Publisher: Packt Publishing
Founded in 2004 in Birmingham, UK, Packt's mission is to help the world put software to work in new ways, through the delivery of effective learning and information services to IT professionals. Working towards that vision, we have published over 6,500 books and videos so far, providing IT professionals with the actionable knowledge they need to get the job done - whether that's specific learning on an emerging technology or optimizing key skills in more established tools. As part of our mission, we have also awarded over $1,000,000 through our Open Source Project Royalty scheme, helping numerous projects become household names along the way.
5985
Ebook
5986
Ebook

Unreal Engine 4 AI Programming Essentials. Create responsive and intelligent game AI using Blueprints in Unreal Engine 4

Jie Feng, Peter Newton

Unreal Engine is a powerful game development engine that provides rich functionalities to create 2D and 3D games. Developers have the opportunity to build cross-platform mobile and desktop games from scratch. This book will show you how to apply artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to your Unreal project using blueprints as your scripting language. You will start with an introduction to AI, and learn how it is applied to gaming. Then you'll jump right in and create a simple AI bot and apply basic behaviors to allow it to move randomly. As you progress, you'll find out how to implement randomness and probability traits. Using NavMesh, you will impart navigation components such as character movement, MoveTo nodes, settings, and world objects, and implement Behavior Trees. At the end of the book, you will troubleshoot any issues that might crop up while building the game.

5987
Ebook

Cloud Auditing Best Practices. Perform Security and IT Audits across AWS, Azure, and GCP by building effective cloud auditing plans

Shinesa Cambric, Michael Ratemo

As more and more companies are moving to cloud and multi-cloud environments, being able to assess the compliance of these environments properly is becoming more important. But in this fast-moving domain, getting the most up-to-date information is a challenge—so where do you turn?Cloud Auditing Best Practices has all the information you’ll need. With an explanation of the fundamental concepts and hands-on walk-throughs of the three big cloud players, this book will get you up to speed with cloud auditing before you know it.After a quick introduction to cloud architecture and an understanding of the importance of performing cloud control assessments, you’ll quickly get to grips with navigating AWS, Azure, and GCP cloud environments. As you explore the vital role an IT auditor plays in any company’s network, you'll learn how to successfully build cloud IT auditing programs, including using standard tools such as Terraform, Azure Automation, AWS Policy Sentry, and many more.You’ll also get plenty of tips and tricks for preparing an effective and advanced audit and understanding how to monitor and assess cloud environments using standard tools.By the end of this book, you will be able to confidently apply and assess security controls for AWS, Azure, and GCP, allowing you to independently and effectively confirm compliance in the cloud.

5988
Ebook

Hands-On Microsoft Teams. A practical guide to enhancing enterprise collaboration with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 - Second Edition

Joao Ferreira

Microsoft Teams is a permanent fixture in the modern workplace, but many of its productivity-boosting features go unnoticed or unused. Hands-On Microsoft Teams shows you how to use Teams to its full potential through easy-to-follow practical tutorials.This guide to mastering Teams explores the platform in comprehensive detail and how it interacts with the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem to help you work efficiently and manage your resources. You'll get to grips with core functionality like setting up and managing teams, channels, chats, tabs, and meetings.You'll also learn to get the best out of Teams by adding custom apps, integrating with Microsoft 365, using PowerShell automation, and exploring useful settings you didn't know existed. Along the way, you'll be shown various real-world scenarios and how to implement solutions for them in Teams that will increase your productivity.Whether you're an administrator, manager, or team member, by the end of this book you'll be confident in using everything Microsoft Teams has to offer.

5989
Ebook

Data Visualization with D3.js Cookbook. Turn your digital data into dynamic graphics with this exciting, leading-edge cookbook. Packed with recipes and practical guidance it will quickly make you a proficient user of the D3 JavaScript library

Nick Zhu

D3.js is a JavaScript library designed to display digital data in dynamic graphical form. It helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS. D3 allows great control over the final visual result, and it is the hottest and most powerful web-based data visualization technology on the market today.Data Visualization with D3.js Cookbook is packed with practical recipes to help you learn every aspect of data visualization with D3.Data Visualization with D3.js Cookbook is designed to provide you with all the guidance you need to get to grips with data visualization with D3. With this book, you will create breathtaking data visualization with professional efficiency and precision with the help of practical recipes, illustrations, and code samples.Data Visualization with D3.js Cookbook starts off by touching upon data visualization and D3 basics before gradually taking you through a number of practical recipes covering a wide range of topics you need to know about D3.You will learn the fundamental concepts of data visualization, functional JavaScript, and D3 fundamentals including element selection, data binding, animation, and SVG generation. You will also learn how to leverage more advanced techniques such as custom interpolators, custom tweening, timers, the layout manager, force manipulation, and so on. This book also provides a number of pre-built chart recipes with ready-to-go sample code to help you bootstrap quickly.

5990
Ebook

Azure Machine Learning Engineering. Deploy, fine-tune, and optimize ML models using Microsoft Azure

Sina Fakhraee, Balamurugan Balakreshnan, Megan Masanz

Data scientists working on productionizing machine learning (ML) workloads face a breadth of challenges at every step owing to the countless factors involved in getting ML models deployed and running. This book offers solutions to common issues, detailed explanations of essential concepts, and step-by-step instructions to productionize ML workloads using the Azure Machine Learning service. You’ll see how data scientists and ML engineers working with Microsoft Azure can train and deploy ML models at scale by putting their knowledge to work with this practical guide.Throughout the book, you’ll learn how to train, register, and productionize ML models by making use of the power of the Azure Machine Learning service. You’ll get to grips with scoring models in real time and batch, explaining models to earn business trust, mitigating model bias, and developing solutions using an MLOps framework.By the end of this Azure Machine Learning book, you’ll be ready to build and deploy end-to-end ML solutions into a production system using the Azure Machine Learning service for real-time scenarios.

5991
Ebook
5992
Ebook

Bootstrap Site Blueprints Volume II. Maximize the potential of Bootstrap for faster and more responsive web applications

Matt Lambert

Bootstrap is the most popular open source project on GitHub today. With a little bit of know-how, this massively popular CSS framework can leveraged for any type of complex web application or website. Bootstrap Site Blueprints Volume II will teach you to build these types of projects in an easy-to-understand fashion.The key to any complex Bootstrap project is a strong development foundation for your project. The book will first teach you how to build a Bootstrap development environment using Harp.js, Node, and Less. In the next chapters, we’ll build on this foundation by creating restaurant and mobile-first aggregator projects. Once you’re warmed up, we’ll move on to more complex projects such as a wiki, a new magazine, a dashboard, and finally a social networking website. Whether you are brand new to Bootstrap or a seasoned expert, this book will provide you with the skills you need to successfully create a number of popular web applications and websites.

5993
Ebook

Salesforce Anti-Patterns. Create powerful Salesforce architectures by learning from common mistakes made on the platform

Lars Malmqvist

Salesforce Anti-Patterns teaches you to spot errors in Salesforce patterns that may seem like a good idea at first but end up costing you dearly. This book will enable Salesforce developers and architects to understand how ingenious Salesforce architectures can be created by studying anti-patterns and solutions to problems that can later lead to serious implementation issues. While there are several books on the market that start with the question, “How do I create great Salesforce architecture?” and proceed to a solution from there, this book instead starts by asking, “What tends to go wrong with Salesforce architectures?” and proceeds to a solution from there.In this book, you’ll find out how to identify and mitigate anti-patterns in the technical domains of system architecture, data architecture, and security architecture, along with anti-patterns in the functional domain of solution architecture as well as for integration architecture. You’ll also learn about common anti-patterns affecting your Salesforce development process and governance and, finally, how to spot common problems in how architects communicate their solutions.By the end of this Salesforce book, you’ll have gained the confidence to architect and communicate solutions on the Salesforce platform while dodging common mistakes.

5994
Ebook

Mastering Adobe Photoshop Elements 2023. Bring out the best in your images using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2023 - Fifth Edition

Robin Nichols

Produce impressive, high-quality pictures to influence your audience, grow your brand, and market your products and services.With its impressive range of sophisticated creative capabilities, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2023 is all you need to create photos you’ll love to share. Elements 2023 extends its AI capabilities by simplifying complex editing processes. Learn to stitch widescreen panoramas, remove people from backgrounds, de-focus backgrounds, re-compose images, and even create a range of calendars and greeting cards for your friends and family.The fifth edition of this widely acclaimed series will help you master photo-editing from scratch. Start by learning basic edits such as auto tone correction, image resizing and cropping, then master contrast, color, sharpness, and clarity.Take your prowess to the next level by learning how to correct optical distortion, re-shape images, exploit layers, layer masking, and sharpening techniques—create the perfect picture or imaginative fantasy illustration. You’ll also learn the online realms of animation, video creation, and third-party plug-ins.By the end of this book, you'll learn how to leverage the incredible features of Photoshop Elements 2023 with complete confidence.Note: All the images featured in the book can be easily downloaded via a direct link or from the GitHub repository link specified in the Preface.

5995
Ebook

MDX with Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services Cookbook. Over 70 practical recipes to analyze multi-dimensional data in SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services cubes - Third Edition

Tomislav Piasevoli, Sherry Li

If you're often faced with MDX challenges, this is a book for you. It will teach you how to solve various real-world businessrequirements using MDX queries and calculations. Examples in the book introduce an idea or a problem and then guide you throughthe process of implementing the solution in a step-by-step manner, inform you about the best practices and offer a deep knowledge in terms of how the solution works. Recipes are organized by chapters, each covering a single topic. They start slowly and logically progress to more advanced techniques. In case of complexity, things are broken down. Instead of one, there are series of recipes built one on top of another. This way you are able to see intermediate results and debug potential errors faster. Finally, the cookbook format is here to help you quickly identify the topic of interest and in it a wide range of practical solutions, that is – MDX recipes for your success.

5996
Ebook

Binary Analysis Cookbook. Actionable recipes for disassembling and analyzing binaries for security risks

Michael Born

Binary analysis is the process of examining a binary program to determine information security actions. It is a complex, constantly evolving, and challenging topic that crosses over into several domains of information technology and security. This binary analysis book is designed to help you get started with the basics, before gradually advancing to challenging topics. Using a recipe-based approach, this book guides you through building a lab of virtual machines and installing tools to analyze binaries effectively. You'll begin by learning about the IA32 and ELF32 as well as IA64 and ELF64 specifications. The book will then guide you in developing a methodology and exploring a variety of tools for Linux binary analysis. As you advance, you'll learn how to analyze malicious 32-bit and 64-bit binaries and identify vulnerabilities. You'll even examine obfuscation and anti-analysis techniques, analyze polymorphed malicious binaries, and get a high-level overview of dynamic taint analysis and binary instrumentation concepts. By the end of the book, you'll have gained comprehensive insights into binary analysis concepts and have developed the foundational skills to confidently delve into the realm of binary analysis.

5997
Ebook

SQL Server 2019 Administrator's Guide. A definitive guide for DBAs to implement, monitor, and maintain enterprise database solutions - Second Edition

Marek Chmel, Vladimir Muzny

SQL Server is one of the most popular relational database management systems developed by Microsoft. This second edition of the SQL Server Administrator's Guide will not only teach you how to administer an enterprise database, but also help you become proficient at managing and keeping the database available, secure, and stable.You’ll start by learning how to set up your SQL Server and configure new and existing environments for optimal use. The book then takes you through designing aspects and delves into performance tuning by showing you how to use indexes effectively. You’ll understand certain choices that need to be made about backups, implement security policy, and discover how to keep your environment healthy. Tools available for monitoring and managing a SQL Server database, including automating health reviews, performance checks, and much more, will also be discussed in detail. As you advance, the book covers essential topics such as migration, upgrading, and consolidation, along with the techniques that will help you when things go wrong. Once you’ve got to grips with integration with Azure and streamlining big data pipelines, you’ll learn best practices from industry experts for maintaining a highly reliable database solution.Whether you are an administrator or are looking to get started with database administration, this SQL Server book will help you develop the skills you need to successfully create, design, and deploy database solutions.

5998
Ebook

LLM Engineer's Handbook. Master the art of engineering large language models from concept to production

Paul Iusztin, Maxime Labonne, Julien Chaumond, Hamza Tahir, ...

Artificial intelligence has undergone rapid advancements, and Large Language Models (LLMs) are at the forefront of this revolution. This LLM book offers insights into designing, training, and deploying LLMs in real-world scenarios by leveraging MLOps best practices. The guide walks you through building an LLM-powered twin that’s cost-effective, scalable, and modular. It moves beyond isolated Jupyter notebooks, focusing on how to build production-grade end-to-end LLM systems.Throughout this book, you will learn data engineering, supervised fine-tuning, and deployment. The hands-on approach to building the LLM Twin use case will help you implement MLOps components in your own projects. You will also explore cutting-edge advancements in the field, including inference optimization, preference alignment, and real-time data processing, making this a vital resource for those looking to apply LLMs in their projects.By the end of this book, you will be proficient in deploying LLMs that solve practical problems while maintaining low-latency and high-availability inference capabilities. Whether you are new to artificial intelligence or an experienced practitioner, this book delivers guidance and practical techniques that will deepen your understanding of LLMs and sharpen your ability to implement them effectively.

5999
Ebook

Git for Programmers. Master Git for effective implementation of version control for your programming projects

Jesse Liberty, Jon Galloway

Whether you’re looking for a book to deepen your understanding of Git or a refresher, this book is the ultimate guide to Git. Git for Programmers comprehensively equips you with actionable insights on advanced Git concepts in an engaging and straightforward way. As you progress through the chapters, you’ll gain expertise (and confidence) on Git with lots of practical use cases. After a quick refresher on git history and installation, you’ll dive straight into the creation and cloning of your repository. You’ll explore Git places, branching, and GUIs to get familiar with the fundamentals. Then you’ll learn how to handle merge conflicts, rebase, amend, interactive rebase, and use the log, as well as explore important Git commands for managing your repository.The troubleshooting part of this Git book will include detailed instructions on how to bisect, blame, and several other problem handling techniques that will complete your newly acquired Git arsenal.By the end of this book, you’ll be using Git with confidence. Saving, sharing, managing files as well as undoing mistakes and basically rewriting history will be a breeze.

6000
Ebook

The Ultimate Studio One Pro Book. A step-by-step guide to recording, editing, mixing, and mastering professional-quality music

Doruk Somunkiran

The Ultimate Studio One Pro Book is a detailed, step-by-step guide to creating music with Studio One’s extensive set of production tools. This practical, goal-oriented resource will help musicians start producing their own music with Studio One and teach audio professionals how to include Studio One in their production workflow.The book begins by showing you how to set up Studio One to work smoothly on your system. The following chapters will walk you through the process of creating a project, along with recording audio and using virtual instruments to construct a MIDI arrangement. As you advance, you’ll find out how to edit your songs to perfection using Melodyne, Audio Bend, and an extensive collection of MIDI modifiers. You’ll also discover how to mix in Studio One with the effects plugins included in it, along with applying audio mastering in the Project window. Throughout this book, you’ll gain the skills needed to leverage Studio One confidently and effectively, as well as build your own unique music production workflow.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to effortlessly translate your musical ideas into complete songs using Studio One’s powerful tools.