Information technology (IT) is a label that is used in many ways in today’s increasingly technically focused world. Such wide and varied usage of the “information technology” or “IT” label can lead to confusion and unneces- sary complexity. For that reason, I begin this book with an explanation of the context in which I am addressing IT. IT is more than a function within a business an…
The papers in this volume are collected from speakers at a forum held on Capitol Hill entitled Broadband Technology Forum: The Future Of The Internet In The Broadband Age.1 All of the speakers are active in the public policy debates, regulatory proceedings and court cases that have been defining the contours of the next generation of the Internet. The purpose of the forum was to engage staffe…
The present decade has seen a blossoming of software tools, research pro- jects, and everyday practice that can loosely be characterized under the heading of ‘online deliberation’. A community has formed around this con- cept, and has met in international conferences, workshops, and special in- terest group sessions. The present volume, which grew out of the Second Conference on Online Deli…
At the time of my last period of fieldwork in Madagascar,1 Brika was seventeen. I had invited him to my house to participate in the study I was conducting about death and the ancestors (cf. Harris, Chapter 2). As with all other participants, I introduced Brika to the task by telling him that I was going to narrate a short story followed by several questions. I reassured him that these questions…
A liability is an existing debt or obligation of a company. It is an amount owed to a third-party creditor that requires something of value, usually cash, to be transferred to the creditor to settle the debt. Most obligations are known amounts based on invoices and con- tracts; some liabilities are estimated because the value that changes hands is not fixed at the time of the initial transactio…
Although the two terms “technology” and “engineering” are interlaced, the prin- ciples of each subject and their capabilities are quite different. Generally, de fi nition of technology is broader than that of engineering, and from a normative standpoint, it is a part of coevolution process with society (Keulartz et al. 2004). Technology emerges from ideas and wills for creating and u…
When building a new application, often one of the first things you’ll want to do is to design its data model. In relational databases such as MySQL, this step is formalized in the process of normalization, focused on removing redundancy from a set of tables. MongoDB, unlike relational databases, stores its data in structured documents rather than the fixed tables required in relational databa…
By its very nature, a very large distributed,decentralized,self-organized,and evolving system necessarily yields uncertain and incomplete measurements and data.Probability and statistics are the fundamental mathematical tools that allow us to model, reason and proceed with inference in uncertain environments. Not only are probabilistic methods needed to deal with noisy measurements, but many of…
This book is dedicated to my guru Paramhansa Yogananda (1893–1952), who brought the supreme technique of Kriya Yoga meditation to the West
Fair value accounting is the accounting profession’s equivalent of the automobile commercials you have seen on television, showing a vehicle racing around an obstacle course or bouncing over hills, along with a dis- claimer saying something to the effect that “This is a professional stunt driver on a closed course. Do not try this at home!” Fair value accounting is not for the timid. It i…
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit, Third Edition, is a comprehensive technical resource for installing, configuring, and supporting Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 in networks that use Microsoft Windows Server operating systems and other server systems. All versions of Windows XP Professional are covered, with an emphasis on Windows XP Service Pack 2. Feature and f…
For much of the last 20 years, I have sifted through thousands of files relating to hundreds of relationships involving financial institutions in different parts of the world that have either facilitated crimes or laundered the proceeds of crimes on behalf of customers. I have tried to maintain a balanced perspective, recognising that many financial institutions are committed to the preventio…
Our world is dominated by an urban culture. Cities not only represent economies of density, but also economics of interaction. They incorporate both quantity and quality. Cities are not just geographical settlements of people, they are also the ‘home of man’ (Ward 1976). They reflect the varied history of mankind and are at the same time contemporaneous expressions of the diversity of human…
I wrote my first book on JavaScript 15 years ago, and had to scramble just to find enough material to fill a book. With the JavaScript Cookbook, I had to choose among hundreds of uses to determine what to include. After all these years of watching JavaScript grow, I am still surprised at how far-reaching the use of JavaScript has become. In my opinion, there is no more useful programming langua…
One of the most difficult problems confronting patients with various disorders and diseases is finding the best help available. Everyone is aware of friends or family who have sought treatment from a seemingly reputable practitioner, only to find out later from another doctor that the original diagnosis was wrong or the treatments recommended were inappropriate or perhaps even harmful.