“We’ve partnered with Google to offer our entire 137-year archive for free browsing. Each issue appears just as it did at its original time of publication, complete with period advertisements. It’s an amazing resource that beautifully encapsulates our ongoing fascination with the future, and science and technology’s incredible potential to improve our lives. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.”

Source: http://www.popsci.com/archives

Source: Download

Hand aufs Herz: Klingen die Stimmen so wie die Personen aussehen? Also ich komm immer wieder aus dem Staunen nicht heraus wenn ich die Stimmen höre und die Gesicher dazu sprechen sehe. Da muss doch ein Trick dabei sein!

Ach übrigends sind heute auch noch zwei neue Folgen der “drei Fragezeichen” erschienen…

… like “Dive into Python”:

“This is a fantastic book that is also available in print. It covers everything, from installing Python and the language’s syntax, right up to web services and unit testing. This is a good book to learn from, but it’s also excellent to use a reference. I frequently find myself visiting the site! If you only read one book on this list make it this one.”

other eBooks:

An Introduction to Tkinter
How to think like a Computer Scientist
The Standard Python Library
Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python
The Django Book
The Pylons Book
Data Structures and Algorithms with Object-Oriented Design Patterns in Python
Building Skills in Python
Building Skills in OO Design

Source 1: Dive into Python
Source 2: An Introduction to Tkinter
Source 3: How to think like a Computer Scientist
Source 4: The Standard Python Library
Source 5: Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python
Source 6: The Django Book
Source 7: The Pylons Book
Source 8: Data Structures and Algorithms with Object-Oriented Design Patterns in Python
Source 9: Building Skills in Python
Source 10: Building Skills in OO Design

Data Structures and Algorithms: Annotated Reference with Examples is completely free!”

The first draft is available now – and it’s 97 pages.

Source: http://dotnetslackers.com/projects/Data-Structures-And-Algorithms/

Thanks to Sun and AMD there’s now a free eBook available for download:

“Virtualization for Dummies – Sun and AMD Special Edition is now available! Published by the same folks who create all the “Dummies” books – this special edition version showcases Sun and AMD virtualization offerings, how they work together, and how they can benefit businesses. Learn about the latest virtualization technologies with this brief and easy-to-read booklet.”

Source: Virtualization for Dummies Download

Amazon schreibt über das Buch:

“Nach einer missglückten Intimrasur liegt die 18-jährige Helen auf der Inneren Abteilung von Maria Hilf. Sie wartet auf den Besuch ihrer geschiedenen Eltern, in der irren Hoffnung, die beiden könnten sich am Krankenbett der Tochter endlich versöhnen. Unterdessen nimmt sie jene Bereiche ihres Körpers unter die Lupe, die gewöhnlich als unmädchenhaft gelten, und lässt Krankenpfleger Robin die Stellen fotografieren, die sich ihrem neugierigen Blick entziehen. Nebenher pflegt sie ihre Sammlung von Avocadokernen, die ihr auch in sexueller Hinsicht wertvolle Dienste leisten. Selbst wenn Helens Besessenheit eine Notoperation nötig werden lässt – ihr ungestümer Witz und ihre Wahrhaftigkeit machen sie zu einer Sensation nicht nur auf der Station des Krankenhauses. Sie spricht aus, was andere nicht einmal zu denken wagen. »Feuchtgebiete« ist eine Exkursion zu den letzten Tabus der Gegenwart. Mutig, radikal und provokant rebelliert Charlotte Roches Roman gegen Hygienehysterie und die sterile Ästhetik der Frauenzeitschriften, gegen den standardisierten Umgang mit dem weiblichen Körper und seiner Sexualität – und erzählt dabei die wunderbar wilde Geschichte einer ebenso genusssüchtigen wie verletzlichen Heldin.”

Source 1: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,537317,00.html
Source 2: Amazon

Source 1: e-book
Source 2: demos

“Ahead of the release of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Microsoft Corporation has fre- quently referred to what it calls the “new world of work” – a business environment and econ- omy characterized by mobility; a worldwide network of customers, partners, and suppliers; new compliance and regulatory requirements; and a need for broad visibility into business processes and the information that supports and governs them. Together, factors such as these drive the need for organizations to integrate business applications, documents, and workflows and transform the content of documents into business information they can act on. These factors make plain the essential link between knowledge workers, business informa- tion, business processes, and software. This free 236-pages ebook focuses on a critical element of Office development – Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, plat- forms that developers can use to create collaboration applications as well as applications and features that support business intelligence, workflow, data calculation, team workspaces, document life cycle management, content management, knowledge discovery, and project management.”

Content:

• Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
• Building Solutions with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
• Building a Basic SharePoint Site
• Organizing Lists and Documents with Site Columns and Content Types
• Working with Features in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services
• Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Core Developement
• Creating Worklfows …

Source: eBook Download

The iRex iLiad e-ink e-book reader is such a fantastic device, a friend of mine is willing to put the >600 euro down to get one. And if he reads this, he’ll be even more motivated to bite the bullet:

“From the factory, the Iliad only uses and maintains Internet connectivity for a very short time and for one specific purpose; to connect to the Rex site. Some enterprising device owners put a little hack together with a PDF file and some http for an address bar and they’re now surfing the web as long they like on the Iliad.”

Source: http://www.irextechnologies.com/products/iliad/specs

“The “theory of reality” that I advance on this website and in the book “Imagining the Tenth Dimension” is not the one that is commonly accepted by today’s physicists. Anyone wanting to know more about the currently established thinking behind string theory and the tenth or eleventh dimension should refer to such excellent books as “Parallel Worlds” by Michio Kaku, “The Fabric of the Cosmos” by Brian Greene, or “Warped Passages” by Lisa Randall.

I invite you to think of this as an entertaining diversion that for some people will have a strong and thought-provoking connection to their impression of how the world really works. If you click on “The Forum”, you will be taken to a page that gives readers an opportunity to debate the concepts presented in the book and this website more fully. Enjoy!”

Source: http://www.tenthdimension.com/flash.php

You can grab the eBook “Threading in C#” as HTML or PDF on Joseph Albaharis website.

Source: http://www.albahari.com/threading/

I was in Bamberg the second half of last week to help my girlfriends mom moving into the new apartment. And since she has so many books it would be a great eye-catcher to just “stick” some of them on the wall. This invisible bookshelf is in stores for 18 euros. Which is… quite expensive for a bended piece of metal… but it looks so great.

Source: Singulier

What a great Idea…alternative book covers…

“Awhile ago, my husband Brian said “wouldn’t it be funny if you were sitting on the subway reading a book and on the front cover it said, How to Murder a Complete Stranger and Get Away with It? Imagine what people around you would think, especially when you finally finished the book”.”

Source: http://www.flapart.ca/index.html

And they’re right. I reject any model of linguistic decline, in which the twenty-first century speaks a decadent version of the language of some golden age. I don’t lie awake at night worrying about the decline of “proper” English. (In my grumpier moods, I’m convinced the whole world’s going to hell — but then, I’m convinced the whole world’s been going to hell since time out of mind. In my more sanguine moods, I wonder whether hell isn’t such a bad place to be after all.) I know, too, that many things offered as “good” grammar or style have little basis in history or in logic.”

Source: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/

Till 20th November the ten best radio plays are available for your review. You can be part of the jury and rate them.

Actually the radio plays are really good – but you have to have Flash installed since its a flash audio player…

Source 1: Niere:Blog
Source 2: ARD Hörspieltage 2005

The PreConf Session “Windows Internals & Advanced Troubleshooting” is about to start in a few minutes. The Session will take 8 hours with some breaks – so we’re really going to get into it. Actually I figured out that I only have the outdated Book from the Speakers Mark Russinovich and David Solomon. So I ordered the updated issue of “Windows Internals“

Source: “Windows Internals” Book

Cool book. Don’t miss it.

“Expanding on themes first raised in his tour-de-force, Running Money, Andy Kessler unpacks the entire history of Silicon Valley and Wall Street, from the industrial revolution to computers, communications, money, gold and stock markets. These stories cut [by an unscrupulous editor] from the original manuscript were intended as a Primer on the ways in which new technologies develop from unprofitable curiosities to essential investments.

Indeed, How We Got Here is the book Kessler wishes someone had handed him on his first day as a freshman engineering student at Cornell or on the day he started on Wall Street. In the style of James Burke, it connects the dots through history to how we got to where we are today. Presented with his trademark wit and smart-ass assessments, How We Got Here offers readers an original and refreshing look at history.”

Source: http://andykessler.com/hwgh.html

You can download the eBook for free. So if you want to know (or you’re expected to know) anything about Digital Signal Processing, get this eBook.

Source: www.dspguide.com

A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind

“We will try to explain how the mind works, and we will also show how a person can make it operate more effectively. If we compare the task of developing the mind to that of taking a journey, then this volume could be described as a combination road map and tourist guide. While there are many similarities between a brain and an electronic computer, there are also several factors which make the human ‘computer’ unique: First of all, it is rather large. The electronic chips which are contained in the computers of the 1990s are constructed from flat little squares of silicon, no bigger than postage stamps. In contrast, the human thinking apparatus is a three pound, three-dimensional, solid chunk of neurons and interconnections. The average human brain contains about one hundred billion neurons and around one hundred trillion connections. Compare this to today’s computer chip with its total of about ten million transistors, and you can understand why, at present, we have about sufficient technology to simulate the brain of a slug.”

Source 1: A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
Source 2: TechBooksForFree

Bin ich eben erst drauf gestossen: ein Weblog dessen Einträge eigentlich schon vor über 300 Jahren geschrieben worden sind… und nun Tag für Tag veröffentlicht werden. Ziemlich interessant…

“This site is a presentation of the diaries of Samuel Pepys, the renowned 17th century diarist who lived in London, England (read more about him). A new entry written by Pepys will be published each day; 1 January 1660 was published on 1 January 2003.”

Quelle: http://www.pepysdiary.com

Man soll es ja nicht für möglich halten, aber beim Durchblättern eines handelsüblichen Wörterbuches kann man schon auf ganz erstaunliche Dinge treffen.

Ein Beispiel:

Man fängt beim Wort “genesis” an (Wo sonst?!?).

Es folgt “genetic”, was auch irgendwie Sinn macht, denn ohne Genetik gehts nunmal nicht weiter.

Danach kommen “genial” und “genie”. Scheint es auch zu sein, sonst würde es nicht so umfassend funktionieren.

“genitive” will auf den ersten Blick nicht so recht reinpassen, aber solch grosse Sachen wie Evolution bringen immer komische Artefakte zu Tage, die wieder aussterben (“Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod.”).

Das nächste Wort ist “genius”. Warum nicht? Im Laufe von Millionen Jahren wird es sicher den einen oder anderen “begnadeten Menschen” (laut Wörterbuch) geben. Eine Nebenübersetzung als “böser Geist” lässt Schlimmes erahnen.

Und es passiert tatsächlich: “genocide” (Völkermord) lässt keinen Zweifel an der Gesinnung dieses “begnadeten Menschen”.

Bei “gent” (feiner Mann), “genteel” (vornehm) und “genteelism” (feiner Ausdruck) nimmt das Wörterbuch eine ironische (?) Wertung des “begnadeten Menschen” vor.

Schließlich landen wir bei “gentile”, womit der aktuellen Politik Rechnung getragen wird.

Wörterbücher: Die stillen Propheten?

geschrieben von Jens Heymann

das war ein richtig guter Abend…eine Lesung von Herbert Feuerstein zu seinen alten und aktuellen Reise-Büchern… einfach grandios… jedenfalls weiss ich das ich die Bücher brauch Amazon weiss schon bescheid.

Ich selbst bin ja ein Fan von Büchern – und Hörbüchern sowieso – wohl auch deshalb bin ich auf eine wirklich interessante Seite gestossen auf der es darum geht, das jeder der möchte (und kann) Hörbücher selbst aufzeichnen und für interessierte Zuhörer zum Download ablegen kann – eine geniale Idee !

Mal kurz eine Selbstbeschreibung der Seite:

“Vorleser.net bietet Märchen, Fabeln, Gedichte, Kurzgeschichten etc. und später auch Hörspiele kostenlos als mp3-Dateien zum herunter laden an. Das Angebot wird laufend zu einem “Kanon” deutschsprachiger Literatur als Hörbuchsammlung erweitert!”

Mittlerweile scheint die Seite sich schon in einer wachsenden europäischen Umgebung wiederzufinden; höchst erfreulich – jedenfalls gibt es schon bspw. französische Gedichte in Originalsprache.

Quelle 1: http://www.vorleser.net/
Quelle 2: http://www.vorleser.net/html/baudelaire.html

“The good thing about being in the middle of milestones is that life isn’t so stressful and in addition to the planning and postmortems there’s at least some amount of time for self-education purposes. I discovered today that Alistair Cockburn (TheGodOfAgileSoftwareDevelopment) has draft version of his new book “Crystal Clear – A Human-Powered Methodology For Small Teams, including The Seven Properties of Effective Software Projects” available here. Though this isn’t the final version, the fact itself that more and more respectable writers in software development community publish their books for reviewing is noteworthy. One of the latest examples was Steve McConnell’s “Code Complete 2” or is Keith Brown’s “A .NET Developer’s Guide to Windows Security“.”

Quelle: http://weblogs.asp.net/gunnarku/archive/2004/05/13/131630.aspx

FAZIT: DIESES BUCH IST FURCHTBAR !

selten habe ich ein derart schlecht geschriebenes Buch gelesen. Unglaublich das die einen Verleger gefunden haben. Grundsätzlich kann man sagen, das hier ein total verbitterter Ex-Microsoftie – Marlin Eller mit Namen – über Bill Gates lamentiert und dabei nicht vergisst sich ununterbrochen selbst zu loben.

“It´s not that Bill made me a millionaire. I made Bill a Billionaire”
(Marlin Eller)

Das fragt man sich dann unweigerlich “Wer zum Teufel ist Marlin Eller ?” – das is ein Typ der an Windows 1.0 mitgearbeitet hat… irgendend ein Programmierer halt – der mit insgesamt 27 Millionen Dollar in der Tasche Microsoft verlassen hat um dann 1999/2000 ein Dotcom Startup zu gründen. Nun, was ist passiert: sein Dotcom (er wollte Noten (so Musik auf Papier) übers Internet verkaufen ) ging ziemlich schnell Pleite, hat bei der Gelgenheit 25 seiner 27 Millionen Dollar verbrannt und nun steht er da und schreibt dieses Buch. Nun ist Marlin Eller nicht gerade der typische Gönner. Jedenfalls is er ziemlich neidisch auf jeden der nun mehr Kohle hat als er. Speziell Bill Gates.

Im Grunde stellt Eller in dem Buch nur da wie er versagt, und das Firmenkonzept und die Philosophie von Microsoft gewonnen hat – ziemlich wenig für ein “Insider Buch”, das die schlimmen schlimmen, ach fürchterlichen Praktiken einer Company aufzeigen will.