The MagPi - July 2018

raspberrypi.org/magpi July 2018 85

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BOOKS Review

The Code Book

An eminently readable and

understandable guide to codes and

code-breaking, from ancient ciphers

to PGP and quantum cryptography.

Author: Simon Singh

Publisher: Fourth Estate

Price: £10.99

ISBN: 978-1857028898

magpi.cc/jtCAbf

The Hardware Startup

Practical guide to knowing your

market, funding, developing your

product, and manufacturing: is your

project a viable business?

Authors: Brady Forrest, Renee DiResta

& Ryan Vinyard

Publisher: O’Reilly

Price: £27.99

ISBN: 978-1449371036

magpi.cc/IZzQNQ

Lauren Ipsum

Great to see the kids reading anything,

but this (and The CS Detective, also

from No Starch) will entertain and

educate simultaneously.

Author: Carlos Bueno

Publisher: No Starch

Price: £13.50

ISBN: 978-1593275747

magpi.cc/Eowlip

Clean Architecture

Insightful collection of software

architecture advice from Uncle Bob –

principles and techniques which will

help any project.

Author: Robert C. Martin

Publisher: Prentice Hall

Price: £27.99

ISBN: 978-0134494166

magpi.cc/ShtTnu

If Hemingway Wrote JavaScript

A coding book you could read on the

beach – humour and style insights

with code by everyone from Calvino to

Chaucer [allegedly!].

Author: Angus Croll

Publisher: No Starch

Price: £15.99

ISBN: 978-1593275853

magpi.cc/xNKMLo

ESSENTIAL READING:

SUMMER READING

ESSENTIALS

Summer means downtime – perhaps a

beach holiday – and time to read and think.

François Chollet is
the originator of
the Keras deep learning library, and
wrote this book to address the need
for a course to “simultaneously
cover fundamentals of deep
learning, Keras usage patterns,
and deep learning best practices.”
This user-friendly, open-source,
high-level neural networks API was
developed “with a focus on enabling
fast experimentation,” enabling
quick learning and testing of ideas.
The Keras project has excellent
documentation, but Chollet’s book
provides a great introduction to
machine learning, neural networks,
and best practices for deep learning.

Author: François Chollet
Publisher: Manning
Price: £39.99
ISBN: 978-1617294433
magpi.cc/cvqSKy

Example-led explanations are clear,

and the total beginner to the field

is quickly learning quite advanced

topics without fear – with

examples to take to real-

world problems. Appendices

cover not just installation,

but running examples in

Jupyter notebooks with

cloud-backed GPUs.

It’s less maths-heavy than

many deep learning books,

but for most that will be a

selling point. Certainly, Chollet’s

explanations and examples will

give you most of the knowledge you

need, with a lot less mental strain,

and readers prepared to tackle

some of the more mathematical

books may benefit first from some

practical experience found here.

Broadly recommended for anyone

looking to dive into the exciting field

of machine learning.

DEEP LEARNING

WITH PYTHON

For beginners fascinated by the
possibilities of fun, simple projects
on the Raspberry Pi – or educators
without an electronics background,
looking to learn and get teaching
examples – this colourful and
well-laid-out introduction could
be ideal. The 20 practical project
tutorials include details of cost,
time needed, parts list, basics
electronic knowledge (practical,
not theoretical), and what you can
do to take it further.
Projects start with LED basics,
then add mini screens (Pong,
weather forecaster), sensors,

Authors: Rui Santos
& Sara Santos
Publisher: No Starch
Price: £21.99
ISBN: 978-1593278434
magpi.cc/MEAAvk

camera (burglar detector with photo

capture), web apps, and toys and

games. One of the highlights in

the latter section is the

Digital Drum Set. The

photography is extremely

clear, helping beginners to

follow the circuits easily.

Along the way, Python

code is given, and

explained line-by-line

where appropriate. There’s

enough Python intro text

to explain what you’re doing, but

it’s not a full coding intro – just

the right amount of information to

aid those who want to get on with

making things, and learn as they

go. There’s also a Scratch game,

controlled by two push-buttons.

It’s interesting to see Scratch

introduced towards the end of

a book, and liberating to not be

bound by the idea that graphical

comes before text-based.

20 EASY

RASPBERRY PI

PROJECTS

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