Reviews (11)

Perl-intensive book on web crawler design
A spider (also known as a web crawler or web robot) is a program which browses the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner. This book is about how to create programs that perform the functions of a web crawler, with most of the Hacks being written in Perl. Like the rest of the Hacks series, this book presents 100 bite-sized chunks of code or technique to tackle specific activities. In this book these range from the simple - how to download a set of image files - to the complex - cross-referring the output from one site with another to generate a third set of data. No matter what the complexity, each hack is clearly explained, with the code samples balanced with instructions, examples and notes on how to hack the hack.
what is in a name?
well, sometimes a generalizing lie.
Good, but needs more variety of languages
Nearly all of the examples were written using Perl, but the few pages written with PHP contained some very useful nuggets!
Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Data mining    5. Database Engineering    6. Database Management - General    7. Information Storage & Retrieval    8. Internet - General    9. Internet searching    10. Online Searching    11. Programming Languages - General    12. Computer software    13. Computers / Internet / World Wide Web    14. Computers / Languages / Programming    15. Computers / Programming Languages / General    16. Internet programming    17. Mobile agents (Computer software)    18. Intelligent agents (Computer software)    19. Reusability    20. Web search engines   

Reviews (23)

Modeling of Business Systems in the "real world"
Agile modeling is about the latest approach to the modeling of Business Information Systems.This book focuses on the Agile method and also describes how to incorporate the strong points of UML. The book will be an aid to "survive" in the jungle of developing modern BI Systems.There are IT decision makers that are not aware of Agile, since Agile is a mind shift, be careful how you introduce the new ideas to these decision makers.The book is for the IT professional (all levels), who wants to be in the forefront of software development.If you are in the "nuts and bolts" of systems development, do yourself a favour and look also at "Agile Database Techniques", by the same author.

I recommend this book
Good book with lots of behind the scenes process info about how to implement agile modeling techniques. If you are looking for step by step instructions to modeling or how to model, look elsewhere. It doesn't cover specific modeling, but techniques. Some of the techniques are common sense, but there were lots of suggestions of how to apply them in a difficult political environment. I did not completely agree with the often repeated If you live in a world of too much documentation, read this
For those few places left that steep themselves in documentation and don't have a legally-required reason to do so (do they exist?), this book should help motivate why producing too much documentation and doing too much modeling up front can hurt rather than help. Even for a company that sees itself as lightweight, he's got some rough assessments you can do to see if you're overdoing things, which were relevant even where I work.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computer software    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Development    7. Object-Oriented Programming    8. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    9. Programming - Software Development    10. Software Quality Control    11. eXtreme programming    12. Computer Programming    13. Computer modelling & simulation    14. Computers / Programming / Software Development   

Subjects:  1. Computer Engineering    2. Computer Simulation    3. Mathematics    4. Radar    5. Radar Technology    6. Radio    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Technology    9. Technology & Industrial Arts    10. Telecommunication    11. Telecommunications    12. Communications engineering / telecommunications    13. Computer modelling & simulation    14. Mathematical modelling   

Reviews (3)

Not so good for the beginner
Although the author of the book is teaching my LISP class, the book is very difficult for a beginner to LISP and has almost no actual code to learn from.It tends to be wordy and the examples are abstract and not clear.The author is a really nice guy, but in consencus with many of my other classmates, the book is very hard to learn from and brushes over many topics which I have found covered in greater detail in other texts.

Horrible for trying to learn the language
While this is a good book for a reference to the language, there are virtually no examples of code within the book at all.If you are new to LISP, you will not benefit much by buying this.

Easy reading for the novice Common Lisp programmer
This book is a classic in the Lisp literature.It is extremely readable.Those new to Lisp can gain from this.Good Lisp programming style is emphasized.this book is a reworking of the author's earlier book LispCraft.Ease of reading should be considered this work's greatest asset. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. COMMON LISP (Computer program    2. Computers - Languages / Programming    3. Lisp (Programming Language)    4. Programming Languages - General    5. 4GLs (fourth generation languages)   

Reviews (3)

The best introduction on the subject
I can't stress how reader friendly this book is.It is by far the best introduction on component analysis.It is written in such a way that those with a weaker math background can understand it while those with years of experience will not be bored, at certain times it even reads like a story.
James Stone's monograph: 'Independent Component Analysis'
James Stone's monograph is a refreshing new book amongst the many other `new books' on Independent Component Analysis (ICA). The author brings his teaching experience to present the theory and practice of ICA in a highly accessible form using a duplication of words and straight-forward mathematics.
An Excellent Introduction
Independent Component Analysis (ICA) is one of the emerging technologies that ever more powerful computers are becoming more available. Basically it is a set of mathematical techniques that are used to pull a little bit of information out of a large mass of data.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Cognitive Psychology    3. Computers - General Information    4. General    5. Mathematics    6. Multivariate analysis    7. Neural networks (Computer scie    8. Neural networks (Computer science)    9. Neuropsychology    10. Psychology    11. Science/Mathematics    12. Set Theory    13. Neural networks    14. Psychology & Psychiatry / Cognitive Psychology   

Reviews (9)

Why is this the the best textbook on prolog?
Although this text is always mentioned in the same breath as other introductory textbooks on prolog, I don't think I've ever seen it described as "the best."
A respectable book from a respectable man
I remember contacting with Mr.Bratko via mail as I was a university student and I couldn't beleive that this book came from such a modest personality.
Great book for learning AI with Prolog, but....
... a horrible Prolog tutorial.Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence    2. Artificial Intelligence - General    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Data processing    7. Programming - General    8. Programming Languages - Prolog    9. Prolog (Computer program langu    10. Prolog (Computer program language)    11. Prolog (Programming Language)    12. Computers / Programming Languages / General    13. Prolog   

Reviews (17)

Brilliant and Thought Provoking
This collection of Hofstadter's columns from Scientific American provides wonderful reading. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
This collection of essays previously published as a column in Scientific American is very uneven. There are some true gems like he discussion of the game Nomic in which rule changes are part of ordinary play or the sections on self referential sentences. Basically everything is readable, but not all chapters make much sense. Essence of Mind and Pattern
At any level of scientific comprehension, this book provides an intelligent subscription to pattern.Includes essays and 'conversations' on Alan Turing, and clear and relevant description of common and interesting science.The most valuable information is hofstaedter's creative description of thought. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence    2. General    3. Mind & Body    4. Science    5. Science/Mathematics    6. History of ideas, intellectual history   

Reviews (9)

Projects that require the solution of complex problems
In the fall semester of 2003, I taught a special topics course in robotics at Mount Mercy College with two students. A Lego Mindstorms kit was purchased and in the first segment of the class, the students built a robot and programmed it to move around the halls. We then moved on and used a more advanced robot in the remainder of the class, because I did not consider the Lego kit to be sophisticated enough. From some of my professional communications, I learned that entire college classes are being taught using only Lego Mindstorms kits. Great stuff
This book is a great introduction to the world of LEGO Mindstorms robots.I've been working with the LEGO Mindstorms kits for about 6 months, and I've often been frustrated by the lack of detail in the manuals for the kits.This book provides quite a bit of the missing information.For instance, it explains that you lose your firmware if you take your batteries out of your RCX for more than a minute or two (I wish that I'd seen that in a manual somewhere!).It provides a broad overview of alternatives to programming in RCX code, together with examples from each alternative mentioned for comparison.These coding examples are discussed in the text and they are also included on the accompanying CD.In addition to the coding examples, the CD also includes videos and stills of the robots described in the book.The book includes descriptions of a broad range of robots, from the very simple Acrobot robot featured in the Constructopedia, to robots designed by school kids, to robots designed by parent-kid teams, to advanced robots using IR communication and data logging.In each case, Erwin provides the details of the development process, how the robot was first conceived, how it was developed,and how the design problems were identified and solved. This approach makes the book much more than a simple code cookbook- -it explains to parents, teachers, and older kids how robots actually come about.Scattered throughout the book are "Asides" that explain various topics such as LEGO geometry, how to calculate gear ratios, understanding compound gear trains, programming decisions, etc.The book includes appendices of useful information, a bibliography, an excellent glossary, and an index.

Geared towards a younger audience
I've read both this book and Dave Baum's Definitive Guide and both are excellent. I enjoyed Baum's book more because it caters to an older audience: Baum seems to be writing to an older reader,there's an emphasis on the programming aspect of Mindstorms, and there are more semi-advanced projects. Read more

Subjects:  1. Automation    2. Design and construction    3. Engineering - Mechanical    4. LEGO toys    5. Robotics    6. Robots    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Technology    9. Technology & Industrial Arts    10. Video & Electronic - General    11. Computer games    12. Computers / Networking / General    13. Model engineering   

Reviews (1)

Tremendous resource
This book is an immense collection of research on the application of complex systems to urban spatial analysis. While this book is not extensive and is probably not meant as a textbook on complex systems in its entirety, I highly recommend it for those interested in urban spatial analysis. The applications of the techniques go beyond geography and are useful in sociology, economics, or urban planning. A caveat that I should add is that the book is quite dense with methods and formulas and is probably not best to approach this book without some knowledge of advanced statistics. However, the theoretical overviews provided more than allow for those without this background to get something out of it. In short, if you are a graduate student, professor, or researcher I'd recommend this book for an insightful and important take on the nature of cities and urban analysis. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. City planning    2. Computer simulation    3. Mathematical models    4. Political Science    5. Politics / Current Events    6. Politics/International Relations    7. Public Policy - City Planning & Urban Dev.    8. Simulation models    9. Political Science / City Planning & Urban Development    10. Urban & municipal planning    11. Urban communities   

Reviews (1)

Interesting but incomplete
Schum and Starale have put together some very interesting commentary and analysis of questions about the role played by evidence related issues in the history of probability and decision science,as well as current evaluations concerning evidence in recent work done in fuzzy logic,possibility theory,Bayesian conditionalization,networks,etc.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Cybernetics    2. Engineering - General    3. Epistemology    4. Evidence    5. General    6. Inference    7. Probabilities    8. Science    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Systems Engineering    11. Technology & Industrial Arts    12. Artificial intelligence    13. Philosophy / Epistemology   

Reviews (2)

Fun to read
A sequel to his prior book, "the evolution of cooperation". Great Companion to'The Evolution of Cooperation'
This books covers what Robert Axelrod been up to since "The Evolution of Cooperation." Extensions to the original "Prisoner's Dilemma" have required new agent behaviors for stable solutions. Read more

Subjects:  1. Adaptability (Psychology)    2. Adjustment (Psychology)    3. Competition    4. Conflict management    5. Cooperativeness    6. History & Theory - General    7. Personal Growth - Success    8. Politics / Current Events    9. Politics/International Relations    10. Social Science    11. Sociology - General    12. Computer modelling & simulation    13. Economics    14. Political Science / History & Theory    15. Political Science and International Relations    16. Social research & statistics   

Reviews (6)

Basic crib sheet for category theory
Anyone coming to this book from Pierce's "Types and Programming Languages" will be disappointed. While his "Types ..." book is a model of clear exposition, this book reads like a set of notes jotted down on the back on an envelope. The extensive bibliographic sections are more than fifteen years out of date. Much of the material referenced is no longer in print, and recent developments are, of course, not mentioned. Those seeking a very gentle introduction to category theory would do better with the book by Lawvere and Schanuel, who cover more of category theory than Pierce. Mathematically mature computer science readers will find everything they need to know about the subject in Mac Lane's book.

The problem isn't the book...
Nothing wrong with this book *per se*.But it doesn't go far enough, and it's too expensive.I find Barr and Wells easier to read and more complete.And Meertens, Fokkinga, and Van Oosten are cheaper.
Too terse
This is a very short book: 70 pages of text + a bibliography.The first 50 pages are about general category theory, and the last 20 pages are specifically for computer scientists.My interest is in general category theory, and I bought this because I have a BS in CS and thought I'd find plenty of familiar examples.Unfortunately this book doesn't have nearly enough examples.I found it easier to skim some undergrad abstract algebra books in the library (groups, rings, vector spaces) and then continuing with category theory intros written for math students. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Categories (Mathematics)    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Mathematics    4. Computer Science    5. Computers    6. Logic    7. Mathematics    8. Category theory    9. Computer Programming    10. Computers / Computer Science    11. Mathematical theory of computation    12. Mathematics for scientists & engineers   

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - General Information    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computer Vision    5. Computers    6. Computers - General Information    7. Geometry    8. Geometry - General    9. Image processing    10. Mathematics    11. Science/Mathematics    12. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    13. Computers / Computer Vision    14. Mathematics-Geometry - General   

Reviews (23)

Significant improvements since first edition
I have read the first edition of this book years before. This second edition has significant improvements. Core topic (classification, clustering, association rules) is very detailed and much easier to read. The author also add much material about advanced topics such as graph mining, multimedia mining, stream and time series mining, etc. Although these advanced topics are not as well writen as core topics, at least you will get idea about what's going on in these areas.

1 star is too much for this book
Do yourself a favor and stay away from this book.The book is put together by gathering some data mining concepts padded with tons of buzzwords to "teach" you about data mining.It really fails to teach you anything and it really succeeds to confuse the hell out of the reader.The language used on this book is the poorest I have ever seen in my entire life.The people how wrote this book and the publishers who published it should be ashamed of themselves.It is a shame that I had to pay for this piece of work because I have to read it for a course I am taking and I really dread opening it every week.

One of the Best Data Mining Books
This book is easily one of the best on data mining.The one flaw I see is the meager attention given to neural networks.Coverage is practical, not theoretical. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Database    2. Computers    3. Computers - Data Base Management    4. Database Management - Database Mining    5. Computers / Database Management / General    6. Data capture & analysis   

Reviews (2)

Combined collection of science papers
After all this book seems to be just a combination of the science papers of Steve Mann. Those papers are great no offense but i had expected the book to be a bit more "readable". It has some additional content compared to the plain papers so its not senseless to buy it, if you have the money for it.
This book is the WORST book I have read in years...
Well, Before reading my comments take a look at the book itself....Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence    2. Artificial Intelligence - General    3. Computational intelligence    4. Computers    5. Data Transmission Systems - General    6. Digital Image Processing    7. Image processing    8. Imaging Systems    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Technology & Industrial Arts    11. Computer vision    12. Computers / General    13. Image processing: video   

Reviews (6)

Software Update in Simulation Modeling Using @RISK
Readers should note that until 11/2000 Simulation Modeling Using @RISK was shipped with an older version of the @RISK software.Customer reviews that reference software problems are all reviews of this older edition of the book.The current edition ships with @RISK 4.0; software that supports all newer versions of Excel and Windows.The text has been entirely updated to reflect this newest version of @RISK.

The book was well received, the software was......
I rated this book earlier as "a reader from Spokane Wa.".I wish to append the earlier statement, and add that you can get current a demo version of @Risk software from Palisade that is outstanding.I was soimpressed that I purchased @Risk 4.0 from them, and subsequently ordered anumber of other books by Wayne Winston, as well.I think that it would beonly fair to retract most of my earlier statement.I understand that theyare intending to soon publish a 2nd release of the book with updatedsoftware.

Simulation Modeling Using @RISK
The book covers a hot topic, but since the software does not load it's a waste of time.The book should supplement the software for risk anaysis, but with no software this book is a complete waste of money and should notbe on the market. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. At risk (Computer file)    2. Business    3. Business / Economics / Finance    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computer simulation    6. Computers    7. Data Modeling & Design    8. Management - General    9. Spreadsheets - General    10. Computer modelling & simulation    11. Management decision making    12. Mathematics / Statistics   

Reviews (6)

A Confusing Book
For studying the speech recognition subject this is not the right book to buy, It is hard to understand the theory using this book.
very good book if you read its code
This book is composed of two parts, theory and implementation. if you only read its theoretical part, it is ok with many details missing. it is not clearly written. however, if you study its C++ code, you would get all you want on recognition system. I spent 3-8 hours everyday for 4 months going through its code line by line. The C++ code (30,000 lines in total) is very well written but without comments. Many times, I need to figure out things not written in the book. I once spent 1 week on 200 lines of code. However, After 4 months, I truely understand the system. Good Starter but Confusing.
I appreciated the balance between theory and implementation in the book.Also the content covers the most important topics.It is unfortunate that the book contains numerous typo's and confusing choices of symbols.The errors are often right in the most critical places too. The explanation of the theory of HMM's for example.0 and 1 are chosen to represent both white and black balls and 2 different urns all in the same diagram.When trying to sort out which is which the reader will be further confused by blatant errors where a 0 should be a 1.I am afraid many new readers will find frustration on the theory sections.Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Automatic Speech Recognition    3. C (Computer program language)    4. C (Programming Language)    5. Computer Books: General    6. Computers    7. Computers - General Information    8. Data Processing - General    9. Programming Languages - C++    10. Audio processing: speech recognition & synthesis    11. Communications engineering / telecommunications    12. Human-computer interaction    13. Technology / Telecommunications   

Reviews (3)

A Good Guide to The Field
The Second Edition of "Information Retrieval", by Grossman and Frieder is one of the best books you can find as a introductory guide to the field, being well fit for a undergraduate or graduate course on the topic. It is somewhat a parallel to "Modern Information Retrieval", by Baeza-Yates and Ribeiro-Neto.
Great reference and textbook for IR practitioners and students
Information Retrieval is a textbook for computer science students and a reference book for IR practitioners. The References section is an excellent starting point for conducting literature research.
Extremely Clear "Fundamentals" Book
If you're working in the IR industry, or want to develop software in this field, this book is a great starting point. A clarification: this will is not a book for researchers -- instead think of it as a book for advanced practitioners or engineers needing to work in this area. Inside you'll see complete worked examples of several fundamental computations rather than detailed proofs. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Science    3. Computers    4. Computers - General Information    5. General    6. Natural Language Processing    7. Computers / Computer Science    8. Computers / General    9. Computers-Natural Language Processing    10. General Theory of Computing    11. Mathematics-General    12. Natural language & machine translation   

Editorial Review

This is the Lisp programmers' bible. If you need to know the official specification, everyfunction defined in Common Lisp can be found in here somewhere. Anyone vaguely serious aboutprogramming in Lisp for extended periods of time should keep a copy of this book for reference. However,note that while this book is clearly written, it is not an introduction to programming in Lisp--Read more

Reviews (14)

this is the "bible" of common lisp
to enjoy this book, you must be aware of what it is and is not.it is not intended for learning lisp.it *is* intended for thoroughly documenting the language, and steele is perhaps the best writer alive in this field.his thoroughness, attention to detail, and copy-editing skills are nearly impossible to beat -- it's not a coincidence that he was chosen to write the standard for java, based on his work on this book.

Perhaps the best computer language reference ever written
"Common Lisp, The Language" (or CLTL) is an industrial-strength language reference for a somewhat esoteric computer language (in the view of most programmers today), so this tome is definitely not for the novice, nor for the faint of heart.However, if you are a true devotee of Common Lisp, then it is hard to imagine how you can escape this most sacred of texts.I own two dog-eared and heavily marked-up copies of the book, from which I have gotten my money's worth many times over.For years one or the other of these copies has been a permanent fixture on my desk, beside my keyboard.It is an invaluable reference for serious Common Lisp programmers. The sad state of Lisp documentation
I'm absolutely certain that CLtL's 4 star review average is indicative of some larger evil. I've been struggling with this book for too long now, and I can't take it anymore.Read more

Subjects:  1. COMMON LISP (Computer program    2. COMMON LISP (Computer program language)    3.