Reader²/kingkool68

Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

kingkool68 — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:11:16 GMT

by kingkool68
Tags: money finance personal

The PayPal Wars

kingkool68 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 03:35:43 GMT

The story of PayPal from founding through the company's purchase by eBay. The author was one of the first PayPal employees so the story is told as a first hand insider's view. Not great, but an interesting view into someof the battles a successful "DotCom" went through to actually succeed.
by kingkool68
Tags: money online business internet ecommerce ebay PayPal

The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture

kingkool68 — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 19:40:45 GMT

by kingkool68
Tags: web business technology culture internet search google engine

The Google Story

kingkool68 — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 19:39:30 GMT

Overly gushing about Google almost from the first page. However, the tone settles down a little bit after the first third. Very informative though and covers all the major events in the history of the company from the founding up to fairly recent events.

This review is based on the unabridged audiobook version.
by kingkool68
Tags: web history online technology computer internet non-fiction search google seek

The Long Tail : Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More

kingkool68 — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 19:37:52 GMT

by kingkool68
Tags: business media digital long tail

Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

kingkool68 — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 05:14:23 GMT

Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea.
Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us "mind blind," focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to "the Warren Harding Effect" (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the "dark side of blink," he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell's ideas about what Blink Camp might look like.')
Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea.
Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us "mind blind," focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to "the Warren Harding Effect" (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the "dark side of blink," he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell's ideas about what Blink Camp might look like.
by kingkool68

Queen Bees and Wannabees

kingkool68 — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 05:11:04 GMT

A very impressive analysis of preteen and teenage girls. Basis for the movie "Mean Girls"
by kingkool68

The Teenager's Guide to the Real World

kingkool68 — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 20:28:07 GMT

What are the rules to the game of life? "The Teenager's Guide to the Real World" contains the answers to that question. This is the book I wish someone had handed me when I was a teenager. It explains the game of life and shows you why adults do the things they do. It will help you to become a successful adult yourself, but more importantly it will help you make a lot more sense of what is happening in the world around you.
by kingkool68
Tags: guide life success teenager how-to adult

Beginning JavaScript Second Edition

kingkool68 — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 05:22:50 GMT

JavaScript is the preferred programming language for Web page applications, letting you enhance your sites with interactive, dynamic, and personalized pages. This fully updated guide shows you how to take advantage of JavaScript’s client-side scripting techniques for the newest versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, even if you’ve never programmed before.

You begin with basic syntax and learn about data types and how to structure code for decision-making. Then you learn to use dates, strings, and other basic objects of JavaScript. Next, you see how to use JavaScript to manipulate objects provided by the browser, such as forms and windows. From there, you move into advanced topics like using cookies and dynamic HTML.

After you have a solid foundation, you explore dynamic generation of Web content using server-side scripting and back-end databases. And you practice what you learn by building a sample application as you go.
by kingkool68
Tags: web code scripting javascript technical

The Catcher in the Rye

kingkool68 — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 03:03:15 GMT

This is one of my all-time favorite books. Holden Caufield is my hero.
by kingkool68
Tags: classic, narrative

Nonlinear Editing: Storytelling, Aesthetics, & Craft

kingkool68 — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 02:45:43 GMT

The book contains tons of very good advice for novice editors. The tips on planning will save a lot of time when the real work begins. The suggestions on the practical and aesthetic (including sound) aspects of editing will speed up the process and improve the quality of the finished work, perhaps by the equivalent of at least a few month's apprenticeship. The chapters on dealing with stress and team members, clients and the business, give an idea of the work environment to be expected. After reading the whole book, chapter 13 summarizes the most important tips as "cheat sheets" - very useful.
by kingkool68
Tags: video technical multimedia editing

Never Eat Alone : And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

kingkool68 — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 22:38:04 GMT

The youngest partner in Deloitte Consulting's history and founder of the consulting company Ferrazzi Greenlight, the author quickly aims in this useful volume to distinguish his networking techniques from generic handshakes and business cards tossed like confetti. At conferences, Ferrazzi practices what he calls the "deep bump" - a "fast and meaningful" slice of intimacy that reveals his uniqueness to interlocutors and quickly forges the kind of emotional connection through which trust, and lots of business, can soon follow. That bump distinguishes this book from so many others that stress networking; writing with Fortune Small Business editor Raz, Ferrazzi creates a real relationship with readers. Ferrazzi may overstate his case somewhat when he says, "People who instinctively establish a strong network of relationships have always created great businesses," but his clear and well-articulated steps for getting access, getting close and staying close make for a substantial leg up. Each of 31 short chapters highlights a specific technique or concept, from "Warming the Cold Call" and "Managing the Gatekeeper" to following up, making small talk, "pinging" (or sending "quick, casual" greetings) and defining oneself to the point where one's missives become "the e-mail you always read because of who it's from." In addition to variations on the theme of hard work, Ferrazzi offers counterintuitive perspectives that ring true: "vulnerability... is one of the most underappreciated assets in business today"; "too many people confuse secrecy with importance." No one will confuse this book with its competitors.
by kingkool68
Tags: guide networking social communication people how-to

The Automatic Millionaire : A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich

kingkool68 — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 22:37:13 GMT

Despite its sensational title, David Bach's The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich is not a get-rich-quick guide. Rather, the book is a straightforward march through common-sense personal financial planning that suggests readers "automate" their contributions to retirement and investment vehicles. Bach, in fact, calls his model the "tortoise approach" to becoming wealthy by retirement age.

In the early part of the book Bach builds on ideas he established in Smart Women Finish Rich and other bestselling titles. His core principle is that, to succeed, you must "Pay Yourself First." In other words, he suggests using pre-tax retirement accounts (i.e. 401(k)s, IRAs, or Roth IRAs) to set aside a fixed, monthly sum of money before considering what is left for living expenses. The "automatic" part of the title comes from Bach's emphasis on using automated payroll deductions to avoid the temptation of using the money to pay today's bills.

Bach insists that "regardless of the size of your paycheck, you probably already make enough money to become rich." But his claims that his plan requires "no budget, no discipline," is a bit disingenuous. His discussion of the "The Latte Factor" shows that, to find money to start a retirement plan, a person with a modest income needs to make an up-front commitment to stop accruing debt and to reduce spending on such "wasteful" items as lattes and cigarettes.

In the end The Automatic Millionaire does not offer much that is new for readers already familiar with personal finance basics like accelerated mortgage payments, "the miracle of compound interest," and the setting up of emergency funds. But, for those just starting with financial planning, Bach provides a host of resources to put recommendations into action. He walks his readers through such fundamentals as shopping for interest rates, creating a balanced retirement portfolio, and consolidating debt. And Bach's conversational style will make this quick read highly palatable for those daunted by more detailed investment and personal finance titles.
by kingkool68
Tags: money life management success planning fianancial