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Author: Peter Watts Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 1429955198 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 388
Book Description
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.
Author: Peter Watts Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 1429955198 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 388
Book Description
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.
Author: Kurt Guntheroth Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc." ISBN: 1491922036 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 387
Book Description
In today’s fast and competitive world, a program’s performance is just as important to customers as the features it provides. This practical guide teaches developers performance-tuning principles that enable optimization in C++. You’ll learn how to make code that already embodies best practices of C++ design run faster and consume fewer resources on any computer—whether it’s a watch, phone, workstation, supercomputer, or globe-spanning network of servers. Author Kurt Guntheroth provides several running examples that demonstrate how to apply these principles incrementally to improve existing code so it meets customer requirements for responsiveness and throughput. The advice in this book will prove itself the first time you hear a colleague exclaim, “Wow, that was fast. Who fixed something?” Locate performance hot spots using the profiler and software timers Learn to perform repeatable experiments to measure performance of code changes Optimize use of dynamically allocated variables Improve performance of hot loops and functions Speed up string handling functions Recognize efficient algorithms and optimization patterns Learn the strengths—and weaknesses—of C++ container classes View searching and sorting through an optimizer’s eye Make efficient use of C++ streaming I/O functions Use C++ thread-based concurrency features effectively
Author: Jonas Lowgren Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 0262296926 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 220
Book Description
The authors of Thoughtful Interaction Design go beyond the usual technical concerns of usability and usefulness to consider interaction design from a design perspective. The shaping of digital artifacts is a design process that influences the form and functions of workplaces, schools, communication, and culture; the successful interaction designer must use both ethical and aesthetic judgment to create designs that are appropriate to a given environment. This book is not a how-to manual, but a collection of tools for thought about interaction design. Working with information technology—called by the authors "the material without qualities"—interaction designers create not a static object but a dynamic pattern of interactivity. The design vision is closely linked to context and not simply focused on the technology. The authors' action-oriented and context-dependent design theory, drawing on design theorist Donald Schön's concept of the reflective practitioner, helps designers deal with complex design challenges created by new technology and new knowledge. Their approach, based on a foundation of thoughtfulness that acknowledges the designer's responsibility not only for the functional qualities of the design product but for the ethical and aesthetic qualities as well, fills the need for a theory of interaction design that can increase and nurture design knowledge. From this perspective they address the fundamental question of what kind of knowledge an aspiring designer needs, discussing the process of design, the designer, design methods and techniques, the design product and its qualities, and conditions for interaction design.
Author: Norman Fischer Publisher: ISBN: 9781737571506 Category : Languages : en Pages : 149
Book Description
Poetry. "If capitalism is the infection that normalizes and perpetuates all the greed and violence endemic to human creatures (and, of course, it is), in his new book Norman Fischer provides us with a gorgeous inoculation. In a capacious voice that is part every person, part guide and caregiver, part trickster, Fischer leads us through an exhibit of the American psyche at its most beautifully/terribly/complicatedly human. Blake asks us to see a world in a grain of sand; Fischer, in language as precise and relentless as his courage, asks us to expand each nanosecond into an infinity. With tenderness and care, irony and sincerity, Fischer leads us from surprise to surprise through a vastness of recursion, digression, re-vision, doubt, and wisdom. This is an exquisite book from one of the great and lasting gifts of contemporary poetry."--Donna de la Perriere
Author: Arundhati Roy Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 052543481X Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
National Bestseller Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize One of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post * The Boston Globe * Minneapolis Star Tribune * NPR * Newsday * The Guardian * Financial Times * The Christian Science Monitor The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes us on an intimate journey across the Indian subcontinent—from the cramped neighborhoods of Old Delhi and the roads of the new city to the mountains and valleys of Kashmir and beyond, where war is peace and peace is war. Braiding together the lives of a diverse cast of characters who have been broken by the world they live in and then rescued, patched together by acts of love—and by hope, here Arundhati Roy reinvents what a novel can do and can be.
Author: Zachary Davis Publisher: ISBN: 9781952565076 Category : Languages : en Pages : 580
Book Description
The world is being transformed physically and politically. Technology is the handmaiden of much of this change. But since the current sweep of global change is transforming the face of warfare, Special Operations Forces (SOF) must adapt to these circumstances. Fortunately, adaptation is in the SOF DNA. This book examines the changes affecting SOF and offers possible solutions to the complexities that are challenging many long-held assumptions. The chapters explore what has changed, what stays the same, and what it all means for U.S. SOF. The authors are a mix of leading experts in technology, business, policy, intelligence, and geopolitics, partnered with experienced special operators who either cowrote the chapters or reviewed them to ensure accuracy and relevance for SOF. Our goal is to provide insights into the changes around us and generate ideas about how SOF can adapt and succeed in the emerging operational environment.
Author: United Nations Publisher: UN ISBN: 9789211217599 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
In 2010, the Latin American and Caribbean region showed great resilience to the international financial crisis and became the world region with the fastest-growing flows of both inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI). The upswing in FDI in the region has occurred in a context in which developing countries in general have taken on a greater share in both inward and outward FDI flows. This briefing paper is divided into five sections. The first offers a regional overview of FDI in 2010. The second examines FDI trends in Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic. The third describes the presence China is beginning to build up as an investor in the region. Lastly, the fourth and fifth sections analyze the main foreign investments and business strategies in the telecommunications and software sectors, respectively.
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Publisher: ISBN: 9780309685108 Category : Languages : en Pages : 448
Book Description
High-quality primary care is the foundation of the health care system. It provides continuous, person-centered, relationship-based care that considers the needs and preferences of individuals, families, and communities. Without access to high-quality primary care, minor health problems can spiral into chronic disease, chronic disease management becomes difficult and uncoordinated, visits to emergency departments increase, preventive care lags, and health care spending soars to unsustainable levels. Unequal access to primary care remains a concern, and the COVID-19 pandemic amplified pervasive economic, mental health, and social health disparities that ubiquitous, high-quality primary care might have reduced. Primary care is the only health care component where an increased supply is associated with better population health and more equitable outcomes. For this reason, primary care is a common good, which makes the strength and quality of the country's primary care services a public concern. Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care puts forth an evidence-based plan with actionable objectives and recommendations for implementing high-quality primary care in the United States. The implementation plan of this report balances national needs for scalable solutions while allowing for adaptations to meet local needs.
Author: Canada. Human Resources Development Canada Publisher: ISBN: Category : Agricultural machinery Languages : en Pages : 164
Book Description
This analysis is directed at the farm equipment mechanic who is capable of setting up, performing pre-delivery work, servicing, and repairing modern farm tractors, machinery, and attachments used in farm enterprises. The analysis identifies tasks and sub-tasks performed by such a mechanic, arranged in blocks of distinct operations relevant to that occupation. These blocks include workplace safety, basic job skills, engines & engine systems, drive train & drive train systems, hydraulics & hydraulic systems, electrical & electronic systems, steering & braking systems, structural components & accessories, and crop equipment. For each task, the document outlines the element of skill and knowledge needed to perform the task adequately, identifies any shifts or changes in technology that affect the task, lists tools and equipment required for the task, and provides an indication of whether the task has been validated by each province and territory. The appendix includes a list of tools and equipment used in the occupation, and a tabulation of the percentage of time a worker spends performing each block and task in a given year (by province/territory and for Canada as a whole).
Author: Peter Watts
Author: Peter Watts
Author: Kurt Guntheroth
Author: Jonas Lowgren
Author: Norman Fischer
Author: Arundhati Roy
Author: Zachary Davis
Author: United Nations
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Author: Canada. Human Resources Development Canada
Author: Maria S. Plakhotnik