The Kaggle Book. Data analysis and machine learning for competitive data science

Konrad Banachewicz, Luca Massaron, Anthony Goldbloom

Millions of data enthusiasts from around the world compete on Kaggle, the most famous data science competition platform of them all. Participating in Kaggle competitions is a surefire way to improve your data analysis skills, network with an amazing community of data scientists, and gain valuable experience to help grow your career.The first book of its kind, The Kaggle Book assembles in one place the techniques and skills you’ll need for success in competitions, data science projects, and beyond. Two Kaggle Grandmasters walk you through modeling strategies you won’t easily find elsewhere, and the knowledge they’ve accumulated along the way. As well as Kaggle-specific tips, you’ll learn more general techniques for approaching tasks based on image, tabular, textual data, and reinforcement learning. You’ll design better validation schemes and work more comfortably with different evaluation metrics.Whether you want to climb the ranks of Kaggle, build some more data science skills, or improve the accuracy of your existing models, this book is for you.Plus, join our Discord Community to learn along with more than 1,000 members and meet like-minded people!

Power Query Cookbook. Use effective and powerful queries in Power BI Desktop and Dataflows to prepare and transform your data

Andrea Janicijevic

Power Query is a data preparation tool that enables data engineers and business users to connect, reshape, enrich, and transform their data to facilitate relevant business insights and analysis. With Power Query's wide range of features, you can perform no-code transformations and complex M code functions at the same time to get the most out of your data.This Power Query book will help you to connect to data sources, achieve intuitive transformations, and get to grips with preparation practices. Starting with a general overview of Power Query and what it can do, the book advances to cover more complex topics such as M code and performance optimization. You'll learn how to extend these capabilities by gradually stepping away from the Power Query GUI and into the M programming language. Additionally, the book also shows you how to use Power Query Online within Power BI Dataflows.By the end of the book, you'll be able to leverage your source data, understand your data better, and enrich it with a full stack of no-code and custom features that you'll learn to design by yourself for your business requirements.

Advanced Natural Language Processing with TensorFlow 2. Build effective real-world NLP applications using NER, RNNs, seq2seq models, Transformers, and more

Ashish Bansal

Recently, there have been tremendous advances in NLP, and we are now moving from research labs into practical applications. This book comes with a perfect blend of both the theoretical and practical aspects of trending and complex NLP techniques. The book is focused on innovative applications in the field of NLP, language generation, and dialogue systems. It helps you apply the concepts of pre-processing text using techniques such as tokenization, parts of speech tagging, and lemmatization using popular libraries such as Stanford NLP and SpaCy. You will build Named Entity Recognition (NER) from scratch using Conditional Random Fields and Viterbi Decoding on top of RNNs. The book covers key emerging areas such as generating text for use in sentence completion and text summarization, bridging images and text by generating captions for images, and managing dialogue aspects of chatbots. You will learn how to apply transfer learning and fine-tuning using TensorFlow 2. Further, it covers practical techniques that can simplify the labelling of textual data. The book also has a working code that is adaptable to your use cases for each tech piece. By the end of the book, you will have an advanced knowledge of the tools, techniques and deep learning architecture used to solve complex NLP problems.

Enterprise Application Development with C# 10 and .NET 6. Become a professional .NET developer by learning expert techniques for building scalable applications - Second Edition

Ravindra Akella, Arun Kumar Tamirisa, Suneel Kumar Kunani, Bhupesh Guptha Muthiyalu

Building production-ready enterprise applications can be a challenging task due to the overabundance of tools and their different versions that make app development complex. This book simplifies the process with an end-to-end road map for building enterprise applications from scratch using the latest features of .NET Core 6 and C# 10.Throughout the book, you'll work on creating an enterprise app, adding a key component to the app with each chapter, before ?nally getting it ready for testing and deployment. You'll learn concepts relating to advanced data structures, the Entity Framework Core, parallel programming, and dependency injection. As you progress, you'll cover various authentication and authorization schemes provided by .NET Core to make your apps and APIs secure. The book then shows you how the latest Microsoft Visual Studio and C# 10 help you simplify developer tasks and shares tips and tricks in Visual Studio to improve your productivity. You'll discover various testing techniques, such as unit testing and performance testing, as well as di?erent methods to deploy enterprise apps.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to create enterprise apps using the powerful features of .NET 6 and deploy them to the cloud while working with various cloud components using Azure.

How to Build Android Apps with Kotlin. A practical guide to developing, testing, and publishing your first Android apps - Second Edition

Alex Forrester, Eran Boudjnah, Alexandru Dumbravan, Jomar Tigcal

Looking to kick-start your app development journey with Android 13, but don’t know where to start? How to Build Android Apps with Kotlin is a comprehensive guide that will help jump-start your Android development practice.This book starts with the fundamentals of app development, enabling you to utilize Android Studio and Kotlin to get started with building Android projects. You'll learn how to create apps and run them on virtual devices through guided exercises. Progressing through the chapters, you'll delve into Android's RecyclerView to make the most of lists, images, and maps, and see how to fetch data from a web service.You'll also get to grips with testing, learning how to keep your architecture clean, understanding how to persist data, and gaining basic knowledge of the dependency injection pattern. Finally, you'll see how to publish your apps on the Google Play store.You'll work on realistic projects that are split up into bitesize exercises and activities, allowing you to challenge yourself in an enjoyable and attainable way. You'll build apps to create quizzes, read news articles, check weather reports, store recipes, retrieve movie information, and remind you where you parked your car.By the end of this book, you'll have the skills and confidence to build your own creative Android applications using Kotlin.

Automating DevOps with GitLab CI/CD Pipelines. Build efficient CI/CD pipelines to verify, secure, and deploy your code using real-life examples

Christopher Cowell, Nicholas Lotz, Chris Timberlake

Developers and release engineers understand the high stakes of building, packaging, and deploying code efficiently. Ensuring that your code is fast, secure, and functionally correct can be a time-consuming and complex task. GitLab CI/CD pipelines simplify these tasks, enabling automation and seamless deployment.Automating DevOps with GitLab CI/CD Pipelines starts with the fundamentals of Git and GitLab, guiding you through committing and reviewing code. You'll learn how to set up GitLab Runners to execute and autoscale CI/CD pipelines, configure pipelines for different stages of the software development lifecycle, and analyze pipeline results in GitLab. As you progress, you'll gain expertise in deploying code across environments, integrating GitLab with Kubernetes and Terraform, triggering pipelines, and improving pipeline performance. This book also includes troubleshooting techniques, best practices, real-world use cases, and self-assessments to reinforce key CI/CD concepts and help you prepare for GitLab-related interviews and certifications.By the end of this book, you'll have the skills to build and automate CI/CD pipelines in GitLab, streamline DevOps workflows, and deploy high-quality, secure code with confidence.

Data Cleaning and Exploration with Machine Learning. Get to grips with machine learning techniques to achieve sparkling-clean data quickly

Michael Walker

Many individuals who know how to run machine learning algorithms do not have a good sense of the statistical assumptions they make and how to match the properties of the data to the algorithm for the best results.As you start with this book, models are carefully chosen to help you grasp the underlying data, including in-feature importance and correlation, and the distribution of features and targets. The first two parts of the book introduce you to techniques for preparing data for ML algorithms, without being bashful about using some ML techniques for data cleaning, including anomaly detection and feature selection. The book then helps you apply that knowledge to a wide variety of ML tasks. You’ll gain an understanding of popular supervised and unsupervised algorithms, how to prepare data for them, and how to evaluate them. Next, you’ll build models and understand the relationships in your data, as well as perform cleaning and exploration tasks with that data. You’ll make quick progress in studying the distribution of variables, identifying anomalies, and examining bivariate relationships, as you focus more on the accuracy of predictions in this book.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to deal with complex data problems using unsupervised ML algorithms like principal component analysis and k-means clustering.

Instant Fancybox. Enhance the look of your web pages using the lightweight and highly customizable jQuery plugin Fancybox

Kyle Diedrick

Fancybox is a lightweight, highly customizable jQuery plugin for displaying modal dialogs. Fancybox is incredibly versatile; it works with all sorts of different content including images, videos, iFrames, custom HTML, and even SWF files. Fancybox is also very easy to customize, making it a great tool for any pop-up-like feature.Instant Fancybox is a hands-on guide which shows you how to use and customize the Fancybox plugin. The book provides step-by-step tutorials covering everything from simple installation to complex settings and features. This makes it a great way to get familiar with and ultimately master the Fancybox plugin.This book walks you through how to get the most out of the Fancybox plugin for jQuery, starting with the installation of the plugin and how to work with the JavaScript events that Fancybox triggers.You will learn everything you need to know about setting up Fancybox to show images, image galleries and slideshows, videos, and other content. You will also learn about the settings available within Fancybox and how to leverage them to make the Fancybox popup do exciting things. The Fancybox plugin has much to offer, and this book covers all of the features it provides. This book will provide you with all the information you will need to use the Fancybox plugin effectively.

Expert Microsoft Teams Solutions. A guide to Teams architecture and integration for advanced end users and administrators

Aaron Guilmette, Yura Lee, Grant Oliasani, Angel Aviles

Microsoft Teams is an invaluable tool that can integrate various Microsoft products into a single convenient hub. But making the most of it often requires expert help and hours spent on calls and live chats. If you’d rather have all the information you need to make the most of Teams in one place, then this book is for you.Written by two Microsoft technical specialists who have spent years helping clients find the best way to utilize Teams, this book will help you understand Teams as a whole — from architecture and collaboration through to apps and voice. You’ll study the platform from the perspective of the end user as well as the administrator, gaining insights and learning from real-life examples.You’ll tackle adopting, implementing, and administering Teams efficiently, which will help you realize its full potential. From setup and deployment to modernizing your organization’s chat and voice infrastructure, you’ll get plenty of useful and actionable tips as you progress.By the end of your journey through this book, you’ll be able to design and implement the most important and exciting aspects of Microsoft Teams help your organization work more efficiently.

Learning Android Application Development. Start building for the world’s most popular mobile platform

Raimon Rafols Montane, Laurence Dawson

The mobile app market is huge. But where do you start? And how you can deliver something that takes Google Play by storm? This guide is the perfect route into Android app development – while it’s easy for new apps to sink without a trace, we’ll give you the best chance of success with practical and actionable guidance that will unlock your creativity and help you put the principles of Android development into practice.From the fundamentals and getting your project started to publishing your app to a huge market of potential customers, follow this guide to become a confident, creative and reliable mobile developer. Get to grips with new components in Android 7 such as RecyclerView, and find out how to take advantage of automated testing, and, of course, much, much more. What are you waiting for? There’s never been a better time – or a better way – to get into Android app development.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional Exam Guide (SAP-C02). Gain the practical skills, knowledge, and confidence to ace the AWS (SAP-C02) exam on your first attempt

Patrick Sard, Yohan Wadia

Known for its difficulty and ranking among the highest-paying IT certifications, the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional (SAP-C02) certification demands significant hands-on experience for success. This comprehensive guide reinforces your knowledge and enhances your skills in various solution architectures and services. Additionally, you’ll gain lifetime access to supplementary practice resources such as mock exams, flashcards, and exam tips from experts.Aligned with exam objectives, this AWS certification study guide helps you assess your knowledge through timed mock tests that simulate exam conditions. Beyond exam preparation, you’ll develop advanced skills in designing distributed systems on AWS cloud and become proficient in providing architectural recommendations for complex application implementation, and enhancing infrastructure efficiency. As you advance, you’ll gain insights into how to foster unique thinking and factor diverse considerations while architecting solutions. You’ll also get to grips with designing multi-tier applications, deploying enterprise-grade operations, and migrating complex applications to AWS.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to design and deploy innovative solutions on AWS, unlocking new opportunities and driving success in the dynamic world of cloud computing.

Learn Bosque Programming. Boost your productivity and software reliability with Microsoft’s new open-source programming language

Sebastian Kaczmarek, Joel Ibaceta

Bosque is a new high-level programming language inspired by the impact of structured programming in the 1970s. It adopts the TypeScript syntax and ML semantics and is designed for writing code that is easy to reason about for humans and machines. With this book, you'll understand how Bosque supports high productivity and cloud-first development by removing sources of accidental complexity and introducing novel features.This short book covers all the language features that you need to know to work with Bosque programming. You'll learn about basic data types, variables, functions, operators, statements, and expressions in Bosque and become familiar with advanced features such as typed strings, bulk algebraic data operations, namespace declarations, and concept and entity declarations. This Bosque book provides a complete language reference for learning to program with Bosque and understanding the regularized programming paradigm. You'll also explore real-world examples that will help you to reinforce the knowledge you've acquired. Additionally, you'll discover more advanced topics such as the Bosque project structure and contributing to the project.By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to configure the Bosque environment and build better and reliable software with this exciting new open-source language.

Augmented Reality with Unity AR Foundation. A practical guide to cross-platform AR development with Unity 2020 and later versions

Jonathan Linowes

Augmented reality applications allow people to interact meaningfully with the real world through digitally enhanced content. The book starts by helping you set up for AR development, installing the Unity 3D game engine, required packages, and other tools to develop for Android (ARCore) and/or iOS (ARKit) mobile devices. Then we jump right into the building and running AR scenes, learning about AR Foundation components, other Unity features, C# coding, troubleshooting, and testing. We create a framework for building AR applications that manages user interaction modes, user interface panels, and AR onboarding graphics that you will save as a template for reuse in other projects in this book. Using this framework, you will build multiple projects, starting with a virtual photo gallery that lets you place your favorite framed photos on your real-world walls, and interactively edit these virtual objects. Other projects include an educational image tracking app for exploring the solar system, and a fun selfie app to put masks and accessories on your face. The book provides practical advice and best practices that will have you up and running quickly.By the end of this AR book, you will be able to build your own AR applications, engaging your users in new and innovative ways.

Getting Started with tmux. Maximize your productivity by accessing several terminal sessions from a single window using tmux

Victor Quinn

OpenCV 4 for Secret Agents. Use OpenCV 4 in secret projects to classify cats, reveal the unseen, and react to rogue drivers - Second Edition

Joseph Howse

OpenCV 4 is a collection of image processing functions and computer vision algorithms. It is open source, supports many programming languages and platforms, and is fast enough for many real-time applications. With this handy library, you’ll be able to build a variety of impressive gadgets.OpenCV 4 for Secret Agents features a broad selection of projects based on computer vision, machine learning, and several application frameworks. To enable you to build apps for diverse desktop systems and Raspberry Pi, the book supports multiple Python versions, from 2.7 to 3.7. For Android app development, the book also supports Java in Android Studio, and C# in the Unity game engine. Taking inspiration from the world of James Bond, this book will add a touch of adventure and computer vision to your daily routine. You’ll be able to protect your home and car with intelligent camera systems that analyze obstacles, people, and even cats. In addition to this, you’ll also learn how to train a search engine to praise or criticize the images that it finds, and build a mobile app that speaks to you and responds to your body language.By the end of this book, you will be equipped with the knowledge you need to advance your skills as an app developer and a computer vision specialist.

Data Modeling with Microsoft Excel. Model and analyze data using Power Pivot, DAX, and Cube functions

Bernard Obeng Boateng, Michael Olafusi

Microsoft Excel's BI solutions have evolved, offering users more flexibility and control over analyzing data directly in Excel. Features like PivotTables, Data Model, Power Query, and Power Pivot empower Excel users to efficiently get, transform, model, aggregate, and visualize data.Data Modeling with Microsoft Excel offers a practical way to demystify the use and application of these tools using real-world examples and simple illustrations.This book will introduce you to the world of data modeling in Excel, as well as definitions and best practices in data structuring for both normalized and denormalized data. The next set of chapters will take you through the useful features of Data Model and Power Pivot, helping you get to grips with the types of schemas (snowflake and star) and create relationships within multiple tables. You’ll also understand how to create powerful and flexible measures using DAX and Cube functions.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to apply the acquired knowledge in real-world scenarios and build an interactive dashboard that will help you make important decisions.

Django 5 for the Impatient. Learn the core concepts of Django to develop Python web applications - Second Edition

Daniel Correa, Greg Lim

Learning Django can be a challenging and time-consuming activity without the right guidance. With hundreds of tutorials, loads of documentation, and unclear explanations out there, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s most important. This book stands out by teaching you how to use Django in just a few days with a focused approach. In this second edition, you’ll go on a fun, practical, and pragmatic journey to learning full-stack development with Django 5. You’ll start building your first Django app within minutes. As you progress, you’ll learn from concise explanations that will help you get to grips with some of the most important Django features, including URLs, views, templates, models, CSS inclusion, image storage, Django admin panel, and more. You’ll also understand how to design Django MVT (Model-View-Template) architectures and implement them. Additionally, you’ll use Django to develop a movie store application and deploy it to the internet.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to build and deploy your own Django web applications confidently.

Instant Apache Camel Message Routing. Route, transform, split, multicast messages, and do much more with Camel

Bilgin Ibryam, Bilgin Ismet Ibryam

With new APIs and technologies emerging every day, the need for integrating applications is greater than ever before. With the right tools, integrating applications is not hard. Apache Camel is the leading open source integration and message orchestration framework. Apache Camel, which has a variety of connectors and features numerous well-known integration patterns, has an enormous advantage over home grown integration solutions.Instant Apache Camel Message Routing helps you to get started using the Camel routing engine and Enterprise Integration Patterns. This book will show you how to create integration applications using Apache Camel. You will learn how Camel works and how to leverage the Enterprise Integration Patterns for message routing.Instant Apache Camel Message Routing is a practical and step-by-step guide to Apache Camel and integration patterns. This book will show you how Apache Camel works and how it integrates disparate systems using Enterprise Integration Patterns. The book starts with a high level overview of the Camel architecture before diving into message routing principles. Then, it introduces a number of patterns, complete with diagrams, common use cases, and examples about how to use them with Camel. The book also shows you how to test and monitor Camel applications and cope with failure scenarios.

Magento 2 Theme Design. Create stunning and responsive Magento 2 themes for your business - Second Edition

Fernando J Miguel, Richard Carter

Magento is the e-commerce software and platform trusted by the world’s leading brands. Using Magento’s powerful theming engine, you can control the look, content, and functionality, and easily launch a flexible e-commerce website. However, because of its powerful features, developing Magento themes is easier said than done.This book aims to leverage the enhancements to theme designing in Magento 2 to the fullest. It will show you how to gear up the performance of your e-commerce website.We begin by introducing Magento 2 and its features along with implementing a local development Magento environment. We then move on to discuss the concepts of the Magento theme structure such as templates, inheritance, customization, and override. Further on, we explore the Magento UI Library, which is a new feature available in Magento 2.0. We will create a new Magento 2.0 theme named MyCake Store using Magento Bootstrap from Maven E-commerce and also create print strategies for the Magento 2.0 theme. We will also create and customize a new theme proposal for the Magento admin panel. At the end, we will integrate Magento 2.0 to Twitter and integrate it with social bookmarking and finally deploy our new Magento 2.0 theme.

Docker Certified Associate (DCA): Exam Guide. Enhance and validate your Docker skills by gaining Docker certification

Francisco Javier Ramírez Urea

Developers have changed their deployment artifacts from application binaries to container images, and they now need to build container-based applications as containers are part of their new development workflow. This Docker book is designed to help you learn about the management and administrative tasks of the Containers as a Service (CaaS) platform.The book starts by getting you up and running with the key concepts of containers and microservices. You'll then cover different orchestration strategies and environments, along with exploring the Docker Enterprise platform. As you advance, the book will show you how to deploy secure, production-ready, container-based applications in Docker Enterprise environments. Later, you'll delve into each Docker Enterprise component and learn all about CaaS management. Throughout the book, you'll encounter important exam-specific topics, along with sample questions and detailed answers that will help you prepare effectively for the exam.By the end of this Docker containers book, you'll have learned how to efficiently deploy and manage container-based environments in production, and you will have the skills and knowledge you need to pass the DCA exam.

Android Studio 3.5 Development Essentials - Kotlin Edition. Developing Android 10 (Q) Apps Using Android Studio 3.5, Kotlin and Android Jetpack

Neil Smyth

Popularity of Kotlin as an Android-compatible language keeps growing every day. This book will help you to build your own Android applications using Kotlin.Android Studio 3.5 Development Essentials Kotlin Edition first teaches you to install Android development and test environment on different operating systems. Next, you will create an Android app and a virtual device in Android studio, and install an Android application on emulators. You will test apps on physical android devices, then study Android Studio code editor, Android architecture, and the anatomy of an Android app. The focus then shifts to Kotlin language. You’ll get an overview of Kotlin language and practice converting code from Java to Kotlin. You’ll also explore Kotlin data types, operators, expressions, loops, functions, and the basics of OOP concept in Kotlin. This book will then cover Android Jetpack and how to create an example app project using ViewModel component, as well as advanced topics such as views and widgets implementation, multi-window support integration, and biometric authentication. Finally, you will learn to upload your app to the Google Play Console and handle the build process with Gradle.By the end of this book, you will have gained enough knowledge to develop powerful Android applications using Kotlin.

Microsoft Power Platform Enterprise Architecture. A guide for architects and decision makers to craft complex solutions tailored to meet business needs

Robert Rybaric

For forward-looking architects and decision makers who want to craft complex solutions to serve growing business needs, Microsoft Power Platform Enterprise Architecture offers an array of architectural best practices and techniques.With this book, you’ll learn how to design robust software using the tools available in the Power Platform suite and be able to integrate them seamlessly with various Microsoft 365 and Azure components. Unlike most other resources that are overwhelmingly long and unstructured, this book covers essential concepts using concise yet practical examples to help you save time.You’ll develop the skills you need to architect, design, and manage a complex solution as you follow the journey of a fictitious enterprise customer as they enter the world of Power Platform. Throughout the book, you’ll discover how to combine the functionality of Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents with various methodologies to effectively address application lifecycle management, security, and extensibility. Finally, you'll learn how to overcome common challenges in migrating data to and from Microsoft Power Platform using proven techniques.By the end of this book, you’ll have the strategic perspective of an enterprise architect to make accurate architectural decisions for your complex Power Platform projects.

Instant Social Media Marketing with HootSuite. Manage and enhance your social media marketing with HootSuite

Kunal Mathur

Social media enables people to interact, share content, collaborate, and participate in user generated content. There are websites and applications dedicated to social networking, bookmarking, microblogging, and social curation; generating a lot of information in a very engaging manner. If it is not done correctly, then it can present real problems for a brand or company's image and reputation.Instant Social Media Marketing with HootSuite is a practical guide that provides marketers with explanatory, step-by-step exercises to search, comment, track, and analyse conversations over the Web about their topics of interest or brands.This fast-paced guide on the HootSuite social marketing tool breaks down the confusion that surrounds learning and managing social profiles. It will provide you with a number of clear, practical recipes that will help you understand and benefit from regular reporting.You will also learn about posting, replying, scheduling, and managing various social media profiles directly from HootSuite. Step-by-step instructions will show you how to check user profiles, conversations, create and assign tasks to teams, and generate reports using HootSuite Analytics.If you have multiple social profiles such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others, and want to simplify your life by managing all of them from same the tool and generate reports, then this is the book for you.

Instant Moodle Quiz Module How-to. Create Moodle quizzes to enhance learning using practical, hands-on recipes

Joan Coy, Moodle Trust

Enhancing learning experience and improving student success has many instructors searching for effective tools. Moodle Quiz is just such a tool to aid instructors in creating powerful assessment experiences for their learners. Instant Moodle Quiz Module How-to is a practical, hands-on guide that provides you with a number of clear step-by-step procedures, which will help you take advantage of the real power that is behind Moodle Quiz, and give you a good grounding in using it to achieve effective assessment in your courses.This book covers how Moodle Quiz module can be used to create effective assessment FOR and OF learning in your courses. It will take you through a number of clear, practical recipes that will help you harness the power of Moodle Quiz quickly and painlessly.You will begin by learning to set up clear categories, carefully designed questions and helpful feedback to create the question bank that is the foundation of Moodle Quiz. Once you have configured the quiz and specified your security requirements, you can select questions by hand or randomly. Once learners have completed the quiz you can interact one-on-one or examine statistical data for large groups using the easily generated reports.Using Instant Moodle Quiz Module How-to you will learn how to create effective quizzes and how to provide meaningful feedback and evaluate results.