I recently returned from a trip throughout Europe. This book (the 2002 edition) was the only tour book in my backpack. I used it both while planning the trip and throughout the trip itself.

Rick gives you the important information about city covered. This information usually includes major attractions, hotels, restaurants and basic "getting around" information. For the most part, I competely agreed with his reviews of the major attractions. His hotel selections also worked out well, but I didn't use the restaurant information much at all.

The major downside is that the information isn't always that well organized. He will pack a lot of information about a hotel into a paragraph, but if you are skimming the book it is difficult to pick out the important tidbits. I would rather see the key information more clearly presented than buried in a paragraph. Also, his maps weren't very helpful at all. In every city I ended up picking up a local tourist map rather than using the little hand sketches in the book.

If you have an HDTV or a 5.1 surround sound system, you'll need this to experience the XBox to its fullest.

For only (about) $20, this gives you all the cables you need. However, if you want to use the optical digital output, you'll need to supply your own cable. Also, if you're a cable snob you might want to pick up some higher quality cables. Personally, I think the cables included are just fine.

Martin Fowler does it again. He manages to capture complexities of enterprise class application development in a simple, easy to read book.

If you've read any of Fowler's other titles, the structure of this one will come as no surprise. The first have of the book discusses the patterns in "narrative" format, and the second half presents them in reference format. If you are new to this subject, I highly recommend reading through the narrative section to understand how the patterns fit together.

If you've been involved in enterprise application development before, chances are you can simply flip to the second half of the book and start skimming the patterns. Each is only a handful of pages long and is accompanied by a description, use cases and example code.

Like other "patterns" titles, if you've been doing software development for a while you'll read the patterns and think "oh.. of course, I did that in xyz project". The patterns themselves may not be groundbreaking and chances are you've seen them in some form, but having a well documented reference of them nearby will be an asset to any software development effort.

Long-Distance Cycling covers all aspects of how to pull off long rides, not just the training aspects.

The book starts off with the basics, choosing the right gear and making sure your bike fits properly. These are easy to overlook, but will make all of the difference in the world on a long ride.

It then spends some time overviewing a good training program. Like other cycling books, the authors recommend picking up a heart rate monitor and using it for the basis of your training. They provide training programs for different goal distances (such as your first century) that recommend spending time in different heart rate zones. The training and nutrition information is well done, but not amazingly in depth. If you get more serious about the sport, you'll probably want more information, but this book hits is target audience just fine.

The later chapters of the book cover all of the unpleasantries that come up during a long ride: sores, pain, general discomfort. Again, this information is invaluable during a long ride.

All in all, the authors have done a great job at putting together the information you need to complete your first (or next!) long distance bike ride.

Have you ever wondered how RTTI or virtual functions work? What are the rules for determining if a default constructor is provided. This book will answer those questions and more.

The C++ Object Model gets to the "how" of C++. It covers the details of how virtually (ha!) every language features is implemented and what rules a compiler uses to make decisions.

This book is not an easy read. You need to be very comfortable with C++ and be willing to work through lots of code. The explanations are ok, but could be a bit much if you aren't familiar with the full C++ lexicon. That said, if you want to take you C++ knowledge to a new level, this book is the ticket. There is nothing else like it available.

Stuntman gets points for being an original idea, but unfortunately the game itself doesn't live up to the possibilities.

In the game, you play the role of a stuntman who works on several different films and also performs in stadium stunt shows. The stunts themselves involve piloting a variety of vehicles (including cars and snowmobiles) through stunt courses. A director's voice guides you through the stunt course, telling you what jumps to make, items to crash through, etc. After you have completed all of the stunts for a movie, you are treated to a trailor of the movie that included footage from your stunts.

Sounds pretty good, but the annoyances begin shortly after you pop in the disc. First, you must complete a stunt almost exactly as the director says, usually within a limited amount of time. Unfortunately, prior to beginning a stunt you are given no walkthrough of the stunt, so you are left to figure out the details through trial and error. Continously repeating a stunt gets old very quickly.

Next, you must complete a stunt before moving on to the next one. There is no way to jump between films or bypass a difficult stunt for a while. This alone removes much of the fun from the game. If you find yourself stuck on a stunt, there is nothing you can do about it and the game just isn't fun anymore.

If you're still interested I would recommend at least renting this one first.

This is one rental that actually turned into a purchase. I'm usually not a fan of hack and slash type games, but this one has turned out to be quite entertaining.

Like other games in this genre, Dark Alliance is a third person perspective game (kinda 2.5D) in which you venture through cellars, mines, dungeons and even outdoor environments like mountain and villages. Levels typically end with a "boss" of varying difficulty and combat style. Gameplay is mixed with first person cut scenes in which you converse with other characters in a multi-choice format.

Interestingly, you can only save your game at certain points. At first this seems annoying, but there are enough save points around the game so it isn't too bad. Another big plus is that saving is really quick. If you've played games like Morrowind, where saving and loading are good opportunites to grab a drink, then you're in for a treat. Unfortunately you can only save about 25 games at once and there is no way to describe the saved game. A bit annoying, but oh well.

I'm not too much of a D&D fan, so I can't comment on how true this game is to the ruleset. However, as you move through the game you'll acquire better goods and have to manage your inventory and make decisions about how to develop your powers as you advance levels. Who knows if these mechanisms are authentic enough, but they are fun.. :)

Finally, one of the best aspects of the game (and why I ended up purchasing it) is the two player option. This put two players on the screen at the same time, working together to battle through the game. I find this style of multiplayer play to be much more enjoyable than split screen, and this is one of the few games that offers it.

Following in the tradition of his prior books, Meyers delivers another gem with Effective STL. This one is a must have for your software development bookshelf.

I user several STL books regularly and none of them have come close to giving me the in depth understanding that this book has. Sure, others are better references, beginner guides, etc.. but if you really want to understand what is going on under the covers and how to write -good- STL, this book is your answer. I have seen suggestions from this book result in massive performance improvements in naively written STL code.

Enough said, go pick up a copy .. :)

Ok, technically you don't need a memory unit, thanks to the XBox's hard drive, but there is one reason why having one is a very good idea: backup. If you XBox hard drive decides to call it quits, all of your saved games will likely go with it. If you're into long games such as Morrowind, that is a large time investment down the drain. Spend the cash and keep 2 copies of your most important saves.

Simply put, this is one of the best C++ books I have come across. It will open your eyes to what generic programming really is and how it can be done with C++.

As another review states, "this book is mostly about templates". Certainly true. This book takes templates where few have dared venture. Rather than use templates as a glorifed macro system, Alexandrescu uses templates to define small code generation engines. Your knowledge of C++ will most certainly be expanded, but you'll also come away from this book with a different way of looking at programming problems.

The book also picks apart many popular design patterns and shows how to implement them in very generic ways. Alexandrescu's treatment of certain patterns is so thorough that you'll understand the pattern better from this book than the original.

Perhaps the techniques go too far, perhaps there is a limit to how generic one should go. That is yours to decide, but this book is definitely a keeper for the C++/software development bookshelf.