Based largley on examples from the life of Cesare Borgia (son of Pope Alexander VI and sister of Lucrezia Borgia), this book was intended as practical advice for how to unify Italy with force. Machiavelli begins with the assumption that the end justifies the means -- so any action is permitted that leads to a unified Italy. His work has served for centuries as a handbook for would-be dictators and conquerors. According to Wikipedia: "Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) was an Italian diplomat, political philosopher, musician, poet and playwright. Machiavelli was a figure of the Italian Renaissance, and a servant of the Florentine republic. In June of 1498, following the ouster and execution of Savonarola, the Great Council elected Machiavelli as the Secretary to the second Chancery of the Republic of Florence. He is most famous — or notorious — for one of his shorter works, The Prince, sometimes described as a work of realist political theory. However, both that text and the more substantial republican Discourses on Livy — as well as History of Florence (commissioned by the Medici family) — were printed only after his death, all appearing in the early 1530s. In his own lifetime, while he circulated The Prince among friends, the only work Machiavelli promoted through printing was his dialogue on The Art of War. But generations from the sixteenth century onwards were most attracted and repelled by the cynical approach to power on display in The Prince, Discourses and History. Whatever Machiavelli's own intentions (and they remain a matter of heated debate), his name became synonymous with ruthless politics, deceit and the pursuit of power by any means."

"A Study Of The Western Desperado, With Historical Narratives Of Famous Outlaws; The Stories Of Noted Border Wars; Vigilante Movements And Armed Conflicts On The Frontier."According to Wikipedia: "Emerson Hough (1857-1923) was an American author, best known for writing western stories. Hough was born in Newton, Iowa, and graduated from the University of Iowa with a law degree. He moved to White Oaks, New Mexico, and practiced law there but eventually turned to literary work by taking camping trips and writing about them for publication. He is best known as a novelist, writing The Mississippi Bubble as well as The Covered Wagon, about Oregon Trail pioneers, which later became successful as a movie, running 59 weeks at the Criterion Theater in New York City, passing the record set by Birth of a Nation. Other notable works included Story of the Cowboy, Way of the West, Singing Mouse Stories, and Passing of the Frontier, and writing the "Out-of-Doors" column for the Saturday Evening Post."

First published in 1892. The book begins: "Since it was the British complications with Persia which mainly furnished what pretext there was for the invasion of Afghanistan by an Anglo-Indian army in 1839, some brief recital is necessary of the relations between Great Britain and Persia prior to that aggression..."

According to Wikipedia: "Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (c. AD 56 – after 117) was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors (AD 69). These two works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus in AD 14 to the years of the First Jewish–Roman War in AD 70. There are substantial lacunae in the surviving texts, including a gap in the Annals that is four books long. Other writings by him discuss oratory (in dialogue format, see Dialogus de oratoribus), Germania (in De origine et situ Germanorum), and the life of his father-in-law, Agricola, the Roman general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain, mainly focusing on his campaign in Britannia (De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae). Tacitus is considered to be one of the greatest Roman historians. He lived in what has been called the Silver Age of Latin literature. He is known for the brevity and compactness of his Latin prose, as well as for his penetrating insights into the psychology of power politics."

First published in 1910, abridgements of such works as: Maspero's Dawn of Civilizatino, Struggle of the Nations, and Passing of the Empires; Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews and Wars of the Jews;Milman's History of the Jews; Herodotus' History; Thucydides' Pelpoonnesian War; Xeophon's Anabasis; Grote's History of Greece, Schliemann's Troy and Its Remains; Caesar's Gallic War; Tacitus' Annals; Sallust's Conspiracy of Catline, Gibbon's Decline and Fal of the Roman Empire; Mommsen's History of Rome; Gibbon's Holy Roman Empire;Guizot's History of civilizatin in Europe, Halam's View of the State of Europe During the MiddleAges; Lane-Poole's Egypt inthe Middle Ages; Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland; Freeman's NormanConquest of England, and Froude's History of England.

This book provides social workers, outreach clinicians, case managers, and concerned community members with a pretreatment guide for assisting homeless couples, youth, and single adults. The inter-relationship between Homeless Outreach and Housing First is examined in detail to inform program development and hands on practice. Pretreatment Guide for Homeless Outreach ＆ Housing First shares five detailed case studies from the field to elucidate effective ways of helping and to demonstrate how the most vulnerable among us can overcome trauma and homelessness. Readers will: ·Expand their assessment skills and discover new interventions for helping people who have experienced long-term or chronic homelessness. ·Understand and be able to integrate the stages of common language construction with their own practice. ·Learn about the positive measurable impact of a Housing First approach and its moral, fiscal, and quality of life implications. ·Understand how to better integrate program policy and supervision with Homeless Outreach ＆ Housing First initiatives. ·Learn how to utilize a Pretreatment Approach with couples, youth, and unaccompanied adults experiencing untreated major mental illness and addiction. "Jay S. Levy's book is essential reading to both people new to the movement to end homelessness and folks who have been in the trenches for many years. Learn how to do effective outreach with the chronic homeless population, and the ins and outs of the Housing First model. The personal stories and the success cases will give inspiration to work even harder to help both individuals and for ending homelessness in your community." Michael Stoops, Director of Community Organizing National Coalition for the Homeless, Washington, DC Learn more at www.JaySLevy.com Another empowering book from Loving Healing Press www.LovingHealing.com

Hurrah for Essays! All writing lessons should be this much fun. When cousins Dennis and Mellie decide to get a dog, they consider carefully what breed would be best for each family. For example, Dennis wants a big dog, but Mellie wants tiny. He has no other pets, but she has other pets that a dog must get along with. They consider different dog personalities, family situations, and personal preferences. Dennis writes an opinion essay for his teacher, Mrs. Shirky. But will his essay convince his parents to get the dog of his dreams? This story takes a popular subject—kids getting a pet—and adds dogs of all sizes and shapes: all writing lessons should be this much fun. In the end, it’s cousins and the dogs that keep a reader turning the page. What kind of dog will Dennis choose? Will Mellie want the same kind of dog? PRAISE FROM DOG EXPERTS “Darcy Pattison does a remarkable job on several fronts with her wonderful new book I Want A Dog: My Opinion Essay. She introduces the value of the written text at an early age to children. This cannot be emphasized enough in our early classrooms. With this comes an important lesson regarding the responsibility of owning and caring for a dog. As President of the Labrador Retriever Club representing the breed with the largest number of dogs I know how imperative responsible dog ownership is and Darcy does a wonderful job instilling this at an early age. This is a remarkable children’s book that has a lesson.” –Fred Kampo, President of the Labrador Retriever Club This story hits many notes: A family story about cousins, Dennis and Mellie Information on dog breeds Responsible dog ownership Mentor-text for teaching writing Model opinion essay for elementary students Models the writing process, especially the importance of pre-writing or planning before you write Completes the writing process by showing the results of Dennis’s essay I WANT A DOG almost makes opinion essays look too easy. For STEM classes, a good study of dog species. See other books in THE READ AND WRITE series I Want a Cat: My Opinion Essay My Crazy Dog: My Narrative Essay ABOUT THE AUTHOR Growing up, author Darcy Pattison (www.darcypattison.com) wanted to be an astronaut. Instead, she writes about aliens in her early chapter book series, ALIEN, INC. SERIES (Mims House), which includes Kell, the Alien; Kell and the Horse Apple Parade; Kell and the Giants; and Kell and the Detectives. Published in eight languages, her middle grade novels include: Saucy and Bubba: A Hansel and Gretel Tale (Mims House); The Girl, the Gypsy and the Gargoyle (Mims House); and Vagabonds (Mims House). Recent nature books for children include: Abayomi, the Brazilian Puma: The True Story of an Orphaned Cub (Mims House); Wisdom, the Midway Albatross (Mims House), a Starred Review in Publisher’s Weekly; Desert Baths (Arbordale), an NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book 2013; and, Prairie Storms (Arbordale). Darcy Pattison is the 2007 recipient of Arkansas Governor’s Arts Awards for her work in Children’s Literature. For more see darcypattison.com/about ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR In her debut picture book, Ewa O’Neill (ewaoneill.com) creates art that is luscious, inventive, and colorful, bringing the story energy and humor. A dog-lover herself, Ewa (pronounced Eh-vuh) gives each breed a personality that helps kids begin to tell dog breeds apart.

Hurrah for Essays! All writing lessons should be this much fun. When cousins Mellie and Dennis decide to get a cat, they consider carefully what breed would be best for each family. For example, Mellie wants a cat that pounces, but Dennis wants a lazy cat, like his lazy dog, Clark Kent. Mellie wants a lap cat, but Dennis just wants a warm body BESIDE him. They consider different cat personalities, family situations, and personal preferences. Mellie writes an opinion essay for her teacher, Mr. Eagle. But will her essay convince her parents to get the cat of her dreams? This story takes a popular subject—kids getting a pet—and adds cats of all sizes and shapes: all writing lessons should be this much fun. In the end, it’s the cousins and the cats that keep a reader turning the page. What kind of cat will Mellie choose? Will Dennis want the same kind of cat? PRAISE FROM CAT EXPERTS “This is an absolutely delightful book intended for children, but actually one that is informative for adults as well, it reinforces the importance of considering various factors when selecting a cat as a pet. The two cousins are exchanging thoughts about their lifestyles and priorities. They each have a vision of their ‘ideal cat.’ Though every cat is an individual, the book expresses the value of predictable personality traits and other characteristics of various pedigreed cat breeds. It is a charming story of the two children each going through the process of finding a cat who best fits their own preferences. The playful illustrations compliment the humorous and educational quality of the book.” --Joan Miller, Cahir, CFA Outreach and Education, Cat Fancier’s Association This is quite simply as informative a cat book as any text out there. Each selected breed pinpoints the single most important trait to know about it before choosing a cat ‘purrfect’ for you. Although written from a child’s perspective, it makes clear sense to readers of all ages. As a cat lover and Maine Coon Cat breeder and enthusiast, I was thrilled with the spot on description and story of this beloved breed. — Alexis Mitchell, Syracoon/Furensics, Maine Coon Cat Breed Council Secretary, Maine Coon Cat breeders of CFA This story hits many notes: A family story about cousins, Dennis and Mellie Scientific information on cat breeds Responsible cat ownership Mentor-text for teaching writing Model opinion essay for elementary students Models the writing process, especially the importance of pre-writing or planning before you write Completes the writing process by showing the results of Dennis’s essay I WANT A DOG almost makes opinion essays look too easy. For STEM classes, a good study of cat species. See other books in THE READ AND WRITE series I Want a Dog: My Opinion Essay My Crazy Dog: My Narrative Essay (forthcoming) ABOUT THE AUTHOR Growing up, author Darcy Pattison (www.darcypattison.com) wanted to be an astronaut. Instead, she writes about aliens in her early chapter book series, ALIEN, INC. SERIES (Mims House), which includes Kell, the Alien; Kell and the Horse Apple Parade; Kell and the Giants; and Kell and the Detectives. Published in eight languages, her middle grade novels include: Saucy and Bubba: A Hansel and Gretel Tale (Mims House); The Girl, the Gypsy and the Gargoyle (Mims House); and Vagabonds (Mims House). Recent nature books for children include: Abayomi, the Brazilian Puma: The True Story of an Orphaned Cub (Mims House); Wisdom, the Midway Albatross (Mims House), a Starred Review in Publisher’s Weekly; Desert Baths (Arbordale), an NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book 2013; and, Prairie Storms (Arbordale). Darcy Pattison is the 2007 recipient of Arkansas Governor’s Arts Awards for her work in Children’s Literature. For more see darcypattison.com/about ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR In her debut picture book, Ewa O’Neill (ewaoneill.com) creates art that is luscious, inventive, and colorful, bringing the story energy and humor. A cat-lover herself, Ewa (pronounced Eh-vuh) gives each breed a personality that helps kids begin to tell cat breeds apart.

A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD SELECTION Do you believe everything you read in the newspaper? Early in August 1937, a news flash came: a sea monster had been spotted lurking off the shore of Nantucket Island. Historically, the Massachusetts island had served as port for whaling ships. Eyewitnesses swore this wasn’t a whale, but some new, fearsome creature. As eyewitness account piled up, newspaper stories of the sea monster spread quickly. Across the nation, people shivered in fear. Then, footprints were found on a Nantucket beach. Photographs were sent to prominent biologists for their opinion. Discussion swirled about raising a hunting party. On August 18, news spread across the island: the sea monster had been captured. Islanders ran to the beach and couldn’t believe their eyes. This nonfiction picture book is a perfect tool to discuss non-political fake news stories. Back matter discusses the freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Quotes from Thomas Jefferson make it clear that fake news has always been one of the costs of a free press. A Timeline lists actual events in the order they occurred. A vocabulary list defines relevant words.

The object of this work is to give a true and impartial record of the old Sixth Regiment during the war. The author collected the facts from a private diary kept by himself while in the service. Less has been known of the Sixth by our citizens than most of the other regiments; perhaps this is due partly to the fact that when we arrived.in Washington Colonel Chatfield instructed officers and men that it was unmilitary to write letters for the press; he desired that the War Record should know the record of the Sixth, and not the newspapers only. Its history is less full on this account; yet none can say that the record of the Sixth is sullied. In many trying places the regiment proved itself honor ably and gained confidence from its corps and department commanders. There may be errors in this work, and if any are inclined to censure, I trust they will remember that very few histories are without them; yet they are errors of the head and not of the heart. If what is here written meets the approval of the old members and the intelligent readers in general, I shall feel that my labors have been amply rewarded.

Non-fiction account, first published in 1898. The book begins: " Some thirty of her Majesty’s men-of-war were involved in this matter; say a dozen battleships of the most recent, and seventeen or eighteen cruisers; but my concern was limited to one of a new type commanded by an old friend. I had some dim knowledge of the interior of a warship, but none of the new world into which I stepped from a Portsmouth wherry one wonderful summer evening in ’97." According to Wikipedia: "Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He wrote tales and poems of British soldiers in India and stories for children."

Dodo Collections brings you another classic from Charles Dickens, ‘American Notes.’ ? American Notes is a fascinating account of nineteenth-century America sketched with Charles Dickens's characteristic wit and charm. When Charles Dickens set out for America in 1842 he was the most famous man of his day to travel there - curious about the revolutionary new civilization that had captured the English imagination. His frank and often humorous descriptions cover everything from his comically wretched sea voyage to his sheer astonishment at the magnificence of the Niagara Falls, while he also visited hospitals, prisons and law courts and found them exemplary. But Dickens's opinion of America as a land ruled by money, built on slavery, with a corrupt press and unsavoury manners, provoked a hostile reaction on both sides of the Atlantic. American Notes is an illuminating account of a great writer's revelatory encounter with the New World ? Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms. ? A prolific 19th Century author of short stories, plays, novellas, novels, fiction and non-fiction; during his lifetime Dickens became known the world over for his remarkable characters, his mastery of prose in the telling of their lives, and his depictions of the social classes, morals and values of his times. Some considered him the spokesman for the poor, for he definitely brought much awareness to their plight, the downtrodden and the have-nots. He had his share of critics, like Virginia Woolf and Henry James, but also many admirers, even into the 21st Century.

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Virginia Woolf’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Woolf includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Woolf’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the text Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

Dodo Collections brings you another classic from M. M. Mangasarian, ‘Is Life Worth Living Without Immortality?’ ? This book is based upon the famous lecture delivered before the Independent Religious Society, Chicago?by Mangasarian. ? Born in Mashger (now within Turkey) in the Ottoman Empire, M. M. Mangasarian attended Robert College in Constantinople, and was ordained as minister in Marsovan in 1878. In about 1880 he enrolled at Princeton University. He was pastor at a Presbyterian church in Philadelphia from 1882 to 1885, when he resigned, becoming an independent preacher and a lecturer on "independent religion" in New York. In 1892 he became leader of the Ethical Culture Society of Chicago, a group established by Felix Adler. In 1900 he organized the Independent Religious Society of Chicago, a rationalist group, of which he remained pastor until 1925. He retired to Piedmont, California, where he lived for the rest of his life. ? During his life Mangasarian wrote a number of books. His most popular, including The Truth About Jesus — Is He a Myth? (1909) and The Bible Unveiled (1911), deal with the evidence against the existence of an historical Jesus. He also wrote hundreds of essays and lectures on questions of the times. His books and essays were translated into French, German, Spanish, and other foreign languages. The general subject of his writing was religious criticism and the philosophy of religion. ? Mangasarian considered himself a Rationalist or a Secularist not an Atheist, since he considered atheism a non-verifiable belief system.

“And He sent against them birds, in flocks. Striking them with stones of Sijjil (baked clay). And made them like an empty field of stalks (of which the corn has been eaten up by cattle).”(Al-Fil: 3-5)?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????? While meekness is a characteristic of most visual creatures in the universe, then the frightful horror constitutes a characteristic of their unknown counterparts. I will not say anything else ...I am not allowed to talk about myself. My reality encloses a secret which if it is revealed to any creature, his blood will freeze and he will cease to exist out of fright. I am one of the Ababil the Flocks of Birds, that was mentioned in the Qur'an. I am the Commander of Communications among the six wings of the Eighth Army of these birds. The number of armies is a secret as well as the number of birds in the Eighth Army. We launch wars only at the order of Almighty Allah. I will not say how many missions we have carried out, for this matter belongs only to Almighty Allah. "Every day He has a matter to bring forth (such as giving honor to some, disgrace to some, life to some, death to some, etc.)!" All what I can say is that those missions were known to the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds. As for us creatures, there are cascading curtains and thick barriers that separate between them and us and this is because of Allah's mercy to His servants.

Excited for her first camping trip with her Girls Club, Cassandra buddies up with her friend Riley and hopes their friendship will become even stronger. It only takes a few hours for her to realize Riley doesn't have Cassie's best interests at heart. Frustrated, wet, and cold, Cassie decides it's time she figured out who her true friends are once and for all.

What made the Renaissance tickWhy had it such a force that its thinking spread from a small group of scholars in Florence, working in their own brilliant ways but coming together in a small villa on the Florentine hillside where Marsilio Ficino (143399) lived, to affect the thinking of the whole of Europe, and eventually of America, for five hundred years and is continuing to do soCosimo de?Medici, the virtual ruler of Florence, had been attracted to the philosophy of Plato by Gemistos Plethon during the Council Florence in 1439 and had instructed his agents to gather together Plato?s works before Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453. In 1462 he commissioned Marsilio Ficino to translate them from Greek into Latin for the benefit of the Latin speaking world, a task he completed in under five years according to his biographer Giovanni Corsi. This, the first volume in a four volume series, provides the first English translation of the 25 short commentaries on the dialogues and the 12 letters traditionally ascribed to Plato. Later volumes will provide translations of his longer commentaries on the Parmenides (2008), the Republic and Laws (2009) and Timaeus (2010). Though this book will be an essential buy for Renaissance scholars and historians, its freshness of thought and wisdom are as relevant today as they ever were to inspire a new generation seeking spiritual and philosophical direction in their lives.

Explore clustering algorithms used with Apache MahoutAbout This BookUse Mahout for clustering datasets and gain useful insightsExplore the different clustering algorithms used in day-to-day workA practical guide to create and evaluate your own clustering models using real world data sets Who This Book Is For This book is for developers who want to try out clustering on large datasets using Mahout. It will also be useful for those users who don’t have background in Mahout, but have knowledge of basic programming and are familiar with basics of machine learning and clustering. It will be helpful if you know about clustering techniques with some other tool.What You Will LearnExplore clustering algorithms and cluster evaluation techniquesLearn different types of clustering and distance measuring techniquesPerform clustering on your data using K-Means clusteringDiscover how canopy clustering is used as pre-process step for K-MeansUse the Fuzzy K-Means algorithm in Apache MahoutImplement Streaming K-Means clustering in MahoutLearn Spectral K-Means clustering implementation of Mahout In Detail As more and more organizations are discovering the use of big data analytics, interest in platforms that provide storage, computation, and analytic capabilities has increased. Apache Mahout caters to this need and paves the way for the implementation of complex algorithms in the field of machine learning to better analyse your data and get useful insights into it. Starting with the introduction of clustering algorithms, this book provides an insight into Apache Mahout and different algorithms it uses for clustering data. It provides a general introduction of the algorithms, such as K-Means, Fuzzy K-Means, StreamingKMeans, and how to use Mahout to cluster your data using a particular algorithm. You will study the different types of clustering and learn how to use Apache Mahout with real world data sets to implement and evaluate your clusters. This book will discuss about cluster improvement and visualization using Mahout APIs and also explore model-based clustering and topic modelling using Dirichlet process. Finally, you will learn how to build and deploy a model for production use.Style and approach This book is a hand's-on guide with examples using real-world datasets. Each chapter begins by explaining the algorithm in detail and follows up with showing how to use mahout for that algorithm using example data-sets.

Master PowerCLI to automate all aspects of VMware environmentsAbout This BookLeverage PowerCLI to perform administration tasks in a more effective and efficient wayEscape from daily tedious and repetitive tasks by unleashing the full potential of your creative side through *ingMaster the intricate workings of PowerShell and PowerCLI through easy and real-life examples Who This Book Is For If you are a system administrator with working knowledge of PowerShell and PowerCLI who wants to perform quick and easy *ing but at the same time achieve complex results and write production grade *s, then this book is for you.What You Will LearnUse GitHub for collaboration and Pester to automate unit testsWrite advanced reusable functions and dynamic variables and learn about error handling in PowerShellAutomate ESXi host installation using Auto-Deploy, host profile, and host imageImplement security best practices in a vSphere data centerManage SRM, vCloud Air, and vRealize Operations environmentsAccess and utilize vSphere APIs to manage advanced aspects of vSphere and work with .NET view objectsUtilize REST APIs to manage vRealize Automation environmentsCreate a Windows GUI through the use of PowerShell and Sapien PrimalForms CE In Detail Have you ever wished that every morning you could automatically get a report with all the relevant information about your datacenter in exactly the same format you wantOr whether you could automate that boring, exhausting taskWhat if some crucial task needs to be performed on a regular basis without any errorPowerCLI *s do all that and much more for VMware environments. It is built on top of the popular Windows PowerShell, with which you can automate server tasks and reduce manual input, allowing you to focus on more important tasks. This book will help you to achieve your goals by starting with a short refresher on PowerShell and PowerCLI and then covering the nuances of advanced functions and reusable *s. Next you will learn how to build a vSphere-powered virtualized datacenter using PowerCLI while managing different aspects of the environment including automated installation, network, and storage. You will then manage different logical constructs of vSphere environment and different aspects of a virtual machine. Later, you will implement the best practices for a security implementation in vSphere Environment through PowerCLI before discovering how to manage other VMware environments such as SRM, vCloud Director and vCloud Air through PowerCLI. You will also learn to manage vSphere environments using advanced properties by accessing vSphere API and REST APIs through PowerCLI. Finally, you will build a Windows GUI application using PowerShell followed by a couple of sample *s for reporting and managing vSphere environments with detailed explanations of the *s. By the end of the book, you will have the required in-depth knowledge to master the art of PowerCLI *ing.Style and approach In this book, every topic is explained in a very easy-to-follow fashion with real-life, simple examples so that you get an idea of not only the topic but also the context in which it should be used or where it can be best utilized.

Design and develop advanced computer vision projects using OpenCV with PythonAbout This BookProgram advanced computer vision applications in Python using different features of the OpenCV libraryPractical end-to-end project covering an important computer vision problemAll projects in the book include a step-by-step guide to create computer vision applications Who This Book Is For This book is for intermediate users of OpenCV who aim to master their skills by developing advanced practical applications. Readers are expected to be familiar with OpenCV’s concepts and Python libraries. Basic knowledge of Python programming is expected and assumed.What You Will LearnGenerate real-time visual effects using different filters and image manipulation techniques such as dodging and burningRecognize hand gestures in real time and perform hand-shape analysis based on the output of a Microsoft Kinect sensorLearn feature extraction and feature matching for tracking arbitrary objects of interestReconstruct a 3D real-world scene from 2D camera motion and common camera reprojection techniquesTrack visually salient objects by searching for and focusing on important regions of an imageDetect faces using a cascade classifier and recognize emotional expressions in human faces using multi-layer peceptrons (MLPs)Recognize street signs using a multi-class adaptation of support vector machines (SVMs)Strengthen your OpenCV2 skills and learn how to use new OpenCV3 features In Detail OpenCV is a native cross platform C++ Library for computer vision, machine learning, and image processing. It is increasingly being adopted in Python for development. OpenCV has C++/C, Python, and Java interfaces with support for Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, and Android. Developers using OpenCV build applications to process visual data; this can include live streaming data from a device like a camera, such as photographs or videos. OpenCV offers extensive libraries with over 500 functions This book demonstrates how to develop a series of intermediate to advanced projects using OpenCV and Python, rather than teaching the core concepts of OpenCV in theoretical lessons. Instead, the working projects developed in this book teach the reader how to apply their theoretical knowledge to topics such as image manipulation, augmented reality, object tracking, 3D scene reconstruction, statistical learning, and object categorization. By the end of this book, readers will be OpenCV experts whose newly gained experience allows them to develop their own advanced computer vision applications.Style and approach This book covers independent hands-on projects that teach important computer vision concepts like image processing and machine learning for OpenCV with multiple examples.

Create a high-quality first person shooter game using the Unity game engine and the popular UFPS and Probuilder frameworksAbout This BookLearn how to use Unity in conjunction with UFPS and ProBuilder to create a high-quality game quicklyCreate both interior and exterior environmentsA step-by step guide to building a project with clear examples and instructions to create a number of interesting scenarios Who This Book Is For This book is for those who want to create an FPS game in Unity and gain knowledge on how to customize it to be their very own. If you are familiar with the basics of Unity, you will have an easier time, but it should make it possible for someone with no prior experience to learn Unity at an accelerated pace.What You Will LearnUse UFPS to build custom weapons with custom meshes and behaviorsExplore level design as you prototype levels, making use of Prototype to build levels out quicklyBuild environments that are realistic as possible while keeping peak performance and repetitiveness downReview tips and tricks on how to create environments using both terrain for outdoor areas and a modular workflow for interiorsDevelop a number of different encounters that your players can fight against, from a simple turret enemy to complex AI characters from Shooter AIDiscover how to create unique objects such as exploding barrels and objects you can interact withCreate a custom GUI to help your game stand out from the crowdPackage your game for release, create an installer, and get your game out into the world In Detail Unity, available in free and pro versions, is one of the most popular third-party game engines available. It is a cross-platform game engine, making it easy to write your game once and then port it to PC, consoles, and even the web, making it a great choice for both indie and AAA developers. Building an FPS Game in Unity takes readers on an exploration of how to use Unity to create a 3D first person shooter (FPS) title, leveraging the powerful UFPS framework by VisionPunk and Prototype/ProBuilder 2.0 by ProCore3D. After some setting up, you will start by learning how to create custom weapons, prototype levels, create exterior and interior environments, and breathe life into our levels. We will then add polish to the levels. Finally, we will create a custom GUI and menus for our title to create a complete package.Style and approach An easy-to-follow guide with each project containing step-by-step explanations, diagrams, screenshots, and downloadable material. Concepts in Unity and C# are explained as they are used and for the more inquisitive, there are more details on the concepts used with additional external resources to learn from.