General Books - Page 12

Republic.com 2.0

Cass R. Sunstein

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Editorial Review:

What happens to democracy and free speech if people use the Internet to create echo chambers--to listen and speak only to the like-minded? What is the democratic benefit of the Internet's unlimited choices if citizens narrowly limit the information they receive, creating ever-smaller niches and fragmenting the shared public conversation on which democracy depends? Cass Sunstein first asked these questions before 9/11, in Republic.com, and they have become even more urgent in the years since.

Now, in Republic.com 2.0, Sunstein thoroughly rethinks the critical relationship between democracy and the Internet in a world where partisan Web logs have emerged as a significant force in politics and where cyber-jihadists have embraced the Internet to thwart democracy and spread violence.

Emphasizing the value of unplanned, unchosen encounters, the original Republic.com provoked a strong reaction from cyber-optimists. In Republic.com 2.0 Sunstein answers the critics and expands his argument to take account of new developments, including the blogosphere, and fresh evidence about how people are using the Internet. He demonstrates that the real question is how to avoid "information cocoons" and to ensure that the unrestricted choices made possible by technology do not undermine democracy. Sunstein also proposes new remedies and reforms--focusing far less on what government should do, and much more on what consumers and producers should do--to help democracy avoid the perils, and realize the promise, of the Internet.

Unix Power Tools, Third Edition

Shelley Powers, Tim O'Reilly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 67 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The mark of a craftsman is his familiarity with his tools, the speed with which he can use them to solve simple problems, and his cleverness in using them to solve more complicated challenges. The latest edition of Unix Power Tools explores the standard Unix tools in greater depth than ever, and with better coverage of Linux, FreeBSD, and even the Darwin environment of Mac OS X. It's also been improved by the addition of sections on Perl and Python, programming languages that can often solve Unix problems more adeptly than any specific utility. This detail-filled book distinguishes itself from other guides for Unix gurus with its organizational structure (it's a series of articles that can be absorbed sequentially or individually) and carefully designed and executed index. Like its esteemed predecessors, this book is one you will keep handy.

The authors have achieved a nearly ideal balance in the pages of this book. It's not just a collection of recipes (such collections tend to leave you hanging if you want to do something a little differently), it's not just a book of documentation (books like that have application mainly as references for people who know a lot already), and it's not just a conceptual how-to guide. Unix Power Tools is all of those things, and the overall effect is impressive indeed. If you work with any flavor of Unix, whatever your level of experience, you will benefit by having this book. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to work efficiently, elegantly, and creatively with the Unix tool suite, as well as (to a lesser extent) with Perl and Python scripts. Tips and strategies on customization, document generation, process management, and networking abound in this wisdom-rich volume.

FPGA Prototyping ByVerilog Examples

Pong P. Chu

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Best introductory book 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is perhaps the best introductory Verilog book. It introduces the digital system design methodology and demonstrates the key language concepts and constructs via a series of practical examples, all of them can be physically implemented and tested in an inexpensive Xilinx FPGA board.

There are three parts:
-Part 1 introduces key Verilog language constructs, and systematically shows how to construct combinational circuit, sequential circuit, FSM, and FSMD (FSM with data path) by these constructs.
-Part 2 utilizes the methodologies and techniques of part 1 to design interface and control circuits for an array of I/O modules of the prototyping board, including UART, keyboard, mouse, SRAM, graphic VGA, and textual VGA.
-Part 3 introduces PicoBlaze (an 8-bit soft-core micro-controller) and demonstrates how to integrate a processor to an FPGA design and develop customized I/O.

Pros:
-It utilizes a hands-on approach to introduce Verilog and design methodology.
-It introduces Verilog from hardware's point of view (rather than C's point of view) and emphasizes the key concepts behind HDL.
-The design methodology and coding practice used the in the book are sound and can be applied to larger system.
-It contains an advanced chapter that clarifies several confusing Verilog constructs, such as blocking/non-blocking assignments and signed data type.
-It contains a chapter on soft-core micro-controller and shows the integration of general-purpose processor and customized circuit.

Cons (actually caveats):
-The book is more towards applying Verilog for digital system design rather than the Verilog language. It only covers key Verilog language constructs. You may need another book to learn the complete "language."
-You need to purchase a prototyping board (around $100) to take full advantage of this book.
-The book covers PicoBlaze (a simple 8-bit processor), not its the full-blown big brother, MicroBlaze (a 32-bit processor). The later perhaps is too complicated for an introductory book.

Editorial Review:

FPGA Prototyping Using Verilog Examples will provide you with a hands-on introduction to Verilog synthesis and FPGA programming through a “learn by doing” approach. By following the clear, easy-to-understand templates for code development and the numerous practical examples, you can quickly develop and simulate a sophisticated digital circuit, realize it on a prototyping device, and verify the operation of its physical implementation. This introductory text that will provide you with a solid foundation, instill confidence with rigorous examples for complex systems and prepare you for future development tasks.

Professional Microsoft Search: SharePoint 2007 and Search Server 2008 (Wrox Professional Guides)

Tom Rizzo, Richard Riley, Shane Young

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Awesome book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

But not sure my thoughts count since I was one of the authors. ;)

Editorial Review:

Written by three of the most recognized influencers in the Microsoft SharePoint community, this book sheds light on SharePoint Search in the enterprise and focuses solely on Microsoft Search technology. You’ll investigate deep technical content, including architecture and deployment, configuration, management and tuning, extending and customizing, and security.

Programming 32-bit Microcontrollers in C: Exploring the PIC32 (Embedded Technology)

Lucio Di Jasio

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Microprocessors & System Design -> PIC Microcontroller

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

*Just months after the introduction of the new generation of 32-bit PIC microcontrollers, a Microchip insider and acclaimed author takes you by hand at the exploration of the PIC32

*Free CD-ROM includes source code in C and the Microchip MPLAB C32 compiler

*Includes handy checklists to help readers perform the most common programming and debugging tasks

The new 32-bit microcontrollers bring the promise of more speed and more performance while offering an unprecedented level of compatibility with existing 8 and 16-bit PIC microcontrollers. In sixteen engaging chapters, using a parallel track to his previous title dedicated to 16-bit programming, the author puts all these claims to test while offering a gradual introduction to the development and debugging of embedded control applications in C.
Author Lucio Di Jasio, a PIC and embedded control expert, offers unique insight into the new 32-bit architecture while developing a number of projects of growing complexity.
Experienced PIC users and newcomers to the field alike will benefit from the text's many thorough examples which demonstrate how to nimbly side-step common obstacles, solve real-world design problems efficiently and optimize code using the new PIC32 features and peripheral set.

You will learn about:
*basic timing and I/O operation
*debugging methods with the MPLAB SIM *simulator and ICD tools
*multitasking using the PIC32 interrupts
*all the new hardware peripherals
*how to control LCD displays
*experimenting with the Explorer16 board and *the PIC32 Starter Kit
*accessing mass-storage media
*generating audio and video signals
*and more!

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Day 1 And the adventure begins
Day 2 Walking in circles
Day 3 Message in a Bottle
Day 4 NUMB3RS
Day 5 Interrupts
Day 6 Memory
Part 2 Experimenting
Day 7 Running
Day 8 Communication
Day 9 Links
Day 10 Glass = Bliss
Day 11 It's an analog world
Part 3 Expansion
Day 12 Capturing User Inputs
Day 13 UTube
Day 14 Mass Storage
Day 15 File I/O
Day 16 Musica Maestro!

*32-bit microcontrollers are becoming the technology of choice for high performance embedded control applications including portable media players, cell phones, and GPS receivers.
*Learn to use the C programming language for advanced embedded control designs and/or learn to migrate your applications from previous 8 and 16-bit architectures.
*All code examples and software tools required to get acquainted with Microchip's MPLAB development environment, and to complete all the projects described in the book, are offered in the attached CDROM including the MPLAB C32 C Compiler (free Student Edition) and the full source code for more than 15 entertaining projects.

Designing Embedded Systems with PIC Microcontrollers: Principles and Applications

Tim Wilmshurst

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This book is a hands-on introduction to the principles and practice of embedded system design using the PIC microcontroller. Packed with helpful examples and illustrations, it gives an in-depth treatment of microcontroller design, programming in both assembly language and C, and features advanced topics such as networking and real-time operating systems. It is accompanied by a CD-ROM containing copies of all programs and software tools used in the text and a 'student' version of the C complier.

Designing Embedded Systems with PIC Microcontrollers: Principles and Applications is ideal for students of electronics, mechatronics and computer engineering. Engineers in industry and informed hobbyists will also find this book a valuable resource when designing and implementing both simple and sophisticated embedded systems using the PIC Microcontroller.

Support material, including new and supporting information, links to useful sites, and errata, is available from the book's companion site.

*Gain the knowledge and skills required for developing today's embedded systems, through use of the PIC microcontroller.

*Explore in detail the 16F84A, 16F873A and 18F242 microcontrollers as examples of the wider PIC family.

*Learn how to program in Assembler and C.

*Work through sample designs and design ideas, including a robot in the form of an autonomous guided vehicle.

*Accompanied by a CD-ROM containing copies of all programs and software tools used in the text and a 'student' version of the C complier.

The Myth of Digital Democracy

Matthew Hindman

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Business & Culture -> Government

Editorial Review:

Is the Internet democratizing American politics? Do political Web sites and blogs mobilize inactive citizens and make the public sphere more inclusive? The Myth of Digital Democracy reveals that, contrary to popular belief, the Internet has done little to broaden political discourse but in fact empowers a small set of elites--some new, but most familiar.

Matthew Hindman argues that, though hundreds of thousands of Americans blog about politics, blogs receive only a miniscule portion of Web traffic, and most blog readership goes to a handful of mainstream, highly educated professionals. He shows how, despite the wealth of independent Web sites, online news audiences are concentrated on the top twenty outlets, and online organizing and fund-raising are dominated by a few powerful interest groups. Hindman tracks nearly three million Web pages, analyzing how their links are structured, how citizens search for political content, and how leading search engines like Google and Yahoo! funnel traffic to popular outlets. He finds that while the Internet has increased some forms of political participation and transformed the way interest groups and candidates organize, mobilize, and raise funds, elites still strongly shape how political material on the Web is presented and accessed.

The Myth of Digital Democracy. debunks popular notions about political discourse in the digital age, revealing how the Internet has neither diminished the audience share of corporate media nor given greater voice to ordinary citizens.

Skype For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

Loren Abdulezer, Susan Abdulezer, Howard Dammond

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A note from Susan (one of the authors!) 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

Okay, I had to give it 5 stars since I co-wrote the book and I know all the research, reflection, editing and late nights that went into Skype for Dummies. But I also wanted to add a little personal note about Skype and why I wanted to write this book.

Skype is an amazing way to communicate. I don't use it exclusively (I use land lines, email and cell phones too). But I wanted to open up the possibilities of using a program that let's you talk, type in messages, conference, videoconference, transfer files all at the same time, in the same venue, exploding the idea of what it means to mingle electronically. My husband Loren (my co-author), and our friend Howard Dammond (my other co-author), used Skype constantly in the writing work flow. We'd develop an outline and send the file out (you can send files out to a whole bunch of people at once if they are in a Skype chat or conference with you). We'd each look at it, comment, paste in paragraphs, changes, suggestions and add live links in the chat window, and then get down to work. Our work flow was almost exclusively on Skype. This was true even when Loren was in the study and I was in the living room in the same apartment. It was faster to Skype a file and paste a paragraph into a chat than it was to email or print and walk the chapter over to the next room. We really hadn't anticipated how efficient this was (and grateful for that efficiency when deadlines loomed).

Skype had become part of our culture of communicating. We used it for work, play, to explore, to teach and to connect our far flung families.

On any given day, while I'm at work writing or researching on my computer, a little alert comes up inviting me to answer a Skype call. Not unusual...but the call is from my mother, a new user to computers, and well into her eighties. Mom lives in Florida, I'm in New York, and her Skype contacts allow her to instantly call any of her children with a couple of clicks. She also uses landlines and cell phones, but the quality of a Skype call for her is much clearer...a boon to failing hearing. I coached my Mom in how to set up a contact list and how to Skype out to her brothers in Indiana and Virginia, and her nieces in California. She is a confident Skyper (although she calls it Spyke!) and absolutely took to the program because it made sense to use it.

In the book we certainly tried to be really, really clear about how to use all the features of Skype...and then some (editors in the Dummies series are meticulous about insisting on clarity...albeit with a huge dose of humour). But we wanted to talk about the new culture that is emerging because of such programs; the enormity of how much more productive we can be if we take advantage of new tools; how far our reach can go in multi-continent collaboration, language learning, and business development.

To me, Skype is personal. I use it every day. This book was not a platform for political, economic or ethical discussions on Skype, eBay, cable companies and the like (I'll let you know when I become a political columnist). It's simply a glance down the road, a fun travel guide to suggest a path and destination you may not have considered (or didn't know was there). What is that destination? A very rich, varied way to connect with each other.

Loren, Howard and I truly hope you enjoy the book (of course we do). But, more than that, we hope we've opened a few eyes, imaginations, and helped to launch a few enterprises.

Thanks for reading my little missive,

Sincerely, Susan Abdulezer

Editorial Review:

See how to use Skype for secure chats and connect SkypeOut and SkypeIN. Here's the fun and easy way (r) to understand all the hype about Skype and make this cool alternative communication system work for you! You'll get great advice about hardware, directions for downloading and installing Skype, ideas for using Skype in your business, and the lowdown on making Skype calls to people with old-fashioned phones.

Discover how to:

• Install Skype and start making calls
• Create a contacts list
• Set up voicemail and call forwarding
• Use Skype for worldwide conference calls and Skypecasting
• Enhance Skype with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi wireless, and video

Introduction to Linear Optimization (Athena Scientific Series in Optimization and Neural Computation, 6) (Athena Scientific Series in Optimization and Neural Computation, 6)

Dimitris Bertsimas, John N. Tsitsiklis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Nice intuition and good coverage 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The best part of this book is the first half, where the foundations of linear programming are presented in a clear yet relatively rigorous fashion, accompanied by numerous intuitive geometrical explanations of the abstract general concepts. This approach, supplementing mathematics with graphical insights, works extremely well for this topic.

The quality goes down somewhat, perhaps neccessarily, in the latter half of the book as topics are presented less carefully, and in a somewhat rushed manner in order to cover all of the material the authors decided to include. Given that the fundamentals are covered so well, perhaps this is a fair trade.

The only real negative I can think of is that it's a small crime for professors to create their own publishing companies (Athena only publishes works by a small group of MIT professors) and then still charge outrageous amounts for the books. This would be completely unacceptable were it not for the fact that, unlike most self-published work, this book's production quality is on par with that of the large publishers.

Editorial Review:

This book provides a unified, insightful, and modern treatment of linear optimization, that is, linear programming, network flow problems, and discrete optimization. It includes classical topics as well as the state of the art, in both theory and practice.

Introduction to Neural Networks for Java, 2nd Edition

Jeff Heaton

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> Neural Networks

Editorial Review:

Introduction to Neural Networks with Java, Second Edition, introduces the Java programmer to the world of Neural Networks and Artificial Intelligence. Neural network architectures, such as the feedforward, Hopfield, and self-organizing map architectures are discussed. Training techniques, such as backpropagation, genetic algorithms and simulated annealing are also introduced. Practical examples are given for each neural network. Examples include the traveling salesman problem, handwriting recognition, financial prediction, game strategy, mathematical functions, and Internet bots. All Java source code is available online for easy downloading.