My Review of Super Scratch Programming Adventure!

I enjoy programming and have to say sometimes, the "easier" programming languages meant for helping children learn programming are actually less intuitive for me. An example was MINDSTORMS. You can get the hang of it quite well after a while but it just was harder for me to wrap my mind around after having programmed some in C and MATLAB. Scratch programming was much better for me and I decided to check this out as I would like to teach my kids in a couple of years when they are old enough to program (they have to learn to read first!).

So, I went through this and thought it was a nice way to learn programming. I did a review of the Manga Guide to Linear Algebra and found that having a story to follow along with really helps keep things fun and is motivating for one to continue on. A typical textbook will generally put one to asleep or discourage one from continuing on so for kids, I think this is definitely a great way to learn.
The language is easy enough to learn and the programs you learn to write are great for learning the basics. There are enough examples to give you some ideas but with any programming, you'll want to do things over and over with some slight variations so you really understand what's going on.
Overall the book is nice for someone to learn with. I would recommend it.

Disclaimer: This book was received as part of the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program. All comments represent my thoughts and opinions.

My Review of Practical Computer Vision with SimpleCV

I have always been interested in doing a little image processing for robotics and just messing around with a Kinect and a few other things. I didn't quite know where to start but this really gives you a good foundation to new world of computer vision.

We begin with a really basic introduction to what computer vision is and then move on to the SimpleCV framework. A lot of other basics are covered, which is very nice, and then you move on to more important subjects such as feature detection by finding blobs. It finished with a few, more advanced concepts, which I'm still wrapping my head around.
It doesn't go into a lot of deep topics but it's good for jumping in to computer vision and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in this field as a way to get started easily.

Disclaimer: This book was received as part of the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program. All comments represent my thoughts and opinions.

My Review of Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 31

I have been a fan of this magazine and this one is also quite good. There are good things about Arduino's, which I really like to use, and other interesting projects. The cover has information about multi-rotors and that is what really interested me as I do this myself in my own time. However, I was disappointed in how some of the information was presented and some of the information was incomplete.

First, these multi-rotors should NOT be used to spy on people and that's one of the first things you read in the title of the article. Then at the end, there's talk about wireless transmission. While it's true that you'll need a HAM license for systems 1W or higher, that's only true if it's an FCC certified system. For all the systems out there used for FPV, almost NONE of them are within the license free class so you MUST have a HAM radio license to use the transmitter legally. Many don't and that doesn't mean it's okay to do. End rant about bad FPV information.
Aside from that section, I really enjoyed this issue of the magazine. It's always nice to have something that teaches people how to make things and do things on their own. You learn a lot more that way.

Disclaimer: This magazine was received as part of the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program. All comments represent my thoughts and opinions.

My Review of Programming Computer Vision with Python

For those familiar with Python, this is a good way of getting to know how to do computer vision. If you don't know Python, learn that first. There are plenty of good books for that.

The examples in here are well done and I felt they did a pretty good job of helping you through the book. It does take some time to go through but it's a good way to learn how computer vision works.

Disclaimer: This book was received as part of the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program. All comments represent my thoughts and opinions.