The power of collaboration, from Lennon and McCartney to Wozniak and Jobs: “An inspiring book that also happens to be a great read” (Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive). Throughout history, partners have buoyed each other to better work—though often one member is little known to the general public. (See Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, or Vincent and Theo van Gogh.) Powers of Two draws on neuroscience, social psychology, and cultural history to present the social foundations of creativity, with the pair as its primary embodiment. Revealing the six essential stages through which creative intimacy unfolds, this book shows how pairs begin to talk, think, and even look like each other; how the most successful ones thrive on conflict; and why some cease to work together while others carry on. At once intuitive and deeply surprising, Powers of Two will reshape the way you view individuals, relationships, and society itself. “A rare glimpse into the private realms of duos . . . A natural storyteller.” —The New York Times “A book about magic, about the Beatles, about the chemistry between people, about neuroscience, and about the buddy system; it examines love and hate, harmony and dissonance, and everything in between . . . Wise, funny, surprising, and completely engrossing.” —Susan Orlean “We sometimes think of creativity as coming from brilliant loners. In fact, it more often happens when bright people pair up and complement each other. Shenk’s fascinating book shows how to spark the power of this phenomenon.” —Walter Isaacson “Surprising, compelling . . . Shenk banishes the idea of solitary genius by demonstrating that our richest art and science come from collaboration: we need one another not only for love, but also for thinking and imagining and growing and being.” —Andrew Solomon

Is everything Information? This is a tantalizing question which emerges in modern physics, life sciences, astronomy and in today’s information and technology-driven society. In Powers of Two expert authors undertake a unique expedition - in words and images - throughout the world (and scales) of information. The story resembles, in a way, the classic Powers of Ten journeys through space: from us to the macro and the micro worlds . However, by following Powers of Two through the world of information, a completely different and timely paradigm unfolds. Every power of two, 1, 2, 4, 8.... tells us a different story: starting from the creation of the very first bit at the Big Bang and the evolution of life, through 50 years of computational science, and finally into deep space, describing the information in black holes and even in the entire universe and beyond.... All this to address one question: Is our universe made of information? In this book, we experience the Information Universe in nature and in our society and how information lies at the very foundation of our understanding of the Universe. From the Foreword by Robbert Dijkgraaf: This book is in many ways a vastly extended version of Shannon’s one-page blueprint. It carries us all the way to the total information content of the Universe. And it bears testimony of how widespread the use of data has become in all aspects of life. Information is the connective tissue of the modern sciences. [...] Undoubtedly, future generations will look back at this time, so much enthralled by Big Data and quantum computers, as beholden to the information metaphor. But that is exactly the value of this book. With its crisp descriptions and evocative illustrations, it brings the reader into the here and now, at the very frontier of scientific research, including the excitement and promise of all the outstanding questions and future discoveries. Message for the e-reader of the book Powers of Two The book has been designed to be read in two-page spreads in full screen mode. For optimal reader experience in a downloaded .pdf file we strongly recommend you use the following settings in Adobe Acrobat Reader: - Taskbar: View > Page Display > two page view - Taskbar: View > Page Display > Show Cover Page in Two Page View - Taskbar: ^ Preferences > Full Screen > deselect " Fill screen with one page at a time" - Taskbar: View > Full screen mode or ctrl L (cmd L on a Mac) ***** Note: for reading the previews on Spinger link (and on-line reading in a browser), the full screen two-page view only works with these browsers: Firefox - Taskbar: on top of the text, at the uppermost right you will see then ” (which is a drop-down menu) ” even double pages - Fullscreen: F11 or Control+Cmd+F with Mac Edge - Taskbar middle: Two-page view and select show cover page separately

In this study of the rabbinic heretics who believed in Two Powers in Heaven, Alan Segal explores some relationships between rabbinic Judaism, Merkabah mysticism, and early Christianity. Two Powers in Heaven was a very early category of heresy. It was one of the basic categories by which the rabbis perceived the new phenomenon of Christianity and one of the central issues over which Judaism and Christianity separated. Segal reconstructs the development of the heresy through prudent dating of the stages of the rabbinic traditions. The basic heresy involved interpreting scripture to say that a principal angelic or hypostatic manifestation in heaven was equivalent to God. The earliest heretics believed in two complementary powers in heaven, while later heretics believed in two opposing powers in heaven. Segal stresses the importance of perceiving the relevance of rabbinic material for solving traditional problems of New Testament and gnostic scholarship, and at the same time maintains the necessity of reading those literatures for dating rabbinic material. Please note that Two Powers in Heaven was previously published by Brill in hardback, ISBN 90 04 05453 7 (no longer available).

The #1 introduction to J2SE 1.5 and enterprise/server-side development! An international bestseller for eight years, Just Java™ 2 is the complete, accessible Java tutorial for working programmers at all levels. Fully updated and revised, this sixth edition is more than an engaging overview of Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE 1.5) and its libraries: it’s also a practical introduction to today’s best enterprise and server-side programming techniques. Just Java™ 2, Sixth Edition, reflects both J2SE 1.5 and the latest Tomcat and servlet specifications. Extensive new coverage includes: New chapters on generics and enumerated types New coverage of Web services, with practical examples using Google and Amazon Web services Simplified interactive I/O with printf() Autoboxing and unboxing of primitive types Static imports, foreach loop construct, and other new language features Peter van der Linden delivers expert advice, clear explanations, and crisp sample programs throughout–including dozens new to this edition. Along the way, he introduces: The core language: syntax, objects, interfaces, nested classes, compiler secrets, and much more Key libraries: date and calendar, pattern matching, network software, mapped I/O, utilities and generic collections Server-side technology: network server systems, a complete tiny HTML Web server, and XML in Java Enterprise J2EE: Sql and JDBC™ tutorial, servlets and JSP and much more Client-side Java: fundamentals of JFC/Swing GUI development, new class data sharing details Companion Web Site All the book’s examples and sample programs are available at http://afu.com.

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human Nature. In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum. Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.

Compiles programming hacks intended to help computer programmers build more efficient software, in an updated edition that covers cyclic redundancy checking and new algorithms and that includes exercises with answers.