Sunday, December 6, 2009

Usability Engineering or Numerical Methods Using MathCAD

Usability Engineering

Author: Jakob Nielsen

Written by the author of the best-selling HyperText & HyperMedia, this book is an excellent guide to the methods of usability engineering. The book provides the tools needed to avoid usability surprises and improve product quality. Step-by-step information on which method to use at various stages during the development lifecycle are included, along with detailed information on how to run a usability test and the unique issues relating to international usability.

* Emphasizes cost-effective methods that developers can implement immediately
* Instructs readers about which methods to use when, throughout the development lifecycle, which ultimately helps in cost-benefit analysis.
* Shows readers how to avoid the four most frequently listed reasons for delay in software projects.
* Includes detailed information on how to run a usability test.
* Covers unique issues of international usability.
* Features an extensive bibliography allowing readers to find additional information.
* Written by an internationally renowned expert in the field and the author of the best-selling HyperText & HyperMedia.

Booknews

Nielsen, author of the popular HyperText & HyperMedia, provides concrete advice and methods that can be systematically employed to ensure a high degree of usability in the final user interface. Appendix A lists several practical exercises touching upon important aspects of usability engineering. Appendix B is an extensive (53-page) bibliography. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)



Table of Contents:
Preface
Audience
Teaching Usability Engineering
Acknowledgments
Ch. 1Executive Summary1
Ch. 2What Is Usability?23
Ch. 3Generations of User Interfaces49
Ch. 4The Usability Engineering Lifecycle71
Ch. 5Usability Heuristics115
Ch. 6Usability Testing165
Ch. 7Usability Assessment Methods beyond Testing207
Ch. 8Interface Standards227
Ch. 9International User Interfaces237
Ch. 10Future Developments255
Appendix A: Exercises269
Appendix B: Bibliography283
Author Index341
Subject Index351

Books about: Cook Book or Foodservice Organizations

Numerical Methods Using MathCAD

Author: Laurene Fausett

This book presents the fundamental numerical techniques used in engineering, applied mathematics, computer science, and the physical and life sciences in a way that is both interesting and understandable. Using a wide range of examples and problems, this book focuses on the use of MathCAD functions and worksheets to illustrate the methods used when discussing the following concepts: solving linear and nonlinear equations, numerical linear algebra, numerical methods for data interpolation and approximation, numerical differentiation and integration, and numerical techniques for solving differential equations. For professionals in the fields of engineering, mathematics, computer science, and physical or life sciences who want to learn MathCAD functions for all major numerical methods.



Saturday, December 5, 2009

Wireless Communications Security or Lightwave 3D 8 Cartoon Character Creation Volume 2

Wireless Communications Security

Author: Hideki Imai

Addressing the fast-growing need to integrate effective security features into wireless communication systems, this cutting-edge book offers a broad overview of wireless security, so engineers can choose the methods and techniques that are most appropriate for their projects. Professionals gain a solid understanding of critical cryptography techniques, such as private/public key encryption, digital signatures, and block and stream ciphers. The book provides expert guidance on how to evaluate cryptography deployment impact on current wireless network architectures and implement an effective cryptography architecture for any organization. This forward-looking resource offers the technical know-how practitioners need to understand and work with the security concepts and techniques used for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation mobile networks.



Go to: In Therapy We Trust or The Official Patients Sourcebook on Polymyositis

Lightwave 3D 8 Cartoon Character Creation, Volume 2: Rigging & Animation

Author: Jonny Gorden

The second of two volumes explaining proven methods of creating 3D cartoon characters for animation.



Thursday, December 3, 2009

In Search of Stupidity or Object Oriented Perl

In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters

Author: Merrill R Chapman

In Search of Stupidity: Over Twenty Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters, Second Edition 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 twenty years. Through the dark glass of hindsight, it provides an educational and entertaining look at why these philosophies didn't work for many of the country's largest and best-known high-tech companies.

Marketing wizard Richard Chapman takes you 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, Second Edition examines the best of the worst marketing ideas and business decisions in the last twenty years of the technology industry.

The second edition includes new chapters on Google and on how to avoid stupidity, plus the extensive analyses of all chapters from the first edition. You'll want to get a copy because it

  • Features an interesting preface and interview with Joel Spolsky of "Joel on Software"
  • Offers practical advice on avoiding PR disaster
  • Features actual pictures of some of the worst PR and marketing material ever created
  • Is highly readable and funny
  • Includes theme-based cartoons for every chapter

Slashdot.org
An excellent source of information, analysis and good laughs. It's one of the few industry titles that will give you a large supply of stories to re-tell to other developers over a beer. Chapman's book is also an excellent case study collection of anti-management rules that one should avoid when running a high tech company.



Object Oriented Perl

Author: Damian Conway

Techniques and tricks to master basic and advanced OO Perl for programmers who already have basic to intermediate skills in procedural Perl.

Booknews

Conway (computer science, Monash U., Melbourne) provides novices and experienced Perl hackers alike with a guide to writing clean, readable, and maintainable Perl programs. The book begins with object orientation and Perl basics, and moves on to topics such as encapsulation, polymorphism, operator overloading, multiple dispatch and persistence. Conway incorporates examples of databases, pattern matching, multiprocessing, encryption, and debugging among others, and he includes transition guides from C++, Java, Eiffel, and Smalltalk. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Development Exchange

Object Oriented Perl is well written and communicates a lot of technical know-how to its readers, both in terms of specific language features and general design concepts. You'll put this book down with more knowledge of modular Perl than you had when you picked it up. Whether object-oriented Perl programming is right for your projects is another question-but there's no better decision helper than Conway's guide.

Slashdot.org

...a gem of a book...Superbly organized and excellently explained, this is the definitive book on Object Oriented programming with Perl. Judging from the comments of more qualified experts, we agree that this book belongs on the shelf of any serious Perl hacker.



Table of Contents:
    Introduction
    1. What is this book about?
    2. What is object-oriented Perl?
    3. Whom this book is for?
    4. Where to find what you're looking for?

  1. What You Need To Know First (An OO Primer)
    1. The essential elements of OO
      • Abstraction
      • Encapsulation
      • Inheritance
      • Polymorphism
    2. Other OO concepts
      • Genericity
      • Interface vs implementation
      • Class vs type
      • Persistence
    3. A few words about terminology
    4. Where to find out more

  2. What You Need To Know Second (A Perl Refresher)
    1. Essential Perl
      • Scalars
      • Arrays
      • Hashes
      • Subroutines
      • References
      • Packages
    2. Non-essential (but very useful) Perl
      • Modules
      • Autoloading
      • Closures
      • Typeglobs
    3. Where to find out more
      • Books
      • The Perl documentation
      • The Perl Journal
      • Perl on the WWW
      • Newsgroups

  3. Simple Object-Oriented Perl
    1. Three little rules
      • Rule 1: To create a class, build a package
      • Rule 2: To create a method, write a subroutine
      • Rule 3: To create an object, bless a referent
    2. A simple Perl class
      • The code
      • Using the CD::Music class
    3. Making life easier
      • Class modules
      • use strict and the -w flag
      • Automating data member access
      • Documenting a class
    4. Creation and destruction of objects
      • Constructors
      • Destructors
    5. The CD::Music class, compleat

  4. Blessing Variables
    1. What's wrong with a hash?
    2. Blessing an array
      • Reimplementing CD::Music
      • An array-specific example - iterators
      • Where to find out more
    3. Blessing a pseudo-hash
      • A pseudo-what???
      • Limitations of a pseudo-hash
      • Advantages of a pseudo-hash
      • The worst of both worlds?
      • Compile-time support for run-time performance
      • Just how Perl knows at compile-time that a particular
      • Yet another version of CD::Music
      • Where to find out more
    4. Blessing a scalar
      • Why not bless a scalar?
      • An object-oriented password
      • A bit-string class
      • Where to find out more

  5. Blessing Other Things
    1. Blessing a regular expression
      • The qr operator
      • Why an OO regular expression class?
      • Designing a different regular expressions mechanism
      • A closer look at the two classes
      • On the separation of Search and State
      • Where to find out more
    2. Blessing a subroutine
      • So how can a subroutine be an object?
      • Why objectify a subroutine?
      • A lexer object
      • Example: A simple pretty-printer
      • Where to find out more
    3. Blessing a typeglob
      • Paging STDOUT
      • A multiprocess pager class
      • A threaded pager class
      • Where to find out more

  6. Inheritance
    1. How Perl handles inheritance
      • The @ISA array
      • What inheritance means in Perl
      • Where the call goes
      • Constructors and inheritance
      • Destructors and inheritance
    2. Tricks and Traps
      • Naming attributes of derived classes
      • The isa() subroutine
      • The can() subroutine
      • The UNIVERSAL package
      • The SUPER pseudo-package
      • Inheritance and pseudo-hashes
      • Issues related to accessing class data
    3. Example: Inheriting the CD class
      • Applied laziness
      • Class attributes revisited
      • An alternative solution

  7. Polymorphism
    1. Polymorphism in Perl
    2. Example: Polymorphic methods for the Lexer class
    3. The simple pretty-printer objectified
    4. Using interface polymorphism instead

  8. Automating class creation
    1. The Class::Struct module
    2. The Class::MethodMaker module

  9. Operator Overloading
    1. The prob

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The Berkeley DB Book or Window Seat

The Berkeley DB Book

Author: Himanshu Yadava

The Berkeley DB Book is a practical guide to the intricacies of the Berkeley DB. This book covers in-depth the complex design issues that are mostly only touched on in terse footnotes within the dense Berkeley DB reference manual. It explains the technology at a higher level and also covers the internals, providing generous code and design examples.

In this book, you will get to see a developer's perspective on intriguing design issues in Berkeley DB--based applications, and you will be able to choose design options for specific conditions. Also included is a special look at fault tolerance and high-availability frameworks. Berkeley DB is becoming the database of choice for large-scale applications like search engines and high-traffic web sites.



Interesting book: Astrological Gastronomy or Opaa Greek Cooking Detroit Style

Window Seat: The Art of Digital Photography and Creative Thinking

Author: Julieanne Kost

Window Seat: The Art of Digital Photography and Creative Thinking is a complete view of a creative project from the artist's perspective. Julieanne Kost, a Photoshop and creative thinking expert, has taken her own experience shooting images out of commercial airplane windows to create a unique creative seminar:

The first section of the book, The Art of Creative Thinking: The Principles, outlines Julieanne's method for staying creative in an increasingly complicated world. In her personal stories, advice, and philosophies, you'll find inspiration if you're stuck or just can't get started. You may recognize some of your own less-than-productive thought processes as she describes her own struggle to let go of the everyday flotsam of life to find a quiet mental space in which she can think, dream, and create.

The second part of the book, Window Seat: The Portfolio, is a collection of images culled from over 3000 photographs Julieanne shot from commercial airplane windows over a period of five years. The photographs are accompanied by brief commentaries addressing various aspects of the process, from the original inspiration to issues of control, subject matter, image selection, and manipulation.

The Appendix contains technical information: a discussion of the equipment and media Julieanne used to shoot the photos; how she processed the photographs using Adobe Camera Raw; the Photoshop techniques she employed to correct, retouch, and manipulate the images; her personal file management system; and how she prepares her files for printing.

This book is essential reading for photographers and artists looking for ways to stay creatively awake, aware, and alive.



Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Scripting VMware Power Tools or The Art of Digital Music

Scripting VMware Power Tools: Automating Virtual Infrastructure Administration

Author: Al Muller

This book contains simple and advanced scripting using both ESX and Linux commands to provide awesome virtual tools to automate administrative tasks of ESX Server.

This book will cover the native tools that VMware provides with ESX Server. It will then discuss in detail the different scripting API's and how they can be leveraged to provide some very useful, practical and time saving tools to manage a virtual infrastructure. From virtual server provisioning to backups and everything in between, this book is a one stop shop for virtual tools.

* An essential guide to virtualisation using both Linux and ESX commands

* The companion Web site for book provides dozens for working scripts and tools presented in the book

* Maximise VMware's powerful scripting language to automate time consuming administrative tasks



Interesting book: Condemned or Office 2003 Bible

The Art of Digital Music: 53 Visionary Artists & Insiders Reveal their Creative Secrets

Author: David Battino

The Art of Digital Music shows firsthand how top artists - pioneers such as Alan Parsons, Herbie Hancock, BT, Todd Rundgren, Steve Reich, and Phil Ramone - use digital technology in their work. Through a dynamic blend of practical, hands-on production tips, inspiring case studies, extensive graphics, and in-depth interviews, the authors explore the creative freedom these new tools afford.

In addition to artist interviews, this entertaining volume features lively discussions with technological pioneers - the producers, engineers, software wizards, and Internet visionaries who are shaping the sound of the future. In addition to audio examples, the accompanying DVD features tours of artists' studios. The Art of Digital Music will appeal to musicians who use technology to make music and fans who want to understand how technology is changing the way music is created, experienced, and shared.