James Bach’s smart and empowering guide to self-education, which shows how leading a life in pursuit of passion can lead to fulfillment and success.

Like so many young people, James Bach, the son of the famous author Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull) struggled in school. While he excelled in subjects that interested him, he barely passed the courses that didn't. By the time he was sixteen he had dropped out. He taught himself computer programming and software design and started working as a manager at Apple Computers only four years later - and he never looked back. With The Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar, James shows us how he developed his own education on his own terms, how that unorthodox education brought him success, and how the reader can do it too. In his uniquely pithy and anecdotal style James uses the metaphor of a buccaneer to describe anyone whose love of learning and pursuit of knowledge is not bound by institutions or authorities. James outlines the eleven elements of his self-education method and shows how every reader - simply investing time and passion into educating themselves about the things that really interest them - can develop a method for acquiring knowledge and expertise that fits their temperaments and showcases their unique abilities and skills. Particularly well-suited for an audience grappling with the challenges posed by the internet, but also appropriate for parents looking to help and school their children or employees hoping to jumpstart their careers, The Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar is a groundbreaking and uplifting work that empowers and inspires its readers.

"A Buccaneer-Scholar is anyone whose love of learning is not muzzled or shackled by any institution or authority; whose mind is driven to wander and find its own place in the world." The volatility of the job market and the limitless opportunities afforded by the internet have forever changed people's attitudes about schooling. In this world of rapid technological development, people are becoming successful, making money and finding personal satisfaction through non-traditional means. Ideas have become more important than training; innovation is more important than credentials. The ability to educate oneself -- to learn how to learn -- is crucial. James Bach, the son of bestselling author Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull,) understands that. Like so many young people, James struggled in school, eventually dropping out at age sixteen. A few years later, he was leading a team at Apple Computer. Now an internationally recognized expert in the field of computer software testing, James has written Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: a groundbreaking book that shows how anyone can create their own education on their own terms. It is nurturing our individual curiosities and relishing the learning process that will lead anyone -- from children struggling in school to professionals looking to jumpstart their careers -- to success. In his unique pithy and anecdotal style, and combining his personal story with proven methodologies, James describes the relentless, whimsical, low-intensity learning process he calls "buccaneering." Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar demonstrates that it is the people who chart their own course, who never stop learning, who will come to dominate this new world.

Softwaretests stellen eine kritische Phase in der Softwareentwicklung dar. Jetzt zeigt sich, ob das Programm die entsprechenden Anforderungen erfüllt und sich auch keine Programmierungsfehler eingeschlichen haben. Doch wie bei allen Phasen im Software-Entwicklungsprozess gibt es auch hier eine Reihe möglicher Fallstricke, die die Entdeckung von Programmfehlern vereiteln können. Deshalb brauchen Softwaretester ein Handbuch, das alle Tipps, Tricks und die häufigsten Fehlerquellen genau auflistet und erläutert, damit mögliche Testfehler von vornherein vermieden werden können. Ein solches Handbuch ersetzt gut und gerne jahr(zehnt)elange Erfahrung und erspart dem Tester frustrierende und langwierige Trial-und-Error-Prozeduren. Chem Kaner und James Bach sind zwei der international führenden Experten auf dem Gebiet des Software Testing. Sie schöpfen hier aus ihrer insgesamt 30-jährigen Erfahrung. Die einzelnen Lektionen sind nach Themenbereichen gegliedert, wie z.B. Testdesign, Test Management, Teststrategien und Fehleranalyse. Jede Lektion enthält eine Behauptung und eine Erklärung sowie ein Beispiel des entsprechenden Testproblems. "Lessons Learned in Software Testing" ist ein unverzichtbarer Begleiter für jeden Software Tester.

The price of college tuition has increased more than any other major good or service for the last twenty years. Nine out of ten American high school seniors aspire to go to college, yet the United States has fallen from world leader to only the tenth most educated nation. Almost half of college students don't graduate; those who do have unprecedented levels of federal and private student loan debt, which constitutes a credit bubble similar to the mortgage crisis. The system particularly fails the first-generation, the low-income, and students of color who predominate in coming generations. What we need to know is changing more quickly than ever, and a rising tide of information threatens to swamp knowledge and wisdom. America cannot regain its economic and cultural leadership with an increasingly ignorant population. Our choice is clear: Radically change the way higher education is delivered, or resign ourselves to never having enough of it. The roots of the words "university" and "college" both mean community. In the age of constant connectedness and social media, it's time for the monolithic, millennium-old, ivy-covered walls to undergo a phase change into something much lighter, more permeable, and fluid. The future lies in personal learning networks and paths, learning that blends experiential and digital approaches, and free and open-source educational models. Increasingly, you will decide what, when, where, and with whom you want to learn, and you will learn by doing. The university is the cathedral of modernity and rationality, and with our whole civilization in crisis, we are poised on the brink of Reformation.

A twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Charles Johnson’s National Book Award-winning masterpiece—"a novel in the tradition of Billy Budd and Moby-Dick…heroic in proportion…fiction that hooks the mind" (The New York Times Book Review)—now with a new introduction from Stanley Crouch. Rutherford Calhoun, a newly freed slave and irrepressible rogue, is lost in the underworld of 1830s New Orleans. Desperate to escape the city’s unscrupulous bill collectors and the pawing hands of a schoolteacher hellbent on marrying him, he jumps aboard the Republic, a slave ship en route to collect members of a legendary African tribe, the Allmuseri. Thus begins a voyage of metaphysical horror and human atrocity, a journey which challenges our notions of freedom, fate and how we live together. Peopled with vivid and unforgettable characters, nimble in its interplay of comedy and serious ideas, this dazzling modern classic is a perfect blend of the picaresque tale, historical romance, sea yarn, slave narrative and philosophical allegory. Now with a new introduction from renowned writer and critic Stanley Crouch, this twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Middle Passage celebrates a cornerstone of the American canon and the masterwork of one of its most important writers. "Long after we’d stopped believe in the great American novel, along comes a spellbinding adventure story that may be just that" (Chicago Tribune).

This definitive study of Hong Kong cinema examines the work of directors such as Tsui Hark, John Woo, Ringo Lam, Johnnie To, King Hu, and Wong Kar Wai.

This is "the Word" -- one man's word, certainly -- about the art (and artifice) of the state of our computer-centric existence. And considering that the "one man" is Neal Stephenson, "the hacker Hemingway" (Newsweek) -- acclaimed novelist, pragmatist, seer, nerd-friendly philosopher, and nationally bestselling author of groundbreaking literary works (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc., etc.) -- the word is well worth hearing. Mostly well-reasoned examination and partial rant, Stephenson's In the Beginning... was the Command Line is a thoughtful, irreverent, hilarious treatise on the cyber-culture past and present; on operating system tyrannies and downloaded popular revolutions; on the Internet, Disney World, Big Bangs, not to mention the meaning of life itself.