Books

Building Your Own Audible

Shawn Powers — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 14:35:41 +0000

A quick look at some options for streaming audio books.

I have audiobooks from a variety of sources, which I've purchased in a variety of ways. I have some graphic audio books in MP3 format, a bunch of Audible books in their DRM'd format and ripped CDs varying from m4b (Apple format for books) to MP3 and even some OGG. That diversity makes choosing a listening platform difficult. In order to meet my idea of perfection, I need:

A system that plays any audio format.
A way to play books on multiple platforms, iOS Android and web browsers.
Current location stored and honored across platforms.
The ability to play audiobooks at different speeds.
An easy way to access my entire library remotely.

Several options come close. My favorite Android audiobook app, for instance, is "Listen", available in the Play Store. But, it falls short on the multi-platform front and also on accessing books remotely. Audible itself will do most of what I need, but it doesn't allow importing remote books. And, traditional music players are out.

Honestly, Plex seems like the perfect platform for audiobooks. And although some people do use it, they're just kludging things. Plex doesn't natively support the concepts behind audiobooks, so the process isn't smooth at all. I'm honestly hoping that changes in the future, because it would be a perfect addition to an already amazing system. Thankfully, in the meantime, there's BookSonic.

You've probably heard of SubSonic, which is a music streaming server that allows you to do pretty much what I'm looking for with audiobooks, but it's strictly for music. Patrik Johansson has forked SubSonic and created BookSonic, specifically modified to handle audiobooks. It even handles tagging and book art. Currently, the system isn't perfect, but it's closer than any other projects come to book nirvana, and if you use Docker, it's dead simple to get installed. A simple:


docker -d create \
  --name booksonic \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v :/audiobooks \
  -v :/var/booksonic \
  ironicbadger/booksonic

will get BookSonic running on your Docker host. Once it's installed, just head over to http://docker_host:8080 and log in as admin/admin. You can start the book scan, and fairly soon, your books will show up for you to start playing!

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Galit Shmueli et al.'s Data Mining for Business Analytics (Wiley)

James Gray — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 16:11:00 +0000

by James Gray

The updated 5th edition of the book Data Mining for Business Analytics from Galit Shmueli and collaborators and published by Wiley is a standard guide to data mining and analytics that adds two new co-authors and a trove of new material vis-á-vis its predecessor. R is a free, open-source and popularity-gaining software environment for statistical computing and graphics. Trailing with the subtitle Concepts, Techniques, and Applications in R, the new 5th edition of Data Mining for Business Analytics continues to provide an applied approach to data-mining concepts and methods, using the R software as a canvas on which to illustrate.

With the book, readers learn how to implement a variety of popular data-mining algorithms in R to tackle business problems and opportunities. Material covered in-depth includes both statistical and machine-learning algorithms for prediction, classification, visualization, dimension reduction, recommender systems, clustering, text mining and network analysis.

The new 5th edition includes material from business, government, a dozen case studies demonstrating applications for the data-mining techniques described, and exercises in each chapter that help readers gauge and expand their comprehension and competency of the material. Data Mining for Business Analytics can serve as either a text book or a reference for analysts, researchers and practitioners working with quantitative methods in myriad fields.

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Lotfi ben Othmane, Martin Gilje Jaatun and Edgar Weippl's Empirical Research for Software Security (CRC Press)

James Gray — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 16:47:34 +0000

by James Gray

Developing truly secure software is no walk through the park. In an effort to apply the scientific method to the art of secure software development, a trio of authors—Lotfi ben Othmane, Martin Gilje Jaatun and Edgar Weippl—teamed up to write Empirical Research for Software Security: Foundations and Experience, which is published by CRC Press.

The book is a guide for using empirical research methods to study secure software challenges. Empirical methods, including data analytics, allow extraction of knowledge and insights from the data that organizations gather from their tools and processes, as well as from the opinions of the experts who practice those methods and processes. These methods can be used to perfect a secure software development lifecycle based on empirical data and published industry best practices.

The book also features examples that illustrate the application of data analytics in the context of secure software engineering.

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V. Anton Spraul's Think Like a Programmer, Python Edition

James Gray — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 18:22:35 +0000

by James Gray

What is programming? Sure, it consists of syntax and the assembly of code, but it is essentially a means to solve problems. To study programming, then, is to study the art of problem solving, and a new book from V. Anton Spraul, Think Like a Programmer, Python Edition, is a guide to sharpening skills in both spheres. Subtitled A Beginner's Guide to Programming and Problem Solving, Spraul's book helps transition programmers in training from reading programs to writing them in Python.

No prior programming experience required! Rather than simply point out solutions to problems, Spraul gets readers thinking by illustrating techniques that instruct how to self-solve programming problems. Each chapter covers a single programming concept, such as data types, control flow, code reuse, recursion and classes, topped off by a series of Python-based exercises that put readers' skills to the test.

In Think Like a Programmer, Python Edition, readers break big problems down into simple, manageable steps to build into solutions, write custom functions to solve new problems, use a debugger to examine each line of a running program in order to understand fully how it works and tackle problems strategically by turning each new concept into a problem-solving tool. Additional chapters are included on early programming topics, such as variables, decisions and looping.

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Zed A. Shaw's Learn Python 3 the Hard Way

James Gray — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 17:51:05 +0000

by James Gray

Author Zed A. Shaw makes a simple promise in his Hard Way series of books from publisher Addison-Wesley Professional: "It'll be hard at first. But soon, you'll just get it—and that will feel great!" Shaw's latest book in the series is called Learn Python 3 the Hard Way: A Very Simple Introduction to the Terrifyingly Beautiful World of Computers and Code.

In the book, readers learn Python by working through 52 "brilliantly crafted exercises" in a purposefully proscribed manner. After reading the exercise, readers type the code precisely—with no copying and pasting! Then readers fix their mistakes and watch the program run.

The process teaches essentials of how a computer works, what good programs look like, and how to read, write and think about computer code. Shaw teaches even more in 5+ hours of video where he shows readers how to break, fix and debug code—live, as he's doing the exercises.

Lessons cover topics from installing a complete Python environment to working with code, basic mathematics, variables, looping and logic, object-oriented programming, Python packaging, automated testing and much more. Readers bring the discipline, commitment and persistence to Shaw's formula, and the output will be a Python programmer!

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Read a Book in the Blink of an Eye!

Shawn Powers — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 12:19:46 +0000

by Shawn Powers

I love reading. Sadly, the 24 hours I get per day seems to be inadequate for the tasks I need to accomplish. That might change as my teenagers turn into college kids and then begin to start families of their own. For now, however, between drama class and basketball practice, it seems like it takes about 30 hours to accomplish a 24-hour day. Needless to say, I don't read as many books as I'd like.

Normally I take advantage of commute time to listen to audiobooks. That actually works quite well, and I'm able to read 30–40 books a year. Most of those books are fiction, but still, I'm grateful for audiobooks. Not long ago, I discovered a different sort of audiobook. I honestly have mixed feelings about the concept, but imagine if Cliff Notes and Audiobooks had a baby. That baby might be called "Blinkist".

Blinkist is a company that condenses books into very short summaries. They are available via text (for Kindle and the like), but for me, the professionally narrated audio versions are really what work best. Rather than reading an audiobook over the course of a week, I can "read" a book on the way to the grocery store. I'm shocked to admit, the summaries of entire books are surprisingly useful. For many books, the summary from Blinkist is enough. For some, the "blinks" make me want to read the entire book. That means although it's not a 100% replacement for reading, it adds value (and knowledge) to my life.

There is a three-day free trial that allows you to read as many books as you like. I urge you to give it a try. After the three days, you can either default to the free account, which allows you to listen (or read) one pre-chosen free book a day, or opt for a paid subscription. For text-only "blinks", it's $50/year. For unlimited text and audio "blinks", it's $80/year. Thankfully, three days is a enough time to figure out if it's something you find worth buying.

Blinkist is a cool way to fit more information into our over-busy lives and it's a handy mobile app for "blinking" on the go. Check out the free trial You can read a surprising number of books in three free days!

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Gabriel Ford, Sadie Ford and Melissa Ford's Hello, Scratch!

James Gray — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 14:22:27 +0000

by James Gray

In the new book Hello, Scratch! (published by Manning Publications), parents and kids work together to learn programming skills, but not in just any old way. They create new versions of old retro-style arcade games with the Scratch open-source visual programming language from the MIT Media Lab.

Author Melissa Ford teamed up her two children, Sadie and Gabriel, to write Hello, Scratch!, and the intergenerational trio begins by introducing the basic Scratch workspace, art editor and the most common computer science concepts used in the projects, along with interesting exercises centered on the games.

The subsequent game chapters are broken into two manageable parts with the initial, shorter section focused on background and prep, and the second, longer section focused on coding.

The authors also explain how to make game art, including backgrounds and sprites (the game pieces) in a pixel art style directly in the Scratch editor.

Upon finishing the book, readers will have the skills to create their own games and understand the basics of computer programming and game design.

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J. and K. Fidler's Cut the Cord, Ditch the Dish, and Take Back Control of Your TV (Iron Violin Press)

James Gray — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 16:05:09 +0000

by James Gray

Prospective TV cable-cutters, even those with technical abilities, often are flummoxed in the face of choosing between all of the content options and new technologies available. Reliable sources of complete and neutral information in this space are hard to find, and the fun evaporates rapidly when you're faced with hours of stumbling through forums and strings of searches.

A quicker route to TV nirvana is to read J. and K. Fidler's book Cut the Cord, Ditch the Dish, and Take Back Control of Your TV from Iron Violin Press. Subtitled Fun, Tried-and-Tested, and Absolutely Legit Ways to Customize, Control and Change How You Watch TV, the Fidler team's book is a "time-saving, easily understood, roadmap for readers of all technical levels to be able to have fun, save money, and get the content and TV experience they want".

Cut the Cord provides "been-there-done-that" tips and explores the new technologies now available to cord-cutters. The nearly 400-page ebook gives basic information needed to get started, then builds on this knowledge to document a variety of simple to advanced DIY projects. One of those projects includes creating a DIY Linux OS-based DVR using MythTV and an Intel NUC.

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Steve Suehring's CompTIA Linux+ and LPIC Practice Tests (Sybex)

James Gray — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 15:48:34 +0000

by James Gray

Possessing Linux skills is valuable in today's IT job market where demand for talent outstrips supply. Getting certified proves you have the chops to do the job, and two well worn paths to Linux certification are the Computing Technology Industry Association's CompTIA Linux+ and the Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPIC).

To boost your Linux+/LPIC readiness and obtain 100% coverage of all exam objectives on both certifications, you'd be wise to check out Steve Suehring's new CompTIA Linux+ and LPIC Practice Tests. Covered in the Sybex-published title are CompTIA Linux+ exams LX0-103 and LX0-104 and the LPIC exams 101-400, 102-400 and 201 and 202, replete with 1,200+ expertly crafted practice questions. Two 60-question practice exams per section help readers gauge their readiness and hone test-taking strategies well in advance of exam day.

Buyers of the book also gain access to the Sybex interactive learning environment containing all questions and the ability to create one's own practice tests based on areas where further review is needed. This book can be used alone or with the Sybex study guides.

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Omesh Tickoo and Ravi Iyer's Making Sense of Sensors (Apress)

James Gray — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 16:20:26 +0000

by James Gray

In today's data-driven world, we are surrounded by sensors collecting various types of data about us and our world. These sensors are the primary input devices for wearable computers, IoT and other mobile devices. Professionals seeking to better understand today's sensor-rich devices and acquire knowledge and skills to develop innovative solutions that exploit them will be pleased to learn about the new book Making Sense of Sensors.

Written by the team of Omesh Tickoo and Ravi Iyer, and published by Apress, the book is subtitled End-to-End Algorithms and Infrastructure Design from Wearable-Devices to Data Centers. Presented in a manner that permits readers to associate the examples with their daily lives, Tickoo and Iyer's book covers the most common architectures used for deriving meaningful data from sensors. This book provides readers with the tools to understand how sensor data is converted into actionable knowledge and provides tips for in-depth work in this field.

Starting with an overview of the general pipeline to extract meaningful data from sensors, the book then dives deeper into some commonly used sensors and algorithms designed for knowledge extraction. Practical examples and pointers to more information are used to outline the key aspects of Multimodal recognition. The book concludes with a discussion on relationship extraction, knowledge representation and management.

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