You may be reading this book for many reasons. It could be because you heard all about Hadoop and what it can do to crunch petabytes of data in a reasonable amount of time. While reading into Hadoop you found that, for random access to the accumulated data, there is something called HBase. Or it was the hype that is prevalent these days...

I still remember deploying my first Microsoft Access application 10 years ago for a head hunting agency. They had a user base of about 200 users (I can already hear some of you groan) and they needed a system to manage job applicants and the companies that want to hire them. And they tossed my meager development team of two an...

When I began writing this book, I spent quite a bit of time searching for a good quote to start things off. I ended up with two. R is a wonderfully flexible platform and language for exploring, visualizing, and understanding data. I chose the quote from Alice in Wonderland to capture the flavor of statistical analysis today—an...

The primary goal of this book is to present to the scientific and management communities a selection of applications using more recent Soft Computing (SC) and Computing with Words and Perceptions (CWP) models and techniques meant to solve the economics and financial problems. The selected examples could also serve as a starting point...

What is security? Is it a mindset? Is it a measurable and actionable posture or position? Or is it a bit of both? People, as a race, learn from doing; they learn by example. Ingrained into our psyche is a process that builds new information upon previous knowledge as we learn. As Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further than...

There is a scientific consensus that we need to act rapidly to cut carbon dioxide emissions if we are to limit the most extreme effects of climate change. The IT sector is in a unique position to act as a catalyst for this change. By implementing simple efficiencies, the sector can reduce its carbon footprint – which currently...

Congratulations. You have been given your own project to run. If you are like most project managers, part of you is elated that your company has entrusted you with an important assignment, while the rest of you is petrified that it will soon discover the magnitude of its error. Whether the project is your first and you are being...

I used to think plug-ins were for people who could afford to buy creativity. Then I realized it was for those who had creativity, but were burdened and held back by the process, or lack of tools, for their creativity. After Effects plug-ins are not someone’s project files or templates for you to copy, but rather tools for...

Results matter, whether you are a mathematician, scientist, or engineer. The time that you spend doing tedious mathematical calculations could be spent in more productive ways. Sage is an open-source mathematical software system that helps you perform many mathematical tasks. There is no reason to compute integrals or perform algebraic...

Slate-style computers have been around for a few years, but it took Apple to make them catch on with the general public in a big way when it introduced the iPad. This small, less than a pound-and-a-half wonder has sold millions of units in its first year for good reason: It’s well designed, feature rich, and opens up a world of...

My entire career has been about learning and applying new technologies. It has also been about taking on new challenges related to technology and business. I enjoy learning new things,and I like to share things that I have learned through writing and public speaking. I like to help others learn challenging subjects,in particular...

Native applications get almost all of the press these days, especially given the financial success of the iTunes App Store...