Thinking in terms of facts and rules is perhaps one of the most common ways of approaching problem definition and problem solving both in everyday life and under more formal circumstances. The best known set of rules, the Ten Commandments have been accompanying us since the times of Moses; the Decalogue proved to be simple but...

The web has completely revolutionized the way we live our lives—the average person in the UK now does an average of six Google searches a day. Within the lifetime of one generation, our entire society has changed, and it continues to be catalyzed by technology in a very fundamental way. For me, this is the most fascinating thing...

Back in 1997, when I began my career as a professional web developer, I started working with Classic ASP. After a brief training period in a few different programming languages such as C++ and Java, I was thrown in at the deep end and assigned to a project to build an Intranet application for a large consultancy firm in the Netherlands...

The Linked Open Data Project started just four years ago in 2007. In that short time Linked Data has grown into an almost mainstream activity for many governments around the world. As of this writing, the US Government’s open data site listed twenty one countries whose governments publish open data regarding the operations of...

The stats tell us that people are switching from Windows to the Mac in record numbers, but those stats don’t tell us why. Perhaps it’s because Windows users would like to actually enjoy using a computer for a change. Perhaps it’s because Macs just work: you take them out of the box, plug them in, and within minutes...

Did you ever imagine yourself writing a computer game and being able to make money selling it? With Apple’s iTunes App Store and the accompanying mobile devices iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, it’s now easier than ever. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s easy— there’s still a lot to learn about game...

In late breaking news as this book goes to press, Google and...

With the dramatic changes in computing power and wider availability of software tools for design and production, engineers are now using CAD/CAM/CAE systems for everyday tasks, not just for demonstrations. International competition, de- creased availability of skilled labor, and increased emphasis on quality are also forcing...

Humans receive the great majority of information about their environment through sight, and at least 50% of the human brain is dedicated to vision. Vision is also a key component for building artificial systems that can perceive and understand their environment. Computer vision is likely to change society in many ways; for example, it...

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Image synthesis, or rendering, is a field of transformation: it changes geometry and physics into meaningful images. Because the most popular algorithms frequently change, it is increasingly important for researchers and implementors to have a basic understanding of the principles of image synthesis. Focusing on theory, Andrew...