Reviews (19)

Very solid book
As someone new to OLAP, I found this book to be VERY helpful really getting a solid handle on OLAP.My company needed to understand and move forward on building a OLAP solution.This book helped my get a handle on what we needed to do, and a high level of how to go about it.
More than just a great read
In my mind this book is defintely the most definitive guide to dimensional modeling.Although there are some chapters (the last two that deals with process and other issues, the biggest part of the book is solely about dimensional modeling. Yes the first chapter deals with what it is (in general), why we would like to use dimensional modeling and some myths and caveats.However, from chapter 2 through 12, the book is hand-on.
The standard
If you only have time to read one book about dwh, read this one. It gives beguinners a complete overview about the most important aspects (technologies and techniques) involved, for the advanced one this book a good reverece (especially in terms of data modelling).
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers    3. Computers - Data Base Management    4. Data warehousing    5. Database Engineering    6. Database Management - General    7. Database design    8. Information Management    9. Networking - General    10. Computer modelling & simulation    11. Computers / Programming / Systems Analysis & Design    12. Databases & data structures   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (66)

Excellent Introduction and an excellent educational perspective
This book is excellent for a novice in AI. Chapter by chapter - though chapters vary in thoroughness and detail - the book illustrates AI techniques by family by accessibly presenting the problems that motivate the techniques, and the logic applied to implement them (pseudo-code).
wide range of techniques, including neural networks
The authors furnish a voluminous and up to date survey of AI. Covering the gamut of ideas and computational techniques common to the field. Unsurprisingly, there is plenty of discussion about formal logic methods and how to develop inferences in a manner doable by a computer. This is expanded into describing ontologies and how to find knowledge in a learning process. All of these are hard topics that try to attack a fundamentally difficult problem.
Wonderful for its overviews and historical notes
This book was used in both my undergraduate and graduate courses in artificial intelligence.It is a very readable book, and an enormously useful reference.I believe they at least do a cursory overview of the most critical concepts in AI, and if they don't, there are usually great references at the end of the chapter.
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Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence    2. Artificial Intelligence - General    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - General Information    6. Computers / Artificial Intelligence   

Reviews (1)

New Text on Pattern Recognition/Machine Learning
I have been working in the field of signal processing and speech for more
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Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Vision    4. Computers    5. Computers - General Information    6. Artificial intelligence    7. Computers / Computer Vision    8. Computing and Information Technology   

Reviews (14)

Words words and more words but little substance
I bought this book based on all the reviews posted on Amazon.com. I must say I was extremely disappointed. The book does not describe even a single machine learning algorithm adequately - no pseudocode, no mathematical description, and at the end of the day, no real understanding. If you are an analytically challenged manager who wants to pick up a bunch of buzzwords to throw around to impress your equally analytically challeged colleagues or customers who don't have a clue, this might be the book for you - a n overpriced, highly overrated "data mining for dummies". If you want to learn something about machine learning, well.. stick to books like Machine Learning by Tom Mitchell or Elements of Statistical Learning by Hastie, Tibshirani, and Friedman.

Very helpful
The major virtue of this book is the emphasis on practical applications and bread-and-butter techniques for accomplishing tasks that one could expect in a business environment. That is not to say that these techniques could not be used in a scientific research environment. They indeed could be, and in fact may be even easier to implement due to the long time scales that are available in research environments for processing information. In the business world however data mining has proven to be an activity that gives a substantial competitive edge, and so many businesses are seeking even more sophisticated methods of data mining and Web mining. Data mining could easily be considered to a branch of artificial intelligence (AI), due to its emphasis on learning patterns and performing classification, and the learning and classification tools it uses were discovered by individuals who would describe themselves as being researchers in artificial intelligence. But many, and it is fair to include the authors of this book, do not want to view data mining as part of artificial intelligence, since the latter stirs up discussions on the origin of intelligence, autonomous robots, and conscious machines, to paraphrase a line from chapter 8 of this book. The authors make it a point to emphasize that data mining, or "machine learning" is concerned with the algorithms for the inference of structure from data and the validation of that structure.
Lucid
I'm surprisingly please with this book. I've been reading up on the topic and associated algorithms in other books for some time; I'm a software developer but don't have a statistics background, and so felt a lot of the texts were too focused on the math and the theory while being thin on content when it came to "rubber hitting the road", or even using clear, simple examples and straight-forward notation.
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Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Books: Database    3. Computers    4. Computers - General Information    5. Data mining    6. Database Management - Database Mining    7. Information Storage & Retrieval    8. Computers / Database Management / Data Mining    9. Databases & data structures   

Reviews (2)

Excellent book on estimation/Kalman filter
I don't usually write online reviews but this book is so clear and useful that I really want to recommend it to others. It is well written with a good outline and summary for every chapter. It also has a pretty diverse range of topics on estimation, including an introductory chapter on basic estimation approaches (e.g., ML, MAP, least squares), and very practical extensions (e.g., state augmentation, square-root filters). Even though I am not in EE and some of the examples are thus not particularly helpful to me, I still find this book one of the best of all the estimation/Kalman filter books out there.

best standard book for target tracking system
I think any person who major in target tracking system related to the Kalman filter must see this book. This book present the fundamentals of state estimation theory and the tools for the design of state-of-the-art algorithms for target tracking. Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Automation    3. Control systems    4. Data Transmission Systems    5. Data Transmission Systems - General    6. Engineering - Electrical & Electronic    7. Engineering - Mechanical    8. Motion control devices    9. Remote control    10. Robots    11. Science/Mathematics    12. Technology    13. Technology & Industrial Arts    14. Telecommunication systems    15. Applications of Computing    16. Engineering: general    17. Mathematics for scientists & engineers    18. Probability & statistics    19. Radar    20. Technology / Engineering / Electrical   

Reviews (18)

...
As the author states in the introduction you need to read the book in a comfortable chair with a laptop+net connection, you cant read this without a keyboard with in arms reach.I expected the examples to be in pseudo code or at a less hard core level of C, if your programming is not top notch be carefull.

great book
This book is class. Really great and the author is a gentleman. Also check out the online forums dedicate to this book at AI Junkie. There the author himself chips in with helpul advice for AI novices and stalwards alike. I have his other book too and it is also five stars.
Very good book for Game AI
I'm an expirianced programmer and always wondered how things worked in a game. How the "enemy" knows how to move etc.
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Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computer games    5. Computer graphics    6. Computer software    7. Computers    8. Computers - Games    9. Design    10. Programming    11. Programming - General    12. Video & Electronic - General    13. Artificial intelligence    14. Computer Programming    15. Computers / Computer Graphics / General   

Reviews (6)

What are We to Make of Computers, and Computers Make of Us
Winograd and Flores' `Understanding Computers and Cognition' proposes that the rationalist tradition in AI must be replaced by a hermeneutic approach. Associating the rationalist tradition with the goal of building a human mind, the authors propose that a hermeneutic approach must adopt the goal of constructing prostheses which magnify the human mind. This paper argues that what AI needs is not so much a hermeneutic approach as a better appreciation of biology and psychology. Understanding Computers and Cognition is a groundbreaking book that presents an important new approach to understanding what computers do and how their functioning is related to human language, thought and action. Byte Magazine has recognized Understanding Computers and Cognition as one of the all-time 20 most influential books on information technology. Not Just Another Pretty Face
A few years ago Byte Magazine named this one of the 10 most important books in the history of the computer industry. Flores was asked to keynote the 50th anniversary meeting of the ACM on the strength of the work he has done, some of which is shown here. A little disappointed
I read the 1986 or 87 version of this book and am of a software/AI background.I didn't follow the biological material that well - either I was being dense or it just wasn't clearly written. I thought the book was repetitious (my chief complaint).Some of the concepts discussedinclude: "breakdown" (humans become aware of thing X only when somethinggoes awry in whichthe X is involved), "thrownness" (humansdon't rationally consider all possibilities and make perfect decisionsbecause situations they are put in don't permit such cognition and/or wesimplywe aren't capable of it), "blindness" (we are alwayssomewhat blind to the prejudicies/assumptions that guide our thinking...andwe can't totally escape this predicament. Also discusses the co-routineeffect (per the software world) of human affects environment andenvironment affects world circularity. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers - General Information    4. Artificial intelligence    5. Computers / Artificial Intelligence   

Reviews (30)

Good Book-Keep These Things Mind
This book is great, whether your a beginner or an expert just wanting to go back to your roots. Every part is described and you have websites that you can order them from. It's all very good. But there are just some things to keep in mind. First of all, there's a section on motors where he describes them and what they're used for. I assumed that we needed to buy them, so I bought the 5 pack that he mentions. Now on the next chapter afterwards, it turns out that we dont need those motors, but we need gearhead motors. So to me I was a little bummed because the motors he describes are basically for you to test and have fun with. It wasn't expensive but I was a little misguided and didnt like the shipping expense I made on motors I wasn't even going to apply to the robot. This brings me up to my next point: BUY ALL THE PARTS YOU NEED IN ONE ORDER. I had the idea of slowly ordering my parts as I read the book but the problem is that places like Digi-Key charge you a ridiculous amount for shipping, and when you need only 3 resistors and the shipping is about 10-20 times its cost, it gets a little annoying. So I would suggest just skimming the whole book to see what parts you will need and then getting them all together. This will also save you time as you go through the book since you will have all the parts that you need.
This book is exactly as described in the title.
This book is perfect for a begginer or someone with a little experience. I ordered it because I had some knowldge about electronics but none related to robots. It fills in everybit of knowldge you could want, giving you the tools you need to actually accomplish something. After reading you have everything you need to build the robot in the book or something completely different and more to your liking.

Amazing Find for Teaching Kids Electronics and Robotics
I have bought other robot building books in the past for my teenage son, yet I quickly got lost in each of them. Not sure how much he retained. Then I found this book. It's wonderful!
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Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Books: Database    3. Industrial Robotics    4. Robotics    5. Technology    6. Technology & Industrial Arts   

Reviews (23)

Everyone that listens or produces audio should read this book
It is practically futile to review a book of this magnitude.The reviews on the back of the book alone let you know that: Bernie Grundman, Ted Jensen, Roger Nichols, George Massenberg and Mike Collins all think this is an excellent text.In fact it is.It may be the finest book in it's genre and it will survive format and technology changes due to it's emphasis on fundamentals and incredible depth.I highly reccommend this book.

De-mystifies Mastering!
I have been a guitar player, songwriter, and producer for many years and an engineer when I had to be. There is always a certain amount of mystery around the magic done in post production mastering.I don't say this book gets you there magically, but it gives you a real understanding of what is involved and certainly gives you all the information you need to be on your way!Most professional digital recording software contains a lot of useful post production features, but if you don't understand the basics of mastering, they are of limited use.If nothing else, this book tells you what NOT to do if you are going to have someone ELSE master your product! Very useful and easy to read and understand.

"When the Student is Ready..."
The old saying goes "When the Student is ready the Master appears." Whether you are an engineer at a project studio or have aspirations of joining an elite group of artists known as Mastering Engineers this book is a must read. My cd's are sounding better and better with what I've gotten from it. As a composer/engineer/producer in my own little project studio my biggest gripe is, "When can I quit programming and begin creating?" This book is a big help to answer those technical issues and thus narrow my exploration and experimentation during the Mastering process. After all it's the end result that matters and no matter what Zappa says you can't"...fix it in the shrinkwrap". ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Acoustics & Sound    2. Counseling - Vocational Guidance    3. Recording & Reproduction    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Stereo & Audio Equipment    6. Technology    7. Technology & Industrial Arts    8. Audio processing: music & sound effects    9. Computers / Artificial Intelligence    10. Music recording & reproduction   

Features

• Audiobook

Reviews (29)

Good development of intuition, but not as good for other purposes...
I have many of the same criticisms of this book that I do of Ross's book titled: "Probability: a first course".This book reviews most of the material from that book at a faster pace and then goes into other topics.Ross in the introduction states that his main goal in this text is to develop the reader's intuition for probabilistic reasoning.This book is excellent towards acheiving this goal, but not very good for anything else.It is a very "pure" probability text, completely ignoring the fact that the field of statistics exists and is useful.At the same time, it is somewhat weak on theory.Measure theory isn't mentioned, and the emphasis overall is on computation and problem solving, not proving theorems and understanding theoretical connections between different ideas.
good balance of rigour and problems
Ross presents a good treatment of probability theory. Enough rigour to be suitable for most students. Along with a very extensive problem set for each chapter. Instructors looking for a good text to accompany a course might consider this book. The exercises are varied enough to cover most of the aspects of each chapter. Answers are given to some exercises. But notably not all.
Information density function
I'm currently using this book for a course.I recommend taking courses in probability and mathematical statistics before this, which I neglected and which made the class difficult, but this is an excellent book.We've covered about half of the chapters, and only about half of the sections of those, and I find myself wanting to take another course from this book.I've heard some complaints about the level of rigor... I'm an engineer and find it sufficiently rigorous without being tedious, and were I a mathematician, I would probably just take another course or read more if I really wanted that level of detail.
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Subjects:  1. Mathematics    2. Probabilities    3. Probability & Statistics - General    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Computer modelling & simulation    6. Mathematical modelling    7. Mathematics / General    8. Probability & statistics   

Reviews (2)

An excellent overview
In just a decade, Bayesian networks have went from being a mere academic curiosity to a highly useful field with myriads of applications. Indeed, the applications of Bayesian networks are wide-ranging and include disparate fields such as network engineering, bioinformatics, medical diagnostics, and intelligent troubleshooting. This book gives a fine overview of the subject, and after reading it one will have an in-depth understanding of both the underlying foundations and the algorithms involved in using Bayesian networks. The reader will have to look elsewhere for applications of Bayesian networks, since they are only discussed briefly in the book. Due to space constraints, only the first four chapters will be reviewed here. Enjoying this book enormously
Rarely do I find myself reading a technical bookRead more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. Computers - General Information    5. Neural Networks    6. Computer Communications & Networking    7. Computers / Neural Networks   

Reviews (18)

Too wordy
Having to go thru some of the data mining such as CART, I find the book rather wordy.Sometimes, it takes a couple of readings to understand, too many termiologies.I think a lot of stuff might be better illustrated with mathematical formulae rather than words or both.For e.g., I was trying to understand what is surrogate variable, getting a big picture from the English is okay, but to actually compute it, I find information not as clear.This book is written in a way ... seem to be theoretical, and yet not rigorous enough.
Very complete
This book is a very interesting book to learn the main statistical approach of data mining. It's clear and full of examples. If you go a Stanford data mining website you will find all the courses and exercises linked to the book.
El libro de la mineria de datos
Desde el punto de vista tecnico este libro es sumamente completo ya resume muy bien muchos de los metodos estadistico que se aplican en la mineria de datos. Pero a mi parecer este libro es debil en cuanto a la descripcion de ciertos algortimos que describe, y en algunos casos solo se menciona el procedimiento como una formula (la matriz S de los trazadores cubicos) ya que presupone que el lector ya tiene un buen conocimiento sobre trazadores cubicos.
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Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computers - General Information    3. Database Management - Database Mining    4. Mathematics    5. Neural Computing    6. Probability & Statistics - General    7. Regression Analysis    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Supervised learning (Machine l    10. Supervised learning (Machine learning)    11. Data Mining    12. Inference    13. Mathematics / Statistics    14. Neural Nets    15. Prediction    16. Probability & statistics    17. Statistical Learning   

Reviews (16)

Good Theoretical GA Textbook
This book primarily deals with the theoretical side of genetic algorithms. If you are looking for practical knowledge of how to implement a GA you should look elsewhere. For all intents and purposes this is a textbook. It's heavy on theory and proofs, but doesn't always explain everything in depth (that's what class time is for). There are problems at the end of each chapter that can be assigned to students.
Not for beginners
I have an engineering degree, and I found this to be a little tough to follow for two reasons: An introduction and much more
First it must be said that the book is not an introduction that the non-scientist will easily understand. Some knowledge of computer programming is assumed. It acknowledges this in the last paragraph of the preface. Many of the notations in the book are unfamiliar to business or financial readers. There is no mathematics beyond algebra so the aforementioned prerequisites are the main hills to climb.Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Science    3. Computers    4. Computers - General Information    5. Programming - General    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Applied ecology    8. Biology, Life Sciences    9. Computer modelling & simulation    10. Computers / Computer Science    11. Machine learning   

Reviews (9)

Interaction Design
The majority of this book is from the thoughts and findings of other authors.Nothing orignal.Books is difficult to read and often does a poor job of explaining topics clearly.Currently using this book as a text book for a class and have to believe there is a better choice out there.

Adequate but not great
I have used this text for a year and half, for three instances of the same course (upper division undergrad).Good: 1. Each chapter is about a week's work, so it fits the schedule nicely; 2. Each chapter has "activities", "summary", and "assignments" which I find very useful when making assignments; 3. Lots of illustrations; 4. Interviews with professionals in the field are added at the end of each chapter -- this adds another dimension to the "textbook" aspects of the book; 5. Cartoons here and there. Could be improved: the quality of some of the illustrations -- some of them are photos that are dark and hard to make out.Some look like they came from the 1950s -- I am not sure how that is possible in a book published in 2002, but that's what it looks like to me.Still, the text is "nicely illustrated".The thing that stops this from being a "great" text is the quality of the writing and presentation of ideas.The writing is too simplistic.A "great" text finds ways to express things in a succinct manner, summarizing key ideas.Instead, this book tends to be wordy in many places, and lacks an effective organization of ideas.Finally, the text is starting to appear "dated", but few textbooks can withstand the breakneck speed of change in this area.That said, no student has complained (to me) about the text (but neither have they praised it).And, I have not been able to find a better text.

Excellent Course Text for HCI students
The breath and depth of this text truly embodies the necessary content for beginning HCI students in an undergraduate and graduate program. I've successfully used this text every semester with my students since its inception. The author's perspective of the discipline accurately reflects an increasing trend in HCI education that places less emphasis on computing and more on designing products to enhance human communication based on the social sciences. It is organized to provide an instructor a way to pick and choose selected chapters or proceed sequentially. Each chapter is multi-dimensional in its approach to provide an array of content that includes both theory and practice. I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. Computers - General Information    5. Human-Computer Interaction    6. Interactive & Multimedia    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Technical Writing    9. Virtual Reality    10. Computer Communications & Networking    11. General Theory of Computing    12. Technology / Technical Writing   

Editorial Review

This book is a rigorous exposition of formal languages and models of computation, with an introduction to computational complexity. The authors present the theory in a concise and straightforward manner, with an eye out for the practical applications. Exercises at the end of each chapter, including some that have been solved, help readers confirm and enhance their understanding of the material. This book is appropriate for upper-level computer science undergraduates who are comfortable with mathematical arguments. ... Read more

Reviews (31)

Need some challenge? Come here!
I started to learn this course at the beginning of this semester and I just brought this book from Amazon in August.
first edition is a classic, the second one unremarkable
The first edition is one of the best book in its field. A classic. A reference for many advanced courses in computer theory. Excellent introductory text, but has several weaknesses
This was my textbook for an introductory course on Finite Automata and Languages - I enjoyed it a lot and I think that the chapters until the Turing Machines are covered very well, along with good examples. As one previous reviewer has already mentioned, the exercises can get very hard as compared to what's actually presented - this I found not too good.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computational complexity    2. Computer Science    3. Formal languages    4. Logic    5. Machine theory    6. Mathematics    7. Number Theory    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Artificial intelligence    10. Computers / Computer Science    11. General Theory of Computing    12. Programming languages   

Reviews (8)

Practical advice for a novice
I am a novice robot builder. I appreciate the thoroughness and practical approach of this book. I have understood and implemented several circuit ideas from this excellent book.
Truly excellent!
This book (and it's prequel, Robot Building for Beginners by the same author) is extraordinarily good.It picks up where the previous book (which is the best book in existence for the beginning roboticist, in my opinion) leaves off, getting into details of milling parts, microcontroller circuits, and such.A truly wonderful book.If you read the previous book, and then read this book, you will have an excellent grounding in robotics, and have a very entertaining time doing it.Highly recommended!

A course in analog electronics
Very cool narrative aimed straight at the hardcore tinkerer. For the restless kid inside you, that really digged hands on experience, and who perhaps is left neglected by all this software/web browsing.Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Robotics    5. Robots    6. Technology & Industrial Arts    7. Computers / Artificial Intelligence   

Reviews (13)

I should need a little bit more
I have read the book at a stretch. In my view, the thesis (human is social) is a very simple, wit, and sound one. Maybe it is a very profound concern to us, whose complete consequences have not yet been taken in a serious consideration. Foundations and arguments in favor, coming from social and computer sciences, are orderly and properly unfolded along the book. The associated web page is being a very valuable resource for me. In short, I have made acquaintance with a good, satisfying mate. There is only a but for me: It has not moved me (but that is my but, not its...)

Good science; not metaphysics : know the difference; win big
You are most likely familiar with the story. In summary form, it is about a group of blind men standing around an elephant each declaring "what an elephant is like" based upon which part of the elephant they are touching -- and elephant is like: a wall (side); a tree trunk (leg); a hose (trunk); a fan (ear); and so on.
Good, but could have been more concise.
Swarm intelligence is burdened with an awful lot of material that is not core to PSO.A great deal of the book consists of the philosophical ramblings of the authors, rather than technical treatment of the topic at hand.An even larger chunk of the book was devoted to what was essentially a survey of AI: neural nets, evolutionary programming, heuristics, etc.Much too much space was devoted to grounding the reader in AI before proceeding.I must admit, however, that, while I found it out of place, the 'AI primer' part of the book is one of the most useful and lucid I have seen;I just think that it should have been a separate book (and this one should have been much thinner).The material that is specific to PSO is a very small fraction of the book, but is thorough and accessible;there really are few alternatives if one is particularly interested in PSO.However, if you are just interested in