Computer Graphics Books

My first by of a Batsford Opening Guide and I was pleased. I was a bit afraid that the book would be kind of too encyclopedia like. But in fact it tends to follow the quality of the Gambit Guide series. Chapters begin with an evaluation of the specific system it explains. A moderate amount of selected games with good commentaries. I feel secure now to be opposed to this opening.

I personally spent about one and one half years trying to find a reply that I liked against queen pawn openings. I finally was convinced by this book that the Budapest was for me. The book is very well written. It helps you quickly find the variations that you would like to play and contains many subvariations in model games to help you against strong moves as well as unusual moves. And many club players don't encounter it often, so the opening has surprise value. The top scholastic players in this area use it on a regular basis. If you like to attack, and hate defensive positions against 1. d4, then try the Budapest Gambit.

This is a well written book with a lot of good annotation. However, the opening itself can often require giving playing black N & B vs. white's bishop pair in an open position, but black has had free developement in return (somewhat similar to the nimzo-indian). It is best used as a suprise weapon, but when ever you use it it will be a suprise. It is a good opening for speed games because there is a trap on move 8 & 9 of one line that opponents of mine have fallen into more than once, i.e., 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bb4+ 6. Nbd2 Qe7 7. a3 Ngxe5 8. axb4? Nd3! mate. This book is worth buying but I would recommend learning more solid openings first. Try the nimzo, semi slav, king's indian, etc.

What is the location of the Budapest Castle?

(a) On Castle Hill, overlooking the Danube

(b) Just south of the Chain Bridge, next to the Matyas Church

(c) It's right here, on my map of Budapest! In square C8

(d) On square a6

If you said that it starts out on a8, moves to a6, and then sails towards the kingside on the sixth rank, then get this book. You won't be rooked!

This is an excellent book about the Budapest Gambit (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e5).

My primary defence against 1 d4 is the Semi-Slav. But I've used the Budapest a couple of times as a second-string defence and won with it both times. So I was eager to see what Lalic has to say about it. He says it is playable.

I've always suspected that the Budapest is not really sound. But Lalic supplies answers for all of White's serious options. After 3 dxe5 Ng4 (Lalic also analyzes 3...Ne4, the Fajarowicz gambit), White has plenty of possible moves:

4 Qd4 d6 5 exd6 Bxd6

4 Nc3 Nxe5 5 Bf4 Nbc6

4 e6 Bb4+ 5 Bd2 Qf6

4 e4 Nxe5 5 f4 Nec6

4 e3 Nxe5 5 Nh3 g6

4 f4 Bc5 5 e3 d6

The Budapest Castle variation starts with 4 Nf3 Bc5 5 e3 Nc6. White used to get an advantage with 6 Nc3 0-0 7 Be2 Re8 8 b3 Ngxe5 9 Bb2 Nxf3+ 10 Bxf3 Ne5 11 Be2. But then Black started playing 11...a5! 12 0-0 Ra6 (this is the infamous Budapest Castle). Black seems okay after that.

That leaves 4 Bf4, White's most dangerous move. Lalic gives several ideas for Black here. One is 4...Bb4+ 5 Nd2 d6, which is risky but merits a look. The best idea is 4...Nc6 5 Nf3 Bb4+ 6 Nbd2 Qe7 7 e3 Ngxe5 8 Nxe5 Nxe5 9 Be2 0-0 10 0-0 and now Lalic claims Black can equalize with either 10...Ng6 or 10...d6. I think it requires plenty of work to play either of these moves against a prepared opponent.

Just in case you are thinking about trying the Budapest and your previous main defence to 1 d4 has not been 1...Nf6, there is something really fundamental you need to know! Half the time, White won't let you play the Budapest! You'll find yourself on the Black side of 2 Nf3 or even 2 Bg5. Against 2 Bg5 (the Trompowsky) you can play 2...Ne4 and reply to 3 Bf4 with 3...d5 or 3...c5, but neither are the Budapest! Meanwhile, 2 Nf3 is a total transpositional swindle. You'll probably wind up in a Queen's Gambit Declined after 2...d5 or in some sort of Indian defence! Here, I play 2...e6 and after 3 c4 (if I don't want a Semi-Slav) I settle for a Queen's Indian with 3...b6. My choice is not between the exciting Budapest or the dull Queen's Indian. I have to know the Queen's Indian either way. The Budapest is my alternative to the Nimzo-Indian.

I recommend this book.

Very informative and well organized. This whole series of books by Thomson is handy.

This is a great addition to the bookshelf of anyone who has been programming for a little while and who finally gets the syntax and basics of C++. Do not expect to learn everything you need to here, this is strictly for people who are done learning the basic concepts of programming and who are ready for a better explanation of how things work under the hood and how you can optimize your code's performance.

I do not regret buying this book and recommend that anyone who is getting ready to design efficient code should get it as well.

This book is positioned at an interesting location. First let's talk about what it is not:

It is not a tutorial on how to program in C++. While it has a little bit of introductory material, it presumes you already have some knowledge about working in C++. There are other books at an introductory level.

It is not a general purpose reference manual on C++. To be sure it could be used as such, but there is extra material you would have to deliberately skip.

On the other hand, if your time is to be spent developing high end games there are several time tested techniques that game developers have developed over time that may not be suitable for general programming but which work for game development. Example: games require much more attention to audio and visual activity to keep the screen and speakers going than does a payroll package that only has to print checks.

This is an intermediate level book. The intended reader would already have written several C++ programs, be familiar with the syntax, the basic object-oriented concepts, and some knowledge of the basic computer architecture will be helpful. If you are at that level, this is a truly excellent book

You can treat the book as a general explanation of C++. It explains the syntax, and the Standard Template Library. Along with how to optimise performance and memory allocation. Plus, the idea of patterns is introduced, with several common patterns given as examples.

For the STL, there is an expanded discussion of algorithms. As a game programmer, you may find this useful, as it explains the ideas behind some algorithms. Since you might have to devise custom adaptations to improve your game performances.

One final chapter talks about crash proofing a game. Memory leaks are the greatest bugbear, since there is no inherent programmatic way to check for these, unlike Java for example. Of course, this chapter is generally applicable to any type of C++ program.

I grasp computer concepts very quickly and have worked with some desktop publishing programs, but had never worked with a "professional" graphics program before. This book, however, was excellent; within an hour I was up and running and very comfortable using both the program and the book. Would recommend highly. Now I wish the author would write one for Corel PhotoPaint (hint, hint).

I love the quickstart books. This one is no different. I would recommend this book for people who have a desire to get up and started quickly with Corel. It is easy to follow and you will be surprised how quickly you will be able to create your own professional documents.

This is an excellent step by step tutorial book for beginners.

This book is exactly what the Visual QuickStart Series is all about - concise, illustrated explanations of most of the features you'll need to be up and running with minimal effort. Ms. Davis' enthusiasm and expertise with CorelDraw 8 makes the book a pleasure to read and work with. Although I use the Macintosh version of the program (there are several interface differences), this book for Windows was exactly what I needed to start using the prgram to create a newsletter for work. I'm brand new to these types of programs, and after struggling through the Bible and Real-World books on Illustrator and PageMaker, this book was a welcome and mercifully brief grand slam. You can skip most of the first 40 or so pages if you are not new to desktop design/publishing, and get right to working with the impressive tools in the program. For me, though, they were a godsend.

I'm still hoping for a Mac edition of this book, but I probably have all I need with this one

Although out of print and somewhat out of date, this book still offers some helpful hints for Corel users. The section on perspective and fountain fills is good for reference. If you see this one out on the discount table, grab it!

I loved this book and read it from cover to cover. It's hard to find the time to try out every project but they all seem really worthwhile and I've referred to some of the hints/tips when I'm starting one of my own projects and know that a particular end-result can be achieved, if only I could remember how. This is not really a reference book however - more of a cookbook. Beautifullly illustrated and clearly explained. One of the best 'how-to' computer graphics books I've ever used.

This is the perfect book for anyone looking for the hidden trick to using Corel Draw. Clear examples with full color illustrations showing step by step the tricks to making stunning vector illustrations. The introduction alone has saved me hours of time and money in wasted printing simply by understanding the tricks to calculating blends and fountian fills. I don't start a new project without refering to this book just to make sure I'm using the most effecient method to creating a desired special effect. I only wish a book like this was made for Corel PhotoPaint

I purchased this book on my own (was using 6 then); got so frustrated that I quit half way through. Am now taking a course on 7 and using this as text. Thank goodness my instructor has rewritten the directions for those exercises used. When I try to go ahead on my own, it is extremely confusing.

I have waited for what seemed like forever for this WOW book to hit the shelves and I must say it was well worth the wait. I have other books written by both Shane Hunt and Linnea Dayton and I'm glad to say they have maintained their rep of putting out good references for the rest of us. Every time I open it I see something else I want to try or gives me ideas for new things. This book is well designed and written - not too techie for novices and chock full of great illustrations. If you dislike working your way through the effects menus, you'll love the pages that show all the fountain presets, bitmap filters, etc. I appreciate the authors remembering all of us who do not upgrade every year or who use more than one version (or Macs). Every CorelDRAW user, using any version, should get this book. You'll be glad you did.

I first bought coreldraw7 a couple of years ago, at student price.. and it didnt come with a manual. So I figured out a lot of techniques thru trial and error. But I missed out on a lot of the Coreldraw features, although I thought it was great software all the same, and did a lot of drawing with it.

Just last week I bought the Coreldraw Wow book, and ..at last! ..the tools and features of this software are revealed to me in an amazing compendium of techniques, tips and excellent information.

Shane Hunt's 'The Coreldraw Wow! Book' is clear, well written, and an inspiration. Full of useful techniques, it's an excellent book to really show the power and versatility of Coreldraw.

Shane Hunt has a gift for clarity and precision as he describes how to get the most out of Corel Draw. This book is for both beginners and advanced users and lets users in on the secrets of the amazing special effects supported in the program, in all its versions.

I've been following Shane Hunt's writings on graphics for a while, so I was sure to grab this one. He and the other authors show you some of the finer and more detailed aspects of Draw's abilities. I keep seeing things in other images and wonder how they did this or did that - now I know - and it isn't that hard when you know the tricks. It is written in easy to understand instructions and walks you through the difficult parts. I highly recommend it to anyone that is serious about increasing their Draw vocabulary and repetoire.

Over the past couple of months I've read a small pile of computer graphics books from the "Inspired" and New Riders [digital] series and others. I would put 3D design in the position of being one of the first practial how-to books a beginner should work with. Each section is clearly laid out, doesn't confuse with too much detail, and helps you gently step into CG. This book will get you oriented and everything after this will just be deeper studies in specific areas.

A lush, beautiful introduction to the world of 3D. Perfect for newbies and those just wondering what 3D is all about. Plus it includes a Cinema 4D tutorial (building a photo-realistic pool cue).

This book left me wanting more from this publisher and this author.

The BEST book out there for beginning 3D artists. Period. Should be included with all 3D software packages. If you're thinking about getting into 3D design, buy this first!!!!!!

Digital 3D Design is like a visual dictionary for the 3D design world. Out of all the 3D books I own, this is the one I recommend the most in teaching 3D and animation classes (with Bill Fleming's Photorealistic Toolkit a close second!).

It covers concepts and terms (introductory and advanced) in very clear and concise ways, fully illustrated.

It discusses all the major 3D packages, including Maya, LightWave, Cinema 4DXL, ElectricImage, SoftImage and others, discussing advantages of each.

It covers views, 3D space, lighting, shading, textures, resolution, UV mapping, splines, curves, polygons, points, advanced modeling concepts, raytracing, rendering, radiosity, setting up skeletons, animation, inverse kinematics--everything you'd expect if you were looking for the ideal textbook for a 3D class (I'm using it for my modeling and animation classes).

All this for around less than $30. A book every 3D designer, and instructor, should own! Highly recommended.

This was my first ever book about photography (actually, the first edition of this book). Not that I was an absolute beginner; I just never bothered to read any photography books. James Martin's book nicely surprised me since in the first chapters I found a lot of ideas I was subconsciously aware off before. I am not sure this is the right book for someone who does not know what 'shutter speed' is but it is highly recommended for someone who wants to go over photography theory quickly and get some nice tips. It covers photo-shooting techniques, basics of composition, information on archiving photos and digital darkroom skills. My skills are definitely improved after reading the book, instantly I started to take better pictures!

The other day I wanted to purchase a digital photography guide as a birthday gift. 'Digital Photography Outdoors' book would not be available in the stores so I went through almost everything that was on the shelf. There would be lots of books for absolutely beginners in the book stores, "Dummies" books etc, we are not talking about these. Among 'serious' books, I did not find any one that can beat 'Digital Photography Outdoors'. I ended up purchasing this book via Amazon and going to the birthday party with the excuse that the gift is still on the way! This also motivated me to write this review, hope it helps.

With every passing year, digital cameras are becoming more 'user friendly', more popular, more effective, and more versatile. Now in a thoroughly updated and significantly expanded second edition, James Martin's "Digital Photography Outdoors" continues to be the premier instructional manual and guide for the use of digital cameras in taking memorable and dramatic photographs in the field. Still providing novice digital photographers with a comprehensive and basic grounding in how a digital camera works, special considerations for its use and maintenance in the field, and how to select the best equipment and most useful accessories for capturing outdoor action and then storing those images safely, this new edition goes on to provide up-to-date information on the latest changes in Photoshop (CS3 version) and an illustrative description of the latest equipment options. Profusely illustrated throughout in full color, "Digital Photography Outdoors" provides digital camera users with a wealth of invaluable tips on photographing outdoor subjects in all manner of field conditions. Superbly organized and presented, practical and portable, "Digital Photography Outdoors" is a welcome and enthusiastically recommended addition to personal, professional, and community library Photography instructional reference collections.

Very interesting book with several useful tips. It is focused in the "digital darkroom" processes and it becomes an interesting handbook while working with image processing software. Moreover, it gives some advices on photographic techniques specially oriented to digital cameras and their particular performance.

This book is packed with solid information. It's really helping me take better travel pictures now that I have upgraded to a digital single lens reflex camera.

The book explains how digital cameras work, what the differences are between various technologies and gives you ideas about what to look for in purchasing a digital camera. There are chapters explaining the various camera options and their proper use and comparing them to 35 mm tools. There's information on composition and lighting and other standard photographic concepts, but the author also looks into batteries and battery life, photo manipulation software (Paint Shop Pro is the program used in the descriptions), incorporating photos into Power Point and scanning photos. The book would be perfect for someone who had a little bit of experience using a scanner or digital camera and uses Paint Shop Pro. For others, there is still a good deal of solid information within.

Being new to computers, graphics programs and digital photography I have had to rely on instruction manuals which have more often than not been inadequate. When I ordered my camera I also ordered a book specific to the camera because I had read that the instruction manual and CD were inadequate or impractical. When I purchased PSP I bought an additional instruction book. All seem to assume prior camera or graphics knowledge. When I started to read Digital Photography Answers! I knew I had found what I needed. It's like having a knowledgeable and patient friend here. The book is extremely well laid out and indexed and seems to assume that the reader is intelligent but new to the genre, and includes basic information in addition to more detailed info. If you're new to digital photography and struggling with your graphics program (or even if you're not), this book is wonderful.

I've had a 35mm camera for years and got a digital camera recently. I love this book -- I've read others but this one had all the info I was looking for. It talked about compositional skills, plus how to take and edit digital pictures. The fact that I've framed a picture from my camera on the wall I pretty much owe to this book.

As a weekend shutterbug, I find the world of digital photography fairly daunting. In fact, I'm not real adept with ordinary photography, either. That's why Dave Johnson's book was such a pleasant surprise: it not only taught me everything I need to know about digital photography, but also gave me great insight into basic photographic method. I'm hard-pressed to imagine a more complete or well-written book on the subject.

The topic of microarray image analysis has always been on the backburner. However, it is a very crucial step in the microarray experiment and image analysis is misunderstood by many colleagues. This book covers the basics of microarray image analysis, as well as some advanced topics. It is a really helpful reference. Good to include in class studies.

To my knowledge this is the first book to appear focusing on analysis of microarray images, though the topic is commonly addressed to some extent in general books on microarray technology. Because microarray technology evolves so quickly, books such as this one are almost of necessity put together in a hurry. Unfortunately, the hurry really shows in this case. In addition to the grammatical problems all too common in scientific texts, there are technical inconsistencies. For example, the term "signal to noise ratio" is defined at three places in the book, with three different definitions. First, we are told (chapter two, page 38) that the signal to noise ratio is defined as the ratio of mean signal to mean error. Later (chapter five, page 86), the signal to noise ratio is defined as signal (minus background), divided by the standard deviation of background. Finally (chapter six, page 101) tells us that the signal to noise ratio "can be estimated by computing the peak signal divided by the variation in the signal." Only that part of the discussion starting on page 86 is included in the index.

Chapter one provides an introduction to microarrays. Chapter two introduces image analysis with a focus on issues pertinent to micro array analysis, though it is not perfectly customized as background for the other chapters. For example, though Chapter two's appendixes include Fourier analysis, this is not really used explicitly further in the book. The next three chapters concern microarray scanning. They are each written by groups at different commercial firms, and they provide vendor oriented views. These chapters are redundant in the sense that they all cover the same topic, but taken as a whole, they provide some balance. It might be preferable to have an academic team write a single, more objective chapter, but it's understandable to take this approach in the interest of timeliness. Chapters six and seven are the ones that directly address image processing. Though Chapter seven is entitled "microarray data normalization", it really provides the most detailed information about image processing and analysis. Two short chapters cover a comparison of commercially available software and a brief overview of information workflow. The final chapter on bacterial artificial chromosomes is a general (and worthwhile) overview of that application, but it is not particularly focused on image analysis.

The book is concise (it took me about eight hours to read it cover to cover) and the price is right (under $30 at amazon.com). The editors and author are to be congratulated on producing a timely book, and I'm delighted that the publisher has made it so affordable. Keep up the good work.

DNA Array Image Analysis is the most comprehensive book that I have read, dealing with Microarray analysis topic. My background is in genomics, which is too far away from statistics. Nevertheless, this book gave me a very nice perspective on statistical approaches for microarrays. Recommend it to all, especially for those who are running microarray facilities.

DNA microarrays form an indispensable tool in molecular biology, allowing researchers to gain insight into the intricate mechanisms of gene expression. Microarray technology also aids the researcher in transforming and supplementing data available on genes and cells into useful information about gene expression, and ultimately, cellular biology.
cDNA arrays experiments use many gene-specific polynucleotides derived from the ends of RNA transcripts. These are arrayed on a single matrix and simultaneously probed with a fluorescently tagged cDNA representation of total RNA pools from test and reference cells. This allows one to determine the relative amount of transcript present in the pool by the type of fluorescent signal generated. Thus, the relative message abundance is based on a comparison of the test cell state to a reference cell state. Common to all array-based technologies is the need to analyze digital images of the scanned DNA array.
Shishir Shah is an Associate Professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, and is the author of numerous publications on image analysis and data mining, while Gerda Kamberova is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Hofstra University, New York, where she teaches computer vision, computer graphics, and artificial intelligence. With this book, the authors address the fact that the topic of microarray image processing is usually neglected due to the availability of various software tools for image processing. The focus of microarray bioinformatics today is data analysis, but how can one be certain that the data obtained through image analysis of a microarray experiment through is of high quality? How can one perform data mining on data derived from different microarray technologies, where microarray images were analyzed with different image analysis softwares?
In Kamberova's introductory chapter, she describes the basics of image analysis for molecular biology researchers. Although some of the formulas in her chapter may seem intimidating to many biologists, they are necessary to fully understand the subject. However, the mathematical load in this book is concentrated in this chapter, and the text thereafter becomes very friendly, with more advanced discussions saved for an appendix.
Chapters on the design and performance of CCD and laser microarray scanners serve as a forum for three companies representing a good cross-section of the technology in the microarray arena. The book then moves on to spot finding and segmentation issues with tips for practical image analysis. Quality control of image analysis is discussed at the application level.
Elsewhere, Kamberova and Shah have invited a team from Fox Chase Cancer Center to discuss aspects of image background corrections and data normalization. Another interesting aspect of this publication is the inclusion of statistical comparison of data generated by various softwares. Finally, Shah's chapter on BAC arrays and image analysis is of particular interest because it is a new application gaining momentum in the microarray field.
This book emphasizes aspects of both theory and application and therefore, can be used for teaching as well as self-study. It will be a useful reference not only for computer and biology scientists, but also for anyone using or interested in microarray technology.

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.