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Aug 26, 2011 | No Comments
The Extreme Principle is to do what matters most and to do what works best. When educational decisions and actions are guided by The Extreme Principle, results improve. The Extreme Principle helps teachers, school administrators, superintendents, school board members, and politicians make decisions and take actions that improve schools because the decisions and actions are based on what matters most and what works best. This book gives the reader a critique of the typical, bureaucratic, mandated education reform efforts which often fail and which often lead to another education reform effort which also is likely to fail. This book shows a better way to improve what is done in classrooms, throughout a school, in an entire school district, and at the state or national levels of education policy development. The better way is guided by application of The Extreme Principle. The reader of this book_teacher, school administrator, political leader, citizen_will find that the common sense ideas and real world examples from this book lead to a very obvious conclusion: that the way to improve education is to do what matters most and to do what works best. Download Here If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $3 a beer or $7.5 for a pitcher)
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Aug 26, 2011 | No Comments
Computer vision encompasses the construction of integrated vision systems and the application of vision to problems of real-world importance. The process of creating 3D models is still rather difficult, requiring mechanical measurement of the camera positions or manual alignment of partial 3D views of a scene. However using algorithms, it is possible to take a collection of stereo-pair images of a scene and then automatically produce a photo-realistic, geometrically accurate digital 3D model. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the methods, theories and algorithms of 3D computer vision. Almost every theoretical issue is underpinned with practical implementation or a working algorithm using pseudo-code and complete code written in C++ and MatLab®. There is the additional clarification of an accompanying website with downloadable software, case studies and exercises. Organised in three parts, Cyganek and Siebert give a brief history of vision research, and subsequently: present basic low-level image processing operations for image matching, including a separate chapter on image matching algorithms; explain scale-space vision, as well as space reconstruction and multiview integration; demonstrate a variety of practical applications for 3D surface imaging and analysis; provide concise appendices on topics such as the basics of projective geometry and tensor calculus for image processing, distortion and noise in images plus image warping procedures. An Introduction to 3D Computer Vision Algorithms and Techniques is a valuable reference for practitioners and programmers working in 3D computer vision, image processing and analysis as well as computer visualisation. It would also be of interest to advanced students and researchers in the fields of engineering, computer science, clinical photography, robotics, graphics and mathematics. Download Here If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $3 a beer or $7.5 for a pitcher)
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Aug 26, 2011 | No Comments
As a department manager, the last thing you want to think about is numbers. But the truth is, that’s the only thing your executives and senior managers are thinking about so it’s crucial to understand key financial information like balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, budgets and forecasts, and annual reports. With over 40,000 copies sold, “The Essentials of Finance and Accounting for Nonfinancial Managers” has long provided readers with insight into the financial fundamentals. It demystifies the role accounting and finance play in a corporation, demonstrates how financial decisions reflect business goals, and shows how managers can connect corporate financial information directly to their own strategies and actions. Now revised to reflect new accounting and financial standards, the second edition includes: strategies for getting your share of the budget; new case studies and practice sessions; an explanation of Sarbanes-Oxley and its relevance to nonfinancial managers; how to manage cash flow in tough times; fraud detection tools; and, an expanded glossary including up-to-the-minute business concepts and terminology. Download Here If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $3 a beer or $7.5 for a pitcher)
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Aug 26, 2011 | No Comments
RESEARCH METHODS LABORATORY MANUAL FOR PSYCHOLOGY is a one-of-a-kind solution for research methods classes. Experiments found within the text and on the CD-ROM cover such topics as the Stroop Effect, gender pronouns, and mood and perception, allowing you to experience research methods hands-on while focusing you on the asking and answering of interesting questions, rather than on the actual tracking down of materials. Download Here If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $3 a beer or $7.5 for a pitcher)
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Aug 26, 2011 | No Comments
Implementing Cisco Unified Communications Voice over IP and QoS (CVOICE) Foundation Learning Guide is a Cisco ® -authorized, self-paced learning tool for CCNP Voice foundation learning. Developed in conjunction with the Cisco CCNP Voice certification team, it covers all aspects of planning, designing, and deploying Cisco VoIP networks and integrating gateways, gatekeepers, and QoS into them. Updated throughout for the new CCNP Voice (CVOICE) Version 8.0 exam (642-437), this guide teaches you how to implement and operate gateways, gatekeepers, Cisco Unified Border Element, Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express, and QoS in a voice network architecture. Coverage includes voice gateways, characteristics of VoIP call legs, dial plans and their implementation, basic implementation of IP phones in Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express environment, and essential information about gatekeepers and Cisco Unified Border Element. The book also provides information on voice-related QoS mechanisms that are required in Cisco Unified Communications networks. Fourteen video lab demonstrations on the accompanying CD-ROM walk you step by step through configuring DHCP servers, CUCME autoregistration, ISDN PRI circuits, PSTN dial plans, DID, H.323 and MGCP gateways, VoIP dial peering, gatekeepers, COR, AutoQoS VoIP, and much more. Whether you are preparing for CCNP Voice certification or simply want to gain a better understanding of VoIP and QoS, you will benefit from the foundation information presented in this book. – Voice gateways, including operational modes, functions, related call leg types, and routing techniques – Gateway connections to traditional voice circuits via analog and digital interfaces – Basic VoIP configuration, including A/D conversion, encoding, packetization, gateway protocols, dial peers, and transmission of DTMF, fax, and modem tones – Supporting Cisco IP Phones with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express – Dial plans, including digit manipulation, path selection, calling privileges, and more – Gatekeepers, Cisco Unified Border Elements, and call admission control (CAC) configuration – QoS issues and mechanisms – Unique DiffServ QoS characteristics and mechanisms – Cisco AutoQoS configuration and operation Companion CD-ROM The CD-ROM that accompanies this book contains 14 video lab demonstrations running approximately 90 minutes. This book is in the Foundation Learning Guide Series. These guides are developed together with Cisco ® as the only authorized, self-paced learning tools that help networking professionals build their understanding of networking concepts and prepare for Cisco certification exams. Download Here If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $3 a beer or $7.5 for a pitcher)
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Aug 26, 2011 | No Comments
Millions of people have embraced online networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, but too few understand how much influence these sites can have in accelerating their job search and career. This timely book unveils the reality that online networking is more than a fun way to pass time. It’s a career management strategy that is rapidly changing the way job seekers and employers connect in the world of work. With this guide, readers will discover how to launch their online networking efforts and will gain advice for getting the most out of LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs and other sites. They’ll also learn how to find jobs, seek advice, research employers, build a network, and create online portfolios and blogs. Additional guidance and worksheets help readers develop and communicate their personal brand online. Download Here If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $3 a beer or $7.5 for a pitcher)
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Aug 26, 2011 | No Comments
Discover how to achieve release-quality mixes even in the smallest studios by applying power-user techniques from the world’s most successful producers. Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio is a down-to-earth primer for small-studio enthusiasts who want chart-ready sonics in a hurry. Drawing on the back-room strategies of more than 100 famous names, this entertaining guide leads you step-by-step through the entire mixing process. On the way, you’ll unravel the mysteries of every type of mix processing, from simple EQ and compression through to advanced spectral dynamics and “fairy dust” effects. User-friendly explanations introduce technical concepts on a strictly need-to-know basis, while chapter summaries and assignments are perfect for school and college use. Learn the subtle editing, arrangement, and monitoring tactics which give industry insiders their competitive edge, and master the psychological tricks which protect you from all the biggest rookie mistakes. Find out where you don’t need to spend money, as well as how to make a limited budget really count. Pick up tricks and tips from leading-edge engineers working on today’s multi-platinum hits, including Michael Brauer, Serban Ghenea, the Lord-Alge brothers, Tony Maserati, Manny Marroquin, Dave “Hard Drive” Pensado, Jack Joseph Puig, Mark “Spike” Stent, Phil Tan, Andy Wallace, and many, many more . . . Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Mike Senior on Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio , “The ‘Why The Hell’ Challenge” Whenever I read anything about mixing, my first question is this: why the hell should I believe what this person’s saying? It would therefore be daft of me to expect any better treatment. So why should you believe me when I say that you can create commercial-grade mixes in a typical small home/college studio? My first answer to this question is that you can judge for yourself, with your own ears, because dozens of my mixes for Sound On Sound magazine’s popular “Mix Rescue” column are available free online–there’s a taster of some of them on this very page, and lots more available on my own webpage. In all these cases I’ve started with real-world small-studio recordings and used widely available mass-market technology to remix it to a commercial level, all without ever setting foot inside a “real” studio. Go on, take a listen. If you want that kind of transformation for your music, then you can find a detailed explanation of my method in Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio . The second reason you might want to take notice of these mixing techniques, though, is that they’ve been drawn not only from my own professional experience, but also from more than four million words of first-hand interviews with the highest-profile engineers and producers on the planet. Whatever you think of my personal advice, it’s a bit trickier to dismiss the opinions of 100 of the studio industry’s biggest names. But at the end of the day it’s your call: does Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio pass your own “why the hell” test? You might just find that it’s the only mixing book on the market that actually does . . . –Mike Senior Amazon Exclusive: Top Ten Small-Studio Myths–Busted Amongst many other things in Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio , I try to deliver a stout kicking to the following questionable (but surprisingly pervasive) pieces of received wisdom: You need high-end gear to create commercial-grade mixes. While great gear makes mixing quicker and easier, it’s not a deal-breaker. To demonstrate this, I deliberately do all my “Mix Rescue” remixes for Sound On Sound magazine on budget gear in small home/college studios. In some cases, I’ve even restricted myself to the DAW’s built-in plug-ins too–as Greg Kurstin did when mixing Lily Allen’s hit record The Fear. If you won’t take my word for it, though, here’s top producer Frank Filipetti: “Your ears, your mind, your musical abilities are what it’s all about. Put a George Massenburg, a Hugh Padgham, a Kevin Killen together with any kind of gear, and you’ll get a great-sounding record.” Tony Visconti is one of many others who back him up: “I’ve heard people make very bad records on expensive gear. The gear does not dictate the quality. It’s how you use it.” So I’m afraid that if your mix sucks, your mixing technique sucks. No two ways about it. Use the speakers with the flattest frequency response. This isn’t actually the most important thing when working under budget constraints, because your ear can adapt to a speaker’s frequency balance quite readily. When you’ve not got much money to buy monitors for mixing, a flat frequency response is much less critical than good time-domain response. Indeed, the two most celebrated mixing speakers of all time, the Yamaha NS10 and the Auratone 5C Super Sound Cube, both have extremely uneven frequency-response plots, but excellent time-domain performance. Trust your ears. They may be all you’ve got to hear with, but if you’re going to achieve pro-standard mixes then you should trust your ears about as far as you can stretch them! They will lie to you at every opportunity if you give them half a chance, and you need to stay vigilant to avoid being caught out. Ever had that “morning after” horror of realizing that last night’s great-sounding mix actually sounds like a wasp in a tin? Or have you ever carefully adjusted a mix effect for five minutes before realizing the stupid thing isn’t actually plugged in? Those common experiences are just the tip of the iceberg, and it’s only by learning to work around the fickleness of your own hearing that you can begin to get decent mix results reliably. Timing/tuning-correction kills the music! Corrective processing can certainly produce unmusical results, but it’s important to realize that it doesn’t have to, even if you’re just using the editing facilities built into your software DAW. Furthermore, almost every small-studio production I’ve worked on sounded more musical (and became a lot easier to mix) once careful timing and tuning correction had been applied. And I’ve yet to have a single client complain about it either! Start your mix with the drums. That might work with some mixes, but it’s often not the best decision. For example, in a lot of styles you actually want to give the lead vocals the biggest “wow” factor, sonically speaking. In that case, it’s much better to start with those while your ears are fresh, and while you’ve still got lots of mix real estate and computer CPU power to play with. Try to make every instrument sound its best. This can be a recipe for disaster at mixdown. The moment you put two instruments together, each will inevitably compromise the quality of the other, and mixing is not just about deciding which instruments need to sound best–it’s also about deciding which can afford to sound less good. You may need to make some parts of your mix sound worse in order to make your all-important lead vocal sound better, for instance. As producer John Leckie puts it: “You can’t have spectacular everything–then you wonder why the mix doesn’t sound any good, because everything’s crowding everything else. When you solo the instruments, everything sounds good, but when it’s all put together it’s a jumbled-up mess, so something’s got to give way.” Reverb has to sound natural. Wrong. Although realistic-sounding room simulation has its place in many mixes, there’s a whole lot more to using reverb effects than that. Even the dodgiest-sounding reverb unit can prove extremely handy when enhancing an instrument’s tone/decay characteristics, or stereo image. In fact, a lot of the established classic reverb units sound pretty unnatural (the AMS RMX16, say, or the EMT 140 plate), but that doesn’t stop them from appearing all over the current charts. Perhaps it just needs professional mastering? (If only I had the Celestial Systems Mix Perfectizer plug-in!) I call this the “silver bullet” myth–that comforting delusion that the only thing separating your mix from the ones you hear on the radio is some single esoteric process. Well, here’s some news: I’ve heard thousands of real small-studio mixes, as well as remixing dozens of them for “Mix Rescue,” and whenever I hear someone utter the silver bullet myth, it’s never, ever a single “magic ingredient” that their mix actually needs! The malaise can almost always be traced to a whole selection of minor misjudgments that have been made at various points in the arrangement, editing, and mixing process. In other words, if you improve your basic mixing technique, the “fairy dust” will look after itself. But you just can’t do that! In mixing the end justifies the means. Whatever you’re given to work from, the bottom line is that you’re expected to turn it into something that sounds like a finished record. It doesn’t matter if you have to replace the drums with samples, stuff synth pads between the guitar layers, add new backing vocals, or remove certain instruments entirely–just as long as your final product sounds great enough to make the client a happy bunny. Professionals don’t make mistakes. Rubbish. Professionals make mistakes like everyone else, but they turn them to their advantage. “You’re going to make mistakes,” says Humberto Gatica. “The important thing is to learn from them.” Mixing in particular is one long experiment, in which mistakes play a vital role by identifying any mixing tactics that are unsuitable for the job at hand. For this reason professional engineers at the highest level will cheerfully scrap a mix completely and redo it. “I will often restart mixes three or four times,” reveals Fabian Marasciullo. “Put everything back to zero and try again, re-blend and EQ everything.” Justin Niebank doesn’t think twice about heading back to the drawing board either: “I’m not afraid to pull all the faders back down again if it doesn’t work. That’s too great a hurdle for many engineers: but if necessary, don’t get precious, and start over.” Download Here If you liked this post, buy me a beer. 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Aug 26, 2011 | No Comments
Adobe Flex: Training from the Source is the best-selling and most trusted resource for learning about Adobe Flex. Written by a team of authors with practical experience as consultants, mentors and developers of courseware, this book/CD uses project-based tutorials, and is designed to teach beginning Flex developers the details of building and architecting real-world rich internet applications using Flash Builder incorporating MXML and ActionScript 3.0. The book includes a CD that contains all the files used in the lessons, plus completed projects for comparison. This latest edition includes complete coverage of new Flex 4.5 features, such as new enhancements to the Spark architecture and component set. It will also show you how to take advantage of the improvements to core Flex infrastructure for large application development. Download Here If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $3 a beer or $7.5 for a pitcher)
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Aug 26, 2011 | No Comments
Media professionals today are facing numerous changes within mass media that will continue to impact the creation and delivery of persuasive messages. The Handbook of Research on Digital Media and Advertising: User Generated Content Consumption bridges the gap between professional and academic perceptions of advertising in new media environments through defining the evolution of consumerism within the context of media change. Containing findings from international experts, this Handbook of Research provides coverage of practical issues related to consumer power shifts, economic issues related to media exposure, and definitions to understand the dynamics involved with consumerism. Download Here If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $3 a beer or $7.5 for a pitcher)
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Aug 26, 2011 | No Comments
Architects look at thousands of buildings during their training, and study critiques of those buildings written by masters. In contrast, most software developers only ever get to know a handful of large programs well – usually programs they wrote themselves – and never study the great programs of history. As a result, they repeat one another’s mistakes rather than building on one another’s successes. This book’s goal is to change that. In it, the authors of twenty-five open source applications explain how their software is structured, and why. What are each program’s major components? How do they interact? And what did their builders learn during their development? In answering these questions, the contributors to this book provide unique insights into how they think. Download Here If you liked this post, buy me a beer. (Suggested: $3 a beer or $7.5 for a pitcher)
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