Explore modern game programming and rendering techniques to build games using C++ programming language and its popular libraries Key Features * Learn how you can build basic 2D and complex 3D games with C++ * Understand shadows, texturing, lighting, and rendering in 3D game development using OpenGL * Uncover modern graphics programming techniques and GPU compute methods using the Vulkan API Book Description Although numerous languages are currently being used to develop games, C++ remains the standard for fabricating expert libraries and tool chains for game development. This book introduces you to the world of game development with C++. C++ Game Development By Example starts by touching upon the basic concepts of math, programming, and computer graphics and creating a simple side-scrolling action 2D game. You'll build a solid foundation by studying basic game concepts such as creating game loops, rendering 2D game scenes using SFML, 2D sprite creation and animation, and collision detection. The book will help you advance to creating a 3D physics puzzle game using modern OpenGL and the Bullet physics engine. You'll understand the graphics pipeline, which entails creating 3D objects using vertex and index buffers and rendering them to the scene using vertex and fragment shaders. Finally, you'll create a basic project using the Vulkan library that'll help you get to grips with creating swap chains, image views, render passes, and frame buffers for building high-performance graphics in your games. By the end of this book, you’ll be ready with 3 compelling projects created with SFML, the Vulkan API, and OpenGL, and you'll be able take your game and graphics programming skills to the next level. What you will learn * Understand shaders and how to write a basic vertex and fragment shader * Build a Visual Studio project and add SFML to it * Discover how to create sprite animations and a game character class * Add sound effects and background music to your game * Grasp how to integrate Vulkan into Visual Studio * Create shaders and convert them to the SPIR-V binary format Who this book is for If you’re a developer keen to learn game development with C++ or get up to date with game development, this book is for you. Some knowledge of C++ programming is assumed.

Explore the power of D3.js 5 and its integration with web technologies for building rich and interactive data visualization solutions Key Features * Explore the latest D3.js 5 for creating charts, plots, and force-directed graphics * Practical guide for creating interactive graphics and data-driven apps with JavaScript * Build Real-time visualization and transition on web using SVG with D3.js Book Description This book is a practical hands-on introduction to D3 (Data-driven Documents): the most popular open-source JavaScript library for creating interactive web-based data visualizations. Based entirely on open web standards, D3 provides an integrated collection of tools for efficiently binding data to graphical elements. If you have basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript you can use D3.js to create beautiful interactive web-based data visualizations. D3 is not a charting library. It doesn’t contain any pre-defined chart types, but can be used to create whatever visual representations of data you can imagine. The goal of this book is to introduce D3 and provide a learning path so that you obtain a solid understanding of its fundamental concepts, learn to use most of its modules and functions, and gain enough experience to create your own D3 visualizations. You will learn how to create bar, line, pie and scatter charts, trees, dendograms, treemaps, circle packs, chord/ribbon diagrams, sankey diagrams, animated network diagrams, and maps using different geographical projections. Fundamental concepts are explained in each chapter and then applied to a larger example in step-by-step tutorials, complete with full code, from hundreds of examples you can download and run. This book covers D3 version 5 and is based on ES2015 JavaScript. What you will learn * Learn to use D3.js version 5 and web standards to create beautiful interactive data-driven visualizations for the web * Bind data to DOM elements, applying different scales, color schemes and configuring smooth animated transitions for data updates * Generate data structures and layouts for many popular chart formats * Apply interactive behaviors to any chart * Create thematic maps based on GIS data using different geographical projections with interactive behaviors * Load, parse and transform data from JSON and CSV formats Who this book is for The book is intended for web developers, web designers, data scientists, artists, and any developer who wish to create interactive data visualization for the Web using D3. The book assumes basic knowledge of HTML, CSs, and JavaScript.

Explore distributed ledger technology, decentralization, and smart contracts and develop real-time decentralized applications with Ethereum and Solidity Key Features * Get to grips with the underlying technical principles and implementations of blockchain * Build powerful applications using Ethereum to secure transactions and create smart contracts * Gain advanced insights into cryptography and cryptocurrencies Book Description Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger with applications in industries such as finance, government, and media. This Learning Path is your guide to building blockchain networks using Ethereum, JavaScript, and Solidity. You will get started by understanding the technical foundations of blockchain technology, including distributed systems, cryptography and how this digital ledger keeps data secure. Further into the chapters, you’ll gain insights into developing applications using Ethereum and Hyperledger. As you build on your knowledge of Ether security, mining , smart contracts, and Solidity, you’ll learn how to create robust and secure applications that run exactly as programmed without being affected by fraud, censorship, or third-party interference. Toward the concluding chapters, you’ll explore how blockchain solutions can be implemented in applications such as IoT apps, in addition to its use in currencies. The Learning Path will also highlight how you can increase blockchain scalability and even discusses the future scope of this fascinating and powerful technology. By the end of this Learning Path, you'll be equipped with the skills you need to tackle pain points encountered in the blockchain life cycle and confidently design and deploy decentralized applications. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: * Mastering Blockchain - Second Edition by Imran Bashir * Building Blockchain Projects by Narayan Prusty What you will learn * Understand why decentralized applications are important * Discover the mechanisms behind bitcoin and alternative cryptocurrencies * Master how cryptography is used to secure data with the help of examples * Maintain, monitor, and manage your blockchain solutions * Create Ethereum wallets * Explore research topics and the future scope of blockchain technology Who this book is for This Learning Path is designed for blockchain developers who want to build decentralized applications and smart contracts from scratch using Hyperledger. Basic familiarity with any programming language will be useful to get started with this Learning Path.

Build optimized, efficient, and real-time applications that are production-ready using Unreal Engine's Material Editor Key Features * Create stunning visual effects for 3D games and high-quality graphics * Design efficient Shaders for mobile platforms without sacrificing their realism * Discover what goes into the structure of Shaders and why lighting works the way it does Book Description Unreal Engine 4 is a powerful game engine, one which has seen a recent boost in widespread adoption thanks to its ease of use and the powerful rendering pipeline that it packs. Seeing as how it's relatively easy to create stunning presentations and visuals, Unreal has quickly become a strong contender in industries where this kind of software had been previously denied entry. With that in mind, this book aims to help you get the most out of Unreal Engine 4 - from creating awe-inspiring graphics to delivering optimized experiences to your users. This is possible thanks to a mixture of hands-on experience with real materials and the theory behind them. You will immediately know how to create that material that you want to display, and you'll also end up with the knowledge that will let you know how to control it. All of this will be done without losing sight of two key components of any real-time application - optimization, and efficiency. The materials that you create will be light and efficient, and they will vary depending on your target platform. You'll know which techniques can be used in any kind of device and which ones should be kept to high-end machines, giving you the confidence to tackle any material-related task that you can imagine. Hop onboard and discover how! What you will learn * Master Unreal Engine's rendering pipeline for developing real-time graphics * Use physically based rendering (PBR) for building materials and lighting solutions * Build optimized materials for games targeting multiple platforms * Understand Unreal Engine's node and functions for creating desirable effects * Design and build production-ready shaders * Explore Unreal Engine's Material Editor for building complex materials and textures Who this book is for This book is for developers who want to create their first Shaders in Unreal Engine 4 or wish to take their game to a whole new level by adding professional post-processing effects. A solid understanding of Unreal is required to get the most from this book.

Develop native applications for multiple mobile and desktop platforms including but not limited to iOS, Android, and UWP with the Xamarin framework and Xamarin.Forms Key Features * Understand .NET Core and its cross-platform development philosophy * Build Android, iOS, and Windows mobile applications with C#, .NET Core, and Azure Cloud Services * Bring Artificial Intelligence capabilities into your mobile applications with Azure AI Book Description .NET Core is the general umbrella term used for Microsoft’s cross-platform toolset. Xamarin used for developing mobile applications, is one of the app model implementations for .NET Core infrastructure. In this book, you will learn how to design, architect, and develop highly attractive, maintainable, efficient, and robust mobile applications for multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, and UWP, with the toolset provided by Microsoft using Xamarin, .NET Core, and Azure Cloud Services. This book will take you through various phases of application development with Xamarin, from environment setup, design, and architecture to publishing, using real-world scenarios. Throughout the book, you will learn how to develop mobile apps using Xamarin, Xamarin.Forms and .NET Standard; implement a webbased backend composed of microservices with .NET Core using various Azure services including but not limited to Azure App Services, Azure Active Directory, Notification Hub, Logic Apps, and Azure Functions, Cognitive Services; create data stores using popular database technologies such as Cosmos DB, SQL and Realm. Towards the end, the book will help developers to set up an efficient and maintainable development pipeline to manage the application life cycle using Visual Studio App Center and Visual Studio Services. What you will learn * Implement native applications for multiple mobile and desktop platforms * Understand and use various Azure Services with .NET Core * Make use of architectural patterns designed for mobile and web applications * Understand the basic Cosmos DB concepts * Understand how different app models can be used to create an app service * Explore the Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms UI suite with .NET Core for building mobile applications Who this book is for This book is for mobile developers who wish to develop cross-platform mobile applications. Programming experience with C# is required. Some knowledge and understanding of core elements and cross-platform application development with .NET is required.

Explore supervised machine learning with R by studying popular real-world uses cases such as object detection in driverless cars, customer churn, and default prediction Key Features * Study supervised learning algorithms by using real-world datasets * Fine tune optimal parameters with hyperparameter optimization * Select the best algorithm using the model evaluation framework Book Description R provides excellent visualization features that are essential for exploring data before using it in automated learning. Applied Supervised Learning with R helps you cover the complete process of employing R to develop applications using supervised machine learning algorithms for your business needs. The book starts by helping you develop your analytical thinking to create a problem statement using business inputs and domain research. You will then learn different evaluation metrics that compare various algorithms, and later progress to using these metrics to select the best algorithm for your problem. After finalizing the algorithm you want to use, you will study the hyperparameter optimization technique to fine-tune your set of optimal parameters. To prevent you from overfitting your model, a dedicated section will even demonstrate how you can add various regularization terms. By the end of this book, you will have the advanced skills you need for modeling a supervised machine learning algorithm that precisely fulfills your business needs. What you will learn * Develop analytical thinking to precisely identify a business problem * Wrangle data with dplyr, tidyr, and reshape2 * Visualize data with ggplot2 * Validate your supervised machine learning model using k-fold * Optimize hyperparameters with grid and random search, and Bayesian optimization * Deploy your model on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Lambda with plumber * Improve your model’s performance with feature selection and dimensionality reduction Who this book is for This book is specially designed for novice and intermediate-level data analysts, data scientists, and data engineers who want to explore different methods of supervised machine learning and its various use cases. Some background in statistics, probability, calculus, linear algebra, and programming will help you thoroughly understand and follow the content of this book.

Gain in-depth knowledge of TypeScript and the latest ECMAScript standards by building robust web applications across different domains Key Features * Apply the cutting-edge features of TypeScript 3.0 to build high-performance, maintainable applications * Learn through practical examples of using TypeScript with popular frameworks, such as Angular and React * Focus on building high-quality applications that are modular, scalable and adaptable Book Description With the demand for ever more complex websites, the need to write robust, standard-compliant JavaScript has never been greater. TypeScript is modern JavaScript with the support of a first-class type system, which makes it simpler to write complex web systems. With this book, you’ll explore core concepts and learn by building a series of websites and TypeScript apps. You’ll start with an introduction to TypeScript features that are often overlooked in other books, before moving on to creating a simple markdown parser. You’ll then explore React and get up to speed with creating a client-side contacts manager. Next, the book will help you discover the Angular framework and use the MEAN stack to create a photo gallery. Later sections will assist you in creating a GraphQL Angular Todo app and then writing a Socket.IO chatroom. The book will also lead you through developing your final Angular project which is a mapping app. As you progress, you’ll gain insights into React with Docker and microservices. You’ll even focus on how to build an image classification program with machine learning using TensorFlow. Finally, you’ll learn to combine TypeScript and C# to create an ASP.NET Core-based music library app. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to confidently use TypeScript 3.0 and different JavaScript frameworks to build high-quality apps. What you will learn * Discover how to use TypeScript to write code using common patterns * Get to grips with using popular frameworks and libraries with TypeScript * Leverage the power of both server and client using TypeScript * Learn how to apply exciting new paradigms such as GraphQL and TensorFlow * Use popular cloud-based authenticated services * Combine TypeScript with C# to create ASP.NET Core applications Who this book is for This book is for programmers and web developers who are familiar with TypeScript and want to put their knowledge to work by building real-world complex applications. Prior experience with any other web framework is not required.

An effective guide to designing, building, and deploying enterprise Java microservices with Eclipse MicroProfile Key Features * Create cloud-native microservices with ease using this detailed guide * Avoid vendor lock-in when implementing microservices using Eclipse MicroProfile * Discover why MicroProfile is a great specification for building microservices in multi-cloud environments Book Description Eclipse MicroProfile has gained momentum in the industry as a multi-vendor, interoperable, community-driven specification. It is a major disruptor that allows organizations with large investments in enterprise Java to move to microservices without spending a lot on retraining their workforce. This book is based on MicroProfile 2.2, however, it will guide you in running your applications in MicroProfile 3.0. You'll start by understanding why microservices are important in the digital economy and how MicroProfile addresses the need for enterprise Java microservices. You'll learn about the subprojects that make up a MicroProfile, its value proposition to organizations and developers, and its processes and governance. As you advance, the book takes you through the capabilities and code examples of MicroProfile’s subprojects - Config, Fault Tolerance, Health Check, JWT Propagation, Metrics, and OpenTracing. Finally, you’ll be guided in developing a conference application using Eclipse MicroProfile, and explore possible scenarios of what’s next in MicroProfile with Jakarta EE. By the end of this book, you'll have gained a clear understanding of Eclipse MicroProfile and its role in enterprise Java microservices. What you will learn * Understand why microservices are important in the digital economy * Analyze how MicroProfile addresses the need for enterprise Java microservices * Test and secure your applications with Eclipse MicroProfile * Get to grips with various MicroProfile capabilities such as OpenAPI and Typesafe REST Client * Explore reactive programming with MicroProfile Stream and Messaging candidate APIs * Discover and implement coding best practices using MicroProfile Who this book is for If you’re a Java developer who wants to create enterprise microservices, this book is for you. Familiarity with Java EE and the concept of microservices will help you get the most out of this book.

Understand the constructs of the Python programming language and use them to build data science projects Key Features * Learn the basics of developing applications with Python and deploy your first data application * Take your first steps in Python programming by understanding and using data structures, variables, and loops * Delve into Jupyter, NumPy, Pandas, SciPy, and sklearn to explore the data science ecosystem in Python Book Description Python is the most widely used programming language for building data science applications. Complete with step-by-step instructions, this book contains easy-to-follow tutorials to help you learn Python and develop real-world data science projects. The “secret sauce” of the book is its curated list of topics and solutions, put together using a range of real-world projects, covering initial data collection, data analysis, and production. This Python book starts by taking you through the basics of programming, right from variables and data types to classes and functions. You’ll learn how to write idiomatic code and test and debug it, and discover how you can create packages or use the range of built-in ones. You’ll also be introduced to the extensive ecosystem of Python data science packages, including NumPy, Pandas, scikit-learn, Altair, and Datashader. Furthermore, you’ll be able to perform data analysis, train models, and interpret and communicate the results. Finally, you’ll get to grips with structuring and scheduling scripts using Luigi and sharing your machine learning models with the world as a microservice. By the end of the book, you’ll have learned not only how to implement Python in data science projects, but also how to maintain and design them to meet high programming standards. What you will learn * Code in Python using Jupyter and VS Code * Explore the basics of coding – loops, variables, functions, and classes * Deploy continuous integration with Git, Bash, and DVC * Get to grips with Pandas, NumPy, and scikit-learn * Perform data visualization with Matplotlib, Altair, and Datashader * Create a package out of your code using poetry and test it with PyTest * Make your machine learning model accessible to anyone with the web API Who this book is for If you want to learn Python or data science in a fun and engaging way, this book is for you. You’ll also find this book useful if you’re a high school student, researcher, analyst, or anyone with little or no coding experience with an interest in the subject and courage to learn, fail, and learn from failing. A basic understanding of how computers work will be useful.

Explore the blockchain-based decentralized platform and understand how Ethereum works with Dapps examples Key Features * Explore the Ethereum ecosystem and understand the latest research on the platform * Build decentralized apps (Dapps) using smart contracts and Ethereum with the help of practical examples * Learn to make your decentralized applications fast and highly secure Book Description Ethereum is a blockchain-based, decentralized computing platform that allows running smart contracts. This book provides a basic overview of how Ethereum works, its ecosystem, mining process, and the consensus mechanism. It also demonstrates a step-by-step approach for building decentralized applications. This book begins with the very basics of Blockchain technology. Then it dives deep into the Ethereum architecture, framework and tools in its ecosystem. It also provides you an overview of ongoing research on Ethereum, for example, Layer 1 and 2 scaling solution, Stablecoin, ICO/STO/IEO, etc. Next, it explains Solidity language in detail, and provides step-by-step instructions for designing, developing, testing, deploying, and monitoring decentralized applications. In addition, you’ll learn how to use Truffle, Remix, Infura, Metamask, and many other Ethereum technologies. It’ll also help you develop your own cryptocurrency by creating ERC20, and ERC721 smart contracts from scratch. Finally, we explain private blockchains, and you learn how to interact with smart contracts through wallets. What you will learn * Understand the concepts of blockchain and cryptocurrency * Master Ethereum development tools such as Truffle, Remix IDE and Infura * Delve into smart contract development * Develop DApps frontend using Node.js, React.js, and Web3js API * Learn Etherscan and other tools to secure and monitor smart contracts * Develop and debug smart contracts by working with Remix * Apply Truffle suite to compile, migrate, and unit test smart contracts * Explore smart contracts such as ERC20 token and decentralized digital market Who this book is for This book is for all developers and architects who want to explore Ethereum blockchain fundamentals and get started with building real-world decentralized applications. Knowledge of an object-oriented programming language such as JavaScript will be useful but not mandatory.

Perform cloud-based machine learning and deep learning using Amazon Web Services such as SageMaker, Lex, Comprehend, Translate, and Polly Key Features * Explore popular machine learning and deep learning services with their underlying algorithms * Discover readily available artificial intelligence(AI) APIs on AWS like Vision and Language Services * Design robust architectures to enable experimentation, extensibility, and maintainability of AI apps Book Description From data wrangling through to translating text, you can accomplish this and more with the artificial intelligence and machine learning services available on AWS. With this book, you’ll work through hands-on exercises and learn to use these services to solve real-world problems. You’ll even design, develop, monitor, and maintain machine and deep learning models on AWS. The book starts with an introduction to AI and its applications in different industries, along with an overview of AWS artificial intelligence and machine learning services. You’ll then get to grips with detecting and translating text with Amazon Rekognition and Amazon Translate. The book will assist you in performing speech-to-text with Amazon Transcribe and Amazon Polly. Later, you’ll discover the use of Amazon Comprehend for extracting information from text, and Amazon Lex for building voice chatbots. You will also understand the key capabilities of Amazon SageMaker such as wrangling big data, discovering topics in text collections, and classifying images. Finally, you’ll cover sales forecasting with deep learning and autoregression, before exploring the importance of a feedback loop in machine learning. By the end of this book, you will have the skills you need to implement AI in AWS through hands-on exercises that cover all aspects of the ML model life cycle. What you will learn * Gain useful insights into different machine and deep learning models * Build and deploy robust deep learning systems to production * Train machine and deep learning models with diverse infrastructure specifications * Scale AI apps without dealing with the complexity of managing the underlying infrastructure * Monitor and Manage AI experiments efficiently * Create AI apps using AWS pre-trained AI services Who this book is for This book is for data scientists, machine learning developers, deep learning researchers, and artificial intelligence enthusiasts who want to harness the power of AWS to implement powerful artificial intelligence solutions. A basic understanding of machine learning concepts is expected.

Discover the unified, distributed storage system and improve the performance of applications Key Features * Explore the latest features of Ceph's Mimic release * Get to grips with advanced disaster and recovery practices for your storage * Harness the power of Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store (RADOS) to help you optimize storage systems Book Description Ceph is an open source distributed storage system that is scalable to Exabyte deployments. This second edition of Mastering Ceph takes you a step closer to becoming an expert on Ceph. You’ll get started by understanding the design goals and planning steps that should be undertaken to ensure successful deployments. In the next sections, you’ll be guided through setting up and deploying the Ceph cluster with the help of orchestration tools. This will allow you to witness Ceph’s scalability, erasure coding (data protective) mechanism, and automated data backup features on multiple servers. You’ll then discover more about the key areas of Ceph including BlueStore, erasure coding and cache tiering with the help of examples. Next, you’ll also learn some of the ways to export Ceph into non-native environments and understand some of the pitfalls that you may encounter. The book features a section on tuning that will take you through the process of optimizing both Ceph and its supporting infrastructure. You’ll also learn to develop applications, which use Librados and distributed computations with shared object classes. Toward the concluding chapters, you’ll learn to troubleshoot issues and handle various scenarios where Ceph is not likely to recover on its own. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to master storage management with Ceph and generate solutions for managing your infrastructure. What you will learn * Plan, design and deploy a Ceph cluster * Get well-versed with different features and storage methods * Carry out regular maintenance and daily operations with ease * Tune Ceph for improved ROI and performance * Recover Ceph from a range of issues * Upgrade clusters to BlueStore Who this book is for If you are a storage professional, system administrator, or cloud engineer looking for guidance on building powerful storage solutions for your cloud and on-premise infrastructure, this book is for you.

Unleash the benefits of VMware vSphere 6.7 to provide a powerful, flexible and secure digital infrastructure Key Features * Deep dive into areas like management, security, scalability, availability and more with vSphere 6.7 * Design, deploy and manage VMware vSphere virtual datacenters * Implement monitoring and security of VMware workloads with ease Book Description vSphere 6.7 is the latest release of VMware’s industry-leading, virtual cloud platform. It allows organisations to move to hybrid cloud computing by enabling them to run, manage, connect and secure applications in a common operating environment. This up-to-date, 2nd edition provides complete coverage of vSphere 6.7. Complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts, practical examples and self-assessment questions, you will begin with an overview of the products, solutions and features of the vSphere 6.7 suite. You’ll learn how to design and plan a virtual infrastructure and look at the workflow and installation of components. You'll gain insight into best practice configuration, management and security. By the end the book you'll be able to build your own VMware vSphere lab that can run even the most demanding of workloads. What you will learn * Explore the immense functionality of vSphere 6.7 * Design, manage and administer a virtualization environment * Get tips for the VCP6-DCV and VCIX6-DCV exams * Understand how to implement different migration techniques across different environments * Explore vSphere 6.7s powerful capabilities for patching, upgrading and managing the configuration of virtual environments. * Understand core vSphere components * Master resource management, disaster recovery, troubleshooting, monitoring and security Who this book is for This book is for Administrators, Infrastructure Engineers, Architects, and Consultants with basic knowledge of VMware vSphere.

Design, develop, and solve real-world automation and orchestration problems by unlocking the automation capabilities of Ansible. Key Features * Tackle complex automation challenges with the newly added features in Ansible 2.7 Book Description Automation is essential for success in the modern world of DevOps. Ansible provides a simple, yet powerful, automation engine for tackling complex automation challenges. This book will take you on a journey that will help you exploit the latest version's advanced features to help you increase efficiency and accomplish complex orchestrations. This book will help you understand how Ansible 2.7 works at a fundamental level and will also teach you to leverage its advanced capabilities. Throughout this book, you will learn how to encrypt Ansible content at rest and decrypt data at runtime. Next, this book will act as an ideal resource to help you master the advanced features and capabilities required to tackle complex automation challenges. Later, it will walk you through workflows, use cases, orchestrations, troubleshooting, and Ansible extensions. Lastly, you will examine and debug Ansible operations, helping you to understand and resolve issues. By the end of the book, you will be able to unlock the true power of the Ansible automation engine and tackle complex, real- world actions with ease. What you will learn * Gain an in-depth understanding of how Ansible works under the hood * Fully automate Ansible playbook executions with encrypted data * Access and manipulate variable data within playbooks * Use blocks to perform failure recovery or cleanup * Explore the Playbook debugger and the Ansible Console * Troubleshoot unexpected behavior effectively * Work with cloud infrastructure providers and container systems * Develop custom modules, plugins, and dynamic inventory sources Who this book is for This book is for Ansible developers and operators who have an understanding of its core elements and applications but are now looking to enhance their skills in applying automation using Ansible.

Discover end-to-end penetration testing solutions to enhance your ethical hacking skills Key Features * Practical recipes to conduct effective penetration testing using the latest version of Kali Linux * Leverage tools like Metasploit, Wireshark, Nmap, and more to detect vulnerabilities with ease * Confidently perform networking and application attacks using task-oriented recipes Book Description Many organizations have been affected by recent cyber events. At the current rate of hacking, it has become more important than ever to pentest your environment in order to ensure advanced-level security. This book is packed with practical recipes that will quickly get you started with Kali Linux (version 2018.4 / 2019), in addition to covering the core functionalities. The book will get you off to a strong start by introducing you to the installation and configuration of Kali Linux, which will help you to perform your tests. You will also learn how to plan attack strategies and perform web application exploitation using tools such as Burp and JexBoss. As you progress, you will get to grips with performing network exploitation using Metasploit, Sparta, and Wireshark. The book will also help you delve into the technique of carrying out wireless and password attacks using tools such as Patator, John the Ripper, and airoscript-ng. Later chapters will draw focus to the wide range of tools that help in forensics investigations and incident response mechanisms. As you wrap up the concluding chapters, you will learn to create an optimum quality pentest report. By the end of this book, you will be equipped with the knowledge you need to conduct advanced penetration testing, thanks to the book’s crisp and task-oriented recipes. What you will learn * Learn how to install, set up and customize Kali for pentesting on multiple platforms * Pentest routers and embedded devices * Get insights into fiddling around with software-defined radio * Pwn and escalate through a corporate network * Write good quality security reports * Explore digital forensics and memory analysis with Kali Linux Who this book is for If you are an IT security professional, pentester, or security analyst who wants to conduct advanced penetration testing techniques, then this book is for you. Basic knowledge of Kali Linux is assumed.

Leverage the power of Tensorflow to Create powerful software agents that can self-learn to perform real-world tasks Key Features * Explore efficient Reinforcement Learning algorithms and code them using TensorFlow and Python * Train Reinforcement Learning agents for problems, ranging from computer games to autonomous driving. * Formulate and devise selective algorithms and techniques in your applications in no time. Book Description Advances in reinforcement learning algorithms have made it possible to use them for optimal control in several different industrial applications. With this book, you will apply Reinforcement Learning to a range of problems, from computer games to autonomous driving. The book starts by introducing you to essential Reinforcement Learning concepts such as agents, environments, rewards, and advantage functions. You will also master the distinctions between on-policy and off-policy algorithms, as well as model-free and model-based algorithms. You will also learn about several Reinforcement Learning algorithms, such as SARSA, Deep Q-Networks (DQN), Deep Deterministic Policy Gradients (DDPG), Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic (A3C), Trust Region Policy Optimization (TRPO), and Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO). The book will also show you how to code these algorithms in TensorFlow and Python and apply them to solve computer games from OpenAI Gym. Finally, you will also learn how to train a car to drive autonomously in the Torcs racing car simulator. By the end of the book, you will be able to design, build, train, and evaluate feed-forward neural networks and convolutional neural networks. You will also have mastered coding state-of-the-art algorithms and also training agents for various control problems. What you will learn * Understand the theory and concepts behind modern Reinforcement Learning algorithms * Code state-of-the-art Reinforcement Learning algorithms with discrete or continuous actions * Develop Reinforcement Learning algorithms and apply them to training agents to play computer games * Explore DQN, DDQN, and Dueling architectures to play Atari's Breakout using TensorFlow * Use A3C to play CartPole and LunarLander * Train an agent to drive a car autonomously in a simulator Who this book is for Data scientists and AI developers who wish to quickly get started with training effective reinforcement learning models in TensorFlow will find this book very useful. Prior knowledge of machine learning and deep learning concepts (as well as exposure to Python programming) will be useful.

Use Python and NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit) to build out your own text classifiers and solve common NLP problems. Key Features * Assimilate key NLP concepts and terminologies * Explore popular NLP tools and techniques * Gain practical experience using NLP in application code Book Description If NLP hasn't been your forte, Natural Language Processing Fundamentals will make sure you set off to a steady start. This comprehensive guide will show you how to effectively use Python libraries and NLP concepts to solve various problems. You'll be introduced to natural language processing and its applications through examples and exercises. This will be followed by an introduction to the initial stages of solving a problem, which includes problem definition, getting text data, and preparing it for modeling. With exposure to concepts like advanced natural language processing algorithms and visualization techniques, you'll learn how to create applications that can extract information from unstructured data and present it as impactful visuals. Although you will continue to learn NLP-based techniques, the focus will gradually shift to developing useful applications. In these sections, you'll understand how to apply NLP techniques to answer questions as can be used in chatbots. By the end of this book, you'll be able to accomplish a varied range of assignments ranging from identifying the most suitable type of NLP task for solving a problem to using a tool like spacy or gensim for performing sentiment analysis. The book will easily equip you with the knowledge you need to build applications that interpret human language. What you will learn * Obtain, verify, and clean data before transforming it into a correct format for use * Perform data analysis and machine learning tasks using Python * Understand the basics of computational linguistics * Build models for general natural language processing tasks * Evaluate the performance of a model with the right metrics * Visualize, quantify, and perform exploratory analysis from any text data Who this book is for Natural Language Processing Fundamentals is designed for novice and mid-level data scientists and machine learning developers who want to gather and analyze text data to build an NLP-powered product. It'll help you to have prior experience of coding in Python using data types, writing functions, and importing libraries. Some experience with linguistics and probability is useful but not necessary.

Achieve improved network programmability and automation by leveraging powerful network programming concepts, algorithms, and tools Key Features * Deal with remote network servers using SSH, FTP, SNMP and LDAP protocols. * Design multi threaded and event-driven architectures for asynchronous servers programming. * Leverage your Python programming skills to build powerful network applications Book Description Network programming has always been a demanding task. With full-featured and well-documented libraries all the way up the stack, Python makes network programming the enjoyable experience it should be. Starting with a walk through of today's major networking protocols, through this book, you'll learn how to employ Python for network programming, how to request and retrieve web resources, and how to extract data in major formats over the web. You will utilize Python for emailing using different protocols, and you'll interact with remote systems and IP and DNS networking. You will cover the connection of networking devices and configuration using Python 3.7, along with cloud-based network management tasks using Python. As the book progresses, socket programming will be covered, followed by how to design servers, and the pros and cons of multithreaded and event-driven architectures. You'll develop practical clientside applications, including web API clients, email clients, SSH, and FTP. These applications will also be implemented through existing web application frameworks. What you will learn * Execute Python modules on networking tools * Automate tasks regarding the analysis and extraction of information from a network * Get to grips with asynchronous programming modules available in Python * Get to grips with IP address manipulation modules using Python programming * Understand the main frameworks available in Python that are focused on web application * Manipulate IP addresses and perform CIDR calculations Who this book is for If you're a Python developer or a system administrator with Python experience and you're looking to take your first steps in network programming, then this book is for you. If you're a network engineer or a network professional aiming to be more productive and efficient in networking programmability and automation then this book would serve as a useful resource. Basic knowledge of Python is assumed.

Leverage the full potential of IoT with the combination of Raspberry Pi 3 and Python and architect a complete IoT system that is the best fit for your organization Key Features * Build complex Python-based applications with IoT * Explore different concepts, technologies, and tradeoffs in the IoT architectural stack * Delve deep into each element of the IoT design—from sensors to the cloud Book Description The Internet of Things (IoT) is the fastest growing technology market. Industries are embracing IoT technologies to improve operational expenses, product life, and people's well-being. We’ll begin our journey with an introduction to Raspberry Pi and quickly jump right into Python programming. We’ll learn all concepts through multiple projects, and then reinforce our learnings by creating an IoT robot car. We’ll examine modern sensor systems and focus on what their power and functionality can bring to our system. We’ll also gain insight into cloud and fog architectures, including the OpenFog standards. The Learning Path will conclude by discussing three forms of prevalent attacks and ways to improve the security of our IoT infrastructure. By the end of this Learning Path, we will have traversed the entire spectrum of technologies needed to build a successful IoT system, and will have the confidence to build, secure, and monitor our IoT infrastructure. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: * Internet of Things Programming Projects by Colin Dow * Internet of Things for Architects by Perry Lea What you will learn * Build a home security dashboard using an infrared motion detector * Receive data and display it with an actuator connected to the Raspberry Pi * Build an IoT robot car that is controlled via the Internet * Use IP-based communication to easily and quickly scale your system * Explore cloud protocols, such as Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) and CoAP * Secure communication with encryption forms, such as symmetric key Who this book is for This Learning Path is designed for developers, architects, and system designers who are interested in building exciting projects with Python by understanding the IoT ecosphere, various technologies, and tradeoffs. Technologists and technology managers who want to develop a broad view of IoT architecture, will also find this Learning Path useful. Prior programming knowledge of Python is a must.

Discover techniques to enhance your videos with complex animation Key Features * Design, animate, and sequence a complete motion graphics project * Work with compositions and pre-compositions to create animations speedily * Maximize your motion graphics and visual effects skills Book Description If you’re thinking seriously about making and publishing your videos with professional editing and animation, look no further! Adobe After Effects is a popular tool among video editors and YouTubers to enhance their videos and bring them to life by implementing visual effects and motion graphics. This book will take you right from the basics through to the advanced techniques in Adobe After Effects CC 2018. You will start by setting up your editing environment to learn and improve techniques to sharpen your video editing skills. Furthermore, you will work with basic and advanced special effects to create, modify, and optimize motion graphics in your videos. Lastly, you will not only learn how to create 2.5D animations, but also get to grips with using Cinema 4D Lite to build and animate complete 3D scenes. By the end of the book, you’ll have learned how to package a video efficiently with the help of the projects covered. What you will learn * Create a lower third project for a TV show with complex layers * Work with shape layer animation to create an animated lyrics video * Explore different tools to animate characters * Apply text animation to create a dynamic film-opening title * Use professional visual effects to create a VFX project * Model, light, and composite your 3D project in After Effects Who this book is for If you’re a student, professional, YouTuber, or anyone who is interested in video editing, animation, and motion graphics, this book is for you. You’ll also find this resource useful if you’re an Illustrator looking to put your creations in motion.

An expert guide to implementing fast, secure, and scalable decentralized applications that work with thousands of users in real time Key Features * Implement advanced features of the Ethereum network to build powerful decentralized applications * Build smart contracts on different domains using the programming techniques of Solidity and Vyper * Explore the architecture of Ethereum network to understand advanced use cases of blockchain development Book Description Ethereum is one of the commonly used platforms for building blockchain applications. It's a decentralized platform for applications that can run exactly as programmed without being affected by fraud, censorship, or third-party interference. This book will give you a deep understanding of how blockchain works so that you can discover the entire ecosystem, core components, and its implementations. You will get started by understanding how to configure and work with various Ethereum protocols for developing dApps. Next, you will learn to code and create powerful smart contracts that scale with Solidity and Vyper. You will then explore the building blocks of the dApps architecture, and gain insights on how to create your own dApp through a variety of real-world examples. The book will even guide you on how to deploy your dApps on multiple Ethereum instances with the required best practices and techniques. The next few chapters will delve into advanced topics such as, building advanced smart contracts and multi-page frontends using Ethereum blockchain. You will also focus on implementing machine learning techniques to build decentralized autonomous applications, in addition to covering several use cases across a variety of domains such as, social media and e-commerce. By the end of this book, you will have the expertise you need to build decentralized autonomous applications confidently. What you will learn * Apply scalability solutions on dApps with Plasma and state channels * Understand the important metrics of blockchain for analyzing and determining its state * Develop a decentralized web application using React.js and Node.js * Create oracles with Node.js to provide external data to smart contracts * Get to grips with using Etherscan and block explorers for various transactions * Explore web3.js, Solidity, and Vyper for dApps communication * Deploy apps with multiple Ethereum instances including TestRPC, private chain, test chain, and mainnet Who this book is for This book is for anyone who wants to build fast, highly secure, and transactional decentralized applications. If you are an Ethereum developer looking to perfect your existing skills in building powerful blockchain applications, then this book is for you. Basic knowledge of Ethereum and blockchain is necessary to understand the concepts covered in this book.