Learning QGIS. Create great maps and perform geoprocessing tasks with ease - Third Edition

Anita Graser

QGIS is a user-friendly open source geographic information system (GIS) that runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, and Windows. The popularity of open source geographic information systems and QGIS in particular has been growing rapidly over the last few years.Learning QGIS Third Edition is a practical, hands-on guide updated for QGIS 2.14 that provides you with clear, step-by-step exercises to help you apply your GIS knowledge to QGIS. Through clear, practical exercises, this book will introduce you to working with QGIS quickly and painlessly.This book takes you from installing and configuring QGIS to handling spatial data to creating great maps. You will learn how to load and visualize existing spatialdata and create data from scratch. You will get to know important plugins, perform common geoprocessing and spatial analysis tasks and automate them with Processing.We will cover how to achieve great cartographic output and print maps. Finally, you will learn how to extend QGIS using Python and even create your own plugin.

Blockchain for Decision Makers. A systematic guide to using blockchain for improving your business

Romain Tormen

In addition to cryptocurrencies, blockchain-based apps are being developed in different industries such as banking, supply chain, and healthcare to achieve digital transformation and enhance user experience. Blockchain is not only about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies, but also about different technologies such as peer-to-peer networks, consensus mechanisms, and cryptography. These technologies together help sustain trustless environments in which digital value can be transferred between individuals without intermediaries.This book will help you understand the basics of blockchain such as consensus protocols, decentralized applications, and tokenization. You'll focus on how blockchain is used today in different industries and the technological challenges faced while implementing a blockchain strategy. The book also enables you, as a decision maker, to understand blockchain from a technical perspective and evaluate its applicability in your business. Finally, you'll get to grips with blockchain frameworks such as Hyperledger and Quorum and their usability.By the end of this book, you'll have learned about the current use cases of blockchain and be able to implement a blockchain strategy on your own.

Professional Image Editing Made Easy with Affinity Photo. Apply Affinity Photo fundamentals to your workflows to edit, enhance, and create great images

Jeremy Hazel

In this book, you’ll explore the Affinity Photo program through practice-based learning as you make popular photo edits, learning the tools and techniques in conjunction with the workflow concept. Instead of comprehensive description of the tools, you’ll learn through practical application and understand why they work, not just how they work. This is neither a technical manual nor a workbook but a project-based hybrid approach that provides a deeper understanding of how to use each tool to achieve your goal.Starting with the fundamentals of navigating the interface, understanding layers, and making your first edit, this Affinity Photo book gradually increases the complexity of projects. You’ll go from single-layer edits, composites, and RAW development to putting together a complex composition using the tools that you've learned along the way. Additionally, you’ll learn the best practices used by expert photo editors for a flawless finish.By the end of this book, you’ll have a good body of work, be able to evaluate the edits you want to make, and achieve desired results with Affinity Photo.

Business Intelligence Cookbook: A Project Lifecycle Approach Using Oracle Technology. Take your data warehousing and business intelligence to the next level with this practical guide to Oracle Database 11g. Packed with illustrations, tips, and examples, it has over 80 advanced recipes to fine-tune your skills and knowledge

John Heaton

Oracle Database 11g is a comprehensive database platform for data warehousing and business intelligence that combines industry-leading scalability and performance, deeply-integrated analytics, and embedded integration and data-quality all in a single platform running on a reliable, low-cost grid infrastructure. This book steps through the lifecycle of building a data warehouse with key tips and techniques along the way.Business Intelligence Cookbook: A Project Lifecycle Approach Using Oracle Technology outlines the key ways to effectively use Oracle technology to deliver your business intelligence solution. This is a practical guide starting with key recipes for project management then moving onto project delivery.Business Intelligence Cookbook: A Project Lifecycle Approach Using Oracle Technology is a practical guide for performing key steps and functions on your project. This book starts with setting the foundation for a highly repeatable efficient project management approach by assessing your current methodology to see how suitable it is for a business intelligence program. We also learn to set up the project delivery phases to consistently estimate the effort for a project. Along the way we learn to create blueprints for the business intelligence solution that help to connect and map out the destination of the solution. We then move on to analyze requirements, sources, and data. Finally we learn to secure the data as it is an important asset within the organization and needs to be secured efficiently and effectively.

Hudson 3 Essentials. Here is a book that makes life easier for Java developers or administrators by teaching you how to automate application testing using Hudson 3. Fast-paced and hands-on, the guide covers everything from installation to writing plugins

Lloyd H. Meinholz

Continuous integration (CI) with automated test execution has been widely adopted in recent years. The concept behind CI has changed how companies look at Build Management, Release Management, Deployment Automation, and Test Orchestration. Hudson is a CI solution that provides executives, business managers, software developers, and architects with a better sense of the development progress and code quality of projects throughout their development life cycle.A fast-paced and hands-on introduction to the key features of Hudson 3. You will be introduced to tools that can be used to improve the quality of software development projects. You will also learn how to install and secure Hudson in a variety of IT environments. Staring with a brief introduction to Hudson and how it helps many IT organizations deliver high quality software, Hudson 3 Essentials will show you how Hudson can be installed and deployed in various environments. You will also be guided through the different methods of securing your Hudson installation. Moving on from the basics, you will be introduced to several important Hudson plugins and learn how to extend its functionality by developing your own plugins. You will be shown how Hudson can be used to build different types of applications and how it can deploy a web application to an application server. Finally, you will discover how Hudson can be used to perform automated testing on software applications, and how to generate reports that describe the results.

C# 8 and .NET Core 3 Projects Using Azure. Build professional desktop, mobile, and web applications that meet modern software requirements - Second Edition

Paul Michaels, Dirk Strauss, Jas Rademeyer

.NET Core is a general-purpose, modular, cross-platform, and opensource implementation of .NET. The latest release of .NET Core 3 comes with improved performance and security features, along with support for desktop applications. .NET Core 3 is not only useful for new developers looking to start learning the framework, but also for legacy developers interested in migrating their apps. Updated with the latest features and enhancements, this updated second edition is a step-by-step, project-based guide.The book starts with a brief introduction to the key features of C# 8 and .NET Core 3.You'll learn to work with relational data using Entity Framework Core 3, before understanding how to use ASP.NET Core. As you progress, you’ll discover how you can use .NET Core to create cross-platform applications. Later, the book will show you how to upgrade your old WinForms apps to .NET Core 3. The concluding chapters will then help you use SignalR effectively to add real-time functionality to your applications, before demonstrating how to implement MongoDB in your apps. Finally, you'll delve into serverless computing and how to build microservices using Docker and Kubernetes.By the end of this book, you'll be proficient in developing applications using .NET Core 3.

Unity 2017 Game AI programming. Leverage the power of Artificial Intelligence to program smart entities for your games - Third Edition

Raymundo Barrera

Unity 2017 provides game and app developers with a variety of tools to implement Artificial Intelligence. Leveraging these tools via Unity's API or built-in features allows limitless possibilities when it comes to creating your game's worlds and characters. This third edition with Unity will help you break down Artificial Intelligence into simple concepts to give you a fundamental understanding of the topic to build upon. Using a variety of examples, the book then takes those concepts and walks you through actual implementations designed to highlight key concepts, and features related to game AI in Unity 5. Further on you will learn to distinguish the state machine pattern and implement one of your own. This is followed by learning how to implement a basic sensory system for your AI agent and coupling it with a Finite State Machine (FSM).Next you'll learn how to use Unity's built-in NavMesh feature and implement your own A* pathfinding system. You will then learn how to implement simple flocks and crowd's dynamics, key AI concepts. Moving on, you will learn how to implement a behavior tree through a game-focused example. Lastly, you'll combine fuzzy logic concepts with state machines and apply all the concepts in the book to build a simple tank game.

VMware vSphere 5.5 Cookbook. A task-oriented guide with over 150 practical recipes to install, configure, and manage VMware vSphere components

Abhilash G B

Yii Application Development Cookbook. This book is the perfect way to add the capabilities of Yii to your PHP5 development skills. Dealing with practical solutions through real-life recipes and screenshots, it enables you to write applications more efficiently. - Second Edition

Alexander Makarov, Yii

The Yii framework is a rapidly growing PHP5 MVC framework often referred to as Rails for PHP. It has already become a solid base for many exciting web applications such as Stay.com and can be a good base for your developments, too. This book will help you to learn Yii quickly and in more depth for use in for your developments.Yii Application Development Cookbook will show you how to use Yii efficiently. You will learn about taking shortcuts using core features, creating your own reusable code base, using test driven development, and many more topics that will give you a lot of experience in a moderate amount of time.The second edition fixes all errata found in the first edition and also features new recipes on the client side, HTTP caching, and using Composer with Yii.The chapters of the book are generally independent and since this book's goal is to enhance a practical approach to Yii development, you can start reading from the chapter you need most, be it Ajax and jQuery, Database, Active Record, and Model Tricks, or Extending Yii.Yii Application Development Cookbook will help you to learn more about the Yii framework and application development practices in general, showing shortcuts and dangerous things you shouldn't do.With all the recipes grouped in 13 chapters, you will write your applications more efficiently using shortcuts and using Yii core functionality in a good way. The most interesting topics are; Yii application deployment, a guide to writing your own extensions, advanced error handling, debugging and logging, application security, performance tuning, and much more.Yii Application Development Cookbook will help you to learn more about the Yii framework and application development practices in general. You will write your applications more efficiently using shortcuts and using Yii core functionality in a good way.

Data Modeling with Tableau. A practical guide to building data models using Tableau Prep and Tableau Desktop

Kirk Munroe

Tableau is unlike most other BI platforms that have a single data modeling tool and enterprise data model (for example, LookML from Google’s Looker). That doesn’t mean Tableau doesn’t have enterprise data governance; it is both robust and highly flexible. This book will help you effectively use Tableau governance models to build a data-driven organization.Data Modeling with Tableau is an extensive guide, complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts, practical examples, and hands-on exercises. As you progress through the chapters, you’ll learn the role that Tableau Prep Builder and Tableau Desktop each play in data modeling. You’ll also explore the components of Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud that make data modeling more robust, secure, and performant. Moreover, by extending data models for Ask and Explain Data, you’ll gain the knowledge required to extend analytics to more people in their organizations, leading to better data-driven decisions. Finally, this book will guide you through the entire Tableau stack and the techniques required to build the right level of governance into Tableau data models for the correct use cases.By the end of this Tableau book, you’ll have a firm understanding of how to leverage data modeling in Tableau to benefit your organization.

Extending Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Cookbook. This is a brilliantly accessible book, packed with practical examples, that's perfect for business professionals who want to make more of the advanced features of Dynamics AX to save money and increase management efficiency

Murray Fife

Dynamics AX is built on a number of foundation products from Microsoft that are used to make it bigger, better, and stronger than the average business system. Taking advantage of these products will make your life easier. Use these tools to maximize the efficiency of your business management, taking advantage of a powerful and centralized tool set.Extending Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Cookbook will show you how to use tools that you already have to extend out Dynamics AX and discover potential new directions. You will be surprised at what you can do on a shoestring budget. The book will allow you to streamline your work processes, and use the system's powerful and centralised features to the advantage of your organization.Extending Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Cookbook will show you how to maximize the potential of Dynamics AX with common and popular tools to enhance your business management systems. We will begin by exploring how to extend Dynamics AX out with SharePoint. After this, the book will guide you through important elements in maximizing business management efficiency, focusing on key aspects like reports, dashboards, and workflows. The book will then finish by teaching you how to customize your management systems, achieving a comprehensive coverage of the most important extension processes relevant to you and your business with very little programming.This is a book for those of you that want to make the most out of Dynamics AX by using what you already have, and without breaking the bank.

Distributed Data Systems with Azure Databricks. Create, deploy, and manage enterprise data pipelines

Alan Bernardo Palacio

Microsoft Azure Databricks helps you to harness the power of distributed computing and apply it to create robust data pipelines, along with training and deploying machine learning and deep learning models. Databricks' advanced features enable developers to process, transform, and explore data. Distributed Data Systems with Azure Databricks will help you to put your knowledge of Databricks to work to create big data pipelines. The book provides a hands-on approach to implementing Azure Databricks and its associated methodologies that will make you productive in no time. Complete with detailed explanations of essential concepts, practical examples, and self-assessment questions, you’ll begin with a quick introduction to Databricks core functionalities, before performing distributed model training and inference using TensorFlow and Spark MLlib. As you advance, you’ll explore MLflow Model Serving on Azure Databricks and implement distributed training pipelines using HorovodRunner in Databricks. Finally, you’ll discover how to transform, use, and obtain insights from massive amounts of data to train predictive models and create entire fully working data pipelines. By the end of this MS Azure book, you’ll have gained a solid understanding of how to work with Databricks to create and manage an entire big data pipeline.

Building a Recommendation System with R. Learn the art of building robust and powerful recommendation engines using R

SURESH K GORAKALA, Michele Usuelli, Suresh Kumar Gorakala

Learn Linux Quickly. A beginner-friendly guide to getting up and running with the world's most powerful operating system

Ahmed AlKabary

Linux is one of the most sought-after skills in the IT industry, with jobs involving Linux being increasingly in demand. Linux is by far the most popular operating system deployed in both public and private clouds; it is the processing power behind the majority of IoT and embedded devices. Do you use a mobile device that runs on Android? Even Android is a Linux distribution.This Linux book is a practical guide that lets you explore the power of the Linux command-line interface. Starting with the history of Linux, you'll quickly progress to the Linux filesystem hierarchy and learn a variety of basic Linux commands. You'll then understand how to make use of the extensive Linux documentation and help tools. The book shows you how to manage users and groups and takes you through the process of installing and managing software on Linux systems. As you advance, you'll discover how you can interact with Linux processes and troubleshoot network problems before learning the art of writing bash scripts and automating administrative tasks with Cron jobs. In addition to this, you'll get to create your own Linux commands and analyze various disk management techniques.By the end of this book, you'll have gained the Linux skills required to become an efficient Linux system administrator and be able to manage and work productively on Linux systems.

VMware ThinApp 4.7 Essentials. Learn how to quickly and efficiently virtualize your applications with ThinApp 4.7 with this book and

Peter Bjork

VMware ThinApp 4.7 is an application virtualization and portable application creator which allows users to package conventional applications so that they are portable.VMware ThinApp 4.7 Essentials shows you how to deploy ThinApp packages in order to improve the portability, manageability and compatibility of applications by encapsulating them from the underlying operating system on which they are executed.Application virtualization improves the portability, manageability and compatibility of applications by encapsulating them from the underlying operating system on which they are executed.VMware ThinApp 4.7 is an application virtualization and portable application creator which allows users to package conventional applications so that they are portable. ThinApp eliminates application conflicts, reducing the need and cost of recoding and regression testing.In this book you will learn about how application virtualization works and how to deploy ThinApp packages. You will learn how to update and tweak ThinApp Projects before distribution. This book will then cover design and implementation considerations for future ThinApp projects.

Troubleshooting Ubuntu Server. Make life at the office easier for server administrators by helping them build resilient Ubuntu server systems

Skanda Bhargav