The Liars' Club brought to vivid, indelible life Mary Karr's hardscrabble Texas childhood. Cherry, her account of her adolescence, "continued to set the literary standard for making the personal universal" (Entertainment Weekly). Now Lit follows the self-professed blackbelt sinner's descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness and to her astonishing resurrection. Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespeare-quoting blueblood poet produces a son they adore. But she can't outrun her apocalyptic past. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide. A hair-raising stint in "The Mental Marriott," with an oddball tribe of gurus and saviors, awakens her to the possibility of joy and leads her to an unlikely faith. Not since Saint Augustine cried, "Give me chastity, Lord but not yet!" has a conversion story rung with such dark hilarity. Lit is about getting drunk and getting sober; becoming a mother by letting go of a mother; learning to write by learning to live. Written with Karr's relentless honesty, unflinching self-scrutiny, and irreverent, lacerating humor, it is a truly electrifying story of how to grow up as only Mary Karr can tell it.

When Duane Elgin's classic bestseller, Voluntary Simplicity, was published in 1981, it transformed the lives of thousands and was hailed as the "bible" of the simplicity movement by the Wall Street Journal. Now, for anyone seeking to navigate today's profoundly changing world, Promise Ahead is the powerful sequel to a road map for securing a promising future.

Hollywood's survivors share their secrets to success -- where, they came from, how they made it, and how you can too In a heyday of reality television and overnight stardom, it's easy to forget that most players had to work hard to make it big. How I Broke into Hollywood brings together dozens of Tinseltown's greatest success stories, from legends Sydney Pollack and Lalo Schifrin to rising starlet Erika Christensen to über-producer Gavin Polone. Icons of their industry -- writers, actors, directors, designers, cinematographers, executives and more -- they were once outsiders themselves, and their beginnings have all the grit and glamour of the best Hollywood films. Among the figures profiled: Comedian Bernie Mac, whose earliest stand-up shows were on subway cars and at funeral parties. Actor Charles Dutton, who was convicted of manslaughter at age seventeen, then went on to the Yale School of Drama and a brilliant career on stage, screen, and television. Actor Peter Gallagher, who suffered a crippling bout of stage fright moments before leaping onstage as Snoopy -- but whose jitters moved him to a performance that brought the audience to its feet and launched his career. Superagent Jay Kanter, who started out as a mailroom guy -- before nabbing Marlon Brando as his first star client. Producer Caryn Mandabach, whose first job was making beer runs for the production guys at the Olympic Auditorium -- but who paid attention and soon was developing such hits as The Cosby Show, Roseanne, and That '70s Show. Director John Landis, who hunted down his first job as a production assistant by buying a one-way ticket to London, then hitchhiking and hopping trains all the way to the set . . . in Yugoslavia. How I Broke into Hollywood shares the voices of nearly fifty Hollywood survivors as they revisit the highs and lows of their careers in their own words, dishing dirt and imparting the wisdom they gained along the way. We learn what drew them to the industry and what made them stay, what inspired and appalled them, and what secrets propelled them to professional stardom. (Hint: a good attitude -- and an unflappable ego -- don't hurt.)The road to success is a bumpy, angst-ridden, star-studded thrill ride -- but for these insiders, at least, it was worth every pitfall and lesson learned. Often hilarious, always instructive, How I Broke into Hollywood is an irresistible read for anyone fascinated by those who've made it big . . . and for people everywhere hoping to make it big themselves.

In the 1970s and 1980s, before he earned national acclaim for his award-winning novels, Pete Dexter was a newspaper columnist. Every week, in a few hundred words, Dexter cut directly to the heart of the American character at a time of national turmoil and crucial change. With haunting urgency, his columns laid bare the violence, hypocrisy, and desperation he saw on the streets of Philadelphia and in the places he visited across the country. But he reveled, too, in the lighter side of his own life, sharing scenes with the indefatigable Mrs. Dexter, their young daughter, and a series of unforgettable creatures who strayed into their lives. No matter what caught Dexter's eye, it was illuminated by his dark, brilliant humor. Collected here for the first time are eighty-two of the best of those spellbinding, finely wrought pieces with a new introduction by the author assembled by Rob Fleder, editor of the bestselling Sports Illustrated 50th Anniversary Book. Paper Trails is searing, heart-breaking, and irresistibly funny, sometimes all at once. As Pete Hamill says in his foreword, these essays "are as good as it ever gets."

With his career at a standstill and his golf game a shadow of its former mediocrity, TV writer and ESPN.com contributor Bob Smiley decided the time had come to turn to the one person who might be able to help: Tiger Woods. So, in January of 2008, Smiley set out to follow the game's greatest player from the gallery for every hole of an entire season and to absorb all that he could.Smiley traveled from the seaside cliffs of San Diego to the deserts of Dubai, through the hallowed gates of Augusta National, and on to arguably the greatest U.S. Open of all time back at Torrey Pines, where, in a legendary duel with charismatic journeyman Rocco Mediate, Woods won his fourteenth major on one leg.Smiley chronicles every dramatic and often hysterical moment of his journey with Tiger, including his off-course run-ins with Arabian sandstorms, ex-con ticket scalpers, and the motley assortment of strangers who became friends along the way.Told from the perspective of a true golf fan, Follow the Roar is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure through the most spectacular and inspiring season in Tiger Woods's celebrated career. In addition to the thrill of witnessing all 604 holes Woods played in '08, Smiley found in Tiger both inspiration and the gutsy embodiment of what it really means to be an athlete and a man.

Every general manager today all the way up to the CEO is expected by his or her stakeholders to achieve new breakthroughs in performance and fast. Those who don't make visible progress toward that goal within the first year or two will likely find themselves looking for another job. It is precisely because of this growing breakthrough imperative that managers today, whether in corporations or nonprofits, need to get off to a fast start. They don't have time for mistakes or for going back and redoing what they should have done right in the first place. But, despite the intensity of these pressures, despite the high expectations and short time frames, a number of CEOs and general managers turn in truly exceptional results. How do they meet and exceed the breakthrough imperativeTo answer this question, consultants and former managers Mark Gottfredson and Steve Schaubert interviewed more than forty CEOs from both industry and the nonprofit sector, conducted an intensive study of what successful managers do right and what some do wrong and drew on their own combined fifty-plus years of experience at Bain & Company, where their insights have consistently been found in the pages of the Harvard Business Review. Together they came up with the four straightforward principles deceptively simple yet remarkably powerful that everyone must follow to succeed at achieving breakthrough results: 1. Costs and prices always decline2. Competitive position determines options3. Customers and profit pools don't stand still4. Simplicity gets results Although seemingly simplistic, mastering these four laws means mastering the basics of great management a foundation on which to build the rest of one's management strategy. Whether you're managing a small work group or a multinational corporation, a single division or an entire nonprofit, The Breakthrough Imperative presents these core laws of business to help you determine where you are, just how far you can go, and how to get there with stellar results.

Through 150 striking color photographs, Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs charts the road to Barack Obama's nomination as the first African American to lead the presidential ticket of a major party. Announcing his campaign in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007, Obama stood on the grounds of the Old State Capitol, where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous "House Divided" speech against slavery in 1858. During an eighteen-month campaign, from the snows of Iowa to the hunt for Democratic "superdelegates," this junior senator from Chicago confounded the party establishment and rewrote the playbook on modern presidential campaigning. This amazing collection of photographs captures the public and private moments of his journey, and offers a unique window into one of the great triumphs in American politics.

In 1692 Puritan Samuel Sewall sent twenty people to their deaths on trumped-up witchcraft charges. The nefarious witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts represent a low point of American history, made famous in works by Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne (himself a descendant of one of the judges), and Arthur Miller. The trials might have doomed Sewall to infamy except for a courageous act of contrition now commemorated in a mural that hangs beneath the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House picturing Sewall's public repentance. He was the only Salem witch judge to make amends.But, remarkably, the judge's story didn't end there. Once he realized his error, Sewall turned his attention to other pressing social issues. Struck by the injustice of the New England slave trade, a commerce in which his own relatives and neighbors were engaged, he authored "The Selling of Joseph," America's first antislavery tract. While his peers viewed Native Americans as savages, Sewall advocated for their essential rights and encouraged their education, even paying for several Indian youths to attend Harvard College. Finally, at a time when women were universally considered inferior to men, Sewall published an essay affirming the fundamental equality of the sexes. The text of that essay, composed at the deathbed of his daughter Hannah, is republished here for the first time.In Salem Witch Judge, acclaimed biographer Eve LaPlante, Sewall's great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter, draws on family lore, her ancestor's personal diaries, and archival documents to open a window onto life in colonial America, painting a portrait of a man traditionally vilified, but who was in fact an innovator and forefather who came to represent the best of the American spirit.

In 2005 Uzodinma Iweala stunned readers and critics alike with Beasts of No Nation, his debut novel about child soldiers in West Africa. Now his return to Africa has produced Our Kind of People, a non-fiction account of the AIDS crisis every bit as startling and original. HIV/AIDS has been reported as one of the most destructive diseases in recent memory tearing apart communities and ostracizing the afflicted. But the emphasis placed on death, destruction, and despair hardly captures the many and varied effects of the epidemic, or the stories of the extraordinary people who live and die under its watch.Our Kind of People opens our minds to these stories, introducing a new set of voices and altering the way we speak and think about disease. Iweala embarks on a remarkable journey through his native Nigeria, meeting individuals and communities that are struggling daily to understand both the impact and meaning of HIV/AIDS. He speaks with people from all walks of life the ill and the healthy, doctors, nurses, truck drivers, sex workers, shopkeepers, students, parents, and children. Their testimonies are by turns uplifting, alarming, humorous, and surprising, and always unflinchingly candid. Integrating his own experiences with these voices, Iweala creates at once a deeply personal exploration of life, love, and connection in the face of disease, and an incisive critique of our existing ideas of health and happiness.Beautifully written and heartbreakingly honest, Our Kind of People goes behind the headlines of an unprecedented epidemic to show the real lives it affects, illuminating the scope of the crisis and a continent's valiant struggle.

Use Qt5 to design and build a graphical user interface that is functional, appealing, and user-friendly for your software application About This Book Learn to make use of Qt5 to design and customize the look-and-feel of your application Improve the visual quality of your application by utilizing the graphic rendering system and animation system provided by Qt5 A good balance of visual presentation and its contents will make an application appealing yet functional Who This Book Is For This book intended for those who want to develop software using Qt5. If you want to improve the visual quality and content presentation of your software application, this book is best suited to you. What You Will Learn Customize the look and feel of your application using the widget editor provided by Qt5 Change the states of the GUI elements to make them appear in a different form Animating the GUI elements using the built-in animation system provided by Qt5 Draw shapes and 2D images in your application using Qt5’s powerful rendering system Draw 3D graphics in your application by implementing OpenGL, an industry-standard graphical library to your project Build a mobile app that supports touch events and export it to your device Parse and extract data from an XML file, then present it on your software’s GUI Display web content on your program and interact with it by calling JavaScript functions from C++, or calling C++ functions from the web content Access to MySQL and SQLite databases to retrieve data and display it on your software’s GUI In Detail With the advancement of computer technology, the software market is exploding with tons of software choices for the user, making their expectations higher in terms of functionality and the look and feel of the application. Therefore, improving the visual quality of your application is vital in order to overcome the market competition and stand out from the crowd. This book will teach you how to develop functional and appealing software using Qt5 through multiple projects that are interesting and fun. This book covers a variety of topics such as look-and-feel customization, GUI animation, graphics rendering, implementing Google Maps, and more. You will learn tons of useful information, and enjoy the process of working on the creative projects provided in this book. Style and approach This book focuses on customizing the look and feel and utilizing the graphical features provided by Qt5. It takes a step-by-step approach, providing tons of screenshots and sample code for you to follow and learn. Each topic is explained sequentially and placed in context.

Enter the world of Internet of Things with the power of data science with this highly practical, engaging book About This Book Explore real-world use cases from the Internet of Things (IoT) domain using decision science with this easy-to-follow, practical book Learn to make smarter decisions on top of your IoT solutions so that your IoT is smart in a real sense This highly practical, example-rich guide fills the gap between your knowledge of data science and IoT Who This Book Is For If you have a basic programming experience with R and want to solve business use cases in IoT using decision science then this book is for you. Even if your're a non-technical manager anchoring IoT projects, you can skip the code and still benefit from the book. What You Will Learn Explore decision science with respect to IoT Get to know the end to end analytics stack – De*ive + Inquisitive + Predictive + Pre*ive Solve problems in IoT connected assets and connected operations Design and solve real-life IoT business use cases using cutting edge machine learning techniques Synthesize and assimilate results to form the perfect story for a business Master the art of problem solving when IoT meets decision science using a variety of statistical and machine learning techniques along with hands on tasks in R In Detail With an increasing number of devices getting connected to the Internet, massive amounts of data are being generated that can be used for analysis. This book helps you to understand Internet of Things in depth and decision science, and solve business use cases. With IoT, the frequency and impact of the problem is huge. Addressing a problem with such a huge impact requires a very structured approach. The entire journey of addressing the problem by defining it, designing the solution, and executing it using decision science is articulated in this book through engaging and easy-to-understand business use cases. You will get a detailed understanding of IoT, decision science, and the art of solving a business problem in IoT through decision science. By the end of this book, you’ll have an understanding of the complex aspects of decision making in IoT and will be able to take that knowledge with you onto whatever project calls for it Style and approach This scenario-based tutorial approaches the topic systematically, allowing you to build upon what you learned in previous chapters.

Build exciting end-to-end applications with TypeScript About This Book This book will help you whether you’re a beginner or an expert Complete and complex projects provide codes that are ready and solutions for start-ups and enterprise developers The book will showcase the power and depth of TypeScript when it comes to high performance and scalability Who This Book Is For This book was written for web developers who wish to make the most of TypeScript and build fun projects. You should be familiar with the fundamentals of JavaScript What You Will Learn Build quirky and fun projects from scratch while exploring widely applicable practices and techniques Use TypeScript with a range of different technologies such as Angular 2 and React and write cross-platform applications Migrate JavaScript codebases to TypeScript to improve your workflow Write maintainable and reusable code that is helpful in the world of programming revolving around features and bugs Using System.JS and Webpack to load *s and their dependencies. Developing highly performance server-side applications to run within Node Js. Reviewing high performant Node.js patterns and manage garbage collection. In Detail TypeScript is the future of JavaScript. Having been designed for the development of large applications, it is being widely incorporated in popular projects such as Angular JS 2.0. Adopting TypeScript results in more robust software, while still being deployable in apps where regular JavaScript would run. Scale and performance lie at the heart of the projects built in our book. The lessons learned throughout this book will arm you with everything you need to build amazing projects. During the course of this book, you will learn how to build a complete Single Page Application with Angular 2 and create a popular mobile app using NativeScript. Further on, you will build a classic Pac Man game in TypeScript. We will also help you migrate your legacy codebase project from JavaScript to TypeScript. By the end of the book, you will have created a number of exciting projects and will be competent using TypeScript for your live projects. Style and approach The book focuses on building projects from scratch. These end-to-end projects will give you ready-to-implement solutions for your business scenario, showcasing the depth and robustness of TypeScript.

Explore every nook and cranny of the Android OS to modify your device and guard it against security threats About This Book Understand and counteract against offensive security threats to your applications Maximize your device’s power and potential to suit your needs and curiosity See exactly how your smartphone’s OS is put together (and where the seams are) Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who wants to learn about Android security. Software developers, QA professionals, and beginner- to intermediate-level security professionals will find this book helpful. Basic knowledge of Android programming would be a plus. What You Will Learn Acquaint yourself with the fundamental building blocks of Android Apps in the right way Pentest Android apps and perform various attacks in the real world using real case studies Take a look at how your personal data can be stolen by malicious attackers Understand the offensive maneuvers that hackers use Discover how to defend against threats Get to know the basic concepts of Android rooting See how developers make mistakes that allow attackers to steal data from phones Grasp ways to secure your Android apps and devices Find out how remote attacks are possible on Android devices In Detail With the mass explosion of Android mobile phones in the world, mobile devices have become an integral part of our everyday lives. Security of Android devices is a broad subject that should be part of our everyday lives to defend against ever-growing smartphone attacks. Everyone, starting with end users all the way up to developers and security professionals should care about android security. Hacking Android is a step-by-step guide that will get you started with Android security. You’ll begin your journey at the absolute basics, and then will slowly gear up to the concepts of Android rooting, application security assessments, malware, infecting APK files, and fuzzing. On this journey you’ll get to grips with various tools and techniques that can be used in your everyday pentests. You’ll gain the skills necessary to perform Android application vulnerability assessment and penetration testing and will create an Android pentesting lab. Style and approach This comprehensive guide takes a step-by-step approach and is explained in a conversational and easy-to-follow style. Each topic is explained sequentially in the process of performing a successful penetration test. We also include detailed explanations as well as screenshots of the basic and advanced concepts.

Get your attractive type design up and running in the browser with real-world, responsive, and tailored tutorials About This Book No coding experience necessary - get started with responsive typography today! Find out how to customize your own typography designs to truly own your website's identity From the basics to cutting-edge design, this book is the perfect guide Who This Book Is For This book is for web developers familiar with the basics of HTML5 and CSS3 who want to learn how to implement responsive typography. No coding experience is required, so dive in and get started! What You Will Learn Customize and personalize fonts on a responsive website Learn how to write CSS3 rules for viewports Define media queries and write them using CSS3 and HTML5 Implement SASS typography techniques to minimize the CSS output and manage the font variables Get to grips with dropcaps and learn how to use them effectively on the web In Detail Typography is an essential part of any website’s design. It can help you stand out from the crowd, communicate with clarity, and cultivate a distinctive identity. Practical Responsive Typography demonstrates how to use typography to greatest effect. With this book you won't underestimate it's importance - you'll be in complete control over this crucial component of web design. From scaling and optimizing screen spaces to using a range of different web fonts, you'll quickly get up to speed with the practical considerations behind successful typography. But more than the fundamentals, you'll also find out how to go further by customizing typography designs to suit your identity. Style and approach This is an easy-to-follow guide full of real-world examples and tutorials. Each typography style and rule is clearly explained and placed in context.

Explore the web and make smarter predictions using Python About This Book Targets two big and prominent markets where sophisticated web apps are of need and importance. Practical examples of building machine learning web application, which are easy to follow and replicate. A comprehensive tutorial on Python libraries and frameworks to get you up and started. Who This Book Is For The book is aimed at upcoming and new data scientists who have little experience with machine learning or users who are interested in and are working on developing smart (predictive) web applications. Knowledge of Django would be beneficial. The reader is expected to have a background in Python programming and good knowledge of statistics. What You Will Learn Get familiar with the fundamental concepts and some of the jargons used in the machine learning community Use tools and techniques to mine data from websites Grasp the core concepts of Django framework Get to know the most useful clustering and classification techniques and implement them in Python Acquire all the necessary knowledge to build a web application with Django Successfully build and deploy a movie recommendation system application using the Django framework in Python In Detail Python is a general purpose and also a comparatively easy to learn programming language. Hence it is the language of choice for data scientists to prototype, visualize, and run data analyses on small and medium-sized data sets. This is a unique book that helps bridge the gap between machine learning and web development. It focuses on the difficulties of implementing predictive analytics in web applications. We focus on the Python language, frameworks, tools, and libraries, showing you how to build a machine learning system. You will explore the core machine learning concepts and then develop and deploy the data into a web application using the Django framework. You will also learn to carry out web, document, and server mining tasks, and build recommendation engines. Later, you will explore Python’s impressive Django framework and will find out how to build a modern simple web app with machine learning features. Style and approach Instead of being overwhelmed with multiple concepts at once, this book provides a step-by-step approach that will guide you through one topic at a time. An intuitive step-by step guide that will focus on one key topic at a time. Building upon the acquired knowledge in each chapter, we will connect the fundamental theory and practical tips by illustrative visualizations and hands-on code examples.

Design and implement real-world web-based applications using the Spring Framework 4.x specification based on technical documentation About This Book . Learn all the details of implementing Spring 4.x MVC applications from basic core platform construction to advanced integration implementations. Gain a complete reference guide to implementing the controllers, models, views, view resolvers, and other service-related components to solve various real-world problems. Discover the possible optimal solutions for developers and experts to build enterprise and personal web-based applications. Create a Spring MVC application that has a validation process and exception handling with the HTTP status codes Who This Book Is For This book is for competent Spring developers who wish to understand how to develop complex yet flexible applications with Spring MVC. You must have a good knowledge of JAVA programming and be familiar with the basics of Spring. What You Will Learn . Set up and configure the Spring 4.x MVC platform from ground level up using the basic Spring Framework 4.x APIs. Study requirements and manage solutions on file uploading transactions in Spring 4.x applications Configure, , and test Spring integration to the Hibernate, MyBatis, and JPA frameworks for database transactions. Properly implement exception handlers and audit trails in Spring MVC applications. Generate reports using JFreeChart, Google Charts, JasperReports, DynamicReports, FreeMarker, Velocity, and Spring’s API known as ContentNegotiatingViewResolver. Configure security and flexibility by adding Captcha, Spring Security, Spring Flow, Spring Portlets, JTA to improve data management performance. Implement web services using Spring’s RESTful implementation and other service-oriented integration plugins. Design and implement a Spring 4.x application using AngularJS, ExtJs, Twitter Bootstrap, and Spring Mobile for responsive web design In Detail Spring MVC is the ideal tool to build modern web applications on the server side. With the arrival of Spring Boot, developers can really focus on the code and deliver great value, leveraging the rich Spring ecosystem with minimal configuration. Spring makes it simple to create RESTful applications, interact with social services, communicate with modern databases, secure your system, and make your code modular and easy to test. It is also easy to deploy the result on different cloud providers. This book starts all the necessary topics in starting a Spring MVC-based application. Moving ahead it explains how to design model objects to handle file objects. save files into a data store and how Spring MVC behaves when an application deals with uploading and downloading files. Further it highlights form transactions and the user of Validation Framework as the tool in validating data input. It shows how to create a customer feedback system which does not require a username or password to log in. It will show you the soft side of Spring MVC where layout and presentation are given importance. Later it will discuss how to use Spring Web Flow on top of Spring MVC to create better web applications. Moving ahead, it will teach you how create an Invoice Module that receives and transport data using Web Services By the end of the book you will be able to create efficient and flexible real-time web applications using all the frameworks in Spring MVC. Style and approach This book is a compendium of technical specification documents that will guide you through building an application using Spring 4.x MVC. Each chapter starts with a high-level wireframe design of the software followed by how to set up and configure different libraries and tools.

Build world-class enterprise Business Intelligence solutions with MicroStrategy 10 About This Book Fix the gap between BI tools and implementation/integration processes with big data and predictive analytics using this comprehensive guide to MicroStrategy 10 Highly practical, example-rich guide that lets you implement business intelligence with MicroStrategy 10 in your organization Create the best user experience with BI dashboards using MicroStrategy using this up-to-date, comprehensive guide Who This Book Is For This book is intended for BI, DWH, ETL developers, BI/DWH/Analytics managers, analysts, and business users who already have MicroStrategy in their organization and want to take it to the next level in order to increase performance and improve user experience. In addition, it helps the reader to migrate from MicroStrategy 9 to MicroStrategy 10 and to start using the new capabilities. What You Will Learn Explore various visualization techniques for presenting analyzed data Customize MicroStrategy in order to meet your business requirements Develop and design mobile dashboards Use the advanced techniques such as designing reports, documents and interactive dashboards for building dashboards Understand the concepts of data discovery and Desktop capabilities Explore the best practices for Microstrategy system administration Find and fix issues based on connections, environment or documents Integrate third party ESRI map tools with MicroStrategy to create geo based reports In Detail Business intelligence is becoming more important by the day, with cloud offerings and mobile devices gaining wider acceptance and achieving better market penetration. MicroStrategy Reporting Suite is an absolute leader in the BI market and offers rich capabilities from basic data visualizations to predictive analytics. It lets you various delivery methods such as the Web, desktops, and mobiles. Using real-world BI scenarios, this book helps you to implement Business Analytics solutions in big e-commerce companies. It kicks off with MicroStrategy 10 features and then covers schema design models and techniques. Building upon your existing knowledge, the book will teach you advanced techniques for building documents and dashboards. It further teaches various graphical techniques for presenting data for analysis using maps, graphs, and advanced charts. Although MicroStrategy has rich functionality, the book will show how to customize it in order to meet your business requirements. You will also become familiar with the native analytical functions that will help you to maximize the impact of BI solutions with powerful predictive analytics. Furthermore, the book will focus on MicroStrategy Mobile Analytics along with data discovery and desktop capabilities such as connecting various data sources and building interactive dashboards. The book will also uncover best practices, troubleshooting techniques for MicroStrategy system administration, and also security and authentication techniques. Lastly, you will learn to use Hadoop for MicroStrategy reporting. By the end of the book, you will become proficient in evaluating any BI software in order to choose the best one that meets all business requirements. Style and approach This book will be focusing on providing extensive guide to plan how to design and develop complex BI architecture for real world scenario, using Microstrategy 10, best practices and collected experience working with BI, predictive analytics, and Microstrategy and big data.

Build amazing Internet of Things projects using the ESP8266 Wi-Fi chip About This Book Get to know the powerful and low cost ESP8266 and build interesting projects in the field of Internet of Things Configure your ESP8266 to the cloud and explore the networkable modules that will be utilized in the IoT projects This step-by-step guide teaches you the basics of IoT with ESP8266 and makes your life easier Who This Book Is For This book is for those who want to build powerful and inexpensive IoT projects using the ESP8266 WiFi chip, including those who are new to IoT, or those who already have experience with other platforms such as Arduino. What You Will Learn Control various devices from the cloud Interact with web services, such as Twitter or Facebook Make two ESP8266 boards communicate with each other via the cloud Send notifications to users of the ESP8266, via email, text message, or push notifications Build a physical device that indicates the current price of Bitcoin Build a simple home automation system that can be controlled from the cloud Create your own cloud platform to control ESP8266 devices In Detail The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of objects such as physical things embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity, enabling data exchange. ESP8266 is a low cost WiFi microcontroller chip that has the ability to empower IoT and helps the exchange of information among various connected objects. ESP8266 consists of networkable microcontroller modules, and with this low cost chip, IoT is booming. This book will help deepen your knowledge of the ESP8266 WiFi chip platform and get you building exciting projects. Kick-starting with an introduction to the ESP8266 chip, we will demonstrate how to build a simple LED using the ESP8266. You will then learn how to read, send, and monitor data from the cloud. Next, you’ll see how to control your devices remotely from anywhere in the world. Furthermore, you’ll get to know how to use the ESP8266 to interact with web services such as Twitter and Facebook. In order to make several ESP8266s interact and exchange data without the need for human intervention, you will be introduced to the concept of machine-to-machine communication. The latter part of the book focuses more on projects, including a door lock controlled from the cloud, building a physical Bitcoin ticker, and doing wireless gardening. You’ll learn how to build a cloud-based ESP8266 home automation system and a cloud-controlled ESP8266 robot. Finally, you’ll discover how to build your own cloud platform to control ESP8266 devices. With this book, you will be able to create and program Internet of Things projects using the ESP8266 WiFi chip. Style and approach This is a step-by-step guide that provides great IOT projects with ESP8266. All the key concepts are explained details with the help of examples and demonstrations of the projects.

Unlock the potential of evergreen browsers and increase the efficiency of your ASP.NET applications by learning how to write JavaScript About This Book Boost your skillset and start bringing JavaScript into your web development projects Leverage your existing ASP.NET knowledge to develop dynamic and responsive SPAs Learn effective design patterns for sustainable, and scalable web development Who This Book Is For This book is for ASP.NET developers that want to bring JavaScript into their skillset to build applications that are truly dynamic and responsive. It's for developers who are focused on developing for users who want to deliver a great end product and a fantastic experience. What You Will Learn Get to grips with the basic to advanced concepts of JavaScript Learn how to use JavaScript on server side using Node.js Develop web applications in ASP.NET using JavaScript Get to know with industry-wide best practices and design patterns that provide maintainability and scalability Build an ASP.NET application using Angular 2 with TypeScript and Web API Explore WinJS and see how to use mobile capabilities from web applications Use JavaScript to develop scalable ASP.NET applications See how to test and debug JavaScript In Detail If you want to improve responsiveness or the UX in your ASP.NET applications, JavaScript can be a life saver. In an age where server-side operations have shifted to the client, being able to handle JavaScript with confidence and fluency is vital for ASP.NET developers. There’s no point trying to fight it, so start learning with this book. Make sure your projects exceed user expectations. Begin by getting stuck into the basics of JavaScript, and explore the language in the context of ASP.NET Core. You’ll then find out how to put the principles into practice, as you learn how to develop a basic ASP.NET application using Angular 2 and TypeScript. You’ll also develop essential skills required to develop responsive apps, with a little help from AJAX, ensuring that you’re building projects that can be easily accessed across different devices. With guidance on Node.js and some neat techniques to test and debug a range of JavaScript libraries in Visual Studio, you’ll soon be well on your way to combining JavaScript with ASP.NET in a way that’s capable of meeting the challenges of modern web development head-on. Style and approach This book will build the skillset of every .NET developer, so they can build stronger and more responsive web apps with confidence.

Dive in to the cutting edge techniques of Linux KVM virtualization, and build the virtualization solutions your datacentre demands About This Book Become an expert in Linux virtualization Migrate your virtualized datacenter to the cloud Find out how to build a large scale virtualization solution that will transform your organization Who This Book Is For Linux administrators – if you want to build incredible, yet manageable virtualization solutions with KVM this is the book to get you there. It will help you apply what you already know to some tricky virtualization tasks. What You Will Learn Explore the ecosystem of tools that support Linux virtualization Find out why KVM offers you a smarter way to unlock the potential of virtualization Implement KVM virtualization using oVirt Explore the KVM architecture – so you can manage, scale and optimize it with ease Migrate your virtualized datacenter to the cloud for truly resource-efficient computing Find out how to integrate OpenStack with KVM to take full control of the cloud In Detail A robust datacenter is essential for any organization – but you don’t want to waste resources. With KVM you can virtualize your datacenter, transforming a Linux operating system into a powerful hypervisor that allows you to manage multiple OS with minimal fuss. This book doesn’t just show you how to virtualize with KVM – it shows you how to do it well. Written to make you an expert on KVM, you’ll learn to manage the three essential pillars of scalability, performance and security – as well as some useful integrations with cloud services such as OpenStack. From the fundamentals of setting up a standalone KVM virtualization platform, and the best tools to harness it effectively, including virt-manager, and kimchi-project, everything you do is built around making KVM work for you in the real-world, helping you to interact and customize it as you need it. With further guidance on performance optimization for Microsoft Windows and RHEL virtual machines, as well as proven strategies for backup and disaster recovery, you’ll can be confident that your virtualized data center is working for your organization – not hampering it. Finally, the book will empower you to unlock the full potential of cloud through KVM. Migrating your physical machines to the cloud can be challenging, but once you’ve mastered KVM, it’s a little easie. Style and approach Combining advanced insights with practical solutions, Mastering KVM Virtualization is a vital resource for anyone that believes in the power of virtualization to help a business use resources more effectively.

Learn how to build an exciting 3D game with LibGDX from scratch About This Book Implement an exhaustive list of features that LibGDX unleashes to build your 3D game. Write, test, and debug your application on your desktop and deploy them on multiple platforms. Gain a clear understanding of the physics behind LibGDX and libraries like OpenGL and WebGL that make up LibGDX. Who This Book Is For If you are a game developer or enthusiasts who want to build 3D games with LibGDX, then this book is for you. A basic knowledge of LibGDX and Java programming is appreciated. What You Will Learn Learn the potential of LibGDX in game development Understand the LibGDX architecture and explore platform limitation and variations Explore the various approaches for game development using LibGDX Learn about the common mistakes and possible solutions of development Discover the 3D workflow with Blender and how it works with LibGDX Implement 3D models along with textures and animations into your games Familiarize yourself with Scene2D and its potential to boost your game’s design In Detail LibGDX is a hugely popular open source, cross-platform, Java-based game development framework built for the demands of cross-platform game development. This book will teach readers how the LibGDX framework uses its 3D rendering API with the OpenGL wrapper, in combination with Bullet Physics, 3D Particles, and Shaders to develop and deploy a game application to different platforms You will start off with the basic Intellij environment, workflow and set up a LibGDX project with necessary APIs for 3D development. You will then go through LibGDX’s 3D rendering API main features and talk about the camera used for 3D. Our next step is to put everything together to build a basic 3D game with Shapes, including basic gameplay mechanics and basic UI. Next you will go through modeling, rigging, and animation in Blender. We will then talk about refining mechanics, new input implementations, implementing enemy 3D models, mechanics, and gameplay balancing. The later part of this title will help you to manage secondary resources like audio, music and add 3D particles in the game to make the game more realistic. You will finally test and deploy the app on a multitude of different platforms, ready to start developing your own titles how you want! Style and approach A step by step guide on building a 3D game with LibGDX and implementing an exhaustive list of features that you would wish to incorporate into your 3D game