Book Review: Patent Law in a Nutshell

 

The nutshell series of books are supplements that are usually intended for people currently in law school taking a class pertaining to the subject. In my case, I never took intellectual property in law school, instead, I went back to school to get an engineering degree so that I could practice patent law. This was one of the sources I used to get familiar with patent law before I started studying for the patent bar exam. This version of the book was put out before the America Invents Act which changed some of the rules about who can get an invention, so some of the information, especially at the beginning of the book is dated. However, much of what is in the book is still very applicable and while it is not an in-depth treatment enough that you could sit down and write your own patent or pass the patent bar exam, it will give you a high-level overview of patent law, and can still be used as a reference.

It walks through the history of the United States patent system and the concepts of patentability, claims, claim construction, infringement, and a brief introduction to the various international conventions. While it would be more helpful to patent litigators, there is still good information for patent prosecutors and that those people who want to attempt to take on the challenge of writing their own patent can use. And, it can easily be used in conjunction with Patent it Yourself and its companion books (although there is a lot more legalese in this, as you would expect). As someone who is becoming a patent attorney in reverse (I got a law degree, then went back to undergrad to get an engineering degree) I started reading this as I was finishing school to get the basics of patent law that I did not learn in law school, then read Patent it Yourself to get a better idea of the nuts and bolts of the patent application process, and will eventually get a copy of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure, which is what you are allowed to use when taking the patent bar.

Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Mathematical Handbook of Formulas and Tables, 4th Edition

 

This is a great resource, but you need to be clear on what you are getting. It is not going to teach you any material. That you are going to get from class or textbooks, or both. It is simply a book that will give you all the formulas in one place, in a much more compact form than any textbook will give you. You do not have to weave through pages of proofs, explanations, or examples to get to the end result. It covers things from the very simple to the very advanced. Realistically it is impossible to recall every formula that you come across in math and science classes. And, a lot of times people do not keep their textbooks, but you never know when you are going to have to look up a formula at some point down the road that you know exists, but cannot remember all the details of.

When I was in upper-level engineering classes, the professors tended to keep the math relatively basic for many exam questions, but there were some homework questions and class examples that got pretty detailed, and a lot of times they would just say you can solve this using ________ equation/formula and just assume we remember it. Now yes in this day and age you can find almost anything on the internet, but for those of us who prefer books, and writing out homework by hand, this is a great resource. And if you happen to have a class that gives totally open book/note exams, it is something that could come in handy.

Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Advanced Mathematics for Engineers and Scientists

 

This is not really a book that is tied to any one specific course like the other Schaum's outlines are. This is meant to be more like a reference where you can go to look up concepts that you may have forgotten. It is like a condensed textbook that has the key things that you need to know but does not go into a lot of detail about the theory and do a bunch of proofs as a textbook will. Let's face it, we all forget things from class after a while, especially things that we do not use on a regular basis. Most people will be able to remember how to take simple derivatives or integrals, but far fewer people are going to remember how to set up a triple integral or do Laplace Transforms off the top of their heads after they get done with the classes where they have to use them. That is where this will come in handy.

I think the best way to use any of the Schaum's outlines is to use them in conjunction with learning the concepts in class (because they give you far more examples worked out than your book ever will) or as a reference guide once a class is over. At that point, you can use it as a substitute for your textbook because you will not be as likely to need all the detail and rigor of a full-blown textbook by then. It is not something that is going to be useful to teach yourself the concepts from initially. That is because of the lack of detail and the fact that some of the outlines are edited badly and can contain errors. Once you understand the material the errors and typos can be easy to spot, but when you are first learning that is not always the case. I have only glanced through this particular outline so far, so I am not sure how many errors (if any) are in this one. I know some of the outlines have more errors than others, but just be aware if something does not look right when you are working through a problem, it may not be that you don't know what you are doing.

Study Aid Review: Pre-Calculus Demystified

 

What is in this book is very clear and straightforward. There is not a ton of jargon like you get in the textbooks and what theory it does cover is basic and understandable. It covers the theory you need to know and does not go wild with proving or deriving the equations. And, the examples that are shown are clear. One thing I really like is the book goes into detail on comics. Conics are always covered at some point in pre-calculus, but very few supplements go into any depth. 

What knocks this down a bit for me is that it only has 1 chapter on trigonometry. The curriculum from school to school can be different. Some schools have trig as a completely separate class, and others run precalc classes as essentially a quarter to half advanced algebra, half trig, and then a few other topics depending on how much time is left at the end of the semester. If your school does the latter, while this book will give you the basics of trigonometry, what you will need to know for a class will be much more in-depth than what you will get here.

It does do a good job of explaining the basic trig functions, graphing trig functions, and some of the trig identities. Basically, the trig that the book presents is the stuff that, if you do not know it, will make the rest of trig impossible. Just keep in mind, however, that depending on your class curriculum, you may need a supplement that goes deeper into the trig material than this does.

Study Aid Review: The Humongous Book of Algebra Problems

 

To me the best part about this book is that it is, for the most part, just lots and lots of example problems solved step by step. The big gripe about math textbooks is that a lot of time you get a lot of explanation of the theory and formulas, but not much on how to actually solve problems. This can be compounded by the fact that some textbooks either skip steps in the examples they do solve, or they just show you how to do the easiest problems and you are left to fend for yourself on the harder problems. This book gives you a nice range of difficulty for the problems and does not cut corners or skip steps.

Of all areas of math, algebra is probably the worst to have missing steps when you are first learning it because it is the foundation for almost every other branch of math. If you are not good at algebra, you will have a very hard time in trig and calculus because they use algebra so much, that oftentimes simplifying the problems is harder and take more time than the actual calculus part. If you are going on to take classes like chemistry and physics, you absolutely have to be good at algebra because it is used to solve many problems. While proficiency in algebra will not guarantee you will do well in those other classes (you still need to know what equations to use or what concepts apply), even if you know the chemistry or physics material if you cannot do algebra you will have no shot at actually solving the problems.

While I never say any supplement be it DVD or book form is a substitute for going to class or doing problems assigned in your book this will definitely help you because chances are you can find a similar problem in this book, see how it is solved, and apply the process to your homework problem. The author also has similar books for other levels of math up to the first year of calculus. If you find this one helpful you may want to check those out as well.

Study Aid Review: How to Ace the Rest of Calculus

 

The textbook I had for multivariable calculus was absolutely worthless, so I really leaned on this, Khan Academy, Patrick JMT on YouTube, and the Mathtutor DVDs for Calculus 3 to help figure out how to do the problems. 

Unlike some of the book supplements out there, this one does not cover everything you will see in class. The book hits the most important topics and gives several examples, tells you what to look out for, and what some common mistakes are. If you are in Calculus 2, this is not really going to help much. It is almost exclusively things you are going to see in multivariable calculus like double and triple integrals, partial derivatives, Green's Theorem, and the like. You will get some of the sequence and series material you will get at the very end of Calculus 2, but it does not go into all the integration techniques you will learn in Calculus 2. So, if you are in the first or second semester of Calculus, you want what is essentially Volume 1 just titled How to Ace Calculus.

Textbook/Study Guide Review: Fundamentals of Differential Equations : Solutions Manual

 

This is a student solutions manual for the corresponding textbook, Fundamentals of Differential Equations. It has, like most student solution manuals worked-out answers to most (but not all) of the odd problems from the book, and does not go into any explanation of the theory. I found the actual textbook to be a bit harder to read than some other math books that I used, but thankfully my professor did a fairly good job explaining the topics well. But this was definitely helpful to use when I got stuck on something. So, if you have to use the textbook for class, I would definitely recommend picking this up. If you are teaching yourself differential equations, then I would try to find a different textbook in which case you would not need this. 

Study Aid Review: The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems

 

This book is mostly a problems repository. Like the author's other "humongous" books, from chapter 1 it starts giving you problems with very little setup. It does have a chapter introduction page, but then it just starts in with example problems. But, unlike some of the other guides out there that have just a ton of example problems in them, the author does weave in the explanation of the theory in the form of margin notes that are added to explain how to tackle/solve the problems. Along with the theory, the author gives you tips for solving different problem types, advice on things to look out for, and marks the hardest kinds of problems with a skull and cross bones, which I think are good problems to go over before your exams.

The book is good in that it does not just dive into the calculus material. The first 8 chapters (about 120 pages or so) are a review of algebra and trigonometry, making sure you have the fundamentals down in case you need to brush up on them, and then it gets into the calculus material. The calculus material covers all of the topics that you will be exposed to in the first year of calculus (which in most schools is split up into two semesters, one focusing on derivatives and one focusing on integration), starting with limits and ending with using integration techniques on sequences and series problems.  It also goes over the introduction to differential equations that students usually get in the second semester, and has good examples for solving related rates problems and optimization problems. 

This does not cover multivariable calculus, linear algebra, or the more complicated differential equations problems you will get in later classes if you need to go beyond Calc I and II. This will, however, definitely help you get through the first year of calculus, especially if you have a hard time understanding your textbook and/or your teacher. 

Study Aid Review: Schaums Outline of Thermodynamics for Engineers, 3rd Edition

 

Thermodynamics is a class that many engineering students end up taking either because it is required for the particular branch of engineering they are majoring in, or because it is a part of a group of a few electives that they have to pick from, and it is the least-bad option. I was in the latter group, as it was one of three classes I had to pick from when getting my electrical engineering degree, and it was the best of the bunch. 

Thermodynamics is a class that is basically a blend of physics and chemistry. Thermo basically, combines what you learn in the thermodynamics chapters in chemistry and the thermodynamics chapters in physics, makes the problems a bit different than those in either class, and then gives you an entire semester of that. If you have a really good teacher who goes through a lot of examples and makes everything clear, then you may not need this to really teach yourself the subject. But, even in that situation, you will probably come across a homework problem or two that you get stuck on, and there are enough example problems in here that you can probably find a pretty close example to use as a guide. 

This is one of the outlines that does teach you some of the theory but does not go into it as much as a textbook will, and then has a decent amount of worked-out examples and some problems in which you are just provided the answer. I did notice that the chapters were laid out a bit differently than they were in my particular textbook, and this definitely included material that we did not cover in class. But, I was always able to find what I was looking for, and did not notice a bunch of mistakes (although I did not look at or try to work through every problem). So, overall, I think it is a good resource that can help you get through a thermodynamics class as painlessly as possible. 

Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Basic Electrical Engineering 2nd Edition

 

The title of this guide may lead some to think that this is really a starting point for someone that is either at the beginning of an electrical engineering degree program or thinking about electrical engineering as a major. And it is really not that so much as it is a guide that takes the large concepts that you learn throughout the course of an electrical engineering degree like circuits analysis, electronics (circuits made of diodes, transistors, etc.) digital logic, electric drives, etc., and condenses them into one guide. So, it is more a review of the core concepts of an electrical engineering curriculum and can be used as a primer once you graduate to brush up on concepts, prepare for the PE exam (for those who will take it), etc. It is not necessarily a guide that will be extremely helpful to use in an introduction to electrical engineering class that many schools have that gives you an idea of what you can do with the major, may have you build a couple of basic soldering projects or the like. It has some calculation mistakes in it (which knocks it down a star for me), but if you need to brush up on the theory for some reason, this is an excellent guide to get the big picture without all of the fine detail.

Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Basic Circuit Analysis, Second Edition

 

As most science/engineering students know, Schaum's guides can vary widely in quality and helpfulness. This is one that, for the most part, is very helpful. It distills the concepts into easily digestible chunks, giving you enough of the theory to understand the concepts without getting bogged down, and many example problems. The first couple of chapters are basically an overview of various concepts, but once you get to chapter three, you will start with the material you will see in your first couple of class sessions of a circuits analysis class. The guide covers both DC and AC circuit analysis as well as power and three-phase circuits.

There are also chapters on PSPICE, which is one of the circuit simulation software programs that you may or may not learn how to use in your classes. In my electrical engineering program, we used Multisim and MATLAB, so the PSPICE chapters were of no use to me. The guide also has a chapter on Transformers which in my program was not covered in circuits analysis and only covered unless someone took Power Systems. So, not everything in the guide may be covered if you are actually getting this because you are taking a class. If, however, you are getting it to teach yourself the topic, need it for work, or just want to brush up, this is very good and much easier to understand than some of the circuits textbooks.

Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Electronic Devices and Circuits, Second Edition

 

This is a book that is not really keyed toward one class, although it is probably most helpful for a two-semester Electronics class (sometimes called Microelectronics). It mostly deals with diodes and transistors and then how Op-Amp circuits are fabricated using diodes and/or transistors. It is not a guide that would be good for, or even useful in, the first two semesters of circuits analysis which is taken at the beginning of an electrical engineering curriculum. This is very math-intensive, which is helpful if you have a teacher that requires you to get deep into the math. My electronics teacher basically just gave us the equations, deriving a few here and there, but did not require us to get too into the weeds and derive the equations ourselves. He did not really lecture from the textbook, and thankfully was pretty easy to follow. But, if you have a teacher that does heavily use a textbook that is hard to follow and/or does not give understandable lectures, then this may help you as it does give a concise (yet math-heavy) explanation of the theory. It is not something that is going to be easy to teach yourself the topic from scratch, however.

Study Aid Review: A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations (Student's Guides) 1st Edition

 

Maxwell's equations are some of the most important things that you will learn if you are taking physics and/or working on an electrical engineering degree. They basically describe the concepts of electricity and magnetism, which apply to things like the power to our homes and semiconductor chips that are in every single device we own. Unfortunately, a lot of the textbooks (both physics and EM engineering textbooks) give them a bit of short shrift, giving a basic explanation and maybe deriving one or two of them, but do not give a good explanation of why they are useful and, thus, what they represent can be lost on students.

This is a small book (about 130 pages) that covers all four equations, one per chapter. That breaks down what each equation represents and what the variables in the equation mean and provides both the integral form of the equations and the differential form. I think the best way to use this guide is to supplement your textbook material so that when you get to the point in the textbook where one of the equations is discussed, use this to flesh out the theory behind the equations that your textbook may not cover (or cover in as much detail). To be clear, this is not something like "Maxwell's Equations for Dummies" or something like that, which assumes you have little to no background going in. You do need to have some understanding of calculus (if you have taken multivariable calculus, that will definitely help because there is a lot of discussion of surface integrals and vectors), and know some of the physics concepts you will learn before getting to the electricity and magnetism topics (which is covered in the second semester of physics). So, if you are taking calculus-based physics and/or have to take an electricity and magnetism class (electric and magnetic fields) as a part of an engineering program, this will be very useful. It is probably overkill for those who just have to take algebra-based physics because it will go way beyond what you will be exposed to in class or expected to learn.

Study Aid Review: Schaum's Outline of Electromagnetics, 4th Edition

 

As pretty much anyone who has a science or engineering degree knows, Schaum's can outlines range from very helpful to barely useful. This is definitely one of the helpful ones. It is going to be the most useful to people getting an electrical engineering degree who have to take a class on electromagnetics (also sometimes called electromagnetic fields) and/or transmission lines (sometimes called distributed networks). The main textbooks used for those classes can be very hard to understand and this definitely helps with that. It distills the theory into easily digestible and understandable parts and gives you a lot of examples. I used this in conjunction with another study guide that just had example problems and it definitely helped me get through distributed networks, especially since my teacher for that class did not explain things well at all.

Study Aid Review: 2008+ Solved Problems in Electromagnetics

 

I used this to help with homework problems for my electric and magnetic fields and distributed networks (transmission lines) classes when I was working on my electrical engineering undergrad degree. This is really just a problems repository. It is not a guide that you are going to use to understand the theory. That you would need to get from your teacher, your textbook, or a different guide that distills the information in the textbook down to just the essentials. This just has worked out problems in it and will cover all the essential material/topics from an EM and/or transmission lines class. The way I would use it is if I got stuck on a homework problem, I would look in the section of the guide on the topic and find the closest problem to what I was trying to solve that I could. Most of the time I could find something really close that would allow me to solve whatever I was stuck on. That is, in my opinion, the best way to use this. If however, you are expecting to learn the material from scratch just with this guide, you will probably be disappointed.

Study Aid Review: Hands-On Introduction to LabVIEW for Scientists and Engineers

 

LabView is a programming "language" that uses icons as opposed to writing out computer code. While you would think that would be easier than typing out lines of code, it can get very tricky and involved, especially when you are trying to do something fairly advanced. When I was working on my Electrical Engineering degree, I had a couple of classes that used LabView; one was an "introduction to LabView" class, and the other was computer-aided measures and controls, which covered LabView, C++, and MatLab. The same professor taught both courses, and he was notorious for showing very simple examples during class and then assigning homework and having test problems that were much harder than anything he showed us how to do. So, I used this to get through the LabView material and come up with ideas for projects, etc.

It is not a traditional textbook (although it can be used as one), so it has a lot of examples and enough explanation to understand what is going on. It is mainly for beginners to intermediate users, which is perfect for most people who are taking a college course. And, if you get an older version of the book it is much less expensive than some of the other books out there. So, if you are looking for help in using LabView, this is a good resource.

Study Aid Review: Schaum’s Outline of Feedback and Control Systems, 3rd Edition

 

As most engineering students know, Schaum's study guides can vary in both quality and function. Some are basically just a problems repository giving only minimal theory and then have a bunch of problems, while others do try to teach you the material and like textbooks will give the background/theory (but less than the regular textbooks go through) and then have problem sets. This guide is more like the latter

This guide is for a control systems class which is a class that pretty much every engineering major has a version of. The chapters are divided up into sections, and each section is enough theory to learn the material and it is presented in a more straightforward and concise manner than the textbook I used. One thing I like is that there is an entire chapter focused on designing control systems, which my professor loved and tested on quite heavily. So, I was able to get a lot of practice with design problems which helped immensely. So, if you are looking for a supplement for a control systems class, this is a good one to use.

Study Guide Review: Electric Circuits Problem Solver (Problem Solvers Solution Guides) Revised, Subsequent Edition

 

This is a guide that I would describe more as a book of problems to help you do your homework or give you additional examples than it is a guide that will directly teach you the material. It is geared toward the first couple of semesters of circuits, although, depending on how your school divides up material, may also be helpful in some other classes, but the bulk of it deals with the stuff you will see in Circuits I and II, like the various methods of circuits analysis for both AC and DC circuits. So, if you get stuck on a problem, chances are you can find an example in this to help.

The couple of issues that it has is, the diagrams are not the greatest and it is not always easy to follow how they are reducing the circuit. Also, there are errors, sometimes minor and sometimes not, and they are not always easy to spot, especially when you are just learning the material. So, on the whole, I think it is helpful, but there are things you have to watch out for, and I would definitely pair it with something like the Schaum's outline of basic circuit analysis that is geared more toward teaching the concepts than they are just being a problems repository.

Study Guide Review: 3,000 Solved Problems In Chemistry (Schaum's Outlines) 1st Edition

 

This is a very good resource to help you get through the two semesters of a college-level General Chemistry course. It will also help in a high school chemistry course, or an intro to chemistry course. It has problems from all of the main topics you would be exposed to in one of those classes, including an intro to Organic Chemistry and Nuclear Chemistry which you tend to get toward the end of the second semester of General Chemistry if you have to take it.

Keep in mind this is a problems guide. It is not meant to be, nor is it good for, actually trying to learn the fundamental concepts. It does have some very bare-bones explanatory material, but it is not as extensive as you would see in the chapter text of a textbook or in supplements that are geared more to teaching the theory. But, this will give you examples of nearly every possible type of problem you will be exposed to either as a homework problem or on an exam or quiz. So, if you get stuck on homework you will very likely find an analogous problem in this guide that can help you out. So, you are in the unfortunate position of having a teacher you do not understand and cannot follow the explanations and examples in a textbook very easily, this is a good resource to use.

Study Aid Review: Statics for Dummies

 

The way I felt about statics was, it took the worst problems from physics, made them harder, and then filled an entire semester with them. Needless to say, it was not my favorite subject. Thankfully, I had a fairly good teacher, but I was taking online/distance classes before that really became a mainstream thing, so it was hard to ask questions and get them answered well, and while the book explained some concepts well, it was tough to follow for other concepts. This really helped fill in that gap. I would say that it is more useful for explaining the concepts than it is for helping with homework. It does have some examples that will help you a bit on homework problems but it generally does not have examples of the harder types of problems that you are likely to get on an exam. So, I used this and the Schaum's outline for Statics (mainly as a problems repository) to help get me through the class. So, if you are having trouble following the book and are looking for something that makes the concepts understandable, this is definitely a good resource.