Best Mathematical & Statistical Software
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
Find Best Price at Amazon"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)."
"Overall: I did not like both the content and quality of the book. The book is very heavy for the size, because the paper is thick and glossy."
"To read through the chapters, it's much more enjoyable than reading other math/stat books, since the ideas behind each model or algorithms are very clear even intuitive, a lot of well-made plots make the understanding even easier. Not saying the methods within this book is wrong, but without deep understanding of some theories or rigorous assumpions of the methods, pure blind trying different algorithms to find lowest MSE may not be suitable for some cases. If you want to check more beautiful scenes, you need more work, more tickets, more tools to take an adventure within this park for quite a while."
"Better to just buy an actual statistics book and learn the formulas so you understand what you are doing."
Andy Field′s comprehensive and bestselling Discovering Statistics Using SPSS 4th Edition takes students from introductory statistical concepts through very advanced concepts, incorporating SPSS throughout. The book I believe is targeted at UG students mainly, but some chapters can be recommended to MA students on research methods courses provided that they know nothing about statistics – the book is written in a very accessible manner which means that it can satisfy the need of international students in terms of level of difficulty and language (and business programmes normally have a lot of international students at MA level). The fourth edition of Discovering Statistics will transform students who approach statistics with fear and loathing into adroit statistics users who understand key statistical concepts.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book is supposedly intended to make this hairy subject matter "accessible" and easier to understand than your average biostats text, with copious use of humor."
"As a middle school science teacher the gross out factor gets my students attention- The book does the same thing."
"I love the humor in this book!"
"Whenever I am faced with a statistics questions, this is my now go-to resource."
"This is hands down the best stats book that I have ever read. Andy breaks concepts down in a way that is understandable, and uses simple concepts."
"The author writes in an entertaining way, and he goes into the assumptions of the various statistical tests, the background theory, and shows you how to read and interpret output. He also talks about non-parametric tests and illuminutes when to use them when you feel the data violates the assumptions of the more powerful parametric tests."
"It doesn't have a lot of advance statistics tests, but for the basic ones, it's really useful."
"He makes the reading enjoyable and There is a companion website with many other resources that help you understand the concepts."
Suitable for readers with no previous programming experience, R for Data Science is designed to get you doing data science as quickly as possible. His research focuses on how to make data analysis better, faster and easier, with a particular emphasis on the use of visualization to better understand data and models. Garrett received his Ph.D at Rice University in Hadley Wickham's lab, where his research traced the origins of data analysis as a cognitive process and identified how attentional and epistemological concerns guide every data analysis.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Unsurprisingly the approach that they expound utilises the "hadleyverse" a collection of packages (ggplot2 for visualisation, tidyr for reshaping, dplyr for selecting and filtering, purrr for functional programming, broom for linear models etc) that dramatically speed up most of the common steps involved in an analysis. The book is broken up into a number of sections that effectively builds up the ability to ingest, transform, visualise and model datasets. On a broader note with Max Kuhn (author of the excellent "Applied Predictive Modelling" with Kjell Johnson) joining Wickham and Grolemund at RStudio, it is a great time to start your R journey."
"Even after reading through just a bit of it, it seems extremely straightforward and like it's going to be great at explaining data science and beginning programming which is great since I am just starting with programming of any sort."
"I am looking forward to their next book."
"Very good."
"After some Coursera classes and a few books, I am really starting to finally understand R. But, this books and the Tidyverse set of packages is a game changer."
"A good book for understanding handy tools in R."
"A great introduction to R and it's many applications within data analysis."
"This is a must-read data science introductory book, peerless!"
Best Optical Character Recognition Software
Optical Character Recognition: An Illustrated Guide to the Frontier will pique the interest of users and developers of OCR products and desktop scanners, as well as teachers and students of pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, and information retrieval. Optical Character Recognition: An Illustrated Guide to the Frontier is suitable as a secondary text for a graduate level course on pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, and information retrieval, and as a reference for researchers and practitioners in industry.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"For one thing the OCR software needs to analyze the stream of pixels, identify the relevant text blocks, figure out where the text lines are, find the words, then the individual characters, and then determine from the often noisy image block corresponding to the character what character the fuzzy blob in the picture really corresponds to. As an example, the string “rn” is often turned into the character “m” for many fonts almost regardless of what OCR system you use. However, this book was helpful to me, it is well organized, and I appreciated the nearly 300 visual examples, tables, and graphs, so I still recommend it to those with an interest in the field."
Best Personal Finance Software
Updated to include additional topics and to cover all versions of the software, this guide provides the most vital information on using QuickBooks to track financial data in nonprofit organizations. Kathy Ivens is the senior contributing editor for Windows IT Pro magazine and she writes regularly about computer and small business topics for a variety of periodicals.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"You probably wouldn't be reading this unless you're involved in accounting for nonprofits, either as a professional or as a volunteer, so in that context, ."
"I'm treasurer for a small non-profit using Quick Books, and between explanations from my friend, and reading Kathy Ivens's book, I'm coming to grips with the intricacies of accounting."
"Detailed, author obviously knows QuickBooks inside and out, pros and cons."
"In Kathy Ivens book Running QuickBooks® in Nonprofits, Kathy discusses these limitations in context with higher end accounting systems so that the user understands the complex accounting requirements of Nonprofits."
"This book taught me what I needed to know about how to use Quickbooks for nonprofit companies and was my bible which I referred to often."
"I'd say I love it but ."
"The book is good for someone who has been running QB and wants more info."
"Too technical."
Best Voice Recognition Software
Enterprise Integration Patterns provides an invaluable catalog of sixty-five patterns, with real-world solutions that demonstrate the formidable of messaging and help you to design effective messaging solutions for your enterprise. Do you want to understand how a system designed using integration patterns can be implemented using Java Web services, .NET message queuing, and a TIBCO-based publish-subscribe architecture? Utilizing years of practical experience, seasoned experts Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf show how asynchronous messaging has proven to be the best strategy for enterprise integration success. The authors also include examples covering a variety of different integration technologies, such as JMS, MSMQ, TIBCO ActiveEnterprise, Microsoft BizTalk, SOAP, and XSL. A case study describing a bond trading system illustrates the patterns in practice, and the book offers a look at emerging standards, as well as insights into what the future of enterprise integration might hold.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Arrived on time, used , but in very good and clean condition, almost like new."
"Going further, when you consider that an application can coordinate its own interaction with internal subsystems using Enterprise Integration Patterns, this design philosophy truly applies everywhere."
"Excelente."
"In the present resurgence of functional languages, this book should be highly regarded for its depth of focus on messaging patterns and their proper use."
"We were trying to explain the problems with passing a large file up and down a messaging bus to our bioinformatics users, when I ran across Enterprise Integration Patterns."
"This is the third pattern book in my collection (the other two are Analysis Patterns by Martin Fowler and the definitive Design Patterns by the Gang of Four) and IMHO this is the best example yet of where patterns can really improve the development process."
"This book is a must for any developer, manager, or systems architect engaged in designing, developing, or deploying distributed systems based on messaging patterns."
"great book, must read for everyone looking at Enterprise Integration. However I feel that this book needs a upgrade by referencing new technologies."
Best Design & Graphics Software Books
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
Find Best Price at Amazon"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."
Best Microsoft Software Books
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
Find Best Price at Amazon"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."
Best Software Utilities
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
Find Best Price at Amazon"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."
"Nice book for those people who like to learn as they go."
"Must have to get certified."
"I found the CD to be the best part of the book, and definitely recommend not getting a version of this book without it."
"I know a lot about computers and learned a bit to go and write the A+, but it's very good I bought this books, learnt so many additional stuff, not even for the exams but for myself m. Thank you Meyers💪🔥."
"End of chapters review questions is perfect practice to being ready for the certification."
Best Software Suite Books
Windows 10 (a free update to users of Windows 8 or Windows 7) fixes a number of the problems introduced by the revolution in Windows 8 and offers plenty of new features, such as the new Spartan web browser, Cortana voice-activated “personal assistant,” new universal apps (that run on tablet, phone, and computer), and more. David Pogue is the anchor columnist for Yahoo Tech, having been groomed for the position by 13 years as the tech columnist for the New York Times.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Since my first purchase of a "Missing Manual" title many years ago, O'Reilly has come through with quality books that will help baffled users with both the everyday and arcane tasks their tools perform. Although I have not embraced the Cortana AI voice interface that is a major feature of Windows 10, the book does an excellent job of helping those so inclined how to use it (her?)."
"I worked Tech Support for years, back in the day when Windows XP was the hot operating system for all schools. Windows Vista had been released towards the end of my tech support tenure, but it was such a resource intensive, buggy mess that the school decided to hold on to XP for a spell longer. The style of writing is conversational, friendly, and funny, making the whole task a lot less intimidating for someone who's unfamiliar with the territory."
"The first one I purchased was for Windows 7 and I found it extremely useful then because I was one those people who went kicking and screaming from Windows XP to Windows 7 when Microsoft stopped supporting XP. What I really, really like about these books...it not only tells you how to do something (where to find things, what to click) but he also points out the repercussions of the actions you are taking along the way.. You will also find out myriad ways of doing things that even many Microsoft manuals don't mention. Though not so much a book for the aforementioned highly proficient, the Missing Manuals IMHO opinion are a must have for both the beginner and the intermediate user regardless of what version of Windows you are coming from including XP (which he also provides some tips on in places if you happen to be someone still using it. I tend to give Microsoft a fair amount of latitude in what I want them to observe because it allows them to detect problems early on and in the end makes your own personal computing experience an enjoyment while Microsoft fine tunes it."
"This book simplifies a very complex and broad subject, Windows 10."
Best Business Accounting Software Computer
You'll be guided through the process from beginning to end with practical and relevant legal information so that you can make the best decisions for you and your family. Quicken WillMaker Plus 2017 is the original will-writing software, written and updated regularly by Nolo's expert attorneys. Plus, register your copy of Quicken WillMaker Plus 2017 and get a free one-year subscription to Nolo's Online Living Trust. Describe your preferences for burial, cremation, memorials, obituaries, and more, and select someone to oversee your final arrangements. Use these documents to give them information about everything from bank accounts to the names of people you'd like contacted in the event of your illness or death. Personal Finance Documents Over a dozen forms let you handle common financial situations, such as lending money to friends or family, creating a bill of sale, and closing a credit card account. Home & Family Documents Practical forms you can use every day to help run your home and keep your family safe, including authorizations and agreements, promissory notes, limited powers of attorney, and child and elder care forms. * If you do not have a CD-ROM drive, contact Nolo's Tech Support and upon proof of purchase we’ll promptly send you a download link. It is the most respected estate planning tool on the market.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Never opened the book, but the questions on the software was fast & accurate, right down to our pets."
"I decided to update my will as some of my assets have changed and am pleased with this purchase."
"Highly recommended."
"Informative and easy to use."
"Fast and easy - worked great."
Best E-mail
Windows 10 (a free update to users of Windows 8 or Windows 7) fixes a number of the problems introduced by the revolution in Windows 8 and offers plenty of new features, such as the new Spartan web browser, Cortana voice-activated “personal assistant,” new universal apps (that run on tablet, phone, and computer), and more. David Pogue is the anchor columnist for Yahoo Tech, having been groomed for the position by 13 years as the tech columnist for the New York Times.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I worked Tech Support for years, back in the day when Windows XP was the hot operating system for all schools. Windows Vista had been released towards the end of my tech support tenure, but it was such a resource intensive, buggy mess that the school decided to hold on to XP for a spell longer. The style of writing is conversational, friendly, and funny, making the whole task a lot less intimidating for someone who's unfamiliar with the territory."
"Since my first purchase of a "Missing Manual" title many years ago, O'Reilly has come through with quality books that will help baffled users with both the everyday and arcane tasks their tools perform. Although I have not embraced the Cortana AI voice interface that is a major feature of Windows 10, the book does an excellent job of helping those so inclined how to use it (her?)."
"This book simplifies a very complex and broad subject, Windows 10."
"I have always enjoyed these "Missing Manual" books."
"I would recommend tis reference for any one at any level that's wants to get full usage out of Windows 10 and be able to customize it to their own liking."
"Unlike many of the more elementary manuals for Windows 10, this one not only provided essential guidance for getting started with it, but it filled with tips and examples on how best to customize it and to take advantage of its many new features."
"This really is the missing manual!"
Best Desktop Database Books
Peer under the hood of the systems you already use, and learn how to use and operate them more effectively Make informed decisions by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of different tools Navigate the trade-offs around consistency, scalability, fault tolerance, and complexity Understand the distributed systems research upon which modern databases are built Peek behind the scenes of major online services, and learn from their architectures. Martin is a researcher in distributed systems at the University of Cambridge.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Couldn't recommend a better book if you want to update in the latest trendings about data storage and manipulation and truly understand what's behind it."
"An excellent in-depth overview of what kind of persistency solutions are available today -- along with insights into the most important traits of their (implementational) logic, including pros and cons to support the design of data intensive applications."
"I highly recommend this book for any software engineer."
"Best book for getting up to date on databases."
"Great theoretical overview, not enough practical material to justify the name "designing"."
"Very good book with narratives and examples."
"I've been looking forward to this book since I pre-ordered it last year. I've been working on this field on and off for the past few years."
"He dives deep into subjects like Btrees, LSM trees, SSTables, and concepts that would normally seem foreign, but because of the author's understanding he breaks it down into tangible bits. By reading this book, you get a clear understanding of real world big data architecture and the drawbacks of things like sharding, replication, lag as well as solutions."
Best Quickbooks
Make business chores easy with QuickBooks Managing the books for a small business can be a challenging, onerous task. Stephen L. Nelson, MBA, CPA, MS in Taxation, is a CPA in Redmond, Washington.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"However, as someone with a completely new business I was trying to do the "smart thing" and start from the beginning to set up QB for my business."
"Nice overview....but haven't loaded the program yet....looks somewhat daunting...and more work than anticipated."
"I took the title to mean "all" flavors of QuickBooks, but if this book contains any information about QuickBooks Online, I couldn't find it."
"Wasn't what I needed."
"Arrived on time as indicated; more complicated than I thought it might be."
"a must have for beginners like me!"
"In my opinion, if you are fairly well-versed in accounting and could if need be set up a chart of accounts on a piece of paper and track all your purchases and sales by hand (in other words, are very good at accounting), then you will probably be able to read this book and learn the program. However, to be honest, I think most people who could do perfect accounting by hand probably don't need a book to help them learn the program as they can figure it our by themselves or with a few quick (and free) online tutorials."
"Confusing if you use the online app."
Best Word Processing Books
From idea inception to manuscript submission, Scrivener for Dummies makes it easier than ever to plan, write, organize, and revise your masterpiece in Scrivener for Mac or Windows. Say "hello" to Scrivener quickly learn your way around the Scrivener workspace and all its basic functions, features, buttons, parts, and pieces The perfect form create custom project templates tailored to your needs and style, and store them to use for future projects Bid adieu to pushpins, index cards, and lost ideas keep your writing, research, character sketches, synopses, outlines, drafts and images all in one dedicated project file Unlimited formatting freedom instantly export your work into many formats and document combinations, without affecting the original manuscript Bring your story to life view multiple scenes at once, storyboard with index cards, or view your work in outline form Goodbye to paper clutter and paper cuts track multiple versions of a manuscript with Revision mode and keep notes ready-to-hand with Quick Reference panels.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Depending on your Scrivener ambitions, you may want to work through the tutorial and avoid the time and money for the "Dummies" book. In this review, I suggest an order for reading these materials, pros and cons of each document, and how you might save money if you are a casual or serious Scrivener user. Of course, the costs of study are your time and the money for the "Scriveners for Dummies" book. Decide on this basis: If you write shorter documents on an intermittent bases (an undergraduate, let's say, or a business-memo writer), you are casual. The Scrivener tutorial. Pros: a) free -- comes with the trial or full version of the software. The tutorial is in Scrivener, and you edit and compile output while reading, for in-context, deep learning. Regarding complexity and the need for long explanation: Scrivener is not rocket science (or Final Cut Pro, Adobe Photoshop or InDesign). It is a very intuitive program, and you will learn the most whilst (the Scrivener British authors have inspired this scruffy American) trying out features once you know the basics. Highly formatted books like "Dummies" do not render too well on relative-formatting, small devices. Bottom line: Only take this extra step if you have already done the tutorial, are a serious user, and are willing to spend the time and money. Add cross-references to the "Dummies" chapters and pages in the document synopses in your tutorial Scrivener project. I have found the "Dummies" designation and approach more relevant for tricky software like Final Cut Pro. The 500+ pdf user manual that comes with the Scrivener software. Pros: It is an exhaustive 500+ page reference. If you are serious and are willing to spend the money, buy the "Dummies" book and reference it alongside the tutorial while you work. Most importantly, take a project that you can play with (meaning fill with junk in the learning process), and try all the things you will want to do in your intensive work."
"But this is a review of the book, and If you want to learn Scrivener, I feel this book explains 99% of the program pretty clearly."
"A good decent primer on the subject but the book is a little off from the most recent version."
"Although this tool may be a good one I found that the learning curve for scrivener interferes with my writing."
"Great book and super useful!"
"Avery helpful primer written in a plain speaking understandable way."
"Fantastic Book!"
"I found the program a bit overwhelming, but the book is helpful."