Tag: book review

Book Review: Desirable Future: Consumer Electronics in Tomorrow’s World


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Here’s a review I did on amazon.com for Desirable Future: Consumer Electronics in Tomorrow’s World.
Review

This is a thought provoking book that explores advances in complementary science, technology, medicine and engineering and how consumer electronics will change our society, our planet and our selfs.

This book covers almost every topic you could think of in terms of electronics.
Some of the discussed topics are the death of the PC, advancements in wired and wireless networks, Moore’s law, new types of CPUs and computing, Singularity, environmental impact from e-waste and manufacturing consumer electronics, and etc.

The author explains each topic well enough for most people to understand.
Two themes that are echoed throughout the book are that future devices will be smaller, faster and mostly wireless while using less power. Also, socialites will become heavily dependent on technology to function.

I enjoyed reading “Desirable Future” but was left wondering who Jack Challoner was and how he knows so much, until I opened the back cover. It turns out that Jack Challoner has written more than 30 books and is a consultant science editor for books, magazines, science activity packs and Cd-ROMs.

I recommend this book for anyone fascinated with technology.

Video: Future Technology (2020)

Larry Battle

Larry Battle

I love to program, and discover new tech. Check out my <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/users/527776/larry-battle">stackoverflow</a> and <a href="https://github.com/LarryBattle">github</a> accounts.

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Book Review: Computers Ltd: What They Really Can’t Do


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Hey everybody,
I would like to share a book review that I wrote on amazon.com.
Book: “Computers Ltd.: What They Really Can’t Do (Popular Science)” (2003)
Author: David Harel

Computers Ltd.: What They Really Can't Do

“This book sets the record straight. Computers can’t fix all of the world problems because they’re limited by time and space.

The author starts off by defining algorithms and how computer programs work. He’s then explores common problems in computer science using a fair amount of algebra and graphs, like NP complete problems, the travelling salesman problem, the Turing test, tower of Hanoi, and etc.

Restraining from being a complete pessimist, discussions mainly addressing Cryptography are included. Cryptography shows how computational complexity can be used for the greater good, as it’s nearly impossible to break the encryption within a reasonable amount of time for any data encoded in RSA.

Lastly, the author ends the book with his take on hot areas in computing, such as Quantum Computers, Artificial Intelligence and evolutionary (generic) programming.
Overall, I enjoyed this pocket size book and recommend it for those interested in expanding their knowledge in Computer Science.”
-Larry Battle

Larry Battle

Larry Battle

I love to program, and discover new tech. Check out my <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/users/527776/larry-battle">stackoverflow</a> and <a href="https://github.com/LarryBattle">github</a> accounts.

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“Beginning MySql” – Book Review


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Here’s a book review I did on amazon.com.
Check out more of my reviews at my amazon.com profile page.

Overall, I love this book, because the authors build your knowledge of databases from the ground up.

Before I got my hands on this book, I knew only a limited amount about databases. Now, I understand advance concepts (like foreign keys, transactions and optimization) and can design, implement and maintain my own simple relational database management system.

This is a thick book that took me about 2 weeks to finish and it would have taken even longer if I decided to follow through with all the “Try it out” sections, exercises and useful examples.

“Beginning MySql” covers the majority of MySql 4.1 by using the definitions of syntax and options as their main teaching tool throughout most of the chapters. This makes MySql easy to learn since you can reference the definitions as a cheat sheet when you’re implementing a database design.

One thing that I noticed is that they need more proofreading. Every now and then, you’ll encounter a typo or wrong information but this is expected since the authors warned of this in the introduction.
Example, page 299: “However, bitwise operations support calculations up to 64 buts”.

The best part of the book, is appendix C. It briefly covers MySql 5 but they introduce you to Triggers, Views and Procedures while updating you on MySql new standards. For exmaple, MySql 5 supports foreign keys for all the table engines, not just for INNODB.
If you’re the type that has a hard time reading documentation online, then I would strongly recommend this book. Otherwise you might be able to learn MySql using Youtube and the MySql homepage.

Note: Since this book only converts version 4.1 of MySql, you need to checkout the on-line documentation for changes in MySQL 5.

You can buy the book for less than $10. Link below.

Larry Battle

Larry Battle

I love to program, and discover new tech. Check out my <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/users/527776/larry-battle">stackoverflow</a> and <a href="https://github.com/LarryBattle">github</a> accounts.

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Book Review: Don’t Make Me Think


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After months of delay, I finally sat down and read “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug.

don't make me think
don't make me think

Link: Don’t Make Me Think

Finished this short but informative book in 2 days. Steve Krugs gives advice on avoiding common usabilities issues.
With that, here are a few things I picked up.
– Test rather than argue with your team.
– Users read in a hurry, so kill the noise by having less design and small talk, while filling the page up with unique content.
– Avoiding ads on your home page, even though it has the highest traffic.
– Provide aid for lost users. That includes a way to get to the home page, a site id, and other means of understanding their location.
– Test each stage of your project at least once. The earlier the testing, the cheaper to repair.

Larry Battle

Larry Battle

I love to program, and discover new tech. Check out my <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/users/527776/larry-battle">stackoverflow</a> and <a href="https://github.com/LarryBattle">github</a> accounts.

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