XNA 4 3D Game Development by Example: Beginner's Guide. Create action-packed 3D games with the Microsoft XNA Framework with this book and

Kurt Jaegers

Move beyond the world of flat 2D-based game development and discover how to create your own exciting 3D games with Microsoft XNA 4.0. Create a 3D maze, fire shells at enemy tanks, and drive a rover on the surface of Mars while being attacked by alien saucers.XNA 4 3D Game Development by Example: Beginner's Guide takes you step-by-step through the creation of three different 3D video games with Microsoft XNA 4.0. Learn by doing as you explore the worlds of 3D graphics and game design.This book takes a step-by-step approach to building 3D games with Microsoft XNA, describing each section of code in depth and explaining the topics and concepts covered in detail. From the basics of a 3D camera system to an introduction to writing DirectX shader code, the games in this book cover a wide variety of both 3D graphics and game design topics. Generate random mazes, load and animate 3D models, create particle-based explosions, and combine 2D and 3D techniques to build a user interface.XNA 4 3D Game Development by Example: Beginner's Guide will give you the knowledge to bring your own 3D game creations to life.

Business Intelligence with Databricks SQL. Concepts, tools, and techniques for scaling business intelligence on the data lakehouse

Vihag Gupta

In this new era of data platform system design, data lakes and data warehouses are giving way to the lakehouse – a new type of data platform system that aims to unify all data analytics into a single platform. Databricks, with its Databricks SQL product suite, is the hottest lakehouse platform out there, harnessing the power of Apache Spark™, Delta Lake, and other innovations to enable data warehousing capabilities on the lakehouse with data lake economics.This book is a comprehensive hands-on guide that helps you explore all the advanced features, use cases, and technology components of Databricks SQL. You’ll start with the lakehouse architecture fundamentals and understand how Databricks SQL fits into it. The book then shows you how to use the platform, from exploring data, executing queries, building reports, and using dashboards through to learning the administrative aspects of the lakehouse – data security, governance, and management of the computational power of the lakehouse. You’ll also delve into the core technology enablers of Databricks SQL – Delta Lake and Photon. Finally, you’ll get hands-on with advanced SQL commands for ingesting data and maintaining the lakehouse.By the end of this book, you’ll have mastered Databricks SQL and be able to deploy and deliver fast, scalable business intelligence on the lakehouse.

Social Media for Wordpress: Build Communities, Engage Members and Promote Your Site. A quicker way to build communities, engage members, and promote your site with this book and

Michael Kuhlmann

Mastering Identity and Access Management with Microsoft Azure. Click here to enter text

Jochen Nickel

Microsoft Azure and its Identity and Access Management is at the heart of Microsoft’s Software as a Service, including Office 365, Dynamics CRM, and Enterprise Mobility Management. It is an essential tool to master in order to effectively work with the Microsoft Cloud. Through practical, project based learning this book will impart that mastery.Beginning with the basics of features and licenses, this book quickly moves on to the user and group lifecycle required to design roles and administrative units for role-based access control (RBAC). Learn to design Azure AD to be an identity provider and provide flexible and secure access to SaaS applications. Get to grips with how to configure and manage users, groups, roles, and administrative units to provide a user- and group-based application and self-service access including the audit functionality. Next find out how to take advantage of managing common identities with the Microsoft Identity Manager 2016 and build cloud identities with the Azure AD Connect utility. Construct blueprints with different authentication scenarios including multi-factor authentication. Discover how to configure and manage the identity synchronization and federation environment along with multi -factor authentication, conditional access, and information protection scenarios to apply the required security functionality. Finally, get recommendations for planning and implementing a future-oriented and sustainable identity and access management strategy.

Web Development with Blazor. A practical guide to building interactive UIs with C# 12 and .NET 8 - Third Edition

Web Development with Blazor is your essential guide to building and deploying interactive web applications in C# – without relying on JavaScript.Written by an early Blazor adopter and updated for .NET 8, this book takes you through the end-to-end development of an example app, helping you to overcome common challenges along the way. You’ll pick up both Blazor Server and Blazor WebAssembly and discover cutting-edge tools to enrich your development experience.Responding to evolving needs, this edition introduces flexible hosting models, allowing you to mix and match hosting approaches to create flexible and scalable Blazor applications. It also presents the new Blazor templates, which provide ready-made solutions to simplify and expedite development. You'll learn about the game-changing server-side rendering (SSR), a hybrid hosting model blending the strengths of Blazor Server and Blazor WebAssembly, as well as streaming rendering, a new technique that boosts the performance and user experience of Blazor apps.By the end of this book, you'll have the confidence you need to create and deploy production-ready Blazor applications using best practices, along with a big-picture view of the Blazor landscape.

Java and Algorithmic Thinking for the Complete Beginner. From Basics to Advanced Techniques: Master Java and Algorithms for a Robust Programming Foundation

Aristides Bouras

Begin your programming journey with a comprehensive course designed to introduce you to the world of Java and algorithmic thinking. The course starts by laying a solid foundation with an understanding of how computers work and an introduction to integrated development environments. As you advance, you'll delve into essential Java concepts, learning about variables, constants, and basic algorithmic concepts that are crucial for any aspiring programmer.Moving forward, the course offers a deep dive into more complex topics, including handling input and output, using operators, and creating trace tables. You'll get hands-on experience with Visual Studio Code and explore sequence control structures, manipulating numbers, and crafting complex mathematical expressions.In the final stages, the course covers advanced topics such as data structures, subprograms, and object-oriented programming. You'll learn to manipulate one-dimensional and two-dimensional arrays, work with HashMaps, and understand the intricacies of user-defined subprograms. The course concludes with a focus on file management and offers numerous tips and tricks to enhance your programming efficiency. By the end, you'll have a strong foundation in Java programming and algorithmic thinking, well-prepared to tackle more advanced challenges.

The Supervised Learning Workshop. Predict outcomes from data by building your own powerful predictive models with machine learning in Python - Second Edition

Blaine Bateman, Ashish Ranjan Jha, Benjamin Johnston, Ishita Mathur

Would you like to understand how and why machine learning techniques and data analytics are spearheading enterprises globally? From analyzing bioinformatics to predicting climate change, machine learning plays an increasingly pivotal role in our society.Although the real-world applications may seem complex, this book simplifies supervised learning for beginners with a step-by-step interactive approach. Working with real-time datasets, you’ll learn how supervised learning, when used with Python, can produce efficient predictive models.Starting with the fundamentals of supervised learning, you’ll quickly move to understand how to automate manual tasks and the process of assessing date using Jupyter and Python libraries like pandas. Next, you’ll use data exploration and visualization techniques to develop powerful supervised learning models, before understanding how to distinguish variables and represent their relationships using scatter plots, heatmaps, and box plots. After using regression and classification models on real-time datasets to predict future outcomes, you’ll grasp advanced ensemble techniques such as boosting and random forests. Finally, you’ll learn the importance of model evaluation in supervised learning and study metrics to evaluate regression and classification tasks.By the end of this book, you’ll have the skills you need to work on your real-life supervised learning Python projects.

Learning Continuous Integration with TeamCity. Master the principles and practices behind Continuous Integration by setting it up for different technology stacks using TeamCity

Manoj M Swaminathan

React and React Native. A complete hands-on guide to modern web and mobile development with React.js - Third Edition

React and React Native, Facebook’s innovative User Interface (UI) libraries, are designed to help you build robust cross-platform web and mobile applications. This updated third edition is improved and updated to cover the latest version of React. The book particularly focuses on the latest developments in the React ecosystem, such as modern Hook implementations, code splitting using lazy components and Suspense, user interface framework components using Material-UI, and Apollo. In terms of React Native, the book has been updated to version 0.62 and demonstrates how to apply native UI components for your existing mobile apps using NativeBase.You will begin by learning about the essential building blocks of React components. Next, you’ll progress to working with higher-level functionalities in application development, before putting this knowledge to use by developing user interface components for the web and for native platforms. In the concluding chapters, you’ll learn how to bring your application together with a robust data architecture.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to build React applications for the web and React Native applications for multiple mobile platforms.

FuelPHP Application Development Blueprints. Supercharge your projects by designing and implementing web applications with FuelPHP

Sebastien Drouyer

Professional Tips and Workarounds for QuickBooks Online. Improve your QuickBooks Online and bookkeeping skills using advanced techniques and best practices

Ashley Beetson

Accountants and bookkeepers can sometimes face challenges while coming up with solutions to help their clients. QuickBooks Online, a popular cloud accounting software, comes with a wide range of tools that can take time to learn. This book will show you how to properly combine the tools available in QuickBooks to get the most out of this software.Complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts and practical examples, the book will begin by helping you understand how to create opening balances for a new company. You'll then discover essential bookkeeping and accountancy tips and tricks, and find guidance to help make QuickBooks as easy to use as possible. As you advance, you'll explore different scenarios in which QuickBooks Online can be used for various business types. This will help you understand that not every business is the same, but using the wide range of functionalities QuickBooks Online offers, you can customize solutions to really make it work for you.By the end of this QuickBooks book, you'll have gained deep insights into how you can use QuickBooks Online to work for different business types, and you'll have a complete checklist of the different things you should be doing when you start reviewing accounts ahead of tax season.

Advanced Python Programming. Accelerate your Python programs using proven techniques and design patterns - Second Edition

Quan Nguyen

Python's powerful capabilities for implementing robust and efficient programs make it one of the most sought-after programming languages.In this book, you'll explore the tools that allow you to improve performance and take your Python programs to the next level.This book starts by examining the built-in as well as external libraries that streamline tasks in the development cycle, such as benchmarking, profiling, and optimizing. You'll then get to grips with using specialized tools such as dedicated libraries and compilers to increase your performance at number-crunching tasks, including training machine learning models.The book covers concurrency, a major solution to making programs more efficient and scalable, and various concurrent programming techniques such as multithreading, multiprocessing, and asynchronous programming.You'll also understand the common problems that cause undesirable behavior in concurrent programs.Finally, you'll work with a wide range of design patterns, including creational, structural, and behavioral patterns that enable you to tackle complex design and architecture challenges, making your programs more robust and maintainable.By the end of the book, you'll be exposed to a wide range of advanced functionalities in Python and be equipped with the practical knowledge needed to apply them to your use cases.

Edge Computing Simplified. Explore all aspects of edge computing for business leaders and technologists

Perry Lea

The migration of computing to the edge is the logical progression of where computing is performed on a global scale. Edge computing is not a new paradigm but a necessary technology to address issues such as latency, service charges, reliability, connectivity, and privacy. This book walks you through the definition and architecture of edge computing systems and why they are critical in today’s ecosystem of IoT devices and an “everything connected” world.You will start your journey with an introduction to different edge computing hardware platforms, which vary by use case. From there, you’ll explore operating systems and middleware packages that manage edge devices such as Azure IoT. Then, you will explore communication systems such as near-range Bluetooth and RFID as well as long-range systems such as 5G. Networking protocols will be covered, which are the heart of edge systems. Technologies such as MQTT, which make up the backbone of edge to cloud communication, are examined. Then, you will move on to edge applications such as edge predictive AI and federated computing. We wrap up by investigating the security and vulnerability envelope of edge systems.This book is intended to quickly familiarize you with edge systems technologies and use cases, without burdening you with complicated jargon and low-level details.

Practical Machine Learning with R. Define, build, and evaluate machine learning models for real-world applications

Brindha Priyadarshini Jeyaraman, Ludvig Renbo Olsen, Monicah Wambugu

With huge amounts of data being generated every moment, businesses need applications that apply complex mathematical calculations to data repeatedly and at speed. With machine learning techniques and R, you can easily develop these kinds of applications in an efficient way.Practical Machine Learning with R begins by helping you grasp the basics of machine learning methods, while also highlighting how and why they work. You will understand how to get these algorithms to work in practice, rather than focusing on mathematical derivations. As you progress from one chapter to another, you will gain hands-on experience of building a machine learning solution in R. Next, using R packages such as rpart, random forest, and multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE), you will learn to implement algorithms including neural net classifier, decision trees, and linear and non-linear regression. As you progress through the book, you’ll delve into various machine learning techniques for both supervised and unsupervised learning approaches. In addition to this, you’ll gain insights into partitioning the datasets and mechanisms to evaluate the results from each model and be able to compare them. By the end of this book, you will have gained expertise in solving your business problems, starting by forming a good problem statement, selecting the most appropriate model to solve your problem, and then ensuring that you do not overtrain it.

Metasploit 5.0 for Beginners. Perform penetration testing to secure your IT environment against threats and vulnerabilities - Second Edition

Sagar Rahalkar

Securing an IT environment can be challenging, however, effective penetration testing and threat identification can make all the difference. This book will help you learn how to use the Metasploit Framework optimally for comprehensive penetration testing.Complete with hands-on tutorials and case studies, this updated second edition will teach you the basics of the Metasploit Framework along with its functionalities. You’ll learn how to set up and configure Metasploit on various platforms to create a virtual test environment. Next, you’ll get hands-on with the essential tools. As you progress, you’ll learn how to find weaknesses in the target system and hunt for vulnerabilities using Metasploit and its supporting tools and components. Later, you'll get to grips with web app security scanning, bypassing anti-virus, and post-compromise methods for clearing traces on the target system. The concluding chapters will take you through real-world case studies and scenarios that will help you apply the knowledge you’ve gained to ethically hack into target systems. You’ll also discover the latest security techniques that can be directly applied to scan, test, ethically hack, and secure networks and systems with Metasploit.By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to use the Metasploit 5.0 Framework to exploit real-world vulnerabilities.

Mastering JavaScript Design Patterns. Discover how to use JavaScript design patterns to create powerful applications with reliable and maintainable code

Simon Timms

Blender Cycles: Lighting and Rendering Cookbook. If you're already au fait with Blender, this book gives extra power to your artist's elbow with a fantastic grounding in Cycles. Packed with tips and recipes, it makes light work of the toughest concepts. - Second Edition

Blender provides a broad spectrum of modeling, texturing, lighting, animation and video post-processing functionality in one package. It provides cross-platform interoperability, extensibility and a tightly integrated workflow. Blender is one of the most popular Open Source 3D graphics applications in the world.Modern GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit) have some limitations for rendering complex scenes. This is mainly because of limited memory, and interactivity issues when the same graphics card is also used for displaying and rendering frames. This is where Cycles rendering engine comes into play. Cycles is bundled as an add-on with Blender. Some of the features of Cycles is its quality, speed and having integrated industry standard libraries.This book will show you how to carry out your first steps in Cycles - a brand new rendering engine for Blender. In a gradual and logical way, you will learn how to create complex shaders and lighting setups to face any kind of situation that you may find in Computer Graphics.This book provides information on how to setup your first application in Cycles. You will start by adding lights, materials, and textures to your scene. When it's time for the final render, you will see how to setup Cycles in the best way. You will learn about a wide variety of materials, lighting, techniques, tips, and tricks to get the best out of Cycles. Further on in the book, you will get to know about animation and still shots, and learn how to create advanced materials for realistic rendering, as well cartoon style shaders.This cookbook contains a wide range of different scenes, proposed in a structured and progressive order. During this journey, you will get involved in the concepts behind every step you take in order to really master what you learn.

Mastering iOS 12 Programming. Build professional-grade iOS applications with Swift and Xcode 10 - Third Edition

Donny Wals

The iOS development environment has significantly matured, and with Apple users spending more money in the App Store, there are plenty of development opportunities for professional iOS developers. However, the journey to mastering iOS development and the new features of iOS 12 is not straightforward. This book will help you make that transition smoothly and easily. With the help of Swift 4.2, you’ll not only learn how to program for iOS 12, but also how to write efficient, readable, and maintainable Swift code that maintains industry best practices. Mastering iOS 12 Programming will help you build real-world applications and reflect the real-world development flow. You will also find a mix of thorough background information and practical examples, teaching you how to start implementing your newly gained knowledge. By the end of this book, you will have got to grips with building iOS applications that harness advanced techniques and make best use of the latest and greatest features available in iOS 12.

Building and Delivering Microservices on AWS. Master software architecture patterns to develop and deliver microservices to AWS Cloud

Reliable automation is crucial for any code change going into production. A release pipeline enables you to deliver features for your users efficiently and promptly. AWS CodePipeline, with its powerful integration and automation capabilities of building, testing, and deployment, offers a unique solution to common software delivery issues such as outages during deployment, a lack of standard delivery mechanisms, and challenges faced in creating sustainable pipelines.You’ll begin by developing a Java microservice and using AWS services such as CodeCommit, CodeArtifact, and CodeGuru to manage and review the source code. You’ll then learn to use the AWS CodeBuild service to build code and deploy it to AWS infrastructure and container services using the CodeDeploy service. As you advance, you’ll find out how to provision cloud infrastructure using CloudFormation templates and Terraform. The concluding chapters will show you how to combine all these AWS services to create a reliable and automated CodePipeline for delivering microservices from source code check-in to deployment without any downtime. Finally, you’ll discover how to integrate AWS CodePipeline with third-party services such as Bitbucket, Blazemeter, Snyk, and Jenkins.By the end of this microservices book, you’ll have gained the hands-on skills to build release pipelines for your applications.

NetSuite for Consultants. Your comprehensive guide to becoming a successful NetSuite consultant in 2023 - Second Edition

Peter Ries

ERP and CRM consultants can effectively implement NetSuite for a client organization with the aid of NetSuite for Consultants, revised with the latest features and best practices for NetSuite 2023.After reading this book, you’ll have a thorough understanding of how to configure the NetSuite ecosystem for any business. You’ll learn how to apply new features such as the Manufacturing Mobile application, NetSuite budgeting features, and tools for handling rebates and trade promotions. This edition also includes expanded coverage of technical topics such as SuiteQL and the SuiteTalk REST API.Understanding what a business requires is a crucial first step toward completing any software product deployment, and this NetSuite guide will teach you how to ask meaningful questions that ascertain which features, basic and new, you will need to configure for your client.Most importantly, you’ll not only learn how to perform a NetSuite implementation; you'll also learn how to prepare clients to use the software confidently, which is the true test of a great consultant.

Building Web Applications with Python and Neo4j. Develop exciting real-world Python-based web applications with Neo4j using frameworks such as Flask, Py2neo, and Django

Sumit Gupta

Cloud Identity Patterns and Strategies. Design enterprise cloud identity models with OAuth 2.0 and Azure Active Directory

Giuseppe Di Federico, Fabrizio Barcaroli

Identity is paramount for every architecture design, making it crucial for enterprise and solutions architects to understand the benefits and pitfalls of implementing identity patterns. However, information on cloud identity patterns is generally scattered across different sources and rarely approached from an architect’s perspective, and this is what Cloud Identity Patterns and Strategies aims to solve, empowering solutions architects to take an active part in implementing identity solutions.Throughout this audiobook, you’ll cover various theoretical topics along with practical examples that follow the implementation of a standard de facto identity provider (IdP) in an enterprise, such as Azure Active Directory. As you progress through the chapters, you’ll explore the different factors that contribute to an enterprise's current status quo around identities and harness modern authentication approaches to meet specific requirements of an enterprise. You’ll also be able to make sense of how modern application designs are impacted by the company’s choices and move on to recognize how a healthy organization tackles identity and critical tasks that the development teams pivot on.By the end of this audiobook, you’ll be able to breeze through creating portable, robust, and reliable applications that can interact with each other.

Mastering Kotlin for Android 14. Build powerful Android apps from scratch using Jetpack libraries and Jetpack Compose

Harun Wangereka

Written with the best practices, this book will help you master Kotlin and use its powerful language features, libraries, tools, and APIs to elevate your Android apps.As you progress, you'll use Jetpack Compose and Material Design 3 to build UIs for your app, explore how to architect and improve your app architecture, and use Jetpack Libraries like Room and DataStore to persist your data locally. Using a step-by-step approach, this book will teach you how to debug issues in your app, detect leaks, inspect network calls fired by your app, and inspect your Room database. You'll also add tests to your apps to detect and address code smells.Toward the end, you’ll learn how to publish apps to the Google Play Store and see how to automate the process of deploying consecutive releases using GitHub actions, as well as learn how to distribute test builds to Firebase App Distribution. Additionally, the book covers tips on how to increase user engagement.By the end of this Kotlin book, you’ll be able to develop market-ready apps, add tests to their codebase, address issues, and get them in front of the right audience.

Gamification with Moodle. Use game elements in Moodle courses to build learner resilience and motivation

Natalie Denmeade

This book describes how teachers can use Gamification design within the Moodle Learning Management System. Game elements can be included in course design by using, badges, rubrics, custom grading scales, forums, and conditional activities. Moodle courses do not have to be solo-learning experiences that replicate Distance Education models. The Gamification design process starts by profiling players and creating levels of achievement towards meeting learning outcomes. Each task is defined, valued, and sequenced. Motivation loops are devised to keep the momentum going. In a gaming studio, this approach would require a team of specialists with a large budget and time frames. Preparing for a class rarely has these optimal conditions. The approach used in this book is to introduce game elements into the course design gradually. First, apply gamification to just one lesson and then build up to gamifying a series of lessons over a term. Each example will indicate the difficulty level and time investment. Try it out to see what is most effective with your learners and choose wisely in your use of technology. By the end of this book, you will be able to create Moodle courses that incorporate choice, communication,challenge, and creativity.