Authors:
Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Publication Date: 2000-02-10


Reviews :

    As part of the SFI series, this book presents the most up-to-date research in the study of human and primate societies, presenting recent advances in software and algorithms for modeling societies. It also addresses case studies that have applied agent-based modeling approaches in archaeology, cultural anthropology, primatology, and sociology. Many things set this book apart from any other on modeling in the social sciences, including the emphasis on small-scale societies and the attempts to maximize realism in the modeling efforts applied to social problems and questions. It is an ideal book for professionals in archaeology or cultural anthropology as well as a valuable tool for those studying primatology or computer science....

Authors: Michiel Schuijer.
Hardcover, 328 pages
Publisher: University of Rochester Press
Publication Date: 2008-11-30


Reviews :

    For the past forty years, pitch-class set theory has served as a frame of reference for the study of atonal music, through the efforts of Allen Forte, Milton Babbitt, and others. It has also been the subject of sometimes furious debates between music theorists and historically oriented musicologists, debates that only helped heighten its profile. Today, as oppositions have become less clear-cut, and other analytical approaches to music are gaining prominence, the time has come for a history of pitch-class set theory, its dissemination, and its role in the reception of the music of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and other modernist composers. Analyzing Atonal Music: Pitch-Class Set Theory and Its Contexts combines thorough discussions of musical concepts with an engaging historical narrative. Pitch-class theory is treated here as part of the musical and cultural landscape of the United States. The theory's remarkable rise to authority is related to the impact of the computer on the study of music in the 1960s, and to the American university in its double role as protector of high culture and provider of mass education. Michiel Schuijer teaches at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on topics at the interface between music theory and historical musicology....

Authors: Lori Kendall.
Paperback, 309 pages
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication Date: 2002-06-27


Reviews :

    Lori Kendall is one of the first to explore the brave new world of social relations as they have evolved on the Internet. In this highly readable ethnography, she examines how men and women negotiate their gender roles on an online forum she calls BlueSky. The result is a first-rate analysis of the emerging social phenomenon of Internet-mediated communication and a ground-breaking study of the social and cultural effects of a medium that allows participants to assume identities of their own choosing. Despite the common assumption that the personas these men and women craft for themselves bear little resemblance to reality, Kendall discovers that the habitués of BlueSky stick surprisingly close to the facts of their actual lives and personalities....

Authors:
Paperback, 207 pages
Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing
Publication Date: 2006-06-24


Reviews :

    The multidisciplinary essays in Configuring History describe how teachers can use virtual reality technology to teach the Harlem Renaissance. Describing in detail the construction of Virtual Harlem, Bronzeville, and Montmartre—all important sites in African American cultural history—the essays delineate the technologies employed in the construction of these cityscapes and the learning theory—configuring history—that informs the project. The book provides a model of a collaborative learning network, linking classrooms at universities in the United States and in Europe, and demonstrates the importance of collaboration between the sciences and the humanities for the future development of instructional technologies. Contributors include: Holly Davenport, Tom DeFanti, Brenda Eatman Aghahowa, Liliane Gallet-Blanchard, Andrew Johnson, Steve Jones, Jason Leigh, Janice Lively, Marie-Madeleine Martinet, Ken McAllister, Kyoung Park, William Plummer, Timothy Portlock, Jim Pyfer, David Richardson, Georgia Tappan, Veronica Watson, Chris White, Trent White...

Authors: Feng-Hsiung Hsu.
Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication Date: 2004-03-01


Reviews :

   

On May 11, 1997, as millions worldwide watched a stunning victory unfold on television, a machine shocked the chess world by defeating the defending world champion, Garry Kasparov. Written by the man who started the adventure, Behind Deep Blue reveals the inside story of what happened behind the scenes at the two historic Deep Blue vs. Kasparov matches. This is also the story behind the quest to create the mother of all chess machines. The book unveils how a modest student project eventually produced a multimillion dollar supercomputer, from the development of the scientific ideas through technical setbacks, rivalry in the race to develop the ultimate chess machine, and wild controversies to the final triumph over the world's greatest human player.

In nontechnical, conversational prose, Feng-hsiung Hsu, the system architect of Deep Blue, tells us how he and a small team of fellow researchers forged ahead at IBM with a project they'd begun as students at Carnegie Mellon in the mid-1980s: the search for one of the oldest holy grails in artificial intelligence--a machine that could beat any human chess player in a bona fide match. Back in 1949 science had conceived the foundations of modern chess computers but not until almost fifty years later--until Deep Blue--would the quest be realized.

Hsu refutes Kasparov's controversial claim that only human intervention could have allowed Deep Blue to make its decisive, "uncomputerlike" moves. In riveting detail he describes the heightening tension in this war of brains and nerves, the "smoldering fire" in Kasparov's eyes. Behind Deep Blue is not just another tale of man versus machine. This fascinating book tells us how man as genius was given an ultimate, unforgettable run for his mind, no, not by the genius of a computer, but of man as toolmaker.

...

Authors: Dominick Graham. Shelford Bidwell.
Hardcover, 323 pages
Publisher: Brassey's UK
Publication Date: 1993-10
Edition: English

Reviews :

    The impact of twentieth-century technology upon the nature of war and within the Allied coalitions of the two world wars....

Authors: Roland H., Jr. Worth.
Paperback, 324 pages
Publisher: McFarland & Company
Publication Date: 2002-10-01


Reviews :

    This book is a guide to the enormous number of World War II resources available on the Internet. Section One contains addresses of websites dealing with pre-war international diplomacy and crises in Europe and Asia, and United States and Allied wartime diplomacy in Europe and Asia. Section Two lists websites covering the world at war, both overviews and specific elements of the fighting in Europe, the Mediterranean, the Pacific Islands, and mainland Asia. Sites listed in Section Three contain information about selected major civilian and military leaders of the war years, including de Gaulle, Hitler, Chiang Kai-Shek, MacArthur, Mussolini, Patton, Roosevelt, Stalin, Tojo, and Truman, to name a few. For each site listed, a brief description and summary of its information is provided....

Authors: Delores M. Etter. Jeanine A. Ingber.
Paperback, 494 pages
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Publication Date: 2002-09-06


Reviews :

    For one/two semester courses in Engineering and Computer Science at the freshman/sophomore level. This introduction to engineering problem solving with ANSI C programming language employs an easy-to-read problem solving methodology to consider a diverse range of Grand Challenges. The emphasis on engineering and scientific problem solving remains an integral part of the text. An object-based programming approach is utilized starting with Chapter 8....

Authors: Pamela Rice Hahn.
Paperback, 432 pages
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: 2000-10-23
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    Genealogy is one of the hottest topics on the Internet, with thousands of sites, forums, and newsgroups clamoring to help--or confuse--family history sleuths. How do you cut through the noise and find the best tools to trace your roots? This opinionated guide can help. Zeroing in on the science of online genealogical research, author Pamela Rice Hahn shows you how to:
* Map out a research strategy
* Target the best Internet resources>
* Dig up info and swap leads with other researchers
* Evaluate genealogy software
* Steer clear of hype, dead ends, and time-wasters
* Organize a family reunion...

Authors: Richard Bradley.
Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Free Press
Publication Date: 2009-02-03


Reviews :

    In this spellbinding book, Richard Bradley tells the story of what was surely the greatest major league game of our lifetime and perhaps in the history of professional baseball. That game, played at Fenway Park on the afternoon of October 4, 1978, was the culmination of one of the most tense, emotionally wrought seasons ever, between baseball's two most bitter rivals, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Both teams finished this tumultuous season with identical 99-64 records, forcing a one-game playoff. With a one-run lead and two outs, with the tying run in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth, the entire season came down to one at-bat and to one swing of the bat.

It came down, as both men eerily predicted to themselves the night before, to the aging Red Sox legend, Carl Yastrzemski, and the Yankees' free-agent power reliever, Rich "Goose" Gossage.

Anyone who calls himself a baseball fan knows the outcome of that confrontation. And yet such are the literary powers of the author that we are pulled back in time to that late-afternoon moment and become filled anew with all the taut sense of drama that sports has to offer, as if we don't know what happened. As if the thoughts swirling around in the heads of pitcher and hitter are still fresh, both still hopeful of controlling events.

That climactic game occurred thirty seasons ago and yet it still captures our imagination. In this delightful work of sports literature, we watch the game unfold pitch by pitch, inning by inning, but Bradley is up to something more ambitious than just recounting this wonderful game. He also tells us the stories of the participants -- how they got to that moment in their lives and careers, what was at stake for them personally -- including the rivalries within the rivalry, such as catcher Carlton Fisk versus catcher Thurman Munson,and Billy Martin versus everyone. Using a narrative that alternates points of view between the teams, Bradley reacquaints us with a rich roster of characters -- Freddy Lynn, Ron Guidry, Catfish Hunter, Mike Torrez, Jerry Remy, Lou Piniella, George Scott, and Reggie Jackson. And, of course, Bucky Dent, who craved just such a moment in the sun -- a validation he had vainly sought from the father he barely knew.

Not a book intended to celebrate a triumph or lament a loss, The Greatest Game will be embraced in both Boston and New York, with fans of both teams recalling again the talented young men they once gave their hearts to. And fans everywhere will be reminded how utterly gripping a single baseball game can be and that the rewards of being a fan lie not in victory but in caring beyond reason, even decades after the fact....