A New York Times Notable BookA Los Angeles Times and Cleveland Plain Dealer Best Book of the YearFrom the bestselling author of the acclaimed Chaos and Genius comes a thoughtful and provocative exploration of the big ideas of the modern era: Information, communication, and information theory.   Acclaimed science writer James Gleick presents an eye-opening vision of how our relationship to information has transformed the very nature of human consciousness. A fascinating intellectual journey through the history of communication and information, from the language of Africa’s talking drums to the invention of written alphabets; from the electronic transmission of code to the origins of information theory, into the new information age and the current deluge of news, tweets, images, and blogs. Along the way, Gleick profiles key innovators, including Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Samuel Morse, and Claude Shannon, and reveals how our understanding of information is transforming not only how we look at the world, but how we live.

The modern human animal spends upwards of 11 hours out of every 24 in a state of constant consumption. Not eating, but gorging on information ceaselessly spewed from the screens and speakers we hold dear. Just as we have grown morbidly obese on sugar, fat, and flour—so, too, have we become gluttons for texts, instant messages, emails, RSS feeds, downloads, videos, status updates, and tweets.We're all battling a storm of distractions, buffeted with notifications and tempted by tasty tidbits of information. And just as too much junk food can lead to obesity, too much junk information can lead to cluelessness. The Information Diet shows you how to thrive in this information glut—what to look for, what to avoid, and how to be selective. In the process, author Clay Johnson explains the role information has played throughout history, and why following his prescribed diet is essential for everyone who strives to be smart, productive, and sane. In The Information Diet, you will:Discover why eminent scholars are worried about our state of attention and general intelligence Examine how today’s media—Big Info—give us exactly what we want: content that confirms our beliefs Learn to take steps to develop data literacy, attention fitness, and a healthy sense of humor Become engaged in the economics of information by learning how to reward good information providers Just like a normal, healthy food diet, The Information Diet is not about consuming less—it’s about finding a healthy balance that works for you

Great things don’t happen in a vacuum. But creating an environment for creative thinking and innovation can be a daunting challenge. How can you make it happen at your company? The answer may surprise you: gamestorming. This book includes more than 80 games to help you break down barriers, communicate better, and generate new ideas, insights, and strategies. The authors have identified tools and techniques from some of the world’s most innovative professionals, whose teams collaborate and make great things happen. This book is the result: a unique collection of games that encourage engagement and creativity while bringing more structure and clarity to the workplace. Find out why -- and how -- with Gamestorming. Overcome conflict and increase engagement with team-oriented games Improve collaboration and communication in cross-disciplinary teams with visual-thinking techniques Improve understanding by role-playing customer and user experiences Generate better ideas and more of them, faster than ever before Shorten meetings and make them more productive Simulate and explore complex systems, interactions, and dynamics Identify a problem’s root cause, and find the paths that point toward a solution

Intended for courses in communication theory at the freshman to senior level, this text covers verbal and nonverbal messages; cognitive processing; relationship development and maintenance; influence; decision making; intercultural and gender communication; organizational communication; public speaking; media and culture; and the effects of the media. This edition features a chapter covering the history of the communication discipline; improved coverage of ethics; and five new theories including Borman's convergence theory and Hirakawa's functional perspective (group decision making theories); Deetz's critical communication theory for organizations; Zillman's mood management theory; and Philipsen's ethnography of communication.

Use Windows debuggers throughout the development cycle—and build better softwareRethink your use of Windows debugging and tracing tools—and learn how to make them a key part of test-driven software development. Led by a member of the Windows Fundamentals Team at Microsoft, you’ll apply expert debugging and tracing techniques—and sharpen your C++ and C# code analysis skills—through practical examples and common scenarios. Learn why experienced developers use debuggers in every step of the development process, and not just when bugs appear. Discover how to:Go behind the scenes to examine how powerful Windows debuggers work Catch bugs early in the development cycle with static and runtime analysis tools Gain practical strategies to tackle the most common code defects Apply expert tricks to handle user-mode and kernel-mode debugging tasks Implement postmortem techniques such as JIT and dump debugging Debug the concurrency and security aspects of your software Use debuggers to analyze interactions between your code and the operating system Analyze software behavior with Xperf and the Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) framework

"Future Shock for the Web-apps era.... Compulsively readable—for nontechies, too."—Fast CompanyBuilding on the success of his industry-shaking Does IT Matter? Nicholas Carr returns with The Big Switch, a sweeping look at how a new computer revolution is reshaping business, society, and culture. Just as companies stopped generating their own power and plugged into the newly built electric grid some hundred years ago, today it's computing that's turning into a utility. The effects of this transition will ultimately change society as profoundly as cheap electricity did. The Big Switch provides a panoramic view of the new world being conjured from the circuits of the "World Wide Computer." New for the paperback edition, the book now includes an A–Z guide to the companies leading this transformation.

The Inmates are Running the Asylum argues that, despite appearances, business executives are simply not the ones in control of the high-tech industry. They have inadvertently put programmers and engineers in charge, leading to products and processes that waste huge amounts of money, squander customer loyalty, and erode competitive advantage. They have let the inmates run the asylum. Alan Cooper offers a provocative, insightful and entertaining explanation of how talented people continuously design bad software-based products. More importantly, he uses his own work with companies big and small to show how to harness those talents to create products that will both thrill their users and grow the bottom line.

Without formal, verifiable software requirements—and an effective system for managing them—the programs that developers think they’ve agreed to build often will not be the same products their customers are expecting. In SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS, Second Edition, requirements engineering authority Karl Wiegers amplifies the best practices presented in his original award-winning text?now a mainstay for anyone participating in the software development process.In this book, you’ll discover effective techniques for managing the requirements engineering process all the way through the development cycle—including dozens of techniques to facilitate that all-important communication between users, developers, and management. This updated edition features new case examples, anecdotes culled from the author’s extensive consulting career, and specific Next Steps for putting the book’s process-improvement principles into practice. You’ll also find several new chapters, sample documents, and an incisive troubleshooting guide.Discover how to: Set achievable expectations for functionality and quality NEW: Incorporate business rules into application development Employ use cases to discover user requirements Arrest creeping requirements and manage change requests NEW: Deal with requirements on maintenance, outsourced, and package solution projects Curb the impulse to “gold-plate” your programs NEW: Grow effective requirements analysts Cut revisions—and costs—dramatically Produce better software! No matter what kind of software you build, or what your role in the development process, SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS, Second Edition, delivers expert guidance and field-tested techniques for engineering software success.

The post-Ajaxian Web 2.0 world of wikis, folksonomies, and mashups makes well-planned information architecture even more essential. How do you present large volumes of information to people who need to find what they're looking for quickly? This classic primer shows information architects, designers, and web site developers how to build large-scale and maintainable web sites that are appealing and easy to navigate.The new edition is thoroughly updated to address emerging technologies -- with recent examples, new scenarios, and information on best practices -- while maintaining its focus on fundamentals. With topics that range from aesthetics to mechanics, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web explains how to create interfaces that users can understand right away. Inside, you'll find:An overview of information architecture for both newcomers and experienced practitioners The fundamental components of an architecture, illustrating the interconnected nature of these systems. Updated, with updates for tagging, folksonomies, social classification, and guided navigationTools, techniques, and methods that take you from research to strategy and design to implementation. This edition discusses blueprints, wireframes and the role of diagrams in the design phaseA series of short essays that provide practical tips and philosophical advice for those who work on information architectureThe business context of practicing and promoting information architecture, including recent lessons on how to handle enterprise architectureCase studies on the evolution of two large and very different information architectures, illustrating best practices along the wayHow do you document the rich interfaces of web applications? How do you design for multiple platforms and mobile devices? With emphasis on goals and approaches over tactics or technologies, this enormously popular book gives you knowledge about information architecture with a framework that allows you to learn new approaches -- and unlearn outmoded ones.

"The computer world is like an intellectual Wild West, in which you can shoot anyone you wish with your ideas, if you're willing to risk the consequences. " --from Hackers&Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham We are living in the computer age, in a world increasingly designed and engineered by computer programmers and software designers, by people who call themselves hackers. Who are these people, what motivates them, and why should you care? Consider these facts: Everything around us is turning into computers. Your typewriter is gone, replaced by a computer. Your phone has turned into a computer. So has your camera. Soon your TV will. Your car was not only designed on computers, but has more processing power in it than a room-sized mainframe did in 1970. Letters, encyclopedias, newspapers, and even your local store are being replaced by the Internet. Hackers&Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham, explains this world and the motivations of the people who occupy it. In clear, thoughtful prose that draws on illuminating historical examples, Graham takes readers on an unflinching exploration into what he calls "an intellectual Wild West." The ideas discussed in this book will have a powerful and lasting impact on how we think, how we work, how we develop technology, and how we live. Topics include the importance of beauty in software design, how to make wealth, heresy and free speech, the programming language renaissance, the open-source movement, digital design, internet startups, and more.