Beyond the Desktop


Book Description

Each chapter contains a brief discussion relating the principle themes of the chapter to either practice or research, and throughout the book examples are supported by empirical research. The aim is to provide the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the design and use of interaction devices and possible approaches to the study of such issues.




Beyond the Desktop Metaphor


Book Description

Leading developers and researchers report on what the next generation of digital work environments may look like, analyzing the theory and practice of designing "out of the box" to facilitate multitasking, collaboration, and multiple technologies. The computer's metaphorical desktop, with its onscreen windows and hierarchy of folders, is the only digital work environment most users and designers have ever known. Yet empirical studies show that the traditional desktop design does not provide sufficient support for today's real-life tasks involving collaboration, multitasking, multiple roles, and diverse technologies. In Beyond the Desktop Metaphor, leading researchers and developers consider design approaches for a post-desktop future. The contributors analyze the limitations of the desktop environment--including the built-in conflict between access and display, the difficulties in managing several tasks simultaneously, and the need to coordinate the multiple technologies and information objects (laptops, PDAs, files, URLs, email) that most people use daily--and propose novel design solutions that work toward a more integrated digital work environment. They describe systems that facilitate access to information, including Lifestreams, Haystack, Task Factory, GroupBar, and Scalable Fabric, and they argue that the organization of work environments should reflect the social context of work. They consider the notion of activity as a conceptual tool for designing integrated systems, and point to the Kimura and Activity-Based Computing systems as examples. Beyond the Desktop Metaphor is the first systematic overview of state-of-the-art research on integrated digital work environments. It provides a glimpse of what the next generation of information technologies for everyday use may look like--and it should inspire design solutions for users' real-world needs.




User Interfaces for All


Book Description

User Interfaces for All is the first book dedicated to the issues of Universal Design and Universal Access in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Universal Design (or Design for All) is an inclusive and proactive approach seeking to accommodate diversity in the users and usage contexts of interactive products, applications, and services, starting from the design phase of the development life cycle. The ongoing paradigm shift toward a knowledge-intensive information society is already bringing about radical changes in the way people work and interact with each other and with information. The requirement for Universal Design stems from the growing impact of the fusion of the emerging technologies, and from the different dimensions of diversity, which are intrinsic to the information society. This book unfolds the various aspects of this ongoing evolution from a variety of viewpoints. It's a collection of 30 chapters written by leading international authorities, affiliated with academic, research, and industrial organizations, and non-market institutions. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the field, and includes contributions from a variety of theoretical and applied disciplines and research themes. This book can also be used for teaching purposes in HCI courses at the undergraduate as well as graduate level. Students will be introduced to the human-, organizational-, and technology-oriented dimensions that call for a departure from traditional approaches to user interface development. Students will also get an overview of novel methods, techniques, tools, and frameworks for the design, implementation, and evaluation of user interfaces that are universally accessible and usable by the broadest possible end-user population. This comprehensive book is targeted to a broad readership, including HCI researchers, user interface designers, computer scientists, software engineers, ergonomists and usability engineers, Human Factors researchers and practitioners, organizational psychologists, system/product designers, sociologists, policy- and decision makers, scientists in government, industry and education, as well as assistive technology and rehabilitation experts.




Interaction Design


Book Description

The authors present an up-to-date exposition of the design of the current and next generation interactive technologies, such as the Web, mobiles and wearables.




Basic Computer Games


Book Description




Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond


Book Description

Windows Server 2012 Security from End to Edge and Beyond shows you how to architect, design, plan, and deploy Microsoft security technologies for Windows 8/Server 2012 in the enterprise. The book covers security technologies that apply to both client and server and enables you to identify and deploy Windows 8 security features in your systems based on different business and deployment scenarios. The book is a single source for learning how to secure Windows 8 in many systems, including core, endpoint, and anywhere access. Authors Tom Shinder and Yuri Diogenes, both Microsoft employees, bring you insider knowledge of the Windows 8 platform, discussing how to deploy Windows security technologies effectively in both the traditional datacenter and in new cloud-based solutions. With this book, you will understand the conceptual underpinnings of Windows 8 security and how to deploy these features in a test lab and in pilot and production environments. The book's revolutionary "Test Lab Guide" approach lets you test every subject in a predefined test lab environment. This, combined with conceptual and deployment guidance, enables you to understand the technologies and move from lab to production faster than ever before. Critical material is also presented in key concepts and scenario-based approaches to evaluation, planning, deployment, and management. Videos illustrating the functionality in the Test Lab can be downloaded from the authors' blog http://blogs.technet.com.b.security_talk/. Each chapter wraps up with a bullet list summary of key concepts discussed in the chapter. - Provides practical examples of how to design and deploy a world-class security infrastructure to protect both Windows 8 and non-Microsoft assets on your system - Written by two Microsoft employees who provide an inside look at the security features of Windows 8 - Test Lab Guides enable you to test everything before deploying live to your system




Actionable Media


Book Description

In 1991, Mark Weiser and his team at Xerox PARC declared they were reinventing computers for the twenty-first century. The computer would become integrated into the fabric of everyday life; it would shift to the background rather than being itself an object of focus. The resulting rise of ubiquitous computing (smartphones, smartglasses, smart cities) have since thoroughly colonized our digital landscape. In Actionable Media, John Tinnell contends that there is an unsung rhetorical dimension to Weiser's legacy, which stretches far beyond recent iProducts. Taking up Weiser's motto, "Start from the arts and humanities," Tinnell develops a theoretical framework for understanding nascent initiatives--the Internet of things, wearable interfaces, augmented reality--in terms of their intellectual history, their relationship to earlier communication technologies, and their potential to become vibrant platforms for public culture and critical media production. It is clear that an ever-widening array of everyday spaces now double as venues for multimedia authorship. Writers, activists, and students, in cities and towns everywhere, are digitally augmenting physical environments. Audio walks embed narratives around local parks for pedestrians to encounter during a stroll; online forums are woven into urban infrastructure and suburban plazas to invigorate community politics. This new wave of digital communication, which Tinnell terms "actionable media," is presented through case studies of exemplar projects by leading artists, designers, and research-creation teams. Chapters alter notions of ubiquitous computing through concepts drawn from Bernard Stiegler, Gregory Ulmer, and Hannah Arendt; from comparative media analyses with writing systems such as cuneiform, urban signage, and GUI software; and from relevant stylistic insights gleaned from the open air arts practices of Augusto Boal, Claude Monet, and Janet Cardiff. Actionable Media challenges familiar claims about the combination of physical and digital spaces, beckoning contemporary media studies toward an alternative substrate of historical precursors, emerging forms, design philosophies, and rhetorical principles.




Camtasia Studio and Beyond


Book Description

Including v.8, this text covers all of the skills for building effective multimedia presentations for creating screen-captured, software based tutorials, demonstrations, and lectures using Camtasia Studio (and prior versions). It uses the complete line of TechSmith products for both Windows and Mac OS and a companion DVD with support files that includes over 30 tutorial video clips, project practice files, all text images in color, and sample video creations. The strategy for this text is to introduce concepts from the ground up to include development milestones, planning the presentation based on the targeted audience, story boarding, screen captures, editing and production based on the desired project. The text also covers Snagit to create sophisticated training documents using advanced image editing features and it uses Jing to make fast video presentations that can quickly be loaded on the Web. Completing the text will provide the reader with all the skills needed towards developing an array of rich multimedia based curriculum in any educational setting. FEATURES: * Companion DVD with support files including over 30 tutorial video clips, project practice files, all text images in color, and sample video creations * Shows tips and notes on creating a professional presentation, a screencast, and a video project * Includes a step-by-step Quick Reference List, outlining important recording and producing procedures in their entirety * Provides chapters detailing the support programs, Snagit and Jing. eBook Customers: Companion files are available for downloading with order number/proof of purchase by writing to the publisher at [email protected].




Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python


Book Description

BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN NOVICE AND PROFESSIONAL You've completed a basic Python programming tutorial or finished Al Sweigart's bestseller, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. What's the next step toward becoming a capable, confident software developer? Welcome to Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python. More than a mere collection of advanced syntax and masterful tips for writing clean code, you'll learn how to advance your Python programming skills by using the command line and other professional tools like code formatters, type checkers, linters, and version control. Sweigart takes you through best practices for setting up your development environment, naming variables, and improving readability, then tackles documentation, organization and performance measurement, as well as object-oriented design and the Big-O algorithm analysis commonly used in coding interviews. The skills you learn will boost your ability to program--not just in Python but in any language. You'll learn: Coding style, and how to use Python's Black auto-formatting tool for cleaner code Common sources of bugs, and how to detect them with static analyzers How to structure the files in your code projects with the Cookiecutter template tool Functional programming techniques like lambda and higher-order functions How to profile the speed of your code with Python's built-in timeit and cProfile modules The computer science behind Big-O algorithm analysis How to make your comments and docstrings informative, and how often to write them How to create classes in object-oriented programming, and why they're used to organize code Toward the end of the book you'll read a detailed source-code breakdown of two classic command-line games, the Tower of Hanoi (a logic puzzle) and Four-in-a-Row (a two-player tile-dropping game), and a breakdown of how their code follows the book's best practices. You'll test your skills by implementing the program yourself. Of course, no single book can make you a professional software developer. But Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python will get you further down that path and make you a better programmer, as you learn to write readable code that's easy to debug and perfectly Pythonic Requirements: Covers Python 3.6 and higher




Turing's Vision


Book Description

In 1936, when he was just twenty-four years old, Alan Turing wrote a remarkable paper in which he outlined the theory of computation, laying out the ideas that underlie all modern computers. This groundbreaking and powerful theory now forms the basis of computer science. In Turing's Vision, Chris Bernhardt explains the theory, Turing's most important contribution, for the general reader. Bernhardt argues that the strength of Turing's theory is its simplicity, and that, explained in a straightforward manner, it is eminently understandable by the nonspecialist. As Marvin Minsky writes, "The sheer simplicity of the theory's foundation and extraordinary short path from this foundation to its logical and surprising conclusions give the theory a mathematical beauty that alone guarantees it a permanent place in computer theory." Bernhardt begins with the foundation and systematically builds to the surprising conclusions. He also views Turing's theory in the context of mathematical history, other views of computation (including those of Alonzo Church), Turing's later work, and the birth of the modern computer. In the paper, "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem," Turing thinks carefully about how humans perform computation, breaking it down into a sequence of steps, and then constructs theoretical machines capable of performing each step. Turing wanted to show that there were problems that were beyond any computer's ability to solve; in particular, he wanted to find a decision problem that he could prove was undecidable. To explain Turing's ideas, Bernhardt examines three well-known decision problems to explore the concept of undecidability; investigates theoretical computing machines, including Turing machines; explains universal machines; and proves that certain problems are undecidable, including Turing's problem concerning computable numbers.