Swift Essentials. Discover how to build iOS and watchOS applications in Swift 2 using Xcode - Second Edition

Alex Blewitt

Swift was considered one of the biggest innovations last year, and certainly with Swift 2 announced at WWDC in 2015, this segment of the developer space will continue to be hot and dominating. This is a fast-paced guide to provide an overview of Swift programming and then walks you through in detail how to write iOS applications. Progress through chapters on custom views, networking, parsing and build a complete application as a Git repository, all by using Swift as the core language

Getting Started with Talend Open Studio for Data Integration. This is the complete course for anybody who wants to get to grips with Talend Open Studio for Data Integration. From the basics of transferring data to complex integration processes, it will give you a head start

Jonathan Bowen

Talend Open Studio for Data Integration (TOS) is an open source graphical development environment for creating custom integrations between systems. It comes with over 600 pre-built connectors that make it quick and easy to connect databases, transform files, load data, move, copy and rename files and connect individual components in order to define complex integration processes.Getting Started with Talend Open Studio for Data Integration illustrates common uses and scenarios in a simple, practical manner and, building on knowledge as the book progresses, works towards more complex integration solutions.TOS is a code generator and so does a lot of the heavy liftingù for you. As such, it is a suitable tool for experienced developers and non-developers alike. You'll start by learning how to construct some common integrations tasks ñ transforming files and extracting data from a database, for example. These building blocks form a toolkitù of techniques that you will learn how to apply in many different situations.By the end of the book, once complex integrations will appear easy and you will be your organization's integration expert!Best of all, TOS makes integrating systems fun!

Web Development with Julia and Genie. A hands-on guide to high-performance server-side web development with the Julia programming language

Ivo Balbaert, Adrian Salceanu, Logan Kilpatrick

Julia’s high-performance and scalability characteristics and its extensive number of packages for visualizing data make it an excellent fit for developing web apps, web services, and web dashboards. The two parts of this book provide complete coverage to build your skills in web development.First, you'll refresh your knowledge of the main concepts in Julia that will further be used in web development. Then, you’ll use Julia’s standard web packages and examine how the building blocks of the web such as TCP-IP, web sockets, HTTP protocol, and so on are implemented in Julia’s standard library. Each topic is discussed and developed into code that you can apply in new projects, from static websites to dashboards. You’ll also understand how to choose the right Julia framework for a project. The second part of the book talks about the Genie framework. You’ll learn how to build a traditional to do app following the MVC design pattern. Next, you’ll add a REST API to this project, including testing and documentation. Later, you’ll explore the various ways of deploying an app in production, including authentication functionality. Finally, you’ll work on an interactive data dashboard, making various chart types and filters.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to build interactive web solutions on a large scale with a Julia-based web framework.

IoT Edge Computing with MicroK8s. A hands-on approach to building, deploying, and distributing production-ready Kubernetes on IoT and Edge platforms

Karthikeyan Shanmugam

Are you facing challenges with developing, deploying, monitoring, clustering, storing, securing, and managing Kubernetes in production environments as you're not familiar with infrastructure technologies? MicroK8s - a zero-ops, lightweight, and CNCF-compliant Kubernetes with a small footprint is the apt solution for you.This book gets you up and running with production-grade, highly available (HA) Kubernetes clusters on MicroK8s using best practices and examples based on IoT and edge computing.Beginning with an introduction to Kubernetes, MicroK8s, and IoT and edge computing architectures, this book shows you how to install, deploy sample apps, and enable add-ons (like DNS and dashboard) on the MicroK8s platform. You’ll work with multi-node Kubernetes clusters on Raspberry Pi and networking plugins (such as Calico and Cilium) and implement service mesh, load balancing with MetalLB and Ingress, and AI/ML workloads on MicroK8s. You’ll also understand how to secure containers, monitor infrastructure and apps with Prometheus, Grafana, and the ELK stack, manage storage replication with OpenEBS, resist component failure using a HA cluster, and more, as well as take a sneak peek into future trends.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to use MicroK8 to build and implement scenarios for IoT and edge computing workloads in a production environment.

Windows Ransomware Detection and Protection. Securing Windows endpoints, the cloud, and infrastructure using Microsoft Intune, Sentinel, and Defender

Marius Sandbu

If you’re looking for an effective way to secure your environment against ransomware attacks, this is the book for you. From teaching you how to monitor security threats to establishing countermeasures to protect against ransomware attacks, Windows Ransomware Detection and Protection has it all covered.The book begins by helping you understand how ransomware attacks work, identifying different attack vectors, and showing you how to build a secure network foundation and Windows environment. You’ll then explore ransomware countermeasures in different segments, such as Identity and Access Management, networking, Endpoint Manager, cloud, and infrastructure, and learn how to protect against attacks. As you move forward, you’ll get to grips with the forensics involved in making important considerations when your system is attacked or compromised with ransomware, the steps you should follow, and how you can monitor the threat landscape for future threats by exploring different online data sources and building processes.By the end of this ransomware book, you’ll have learned how configuration settings and scripts can be used to protect Windows from ransomware attacks with 50 tips on security settings to secure your Windows workload.

Hands-On Financial Modeling with Excel for Microsoft 365. Build your own practical financial models for effective forecasting, valuation, trading, and growth analysis - Second Edition

Shmuel Oluwa

Financial modeling is a core skill required by anyone who wants to build a career in finance. Hands-On Financial Modeling with Excel for Microsoft 365 explores financial modeling terminologies with the help of Excel.Starting with the key concepts of Excel, such as formulas and functions, this updated second edition will help you to learn all about referencing frameworks and other advanced components for building financial models. As you proceed, you'll explore the advantages of Power Query, learn how to prepare a 3-statement model, inspect your financial projects, build assumptions, and analyze historical data to develop data-driven models and functional growth drivers. Next, you'll learn how to deal with iterations and provide graphical representations of ratios, before covering best practices for effective model testing. Later, you'll discover how to build a model to extract a statement of comprehensive income and financial position, and understand capital budgeting with the help of end-to-end case studies.By the end of this financial modeling Excel book, you'll have examined data from various use cases and have developed the skills you need to build financial models to extract the information required to make informed business decisions.

DIY Microcontroller Projects for Hobbyists. The ultimate project-based guide to building real-world embedded applications in C and C++ programming

Miguel Angel Garcia-Ruiz, Pedro Cesar Santana Mancilla

We live in a world surrounded by electronic devices, and microcontrollers are the brains of these devices. Microcontroller programming is an essential skill in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), and this book helps you to get up to speed with it by working through projects for designing and developing embedded apps with microcontroller boards.DIY Microcontroller Projects for Hobbyists are filled with microcontroller programming C and C++ language constructs. You'll discover how to use the Blue Pill (containing a type of STM32 microcontroller) and Curiosity Nano (containing a type of PIC microcontroller) boards for executing your projects as PIC is a beginner-level board and STM-32 is an ARM Cortex-based board. Later, you'll explore the fundamentals of digital electronics and microcontroller board programming. The book uses examples such as measuring humidity and temperature in an environment to help you gain hands-on project experience. You'll build on your knowledge as you create IoT projects by applying more complex sensors. Finally, you'll find out how to plan for a microcontroller-based project and troubleshoot it.By the end of this book, you'll have developed a firm foundation in electronics and practical PIC and STM32 microcontroller programming and interfacing, adding valuable skills to your professional portfolio.

Running Effective Marketing Meetings. A how-to guide to run marketing meetings that teach, inspire, and change how you and your team work

Daniel Kuperman

Docker Cookbook. Over 100 practical and insightful recipes to build distributed applications with Docker - Second Edition

Ken Cochrane, Jeeva S. Chelladhurai, Neependra K Khare

Docker is an open source tool used for creating, deploying, and running applications using containers. With more than 100 self-contained tutorials, this book examines common pain points and best practices for developers building distributed applications with Docker. Each recipe in this book addresses a specific problem and offers a proven, best practice solution with insights into how it works, so that you can modify the code and configuration files to suit your needs.The Docker Cookbook begins by guiding you in setting up Docker in different environments and explains how to work with its containers and images. You’ll understand Docker orchestration, networking, security, and hosting platforms for effective collaboration and efficient deployment. The book also covers tips and tricks and new Docker features that support a range of other cloud offerings.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to package and deploy end-to-end distributed applications with Docker and be well-versed with best practice solutions for common development problems.

Gnucash 2.4 Small Business Accounting: Beginner's Guide. Manage your accounts with this desktop financial manager application

Ashok Ramachandran, Christian Stimming

Attention, small business owners! Stop tax-day stress. Stop procrastinating with a shoebox full of receipts. Stop reinventing the wheel with a spreadsheet. Stop making decisions simply on a hunch. Stop wasting money on software that is overkill. Start by downloading GnuCash and getting your accounts in order. Designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible, GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, income, and expenses. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, it is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports. You can do it and Gnucash 2.4 Small Business Accounting Beginner's Guide will help you get up and running with maintaining your accounts.Gnucash 2.4 Small Business Accounting Beginner's Guide speaks business language, not accountant-speak, because it is written by a former small business owner. It guides you to use GnuCash from scratch with step-by-step tutorials without jargon, pointing out the gotchas to avoid with lots of tips. It will teach you to work on routine business transactions while migrating transaction data from other applications gradually. You will be able to keep on top of transactions and run reports after reading just three chapters!Beyond Chapter 3, it is up to you how far you want to go. Reconcile with your bank and credit card statements. Charge and pay sales tax. Do invoicing. Track payments due. Set up reminders for bills. Avoid stress at tax time. Print checks. Capture expenses using your mobile phone.Gnucash 2.4 Small Business Accounting Beginner's Guide gives you the power. Know your numbers. Make decisions with confidence. Drive your business to its full potential.

JavaScript and JSON Essentials. Build light weight, scalable, and faster web applications with the power of JSON - Second Edition

Bruno Joseph D'mello, Sai S Sriparasa

JSON is an established and standard format used to exchange data. This book shows how JSON plays different roles in full web development through examples. By the end of this book, you'll have a new perspective on providing solutions for your applications and handling their complexities.After establishing a strong basic foundation with JSON, you'll learn to build frontend apps by creating a carousel. Next, you'll learn to implement JSON with Angular 5, Node.js, template embedding, and composer.json in PHP. This book will also help you implement Hapi.js (known for its JSON-configurable architecture) for server-side scripting.You'll learn to implement JSON for real-time apps using Kafka, as well as how to implement JSON for a task runner, and for MongoDB BSON storage. The book ends with some case studies on JSON formats to help you sharpen your creativity by exploring futuristic JSON implementations. By the end of the book, you'll be up and running with all the essential features of JSON and JavaScript and able to build fast, scalable, and efficient web applications.

BeagleBone Essentials. Harness the power of the BeagleBone Black to manage external environments using C, Bash, and Python/PHP programming

Rodolfo Giometti

Leaflet.js Essentials. Create interactive, mobile-friendly mapping applications using the incredibly light yet powerful Leaflet.js platform

Paul Crickard III, Paul Crickard

Procedural Content Generation for C++ Game Development. Get to know techniques and approaches to procedurally generate game content in C++ using Simple and Fast Multimedia Library

Dale Green

Procedural generation is a growing trend in game development. It allows developers to create games that are bigger and more dynamic, giving the games a higher level of replayability. Procedural generation isn’t just one technique, it’s a collection of techniques and approaches that are used together to create dynamic systems and objects. C++ is the industry-standard programming language to write computer games. It’s at the heart of most engines, and is incredibly powerful. SFML is an easy-to-use, cross-platform, and open-source multimedia library. Access to computer hardware is broken into succinct modules, making it a great choice if you want to develop cross-platform games with ease.Using C++ and SFML technologies, this book will guide you through the techniques and approaches used to generate content procedurally within game development. Throughout the course of this book, we’ll look at examples of these technologies, starting with setting up a roguelike project using the C++ template. We’ll then move on to using RNG with C++ data types and randomly scattering objects within a game map. We will create simple console examples to implement in a real game by creating unique and randomised game items, dynamic sprites, and effects, and procedurally generating game events. Then we will walk you through generating random game maps. At the end, we will have a retrospective look at the project. By the end of the book, not only will you have a solid understanding of procedural generation, but you’ll also have a working roguelike game that you will have extended using the examples provided.

Journey to Become a Google Cloud Machine Learning Engineer. Build the mind and hand of a Google Certified ML professional

Logan Song

This book aims to provide a study guide to learn and master machine learning in Google Cloud: to build a broad and strong knowledge base, train hands-on skills, and get certified as a Google Cloud Machine Learning Engineer.The book is for someone who has the basic Google Cloud Platform (GCP) knowledge and skills, and basic Python programming skills, and wants to learn machine learning in GCP to take their next step toward becoming a Google Cloud Certified Machine Learning professional.The book starts by laying the foundations of Google Cloud Platform and Python programming, followed the by building blocks of machine learning, then focusing on machine learning in Google Cloud, and finally ends the studying for the Google Cloud Machine Learning certification by integrating all the knowledge and skills together.The book is based on the graduate courses the author has been teaching at the University of Texas at Dallas. When going through the chapters, the reader is expected to study the concepts, complete the exercises, understand and practice the labs in the appendices, and study each exam question thoroughly. Then, at the end of the learning journey, you can expect to harvest the knowledge, skills, and a certificate.

Odoo Development Essentials. Fast track your development skills to build powerful Odoo business applications

Stephane Wirtel, Daniel Reis

Learning Tableau 2020. Create effective data visualizations, build interactive visual analytics, and transform your organization - Fourth Edition

Joshua N. Milligan

Learning Tableau strengthens your command on Tableau fundamentals and builds on advanced topics.The book starts by taking you through foundational principles of Tableau. We then demonstrate various types of connections and how to work with metadata. We teach you to use a wide variety of visualizations to analyze and communicate the data, and introduce you to calculations and parameters. We then take an in-depth look at level of detail (LOD) expressions and use them to solve complex data challenges. Up next, we show table calculations, how to extend and alter default visualizations, build an interactive dashboard, and master the art of telling stories with data.This Tableau book will introduce you to visual statistical analytics capabilities, create different types of visualizations and dynamic dashboards for rich user experiences. We then move on to maps and geospatial visualization, and the new Data Model capabilities introduced in Tableau 2020.2. You will further use Tableau Prep’s ability to clean and structure data and share the stories contained in your data.By the end of this book, you will be proficient in implementing the powerful features of Tableau 2020 for decision-making.

Generative AI Foundations in Python. Discover key techniques and navigate modern challenges in LLMs

Carlos Rodriguez, Samira Shaikh

The intricacies and breadth of generative AI (GenAI) and large language models can sometimes eclipse their practical application. It is pivotal to understand the foundational concepts needed to implement generative AI. This guide explains the core concepts behind -of-the-art generative models by combining theory and hands-on application.Generative AI Foundations in Python begins by laying a foundational understanding, presenting the fundamentals of generative LLMs and their historical evolution, while also setting the stage for deeper exploration. You’ll also understand how to apply generative LLMs in real-world applications. The book cuts through the complexity and offers actionable guidance on deploying and fine-tuning pre-trained language models with Python. Later, you’ll delve into topics such as task-specific fine-tuning, domain adaptation, prompt engineering, quantitative evaluation, and responsible AI, focusing on how to effectively and responsibly use generative LLMs.By the end of this book, you’ll be well-versed in applying generative AI capabilities to real-world problems, confidently navigating its enormous potential ethically and responsibly.

Node.js for Beginners. A comprehensive guide to building efficient, full-featured web applications with Node.js

Ulises Gascón

Node.js revolutionizes server-side JavaScript development and empowers developers to build efficient, scalable, and versatile applications across a range of use cases. This book is written by a Node.js core collaborator and releaser and is the only book for beginners on Node.js. It takes you on a progressive learning path that will give you the skills needed to leverage Node.js.You’ll learn Node.js fundamentals and refresh your knowledge of JavaScript before transitioning to the development of modern web applications using Node.js, Express.js, and MongoDB. You’ll get hands-on with complex topics such as asynchronous programming, npm libraries, event-driven patterns for HTTP servers, RESTful API, and JSON Web Tokens. The final chapters will walk you through the deployment process, offering insights into various strategies, including bare metal setups, virtual machines, and containerization with Docker. You’ll also be guided through the use of Process Manager 2 (PM2) for efficient process management.By the end of this Node.js book, you'll have the skills to craft, test, and deploy Node.js web applications confidently and use this powerful stack in your day-to-day projects.

Reproducible Data Science with Pachyderm. Learn how to build version-controlled, end-to-end data pipelines using Pachyderm 2.0

Svetlana Karslioglu

Pachyderm is an open source project that enables data scientists to run reproducible data pipelines and scale them to an enterprise level. This book will teach you how to implement Pachyderm to create collaborative data science workflows and reproduce your ML experiments at scale.You’ll begin your journey by exploring the importance of data reproducibility and comparing different data science platforms. Next, you’ll explore how Pachyderm fits into the picture and its significance, followed by learning how to install Pachyderm locally on your computer or a cloud platform of your choice. You’ll then discover the architectural components and Pachyderm's main pipeline principles and concepts. The book demonstrates how to use Pachyderm components to create your first data pipeline and advances to cover common operations involving data, such as uploading data to and from Pachyderm to create more complex pipelines. Based on what you've learned, you'll develop an end-to-end ML workflow, before trying out the hyperparameter tuning technique and the different supported Pachyderm language clients. Finally, you’ll learn how to use a SaaS version of Pachyderm with Pachyderm Notebooks.By the end of this book, you will learn all aspects of running your data pipelines in Pachyderm and manage them on a day-to-day basis.

Network Architect's Handbook. An expert-led journey to building a successful career as a network architect

Alim H. Ali, Steven Parker, Russell Ware

Becoming a network architect is challenging—it demands hands-on engineering skills, collaboration with internal teams and C-Suite stakeholders, as well as adeptly managing external entities like vendors and service providers. The author taps into his extensive background in IT and security to help you gain a detailed understanding of the network architect's role and guide you in evolving into an effective network architect within an organization, fostering seamless communication with leadership teams and other stakeholders.Starting with a clear definition of the network architect’s role, this book lays out a roadmap and discusses the attributes and mindset for success. You’ll explore network architect design, physical infrastructure routing and switching, and network services such as DNS, MLAG, and service insertion. You’ll also gain insights into the necessary skills and typical daily challenges faced by network architects. And to thoroughly prepare you to advance in your career, this handbook covers certifications and associated training for maintaining relevance in an organization, along with common interview questions for a network architect's position.By the end of this book, you’ll be armed with essential concepts, techniques, and newfound skills to pursue a career as a network architect.

Elevating Game Experiences with Unreal Engine 5. Bring your game ideas to life using the new Unreal Engine 5 and C++ - Second Edition

Gonçalo Marques, Devin Sherry, David Pereira, Hammad Fozi

Immerse yourself in the Unreal game projects with this book, written by four highly experienced industry professionals with many years of combined experience with Unreal Engine. Elevating Game Experiences with Unreal Engine 5 will walk you through the latest version of Unreal Engine by helping you get hands-on with the game creation projects.The book starts with an introduction to the Unreal Editor and key concepts such as actors, blueprints, animations, inheritance, and player input. You'll then move on to the first of three projects, building a dodgeball game, where you'll learn the concepts of line traces, collisions, projectiles, user interface, and sound effects. You’ll also discover how to combine these concepts to showcase your new skills. The second project, a side-scroller game, will help you implement concepts such as animation blending, enemy AI, spawning objects, and collectibles. And finally, you'll cover the key concepts in creating a multiplayer environment as you work on the third project, an FPS game.By the end of this Unreal Engine book, you'll have a broad understanding of how to use the tools that the game engine provides to start building your own games.

Cloud Native Software Security Handbook. Unleash the power of cloud native tools for robust security in modern applications

Mihir Shah

For cloud security engineers, it’s crucial to look beyond the limited managed services provided by cloud vendors and make use of the wide array of cloud native tools available to developers and security professionals, which enable the implementation of security solutions at scale. This book covers technologies that secure infrastructure, containers, and runtime environments using vendor-agnostic cloud native tools under the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).The book begins with an introduction to the whats and whys of the cloud native environment, providing a primer on the platforms that you’ll explore throughout. You’ll then progress through the book, following the phases of application development. Starting with system design choices, security trade-offs, and secure application coding techniques that every developer should be mindful of, you’ll delve into more advanced topics such as system security architecture and threat modelling practices. The book concludes by explaining the legal and regulatory frameworks governing security practices in the cloud native space and highlights real-world repercussions that companies have faced as a result of immature security practices.By the end of this book, you'll be better equipped to create secure code and system designs.

Unity Game Development Essentials. If you have ambitions to be a game developer this guide is a must. Covering all the fundamentals of the Unity game engine, it will help you understand the different elements of 3D game creation through practical projects

Will Goldstone

Game engines are central to the video games we know and love. From the artwork to the mathematics that underpin the frames onscreen, the engine calls the shots. Aside from offering one of the leading 3D game engines, Unity also provides a superlative development tool ñ a tool that can produce professional standard games for Mac, PC, and the Unity Web Player.This book is a complete exercise in game development covering environments, physics, sound, particles, and much more, to get you up and working with Unity quickly.Taking a practical approach, this book will introduce you to the concepts of developing 3D games before getting to grips with development in Unity itself. From creating 3D worlds to scripting and creating simple game elements you will learn everything you'll need to get started with game development for the PC, Mac, and Web.This book is designed to cover a set of easy to follow examples, which culminate in the production of a First Person 3D game, complete with an interactive island environment. By introducing common concepts of game and 3D production, you'll explore Unity to make a character interact with the game world, and build puzzles for the player to solve, in order to complete the game. At the end of the book, you will have a fully working 3D game and all the skills required to extend the game further, giving your end-user, the player, the best experience possible. Soon you will be creating your own 3D games with ease!