Computer Science Books

I enjoyed the book for two reasons: Frist, it gave me an overview of the cutting-edge areas of modern science; Second, it did not flinch from asking hard questions related to awareness and consciousness. It also has a very readable chapter on ancient ideas on mind. The book will be of interest to those who are concerned with the interface between science and religion.

Our current state of knowledge -- from physics, biology, and psychology -- has so many contradictory aspects (such as determinism versus free will, or logic versus intuition, and the very possibility that somehow mind can make sense of the universe is so improbable if we are machines) that it would appear foolhardy to attempt a overarching synthesis of these strands. This is what this book attempts, and does it so with panache!

The subjects discussed in the book range from quantum theory, brains science, immunology, and evolution, but the book manages to find an appropriate voice so that there is not much jargon and a lot of insight that goes to the issue at hand. The question of "self" is raised for the individual as well as the immune system, and a historical look is provided at how consciousness was understood in the past and how it is understood now in the light of brain science.

I enjoyed the book greatly.

This book addresses two technical domains that should be complimentary, but rarely are: (1) network and infrastructure maintenance and management, and (2) applications and systems QA.

For the network infrastructure and maintenance domain this book provides a structured testing methodology that includes the key elements of both quality assurance and release of changes to production. For applications and systems testing teams it gives the necessary technical details for effectively performing applications and systems testing in a distributed environment. Too often the applications test group is called upon to conduct performance testing of distributed applications and miss some critical factors that should have been included in the test plan and associated test cases. The cause of this oversight is a lack of technical information in the application testing body of knowledge, which this book corrects.

What makes this book especially valuable is the emphasis on availability, application response and reliability. These are essential elements of service level agreements and the author does not lose sight of that fact.

I especially like the way the book starts by putting testing into a business and technical context. The eight chapters that comprise Part II of the book provide a structured test methodology that is completely consistent with testing best practices in the applications and systems test domain. This gives network and infrastructure professionals an effective and proven methodology, and gives their applications and systems colleagues a familiar point of reference because network testing has grey areas that overlap their domain.

Part II will be familiar territory to network professionals and is in many ways the heart of this book. The test cases provided can be templated and used in real life QA efforts, adding value to this book. Part III is where the overlap between network and applications testing becomes apparent. The material provided in the chapters in this part are filled with invaluable information that will enable applications and systems test professionals to develop viable test plans and cases for "footprint" testing, performance and application response testing in distributed environments. This is where the book becomes valuable to both groups. Part IV, Test Tools, is obsolete and can be safely ignored.

This is an outstanding book that should be in the libraries of both network maintenance and support groups and applications and systems QA groups. The approach provided is straightforward and is focused in the right direction - on availability and reliability in support of service levels.

The Art of Testing Network Systems provides the professional network tester blueprints for designing, implementing, and understanding the results of network testing. It is an easy to read useful reference. I would recommend it to network testers, test managers and end users charged with understanding test plans.

This book is an excellent reference book on current approaches to some of the foundational questions in artificial intelligence, philosophy of mind, and engineering of intelligent systems. The editors as amply demonstrated by their other publications, have the rare ability to interrelate an amazing diversity of perspectives on Artificial Intelligence - from symbolic methods to neural networks and evolutionary apporaches, to uncover the shared principles and common foundations, and show how different paradigms can be brought together in synergistic ways to advance our ability to design and analyze intelligent systems. This book includes chapters written by some of the leading experts in the field. The book should be especially useful as a reference to graduate students and researchers interested in artificial intelligence, machine learning, cognitive science, software agents, and philosophy of mind. It should also be useful as supplementary reading for a graduate or upper level undergraduate course in artificial intelligence or cognitive science, or as a primary text for a seminar course. All in all, a great book!

Symbolic (e.g., logic based) and connectionist (e.g., neural network) models are often viewed as separate, and perhaps incompatible approaches to artificial intelligence and cognitive modelling. Far too many young researchers (including myself) have been swept away by the exaggerated claims of each camp. This collection of chapters is an excellent medicine for such a malaise. The chapters in this collection demonstrate, with pursuasive theoretical and philosophical arguments as well as empirical data that symbolism and connectionism can, and perhaps should, be reconciled. At the time this book came out, this was not a popular position. However, recent developments in AI and cognitive science have more than vindicated the views expressed in this book. Now (6 years later), some of the chapters are a bit dated. However, I recommend the book strongly to those who are interested in foundational issues in artificial intelligence and cognitive science.

This book presents an exciting and challenging introduction to artificial intelligence and robotics for young people (probably ages 8-12). Jefferis describes many aspects of artificial intelligence, from the history of the field, to how computers work, robot sensors, gaming, neural networks, robot companions, and robot ethics. Each topic gets a 2-page spread, with at least as much space devoted to pictures as text. The text itself is clear and understandable, yet it doesn't come across as being dumbed down for kids. At the end of the book is an AI historical timeline, a glossary, and an index.

My 9 year old could not put this book down! Full of interesting photos and drawings, it teaches kids about current research in artificial intelligence (e.g., neural nets) and robotics. Amazing!

Thoroughly recommend! The book show the deep insight of the authors/editors into the technologies, as well as the business implications of reliability engineering.

A excellent overview of the field of electronics reliability, coupled with insight into how the AT&T (now Lucent) team developed their revolutionary model of electronics reliability ( i.e. if an electronic component doesn't fail early during its service life, it probably never will) that changed the nature of warranties in telecommunications equipment, make this a must have book for anyone in electronics engineering. Failure Rate (or Hazard Function) Data, and accelerated life models are useful for today's practitioners

Professonally compiled and deftly co-edited by the team of Ken Greenebaum and Ronen Barzel, Audio Anecdotes II: Tools, Tips, And Techniques For Digital Audio is a handy manual of tips, tricks, and techniques especially for professionals in the digital audio field. Volume two includes a variety of articles by expert authors concerning field recording, signal processing and filters, spatialization, computer techniques such as wrapped I/O and the ring buffer FIFO queue, music theory, sound design, and more. A glossary of audio terms will help those new to the lingo understand the more advanced essays, an index allows for quick and easy research, and an enclosed CD-ROm features demos, source code, and examples. A superb reference, resource, and research tool highly recommended for anyone applying digital sound to computer-created projects, including musicians, game developers, and software producers, Audio Anecdotes II combines expert knowledge and analysis with a straightfoward instructional style for effective communication.

Like Greenbaum's previous work in this series, this book is packed full of articles on all phases of audio processing and synthesis. It is to the audio processing world what the "Graphics Gems" series is/was to the graphics programming world. Continuing the tradition from the first volume, this volume presents additional processing techniques, explores new areas, and teaches some basic concepts.
The book begins with a section of tips on how to make good recordings in various environments. The next section goes into the technicalities of sound synthesis, more precisely oscillator control and subtractive synthesis. Section 3 is a continuation from Volume 1, in that it continues with a discussion of basic signal processing operators like filters and transforms. A particularly interesting paper in this section is the concluding chapter, on integer arithmetic-based fast Fourier transforms.Section 4 is about spatialization. It doesn't exactly reveal what happens inside your Sennheiser Toltec processor, but it covers the basic ideas. Low-level must-know techniques, such as circular FIFOs and framing, are covered in some detail in section 5. Section 6 presents some popular tools, such as the SoX library,which is the swiss army knife of sound processing programs, and the wonderful synthesis toolkit by Perry Cook which is featured in his own book, "Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications". It was a surprise to see a page on the QED package. QEDesign is an easy-to-use, multi-platform advanced digital filter design package. It is completely menu-driven and user intuitive, affording almost a non-existent start-up and learning curve. it is neither unique nor the best, but it's just a page out of the entire book. Music theory is the topic of section 7. This may be a foreign language for many engineers, as well as a foreign approach. For example, the authors explain what consonance and dissonance are, and how they fit in the sound scale, but there is no discussion of what physically happens, or, to be more precise, what psycho-physically happens. Auditory displays and auditory feedback are central to section 8, on sound design. The final section, section 9, reads almost like a Scientific American article on sounds in nature. It is very instructive. A very useful glossary of audio terminology concludes the book.
I highly recommend this book as a supplemental reference to anyone involved in the fascinating world of audio processing. However,this is really not for recording engineers, as there is much mathematics, signal processing, programming, and even some music theory involved.
I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here:
Preface ix
Introduction xiii
1. Field Recording 1
A Quick Field Recording Primer for the Adventurous Sound Effects Recordist Mike Caviezel 3
Holding on for Dear Life: Recording the Automobile Mike Caviezel 13
A Brief Introduction to Binaural Recording Gordon Hempton Ken Greenebaum 23
2. Synthesis 27
Ambient Synthesis with Random Sound Fields Hesham Fouad 29
Band Limited Oscillators Using Wave Table Synthesis Phil Burk 37
Subtractive Synthesis without Filters John Lazzaro John Wawrzynek 55
3. Signal Processing 65
Finite Impulse Response Filters Stuart Allman 67
Infinite Impulse Response Filters Stuart Allman 79
Replacing Analog Filters with DSP by Using the Bilinear Transform Stuart Allman 93
Floating Point Fast Fourier Transform Hal Chamberlin 101
Fast Fourier Transform Using Integer Math Hal Chamberlin 127
4. Spatialization 141
Spatialization with Stereo Loudspeakers Hesham Fouad 143
Spatialization with Multiple Loudspeakers Ville Pulkki 159
5. Computer Techniques 173
No Need to Shout: Volume Controls and the Digital Sound Convergence Ken Greenebaum 175
Count in Frames! (Not Samples or Bytes) Ken Greenebaum 183
Introduction to the Ring Buffer FIFO Queue Ken Greenebaum 193
Wrapped I/O Ken Greenebaum 209
6. Computer Tools 225
SoX Sound Exchange Library Chris Bagwell 227
The Synthesis ToolKit (STK) in C++ Perry R. Cook Gary Scavone 237
The QEDesign Filter Design Package Chris Bore 255
7. Music Theory 257
Basic Music Theory: Notation, Scales, and Chords Benjamin Tomassetti 259
Basic Music Theory: Rhythm and Meter Benjamin Tomassetti 289
8. Sound Design 303
Designing the Auditory Narrative: A Methodology for Sound Design Maribeth J. Back 305
Sound as Information: An Introduction to Auditory Display Rob Tannen 329
Auditory Feedback for Computer Devices Linda A. Roberts Cynthia A. Sikora 341
9. Nature 361
Brainwave Entrainment through Binaural Sound Jeffrey Thompson 363
Introduction to Bioacoustics Jeffrey Greenebaum 375
Glossary of Audio Terms 395
Contributor Biographies 429
Index

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," Yossarian observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

That is the famous line from Joseph Heller's 1961 novel, Catch 22.

Authoritas is the autobiography of Aaron Greenspan's adventures growing up in Shaker Heights, then attending Harvard, and then finding himself in Harvard's 21st-century version of Heller's Catch 22.

Authoritas is an interesting, fast paced and a times humorous read.

While at Harvard, Greenspan develops by all accounts the very first version of what is now the international website "Facebook."

Aaron Greenspan writes very well and really knows computing. With that combination I think we will be hearing a lot from Mr. Greenspan in the future.

Heller's John Yossarian would have loved reading Authoritas.

At some levels, the book is just an absolutely engaging story. At other levels, it shines a harsh light on uncaring, uncreative, and unimaginative people involved at administrative levels of education. At times, you'll be astounded at the depths educational administrators go to squash creativity, deny entrepreneurship, and cover themselves at the expense of providing service to education.

Aaron Greenspan graduated from Harvard. And although he is a successful CEO of his own company (Think Computer), his success came despite his Harvard education. In Authoritas you'll find Aaron struggle to avoid the crushing of the human spirit and the crushing of the innate desire to learn and his determination to provide compassionate assistance to his autistic brother.

Aaron's story is personal, engaging, and important.

I am self studying Autocad at my work to be able to modify some existing Drawings. Two weeks ago I knew nothing about Autocad. As a student I always prefer a book that is intuitive enough to get the experience without having to ask a million questions about what the book is trying to achieve. This book has many full sized drawings, and step by step examples. I have downloaded the excercise drawings from their web site, and the examples are exceptional. This is a full course in autocad and if I were an instructor this is The BOOK I would use. But then again I dont need the instructor... I bought It.

I have learned more AutoCAD from this book, than from numerous other AutoCAD books, and local courses, combined! James Leach's well organized, straight forward approach to all aspects of AutoCAD, makes it possible (in fact enjoyable) to become a proficient CAD practicioner, on a topic by topic, self paced basis. After completing the 22 step WIREFRAME MODELING tutorial in Chapter 37 (complete with detailed step by step instructions), one can immediately re-apply this proceedure to their own "select" 3-D illustrations! This text is an indispensable learning tool and reference source.

There are plenty of AutoCad instructional books on the market, but what makes this different is its focus on the basics, and its use of 'mixed units' of measurement to illustrate drawing and editing tools for the application. It's designed for novice users of AutoCad 2008 and is perfect for self-teaching or classroom instruction: no previous CAD experience is needed and the 21 'workshops' which comprise the lesson plan are based on small projects, covering all first level commands. An excellent starting point for AutoCad learners.

This is a basic instruction book for anyone beginning Autocad. I had some background knowledge of Autocad from a class taken over ten years ago and had forgotten most of the commands. This book walks the reader through step-by-step for various commands and shows various ways to initiate the command (icon, drop down menu, command line) to make Autocad more user friendly to the reader's personal computer styles. I recommend this book for those in the civil engineering field. There are some steps that were not covered in this book that are probably considered intermediate drafting techniques, like inserting maps to scale.

Comparing with other similar books, this is the best book I read in this field. You have to read every sentance in this book very carefully, then you get the ideal on how to do or how to implement it. If author can update it with his new research result, it could be better.

It's a pity that most of the author's books seem to be out of print, since he's a very clear writer. This book isn't necessarily accessible to the complete beginner--the intended audience is advanced computer science students, computational linguists/natural language processing people, and library/information science students--but if you fall into one of those categories, you should find this a very readable book. The coverage of topics is heavily slanted towards practical applications--editting and formatting, compression, encryption, file access, information retrieval, indexing, abstracting, spell checking, syntax and style checking--rather than towards theoretical background. That's not a bad thing, though--for many of those topics, this might be the most accessible resource you'll find.

The book was published in the late 80's, and hence is a bit dated by now--for instance, the statistical revolution in NLP pretty much isn't covered (Bayes doesn't even show up in the index). However, that in no way detracts from the value of what IS covered.