Presto Electro

I was browsing the (actual, physical) message board for the school of Electrical Engineering a couple of weeks ago, and I spotted a flyer for a totally awesome class: Applied Numerical and Probabilistic Methods for Pattern Analysis and Recognition. I'm pretty sure you need at least 3 years of math to decipher that title, so don't be sad if it just looks like gibberish. The fact of the matter is it's a really math-y class that is focused on analyzing the world we live in, so I'm all over it. Here's the flyer:

There's a lot going on in this flyer. Possibly too much. To the untrained eye, the most awesome thing about this class is not immediately apparent. I'll give you a hint: It's in the "Text" section. See it? The textbook for this class is ABSOLUTELY FREE! The whole thing is available for free on Google Books, and that is spectacular.

Everyone can appreciate free books, but it's even easier to appreciate when you've been in school for awhile. Textbooks have to be purchased at the beginning of every semester, usually all at once, and they typically cost an arm and a leg. Any professor that helps lighten that load (price-wise AND weight-wise) is definitely a friend of mine. Google Books' rapidly expanding library will hopefully make this a much more common occurrence in the coming years.

Google Books has a tremendous archive of books available for perusal, but this is the first time I've personally come across a relevant textbook. Previously I've only used Google Books when I really needed to kill some time. (Classic novels are great for passing time while waiting for an oil change or an appointment.)

For some reason, it never occurred to me to search for my textbooks. I wonder if any of my other textbooks have made it to Google Books…