How to Speak Tech

Author: Vinay Trivedi
Publisher: Apress
ISBN: 1484243242
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 183

Book Description
Things you’ve done online: ordered a pizza, checked the weather, booked a hotel, and reconnected with long-lost friends. Now it’s time to find out how these things work. Vinay Trivedi peels back the mystery of the Internet, explains it all in the simplest terms, and gives you the knowledge you need to speak confidently when the subject turns to technology. This revised second edition of How to Speak Tech employs the strategy of the popular first edition: through the narrative of setting up a fictitious startup, it introduces you to essential tech concepts. New tech topics that were added in this edition include the blockchain, augmented and virtual reality, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence. The author’s key message is: technology isn’t beyond the understanding of anyone! By breaking down major tech concepts involved with a modern startup into bite-sized chapters, the author’s approach helps you understand topics that aren’t always explained clearly and shows you that they aren’t rocket science. So go ahead, grab this book, start to “speak tech,” and hold your own in any tech-related conversation! What You'll Learn Understand the basics of new and established technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR), Internet of Things (IoT), software development, programming languages, databases, and moreListen intelligently and speak confidently when technologies are brought up in your businessBe confident in your grasp of terms and technologies when setting up your own organization's application Who This Book Is For Students who want to understand different technologies relevant to their future careers at startups and established organizations, as well as business and other non-technical professionals who encounter and require an understanding of key technical terms and trends to succeed in their roles Reviews “Finally, a book non-techies can use to understand the technologies that are changing our lives.” Paul Bottino, Executive Director, Technology and Entrepreneurship Center, Harvard University “A great book everyone can use to understand how tech startups work.” Rene Reinsberg, Founder at Celo; Former VP of Emerging Products, GoDaddy “Through the simplicity of his presentation, Vinay shows that the basics of technology can be straightforwardly understood by anyone who puts in the time and effort to learn.” Joseph Lassiter, Professor of Management Science, Harvard Business School and Harvard Innovation Lab

How to Speak Tech

Author: Vinay Trivedi
Publisher: Apress
ISBN: 1430266104
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 130

Book Description
"A great book everyone can use to understand how tech startups work." —Rene Reinsberg, GM/VP at GoDaddy, CEO and Co-founder at Locu "Finally a book non-techies can use to understand the web technologies that are changing our lives." —Paul Bottino, Executive Director, Technology and Entrepreneurship Center, Harvard University "Through the simplicity of his presentation, Vinay shows that the basics of technology can be straightforwardly understood by anyone who puts in the time and effort to learn." —Joseph Lassiter, Professor of Management Science, Harvard Business School and Harvard Innovation Lab In a way that anyone can understand, How to Speak Tech: The Non-Techie's Guide to Tech Basics in Business spells out the essential technical terms and technologies involved in setting up a company’s website or web application. Nontechnical business readers will find their digital literacy painlessly improved with each ten-minute chapter of this illustrative story of one successful technology startup building its Web-based business from scratch. Vinay Trivedi—a private equity analyst and startup entrepreneur who works at the intersection of business and tech—employs the startup story line as his frame for explaining in plain language the technology behind our daily user experiences, the successful strategies of social media giants, the bold aspirations of tiny startups, and the competitive adaptations of ordinary businesses of all sizes and sectors. Along the way, he demystifies all those tech buzzwords in our business culture whose precise meanings are so often elusive even to the people using them. Internet hardware, application software, and business process: the working premise of this book is that none of it is beyond the basic understanding of nontechnical business readers. Trivedi peels back the mystery, explains it all in simplest terms, and gives his readers the wherewithal to listen intelligently and speak intelligibly when the subject turns to technology in business. What you’ll learn Website hosts and programming languages for web apps on the backendPerformance and scalabilityAPIs, open-source programs, feeds, and database managementDesign and display on the front endWho this book is for Primary readership: nontechnical business people who want to firm up their understanding of the technology of the Internet and their fluency with technical terms in widespread use in the business world. Secondary readership: Digital immigrants in the general-interest mainstream who are looking for a short, accessible, and comprehensive treatment of Internet technology and business to inform their personal experience as consumers and generators of Internet content and value. Table of Contents Chapter 1. The Internet Chapter 2. Hosting and the Cloud Chapter 3. The Back End: Programming Languages Chapter 4. The Front End: Presentation Chapter 5. Databases: The Model Chapter 6. Leveraging Existing Code: APIs, Libraries, Web Services, and Open-Source Projects Chapter 7. Software Development: Working in Teams Chapter 8. Software Development: The Process Chapter 9. Software Development: Debugging and Testing Chapter 10. Promotion and Tracking: Attracting and Understanding Your Users Chapter 11. Performance and Scalability Chapter 12. Security Threats: To Defend and Protect

Even a Geek Can Speak

Author: Joey Asher
Publisher: Persuasive Speaker Press
ISBN: 0978577604
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 166

Book Description
Whether you're seeking investors for the latest start-up or simply looking for that competitive edge, this book will help you articulate and sell the complex ideas that dominate our technology-driven business environment.

How to Speak Machine

Author: John Maeda
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399564438
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Book Description
Visionary designer and technologist John Maeda defines the fundamental laws of how computers think, and why you should care even if you aren't a programmer. "Maeda is to design what Warren Buffett is to finance." --Wired John Maeda is one of the world's preeminent interdisciplinary thinkers on technology and design. In How to Speak Machine, he offers a set of simple laws that govern not only the computers of today, but the unimaginable machines of the future. Technology is already more powerful than we can comprehend, and getting more powerful at an exponential pace. Once set in motion, algorithms never tire. And when a program's size, speed, and tirelessness combine with its ability to learn and transform itself, the outcome can be unpredictable and dangerous. Take the seemingly instant transformation of Microsoft's chatbot Tay into a hate-spewing racist, or how crime-predicting algorithms reinforce racial bias. How to Speak Machine provides a coherent framework for today's product designers, business leaders, and policymakers to grasp this brave new world. Drawing on his wide-ranging experience from engineering to computer science to design, Maeda shows how businesses and individuals can identify opportunities afforded by technology to make world-changing and inclusive products--while avoiding the pitfalls inherent to the medium.

How Machines Came to Speak

Author: Jennifer Petersen
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 1478021829
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Book Description
In How Machines Came to Speak Jennifer Petersen constructs a genealogy of how legal conceptions of “speech” have transformed over the last century in response to new media technologies. Drawing on media and legal history, Petersen shows that the legal category of speech has varied considerably, evolving from a narrow category of oratory and print publication to a broad, abstract conception encompassing expressive nonverbal actions, algorithms, and data. She examines a series of pivotal US court cases in which new media technologies—such as phonographs, radio, film, and computer code—were integral to this shift. In judicial decisions ranging from the determination that silent films were not a form of speech to the expansion of speech rights to include algorithmic outputs, courts understood speech as mediated through technology. Speech thus became disarticulated from individual speakers. By outlining how legal definitions of speech are indelibly dependent on technology, Petersen demonstrates that future innovations such as artificial intelligence will continue to restructure speech law in ways that threaten to protect corporate and institutional forms of speech over the rights and interests of citizens.

So Good They Can't Ignore You

Author: Cal Newport
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 1455509108
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 163

Book Description
In an unorthodox approach, Georgetown University professor Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that "follow your passion" is good advice, and sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving their careers. Not only are pre-existing passions rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work, but a focus on passion over skill can be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping. Spending time with organic farmers, venture capitalists, screenwriters, freelance computer programmers, and others who admitted to deriving great satisfaction from their work, Newport uncovers the strategies they used and the pitfalls they avoided in developing their compelling careers. Cal reveals that matching your job to a pre-existing passion does not matter. Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it. With a title taken from the comedian Steve Martin, who once said his advice for aspiring entertainers was to "be so good they can't ignore you," Cal Newport's clearly written manifesto is mandatory reading for anyone fretting about what to do with their life, or frustrated by their current job situation and eager to find a fresh new way to take control of their livelihood. He provides an evidence-based blueprint for creating work you love, and will change the way you think about careers, happiness, and the crafting of a remarkable life.

How to Speak Whale

Author: Tom Mustill
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781538739129
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
What if animals and humans could speak to one another? Tom Mustill--the nature documentarian who went viral when a thirty‑ton humpback whale breached onto his kayak--asks this question in his thrilling investigation into whale science and animal communication. "When a whale is in the water, it is like an iceberg: you only see a fraction of it and have no conception of its size." On September 12, 2015, Tom Mustill was paddling in a two-person kayak with a friend just off the coast of California. It was cold, but idyllic--until a humpback whale breached, landing on top of them, releasing the energy equivalent of forty hand grenades. He was certain he was about to die, but they both survived, miraculously unscathed. In the interviews that followed the incident, Mustill was left with one question: What could this astonishing encounter teach us? Drawing from his experience as a naturalist and wildlife filmmaker, Mustill started investigating human-whale interactions around the world when he met two tech entrepreneurs who wanted to use artificial intelligence (AI)--originally designed to translate human languages--to discover patterns in the conversations of animals and decode them. As he embarked on a journey into animal eavesdropping technologies, where big data meets big beasts, Mustill discovered that there is a revolution taking place in biology, as the technologies developed to explore our own languages are turned to nature. From seventeenth-century Dutch inventors, to the whaling industry of the nineteenth century, to the cutting edge of Silicon Valley, How to Speak Whale examines how scientists and start-ups around the world are decoding animal communications. Whales, with their giant mammalian brains, virtuoso voices, and long, highly social lives, offer one of the most realistic opportunities for this to happen. But what would the consequences of such human animal interaction be? We're about to find out. Includes a Reading Group Guide.

As We Speak

Author: Peter Meyers
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439153086
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
A practical and empowering guide to public speaking and becoming a more effective, persuasive communicator in all areas of life. The world is full of brilliant people whose ideas are never heard. This book is designed to make sure that you’re not one of them. Even for the most self-confident among us, public speaking can be a nerve-racking ordeal. Whether you are speaking to a large audience, within a group, or in a oneon- one conversation, the way in which you communicate ideas, as much as the ideas themselves, can determine success or failure. In this invaluable guide from two of today’s most sought-after communication experts, you’ll learn to master three core principles that you can apply in a wide variety of situations: Content: Construct a clear and lucid architecture of ideas that will lead your listener through a memorable emotional experience. Delivery: Use your voice and body in ways that engage your audience and naturally support your message. State: Bring yourself into peak performance condition. The way you feel when you perform is the most frequently overlooked component of communication. Accessible, inspiring, and laden with useful tips, As We Speak will help you discover your authentic voice and learn to convey your ideas in the most powerful and unforgettable way possible.

Tech Panic

Author: Robby Soave
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982159618
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
From award-winning journalist and author of the “methodical, earnest, and insightful” (The Guardian) Panic Attack, an examination of recent kneejerk calls to regulate Big Tech from both sides of the aisle. Not so long ago, we embraced social media as a life-changing opportunity to connect with friends and family all across the globe. Today, the pendulum of public opinion is swinging in the opposite direction as Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and similar sites are being accused of corrupting our democracy, spreading disinformation, and fanning the flames of hatred. We once marveled at the revolutionary convenience of ordering items online and having them show up on our doorsteps overnight. Now we fret about Amazon outsourcing our jobs overseas or building robots to do them for us. With insightful analysis and in-depth research, Robby Soave offers “a refreshing dose of sanity and common sense about big tech” (David French, author of Divided We Fall) and explores some of the biggest issues animating both the right and the left: bias, censorship, disinformation, privacy, screen addiction, crime, and more. Far from polemical, Tech Panic is grounded in interviews with insiders at companies like Facebook and Twitter, as well as expert analysis by both tech boosters and skeptics—from Mark Zuckerberg to Josh Hawley. You will learn not just about the consequences of Big Tech, but also the consequences of altering the ecosystem that allowed tech to get big. Offering a fresh and crucial perspective on one of the biggest influences of the 21st century, Soave seeks to stand athwart history and yell, Wait, are we sure we really want to do this?

What Tech Calls Thinking

Author: Adrian Daub
Publisher: FSG Originals
ISBN: 0374721238
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Book Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "In Daub’s hands the founding concepts of Silicon Valley don’t make money; they fall apart." --The New York Times Book Review From FSGO x Logic: a Stanford professor's spirited dismantling of Silicon Valley's intellectual origins Adrian Daub’s What Tech Calls Thinking is a lively dismantling of the ideas that form the intellectual bedrock of Silicon Valley. Equally important to Silicon Valley’s world-altering innovation are the language and ideas it uses to explain and justify itself. And often, those fancy new ideas are simply old motifs playing dress-up in a hoodie. From the myth of dropping out to the war cry of “disruption,” Daub locates the Valley’s supposedly original, radical thinking in the ideas of Heidegger and Ayn Rand, the New Age Esalen Foundation in Big Sur, and American traditions from the tent revival to predestination. Written with verve and imagination, What Tech Calls Thinking is an intellectual refutation of Silicon Valley's ethos, pulling back the curtain on the self-aggrandizing myths the Valley tells about itself. FSG Originals × Logic dissects the way technology functions in everyday lives. The titans of Silicon Valley, for all their utopian imaginings, never really had our best interests at heart: recent threats to democracy, truth, privacy, and safety, as a result of tech’s reckless pursuit of progress, have shown as much. We present an alternate story, one that delights in capturing technology in all its contradictions and innovation, across borders and socioeconomic divisions, from history through the future, beyond platitudes and PR hype, and past doom and gloom. Our collaboration features four brief but provocative forays into the tech industry’s many worlds, and aspires to incite fresh conversations about technology focused on nuanced and accessible explorations of the emerging tools that reorganize and redefine life today.