Book Description
Media Reviews
- "I have been doing project management for over 30 years and am considered a subject matter expert in the PMBOK(r) Guide -Third Edition primarily because I am the Project Manager who led the team that developed this edition. As a consultant I was hired to review and evaluate eight of the top selling PMP Exam Preparation books for their accuracy in following the PMBOK® Guide - Third Edition. I have developed and taught a PMP Exam Prep course for a leading R.E.P., and taught PMP Exam preparation classes for PMI Chapters. I can honestly say that Head First PMP is by far the best PMP Exam Preparation book of all I have reviewed in depth. It is the very best basic education and training book that I have read that presents the processes for managing a project, which makes it a great resource for a basic project management class for beginners as well as a tool for practitioners who want to pass the PMP exam. The graphical story format is unique, as project management books go, which makes it both fun and easy to read while driving home the basics that are necessary for preparing someone is just getting started and those who want to take the exam."
--Dennis Bolles, PMP DLB Associates, LLC and co-author of The Power of Enterprise-Wide Project Management
- "This looks like too much fun to be a PMP study guide! Behind the quirky humor and nutty graphics lies an excellent explanation of the project management processes. Not only will this book make it easier to pass the exam, you'll learn a lot of good stuff to use on the job too."
--Carol Steuer, PMP and PMBOK(r) Guide, 3rd Edition Leadership Team
- "This is the best thing to happen to PMP since, well, ever. You'll laugh, learn, pass the exam, and become a better project manager all at the same time."
-- Scott Berkun, author of The Art of Project Management and The Myths of Innovation
- "Original, fresh, and fun... this is truly the perfect study companion for anyone aiming for PMP certification."
--Teresa Simmermacher, PMP and Project Manager at Avanade
- "I love this format! Head First PMP covers everything you need to know to pass your PMP exam. The sound-bite format combined with the whimsical images turns a dry subject into entertainment. The organization starts with the basics then drills into the details. The in-depth coverage of complex topics like Earned Value and Quality Control are presented in an easy to understand format with descriptions, pictures, and examples. This book will not only help you pass the PMP, it should be used as an daily reference for practicing project managers. I sure wish I had this when I was studying for the exam."
--Mike Jenkins, PMP, MBA
- "I think that under the fonts and formalized goofiness, the book has a good heart (intending to cover basic principles in an honest way rather than just to pass the test). Head First PMP attempts to educate potential project managers instead of being a mere "how to pass the PMP exam" book filled with test taking tips. This is truly something which sets it apart from the other PMP certification exam books."
--Jack Dahlgren, Project Management Consultant
- "Head First PMP is a great tool to help make sense of the Project Management Body of Knowledge for the everyday Project Manager."
--Mark Poinelli, PMP
About the Book
A PMP certification is more than just passing a test. It means that you have the knowledge to solve most common project problems, and proves that you know your stuff. Once you're certified, your projects are more likely to succeed because you have the skills and knowledge to make them successful. Not only that, it can mean a better job, more money, and greater respect from your peers.
But studying for a difficult four-hour exam on project management isn't easy, even for experienced project managers. You want to remember everything that you're learning about project management, but your brain is working against you! Your brain craves novelty, and most PMP certification prep books are anything but novel. When you keep putting down a boring book instead of studying, it's because your brain doesn't think the information in it is worth learning. Your brain has more important stuff to think about, like how to keep you alive and out of danger-and it doesn't think that failing the PMP exam qualifies as life-threatening!
So how do you trick your brain into thinking that your life does depend on learning everything you need to know to pass the PMP Exam? Head First PMP is the answer! Using the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science and learning theory, Head First PMP has a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works-a multi-sensory experience that helps the material stick, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.
Head First PMP offers 100% coverage of The PMBOK® Guide principles and certification objectives in a way that's engaging, not tedious. This book helps you prepare for the PMP certification exam with a unique method that goes beyond answers to specific questions and makes you think about the big picture of project management. By putting project management concepts into context, you will be able to understand, remember, and apply them-not just on the exam, but also on the job.
With Head First PMP, you get the best of both worlds: a thorough and effective preparation guide for the PMP certification exam with hundreds of practice questions and exam strategies, along with puzzles, games, problems, exercises and the unique Head First approach that makes learning easy and entertaining. When you're done with Head First PMP, you'll know your stuff, you'll pass the exam, and you'll be able to bring everything you've learned to your job.
Customer Reviews:
One of many books you need to conquer PMP - not the only.......2007-10-10
I passed my PMP exam recently. In spite of my years of experience, I found that the exam needs a truckload of preparation! I started with PMBOK Guide, Rita Mulcahy, some others, and settled on HFP. The HFP is not the first book you should read, and certainly should not be the only book you read. Unlike the somewhat snide (and ineffective) Mulcahy book, this book would give you tons of useful mnemonics to remember stuff by. After reading this book, I was having a much easier time answering questions in other books, such as Mulcahy's.
The PMP examination is not for the faint of heart. At the minimum, you should know the PMBOK Guide by rote (esp. the I-TT-O, Glossary, and the formulae). You need to supplement that knowledge using other books. These are the list of books I found useful (in no particular order):
0. PMBOK Guide
1. HF PMP
2. Mulcahy
3. Kim Heldman
4. Andy Crowe
Unfortunately, HF PMP does leave out many vital topics. This will hurt you in the exam, if you have not covered it elsewhere (e.g. Calculating CPPC and FPIP using numbers, GERT, etc., amongst many other examples). But for the topics covered, you will have a strong help from this book in retaining that information!
I would strongly encourage the authors to consider revising the book and adding the missing topics - given the treatment of topics from the authors. Add a glossary of terms that may be referenced in the PMP Exam, even though these are not covered in detail in the book (with a ref.). It will be worth the price you'd pay for such a book!
Very Disappointed.......2007-10-07
I've read this and many other PMP study guides and here is my opinion. I passed the PMP exam but NOT due to this book. The main disappointment I have with this book (and a few others) is that it is organized according to the knowledge areas, whereas the PMP exam specifications by PMI are organized according to the process groups. Also it makes more sense to study project management by process groups because this approach is closer to the real life experience: initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. If I need to look at the project management body of knowledge organized according to the knowledge areas, I would rather look at the PMBOK Guide. The exam study guides should follow the exam specifications, and should not be a mere re-run of the PMBOK Guide. Also, there is no mention of the exam objectives in any chapter. It reads like more or less a re-run of the PMBOK Guide without any consideration of the exam spec. Other drawbacks of the book are the following:
1. Questions are not close to the real exam questions.
2. The emphasis is on the "fun" not on explaining the topic...so the coverage of many topics is very shallow.
3. At best, the book is a collection of lecture notes without any lecturer explaining them.
4. Oversimplification of serious knowledge often leads to inaccuracies. This book even goes beyond over-simplification in search of humor. It's hard to draw the line between humor and inaccuracies.
If you think project management (or PMP) is a joke, this book is for you. If you believe project management is a serious business, stay away from this book...it has the potential to contaminate your project management knowledge.
So, don't use it as a primary source for your preparation. It's ok as a secondary source, perhaps...
Awesome book with great content!.......2007-09-12
Hi, I passed the PMP exam on Sep 6'07 and used HF PMP as part of my preparations. I must confess anything that PMBOK covers is being covered by this book. But what is more interesting is the ease with which all concepts are explained and can be understood. This book goes in depth to make you understand the finer points in PMBOK and that is one big reason to buy it. Not forgetting the presentation of this book which makes it so much enjoyable to read and pass the exam.
There are questions at the end of each chapter which are in line with the real exam and tests your understanding of concepts.
All in all a great book for preparation and a must have for anyone appearing for the exam. Cheers!
Neeraj , PMP
A must for PMP Certification preparation and beyond.......2007-08-30
"Head First PMP" is an absolute must for anyone who would like to prepare for PMP certification. It is well written, covering all the topics required for PMP. There are a lot of books available for preparation of the certification, but Head First PMP stands out from all of them. It is easy to read, understand, and believe me, it would help you make a great deal of progress in your understanding and study of the material. Even after certification, Head First PMP will serve you as a quick and easy reference for your project management questions. I would definitely recommend this to all.
Head First PMP Defines a New Oxymoron: Engaging Textbook.......2007-08-22
In preparation for the test, I recently spent some extended time in the bookstore comparing options to help my studies. The local bookseller I visited unfortunately didn't have the Head First book that I had heard so much about, so I ended up with a another title that was also highly recommended on Amazon. After bringing the other book home, I read two chapters and realized I was thinking about everything other than what I was reading. I decided I needed a different route if I planned to stay awake during my preparations for the exam and decided to try to source a copy of the Head First guide instead.
I found a copy of the Head First PMP title at another bookshop and settled in for what I thought was going to be another futile attempt at cramming this information into the old gray matter. However, much to my surprise, I found myself *engaged* in the content, and moreover, I was truly *learning* it! The book's approach ensures understanding of the content through thought and exercises - not reading lots of text and hoping some of it sticks long enough to pass the test.
If you haven't seen what makes the book different, definitely take a moment to visit the book's website (http://www.headfirstlabs.com/pmp) to see if this writing style is a fit for you. As another reviewer mentioned, this book definitely has a quirky feel to it (e.g. a fireside chat between the scope management plan and the project scope statement as one example) that may not be right for everyone, but for the rest of us, Fireside chats, crossword puzzles and Cows Gone Wild is half of what makes the book so engaging.
Don't let the fun use of graphics and informal style of the book fool you into doubting its usefulness or accuracy. While I can't guarantee that you'll pass the exam by reading this book, I will say that when you use the book as outlined in the book's introduction, the Head First PMP should absolutely increase your knowledge of the things PMI deems important for the exam without torturing yourself in the process.
Finally, for those that may be wondering why you should take my word on the use of this book, I passed the exam by a good margin yesterday. I found that on at least 25-30 questions, I would not have gotten the question correct had it not been for something I read in the Head First PMP book over the two days prior to the test.
Highly recommended!
Book Description
What do Ford Financial, IBM, and Victoria's Secret have in common? Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB). As the industry standard for platform-independent reusable business components, EJB has just become Sun Microsystem's latest developer certification. Whether you want to be certifiable or just want to learn the technology inside and out, Head First EJB will get you there in the least painful way. And with the greatest understanding. You'll learn not just what the technology *is*, but more importantly, *why* it is, and what it is and isn't good for. You'll learn tricks and tips for EJB development, along with tricks and tips for passing this latest, very challenging Sun Certified Business Component Developer (SCBCD) exam. You'll learn how to think like a server. You'll learn how to think like a bean. And because this is a Head First book, you'll learn how to think about thinking. Co-author Kathy Sierra was one of Sun's first employees to teach brave, early adopter customers how to use EJB. She has the scars. But besides dragging you deep into EJB technology, Kathy and Bert will see you through your certification exam, if you decide to go for it. And nobody knows the certification like they do - they're co-developers of Sun's actual exam! As the second book in the Head First series, Head First EJB follows up the number one best-selling Java book in the US, Head First Java. Find out why reviewers are calling it a revolution in learning tough technical topics, and why Sun Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy says, "Java technology is everywhere...if you develop software and haven't learned Java, it's definitely time to dive in "Head First." And with Head First book, you don't even have to feel guilty about having fun while you're learning; it's all part of the learning theory. If the latest research in cognitive science, education, and neurobiology suggested that boring, dry, and excruciatingly painful was the best way to learn, we'd have done it. Thankfully, it's been shown that your brain has a sense of style, a sense of humour, and a darn good sense of what it likes and dislikes. In Head First EJB, you'll learn all about:
- Component-based and role-based development
- The architecture of EJB, distributed programming with RMI
- Developing and Deploying an EJB application
- The Client View of a Session and Entity bean
- The Session Bean Lifecycle and Component Contract
- The Entity bean Lifecycle and Component Contract
- Container-managed Persistence (CMP)
- Container-managed Relationships (CMR)
- EJB-QL
- Transactions
- Security
- EJB Exceptions
- The Deployment Descriptor
- The Enterprise Bean Environment in JNDI
- Programming Restrictions and Portability
The book includes over 200 mock exam questions that match the tone, style, difficulty, and topics on the real SCBCD exam. See why Kathy and Bert are responsible for thousands of successful exam-passers-- "The Sun certification exam was certainly no walk in the park, but Kathy's material allowed me to not only pass the exam, but Ace it!" --Mary Whetsel, Sr. Technology Specialist, Application Strategy and Integration, The St. Paul Companies "Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates are two of the few people in the world who can make complicated things seem damn simple, and as if that isn't enough, they can make boring things seem interesting." --Paul Wheaton, The Trail Boss, javaranch.com "Who better to write a Java study guide than Kathy Sierra, reigning queen of Java instruction? Kathy Sierra has done it again. Here is a study guide that almost guarantees you a certification!" --James Cubetta, Systems Engineer, SGI
Customer Reviews:
Great book.......2007-06-12
This is a absolutely easy going book. You can read it for hours and not feel any stress. The methods they have used are so good that you will never forget the concepts.
Good book.......2007-01-12
I have already read this book to some extent and i love this book. It discusses the details about EJB very thoroughly. It also compares the advantages and disadvantages of java sevlets over other concepts -- which is very nice.
But it is not a book for those who would like to learn the quick & basic concept about EJB in 2-5 days. It needs time to read the whole book. It is not quick learning guide like DUMMIES.
amazing!.......2007-01-11
I'm surprised, pleased, amazed, put your adjective there... it's one of the best technical books I ever read, and by far the most entertaining! I congratulate the authors for making learning so easy! I am taking an 'official' presential j2ee course and I have to tell you, I have learned more in two nights reading this book than in 2 months of course.
I have taken a lot of courses on study and teaching techniques (I'm a teacher myself) and I think this is the way you have to present a technical content. You end with a solid understanding of the subject, you remember the subject... and you smile at it! can you ask for more?
Easy to read,easy to understand,easy to code,easy to EJB :)..........2007-01-10
Nowadays IT books form "Head First" concept differs from others.
If you want to understand the concept, it is Head First's job.
Buy it, read it,recommend it...
Best EJB Book ever.......2006-12-17
I have gone through a few EJB tutorials, even taken a Certified Course on J2ee (from a reputed instructor in town) covering all EJB aspects but even after that I learnt quite a bit more from this book. The best thing that I can say about this book is the way they present things. You can put all the details on a page but that ain't worth a penny if you can't remember them the next day. With the combination of pictures, diagrams and the way the sentences are formed it makes your brain effortlessly remember. They repeat some of the things to death(like the lifecycle of a bean) that are important and you NEED to remember them. I liked that concept so much because when they explained some of the inner groovy details, I realized that those core concepts are really really handy and helpful at that point. I really like their excercises (and you should go through them without looking at the answers), which are precise and refresh your memory.
I would give more than five starts if I could. Excellent excellent Book!
Amazon.com
Jeff Hawkins, the high-tech success story behind PalmPilots and the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, does a lot of thinking about thinking. In On Intelligence Hawkins juxtaposes his two loves--computers and brains--to examine the real future of artificial intelligence. In doing so, he unites two fields of study that have been moving uneasily toward one another for at least two decades. Most people think that computers are getting smarter, and that maybe someday, they'll be as smart as we humans are. But Hawkins explains why the way we build computers today won't take us down that path. He shows, using nicely accessible examples, that our brains are memory-driven systems that use our five senses and our perception of time, space, and consciousness in a way that's totally unlike the relatively simple structures of even the most complex computer chip. Readers who gobbled up Ray Kurzweil's (The Age of Spiritual Machines and Steven Johnson's Mind Wide Open will find more intriguing food for thought here. Hawkins does a good job of outlining current brain research for a general audience, and his enthusiasm for brains is surprisingly contagious. --Therese Littleton
Book Description
Jeff Hawkins, the man who created the Palm Pilot, Treo smart phone, and other handheld devices, has reshaped our relationship to computers. Now he is revolutionizing neuro-science and computing with this new look at intelligence itself. In On Intelligence, Hawkins develops a powerful theory of how the human brain works, explaining why computers are not intelligent. The brain is not a computer but a memory system that stores experiences in a way that reflects the true structure of the world, remembering sequences of events and their nested relationships and making predictions based on those memories. It is this memory-prediction system that forms the basis of intelligence, perception, creativity, and even consciousness. Based on this new theory, we can finally build intelligent machines, ones that will likely exceed human ability in surprising and useful ways. Written with acclaimed science writer Sandra Blakeslee and endorsed by a host of scientists and technology experts, On Intelligence reveals how we truly think and how this understanding will transform the technology age.
Download Description
From the inventor of the PalmPilot comes a new and compelling theory of intelligence, brain function, and the future of intelligent machines.
Customer Reviews:
Bridges the gap b/t AI theory and application........2007-10-01
Excellent book. Bridges the gap b/t AI theory and application. Author also has a downloadable programming API based on the research in the book. So you can actually put his theories to the test.
This is how the brain works!.......2007-09-06
This is an amazing book. Especially when I combine the knowledge acquired here with other things I've known and read. I promise you, there's a new book coming out of all this and I'll have it out in 24 months or so. Buy this you'll like it. Buy mine when it comes out, you'll love it!
Best Brain Book.......2007-08-16
Jeff Hawkin's does it ! If you want to know the latest information on how a brain works (and why computers are NOT intelligent) put On Intelligence at the top of your list of 'must reads'...
Paul J. Friday, PhD
Chief, Clinical Psychology
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center - Shadyside
Author: Friday's Laws: How to Become Normal When You're Not and How to Stay Normal When You Are
Amazing.......2007-07-29
Hawkins ideas on how the human brain works are profound. I'm re-reading this book again after finishing it only 4 months ago. With Hierarchical Temporal Memory, Hawkins is not only theorizing how the human brain works, he's also on the path to proving his theories at Numenta. As can be expected, he's building on existing research and theories, which is generally how scientific theories evolve.
Insightful, and ambitious.......2007-07-08
Jeff Hawkins's 'On Intelligence' is an ambitious journey towards a unified theory of cognition and the brain. Varying between the insightful and the minute details that Jeff feels are required to back his theories, the book itself is a mixed read and is probably best aimed at a reader with prior exposure to the field. If you are interested in AI, cognition, or even our physical brains, this is a good read, but take it with a grain of salt - a lot of details and counter-arguments have been conveniently swept under the rug.
Book Description
The brain is a fearsomely complex information-processing environment--one that often eludes our ability to understand it. At any given time, the brain is collecting, filtering, and analyzing information and, in response, performing countless intricate processes, some of which are automatic, some voluntary, some conscious, and some unconscious. Cognitive neuroscience is one of the ways we have to understand the workings of our minds. It's the study of the brain biology behind our mental functions: a collection of methods--like brain scanning and computational modeling--combined with a way of looking at psychological phenomena and discovering where, why, and how the brain makes them happen. Want to know more? Mind Hacks is a collection of probes into the moment-by-moment works of the brain. Using cognitive neuroscience, these experiments, tricks, and tips related to vision, motor skills, attention, cognition, subliminal perception, and more throw light on how the human brain works. Each hack examines specific operations of the brain. By seeing how the brain responds, we pick up clues about the architecture and design of the brain, learning a little bit more about how the brain is put together. Mind Hacks begins your exploration of the mind with a look inside the brain itself, using hacks such as "Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Turn On and Off Bits of the Brain" and "Tour the Cortex and the Four Lobes." Also among the 100 hacks in this book, you'll find:
- Release Eye Fixations for Faster Reactions
- See Movement When All is Still
- Feel the Presence and Loss of Attention
- Detect Sounds on the Margins of Certainty
- Mold Your Body Schema
- Test Your Handedness
- See a Person in Moving Lights
- Make Events Understandable as Cause-and-Effect
- Boost Memory by Using Context
- Understand Detail and the Limits of Attention
Steven Johnson, author of "Mind Wide Open" writes in his foreword to the book, "These hacks amaze because they reveal the brain's hidden logic; they shed light on the cheats and shortcuts and latent assumptions our brains make about the world." If you want to know more about what's going on in your head, then Mind Hacks is the key--let yourself play with the interface between you and the world.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting but disappointed.......2007-07-02
Learning about the mind is okay, but I didn't learn anything that I hadn't seen in Psych 101, and a few interesting articles later on.
Calling it a "hacks" book is false advertising, at best. Should it make it to another printing, I would hope O'Reilly would rename it.
The information seemed accurate, so I'll give it that.
Mind hacks.......2007-02-13
This is a really great book. More novelty than improvement, but still great. If you're looking for something that will be useful as well as attention grabbing then look for the second edition; "Mind Performance Hacks"
Not really a "hacks" book.......2006-11-02
I was sorely disappointed in this book--I checked it out from the local library and hoped that it would actually live up to the subtitle of including tips and tools for using my brain. It didn't; the few "tips" included were those that are found in virtually every other discussion of how to improve memory.
This book is more geared toward folks who are designing user interfaces--it talks about how the brain processes information (and thus describes ways to improve information conveyance).
Mind Hacks: Tips & Tools for Using Your Brain.......2006-07-25
It's a book very interested about language in mind and speech comprehension. I read a short comment in BBC Focus magazine and I wish to read because it's very easy to learn the misteries of mind in cognitive science applied to language and psichology.
A fun book.......2006-04-30
It is not a typical "hacks" book in that it does not tell you how to utilize you brain more effectively or do neat things. It *does* have a lot of exercises that show you cool things on how your brain works with sections describing how your brain works - and a number of experiments (blind spot, Magnet interaction with the brain, word parsing in the the mind, and so on). This book goes very well with a recent title called _Mind Wide Open_ by Steven Johnson.
If you want traditional "hacks" the book "Mind Performance Hacks" just came out, and is chock full of those sorts of experiments, while less informative, does do things like memory tricks, meath calculation, creativity enhancement and so on.
I view "Mind Hacks" as more informative, though, so would recommend this as the first one to get, though the next purchase in this should be the "Mind Performance Hacks."
Book Description
Over two dozen fun and challenging projects using the next generation of LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ and the Java™ programming language
LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ NXT is an incredible new kit for building and programming your own robotic inventions. Maximum Lego NXT introduces a diverse set of projects, building tips, programming code, complete 3D rendered building instructions and hundreds of illustrations to help you realize your robotic dreams.
Using Java™, the most popular and easy to use programming language available, this book will give you endless entertainment and exploration. It introduces the new LEGO® NXT kit, including the NXT intelligent brick and Bluetooth™.
Maximum NXT includes:
• Easy to follow instructions by the author of Core LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Programming
• Explanations for all available sensors and expansion products available for the NXT kit, including unique projects interfacing a video camera, cell phone, GPS, data gloves, and many more
• An exciting collection of 14 robots, including a chess playing robot, an exoskeleton for your hand, a Mars Rover, a robotic arm you can control through the Internet, a 3D object scanner, soccer robots, and many more
• Introduces over two dozen in-depth programming projects including navigation, mapping, precise robotic arm control, voice control and global localization
• Artificial Intelligence concepts including Vision analysis, Rodney Brooks' Subsumption Architecture, and Reinforcement Learning
• Exciting projects that use third-party sensors like compass, tilt sensor, and port expanders
• A full chapter on building with the new LEGO stud-less brick paradigm.
• A complete tutorial on programming Java™
• How to install a free development environment for leJOS NXJ, the Java™ Virtual Machine for the NXT
• Foreword by Søren Lund, Director of LEGO MINDSTORMS
Maximum LEGO NXT is the ultimate LEGO MINDSTORMS guide:
• Meet NXT • leJOS NXJ • Java for Primates • The leJOS NXJ API • LEGO Parts • Building 101 • Bite into Bluetooth • Grabby Robots • Sound • Robots with Vision • Standing Tall • Localization • Mapping • Path-finding • Hands & Exoskeletons • Network Robotics • Scanning • Behavior-Based Robots • Expanding the NXT • GPS & Harsh Terrain • Speech • Appendices • Index
Customer Reviews:
Poor Start.......2007-09-04
Like others I spent a couple of long days finding the errors that are contained in the early chapters of this book. Maybe it's a reflection of a project delivered by a niche publisher without the oversight of a good editor, but it really does detract from the rest of the contents. In any case be warned that even the errata published on the web site, as well as other internet sources do not completely address the fundamental issues of installing and running LeJOS. It's too bad that what otherwise appears as an interesting work is so flawed.
Half baked.......2007-08-26
I bought this book as a Christmas present for my 14 year old son, expecting it to be shipped in early January. The book's publish date slipped several times, and it didn't arrive until early June.
I can understand things slipping, but the book is still INCOMPLETE. The libraries they are writing too are still being developed and not available! The installation instructions are incomplete and I'm talking about the ones from the errata sheet from their website!
Don't bother.
It just looks like the author, one of the developers for the leJOS JVM, through this together without concern for quality or completeness trying to cash in on his hobby.
Great book with excellent ideas........2007-07-29
I'm a Computer Engineer with interests in many fields of Computer Science. I really enjoyed this book: It gives you a really quick start in building your NXT Robots with algorithms in Java language. Really clear instructions for new Robot building, excellent ideas for expanding your possible Mindstorms uses.
book does not match software.......2007-07-21
This book does not match its software it is supposedly based on. Buying the book was a HUGE MISTAKE!!!
Experienced Programmers Only!.......2007-07-21
This book is not for the novice computer user. The instructions on how to install lejos_nxj on either PC or Mac involve serious tweaking of the operating system. To be fair, the author has published errata with updated insturctions, but they are still very hard to use. There is help available on-line through users forums, but the guidance may or may not work ( if anyone takes pity and answers your question). So do not buy this book if you expect to be able to simply install the software and program robots. If you are comfortable with tweaking system files, and risking crashing your system, then proceed at your own risk. It is a shame that the publishers did not include an installation disc that would take care of the installation for less experienced users. The result, I fear, is that many people will be turned off from experimenting with java and the nxt brick. It's doubly a shame since the book otherwise is well thought out and offers numerous interesting projects.
Amazon.com
It has taken four years, but with Head First Java the introductory Java book category has finally come of age. This is an excellent book, far more capable than any of the scores of Java-for-novices books that have come before it. Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates deserve rich kudos--and big sales--for developing this book's new way of teaching the Java programming language, because any reader with even a little bit of discipline will come away with true understanding of how the language works. Perhaps best of all, this is no protracted "Hello, World" introductory guide. Readers get substantial exposure to object-oriented design and implementation, serialization, neatwork programming, threads, and Remote Method Invocation (RMI).
Key to the authors' teaching style are carefully designed graphics. Rather than explain class inheritance (to cite one example) primarily with text, the authors use a series of tree diagrams that clarify the mechanism far more succinctly. The diagrams are carefully annotated with arrows and notes. Also characteristic of the unique teaching strategy is heavy reliance on exercises, in which the reader is asked to complete partial classes, write whole new code segments and do design work. Though there's little discussion of why the exercises' correct answers are what they are, it's clear that the practice work was carefully designed to reinforce the lesson at hand. If you've waited this long to give Java a try, this book is a great choice. --David Wall
Topics covered: The Java programming language for people with no Java experience, and even people with no programming experience at all. Key concepts read like a list of Java features: Object oriented design, variable type and scope, object properties and methods, inheritance and polymorphism, exceptions, graphical user interfaces (GUIs), network connectivity, Java archives (JAR files), and Remote Method Invocation (RMI).
Book Description
Between Moore's law and the notion of "Internet time," we're constantly being bombarded with more and more information--most of it in the form of disorganized data. Turning this information into useful knowledge is getting harder and harder to do, and it takes time that we just don't have. The current economic situation hasn't helped either. With money spread thin, who hasn't had to take on new tasks and learn new things? And slashed training budgets mean there's little to rely on for learning except books- but learning a complex new programming language like Java from a book is no simple task. Maybe your boss is giving you two weeks to come up to speed for a project, or maybe you're ready to take that next step up in your current job, or be a more viable candidate for a new job. Whatever the reason, the onus is on you to learn. All these factors make it more important than ever to have a way to learn--fast. And that's what Head First Java does -- by exploiting the way your brain works, it compresses the time it takes to really learn. Why? Because its unique approach not only shows you what you need to know about Java syntax, it enables and encourages you to think like a Java programmer. Mastering object oriented programming requires a certain way of thinking, not just a certain way of writing code. The latest research in cognitive science, neurobiology, and educational psychology shows that learning at the deeper levels takes a lot more than text on a page. Actively combining words and pictures not only helps in understanding the subject, but in remembering it. According to some studies, an engaging, entertaining, image-rich, conversational approach actually teaches the subject better. Head First Java puts these theories into practice with a vengeance. Chock full of mind stretching exercises, memorable analogies, and stories, humor and attitude that aren't just pasted-on distractions but that are used to drive home key points and make ideas come alive, the Head First approach is as effective as it is unique. It takes a pretty unique person to have developed such an innovative way to Learn Java. Kathy Sierra has been interested in learning theory since her days as a game designer. More recently, she's been a master trainer for Sun Microsystems, teaching Sun's own instructors how to teach the latest Java technologies. She has been actively using the concepts in Head First Java to teach hundreds of trainers, developers and even non programmers. She is the founder of one of the largest Java community websites in the world, javaranch.com, and she is a member of the development team for the Sun Certified programmer exam. Bert Bates is also a long-time Java developer and trainer with extensive experience in learning theory. His background features a long stint in artificial intelligence with clients like the Weather Channel, A&E Network, Rockwell and Timken. Is Head First Java right for you? That depends. Head First Java assumes you're a programmer or at least have experience with scripting languages. It assumes that you're smart, that you're creative and open to new ideas, and that you know you're just not the type of person who wants to learn the traditional way. Take a look at the sample pages, explore the background on brain-based learning, examine the table of contents, and see for yourself how Head First Java takes learning to a whole new level. See why Tim O'Reilly says, "This is the first really new approach to computer books that I've seen in many years. I think it's going to revolutionize how programming and other complex topics are taught." Table of Content: 1) Dive In (a quick dip into Java) 2) Welcome to Objectville (intro to OO) 3) Know your Variables (understanding Java types: primitives, object references, pass-by-value) 4) How objects behave (instance variables and methods) 5) Extra-strength methods (writing more complex code) 6) Using the Java Library (solving problems with the API) 7) Better Living in Objectville (inheritance, OO design, abstract classes) 8) Serious Polymorphism (interfaces, more OO design, polymorphism) 9) Life and Death of an object (constructors and memory management / garbage collection) 10) Do the Math (static methods and variables, Math methods, Wrappers, and number formatting) 11) Risky Behavior (handling exceptions) 12) A very graphic story (GUI intro, inner classes, event handling) 13) Work on your swing (more GUI, layout managers and Swing components) 14) Saving objects (object serialization and file I/O) 15) Make a connection (networking: sockets and server sockets) 16) Release your Code (deployment: code organization, packages, executable JARs, and Java Web Start) 17) Distributed Code (deployment via RMI and Servlets)
Customer Reviews:
Great book, great way to learn.......2007-10-11
The authors have a wonderful way of presenting the material so that it is memorable. This is a great way to get up to speed on Object Oriented Programming and on Java.
Excelent Book with Innovative Approach to Learning.......2007-09-26
I found this book to have a very interesting and efficient approach to help memorize the content. Pictures and labels in or near the picture makes it fun and easy to read unlike other boring 600+ page technology books. I would recommend it.
Great Tutorial Guide for Beginning Java Programmers.......2007-08-25
This book is just plain FUN and easy to read, whether you plan on becoming a professional Java programmer or just want to know what "object-oriented" programming is all about. It is filled with humor and plain language explanations of Java concepts, including loads of examples. Its greatest value, in my opinion, is as a tutorial approach to Java newcomers.
Head First Java is NOT a good reference book though, so don't buy it if that's what you need! The index is missing many common references to ordinary Java concepts so it is difficult to look up how to do something and find instructions, unless it's something extremely mainstream.
That said, this is by far the best book I've ever seen of its kind. If you have the time to actually read through the book and do the exercises, you will come away with an excellent foundation in Java programming. Each exercise (most of which are games) begins with a conceptual explanation, followed by a "prepcode" version (the program written in a combination of English and actual code), and finally as a real Java program. The authors have gone to the trouble of labelling each line of "real" code with an explanation of what it does. They have anticipated users' questions and answered them. They occasionally leave bugs in a program deliberately, so that you can see the error message and then receive a thorough description of why it occurred and how to fix it. Excellent!!!
Head First Java, 2nd addition is a must have........2007-08-16
I'd like to say a few words about Head First Java, 2nd Edition by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates. Teamed with their publisher, "O'Reilly Media, Inc.", they were extremely successful at producing a book of high technical value, worthy entertainment, and having the virtues of a true certification aid.
Technical value: From learning the core fundamental Java features to truly understanding the inner working or Stacks and Heaps, you'll find this book a valuable reference regardless of the assignment or task you are working on.
Worthy Entertainment: Most books put you to sleep, this book keeps you awake. From parameterized duck sizes to polymorphic hippos, the book is filled with entertaining diagrams, examples and exercises. One will find him/herself revisiting the chapters just for the fun on it.
Certification Aid: Sun Microsystems lists this book as a "Supporting Material" for their Sun Certified (Java) Associate for the Java Platform Exam (CX-310-019). As president of the Tech Center Java User Group, supporting the field of aviation in Southern New Jersey, I can vouch for members of our group who have achieved this SCJA certification with assistance from this book, including myself. Our group gives Head First Java, 2nd Edition a total of (5 out of 5) Stars.
All in all, I consider this Head First Java, 2nd Edition's a must-have. Its catalog page is at http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/hfjava2/ and its retail price is $44.95.
Robert J. Liguori, President
Tech Center Java User Group
Good book for beginners.......2007-08-08
Great book to read if you are new to Java. I like the way they explain the concepts which makes it easy to understand. Its best to start learning Java with this book.
Book Description
As Charles Seife reveals in this energetic new book, information theory, once the province of philosophers and linguists, has emerged as the crucial science of our time, shedding new light on the mysteries of physics, the nature of space and time and the creation and destruction of the universe itself.
With his gift for making cutting-edge science accessible and entertaining, Seife explains how theorists came to understand that information is not a construct of the mind but a fundamental element of the physical world, something that sits inside every living cell and surrounds every black hole in the cosmos. It exists, like energy, even if there is no life to observe it. Starting with the breaking of the Enigma code during World War II and building momentum with the computer revolution, information theory has taken its place at the forefront of theoretical physics as scientists begin to use it to reconcile the paradoxes of relativity and quantum mechanics that have puzzled theorists since Einstein. Lucid and exhilarating, Decoding the Universe probes the mind-boggling advances that are taking us to the brink of a new understanding of the universe.
Customer Reviews:
Information theory, the third physics revolution of the XXth century.......2007-10-03
The author has a degree in probability theory and artificial intelligence, but he is a professor of journalism and has therefore written a book which is both very entertaining and not too difficult to understand. The subject is information, which Seife claims is the third XXth century revolution in physics started by Claude Shannon and which has relations with the other two: Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.
Of course, information is also related to thermodynamics and entropy, so the book contains a discussion of all these topics: thermodynamics, relativity and quantum mechanics. Famous conundrums such as Schroedinger's cat, entanglement, Maxwell's demon, etc. are analyzed from the point of view of information theory.
Here are some snippets of the book:
According to Seife, Einstein dictum "Nothing can travel faster than light" is really about information:" Information speed cannot exceed c". Another interesting fact is that what really causes computers to heat is the erasure of bits.
Seife describes recent achievements and experiments, proof that he is familiar with the latest results. One curious example is the solution of "the knight problem" in 2000 by using a DNA computer! Another one is that the entire human race has less genetic diversity than a few scores of chimps due to some kind of cataclysm about 500,000 years ago. A third one is the 1996 experiment demonstrating the existence of virtual particles (the so called Casimir effect).
In chapter 7, quantum computers are introduced and the possibility of the brain being one is briefly discussed. Unfortunately, it seems that Max Tegmark proved Roger Penrose wrong on this count. You begin to understand the power of quantum computation when the author describes Grover's algorithm to guess a number out of 16. Classically you need four yes/no answers to four questions. Grover manages the same task with two. Quantum computation reduces the complexity of some problems from n to square root of n.
I found also very interesting the reasons why the photoelectric effect cannot be explained by waves. On the other hand, interference cannot be explained by a corpuscular theory of light, so we are stuck with duality.
Towards the end, the author discusses black holes and the holographic principle: the quantity of information contained in a ball is not limited by its volume (surprisingly), but by its area. Since most cosmologists consider now the universe infinite (inflation seems to imply this) we are led, via the holographic bound, to the conclusion that the universe contains infinite copies of our own bubble universe. Seife admits that this is the most bizarre thing among the many ones described in his book.
Very Well Rounded.......2007-09-20
I have a Ph.D. in Physics and therefore know many well educated scientists, but very few have a functional concept of Information as a physical science. Begun with, mostly, Claude Shannon, this topic of study has been growing into a real science for decades now, but for some reason it is one of the most misunderstood subjects out there, even for seasoned professional scientists. Seife cuts to the heart of the matter with very clear thinking and examples from a very well rounded range of scientific points of view. Seife clearly and very engagingly demystifies many confusing topics and brings a real and almost visceral familiarity to a complex subject. After reading this, you will understand many esoteric scientific concepts better than even some professionals... and enjoy it immensely!
Basic information.......2007-08-02
This book is easy to read and is well written, but does not have much depth. The author has proven to be able to explain clearly complex ideas, but seems to lack enough background for some of the fields that the book explores. E.g., the enthusiasm with which the author explains that in an infinite universe there are many (infinite) worlds like ours seems annoying, and has little if anything to do with information or the holographic principle. It is a quite trivial idea valid for many cosmological theories.
Anyway, you can have a good time reading it, and if you are not an expert in information theory, you can find here good explanations of some basic concepts.
covers the science of information theory.......2007-07-21
This book is about information theory. The first few chapters describe information theory and then these theories are applied to biology and physics. I thought the introduction to information theory was well done, I came away with enough knowledge to follow the rest of the book. The chapter on biology, called Life, was interesting but I thought the best part of the book was the physics part. The author talks at length about Boltzman's statistical physics in a very comprehensible manner. He also explains how, although some experiments have allowed parts of light waves to travel faster than light, you can't send information over those parts of light waves so in effect you still can't travel faster than light. The author states that, from information theories perspective, you can't send information faster than light and that this law has not even been bent. Even the "spooky action at a distance" of superposition of atomic spin, which has to do with quantum mechanics, does not allow transferal of information at speeds faster than light. After reading this book my knowledge of the central concepts of information theory and statistical mechanics was greatly expanded. I even made some headway into the concepts of quantum mechanics. I highly recommend this book for those people looking looking for information about the above topics.
Information Theory, Entropy, and Shannon.......2007-07-06
1. Boltzmann, wrote S=k log W , the first law of thermodynamics deals with explaining heat, work, and energy.
2. The industrial revolution needed more powerful engines. The steam engine stars with a fire that cause water to boil into steam, which takes up more room than the equivalent water-it expands. The expansion of steam does work; it moves a piston which, in turn, can move a wheel or lift a rock or pump water. The steam then either flies away into the sky or moves into a cool chamber exposed to air and then condenses, flowing back toward the fire to begin the cycle again. The steam engine sits between high temperature object (fire) and a cold-temperature object(the air). The system will tend toward equilibrium. In allowing the heat to flow, the engine extracts some of the energy and perform useful work. Work and heat are always ways of transferring energy.
3. Carnot put a super engine flowing heat from the hot resevoir to the cold. While allowing the same amount of heat, Q, to flow the cold reservior through a heat pump back into the hot reservoir. Some of the work from the super engine can be diverted to the heat pump. "All, told no, net heat flows from the cold reservoir to the hot reservoir". A perpetual motion machine. "But nothing comes for free. It's the law." "Energy can not be created or destroyed. Energy is conserved." The second law of equilibrium states that anytime you do work, you are irreversibly increasing the equilibriumness of the universe." The second law explains why there does not exist a super engine. "Entropy always increases". "Entropy captures the configuration of the entire collection of matter in terms of probabilities-in terms of the most probable configurations of a collection of atoms, or, in our box-and marble example, the most likely outcomes wen we dump marbles in a box. The higher the probablity of a configuration of mater, the higher the entropy of that configuration."
4. "Some of themost fundamental rules in physics, the laws of thermodynamics, for example, andthe laws that tell how collections of atoms move in a chunk of matter-are deep down, actually laws about information." Shannons helped translate differential equations into a form the computer could understand and creating designs of electrical relays and flip-flo switches. Shannon created boolean logic using mathematics of manipulating 0s and 1s. Shannon uses 0s and 1s to measure the mass flow of information; he included compression algorithms into the model by exploiting redundancy in a given message. A question with N possible outcomes would need log N bits of information to distinquish between the information. Informtion encoded in 1s and 0s cand answer any question, so long as that question has a finite answer. Written language is a stream of finite symbols. Each symbol can be represented as a stream of bits. Bits are the universal medium of information. Five bits can be compressed into a one or two bits through a mapping rule. The rules make the string redundant. Shannon creates his channel capacity theorem to explain how much stuff can be sent over communication lines. "Information is intimately related to entropy and energy. The function Shannon derived was, roughly speaking, a measure of how unpredictable a string of bits is. the less predictable it is, the less able you are to generate the entire message from a smaller string of bits-in other words, the less redundant. The less redundancy a message has, the more information it can contain, so by measuring this unpredictability, Shannon hoped to be able to get at the information stored in the message." In the marbles in the box, the distribution of half the marbles on both the left and right side had the highest entropy and the distribution with all the marbles on either the left or right side had the lowest entropy. The entropy distribution of 1s ands 0s of symbols directly relates to the amount of information of the stream.
5. Shannon figured out how much energy was required to transmit a bit from place to place under certain conditions. Information theory is the science of manipulation and transmission of bits, is very closely tied to thermodynamics. Maxwell's entropy problem could use information theory instead thermodynamics to separate the hot atoms from the cold atoms. Information does not come free, it requires energy. Szilard calculated that kT log 2 joules for every bit of information. Using that useful energy increases the entropy of the box. The process of obtaining and acting on the information increases the entropy of the universe. The opening and closing of the shutter was based on the information and decreases the entropy. Shannon information entropy and thermal entropy are related. Once the energy is stopped the box returns to equilibrium. A turning machine could acts as the controller for the shutter, opening and closing.
6. Memory reusablity requires energy and increases entropy. "Bits can be added without consuming energy or increasing the energy of the universe. You can multiple bits. You can negate them. But one action in a computer generates heat, which when dissipated into the environment, increases the entropy in the universe. That action is erasing a bit."
Average customer rating:
- Great for Grads/Professional--confusing and convoluted for undergrad
- Best introduction to neural network models of cognitive processes
- A new paradigm
- A new paradigm
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Computational Explorations in Cognitive Neuroscience: Understanding the Mind by Simulating the Brain
Randall C. O'Reilly
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ASIN: 0262650541 |
Book Description
The goal of computational cognitive neuroscience is to understand how the brain embodies the mind by using biologically based computational models comprising networks of neuronlike units. This text, based on a course taught by Randall O'Reilly and Yuko Munakata over the past several years, provides an in-depth introduction to the main ideas in the field. The neural units in the simulations use equations based directly on the ion channels that govern the behavior of real neurons, and the neural networks incorporate anatomical and physiological properties of the neocortex. Thus the text provides the student with knowledge of the basic biology of the brain as well as the computational skills needed to simulate large-scale cognitive phenomena.
The text consists of two parts. The first part covers basic neural computation mechanisms: individual neurons, neural networks, and learning mechanisms. The second part covers large-scale brain area organization and cognitive phenomena: perception and attention, memory, language, and higher-level cognition. The second part is relatively self-contained and can be used separately for mechanistically oriented cognitive neuroscience courses. Integrated throughout the text are more than forty different simulation models, many of them full-scale research-grade models, with friendly interfaces and accompanying exercises. The simulation software (PDP++, available for all major platforms) and simulations can be downloaded free of charge from the Web. Exercise solutions are available, and the text includes full information on the software.
Customer Reviews:
Great for Grads/Professional--confusing and convoluted for undergrad.......2006-11-17
I am currently taking a honors psych class which utilizes this textbook as a lab handout (we solve the exercises closing out each chapter). I find this book very hard to read due to the language and the explanations the authors use to explain certain topics. The book reads more like a guide for those already familiar with the subject matter, and the questions closing out each chapter are even harder to understand than the chapter text itself. If the authors wish the book to be of any help to undergrads who are not already familiar with the topic they should take a step back and revise the text so that it is understandable for all. NOTE TO UA STUDENTS THINKING OF TAKING THE CLASS WHICH UTILIZES THIS BOOK
---->dont.
Best introduction to neural network models of cognitive processes.......2006-03-23
"Computational Explorations in Cognitive Neuroscience" provides a very readable overview of state-of-the-art neural network models for human cognition with an emphasis on both biological plausibility and experimental (psychological/cognitive) evidence.
A new paradigm.......2000-09-27
In this book, research themes, which include perception, memory, language as well as high-level cognition, are explained in terms of computation. Their theory is based on brain science, computer science, and psychology. Though the authors speculate about the functions of each part of the brain and the relation among them to some extent, the authors propose a new paradigm to existing sciences. Their integrative approach and method are very simulative, and I've got a lot of hints from this book. But I don't need the usageof particular software, PDP++ in such a theoretical book. The authors explain and demonstrate their models and theories using PDP++ at the end of each chapter. If you want to study how to use PDP++ as well as their theories, this book will be extremely good one.
A new paradigm.......2000-09-27
In this book, research themes including perception, memory, and language as well as high-level cognition are explained in terms of computation. Their theories are based on brain science, computer science, and psychology. Though the authors speculate about the functions of the brain and the relation among them to some extent, the authors propose a new paradigm to existing sciences. Their integrative approach and method are very simulative, and I've got a lot of hints from this book. But I don't need the usage of particular software, PDP++ in such a theoretical book. The authors explain and demonstrate their models and theories using PDP++ at the end of each chapter. If you want to study how to use PDP++ as well as their theories, this book will be truly excellent.
Product Description
The Orange Brain's Guide to AdminStudio is perfect for those just starting with AdminStudio or those wishing to hone thier repackaging skills. It covers everything from getting started, repackaging, custom actions, creating transforms, upgrades, patches, using the ConflictSolver and adding your final package to the Application Catalog. It's friendly, approachable style makes it easy to understand not only repackaging, but also using and maintaining Windows Installer packages.
Customer Reviews:
Essential reading for all AdminStudio users.......2007-03-02
I am using AdminStudio Professional 6.0. This book provides a comprehensive workflow for software packaging and deployment using the AdminStudio software no matter what version you are using.
I especially liked Chapter 4 - Your First Package. This chapter sets up the framework for following chapters with the concept of the "package template folder" which guides you in the task of taking a legacy package and transforming it into an msi package.
The discussion on the basics of windows installer is great!
The text provides a lot of "How do I do this ...." examples which I really liked.
Highly recommend this text for all software re-packagers.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent reference work on brain theory
- Misleading title, a useful book otherwise
- Basic science for consciousness
- Excellent compilation
- Neural Network Bible
|
The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks (Bradford Book)
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
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The Metaphorical Brain 2: Neural Networks and Beyond
ASIN: 0262511029 |
Book Description
In hundreds of articles by experts from around the world, and in overviews and "road maps" prepared by the editor, The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks charts the immense progress made in recent years in many specific areas related to great questions: How does the brain work? How can we build intelligent machines?
While many books discuss limited aspects of one subfield or another of brain theory and neural networks, the Handbook covers the entire sweep of topics--from detailed models of single neurons, analyses of a wide variety of biological neural networks, and connectionist studies of psychology and language, to mathematical analyses of a variety of abstract neural networks, and technological applications of adaptive, artificial neural networks.
Expository material makes the book accessible to readers with varied backgrounds while still offering a clear view of the recent, specialized research on specific topics.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent reference work on brain theory.......2007-01-05
The articles in this work are written by a who's who list of authors from the cognitive and computational neuroscience community. Each article is useful for getting an initial bearing on a topic from this dynamic field. The references for each article serve as useful "jumping off points" for further learning. It should be noted that this text is not a typical college textbook -- it is a reference work. As such, a beginner to the field should consider one of the other introductory textbooks (perhaps "The Cognitive Neurosciences").
Misleading title, a useful book otherwise.......2005-01-04
Look through this book to convince yourself that an exact brain theory does not exist. The arrangement of the articles by the first letter of their title tells it all (consider classifying animals by the first letter of their name). The editors wrongly assume that mathematical methods equal theory; actually, theory is a small conceptual tent under which a large number of experimentally established facts can be gathered. In most cases, mathematics is a very useful tool in pitching this tent, but it has little to do with the tent itself.
An exact theory of the brain may be possible and we are in dire need of it. Unfortunately, nobody has come up with it yet. This book is an encyclopedia of various mathematical methods that have been used to solve various neuroscience problems. These methods and solutions are as diverse as the problems themselves. Don't look for common themes in this book. If you are looking for a unified brain theory, you'll be much better off reading standard neuroscience textbooks. I do hope one day we'll be able to cast these vague ideas into something precise and, most likely, mathematical. Sadly, not today. I own a copy of this book and use it to remind me why and how we have failed so far.
It should be kept in mind that it is not at all clear that "neural" networks can emulate consciousness. They may or they may not. Firstly, a single neuron resembles a computer processor in its complexity and is a constantly evolving entity. Secondly, only 10% of brain cells are neurons and the remaining 90% (glial cells) now too appear to be involved in information processing. At a more fundamental level, consciousness may be less algorithmic and computational than we expect. Finally, the brain and the reality "outside the brain" are a two-way street. As the great neuroscientist Cajal put it, "As long as our brain remains an arcanum, the Universe, a reflection of its structure, will also be a mystery". If we assume the brain analyzes something, we need to define a reality independent of this analysis -- a hardly possible task if standard "input-output" approaches are used.
If the title of this book were "Current Mathematical Methods in Neurosciences", I'd have no problem giving it five stars.
November 2005: The chapters in the second edition are still arranged alphabetically. I refuse to believe neuro-mathematicians cannot think more coherently.
One final note for those looking for serious conceptual advances on the theoretical front: do no miss "Spikes: Exploring the Neural Code" (edited by F. Rieke) and "Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain: The Science of Neuroeconomics" by Paul Glimcher.
Basic science for consciousness.......2001-10-10
Research is tedious, but if you want to know the nitty-gritty of mind-brain theory and neural networking, this book is an invaluable resource for basic, relevant, and accessible papers on the subjects. Encompassing seminal works from an unusually broad range of disciplines, here is an outstanding reference for those concerned with the mechanisms of intelligence.
Excellent compilation.......2001-06-03
This complilation of articles by leading experts in the field gives an excellent overview of studies in cognitive theory and the theory and applications of neural networks. The first two parts of the book give an overview and background of the properties of neurons and gives guidance to the reader on what sequence the articles are to be read. I did not read all of the articles, but only those that piqued my interest. I found the following articles particularly well-written and informative: 1. "Applications of Neural Networks": Outlines the diverse applications of neural networks to signal processing, time series, imaging, etc. 2. "Astronomy": Neural network applications in astronomy, such as adaptive optics and telescope guidance. 3. "Chains of Coupled Oscillators": Their connection with the lamprey central pattern generator. 4. "Chaos in Axons": An excellent review of chaos experimentally in squid axons and numerically with nerve equations. 5. "Collective Behavior of Coupled Oscillators": A study of the phase and complex Ginzburg-Landau model. 6. "Computer Modeling Methods for Neurons": Good overview of numerical modeling of neurons. 7. "Computing with Attractors": Overview of omputing and feedback networks with attractors and a fascinating discussion of the possible existence of attractors in the brain. 8. "Constrained Optimization and the Elastic Net": Useful discussion of application of neural networks to optimization problems. 9. "Data Clustering and Learning": Good discussion of parameter estimation of mixture models by parametric statistics and vector quantization of a data set by combinatorial optimization. 10. "Diffusion Models of Neuron Activity": Discusses 1-dimensional stochastic diffusion models for the neuron membrane potential. 11. "Disease: Neural Network Models": Interesting overview of neural net computational models of various mental illnesses. 12. "Dynamics and Bifurcation of Neural Networks": Discussion of neural nets and their behavior as dynamical systems. 13. "Emotion and Computational Neuroscience": Fascinating discussion of computational models of emotion. 14. "Investment Management": A discussion of tactical asset allocation neural network methods in asset management. 15. "Learning and Centralization: Theoretical Bounds": Overview of computational learning theory. 16. "Locust Flight": Interesting neural network study of the locust flight system. 17. "Neural Optimization": Discussion of combinatorial optimization using Ising and Potts neural networks. 18. "PAC Learning and Neural Networks": Overview of the Valiant "probabilistically correct learning paradigm in neural networks. 19. "Protein Structure Prediction": Neural network applications to prediction of protein secondary structure. 20. "Schema Theory": Extremely interesting overview of schemas. 21. "Speech Recognition: Pattern Matching": Excellent discussion of the applications of hidden Markov models to speech recognition. 22. "Statistical Mechanics of Neural Networks": Discussion of the use of the Hopfield model in neural networks. 23. Vapnik-Chervonenkis Dimension of Neural Networks": Very interesting discussion of the VC-dimension of neural networks.
Neural Network Bible.......2000-07-29
This is THE neural network and brain theory reference. Owning it is like owning an entire library, though much more compact.
If you take a look at the table of contents, you'll see the massive value in this book. If you're into neural nets and brain theory, or want to be, you need this book.
Books:
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- Hoot
- How Doctors Think
- Infidel
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