Android Application Development Cookbook. Over 100 recipes to help you solve the most common problems faced by Android Developers today - Second Edition

Rick Boyer, Kyle Mew

The Android OS has the largest installation base of any operating system in the world; there has never been a better time to learn Android development to write your own applications, or to make your own contributions to the open source community!This “cookbook” will make it easy for you to jump to a topic of interest and get what you need to implement the feature in your own application. If you are new to Android and learn best by “doing,” then this book will provide many topics of interest. Starting with the basics of Android development, we move on to more advanced concepts, and we’ll guide you through common tasks developers struggle to solve. The first few chapters cover the basics including Activities, Layouts, Widgets, and the Menu. From there, we cover fragments and data storage (including SQLite), device sensors, the camera, and GPS. Then we move on more advanced topics such as graphics and animation (including OpenGL), multi-threading with AsyncTask, and Internet functionality with Volley. We’ll also demonstrate Google Maps and Google Cloud Messaging (also known as Push Notifications) using the Google API Library.Finally, we’ll take a look at several online services designed especially for Android development. Take your application big-time with full Internet web services without having to become a server admin by leveraging the power of Backend as a Service (BaaS) providers.

Information Theory. A Tutorial Introduction to the Principles and Applications of Information Theory

James V Stone

This book offers a comprehensive journey through the fascinating world of information theory, beginning with the fundamental question: what is information? Early chapters introduce key concepts like entropy, binary representation, and data compression, providing a clear and accessible foundation. Readers explore Shannon's source coding theorem and practical tools like Huffman coding to understand how information is quantified and optimized.Building on these basics, the book delves into advanced topics such as the noisy channel coding theorem, mutual information, and error correction techniques. It examines entropy in continuous systems, channel capacity, and rate-distortion theory, making complex ideas accessible through real-world examples. Connections between information and thermodynamics are also explored, including Maxwell’s Demon, the Landauer Limit, and the second law of thermodynamics.The final chapters tie information theory to biology and artificial intelligence, investigating its role in evolution, the human genome, and brain computation. With practical examples throughout, this book balances theoretical depth with hands-on learning, making it an essential resource for mastering information theory. A basic mathematical foundation will be beneficial but is not required to engage with the material.

Neural Search - From Prototype to Production with Jina. Build deep learning–powered search systems that you can deploy and manage with ease

Bo Wang, Cristian Mitroi, Feng Wang, Shubham Saboo, ...

Search is a big and ever-growing part of the tech ecosystem. Traditional search, however, has limitations that are hard to overcome because of the way it is designed. Neural search is a novel approach that uses the power of machine learning to retrieve information using vector embeddings as first-class citizens, opening up new possibilities of improving the results obtained through traditional search.Although neural search is a powerful tool, it is new and finetuning it can be tedious as it requires you to understand the several components on which it relies. Jina fills this gap by providing an infrastructure that reduces the time and complexity involved in creating deep learning–powered search engines. This book will enable you to learn the fundamentals of neural networks for neural search, its strengths and weaknesses, as well as how to use Jina to build a search engine. With the help of step-by-step explanations, practical examples, and self-assessment questions, you'll become well-versed with the basics of neural search and core Jina concepts, and learn to apply this knowledge to build your own search engine.By the end of this deep learning book, you'll be able to make the most of Jina's neural search design patterns to build an end-to-end search solution for any modality.

Windows Application Development Cookbook. Click here to enter text

Marcin Jamro

Need to ensure you can always create the best Windows apps regardless of platform? What you need are solutions to the biggest issues you can face, so you can always ensure you’re making the right choices and creating the best apps you can.The book starts with recipes that will help you set up the integrated development environment before you go ahead and design the user interface. You will learn how to use the MVVM design pattern together with data binding, as well as how to work with data in different file formats.Moving on, you will explore techniques to add animations and graphics to your application, and enable your solution to work with multimedia content.You will also see how to use sensors, such as an accelerometer and a compass, as well as obtain the current GPS location. You will make your application ready to work with Internet-based scenarios, such as composing e-mails or downloading files, before finally testing the project and submitting it to the Windows Store.By the end of the book, you will have a market-ready application compatible across different Windows devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktops.

Demystifying Ansible Automation Platform. A definitive way to manage Ansible Automation Platform and Ansible Tower

Sean Sullivan

While you can use any automation software to simplify task automation, scaling automation to suit your growing business needs becomes difficult using only a command-line tool. Ansible Automation Platform standardizes how automation is deployed, initiated, delegated, and audited, and this comprehensive guide shows you how you can simplify and scale its management.The book starts by taking you through the ways to get Ansible Automation Platform installed, their pros and cons, and the initial configuration. You’ll learn about each object in the platform, how it interacts with other objects, as well as best practices for defining and managing objects to save time. You’ll see how to maintain the created pieces with infrastructure as code. As you advance, you’ll monitor workflows with CI/CD playbooks and understand how Ansible Automation Platform integrates with many other services such as GitLab and GitHub.By the end of this book, you’ll have worked through real-world examples to make the most of the platform while learning how to manipulate, manage, and deploy any playbook to Ansible Automation Platform.

Learn QGIS. Your step-by-step guide to the fundamental of QGIS 3.4 - Fourth Edition

Andrew Cutts, Anita Graser

QGIS 3.4 is the first LTR (long term release) of QGIS version 3. This is a giant leap forward for the project with tons of new features and impactful changes. Learn QGIS is fully updated for QGIS 3.4, covering its processing engine update, Python 3 de-facto coding environment, and the GeoPackage format.This book will help you get started on your QGIS journey, guiding you to develop your own processing pathway. You will explore the user interface, loading your data, editing, and then creating data. QGIS often surprises new users with its mapping capabilities; you will discover how easily you can style and create your first map. But that’s not all! In the final part of the book, you’ll learn about spatial analysis and the powerful tools in QGIS, and conclude by looking at Python processing options.By the end of the book, you will have become proficient in geospatial analysis using QGIS and Python.

Keap Cookbook. Over 75 effective recipes for CRM optimization, marketing automation, and workflow mastery

Michelle Bell, Lesley Oliver

Say goodbye to feeling overwhelmed by Keap Pro/Max! This guide is your ultimate companion, taking you from the initial setup to daily usage and routine maintenance, showing you how to leverage the system’s features for business success. We start by building a solid foundation for Keap Pro/Max, guiding you through the setup and helping you navigate the features with ease. As you progress, you'll uncover advanced strategies and tricks that will elevate your business.Imagine managing your customer relationships effortlessly, delighting them at every step. Learn how to organize your contacts, track sales, and enhance the customer experience. Say goodbye to manual tasks and hello to efficiency by automating your marketing campaigns. You'll target your audience with precision and create personalized customer journeys.Need to generate leads? This book reveals proven techniques to attract, capture, and nurture leads effectively. You'll master campaign management, ensuring every step is seamlessly executed for maximum conversions.By the end of this book, you’ll be a Keap Pro/Max wiz, ready to dominate your niche and scale your business using the power of automation to supercharge your marketing efforts and achieve workflow mastery.

Debunking C++ Myths. Embark on an insightful journey to uncover the truths behind popular C++ myths and misconceptions

Alexandru Bolboacă, Ferenc-Lajos Deák

Think you know C++? Think again.For decades, C++ has been clouded by myths and misunderstandings—from its early design decisions to misconceptions that still linger today. Claims like C++ is too hard to learn or C++ is obsolete are often rooted in some truth, but they are outdated and fail to capture the language’s ongoing evolution and modern capabilities.Written by industry veterans with over 40 years of combined experience, this book uncovers the myths, exploring their origins and relevance in the context of today’s C++ landscape. It equips you with a deeper understanding of advanced features and best practices to elevate your projects. Each chapter tackles a specific misconception, shedding light on C++'s modern features, such as smart pointers, lambdas, and concurrency. You’ll learn practical strategies to navigate common challenges like code portability and compiler compatibility, as well as how to incorporate modern best practices into your C++ codebase to optimize performance and future-proof your projects. By the end of this book, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of C++'s evolution, equipping you to make informed decisions and harness its powerful features to enhance your skills, coding practices, and projects.

Joomla! VirtueMart 1.1 Theme and Template Design. Give a unique look and feel to your VirtueMart e-Commerce store

Joseph Kwan

VirtueMart is the best shopping cart solution around for the Joomla! CMS. A VirtueMart template is a Joomla! template that is designed to create the overall look of a store. It puts in things such as a shopping cart bar, more shop-like graphics, more readable colors, and so on. A VirtueMart theme only impacts the area of the site actually controlled by the VirtueMart component. Themes work inside the overall framework. Applying custom templates and themes to give a unique look and feel to your VirtueMart web store will really attract customers! This book will guide you to build VirtueMart custom themes and templates.Joomla! VirtueMart 1.1 Theme and Template Design explains how the VirtueMart theme and template system works and points out ways to configure the default theme. It then goes on to look at each of the major templates with an emphasis on how to customize them. It then discusses individual page groups such as product list, product details, shopping cart, checkout, and invoice e-mails in the order they appear to your customer. After-sale services like invoice e-mail, account management, and order list are also discussed.The book also discusses the different components of a VirtueMart theme and will teach you how to build a theme from scratch. You will also learn advanced features like child products, advanced attributes, custom attributes, and product types. Topics like integration with Joomla! plugins and AJAX functions are also included. An Appendix provides a comprehensive template reference of the use and available fields of every template.Joomla! VirtueMart 1.1 Theme and Template Design is a practical guide for all those who want to make VirtueMart work for them. It will put many advanced features of this popular open source e-Commerce application at your finger tips.

Implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. Implement methodology, integration, data migration, and more

Rahul Mohta, Yogesh Kasat, JJ Yadav

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition, is a modern, cloud-first, mobile-first, ERP solution suitable for medium and large enterprise customers. This book will guide you through the entire life cycle of a implementation, helping you avoid common pitfalls while increasing your efficiency and effectiveness at every stage of the project.Starting with the foundations, the book introduces the Microsoft Dynamics 365 offerings, plans, and products. You will be taken through the various methodologies, architectures, and deployments so you can select, implement, and maintain Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition. You will delve in-depth into the various phases of implementation: project management, analysis, configuration, data migration, design, development, using Power BI, machine learning, Cortana analytics for intelligence, testing, training, and finally deployment, support cycles, and upgrading. This book focuses on providing you with information about the product and the various concepts and tools, along with real-life examples from the field and guidance that will empower you to execute and implement Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition.

Tableau 2019.x Cookbook. Over 115 recipes to build end-to-end analytical solutions using Tableau

Dmitry Anoshin, Teodora Matic, Slaven Bogdanovic, Tania Lincoln, ...

Tableau has been one of the most popular business intelligence solutions in recent times, thanks to its powerful and interactive data visualization capabilities. Tableau 2019.x Cookbook is full of useful recipes from industry experts, who will help you master Tableau skills and learn each aspect of Tableau's ecosystem.This book is enriched with features such as Tableau extracts, Tableau advanced calculations, geospatial analysis, and building dashboards. It will guide you with exciting data manipulation, storytelling, advanced filtering, expert visualization, and forecasting techniques using real-world examples. From basic functionalities of Tableau to complex deployment on Linux, you will cover it all. Moreover, you will learn advanced features of Tableau using R, Python, and various APIs. You will learn how to prepare data for analysis using the latest Tableau Prep. In the concluding chapters, you will learn how Tableau fits the modern world of analytics and works with modern data platforms such as Snowflake and Redshift. In addition, you will learn about the best practices of integrating Tableau with ETL using Matillion ETL.By the end of the book, you will be ready to tackle business intelligence challenges using Tableau's features.

Mastering Metasploit. Discover the next level of network defense with the Metasploit framework - Second Edition

Nipun Jaswal

Metasploit is a popular penetration testing framework that has one of the largest exploit databases around. This book will show you exactly how to prepare yourself against the attacks you will face every day by simulating real-world possibilities.We start by reminding you about the basic functionalities of Metasploit and its use in the most traditional ways. You’ll get to know about the basics of programming Metasploit modules as a refresher, and then dive into carrying out exploitation as well building and porting exploits of various kinds in Metasploit. In the next section, you’ll develop the ability to perform testing on various services such as SCADA, databases, IoT, mobile, tablets, and many more services. After this training, we jump into real-world sophisticated scenarios where performing penetration tests are a challenge. With real-life case studies, we take you on a journey through client-side attacks using Metasploit and various scripts built on the Metasploit framework.By the end of the book, you will be trained specifically on time-saving techniques using Metasploit.

The Mini Book of Agile. Everything you really need to know about Agile, Agile Project Management and Agile Delivery

Mauricio Rubio Parra

Think of this book as Agile for Dummies (or Agile for anyone and everyone). This Agile book will allow you to master the most important concepts of Agile development, Agile project delivery, and Agile project management. This mini book has been designed to enable you to manage your projects in an Agile way.This mini book will walk you through the fundamentals, principles, and key concepts of Agile, Agile project management, and Agile Delivery.The book includes valuable resources, graphics, and examples that will allow you to grasp the key essence of Agile, Agile rituals, Agile practices, Agile concepts, and the key differences between Agile and traditional project management.After reading this book, you will have a thorough understanding of Agile and how to put Agile into practice at work and in your personal projects.

Introduction to R for Business Intelligence. Profit optimization using data mining, data analysis, and Business Intelligence

Jay Gendron

Explore the world of Business Intelligence through the eyes of an analyst working in a successful and growing company. Learn R through use cases supporting different functions within that company. This book provides data-driven and analytically focused approaches to help you answer questions in operations, marketing, and finance. In Part 1, you will learn about extracting data from different sources, cleaning that data, and exploring its structure. In Part 2, you will explore predictive models and cluster analysis for Business Intelligence and analyze financial times series. Finally, in Part 3, you will learn to communicate results with sharp visualizations and interactive, web-based dashboards.After completing the use cases, you will be able to work with business data in the R programming environment and realize how data science helps make informed decisions and develops business strategy. Along the way, you will find helpful tips about R and Business Intelligence.

Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Exam Ref SC-100. Get certified with ease while learning how to develop highly effective cybersecurity strategies

Dwayne Natwick, Rod Trent

Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Exam Ref SC-100 is a comprehensive guide that will help cybersecurity professionals design and evaluate the cybersecurity architecture of Microsoft cloud services. Complete with hands-on tutorials, projects, and self-assessment questions, you’ll have everything you need to pass the SC-100 exam.This book will take you through designing a strategy for a cybersecurity architecture and evaluating the governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) of the architecture. This will include cloud-only and hybrid infrastructures, where you’ll learn how to protect using the principles of zero trust, along with evaluating security operations and the overall security posture. To make sure that you are able to take the SC-100 exam with confidence, the last chapter of this book will let you test your knowledge with a mock exam and practice questions.By the end of this book, you’ll have the knowledge you need to plan, design, and evaluate cybersecurity for Microsoft cloud and hybrid infrastructures, and pass the SC-100 exam with flying colors.

Marmalade SDK Mobile Game Development Essentials. Get to grips with the Marmalade SDK to develop games for a wide range of mobile devices, including iOS, Android, and more with this book and

Sean Scaplehorn

Modern mobile devices are capable of supporting video games of amazing quality but there are so many different devices and platforms how can you support them all? The answer is to use the Marmalade SDK to write your code once and deploy it to all popular mobile platforms at the touch of a button.Marmalade SDK Mobile Game Development Essentials will provide you with everything you need to know to transfer your existing C++ videogame programming knowledge to mobile devices. From graphics and sound to input methods and actual deployment to device, this book covers the lot.Learn how to make use of keys, touch screen and accelerometer inputs for controlling your game.Take the pain out of supporting a varied range of target devices, both across multiple platforms and multiple specifications.Step by step from Hello World to a complete game, this book will show how to use the Marmalade SDK to develop games for mobile devices.Learn how to make dazzling 2D and 3D games complete with fully animated characters, music and sound effects that can be deployed to all the leading mobile platforms, whilst ensuring it can run on a wide range of possible devices, from low specification to high end.If you want to join the exciting world of mobile videogames then Learning Mobile Game Development with Marmalade will show you how to do so, fast!

PrestaShop 1.5 Beginner's Guide. Build your own attractive online store with this fast and flexible e-commerce solution - Second Edition

Jose A. Tizon, John Horton

PrestaShop is an open source, e-commerce solution which allows you to build a highly functional, flexible, and attractive online store.InPrestaShop 1.5 Beginner's Guide you will learn how to set up, extend, and personalize your own online shop. Newly updated to focus on PrestaShop 1.5, this book features descriptive and practical tutorials on everything you need to make a splash in the world of e-commerce.If you want to start selling your products online but are a bit daunted about shipping, tax, and designing your online presence, then this is the book for you.This practical book starts by showing you how to download, install, and configure your own shop. Using a step-by-step approach, this book takes you through the processes required to create a fully functioning online shop with the potential to make you serious money.With distinct chapters on the methods required to make your products stand out to your customers better, this title will enable you to create and customize a vivid, online presence to get people visiting your store and buying your goods.Targeting further sales, this book then shows you how to develop a targeted search engine optimization campaign to get new customers and keep existing customers returning. From here you will learn how to tackle complicated tax rates and shipping costs efficiently and with less hassle to ensure your customers are satisfied with your service.If you want to start your own e-commerce business using PrestaShop, then this book will show you how.

Mastering Python Design Patterns. Start learning Python programming to a better standard by mastering the art of Python design patterns

Sakis Kasampalis

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Implementation. If you feel intimidated by the thought of implementing Microsoft Dynamics GP, this book will quickly overcome any doubts. It’s the simplest, clearest guide available to getting this sophisticated ERP application up and running successfully

Victoria Yudin

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 is a sophisticated Enterprise Resource Planning application with a multitude of features and options. The implementation of Dynamics GP is usually considered to be complex, and can be very confusing for users and consultants. This step-by-step guide will show you how to effectively implement Dynamics GP 2010 with ease.This focused, step-by-step tutorial covers the basics of Microsoft Dynamics GP, from licensing, to design, before moving on to more complex topics such as implementation and setup. You will learn how to install and configure Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 from start to finish.This book will enable you to master the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 2010 effectively. This book starts with how to plan and complete a successful Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 implementation. You will then move on to learning who should be on the implementation team, what important questions should be asked and how to plan your infrastructure for Dynamics GP 2010. Detailed descriptions of all the setup options for the core Dynamics GP modules as well as practical advice on setup will help guide you through the myriad of options available in this powerful application. As you reach the end of the book you will learn how to import your initial data with illustrations and practical examples.

Creators of Intelligence. Industry secrets from AI leaders that you can easily apply to advance your data science career

Dr. Alex Antic, John K. Thompson

A Gartner prediction in 2018 led to numerous articles stating that 85% of AI and machine learning projects fail to deliver.” Although it's unclear whether a mass extinction event occurred for AI implementations at the end of 2022, the question remains: how can I ensure that my project delivers value and doesn't become a statistic?The demand for data scientists has only grown since 2015, when they were dubbed the new “rock stars” of business. But how can you become a data science rock star? As a new senior data leader, how can you build and manage a productive team? And what is the path to becoming a chief data officer?Creators of Intelligence is a collection of in-depth, one-on-one interviews where Dr. Alex Antic, a recognized data science leader, explores the answers to these questions and more with some of the world's leading data science leaders and CDOs.Interviews with: Cortnie Abercrombie, Edward Santow, Kshira Saagar, Charles Martin, Petar Veličković, Kathleen Maley, Kirk Borne, Nikolaj Van Omme, Jason Tamara Widjaja, Jon Whittle, Althea Davis, Igor Halperin, Christina Stathopoulos, Angshuman Ghosh, Maria Milosavljevic, Dr. Meri Rosich, Dat Tran, and Stephane Doyen.

Security Tokens and Stablecoins Quick Start Guide. Learn how to build STO and stablecoin decentralized applications

Weimin Sun, Xun (Brian) Wu, Angela Kwok

The failure of initial coin offerings (ICOs) is no accident, as most ICOs do not link to a real asset and are not regulated. Realizing the shortcomings of ICOs, the blockchain community and potential investors embraced security token offerings (STOs) and stablecoins enthusiastically.In this book, we start with an overview of the blockchain technology along with its basic concepts. We introduce the concept behind STO, and cover the basic requirements for launching a STO and the relevant regulations governing its issuance. We discuss U.S. securities laws development in launching security digital tokens using blockchain technology and show some real use cases. We also explore the process of STO launches and legal considerations. We introduce popular security tokens in the current blockchain space and talk about how to develop a security token DApp, including smart contract development for ERC1404 tokens. Later, you'll learn to build frontend side functionalities to interact with smart contracts. Finally, we discuss stablecoin technical design functionalities for issuing and operating STO tokens by interacting with Ethereum smart contracts.By the end of this book, you will have learned more about STOs and gained a detailed knowledge of building relevant applications—all with the help of practical examples.

cPanel User Guide and Tutorial. Get the most from cPanel with this easy to follow guide

Aric Pedersen

A great book for getting the most out of your cPanel-supporting web hostIf you have web hosting requirements beyond the most basic, you should look for a host that offers cPanel. cPanel gives you tight control over every aspect of your web site, email accounts, and domain names.But once you've got a web site with cPanel support, how do you go about using it? While the documentation included with cPanel may provide a quick reference, to really get the most from it you need a more detailed, systematic tutorial.Read this book to find out exactly how to get the most from cPanel in all aspects of your web site management: web, email, FTP, security, domains, back ups, and more.

Scala: Applied Machine Learning. Master the art of Machine Learning in Scala

Patrick R. Nicolas, Alex Kozlov, Pascal Bugnion

This Learning Path aims to put the entire world of machine learning with Scala in front of you. Scala for Data Science, the first module in this course, is a tutorial guide that provides tutorials on some of the most common Scala libraries for data science, allowing you to quickly get up to speed building data science and data engineering solutions.The second course, Scala for Machine Learning guides you through the process of building AI applications with diagrams, formal mathematical notation, source code snippets, and useful tips. A review of the Akka framework and Apache Spark clusters concludes the tutorial.The next module, Mastering Scala Machine Learning, is the final step in this course. It will take your knowledge to next level and help you use the knowledge to build advanced applications such as social media mining, intelligent news portals, and more. After a quick refresher on functional programming concepts using REPL, you will see some practical examples of setting up the development environment and tinkering with data. We will then explore working with Spark and MLlib using k-means and decision trees.By the end of this course, you will be a master at Scala machine learning and have enough expertise to be able to build complex machine learning projects using Scala.This Learning Path combines some of the best that Packt has to offer in one complete, curated package. It includes content from the following Packt products:? Scala for Data Science, Pascal Bugnion? Scala for Machine Learning, Patrick Nicolas? Mastering Scala Machine Learning, Alex Kozlov

Mastering Python Networking. Utilize Python packages and frameworks for network automation, monitoring, cloud, and management - Fourth Edition

Eric Chou

Networks in your infrastructure set the foundation for deploying, maintaining, and servicing applications. Python is the ideal language for network engineers to explore tools that were previously available to systems engineers and application developers. Mastering Python Networking, Fourth edition, guides you on a Python-driven journey from traditional network engineering to modern network development.This new edition incorporates the latest Python features and DevOps frameworks. In addition to new chapters on introducing Docker containers and Python 3 Async IO for network engineers, each chapter is updated with the latest libraries and working examples to ensure compatibility and clarity of the concepts.Starting with a basic overview of Python, the book teaches you how it can interact with both legacy and API-enabled network devices. You will learn to leverage high-level Python packages and frameworks to perform network automation tasks, monitoring, management, and enhanced network security, followed by AWS and Azure cloud networking. You will use Git for code management, GitLab for continuous integration, and Python-based testing tools to verify your network.By the end of this book, you'll be a confident network developer capable of automating modern infrastructure using Python, DevOps practices, and cloud technologies.