What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

[Narf the Mouse]

Re: What non-fiction book are you reading, and is it good?

 

Stay away from "calculus" made easy books that eschew vector notation. They do more harm than good.

Could you specify what you mean by "vector notation" (bold for Vectors/|V| for Magnitude/line on top for normalized/etc? or something else?) and why you consider it important?

 

Thanks.

 

To generalize to "Non-fiction books previously read", which is not much of a stretch - I've gotten a lot of use out of "3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development". It's exactly what it says on the tin, so to speak and does, as far as I can tell, a good job. It eschews any sort of vagueness for practical explanations, details and even a bit of the philosophy of said math, as well as enough theory to understand what's going on. And it does all that without getting too dense or unnecessary technical terms. Purists, however, may dislike that he uses Quaternion equations that have been "flipped" so as to execute left-to-right instead of right-to-left. However, it makes more sense for the topic and he presents the "standard" equations, as well, and makes it clear his are non-standard. Trivia: He uses left-handed coordinates.

 

Overall, highly recommend.

[Cygnia]

Re: What non-fiction book are you reading, and is it good?

 

Bill James' "Popular Crime". I wasn't really impressed by it, to be honest. James meanders on far too much for my liking.

[Teflon Billy]

Re: What non-fiction book are you reading, and is it good?

 

Army Regulation 11-6: The Army Language Program

 

Doing a little research for my boss to see what is required to start a Command Language Program. Overall, as regulations go, not to hard, it involves quite a bit of paperwork to get a CLP off the ground, but the Reg gives a very good step-by-step rundown on what a unit has to do to get started.

 

TB

[Burrito Boy]

Re: What non-fiction book are you reading, and is it good?

 

I just started Criminology: The Shorter Version (Third Edition) by Freda Adler, Gerhard O.W. Mueller, and William S. Laufer. It's a textbook that I picked up at Goodwill for fifty cents. I assume that it's a college level book but the fact that I can understand it makes me wonder if it was actually written for first graders.

 

It is good so far even though it was published in 97 and a lot of it must be outdated. But I'm not planning a career in criminology so it's good enough for me.

[Narf the Mouse]

Re: What non-fiction book are you reading, and is it good?

 

I just started Criminology: The Shorter Version (Third Edition) by Freda Adler, Gerhard O.W. Mueller, and William S. Laufer. It's a textbook that I picked up at Goodwill for fifty cents. I assume that it's a college level book but the fact that I can understand it makes me wonder if it was actually written for first graders.

 

It is good so far even though it was published in 97 and a lot of it must be outdated. But I'm not planning a career in criminology so it's good enough for me.

I have a theory that, if you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well enough. It's not very testable, but it seems like it maybe holds water.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: What non-fiction book are you reading, and is it good?

 

Could you specify what you mean by "vector notation" (bold for Vectors/|V| for Magnitude/line on top for normalized/etc? or something else?) and why you consider it important?

 

Thanks.

 

To generalize to "Non-fiction books previously read", which is not much of a stretch - I've gotten a lot of use out of "3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development". It's exactly what it says on the tin, so to speak and does, as far as I can tell, a good job. It eschews any sort of vagueness for practical explanations, details and even a bit of the philosophy of said math, as well as enough theory to understand what's going on. And it does all that without getting too dense or unnecessary technical terms. Purists, however, may dislike that he uses Quaternion equations that have been "flipped" so as to execute left-to-right instead of right-to-left. However, it makes more sense for the topic and he presents the "standard" equations, as well, and makes it clear his are non-standard. Trivia: He uses left-handed coordinates.

 

Overall, highly recommend.

 

Narf, you know way more about math than I do. All I'm saying is that introductory calculus texts often make it "easy" by omitting the formal distinction between vectoral and scalar functions. All calculus operations are operations in a mathematical space, and thus vectoral in nature. But you can teach the content of a first year calculus text without getting into all of that "hard" stuff, and that's how they did it back in 1910. So readers of Thompson/Gardner are going to skate along, thinking that calculus is a bunch of neat algebraic tricks. Later, they're going to slam into partial differential equations and multivariable calculus and ask themselves, "how did calculus get so complicated all of a sudden?"

 

I know from experience how much of a pain it is to keep those unit vectors in mind as you do all the neat stuff that single-variable calculus allows you to do. I also know from experience just how much more of a pain it is to run into Calculus III and IV and PDEs without taking vectors on board.

[Narf the Mouse]

Re: What non-fiction book are you reading, and is it good?

 

Narf, you know way more about math than I do. All I'm saying is that introductory calculus texts often make it "easy" by omitting the formal distinction between vectoral and scalar functions. All calculus operations are operations in a mathematical space, and thus vectoral in nature. But you can teach the content of a first year calculus text without getting into all of that "hard" stuff, and that's how they did it back in 1910. So readers of Thompson/Gardner are going to skate along, thinking that calculus is a bunch of neat algebraic tricks. Later, they're going to slam into partial differential equations and multivariable calculus and ask themselves, "how did calculus get so complicated all of a sudden?"

 

I know from experience how much of a pain it is to keep those unit vectors in mind as you do all the neat stuff that single-variable calculus allows you to do. I also know from experience just how much more of a pain it is to run into Calculus III and IV and PDEs without taking vectors on board.

Dubious - I don't know Calculus, for one.

 

Thanks; what would you recommend?

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: What non-fiction book are you reading, and is it good?

 

Dubious - I don't know Calculus, for one.

 

Thanks; what would you recommend?

 

Oh, jeez. I guess that my point would be that you shouldn't take short cuts laying the foundations. So I would recommend one of those boring, generic college calculus textbooks of which the "Calculus Made Easy" genre makes so much fun. They tend to cost a bajillion dollars new, while old editions are given away for free in the last week of August. Pretty much anything that is sprinkled with unit vectors is avoiding the pitfalls into which I fell headlong in college.

 

Well, some of them.

 

[Narf the Mouse]

Re: What non-fiction book are you reading, and is it good?

 

Ok; thanks.

[Psybolt]

Re: What non-fiction book are you reading, and is it good?

 

I just recently finished Ghost on the Wires by Kevin Mitnick. I enjoyed it a great deal, especially the stories of how he was able to hack into the phone company by calling people up and asking for information (Social engineering). Some of the specific details on the computer languages was more than I knew, but it did not draw away from the story.

[Old Man]

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds by... Brig. Gen. Robin Olds, USAF (ret).

 

For those who are unfamiliar with the history of aerial warfare, the word "legendary" in the title here is not only not an exaggeration, it's something of an understatement. It would be very easy for a book by a cocky fighter pilot to be off-putting, even from a man who has undoubtedly earned the right to be cocky a dozen times over. But though Olds has his moments, they are heavily diluted with a strong dose of self-deprecating humor and instances of foot-in-mouth disease, and it's clear that viewing his life in the rear view mirror has softened his perspective. Olds' bio serves as an excellent front row seat to three decades of Air Force history as he soundly defeats the Germans and the North Vietnamese but ultimately loses to Air Force bureaucracy and politics as well as the strains his career put on his marriage. To be sure, the book is at its best when Olds is describing his combat time in the cockpit, but he manages to make the parts about staff time interesting too, if no longer timely. I give it four out of five stars if only because I think it could have included more zoomy shooty stuff on top of what's already there.

[Hermit]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

Thread Merge complete!

[Enforcer84]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

...I was just wondering if that was possible

[Ian Mackinder]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

It's deja vu all over again. Again.

[Ternaugh]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

ENIAC, by Scott McCartney. It's a history of the first general purpose electronic computer and the folks associated with building it. Strangely enough, some of the material's a bit dated (it was written in '99), and it's obviously slanted towards two of the designers (Mauchly and Eckert), and seems to be based upon the idea that they weren't receiving proper credit for their work (though 12 years after the book, the top Google searches all mention them prominently). It was a decent read, though I'd probably only recommend it for diehard computer history buffs.

 

JoeG

[Shadow Hawk]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

Liars for Jesus by Chris Rodda

The subtitle says it all: "The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History".

[Orion]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

Basic Butchering of Livestock and Game by John J Mettler, Jr, DVM

and

Home Sausage Making by Susan Peery and Charles Reavis

 

The first is a primer on processing your own meat, including shooting, gutting, and cutting into portions. Learned very little from this one - turns out I pretty much know what I'm doing at this. The second is some very basic tips at making sausage, but little in the way to let you know how to use the necessary equipment. It also assumes you'll be buying 3 pounds of ham at the market to make into sausage, not a 250 pound pig. 50 pages of tips, 225 pages of recipes. They claim you can make vegetarian sausage, but to me that's like saying it's a pizza, just without bread and tomato sauce. The first is worthwhile, the second is not.

[FireTiger]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

Discover's 20 Things You Didn't Know About Everything (2008) - This actually did include somethings I didn't know already, which made it worth its brief read time.

 

The Encyclopedia of Demons & Deomonology (2009) by Rosemary Ellen Guiley.

 

The very much misnamed Encyclopedia of the Undead: A Field Guide to the Creatures that Cannot Rest in Peace (2006) by Dr. Bob Curran. The book opens with a chapter on Vampires, which expands into some vampire-like creatures (and ever-present Vlad Tepes and Elizabeth Bathory stories). Chapter two is about werewolves and does not mention (oddly for a book on undead) a bit of folklore that a werewolf was doomed to become a vampire upon their demise. Chapter three is Voodoo and Zombies, and mostly covers famous and infamous past practitioners with a bit tacked on at the end to the effect of "oh yeah, zombies aren't actually dead guys." Chapter four is Ghouls and the Golem, which describes ghouls as more like primeval spirits or demons than undead..., and the golem is a contruct. Chapter five is 'The Terrors of HP Lovecraft', and while he does have some undead-types in various stories (Joseph Curwen and Dr. West's experiments come to mind), that isn't what the fiction was about. Nor is this chapter, really, though it does have some bits of history and folklore about that area of New England that Lovecraft probably knew about. The book essentially ends with Appendix: Miscellaneous Nightmares, briefly covering a few creatures from places other than Europe and the Middle East.

 

(If I hadn't been reading this volume on a tablet computer, I'd've tossed it across the room a couple of times.)

[death tribble]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

Life by Keith Richards

 

Very interesting read. From the childhood to the formation of the Stones through their career. Caustic at times but respectful of others involved in the same industry.

Various things are rubbished which are Urban Stones legends. Recommended

[Old Man]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by David Cordingly. Cordingly is apparently one of, if not the, foremost historians on the subject of pirates. This is excellent from the standpoint of separating fact from fiction and getting a clear picture of what pirates and their lives were like, and the book leaves little doubt as to which is which--within limits. Pirates were not exactly the best recordkeepers so Cordingly is definitely working with incomplete information, and he's clear when he has to infer conclusions as opposed to showing more direct evidence.

 

The real problem with this book is organizational. Cordingly separates the book into sections according to aspects of pirating--starting out, life aboard, women, raids ashore, popular fiction, punishment, and so on. This makes sense but as a result he winds up skipping from one pirate to another, so we hear a little about Blackbeard and Kidd in this chapter, then Rackam and Kidd in the next, then back to Blackbeard in the next, and rarely is any one pirate dwelled upon long enough to get a real narrative going. Not that the book is dry, it's just drier than one would expect a book about flippin' pirates to be. 3.5 R's out of Arrrrr!.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick, a composite account of the events and aftermath of the Essex being rammed and sunk by an enraged bull sperm whale. Lots of good details on the lives of 19th century whalers and on the effects of starvation and dehydration in long term situations. Good read.

[Sociotard]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

How buildings learn, by Stewart Brand.

 

The core idea is that changing existing structures is okay, that buildings can become better adapted to us that way than if they are designed by a genius once and then kept as is, and that we shouldn't build things that are hard to remodel.

 

http://www.amazon.com/How-Buildings-Learn-Happens-Theyre/dp/0140139966

[Toadmaster]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by David Cordingly. Cordingly is apparently one of, if not the, foremost historians on the subject of pirates. This is excellent from the standpoint of separating fact from fiction and getting a clear picture of what pirates and their lives were like, and the book leaves little doubt as to which is which--within limits. Pirates were not exactly the best recordkeepers so Cordingly is definitely working with incomplete information, and he's clear when he has to infer conclusions as opposed to showing more direct evidence.

 

The real problem with this book is organizational. Cordingly separates the book into sections according to aspects of pirating--starting out, life aboard, women, raids ashore, popular fiction, punishment, and so on. This makes sense but as a result he winds up skipping from one pirate to another, so we hear a little about Blackbeard and Kidd in this chapter, then Rackam and Kidd in the next, then back to Blackbeard in the next, and rarely is any one pirate dwelled upon long enough to get a real narrative going. Not that the book is dry, it's just drier than one would expect a book about flippin' pirates to be. 3.5 R's out of Arrrrr!.

 

I read that in 2006, good book overall. I don't recall finding the organization confusing, but agree it could have been livelier. I guess that is a problem when writing an accurate history of a subject that has often been portrayed in an over the top way.

[Cancer]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

I re-read my old copy of Bruce Catton's This Hallowed Ground. I may again have to find the larger work from which it was condensed. I started on that long ago, had other things come up and never got into it before it had to go back to the library.

[Shadow Hawk]

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

 

Just finished War Plan Orange. A detailed look into the war planning against Japan, 1899-1945.

A bit of a slog.