Computer Science Books

An excellent text aimed at users who are competent at using spreadsheets but need the increased power and flexibility that the use of VBA allows. The examples are useful and the CD included with the book saves a lot of bother with debugging mis-copied code.

This book is really just what I needed to break the manual data-parsing habit! The examples are mostly from the realm of chemistry, but they're generally applicable to lab, field, and even scholastic or administrative applications. Mr. Billo has plenty of experience and has been generous in sharing it. As a bench tech who came to Excel without any prior education in the use of spreadsheet applications for comparative analyses, I highly recommend this book.

P.S. Excel is a powerful application for getting a good hard look at your data, but it's no substitute for real statistical software or programming languages. There are other good spreadsheets available; nevertheless, Excel is probably on your computer and if you're using Excel in the lab, this book's for you!

Unlike some books, this book is not just a paraphrase of Excel's help file. The book is written for the professional chemist. It uses examples from chemistry to show how Excel can easily handle many graphing and data analysis problems. The reader should have a basic knowledge of spreadsheets. If you haven't used spreadsheets before, this book will be overwhelming.

The first chapter is an introduction to Excel. Even the experienced user will find something new here. My favorite was learning that a shortcut menu listing all sheets in a workbook is available by right-clicking on any of the sheet tab scroll buttons.

The second chapter (10 pages) explains how to make basic graphs in Excel. Many people have Excel, but are unaware of how easy it is to make graphs with Excel. Chapter 5 shows how to construct advanced charts with, for example, multiple axis, error bars, and smoothed lines.

Chapter 3 starts to get into the power user stuff, such as making formulas more understandable by using named ranges. I had quit using names because they apply to every sheet in a workbook; this chapter shows how to make the name apply to just one sheet. The chapter also does a very good job of showing how to construct huge formulas ("megaformulas").

Chapter 4 explains how to use array formulas. This chapter is valuable because Excel's help file doesn't provide much information on using arrays. Arrays make for much cleaner-looking spreadsheets.

Chapter 6 shows how to use Excel's database features to keep track of, for example, a chemical inventory list. Since I don't use these features very often, it is nice to have them described where I can use them when I need them. The same can be said about appendix E, "Shortcut Keys for the PC and Macintosh".

Chapter 7 describes how to import data into a spreadsheet. If you have more data than you want, this chapter shows how to extract every, say, 10th data point.

Chapter 8 shows how option buttons, check boxes, list boxes, etc. can simplify use of a spreadsheet. For example, I needed to enter a number and convert it to pH, pOH, Ka, or Kb, depending on what was entered. Using the info in this chapter, I now just click on an option button, and the sheet does the appropriate conversions.

Chapters 9-12 are about spreadsheet mathematics. Goal Seek, linear regression and Solver are covered. What really makes this material useful is that it tells how to do a statistical analysis of the results, even for non-linear regression.

Chapters 13-19 illustrate how to use Visual Basic for Application (VBA), the programming language built into Excel. The code examples are clearly the work of an amateur programmer. "Option Explicit" is omitted, only arrays are dimensioned, the standard method of indenting to improve readability is not used, and-horrors-the author uses GoTo statements. Nonetheless, these chapters do show the basics of programming with VBA. The CD includes many code examples, including a neat program for formatting chemical equations. For example, it will subscript the 2 in H2O.

Chapters 20-23 are more applications. I especially liked learning how to deconvolute a spectrum with Excel.

The book isn't perfect-a few typos, organization could be improved, one of the files on the CD wouldn't open-but if you are a chemist and want to become better at using Excel, this is the book you need. I wish my company had given me this book when I started using Excel in industry. It would have saved a lot of time.

I have bought several books on using Excel for scientists, engineers, etc. However, of the six I have bought, this one by Billo is the most helpful.

If you already know the basics about spreadsheets, then this book is packed with pearls that enhance your productivity and get you powerful results. It will take me years to exhaust the potential.

The CD ROM with the book is very good as well, with examples for the more complex subjects.

I use this reference to evaluate complicated data with multiple interactions on animal and human data in biomedical research. I do research in PET (Positron Emission Tomography) imaging.

While this book is no substitute for a professional biostatistician, the book has helped me to not only follow the progress and interrelationships of the data but also to more clearly communicate my needs to a professional biostatistics firm. This also saves me money since it saves the biostatisticians time. I also think it improves results.

I highly recommend this book.

Good layman's level overview of the technical problems with critical control via software and a discusssion of how industry and individual experts are trying to deal with the problem

Henry Petroski has written several books that explore his dictum, "Form follows failure." His thesis is that improvements in engineering are made to overcome the failures of previous design. Petroski's books cover advances in civil and mechanical engineering. Ivars Petersen has written a similar book covering some of the notorious failures in software engineering and the efforts by a few leading engineers to define practices and design methods that can prevent such failures from recurring.

Fatal Defect describes dozens of software failures, how they happened, and the efforts to correct them. The defects occur in banking systems, stock exchange mechanisms, aircraft and spacecraft guidance computers, medical equipment, telecommuncations, and scientific computation. Some of these failures are famous; others are little known. Regardless, the descriptions always provide the kind of technical detail that you need to really appreciate the situation. Petersen is a journalist for science news and is clearly a professional when it comes to describing technical issues for the intelligent layman.

Moreover, he tells the stories of people who found the errors, lead the efforts to correct them, or who tried to raise the standards of the industry. Nancy Leveson investigated the Therac-25 defect that lead to several deaths in 1986. This influenced her efforts to design software safety standards. Learning from failures requires knowing about them. But the details of many failures are often kept quiet, being marked proprietary or secret to avoid embarrassment or litigation. Peter Neumann tried to open up the discussion of computer failures with RISKS digest. He started it in 1985 but even today it remains one the best places to learn about the technical details behind dangerous system failures. David Parnas took the lead in criticizing the Star Wars strategic defense initiative. He noted that there would inevitably be defects in the software and that there was no way to conduct a comprehensive system test, short of a nuclear war. He then moved on to overseeing the engineering processes at the Darlington nuclear plant, ensuring that the software was correct, even though this delayed the project completion by three years. Vic Basili was one of the first to conduct controlled experiments with programming teams to determine which development methods actually produced the most reliable software. For example, in 1982, he established that code reviews were far more effective than functional testing, a result that is only beginning to be regularly applied to engineering practice today. These results lead he and Harlan Mills to develop the Cleanroom process which Mills taught at NASA and IBM.

Petersen tells the stories of these and other engineers, describing their background and how their careers lead them on the paths that they ended up. I'd been familiar with the ideas of many of these people, but i found it very interesting to learn of the experiences that had lead them to formulate and articulate these ideas.

The issue of what constitutes effective means for developing reliable software is becoming more than just a practical matter with recent events. Earlier this year the Texas board of professional engineers started licensing software engineers and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers plans to start certifying software engineers in 2000. Licensing means more than just professionalism and status. It also means acknowledging accepted practice and deviating from it at the risk of malpractice. If the licensing process is done well, it will base itself on the fine, but tentative work done by the people described in this book. If it is done poorly, it may merely enshrine the latest fad in law.

Ivars Peterson has written a well thought-out and interesting book that provides just the right amount of depth to this fascinating subject. Both the layman and the software engineer will find Fatal Defect interesting reading.

This book should be required reading for everybody in the IT industry!

From the subtitle, "Chasing Killer Computer Bugs," you would think that this would be a book about software testing. It isn't. Rather, it's a book about things going wrong with software. The author tells readable stories about some infamous software bugs, at least one of which I've never been able to forget. This is the story of the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine, which caused deaths and injuries due to a software problem. Some of these stories have morals which software professionals would do well to keep in mind--and not just developers, but the people who give them their marching orders. For instance, the Therac-25 story makes clear in a very sobering way how an apparently VERY minor change to a program can have VERY unanticipated consequences. The A320 story makes a convincing case for thinking hard about user interface design.

Other parts of the book talk about why building good software can be so hard, and about some of the people and organizations that work towards developing approaches to issues in software quality and construction. You wouldn't think that these would be particularly interesting subjects, but for the most part the author makes them come alive.

This is not a technical book--don't expect to come away from it with any new debugging techniques. Rather, expect it to give you lots of food for thought.

This book is the text book of my cs education of file organization. And i can comfortably say that it gives much insight not just on file organization but also on algorithms. I haven't read all the chapters but among the chapters i read, without any exaggeration i can say that i've learnt every word of what the author wants teach.

This book is one of the few gems in computer science. It is written intelligently. One can read it fluently. It is about a reasonably important subject. The book is well crafted (hardcover, layout...). In short reading it makes you happy and smart.

The only disadvantage of it: there is no sample code. Desperate people might want to check on Folk, Zeollick, Riccardi "File Structures".

I've got a whole bookshelf of algorithms books, and this is by far the best book on file organization in my collection. Tharp was one of the best professors I ever had, and it was a pleasure to work from his excellent (and unfortunately hard to find) book. If I had to own a single book on this topic, well, here it is.

It's ~old book (1988), but it still very actual now, and will be actual in future. This book contain only principles and algorithms, but it all showed so deep and clear, so I was very impressed then read it first time. B-tree type structures description is best I ever seen. (Need to have this book if You perform serious low-level work on NTFS, BFS or other File System, based on B-trees.). And even if You not work with such File Systems - this book is classic algorithm book and I put it on my bookshelf near Knuth's volumes.

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

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

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

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

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

Buyers beware!!! This book is huge... Amazon should give its dimensions, but I am guessing more than a foot long and 3/4 foot wide. Great reading about history -- if you have strong arms and a sturdy table.

If you thought the TNT "Pirates of Silicon Valley" was good, this expounds so much the TV show left out. This story held me spellbound as it encompassed the whole history of the modern computer. It starts with a young college professor who dwells on the binary numbers taught to him by his mother. He makes a drum with paper capacitors that when spun, the drum would charge the paper and he could perform calculations.

You will understand why Bill Gates is a billionaire - he is probably one the most ruthless & resourceful people ever. Learn how his unkempt appearance is part of his strategy to destroy his competitors.

The whole book read like a mystery novel. Anyone in the IT world will realize that they only had a few pieces of the story - this book fills in the blanks. The insights of the author are amazing. I've read hundreds of books - this is the best secular book I've ever read.

After buying the book I was a little scaptic about this book keeping me intrested but rather than being too technical and 'professional' the book is more like a drama with alot of winners and losers.It was a great inspiring experience-reading stories like the ones about bill gates,steve jobs and his body 'woz'.The book floats along the evolution of the computer industry,the IBM empire,the Microsoft phenomenen throght the stories of the people who made it and those who couldn't stay in the top.A must read for every person who has some computer background who wants to know how it all started and also for the not-yet computer fan who just wants a good read.

These really are "stories" rather than commentaries. A born storyteller, Young presents what he calls "inspiring tales of the entrepreneurs and inventors who revolutionized modern business." They include the "pioneers and pirates" who developed the prototype for the first commercial computers as well as Thomas J. Watson, Jr., William Shockley, Jack Kilby, Jay Forrester, Edwin De Castro, Douglas Engelbart, Bob Noyce, Andy Grove, & Gordon Moore, Edward Roberts, Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak, Don Estridge, Lew Eggbrecht, Bill Gates & Paul Allen, Tom Carter, Bill McGowan, Craig McCaw, Bob Taylor, Steve Case, and Marc Andreesen.

Perhaps at least a few of these names are unfamiliar to you. That is one of the great benefits of this book: It introduces a "cast" of literally hundreds of different "characters", most of them probably unfamiliar to most readers. I was fascinated to learn how important their "roles" were...how significant the impact of their work has proven to be.

For whom will this book be of greatest interest? Probably for those such as I who enjoy a story well-told, who have a keen interest in knowing more about various "entrepreneurs and inventors who revolutionized modern business", and who appreciate having what amounts to a frame-of-reference within which to understand current and future developments. Also, Young's book will suggest additional readings such as full-length biographies of the major "characters" in the "tales" he has told so well.

This is a great book. It has helped me write more lab reports than I even want to count ...

This work is very extensive. Its a highly practical reference for the working engineer (mechanical, civil, aerospace) or student. If you're interested in the behavior of beams, plates, grillages, shells, shafts, gears, columns, joints, frames, etc. under constant or variable loads, I highly recommend it. It covers so many geometries and conditions, you will surely find good use for it. Plus, the advanced material is a great aid in deriving your own results for unusual geometries.
This book ranks up there with Roark's Formulas for Stress & Strain by Warren C. Young or Stresses in Plates and Shells by Ansel C. Ugural.
If you want to take advantage of the more advanced detailed coverage of transfer matrices and tabulated results, I also recommend you also buy Modern Formulas for statics and Dynamics, a Stress-and-Strain Approach, Walter D. Pilkey and Pin Yu Chang, 1978, which gives lots of worked examples. But this is not required to use most of the ready-made stress/strain formulations.

It's very good guide for my job

This is a first-class reference book, very well organized. As a practising structural engineer, I'm commonly confronted with strength of materials formulas for different kind of structural members and I do extensive FE modeling. It is interesting to have analytical formulas to check these calculations on some occasions.

Roark's formulas for stress and strain hadn't satisfied me: information is not oriented for structural engineers, introductory texts are not enough theoretical and you have US units throughout.

In Pilkey's book, you have the perfect structural engineer's reference: many chapters, with at first a list of notation, explanation of conventions, and then a short introductory course on the subject together with solved examples. After that, there it is: magnificent well-organized "tables", with all kind of data of prime interest to a structural engineer. As an example, I'll mention that you can find plastic section modulus for about 11 section types.

Units are mixed for examples, but for data you have always both US and SI units furnished.

For all entries, Pilkey's book is far more complete than the Roark's one. You'll be surprised by the vastness and depth of formulas furnished. Furthermore, you have structural matrices in each case if you want to do numerical programming.

The list of references is up to date and very extensive. It is a pricy book, but you'll not regret it!

I recently purchased the "Fundamentals of Signals and Systems" hardcover book written by Benoit Boulet. This book is one of the more complete textbooks i've read not only for Signals & Systems, but for any subject! It is easy to follow with an abundance of tables, diagrams and examples. The CD that accompanies the book is also very helpful for problem solutions and practice exams.

What i liked most about the book is the price. Very affordable which is more than you can say for other textbooks of its kind.

I am a master student in Aerospace enginnering, and I found the book of Professor Boulet a great reference for all signals and sytems topics I am using in my research. His book is written in a clear and straightforward way that makes it easy to find any explanation related to the basics of signals and systems (all transforms, sampling, state models) and even in some more advanced topics. I really recommend it for any student who likes to have all the signals and system concepts in one book. It's not a grad book, but in my opinion, it's a book to keep on the shelf when studying in grad books that usually skip the basics that we tend to forget.

Hope this helps,

Georges Aoude

Signals and systems is one of the core subjects of almost all engineering schools whether the concentration is in electrical engineering, computer engineering, communications, circuit design, or signal processing. In this college level book the author covers all the classical mathematical concepts, how they work, and how to use them to get the results you want or understand the results you get. It is well organized and if followed through from beginning to end each section builds on the previous knowledge and can be grasped easily. Students who use this book should have had a course in calculus and trigonometry as a prerequisite.

The book jumps right into the subject by starting with elementary continuous-time and discrete-time signals and systems. From there it moves through linear time-invariant systems, differential and difference LTI systems, Fourier series representations and transformations, Laplace transformations, time and frequency analysis, applications to electric circuit analysis, state models, feedback control systems, the z-Transform, sampling systems, communications systems, and system discretization. In addition to the normal chapter layout the book is organized into 70 discrete lectures. Designed as an undergraduate academic text for engineering majors it includes exercises at the end of each chapter and a CD with answers to the questions. As a college textbook or an excellent additional text for engineering students Fundamentals of Signals & Systems is highly recommended.

I am of course biased: I wrote this textbook exactly as I needed it for my courses. But why write a new textbook on signals and systems? There are at least 20 out there covering more or less the same material... In a nutshell: Value to the student and engineer. I had two objectives in preparing this book: (1) clarity to enhance learning (by presenting one concept at a time, providing detailed solutions, using lots of figures and learnware applets, etc.) and (2) low cost to the student. I think (2) has been achieved, and I'll let the readers judge (1)!

I was impressed with the authors for their clear and lucid style, assembling and relating diverse topics in a simplistic view, ranging from computer science to philosophy, to present a brilliant holistic view of GIS technical infrastructure.

This book fills a very important gap in the GIS literature. There are many good introductory book about GIS (try Burrough, for example), but they have been mostly written having a geographer or an earth scientist as their prospective reader. By contrast, Worboys writes for the computer engineer or programmer who wants to understand how a GIS really works inside. The author is a leading researcher on the field, and the book is clearly and concisely written. If you are a computer professional working in the GIS area, you'll find this book invaluable.

I'm not your average GISer. I have a BS in Mathematics and worked for 15 years as a software developer. This book was a required text for the class in Advanced Vector GIS that was part of my MS in GIS. I currently use it as a reference as I work on my PhD in pure GIScience.

This book covers GIS data structures and databases in a way that a Computer Scientist would appreciate. It covers GIS algorithms in a way that an Applied Mathmetician would like. It covers GIS topology in a way that a Pure Mathmetician could learn from. It covers uncertainty in a way that a Statistician would enjoy.

If you are, say a graduate student in mathematics or computer science and want to understand what all the GIS hype is about, you've found a great, concise volume that covers an intense amount of information. If you are a geographer who needs to formalize some language concerning theory and methods for a publication, then this is a good start.

If you are looking for something like "how to delineate a watershed in ArcView 9", skip it and look elsewhere.

Having read many books of the kind I can state with confidence that this one is the best introductory book on the topic. The authors claim that the book is best-suited to people approaching GISs with a computer-science perspective and/or background and this should be taken into consideration by all prospective buyers. However, the book should still be a most valuable resource to readers from other backgrounds, as it remains the most comprehensive in its domain, and is very readable thanks to the lucid writing style of the authors.

Each chapter except the first, which serves as a general introduction, deals with a particular sub-discipline within GIS. Chapter 2 describes the basics of databases.
Chapter 3 clarifies important topological and metric concepts.
Chapter 4 enters the area of field vs. object data models.
Chapter 5 deals with raster and vector structures as well as with computational geometry and geometric algorithms.
Chapter 6 moves even closer to the physical computer level and discusses indexes (access structures) and trees.
Chapter 7 is about architectures (distributed, homogeneous, heterogeneous systems).
Chapter 8 talks about GIS-interfaces.
Until that point, the book has a very logical structure with each chapter being the logical extension of the next.
Chapters 9 and 10 exist only in this second edition and provide some brief excursions into the topics of handling uncertainty and time in GIS respectively. They go into somewhat less detail than the previous chapters, yet are very well written.

Remember that this book is introductory, hence dont expect to learn the intricate details of topics such as databases and computational geometry. The authors manage however, to strike a fine balance between the amount of concepts and methods being presented and the degree of detail to which each of them is analysed. Therefore the book retains its clear introductory character while maintaining a very high informational content. In addition, the authors have done a fantastic job at compiling relevant bibliographies at the end of each chapter where the readers may pursue additional details should they wish to. The graphics and figures are also self-explanatory and do a fine job at complementing the text. Verbosity and typos are scarce if at all existent.

I recommend this book as the most comprehensive overview of, and a very good reference source for, GISs. It will be invaluable not only for newbies but also for mid to hi-level experts who wish to consolidate their knowledge or have a trusted reference. Undoubtedly, an indispensable resource in the library of anyone interested in geographic information systems.

I'm working on a teaching moduel for an independent study in GIS and I purchased this book to help me understand how GIS can be used in the Health field. IT'S OUTSTANDING! For any GIS instructor out there, you should check out this book, because the chapter assignments are brilliant from a teaching stand point. They force the user to really explore how GIS is used in the world today and look beyond the simple tutorial commands to introduce you to the software. The assignments make you explore the internet for data and learn how GIS is being used elsewhere. By far the best GIS book I've used sofar.

This tutorial is written in clear and concise language. It introduces basic GIS operations in a logical stepwise progression which is ultimately a comprehensive basic course. The tutorial is very hands-on and interactive and it makes very good use of screenshots and other illustrations. It is a very effective learning tool in the field of public health GIS.

Although there is a very minimal incompatibility of this book if used with ArcGIS 9.2. (the software given with the book is 9.1 version), this book is still categorized as an excellent book for the Elementary GIS learner. This book is very helpful for Public Health professionals in learning how to create, analyze, display and inform the geographic health information which will be well complemented with health statistical facts and figures. The curricullum, the guidance, and the exercises given are well prepared that allows me to want to explore the endothelial layer other than just the epithelial layer of this knowledge.

I would recommend this book as a starting point of the journey to engage and marry GIS knowledge and practice with its excitements.

College-level collections strong in GIS mapping and health will want GIS Tutorial for Health: one of the few texts to apply GIS software to health profession research and objectives. Health care policy and planning within the GIS system leads students to design maps to investigate and analyze patterns of health, injuries, environmental hazards and more. The workbook helps students learn and maintain GIS software skills with specific application for the health sciences, going beyond your usual GIS focus on general geographic and population mapping information to address the specifics of the health industry. It comes with two CDs: one offers data to juxtapose with the book's exercises and case study examples; the other includes a 180-day trial of ArcGis9.1. The combination makes it a top pick for college-level health profession GIS course assignments.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

All too often we look at the subject of technology as a complicated topic outside of our normal scope of activity. Sandy Berger shows how technology is meaningful and relavant to our daily lives. Suddenly the term technology has become a user friendly topic. this book has helped me discover ways to make my life more interesting and has made me more comfortable with computers and technology.

This book gave me the courage to finally purchase a digital camera/printer setup. Sandy gives you step-by-step insructions in PLAIN ENGLISH, no computer-ese. And just when you have a question, Sandy answers it -- she speaks our language (the Boomers!).

Berger talks in plain language, to demystify the use of various technical items. She writes for a still large crowd that is new to much of this. Naturally, the bulk of the book explains how to use the Web. She shows some of the myriad resources available, from geneology to sharing photo images.

For searching, she describes the main search engines, Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. For Google, she gives a sidebar on how the word derives from 'googol'. But, like so many other texts, it does not analyse this further. 'Google' is also a pun on 'goggle', where that means to look at something and gape. (Goggles are spectacles, in a related meaning.) Why is it that so many writers can't go beyond Google's official explanation of its name? The name is actually quite ingenious, and more so than just their explanation.

Anyway, on other topics, the book spends time showing how to use music, as in buying it online. Or in subscribing to satellite radio, say. Plus, she brings to your attention various sites that hobbyists might frequent, for such activities as scrapbooking and geocaching.

I just started reading this book and I can't put it down. I thought I knew a thing or two about computers, technology and the Internet already, but there is so much more. And I'm finding a lot of it here in this book. I just don't know how to find the time to play with all the new suggestions and ideas in here for me, and the whole family. I look forward to reading the other books in the series when they are released. Keep them coming.