Koncocoo

Best Computer Graphics

The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, Second Edition
Good game design happens when you view your game from as many perspectives as possible. Game Nite ’s Editors’ Choice "… this book is considered by many to be the ‘bible’ of game design. … Much of the material has been updated … the introduction to probability … is a must read for aspiring game designers … engaging and thought provoking … a substantial book for someone looking to get serious about game design. … this book trains you to think as a designer …". ―James Portnow, Game Designer, CEO of Rainmaker Games, and Writer of Extra Credits. "This book was clearly designed, not just written, and is an entire course in how to be a game designer. "As indicated by its title, Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses uses many different perspectives (the titular lenses), which each prompt their own important questions, ranging from ‘What problems does my game ask the players to solve?’ to ‘What does beauty mean within the context of my game?’ These distinct points are interwoven throughout a step-by-step analysis of the design process that begins with the designer and his or her basic idea, and builds successfully from there. "Easily the most comprehensive, practical book I’ve ever seen on game design." "Jesse Schell’s new book, The Art of Game Design , is a marvelous introduction to game design by a true master of the form. " The Art of Game Design describes precisely how to build a game the world will love and elegantly crank it through the realities of clients and publishers. "Packed with Jesse’s real-world experience and humorous insight, The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses is a tool chest crossed with a kaleidoscope. Like a chemistry set for making mental explosions, it’s an idea(l) book guiding the design process for both new and seasoned game designers. "On games industry desks, books tend to come and go, but they all seem to go on top of Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design , because that’s the one book that seems to stick around." "Ken Rolston, internationally celebrated game designer, recommends Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design both for smart people and for people who are learning how to be smart."
Reviews
"A great tool for checklist of elements and find some other issues, is not absolute, and depends more of the way of use, team and school of knowledge, frameworks one uses, but is it indeed effective, especially on Gamified Designs."
"Schell does a great job outlining the philosophy and process of game design."
"Best and most useful textbook to date."
"This is a great, straight-forward book on iterative game design created by someone active in the field."
"And he also covers methods that other entertainment industries use, giving anyone interested in designing games more options in creating better experiences."
"Fantastically good book on game design."
"This clear vocabulary is empowering, as it enables a designer to more easily think about the elements of their game, and in addition, to add to the foundation that Jesse has already put together."
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Learning Python, 5th Edition
Explore Python’s major built-in object types such as numbers, lists, and dictionaries Create and process objects with Python statements, and learn Python’s general syntax model Use functions to avoid code redundancy and package code for reuse Organize statements, functions, and other tools into larger components with modules Dive into classes: Python’s object-oriented programming tool for structuring code Write large programs with Python’s exception-handling model and development tools Learn advanced Python tools, including decorators, descriptors, metaclasses, and Unicode processing. He holds BS and MS degrees in computer science from the University of Wisconsin where he explored implementations of the Prolog language, and over his career has worked as a professional software developer on compilers, programming tools, scripting applications, and assorted client/server systems.
Reviews
"I know a 1600 page book seems almost crazy but, before you start looking elsewhere (as I did) for something shorter, let me try to explain why this 1600 page book may actually end up saving you a lot of time and making you a better Python programmer in the end. First of all, I've read many of the other well reviewed, up-to-date, Python books (yes, all of them were shorter), and being new to Python, I ended up spending most of my time searching online trying to fill in the gaps that the other authors failed to fill in."
"I have 3.5.3, and most, but not all features work."
"But I feel this book can be even better size of the book is trimmed down without affecting the information presented."
"I would definitely recommend this to individuals that already have a basic (or better) understanding of programming in another language and would like to learn Python."
"I highly recommend this book for anyone that wants to learn Python."
"Lots and lots of information but well worth the price."
"Classic if-you-wanna-learn-python-you-gotta-have-this book."
"This is a very detailed book on python and concepts are explained very well."
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Adobe Photoshop CC Classroom in a Book (2017 release)
Creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Photoshop choose Adobe Photoshop CC Classroom in a Book (2017 release) from Adobe Press. Conrad Chavez has provided education, training, and support for digital-media applications for over 20 years, originally contributing countless pages to the user guides for print, Web, and digital video products at Aldus Corporation and Adobe Systems Inc. Now a freelance writer and editor, Conrad creates books and videos that teach Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Creative Cloud workflows. His work includes the last three editions of Real World Adobe Photoshop for Photographers and the video Color Management for Photographers and Designers .
Reviews
"how to create bokeh or the appearance of motion in a photo by fine-tuning the various types of "blur" available in the filters menu, (3.). how to combine a photo of a train taken at one angle with a photo of a bridge taken at another angle, and use the perspective tools to make it look like the train is actually coming right over the bridge at you... Believe me, reading about how to use vector-drawing tools to trace a photo and create a reusable logo from it is very different from actually creating the paths, subtracting one path from another, converting the paths into shapes, turning shapes into assets, saving color schemes along with your assets, and all the rest."
"Great asset for anyone rather new at Photoshop."
"If any of you have tried to self learn Photoshop, good luck. I bought because it was like the class I took it first wanted to explain what a pixel was."
"It gets the reader into the program to perform a number of keystrokes on an image file provided from the Peachpit web site. As stated above, the first chapter is intended to familiarize the user with the Photoshop work space and tools. Each chapter ends with some Review questions and answers designed to solidify the user’s grasp of the lesson matter. With this aid, the user just starting out in Photoshop can gain a picture view of a specific tool’s purpose. Going on from this point in the book, the authors take the reader on a learning journey through Photoshop’s other features by providing a project involving that aspect of the program. I have been a Photoshop user for a number of years going back to the early single digit versions. Having a “Classroom in a Book” in my earlier years would have made life and digital photography considerably easier for me. For those fairly familiar with Photoshop, this book will make an excellent refresher and reference volume."
"Sure, considering we live in the digital internet age it was hard at times to concentrate doing lessons in a book, but they do have good source files for you to work on so you can drill the program into your head."
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Best Design & Graphics Software Books

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Classroom in a Book
In addition to learning the key elements of the Photoshop interface, this completely revised CS6 edition covers new features, including precise cropping with multiple overlays, expanded content-aware toolkit with skin tone-aware selections and masking, three new blur effects, re-engineered design tools, adaptive Wide Angle adjustments, improved Camera Raw engine, improved auto corrections, Background Save and Auto-recovery, modernized user interface, intuitive video enhancements, simplified 3D interface, improved editing speed with real-time results, and more. Everything you need to master the software is included: clear explanations of each lesson, step-by-step instructions, and the project files for the students.” —Barbara Binder, Adobe Certified Instructor, Rocky Mountain Training. The Adobe Creative Team of designers, writers, and editors has extensive, real world knowledge of Adobe products.
Reviews
"It starts off strong, but in later lessons, thry just instruct you to do things without really explaining what you are doing and why."
"This series (not just for Photoshop but any Adobe product) is the most direct approach to learning Adobe products."
"Now that I have gone through Adobe Photoshop, I can appreciate Adobe Illustrator, although I still find it less practical."
"You will need garamond font for a lesson in the lesson 1 folder.go to google web site and type (garamond font no dowloading) then go to missing garamond font in Macrumors Forums scroll down in the forums until you see the web adressed for the font download and install in your cmputer if you do not have it installed."
"You're not just getting an introduction into Adobe Audition but because this book is written by professionals 'in the business' of sound production it turns out to be a satisfying experience just to read from the professional's standpoint."
"I think you will learn much more following free Youtube tutorials."
"I used this in an university class and wanted to buy the entire book and CD to work through the exercises on my own."
"Wife had never touched a computer with windows 10 and with this book, she was on chapter 6 in the 1st 2 days, excited about what she has learned so far."
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Best Computer Algorithms

Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition (MIT Press)
A new edition of the essential text and professional reference, with substantial new material on such topics as vEB trees, multithreaded algorithms, dynamic programming, and edge-based flow. The second edition featured new chapters on the role of algorithms, probabilistic analysis and randomized algorithms, and linear programming. (Gabriel Robins, Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia) Introduction to Algorithms , the 'bible' of the field, is a comprehensive textbook covering the full spectrum of modern algorithms: from the fastest algorithms and data structures to polynomial-time algorithms for seemingly intractable problems, from classical algorithms in graph theory to special algorithms for string matching, computational geometry, and number theory.
Reviews
"It is a very nice book, but sometimes you can find a simpler description/explanation of some algorithms."
"Now 8 years later, I bought the third edition to renew these knowledge."
"However, it's still an introduction to algorithms, although it's already hard for most of averaged students."
"I love this book."
"This textbook isn't just a textbook for an algorithms class."
"Gives complete and deep explanation on topics covered."
"This type of material is easier to read on a wide screen."
"I actually bought it so that I could follow the MIT Computer Science course on OCW (open course ware), and though some chapters are a bit intimidating, I have learn much more than I expected."
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Best Computer Networking

CompTIA Network+ All-In-One Exam Guide, Sixth Edition (Exam N10-006)
From Mike Meyers, the #1 name in CompTIA training and exam preparation, a thorough revision of his bestselling exam guide―updated to cover the 2015 release of the CompTIA Network+ exam. Network architectures Cabling and topology Ethernet basics Network installation TCP/IP applications and network protocols Routing Network naming Advanced networking devices IPv6 Remote connectivity Wireless networking Virtualization and cloud computing Network operations Managing risk Network security Network monitoring and troubleshooting. Mike Meyers, CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+, is the industry's leading authority on CompTIA certifications and the bestselling author of eight editions of CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide .
Reviews
"Very good overview."
"Very understandable, pulls together concepts in very logical fashion with good detail."
"Mike Meyer's in depth look at objectives on the test has been very helpful in my studying!"
"Will take the test next week."
"great gift for beginners."
"necessary for exam study."
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Best Computer Operating Systems

CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Ninth Edition (Exams 220-901 & 220-902)
Practice exams download for both exam 901 and 902 with hundreds of accurate practice exam questions More than an hour of online video training featuring Mike Meyers Online performance-based simulations that prepare you for the performance-based exam questions A link to Mike's favorite PC tools A PDF copy of the book. He is author of Mike Meyers’ A+ Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting PCs and Mike Meyers’ Network+ Guide to Managing and Troubleshooting Networks .
Reviews
"My method of study i chose to read this textbook cover to cover, taking all practice tests at the end of each chapter, along with the included practice exams on the disc. In addition to this text i went further to find online practice exams and Professor Messer videos on Youtube as free self studying material. The book covered the objectives and even went beyond which is why this makes a great on-the-job reference."
"Most importantly, I was looking for a book that could not only keep me engaged yet also provide the necessary educational materials. Presently I'm over a hundred or so pages in (the book is Bible thick) and have purposely slowed myself down at times to ensure lesson absorption but honestly could read this book like it was a spellbinding work of fanciful fiction. It really helps to have an actual, honest interest in the subject matter and there are times where you'll want access to several different operating systems."
"Just started, but it has been an easy to follow book so far."
"It's alright, the language the guy uses isn't 100% professional but VERY relatable with the youth."
"Will always keep current copies of Mike Meyers books in my library."
"Gives a CD in order for you to have a digital copy of the book as well as other helpful quizzes....I do not have a CD drive on my laptop, had to go out of my way to find someone with a CD drive just to place it on a thumb drive."
"this is an IT field essential."
"Came it great condition, book is a bible but it very entertaining and it's enjoyable."
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Best Computer Programming Languages

Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions
And as such, I know what it's like to be asked to whip up brilliant algorithms on the spot and then write flawless code on a whiteboard. Learn how to uncover the hints and hidden details in a question, discover how to break down a problem into manageable chunks, develop techniques to unstick yourself when stuck, learn (or re-learn) core computer science concepts, and practice on 189 interview questions and solutions. Extensive coverage of essential topics, such as big O time, data structures, and core algorithms. At Google, she interviewed hundreds of software engineers and evaluated thousands of hiring packets on the hiring committee.
Reviews
"The DP solutions in this book are not actually tabular DP formulations--I recommend looking at the problems here http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~bcdean/dp_practice/ (Brian Dean's Dynamic Programming Practice Problems)."
"The main reason I bought the book is that it closely reflects the status quo of the technical interviews in large tech companies. For many of the problems, unless you know the solutions beforehand, there is no way you can code up a decent one within an hour. The book mentions an example, a good candidate whom the author knows very well but just cannot pass the coding interviews. I am guessing the assumption is that the coding problems we do nowadays on the interviews somehow achieve minimal number of false positives. One solution reduces the problem to checking for substrings. The author claims the time complexity is O(m+n), which I believe for Java is actually O(mn). Overall this is good book for preparing for coding interviews."
"I've been writing software for a long time, and I'm competent at my job. Because the presence of books like these create a vicious cycle: prep book gets written; interviewees study/memorize answers; interviewers make questions "harder" to compensate; new book gets written! The grinder continues to turn, and whereas ten years ago you could get a good job with some string or linked-list manipulation questions, now you've got people who consider whiteboard coding of topcoder elite questions to be the baseline measurement of programmer competency. You'll even run into lazy interviewers who take questions directly from this book, which is the ultimate in stupidity: if "good" candidates have prepared from the book, and you ask questions directly from the book, what are you really accomplishing, other than a test of memorization skills? I've seen it myself."
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Best Database Storage & Design

SQL in 10 Minutes, Sams Teach Yourself (4th Edition)
Whether you're an application developer, database administrator, web application designer, mobile app developer, or Microsoft Office users, a good working knowledge of SQL is an important part of interacting with databases. And Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes offers the straightforward, practical answers you need to help you do your job. Expert trainer and popular author Ben Forta teaches you just the parts of SQL you need to know–starting with simple data retrieval and quickly going on to more complex topics including the use of joins, subqueries, stored procedures, cursors, triggers, and table constraints. You'll learn methodically, systematically, and simply–in 22 short, quick lessons that will each take only 10 minutes or less to complete. With the Fourth Edition of this worldwide bestseller, the book has been thoroughly updated, expanded, and improved. Lessons now cover the latest versions of IBM DB2, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MariaDB, and Apache Open Office Base. And new full-color SQL code listings help the beginner clearly see the elements and structure of the language. Construct complex SQL statements using multiple clauses and operators. He is the author of the best-selling Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes , spinoff titles on MySQL and SQL Server T-SQL, ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit and Advanced ColdFusion Application Development (both published by Adobe Press), Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes , as well as books on Flash, Java, Windows, and other subjects.
Reviews
"great quick ref for daily sql users or someone who is just starting to learn."
"), people looking for a book about databases (this book only goes into the basic SQL stuff, though it does mention a couple good practices for database structure), anyone who wants an in-depth book about SQL (it really does just cover the basics). In short, this book is for newbies who need to learn SQL quickly: just the basics, an intro into more advanced topics, it's very user friendly, easy to follow, and you can get through it in an afternoon if need be."
"This is a brilliantly colored guide that takes you step-by-step through the basic of learning SQL."
"Mr. Forta navigates effortlessly through the deeper constructs of SQL, illuminating such oddities as the the Cartesian Product with the same ease that he describes time-saving techniques like JOINS and SUBQUERIES."
"However, in practice, this is the first book I turn to when I need a quick reference for basic/intermediate SQL use."
"The Kindle versions also helpful because I don't have to carry the book with me everywhere."
"I don't really write review on product but today I decided to do that because this book is on point."
"Not good."
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Best Software Design & Engineering

Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions
And as such, I know what it's like to be asked to whip up brilliant algorithms on the spot and then write flawless code on a whiteboard. Learn how to uncover the hints and hidden details in a question, discover how to break down a problem into manageable chunks, develop techniques to unstick yourself when stuck, learn (or re-learn) core computer science concepts, and practice on 189 interview questions and solutions. Extensive coverage of essential topics, such as big O time, data structures, and core algorithms. At Google, she interviewed hundreds of software engineers and evaluated thousands of hiring packets on the hiring committee.
Reviews
"The DP solutions in this book are not actually tabular DP formulations--I recommend looking at the problems here http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~bcdean/dp_practice/ (Brian Dean's Dynamic Programming Practice Problems)."
"The main reason I bought the book is that it closely reflects the status quo of the technical interviews in large tech companies. For many of the problems, unless you know the solutions beforehand, there is no way you can code up a decent one within an hour. The book mentions an example, a good candidate whom the author knows very well but just cannot pass the coding interviews. I am guessing the assumption is that the coding problems we do nowadays on the interviews somehow achieve minimal number of false positives. One solution reduces the problem to checking for substrings. The author claims the time complexity is O(m+n), which I believe for Java is actually O(mn). Overall this is good book for preparing for coding interviews."
"I've been writing software for a long time, and I'm competent at my job. Because the presence of books like these create a vicious cycle: prep book gets written; interviewees study/memorize answers; interviewers make questions "harder" to compensate; new book gets written! The grinder continues to turn, and whereas ten years ago you could get a good job with some string or linked-list manipulation questions, now you've got people who consider whiteboard coding of topcoder elite questions to be the baseline measurement of programmer competency. You'll even run into lazy interviewers who take questions directly from this book, which is the ultimate in stupidity: if "good" candidates have prepared from the book, and you ask questions directly from the book, what are you really accomplishing, other than a test of memorization skills? I've seen it myself."
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Best Artificial Intelligence

An Introduction to Statistical Learning: with Applications in R (Springer Texts in Statistics)
An Introduction to Statistical Learning provides an accessible overview of the field of statistical learning, an essential toolset for making sense of the vast and complex data sets that have emerged in fields ranging from biology to finance to marketing to astrophysics in the past twenty years. “Written by four experts of the field, this book offers an excellent entry to statistical learning to a broad audience, including those without strong background in mathematics. … the book also demonstrates how to apply these methods using various R packages by providing detailed worked examples using interesting real data applications.” (Klaus Nordhausen, International Statistical Review, Vol. “The book is structured in ten chapters covering tools for modeling and mining of complex real life data sets. … The style is suitable for undergraduates and researchers … and the understanding of concepts is facilitated by the exercises, both practical and theoretical, which accompany every chapter.” (Irina Ioana Mohorianu, zbMATH, Vol. "The book excels in providing the theoretical and mathematical basis for machine learning, and now at long last, a practical view with the inclusion of R programming examples.
Reviews
"This is a wonderful book written by luminaries in the field."
"The book provides the right amount of theory and practice, unlike the earlier (venerable and, by now, stable) text authored (partly) by the last two authors of this one (Elements of Statistical Learning), which was/is a little heavy on the theoretical side (at least for practitioners without a strong mathematical background). It is, however, an excellent introduction to Learning due to the ability of the authors to strike a perfect balance between theory and practice. ISL is an excellent choice for a two-semester advanced undergraduate (or early graduate) course, practitioners trained in classical statistics who want to enter the Learning space, and seasoned Machine Learners. ____________________________________________. UPDATE (12/17/2013): Two of the authors (Hastie & Tibshirani) are offering a 10-week free online course (StatLearning: Statistical Learning) based on this book found at Stanford University's Web site (Starting Jan. 21, 2014)."
"Hands down one of the best intro books to data science/machine learning out there."
"I came to this book after a few other more technical and comprehensive books on machine learning and still find this book a useful and interesting read."
"Comparable to Mitchell's "Machine Learning" only more up to date and includes hands-on labs (using R... well, better than nothing... had they used something like numpy/python, 5-stars!)."
"I am taking off one star as this book does not cover naive Bayes which is a very useful and popular algorithm."
"Great book."
"A beautifully written and composed survey of modern statistical learning techniques."
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Best Object-Oriented Software Design

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
These texts cover the design of object-oriented software and examine how to investigate requirements, create solutions and then translate designs into code, showing developers how to make practical use of the most significant recent developments. Design Patterns is a modern classic in the literature of object-oriented development, offering timeless and elegant solutions to common problems in software design.
Reviews
"Depending on on how you think of programming, this book could be incredibly insightful, or horribly abstract and impractical."
"I find it very interesting and it goes into details for design patterns and re-use of code."
"I have been using this book as a reference on Design Pattern."
"This book will forever stand as a foundation of software development."
"OK, so this title has become almost a bible for the software industry - it seems to get cited by every other author I read, so I thought it was about time I actually bought a copy."
"Even though I program in ABAP, it helps me to translate the pattern into that code."
"Great book for who want to understand each pattern deeply."
"Excelent book."
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