The Virgin Book of Killer Sudoku


Book Description

If you thought Sudoku was difficult, wait until you try Killer Sudoku! The next step up from normal Sudoku, the Killer puzzles use the same grid as Sudoku and require the reader to fill in the numbers 1 to 9 as before. But this time the numbers in the outlined boxes must also all add up to a specific number. Already hugely popular in the national press, the puzzles are a must for Sudoku fans. With five difficulty ratings, from 'very easy' to 'deadly', the 100 brand new Killer Sudoku puzzles in this book will provide a challenge to the most ardent Sudoku addict.




Learning to Play


Book Description

In this textbook the author takes as inspiration recent breakthroughs in game playing to explain how and why deep reinforcement learning works. In particular he shows why two-person games of tactics and strategy fascinate scientists, programmers, and game enthusiasts and unite them in a common goal: to create artificial intelligence (AI). After an introduction to the core concepts, environment, and communities of intelligence and games, the book is organized into chapters on reinforcement learning, heuristic planning, adaptive sampling, function approximation, and self-play. The author takes a hands-on approach throughout, with Python code examples and exercises that help the reader understand how AI learns to play. He also supports the main text with detailed pointers to online machine learning frameworks, technical details for AlphaGo, notes on how to play and program Go and chess, and a comprehensive bibliography. The content is class-tested and suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on artificial intelligence and games. It's also appropriate for self-study by professionals engaged with applications of machine learning and with games development. Finally it's valuable for any reader engaged with the philosophical implications of artificial and general intelligence, games represent a modern Turing test of the power and limitations of AI.




Seven More Languages in Seven Weeks


Book Description

Great programmers aren't born--they're made. The industry is moving from object-oriented languages to functional languages, and you need to commit to radical improvement. New programming languages arm you with the tools and idioms you need to refine your craft. While other language primers take you through basic installation and "Hello, World," we aim higher. Each language in Seven More Languages in Seven Weeks will take you on a step-by-step journey through the most important paradigms of our time. You'll learn seven exciting languages: Lua, Factor, Elixir, Elm, Julia, MiniKanren, and Idris. Learn from the award-winning programming series that inspired the Elixir language. Hear how other programmers across broadly different communities solve problems important enough to compel language development. Expand your perspective, and learn to solve multicore and distribution problems. In each language, you'll solve a non-trivial problem, using the techniques that make that language special. Write a fully functional game in Elm, without a single callback, that compiles to JavaScript so you can deploy it in any browser. Write a logic program in Clojure using a programming model, MiniKanren, that is as powerful as Prolog but much better at interacting with the outside world. Build a distributed program in Elixir with Lisp-style macros, rich Ruby-like syntax, and the richness of the Erlang virtual machine. Build your own object layer in Lua, a statistical program in Julia, a proof in code with Idris, and a quiz game in Factor. When you're done, you'll have written programs in five different programming paradigms that were written on three different continents. You'll have explored four languages on the leading edge, invented in the past five years, and three more radically different languages, each with something significant to teach you.




Stress Management For Dummies


Book Description

“This book gives you many action-oriented ways of coping with your anxiety about anxiety.” —Albert Ellis, PhD, President, Albert Ellis Institute Is your job tying your stomach in knots? Do you toss and turn in bed at night? Are your ulcers having ulcers? Face it—you’ve got too much stress in your life, and it’s time to give yourself a break. The consequences of not dealing with stress range from poor health and broken marriages to premature death: not a very cheerful outlook. Thankfully, all kinds of stress reduction approaches are available today: from breathing and posture to imagery and meditation. These new ideas have taken the world by storm—and taken the pressure cooker off the fire for millions of chilled-out people around the world. Whether it’s love, work, family, or something else that’s got your anxiety in the red zone, here’s an easy way to improve your outlook. Stress Management For Dummies will help you identify the stress triggers in your life and cut them down to size quickly, with tips on how to: Determine your stress level Relieve tension at work and at home Deal with difficult people Combat stress with diet and exercise Soothe your anger and worry Certified stress manager Allen Elkin, PhD takes the guesswork (and the added stress!) out of finding the stress relief system that’s right for you. After determining your stress level with a few simple tests, you’ll get step-by-step guidance on finding and eliminating sources of stress, in both your mind and body. Inside are hassle-free techniques, helpful advice, self-evaluation quizzes, and fascinating information on: Letting go of tension through breathing, stretching, massage, and more Clearing the clutter in your life—and in your mind Managing your time—setting priorities, delegating, and conquering procrastination Eating, exercising, and sleeping right Stress-resistant thinking Reducing interpersonal stress Personal relaxation techniques The top ten stresses in life The ten most stressful jobs With a wide but manageable array of stress-management techniques, strategies, and tactics, this is your own personal toolbox for stress relief. So relax, take a deep breath, and start reading!




Dead Spy Running


Book Description

Daniel Marchant, a suspended MI6 officer, is running the London Marathon. He is also running out of time. A competitor is strapped with explosives, and if he drops his pace, everyone around him will be killed, including the U.S. ambassador to London. Marchant tries to thwart the attack, but is he secretly working for the terrorists? There are those who already suspect him of treachery. Just like they suspected his late father, the former head of MI6, who was removed from his job and accused of treason. On the run from the CIA, Marchant is determined to prove his father's innocence. His quest to do so takes him from the streets of London to India, where the U.S. president is due for his first visit. Marchant soon finds that to clear his family's name he will have to expose a plot that could throw world politics into chaos. In Dead Spy Running, Jon Stock delivers a breakneck thriller that updates the spy novel for the twenty-first century.




At the Abyss


Book Description

“The Cold War . . . was a fight to the death,” notes Thomas C. Reed, “fought with bayonets, napalm, and high-tech weaponry of every sort—save one. It was not fought with nuclear weapons.” With global powers now engaged in cataclysmic encounters, there is no more important time for this essential, epic account of the past half century, the tense years when the world trembled At the Abyss. Written by an author who rose from military officer to administration insider, this is a vivid, unvarnished view of America’s fight against Communism, from the end of WWII to the closing of the Strategic Air Command, a work as full of human interest as history, rich characters as bloody conflict. Among the unforgettable figures who devised weaponry, dictated policy, or deviously spied and subverted: Whittaker Chambers—the translator whose book, Witness, started the hunt for bigger game: Communists in our government; Lavrenti Beria—the head of the Soviet nuclear weapons program who apparently killed Joseph Stalin; Col. Ed Hall—the leader of America’s advanced missile system, whose own brother was a Soviet spy; Adm. James Stockwell—the prisoner of war and eventual vice presidential candidate who kept his terrible secret from the Vietnamese for eight long years; Nancy Reagan—the “Queen of Hearts,” who was both loving wife and instigator of palace intrigue in her husband’s White House. From Eisenhower’s decision to beat the Russians at their own game, to the “Missile Gap” of the Kennedy Era, to Reagan’s vow to “lean on the Soviets until they go broke”—all the pivotal events of the period are portrayed in new and stunning detail with information only someone on the front lines and in backrooms could know. Yet At the Abyss is more than a riveting and comprehensive recounting. It is a cautionary tale for our time, a revelation of how, “those years . . . came to be known as the Cold War, not World War III.”




A Dingo Ate My Math Book


Book Description

A Dingo Ate My Math Book presents ingenious, unusual, and beautiful nuggets of mathematics with a distinctly Australian flavor. It focuses, for example, on Australians' love of sports and gambling, and on Melbourne's iconic, mathematically inspired architecture. Written in a playful and humorous style, the book offers mathematical entertainment as well as a glimpse of Australian culture for the mathematically curious of all ages. This collection of engaging stories was extracted from the Maths Masters column that ran from 2007 to 2014 in Australia's Age newspaper. The maths masters in question are Burkard Polster and Marty Ross, two (immigrant) Aussie mathematicians, who each week would write about math in the news, providing a new look at old favorites, mathematical history, quirks of school mathematics—whatever took their fancy. All articles were written for a very general audience, with the intention of being as inviting as possible and assuming a minimum of mathematical background.







Tyler Makes Pancakes!


Book Description

Tyler wakes up eager to make pancakes for his family, but first he and his dog go to the market, where Mr. Jones tells them about the ingredients and where they come from. Includes a recipe for blueberry pancakes and facts about some of the foods mentioned.




Original Sudoku


Book Description

Prepare to be obsessed. Match wits with the experts who created Sudoku. Arranged from “Easy” to “Very Hard,” here are over 300 logic puzzles that celebrate the compulsive joy of Sudoku with symmetry, smartness, and elegance—qualities lacking in computer-generated puzzles. It’s fiendish fun…every puzzle is designed by an author who anticipates your next step and obscurest the path, while never leading you into frustration.