Mastering Transformers. The Journey from BERT to Large Language Models and Stable Diffusion - Second Edition

Savaş Yildirim, Meysam Asgari- Chenaghlu

Transformer-based language models such as BERT, T5, GPT, DALL-E, and ChatGPT have dominated NLP studies and become a new paradigm. Thanks to their accurate and fast fine-tuning capabilities, transformer-based language models have been able to outperform traditional machine learning-based approaches for many challenging natural language understanding (NLU) problems.Aside from NLP, a fast-growing area in multimodal learning and generative AI has recently been established, showing promising results. Mastering Transformers will help you understand and implement multimodal solutions, including text-to-image. Computer vision solutions that are based on transformers are also explained in the book. You’ll get started by understanding various transformer models before learning how to train different autoregressive language models such as GPT and XLNet. The book will also get you up to speed with boosting model performance, as well as tracking model training using the TensorBoard toolkit. In the later chapters, you’ll focus on using vision transformers to solve computer vision problems. Finally, you’ll discover how to harness the power of transformers to model time series data and for predicting.By the end of this transformers book, you’ll have an understanding of transformer models and how to use them to solve challenges in NLP and CV.

Unlocking Data with Generative AI and RAG. Enhance generative AI systems by integrating internal data with large language models using RAG

Keith Bourne, Shahul Es

Generative AI is helping organizations tap into their data in new ways, with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) combining the strengths of large language models (LLMs) with internal data for more intelligent and relevant AI applications. The author harnesses his decade of ML experience in this book to equip you with the strategic insights and technical expertise needed when using RAG to drive transformative outcomes.The book explores RAG’s role in enhancing organizational operations by blending theoretical foundations with practical techniques. You’ll work with detailed coding examples using tools such as LangChain and Chroma’s vector database to gain hands-on experience in integrating RAG into AI systems. The chapters contain real-world case studies and sample applications that highlight RAG’s diverse use cases, from search engines to chatbots. You’ll learn proven methods for managing vector databases, optimizing data retrieval, effective prompt engineering, and quantitatively evaluating performance. The book also takes you through advanced integrations of RAG with cutting-edge AI agents and emerging non-LLM technologies.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to successfully deploy RAG in business settings, address common challenges, and push the boundaries of what’s possible with this revolutionary AI technique.

Building CLI Applications with C# and .NET. A step-by-step guide to developing cross-platform CLI apps—from coding and testing to deployment

Tidjani Belmansour, Damian Brady

Developers and system administrators often face challenges like inefficient workflows, complex system operations, and the growing demand for robust automation tools. CLI applications provide a powerful solution by enhancing flexibility, efficiency, and productivity in various environments. This book will guide you through mastering the development of robust command-line tools using .NET.Written by a Microsoft Azure MVP, the book’s hands-on approach ensures practical experience with real-world projects. You’ll start with an overview of foundational principles, essential concepts, and best practices for CLI application development. From there, you’ll advance to creating interactive interfaces, integrating with external APIs and services, and implementing security measures to safeguard your applications. Each chapter will build progressively from basic to advanced topics.Beyond development, you’ll learn how to enhance application quality through testing, package for efficient distribution, and deploy effectively. The book also teaches strategies to optimize performance to ensure your applications run efficiently under heavy usage.By the end of this book, you’ll have gained a deep understanding of CLI application development with .NET to build modular, extensible, and easy-to-maintain applications.

Practical Machine Learning on Databricks. Seamlessly transition ML models and MLOps on Databricks

Debu Sinha

Unleash the potential of databricks for end-to-end machine learning with this comprehensive guide, tailored for experienced data scientists and developers transitioning from DIY or other cloud platforms. Building on a strong foundation in Python, Practical Machine Learning on Databricks serves as your roadmap from development to production, covering all intermediary steps using the databricks platform. You’ll start with an overview of machine learning applications, databricks platform features, and MLflow. Next, you’ll dive into data preparation, model selection, and training essentials and discover the power of databricks feature store for precomputing feature tables. You’ll also learn to kickstart your projects using databricks AutoML and automate retraining and deployment through databricks workflows. By the end of this book, you’ll have mastered MLflow for experiment tracking, collaboration, and advanced use cases like model interpretability and governance. The book is enriched with hands-on example code at every step. While primarily focused on generally available features, the book equips you to easily adapt to future innovations in machine learning, databricks, and MLflow.

Mastering AWS Security. Strengthen your cloud environment using AWS security features coupled with proven strategies - Second Edition

Laurent Mathieu

If you’re trying to navigate the complex world of AWS security and fortify your organizational cloud environment, then this book is for you. Written by an accomplished cybersecurity and AWS cloud consultant, Mastering AWS Security will help you understand and master the complexities of AWS security. This book offers an in-depth and practical exploration of AWS security concepts, features, and services, focusing on how they apply to modern cloud-based application environments. As you progress, you’ll gain a thorough introduction to the art of security automation and DevSecOps. You’ll learn how to automate security tasks, integrate security into your development process, and maintain a high level of security as your applications evolve and scale. Emphasizing continuous monitoring and improvement, this book will teach you how to set up monitoring systems, interpret security data, and make informed decisions to enhance your security over time. Through real-world case studies, you’ll learn how to tackle the challenges and find solutions for securing AWS environments. By the end of this book, you’ll confidently secure your AWS environments, and stay up to date with the latest security trends and updates in the AWS ecosystem.

Refactoring in Java. Improving code design and maintainability for Java developers

Stefano Violetta

Refactoring in Java serves as an indispensable guide to enhancing your codebase’s quality and maintainability.The book begins by helping you get to grips with refactoring fundamentals, including cultivating good coding habits and identifying red flags. You’ll explore testing methodologies, essential refactoring techniques, and metaprogramming, as well as designing a good architecture. The chapters clearly explain how to refactor and improve your code using real-world examples and proven techniques. Part two equips you with the ability to recognize code smells, prioritize tasks, and employ automated refactoring tools, testing frameworks, and code analysis tools. You’ll discover best practices to ensure efficient code improvement so that you can navigate complexities with ease. In part three, the book focuses on continuous learning, daily practices enhancing coding proficiency, and a holistic view of the architecture. You’ll get practical tips to mitigate risks during refactoring, along with guidance on measuring impact to ensure that you become an efficient software craftsperson.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to avoid unproductive programming or architecturing, detect red flags, and propose changes to improve the maintainability of your codebase.

Mastering QuickBooks(R) 2025. Bookkeeping for small businesses with US QuickBooks® Online - Sixth Edition

Crystalynn Shelton

Mastering QuickBooks® 2025 is the definitive guide for small-business owners, bookkeepers, and accounting students. This new edition covers both the fundamentals, like setting up the US version of QuickBooks Online, as well as advanced features, like integrating with e-commerce platforms. You'll grasp core business transactions such as sales, expenses, and payroll while ensuring compliance with tax regulations. You'll gain complete mastery of the US-based QuickBooks Online features—from setting up the platform to fi ling taxes like a professional.Updated for the latest QuickBooks 2025, this book introduces advanced topics like time tracking for hourly billing, inventory management techniques, and real-time financial reporting. Detailed guidance on payroll processing and 1099 contractor tracking is also included to help manage your financial operations. With the purchase of the book, you'll gain access to bonus chapters and video tutorials by the author, off erring deeper insights on how to navigate key reports, reconcile bank transactions, sharpen bookkeeping fundamentals, and generate detailed sales and expense reports.By the end of this book, you'll know how to effectively leverage QuickBooks Online for the fi nancial management of your business.

C++ in Embedded Systems. A practical transition from C to modern C++

Amar Mahmutbegović, Steve Branam

Transitioning from C can be daunting, with concerns about performance overhead, added complexity, and unfamiliar tooling. Addressing these challenges, Amar Mahmutbegovic, an advocate for modern C++ in embedded development, shows you how to harness zero-cost abstractions, compile-time checks, and powerful modern C++ capabilities to preserve performance while achieving safer, cleaner code. This book bridges the gap between traditional C and advanced C++, helping you retain the efficiency C developers demand while unlocking the safety and expressiveness of modern C++. Starting with a modern development environment setup, including a Docker container for seamless example replication, you’ll overcome the hurdles of using the C++ standard library in memory-constrained settings and get acquainted with the Embedded Template Library (ETL) as an alternative. The book walks you through essential C++ concepts before exploring advanced topics such as templates, strong typing, error handling, compile-time computation, and RAII. Through practical examples, you'll implement a sequencer, write a type-safe HAL, and apply patterns like Command, State, and Observer to solve common embedded development problems. By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to apply modern C++ to develop robust, modular firmware with performance matching or exceeding hand-coded C solutions.

Learn Computer Forensics. Your one-stop guide to searching, analyzing, acquiring, and securing digital evidence

William Oettinger

Computer Forensics, being a broad topic, involves a variety of skills which will involve seizing electronic evidence, acquiring data from electronic evidence, data analysis, and finally developing a forensic report.This book will help you to build up the skills you need to work in a highly technical environment. This book's ideal goal is to get you up and running with forensics tools and techniques to successfully investigate crime and corporate misconduct. You will discover ways to collect personal information about an individual from online sources. You will also learn how criminal investigations are performed online while preserving data such as e-mails, images, and videos that may be important to a case. You will further explore networking and understand Network Topologies, IP Addressing, and Network Devices. Finally, you will how to write a proper forensic report, the most exciting portion of the forensic exam process.By the end of this book, you will have developed a clear understanding of how to acquire, analyze, and present digital evidence, like a proficient computer forensics investigator.

Mastering Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. The complete guide for designing and integrating advanced Business Central solutions - Second Edition

Stefano Demiliani, Duilio Tacconi

This book dives straight into guiding you through the process of building real-world solutions with the AL language and Visual Studio Code. It emphasizes best practices and extensibility patterns to ensure your extensions are well-structured, maintainable, and meet the needs of modern businesses. You'll learn advanced AL techniques, report creation methods, debugging strategies, and how to leverage telemetries for monitoring. Additionally, it covers performance optimization practices and API integration to help you create efficient and interconnected solutions.With a focus on extension development, this new edition allows you to jump right into coding without spending time on setup processes. This book introduces new chapters covering essential tasks that Business Central developers frequently encounter, such as file handling and printing management. Finally, the book expands its scope by including chapters on various integration aspects, including VS Code extensions, GitHub DevOps, Azure services, and Power Platform integrations. We’ll wrap up by covering Copilot capabilities in Business Central and how you can create your own generative AI copilots. By mastering these concepts and techniques, you'll be well-equipped to create powerful and customized solutions that extend the capabilities of Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Realizing 3D Animation in Blender. Master the fundamentals of 3D animation in Blender, from keyframing to character movement

Sam Brubaker

Completely free and open source, Blender, with its supportive community and powerful feature set, is an indispensable tool for creating 3D animations. However, learning the software can be a challenge given the complexity of its interface and the intricacies of animation theory.If you want to venture into 3D animation but don’t know where to start, Realizing 3D Animation in Blender is for you. Adopting a practical approach, this guide simplifies the theory of 3D animation and the many animation workflows specific to Blender. Through detailed exercises and a sharp focus on the animation process, this book equips you with everything you need to set out on your path to becoming a 3D animator. It’s much more than just an introduction; this book covers complex concepts such as F-Curve modifiers, rigid-body physics simulation, and animating with multiple cameras, presented in an easy-to-follow manner to avoid common pitfalls encountered by novice animators.By the end of this Blender 3D animation book, you’ll have gained the knowledge, experience, and inspiration to start creating impressive 3D animations on your own.

PowerShell for Penetration Testing. Explore the capabilities of PowerShell for pentesters across multiple platforms

Dr. Andrew Blyth, Campbell Murray

PowerShell for Penetration Testing is a comprehensive guide designed to equip you with the essential skills you need for conducting effective penetration tests using PowerShell.You'll start by laying a solid foundation by familiarizing yourself with the core concepts of penetration testing and PowerShell scripting. In this part, you'll get up to speed with the fundamental scripting principles and their applications across various platforms. You’ll then explore network enumeration, port scanning, exploitation of web services, databases, and more using PowerShell tools. Hands-on exercises throughout the book will solidify your understanding of concepts and techniques. Extending the scope to cloud computing environments, particularly MS Azure and AWS, this book will guide you through conducting penetration tests in cloud settings, covering governance, reconnaissance, and networking intricacies. In the final part, post-exploitation techniques, including command-and-control structures and privilege escalation using PowerShell, will be explored. This section encompasses post-exploitation activities on both Microsoft Windows and Linux systems.By the end of this book, you’ll have covered concise explanations, real-world examples, and exercises that will help you seamlessly perform penetration testing techniques using PowerShell.

ChatGPT Prompts Book - Precision Prompts, Priming, Training & AI Writing Techniques for Mortals. Crafting Precision Prompts and Exploring AI Writing with ChatGPT

Oliver Theobald

The course embarks on an enlightening journey through the world of ChatGPT, starting from the very basics of understanding what ChatGPT is, to delving deep into the mechanics of crafting precision prompts that unlock its full potential. From the outset, you'll be introduced to the foundational elements that make ChatGPT an indispensable tool for a wide range of applications, setting the stage for a comprehensive exploration of its capabilities.As we progress, the course meticulously unfolds the layers of prompt writing techniques, priming strategies, and training methodologies that are designed to enhance your interaction with AI. You'll learn how to craft prompts for common use cases, navigate the nuances of content creation, translation tasks, and personalized tutoring, all while leveraging ChatGPT's advanced AI art capabilities.The course culminates by focusing on practical applications and exploring advanced prompt training and role prompting techniques. This final stretch is designed to solidify your understanding and empower you with the confidence to employ ChatGPT across various scenarios, from professional content writing to creative explorations.

Data Engineering with Databricks Cookbook. Build effective data and AI solutions using Apache Spark, Databricks, and Delta Lake

Pulkit Chadha

Written by a Senior Solutions Architect at Databricks, Data Engineering with Databricks Cookbook will show you how to effectively use Apache Spark, Delta Lake, and Databricks for data engineering, starting with comprehensive introduction to data ingestion and loading with Apache Spark.What makes this book unique is its recipe-based approach, which will help you put your knowledge to use straight away and tackle common problems. You’ll be introduced to various data manipulation and data transformation solutions that can be applied to data, find out how to manage and optimize Delta tables, and get to grips with ingesting and processing streaming data. The book will also show you how to improve the performance problems of Apache Spark apps and Delta Lake. Advanced recipes later in the book will teach you how to use Databricks to implement DataOps and DevOps practices, as well as how to orchestrate and schedule data pipelines using Databricks Workflows. You’ll also go through the full process of setup and configuration of the Unity Catalog for data governance.By the end of this book, you’ll be well-versed in building reliable and scalable data pipelines using modern data engineering technologies.

The Deep Learning Architect's Handbook. Build and deploy production-ready DL solutions leveraging the latest Python techniques

Ee Kin Chin

Deep learning enables previously unattainable feats in automation, but extracting real-world business value from it is a daunting task. This book will teach you how to build complex deep learning models and gain intuition for structuring your data to accomplish your deep learning objectives.This deep learning book explores every aspect of the deep learning life cycle, from planning and data preparation to model deployment and governance, using real-world scenarios that will take you through creating, deploying, and managing advanced solutions. You’ll also learn how to work with image, audio, text, and video data using deep learning architectures, as well as optimize and evaluate your deep learning models objectively to address issues such as bias, fairness, adversarial attacks, and model transparency.As you progress, you’ll harness the power of AI platforms to streamline the deep learning life cycle and leverage Python libraries and frameworks such as PyTorch, ONNX, Catalyst, MLFlow, Captum, Nvidia Triton, Prometheus, and Grafana to execute efficient deep learning architectures, optimize model performance, and streamline the deployment processes. You’ll also discover the transformative potential of large language models (LLMs) for a wide array of applications.By the end of this book, you'll have mastered deep learning techniques to unlock its full potential for your endeavors.

Machine Learning and Generative AI for Marketing. Take your data-driven marketing strategies to the next level using Python

Yoon Hyup Hwang, Nicholas C. Burtch

In the dynamic world of marketing, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is no longer just an advantage—it's a necessity. Moreover, the rise of generative AI (GenAI) helps with the creation of highly personalized, engaging content that resonates with the target audience.This book provides a comprehensive toolkit for harnessing the power of GenAI to craft marketing strategies that not only predict customer behaviors but also captivate and convert, leading to improved cost per acquisition, boosted conversion rates, and increased net sales.Starting with the basics of Python for data analysis and progressing to sophisticated ML and GenAI models, this book is your comprehensive guide to understanding and applying AI to enhance marketing strategies. Through engaging content & hands-on examples, you'll learn how to harness the capabilities of AI to unlock deep insights into customer behaviors, craft personalized marketing messages, and drive significant business growth. Additionally, you'll explore the ethical implications of AI, ensuring that your marketing strategies are not only effective but also responsible and compliant with current standardsBy the conclusion of this book, you'll be equipped to design, launch, and manage marketing campaigns that are not only successful but also cutting-edge.