Object-Oriented Software Engineering: Using UML, Patterns and Java (2nd Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)Many SE books tell you about SE (eg., Sommerville). Those kinds of books equip you to win in a software engineering version of the trivia game Jeopardy! but will hardly impart any skill and will not make you a better software engineer, only more informed.
In contrast, this book tells you how to do software engineering. They tell you what, Bruegge shows you how. Rather than cover all the concepts in SE, Bruegge picks the most essential ones, gives you a brief but thorough explication of those and then proceeds to teach how they are used.
Professor Bruegge's approach to teaching his SE students is by having his entire class work *together* as one team on *one* real-life project during the term (that's one project for the whole class).
Typically, this project is an upgrade of the previous class's project. Stop and imagine how realistic this approach is -- modifying a system created by engineers who are no longer available for interview, working with as many as 50 different people, working with designs that do not match the code anymore, working with code of varying quality, etc.
Bruegge distills the lessons learned from these practical projects and illustrates practical (not idealistic) approaches to solutions.
Expect German thoroughness and a lucid, unpretentious prose that heeds Strunk and White's dictum: "Omit needless words".
Highly recommended.
-vja

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For courses in Software Engineering, Software Development, or Object-Oriented Design and Analysis at the Junior/Senior or Graduate level. This text can also be utilized in short technical courses or short, intensive management courses.This textbook shows how to use both the principles of software engineering as well as the practices of various object-oriented tools, processes, and products. Using a step by step case study to illustrate the concepts and topics in each chapter, this book emphasizes practical experience: participants can apply the techniques learned in class by implementing a real-world software project.

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Introduction to the Theory of Computation Review

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(More customer reviews)When I picked up this book I thought, "You have to be kidding me." This book is very thin, and then a fair chunk of it is mathematics review for some of the formal arguments the book is going to be making later on. One wouldn't think there was much in this book.
One would be wrong. This book goes into rather impressive depth on some rather abstract concepts of computer science without dabbling for too long in the details. It does the best job I've ever seen of explaining the Turing machine and how it relates to computability and decidablity.
The exercises are both easy and insanely difficult - so you can basically chose your level and then go through the book, some of the problems are very hard, some are trivially easy, a great mix makes for great homework assignments.
The "Proof Idea:" sections before every proof give you the underlying concepts in plain english that are about to be stated formally so you have a clue what's happening when the formal definitions start flying. These are priceless and should be included in every other book that uses formal proof techniques.
The book reads fairly well on its own, or makes for a great class text book, which I used it for. As my professor said, "This is a good book because it doesn't have any extra words." but you don't seem to mind as you read it. Probably the best work on the science of computation in the world, certainly the best I've ever seen.

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Michael Sipser's emphasis on unifying computer science theory - rather than offering a collection of low-level details - sets the book apart, as do his intuitive explanations. Throughout the book, Sipser builds students' knowledge of conceptual tools used in computer science, the aesthetic sense they need to create elegant systems, and the ability to think through problems on their own.

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A Grain of Wheat (African Writers) Review

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(More customer reviews)I loved this book. The story itself is compelling, detailing both African and European characters' perspectives on Kenyans' struggle for independence from Britain. Just for the story alone, the book is an intriguing page-turner that completely satisfies. But beyond that, it has a powerful and inspirational moral message that I have taken with me and hope never to forget.
Each of the major characters commits an act of betrayal to attain a greater goal, whether it's the British officer who wants to create a happy, harmonious colony and finds himself torturing and murdering in pursuit of this vision, or whether it's the Kenyan rebel who betrays his comrade to save his own life, feeling that he must survive to perform important tasks for his people.
Each one chooses less-than-perfect means to an imagined end. But what we and they learn, is that the "end" never comes, and we are left living day-to-day in the rubble of our "means." The betrayals that crisscross the novel scar all the characters with heavy losses, representative of the losses and betrayals that scarred Kenya as it stood on the threshhold of independence, divided between those who had collaborated with British occupation and those who had rebelled. And yet the final note is one of hope, that somehow reconciliation and transcendence of past injuries can be attempted.
I took to heart two messages: that those of us who struggle for justice in today's world must never betray our own principles in pursuit of some supposed higher good--because we too will be left only with our betrayals and no higher good in sight. And, that even after betrayals and years of conflict, there is still a spark of hope for renewal.

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Ngugi takes the reader back to the days preceding Kenya's independence. Mugo, a farmer and hero in the eyes of the villagers, is asked to deliver a speech during the Uhuru celebrations, to be held in memory of his friend Kihika. He refuses to make a speech and turns out to be a traitor.

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Word Smart: Building an Educated Vocabulary Review

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(More customer reviews)Word Smart gives one of the best selections of need-to-know words I have ever seen. It lists over 800 every-day-useful words, while avoiding the temptation of adding some long, snooty-sounding words for the sake of intellectual arrogance. These are words that most college students should know. If you can master these in high school, you will be on the way to a rock solid vocabulary.
The format of the book is straight forward. After a very helpful chapter on tips for learning new vocabulary, the set of words is introduced in alphabetical order. Every ten words or so ends in a quick quiz. This allows you to test what you have learned; you can also start with the quiz to see what words you can skip over. The concluding chapters contain a lengthy final exam, the SAT and GRE hit parade (words you should have mastered well before taking these standardized tests), word roots, common usage errors, abbreviations, and some lists for the arts, science, finance, and foreign words.
This is a great book for anyone who would like to beef up on their vocabulary, or for those who would just like a good review to make sure they are not using some words wrongly.

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The words people use say a lot about them. Some words say that they are smart, persuasive, and informed. Others say that they don't know what they're talking about. Knowing which words to use and how to use them are keys to getting the most from one's mind and to communicating effectively.To find out which words readers absolutely need to know, The Princeton Review researched the vocabularies of educated adults.The Princeton Review analyzed newspapers from The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal, magazines from Time to Scientific American, and books from current bestsellers to classics.Editors threw out words that most people know and focused on the words that people misunderstand or misuse.TPR also combed through the SAT and other standardized tests to determine which words are tested most frequently.In this updated third edition, editors give readers the most important words they need to know to score higher.Includes special lists covering:• Common usage errors• Most frequently tested words on standardized tests• Foreign phrases, abbreviations, and terms readers need to know to understand finance, science, computers, and the arts

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Measurement and Evaluation in Psychology and Education (7th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)Very informative book and useful for its intended purpose. However, small script size with poor color contrast make it a very difficult read. If you use glasses, get stronger ones. Mathematical problems could benefit from more solution examples.

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For undergraduate and graduate level introductory courses in psychological and educational measurement.In this new edition of one of the best-known texts in the field, Thorndike once again provides all of the information future professionals need to know in order to develop the skills to use test information wisely, incorporating standard measurement concepts as they apply to both educational and psychological assessments his classic introduction to educational and psychological measurement provides a technically rigorous treatment of the core issues in measurement in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand presentation. In preparing students to become independent users of test information, it describes problems in measurement, explains how these problems are approached and solved, surveys a broad range of sources, and provides guidance in how to find, evaluate, and use information about specific tests. The text's focus on basic issues in measurement provides a general overview that is not too specialized.

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The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English Review

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(More customer reviews)The female literary tradition, long neglected, emerges as one that has not only developed concurrently with, but has also influenced male literati. In this large and fascinating volume we meet the minds that analyzed and chronicled the lives these women lived and observed.
One might argue about the selections included and excluded here. Pearl Buck, the only woman to win both a Nobel Prize (1938) and a Pulitzer (1932) is excluded.
The book is divided into 6 eras, each with a lengthy "period introduction" giving historical and thematic backgrounds for the works included in that section.
From the five earliest women writers (dating from 700 to 1600), women began to shape and define their literary voices. England's first professional woman writer, Aphra Behn, whose literary career began in 1670, is the writer who women must honor above all others. According to Virginia Woolf, "it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds."
Here the reader will find rare works such as Jane Austen's "Love and Friendship" and George Eliot's "The Lifted Veil." Three notable novels are included in their entirety: JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte, THE AWAKENING by Kate Chopin, and THE BLUEST EYE by Toni Morrison.
Poems, stories, memoirs, essays, plays, letters, novels -- all literary works originally composed in English -- over 150 authors decrying, exalting, agonizing over, and celebrating the things we all have in common: Life...love...and death.
This is a fascinating collection and one that will stand reading and re-reading over a long period of time.

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This edition has been expanded to extend coverage of the Renaissance, the 17th and 18th centuries, and the 20th century. The text also contains 11 complete works such as "Oroonoko", "Jane Eyre", "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe", "The Awakening" and Caryl Churchill's play, "Top Girls".

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America's Musical Landscape Review

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(More customer reviews)This was a great deal on a new book that came with the cds. It came packaged great and came fast. Highly recommend.

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America's Musical Landscape addresses the broad range of music in the United States from early periods to today.This comprehensive yet accessible text offers an elegant and readable introduction to the fundamentals of music, assuming no prior music experience for the student. Frequent connections to other arts, particularly the visual arts, add to the book's appeal and enhance understanding of core musical concepts. The sixth edition emphasizes vernacular over classical music and recent examples over early music, while offering generous coverage of the complete American musical landscape.

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