«The Urban Astronomer's Guide: A Walking Tour of the Cosmos for City Sky Watchers
(Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series)»
Rod Mollise | Springer | ISBN 1846282160 | 1 edition (May 24, 2006) | 257 pages| PDF | 11 Mb
Most amateur astronomers yearn to observe more frequently. Many of them, however, live in urban and highly developed suburban areas that are heavily light polluted. Due to this light pollution, they are under the impression that deep sky objects�nebulae, galaxies, star clusters�are either invisible or not worth viewing from home. This book describes the many objects that can be seen in a bright urban sky, and shows the city or suburban astronomer how to observe object after object, season after season.

This book covers the "why," "how," and "what" of astronomy under light-polluted skies. The prospective city-based observer is told why to observe from home (there are hundreds of spectacular objects to be seen from the average urban site), how to observe the city sky (telescopes, accessories, and moderns techniques), and what to observe. About 50% of the book is devoted to describing "tours" of the sky, with physical and observational descriptions, at-the-eyepiece drawings, and photographs.

Review:

Great Book for City Dwelling Amatuer Astronomers!

Living in the South Florida Peninsula, you get used to light pollution. In 2005, I purchased my first "real" telescope and soon learned how badly light polluted South Florida really is. Although a trip to a dark sky site is only 60 miles away, I live in the suburbs outside of Miami and wanted to take advantage of my decent sized back yard. My sky's limiting magnitude is around 4, the sky towards the north is a grayish white haze where only Polaris is visible and the big dipper if high enough in the sky. The rest of the sky is a little better but after 2 years of limited success in searching for DSOs, I decided to look for help.
The Urban Astronomer's Guide may be the help I require. The book is well written and easy to follow. This book was written where beginners as well as intermediate amateur astronomers would find it interesting.
Part I of the book entitled: Telescopes and Techniques covers everything from the why one would want to observe from the city to the writers experience with types of telescopes and needed techniques to beat the light pollution blues. Mr. Mollise explains the advantages in large and short focal length telescopes and which objects benefit from either type. The author discusses in great detail the differences between the different types of Light-Pollution Reduction Filters, eyepieces, finders, computer software, print atlases, etc.
The book discuses techniques which experienced amateurs may be familiar with but beginners and intermediates may have heard have but not understand completely. Things like the use of averted vision, "jiggling" the telescope to tease out details in faint objects. Dark Adaptation is discussed and it's importance, all invaluable lessons that every amateur astronomer should learn.
Part II of the book entitled: A Walking Tour of the Cosmos is what makes this book a keeper. This section of the book goes over examples of objects that are perfect for city observation. The four chapters as you might imagine are broken up by season, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Each season gives 4 lists of objects that the Author feels are viewable for the given season and time. An example of such a tour is Spring's Tour 1. Objects included in this tour are M94, M51, M106, M63, M81, M82, M101, M97, M3 and the Double Star Cor Caroli.

Each object is discussed in detail with the author's notes from his personal journal. Mr. Mollise discusses the use of filters that can enhance a particular object, magnification that should be used to view certain objects, and what you should expect to see at the eyepiece. The author also includes his personal illustrations of objects he's included in his journals, which gives you a good idea of what you should be able to see in the eyepiece. The illustrations are very good and to me are much more useful than the Hubble type images commonly seen in astronomy books.
The only thing I found a little odd about this book would be the inclusion of such difficult to see objects as M1 and M51. The author even writes: "Sadly, I have to admit that in the city it (M51) is something of a dud." He also writes: "you have to be satisfied just to say you've seen it (M1)." These are just two of several objects the author himself confesses are extremely challenging, if not impossible to view from a light-polluted location. Why not focus on objects that are less challenging? Maybe have one object at the end of each tour that might be a challenge.
This is not to say the book does not reward the reader with some surprisingly easy to see objects. I was recently treated to a "hidden treasure" in the open cluster M46. As it turns out there is a small planetary nebulae (NGC2438) within this semi-impressive cluster that makes M46 a showpiece object in my opinion. If not for this book, I may not have spent much more than 10 minutes viewing M46. I now find myself going back to it time after time just as I do with M42 and M45.
Overall the book is a good read. This book in written for beginner's with some experience and can be useful to intermediate amateurs who might not be getting the most from their telescopes due to light pollution issues within the Urban setting. Part II in particular I've found invaluable and it will definitely keep me coming back for more.

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Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology by Henry William Chesbrough (Author)
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (March 1, 2003) | ISBN-10: 1578518377 | PDF | 1 Mb | 272 pages
The great corporate research departments at companies like Bell Labs, IBM and Xerox were once the motor of American industry. But that may be changing, according to this probing academic study of corporate technological innovation. Chesbrough, an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School, argues that the old "closed innovation" model-vertically integrated research-and-development departments that develop technology in-house for the sole use of their corporate parent-is becoming obsolete in an age of mobile scientific workers, ubiquitous high-tech startups and a growing extra-corporate research establishment at university labs. Modern technology powerhouses like Cisco and Microsoft do little of their own basic research, he reports; instead they have dropped the "do-it-all-yourself" approach and pioneered a new model of "open innovation," in which companies import ideas from without and let their own innovations enter the wider marketplace. Drawing on case studies of companies like Lucent and Intel, Chesbrough suggests that companies make themselves more permeable to the flow of knowledge through such strategies as hiring professors and grad students as summer consultants, sponsoring university research, investing in and partnering with high-tech startups and venture capitalists, and disseminating their own innovations through spin-off companies or even by publishing it in the public domain. Chesbrough's sophisticated but highly readable discussion of these complex issues will give managers much food for thought.


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Game Theory and International Environmental Cooperation by Michael Finus (Author)
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing (March 2001) | ISBN-10: 1840644087 | PDF | 1,4 Mb | 416 pages
Since there is no supranational institution which can enforce international environmental agreements (IEAs), international cooperation proves difficult in practice. Global emissions exhibit negative externalities in countries other than that of their origin and hence there is a high interdependence between countries, and strategic considerations play an important role. Game theory analyzes the interaction between agents and formulates hypotheses about their behavior and the final outcomes in games. Hence, international environmental problems are particularly suited for analysis by this method.
The author investigates various strategies to provide countries with an incentive to accede, agree and comply to an international environmental agreement (IEA). He shows that by integrating real world restrictions into a model, game theory is a powerful tool for explaining the divergence between 'first-best' policy recommendations and 'second-best' designs of actual IEAs. For instance he explains why (inefficient) uniform emission reduction quotas have played such a prominent role in past IEAs despite economists' recommendations for the use of (efficient) market-based instruments, as for example emission targets and permits. Moreover, it is stated, that a single, global IEA on climate is not necessarily the best strategy and small coalitions may enjoy a higher stability and may achieve more. This book will be of great interest to scholars, researchers and lecturers in the fields of international environmental economics, game theory and international relations.

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Digidesign Training and Education, «Pro Tools 101: Official Courseware»
Thomson Course Technology | ISBN 1598631543 | 1 edition (April 1, 2006) | 376 pages| PDF | 7 Mb
Digidesign's Official Pro Tools 101 Courseware takes a comprehensive approach to learning the fundamentals of Pro Tools/HD, Pro Tools LE, or Pro Tools M-Powered systems. Now updated for Pro Tools 7 software, this new edition from the definitive authority on Pro Tools covers everything you need to know to complete a Pro Tools project. Learn to build sessions that include multi-track recording of live instruments, MIDI sequences, software synthesizers and samplers, and audio looping with REX files through hands-on tutorials, develop essential techniques for recording, editing and mixing. The included DVD-ROM offers tutorial files and videos, plug-in installers, and Pro Tools sessions. Developed as the foundation course of the official Digidesign Training and Education program, the guide can be used to learn on your own or to pursue formal Pro Tools certification through a Digidesign-authorized school. Join the ranks of audio professionals around the world as you unleash the creative power of your Pro Tools system.

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William K. Pratt, «Digital Image Processing: PIKS Scientific Inside, 4th Edition»
Wiley-Interscience | ISBN 0471767778 | 4th edition (February 9, 2007) | 782 pages| PDF | 15.5 Mb
A newly updated and revised edition of the classic introduction to digital image processing
The Fourth Edition of Digital Image Processing provides a complete introduction to the field and includes new information that updates the state of the art. The text offers coverage of new topics and includes interactive computer display imaging examples and computer programming exercises that illustrate the theoretical content of the book. These exercises can be implemented using the Programmer's Imaging Kernel System (PIKS) application program interface included on the accompanying CD.
Suitable as a textbook for students or as a reference for practitioners, this new edition provides a comprehensive treatment of these vital topics:
[*]Characterization of continuous images
[*]Image sampling and quantization techniques
[*]Two-dimensional signal processing techniques
[*]Image enhancement and restoration techniques
[*]Image analysis techniques
[*]Software implementation of image processing applications


Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

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Cheetah DVD Burner ver.2.12 | 7,76 MB
Burn Blu-Ray, Dual Layer DVD, DVD and, CD disc's. Burn Audio CDs from MP3, MP2, WMA, AVI, OGG and WAV files. Also create ISO files, burn Bin/Cue files, and Burn Video DVDs. Supports DAO and TAO burning modes for all disc types. The Cheetah DVD Burner is a lite, and fast disc burning program that is easy on the system resources. Version 2.12 has improved blu-ray disc burning capabilities, and faster handling of large files.

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- Buffer Underrun Protection - Support for hardware buffer underrun protection systems, like BURNproof, JustLink, Power-Burn, SafeBurn, SeamlessLink etc
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Double Password v1.21 | 1.39 MB
Strong passwords should have a significant length and cannot contain normal words. Only random digits and letters of different case. Such passwords are extremely hard to remember and it takes time to enter. But, even strong passwords have their weaknesses. When you type a password, it can be intercepted by a spy program that logs all your keystrokes. Others can see what you type (even if the password field on the screen is masked, the password can be read by buttons you hit on your keyboard.)
Until now, the only solution was to buy a secure token. A secure token is a hardware key that is used instead of or in addition to your normal password authentication. There are two main problems with the hardware solution, though. First, it is expensive. And second, you can use them only with software that has built-in support for this method of authentication.
But, from now on, you can turn any USB flash drive into a secure token! No need to purchase an additional expensive device. All you need is about 2 megabytes of free space on your flash drive or other USB gadget, such as an MP3 player, PDA or even a USB-pluggable mobile handset.


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