Computer Science Books

Discovery Channel, move over. Keep this book at your computer terminal. Now you can indulge in (a lot) of learning, or just quenching your curiosity!

Not just for grown-ups--there's a whole chapter (pp313-334) titled "KIDSTUFF", with pointers to such sites as "Helping Your Child Learn Science", "Children's Butterfly Site", "Science Made Simple" and "Planet Pals". With the decline of our schools, perhaps kids using the Net to carve out their own learning journey will be a big part of the solution.

Oh, there's a whole chapter on Mathematics! Good for those among us who were unlucky enough not to have good math teachers at school (which is most of us, I guess. Good maths teachers are a rarity.) The sites covered here might very well spark passion in our younger folk who have this subject spoon fed to them in it's most tasteless form. I mention this because I, myself, struggled with Maths at high school. That struggle ended when I took charge of my own Maths training. I chose my own books & materials and methods of learning. And saw my Maths marks skyrocket.

Need I say more? Get this book. For yourself. For your kids. For your country which is already in painful need for the scientifically astute.

Discovery Channel, move over. Keep this book at your computer terminal. Now you can indulge in an orgy of learning, or just quenching your curiosity!

Not just for grown-ups--there's a whole chapter (pp313-334) titled "KIDSTUFF", with pointers to such sites as "Helping Your Child Learn Science", "Children's Butterfly Site", "Science Made Simple" and "Planet Pals". With the decline of our schools, perhaps kids using the Net to carve out their own learning journey will be a big part of the solution.

Oh, there's a whole chapter on Mathematics! Good for those among us who were unlucky enough not to have good math teachers at school (which is most of us, I guess. Good maths teachers are a rarity.) The sites covered here might very well spark passion in our younger folk who have this subject spoon fed to them in it's most tasteless form. I mention this because I, myself, struggled with Maths at high school. That struggle ended when I took charge of my own Maths training. I chose my own books & materials and methods of learning. And saw my Maths marks skyrocket.

Need I say more? Get this book. For yourself. For your kids. For your country which is already in painful need for the scientifically astute.

Discovery Channel, move over. Keep this book at your computer terminal. Now you can indulge in an orgy of learning, or just quenching your curiosity!

Not just for grown-ups--there's a whole chapter (pp313-334) titled "KIDSTUFF", with pointers to such sites as "Helping Your Child Learn Science", "Children's Butterfly Site", "Science Made Simple" and "Planet Pals". With the decline of our schools, perhaps kids using the Net to carve out their own learning journey will be a big part of the solution.

Oh, there's a whole chapter on Mathematics! Good for those among us who were unlucky enough not to have good math teachers at school (which is most of us, I guess. Good maths teachers are a rarity.) The sites covered here might very well spark passion in our younger folk who have this subject spoon fed to them in it's most tasteless form. I mention this because I, myself, struggled with Maths at high school. That struggle ended when I took charge of my own Maths training. I chose my own books & materials and methods of learning. And saw my Maths marks skyrocket.

Need I say more? Get this book. For yourself. For your kids. For your country which is already in painful need for the scientifically astute.

This book of delightful poetry is a fresh NEW look at the germination process and the birth of life by way of God's high tech sources His computers; seeds, which He designs into every living thing on the earth. An enjoyable study! Barbara Ahola, Crystal Falls, MI

the author really does a great job of telling the story of God's creations and His marvelous work. In simple words she explains how God starts with just a seed and creates a dolphin, a bird, a baby. it is funny too! cute illustrations.

This book of poems clearly and wonderfully illustrates the beauty of God's creation in the world in which we live. The drawings that accompany the stories help the youngest readers to see that things in nature did not happen by chance, but rather by the creative touch of the Almighty hand of God. The color scheme is a unique addition to an already brightly colored format that kids and parents will love. A must get children's book for anyone who reads to their children. This book is certain to be a bedtime favorite, or even a great baby shower gift. Grandmothers will want them as well. Mrs. Mitchell deserves high fives for this effort.

The theme that Kampis examines in Self-Modifying Systems is the self-generation of information by the nontrivial change (self-modification) of systems. Such a system is a network of many components, which have the property of being able to transform each other and organising themselves into larger components. It is this feature that makes such component systems closed to efficient cause. Component-systems, then, are not algorithmic, but this is not a reversible equation in that component-systems can, Kampis argues, give rise, in fact, to any particular algorithm. Kampis describes the difference as that between known complexity, that is to say complexity-to-be-realised, and unknown complexity, or complexity-to-be-explained. The first of these is relatively easy to realise, the second being impossible in that "a complex operation operating on components and bringing forth yet unknown and unidentified components cannot be described as an algorithm" (Kampis 1991:239).
Component-systems, therefore, have a high degree of creativity, but they also have characteristics that avoid many of the problems that other forms of nonlinear models.Kampis argues that nothing that such a process gives rise to can be predicted before hand, and no identity can be traced back to an origin. From this, Kampis states that the creation thesis emerges. This thesis can be stated in the following way:
The organisation of the world is continually self-creating; this process is at any given stage incomplete. Information about the future is not only inaccessible but does not exist in any form. Creation is a basic and general phenomenon that cannot be explained logically. (Kampis 1991: 258).
Self-creation occurs in the form of self-modification. A system that exhibits creativity, then, has to be continually redefined because, in the course of time, all variables and their interrelations will change in so far as each component is replaced by another. It is a system which will be defined (and constructed) by the very processes it undergoes. (Kampis 1991: 490).
The book unfolds, then, as a wonderfully sophisticated model to account for the very process of change and the important limitations of prediction the process of change implies. This book deserves to be one of the key texts of autopoiesis.

George Kampis follows in the ground breaking tradition of Robert Rosen. Examines the notions of reproduction and construction. His scope is wide and through. A must read for anybody interested in Rosen complexity.

As another reviewer notes, this book will be very helpful to those interested in the complexity research of theoretical biologist Robert Rosen. Whereas Rosen has a tight, highly rigorous focus on his goal in "Life Itself", Kampis paints on a somewhat broader canvas, referencing the work of many other researchers (including Rosen). However, Kampis is similarly detailed and methodical.

Kampis first describes the limits of dynamical models, and state-based approaches, including the limitations inherent in the 'canonical formalism' of mechanics.

He then goes on to introduce 'component-systems'. This is a general formal representation of a system as being composed of some number of components out of an essentially unlimited number of possible components. In component systems, the "rules" for the dynamics of the system are not independent of the components themselves. Self-modifying component systems generate new components and delete others, thereby changing the identity of the system itself. In mathematical terms, a self-modifying system is like a function f that belongs to its own domain and range ("f:f-->f"). The result is that such systems are non-algorithmic, nor are their dynamics describable in a state-based formalism (e.g., Newtonian, Hamiltonian, etc.). This has notable consequences for approaches that attempt to treat such systems as algorithmic, or via modelling their state-based dynamics. By comparison to component systems, cellular automata and similar algorithmic formal systems are entirely trivial.

Kampis devotes many chapters to what I have cursorily mentioned, and there is much, much more in this book that is worth reading. Although there is not alot of math, what is there is important to understand. It would be helpful for the interested reader to generally understand the basic notation of mechanics, first-order differential equations, basic logic, Godel's Incompleteness Theorems, Turing machines, basic set theory, system theory, a modicum of philosophy, and linguistics. Most of these aspects are fairly well-explained, so a diligent reader can pick them up as he goes along.

This is not a book of vague handwaving arguments. It will take some studious effort to read and grasp the concepts and profundity of what he presents. However, it will be well worth the effort, and afterward you will never be able to look at dynamical systems and models, complexity, and self-modifying systems, in the same way.

Although there are alot of similarities between Kampis' and Rosen's works, they are sufficiently distinct in approaches and conclusions that both are well worth reading.

One final note: the "typewriter" font used throughout may be a bit surprising to see in the 21st century, but I found it entirely legible and comfortable once I got used to it.

If you need simulation hints this is the book. I really recommend it.

This book deserves my 5 stars due to its tremendous effort to illustrate how complex digital communications algorithms are actually put into "code" for applied research. Any newcomer to mobile communications will benefit extensively from reading and using this book. For practicing researchers and engineers, it provides a refreshing and often insightful revision of basic concepts, as well as exposure of newer technology such as OFDM and software radio.

I recommend this book to all digital communications engineers.

Harada & Prasad provide a very good working-level
understanding of how to simulate communication systems
using MATLAB. This book will appeal to advanced
undergraduate and beginning graduate electrical
engineers. It emphasizes nuts&bolts simulation, and
assumes a good working knowledge of communication
system analysis. Professionals who use MATLAB to
analyze communication systems for a living will find
the coverage fairly basic - even shallow - but the
authors well meet their goal of giving beginners a
better leg up on the process. Including their MATLAB
source code on a CD with the book may make the purchase
worthwhile all by itself.

I love these stories and so did my students. This book came in good condition.

Some years ago, we stumbled upon these books at the library. They were an instant hit - every single one in the Sir Cumference series! We check out lots of books but this one the children remembered. In fact, we hadn't checked these out for a couple of years when one son started a new geometry section in math and asked me to get these again so he could review! My preschooler thinks of these as fun stories and enjoys the illustrations while the older crew is making the connections to mathematical concepts they are learning. For example, one child always keeps diameter and radius straight because of the book characters (Radius is the little guy!). I highly recommend this series as enjoyable literature that will help your children remember their geometry. The books also have an object or character (jester, seagull, rat, cat, etc.) that appears on most pages which is an extra bit of fun to look for. I love the rich colors and oil painting technique too (I may be wrong about the oil painting but that's the feel of it). I decided these belong in our home library and was especially pleased that Amazon was running its buy 3 get 1 free promotion just then.

I purchased the whole set for homeschooling purposes and it really drives home the concepts in a fun way with the kids not realizing they are learning geometry. This is as fun as Cyberchase in a book format. Highly recommend these!

This book teaches one how to manage and evaluate risks and opportunities.

Risk comes with innovation. Risk comes from change. Risk is all around us. There is risk from non-action as well as action. Most all opportunities come bundled with risks.

Although this book does not expose every element of managing risk it does tell you how to dig deeper and find the resources for effective risk management. This book teaches that a business has within itself the knowledge base to manage its own risk when properly focused and directed.

An excellent book.

I bought this book 1 year ago because it made references to the Challenger accident, which made quite an impression on me ever since I started following investigations analysis reports after reading about Challenger in Richard Feynman's book, "What Do you Care What Other People Think" many many years ago.
Besides programming books, I have many project management and business and finance books on my book shelves already, so I wasn't looking to purchase another business IT project management book.

In my opinion, this book will appeal immediately to technical people who likes engineers than business people or their business-minded boss.
For the content itself, Mike's review below provide a very good detailed insight into the material. The ideas does have practical applicability, but it does make me wonder if I am being persuaded into the glorification of Northpoint's services, bcos technically I do not think it's easy attempt the actuarial approach. Besides the quantitative approach, the values and judgement approach is really on the side of soft skills, I think anyone who can make the business/engineer/finance people buy into what he/she believes and is doing will likely do well in career and rise into leadership positions.

But this book is a bit unconventional in its treatment of the project management, it takes an interesting approach from the human values perspective and challenges conventional approaches to the perception of valuation in business IT.

Finally, I am not too sure whether there's any subtle hidden marketing intention behind the publication of this book for Northpoint company, of which the author is the founder and CEO of.

In any case, I still like this book and I am writing here because I am recommmending this book to my friend to read now.

I purchased this book on a whim expecting another mediocre book on IT business investment. Instead I got a deeply influential book about how to effectively assure project success and realize best value from IT investments.

This book maintains a brisk, but easy-to-follow pace - by page 18 you get nine unwarranted beliefs about the reasons who IT initiatives fail and well crafted counter arguments to dispel them. This leads into a well written chapter on pathologies of failure and patterns of disaster, which the rest of the book addresses in the form of a methodology that integrates risk, value and gap analysis to give a clear map to assuring success.

Part I contains seven chapters that discuss the underlying elements of the methods, including risk management, value management, process management, measurement and assessment. These are the knowledge areas and tools. Among the tools are business initiative value assessments, business knowledge value, progress and performance curves, and risk-to-value analysis.

Part II consists of seven more chapters that provide case studies to illustrate a failed project and how the authors' methods apply. Five of the chapters in this section deal in detail with closing leadership, knowledge, process, resources and judgement gaps. One of the core measurements used is knowledge, experience and performance used to identify and close gaps that threaten project and IT initiatives.

I especially liked the way the authors frame value propositions, which includes a list of 22 major values (each of which can have many sub values), and how these are divided into hard and soft values. What makes this useful is the fact that each value can be quantified. These are augmented by five key questions about the value proposition to validate it. In each of the gaps discussed in Part II are equally useful checklists and questions. This material transforms the authors' approach from theory to the practical and is one of the reasons I was deeply influenced by the book.

There are also parts of the book that I take issue with: the authors never miss an opportunity to 'plug' their consulting company. This is more of an irritant than a real problem. Also, as I was reading the book it seemed as though I would need their services in order to get a complete picture. As it turns out everything you need is in the book, but it was still a distraction. Quibbles aside I think that the approach the authors give in this book and the valuable checklists and questionnaires that are included make this one of the best books one can reference for assuring the success of IT initiatives.

Awesome plot and I have never read anything like i; well, except of course, the Harry Potter Series which is 1000 times better than this but that's besides the point. However, overall it is a good read.

This Book was exactly like the tv show! When ever i can't see the eposode,(they cancled the show)i just read the book. They still show some eposode's but they still show some but not this one.

This is the best book in the wold and there is nothing to describe it. So, go and buy it and you will be amased

Well, this work is truly expansive. It covers an analysis of what software engineering is, straight from the horses mouth: Prof. Bauer provides a paper here. Bauer coined the term in the first place, the fact that he contributes here is an indication of how excellent all 45 papers are.

Tom DeMarco and Frederick Brooks' contributions to the Software Project Management topic are essential reading for every project manager. Other notable contributors are Pressman, Boehm and Parnas. This collection guides the professional through development models, requirements specification, coding, testing, maintenance and development technologies, to name a few.

If you have a professional interest in improving the development of software, and avoiding over budget, late and deficient systems, you should start here, and not continue until you've finished reading the book. If you only buy one book on software engineering, make it this one. Warning: this collection is not for beginning students or people with a passing interest, it is written at the graduate student / scientific level.

I ordered this collection after discovering Thayer's "Software Engineering Project Management" collection. I was not disappointed. This is a "must have" for anybody teaching classes in Software Engineering.

This book accululates the classic works of the accepted authorities in the field of Software Engineering. As a senior consultant for government and industry for software productivity improvement, I continuously refer to and recommend this book to my clients and co-workers. This book should be required reading for every computer science, MIS professional. Thank you for the effort it took to bring this all together.

JT is a kid with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He lost his parents before he was even born, and then found himself and his friends pretty much sold into slavery. He gets teased by other kids because he's different and he suffers from self doubt. There's something about JT that makes him special and unique but he doesn't want to be that way, he just wants to be normal like everyone else so he sees it as a burden rather than a gift. JT starts to overcome his self doubt and uses his special abilities to make a real difference but not before making a big mistake.

I was really looking forward to reading "Betrayal on Orbis 2" after having read the first book in the" Softwire" series "Virus on Orbis 1". I love anything to do with IT and I love science fiction. Science Fiction is a great way of escaping into another world where you don't have to worry about what's going on in the real one. These books have both and PJ Haarsma writes in such a way that I find once I pick it up, I can't put it down. I've recommended Virus on Orbis 1 to a few people and they all seem to love it as much as I do.

Now I can't wait for part 3!

Oh, and there's a great RPG game that goes along with this series at [...] that in addtion to being a lot of fun might inspire kids who don't read to get into the books.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on this second book of the Softwire series. I was so excited to continue reading about the adventures of JT and his friends and little sister. PJ Haarsma did not let me down!

I loved the entire book from start to end. As the children are moved to the second ring to begin working their next rotation, their lives continue to be filled with adventure and mysteries to be solved. Orbis 2 is much different than Orbis 1 and has such places as underground tunnels with treasures and danger in them.

The children learn how to work through challenging issues such as taking care of a younger sibling in a strange place and handling bullies and the caretakers who are mean to them.

What I enjoy most about PJ's writing is his ability to create and describe unique alien beings, some friendly, some scary, and all quite interesting. The alien gadgets he comes up with are just as exciting to me. There are several in this book that are fun to dream about having.

I was surprised how much I like the Softwire series as a grandmother and I'm sure I would have loved it just as much as a young adult. It was really hard to put down once I got started!

The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 by PJ Haarsma continues the exciting adventures of the space orphans first portrayed in The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1 (Softwire). The action begins in the very first sentence of the book and continues throughout the fast-paced book, but not without quiet moments of reflection interspersed to bring real emotional depth to the story.

In the first installment of this 4 book series, the protagonist, JT, and his fellow band of space traveling orphans, find themselves sold into slavery on Orbis 1, one of four alien-constructed rings situated around a wormhole used for trade. JT is discovered to have a very special ability not found in humans, which induces both fear and greed among the aliens living on the Rings of Orbis. It is how this gift is used or abused that propels The Softwire novels forward.

In Virus on Orbis 1, JT struggles to deal with the ability he initially resents, but then learns to embrace that which makes him different. In Betrayal on Orbis 2, JT's maturation is highly evident as he takes on the burdens his uniqueness brings upon him. He comes to realize that powerful capability brings with it powerful responsibility to all life surrounding him, good or bad. Compassion is this hero's true special ability.

Despite the narrative taking place on an imaginative world foreign to our own, everything about the emotions and reactions of the characters is identifiable to our own lives here on Earth. Most interesting is the downward spiral of some of the children as their slavery begins to take its toll on them. This is a realistic portrayal of the sadness and desperation that harsh conditions slowly bring about in people, but also the triumph of the human spirit to keep going despite it all. The winners in this story are the ones who move forward and look toward the hope they see for their future. The author never hits the reader in the face with these revelations, nor makes them too heavy for a young person, but they are there for the reader to feel as deeply as they are capable.

Although the plot revolves around JT discovering and stopping a betrayal of terrible consequences, there are smaller instances of loyalties betrayed among the children, even by the flawed protagonist. The consequences of these smaller betrayals are profound. The book is also filled with good, old-fashioned action as the various betrayals deepen. One scene in particular caused me to literally jump out of my chair in thrilled disbelief. I felt as though I was in a movie.

I look forward to the third installment of this series with great anticipation. Readers of all ages should enjoy this tale of a young boy who lights the way for others with his compassion, intelligence, perseverance and positive spirit.

"Gis lgne's ypm Gxligy." What? That's what Rob, Tamsyn and Josh are thinking as they read the latest "sea-mail" message from the yachtsman Brad. You see after almost 3 weeks crossing the Atlantic, Brad's PC is suffering from the moisture so that his important email message has been garbled.

And, important it is! The Internet Detectives in Portsmouth (Rob, Tamsyn, and Josh), in Toronto (Lauren and her Grandmother Allie), in Perth Australia (Tom) and Mitch (New York) have solved an international art theft. But they haven't got the painting or caught the crook yet.

That garbled "sea-mail" message sent via a radio modem in mid-Atlantic holds the final clues to recovering the painting and locking away the crook.

The Internet Detectives is one of the best Internet mystery series - all the books are good.

I thought this book was just going to be another stupid internet book written by people who know nothing about the net, but it was pretty good! And I thought that the fact that Rob is disabled was pretty cool too.

I thought this book was really exciting. It began when Mitch found a painting and then Tamsyn, Rob, and Josh find an article saying that a painting just like the one Mitch had was stolen from a museum near where Mitch was walking when he found the fake painting.Then Mitch finds out that the suspect of the theft was a man that had been in the Cyber Snax Cafe. Then the kids receive an important message that will help them catch the thief.....