There might be a debate on what a candidate has to know to "pass" an interview. If -like me- you are convinced that some algorithmic thinking should be displayable then you should read this book to have some good ideas on (currently) novel questions to ask your candidates. The examples are very good and can catually be done during an interview. In the end - all you want to know is that the canidate was delivered "with the batteries" and this book can help you set up part of your interviews.

This is a very good book on what a technical architect needs to care about when writing cloud applications. The exposition is on an abstract level and the author clearly explains which patterns there are and when you should use them. The patterns are applicable to both Microsoft Azure and Amazon S3 services. All patterns matter and none of them are exotic or far fetched. the use of a fcititious example application (PoP) helps in seeing when to apply the pattern. As a technician I would have loved some code snippets to get a taste of the flavor of code that these patterns require but that's just my opinion. I have only one advice to anyone serious in cloud development : read this.

This is a beautiful book about a very beautiful topic. The authors - and inventors of the algorithm - take their time to describe what is a hypergeometric series; what approaches don't work and finally, what does work. Just like generatingfunctionology this is a book that deserves to be read by everyone interested.

I've always been interested in algorithms. Since it has been a while since I graduated, I bought this book in order to have an update on the status of several problems. This is a fantastic book. The layout is very gentle and it makes for easy reading (not everything is easy but that's not the point). The authors illustrate the crucial steps of most algorithms with nice accompanying illustrations. Care has been taken to keep th eillustrations with the text.
But the contents itself is also beautiful. It starts with algorithms to compute the convex hull of a set of points, to compute intersection points for a set of line segments, ... Here the authors introduce the "sweeping line" approach, an approach that was new to me and a pleasure to learn. It doesn't stop there, they continue for triangulation of polygons (the art gallery problem), linear programming, orthogonal range checking, point location, ... Point location is done through a very very clever partitioning into trapezoids. The algorithm is not simple but the authors take their time to gently point out how it works.
This is the way (mathematics) books ought to be. A warm thank you to the authors.

The author takes us with him on a journey through the display of "statistical graphs". I starts a little bit slowly but then the author develops some very commonsense principles that let you determine if you are on the right track. He then goes on and on and even manages to optimize existing graphs such as a simple scatter plot. I highly recommend this to any one who is serious about representing information in graphs.

I actually expected more of "computer algorithms" in this book. By this I mean I expected to see the algorithms quicksort, Dijkstra, Floyd etc. Instead, I found the more mathematical algorithms. So I re-learned how to multiply two numbers etc. The nice thing about this book is that it is very thorough in its coverage. You don't only get the classical algorithm for multiplying two numbers; you actually get more than 1 algorithm. Besides that, there is this nice feature in which an excerpt of a classical document is actually included so you can read what the old masters did. So instead of being disappointed in this book, I am actually excited and surprised by its approach. Some algorithms might not be interesting to a lot of people but they are certainly mind provoking. Highly recommended (for what is actually contained in the book take a look at the TOC). I was personally enchanted by the algorithms (again more than 1) to construct magic squares.

At first I was a little disapointed in this book because I thought it was goinf to introduce me to some of the secrets of objective C and the cocoa framework. I learned, however that html 5 and phonegap can already go a long way to making a very acceptable application; one that you can also deploy on other mobile devices.

I particularily liked this book. The author is a JavaScript veteran who has gone through all anti-patterns himself. The books teaches you a lot of reasonable conventions to stick to. In most of the cases the author carefully explains why doing it this or that way is actually the best idea. One of the shocking things is his advice "don't test aginst null". But if you read the chapter then it all makes sense. I actually learned a lot about the language while reading this book. I still don't like the language but now I can see how smart peaople have established conventions around the sometimes idiotic rules of the language. Finally, this book also talks about tools you can use to automate the testing and buildingof your Javascript files.

This is a delightful book about generating functions; normal - exponential, ...
The author clearly explains what generating functions are and what they can be used for. He is clearly a master of the field. He often applies the wizardry to counting (and other) problems. When you read his solutions they are so very clear that you wonder why you can't do it yourself like this.
Not only is the coverage very deep, the book is also beautiful, very handy to put near you and read where you are.

This book is an brilliant coverage of contemporary mathematics on a level that can be understood by the amateur.
It covers prime numbers, hilberts 10th problem, class numbers, fractals, the monster group, the four color theorem; the riemann hypothesis, the Poincaré conjecture, Fermats last theorem etc...

The only minus has nothing to do with the book itself but rather with the kindle edition. Apparently this book has been scanned en run through OCR. While this might work for a normal book, the number of errors this gives in mathematical formulas is really annoying. To give one example : the book consitentently talks about "ail" when in fact it should be "all". Also, x2 is not the same as x^2. In don't know if this is the editor's fault or amzaon's but it is a real show-stopper. An amateur that doesn't know the formulae would really be misled by the numerous typos.