updated 2002-08-28.
Consider splitting this into 2 files: "books DAV has already read", "books DAV has not yet read".
No man can be called friendless when he has God and the companionship of good books. -Elizabeth Barret Browning, poet (1806-1861)
DAV: I started with a simple list here of books I had read, and books I planned to read. As my web site has grown, I'm starting to mention books about a subject on the page where I talk about the subject, rather than here ... in the interested of keeping all my information about a topic together on one page. This makes it more difficult for me to ask ``OK, what's the top book on my to-read list now ?''. But it makes it easier for me to rank books -- it's pretty easy for me to rank books about a particular subject, but there's no way for me to say _Origin of Species_ is better or worse than, say, _The Art of Computer Programming_.
"We will give you a scanner if you give us two digitized books" http://www.bookscanner.com/
(I should have more information here Real Soon Now).
Changes for a hypothetical year 2003 version:
DAV: Perhaps because of my respect for Buckminster Fuller, I like to start with a big overview of ``everything'' then narrow down to specific things. This is the only one I've seen for history.
There's also a few nuggets about the trickiness of self-reference. (see idea_space.html#quines )
Also some stuff on empathy, and ``being a whole nation''.
When I first started learning my first foreign language, I had what Hofstadter calls the ``naive'' view that it's just like English, I just need to substitute the words one-for-one. Hofstadter swung me to the opposite extreme -- thinking that translation is hopeless, there's no way to make a ``true'' translation from one language to another, and difficult even to jump from one dialect to another.
Hopefully I'm more centered now. I think that some facts and ideas can be translated easily, while others (rhyming, puns, emotional connotations, etc.) are very difficult to translate.
Also, I think that it's far too easy to misunderstand what someone says, at least in English (and probably other languages, although certain mathematical ideas can be expressed preceisely and unambiguously). Now I'm pretty sure that ``translation is hopeless'' is not at all what Hofstadter is trying to say, although he does say that a very few specific pieces of text ``are probably forever untranslatable''[p.444], including this book itself [p.450].
It has helped me realize that documentation written in the ``native language'' of programmers probably needs some translation to make it comprehensible to humans.
Also, it has caused me to try to avoid things that are hard to translate -- wordplay, rhymes, linguistic games, anagrams spin_dictionary.html#anagrams -- because I hope that really important things really can be translated.
[FIXME: unknowns] [FIXME: free will] [FIXME: cross link page 301, 302 of this book with ``Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity: In Words of Four Letters or Less'' http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/txt/al.html ] [FIXME: try to undestand the ``bonus magic'' of altitudes and orthocenters on p. 348][p.284]
``
- If John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon were to speak the same patriotic sentence, would it have a fixed meaning ? (Did ``patriotism'' mean the same thing to both of them ? How about ``communism'' ? ... How about ``assassination'' ? How about ``New York'' ? And ``nose'' ? )
- Do women speak the same language as men ? (Does ``menopause'' mean the same thing to both of them ? How about ``attractive'' ? How about ``guys'' ? )
[p. 301]
For although light oftenest behaves like a wave, it can be looked on as a mote -- the lightbit. ... Deep among the unclefts, things do not happen in steady flowings, but in leaps over midway bestandings that are forbidden. The knowledge-hunt of this is called lump beholding.
[p. 350]
... another case of abstract versus concrete reasons vying for priority or explanatory power. We all grow up knowing clichés to the effect that sometime around age twelve, girls ``discover'' boys and boys ``discover'' girls. It is meant to be a natural awakening that happens in most people in adolescence. And yet, when this marvelous awakening takes place in a particular one of us, it feels so unique and individual, it feels like it springs from our own innermost, most private, personal desires and not at all from some kind of general, abstract, impersonal force. The people on whom our attraction focuses seem simply to radiate charm and vivacity and mystery, and those qualities seem to be the reasons behind our fascination, not some kind of biological destiny programmed in our genes. This tension between homey, comfortable reasons and reasons that stretch out into a past so far beyond our comprehension that we need to ignore it to stay sane becomes ever greater as we delve more deeply into questions about free will and biological and physical determinism. Putting one's finger on the ultimate source of one's identity is a very tricky thing.
The Non-Objectivity of Authorship and Credit
Take Fido. Fido is a Collie. Fido is a dog. Fido is a mammal. Fido is also a living thing and a furry object and a flea-bearer and a carnivore and a 22-kilogram mass and a faster runner than his friend Tabby and a slower runner than light -- and please, let's not forget that Fido is a spatio-temporal phenomenon. But what is Fido, really ?
... we all instinctively pinpoint which facets of all the things we are dealing with are most relevant at any given moment ... ''
_Sphereland : A Continuing Speculation On An Expanding Universe_ by Dionys Burger 1965 Describes how it's possible that we live in a ``expanding'' universe, when there is no boundary/edge to our universe.
(DAV read these together as one book) I think it's understandable even to elementary-age students. I'm thinking I might try the ``sequel'' _Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So_ book by Ian Stewart ???? no equations. [FIXME: dimension.html]
``conventional microelectronic'' devices: Atoms, electrons, the band gap, ``holes'', lasers, p-n junctions, MOSFET transistors, bipolar transistors, logic gates, mass production of wafers and Moore's Law, HEMT (high electron mobility) transistors.
It doesn't get to the fun stuff until ``Chapter 7: When is a Particle not a Particle ? The importance of Electron Waves''. The rest of the book explains
quantum electronic devices: quantum wells, quantum tunnelling, tunnelling transistor, quantum dot computing (quantum dot cellular automata), superconductivity, (superconducting) Josephson junctions.
photonic devices: nonlinear Fabry-Perot interferometer, SEED (self-electro-optic effect device)
A pretty good overview. I wish it included a few more kinds of devices (qubits, holograms, ...). Sometimes I wanted to see larger computational units built from each kind of device to see how it is used in context, but that would have made the book far too large. -- DAV
"Knuth's volume on Seminumerical Algorithms ... has recently been updated in its 3rd edition (1997). It is brilliant, a classic. If you don't own it, you should stop reading right now, run to the nearest bookstore, and buy it." -- http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/manual/html_node/General-comments-on-random-numbers.html
I read _The C++ Programming Language, 2nd ed._ by Bjarne Stroustrup and started coding in "enhanced C" -- mostly plain C, but using cout and cin as far superior replacements for printf(), and a few other niceties.
But the syntax of objects was just incomprehensible to me until I read _C++ Distilled_ by Ira Pohl and I wrote my first program using methods. I think the Pohl book is much better for learning C++, but perhaps I just needed to have the concept of methods bounce off my head several times before it sank in. (I took 3 different classes that explained how transistors work before that sank in).
see books on programming style for more of David's book recommendations.
I have a habit of multitasking my reading -- current books I'm partway through include
What do all these books have in common ? If you find out, please tell me.
Contents:
have read nonfiction:
have read fiction:
[FIXME: still needs to be unscrambled]
Books David Cary already has read or has on his bookshelf: (Someday I'll write my reccomendations, if any, of these books ...)
(*) indicates David owns this book. Feel free to ask me to lend it to you.
(*)_Seven Habits of Highly Effective People_ book by Stephen Covey "a good book. If you haven't read it, you should" -- recc. Pastor Don Jensen.
books David has already read:
_About Face_ book by Alan Cooper http://www.cooper.com/ (man behind Visual Basic) about user interface design. recc: Jeff Holtzman. recc. Don Gray
_Fractals, Chaos, Power Laws: Minutes from an Infinite Paradise_ book by Manfred Schroeder (c) 1991 ISBN 0-7167-2136-8 "very good mathematical treatments of complexity theory (as opposed to stories and descriptions of it)" -- recc. Reilly Jones 70544,1227@compuserve.com "ditto" -- David Cary.
(*)The ARRL Handbook must-buy for anyone doing analog electronics, especially RF. (http://www.arrl.org)
George Gamow, book _Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory_ (1966) Good book -- very positive. Starts out with light quanta, shows how the quantum concept exactly matches experiment ... but ends up with lots of things that are still not resolved, encouraging the reader to solve them. The Special Relativity stuff should be ignored -- he uses the old, confusing notation. The general concepts seem to be OK, though. Good analogies to make quantum physics a little more understandable (a few equations, but not all the way to the techy details). Hilarious parody of _Faust_ included. Short biographies showing some humorous details of some top physicists.
(*)_The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants_ by Prusinkeiwicz and Lindenmayer. There's some hairy math in there, but do what I do -- skip the math, look at the extremely pretty pictures.
Human Factors and Typography for More Readable Programs, Ronald M. Baecker and Aaron Marcus, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-10745-7 (-- recc. by GNU) ($27 at Powell's Books)
_Bebop to the Boolean Boogie_ computer_architecture.html#bebop (David Cary owns a copy ) (*)
_Writing Solid Code_ by Steve Maguire Very good book. Worth re-reading. Consider buying my own copy. -- recc. DAV
CartoonGuide to Physics, by Larry Gonick and Art Huffman. ISBN 0062731009 http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?CartoonGuideToPhysics
(*)_The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition_ book by by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. "Great book. A must-read if you involved in any software project bigger than 1 person, or if you are involved any any complex project (software or not) with many people."
(*)_Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction_ book by Paul J. Nahin "Good book. The physics seems very solid and true, but he livens it up with some humor. It includes a plan for a time machine that *should* work according to the latest theories, even though currently not feasible." -- david
Edward R. Tufte is one of my favorite nonfiction authors.
Clutter is not a property of information. Clutter is a failure of design. -- Edward Tufte
_The Visual Display of Quantitative Information_ by Edward R. Tufte (1970) "great ... reinforced my minimalist, high-information-content style" -- david cary
_Envisioning Information_ by Edward R. Tufte (1990) "Great" - david
http://www.EdwardTufte.com/tufte/ ; http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?EdwardTufte [FIXME: toread]
_Mission of Gravity_ (1953) by Hal Clement very good sf. no adult themes. cooperation between human and Mesklinite. very "pro-science". - recc. DAV
Philip K. Dick do androids dream of electric sheep ? (the source novel for the movie _Blade Runner_).
_Man Plus_ book by Frederik Pohl DAV: I liked it.
_Babylon 5: Book #5: The Touch of Your Shadow, the Whisper of Your Name_ book by Neal Barrett, Jr. DAV: Not Recommended.
From: walking@teleport.com To: pdx-b5@aracnet.com Date: Tue, 11 Jun 1996 18:30:09 +0000 Subject: pdx-b5: Latest B5 book ... ... ... Not much humor in the story. Although it tried to build tension, the threat was never established as a threat and in the end........completely underwhelming. I felt like there was no pay-off at all. There was no complexity to the story, no delving into the inner workings of alien worlds or our corrupt Earth Government, or some natural phenomenon. ... I know some of you will disagree, but I liked the last book better about the death penalty against the alien. At least it had some maneuverings by EarthGov, a new and different alien society, some zero-gee docking bay explosions and crashes, and moral stances taken by our heroes - diametrically opposed. Some of us DO oppose the death penalty on moral grounds - it can be debated! And some of us pragmatists may argue that somebody mindwiped no longer deserves the death penalty because they have a new personality. ... Wendy Bumgardner walking@teleport.com ... http://www.teleport.com/~walking/
_Dragon Tears_ -- Koontz Horror novel. Some good descriptions; I like the dog; but too scary for me (eyeballs).
David Cary has a few book reviews.
(not in any particular order)
[FIXME: add engineering books to the list at http://massmind.org/techref/hardware.htm#bibliography ]
_Flawless Consulting_ book by PeterBlock
_The Secrets of Consulting_ book by GeraldWeinberg
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 16:54:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: jcooley@TheWorld.com ( John Cooley )
To: esnug@TheWorld.com
Subject: Industry Gadfly "Monkey See, Monkey Do"
Sender: esnug-approval@world.std.com
Reply-To: jcooley@world.std.com
!!! "It's not a BUG, jcooley@TheWorld.com
/o o\ / it's a FEATURE!" (508) 429-4357
( > )
\ - / INDUSTRY GADFLY: "Monkey See, Monkey Do"
_] [_
by John Cooley, EE Times Columnist
Holliston Poor Farm, P.O. Box 6222, Holliston, MA 01746-6222
It's sort of like having a venereal disease. When you do crisis intervention
consulting (like I do) for chip design projects, you get to see everything.
And one of the most embarrassing problems I've found at client sites is when
some of their key engineers on a troubled project really don't know Perl.
(You may balk and exclaim that this is impossible because Perl scripts are
the bread and butter of chip design, but that's what makes this problem so
embarrassing.) Like a doctor treating VD, one has to treat this problem
very discretely -- which means I give those clients my sequential list of
recommended reading so they can quickly and quietly learn Perl at home.
First off, I recommend "Perl For Dummies" by Hoffman. Start on page 30 near
the end of chapter 2 (the Perl command line), and from there read closely up
to page 146 to understand the basics of loops, strings, lists, operators and
the print command. Then jump to chapters 11 and 12 on file I/O and then
later focus on the pattern matching and regular expressions discussion in
chapter 13. Ignore the remaining 14 chapters of this book because most chip
designers won't be dabbling in XML, Java, databases, HTML, object oriented
programming, associative arrays, nor downloading fancy CPAN packages just to
clean up some PhysOpt DEF output for Silicon Ensemble to read.
Next, snag a copy of "Learning Perl" by Schwartz. It'll be a quick 175 page
read mostly covering material you learned in that first book -- but it'll be
presented in a different way to reinforce the subject matter.
Here again you want to focus on regular expressions and pattern matching in
chapter 7. Perl's greedy matching is it's biggest strength, but it's also
the most obtuse part of the language. It's here where you'll get your first
insights into those occult regex incantations that the UNIX man pages so
often reference. (For more advanced regex, I recommend "Mastering Regular
Expressions" by Friedl, but be warned that it's ugly. You should also be
warned about the "Perl Cookbook" by Christiansen. He likes to drift off
into UNIX arcana a bit too much for practical use, but on occasion he can
help.)
And to finish off this self taught course, I close with the best book from
the monkey see, monkey do school of learning: Quigley's "Perl By Example".
It's 850 pages of examples with step-by-step explainations that the rest of
us mere mortals can understand. Happy scripting.
-----
John Cooley runs the E-mail Synopsys Users Group (ESNUG), is a
contract ASIC designer, and loves hearing from engineers at
"jcooley@TheWorld.com" or (508) 429-4357.
More detail: http://www.weyrich.com/book_reviews/robot_bonanza.html
From: "X" Subject: Re: Bessel filters Date: 26 Jan 2000 00:00:00 GMT X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2918.2701 Organization: Southwest Cyberport X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design Xavier: Bessel filters, also found as "all-pass" filters in the literature, are maximally flat delay filters. Bessel filters can be found in disk drive read channels, telecommunication, audio and any other application that is sensitive to phase response. IMHO, two of the best books on the subject are "Analog Filters" by Kendall L. Su (ISBN 0 412 63840 1) and "Filter Theory and Design: Active and Passive", by Sedra and Brackett (ISBN 0 916469 14 2). I'm sure there are other fine texts on Filter design. These are two of my favorites. In section 3.5, Su discusses Bessel-Thompson filters in depth. The detail is too long to include here. If memory serves me correctly, an all-pass filter is the combination of a minimum-phase and a non-minimum phase. The net result is that the minimum-phase function cancels, or equalizes, the non-minimum phase function. There is a _real_ good program called QED1000 (Momentum Data Systems), that is intended for DSP filter design. However, the program is excellent for understanding the pole-zero response for analog filters as well. The program features a plot where the pole-zero locations can be hand-entered or dragged with the mouse. The price is $1k, but if you are serious about filter design, it's well worth the price. Now for the shameless plug. If you are interested in the two books I mentioned above, go to http://www.noblepub.com or, alternatively, my company web site has a book link section that lists many good sources for new and used book sites along with publisher sites. The URL is http://www.dmcmicro.com. Hope This has been of help to you, Dave Comer Xavier van Unen wrote ... > Hello there, > I'm trying to work out how to design a Bessel filter, but I find zilch on > the net. Butterworth filters are no problem. > What I need to know is what the Bessel polynomials are, or the Pole > locations or any help at all actually. > I'm working on a electronic cross-over (with LR filters) and was wondering > if Bessel filters would sound better, as they have a superior time and phase > behavior. > Any help would be appreciated. > > TIA > Xavier van Unen. >
DAV: I bought and read "Two-Fisted Science" and "Dignifying Science: Stories about Women Scientists" in 2009. Excellent. I gave my copy to Bob in 2010. He (and I) want to know if there are more like it.
_High-Speed Digital Design - A Handbook of Black Magic_ book by Johnson and Graham "It is a wonderful book. Everybody interested in fast designs should get a copy." -- recc. Hal Murray <murray at pa.dec.com>
"the authors' insight into the conditions necessary for creative work is acute and worthwhile for anyone attempting to import some of the bazaar model's virtues into a more commercial context." -- recc. by Eric S. Raymond http://www.ccil.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-paper-12.html
"It abounds with such gems as, "The manager's function is not to make people work, it is to make it possible for people to work." It deals with such mundane topics as space, furniture, team meals together. ... I heartily commend the book to all my readers." -- recc. Frederick P. Brooks (p. 276, _The Mythical Man-Month_)
Does this have any relation to
_Rapid Implementation Executive Handbook_ http://www.peoplesoft.com/en/rapid/
?
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 21:18:50 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Nielsen X-Sender: mnielsen@theory To: transhuman@logrus.org, transhumantech-l@excelsior.org Subject: >H canonical texts Reply-To: transhuman@logrus.org Transhuman Mailing List What are the canonical texts which define a subject area? Having a structred list of such texts would be of great use to those interested in self-education, and could form part of the core of any good library. Such texts should be well-written, provide comprehensive coverage of an important subject area, and be correct. Moreover, such texts should be timely, in the sense that they take a snapshot of a field at a choice time when the field is relatively stable, and it is possible to set down what is important and what is not. A few suggestions for such a list: Computer Programming: Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming". ELectronics: Horowitz and Hill's "The Art of Electronics". Elementary Physics: The Feynman Lecturs on Physics. Special Relativity: Taylor and Wheeler's "Spacetime Physics". General Relativity: Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler's "Gravitation". What other suggestions can people make for this list? What defines a text as canonical? What would be the best way of structuring such a list of texts, in order to maximize its utility as a tool for learning? (This suggestion inspired by Stewart Brand's "The Clock of the Long Now".) Michael Nielsen Ph: 626 395 8431 < Email: mnielsen at theory.caltech.edu > Fax: 626 793 9506 Web: http://www.theory.caltech.edu/~mnielsen/index.html *************************************************************************** * If you need to unsubscribe, send email saying "unsubscribe transhuman" * * to majordomo@logrus.org, without the quotes, from the SAME email address* * as the one you subscribed under! Yes, it is case-sensitive. Don't blame * * the admin for your spelling errors. * * Please email all technical problems to * * owner-transhuman@logrus.org, NOT to the list. * *************************************************************************** Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 21:53:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Nielsen <mnielsen at theory.caltech.edu> X-Sender: mnielsen@theory To: transhuman at logrus.org cc: transhumantech at excelsior.org Subject: Re: >H canonical texts Reply-To: transhuman at logrus.org Transhuman Mailing List On Mon, 14 Jun 1999, Remi Sussan wrote: > Michael Nielsen wrote: > > > > What are the canonical texts which define a subject area? Having a > > structred list of such texts would be of great use to those interested in > > self-education, and could form part of the core of any good library. > > > > Such texts should be well-written, provide comprehensive coverage of an > > important subject area, and be correct. Moreover, such texts should be > > timely, in the sense that they take a snapshot of a field at a choice > > time when the field is relatively stable, and it is possible to set down > > what is important and what is not. > > > > What do you mean exactly by "canonical" ? Does this means they are > unavoidable references, that they can be used as good introduction for > self education, or that they possess a great historical importance? > For instance, I don't know anything about physics. If I read "Spacetime > Physics" or "Gravitation", will I be able to learn something, or is the > level too high for me? That's why I wanted a structured list. Ideally, one should be able to say: "I am at point X, and I'd like to get to point Y", and have a computer spit back a comprehensive, annotated reading plan to enable you to get from X to Y, complete with alternate suggestions at various points along the path. It would be nice to be told prior to reading parts of Joyce that you really better be up on your Shakespeare, or that Dirac's book on general relativity makes a nice (but not quite essential) precursor to Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler, but that you better have mastered Taylor and Wheeler backwards and forwards before reading Dirac... > The "SICP" (structure and interpretation of computer programs) suggested > by Eugene was really important for me when I meet computers for the > first time. But let's be honest "Teach yourself Java (Or Visual basic, > etc.) in 21 days" is better for self education. "Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days" is not what I'd call a canonical book, in the sense that it has little long-term value when compared with, say, Knuth's series of books. Of course, your mileage may vary. > In the same way, John's suggestion, "Mind Children", is certainly a > great book from a philosophical point of view, but is it "canonical" in > the robotics and A.I field, when you compare for instance, with Minsky's > "society of mind " ? Deciding what makes a text canonical is an interesting problem. Ideally, I suppose I'm thinking of a small editorial committee with clear editorial guidelines, with a single editor making final decisions. > BTW, I'm ready to help if you intend to put this kind of project into > > practice... Thanks. For the time being it'll remain on the backburner, unless someone else wants to take the initiative. Once a few other projects have been completed, I'll re-evaluate how much I'd like this sort of thing put into practice, and if decide to go for it, search out people who want to be a part of it. Michael Nielsen Ph: 626 395 8431 Email: mnielsen@theory.caltech.edu Fax: 626 793 9506 Web: http://www.theory.caltech.edu/~mnielsen/index.html *************************************************************************** * If you need to unsubscribe, send email saying "unsubscribe transhuman" * * to majordomo@logrus.org, without the quotes, from the SAME email address* * as the one you subscribed under! Yes, it is case-sensitive. Don't blame * * the admin for your spelling errors. * * Please email all technical problems to * * owner-transhuman@logrus.org, NOT to the list. * *************************************************************************** [FIXME: #bootstrap]
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 12:37:17 -0500 (EST) From: "Pat 'wu' Moss" <pmoss at planetx.com> Subject: Re: Venus Prime (Arthur C Clarke and Paul Preuss) To: David Cary <cary at agora.rdrop.com> > > No, I haven't seen this book yet. > > Since (unfortunately) I don't have time to read *all* the SF books with > some >H theme or another, I'd appreciate it if you would take the time to > comment "... even aside from the >H, it's a really good book" or "... but > it's not as good as his other books". Its the story of two factions of Transhumanists, both of which base their philosophy and religion on alien artifacts found on Mars and Venus. They beleive that the aliens that seeded our worlds will be back and we must evolve ourselves to create emmisaries to meet them. One group wishes to control the masses of Earth and other (an offshoot of the first) wishes to enlighten all of mankind. The power struggle centers around a woman named Linda Nagi (Ellen Troy, Sparta) who is the result of a transhuman teaching center. She escapes from her captors and using the skills and modifications made to her, help bring enlightenment to Earth. Her travels let us discover the truth about the "Aliens" as she visits all three planets in the distant past and future. The tech is very >H, and a lot of the issues are >H. The story is gripping and the intrigue / conspiracy background compelling. There are 6 books in the series and all of them are well done. Pat
Richard Bach "very good author" -- recc. Amin.
Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.
Kragen also wishes there existed a book like this -- perhaps my YARMAC could cover it:
There's a place for a book that explains how to find and fix common problems that totally stymie beginners -- things like incompatible header files, missing libraries, broken or missing Makefiles, mismatched braces, uninitialized variables, and memory faults. I haven't seen one; Code Complete comes closest, but it's a long way from what I'm talking about.
DAV: I've only read a few of the books on this list, but they were ones that changed the way I think. Check out these other books that Kragen insists are just as mind-expanding.
I agree withs his reviews on those books I've already read:
The Art of Computer Programming by Knuth,
Code Complete by Steve McConnell,
Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte,
``Read the following books, they will warp YOUR mind too:''
http://amasci.com/faq.html#books
--
recommended by
Bill Beaty
physics, amateur science, electrostatics, Richard Feynman
DP Jargon File http://www.pgdp.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=19475#19475 (This is a kind of distributed processing linux.html#distributed )
[FIXME: category for "proofreaders wanted" ?
GNU documentation proofreaders list http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/proofreaders [FIXME: help]
other Bible translations asking for editorial and proofreading help. tsv.html#unfinished
]
PROJECT BARTLEBY (EST. 1994) ARCHIVE http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/
also has links to other free Etext sites. This seems like a worthwhile project. They need people with scanners willing to take a paper book, scan it, and send it to a proofreader; [FIXME] proofreaders to find error in OCR and clean up the punctuation; and programmers to write PERL scripts, vi scripts, and other scripts to assist proofreaders in dealing with page numbers, markups, italics and an assortment of other formatting issues.
see also to_program.html#plucker
[FIXME: don't I have another list of bookstores somewhere ?]
"www.AnyBook4Less.com is the best place to find the lowest book prices on the web. Our price comparison engine searches more than 20 online bookstores, calculates the total price including delivery and special offers, and presents the result in a form of a table with the clickable links to the vendors.
book considerations: ``Stuff to remember to do if I ever publish a book''
Once you have your basic content, a few tips on packaging -- things that often frustrate me.
related to:
If you're writing a book, here is some recommendations for things that are not obvious:
As long as I'm setting down all of the things that I hate about computer books, let me add cheerfulness. Any complex software system has portions that are well-designed and do the job and portions with holes big enough to fall through. There is some kind of conspiracy among computer book authors to cover both kinds of subsystems in the same uniformly cheerful tone. This masks important distinctions among sections of a program and can be incredibly annoying.
... Partly this is because tech books don't have sections like "design idiocies that are likely to fuck you over." When you finally do find the relevant passage, it is phrased as though the design shortcoming were perfectly reasonable.
...
... We need books like yours that honestly point out the good and bad parts and tell you when something is is not worth the effort.
Donald Norman http://www.voyagerco.com/ED/catalog/norman.html
recommended book list http://www.wohnheim.uni-ulm.de/~benji/biblio.html
recommended books http://wheel.ucdavis.edu/~btcarrol/skeptic/scifi.html
From: Jeff Trahan, 72737,2154 To: Grant R. Heise, 70714,3272 Topic: C++ to VB Convert. HELP Msg #247910 Section: Programming Issues [5] Forum: MS BASIC Date: Wed, 1994 Mar 9, 09:34:15 >> But, as tou can see, I'm left with AppTab, * P_APP_TAB, and far * P_APP_TAB to deal with. >> Any Help will be really appreciated!!! I you don't already have Dan Appleman's book "Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to the Windows API" by Ziff-Davis publishing. This book really bridges the gap for C & C++ programmers (like me) to VB. It is well worth the $35 price tag. It includes a disk with some sample DLLs. One thing I have noticed. Not too much of C & C++ stuff ports to VB. For example, there are no pointers (at least VB doesn't handle pointers). You can *store* a 32-bit pointer for future use in DLL's by using the "long" VB data type. I am having to rethink every routine I am porting. Jeff
(really should go in above categories ...)
to read- software started 1994 April 5 see also "to read- graphics" see also "c_books" for recommendations on learning C and C++. see also "to read- AL" for more on neural nets and fuzzy logic.
_The Art of Dramatic Writing_ by Lajos Egri. This is a book aimed ostensibly at playwrights, and since I'm uninterested in the form personally, I resisted reading the book for a long time. That was a mistake, because the book is universally useful to writers of any sort... even, I'd venture to say, HTML writers.
-- recc. Ray pbwriter@fwb.gulf.net (Ray Aldridge) http://eightsea.com/eightsea/home.html
B _Standard C_ by Plauger and Brodie (Microsoft Press, 1989) "a bargain at $7.95 and one of the most-used books on my desk." -- recc. Ron Burk, in "From the Editor" _Windows/DOS Developer's Journal_ (1994 Aug) B From: "Bernard S. Greenberg" To: ddk-l@albany.net Subject: Re: ddk-l: Calling DLL's from VxD's Date: Fri, 15 Dec 1995 08:36:25 -0500 ... Check out Matt Pietrek's new "Windows 95 System Programming Secrets" ISBN 1-56884-318-6.
_Advanced Animation and Rendering Techniques (Theory and Practice)_, Alan Watt and Mark Watt, Addison Wesley, 1992, ISBN 0-201-54412-1 : "a much more up-to date book that covers a LOT of the standard ground in more detail with the emphasis on actually implementing these algorithms." -- recc. Robin Green, Technical Specialist rgreen@ea.com Electronic Arts Ltd UK. Tel:01753 772353 EA has no opinions Date: 19 Sep 1995 17:12:32 GMT (Foley & Van Dam) "AART, on the other hand, is very concise and to the point, designed for the programmer who's already familiar with probably the first half of FvD. Many of the recent developments in graphics algorithms are in AART, but not in FvD (or mentioned in passing). In using AART, I occasinally had to thumb back thru FvD to get a more complete understanding of the basic concepts on which the book is based." -- recc Dave Ahn, ahn@indigo2.medeng.wfu.edu Medical Visualization Lab, Radiology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine Date: 21 Sep 1995 15:20:56 GMT
"Check out Robin Williams book, _Jargon_. ... entertaining ... useful. I can and do recommend any book she has written." -- recc. Marc Schuette.
From: Nathan Matthews C. , 74727,2154 To: Michael P. O'Brien, 75260,3507 Topic: VR Game programming boo Msg #114847, reply to #113541 Section: C and C++ [P] [3] Forum: IBM Programming Date: Fri, Jul 29, 1994, 15:47:08
Hey-
I recently bought a GREAT book on 3d games, even a flight simulater! It's called "FLIGHTS OF FANTASY", it's written by Christopher Lampton and is published by Waite Group Press it comes with a disk too. I think I got my copy for about 30 or so bucks. Also there's some shareware or freeware out there called ack3d.zip this allows you to make 3d games with texture'd walls just like wolfenstien 3D in C.
Later, hope this helps
HOTDOG
From: Michael Meadows [MVP], 75570,3167 To: John Ruzicka, 75160,2376 Topic: static variables & DLL's Msg #209807, reply to #209799 Section: Microsoft C++ [2] Forum: MS C & Other Lang. Date: Mon, Feb 21, 1994, 18:48:30
John,
>I'm making the transition from BC++ to MS VC++ 1.5 and am using a book >called "Teach Yourself Visual C++ in 21 Days."
I'm not familiar with that book, but I do remember reading several comments from other programmers on this forum who slammed that book pretty hard. The most recommended book is "Inside Visual C++" by David J. Kruglinski.
>One of the examples, which looks correct, gets all kinds of errors. Here's >the example and the errors: > ... >d:\msvc\mfc\lib\mafxcwd.lib(appinit.cpp) : error L2029: 'GETFILETITLE' : >unresolved external
mafxcwd.lib is a Windows MFC Library. I assume your example is intended to be a DOS app. (cout only works with QuickWin.)
In the Visual WorkBench, select menu Options.Project. Make sure Project Type is MS-DOS Application; make sure that Use Microsoft Foundation Classes is not checked. This should get you up and running...the code looks all right.
Michael Meadows
From: kentb@ix.netcom.com (Kent Beck) Newsgroups: comp.databases.object,comp.lang.basic.visual,comp.lang.c++, comp.lang.clos,comp.lang.dylan,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.objective-c, comp.lang.pascal,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.object,comp.programming Subject: Re: Good ideas for OOP teaching? Date: 21 Nov 1994 18:23:41 GMT Organization: Netcom Lines: 5 Distribution: world I'd sure be tempted to base a course on the Design Patterns book from Gamma, Helm, Johnson, and Vlissides. Kent Beck
3 Books like 'DSP Algorithms in C' have source code for FFTs.
4 The definitive texts on stationary spectrum estimation are by
Marple and by Kay. Each of the books comes with the same disk of
FORTRAN source code for MVD, AR, ARMA, SVD, and conventional FFT-based
spectrum estimation. These were developed in the 70's to
support everything from stock market analysis to oil exploration.
5 Non-stationary spectrum estimation is a hot topic for research over
the past 5-10 years. Cohen's class of bi-linear transforms
(time-frequency distributions), wavelets with various kernels,
and systems for identifying (and finding the dimensionality of)
chaotic behaviour in time series are frequently written up in
IEEE Trans. on Signal Processing and related periodicals.
-- recc. Charlie Weesner, 71310,347
From: Mike Bumgarner Subject: Re: Pascal or C/C++ ??? Sender: usenet@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (News Administrator) Organization: UNC General Administration Date: Sun, 9 Jul 1995 21:05:12 GMT Lines: 38 Yes, a great Pascal book to learn by is called Oh!Pascal! and it is totally simple to understand, there is an abundance of examples for you to try, and at the end of each chapter, there are about 20-30 questions for you to ask yourself to see if you know what you just read. and there are answers in the back. It also asks you at the end of each chapter to write programs, it gives you what the program's supposed to do, you implement what the book says and make it into a program. The only bad thing about this book is that it doesn't use the Mac Toolbox. It uses ANSI calls, which means you have to add libraries for your programs to compile and link correctly. You have to add the SIOUX.lib, the MathLib.lib, and the P/Rt.lib i think. Hope this helps, Mike mikebumg@micronet.wcu.edu On 8 Jul 1995, Francis Pressland wrote: ... > shs@mcs.com (Kevin Killion) writes: > > > -- use C if you enjoy spending a lot of time in MacsBug > > -- use C++ if you're more interested in exotic code theory than in > > getting anything done > > -- use Metrowerks Object Pascal if you want a efficient and productive system > > and another question. Do you know of a good Pascal book. I am finding > the pascal text in CW too slow . I want to get started programming, > even at a very basic level. (I am a total Beginner) > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > Francis Pressland francis@gun.de > > > From: dlester@ncw.net (Don Lester) Subject: Re: How can I get standards to develope Internet Access over T1 link? Date: 15 Apr 1995 01:13:24 GMT For a book, I wouldn't bat an eye at recommending TCP/IP Illustrated put out by the folks at Addison Wesley. For real nuts and bolts stuff, find a nearby site with the RFCs online. They are all over the place, and they define the Internet standard (you can't bea that with any stick). -- Don Lester Network Administrator http://www.ncw.net/~dlester/ NCWNet (800)407-0002 http://www.ncw.net/ dlester@ncw.net Providing Internet service to Eastern Washington
C "NeuFuz combines the best features of neural networks and fuzzy logic ... described in a paper from National Semiconductor Corp., the author also reviews the positives and negatives of fuzzy and neural-network technologies, ... "
_Mathematica: A System for Doing Mathematics by Computer_ by Stephen Wolfram. "the most important book" - recc. P. Wessels _Guide to Standard Mathematica Packages_ by Wolfram Research. "second" - recc. P. Wessels _Mathematica, A Practical Approach_ by Nancy Blackman. "3rd" - recc. P. Wessels. _Applied Mathematica_ by Shaw and Tigg "4th" -recc. P. Wessels _Mathematica Reference Guide_ by Wolfram "you need" - recc. P. Wessels __ by Roman Meader "made Mathematica seem unnecessarily complicated ... If you are a programmer the Roman Meader book is probably essential." - recc. P. Wessels.
_Power Macintosh Programming Starter Kit_ by Tom Thompson, $40 "includes a CD-ROM that contains a limited version of the Metrowerks CodeWarrior C compiler and debugger that runs on both 680x0 and Power Macs. ... implementing drag-and-drop ..."-recc. Raymond GA Côté "a very good ... Power Mac programming starter kit." - Michael Swaine
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 1994 11:31:33 MST From: 103t_english at west.cscwc.pima.edu To: cary at agora.rdrop.com Subject: Re: Microsoft/WinG/Chicago/etc. >Umm, could you give me some references to this stuff ? >I have this nifty ADC / DAC board plugged into my Mac, >and I'm working on a o'scope demo for it. >It can throw a couple hundred points onto a >simple line graph at about 3 frames/second. >Surely there's some way I could speed it up a bit. >The games I play seem to go a *lot* faster than that >(more detail too). > d e v e l o p magazine is the best place.(Braving OffScreen GWorlds is the best single article discussing drawing offscreen). MacTutor (now MacTech) is also very good. Greg (TCL 1.0/ PowerPlant) Dow's SPLaSH journal (THINKin' CaP) was decent f you can find any back issues. The source code for Arashi (Tempest clone using palatte animation), SpriteWorld 1.04b (available via PowerPC News and other sources), DorothySoft's Glypha (Joust clone), and more, are all available on-line some place or another... > >: If you need some kind of timer, the Time Manager in System 7.x gives you all >: the capabilities of the Time Manager routines of earlier versions of the >: System, plus the ability to schedule task execution with 20 microsecond >: accuracy (in theory -allowing for how busy the interupt queue is, etc). > > >: The point is, you don't need to know what the interupt-hardware on the Mac >: looks like: it is "plug and play" for programmers like it is for users, no >: matter which mac you are using (lots of exceptions to this, but you get the >: idea). > >Cool. >I've *used* the Mac for years (mostly MS Word and MS Excel), >and am just learning to *program* the Mac >( Think C 6.0, is there a better environment ?). > By far and away, the best up and coming development environment is CodeWarrior C/C++ CD from MetroWerks. Source-code compatible with 68K and PowerMacs, and you can get it in three flavors: Bronze ($199) for 68K-only, Silver ($299) for PPC only and Gold ($399) for 68K AND PPC. If you buy one CD, you can upgrade to a different one for the price difference. Price includes 2 upgrade CDs in a year. Educational discount is $99 +S&H for the Gold CD. Also includes Pascal. Paper documentation is $49 extra. >: The best place to go for documentation of the "virtual Mac" is the 25-volume >: _Inside Macintosh_ series, 2nd edition. This fall, all 25 volumes will be >: available on CD for $99 or you can buy them separately. > >from APDA ? Addison-Wesley. Due in October, I think. > > >: If you get the 7100/66, enjoy: it is a nice computer. We've tested the >: SpriteWorld animation libraries and have gotten up to 3,000 frames per second > >Isn't more than 60 frames / second just >a *little* bit redundant ? :) Thats with only one bouncing ball.. > >: on a bouncing, spinning 32x32 globe in 256 colors out of a 2^48 color palette >: (standard 256-color Mac monitor)... > >: Lawson > Lawson D. English <103T_ENGLISH at west.cscwc.pima.edu>
_Commando Windows Programming_ "If you are looking for ways to write short code samples to illustrate points, you might check out one of my books, Commando Windows Programming. You'd be surprised how short a Windows program can be if you know some neat tricks. Another good thing to do with code columns is a project. Pick some project (an editor? a database? a PIM?) and write it bit by bit exposing your design and coding in the column. Most programmers can learn something from another programmer so this sort of thing appeals to a wide audience. Look at Al Stevens' column in Dr. Dobb's for example. BTW, I am not Al Stevens! Many folks confuse us (except for those that have seen us -- I have at least 40kg on Al S! :-) )." - recc. Al Williams
Area #23: EC Prog * 601 msgs * Page #1 Message #8: (Read 2 times) To: Charles Leung 12 May 90 18:32:15 From: Howard Sanner Subj: Tiff The TIFF format is published in Thom Hogan's Programmer's PC Sourcebook (Microsoft Press). This is a superb reference work on PC programming in general. Absolutely no discursive text or entertainment value; it assumes you know the tradeoffs involved in the various ways of doing things & just want the information how to do it. It's one of my most frequently consulted books. The PCX format can be obtained from its developer. There was also an article on it in Micro Cornucopia within the last year or so. --- RBBSMAIL 17.2A * Origin: The Progammer's Forum, Washington, DC (RBBS-PC 1:109/138)
B _Programming as if People Mattered_ by Nathaniel S. Borenstein.
A _IEEE Software Engineering Standards Collection_, Spring 1991 Edition. "contains the most recent ANSI/IEEE standards for software documents as of spring 1991. .... includes standards for quality-assurance plans, configuration-management plans, test documents, requirements specifications, verification and validation plans, .... and user documentation. The book is a distillation of the expertise of hundreds of people at the top of their fields, and would be a bargain at virtually any price." - recc. Steve McConnell
D Glass, Robert L. _Software Communication Skills_. Prentice Hall, 1988. "includes the full text of 2 military standards .... describe the software-project documentation required on DoD projects" - recc. Steve McConnell
_Quality Software Management_ (2 vols.) by Gerry Weinberg. recc: P.J.Plauger: "I think you should read them both ... his book _Psychology of Computer Programming_ ... was a fun mix of anecdotes and semiquantitative observations ... it is easy to dismiss early Weinberg books ... as mere entertainment. ... good entertianment ... the 1st 2 volumes of ... a series on self-help ... read these books to understand how much trouble you're in. Use them to improve yourself, at the very least. ... tools for measuring and correcting how you do business ... "
_The Elements of Programming Style_ by P.J.Plauger and Brian Kernighan
_Zen of Code Optimization_ by Michael Abrash. "a 10 out of 10 if you are working on any Intel processor and an 8 out of 10 for anyone working on the Macintosh who is interested in writing high performance code." - recc. Mike Scanlin.
C DeGrace, Peter, and Leslie Stahl. _Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions: A Catalog of Modern Software Engineering Paradigms_. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Yourdon Press, 1990. "Your approach needs to vary as the size of the project varies" - recc. Steve McConnell
_Programming Pearls_ (1986) by Jon Bentley. "articulates some of the reasons some of us find programming so interesting. ... powerful insights" - (on Steve McConnel's top ten list)
_Principles of Software Engineering Management_ (1988) by Tom Gilb. (on Steve McConnel's top ten list)
_Controlling Software Projects_ (1982) by Tom DeMarco "a good alternative to [Tom] Gilb's book." - (on Steve McConnel's top ten list)
_The Art of Software Testing_ (1979) by Glenford Myers. (on Steve McConnel's top ten list) _The Complete Guide to Software Testing(1988) Bill Hetzel - "a good alternative" - Steve McConnel
D A book on requirements analysis (on Steve McConnel's top ten list): _Modern Structured Analysis_ (1989a) by Ed Yourdon, or _Strategies for Real-Time System Specification_ (Hatley and Pirbhai 1988).
A book on quantitative project planning (on Steve McConnel's top ten list): _Software Engineering Economics_ (1981) by Barry Boehm. "if I could have only 1 software-engineering reference book, it would be Boehm's" - Steve McConnel ... _Applied Software Measurement_ (Jones 1991) "a good companion or alternative" - Steve McConnel
A A book on data structures (on Steve McConnel's top ten list)
C "Literate programming" Bentley, Jon, and Donald Knuth. "Literate Programming". _Communications of the the ACM_ (May 1986): 364-69. Bentley, Jon, and Donald Knuth. "Literate Programming". _Communications of the the ACM_ (June 1986): 471-83. Knuth, Donald. _Computers and Typesetting, Volume B, TEX: The Program_. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1986. .... contains the source code for TEX, written as a literate program. .... Knuth's strong claim to the title Best Programmer on the Planet ...
B Papert, Seymour. _Mindstorms : children, computers, and powerful ideas_. -- New York : Basic Books, c1980.viii, 230 p. CALL NUMBER: 372.7 P197m 1980
_Computer Viruses, Artificial Life and Evolution_ (1994) by Mark A. Ludwig " .... Creation? Evolution? ... a rich and detailed book ... learn about DOS and its weak spots ..."
_Artificial Life Lab_ (1993)by Rudy Rucker $35 including diskette. "a toy AL world inhabited by graphic worms, and it's also fun to play with."
Minsky, Marvin Lee. _Computation: finite and infinite machines_ CALL NUMBER: 621.38195 M66 1967
Minsky, Marvin Lee. _The society of mind_. -- New York, N.Y. : Simon and Schuster, c1986. CALL NUMBER: 153 M667s 1986Y
C _The Unix-Haters Handbook_ by Garfinkel, Weise, and Strassmann. IDG Books, $17, ISBN 1-56884-203-1 with forward by Donald Norman, Apple Computer, and anti-forward by Dennis Richie, AT&T.
See also
...
Most DSP texts are extremely painful to read (for me, anyway), but a good, relatively painless introductory text available for free on the web can be found at the Analog Devices, Inc. web site-- recc. Dave Dilatush <dilatush at HOME.COM> <PICLIST at MITVMA.MIT.EDU> 2001-04-25
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 09:20:17 -0500
Reply-To: Windows and Windows NT Device Driver Development
<DDK-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
From: Mike Harris
Subject: [DDK-L] NT,9X:Data Compression Advice
To: DDK-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
For my kernel driver I need to implement data compression and would like
to solicit the group for advise on reference materials & any other comments.
I'm looking for a good book on data compression - something comparable to
Bruce Schneiners "Applied Cryptography". I.e. good coverage of theory,
issues (including patent if possible), leading to implementation. with
samples.
Things I've found on www.bookpool.com are:
--------------------------------------
Data and Image Compression
Gilbert Held
John Wiley, 1996, 4th Edition
Bookcode data_img_cmpr, pages 450, ISBN 0471952478
Discount 14%, Bookpool Price $68.95, List Price $79.95
Description
Now covering both data and image compression, this edition keeps pace with
technology. It includes new coverage of fax and compression
methods, as well as a range of compression-related tools to display, print,
and convert images from one format to another. Reviews of the four most
popular archive creation and compression performing programs are also
included. Two disks include the coding in BASIC and C for many of the
compression algorithms in the book.
Contents
Rationale and Utilization. Data Codes and Compression-Indicating
Characters. Character-Oriented Compression Techniques. Statistical Encoding.
Fascimile Compression, Dictionary Based String Compression, Image
Compression. Communications Software-Linkage Considerations.
Compression-Performing Hardware and Software Product Overview. Appendices.
References. Futher Reading. Index.
Market
Programmers, Students in Computer Science. .
------------------------
The Data Compression Book (w/disk)
Mark Nelson and Jean-loup Gailly
M&T Books, 1995
Bookcode dat_comp_book, pages 555, ISBN 1558514341
Discount 26%, Bookpool Price $29.50, List Price $39.95
No summary is available at this time.
-------------------------------
Introduction to Data Compression
Khalid Sayood
Morgan Kaufmann, 1996
Bookcode i_data_comprs, pages 600, ISBN 1558603468
Discount 13%, Bookpool Price $60.95, List Price $69.95
The need to efficiently store and transmit large masses of information is
growing more rapidly than the capacity to manipulate it. Consequently, the
field of data compression has become increasingly important. Uniquely
comprehensive, this book presents the fundamental theories and techniques,
with the most complete coverage of both lossy and lossless data compression
available. Discussions of official compression standards for video,
audio, text and facsimile tie concepts to current commercial developments
in the field. Optional sections that provide more in-depth technical
discussions of each topic are clearly indicated to give readers the freedom
to choose the level of coverage they need.
After presenting each concept or algorithm, the author provides detailed
examples that add relevance to the rigorous technical discussions and can
be used as the basis for lectures on the topics. Explanations of the math
are introduced when needed, rather than in a separate chapter, to allow a
complete and continuous presentation of each concept. Software
implementations and sample data sets provided by the author enable readers to
analyze and experiment with various popular data compression techniques.
The comprehensive coverage of techniques coupled with numerous
step-by-step examples make this an excellent text choice for senior and
graduate level data compression courses in electrical engineering and
computer science departments. Practicing engineers and computer scientists
will benefit from the balanced presentation of the theoretical material and
implementations. Appendices on probability theory, random processes and
matrix concepts are provided as tools to facilitate the understanding of
data compression systems.
Contents
Introduction
Mathematical Preliminaries for Lossless Compression
Huffman Coding
Arithmetic Coding
Dictionary Techniques
Lossless Image Compression
Mathematical Preliminaries for Lossy Coding
Quantization
Vector Quantization
Differential Encoding
Subband coding
Transform Coding
Analysis/Synthesis Schemes
Video Coding
Probability and Random Processes
thanks, Mike
X-Info: Evaluation version at www.bitmap.es
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 15:03:57 +0100
From: Enrique Martin <emartin@BITMAP.ES>
Subject: Re: [DDK-L] NT,9X:Data Compression Advice
To: DDK-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
At 09:20 AM 24/02/97 -0500, you wrote:
> For my kernel driver I need to implement data compression and would
like
>to solicit the group for advise on reference materials & any other comments.
>
> I'm looking for a good book on data compression - something
comparable to
>Bruce Schneiners "Applied Cryptography". I.e. good coverage of theory,
>issues (including patent if possible), leading to implementation. with
>samples.
>
> Things I've found on www.bookpool.com are:
>The Data Compression Book (w/disk)
> Mark Nelson and Jean-loup Gailly
> M&T Books, 1995
> Bookcode dat_comp_book, pages 555, ISBN 1558514341
> Discount 26%, Bookpool Price $29.50, List Price $39.95
I've read Mark Nelson's book and found it excellent. It includes
both theory and source code for the most common algorithyms.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Enrique Martin // BITMAP Multimedia S.L. // Tel. (94) 476 33 93 //
E-mail: emartin@bitmap.es
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 10:18:53 -0500
Reply-To: Windows and Windows NT Device Driver Development
<DDK-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
From: Andrew Pargeter <AndrewP@WARWICK.NET>
Subject: Re: [DDK-L] NT,9X:Data Compression Advice
To: DDK-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
I have an older printing of the following book and thought it was pretty useful. Comes with lots of source code too. Cover L78, speech and graphical compression as well as other stuff. It is not filled with white space (program listings, etc.).
The Data Compression Book (w/disk)
Mark Nelson and Jean-loup Gailly
M&T Books, 1995
Bookcode dat_comp_book, pages 555, ISBN 1558514341
Discount 26%, Bookpool Price $29.50, List Price $39.95
No summary is available at this time.
Perhaps read a book on Delphi (Borland Pascal programming environment).
book.html @article{ noll, author = {A. Michael Noll}, title = {A Computer Technique for Displaying n-Dimensional Hyperobjects}, journal={Communications of the ACM}, volume = 10, no = 8, year = {Aug 67}, pages = {469--473} }
hi-pri book: _Great Jobs for Engineering Majors_ by G. Garner (in OSU Library)
_Adam and Evolution_ by Michael Pitman. "a purely scientific critique of the most popular evolution model by a man is eminently *not* a christian. ... he seems to be an agnostic or pantheist of some sort. ... a bit difficult reading in places for those of us without a good education in the biological sciences; but well worth the effort to wade through." -- recc Hardrock Llewynyth 1998-03-07
_The Demise of A Dragon by Harry E. Ewing_ -- recc. M H Wilson (DAV saw the recommendation on http://www.scifi.com/sforiginals/buzz/buzzboard.cgi )
From: Crosby_M To: "extropians@extropy.org" <extropians@extropy.org> Subject: RE: Advice on books? Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 10:49:19 -0500 Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: postmaster@extropy.org Precedence: bulk Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org On Tuesday, March 11, 1997 5:28 PM, Robert Schrader wrote: <The following books just came into my store. Has anybody read these? Which one are worth my time to read?> There is a review of de Duve's _Vital Dust_, along with MANY other high-quality reviews of works on consciousness and the mind similar to the books you mention, at the Journal of Consciousness Research archive http://thesis.newsint.co.uk/SPECIAL/arcfront.html Mark Crosby
"Jack Vance's excellent science-fantasy The Languages of Pao." -- recc. http://www.webcom.com/~donh/conlang2.html
_Simplify Your Life: 100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy the Things That Really Matter_ book by Elaine St. James (1994, Hyperion). "For the most part, ... useful tool for reassessing how we can be smarter about using our resources to get what we want and what we truly need." -- recc. Patricia Lee, IEEE-USA Staff.
C. S. Lewis' wonderful essay "_De Futilitate_" discusses whether the universe has any objective values/purpose, and concludes that it's possible to define and perceive objective cosmic values just as we can define and perceive objective logic. -- From: Caliban <caliban@gate.net> Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 10:09:16 -0500 (EST)
_The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty_ book by K.C.Cole, (c) 1998, $22 Harcourt Brace. "explaining to nonmathematicians the power and elegance of mathematics ... entertaining and gracefully written ... mathematics is not about numbers so much as it is a way of thinking, a way of framing questions that allows us to turn things inside out and upside down to get a better sense of their true nature. ... Math -- that most logical of sciences -- shows us that the truth can be highly counterintuitive and that sense is hardly 'common'." -- recc. Howard Swann. 3d_design.html#counter-intuitive
to read: _High Speed Digital Design, a Handbook of Black Magic_ book by Johnson and Graham, 1993 Prentice Hall.
"I would also like to recommend Elaine Pagels. As well as being a scrupulous scholar who's willing to present various dissenting-but-supportable sides to an interpretation, she's quite readable." -- Date: Thu, 05 Mar 1998 To: christlib@swcp.com From: Brandon Blackmoor
_Your Perfect Right_ and _Responsible Assertive Behavior_ "the two best books I know about assertiveness" -- recc. "John Fast" 1998-04-12 to: christlib
Robert Forward's _Indistinguishable from Magic_ ``Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.'' -- Arthur C. Clarke, _The Lost Worlds of 2001_ [FIXME: copy to science_quotes.html ?]
_Angels_ by Billy Graham
_Laugh Again_ by Charles Swindoll
_Amusing Ourselves to Death_ Neil Postman
_Hardware Design Guide_ (what is the latest title ?) -- Microsoft Press "describes the requirements to obtain the 'Designed for Windows95' logo."
_CCD Astronomy: Construction and use of an Astronomical CCD Camera_ by Christian Buil "we ... recommend that beginners build their first camera around a linear CCD array".
_The Invention that Changed the World: How a small group of radar pioneers won the Second World War and launched a technological revolution._ book by Robert Buderi (ISBN 0-684-81021-2) $30 (Simon and Schuster) "these engineers didn't have the scopes, voltmeters, or other tools we take for granted. ... without transistors, computers, calculators or software. ... you need not be an engineer to appreciate it. It's great reading" -- recc. Bill Schweber
Posted-Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 12:59:42 -0600 (MDT) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 12:59:42 -0600 (MDT) From: Michael Nielsen To: transhuman@logrus.org Cc: extropians list Subject: Re: >H Re: Let's work on the FAQ! Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-test-new@logrus.org Reply-To: transhuman@logrus.org Status: U Transhuman Mailing List On Sun, 12 Jul 1998 Jsn@concentric.net wrote: > Michael Nielsen writes: > > > Transhuman Mailing List > > > > What is nanotechnology? > > What is artificial intelligence? > > I think we could stand some internal debate on this subject, right > now. I've always had a side interest in artificial intelligence and > artificial cognition, but have never had the time to do any serious > reading on the topic. > > My clever layman's impression of the subject, however, is that no two > afficianados (and very few actual researchers) have progressed to the > point of common definitions for the fundamental topics. That is also my impression. > I may also be an iconoclast, but I've also never ever seen the point > of the Turing test (as I understand it) and Greg Egan's _Permutation > City_ did nothing for me except to convince me that something is > desperately missing from that idea of digital consciousness. Passing the Turing Test seems to me to be a sufficient (though not necessary) condition for intelligence. If a machine can jump through all the hoops which I am able to conure up, then I would consider it to be intelligent; indeed, much more so than the average human being. This, of course, is not meant as a scientific test for intelligence. It is a sociological test for intelligence, which is apt, because the word "intelligence" as it is normally used has more sociological meaning than scientific. In particular, we say that someone is "very bright" if they seem able to jump through all the intellectual hoops which we've seen them encounter in everyday life. > I'll be spending many hours on airplane flights over the next three > weeks or so: Anyone with recommended reading on these topics, speak > now. (_Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid_ need not > apply. Have it. Read it. Likewise, Penrose's _The Emperor's New > Mind_: Have it, partway through it.) I've generally been very disappointed in books I've read that are specifically about artificial intelligence. This includes Penrose's first book, which was terrific when he wasn't talking about intelligence, and pretty bad when he was. "Goedel, Escher, Bach" was pretty good. Only two books spring to mind as being especially worthwhile reads among the books I've read on the subject: Minsky's "Society of Mind" (1985) had a considerable influence on the way my thinking has developed. However, I read it as an impressionable, none-to-critical twelve year old, so I'm not sure how it has dated. Definitely worth a look. Ray Kurzweil's "The Age of Intelligent Machines" (1990?) was a good read. A little dated now, it still contains a considerable amount of useful information, and some thought-provoking points. I've "read", to varying degrees, a couple of dozen other books which are either directly about AI, or which touch on it as a major theme. Even the worst manage to stimulate some thoughts, but I recommend shorter essays or sf novels as being just as stimulating. Daniel Dennett seems to be entertaining and thought-provoking, although I haven't read much of his material. > I envision my proposed "Extended Answers" as essay style answers, for > what it's worth. That would be useful. One of the advantages of (two-way) hypertext is that these essays could stand on their own, while still being an integral part of a >H FAQ. Michael Nielsenhttp://wwwcas.phys.unm.edu/~mnielsen/index.html
``The solar sail operates on sunlight pressure -- the pressure produced by light when it "bounces off" a mirror. This force is 1 000 to 10 000 times greater than that of the solar wind... Most of the radiation of the sun comes from visible light emitted from the 6 000 °F solar surface. ... The amount of energy per unit time, per unit area, that reaches the Earth is called the /solar constant/. ... the solar constant is 1.4 kilowatts per square meter ... the force F this produces on the sail is F = 2 P / c where F is the force, P is power, and c is the speed of light. ... ... the acceleration is a = 2P/mc ... ... The thinnest usable metal is about 0.02 um. Below that, photons would go through the metal instead of bouncing off. ... plastic sheets 2 um thin can now be produced ... 0.1 um of vacuum-deposited aluminum ... 8 grams per square meter ... ... for very small payloads, could give an excess of 1 millimeter per second per second acceleration. ... the heliogyro ... concept ... invented ... by Richard MacNeal ... and John Hedgepath ... the heliogyro sail would have 12 blades, and each blade would be 7 500 yards long and 8 yards wide. Centrifugal force would keep the blades extended without much supporting structure. ... Control would be achieved by pitching the blades ...''
Approachable. No equations in the main text.
1998-09-14: read _Ramblin' Robots_ book by Ingrid Wickelgren (1996) lots of cool photos. non-technical.
_Constructional Toys_ book by Basil Harley ?? any good ??
SF books reccommended by Matt Hart http://matthart.com/books.htm
_Megamistakes: Forecasting and the Myth of Rapid Technological Change_ book by Steven Schnaars (any good ???)
_The Art of War_ by Sun Tzu
http://www.dbanks.demon.co.uk/info.html Bad Voltage by Jonathan Littell "Do not read Neuromancer by William Gibson as your first "cyberpunk" genre story -- read Bad Voltage instead! It really is a much better tale, with more emphasis on the story and less on the technology -- I normally find science fiction with too much emphasis on technology to be unpalatable as the technology is treated so badly. The technology is treated a little differently from Gibson's treatment (no AI's, no real "jacking in"). This book does get somewhat gruesome and visceral in places -- so you have been warned. It is, in fact, set in Paris, which is a nice change from the usual settings."
LONGITUDE The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel [available at http://www.lfb.org/science.html ]
THE DIAMOND AGE Or a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson [available at http://www.lfb.org/science.html ]
The C Programming Language ANSI C Version - by Kernighan and Ritchie The Standard C Library - by P.J. Plauger
_Lord of Light_ book by Roger Zelazny (SF). -- recc. jeff@illusionmachines.com (Jeff Dee) illusionmachines.com/personal/jeff/index.html (fiction)
"Dancers at the end of time" trilogy of books by Moorcock "which present almighty immortals who act more or less like children." -- recc. Remi Sussan (fiction)
_Practical Experiment Designs for Engineers and Scientists_ book by William Diamond (1981) recc. Robert A. Pease http://www.national.com/rap/
The Dark Tangent recommended book list: http://www.defcon.org/html/book-list.html
From: Smith / McGrath Subject: Re: Advice on sleep Date: 04 Nov 1998 00:00:00 GMT ... Reply-To: pilotmus@gnofn.org Newsgroups: soc.college.admissions M. Echon wrote: > > I just wanted to know what you guys did to help you stay > energetic for the whole day day after day if you had less than 8 hours > sleep. I am long-since out of college, but a practical expert on sleep-deprivation. 1)start easing out of your diet things with lots of refined sugar (soft drinks, etc.)--these play havoc with your energy level during the day. 2)don't try to do homework, etc. in the clothes (or lack of clothes) you woke up in. Get up, do 10 minutes of mild exercise, get dressed, etc., and treat your class assignments like the job they are--maybe go somewhere away from your dorm/apt to do the work. 3)most important, check out the book, Sleep Thieves, and prepare to start changing your belief that you really don't have time to sleep more than 6 or 7 hours a day. Make some tough choices that will free up 30 minutes then an hour, etc. for you to buck the college norm and go to sleep early. You'll be amazed at how much more you get done in fewer waking hours. Good luck. C.Smith
"I cannot recommend enough 'A History of God' by Karen Armstrong. Whilst I am not monotheistically religious (and possibly not religious at all, depending on your definition), this book has proved invaluable in increasing my understanding of monotheistic religion and in answering my questions as to why people believe what they believe and defend what they defend in their religion. Armstrong manages to write about this issue in an exceptionally balanced and non-judgemental way, which is both illuminating and refreshing." -- recc. From: Sarah Marr Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998
" Professor Michael Behe's recent book DARWIN'S BLACK BOX, now out in paperback. Behe is a biochemist, and a deft, entertaining writer. His relentless attack on Darwinist claims to have proved the evolution of certain irreducibly complex systems at the sub-cellular level should give everyone pause. Behe ends by asserting that only intelligent design can account for the current structures of life we find on Earth. My own mind closes down with a palpable bang as I reach these sections of his book, and I feel a powerful aversive urge to cast it against the nearest wall. But that is no argument, and certainly no rebuttal to his well-presented case. " -- recc. Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 From: Damien Broderick
Some interesting discussions of Behe, evolution, and related topics http://www-polisci.mit.edu/bostonreview/evolution.html
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 11:43:18 -0500 From: jeff@illusionmachines.com (Jeff Dee) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: transhuman@logrus.org Subject: Re: >H Theism and Transhumanism Sender: owner-transhuman@logrus.org Reply-To: transhuman@logrus.org Transhuman Mailing List Damien Broderick wrote: > > At 12:06 PM 9/9/98 -0500, Jeff Dee wrote: > > >I see no sense in using the term "evidence" to > >describe things which (as you say) "cannot be > >tested satisfactorily in the public arena". > > This could get tedious very quickly. > > You might choose to exclude from all consideration honest testimony, e.g., > concerning subjective states, but that surely would be an excessively > narrow use of the word `evidence'. My Oxford dictionary lists: 1. > Clearness, obviousness [which fits my experience of the consciousness of > other people, even if it can't yet be metered];... 3. (Law) Information > (given personally or drawn from documents etc.) tending to establish fact. > There room here for more kinds of evidence than a palpable smoking gun > (although one always hopes to find one). My Webster's may disagree with your Oxford dictionary, but I agree that this will get tedious if we allow it to disintegrate into a squabble over dictionary definitions. Instead, I will simply stand by my statement. Dictionary definitions notwithstanding, I see no sense in accepting as "evidence" anything which "cannot be tested satisfactorily in the public arena". If you'd like to try to explain to me why I should, go right ahead. > >Ultimately, the intelligence > >which he invokes as an explanation for those > >structures must, itself, be explained. And this > >begs the question: where did that intelligence > >come from? This simply replaces one unsolved > >question with another - an error compounded by > >the fact that there is no corroborating > >evidence of the existence of this intelligence > >in the first place. > > This, I fear, is the Village Atheist Gambit. Works with the rubes, until > they stone you to death for impiety. :) But Jeff ignores (perhaps because > he hadn't reached it yet, although he quotes it further down the page) my > comments concerning conjectured states of organisation > > >> derived from a cascade of bubble universes > >> stretching back far enough for stochastic processes to permit the emergence > >> of life even if its probability is far too low to have occurred by chance > >> in the history of our own mere 4 billion years. > > The point is that we *can* decide certain observed structures are too > ornate to be explained by means other than intelligence. If the Face on > Mars had proved to be exactly that, with beautifully shaped teeth and nose > hairs cut into the ancient rock, and signed with a flourish at the base, no > amount of bluster would prevent us from supposing it a consequence of > intelligent design, even if we had no idea who did it (and knew that it > could not be of human origin). Of course, we already know that intelligences capable of carving rock can exist. What we do *not* have are examples of intelligences which do not themselves reside in a bodies composed of the very sort of cells which Mr. Behe finds so irreducably complex. We transhumanists think that other forms of intelligence may be possible, but we're talking about *sucessors* to biological intelligence. The idea that some advanced postbiological being(s) might have been involved in the design of the first irreducably complex cell doesn't solve Behe's problem either: there still needs to have been a natural origin for cells at some point. > Behe's argument (which I suspect and hope is flawed) is that certain > irreducibly complex structures in the biological order could not have > occurred just by mutation and selection within the framework of a > 15-billion year-old universe and a 4.5 billion year-old Earth. If that > argument went through, we might be obliged to look for a designer from > beyond the Earth or even the universe we know - one that evolved (let's > say) on a different substrate where such aggregations of complexity might > more readily build up - a Black Cloud, maybe. > > It's a vast stretch from that line of thought to anything like the > Judaeo-Christian deity, and I'm certainly not suggesting that anyone should > make that stretch. But I think it's quite feasible that a rational, > scientifically informed person could conclude that life on Earth could not > plausibly have arise without manipulation by a different kind of > intelligence operating on as-yet-unknown principles which allowed that > intelligence to evade the objections standing in the way of our own precise > chain of development via the standard Darwinian account. I don't agree that it's ever a good idea to *conclude* anything about as-yet-unknown beings or principles. > But the case for the *virtually impossible improbability* of our observed > complex life-structures would have to be very powerful. Has such a case > been made? Well, Behe's case is not self-evidently foolish, although > Doolittle's rebuttal shows up some of its rhetorical weaknesses. I haven't read that one yet, but H. Allen Orr's analysis at: http://www-polisci.mit.edu/bostonreview/br21.6/orr.html ...clearly demolishes Behe's argument - not just his rhetoric, but his fundamental assumptions. Don't you agree? If not, I'd like to hear why. No offense, but I'm beginning to suspect that your interest in things transhuman may have biased you in favor of claims that might indicate the existence of already-transcended beings. As a transhumanist myself, I can see how that would be a wonderfully encouraging thing to find. But that's no reason to go soft on Behe's nonsense. -Jeff Dee -- "It is as morally bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have got it." -Edmund Way Teale, "Circle of the Seasons", 1950 jeff@illusionmachines.com * illusionmachines.com/personal/jeff/index.htmlhttp://www-polisci.mit.edu/bostonreview/br21.6/orr.html [FIXME: did this URI move ?]
_The First Immortal?_ book by James Halperin
_Tech-Heaven_ by Linda Nagata "starts in contemporary conditions and continues more-or-less smoothly through to the early nanotech era (in which cryo-resurrections are occurring, Earth's rulers live in orbit, etc)." -- recc. From: Mitchell Porter Subject: Re: >H An argument for hesitation
_In the Image of the Brain_ book by Jim Jubak "the latest book that I know of about artificial neural nets and new ideas in neurology and cognitive science." -- recc. Pace Arko 1994 Jan 11
_The Practice of Engineering Management_ book by Patrick O'Connor (John Wiley & Sons, 1994) "What, how, and how many to test ... Testing ... is always expensive and takes time, but must be done."
_Diamond Age_ (nanotech fiction)
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1996 00:00:04 -0500 (EST)
From: transhuman@umich.edu
Sender: transhuman@umich.edu
Subject: >H Digest
***************************************************************************
From: Jim English
Subject: Re: >H Movies..
Transhuman Mailing List
With all the discussion of H in movies and books, I'm surprised no one has mentioned
Neal Stephenson's _Diamond Age_. Though this may not meet everyones criteria as
particularly pro-H, it is undoubtedly one of the most satisfyingly realized visions of a
future transformed by cheap and widespread nanotechnology. Diamond Age describes a
future of myriad social/political/religious city-states that resemble 7-Elevens more
than countries, supported by matter compiliers and raw-material matter-feed lines much
like our current water/gas/electric feeds. For those interested check the following
links:
1] The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson is centered
on the repercussions of the education of young girls by means of a hypertext book....
http://piglet.cc.utexas.edu/~mdrapes/diamondage/index.htm
2] The Diamond Age. Neal Stephenson. John Percival Hackworth is a brilliant
nanotechnology engineer in the 21st century. A member of the elite neo-Victorian
tribe,...
http://www.bradley.edu/itr/lib/services/colldev/mcn/nstph-da.html
3] GBN Book Club Reviews - 1995 - THE DIAMOND AGE or, A Young Lady's Illustrated
Primer. Neal Stephenson; Bantam, 1995; 455 pages; $23; ISBN 0-553-09609-5. FOUR
COMPELLING IDEAS make this book especially...
http://www.gbn.org/BookClub/Diamond.html
4] A Surpassingly Strange and Surprisingly Believable Future. Neal Stephenson's Diamond
Age or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. New York: Bantam Books, 1995. Review by...
http://vanbc.wimsey.com/~chrish/Circuit_Traces/CT1_2/diamond.html
Yours In Health
Jim English
smartnet@sirius.com
http://www.smartbasic.com
***************************************************************************
fiction (nanotech) *************************************************************************** From: Mitchell Porter Subject: Re: >H Superintelligence, spikes and swells Transhuman Mailing List I'll be following this post up in more detail for sure - I think the interesting question now is, what are the skills which make up creative technical intelligence, that can accelerate, improve, optimize software development - but I just had to mention this... There's a short story on the web - Anthony Napier's "The Quiet Revolution", http://www.erinet.com/prass/nanowars/story/story1.html - in which all nanotech information has vanished from the net; the protagonist theorizes that someone has achieved an assembler breakthrough, and is eliminating the possibility of competition. So. I just went to Alta Vista and tried the keywords "software development": NO MATCHES. Maybe we're too late... -mitch http://desire.apana.org.au/~qix ***************************************************************************
_True Names_ by V. Vinge (computers, science fiction)
Vernor Vinge http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix/vinge/ is highly recommended by transhuman Damien R. Sullivan
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 10:39:19 -0600 To: christlib@swcp.com From: Dar Scott Subject: Christlib: Vinge (was Alien Souls 3) Sender: owner-christlib@swcp.com Reply-To: christlib@swcp.com Bruce Baugh wrote, >From: Dar Scott >>There is a short story or novela in a collection that is a prequel to the >>above novel. It has an ending that can be spoiled by _Deep_. Anybody >>remember the name of the story and the collection? > >"The Blabber", in THREATS...AND OTHER DANGERS. That's It! I described it as a prequel above, but when I think about it, I think it is probably not. But, it is in the same world and contains the same interesting species. Fun exploration into language, brain, intelligence, "boy & dog", and other important ideas. Funny, exciting, with thought-provoking ending. This is a shorter read than _Deep_. If one thinks he might want to read both, he should read "Blabber" first. IMHO. Dar
Greg Egan's short story "Closer" http://www.secure.com.au/eidolon/old_site/issue_09/09_closr.htm
also
The serious magical endeavour and the serious scientific endeavour are twins: ... For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men.
"The Einstein Myth and the Ives Papers" Subtitle: "A counter revolution in physics" by Dean Turner (and Richard Hazelett), editors. 1979. ISBN 0815958234 Call # (at my library) QC 173.59.S65T87x Publisher: Devin-Adair Co. Old Greenwich Conn."...Re: one-way measurement of the speed of light ... I think the original paper appeared in The Journal Of the Optical Society of America." -- recc. Martin Slaman <102766.3335@compuserve.com> 1995-12-01
_Digital Communication Receivers: Synchronization, Channel Estimation, and Signal Processing book by Heinrich Meyr, Marc Moeneclaey, and Stefan A. Fechtel
"_Synchronization Techniques_ is easier to follow by someone who is first trying to learn the subject... provide numerous worked examples ... _Digital Communication Receivers_ covers topics in more pages, while demanding a higher level of knowledge from a reader ... this book is without peer for someone who wants to probe into the underlying foundations of data-signal reception, or to cope with difficult fading signals. ... The authors insist that optimum reception involves coherent demodulation, not differential or noncoherent. " -- recc. Floyd M. Gardner in "Book Reviews" of _IEEE Communications Magazine_ 1998-09.
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 16:53:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: Michael Nielsen
To: transhuman@logrus.org
Subject: Re: >H self-help books
...
> I'd also recommend that you pick up a primer on AI (for insights on how
> minds might work at a basic level)
Minsky's "The Society of Mind" is probably the single book I'd most highly
recommend in this vein.
Michael Nielsen
...
http://www.theory.caltech.edu/~mnielsen/index.html
Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1999 20:46:49 -0400
From: Robert Owen
Subject: >H TO: Michael Nielsen Re: "self-help books"
To: transhuman@logrus.org
MIME-version: 1.0
X-Accept-Language: en
Sender: owner-transhuman@logrus.org
Reply-To: transhuman@logrus.org
Transhuman Mailing List
Michael Nielsen wrote:
> Minsky's "The Society of Mind" is probably the single book I'd most highly
> recommend in this vein.
Read Minsky. Agreed. But just started reading "After Thought --
the Computer Challenge to Human Intelligence" by James Bailey;
outstanding! If your friend hasn't read "Mind Children" [Moravec]
it might also be helpful.
Finally, Denis Susac has a nice site called
About.com Guide to Artificial Intelligence
The URL is:
http://ai.about.com/mbody.htm?COB=home&PID=2821&PM=64_901_T
Bob
=======================
Robert M. Owen
Director
The Orion Institute
57 W. Morgan Street
Brevard, NC 28712-3659 USA
SFF Net ... genre fiction - science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, mystery, and young adult fiction. ... SFF Net is the official home of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America ... and thousands of author pages and virtual domains.http://sff.net/ authors discussing technical aspects of SF situations; ( http://webnews.sff.net/ ) some SF book reviews
Kevin Kelly (kevin at wiredmag.com) is executive editor of Wired and author of Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World (Addison-Wesley).http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.06/saleskelly.html
_Conceptual Blockbusting_ book by James L. Adams ``I learned more about software design from _Conceptual Blockbusting_ than from any of the many books I've read that focus specifically on software design.'' -- recc. Steve McConnell
This is a cumulative insight of grace, elegance and profundity, and it pulls together many of the book's threads in a final chapter entitled "Hope" that soars. For Weinberger, the Web is not another way of communicating, or socializing, or selling. Or, it is all this, but only because on a more basic level, it's a way of returning us to our humanity. And it's only in its infancy.-- recc. ``Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Review'' by Tom Matrullo http://tom.weblogs.com/stories/storyReader$891...(this summary does it little justice - read it yourself) ...
...the final sentence of the "Space" chapter:
That makes it easy to lose sight of the fact that what holds the Web together isn't a carpet of rock but the world's collective passion.
...
From a certain admittedly mundane perspective, the Web appears less the manifestation of some vast, overarching human passion than a baggy bundle of innumerable individual enthusiasms, admirations, hatreds, greeds, kindnesses, political posturings, egos, desires, disgusts, cruelties, venalities and stupidities, not to mention inflated notions of self importance out the wahzoo. ...
[FIXME: think about using this rating scheme: 1: unmissable 2: great stuff 3: worth reading 4: passes the time / mind candy 5: waste of time 6: unfinishable -- http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~susan/bib/nfrating.htm as well as a ``age level'' scheme: good introduction for elementary-school students, nice popularization, actually gives real information; uses calculus or higher math. ]
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 23:43:56 -0700 From: David Oakey To: christlib@swcp.com Subject: Christlib: Projection Principle Something that is apt to make all sides in any issue question themselves is "The Projection Principle" by George Weinberg. Just the first half of the book is an eye opener. It is out of print, so try libraries or used bookstores. David Oakey
Gamow, G. (1954) ``Possible relation between deoxyribonucleic acid and the protein structure,'' _Nature_, 173, 318; Gamow, G., and Ycas, M. (1958) ``The cryptographic approach to the problem of protein synthesis,'', in _Symposium on Information Theory in Biology_, ed. H. P. Yockey, R. L. Platzman, and H. Quastler, Pergamon Press, New York, pp. 63-69.
-- recc.In the early eighties, Glen Langdon put in some careful thought and a lot of insight and came up with two papers[Langdon83] and [Langdon84] which for me are pivotal in my understanding of the field of data compression. I cannot recommend these papers highly enough to anyone who wishes to gain an understanding of what REALLY makes LZW tick or to anyone who wants a broader perspective of the field. The papers seem highly focused and obscure, but in fact they cast a broad soft light over the whole field of text compression, illuminating areas that for me were very dark (but might not be so dark for people who read IEEE Transactions on Information Theory like Dickens). The two papers have to be read carefully though. An earlier paper [Rissanen81] by Rissanen and Langdon gives an even more general view, but does not deal directly with LZ algorithms as the later papers do and so I have focussed on the later papers.
...
The above explains why LZW compresses so well. Why then does it compress so badly (compared to Markov models)? Without going into details, here are some reasons ...
[Langdon83] Langdon G.G., "A Note on the Ziv-Lempel Model for Compressing Individual Sequences, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol.29, No.2, pp.284-287.
[Langdon84] Langdon G.G., "On Parsing Versus Mixed-Order Model Structures for Data Compression", IBM Research Report RJ-4163 (46091) 1/18/84, IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose, CA 95193, 1984.
[Rissanen81] Rissanen J.J, Langdon G.G, "Universal Modeling and Coding", IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp.12-23.
...
LZRW4: ZIV AND LEMPEL MEET MARKOVpaper by Ross Williams 23-Jul-1991.
I remember my professor of quantum physics at Cambridge University, Dr. John Polkinghorne, talking to us one day. (And his book, One World, is a marvelous exposition of his fascination with the created order.)-- recc. Ravi Zacharias 2002 http://www.gospelcom.net/rzim/publications/essay_arttext.php?id=13
-- divemaster 01-16-2001Is a WASPy suburbanite like me unable to connect deeply with The Chosen's Reuven and Danny, two New York Jews (one Hasidic), circa WWII?
My answer is a resounding NO. The Chosen was one of the best books I have ever read, and I consider myself enriched because of my exposure to it. To suggest otherwise is insulting.
The complete e-texts for over 1,500 novels are available online for free.
-- recc. Terry RitterElectronics The Art of Electronics, by Paul Horowitz, Winfield Hill. (Hardcover, 1125 pages, Cambridge University Press, 1989) The Art of Electronics is a wonderful, wide-ranging book on modern electronics as it is actually practiced. If you are actually building electronic systems, you need this book. Noise Reduction Techniques in Electronic Systems, by Henry W. Ott. (Hardcover, 448 pages, John Wiley & Sons, 1988) Noise Reduction Techniques in Electronic Systems details the origin of undesired electromagnetic radiation, and how to prevent it. High-Speed Digital Design : A Handbook of Black Magic, by Howard W. Johnson, Martin Graham. (Hardcover, 447 pages, Prentice Hall, 1993)
... the author shares with us the intellectual, ethical and moral difficulties he once had concerning the gospel and Christians. ... addresses some of the classic challenges to Christianity, such as suffering and the nature of sin. ... the possible existence of life on other planets ... I am still a bit confused as to whether this book was written for believers or unbelievers; different chapters seem directed to each group. However, there are helpful things for both Christians and seekers in this cheerful book.-- recc. Philip Swann http://www.evangelical-times.org/ETReviews/March03/mar03r05.htm
For marvelously inventive, easily accessible descriptions linked to brilliant cartoon depictions of skeletal muscle function (pages 106 and 107) and genetic mutation (pages 202 and 203), ... If you have time, consider reading the entire book, subtitled "...everything you need to know about the way all life grows, develops, reproduces, and gets along."-- recc. Marilyn Green Larach, M.D., F.A.A.P. http://www.faseb.org/opar/mh/
Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 19:43:28 -0700 From: mis at seiden.com Cc: spamassassin-talk at lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [SAtalk] I hate SpamAssassin most people who actually have done usability testing discover that almost nobody *reads* documentation (even readme files), though some people attempt to refer to them to answer questions. they instead prefer to use well-developed intuitions. what happens when the software is counterintuitive is called "cognitive friction" by alan cooper (cited below). i don't know about you, but this guy vented about some of the problems i've had to address prior to deploying sa in several enterprises as big as 1500 mailboxes. when we encounter software we perceive as crappy, it's perfectly correct, imho, to complain to the source, whether the source is microsoft, or, as in this case, a bunch of volunteers attempting to do collaborative design. you can't blame everything on isp sysadmins doing a naive installation. they are victims of bad software as well. don't blame the victims. listen to them. if this subject interests you, i recommend to your attention alan cooper's fine book, "The inmates are running the asylum -- Why high-tech products drive us crazy and how to restore the sanity" SAMS, 1999, ISBN 0-672-31649-8
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"this too shall pass, doofus. go have an oreo."
-- jen 2002-11-26 (?)
A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper,Paulos actually demonstrates the utility of these approaches by applying them to real world situations taken from events as current when he wrote the book. ... Eminently readable and focused on pertinent subject matter,
A Mathematician Reads the Newspaperwill make an actual difference in how you see and understand things around you. ... You’ll come away with a new respect for mathematical practices and a new ability to apply them. You’ll then be ready for
How to Solve Itby George Polya." -- recc. Earl Dunovant, October 17, 2003 http://ospolitics.org/knowledge/archives/2003/10/17/the_mathem.php
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2002 14:15:29 -0800 From: Alan Grimes <alangrimes at starpower.net> Organization: Nanosoft: Software that thinks. To: David Cary <d.cary at ieee.org> David Cary wrote: > So is > _Principles of Neural Science_ book by Kandel, ER, Schwartz JH, > and Jessell, TM. 2000 worth reading ? Its 1,700 pages... ;) As the state of neuroscience is progressing at an exponential rate these days, any text will be obsolete the day after it's published. Still, I would reccomend this book because it gives you a broad overview of the subject which will allow you to put the latest research in the context of an understanding of the entire science. ... http://users.rcn.com/alangrimes/
I remember discussing building a web of classic books, similar to the technology graph of the game _Civilization_.
Each book would indicate what prerequisites were required to understand the book, and
would list what sorts of things it explained (which could be prerequisites to further books in a path
).
Did anyone ever try to start such a book list / web / database ?
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2002 14:15:29 -0800 From: Alan Grimes <alangrimes at starpower.net> Organization: Nanosoft: Software that thinks. To: David Cary <d.cary at ieee.org> David Cary wrote: ... [Civ science map] > Did anyone ever try to start such a book list / web / database ? Not that I heard of however such a map could have saved my hundreds of dollars and lots of time in my own attempts to self-learn these subjects. =\ ... http://users.rcn.com/alangrimes/
I highly recommend Stephen Levy's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution ISBN 0141000511 ... The ending of the book is the story of the beginning of the FSF/GNU project, written as the project was just beginning to become popular. ... I plan on buying at least one new copy when it is republished in January 2001. --CliffordAdams-- http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?MitAiLab
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