Unity Virtual Reality Projects. Learn Virtual Reality by developing more than 10 engaging projects with Unity 2018 - Second Edition

Jonathan Linowes

Unity has become the leading platform for building virtual reality games, applications, and experiences for this new generation of consumer VR devices. Unity Virtual Reality Projects walks you through a series of hands-on tutorials and in-depth discussions on using the Unity game engine to develop VR applications. With its practical and project-based approach, this book will get you up to speed with the specifics of VR development in Unity. You will learn how to use Unity to develop VR applications that can be experienced with devices such as Oculus, Daydream, and Vive. Among the many topics and projects, you will explore gaze-based versus hand-controller input, world space UI canvases, locomotion and teleportation, software design patterns, 360-degree media, timeline animation, and multiplayer networking. You will learn about the Unity 3D game engine via the interactive Unity Editor, and you will also learn about C# programming. By the end of the book, you will be fully equipped to develop rich, interactive VR experiences using Unity.

Drupal 6 Theming Cookbook. Over 100 clear step-by-step recipes to create powerful, great-looking Drupal themes

Karthik Kumar, Dries Buytaert

Themes are among the most powerful features that can be used to customize a website to fit your needs. The greatest strength of Drupal lies in its design, which, when done right, allows developers to customize every aspect of the site. Although it might sound easy to customize the look of your site, it's not a cakewalk to build custom themes that are easy to administer and maintain.Drupal 6 Theming Cookbook provides a plethora of recipes that enable Drupal template designers to make full use of Drupal's extensibility and style their site just the way they want it. It is a well-rounded guide, which will allow users looking to theme their Drupal sites to do so by taking full advantage of Drupal's theming system. It covers numerous aspects from creating custom themes to using the powerful CCK, Views, and Panels modules to create rich designs that are easy to administer and maintain.Structured as a collection of recipes to perform a wide variety of tasks, this book will guide readers through most important aspects of Drupal theming. It starts off with recipes dealing with the basics of Drupal's theme system: you will find recipes for solving all your problems with regions and blocks. It then moves on to advanced topics such as creating a custom theme and using it to modify the layout and style of the content that is output on a page. A substantial number of recipes are dedicated to Drupal's template system, which will provide you with a solid foundation in order to override the output of Drupal and contributed modules. Furthermore, as the combination of modules such as CCK, Views, and Panels is so widely prevalent, chapters have been dedicated for each of these modules. With this book, you'll learn to get the most out of Drupal's templating system and its modules to create rich designs for your site.

SQL Server 2019 Administrator's Guide. A definitive guide for DBAs to implement, monitor, and maintain enterprise database solutions - Second Edition

Marek Chmel, Vladimir Muzny

SQL Server is one of the most popular relational database management systems developed by Microsoft. This second edition of the SQL Server Administrator's Guide will not only teach you how to administer an enterprise database, but also help you become proficient at managing and keeping the database available, secure, and stable.You’ll start by learning how to set up your SQL Server and configure new and existing environments for optimal use. The book then takes you through designing aspects and delves into performance tuning by showing you how to use indexes effectively. You’ll understand certain choices that need to be made about backups, implement security policy, and discover how to keep your environment healthy. Tools available for monitoring and managing a SQL Server database, including automating health reviews, performance checks, and much more, will also be discussed in detail. As you advance, the book covers essential topics such as migration, upgrading, and consolidation, along with the techniques that will help you when things go wrong. Once you’ve got to grips with integration with Azure and streamlining big data pipelines, you’ll learn best practices from industry experts for maintaining a highly reliable database solution.Whether you are an administrator or are looking to get started with database administration, this SQL Server book will help you develop the skills you need to successfully create, design, and deploy database solutions.

Applied Computational Thinking with Python. Algorithm design for complex real-world problems - Second Edition

Sofía De Jesús, Dayrene Martinez

Computational thinking helps you to develop logical processing and algorithmic thinking while solving real-world problems across a wide range of domains. It's an essential skill that you should possess to keep ahead of the curve in this modern era of information technology. Developers can apply their knowledge of computational thinking to solve problems in multiple areas, including economics, mathematics, and artificial intelligence.This book begins by helping you get to grips with decomposition, pattern recognition, pattern generalization and abstraction, and algorithm design, along with teaching you how to apply these elements practically while designing solutions for challenging problems. You’ll then learn about various techniques involved in problem analysis, logical reasoning, algorithm design, clusters and classification, data analysis, and modeling, and understand how computational thinking elements can be used together with these aspects to design solutions. Toward the end, you will discover how to identify pitfalls in the solution design process and how to choose the right functionalities to create the best possible algorithmic solutions.By the end of this algorithm book, you will have gained the confidence to successfully apply computational thinking techniques to software development.

OpenCV 4 Computer Vision Application Programming Cookbook. Build complex computer vision applications with OpenCV and C++ - Fourth Edition

David Millán Escrivá, Robert Laganiere

OpenCV is an image and video processing library used for all types of image and video analysis. Throughout the book, you'll work with recipes to implement a variety of tasks. With 70 self-contained tutorials, this book examines common pain points and best practices for computer vision (CV) developers. Each recipe addresses a specific problem and offers a proven, best-practice solution with insights into how it works, so that you can copy the code and configuration files and modify them to suit your needs.This book begins by guiding you through setting up OpenCV, and explaining how to manipulate pixels. You'll understand how you can process images with classes and count pixels with histograms. You'll also learn detecting, describing, and matching interest points. As you advance through the chapters, you'll get to grips with estimating projective relations in images, reconstructing 3D scenes, processing video sequences, and tracking visual motion. In the final chapters, you'll cover deep learning concepts such as face and object detection.By the end of this book, you'll have the skills you need to confidently implement a range of computer vision algorithms to meet the technical requirements of your complex CV projects.

Learn Microsoft PowerApps. Build customized business applications without writing any code

Matthew Weston

Microsoft PowerApps provides a modern approach to building business applications for mobile, tablet, and browser. Learn Microsoft PowerApps will guide you in creating powerful and productive apps that will add value to your organization by helping you transform old and inefficient processes and workflows.Starting with an introduction to PowerApps, this book will help you set up and configure your first application. You’ll explore a variety of built-in templates and understand the key difference between types of applications such as canvas and model-driven apps, which are used to create apps for specific business scenarios. In addition to this, you’ll learn how to generate and integrate apps directly with SharePoint, and gain an understanding of PowerApps key components such as connectors and formulas. As you advance, you’ll be able to use various controls and data sources, including technologies such as GPS, and combine them to create an iterative app. Finally, the book will help you understand how PowerApps can use several Microsoft Power Automate and Azure functionalities to improve your applications.By the end of this PowerApps book, you’ll be ready to confidently develop lightweight business applications with minimal code.

Pandas Cookbook. Practical recipes for scientific computing, time series, and exploratory data analysis using Python - Third Edition

William Ayd, Matthew Harrison, Wes McKinney

The pandas library is massive, and it's common for frequent users to be unaware of many of its more impressive features. The official pandas documentation, while thorough, does not contain many useful examples of how to piece together multiple commands as one would do during an actual analysis. This book guides you, as if you were looking over the shoulder of an expert, through situations that you are highly likely to encounter.With this latest edition unlock the full potential of pandas 2.x onwards. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced data analyst, this book offers a wealth of practical recipes to help you excel in your data analysis projects. This cookbook covers everything from fundamental data manipulation tasks to advanced techniques for handling big data, visualization, and more. Each recipe is designed to address common real-world challenges, providing clear explanations and step-by-step instructions to guide you through the process.Explore cutting-edge topics such as idiomatic pandas coding, efficient handling of large datasets, and advanced data visualization techniques.  Whether you're looking to sharpen or expand your skills, the Pandas Cookbook is your essential companion for mastering data analysis and manipulation with pandas 2.x, and beyond.

Generative AI with LangChain. Build large language model (LLM) apps with Python, ChatGPT, and other LLMs

Ben Auffarth

ChatGPT and the GPT models by OpenAI have brought about a revolution not only in how we write and research but also in how we can process information. This book discusses the functioning, capabilities, and limitations of LLMs underlying chat systems, including ChatGPT and Gemini. It demonstrates, in a series of practical examples, how to use the LangChain framework to build production-ready and responsive LLM applications for tasks ranging from customer support to software development assistance and data analysis – illustrating the expansive utility of LLMs in real-world applications.Unlock the full potential of LLMs within your projects as you navigate through guidance on fine-tuning, prompt engineering, and best practices for deployment and monitoring in production environments. Whether you're building creative writing tools, developing sophisticated chatbots, or crafting cutting-edge software development aids, this book will be your roadmap to mastering the transformative power of generative AI with confidence and creativity.

Hands-On Enterprise Automation on Linux. Efficiently perform large-scale Linux infrastructure automation with Ansible

James Freeman

Automation is paramount if you want to run Linux in your enterprise effectively. It helps you minimize costs by reducing manual operations, ensuring compliance across data centers, and accelerating deployments for your cloud infrastructures.Complete with detailed explanations, practical examples, and self-assessment questions, this book will teach you how to manage your Linux estate and leverage Ansible to achieve effective levels of automation. You'll learn important concepts on standard operating environments that lend themselves to automation, and then build on this knowledge by applying Ansible to achieve standardization throughout your Linux environments.By the end of this Linux automation book, you'll be able to build, deploy, and manage an entire estate of Linux servers with higher reliability and lower overheads than ever before.

Spark Cookbook. With over 60 recipes on Spark, covering Spark Core, Spark SQL, Spark Streaming, MLlib, and GraphX libraries this is the perfect Spark book to always have by your side

Rishi Yadav

Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation 4.0 Cookbook for Developing SOA Applications. Over 85 easy recipes for managing communication between applications

Juntao Cheng, Steven Cheng

The Windows Communication Foundation 4.0 (WCF 4.0) is a .NET-based application programming interface for building and running connected systems. It enables secure and reliable communication among systems within an organization or across the Internet. This book deals with the difficult issues faced by a .NET developer while working with WCF.WCF 4.0 is a communications infrastructure that unifies a broad array of distributed systems' capabilities in a composable, extensible architecture that supports multiple transports, messaging patterns, encodings, network topologies, and hosting models. This book is a collection of focused real-world recipes and covers basic recipes on topics such as working with contracts to more advanced topics such as extending WCF runtime. By the end of this book you will have valuable information that helps transform the potentially unproductive habits of .Net developers who work with WCF.This book will take you through many concepts starting with complete support for contract-related design for WCF service development. You will learn to use WCF's built-in feature for building various service endpoints. Service hosting and configuration are important areas for building WCF services, especially at the service deployment stage, and are detailed in this book. You will find it easy to work with WCF client proxy generation and metadata publishing and discovery when you go through recipes such as customizing auto-generated service proxies.The author then discusses the exchange of data in WCF service operation features, related to WCF data serialization. You will discover some useful tips for security in WCF service development and built-in features for developing concurrency control for your services built upon it.One big plus is that you will learn to extend the existing WCF framework to achieve advanced functionality. You will find a dedicated chapter for RESTful and AJAX-enabled service development. Moving on, you will find several useful WCF service interoperability cases, which are important for a distributed service development platform. Towards the end of this book you will find some handy and useful diagnostic methods for troubleshooting.

Securing Industrial Control Systems and Safety Instrumented Systems. A practical guide for safeguarding mission and safety critical systems

Jalal Bouhdada, Marco Ayala

As modern process facilities become increasingly sophisticated and vulnerable to cyber threats, securing critical infrastructure is more crucial than ever. This book offers an indispensable guide to industrial cybersecurity and Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS), vital for maintaining the safety and reliability of critical systems and protecting your operations, personnel, and assets.Starting with SIS design principles, the book delves into the architecture and protocols of safety networks. It provides hands-on experience identifying vulnerabilities and potential attack vectors, exploring how attackers might target SIS components. You’ll thoroughly analyze Key SIS technologies, threat modeling, and attack techniques targeting SIS controllers and engineer workstations. The book shows you how to secure Instrument Asset Management Systems (IAMS), implement physical security measures, and apply integrated risk management methodologies. It also covers compliance with emerging cybersecurity regulations and industry standards worldwide.By the end of the book, you’ll have gained practical insights into various risk assessment methodologies and a comprehensive understanding of how to effectively protect critical infrastructure.

Efficient Accounting with Xero. The definitive guide to optimizing your accounting with proven techniques and best practices

Jay Kimelman, Liz Mason

Xero empowers business owners to gain insights into their business and performance and collaborate seamlessly with their accountants and tax professionals. This book goes beyond the basics and explores the more advanced Xero features, techniques, and best practices for managing sales taxes, budgeting, and reporting.You’ll begin by diving right into Xero, setting up a bank feed, and exploring its power while experiencing just how easy it is to use. The book will guide you in setting up Xero the right way to ensure that you succeed in each of your transactions. As you progress through the chapters, you’ll learn what spend money and receive money transactions are and be able to easily send invoices and collect receivables or payments, collect and pay bills, and even track your business assets with Xero. Toward the end, you’ll be proficient at producing powerful reports, giving you the keys to running or advising any business.By the end of this Xero book, you’ll have gained the confidence to add a company to Xero, set up the bank feeds, reconcile the transactions, send invoices, and pay bills, ending up with beautiful financial statements.

PrimeFaces Beginner's Guide. The perfect introduction to PrimeFaces, this tutorial will take you step by step through all the great features, ranging from form-creation to sophisticated navigation systems. All you need are some basic JSF and jQuery skills

K. Siva Prasad Reddy, Siva Prasad Reddy Katamreddy

PrimeFaces is a lightweight UI component framework for JSF based applications. PrimeFaces is very easy to use because it comes as a single JAR file and requires no mandatory XML configuration. It provides more than 100 UI Components and an in-built AJAX support. It also provides theme support for UI components with more than 30 themes out-of-the-box. With PrimeFaces, developers can create rich user interfaces very easily.PrimeFaces Beginners Guide is a practical, hands-on guide that provides you with clear step-by-step exercises,that will help you to learn and explore the features of PrimeFaces.PrimeFaces Beginners Guide starts by showing you how to install PrimeFaces, create sample forms, and perform validations and then looks at various commonly used PrimeFaces utility components. Next, you will look into various basic text input components like form controls, Calendar, AutoComplete, and Rich Text Editor. Then you will learn about advanced UI components such as DataTables, panels, menus,and charts. Throughout the chapters we will be building a sample web application using PrimeFaces progressively that will give you a hands-on experience on using PrimeFaces effectively.You will learn how to create complex layouts using accordion panels, tab views, sophisticated menu navigations, breadcrumbs and much more. You will also learn how to display data using DataTable with pagination, filters, and lazy loading, and how to export data to Excel or PDF features. You will learn how to represent data in various formats like trees, charts, and TagCloud. You will also learn how to build an application supporting multiple themes.With this PrimeFaces Beginner's Guide , you will learn how to use PrimeFaces easily and effectively.

Python Data Analysis. Learn how to apply powerful data analysis techniques with popular open source Python modules

Ivan Idris

iOS 15 Programming for Beginners. Kickstart your mobile app development journey by building iOS apps with Swift 5.5 and Xcode 13 - Sixth Edition

Ahmad Sahar, Craig Clayton

With almost 2 million apps on the App Store, iOS mobile apps continue to be incredibly popular. Anyone can reach millions of customers around the world by publishing their apps on the App Store. iOS 15 Programming for Beginners is a comprehensive introduction for those who are new to iOS. It covers the entire process of learning the Swift language, writing your own app, and publishing it on the App Store.Complete with hands-on tutorials, projects, and self-assessment questions, this easy-to-follow guide will help you get well-versed with the Swift language to build your apps and introduce exciting new technologies that you can incorporate into your apps. You'll learn how to publish iOS apps and work with Mac Catalyst, SharePlay, SwiftUI, Swift concurrency, and much more.By the end of this iOS development book, you'll have the knowledge and skills to write and publish interesting apps, and more importantly, to use the online resources available to enhance your app development journey.

jQuery for Designers: Beginner's Guide. An approachable introduction to web design in jQuery for non-programmers with this book and

Natalie Maclees

jQuery is awesome for designers ñ it builds easily on the CSS and HTML you already know and allows you to create impressive effects with just a few lines of code. However, without a background in programming, JavaScript ñ on which jQuery is built ñ can feel intimidating and impossible to grasp. This book will show you how simple it can be to learn the basics and then extend your capabilities by taking advantage of jQuery plugins.jQuery for Designers offers approachable lessons for designers with little or no background in JavaScript. The book begins by introducing the jQuery library and a small and simple introduction to JavaScript. Then you'll step through a few simple tasks to get your feet wet before diving into using plugins to quickly and simply add complex effects with just a few lines of code.You'll be surprised at how far you can get with JavaScript when you start with the power of the jQuery library and this book will show you how. We'll cover common interface widgets and effects such as tabbed interfaces, custom tooltips, and custom scrollbars. You'll learn how to create an animated navigation menu and how to add simple AJAX effects to enhance your site visitors' experience. Then we'll wrap up with interactive data grids which make sorting and searching data easy.

Mastering PowerCLI. Master PowerCLI to automate all aspects of VMware environments

Sajal Debnath

Have you ever wished that every morning you could automatically get a report with all the relevant information about your datacenter in exactly the same format you want? Or whether you could automate that boring, exhausting task? What if some crucial task needs to be performed on a regular basis without any error? PowerCLI scripts do all that and much more for VMware environments. It is built on top of the popular Windows PowerShell, with which you can automate server tasks and reduce manual input, allowing you to focus on more important tasks.This book will help you to achieve your goals by starting with a short refresher on PowerShell and PowerCLI and then covering the nuances of advanced functions and reusable scripts. Next you will learn how to build a vSphere-powered virtualized datacenter using PowerCLI while managing different aspects of the environment including automated installation, network, and storage. You will then manage different logical constructs of vSphere environment and different aspects of a virtual machine. Later, you will implement the best practices for a security implementation in vSphere Environment through PowerCLI before discovering how to manage other VMware environments such as SRM, vCloud Director and vCloud Air through PowerCLI. You will also learn to manage vSphere environments using advanced properties by accessing vSphere API and REST APIs through PowerCLI. Finally, you will build a Windows GUI application using PowerShell followed by a couple of sample scripts for reporting and managing vSphere environments with detailed explanations of the scripts. By the end of the book, you will have the required in-depth knowledge to master the art of PowerCLI scripting.

Instant Google Drive Starter. Use Google Drive to safely store and access your files online in the cloud with your web browser, phone, or tablet

Mike Procopio

In recent years, we’ve enjoyed being able to do more and more online and in the cloud. Google Drive brings the power and convenience of working online for you and your files. With Google Drive, you can create and store your files safely in the cloud, share them if desired, and access them from anywhere using a web browser, smartphone, or tablet computer.Instant Google Drive Starter is your companion to getting started with the world of cloud computing and working with your files online. With clear visuals and step-by-step examples, this book shows you how to use Google Drive from start to finish. From creating documents and files in Google Drive to sharing them with others and accessing them anywhere using your web browser, phone, or tablet computer – you’ll be working in the cloud.This book starts with the very basics of cloud computing, providing clear examples for ways you can use Google Drive to work with your files in the cloud, and the benefits of doing so. It will take you step-by-step through all the aspects of using Google Drive to get you quickly working with your files online, accessing them from anywhere using a web browser, smartphone, or tablet computer.You’ll learn how to use Google Drive to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and also how you can upload folders and files from your hard drive into Google Drive using your web browser. Once your files are in Google Drive, this book will show you all the things you can do with them: edit them online from anywhere (including your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone or tablet), and even share them with others if desired. This book will also show you how to use the Google Drive sync program to back up your files to the cloud and keep them automatically in sync between your computer’s hard drive and Google Drive. You will learn everything you need to know to create and store your files safely in the cloud with Google Drive, share them with others if desired, and access them from anywhere using a web browser, smartphone, or tablet computer.

Learn Microsoft Office 2021. Your one-stop guide to upskilling with new features of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and Teams - Second Edition

Linda Foulkes

This second edition book covers the new and exciting features of Microsoft Office 2021 for desktop and web apps, helping you broaden the skills from the previous edition. Using real-world experiences, this book will guide you through practical examples that set off your thought process to boost productivity.To build new skills in each application, the book ensures that you gain a thorough understanding of new functions, such as PivotTables, Dashboards, and data manipulation methods in Excel.You’ll explore PowerPoint tools such as Presenter Coach, Presenter View, the record tool, and setting reading order to mention a few. You’ll also manipulate slide elements using Auto Fix, draw features, insert video captions, explore playback options, and rehearse presentations using the body language Presenter Coach feature. The book demystifies the Transform feature and shows you how to dictate directly in Word. You’ll even be able to work with Styles by refining the layout and multiple tables of contents. Finally, you’ll focus on making the best use of Outlook enhancements and working remotely using Teams.By the end of this book, you’ll have understood the features of each app inside out and enhanced your existing skills using new techniques to make your professional life more efficient.

jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques: Beginners Guide. This book and eBook will enable you to quickly master all of jQuery’s animation methods and build a toolkit of ready-to-use animations using jQuery 1.4

Dan Wellman, jQuery Foundation

Master animation in jQuery to produce slick and attractive interfaces that respond to your visitors' interactionsjQuery is a cross-browser JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML, and is the most popular JavaScript library in use today. Using the features offered by jQuery, developers are able to create dynamic web pages. This book will act as a resource for you to create animation and advanced special effects in your web applications, by following the easy-to-understand steps mentioned in it.jQuery 1.4 Animation Techniques: Beginners Guide will allow you to master animation in jQuery to produce slick and attractive interfaces that respond to your visitors' interactions. You will learn everything you need to know about creating engaging and effective web page animations using jQuery. The book uses many examples and explains how to create animations using an easy, step-by-step, beginners guide approach.This book will provide you with...This book provides various examples that gradually build up the reader’s knowledge and practical experience in using the jQuery API to create stunning animations. The book starts off by explaining how animations make your user interface interactive and attractive. It explains the various methods used to make the element being animated appear or disappear. It provides a set of steps to create simple animations and show fading animations.You can later learn how to make complex animations by chaining different effects together as well as how to halt a currently running application. You will find out how to slide your animation elements and learn to create custom animations that can be complex and specialized.You will find out how to obtain and set up the jQuery UI— the official user interface library for jQuery. The book will tell you how to animate a page's background image, and will teach you how to make images scroll in a certain direction and at a certain speed depending on the movement of the mouse pointer

Mastering Google App Engine. Build robust and highly scalable web applications with Google App Engine

Mohsin Hijazee, Mohsin Shafique

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Business Intelligence Development Beginner's Guide. Get to grips with Microsoft Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing technologies using this practical guide

Reza Rad

Ionic Cookbook. Recipes to create cutting-edge, real-time hybrid mobile apps with Ionic - Third Edition

Indermohan Singh

Ionic is the preferred choice for JavaScript developers to develop real-time hybrid applications. This book will get you started with Ionic 3.9 and help you create Angular 5 components that interact with templates. You will work with Ionic components and find out how to share data efficiently between them. You'll discover how to make the best use of the REST API to handle back-end services and then move on to animating your application to make it look pretty. You then learn to add in a local push notification in order to test the app. Then you'll work with Cordova to support native functionalities on both iOS and Android. From there, you'll get to grips with using the default themes for each platform and customizing your own. We then take you through the advanced Ionic features like lazy loading, deep linking, localizing ionic apps etc. Finally, you'll see how best to deploy your app to different platforms. This book will solve all your Ionic-related issues through dedicated recipes that will help you get the best out of Ionic.