|
|
|
|
| As a kid, David Goldfarb hated writing book reports and essays. He claims that he chose MIT to avoid the term papers inflicted upon students at other universities. Despite this, David somehow became a reviewer for Computing Reviews shortly after graduating, and has written more than 30 reviews. When asked why, he can only mumble something about it being a great opportunity to read more books. Between reviewing stints, David is a software practitioner, consultant, and founder of several startups: Vringo, 2AM Development, and Degel Software. David’s specialty is “zero-to-sixty acceleration”: helping organizations learn and implement technologies to turn great ideas into products. He identifies new technical direction and helps early adopters to exploit these technologies. Over the years, these have ranged from Lisp and artificial intelligence, to multimedia and Windows, to mobile computing and Internet applications, to biotechnology. (Currently, he is exploring tools to help manage the flood of media content constantly arriving on our doorsteps and inboxes.) David was a bit too young to ever use punch cards or slide rules for serious work and probably will be too old to be involved in telepathy or brain uploads; however, he is pleased to have helped develop and exploit so many of the intervening technologies. He looks forward to many years of continuing to use and learn new software tricks and, yes, even to writing more book reports—ahem, I mean reviews—for Computing Reviews. |
|
|
|
Date Reviewed |
|
|
1 - 10 of 56
reviews
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ansible for VMware by examples: a step-by-step guide to automating your VMware infrastructure Berton L., Apress, New York, NY, 2023. 183 pp. Type: Book (978-1484288788) This book’s stated audience is twofold: Ansible beginners and intermediate/expert users looking for code examples.
...
|
Aug 31 2023 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Funology 2: from usability to enjoyment (2nd ed.) Blythe M., Monk A., Springer International Publishing, New York, NY, 2018. 561 pp. Type: Book (978-3-319682-12-9)
This was an unusual book for me to review, far removed from my comfort zone of developer environments and programming languages. This book is purely about human-computer interaction (HCI). It consists of 35 distinct essays, averaging a...
|
Aug 30 2021 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Software engineering for absolute beginners: your guide to creating software Loubster N., Apress, New York, NY, 2021. 360 pp. Type: Book (978-1-484266-21-2)
This book’s audience is exactly as described in its title: “absolute beginners.” The content is appropriate for someone who has had some minimal programming experience, for example, classwork or playing ar...
|
Jul 22 2021 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Linear algebra and optimization for machine learning Aggarwal C., Springer International Publishing, New York, NY, 2020. 516 pp. Type: Book (978-3-030403-43-0)
This excellent introduction to linear algebra is aimed at folks who want to better understand how machine learning really works. Modern machine learning requires a background in linear algebra, but most books and courses focus more on ...
|
Mar 26 2021 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Essential TypeScript: from beginner to pro Freeman A., Apress, New York, NY, 2019. 546 pp. Type: Book (978-1-484249-78-9), Reviews: (2 of 2)
TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript, created by Microsoft, that adds type safety to the language....
|
Nov 10 2020 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rebooting AI: building artificial intelligence we can trust Marcus G., Davis E., Pantheon Books, New York, NY, 2019. 288 pp. Type: Book (978-1-524748-25-8)
A fast and light read, yet nonetheless important, this book proposes that artificial intelligence (AI) will eventually achieve many, or even all, of the goals promised by developers and the press. But the authors maintain that this wil...
|
Apr 14 2020 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Internet of Things and smart environments: assistive technologies for disability, dementia, and aging Shahrestani S., Springer International Publishing, New York, NY, 2017. 135 pp. Type: Book (978-3-319601-63-2)
I approached this book with very high hopes: the Internet of Things (IoT) is a major emerging technology; dealing with aging populations is a growing concern; and Springer typically publishes excellent books. Sadly, I was disappointed....
|
Nov 5 2018 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reactive with ClojureScript recipes: functional programming for the web Modrzyk N., Apress, New York, NY, 2017. 366 pp. Type: Book (978-1-484230-08-4)
This book offers a cookbook of recipes using ClojureScript and its libraries for reactive web programming. According to the back cover, the intended readership level is beginning to intermediate. I had high hopes for this book. This is...
|
Jul 6 2018 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
A programmable programming language Felleisen M., Findler R., Flatt M., Krishnamurthi S., Barzilay E., McCarthy J., Tobin-Hochstadt S. Communications of the ACM 61(3): 62-71, 2018. Type: Article
Despite its vague title, this article is actually a gentle presentation of the ideas behind the Racket language and ecosystem....
|
May 25 2018 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
For fun and profit: a history of the free and open source software revolution Tozzi C., The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2017. 336 pp. Type: Book (978-0-262036-47-4)
This well-written and only slightly opinionated book documents the history of the free and open-source software (FOSS) movement. It covers the main historical branch from the start of Unix through GNU, Linux, the LAMP stack, Mozilla, A...
|
Jan 31 2018 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|