MIT

The most convincing part of this book is the overview of two-level morphology. The overview of morphological phenomena and of other computational systems is superficial and eclectic.

A superb introduction to the field of computational morphology. This reader only wishes Dr. Sproat devoted a section to his syllable weight-table methodology

Pulsed Neural Networks (90's), Artificial Intelligence (80's), Cybernetics (60's and 70's) Telephone Switch Board (10's and 20's) Hydrodynamics (1700 and 1800) it is amazing the names put on cognitive science through the years. This book is a symposium (13 small books) on developing hardware devices capable of replacing or enhancing neurological functions. Using modeling techniques to duplicate biophysical neural pathways can take two forms. The first are math models, which obviously show the relationship between the neurons (virtual reality). The second type is models that build-spiking neurons in real time to which this book is directed. In the first part of the book, a summary of current thought, written by the main compilers of the book (Maas and Bishop) is worth the price alone. The book addresses the question of biological electrical (vs. chemical or genetic) coding, in which the method of information is actually transmitted and received. The compilers have emphasized the chronological event of development with the articles so that the reader does not become lost in which came first. Gravy is given the reader in the form of articles written by researchers in other fields (VLSI) to the point that the reader wonders if one is still reading a book on biophysics. The hard-wired neural net components are then compared to their biological predecessors for the purpose of obtaining usable "dry lab" tools for experiments. ("Dry-wet-electrical lab", "electrical-dry-lab-wet-computer-lab"?). Even though the material contains electrical engineering stuff it is still very readable to biological types and if interested, can muscle through this stuff. The math model development in Matlab is mentioned, but the reference to Matlab's current capabilities in this area is dated (95). Most of symmetries run in the book are older 200 Pentium type machines, and with a faster (650 up) and better busing Matlab's new neural net toolbox can build some interesting stuff (remember however it is still virtual). The "home modeler" can use chap. 7 and 12 as a theoretical basis for stochastic resonance models which the writers, while dealing with stochastic bit-stream overlooked this aspect. However, H.Wilson's Spikes, Decision and Actions is much better. (Matlab interactive). This is a really good book for modelers (reason for the review as opposed to 'me to' reviews). Most of the neural nets and circuits designs are easily modeled in Matlab's Simulink to give real time results similar to those reported. (Whether the results duplicate reality is always a question with these types of models). Flights of fancy (the reason for modeling in the first place, at least the addictive part) can then be implemented according to the capabilities of the reader. The book also discusses "hard wired" CMOS chips available replicating biological systems with plug in units to standard computer I/O units (Motorola, National, and Fuzzytech). However a larger question comes from this book. How can the output of a non-deterministic system be modeled by deterministic model (hardware or otherwise) inputs (H.Wilson)? Without a specific knowledge of the role that neural architecture plays in the phase modulations and oscillatory behavior, how can information be transferred by digital or analog devices duplication neural transmission. As the author puts it in Chap. 12, "Furthermore it is not even clear what the goal of a learning algorithm for pulsed neural nets should be; the goal to learn a function or a function (operator). This book is not a failing because it cannot answer this question. Indeed, the avenues it reviews and discusses opens up many more fields and sparks new uses for the fields it introduces.

This book presents a general overview to the growing field of spiking neural networks and their VLSI implementation written by many of the major figures in this field. It begins with several clear explications of the spiking response model which has been recently popularized by Gerstner (who has several good entries in this volume) and why looking at such a model might be a good idea (it really is completely fascinating). As with all neural network theory, understanding the model will require a fairly solid mathematical background. The middle portion of the book is dedicated to VLSI implementation (which I am not involved with so won't comment) and the last chapters present a wide variety of articles from the highly mathematical to advice for digital simulation of such networks. Chapter 10 is by far the most mathematical chapter and presents the analytic results that have been derived for a homogeneous fully connected network. Although this is far from a complete reference it provides a clear explanation of the reasons for this direction and enough good references at the end of each section to get you started. I have continually turned to this book while getting started in my research in this area.

A book that gives a good overall picture of the Siemens Simatic S7 200/300/400. It may help engineers and technicians who are working with this product to understand many other configurations of Siemens automation products. Not a book if you are only interested in how to program S7 PLC.

This book is a summary of articles about how we, the humans, see the art through the cognition, or how our brains perceive art. There's no need to be a cognition master to read this book, and all chapters can be read separately. An easy to read and quite interesting book.

The first 42 pages are in full text German, and the rest of the book (207 paged in total) contains photos with one or two lines of German text. I can't help you with the German text (I'm not very fluent in German myself). However, it is very easy to take the text below the photos and copy it into a language translator. ... It works great, but sometimes the translation doesn't work too good for technical terms (a little interpretation is needed on your part).

Now for the best part of the book.... I am into R/C model U-boat building and belong to the "Subcommittee" web organization. The photos in this book are of the best quality that I have ever seen of German WWII U-boats. Many of the photos were stamped for official German Kreigsmarine documentation. If you need good clear photos of the Type-II or the Type-VII, then this is the book for you. The author even has drawings of the Control Center and listings for all the levers, and gauges, etc. There is even a detailed document on the toilet. Now, that's getting down to the basics! In my opinion, if Richard Lakowski did another book on the type-XXI or type-XXIII with the same quality, then I would buy it to add to my library.

A serious study of the social impact of those who have access to new information and communication technologies and those who don't, have to consider this book to analyze the importance of the technology adoption in the economic and cultural develop of all countries. The book represents a force guide to anyone who studies the paper of the government to spread technology benefits to all and the social impact of this hard work.

I liked this book because it helped me be better at my work which uses technological innovation to develop new products. The book is also helpful in planning a successful high tech startup company or project inside a company because it outlines the factors that contribute to success and failure of new companies and new ideas. For example, having a specific product in mind versus "I have a cool technology so lets start a company". Also, it emphasizes thinking about the whole enterprise, not just technology, but how to make a company "tick" such as having formal marketing/financing part as well as innovation development part.

When the average person thinks of the automobile industry, thefollowing names like Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota,Saab, etc. are likely to leap to mind. But what MIT's report points out is that the modern automobile industry is not represented just by these finished-product assemblers, but by suppliers and component craftsmen that constitute an extremely complex web that make up "the automobile industry." But the complexity of the automobile industry rests not only on the composition of the industry itself, but also the international environment within which the industry must operate. Domestic auto industries hold a special position in most countries in that most governments see the very existence of domestic auto producers as a good unto itself. For example, if a Japanese producer can engineer and produce a better widget, chances are that that producer will be able to market that product domestically and internationally with great success if widgets are not seen as a major threat to an important industry of another nation. But with automobiles (as was the case for Japanese producers in the early 1970's), the prospects for successful international competition is not so clear-cut. Automobile producers are therefore constrained not only by the forces of the market and competitors, but also by domestic and foreign governments that take a special interest in the success or failure of their firms.

It's a good book because it has pictures over each of the words to represent what they mean.

Of all of the computer programming texts I have worked with, this is by far the worst and most confusing I have ever seen. But besides being confusing, it is also pointless. I've been programming for quite some time, and I have never had to use 90% of what is in this book. (Mostly because virtually all common languages come with high level constructs in their libraries for performing the kinds of low level operations that this book wants you do to by hand.)

The book attempts to introduce object oriented concepts using a language that is not at all suited for object oriented programming. But worst of all, it doesn't even explain these concepts using analogies that people can understand. And so beginning computer science students are throughly confused by the content of this book.

The language used (Scheme) has no practical real-world application. It is not even well suited as a teaching language because its syntax and constructs are unlike anything used in any common language today. In fact, trying to understand this book if you already have Java or C experience might be worse than starting from scratch, because Scheme is such a backwards language.

Basically, a confusing and poorly written textbook that teaches a totally irrelevent language which has no real world use (and doesn't do a very good job of teaching it at that).

My alma mater did not use SICP to teach computer science courses. Fortunately, I chose to read mathematics instead, and perhaps for this reason I appreciated SICP it more than I would have otherwise.

Discussions of the philosophy of programming are necessary before getting into the concrete, just as one requires the general case before receiving the discrete.

By receiving many discrete cases, as is the style of many computer science books, you may, if lucky, become a competent programmer. However, you will have to slowly tease out the underlying principles. You will be often wrong. A book like SICP gives you the general cases, it teaches you the theory, and it assumes that you have the ability to apply them to discrete ones.

I don't recall receiving all that many recipes to handle problems in mathematics (although with experience I developed my own); what I got in the very best of courses was insight into the true nature of the problem. Whatever its flaws (and there are flaws), SICP provides this insight to the aspiring programmer.

... and sadly this book is no exception. Nonetheless, in 20 years of being a nerd, this is the only great book about computers that I've encountered.

If you're already a great programmer, it will take you an evening to read the first few chapters and you'll discover a precision vocabulary for discussing what you've spent 10 years learning the hard way. If you're not already a great programmer, I would have thought that these few chapters would save you from having to spend years flailing around in the dark. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a substitute for practical experience.

Sidenote: the authors used to have a review wall outside their offices at MIT. University professors from around the world writing in scientific journals said "finally I understand what all this computer science stuff is about; this is the most brilliant book ever. I'm glad that we're using it to teach freshmen now." In the center was a review from Byte magazine: "I didn't understand any of this book."

SICP is tougher to read than _Teach Yourself to be a Dummy in 21 Days_ but it is the real thing, well organized and written.

I shudder as I type this, but SICP can even help you write better Perl scripts...