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The innovation delusion : how our obsession wieth the new has disrupted the work that matters most / by Vinsel, Lee,1979-author.; Russell, Andrew L.,1975-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."For forty years, innovation has been the hottest buzzword in business. But what if the benefits of innovation have been exaggerated, and our obsession with the new has distracted us from the work that matters most? It's hard to avoid innovation these days. Nearly every product gets marketed as being disruptive, whether it's a new technology or a new toothbrush. But in this manifesto on the state of American work, historians of technology Lee Vinsel and Andrew Russell argue that our focus on shiny new things has made us poorer, less safe, and--ironically--less innovative. Drawing on years of original research and reporting, Russell and Vinsel show how our fixation on innovation has harmed every corner of the economy. Corporations have spent millions hiring chief innovation officers while their core businesses tanked. Computer science programs have focused on programming and development even though the overwhelming majority of jobs are in IT and maintenance. Suburban sprawl has saddled cities with expensive infrastructure and piles of deferred maintenance that they can't afford to fix. And sometimes, innovation even kills--like in 2018, when a Miami bridge hailed for its innovative design collapsed onto a highway and killed six people. Vinsel and Russell tell the at-times humorous, at-times alarming story of how we devalued the work that keeps our world going--and in so doing, wrecked our economy, left our public infrastructure derelict, and lined the pockets of consultants who combine the ego of Silicon Valley with the worst of Wall Street's greed. They offer a compelling plan for how we can shift our focus in resources away from the pursuit of growth at all costs, and back toward the people and technologies underpinning so much of modern life. For anyone concerned by the crumbling state of our roads, bridges, and airports, and the direction our economy is headed, The Innovation Delusion is a deeply necessary re-evaluation of a trend we can still disrupt"--
Subjects: New products.; Social responsibility of business.; Sustainable development.; Technological innovations; Technological innovations;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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@WAR : the rise of the military-Internet complex / by Harris, Shane.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Prologue -- The first cyber war -- RTRG-- Building the cyber army -- The internet is a battlefield -- The enemy among us -- The mercenaries -- Cops become spies -- "Another Manhattan Project" -- Buckshot Yankee -- The secret sauce -- The corporate counterstrike -- Spring awakening -- The business of defense -- At the dawn.
Subjects: United States. National Security Agency.; United States. Strategic Command (2002- ). Cyber Command.; Computer crimes; Cyberspace; Cyberterrorism; Information warfare;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Honeybees / by Leaf, Christina,author.; Morgan, Tiffany,narrator.;
Honeybees are in the honeymaking business. These insects turn nectar collected from plants into honey and then store it in honeycombs. In this book, young kids will jobshadow honeybees working hard in their hives. Readers will see how busy bees make productivity look fascinating.Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: Children's audiobooks.; Bee culture; Bees; Honeybee; VOX books.;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The age of surveillance capitalism : the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power / by Zuboff, Shoshana,1951-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Shoshana Zuboff, named "the true prophet of the information age" by the Financial Times, has always been ahead of her time. Her seminal book In the Age of the Smart Machine foresaw the consequences of a then-unfolding era of computer technology. Now, three decades later she asks why the once-celebrated miracle of digital is turning into a nightmare. Zuboff tackles the social, political, business, personal, and technological meaning of "surveillance capitalism" as an unprecedented new market form. It is not simply about tracking us and selling ads, it is the business model for an ominous new marketplace that aims at nothing less than predicting and modifying our everyday behavior--where we go, what we do, what we say, how we feel, who we're with. The consequences of surveillance capitalism for us as individuals and as a society vividly come to life in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism's pathbreaking analysis of power. The threat has shifted from a totalitarian "big brother" state to a universal global architecture of automatic sensors and smart capabilities: A "big other" that imposes a fundamentally new form of power and unprecedented concentrations of knowledge in private companies--free from democratic oversight and control"--
Subjects: Consumer behavior; Consumer profiling; Information technology;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Blockchain revolution : how the technology behind Bitcoin is changing money, business, and the world / by Tapscott, Don,author.; Tapscott, Alex,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The first book to explain why blockchain technology will fundamentally change the Internet, what it does, and how we use it. Over the past 30 years, no theorist of the digital age has better explained the next big thing than Don Tapscott. For example, in Wikinomics, Tapscott was the first to show how the Internet provides the first global platform for mass collaboration. Now, he writes about a profound technological shift that will change how the world does business--and everything else--using blockchain technology, which powers the digital currency Bitcoin. The Internet as we know it is great for collaboration and communication, but is deeply flawed when it comes to commerce and privacy. The new blockchain technology facilitates peer-to-peer transactions without any intermediary such as a bank or governing body. Keeping the user's information anonymous, the blockchain validates and keeps a permanent public record of all transactions. That means that your personal information is private and secure, while all activity is transparent and incorruptible--reconciled by mass collaboration and stored in code on a digital ledger. With its advent, we will not need to trust each other in the traditional sense, because trust is built into the system itself. Although many opportunities for the blockchain require a digital currency, Bitcoin is only one application of this great innovation in computer science. The blockchain can hold any legal document, from deeds and marriage licences to educational degrees and birth certificates. Call it the World Wide Ledger. It enables smart contracts, decentralized autonomous organizations, decentralized government services, and transactions among things. The Internet of Everything needs a Ledger of Everything: the blockchain is a truly open, distributed, global platform that fundamentally changes what we can do online, how we do it, and who can participate. Tapscott, writing with his son Alex, a financial analyst and technologist, argues that the blockchain will shape the next era of prosperity--in finance, business, healthcare, education, governance, and beyond."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Data encryption (Computer science); Electronic commerce.; Electronic funds transfers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Canadians who innovate : the trailblazers and ideas that are changing the world / by O'Reilly Runte, Roseann,author.;
"From saving lives to saving harvests, From discovering ancient diamonds to identifying the first exo-planet, From driverless cars to quantum computers, From Nobel laureates to your next-door neighbor, This book offers uplifting stories of innovative Canadians. Canadians Who Innovate includes two Nobel laureates, an astronaut, extraordinary business leaders, the godfathers of artificial intelligence, and top quantum experts, including the inventor of what may be the next quantum computer. It features profiles of the first director of engineering at Google, who is now working on nuclear fusion; a medical researcher who communicates on TikTok about the efficacy and potential for RNA vaccine technology; and a PhD in nuclear physics who has twice won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Meet the linguist who works with Indigenous people to make online dictionaries, an internationally consulted specialist on migration, an agri-tech investor, a world specialist on permafrost, and the expert in systems and number theory who has a way to fix health care. And don't forget the engineer who grew human cells on apples, a feat that is leading to the creation of replacement organs that do not require donor -- not to be confused with the aerospace technology developer who created a tethering system to clean up space debris and a 3-D printer that prints biological tissue. Featuring brilliant thinkers from coast to coast to coast, and others from around the world who now call Canada home, Canadians Who Innovate paints a promising picture of a cleaner, healthier, more innovative future for us all."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Inventions; Inventors; Technological innovations;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The book of Inkscape : the definitive guide to the graphics editor / by Kirsanov, Dmitry,author.;
Subjects: Inkscape (Electronic resource); Computer graphics.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A date with murder : a novel / by Fletcher, Jessica.; Bain, Donald,1935-2017.; Land, Jon.;
"Jessica Fletcher investigates a friend's murder and a dangerous dating service in the latest entry in this USA Today bestselling series... Jessica Fletcher takes up the cause of her good friend Barbara "Babs" Wirth after Babs' husband Hal suffers a fatal heart attack that Jessica has reason to believe was actually murder. At the heart of her suspicions lies a sinister dating site Hal had used while he and Babs were having marital issues, a site that may be complicit in somehow swindling him out of millions. Jessica's investigation reveals that Hal was far from the only victim and when his former business partner is also killed, a deadly pattern emerges. Jessica teams up with a brilliant young computer hacker to follow the trail but as she gets closer to the truth, two near misses force her to realize that she may very well be the next victim. The stakes have never been this high as Jessica finds herself being stalked by the killer she is trying to catch. She must now set the perfect trap to avoid her very own date with murder."--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Fletcher, Jessica; Women novelists; Women detectives;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The new megatrends : seeing clearly in the age of disruption / by Salzman, Marian L.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A pioneering forecaster predicts the trends and technologies that will shape global culture and commerce in the next two decades-a must-read guide for business leaders, entrepreneurs, and anyone looking for an edge. A little more than twenty years ago, the Y2K computer glitch threatened to bring the global economy to its knees. But instead of overnight disruption, humankind slipped into two decades of economic turmoil, ecological angst, and tribalism, all set against the backdrop of a newly global and digital civilization. So what's in store for the next two decades? In this acutely observed guide, Marian Salzman, whose past predictions have been heralded for coming uncannily close to the way we live now, unpacks the course of human life from the bumpy turn of the millennium through the pandemic era, when chaos and "together apart" seems to have become the new normal, equity has become a battle cry, and breathing space emerged as the greatest luxury of all. Drawing inspiration from John Naisbitt's classic 1982 book Megatrends, Salzman then turns to the two decades ahead. Navigating deftly among geographies, Salzman connects threads across business, civic life, consumerism, family, and entertainment, revealing the trends and developments-some established, some surprising-poised to shift our identities, shape our collective future, and recast our past. In a world dominated by disruption, being prepared for change is a critical advantage. The New Megatrends is gripping reading for anyone seeking to understand the shape and texture of the next era, which, above all, will be marked by its relentless pace, new technology, and the ever-present threats of climate change and political division"--
Subjects: Business forecasting.; Technological innovations; Twenty-first century;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The International House of Dereliction / by Davies, Jacqueline,1962-author.; Toren, Suzanne,narrator.; Container of (expression):Davies, Jacqueline,1962-International House of Dereliction.Spoken word (Toren);
Read by Suzanne Toren."Home is where the heart is. But can a house have a beating heart of its own? Ten-year-old Alice is moving for the eleventh time. She's lived in so many houses, each more broken than the last, that home to Alice is nothing more than a place you fix and then a place you leave. After all, who needs a permanent home when you're a whiz at fixing things? But when Alice arrives at her new home, she can't take her eyes off the house next door, the stately dark house that hulked in the dimming light. The once-grand mansion, now dilapidated and condemned, beckons Alice; it's the perfect new repair job! As Alice begins to restore the House to its former splendor, she senses strange presences. Is there a heartbeat coming from the House's walls? Is someone looking at her? Soon she realizes she's not alone. Three ghosts have been watching, and they need Alice's help to solve their unfinished business. Will Alice be able to unravel the mysteries of the House and find her forever home . . . before it's too late?"
Subjects: Novels.; Children's audiobooks.; Ghosts; Dwellings; Haunted houses; Ghosts; Dwellings; VOX books.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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