Book Description
This book is designed to serve as an introduction to the fascinating world of maps. It explains how to use maps to obtain information about a wide variety of topics. Throughout the book, maps are viewed in a broad framework. Thus, the discussion includes mental maps, aerial photographs, remotely sensed images, computer-assisted cartography, and geographical information systems, in addition to traditional printed maps. The writing style is neither formalistic nor casual, with an emphasis on clarity of explanation. The discussions assume that the reader has no specific prior knowledge of the topic, so that even novice map users can understand and use the information and techniques presented.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent course textbook.......2003-03-24
I received a copy of this book from the publisher when I was teaching a university course on cartography. The textbook for the semester had already been selected, so I used this book originally as a second resource while preparing lectures. By the end of the semester, I found myself using this book as the primary source for topics and explanations and suggested it be used in future semesters.
This book explains concepts such as projections and coordinate systems in ways that are easy to understand, particularly for new students. The explanations are thorough without bogging down in details. The figures are large, many take up a full page. They are helpful, relevant, and excellently reproduced. The chapters on terrain representation, contours, and topographic features are exceptionally good (there are almost 40 examples of terrain representation) The remote sensing and GIS chapters are brief and introductory, but those are topics best left for other books.
I was a little skeptical when I first saw this book, since it appeared to be a somewhat thin, and we were using Robinson's book, which is basically a standard. But, I would recommend this to any map student, teacher, or user. It packs a lot of information in its pages. I still use it as a reference (...).
Great Help.......2001-03-22
If I were stuck on a deserted Island like Tom Hanks in Cast Away, and I could only have one book, it would be this one. It would help me to get off the island and determine my global positioning! Lots of help.
A Cartographer's View of the World.......2000-10-02
When you've been working in a field for 30 years it's really difficult to drag yourself backwards and review data you already know, so when I signed up for a GPS (Global Positioning Sattelite) software course I looked at "Map Use & Analysis" by John Campbell as something I could just skip over, but since it was required reading I finally got it out. I was really pleased with the depth of material and the extremely clear explanations of all those mystifying cartography words. Anyone who has no idea about mapping or is a begining student will be able to use this book. The format is excellent with terms higligted and the index and dictionary are well coordinated. I feel that this book is such an excellent reference that I am buying a copy for myself. The only negative thing I have to say is that the illustrations, which are plentiful seem to wander several pages ahead of text, but they are carefully numbered and correspond exactly to the descriptions. Well done! Les L. Johnson
Book Description
Doing Visual Ethnography explores the use and potential of photography, video and hypermedia in ethnographic and social research. It offers a reflexive approach to theoretical, methodological, practical and ethical issues of using these media `in the field' and `in the academy'. The book follows the research process from project design planning and implementing and practising fieldwork to analysis and representation suggesting how visual images and technologies can be combined to form an integrated process throughout the different stages of research.
Book Description
The fifth edition of this book continues to provide a balanced perspective on the language schools, theories, and applications of artificial intelligence. These diverse branches are unified through detailed discussions of AI's theoretical foundations. The book is broken down into six parts to provide readers complete coverage of AI. It begins by introducing AI concepts, moves into a discussion on the research tools needs for AI problem solving, and then demonstrates representations for AI and knowledge-sensitive problem solving. The second half of the book offers an extensive presentation of issues in machine learning, continues presenting important AI application areas, and presents Lisp and Prolog to the reader. This book is appropriate for programmers both as an introduction to and a reference of the theoretical foundations of artificial intelligence.
Customer Reviews:
Superficial and unclear.......2005-05-27
Trying to gather the greatest audience possible, this book is superficial, completly unclear and boring. Why? Topics are quickly introduced, concepts are rarely analized deeply, it's more discorsive than formal. With so many subjects of AI in the same book not enough space can be given to all of them, so most of the chapters are lists of important algorithms or concepts, barely explained. Do you want to verify it? See the table of contents and the number of pages, and try to see how much space can be given to every point... not enough.
Fantastic Introduction to AI.......2005-01-06
This book really stands out among the AI texts (I've read 4 others). First, the language is clear and simple enough for undergrads to grasp. Second, there are consistent examples that pervade the text to help the reader apply each method to an established problem. Third, the explanations of algorithms/structures are crafted and phrased to TEACH, not merely to summarize a bunch of material for reference purposes. Finally, the programming chapters allow the student to realize the material, and really think about the problems by implementing them and hashing out the details.
I cannot complain about any lack of depth - the length already exceeds 900 pages. To those that desire more, look into academic journals - this is an intro. Moreover, robotics, vision, neural nets, and other topics already have their own "forked" research fields, with textbooks of comparable length focusing on those topics alone!
Enjoy! This text is sure to get you started!
this book not cover much.......2003-07-14
I bought this book for my introduction course in AI. I feel that this book has lack of somethings which are very important, neural networks, and Ai and robotics to name a few. I found that the text is very hard to understand. Again he didn't use enough example to explain some of the topics. I am lost reading this book. The book is not well structured and turned me bored after 30 minutes reading it. The reason are, AI term definations are not included as other book do, few visual diagrams, objective is not well defined. Once again, he didn't include introduction/review of what we acpect to learn of each of every chapters. Reading it is like reading a "white bible". Only plain text and unprofessional layout. This book discorage me reading it. I think i should buy other book that have a wider coverage topics in AI and yet easy to understand, consistent with my AI course syllibus and yet easy for my eyes.
Good For Beginners in AI.......2002-12-05
This is a very good book for anyone wanting to get an insight. Good for the first college course in AI too. It introduces the different areas of AI quite well, and develops logic before doing that. Prolog and LISP are also introduced.
The only reason I wouldn't give this book 5 stars is because
1) The Prolog and LISP features aren't all that great. They could have done better than just explaining what they did.
2) There was very little or almost no depth in the material covered. I wanted to go on reading more about the advanced features, but that never happened. So, I had to go to the library and look for something there.
But a great book for a college course. I wouldn't recommend this for a Grad course in CS...A grad student should be knowing beyond what this book covers.
Don't miss it!.......2002-05-24
This is the best general AI book I've seen this far. It introduces all the popular branches of AI clearly. If you are serious about AI, you should own this book...
Book Description
The primary goal of these lectures is to introduce a beginner to the finite-dimensional representations of Lie groups and Lie algebras. Intended to serve non-specialists, the concentration of the text is on examples. The general theory is developed sparingly, and then mainly as useful and unifying language to describe phenomena already encountered in concrete cases. The book begins with a brief tour through representation theory of finite groups, with emphasis determined by what is useful for Lie groups. The focus then turns to Lie groups and Lie algebras and finally to the heart of the course: working out the finite dimensional representations of the classical groups. The goal of the last portion of the book is to make a bridge between the example-oriented approach of the earlier parts and the general theory.
Customer Reviews:
Very nice.......2002-08-13
An excellent book. The approach, working toward the general theory via examples, has some great pedagogical virtues but also drawbacks. It also means the book has drawbacks as a reference, as important general theorems can be hard to locate (often they are in an appendix, but relevant definitions or lemmas are in several places in the text). Despite the example-oriented style, the level of mathematical sophistication assumed is reasonably high (so some physicists, for example, may find some of the explanations require boning up on certain ideas found more in pure mathematics than physics). However, many things are given very nice explanations that are lacking in some dryer texts (e.g. Varadarajan, or even Humphreys). Particularly nice is the discussion of relations between the representation theory of finite groups and Lie groups. Many mathematicians might find this book an enjoyable read to see connections made and examples worked out at a high level of sophistication, after learning the general theory. Some may also find it useful primarily as a repository of worked-out examples. I found Humphreys book "Introduction to Lie algebras and representation theory (Springer GTM series) to be an essential companion for getting the general theory with full proofs in a somewhat more logical order, if somewhat terse and a tad dry; Knapp's book "Lie groups beyond an introduction" could also serve this purpose, perhaps even somewhat better. If teaching a course, I would probably use this as supplemental reading rather than a primary text (though it could also turn out that gradually-generalizing-from-examples approach works better in a course than for self-teaching). It has been a useful book for me to own, and I recommend it, with the caution that you will probably want to supplement it with a book like Knapp's. (If you want to use only one book, and are reasonably mathematically sophisticated and already know basically what Lie groups and algebras are, use Knapp's.) I am a math-oriented physicist, who recently learned much of this material, using this and other books, in order to use it in my research.
A beautiful exposition.......2000-09-06
This is an absolutely delightful introduction to the theory of Lie groups and their representations. The style is informal but informative, with some of the important proofs hidden in the appendex or even omitted (i.e. existance of the finite dimensional representations for all lie algebras). However, this is a fully rigorous text, and all the important theorems are stated, and most are proved. Mathematicians should suppliment this book with Humphries standard text on Lie algebras. However, this book provides motivation and intuitive insight that Humphries is missing. Additional enjoyment may be derived from the sampling of other unusual topics, such as Schur functors and applications to algebraic geometry. Of course, these can also be omitted as the reader desires. Read a lecture every few nights before bedtime, and soon Lie theory will seem beautiful and almost intuitive.
Brilliantly Clear.......1999-11-22
An excellent companion for anybody learning lie algebras or representation theory. Also good for physics folk needing to pick up more than the basics of lie algebras; a nice followup to a "lie algebras in physics" book (and there are many of those.)
In particular, some people really need to buy this book.
Book Description
Knowledge representation is at the very core of a radical idea for understanding intelligence. Instead of trying to understand or build brains from the bottom up, its goal is to understand and build intelligent behavior from the top down, putting the focus on what an agent needs to know in order to behave intelligently, how this knowledge can be represented symbolically, and how automated reasoning procedures can make this knowledge available as needed.
This landmark text takes the central concepts of knowledge representation developed over the last 50 years and illustrates them in a lucid and compelling way. Each of the various styles of representation is presented in a simple and intuitive form, and the basics of reasoning with that representation are explained in detail. This approach gives readers a solid foundation for understanding the more advanced work found in the research literature. The presentation is clear enough to be accessible to a broad audience, including researchers and practitioners in database management, information retrieval, and object-oriented systems as well as artificial intelligence. This book provides the foundation in knowledge representation and reasoning that every AI practitioner needs.
*Authors are well-recognized experts in the field who have applied the techniques to real-world problems
* Presents the core ideas of KR&R in a simple straight forward approach, independent of the quirks of research systems
*Offers the first true synthesis of the field in over a decade
Customer Reviews:
how to reason about knowledge.......2006-03-13
Brachman and Levesque describe what may be considered the foundations of artificial intelligence. They look at how to represent knowledge. As far more than just a passive collection of facts. The "Reasoning" in the book's title is the important aspect of that representation. You can understand how to apply reasoning in a logical and systematic manner.
Those of you from a computing background may also find similarities between the discussion of object oriented representations and various OO programming languages. You might actually key off these similarities by using the text to guide your KR coding.
Don't have to be a math buff to understand.......2005-06-24
I came across this book looking for a text that would explain the context of First Order Logic, why it is used for so many knowledge representation problems, how it is used to solve them, and its limitations. I must say that this is far and away the best book I've found to answer these questions. If you search around a little at the competition, you will find much of the text quickly turning to mathematical proofs and deductions in their explanations. While this is of course necessary and helpful, it doesn't (for me) really give an idea of how and why these methods are used practically. You can tell that these authors spent some time on ensuring consistency and fluency of the writing, which I find so very helpful.
I'm trying to think of something bad to say about it: I wish it were longer! If you read the preface you will see the authors call it an introduction, which is definitely true. Maybe they will team up again for a more in-depth text on some aspect of this subject.
This book is an Eye-Opener!.......2004-11-25
I love this book- It is a comprehensive introduction into knowledge representation, with enough detail to create your own knowledge representation programs.
Are you a programmer who wonders what it really means when an object *IS* another object, in the form of inheritance found in object-oriented systems? Ever confused by the nuances of multiple inheritance? Ever wonder what XML or OOP or Relational Databases have to do with each other? Ever wonder if all those A.I. programmers in the 70s actually created anything useful? Ever wonder how type systems work? Ever wonder how to store complicated and vague data into a database?
This book doesn't really have answers to these questions (nobody really does, in my opinion) but learning the information in this book is the first step you'll want to take to get closer to some answers...
It basically covers 3 main topics: FOL (traditional logic like you probably learned in college) Frames (sort of the grandaddy of OOP) and Description Logics (a really powerful synthesis of object-thinking with strict logical fundamentals)
This book has a bit of hairy mathematical notation in it, so if your not comfortable talking about things like "an object x that is an element in the domain" some of the chapters will require a bit of effort on your part. The authors are careful, however, to follow every difficult mathematical analysis with some concrete examples that ease the learning process- I often wish examples were more frequent in other theoretical tombs like this. Any computer programmer can process this text with a bit of moderate effort.
I couldn't imagine being a professional programmer and not knowing the information in this book now that I have read it. Although the topics in this book are somewhat obscure today, I think they will receive far greater appreciation in the future- especially among medical software developers. Here's your chance to be ahead of the curve in the field of knowledge representation!
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2001-04-27
I have not yet read this book, but I just finished a class Ms. Grosz taught on Sigmund Freud, and she is a brilliant person. If her books are anything like her teaching skills, this is definitely worth the read!
The mind returns to the body!.......2000-05-17
Grosz's work is a triumph of corporeal phenomenology. The book discusses the role of the body as it pertains to gender, race and sex. The body is not just an atomic aggregate but rather a lived experience. The first part of the book, "Inside Out," explores the psychoanalytic view of the body whereas the part titled "Outside In" covers society's pressures on the body. Grosz concludes by addressing the differences between the male and female body, and how the body-politic cannot be ignored when disucssing femininsm.
Definitely worth a read.......1999-06-05
Thoughtful, energetic discussion of the gendered body. One of the best introductions to Australian feminist theory. quintan wikswo
Book Description
Representationùthe production of meaning through language, discourse, and imageùoccupies a central place in current studies on culture. This broad-ranging text offers a comprehensive outline of how visual images, language, and discourse work as "systems of representation." The chapters explain a variety of approaches to representation, bringing to bear concepts from semiotic, discursive, psychoanalytic, anthropological, sociological, feminist, art-historical, and Foucauldian models of representation. The editors explore representation as a signifying practice in a rich diversity of social contexts and institutional sites, including the use of photography in the construction of national identity and culture; the poetics and politics of exhibiting other cultures in ethnographic museums; fantasies of the racialized other in popular media, film, and image; the construction of masculine identities in discourses of consumer culture and advertising; and the gendering of narratives in television soap operas. Representation analyzes contested and critical questions of meaning, truth, knowledge, and power in representation, and the relations between representation, pleasure, and fantasy. Accessible but not simplified, the book offers a unique perspective for teachers and students in cultural studies and related fields
Customer Reviews:
learning about yourself and others.......2000-04-17
I read this text for an intro class to Cultural Studies, and I really enjoyed it. Hall discusses the issues of race, gender, and class in our society in many interpretations within this text. He shows how all these three are interconnected, and does so in a fascinating way. The question of how did we become the way we are in society is addressed in various ways through different representations: the media, culture, and ourselves. A lot of historical aspects is presented in this text to give the reader more of an answer to the previous question. This text is great for someone who is into cultural studies, or anyone who is interested in just learning more about themselves and making sense of the society around them.
Book Description
Offers a systematic exploration of the legal construction of American democracy. The book brings together a cluster of issues in law regulating the design of democratic institution. Employing historical, comparative, theoretical and doctrinal methods, the book explores foundational questions in the theory and practice of democracy.
Customer Reviews:
A tour de force.......1999-11-23
This is a tour de force on one of the most important yet most neglected areas of the law. I took a course from this book, and it was one of the best experiences I had in law school.
Book Description
What precisely, W. J. T. Mitchell asks, are pictures (and theories of pictures) doing now, in the late twentieth century, when the power of the visual is said to be greater than ever before, and the "pictorial turn" supplants the "linguistic turn" in the study of culture? This book by one of America's leading theorists of visual representation offers a rich account of the interplay between the visible and the readable across culture, from literature to visual art to the mass media.
Customer Reviews:
A classic.......2001-12-04
This book has to be considered as a classic in the field. Ironically, Mitchell's term 'pictorial turn' seems to be more widespread than knowledge of this book, with the unsettling consequence that many people talk about pictures *replacing* the word, and few about the intricate and complex relationship between the two.
The book is surprisingly well written, rarely has an academic book entertained me so much. For everybody who wants to know what *pictorial turn* means from the point of view of the person who coined this phrase, I can only recommend it warmest.
Book Description
Sowa integrates logic, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science into this study of knowledge and its various models and implementations. His definitive new book shows how techniques of artificial intelligence, database design, and object-oriented programming help make knowledge explicit in a form that computer systems can use.
Customer Reviews:
A Unique Contribution.......2005-08-15
In this book, John Sowa conveys diverse and effective insights within the field of knowledge representation (KR). The frameworks he employs are deeply grounded philosphically. (Sowa's previous work on conceptual structures reactivated and extended the innovative work of Charles Sanders Peirce integrating logic and graph theory.) The work reviewed here surveys a wide range of KR issues from basic ontology to agency and processes. Chapter 6, Knowledge Soup, is widely recognized for framing and addressing some of the more demanding, and largely unresolved, challenges in the field.
Throughout the book, issues are explored in a coherent, readable way. Of course, KR implies the use of relevant formalisms, and readers with some background in some AI research tradition will be better prepared to absorb the book's insights. However, for students and scholars looking for an integrated overview, Sowa makes a unique contribution.
Good, but suffers from unnecessary complexity........2000-09-07
I thought the first three chapters did an excellent job of covering advances in knowledge representation. However chapter four is marred by an attempt to present what appears to be virtually every syntax used relating to processes. Somewhere in this gulf of complexity I think he has some basic concepts, but they are hard to reach. It's equivalent to reading a book on algorithms in which the author presents the algorithms in C, Cobol, Fortran, Basic, SAS, etc. Why not just present the concepts within the context of a MINIMUM of syntax? Still the book is worth reading and has good appendixes.
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- Mardi Gras New Orleans
- Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion
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- Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles
- Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction (with InfoTrac )
- North Shore Boston: Country Houses Of Essex County, 1865-1930
- Oil Pastel: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist
- Once Upon a Crime (The Sisters Grimm, Book 4)
- Painting Four Seasons Of Fabulous Flowers
Books Index
Books Home
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Atlases
| Atlases & Maps
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop: The Basics of ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo Updated for ArcGIS 9 (Getting to Know series)
How to Lie with Maps (2nd Edition)
Remote Sensing of the Environment: An Earth Resource Perspective (2nd Edition) (Prentice Hall Series in Geographic Information Science)
Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation
Natural Resource Conservation: Management for a Sustainable Future (9th Edition)
