Computer Science Books

I have read lots of introductory and advanced dsp books. In my opinion this book is the best book when it comes to learning fundamentals. This was the book along with the book i'll mention later which allowed me to read and understand more advanced books. Explanations are clear and supported with lots of figures and worked examples. Even though software examples provided on it's disk is very primitive and dated, they are still very helpful for beginners. (Source codes available and perfect for validating your understanding about formulas and calculations) I strongly recommend it. Understanding Digital Signal Processing (2nd Edition) by Richard G. Lyons is also great. If possible buy both otherwise buy this one.

In my opinion this is one of the best books on digital signal processing for beginners. It presents a clear and intuitive explanation of all the fundamental concepts needed for more advanced studies, providing a very good background and solid understanding of this subject.

Steganography is the hidding of messages in plain sight, it hides a message within another message that looks like a normal message. This is different from Cryptography in which the secret message is converted to what looks like a meaningless jumble of characters.

Example: You mail a letter. It currently takes 37 cents in postage. Instead of using a 37 cent stamp you use stamps of the following values: 9 cents, 2 cents, 3 cents, 1 cent, 9 cents, 4 cents, 9 cents. That's the right amount of postage so the letter goes through. But the letter is meaningless. The message you sent is 9-2-3-1-9-4-9. Perhaps this means September 23, 1949, or perhaps it's comething else that the receiver understands. Or perhaps the message is in the green ink that you used to address the envelope.

When you get to computers you can be far, far more secretive. A movie or audio file can be millions of bytes long. Changing a few bits here or there would be completely undetectable but could incorporate a huge message.

This book is intended to be a guide to law enforcemtn investigators and cyber-forensics. It describes the techniques and the literally dozens of programs that exist (usually free on the web) for hiding messages and several programs for detecting these messages. This is an area that has received little attention in the past and this book does a very good job of bringing this field out into the open.

As a security focused manager the more I learn about steganography, the art of hiding messages, the more concerned I become about its security implications. These techniques allow an individual to use secrecy in communications.

I am sure the book aids the investigator, but it helps a manager understand how secrecy has been used in the past and the present as well. A tremendous amount of research must have gone into the book to be so comprehensive. I was already familiar with S-tools and a few other picture file related techniques, but had never considered slight alterations of the space between letters and had never heard of Civil war quilts. The beginning of the book is packed with technique after technique.

The author, Greg Kipper is to be congratulated for such clear writing especially considering how complex the subject gets.

The publisher, CRC Press, went the extra mile to create a very detailed table of contents so the reader can find what they need fast.

The bottom line, this book is an excellent coverage of the subject and yet they packed it into about 200 pages so it is 100% fluff free.

One concern and one wish. The coverage of tools is a bit spotty, the links to stego tools seem to change rapidly and some of the tools do not even have a link. If you can't find a tool you might try: http://www.stegoarchive.com/ that is what I use. I hope this goes to second edition and if so, my wish is that the author will beef up the detection chapter. Greg does such a great job of showing how stego can and has been used in the real world, I would love more information about how I can protect myself and apply detective controls in my organization's network.

This has a lot of great tips and I needed this book before I even took my iphone out of the box! It guides you step-by-step and I really love the visual reference ( a necessity for me!) Enjoy-you really can't go wrong with this handy guide.

This is a great book that shows you how to use all the bells and whistles of the iPhone. Easy to follow steps and full color images make it fun to look at and read.

If you're a U.S. company that is not doing international business you might wonder why even bother with ISO 9000-3. While I can make compelling arguments for and against software and technical services companies pursuing registration, my stance would be dependent upon a set of conditions. With respect to applying the elements of ISO 9001 in accordance with guidelines for software development, supply and maintenance set forth in ISO 9000-3 I can only argue for.

The book: The first three chapters are brief and take only 24 pages to set the context. Chapter 1 introduces ISO 9000 as an international standard, discusses the relationship between 9001 and 9000-3, and gives good advice on the semantics of 9001's "shalls" and 9000-3's "shoulds". The next chapter provides an overview of software engineering and key elements in which 9000-3 will support. Chapter 3 discusses theory, concept, interpretation and critique of ISO 9000-3.

Chapter 4 comprehensively covers scope and overview, and provides a framework for the rest of the book. The key areas discussed in this chapter are the quality system framework, life cycle activities and supporting activities. Taken together these areas encompass ISO 9000-3. Chapters 5 through 23 are each devoted to a single area, giving you sufficient detail to understand the issues and factors. What I like most is the way the authors skillfully describe the contents of ISO 9000-3 guidelines in a readable manner without introducing ambiguity. Making specifications readable without introducing fuzziness or uncertainty is one of the most difficult aspects of technical writing and the authors manage this well.

An added bonus, and the reason I like this book so much, is the quality handbook that is provided in chapter 24. Including the eleven attachments, each of which in an invaluable artifact itself, this chapter is 50 pages in length (about 20% of the book), and serves as one of the best examples of a quality manual you'll find.

So, why even bother? First, you do not need to pursue ISO 9001 registration to benefit from this book (and if you are, you need to get a book on the ISO 9000:2000 version to get up-to-speed). If you are using the capability maturity model as a goal, the procedures given in this book map nicely to CMM process areas and practices. Moreover, in the "e" world where supply chain management is one of the current buzz words, the focus of 9000-3 might be a good fit into your operational posture (whether as a developer/integrator or service provider) because ISO 9000-3 is slanted towards the customer-supplier relationship, whereas the CMM is more concerned with suppliers. The real reason, however, for using 9000-3 guidelines is they will assure you of attaining repeatability in all of your key processes related to applications or service delivery, and will lay the foundation for any additional quality paradigm or framework you deploy in the future.

Very practical, easy to implement the ISO standards, practices and processes. If you are planning to register for this standards, the book will be good hand-book.

The practices outlined in this book are the foundation of IT operational service, availability and support. This book covers the key elements necessary for achieving a high level of IT operational excellence in great detail. I especially like the way production acceptance criteria is emphasized - this is an often overlooked topic that merits its own book - and the clear outline of how to implement change control (often talked about, but sadly missing in many organizations), and the clear distinction between problem management and the much narrower scope of help desk support operations.

Some of the issues raised by the previous reviewer regarding updating the core processes and procedures for contemporary operations in e-commerce and web-based environments are addressed in the newest book in this series titled "Web-Based Infrastructures: A 4-D Framework" by Sanmay Mukhopadhyay and Cooper Smith (ISBN 0130329894). Although that book does address the gaps noted, this book is still invaluable because it focuses strictly on the core elements while the newer book has a wider scope.

If you are a member of an IT operations management team or are involved with service level management this book will prove to be an invaluable resource, and is one that I highly recommend.

This book provides a coherent roadmap to "lights out" data center operations. It also provides a roadmap to developing a sound organization and processes to support data center operations regardless of whether they are "lights out", 24x7 or less demanding normal working hours support.

In fact, this book is misnamed because the real focus is on data center operations and the support requirements of running a data center in accordance with a set of best practices that the author has acquired over the years.

The roadmap that is used in this book appears to assume that operations will be outsourced. A good deal of the analysis and planning, and the roadmap milestones seems to lead to that objective. However, it will also support in-house operations after you align the people and process sides of the equation to the book's processes.

Real strengths of the author's approach are in the processes. He addresses the key process areas that need to be in place and the level of maturity needed to operate an effective and efficient data center. These same processes are the foundation of service delivery - which is the foundation of customer satisfaction. They are:

- Production Acceptance

- Problem Management

- Change Management

- Asset Management

- Disaster Recovery

Each of the above are essential processes. The author's approach validates my 24 years of mainframe experience. I especially like the production acceptance process that is conspicuously missing from most non-mainframe shops.

There are some potential problems with some of the processes that my current experience in distributed and e-commerce environments is uncovering.

Let's start with problem management. The author's approach is good for the here and now, but has a limited future. For example, the call center experts are rapidly integrating customer relationship management with internet technologies. External customers are benefiting from technologies and associated processes that we IT experts are designing and implementing while our internal customers are limited to more traditional kinds. Another issue is there is no clear linkage between problem management and disaster recovery. At what point does a problem trigger either business continuity or disaster recovery processes? This, as far as I can tell, has been adroitly sidestepped in every book and white paper addressing problem management, so the author cannot be faulted here. However, it is something you should consider as you read this section of the book.

The change management process is sound and works well in mainframe and traditional operational settings. However, the realities that we are faced with today are going to make the traditional approach to change management obsolete. It is not responsive enough to today's dynamic environments that are characterized by competitive pressures and the sheer complexity of data center environments. There has to be a streamlined approach, and the one proposed by the author will probably be an anachronism in the next two years. Managing changes in the Internet environment needs to happen quickly to respond to pressures, but with controls to ensure that you do not affect half the world. Consider something as simple as a new DNS server - mistakes in the tables can get propagated that make it look like you are hijacking web site traffic (this really happened!) While this particular process is well developed and meets today's needs, I hope the author will revisit this in the next edition and come up with a process that provides the speed that marketing demands, and the controls that we practitioners need.

Overall, this book is a very valuable source of ideas and comes with ready-made processes that can be implemented and managed to provide a mature operational support environment. The shortcomings that I cited do not detract from this book - they only underscore the fact that the world is rapidly changing and what works well today is not going to work well tomorrow. As the co-developer of the Tarrani-Zarate Information Technology Management Model, I can attest that there are no clear answers or solutions to these shortcomings. I can only hope that the author addresses these gaps in the next edition. In the meantime, the processes and approach provided in the book will give you the tools and techniques with which to build a mature operational support organization that is based on true best practices.

The fundamental shift in thinking about IT PPM is the concept that software projects represent an investment portfolio no less than the stocks and bonds of a conventional investment portfolio. But if you look at a software project in the right way, it certainly has a cost, it should have some expected return, and it probably entails risk. These are exactly the characteristics of any investment.

Once you have made the jump to realize that the bundle of software projects being undertaken by your company are an investment portfolio, then all kinds of portfolio management software can come into play. The financial industry has spent a fortune and many years developing these analysis tools. This book talks about using some of them for software management.

The CD included with the book includes supplementary materials for IT project management professionals such as marketing presentations, ROI and portfolio management tools, direct links to regulatory acts, and more.

I found Mr. Bonham's book on IT PPM to be very informative, and one of the first books that I have read specifically pretaining to IT project portfolio managment. There were many use cases and detailed discussions, that provide practical development of the Mr. Bonham's IT PPM knowledge strategy. Each chapter contains take-aways that can often be applied directly to current IT projects. In addition, the level of research within the book (references, resources, etc), far outweights many other PPM books that I have read. Overall, I would highly recommend this book as a very useful tool for those looking to positively align their IT organizational workflows.

Most of the Java books on the market don't teach you anything about how to program - they simply contain lists and lists of classes and other complex topics.

This is an outstanding intro book to Java that I highly recommend.

This is one of the best books there is on object oriented programming and Java. I used this book as reference on a Java training course I recently thaught to Cobol programmers. Although this book is not aimed to professional programming, the contents, structure and presentation style makes it a good choice as reference book for introductory Java and OOP courses aimed at professional programmers with no or little experience in object oriented technology and Java.

As a matter of fact, this book is a lot better for this purpose than "Java for Cobol Programmers" (ISBN: 1886801843) and "Java for the Cobol Programmer" (ISBN: 0521658926).

I strongly recommend this book for both non-programmers and programmers of structured languages.

This book has a website with a rich
collection of supplemental materials:
sofpower.com/java

Java books nowadays tend to be mammoths. You nearly break your arm lifting them off the shelf. But Paul Wang's rather slender book still packs a wallop and delivers excellent content in tons of very readable examples. You'll learn about neat, arcane topics like using Java to write CGI server programs and all sorts of things about network sockets. There are very few errors and the typefonts are especially large and readable. The only detraction, which isn't Dr. Wang's fault, is that the cover is too thin and flexible. This wonderful book deserves a hardcover!

The Hewlett Packard 48G family of handheld graphic calculators are superb instruments suffering only from a slow processor and what has become famous as a User Guide useful sole to those who already know how to use the calculator. This book will for the most part clarify things so one can use the User Guide although it can do nothing to speed up the calcified and arthritic slowness of this calculators processor.

Unlike some calculators the 48 has NO GUI at all. It also uses the postscript, or RPN, input method which most who deal with maths adore and which befuddles many history majors, dance majors, football players and ilk others. Moreover the 48 dates from the earliest part of the 1990s and has had several O/S tweaks. As a result some of the step by step instructions even in this book may be off a keystroke or two for your particular machine. This volume is, however, a real Missing Manual.

After I bought my first 48 it took 3 weeks of messing with it before I was able to do much more then 2 + 2. That was years ago. Just as beaming parents used to present a slide rule to their young scholar off to engineering school this beaming grand-unki has now presented several plastic packaged H.P. 48g+ each with a copy of this book [that to save from frustration and the English Majors or high school calculator the T.I. 83]

If you find yourself in a situation where the fantastic capabilities of the HP-48G/X are just out of your grasp, and you still need to devote most of your time to class rather than learning how to operate this calculator, then this book is probably for you.

It is lightly documented that the two User Manuals that come with the HP-48GX do assume that you have some level of working knowledge of the terms, and stadards used in advanced HP calculators. It is not necessary to buy this particular book if you are already comfortable with the HP-48G/X and are just striving to learn more about programming or how to answer the question of time.

Jump Start is a good book if you are like me, going to school because you don't know everything already and you certainly don't have all year to figure out how your new calculator works.

The examples the author chose were excellent for my needs. Surely, they won't be for everyone, but as an Electronics Engineering student, what he offered fulfilled the demand I had to gain enough experience on this mini-computer so that I have a positive direction to go toward to learn the specifics of the types of problems I will use it to solve. And clearly that is the authors intent. And that was my goal when I bought this book. I simply needed some guidance.

This book will not teach you Calculus, nor will it teach you all there is to know about the HP-48G/X. What it will do is assume that you are trying to learn the HP-48 series and give you some general problems that are the foundations of many common problems so that you have a broad base of knowledge and a common platform in which to solve them.

One of my favorite examples in the book was that of isolating variables in a complex equation. I needed to know how to do this because frankly, some of the math I do takes like 4 sheets of legal sized paper to write out and I knew there had to be a better way.

The equation he chose as an example has a piece of everything in it and once you learn how to enter in his example, and then isolate whatever variable you want, you have now the power to solve any equation only limited by your ability to enter it into the calculator. And using the powerful Equation Writer, entering in complex equations gave me a sense of security because you can, using the methods covered in this book, actually look at the equation as you entered it, and then convert it to what it looks like in your text book. Probably the HP user manual shows how to do that, but since I could not even figure out how to enter an equation in the first place based on the HP manuals, I will give this author that credit, on my behalf.

Bottomline, if you haven't figured out how to enter an equation, create a subdirectory, move around subdirectories, write basic programs, purge memory, write complex equations, convert anything to practically anything else and solve for any variable....and you WANT to be able to do these things, then you can get that information by reading this book and practicing the examples. If you don't even understand an equation like 2x+3y=4, then you probably won't enjoy this book. It won't teach you anything about understanding math or the problems. It assumes you know why and what you are trying to solve, but it importantly assumes you have no idea how to tell the calculator what you want it to do. In my book, that is a perfect Jump Start.

I give it Five Stars because the author only offers a Jump Start and I certainly got that out of this book.

Debra Kay Logan has done a marvelous job with this. Everything teachers, administrators, and parents need to know about Web site development in schools. Safety and security and privacy of student information is covered rationally as are the details of construction, content, and design in a school setting. This is a definite must have for any one developing school Web sites. Deb Logan's own Web site is a great model.
DK

This book, produced by Linworth Publishing, is the result of an online collaboration between Cynthia Beuselinck, who worked in libraries for ten years, then as an internet support specialist for the Calgary Board, and now owns an educational internet training company; and Deb Logan, a school librarian from Ohio. It is the culmination of many years of work by the authors on school Web sites, and their solution to the problem of how difficult it is to find information on how to make good educational web sites. They have gathered here the wisdom of experts from books, magazines and other Web sites, and their own tried and true experience. It answers questions about content, design, safety, ethics and responsibility. What it doesn't do is focus on how to build Web pages step by step or how to use software packages. Instead it helps educators define their needs and plan for high quality, low risk and meaningful educational Web sites. It covers such essentials as creation of a vision statement, categories of content, publishing guidelines and policies, copyright issues, technical considerations, design, and maintenance. The appendices contain reproducible planning and check sheets, lists of helpful resources, including exemplary web sites, a glossary, index, bibliography and recommended resources list. The text is clearly written and well organized, with "Fast fact" sidebars and screen prints, as well as easy to use lists and catchy quotes. This is an extremely useful tool - one that all schools should have on their professional reading shelf.