The *Big* Data Glossary is actually a relatively *short* book, best enjoyed as an eBook in my estimation. This volume is similar to a number of recent releases from O’Reilly that have moved from being deep and comprehensive to providing a higher-level taste-test overview from a more conceptual standpoint. In this instance, the Big Data …
Insightful, substantive and a must read for anyone working with data visualisation as consumer or designer. Julie Steele andNoah Iliisky’s new volume — Designing Data Visualisations — from O’Reilly succeeds in applying a long overdue and well crafted taxonomic process to the art of Data Vis. Building on their previous volume — Beautiful Visualisations — …
Iconic and authentic. I remember being mildly amused by the first incarnation of Andy Hertzfeld’s collection of anecdotes when it was first published. Revolution in the Valley was an intriguing and engaging set of reminiscences by many of those involved in making the Macintosh a reality collected from folklore.org. Newly re-released in 2011 here I …
Before I jump into the book I thought I would quickly note what my expectations are so that these are clear in the evaluation. Flash Catalyst is a high-level web development tool that allows for creation of flash-based web pages directly from Photoshop or Illustrator. Although these can be deployed to production environments from what …
I wouldn’t typically review my more general reading material here, but Anglo Republic: Inside the Bank that Broke Ireland by Simon Carswell warranted an exception. A thoroughly satisfying and compelling read, Carswell documents the rise and fall of the bank demonised by the Irish media in a superb fashion. Eagerly anticipated, the volume brings together …
Why? Unfortunately I quickly come to this question and don’t get an answer when reading Getting Started with Geo, CouchDB and Node.js. The brief summary and end piece of the book enticed me. The premise appeared to be: today’s technology tells us where we are, so how can we best work with this locational data? …
Mac OS X Lion Pocket Guide by Chris Seibold is one of those handly small books that O’Reilly does so well. In this case, we have a concise, but thorough, look at the key features and facets of Apple’s latest operating system and how it changes the way in which we interact with our Macs. …
What a great excursion down a wonderful project! A lovely, short, step-by-step brief, DIY Bookbinding by Brian Sawyer inspires the reader to attempt their own bookbinding project. Although only 32 pages in length, the author makes the process of binding together a collection of magazines into a durable hardcover tome quite approachable and achievable.
Wow! This is the manual that should come with the camera. If you, like me, come away from the stock manual disappointed, frustrated, or just feeling that it simply leaves out all the practical ‘why’ type information…get this book. Coming on the heels of Young’s previous Mastering a variety of other Nikon DSLR’s this latest …
I really like an instructional book that begins with “Chapter2 provides some background on RDF, the semantic web, and where SPARQL fits in, but before going into that, let’s start with bit of hands-on experience writing and running SPARQL queries to keep the background part from looking too theoretical.” Great decision — great start. I …