As far as Shamms Mortier books being bad...I personally learned alot from them. You have to remember that people on Amazon.com like to get there name mentioned...If you checked the book sales on Shamms Mortier you would know why CL would give him a beta copy of the program. I personally think that CL will be releasing Poser at Siggraph... If you look at the history of Meta Creations on Poser and Curious Labs on Poser all releases were at Siggraph.