Authors: J. R. Okin.
Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Ironbound Press
Publication Date: 2005-06-01


Reviews :

    The Internet Revolution presents the complete history of the Internet - from its original design and engineering to its initial form as the world's first packet-switched computer network (the ARPANET) to its transformation into a privatized, commercial network and its emergence as today's international networking infrastructure. This book also presents a detailed explanation of how the Internet's technology works, why it works so well, how it is being used, and how it is managed. It also answers the question of why the Internet succeeded in bringing computer networking into the lives of so many people across the globe....

Authors: Deborah Morley.
Paperback, pages
Publisher: Course Technology
Publication Date: 2008-06-19
Edition: 3

Reviews :

    This latest edition of the well-respected Computers and Technology in a Changing Society is now based on the Understanding Computers textbook. It includes eight chapters covering an overview of computers, hardware, and software, plus six full chapters covering societal issues such as security, privacy, ethics, intellectual property rights, health, the environment, and other important issues related to computers and consumers today. This text also includes additional society-oriented projects, such as a "Balancing Act" and "Ethics in Action" activities....

Authors: Trevor Wishart.
Hardcover, 357 pages
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: 1996-05


Reviews :

    Trevor Wishart looks at the new developments in music-making and musical aesthetics made possible by the advent of the computer and digital information processing. His emphasis is on musical rather than technical matters. The text begins with a critical analysis of the assumptions underlying the Western musical tradition and the traditional acoustic theories of Pythagoras and Helmholtz. It later examines in detail such topics as the musical organization of complex sound-objects, using and manipulating representational sounds and the various dimensions of human and non-human utterance. The author seeks to learn lessons from areas such as, poetry, sound-poetry, film, sound effects and animal communications - not traditionally associated with the field of music. An audio CD containing many of the musical examples featured in the text is also included....

Authors: Daniel Weintraub.
Hardcover, 237 pages
Publisher: Polipoint Press
Publication Date: 2008-01-15


Reviews :

    Since his landslide reelection in a state dominated by Democrats, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has arguably become the nation's most successful Republican politician. His near-universal name recognition and status as governor of the nation's most populous state have placed Schwarzenegger at the forefront of such key issues as health care, environmental protection, and immigration. Combining liberal stands on social and environmental issues with conservative pro-business policies, Schwarzenegger has found favor with Republicans, Democrats, and independent voters, whose support has been critical to his success. PARTY OF ONE goes beyond a portrait of a political celebrity. Detailing Schwarzenegger's gambits, missteps, and achievements on a range of issues, it suggests that the "governator" represents the future of American politics, in which practical results will mean more to voters than partisan identity....

Authors: Cyndi Howells.
Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Publication Date: 2004-01-14


Reviews :

   

Planting Your Family Tree Online is designed to take you step-by-step through the process of creating a genealogy Web site.

When people begin their genealogical adventure, they usually interview elderly members of the family and contact other family members. The next step is usually one of organization of the information collected. The third step is usually to share this information with other family members, traditionally by publishing research in a book. However, a family Web site has numerous advantages:

• It is interactive so others can contribute their stories and pictures.
• It will help you find long-lost relatives.
• It is an ideal way to preserve research for the entire family.
• It will break down the walls that have stumped you in your research.
• It recognizes that family research is an ongoing process,

This book is written by Cyndi Howells, owner and webmaster of Cyndi's List, a Web site of more than 130,000 online genealogical resources. Cyndi points out, "This book is loaded with URLs to Web sites that will give you everything you need to create a beautiful family tree online." However, Web site URLs change daily and some may no longer work. She has created web pages as part of Cyndi's List that correspond to the features of the book so that the URLs will be kept up-to-date.

...

Authors: David F Noble.
Hardcover, 273 pages
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: 1997-09-16
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

    Arguing against the widely held belief that technology and religion are at war with each other, David F. Noble's groundbreaking book reveals the religious roots and spirit of Western technology.
        


It links the technological enthusiasms of the present day with the ancient and enduring Christian expectation of recovering humankind's lost divinity. Covering a period of a thousand years, Noble traces the evolution of the Western idea of technological development from the ninth century, when the useful arts became connected to the concept of redemption, up to the twentieth, when humans began to exercise God-like knowledge and powers.
        


Noble describes how technological advance accelerated at the very point when it was invested with spiritual significance. By examining the imaginings of monks, explorers, magi, scientists, Freemasons, and engineers, this historical account brings to light an other-worldly inspiration behind the apparently worldly endeavors by which we habitually define Western civilization. Thus we see that Isaac Newton devoted his lifetime to the interpretation of prophecy. Joseph Priestley was the discoverer of oxygen and a founder of Unitarianism. Freemasons were early advocates of industrialization and the fathers of the engineering profession. Wernher von Braun saw spaceflight as a millenarian new beginning for humankind.
        


The narrative moves into our own time through the technological enterprises of the last half of the twentieth century: nuclear weapons, manned space exploration, Artificial Intelligence, and genetic engineering. Here the book suggests that the convergence of technology and religion has outlived its usefulness, that though it once contributed to human well-being, it has now become a threat to our survival. Viewed at the dawn of the new millennium, the technological means upon which we have come to rely for the preservation and enlargement of our lives betray an increasing impatience with life and a disdainful disregard for mortal needs. David F. Noble thus contends that we must collectively strive to disabuse ourselves of the inherited religion of technology and begin rigorously to re-examine our enchantment with unregulated technological advance....

    The Religion of Technology is equal parts history and polemics. Noble explores the religious roots of Western technology by linking today's secular technophilia with the ancient Christian dream of humanity's redemption. Noble argues that, historically, the most powerful technological advances (Newtonian physics, the engineering profession, space exploration) have been driven by explicitly spiritual and humane ambitions, but that the last several decades have brought a new kind of technology that is impatient with life and unconcerned with basic human needs. The Religion of Technology is an authoritative, erudite, and often persuasive book....

Authors: Dennis Sherman. Joyce Salisbury.
Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
Publication Date: 2007-12-06
Edition: 3

Reviews :

    The West in the World relates the story of how the west has transformed � and been transformed by - the rest of the world. The authors examine the West�s contributions to the world and how the west has changed and embraced new ideas through contact with the people outside its center. Using a political / cultural framework the text weaves a strong thread of social history into the narrative by showing how civilizations grow and are shaped through the decisions and actions of real people. The authors bring history to life by using art and maps as a central feature of learning. They build discussions of art into the narrative to help students interpret artwork, and provide analytical map guides that reveal the connections between geography, politics, and other developments. This strong, rich narrative is short enough to allow instructors the flexibility of introducing other sources and books as supplement, while giving students a solid understanding of Western Civilization without overwhelming them. ....

Authors:
Paperback, 360 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: 2008-08-11
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    This volume brings together original essays addressing the theoretical foundations of the concept of autonomy, as well as essays investigating the relationship between autonomy and moral responsibility, freedom, political philosophy, and medical ethics. Written by prominent philosophers currently in these areas, the book represents cutting-edge research on the nature and value of autonomy and will be essential reading for a broad range of philosophers as well as psychologists....

Authors: Andrew Hodges.
Paperback, 608 pages
Publisher: Walker & Company
Publication Date: 2000-03-01


Reviews :

    ...

    Alan Turing died in 1954, but the themes of his life epitomize the turn of the millennium. A pure mathematician from a tradition that prided itself on its impracticality, Turing laid the foundations for modern computer science, writes Andrew Hodges:

Alan had proved that there was no "miraculous machine" that could solve all mathematical problems, but in the process he had discovered something almost equally miraculous, the idea of a universal machine that could take over the work of any machine.

During World War II, Turing was the intellectual star of Bletchley Park, the secret British cryptography unit. His work cracking the German's Enigma machine code was, in many ways, the first triumph of computer science. And Turing died because his identity as a homosexual was incompatible with cold-war ideas of security, implemented with machines and remorseless logic: "It was his own invention, and it killed the goose that laid the golden eggs."

Andrew Hodges's remarkable insight weaves Turing's mathematical and computer work with his personal life to produce one of the best biographies of our time, and the basis of the Derek Jacobi movie Breaking the Code. Hodges has the mathematical knowledge to explain the intellectual significance of Turing's work, while never losing sight of the human and social picture:

In this sense his life belied his work, for it could not be contained by the discrete state machine. At every stage his life raised questions about the connection (or lack of it) between the mind and the body, thought and action, intelligence and operations, science and society, the individual and history.

And Hodges admits what all biographers know, but few admit, about their subjects: "his inner code remains unbroken." Alan Turing is still an enigma. --Mary Ellen Curtin...

Authors: Marthe Arends. Prima.
Paperback, 432 pages
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Publication Date: 2000-09-21
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    Family Tree Maker is a program that allows users to input their family information and produce a variety of charts, reports, and customizable family history books. Create Your Family History Book with Family Tree Maker 8: The Official Guide takes you through the steps necessary to create your personal family history book. Once it is completed, you can take your book to a local printer or a publishing house and have a bound copy made, transfer it to a CD to create a multimedia scrapbook, or post it on your Web page. With the help of this book, you can share your heritage with your entire family!...