"Speaking computer is about learning a foreign language and culture called computers. It describes the abstract world of technology in familiar human terms. By using colorful metaphors, pop culture references, and real life examples, it explains many fundamental computing ideas ... These chapters are here to serve as your guidebook for civilization's modern lifestyle tool"--Page 4 of cover.

Visionary designer and technologist John Maeda defines the fundamental laws of how computers think, and why you should care even if you aren't a programmer. "Maeda is to design what Warren Buffett is to finance." --Wired John Maeda is one of the world's preeminent interdisciplinary thinkers on technology and design. In How to Speak Machine, he offers a set of simple laws that govern not only the computers of today, but the unimaginable machines of the future. Technology is already more powerful than we can comprehend, and getting more powerful at an exponential pace. Once set in motion, algorithms never tire. And when a program's size, speed, and tirelessness combine with its ability to learn and transform itself, the outcome can be unpredictable and dangerous. Take the seemingly instant transformation of Microsoft's chatbot Tay into a hate-spewing racist, or how crime-predicting algorithms reinforce racial bias. How to Speak Machine provides a coherent framework for today's product designers, business leaders, and policymakers to grasp this brave new world. Drawing on his wide-ranging experience from engineering to computer science to design, Maeda shows how businesses and individuals can identify opportunities afforded by technology to make world-changing and inclusive products--while avoiding the pitfalls inherent to the medium.

The aesthetic and political implications of working with code as procedure, expression, and action. Speaking Code begins by invoking the “Hello World” convention used by programmers when learning a new language, helping to establish the interplay of text and code that runs through the book. Interweaving the voice of critical writing from the humanities with the tradition of computing and software development, in Speaking Code Geoff Cox formulates an argument that aims to undermine the distinctions between criticism and practice and to emphasize the aesthetic and political implications of software studies. Not reducible to its functional aspects, program code mirrors the instability inherent in the relationship of speech to language; it is only interpretable in the context of its distribution and network of operations. Code is understood as both script and performance, Cox argues, and is in this sense like spoken language—always ready for action. Speaking Code examines the expressive and performative aspects of programming; alternatives to mainstream development, from performances of the live-coding scene to the organizational forms of peer production; the democratic promise of social media and their actual role in suppressing political expression; and the market's emptying out of possibilities for free expression in the public realm. Cox defends language against its invasion by economics, arguing that speech continues to underscore the human condition, however paradoxical this may seem in an era of pervasive computing.

Auditory User Interfaces: Toward the Speaking Computer describes a speech-enabling approach that separates computation from the user interface and integrates speech into the human-computer interaction. The Auditory User Interface (AUI) works directly with the computational core of the application, the same as the Graphical User Interface. The author's approach is implemented in two large systems, ASTER - a computing system that produces high-quality interactive aural renderings of electronic documents - and Emacspeak - a fully-fledged speech interface to workstations, including fluent spoken access to the World Wide Web and many desktop applications. Using this approach, developers can design new high-quality AUIs. Auditory interfaces are presented using concrete examples that have been implemented on an electronic desktop. This aural desktop system enables applications to produce auditory output using the same information used for conventional visual output. Auditory User Interfaces: Toward the Speaking Computer is for the electrical and computer engineering professional in the field of computer/human interface design. It will also be of interest to academic and industrial researchers, and engineers designing and implementing computer systems that speak. Communication devices such as hand-held computers, smart telephones, talking web browsers, and others will need to incorporate speech-enabling interfaces to be effective.

Is American English in decline? Are regional dialects dying out? Is there a difference between men and women in how they adapt to linguistic variations? These questions, and more, about our language catapulted Robert MacNeil and William Cran—the authors (with Robert McCrum) of the language classic The Story of English—across the country in search of the answers. Do You Speak American? is the tale of their discoveries, which provocatively show how the standard for American English—if a standard exists—is changing quickly and dramatically. On a journey that takes them from the Northeast, through Appalachia and the Deep South, and west to California, the authors observe everyday verbal interactions and in a host of interviews with native speakers glean the linguistic quirks and traditions characteristic of each area. While examining the histories and controversies surrounding both written and spoken American English, they address anxieties and assumptions that, when explored, are highly emotional, such as the growing influence of Spanish as a threat to American English and the special treatment of African-American vernacular English. And, challenging the purists who think grammatical standards are in serious deterioration and that media saturation of our culture is homogenizing our speech, they surprise us with unpredictable responses. With insight and wit, MacNeil and Cran bring us a compelling book that is at once a celebration and a potent study of our singular language. Each wave of immigration has brought new words to enrich the American language. Do you recognize the origin of 1. blunderbuss, sleigh, stoop, coleslaw, boss, waffle? Or 2. dumb, ouch, shyster, check, kaput, scram, bummer? Or 3. phooey, pastrami, glitch, kibbitz, schnozzle? Or 4. broccoli, espresso, pizza, pasta, macaroni, radio? Or 5. smithereens, lollapalooza, speakeasy, hooligan? Or 6. vamoose, chaps, stampede, mustang, ranch, corral? 1. Dutch 2. German 3. Yiddish 4. Italian 5. Irish 6. Spanish

This book offers an introduction to digital signal processing (DSP) with an emphasis on audio signals and computer music. It covers the mathematical foundations of DSP, important DSP theories including sampling, LTI systems, the z-transform, FIR/IIR filters, classic sound synthesis algorithms, various digital effects, topics in time and frequency-domain analysis/synthesis, and associated musical/sound examples. Whenever possible, pictures and graphics are included when presenting DSP concepts of various abstractions. To further facilitate understanding of ideas, a plethora of MATLAB® code examples are provided, allowing the reader tangible means to “connect dots” via mathematics, visuals, as well as aural feedback through synthesis and modulation of sound. This book is designed for both technically and musically inclined readers alike-folks with a common goal of exploring digital signal processing.

"This book offers an introduction to digital signal processing (DSP) with an emphasis on audio signals and computer music ... This book is designed for both technically and musically inclined readers alike--folks with a common goal of exploring digital signal processing"--Cover, p. [4].

Don't think public speaking is for you? It is--whether you're bracing for a conference talk or a team meeting. Lara Hogan helps you identify your fears and effectively face them, so you can make your way to the stage (big or small). Get clear, practical advice through every step, from choosing a topic and creating a presentation, to gathering and distilling feedback, to event-day prep. You'll feel confident and equipped to step into the spotlight.

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.