Digital Biology
by Peter J. Bentley
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Hardcover (15 February, 2002)
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Editorial Review

Viruses, bugs, bots, ants: the metaphors, language, and realities of the digital world increasingly parallel those of the biological world. This vigorous book shows why those parallels are appropriate, even natural.

By studying the biological world and applying it to cyberspace and by using the natural processes responsible for life within computer systems, evolutionary biologist Peter Bentley writes, "we are overturning all preconceptions of what computers can and cannot do." They can do much, of course. Computers today can grow architectural models from digital "genes," can detect the difference between healthy and malignant cells, can even mimic certain behaviors of living beings. Tucking a handy primer in biological theory among sometimes heady discussions of the digital universe, Bentley focuses closely on the workings of computers today, projecting what might be true of those machines just a few years from now thanks to the workings of evolution--not strictly Darwinian evolution, to be sure, but evolution all the same.

Of interest to a wide range of readers, Bentley's book raises provocative questions as it prowls around inside the "benign cream-colored boxes" that surround us. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (9)

An excellent introductory text.
It is difficult to read this book and not catch the bug of biologically inspired computing. It is fascinating, inspiring and comprehensive (even my dad read it). It clearly makes the point that by understanding the way nature solves its problems we have discovered a whole new class of computation.

The book takes you smoothly through the basic domains of biologically inspired computing. Starting with the definition of a digital universe (that makes you think twice about our own), it introduces evolutionary computation, neural networks, ant colonies, artificial immune systems and other fascinating computational metaphors. It explains their foundations and underlying theories and describes their practical applications.

My only complaint: there are no references to scientific papers. The motivated reader will have to spent some time searching the web for further reading, other than the books included in the bibliography.

A fascinating read
I've got to say that I thought this was a wonderful book. An absolutely fascinating overview of a new and developing field of science. Nicely laid out, elegantly written, very "easy style", lots of detailed material is covered for each of the areas the author touches on, so you get depth aswell as the overview. The author presents some very interesting perspectives on existing ideas about biology and machines. Useful notes at the end and the further reading section is good.

Rather than be another "here is the future" book by yet another science journalist, this is a book with its feet very much in the present and written by a scientist who is active in the field (rather than a journalist). Do not be alarmed! This guy writes well. I'm not going to say it's a one- sitting read (because that would just make me too much of a techno-nerd), however it's definitely a page-turner.

In terms of books available, I think that there is presently only one other non text-book that takes an overview of this field (Moshe Sipper - Machine Nature), though I'm sure there are gonna be a lot more before too long . If you want 2 books - buy both. If you just want the one - I thought Peter Bentley's had detail aswell as breadth whereas Moshe Sippers, whilst still a very good book, stayed more at an overview level.

Disappointing
This book did not deliver what I was expecting.I thought there would be detailed examples of the use of biological concepts in computing.Unfortunately I was very wrong.

There are some examples, however they are very vague with little or no detail.Frequently the author asserts a technique has too many applications to go into in any detail without boring the reader.Next he proceeds to rattle off a dozen vague applications such as scheduling, optimization, etc.without giving enough information about the application to be useful.

The center of the book contains a number of pictures that are the result of one technique or another.Unfortunately he does not elaborate on how any of them were created.I enjoyed seeing the coffee table his computer designed.Unfortunately the only explaination he gave on how the program worked was something to the effect that it was complicated.A bit more detail or perhaps even code would have been much better.

Beyond my perceived technical shortcomings, the author's style did not appeal to me.For example he wrote a fairly detailed account of what it might be like (as though a virus could think) to be a virus invading a host.Perhaps this was an attempt to engage the readers' imaginations.If so, the effect was wasted on this reader.

Two stars seemed right as there are worse books in the world.However I doubt most people would gain much from reading it. ... Read more

Isbn: 0743204476
Subjects:  1. Adaptive control systems    2. Biological systems    3. Biomathematics    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computer Science    6. Computer Simulation    7. Computers    8. Life Sciences - Biology - General    9. Life Sciences - Evolution    10. Science    11. Computers / Computer Science   

The Evolution Explosion: How Humans Cause Rapid Evolutionary Change
by Stephen R. Palumbi
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (May, 2001)
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Editorial Review

The first thing that Harvard University biology professor Stephen Palumbi wants you to know is that evolution is a fact, not a theory. The second is this: evolution does not require eons and eons to make its effects manifest. By tinkering with genes and rewriting the laws of natural selection, we humans have lately been "accelerating the evolutionary game, especially among the species that live with us most intimately"--not our pets, that is to say, but the food we eat, the pests that share that food, and the diseases that visit us.

Almost all of this accelerated evolution--which, as in the pointed case of the human immunodeficiency virus, occurs faster than we can track it--is an unintended, accidental consequence of some well-intentioned effort to improve human life by sidestepping nature. One such consequence is the growing incidence of drug-resistant bacteria and viruses, which have mutated to survive antibiotic treatments to the point that postoperative infections from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus now pose a major threat to hospitals. Another is the arrival of pests that have evolved to survive pesticides of many kinds, pests that threaten crops around the world in a time of ever-increasing scarcity. All this, Palumbi writes, is "evolution with teeth," and such responses to our hapless prompting make humans the most potent evolutionary form the planet has ever known. Whether we can survive our own power to reshape the earth remains a question. But, Palumbi concludes, ideas evolve, too, so that we can hope against hope to think our way back to more or less normal cycles of evolutionary change. Well-written and provocative, his book makes for a useful start. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Poor science or just poor thinking?
One of the stones around the neck of Darwinist evolutionary theory is that it hasn't been observed to happen.Thousands of years of intensive breeding of dogs (not even the undirected evolution Darwin described) hasn't produced a new species of non-dogs. Same with cats and other living things.

The way around the problem is to avoid defining what evolution is or broaden it to simply mean "change" so that anything that changes is said to evolve. Defined that way, evolution can be trumpeted every time a rock rolls down the hill.

It's sort of like AIDS in Africa. First you had to be tested and found to have HIV to be counted as an AIDS case. Well, it was hard to test, so instead AIDS was redefined to be a class of symptoms. If you had the symptoms, you were counted. Immediately after the redefinition of AIDS, the reports started about an explosion of AIDS in Africa.Now whenever the stats need to be cranked up, a commission meets to add new symptoms to the list and expand the pool of what can be called AIDS.

These are also the author's primary methods, used in the hope no one looks too closely at all the semantic shell games being played. At times evolution is used in a context which implies "change". Then there is a shift and the idea is blended without warning to mean speciation (Darwinism). Word meanings flip back and forth without distinction so credibility can clandestinely be transferred from what everyone knows to be true (genetic variation) to that which is unproven (Darwinian speciation).

The organisms that develop resistance to antibiotics are the same type of bacteria as before they developed resistance. They have not become a different kind of bacteria. Exposure to the solvent DMSO has made resistant bacteria again susceptible to the old antibiotics. The reason isn't certain, but it appears as if it might have something to do with an external coating rather than genetic coding. Inheriting a useful slime coat from a pool of bacteria (that reproduce by splitting) is now being trumpeted as evolution without evidence, just like AIDS is exploding in Africa without testing. An artifact of definition.

It's like how one might persistently catch colds until beginningto take vitamin C supplements. If I no longer catch colds, have I biologically evolved?The author would have you think so.

The actual criticism of Darwinism is directed at the claim new information (new species) can be developed by undirected natural selection. It just has not been observed to happen.

Now if you want to falsely represent the critics of Darwinism, you can define evolution to simply mean "change". Then every time there is change in a biological system -- bingo -- you can say it "evolved". And critics of Darwinism then can be made to appear foolish and ignorant by ignoring all the "evidence of evolution (change)" exploding around them. Deeply dishonest. Lousy thinking, lousy science.

Everyone is aware of genetic variation. Blonde and black-haired spouses may have brown-haired children; tall and short may produce children in-between, etc., etc. This is the biological equivalent of painting-between-the-lines; radically different from the production of new species and the origin of life.

The subject of antibiotic resistance is a serious and interesting one, but using it falsely to wrap around evolution as a disguising cover is disingenous; an act of propaganda, not science.

It is completely true that accepting genetic variation but not speciation is a failure of imagination. Imagination is simply not enough to do the job.

Speciation by natural selection is claimed to be a science, yethasn't been observed,isn't repeatable and can't predict results. It's not science, but a philosophy of rationalization; it allows little stories to be constructed to explain why things are without regard to reality.

Darwinist start with the question "How do I want the universe to be?" and then determine truth to fit the answer. Actual science reverses the questions: "What is truth?" THEN "How shall we live?"

Science writing that will make creationists cringe.
This excellently-done book explores the human tendency to cause explosive evolution in our environments. Don't believe in evolution? Note how effectively we've caused many disease organisms to evolve resistance to our best antibiotics, in the course of less than 100 years. Or the fact that all of our food and pets have been selectively bred to exacting standards for more than 10,000 years. If we hadn't accelerated the evolution of maize, we'd still be eating cobs less than an inch long, you know. So there. And to counter your arguments: yes, selective breeding is too evolution. It's evolution by artificial selection, which is a perfectly valid mechanism. So there again.

Palumbi is both a colorful and informative writer. He spends a lot of time discussing HIV, and why it's so hard to beat (it mutates constantly, overwhelming the immune system). I would have liked a more in-depth discussion about whether humans are still evolving or not -- I think we are -- but he only touched on that subject.Nonetheless, highly recommended.

Why evolution Matters and why you should care.
This isa great read.Steven Palumbi shows everyone why evolution matters today in real and meaning ful ways.
Two quotes from the book
".. the best education is the one that bites back, the one that shows with clarity of glacial ice that the facts and principles of the scientific world are of crucial importance to every day life.... not through eclectic recourse to scientific theory or historical anecdote.Instead, I need to do it through examples about how evolution in the world around us matters."

And why does it matter: " And if antibiotic resistance just happens, then we have no notion of how it comes to be, and no real chance to block the rise of some of the world's deadliest forms of life.But if something evolves, then the science of evolution can chart the answer to why, and perhaps prevent or change it." ... Read more

Isbn: 0393020118
Subjects:  1. Drug resistance in microorgani    2. Drug resistance in microorganisms    3. Ecology    4. Effect of human beings on    5. Evolution (Biology)    6. Life Sciences - Biology - Microbiology    7. Life Sciences - Evolution    8. Microbiology (Specific Aspects)    9. Nature    10. Organic Evolution    11. Pesticide resistance    12. Science    13. Science/Mathematics   

Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques with Java Implementations (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)
by Ian H. Witten, Eibe Frank
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (11 October, 1999)
list price: $52.95 -- our price: $33.36
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Editorial Review

Data mining techniques are used to power intelligent software, both on and off the Internet. Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools explains the magic behind information extraction in a book that succeeds at bringing the latest in computer science research to any IS manager or developer. In addition, this book provides an opportunity for the authors to showcase their powerful reusable Java class library for building custom data mining software.

This text is remarkable with its comprehensive review of recent research on machine learning, all told in a very approachable style. (While there is plenty of math in some sections, the authors' explanations are always clear.) The book tours the nature of machine learning and how it can be used to find predictive patterns in data comprehensible to managers and developers alike. And theyuse sample data (for such topics as weather, contact lens prescriptions, and flowers) to illustrate key concepts.

After setting out to explain the types of machine learning models (like decision trees and classification rules), the book surveys algorithms used to implement them, plus strategies for improving performance and the reliability of results. Later the book turns to the authors' downloadable Weka (rhymes with "Mecca") Java class library, which lets you experiment with data mining hands-on and gets you started with this technology in custom applications. Final sections look at the bright prospects for data mining and machine learning on the Internet (for example, in Web search engines).

Precise but never pedantic, this admirably clear title delivers a real-world perspective on advantages of data mining and machine learning. Besides a programming how-to, it can be read profitably by any manager or developer who wants to see what leading-edge machine learning techniques can do for their software. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Data mining and machine learning basics, sample datasets and applications for data mining, machine learning vs. statistics, the ethics of data mining, generalization, concepts, attributes, missing values, decision tables and trees, classification rules, association rules, exceptions, numeric prediction, clustering, algorithms and implementations in Java, inferring rules, statistical modeling, covering algorithms, linear models, support vector machines, instance-based learning, credibility, cross-validation, probability, costs (lift charts and ROC curves), selecting attributes, data cleansing, combining multiple models (bagging, boosting, and stacking), Weka (reusable Java classes for machine learning), customizing Weka, visualizing machine learning, working with massive datasets, text mining, and e-mail and the Internet. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Stop searching for datamining: You've found it.
I've been working with "big name software" for some years, but when I joined the institution I work now and no tools where available I begun my quest for an open source tool that could help me build statistical models applied to real business problems.

As a result of this quest I found the WEKA data mining software on the Internet (you can find it on www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~ml/weka/) and that nice piece of software leaded me to this book.

This book is EXCELLENT and I am giving 5 *five* stars to it as it helped me understanding the whole process of datamining: from loading the data to building the model.

I've read some reviews and I think some of them are not fair (particularly one that says that this book have "just words with no relation or sense at all").. THIS BOOK IS REALLY WELL WRITTEN but you have to read it slowly: As when you study something.

Buy this book (*don't forget to download the software*) and I am totally sure that you will be producing and using models in a week.

Can't imagine that some weeks ago

Cheers,

Try to cover many, but not depth enough.
This book is actual a textbook for a data analysis course. We use it because the flow of the chapters is almost the same as the flow of the course material. Unfortunately, it is not as useful as expected if you are in the field. It is not in depth for the materials that the authors wanted to cover due to the fact that this is not a book for just programming or just statistics. If you have a strong background on machine language or a strong background on data analysis, you may not find it useful for you career. This book is for those who have limited knowledge on both programming and statistics, but not for professionals.

If you read machine learning then you should read it also
I have read machine learning writed by Tom M. Mitchell and also I have read Data Mining Concepts and Techniques writed by J. Han and M. Kamber. Both text books is very useful for someone who want to get concept of a modern data analysis approaches. But, however, to understant about that clearly, you should read this book also because the example and author's form writing is so good and nice, very easy to understant. ... Read more

Isbn: 1558605525
Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Bks - Data Base Management    3. Computer Books: Internet General    4. Computers    5. Data Modeling & Design    6. Data mining    7. Database Engineering    8. Database Management - Database Mining    9. Database Management - General    10. Disaster Recovery    11. Java (Computer program languag    12. Java (Computer program language)    13. Machine Learning    14. Programming Languages - Java    15. Computers / Information Storage & Retrieval   

Machine Learning
by Tom M. Mitchell
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 March, 1997)
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Reviews (22)

Excellent reference book
I liked the book. But I think author must provide more figures in the book like Duda and Hart's Pattern Classification book. I used the book as master course and I found it easy to follow, interesting and useful book even I am newcomer to topic.

excellent book...must to have one!
just the right content and texr easy to read!

Technique Without Substance
Have you ever bought something that warns "assembly required" only to find out that the instructions are missing?That's a pretty accurate analogy to how Mitchell's book left me feeling.With an empty smile, he hands you a bag of techniques and tells you to go to town.Sure, there are hints about when you might apply particular algorithms, but they are abstract and occasionally hidden in the text.It's as if you've been handed a wrench and told that it can turn things.Huzzah.

When describing a field of knowledge, it's important to communicate the "Big Picture."Mitchell does a poor job of this.That is to say that he doesn't do this at all.The lack of a pervasive thread is all the more odd and disconcerting given that his dissertation gave an amazingly coherent description of the process of inductive learning.I suppose I feel a bit taken because there's nothing so tangible or real to hold the disjoint chapters together.So, without any real historical or philosophical context, we're left with something reminiscent of a first-year calculus book.Here's how to differentiate, here's how to integrate, now go figure out what you're supposed to do with those things.

Nevertheless, anyone needing a reference guide (think of a shop manual) to machine learning techniques (that isn't quite up to date) would do well to buy this book.Anyone wanting to understand the field of machine learning should probably check out a bit of the competition.I think you'll find that some folks' kung fu is stronger. ... Read more

Isbn: 0070428077
Sales Rank: 72054
Subjects:  1. Algorithms (Computer Programming)    2. Artificial Intelligence - General    3. Computer Bks - General Information    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computer Science    6. Computer algorithms    7. Computers    8. Machine Learning   

Compilers
by Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, Jeffrey D. Ullman
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 January, 1986)
list price: $105.20 -- our price: $105.20
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Reviews (47)

Still don't have the dragon book?
Compiler design is a huge field. This book is a mirror of this field. The language is clear and the notation used by authors simplify understanding of the material.This book covers the main arguments relevant to compiler design:

1) Introduction to compiling
2) A simple one-pass compiler
3) Lexycal analysis
4) Syntax analysis
5) Syntax-directed translation
6) Type checking
7) Run-time Environments
8) Intermediate code generation
9) Code generation
10) Code optimization

plus other chapters with some hints and a programming project.

Some people said that this book is too "heavy" for an introductory course on compiler design. I think that all people reading a book of this entity should have at least a basic understanding of theoretical computer science, like finite state machines, grammars, and regular expressions. All the material is well organized.
The book starts with an introduction to compiler design, ideas and basic principles. Then it develops concepts in the rest of the book. Of course this is not an easy reading but this is not a problem of the book. Compiler theory is complex and this book try to explain it in the clearest way possible.
I like this book, after reading this you'll have all the skills to read more advanced books about this subject.
This book has always been considered the standard textbook about compiler design and I recommend it to all people interested in this wonderful subject. Highly recommended.

Trivial, non-constructive, hard-to-follow, terrible
The worst textbook I've ever read.
For Many times I've been confused by the author's explanation for some very simple ideas.

Yet another reviewer
What can you say about a book that has 41+ reviews, and all with close to perfect marks?
I bought this book not as it required so by almost any and all classes that teach about compiler design, but because I was interested in compilers and didn't have a chance to take class as part of my degree.It's a great book.Explains things well, and there are enough supporting material on the web that you can do a self paste study on your own and still get a lot out of this book. ... Read more

Isbn: 0201100886
Sales Rank: 47378
Subjects:  1. Compilers    2. Compilers (Computer programs)    3. Computer Architecture - General    4. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    5. Computer Books: General    6. Computers    7. Programming - General    8. Programming Languages - General    9. Software Design    10. Computers / Computer Architecture   

Introduction to Algorithms, Second Edition
by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, Clifford Stein
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 September, 2001)
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Editorial Review

Aimed at any serious programmer or computer science student,the new second edition of Introduction to Algorithms builds onthe tradition of the original with a truly magisterial guide to theworld of algorithms. Clearly presented, mathematically rigorous, andyet approachable even for the math-averse, this title sets a highstandard for a textbook and reference to the best algorithms forsolving a wide range of computing problems.

With sample problems andmathematical proofs demonstrating the correctness of each algorithm,this book is ideal as a textbook for classroom study, but its reachdoesn't end there. The authors do a fine job of explaining eachalgorithm. (Reference sections on basic mathematical notation will helpreaders bridge the gap, but it will help to have some math backgroundto appreciate the full achievement of this handsome hardcover volume.)Every algorithm is presented in pseudo-code, which can be implementedin any computer language, including C/C++ and Java. This ecumenicalapproach is one of the book's strengths. When it comes to sorting andcommon data structures, from basic linked lists to trees (includingbinary trees, red-black, and B-trees), this title really shines, withclear diagrams that show algorithms in operation. Even if you justglance over the mathematical notation here, you can definitely benefitfrom this text in other ways.

The book moves forward with moreadvanced algorithms that implement strategies for solving morecomplicated problems (including dynamic programming techniques, greedyalgorithms, and amortized analysis). Algorithms for graphing problems(used in such real-world business problems as optimizing flightschedules or flow through pipelines) come next. In each case, theauthors provide the best from current research in each topic, alongwith sample solutions.

This text closes with a grab bag of usefulalgorithms including matrix operations and linear programming,evaluating polynomials, and the well-known Fast Fourier Transformation(FFT) (useful in signal processing and engineering). Final sections on"NP-complete" problems, like the well-known traveling salesman problem,show off that while not all problems have a demonstrably final and bestanswer, algorithms that generate acceptable approximate solutions canstill be used to generate useful, real-world answers.

Throughout thistext, the authors anchor their discussion of algorithms with currentexamples drawn from molecular biology (like the Human Genome Project),business, and engineering. Each section ends with short discussions ofrelated historical material, often discussing original research in eacharea of algorithms. On the whole, they argue successfully thatalgorithms are a "technology" just like hardware and software that canbe used to write better software that does more, with betterperformance. Along with classic books on algorithms (like DonaldKnuth's three-volume set, The Art of ComputerProgramming), this title sets a new standard for compiling thebest research in algorithms. For any experienced developer, regardlessof their chosen language, this text deserves a close look for extendingthe range and performance of real-world software. --RichardDragan

Topics covered: Overview of algorithms (including algorithms asa technology); designing and analyzing algorithms; asymptotic notation;recurrences and recursion; probabilistic analysis and randomizedalgorithms; heapsort algorithms; priority queues; quicksort algorithms;linear time sorting (including radix and bucket sort); medians andorder statistics (including minimum and maximum); introduction to datastructures (stacks, queues, linked lists, and rooted trees); hashtables (including hash functions); binary search trees; red-blacktrees; augmenting data structures for custom applications; dynamicprogramming explained (including assembly-line scheduling, matrix-chainmultiplication, and optimal binary search trees); greedy algorithms(including Huffman codes and task-scheduling problems); amortizedanalysis (the accounting and potential methods); advanced datastructures (including B-trees, binomial and Fibonacci heaps,representing disjoint sets in data structures); graph algorithms(representing graphs, minimum spanning trees, single-source shortestpaths, all-pairs shortest paths, and maximum flow algorithms); sortingnetworks; matrix operations; linear programming (standard and slackforms); polynomials and the Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT); numbertheoretic algorithms (including greatest common divisor, modulararithmetic, the Chinese remainder theorem, RSA public-key encryption,primality testing, integer factorization); string matching;computational geometry (including finding the convex hull);NP-completeness (including sample real-world NP-complete problems andtheir insolvability); approximation algorithms for NP-complete problems(including the traveling salesman problem); reference sections forsummations and other mathematical notation, sets, relations, functions,graphs and trees, as well as counting and probability backgrounder(plus geometric and binomial distributions). ... Read more

Reviews (122)

Too much coverage and few examples
I am a MS student, we used this book as Text Guide. Thank God I pass although I just got a B in part due to the poor coverage of exercises of this book. Despite of my willingness to try the examples and exercises it was really frustating not be able to check any of my answers.
First of all the book tries to cover all the possible topics related to Algorithms from sortingto NP-completeness problems. My recommendation, focus on what you know well and cover it thouroughly or at least split this book in 2 volumes.
Second, the anoying way to explain things by leaving them as exercises.
Third, the exercises were not in any way helpful to reinforce the material covered in the chapter, on the contrary are just the introduction of new concepts; and on top of that no answers available. In some cases the answers are not even related to the chapter you are reviewing, just an example, the solution for some of the problems in NP chapter are the application of Dynamic Programming which is a different chapter in the book.

If you have the unfortune of using this book, search on the net for answers that may guide you on your homework assignments.

Best of the luck.

Comprehensive and (almost) complete.
I am an EE PhD student in Princeton, with basic CS background. I bought this book about a week ago, and I just finished reading more than half of it. I am impressed by the organisation and dedication of the authors to write something understandable to a wide audience, without sacrificing in depth analysis. If you need a good and complete introductory book,that summarizes also the latest research in the field, I would recommend this one.

Drawbacks...Minor (+ I am a weird guy) and hardly mentionable, but I have the feeling that some proofs may have been presented more rigorously. I would also like to see more examples or SOLUTIONS to some of the problems.

Lots of stuff, but a little verbose
A good introductory text but that's about it. Any CS major worth his salt should chew his way through this level material pretty quickly, and there's the only rub... at points this could be a little bit more concise because it actually can aid understanding in an exact field. Sometimes less is more. The spared pages could be used to cover more material or to raise the bar a little. ... Read more

Isbn: 0262032937
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: Operating Systems    3. Computer Science    4. Computer algorithms    5. Computer programming    6. Computers    7. Programming - Algorithms    8. Computers / Computer Science   

Distributed Operating Systems: Concepts and Practice
by Doreen L. Galli
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (31 August, 1999)
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Reviews (10)

Highly Recommended...
This book has all the right material (and more). I found the topics to be presented in a straightforward and easy to understand manner just as most here have said. There's even a glossary and a list of acronyms provided which is a helpful tool. What else could you want? I would highly recommend checking this one out. Oh, and the couple naysay blurbs here are nonsensical as this has got to be one of the best books in its class.

Helped me land!
Let's face it ... the IT market is near the bottom. A colleague (or should I say former colleague) handed me this book to 'freshen' up before that all important interview. It was quick and easy to read and helped me put some meat behind what I had been doing as well as articulate and formalize my knowledge. I think this is exactly what gave me the edge in the interviews (endless rounds of interviews). Now I not only landed but went from a senior engineer to a chief architect with a bump in pay. I just grabbed a copy for myself as I'm sure this is one book I will be referring to quite often. All in all - content wise I'd highly recommend this book. On the part of editing - well - not the best but the content is what I needed and got.

RW
Chief Architect

STAY AWAY....Poorly edited and very terse
While this book covers a lot of the areas pertaining to distributed OSes, it is very tersely worded and I have to wonder what monkey edited it. At least 1/2 of the pages contain grammatical errors. Figures are also stunningly frequently mislabeled. There is no way anyone should use this book until these errors are fixed for either a text or their own information.

Contentwise, the book assumes that you remember everything from your basic OS class, it doesn't explain ANYTHING that would normally be covered by a more basic OS book. This doesn't cut the mustard because not every professor covers every topic relating to normal OSes in Intro to OS(also, this book may be used at the masters level where it is possible that its been 10 years since the student has taken intro to os). It may be ok for a quickie reference into possible algorithms, but as an actual learning guide it stinks.

Sadly, I can't give this 0 stars. ... Read more

Isbn: 0130798436
Sales Rank: 740430
Subjects:  1. Client-Server Computing - General    2. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computers    5. Distributed Computer Systems    6. Distributed operating systems    7. Distributed operating systems (Computers)    8. Management Information Systems    9. Operating Systems - General    10. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design   

Fundamentals of Database Systems (3rd Edition)
by Ramez Elmasri, Shamkant Navathe
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 August, 1999)
list price: $95.00
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Reviews (37)

Want the big picture?!
I consider this text a superior cover on database systems.
So far,I didn't see a text as thorough as this one to cover the theory of databases. The book is full of SQL examples that links what you've learned with DBMS(s) and it also emphasizes the practical& impractical query algebraic e.g. division in query algebra and how would you accomplish it efficiently in SQL. However, the authors have devoted parts of their times to illustrate the implementation of queries for those interested in a deeper understanding.

You will find also interesting chapters about advanced database issues like data-mining, warehousing...etc. These topics need volumes to be covered thoroughly; however, they are covered in a way that make your life easier whenever you read postgraduate level texts on database systems.

As an undergrad. student I would say you don't have to consult any other text through the course. It is a full coverage, I guess!

As DB professional (Data Modeling,DBA,DB programmer or whatever you do for life !)I guess, unless you have problems with your wife or your roommate :),you will enjoy your time reading this text.

The bottom line is:I recommend this text for you or in other words, this is what you need.

for professionals
this is one of the best books if you ever wanted to know anything about databases. I think this isn't a tutorial book or a book for self study on this topic for beginners - but if you ever need to look up for an profound explication on some database matter this will be the book for you.

This gives you insights into your database, if you are on the frontier from application developer that has to understand what a database realy does.

Badly explained topics
I am very disappointed with this book because the content is generally very badly explained. I constantly had to refer to other 'clearer' sources online regarding nearly all areas of reading for much better explanations which incidentally were regularly about a tenth of the length of text and a hundred times clearer. ... Read more

Isbn: 0805317554
Sales Rank: 270898
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Data Base Management    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. Database Engineering    5. Database Management - General    6. Database management   

Neural Network Design (Electrical Engineering)
by Martin T. Hagan, Howard B. Demuth, Mark H. Beale
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (29 December, 1995)
list price: $118.95
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Reviews (8)

Very Useful
Very usefulbook to have if you plan to use NN (specially in matlab environment). The theory is very well covered and explained, along with graphical examples. The book lacks however, more insight into how to implemen NN in real world problems (for that, I would suggest seeing Fundamentals of NN by Laurene V. Fausett).

Hands down the best introduction
I knew the very poor Matlab Neural Network Toolbox User's Guide by the same authors and I was kind of expecting the same, and boy was I wrong!

This book is simply brilliant, a miracle of pedagogy. It is intended for undergrad classes, but it is so clear that graduate students will benefit enormously from reading it before any other material. Plainly put, this book makes you UNDERSTAND this difficult topic, more than any other book that I know of (Zurada, Smith, Hassoun, Haykin, Duda-Hart, Caudill, etc)

A selection of worked out problems are included at the end of each chapter, a practice that is highly beneficial but alas too rare in books of the kind.

I very much appreciated the very clear exposition of backpropagation, and optimization methods such as Levenberg-Marquardt.

A note to Matlab users: funky demos are available for free and illustrate the main points of the book.

Beale is brilliant!!!
I have been studying neural network design for almost 30 years now and I have never found a more enchanting text book than this one.From day one I could not put it down.In fact, I bought a copy for each member of my extended family.Beale is brilliant in the way he demostrates the design and capability of neural network systems.No one has ever captured the public's imagination and heart the way he does in this compelling work.He has taken the study of neural networks to the next level.Hence, the world will be a better place.H2BurBabes4Ever. ... Read more

Isbn: 0534943322
Sales Rank: 459437
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Communications / Networking    2. Computer Books: General    3. Engineering - Electrical & Electronic    4. Networking - General    5. Neural Computing    6. Neural Networks    7. Neural networks (Computer science)   

Concepts of Programming Languages (5th Edition)
by Robert W. Sebesta
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (31 July, 2001)
list price: $109.00 -- our price: $109.00
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Reviews (17)

Comprehensive Book
I just finished using this book for the Programming Language course.Although the examples used in the book are written in Ada, Pascal, C++, Java, and C#, you won't learn to program in any of these languages just from reading this book alone.This book mostly focuses on the topic of languages design and theory.

Chapter 2 also contain some interesting history of programming languages.The book is also sparsed with interviews of famous people, e.g. James Gosling, Bjarne Stroustrup.Quote from Bjarne Stroustrup, "I consider programming of any nontrival program a job for professionals with a solid and broad education, rather than for people with a hurried and narrow training."If you want such solid and broad education on various programming language, this book is a good starting point.

the author has no idea
It appears the author has no idea what is going on with concepts of PLs. For example, he doesn't even touch on the ideas of follow sets and predictive parsing. His coverage of BNF and EBNF is light, at best, and it seems this topical coverage permiates the whole book.

As any CS student or educator knows, "Concepts of" books tend to be dense and difficult to read. This author attempts to make the material more readable at the cost of detail. Unfortunatley, the detail he leaves out is necessary.

I would also argue that the author doesn't have a strong understanding of PLs. The concepts he presents toward the begining on PL evaluation are incomplete. He doesn't fully express all of the important criteria in language evaluation.

Overall, if you are looking for a brief, topical INTRODUCTION to programming languages, this may be the book for you. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it.

Good book
This is very interesting book in which you can find interesting information about history of programming languages, as well as most relevant consepts used for building language compilers.

The problem of this book is not in the matter that is presented in the book, but in the way it is presented. The biggest problem is in the typos and mistakes made in the text. It is strange that this 6th edition of the book contains so many typos and mistakes.

Regardless the drawbacks that are said before, I recomand this book for buying. Anyone who is interested in programmming and programming languages will surely find interesting information in this book. ... Read more

Isbn: 0201752956
Sales Rank: 96098
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computers    5. Programming - General    6. Programming Languages - General    7. Programming languages (Electro    8. Programming languages (Electronic computers)   

Artificial Intelligence: Modern Approach
by Stuart J. Russell, Peter Norvig
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (15 January, 1995)
list price: $84.00
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Editorial Review

Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach introduces basic ideas in artificial intelligence from the perspective of building intelligent agents, which the authors define as "anything that can be viewed as perceiving its environment through sensors and acting upon the environment through effectors." This textbook is up-to-date and is organized using the latest principles of good textbook design. It includes historical notes at the end of every chapter, exercises, margin notes, a bibliography, and a competent index. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach covers a wide array of material, including first-order logic, game playing, knowledge representation, planning, and reinforcement learning. ... Read more

Reviews (48)

Re: Survey type of book, shallow but good for reference
I think the book is good overall, it could be more focused in some places and have better examples for the students.

My major point with writing this review though is to counter false claim from the reviewer who wrote the "Survey type of book, shallow but good for reference", the book does cover Simulated Annealing, see page 116 in the International Edition for instance.

An `ok' general purpose book on AI.
This is currently the best general purpose book on AI (the field). It is by no means the best book on any individual topic though... but I guess that wasn't the point of the book to begin with.

I'm not particularly happy with this book though. I think it's the language, or the examples, or something, but often it's just not `clear'---not as intuitive as I'd like. Many teachers seem to use it in a `general purpose course on AI' though (not anything particularly detailed, so it's `ok'---there are worse books on the subjects).

In short: as a general purpose AI book on everything, it does its job, but don't expect it to be anything other than a glorified field overview.

the book is an excellent material

the book enters all the aspects of AI today and tomorow. ... Read more

Isbn: 0131038052
Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence    2. Artificial Intelligence - General    3. Computer Bks - General Information    4. Computer Books: General    5. Neural Networks   

Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles (4th Edition)
by William Stallings
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (15 December, 2000)
list price: $100.00
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Reviews (22)

Buy your text books from AMAZON!!!!!!!!!!!
I bought this book for my class. Since is is a text book, whatever is inside didn't matter to me. Easy to read though...
But the price and the service from AMAZON was amazing.
Don't buy your text books from campus book stores ever again.
They are the ripper-offers.

Too many nonsense for introductory book
this is the worst book that i have encounter in my life. i have been looking for a book as a supplimentary for my OS course, however this book failed to deliver to give understantable examples and teory. I agreed that this book have a lot to offer, packing with a lot of examples and illustration but none of them make me feel usefull. in other word, IT IS USELESS. What i want is a book that can give a simple way of teaching to the subject and not a book that trying to confuse the readers.

finally, i strongly not recommend this book for those who are looking a simple and easy to understand OS reference book.

this book make me feel stupid!

Boring and useless
This is a useless book. There is nothing useful in it. A lot of theory, but almost nothing about aplications. It was very difficult to read and very boring. The worst thing, is that I didn't learn something useful. The code examples are stupid! Honestly, I lose my money with this one. ... Read more

Isbn: 0130319996
Sales Rank: 278578
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Operating Systems    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. Operating Systems - General    5. Computers / Operating Systems / General   

Database Systems Concepts with Oracle CD
by Abraham Silberschatz, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (30 October, 2001)
list price: $110.31 -- our price: $110.31
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Reviews (17)

Perfect for those who can only read symbols
This is quite the typical Computer Science textbook, vastly overpriced and lacking any real information. Veteran CS students will be happy to find that even the most simple concepts have been reduced to pure math, this to make sure that creative students who have no passion for math do not have an unfair advantage.

If you can only read math (or prefer that everything in life is described purely in equation form), this is the best book on the market!

A typical bad CS textbook
This is a required book for my undergrad Databases class. While reading over it before the semester started I began to wonder why my professor would ever choose such a terrible book. Of course it became clear when, on the first day of class, the professor began to read word for word off slides with the names of the authors sitting at the bottom along with the familiar 'cute' artwork from the cover. Note to instructors: choosing a book because it provides prewritten notes and allows you to be extra lazy is not a valid reason for choosing a textbook. The book is filled with lots of mathematical notation with few good examples. By good examples I mean those that involve realistic databases and not the 'Consider a schema R = (A, B, C, D, E)...' mathematical drivel that fills most of the pages.

Ground Up Knowledge
I read some of the reviews here. The comments varies from a good book to a worthless one.

If you are really interested in making a career out of databases, then this is a book you got to read. An analogy that comes to mind is "You got to have a strong foundation to build a sky craper". This is exactly what this book is. It helps you build a strong foundation.

I got hold of this book when I was in my 4th Semester of my BS in computer science (1994 - 2nd Edition of this book) to clear my Database concepts exam. Ever since, whenever I feel I might not have understood some concept, I go back to this book.

One thing you got to understand is, its not a book that you can just read through and tell people that you have understood the concepts. You need to work the book.

Rgds,
Naveen
IBM DB2 UDB Certified Specialist. ... Read more

Isbn: 0072554819
Sales Rank: 105704
Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers    3. Database Engineering    4. Database Management - General    5. Software - Reference    6. Computers / Database Management / General   

Wireless and Mobile Network Architectures
by Yi-Bing Lin, Imrich Chlamtac
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (02 October, 2000)
list price: $75.00 -- our price: $75.00
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Reviews (11)

Excellent Resource
I found the book to be very informative and well laid out for use as a reference.It has been a life saver in giving a good background on each technology.I have been asked by several of my wireless networking peers about the book and all have found it an excellent reference.

An excellent wireless and mobile networks text book for CS
I used this book as the textbook for an undergraduate course in our computer enginnering department last semester. Unlike its alternatives, this book does not require a signal and systems background which makes it the ideal choice for departments such as ours. If you are teaching a group of CS or mixed EE/CS undergraduate students, I strongly recommend the book. In general, the book is easy to read and gives the reader a broad understanding of the topic. Chapters are organized in a manner that the book will be useful for the North American, European or Far Eastern community as examplified in the inclusion of different signalling systems from different regions. Another property of the book which makes it attractive is the inclusion of very hot topics such as VoIP,GPRS,WAP, 3G services, wireless local loop which makes the book timely and complete.

Full of unexplained terms and confusing descriptions
The typesetting makes this book unpleasant to read. However, it is the writing style that makes the reading a frustrating experience: The author throws you piles of technical terms without clearly explaining their meaning, or the relation to and difference from related acronyms. It might be a book for you only if you are already a telecom expert. Otherwise, you would probably find yourself in a similar situation to mine--hoping someone can help you with tons of questions you cannot find answers for from this book. ... Read more

Isbn: 0471394920
Sales Rank: 194265
Subjects:  1. Business/Economics    2. Mobile communication systems    3. Networking - General    4. Personal communication service    5. Personal communication service systems    6. Radio    7. Switching systems    8. Technology    9. Technology & Industrial Arts    10. Telecommunication    11. Telecommunication (Engineering)    12. Telecommunications    13. Wireless communication systems    14. Computer Communications & Networking    15. Computers / Networking / General    16. Radio technology   

TCP/IP Network Administration (3rd Edition; O'Reilly Networking)
by Craig Hunt
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (April, 2002)
list price: $44.95 -- our price: $29.67
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Editorial Review

This book will be indispensable to Unix system administrators.It describes how to set up and administer a network of Unix systems using the TCP/IP protocols, taking a thoroughly practical approach.Topics covered include basic system configuration, routing, common network applications, and many others. ... Read more

Reviews (28)

Cannot Live Without
Though this book is oriented to UNIX, I find it tremendously useful as a Windows administrator.Core concepts gleamed from thisbook has catapulted me greatly into my career, and allowed me to solve complex networking problems and avert major disasters.

I was introduced to this book for a UNIX Network Administration course, and from this I was able to really flesh out core TCP/IP concepts as well as play with services like DHCP and DNS, which are essential pieces for a Windows Active Directory environment.Using this book I was able to dabble with other services like NFS and SAMBA from a variety of systems ranging from Mac OS X to Solaris x86 to Linux to Windows XP...

I don't have any complaints, but rather some requests for future editions.I wish there was some coverage of IPSec and Kerberos in Chapter 12 "Network Security".I think Chapter 9 "Local Netowrk Services" could be expanded, as some topics are sparsely covered and there is no mention of printing technologies like IPP or CUPS.I do wish there was more coverage of the raw SMTP protocol and related technologies of POP, IMAP, and LDAP and maybe even mail servers like Exim and Postfix.However, don't touch that sendmail chapter (Chapter 10), as this coverage is so very excellent; other books go off on the deep end are far way too complex to get started.

this book is terrible
I can't understand all the glowing reviews this book is recieving, it is a VERY cursory and shallow treatment of far to much material.It's just all over the place.Please stay away from the "crab book", it sucks.

If you want a good tcp/ip book, O'Reilly's "Internet Core Protocols" is a great one.This book is not very good at all.

Best TCP/IP Book Hands Down!
As with all of O'Reilly's books, this one is technically accurate and fundamentally sound.

It does not teach TCP/IP from a simplistic approach--telling you only what you need to know and leaving you begging for more. It lays a ground work based upon the actual theory of these protocols and how they were developed and the thinking that was involved in their creation.

From there, it takes you step by step through the layers of the protocols and presents everything that most people would need to know--even more than they would need to know.

Especially enlightening were the chapters on IPv6--the next generation of the IP protocol, and the chapter covering subnetting.

Overall, if you need the one book to explain TCP/IP and the "ins-and-outs" of these networking protocols, look no further.

This book has all you'll need. ... Read more

Isbn: 0596002971
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Communications / Networking    2. Computer Books: Operating Systems    3. Computers    4. Data Transmission Standards And Protocols    5. Networking - Network Protocols    6. Operating Systems - UNIX    7. Programming - General    8. Unix (Operating System)    9. COM060000    10. Computers / Networking / Network Protocols    11. Networking standards & protocols   

Perl 5 Developer's Guide
by Ed Peschko, Michelle Dewolfe
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 June, 1998)
list price: $54.95 -- our price: $54.95
(price subject to change: see help)
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Reviews (29)

A good book to learn perl
if you have the patience to finish it! this book is packed with useful information with great depth, but its a bit dry and too thick for its intended purposes. it is a good buy to strengthen your perl knowledge and introduce you to do OOP with perl, however its not so ideal for a reference and i doubt anyone can finish this book cover-to-cover. i didnt finish it but for whatever chapters i have managed to read thru, they are pretty informative

Hard to find information
This is one of the most unorganized books I have ever read. I just started learning Perl, and I used this book because it was available in the library. I read up to chapter 10. One big problem with this book is that the Index is very short and the book is huge, so most of the time I cannot find a reference pointer to the subject I am interested. The index is basically useless. So I have wasted a lot of time trying to find information about a specific subject by browsing the book until I found a relevant heading. There seems to be tones of information in this book but, the organization is terrible; it is as if they had just dumped a lot of scattered information into one book, without beeing concerned about the logical flow. After chapter 10, the topics are very advanced, but they are not introduced properly. There is the assumption that you already know a lot of object oriented programming. I have given up on this book and threw it away. I never write book reviews but I felt compelled to do it today, because this book just got to my nerves by wasting so much of my time. I hope you don't waste your money on this book.

Good for learning Perl, Bad as a reference
If you are wanting to learn perl, this book will help you do that.It jumps in quickly into how to code perl, so be prepared.If you have coded C++, then this perl won't be that hard with this book.However, if you'venever programmed before, then this is not the book for you.

Once I hadlearned perl, I found this book to be a 500 page paper weight.It doeslittle good as a reference. ... Read more

Isbn: 0079136982
Sales Rank: 710338
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books And Software    3. Computer Networks    4. Computers    5. Internet - Web Site Design    6. Object-Oriented Programming    7. Programming - General    8. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    9. Programming Languages - CGI, Javascript, Perl, VBScript   

Software Runaways : Monumental Software Disasters
by Robert L. Glass
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (18 September, 1997)
list price: $29.99
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Reviews (11)

Reports from the Disaster Areas of the IT Age
If you're looking for a solid book on avoiding IT disasters, this isn't it.

On the other hand if you want to see what not to do, if you want to find good examples of what can go wrong in IT, if you need to put the fear of God in a CIO or a manager, then this is your book.

Collecting reports on some of the worst, stupidest IT mistakes, the book examines what went wrong and why.It's dry and depressing reading (about halfway through I had to take a break), but its also informative.These are the real deals, and they aren't pretty.

Though this will not be the greatest book you read or the most helpful, it's still very, very useful.It's good as a compliment to more helpful material, but the useful collecting of data and the attempts to be unbiased earn it 4 stars instead of 3.

Misleading...
This book suffers some major flaws, which are not well represented on the back cover or in the introduction.

1) The story telling is incredibly dull. The author desperately needs some lessons from Cringely.

2) Thestory telling is all third-hand. The author had no first hand experience inany of the disasters, nor did he bother to personally interview any of theparticipants. Instead, he simply compiled information from public mediasources.

3) The story telling barely relates to software development atall. Many of the stories superficially relate management failures or legalbattles with hardly a reference to the actual softwareprojects/issues.

4) The story telling is often not even by the authorhimself! Some of the stories are simply reprints of professional journalarticles by other authors. Tellingly, these are often the more (barely)interesting stories.

I think the book cover misrepresents the contentssubstantially. I felt sort of ripped-off. 2 stars only because it is one ofthe few books that collects a lot of this information in one place.

Valuable to managers and project managers
This is a collection of project disasters with an eye towards the major project management failures rather than the technical issues. Though many of these have been previously published, the assembly is worth price of thebook. This will be is valuable for anybody involved in high-level decisionmaking on mission-critical (and smaller) IT/Internet software projects. Ifyou want to educate your boss on why you can't begin work without clearobjectives, scope, senior management involvement, etc., a few of thesestories should clear his/her head. All the B-to-B internet hubs run byconsortia should read this or be ready to end up in vol II. ... Read more

Isbn: 013673443X
Sales Rank: 416397
Subjects:  1. Case studies    2. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computers    5. Programming - Software Development    6. Programming Languages - General    7. Software    8. Software Design    9. Software failures    10. Computers / Programming / Software Development   

Operating System Concepts, 6th Edition
by AbrahamSilberschatz, Peter BaerGalvin, GregGagne, A Silberschatz
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (26 June, 2001)
list price: $104.95
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Editorial Review

Operating systems are large and complex, and yet must functionwith near-absolute reliability--that's why they're a class untothemselves in the field of software development. Since its firstrelease 20 years ago, "the dinosaur book"--Operating SystemConcepts by Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin, and GregGagne--has been a valuable reference for designers and implementers ofoperating systems. The newly released sixth edition of this bookmaintains the volume's authority with new sections on threadmanagement, distributed processes, and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).There's also information on the workings of the latest crop ofoperating systems, including Microsoft Windows 2000, Linux, FreeBSD,and compact operating systems for handheld devices.

This book isconcerned with the design of operating systems, which is to say itenumerates the problems that pop up in the creation of efficientsystems and explores alternative ways of dealing with them, detailingthe advantages and shortcomings of each. For example, in their chapteron scheduling CPU activity, the authors explain several algorithms(first-come, first-served, and round-robin scheduling, among others)for allocating the capacity of single and multiple processors amongjobs. They highlight the relative advantages of each, and explain howseveral real-life operating systems solve the problem. They thenpresent the reader with exercises (this book is essentially auniversity textbook) that inspire thought and discussion. --DavidWall

Topics covered: The problems faced by designers of systemsoftware for electronic computers, and strategies that have beendeveloped over the past 20 years to address (and, in some cases, solve)them. Problems of CPU scheduling, memory allocation, paging, processesand threads, storage management, distributed processes and storagemechanisms, and security are all discussed thoroughly and with manyauthoritative references. ... Read more

Reviews (54)

Accessible treatment of complex topics
This book does a great job of presenting all details of operating system design and operation. When appropriate, the authors point out how Linux, Solaris or Windows implements a given topic. This is valuable for software developers who work on these platform and need to understand how the scheduler is going to react if you spawn new threads/processes.

The one bad thing I can say is that some examples are too general and do not convey the proper detail. This is just a minor distraction and does not take away from the book's overall effectiveness.

Great Fundamentals of OS Book
Good book for learning OS principles for undergrad and lower grad students. I recommend this for hose wanting an introduction to OS Internals.

I prefer this to Modern OS by Tanenbaum.

Mediocre to poor OS book
It's been around 13 years since I took a course on OSes. I decided to purchase this book as a reference and to review some of the material that I have not had to deal with for a long time (e.g. synchronization primitives). I found the book to be a poor reference and found the chapters that I read to have poor or lacking exposition of the principles, data structures, and algorithms involved. e.g. there were sections where he lists pseudocode and says "see fig 2.13 for the algorithm" with no discussion of the reasoning behind the algorithm. The book also did not take any time to discuss practical considerations, e.g. implementing synchronization primitives with modern optimizing compilers and on modern out-of-order memory systems.

I am looking for a better substitute, and for now would suggest passing on this book. ... Read more

Isbn: 0471417432
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Operating Systems    2. Computer Books And Software    3. Computer Operating Systems    4. Computers    5. Operating Systems - General    6. Operating systems (Computers)    7. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design    8. Programming Languages - General    9. Computers / Operating Systems / General    10. Operating systems & graphical user interfaces (GUIs)   

The Cambridge Encyclopedia
by David Crystal
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (22 September, 1994)
list price: $49.95
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Editorial Review

This is a terrific one-volume, one-stop reference, handy when you need that particular fact right now and don't want to go any farther than the stack of books you keep by your desk. From Queen Boadicea whipping the Romans' butts before taking poison to a list of world-champion orienteers (1970? Why, Stig Berge, of course) to an atlas section with maps on earthquake zones and global warming and acid rain patterns, this uber-tome has it all. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

spread too thin
I'm perplexed that this encyclopedia managed to go through four editions, considering how brief and unhelpful its entries are.Most of them are only 50 to 100 words in length.And rather than pick and choose some topics to explore in more depth, the editors decided to give everything shallow coverage.

Worse, they don't even use those few words per entry wisely.Instead of giving the essential facts, they go for obscure details that will only mean something to people who are already familiar with the subject.This defeats the purpose of a general-use encyclopedia -- to introduce a subject and give the reader some basic understanding.Even my paperback New American Desk Encyclopedia surpasses this work by that standard, though it has less entries.

I do not recommend this book.

Good but...
...for the same amount of money you can get the Columbia Enclyclopedia, twice as many pages.Cambridge has the advantage of a more recent edition, but Columbia is still the top choice unless you need information aboutreally current events. ... Read more

Isbn: 0521444292
Subjects:  1. Encyclopedias    2. Encyclopedias (Multi-Subject)    3. Encyclopedias and dictionaries    4. Reference    5. General encyclopaedias    6. Reference / General