How the autonomous digital forces jolting our lives - as uncontrollable as the weather and plate tectonics - are transforming life, society, culture, and politics. David Auerbach's exploration of the phenomenon he has identified as the meganet begins with a simple, startling revelation: There is no hand on the tiller of some of the largest global digital forces that influence our daily lives: from corporate sites such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, YouTube, Instagram, and Reddit to the burgeoning metaverse encompassing cryptocurrencies and online gaming to government systems such as China's Social Credit System and India's Aadhaar. As we increasingly integrate our society, culture and politics within a hyper-networked fabric, Auerbach explains how the interactions of billions of people with unfathomably large online networks have produced a new sort of beast: ever-changing systems that operate beyond the control of the individuals, companies, and governments that created them. Meganets, Auerbach explains, have a life of their own, actively resisting attempts to control them as they accumulate data and produce spontaneous, unexpected social groups and uprisings that could not have even existed twenty years ago. And they constantly modify themselves in response to user behavior, resulting in collectively authored algorithms none of us intend or control. These enormous invisible organisms exerting great force on our lives are the new minds of the world, increasingly commandeering our daily lives and inner realities. Auerbach's analysis of these gargantuan opaque digital forces yield important insights such as: - The conventional wisdom that the Googles and Facebook of this world are tightly run algorithmic entities is a myth. No one is really in control. - The efforts at reform - to get lies and misinformation off meganets - run into a brick wall because the companies and executives who run them are trapped by the persistent, evolving, and opaque systems they have created. - Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are uncontrollable and their embrace by elite financial institutions threatens the entire economy - We are asking the wrong questions in assuming that if only the Facebooks of this world could be better regulated or broken up that they would be better, more ethical citizens - Why questions such as making algorithms fair and bias-free and whether AI can be a tool for good or evil are wrong and misinformed Auerbach then comes full circle, showing that while we cannot ultimately control meganets we can tame them through the counterintuitive measures he describes in detail.

You've seen the movie, now PLAY the movie! Long before gaming came to the big screen, cinema arrived in the homes of millions in the form of licensed video games; playable merchandise that tied in to some of the major tentpoles of cinematic history. Many of these games followed the storylines of the movies on which they were based, as well as providing supplementary adventures to major franchises. Collected in this book are some of the biggest games to come from Hollywood adventures during the '80s and '90s. In this comprehensive book, you'll find over 300 games across 18 chapters, with sections dedicated to major movie franchises such as Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Top Gun, Pixar, Aliens and Indiana Jones, along with nearly 200 full-colour screenshots of major releases. Showcasing the highs and lows of early computer gaming through the 16-bit era and onto the advent of 3D console gaming, A Guide to Movie Based Video Games: 1982 - 2000 covers two decades of video games with trivia, analysis and recommendations. Grab your controller, step into the silver screen and get ready to play!

Morton Wagman examines the emulation of human cognition by artificial intelligence systems. Human thought and computer thought are compared in their distinctiveness and commonality. The book provides detailed examples of artificial intelligence programs (such as the FERMI System and the KEKADA program) accomplishing highly intellectual tasks. This, together with its coverage of general theoretical perspectives on the nature of cognition, make this volume both a valuable sourcebook and a stimulus for students and professionals in cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, and artificial intelligence courses.

A general introduction to the computational modeling of cognition opens the book. Considered next are computational reasoning and human rationality. The range, depth, and sensitivity of mathematical and legal reasoning systems are compared with human mathematicians and human jurisprudence. General issues concerning the quality of human rationality are examined in several contexts: the prediction of economic behavior, mathematical abstraction and the concept of the infintesimal, and probalilistic judgement under uncertainty. Other chapters consider the nature of problem solving in the context of general intellectual principles and specific domain knowledge, the cognition of scientific discovery, and language representation modes and information processing efficiency. In the last chapter the most impressive intellectual achievements of AI systems are summarized. Directions for further intellectual research in this realm are also indicated.

Online algorithms are a rich area of research with widespread applications in scheduling, combinatorial optimization, and resource allocation problems. This lucid textbook provides an easy but rigorous introduction to online algorithms for graduate and senior undergraduate students. In-depth coverage of most of the important topics is presented with special emphasis on elegant analysis. The book starts with classical online paradigms like the ski-rental, paging, list-accessing, bin packing, where performance of online algorithms is studied under the worst-case input and moves on to newer paradigms like 'beyond worst case', where online algorithms are augmented with predictions using machine learning algorithms. The book goes on to cover multiple applied problems such as routing in communication networks, server provisioning in cloud systems, communication with energy harvested from renewable sources, and sub-modular partitioning. Finally, a wide range of solved examples and practice exercises are included, allowing hands-on exposure to the concepts.

Develop creative animation and multimedia using Adobe Animate Adobe Animate Classroom in a Book (2023 release) uses real-world, project-based learning to cover the basics and beyond, providing countless tips and techniques to help you become more productive with the program. For beginners and experienced users alike, you can follow the book from start to finish or choose only those lessons that interest you. Learn to: Harness controls for animation including puppet warping, layer parenting, and paint brush preferences and symbol options Use the revamped Asset Warp tool for a modern rigging approach to animating shapes and bitmap images Work with a more robust set of playback options for graphic symbols that provide total control over looping Quickly publish to social media channels with support for SVG, WebGL, HTML5, animated GIFs, and HD video Seamlessly collaborate through Adobe Creative Cloud Classroom in a Book (R), the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, offers what no other book or training program does-an official training series from Adobe, developed with the support of Adobe product experts. Purchasing this book includes valuable online extras. Follow the instructions in the book's "Getting Started" section to unlock access to: Downloadable lesson files you need to work through the projects in the book Web Edition containing the complete text of the book, interactive quizzes, and videos that walk you through the lessons step by step What you need to use this book: Adobe Animate (2023 release) software, for either Windows or macOS. (Software not included.) Note: Classroom in a Book does not replace the documentation, support, updates, or any other benefits of being a registered owner of Adobe Animate software.

We live in a world defined by urbanization and digital ubiquity, where mobile broadband connections outnumber fixed ones, machines dominate a new "internet of things," and more people live in cities than in the countryside.

In Smart Cities, urbanist and technology expert Anthony Townsend takes a broad historical look at the forces that have shaped the planning and design of cities and information technologies from the rise of the great industrial cities of the nineteenth century to the present. A century ago, the telegraph and the mechanical tabulator were used to tame cities of millions. Today, cellular networks and cloud computing tie together the complex choreography of mega-regions of tens of millions of people.

In response, cities worldwide are deploying technology to address both the timeless challenges of government and the mounting problems posed by human settlements of previously unimaginable size and complexity. In Chicago, GPS sensors on snow plows feed a real-time "plow tracker" map that everyone can access. In Zaragoza, Spain, a "citizen card" can get you on the free city-wide Wi-Fi network, unlock a bike share, check a book out of the library, and pay for your bus ride home. In New York, a guerrilla group of citizen-scientists installed sensors in local sewers to alert you when stormwater runoff overwhelms the system, dumping waste into local waterways.

As technology barons, entrepreneurs, mayors, and an emerging vanguard of civic hackers are trying to shape this new frontier, Smart Cities considers the motivations, aspirations, and shortcomings of them all while offering a new civics to guide our efforts as we build the future together, one click at a time.

Now you can master investments by both learning and doing with Adair/Nofsinger's unique FOUNDATIONS OF INVESTMENTS. From theory to practice to implementation, the authors use clear descriptions, real examples, interactive learning features and MindTap and Excel digital resources to strengthen your understanding and skills to confidently implement investment ideas. You learn trusted places on the internet to obtain information and data as you work with data from companies such as Tesla, Apple and Walmart. You then use that data in spreadsheets to create investment solutions that lead to good decision making. Even if you have limited Excel experience, Excel Expert example boxes guide you through how to analyze investment spreadsheets. Applications from today's headlines highlight examples such as Bitcoin and GameStop. With this edition, you develop your own personal investment strategies to use in your personal portfolio or in your professional job.

The newest addition to our Influential Video Game Designers series explores the work of Todd Howard, executive producer at Bethesda Studios, known for how he consistently pushes the boundaries of open-world gaming and player agency. Howard’s games create worlds in which players can design their own characters and tell their own stories. While many games tell the story of the game’s main character, Todd Howard’s worldbuilding approach to game design focuses more on telling the story of the game’s world, whether it be the high fantasy environments of the Elder Scrolls series or the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the Fallout series. This focus on sculpting the world allows for remarkable amounts of player freedom and choice in an expansive game environment by creating a landscape rich with open opportunity. Drawing on both academic discussions of narrative, world design, and game design, as well as on officially released interviews, speeches, and presentations given by Howard and other designers at Bethesda Games, Wendi Sierra highlights three core areas set Howard’s design perspective apart from other designers: micronarratives, iterative design, and the sharing of design tools. Taken as a whole, these three elements demonstrate how Howard has used a worldbuilding perspective to shape his games. In doing so, he has impacted not only Bethesda Studios, but also the landscape of game design itself.

From Business Strategy to IT Action gives companies of all sizes the tools to effectively link IT to business strategy and produce effective, actionable strategies for bottom-line results. The authors present CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and IT managers with a powerful and accessible resource packed with such useful material as:
* The Strategy-to-Bottom-Line Value Chain, which integrates the management practices relating to planning, prioritization, alignment, and assessing a company's entire IT budget
* Methods for using IT Impact Management to establish IT culture and performance models for the business/IT connection
* The IT Improvement Zone, which quickly identifies where a company can focus its energies for maximum results
* And much more

This is the first book available on the market that shows people how to create more advanced data visualizations in the Excel software tool. It provides step-by-step instructions and downloadable Excel files, that readers can use to expand how they use Excel and communicate their data to their audiences.

Bulletproof TLS and PKI is a complete guide to using TLS encryption and PKI to deploy secure servers and web applications. Written by Ivan Ristic, author of the popular SSL Labs web site, this book will teach you everything you need to know to protect your systems from eavesdropping and impersonation attacks. In this book, you'll find just the right mix of theory, protocol detail, vulnerability and weakness information, and deployment advice to get your job done: - Comprehensive coverage of the ever-changing �eld of SSL/TLS and Internet PKI, with updates to the digital version - For IT professionals, help to understand security risks - For system administrators, help to deploy systems securely - For developers, help to secure web applications - Practical and concise, with added depth as needed - Introduction to cryptography and the Internet threat model - Coverage of TLS 1.3 as well as earlier protocol versions - Discussion of weaknesses at every level, covering implementation issues, HTTP and browser problems, and protocol vulnerabilities - Coverage of the latest attacks, such as BEAST, CRIME, BREACH, Lucky 13, RC4 biases, Triple Handshake Attack, and Heartbleed - Thorough deployment advice, including advanced technologies, such as Strict Transport Security, Content Security Policy, and pinning - Guide to using OpenSSL to generate keys and certificates and to create and run a private certification authority - Guide to using OpenSSL to test servers for vulnerabilities

A comprehensive history of data visualization—its origins, rise, and effects on the ways we think about and solve problems. With complex information everywhere, graphics have become indispensable to our daily lives. Navigation apps show real-time, interactive traffic data. A color-coded map of exit polls details election balloting down to the county level. Charts communicate stock market trends, government spending, and the dangers of epidemics. A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication tells the story of how graphics left the exclusive confines of scientific research and became ubiquitous. As data visualization spread, it changed the way we think. Michael Friendly and Howard Wainer take us back to the beginnings of graphic communication in the mid-seventeenth century, when the Dutch cartographer Michael Florent van Langren created the first chart of statistical data, which showed estimates of the distance from Rome to Toledo. By 1786 William Playfair had invented the line graph and bar chart to explain trade imports and exports. In the nineteenth century, the “golden age� of data display, graphics found new uses in tracking disease outbreaks and understanding social issues. Friendly and Wainer make the case that the explosion in graphical communication both reinforced and was advanced by a cognitive revolution: visual thinking. Across disciplines, people realized that information could be conveyed more effectively by visual displays than by words or tables of numbers. Through stories and illustrations, A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication details the 400-year evolution of an intellectual framework that has become essential to both science and society at large.

With over 420k followers on Twitter, The Didn't Happen of the Year Awards exposes, celebrates and ridicules social media users who, shall we say, are prone to a little lying exaggeration. Whether it's Chris Eubank telling the world that aged 18, he should have won $100k on the American lottery but got diddled out of it by the grocery store guy only to use it as motivation to win a world title six years later, or Britney Spears claiming to have run the 100m in a little over five seconds, the DIDN'T HAPPEN OF THE YEAR AWARDS OFFICIAL BOOK is full of hyperbole, embellishment and embroidery from a whole host of online exaggerators. The book is filled with exclusive content including the real story behind Tom Zanetti and his supposed helicopter ride which was featured in The Mirror, as well as how the DHOTYA got brought up in UK Parliament.

The progression of information and communication technology (ICT) eGovernment systems has substantial implications for the future of government as we know it. eGov presents major challenges and advantages for policy makers as fundamentally different nations are adopting ICT in public administration reforms in order to capitalize on the benefits of transformational government or electronic government technology. This book investigates the modern political, technological, economic, social, and cultural issues of transformational government. It discusses in detail how interaction through advancing technology such as e-participation, mobile government, social media, web 2.0, and cloud computing has been successfully incorporated into eGov practice. International in scope this book gives practical examples and case studies of eGov implementation in countries across the globe and is the essential reference text for this important topic.

Here is a book containing information about more than 500 Web sites about dinosaurs. Sites are rated for quality and cross-referenced by type, level of complexity, and availability of special features.

This open access Brief introduces the basic principles of control theory in a concise self-study guide. It complements the classic texts by emphasizing the simple conceptual unity of the subject. A novice can quickly see how and why the different parts fit together. The concepts build slowly and naturally one after another, until the reader soon has a view of the whole. Each concept is illustrated by detailed examples and graphics. The full software code for each example is available, providing the basis for experimenting with various assumptions, learning how to write programs for control analysis, and setting the stage for future research projects. The topics focus on robustness, design trade-offs, and optimality. Most of the book develops classical linear theory. The last part of the book considers robustness with respect to nonlinearity and explicitly nonlinear extensions, as well as advanced topics such as adaptive control and model predictive control. New students, as well as scientists from other backgrounds who want a concise and easy-to-grasp coverage of control theory, will benefit from the emphasis on concepts and broad understanding of the various approaches.

An IT survival guide for CEOs from the leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers' IT Business Risk Management Practice Managing IT as a Business is a comprehensive guide for CEOs and other executives looking to link corporate strategy with information technology. Until now, the inability of companies to meld IT organizations, systems, and technology and to link these to strategic business drivers has been one of the major obstacles to achieving sustainable IT business value. In this book, Lutchen provides practical advice to executives seeking to make the link between IT and strategy and to minimize key IT business risks. For leaders who want to maximize their IT investment, Managing IT as a Business offers the most enlightened guidance available. Mark D. Lutchen (Harrison, NY) leads PricewaterhouseCoopers' IT Business Risk Management Practice and was the firm's Global CIO during its massive merger (1997 - 98). He has almost 30 years of experience advising key executives in the areas of technology management, globalization, and mergers and acquisitions.

Africa is changing and digitisation is playing a pivotal role in it. Throughout the whole continent, digital practices are emerging which radically transform African societies and their worldwide perception. However, digital infrastructures remain marked by local and global asymmetries despite the widespread use of mobile phones. Over the course of two years and in three African and European cities, the interdisciplinary exhibition and research project Digital Imaginaries took this contradictory diversity of digital phenomena as its starting point in order to explore possible digital futures in Africa. Texts by Bethlehem Anteneh, Younes Baba-Ali / Aude Tournaye, Tegan Bristow, Mehdi Derfoufi, Mamadou Diallo / Judith Rottenburg, Sunny Dolat / Njoki Ngumi (The Nest Collective), Oulimata Gueye, Thomas Hervé, Francois Knoetze, Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou / Manuel Bürger, Bettina Korintenberg, Siri Lamoureaux / Enrico Ille / Amal Fadlalla / Timm Sureau, Achille Mbembe, Maurice Mbikayi, Julien McHardy, Christopher McMichael, Marcus Neustetter / Mwenya Kabwe, Nanjala Nyabola, DK Osseo-Asare / Yasmine Abbas, Tabita Rezaire, Richard Rottenburg, Daniel Sciboz, Joseph Tonda, Michel Wahome, Philipp Ziegler

The Future of Enriched, Linked, Open and Filtered Metadata is a comprehensive and accessible guide to creating accurate, consistent, complete, user-centred and quality metadata that supports the user tasks of finding, identifying, selecting, obtaining and exploring information resources. Based on the author’s many years of academic research and work as a cataloguing and metadata librarian, it shows readers how they can configure, create, enhance and enrich their metadata for print and digital resources. The book applies examples using MARC21, RDA, FRBR, BIBFRAME, subject headings and name authorities. It also uses screenshots from cutting edge library management systems, discovery interfaces and metadata tools. Coverage includes: definitions, discussions, and comparisons among MARC, FRBR, LRM, RDA, Linked Data and BIBFRAME standards and models discussion of the underlying principles and protocols of Linked Data vis-à-vis library metadata practical metadata configuration, creation, management, and cases employing cutting edge LMS, discovery interfaces, formats and tools discussion around why metadata needs to be enriched, linked, open and filtered to ensure the information resources described are discoverable and user friendly consideration of metadata as a growing and continuously enhancing, customer-focused and user-driven practice where the aim is to support users to find and retrieve relevant resources for their research and learning. This practical book uses simple and accessible language to make sense of the many existing and emerging metadata standards, models and approaches. It will be a valuable resource for anyone involved in metadata creation, management and utilisation as well as a reference for LIS students, especially those undertaking information organisation, cataloguing and metadata modules.

Efficiently using data structures to collect, organise and retrieve information is one of the core abilities modern computer engineers are expected to have. This student-friendly textbook provides a complete view of data structures and algorithms using the Python programming language, striking a balance between theory and practical application. All major algorithms have been discussed and analysed in detail, and the corresponding codes in Python have been provided. Diagrams and examples have been extensively used for better understanding. Running time complexities are also discussed for each algorithm, allowing the student to better understand how to select the appropriate one. Written with both undergraduate and graduate students in mind, the book will also be helpful with competitive examinations for engineering in India such as GATE and NET. As such, it will be a vital resource for students as well as professionals who are looking for a handbook on data structures in Python.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the First International Conference on 5G for Future Wireless Networks, 5GWN 2017, held in Beijing, China, in April 2017. The 64 full papers were selected from 135 submissions and present the state of the art and practical applications of 5G technologies. The exponentially growing data traffic caused by the development of mobile Internet and smart phones requires powerful networks. The fifth generation (5G) techniques are promising to meet the requirements of this explosive data traffic in future mobile communications.

This book contains revised selected papers from the 18th International Conference on Membrane Computing, CMC 2017, held in Bradford, UK, in July 2017. The 18 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 29 submissions. They deal with membrane computing (P systems theory), an area of computer science aiming to abstract computing ideas and models from the structure and the functioning of living cells, as well as from the way the cells are organized in tissues or higher order structures. The volume also contains 2 invited talks.

Cyberpsychology is an emerging area of psychological study that aims to understand and explain all facets of online behaviour. This book brings together overviews from a number of leading authorities in the field, to suggest how academic theory and research can be applied to a variety of online behaviours. Both positive and negative behaviours are considered, including topics as diverse as parenting the online child, age-related internet usage and cultural considerations in online interactions. Psychological research can no longer view online and offline worlds as different entities, but must consider online behaviours as equally distinct as offline activities. This is especially apparent when looking at online dating, the role that social networks play in organisations and online consumer behaviours, and in a consideration of the role that psychological research plays in underpinning the multi-billion pound gaming industry. Focusing on these personal applications of the Internet, insight is also offered into the role that theory and research plays in training military personnel as well as the use of psychometric testing to select and retain employees.