Decoding Large Language Models. An exhaustive guide to understanding, implementing, and optimizing LLMs for NLP applications

Irena Cronin

Ever wondered how large language models (LLMs) work and how they're shaping the future of artificial intelligence? Written by a renowned author and AI, AR, and data expert, Decoding Large Language Models is a combination of deep technical insights and practical use cases that not only demystifies complex AI concepts, but also guides you through the implementation and optimization of LLMs for real-world applications.You’ll learn about the structure of LLMs, how they're developed, and how to utilize them in various ways. The chapters will help you explore strategies for improving these models and testing them to ensure effective deployment. Packed with real-life examples, this book covers ethical considerations, offering a balanced perspective on their societal impact. You’ll be able to leverage and fine-tune LLMs for optimal performance with the help of detailed explanations. You’ll also master techniques for training, deploying, and scaling models to be able to overcome complex data challenges with confidence and precision. This book will prepare you for future challenges in the ever-evolving fields of AI and NLP.By the end of this book, you’ll have gained a solid understanding of the architecture, development, applications, and ethical use of LLMs and be up to date with emerging trends, such as GPT-5.

Offensive Security Using Python. A hands-on guide to offensive tactics and threat mitigation using practical strategies

Rejah Rehim, Manindar Mohan, Grant Ongers

Offensive Security Using Python is your go-to manual for mastering the quick-paced field of offensive security. This book is packed with valuable insights, real-world examples, and hands-on activities to help you leverage Python to navigate the complicated world of web security, exploit vulnerabilities, and automate challenging security tasks.From detecting vulnerabilities to exploiting them with cutting-edge Python techniques, you’ll gain practical insights into web security, along with guidance on how to use automation to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of your security activities. You’ll also learn how to design personalized security automation tools. While offensive security is a great way to stay ahead of emerging threats, defensive security plays an equal role in protecting organizations from cyberattacks. In this book, you’ll get to grips with Python secure coding techniques to improve your ability to recognize dangers quickly and take appropriate action. As you progress, you’ll be well on your way to handling the contemporary challenges in the field of cybersecurity using Python, as well as protecting your digital environment from growing attacks.By the end of this book, you’ll have a solid understanding of sophisticated offensive security methods and be able to stay ahead in the constantly evolving cybersecurity space.

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

Dwayne Natwick, Rod Trent

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

Practical Node-RED Programming. Learn powerful visual programming techniques and best practices for the web and IoT

Taiji Hagino, Nick O'Leary

Node-RED is a free and open source flow-based programming tool used to handle IoT data that allows programmers of any level to interconnect physical I/O, cloud-based systems, databases, and APIs to build web applications without code.Practical Node-RED Programming is a comprehensive introduction for anyone looking to get up to speed with the Node-RED ecosystem in no time. Complete with hands-on tutorials, projects, and self-assessment questions, this easy-to-follow guide will help you to become well versed in the foundations of Node-RED. You’ll learn how to use Node-RED to handle IoT data and build web applications without having to write complex code. Once you’ve covered the basics, you’ll explore various visual programming techniques and find out how to make sample flows as you cover web development, IoT development, and cloud service connections, and finally build useful real-world applications.By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to use Node-RED to develop a real-world application from scratch, which can then be implemented in your business.

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

Bernardo Iraci, Ton Roosendaal

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

VMware Horizon View 6 Desktop Virtualization Cookbook. Over 100 hands-on recipes demonstrating the core as well as latest features of your VMware Horizon View infrastructure

Jason Ventresco

Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Exam Guide. Validate your knowledge of Kubernetes and implement it in a real-life production environment

Mélony Qin, Brendan Burns, Mark Whitby, Alessandro Vozza

Kubernetes is the most popular container orchestration tool in the industry. The Kubernetes Administrator certification will help you establish your credibility and enable you to efficiently support the business growth of individual organizations with the help of this open source platform.The book begins by introducing you to Kubernetes architecture and the core concepts of Kubernetes. You'll then get to grips with the main Kubernetes API primitives, before diving into cluster installation, configuration, and management. Moving ahead, you’ll explore different approaches while maintaining the Kubernetes cluster, perform upgrades for the Kubernetes cluster, as well as backup and restore etcd. As you advance, you'll deploy and manage workloads on Kubernetes and work with storage for Kubernetes stateful workloads with the help of practical scenarios. You'll also delve into managing the security of Kubernetes applications and understand how different components in Kubernetes communicate with each other and with other applications. The concluding chapters will show you how to troubleshoot cluster- and application-level logging and monitoring, cluster components, and applications in Kubernetes.By the end of this Kubernetes book, you'll be fully prepared to pass the CKA exam and gain practical knowledge that can be applied in your day-to-day work.

Accelerating Server-Side Development with Fastify. A comprehensive guide to API development for building a scalable backend for your web apps

Manuel Spigolon, Maksim Sinik, Matteo Collina

This book is a complete guide to server-side app development in Fastify, written by the core contributors of this highly performant plugin-based web framework. Throughout the book, you’ll discover how it fosters code reuse, thereby improving your time to market.Starting with an introduction to Fastify’s fundamental concepts, this guide will lead you through the development of a real-world project while providing in-depth explanations of advanced topics to prepare you to build highly maintainable and scalable backend applications. The book offers comprehensive guidance on how to design, develop, and deploy RESTful applications, including detailed instructions for building reusable components that can be leveraged across multiple projects. The book presents guidelines for creating efficient, reliable, and easy-to-maintain real-world applications. It also offers practical advice on best practices, design patterns, and how to avoid common pitfalls encountered by developers while building backend applications.By following these guidelines and recommendations, you’ll be able to confidently design, implement, deploy, and maintain an application written in Fastify, and develop plugins and APIs to contribute to the Fastify and open source communities.