General Books - Page 4

How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics

Zbigniew Michalewicz, David B. Fogel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

It's not the technique, it's the logic behind it 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Most evolutionary computation or math books deal with the techniques of solving problems. This book teachs you how to think of a solution for the problem you face, and not what problems are appropriate for the technique in hand.

The logic is that when you do a craft work, you do pick the appropriate tool from your tools box, but you don't grasp a tool and then find a job to go with it, which is the case when you can only handle this tool.

Editorial Review:

This book is the only source that provides comprehensive, current, and correct information on problem solving using modern heuristics. It covers classic methods of optimization, including dynamic programming, the simplex method, and gradient techniques, as well as recent innovations such as simulated annealing, tabu search, and evolutionary computation. Integrated into the discourse is a series of problems and puzzles to challenge the reader. The book is written in a lively, engaging style and is intended for students and practitioners alike. Anyone who reads and understands the material in the book will be armed with the most powerful problem solving tools currently known.

This second edition contains two new chapters, one on coevolutionary systems and one on multicriterial decision-making. Also some new puzzles are added and various subchapters are revised.

Digital Video and HDTV Algorithms and Interfaces (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics)

Charles Poynton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Rapidly evolving computer and communications technologies have achieved data transmission rates and data storage capacities high enough for digital video. But video involves much more than just pushing bits! Achieving the best possible image quality, accurate color, and smooth motion requires understanding many aspects of image acquisition, coding, processing, and display that are outside the usual realm of computer graphics. At the same time, video system designers are facing new demands to interface with film and computer system that require techniques outside conventional video engineering.

Charles Poynton's 1996 book A Technical Introduction to Digital Video became an industry favorite for its succinct, accurate, and accessible treatment of standard definition television (SDTV). In Digital Video and HDTV, Poynton augments that book with coverage of high definition television (HDTV) and compression systems.

With the help of hundreds of high quality technical illustrations, this book presents the following topics:

* Basic concepts of digitization, sampling, quantization, gamma, and filtering
* Principles of color science as applied to image capture and display
* Scanning and coding of SDTV and HDTV
* Video color coding: luma, chroma (4:2:2 component video, 4fSC composite video)
* Analog NTSC and PAL
* Studio systems and interfaces
* Compression technology, including M-JPEG and MPEG-2
* Broadcast standards and consumer video equipment

Schaum's Outline of Principles of Computer Science (Schaum's Outlines)

Carl Reynolds, Paul Tymann

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Editorial Review:

Learn the essentials of computer science

Schaum’s Outline of Principles of Computer Science provides a concise overview of the theoretical foundation of computer science. It also includes focused review of object-oriented programming using Java.

Data Structures and Algorithms (Addison-Wesley Series in Computer Science and Information Pr)

Alfred V. Aho, Jeffrey D. Ullman, John E. Hopcroft

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

An okay book! 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 6 people found this review helpful.

It is just an okay book, not extraordinary in any way. Especially, this is certainly not for the novice in this topic, i.e., it is certainly not a good introductory book. So if you are new to data structures and algorithms, stay away from this book, go for some good introductory book.

For the advanced readers, it is an okay book. Better books are available, e.g., books by Cormen et al. and Robert Sedgewick.

The book is written in a way not very intersting or engaging. The algorithms are not explained in detail. Often things are left unexplained or assumed that the reader already knows it. Algorithms are presented in pseudocode, which causes problems especially for the readers familiar to some particular programming language.

A JEWEL 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Perfect book. Nice and small. You can buy it cheap too, it's old. But it's full of the meat and potatoes, no fluffy Java source code. Sure, it uses Pascal, but it's not that hard to understand Pascal code even if you never programmed in Pascal (me neither). What matters is the discussions behind the scenes. It covers the whole range of what you should know and it's concise. They don't write books like this anymore.

Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms (3rd Edition) (Art of Computer Programming Volume 1)

Donald E. Knuth

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 49 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Vol 1 is the most important in the series and is a must for CS students 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

All three volumes of The Art of Computer Programming (TAOCP), are classic. Each is a book that every CS student should try to study diligently reimplementing example after example. Not many will succeed to finish even a half of one volume, but if you do please buy all three of them and think about post-graduate studies :-).

I think the most important is to study the Vol 1. It gives enough exposition to the Donald Knuth style and brilliant thinking. While the content is definitely important it is the level of thinking of the author that represents the main value of the book: you instantly understand the book was written by a great scientist and it does not matter much that now the contents of most chapters can be significantly improved using more modern sources. After all Vol 1 is more then a 30 years old book (it is older then Unix) and as such it should be outdated (we all believe in progress, don't we)... And it is not surprising that parts of Vol 1 on of TAOCP today look completely out of touch with reality especially MIX, the CPU instruction set that is used in all volumes.

Actually MIX instruction set (and thus assembler) was outdated even when the book was first published and more reflects unique Knuth's background with IBM 650. It was far from the state of hardware development even in late 60th when the first volume was published, the period when IBM/360 was the king of the hill.

Now IBM 650, a 1,966 lb machine that consumed almost 30 Kw of electricity looks more like a primitive calculator than a real computer: typical installation has the memory of just 10,000 decimal digits ( 1,000 words; 10 digit per word).

It's really sad that Knuth did not adopt System 360 architecture and PL/360 assembler (Wirth's structured assembler for S/360) for his books but we can do nothing about it. Still this is a book about timeless truths, not the book about the resent CS fashion like Java or you name it :-). It actually can serve as a perfect antidote against any current CS fashion.

And Knuth does provide pseudocode with his natural language algorithm description. And natural language pseudocode has an important advantage over 'structured pseudocode. The problem with a "structured pseudocode" is that the set of control structures is fixed and may not reflect the needs of a particular algorithms (branching out of loop is a common problem that is not addressed by structured programming well). Moreover it can cripple the algorithm by enforcing unnatural control structures, the structures that are absent in it but might be present in more modern languages. For example Perl has an interesting set of control structures that is superior to C. But even "Perl control structures set" can be improved further.
That's why assembler language is preferable: it never obscures "natural" control structures for each algorithms, structures that one day can be mapped into some new elegant language construct. Also as one review noted "sometimes high level languages with all their abstractions make things look more complex than they need be."

I would like to stress it again that each volume is very difficult to read; you really need to work on each chapter by reimplementing the examples that Knuth gives in your favorite language (assembler might help but is not essential).

Mathematical considerations as for average and worst running time of a particular algorithm can be largely ignored during the first couple of years of study of this book. Actually most mathematics in Vol. 1 can (and probably should) be initially completely ignored. See Softpanorama Classic Computer Books for more information.

On the negative side this is an overpriced book, if we are talking about students budget. To save money you can buy one of the first editions: there is not that much difference in content to justify the differences in price. The differences do not interfere with the study of the book. Knuth did an excellent work the first time he published each volume and for a significant improvement we probably need another century and another person.

Editorial Review:

The bible of programming theory and practice is being updated for the first time in more than 20 years. The book is concerned with information structures--the representation of information within a computer, the structural interrelations between data elements and how to work with them efficiently, and applications to simulation, numerical methods and software design.

Text Mining Application Programming (Programming Series)

Manu Konchady

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

Editorial Review:

Text Mining Application Programming teaches software developers how to mine the vast amounts of information available on the Web, internal networks, and desktop files and turn it into usable data. The book helps developers understand the problems associated with managing unstructured text, and explains how to build your own mining tools using standard statistical methods from information theory, artificial intelligence, and operations research. Each of the topics covered are thoroughly explained and then a practical implementation is provided. The book begins with a brief overview of text data, where it can be found, and the typical search engines and tools used to search and gather this text. It details how to build tools for extracting and using the text, and covers the mathematics behind many of the algorithms used in building these tools. From there you'll learn how to build tokens from text, construct indexes, and detect patterns in text. You'll also find methods to extract the names of people, places, and organizations from an email, a news article, or a Web page. The next portion of the book teaches you how to find information on the Web, the structure of the Web, and how to build spiders to crawl the Web. Text categorization is also described in the context of managing email. The final part of the book covers information monitoring, summarization, and a simple Question & Answer (Q&A) system. The code used in the book is written in Perl, but knowledge of Perl is not necessary to run the software. Developers with an intermediate level of experience with Perl can customize the software. Although the book is about programming, methods are explained with English-like pseudocode and the source code is provided on the CD-ROM. After reading this book, you'll be ready to tap into the bevy of information available online in ways you never thought possible.

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Fourth Edition

D.S. Malik

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Great Book For Understanding C++ 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Whenever I go to learn a new language, I always look to see whether there is a book from Thompson's, 'From Problem Analysis to Program Design' series available on that language. This style of textbook always seems to get it right when it comes to academic learning.

After trying a couple of C++ texts, I found that with this particular book, I could understand those niggly bits of the language that can be very hard to explain/learn. This book has brought me much further than I was able to go with other texts. Clear explanations and useful case studies make for the best way to learn a language. Especially the case studies, as they show you how you can use what you have learnt constructively.

My advice: learn C++ with this book, and use C++ Primer Plus (5th Edition) as a reference companion.

Editorial Review:

Now in its fourth edition, C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design remains the definitive text for CS1 courses. Best-selling author D.S. Malik employs a student-focused approach, using complete programming examples to teach introductory programming concepts. This fourth edition has been enhanced to further demonstrate the use of OOD methodology, to introduce sorting algorithms (bubble sort and insertion sort), and to present additional material on abstract classes. In addition, the exercise sets at the end of each chapter have been expanded to include several calculus and engineering-related exercises. All programs have been written, compiled, and quality-assurance tested with Microsoft Visual C++ .NET, available as an optional compiler with this text. C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design, Fourth Edition is the ideal text to motivate your students as they learn the theory behind programming.

Microsoft Outlook Programming, Jumpstart for Administrators, Developers, and Power Users

Sue Mosher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Microsoft Outlook Programming unleashes the power of Microsoft Outlook, allowing administrators and end users to customize Outlook in the same way that they've used macros and templates to customize other programs like Excel and Word. Experienced developers will find the quick-start information they need to begin integrating Outlook into their applications. Microsoft Exchange administrators will get help automating common tasks such as announcing public folders and importing data to custom forms.

Microsoft Outlook is the most widely used email program, and it offers the most programmability. This book introduces key concepts for programming both Outlook forms for storing and exchanging data and Visual Basic for Applications modules that add new features to Outlook. Central to this new edition, which covers both Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002, is awareness of tighter security in Outlook. Designed to prevent transmission of computer viruses, the security restrictions can also get in the way of legitimate programs, but this book offers workarounds within the reach of novice programmers. It also covers many of the new features of Outlook 2002, such as the integrated Outlook View Control and searching across multiple folders using SQL syntax and the Search object.

· Building block procedures for the most common Outlook programming tasks
· Jargon-free language and practical examples to make the material more accessible to new Outlook programmers
· Coverage of Outlook Email Security Update
· Coverage of the Office XP Web Services Toolkit

Digital Image Processing: An Algorithmic Introduction using Java

Wilhelm Burger, Mark James Burge

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"This will be one of my continuing reference books for some time to come."
Steve Cunningham, PhD, Past President of SIGGRAPH

"An excellent resource for the users of ImageJ."
Wayne Rasband, author of ImageJ

This modern, self-contained, textbook explains the fundamental algorithms of digital image processing through practical examples and complete Java implementations.  Available for the first time in English, Digital Image Processing is the definitive textbook for students, researchers, and professionals in search of critical analysis and modern implementations of the most important algorithms in the field.

• Practical examples and carefully constructed chapter-ending exercises drawn from the authors' years of experience teaching this material

• Real implementations, concise mathematical notation, and precise algorithmic descriptions designed for programmers and practitioners

• Easily adaptable Java code and completely worked out examples for easy inclusion in existing, and rapid prototyping of new, applications

• Self-contained chapters and additional online material suitable for a flexible one- or two- semester course

• Uses ImageJ, the image processing system developed, maintained, and freely distributed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)

• A comprehensive Website (www.imagingbook.com) with complete Java source code, test images, and additional instructor materials

This comprehensive, reader-friendly introduction is ideal for foundation courses as well as eminently suitable for self-study.

Wilhelm Burger is the director of the Digital Media degree programs at the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences at Hagenberg.

Mark J. Burge is a program director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a principal at Noblis (Mitretek) in Washington, D.C.

Information Retrieval: Algorithms and Heuristics (The Information Retrieval Series)(2nd Edition)

David A. Grossman, Ophir Frieder

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Interested in how an efficient search engine works? Want to know what algorithms are used to rank resulting documents in response to user requests? The authors answer these and other key information retrieval design and implementation questions.

This book is not yet another high level text. Instead, algorithms are thoroughly described, making this book ideally suited for both computer science students and practitioners who work on search-related applications. As stated in the foreword, this book provides a current, broad, and detailed overview of the field and is the only one that does so. Examples are used throughout to illustrate the algorithms.

The authors explain how a query is ranked against a document collection using either a single or a combination of retrieval strategies, and how an assortment of utilities are integrated into the query processing scheme to improve these rankings. Methods for building and compressing text indexes, querying and retrieving documents in multiple languages, and using parallel or distributed processing to expedite the search are likewise described.

This edition is a major expansion of the one published in 1998. Besides updating the entire book with current techniques, it includes new sections on language models, cross-language information retrieval, peer-to-peer processing, XML search, mediators, and duplicate document detection.