A classic Ngaio Marsh mystery thriller combining drugs and sacrifice. High in mountains stands the magnificent Saracen fortress, home of the mysterious Mr Oberon, leader of a coven of witches. It is not the historic castle, however, that intrigues Roderick Alleyn, on holiday with his family, but the suspicion that a huge drugs ring operates from within its ancient portals. But before the holiday is over, someone else has stumbled upon the secret. And Mr Oberon decides his strange and terrible rituals require a human sacrifice…

Tragedy brought Maxine Sherman and Quinten Parker together years ago, but another woman stole him away from her. For as long as Maxine could remember, her nights were filled with dreams of his return. That was then. Now Quinn is back after another tragedy occurs in his life, and he wants things the way they were. But Maxine has a new life, a new man…and a secret that binds her and Quinn forever. Common sense tells Maxine she shouldn't put her heart in the hands of the man who once left it broken in pieces–and risk losing the love and devotion of Taylor Collins, who not only brings her joy, but the kind of love she always longed for. Is Taylor her real love or a substitute for what she lost? As Maxine struggles against Quinn's passionate pleas, and the old desires ignite between them, she must decide if what they have is strong enough to last this time, or if her feelings are only…pieces of dreams.

With this novel of mounting tension among apparently normal people, Ngaio Marsh achieved a triumph on a level with her most famous detective novels Surfeit of Lampreys, Scales of Justice and Off With His Head. On a cold February night the police find the third corpse on the quayside in the Pool of London, her body covered with flower petals and pearls. The killer walked away, singing. When the cargo ship, Cape Farewell, sets sail, she carries nine passengers, one of whom is known to be the murderer. Which is why Superintendent Roderick Alleyn joins the ship at Portsmouth on the most difficult assignment of his professional career…

LITTLE GIRL LOST… The tragic loss of their beloved daughter had been shattering for Doug and Barbara Logan. Even now, years later, grief shadowed their every waking moment, and it threatened to destroy the marriage they had been certain would last a lifetime…. LITTLE GIRL FOUND… Now another child–with no one to care for her–needed them desperately. But could they overcome their anguish and reach out to her, and to each other? Could love and faith–and the healing power of a little girl's smile–make them truly a family again…?

Wrangler Dylan Frick thought he knew his past—until a suspicion surfaces that he’s the secret Colton heir who vanished from Dead River Ranch as a baby. Now his identity’s in question, and his mother’s murder is still unsolved. And he’s thrown off course by the ranch’s mysterious new maid, Hope Woods. The gun-wielding knockout has fear in her eyes and seems desperate to escape her own private danger. Defending Hope—and keeping her deadly secret—leaves them both open to unexpected passion. But will protecting her mean walking out of her life for good?

College-age girls with long red hair are being brutally murdered, posed like victims in a film noir. Each crime scene is eerily similar to the twisted fantasy of a serial offender now serving thirty years to life – a criminal brought to justice with the help of Casey Woods and her investigative team, Forensic Instincts. Call. Kill. Repeat. But the similarities are more than one psychopath’s desire to outdo another. As more red-haired victims are added to the body count, it becomes clear that each one has been chosen because of a unique connection to Casey… Now the Forensic Instincts team must uncover the identity of a serial killer before his ever-tightening circle of death closes in on Casey, the ultimate target. As the stalker methodically moves in on his prey, his actions make two things clear: He knows everything about Casey. And he won't stop until she’s dead.

South African born Elon Musk is the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. Musk wants to save our planet; he wants to send citizens into space, to form a colony on Mars; he wants to make money while doing these things; and he wants us all to know about it. He is the real-life inspiration for the Iron Man series of films starring Robert Downey Junior. The personal tale of Musk’s life comes with all the trappings one associates with a great, drama-filled story. He was a freakishly bright kid who was bullied brutally at school, and abused by his father. In the midst of these rough conditions, and the violence of apartheid South Africa, Musk still thrived academically and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he paid his own way through school by turning his house into a club and throwing massive parties. He started a pair of huge dot-com successes, including PayPal, which eBay acquired for $1.5 billion in 2002. Musk was forced out as CEO and so began his lost years in which he decided to go it alone and baffled friends by investing his fortune in rockets and electric cars. Meanwhile Musk’s marriage disintegrated as his technological obsessions took over his life ... Elon Musk is the Steve Jobs of the present and the future, and for the past twelve months, he has been shadowed by tech reporter, Ashlee Vance. Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of Spacex and Tesla is Shaping our Future is an important, exciting and intelligent account of the real-life Iron Man.

Get command of your organizational Big Data using the power of data science and analytics About This Book ? A perfect companion to boost your Big Data storing, processing, analyzing skills to help you take informed business decisions ? Work with the best tools such as Apache Hadoop, R, Python, and Spark for NoSQL platforms to perform massive online analyses ? Get expert tips on statistical inference, machine learning, mathematical modeling, and data visualization for Big Data Who This Book Is For The book is intended for existing and aspiring Big Data professionals who wish to become the go-to person in their organization when it comes to Big Data architecture, analytics, and governance. While no prior knowledge of Big Data or related technologies is assumed, it will be helpful to have some programming experience. What You Will Learn ? Get a 360-degree view into the world of Big Data, data science and machine learning ? Broad range of technical and business Big Data analytics topics that caters to the interests of the technical experts as well as corporate IT executives ? Get hands-on experience with industry-standard Big Data and machine learning tools such as Hadoop, Spark, MongoDB, KDB+ and R ? Create production-grade machine learning BI Dashboards using R and R Shiny with step-by-step instructions ? Learn how to combine open-source Big Data, machine learning and BI Tools to create low-cost business analytics applications ? Understand corporate strategies for successful Big Data and data science projects ? Go beyond general-purpose analytics to develop cutting-edge Big Data applications using emerging technologies In Detail Big Data analytics relates to the strategies used by organizations to collect, organize and analyze large amounts of data to uncover valuable business insights that otherwise cannot be analyzed through traditional systems. Crafting an enterprise-scale cost-efficient Big Data and machine learning solution to uncover insights and value from your organization's data is a challenge. Today, with hundreds of new Big Data systems, machine learning packages and BI Tools, selecting the right combination of technologies is an even greater challenge. This book will help you do that. With the help of this guide, you will be able to bridge the gap between the theoretical world of technology with the practical ground reality of building corporate Big Data and data science platforms. You will get hands-on exposure to Hadoop and Spark, build machine learning dashboards using R and R Shiny, create web-based apps using NoSQL databases such as MongoDB and even learn how to write R code for neural networks. By the end of the book, you will have a very clear and concrete understanding of what Big Data analytics means, how it drives revenues for organizations, and how you can develop your own Big Data analytics solution using different tools and methods articulated in this book. Style and approach This book equips you with a knowledge of various NoSQL tools, R, Python programming, cloud platforms, and techniques so you can use them to store, analyze, and deliver meaningful insights from your data.

Transform yourself into a Kubernetes specialist in serverless applications. About This Book ? Get hands-on experience in installing, configuring, and using services such as Kubeless, Funktion, OpenWhisk, and Fission ? Learn how to launch Kubernetes both locally and in public clouds ? Explore the differences between using services such as AWS Lambda and Azure Functions and running your own Who This Book Is For If you are a DevOps engineer, cloud architect, or a stakeholder keen to learn about serverless functions in Kubernetes environments, then this book is for you. What You Will Learn ? Get a detailed analysis of serverless/Functions as a Service ? Get hands-on with installing and running tasks in Kubernetes using Minikube ? Install Kubeless locally and launch your first function. ? Launch Kubernetes in the cloud and move your applications between your local machine and your cloud cluster ? Deploy applications on Kubernetes using Apache OpenWhisk ? Explore topics such as Funktion and Fission installation on the cloud followed by launching applications ? Monitor a serverless function and master security best practices and Kubernetes use cases In Detail Kubernetes has established itself as the standard platform for container management, orchestration, and deployment. It has been adopted by companies such as Google, its original developers, and Microsoft as an integral part of their public cloud platforms, so that you can develop for Kubernetes and not worry about being locked into a single vendor. This book will initially start by introducing serverless functions. Then you will configure tools such as Minikube to run Kubernetes. Once you are up-and-running, you will install and configure Kubeless, your first step towards running Function as a Service (FaaS) on Kubernetes. Then you will gradually move towards running Fission, a framework used for managing serverless functions on Kubernetes environments. Towards the end of the book, you will also work with Kubernetes functions on public and private clouds. By the end of this book, we will have mastered using Function as a Service on Kubernetes environments. Style and approach A clear, concise, and straightforward book that will empower you work with clusters and run serverless functions effectively.

Take a deep dive into building data-driven test frameworks using Selenium WebDriver About This Book ? A comprehensive guide to designing data-driven test frameworks using the Selenium 3 WebDriver API, AppiumDriver API, Java-Bindings, and TestNG ? Learn how to use Selenium Page Object Design Patterns and D.R.Y. (Don’t Repeat Yourself) Approaches to software development in automated testing ? Discover the Selenium Grid Architecture and build your own grid for browser and mobile devices ? Use third party tools and services like ExtentReports for results processing, reporting, and SauceLabs for cloud-based test services Who This Book Is For This book is intended for software quality assurance/testing professionals, software project managers, or software developers with prior experience in using Selenium and Java to test web-based applications.This book is geared towards the quality assurance and development professionals responsible for designing and building enterprise-based testing frameworks.The user should have a working knowledge of the Java, TestNG, and Selenium technologies What You Will Learn ? Design the Selenium Driver Class for local, remote, and third party grid support ? Build Page Object Classes using the Selenium Page Object Model ? Develop Data-Driven Test Classes using the TestNG framework ? Encapsulate Data using the JSON Protocol ? Build a Selenium Grid for RemoteWebDriver Testing ? Construct Utility Classes for use in Synchronization, File I/O, Reporting and Test Listener Classes ? Run the sample framework and see the benefits of a live data-driven framework in real-time In Detail The Selenium WebDriver 3.x Technology is an open source API available to test both Browser and Mobile applications. It is completely platform independent in that tests built for one browser or mobile device, will also work on all other browsers and mobile devices. Selenium supports all major development languages which allow it to be tied directly into the technology used to develop the applications. This guide will provide a step-by-step approach to designing and building a data-driven test framework using Selenium WebDriver, Java, and TestNG. The book starts off by introducing users to the Selenium Page Object Design Patterns and D.R.Y Approaches to Software Development. In doing so, it covers designing and building a Selenium WebDriver framework that supports both Browser and Mobile Devices. It will lead the user through a journey of architecting their own framework with a scalable driver class, Java utility classes, JSON Data Provider, Data-Driven Test Classes, and support for third party tools and plugins. Users will learn how to design and build a Selenium Grid from scratch to allow the framework to scale and support different browsers, mobile devices, versions, and platforms, and how they can leverage third party grids in the Cloud like SauceLabs. Other topics covered include designing abstract base and sub-classes, inheritance, dual-driver support, parallel testing, testing multi-branded applications, best practices for using locators, and data encapsulation. Finally, you will be presented with a sample fully-functional framework to get them up and running with the Selenium WebDriver for browser testing. By the end of the book, you will be able to design your own automation testing framework and perform data-driven testing with Selenium WebDriver. Style and approach A comprehensive approach to designing data-driven test frameworks using the Selenium 3 WebDriver API, Java-Bindings, and TestNG Technologies

Discover Android programming and web development by understanding the concepts of Kotlin Programming About This Book ? Practical solutions to your common programming problems with Kotlin 1.1 ? Leverage the functional power of Kotlin to ease your Android application development ? Learn to use Java code in conjunction with Kotlin Who This Book Is For This book will appeal to Kotlin developers keen to find solutions for their common programming problems. Java programming knowledge would be an added advantage. What You Will Learn ? Understand the basics and object-oriented concepts of Kotlin Programming ? Explore the full potential of collection frameworks in Kotlin ? Work with SQLite databases in Android, make network calls, and fetch data over a network ? Use Kotlin's Anko library for efficient and quick Android development ? Uncover some of the best features of Kotlin: Lambdas and Delegates ? Set up web service development environments, write servlets, and build RESTful services with Kotlin ? Learn how to write unit tests, integration tests, and instrumentation/acceptance tests. In Detail The Android team has announced first-class support for Kotlin 1.1. This acts as an added boost to the language and more and more developers are now looking at Kotlin for their application development. This recipe-based book will be your guide to learning the Kotlin programming language. The recipes in this book build from simple language concepts to more complex applications of the language. After the fundamentals of the language, you will learn how to apply the object-oriented programming features of Kotlin 1.1. Programming with Lambdas will show you how to use the functional power of Kotlin. This book has recipes that will get you started with Android programming with Kotlin 1.1, providing quick solutions to common problems encountered during Android app development. You will also be taken through recipes that will teach you microservice and concurrent programming with Kotlin. Going forward, you will learn to test and secure your applications with Kotlin. Finally, this book supplies recipes that will help you migrate your Java code to Kotlin and will help ensure that it's interoperable with Java. Style and approach This book explains concepts related to Kotlin Programming using a practical approach and with the help of easy-to-follow recipes.

Learn to use AWS IoT services to build your connected applications with the help of this comprehensive guide. About This Book ? Gets you started with AWS IoT and its functionalities ? Learn different modules of AWS IoT with practical use cases. ? Learn to secure your IoT communication Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who wants to get started with the AWS IoT Suite and implement it with practical use cases. This book acts as an extensive guide, on completion of which you will be in a position to start building IoT projects using AWS IoT platform and using cloud services for your projects. What You Will Learn ? Implement AWS IoT on IoT projects ? Learn the technical capabilities of AWS IoT and IoT devices ? Create IoT-based AWS IoT projects ? Choose IoT devices and AWS IoT platforms to use based on the kind of project you need to build ? Deploy AWS Greengrass and AWS Lambda ? Develop program for AWS IoT Button ? Visualize IoT AWS data ? Build predictive analytics using AWS IoT and AWS Machine Learning In Detail The Internet of Things market increased a lot in the past few years and IoT development and its adoption have showed an upward trend. Analysis and predictions say that Enterprise IoT platforms are the future of IoT. AWS IoT is currently leading the market with its wide range of device support SDKs and versatile management console. This book initially introduces you to the IoT platforms, and how it makes our IoT development easy. It then covers the complete AWS IoT Suite and how it can be used to develop secure communication between internet-connected things such as sensors, actuators, embedded devices, smart applications, and so on. The book also covers the various modules of AWS: AWS Greengrass, AWS device SDKs, AWS IoT Platform, AWS Button, AWS Management consoles, AWS-related CLI, and API references, all with practical use cases. Near the end, the book supplies security-related best practices to make bi-directional communication more secure. When you've finished this book, you'll be up-and-running with the AWS IoT Suite, and building IoT projects. Style and approach This book is a step-by-step practical guide that helps you learn AWS IoT quickly.

Enhance your organization’s secure posture by improving your attack and defense strategies About This Book ? Gain a clear understanding of the attack methods, and patterns to recognize abnormal behavior within your organization with Blue Team tactics. ? Learn to unique techniques to gather exploitation intelligence, identify risk and demonstrate impact with Red Team and Blue Team strategies. ? A practical guide that will give you hands-on experience to mitigate risks and prevent attackers from infiltrating your system. Who This Book Is For This book aims at IT professional who want to venture the IT security domain. IT pentester, Security consultants, and ethical hackers will also find this course useful. Prior knowledge of penetration testing would be beneficial. What You Will Learn ? Learn the importance of having a solid foundation for your security posture ? Understand the attack strategy using cyber security kill chain ? Learn how to enhance your defense strategy by improving your security policies, hardening your network, implementing active sensors, and leveraging threat intelligence ? Learn how to perform an incident investigation ? Get an in-depth understanding of the recovery process ? Understand continuous security monitoring and how to implement a vulnerability management strategy ? Learn how to perform log analysis to identify suspicious activities In Detail The book will start talking about the security posture before moving to Red Team tactics, where you will learn the basic syntax for the Windows and Linux tools that are commonly used to perform the necessary operations. You will also gain hands-on experience of using new Red Team techniques with powerful tools such as python and PowerShell, which will enable you to discover vulnerabilities in your system and how to exploit them. Moving on, you will learn how a system is usually compromised by adversaries, and how they hack user's identity, and the various tools used by the Red Team to find vulnerabilities in a system. In the next section, you will learn about the defense strategies followed by the Blue Team to enhance the overall security of a system. You will also learn about an in-depth strategy to ensure that there are security controls in each network layer, and how you can carry out the recovery process of a compromised system. Finally, you will learn how to create a vulnerability management strategy and the different techniques for manual log analysis. By the end of this book, you will be well-versed with Red Team and Blue Team techniques and will have learned the techniques used nowadays to attack and defend systems. Style and approach This book uses a practical approach of the cybersecurity kill chain to explain the different phases of the attack, which includes the rationale behind each phase, followed by scenarios and examples that brings the theory into practice.

Explore the concepts and tools you need to discover the world of microservices with various design patterns About This Book ? Get to grips with the microservice architecture and build enterprise-ready microservice applications ? Learn design patterns and the best practices while building a microservice application ? Obtain hands-on techniques and tools to create high-performing microservices resilient to possible fails Who This Book Is For This book is for architects and senior developers who would like implement microservice design patterns in their enterprise application development. The book assumes some prior programming knowledge. What You Will Learn ? How to break monolithic application into microservices ? Implement caching strategies, CQRS and event sourcing, and circuit breaker patterns ? Incorporate different microservice design patterns, such as shared data, aggregator, proxy, and chained ? Utilize consolidate testing patterns such as integration, signature, and monkey tests ? Secure microservices with JWT, API gateway, and single sign on ? Deploy microservices with continuous integration or delivery, Blue-Green deployment In Detail Microservices are a hot trend in the development world right now. Many enterprises have adopted this approach to achieve agility and the continuous delivery of applications to gain a competitive advantage. This book will take you through different design patterns at different stages of the microservice application development along with their best practices. Microservice Patterns and Best Practices starts with the learning of microservices key concepts and showing how to make the right choices while designing microservices. You will then move onto internal microservices application patterns, such as caching strategy, asynchronism, CQRS and event sourcing, circuit breaker, and bulkheads. As you progress, you'll learn the design patterns of microservices. The book will guide you on where to use the perfect design pattern at the application development stage and how to break monolithic application into microservices. You will also be taken through the best practices and patterns involved while testing, securing, and deploying your microservice application. At the end of the book, you will easily be able to create interoperable microservices, which are testable and prepared for optimum performance. Style and approach Comprehensive guide that uses architectural patterns with the best choices involved in application development

Master the capabilities of PostgreSQL 10 to efficiently manage and maintain your database About This Book ? Your one-stop guide to mastering advanced concepts in PostgreSQL 10 with ease ? Master query optimization, replication, and high availability with PostgreSQL ? Extend the functionalities of your PostgreSQL instance to suit your organizational needs with minimal effort Who This Book Is For If you are a PostgreSQL data architect or an administrator and want to understand how to implement advanced functionalities and master complex administrative tasks with PostgreSQL 10, then this book is perfect for you. Prior experience of administrating a PostgreSQL database and a working knowledge of SQL are required to make the best use of this book. What You Will Learn ? Get to grips with the advanced features of PostgreSQL 10 and handle advanced SQL ? Make use of the indexing features in PostgreSQL and fine-tune the performance of your queries ? Work with stored procedures and manage backup and recovery ? Master replication and failover techniques ? Troubleshoot your PostgreSQL instance for solutions to common and not-so-common problems ? Learn how to migrate your database from MySQL and Oracle to PostgreSQL without any hassle In Detail PostgreSQL is an open source database used for handling large datasets (big data) and as a JSON document database. This book highlights the newly introduced features in PostgreSQL 10, and shows you how you can build better PostgreSQL applications, and administer your PostgreSQL database more efficiently. We begin by explaining advanced database design concepts in PostgreSQL 10, along with indexing and query optimization. You will also see how to work with event triggers and perform concurrent transactions and table partitioning, along with exploring SQL and server tuning. We will walk you through implementing advanced administrative tasks such as server maintenance and monitoring, replication, recovery, high availability, and much more. You will understand common and not-so-common troubleshooting problems and how you can overcome them. By the end of this book, you will have an expert-level command of advanced database functionalities and will be able to implement advanced administrative tasks with PostgreSQL 10. Style and approach This mastering-level guide delves into the advanced functionalities of PostgreSQL 10

A practical guide designed to get you from basics to current state of art in computer vision systems. About This Book ? Master the different tasks associated with Computer Vision and develop your own Computer Vision applications with ease ? Leverage the power of Python, Tensorflow, Keras, and OpenCV to perform image processing, object detection, feature detection and more ? With real-world datasets and fully functional code, this book is your one-stop guide to understanding Computer Vision Who This Book Is For This book is for machine learning practitioners and deep learning enthusiasts who want to understand and implement various tasks associated with Computer Vision and image processing in the most practical manner possible. Some programming experience would be beneficial while knowing Python would be an added bonus. What You Will Learn ? Learn the basics of image manipulation with OpenCV ? Implement and visualize image filters such as smoothing, dilation, histogram equalization, and more ? Set up various libraries and platforms, such as OpenCV, Keras, and Tensorflow, in order to start using computer vision, along with appropriate datasets for each chapter, such as MSCOCO, MOT, and Fashion-MNIST ? Understand image transformation and downsampling with practical implementations. ? Explore neural networks for computer vision and convolutional neural networks using Keras ? Understand working on deep-learning-based object detection such as Faster-R-CNN, SSD, and more ? Explore deep-learning-based object tracking in action ? Understand Visual SLAM techniques such as ORB-SLAM In Detail In this book, you will find several recently proposed methods in various domains of computer vision. You will start by setting up the proper Python environment to work on practical applications. This includes setting up libraries such as OpenCV, TensorFlow, and Keras using Anaconda. Using these libraries, you'll start to understand the concepts of image transformation and filtering. You will find a detailed explanation of feature detectors such as FAST and ORB; you'll use them to find similar-looking objects. With an introduction to convolutional neural nets, you will learn how to build a deep neural net using Keras and how to use it to classify the Fashion-MNIST dataset. With regard to object detection, you will learn the implementation of a simple face detector as well as the workings of complex deep-learning-based object detectors such as Faster R-CNN and SSD using TensorFlow. You'll get started with semantic segmentation using FCN models and track objects with Deep SORT. Not only this, you will also use Visual SLAM techniques such as ORB-SLAM on a standard dataset. By the end of this book, you will have a firm understanding of the different computer vision techniques and how to apply them in your applications. Style and approach Step-by-step guide filled with real-world, practical examples for understanding and applying various Computer Vision techniques

5 real-world projects to help you master deep learning concepts About This Book ? Master the different deep learning paradigms and build real-world projects related to text generation, sentiment analysis, fraud detection, and more ? Get to grips with R's impressive range of Deep Learning libraries and frameworks such as deepnet, MXNetR, Tensorflow, H2O, Keras, and text2vec ? Practical projects that show you how to implement different neural networks with helpful tips, tricks, and best practices Who This Book Is For Machine learning professionals and data scientists looking to master deep learning by implementing practical projects in R will find this book a useful resource. A knowledge of R programming and the basic concepts of deep learning is required to get the best out of this book. What You Will Learn ? Instrument Deep Learning models with packages such as deepnet, MXNetR, Tensorflow, H2O, Keras, and text2vec ? Apply neural networks to perform handwritten digit recognition using MXNet ? Get the knack of CNN models, Neural Network API, Keras, and TensorFlow for traffic sign classification ? Implement credit card fraud detection with Autoencoders ? Master reconstructing images using variational autoencoders ? Wade through sentiment analysis from movie reviews ? Run from past to future and vice versa with bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks ? Understand the applications of Autoencoder Neural Networks in clustering and dimensionality reduction In Detail R is a popular programming language used by statisticians and mathematicians for statistical analysis, and is popularly used for deep learning. Deep Learning, as we all know, is one of the trending topics today, and is finding practical applications in a lot of domains. This book demonstrates end-to-end implementations of five real-world projects on popular topics in deep learning such as handwritten digit recognition, traffic light detection, fraud detection, text generation, and sentiment analysis. You'll learn how to train effective neural networks in R—including convolutional neural networks, recurrent neural networks, and LSTMs—and apply them in practical scenarios. The book also highlights how neural networks can be trained using GPU capabilities. You will use popular R libraries and packages—such as MXNetR, H2O, deepnet, and more—to implement the projects. By the end of this book, you will have a better understanding of deep learning concepts and techniques and how to use them in a practical setting. Style and approach This book's unique, learn-as-you-do approach ensures the reader builds on his understanding of deep learning progressively with each project. This book is designed in such a way that implementing each project will empower you with a unique skillset and enable you to implement the next project more confidently.

Become an Ethereum Blockchain developer using a blend of concepts and hands-on implementations About This Book ? Understand the Ethereum Ecosystem and its differences from its rich cousin Bitcoin ? Explore the Solidity programming language and smart contract optimizations ? Get a developer’s perspective of Blockchain-as-a-technology with exposure to common challenges faced while building decentralized applications Who This Book Is For If you want to know the ins and outs of the Ethereum network and build your own decentralized applications, then this book is what you need! This book is for anyone who is interested in blockchain and wants to become an Ethereum developer. It’s ideal for existing Ethereum developers who want to develop Ethereum using smart contracts. Basic knowledge of cryptography is expected but is not mandatory. What You Will Learn ? Know how to build your own smart contracts and cryptocurrencies ? Understand the Solidity language ? Find out about data types, control structure, functions, inheritance, mathematical operations, and much more ? See the various types of forks and discover how they are related to Ethereum ? Get to know the various concepts of web3.js and its APIs so you can build client-side apps ? Build a DAO from scratch and acquire basic knowledge of DApps on Ethercast ? Be guided through the project so you can optimize EVM for smart contracts ? Build your own decentralized applications (DApps) by taking a practical approach In Detail Ethereum is a public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring smart contract functionality. This book is your one-stop guide to blockchain and Ethereum smart contract development. We start by introducing you to the basics of blockchain. You'll learn about hash functions, Merkle trees, forking, mining, and much more. Then you'll learn about Ethereum and smart contracts, and we'll cover Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) in detail. Next, you'll get acquainted with DApps and DAOs and see how they work. We'll also delve into the mechanisms of advanced smart contracts, taking a practical approach. You'll also learn how to develop your own cryptocurrency from scratch in order to understand the business behind ICO. Further on, you'll get to know the key concepts of the Solidity programming language, enabling you to build decentralized blockchain-based applications. We'll also look at enterprise use cases, where you'll build a decentralized microblogging site. At the end of this book, we discuss blockchain-as-a-service, the dark web marketplace, and various advanced topics so you can get well versed with the blockchain principles and ecosystem. Style and approach This comprehensive guide takes a practical approach by showing you how to implement Blockchain in different Enterprise use cases. You’ll quickly brush up on the basics of the blockchain database, then learn the advanced intricacies of smart contract development.

Gain comprehensive insight into WPF mechanics and capabilities. About This Book ? Gain a strong foundation in WPF features and patterns ? Leverage the MVVM pattern to build decoupled, maintainable apps ? Increase efficiency through Performance tuning and UI automation Who This Book Is For The book is intended for developers who are relatively new to WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), or those who have been working with WPF for some time, but want to get a deeper understanding of its foundation and concepts to gain practical knowledge. Basic knowledge of C# and Visual Studio is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Understand the fundamentals of WPF ? Explore the major controls and manage element layout ? Implement data binding ? Create custom elements that lead to a particular implementation path ? Customize controls, styles, and templates in XAML ? Leverage the MVVM pattern to maintain a clean and reusable structure in your code ? Master practical animations ? Integrate WCF services in a WPF application ? Implement WPFs support for debugging and asynchronous operations In Detail Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is Microsoft's development tool for building rich Windows client user experiences that incorporate UIs, media, and documents. With the updates in .NET 4.7, Visual Studio 2017, C# 7, and .NET Standard 2.0, WPF has taken giant strides and is now easier than ever for developers to use. If you want to get an in-depth view of WPF mechanics and capabilities, then this book is for you. The book begins by teaching you about the fundamentals of WPF and then quickly shows you the standard controls and the layout options. It teaches you about data bindings and how to utilize resources and the MVVM pattern to maintain a clean and reusable structure in your code. After this, you will explore the animation capabilities of WPF and see how they integrate with other mechanisms. Towards the end of the book, you will learn about WCF services and explore WPF's support for debugging and asynchronous operations. By the end of the book, you will have a deep understanding of WPF and will know how to build resilient applications. Style and approach This book takes a recipe-based approach to teaching you how to create fault-tolerant WPF applications.

Build your own hybrid cloud strategy with this comprehensive learning guide. About This Book ? Build a hybrid cloud strategy for your organization with AWS and OpenStack ? Leverage Hybrid Cloud to design a complex deployment pipeline ? Learn to implement security and monitoring best practices with real-world examples Who This Book Is For This book is targeted at cloud architects, cloud solution providers, DevOps engineers, or any working stakeholder who wants to learn about the hybrid cloud architecture. A basic understanding of public and private cloud is desirable. What You Will Learn ? Learn the demographics and definitions of Hybrid Cloud ? Understand the different architecture and design of Hybrid Cloud ? Explore multi-cloud strategy and use it with your hybrid cloud ? Implement a Hybrid Cloud using CMP / Common API’s ? Implement a Hybrid Cloud using Containers ? Overcome various challenges and issues while working with your Hybrid Cloud ? Understand how to monitor your Hybrid Cloud ? Discover the security implications in the Hybrid Cloud In Detail Hybrid cloud is currently the buzz word in the cloud world. Organizations are planning to adopt hybrid cloud strategy due to its advantages such as untested workloads, cloud-bursting, cloud service brokering and so on. This book will help you understand the dynamics, design principles, and deployment strategies of a Hybrid Cloud. You will start by understanding the concepts of hybrid cloud and the problems it solves as compared to a stand-alone public and private cloud. You will be delving into the different architecture and design of hybrid cloud. The book will then cover advanced concepts such as building a deployment pipeline, containerization strategy, and data storage mechanism. Next up, you will be able to deploy an external CMP to run a Hybrid cloud and integrate it with your OpenStack and AWS environments. You will also understand the strategy for designing a Hybrid Cloud using containerization and work with pre-built solutions like vCloud Air, VMware for AWS, and Azure Stack. Finally, the book will cover security and monitoring related best practices that will help you secure your cloud infrastructure. By the end of the book, you will be in a position to build a hybrid cloud strategy for your organization. Style and approach This book follows a step-by-step, practical approach to deploying and implementing hybrid cloud architectures using AWS and OpenStack.

Learn the techniques for object recognition, 3D reconstruction, stereo imaging, and other computer vision applications using examples on different functions of OpenCV. About This Book ? Learn how to apply complex visual effects to images with OpenCV 3.x and Python ? Extract features from an image and use them to develop advanced applications ? Build algorithms to help you understand image content and perform visual searches ? Get to grips with advanced techniques in OpenCV such as machine learning, artificial neural network, 3D reconstruction, and augmented reality Who This Book Is For This book is intended for Python developers who are new to OpenCV and want to develop computer vision applications with OpenCV and Python. This book is also useful for generic software developers who want to deploy computer vision applications on the cloud. It would be helpful to have some familiarity with basic mathematical concepts such as vectors, matrices, and so on. What You Will Learn ? Detect shapes and edges from images and videos ? How to apply filters on images and videos ? Use different techniques to manipulate and improve images ? Extract and manipulate particular parts of images and videos ? Track objects or colors from videos ? Recognize specific object or faces from images and videos ? How to create Augmented Reality applications ? Apply artificial neural networks and machine learning to improve object recognition In Detail Computer vision is found everywhere in modern technology. OpenCV for Python enables us to run computer vision algorithms in real time. With the advent of powerful machines, we have more processing power to work with. Using this technology, we can seamlessly integrate our computer vision applications into the cloud. Focusing on OpenCV 3.x and Python 3.6, this book will walk you through all the building blocks needed to build amazing computer vision applications with ease. We start off by manipulating images using simple filtering and geometric transformations. We then discuss affine and projective transformations and see how we can use them to apply cool advanced manipulations to your photos like resizing them while keeping the content intact or smoothly removing undesired elements. We will then cover techniques of object tracking, body part recognition, and object recognition using advanced techniques of machine learning such as artificial neural network. 3D reconstruction and augmented reality techniques are also included. The book covers popular OpenCV libraries with the help of examples. This book is a practical tutorial that covers various examples at different levels, teaching you about the different functions of OpenCV and their actual implementation. By the end of this book, you will have acquired the skills to use OpenCV and Python to develop real-world computer vision applications. Style and approach The book is a practical tutorial that covers various examples at different levels, teaching you about the different functions of OpenCV and their actual implementation.