BOOK REVIEWS
format which is very logical and easy to
doi:10.1093/itnow/bww028 ©2016 The British Computer Society
• Video game graphics;
Lean Six Sigma and Minitab
by Quentin Brook
Publisher: Opex Resources
ISBN: 978-0954681388
Score: 10/10
For those wanting to pursue the discipline
of Lean Six Sigma, this 4th edition toolbox
guide for business improvement is an
invaluable set of tools and processes to
help develop a deep understanding of the
Lean Six Sigma methodologies.
This toolbox guide is aimed at those
wanting to learn Lean Six Sigma
including trainees and senior managers,
improvement practitioners and project
sponsors to name a few.
Whilst Six Sigma and the efficiencies
have been traditionally linked to minimising
defects within manufacturing industries,
the tools can be applied to a wide variety of
disciplines and sectors.
Naturally the guide is structured around
the five phases (DMAIC) with sub-steps
for each phase. The guide also contains
Minitab screenshots and instructions for
each tool, data files and templates that are
available online and process flows through
each DMAIC phase. It also contains an
informative appendices section including a
very useful quick guide to P-Values and a
section for acronyms and a glossary
of terms.
The major advantage of this toolbox
guide is in the portable, reference-style
64 ITNOW March 2016
use. The author has clearly thought about
this in detail and it shows in his work.
All the required learning and a host
of useful information is contained in this
guide and this makes it a ‘must-have’
resource for learning Lean Six Sigma.
The checklist at the end of each section
identifies anything that may have
been missed.
I would definitely recommend
purchasing this guide in pursuing
certification and post certification to put
into practice what has been learned.
Raj Sharma MBCS
How Software Works: The magic behind
encryption, CGI, search engines and other
everyday technologies
by V. Anton Spraul
Publisher: No Starch Press
ISBN: 978-1593276669
Score: 8/10
This book covers ‘the most commonly
used processes in software’ and is aimed
at the ‘casual fan of technology, a
programmer in the making, or someone in
between...’
Within a 200 page book, it would not
have been possible to cover every possible
application, so the contents include the
following:
• Passwords;
• Web security;
• CGI;
• Data compression;
• Search;
• Concurrency;
• Map routes.
Downloaded from http://itnow.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of Michigan on June 7, 2016
These topics were selected by the author
as being ‘those that are most central to
our daily lives’.
Each topic is broken down into the
basic principles, followed by a much more
detailed technical overview.
A typical approach is the chapter on
data compression. This starts off with a
bit of history, then follows a description of
general compression techniques (Huffman
encoding, for example), and then in some
detail, how .jpeg and high definition video
files are compressed.
Quite how the author consistently
manages to avoid references to any
programming languages, or even a single
line of code, is a remarkable achievement
in itself.
If you want to learn more about things
like temporal compression, rendering
techniques, RSA encryption, 3D CGI and
a whole lot more, and are relatively
comfortable with some maths, then this
book is for you.
For such a well-structured, well-written
book there were a surprising lack of
sources, references and further reading,
however there is a good index.
A highly enjoyable read into the inner
workings behind these applications we
take for granted, and a good all round
publication.
Mike Rees MBCS CITP
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