Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications

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Virtual environments such as games and animated and "real" movies require realistic sound effects that can be integrated by computer synthesis. The book emphasizes physical modeling of sound and focuses on real-world interactive sound effects.

It is intended for game developers, graphics programmers, developers of virtual reality systems and training simulators, and others who want to learn about computational sound.

It is written at an introductory level with mathematical foundations provided in appendices. An enclosed CD contains code examples and sound files.

Note: The Kindle edition of this book does not include any CDs or DVDs.

Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications Review

Are you a pretty good C++ programmer? Have you ever wanted to have your computer output sounds like footsteps or musical instruments that (a) sound real and (b) are continuously responsive to the user's control? Did you discover that it was basically impossible to do it by stitching together prerecorded samples, and you couldn't think of any other way to do it?If so, Perry Cook has written just the book you have been looking for. In 250 pages, Cook explains everything, from the basics of digital filtering to the major alternatives for generating sounds: additive and subtractive synthesis, FM synthesis, and -- the real focus of the book -- physical modeling. Not only that, the accompanying CD-ROM includes lots of sound examples and the Synthesis ToolKit -- a pretty much platform-independent set of C++ classes and algorithms for writing your own code.Not everything is perfect. Just as the first version of any program contains some bugs, the first printing of any book that uses mathematics contains some errors. In particular, typos in Appendix A could be very frustrating if this is your first exposure to Fourier analysis. (You might want to check Cook's web site for a promised list of errata and code updates.) And don't let the fact that the book is short, attractively produced, very well organized, unusually clear, and entertainingly written lead you to believe that you can master it in a weekend. Although Cook tries his best to make the underlying mathematics unintimidating, there is no getting around the fact that there are some rather deep concepts from wave physics and signals-and-systems theory behind what he has to say. The good news is that the effort is richly repaid. Not only will you be able to write programs that can generate controllable sounds in real time, but you will develop insight into how physical instruments produce their distinctive sounds, and you will understand the basics of both the standard and the most advanced techniques that have been developed to model them. Highly recommended. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | PermalinkComment Comment

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Politics on a Human Scale: The American Tradition of Decentralism

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Featuring a foreword by Congressman Glen Browder, Politics on a Human Scale examines political decentralization in the United States, from the founding of the republic to the present.

Part of the desirable equilibrium is a sense of proportionality. Some sizes, some amounts, some levels are more appropriate than others. Decentralism is the best political tool to ensure equilibrium, to promote proportionality, and to obtain appropriate scale. Power distribution should be as wide as possible. Government functions should be as close to the people as practicable. In this way, individual human beings are not swallowed by a monstrous Leviathan. Persons are not at the mercy of an impersonal bureaucracy led by the far-away few. Decentralism gives us politics on a human scale. It gives us more democracy within the framework of a republic.

The longest chapters in the book deal with crucial turning points in U.S. history � specifically, when decentralists lost the upper-hand in the two major political parties. Decentralism in our nation runs deep, both intellectually and historically. It also has considerable popular support. Yet today it is a virtual political orphan. In Washington, neither major political party is serious about dispersing power to lower levels of government or to the people themselves. Still, there are dissident politicians and political movements that remain committed to the decentralist principle.

Power needs to be held in check, partly through decentralization, because power holds a great and dangerous attraction for humans. Recognition of this human tendency is the first step in guarding against it and getting back on a better path.

Politics on a Human Scale: The American Tradition of Decentralism Review

It was my good fortune to read "Politics on a Human Scale" soon after its release. While the book is challenging because of the enormous amount of information it contains, the fascinating narrative and superb writing make the reading experience pleasant. The work should prove especially valuable to educated persons seeking to understand the market for competitive policy making (decentralization) within the context of the American political party system.

As a political scientist with courses on federalism and political parties, I know of no other book that brings the two subjects together so insightfully. The closest work is David Brian Robertson's "Federalism and the Making of America" (2012). Robertson's fine text provides cases that illustrate how United States legislators on both sides of the aisle have used federalism to achieve policy aims on an incremental basis. Taylor, by contrast, provides invaluable historical details and masterful insights that show legislators and party activists selling out decentralization whenever it furthers their political ends. Read together, the two books provide a balanced understanding of how centralized policy making has replaced state autonomy with state dependency over the last 100 years. Of the two books, Taylor's is the more intriguing read.

PERSPECTIVE. If the Taylor book is to be sufficiently appreciated, it helps to step back and consider federalism's evolution and devolution. Generally, American decentralization is viewed by academics as a federalism and states' rights story, rooted in the political differences represented by the fifty-five delegates to the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention of 1787. As revisionist historians allege, decentralization was not a political systems theory as much as political expediency for thirteen confederated states needing trade efficiencies, economic stability and an effective shared defense. Thus, the goal of the Tenth Amendment to maximize the prerogative powers of the states (except where those powers were delegated to the national government) was circumstantially necessitated more than strategically sought. An olive branch had to be offered to bring the anti-federalist leaning states onboard the U.S. Constitution.

Viewed from the neo-liberal revisionist perspective (not mine), the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1985 decision, "Garcia v. San Antonia Metropolitan Transit Authority" can be understood as reforming an institutional pillar of American republicanism that the Founders wrongly designed. "Garcia" sent the Tenth Amendment to bed with two aspirins and a fever reducer. The protection of states' rights was now to be invested in the trusteeship of the electorate's congressional representatives. If the people's political agents did not feel it important to carefully circumscribe the powers of the federal government, then the people had no one to blame but themselves. The high court's 5-4 ruling slathered oil on a slippery slope that reached well beyond the Commerce Clause. Happily, the Court's dissenters were not easily silenced. In decrying carte blanche federal government powers, Justice Powell warned, "The State's role in our system of government is a matter of Constitutional law, not legislative grace." But by that point in time, legislative grace was as damaged as the infrastructure of the Constitution.

RELATED WORKS. During the 1980s and early 1990s, many articles in scholarly journals (especially "Publius: The Journal of Federalism") highlighted what looked like a renewal of federalism. But with the 1996 collapse of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR), it became apparent that decentralization's new day in the sun was to be short-lived. A few held onto hope, Michael S. Greve and others arguing that federalism could still be enlivened (Greve 1999, "Real Federalism: Why It Matters, How it Could Happen"). Paradoxically, in place of an enlivening of Ronald Reagan's "New Federalism" came a thunderous collapse of emergent decentralization--a political reversal that lawyer-author Robert F. Nagel called, "The Implosion of American Federalism" in his book by the same title (2001, Oxford University Press). Even the Gipper's endorsement of federalism was not sufficient to keep the GOP from taking centralism's wreckage strewn path.

SUMMARY. Jeff Taylor's book will not be the last word on the subject of decentralization. It may, however, be the first word in a recast conversation; namely, a discussion that uses the lens of culture and politics on a human level to remember why well-sculpted federalism (strategic decentralization) is too important a political institution to let slip away. This discussion is imperative in an era where crony capitalism is exploiting the centralist environment to further aims of multinational corporations. Likewise, neo-cons are expanding invasive and coercive government as they seek subsidies for the military-industrial complex, justified erroneously by visions of homeland security and a war on terror. If America ever needed "Politics on a Human Scale," the country needs it now.

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Strategy, Innovation, and Change: Challenges for Management

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Any organization must ask three interrelated questions in order to develop its strategy: where are we, where do we want to be, and how will we get there? While the questions do not change over time, the realities and environments that companies face do. Given today's realities, how should companies answer these questions as they face the challenges of the 21st century?

In this book, leading business school educators use their academic, yet managerially-relevant, research to explore these questions. They divide the book into three sections - Understand Your Situation, Develop Your Options, and Lead the Change - and take the reader through some of the latest thinking that helps answer these questions. All the authors have extensive international experience of working with senior managers and are well known academic researchers in their field. They present
their ideas in a straightforward, lively, and purposeful way. Their goal is to inform, challenge, and provide practical advice and tools.

The book serves as a guide to a range of contemporary business challenges, such as managing uncertainty, creating new markets through innovation, energizing people, leading clever people in organizations with limited hierarchy, and introducing radical change. The central focus is on the core concerns and responsibilities of senior management - strategy and leadership.

Clear, crisp, and to the point, this book provides an invaluable and coherent summary of some of the best current business school thinking on contemporary challenges facing organizations. It will be an ideal guide for both MBAs and practicing managers.

Strategy, Innovation, and Change: Challenges for Management Review

While I usually don't care for books that are a compilation of a number of disparate research papers, this one is so effectively compiled, and the papers are so related that it reads like a single author wrote the book. Each chapter was well written and the source of a wealth of information on strategy and innovation. I really like this book!

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Oxford Handbook of Epidemiology for Clinicians (Oxford Handbooks Series)

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The Oxford Handbook of Epidemiology for Clinicians provides all the information required by students and junior doctors who need to understand and translate key epidemiological concepts into medical practice. Unlike standard textbooks in this area, the focus throughout is on clinical applications of epidemiological knowledge.
Divided into four sections, the handbook begins with the basics of epidemiology in the clinic, moving on to the theories behind evidence-based practice, discussions of optimum methods and studies, and then ends by looking at the epidemiology of common diseases. The material is presented in a logical manner, from problems to the most appropriate solutions or tools to be applied. Interesting topics such as controversies in prevention intervention encourage discussion and thought, and the authors
pose sensible and important questions throughout. This handbook is a must for all junior doctors, medical students, and clinicians who need to apply epidemiological concepts to day-to-day practice or who want a practical step-by-step guide to undertaking research, conducting reviews of evidence, or
writing up publications.

Oxford Handbook of Epidemiology for Clinicians (Oxford Handbooks Series) Review

This book is a very useful tool for quick refreshments.
I would recommend it highly for my friends & colleagues.

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The Mass Observers: A History, 1937-1949

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This is the first full-scale history of Mass-Observation, the independent social research organisation which, between 1937 and 1949, set out to document the attitudes, opinions, and every-day lives of the British people. Through a combination of anthropological fieldwork, opinion surveys, and written testimony solicited from hundreds of volunteers, Mass-Observation created a huge archive of popular life during a tumultuous decade which remains central to British national identity.
The social history of these years has been immeasurably enriched by the archive, and extracts from the writings of M-O's volunteers have won a wide and admiring audience.

Now James Hinton, whose acclaimed Nine Wartime Lives demonstrated how the intensely personal writing of some of M-O's volunteers could be used to shed light on broader historical issues, has written a wonderfully vivid and evocative account which does justice not only to the two founders whose tempestuous relationship dominated the early years of Mass-Observation, but also to the dozens of creative and imaginative, and until now largely unknown, young enthusiasts whose work helped to
keep the show on the road. The history of the organisation itself - the staff, the research methods, the struggle for funding, M-O's characteristic 'voice', and its role in the cultural and political life of the period - are themselves as interesting as any of the themes that the founders set out to document.
This long-awaited and deeply researched history corrects and revises much of our existing knowledge of Mass-Observation, opens up new and important perspectives on the organisation, and will be seen as the authoritative account for years to come.

The Mass Observers: A History, 1937-1949 Review

Written by the author of Nine Wartime Lives: Mass Observation and the Making of the Modern Self, this book attempts to give a full history of the Mass-Observation (MO) project; how and why it was organised, who began it, methods used, its role in the cultural and political life of the period, how it was used during the war, whether it was used to empower the masses or facilitate manipulation by the existing elites and how it was united by anti-fascist ideas.

Mass Observation began with a meeting of Tom Harrisson and Charles Madge in 1937, both upper-middle class and public school educated, who had a tempestuous relationship. Harrisson was working in Bolton (labelled 'Worktown' for MO purposes), where he attempted to study politics, religion and working class leisure by 'observing without being observed'. Methods included following housewives around Woolworths to study shopping patterns and trying to blend into the area. In 1938 the two men joined up in London to investigate popular attitudes during the Munich crisis. This would secure MO's reputation and pave the way for its wartime career.

Once war began the main job of the MO was the monitoring of morale, including an influential expose of conditions in air raid shelters at the beginning of the blitz. The whole of MO was, it has to be said, very British. For example, a 'Silent Column' was organised to frustrate defeatists or pro-Nazi's. "If you know anyone who makes a habit of causing worry and anxiety by passing on rumour or who says things persistently that might help the enemy - tell the police," ran the campaign, adding, "but only as a last resort..." Even with this proviso, in case it seemed they were turning to 'Gestapo' methods, the outrage caused it to be cancelled within a month.

This, then, is the story of Mass Observation - of personality clashes, a constant struggle for funding and Harrisson's restless search for influence at all levels of British cultural life. For instance, he was keen to utilise popular music to create morale boosting songs, but the Ministry of Information refused to intervene in the music industry, losing what must have been a good outlet for propaganda. The book also addresses criticisms that MO was amateur, unprofessional and how the project was affected by conscription. It also looks at how, after the war, MO, which never succeeded in attracting long-term funding, drifted into market research.

Overall, this is a really interesting, if academic, read. It is an important appraisal of what MO achieved, how it worked and operated as an independent social research organisation. At its best, MO not only published influential work, but helped the British understand how they viewed themselves at a troubled time in their history. I would not say this is a light read, but, if you are interested in the home front and social history, you will certainly enjoy this book.

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