‘Be the best you can be’ urge self-help books and makeover TV shows, but what kind of self is imagined as needing a makeover and what kind of self is imagined as the happy result? Drawing on recent sociology and psychology, this book explores the function of slummy mummies, headless zombies and living autopsies to creating an idea of self.
Mathematics and Multimedia focuses on the mathematics behind multimedia applications. This timely and thoroughly modern text is a rigorous survey of selected results from algebra and analysis, requiring only undergraduate math skills.The topics are `gems’ chosen for their usefulness in understanding and creating application software for multimedia signal processing and communication.The book is aimed at a wide audience, including computer science and mathematics majors and those interested in employing mathematics in multimedia design and implementation.
This unique book brings together a comprehensive set of papers on the background, theory, technical issues and applications of agent-based modelling (ABM) within geographical systems. This collection of papers is an invaluable reference point for the experienced agent-based modeller as well those new to the area. Specific geographical issues such as handling scale and space are dealt with as well as practical advice from leading experts about designing and creating ABMs, handling complexity, visualising and validating model outputs. With contributions from many of the world s leading research institutions, the latest applied research (micro and macro applications) from around the globe exemplify what can be achieved in geographical context. This book is relevant to researchers, postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students, and professionals in the areas of quantitative geography, spatial analysis, spatial modelling, social simulation modelling and geographical information sciences.
From Literature to Biterature is based on the premise that in the foreseeable future computers will become capable of creating works of literature. Among hundreds of other questions, it considers: Under which conditions would machines become capable of creative writing? Given that computer evolution will exceed the pace of natural evolution a million-fold, what will such a state of affairs entail in terms of art, culture, social life, and even nonhuman rights? Drawing a map of impending literary, cultural, social, and technological revolutions, Peter Swirski boldly assumes that computers will leap from mere syntax-driven processing to semantically rich understanding. He argues that acknowledging biterature as a species of literature will involve adopting the same range of attitudes to computer authors (computhors) as to human ones and that it will be necessary to approach them as agents with internal states and creative intentions. Ranging from the metafiction of Stanislaw Lem to the ‘Turing test’ (familiar to scientists working in Artificial Intelligence and the philosophers of mind) to the evolutionary trends of culture and machines, Swirski’s scenarios lay the groundwork for a new area of study on the cusp of literary futurology, evolutionary cognition, and philosophy of the future.
This book contributes to the theoretical and methodological discussion about how the diverging experiences of generations and their historical memories play a role in the process of national identity formation. Drawing from narratives gathered within the Ukrainian minority in northern Poland and centered on the collective trauma of Action Vistula, where in 1947 about 140,000 Ukrainians were resettled from south-eastern Poland and relocated to the north-western areas, this study shows that three generations vary considerably with regard to their understandings of home, integration, history and religion. Thus, generational differences are an essential element in the analysis and understanding of social and political change. The findings of this study provide a contribution to debates about the process based nature of national identity, the role of trauma in creating generational consciousness and how generations should be conceptualized.
The essential guide for getting the internet traffic every smallbusiness owner needs. CD included.
The highly competitive and globalized software market is creating pressure on software companies. Given the current boundary conditions, it is critical to continuously increase time-to-market and reduce development costs. In parallel, driven by private life experiences with mobile computing devices, the World Wide Web and software-based services, peoples general expectations with regards to software are growing. They expect software that is simple and joyful to use. In the light of the changes that have taken place in recent years, software companies need to fundamentally reconsider the way they develop and deliver software to their customers. This book introduces fundamentals, trends and best practices in the software industry from a threefold perspective which equally takes into account design, management, and development of software. It demonstrates how cross-functional integration can be leveraged by software companies to successfully build software for people. Professionals from business and academia give an overview on state-of-the-art knowledge and report on key insights from their real-life experience. They provide guidance and hands-on recommendation on how to create winning products. This combined perspective fosters the transfer of knowledge between research and practice and offers a high practical value for both sides. The book targets both, practitioners and academics looking for successfully building software in the future. It is directed at Managing Directors of software companies, Software Project Managers, Product Managers and Designers, Software Developers as well as academics and students in the area of Software and Information Systems Engineering, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and Innovation Management.
Google Glass is the new wearable computer everyone’s talking about. It offers a head-mounted optical display and touch interface, and it’s programmable. Kick-start your Glassware development by exploring how users can interface with Glass, developing a Glass application fast by using the Mirror API to manipulate Timeline cards and menus, tracking a Glass’s geolocation, creating rich interactions by responding to user inputs, and capturing or serving user images and videos. This is the book to read for a shortcut to this brave new world.
This book looks at the effectiveness of the 1999 restructuring of the UK through the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and the Assemblies for Northern Ireland and Wales, considering the process of devolution and its consequences on the key mechanisms of accounting and democratic accountability. Many of the chapters in this book examine whether devolution is enhancing democratic accountability, or creating a fragmentary state with conflict and tensions between the Westminster government and the devolved bodies.
For years, Libby Morgan dreamed only of making partner in her competitive, high-pressure law firm. She sacrificed everything for her career – her friends, her marriage, her chance at creating a family. When her boss calls Libby into his office, she assumes it will finally be good news, but nothing can prepare her for the shocking reality: she’s been let go and must rebuild her entire life . . . starting now.
This book is for students and professionals who are intrigued by the prospect of learning and using a powerful language that provides a rich infrastructure for creating programs. No programming knowledge is necessary to benefit from this book except for the section on Lua bindings, which requires some familiarity with the C programming language. A certain comfort level with command-line operations, text editing, and directory structures is assumed.
Are you a tester who spends more time manually creating complex test data than using it? A business analyst who seemingly went to college all those years so you can spend your days copying data from reports into spreadsheets? A programmer who can’t finish each day’s task without having to scan through version control system output, looking for the file you want?
This book focuses exclusively on the application of PowerPoint to the creation of online training programs. Better than Bullet Points, Creating Engaging e-Learning with PowerPoint fills that gap. By providing in-depth guidance, specific instructions, and helpful exercises, the book will enable training practitioners to create impactful learning interactions in PowerPoint. The author steps readers through the powerful features of this popular desktop application, covering everything from text to art, animation to interactivity. Provided that the reader owns a copy of PowerPoint, this book will immediately put free real-world tools into the hands of those who need it. The information is practical rather than theoretical and immediately applicable. Most importantly, this book will help make e-learning accessible to those who have previously been excluded from taking advantage of the opportunities e-learning can provide.
Continuing his major work on strategy and tactics in modern chess, the internationally renowned Grandmaster, Ludek Pachman, now turns his attention to the play of the pawns and the achievement of control of the center squares. Though the pawns are the weakest pieces in chess, their importance in determining the character of the attack (and defense) and the development of strategic play cannot be underestimated. Pawns are essential to the protection of important squares and pieces. They are the best means of blockading enemy pawns and when correctly deployed, their advance can open vital files and diagonals, thereby creating weaknesses in the opposite position. Despite its limited power, the pawn has one special advantage over other pieces in that it can be promoted when it reaches the eighth rank; a successful pawn advance can completely change the balance of power and the outcome of a game. Pawns have aptly been described as ‘the soul of chess. Vital to chess mastery is a basic understanding of the importance of control of the center squares. The effectiveness of the pieces depend upon the strength of their position and center control creates a vital spatial superiority. The pieces gain in power as they exert influence over more spaces. Control not only allows increased maneuverability, but restricts the possibilities open to the opponent. The effective play of the pawns and center control have been touched upon in other works, but seldom with the insight and lucidity revealed in this second volume of Pachman’s masterwork.
A fast-paced tutorial that guides you through everything you need to know about dynamic UI design for Android devices.This book is for developers with a basic understanding of Android programming who would like to improve the appearance and usability of their applications. Whether youre looking to create a more interactive user experience, create more dynamically adaptive UIs, provide better support for tablets and smartphones in a single app, reduce the complexity of managing your app UIs, or you are just trying to expand your UI design philosophy, then this book is for you.
iPhone Game Blueprints is a practical, hands-on guide with step-by-step instructions leading you through a number of different projects, providing you with the essentials for creating your own iPhone games.This book is for graphic designers, developers, illustrators, and simple enthusiasts, who dream about the creation of mobile games or who have already worked in that domain, but need some additional inspiration and knowledge. This book can be considered as an illustrated handbook, worth having in your game development studio. It can work as a paper art-director for your project.
Behind every leader is an instructive life story. It often promotes a public image that inspires others to live by it. And, sometimes, even to live or to die for it. As leadership qualities and image issues gain significance in the public discourse, the psychological study of leadership is a critical factor in any discussion. With its trenchant insights into leaders past and present, The Leader: Psychological Essays, Second Edition, updates a pioneering text in this field and provides a solid basis for ongoing dialogue on this important subject. Within the context of the ever-evolving disciplines of psychoanalysis and psychodynamics, this thought-provoking volume examines the lives of several prominent leaders from ancient Greece through the start of the 21st century. The authors explore how these leaders imposed their individual missions and mystiques on others, thereby fulfilling and, sometimes, creating distinct needs in their followers. The volume brings into vivid focus issues with the potential for devastating consequences on the global stage. Coverage includes: Biblical times, ancient Greeks and the seeds of leadership.Lincoln during the 1850s, leading a dividing nation.Thomas A. Kohut on Kaiser Wilhelm II and the German national character.George W. Bush, atonement/redemption narratives and the American Dream.Bin Laden, man and myth.A study of paranoid leadership and its implications for future politics and policy. This must-have Second Edition is indispensable reading for researchers, professors, and graduate students across many disciplines, including political psychology, psychoanalysis, history and political science, psychiatry, anthropology, and personality and social psychology. It is important reading for anyone with an interest in the life stories of leaders past and present and how they affect our world even long after they are gone.
Want to turn your mobile device into a musical instrument? Or equip your game with interactive audio, rather than canned samples? You can do it with Pure Data (Pd), an open source visual , environment that lets you manipulate digital , in real time. This concise book shows you how to use Pd – with help from the libpd library – as an easily embeddable and widely portable sound engine.,
Whether you’re an audio developer looking to create musical apps with sophisticated audio capabilities, or an application developer ready to enhance , games with real-time procedural audio, Making Musical Apps introduces you to Pd and libpd, and provides hands-on instructions for creating musical apps for Android and iOS.
Tired of being tethered to your desktop computer? If you’re ready to break free with a laptop, the new MacBook could be just what you’re looking for.,
Whether you already have your new MacBook or are still weighing the pros and cons of various models, MacBook For Dummies is a valuable resource. For newcomers to laptop land, it’s packed with , information about using and caring for , laptops. It also walks you through Mac OS X, the revolutionary Macintosh operating system that makes your laptop tick. Then it’s on to all the fun stuff you can do with your MacBook, like making music, editing photos and turning them into a book, creating DVDs on the road, or adding a wireless keyboard.
Step-by-step instructions and practical examples to creating web applications with , and MongoDB. Learn to , the object model in a , way. Create objects in Ruby and map them to MongoDB. Learn about Mongoid and MongoMapper for mapping Ruby objects to MongoDB documents. Process large datasets with MapReduce. Create geo-spatial indexes or 2D indexes.
