Machines Books

Tornambe' treats all the basics of discrete-event systems theory, from queuing theory and Markov chains fundamentals to more advanced topics like BCMP queues. I recommend it to whoever wants to learn the subject following a clear, exhaustive style and a very structured approach.

Being the very first book to present the current state of the art when it comes to dissimilarity representation for pattern recognition (in the field of numerical data representation), it is outstanding as it introduces both, the mathematical background like the spaces one is working in, the techniques like embedding dissimilarities into (pseudo)-euclidean spaces and how all this combines. Next, this knowledge is used to describe the actions of learning, visualizing and creating classes and connecting new feature vectors of new data to their classes (as far as possible).
The algorithmical and implementational aspects are not really dealt with, which one could judge being a disadvantage; in my opinion however, this is not the intention of the book.

A great book in tying distributed VMs and the ROTOR SSCLI. You can find the entire book online for free at: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~nutt/DVM/

You might have to get a free account from AW/Pearson to be able to download it.

"Diversity in the Neuronal Machine" provides valuable insights into the topic of interneurons (formally classified by the author as "using GABA as its primary fast neurotransmitter in the normal, non-pathological state") as opposed to the principal excitatory projection neurons of the nervous system. Beginning with the studies and hypotheses of the Nobel laureate Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Dr Soltesz explores the roles of "the so-called neurons with short axons..." as the "elemental components" of cerebral activity.

Interneuronal complexity is clearly explained by an in-depth evaluation of several classification schemes that demonstrate the existence of a large variety of interneuronal types. This leads the author to propose a statistical quantification of interneuronal diversity. The question of whether this diversity could explain the evolution of higher intelligence is addressed by the novel applications of network theory to neuronal microcircuit function. Using both mammalian and invertebrate models and computer simulations as examples, Cajal's hypotheses on functional neuroanatomy are extended to incorporate cell-to-cell interneuronal variability as an important factor in the study of interneuronal heterogeneity.

In all, this book provides a compelling insight into the relatively unexplored subject of interneurons and their physiological and even evolutionary significance. An added bonus is the inter-disciplinary nature of this book which opens the neuroscientist to novel insights emanating from the fields of computer modeling, network theory and even artificial intelligence. Fascinating reading!!!

This book is a collection of pictures drawn by schoolchildren,with the only constraint being that the children had to 'design amachine for exercising dogs'.

It is fascinating to see the different tacks the children took, from conveyor belts to self-contained canine gyms, and the drawings themselves are absolutely delightful, ranging from the cheerfully incomprehensible to the fastidiously neat.

As De Bono points out in his (excellent) afterward, the great thing about children is that they aren't conceptually constrained by much - even the idea that a 'machine' has to save labour. My favourite invention has a dog running on a conveyor belt, surrounded by four armed guards so that he does not run away!

Get this book, any way you can. You won't be disappointed unless you're the grinch himself.

This book is really good. It traces the beginnings of independent cinema in Hollywood from the '50's on up to the present day. The author is strongly opinionated about which movies are bad and which are good. I didn't always agree with his opinions, but by reading the entire book, I felt I learned a lot about how film studios work, and just what directors have to go through to get their work onto the screen, without the interference of studios and corporate interests. Interspersed throughout the book are entertaining ancedotes about various directors, from Alfred Hitchcock, to Francis Ford Coppola, to Quentin Tarantino. I have taken some film classes, and felt I learned more from this book than from the classes. For example, in one class I took, we watched "Mean Streets" by Martin Scorcese. The professor told us that it was an innovative film, because of the camera techniques used. However, this book explained in greater detail just what the importance of the movie "Mean Streets" was; the thought behind the film, the dynamics of the '70's that affected the film, and the studio/director climate in which the film was made.

I actually used the basic book for the Atari. Dr. Wacko has an easy style and approach to learning to program. He even includes already written programs to play around with and incourages the user to add in his\her input. This book was my favorite of around 100 books. Unfortunately, I lost the book through theft.

Wel then this book is for you I have used this book when I got started and it is great! it has a list of commands to use in the back if you need help and even comes with some practice assignments.

This book provided just what I was looking for (which seemed relatively hard to come by): good drum patterns for making my own drum and bass music.

Being a complete newcomer to midi based music, and not having a clue where to start in terms of making my own beats from scratch - short of a four to the floor kick drum, I found the examples in this book extremely helpful. It provided good examples of how the different drums interact with one another in the complicated drumming world of Drum and Bass. Techno and other styles are also catered for.

If your looking for good drum patterns to give you a head start in your own songs, and maybe something to tweak and make your own, this is the book for you. I'm going to be translating some of these into my DAW and tweaking away.

I bought this for my four year old grandson who is a buggy nut. It has great pictures and just enough text for beginning readers. I highly recommend it if you have a little one who is crazy about buggies.