Learning to Program with Alice
Author: Wanda P Dann
This updated guide supports an innovative approach to fundamental programming concepts. The authors use program visualization to create an easy relationship between program construct and the animation action in a 3D world. For consistency with Java, C++, and other commonly used languages, "questions" are now "functions." Save and reload bugs have been fixed. Fonts can be scaled larger or smaller. High contrast mode is available for projection in the classroom. A useful how-to guide for programmers interested in learning Alice.
See also: MATLAB for Engineers or Podcasting for Profit
Next: The Future Just Happened
Author: Michael Lewis
A mordantly funny exploration of the brave new world spawned by the Internet.
In Liar's Poker the barbarians seized control of the bond markets. In The New New Thing some guys from Silicon Valley redefined the American economy. Now, with his knowing eye and wicked pen, Michael Lewis reveals how the Internet boom has encouraged great changes in the way we live, work, and think. He finds that we are in the midst of one of the greatest status revolutions in the history of the world, and the Internet is a weapon in the hands of revolutionaries. The old priesthoods - lawyers, investment gurus, professionals in general - have been toppled. The amateur, or individual, is king: fourteen-year-old children manipulate the stock market; nineteen-year-olds take down the music industry; and wrestlers get elected to public office. Deep, unseen forces seek to undermine all forms of collectivism, from the mass market to the family. Where does it all lead? And will we like where we end up?
Next does not come too late to the crash-and-burn Internet book fest. It comes just in time—at the speed of a falling safe.
Entertainment Weekly
A thoughtful and entertaining look at the rise and fall of our new Internet-driven economy.
Wall Street Journal - Jon Katz
[P]rovocative and entertaining....Lewis is a gifted journalist and a smart observer.
Newsweek
[Lewis] has a natural talent for spinning hilarious scenes and uncovering wicked details.
People
Lewis is a master of the far from obvious, giving a jargonectomy to big concepts.
BusinessWeek
A wake-up call at a time when many believe the net was a flash in the pan.
USA Today
Next does not come too late to the crash-and-burn Internet book fest. It comes just in time—at the speed of a falling safe.
Boston Herald - Rob Mitchell
[U]nderstated humor and keen-edged sociological observations...
New York - Boris Kachka
Don't miss his last chapter: "The Unabomber Had a Point.
New York Observer - Christopher Caldwell
[C]onsistently smart, and its highpoints are among the high points in Lewis's writing life.
New York Observer
[C]onsistently smart, and its highpoints are among the high points of Lewis' writing life.
BusinessWeek - Robert D. Hof
His book is a wake-up call at a time when many believe the net was a flash in the pan.
Fast Company - Polly Labarre
Michael Lewis has a knack for tapping the business zeitgeist.
Miami Herald - Richard Pachter
A fascinating view of the future of global commerce, which, clearly, is well underway.
New Orleans Times-Picayune - William C. Gibson
Lewis has many good and useful things to say in this book, and he says them in an easy and witty way.
BookPage - Alden Mudge
[S]wift, sharp, often-funny narratives...compelling.
Book Magazine
The Internet, Lewis argues, has remade America into an immigrant culture. It has thrust families into a strange, fast-changing world that only kids seem able to navigate. The Web's anonymity allows teenagers to become financial and cultural experts. Outsiders become insiders with astonishing ease, and insiders hysterically fight to preserve the status quo. Lewis's most vivid example is Jonathan Lebed, who was groundlessly harassed by the SEC for making $800,000 on the stock market— at age fourteen, from his bedroom in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. "The people who used the Internet to violate some social norm," the author points out, "invariably lived in some wasteland." Lewis' fieldwork confirms much of what's been said about the Internet revolution—that youth and speed have combined to raise the stakes of capitalism, making it hard to think beyond the immediate present. But it's Lewis' examination of what these changes have meant to families like the Lebeds that distinguishes this book from the usual future-is-now, change-or-die clichйs of much business writing. Lewis' observations about the growing elitism (and obsolescence anxiety) in the writings of Silicon Valley's aging tech prophets is refreshing. This is a fascinating read, full of frank wit and keen sociological insight.
—Eric Wargo
Publishers Weekly
Putting an engaging and irreverent spin on yesterday's news, Lewis (Liar's Poker; The New, New Thing) declares that power and prestige are up for grabs in this look at how the Internet has changed the way we live and work. Probing how Web-enabled players have exploited the fuzzy boundary between reality and perception, he visits three teenagers who have assumed startling roles: Jonathan Lebed, the 15-year-old New Jersey high school student who made headlines when he netted $800,000 as a day trader and became the youngest person ever accused of stock-market fraud by the SEC; Markus Arnold, the 15-year-old son of immigrants from Belize who edged out numerous seasoned lawyers to become the number three legal expert on AskMe.com; and Daniel Sheldon, a British 14-year-old ringleader in the music-file-sharing movement. Putting himself on the line, Lewis is freshest in his reportage, though he doesn't pierce the deeper cultural questions raised by the kids' behavior. As a financial reporter tracing the development of innovative industries like black box interactive television and interactive political polling from their beginnings as Internet brainstorms, Lewis reminds readers that the twin American instincts to democratize and commercialize intertwine on the Internet, and can only lead to new business. In the past, Lewis implies, industry insiders would simply have shut out eager upstarts, yet today insiders, like AOL Time Warner, allow themselves "to be attacked in order to later co-opt their most ferocious attackers and their best ideas." (July 30) Forecast: Lewis's track record, a major media campaign and a 12-city author tour through techie outposts will make this hard to ignore. As abreezy summer read, it's fun enough, but those looking for profound business insights will be disappointed. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Table of Contents:
| Introduction: The Invisible Revolution | 13 | |
| 1 | The Financial Revolt | 25 |
| 2 | Pyramids and Pancakes | 85 |
| 3 | The Revolt of the Masses | 151 |
| 4 | The Unabomber Had a Point | 211 |
| Afterword: 2002 | 237 |
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