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In Search Of An Integrative Vision For Technology will stimulate its readers to consider the 'whole story that is information systems' within the context of an integrative vision of technology. It integrates what are currently disparate areas of debate and research, and to appreciate the contribution that philosophy can make to such integrative thinking. It is deliberately broad in coverage, and it is designed to also provide useful pointers, within such a view, so that researchers, students, practitioners, developers and users can easily apply each point as needed. "Human issues of technology and their normative aspects" is a theme that runs throughout the entire book.

The integrative vision is centered on an understanding of human practice — the twin notions of structure and direction, and the leading and the founding functions of such practice. While this understanding applies to all technologies, it is worked out in more detail for information technology. Information technology demonstrates issues that are found in many other technologies. From this philosophical understanding, a number of interdisciplinary areas of interest are identified, enabling 'the whole story that is information systems' to be examined. The areas identified are:

1. The Development of Information Systems and of the Basic Technologies from which they are fashioned.

2. Human Practices involving Information Systems.

3. Socio-Technical Systems

4. Directional Perspectives

In each area, the issues of norms, research, development, and the relationship between technology and human beings are all present. It is shown how each area, though distinct from the others, is nevertheless closely interwoven with the others by several types of relationships. Systems thinking is augmented with other frameworks to ensure that all types of inter-area relationships are recognized and discussed.

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This tenth edition is a technology update intended to bring Computers abreast with a rampaging technology. About six Internet years pass in one real-time year, the elapsed time since the last edition. The tenth edition retains the same familiar look and feel as the ninth edition. However, it contains hundreds of changes needed to ensure that Long continues to be the most current introductory IT book available.Includes over 150 new or updated images that reflect the latest releases and innovations in software. Numerous new photos show new hardware and applications. Throughout the book, capacities and speeds for communications hardware, disks, RAM, processors, printers, and so on have been adjusted to reflect the state of the art. Provides essential information onhardware, Windows, and networking procedures, and on word processing, e-mail, and browser software. Expanded presentation of ethics; additional coverage of the Internet; and a new IT Illustrated section on careers gives readers an in-depth look at career opportunities for IT specialists and for IT-competent people.For anyone who wants to advance their personal computing experience and skills, and individuals considering careers as IT specialists. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

CLEP OR DSST PREP - use this book!
Took the DSST/Dantes test, using this book on Oct. 16, 2008. No need to waste money on expensive test prep materials or books. For the DSST/Dantes test, just use the "exam fact sheet" at http://www.getcollegecredit.com/ as a study guide. For the CLEP, go to http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/ex_isca.html and print the study guide for Information Systems & Computer Applications.

Either test can be passed using this book and the guides listed above. Just be sure to find out from your college testing center, which test is accepted for credit.

If you do happen to have a CLEP practice exam, you can use it to prepare for the DSST, but be prepared to know some basic facts regarding the history of computing that are not on the CLEP.

Book Review
The book that i recieved was not the correct book and I put in the isbn number so I think it would be good if you put a picture of all the books you are selling so people can see before they buy it. What am I going to do now with the wrong book?

CLEP Information Systems and Computer Applications
I purchased this book (11th Ed. paperback) to prepare for my CLEP Info Sys and Comp Apps exam. I was able to ace my CLEP by relying primarily on this excellent book. This book provides a general but comprehensive coverage of the entire breadth of computer science and technology and is an excellent test preparation, not only for computer novices and newbies, but also for students with a strong IT background. It has something to offer everyone. It is written in an easily readable and enjoyable format with plenty of attractive graphics and images. The authors have worked hard to keep the material up-to-date and relevant. I have decided to keep this book even after taking my CLEP because I find it to be also a very handy and useful reference book. I understand there is a 12th Edition out there now. I would suggest buyers consider purchasing the 12th Edition. Overall an excellent purchase.

computers 11th ed by long and long
not a bad book however my lecturer has noticed several factual and historical mistakes about the subject matter which it simply shouldnt have done for a book used by many students.
But the fact that your never quite sure weather what your reading is fact or not is not what gets me. The truley annoying thing about this book is the American propaganda. The little bits that the authors have put in to "prepare" students for when they vote. for instance they say things like "terrorists now are researching ways to destroy one of most valuable personnal and commercial assets- the contents of our disks. They do this by seeking points of vunerability in PCs and servers and by planting destructive viruses......cyber terror is now part of the terrorists arsenal of evil."
what the hell? Did i just pick up a academic book or a copy of the Daily mail!

Price
Price is not reasonable to buy to a new comer to the computing inductry, even though book is very good. ... Read more

Product Description
IT audit area testing mastery reflects professional experience and training.Regarding subject mastery, this booklet presents methods and techniques available for testing computer programs, files, and information systems; which can be translated, if practiced, into professional experience.Chronologically, this monograph describes required audit steps performed during an audit area assignment.Specifically, statistical and non-statistical testing is described from an information systems audit perspective, while simultaneously presenting other equivalent audit standards and guidelines.Furthermore, audit risk reassessment is discussed at this monograph’s conclusion. ... Read more

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The World Factbook is prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency for the use of US Government officials. This complete electronic edition is designed for optimal navigation on your handheld device. FREE fist half of the book in the trial.

Customer Reviews (6)

From the Publisher
The newer version of the CIA factbook is available here CIA World Factbook 2009 - Complete Unabridged Edition. Detailed Country Maps and other information. Published by MobileReference (mobi).

Thank you for your interest!
MobileReference

Country maps are legible and country information is concise and to the point.
I often travel with my Kindle 2 and I purchased CIA Factbook for its maps and country information. I found that country maps are legible and country information is concise and to the point. Continent maps have low resolution, but with Kindles' small screen, there only so much it can display.

I also found that I often use appendix G. Weights and measures.

CIA World Factbook
I consider this a library basic.It gives instant reference info (including maps) regarding hundreds of countries.My travel budget is so limited that I wouldn't dream of leaving home without choosing intended destination after careful study!

CIA World Factbook - Kindle Edition by MobileReference
CIA World Factbook - Complete Edition. Detailed information and maps for over 270 countries

With the current state of the world, the CIA World Factbook is an excellent resource guide to all things about all countries in the world. Religions, Literacy Rates, Population, Major Diseases, country-by-country it is all here. This is a great and important resource material to have.

Excellent bargain for country information, but not for country maps
I actually don't disagree with the information in fellow reviewer Diane Kistner's 5-star review, but I wanted this Kindle book specifically for its many maps. This being a Kindle book, I did not expect much in terms of illustration quality, but there are two problems: (1) The downloadable, pre-purchase sample does not include enough pages for the prospective buyer to view and evaluate the maps; (2) The maps, even when viewed at maximum font size with the zoom magnifier activated, are simply completely illegible. And while I suppose that the efficient hyper-linking of this mobi edition's contents and the voluminous factual information are worth $5.59 and then some, IF YOU WANT MAPS -- which would be very useful since at this juncture there do not appear to be World Atlases or Almanacs with even simplified maps available as Kindle books -- don't expect to get them here. Or to be more precise, you'll be frustrated with many pages of presumably beautiful maps from which the most rudimentary details cannot be visualized on your Kindle screen. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

oportunities in new communication technologies
This book is a very good philosophical work about new technologies which reviews, in a clear manner of exposition, different possitions about the new technologies and referring to important philosophers as Nietszche, Baudrillard and others. From a foucoltian point of view, Poster puts all his energy in accounting for the possibilitie of a new real and radical democracy enhanced by new technologies. The question is if this will be possible or if, on the contrary, the modern determinations of current culture will undermine these possibilities reconducting them to new ways of commodification.

Difficult but Rewarding Book
In this book, Mark Poster attempts to provide a philosophical framework for understanding the significance of the rise of computers, the Internet, and the other digital technologies.His argument is that the diffusion of these new technologies results in "complex couplings of humans and machines..." ( p. 9) that calls into question some of the central ideas of our time.The discussion starts with postcolonial theory and then moves on to recent theories of empire, citizenship, identity, ethics, psychoanalysis, intellectual property rights, everyday life, and consumer culture.It is an ambitous work and difficult to read in passages, but the effort is worth it.



What, according to Poster, is wrong with postcolonial theory?It "presumes a proximate relation of colonizer and colonized that obscures the transculture of new media..." (p. 31).This "transculture" produces "cultural objects (words, texts, sounds, and images) [that] are progressively removed from territorial space into physical realms of electrons, sound waves, and light pulses that are less palpable to the human senses and less subject to control by established institutions, especially the nation-state and the corporation" (p. 35).As a result, "Individuals no longer form identities exclusively through local practices" (p. 36).Poster provides examples of this in India and the Indian diaspora, where Indian employees of call centers have adopted American accents and names and the Internet is used by diasporic Indians to maintain their Indian identities and ties with one another across great distances.



In the Introduction, the author tells a story about a child who imagined that telephone operators who worked the "information please" switchboards actually had the answers to important questions.In Chapter 1, he explains how an image of Bert of Sesame Street fame came to be found on a political poster in Bangladesh extolling the virtues of Osama bin Laden.The point of these two interesting stories is to highlight the potential of digital technology for promoting both enlightenment and confusion.



Chapter 5 deals with identity in the digital age by focusing on a new form of criminal activity, identity theft.Poster argues that the concept of identity evolved from a notion first of consciousness (in the writings of John Locke) and then of personality (notably in the work of Eric Erikson) to the contemporary notion, embodied in laws about identity theft,that information about individuals stored remotely on computers constitutes an identity that can be stolen.According to Poster, "What's stolen is not one's consciousness, but one's self as it is embedded in (increasingly digital) databases" (p. 92).The argument is that humans and machines are merging, that cyberspace is eroding the boundaries between public and private (p. 93), and that "we might search for new configurations of selfhood that keep open spaces of resistance..." (p. 115).

In Chapter 7, Poster posits that the Internet forces its users to reexamine their pre-existing ethical frameworks.



Networked, digitized information media cut across territorial boundaries of cultural groups.They juxtapose differences in a homogeneous medium.They bring together individuals with common interests but divergent nationalities and traditions...They disrupt the narcissism of the familiar, the identifications with the same. (pp. 159-160)



As a result, conventional or traditional notions of ethics are disrupted and Poster is hopeful that a new less parochial ethics will emerge.

Chapter 8 reviews Freud's ideas on psychoanalysis and argues that these ideas have to be updated in light of the new "bodies" that are coming into existence with the more intense human-machine interactions of the digital age.Not just the Cyborgs featured in movies like Terminator and the books of Donna Haraway, but also the ordinary humans who cruise theInternet, carry cell phones, talk endlessly into BlueTooth headsets, and shop in bar-coded supermarkets.According to Poster, the body is now more plastic and less culturally constituted that it was (p. 162).Parents no longer maintain as much control over how children use and think about their bodies (pp. 171-175).Children also have their identities shaped by the "stereos, televisions, telephones, game consoles, and networked computers" (p. 175).This does not replace the influence of parents, and does not eradicate the Oedipal complex;it just makes the complex more complex (p. 180).



Chapter 9 deals with the issue of intellectual property rights, especially those connected with recorded music and films, and the difficulty of defending those rights when digital audio and video content is stored on networked computers.Poster takes a strong stand in favor of everyone's rights to share cultural material digitally and in opposition to the efforts of the recording and film industries and their allies to protect existing revenue streams by proposing new laws to prevent file sharing.He belittles the arguments of the recording and film industries that intellectual property laws need to be enforced in order to create an incentive for creative and innovative activity. He claims that these industries are just protecting their own income streams and their control over artefacts created by others.He suggests instead that we "must invent an entirely new copyright law that rewards cultural creation but also fosters new forms of use or consumption and does not inhibit the development of new forms of digital cultural exchange..." (p. 209).



Chapter 11 focuses on the theories of Michel de Certeau about the complexity and importance of consumptionin postmodernity.Poster argues here that markets for noncultural commodities are or should be different from markets for cultural artefacts.In the former, the distinction between producers and consumers remains stable, whereas in the digital age the distinction between producers and consumers of cultural goods is eroding."In blogs, massively multiple online games, and peer-to-peer file-sharing programs, consumers are tranformed into users, creating content as they download it" (p. 249).Better examples of this would be the networked collaboration that produces encyclopedia entries to Wikipedia, amateur videos on YouTube, or remixes of digitized audio tracks made available on web sites by performers.The point is that cultural markets should be regulated in such a way as to protect the sharing that is essential to innovation.



There is a brief and somewhat pessimistic concluding chapter that contrasts the liberating potential of digital technologies with the potential for greater central control (governmental or corporate) that may result from the erosion of the private-public divide.This argument is similar to that contained in Lawrence Lessig's book, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (New York: Basic Books, 1999). I was surprised that this chapter did not return to the earlier themes of human-machine coupling, but I suppose that theme is implicit in the argument about the liberating potential of digital technology.



To summarize, this is a far-ranging and complicated book on a very important subject (the social impact of digital technology) by a major critical political philosopher.It breaks new ground in a number of areas and provides some excellent criticisms of a variety of approaches that are likely to lead (or already have led) to conceptual dead ends.It is not easy reading and requires a certain amount of patience to get through passages that are filled with philosophical jargon that you may be excused for promptly forgetting. Nevertheless, Poster has written a book with a lot of interesting ideas that I am certain will be read with profit by the growing community of scholars trying to get a handle on the politics of cyberspace.

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This first edition of Information Systems Auditing: The IS Audit Follow-up Process is part of an electronic booklets series providing comprehensive IS audit planning, study, evaluation, testing, and reporting methods.In terms of content, these monographs convert selected audit standards into practical applications using detailed examples.These monographs also allow auditors to understand various steps and processes required to adequately initiate, document, and compile IT audit phases.Moreover, the reader will acquire an appreciation for IT financial statement, government, and external auditing.Collectively, these monographs function as study guides for CISA examination preparation as well as audit reference manuals.

IT audit area follow-up mastery reflects professional experience and training.Regarding subject mastery, this booklet presents corrective action due diligence, audit engagement responsibilities and recommendation considerations; which can be translated, if practiced, into professional experience.Chronologically, this monograph presents managerial corrective action considerations and describes required audit follow-up steps performed during an audit area engagement extension, separate engagement, or agreed-upon procedures assignment.Specifically, assessing audit responses and general follow-up activities are discussed from an information systems audit perspective, while simultaneously presenting other equivalent audit standards and guidelines. ... Read more

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The theme of this book is the teaching and learning of the humanities in the primary years. While it dwells on the National Curriculum, it also examines issues of current international concern, drawing upon international research literature. ... Read more

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Information technology (IT) assets must be protected from external and internal activities detrimental to effective and efficient functionality. For this purpose, mechanisms exist that can be utilized to ensure hardware, software, and other resources are operated on by only those tasks that have gained proper authorization. “Ensuring Information Assets Protection” presents a proven approach to deploying entity-centric IT security frameworks, architectures, methods, and techniques. In terms of content, this publication converts selected standards and guidelines into practical applications using detailed examples and conceptual graphics. Through this publication, security professionals will acquire an appreciation for the complexities associated with ensuring an adequate information security program. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Great ideas to implement
We recently started a full-service brokerage firm in Canada. Starting "carte-blanche" meant that we could apply many of the ideas in this book cheaply and quickly. We have had amazing growth that we can directly attribute to the technology that we implemented.

This book is a must for companies in the financial services arena wishing to know what is possible in this day and age. ... Read more

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Information Literacy and the School Library Media Center concentrates its focus on how information literacy is implemented throughout all curriculum areas through the collaborative efforts of classroom teachers and school library media specialists. Chapters include: Collaboration; Flexible Schedule; Process Learning; and Assessment among other important topics. The book is an overview to teaching information literacy skills beginning with a history of the development of the usage of the term. The author discusses all the commonly known information processing models and how information literacy skills are important in assisting students to meet state and national curriculum standards in all areas of the curriculum. Included are samples of state and local standards and examples of correlations to selected curricular standards as well as an explanation of how to integrate standards in information literacy and another curricular area for maximum instructional success.

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This book illustrates, through the use of case studies, the complex challenges which health service organizations face in implementing technology changes. Case studies address topics such as: organizational vision and strategic directions; organizational structures; getting the organization ready for change; change management implementation strategies; leadership issues; effects of technology diffusion upon people; effects on change-makers; effects on interpersonal interactions between professions; effects on the delivery of services to customers; effects on organizational quality issues; economic impacts; and managing the re-engineered organization. ... Read more

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China's economic and social progress toward modernization is one of the defining features of the last quarter of the 20th century. The emergence of China coincides with another development of equally important international implications--the revolution in information and telecommunication technology. But how compatible are the new China and the information age? The Chinese government intends to embrace market-oriented economic development while maintaining centralized control over politics, culture, and public discourse. The contradictions and tensions of this goal are especially acute in telecommunication and information technology markets, where the rest of the world is moving rapidly toward liberalization and globalization. Will China's economic reforms allow it to join the information revolution, or will its unique political structure keep it insulated from the main currents of global economic development? This volume is the first detailed examination of how China's reform process is playing out in the realm of information and telecommunications. ... Read more

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This book of lesson plans using common picture books to teach theAASL/AECT Information Literacy Standards is targeted for grades K-3, complete with reproducible patterns and immediately usable reproducible activities providing lessons for each grade level (K-3) for each month of the school year. Each lesson will teach information literacy skill based on the AASL/AECT Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning. The skills are taught in a logical progression throughout the school year.Included is a reading resource bibliography for each month giving the Library Media Specialist or teacher additional picture books to teach specific skills with other lessons they choose to create. Each lesson has been tested by the authors and revised using primary grade classes from three elementary schools as the test subjects. Books selected for this project are nationally recognized and award winning picture books commonly found in most elementary library collections.Though the book is specifically targeted for use by Library Media Specialists, literacy coaches, reading teachers and classroom teachers in the primary grades will be interested in its content. Grades K-3.

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IT audit area reporting mastery reflects professional experience and training.Regarding subject mastery, this booklet presents finding form analysis, draft report writing and presentation; which can be translated, if practiced, into professional experience.Chronologically, this monograph describes required audit steps performed during an audit area assignment.Specifically, audit report opinions are described from an information systems audit perspective, while simultaneously presenting other equivalent audit standards and guidelines.Furthermore, audit report distribution is discussed at this monograph’s conclusion. ... Read more

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In this volume the contributors use GIS (Geographical Information Systems) to reassess both historic and contemporary Asian countries and traditionally Islamic areas.

Subjects covered include:

- Local society in 18th century South India
- The use of GIS to locate abandoned villages
- Water supplies and public fountains in Istanbul
- The characterization of Turkish urban street networks
- Three-dimensional views
- The spatial structure of commercial areas
- How to construct spatial databases from historical documents and maps
- Estimating land use and the structure of the administrative system in Ponneri, India

This highly illustrated and comprehensive work highlights how GIS can be applied to the social sciences. With its description of how to process, construct and manage geographical data the book is ideal for the non-specialist looking for a new and refreshing way to approach Islamic area studies.

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This monograph is probably one of the most laboriousefforts to depict the dynamic reconfiguration of theUS economy around the 1990s. The progress ofthe US economy in that time was not a simple pieceof a macroeconomic business cycle, but wasaccompanied by industrial dynamics led by IT. Thanksto the latter aspect, the US economy presented aremarkable rate of economic growth withoutinflation. Innovations driven by IT created anumerous number of new businesses, while keepingmanufacturing costs even lower not only in the ITsector but also in IT-using sectors. This trickling- down effect of productivity gains is best capturedby inter-industry input-output (IO) analysis. Inter- industry IO analysis shows the chain reactions of aproductivity gain throughout industries by tracingthe flow of intermediate inputs: forward linkages initiated by a supplying industry andbackward linkages induced by a demanding industry.Drawing on the IO toolkit, this monographsuccessfully reveals the industrial sources andinter-industry conveyor belts underlying thesplendid productivity growth of the US economyaround the 1990s. ... Read more