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BOOKS<br />
Review<br />
PROGRAMMING<br />
THE <strong>RASPBERRY</strong> <strong>PI</strong><br />
Author: Simon Monk<br />
Publisher: Tab Electronics<br />
Price: £9.89<br />
ISBN: 978-1259587405<br />
magpi.cc/224fOlh<br />
This could be the<br />
perfect introductory<br />
programming book<br />
to give to someone who’s just<br />
got a Raspberry Pi for Christmas.<br />
With no wasted words, Monk<br />
introduces the Pi and its operating<br />
system, then teaches both Python<br />
and using Python with the Pi, in a<br />
direct and easily absorbed text that<br />
harks back to the best beginner<br />
guides of the 8-bit era.<br />
Skip the first two dozen pages<br />
if you are not new to the Pi,<br />
and dive into Python with an<br />
introduction that – through<br />
well-chosen examples, such as<br />
a dice rolling simulation – will<br />
have you learning conditionals,<br />
FUNDAMENTALS<br />
OF WEARABLE<br />
COMPUTERS AND<br />
AUGMENTED REALITY<br />
Author: Woodrow Barfield<br />
Publisher: CRC Press<br />
Price: £95.00<br />
ISBN: 978-1482243505<br />
magpi.cc/224g3wG<br />
As computers get<br />
small enough to<br />
mount on the cover of a magazine,<br />
and as sensors get better, wearable<br />
computing – data where you need<br />
it – is within reach of all. From<br />
Google Glass to Google Cardboard,<br />
ubiquitous computing is getting<br />
nearer and cheaper. Augmented<br />
reality is used across many<br />
industries, and children solder<br />
together wearable computers at<br />
MakeFests. If you’re a maker or<br />
programmer involved in an AR<br />
project, this collection of essays<br />
will broaden your appreciation<br />
of the field considerably. Barfield<br />
presents 25 academic papers, over<br />
control flow, and comparison<br />
operators before you know it. Next,<br />
Hangman introduces functions,<br />
as well as strings, lists,<br />
and dictionaries. OOP<br />
is touched on with a<br />
temperature converter,<br />
then file handling and<br />
GUI programming (with<br />
Tkinter) through building<br />
on the earlier code<br />
examples. The Pygame<br />
chapter makes use of many<br />
of the techniques learned, then<br />
moves on to refactoring.<br />
The same concise style is<br />
used to cover the Pi hardware<br />
for the rest of the book: G<strong>PI</strong>O<br />
pins, breadboard prototyping,<br />
connecting an Arduino, then<br />
a range of sample projects<br />
culminating in a Raspberry Pi<br />
robot. Unreservedly recommended<br />
for confident beginners of all ages.<br />
Score<br />
700 pages, split over four sections:<br />
Introduction (with some shorter,<br />
more philosophical, overviews of<br />
the topic); The Technology (mostly<br />
displays and haptics, but also<br />
tracking); Augmented Reality<br />
(with some fascinating and<br />
varied cases); and Wearables.<br />
The last section particularly<br />
highlights integration into<br />
textiles and clothing, as well<br />
as presenting useful research<br />
on haptic rendering.<br />
This is a collection of academic<br />
papers: extensive references are<br />
given, and the language is academic,<br />
though mostly quite approachable.<br />
The research crosses many<br />
disciplines, and non-mathematical<br />
readers will only be given pause by<br />
a couple of chapters. An expensive<br />
purchase, but perhaps a worthwhile<br />
one for the local makerspace library,<br />
particularly if you have an augmented<br />
reality project in development.<br />
Score<br />
ESSENTIAL READING:<br />
NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS<br />
Kick start your resolution to learn something<br />
new, or even boost your IT career!<br />
Resolution: Invent that Pi add-on!<br />
Fritzing for Inventors<br />
Author: Simon Monk<br />
Publisher: Tab Electronics<br />
Price: £21.99<br />
ISBN: 978-0071844635<br />
magpi.cc/224guXY<br />
Develop, prototype, test, produce,<br />
and fund an electronics project.<br />
Full of useful tips.<br />
Resolution: Get arty!<br />
The SparkFun Guide to Processing<br />
Author: Derek Runberg<br />
Publisher: No Starch<br />
Price: £19.99<br />
ISBN: 978-1593276126<br />
magpi.cc/224gyHd<br />
Lovingly produced guide to art and<br />
code with Processing, which now<br />
runs on the Raspberry Pi.<br />
Resolution: Get a new job!<br />
Cracking the Coding Interview<br />
Author: Gayle Laakmann McDowell<br />
Publisher: Career Cup<br />
Price: £25.36<br />
ISBN: 978-0984782857<br />
magpi.cc/224gPd8<br />
Start the New Year with a confident<br />
crack at a major coding job interview,<br />
with McDowell’s peerless guide.<br />
Resolution: Machine learning!<br />
Python Machine Learning<br />
Author: Sebastian Raschka<br />
Publisher: Packt<br />
Price: £28.99<br />
ISBN: 978-1783555130<br />
magpi.cc/224gXJw<br />
Process, learn from, and draw actionable<br />
insights out of the otherwise impenetrable<br />
walls of big data.<br />
Resolution: Functional programming!<br />
fp101<br />
Author: Delft University<br />
Publisher: EdX – Online MOOC<br />
Price: Free – Online MOOC<br />
ISBN: N/A<br />
magpi.cc/224h3Rp<br />
Get to grips with the what, why, and how of<br />
functional programming while seamlessly<br />
absorbing Haskell, then apply in the real world.<br />
raspberrypi.org/magpi January 2016 85
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