COM+, the next generation of COM, DCOM, and MTS, is here! Now best-selling author Roger Sessions offers an unbiased introduction to COM+ and the fascinating world of Component-Oriented Middleware (COMWare). In this book, you'll learn the new features of COM+ and how it fits in with other Microsoft technologies, how COM+ compares to CORBA 3.0 and Enterprise JavaBeans, and how to plan your future N-tier enterprise applications. To demonstrate how Microsoft's middle-tier technologies are being utilized in some of today's largest applications, Sessions then presents three case studies from Dell, Silknet, and Acentris-complete with business requirements, architectural overviews, system benchmarks, and lessons learned. Whether you're an IT executive planning your company's middle-tier strategy, a programmer trying to understand the new features of COM+, or an analyst interested in the differences between COM+, EJB, and CORBA 3.0, this book is for you. Advance praise for Roger Sessions's new book: "Roger has a gift for relating the somewhat esoteric topic of distributed computing to the everyday world. COM+ and the Battle for the Middle Tier provides a fine introduction to the problems addressed by the middle tier and the solutions offered by Microsoft's COM+."- MARY KIRTLAND Program Manager, Microsoft Corp. "Although I often don't agree with Roger Sessions's opinions and conclusions, I always enjoy reading his work. This book on COM+ is no exception. Roger uses simple real-world scenarios to explain very complex concepts about distributed computing,components, and scalable transaction processing, and his frequent play on words had me laughing out loud. For those who are true believers of the Microsoft way, this book may become your bible. It certainly will provide you with plenty of arguments to defend your technology choice. For those who believe in CORBA and EJB, this book will help you understand the strong appeal that Windows NT and COM+ have. (But keep the faith and don't be swayed.)"- ANNE THOMAS Senior Analyst, Patricia Seybold Group Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/

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"Four score and seven years ago..." begins Abraham Lincoln's beautiful speech commemorating the three-day battle that turned the tide of the Civil War. The South had been winning up to this point. So how did Union troops stop General Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North? With black-and-illustrations throughout and sixteen pages of photos, this turning point in history is brought vividly to life.

New York Times bestseller • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • One of the Washington Post's 10 Best Books of the Year “It’s no exaggeration to say that Behave is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read.” —David P. Barash, The Wall Street Journal "It has my vote for science book of the year.” —Parul Sehgal, The New York Times "Immensely readable, often hilarious...Hands-down one of the best books I’ve read in years. I loved it." —Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post From the bestselling author of A Primate's Memoir and the forthcoming Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will comes a landmark, genre-defining examination of human behavior and an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do? Behave is one of the most dazzling tours d’horizon of the science of human behavior ever attempted. Moving across a range of disciplines, Sapolsky—a neuroscientist and primatologist—uncovers the hidden story of our actions. Undertaking some of our thorniest questions relating to tribalism and xenophobia, hierarchy and competition, and war and peace, Behave is a towering achievement—a majestic synthesis of cutting-edge research and a heroic exploration of why we ultimately do the things we do . . . for good and for ill.

In a modern mega-city built around dragons, one boy gets caught up in the world of underground dragon battles and a high-stakes gang war that could tear his family apart. Once, dragons nearly drove themselves to extinction. But in the city of Drakopolis, humans domesticated them centuries ago. Now dragons haul the city’s cargo, taxi its bustling people between skyscrapers, and advertise its wares in bright, neon displays. Most famously of all, the dragons battle. Different breeds take to the skies in nighttime bouts between the infamous kins—criminal gangs who rule through violence and intimidation. Abel has always loved dragons, but after a disastrous showing in his dragon rider’s exam, he's destined never to fly one himself. All that changes the night his sister appears at his window, entrusting him with a secret...and a stolen dragon. Turns out, his big sister is a dragon thief! Too bad his older brother is a rising star in Drakopolis law enforcement... To protect his friends and his family, Abel must partner with the stolen beast, riding in kin battles and keeping more secrets than a dragon has scales. When everyone wants him fighting on their side, can Abel figure out what’s worth fighting for?

This text contains information on database and information systems presented at the 5th IEEE international symposium on Object-Oriented Real-Time Distributed Computing (ISORC 2002).

Drawing on previously unpublished eyewitness accounts, prizewinning historian Donald L. Miller has written what critics are calling one of the most powerful accounts of warfare ever published. Here are the horror and heroism of World War II in the words of the men who fought it, the journalists who covered it, and the civilians who were caught in its fury. Miller gives us an up-close, deeply personal view of a war that was more savagely fought—and whose outcome was in greater doubt—than readers might imagine. This is the war that Americans at the home front would have read about had they had access to the previously censored testimony of the soldiers on which Miller builds his gripping narrative. Miller covers the entire war—on land, at sea, and in the air—and provides new coverage of the brutal island fighting in the Pacific, the bomber war over Europe, the liberation of the death camps, and the contributions of African Americans and other minorities. He concludes with a suspenseful, never-before-told story of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, based on interviews with the men who flew the mission that ended the war.