Applications Books

Many 'engineering' matlab books don't live up their titles. They are simply written as general introductions to matlab with a few useless thoughts about engineering thrown in.

In my opinion, a good matlab engineering book focuses less on general tips that you could get anywhere, and more on practical problem solving techniques and methodologies that provide insight into a paticular engineering problem and its solution.

This books succeeds in that respect. Though it gives space to the more general issues of using matlab, it gives ample room to specific engineering problems. I found its information and examples very useful. The topics are focused on mechanical engineering fields, such as vibration and control; however, the math used for such topics are used across engineering and science disciplines. Thus, any scientist or engineer will find this book useful.

The book is written so that engineers at many levels can benefit from it. For example, as a former graduate student, I found the treatments of vibration response analysis insightful. However, an undergraduate or otherwise inexperienced user would benefit from this book as well, because there is alot of general discussion of how to effectively and efficiently use matlab and write m-files.

All in all, I found this book excellent for both its treatment of high level engineering analysis issues and its more general matlab tips and discussion.

This is one of the best books out there. I not only used it in my vibrations class back as an undergraduate (and I had vibrations with Magrab too!), I have continued to find new ways to use it in the work world today. Dr. Magrab and the others have written a very useful book that definitely relates engineering to this program.

Excellent! ... Applied Engineering using computers, it doesn't get any better than this. Examples, programs, applications .. this is where this book beats the competition. Matlab is a powerful program, and this book shows why. It has been written for beginners and experienced users alike. Introduction to matrices, then goes into functions, and 2D/3D plotting ... then the fun begins with Engineering Applications in fields such as Machine Design, Vibrations, Control Systems, Dynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer and even Statistics and Optimization! Numerous programs and examples serve as practice for the reader. I am currently using the text to write programs for calculating the vibration of thin beams in my Grad Vibrations class. I only wish I could have gotten my hands on a book such as this when I took many of my undergrad courses. By the way, this book refers to MATLAB 5.3 (Release 11). Congratulations to the authors on such a thorough guide.

This one is really for engineers, it goes over the basics first, subsequently it goes into more details. It has handy examples of mechanics, dynamics...etc. if you are a mechanical or an electrical engineer, and you are a matlab user, this book would mean a lot to you.

Though a book of the 90's I have just used this book as a text in my course on virtual architecture in our computer graphics program. It worked superbly. The text stimulated long fruitful discussions (some for three unbroken hours) and put students in the state of mind to produce 3D based sites of significant meaning. Students took to heart Anders cautionary assessments on designing cyberspace and produced work that leapt well ahead of the work they were producing prior to the discussions. Anders chooses all of the best sources for his analysis of the similarities and contrasts between actual space and cyberspace, especially his use of Jean Piaget's interactional psychology as a base.

This is an extremely thorough introduction to cyberspaces and has many beautiful illustrations. This is an intellectually sophisticated book for non-computer scientists. It begins with a rigorous intellectual picture and then continues to survey existing cyberspaces with many insights along the way, that will please even techno-nerds.

The book fills in many details in the history of building cyberspaces.

Next year in cyberspace!

The accelerating growth of personal computing over the past two decades and the unprecedented rise of the Internet in the 1990s has led to a countless number of books. Many deal with particular aspects of this revolution - linear historical accounts, analysis of emergent psycho-social phenomena, how-to manuals on the latest program or technology, etc.. Very few however, manage to capture a broad overview and comprehensive analysis of this explosion. Fewer still have documented the wide array of less common technologies and research efforts that have accompanied and in many cases, presaged, the more familiar aspects of today's cyberspace.

It's not surprising then, that a uniquely comprehensive view should come from a member of the original generalist profession - architecture. In "ENVISIONING CYBERSPACE: Designing 3D Electronic Spaces," architect and media theorist, Peter Anders has succeeded in delivering one of the best and rarest overviews of the beginnings of the Information Age.

Integrity demands that I disclose that some of my own work is featured in this book, but what I discovered to my great surprise and delight, is that it's also filled with many incredible technologies and ideas that I was unaware of. Such is the difficulty in being aware of everything that's going on in our rapidly evolving era.

Anyone interested or involved in the design and development of information technologies would do well to read this book. The future is not limited to just a simple extrapolation of what's most commonly known today. The real Information Age is a vast, barely explored region of possibility around us and ahead. We're lucky to have Peter Anders serving as both Lewis and Clark.

Something that makes Peter Anders' _Envisioning Cyberspace_ especially interesting is that it's the work of an architect and designer, for whom the issues of designing workable, user-centered cyberenvironments are comprehensible. He's gathered and comments upon a wide-ranging collection of work that he finds interesting, efforts that approach and address the big issues if not always fully realizing them. It often reminds me of the 1991 anthology _Cyberspace: First Steps_ edited by Michael Benedikt (another architect), or some of the hot early-'90s books on Virtual Reality, in that it's full of enthusiasm and enjoyment at the elegance of possible solutions. In this hard-nosed commercially-driven era that's a breath of fresh air; the real kind, not the virtual.

Forget about class factories and such...
The real issue in COM is type libraries and proxy/stubs and how these are created using IDL. Also of great importance is designing COM interfaces so that they may be utilized by VB and C++. This is a one stop reference for all that good information.
If you program COM, buy this book. It will pay for itself in minutes.

This is a great book that teaches you how to design and develop COM interfaces that work for C++ and VB clients and also explains the intricacies of the Interface Definition Language.

Even if you use COM at a higher level - ATL wizards, VB wizards and dont really write your own IDL file, you need to read this book to get an understanding of how you can do write even better COM clients and servers.

One thing i wish it also had is information about accessing these COM classes from VBScript.

This book goes into more detail about IDL than most people care about. However if you start wondering why your interface is not being properly marshalled, knowing your IDL will save you from scratching your head in biwilderment.

If you dont want any surprises from COM marshalling this is the book to get. Even in the .NET world, this book will be useful. All the COM components out there today are not just going to go away.

COM programmers have waited a long time for a definitive book on IDL, and Mr. Gudgin has written it. A superb summary of the language that is central to real-world COM programming, and a one-stop resource for developers struggling with IDL. Chock full of juicy details, with coverage of topics ranging from the structure of IDL files to method aliasing and asynchronous COM. If you're a COM programmer, this book will pay for itself many times over.

I bought these book for a very cheap price which was even below the price of second hand book price at some sites and also at my college. So I say that I had a gr8 deal
Thank you amazon.

The author has the ability to turn complex issues into simple concepts. It's very useful for those giving first steps in this subject and those who need refreshing their knowledge. I strongly recommend it.

This book is an excellent reference for those profesionals or specialists who are involved in the Electronic Warfare (EW) world. It's also useful for those who want to learn more about this interesting, complex and important subject. As it can be demonstrated thru the history of the EW, it has played an important role in the military actions related with the use of the electromagnetic spectrum (communications, radar, Infrared, laser and more). I strongly recommend it.

EW101 is a compilation of articles published in the Journal of Electronic Defence, over several years. The level of treatment is semiquantitative. The basic methods in areas like jamming, decoys and simulations are expounded. Readers with an undergraduate background in engineering or science should be able to follow the text. People already in the Electronic Warfare field will find the discussion pretty elementary. But Adamy is writing for those outside the field.

The merit of this book is that it gives you familiarity with the key topics and ideas in EW. Enough to qualitatively follow a technical discussion. Or even perhaps, as the author suggests, for managers of EW engineers, who need to brush up on what their chaps are doing.

Adamy also usefully supplies references to more detailed texts and journals. There is a surprising amount of material out there that is declassified.

Danette McGilvray's new book is a welcome addition to the data quality literature. Finding and eliminating root causes of data errors is essential to any data program. And most people "learn quality improvement by doing," following step-by-step instructions--much as someone just learning to cook sticks close to the recipe.

McGilvray does an excellent job of putting quality improvement in context and narrowing her focus. Make no mistake. This book is specially written for project managers, who must lead improvement teams over often-confusing terrain, and for team members who must do the work.

This book is clearly written. It is richly detailed and chock full of templates that will help project teams move rapidly. It gets my heartiest endorsement.

A strong--and welcome--addition to the data quality literature. I love the "workbook" format, and commend Ms. McGilvray and her publisher for this informed, important, and most of all helpful Baedeker.

This book is a practical approach to data quality. I like that it gives many different dimensions to data quality, so that we can easily drill down into why the "data is wrong" by having a common vocabulary.

It's a practical approach to getting the data clean and keeping it that way. It's written in a very approachable way that doesn't talk down to me as a reader. I am very happy with my purchase

At first when I recieved this book over in The Netherlands (much quicker than estimated by the way!) I thought it would become a little hard to read. This was because of the big size and amount of pages (289) of the book.

But when I looked further into the book it became clear that it was a thoroughly, but very well readable book. The writer has found a way to describe difficult things in an easy and understandable way.

By the way; the writer (Danette MacGilvray) years ago got into the field of Data Quality because she worked on a assignment at Hewlett-Packard. It was this project where worked together with "consultant" Larry English and got inspired and educated by him and his TIQM-method.

By using many bulletpoints, easy steps and sub-steps, examples, check-lists, boxes and templates this book has become easy and fun to read from A-Z. On the other hand, when in you're daily practice you have to deal with a diffucult IQ or Data Quality problem this book comes in als handy, because it is very good for reference-purposes.

The book's own website (http://www.books.elsevier.com/companions/d9780123743695) with lots of material makes this all complete.

With her Ten Steps approach (based on years of experience in the work field of Danette) the writer has found a way to specify and bullet-point the most important data issues in you're company, get the fundings you need and break down difficult data quality projects in 10 steps.

Not only is the book based on her own experience, this book is also a blend of experience and proven techniques from people from the Information or Data Quality field like Larry English (Improving Data Warehouse and Business Information Quality: Methods for Reducing Costs and Increasing Profits), Jack Olson (Data Quality: The Accuracy Dimension (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems), Tom Redman (Data Quality: The Field Guide) and Gwen Thomas.

So by reading this you get the best of all!

I work as a Data proces & quality manager in an home shopping business, so we are a "data intensive organisation". I think I will use this book (and the 10 steps) quite often.

While studying the GMAT this book is a must. I would have been lost in the main exam if I didn't have it.
If you are looking to study the GMAT exam I would recommend that you just go ahead and order all nice books, they are all worth the money.

EZ -Solutions GMAT Math Series Books

The overall content in the EZ-solutions set of nine GMAT books is very good. When I started studying for the GMAT I couldn't answer so many questions. But now that I have used the EZ -solutions books I can answer a lot of them. I still need to practice on my speed but they have helped me come a long way. The EZ-solutions books break down each subject covered in the GMAT with a step-by-step system.

The EZ-solutions set of nine GMAT books were extremely helpful considering I haven't had a math class in over six years, and I couldn't remember simple things such as integer properties. Like I said I had taken a GMAT practice exam and I couldn't answer many questions, but now I am getting a lot better.

The format of the EZ-solutions set of nine GMAT books is very good as it breaks down each topic in different books.

The text of the EZ-solutions set of nine GMAT is perfectly clear and precisely to the point. After going through each of the nine EZ-solutions set of nine GMAT books more than once and taking them with me where ever I have gone, they hold up nicely.

I believe that anybody studying for the GMAT should have the EZ-solutions set of nine GMAT books in their collection. They should also get the Official guide, with the Kaplan math review as well. The math lessons in the EZ-solutions GMAT books are much better than the Official, Kaplan, and PR. They have a lot more examples, with a lot more instruction as well. The Official GMAT guide isn't a good book for instruction but just for extra problems. Kaplan and PR have a decent math review in their book but the EZ-solutions GMAT set of nine books really bring it home.

I would recommend the EZ-solutions GMAT set of nine book series to anyone studying for the GMAT. Especially those individuals that who need a math review, and just not practice problems. This set of nine books breaks down each subject covered on the GMAT, and gives detailed expiations of each one.

The EZ-solutions GMAT set of nine books are a little more pricey then those currently on the market. But if you are serious about taking the GMAT and getting a good score I believe they are worth the extra money. As I mentioned earlier some of the other books on the market don't have as good a math lessons as the EZ-solutions GMAT books. Highly recommended!

After going through all the GMAT books, here is my honest opinion about some of the most popular GMAT books:

Official Guide:
Pros - Excellent source of GMAT questions. Very well organized with real test like questions.
Cons - No review of any math content or test-taking strategies. Not enough explanations of practice questions.
Overall, the Official Guide is a must have for all test-takers. It will give you a good idea about the type of questions to expect on the GMAT; however, if you need more than just a bank of questions, you need to look at some other source.

Kaplan:
Pros - Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
Cons - Review of math content is not thorough but just the very basics. Not enough explanation of test taking strategies. Full of guessing techniques with no real mathematical solutions. Not good enough explanations of practice questions. Unrealistic questions.

Princeton:
Pros - Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
Cons - Review of math content is not thorough but just the very basics. Not enough explanation of test taking strategies. Full of guessing techniques with no real mathematical solutions. Not good enough explanations of practice questions. Weird sense of humor.

Barrons:
Pros - Good math review. Big list of questions. Good test taking strategies. Very well organized. This is by far the best of the all-in-one kinds of books.
Cons - Although the book has a good math review, it doesn't go deep enough into each concept. Not enough explanations to practice questions. Does not have a good section for logical reasoning (permutation, combination, probability, etc) questions, which is one of the most important question-type. Does not break down the concepts/questions step by step.

EZ Solutions (set of 9 books):
Pros - Thorough math review from A to Z. Effective test taking strategies. Abundant solved examples. Numerous practice exercises. Great practice question bank in basic and advanced workbooks.
As with most books, you are expected to already have a good knowledge about the various match concepts, but with these books, you can literally start from scratch and reach the most advanced level of the GMAT.
Cons - To get the best result from these books, you have to invest in buying several books (set of 9 books), but if you compare the cost and benefits, the benefits outweigh the cost, or you can buy a few not all. Missing the verbal section. This is not a good option if you are looking for a mediocre score or just looking for a very basic brush-up. Recommended for serious test takers only.

Some of the other books has no real content; whereas, there are some other books that I haven't yet had an opportunity to review, but may be some of them are good supplementary aids.

I hope my review will help some of you in making the right decision.

I bought the series of EZ Solutions for the GMAT and found them to be very helpful. After going through GMAT books from Kaplan, Princeton Review, and others, I needed something more in-depth to tackle all type of questions. The EZ books cover a broad spectrum of content and practice questions with detailed explanations. These are great books for those who are seeking to perfect their score or need something more than just the basic review provided in regular study guides. They are also a good review for those who have been out of school for a while and need to refresh their math skills to score higher on the GMAT . The EZ books are very detailed and comprehensive, far more than any other book that I have seen. I would highly recommend using the EZ Solutions GMAT set of books to improve your scores!

The ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-1999 will soon be incorporated into enforceable building codes in every state. The use of glass fibre optics functional architectural lighting, along with the Standard's wattage restrictions and controls, will make compliance easier and more widespread.

This book explains the installation and applications of this completely different system so that they can be understood at every level.

The ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-1999 will soon be incorporated into enforceable building codes in every state. The use of glass fibre optics functional architectural lighting, along with the Standard's wattage restrictions and controls, will make compliance easier and more widespread.

This book explains the installation and applications of this completely different system so that they can be understood at every level.

This book contains useful coverage of the glass as well as the more publicized plastic version of this system. It is filled with practical examples illustrated with photographs of both progress shots and completed work. Design professionals, contractors and building administrators will learn that this illumination can be operated affordably.

The ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-1999 will soon be incorporated into enforceable building codes in every state. The use of glass fibre optics functional architectural lighting, along with the Standard's wattage restrictions and controls, will make compliance easier and more widespread.

This book explains the installation and applications of this completely different system so that they can be understood at every level.

It is a very useful book for the people who don't know anything about risk management and especially financial risk management in banks.

The author gives a brief history of the banking history, mainly in the USA and thus motivates the introduction of the several subsequent regulations put in place, and of the different methods os assesing risk and optimising capital allocation. The book excells in simple yet powerful risk management techniques for banks. I have recommended (and, in fact some times given away) this book both to my students and my colleagues in the asset management industry.

Asset liability management can get rather complicated. The authors treat this subject in a very user friendly way that the layperson can understand, and the technician can get good guidance out of.

They cover all the basics really well. After studying this book, you will have a very good understanding of gap analysis, duration, shareholder value added, liquidity management, and other related subject.

The book offers a perfectly simple approach to ALM in banking. I cannot imagine a more concise framework for this subject. The authors fully attain their objective of providing fun reading for a banking subject,something really out of this world.

This is certainly one of the best textbooks on information theory. I would put it in line with the ones by Gallager and Cover/Thomas. It gives a fresh and modern perspective on information theory and prepares the reader very well for the new hot topics. It is well written, provides lots of examples, all good and interesting. The topics covered in this book span from the very basics to almost state of the art. Thus - and this is the only point I can criticize - some of the material may not be suited for a first course in information theory, rather than for a second course. To sum up, I can really recommend this book to anyone studying this topic.

Rigorous, insightful and well written treatment of traditional information theory and the latest advancements.

As an engineering executive and technologist working in the wireless broadband and communication/networking industries, I can not recommend enough of this wonderful text to researchers and practitioners.

This book provides the most important results on Information Theory, and it is up to date. It provides to the reader the necessary background and the important notions about this subject. It is well organized, although in some parts it can be a bit hard to understand some of the proofs.
I recommend this book, specially for advanced readers.

This book really motivates me to learn information theory and to discover the insight given by the subject. I had no or very little background on information theory before I took Professor Yeung's course. Now I am deeply interested in the subject (Of course, you do not need to take the course in order to fall in love with the book). The book may not be a no brainer, but its clear explanations of the concepts and mind-opening analytical examples easily led me not only to understand the subject very well, but also to realize the close relationship between math and information. That's the greatest part of the book. Later chapters in the book introduce many cutting edge research results in the subject which gives me a lot of ideas for research directions. If you are serious about learning information theory, this is the book you will love. Cover and Thomas book "Elements of Information Theory" is also good, but it is a bit less insightful (i.e., it is really a "text-book" :)), and the explanations of concepts are a bit on the shallow side. I suggest to use it as a reference to Yeung's book.

This review book is formated in such a way that I can actually help my child with homework. I go directly to the section she's learning, and can quickly review the section that's current to her learning needs. She and I can do the reviews together and this wouldn't be possible without this book. I especaily like that I don't have to refer to hundreds of pages before being able to help my child.

This is an excellent refresher for Statistics, laid out logically and with ideas clearly illustrated graphically. Published by Barron's, these "Forgotten" books are nicely oriented toward the professional who needs to brush up on a subject in order to make competent decisions and communicate intelligently.

"Statistics and Probability" is one of those amazing sciences that we take for granted from childhood, but the more we think about it (as we get older, regrettably), it begins to dawn on us that this is the catalyst of many mysterious processes, such as the forces of life overcoming entropy. Science has rather recently discovered that there is really no such thing as "randomness", with the advent of Chaos Theory bringing down the walls of the last bastion of that idea. Statistics and Probability then become the focus of means by which some form of Higher Intelligence manages to do its business under our noses without us having a clue as to its presence!

This is an outstanding book for any professional that finds himself immersed if not overwhelmed by an increasingly quantitative world. This book provides you an excellent foundation in basic statistics that can readily allow you to build upon by studying more advanced stats if you care to. Thus, this book is a good stepping stone for Intuitive Biostatistics if you want to easily deepen your knowledge of statistics and care to understand better medical studies.

The book is subdivided in two parts. The first part teaches you the basics. The second part is a good reference section often covering some more advanced material.

I also recommend the other two books in this "Forgotten" series if you care to refresh other math areas: Forgotten Algebra and Forgotten Calculus.

Like most students,I was not looking forward to my Introductory Statistics course. However, knowing that I had to do it I made certain to purchase several supplemental texts to aid in clarification when the textbook failed to do so. Although the title says 'Forgotten Statistics' it does serve as an aid to those who are entirely new to the subject as it presents the concepts in a logical fashion( the book is divided in two sections one for concepts and problems the other with definitions). This book has remained in my backpack the entire semester. So much, in fact, that I find myself going over problems during my liesure time. This book has served me rather well. It has not required lots of additional time in learning and problem solving. My GPA and I are happy about that.