Toby is last in class but first on the playground! Toby may be the class clown, but he's smart enough to know what's what. Whether he's late for school, early for recess, or just in time to fail the next quiz, he's always got something to say about it. But even though his friends think he's funny, the adults in his life aren't laughing--mostly because they're not in on the jokes. No matter! Toby makes the best of it as he coasts through the day on his wit and good humor!

Toby is last in class but first on the playground! Toby may be the class clown, but he's smart enough to know what's what. Whether he's late for school, early for recess, or just in time to fail the next quiz, he's always got something to say about it. But even though his friends think he's funny, the adults in his life aren't laughing--mostly because they're not in on the jokes. No matter! Toby makes the best of it as he coasts through the day on his wit and good humor!

Toby may be the class clown, but he's smart enough to know what's what. Whether he's late for school, early for recess, or just in time to fail the next quiz, he's always got something to say about it. But even though his friends think he's funny, th

Want to tap the power behind search rankings, product recommendations, social bookmarking, and online matchmaking? This fascinating book demonstrates how you can build Web 2.0 applications to mine the enormous amount of data created by people on the Internet. With the sophisticated algorithms in this book, you can write smart programs to access interesting datasets from other web sites, collect data from users of your own applications, and analyze and understand the data once you've found it. Programming Collective Intelligence takes you into the world of machine learning and statistics, and explains how to draw conclusions about user experience, marketing, personal tastes, and human behavior in general -- all from information that you and others collect every day. Each algorithm is described clearly and concisely with code that can immediately be used on your web site, blog, Wiki, or specialized application. This book explains: Collaborative filtering techniques that enable online retailers to recommend products or media Methods of clustering to detect groups of similar items in a large dataset Search engine features -- crawlers, indexers, query engines, and the PageRank algorithm Optimization algorithms that search millions of possible solutions to a problem and choose the best one Bayesian filtering, used in spam filters for classifying documents based on word types and other features Using decision trees not only to make predictions, but to model the way decisions are made Predicting numerical values rather than classifications to build price models Support vector machines to match people in online dating sites Non-negative matrix factorization to find the independent features in a dataset Evolving intelligence for problem solving -- how a computer develops its skill by improving its own code the more it plays a game Each chapter includes exercises for extending the algorithms to make them more powerful. Go beyond simple database-backed applications and put the wealth of Internet data to work for you. "Bravo! I cannot think of a better way for a developer to first learn these algorithms and methods, nor can I think of a better way for me (an old AI dog) to reinvigorate my knowledge of the details." -- Dan Russell, Google "Toby's book does a great job of breaking down the complex subject matter of machine-learning algorithms into practical, easy-to-understand examples that can be directly applied to analysis of social interaction across the Web today. If I had this book two years ago, it would have saved precious time going down some fruitless paths." -- Tim Wolters, CTO, Collective Intellect

Steve is no ordinary Hermit Crab. He has a big dream... to be an astronaut and fly in space! His friends and family think he is crazy. They don't send crabs into space. Will Steve have "the right stuff" to be sent on a daring mission to Mars? Can he work hard to beat mischievous mice and mad monkeys to ride a rocket to the red planet? Only time and training will tell in this hilarious story of a crazy crab who wants to reach for the stars.

There is a world beyond the world It figures. Just when Bradfordian bookshop clerk, Toby Dexter, finally works up the nerve to talk to his secret crush, she darts into an open door. Toby follows, and in that second, everything changes. Though it still looks like Bradford-on-Avon, the town’s suddenly chatty ATM and river mermaids are the first clues that something is quite out of place—namely, Toby. The moment he stepped through that door, Toby entered the magical parallel world of Mysterie. Our ordinary dimension—the one Toby knew as Bradford-on-Avon—is actually Veritie, a mere shadow of its alter ego, Mysterie, where magic and myth, gods and monsters, living legends and walking nightmares reign. And Toby isn’t the only recent arrival. A cunning and vicious demon—The Serpent’s Son—has returned to Mysterie, accompanied by a malevolent new ally, intent on bringing down both dimensions. Toby can remain mortal, return to Veritie, and try to convince himself that he had a bad pint of bitter that night. Or he can stay in Mysterie, join forces with his new friends Leo Morn and his Brother Under The Hill, and try to stop The Serpent’s Son. The choices Toby makes will have dramatic consequences for both worlds. It may not be the first time Mysterie’s wars have spilled over into our reality, but if Toby fails, it could be the last. Simon R. Green, New York Times bestselling author of the Deathstalker series and the Nightside series, brings his trademark wit and inventiveness to his beloved hometown of Bradford-on-Avon, in this charming standalone urban fantasy novel.

The school year is winding down, and Nate can’t wait for summer vacation: baseball, beach trips, and…overripe bananas? Yuck! Turns out Nate has a problem with fruit that’s past its prime. And that’s not all that’s bugging him. Kim Cressly is making Chester jealous at Nate’s expense, Artur is challenging him in the Hunny Bursts mascot contest, and his replacement social studies teacher is none other than Coach John. In banana terms, it’s all left Nate feeling a little bruised. Can he make it to summer without slipping up? Join Nate and the gang for more shenanigans in this collection of Big Nate comics!