Charles Babbage (1792–1871) articulated the principles behind modern computing machines. This compilation of his writings, plus those of several of his contemporaries, illuminates the early history of the calculator.

An alternative history of software that places the liberal arts at the very center of software's evolution. In The Software Arts, Warren Sack offers an alternative history of computing that places the arts at the very center of software's evolution. Tracing the origins of software to eighteenth-century French encyclopedists' step-by-step descriptions of how things were made in the workshops of artists and artisans, Sack shows that programming languages are the offspring of an effort to describe the mechanical arts in the language of the liberal arts. Sack offers a reading of the texts of computing—code, algorithms, and technical papers—that emphasizes continuity between prose and programs. He translates concepts and categories from the liberal and mechanical arts—including logic, rhetoric, grammar, learning, algorithm, language, and simulation—into terms of computer science and then considers their further translation into popular culture, where they circulate as forms of digital life. He considers, among other topics, the “arithmetization” of knowledge that presaged digitization; today's multitude of logics; the history of demonstration, from deduction to newer forms of persuasion; and the post-Chomsky absence of meaning in grammar. With The Software Arts, Sack invites artists and humanists to see how their ideas are at the root of software and invites computer scientists to envision themselves as artists and humanists.

Fun and Software offers the untold story of fun as constitutive of the culture and aesthetics of computing. Fun in computing is a mode of thinking, making and experiencing. It invokes and convolutes the question of rationalism and logical reason, addresses the sensibilities and experience of computation and attests to its creative drives. By exploring topics as diverse as the pleasure and pain of the programmer, geek wit, affects of play and coding as a bodily pursuit of the unique in recursive structures, Fun and Software helps construct a different point of entry to the understanding of software as culture. Fun is a form of production that touches on the foundations of formal logic and precise notation as well as rhetoric, exhibiting connections between computing and paradox, politics and aesthetics. From the formation of the discipline of programming as an outgrowth of pure mathematics to its manifestation in contemporary and contradictory forms such as gaming, data analysis and art, fun is a powerful force that continues to shape our life with software as it becomes the key mechanism of contemporary society. Including chapters from leading scholars, programmers and artists, Fun and Software makes a major contribution to the field of software studies and opens the topic of software to some of the most pressing concerns in contemporary theory.

Nobel prizewinner's account of experiments he and colleagues carried out on antigens and serological reactions with simple compounds. Exceptionally broad coverage of basic immunology. Extensive bibliography.

Exploring the intersection of ethics and statistics, this comprehensive guide illustrates the proper use of probabilistic and statistical reasoning in the behavioral, social, and biomedical sciences. Lauded for their contributions to statistics, psychology, and psychometrics, the authors make statistical methods relevant to readers' day-to-day lives by including real historical situations that demonstrate the role of statistics in reasoning and decision making. In addition, seven U.S. Supreme Court decisions reflect the influence of statistical and psychometric reasoning and interpretation/misinterpretation.

This work derives from a conference discussing the history of computing in education. This conference is the first of hopefully a series of conferences that will take place within the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and hence, we describe it as the First Conference on the History of Computing in Education (HCE1). These proceedings represent a collection of works presented at the HCE1 Conference held in association with the IFIP 2004 World Computer Congress held in Toulouse, France. Contributions to this volume range from a wide variety of educational perspectives and represent activities from four continents. The HCE1 conference represents a joint effort of the IFIP Working Group 9.7 on the History of Computing and the IFIP Technical Committee 3 on Education. The HCE1 Conference brings to light a broad spectrum of issues and spans fourcontinents. It illustrates topics in computing education as they occurred in the “early days” of computing whose ramifications or overtones remain with us today. Indeed, many of the early challenges remain part of our educational tapestry; most likely, many will evolve into future challenges. Therefore, this work provides additional value to the reader as it will reflect in part the future development of computing in education to stimulate new ideas and models in educational development.

A grand intellectual history from clay tablets to Bill Gates. Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title The late twentieth century is trumpeted as the Information Age by pundits and politicians alike, and on the face of it, the claim requires no justification. But in Information Ages, Michael E. Hobart and Zachary S. Schiffman challenge this widespread assumption. In a sweeping and captivating history of information technology from the ancient Sumerians to the world of Alan Turing and John von Neumann, the authors show how revolutions in the technology of information storage—from the invention of writing approximately 5,000 years ago to the mathematical models for describing physical reality in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the introduction of computers—profoundly transformed ways of thinking.

Accessible study provides detailed account of the Hamiltonian treatment of aberration theory in geometrical optics. Many classes of optical systems defined in terms of their symmetries. Detailed solutions. 1970 edition.

This book examines the design of chipless RFID systems. The authors begin with the philosophy of RFID and its effect on commercial applications. Then, they discuss the chipless RFID systems and the application of chipless RFID systems, the advantages it provides compared to conventional barcode ID and chipped RFID tags. The text then covers chipless RFID components in block diagram representation and introduce FCC requirements which should be considered in the design procedure of each component. The third chapter is dedicated to the complex natural resonance-based design of chipless RFID tags. The next chapter concerns about the detection techniques introduced for the identification of chipless RFID tags. The fifth chapter is dedicated to the localization and anti-collision techniques in chipless RFID systems. Final chapter is chipless RFID tags as sensors. It provides some applications where the tag can be used as both ID and sensor. The tag specifications and detection issues are addressed in this section.