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Thanks to the groundbreaking work, I have to buy the second edition of this book.
http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=2181&so urceid=39391960&isbn=0743258207

Thank you very much!

You can purchase Intellectual Trespassing as a Way of Life from bn.com.

What a coincidence...you can purchase John David Funge's Artificial Intelligence for Computer Games: An Introduction from bn.com as well.

Capitalism is alive and well on Slashdot.

from an independent local bookstore that actually contributes to my community

Okay, I'll bite. How does B&N contribute to your community? Are you referring to this link? If you agree with their charity work and think they should be rewarded for it, then by all means follow the Barnes and Noble link. Personally, I'm none to happy with stores that require "memberships" to get special deals, but to each their own.

If you go through the Barnes & Noble link for the book, you'll find that the book costs $31.99 for the unwashed masses, and $28.79 for the "B&N members". What Barnes and Noble isn't telling their members is that they are still paying more than if they went to Amazon! Even with an associate laden link, you can still get the book off of Amazon for a mere $26.39! And no membership hassles to mess with!

From an Amazon review:
Note that this 325-page book is really a 201-page book. Appendix A is the entire API of the Commons lang project - word for word.

Am I the only one who gets annoyed at how computer books have devolved into hardcopies of auto-generated online documentation? Am I the only one who remembers books that cover the intangables of coding (e.g. theory of operation, correct methodology for usage, cool coding and hardware tricks, etc.) rather than the "instruction manual for dummies" books? Bah, I say! I don't know which is scarier: the current trend in books, or the fact that the review I'm citing gave the book 4 out of 5 stars.

Of course, I'll probably get in trouble with my fellow authors for saying this. (Sorry guys, but I just don't like 90% of the books being printed.)

since when has it been cool to post these in the story?

http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=2181&so urceid=39391960&isbn=0689877978
(links to http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnIn quiry.asp?sourceid=00393919608443593340&ISBN=06898 77978&bfdate=05-02-2005+13:47:41 ) ..thats going to be a fat chunk of change when the story is through.

by purchasing it at bn.com instead

Why should he?

People read reviews by critics because they are interested in their opinion. Most professional reviews are paid advertisements. Amateur ones are shrines. Why should I care what books CrankyFool thinks this book is like if he can't even provide a lucid summary of the book's "hook" in a compelling way to make me interested both reading his review and possibly obtaining the book to read?

CrankyFool's review reads like a high school book report, which it probably is. CrankyFool could have saved some electronics and our time if he had just said...

Neil Gaiman is a Slashdot Hot Topic. I like Neil Gaiman's books. Neil Gaiman, American Gods, Neil Gaiman, Neil Gaiman, Neil Gaiman. If you like derivative works of authors like Neil Gaiman, this is a darn decent book [0]. Link to book for kickbacks.

[0] - taken from the end of the actual review.

You can purchase The Golden Ratio from bn.com.

The link says:

A new copy is not available from Barnes & Noble.com at this time.

maybe the editors should check closer next time.

You can actually get a DVD+/-R for under $100 as well (affiliate link).

Persuasive Computing is the title of a cool book of Stanford researcher B. J. Frogg, that discusses how computers can be used to change people behaviours. One of the examples are about using virtual reality to threat fobias.

Here's a cool new comic...
Here's a link to buy it.
I'd love to have a Slashdot effect on My bank account, but I don't post the stories.

This:

You can purchase Practical C++ Programming, Second Edition from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

That's not the reviewer's affiliate link? If not, I guess it's slashdot's? I can't imagine somebody putting together a review if there's not something in it for them (it's their book, their site, their affiliate link, etc.) ;).

Slashdot truncated half of my post...

It was supposed to say:

You can purchase the QBASIC Programming for Dummies from bn.com.

You cannot purchase this from BN.com. It clearly says that it is not available. And the same goes for Amazon.com.

However you can purchase 1 used copy, but you're not really buying it from BN.com

You can purchase the QBASIC Programming for Dummies from bn.com.Amazon.com.

BTW. Why is Slashdot posting book reviews for out of print books... Wait for a re-release

You can purchase the QBASIC Programming for Dummies from bn.com.

You're looking for Greg Lehey's The Complete FreeBSD, I think. The latest version came out this month.

The book is available from the usual sources. If you want to be nice to me, you can buy it through my Barnes&Noble referral link. If you find those offensive or otherwise objectionable, you can go straight to it.

I didn't write the review to make money, but it still seems kind of sneaky to replace my referral with Slashdot's own.

You can purchase Essential System Administration, 3rd Edition from bn.com

It's cheaper, though, from amazon.com ($38.47 v. bn.com's $43.96).

If you're in Canada, chapters.indigo.ca has it for $54.56 Canadian (CAD) -- under $38 US.

for the lazy

I recently finished watching the Trigun series on DVD thanks to Netflix [yes, it's an affiliate link, so sue me ;)], and other than a bit of blood here and there, and maybe a bit of excessive gun violence, I can't see too much that would be edited; certainly there isn't much in this series that isn't shown on various police dramas these days.

I've also seen the first few Bebop DVDs thanks to Netflix, and other than a shot of a nudie mag that was edited, I don't recall much in the way of "edited" segments that CN ran. If someone could point out any major edits between the Bebop DVDs and what's shown on CN, I'd appreciate it :)

> I found Slackware unleashed an excellent Slack book for beginners.

That's assuming beginners should be using Slack as their first distro. I guess it depends on your savvy. Like many here, I'd recommend a Debian distro.

Anyway, I've found Linux Administration, A Beginner's Guide to be excellent. Most of the books I saw at the book store on "Beginning Linux" showed you how to use the latest outdated GUI on a specific distribution. Boring. I already know how to use Windows. The aforementioned book shows you how manage Linux from the command prompt in a very easy way. It assumes you know a little bit about computers (like what "users" are and file system basics like file types and permissions) but shows you how to get all the things you know how to do in Windows done at the Linux command line.

It is fairly platform independent too. It describes things like how to install programs via RPM or compiling from source in a very straightforward manner (as well as the difference and why you might need/want to do one or the other).

When you're done with it, it also makes a great reference. Very easy to find stuff you're looking for via the TOC or Index. Truely a great book.

A later study by Lott and William Landes found that concealed-carry prevents mass shootings. This study is available online here. There is also a list of his non-academic articles here and a brief bio here.

Gary Kleck has also done many studies on the issue of guns, crime, and self-defense. There is a good introduction and an interview with him here, a summary of his work here, and a his own home page here.

It might be worth noting that none of the above studies were funded by gun advocacy groups, gun control groups, gun manufacturers, or any other special interests. They are politically balanced -- John Lott is an iconoclastic conservative/libertarian, and Gary Kleck is a lifelong liberal Democrat. (I don't know David Mustard's affiliation.)

Also, they have impeccable credentials. John Lott got his Ph.D. in economics at UCLA, and David Mustard at University of Chicago. Gary Kleck got his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana.

There is an extensive list of articles on gun control here. The folks running this site are against it, but they don't seem to be connected to pro- or anti-gun groups. They have, among other things, an excellent chart showing gun ownership rising as gun crime stays steady and then falls here.

This should be enough to get you started -- feel free to post follow-up for sent me e-mail if you have any questions! --Robert A. Book, Ph.D. rbook "AT" pobox.com

Did anyone notice that there is a newer book available on amazon.com than the book mentioned it the text above? The publisher is now Addison Wesley Professional and it is also a little bit cheaper. It has the same amount of pages and seems to be the same edition.

at the end of the review. If you decide to buy this book consider using the /. clickthrough link. It generates revenue for the /. crew, and is a convenient way to shop. This is a new feature outside of the OSDN advertising. So support Rob and the crew directly and click on that link.

So, apparently the books are available as a collection now, but does anyone know where I can find Tintin in the UK English translations? (seriously)

Tintin has been translated into many languages, probably dozens. And, I can attest that there are both UK English editions and US English editions; however, the US English editions are horrible. I'm an American, so you can be assured that this isn't some wacky British pride clouding my judgement, but something was just not right in the US English versions.

So, does anyone know where I can buy the UK English editions of Tintin? Part of my problem is that, even if I can find Tintin for sale online (not that hard, I suppose), I'm not sure how to be certain which edition I'd be buying.

Anyone know where the collections link (http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=2181&s ourceid=39391960&isbn=0316357243) goes? I have bfast blocked in my HOSTS file.

New:
Amazon: $27.00 [referral]
Amazon: $27.00
B&N: $36.00 [referral]
B&N: $36.00
Bookpool: $27.50

Used:
Amazon: $26.99 [referral]
Half.com: $29.25

Decent review, but definitely could have been longer - I'm left wanting to know more about the book.

New:
Amazon: $27.00 [referral]
Amazon: $27.00
B&N: $36.00 [referral]
B&N: $36.00
Bookpool: $27.50

Used:
Amazon: $26.99 [referral]
Half.com: $29.25

Decent review, but definitely could have been longer - I'm left wanting to know more about the book.

Amazon: Used & New from $8.49 [referral]
B&N: Not Stocked [referral]
Bookpool: Not Stocked

Looks like the best bet is going to be half.com or a used bookstore - kind of an old text.

Look at it this way: If you really want to be married to this woman, you value marrying her, and ought in principle to be willing to pay for the privilege. But, you want her to be committed to and value the relationship also, and if you pay her to get engaged or to marry you, you have no way of knowing she didn't just get engaged so she could "take the money and run."

So what do you do? You buy something really expensive that has no utility or intrinsic value, you give it to her (to prove you aren't going to resell it), and she can't "take the money and run" since diamonds are hard to resell and there is social pressure against reselling them anyway.

Basically, you are "burning money" to prove you value the marriage you are about to enter into. You do this to convince her you are serious, she needs to know you are serious since marrying someone who isn't serious is potentially costly in all sort of ways (emotionally, financially, time-wise, etc.).

True, there are only a few countries in which diamonds are used for engagements, but I bet most of the other societies have similar committment devices that also amount to "money-burning."

For more on this, see the book, Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life by David D. Friedman (yes, son of the famous economist Milton Friedman). The book is available here and here with a table of contents, etc., here.

In a way, robots are portraits of humans. Machines are just machines and assembly lines are just assembly lines. The buckets of bolts don't become robots until they start to take on some of the characteristics and a few of the jobs of humans. A drill for tightening a bolt may replace a biceps, but it's just a motor until it's on the end of a fancy mechanical arm that positions it automatically. Then it's a robot ready for a call from central casting.

Defining just what is and is not a robot is not an easy job for technologists because the replicants and androids are a touchstone and a benchmark for measuring our progress toward the future. It's 2002 and everyone is asking: Where's mad Hal steering a space craft to oblivion? Or more importantly: Why am I still vacuuming the floors and mowing the lawn by myself?

If you are asking these questions, then you might want to read the answers Rod Brooks, the director of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, offers in his charming book, Flesh and Machines: How Robots will Change Us. The book is half a thoughtful biography of the various robots created by his graduate students and half a philosophical explanation of what to expect from the gradual emergence of robot butlers.

The biographical part is probably the most enjoyable. He and his students have produced more than a dozen memorable robots who've crawled, rolled and paced their way around MIT. One searched for Coke cans to recycle, one tried to give tours to visitors, and another just tried to hold a conversation. Brooks spends time outlining how and why each machine can into being. The successes and more importantly the failures become the basis for creating a new benchmark for what machines can and can't do.

An ideal version of this book should include a DVD or a video cassette with pictures of the robots in action because the movement is surprisingly lifelike. Brooks is something of a celebrity because a film maker named Errol Morris made a droll, deadpan documentary that cut between four eccentric geniuses talking about their work. One guy sculpted topiary, one tamed lions, one studied naked mole rats, and the fourth was Rod Brooks, the man who made robots. Brooks minted the title for the film, Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, a phrase he uses to describe his philosophy for creating robots. The movie tried to suss out the essence of genius, but it makes a perfect counterpoint for the book by providing some visual evidence of Brooks' success.

One of the stars of the movie was a six-legged robot called Genghis, a collection of high-torque RC airplane servo motors that Brooks feels is the best or most fully-realized embodiment of this fast and cheap approach. The robot marches along with a surprisingly life-like gait chasing after the right kind of radiation to tickle the IR and pyro-electric sensors mounted on whiskers. If you've seen the film, it's hard to forget his gait.

Brooks says that the secret to the success of Genghis is that there is no secret. The book's appendix provides an essential exploration of the design, which is short and very simple. The soul of the machine has 57 neuron-like subroutines, or "augmented finite state machines" in academic speak. For instance, one of the AFSMs responsible for balance constantly checks the force on a motor. If it is less than 7, the AFSM does nothing and if it is greater than 11, the AFSM reduces the force by three. That's doesn't seem like very much intelligence be it artificial or real, but 57 neuron-like subroutines like this are all it takes to create a fairly good imitation of a cockroach.

Brooks calls this a "subsumption architecture" and the book is most successful describing the days that he spent with his graduate students building robots and seeing what the architecture and a handful of AFSMs could do. He half mocks the roboticists who load up their machines with big computers trying to compute complex models of the world and all that is in it. In his eyes, the lumbering old-school machines just move a few inches and then devote a gazillion cycles to creating a detailed, digital description of every plant, brick or wayward child in the field of view. After a few more gazillion cycles, the machine chooses a path and moves a few more inches. Even when they find their way, time passes them by.

There are no complex control mechanisms sucking down cycles on the machines from Brooks' lab, the source of the claim that they're "out of control". It's just AFSMs wired together. One of the robots fakes human interaction by tracking fast motion and flesh colored pixels. Brooks marvels at how a few simple rules can produce a machine that is remarkably life-like. If you're not sure, they have video tapes of lab visitors holding conversations with the machine, who apparently takes part in the conversation with the patient interest of a well-bred host. As if by magic, the AFSMs are creating enough human-like movement and visitor in the tape begins treating the robot like a human!

If you're still not sure, you might buy a "My Real Baby" doll designed by Brooks with the help of the adept mechanical geniuses in Taiwan. The story of taking a highbrow concept from MIT to the local toy store is a great part of the book. The so-called toy is filled with AFSMs that tell it when to gurgle, when to pout, when to sleep, and when to demand sustenance. Alas, the toy makers tell Brooks that the market can't stomach so much innovation. One new thing at a time.

So are these machines truly successful simulacra? Are they infused with enough of the human condition to qualify as the science-fiction-grade robots or are they just cute parlor tricks? Some readers will probably point to the AFSMs and scoff. Seeing the code is like learning the secret to a magic trick.

Brooks, on the other hand, is sure that these machines are on the right track. In a sense, he makes it easier for his robots to catch up with humans by lowering the bar. On the back of the book, Brooks ladles out the schmaltz and proclaims, "We are machines, as are our spouses, our children and our dogs... I believe myself and my children all to be mere machines." That is, we're all just a slightly more involved collection of simple neurons that don't do much more than the balance mechanism of Genghis. You may think that you're deeply in love with the City of Florence, the ideal of democratic discourse, that raven-haired beauty three rows up, puppy dogs, or rainy nights cuddled under warm blankets, but according to the Brooks paradigm, you're just a bunch of AFSMs passing numbers back and forth.

If you think this extreme position means he's a few AFSMs short of a robot professor though, don't worry. Brooks backs away from this characterization when he takes on some of the bigger questions of what it means to be a human and what it means to be a machine. The latter part of the book focuses on what we can and can't do with artificial intelligence. He is very much a realist with the ability to admit what is working and what is failing. His machines definitely capture a spark, he notes, but they also fall short.

He notes with some chagrin that his robot lawnmower leaves behind tufts of uncut grass. Why? It uses a subsumption-like algorithm that doesn't bother creating a model of the yard. The robot just bounces around until the battery runs out. Eventually the laws of random chance mean that every blade should be snipped, but the batteries aren't strong enough to reach that point at infinity. A model might help prevent random lapses, but that still won't solve the problem. Alas, the machines themselves are limited by the lack of precision. One degree of error quickly turns into several feet by the other end of the yard. A robot wouldn't be able to follow a plan, even if it could compute one.

What's missing, Brooks decides, is some secret sauce he calls "the juice". Computation and AFSMs may work with cockroaches, but we need something more to get to the next level. Faster computers can do much more, but eventually we see through the mechanism. Genghis looks cool, but learning about the 57 AFSMs spoils the trick.

The standard criticism of Brooks' machines is that they don't scale. There is no superglue juice that can save a scaffolding built of toothpicks. The AFSM may produce good cockroaches, but that's just the beginning of the game. Humans are more than that. Eventually, the AFSMs become too unwieldy to be a stable programming paradigm. In fact, Brooks sort of agrees with this premise when he suggests that Genghis is his "most satisfying robot." It was also one of the first. The later models with more AFSMs just don't rank.

But humans and other living creatures don't scale either. We may be able to run 20 miles per hour, but only for 100 yards. We may be able to troll for flames on five bulletin boards, but eventually we get our pseudonyms confused. Limits are part of life and we only survive by forgiving them. To some extent, the lifelike qualities of his robots are direct results of the self-imposed limits of the AFSMs.

Your reaction to these machines will largely depend upon how many of the limits you are willing to forgive. Stern taskmasters may never be happy with a so-called robot, but a relaxed fellow traveller may ignore enough of the glitches to interface successfully. Some will see enough of themselves to be happy with the whirring gizmos as a portrait of human and others may never find what they're looking for. That's just the nature of portraits. For me, this book is an excellent portrait of a research program and the collection of questions it tried to answer. You may look in the mirror and want something different, but it's worth taking a look at these machines.

Peter Wayner is the author of two books appearing this spring: the second edition of Disappearing Cryptography , a book about steganography, and Translucent Databases , a book about adding extra security to databases. You can purchase Flesh and Machines from Barnes & Noble. Want to see your own review here? Just read the book review guidelines, then use Slashdot's handy submission form.

ummmmm.... i don't see anywhere where it shows you your money bill like yahoo and paytrust do! microsoft's expedia is very good though.

--
J Perry Fecteau
5-time Mr. Internet

then along came paytrust, who takes your bills in, allows you to view it online and approve the payment. but the best part is that they don't withdraw your money until the check clears which means they probably issue a check with your routing information for the ones they mail. but like i said for $7 its worth it. i can't stand sitting down writing checks licking envelops hoping i have enough stamps etc etc etc. like i said banks should have thought of this first. this girl tells me in spain, you get your bills sent to the bank... is that true?

--
J Perry Fecteau
5-time Mr. Internet

then along came paytrust, who takes your bills in, allows you to view it online and approve the payment. but the best part is that they don't withdraw your money until the check clears which means they probably issue a check with your routing information for the ones they mail. but like i said for $7 its worth it. i can't stand sitting down writing checks licking envelops hoping i have enough stamps etc etc etc. like i said banks should have thought of this first. this girl tells me in spain, you get your bills sent to the bank... is that true?

--
J Perry Fecteau
5-time Mr. Internet

Computers4sure has it for $150.
non-afilliate link
affillate link
Not quite the deal of a 4 port switch, but hell, it's $100 with a web interface and telnet.

BTW: I also submitted this story, based on an article at MP3.com.

Given everyone's preoccupation with Cryptonomicon, I would have thought that someone else would have brought up Interface, written under the pseudonym Stephen Bury by Neal Stephenson.

Basic synopsis is:
o Governor has stroke.
o Shady politicos give governor chip very much like in article.
o Fun and hilarity ensue as governor runs for presidency.

Given everyone's preoccupation with Cryptonomicon, I would have thought that someone else would have brought up Interface, written under the pseudonym Stephen Bury by Neal Stephenson.

Basic synopsis is:
o Governor has stroke.
o Shady politicos give governor chip very much like in article.
o Fun and hilarity ensue as governor runs for presidency.