I have some background with machine learning and I'm reading this book now. It doesn't seem like way a good way to learn much about applied statistics, but it does a good job of illustrating how data mining impacts people's daily lives.
There's an "aren't you shocked that they're gathering all of this data?!" tone that gets old as the book goes on, but it's generally a good read. He even describes some of the major algorithms (support vector machines and clustering) in layman's terms.
SVM's and clustering are AWESOME. My housemate uses both to analyse EEG data and his classifiers are absolutely amazing. Looks like his work may end up being used by the european space agency too.
There's an "aren't you shocked that they're gathering all of this data?!" tone that gets old as the book goes on, but it's generally a good read. He even describes some of the major algorithms (support vector machines and clustering) in layman's terms.