Book Description
This book follows all NIMS ICS (National Incident Management System--Incident Command System) processes and principles. Beyond Initial Response was written to fill a significant gap in ICS training. Critical ICS position-specific training is difficult to get, yet responders have the responsibility to effectively operate in an ICS organization. This book removes the gap, instills confidence, knowledge and assurance that is required to be successful in an ICS command. Major focus areas: 1) the ICS Planning Process discussed in extensive detail, 2) ICS positions (13 critical positions thoroughly covered in depth), and 3) Unified Command: what it takes to be successful. This book is an invaluable reference tool that contains numerous job aids, checklists, illustrations and sample documents enabling the user to seamlessly work within the Incident Command System. In addition, it is an excellent support source for ICS training, contingency planning and response operations. Beyond Initial Response should be within arms length whether you are training or deploying.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book for all responders!.......2006-11-29
This is a great review of the ICS process! It's easy to read, with exceptional examples of each situation, how to conduct meetings, and how to fill out the ICS forms. I have brought it to a few excercises with me and everyone who looks at it, wants one! The authors did an INCREDIBLE job of combining their particular areas of expertise into a very educational product!
Highly recommended - clear, concise and well crafted........2006-08-15
An exceptional reference and text. Clearly, the authors have many years experience in emergency response and have applied their expertise to the core incident management concepts. If you are looking for a way to understand the National Incident Management System from concept to `nuts and bolts, down in the field' processes, this is the best you will find.
Book Description
Introduction to Computing Systems: From bits & gates to C & beyond, now in its second edition, is designed to give students a better understanding of computing early in their college careers in order to give them a stronger foundation for later courses. The book is in two parts: (a) the underlying structure of a computer, and (b) programming in a high level language and programming methodology.
To understand the computer, the authors introduce the LC-3 and provide the LC-3 Simulator to give students hands-on access for testing what they learn. To develop their understanding of programming and programming methodology, they use the C programming language. The book takes a "motivated" bottom-up approach, where the students first get exposed to the big picture and then start at the bottom and build their knowledge bottom-up. Within each smaller unit, the same motivated bottom-up approach is followed. Every step of the way, students learn new things, building on what they already know. The authors feel that this approach encourages deeper understanding and downplays the need for memorizing. Students develop a greater breadth of understanding, since they see how the various parts of the computer fit together.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Book to Teach You the Basics of the Computer.......2007-05-06
This book is really good for learning the basics of how a computer functions. It takes you from the low-level Flip-Flops to explaining how a register and other small components of a computer work. Then the book shows you the basic components a computer, and then gives a full example in the LC-3. The LC-3 is complete with a architecture diagram and Assembly instructions. The book does a good job of of taking you through the LC-3 data path and showing how an instruction is implemented on the architecture. The book also does a good job of showing how the assembly code connects to higher level languages like C/++ or Java. It also gives a high-level explanation of exactly what a compiler does. Towards the end it gives some information on data structures and particularly as to how a stack would be implemented by the LC-3 in assembly. The book also explains how memory works and how input and output are handled in some computers.
Some problems with the book are in the C section. This book does not give a real C tutorial, there are much better guides to C programming.It doesn't really give you any instruction as to how to program in LC-3 Assembly; however, the instructions are simple enough that you should be able to figure it out. Another potential problem is the combinational logic section. This part of the book is not really comprehensive, but teaches what you need to know so that you understand how all the low-level components work; however, if you want to design your own combinational logic, then there are other books for that. Also this book does not really go into the theory of how and why they developed the LC-3 architecture as it is. It is just an intro to get you used how a computer architecture looks and how it works.
All in all a great read for a CS student or Electrical Engineer to get an idea of how a computer runs the programs written on it.
Note: I am a student at University of Illinois (Patel works here) and took a class created around this book. ECE 190 is still my favorite class I've taken to date.
Needs improvement.......2007-02-05
I was lucky enough to be taught by the professor himself--Dr. Patt. The book needs definite improvement in clarity. Too many of the concepts are abstract and ambiguous. The exercises at the end of each section are pathetic, they should be presented more in a Mathematical or Physics style and they do not flex your knowledge about what you have learned in that section. I had to rely on my TAs to explain certain concepts to me since the book did such a poor job.
However, once you master everything that this book has to offer (I strongly recommend you read the appendixes at the end of the book as collateral reading) you will truly understand how computers work at the most fundamental level.
Great book........2007-01-03
This is one of the best books I have used for a computer science course. This book is really detailed. Would really recommend getting this book and keeping it for reference.
Better Than The Teacher.......2005-12-15
I had a pretty ambiguous and boring teacher for the course that required this book so I didn't listen to her much at all in class. Instead, I just substituted the book for her lectures, and I aced the course with ease learning much about how a computer works along the way. It makes me feel a lot more competent about programming to know this stuff, and the book provides it in a pretty good way through the LC-3 architecture and sprinkles the book with examples.
I didn't read any of the "C and beyond" stuff, but everything else was spot-on. I found that most of the teacher's slides (up until a couple of last topics the book didn't cover like linking and loading) were almost identical to the book's presentation of the material. It's a pricey book, but take heart in knowing that it's not a waste of your money for what you get from it.
Intro to CS the way it should be done.......2005-05-17
This book is the implementation of what I have been trying to impart to my beginning students for years. It contains explanations of all of the ideas that make up the foundation of computer science. The first sections deal with the fundamentals of binary data, how numbers are represented, how arithmetic is performed, how the bitwise operations are executed, followed by the basics of digital logic. These ideas are then expanded into a simple assembly code with many control instructions. Staying at the assembly level, I/O operations, subroutines and stacks are demonstrated.
In chapter 11, the transition is made to higher-level languages by the introduction of C. It is then used to illustrate variables, operators, control structures, functions, pointers and arrays; recursion, I/O in C and simple data structures. The explanations are all very well done and the topics are what should be the first set encountered by a computer science major. While the level of abstraction that most programmers work at has dramatically increased over the years, there is still no substitute for being well schooled in the fundamentals. Not only does this make it easier to move up the abstraction ladder, it also makes it possible for a programmer to function at the lower level, should the need arise.
I strongly recommend this book for adoption as a text for a first course in computer science. While it is not designed to fit into the traditional mold of a first semester programming class, it will provide a much stronger foundation for the student taking their first course in CS.
Book Description
In 1945, many Europeans still heated with coal, cooled their food with ice, and lacked indoor plumbing. Today, things could hardly be more different. Over the second half of the twentieth century, the average European's buying power tripled, while working hours fell by a third. The European Economy since 1945 is a broad, accessible, forthright account of the extraordinary development of Europe's economy since the end of World War II. Barry Eichengreen argues that the continent's history has been critical to its economic performance, and that it will continue to be so going forward.
Challenging standard views that basic economic forces were behind postwar Europe's success, Eichengreen shows how Western Europe in particular inherited a set of institutions singularly well suited to the economic circumstances that reigned for almost three decades. Economic growth was facilitated by solidarity-centered trade unions, cohesive employers' associations, and growth-minded governments--all legacies of Europe's earlier history. For example, these institutions worked together to mobilize savings, finance investment, and stabilize wages.
However, this inheritance of economic and social institutions that was the solution until around 1973--when Europe had to switch from growth based on brute-force investment and the acquisition of known technologies to growth based on increased efficiency and innovation--then became the problem.
Thus, the key questions for the future are whether Europe and its constituent nations can now adapt their institutions to the needs of a globalized knowledge economy, and whether in doing so, the continent's distinctive history will be an obstacle or an asset.
Customer Reviews:
Good Overview of modern physics.......2006-07-22
I used this book in a Modern physics class and for studying the basics of modern physics. I think Harris does a fair job in explaining the ideas and did not find it difficult to read, he is sometimes too detailed in explanations, but I think for the most part thats a good thing. The lack of examples is also nice,it's better to figure out the exercises without use of examples to guide your way, makes you try to understand the physics better rather than a more plug and chug approach. Overall, I think it's a very good book.
Harris --> really good.......2003-04-03
Great book, Harris tels you evertything on a easy, clear way.
Randy harris is my professor.......2003-03-21
Hey randy harris is my professor at UC Davis and I had him for about 2 quarters so far. he is a great teacher but I agree with most people that his teaching style is conversational and lecturelike at many points. From a person that read his book and listen to him speak are almost one in the same. He often patronizes students because he understands that things are hard to understand in Nonclassical physics yet he lectures you on issues that may seem confusing to us but not him. Oh well that is randy harris for you (aka Chandler of DAvis)
A learning tool that takes a step in the wrong direction........2001-04-17
As a physics student using this book as a main text, I found it of little help as a learning aid. While Dr. Harris does do a wonderful job explaining the Schroedinger equation he does a very poor job at relaiting it to applications and explaining anything else. His writing style is inconsistant, going from conversational to lecturelike often within the same paragraph, and overly complex. Most explinations are overly analizied and the same material can be found using fewer words in other texts.
The problems that go along with each section of this book are also very poor. It is very seldom that the problems from a section actually correspond to the section of the book they are said to. The lack of in text examples, and especially the lack of complete work on the few examples there are, as well as the lack solutions to answers also makes learning from this book very difficult.
Great for learning Shrodinger equation.......2001-01-26
This is one of the best physics text books that I have ever read. The best thing about this book is that it provides a great introduction to the schrodinger equation. Of course, there are other topics of interest in this book such as special relativity and nuclear physics. Chapters 2 through 7 provide a spectacular treatment of how to use the shrodinger equation to understand a variety of physical phenomena such as tunneling. Therefore, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to a solid introduction to the shrodinger equation.
Book Description
In "Beyond Fear," Bruce Schneier invites us to take a critical look at not just the threats to our security, but the ways in which we're encouraged to think about security by law enforcement agencies, businesses of all shapes and sizes, and our national governments and militaries. Schneier believes we all can and should be better security consumers, and that the trade-offs we make in the name of security - in terms of cash outlays, taxes, inconvenience, and diminished freedoms - should be part of an ongoing negotiation in our personal, professional, and civic lives, and the subject of an open and informed national discussion.
With a well-deserved reputation for original and sometimes iconoclastic thought, Schneier has a lot to say that is provocative, counter-intuitive, and just plain good sense. He explains in detail, for example, why we need to design security systems that don't just work well, but fail well, and why secrecy on the part of government often undermines security. A skeptic of much that's promised by highly touted technologies like biometrics, Schneier is also a refreshingly positive, problem-solving force in the often self-dramatizing and fear-mongering world of security pundits.
Schneier helps the reader to understand the issues at stake, and how to best come to one's own conclusions, including the vast infrastructure we already have in place, and the vaster systems--some useful, others useless or worse--that we're being asked to submit to and pay for.
Customer Reviews:
Reading it improves the reader security intelligence.......2007-07-05
The content of this book slightly overlap the content of the author previous book Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World but presents the material with a different angle. An angle with the perspective of a security expert that witness security measures taken by governments in reaction of the 9/11 terrorism attack and wants people to understand the absurdity of some of these measures.
It is not technical at all and does not necessitate any particular background to understand and enjoy. The author explains clearly how to make a risk assessment of something that you want to make more secure and then evaluate the cost of the security measures. Only when you have that data, you can evaluate if the added security is worth it.
These explanations are backed up with concrete examples such as evaluating the risk to make purchase with a credit card over the internet. Other examples include the absurdity of securing a lunch in a company refrigerator because the potential loss if having a lunch stolen does not justify securing it. The author also explains that even with technologies that looks very accurate such as facial recognition with an error rate of, let's say, 0.0001 % are totally ineffective when they have to control a huge number of persons like a stadium crowd because even with this accuracy, they would create an unmanageable amount of false positive alerts.
The author also elaborate about why you should question the motivation of a security provider when it is a third party and link this with how people fears can be exploited to introduce invasive, excessively expensive and inefficient security measures. I think that the goal of the author was to make people more critics about security questions and my opinion is that his goal has been successfully achieved.
Sensible security for an unsensible world.......2007-06-05
Most people think that they think rationally about security decisions.
Most don't even know when they're making security decisions.
Fewer know what those decisions really entail.
Only Bruce Schneier knows how to make those decisions sensibly, and he's passing that information along to the world.
Funny.......2007-01-10
I never thought I'd find a security book that made me laugh. Both amusing and informative, I had a hard time putting this one down.
Very Good, and Not as Muddled as One has Claimed.......2005-10-19
This book is very informative, interesting, and entertaining. I've recommended it to people both within and outside the CS and IT communities w/o reservation.
Rather than reiterating things said in the many positive reviews, I'd like to take issue with one reviewer who says Schneier misuses the term "threat." In particular, this reviewer says "A threat is a party with the capabilities and intentions to exploit a vulnerability in an asset." This definition is both counter to standard English usage and counter to standard usage within the computer security field. Every book on my shelf has roughly the same definition of threat: "Threat: a potential for violation of security, which exists when there is a circumstance, capability, action, or event that could breach security and cause harm. That is, a threat is a possible danger that might exploit a vulnerability" -- Stallings, Network Security Essentials, p. 5. So a threat is condition or event, not a party. The reviewer seems to confuse threat with potential adversary.
Schneier's terminology is the standard terminology, and he uses it correctly.
Security or Liberty? Both!.......2005-06-30
I first read about Bruce Schneier in an eye-opening article by Charles Mann in the September, 2002 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. It seems that you don't have to make the false choice everyone is agonizing over between security and liberty. You can have both.
Schneier's book expands on the ideas in the article. Although Schneier is a technology fan and it is his livelihood, he realizes that sometimes a live security guard can provide better security than cutting-edge (but still fallible) face-recognition scanners, for instance. He explains why national ID cards are not a good idea, and how iris-scanners can be fooled.
These are ideas for security on a large scale, for airports, nuclear and other power plants, and government websites. For security on an individual or small business scale, try Art of the Steal by Frank Abagnale. But even if you don't run a government, Beyond Fear is a fascinating read about how your government is making choices (and how they SHOULD be making choices about your security and about your rights.
Book Description
A rich and diverse collection of theoretical essays and excerpts, this volume divides and organizes the material by category for clarity and comprehensiveness. Selections range from the works of Thucydides to Alexander Wendt and comprise a rich and thorough overview of International Relations literature.
Sections are organized by categories related to Globalism, Realism, and Pluralism.
For anyone with an interest in International Relations Theories.
Customer Reviews:
This book didn't have to be this difficult.......2006-02-24
I am a joint law student/international affairs masters student. Surprisingly, after a year and a half of law school, I have never had a textbook as difficult to read and understand as this one. The authors take complicated ideas and make them even more complex.
It is almost as if the authors are competing with the experts in IR they include in this book, trying to see who can use more obscure words and incomprehensible sentences.
Reading this book, I keep telling myself, I could write this sentence or that sentence clearer. The authors should fire their current editor for the fourth edition and hire someone who is fluent in English, not technobabble.
The Glossary is sparse and the index is lacking many key ideas and phrases discussed in the textbook.
Professors, if you want your students to truly understand IR, pick another book which explains IR theory more clearly and without such convoluted jargon.
Terrible book.
A Decent Overview.......2004-11-01
This text seeks to combine a standard IR Theory reader with a IR theory general text. In its first endevor, this book excels. The texts chosen are from among the leaders of thier fields and are summerized clearly and cogently by the editors. In its second task, however, this book fails quite notably. The text written by the authors regarding Realism, Pluralism, and Globalism is poorly written and to broad to be of much use, although thier description of realism is far better than thier description of the others. I would reccomend this book only because of the excellent collection of articles found within. For a general IR theory text, I would look elsewhere.
An Excellent Graduate Level Textbook.......2002-03-22
Kauppi and Viotti's work gives a comprehensive comparison between the contending theories of International Relations. Each section is followed by key readings which helps clear any misunderstanding and introduces to the student some of the finest texts supporting each perspective. Truly informative, great book. Recommended to Political Science graduate students everywhere.
Basic about realism, pluralism, globalism.......1997-03-08
A very good comparative analysis of the international relations theory. The authors first introduce each theory and briefly characterize it, describe characteristic authors and explain the advantages and disadvantages of realists, pluralist and globalist. Following each brief review of a theory are a number of essays of typical authors. I personally used this book to prepare for my pre-exams in political science and there's nothing that comes close to it
Book Description
Using vegetable oils as a fuel for home heating and transportation is a hundred years old: Rudolf Diesel's original engine was operated on plant oils due to the lack of fossil fuels. Later, plant and animal oils were converted into a petrodiesel-compatible fuel known as biodiesel: a clean, low-carbon fuel.
In the early 1980s, home brewers discovered they could transform waste restaurant fryer oils into crude biodiesel and use it in automobiles at 100% concentrations at one quarter the cost of petrodiesel. Yet automotive and engine manufacturers insist that late-model vehicles may be damaged when run on high concentrations of biodiesel and may not honor engine warranties where biodiesel fuel has been used.
Biodiesel Basics and Beyond aims to separate fact from fiction and to educate potential home, farm and cooperative manufacturers on the economic production of quality biodiesel from both waste and virgin oil feedstock. The book includes:
- Detailed processes and lists of equipment required to produce biodiesel that meets North American standards
- How farmers can use excess oilseed as a feedstock for biodiesel production
- The use of the co-byproduct glycerin in making soap
- A guide to numerous reference materials and a list of supplier data.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding Biodiesel Primer.......2007-06-05
I was looking at a BioDiesel business opportunity and needed to increase my knowledge base. I was very impressed with the organization and detail presented in the text. The author was an advocate of biodiesel but did a good job of identifying some of the challenging issues associated with biodiesel production. I have recommended this book to several others.
bio basics and beyond .......2007-03-14
the only bio diesel book you'll need it covers everything,I've purchased several books on the subject none have come close to the amount of information in this book.
Biodiesel.......2007-02-17
Excellent introduction as well as excellent coverage of misunderstandings and pitfalls. Don't brew diesel until you've read this book!
This is the one to buy.......2007-02-10
Wow...this book is loaded with great information and a step by step guide for making your own biodiesel with loads of pictures to make sure you understand the process. There is even a section on making a small "sample" batch just to make sure you know the process before you begin a larger production. I haven't tried making any biodiesel yet but I definitely feel like I have the information necessary to give it a go when I am ready.
Excellent overall book.......2007-01-11
If you need to know what Biodiesel is from the begining to advance, this is the book.
Starts from very simple and understandable explaination up to advanced stuff as you read on.
Amazon.com
Psychology rules the stock market, according to Hersh Shefrin. In Beyond Greed and Fear, Shefrin shows how bias, perception, and other aspects of psychology often rattle investors and move stocks. From the individual who keeps losers too long to overconfident money managers who mistakenly think they can predict financial trends, human nature foils investment returns. "Behavioral finance is everywhere that people make financial decisions. Psychology is hard to escape; it touches every corner of the financial landscape, and it's important. Financial practitioners need to understand the impact that psychology has on them and those around them. Practitioners ignore psychology at their peril," writes Shefrin, a finance professor at Santa Clara University. An academic volume geared toward financial professionals, the book details an emerging field known as behavioral finance, in which psychology is believed to be at least as important as market fundamentals, such as earnings and balance sheets. Shefrin describes how investors are motivated by fear, hope, overconfidence, and the need for short-term gratification. The book gives plenty of examples of investment mistakes, and analyzes them from a behavioral-finance perspective. While Beyond Greed and Fear targets professionals, individual investors will benefit from this look at an important mover of markets. --Dan Ring
Book Description
Even the best Wall Street investors make mistakes. No matter how savvy or experienced, all financial practitioners eventually let bias, overconfidence, and emotion cloud their judgement and misguide their actions. Yet most financial decision-making models fail to factor in these fundamentals of human nature. In Beyond Greed and Fear, the most authoritative guide to what really influences the decision-making process, Hersh Shefrin uses the latest psychological research to help us understand the human behavior that guides stock selection, financial services, and corporate financial strategy. Shefrin argues that financial practitioners must acknowledge and understand behavioral finance--the application of psychology to financial behavior--in order to avoid many of the investment pitfalls caused by human error. Through colorful, often humorous real-world examples, Shefrin points out the common but costly mistakes that money managers, security analysts, financial planners, investment bankers, and corporate leaders make, so that readers gain valuable insights into their own financial decisions and those of their employees, asset managers, and advisors. According to Shefrin, the financial community ignores the psychology of investing at its own peril. Beyond Greed and Fear illuminates behavioral finance for today's investor. It will help practitioners to recognize--and avoid--bias and errors in their decisions, and to modify and improve their overall investment strategies.
Customer Reviews:
Look to market experts for success.......2005-12-21
So long as market investors are human beings rather than machines, market participants will be governed by emotion. The efficient market theory, as Warren Buffett states, works most of the time. But when unusual or exceptional news comes into play, a stock (and/or markets) nearly always overreacts.
The best book I have found on investing is "The Intelligent Investor". There is a clear picture of what works and does not work in investing, and why. There is a fair amount of analysis of the behavior of market participants.
Warren Buffett asserts that he doesn't have much use for what is taught in a typical college business class. As he points out, if professors understand stocks and markets so well, why are so few of them wealthy? People like Ben Graham, Buffett and Peter Lynch are not 'lucky'. They read a great deal, they have keen insight into what makes a stock go up and they are unafraid to buy when prices are low if prospects look good. I would prefer to emulate those who are truly successful rather than those who postulate about what may work.
Selective Presentation of the Evidence.......2005-06-26
I am a behavioral economist with a deep belief in the notion that human decision-makers deviate in important ways from the scientific principles laid down in modern rational choice theory. There is no doubt but that very many investors hold erroneous notions of the dynamics of price movements, and having a correct understanding will, on average lead to better returns on one's portfolio. Sheffrin presents the evidence for this position in an interesting and accessible manner.
Shefrin's main advice for investors is absolutely correct, and would improve the asset positions of many poor souls with idiotic notions of stock dynamics. His advice is that if you are not a gifted and dedicated stock expert, you should invest in a low-maintenance cost array of mutual funds, and above all, do not churn your stocks. It doesn't help to be smart, lucky, a stud with the girls, or blessed by God. Moreover, if you think you have one of the "gifted analysts" for a broker, you are to be counted as among the suckers who are never given an even break.
Shefrin has another thesis which he presents with great verve, but which is on very shakey grounds. This is that "gifted stock analysts" can on average, significantly out-perform the market. He believes this MUST be the case if a significant fraction of investors are behaving irrationality. However, there is another possibility, which is that stock brokers as a group gain from the excessive churning that irrational investors permit or ask them to do, but that it is impossible to "beat the market" except by pure luck or by personally studying firm fundamentals and future prospects.
Shefrin's data in favor of the "gifted analyst" is episodic and anecdotal, and there is plenty of data on the other side. For instance, in Malkiel's classic "Random Walk Down Wall Street", he relates the evidence that chimps throwing darts do as well as major brokerage houses. Sheffrin presents contrary evidence for a more recent period in which "gifted experts" outperform the random darts. New evidence, collected by Money magazine, shows that a group of experts did far worse than the darts in 2003. All of this evidence is spotty and anecdotal. The plural of anecdote is not data.
I am not convinced by this book that the efficient markets hypothesis, applied to final returns to investors (after payments to stock brokers and other transactions costs), is not correct. I think the author makes a mistake taking so strong a position when the evidence is so weak on this account. I am certainly not convinced that Malkiel's analysis is in any way overturned by new evidence.
However, if Shefrin convinces a few investors to act more sanely, he will have fulfilled an important social function.
Packed with Knowledge ! .......2005-02-23
If only you could bring yourself to ditch those losers from your portfolio, and hang onto your winners. If you can, you are unusual. Unprofitable habits afflict nearly all investors, beginners and pros alike, writes Hersh Shefrin in this intriguing study of the role of emotions in investing. Shefrin balances the jargon with plenty of real-world examples and wisely cautions you not to delude yourself into thinking that his tips will make you rich. Viewing investing through the prism of behavior finance, he analyzes emotionally-laden decisions made by private investors, money managers, bankers and other professionals handling stocks and various other forms of investments including options, foreign currency and futures. Shefrin offers juicy case histories, so his tour of behavioral finance is mostly enjoyable and useful. At times, though, the book bogs down in the author's attempts to legitimize behavior finance, a relatively new school of thought. For instance, he charges failed investors with committing "heuristic bias" or falling prey to "representativeness." That quibble aside, we recommend this intriguing tome to investment decision makers on any level. Whether you are running billions or managing a retirement account (which, as Shefrin notes, most people do badly), maybe this book will buffer you against emotional investing and pocketbook pain.
Comprehensive, Entertaining Overview of Fascinating Field .......2004-12-25
Wondering what Brealy & Myers or Sharpe left out? Don't expect your broker (or fund manager, excepting Richard Thaler) to fill you in. This book is a must read for any active (or passive) participant in the markets, or any other citizen who is affected by said markets. Meaning all of us.
Shefrin provides a masterful exposition of the application of cutting-edge cognitive psychology to the behavior of retail and institutional investors, analysts, mutual fund managers, CEO's and even heavily-advised university investment committees. The result is the theoretical demolition of the efficient markets hypothesis in even its weakest form, and the related CAPM(s), catching up to their long-noted empirical failings. As it turns out the market does have a memory, and that's not just an anomaly any more. Not every trade is zero-NPV: trust the market price at your own peril. Think dividends are irrelevant? Think again.
What we're left with is a fascinating account of how market participants actually behave: holding on to losers too long, trading too much and trading on "noise," and most alarmingly, undersaving for retirement. What is significant is that these phenomena are so prevalent that they can no longer be dismissed as irrational with the hope that "more sophisticated" money will magically correct the market. To the contrary, what Shefrin describes is proved to be the psychological norm; if you believe you're different, you're either very lucky or overconfident about your lack of overconfidence.
One quibble, in an area that I have looked at before, is in Shefrin's discussion of takeovers. First, I found a bit of confusion between the question of whether the takeover premium should be tested by reference to the post-announcement combined value of both firms, or just the buyer. Since the buyer's CEO is initially fiduciary for just his shareholders, I see only the latter as relevant.
More significantly, Shefrin does not provide any means to rigorously discriminate among his hubris hypothesis and other, more rationalistic theories, such as agency costs and private benefits. And his brief treatment omits many puzzling follow-up questions: if CEO psychology has the potential to systematically destroy shareholder wealth, what should we then conclude about the investors and analysts who allow them to get away with it? Just a governance problem, or is there yet another psychological story to be told?
But the desire to delve further into the subject is just indicative of Shefrin's compelling and readable narrative. For bottom line types, I'm afraid the answer to your question is no, he doesn't explain how to get rich. But you'll surely do alot better with a single yellowing copy of Graham & Dodd than all the reams of abstruse, dogmatic journal articles ever spewed by the Chicago School.
A very good book, but quite academic.......2003-04-29
I had mixed feeling about this book. Content wise, it's incredible. It's full of real life stories, data, analyses, propositions of many so called market anomalies. However, I really find some of the chapters too long, especially those after chapter 5. The author had copied his style of thesis writing and actually many of his own theses (he's a renowed professor after all) into a book which has a big audience group of investors or traders who want quick fix or certain level of entertainment and personal improvement. In these respects, the "Psychology of Finance by Lars Tvede" and the "Devil take the hindmost by Edward Chancellor" are "easier" but not definitely better alternatives.
Anway, this is one of the very few "serious" books about behavioural finance that is relatively practical. If you are abound of time, go for it. Otherwise, you may try the two books I mentioned above.
p.s. I like the following the most: In April 1997 Financial Times ran a contest suggested by economist Richard Thaler. Readers were told to choose a whole number between 0 and 100. The winning entry would be the one closest to two thirds of the average entry. The winning choice is 13. The real point of this game is that playing sensibly requires you to have a sense of the magnitude of the other players' errors. Hope you got it right.
Book Description
Why doesn't your home page appear on the first page of search results, even when you query your own name? How do other Web pages always appear at the top? What creates these powerful rankings? And how? The first book ever about the science of Web page rankings, Google's PageRank and Beyond supplies the answers to these and other questions and more.
The book serves two very different audiences: the curious science reader and the technical computational reader. The chapters build in mathematical sophistication, so that the first five are accessible to the general academic reader. While other chapters are much more mathematical in nature, each one contains something for both audiences. For example, the authors include entertaining asides such as how search engines make money and how the Great Firewall of China influences research.
The book includes an extensive background chapter designed to help readers learn more about the mathematics of search engines, and it contains several MATLAB codes and links to sample Web data sets. The philosophy throughout is to encourage readers to experiment with the ideas and algorithms in the text.
Any business seriously interested in improving its rankings in the major search engines can benefit from the clear examples, sample code, and list of resources provided.
- Many illustrative examples and entertaining asides
- MATLAB code
- Accessible and informal style
- Complete and self-contained section for mathematics review
Customer Reviews:
The maths of google.......2007-09-25
The subtitle "The science of search engine rankings" is a misnomer. This book is primarily about the *mathematics* of pagerank. For non-mathematicians, such as a computer scientist like myself (though I do have undergrad maths), it was pretty slow going and just plain boring.
I wanted algorithm examples for pagerank calculation of largish (10M) data sets. Not matlab code. Matlab might be great for people who love matrices and don't mind being locked-in to a proprietary language, but it is hardly a sensible choice for a production implementation of the pagerank algorithm. And an algorithm using matrix manipulation, while it might be mathematically nice, is difficult to implement efficiently without fancy matrix compression tricks (as far as I can tell).
In the end, I discarded the book, and wrote my own shorter, simpler, non-matrix implementation in python, verified it produced the same results, and then rewrote it in C. It is quite fast enough for 10M pages even without any fancy optimisations. Not a matrix in sight. Yay.
For mathematicians, this book might deserve more than 3 stars. For computer scientists though, I wouldn't recommend it.
iPhone - Google - "Single function buttons hold promise".......2007-07-25
Naisbitt wrote that major trends are the result of innovations discovered and happening locally. A person should be able to read his local newspaper discover what products and services have come into demand and reflect on the new emerging wave of productivity generated; a boost in life style quality for the middle class; a new wave of technology, education, and globalization surrounding the new products and services.
1. It will take 70 years for life style quality to double at 1% increase in productivity per year. Computers and technology will change the flat productivity line.
2. 20 years of prosperity will emerge for the middle class because of boost in computers and technology. The US middle class will become more productive, wealthy, and skilled. US innovation will create new and better jobs. Jobs will be exported to economies with cheap labor.
3. Change takes time. It takes time to change people's mind. Change starts by reorganization of the work place allowing more rapid increases in productivity. The increase in productivity matches the equation rate of growth of living standards equals Gross Domestic Production. The reeducation of the work force into knowledge skill works will be accomplished by Community Colleges.
4. Technology and computer software interactions will need to become simpler. The fact software design is becoming simply will cause the middle class wealth to surge upward. The army has taken steps to simplify the computer software and hardware running the A1 tank and retrofit upgrades into a new A12 tank. Handling of the tank was simplified using a joy stick and spread screens for the driver and the commander changing the tactic too hunter/killer pair. "Complex computer technology should be easy to use", it will "open the door to employees of lesser skills", and fill jobs involving computers.
5. Speech recognition software and network computing will become widely used in software. Knowledge based agents will be programmed using rules that were "picked from the brains of experts and codified".
6. iPhone will become a major player. The measure of computing is whether you can hold in your hand", says Mark Weiser. Single function button applications hold promise. Dragon Software system has simplified menial tasks for lawyers and medical. Companies will build applications for the iPhone to inventories.
7. Google will extend its services allowing people to ask questions that only a knowledge base agent could answer. The search result answers will be amazingly accurate. Google could provide a mechanism for helping the user refine search or correlate across domains of information to helping the user drill down into more relevant and comprehensive information. The group intelligent of the Internet will provide the intelligence necessary for identifying the "best information", "Wisdom of the crowds". Google will provide health information similar to a flesh and blood doctor and include descriptive and associative accessment of prescriptions, diagnosis, procedures, and alternatives. Perhaps, Google interface could change to a hybrid Inxight interface with a Doctor Know possibility. The user will ask the Google Doctor Know a question and Google would provide a list of possible categories to limit the data. Additional questions will be asked by the Doctor Know Knowledge Based Agents in these domains bringing back information from distributed pieces of Internet distributed across the web.
Large call centers will turn to Google for search results and opinions relating too taxes, medical, legal, financial, and social questions. iPhone will be the tool of the future to return the information.
An excellent introduction into the algorithms and mathematical bases underlying Pagerank and other link-based algorithms.......2007-07-22
The authors subdivide the book into two main sections: the first few chapters, which are conversational in the manner in which they address pagerank and similar algorithms, and the subsequent chapters, which grow increasingly mathematical. Both authors have strong backgrounds in mathematics, hence that focus. Understanding that, the book is very approachable, lucid and useful in understanding the treated subject matter.
Good review.......2007-05-07
This book is a good review of the mathematics behind PageRank and other algorithms, such as HITS. It can be used as an auxilliary text in bth graduate and undergraduate courses.
The main characteristic of the book is that it covers a subject that is not present in most textbooks of the area.
A bit dissapoited.......2007-03-26
I've read Langville's papers as part of my study on link-based ranking techniques. However, the book is only intended to be a very gentle introduction for people with good maths background, and who only want to play with the maths behind PageRank. I would expect more comprehensive materials and deeper insights on the technology for search engine ranking.
Book Description
For most tracking applications the Kalman filter is reliable and efficient, but it is limited to a relatively restricted class of linear Gaussian problems. To solve problems beyond this restricted class, particle filters are proving to be dependable methods for stochastic dynamic estimation. Packed with 867 equations, this cutting-edge book introduces the latest advances in particle filter theory, discusses their relevance to defense surveillance systems, and examines defense-related applications of particle filters to nonlinear and non-Gaussian problems.
With this hands-on guide, you can develop more accurate and reliable nonlinear filter designs and more precisely predict the performance of these designs. You can also apply particle filters to tracking a ballistic object, detection and tracking of stealthy targets, tracking through the blind Doppler zone, bi-static radar tracking, passive ranging (bearings-only tracking) of maneuvering targets, range-only tracking, terrain-aided tracking of ground vehicles, and group and extended object tracking.
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