Hands-On Deep Learning for Games. Leverage the power of neural networks and reinforcement learning to build intelligent games

Micheal Lanham

The number of applications of deep learning and neural networks has multiplied in the last couple of years. Neural nets has enabled significant breakthroughs in everything from computer vision, voice generation, voice recognition and self-driving cars. Game development is also a key area where these techniques are being applied. This book will give an in depth view of the potential of deep learning and neural networks in game development. We will take a look at the foundations of multi-layer perceptron’s to using convolutional and recurrent networks. In applications from GANs that create music or textures to self-driving cars and chatbots. Then we introduce deep reinforcement learning through the multi-armed bandit problem and other OpenAI Gym environments.As we progress through the book we will gain insights about DRL techniques such as Motivated Reinforcement Learning with Curiosity and Curriculum Learning. We also take a closer look at deep reinforcement learning and in particular the Unity ML-Agents toolkit. By the end of the book, we will look at how to apply DRL and the ML-Agents toolkit to enhance, test and automate your games or simulations. Finally, we will cover your possible next steps and possible areas for future learning.

Python High Performance. Build high-performing, concurrent, and distributed applications - Second Edition

Dr. Gabriele Lanaro

Python is a versatile language that has found applications in many industries. The clean syntax, rich standard library, and vast selection of third-party libraries make Python a wildly popular language. Python High Performance is a practical guide that shows how to leverage the power of both native and third-party Python libraries to build robust applications. The book explains how to use various profilers to find performance bottlenecks and apply the correct algorithm to fix them. The reader will learn how to effectively use NumPy and Cython to speed up numerical code. The book explains concepts of concurrent programming and how to implement robust and responsive applications using Reactive programming. Readers will learn how to write code for parallel architectures using Tensorflow and Theano, and use a cluster of computers for large-scale computations using technologies such as Dask and PySpark. By the end of the book, readers will have learned to achieve performance and scale from their Python applications.

Machine Learning with TensorFlow 1.x. Second generation machine learning with Google's brainchild - TensorFlow 1.x

Saif Ahmed, Quan Hua, Shams Ul Azeem

Google's TensorFlow is a game changer in the world of machine learning. It has made machine learning faster, simpler, and more accessible than ever before. This book will teach you how to easily get started with machine learning using the power of Python and TensorFlow 1.x. Firstly, you’ll cover the basic installation procedure and explore the capabilities of TensorFlow 1.x. This is followed by training and running the first classifier, and coverage of the unique features of the library including data ?ow graphs, training, and the visualization of performance with TensorBoard—all within an example-rich context using problems from multiple industries. You’ll be able to further explore text and image analysis, and be introduced to CNN models and their setup in TensorFlow 1.x. Next, you’ll implement a complete real-life production system from training to serving a deep learning model. As you advance you’ll learn about Amazon Web Services (AWS) and create a deep neural network to solve a video action recognition problem. Lastly, you’ll convert the Caffe model to TensorFlow and be introduced to the high-level TensorFlow library, TensorFlow-Slim.By the end of this book, you will be geared up to take on any challenges of implementing TensorFlow 1.x in your machine learning environment.

Jupyter for Data Science. Exploratory analysis, statistical modeling, machine learning, and data visualization with Jupyter

Dan Toomey

Jupyter Notebook is a web-based environment that enables interactive computing in notebook documents. It allows you to create documents that contain live code, equations, and visualizations. This book is a comprehensive guide to getting started with data science using the popular Jupyter notebook. If you are familiar with Jupyter notebook and want to learn how to use its capabilities to perform various data science tasks, this is the book for you! From data exploration to visualization, this book will take you through every step of the way in implementing an effective data science pipeline using Jupyter. You will also see how you can utilize Jupyter's features to share your documents and codes with your colleagues. The book also explains how Python 3, R, and Julia can be integrated with Jupyter for various data science tasks.By the end of this book, you will comfortably leverage the power of Jupyter to perform various tasks in data science successfully.

Puppet 5 Essentials. A fast-paced guide to automating your infrastructure - Third Edition

Martin Alfke, Felix Frank

Puppet is a configuration management tool that allows you to automate all your IT configurations, giving you control over what you do to each Puppet Agent in a network, and when and how you do it. In this age of digital delivery and ubiquitous Internet presence, it's becoming increasingly important to implement scaleable and portable solutions, not only in terms of software, but also the system that runs it.This book gets you started quickly with Puppet and its tools in the right way. It highlights improvements in Puppet and provides solutions for upgrading. It starts with a quick introduction to Puppet in order to quickly get your IT automation platform in place. Then you learn about the Puppet Agent and its installation and configuration along with Puppet Server and its scaling options. The book adopts an innovative structure and approach, and Puppet is explained with flexible use cases that empower you to manage complex infrastructures easily.Finally, the book will take readers through Puppet and its companion tools such as Facter, Hiera, and R10k and how to make use of tool chains.

Enterprise Application Architecture with .NET Core. An architectural journey into the Microsoft .NET open source platform

Ganesan Senthilvel, Ovais Mehboob Ahmed Khan, Habib Qureshi

If you want to design and develop enterprise applications using .NET Core as the development framework and learn about industry-wide best practices and guidelines, then this book is for you. The book starts with a brief introduction to enterprise architecture, which will help you to understand what enterprise architecture is and what the key components are. It will then teach you about the types of patterns and the principles of software development, and explain the various aspects of distributed computing to keep your applications effective and scalable. These chapters act as a catalyst to start the practical implementation, and design and develop applications using different architectural approaches, such as layered architecture, service oriented architecture, microservices and cloud-specific solutions. Gradually, you will learn about the different approaches and models of the Security framework and explore various authentication models and authorization techniques, such as social media-based authentication and safe storage using app secrets. By the end of the book, you will get to know the concepts and usage of the emerging fields, such as DevOps, BigData, architectural practices, and Artificial Intelligence.

Go Systems Programming. Master Linux and Unix system level programming with Go

Mihalis Tsoukalos

Go is the new systems programming language for Linux and Unix systems. It is also the language in which some of the most prominent cloud-level systems have been written, such as Docker. Where C programmers used to rule, Go programmers are in demand to write highly optimized systems programming code.Created by some of the original designers of C and Unix, Go expands the systems programmers toolkit and adds a mature, clear programming language. Traditional system applications become easier to write since pointers are not relevant and garbage collection has taken away the most problematic area for low-level systems code: memory management.This book opens up the world of high-performance Unix system applications to the beginning Go programmer. It does not get stuck on single systems or even system types, but tries to expand the original teachings from Unix system level programming to all types of servers, the cloud, and the web.

Python Network Programming Cookbook. Practical solutions to overcome real-world networking challenges - Second Edition

Pradeeban Kathiravelu, Gary Berger, Dr. M. O. Faruque Sarker

Python Network Programming Cookbook - Second Edition highlights the major aspects of network programming in Python, starting from writing simple networking clients to developing and deploying complex Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) systems. It creates the building blocks for many practical web and networking applications that rely on various networking protocols. It presents the power and beauty of Python to solve numerous real-world tasks in the area of network programming, network and system administration, network monitoring, and web-application development.In this edition, you will also be introduced to network modelling to build your own cloud network. You will learn about the concepts and fundamentals of SDN and then extend your network with Mininet. Next, you’ll find recipes on Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) and open and proprietary SDN approaches and frameworks. You will also learn to configure the Linux Foundation networking ecosystem and deploy and automate your networks with Python in the cloud and the Internet scale.By the end of this book, you will be able to analyze your network security vulnerabilities using advanced network packet capture and analysis techniques.

Intelligent Projects Using Python. 9 real-world AI projects leveraging machine learning and deep learning with TensorFlow and Keras

Santanu Pattanayak

This book will be a perfect companion if you want to build insightful projects from leading AI domains using Python.The book covers detailed implementation of projects from all the core disciplines of AI. We start by covering the basics of how to create smart systems using machine learning and deep learning techniques. You will assimilate various neural network architectures such as CNN, RNN, LSTM, to solve critical new world challenges. You will learn to train a model to detect diabetic retinopathy conditions in the human eye and create an intelligent system for performing a video-to-text translation. You will use the transfer learning technique in the healthcare domain and implement style transfer using GANs. Later you will learn to build AI-based recommendation systems, a mobile app for sentiment analysis and a powerful chatbot for carrying customer services. You will implement AI techniques in the cybersecurity domain to generate Captchas. Later you will train and build autonomous vehicles to self-drive using reinforcement learning. You will be using libraries from the Python ecosystem such as TensorFlow, Keras and more to bring the core aspects of machine learning, deep learning, and AI.By the end of this book, you will be skilled to build your own smart models for tackling any kind of AI problems without any hassle.

Mastering Kibana 6.x. Visualize your Elastic Stack data with histograms, maps, charts, and graphs

Anurag Srivastava

Kibana is one of the popular tools among data enthusiasts for slicing and dicing large datasets and uncovering Business Intelligence (BI) with the help of its rich and powerful visualizations.To begin with, Mastering Kibana 6.x quickly introduces you to the features of Kibana 6.x, before teaching you how to create smart dashboards in no time. You will explore metric analytics and graph exploration, followed by understanding how to quickly customize Kibana dashboards. In addition to this, you will learn advanced analytics such as maps, hits, and list analytics. All this will help you enhance your skills in running and comparing multiple queries and filters, influencing your data visualization skills at scale.With Kibana’s Timelion feature, you can analyze time series data with histograms and stats analytics. By the end of this book, you will have created a speedy machine learning job using X-Pack capabilities.

Hands-On Industrial Internet of Things. Create a powerful Industrial IoT infrastructure using Industry 4.0

Giacomo Veneri, Antonio Capasso

We live in an era where advanced automation is used to achieve accurate results. To set up an automation environment, you need to first configure a network that can be accessed anywhere and by any device. This book is a practical guide that helps you discover the technologies and use cases for Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT).Hands-On Industrial Internet of Things takes you through the implementation of industrial processes and specialized control devices and protocols. You’ll study the process of identifying and connecting to different industrial data sources gathered from different sensors. Furthermore, you’ll be able to connect these sensors to cloud network, such as AWS IoT, Azure IoT, Google IoT, and OEM IoT platforms, and extract data from the cloud to your devices.As you progress through the chapters, you’ll gain hands-on experience in using open source Node-Red, Kafka, Cassandra, and Python. You will also learn how to develop streaming and batch-based Machine Learning algorithms.By the end of this book, you will have mastered the features of Industry 4.0 and be able to build stronger, faster, and more reliable IoT infrastructure in your Industry.

Burp Suite Cookbook. Practical recipes to help you master web penetration testing with Burp Suite

Sunny Wear

Burp Suite is a Java-based platform for testing the security of your web applications, and has been adopted widely by professional enterprise testers.The Burp Suite Cookbook contains recipes to tackle challenges in determining and exploring vulnerabilities in web applications. You will learn how to uncover security flaws with various test cases for complex environments. After you have configured Burp for your environment, you will use Burp tools such as Spider, Scanner, Intruder, Repeater, and Decoder, among others, to resolve specific problems faced by pentesters. You will also explore working with various modes of Burp and then perform operations on the web. Toward the end, you will cover recipes that target specific test scenarios and resolve them using best practices.By the end of the book, you will be up and running with deploying Burp for securing web applications.

Java EE 8 High Performance. Master techniques such as memory optimization, caching, concurrency, and multithreading to achieve maximum performance from your enterprise applications

Romain Manni-Bucau

The ease with which we write applications has been increasing, but with this comes the need to address their performance. A balancing act between easily implementing complex applications and keeping their performance optimal is a present-day need. In this book, we explore how to achieve this crucial balance while developing and deploying applications with Java EE 8. The book starts by analyzing various Java EE specifications to identify those potentially affecting performance adversely. Then, we move on to monitoring techniques that enable us to identify performance bottlenecks and optimize performance metrics. Next, we look at techniques that help us achieve high performance: memory optimization, concurrency, multi-threading, scaling, and caching. We also look at fault tolerance solutions and the importance of logging. Lastly, you will learn to benchmark your application and also implement solutions for continuous performance evaluation.By the end of the book, you will have gained insights into various techniques and solutions that will help create high-performance applications in the Java EE 8 environment.

Building Serverless Applications with Python. Develop fast, scalable, and cost-effective web applications that are always available

Jalem Raj Rohit

Serverless architectures allow you to build and run applications and services without having to manage the infrastructure. Many companies have adopted this architecture to save cost and improve scalability. This book will help you design serverless architectures for your applications with AWS and Python.The book is divided into three modules. The first module explains the fundamentals of serverless architecture and how AWS lambda functions work. In the next module, you will learn to build, release, and deploy your application to production. You will also learn to log and test your application. In the third module, we will take you through advanced topics such as building a serverless API for your application. You will also learn to troubleshoot and monitor your app and master AWS lambda programming concepts with API references. Moving on, you will also learn how to scale up serverless applications and handle distributed serverless systems in production.By the end of the book, you will be equipped with the knowledge required to build scalable and cost-efficient Python applications with a serverless framework.

Machine Learning with Core ML. An iOS developer's guide to implementing machine learning in mobile apps

Joshua Newnham

Core ML is a popular framework by Apple, with APIs designed to support various machine learning tasks. It allows you to train your machine learning models and then integrate them into your iOS apps.Machine Learning with Core ML is a fun and practical guide that not only demystifies Core ML but also sheds light on machine learning. In this book, you’ll walk through realistic and interesting examples of machine learning in the context of mobile platforms (specifically iOS). You’ll learn to implement Core ML for visual-based applications using the principles of transfer learning and neural networks. Having got to grips with the basics, you’ll discover a series of seven examples, each providing a new use-case that uncovers how machine learning can be applied along with the related concepts. By the end of the book, you will have the skills required to put machine learning to work in their own applications, using the Core ML APIs

Hands-On Full Stack Web Development with Angular 6 and Laravel 5. Become fluent in both frontend and backend web development with Docker, Angular and Laravel

Fernando Monteiro

Angular, considered as one of the most popular and powerful frontend frameworks, has undergone a major overhaul to embrace emerging web technologies so that developers can build cutting-edge web applications.This book gives you practical knowledge of building modern full-stack web apps from scratch using Angular with a Laravel Restful back end.The book begins with a thorough introduction to Laravel and Angular and its core concepts like custom errors messages, components, routers, and Angular-cli, with each concept being explained first, and then put into practice in the case-study project.With the basics covered, you will learn how sophisticated UI features can be added using NgBootstrao and a component-based architecture. You will learn to extend and customize variables from Bootstrap CSS framework.You will learn how to create secure web application with Angular and Laravel using token based authentication. Finally, you will learn all about progressive web applications and build and deploy a complete fullstack application using Docker and Docker-compose.By the end of this book, you'll gain a solid understanding of Angular 6 and how it interacts with a Laravel 5.x backend

Augmented Reality for Developers. Build practical augmented reality applications with Unity, ARCore, ARKit, and Vuforia

Jonathan Linowes, Krystian Babilinski

Augmented Reality brings with it a set of challenges that are unseen and unheard of for traditional web and mobile developers. This book is your gateway to Augmented Reality development—not a theoretical showpiece for your bookshelf, but a handbook you will keep by your desk while coding and architecting your first AR app and for years to come.The book opens with an introduction to Augmented Reality, including markets, technologies, and development tools. You will begin by setting up your development machine for Android, iOS, and Windows development, learning the basics of using Unity and the Vuforia AR platform as well as the open source ARToolKit and Microsoft Mixed Reality Toolkit. You will also receive an introduction to Apple's ARKit and Google's ARCore! You will then focus on building AR applications, exploring a variety of recognition targeting methods. You will go through multiple complete projects illustrating key market sectors including business marketing, education, industrial training, and gaming. By the end of the book, you will have gained the necessary knowledge to make quality content appropriate for a range of AR devices, platforms, and intended uses.

Mastering Linux Kernel Development. A kernel developer's reference manual

CH Raghav Maruthi

Mastering Linux Kernel Development looks at the Linux kernel, its internal arrangement and design, and various core subsystems, helping you to gain significant understanding of this open source marvel. You will look at how the Linux kernel, which possesses a kind of collective intelligence thanks to its scores of contributors, remains so elegant owing to its great design.This book also looks at all the key kernel code, core data structures, functions, and macros, giving you a comprehensive foundation of the implementation details of the kernel’s core services and mechanisms. You will also look at the Linux kernel as well-designed software, which gives us insights into software design in general that are easily scalable yet fundamentally strong and safe.By the end of this book, you will have considerable understanding of and appreciation for the Linux kernel.

PostgreSQL 10 High Performance. Expert techniques for query optimization, high availability, and efficient database maintenance - Third Edition

Enrico Pirozzi

PostgreSQL database servers have a common set of problems that they encounter as their usage gets heavier and requirements get more demanding. Peek into the future of your PostgreSQL 10 database's problems today. Know the warning signs to look for and how to avoid the most common issues before they even happen.Surprisingly, most PostgreSQL database applications evolve in the same way—choose the right hardware, tune the operating system and server memory use, optimize queries against the database and CPUs with the right indexes, and monitor every layer, from hardware to queries, using tools from inside and outside PostgreSQL. Also, using monitoring insight, PostgreSQL database applications continuously rework the design andconfiguration. On reaching the limits of a single server, they break things up; connection pooling, caching, partitioning, replication, and parallel queries can all help handle increasing database workloads.By the end of this book, you will have all the knowledge you need to design, run, and manage your PostgreSQL solution while ensuring high performance and high availability

Learning jQuery 3. Interactive front-end website development - Fifth Edition

Adam Boduch, Jonathan Chaffer, Karl Swedberg

If you are a web developer and want to create web applications that look good, are efficient, have rich user interfaces, and integrate seamlessly with any backend using AJAX, then this book is the ideal match for you. We’ll show you how you can integrate jQuery 3.0 into your web pages, avoid complex JavaScript code, create brilliant animation effects for your web applications, and create a flawless app. We start by configuring and customising the jQuery environment, and getting hands-on with DOM manipulation. Next, we’ll explore event handling advanced animations, creating optimised user interfaces, and building useful third-party plugins. Also, we'll learn how to integrate jQuery with your favourite back-end framework.Moving on, we’ll learn how the ECMAScript 6 features affect your web development process with jQuery. we’ll discover how to use the newly introduced JavaScript promises and the new animation API in jQuery 3.0 in great detail, along with sample code and examples. By the end of the book, you will be able to successfully create a fully featured and efficient single page web application and leverage all the new features of jQuery 3.0 effectively.

Mastering Python Design Patterns. A guide to creating smart, efficient, and reusable software - Second Edition

Kamon Ayeva, Sakis Kasampalis

Python is an object-oriented scripting language that is used in a wide range of categories. In software engineering, a design pattern is an elected solution for solving software design problems. Although they have been around for a while, design patterns remain one of the top topics in software engineering, and are a ready source for software developers to solve the problems they face on a regular basis. This book takes you through a variety of design patterns and explains them with real-world examples. You will get to grips with low-level details and concepts that show you how to write Python code, without focusing on common solutions as enabled in Java and C++. You'll also fnd sections on corrections, best practices, system architecture, and its designing aspects. This book will help you learn the core concepts of design patterns and the way they can be used to resolve software design problems. You'll focus on most of the Gang of Four (GoF) design patterns, which are used to solve everyday problems, and take your skills to the next level with reactive and functional patterns that help you build resilient, scalable, and robust applications. By the end of the book, you'll be able to effciently address commonly faced problems and develop applications, and also be comfortable working on scalable and maintainable projects of any size.

Preparing for the Certified OpenStack Administrator Exam. A complete guide for developers taking tests conducted by the OpenStack Foundation

Matt Dorn

This book provides you with a specific strategy to pass the OpenStack Foundation’s first professional certification: the Certified OpenStack Administrator. In a recent survey, 78% of respondents said the OpenStack skills shortage had deterred them from adopting OpenStack. Consider this an opportunity to increase employer and customer confidence by proving you have the skills required to administrate real-world OpenStack clouds.You will begin your journey by getting well-versed with the OpenStack environment, understanding the benefits of taking the exam, and installing an included OpenStack All-in-One Virtual Appliance to work through objectives covered throughout the book. After exploring the basics of the individual services, you will be introduced to strategies to accomplish the exam objectives relevant to Keystone, Glance, Nova, Neutron, Cinder, Swift, Heat, and troubleshooting.Finally, you’ll benefit from the special tips section and a practice exam to put your knowledge to the test. By the end of the journey, you will be ready to become a Certified OpenStack Administrator!

Scala Reactive Programming. Build scalable, functional reactive microservices with Akka, Play, and Lagom

Rambabu Posa

Reactive programming is a scalable, fast way to build applications, and one that helps us write code that is concise, clear, and readable. It can be used for many purposes such as GUIs, robotics, music, and others, and is central to many concurrent systems. This book will be your guide to getting started with Reactive programming in Scala.You will begin with the fundamental concepts of Reactive programming and gradually move on to working with asynchronous data streams. You will then start building an application using Akka Actors and extend it using the Play framework. You will also learn about reactive stream specifications, event sourcing techniques, and different methods to integrate Akka Streams into the Play Framework. This book will also take you one step forward by showing you the advantages of the Lagom framework while working with reactive microservices. You will also learn to scale applications using multi-node clusters and test, secure, and deploy your microservices to the cloud.By the end of the book, you will have gained the knowledge to build robust and distributed systems with Scala and Akka.

Odoo 10 Implementation Cookbook. Explore the capabilities of Odoo and discover all you need to implement it

Mantavya Gajjar

Odoo is a Python-based ERP system and is completely open source. Odoo is a comprehensive suite of business applications offering a wealth of functionalities that can be deployed to meet your business needs.This book will help you manage the different functionalities of your business and optimize it. You will learn in detail about the various facets of the business process such as sales, accounting, purchases, manufacturing, and inventory. We will cover each of these topics in detail and learn how Odoo handles all these tasks with much ease. With its modular approach, you will be able to build customized solutions, take advantage of the Odoo 10 system in your organization, and master basic administration. We will cover modules and applications in Odoo that will help optimize quality checks. You will also be able to customize major reporting functions for your teams and set up forms and documents for sales, purchase, inventory, and so on. By the end of the book, you will be able to use the major functionalities of Odoo 10 and fully implement them into your business.