O'Reilly Media - Technology Books, Tech Conferences, IT Courses, News. Service Design Physics for Game Developers, 2nd Edition Ever since his father read A Brief History of Time to him in middle school, Bryan Bywalec wanted to be an astrophysicist. While he will always have a passion for pure physics, he became more and more obsessed in high school with the application of those physical principles he was learning. Having been around sailboats his entire life, his decision to seek a degree in Naval Architecture at the University of New Orleans surprised few.
While working on his degree, Mr. Bywalec was employed as a network administrator for the College of Engineering. Having an office in an electronics lab, he explored the world of enterprise computing and became very interested in high performance clusters, remote administration of desktops, and robotics. Upon graduating in 2007, he began his career at MiNO Marine, LLC and, under the guidance of David Bourg and Kenneth Humphreys, now focuses on finite element analysis of complex welded steel structures. Managing Startups: Best Blog Posts Microinteractions The book, unfortunately, doesn't fulfill this promising (minus that story) start. Rather than an intensive and systematic dissection of single-use-case interactions, we're given example after example (after example) of Triggers, then of Rules, then of Feedback, almost all drawn from postings to a single Website ("Little Big Details"),accompanied by a narrative which, by rapidly changing point of view and underlying metaphor, makes the analytical context confusing and causes all of these examples (and there are a LOT of examples) to just pile together, conceptually.
There are good ideas — use smart defaults, don't start from zero, recognize "signature moments" — but they are presented in mind-numbing breadth rather than depth, with many, many examples but little analysis of why these rules might apply exactly this way in this particular context. The barrage of examples, to me, grew tiresome. You might have figured that out already. Mr. Arduino Workshop The book's 65 projects range from lighting LEDs, a kind of Arduino "Hello world" (though a "Hello world" project occurs in the chapter discussing driving LCDs), to projects incorporating cell phone technologies like SMS text messages, projects about GPS and even several dealing with the construction of a tank-like robot, my personal favorite.
Many of the projects start with a simple version then build progressively more sophisticated versions by adding more components or features with the goal of teaching perhaps a specific technology, or as an exercise to encourage the reader to consider the Arduino's flexibility. For example, the tank robot project starts by using micro-switches to assist with "collision avoidance.
" Then the reader is guided through modifying the robot to use infrared components to avoid objects, and then to using ultrasonic distance calculation components! The book also contains a section on comparing the various Arduino boards available in the Arduino ecosystem. The Modern Web "[T]his book is a snapshot of current, new, and near-future features in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and related technologies, with a bias toward those that are best for building sites in the multi-device world.
" The book begins by describing stuff that's in a fairly advanced state of deployment, for example, elements introduced in HTML5 and WAI-ARIA properties, then moves through the spectrum to things not quite loose in the wild yet, like Web Components and CSS Variables. The author assumes some proficiency with Web technologies, sparing the busy reader long introductory explanations. You will get a lot out of this book — in fact, I think you will get the most out of it — by first reading it through without concerning yourself too much with the plentiful code samples and implementation details.
There is a good bibliography and suggestions for further reading appended to each chapter, and the references are gathered together again near the end of the book. Agile Data Learning iOS Programming, 3rd Edition The animal on the cover of Learning iOS Programming is a lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), also known as a northern lapwing, a peewit, or a green plover. This wading bird is 11–13 inches long with a 26–28 inch wingspan, a black crest, and rounded wings. Although its plumage is predominantly black and white, the upperparts are metallic green or bronze.
The name lapwing may refer to the sound its wings make in flight, to its erratic flight pattern, or to its practice of pretending to have a broken wing in order to fool predators. The name peewit mimics the sound of its call. The lapwing is common throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia, and occasionally makes its way to Alaska and Canada.
Lapwing populations have declined since the 1980s, as the species has been affected by intensive agricultural practices, increases in grazing density, and climate change. The cover image is from The Riverside Natural History. Programming iOS 6, 3rd Edition For existing programmers coming from a different language or development environment, the introductory sections on C/Objective-C, Xcode, and Cocoa should be all you need to get up and running. Those new to programming in general should pick up an introductory text (Aaron Hillegass's "Objective-C Programming" worked for me) before diving into the specifics of iOS APIs, which is where "Programming iOS 6" excels. Although I've not had an opportunity to read through the entire 1100+ page text, I have been referring to this book throughout a recent real-world project.
I usually consult the book whenever I need to get up to speed on a new topic where the official Apple documentation may be less than perfect in doing so. In particular, I found Neuburg's explanations of Auto Layout, views, and music selection/playback to be especially useful as I worked on my own project. Note: I received this book for free through the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program. The Minimalist Photographer This read is much less of a technical how-to guide, instead opting for the philosophical approach to photographer.
With sections such as "Why Do You Want to Take Photographs? " and "What Type of Photographer Will You Become? " the author begins with questioning the motives of the reader and sets the overall tone of the book. He continues sharing his philosophy of minimalism and his own personal approach and workflow, before discussing some of the technical aspects of photography and the types of equipment out there. He concludes with the more "soft" (though arguably essential) aspects of photography, such as aesthetics and composition, and finally a brief history of photography. I really, really liked this book because it forced me to think about what it was I actually wanted out of photography, as well as some darn good advice. This book completely changed how I think about photography, and has also shifted how I feel about life in general.
Programming the Mobile Web, 2nd Edition User-Centered Design The author has an informal and accessible writing style, which made the book a pleasure to read. He begins the first two chapters of the text explaining the reasons for focusing on user-centered design (UCD) and then in an interesting twist he explains what UCD is not. This helped me filter on the concept much better so I could separate UCD activities from other development design paradigms I would've mistakenly thought actually were part of the design process. In example, he explains UCD are not things like usability or bug reports. Mr. Lowdermilk then explored the soft skills needed to work with users, critical items every developer needs in their toolbox in order to make the UCD experience successful.
There are a couple of caveats that bear more than a mention. Ultimately, I found User-Centered Design an interesting and useful text on the subject, and the very readable style made it more appealing as a book to sit down and read than as a shelf reference. HTML5 Canvas, 2nd Edition Most of the book is centered on Javascript and how to leverage that to create some very interesting experiences with the canvas element. A lot of the book is focused on game development, which with today's programming trends, makes a lot of sense. However they also do an excellent job covering audio and video inside a canvas element as well.
Overall, the book does an excellent job with building up from the absolute basics to some very advanced effects. My only criticism of the book would be that there is, strangely, too much code. However, that really is my only criticism. HTML5 Canvas, 2nd Edition is a good book and well worth the price if you want to have a lot of fun seeing what you can do with the canvas element. Data Science Kit - Get Bad Data Handbook Kevin Fink offers suggestions on approaching data critically in order to ensure that we understand what we're working with before we begin to try to manipulate it. Fink offers useful scripts in shell and Perl that can be used to inspect data and perform basic sanity checks. Paul Murrell tackles the problem of scraping data from sources formatted for human consumption into a format more amenable for algorithmic analysis using R. And on and on. Each chapter addresses a critical concern in the data life-cycle: identifying, annotating, capturing, archiving, versioning, manipulating, analyzing, and deriving actionable information from imperfect or incomplete data.
Given the number of authors who contributed to this volume, it should come as no surprise that the tone, writing styles, and tools used vary greatly among the chapters, sometimes wandering into technical minutia, but only infrequently. Data Analysis with Open Source Tools • The underlying properties of data• The ways to represent the current status of the data• The criteria to select relevant data and attributes• The algorithms to analyze the selected data and attributes• The ways to report the conclusions of the performed data analysis. The author Philipp K. Janert takes a designer approach rather than an implementer approach. That means that you will gain important suggestions and tips to propose a plan for data analysis, instead of how to build an entire or partial information infrastructure using open source tools like Python, R, PostgreSQL and Weka. Then, for some developers the lack of full programming constructs may be disappointing. However, I feel that Philipp K.
Janert's main goal is to share with us his own professional experiences in real world enterprise analytical projects from a requirements perspective. This review is in exchange of the O'Reilly Bloggers Review Program (oreilly.com/bloggers). Interactive Data Visualization for the Web Create and publish your own interactive data visualization projects on the Web—even if you have little or no experience with data visualization or web development. It’s easy and fun with this practical, hands-on introduction. Author Scott Murray teaches you the fundamental concepts and methods of D3, a JavaScript library that lets you express data visually in a web browser. Along the way, you’ll expand your web programming skills, using tools such as HTML and JavaScript. This step-by-step guide is ideal whether you’re a designer or visual artist with no programming experience, a reporter exploring the new frontier of data journalism, or anyone who wants to visualize and share data.
MapReduce Design Patterns "MapReduce Design Patters" tries to be something similar within MapReduce area. However, this book focuses on the implementation too much. If you are not familiar with MapReduced yet, it will not help you becoming fascinated about the whole idea. After reading dozen of pages I had to start from the scratch by looking for some additional MapReduce introductions before I have gotten back to this one. It's really hard for me to judge the technical side of the book. This is entirely my fault as I am completely new to MapReduce. Big plus goes to the authors for collecting various patterns and indexing them in a one place. And one more explanation. Python for Data Analysis - O'Reilly Media. Bad Data Handbook The Pragmatic Bookshelf. Killer Game Programming in Java. Killer Game Programming in Java is for people who already know the basics of Java.
For example, students who've finished an 'Introduction to Java' course. The aim is to teach reusable techniques which can be pieced together to make lots of different, fun games. For example, how to make a particle system, first-person keyboard controls, a terrain follower, etc. If you don't know Java, then Killer Game Programming in Java isn't for you. Instead, have a look at my Java book suggestions. The main emphasis of my book (over 17 chapters) is on 3D gaming using Java 3D. Early (sometimes very early) draft versions of the book's chapters can be downloaded from here (see the links below). All the book's code is here, either downloadable as a single zip file (visit the code page), or on a chapter-by-chapter basis from each chapter's page (see the links below). I've also been adding new chapters here; chapters which don't appear in the book. There's a Czech edition of my book. Dr. SitePoint — Learn CSS | HTML5 | JavaScript | Wordpress | Tutorials-Web Development | Reference | Books and More.
Jump Start Responsive Web Design : Jump Start Responsive Web Design. By Craig Sharkie and Andrew Fisher An essential skill for every web designer and developer. No longer just a buzz phrase, Responsive Web Design is now an essential skill for every web designer and developer. In Jump Start Responsive Web Design, learn responsive techniques to make your designs look magnificent on any device, future proof them, and reduce development time and budget.
RWD helps you deal with the very real problem of not knowing where and how your application will be used. With these skills you’ll effortlessly win new clients. What you’ll learn Build smart and save time with fluid layouts for different screensUse adaptive images to design for Apple’s Retina display and moreFuture-proof your work using media queries to identify screen size Who should read this book? Anyone involved in the Web, from business owners to agency designers, corporations to developers. Meet the Authors Craig Sharkie was once happy to call himself a developer, speaker, author, and advocate.