivate the track pad when using an external mouse
- an HDMI port for plugging into TVs
- the Track pad has a touch feature for expanding and contracting your internet browser
- even when the computer is asleep, you can charge your toys like ipad, phone...
- there is a media card reader slot for a camera media card

Some drawbacks
- The keyboard isn't backlit
- It isn't the thinnest or lightest laptop, but it is light enough for its size.

Considering the amazingly low price, the few drawbacks couldn't keep the computer from getting a five star review. What a deal!

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Comment on The Art of Electronics by Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:05:06 +0000

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

DD, October 28, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of Electronics (Hardcover)

I generally like this book but it takes a great deal of work to really understand what they are talking about. They claim that load lines and small signal models are not necessary but then use elements of both. The book is much easier to understand if you include these concepts. It seems to me that these concepts were actually in the back of their minds when they wrote the book. Trying to visualize the path of operation of a transistor without using the output characteristic curves seems very frustrating. Their explanation of the input impedance of an emitter follower is very confusing unless you already have a very thorough understanding of Q-points and what this actually represents on the characteristic curves. If you use their book as a starting point after having a good understanding of analog electronics engineering, then it is a good book. Likewise, the chapters on digital electronics are good, but only if you already have a good grasp of digital electronics engineering. Not many electrical engineering textbooks explain the operation of a differential ampifier well and this one does not either. They do explain the design of constant current sources well, but it makes much more sense if a set of output characteristic curves are used along with their explanation. Not many textbooks really explain how a computer works as a sequential machine. This one does not either. They simply talk about the different circuits used in a computer, but not how they actually work to create a sequential machine. They give examples of circuits that do not work and I generally liked that idea. Their explanation of feedback and frequency response leaves a great deal of information out. Again, if you already have a solid grasp of these concepts, then these sections are good.

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