From coding languages and hardware to cyberbullying and gaming, this comprehensive homework helper for kids and parents covers the essentials of computer science.

This unique visual study guide examines the technical aspects of computers, such as how they function, the latest digital devices and software, and how the Internet works. It also builds the confidence of parents and kids when facing challenges such as staying safe online, digital etiquette, and how to navigate the potential pitfalls of social media.

Jargon-free language helps to explain difficult and potentially dread-inducing homework such as hacking, “big data” and malware, while colorful graphics help makes learning about the world of computer science exciting.

Whether at home or school, this clear and helpful guide to computer science is the tool you need to be able to support students with confidence.

Series Overview: DK’s bestselling Help Your Kids With series contains crystal-clear visual breakdowns of important subjects. Simple graphics and jargon-free text are key to making this series a user-friendly resource for frustrated parents who want to help their children get the most out of school.

About the Author

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Ward Cunningham Straight from the programming trenches, The Pragmatic Programmer cuts through the increasing specialization and technicalities of modern software development to examine the core process–taking a requirement and producing working, maintainable code that delights its users. It covers topics ranging from personal responsibility and career development to architectural techniques for keeping your code flexible and easy to adapt and reuse. Read this book, and you’ll learn how to Fight software rot; Avoid the trap of duplicating knowledge; Write flexible, dynamic, and adaptable code; Avoid programming by coincidence; Bullet-proof your code with contracts, assertions, and exceptions; Capture real requirements; Test ruthlessly and effectively; Delight your users; Build teams of pragmatic programmers; and Make your developments more precise with automation. Written as a series of self-contained sections and filled with entertaining anecdotes, thoughtful examples, and interesting analogies, The Pragmatic Programmer illustrates the best practices and major pitfalls of many different aspects of software development. Whether you’re a new coder, an experienced program.

About the Author

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Garry Kasparov’s 1997 chess match against the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue was a watershed moment in the history of technology. It was the dawn of a new era in artificial intelligence: a machine capable of beating the reigning human champion at this most cerebral game.

That moment was more than a century in the making, and in this breakthrough book, Kasparov reveals his astonishing side of the story for the first time. He describes how it felt to strategize against an implacable, untiring opponent with the whole world watching, and recounts the history of machine intelligence through the microcosm of chess, considered by generations of scientific pioneers to be a key to unlocking the secrets of human and machine cognition. Kasparov uses his unrivaled experience to look into the future of intelligent machines and sees it bright with possibility. As many critics decry artificial intelligence as a menace, particularly to human jobs, Kasparov shows how humanity can rise to new heights with the help of our most extraordinary creations, rather than fear them. Deep Thinking is a tightly argued case for technological progress, from the man who stood at its precipice with his own career at stake.

Review

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A groundbreaking narrative on the urgency of ethically designed AI and a guidebook to reimagining life in the era of intelligent technology.

The Age of Intelligent Machines is upon us, and we are at a reflection point. The proliferation of fast–moving technologies, including forms of artificial intelligence akin to a new species, will cause us to confront profound questions about ourselves. The era of human intellectual superiority is ending, and we need to plan for this monumental shift.

A Human Algorithm: How Artificial Intelligence Is Redefining Who We Are examines the immense impact intelligent technology will have on humanity. These machines, while challenging our personal beliefs and our socioeconomic world order, also have the potential to transform our health and well–being, alleviate poverty and suffering, and reveal the mysteries of intelligence and consciousness. International human rights attorney Flynn Coleman deftly argues that it is critical that we instill values, ethics, and morals into our robots, algorithms, and other forms of AI. Equally important, we need to develop and implement laws, policies, and oversight mechanisms to protect us from tech’s insidious threats.

To realize AI’s transcendent potential, Coleman advocates for inviting a diverse group of voices to participate in designing our intelligent machines and using our moral imagination to ensure that human rights, empathy, and equity are core principles of emerging technologies. Ultimately, A Human Algorithm is a clarion call for building a more humane future and moving conscientiously into a new frontier of our own design.

“[Coleman] argues that the algorithms of machine learning––if they are instilled with human ethics and values––could bring about a new era of enlightenment.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Review

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“The most important book on AI this year.” –The Guardian

“Mr. Russell’s exciting book goes deep, while sparkling with dry witticisms.” —The Wall Street Journal

“The most important book I have read in quite some time” (Daniel Kahneman); “A must-read” (Max Tegmark); “The book we’ve all been waiting for” (Sam Harris)

A leading artificial intelligence researcher lays out a new approach to AI that will enable us to coexist successfully with increasingly intelligent machines

In the popular imagination, superhuman artificial intelligence is an approaching tidal wave that threatens not just jobs and human relationships, but civilization itself. Conflict between humans and machines is seen as inevitable and its outcome all too predictable.

In this groundbreaking book, distinguished AI researcher Stuart Russell argues that this scenario can be avoided, but only if we rethink AI from the ground up. Russell begins by exploring the idea of intelligence in humans and in machines. He describes the near-term benefits we can expect, from intelligent personal assistants to vastly accelerated scientific research, and outlines the AI breakthroughs that still have to happen before we reach superhuman AI. He also spells out the ways humans are already finding to misuse AI, from lethal autonomous weapons to viral sabotage.

If the predicted breakthroughs occur and superhuman AI emerges, we will have created entities far more powerful than ourselves. How can we ensure they never, ever, have power over us? Russell suggests that we can rebuild AI on a new foundation, according to which machines are designed to be inherently uncertain about the human preferences they are required to satisfy. Such machines would be humble, altruistic, and committed to pursue our objectives, not theirs. This new foundation would allow us to create machines that are provably deferential and provably beneficial.

Review

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Now available in paperback―with a new preface and interview with Jessica Livingston about Y Combinator!

Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days is a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days. These people are celebrities now. What was it like when they were just a couple friends with an idea? Founders like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail) tell you in their own words about their surprising and often very funny discoveries as they learned how to build a company.

Where did they get the ideas that made them rich? How did they convince investors to back them? What went wrong, and how did they recover?

Nearly all technical people have thought of one day starting or working for a startup. For them, this book is the closest you can come to being a fly on the wall at a successful startup, to learn how it’s done.

But ultimately these interviews are required reading for anyone who wants to understand business, because startups are business reduced to its essence. The reason their founders become rich is that startups do what businesses do―create value―more intensively than almost any other part of the economy. How? What are the secrets that make successful startups so insanely productive? Read this book, and let the founders themselves tell you.

Reviews

A classic, but skip Apress’ awful paperback edition
This book contains great interviews by an insightful and influential person. While I haven’t finished it yet, I am writing this review mostly to be able to add some product images. I was horrified by the quality of the printing of this book! Apress, the publisher, ought to be ashamed. I have uploaded images showing how poorly the printed word looks in the paperback edition. Note the awful dithering (fuzziness). None of the letters are crisp. It almost looks like a cheap photocopy on a bargain-basement laser printer.

About the Author

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We have never before in human history been able to share so much about ourselves so quickly. Neither have we ever been so exposed to forces that want to take advantage of that capability. Taking Control of Your Personal Data will open your eyes to the surprising extent of that exposure and will discuss your options for keeping your personal data as safe as possible. Your instructor, Professor Jennifer Golbeck of the College of Information Studies at University of Maryland, College Park, will show you what really goes on behind the scenes with the data you knowingly and unknowingly share all day long. You’ll be surprised to find out how much of your personal data is being manipulated perfectly legally – data you never intended for another person to see, data you didn’t even know was out there.

This course doesn’t offer a one-size-fits-all solution because no such solution exists. But this course will help you determine your personal privacy profile, decide whether or not to try the dark web and its Tor browser, and understand the current US laws and proposed state laws regarding privacy. Privacy issues are not going away; the technology that collects, analyzes, and derives insights from our data continues to grow at break-neck speed. As a society, we have not yet figured out how to apply appropriate ethics, values, and protections in parts of this domain. As individuals, we need exactly the type of information and direction provided by Taking Control of Your Personal Data.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Reviews

Great listen for all types
Wonderful listen for those who are concerned about privacy and steps to take to maintain it in our digital age. I’ve been in the IT world for over 2 decades now, and rarely have I come across a lecture that discusses the vital core of the topic, doesn’t diverge heavily and most importantly- keeps it from being “technobabble.” I plan to recommend this to a number of customers, and colleagues, who struggle with privacy and maintaining it.

Product details

• Listening Length: 5 hours and 15 minutes
• Author: Jennifer Golbeck, The Great Courses
• Narrator: Professor Jennifer Golbeck
• Audible.com Release Date: January 31, 2020
• Publisher: The Great Courses
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Original recording
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0845YPK31

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The End of Money is an essential introduction to cryptocurrencies and the blockchain revolution. On this journey you’ll discover how this staggering new technology has the potential to enable an ultra-libertarian society beyond government control.

Murder for hire. Drug trafficking. Embezzlement. Money laundering. These might sound like plot lines of a thriller, but they are true stories from the short history of cryptocurrencies – digital currencies conceived by computer hackers and cryptographers that represent a completely new sort of financial transaction that could soon become mainstream.

The most famous – or infamous – cryptocurrency is bitcoin. But look beyond its tarnished reputation and something much shinier emerges. The technology that underlies bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies – the blockchain – is hailed as the greatest advancement since the invention of the internet. It is now moving away from being the backbone for a digital currency and making inroads into other core concepts of society: identity, ownership and even the rule of law.

The End of Money is your essential introduction to this transformative new technology that has governments, entrepreneurs and forward-thinking people from all walks of life sitting up and taking notice.

About the Author

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A Turing Award-winning computer scientist and statistician shows how understanding causality has revolutionized science and will revolutionize artificial intelligence

“Correlation is not causation.” This mantra, chanted by scientists for more than a century, has led to a virtual prohibition on causal talk. Today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, instigated by Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and established causality — the study of cause and effect — on a firm scientific basis. His work explains how we can know easy things, like whether it was rain or a sprinkler that made a sidewalk wet; and how to answer hard questions, like whether a drug cured an illness. Pearl’s work enables us to know not just whether one thing causes another: it lets us explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It shows us the essence of human thought and key to artificial intelligence. Anyone who wants to understand either needs The Book of Why.

Review

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Americans spend hundreds, even thousands, of hours a week engaging with a wide range of media sources – TV, computers, tablets, radios, MP3 players, cell phones, newspapers, magazines, books, and more. Through these, we constantly access a wide range of platforms and media, from news to novels to Twitter feeds to email, and much more. Because we are continuously taking in information from a variety of sources, we are under constant threat from those who would intentionally (or accidentally) misinform – from foreign operatives, advertisers, politicians, and general scammers to our own friends and family. We all experience a near-constant barrage of incoming information. Combine that with the human brain’s reaction to stress or fear, and conditions are ripe for the spread of misinformation.

To better prepare you to defuse this threat, IREX (International Research & Exchanges Board) has teamed up with The Great Courses to provide a guide for navigating this tricky landscape with Fighting Misinformation: Digital Media Literacy, an eight-lecture course designed to arm you with the skills you need to be a savvy media consumer. Tara Susman-Peña, a senior technical advisor, and her colleagues at IREX, Mehri Druckman and Nina Oduro, will lead you step by step through the history, evolution, science, and impact of misinformation, helping you to develop the skills you need to combat fakes, stereotypes, and frauds within every kind of media source.

About the Author

Tara Susman-Peña leads the adaptation and expansion of Learn to Discern, an IREX media literacy methodology, in the United States and around the world. She trains participants and trainers on how to fight misinformation and conduct audience research. She taught at The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs and has lectured widely at institutions such as Georgetown University; Columbia University; the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; the National Endowment for Democracy; and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Ms. Susman-Peña has presented at many international conferences on topics including disinformation; the role of media, information, and innovation in governance, development, and resilience; measuring complex information systems; aid effectiveness; and research methods. At IREX, she has facilitated media development projects in Mozambique, Latin America, and Eurasia.

Product details

• Full Audiobook MP3 Program
• Full PDF E-Book Included
• Listening Length : 3 hours and 34 minutes
• Author : Tara Susman-Peña, Mehri Druckman, Nina Oduro, The Great Courses
• Narrator : Tara Susman-Peña
• Release Date : January 08, 2020
• Publisher : The Great Courses
• Version : Original recording
• Language : English
• ASIN B083LH3ZSV

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