Download or read book Blindsight written by Peter Watts and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-10-03 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book The Circle written by Dave Eggers and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives—a “compulsively readable parable for the 21st century” (Vanity Fair). When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.

Download or read book The Rapture of the Nerds written by Cory Doctorow and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the two defining personalities of post-cyberpunk SF, a brilliant collaboration to rival 1987's The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

Download or read book English Grammar For Dummies written by Geraldine Woods and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-03-16 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A few years ago, a magazine sponsored a contest for the comment most likely to end a conversation. The winning entry? "I teach English grammar." Just throw that line out at a party; everyone around you will clam up or start saying "whom." Why does grammar make everyone so nervous? Probably because English teachers, for decades – no, for centuries – have been making a big deal out of grammar in classrooms, diagramming sentences and drilling the parts of speech, clauses, and verbals into students until they beg for mercy. Happily, you don't have to learn all those technical terms of English grammar – and you certainly don't have to diagram sentences – in order to speak and write correct English. So rest assured – English Grammar For Dummies will probably never make your English teacher's top-ten list of must-read books, because you won't have to diagram a single sentence. What you will discover are fun and easy strategies that can help you when you're faced with such grammatical dilemmas as the choice between "I" and "me," "had gone" and "went," and "who" and "whom." With English Grammar For Dummies, you won't have to memorize a long list of meaningless rules (well, maybe a couple in the punctuation chapter!), because when you understand the reason for a particular word choice, you'll pick the correct word automatically. English Grammar For Dummies covers many other topics as well, such as the following: Verbs, adjectives, and adverbs – oh my! Preposition propositions and pronoun pronouncements Punctuation: The lowdown on periods, commas, colons, and all those other squiggly marks Possession: It's nine-tenths of grammatical law Avoiding those double negative vibes How to spice up really boring sentences (like this one) Top Ten lists on improving your proofreading skills and ways to learn better grammar Just think how improving your speaking and writing skills will help you in everyday situations, such as writing a paper for school, giving a presentation to your company's big wigs, or communicating effectively with your family. You will not only gain the confidence in knowing you're speaking or writing well, but you'll also make a good impression on those around you!

Download or read book Circuit Bending written by Reed Ghazala and published by Wiley. This book was released on 2005-08-26 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fans will get bent out of shape if they miss the first book to cover circuit-bending-"bending," for short-the method by which an electronic toy or a device such as a keyboard is short-circuited and modified to create an entirely different sound Written by the inventor of the technology, this book covers the tools of the trade, shows how to build a bending workshop, and reveals secrets that will have readers of all levels making sweet music in no time Readers learn basic bends, body contacts, and other bending skills, as well as ways to create bent instruments from a variety of popular toys and electronic devices Features some of the author's own unique creations

Download or read book Stardust Dads written by Josephine C. George and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2008-10-17 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The e-mail Danny and Allison read on their new computer in 1996 looks no different from the millions of others received by Web users around the world, with one glaring exception--it was sent by their dads who died during the 1970s. While residing in the afterworld at an amenity-laden paradise called Midway Manor, guitar-strumming Mickey Parks and piano-playing Lloyd Wallace monitor and manipulate the lives of their adult children on earth from the mid-'70s through the 1990s. Tampering with the facility's sophisticated computer, the dads thrust Mickey's daughter Allison and Lloyd's son Danny into a passionate but sometimes stormy relationship-a relationship steeped in Danny's heavy drinking and entangled in the often-zany world of men's adventure magazine publishing. After carefully implementing a plan to send their son and daughter a gift of knowledge that could enrich their lives forever, the dads' brief contact is cut short. They are banished to another destination in the afterworld, but not before they impart indisputable proof of life after death--and unwittingly put Danny's and Allison's earthbound lives on the line.

Download or read book Technocreep written by Thomas P. Keenan and published by Greystone Books Ltd. This book was released on 2014 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Technology is rapidly moving into our bodies," writes cyber expert Keenan, "and this book gives a chilling look ahead into where that road may lead us - on a one way trip to the total surrender of privacy and the commoditization of intimacy." Here is the definitive dissection of privacy-eroding and life-invading technologies, coming at you from governments, corporations, and the person next door. Take, for example, "Girls Around Me": a Russian-made iPhone App that allowed anyone to scan the immediate vicinity for girls and women who checked in on Foursquare and had poorly secured Facebook profiles. It combined this information in a way never intended by the original poster. Going to a Disney theme park? Your creepy new "MagicBand" will alert Minnie Mouse that you're on the way and she'll know your kid's name when you approach her. Thinking about sending your DNA off to Ancestry.com for some "genetic genealogy"? Perhaps you should think again: your genetic information could be used against you. "This masterful weaving of the negatives and positives of technology makes for a book that is realistic about technology's perils yet optimistic about it's great potential."--Foreword Reviews

Download or read book Mathematicians in Love written by Rudy Rucker and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-07-08 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting new science fiction novel from the writer who twice won the Philip K. Dick Award for best SF novel.Bela and Paul, two wild young mathematicians, are friends and roommates, and in love with the same woman, who happens to be Alma, Bela's girlfriend. They fight it out by changing reality using cutting edge math, to change who gets the girl. The contemporary world they live in is not quite this one, but much like Berkeley, California, and the two graduate students are trying to finish their degrees and get jobs. It doesn't help that their unpredictable advisor Roland is a mad mathematical genius who has figured out a way to predict isolated and specific bits of the future that can cause a lot of trouble. . .and he's starting to see monsters in mirrors. Bela and Paul start to mess around with reality, and when that happens, all heaven and hell break loose. Those monsters of Roland's were really there, but who are they? This novel is a romantic comedy with a whole corkscrew of SF twists. At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Download or read book Group Policy written by Jeremy Moskowitz and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-08-11 with total page 1059 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get up to speed on the latest Group Policy tools, features, and best practices Group Policy, Fundamentals, Security, and the Managed Desktop, 3rd Edition helps you streamline Windows and Windows Server management using the latest Group Policy tools and techniques. This updated edition covers Windows 10 and Windows Server vNext, bringing you up to speed on all the newest settings, features, and best practices. Microsoft Group Policy MVP Jeremy Moskowitz teaches you the major categories of Group Policy, essential troubleshooting techniques, and how to manage your Windows desktops. This is your complete guide to the latest Group Policy features and functions for all modern Windows clients and servers, helping you manage more efficiently and effectively. Perform true desktop and server management with the Group Policy Preferences, ADMX files, and additional add-ons Use every feature of the GPMC and become a top-notch administrator Troubleshoot Group Policy using tools, enhanced logs, Resource Kit utilities, and third-party tools Manage printers, drive maps, restrict hardware, and configure Internet Explorer Deploy software to your desktops, set up roaming profiles, and configure Offline Files for all your Windows clients—and manage it all with Group Policy settings Secure your desktops and servers with AppLocker, Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, and the Security Configuration Manager This is your comprehensive resource to staying current, with expert tips, techniques, and insight.

Download or read book Protect Your Macintosh written by Bruce Schneier and published by . This book was released on 1994-01 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uncovers a host of problems and suggested solutions for issues ranging from protecting data from thieves or spies; backing up and storing files; and safeguarding from viruses to choosing bars, chains, and locks to prevent physical removal. Original. (All Users).

Download or read book Mohs Micrographic Surgery written by Stephen N. Snow and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mohs Micrographic Surgery, an advanced treatment procedure for skin cancer, offers the highest potential for recovery--even if the skin cancer has been previously treated. This procedure is a state-of-the-art treatment in which the physician serves as surgeon, pathologist, and reconstructive surgeon. It relies on the accuracy of a microscope to trace and ensure removal of skin cancer down to its roots. This procedure allows dermatologists trained in Mohs Surgery to see beyond the visible disease and to precisely identify and remove the entire tumor, leaving healthy tissue unharmed. This procedure is most often used in treating two of the most common forms of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. The cure rate for Mohs Micrographic Surgery is the highest of all treatments for skin cancer--up to 99 percent even if other forms of treatment have failed. This procedure, the most exact and precise method of tumor removal, minimizes the chance of regrowth and lessens the potential for scarring or disfigurement

Download or read book Excession written by Iain M. Banks and published by Orbit Books. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. 'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson Two and a half millennia ago in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe, the artifact appeared. It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared. Now it is back. Diplomat Genar-Hofoen of Special Circumstances is sent to investigate but, sidetracked by an old flame and the spoiled-brat operative Ulver Seich, and faced with the systematic depravities of a race who call themselves the Affront, it's anyone's guess whether he'll succeed . . . Praise for the Culture series: 'Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution' Independent on Sunday 'Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future' Guardian 'Jam-packed with extraordinary invention' Scotsman 'Compulsive reading' Sunday Telegraph The Culture series: Consider Phlebas The Player of Games Use of Weapons Excession Inversions Look to Windward Matter Surface Detail The Hydrogen Sonata The State of the Art Other books by Iain M. Banks: Against a Dark Background Feersum Endjinn The Algebraist Also now available: The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

Download or read book Without Pity written by Ann Rule and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2003-12-01 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an update to one of the most astonishing crimes of the Case Files volumes, Ann Rule profiles the criminals that kill without conscience and shatters their crimes without pity. In eight stunning Case Files volumes, from A Rose for Her Grave to the #1 blockbuster Last Dance, Last Chance, Ann Rule reigns as "America's best true-crime writer" (Kirkus Reviews). Now, she updates the most astonishing cases from that acclaimed series—and presents shocking, all-new true-crime accounts—in one riveting anthology. In every explosive chapter of Without Pity, Ann Rule deepens her unrelenting exploration of the evil that lies behind the perfect facades of heartless killers...and the deadly compulsions of greed and power that shatter their outward trappings of material success. They are the admired, trusted neighbor; the affable family man; the sexy, charismatic lover; the high-achieving professional. Perhaps most frightening of all is that they are heroes in their own minds. But when someone gets in the way of their deluded dreams, they are capable of deadly acts of violence with no remorse. Analyzing the true nature of the sociopathic mind in chilling detail, Ann Rule traces the murderous crimes of seemingly ordinary men—killers who drew their unsuspecting victims into their twisted worlds with devastating consequences.

Download or read book Simple Skin Beauty written by Ellen Marmur and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-09-22 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's every woman's skin care fantasy: What if a leading dermatologist just happened to be your best friend and you could ask her anything? Dr. Ellen Marmur, a world-renowned New York City dermatologist, is ready to answer your questions with this comprehensive, cutting-edge guide to healthy, beautiful skin. Each day in Dr. Marmur's practice, she hears the same questions again and again from so many patients. "What's the best investment against aging?" "Will this cream make my wrinkles go away?" "What does a cancerous spot look like?" A busy mother of four, Dr. Marmur knows women don't have the time or money to waste on products or procedures that are costly and ineffective. As a skin cancer surgeon -- and a skin cancer survivor herself -- she has treated thousands of patients confused about sun protection, cosmeceuticals, and antiaging procedures. This is what inspired her to write this book. In a refreshingly accessible way, Dr. Marmur explains that it doesn't have to be so difficult for women to get great skin or so expensive to maintain it. In fact, Dr. Marmur believes that to obtain gorgeous, healthy skin you need just three basic skin care essentials. And she gives you the know-how to adjust your regimen to treat issues like acne breakouts, dry skin, wrinkles, and more. With Dr. Marmur's passionate expertise and simple, inspired solutions, Simple Skin Beauty is the definitive go-to skin care guide for women of all ages. Simple Skin Beauty has the answers to your most pressing skin care questions, such as: • What's the difference between sunblock and sunscreen, and which ingredients are the best? • Will drinking a lot of water make my skin look better? • What is the best facial cleanser and moisturizer for my skin? • What, besides plastic surgery, can help my sagging neck? • How do I know if this freckle is skin cancer? • Which antiaging products truly work? • What should I ask my dermatologist if I'm considering Botox, fillers, lasers, or other procedures?

Download or read book The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures written by Kurt Kalata and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reviews of over 300 graphic adventure games, focusing on games from prominent publishers such as LucasArts, Sierra On-Line, and Legend Entertainment but covering games from independent developers as well. Reviews primarily cover games published 1984-2000. Interviews with game creators/developers Al Lowe, Corey Cole, Bob Bates, and Josh Mandel are included.

Download or read book Paranoia XP written by A. Varney and published by Mongoose Pub. This book was released on 2005-02-28 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classic Paranoia features a collection of some of the best loved scenarios from the original edition of the game, fully updated to be compatible with the new edition. Once again players and games masters can experience the delights of such games as Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues, Hill Sector Blues and so forth. Paranoia XP is the entirely updated and perfected version of the darkly humorous RPG originally published by West End Games.

Download or read book Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy written by J. Paul Peter and published by Irwin Professional Publishing. This book was released on 1996 with total page 792 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work shows how the various elements of consumer analysis fit together in an integrated framework, called the Wheel of Consumer Analysis. Psychological, social and behavioural theories are shown as useful for understanding consumers and developing more effective marketing strategies. The aim is to enable students to develop skills in analyzing consumers from a marketing management perspective and in using this knowledge to develop and evaluate marketing strategies. The text identifies three groups of concepts - affect and cognition, behaviour and the environment - and shows how these they influence each other as well as marketing strategy. The focus of the text is managerial, with a distinctive emphasis on strategic issues and problems. Cases and questions are included in each chapter.