Sunday, December 6, 2009

The Soft Edge or Windows PowerShell 20 Unleashed

The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution

Author: Paul Levinson

With an estimated 50 million users of the internet worldwide today, rapid advancements in technological communication are always wide-reaching and anticipated. While today we expect continuous innovations, history shows the startling impact advancements have on society is not just recent. The Soft Edge provides an engaging tour of how communications media have been responsible for major developments in history and for the significant changes in our personal and social lives today.

Paul Levinson shows how information technologies influence events in decisive ways at crucial times in history and how they are selected for survival based on how well they accommodate human needs. Using often original and unusual interpretations of historic events, such as the influence of the printing press on the spread of the Protestant Reformation, Levinson also details the technologies that survived in spite of further advancements, including the radio and word processor, after the advent oftelevision and the internet.

Although the media frequently surprise us in their impact, people nonetheless have the capacity to control their effects, via what Levinson calls, remedial mediathe VCR, text online. The evidence of this book thus runs contrary to current critiques of mass media and computers, and demonstrates how the information revolution is becoming increasingly human, fulfilling our natural inclinations yet subject to our rational direction.

In addition to being a history of media developments, The Soft Edge provides up-to-date commentary and analysis on issues including pornography on the internet, intellectual propertymatters, and the Communications Decency Act, that are unfolding right now. By presenting both pivotal examples throughout history and recent events, Levinson brilliantly displays the role new media plays in society, the effects that human choice has on this (r)evolution, and what's in store for us in the future.

Wired

Remarkable in both scholarly sweep and rhetorical lyricism. . .what first promises to be the digital Origin of the Species turns out to be a sequel to The Odyssey: media's progress is presented as an epic journey toward freedom, unseating censors along the way.

Publishers Weekly

Those who think the "information revolution" of the subtitle refers only to the current electronic transformation, will be surprised to discover how big a piece of history Levinson bites off. In this philosophical ramble, Levinson, who teaches at Hofstra University and the New School for Social Research, and, as president of Connected Education, offers graduate courses on the Internet, reaches back to the invention of the alphabet. In early chapters on the development of the printing press in China, public education in America and such 19th-century inventions as photography, Levinson spreads the paint pretty thin. But when he homes in on specific technologies (telephone, electricity, radio, computer) he does offer original insights about how various media respond to basic human needs and characteristics. Some media survive better than others because they occupy important cultural-ecological niches and seem natural to human sensory perception. For instance, the radio, which provides background noise, fits with pre-technological human habits, whereas television, which must be attended to with eyes open, does not. Another valuable idea is that of "remedial" technologies that make up for deficiencies of others: the VCR, for example, compensates for the fleetingness of television images. There are interesting ideas here, but they are often obscured by sticky prose: e.g. "[T]he icon's re-enlistment of the hieroglyphic for communication service far less peripheral than road-signs partakes of a rear-view mirror reaching so far back into the past for its inspiration as to seem like the Hubble, except quite the reverse of forward and outward in its outlook."

Library Journal

Readers interested in history, technology, politics, or the limitations of cyberspace may now all clamber aboard for a grand tour of communications media and their effect on our personal and social lives. Levinson, president of Connected Education and a frequent contributor to Wired and The Village Voice, deftly guides us on a cogent review of everything from the alphabet and its impact on monotheistic religion to the printing press and its shaping of Columbus's voyage to the New World, concluding with (what else?) a crackerjack essay about cyberspace and "the feel of knowledge." Smart, spare, yet deep, and heartily recommended. -- Geoff Rotunno, Tri-Mix Magazine, Goleta, California

Library Journal

Readers interested in history, technology, politics, or the limitations of cyberspace may now all clamber aboard for a grand tour of communications media and their effect on our personal and social lives. Levinson, president of Connected Education and a frequent contributor to Wired and The Village Voice, deftly guides us on a cogent review of everything from the alphabet and its impact on monotheistic religion to the printing press and its shaping of Columbus's voyage to the New World, concluding with (what else?) a crackerjack essay about cyberspace and "the feel of knowledge." Smart, spare, yet deep, and heartily recommended. -- Geoff Rotunno, Tri-Mix Magazine, Goleta, California

Booknews

Levinson, a historian and philosopher of media and communications, describes the history of information technologies within the context of theories on the evolution of technology, the effects that human choice has on this evolution, and what's in store in the future. He presents an intriguing argument that technology is becoming more human. Thought-provoking and accessible for general readers and students. The author's essays on media theory have appeared in publications including Wired and The Village Voice.

Kirkus Reviews

The "soft edge" of the title refers to the intangibles surrounding technology's impact on society. The second half of this overview of the development of information techonology gets mired down in elaborating on this definition, to the study's detriment. The "natural history" offered by Levinson, an educator and writer (New School for Social Research) takes the study of information from the dawn of written language to word processing, showing, for instance, how radio, which would presumably be replaced by television, survived by finding its niche with rock 'n' roll—something TV could never offer on the same scale. The implications that Levinson derives from the first part of his study, stressing the ways in which new media have always had a profound impact on human society, are often thought-provoking though sometimes unconvincing. For instance, Levinson ties the success of monotheism to the Israelites, who had an alphabet, as opposed to earlier monotheistic Egyptians, who had hieroglyphics and, thus, lower literacy rates. However, the assertion that the ancient Egyptians ever were monotheistic is only a theory, and is not substantial enough to build yet other theories on, which Levinson repeatedly attempts to do. Further pitfalls await the author as he attempts to attack the World Wide Web and artificial intelligence. His arguments increasingly ignore the larger impact of new information technology on contemporary society altogether, instead addressing such seemingly unrelated topics as copyright law, author compensation, and online education. Levinson's sprawling investigation and proliferating theories lessen the strength of his clever final chapter, which uses instant coffee asan ingenious metaphor for information—you can describe it, he says, and it is an efficient way to transport a product, but if you can't taste it, what good is it? Levinson should have excised the chapters that don't tie in with his central theme. As it stands, The Soft Edge is too soft, and without taste.



Table of Contents:
Preface
1Introduction1
2The First Digital Medium: The alphabet and the rise of monotheism11
3The Printed Authorship of the Modern World21
4The Age of Photography and the Ageless Image37
5Telegraphy: The suspect messenger49
6Telephone: The toy that roared59
7Electricity: The book's best friend69
8Radio: All together now78
9Survival of the Media Fit: Radio, motion pictures, and TV in human ecological niches91
10Remedial Media: Views via VCR and window104
11Word Processing and Its Masters115
12The Online Author as Publisher and Bookstore125
13Hypertext and Author/Reader Inversions136
14The Open Web and Its Enemies148
15Twentieth-Century Screens162
16Paper Futures174
17Electronic Watermarks: A high profile for intellectual property in the digital age187
18Artificial Intelligence in Real Life205
19You Can't Touch That in Cyberspace222
Bibliography233
Index243

Interesting book: Its Okay to Be the Boss or Call Me Ted

Windows PowerShell 2.0 Unleashed

Author: Tyson Kopczynski

PowerShell is an exciting new command line shell and scripting language which provides IT professionals the power to fully automate and customize administrative tasks on Windows systems. PowerShell is designed to save IT pros valuable time and provide the power and flexibility to increase productivity. Windows Powershell 2.0 Unleashed first focuses on PowerShell basics, how it relates to existing Windows scripting practices, and how your existing knowledge can be translated. After establishing the basics, the authors present transferable PowerShell scripting examples. They show methods to help you manage Windows Server 2008, Active Directory, and Exchange. For this ediiton, the authors have completely rewritten fifty percent of the material from the previous edition, and have added seven entirely new chapters to the eleven previous chapters, covering information such as Security, Windows Server 2008, and Systems Center Operations Manager 2007. This allows them to give you the deep understanding of PowerShell that Windows admins have been waiting for.



Friday, December 4, 2009

Applying PIC18 Microcontrollers or Architecture Design for Soft Errors

Applying PIC18 Microcontrollers: Architecture, Programming, and Interfacing using C and Assembly

Author: Barry B Brey

This book provides a comprehensive look into the architecture, programming, and interfacing of the microcontroller. Using the Microchip PIC18 family as a reference, it explains the architecture of the computer and the PIC18 microcontroller, discusses how to program in both assembly and in C-language, and then provides a solid discussion of interfacing, complete with a diverse set of examples. Unique to the book is its goal to introduce and explain as many devices as possible and show many complete system applications. All programs from the book are included on the accompanying CD-ROM and problems and examples further one’s proficiency in microcontroller interfacing, programming, and system design. Uses the newest 8-bit microcontroller available from Microchip because of its universality (i.e. what is learned about this family is applicable to the earlier families of microcontrollers from PIC as well as other microcontrollers from other manufacturers). Provides a complete look at microcontroller programming in both assembly language and in C-language. Covers more devices and interfacing examples than other books. Includes timing and details of interfacing to common electronic components. Offers examples of interfaces such as display devices, switches and keypads, motors, solenoids, relays, sensors, interrupts, infra-red remote controls, bar code readers and more.  Includes coverage of interfacing with the USB and the CAN and illustrated example applications.  Valuable to the experienced practitioner as a reference and to the hobbyist interested in learning about microcontrollers.



Table of Contents:

Table of Contents

 

1.      Introduction to Computer Architecture

2.      The PIC18 Family Architecture and Program Development

3.      The PIC18 Family Instruction Set

4.      Assembly Language Programming

5.      Programming the PIC18 with C-Language

6.      The PIC18 Family Hardware Specifications

7.      Basic Input and Output

8.      Interrupts

9.      Controlling Systems

10.  Advanced Topics

 

APPENDIX A: THE PIC18 FAMILY INSTRUCTION SET

APPENDIX B: COMMON C-LANGUAGE LIBRARY FUNCTIONS

APPENDIX C: ANSWERS TO SELECTED EVEN-NUMBERED QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS

APPENDIX D: A PIC-BASED SYSTEM USING A USB INTERFACE

 

Read also Manual Joslin Para la Diabetes The Joslin Guide to Diabetes or Thinner at Last

Architecture Design for Soft Errors

Author: Shubu Mukherje

Soft errors represent very tiny radioactive glitches that occor on microchips. These glitches can result in corrupt data, system malfunctions, and loss of system reliability. Fixing soft errors presents a considerable cost and challenge for chip manufacturers, and this book, Architecture Design for Soft Errors, describes architectural techniques used to tackle soft errors.

To provide readers with a better grasp of the problem definition and solution space, this book delves into physics of soft errors and reviews current circuit and software mitigation techniques as well. This book covers the new methodologies for quantitative analysis of soft errors as well as novel cost-effective architectural techniques to mitigate them. This book also re-evaluates traditional solutions in the context of the new quantitative analysis.

* Provides the methodologies necessary to quantify the effect of radiation-induced soft errors as well as state-of-the-art techniques to protect against them



Thursday, December 3, 2009

Ultimate Game Programming With DirectX or Crysis

Ultimate Game Programming With DirectX

Author: Allen Sherrod

Creating computer games is challenging. It requires plenty of technical skill, dedication, and creativity. Ultimate Game Programming with DirectX teaches you how to combine your existing skills and dedication for playing games with some basic C++ programming skills to create your own games. Written for game development students, beginning game programmers, and C++ programmers wanting to learn game development, this book covers every part of the process. Throughout the book, you'll be creating a first-person shooter game called Stranded. Beginning with an introduction to Direct X and Direct3D graphics, you'll build the game engine and complete game chapter by chapter. You'll learn the fundamental graphical techniques, essential mathematics, collision detection, input device detection and response, sound playback, scene management, animation, and model/character loading and drawing. Once you've built this game, you can easily expand upon it and customize it to add your own unique features. You'll also have the foundational knowledge and skills you need to build your own games and take on new programming challenges. If you have basic C++ programming skills, a love for games, and a desire to create your own, you'll find what you need here. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN * The fundamentals of DirectX game development and Direct3D graphics * Foundational programming techniques that you can use for any game project * Essential mathematics and physics techniques * Basic graphics and animation techniques, including basic techniques include drawing basic shapes and objects, displaying images on top of surfaces, creating and displaying text to the screen, and learning how to work in 3D space. * Coverage ofscene management topics rarely covered in books for C++ programmers and aspiring game programmers * A complete DirectX reference for game development, including the creation of a complete FPS game



New interesting book: A Light in the Attic or The Mysterious Benedict Society

Crysis: Prima Official Game Guide

Author: David Hodgson

Gear Up—Prima will reveal effective gear combinations to fit various playstyles.
Enemy Strats—Not just stats, but tactics for dealing with each enemy type.
Multiplayer Tips—Battle advice directly from Crytek to sharpen your online Crysis skills.
Story Arcs Revealed—Info on what effects your actions have on the storyline.
Art Section—A large art section will be included in the back of the book to highlight the creative forces behind Crysis.



Table of Contents:
Special Forces Training
Miracles of the Nanosuit, Mission Plans, Basic Techniques, Advanced Techniques

Weapons Detail
Firearms, Grenades, and Explosives, Weapon Augmentations

Along for the Ride
Land, Sea, Air

Profiles in Courage and Corruption
Character Profiles, Enemy Forces: KPA Army, Enemy Forces: Alien

Stage 01: Contact
Objective 01. Land at the Predesignated Point
Objective 02. Get to the Beach
Objective 03. Rendezvous with Jester
Objective 04. Assist Aztec
Objective 05. Rendezvous with Your
Squad at the Landing Zone
Objective 06. Locate and Disable the GPS Jamming Device
Objective 07. Regroup at the Signal Location: Section 01 of 02
Objective 07. Regroup at the Signal Location: Section 02 of 02
Objective 08. Investigate North Korean Command Post: Section 01 of 03
Objective 08. Investigate North Korean Command Post: Section 02 of 03
Objective 08. Investigate North Korean Command Post: Section 03 of 03
Objective 09. Access North Korean Tactical Network
Objective 10. Rendezvous with Your Squad at Anomaly

Stage 2: Recovery
Objective 01. Capture the Communications Trailer
Objective 02. Find the Hostage in the Village: Part 01–Coastal Recon
Objective 02. Find the Hostage in the Village: Part 02–KPA Takedowns
Objective 03. Find an Access Point for the NK Tactical Network
Objective 04. Find the Hostage in the School Building
Part 01: Village Perimeter Routes
Part 02: Village Infi ltration Points
Part 03: Village Combat Hotspots
Objective 05. Destroy the KPA Tanks
Objective 06. Proceed to the Rendezvous Point
Objective 07. Meet with Prophet
Objective 08.Proceed to the Cave System

Stage 03: Relic
Objective 01. Locate and Disable North Korean GPS Jamming Station
Part 01. Banana Plantation Shack Takedown
Part 02. Banana Farm Infiltration
Objective 02. Infiltrate the KPA Military Base Outpost
Part 01: Clearing the Surrounding Area First
Part 02: Military Base Outpost Infiltration Points and Combat
Objective 03. Investigate the Western Road
Objective 04. Proceed to the Excavation Site and Rescue Dr. Rosenthal
Part 01. Negotiating the Rice Paddies
Part 02. Fishing Shack and Forest Infiltration
Part 03. Excavation Site: A Terrifying Discovery–A Relic Revealed
Objective 05. Proceed to the Extraction Point
Part 01. Reaching the Bridge Checkpoint
Part 02. Reaching the LZ
Objective 06. Secure the Extraction Point So the VTOL Can Land
Objective 07. Climb into the VTOL

Stage 04: Assault
Objective 01. Coordinate with Lieutenant Bradley at the Overlook
Objective 02. Destroy the Anti-Aircraft Units
Part 1: Heading to the Main Road
Part 2: AA Battery Takedown: Bridge Area
Part 3: AA Battery Takedown: Peninsula
Objective 03. Gather Intel from KPA Comm. Trailer
Objective 04: Destroy the Anti-Aircraft Units (Continued)
Objective 05: Sabotage the Jammer on the North Korean Cruiser
Objective 06: Paint Target for Air Strike
Objective 07: Secure the Harbor
Objective 08: Rendezvous with Major Strickland at the Rail Tunnel

Stage 05:Onslaught
Objective 02. Secure the Train Station
Objective 03. Push Ahead to the KPA Munitions Dump
Objective 04. Destroy the Anti-Aircraft Artillery
Objective 05. Part 1: Sabotage the North Korean Munitions Dump
Objective 05. Part 2: Paint the Munitions Dump in Preparation for the Air Strike
Objective 07. Proceed to the Mine

Stage 06: Awakening
Objective 01. Proceed to the Landing Zone next to the Crusher Building
Objective 02. Infiltrate Office and Retrieve Intelligence Data
Objective 01. Get to the Landing Zone at the Crusher Building (Continued)
Objective 03. Secure the Landing Zone
Objective 04. Infiltrate the Mining Complex
Objective 05. Locate the Hostages
Objective 06. Eliminate General Kyong
Objective 07. Evacuate the Hostage

Stage 07: Core
Objective 01: Find a Way out of the Cave

Stage 08: Paradise Lost
Objective 01. Find the Missing Marines
Objective 02. Escort Prophet out of the Sphere

Stage 09: Exodus
Objective 01. Meet with Keegan
Objective 02. Assist Strickland’s Recon Team
Objective 03. Get into the LTV
Objective 04: Proceed to the VTOL Crash Site
Objective 05: Defend the Crash Site
Objective 06: Rendezvous with Major Strickland
Objective 07: Defend the Evacuation Point

Stage 10: Ascension
Objective 01. Escape to the Aircraft Carrier
Objective 02. Defend the Plateau
Objective 03. Investigate the Camp
Objective 04. Defend the VTOLs
Objective 05. Assist the Convoy
Objective 06. Escape to the
Aircraft Carrier (Continued)

Stage 11: Reckoning
Objective 01: Proceed to CDC
Objective 02: Proceed to the Armory
Objective 03: Proceed to the Bridge
Objective 04: Defend the Flight Deck
Objective 05: Locate the Chief Engineer
Objective 06: Disable the Circuit Breakers
Objective 07: Shut Down the Reactor
Objective 08: Lower Control Rods
Objective 09: Return to the Flight Deck
Objective 10: Go to the Armory
Objective 11: Destroy the Alien Exoskeleton
Objective 12: Get to the VTOL
Objective 13: Defeat the Alien Warship

Multiplayer
Instant Action and Power Struggle, Weapons, Vehicles and Equipment, Suit Variations, Tactics and Tips, Power Struggle Maps, Instant Action Maps

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Streamlining Digital Signal Processing or Security Awareness

Streamlining Digital Signal Processing: A Tricks of the Trade Guidebook

Author: Richard G Lyons

This book is more than just a compilation of the original articles. All of the material in the book has gone through careful editorial review and has also benefited from the feedback of the readers of the magazine; the result is a consistent across all of the articles. Additionally, the authors have used this opportunity to include the additional explanations, applications, and illustrations that could not be included in the original articles due to space limitations.



Table of Contents:
Preface     xi
Contributors     xiii
Efficient Digital Filters
Lost Knowledge Refound: Sharpened FIR Filters     3
Quantized FIR Filter Design Using Compensating Zeros     11
Designing Nonstandard Filters with Differential Evolution     25
Designing IIR Filters with a Given 3 dB Point     33
Filtering Tricks for FSK Demodulation     43
Reducing CIC Filter Complexity     51
Precise Filter Design     59
Turbocharging Interpolated FIR Filters     73
A Most Efficient Digital Filter: The Two-Path Recursive All-Pass Filter     85
Signal and Spectrum Analysis Tricks
Fast, Accurate Frequency Estimators     107
Fast Algorithms for Computing Similarity Measures in Signals     117
Efficient Multi-tone Detection     127
Turning Overlap-Save into a Multiband, Mixing, Downsampling Filter Bank     135
Sliding Spectrum Analysis     145
Fast Function Approximation Algorithms
Another Contender in the Arctangent Race     161
High-Speed Square Root Algorithms     165
Function Approximation Using Polynomials     173
Efficient Approximations for the Arctangent Function     187
A Differentiator with a Difference     199
Signal Generation Techniques
Recursive Discrete-Time Sinusoidal Oscillators     205
Direct Digital Synthesis: A Tool for Periodic Wave Generation     223
Implementing a [Sigma Delta] DAC in Fixed-Point Arithmetic     239
Efficient 8-PSK/16-PSK Generation Using Distributed Arithmetic     247
Assorted High-Performance DSP Techniques
Frequency Response Compensation with DSP     267
Generating Rectangular Coordinates in Polar Coordinate Order     277
The Swiss Army Knife of Digital Networks     283
JPEG2000-Choices and Trade-offs for Encoders     301
Using Shift Register Sequences     311
Index     319

Books about: One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish or Pinkalicious

Security Awareness: Applying Practical Security in Your World

Author: Mark Ciampa

Building on the success of the first edition, this new text provides a non-technical approach to practical computer security for all users, from business professionals to students to home users.



Tuesday, December 1, 2009

A Testers Guide to NET Programming or The Focal Easy Guide to Final Cut Express

A Tester's Guide to .NET Programming

Author: Randal Root

A Tester's Guide to .NET Programming focuses solely on applied programming techniques for testers. You will learn how to write simple automated tests, enabling you to test tools and utilities. You will also learn about the important concepts driving modern programming today, like multitier applications and object-oriented programming. More businesses are adopting .NET technologies, and this book will equip you to assess software robustness and performance.

Whether you're an experienced programmer who's unfamiliar with testing concepts, or you're an experienced tester unversed in VB .NET and C#, the included real-world tips and example code will help you start your projects. Also included are review questions and hands-on exercises to help you retain knowledge. Additionally, the book features examples and quick language tutorials for both C# and VB .NET.



New interesting book: Philanthrocapitalism or Toyota Culture

The Focal Easy Guide to Final Cut Express: For New Users and Professionals (The Focal Easy Guide Series)

Author: Rick Young

This highly illustrated, full color book tells you all you need to know to get up and running quickly using Apple's new digital video editing application - Final Cut Express. Rick young shares his professional insight to ensure you get the most out of all the pro-level tools, offered at a very affordable price by Express.

All the essential areas are covered: set-up; capture; editing; multi-channel sound mixing; effects creation and print to video, web or DVD, enhanced throughout by important workflow tips. This is an ideal first read, whatever you want to edit in Final Cut Express, at whatever level, as this powerful package is the answer to all your digital video needs, presenting a complete, easy to use digital laboratory for your movie creation.

Rick Young (www.digitalproduction.net) is Director and Founding Member of the UK Final Cut Pro User Group and an Apple Solutions Expert. A freelance television director and editor with many years of broadcast experience, including work for the BBC, Sky, ITN, CNBC and Reuters. Also a Final Cut Pro Consultant, Rick has attended numerous UK and US exhibitions, is a liaison to the US FCP user groups, and author of the best-selling, 'The Easy Guide to Final Cut Pro'.



Table of Contents:
Preface
For New Users
The Old and the New1
Hands On11
The Interface15
Setup and Capture25
Sorting Through Your Footage43
The Cutting Room55
Effects99
Working with Audio129
Output139
Final Cut Pro 4147
Epilog151
Index153