This work skeptically explores the notion that the internet will soon obviate any need for traditional print-based academic libraries. It makes a case for the library's staying power in the face of technological advancements (television, microfilm, and CD-ROM's were all once predicted as the contemporary library's heir-apparent), and devotes individual chapters to the pitfalls and prevarications of popular search engines, e-books, and the mass digitization of traditional print material.

Digital games have become an increasingly pervasive aspect of everyday life as well as an embattled cultural phenomenon in the twenty-first century. As new media technologies diffuse around the world and as the depth and complexity of gaming networks increase, scholars are becoming increasingly savvy in their approach to digital games. While aesthetic and psychological approaches to the study of digital games have garnered the most attention in the past, scholars have only recently begun to study the important social and cultural aspects of digital games. This study sketches some of the various trajectories of digital games in modern Western societies, looking first at the growth and persistence of the moral panic that continues to accompany massive public interest in digital games. The book then continues with what it deems a new phase of games research exemplified by systematic examination of specific aspects of digital games and gaming. Section one includes four chapters that collectively consider politics and the negotiation of power in game worlds. Section two details the ideological webs within which games are produced and consumed. Specifically, this important section offers a critical cultural analysis of the hegemony that exists within games and its influence upon players' personal ideologies. To conclude this analysis, Section three examines game design features that relate to players' self-characterization and social development within digital game worlds. Section four explores the important relationship between the producers and consumers of digital games, especially insomuch as this relationship is giving rise to a community of novices and professionals who will together determine the future of gaming and - to a degree - popular culture.

Building and training deep learning models from scratch is costly, time-consuming, and requires massive amounts of data. To address this concern, cutting-edge transfer learning techniques enable you to start with pretrained models you can tweak to meet your exact needs. In Transfer Learning for Natural Language Processing, DARPA researcher Paul Azunre takes you hands-on with customizing these open source resources for your own NLP architectures. You'll learn how to use transfer learning to deliver state-of-the-art results even when working with limited label data, all while saving on training time and computational costs. about the technologyTransfer learning enables machine learning models to be initialized with existing prior knowledge. Initially pioneered in computer vision, transfer learning techniques have been revolutionising Natural Language Processing with big reductions in the training time and computation power needed for a model to start delivering results. Emerging pretrained language models such as ELMo and BERT have opened up new possibilities for NLP developers working in machine translation, semantic analysis, business analytics, and natural language generation. about the book Transfer Learning for Natural Language Processing is a practical primer to transfer learning techniques capable of delivering huge improvements to your NLP models. Written by DARPA researcher Paul Azunre, this practical book gets you up to speed with the relevant ML concepts before diving into the cutting-edge advances that are defining the future of NLP. You'll learn how to adapt existing state-of-the art models into real-world applications, including building a spam email classifier, a movie review sentiment analyzer, an automated fact checker, a question-answering system and a translation system for low-resource languages. what's inside Fine tuning pretrained models with new domain data Picking the right model to reduce resource usage Transfer learning for neural network architectures Foundations for exploring NLP academic literature about the readerFor machine learning engineers and data scientists with some experience in NLP. about the author Paul Azunre holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT and has served as a Principal Investigator on several DARPA research programs. He founded Algorine Inc., a Research Lab dedicated to advancing AI/ML and identifying scenarios where they can have a significant social impact. Paul also co-founded Ghana NLP, an open source initiative focused using NLP and Transfer Learning with Ghanaian and other low-resource languages. He frequently contributes to major peer-reviewed international research journals and serves as a program committee member at top conferences in the field.

Designed to provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to protect your technology devices from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, SECURITY AWARENESS: APPLYING PRACTICAL CYBERSECURITY IN YOUR WORLD, 6th EDITION continues to present the same practical information that has made previous editions so popular. For most students, practical cybersecurity poses daunting challenges: Do I need antivirus software? How can I manage all my passwords? Can I prevent a ransomware attack? Is there a way to make my Web browser secure? What are patches? This text is designed to help you understand the answers to these questions and to protect your devices and even Wi-Fi networks from cyberattacks. In addition, hands-on projects and case studies give you the opportunity to test your knowledge and apply what you have learned.

Free porn - this phrase conjures images of search engine scams, computer viruses and spam emails. It also hints at an important debate - not over cost-free porn, per se, but over a regulation-free Internet. As Internet usage exploded in the 1990s, so too did the utopian vision of universal access to unregulated information. Differing ideas of obscenity and the United States government's dominion over the web, though, have forced a serious dilemma, centered on Internet pornography, that involves regulation, freedom of information, first amendment rights, feminism and morality. This book examines the phenomenon of Internet pornography, demonstrating how that debate is an important case study in the wider argument over Internet regulation. Chapters objectively uncover the flaws of the most common arguments for and against regulation, and examine efforts to regulate the Internet; community standards of obscenity as grounds for regulation; the free speech debate; and harm to children, women and the moral environment. The author offers a final analysis that regulation of sexually explicit materials is ultimately futile, and that the utility of an unregulated Internet outweighs arguments against regulated sexually explicit materials.

Learn How to Create Immersive Virtual Environments Written by an award-winning designer with 20 years of experience designing virtual environments for television and online communities, Virtual World Design explores the intertwining disciplines of 2D graphics, 3D models, lighting, sound, and storytelling. It illustrates how these disciplines come together by design in the creation of an accessible virtual environment for teaching, research, and entertainment. The book gives anyone the tools and techniques to design virtual environments that support their message and are accessible by all. With 200 illustrations and 12 step-by-step projects, the book delivers hours of creative challenges for people working in public virtual worlds or on private grids. Using the modular components available for download on the author‘s website, readers learn by building such things as a virtual classroom, an "all-access" terrain, and a sound-based game. This book can be the foundation for class work in distance learning, simulation, and other learning technologies that use virtual environments. It shows both novices and advanced users how 3D composition, color, lighting, and sound design are used in the creation of an immersive virtual environment.

Electronic imaging and digital applications have brought numerous benefits for museums, galleries, archives and other organizations in the arts, culture and heritage sectors. Bringing together leading international practitioners from different disciplines, the EVA (Electronic Imaging and the Visual Arts) conferences help those working in the field to gain the most from developments in multimedia technology. This accessible volume collects recent papers from EVA conferences, covering case studies from the world's greatest institutions, as well as from some of the smallest and most innovative. Topics covered include virtual reconstruction of destroyed buildings, digital image archiving, 2D and 3D digitization projects, website evaluation, virtual archaeology, handheld interactive visitor support, exploiting digital cultural heritage and electronic aids for non-speaking people, as well as summaries of international research and technology development. The volume presents in convenient form the wealth of experience of a great variety of international specialists, allowing readers to further enhance the visitor experience of their collections.

Documentation of our cultural heritage is experiencing an explosion of innovation. New tools have appeared in recent decades including laser scanning, rapid prototyping, high dynamic range spherical and infrared imagery, drone photography, augmented and virtual reality and computer rendering in multiple dimensions. These give us visualisations and data that are at once interesting, intriguing and yet sometimes deceptive. This text provides an objective and integrated approach to the subject, bringing together the techniques of conservation with management, photographic methods, various modelling techniques and the use of unmanned aerial systems. This interdisciplinary approach addresses the need for knowledge about deploying advanced digital technologies and the materials and methods for the assessment, conservation, rehabilitation and maintenance of the sustainability of existing structures and designated historic buildings. Furthermore, this book actively provides the knowhow to facilitate the creation of heritage inventories, assessing risk, and addressing the need for sustainability.In so doing it becomes more feasible to mitigate the threats from inherent and external causes, not only for the built heritage but also for moveable objects and intangible heritage that suffer abandonment and negligence as well as looting and illegal trafficking. The book is written by a team of international experts based upon their practical experience and expertise. It therefore creates a unique book that encapsulates the knowledge of this discipline required by anyone working in this field.

Despite the tremendous advances in performance enabled by modern architectures, there are always new applications and demands arising that require ever-increasing capabilities. Keeping up with these demands requires a deep-seated understanding of contemporary architectures in concert with a fundamental understanding of basic principles that allows one to anticipate what will be possible over the system's lifetime. Advanced Computer Architectures focuses on the design of high performance supercomputers with balanced coverage of the hardware, software structures, and application characteristics. This book is a timeless distillation of underlying principles punctuated by real-world implementations in popular current and past commercially available systems. It briefly reviews the basics of uniprocessor architecture before outlining the most popular processing paradigms, performance evaluation, and cost factor considerations. This builds to a discussion of pipeline design and vector processors, data parallel architectures, and multiprocessor systems. Rounding out the book, the final chapter explores some important current and emerging trends such as Dataflow, Grid, biology-inspired, and optical computing. More than 220 figures, tables, and equations illustrate the concepts presented. Based on the author's more than thirty years of teaching and research, Advanced Computer Architectures endows you with the tools necessary to reach the limits of existing technology, and ultimately, to break them.

This non-traditional introduction to the mathematics of scientific computation describes the principles behind the major methods, from statistics, applied mathematics, scientific visualization, and elsewhere, in a way that is accessible to a large part of the scientific community. Introductory material includes computational basics, a review of coordinate systems, an introduction to facets (planes and triangle meshes) and an introduction to computer graphics. The scientific computing part of the book covers topics in numerical linear algebra (basics, solving linear system, eigen-problems, SVD, and PCA) and numerical calculus (basics, data fitting, dynamic processes, root finding, and multivariate functions). The visualization component of the book is separated into three parts: empirical data, scalar values over 2D data, and volumes.

The Handbook of Digital Image Synthesis is the most up-to-date reference guide in the rapidly developing field of computer graphics. A wide range of topics, such as, applied mathematics, data structures, and optical perception and imaging help to provide a well-rounded view of the necessary formulas for computer rendering. In addition to this diverse approach, the presentation of the material is substantiated by numerous figures and computer-generated images. From basic principles to advanced theories, this book, provides the reader with a strong foundation of computer formulas and rendering through a step-by-step process. . Key Features: Provides unified coverage of the broad range of fundamental topics in rendering Gives in-depth treatment of the basic and advanced concepts in each topic Presents a step-by-step derivation of the theoretical results needed for implementation Illustrates the concepts with numerous figures and computer-generated images Illustrates the core algorithms using platform-independent pseudo-code

This comprehensive work provides the fundamentals of computer facial animation and brings into sharper focus techniques that are becoming mainstream in the industry. Over the past decade, since the publication of the first edition, there have been significant developments by academic research groups and in the film and games industries leading to the development of morphable face models, performance driven animation, as well as increasingly detailed lip-synchronization and hair modeling techniques. These topics are described in the context of existing facial animation principles. The second edition provides an up-to-date source for professionals and academic researchers working in the field of facial animation.

Compared to the US, European data and privacy protection rules seem Draconian. The European rules apply to any enterprise doing business in the EU. The new rules are far more stringent than the last set. This book is a quick guide to the directives for companies, particularly US, that have to comply with them. Where US organizations and businesses who collect or receive EU personal data fail to comply with the rule, the bottom line can suffer from very significant official fines and penalties, as well as from users, customers or representative bodies to pursuing litigation. This guide is essential for all US enterprises who directly or indirectly deal with EU personal data.

This two-volume set on Mathematical Principles of the Internet provides a comprehensive overview of the mathematical principles of Internet engineering. The books do not aim to provide all of the mathematical foundations upon which the Internet is based. Instead, these cover only a partial panorama and the key principles. Volume 1 explores Internet engineering, while the supporting mathematics is covered in Volume 2. The chapters on mathematics complement those on the engineering episodes, and an effort has been made to make this work succinct, yet self-contained. Elements of information theory, algebraic coding theory, cryptography, Internet traffic, dynamics and control of Internet congestion, and queueing theory are discussed. In addition, stochastic networks, graph-theoretic algorithms, application of game theory to the Internet, Internet economics, data mining and knowledge discovery, and quantum computation, communication, and cryptography are also discussed. In order to study the structure and function of the Internet, only a basic knowledge of number theory, abstract algebra, matrices and determinants, graph theory, geometry, analysis, optimization theory, probability theory, and stochastic processes, is required. These mathematical disciplines are defined and developed in the books to the extent that is needed to develop and justify their application to Internet engineering.

This book is an introduction to programming concepts that uses Python 3 as the target language. It follows a practical just-in-time presentation - material is given to the student when it is needed. Many examples will be based on games, because Python has become the language of choice for basic game development. Designed as a Year One textbook for introduction to programming classes or for the hobbyist who wants to learn the fundamentals of programming, the text assumes no programming experience. Features: Introduces programming concepts that use Python 3 Includes many examples based on video game development 4-color throughout with game demos on the companion files

Rapidly growing cognitive technologies (such as word processors, web browsers, cell phones, and personal data assistants) aid learning, memory, and problem solving, and contribute to every part of modern life from interviewing crime witnesses to learning a foreign language to calling one's mother. This collection of essays on cognitive technology examines the interaction between the human mind and the tools people create to enhance it, studying which technologies assist cognition the most and what features are most effective. It also considers the point at which the technological enhancement of human ability begins to restrict that very ability, such as the risk of some cognitive technologies impairing cognition or creating disadvantages for individuals or groups. This collection of 11 essays discusses the most recent psychological research in cognitive technology, showcasing the paradigms and theories that have driven the development of new cognitive technologies. It explores the impact of technology on cognitive psychology, the classroom, and social interaction and group problem solving. Topics covered include the distracting characteristics of new technologies (such as the effects of cell phone use on driving ability and of distracting advertisements on problem solving), the study of mass media through assessing memories for media experiences, the media's role in advancing gender and racial prejudices, and the misuse of cognitive technology through identity theft and cyberterrorism. Each essay concludes with a bibliography.

This book is about the fastest growing form of electronic game in the world - the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). It introduces these self-contained three-dimensional virtual worlds, often inhabited by thousands of players, and describes their evolution; it also delves into the psychology of the people who inhabit the game universe and explores the development of unique cultures, economies, moral codes, and slang in virtual communities. The work describes MMORPGs' ever-greater effect on society: for example, players can sell virtual goods for real money, creating a separate economy, and several governments have labeled the games a public health threat. It explains how the games are built, the spin-offs that players create to enhance their game lives, and peeks at the future of MMORPGs as they evolve from a form of amusement to an educational, scientific, and business tool. Based on hundreds of interviews over a three-year period, the work explores reasons people are attracted to and addicted to these games. It also surveys many existing and upcoming games, identifying their unique features and attractions. Two appendices list online addiction organizations and MMORPG information sites.

This book will examine the history of robotics and explicate what massive automation means for the present and future of labor in all its forms, from mills and factories to the white-collars offices of suburbia and more. While warnings of a robot world-takeover could seem dramatic, the truth is more mundane—robots have come to take our jobs. Winning in the Robotic Workplace: How to Prosper in the Automation Age will teach you the skills needed to reprogram the way you work in anticipation of this technological shift. Author John F. Wasik believes learning to thrive in the automation age can in fact humanize the workplace once again. In Winning in the Robotic Workplace: How to Prosper in the Automation Age, you will learn to emphasize the conceptualization and pursuit of creative ideas, a practice that most robots are unequipped to perform in a meaningful way. You will learn that the successful integration of automated elements with humans is the most effective business model moving forward, and that an eagerness to collaborate demonstrates a will to succeed.

Developments in information technology are bringing about changes in science education. This Reader focuses on the theoretical and practical consideration of using information and communications technologies in teaching and learning. It examines current approaches to teaching and learning in science at various levels of education, and ways in which science in made more accessible. This will include the future potential of such current developments as access to practical work delivered on the web. The Reader is divided into three sections: What are the current issues in using ICT to teach and learn in science? Designing and evaluating ICT to teach and learn science Extending access to science learning This is a companion book to Reconsidering Science Education, also published by RoutledgeFalmer. Mediating Science Learning Through ICT is a valuable resource for teachers on Masters courses in science education and academics in science education.

Developments in information technology are bringing about changes in science education. This Reader focuses on the theoretical and practical consideration of using information and communications technologies in teaching and learning. It examines current approaches to teaching and learning in science at various levels of education, and ways in which science in made more accessible. This will include the future potential of such current developments as access to practical work delivered on the web. The Reader is divided into three sections: What are the current issues in using ICT to teach and learn in science? Designing and evaluating ICT to teach and learn science Extending access to science learning This is a companion book to Reconsidering Science Education, also published by RoutledgeFalmer. Mediating Science Learning Through ICT is a valuable resource for teachers on Masters courses in science education and academics in science education.

Advances in communications technology continue to accelerate. To maintain the competitive edge in such a dynamic environment, today's managers, professionals and engineers can expect to be challenged daily to keep pace with the technical and organizational issues, opportunities and threats surrounding the operation and management of any communications system. The purpose of this book is to enable these people to detect, understand, handle and control a communications system during a crisis.

• Integrated use of real-world examples.
• Numerous case studies illustrate how actual disasters are detected, studies, and successfully controlled.
• Delineates the procedures required for the smooth and safe operation of telecommunications, broadcasting and computer systems during a crisis.

Have you ever wondered if that game you love was made into a movie? Flip this book open and find out! Explore the fascinating journey of your favourite video games as they make their way to the silver screen! This comprehensive guide contains information on over forty big-screen adaptations of popular video games, including the histories of the series that inspired them. Covering four decades of movies, readers can learn about some of the most infamous movies in video game history, with genres such as horror, martial arts, comedy and children's animation ensuring there's plenty of trivia and analysis to keep gamers hooked. With nearly two-hundred full colour stills, posters and screenshots, the book is a go-to guide to discovering facts about some of the biggest box office hits and the most disappointing critical bombs in history. From bizarre science fiction like Super Mario Bros. to the latest big budget releases like Monster Hunter, and dozens in between, A Guide to Video Game Movies should please film buffs and die-hard game fans alike. Whether you're looking for rousing blockbuster action, family-friendly entertainment or a late-night B-movie to laugh at with your friends, you're bound to find a movie to fit your taste. Put down your controller and grab your popcorn!

Despite the high profile of ICT in education, finding practical and meaningful ways to integrate ICT into lessons can be a difficult and overwhelming task. This book explores the current use and potential of ICT in the secondary history curriculum, and offers sound theory and practical advice to help secondary history teachers use ICT effectively.
Key areas covered are:
*getting started in ICT and history
*short, medium and long-term planning
*using ICT to develop historical understanding and skills
*data handling in the history classroom
*ICT and maps
*integrating virtual resources with the real world of teaching and learning
With contributions from leading academics and practitioners in history education, this book will be important reading for all secondary history teachers and trainee teachersand will also be of interest to upper primary school teachers.

The term “stringology� is a popular nickname for text algorithms, or algorithms on strings. This book deals with the most basic algorithms in the area. Most of them can be viewed as “algorithmic jewels� and deserve reader-friendly presentation. One of the main aims of the book is to present several of the most celebrated algorithms in a simple way by omitting obscuring details and separating algorithmic structure from combinatorial theoretical background. The book reflects the relationships between applications of text-algorithmic techniques and the classification of algorithms according to the measures of complexity considered. The text can be viewed as a parade of algorithms in which the main purpose is to discuss the foundations of the algorithms and their interconnections. One can partition the algorithmic problems discussed into practical and theoretical problems. Certainly, string matching and data compression are in the former class, while most problems related to symmetries and repetitions in texts are in the latter. However, all the problems are interesting from an algorithmic point of view and enable the reader to appreciate the importance of combinatorics on words as a tool in the design of efficient text algorithms.In most textbooks on algorithms and data structures, the presentation of efficient algorithms on words is quite short as compared to issues in graph theory, sorting, searching, and some other areas. At the same time, there are many presentations of interesting algorithms on words accessible only in journals and in a form directed mainly at specialists. This book fills the gap in the book literature on algorithms on words, and brings together the many results presently dispersed in the masses of journal articles. The presentation is reader-friendly; many examples and about two hundred figures illustrate nicely the behaviour of otherwise very complex algorithms.