New Computer Science and IT Titles at Rensselaer Libraries

Microsoft Windows Vista Unleashed

2008-07-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

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.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

Quantum Computing : From Linear Algebra to Physical Realizations

2008-07-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

Flexible Rails : Flex 3 on Rails 2

2008-06-09T06:57:00.001-07:00

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

Read reviews and more on Amazon

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

2008-06-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

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

Read reviews and more at Amazon

Workshop on Genetic Programming, Theory and Practice

2008-05-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

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.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5

2008-04-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

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

2008-03-28T07:29:00.000-07:00

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.

Read reviews on Amazon.com

Handbook of Research on Ubiquitous Computing Technology for Real Time Enterprises

2008-03-28T07:22:00.000-07:00

edited by Max Mühlhäuser and Iryna Gurevych

Rensselaer Libraries Call # QA76.5915 .H35 2008
This book combines the fundamental methods, algorithms, and concepts of pervasive computing with current innovations and solutions to emerging challenges. It systemically covers such topics as network and application scalability, wireless network connectivity, adaptability and "context-aware" computing, information technology security and liability, and human-computer interaction.

Read reviews on Amazon.com

Toward Artificial Sapience : Principles and Methods for Wise Systems

2008-03-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

edited by Rene V. Mayorga and Leonid Perlovsky

Rensselaer Libraries Call # Q335 .T68 2008
The current attempt to emulate human sapience (wisdom) by artificial means should be a step in the right direction beyond the Artificial/Computational Intelligence and Soft Computing disciplines, but is it warranted? Have humans achieved a level of modeling smart systems that justifies talking about sapience-wisdom? This book presents computational paradigms describing lower and higher-level cognitive functions, including mechanisms of concepts, instincts, emotions, situated behavior, language communication and social functioning. Hierarchical organization of the mind is considered, leading to explanations of the highest human capabilities for the beautiful and sublime. A diverse international set of authors discuss Artificial / Computational Sapience (Wisdom) and Sapient (Wise) Systems in this unique and useful volume.The reader is guided through the subject in a structured and comprehensive manner, and begins with chapters discussing philosophical, historical, and semiotic ideas about what properties are expected from Sapient (Wise) systems. Following that, chapters describe mathematical and engineering views on sapience, relating these to philosophical, semiotic, cognitive, and neuro-biological perspectives. This novel, state-of-the-art research volume is the first to focus on and explore Artificial / Computational Sapience (Wisdom) and Sapient (Wise) Systems. It will be of real utility to all researchers, graduate students, and professionals in the field who are interested in advancing beyond the usual topics on intelligent systems and artificial intelligence.

Read reviews on Amazon.com

Gray Hat Hacking : The Ethical Hacker's Handbook

2008-03-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

by Shon Harris

Rensselaer Libraries Call # QA76.9.A25 G743 2008
Written by seasoned security authors and instructors, this fully updated volume offers a comprehensive overview of today's hacking and computer security landscape. You will learn the latest techniques to uncover, legally disclose, and fix vulnerabilities deep within software and networks. The book includes six brand-new chapters and fully updated material throughout Gray Hat Hacking, Second Edition is the only ethical hacking book on the market to provide in-depth coverage of vulnerability discovery and reverse engineering. It also offers full details on cutting-edge attack methods, hacking-related law, malware analysis, and post-exploitation survival.

Read reviews on Amazon.com

Advanced Flex Application Development : Building Rich Media X

2008-03-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

by R Blank, Chris Charlton, Omar Gonzalez, Hasan Otuome

Rensselaer Libraries Call #QA76.625 .A38 2008
Many Flex books cover the basics—this book does something different, and goes far further. The authors, leading Flash platform developers at Almer/Blank, working with Adobe User Group communities, are the creators of the Rich Media Exchange (RMX), a social media network for Adobe developers. In covering just how the RMX was built, this book contains all the knowledge you need to build similar large-scale Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex. From the inception of the idea through to deployment, the authors show the techniques needed to plan and build advanced applications. You'll learn how to use forms, styles, validators, video, sound analysis, and framework caching, ensuring you make the most of the new features introduced in Flex 3. Powerful applications require solid back ends. This book shows how to hook up a Flex application to PHP back-end systems such as Drupal and OpenAds. You'll learn how various parts of the RMX were built, including the blogs, event calendar, jobs board, and advertising system—elements that come together to really showcase the power of Flex. The RMX is built by Adobe Developers for Adobe Developers—a rewarding community relationship that guarantees results. The same spirit is carried into this book, with the authors wanting and helping to take you to the next level of Flash Platform application development.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

Web Engineering : Modelling and Implementing Web Applications

2008-03-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

Edited by by Gustavo Rossi, Oscar Pastor, Daniel Schwabe, and Luis Olsina

Rensselaer Libraries Call #TK5105.88813 .W33 2008
Presents the state of the art approaches for obtaining a correct and complete Web software product from conceptual schemas, represented via well-known design notations. Describing mature and consolidated approaches to developing complex applications, this edited volume is divided into three parts and covers the challenges web application developers face; design issues for web applications; and how to measure and evaluate web applications in a consistent way. With contributions from leading researchers in the field this book will appeal to researchers and students as well as to software engineers, software architects and business analysts.

Read reviews on Amazon.com

Understanding Complex Datasets : Data Mining With Matrix Decompositions

2008-03-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

by David Skillicorn

Rensselaer Libraries Call # QA76.9.D343 S62 2007
Making obscure knowledge about matrix decompositions widely available, Understanding Complex Datasets: Data Mining with Matrix Decompositions discusses the most common matrix decompositions and shows how they can be used to analyze large datasets in a broad range of application areas. Without having to understand every mathematical detail, the book helps you determine which matrix is appropriate for your dataset and what the results mean. Features: Focuses on singular value decomposition, semidiscrete decomposition, independent component analysis, non-negative matrix factorization, and tensors, Matches the proper matrix analysis technique to real-world scientific and engineering systems, Discusses several important theoretical and algorithmic problems of matrix decompositions, such as instability, Applies matrix decompositions to the diverse fields of information retrieval, topic detection, geochemistry, astrophysics, microarray analysis, process control, counterterrorism, and social network analysis, Provides MATLAB[Registered] scripts to generate examples of matrix decompositions and URLs where tools can be downloaded.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

Against the machine : Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob

2008-03-07T07:01:00.000-08:00

by Lee Siegel

Rensselaer Libraries Call # HM851 .S5484 2008
Of course the internet is not one thing or another; if anything, its boosters claim, the Web is everything at once. It's become not only our primary medium for communication and information but also the place we go to shop, to play, to debate, to find love. Lee Siegel argues that our ever-deepening immersion in life online doesn't just reshape the ordinary rhythms of our days; it also reshapes our minds and culture in ways with which we haven't yet reckoned. The Web and its cultural correlatives and by-products - such as the dominance of reality television and the rise of the "bourgeois bohemian" - have turned privacy into performance, play into commerce, and confused "self-expression" with art. And even as technology gurus ply their trade using the language of freedom and democracy, we cede more and more control of our freedom and individuality to the needs of the machine - that confluence of business and technology whose boundaries now stretch to encompass almost all human activity.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

Wikipatterns

2008-03-06T08:26:00.000-08:00

by Stewart Mader

Rensselaer Libraries Call # TK5105.8882 .M34 2008
A combination of a web page and a Word document, a wiki is a tool that's simple like email but powerful enough to reduce your cluttered inbox and busy meeting schedule. Wikipatterns will help you learn how to build a 21st-century tool for collaboration, whether your team is in the same office or split among offices around the world. Wikis can transform business collaboration, and you'll learn the ins and outs of making the most of this enduring collaboration tool. This book answers questions like:

What is a wiki?
How does an organization's wiki differ from Wikipedia?
How do I make a case for using a wiki?
What's the best way to get started?
How do wikis change an organization's culture?
How do wikis "fit" with other collaboration tools?
What are the patterns of use and behavior that positively and negatively affect the wiki?
How do I encourage participation and make the wiki "stick" as an idea and a tool?

Read reviews at Amazon.com

Navigating Technomedia : Caught in the Web

2008-03-06T08:11:00.000-08:00

by Sam Han

Rensselaer Libraries Call # HM851 .H345 2008
This is an introductory survey of what author Sam Han calls the "technomedia," the generation of communication technologies after television, cell phones, and the first wave of the Internet. Beginning with a history of the media, the book explores the nature and effects of technomedia like the blogosphere, Blackberries, and related technologies. Because such media are transforming the relations of their users to the social environment, the topic is fast becoming an important focus of modern social theory.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

Advances in Applied Self-Organizing Systems

2008-03-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

edited by Mikhail Prokopenko

Rensselaer Libraries Call #Q325 .A37 2008
The main challenge faced by designers of self-organizing systems is how to validate and control non-deterministic dynamics. Over-engineering the system may completely suppress self-organization with an outside influence, eliminating emergent patterns and decreasing robustness, adaptability and scalability. Whilst leaving too much non-determinism in the system's behaviour may make its verification and validation almost impossible. This book presents the state-of-the-practice in successfully engineered self-organizing systems, and examines ways to balance design and self organization in the context of applications.

As demonstrated throughout, finding this balance helps to deal with diverse practical challenges. The book begins with the more established fields of traffic management and structural health monitoring, building up towards robotic teams, solving challenging tasks and deployed in tough environments. The second half of the book follows with a deeper look into the micro-level, and considers local interactions between agents. These interactions lead towards self-modifying digital circuitry and self-managing grids, self-organizing data visualization and intrusion detection in computer networks, immunocomputing and nature-inspired computation, and eventually to artificial life. The case studies described illustrate the richness of the topic and provide guidance to its intricate areas. Many algorithms proposed and discussed in this volume are biologically inspired and readers will also gain an insight into cellular automata, genetic algorithms, artificial immune systems, snake-like locomotion, ant foraging, birds flocking and mutualistic biological ecosystems, amongst others. Demonstrating the practical relevance and applicability of self-organization, this book will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in a wide range of field.

Read reviews on Amazon.com

Linux : The Complete Reference

2008-03-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

by Richard Petersen

Rensselaer Libraries Call #QA76.76.O63 P523 2008
A complete revision of the bestselling, in-depth Linux resourceFully revised and expanded, this comprehensive guide covers the latest features of Linux, the widely popular open-source operating system. You will learn to configure and manage all distributions of Linux, set up applications, networks, and servers, and optimize system performance.Written by Linux expert Richard Petersen, Linux: The Complete Reference, Sixth Edition explains, in easy-to-follow language, every aspect Linux. You will get full details on the new Linux kernel, Gnome and KDE, window managers, multimedia tools, Web, FTP, and Mail services, file systems, print servers, and backup procedures. The book also includes new coverage of security protocols, network automatic configuration, IPv6, Yum, Xen, and cutting-edge virtualization technology.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

HCI Remixed : Essays on Works That Have Influenced the HCI Community

2008-02-28T11:06:00.000-08:00

edited by Thomas Erickson and David W. McDonald.

Rensselaer Libraries Call #QA76.9.H85 H4125 2008
Personal and reflective essays that describe how particular works--whether papers, books, or demos, from classics to forgotten gems--have influenced each writer's approach to HCI.

Read reviews on Amazon.com

Geekonomics: The Real Cost of Insecure Software

2008-02-28T11:01:00.000-08:00

by David Rice

Rensselaer Libraries Call #QA76.9.A25 R48 2008
Software has become crucial to the very survival of civilization. But badly written, insecure software is hurting people - and costing businesses and individuals billions of dollars every year. This must change. In Geekonomics, David Rice shows how we can change it." "Rice reveals why the software industry is rewarded for carelessness, and how we can revamp the industry's incentives to get the reliability and security we desperately need and deserve. You'll discover why the software industry still has shockingly little accountability - and what we must do to fix that.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

Expert F#

2008-02-27T12:42:00.000-08:00

by Don Syme, Adam Granicz, and Antonio Cisternino.

Rensselaer Libraries Call #QA76.62 .S96 2007
Expert F# is about practical programming in a beautiful language that puts the power and elegance of functional programming into the hands of .NET developers. In combination with .NET, F# achieves unrivaled levels of programmer productivity and program clarity.
Written by F#'s designer and two active contributors, Expert F# is the authoritative, comprehensive, and in-depth guide to the language and its use. Designed to help others become experts, the book gives a thorough introduction to the F# language from quick essentials to in-depth advanced topics such as active pattern matching, aggregate data types and operators, sequence expressions, lazy values, mutable data and side-effects, generics, type augmentations, functional decomposition and code organization.

Read reviews on Amazon.com

Absolute FreeBSD : The Complete Guide to FreeBSD

2008-02-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

by Michael Lucas

Rensselaer Libraries Call #QA76.76.O63 L83 2008
Absolute FreeBSD, 2nd Edition is your complete guide to FreeBSD, written by FreeBSD committer Michael W. Lucas. Lucas considers this completely revised and rewritten second edition of his landmark work to be his best work ever; a true product of his love for FreeBSD and the support of the FreeBSD community. Absolute FreeBSD, 2nd Edition covers installation, networking, security, network services, system performance, kernel tweaking, filesystems, SMP, upgrading, crash debugging, and much more.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

Netporn : DIY Web Culture and Sexual Politics

2008-02-27T07:41:00.000-08:00

by Katrien Jacobs

Rensselaer Libraries Call #HQ471 .J33 2007
Netporn delves into the aesthetics and politics of sexuality in the era of do-it-yourself (DIY) Internet pornography. Katrien Jacobs, drawing on digital media theory and interviews with Web porn producers and consumers, offers an unprecedented critical analysis of Web culture as digital artistry and of the corresponding heightened government surveillance and censorship of the Internet. Jacobs shows how netporn images and services are important ways of redefining the "network body" and how they are indispensable ingredients of a maturing network society.

Read reviews on Amazon.com

The Best Damn IT Security Management Book Period

2008-02-27T07:32:00.000-08:00

by Susan Snedakers

Rensselaer Libraries Call #QA76.9.A25 S654 2008
The Best Damn Security Manager's Handbook Period has comprehensive coverage of all management issues facing IT and security professionals. Compiled from the best of the Syngress and Butterworth Heinemann libraries and authored by business continuity expert Susan Snedakers, this volume is an indispensable addition to a serious security professional's toolkit.

Coverage includes Business Continuity, Risk Assessment, Protection Assets, Project Management, Security Operations, and Security Management, and Security Design & Integration.

Read reviews on Amazon.com

The Rails Way

2008-02-20T10:39:00.000-08:00

by Obie Fernandez

Rensselaer Libraries Call # QA76.64 .F47 2008
Ruby on Rails strips complexity from the development process, enabling professional developers to focus on what matters most: delivering business value. Now, for the first time, there’s a comprehensive, authoritative guide to building production-quality software with Rails. Pioneering Rails developer Obie Fernandez and a team of experts illuminate the entire Rails API, along with the Ruby idioms, design approaches, libraries, and plug-ins that make Rails so valuable. Drawing on their unsurpassed experience, they address the real challenges development teams face, showing how to use Rails’ tools and best practices to maximize productivity and build polished applications users will enjoy. - Book Jacket

Read reviews of this book at Amazon.com

Biologically Inspired Artificial Intelligence for Computer Games

2008-02-20T10:29:00.000-08:00

by Darryl Charles, Colin Fyfe, Daniel Livingstone, and Stephen Mcglinchey

Rensselaer Libraries Call # Q336 .B415 2008
Biologically Inspired Artificial Intelligence for Computer Games reviews several strands of modern artificial intelligence, including supervised and unsupervised artificial neural networks; evolutionary algorithms; artificial immune systems, swarms, and shows-using case studies for each to display how they may be applied to computer games. This book spans the divide which currently exists between the academic research community working with advanced artificial intelligence techniques and the games programming community which must create and release new, robust, and interesting games on strict deadlines, thereby creating an invaluable collection supporting both technological research and the gaming industry. -Book Jacket.

Read reviews of this book at Amazon.com

Advances in Applied Self-Organizing Systems

2008-02-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

Edited by Mikhail Prokopenko

Rensselaer Libraries Call # Q325 .A37 2008
The main challenge faced by designers of self-organizing systems is how to validate and control non-deterministic dynamics. Over-engineering the system may completely suppress self-organization with an outside influence, eliminating emergent patterns and decreasing robustness, adaptability and scalability. Whilst leaving too much non-determinism in the system's behaviour may make its verification and validation almost impossible. This book presents the state-of-the-practice in successfully engineered self-organizing systems, and examines ways to balance design and self organization in the context of applications.

As demonstrated throughout, finding this balance helps to deal with diverse practical challenges. The book begins with the more established fields of traffic management and structural health monitoring, building up towards robotic teams, solving challenging tasks and deployed in tough environments. The second half of the book follows with a deeper look into the micro-level, and considers local interactions between agents. These interactions lead towards self-modifying digital circuitry and self-managing grids, self-organizing data visualization and intrusion detection in computer networks, immunocomputing and nature-inspired computation, and eventually to artificial life. The case studies described illustrate the richness of the topic and provide guidance to its intricate areas. Many algorithms proposed and discussed in this volume are biologically inspired and readers will also gain an insight into cellular automata, genetic algorithms, artificial immune systems, snake-like locomotion, ant foraging, birds flocking and mutualistic biological ecosystems, amongst others. Demonstrating the practical relevance and applicability of self-organization, this book will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in a wide range of field. - Book jacket.

Read reviews of this book at Amazon.com

What is the Impact of Cyberlife?

2008-02-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

edited by Andrea DeMott

Rensselaer Libaries Call# HM851 .W44 2008
Virtual worlds are becoming more prevalent / Dave Gilson -- The popularity of virtual worlds is exaggerated / Cade Metz -- Virtual worlds pointlessly imitate real life / Jenny Diski -- Personal interaction is a valued component of online games / T.L. Taylor -- Sex is integral to virtual worlds / Mitch Wagner -- On-screen media are changing the human brain / Helen Phillips -- Online games can be addictive / Olga Khazan -- Seriously ill children get information and support from online games / Marissa Levy -- Children's isolation from the natural world is a threat to their health / Richard Louv -- Electronic interaction is making Americans less literate / Jeremy Rifkin -- Experts disagree whether online games have educational value / Sarah Glazer -- Online games will have an impact on the economy / Edward Castronova -- Crime in virtual worlds is impacting real life / Tim Guest -- Online games have no recourse for lost wealth or rights / Cory Doctorow.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

Managing the Infosphere : Governance, Technology, and Cultural Practice in Motion

2008-02-19T11:45:00.000-08:00

by Stephen D. McDowell, Philip E. Steinberg, and Tami K. Tomasello.

Rensselaer Libraries Call# HE7645 .M393 2008

Drawing on their expertise in geography, political science, international relations, and communication studies, McDowell, Steinberg, and Tomasello investigate specific policy problems encountered as international organizations, corporations, and individual users try to & quot; manage& quot; a space that simultaneously contradicts and supports existing institutions and systems of governance, identity, and technology.

Read reviews at Amazon.com

An Introduction to Quantum Computing

2008-02-13T11:10:00.000-08:00

by Phillip Kaye, Raymond Laflamme, and Michele Mosca

Rensselaer Libraries Call # QA76.889 .K39 2007
This concise, accessible text provides a thorough introduction to quantum computing - an exciting emergent field at the interface of the computer, engineering, mathematical and physical sciences. Aimed at advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in these disciplines, the text istechnically detailed and is clearly illustrated throughout with diagrams and exercises. Some prior knowledge of linear algebra is assumed, including vector spaces and inner products. However, prior familiarity with topics such as tensor products and spectral decomposition is not required, as thenecessary material is reviewed in the text. - Book Jacket

Read Reviews at Amazon.com

Homo Zappiens: Growing Up in a Digital Age

2008-02-13T11:01:00.000-08:00

by Wim Veen and Ben Vrakking

Rensselaer Libraries Call # LB1028.3 .V395 2006
Homo Zappiens examines how children growing up in a world of technology and change show more reluctance to fit within the education system than any generation before them. Furthermore, they frequently have a better grasp of technology than those who educate them. Instead of attempting to control, understand or master technology, they simply use it!
As technology enables,us to capture information, society is changing its learning demands away from information and focusing instead on communication, interpretation and negotiation. As long as we keep judging the Homo zappiens generation by our old standards, we may never see how their ways of playing and communicating are actually emerging strategies for our digital, creative future. Accepting education as the facilitation of learning, we must reconsider our teaching as we witness a different type of learning. - Book Jacket

Read Reviews on Amazon.com

Filthy Rich Clients, Developing Animated and Graphical Effects for Desktop Java Applications

2008-02-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

by Romain Guy and Chet Haase

Rensselaer Libraries Call #QA76.73.C153 H33 2008
Filthy Rich Clients refers to ultra-graphically rich applications that ooze cool. They suck the user in from the outset and hang on to them with a death grip of excitement. Filthy Rich Clients: Developing Animated and Graphical Effects for Desktop Java™ Applications shows you how to build better, more effective, cooler desktop applications that intensify the user experience.
The keys to Filthy Rich Clients are graphical and animated effects. These kinds of effects provide ways of enhancing the user experience of the application through more attractive GUIs, dynamic effects that give your application a pulse, and animated transitions that keep your user connected to the logical flow of the application. The book also discusses how to do so effectively, making sure to enrich applications in sensible ways. - Book Jacket

Read reviews at Amazon.com

Artificial Intelligence with Uncertainty

2008-02-13T10:39:00.000-08:00

by Li Deyi

Rensselaer Libraries Call # Q335 .L5 2008

The information deluge currently assaulting us in the 21st century is having a profound impact on our lifestyles and how we work. We must constantly separate trustworthy and required information from the massive amount of data we encounter each day. Through mathematical theories, models, and experimental computations, Artificial Intelligence with Uncertainty explores the uncertainties of knowledge and intelligence that occur during the cognitive processes of human beings. The authors focus on the importance of natural language - the carrier of knowledge and intelligence - for artificial intelligence (AI) study.
This book develops a framework that shows how uncertainty in AI expands and generalizes traditional AI. It describes the cloud model, its uncertainties of randomness and fuzziness, and the correlation between them. The book also centers on other physical methods for data mining, such as the data field and knowledge discovery state space. In addition, it presents an inverted pendulum example to discuss reasoning and control with uncertain knowledge as well as provides a cognitive physics model to visualize human thinking with hierarchy. - Book Jacket

Read reviews on Amazon.com

Web Dragons : Inside the Myths of Search Engine Technology

2008-02-11T07:53:00.000-08:00

by Ian H. Witten, Marco Gori, and Teresa Numerico

Rensselaer Libraries Call # TK5105.884 .W55 2007
This book introduces the changing ways in which information on the Web is located, and how what is presented is determined. It is critical, in part, in its presentation of the problems of Web spam and of the current approach to Web searching--and presents solutions that give power to users rather than the advertisers and the search engines.

Read reviews of this book on Amazon.

Freedom of Culture : Regulation and Privatization of Intellectual Property and Public Space

2008-02-07T09:07:00.000-08:00

Edited by Jorinde Seijdel

Rensselaer Libraries Call # K1443.P83 F74 2007
The contemporary public domain, the "free" space where culture is produced and exchanged, is under pressure. The exchange and distribution of cultural products ("content" in the form of music, image or text) is easier in digital society, but increasingly hemmed in by corresponding moves towards greater regulation and control, new copyright laws and intellectual property policy. Instead of enjoying a "free culture," we are watching the emergence of what Lawrence Lessig calls "a permission culture." Simultaneously, as an aspect of broader privatization and regulation processes, private entities are appropriating more and more of public culture, and deciding what is made available or publicly accessible. This issue of the Dutch architectural journal, Open, investigates the root causes of these developments, how they interrelate and what the implications are for the "free" production and practice of culture, as well as for the internal dynamics and balance of power in the public domain. -Book Jacket

Read Reviews of this Book on Amazon

Agent and Web Service Technologies in Virtual Enterprises

2008-02-07T07:24:00.000-08:00

Edited by Nicolaos Protogeros

Rensselaer Libraries Call # HD30.2122 .A44 2008
Research on new technologies for the virtual enterprise operation has opened up new ideas on the design principles and operation approaches in order to maximize benefits and overcome limitations encountered. Agent and Web Service Technologies in Virtual Enterprises provides a comprehensive review of the most recent advances in agent and Web service technologies, integrating the most recent contributions supporting formation, integration, collaboration, and operation in virtual enterprises. This Premier Reference Source enables libraries to provide researchers with a deep and thorough understanding of the benefits and issues surrounding agents and Web service technologies, and practical insights from examples of applications of these technologies throughout various aspects of the virtual enterprise life cycle.

Topics Covered: Achieving agile enterprise, Adaptive choreography support, Agent-based intelligent system, Agents and Web services, Agile/virtual enterprise integration, Business process modeling, Composition for virtual enterprises, Environmental sector, Health infrastructures, Interoperability middleware, Multi-agent systems integration, Recommender agent, Semantic Web, Software agent technology, Supply chain management, Virtual enterprise formation, Web-pilarcos, Web service discovery, Web services technology. -Book jacket.

Read Reviews on Amazon

LAN Switch Security : What Hackers Know About Your Switches

2008-02-05T10:58:00.000-08:00

by Eric Vyncke and Christopher Paggen

Rensselaer Libraries Call # TK5105.7 .V96 2008

Contrary to popular belief, Ethernet switches are not inherently secure. Security vulnerabilities in Ethernet switches are multiple: from the switch implementation, to control plane protocols (Spanning Tree Protocol [STP], Cisco® Discovery Protocol [CDP], and so on) and data plane protocols, such as Address Routing Protocol (ARP) or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). LAN Switch Security explains all the vulnerabilities in a network infrastructure related to Ethernet switches. Further, this book shows you how to configure a switch to prevent or to mitigate attacks based on those vulnerabilities. This book also includes a section on how to use an Ethernet switch to increase the security of a network and prevent future attacks.

Read Reviews of this Book on Amazon

Artificial Consciousness

2008-02-05T10:51:00.000-08:00

edited by Antonio Chella and Riccardo Manzotti.

Rensselaer Libraries Call # Q334 .A769 2007

This book is interdisciplinary - focused on the topic of artificial consciousness: from neuroscience to artificial intelligence, from bioengineering to robotics.

Find Reviews at Amazon.

Digital Freedom : How Much Can You Handle?

2008-02-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

by N.D. Batra

Rensselaer Libraries Call # HM851 .B38 2008
In Digital Freedom, N. D. Batra explores the tension between the boundlessness of the Internet and the boundaries of the marketplace, as well as the resulting impact on human expression, privacy, and social controls. This book is an exploration of and a meditation on the question: How much freedom does a person need? This question evokes Tolstoy's parable, "How much land does a man need?" Is individual freedom an acquired taste, much like one's love for symphony orchestra? Or, is it a necessity? Digital Freedom explores this issue and its far-reaching implications-including surveillance, intellectual property, and copyright-from the perspective of an evolutionary, self-organizing social system. This fascinating system both creates and assimilates innovations and, in the process, undergoes reorganization and renewal. Book jacket.

Find reviews of this book at Amazon

Advanced XML Applications from the Experts at the XML Guild

2008-02-01T08:39:00.000-08:00

by The XML Guild

Rensselaer Libraries Call # QA76.76.H94 A32 2007
Numerous books abound for the beginning programmer who wants to learn XML, but there are few learning resources available for those who are already proficient in XML and need expert-level advice to help maximize their workflow. Advanced XML Applications from the Experts at The XML Guild provides such a resource, written by the expert programmers at The XML Guild. The book is not intended to be another exhaustive XML "bible," rather, it’s a collection of advanced tips and techniques that the authors have used in the real world-and are now happy to share with you. Each chapter is written by the guild member considered to be the expert on a particular topic. - Book Jacket

Read reviews of this book and more on Amazon.com

The Future of Reputation : Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet

2008-02-01T08:31:00.000-08:00

by Daniel J. Solove

Rensselaer Libraries # K3264.C65 S65 2007
Teeming with chatrooms, online discussion groups, and blogs, the Internet offers previously unimagined opportunities for personal expression and communication. But there's a dark side to the story. A trail of information fragments about us is forever preserved on the Internet, instantly available in a Google search. A permanent chronicle of our private lives - often of dubious reliability and sometimes totally false - will follow us wherever we go, accessible to friends, strangers, dates, employers, neighbors, relatives, and anyone else who cares to look. This engrossing book, brimming with amazing examples of gossip, slander, and rumor on the Internet, explores the profound implications of the online collision between free speech and privacy.
Daniel Solove, an authority on information privacy law, offers an account of how the Internet is transforming gossip, the way we shame others, and our ability to protect our own reputations. Focusing on blogs, Internet communities, cybermobs, and other manifestations of current trends, he shows that, ironically, the unconstrained flow of information on the Internet may impede opportunities for self-development and freedom. Long-standing notions of privacy need review, the author contends: unless we establish a balance between privacy and free speech, we may discover that the freedom of the Internet makes us less free. - Book Jacket

Read reviews of this book and more on Amazon.com

Fighting the War on File Sharing

2008-02-01T08:23:00.000-08:00

by Aernout Schmidt, Wilfred Dolfsma, and Wim Keuvelaar

Rensselaer Libraries Call # TK5105.525 .S36 2007
The explosive growth of the Napster and KaZaA services shows that peer-to-peer file sharing has tremendous appeal in our information society. Nevertheless, current legal and economic practices prevent that these services achieve their full potential. Fighting the War on File Sharing looks into the issue from the perspectives of IT, economics and law and combines the results, pointing out ways how to reduce its escalation and to end the war.
The approach and the solutions reached recognize the influence of outstanding work produced in different disciplines, such as law and information technology (Lessig), political anthropology (Douglas, Geertz, Smits), new institutional economics (Coase, North, Greif) and jurisprudence (Fuller, Bobbitt, Tamanaha). This book is very important to anyone concerned about how intellectual property law, economics and rhetoric fuel the war on file sharing, and, in general, to everyone interested in the future of the Media Industry on Internet. - Book jacket.

Read reviews of this book and more on Amazon.com

The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook : Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies, and Emerging Applications

2008-01-31T12:01:00.000-08:00

Edited by Andrew Sears and Julie A. Jacko

Rensselaer Libraries Call # QA76.9.H85 H8568 2008

Exploring the evolution in how people use and work with technology, this second edition captures the most important scientific and technical know-how in the field. With contributions from over 130 researchers and professionals, over 5,500 references, 400 figures, and 100 tables, the book provides a wealth of data and a fresh perspective. New topics and authors ensure the revision contains new information and insights and the latest in research and practice. It features cutting-edge advances to the scientific knowledge base and visionary perspectives and developments that will fundamentally transform the way in which researchers and practitioners view the discipline.

Read reviews of this book and more on Amazon.com

Aesthetic Computing

2008-01-31T11:53:00.000-08:00

by Fishwick, Paul A.

Rensselaer Libraries Call # QA76.5 .A3393 2006
The application of the theory and practice of art to computer science: how aesthetics and art can play a role in computing disciplines.

Read reviews of this book and more on Amazon.com

Blogging America : The New Public Sphere

2008-01-31T11:46:00.000-08:00

by Aaron Barlow

Rensselaer Libraries Call #HM851 .B368 2008
"This book - a follow-up volume to Barlow's Rise of the Blogosphere, which examined the historical context for the modern blog - provides an examination of the many current aspects of the blogosphere, from the political to the professional to the personal, with many stops in between." "Areas covered include the personal blog; the political blog; the use of blogs by various religious communities both for discussion within communities and for outreach; the growth of blogs dedicated to specific geographic communities, and their relations with older local media; blogs dedicated to technical subjects, particularly relating to computers; blogs and business; blogs sparked by video games, movies, music, and other forms of entertainment; and more. Given that millions of blogs have been created over the past five years and yet more come online at an undiminished rate, and given that enthusiasm for both reading them and writing for them has yet to wane, it is likely that the blog explosion will continue indefinitely." - book jacket

Read reviews of this book and more on Amazon.com

Information Technology and Indigenous People

2008-01-31T11:17:00.000-08:00

By Laurel Evelyn Dyson, Max Hendricks, and Stephen Grant

Rensselaer Libraries Call # GN380 .I58 2007
Indigenous people around the world are becoming more interested in information technology because they see it as a way to preserve their traditional cultures for future generations as well as a way to provide their communities with economic and social renewal. However, the cost of the new technologies, geographic isolation, and a lack of computer literacy have made it difficult for indigenous people to adopt IT.

Information Technology and Indigenous People provides theoretical and empirical information related to the planning and execution of IT projects aimed at serving indigenous people. It explores many cultural concerns with IT implementation, including language issues and questions of cultural appropriateness, and brings together cutting-edge research from both indigenous and non-indigenous scholars. -Book jacket.

Read reviews of this book and more on Amazon.com