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Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
Author: Allen H. Levesque
ISBN: 0471725420
Release Date: 26 September 2005

eBook Description
Towards location aware mobile ad hoc sensors

A Systems Engineering Approach to Wireless Information Networks

The Second Edition of this internationally respected textbook brings readers fully up to date with the myriad of developments in wireless communications. When first published in 1995, wireless communications was synonymous with cellular telephones. Now wireless information networks are the most important technology in all branches of telecommunications. Readers can learn about the latest applications in such areas as ad hoc sensor networks, home networking, and wireless positioning.

Wireless Information Networks takes a systems engineering approach: technical topics are presented in the context of how they fit into the ongoing development of new systems and services, as well as the recent developments in national and international spectrum allocations and standards. The authors have organized the myriad of current and emerging wireless technologies into logical categories:

• Introduction to Wireless Networks presents an up-to-the-moment discussion of the evolution of the cellular industry from analog cellular technology to 2G, 3G, and 4G, as well as the emergence of WLAN and WPAN as broadband ad hoc networks
• Characteristics of Radio Propagation includes new coverage of channel modeling for space-time, MIMO, and UWB communications and wireless geolocation networks
• Modem Design offers new descriptions of space-time coding, MIMO antenna systems, UWB communications, and multi-user detection and interference cancellation techniques used in CDMA networks
• Network Access and System Aspects incorporates new chapters on UWB systems and RF geolocations, with a thorough revision of wireless access techniques and wireless systems and standards

Exercises that focus on real-world problems are provided at the end of each chapter. The mix of assignments, which includes computer projects and questionnaires in addition to traditional problem sets, helps readers focus on key issues and develop the skills they need to solve actual engineering problems. A separate Instructor’s Manual is available that includes a solution book and supporting material for preparing class presentations. Extensive references are provided for those readers who would like to explore particular topics in greater depth.

With its emphasis on knowledge-building to solve problems, this is an excellent graduate-level textbook. Like the previous edition, this latest edition will also be a standard reference for the telecommunications industry.

Amazon.com

Wireless Information Networks (Wiley Series in Telecommunications and Signal Processing)

Publisher: Artech House Publishers
Author: Lakshminath R. Dondeti
ISBN: 1580537553
Release Date: 30 August 2005

eBook Description
With the popularity of the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) standard 802.11 WiFi� and the growing interest in the next generation Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN) standard 802.16 WiMax�, the need for effective solutions to the inherent security weaknesses of these networking technologies has become of critical importance. Thoroughly explaining the risks associated with deploying WLAN and WMAN networks, this groundbreaking book offers you practical insight into identifying and overcoming these security issues.

Including detailed descriptions of possible solutions to a number of specific security problems, the book gives you the hands-on techniques that you need to secure wireless networks in the enterprise and the home. This handy reference also defines key security terms to help you fully understand concepts and evaluate security products on the market today. Moreover, the book discusses the future direction of the WLAN and WMAN industry, allowing you to plan ahead for emerging technologies in the field.

Amazon.com

Security In Wireless LANS And MANS (Artech House Computer Security)

As a Web communications tool, blog software utilizes a fairly standardized format for sticking content on the Internet. It’s far easier that building a personal or business Web page, and is appropriately scaled for dashing off notes and responses or posting passionate, or more detached, manifestos, proclamations, encomiums and rants. RSS, trackback, OPML and hopefully something like SSE make the mammoth blog flow more manageable, and comments, photos, video, podcasts and links provide for meaningful clues, validation and avenues to pursue in search of enlightenment or disillusionment.

Fundamentally, blogs are fodder for conversation, with no credentials, job titles or degrees required other than whatever authority is embedded in the voices and accorded by readers, listeners and watchers. We vote with our clicks. The conversations, which occur within (comments) and across blogs, can sputter into inanities or resolve into truths and action, and every place in between.

Admittedly, the tools are relatively primitive and threading conversations across blogs via trackback or other mechanisms is hapharzard. In many instances, dozens, hundreds or thousands of bloggers converge on a topic, often blind to one another’s discourse, glancing off an adjacent post, or piling on an overworked meme. For the most part, self assembling communities of bloggers hold a kind of virtual Socratic court, sorting out the issues of the day in a public forum, open to anyone, including spammers. It’s not a serial conversation by design; it’s more in the tradition of the deconstructionists, multiple parties challenging assumptions and riffing off (sometimes ripping off) of one another.

Memeorandum is a first generation attempt to corral a limited range of newsy blog content (tech and politics, so far) on a timely basis. The comment universe is an invisible substrate, which is unfortunate. Unlike Technorati or other blog search engines, Memeorandum doesn’t list every blog posting it can find; instead, it cluster posts by a few selective topics based on a source-picking algorithm. It eliminates a lot of the noise, as well as some of the valuable content. A next step would be in presenting the clusters (feeds) in a easy-to-read format and allowing users to rate or rank the posts to add personalized filtering to the service. TailRank, which just launched, provides collaborative filtering of blog content.

For a journalist, technologist, politician or anyone with a pulse and who doesn’t know everything, blogs matter. Every morning I can wake up to lots of IQ ruminating, fulminating, arguing, evangelizing and even disapassionately reporting on the latest happenings in the areas that interest me, people from every corner of the globe. That’s certainly preferable to the old world and worth putting up with what comes along with putting the means of production in the hands of anyone with a connection to the Net…

Source

In an interview with ZDNet News today, Microsoft’s French security head Bernard Ourghanlian revealed that the software giant will indeed release a third service pack for Windows XP. According to Ourghanlian, Microsoft is planning to ship SP3 after the launch of Windows Vista next year, claiming that their new OS is the foremost “priority for the development teams.”

This doesn’t exactly come as a surprise seeing as how many corporate customers will still be using XP on their desktops for years after the launch of Vista. As for new features that we can expect in SP3, a Microsoft representative commented that “Historically, certain functions of new versions of Windows are integrated in the service packs of previous versions.” One can assume this will mean updated “Vista-Age” versions of software like Windows Media Player being integrated into this new service pack. Internet Explorer 7 integration is still up in the air after a Microsoft developer commented a few weeks back that their “current plan is to continue to ship IE6 on XP SP3, but IE7 will be supported on XP SP3.”

Source

The world’s first interactive 3D display has been developed by IO2 Technology. HelioDisplay creates 3D displays in the air using lasers, drawing input from computers, TVs and DVDs. It also allows interactive applications to be controlled by a finger, instead of a mouse. “Our first generation version, the Heliodisplay, projects TV, streaming video and computer images into free space, (mid-air)”, the company’s website claims.

IO2 Technology Website

News source

The first commercial Apple Macintosh computers running on Intel processors may be released a bit earlier than expected, believes UBS Investment Research analyst Ben Reitzes. He claims that Apple will have new products and content to announced at the Macworld Expo scheduled for early January and notes that Intel is expected to unveil its dual-core Yonah processor for mobiles also early next year. The analyst, excepts from whose research notes were published by AppleInsider web-site, believes that early January, 2006, is a possible timeframe for the first Intel-based Apple computers to debut. UBS researchers suppose that the first of Apple’s computers to use Intel processor, in particular, Intel’s next-generation Pentium M flavour code-named Yonah, will be Mac Mini. The firm claims that Apple’s strategy will be to equip its computers with Intel processors starting from the most affordable models.

“We continue to believe that both the PowerMac and PowerBook will be introduced at a later date (late 2006 or early 2007) – with the possible use of the Intel’s Merom processor for the PowerBook and Conroe processor for the PowerMac,” Mr. Reitzes is reported to have said.

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Google Inc. was sued by a major publishing association for digitizing library books without the permissions of copyright holders, the second such suit filed against the search engine giant.

The Association of American Publishers, based in Washington, D.C., sued the Mountain View, Calif., company on behalf of members The McGraw-Hill Companies, Pearson Education, Penguin Group (USA), Simon & Schuster and John Wiley & Sons. The suit seeks a court declaration that Google infringes the rights of copyright holders when it scans entire books and stores the digitized versions in its massive database. The trade group also wants a court order requiring Google to first obtain permission from copyright holders.

Patricia Schroeder, AAP president and a former Colorado congresswoman, said the suit was filed after talks broke down. The AAP had proposed that Google use each book’s unique ID number to determine if the work is under copyright, and then seek permission from the book’s owner. For more than 30 years, most books have carried an ISBN identification number, which is machine readable.

Google, according to Schroeder, refused.

“If Google can scan every book in the English language, surely they can utilize ISBNs,” Schroeder said in a statement. “By rejecting the reasonable ISBN solution, Google left our members no choice but to file this suit.”

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Publisher: Peachpit Press
Author: Elizabeth Bulger
ISBN: 0321368967
Release Date: 03 November 2005

eBook Description
Millions of people own digital cameras, yet most of us just store our digital photos on a hard drive or email them to friends. But what if you want to get a little more creative with your images? Armed with little more than a copy of Photoshop Elements, a computer, an inkjet printer, and a handful of basic tools, you can transform your digital photos into beautiful, custom-made crafts.

Written by designer and Photoshop guru Elizabeth Bulger, The Adobe Photoshop Elements Crafts Book will motivate you to get creative with your own images while learning basic Photoshop Elements skills along the way. Each project begins with a list of the tools and materials you�ll need to get started. From there, full-color photographs, clear instructions, and numbered steps walk you through every step of the project.

You�ll learn how to create unique crafts out of a variety of materials, including paper, ceramic, metal, glass, fabric, and polymer clay. Whether you�re a longtime D.I.Y. devotee or completely new to crafting, this book will show you everything you need to create attractive, unique keepsakes for you or your family and friends to cherish.

Elizabeth Bulger shows you how to

• Get your photos ready for projects: Learn how to import, edit, crop, and apply quick fixes to your images
• Create custom brushes in Photoshop Elements and make unique gift-wrapping paper with your own images
• Customize a notebook by creating a new cover with decorative borders, text, and your own photos
• Use custom shape and type tools to create unique ceramic tiles
• Learn how to transfer your images to fabric to create custom throw pillows, aprons, and more
• Design and create your own canning labels, CD covers, beverage coasters, and gift boxes.

Amazon.com

The Adobe Photoshop Elements Crafts Book

Publisher: Prentice Hall
Author: Andrew Tanenbaum
ISBN: 0130313580
Release Date: 28 February 2001

eBook Description
For software development professionals and computer science students, Modern Operating Systems gives a solid conceptual overview of operating system design, including detailed case studies of Unix/Linux and Windows 2000.

What makes an operating system modern? According to author Andrew Tanenbaum, it is the awareness of high-demand computer applications–primarily in the areas of multimedia, parallel and distributed computing, and security. The development of faster and more advanced hardware has driven progress in software, including enhancements to the operating system. It is one thing to run an old operating system on current hardware, and another to effectively leverage current hardware to best serve modern software applications. If you don’t believe it, install Windows 3.0 on a modern PC and try surfing the Internet or burning a CD.

Readers familiar with Tanenbaum’s previous text, Operating Systems, know the author is a great proponent of simple design and hands-on experimentation. His earlier book came bundled with the source code for an operating system called Minux, a simple variant of Unix and the platform used by Linus Torvalds to develop Linux. Although this book does not come with any source code, he illustrates many of his points with code fragments (C, usually with Unix system calls).

The first half of Modern Operating Systems focuses on traditional operating systems concepts: processes, deadlocks, memory management, I/O, and file systems. There is nothing groundbreaking in these early chapters, but all topics are well covered, each including sections on current research and a set of student problems. It is enlightening to read Tanenbaum’s explanations of the design decisions made by past operating systems gurus, including his view that additional research on the problem of deadlocks is impractical except for “keeping otherwise unemployed graph theorists off the streets.”

It is the second half of the book that differentiates itself from older operating systems texts. Here, each chapter describes an element of what constitutes a modern operating system–awareness of multimedia applications, multiple processors, computer networks, and a high level of security. The chapter on multimedia functionality focuses on such features as handling massive files and providing video-on-demand. Included in the discussion on multiprocessor platforms are clustered computers and distributed computing. Finally, the importance of security is discussed–a lively enumeration of the scores of ways operating systems can be vulnerable to attack, from password security to computer viruses and Internet worms.

Included at the end of the book are case studies of two popular operating systems: Unix/Linux and Windows 2000. There is a bias toward the Unix/Linux approach, not surprising given the author’s experience and academic bent, but this bias does not detract from Tanenbaum’s analysis. Both operating systems are dissected, describing how each implements processes, file systems, memory management, and other operating system fundamentals.

Tanenbaum’s mantra is simple, accessible operating system design. Given that modern operating systems have extensive features, he is forced to reconcile physical size with simplicity. Toward this end, he makes frequent references to the Frederick Brooks classic The Mythical Man-Month for wisdom on managing large, complex software development projects. He finds both Windows 2000 and Unix/Linux guilty of being too complicated–with a particular skewering of Windows 2000 and its “mammoth Win32 API.” A primary culprit is the attempt to make operating systems more “user-friendly,” which Tanenbaum views as an excuse for bloated code. The solution is to have smart people, the smallest possible team, and well-defined interactions between various operating systems components. Future operating system design will benefit if the advice in this book is taken to heart.

Amazon.com

Modern Operating System, Second Edition

Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Author: David Carlson
ISBN: 0321288157
Release Date: 14 February 2005

eBook Description
A Concise Introduction to Eclipse for the Productive Programmer

Organized for rapid access, focused on productivity, Eclipse Distilled brings together all the answers you need to make the most of today’s most powerful Java development environment. David Carlson introduces proven best practices for working with Eclipse, and shows exactly how to integrate Eclipse into any Agile development process.

Part I shows how to customize workspaces, projects, perspectives, and views for optimal efficiency and how to leverage Eclipse’s rapid development, navigation, and debugging features to maximize both productivity and code quality. Part II focuses entirely on Agile development, demonstrating how Eclipse can simplify team ownership, refactoring, continuous testing, continuousintegration, and other Agile practices. Coverage includes

* Managing Eclipse projects from start to finish: handling both content and complexity
* Using perspectives, views, and editors to work more efficiently
* Setting preferences to fit your own unique needs—or your team’s
* Leveraging Eclipse’s powerful local and remote debugging tools
* Understanding how Eclipse fits into contemporary iterative development processes
* Performing continuous testing with JUnit in the Eclipse environment
* Using Eclipse’s wizard-assisted refactoring tools
* Implementing continuous integration with Ant-based automated project builders
* Employing best practices for code sharing with CVS and other repositories

By focusing on need-to-know information and providing best practices and methodologies, this book is designed to get you working with Eclipse quickly. Whether you’re building enterprise systems, Eclipse plug-ins, or anything else, this concise book will help you write better code—and do it faster.

Amazon.com

Eclipse Distilled