Making Things Smart

Making Things Smart teaches the fundamentals of the powerful ARM microcontroller by walking beginners and experienced users alike through easily assembled projects comprised of inexpensive, hardware-store parts. Current ARM programming books take a bland, textbook approach focused on complex, beginner-unfriendly languages like C or ARM Assembler. Making Things Smart uses Espruino (JavaScript for Hardware), flattening the learning curve.

By the author of THE DESIGN OF EVERYDAY THINGS. Insightful and whimsical, profoundly intelligent and easily accessible, Don Norman has been exploring the design of our world for decades, exploring this complex relationship between humans and machines. In this seminal work, fully revised and updated, Norman gives us the first steps towards demanding a person-centered redesign of the machines we use every day. Humans have always worked with objects to extend our cognitive powers, from counting on our fingers to designing massive supercomputers. But advanced technology does more than merely assist with memory—the machines we create begin to shape how we think and, at times, even what we value. In THINGS THAT MAKE US SMART, Donald Norman explores the complex interaction between human thought and the technology it creates, arguing for the development of machines that fit our minds, rather than minds that must conform to the machine.

Andrew Yang, the founder of Venture for America, offers a unique solution to our country’s economic and social problems—our smart people should be building things. Smart People Should Build Things offers a stark picture of the current culture and a revolutionary model that will redirect a generation of ambitious young people to the critical job of innovating and building new businesses. As the Founder and CEO of Venture for America, Andrew Yang places top college graduates in start-ups for two years in emerging U.S. cities to generate job growth and train the next generation of entrepreneurs. He knows firsthand how our current view of education is broken. Many college graduates aspire to finance, consulting, law school, grad school, or medical school out of a vague desire for additional status and progress rather than from a genuine passion or fit. In Smart People Should Build Things, this self-described “recovering lawyer” and entrepreneur weaves together a compelling narrative of success stories (including his own), offering observations about the flow of talent in the United States and explanations of why current trends are leading to economic distress and cultural decline. He also presents recommendations for both policy makers and job seekers to make entrepreneurship more realistic and achievable.

A "good" programmer can outproduce five, ten, and sometimes more run-of-the-mill programmers. The secret to success for any software company then is to hire the good programmers. But how to do that? In Joel on Hiring, Joel Spolsky draws from his experience both at Microsoft and running his own successful software company based in New York City. He writes humorously, but seriously about his methods for sorting resumes, for finding great candidates, and for interviewing, in person and by phone. Joel’s methods are not complex, but they do get to the heart of the matter: how to recognize a great developer when you see one.

The world of smart shoes, appliances, and phones is already here, but the practice of user experience (UX) design for ubiquitous computing is still relatively new. Design companies like IDEO and frogdesign are regularly asked to design products that unify software interaction, device design and service design -- which are all the key components of ubiquitous computing UX -- and practicing designers need a way to tackle practical challenges of design. Theory is not enough for them -- luckily the industry is now mature enough to have tried and tested best practices and case studies from the field. Smart Things presents a problem-solving approach to addressing designers' needs and concentrates on process, rather than technological detail, to keep from being quickly outdated. It pays close attention to the capabilities and limitations of the medium in question and discusses the tradeoffs and challenges of design in a commercial environment. Divided into two sections, frameworks and techniques, the book discusses broad design methods and case studies that reflect key aspects of these approaches. The book then presents a set of techniques highly valuable to a practicing designer. It is intentionally not a comprehensive tutorial of user-centered design'as that is covered in many other books'but it is a handful of techniques useful when designing ubiquitous computing user experiences. In short, Smart Things gives its readers both the "why" of this kind of design and the "how," in well-defined chunks. Tackles design of products in the post-Web world where computers no longer have to be monolithic, expensive general-purpose devices Features broad frameworks and processes, practical advice to help approach specifics, and techniques for the unique design challenges Presents case studies that describe, in detail, how others have solved problems, managed trade-offs, and met successes

In , therapists John and Linda Friel gave parents an easy-to-understand guide to overcome the seven worst mistakes even good parents make while raising children. Now they’ve written a book for teens based on the same formula: it includes the seven worst things even smart—and outwardly successful—teens do, and shows teens how they can change these behaviors and assure their success in life as they grow towards adulthood. This book was written expressly for teenagers as a unique roadmap into adulthood. It was designed to stimulate the brain as well as the heart because teenagers who listen to both can eventually negotiate adolescence successfully. It will appeal to teenagers who like to think, wonder, question and challenge, as well as to teenagers who feel that they haven’t quite figured out this “life” thing. The Friels show teens the seven things they need to do in order to overcome common roadblocks they face or will face. These are: Become competent—don’t expect to have self-esteem without becoming competent Master your feelings—don’t let your feelings run the show Break the silence—don’t silently scream instead of making yourself known Get healthy power—don’t avoid learning about power Face the serious stuff—don’t hide the really important things you're experiencing Find an identity—don’t avoid the struggle to find yourself Learn to stake out the extremes—don’t live only in the extremes. Written in clear, straightforward language and including many interesting and colorful story interludes, this book is an easy-to-use, powerful tool for all teens.

SMART GRIDS AND INTERNET OF THINGS Smart grids and the Internet of Things (IoT) are rapidly changing and complicated subjects that are constantly changing and developing. This new volume addresses the current state-of-the-art concepts and technologies associated with the technologies and covers new ideas and emerging novel technologies and processes. Internet of Things (IoT) is a self-organized network that consists of sensors, software, and devices. The data is exchanged among them with the help of the internet. Smart Grids (SG) is a collection of devices deployed in larger areas to perform continuous monitoring and analysis in that region. It is responsible for balancing the flow of energy between the servers and consumers. SG also takes care of the transmission and distribution power to the components involved. The tracking of the devices present in SG is achieved by the IoT framework. Thus, assimilating IoT and SG will lead to developing solutions for many real-time problems. This exciting new volume covers all of these technologies, including the basic concepts and the problems and solutions involved with the practical applications in the real world. Whether for the veteran engineer or scientist, the student, or a manager or other technician working in the field, this volume is a must-have for any library. Smart Grids and Internet of Things: Presents Internet of Things (IoT) and smart grid (SG)-integrated frameworks along with their components and technologies Covers the challenges in energy harvesting and sustainable solutions for IoTSGs and their solutions for practical applications Describes and demystifies the privacy and security issues while processing data in IoTSG Includes case studies relating to IoTSG with cloud and fog computing machine learning and blockchain