As you would expect from someone who has been writing tailored computer textbooks with a fair size dollop of patience and humour, Dan Gookin's Galaxy Tab for Dummies comes up to expectations. If you have this book at hand while you're learning to use your tablet, then the process should be easier and shorter.
Two comments I would make. One is not a criticism of the book, but to be at its most effective the version of your Galaxy Tab needs to match exactly the one covered by the book. There are several Galaxy Tab variants, so watch out for that.
The other one is about the problems of absolute beginners. For many years I was a starter tutor showing "Dummies" and Idiots" how to use their new computers. I didn't feel that Dan coped so well in helping novices to navigate away from some place on the tablet that they didn't mean to get to. Sometimes the Go Back button will take you back, but sometimes you've done something quite different and you end up somewhere new. The trouble is, when someone hamfisted gets going, you can't tell what exact chaos they're going to land themselves with.
What would I do about it? It's difficult. There are so many ways of going wrong. But one suggestion might be, have an early days troubleshooting guide somewhere in the first few chapters and give some examples of you having intended to do A, you end up with B and how to deal with that the best way you can.
Just a thought, one way perhaps to make a good book even better.
Russ

Personally I use libraries to sample books and if I know I want to keep them (not many of those) I buy them. This was one of them. Amazon are among my first choices.

The foreword to this book is by Rory Bremner, and plainly he was impressed pre-publication.
Just as impressionists need to listen to and mimic exactly what others say in order to do their act, what they need to do is supported by this book which examines how people talk.
That's impressionists. As for ordinary folk, there are a lot of plusses. Apart from being interesting in its own right, it can be useful to many of us to have some idea about where others come from. Take the advantages a sales rep might have in chatting someone up.

But back to the book. It covers the many different accents in the Britain and beyond, how people lengthen some consonants and twist vowels in particular ways, and a bit of social history in how things got that way. (eg Liverpool with its melting pot of Welsh, Scots and Irish influences)
I found it interesting to read (twice) and now it's a reference book helping me spot all the different accents I come across.

I was disappointed in this book, although I have enjoyed others by Katie Agnew. The problem is that there are no characters with whom I found I could empathise.
Giancarlo la Fata is a Scots-Italian who has made his fortune in Scotland and then decamped to Monaco where his family enjoys the ultra-rich lifestyle. When he disappears, he throws everything into disarray. He has neglected but spoiled his children and has discarded his wives as rich men often do.
The lead character is his daughter Francesca: she is certainly intended to be a Saint, but her poor judgement and grip on reality lets her down.
The other character who is intended to be a Saint is Robbie, the investigative journalist who is following up the likelihood that Mr la Fata is a high-class crook. Unfortunately Robbie's judgement also makes him seem as venal as the rest of the cast.
There are gangsters galore, most of the young people behave like spoilt brats and there is corruption in the priesthood for good measure.
There is certainly a story here, and Francesca is the best of the bunch, but Katie Agnew didn't make me feel sympathy for Francesca or any of the other characters.

I read Here Comes Everybody, read the Amazon crits and looked forward to Cognitive Surplus which I've just read. This is a review and comment on this second book.
Here Comes Everybody was a bit heavy going, but set up the fact that Prof S has an understanding of how our society is changing, particularly the way in which the internet has enabled Wikipedia footsoldiers (shorthand for the reasonably educated silent majority) to make a more useful contribution to society than merely editing our international free encyclopaedia.

That is what they are doing and that, I believe, is the essential message of Cognitive Surplus: we have brainpower to spare and we want to make our world a better place. Clay Shirky describes in great detail what is happening out there. There are some wonderful (my choice of adjective) developments as vested interests, record companies, cabals, software and hardware moguls, restrictive groups (include any authoritarian church you care to mention) and monopolies are forced to bow to the will of the Majority, the people who throughout history have had to accept the will of the various oligarchies that control them.

Things are still like that, but in Shirky's neck of the woods and mine, the winds of change are running fast. I'd love to tell you about how in Britain right now (November 2010) TV audiences have discovered they have the power to disrupt the voting systems that are supposed to deliver safe and satisfying public participation TV programmes. This is really grist to Clay Shirky's mill and maybe he'll tell us what this is all about in his next book. Keep writing, sir.

These days I read hundreds of books through the library system. I pick out what I reckon are the best and I buy them, usually from Amazon.
This book is one such. I hope to explain why.
Anyone reading a health or diet book is likely to be influenced by an author who can write convincingly. So you might be steered towards high protein or high carbs, or maybe a negative: avoid fats, salt, sugar or what have you.
The way to find out whether you are being given reliable information or a load of tosh is to see what supporting information the author offers to support the contentions he\she makes.
John Robbins gives the impression of starting with a blank slate, not prejudging the diet\health spectrum and looking for the facts. So he gathers information from different communities who have enjoyed excellent health, physical fitness and longevity. These communities are far flung: Vilcabamba in Ecuador, the Hunza territory in Pakistan, Okinawa, Japan (especially before the Americanisation of their culture) and Abkhasia in the Caucasus.
Studies have been carried out by scientists in all these places which find a great deal of common ground: simple, plain food, largely vegetarian, a great deal of exercise, the downplaying of "retirement", and a healthy community life where people look after each other. People are happy and healthy, they don't suffer depression ... you could make the rest up yourself and you'd be right.
After this masterly review, Robbins goes on to consider life in our culture, aspects of body-mind health connections, and the importance of love.
I found all of it convincing (one can easily be influenced on this volatile topic!) and I read every word. I even looked at the 32 pages of corroborating references - Dr Robbins must have dug out just about everything worth saying on this topic.
This barrage of information (I'd actually read some it beforehand) helps provide the proof you need: if you want to be healthy and enjoy your life, this book will pay back a massive dividend.
R

This is a huge crossword dictionary presented by Anne Bradford, who has specialised in crossword tools of the trade over many years.
I think the book is good value for money (discounted through an Amazon purchase) and I could recommend it to any crossword puzzler.
A word of warning, though. It is a crossword Dictionary, and does not deconstruct the number of letters you might need to pin down an answer. Also I have found two or three times that an actual answer has not been suggested where it might have been. I am sure this is inevitable, and over time, if I am able to collect my own amendments to her dictionary, I shall send these suggestions in, and hope that she will respond to them and add them. Until then I am happy to add this volume to my tools of trade.

I am indebted to Aly Monroe for her novel The Maze of Cadiz. For me this book would have been worth reading for its setting alone. I knew almost nothing of the geography of Cadiz, and the history of the city (as of 1944) was thrown in as well.

The essential story in The Maze of Cadiz is that Peter Cotton, a British agent, comes to Cadiz to find out why his predecessor has failed to send in reports, and has virtually gone AWOL. Subsequently Cotton has to deal with unexplained deaths, escaping refugees and army desertions, all this in an overbearing police state.

The story is well grounded. Soon I was using Google Maps to find where the Genovese Park was, and to sense the insubstantiality (Cadiz is built on a partial sandspit) and the mazelike qualities (look at the supplied photos of claustrophobic dark and narrow streets ) of this remarkable city. None of this I knew.

There was a strong hint of the ambience of Graham Greene's Third Man, and I was relieved, when I briefly browsed Aly's website, to see that this is something which chimes for her as well.

As to the story, I had some reservations. Two crits: Tension and Psychology.

Generally in stories of this genre there is an ever present menace, the secret observer looking over one's shoulder. Yes, you feel that here, but the bogeymen never really become threatening. There were no midnight arrests, no dramatic interventions. At times, I felt the narrative didn't intensify, albeit it was uncovering yet more of the underlying detail of the case.

Psychology: what sort of person is our hero? I don't feel I know him. Towards the end he behaves callously, and I don't think most contemporary readers would have empathised as to his behaviour towards the end. To understand and justify the action the hero took, one would need to share his mindset, understand it, agree with it.
I didn't understand it, and I probably wouldn't have agreed with it if I did. I haven't said any more - mustn't spoil it.

The book's blurb suggested that (the story) was something that could change the course of history: I felt that that was overblown, especially as no hint of it emerged until nine tenths of the way through the novel. But I don't suppose the author wrote the blurb.

Overall then, buy the book, read the book. If you don't know Cadiz, or your Spanish history, you'll learn in the easiest way possible. If you do know your stuff, you'll probably find it even more absorbing.

I'll keep it simple: my computer was overheating and the case fan had done three years hard labour and was worn out.
Two years ago I wouldn't have known how to deal with it myself. I would just alert readers to the fact that the screw holes on these devices allow you to fit a bigger and more effective fan.
Anyway, I traded up, and since I fitted this 9 cm ball bearing fan (replacing the smaller 8 cm version) I've had a much smoother sound flow and lower temperature on the box. If you have problems get on and change the fan. This model would seem to be as good as any.

Have a look at Dutch Martin's review (and several others) months ago in which he criticized the incomplete information coming from the manufacturers about the ION Tape Express. This product gave me a great deal of grief too.

The ION Express is a good enough machine as hardware and it's got reasonable reviews for it.

You are told that the EZ Converter software will (simply) do the job of getting your audiotape recording into your computer. But it comes with one extra ingredient you don't know about yet.

Whereas EZ is needed to use the tape recorder, you can't use it unless you install iTunes, provided via the CD when online. This is a very big extra step.

To illustrate the depth of this misrepresentation, in this week's (1st May) Radio Times in UK they're advertising this very same machine, tell you it's simple, and THEY DON'T EVEN MENTION iTUNES. But unless you take the huge iTunes download, you won't get EZ Converter or be able to use your machine as advertised.

This was my first experience of iTunes. I found it proselytizing - it knows better than me how I should arrange all my songs; I found it nagging and intrusive - constantly reminding me that it didn't have "rights" to be the default mp3 player.
Worst of all, I found it destructive. I use Phonostar to record personal keyboard playing and every time I installed iTunes, it knocked Phonostar's recording function out.

But thanks to the Amazon reviews there is a glimmer of hope. Other reviewers suggested that it might be possible to use the Audacity program to bypass EZ Converter. This didn't work for me - yet. But I found that Magix Labs did, so I can avoid the Big Bad Wolf mentioned above.

An okay product, but I'm disgusted by the uncorrected and misleading product description.

I can recommend Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humour for one outstanding reason - its longevity.
When I was much younger I borrowed a copy of the book and was greatly amused. Some of the jokes had me in stitches. And this was over 30 years ago.
And since then I've picked up various joke books and found many of them puerile. Jokes generally go stale quickly. Asimov's lot don't.
I decided to get another copy and Amazon was the obvious place: time warp, for this book was published in 1971. So it arrived last month and I've been greatly amused all over again. 640 jokes and many of them cracking good ones. My favourite of all time, The Pope And The Janitor, is in this volume and unless you get hold of the book (beg, borrow, steal or buy) you'll miss out.