The Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology

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Lots of circumstances conspired to make information technology what it is today. Business decisions (both wise and foolish), scientific discoveries (both old and recent), marketing campaigns (founded both in truth and otherwise), and plenty of random chance have played parts in defining the industrial, social, and cultural phenomena that personal and business computing have become. The Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology tells the technical, commercial, and social stories behind the electronic computer and related technologies, such as telecommunications and software development. Along the way, author E. Garrison Walters reveals a lot of general knowledge about computers. This book is highly readable. It's essentially a general-interest nonfiction book, and a good one, at that.

As you read this book, you can't avoid picking up the little technical facts that have become part of our culture, particularly its younger parts. What's an embedded operating system? What's object-oriented programming? What is the open-source movement? Walters teaches you enough about these subjects--and the ways in which they fit together--to enable you to speak intelligently about them and perform further research, as your needs require. You'll enjoy this book, regardless of your level of computer expertise or your area of specialization, because you're sure to learn something and enjoy the process. --David Wall

Topics covered: The state of the art in electronic computing, data storage, and data communications, in a historical context. The operations of processors, memory chips, persistent storage devices (e.g., disks), and other hardware subsystems. Software development--including compression, encryption, and the challenges and promise of parallel computing--receives attention. Ditto for network communications infrastructures, protocols, and applications. It's all explained in detail and with style.

Customer Reviews:

Unbelievably Good.......2007-09-20

Walters' comprehensive knowledge of the world of IT and incredible ability to explain complex concepts make this book a fascinating read for any gadget geek interested in how stuff actually works. And he doesn't settle for simple, surface level explanations. Instead of shying away from the details and tech-speak, Walters takes you one step further than you thought you could ever go through insightful examples and meaningful analogies.

In addition, his ability to put technological developments in context allow the reader to see the larger factors and trends that have and continue to drive change. A seemingly chaotic and overwhelmingly fast-changing industry suddenly seems logical and "trackable" after reading Walters' book. In this way, it's easy to forgive the fact that the text is a bit out of date. Everything I've read about today's technology I've easily been able to connect back to the ideas I learned here.

Truly one of a kind.

Pretty cool book!.......2005-07-22

It is very cool book, I would say valuable book to build up your understanding of IT in general. It converges many technologies into one coherent pattern so you start to understand many things. I combined reading of this book with "UNIX Essentials" DVD and it nice to explore many of the conceptions in action. If you are lacking some evenness with your IT knowledge pick this one it is nicely shape your vision of it.

Great coverage of the IT field.......2002-12-07

There is a great breadth of information presented in a very lucid fashion. The material is easy to understand, and the author adds a great sense of humor.
However, with the rapid advancements in technology, the book is a bit dated. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a gain a great breadth of knowledge in the field of Information technology, in a short period of time.

Review from an Experienced Marketing Manager's Perspective.......2002-03-14

With 6+ years marketing management experience and an MBA, I feel this book was very helpful in understanding the many facets of technology and its evolution through time. The book is a must read for anyone who needs to build or brush up on a solid but basic understanding of technology. However, many of the newest trends in technology are only briefly covered. This is due, I believe, to the fact that many of the pervasive technologies and collaborative applications now being pushed in the marketplace didn't make the editor's draft of the book even though the published date is 2001.

A REMARKABLE FIND !.......2002-03-14

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO COMPUTING is simply an extraordinary achievement. It reflects a breadth of knowledge and clarity of presentation that is remarkable. It makes every effort to distill knowledge about computers and computing in an easy, reader-friendly, memorable way. For computer users everywhere -- in organizations, schools, colleges and universities, and individuals -- this volume gives multiple ways of getting to know more about computing in its fast changing environment. First, you get to know the foundations of how computers and computing works in practical, everyday language. Second, you get a reference book that explains key terms, key workings, and key interconnections among the parts.

The most noteworthy aspect of the book is its superb coherence in presenting vast amounts of computing knowledge arranged in for easy understanding. Information and explanations in one chapter are referenced in subsequent ones, never failing to explain connections among them, with a view to present an overall picture of how computers and computing works.

Each chapter highlights technical terms related to computing and information technology, provides an overview of specific aspects as for example "An Overview of How Storage Works" (Chapter 2, p.40), and highlights in grey explanations of widely used terms such as "Disks From a User's Perspective" (p. 56). Each chapter also ends with a summary list of questions that focus on self-evaluating one's grasp of the chapter's contents.

E. Garrison Walters' book will continue to enrich the understanding of all who enjoy working with computers at work or for pleasure. I wish this book had been available to guide me in computing long before I found it, and, that I had written it ! It is a remarkable achievement!

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The Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology
E. Garrison Walters
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MBYH0Q

Book Description

Praise for Managing a Corporate Bond Portfolio

"Crabbe and Fabozzi's Managing a Corporate Bond Portfolio is a refreshingly good book on the neglected topic in fixed income portfolio management. If you want to understand the latest thinking in corporate bonds, what drives prices and why, read this book. You will emerge with knowledge that will help you get an edge in the competitive investing arena."
—Tim Opler, Director, Financial Strategy Group, CSFB

"A practitioner's guide . . . a creative, comprehensive, and practical book that addresses the myriad of challenges facing managers of corporate bond portfolios. The chapter on liquidity, trading, and trading costs is a must read."
—Mary Rooney
Head of Credit Strategy, Merrill Lynch

"As a Senior Portfolio Manager responsible for managing billions of dollars invested in fixed income product during the mid-1990s, Lee Crabbe was the one Wall Street strategist that I would read every week to help me figure out where value was in the corporate bond market, and for insightful and easy-to-understand special reports that educated me and most investors on the risks and opportunities inherent in new structures and subordinated products. Fortunately for me and investors, Lee Crabbe and Frank Fabozzi have written this book, which compiles much of their previous work on corporate bond valuation, along with new features that are a must read, especially in light of the volatile times in the corporate bond market over the past few years. For portfolio managers, analysts, traders, and even strategists, if there is one book in your bookshelf that you should have on corporate bond portfolio management, it is this one."
—William H. Cunningham, Managing Director, Director of Credit Strategy, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.

www.wileyfinance.com

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic.......2004-03-11

Leland Crabbe's knowledge of the corporate bond market is just awesome.

Great Overview.......2002-11-06

If you want a detailed overview of the corporate bond market and how to manage corporate bond portfolios - this is the book for you. I highly recommend this book, it's educational and well written.

great book.......2002-03-13

great for professionals in the fixed income field or those studying for the CFA.

great book.......2002-03-13

great for professionals in the fixed income field or those studying for the CFA.

A solid book.......2001-12-20

Finally a book written for practicing professionals. This is a book to have on your shelf. You'll be amazed at what these two can teach you.

Managing Credit Risk in Corporate Bond Portfolios: A Practitioner's Guide

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A Must Read for all 'Traditional' Fixed Income Managers

Managing Credit Risk in Corporate Bond Portfolios: A Practitioner's Guide
Srichander Ramaswamy
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471430374

Book Description

Expert guidance on managing credit risk in bond portfolios
Managing Credit Risk in Corporate Bond Portfolios shows readers how to measure and manage the risks of a corporate bond portfolio against its benchmark. This comprehensive guide explores a wide range of topics surrounding credit risk and bond portfolios, including the similarities and differences between corporate and government bond portfolios, yield curve risk, default and credit migration risk, Monte Carlo simulation techniques, and portfolio selection methods.
Srichander Ramaswamy, PhD (Basel, Switzerland), is Head of Investment Analysis at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland, and Adjunct Professor of Banking and Finance, University of Lausanne.

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Customer Reviews:

A Must Read for all 'Traditional' Fixed Income Managers.......2003-11-30

This book does indeed fill an important gap in the literature - in bridging the quant and the strategist.
Simply put, the author has assembled a very readable set of ingredients from which one could 'proficiently' manage a corporate bond mandate.
The chapters on credit portfolio risk measurement and optimization are very informative and leave the right questions open to interpretation and future research.
The collection of analytical and simulation based approaches and empirical results is excellent and useful for everyone - no matter what the level of experience or expertise of the reader.
The reason for 4 stars is that I feel too much time was spent on discussing the KMV approach (which although well-known, has a number of weaknesses), not quite enough time was spent on the development of simulation-based approaches, and the author does not attempt to integrate market and credit risks directly.
This being said - there is enough detail in this book to lead the inquisitive reader into these subjects in more detail with a great background.
Excellent book

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Managing Corporate Bond Portfolio
Crabbe.
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

This book describes in detail the ways in which the life of the Church of England is affected by law. It deals with a great many topics including canonical jurisprudence, ecclesiastical government, the ministry of clergy and laity, faith, doctrine and liturgy, the churches' rites and the management of property and finance. Each of these subjects is studied and analysed critically and where appropriate comparisons are made with the Roman Catholic Church. Five general themes emerge:first is the degree to which the church can be said to be regulated; the second concerns the increasingly important use of administrative rules created executively at national and diocesian level to supplement the churches formal law; the third examines the relationship between the formal law and the pastoral values of clarity, certainty and flexibility; the fourth theme is the applicability of secular law; the final theme is the comparison with the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church. Thus the book provides for the first time a comprehensive, descriptive and critical analysis of the legal framework of the Church of England and the regulatory instruments which operate within this framework.

THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND: A CRITICAL STUDY IN A COMPARATIVE CONTEXT.(Review): An article from: Theological Studies

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THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND: A CRITICAL STUDY IN A COMPARATIVE CONTEXT.(Review): An article from: Theological Studies
Ladislas Orsy
Manufacturer: Theological Studies, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Theological Studies, published by Theological Studies, Inc. on December 1, 1998. The length of the article is 623 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND: A CRITICAL STUDY IN A COMPARATIVE CONTEXT.(Review)
Author: Ladislas Orsy
Publication: Theological Studies (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 1998
Publisher: Theological Studies, Inc.
Volume: 59 Issue: 4 Page: 757(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Agricultural droughts affect whole societies, leading to higher food costs, threatened economies, and even famine. In order to mitigate such effects, researchers must first be able to monitor them, and then predict them; however no book currently focuses on accurate monitoring or prediction of these devastating kinds of droughts. To fill this void, the editors of Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought have assembled a team of expert contributors from all continents to make a global study, describing biometeorological models and monitoring methods for agricultural droughts. These models and methods note the relationships between precipitation, soil moisture, and crop yields, using data gathered from conventional and remote sensing techniques. The coverage of the book includes probabilistic models and techniques used in America, Europe and the former USSR, Africa, Asia, and Australia, and it concludes with coverage of climate change and resultant shifts in agricultural productivity, drought early warning systems, and famine mitigation. This will be an essential collection for those who must advise governments or international organizations on the current scope, likelihood, and impact of agricultural droughts. Sponsored by the World Meterological Organization

Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought; a Global Study.

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Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought; a Global Study.
Vijendra K. Boken Et Al
Manufacturer: Oxford U. Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N6B6SG

Book Description

Behavioural ecologists and evolutionary biologists have long been interested in the biological implications of sperm from different males competing for fertilization of the egg in the female tract. This book discusses these implications for human sexual behaviour and human infertility problems.

Customer Reviews:

10 years on.......2006-10-21

It is now 10 years since this book was published. Surprisingly, it is still cited positively, especially by some evolutionary psychologists, along with citations of the Baker and Bellis papers in "Animal Behaviour", published in the 1990's. I say "surprisingly" because , in the intervening years, a substantial number of publications has appeared which fail to support many of the conclusions reached by Baker and Bellis concerning human sperm competition."Khamikaze sperm" , for example , don't exist in human beings...or at least Moore et al found no evidence to support the view that some human sperm block or interfere with those of other males( the paper was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B...which has stringent reviewing standards). The is no evidence that men with larger testes are more likely to engage in extra-pair copulations ( Simmons et al published a very good study on this in Animal Behaviour in 2004). As for female orgasm , and Baker And Bellis bizarre views on its functions...I recommend Elizabeth Lloyd's book on this topic, as a much needed critique of theories for the evolution of orgasm in women. As a primatologist I could never reconcile the animal evidence with Baker and Bellis ideas either. Over the years reputable experts in the field of sperm competition....such as Birkhead, Gomendio and Roldan, Harcourt, and Short , have pointed out the deficiencies in Baker and Bellis work.
Yet it is still cited, and has entered the textbooks in some cases....presumably to the detriment of students who are exposed to this material as if it represented the established facts of human physiology. A number of evolutionary psychologists are particularly at fault in this respect.The history of science teaches that truth always emerges in the end. Such is the case with human sperm competition....no doubt it occurs, but how often and whether it has shaped human evolution still needs clarification.The reader will not find reliable answers to these questions in Baker and Bellis book.

Alan Dixson D.Sc.

A look at the future.......2000-05-28

The accomplishments of Baker & Bellis, summarized nicely in this textbook treatment, are stunning and underappreciated. B&B present a strong case that our reproductive physiology and behavior evidence a degree of adaptive, strategic sophistication that should both thrill and embarass anyone who holds an evolutionary view of human behavior.

Thrill, because rarely in evolutionary literature have this many surprising details been assembled that argue so compellingly for an evolutionary view (and resist so completely the usual alternatives of random culture or passive socialization). Embarass, because this research plainly runs against the grain of the accepted gospel of American evolutionary psychology by showing that the unconsious processing of our evolved neural systems does not always consist of clucky, outdated, Pleistocene if-then routines, but can exhibit genuinely adaptive, environmentally contingent, creative, strategic intelligence -- even in the face of novel technological advances like modern birth control.

The only really unfortunate thing about B&B's work is that they themselves don't draw the psychological conclusions that seem to follow from their work. Here, as well as in Baker's popular books (Sperm Wars, Baby Wars, and the recent Sex in the Future), B&B are content to draw an odd distinction between the conscious agent and its body, and to assign our evolved strategies to the latter (leading to strange statements like "You may want to do this, but your body wants you to do that").

At any rate, mark my words: In 30 years those of us who are serious about evolutionary approaches to human behavior will list B&B's Human Sperm Competition among the most important works of the 20th century (and we will shake our heads the same way we do today about Mendel, wondering how in the world it took everyone so long to figure out that this stuff is a big deal). If you are engaged in research on mating or sexual strategies, do yourself a favor and get this book. And when you read it, keep one question is mind: What has to be true of human minds in order for B&B to have made these findings? It is a rare opportunity to glimpse the future of mind science.

Very stimulating.......1999-06-10

An absoluting fascinating book. Although not all the conclusions and suggestions are entirely plausible (or at least not well explicated), the thrust of the book makes itself felt. So to speak.

The genetic basis for human behaviour demonstrated!.......1998-03-09

Suddenly sociobiology comes to life! If you had any doubts about human sexual behaviour, or suffered from political correctness, this will set you to rights. It is indeed a seminal book.

Book Description

The conservation of historic monuments, sites and structures constitutes an inter-professional discipline co-ordinating a range of aesthetic historic, scientific and technical methods. Conservation is a rapidly developing field, which, by its true nature, is a multidisciplinary activity with experts respecting one another's contributions and combining to form an effective team. Conservation is an artistic activity aided by scientific and historical knowledge.
Main topics at this Congress included:

- the most appropriate methodology for the assessment of the degree of weathering of stone

- development of new methods and instruments for the diagnosis of the state of conservation, for the study of alteration mechanisms and for conservation treatments.

- the definition of Technical European Standard Methods for the evaluation of conservation treatments of artistic and historic stone objects and monuments.

Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on Deterioration and Conservation of Stone

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Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on Deterioration and Conservation of Stone
V. Fassina
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUE0M2

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Experimental Researches in Electricity Volume 1 (Large Print Edition)
Michael Faraday
Manufacturer: BiblioBazaar
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books
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Experimental Researches in Electricity: Volume 3

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ASIN: 142648321X
Release Date: 2007-02-08

Book Description

I have been induced by various circumstances to collect in One Volume the Fourteen Series of Experimental Researches in Electricity which have appeared in the Philosophical Transactions during the last seven years: the chief reason has been the desire to supply at a moderate price the whole of these papers with an Index to those who may desire to have them.

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A Life Experience

Fantastic Novel!

DAMN!

It isn't scolding

A Great Coming-Of-Age Book

Coffee Will Make You Black: A Novel
April Sinclair
Manufacturer: Hyperion Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1562827960

Book Description

I still thought breasts might be more trouble than they were worth. Growing up reminded me a little bit of Hide and Go Seek. When it was your time to grow up, Natrue said, "Here I come, ready or not." And Nature could always find you.

Customer Reviews:

A Life Experience.......2004-12-18

Stevie, a young, black girl living in Chicago experiences new changes in life to discover her sexual identity. The book is beautifully written and should have been a bestseller.

Fantastic Novel!.......2004-10-07

I just happened to stumble upon this novel this morning in the libaray at my school and I can't put it down! April Sinclair is a poignant, powerful, hilarious writer. I can't wait to read more of her work and I'm sorry I didn't stumble upon her sooner. READ THIS BOOK,YA'LL!

DAMN!.......2004-04-06

Sadly enough, two weeks ago I had to toss out my AUTOGRAPHED, 1ST EDITION COPIES of "Coffee will Make You Black" and "Ain't gonna be..." because while i was packing things up to move someone spilled BEER on them! Even after drying them out, they stunk to high heaven. Not only am I upset that I had to throw them out, now I can't read them until I get new copies. Oh well. These books are worth it.

Why this story about Stevie hasn't been made into a movie yet is BEYOND me.

It isn't scolding.......2003-09-01

I read this book so many years ago, and mainly because it was causing such a controversy at a school I just had to know what was "so bad" about this book.

It's a coming of age story where you meet young Stevie, a L7 (square) whose learning all about life and what it has to offer as far as what is a friend? a period? and the big deal about sex?

I think April Sinclair did an excellent job, we need books because sometimes mama can't talk to you because she's too afraid! I was tempted to call the school up and ask why the big fuss?

A Great Coming-Of-Age Book.......2003-08-15

I could not put this book down for a second. A. Sinclair explores the life of Jean Stevenson (Stevie) growing up in Chicago during the 1960's. During her teenage life, she goes through struggling for an understanding of herself as a woman, standing up for what she believes in when it comes to her mother, and her unsureness of her sexuality. A great coming-of-age book that relates to the issues that teenage girls deal with, especially when it comes to sex.

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