books tagged “computing”

This is the eccentric story of one of the most bizarre marriages in the history of British business: the invention of the world's first office computer and the Lyons tea shop. The Lyons tea shops were one of the great British institutions, providing a cup of tea and a penny bun through the depression, the war, austerity and on into the 1960s and 1970s. Yet Lyons also has a more surprising claim to history. In the 1930s John Simmons, a young graduate in charge of the clerks' offices that totalled all the bills issued by the "Nippies" and kept track of the costs of all the tea, cakes and other goods distributed to the nation's cafes and shops, became obsessed by the new ideas of scientific management. He had a dream: to build a machine that would automate the millions of tedious transactions and process them in as little time as possible. In this text, Georgina Ferry recounts the story of Simmons' quest for the first office computer - the Lyons Electronic Office. It would take 20 years and involve some of the most brilliant young minds in Britain. Interwoven with the story of the building of LEO is the story of early computing itself from the Difference Engine of Charles Babbage to the codecracking computers of Bletchley Park and the instantly obsolescent ENIAC, developed in the US. It is also the story of the post-war British computer business; why did it lose the initiative? Why did America succeed while British design was often superior? Georgina Ferry's account of a forgotten triumph in British history is a corrective and a celebration of one of the least likely marriages in business history: the Lyons tea shop and the cutting edge of computer science. [via]

When a company builds and ships software, the installation process is often the first opportunity for a customer to view the the product and the companyand the installation experience can make or break a lasting impression. So this book is ideal for companies and developers who want to impress their clientele.

This book covers every aspect of using the Windows Installer, the underlying installer technology in Windows. A valuable tool for you software developers, this book helps ensure thorough and reliable installation for your customers. Most other books for software developers end too abruptly and omit critical information, like how to create the necessary installation software. But The Definitive Guide to Windows Installer picks up where the other books trail off.

Eric Sink on the Business of Software is a selection of the best and most popular essays from the author's website. This insightful collection of essays explore the business concerns that programmers face during the course of their careersparticularly those programmers who are small independent software vendors.

Sink also covers issues like starting your own business, and then performing the hiring, marketing, and finances in a style that programmers understand, sprinkled with a touch of humor.

Table of Contents

1. What Is a Small ISV?
2. Whining by a Barrel of Rocks
3. Starting Your Own Company
4. Finance for Geeks
5. Exploring Micro-ISVs
6. First Report from My Micro-ISV
7. Make More Mistakes
8. Small ISVs: You Need Developers, Not Programmers
9. Geeks Rule and MBAs Drool
10. Hazards of Hiring
11. Great Hacker != Great Hire
12. My Comments on Hitting the High Notes
13. Career Calculus
14. Finding a Product Idea for Your Micro-ISV
15. Marketing Is Not a Post-processing Step
16. Choose Your Competition
17. Act Your Age
18. Geek Gauntlets
19. Be Careful Where You Build
20. The Game Is Afoot
21. Going to a Trade Show
22. Magazine Advertising Guide for Small ISVs
23. Tenets of Transparency
24. Product Pricing Primer
25. Closing the Gap, Part 1
26. Closing the Gap, Part 2

Ajax burst onto the Web development scene by offering highly interactive, desktop-like Web applications that can be deployed through any modern Web browser without the need for special plug-ins. Ajax is built on existing Web technologies such as JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, and it is used in conjunction with your favorite server-side language. Foundations of Ajax explains how to combine these technologies effectively to implement Ajax into your new or existing Web applications. Like you, we are developers who are in the trenches, tasked with building Web-enabled applications that provide real value to our customers. As the Web continues to grow, the demand for more expressive and engaging interfaces will continue to increase.

Much of the early hype surrounding Ajax centered on its use by Internet powerhouses such as Google and Amazon. However, just because the initial forays into Ajax were pioneered by leading software development firms doesn't mean your application wouldnt also benefit from these techniques. You already know how to develop Web applications, so this book uses specific, focused examples to teach the Ajax tools and techniques youll need to bring your applications to life. Armed with this book and your existing development expertise, you too will be able to apply Ajax techniques to your application to enrich the end users experience.

When we first saw the potential of Ajax, we knew we had to start leveraging it for our own applications. Along the way weve learned some hard-earned knowledge that we thought needed to be shared with the rest of the development community. With this book, youll be able to easily extend your own applications with Ajax and have fun while doing it. We hope that someday well be reading about your great Ajax-enabled application!

Collected here in one volume are some thirty-six high quality translations into English of the most important foreign-language works in mathematical logic, as well as articles and letters by Whitehead, Russell, Norbert Weiner and PostThis book is, in effect, the record of an important chapter in the history of thought. No serious student of logic or foundations of mathematics will want to be without it.-Review of MetaphysicsAn invaluable work of reference and study. The selection of contents could hardly be bettered; those of the papers which were not originally in English have been admirably translated; and the editing of the book is impeccable in every way.-New ScientistThis is an excellent selection of classical contributions to symbolic logic. The bringing together in English of so many important papers is in itself a major contribution this book will long remain a standard work, essential to the study of symbolic logic.-Library Journal [via]

In Search of Stupidity is National Lampoon meets Peter Drucker. It's a funny and well-written business book that takes a look at some of the most influential marketing and business philosophies of the last 20 years and, through the dark glass of hindsight, provides an educational and vastly entertaining examination of why they didn't work for many of the country's largest and best-known high-tech companies. Make no mistake: most of them did not work.

Marketing wizard Richard Chapman takes readers on a hilarious ride in this book, which is richly illustrated with cartoons and reproductions of many of the actual campaigns used at the time. Filled with personal anecdotes spanning Chapman's remarkable career (he was present at many now-famous meetings and events), In Search of Stupidity is a no-holds-barred look at the best of the worst hopeless marketing ideas and business decisions in the last 20 years of the technology industry.

SQL (Structured Query Language) is a standard programming language for generating, manipulating, and retrieving information from a relational database. If you're working with a relational database--whether you're writing applications, performing administrative tasks, or generating reports--you need to know how to interact with your data. Even if you are using a tool that generates SQL for you, such as a reporting tool, there may still be cases where you need to bypass the automatic generation feature and write your own SQL statements.

To help you attain this fundamental SQL knowledge, look to "Learning SQL, an introductory guide to SQL, designed primarily for developers just cutting their teeth on the language.

"Learning SQL moves you quickly through the basics and then on to some of the more commonly used advanced features. Among the topics discussed:

The history of the computerized database

SQL Data Statements--those used to create, manipulate, and retrieve data stored in your database; example statements include select, update, insert, and delete

SQL Schema Statements--those used to create database objects, such as tables, indexes, and constraints

How data sets can interact with queries

The importance of subqueries

Data conversion and manipulation via SQL's built-in functions

How conditional logic can be used in Data Statements

Best of all, "Learning SQL talks to you in a real-world manner, discussing various platform differences that you're likely to encounter and offering a series of chapter exercises that walk you through the learning process. Whenever possible, the book sticks to the features included in the ANSI SQL standards. This means you'llbe able to apply what you learn to any of several different databases; the book covers MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle Database, but the features and syntax should apply just as well (perhaps with some tweaking) to IBM DB2, Sybase Adaptive Server, and PostgreSQL.

Put the power and flexibility of SQL to work. With "Learning SQL you can master this important skill and know that the SQL statements you write are indeed correct. [via]

LUMINOUS collects together one original story plus nine previously unpublished in book form. Greg Egan's short fiction is at the cutting edge of the genre. His stories range from near future predictions to far future, far space improvisations. His grasp of the latest scientific breakthroughs is unparalleled in science fiction. The stories include 'Transition Dreams', 'Cocoon', 'Our Lady of Chernobyl', the title story 'Luminous' and 'The Planck Drive'. Egan's particular interests range from the farther shores of chaos theory and black hole science to bio-technology and cloning. [via]

If you want to work with your traditional film images electronically, this is the guide that will finally show you how you can do it. "Mastering Digital Scanning" takes a photographer's viewpoint to the topic of digitizing, managing, and enhancing film-based images. You'll learn how to use your scanner's options to your best advantage and how to perfect your image once it becomes digital. You don't have to give up the advantages of conventional photography to enjoy the ease of digital manipulation! [via]

This resource illustrates the mathematics that a game programmer would need to develop a professional-quality 3D engine. The book starts at a fairly basic level in each of several areas such as vector geometry, modern algebra, and physics, and then progresses to somewhat more advanced topics. Particular attention is given to derivations of key results, ensuring that the reader is not forced to endure "gaps" in the theory. The book discusses applications in the context of the OpenGL architecture. It assumes basic understanding of matrix algebra, trigonometry, and calculus, and concentrates on key math topics for programming game engines and computer graphics. Included are exercise sets which should allow the book to be used as a textbook. The book discusses applications in the context of the OpenGL architecture due to its cross-platform nature with references to certain 3D hardware such as the GeForce from Nvidia and the Radeon from ATI Presents mathematical theory and subsequently provides examples using practical applications. [via]

Physical computing is all around us-from interactive displays at museums to "puff sensors" that aid the physically challenged. With a multiple book buying audience, this book doesn't require a specific background or technical experience. It is designed to help make a more interesting connection between the physical world and the computer world. The audience size is comparable to that of the Robot builder market. In addition to this audience, physical computing is also taught at several universities across the US. This book is a great source of information and knowledge for anyone interested in bridging the gap between the physical and the virtual. [via]

C# 2005 changed the .NET 2.0 landscape. To name just a few improvements, C# now supports generics, partial types and nullable types when youre coding. And the framework boasts improved speed, data access, security, and scalability.

This book has been written to help you assimilate all this new information and realize its potential to make your coding life easier. It will keep you ahead of the curve. To make it easy for you to access this information, the book has been loosely grouped into five sections:

• 1. Introducing C# 2005 and the .NET 2.0 Platform explains the mechanics of .NET programming and the philosophy that lies behind it
• 2. The C# Programming Language outlines everything you need to know to start using C# 2005 quickly and efficiently. Object lifetimes, exception handling, genericsits all here
• 3. Programming with .NET Assemblies deals with one of the most important aspects of .NET programming: reusing code. This book shows you how to capture your code in reuseable external assemblies that you can call upon throughout your applications
• 4. Programming with the .NET Libraries guides you through them. Of course youre not expected to write every function yourself. The .NET Framework provides a vast array of .NET Libraries containing functionality that allows you to do everything from opening a file-stream to rendering graphical data to the screen
• 5. Web Applications and XML Web Services concludes the book by taking you away from console-based C# applications and investigating the myriad possibilities that become available when you blend C# 2005 with ASP.NET 2.0 to launch your applications onto the Internet

Sudoku is a wildly popular puzzle game. Sudoku puzzles are 9x9 grids, and each square in the grid consists of a 3x3 subgrid called a region. Your goal is to fill in the squares so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1 through 9 exactly once. And some squares already contain numbers or symbols, which lend clues toward the solution.

Programming Sudoku provides you with great approaches to building and solving Sudoku and other similar puzzles. Using ingenious artificial intelligence and game theory techniques, youll learn how to get a computer to solve these puzzles for you.

This is a fun, intriguing read, whether you're a novice or advanced programmer. It acknowledges the .NET platform as a base, but youll find this book interesting whatever your programming background. The core techniques in the book enable you to solve Sudoku on any programming platform.

For courses in Solaris. This officially authorized tutorial for Solaris system administration is ideal for computer science students. Used as a hands-on guide or as a quick reference, as well as being completely updated, this task-oriented and easy-to-follow book details how to perform increasingly complex system improvement, revision, and customization. Solaris Advanced System Administrator's Guide, Second Edition is the classic tutorial that provides indispensable tips, advice, and quick-reference tables to help you add system components, improve service access, and automate routine tasks. Also take advantage of updated information on Solaris 2.6 topics-including x86 differences, patch administration, redesign of print packages, and new coverage of security, the Solaris Server Intranet Extension and more! [via]

Web standards are the standard technology specifications enforced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to make sure that web designers and browser manufacturers are using the same technology syntax. It is important that these implementations are the same throughout the Web, otherwise it becomes a messy proprietary place, and lacks consistency. These standards also allow content to be more compatible with multiple different viewing devices, such as screen readers for people with vision impairments, cell phones, PDFs, etc. HTML, XML, and CSS are all such technologies.

This book is your essential guide to understanding the advantages you can bring to your web pages by implementing web standards and precisely how to apply them.

Web standards such as XHTML and CSS are now fairly well-known technologies, and they will likely be familiar to you, the web designerindeed, they are all around you on the Web. However, within web standards still lies a challengewhile the browser's support for web standards is steadily increasing, many web developers and designers have yet to discover the real benefits of web standards and respect the need to adhere to them. The real art is in truly understanding the benefits and implementing the standards efficiently.

As a simple example of its power, you can use CSS to lay out your pages instead of nesting tables. This can make file sizes smaller, allowing pages to load faster, ultimately increasing accessibility for all browsers, devices, and web users.

• Use XHTML elements correctly so that your markup is compact and more easily understood.
• Use CSS to style different elements of a web page.
• Lay out pages easily and effectively.
• Compare multiple methods of achieving the same results to make better design choices.
• Learn about advanced web design techniques and their important caveats.

Web Standards Solutions is broken down into 16 short chapters, each covering the theory and practice of different web standards concept and showing multiple solutions to given problems for easy learning. Youll learn about multi-column layouts, using image replacement techniques to your best advantage, making the best use of tables and lists, and many more. This highly modular approach allows you to rapidly digest, understand, and utilize the essentials of web standards.