New Computer Science and IT Titles at Rensselaer Libraries

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Microsoft Windows Vista Unleashed

by Paul McFedries

Rensselaer Libraries Call #
QA76.76.O63 M398175 2008

This guide details intermediate-to-advanced techniques for using Windows Vista that go beyond the regular settings, describing shortcuts, customizations, and workarounds, as well as methods to avoid the program's pitfalls. Basic topics are not addressed; more details on complex operations such as working with the registry, troubleshooting, networking, and getting around the internet are given. This edition also covers Service Pack 1. It is aimed at information technology professionals, business and multimedia users, and those who use laptops. Knowledge of basic computer concepts is assumed, such as using Windows and operating peripherals. McFedries is associated with a technical writing company.

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Quantum Computing : From Linear Algebra to Physical Realizations

by Mikio Nakahara and Tetsuo Ohmi

Rensselaer Libraries Call #QA76.889 .N34 2008

With both theory and experiments that progress in difficulty, Nakahara and Ohmi provide a classroom text instructors can use a full school year. They begin with background material on linear algebra and skill-building, with chapters on the basics of vectors and matrices, the framework of quantum mechanics, quibits and quantum key distribution, quantum gates and quantum circuits and their relation to quantum computing, simple quantum algorithms, quantum integral transforms, Grover's search algorithm, Shor's factorization algorithm, de-coherence, and quantum error correcting codes. They also cover physical systems that have the potential to work with quantum computers, and assess those systems by the DiVencenso criteria, covering NMR quantum computing, trapped ions, quantum with neutral atoms, Josephson junction quibits and quantum computing with quantum dots.

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Monday, June 9, 2008

Flexible Rails : Flex 3 on Rails 2

by Peter Armstrong

Flexible Rails teaches Flex 3 on Rails 2 techniques in an unusually effective way: its chapters take an application through eleven iterations, each increasingly "real world." You'll learn how Flex and Rails integrate with HTTPService and XML and see how Rails' RESTful controller design supports both Flex and HTML clients. Along the way, you'll learn to use the Cairngorm MVC framework in large Flex applications and work with the RubyAMF Flash Remoting gateway." "Written with ongoing feedback from over one thousand Early Access readers, Flexible Rails is practical, code-focused, and readable. It is accessible to web or desktop UI developers who have "hello world" level exposure to Rails and little or no knowledge of Flex.

Rensselaer Libraries Call #QA76.625 .A745 2007

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Dungeons and Desktops : The History of Computer Role-Playing Games

by Matt Barton

This book examines the history of computer role-playing games (CRPGs) (such as Ultima, The Bard's Tale, Pool of Radiance, Diablo, and The Elder Scrolls) and seeks to identify and wrestle with the genre's key issues." "Each game is a part of more general conversation about how computers can serve is medium for creative and engaging role-playing. While it contains many details about the games, the book is organized as a narrative - telling the story of the developers, games, and gamers who created the CRPG as we know it today.

Rensselaer Libraries Call #GV1469.6 .B37 2008

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Thursday, May 1, 2008

Workshop on Genetic Programming, Theory and Practice

Edited by Rick Riolo, Terence Soule, Bill Worzel

Rensselaer Libraries Call #
QA76.623 .W67 2007

Genetic Programming Theory and Practice V was developed from the fifth workshop at the University of Michigan's Center for the Study of Complex Systems to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information related to the rapidly advancing field of Genetic Programming (GP). Contributions form the foremost international researchers and practitioners in the GP arena examine the similarities and differences between theoretical and empirical results on real-world problems. The text explores the synergy between theory and practice, producing a comprehensive view of the state of the art in GP application.

The work covers applications of GP to a wide variety of domains, including bioinformatics, symbolic regression for system modeling, financial modeling, circuit design and robot controllers. This volume is a unique and indispensable tool for academics, researchers and industry professionals involved in GP, evolutionary computation, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

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Thursday, April 3, 2008

Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5

by Omar AL Zabir

Rensselaer Libraries Call #
TK5105.8885.A26 A5 2008
If you think you're well versed in ASP.NET, think again. This guide provides a master class in site building with ASP.NET 3.5 and other cutting-edge Microsoft technologies. It teaches you how to develop rock-solid web portal applications that can withstand millions of hits every day while surviving scalability and security pressures - not just for mass-consumer home pages, but also for dashboards that deliver powerful content aggregation for enterprises." "Written by Omar Al Zabir, co-founder and CTO of Pageflakes, Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5 demonstrates how to develop portals similar to My Yahoo!, iGoogle, and Pageflakes using ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET AJAX, Windows Workflow Foundation, LINQ, and .NET 3.5. Through the course of the book, Al Zabir builds an open source Ajax-enabled portal prototype (available online at www.dropthings.com), and walks you through the design and architectural challenges, advanced Ajax concepts, performance optimization techniques, and server-side scalability problems involved.

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Machine Learning for Audio, Image and Video Analysis : Theory and Applications

by Francesco Camastra and Alessandro Vinciarelli

Rensselaer Libraries Call #
Q325.5 .C36 2008

Machine Learning involves several scientific domains including mathematics, computer science, statistics and biology, and is an approach that enables computers to automatically learn from data. Focusing on complex media and how to convert raw data into useful information, this book offers both introductory and advanced material in the combined fields of machine learning and image/video processing.

The machine learning techniques presented enable readers to address many real world problems involving complex data. Examples covering areas such as automatic speech and handwriting transcription, automatic face recognition, and semantic video segmentation are included, along with detailed introductions to algorithms and examples of their applications.

The book is organized in four parts: The first focuses on technical aspects, basic mathematical notions and elementary machine learning techniques. The second provides an extensive survey of most relevant machine learning techniques for media processing, while the third part focuses on applications and shows how techniques are applied in actual problems. The fourth part contains detailed appendices that provide notions about the main mathematical instruments used throughout the text.

Students and researchers needing a solid foundation or reference, and practitioners interested in discovering more about the state-of-the-art will find this book invaluable. Examples and problems are based on data and software packages publicly available on the web.


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