Computer Science Books

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"An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis, Objects and UML in Plain English" by David William Brown.

ISBN 0471371378

All diagrams have been redrawn in UML, and the text has been extensively updated to use UML terminology.

This book is good for both beginners and practitioners. I used this book as text book for my course of OOAD. The book was not only interesting enough for students but it also helped me in my practical work.

The number of cases and exercises given are also sufficient but a few more are always good. Its an excellent book for anybody having beginner to intermediate exposure to OOA. The book is beautifully written and one enjoys reading it.

This book is exactly as advertised, describing Object Oriented Analysis techniques in plain English. While it takes awhile to get to the object oriented chapters, the author has provided enough introductory information such that those who are either new to information systems and development methodoligies, or need a bit of a refresher, receive enough background to be well prepared for the rest of the book.

I've attempted to read other books in the field, but they always seem to assume that the reader already possesses a certain amount of knowledge that apparently I didn't.

For those who consider themselves already somewhat knowledgeable in Object Oriented Analysis, Design, or Development, you may want to consider more advanced level books. Again, this book reads as advertised. It's excellent!

We used this book to prove a theorem in our studies that is directly related to my PhD thesis on spatial data mining and spatial statistics. This book is a master-piece.
Thanks Dr. Saad.

This is one of my favorite books in my library on this subject. Also I have used this book for my class as main textbook along with "Iterative Methods for Solving Linear and Nonlinear Equations" by C. T. Kelley , which is another SIAM book.
Highly recommended.

This is a great book for this subject. The book is easy to follow and Saad does a wonderful job of illustrating with examples. This is a great textbook or a book for reference. This book does a particularly good job with Krylov methods and does a reasonable job with preconditioning.

A wonderful book! Maple has been described as "the force" in CAS with Mathematica described as "the dark force". This wonderful book brings Mathematica into the light.

Joy does work on Mathematica 5.1, however, the current version, and it runs on both Mac and PC platforms (OS X for the Mac and Windows XP for the PC).

Joy is a wonderful compilation of program-based notebooks that shorten the time-to-use Mathematica dramatically, for both novice and computer-savvy students and learners. The manual is well-written, visually attractive, and uncluttered.

Joy of Mathematica makes it far easier to graph (2- and 3-D, parametric, polar coordinates, and more), manipulate expressions (simplify, solve), differentiate and integrate functions, work with series and sequences, vector fields, matrices, multiple variables, and so forth.

Writing adjuncts to Mathematica is something of a cottage industry, and several other Mathematica-based programs can help: Calculus Wiz (for high school and college students), Explorer, and Navigator, for instance.

Wolfram Research (publisher of Mathematica) wants to penetrate the secondary-level educational market and is offering very attractive site licenses to schools and individual licenses to students at those schools. It is not clear whether the publishers of Joy will offer a similar site license and individual student purchase rate.

Finally, it is not known at this point whether the authors will re-optimize Joy for Mathematica 5.1 version.

"The Joy of Mathematica" really does make Mathematica software a "Joy" to use, and to learn. Users of Mathematica know and love the powerful capabilities of this excellent mathematical software environment for symbolic and numeric computation with incredible support for 2D and 3D graphics. Students and professionals considering adopting Mathematica are often awestruck by the enormous range of mathematical capabilities suddenly put at their fingertips. However, Mathematica is not a Joy to use, as each powerful command (and there are many) is accompanied by so many parameters and modifiers (all necessary), requiring a not so Joyful syntax. "The Joy of Mathematica" comes to the rescue, and indeed, it is a real JOY to use! "Joy" comes in the form of a book, an easy to use tutorial and guide, with an accompanying CD. The software on the CD installs easily, and modifies your own Mathematica "front end" environment by providing very useful and well organized pull-down menus which launch diaglog boxes. The diaglog boxes are great! They remind the user which parameters and choices need to be specified in the context of a particular Mathematica command. They provide immediate examples for the student to try. They output clear summaries of the entered requests, organize the computed output, and allow the user to view the actual Mathematica commands which "Joy" issues. This in turn helps the user learn Mathematica's arcane command syntax (if you want to bother). "Joy" provides the student and experienced user with the menu structure we all wish we had when using Mathematica. "Joy" is really a terrific teaching and learning tool for college students of science and engineering, and a great way to bring great math software into the hands of high school students. It's a "Joy" for me and my son, and it will work for you too.

With the vigorous probing of a truly accomplished explorer, Schonfeld unearths the story behind the story of JSTOR. An exciting find that will leave you wanting more. A must read for anybody who, like Schonfeld himself, is exceedingly passionate about research and archival systems beyond library walls.

An amazing book--one that unfolds (in an entertaining way) the history of a crucial academic resource. Schonfeld is an admirable scholar who bids fair to become a leader in the rethinking of academic library resources.

This book tells it all: JSTOR CEO Rudy "J" Sanchez's ascent from an undereducated but determined delivery man to a savage corporate sociopath who would stop at nothing to get the academic journals he wanted, once infamously strangling an up-and-coming VP in the back of his DeLorean. The plot thickens when Sanchez realizes that nobody reads the articles on JSTOR and begins digitizing HUMAN ORGANS. Drugs, blackmail, lust, illegal immigrants, cataloguers who whisper "F*ck it!" and place everything in reverse alphabetical order--you name it, and the scholarly journal digitization world has seen it. Includes the famous, formerly-banned passage that describes Sanchez sauteeing a sedated man's brains. Read it if you can stomach it. FIVE STARS.

Reviewed by Ian McCurley (age 14) for Reader Views (1/08)

"Keeper of the Realm" begins when Matt finds himself once again running down a corridor chased by Cybergons. Suddenly, he is transported from Zaul to the strange underwater realm of Karn. He is met by a strange youth with glowing yellow skin, oversized feet and three red slits along his neck. Matt is taken through the subsurface tunnels called pod chutes where he meets Targon and Varl, friends from Zaul. They are in level two of Matt's game. After their reunion, Matt meets Keela, a girl about his age with qualities similar to his initial guide. Having lost his laptop, Matt has no knowledge of the realm. Keela explains that his laptop is probably in the Noxeran half of Karn. The Noxerans are humans that control Karn and have the Karns at their mercy. After meeting two more Karns, Calute and Carella, Matt discovers that the leader of the Karn resistance has been captured by the Noxerans and will be executed. Matt must infiltrate the Noxeran half of Karn and find the resistance leader, his laptop and his friend Dorin from Zaul. As bleak as this seems there may be even more sinister forces at work.

H.J. Ralles writes in a way that will interest not only readers, but any kid. The writing is creative and descriptive, and will draw you in. The Sci-Fi plot and the artful level-based division of the book makes for an enthralling read. The book, at 231 pages, is perfect for an afternoon of reading. I can relate to the main character, Matt, in that he sat down for an afternoon of video games that turned out to be a lot more real than he expected.

"The Keeper of the Realm" is for ages 10 and up who enjoy reading about science fiction, video games or marine biology.

Keeper of the Realm is a continuation of the story of Matt, who was pulled into his computer game in H.J. Ralles Keeper of the Kingdom.

The sequel picks up almost immediately from the point where the first book in the series let off. When we last saw Matt he had completed the task at hand, but instead of being released from the game, Matt is back in somewhat familiar surroundings. He's not home. He's just progressed to another level of the game.

Once again our hero meets up with his friends Varl and Targon, who he met in the previous level. Matt and his friends must help this under water realm of Karn, which has been invaded by the Noxeran. The only problem is that Matt doesn't have his laptop and he must get it back from the enemy's well-guarded vault.

Young sci-fi fans will once again enjoy the tales spun by this excellent author.

Be sure to check out all the titles by H.J. Ralles!

A Dangerous Computer Game

Ralles, H.J. Keeper of the Realm, Dallas, TX. Top Publications, Ltd. Co. 2002. 232 pages. ISBN 1-929976-21-6.

H.J. Ralles continues to offer readers a fascinating affiliation between computers and books, a wonderful reading experiences, constructed to keep the pages turning from beginning to end.
Although Matt has had enough adventure to last him the rest of his life, he is in trouble from the first line in the sequel to Keeper of the Kingdom. His only interest, after escaping entrapment in Zaul (Keeper of the Kingdom, 2000) is to go home. When two old friends from Zaul, Varl and Targon, appear, Matt has company in his misery.
A beautiful girl, Keela, shares a map of The Realm with the three wayfarers. They plan a strategy to retrieve Matt's laptop computer and escape Karn. Citizens of Karn become their allies as they plot a rebellion against the cruel Noxerans to reclaim their underwater realm, three hundred feet below sea level.
Matt recognizes they are ensnared in another computer game. Zaul was Level 1 of the game and they have reached Level 2, Karn. Matt and Varl use an obsolete dolphin-looking submersible to proceed on their doomed mission to locate Matt's laptop and rescue Braymar.
An old friend, Dorin, shows up with Matt's laptop, but their problems are not solved. Getting safely back to Karn they realize that Balbus plans to destroy Karn and Noxera and set himself up as a dictator.
When Matt accesses the rules of Level 2 game, our heroes get yet another poetic riddle. Even Matt, usually the optimist, has severe doubts about freeing Braymar and feels their whole plan is doomed to fail. The reader, like Matt, is also trapped in the adventure and must continue to play the dangerous game
Despair is replaced with cautious optimism when Varl, with his scientific mind, and Matt, with his technological training, use sonic encryptors, identification chips, double laser vidium, electronic bracelets, genetic engineering and microsubs to advance their plans and defeat Balbus and his legionaries.
Another twist at the end when Matt completes Level 2 will lead the reader to Keeper of the Empire. Players of computer games will see themselves as right in the middle of the game, rather than simply watching on the monitor.

Jessica Morton's "Kids on the 'Net is inspiring. Between the lines it speaks to what 'good' teaching is really about and the lines themselves sing with a clear how to do it for using the net well. A great source for those who want to be creative and for the many who fear, for one reason or another, the use of the internet. It is so well written and presented that I felt like I was reading a terrific story. At t he end I knew I'd done that and more!

Jessica Morton has an easy way of writing that will make the reader feel she can use the 'net' with young children after reading about Mrs. Morton's successes in her own classroom. She does not use computer language that the average person cannot understand. She not only uses examples from her own classroom but also relates to the reader how to go about beginning using e-mail with simple dos and don'ts. I have used e-mail with my second grade students for many years but while reading this book I discovered some great ways to improve the use of e-mail with my class of 7-8 year olds. A definite book to read!

Jessica Morton's book, Kids on the 'Net, is absolutely outstanding for any educator who is leery about bringing the Internet into the classroom. This book takes you step-by-step into how the 'net can be beneficial for your students' or childrens' learning. The book is chock full of ideas and personal reflections by the author to show you that the Internet can be our friend. The book is written in a style that is non-threatening and easy to flip through. Morton's book teaches you how even young children can e-mail pen pals (e-pal) from around the world and be interactive in newsgroups. This is a must needed resource for teachers of the new millennium. She offers web sites that are useful for creating projects and reproducibles that go along with certain lessons. If technology is the way to go in your classroom, then you need this book.

First of all this a REAL book on knowledge management. This is not a touchy feely book about how employees are afraid of KM because they will lose their jobs although there is a section that contains common org problems. This is however a book for individuals who practice KM or implement KM programs. Basically, without the context of having been through a KM project this book will be useless to most people. This is not the place to start. Try Idiots Guide to KM, which btw is an excellent place to start - I recommend it to my customers all the time, Working Knowledge, or the KM Toolkit all of which will serve as far better primers on the subject. Having led 40 KM projects in the last 3 years I can say this book has been a treasured resource since getting it a few months ago.

I am currently using this book as a reference for completion of my dissertation in the area of knowledge management. The book takes a no nonsense and factual look at this new and exciting area. Organizations who do not understand these concepts will soon loose their competitive edge. This book will provide all of the necessary insight to begin a knowledge management program within your organization.

This book is truly a great resource regarding Knowledge Management. It is a compendium of information concerning knowledge and the management thereof. This Handbook is divided into five sections of high level information: Strategy, People and Measures, Elements, Knowledge Technologies, and Applications. Within each section real world experts provide sound foundations of the methodologies, techniques, and practices in this field. Many concepts discussed throughout this handbook are presented in an bulletized manner for easy assimilation. I found the numerous figures and diagrams in this text-like book complex but full of valuable information as to the relationship of Knowledge Management definitions, concepts and issues.

Knowledge Management is about the "brainware' or "human capital" that exists in a corporation. Today a corporation must invest in their human capital through certification programs, training and education courses, forums and knowledge sharing sessions to maintain and keep their competitive edge. Some believe that 70 to 80% of what's learned is through informal means versus formal methods like reading books, brochures and documents. None the less, all knowledge must be captured and managed effectively and efficiently.

The book is well written and the examples are extremely useful. I have been programming in LabVIEW for 10 years and found the book to be very helpful for improving my programming techniques. My latest user interface is significantly improved over my previous efforts.

As a long-time LabVIEW programmer, I know how easy it is to create rich, graphical user interfaces with LabVIEW. I also know how frustrating it is to have an end user sit down in front of my LabVIEW masterpiece and not have a clue of what to do. In his easy to read style, Dave explains effective user interface design and how to apply it to test and measurement.

I especially appreciated Ch. 6 "Graphic Design for Engineers 101 - A Crash Course in Layout and Design." The discussion on designing an effective layout and the provided templates are excellent.

As a long-time LabVIEW developer, one of the things I like about LabVIEW is how easy it is to whip up a sharp looking GUI. However, along with this easy-of-use comes a responsibility to develop a user-friendly GUI as well. Though the title of this book implies that it only addresses GUI design, there is a significant amount of time spent on software engineering, understanding users, graphic design and coding techniques. This book is a whopper at over 500 pages, and there is no skimping on discussion of any of these topics.

As a developer who is equally at home with computers and people, it is hard to remember that I am in the minority, and the majority of users of my software are likely to be technophobes. The first 5 chapters of this book address user expectations and how, in a deterministic manner, to come up with a GUI that will be friendly to the target users.

Chapter 6, as another reviewer mentioned, is a crash course in graphic design. Over 50 pages of "put this here", "choose these colors", and "use this font". A great reference.

Chapters 7-9 discuss the mechanics of how to make a good GUI. All the regulars are here: VI Server, Custom Menus, Queue and Event-driven architectures, and Property/Attribute Nodes. But there is some neat stuff I have not seen elsewhere, such as how to make pop-up menus, custom toolbar buttons and floating menus/toolbars with minimum hassle and overhead.

Chapter 10 is a guide to everything graphics. It covers different image formats (jpg, bmp, png, etc.), transparency, where to get "free" graphics, as well as a primer on Adobe Photoshop.

The rest of the book (chapters 11 & 12, plus appendix A) are use cases.

In the back of the book is a CD-ROM with most of the examples, plus a ton of great free stuff (e.g., custom buttons) and trial stuff (e.g., Adobe Photoshop).

Complaints: this book is getting a bit long in the tooth. LabVIEW 7 is out with user-defined events, and 8 will be out shortly with a whole new development paradigm. While much of this book remains relevent, some parts are in need of updating (property nodes have been out how long now???).

My other complaint is that this book looks like a pre-publication proof. Nearly every page has a major spelling or grammar error. It is as if no one could make it through the 500+ pages for a final proof before printing. As an example, from page 181: "At this point, it should be stressed that the visual hierarchy is your GUI panels should be governing by more than aesthetic considerations alone." (yes, this is an exact quote)

I am only about half way through this book but have found it worth the reading time for anyone interested in one-to-one computing in schools. Reading it as a group has led to great conversations among faculty at a school with a one-to-one computing program - [...]

I particularly like the examples from real classrooms that Warschauer includes from studies of schools in California and Maine. Also, there are frequent reminders that one-to-one computing programs created to only raise test scores or implemented without adequate attention to faculty professional development are destined to be inadequate.

The 13 pages of references cited are also a great place to start for anyone who wants to read additional research on educational technology.

The book provides an excellent insight into new literacies. Clear and concise, it's a great help for those who want to associate new literacies with current teaching practices

Quick caveat*
I am currently taking a class taught by Professor Warschauer called Technology and Literacy at UC Irvine. Of the many readings and studies that we explored in his class, he also had us read his book.
The Review:
Mark Warschauer's passion and insight came alive in this critical study. The book provokes a somewhat fair-minded (slightly positive) view of how technology has and can be used in the classroom. He delves deeply into the educational system and examines not only the applications of technology but the deeper implications as well. He moves through history, politics, science, psychology and computer science with ease and explicitness to decipher the technical speak for the layman while penetrating into the culture of education to expose how best the implementation of technology (laptops) could/ should/ might play out.
Not too lengthy, his language and detail makes it interesting read, whether by necessity or leisure (haha), and the flow and completeness is inimitable.
Overall, it is worth a read for those with even the slightest interest in what technological literacy is and where technology is going in the future.

I share the views of the previous reviewers: this book is great. I have been using R for several years now, and found the help pages for Lattice much too terse to really grasp the potential of the system. This books is loaded with examples, ranging from easy to quite involved, and the explanations given are clear and to the point.

A book like this deserved a production effort from Springer, and about three times as many color plates as it has, but even as it is seems to me quite good.

Aside from the description of the Lattice package, that Deepayan Sarkar obviously knows as only its designer can, there is a wealth of comments on graphics design and pointers to the classics of the subject --Tufte, Cleveland, etc.

A book not to miss by any seriously interested in statistical graphics, or indeed by anyone willing to add a powerful tool to his/her graphics toolbox. May I only add that those willing to make a further investment of time to obtain the most of this book, might consider Murrell's "R Graphics" (Chapman & Hall), also a masterpiece of expository writing, discussing (in its chapter 4) Lattice graphics within the context of grid ---grid being the underlying graphics model on which Lattice is built.

I learned far more from a few hours of reading this book than I did from countless hours tinkering with Lattice graphs. I would recommend it without hesitation to any novice or intermediate user of R.

Furthermore, while both are helpful, this book is probably a better first purchase than R Graphics (Computer Science and Data Analysis).

Deepayan Sarkar won a prize for programming Lattice. He deserves another for writing this book. The usual style of help files in R (including Lattice) is terse; this is a deliberate choice by the developers. Presumably, a lot of people like this terseness - but I am not one of them, and there are many others I know of who share my confusion at some of the help files.

Now, there's a whole book on Lattice, and it's written in an accessible style that will let me use Lattice much more creatively and with many fewer errors.

I think even experts on Lattice may find new things here; but for newcomers to Lattice, it's an indispensable guide.