National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition

Product Description
Birding is the fastest growing wildlife-related activity in the U.S., and even conservative estimates put the current number of U.S. birders at 50 million. According to the New York Times, some authorities predict that by 2050 there will be more than 100 million—and the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America will be the essential reference for field identification and the cornerstone of any birder's library. This is the ultimate, indispensable bird field guide—comprehensive, authoritative, portable, sturdy, and easier than ever to use.

Among the the new edition's key elements and practical improvements: Every North American species—more than 960, including a new section on accidental birds—classified according to the latest official American Ornithologists' Union checklist 4,000 full-color illustrations by the foremost bird artists at work todayand newly updated range maps that draw on the latest data New durable cover for added protection against adverse weather, plus informative quick-reference flaps that double as placemarkers New reader-friendly features like thumbtabs that make locating key sections faster and easier, and a quick-find index to direct users straight to the information they need.


About the Author
Jon L. Dunn, a leading expert on the identification and distribution of North American birds, has served as chief consultant on all four previous editions of this book. He is also a consultant for the American Birding Association magazine, Birding, and the former chair of the ABA Checklist Committee, as well as a member of the California Bird Records Committee and the AOU Committee on Taxonomy and Nomenclature. He lives in Bishop, California.

Jonathan Alderfer, chief consultant for National Geographic's Birding Program, is a widely published author and field guide illustrator. One of the nation's foremost birding artists, he is well known for his expertise as a field ornithologist and an authority on North American birds. He was a general consultant, art consultant, and contributing artist for the NG Field Guide to the Birds of North America 3rd and 4th editions, and the lead editor of NG's Complete Birds of North America. A former Associate Editor of Birding, the ABA magazine, he also served on the Maryland/D.C. Bird Records Committee. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Maximum PC Guide to Extreme PC Mods

Product Description

Tired of your non-descript, platinum-colored PC case? Want to show your individuality and make your friends green with envy? Interested in wringing out every ounce of performance that your timid PC can produce? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then The Maximum PC Guide to Extreme PC Mods is for you! We show you how to reach PC mod nirvana step-by-step, including choosing (or making) the perfect case, cutting custom windows, painting cases, turning everyday, ordinary objects into fully functional PCs, installing neon/cold cathode lighting, liquid cooling and more. Then, we show you how to drain every last drop of performance from your PC - from simple settings within your BIOS and Windows, to more fringe overclocking techniques. If you want to pimp out your rig, then this book is a must-have. No other book combines PC mods and overclocking into one, indispensable book. Best of all, this book was written by the two top voices in PC hardware technology - Maximum PC and Que!

* First, we show you to cook up your idea, spec it out, gather the tools for the job, prepare your workshop and complete your mod without injuring yourself or setting your workshop ablaze.
* For beginners, we’ll first show you how to choose the best off-the-shelf enclosures for "simple" modding projects, and later we’ll show you how you can let your imagination run wild, creating kick ass mods from the most unusual objects.
* Along the way, we show you - with hundreds of full-color photos - how to cut case windows, paint your rig at home, add trick fans, install dazzling interior lights, install custom cables, and how to mod your PC’s front-panel.
* Once you have all of the hardcore skills down, we dive into three mod projects, which show you, step-by-step, how to build a mod from an everyday, garden-variety PC case, to creating a mod from an object you found around the house or at the hardware store, to building a mod from scratch. Each of these projects is explained in fine detail, with full-color photos that show you exactly how to do it.
* We then attack more performance-oriented hardware hacking, such as installing exotic cooling, overclocking your CPU frequency, and tweaking your BIOS and video card settings.
* Throughout the book, we highlight some of the best mods from Maximum PC readers. About the Author

Paul Capello owns and runs The Best Case Scenario, www.thebestcasescenario.com, a website devoted to extreme PC mods. In August 2003, one of Paul's designs was named Maximum PC's Rig of the Month. Paul has appeared on TechTV's Screensavers and his work has been featured in Wired magazine.

Jon Phillips is Editorial Director at Future Network USA, which publishes a variety of technology magazines, including Maximum PC and MacAddict. He is the former Editor in Chief of Maximum PC and was a regular on the NextStep television show.