标签: book

A few months ago, Rick Lyons sent me a copy of his latest book about DSPs, and I finally had a chance to read it. It’s titled The Essential Guide to Digital Signal Processing , by Richard Lyons and D. Lee Fugal. Most embedded.com readers probably will not want to read this book as the material is elementary. It’s aimed at those with really no understanding about DSP. However, I could be wrong, as the DSP segment of the market is small compared to general MCU usage, and perhaps many readers haven’t had a chance to delve into this topic. Signal processing is very important and interesting subject and I do think every embedded person should be familiar with it. How elementary is the material? Chapter 2 describes analog signals in general. That’s followed by a chapter about frequency. Now, what could be simpler than that? However, the authors wisely talk in terms of degrees and radians, and the latter may be unfamiliar to non-EEs. You cannot understand any of the literature about signals without a solid foundation in radians. Every EE remembers the cos(x*pi+phase) notation, but perhaps CS graduates don’t. The chapter covers spectra and shows how a spectrum analyzer differs from an oscilloscope, in really clear prose. Chapter 4 is about digital signals. Yawn – that’s what we’re all mired in. But are you familiar with decimation? That’s another critical part of signal processing. Later chapters are meatier for techies. I have never seen a better explanation of aliasing, which is depicted with simple but very clear diagrams. Anyone using a digital scope needs to understand this. I once walked in on an EE who couldn’t understand why his 32 MHz clock looked like 32 KHz on the scope; a quick spin of the time base knob cured that woe, and an explanation of aliasing lifted the fog from his brain. The two most demanding chapters cover, unsurprisingly, transforms. The FFT is described in general and a good example shows how it is computed. Wavelet transformations are increasingly-important and the books does a good job describing them. Wavelet transforms weren’t known when I went to college, yet now my son uses them extensively in processing seismic signals. The ten pages devoted to the subject gives a sense of what they are, when they should be used, and how they differ from Fourier transforms. Filters are covered superficially. More detail would improve the book as they are so critical in many applications. The rest of the volume is old stuff to old hands. Scientific notation and binary numbers are part of your DNA and there’s nothing new about them. An appendix on dBs is quite complete and worthwhile if you’re not comfortable thinking in logs. I wish the person on the street would read it and realize that “100 dB” is meaningless since dBs are always referenced to some value. Of course, these are the same folks who are giving 110% in football. Interestingly, there’s nothing on DSP processors. This is a book about signals, not implementations. The book is very well written with a quick, breezy style. Most engineers will get through it in an hour. My only complaint is that the $39.95 list price is an awful lot for a 188 page tome. Amazon lists it at $25, or $17 for the Kindle edition. This is a book for the vaguely-techie who needs just a bit more than a little familiarity with the subject. DSPers working for a non-technical boss should slip a copy under the bigwig’s door. It’s also probably the best work for a practicing engineer who wants a passing familiarity with the subject, as it is such an easy read. Early chapters will seem like CS101; skip the stuff you know but do look at every page as there are gems buried even in that material that might surprise.

There are times when it seems that the fates are smiling upon me. Recently, for example, I blogged to describe my experiments to give brass an aged look .   Based on this, someone was kind enough to recommend an old book called Machinery's Shop Receipts from 1927 that contains "six hundred useful receipts, compositions and formulas," including ones to color and etch brass.   I ordered a secondhand copy of Machinery's Shop Receipts and I was as happy as could be. Surely nothing could occur to make me even happier? Well, amazingly enough, something could, because a reader shared this:   I just found a book in a local bookstore called: Patina: 300+ coloration effects for Jewelers and Metalsmiths by Matthew Runfola. It looks like it just came out in February of this year. I found it on the shelf at a Books-A-Million but it is available on Amazon. It is organized by metal (Brass, copper, silver, etc.) and contains page after page of pictures of metal samples and a description of the treatment that was used to get the effect you see. The pictures can't give you as accurate a look at the effects as having a physical sample, but you could find a few that you like and test them yourself.   Good grief! It appears as though I've gone from being a single voice in the wilderness -- wading through cow poop and horse doo-doo all on my little old ownsome -- to finding there are others like me out there (well, perhaps not quite like me LOL). I immediately bounced over to Amazon to visit the Patina: 300+ Coloration Effects for Jewelers Metalsmiths page.     I'm a great believer in real-reader reviews, and this book currently has a 4.5 star rating from 24 reviewers, which is more than enough for me. A typical review might say something like "This book has everything in it that an advanced metal artist might want to know about the process and use of patinas on steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper, brass (230 and 260), bronze (220 and 655), and sterling silver."   As you can imagine, this is music to my ears. I currently have a copy of this little beauty winging its way to me as we speak. Meanwhile, I just started a new aging experiment that involves leaving a piece of brass exposed to the elements. Unfortunately, access to the roof of the building in which I have my office involves me performing a "human fly" act on a very dubious external ladder (I will be showing pictures in a future blog). Until then, please keep your comments and questions coming.

I never fail to be astounded by how others go out of their way to help another with sage advice.   For example, following my recent blog describing my experiments with aging brass, someone emailed me to say he had inherited a book from his grandfather that covered this sort of thing. Even better, he sent me a PDF of the "Coloring Brass" chapter, which he had gone out of his way to scan for me.   What I saw had me tap dancing with delight. This book covers much more than simply aging brass and other metals. It describes in fine detail the chemicals and procedures that can be used to realize a wide variety of colors and effects.   Of course, I couldn't be satisfied with a single chapter. I had a burning desire to feast my orbs on the whole enchilada, so I immediately bounced over to Amazon to check out the book, Machinery's Shop Receipts by the Industrial Press.   In this context, "Receipts" can be taken to mean "Recipes," which is what this book contains -- lots and lots of lovely recipes. As it says on the inside cover, Machinery's Shop Receipts contains "Six hundred useful receipts, compositions and formulas selected from Machinery's columns and republished in a classified, pocket-size edition, in response to repeated requests from friends throughout the mechanical field."   A number of paperback versions of this book are available on Amazon from different vendors, but if you read the small print, you'll see that these are simply scanned versions of the original, and they actually warn you: "This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process."   The reproductions also say "412 shop receipts and formulas," as opposed to the 600 noted in the hardcover version. I don't know about you, but this doesn't sound too good to me. Instead, I opted to purchase an original 1927 edition, the first printing copy of the book, from Bane's Books .     This little beauty arrived a couple of days ago, and I have been gloating over it ever since. One thing that did surprise me just a tad was the yellow sticky notes that were protruding from locations inside the book displaying the handwritten annotations "Coloring Brass" and "Etching Brass." I must admit to thinking, "Well, that's a bit of a coincidence."   On the one hand, the ways of the universe are wondrous, and who am I to question the grand scheme of things? (I pride myself on my humility.) On the other hand, it certainly seemed as though -- unlike my wife, Gina The Gorgeous -- the universe was taking an uncommon and unexpected interest in my hobby projects.   All was made clear when I received an email from Deborah Bane, the owner of Bane's Books, saying that the book should have arrived by now, and that she hoped I enjoyed it. Deborah mentioned that, on receiving my order, she'd Googled my name and been guided to my blogs about aging and etching brass, so she had included the sticky notes. She was also kind enough to offer some interesting suggestions about my Vetinari Clock project.   What can I say? Over the years, I have purchased numerous books -- new ones directly from Amazon and secondhand ones from a wide variety of vendors -- and I can safely say that I have never received the same high level of personal service from any other vendor. To be honest, the fact that Deborah knew this book to this degree and had taken the time to add the sticky notes to guide me to the areas of particular interest to me completely blew me away. It's a rare occasion indeed that you receive service like this these days.   What do you think? Would you be interested in seeing a copy of this little beauty? And are you as amazed as I am by the level of service provided by Bane's Books? As always, any comments or questions are more than welcome.

The hours we have in day is not enough to do all of the fun things that need to be done – so now I'm running around in ever-decreasing circles shouting "Don't panic! Don't Panic!" As one example, there are a whole bunch of books I've read and DVDs I've seen recently for which I plan on writing reviews ... when I get a free moment (as I keep on telling myself). But writing reviews takes time and effort, and I also have an ever-growing pile of books and DVDs that await my attention and are calling to me "Max, Max, when will it be my turn?" In a moment I will briefly summarize all of this stuff, but first... I just received an email from a reader saying: Hi Max, I hope you don't mind me asking, but would you recommend a good poster or something appealing to get kids to question or at least understand the very basics of computer logic? Such as how switches can display the characters we see on our screen. Any suggestions would be great, even educational games that can teach them how math can display the very thing we are writing now and understand it. How punch cards were used etc. Anything like that would be great. My knee-jerk reaction was that this would be a really cool project to work on, but again there simply isn't the time, so if you are aware of anything like this (posters, educational games, etc.) please add a comment to the end of this blog telling us about it. Stuff to do with time travel A few months ago, I posted a blog titled What's the best time-travel book/film ever? One book I forgot to mention in that blog – but which I have since re-read – is Johnny and the Bomb by Terry Pratchett. This is a wonderful book for kids of all ages (like me). But give me strength! This must be out of print because (as I pen these words) new versions of the paperback are selling for $499.95 via secondhand booksellers on Amazon, so I'm certainly happy that my copy is safe on the bookshelves in my office. I also got to see the Donnie Darko DVD (interesting but I wouldn't watch it again). Meanwhile, the Primer DVD – for which I hold great hopes – is still awaiting my attention (I'm currently working my way through Season 5 of the new Dr. Who). Based on readers' recommendations I read Lest Darkness Fall and Related Stories by L. Sprague de Camp and other authors (this was a very interesting read); also Fire Watch by Connie Willis (it was OK, but I'm not driven to read any of her other stuff). Two books I really do recommend are The Breach and Ghost Country by Patrick Lee. You can read either of these on its own, but I would suggest reading them in order. I don't want to get into these too much here (I really do intend to write a full-up review one day), but The Breach is based around artifacts from the future appearing in the present. Now, although The Breach is really exciting, it pales in comparison to Ghost Country, which had me sitting on the edge of my seat crying "No, it can't be!" (Seriously, there were parts where I would read a couple of pages and then close the book and catch my breath because I couldn't handle the excitement – I so want one of the devices in the book that lets you travel into the future... but I can say no more). Biographies and autobiographies I just finished reading My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke, which was very interesting, but somehow left me wanting a little more. And just before that I read Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science by Lawrence M. Krauss. This was really good in the way in which it explained both the man and the physics. It was especially relevant with regard to an article I read recently about how we now know that quantum-level effects do affect our macro-level world. Another good read was The Elephant to Hollywood by Michael Caine. In this book Michael repeats some of the stories he told in an earlier autobiography called What's It All About, but he also adds a lot of new material to bring things up to date. I also recently finished Life by Keith Richards of Rolling Stones fame. This was interesting in many ways – first to get a feel for the world (well, England) as it was back in the 1960s and to see how groups like the Stones came into being; also to get a feel for Keith's relationship with Mick Jagger; and also to complement Ronnie Wood's autobiography, Ronnie (which I read last year), because now you get to see the same things from two different perspectives. Other books I've read Please understand that the following are just the books I've read recently that I see as I spin my chair around in my office – these are currently sitting in piles on the floor awaiting a full review. With regard to The Walking Dead comic books I mentioned in my recent Zombie books and films for people with brains blog, I've now read Books #1 through #5 – I'm saving #6 for this coming weekend. I know that comic books aren't for everyone, but I'm really enjoying these. I also REALLY enjoyed How I Killed Pluto (and Why It Had It Coming) by Mike Brown, which tells the story of how Mike's research on the outer solar system led directly to Pluto being reclassified as a minor planet. One book I read that I would NOT recommend is Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc by Hugh Aldersey-Williams. You may find this to be a little surprising, because this book is jam-packed with the tidbits of trivia and nuggets of knowledge that I love. But the author's writing style just didn't appeal to me – toward the end I read on with dogged determination looking forward to not having to read any more. Contrast this to The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean – a book I cannot praise highly enough. Three more books I've read in the last few months and that I would HIGHLY recommend are Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Outliers: The Story of Success, and What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures – all by Malcolm Gladwell. This guy is amazing – I love his writing style and I learn so much from his books. In fact, while looking these up on Amazon for this blog, I just saw another of his books called The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. I had seen this before and I've heard a lot of good things about it, but then I had forgotten all about it – I just ordered it from Amazon (isn't the Internet wonderful), along with two other books from my wish list (by ordering more than $25 I avoid paying postage): I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Books I'm reading (non-technical) I just cannot help myself – I love reading and I typically have two or three books on the go at any particular time. I'm currently reading America's Galactic Foreign Legion: Book 1: Feeling Lucky by Walter Night (I purchased the paperback version for $9.99, but I just saw the Kindle version is only $0.99). This was recommended to me by my friend Adam Traidman from Cadence Design Systems when I met him at DAC a couple of weeks ago. In turn I pointed Adam at Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (see my Enter Discworld blog) and I can't wait to hear what he thinks when he starts reading these little scamps. I'm also reading iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon by Steve Wozniak and Out Of Character – Surprising Truths About the Liar, Cheat, Sinner (and Saint) Lurking in All of Us (some authors get carried away by their titles) by David DeSteno and Piercarlo Valdesolo. But wait, there's more, because I happened to be passing the local Barnes and Noble earlier this week. I had a "Father's Day" gift card from my wife (Gina the Gorgeous) burning a hole in my pocket, so of course I had to stop in to check out the bargain book section where you find hardback books for just a couple of dollars, and I couldn't resist picking up three tempting treats: Who Were the Celts? By Kevin Duffy, Just After Sunset by Stephen King, and Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson (the latter item wasn't with the bargain books, but it was crying out to me to give it a good home). As I say, I just can't help myself. And the books I'm talking about here are only the ones that are sitting on my office desk – I daren't even think about the stacks of books waiting for me at home. And the really scary thing is that I will have worked my way through all of the items mentioned here over the course of the next few weeks. Books to read (technical) Good grief – I was just about to post this blog when I realized that I also have a stack of technical books to read and review, starting with The Software IP Detective's Handbook: Measurement, Comparison, and Infringement Detection by my friend Bob Zeidman (you may recall from my Agatha Christie meets Dr. Who blog that Bob and I went to see Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap when we found ourselves both speaking at the Embedded Live conference in London last year). I also have BSV by Example by by Rishiyur S Nikhil and Kathy R Czeck (this was kindly given to me by my chum George Harper from Bluespec when we bumped into each other at DAC a couple of weeks ago); Principles of VLSI RTL Design: A Practical Guide by Sanjay Churiwala and Sapan Garg (Atrenta's CEO saw my recent blog about this book and kindly presented me with a copy); The Compassionate Geek by Don R Crawley and Paul R Senness; and 100 Power Tips for FPGA Designers by Evgeni Stavinov (this is the link to the Kindle edition – I believe that the hard-copy version will be coming to Amazon shortly). Phew! If nothing else, perhaps this blog will give some idea as to why I keep waffling on about reviews I plan on writing but never seem to get around to ... I really want to post full reviews on all of these things, but I can't resist the siren song of a new book or DVD that needs my personal attention in order for it to fulfill its destiny. So many books... so many DVDs... so little time...

It's a tradition among editors and writers (who are often so self-centric) to discuss their summer reading lists, so I figured I should do the same. (Note to those of you in the Southern Hemisphere: we are sensitive to your complementary seasonal situation, so either consider this as your reading list for some other season, or just put it aside for a few months.) My preferred non-professional reading includes a variety of topics and genres, but most of it focuses on the history of science and engineering. I especially like to read about "projects" rather than conventional, "linear" histories. But unlike many people, I also enjoy re-reading these books, and the ones that I enjoy the second and even third time around are ones that give me the most satisfaction. Here, in no special order, are a dozen books that I have read, re-read, and re-re-read, and from which I still get a lot of insight and enjoyment. Some are newer, some are older, but I am sure you can get any one of them via an online search, even if it is "out of print" (which is already becoming a quaint, archaic phrase): - Roving Mars: spirit, opportunity, and the exploration of the red planet , by Steven W. Squyres, the principal investigator on the Mars missions that landed the rovers Spirit and Opportunity in 2004; great insight into the technical challenges and constraints, and how they were overcome. - Voyager: seeking newer worlds in the third great age of discovery , by Stephen J. Pyne, a lengthy but fascinating look at the 30+ year dual missions (launched in 1977, and recently officially concluded) to the edge of our solar system, and beyond. - From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time, by Sean Carroll , a Caltech theoretical physicist looks at the meaning of time, entropy, and much more. Doesn't talk or dumb down. Really made me stop and think. ?Einstein's Miraculous Year: Five Papers That Changed the Face of Physics , by John Stachel, has English translations of the actual papers that radically changed physics, but also a lengthy introduction and explanation of each one which adds both technical and historical perspective. - Apollo: The Race to the Moon, by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox, is the best book about the Apollo program I have read; it combines big–picture perspective with details, and insights into the people, technology, and challenges. - Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight, by David A. Mindell, focuses on the computers and programming of the various Apollo computers; after you read this, you will never complain about insufficient memory, CPU speed, or tools. - Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance, by Donald Mackenzie, a well-written book which combines history, technology, personalities, and political context of the development of guidance, from earliest gyro systems to advanced missile units. Every other book I have read on guidance systems cites this one as a key reference. - Skunk Works: A Personal Recollection of My Years at Lockheed , by Ben R. Rich explains how clandestine super-aircraft (U-2, SR-71, as examples) were conceived and developed, and gave rise to a whole new way of developing major projects on the "sly." - Tube: A History of Television by David E. Fisher and Marshall Jon Fisher is a clear, readable history of this invention which changed our world in so many ways, the people who made it happen, the internal corporate and technical battles, and the challenges that had to be overcome in both prototype and mass production. - Makers of the Microchip: A Documentary History of Fairchild Semiconductor , by Christophe Lecuyer and David C Brook; this book was a real treat and window into one of the companies and its brilliant, hard-working people that made semiconductors real and manufacturable in volume. Also has images (facsimiles) of meeting notes, and typed memos—some are quite riveting and prescient. - The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage, by Clifford Stoll, is a first-person account of the lengthy, frustrating hunt for a computer hacker who broke into a computer at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL). - The universe in a mirror: the saga of the Hubble Telescope and the visionaries who built it , by Robert Zimmerman, tells of the fifty-year struggle to build the first space telescope; how many of the telescope's advocates sacrificed careers and family to get it launched, and how hopes and reputations were shattered when its mirror was found to be flawed. That's it. . . and please, I welcome your own "favorites" in the Comments section.