Expert tabular modeling techniques for building and deploying cutting-edge business analytical reporting solutions About This Book Build and deploy Tabular Model projects from relational data sources Leverage DAX and create high-performing calculated fields and measures Create ad-hoc reports based on a Tabular Model solution Useful tips to monitor and optimize your tabular solutions Who This Book Is For This book is for SQL BI professionals and Architects who want to exploit the full power of the new Tabular models in Analysis Services. Some knowledge of previous versions of Analysis services would be helpful but is not essential. What You Will Learn Learn all about Tabular services mode and how it speeds up development Build solutions using sample datasets Explore built-in actions and transitions in SSAS 2016 Implement row-column, and role-based security in a Tabular Data model Realize the benefits of in-memory and DirectQuery deployment modes Get up to date with the new features added to SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services Optimize Data Models and Relationships Usage In Detail SQL Server Analysis Service (SSAS) has been widely used across multiple businesses to build smart online analytical reporting solutions. It includes two different types of modeling for analysis services: Tabular and Multi Dimensional. This book covers Tabular modeling, which uses tables and relationships with a fast in-memory engine to provide state of the art compression algorithms and query performance. The book begins by quickly taking you through the concepts required to model tabular data and set up the necessary tools and services. As you learn to create tabular models using tools such as Excel and Power View, you’ll be shown various strategies to deploy your model on the server and choose a query mode (In-memory or DirectQuery) that best suits your reporting needs. You’ll also learn how to implement key and newly introduced DAX functions to create calculated columns and measures for your model data. Last but not least, you’ll be shown techniques that will help you administer and secure your BI implementation along with some widely used tips and tricks to optimize your reporting solution. By the end of this book, you’ll have gained hands-on experience with the powerful new features that have been added to Tabular models in SSAS 2016 and you’ll be able to improve user satisfaction with faster reports and analytical queries. Style and approach This book takes a practical, recipe-based approach where each recipe lists the steps to address or implement a solution. You will be provided with several approaches to creating a business intelligence semantic model using analysis services.

Build customized themes to make your Moodle courses engaging and interactive About This Book Leverage the power of Moodle 3 to create interactive and engaging themes for your courses Experience and integrate the power of Bootstrap and CSS into your Moodle app Implement your plans with illustrative examples to become a top notch designer Who This Book Is For If you are a Moodle administrator, developer, or designer and wish to enhance your Moodle site to make it visually attractive, then this book is for you. You should be familiar with web design techniques such as HTML and further experience with CSS would be helpful. What You Will Learn Plan a personalized Moodle theme from start to finish Install a Moodle theme in different operating systems and change Moodle’s theme settings Add your own customized logo and test your changes in several web browsers Customize the Moodle site to fit in with other elements such as websites and social networks, among others Create a design mock-up using graphics software Design themes that are capable of working with a huge number of different resolutions, screen sizes, screen orientations, and pixel densities Work with code to adjust the theme to users requirements Create new custom icons for your theme In Detail Theming is one of the main features of Moodle, and it can be used to customize your online courses and make them look exactly how you want them to,according to your target audience. If you have been looking for a book that will help you develop Moodle themes that you are proud of, and that your students will enjoy, then this is the book for you. We start off by introducing Moodle 3 and explaining what it is, how it works, and what tools you might need to create a stunning Moodle theme. We then show you how to choose and change the pre-installed Moodle themes in detailed steps, and explain what Moodle themes are and how they work. Next, we show you how to change an existing theme and test the changes that you have made. You can not only plan the customization of theme, but also tailor it using advanced Moodle theming processes; this book is your one-stop guide to creating your own personalized Moodle 3 theme. Style and approach This book acts as a comprehensive guide which helps you to create visually stunning and responsive themes to add that extra edge to your Moodle apps.

Transform physical phenomena into computer-acceptable data using a truly object-oriented language About This Book Create your own data acquisition system independently using LabVIEW and build interactive dashboards Collect data using National Instrument's and third-party, open source, affordable hardware Step-by-step real-world examples using various tools that illustrate the fundamentals of data acquisition Who This Book Is For If you are an engineer, scientist, experienced hobbyist, or student, you will highly benefit from the content and examples illustrated in this book. A working knowledge of precision testing, measurement instruments, and electronics, as well as a background in computer fundamentals and programming is expected. What You Will Learn Create a virtual instrument which highlights common functionality of LabVIEW Get familiarized with common buses such as Serial, GPIB, and SCPI commands Staircase signal acquisition using NI-DAQmx Discover how to measure light intensity and distance Master LabVIEW debugging techniques Build a data acquisition application complete with an installer and required drivers Utilize open source microcontroller Arduino and a 32-bit Arduino compatible Uno32 using LabVIEW programming environment In Detail NI LabVIEW's intuitive graphical interface eliminates the steep learning curve associated with text-based languages such as C or C++. LabVIEW is a proven and powerful integrated development environment to interact with measurement and control hardware, analyze data, publish results, and distribute systems. This hands-on tutorial guide helps you harness the power of LabVIEW for data acquisition. This book begins with a quick introduction to LabVIEW, running through the fundamentals of communication and data collection. Then get to grips with the auto-code generation feature of LabVIEW using its GUI interface. You will learn how to use NI-DAQmax Data acquisition VIs, showing how LabVIEW can be used to appropriate a true physical phenomenon (such as temperature, light, and so on) and convert it to an appropriate data type that can be manipulated and analyzed with a computer. You will also learn how to create Distribution Kit for LabVIEW, acquainting yourself with various debugging techniques offered by LabVIEW to help you in situations where bugs are not letting you run your programs as intended. By the end of the book, you will have a clear idea how to build your own data acquisition system independently and much more. Style and approach A hands-on practical guide that starts by laying down the software and hardware foundations necessary for subsequent data acquisition-intensive chapters. The book is packed full of specific examples with software screenshots and schematic diagrams to guide you through the creation of each virtual instrument.

Master application development by writing succinct, robust, and reusable code with Qt 5 About This Book Unleash the power of Qt 5 with C++14 Integrate useful third-party libraries such as OpenCV Package and deploy your application on multiple platforms Who This Book Is For This book will appeal to developers and programmers who would like to build GUI-based applications. Knowledge of C++ is necessary and the basics of Qt would be helpful. What You Will Learn Create stunning UIs with Qt Widget and Qt Quick Develop powerful, cross-platform applications with the Qt framework Design GUIs with the Qt Designer and build a library in it for UI preview Handle user interaction with the Qt signal/slot mechanism in C++ Prepare a cross-platform project to host a third-party library Build a Qt application using the OpenCV API Use the Qt Animation framework to display stunning effects Deploy mobile apps with Qt and embedded platforms In Detail Qt 5.7 is an application development framework that provides a great user experience and develops full-capability applications with Qt Widgets, QML, and even Qt 3D. This book will address challenges in successfully developing cross-platform applications with the Qt framework. Cross-platform development needs a well-organized project. Using this book, you will have a better understanding of the Qt framework and the tools to resolve serious issues such as linking, debugging, and multithreading. Your journey will start with the new Qt 5 features. Then you will explore different platforms and learn to tame them. Every chapter along the way is a logical step that you must take to master Qt. The journey will end in an application that has been tested and is ready to be shipped. Style and approach This is an easy-to-follow yet comprehensive guide to building applications in Qt. Each chapter covers increasingly advanced topics, with subjects grouped according to their complexity as well as their usefulness. Packed with practical examples and explanations, Mastering Qt contains everything you need to take your applications to the next level.

Master the capabilities of RethinkDB and implement them to develop efficient real-time web applications. The way to better database development is here! About This Book Master the powerful ReQL queries to manipulate your JSON data, Learn how to develop scalable, real-time web applications using RethinkDB and Node.js and deploy them for production, A detailed, step-by-step guide to help you master the concepts of RethinkDB programming with ease Who This Book Is For This book caters to all the real-time application developers looking forward to master their skills using RethinkDB. A basic understanding of RethinkDB and Node.js is essential to get the most out of this book. What You Will Learn Master the web-based management console for data-center configuration (sharding, replication, and more), database monitoring, and testing queries. Run queries using the ReQL language Perform Geospatial queries (such as finding all the documents with locations within 5km of a given point). Deal with time series data, especially across various times zones. Extending the functionality of RethinkDB and integrate it with third party libraries such as ElasticSearch to enhance our search In Detail RethinkDB has a lot of cool things to be excited about: ReQL (its readable,highly-functional syntax), cluster management, primitives for 21st century applications, and change-feeds. This book starts with a brief overview of the RethinkDB architecture and data modeling, and coverage of the advanced ReQL queries to work with JSON documents. Then, you will quickly jump to implementing these concepts in real-world scenarios, by building real-time applications on polling, data synchronization, share market, and the geospatial domain using RethinkDB and Node.js. You will also see how to tweak RethinkDB's capabilities to ensure faster data processing by exploring the sharding and replication techniques in depth. Then, we will take you through the more advanced administration tasks as well as show you the various deployment techniques using PaaS, Docker, and Compose. By the time you have finished reading this book, you would have taken your knowledge of RethinkDB to the next level, and will be able to use the concepts in RethinkDB to develop efficient, real-time applications with ease. Style and approach This book is a unique blend of comprehensive theory and real-world examples to help you master RethinkDB.

Deploy, configure, and run clusters of Docker containers with Swarm About This Book Get to grips with Docker Swarm, one of the key components of the Docker ecosystem. Optimize Swarm and SwarmKit features for scaling massive applications through containers. Learn about Docker’s scheduling tricks, high availability, security, and platform scalability. Who This Book Is For If you are a Linux admin or a Docker user who wants to natively manage Docker clusters, then this is the book for you. What You Will Learn Create and manage Swarm Mode clusters of any size Get a backstage view of the biggest Swarms ever built : Swarm2k and Swarm3k, with their 2,300 and 4,700 nodes Discovery mechanisms and Raft Deploy your containerized app on Swarm Administer Swarm clusters on AWS, Azure, and DigitalOcean Integrate Flocker volumes with Swarm Create and manage Swarms on OpenStack Magnum In Detail Docker Swarm serves as one of the crucial components of the Docker ecosystem and offers a native solution for you to orchestrate containers. It’s turning out to be one of the preferred choices for Docker clustering thanks to its recent improvements. This book covers Swarm, Swarm Mode, and SwarmKit. It gives you a guided tour on how Swarm works and how to work with Swarm. It describes how to set up local test installations and then moves to huge distributed infrastructures. You will be shown how Swarm works internally, what’s new in Swarmkit, how to automate big Swarm deployments, and how to configure and operate a Swarm cluster on the public and private cloud. This book will teach you how to meet the challenge of deploying massive production-ready applications and a huge number of containers on Swarm. You'll also cover advanced topics that include volumes, scheduling, a Libnetwork deep dive, security, and platform scalability. Style and approach A comprehensive guide that covers all aspects of Docker Swarm from setup to customization.

Discover over 125 solution-based recipes to help you build applications for smartphones, tablets, and desktops About This Book Learn to build applications for Windows 10, the latest Windows version Develop your applications to be compatible with smartphones, tablets, and desktops This guide is packed with recipes covering major solutions to day-to-day problems faced by Windows programmers Who This Book Is For The book is dedicated to programmers with various experience of developing applications for Windows-based smartphones, tablets, and desktops—even beginners can find suitable content. What You Will Learn Start developing universal applications for Windows 10 Design user interface in the XAML language Use the MVVM design pattern with data binding Store data in files and in a database Use multimedia content and animations Capture data from built-in sensors Handle various Internet-based scenarios Test the application and submit it to the Windows Store In Detail Need to ensure you can always create the best Windows apps regardless of platformWhat you need are solutions to the biggest issues you can face, so you can always ensure you’re making the right choices and creating the best apps you can. The book starts with recipes that will help you set up the integrated development environment before you go ahead and design the user interface. You will learn how to use the MVVM design pattern together with data binding, as well as how to work with data in different file formats. Moving on, you will explore techniques to add animations and graphics to your application, and enable your solution to work with multimedia content. You will also see how to use sensors, such as an accelerometer and a compass, as well as obtain the current GPS location. You will make your application ready to work with Internet-based scenarios, such as composing e-mails or downloading files, before finally testing the project and submitting it to the Windows Store. By the end of the book, you will have a market-ready application compatible across different Windows devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktops. Style and approach This quick-start book takes a cookbook format with recipes covering more than 125 solutions to help you create and build applications for Windows 10. The examples presented in the book use the free integrated development environment. A supporting set of codes that present solutions to problems described in particular chapters is available as well.

Combine the incredible powers of Spark, Mesos, Akka, Cassandra, and Kafka to build data processing platforms that can take on even the hardest of your data troubles! About This Book This highly practical guide shows you how to use the best of the big data technologies to solve your response-critical problems Learn the art of making cheap-yet-effective big data architecture without using complex Greek-letter architectures Use this easy-to-follow guide to build fast data processing systems for your organization Who This Book Is For If you are a developer, data architect, or a data scientist looking for information on how to integrate the Big Data stack architecture and how to choose the correct technology in every layer, this book is what you are looking for. What You Will Learn Design and implement a fast data Pipeline architecture Think and solve programming challenges in a functional way with Scala Learn to use Akka, the actors model implementation for the JVM Make on memory processing and data analysis with Spark to solve modern business demands Build a powerful and effective cluster infrastructure with Mesos and Docker Manage and consume unstructured and No-SQL data sources with Cassandra Consume and produce messages in a massive way with Kafka In Detail SMACK is an open source full stack for big data architecture. It is a combination of Spark, Mesos, Akka, Cassandra, and Kafka. This stack is the newest technique developers have begun to use to tackle critical real-time analytics for big data. This highly practical guide will teach you how to integrate these technologies to create a highly efficient data analysis system for fast data processing. We’ll start off with an introduction to SMACK and show you when to use it. First you’ll get to grips with functional thinking and problem solving using Scala. Next you’ll come to understand the Akka architecture. Then you’ll get to know how to improve the data structure architecture and optimize resources using Apache Spark. Moving forward, you’ll learn how to perform linear scalability in databases with Apache Cassandra. You’ll grasp the high throughput distributed messaging systems using Apache Kafka. We’ll show you how to build a cheap but effective cluster infrastructure with Apache Mesos. Finally, you will deep dive into the different aspect of SMACK using a few case studies. By the end of the book, you will be able to integrate all the components of the SMACK stack and use them together to achieve highly effective and fast data processing. Style and approach With the help of various industry examples, you will learn about the full stack of big data architecture, taking the important aspects in every technology. You will learn how to integrate the technologies to build effective systems rather than getting incomplete information on single technologies. You will learn how various open source technologies can be used to build cheap and fast data processing systems with the help of various industry examples

Create beautiful data visualizations and interactive dashboards with Tableau About This Book Delve into the features and functionalities of Tableau from the ground up with this step-by-step guide that has over 50 "follow-me" recipes Build rich visualizations to effectively highlight the underlying trends and patterns in your data Build beautiful interactive dashboards and storyboards to stitch your visualizations together and tell a story Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who wishes to use Tableau. It will be of use to both beginners who want to learn Tableau from scratch and to more seasoned users who simply want a quick reference guide. This book is a ready reckoner guide for you. The book will be such that both new & existing Tableau users who don’t know, or can’t recall how to perform different Tableau tasks can use the book and be benefited from it. What You Will Learn Get to grips with the Tableau workspace and terminologies and understand what data sources you can connect Learn to create basic charts like bar chart, stacked bar, pie chart, line chart, area chart, tree map & word cloud Go even further with more advanced visualizations such as scatter plot, box & whiskers plot, dual axis, bullet chart, Histograms, Maps, etc Use pre-defined calculation and change its scope and direction to affect outcome Learn to define Parameters and call them into parametric calculations that provide outcomes based on user inputs Build Dashboards and use Actions to link multiple sheets on the dashboard Connect to multiple data sources using Data Blending, Multiple Table Join within the same data source as well as across data sources, Custom SQL and learn to work with data Extracts Compute statistical trends, build forecasting models and use Reference lines for benchmarking In Detail Data is everywhere and everything is data! Visualization of data allows us to bring out the underlying trends and patterns inherent in the data and gain insights that enable faster and smarter decision making. Tableau is one of the fastest growing and industry leading Business Intelligence platforms that empowers business users to easily visualize their data and discover insights at the speed of thought. Tableau is a self-service BI platform designed to make data visualization and analysis as intuitive as possible. Creating visualizations with simple drag-and-drop, you can be up and running on Tableau in no time. Starting from the fundamentals such as getting familiarized with Tableau Desktop, connecting to common data sources and building standard charts; you will walk through the nitty gritty of Tableau such as creating dynamic analytics with parameters, blended data sources, and advanced calculations. You will also learn to group members into higher levels, sort the data in a specific order & filter out the unnecessary information. You will then create calculations in Tableau & understand the flexibility & power they have and go on to building story-boards and share your insights with others. Whether you are just getting started or whether you need a quick reference on a "how-to" question, This book is the perfect companion for you Style and approach This cookbook takes a step-by-step approach and the text systematically evolves to cover more involved functionalities. Every recipe includes illustrative screenshots which provide a detailed visual resource for each step.

Find out everything you need to know to build powerful robots with the most up-to-date ROS About This Book This comprehensive, yet easy-to-follow guide will help you find your way through the ROS framework Successfully design and simulate your 3D robot model and use powerful robotics algorithms and tools to program and set up your robots with an unparalleled experience by using the exciting new features from Robot Kinetic Use the latest version of gazebo simulator, OpenCV 3.0, and C++11 standard for your own algorithms Who This Book Is For This book is suitable for an ROS beginner as well as an experienced ROS roboticist or ROS user or developer who is curious to learn ROS Kinetic and its features to make an autonomous Robot. The book is also suitable for those who want to integrate sensors and embedded systems with other software and tools using ROS as a framework. What You Will Learn Understand the concepts of ROS, the command-line tools, visualization GUIs, and how to debug ROS Connect robot sensors and actuators to ROS Obtain and analyze data from cameras and 3D sensors Use Gazebo for robot/sensor and environment simulation Design a robot and see how to make it map the environment, navigate autonomously, and manipulate objects in the environment using MoveIt! Add vision capabilities to the robot using OpenCV 3.0 Add 3D perception capabilities to the robot using the latest version of PCL In Detail Building and programming a robot can be cumbersome and time-consuming, but not when you have the right collection of tools, libraries, and more importantly expert collaboration. ROS enables collaborative software development and offers an unmatched simulated environment that simplifies the entire robot building process. This book is packed with hands-on examples that will help you program your robot and give you complete solutions using open source ROS libraries and tools. It also shows you how to use virtual machines and Docker containers to simplify the installation of Ubuntu and the ROS framework, so you can start working in an isolated and control environment without changing your regular computer setup. It starts with the installation and basic concepts, then continues with more complex modules available in ROS such as sensors and actuators integration (drivers), navigation and mapping (so you can create an autonomous mobile robot), manipulation, Computer Vision, perception in 3D with PCL, and more. By the end of the book, you’ll be able to leverage all the ROS Kinetic features to build a fully fledged robot for all your needs. Style and approach This book is packed with hands-on examples that will help you program your robot and give you complete solutions using ROS open source libraries and tools. All the robotics concepts and modules are explained and multiple examples are provided so that you can understand them easily.

Master text-taming techniques and build effective text-processing applications with R About This Book Develop all the relevant skills for building text-mining apps with R with this easy-to-follow guide Gain in-depth understanding of the text mining process with lucid implementation in the R language Example-rich guide that lets you gain high-quality information from text data Who This Book Is For If you are an R programmer, analyst, or data scientist who wants to gain experience in performing text data mining and analytics with R, then this book is for you. Exposure to working with statistical methods and language processing would be helpful. What You Will Learn Get acquainted with some of the highly efficient R packages such as OpenNLP and RWeka to perform various steps in the text mining process Access and manipulate data from different sources such as JSON and HTTP Process text using regular expressions Get to know the different approaches of tagging texts, such as POS tagging, to get started with text analysis Explore different dimensionality reduction techniques, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and understand its implementation in R Discover the underlying themes or topics that are present in an unstructured collection of documents, using common topic models such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) Build a baseline sentence completing application Perform entity extraction and named entity recognition using R In Detail Text Mining (or text data mining or text analytics) is the process of extracting useful and high-quality information from text by devising patterns and trends. R provides an extensive ecosystem to mine text through its many frameworks and packages. Starting with basic information about the statistics concepts used in text mining, this book will teach you how to access, cleanse, and process text using the R language and will equip you with the tools and the associated knowledge about different tagging, chunking, and entailment approaches and their usage in natural language processing. Moving on, this book will teach you different dimensionality reduction techniques and their implementation in R. Next, we will cover pattern recognition in text data utilizing classification mechanisms, perform entity recognition, and develop an ontology learning framework. By the end of the book, you will develop a practical application from the concepts learned, and will understand how text mining can be leveraged to analyze the massively available data on social media. Style and approach This book takes a hands-on, example-driven approach to the text mining process with lucid implementation in R.

The legal guide every woman needs to protect herself and her familyIf your best friend had a law degree, she would offer the useful counsel Lisa Green delivers in On Your Case. From dating, marriage, and kids to divorce, retirement, and aging parents, On Your Case offers smart, jargon-free lessons on how to solve the legal challenges that arise over the course of every woman's lifetime. A lawyer and television legal analyst herself, Lisa shares court cases and real-life legal horror stories (including her own) to illustrate how readers can not only solve problems, but learn how to protect themselves before a crisis hits.Lisa's warm, inviting voice imparts essential information about these important topics and many more: Relationships: online dating, pre- and post-nuptial agreements, engagement, and marriage Separation and divorce: splitting without anxiety, child custody and support, pet custody disputes, domestic violence Babies, children, and teens: pregnancy and adoption, advocating for a special needs child, misbehaving teens Work: employment and household help Online legal issues: privacy, copyright, and social media Midlife and elder care: wills, medical decisions, and power of attorney Legal help: hiring a lawyer and DIY Always clear and often funny, Lisa will help you take legal charge of your life, telling it to you straight without putting you to sleep or scaring you to death. She provides all the essential tools and inspiration necessary to care for yourself, your assets, your family, and your career.

From the author of the bestselling Dorothy Dandridge comes a dazzling look at one of America's brightest and most troubled theatrical stars. Almost no other star of the twentieth century reimagined herself with such audacity and durable talent as did Ethel Waters. In this enlightening and engaging biography, Donald Bogle resurrects this astonishing woman from the annals of history, shedding new light on the tumultuous twists and turns of her seven-decade career, which began in Black vaudeville and reached new heights in the steamy nightclubs of 1920s Harlem. Bogle traces Waters' life from her poverty-stricken childhood to her rise in show business; her career as one of the early blues and pop singers, with such hits as "Am I Blue?," "Stormy Weather," and "Heat Wave"; her success as an actress, appearing in such films and plays as The Member of the Wedding and Mamba's Daughters; and through her lonely, painful final years. He illuminates Waters' turbulent private life, including her complicated feelings toward her mother and various lovers; her heated and sometimes well-known feuds with such entertainers as Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, and Lena Horne; and her tangled relationships with such legends as Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Harold Clurman, Elia Kazan, Count Basie, Darryl F. Zanuck, Vincente Minnelli, Fred Zinnemann, Moss Hart, and John Ford.In addition, Bogle explores the ongoing racial battles, growing paranoia, and midlife religious conversion of this bold, brash, wildly talented woman while examining the significance of her highly publicized life to audiences unaccustomed to the travails of a larger-than-life African American woman.Wonderfully atmospheric, richly detailed, and drawn from an array of candid interviews, Heat Wave vividly brings to life a major cultural figure of the twentieth century a charismatic, complex, and compelling woman, both tragic and triumphant.

For the past thirty years, Steve Miller has done the messy, unpleasant work of salvaging America's lost companies with such success that the Wall Street Journal has dubbed him "U.S. Industry's Mr. Fix It." From his very first crisis assignment as point man for Lee Iaccoca's rescue team at Chrysler, Miller built an international reputation while fixing major problems in such varied industries as steel, construction, and health care. Most recently, as chairman and CEO of the bankrupt automotive parts manufacturer Delphi Corporation, he has confronted head-on the major issues threatening the survival of Detroit's Big Three. A battle is being fought in the heart of industrial America or what is left of it Miller observes. In the auto industry as well as every manufacturing corporation, management and labor are at loggerheads over wages and the skyrocketing costs of employee benefits. The way out of this battle is often painful and Miller is deeply aware of the high price individual workers and many communities have had to pay as a result.In this frank and unsparing memoir, Miller reveals a rarely seen side of American management. Miller recounts the inside story of the many turnaround jobs that have led to his renown as Mr. Fix It. But he also paints an intimate picture of his relationship with Maggie Miller, his wife of forty years, with whom Miller shares the credit for his success. Described by Miller as "my mentor and tormentor," Maggie served as his most trusted adviser and kept him focused on what truly matters until her death from brain cancer in 2006. A deeply moving personal story and timely snapshot of the state of American manufacturing and what it will take to restore it to profitability, The Turnaround Kid is Steve Miller's fascinating look at his education as an American executive.

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

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

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

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

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

Veuve Clicquot champagne epitomizes glamour, style, and luxury. In The Widow Clicquot, Tilar J. Mazzeo brings to life for the first time the fascinating woman behind the iconic yellow label: Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, who, after her husband's death, defied convention by assuming the reins of the fledgling wine business they had nurtured together. Steering the company through dizzying political and financial reversals, she became one of the world's first great businesswomen and one of the richest women of her time. As much a fascinating journey through the process of making this temperamental wine as a biography of a uniquely tempered woman, The Widow Clicquot is the captivating true story of a legend and a visionary.

What triggers fascination, and how do companies, people, and ideas put those triggers to useWhy are you captivated by some people but not by othersWhy do you recall some brands yet forget the restIn a distracted, overcrowded world, how do certain leaders, friends, and family members convince you to change your behaviorFascination: the most powerful way to influence decision making. It's more persuasive than marketing, advertising, or any other form of communication. And it all starts with seven universal triggers: lust, mystique, alarm, prestige, power, vice, and trust. Fascination plays a role in every type of decision making, from the brands you choose to the songs you remember, from the person you marry to the employees you hire. And by activating the right triggers, you can make anything become fascinating.To explore and explain fascination's irresistible influence, Sally Hogshead looks beyond marketing, delving into behavioral and social studies, historical precedents, neurobiology and evolutionary anthropology, as well as conducting in-depth interviews and a national study of a thousand consumers, to emerge with deeply rooted patterns for why, and how, we become captivated.Hogshead reveals why the Salem witch trials began with the same fixations as those in Sex and the City. How Olympic athletes are subject to obsessions similar to those of fetishists. How a 1636 frenzy over Dutch tulip bulbs perfectly mirrors the 2006 real estate bubble. And why a billion-dollar "Just Say No" program actually increased drug use among teens, by activating the same "forbidden fruit" syndrome as a Victoria's Secret catalog.Whether you realize it or not, you're already using the seven triggers. The question is, are you using the right triggers, in the right way, to get your desired resultThis book will show you.