A must for math buffs.
A Royal Society research fellow takes the Riemann Hypothesis, reputedly the most difficult of all math problems, as the focus for his lively history of number theory.
Du Sautoy (Mathematics/Oxford) begins in 1900 with German mathematician David Hilbert's famous address to the International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, where Hilbert offered 23 unsolved problems as challenges to his colleagues. Among them was the Reimann Hypothesis, which concerns the distribution of prime numbers; it is the only one still unsolved. Greek mathematicians knew that the primes are infinite in number and distributed randomly in the set of natural numbers. Two centuries ago, Carl Friedrich Gauss offered a formula to estimate how many primes lie below any given number; in 1859, Gauss's student, Bernhard Riemann, refined that estimate, based on the incredibly complex Zeta function, but died without proving his hypothesis. With a minimum of equations and mathematical symbols, du Sautoy outlines the progress each succeeding generation has made on the problem. Along the way, readers meet G.H. Hardy and J.E. Littlewood, the twin beacons of the Cambridge math department between the world wars; Ramanujan, the self-taught Indian clerk who claimed that his ideas were given to him by his family goddess; and Atle Selberg, who survived the Nazi occupation of Norway to become a leading light at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies. Alan Turing, the father of modern computers, tried to devise a program to attack the Riemann Hypothesis; now the primes are the key to cryptography. A Boston businessman has offered a million-dollar reward for a proof, although few mathematicians seem to need additional incentive to tackle the Everest of mathematical problems. Du Sautoy keeps the story moving and gives a clear sense of the way number theory is played in his accessible text. (See Karl Sabbagh’s The Riemann Hypothesis, p. 369, which covers similar territory but spotlights current mathematicians searching for a Riemann proof.)
A must for math buffs.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-621070-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2003
A solid primer despite its opening rant.
A detailed how-to on lower-cost computer-system organization.
Hughes is a specialist in the Virtual Memory System computer platform, a big-budget server system used by corporations, and here he demonstrates how to lower the cost of service-oriented architecture (SOA) by creating it in-house. SOA is structured so that companies purchase the basic platform and buy additional accoutrements, called services, during the life cycle of the computer system. In the first five chapters, Hughes passionately argues that this a la carte model, though practical, has been used to the advantage of major computer companies like IBM, which make dollars hand over fist on unwitting businesses. According to his history, modern-day computer-system providers haven't had such a market advantage since the '70s, the last time SOA was in fashion. The author recommends the first, largely non-technical chapters be read by business management, but his overzealous soapbox speech isn't likely to convert people not already in agreement, especially considering that they may have made these so-called unwise investment decisions themselves. Meanwhile, SOA implementers probably don't care about the bigger picture or, if they do, are not in the position to make management decisions within their company. The first five chapters could have easily been edited down to a precise introduction. Nonetheless, the book is meant for programmers–those actually setting up the business SOA–and the meat of the book is C++ programming language code. Thankfully, Hughes includes a CD with all pertinent code and extensive instructions. With The Minimum You Need to Know, Hughes is attempting two books: One, a scathing indictment of big SOA providers, and another, a precise overview of do-it-yourself SOA. Only one is really effective.
A solid primer despite its opening rant.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9770866-6-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A ho-hum digest of 100 Bill of Rights cases decided by justices Brennan and Rehnquist along predictable ideological lines. ``This is not an insider's account,'' warns Irons (Political Science/Univ. of California, San Diego; The Courage of Their Convictions, 1988, etc.) in his preface. ``I did not interview either justice for this book. Neither have I talked with former clerks or looked at private papers.'' Bad move. Had Irons provided some behind-the-robes analysis, this book might have had drama. (Irons himself acknowledges Brennan's legendary ability to use his charm to win votes in controversial cases.) And had he focused on far fewer cases—say, ten—his analysis might have had some depth. Instead, this numbing case-by-case-by-case summary provides little insight into the jurisprudence of the men who, for 18 years, were the Court's leading voices on the left and right—and even less insight into their personalities. After a perfunctory stab at characterizing each justice in a chapter-long biography, Irons proceeds to march through the Bill of Rights, offering an overly dense historical context for each amendment and then quoting from Brennan's opinion, on the one hand, and Rehnquist's on the other. Most of the big constitutional issues of the post-Warren Court are here—abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty, the right to die, school prayer. But all Irons offers is the revelation that Brennan consistently votes for individual litigants against the government, and uses the word ``dignity'' in his opinions a lot, while Rehnquist sides with state legislatures and the police, and relies on the word ``deference.'' (Fans of Rehnquist will chafe at the frequent snide comments about his proclivities for ignoring precedent and distorting evidence—but it's unlikely that this tedious book will generate much heat on the subject.) Plodding he-said/he-said treatment that makes for strenuous cover-to-cover reading.
Pub Date: Oct. 5, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-42436-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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