I first learnt HTML in the late 1990s and later tinkered with CSS, but I've not used it in any real sense for more than a decade. It's always been something I meant to return to but other developer technologies took priority.

Recently I decided to learn JavaScript (another one I have early experience of) but recognise the need to use it in conjunction with HTML and CSS, so I chose this book on the basis of some of the more positive reviews. I was hoping the graphical style would make it easy to get through the basic stuff and onto the more interesting CSS topics and some JavaScript. This wasn't the case, however.

The format of the book is not easy to skim read because of the way the typeface is used and the layout of paragraphs on the page. One thing lacking is any differentiation between paragraphs covering the latest HTML and earlier versions.

There is a lot of repetition of very similar statements and guidance, often very basic information, on consecutive facing pages. I find this a little patronising, to suggest that the reader really needs to be told this twice. It's as if each page has been composed in isolation for viewing as a web page, and not originally expected to be viewed in book form.

Another example of patronising dumbing down is the section on image editing, page 114 "Cropping Images", where the author feels it necessary to explain that if a portrait oriented image is adjusted to be landscape, the result will either have blank areas on each side or will have missing detail top and bottom. Well would you ever!

Overall, the book may be OK for someone with absolutely no technical experience and understanding of ANY of the topics covered. If you have basic understanding of these things, I suggest looking elsewhere, e.g. the "Missing Manuals" series published by O'Reilly.

This is the first scalpel I have purchased. I bought so my son can work at home on his Design & Technology project, as he is familiar with using scalpels at school. I considered other brands, but this is the one he wanted.

The stainless steel handle has a nice clean and solid feel. The five blades are supplied in a small packet, with each blade in its own little envelope.

I went to the Swann-Morton website to see instructions for fitting the blade. In their "Interactive" section they have a short video showing how it's done. I presume medical professionals have special "clamping pliers" (I'm sure that's not the right technical term) but I found a small pair of regular (DIY / hobby / car / cycle mechanic) pliers did the job for me. Just be sure to grip _blunt_ side of the blade firmly.

Once the blade is fitted, the scalpel has a nice balanced feel, allowing precise manipulation.

It's hard to define the perfect "how to" book for someone getting to know a new programming languange. So much depends on the reader's experience and aims. "Programming in Lua" (aka "the PiL book") hits the spot for me. I'm an experienced software developer with a background in Smalltalk and Java, among others.

The author wastes no time with attempts at humour, but comes across as someone genuinely trying to give the reader the optimum learning experience. There is not a sentence that I would say is superfluous. At the same time, there are no points at which I would have wanted more explanation. Coding examples or snippets are used throughout.

I'm a great believer in learning by doing. My approach to reading the book is to have my Lua interpreter open at all times and, when there is something that I don't quite understand, to try it and some variations, or to write a slightly longer Lua script ("chunk") that includes additional print statements so I can see what's going on. Common sense, really.

The essential partner for this book is the Lua Reference Manual. I've referred to it often. Not because the PiL book is unclear, but out of curiosity and wanting to know a little more. That's not a criticism of the PiL book; if anything it's another plus: it encourages the reader to experiment. Another book to consider is "Lua Programming Gems"; I have it and can see it becoming a valuable additional Lua reference, as well as a source of inspiration.

Of the 300-odd pages in the PiL book, about 80 are directly related to using Lua with C. I'm not a C programmer, but I may find these chapters of use if I need to interface with existing C libraries. That still leaves a rich source of Lua knowledge, particularly given the concise writing style of the author.

The PiL book contains a wealth of wisdom and insight into Lua, written in a style that gets the information across with the minimum of fuss. Recommended.

I bought this as a Christmas present for my 13 year-old son. Truth be told, as a family, we've been anime fans since seeing "Spirited Away" a few years ago, so this was a present for us all.

It is a nicely packaged box set of 3 DVDs, nothing fancy, but well made with some artwork from the film on each disk.

Being in the UK (PAL and DVD Zone 2) the only problem this set posed was the NTSC format. Fortunately, I had recently bought an NTSC DVD (The Mighty Uke Movie) and knew that this played OK. I had been a little surprised by this, but I guess my DVD player (3 years old) converts the output from NTSC to PAL. Or perhaps it's the TV (a Sony) that's being clever.

I have no complaints regarding the playback quality of the DVDs on my 27" flat screen TV. The only "extra" on the DVDs is a short trailer, but that doesn't bother me.

My family and I enjoyed watching the episodes, about 5 at a time, and will be ready to watch them again a year or so from now. We never saw the original TV screening, so the story is new to us. Even so, it bears re-watching. The actions scenes are particularly gripping, and the characters are interesting.

If you're wondering about suitability for younger viewers, there is no nudity or adult humour, and no "blood and guts". There are battle scenes but the violence is at a distance. The closest comparison I can think of is "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" (another favourite) which I first watched with my son when he was about 9 years old.

Just fitted one of these as a replacement for a different drive that had failed (after years of faithful service).

No problems to report. The drive's power and SATA data connections are firm. When I started the PC, Windows 7 detected the drive and installed the required drivers, ending with a re-boot request. All without a hitch.

The disk drawer slides out with a good clean movement; no wobbles.

I would buy another of these if I ever had the need.

I'm a long-standing home user of Windows: 3.x, NT, 95, 2000 and XP (I managed to avoid Vista). I'd read the reviews of Windows 7 and asked myself why I would want to move from XP. Win7 seemed to be XP with a few fancy features that would appeal to less technical users.

I had intended to look at trying Windows 7 when the first service pack was available, early 2011. However, the crunch came when my desktop PC (HP Pavilion, WinXP) started misbehaving and needed a Windows refresh. I'd been through this before and really did not want to reinstall XP now, with possible Windows 7 upgrade just a few months later.

So I decided to take the plunge and get Windows 7. I went for the full licence, rather than an upgrade, because I don't want to mess around with XP licences and disks in the future when, most likely, I will reinstall Windows 7. I also have plans to build my own PC in 2011 (my first such project) and would use the full Win7 licence for this project. I feel the price difference is worth it for the convenience.

While I was at it, I also replaced the 320GB hard drive (now 4 years old) with a new, faster, 500GB drive and added a second 1TB drive for backups (Acronis Home). I also bought MS Office 2010 Home & Student (3 lics) to replace the 2007 vsn that I had been using.

The Windows 7 install went very smoothly (I chose the 32-bit disk, since my PC is quite old). I was impressed by the complete lack of problems. Microsoft have clearly worked hard to make this as trouble-free as possible.

Having completed the install of my other software, I can honestly say I am a Windows 7 convert. The UI is beautiful. The libraries concept is useful. It boots up really fast; I can be logged on and working in under 2 minutes... my Internet Security (KIS) starts up virtually immediately the desktop is displayed.

For parents of children using the PC: I had wondered whether the built-in parental controls would make TimesUpKidz unnecessary, but I find they don't provide all the features I need. I still use TimesUpKidz and recommend it to anyone needing this kind of PC-time control.

Back to Windows 7. Yes, I am very pleased that I moved from XP to Win7. I've followed this up with the same move on my laptop, again using a full Win7 licence. I recommend anyone considering a silimar move to go for it.

This is a well-made and ingeniously-designed pull-ups bar. The clever thing is that much (most, probably) of your weight is transmitted onto the lower bar at the front, resting on the vertical sides of the door frame. The hooks that pass through the doorway and rest on the top of the door frame apply a pulling force on the frame _towards_ the user.

The stated dimensions of the product mean that it will work for quite a limited range of doorway widths. Not a problem if you measure your doorways before ordering this item. However, there are other dimensions that need to be allowed for: the thickness of the wall (depth of the door frame) and the height of the door frame moulding. I live in an old Victorian property and _none_ of the downstairs doorways are suitable for this product. Fortunately, some of the upstairs doorways are OK. How to specify this limitation as a numeric measurement is a little tricky, since there is some variability in the angle of the apparatus relative to the doorway, depending on wall width and frame height.

My own approximate measurements suggest a maximum door frame depth of 19cm and a maximum frame height of 10cm. By "height" I mean the vertical distance between the inner (horizontal) surface of the door frame and the top edge of the moulding onto which the small arms need to hook.

What's needed is a diagram from the manufacturer to be included on the Amazon product page, showing a cross-section of a doorway and how the product fits, with minimum and maximum dimensions of the relevant features.

A little over-priced, but this leather cover is perfect for the Kindle (of course, since it's designed for the purpose). Attaches easily to the Kindle, using special slots in the side of the Kindle. Easy to remove, if need be, but I find I leave my Kindle in the case at all times.

The inside surface of the cover is a soft felt material, so there is no risk of scratches on the Kindle.

The cover can be folded right back behind the Kindle, but this seems to put a lot of stress on the spine of the cover, so I would not recommend doing this. In any case, the cover works well opened out in a normal "book mode".

Adding the cost of this leather cover to your Kindle purchase, the price differential of the WiFi+3G vs. the WiFi-only is a lot smaller. It makes the extra cost for the 3G capability less significant in the overall cost. Something to bear in mind when deciding which Kindle to get.

All in all, apart from the slightly excessive price tag, highly recommended.

There's not much to say about a data cable. It works or it doesn't. In this case, the cable does the job. The clips have a good positive engagement in the drive and motherboard sockets. The 45cm length is about right for my PC. I would buy the same product again if I had need of another.

I bought this pack of 6 screen protectors after failing miserably in my attempt to apply the single protector included with a silicone skin.

It's important to take *extreme* care when applying these things. Just the smallest speck of dust on the screen will cause a bubble. In fact, I think Apple are missing a customer service trick here... I'm sure they could easily pre-fit a protector in dust-free conditions.

After my earlier failure, I took great care to clean the screen. The product comes with clear instructions on doing this. I used a very slightly wetted glasses cleaning cloth to clean the screen. Close inspection of the screen is important, to ensure no fluff or dust remains. The supplied instructions recommend using an aerosol air can if you have one (I don't). I spent about 5 minutes rubbing the screen and checking it before I was happy.

Having cleaned the screen, I applied the protector starting at the home button, as per the instructions. To my utter amazement, the protector curled down onto the rest of the screen absolutely cleanly, with just a few small bubbles at the edges which were easy to clear.

The ease with which this protector went on may have been a fluke, but I'm sure the care taken preparing the screen was important.

Summary: with good preparation, these protectors work very well.