Software-Technology – Page 11 – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Review: The DevOps Handbook

By Scott J. Pearson | July 28, 2019July 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

DevOps is a movement about the management of computer programmers. It basically says that Development (coding) and Operations (deployment and maintenance) should communicate more and better. Such workability allows for better error detection, swifter deployment of code, etc. Interestingly, I’ve worked mainly in research environments where I’ve been in charge of both Development and Operations at the same time. I worked in a corporation with separate Dev and Ops for a few years – and…

Software-Technology

Review: CSS Secrets

By Scott J. Pearson | July 3, 2019July 3, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

First, this work is intended for a very niche audience. It is for computer programmers who are web designers and who want to learn not just basic CSS (how webpages are currently styled) but advanced CSS. As becomes the O’Reilly book series, Verou is fortunately a master of CSS and of technical communication. Her wit makes learning how to make the most out of CSS entertaining, intriguing, and extensible to new situations. Verou, a member…

Software-Technology

Review: The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

By Scott J. Pearson | May 30, 2019May 30, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Do you ever wonder whether our computer technology and the Internet are making us better as people? Or do they make us worse off? Are we becoming smarter or more dumb? What happens to our brains when we use the Internet? Carr explores these questions and more in this Pulitzer-Prize-finalist book. Carr borrows heavily from Marshall McLuhan, the scholar whose foresight in the 1960s defined the philosophy of electronic media. He also borrows from modern…

Healthcare Software-Technology

Review: Deep Medicine

By Scott J. Pearson | May 9, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare HumanCopyright (c) 2019by Eric Topol The author, an innovative medical school president in California, is one of my favorites on the topic of computing in medicine. He sees the medical landscape wider than most scholars, and he is a true humanist at heart. He surveys the field of artificial intelligence and sees how it could apply to modern medicine. Most of the described projects are pipe dreams now, but…

Software-Technology

Review: Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War

By Scott J. Pearson | April 21, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War by Paul Scharre My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book, written by a non-technologist with extensive military experience, describes the intersection of artificial intelligence with United States military affairs. It uses terms like “autonomy” and “semi-autonomy” extensively. Autonomous weapons are weapons that can identify their own targets. Semi-autonomous weapons can track pre-identified targets (that is, targets previously identified by humans). Semi-autonomous weapons are currently…

Fiction-Stories Software-Technology

Review: I, Robot

By Scott J. Pearson | April 6, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov My rating: 0 of 5 stars This book from the 1950s is one of the most respected works of science fiction in the English language. It tells the story of how “robots” (what we’d probably now call computers and artificial intelligence) end up taking over the world. Fortunately, Asimov’s dystopian tale has ended up not becoming true – in the timespans described by the book, at least. Computers are often…

Software-Technology

Review: The UNIX Programming Environment

By Scott J. Pearson | March 30, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

The UNIX Programming Environment by Brian W. Kernighan My rating: 0 of 5 stars This book, copyright 1984, is not one’s typical software read. Typical books on software deal with the latest and greatest that’s coming down the pike. Instead, this book is a reminder of what is great in the UNIX operating system. It harkens back to the days when assembly coding was common and programming in C was considered more cutting edge. So…

Healthcare Software-Technology

Review: Machine Learning and AI for Healthcare: Big Data for Improved Health Outcomes

By Scott J. Pearson | March 24, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Machine Learning and AI for Healthcare: Big Data for Improved Health Outcomes by Arjun Panesar My rating: 4 of 5 stars After the first chapter of this book, I was ready to put it down and regret the money I spent on it. It seemed to walk over ground that I’ve already covered as a researcher in medical informatics. Fortunately, I continued, for I came to learn a lot from this author. Although not as…

Software-Technology

Review: Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software

By Scott J. Pearson | March 7, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Erich Gamma My rating: 0 of 5 stars A classic in the field of computer science, this book describes how object-oriented software can be used to develop meaningful (and reusable) classes. It is written by the so-called “gang of four” affiliated with a working group at the University of Illinois. It has achieved notoriety for its assistance in helping programmers write code more effectively in languages like…

Software-Technology

Review: Mastering Deep Learning: A Complete Introduction for Beginners and Newbies

By Scott J. Pearson | February 10, 2019May 28, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Mastering Deep Learning: A Complete Introduction for Beginners and Newbies by James Gabriel My rating: 0 of 5 stars Deep Learning seeks to mimic how humans learn (i.e., the brain processes of how humans learn in their cerebral cortex) and apply this mimicry to how computer programs are written. Thus, we have terms like a “neural network” which does not refer to a brain (made up of neurons) but to a web of computer cells…