Cassandra: The Definitive Guide provides the technical details and practical examples you need to assess this database management system and put it to work in a production environment.Author Eben Hewitt demonstrates the advantages of Cassandra's nonrelational design, and pays special attention to data modeling. If you're a developer, DBA, application architect, or manager looking to solve a database scaling issue or future-proof your application, this guide shows you how to harness Cassandra's speed and flexibility.Understand the tenets of Cassandra's column-oriented structureLearn how to write, update, and read Cassandra dataDiscover how to add or remove nodes from the cluster as your application requiresExamine a working application that translates from a relational model to Cassandra's data modelUse examples for writing clients in Java, Python, and C#Use the JMX interface to monitor a cluster's usage, memory patterns, and moreTune memory settings, data storage, and caching for better performance

    If you're a reasonably proficient programmer who can think logically, you have all the background you'll need. Stepanov and Rose introduce the relevant abstract algebra and number theory with exceptional clarity. They carefully explain the problems mathematicians first needed to solve, and then show how these mathematical solutions translate to generic programming and the creation of more effective and elegant code. To demonstrate the crucial role these mathematical principles play in many modern applications, the authors show how to use these results and generalized algorithms to implement a real-world public-key cryptosystem. As you read this book, you'll master the thought processes necessary for effective programming and learn how to generalize narrowly conceived algorithms to widen their usefulness without losing efficiency. You'll also gain deep insight into the value of mathematics to programming--insight that will prove invaluable no matter what programming languages and paradigms you use. You will learn aboutHow to generalize a four thousand-year-old algorithm, demonstrating indispensable lessons about clarity and efficiencyAncient paradoxes, beautiful theorems, and the productive tension between continuous and discreteA simple algorithm for finding greatest common divisor (GCD) and modern abstractions that build on itPowerful mathematical approaches to abstractionHow abstract algebra provides the idea at the heart of generic programmingAxioms, proofs, theories, and models: using mathematical techniques to organize knowledge about your algorithms and data structuresSurprising subtleties of simple programming tasks and what you can learn from themHow practical implementations can exploit theoretical knowledge

    Through extensive research and interviews with five notorious serial killers, author Joel Norris demonstrates that serial killers have specific biological and genetic makeups that can be identified as early as five years of age.  A compelling read for both the curious layman and the concerned professional.

    "An immensely fun and -- one cannot emphasize this enough -- accessible history of the first outlaws in cyberspace."--Glamour

    By building a network of computers, he believed the government could avoid buying so many new ones for academic research. From these modest Cold War beginnings a global networking industry has flourished, creating virtual communities, online shopping, the ubiquitous e-mail, and immense fortunes. Stephen Segaller's timely book draws on interviews with more than seventy of the pioneers who have used their technological genius and business skills to make incompatible systems work together, to make networking user-friendly, and to create a new global communications medium that rivals the telephone system or television in its scope and reach.Nerds 2.0.1 tells the dramatic, often comical story of how the world's computers have come to be wired together over the last thirty years. This paperback reprint contains new material to update the picture of this still-evolving saga.

    Dyson traces the course of the information revolution, illuminating the lives and work of visionaries - from the time of Thomas Hobbes to the time of John von Neumann - who foresaw the development of artificial intelligence, artificial life, and artificial mind. This book derives both its title and its outlook from Samuel Butler's 1863 essay "Darwin Among the Machines." Observing the beginnings of miniaturization, self-reproduction, and telecommunication among machines, Butler predicted that nature's intelligence, only temporarily subservient to technology, would resurface to claim our creations as her own. Weaving a cohesive narrative among his brilliant predecessors, Dyson constructs a straightforward, convincing, and occasionally frightening view of the evolution of mind in the global network, on a level transcending our own. Dyson concludes that we are in the midst of an experiment that echoes the prehistory of human intelligence and the origins of life. Just as the exchange of coded molecular instructions brought life as we know it to the early earth's primordial soup, and as language and mind combined to form the culture in which we live, so, in the digital universe, are computer programs and worldwide networks combining to produce an evolutionary theater in which the distinctions between nature and technology are increasingly obscured. Nature, believes Dyson, is on the side of the machines.

    The book is a complete revision of the commands section of Sobell's Practical Guide to Linux - a proven best-seller. The book is Linux distribution and release agnostic. It will appeal to users of ALL Linux distributions. Superior examples make this book the the best option on the market! System administrators, software developers, quality assurance engineers and others working on a Linux system need to work from the command line in order to be effective. Linux is famous for its huge number of command line utility programs, and the programs themselves are famous for their large numbers of options, switches, and configuration files. But the truth is that users will only use a limited (but still significant) number of these utilities on a recurring basis, and then only with a subset of the most important and useful options, switches and configuration files. This book cuts through all the noise and shows them which utilities are most useful, and which options most important. And it contains examples, lot's and lot's of examples. programmability. Utilities are designed, by default, to work wtih other utilities within shell programs as a way of automating system tasks. This book contains a superb introduction to Linux shell programming. And since shell programmers need to write their programs in text editors, this book covers the two most popular ones: vi and emacs.

    But is it what you think it is?Because the Internet of Things is not about things on the internet. A world in which all our household gadgets can communicate with each other may sound vaguely useful, but it’s not really for us consumers. The Internet of Things serves the interests of the technology giants, in their epic wrangles with each other. And it is they who will turn the jargon of “smart cities” and “smart homes” into a self-fulfilling prophesy. In this piercing and provocative essay, Bruce Sterling tells the story of an idea that just won’t go away because there’s too much money to be made and a whole world to control.

    There are updates throughout the book as well. These take into account important advances in cognitive psychology and the science of design while confirming and extending the book's basic thesis: that a physical symbol system has the necessary and sufficient means for intelligent action. The chapter "Economic Reality" has also been revised to reflect a change in emphasis in Simon's thinking about the respective roles of organizations and markets in economic systems."People sometimes ask me what they should read to find out about artificial intelligence. Herbert Simon's book The Sciences of the Artificial is always on the list I give them. Every page issues a challenge to conventional thinking, and the layman who digests it well will certainly understand what the field of artificial intelligence hopes to accomplish. I recommend it in the same spirit that I recommend Freud to people who ask about psychoanalysis, or Piaget to those who ask about child psychology: If you want to learn about a subject, start by reading its founding fathers." -- George A. Miller

    From Stephen Levy—the author who made "hackers" a household word—comes this account of a revolution that is already affecting every citizen in the twenty-first century. Crypto tells the inside story of how a group of "crypto rebels"—nerds and visionaries turned freedom fighters—teamed up with corporate interests to beat Big Brother and ensure our privacy on the Internet. Levy's history of one of the most controversial and important topics of the digital age reads like the best futuristic fiction.

    Now you can get in on the action as well. This book describes metaprogramming as an essential component of Ruby. Once you understand the principles of Ruby, including the object model, scopes, and eigenclasses, you're on your way to applying metaprogramming both in your daily work and in your fun, after-hours projects. Learning metaprogramming doesn't have to be difficult or boring. By taking you on a Monday-through-Friday workweek adventure with a pair of programmers, Paolo Perrotta helps make mastering the art of metaprogramming both straightforward and entertaining. The book is packed with:Pragmatic examples of metaprogramming in action, many of which come straight from popular libraries or frameworks, such as Rails. Programming challenges that let you experiment and play with some of the most fun, "out-there" metaprogramming concepts. Metaprogramming spells--34 practical recipes and idioms that you can study and apply right now, to write code that is sure to impress. Whether you're a Ruby apprentice on the path to mastering the language or a Ruby wiz in search of new tips, this book is for you.

    You can podcast to boost your business, promote your passion, share your opinions, or just have fun. The point is to say what you want to say to those who want to hear it. With step-by-step explanations, screen shots, and tons of examples, this guide clues you in on recording, producing, and hosting your very own podcast with info on:Finding your voice and your niche, whether you want to talk tech, make your own kinds of music, educate listeners, make people laugh, do soundseeing tours, serialize your novel, or invent a new podcasting genre Getting the bare necessities (if you don't already have them), including a microphone, recording software, and an audio card Audio editing software such as Audacity, Cakewalk for PCs, GarageBand for musicality, and Audio HiJack Pro for Macs Recording, including understanding dB (decibel levels), capturing or minimizing ambient noise, and more Editing with GarageBand or Audacity, adding bed music, and including intros and outros for a signature finishing touch You want your podcast to be heard. Podcasting For Dummies helps you launch and promote it with info on how to:Downsize your audio files with MP3 compression Change bit rates and sample rates in Audacity and iTunes Create and edit your ID3 tags in Audacity or iTunes Post your show notes using Movable Type or Libsyn Simplify the RSS 2.0 feed by using blogging software or a podcast-hosting company such as Audioblog.com, Podcastamatic, and Feeder Ping for publicity Communicate with your listeners on your blog, through online discussion groups such as Yahoo! Groups or Google Groups, or on online forums Of course, if you want to be a podcatcher (a listener) and subscribe to podcasts, this guide shows you how to do that, too! Complete with a companion podcast--a free weekly audio commentary that will keep you up to speed on the podsphere--this guide helps you get your message heard, loud and clear.

    Even as it guides us across town, GPS helps land planes, route mobile calls, anticipate earthquakes, predict weather, locate oil deposits, measure neutrinos, grow our food, and regulate global finance. It is as ubiquitous and essential as another Cold War technology, the Internet. In Pinpoint, Greg Milner takes us on a fascinating tour of a hidden system that touches almost every aspect of our modern life.While GPS has brought us breathtakingly accurate information about our planetary environment and physical space, it has also created new forms of human behavior. We have let it saturate the world’s systems so completely and so quickly that we are just beginning to confront the possible consequences. A single GPS timing flaw, whether accidental or malicious, could bring down the electrical grid, hijack drones, or halt the world financial system. The use, and potential misuse, of GPS data by government and corporations raise disturbing questions about ethics and privacy. GPS may be altering the nature of human cognition—possibly even rearranging the gray matter in our heads.Pinpoint tells the sweeping story of GPS from its conceptual origins as a bomb guidance system to its presence in almost everything we do. Milner examines the different ways humans have understood physical space, delves into the neuroscience of cognitive maps, and questions GPS’s double-edged effect on our culture. A fascinating and original story of the scientific urge toward precision, Pinpoint offers startling insight into how humans understand their place in the world.

    The British games industry would go on to create such hits as Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto, our innovation and imagination the envy of the world, our programmers the most sought after talent in the fastest growing entertainment medium in history.And it all started here.Welcome to the Speccy Nation.Join veteran games journalist and author Dan Whitehead on a journey through fifty games that helped to define the golden age of British gaming. From the timeless classics to unlikely cult favourites, and even the games so eccentric they could only have come from Britain in the 1980s.Part nostalgic look at the past, and part critical eye on the present and future, Speccy Nation is essential reading for all retro gaming enthusiasts.Includes a foreword by Your Sinclair's Phil "Snouty" South.

    We nevertheless muddle through even in the absence of theories of how to act. But how do we do it?In Probably Approximately Correct, computer scientist Leslie Valiant presents a masterful synthesis of learning and evolution to show how both individually and collectively we not only survive, but prosper in a world as complex as our own. The key is “probably approximately correct” algorithms, a concept Valiant developed to explain how effective behavior can be learned. The model shows that pragmatically coping with a problem can provide a satisfactory solution in the absence of any theory of the problem. After all, finding a mate does not require a theory of mating. Valiant’s theory reveals the shared computational nature of evolution and learning, and sheds light on perennial questions such as nature versus nurture and the limits of artificial intelligence.Offering a powerful and elegant model that encompasses life’s complexity, Probably Approximately Correct has profound implications for how we think about behavior, cognition, biological evolution, and the possibilities and limits of human and machine intelligence.