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Notes for UK Visitors
Even though NoiseFactory is based in the UK, most prices here are quoted in US dollars - the slightly longer shipping time is usually more than made up for by considerably lower prices in America. Buying goods online is just as easy in dollars as Sterling, because credit card transactions are automatically converted to local currency at the prevailing exchange rate. In fact, online dollar purchases are cheaper even than getting your bank to generate a money order, because banks typically charge extortionate conversion fees, whereas credit cards usually charge none at all. To buy a book or CD in dollars, just fill out the online forms provided - the rest happens automatically.

Ancient Egypt Life and times in Ancient Egypt, the dynasties from Narmer through to the post-Cleopatra Roman occupation, the basics of reading hieroglyphic inscriptions ... and that's just one of the Victorian classics recommended here. English Folk Music NoiseFactory is a founder member of the Synthetic Folk Project, which aims to re-acquaint the internet generation with traditional folk music (for his sins, our Controller is also a keen folk singer, and an Executive member of the UK's South Riding Folk Network). We've linked up with Amazon to find as many online folk sources (both books and recordings) as possible, as cheaply as possible. This is our central archive. General (Analytic) Topology General Topologists used to pride themselves on the absolute uselessness of their subject - as one of the purest and most intellectually challenging forms of modern mathematics it was regarded by many as the province of just a few especially abstract thinkers. When this reviewer decided to become a general topologist in 1983 there were just 10 researchers under whom he could have studied in the UK. More recently, however, general topology has found a key role in our understanding of computation, and a grasp of its basic principles can give any aspiring pure mathematician a better understanding of fields from computer science to integration, and logic to transfinite number theory. History of mathematics Justly called the Queen of Sciences, mathematics has had a long and distinguished history. We've links to more than a thousand titles, covering topics from the ancient to the modern: everything from Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics through to the history of groups and twentieth century research programs. (Students of ancient mathematics may also be interested in our section on Ancient Egypt). JavaScript & Perl One of the key technologies of modern web design, JavaScript can be used to control all manner of content, formatting and beahiour for web pages, without the need to interface with a web server via CGI. For complicated processes CGI beats JavaScript hands down, and for that you'll probably want to learn Perl. Generally speaking, the JavaScript programs you'll encounter on the web are pretty naff, because the language is suitable for programmers and non-programmers alike, and is so useful that web masters often "borrow" code from sites they visit, and then change it around wthout fully understanding what they're doing. Given the commercial significance of the language, and the ease with which it can be learned, you are well advised to take the trouble to master JavaScript. You'll be in a much better position to manage your site, and you'll be able to streamline its behaveious tremendously. Theory of Computer Science Theoretical computer science is all about understanding what computers are, and what problems they're capable of solving. For example, many governments are worried about the ease with which information can be encrypted and sent across national boundaries using email - but why is it possible to encrypt information in the first place? Why is one type of encryption far harder to crack than another? How do we even measure how good a cryptosystem is? Or perhaps you've been asked to write a program that will sort a huge list of entries alphabetically. There are lots of ways to do this, and some always seem to work faster than others. But why? And does it depend on how long the original list is? Would it help if you had ten computers working on the list at the same time, or would they simply get tangled up waiting for each other to finish their particular bit of the puzzle? The books listed here address everything from lambda calculus and operator systems to complexity theory and algorithmics. Learn about distributed and concurrent systems, neural networks, computational semantics, Turing machines, recursive number theory ... and a whole lot more besides.