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Sep 21 2022

Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice by Stallings, William

I adored this book! It's one of my favourite texts of all time. I used it for a computer security subject and it's a great primer. It covers a middle ground in computer encryption and network security that serves wonderfully as a primer for the novice and a reference for the experienced. The contents are roughly evenly split between detailed descriptions of currently used encryption protocols, and descriptions of network security protocols. For a complete reference library on this field, you would also need a book on network communications protocols, a mathematics-heavy text on the design of encryption algorithms and a programming-heavy text on encryption algorithm implementation. But if you have prior knowledge of network comms, aren't interested in encryption design or maths, and can do the coding yourself, then this book has all you need to understand practical encryption and security currently used in industry and to implement the protocols yourself.Stallings has a great writing style and explains concepts in clear and interesting English. You can't go wrong with this book. As a primer for the primer, I'd recommend The Code Book by Simon Singh (very readable) or any of Stallings' other books specifically dealing with data comms....

Sep 20 2022

Astrobiology: A Very Short Introduction by Catling, David C

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The book provides a very well written introduction to the currently most probable scenario of evolution of Earth and life on Earth. From the first chapter containing the definition of astrobiology, the author continues with a brief description of evolution of the whole Universe, stars, the solar system, Earth and Earth's life. Other chapters contain discussion on the possibility of life on other bodies in the solar system and exoplanets generally. Overall, the book provides basic information on how life on Earth became and evolved. It is easily readable and understandable with only a little background in natural sciences. The book ignited a curiosity about astrobiology in me, so I think I will buy some more advanced books to expand my knowledge further....

Sep 20 2022

Advanced compiler design and implementation by Muchnick, Steven S

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Overall there is a lot of good stuff in here, and it is worth owning if you are interested in optimization techniques (the basics of making a CS 101 compiler are not covered at all -- this is an advanced book on optimizations).Now for the bad: the presentation is often vague and confusing. Concepts are used and only explained later, variables with cryptic names are used without explaining what they represent, subtly wrong definitions are given of mathematical concepts, and so on.Examples of input to be optimized are given either in C (in the K&R dialect that was already outdated nearly a decade before this book was published), or in an intermediate representation of the author's invention. Examples of machine code output are mostly for computers that are no longer used in practice (although x86 is mentioned).Descriptions of compiler algorithms are in a pseudocode invented by the author.Overall it feels more like rambling lecture notes than a coherent textbook.Again, it's worth owning for the content, but understand that you'll often have to look things up elsewhere to get a clear picture, or puzzle over them for a while. Luckily the book has a very good bibliography. I couldn't understand the material on data flow analysis at all until I went back and read the original paper ("A Unified Approach to Global Program Optimization", Kildall 1973), which covers much of the same material but is infinitely clearer....

Sep 20 2022

Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Freeland Cynthia

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If you know next to nothing about art theory, and in fact think that words like "art" and "theory" should seldom be in the same sentence, this is a good book for you. The author's approach is to discuss major aspects of art by focusing primarily on specific authors or works, and then secondly weaving in short introductions to theories and theorists. I found it unfortunate that philosophical treatments are scarce compared to art criticism, but that's probably a reflection of the fact that I am a philosopher and have a preference for rigorous analysis over quasi-obscure essays. Of course by the end of the book you will still wonder whether a brillo box in a museum (or a dead shark, for that matter) really is art and why. But you will have been exposed to at least the very basics of how to answer that question meaningfully and in an informed way. (My answer: no, in both the brillo and the dead shark cases.)...

Sep 20 2022

Network Simulation Experiments Manual by Aboelela, Emad

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It was a required companion to "Computer Networks" and we were forced for a grade to go through EVERY exercise in the book. But why? Honestly, I got nothing from it. I have no idea what the reports displayed, or why I set this little setting to that and that little setting to this. Pointless. I gave it two stars because I went through the whole thing and didn't find any bad grammar mistakes....

Sep 20 2022

Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction by Paul Bahn

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Why is archaeology so popular? What do archaeologists do? How does archaeology do its detective work, and what purpose does it serve? From deserts to jungles, from deep caves to mountain-tops, from pebble tools to satellite photographs, from excavation to abstract theory, archaeology interacts with nearly every other discipline in its attempts to reconstruct the past. Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction gives entertaining insight into the main concerns of archaeology today, outlining the origins and development of archaeology from an individual treasure hunt to today's massive multidisciplinary projects. An acclaimed authority and popularizer of the subject, Paul Bahn surveys the immense technological developments, and looks at the way in which archaeology can be used, for example, to help Third World countries develop traditional agricultural methods. The growing interest in archaeology is explained by the fascinating questions which the book addresses: "How did people live?", "How did people think?", and "Why did things change?". Later chapters consider current concerns, such as the responsibilities involved in presenting the past to the public, the possibility of "loving archaeology to death," and the belief that many sites would be safest left deep beneath the earth. This very short introduction reflects the enduring popularity of archaeology, a subject which appeals as a pastime, a career and academic discipline, encompasses the whole globe, and surveys 2.5 million years....

Sep 20 2022

Computer Networks: A Systems Approach by Peterson

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Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, Fifth Edition, explores the key principles of computer networking, with examples drawn from the real world of network and protocol design. Using the Internet as the primary example, this best selling and classic textbook explains various protocols and networking technologies. The systems oriented approach encourages students to think about how individual network components fit into a larger, complex system of interactions.This book has a completely updated content with expanded coverage of the topics of utmost importance to networking professionals and students, including P2P, wireless, network security, and network applications such as e mail and the Web, IP telephony and video streaming, and peer to peer file sharing. There is now increased focus on application layer issues where innovative and exciting research and design is currently the center of attention. Other topics include network design and architecture; the ways users can connect to a network; the concepts of switching, routing, and internetworking; end to end protocols; congestion control and resource allocation; and end to end data.Each chapter includes a problem statement, which introduces issues to be examined; shaded sidebars that elaborate on a topic or introduce a related advanced topic; What’s Next? discussions that deal with emerging issues in research, the commercial world, or society; and exercises.This book is written for graduate or upper division undergraduate classes in computer networking. It will also be useful for industry professionals retraining for network related assignments, as well as for network practitioners seeking to understand the workings of network protocols and the big picture of networking. Completely updated content with expanded coverage of the topics of utmost importance to networking professionals and students, including P2P, wireless, security, and applications Increased focus on application layer issues where innovative and exciting research and design is currently the center of attention Free downloadable network simulation software and lab experiments manual available ...

Aug 31 2022

Chaos: A Very Short Introduction by Leonard Smith M.D

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Chaos exists in systems all around us. Even the simplest system of cause and effect can be subject to chaos, denying us accurate predictions of its behaviour, and sometimes giving rise to astonishing structures of large-scale order. Our growing understanding of Chaos Theory is having fascinating applications in the real world - from technology to global warming, politics, human behaviour, and even gambling on the stock market. Leonard Smith shows that we all have an intuitive understanding of chaotic systems. He uses accessible maths and physics (replacing complex equations with simple examples like pendulums, railway lines, and tossing coins) to explain the theory, and points to numerous examples in philosophy and literature (Edgar Allen Poe, Chang-Tzu, Arthur Conan Doyle) that illuminate the problems. The beauty of fractal patterns and their relation to chaos, as well as the history of chaos, and its uses in the real world and implications for the philosophy of science are all discussed in this Very Short Introduction. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable....

Aug 31 2022

The Sourcebook of Parallel Computing by Jack Dongarra

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Parallel Computing is a compelling vision of how computation can seamlessly scale from a single processor to virtually limitless computing power. Unfortunately, the scaling of application performance has not matched peak speed, and the programming burden for these machines remains heavy. The applications must be programmed to exploit parallelism in the most efficient way possible. Today, the responsibility for achieving the vision of scalable parallelism remains in the hands of the application developer. This book represents the collected knowledge and experience of over 60 leading parallel computing researchers. They offer students, scientists and engineers a complete sourcebook with solid coverage of parallel computing hardware, programming considerations, algorithms, software and enabling technologies, as well as several parallel application case studies. The Sourcebook of Parallel Computing offers extensive tutorials and detailed documentation of the advanced strategies produced by research over the last two decades application case studies. The Sourcebook of Parallel Computing offers extensive tutorials and detailed documentation of the advanced strategies produced by research over the last two decades....

Aug 31 2022

The Cell: A Very Short Introduction by Terence Allen , Graham Cowling

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In this Very Short Introduction, Terrence Allen and Graham Cowling offer an illuminating account of the nature of cells--their basic structure, forms, division, signaling, and programmed death. Allen and Cowling start with the simple "prokaryotic" cell--cells with no nucleus--and show how the bodies of more complex plants and animals consist of billions of "eukaryotic" cells, of varying kinds, adapted to fill different roles--red blood cells, muscle cells, branched neurons. The authors also show that each cell is an astonishingly complex chemical factory, the activities of which we have only begun to unravel in the past fifty years....