Posts Tagged ‘Books’

Service Included

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

A witty and informative story of a woman who works her way up to the wait staff of a four-star NY restaurant, Per Se. This very readable book goes through the establishment of a new restaurant, and it’s striving for a great review from the NY Times food critic. The story also mirrors the author’s involvement in the restaurant and her romantic involvements to the point where she is ready to move on form the restaurant but happy to stay with her current lover and companion. As you read the story you are also let in on the secrets of a successful restaurant, and the characteristics of great servers. This is highly recommended if you like food, like learning about restaurant life, and like a good read. Enjoy yourself,  go to a good restaurant but first read “Service Included.”

Book Project - Web Server Applications

Thursday, January 29th, 2004

Once again, I’m working with a co-author, Karen Anewalt on a book project. It’s a text-book with working title “A Practical Introduction to Web Server Applications.” A book for students who want to know how to set up and use a Web server to provide applications on the Web. It deals almost entirely with tools, methods, techniques, and concepts on the server-side of any Web presence. As we write it we’re using it in a course we’re teaching this semester. I teach one section, and Karen teaches another.

This will be the seventh book project I’ve worked on with others. You can see a list of many of the books I’ve done at amazon.com. I’ve also done few on my own, and they are also listed at amazon, or you can see a list on my home page.

A Shortcut Through Time

Monday, July 14th, 2003

I found the book “A Shortcut Through Time” By George Johnson, published by Alfred A Knopf, 2003, ISBN 0-375-41193-3 on the recent additions shelf of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library.

It was the subtitle, “The Path to the Quantum Computer” , that really got me interested. I teach computer science at Mary Washington College and I didn’t know the first thing about quantum computing before reading this book. Now I feel like I know something! Johnson’s explanations are clear and to the point. They really made sense to me given my back ground in mathematics and the fact that I’ve been teaching computer science for lots of years. I’d recommend this book to anyone with an interest in science and with the ability to follow a technical discussion in general terms. He does an excellent job of exposition of a subtle and difficult subject. He states in the preface that “science writing involves spinning an illusion.” The illusion is that the material came to be understood in a straight forward manner, and so it is easy for the reader to grasp and comprehend. It’s not very easy to do that when discussing quantum mechanics and quantum computing, but George Johnson does a very good job at it. Read this book!

A Quantum Leap in Cryptography” appeared in on July 15, 2003 in Business Week Online.