A FAMILY'S GIFT When they were young, cousins Ella, Rachel and Jo were always together at their family’s lake house. As they grew up, though, they grew apart… until now, as the three must band together to grant a beloved aunt's dying wish: to finish the quilt she began as a gift for her daughter's Christmas wedding. LET IT SNOW Searching for vintage quilting fabric, independent Jo is reunited with the man she thought she’d marry. And proves that sometimes the second time's the charm… YOU BETTER WATCH OUT Ella is desperate when the unfinished quilt goes missing in her care. But a cocky lawyer might just help her find it – and find love. “Nine Ladies Dancing” by Sarah Mayberry – Shy Rachel risks exposing her secret life when she falls for her quilting teacher's seemingly perfect son, in this novella by Janice Kay Johnson. Together, Jo, Ella and Rachel create a Christmas heirloom that's both a wish and promise – of happiness, hope and love everlasting.

Explore and use the agile techniques of SAP Activate Framework in your SAP Projects. About This Book ? Explore the three pillars of SAP Activate and see how it works in different scenario. ? Understand and Implement Agile and Scrum concepts in SAP Activate. ? Get to Grisp with SAP Activate framework and manage your SAP projects effectively. Who This Book Is For This book is for readers who want to understand the working of SAP Activate and use it to manage SAP projects. Prior knowledge of SAP Hana is must. What You Will Learn ? Understand the fundamentals of SAP S4/HANA. ? Get familiar with the structure and characteristics of SAP Activate. ? Explore the application scenarios of SAP Activate. ? Use Agile and Scrum in SAP Projects effectively and efficiently ? Implement your learning into a sample project to explore and understand the benefits of SAP Activate methodology. In Detail It has been a general observation that most SAP consultants and professionals are used to the conventional waterfall methodology. Traditionally, this method has been there for ages and we all grew up learning about it and started practicing it in real world. The evolution of agile methodology has revolutionized the way we manage our projects and businesses. SAP Activate is an innovative, next generation business suite that allows producing working deliverables straight away. Manage your SAP Project with SAP Activate, will take your learning to the next level. The book promises to make you understand and practice the SAP Activate Framework. The focus is to take you on a journey of all the phases of SAP Activate methodology and make you understand all the phases with real time project examples. The author explains how SAP Activate methodology can be used through real-world use cases, with a comprehensive discussion on Agile and Scrum, in the context of SAP Project. You will get familiar with SAP S4HANA which is an incredibly innovative platform for businesses which can store business data, interpret it, analyze it, process it in real time, and use it when it's needed depending upon the business requirement. Style and approach An easy to follow approach with concepts explained via scenarios and project examples

Rich Finelli's modern CSS training course, based on his bestselling Mastering CSS video, now available in a book. Master CSS from best practices to practical CSS coding. About This Book ? Learn CSS directly from Rich Finelli, author of the bestselling Mastering CSS training course ? From best practices to deep coding, Rich Finelli shares his CSS knowledge with you ? Rich Finelli covers the latest CSS updates with flexbox and works with retina devices Who This Book Is For This book is for web designers who wish to master the best practices of CSS in their web projects. You already know how to work with a web page, and want to use CSS to master website presentation. What You Will Learn ? Master fundamental CSS concepts like the anatomy of a rule set, the box model, and the differences between block and inline elements ? Employ flexbox to layout and align elements simply and cleanly ? Become proficient with CSS3 properties such as transitions, transforms, gradients, and animations ? Delve into modular, reusable, and scalable CSS for more organized and maintainable style sheets ? Understand media queries and other pillars of responsive web design ? Get creative with the @font-face property, Google Web Fonts, font services such as Typekit, as well as, icon fonts ? Understand the workflow for HiDPI (retina) devices using 2x images, SVG, and the srcset attribute In Detail Rich Finelli trains you in CSS deep learning and shows you the techniques you need to work in the world of responsive, feature-rich web applications. Based on his bestselling Mastering CSS training video, you can now learn with Rich in this book! Rich shares with you his skills in creating advanced layouts, and the critical CSS insights you need for responsive web designs, fonts, transitions, animations, and using flexbox. Rich begins your CSS training with a review of CSS best practices, such as using a good text editor to automate your authoring and setting up a CSS baseline. You then move on to create a responsive layout making use of floats and stylable drop-down menus, with Rich guiding you toward a modular-organized approach to CSS. Your training with Rich Finelli then dives into detail about working with CSS and the best solutions to make your websites work. You'll go with him into CSS3 properties, transforms, transitions, and animations. You’ll gain his understanding of responsive web designs, web fonts, icon fonts, and the techniques used to support retina devices. Rich expands your knowledge of CSS so you can master one of the most valuable tools in modern web design. Style and approach Let Rich Finelli train you in CSS! This book has a direct training style because it is based on Rich's bestselling Mastering CSS training course.

Use the two popular web development stacks, Node.js and MongoDB, to build full-featured web applications About This Book ? Learn the new ECMAScript along with Node 8 and MongoDB to make your application more effective. ? Get the up-to-date information required to launch your first application prototype using the latest versions of Node.js and MongoDB. ? A practical guide with clear instructions to designing and developing a complete web application from start to finish using trending frameworks such as angular4 and hapi Who This Book Is For The book is designed for JavaScript developers of any skill level who want to get up-and-running using Node.js and MongoDB to build full-featured web applications. A basic understanding of JavaScript and HTML is the only prerequisite for this book. What You Will Learn ? Work with Node.js building blocks ? Write and configure a web server using Node.js powered by the Express.js framework ? Build dynamic HTML pages using the Handlebars template engine ? Persist application data using MongoDB and Mongoose ODM ? Test your code using automated testing tools such as the Mocha framework ? Automate test cases using Gulp ? Reduce your web development time by integrating third-party tools for web interaction. ? Deploy a development environment to the cloud using services such as Heroku, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure ? Explore single-page application frameworks to take your web applications to the next level In Detail Node.js builds fast, scalable network applications while MongoDB is the perfect fit as a high-performance, open source NoSQL database solution. The combination of these two technologies offers high performance and scalability and helps in building fast, scalable network applications. Together they provide the power for manage any form of data as well as speed of delivery. This book will help you to get these two technologies working together to build web applications quickly and easily, with effortless deployment to the cloud. You will also learn about angular 4, which consumes pure JSON APOIs from a hapi server. The book begins by setting up your development environment, running you through the steps necessary to get the main application server up-and-running. Then you will see how to use Node.js to connect to a MongoDB database and perform data manipulations. From here on, the book will take you through integration with third-party tools to interact with web apps. You will see how to use controllers and view models to generate reusable code that will reduce development time. Toward the end, the book supplies tests to properly execute your code and take your skills to the next level with the most popular frameworks for developing web applications. By the end of the book, you will have a running web application developed with MongoDB, Node.js, and some of the most powerful and popular frameworks. Style and approach A practical guide with clear instructions to designing and developing a complete web application from start to finish

Learn the art of designing, implementing, and managing Cisco's networking solutions on datacenters, wirelessly, security and mobility to set up an Enterprise network. About This Book ? Implement Cisco's networking solutions on datacenters and wirelessly, Cloud, Security, and Mobility ? Leverage Cisco IOS to manage network infrastructures. ? A practical guide that will show how to troubleshoot common issues on the network. Who This Book Is For This book is targeted at network designers and IT engineers who are involved in designing, configuring, and operating enterprise networks, and are in taking decisions to make the necessary network changes to meet newer business needs such as evaluating new technology choices, enterprise growth, and adding new services on the network. The reader is expected to have a general understanding of the fundamentals of networking, including the OSI stack and IP addressing. What You Will Learn ? Understand the network lifecycle approach ? Get to know what makes a good network design ? Design components and technology choices at various places in the network (PINS) ? Work on sample configurations for network devices in the LAN/ WAN/ DC, and the wireless domain ? Get familiar with the configurations and best practices for securing the network ? Explore best practices for network operations In Detail Most enterprises use Cisco networking equipment to design and implement their networks. However, some networks outperform networks in other enterprises in terms of performance and meeting new business demands, because they were designed with a visionary approach. The book starts by describing the various stages in the network lifecycle and covers the plan, build, and operate phases. It covers topics that will help network engineers capture requirements, choose the right technology, design and implement the network, and finally manage and operate the network. It divides the overall network into its constituents depending upon functionality, and describe the technologies used and the design considerations for each functional area. The areas covered include the campus wired network, wireless access network, WAN choices, datacenter technologies, and security technologies. It also discusses the need to identify business-critical applications on the network, and how to prioritize these applications by deploying QoS on the network. Each topic provides the technology choices, and the scenario, involved in choosing each technology, and provides configuration guidelines for configuring and implementing solutions in enterprise networks. Style and approach A step-by-step practical guide that ensures you implement Cisco solutions such as enterprise networks, cloud, and data centers, on small-to-large organizations.

Over 50 recipes on the core features of Apache Mesos and running big data frameworks in Mesos About This Book ? Learn to install and configure Mesos to suit the needs of your organization ? Follow step-by-step instructions to deploy application frameworks on top of Mesos, saving you many hours of research and trial and error ? Use this practical guide packed with powerful recipes to implement Mesos and easily integrate it with other application frameworks Who This Book Is For This book is for system administrators, engineers, and big data programmers. Basic experience with big data technologies such as Hadoop or Spark would be useful but is not essential. A working knowledge of Apache Mesos is expected. What You Will Learn ? Set up Mesos on different operating systems ? Use the Marathon and Chronos frameworks to manage multiple applications ? Work with Mesos and Docker ? Integrate Mesos with Spark and other big data frameworks ? Use networking features in Mesos for effective communication between containers ? Configure Mesos for high availability using Zookeeper ? Secure your Mesos clusters with SASL and Authorization ACLs ? Solve everyday problems and discover the best practices In Detail Apache Mesos is open source cluster sharing and management software. Deploying and managing scalable applications in large-scale clustered environments can be difficult, but Apache Mesos makes it easier with efficient resource isolation and sharing across application frameworks. The goal of this book is to guide you through the practical implementation of the Mesos core along with a number of Mesos supported frameworks. You will begin by installing Mesos and then learn how to configure clusters and maintain them. You will also see how to deploy a cluster in a production environment with high availability using Zookeeper. Next, you will get to grips with using Mesos, Marathon, and Docker to build and deploy a PaaS. You will see how to schedule jobs with Chronos. We’ll demonstrate how to integrate Mesos with big data frameworks such as Spark, Hadoop, and Storm. Practical solutions backed with clear examples will also show you how to deploy elastic big data jobs. You will find out how to deploy a scalable continuous integration and delivery system on Mesos with Jenkins. Finally, you will configure and deploy a highly scalable distributed search engine with ElasticSearch. Throughout the course of this book, you will get to know tips and tricks along with best practices to follow when working with Mesos. Style and approach This step-by-step guide is packed with powerful recipes on using Apache Mesos and shows its integration with containers and big data frameworks.

Leverage the power of PowerShell to bring the best out of your AWS infrastructure About This Book ? A collection of real-world-tested Powershell *s that can be used to manage your Windows server efficiently ? Follow step-by-step processes to solve your problems with Windows servers using AWS tools ? Design examples that work in the Amazon free usage tier, which lets you run the Windows platform on cloud Who This Book Is For This book will be useful for (but not limited to) Windows System administrators, cloud engineers, architects, DevOps engineers, and all those who want to accomplish tasks on the AWS Public Cloud using PowerShell. What You Will Learn ? Install the AWS Tools for PowerShell 6 ? Understand key services provided by Amazon Web services (AWS) ? Understand the Virtual Private Cloud ? Use PowerShell 6 for AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) ? Use PowerShell 6 for AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) ? Use PowerShell 6 for AWS Simple Storage Service (S3) ? Use PowerShell 6 for AWS Relational Database Service (RDS) ? Build fault-tolerant and highly-available applications using PowerShell 6 In Detail AWS Tools for PowerShell 6 shows you exactly how to automate all the aspects of AWS. You can take advantage of the amazing power of the cloud, yet add powerful *s and mechanisms to perform common tasks faster than ever before. This book expands on the Amazon documentation with real-world, useful examples and production-ready *s to automate all the aspects of your new cloud platform. It will cover topics such as managing Windows with PowerShell, setting up security services, administering database services, and deploying and managing networking. You will also explore advanced topics such as PowerShell authoring techniques, and configuring and managing storage and content delivery. By the end of this book, you will be able to use Amazon Web Services to automate and manage Windows servers. You will also have gained a good understanding of automating the AWS infrastructure using simple coding. Style and approach This step-by-step guide starts with simple examples then expands to full-blown administrative tasks leading to the efficient management of Windows servers. Each topic covers a section related to Amazon Web Services products, and the examples are built on one another to deliver a comprehensive library of *s for administrators.

Harness the power of Dynamics 365 Operations and discover all you need to implement it About This Book ? Master all the necessary tools and resources to evaluate Dynamics 365 for Operations, implement it, and proactively maintain it. ? Troubleshoot your problems effectively with your Dynamics 365 partner ? Learn about architecture, deployment choices, integration, configuration and data migration, development, testing, reporting and BI, support, upgrading, and more. Who This Book Is For This book is for technology leaders, project managers solution architects, and consultants who are planning to implement, are in the process of implementing, or are currently upgrading to Dynamics 365 for Operations. This book will help you effectively learn and implement Dynamics 365 for Operations. What You Will Learn ? Learn about Microsoft Dynamics 365, it's offerings, plans and details of Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition ? Understand the methodology and the tool, architecture, and deployment options ? Effectively plan and manage configurations and data migration, functional design, and technical design ? Understand integration frameworks, development concepts, best practices, and recommendations while developing new solutions ? Learn how to leverage intelligence and analytics through Power BI, machine learning, IOT, and Cortana intelligence ? Master testing, training, going live, upgrading, and how to get support during and after the implementation In Detail Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition, is a modern, cloud-first, mobile-first, ERP solution suitable for medium and large enterprise customers. This book will guide you through the entire life cycle of a implementation, helping you avoid common pitfalls while increasing your efficiency and effectiveness at every stage of the project. Starting with the foundations, the book introduces the Microsoft Dynamics 365 offerings, plans, and products. You will be taken through the various methodologies, architectures, and deployments so you can select, implement, and maintain Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition. You will delve in-depth into the various phases of implementation: project management, analysis, configuration, data migration, design, development, using Power BI, machine learning, Cortana analytics for intelligence, testing, training, and finally deployment, support cycles, and upgrading. This book focuses on providing you with information about the product and the various concepts and tools, along with real-life examples from the field and guidance that will empower you to execute and implement Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition. Style and approach This book is a step-by-step guide focusing on implementing Dynamics 365 Operations solutions for your organization.

Plan, design, and deploy System Center Configuration Manager 1706 like never before, regardless of how complex your infrastructure is About This Book ? The most up-to-date resource on deploying or migrating to System Center Configuration Manager 1706 within your IT infrastructure ? Plan, design, and deploy ConfigMgr 1706 with ease, both on primary and multiple-hierarchy sites ? Master the new features of ConfigMgr 1706, including Windows 10 support Who This Book Is For If you are a system engineer or an administrator planning to deploy Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 1706, then this book is for you. This book will also benefit system administrators who are responsible for designing and deploying one or more System CenterConfiguration Manager 1706 sites in their new or existing systems. What You Will Learn ? Install ConfigMgr servers and the necessary roles ? Design and scale ConfigMgr environments ? Configure and administrate essential ConfigMgr roles and features ? Create software packages using .msi and .exe files ? Deliver detailed reports with an automatic patching process ? Apply proper hardening on your deployment and secure workstations ? Deploy operating systems and updates leveraging ConfigMgr mechanisms ? Create high-availability components using the built-in mechanism for backup and recovery In Detail It becomes important to plan, design, and deploy configurations when administrators know that Configuration Manager interacts with a number of infrastructure components such as Active Directory Domain Services, network protocols, Windows Server services, and so on. Via real-world-world deployment scenarios, this book will help you implement a single primary site or multiples sites. You will be able to efficiently plan and deploy a multiple-site hierarchy such as central administration site. Next, you will learn various methods to plan and deploy Configuration Manager clients, secure them and make the most of new features offered through ConfigMgr 1706 like compliance, deploying updates operating systems to the endpoints. Then, this book will show you how to install, configure, and run SQL reports to extract information. Lastly, you will also learn how to create and manage users access in an ConfigMgr environment By the end of this book, you will have learned to use the built-in mechanism to back up and restore data and also design maintenance plan. Style and approach This step-by-step guide teaches you cool ways to plan, deploy, and configure ConfigMgr 1706. This tutorial, which complements the release of ConfigMgr 1706 with a refreshing new approach and expert guidance, will teach you everything you need to know about the essentials of server.

Enhance the performance of your applications by using React and adding the Progressive web app capability to it About This Book ? Bring the best of mobile sites and native apps to your users with progressive web applications ? Create fast, reliable, and engaging PWAs with React and Firebase ? Create high-performance applications even with low connection speeds by leveraging modern web technologies Who This Book Is For This book is for Java* Developers who want to develop high performance Web User Interfaces. This book requires basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. What You Will Learn ? Set up Webpack configuration, as well as get the development server running ? Learn basic Firebase configuration and deployment ? Create routes, manage multiple components, and learn how to use React Router v4 to manage the flow of data ? Use React life cycle methods to load data ? Add a service worker to the app and learn how it works ? Use a service worker to send Push Notifications ? Configure Webpack to split up the JavaScript bundle and lazy load component files ? Learn how to use the web Cache API to use your app offline ? Audit PWAs with Google's Lighthouse tool In Detail For years, the speed and power of web apps has lagged behind native applications. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) aim to solve this by bridging the gap between the web apps and native apps, delivering a host of exciting features. Simultaneously, React is fast becoming the go-to solution for building modern web UIs, combining ease of development with performance and capability. Using React alongside PWA technology will make it easy for you to build a fast, beautiful, and functional web app. After an introduction and brief overview of the goals of PWAs, the book moves on to setting up the application structure. From there, it covers the Webpack build process and the process of creating React components. You'll learn how to set up the backend database and authentication solution to communicate with Firebase and how to work with React Router. Next, you will create and configure your web app manifest, making your PWA installable on mobile devices. Then you'll get introduced to service workers and see how they work as we configure the app to send push notifications using Firebase Cloud Messaging. We'll also explore the App Shell pattern, a key concept in PWAs and look at its advantages regarding efficient performance. Finally, you'll learn how to add offline capabilities to the app with caching and confirm your progress by auditing your PWA with Lighthouse. Also, you'll discover helper libraries and shortcuts that will help you save time and understand the future of PWA development. Style and approach This is a step-by-step book, wherein, you will use the React framework to create a complete progressive web app.

Master the ArcGIS API for JavaScript to build web and mobile applications using this practical guide. About This Book ? Develop ArcGIS Server applications with JavaScript, both for traditional web browsers as well as the mobile platform ? Make your maps informative with intuitive geographic layers, user interface widgets, and more ? Integrate ArcGIS content into your custom applications and perform analytics with the ArcGIS Online Who This Book Is For If you are a web or mobile application developer, who wants to create GIS applications in your respective platform, this book is ideal for you. You will need Java Script programming experience to get the most out of this book. Although designed as an introductory to intermediate level book, it will also be useful for more advanced developers who are new to the topic of developing applications with ArcGIS Server. What You Will Learn ? To create an application with the ArcGIS API for JavaScript ? Build and display a broad range of different geometry types to represent features on the map ? The best way to leverage a feature layer and display related attribute data ? The functionality of the wide range of widgets and how to use them effectively ? Query data to gain new insights into the information it contains ? Work with tasks to discover and locate features on the map ? Using the geocoder and associated widgets ? The ability of the API to provide turn by turn directions and routing capabilities ? How to use the Geometry Engine and Geometry Service tasks for common geoprocessing operations ? Integrate content on ArcGIS online and add it to your custom web mapping application In Detail The ArcGIS API for JavaScript enables you to quickly build web and mobile mapping applications that include sophisticated GIS capabilities, yet are easy and intuitive for the user. Aimed at both new and experienced web developers, this practical guide gives you everything you need to get started with the API. After a brief introduction to HTML/CSS/JavaScript, you'll embed maps in a web page, add the tiled, dynamic, and streaming data layers that your users will interact with, and mark up the map with graphics. You will learn how to quickly incorporate a broad range of useful user interface elements and GIS functionality to your application with minimal effort using prebuilt widgets. As the book progresses, you will discover and use the task framework to query layers with spatial and attribute criteria, search for and identify features on the map, geocode addresses, perform network analysis and routing, and add custom geoprocessing operations. Along the way, we cover exciting new features such as the client-side geometry engine, learn how to integrate content from ArcGIS.com, and use your new skills to build mobile web mapping applications. We conclude with a look at version 4 of the ArcGIS API for JavaScript (which is being developed in parallel with version 3.x) and what it means for you as a developer. Style and approach Readers will be taken through a series of exercises that will demonstrate how to efficiently build ArcGIS Server applications for the mobile and web.

Create reports and solve common report problems with minimal fuss. About This Book ? Use this unique book to master the basics and advanced features of Pentaho 8 Reporting. ? A book showing developers and analysts with IT skills how to create and use the best possible reports using the Pentaho platform. ? Written with a very practical approach: full of tutorials and practical examples (source code included). Who This Book Is For This book is written for two types of professionals and students: Information Technologists with a basic knowledge of Databases and Java Developers with medium seniority. Developers will be interested to discover how to embed reports in a third-party Java application. What You Will Learn ? The basics of Pentaho Reporting (Designer and SDK) and its initial setup. ? Develop the most attractive reports on top of a wide range of data sources. ? Perform detailed customization of layout, parameterization, internationalization, behaviors, and more for your custom reports developed with Pentaho Reporting. ? Integrate Pentaho reports into third-party Java application with full control over interactions, layout, and behavior in general. ? Use Pentaho reports in the other components of the Pentaho Suite (BA Platform and PDI). In Detail This hands-on tutorial, filled with exercises and examples, introduces the reader to a variety of concepts within Pentaho Reporting. With screenshots that show you how reports look at design time as well as how they should look when rendered as PDF, Excel, HTML, Text, Rich-Text-File, XML, and CSV, this book also contains complete example source code that you can copy and paste into your environment to get up-and-running quickly. Updated to cover the features of Pentaho 8, this book will teach you everything you need to know to build fast, efficient reports using Pentaho. If your interest lies in the technical details of creating reports and you want to see how to solve common reporting problems with a minimum of fuss, this is the book for you. Style and approach A step-by-step guide covering technical topics relating to environments, best practices, and source code, to enable the reader to assemble the best reports and use them in existing Java applications.

Over 80 recipes to help you breeze through your data analysis projects using R About This Book ? Analyse your data using the popular R packages like ggplot2 with ready-to-use and customizable recipes ? Find meaningful insights from your data and generate dynamic reports ? A practical guide to help you put your data analysis skills in R to practical use Who This Book Is For This book is for data scientists, analysts and even enthusiasts who want to learn and implement the various data analysis techniques using R in a practical way. Those looking for quick, handy solutions to common tasks and challenges in data analysis will find this book to be very useful. Basic knowledge of statistics and R programming is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Acquire, format and visualize your data using R ? Using R to perform an Exploratory data analysis ? Introduction to machine learning algorithms such as classification and regression ? Get started with social network analysis ? Generate dynamic reporting with Shiny ? Get started with geospatial analysis ? Handling large data with R using Spark and MongoDB ? Build Recommendation system- Collaborative Filtering, Content based and Hybrid ? Learn real world dataset examples- Fraud Detection and Image Recognition In Detail Data analytics with R has emerged as a very important focus for organizations of all kinds. R enables even those with only an intuitive grasp of the underlying concepts, without a deep mathematical background, to unleash powerful and detailed examinations of their data. This book will show you how you can put your data analysis skills in R to practical use, with recipes catering to the basic as well as advanced data analysis tasks. Right from acquiring your data and preparing it for analysis to the more complex data analysis techniques, the book will show you how you can implement each technique in the best possible manner. You will also visualize your data using the popular R packages like ggplot2 and gain hidden insights from it. Starting with implementing the basic data analysis concepts like handling your data to creating basic plots, you will master the more advanced data analysis techniques like performing cluster analysis, and generating effective analysis reports and visualizations. Throughout the book, you will get to know the common problems and obstacles you might encounter while implementing each of the data analysis techniques in R, with ways to overcoming them in the easiest possible way. By the end of this book, you will have all the knowledge you need to become an expert in data analysis with R, and put your skills to test in real-world scenarios. Style and Approach ? Hands-on recipes to walk through data science challenges using R ? Your one-stop solution for common and not-so-common pain points while performing real-world problems to execute a series of tasks. ? Addressing your common and not-so-common pain points, this is a book that you must have on the shelf

Simplify machine learning model implementations with Spark About This Book ? Solve the day-to-day problems of data science with Spark ? This unique cookbook consists of exciting and intuitive numerical recipes ? Optimize your work by acquiring, cleaning, analyzing, predicting, and visualizing your data Who This Book Is For This book is for Scala developers with a fairly good exposure to and understanding of machine learning techniques, but lack practical implementations with Spark. A solid knowledge of machine learning algorithms is assumed, as well as hands-on experience of implementing ML algorithms with Scala. However, you do not need to be acquainted with the Spark ML libraries and ecosystem. What You Will Learn ? Get to know how Scala and Spark go hand-in-hand for developers when developing ML systems with Spark ? Build a recommendation engine that scales with Spark ? Find out how to build unsupervised clustering systems to classify data in Spark ? Build machine learning systems with the Decision Tree and Ensemble models in Spark ? Deal with the curse of high-dimensionality in big data using Spark ? Implement Text analytics for Search Engines in Spark ? Streaming Machine Learning System implementation using Spark In Detail Machine learning aims to extract knowledge from data, relying on fundamental concepts in computer science, statistics, probability, and optimization. Learning about algorithms enables a wide range of applications, from everyday tasks such as product recommendations and spam filtering to cutting edge applications such as self-driving cars and personalized medicine. You will gain hands-on experience of applying these principles using Apache Spark, a resilient cluster computing system well suited for large-scale machine learning tasks. This book begins with a quick overview of setting up the necessary IDEs to facilitate the execution of code examples that will be covered in various chapters. It also highlights some key issues developers face while working with machine learning algorithms on the Spark platform. We progress by uncovering the various Spark APIs and the implementation of ML algorithms with developing classification systems, recommendation engines, text analytics, clustering, and learning systems. Toward the final chapters, we’ll focus on building high-end applications and explain various unsupervised methodologies and challenges to tackle when implementing with big data ML systems. Style and approach This book is packed with intuitive recipes supported with line-by-line explanations to help you understand how to optimize your work flow and resolve problems when working with complex data modeling tasks and predictive algorithms. This is a valuable resource for data scientists and those working on large scale data projects.

Leverage Scala and Machine Learning to study and construct systems that can learn from data About This Book ? Explore a broad variety of data processing, machine learning, and genetic algorithms through diagrams, mathematical formulation, and updated source code in Scala ? Take your expertise in Scala programming to the next level by creating and customizing AI applications ? Experiment with different techniques and evaluate their benefits and limitations using real-world applications in a tutorial style Who This Book Is For If you’re a data scientist or a data analyst with a fundamental knowledge of Scala who wants to learn and implement various Machine learning techniques, this book is for you. All you need is a good understanding of the Scala programming language, a basic knowledge of statistics, a keen interest in Big Data processing, and this book! What You Will Learn ? Build dynamic workflows for scientific computing ? Leverage open source libraries to extract patterns from time series ? Write your own classification, clustering, or evolutionary algorithm ? Perform relative performance tuning and evaluation of Spark ? Master probabilistic models for sequential data ? Experiment with advanced techniques such as regularization and kernelization ? Dive into neural networks and some deep learning architecture ? Apply some basic multiarm-bandit algorithms ? Solve big data problems with Scala parallel collections, Akka actors, and Apache Spark clusters ? Apply key learning strategies to a technical analysis of financial markets In Detail The discovery of information through data clustering and classification is becoming a key differentiator for competitive organizations. Machine learning applications are everywhere, from self-driving cars, engineering design, logistics, manufacturing, and trading strategies, to detection of genetic anomalies. The book is your one stop guide that introduces you to the functional capabilities of the Scala programming language that are critical to the creation of machine learning algorithms such as dependency injection and implicits. You start by learning data preprocessing and filtering techniques. Following this, you'll move on to unsupervised learning techniques such as clustering and dimension reduction, followed by probabilistic graphical models such as Na?ve Bayes, hidden Markov models and Monte Carlo inference. Further, it covers the discriminative algorithms such as linear, logistic regression with regularization, kernelization, support vector machines, neural networks, and deep learning. You’ll move on to evolutionary computing, multibandit algorithms, and reinforcement learning. Finally, the book includes a comprehensive overview of parallel computing in Scala and Akka followed by a de*ion of Apache Spark and its ML library. With updated codes based on the latest version of Scala and comprehensive examples, this book will ensure that you have more than just a solid fundamental knowledge in machine learning with Scala. Style and approach This book is designed as a tutorial with hands-on exercises using technical analysis of financial markets and corporate data. The approach of each chapter is such that it allows you to understand key concepts easily.

Learn how UX and design thinking can make your site stand out from the rest of the internet. About This Book ? Learn everything you need to know about UX for your Web Design. ? Design B2B, B2C websites that stand out from the competitors with this guide ? Enhance your business by improving customer accessibility and retention. Who This Book Is For If you’re a designer, developer, or just someone who has the desire to create websites that are not only beautiful to look at but also easy to use and fully accessible to everyone, including people with special needs, UX for the Web will provide you with the basic building blocks to achieve just that. What You Will Learn ? Discover the fundamentals of UX and the User-Centered Design (UCD) Process. ? Learn how UX can enhance your brand and increase user retention ? Learn how to create the golden thread between your product and the user ? Use reliable UX methodologies to research and analyze data to create an effective UX strategy ? Bring your UX strategy to life with wireframes and prototypes ? Set measurable metrics and conduct user tests to improve digital products ? Incorporate the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to create accessible digital products In Detail If you want to create web apps that are not only beautiful to look at, but also easy to use and fully accessible to everyone, including people with special needs, this book will provide you with the basic building blocks to achieve just that. The book starts with the basics of UX, the relationship between Human-Centered Design (HCD), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and the User-Centered Design (UCD) Process; it gradually takes you through the best practices to create a web app that stands out from your competitors. You’ll also learn how to create an emotional connection with the user to increase user interaction and client retention by different means of communication channels. We’ll guide you through the steps in developing an effective UX strategy through user research and persona creation and how to bring that UX strategy to life with beautiful, yet functional designs that cater for complex features with micro interactions. Practical UX methodologies such as creating a solid Information Architecture (IA), wireframes, and prototypes will be discussed in detail. We’ll also show you how to test your designs with representative users, and ensure that they are usable on different devices, browsers and assistive technologies. Lastly, we’ll focus on making your web app fully accessible from a development and design perspective by taking you through the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Style and Approach This is an easy-to-understand step-by-step guide with full of examples to that will help you in creating good UX for your web applications.

Explore the Java Virtual Machine with modern programming languages About This Book ? This guide provides in-depth coverage of the Java Virtual Machine and its features ? Filled with practical examples, this book will help you understand the core concepts of Java, Scala, Clojure, Kotlin, and Groovy ? Work with various programming paradigms and gain knowledge about imperative, object-oriented and functional programming Who This Book Is For This book is meant for programmers who are interested in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and want to learn more about the most popular programming languages that can be used for JVM development. Basic practical knowledge of a modern programming language that supports object-oriented programming (JavaScript, Python, C#, VB.NET, and C++) is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Gain practical information about the Java Virtual Machine ? Understand the popular JVM languages and the Java Class Library ? Get to know about various programming paradigms such as imperative, object-oriented, and functional ? Work with common JVM tools such as Eclipse IDE, Gradle, and Maven ? Explore frameworks such as SparkJava, Vert.x, Akka and JavaFX ? Boost your knowledge about dialects of other well-known programming languages that run on the JVM, including JavaScript, Python, and Ruby In Detail Anyone who knows software development knows about the Java Virtual Machine. The Java Virtual Machine is responsible for interpreting Java byte code and translating it into actions. In the beginning, Java was the only programming language used for the JVM. But increasing complexity of the language and the remarkable performance of the JVM created an opening for a new generation of programming languages. If you want to build a strong foundation with the Java Virtual Machine and get started with popular modern programming languages, then this book is for you. The book will begin with a general introduction of the JVM and its features, which are common to the JVM languages, helping you get abreast with its concepts. It will then dive into explaining languages such as Java, Scala, Clojure, Kotlin, and Groovy and will show how to work with each language, their features, use cases, and pros and cons. By writing example projects in those languages and focusing on each language’s strong points, it will help you find the programming language that is most appropriate for your particular needs. By the end of the book, you will have written multiple programs that run on the Java Virtual Machine and know about the differences between the various languages. Style and approach This practical, example-filled guide will help you get started with the JVM and some of its most popular languages.

Use Python modules such as ArcPy, ArcREST and the ArcGIS API for Python to automate the analysis and mapping of geospatial data. About This Book ? Perform GIS analysis faster by automating tasks. ? Access the spatial data contained within shapefiles and geodatabases and transform between spatial reference systems. ? Automate the mapping of geospatial analyses and production of map books. Who This Book Is For If you are a GIS student or professional who needs an understanding of how to use ArcPy to reduce repetitive tasks and perform analysis faster, this book is for you. It is also a valuable book for Python programmers who want to understand how to automate geospatial analyses and implement ArcGIS Online data management. What You Will Learn ? Understand how to integrate Python into ArcGIS and make GIS analysis faster and easier. ? Create Python * using ArcGIS ModelBuilder. ? Learn to use ArcGIS online feature services and the basics of the ArcGIS REST API ? Understand the unique Python environment that is new with ArcGIS Pro ? Learn about the new ArcGIS Python API and how to use Anaconda and Jupyter with it ? Learn to control ArcGIS Enterprise using ArcPy In Detail ArcGIS allows for complex analyses of geographic information. The ArcPy module is used to * these ArcGIS analyses, providing a productive way to perform geo-analyses and automate map production. The second edition of the book focuses on new Python tools, such as the ArcGIS API for Python. Using Python, this book will guide you from basic Python *ing to advanced ArcPy * tools. This book starts off with setting up your Python environment for ArcGIS automation. Then you will learn how to output maps using ArcPy in MXD and update feature class in a geodatabase using arcpy and ArcGIS Online. Next, you will be introduced to ArcREST library followed by examples on querying, updating and manipulating ArcGIS Online feature services. Further, you will be enabling your *s in the browser and directly interacting with ArcGIS Online using Jupyter notebook. Finally, you can learn ways to use of ArcPy to control ArcGIS Enterprise and explore topics on deployments, data quality assurances, data updates, version control, and editing safeguards. By the end of the book, you will be equipped with the knowledge required to create automated analysis with administration reducing the time-consuming nature of GIS. Style and approach The book takes a pragmatic approach, showing ways to automate repetitive tasks and utilizing features of ArcPy with ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS online.

Create ‘AAA’ quality game audio with new features and tools built for Unity About This Book ? Explore the basics of audio development in Unity to create spatial sound, mixing, effects, composition, adaptive audio and more. ? Leverage the Audio Mixer of Unity 5.x to create blockbuster sound and music for your game. ? Learn about developing professional audio for games with FMOD Studio and composing original music with Reaper. ? Build amazing audio synchronized graphic visualizations with Unity. ? Understand how real-time character lip syncing can be implemented. Who This Book Is For The ideal target audience for this book will be game developers, both Indie as well as semi pro. No prior knowledge of Unity and audio development is assumed, What You Will Learn ? Develop game audio and other audio effects with Unity ? Getting familiar with the new Audio Mixer introduced in Unity 5 ? Implement dynamic and adaptive audio using various tools and strategies ? Explore interesting ways to incorporate audio into a game with sound visualization ? Use 3rd party professional audio development tools like FMOD ? Compose original music and record vocals ? Understand and troubleshoot audio performance issues In Detail Game Audio is one of the key components in making a game successful and it is quite popular in the gaming industry. So if you are a game developer with an eye on capturing the gamer market then this book is the right solution for you. In this book, we will take you through a step by step journey which will teach you to implement original and engaging soundtracks and SFX with Unity 5.x. You will be firstly introduced to the basics of game audio and sound development in Unity. After going through the core topics of audio development: audio sources, spatial sound, mixing, effects, and more; you will then have the option of delving deeper into more advanced topics like dynamic and adaptive audio. You will also learn to develop dynamic and adaptive audio using the Unity Audio Mixer. Further, you will learn how professional third party tools like FMOD are used for audio development in Unity. You will then go through the creation of sound visualization techniques and creating your own original music using the simple yet powerful audio workstation Reaper. Lastly, you will go through tips, techniques and strategies to help you optimize game audio performance or troubleshoot issues. At the end of the book, you’ll have gained the skills to implement professional sound and music. Along with a good base knowledge audio and music principles you can apply across a range of other game development tools. Style and approach This book will have a step by step practical approach where downloadable free games will be given with the book and readers will be free to work with them.

Jump into the world of Game AI development About This Book ? Move beyond using libraries to create smart game AI, and create your own AI projects from scratch ? Implement the latest algorithms for AI development and in-game interaction ? Customize your existing game AI and make it better and more efficient to improve your overall game performance Who This Book Is For This book is for game developers with a basic knowledge of game development techniques and some basic programming techniques in C# or C++. What You Will Learn ? Get to know the basics of how to create different AI for different type of games ? Know what to do when something interferes with the AI choices and how the AI should behave if that happens ? Plan the interaction between the AI character and the environment using Smart Zones or Triggering Events ? Use animations correctly, blending one animation into another and rather than stopping one animation and starting another ? Calculate the best options for the AI to move using Pruning Strategies, Wall Distances, Map Preprocess Implementation, and Forced Neighbours ? Create Theta algorithms to the AI to find short and realistic looking paths ? Add many characters into the same scene and make them behave like a realistic crowd In Detail The book starts with the basics examples of AI for different game genres and directly jumps into defining the probabilities and possibilities of the AI character to determine character movement. Next, you’ll learn how AI characters should behave within the environment created. Moving on, you’ll explore how to work with animations. You’ll also plan and create pruning strategies, and create Theta algorithms to find short and realistic looking game paths. Next, you’ll learn how the AI should behave when there is a lot of characters in the same scene. You'll explore which methods and algorithms, such as possibility maps, Forward Chaining Plan, Rete Algorithm, Pruning Strategies, Wall Distances, and Map Preprocess Implementation should be used on different occasions. You’ll discover how to overcome some limitations, and how to deliver a better experience to the player. By the end of the book, you think differently about AI. Style and approach The book has a step-by-step tutorial style approach. The algorithms are explained by implementing them in #.

Over 80 recipes to help you improve vSphere 6.5's performance and solve problems before they arise About This Book ? The practical recipes provide cost-effective and high performance for any application running in a virtual machine ? Contains best practices and troubleshooting techniques to resolve vSphere 6.5 performance issues ? Get a comprehensive coverage of performance issues and solutions including vCenter Server design and virtual machine and application tuning Who This Book Is For If you are a system administrator and are planning to deploy vSphere 6.5 in your organization and want to maximize its performance, then this book is for you. Prior knowledge of the vSphere 6.5 concepts is essential. What You Will Learn ? Understand the VMM Scheduler, cache aware CPU Scheduler, NUMA aware CPU Scheduler, and more during the CPU Performance Design phase ? Get to know the virtual memory reclamation technique, host ballooning monitoring, and swapping activity ? Choose the right platform while designing your vCenter Server, redundant vCenter design, and vCenter SSO and its deployment ? Learn how to use various performance simulation tools ? Design VCSA Server Certificates to minimize security threats ? Use health check tools for storage and boost vSphere 6.5's performance with VAAI and VASA In Detail vSphere is a mission-critical piece of software for many businesses. It is a complex tool, and incorrect design and deployment can create performance related issues that can negatively affect the business. This book is focused on solving these problems as well as providing best practices and performance-enhancing techniques. This edition is fully updated to include all the new features in version 6.5 as well as the latest tools and techniques to keep vSphere performing at its best. This book starts with interesting recipes, such as the interaction of vSphere 6.5 components with physical layers such as CPU, memory, and networking. Then we focus on DRS, resource control design, and vSphere cluster design. Next, you'll learn about storage performance design and how it works with VMware vSphere 6.5. Moving on, you will learn about the two types of vCenter installation and the benefits of each. Lastly, the book covers performance tools that help you get the most out of your vSphere installation. By the end of this book, you will be able to identify, diagnose, and troubleshoot operational faults and critical performance issues in vSphere 6.5. Style and approach This cookbook is written in a practical, helpful style with numerous recipes focusing on answering and providing solutions to common and not-so-common performance issues and problems.