Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Computers & Technology

In a contest of change, which century from the past millennium would come up trumps? Imagine the Black Death took on the female vote in a pub brawl, or the Industrial Revolution faced the Internet in a medieval joust - whose side would you be on? In this hugely entertaining book, celebrated historian Ian Mortimer takes us on a whirlwind tour of Western history, pitting one century against another in his quest to measure change.

No other woman has had so many online romances–from Keanu Reeves to Brad Pitt to Prince William–and Becky Holmes is a favorite among peacekeeping soldiers and oil rig workers who desperately need iTunes vouchers. By winding up scammers and investigating the truth behind their profiles, Becky shines a revealing, revolting and hilarious light on a very shady corner of the internet.

Bestselling children's author Andy Stanton has made a career out of writing differently—from the unconventional ‘hero' of his bestselling Mr Gum series to his penchant for absurdist plots, his children's books are anything but formulaic. When a friend introduces him to ChatGPT, the new large language chatbot, Andy is as sceptical as he is curious. Can this jumble of algorithms really mimic the spontaneity of human thought? Could it one day replace human authors like him for good? And are we soon to be ruled over by despotic robot overlords.

Cyber correspondent Joe Tidy has investigated and interviewed the most infamous teenage hacker gangs of the past decade for the BBC, and previously for Sky News. Now he unveils the dark digital underbelly where teenage boys are reshaping cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, and organised crime under the noses of their parents. Throughout he chronicles the life of Julius Kivimaki, aka Zeekill, arguably the most hated hacker in history, from 12-year-old nuisance hacker to a Most Wanted cybercriminal culminating in his 2023 capture.

April 13, 1970. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert are hurtling towards the moon in the Apollo 13 spacecraft, when an explosion rocks the ship. The cockpit grows dim, the air grows thin, and the instrument lights wink out. Moments later, the astronauts are forced to abandon the...

The ultimate non-technical guide to the fast-developing world of quantum computing. Computer technology has improved exponentially over the last 50 years. But the headroom for bigger and better electronic solutions is running out. Our best hope is to engage the power of quantum physics. ‘Quantum algorithms' had already been written long before hardware was built.

Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. But in a world where our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity...doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance. So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). Odell sees our attention as the most precious - and overdrawn - resource we have. 

Alan Turing was the mathematician whose cipher-cracking transformed the Second World War. Taken on by British Intelligence in 1938, as a shy young Cambridge don, he combined brilliant logic with a flair for engineering. In 1940 his machines were breaking the Enigma-enciphered messages of Nazi Germany's air force. He then headed the penetration of the super-secure U-boat communications.

No longer an uncertain technology of the distant future, artificial intelligence is starting to shape every aspect of our daily lives, from how we think to who we love. In this urgent polemic, leading barrister Susie Alegre explores the ways in which artificial intelligence threatens our fundamental human rights—including the rights to life, liberty and fair trial; the right to private and family life; and the right to free expression—and how we protect those rights.

The Victorians invented the idea of the future. They saw it as an undiscovered country, one ripe for exploration and colonization. And to get us there, they created a new way of ordering and transforming nature, built on grand designs and the mass-mobilization of the resources of the British Empire.

Nikola Tesla was a bundle of contradictions - a consummate showman and a private recluse; a man of science addicted to self-promotion; a prolific inventor of technologies that made other people’s fortunes. Tesla made giant leaps in the technology of electrical supply, X-rays, radio remote control, and wireless electrical transmission. He embodied the aspirations and the contradictions of an age of innovation that seemed to have the future firmly in its grasp. Then as now, he attracted cranks and visionaries in equal number.

In a culture fraught with misinformation, Mastering AI pierces through the thicket of exaggerated claims, explaining how we arrived at this moment and mapping the likely long-term impacts on business, economics, culture and society this potent technology will have. This book will serve as a guide to those dangers — as well as highlighting the technology's transformative potential — and will pinpoint concrete steps that should be taken to regulate generative AI.

Digital influencing is one of the most exciting and disruptive new industries, forecast to be worth over £10bn by 2020, but those charged with making this an effective part of their digital strategy rarely understand how this emergent industry works. When it comes to online growth, digital influencers are now consistently outperforming traditional media and brand advertising, even if much of what they do remains a mystery to many people. Sara McCorquodale is the UK's leading authority on the influencer space, and this new book demystifies exactly how digital influence works. 

On a winter's day in a British town, 12-year-old Alex receives a package in the post: an old tin robot from his grandfather. 'This one is special,' says the enclosed note, but when strange events start occurring around him, Alex begins to suspect this small toy is more than special: it might be deadly. Just as things are getting out of hand, Alex's grandfather arrives, whisking him away from his otherwise humdrum life and into a world of strange, macabre magic.

When it was released to the public in 2022, ChatGPT awakened the world to a secretive project: teaching A.I.-powered machines to write and talk like human beings. Its creators had a sweeping ambition—to get machines to communicate for us. But if this came to pass, would it be liberation or subjugation?

The volumes of data we now access can give unparalleled abilities to make predictions, respond to customer demand and solve problems. But Big Brother’s shadow hovers over it. Though big data can set us free and enhance our lives, it has the potential to create an underclass and a totalitarian state. With big data ever-present, you can’t afford to ignore it. Acclaimed science writer Brian Clegg - a habitual early adopter of new technology (and the owner of the second-ever copy of Windows in the UK) - brings big data to life.

Artificial intelligence has long been a mainstay of science fiction, and increasingly it feels as if AI is entering our everyday lives, with technology like Apple’s Siri now prominent and self-driving cars almost upon us. But what do we actually mean when we talk about ‘AI’? What has it done for us so far? And what technologies could it yield in the future? AI expert Yorick Wilks takes a journey through the history of artificial intelligence up to the present day, examining its origins, controversies and achievements, as well as looking into just how it works. 

For decades we've delighted in dreaming about a sci-fi utopia, from flying cars and bionic humans to hoverboards; with driverless cars first proposed at the 1939 World's Fair. And why not? Building a better world, be it a free-flying commute or an automated urban lifestyle is a worthy dream. Given the pace of technological change, nothing seems impossible anymore. But why are these innovations always out of reach? Delving into the history of technology, this book also looks at what lies ahead, showing how the origins of our technology may provide insight into how it realistically evolves.

Spotting a face in a crowd is so easy, you take it for granted. But how you do it is one of science's great mysteries. And vision is involved with so much of everything your brain does. Explaining how it works reveals more than just how you see. In We Know It When We See It, Harvard neuroscientist Richard Masland tackles vital questions about how the brain processes information - how it perceives, learns and remembers - through a careful study of the inner life of the eye.

It's a tough time to be a woman on the internet. Over the past two generations, the political map of human relations has been redrawn by feminism and by changes in technology. In Cybersexism, Laurie Penny goes to the dark heart of the matter and asks why threats of violence are being used to try to silence female voices, analyses the structure of online misogyny, and makes a case for real freedom of speech - for everyone.