Cognitive Computing with IBM Watson. Build smart applications using artificial intelligence as a service

Cognitive computing is rapidly becoming a part of every aspect of our lives through data science, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI). It allows computing systems to learn and keep on improving as the amount of data in the system increases.This book introduces you to a whole new paradigm of computing – a paradigm that is totally different from the conventional computing of the Information Age. You will learn the concepts of ML, deep learning (DL), neural networks, and AI with the help of IBM Watson APIs. This book will help you build your own applications to understand, and solve problems, and analyze them as per your needs. You will explore various domains of cognitive computing, such as NLP, voice processing, computer vision, emotion analytics, and conversational systems.Equipped with the knowledge of machine learning concepts, how computers do their magic, and the applications of these concepts, you’ll be able to research and apply cognitive computing in your projects.

Mastering Ubuntu Server. Gain expertise in the art of deploying, configuring, managing, and troubleshooting Ubuntu Server - Third Edition

Jay LaCroix

Ubuntu Server has taken data centers around the world by storm. Whether you're deploying Ubuntu for a large-scale project or for a small office, it is a stable, customizable, and powerful Linux distribution with innovative and cutting-edge features. For both simple and complex server deployments, Ubuntu's flexible nature can be easily adapted to meet to the needs of your organization.This third edition is updated to cover the advancements of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and further train you to understand how to use Ubuntu Server, from initial deployment to creating production-ready resources for your network. The book begins with the concepts of user management, group management, and file system permissions. Continuing into managing storage volumes, you will learn how to format storage devices, utilize logical volume management, and monitor disk usage. Later, you will learn how to virtualize hosts and applications, which will include setting up QEMU & KVM, as well as containerization with both Docker and LXD. As the book continues, you will learn how to automate configuration with Ansible, as well as take a look at writing scripts. Lastly, you will explore best practices and troubleshooting techniques when working with Ubuntu Server that are applicable to real-world scenarios.By the end of this Ubuntu Server book, you will be well-versed in Ubuntu server’s advanced concepts and attain the required proficiency needed for Ubuntu Server administration.

Mastering Windows Presentation Foundation. Build responsive UIs for desktop applications with WPF - Second Edition

Sheridan Yuen

Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) provides a rich set of libraries and APIs for developers to create engaging user experiences. This book features a wide range of examples, from simple to complex, to demonstrate how to develop enterprise-grade applications with WPF.This updated second edition of Mastering Windows Presentation Foundation starts by introducing the benefits of using the Model-View-View Model (MVVM) software architectural pattern with WPF, then moves on, to explain how best to debug our WPF applications. It explores application architecture, and we learn how to build the foundation layer of our applications.It then demonstrates data binding in detail, and examines the various built-in WPF controls and a variety of ways in which we can customize them to suit our requirements. We then investigate how to create custom controls, for when the built-in functionality in WPF cannot be adapted for our needs.The latter half of the book deals with polishing our applications, using practical animations, stunning visuals and responsive data validation. It then moves on, to look at improving application performance, and ends with tutorials on several methods of deploying our applications.

Learn SOLIDWORKS 2025. Gain the skills and knowledge you need to become a certified SOLIDWORKS Associate or Professional - Third Edition

Tayseer Almattar

Discover what makes SOLIDWORKS 2025 the leading choice for 3D engineering and product design applications across industries such as aviation, automobile, and consumer product design. Drawing from his experience of teaching over 100,000 global learners and expertise in design thinking, Tayseer Almattar brings a uniquely practical and learner-focused approach to mastering SOLIDWORKS.Starting with the fundamentals, this new edition walks you through the software interface and introduces you to working with 3D files. Through easy-to-follow exercises and hands-on examples, you’ll master essential skills such as sketching, building complex 3D models, generating dynamic and static assemblies, and generating 2D engineering drawings. Each concept will build upon the last to prepare you to take on any design project with confidence. To reinforce your understanding of SOLIDWORKS, the book includes downloadable resources and real-world 3D modeling projects inspired by everyday objects.By the end of this book, you'll have the expertise to create professional 3D mechanical models using SOLIDWORKS and be well-prepared for the Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate (CSWA) and Certified SOLIDWORKS Professional (CSWP) exams.

Architecting Cloud-Native Serverless Solutions. Design, build, and operate serverless solutions on cloud and open source platforms

Safeer CM

Serverless computing has emerged as a mainstream paradigm in both cloud and on-premises computing, with AWS Lambda playing a pivotal role in shaping the Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) landscape. However, with the explosion of serverless technologies and vendors, it has become increasingly challenging to comprehend the foundational services and their offerings.Architecting Cloud Native Serverless Solutions lays a strong foundation for understanding the serverless landscape and technologies in a vendor-agnostic manner. You'll learn how to select the appropriate cloud vendors and technologies based on your specific needs. In addition, you'll dive deep into the serverless services across AWS, GCP, Azure, and Cloudflare followed by open source serverless tools such as Knative, OpenFaaS, and OpenWhisk, along with examples. You'll explore serverless solutions on Kubernetes that can be deployed on both cloud-hosted clusters and on-premises environments, with real-world use cases. Furthermore, you'll explore development frameworks, DevOps approaches, best practices, security considerations, and design principles associated with serverless computing.By the end of this serverless book, you'll be well equipped to solve your business problems by using the appropriate serverless vendors and technologies to build efficient and cost-effective serverless systems independently.

Mastering Windows Server 2019. The complete guide for system administrators to install, manage, and deploy new capabilities with Windows Server 2019 - Third Edition

Jordan Krause

Written by a nine-time Microsoft MVP award winner with over twenty years of experience working in IT, Mastering Windows Server 2019 is a hands-on guide for anyone looking to keep their skills up to date.This third edition comes with four new chapters to provide you with the in-depth knowledge needed to implement and use this operating system in any environment.Centralized management, monitoring, and configuration of servers are key to an efficient IT department.This book delves into multiple methods for quickly managing all your servers from a ‘single pane of glass' — the ability to monitor different servers across a network using Server Manager, Windows PowerShell, and even Windows Admin Center — from anywhere. Despite the focus on Windows Server 2019 LTSC, you will still explore containers and Nano Server, which are more related to the SAC of server releases. This additional coverage will give you insights into all aspects of using Windows Server 2019 in your environment.This book covers a range of remote access technologies available in this operating system, teaches management of PKI and certificates, and empowers you to virtualize your datacenter with Hyper-V. You will also discover the tools and software included with Windows Server 2019 that assist in the inevitable troubleshooting of problems that crop up.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Cookbook. For beginners or intermediate users this is a highly practical cookbook for Microsoft Dynamics GP. Now you can really get to grips with enterprise resource planning by engaging with real-world solutions through recipes and screenshots

Mark Polino, Ian Grieve

Microsoft Dynamics GP is an enterprise resource planning system, essentially an accounting system on steroids, designed for mid-sized organizations. The implementation of Dynamics GP is usually considered to be complex, and people often realize there must be more efficient ways of working with the system. This book will show readers how to improve their use of Dynamics GP and get the most out of this tool quickly and effectively.Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Cookbook picks up where implementation training leaves off. Whether you are new or experienced you will find useful recipes for improving the way you use and work with Dynamics GP. The clear recipe steps and screenshots make implementing these solutions easy for users of any level and will be sure to improve your efficiency with the Dynamics GP 2013 system.The book starts with recipes designed to enhance the usefulness of Microsoft Dynamics GP by personalizing the look and feel of the application. Most of the recipes are designed to give tips for a typical installation of Dynamics GP, including core financials and distribution modules. The book then moves through recipes that include automating Dynamics GP to allow users or administrators to focus on value adding tasks, harnessing the power of SmartLists to leverage both simplicity and power, connecting Dynamics GP to Microsoft Office 2013, exposing hidden features in Dynamics GP, and much more!Through the final chapters, the book covers system maintenance and extending Dynamics GP with the Support Debugging Tool and Professional Services Tools Library.

GitHub for Next-Generation Coders. Build your ideas, share your code, and join a community of creators

Igor Irić

Navigating the world of collaborative software development can be daunting, especially for young coders just starting their programming journey. This book is designed to take you on a coding adventure, transforming you from a curious beginner into a confident GitHub user.The book builds a solid foundation and explains the Git version control system in depth, helping you understand how to track changes, collaborate effectively, and manage your projects with ease. You'll master repositories, the building blocks of your coding projects, and learn branching strategies to experiment and work seamlessly with others. The chapters will teach you about GitHub Actions, guiding you through workflow syntax, exploring environments and secrets management, and providing hands-on exercises to solidify your understanding. You’ll also discover how to craft a compelling GitHub profile that highlights your achievements and discover the exciting world of open-source projects where you can contribute and give back to the community. To get you started with AI, you’ll also learn how to leverage Copilot and ChatGPT together to write faster, cleaner code.By the end of this book, you’ll be well prepared to contribute to real-world projects on GitHub, equipped with the skills to thrive in the world of collaborative software development.

PowerShell 7 Workshop. Learn how to program with PowerShell 7 on Windows, Linux, and the Raspberry Pi

Nick Parlow

Discover the capabilities of PowerShell 7 for your everyday tasks with this carefully paced tutorial that will help you master this versatile programming language.The first set of chapters will show you where to find and how to install the latest version of PowerShell, providing insights into the distinctive features that set PowerShell apart from other languages. You’ll then learn essential programming concepts such as variables and control flow, progressing to their applications. As you advance, you’ll work with files and APIs, writing scripts, functions, and modules. You’ll also gain proficiency in securing your PowerShell environment before venturing into different operating systems.Enriched with detailed practical examples tailored for Windows, Linux, macOS, and Raspberry Pi, each chapter weaves real-world scenarios to ignite your imagination and cement the principles you learn. You’ll be able to reinforce your understanding through self-assessment questions and delve deeper into the principles using comprehensive reading lists.By the end of this book, you’ll have the confidence to use PowerShell for physical computing and writing scripts for Windows administration.

Driving Data Quality with Data Contracts. A comprehensive guide to building reliable, trusted, and effective data platforms

Andrew Jones, Kevin Hu

Despite the passage of time and the evolution of technology and architecture, the challenges we face in building data platforms persist. Our data often remains unreliable, lacks trust, and fails to deliver the promised value.With Driving Data Quality with Data Contracts, you’ll discover the potential of data contracts to transform how you build your data platforms, finally overcoming these enduring problems. You’ll learn how establishing contracts as the interface allows you to explicitly assign responsibility and accountability of the data to those who know it best—the data generators—and give them the autonomy to generate and manage data as required. The book will show you how data contracts ensure that consumers get quality data with clearly defined expectations, enabling them to build on that data with confidence to deliver valuable analytics, performant ML models, and trusted data-driven products.By the end of this book, you’ll have gained a comprehensive understanding of how data contracts can revolutionize your organization’s data culture and provide a competitive advantage by unlocking the real value within your data.

Advanced Elasticsearch 7.0. A practical guide to designing, indexing, and querying advanced distributed search engines

Wai Tak Wong

Building enterprise-grade distributed applications and executing systematic search operations call for a strong understanding of Elasticsearch and expertise in using its core APIs and latest features. This book will help you master the advanced functionalities of Elasticsearch and understand how you can develop a sophisticated, real-time search engine confidently. In addition to this, you'll also learn to run machine learning jobs in Elasticsearch to speed up routine tasks.You'll get started by learning to use Elasticsearch features on Hadoop and Spark and make search results faster, thereby improving the speed of query results and enhancing the customer experience. You'll then get up to speed with performing analytics by building a metrics pipeline, defining queries, and using Kibana for intuitive visualizations that help provide decision-makers with better insights. The book will later guide you through using Logstash with examples to collect, parse, and enrich logs before indexing them in Elasticsearch.By the end of this book, you will have comprehensive knowledge of advanced topics such as Apache Spark support, machine learning using Elasticsearch and scikit-learn, and real-time analytics, along with the expertise you need to increase business productivity, perform analytics, and get the very best out of Elasticsearch.

Salesforce Essentials for Administrators. Discover the administration fundamentals and challenges of Salesforce CRM

Mohith Shrivastava, Mohit Shrivatsava

Cybersecurity - Attack and Defense Strategies. Counter modern threats and employ state-of-the-art tools and techniques to protect your organization against cybercriminals - Second Edition

Yuri Diogenes, Dr. Erdal Ozkaya

Cybersecurity – Attack and Defense Strategies, Second Edition is a completely revised new edition of the bestselling book, covering the very latest security threats and defense mechanisms including a detailed overview of Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and an assessment of the current threat landscape, with additional focus on new IoT threats and cryptomining.Cybersecurity starts with the basics that organizations need to know to maintain a secure posture against outside threat and design a robust cybersecurity program. It takes you into the mindset of a Threat Actor to help you better understand the motivation and the steps of performing an actual attack – the Cybersecurity kill chain. You will gain hands-on experience in implementing cybersecurity using new techniques in reconnaissance and chasing a user’s identity that will enable you to discover how a system is compromised, and identify and then exploit the vulnerabilities in your own system.This book also focuses on defense strategies to enhance the security of a system. You will also discover in-depth tools, including Azure Sentinel, to ensure there are security controls in each network layer, and how to carry out the recovery process of a compromised system.

IBM DB2 11.1 Certification Guide. Explore techniques to master database programming and administration tasks in IBM Db2

Robert (Kent) Collins, Mohankumar Saraswatipura

IBM Db2 is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that helps you store, analyze, and retrieve data efficiently. This comprehensive book is designed to help you master all aspects of IBM Db2 database administration and prepare you to take andpass IBM's Certification Exams C2090-600. Building on years of extensive experience,the authors take you through all areas covered by the test. The book delves deep into each certification topic: Db2 server management, physical design, business rules implementation, activity monitoring, utilities, high availability, and security. IBM Db2 11.1 Certification Guide provides you with more than 150 practice questions and answers, simulating real certification examination questions. Each chapter includes an extensive set of practice questions along with carefully explained answers.This book will not just prepare you for the C2090-600 exam but also help you troubleshoot day-to-day database administration challenges.

Troubleshooting Puppet

Thomas Uphill

Mastering Cyber Intelligence. Gain comprehensive knowledge and skills to conduct threat intelligence for effective system defense

Jean Nestor M. Dahj

The sophistication of cyber threats, such as ransomware, advanced phishing campaigns, zero-day vulnerability attacks, and advanced persistent threats (APTs), is pushing organizations and individuals to change strategies for reliable system protection. Cyber Threat Intelligence converts threat information into evidence-based intelligence that uncovers adversaries' intents, motives, and capabilities for effective defense against all kinds of threats.This book thoroughly covers the concepts and practices required to develop and drive threat intelligence programs, detailing the tasks involved in each step of the CTI lifecycle. You'll be able to plan a threat intelligence program by understanding and collecting the requirements, setting up the team, and exploring the intelligence frameworks. You'll also learn how and from where to collect intelligence data for your program, considering your organization level. With the help of practical examples, this book will help you get to grips with threat data processing and analysis. And finally, you'll be well-versed with writing tactical, technical, and strategic intelligence reports and sharing them with the community.By the end of this book, you'll have acquired the knowledge and skills required to drive threat intelligence operations from planning to dissemination phases, protect your organization, and help in critical defense decisions.

The Art of Writing Efficient Programs. An advanced programmer's guide to efficient hardware utilization and compiler optimizations using C++ examples

Fedor G. Pikus

The great free lunch of performance taking care of itself is over. Until recently, programs got faster by themselves as CPUs were upgraded, but that doesn't happen anymore. The clock frequency of new processors has almost peaked, and while new architectures provide small improvements to existing programs, this only helps slightly. To write efficient software, you now have to know how to program by making good use of the available computing resources, and this book will teach you how to do that.The Art of Efficient Programming covers all the major aspects of writing efficient programs, such as using CPU resources and memory efficiently, avoiding unnecessary computations, measuring performance, and how to put concurrency and multithreading to good use. You'll also learn about compiler optimizations and how to use the programming language (C++) more efficiently. Finally, you'll understand how design decisions impact performance.By the end of this book, you'll not only have enough knowledge of processors and compilers to write efficient programs, but you'll also be able to understand which techniques to use and what to measure while improving performance. At its core, this book is about learning how to learn.

jQuery Game Development Essentials. Learn how to make fun and addictive multi-platform games using jQuery with this book and

Selim Arsever

jQuery is a leading multi-browser JavaScript library that developers across the world utilize on a daily basis to help simplify client-side scripting. Using the friendly and powerful jQuery to create games based on DOM manipulations and CSS transforms allows you to target a vast array of browsers and devices without having to worry about individual peculiarities.jQuery Game Development Essentials will teach you how to use the environment, language, and framework that you're familiar with in an entirely new way so that you can create beautiful and addictive games. With concrete examples and detailed technical explanations you will learn how to apply game development techniques in a highly practical context.This essential reference explains classic game development techniques like sprite animations, tile-maps, collision detection, and parallax scrolling in a context specific to jQuery. In addition, there is coverage of advanced topics specific to creating games with the popular JavaScript library, such as integration with social networks alongside multiplayer and mobile support. jQuery Game Development Essentials will take you on a journey that will utilize your existing skills as a web developer so that you can create fantastic, addictive games that run right in the browser.

Building Interactive Dashboards in Microsoft 365 Excel. Harness the new features and formulae in M365 Excel to create dynamic, automated dashboards

Michael Olafusi, Olanrewaju Oyinbooke

M365 Excel is a modern Excel version that is constantly updated with features that make creating and automating analyses, reports, and dashboards very easy compared with older Excel versions. This book will help you leverage its full capabilities, beginning with a quick overview of what dashboards are and how they are different from other types of reports. Then, you’ll familiarize yourself with the different standard dashboards currently available and what they are meant to accomplish for organizations. As you progress, you’ll get to grips with the use of new powerful tools such as Power Query and dynamic array formulae in the automation of analysis, gaining insights into the right approach to take in building effective dashboards. You’ll equip yourself with not only all the essential formulae, charts, and non-chart visuals but also learn how to set up your dashboard perfectly. Along the way, you’ll build a couple of awesome dashboards from scratch to utilize your newfound knowledge.By the end of this book, you will be able to carry out an impressive and robust level of analysis on business data that may come from multiple sources or files, using better processes, formulae, and best practices in M365 to create insightful dashboards faster.

Expert Data Modeling with Power BI. Enrich and optimize your data models to get the best out of Power BI for reporting and business needs - Second Edition

Soheil Bakhshi, Christian Wade

This book is a comprehensive guide to understanding the ins and outs of data modeling and how to create full-fledged data models using Power BI confidently.In this new, fully updated edition, you'll learn how to connect data from multiple sources, understand data, define and manage relationships between data, and shape data models to gain deep and detailed insights about your organization. As you advance through the chapters, the book will demonstrate how to prepare efficient data models in the Power Query Editor and use simpler DAX code with new data modeling features. You'll explore how to use the various data modeling and navigation techniques and perform custom calculations using the modeling features with the help of real-world examples. Finally, you'll learn how to use some new and advanced modeling features to enhance your data models to carry out a wide variety of complex tasks. Additionally, you'll learn valuable best practices and explore common data modeling complications and the solutions to supercharge the process of creating a data model in Power BI and build better-performing data models.By the end of this Power BI book, you'll have gained the skills you need to structure data coming from multiple sources in different ways to create optimized data models that support high-performing reports and data analytics.

WordPress 5 Cookbook. Actionable solutions to common problems when building websites with WordPress

Rakhitha Nimesh Ratnayake

WordPress has been the most popular content management system (CMS) for many years and is now powering over 30% of all websites globally. With the demand for WordPress development and skilled developers ever-increasing, now is the best time to learn WordPress inside out.This book starts with simple recipes for configuring WordPress and managing basic platform features. You’ll then move on to explore how to install and customize WordPress plugins, widgets, and themes. The next few chapters cover recipes for content and user-management-related topics such as customizing the content display, working with content types, using the new Gutenberg editor, and customizing editorial workflow for building advanced blogs. As you advance, you’ll learn how to use WordPress as an application framework as well as a platform for building e-commerce sites. This WordPress book will also help you optimize your site to maximize visibility on search engines, add interactivity, and build a user community to make the site profitable. Finally, you’ll learn how to maintain a WordPress site smoothly while taking precautions against possible security threats.By the end of the book, you’ll have the tools and skills required to build and maintain modern WordPress websites with the latest technologies and be able to find quick solutions to common WordPress problems.

Mastering PyTorch. Create and deploy deep learning models from CNNs to multimodal models, LLMs, and beyond - Second Edition

Ashish Ranjan Jha

PyTorch is making it easier than ever before for anyone to build deep learning applications. This PyTorch deep learning book will help you uncover expert techniques to get the most out of your data and build complex neural network models.You’ll build convolutional neural networks for image classification and recurrent neural networks and transformers for sentiment analysis. As you advance, you'll apply deep learning across different domains, such as music, text, and image generation, using generative models, including diffusion models. You'll not only build and train your own deep reinforcement learning models in PyTorch but also learn to optimize model training using multiple CPUs, GPUs, and mixed-precision training. You’ll deploy PyTorch models to production, including mobile devices. Finally, you’ll discover the PyTorch ecosystem and its rich set of libraries. These libraries will add another set of tools to your deep learning toolbelt, teaching you how to use fastai to prototype models and PyTorch Lightning to train models. You’ll discover libraries for AutoML and explainable AI (XAI), create recommendation systems, and build language and vision transformers with Hugging Face.By the end of this book, you'll be able to perform complex deep learning tasks using PyTorch to build smart artificial intelligence models.

Microsoft Certified Azure Data Fundamentals (DP-900) Exam Guide. Build a solid foundation in Azure data services and pass the DP-900 exam on your first try

Steve Miles

Microsoft's Azure Data Fundamentals (DP-900) certification exam validates your expertise in core data concepts and Azure’s powerful data services capabilities. This comprehensive guide written by Steve Miles—a Microsoft Azure MVP and certified trainer with over 25 years of experience in cloud data services and 30+ certifications across major platforms—serves as your gateway to a future shaped by data and AI, regardless of your technical background.With the help of examples, you'll learn fundamental data concepts, including data representation, data storage options, and common workloads and gain clarity on the roles and responsibilities of key data professionals such as data administrators, engineers, and analysts. This guide covers all crucial exam domains, from data services capabilities of the Azure cloud platform to considerations for relational, non-relational, and analytics workloads, encompassing both Microsoft and open-source technologies.To supplement your exam prep, this book gives you access to a suite of online resources designed to boost your confidence, including mock tests, interactive flashcards, and invaluable exam tipsBy the end of this book, you’ll be fully prepared not only to pass the DP-900 exam but also to confidently tackle data solutions in Azure, setting a strong foundation for your data-driven career

15 Math Concepts Every Data Scientist Should Know. Understand and learn how to apply the math behind data science algorithms

David Hoyle

Data science combines the power of data with the rigor of scientific methodology, with mathematics providing the tools and frameworks for analysis, algorithm development, and deriving insights. As machine learning algorithms become increasingly complex, a solid grounding in math is crucial for data scientists. David Hoyle, with over 30 years of experience in statistical and mathematical modeling, brings unparalleled industrial expertise to this book, drawing from his work in building predictive models for the world's largest retailers. Encompassing 15 crucial concepts, this book covers a spectrum of mathematical techniques to help you understand a vast range of data science algorithms and applications. Starting with essential foundational concepts, such as random variables and probability distributions, you’ll learn why data varies, and explore matrices and linear algebra to transform that data. Building upon this foundation, the book spans general intermediate concepts, such as model complexity and network analysis, as well as advanced concepts such as kernel-based learning and information theory. Each concept is illustrated with Python code snippets demonstrating their practical application to solve problems.By the end of the book, you’ll have the confidence to apply key mathematical concepts to your data science challenges.