Software Architecture for Busy Developers. Talk and act like a software architect in one weekend

Stéphane Eyskens

Are you a seasoned developer who likes to add value to a project beyond just writing code? Have you realized that good development practices are not enough to make a project successful, and you now want to embrace the bigger picture in the IT landscape? If so, you're ready to become a software architect; someone who can deal with any IT stakeholder as well as add value to the numerous dimensions of software development.The sheer volume of content on software architecture can be overwhelming, however. Software Architecture for Busy Developers is here to help. Written by Stéphane Eyskens, author of The Azure Cloud Native Mapbook, this book guides you through your software architecture journey in a pragmatic way using real-world scenarios. By drawing on over 20 years of consulting experience, Stéphane will help you understand the role of a software architect, without the fluff or unnecessarily complex theory.You'll begin by understanding what non-functional requirements mean and how they concretely impact target architecture. The book then covers different frameworks used across the entire enterprise landscape with the help of use cases and examples. Finally, you'll discover ways in which the cloud is becoming a game changer in the world of software architecture.By the end of this book, you'll have gained a holistic understanding of the architectural landscape, as well as more specific software architecture skills. You'll also be ready to pursue your software architecture journey on your own - and in just one weekend!

Instant RaphaelJS Starter. Get to grips with RaphaelJS - a powerful cross-browser compatible vector graphics library, to create interactive 2D graphics and animations with ease

Krishna Sagar

Drawing in a browser without images has been around for a long time but it was a complex task with browser support issues. Raphael JS aims to solve all these problems with simple and clear methods to draw cross-browser compatible drawings. Imagine drawing complex dials, graphs, and meters for a dashboard, all without images, and the ability to dynamically manipulate those drawings. Creativity is the only limit with Raphael JS.Instant RaphaelJS Starter is a practical, hands-on guide that provides you with a number of clear step-by-step exercises, which will help you take advantage of the real power that is behind Raphael JS, and give you a good grounding in using it in your web pages.Instant RaphaelJS Starter looks at the HTML5 video formats available, and breaks down the mystery and confusion that surrounds which format to use. It will take you through a number of clear, practical recipes that will help you to take advantage of the new HTML5 video standard, quickly and painlessly. You will also learn how to draw your own shapes using any vector graphics editor, or by using one of the pre-defined shapes. We will also take a look at adding functionality such as DOM events, or animations, as well as how to manipulate the shapes dynamically. If you want to take advantage of imageless vector graphics for browsers using Raphael JS, then this is the book for you.You will learn everything you need to know to convert shapes and perform animations, as well as how to draw custom shapes with simple techniques using Raphael JS and use them across multiple browsers.

ZBrush 4 Sculpting for Games: Beginner's Guide. Sculpt machines, environments, and creatures for your game development projects

Manuel Scherer

ZBrush is a fantastic tool for creating models for use in computer games. Using a wide range of powerful tools you can create models for vehicles, props, environments, and characters.This book makes creating game art in ZBrush fast and easy. It covers everything you need to create models of all kinds for your game projects, even if you've never used ZBrush before.Built around four complete ZBrush projects, the book gives you everything you need to sculpt props, vehicles, and creatures in ZBrush. You'll start by creating a spooky tree model, mastering the sculpting, texturing, and decoration skills that are essential for all ZBrush topics. Next you'll move to man-made objects with a sci-fi drone. Next you'll see how to sculpt monsters and other creatures, deal with cloth and other soft materials, and prepare the model to become an animated, controllable character in a game. The final project returns to machines, building a complete, detailed spaceship for use in your sci-fi games.

R Deep Learning Essentials. A step-by-step guide to building deep learning models using TensorFlow, Keras, and MXNet - Second Edition

Mark Hodnett, Joshua F. Wiley

Deep learning is a powerful subset of machine learning that is very successful in domains such as computer vision and natural language processing (NLP). This second edition of R Deep Learning Essentials will open the gates for you to enter the world of neural networks by building powerful deep learning models using the R ecosystem.This book will introduce you to the basic principles of deep learning and teach you to build a neural network model from scratch. As you make your way through the book, you will explore deep learning libraries, such as Keras, MXNet, and TensorFlow, and create interesting deep learning models for a variety of tasks and problems, including structured data, computer vision, text data, anomaly detection, and recommendation systems. You’ll cover advanced topics, such as generative adversarial networks (GANs), transfer learning, and large-scale deep learning in the cloud. In the concluding chapters, you will learn about the theoretical concepts of deep learning projects, such as model optimization, overfitting, and data augmentation, together with other advanced topics.By the end of this book, you will be fully prepared and able to implement deep learning concepts in your research work or projects.

Running Effective Marketing Meetings. A how-to guide to run marketing meetings that teach, inspire, and change how you and your team work

Daniel Kuperman

Twilio Best Practices. Learn how to build powerful real-time voice and SMS applications with Twilio

Timothy Rogers, Tim Rogers

Active Machine Learning with Python. Refine and elevate data quality over quantity with active learning

Margaux Masson-Forsythe

Building accurate machine learning models requires quality data—lots of it. However, for most teams, assembling massive datasets is time-consuming, expensive, or downright impossible. Led by Margaux Masson-Forsythe, a seasoned ML engineer and advocate for surgical data science and climate AI advancements, this hands-on guide to active machine learning demonstrates how to train robust models with just a fraction of the data using Python's powerful active learning tools.You’ll master the fundamental techniques of active learning, such as membership query synthesis, stream-based sampling, and pool-based sampling and gain insights for designing and implementing active learning algorithms with query strategy and Human-in-the-Loop frameworks. Exploring various active machine learning techniques, you’ll learn how to enhance the performance of computer vision models like image classification, object detection, and semantic segmentation and delve into a machine AL method for selecting the most informative frames for labeling large videos, addressing duplicated data. You’ll also assess the effectiveness and efficiency of active machine learning systems through performance evaluation.By the end of the book, you’ll be able to enhance your active learning projects by leveraging Python libraries, frameworks, and commonly used tools.

Tabular Modeling with SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services Cookbook. Create better operational analytics for your users with these business solutions

Derek Wilson

SQL Server Analysis Service (SSAS) has been widely used across multiple businesses to build smart online analytical reporting solutions. It includes two different types of modeling for analysis services: Tabular and Multi Dimensional. This book covers Tabular modeling, which uses tables and relationships with a fast in-memory engine to provide state of the art compression algorithms and query performance.The book begins by quickly taking you through the concepts required to model tabular data and set up the necessary tools and services. As you learn to create tabular models using tools such as Excel and Power View, you’ll be shown various strategies to deploy your model on the server and choose a query mode (In-memory or DirectQuery) that best suits your reporting needs. You’ll also learn how to implement key and newly introduced DAX functions to create calculated columns and measures for your model data. Last but not least, you’ll be shown techniques that will help you administer and secure your BI implementation along with some widely used tips and tricks to optimize your reporting solution.By the end of this book, you’ll have gained hands-on experience with the powerful new features that have been added to Tabular models in SSAS 2016 and you’ll be able to improve user satisfaction with faster reports and analytical queries.