Showing results by narrator "Shawn Compton" in All Categories

Michael Danvers’ life of self-imposed seclusion is interrupted when he receives a strange invitation: the unique opportunity to move into and beta-test a fully automated, state-of-the-art smart home.

A game is only a game if you can quit. This is something I learned the hard way. I just wanted to let off some steam in virtual reality and ended up getting murdered and imprisoned in the body of one of the undead - slow, clumsy, and cursed to die at the hand of other players over and over again. The only way out of this awful predicament was to find the legendary Scroll of Rebirth, but the helpless plague-ridden corpse would need to be turned into a real killing machine. If only people knew what it was like to level up a dead rogue....

The celebrated author of The Making of Second Life and Game Design Secrets Wagner, James Au, delivers an engrossing exploration of how nascent metaverse platforms have already captured the imagination of millions. Featuring powerful stories and dozens of incisive interviews with insiders including Metaverse creator Neal Stephenson himself, the author uses his unique, grassroots-level perspective as the first reporter embedded in a metaverse platform.

When war comes, the Earth is not ready. An immortals war arrives, the only warning a flash of light and energy 660 million kilometers away. A curiosity, passed off to NASA and tucked away in a note to be ignored. Only the flash of light is not the end, it is the beginning. Admiral Zachary Quinn is about to have a very bad day, and he is not alone. The war is here. Our response must be fast, it must be sure, and it must be victorious. Who wants to live forever?

This global history as the Chinese would write it gives brilliant and unconventional insights for understanding China's role in the world, especially the drive to "Make China Great Again." We in the West routinely ask: "What does China want?" The answer is quite simple: the superpower status it...

After months on the run for an assassination they call justice, David Shaw and Natalie Hale have built a new life in the shadows. But when a hit squad tracks them down in the Caribbean, it's clear their enemies aren't done with them yet. Someone with deep connections wants them dead—someone with the power to erase them for good. That someone is Connor Roark. A dirty CIA officer with everything to lose, Roark has spent years operating in the darkest corners of international crime. Now, with his illicit enterprise crumbling, he's tying up loose ends.

The deep-learning revolution has brought us driverless cars, the greatly improved Google Translate, fluent conversations with Siri and Alexa, and enormous profits from automated trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Deep-learning networks can play poker better than professional poker players and defeat a world champion at Go. In this book, Terry Sejnowski explains how deep learning went from being an arcane academic field to a disruptive technology in the information economy.

Trapped in Ga'ee space, Leviathan runs for its life. And the lives of its crew. Declan Payne and Harry Wesson decide to go on the offensive. They have no choice. They can't go home. It only delays the inevitable. The Ga'ee march relentlessly into the space of the seven races while turning an inward eye toward the interloper, the ship they call God1. They direct tens of thousands of Ga'ee carriers to destroy Leviathan. The silicon-based life forms have to be stopped. Declan Payne comes up with a plan, and no one is sold on it, but it's the only plan they have.

The year 1941: Andrew Troost, heir to generations of naval tradition, has just been made admiral, when reports fly in of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Troost's son, Warren, has followed in his footsteps and is one of the men fighting for his country on a PT boat in the Pacific. In New York City, Tony Trapasso hears the call to action and gets ready to join the naval action. With him is Jacob Miller, a young man choosing to become a naval pilot instead of following the rabbinical calling of his Jewish forebears.

From the dawn of history onward, commanding the most powerful ship around has been a dream of admirals, sultans, emperors, kings, generalissimos, and sea captains everywhere. For what the intimidation factor alone doesn't achieve, a massive barrage from super-weapons probably will.

Flanagan has firsthand knowledge of what it is like to be an addict. That experience informs this important and novel work. He pairs the sciences that study addiction with a sophisticated view of the consciousness-brain/body relation to make his core argument: that substance addictions comprise a heterogeneous set of "psychobiosocial" behavioral disorders. He explains that substance addictions do not have one set of causes, such as self-medication or social dislocation, and they do not have one neural profile, such as a dysfunction in dopamine system.

In the midst of dramatic changes in Western Christianity, internationally respected spiritual leader, peacemaker, and scholar John Philip Newell offers the hope of a fresh stirring of the Spirit among us. He invites us to be part of a new holy birth of sacred living.

Twenty-six-year-old Lieutenant Commander Jacob Miller is now on his second combat tour in the Western Pacific. He's survived the Battle of Midway and been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. But now the war is grinding away at him. And another bloody battle is always just around the corner.... Commander Warren Troost is determined to prove himself worthy of his family's outstanding naval legacy. He's already earned a Navy Cross for his bravery at Pearl Harbor, but now he has to do all he can just to stay alive....

Three fugitives on a mission in which death would be a happy ending. A client who is amazed at the sheer size of his own plan. A destination where few humans have ever set foot. A retiree who holds the salvation of the world in her hands. Möbius 3 is the culmination of the trilogy that began deep in an Icelandic volcano and in a Princeton University basement...or is it? When the past swiftly becomes the future, the future no longer offers a safe haven.

During an interrogation in Afghanistan, when asked how long the jihadists intended to fight, a Taliban commander uttered the words, "If it takes a thousand years." This chilling statement illustrates both how terrorists of this level operate and the generational approach they take when it comes to bringing destruction to the world.

After a deadly ambush leaves Marine Raider Captain David Shaw gravely wounded, he returns to the US to face an unwanted medical retirement. But when he's invited to observe his team's next mission in Yemen, he watches in horror as their helicopters are shot down—wiping out the men he swore to protect. Shattered but determined, Shaw refuses to stand down. With nothing left to lose, he orchestrates one last mission to hunt down the terrorist leader responsible. As he tears through enemy ranks, a chilling truth emerges—these militants are using American-made weapons.

In virtual reality, nothing is for real. Fake orcs pretend to fight phony elves. Priests go through the motions of casting blessings. Wizards defeat their enemies with digital illusions of combat spells.

In this book, you'll learn how: data science, driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning, is yielding unprecedented business insights; blockchain has the potential to restructure the economy; drones and driverless vehicles are becoming essential tools; 3-D printing is making new business models possible; augmented reality is transforming retail and manufacturing; smart speakers are redefining the rules of marketing; and humans and machines are working together to reach new levels of productivity.

Dying in virtual reality isn't fun, but facing bullets from real-world criminal overlords is really the pits. In such a desperate scenario, their demand to render them a service in VR doesn't sound like such a bad alternative. The problem is, the games played by spook agencies follow much harsher rules. For them, the absence of choice doesn't sound like a good excuse - not if you end up in the grindstones of their undercover schemes.

For over 100 cycles, the Marshals of Rhea have defended their strongholds against the wastelands’ many dangers, from vicious raiders to mechanical beasts. Anticipation is high as they gather for a major hunting expedition. So when disaster strikes and House Omega is left leaderless, it falls to no-nonsense Head Cook Xanthe to investigate. She’s not alone, however, and is aided by an unlikely group of individuals - including a haughty young noblewoman, a world-weary Armorer, a fastidious bodyguard, and a whimsical assassin.