This book is a step-by-step tutorial with a lot of screenshots that help to explain the concept better. This book will cover the building of a 3D game for Windows Phone using XNA. We won’t explain the C# programming language itself, nor object-oriented programming.We will however explain the aspects of game development thoroughly, so don’t worry if you have never written a 3D game. We will cover all the basics, included the much dreaded math. This is the right book for anyone, regardless of age and gender, if: You are interested in game development You want to start building games for Windows Phone You have some programming knowledge. In this book, we will first go over the technical topics, and end up building a 3D game for Windows Phone 7 together!

This book has step-by-step instructions to solve data manipulation problems using PDI in the form of recipes. It has plenty of well-organized tips, screenshots, tables, and examples to aid quick and easy understanding. If you are a software developer or anyone involved or interested in developing ETL solutions, or in general, doing any kind of data manipulation, this book is for you. It does not cover PDI basics, SQL basics, or database concepts. You are expected to have a basic understanding of the PDI tool, SQL language, and databases.

This book offers practical, task-based, and immediately usable recipes covering a wide range of advanced techniques for administering a high-performance SQL Server 2008 R2 system. In addition to its cookbook style, which ensures the solutions are presented in a clear step-by-step manner, its explanations go into great detail, which makes it good learning material for everyone who has experience in SQL Server and wants to improve. The book is designed in such a way that you can either read it chapter by chapter or refer to recipes that you want in no particular order. Although the book is focused on specific Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, most of the concepts and explanations are also applicable to SQL Server 2008. If you are an experienced database administrator and database architect who wants to design, administer, and manage a scalable and high-performance SQL Server 2008 R2 system, then this book is for you. The book assumes that you have a good understanding of database management systems, specifically experience in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 administration.

This guide to SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 (formerly Xcelsius )is a cookbook packed full of practical recipes written in a clear, concise manner with annotated examples to empower readers to quickly accomplish specific dashboard tasks. If you are a developer with a good command and knowledge of creating dashboards, but are not yet an advanced Dashboard Design user, then this is the perfect book for you. You should have a good working knowledge of Microsoft Excel as well as knowledge of basic dashboard practices, though experience of Dashboard Design as a specific dashboard tool is not essential.

"This book is for ambitious MySQL users as well as professional data center database administrators. Beginners as well as experienced administrators will benefit from this cookbook and get fresh ideas to improve their MySQL environments. Detailed background information will enable them to widen their MySQL horizon. It does not cover SQL basics, how to install MySQL servers, or how to design a relational database schema. Readers are expected to have a basic understanding of the SQL language and database concepts in general."

A step-by-step pragmatic approach to web application development using Spring MVC, with relevant screenshots and concise explanations. This book is aimed at helping Java developers who want to teach themselves Spring MVC, even if they have no previous experience with Spring MVC. It would be helpful to have a bit of familiarity with basic servlet programming concepts, but no prior experience is required.

Written in an easy-to-follow approach using hands-on examples, this book helps you create virtual environments for advanced penetration testing, enabling you to build a multi-layered architecture to include firewalls, IDS/IPS, web application firewalls, and endpoint protection, which is essential in the penetration testing world.If you are a penetration tester, security consultant, security test engineer, or analyst who wants to practice and perfect penetration testing skills by building virtual pentesting labs in varying industry scenarios, this is the book for you. This book is ideal if you want to build and enhance your existing pentesting methods and skills. Basic knowledge of network security features is expected along with web application testing experience.

When the father of headstrong young beauty Vita Ashford announces that she is to marry the wealthy and influential Lord Bantham, she is crestfallen for he is middle-aged and dull. More importantly she does not – cannot ever – love him! Using the completion of her education as an excuse, Vita cajoles her father into allowing her to travel to Italy. Little does he know that her real intention is to journey on to Syria to seek the advice and assistance of her beautiful and controversial cousin Jane Digby, Lady Ellenborough, who, after several marriages to wealthy Europeans, followed her heart into the desert to marry a Sheikh and is now Queen of a Bedouin tribe. Failing to find her cousin at home, foolhardy Vita follows her into the desert and a tumultuous adventure, in which she is kidnapped by a vengeful Arab Sheikh. Escaping on a fine Arabian mare, she is helpless under the cruel desert sun until the despised Sheikh comes to save her and, with a savage kiss, she has her own epiphany on the road to Damascus.

A story of courage, fear and defiance based on the authors own personal experience. A Pack Horse Called Rachel is the remarkable tale of a young woman, half Jewish, caught in the extraordinarily brutal world of France in 1944. Rachel moves through the pages of the book with her faithful dog Nourse, touching lives as her work with the Maquis based in the Auvergne takes her perilously close to danger on a day to day basis.The story is based on personal experience, the de*ion of historical events is as true as memory will allow, it is an elegantly written story capturing first hand Kellermann’s painful and lonely life as a resistance fighter within the ‘Maquis’, amidst the harsh beauty of the Auvergne. Beset by the freezing cold climate prevailing in winter, the Vichy traitors amongst the normal French Population and the hostility of ordinary people afraid for their own lives. Rachel overcomes the initial animosity and mistrust of the lecherous and alcoholic farmer Raboullet on whom she comes to rely; the wrath of the Gestapo, the betrayal of St Pré, a full and passionate love affair, tragic loss and yet she survives. Marcel Kellermann notes, with de*ive talent, and intricate detail that only someone especially observant could recall. From the opening raid to the closing trial, the book gives an incisive view, as we understand the mind and soul of the resistance better with each page. This is the story of a young woman paralleled with the struggle of a nation as it regains its courage to fight back.

A wealth of restoration tips and techniques covering E12, E24, E28, E34, 5 and 6 Series BMWs built between 1972 and 1995. Covers all models from 518 to M6. Advice is given on acquiring a good 5 & 6 Series model, plus tips on restoring, engines, bodywork, trim, electrics, suspension & much more.

A practical restoration manual written by journalist and E30 enthusiast Andrew Everett. Covers E30 models: 316, 316i, 318i, 320i, 323i, 325i, 325e, 324d and 324td, 318iS, M3 & Alpina in saloon, convertible & touring forms. Professional advice also is given on buying a good used model E30 for restoration.

Person to person networks in the UK have grown over the last 10 years fuelled by the many middle management unemployed caused during the recent downsizing of many international corporations.Self employed people need to network, in the harsh environment of today’s modern job market. Networking is a ready source of employment, and a chance to meet skilled fellow workers to help build teams to complete projects that would otherwise stretch their own skill set.Outside the hours of the working day but inside a framework that people can relate to Breakfast Meetings provide them with rewarding opportunities. This book helps ensure you know how to meet the right people and kickstart your business.‘Building a Business on Bacon and Eggs’ is packed with tips and lists of how to set up thriving networking events and enables the reader to gain the most from any meetings they may hold, it includes checklists for everyone involved in the organization of events, real life stories to illustrate the theories presented as well as what to offer sponsors and how best to achieve the goals of all concerned.The book illustrates evidence of this in the comprehensive checklists throughout the book and summaries at the end of every chapter. If running breakfast meetings is your job, or if you merely wish to learn from the business experiences of other people, or you want to expand your own knowledge to gain the most from the business breakfast club environment this book provides a unique insight through the minds of its three very successful writers. To this end, ‘Breakfast on Bacon and Eggs ‘ is an essential addition to any Book Shops business section.

A Godsend for anyone who’s ever suffered that dread of speaking in public!’ If, like almost everyone, you’re petrified of public speaking, the last thing you want is a lecture! And there lies the brilliance of this unique book’s genuinely innovative approach to the issue: Dee Clayton makes the process of overcoming those negative voices in your head (Your ‘Public Speaking Monkeys!’) and becoming an effective speaker lighthearted and fun! A Godsend for anyone who’s ever suffered that dread, Dee’s refreshingly simple yet amazingly effective multiawardwinning approach has already helped thousands to overcome their fears and become effective and confident public speakers. Significantly, the author’s keenly aware that for most of us, effective public speaking isn’t necessarily an end in itself but a means to other ends for example Dee has already helped company directors to persuade more successfully, doctors to win more funding, mediators to influence international decisions and all kinds of business people to fulfil their potential. What’s more, this is a genuinely practical guide! Unlike most ‘self help’ books on the topic (or any other), this one doesn’t just tell you what to do; in her chatty, good-humored style, Dee explains exactly how, sharing her own experiences and coaxing the reader through a programme that doesn’t just work it even makes public speaking enjoyable! Taming Your Public Speaking Monkeysworks so well because its easy, enjoyable style is underpinned by Dee’s solid, real-life experience of speaking publicly to tens of thousands of people first in her highly successful twenty-year marketing career (communicating for UK household brands such as Jacob’s Creek, Pizza Hut and Jammie Dodgers to name but a few) and now as a public speaking training specialist. Equally vitally, the book draws heavily upon the NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP) techniques and insights in which Dee is a highly experienced Trainer and Master Practitioner. Taming your Public Speaking Monkeysis a rare find: a self-help book that really helps and best of all the results come to you quickly and stick with you for life!

Explore the world of Virtual Reality by building immersive and fun VR projects using Unity 3D About This Book Learn the basic principles of virtual reality applications and get to know how they differ from games and desktop apps Build various types of VR experiences, including diorama, first-person characters, riding on rails, 360 degree projections, and social VR A project-based guide that teaches you to use Unity to develop VR applications, which can be experienced with devices such as the Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard Who This Book Is For If you’re a non-programmer unfamiliar with 3D computer graphics, or experienced in both but new to virtual reality, and are interested in building your own VR games or applications then this book is for you. Any experience in Unity is an advantage. What You Will Learn Create 3D scenes with Unity and Blender while learning about world space and scale Build and run VR applications for consumer headsets including Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard Build interactive environments with physics, gravity, animations, and lighting using the Unity engine Experiment with various user interface (UI) techniques that you can use in your VR applications Implement the first-person and third-person experiences that use only head motion gestures for input Create animated walkthroughs, use 360-degree media, and build multi-user social VR experiences Learn about the technology and psychology of VR including rendering, performance and VR motion sickness Gain introductory and advanced experience in Unity programming with the C# language In Detail What is consumer “virtual reality”Wearing a head-mounted display you view stereoscopic 3D scenes. You can look around by moving your head, and walk around using hand controls or motion sensors. You are engaged in a fully immersive experience. On the other hand, Unity is a powerful game development engine that provides a rich set of features such as visual lighting, materials, physics, audio, special effects, and animation for creating 2D and 3D games. Unity 5 has become the leading platform for building virtual reality games, applications and experiences for this new generation of consumer VR devices. Using a practical and project-based approach, this book will educate you about the specifics of virtual reality development in Unity. You will learn how to use Unity to develop VR applications which can be experienced with devices such as the Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard. We will then learn how to engage with virtual worlds from a third person and first person character point of view. Furthermore, you will explore the technical considerations especially important and possibly unique to VR. The projects in the book will demonstrate how to build a variety of VR experiences. You will be diving into the Unity 3D game engine via the interactive Unity Editor as well as C-Sharp programming. By the end of the book, you will be equipped to develop rich, interactive virtual reality experiences using Unity. So, let's get to it! Style and approach This book takes a practical, project-based approach to teach specifics of virtual reality development in Unity. Using a reader-friendly approach, this book will not only provide detailed step-by-step instructions but also discuss the broader context and applications covered within.

Learn effective C++ network programming with Boost.Asio and become a proficient C++ network programmer About This Book Learn efficient C++ network programming with minimum coding using Boost.Asio Your one-stop destination to everything related to the Boost.Asio library Explore the fundamentals of networking to choose designs with more examples, and learn the basics of Boost.Asio Who This Book Is For This book is for C++ Network programmers with basic knowledge of network programming, but no knowledge of how to use Boost.Asio for network programming. What You Will Learn Prepare the tools to simplify network programming in C++ using Boost.Asio Explore the networking concepts of IP addressing, TCP/IP ports and protocols, and LAN topologies Get acquainted with the usage of the Boost libraries Get to know more about the content of Boost.Asio network programming and Asynchronous programming Establish communication between client and server by creating client-server application Understand the various functions inside Boost.Asio C++ libraries to delve into network programming Discover how to debug and run the code successfully In Detail Boost.Asio is a C++ library used for network programming operations. Organizations use Boost because of its productivity. Use of these high-quality libraries speed up initial development, result in fewer bugs, reduce reinvention-of-the-wheel, and cut long-term maintenance costs. Using Boost libraries gives an organization a head start in adopting new technologies. This book will teach you C++ Network programming using synchronous and asynchronous operations in Boost.Asio with minimum code, along with the fundamentals of Boost, server-client applications, debugging, and more. You will begin by preparing and setting up the required tools to simplify your network programming in C++ with Boost.Asio. Then you will learn about the basic concepts in networking such as IP addressing, TCP/IP protocols, and LAN with its topologies. This will be followed by an overview of the Boost libraries and their usage. Next you will get to know more about Boost.Asio and its concepts related to network programming. We will then go on to create a client-server application, helping you to understand the networking concepts. Moving on, you will discover how to use all the functions inside the Boost.Asio C++ libraries. Lastly, you will understand how to debug the code if there are errors found and will run the code successfully. Style and approach An example-oriented book to show you the basics of networking and help you create a network application simply using Boost.Asio, with more examples for you to get up and running with Boost.Asio quickly.

Discover tips and trick for Dynamics NAV report building About This Book Create and customize reports in Dynamics NAV 2015 using RDLC, Word, Power BI, and Reporting Services Work with different elements in the toolbox such as tablix, which can be used as a List, Table, or Matrix and understand the differences between them and when to use which This book is a pragmatic guide with clear instructions and real-world examples to teach you about the reporting capabilities of Dynamics NAV 2015 Who This Book Is For If you are a consultant, developer, customer, user, or just interested in the reporting capabilities of Dynamics NAV, then this book is for you. Basic knowledge of Dynamics NAV will be helpful. What You Will Learn Understand why reports are designed in a specific way and then apply this knowledge to your advantage Develop document reports using different techniques Apply filtering and sorting, and create groups Use RDLC to visualize information Visualize information, KPIs, and trends using expressions, Gauges, Charts, Data bars, Indicators, and Spark lines Create and optimize your dataset for RDLC and for Word layouts Use Power BI with Dynamics NAV to bring your data to life Build Reporting Services reports on top of Dynamics NAV In Detail Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a multi-lingual, multi-currency business management solution that organizations use to manage their accounts, supply chain, sales, payroll, and HR. It is an ERP tool for organizations that is fast to implement, easy to configure, and simple to use. It is widely used because simplicity is a part of its development, product design, usability, and implementation. This book will help you to master, analyze, and deliver the most challenging reporting requirements in Dynamics NAV 2015. The book starts by explaining report development and it's different phases such as data model, layout, and testing you go through. It introduces you to RDLC and the different controls in the toolbox, such as the Tablix, in its many forms. You will learn to use expressions to make your layout dynamic and to overcome typical problems. Moving on, the book will teach you to visualize data and be able to understand and read a report as it is intended. You will also learn to use Microsoft Word to create a layout for a report. With Power BI and Power Pivot, Power View, and Power Map, you will learn how easy and powerful it is to bring your data to life, so you can spot trends and perform in depth analysis of your business. Reporting Services is also explained as another way that you can apply the knowledge you have about RDLC to build RDL layouts outside of Dynamics NAV. By the end, you will create different types of charts so you can visualize key performance indicators inside the Dynamics NAV application. Style and approach This book is an essential guide in to understanding what is involved in creating reports in Dynamics NAV and its reporting capabilities.

Over 50 recipes to help you build dynamic and powerful real-time Java Hibernate applications About This Book Learn to associate JDBC and Hibernate with object persistence Manage association mappings, implement basic annotations and learn caching Get to grips with Hibernate fundamentals from installation to developing a business application with this step-by-step guide Who This Book Is For This is book for Java developers who now want to learn Hibernate. Good knowledge and understanding of Java is preferred to allow efficient programming of the core elements and applications; it would be helpful if readers are familiar with the basics of SQL. What You Will Learn Set up and install Hibernate on your system and explore different ways in which Hibernate can be configured Learn the basic concepts and fundamentals of Java Hibernate Define mappings without a use of XML file using Annotations Persist collection elements such as list, map, set and array Explore the various mapping options and learn to work with Hibernate associations Understand advanced Hibernate concepts such as caching and inheritance Develop an engaging and robust real-world hibernate application based on a common business scenario Integrate Hibernate with other frameworks to develop robust enterprise applications In Detail Hibernate is a database independent technology, so the same code will work for all databases. It helps a Java developer write a query by mapping Java bean to database tables and help create tuned queries that boost performance. Even with limited SQL knowledge one can easily perform database operations. This makes the development faster and more accurate than JDBC. Hibernate supports useful features like connection pooling, caching, and inheritance etc. This book will provide a useful hands-on guide to Hibernate to accomplish the development of a real-time Hibernate application. We will start with the basics of Hibernate, which include setting up Hibernate – the pre-requisites and multiple ways of configuring Hibernate using Java. We will then dive deep into the fundamentals of Hibernate such as SessionFactory, session, criteria, working with objects and criteria. This will help a developer have a better understanding of how Hibernate works and what needs to be done to run a Hibernate application. Moving on, we will learn how to work with annotations, associations and collections. In the final chapters, we will see explore querying, advanced Hibernate concepts and integration with other frameworks. Style and approach This book is a practical guide filled with carefully organized step-by-step instructions. All recipes are arranged in an easy-to understand and clear manner allowing you to apply the solutions to other situations.

Build real-world computer vision applications and develop cool demos using OpenCV for Python About This Book Learn how to apply complex visual effects to images using geometric transformations and image filters Extract features from an image and use them to develop advanced applications Build algorithms to help you understand the image content and perform visual searches 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-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 Apply geometric transformations to images, perform image filtering, and convert an image into a cartoon-like image Detect and track various body parts such as the face, nose, eyes, ears, and mouth Stitch multiple images of a scene together to create a panoramic image Make an object disappear from an image Identify different shapes, segment an image, and track an object in a live video Recognize an object in an image and build a visual search engine Reconstruct a 3D map from images Build an augmented reality application 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 are getting more processing power to work with. Using this technology, we can seamlessly integrate our computer vision applications into the cloud. Web developers can develop complex applications without having to reinvent the wheel. This book will walk you through all the building blocks needed to build amazing computer vision applications with ease. We start off with applying geometric transformations to images. We then discuss affine and projective transformations and see how we can use them to apply cool geometric effects to photos. We will then cover techniques used for object recognition, 3D reconstruction, stereo imaging, and other computer vision applications. This book will also provide clear examples written in Python to build OpenCV applications. The book starts off with simple beginner’s level tasks such as basic processing and handling images, image mapping, and detecting images. It also covers popular OpenCV libraries with the help of examples. 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. Style and approach This is a conversational-style book filled with hands-on examples that are really easy to understand. Each topic is explained very clearly and is followed by a programmatic implementation so that the concept is solidified. Each topic contributes to something bigger in the following chapters, which helps you understand how to piece things together to build something big and complex.

Make life at the office easier for server administrators by helping them build resilient Ubuntu server systems About This Book Tackle the issues you come across in keeping your Ubuntu server up and running Build server machines and troubleshoot cloud computing related issues using Open Stack Discover tips and best practices to be followed for minimum maintenance of Ubuntu Server 3 Who This Book Is For This book is for a vast audience of Linux system administrators who primarily work on Debian-based systems and spend long hours trying fix issues with the enterprise server. Ubuntu is already one of the most popular OSes and this book targets the most common issues that most administrators have to deal with. With the right tools and definite solutions, you will be able to keep your Ubuntu servers in the pink of health. What You Will Learn Deploy packages and their dependencies with repositories Set up your own DNS and network for Ubuntu Server Authenticate and validate users and their access to various systems and services Maintain, monitor, and optimize your server resources and avoid tremendous load Get to know about processes, assigning and changing priorities, and running processes in background Optimize your shell with tools and provide users with an improved shell experience Set up separate environments for various services and run them safely in isolation Understand, build, and deploy OpenStack on your Ubuntu Server In Detail Ubuntu is becoming one of the favorite Linux flavors for many enterprises and is being adopted to a large extent. It supports a wide variety of common network systems and the use of standard Internet services including file serving, e-mail, Web, DNS, and database management. A large scale use and implementation of Ubuntu on servers has given rise to a vast army of Linux administrators who battle it out day in and day out to make sure the systems are in the right frame of operation and pre-empt any untoward incidents that may result in catastrophes for the businesses using it. Despite all these efforts, glitches and bugs occur that affect Ubuntu server's network, memory, application, and hardware and also generate cloud computing related issues using OpenStack. This book will help you end to end. Right from setting up your new Ubuntu Server to learning the best practices to host OpenStack without any hassles. You will be able to control the priority of jobs, restrict or allow access users to certain services, deploy packages, tackle issues related to server effectively, and reduce downtime. Also, you will learn to set up OpenStack, and manage and monitor its services while tuning the machine with best practices. You will also get to know about Virtualization to make services serve users better. Chapter by chapter, you will learn to add new features and functionalities and make your Ubuntu server a full-fledged, production-ready system. Style and approach This book contains topic-by-topic discussion in an easy-to-understand language with loads of examples to help you take care of Ubuntu Server. Plenty of screenshots will guide you through a step-by-step approach.

A complete guide for Python programmers to master scientific computing using Python APIs and tools About This Book The basics of scientific computing to advanced concepts involving parallel and large scale computation are all covered. Most of the Python APIs and tools used in scientific computing are discussed in detail The concepts are discussed with suitable example programs Who This Book Is For If you are a Python programmer and want to get your hands on scientific computing, this book is for you. The book expects you to have had exposure to various concepts of Python programming. What You Will Learn Fundamentals and components of scientific computing Scientific computing data management Performing numerical computing using NumPy and SciPy Concepts and programming for symbolic computing using SymPy Using the plotting library matplotlib for data visualization Data analysis and visualization using Pandas, matplotlib, and IPython Performing parallel and high performance computing Real-life case studies and best practices of scientific computing In Detail In today's world, along with theoretical and experimental work, scientific computing has become an important part of scientific disciplines. Numerical calculations, simulations and computer modeling in this day and age form the vast majority of both experimental and theoretical papers. In the scientific method, replication and reproducibility are two important contributing factors. A complete and concrete scientific result should be reproducible and replicable. Python is suitable for scientific computing. A large community of users, plenty of help and documentation, a large collection of scientific libraries and environments, great performance, and good support makes Python a great choice for scientific computing. At present Python is among the top choices for developing scientific workflow and the book targets existing Python developers to master this domain using Python. The main things to learn in the book are the concept of scientific workflow, managing scientific workflow data and performing computation on this data using Python. The book discusses NumPy, SciPy, SymPy, matplotlib, Pandas and IPython with several example programs. Style and approach This book follows a hands-on approach to explain the complex concepts related to scientific computing. It details various APIs using appropriate examples.

Get to grips with key data visualization and predictive analytic skills using R About This Book Acquire predictive analytic skills using various tools of R Make predictions about future events by discovering valuable information from data using R Comprehensible guidelines that focus on predictive model design with real-world data Who This Book Is For If you are a statistician, chief information officer, data scientist, ML engineer, ML practitioner, quantitative analyst, and student of machine learning, this is the book for you. You should have basic knowledge of the use of R. Readers without previous experience of programming in R will also be able to use the tools in the book. What You Will Learn Customize R by installing and loading new packages Explore the structure of data using clustering algorithms Turn unstructured text into ordered data, and acquire knowledge from the data Classify your observations using Na?ve Bayes, k-NN, and decision trees Reduce the dimensionality of your data using principal component analysis Discover association rules using Apriori Understand how statistical distributions can help retrieve information from data using correlations, linear regression, and multilevel regression Use PMML to deploy the models generated in R In Detail R is statistical software that is used for data analysis. There are two main types of learning from data: unsupervised learning, where the structure of data is extracted automatically; and supervised learning, where a labeled part of the data is used to learn the relationship or scores in a target attribute. As important information is often hidden in a lot of data, R helps to extract that information with its many standard and cutting-edge statistical functions. This book is packed with easy-to-follow guidelines that explain the workings of the many key data mining tools of R, which are used to discover knowledge from your data. You will learn how to perform key predictive analytics tasks using R, such as train and test predictive models for classification and regression tasks, score new data sets and so on. All chapters will guide you in acquiring the skills in a practical way. Most chapters also include a theoretical introduction that will sharpen your understanding of the subject matter and invite you to go further. The book familiarizes you with the most common data mining tools of R, such as k-means, hierarchical regression, linear regression, association rules, principal component analysis, multilevel modeling, k-NN, Na?ve Bayes, decision trees, and text mining. It also provides a de*ion of visualization techniques using the basic visualization tools of R as well as lattice for visualizing patterns in data organized in groups. This book is invaluable for anyone fascinated by the data mining opportunities offered by GNU R and its packages. Style and approach This is a practical book, which analyzes compelling data about life, health, and death with the help of tutorials. It offers you a useful way of interpreting the data that’s specific to this book, but that can also be applied to any other data.