Developing Web Applications with Python
Kiatikun's rating:
  4.0
On Oct 10, 2014 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Flask Web Development covers many aspects of web programming, well beyond what most Flask tutorials will cover.
I'm not a web developer, but Flask has always had an appeal of potentially being a potential front end to a database based application. But I've never gotten very far as tutorials generally look at only the main application, and I'm pretty sure I need some extensions but I have not been able to assess the quality of the many plugins available. Flask Web Development is that tutorial that shows Flask and selects quality extensions to introduce.
Full Review >
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Paradigm Over Syntax
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Aug 14, 2014 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Focuses on teaching you how to think functionally, and why that is good.
What Ford does in Functional thinking is to present the advantages of functional programming within the context of an object oriented language that can support this, then move to more appropriate languages to show how the advantages can be more clear when the language supports it more directly. You will not learn functional programming from this book, but it does offer a more clear argument for why functional programming can useful and better in some circumstances. Full Review >
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Solutions and Examples for Java Developers
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Jul 21, 2014 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
This book (like most JVM books) seems to be written with the understanding that the readers are web programmers and I think that the discussion of the options available are filtered with that in mind. But this is a very good reference for those times when you know what you need to do, and it is not the type of thing that gets put into a tutorial. Full Review >
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Practical Performant Programming for Humans
Kiatikun's rating:
3.0
On Jul 9, 2014 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: High Performance Python By Micha Gorelick, Ian Ozsvald: Book review
For someone like me who is a technical programmer but did not study CS, I've seen hints on how to speed up Python numerical code, but I only had a vague understanding of the principles and application. This Early Release version of High Performance Python has examples that demonstrate why certain data structures are faster than others in particular situations, and how to use the various data structures provided. Full Review >
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Building Data Analytics Applications with Hadoop
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On May 5, 2014 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
The book title is misleading. This is not a book about data analytics. This is a book for data analysts so they know how their analytical application is deployed and applied to day-to-day use in enterprise environments. For that reason it is useful. Full Review >
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Data Mining Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, GitHub, and More
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Feb 16, 2014 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: This is a great book to work through the mess of implementing data mining methods in real situations. It is not a theory book, but it serves its purpose well.
The hardest part of learning a data analysis method is not in implementing the method, it is applying the method in the context of a real data problem. And many texts often skirt the issue by using pre-processed data sets and problems defined to fit the method being taught. Russell uses analysis of social media sites to set a context where you start from having to gain access to real data sets, clean and transform the data into forms that your analytical libraries can make sense of, and then use the results to make a conclusion. Full Review >
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Straight Talk from the Frontline
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Jan 28, 2014 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: This is not a textbook or a how-to-do-this type of book, rather it is a how-to-think-when-doing book.
Doing Data Science is about the practice of data science, not its implementation. I suspect the students at who were taught using this learned how to find other sources to help them figure things out. But it provides wisdom, which is harder to find and worth quite a bit. Full Review >
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Spaceships, Pirates, Dragons & More!
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Dec 14, 2013 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: A Masterclass in LEGO building
This is a book of inspiration. What they have done is to have a group of Master Builders show what they can do. But it is more than a book of pretty pictures of Lego models, it is a masterclass in Lego as a medium for art. Full Review >
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Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Dec 3, 2013 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
The essays are all about working with government information systems at some level. While the tone of many of the essays is optimistic and idealistic to an extreme, this is balanced by the number of authors who have actually implemented something at some level. Full Review >
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Kiatikun's rating:
5.0
On Oct 19, 2013 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: This is a beautiful and inspiring book. The pictures are works of art. Some majestic in scale, some more at the level that you can imagine someone actually doing, if they had the artistic vision these creators did!
What this book and the artists that it interviews discusses is the use of LEGO as a medium for art. Where it makes the jump from a toy to art is when you creatively consider possibilities within the context of a constraint. And like the photographer who chooses to use black and white, the use of LEGO instead of clay is the fact that it comes in generally rectangular blocks. This book and the interviews recorded here deal with many ways of approaching this type of abstraction. From large scale recreations that rely on distance and scale to convert the blocks to a realistic looking objects, to abstractions with just enough detail so that the idea is recognizable and can fill in the rest. Full Review >
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What You Need to Know about Data Mining and Data-Analytic Thinking
Kiatikun's rating:
5.0
On Oct 10, 2013 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: This is the why of data mining, not only the what and how.
What Provost and Fawcett have done is to write a book on data mining that focuses on the why of data mining technique, which is great complement to all the books that focus on the how of data mining. Full Review >
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A Bestselling Hands-On Java Tutorial
Kiatikun's rating:
3.0
On Aug 17, 2013 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: A reference, not a tutorial for learning Java programming
Very good first section on setting up the development environment. The part on the language is good as a reference, but it does not seem like something for teaching someone how to get things done or learning programming. Full Review >
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Recipes for Mastering Python 3
Kiatikun's rating:
5.0
On Jul 13, 2013 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
I do miss the introductions to each chapter that was in the 1st and 2nd editions of Python Cookbook. But what Python Cookbook does give is an idiomatic feel of using Python3, when there are not all that many mentors out there to go around. So this is something very useful for others who are starting to use Python 3. It is not for learning the language, but it is for using the language well. Full Review >
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An Introduction to Designing with D3
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Jul 4, 2013 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
For me, coming in with a background in data analysis but no practical Javascript background, this provided a good overview of many Javascript/web concepts required then the d3 library. Full Review >
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Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Apr 28, 2013 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
Lean Analytics is good to read for anyone thinking about how data can be made to work, not just in internet based startups. Full Review >
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Kiatikun's rating:
3.0
On Mar 12, 2013 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
It does a good job of putting together in one place a wide range of considerations from technical to practical that are involved in various forms of low-light photography and the effects that these have on the final image, but while it does provide some nice examples, I would have appreciated more discussion on why certain effects are worth having or what makes the pictures that were printed worth looking as examples of the art. Full Review >
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Practical Recipes for Visualizing Data
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Feb 7, 2013 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
If using the grammer of graphics as implemented in ggplot2 is like learning a new language, the R Graphics Cookbook is not a book that tries to teach you a new language, rather it is like learning a language through using it and is a different take on ggplot2 and graphics in R than other ggplot2 books. Full Review >
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A Desktop Quick Reference
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Dec 30, 2012 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
Statistics in a Nutshell focuses on the what and the why. I would not use this to learn how to perform a technique or its formulas, but this is where to go to understanding how the various methods of statistical analysis should be used and their qualities. It is meant to be read, not just studied, and as such it holds a different place than other statistics texts. Full Review >
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C Tips from the New School
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Dec 21, 2012 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
The book is not really for pure beginners. If you did not already have some background in C, you need to get that somewhere else. I got in trouble with some of the examples, so it helped that I have used many of these tools before (even if not all that effectively). It also is opinionated, presenting one way to do things. (of course, that is very useful to someone starting out, knowing one good way is better than having a dozen options in front of you when you don't know what is what). But it can be very good for someone who needs to go from "I have learned C" to "I know how to effectively use C." Full Review >
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Data Wrangling with Pandas, NumPy, and IPython
Kiatikun's rating:
5.0
On Nov 9, 2012 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Book Review: Python for Data Analysis by Wes McKinney
Python for Data Analysis by Wes McKinneyMy rating: 5 of 5 starsFor some time now I have been using R and Python for data analysis. And I have long ago discovered the Python technical stack of ipython, NumPy, Scipy, and Matplotlib and I thought I knew what I was doing.… Full Review >
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Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Sep 21, 2012 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Book Review: PostgreSQL: Up and Running by Regina Obe and Leo Hsu
PostgreSQL: Up and Running by Regina ObeMy rating: 4 of 5 starsCompared to most books that introduce a full featured relational database management system, PostgreSQL: Up and Running is surprisingly short. It achieves this by being focused on its purpose, and doing it well. It is aimed at someone who… Full Review >
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Unraveling Regular Expressions, Step-by-Step
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Sep 1, 2012 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Book Review: Introduction to Regular Expressions by Michael Fitzgerald
Introducing Regular Expressions by Michael FitzgeraldMy rating: 4 of 5 starsThis is not the first time I've tried to learn Regular Expressions. But other than some basic syntax, it never clicked. But I think this book provided the kind of introduction I needed to get me to not just know… Full Review >
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How to avoid common mistakes
Kiatikun's rating:
2.0
On Aug 25, 2012 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Book Review: Safe C++ by Vladimir Kushnir
Safe C++: How to Lower the Bug Count of your C++ code by Vladimir KushnirMy rating: 2 of 5 starsSafe C++ bills itself as providing ways of avoiding common programming mistakes in C++ through a set of rules. While the author makes a convincing case that these rules are better… Full Review >
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Practical Lisp for the Java World
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Jul 1, 2012 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
This book would be very good for someone with a solid grasp of Java programming, with its ecosystem and libraries, and wanted to move into functional programming. Clojure Programming provides a different workflow since it does compile/evaluate as you go, allowing you to see quickly the results of changes without any performance penalty. And having a different programming paradigm than object-oriented adds a set of tools that can be brought to bear under a different situation. This was not quite what I was hoping for, but that may be because the tools and language features of Python/ipython were already overlapping with Clojure. It does fulfill the promise of making me a more knowledgable programmer. Full Review >
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Complexity Science and Computational Modeling
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Apr 27, 2012 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
To properly do the exercises, one would have to be a good Python programmer, and these would be serious exercises in the application of data structures. But even if the focus was on an introduction to complexity science, being able to run and modify the examples made this a more useful introduction to the field of complex systems and models for emergent behavior than other works that I have seen. Running and playing with the examples makes a greater impact than the text explanation, and in this Think Complexity is a success. Full Review >
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The Fundamentals of Software
Kiatikun's rating:
3.0
On Apr 8, 2012 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
There are a number of books out there that address the problem that programmers need to be software engineers at some level. But this may be one of the shortest. And I think that make it approachable to a programmer who does not quite get it that this is something she needs to learn. The only question is if that is possible, or if by the time a programmer realizes she needs to learn these skills, she is ready for something more meaty. Full Review >
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Case Studies and Algorithms to Get You Started
Kiatikun's rating:
5.0
On Mar 24, 2012 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
I've been taught that in learning a programming language, it is often beneficial to have two books for reference (other than tutorials), one that is a proper reference (i.e. how to do something), and one a morality reference, how you should approach doing something. In data analysis, you should know the theory/methodology and how to use the tools at hand to apply the methodology, but also how to think about problems. And short of an apprenticeship with a master, MLfH does very well in this. Full Review >
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Techniques for Creating Superb Images in a Digital Workflow
Kiatikun's rating:
5.0
On Feb 27, 2012 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
Hoffmann hits the 'rules' like everyone else (there is a chapter on the Golden ratio that has many pictures with many drawn lines illustrating various applications of the Golden ratio), but what makes this book different are the discussions that lead you through how to view the scene and compose to make a distinctive photograph. Full Review >
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How to Write Accurate SQL Code
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Feb 4, 2012 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
Date's book is almost two books in one. First is a book on relational theory. As such, it is meant for deep reading. The second is SQL, the Good Parts. And as such it can get pendantic. But for someone who already knows something about working with data, it can be a good discussion on what you can and cannot get away with. Full Review >
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Things We Recommend
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Dec 25, 2011 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
A fun little catalog of kitchen gadgets. But within the provided reviews, I actually learned a few things. And that was an unexpected bonus. Full Review >
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Simple and Practical Techniques for Writing Better Code
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Dec 19, 2011 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
It is easy to pass over books that look at the art and craft of programming in favor of those that teach new skills or pass on new language or library features or techniques. But a book like The Art of Readable Code is one that will help through over the course of the career, part by part as you mature as a programmer and coder. Full Review >
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to develop your photographic skills
Kiatikun's rating:
3.0
On Nov 9, 2011 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
At its base level, photography is a craft and skill. And to learn it well you need to practice it deliberately until the fundamentals are sound and intuitive. This book will take you there. But its title is somewhat deceptive (and maybe there is no title that would work in a book like that) because it is not a standard set of assignments (and I dock a star just for that). Perhaps this book is the Études of digital photography, focusing on getting the technical aspects of photography right. But the artistry is something to be developed elsewhere. Full Review >
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71 Tips from the Top
Kiatikun's rating:
2.0
On Sep 29, 2011 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
Rocky Nook (publisher) offerings seem to be finding replacements for the teaching of photography technique that are useful for the digital age. And this book seems like it was to meant to be the slim fieldbook for the novice who is just starting the road to being serious. But while each tip is good in itself, it needed an editor's hand to pick its audience and focus on it to properly fill this niche. Full Review >
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Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Sep 24, 2011 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
Think Stats gives students the chance to get their hands dirty...Going through this small book, the goal is understanding and using statistics, not just learning statistics. I have a number of college undergraduate students working on projects. I have started giving them this to work on when they first start with me, both for the programming in Python and to learn statistics and data analysis so they can be useful. Full Review >
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Kiatikun's rating:
3.0
On Jun 26, 2011 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote:
While it is mostly entertaining, I think that The Manga Guide to the Universe may have been a stretch too far covering too much ground for the format. Full Review >
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Digital Photography Essentials
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On May 21, 2011 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Book Review: Capture - Digital Photography Essentials by Glenn Rand et. al.
Capture: Digital Photography Essentials by Glenn RandMy rating: 4 of 5 starsCaptureWhen I started to get serious about photography, I turned to London and Upton’s ‘Photography’ as a place to go to understand the fundamentals of photography on the theory that you can get better at something if you understand… Full Review >
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Kiatikun's rating:
3.0
On May 10, 2011 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Book Review: iPad 2 - The Missing Manual by J.D. Biersdorfer
iPad 2: The Missing Manual by J.D. BiersdorferMy rating: 3 of 5 starsiPad2: The Missing Manual by J.D. Biersdorfer Thinking about a "Missing Manual" for the iPad2, the obvious first question is "Why?" The marketing is all about ease of use, and there are YouTube videos out there with toddlers… Full Review >
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Proven Recipes for Data Analysis, Statistics, and Graphics
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Apr 22, 2011 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Book Review: R Cookbook by Paul Teetor
R Cookbook by Paul TeetorMy rating: 4 of 5 starsA part of the cookbook series is expected to provide a multitude of examples of useful tasks. The R Cookbook does this, but also more. This provides more, teaching about R beyond what reference books and most tutorials.One weakness of R… Full Review >
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A Guide to Public Data
Kiatikun's rating:
2.0
On Mar 18, 2011 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Book Review: Data Sources Handbook by Pete Warden
While this bills itself as covering 'the most useful sources of public data available today" and that "You'll find useful information on APIs" what this really is a sampling of a small number (57) sources and an example of its… Full Review >
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Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Jan 29, 2011 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Book Review: Microsoft Excel 2010: Data Analysis and Business Modeling by Wayne L. Winston
When Microsoft Excel 2010 came out, I noted that it claimed to finally correct long standing errors in its statistical functions (1). While I wait for McCoullough et al (2) to do their usual reviews, I was encouraged to see that it now passes some basic statistics tests where previous versions consistently failed. Full Review >
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Powerful Object-Oriented Programming
Kiatikun's rating:
4.0
On Jan 16, 2011 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Book Review: Programming Python 4e by Mark Lutz
Programming Python by Mark LutzMy rating: 4 of 5 starsI've been using Python since I was a graduate student. While I have known of earlier versions of this tome it had never occurred to me to go through this. Because my focus in computer programming is not in the systems… Full Review >
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A Hands-On Guide for Programmers and Data Scientists
Kiatikun's rating:
5.0
On Dec 27, 2010 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Book Review: Data Analysis with Open Source Tools by Philipp Janert
Data Analysis with Open Source Tools by Philipp K JanertMy rating: 5 of 5 starsThis is a book that is how to think about data analysis, not only how to perform data analysis. Like a good data analysis, Janert's book is about insight and comprehension, not computation. And because of… Full Review >
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Kiatikun's rating:
5.0
On Dec 12, 2010 Kiatikun Luangkesorn wrote: Book Review: Head First HTML With CSS & XHTML by Elizabeth Freeman and Eric Freeman
This member of the Head First series teaches in an engaging way with every lesson providing the context and the why, not only what and how, of using HTML and CSS.I have written web pages before,… Full Review >
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