Occupational Information Overview

Book Description

Richard Sharfs concise and clear book helps students develop a broad, yet understandable view of occupations available in the United States.

Book Description

Designed to give a detailed overview of the manufacturer and an in-depth analysis of various television chassis. The overview includes a history of RCA/GE/Thomson, discussion of test equipment, technical literature, software available, and a discussion of OEM parts versus generic parts.

Customer Reviews:

RCA/GE Televisions.......2000-12-31

I will make this short but sweet. Bob Rose has managed to write a truly informative "How To/This is how it is put together" book here. It is worth it's weight in gold. The content and the manner of presentation in this book is better than any training manual I have seen. I hope he can write one on Magnavox TVs. Good job Bob!

Great reference for the technician.......1999-06-15

The author's knowledge and experience shows in this comprehensive guide to servicing the CTC-130 to the CTC-195/97. This book is aimed at someone with a decent amount of tv repair experience. Not for the amateur unless you plan on learning the basics elsewhere. Recommended highly...Great tips and "trade secrets"

Book Description

The growing cotton textile industry of the postbellum South required a stable and reliable work force made up of laborers with varied skills. At the same time, Southern agriculture was in a depressed state. Families, especially those with many children, were therefore forced to look for work in the textile mills. Mill managers, in their own interest, created the basis for a distinctive social and economic structure: the Southern cotton mill village. These villages, which included such accoutrements as good schools for the children, were paternalistic work environments designed to attract this desirable source of workers. This book examines the role of the family labor system in the early evolution of the postbellum Southern cotton textile industry, revealing how the mill village served as a focal point of economic and social cohesion as well as an institution for socializing and stabilizing its workers. The paternalism of the mill villages was not merely an instrument of capitalistic indoctrination, contends McHugh, but was shaped by market forces. McHugh employs a valuable body of archival material from the Alamance Mill, an important cotton textile mill in North Carolina, to illustrate her arguments.

Mill Family: The Labor System in the Southern Cotton Textile Industry, 1880-1915,

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Mill Family: The Labor System in the Southern Cotton Textile Industry, 1880-1915,
Cathy L., MCHUGH
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKJBIS

Product Description

Alicia's Diary, the sophomore follow-up to her red hot Songs in A Minor, features 16 stunningly crafted neo-soul numbers: Diary Dragon Days Feeling U, Feeling Me (Interlude) Harlem's Nocturne Heartburn If I Ain't Got You If I Were Your Woman/Walk on By Karma Nobody Not Really Samsonite Man Slow Down So Simple Wake Up When You Really Love Someone You Don't Know My Name.

Customer Reviews:

I Had High Hopes.......2007-05-15

I'd purchased this songbook with high hopes based on the only reviews I could find (on the UK version of Amazon). I love Alicia Keys, and based on her wonderful piano accomplishments, I was eager to get this songbook. I am a vocalist and novice piano player, and there's nothing I love more than a challenging accompaniment to sing along to. Unfortunately, a majority of the songs have the melody written for the Treble Clef (right hand). I understand that it is most likely that way for singability, but I would find the piano part much more pleasurable in its original form. It is my pet peeve among common music songbooks.

Luckily, when there are no singing bits, take "Harlem's Nocturne" for example, you will find that the piano part is rather close to the original. I am also pleased with the guitar chords written in addition to a separate staff for vocal parts. Everything was clear and easy to read/comprehend.

One note! Several of these songs have been transposed for easier playability. I personally tend to prefer the original key, but that usually doesn't stop me. The changes include:

-Harlem's Nocturne (G# minor transposed down half-step)
-If I Was Your Woman (Eb minor transposed up half-step)
-Diary (G# minor transposed up half-step)
-Feeling U, Feeling Me (G# minor transposed up half-step)
-Samsonite Man (G# minor transposed up half-step)

Maybe this songbook needs time to grow on me, or maybe my expectations are too high. I'll continue to love Alicia Keys, regardless that this songbook isn't one that stands out the most to me.

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Imp Custom- The Diary of Alicia Keys

Manufacturer: Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0634078666

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Diary of
Alicia Cdmsim 384101 Keys
Manufacturer: MSI MUSIC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

General | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
ASIN: 630884845X

Book Description

Europeans are eating out in unprecedented numbers - in cafs, pubs, brasseries and restaurants. Globalization brought about changes in patterns of leisure and consumption, as well as a democratization of restaurant culture. But what if we open up this concept of 'eating out' to include any eating that takes place outside the home? What cultural shifts can we see through time? What differences can we discover about pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial societies?Eating Out in Europe addresses such questions as it examines changes in eating patterns through time. 'Eating out' is broadly conceived to cover everything from nibbling a pizza at work to dining in an exquisite restaurant, from suffering an institutional lunch at the school cafeteria to enjoying the natural world with a picnic. The meaning of eating out clearly varies enormously depending on the setting, circumstances and significance of the meal. The contributors describe and interpret the huge changes that occurred in eating habits throughout Europe by analyzing such factors as urbanization, technological innovation, demographic growth, employment patterns and identity formation. Case studies include the evolution of the pub, the rise of the fast food industry in Britain, picnicking in nineteenth-century France, snack culture in the Netherlands, industrial canteens in Germany, the rise of restaurants in Norway and countryside traditions in Hungary, among others. Fully comprehensive and illustrated, the contributors draw on examples throughout Europe from the late eighteenth century to the present day.

Eating Out in Europe: Picnics, Gourmet Dining and Snacks since the Late Eighteenth Century.(Book Review) : An article from: Canadian Journal of History

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Eating Out in Europe: Picnics, Gourmet Dining and Snacks since the Late Eighteenth Century.(Book Review) : An article from: Canadian Journal of History
Christopher J. Fischer
Manufacturer: University of Saskatchewan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Canadian Journal of History, published by University of Saskatchewan on April 1, 2005. The length of the article is 993 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Eating Out in Europe: Picnics, Gourmet Dining and Snacks since the Late Eighteenth Century.(Book Review)
Author: Christopher J. Fischer
Publication: Canadian Journal of History (Refereed)
Date: April 1, 2005
Publisher: University of Saskatchewan
Volume: 40 Issue: 1 Page: 111(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Forty-three illustrations depict Old London Bridge, the Bridge of Sighs and modern masterpieces — the Brooklyn Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge.

Customer Reviews:

An intricate and informative "coloring" book.......1998-03-23

This book contains very intricate line drawings of bridges around the world. While the drawings are wonderful and the accompanying text is informative, it is definitely not a coloring book for children ages 4-8. My 7 and 10 year olds weren't at all interested in it, but my husband is eager to get at it with watercolors.

Customer Reviews:

Fluffy/padded.......2007-07-13

Alas, despite the great reviews, I didn't find this book useful or inspiring. It seemed fluffy/padded. It was hard to plod to the end of it.

Read a sample chapter before you buy.

Dispel the Software Engineering Myths.......2006-12-20

For some reason, there are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about software development. Maybe this is the way it is for all fields, but that would be surprising. If it is just urban legends for outsiders, that makes sense and adds to the mysterious appeal. However, I would venture to say that most people in this field all have different views on what software engineering is, and many of them are simply incorrect understandings.

Robert Glass's book - Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering - happens to provide a good source for many of these myths and misunderstandings. Robert has been in the industry for a loooong time, and he has a lot to say on this matter, with 55 facts that ranges from Management, Lifecycle, Quality, to Research, as well as 10 Fallacies that cover Management, Lifecycle, and Education. Some of the facts are well known. For example, Fact 3 "adding more people to a late project makes it later" is Brooke's Law, established almost 30 years ago. Some other facts, though, are the opposite and little known, but the author still believe they are fundamentally important to be listed.

Given the nature of our field, such a book of course can stir a lot of controversy if the author simply presents their view as the gospel. To that end Robert has provided a fair treatment for each topic and help bring to light the opposing opinions. With the current affair, no one has all the solutions, but someone must start the conversations on each of sticky points and hopefully industry-wide practices can arise from the effort.

The following are the central themes that I've identified from the book:

* Management is the biggest issue in software engineering today
* There is too much hype in this field - people are just chasing fad after fad
* People is key to software, especially developers

The reading is easy as the book is written in a conversational tone. I found myself agree to many of his assertions, and disagree on some. Your mileage may vary.

The only challenge I have with the book is that I believe there are a couple more myths that are not covered by his book, but are still primarily important. I will write about them in upcoming articles.

Who will benefit from this book?

I believe anyone serious about software engineering and software project management will benefit from this book, whether one is technically oriented or not. Most of us are so deep into the doing and we do not realize that much of what we do is in conflict with software principles, and this book will help bring those to light. As a practitioner I know this is extremely difficult to do and require commitment, but if you are committed about your career and profession, then you will find this book helpful, even if you do not agree ;)

Good Insights.......2006-12-16

The title says it all. I found this valuable as an entry level member of a software team. A lot of the ideas are repeated in other computer books, but it's a good collection of common sense and lessons learned.

Critical Read.......2006-08-12

The presentation of this book is somewhat suspect, However its contents are of CRITICAL importance. The advice in this book is hard-won and as a whole represents a signifigant advance in the field of software engineering. This book is a bargain at any price compared to the pain it can save you and your development team.

Fundamental and Frequently Forgotten.......2006-04-15

Through "a laundry list of facts and fallacies about building software", this book colllects what we ought to know about software development but we frequently forget.

Several underlying themes recur, such as the inherent complexity of software development and the irrational hype which plagues our field (as exemplified by one-size-fits-all techniques, tools, and methodologies).

You will find also some classic facts such as "Adding people to a late project makes it later" (Brooks' Law), as well as discussions on poor estimation and unstable requirements as the most common causes of project failure.

Here is a sample of the facts whose discussion I found particularly enlightening:

- Since estimates are so faulty, there is little reason to be concerned when software projects do not meet estimated targets. But everyone is concerned anyway (Fact 12).

- The answer to a feasibility study is almost always "yes" (Fact 14).

- Missing requirements are the hardest requirements errors to correct (Fact 25).

- One hundred percent [test] coverage is still far from enough (Fact 33).

- Better methods lead to more maintenance, not less (Fact 45), since "enhancements represent roughly 60 percent of maintenance costs" (Fact 42).

NOTE: The original book title was "Fifty-Five Frequently Forgotten Fundamental Facts (and a Few Fallacies) about Software Engineering", alias the F-Book. Despite it gave a much clearer idea of what you can find in this book, it was shortened for marketing reasons.

Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering

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Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering
Robert L. Glass
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OUFTKC

Software Engineering: Facts and Fallacies (Agile Software Development)

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Software Engineering: Facts and Fallacies (Agile Software Development)
Robert L. Glass
Manufacturer: Tandem Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding
ASIN: 0613920554

Book Description

Purposefully written for those coming to politics for the first time, this textbook provides an exploration and analysis of the most important political issues affecting the Developing World. Offering a different perspective from standard texts in this field, Politics in the Developing World encourages an understanding of the breadth and nature of a range of pressing - and previously understated - issues: the striving for democracy; the political consequences of economic growth and development; the struggle of religious and ethnic minorities; women's and human rights; the impact of globalization; and the politics of the natural environment. In doing so, the interaction of domestic and global factors affecting many of the Developing World countries is highlighted and a new qualitatively different set of concerns is identified. Some have resulted from recent international changes following the demise of the soviet bloc, including the shift to democracy in South Africa, and the ramifications of the late 1990s South East Asian financial crisis.To illustrate the importance of these themes and issues five Developing World regions are focused on and explored in detail: Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia, East and South East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. While based on Haynes' previous publication, Third World Politics: A Concise Introduction (1996), this is a new book, completely rewritten, with updated regional analyses and data throughout. It focuses upon changes in the Developing World in the last decade, with an increased focus on its international relations, complementing those chapters concerned with domestic issues.Both an ideal introduction and an invitation to further study, this text is essential reading for introductory students studying a range of courses including development studies, global politics, world politics, Developing World politics, comparative politics, and international relations.

Third World Politics: A Concise Introduction

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Solid textbook
Concise and too the point
Concise and too the point

Third World Politics: A Concise Introduction
Jeffrey Haynes
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic Policy & Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0631197788

Book Description

Purposefully written for those coming to politics for the first time, this textbook provides an exploration and analysis of the most important political issues affecting the developing world. Offering a different perspective from standard texts in this field, Politics in the Developing World encourages an understanding of the breadth and nature of a range of pressing - and previously understated - issues: the striving for democracy; the political consequences of economic growth and development; the struggle of religious and ethnic minorities; human rights, particularly women's rights ; the impact of globalization; and the politics of the natural environment. In doing so, the interaction of domestic and global factors affecting many of the developing world countries is highlighted and a new, qualitatively different set of concerns is identified. Some have resulted from recent international changes following the demise of the Soviet bloc, including the shift to democracy in South Africa, and the ramifications of the late 1990s Southeast Asian financial crisis.To illustrate the importance of these themes and issues, five developing world regions are examined in detail: Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia, East and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. While based on Haynes's previous publication, Third World Politics: A Concise Introduction (1996), this is a new book, completely rewritten, with updated regional analyses and data throughout. It concentrates on changes in the developing world in the last decade, with an increased focus on its international relations, complementing those chapters concerned with domestic issues.An ideal introduction as well as an invitation to further study, this text is essential reading for introductory students studying a range of courses including development studies, global politics, world politics, developing world politics, comparative politics, and international relations.

Customer Reviews:

Solid textbook.......2000-09-13

There are not many good texts that attempt to cover the common dilemmas of regions considered part of the 'third world.' Given the competition, this is a solid textbook that take a broad view of political, economic, and social change. Supplemented by more detailed explorations of particular countries or regions, this would be a good textbook for studying the developing world.

Concise and too the point.......2000-06-21

I purchased this book as a pre-requisite for a political science class. I thought that tis book would be boring and written as a text book, but it was enjoyable to read. I especially like reading about how Government's in Third world countries interact on economic, social, and religious levels.

Concise and too the point.......2000-06-21

Book Description

This best-selling book and companion software from one of the world's most respected scientists present a series of dramatic discoveries never before made public. Starting from a collection of simple computer experiments---illustrated in the book by striking computer graphics---Wolfram shows how their unexpected results force a whole new way of looking at the operation of our universe.

Wolfram uses his approach to tackle a remarkable array of fundamental problems in science: from the origin of the Second Law of thermodynamics, to the development of complexity in biology, the computational limitations of mathematics, the possibility of a truly fundamental theory of physics, and the interplay between free will and determinism.

Written with exceptional clarity, and illustrated by more than a thousand original pictures, this seminal book allows scientists and non-scientists alike to participate in what promises to be a major intellectual revolution.

The companion software program, based on the very same programs that Stephen Wolfram used to create the graphics in his book, allows you to experience the discoveries of A New Kind of Science on your own computer, repeating Wolfram's experiments and trying new ones of your own. Included are over 450 key experiments from the book, which offer a full range of inputs and parameters for further exploration. This software is ideal for personal study, recreation, or classroom use.

Customer Reviews:

A New Kind of Revisionism Redox.......2004-06-06

Hi, my last review of this book had the title "A New Kind of Plagiarism", since then, very knowledgeable people have pinpointed with exactitude were the plagiarism was (almost the whole book!). A few others still claim that the book is good (how many of them are people who work for Wolfram?), to these people I ask the following question: can you point to a single original idea in the book? (Something that Wolfram actually discovered -because an astounding amount of things he claims are his are in reality other peoples inventions-- and that he did not discover a long time ago and already published). I wonder how many of the positive reviews were written by people who actually went to a University, I ask not as an insult but because If you commit plagiarism when studying in a University you can even get expelled (and they hammer this non-stop when you are in there), why isn't Wolfram "expelled" from the scientific community: simply because he is not in it!. Moreover, this is why he did not make this a scientific article but a book for the public at large; otherwise, the risk of being discovered (as a plagiarist) would have been too great. Guess what? You were discovered! It is amazing how short the memory of the public is. Most people cannot even remember all the fuzz that was made over fractals a while ago, no wonder some of them actually believe Wolfram did something original. These short attention span reviewers do not seem to grasp just how serious scientific fraud is!. Wolfram's book (sorry, I meant to say his copy pasting of other peoples work) should be condemned, no mater how entertaining it might be (or how good it might be as a general introduction to the discipline). Some reviewers think that the notes in the book contain the necessary references: THEY DO NOT. Wolfram is claiming long published (and much commented in popular Science Divulgation books) discoveries by others as his own. As if the plagiarism was not bad enough, the revisionist nature of his "history" of the discipline is unforgivable in itself (trying to erase the actual discoverers of the things he is claiming for himself). This kind of thing might have been permitted in 1950 Russia but in the XXI century in our country it is unbelievable that is being so. As another reviewer pointed out, "In his interview with "The Daily Telegraph" [May 15 2002] titled as "Is this man bigger than Newton and Darwin?" Wolfram remarks on his book as follows: "If other people don't get it, it's their problem, not mine." This is the most horrible attitude toward science I have ever encountered. He makes very little effort to present his what-so-called "New Science" to his peers. " Another reviewer writes:
"If one browses through all the reviews written here, one realizes that those who praise Wolfram are NOT SPECIFIC at all about why he is so great except that he has in general touched almost every aspect of modern science, a non-sense view. On the other hand, readers who have negative viewpoints of the book are very SPECIFIC about their opinion and they express why Wolfram's book is neither revolutionary nor new. "
"Like most people out there I believe that Wolfram owes a big apology to the scientific community and those non-expert enthusiasts who have a huge thirst for science but misled by non-scientists like Wolfram. "
"Mr. Wolfram is the author of Mathematica. Again, he takes the work of hundreds of people without giving them any credit. Disgusting."

"Why Mr. Wolfram can get away with all this. Read the first chapter of Philip Greenspun. If you have money you can invent truth. "

I quote these to wet your appetite for some excellent reviews so please read them all, believe me, they are worth your time, Wolfram's book is not!.

If we could only have a peek at Sasquatch's family photos..........2003-11-05

Okay, so the Abominable Snowman walks up and asks if you'd like to see his family photo albums. All 1200+ pages of them. Maybe you don't quite 'get' what Sasquatch is about or why he'd want to share intimate family moments with a complete stranger, but, still, you KNOW you have to have a LOOK.

This is very much the case with Stephen Wolfram's A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE. I picked up my copy from amazon.com for considerably less than $50.00 (US), which, by weight, makes it one of the most reasonably priced books I have ever purchased -- especially among relatively limited printings, which include many, if not the vast majority, of 'standard' works in computer science.

(Hey, for under fifty bucks we should all sample anything capable of creating as much uproar among scientifically literate folks as, say, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST created among the [selectively] scientifically oblivious.)

Unlike some other reviewers, I don't fault Wolfram if he fails to communicate as smoothly or as tersely as every reader might like. After all, we are taking part in an information transfer (mind dump?) from a man who, seeking the counsel of intellectual peers, has likely, in the apparent paucity of such during 10 years of secretive research, all too often ended up talking only to HIMSELF!

Nor do I fault Wolfram for a possible titular allusion to Galileo's DIALOGUES ON TWO NEW SCIENCES. Absent gods, pride is not "hubris," in the classical sense. Alas, Wolfram, like Darwin, has pointed the way to mechanisms that explain organized complex structures without apparent intentional, external 'design.' (Doubtless, Darwin didn't invent evolution any more than Wolfram invented cellular automata. But both men are accomplished synthesizers, discovering and/or articulating simple and elegant organizing principles where others encounter only chaos and befuddlement.)

Furthermore, even if we were to sift Wolfram's entire volume and find it devoid of any truly new or original insight, the work would still be invaluable as a compendium of ideas from the fields already referenced, especially chaos, complexity, and self-organizing structures. (If we are sometimes unable to discern between Wolfram's own ideas and someone else's, we can, at least, rejoice in his championing ideas that are important and timely, regardless of 'authorship.')

Not to belabor this point, but, depending on the direction from which one approaches a problem, it isn't always clear that s/he has traversed the identical thought processes (or courses of study) as someone else. With no malice aforethought, in mathematics and science we often encounter 'opportunities' for inadvertent reinvention and rediscovery. One author has referred to such as "mathematical epiphanies", alluding to the joy of finding even well-worn truths by and for oneself. In this sense, I feel, Wolfram might be expressing his own delight in making certain ideas his 'own,' even if, in the end, they turn out to be ideas that, with or without his knowledge, he might not have originated. In this respect, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, realizing that others have, for their own reaons, been less charitable. At the same time, I am likewise unwilling to venture a guess regarding that (and how much) of which someone researching and writing in any of Wolfram's many field(s) should or should not have been aware.

In his further defense, however, successful business leaders are often oriented towards results rather than toward bestowing either credit or blame. (I am reminded that the great American patriot Thomas Paine added little to the thoughts of Voltaire, Rousseau, and others from the French Enlightenment. Nevertheless, his popular re-packaging of the 'higher criticism' in THE AGE OF REASON freed minds and pens and tongues that, otherwise, might never have come to know, via the original French, what Paine so eloquently set forth in an iconoclastic salvo the likes of which had not been heard since Luther's theses ignited the Reformation. And, then, even Luther benefitted from a sympathetic publisher!)

If my discussion, up till now, has been somewhat oblique, I have probably read more of Wolfram's book than many of the other reviewers -- far enough, actually, to have made it through the crucial section on "The Principle of Computational Equivalence." Until that point, I must confess, I had been viewing cellular automata as models of and, as such, merely ISOMORPHIC TO... certain natural processes. The great realization, at which we finally arrive, is that THESE machines and the machines at work in natural processes are the SAME [ABSTRACT] MACHINES! (The equivalence of two machines that produce identical outputs from identical inputs is not a revelation -- What is exciting is how Wolfram bridges the gap between the behaviors of man-made machines and naturally occuring 'machines.') Much as Darwin used a brilliant analogy to bridge the apparent gap between artificial and natural selection, Wolfram has articulated a bridge between artificial and natural 'machines' via a unifying computational principle.

I greatly appreciate Wolfram's exposition of some of his own intellectual 'epiphanies' in a form considerably more entertaining than most academic papers... and better organized than many personal journals or research notebooks. If time attests to the impact of these ideas (as I have intimated via comparisons to Galileo, Paine, and Darwin), I believe the time the reader invests to understand them will be well rewarded.

The Emperor's New Kind of Clothes.......2003-04-10

This review took almost one year. Unlike many previous referees (rank them by Amazon.com's "most helpful" feature) I read all 1197 pages including notes. Just to make sure I won't miss the odd novel insight hidden among a million trivial platitudes.

On page 27 Wolfram explains "probably the single most surprising discovery I have ever made:" a simple program can produce output that seems irregular and complex.

This has been known for six decades. Every computer science (CS) student knows the dovetailer, a very simple 2 line program that systematically lists and executes all possible programs for a universal computer such as a Turing machine (TM). It computes all computable patterns, including all those in Wolfram's book, embodies the well-known limits of computability, and is basis of uncountable CS exercises.

Wolfram does know (page 1119) Minsky's very simple universal TMs from the 1960s. Using extensive simulations, he finds a slightly simpler one. New science? Small addition to old science. On page 675 we find a particularly simple cellular automaton (CA) and Matthew Cook's universality proof(?). This might be the most interesting chapter. It reflects that today's PCs are more powerful systematic searchers for simple rules than those of 40 years ago. No new paradigm though.

Was Wolfram at least first to view programs as potential explanations of everything? Nope. That was Zuse. Wolfram mentions him in exactly one line (page 1026): "Konrad Zuse suggested that [the universe] could be a continuous CA." This is totally misleading. Zuse's 1967 paper suggested the universe is DISCRETELY computable, possibly on a DISCRETE CA just like Wolfram's. Wolfram's causal networks (CA's with variable toplogy, chapter 9) will run on any universal CA a la Ulam & von Neumann & Conway & Zuse. Page 715 explains Wolfram's "key unifying idea" of the "principle of computational equivalence:" all processes can be viewed as computations. Well, that's exactly what Zuse wrote 3 decades ago.

Chapter 9 (2nd law of thermodynamics) elaborates (without reference) on Zuse's old insight that entropy cannot really increase in deterministically computed systems, although it often SEEMS to increase. Wolfram extends Zuse's work by a tiny margin, using today's more powerful computers to perform experiments as suggested in Zuse's 1969 book. I find it embarassing how Wolfram tries to suggest it was him who shifted a paradigm, not the legendary Zuse.

Some reviews cite Wolfram's previous reputation as a physicist and software entrepreneur, giving him the benefit of the doubt instead of immediately dismissing him as just another plagiator. Zuse's reputation is in a different league though: He built world's very first general purpose computers (1935-1941), while Wolfram is just one of many creators of useful software (Mathematica). Remarkably, in his history of computing (page 1107) Wolfram appears to try to diminuish Zuse's contributions by only mentioning Aiken's later 1944 machine.

On page 465 ff (and 505 ff on multiway systems) Wolfram asks whether there is a simple program that computes the universe. Here he sounds like Schmidhuber in his 1997 paper "A Computer Scientist's View of Life, the Universe, and Everything." Schmidhuber applied the above-mentioned simple dovetailer to all computable universes. His widely known writings come out on top when you google for "computable universes" etc, so Wolfram must have known them too, for he read an "immense number of articles books and web sites" (page xii) and executed "more than a hundred thousand mouse miles" (page xiv). He endorses Schmidhuber's "no-CA-but-TM approach" (page 486, no reference) but not his suggestion of using Levin's asymptotically optimal program searcher (1973) to find our universe's code.

On page 469 we are told that the simplest program for the data is the most probable one. No mention of the very science based on this ancient principle: Solomonoff's inductive inference theory (1960-1978); recent optimality results by Merhav & Feder & Hutter. Following Schmidhuber's "algorithmic theories of everything" (2000), short world-explaining programs are necessarily more likely, provided the world is sampled from a limit-computable prior distribution. Compare Li & Vitanyi's excellent 1997 textbook on Kolmogorov complexity.

On page 628 ff we find a lot of words on human thinking and short programs. As if this was novel! Wolfram seems totally unaware of Hutter's optimal universal rational agents (2001) based on simple programs a la Solomonoff & Kolmogorov & Levin & Chaitin.

Wolfram suggests his simple programs will contribute to fine arts (page 11), neither mentioning existing, widely used, very short, fractal-based programs for computing realistic images of mountains and plants, nor the only existing art form explicitly based on simple programs: Schmidhuber's low-complexity art.

Wolfram talks a lot about reversible CAs but little about Edward Fredkin & Tom Toffoli who pioneered this field. He ignores Wheeler's "it from bit," Tegmark & Greenspan & Petrov & Marchal's papers, Moravec & Kurzweil's somewhat related books, and Greg Egan's fun SF on CA-based universes (Permutation City, 1995).

When the book came out some non-expert journalists hyped it without knowing its contents. Then cognoscenti had a look at it and recognized it as a rehash of old ideas, plus pretty pictures. And the reviews got worse and worse. As far as I can judge, positive reviews were written only by people without basic CS education and little knowledge of CS history. Some biologists and even a few physicists initially were impressed because to them it really seemed new. Maybe Wolfram's switch from physics to CS explains why he believes his thoughts are radical, not just reinventions of the wheel.

But he does know Goedel and Zuse and Turing. He must see that his own work is minor in comparison. Why does he desparately try to convince us otherwise? When I read Wolfram's first praise of the originality of his own ideas I just had to laugh. The tenth time was annoying. The hundredth time was boring. And that was my final feeling when I laid down this extremely repetitive book:exhaustion and boredom. In hindsight I know I could have saved my time. But at least I can warn others.

Hubris or real insight? I think the latter........2002-12-06

After I got the past the first few pages where Wolfram kept repeating himself about how this book described a new kind of science, and that he was going to describe the new kind of science in the book, I got into the examples which are quite exhaustive and meticulously researched. So far I think his observations are quite interesting. I haven't gotten to the heavy metaphysical insights yet, but given what I've seen so far, I am very much looking forward to reading them. Wolfram ties together results from several computer science (and other) fields and paints a picture of unified underlying concepts which may very well do as he predicts: change the way we understand the world (and educate the next generation about it) in a way which is as substantial and novel as Copernicus, Newton, Einstein etc. He proposes a worldview which is similar to Chaos, Complexity, Catastrophe, Fractals etc, but unified, rather than a tower of Babel.

Please excuse my review of a book I have not yet finished, but Amazon.com had the "be the first to review the book" button staring me in the face, so I had to do it since I like the book and who nose? Maybe I'll win a prize.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Snow Goer, published by Ehlert Publishing Group on March 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1352 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: 2005 Snow Time Awards.
Author: Colby Johnson
Publication: Snow Goer (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2006
Publisher: Ehlert Publishing Group
Volume: 16 Issue: 6 Page: 52(2)

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