Unlock deeper insights into Machine Leaning with this vital guide to cutting-edge predictive analytics About This Book Leverage Python’s most powerful open-source libraries for deep learning, data wrangling, and data visualization Learn effective strategies and best practices to improve and optimize machine learning systems and algorithms Ask – and answer – tough questions of your data with robust statistical models, built for a range of datasets Who This Book Is For If you want to find out how to use Python to start answering critical questions of your data, pick up Python Machine Learning – whether you want to get started from scratch or want to extend your data science knowledge, this is an essential and unmissable resource. What You Will Learn Explore how to use different machine learning models to ask different questions of your data Learn how to build neural networks using Keras and Theano Find out how to write clean and elegant Python code that will optimize the strength of your algorithms Discover how to embed your machine learning model in a web application for increased accessibility Predict continuous target outcomes using regression analysis Uncover hidden patterns and structures in data with clustering Organize data using effective pre-processing techniques Get to grips with sentiment analysis to delve deeper into textual and social media data In Detail Machine learning and predictive analytics are transforming the way businesses and other organizations operate. Being able to understand trends and patterns in complex data is critical to success, becoming one of the key strategies for unlocking growth in a challenging contemporary marketplace. Python can help you deliver key insights into your data – its unique capabilities as a language let you build sophisticated algorithms and statistical models that can reveal new perspectives and answer key questions that are vital for success. Python Machine Learning gives you access to the world of predictive analytics and demonstrates why Python is one of the world’s leading data science languages. If you want to ask better questions of data, or need to improve and extend the capabilities of your machine learning systems, this practical data science book is invaluable. Covering a wide range of powerful Python libraries, including scikit-learn, Theano, and Keras, and featuring guidance and tips on everything from sentiment analysis to neural networks, you’ll soon be able to answer some of the most important questions facing you and your organization. Style and approach Python Machine Learning connects the fundamental theoretical principles behind machine learning to their practical application in a way that focuses you on asking and answering the right questions. It walks you through the key elements of Python and its powerful machine learning libraries, while demonstrating how to get to grips with a range of statistical models.

Over 90 hands-on recipes to help you create digital comics from page setup to exporting the final product About This Book Design creative and custom digital comics with the perfection equivalent of pen-and-paper drawings Explore the latest features from Manga Studio EX 5 such as custom brush effects, layers, masks, 3D objects, panels, and multiple-page story layout A pragmatic manual with engaging recipes and attractive screenshots that make comic creation fun and easy Who This Book Is For This book is intended for competent comic artists working on Manga Studio who want to create more attractive comics by using powerful tools and features from software for digital comic creation. What You Will Learn Create story files and custom pages for any Web or publishing project Customize brushes for special ink effects, hatching and cross-hatching, and much more Work with vector images in Manga Studio EX 5 Use the new Symmetry ruler and the new Line tools to create your illustrations faster and more efficiently Make and save custom screentones, and add them to your comic pages Punch up your illustrations with color palettes and special effects Add 3D models to create or accentuate your comic scenes Finish a project by exporting it for the Web or for a printed collection In Detail Manga Studio is a software application for the digital creation of comics and manga. Manga Studio EX 5 has all the features of Manga Studio 5, professional story creation tools, and other special features that make it the ultimate illustration tool for serious comic, manga, and graphic artists. Made specifically for comic artists and illustrators, it has some of the most powerful digital art creation tools available. From digital perspective rulers to a library of screentones, Manga Studio 5 works for the artist with an intuitive, customizable interface and tools. With Manga Studio EX 5, you can create custom page templates, save commonly used designs, make custom brushes, mimic traditional media, pose 3D objects directly on the art canvas, and export all of your comic pages for print or the Web. The book starts with everything you need to know to set up custom pages for your comic or Manga project. These recipes will take you all the way through to exporting your illustrations for print or to display them on the Web. You will learn how to create custom brushes that you will use for inking, or for repetitive tasks such as drawing foliage or rubble. Next, you will move on to understanding Layer Modes and Layer Masks. Then, you'll learn how to finish up your illustrations with color, screentones, special effects, and 3D objects. Finally, you will be taught to export your hard work and share it with the world, either through the Web or in print. This cookbook will give you just the right recipes to turn on the power of Manga Studio EX 5 and get you creating more illustrations faster and more efficiently. Style and approach An easy-to-follow, and informative book full of recipes that explore real-world topics for the comic creator. Each recipe is explained with detailed steps and interesting screenshots.

Move beyond basic games and explore the limits of AndEngine About This Book Extend the basic AndEngine features without modifying any of AndEngine's code Understand advanced technologies and gain the skills to create the ultimate games in AndEngine Theory supported with practical examples to stimulate your imagination and creativity Who This Book Is For This book is aimed at developers who have gone through all the basic AndEngine tutorials and books, and are looking for something more. It's also very suitable for developers with knowledge of other game engines who are looking to develop with AndEngine. Knowledge of Java, C++ and Android development are a prerequisite for getting the most out of this book. What You Will Learn Extend AndEngine to use and render 3D models Integrate and use various physics engines with AndEngine Advanced animations and their implementation in AndEngine Lighting theory and its application for both 2D and 3D objects Using skeletal animation with AndEngine Use GLSL shaders with AndEngine for effects and anti-aliasing Add sounds and effects to AndEngine using both basic and 3D audio libraries Efficient network implementations with AndEngine for multi-players In Detail AndEngine is a popular and easy-to-use game framework, best suited for Android game development. After learning the basics of creating an Android game using AndEngine it's time you move beyond the basics to explore further. For this you need to understand the theory behind many of the technologies AndEngine uses. This book aims to provide all the skills and tools you need to learn more about Android game development using AndEngine. With this book you will get a quick overview of the basics of AndEngine and Android application development. From there, you will learn how to use 3D models in a 2D scene, render a visual representation of a scene's objects, and create interaction between these objects. You will explore frame-based animations and learn to use skeletal animations. As the book progresses, you will be guided through exploring all the relevant aspects of rendering graphics with OpenGL ES, generating audio using OpenSL ES and OpenAL, making the best use of Android's network API, implementing anti-aliasing algorithms, shaders, dynamic lighting and much more. With all this, you will be ready to enhance the look and feel of your game with its user interface, sound effects and background music. After an in-depth study of 2D and 3D worlds and multi-player implementations, you will be a master in AndEngine and Android game development. Style and approach This book takes an in-depth tour of the many aspects of Android game development with the use of AndEngine. Each topic is covered extensively to act both as a practical guide as well as a reference.

Learn to develop high performance applications with Dart 1.10 About This Book Develop apps for the modern web using Dart and HTML5 Clarify and shorten your Dart code using enums Build a complex UI for business applications with Dart's Polymer framework, based on web components Who This Book Is For If you want to become a developer for the modern web, or wish to add Dart to your tool belt, then this book is for you. The book assumes you have basic HTML experience and know how web applications work. Some previous programming experience, preferably in a modern language like C#, Java, Python, Ruby or JavaScript, will give you a head start. You can work with Dart on your preferred platform, be it Linux, Mac OS X or Windows. What You Will Learn Structure your code using functions, classes, generics, packages and libraries Use the power of modern browsers to process and store data Make games by drawing, and using audio and video in the browser Develop an application with a model-driven and spiral-paced approach Discover the Observatory tools for profiling memory and CPU usage of Dart programs Store your app's data in MySQL and MongoDB through Dart Build powerful HTML5 forms, validate and store data in local storage, and use web components to build your own user interface Run your Dart server on an App Engine Managed VM In Detail Dart is an open source programming language for the web, developed at Google, with a steadily growing community. It is a single language for both client and server, appropriate for the full range of devices on the web – including phones, tablets, laptops, and servers. It encompasses the lessons of the last two decades of web programming. This book will give you a thorough overview of Dart, taking you through its ecosystem, syntax, and development principles. With this book, you will build web games using HTML5, audio, and video, and also dive into processing and displaying data in HTML5 forms with Dart. You will also learn how web components fit together with HTML5, and how to apply them in business web applications of the future. You will discover how to store data on the client, communicate data between client and server with JSON, and store JSON data with MongoDB and MySQL. Stop solving new challenges with the same old tools – let Dart show you a whole new way. Style and approach This book provides you a project-based approach, with everything you need to start or enhance your career in the future of web development with Dart. It follows the spiral approach: each project builds up in successive spirals, adding new features in each step.

Become an expert in Bayesian Machine Learning methods using R and apply them to solve real-world big data problemsAbout This BookUnderstand the principles of Bayesian Inference with less mathematical equationsLearn state-of-the art Machine Learning methodsFamiliarize yourself with the recent advances in Deep Learning and Big Data frameworks with this step-by-step guide Who This Book Is For This book is for statisticians, analysts, and data scientists who want to build a Bayes-based system with R and implement it in their day-to-day models and projects. It is mainly intended for Data Scientists and Software Engineers who are involved in the development of Advanced Analytics applications. To understand this book, it would be useful if you have basic knowledge of probability theory and analytics and some familiarity with the programming language R.What You Will LearnSet up the R environmentCreate a classification model to predict and explore discrete variablesGet acquainted with Probability Theory to analyze random eventsBuild Linear Regression modelsUse Bayesian networks to infer the probability distribution of decision variables in a problemModel a problem using Bayesian Linear Regression approach with the R package BLRUse Bayesian Logistic Regression model to classify numerical dataPerform Bayesian Inference on massively large data sets using the MapReduce programs in R and Cloud computing In Detail Bayesian Inference provides a unified framework to deal with all sorts of uncertainties when learning patterns form data using machine learning models and use it for predicting future observations. However, learning and implementing Bayesian models is not easy for data science practitioners due to the level of mathematical treatment involved. Also, applying Bayesian methods to real-world problems requires high computational resources. With the recent advances in computation and several open sources packages available in R, Bayesian modeling has become more feasible to use for practical applications today. Therefore, it would be advantageous for all data scientists and engineers to understand Bayesian methods and apply them in their projects to achieve better results. Learning Bayesian Models with R starts by giving you a comprehensive coverage of the Bayesian Machine Learning models and the R packages that implement them. It begins with an introduction to the fundamentals of probability theory and R programming for those who are new to the subject. Then the book covers some of the important machine learning methods, both supervised and unsupervised learning, implemented using Bayesian Inference and R. Every chapter begins with a theoretical de*ion of the method explained in a very simple manner. Then, relevant R packages are discussed and some illustrations using data sets from the UCI Machine Learning repository are given. Each chapter ends with some simple exercises for you to get hands-on experience of the concepts and R packages discussed in the chapter. The last chapters are devoted to the latest development in the field, specifically Deep Learning, which uses a class of Neural Network models that are currently at the frontier of Artificial Intelligence. The book concludes with the application of Bayesian methods on Big Data using the Hadoop and Spark frameworks.Style and approach The book first gives you a theoretical de*ion of the Bayesian models in simple language, followed by details of its implementation in the R package. Each chapter has illustrations for the use of Bayesian model and the corresponding R package, using data sets from the UCI Machine Learning repository. Each chapter also contains sufficient exercises for you to get more hands-on practice.

Build better software with concurrent JavaScript programming, and unlock a more efficient and forward thinking approach to web development About This Book Apply the core principles of concurrency to both browser and server side development Explore the latest tools and techniques at the forefront of concurrent programming, including JavaScript promises, web workers, and generators Learn how concurrent and parallel programming can help you tackle the challenges of fast, data heavy web development Who This Book Is For JavaScript Concurrency is written for any JavaScript developer who wants to learn how to write more efficient, powerful, and maintainable applications that utilize the latest developments in the JavaScript language. All aspects of concurrent, asynchronous, and parallel programming are covered from first principles and by the end of the book you’ll be able to create a fully-worked application that leverages all the topics covered in the book. What You Will Learn Understand exactly how JavaScript works in a web browser environment, and how these mechanisms power our event-driven JavaScript code Use promises to turn complex synchronization scenarios into readable and maintainable values Compute values lazily and avoid unnecessary memory allocations using generators. Write concurrent code that doesn’t feel like concurrent code by abstracting away boilerplate chores Leverage true hardware parallelism with web workers to get a better performance Get to grips with the NodeJS model of concurrency and learn why it’s good for I/O-intensive web applications In Detail Concurrent programming may sound abstract and complex, but it helps to deliver a better user experience. With single threaded JavaScript, applications lack dynamism. This means that when JavaScript code is running, nothing else can happen. The DOM can’t update, which means the UI freezes. In a world where users expect speed and responsiveness – in all senses of the word – this is something no developer can afford. Fortunately, JavaScript has evolved to adopt concurrent capabilities – one of the reasons why it is still at the forefront of modern web development. This book helps you dive into concurrent JavaScript, and demonstrates how to apply its core principles and key techniques and tools to a range of complex development challenges. Built around the three core principles of concurrency – parallelism, synchronization, and conservation – you’ll learn everything you need to unlock a more efficient and dynamic JavaScript, to lay the foundations of even better user experiences. Throughout the book you’ll learn how to put these principles into action by using a range of development approaches. Covering everything from JavaScript promises, web workers, generators and functional programming techniques, everything you learn will have a real impact on the performance of your applications. You’ll also learn how to move between client and server, for a more frictionless and fully realized approach to development. With further guidance on concurrent programming with Node.js, JavaScript Concurrency is committed to making you a better web developer. The best developers know that great design is about more than the UI – with concurrency, you can be confident every your project will be expertly designed to guarantee its dynamism and power. Style and approach Beginning with the fundamentals of concurrency and how they apply to JavaScript development, the book then takes you through the relevant constructs that will help you implement concurrent code. You’ll learn how even the most abstract and theoretical aspects of concurrent programming help you solve real world challenges, with clear and practical demonstrations that show you how concurrent JavaScript will make you a better developer.

Over 50 hands-on recipes to help you build exhilarating games using the robust GameMaker system About This Book Design and develop game elements that can be used alone or stacked to enhance your gaming experience Explore extensions that can unlock GameMaker: Studio’s true potential to create complex games A recipe-based, easy-to-follow guide to take your GameMaker skills to the next level Who This Book Is For This book is intended for GameMaker: Studio enthusiasts who are looking to add more substance and improve their content. If know your way around the program and have some basic GML skills but want to take them further, then this book is for you. What You Will Learn Set up player control schemes of various types, such as touch controls and a gamepad Create your own physics sandbox Get accustomed to advanced player movement Implement music and 3D sound in your games Utilize GameMaker’s GUI layers to create exciting games Generate adjustable game settings and save systems Add depth to your game with lighting and special effects In Detail GameMaker: Studio started off as a tool capable of creating simple games using a drag-and-drop interface. Since then, it has grown to become a powerful instrument to make release-ready games for PC, Mac, mobile devices, and even current-gen consoles. GameMaker is designed to allow its users to develop games without having to learn any of the complex programming languages such as C++ or Java. It also allows redistribution across multiple platforms. This book teaches you to harness GameMaker: Studio’s full potential and take your game development to new heights. It begins by covering the basics and lays a solid foundation for advanced GameMaker concepts. Moving on, it covers topics such as controls, physics, and advanced movement, employing a strategic approach to the learning curve. The book concludes by providing insights into complex concepts such as the GUI, menus, save system, lighting, particles, and VFX. By the end of the book, you will be able to design games using GameMaker: Studio and implement the same techniques in other games you intend to design. Style and approach A problem-solving guide that teaches you the construction of game elements and mechanics to be integrated in games for rapid prototyping. Each overall topic includes several individual recipes taught through step-by-step instructions, and in-depth follow-up with examples.

Build and optimize efficient messaging applications with ease About This Book Learn to administer, configure, and manage RabbitMQ instances Discover ways to secure and troubleshoot RabbitMQ instances This book is fully up-to-date with all the latest changes to version 3.5 Who This Book Is For If you are a developer or system administrator with a basic knowledge of messaging who wants to learn RabbitMQ, or if you want to further enhance your knowledge in working with the message broker, then this book is ideal for you. To fully understand some examples in the book, a basic knowledge of the Java programming language is required. What You Will Learn Apply messaging patterns using the message broker Administer RabbitMQ using the command line, management Web console, or management REST services Create a cluster of scalable, and highly-available, RabbitMQ instances Use RabbitMQ with the Spring Framework, MuleESB, WSO2, and Oracle databases Deploy RabbitMQ using Puppet, Vagrant, or Docker Fine-tune the performance of RabbitMQ Monitor RabbitMQ using Nagios, Munin, or Monit Secure, troubleshoot, and extend RabbitMQ In Detail RabbitMQ is Open Source Message Queuing software based on the Advanced Message Queue Protocol Standard written in the Erlang Language. RabbitMQ is an ideal candidate for large-scale projects ranging from e-commerce and finance to Big Data and social networking because of its ease of use and high performance. Managing RabbitMQ in such a dynamic environment can be a challenging task that requires a good understanding not only of how to work properly with the message broker but also of its best practices and pitfalls. Learning RabbitMQ starts with a concise de*ion of messaging solutions and patterns, then moves on to concrete practical scenarios for publishing and subscribing to the broker along with basic administration. This knowledge is further expanded by exploring how to establish clustering and high availability at the level of the message broker and how to integrate RabbitMQ with a number of technologies such as Spring, and enterprise service bus solutions such as MuleESB and WSO2. We will look at advanced topics such as performance tuning, secure messaging, and the internals of RabbitMQ. Finally we will work through case-studies so that we can see RabbitMQ in action and, if something goes wrong, we'll learn to resolve it in the Troubleshooting section. Style and approach Each chapter of the book is an easy-to-follow guide that expands and builds on the knowledge already gained in previous chapters. Throughout the course of the book, a sample system called the CSN (Corporate Social Network) is used to illustrate the core principles described. At the end of each chapter, there is a Q&A session that covers practical questions that may arise in practice when working with RabbitMQ.

Over 80 step-by-step recipes to get you up to speed with building your own wxPython applications About This Book This book empowers you to create rich cross-platform graphical user interfaces using Python It helps you develop applications that can be deployed on Windows, OSX, and Linux The recipes in the book involve real-world applications, giving you a first-hand experience of the practical scenarios Who This Book Is For For those who are familiar with programming in Python and want to start building applications with graphical user interfaces, this book will get you up and running quickly. A basic understanding of the Python programming language and object-oriented concepts are all that is needed. What You Will Learn Create full featured user interfaces Design and develop custom controls Deploy and distribute wxPython applications to Windows, Macintosh OS X, Linux, and other UNIX-like environments Handle and respond to application events Manage and display data using grids Interact with web services from your GUI Use Paint events to draw custom displays Support the display of user interfaces in multiple languages In Detail wxPython is a GUI toolkit for the Python programming language built on top of the cross-platform wxWidgets GUI libraries. wxPython provides a powerful set of tools that allow you to quickly and efficiently building applications that can run on a variety of different platforms. Since wxWidgets provides a wrapper around each platform’s native GUI toolkit, the applications built with wxPython will have a native look and feel wherever they are deployed. This book will provide you with the skills to build highly functional and native looking user interfaces for Python applications on multiple operating system environments. By working through the recipes, you will gain insights into and exposure to creating applications using wxPython. With a wide range of topics covered in the book, there are recipes to get the most basic of beginners started in GUI programming as well as tips to help experienced users get more out of their applications. The recipes will take you from the most basic application constructs all the way through to the deployment of complete applications. Style and approach This book is a collection of step-by-step recipes that introduce the various components and concepts of wxPython in a conversational and easy-to-follow way. Each recipe contains coded examples along with detailed explanations about the key points of each topic. Each topic is designed to introduce and show you how to use a single feature from the wxPython library.

Learn the art of regression analysis with PythonAbout This BookBecome competent at implementing regression analysis in PythonSolve some of the complex data science problems related to predicting outcomesGet to grips with various types of regression for effective data analysisWho This Book Is ForThe book targets Python developers, with a basic understanding of data science, statistics, and math, who want to learn how to do regression analysis on a dataset. It is beneficial if you have some knowledge of statistics and data science.What You Will LearnFormat a dataset for regression and evaluate its performanceApply multiple linear regression to real-world problemsLearn to classify training pointsCreate an observation matrix, using different techniques of data analysis and cleaningApply several techniques to decrease (and eventually fix) any overfitting problemLearn to scale linear models to a big dataset and deal with incremental dataIn DetailRegression is the process of learning relationships between inputs and continuous outputs from example data, which enables predictions for novel inputs. There are many kinds of regression algorithms, and the aim of this book is to explain which is the right one to use for each set of problems and how to prepare real-world data for it. With this book you will learn to define a simple regression problem and evaluate its performance. The book will help you understand how to properly parse a dataset, clean it, and create an output matrix optimally built for regression. You will begin with a simple regression algorithm to solve some data science problems and then progress to more complex algorithms. The book will enable you to use regression models to predict outcomes and take critical business decisions. Through the book, you will gain knowledge to use Python for building fast better linear models and to apply the results in Python or in any computer language you prefer.Style and approach This is a practical tutorial-based book. You will be given an example problem and then supplied with the relevant code and how to walk through it. The details are provided in a step by step manner, followed by a thorough explanation of the math underlying the solution. This approach will help you leverage your own data using the same techniques.

Discover exciting and fun projects by building brilliant applications for the Apple WatchAbout This BookExplore the opportunities opened up to developers by Apple’s latest device: the Apple WatchBe a crackerjack at developing software across a broad range of watch app categoriesFrom an eminent author, master all stages of development, from the first stage through to a completed projectWho This Book Is ForIf you have some basic knowledge of programming in Swift and are looking for the best way to get started with Apple Watch development, this book is just the right one for you!What You Will LearnUnderstand the concept of the Apple Watch as an autonomous device as well as it being paired with the iPhoneGet your app up and runningDesign exciting, inspiring, and attractive layouts for your appsMake your user interface more engaging using images and animationEnable your Watch and iPhone apps to transport and share dataLeverage the feature-rich set of WatchKit technologies provided by AppleConnect your apps to the InternetSubmit your app to the App StoreIn DetailWith Apple’s eagerly anticipated entry into the wearable arena, the field is wide open for a new era of app development. The Apple Watch is one of the most important technologies of our time.This easy-to-understand book takes beginners on a delightful journey of discovering the features available to the developer, right up to the completion of medium-level projects ready for App Store submission. It provides the fastest way to develop real-world apps for the Apple Watch by teaching you the concepts of Watch UI, visual haptic and audio, message and data exchange between watch and phone, Web communication, and finally Visual, haptic as well as audio feedback for users.By the end of this book, you will have developed at least four fully functioning apps for deployment on watchOS 2.Style and approachThis is a step-by-step guide to developing apps for the Apple Watch with the help of screenshots and fully coded working examples.

Build your own secure enterprise or home penetration testing lab to dig into the various hacking techniques About This Book Design and build an extendable penetration testing lab with wireless access suitable for home and enterprise use Fill the lab with various components and customize them according to your own needs and skill level Secure your lab from unauthorized access and external attacks Who This Book Is For If you are a beginner or a security professional who wishes to learn to build a home or enterprise lab environment where you can safely practice penetration testing techniques and improve your hacking skills, then this book is for you. No prior penetration testing experience is required, as the lab environment is suitable for various skill levels and is used for a wide range of techniques from basic to advance. Whether you are brand new to online learning or you are a seasoned expert, you will be able to set up your own hacking playground depending on your tasks. What You Will Learn Determine your needs and choose the appropriate lab components for them Build a virtual or hardware lab network Imitate an enterprise network and prepare intentionally vulnerable software and services Secure wired and wireless access to your lab Choose a penetration testing framework according to your needs Arm your own wireless hacking platform Get to know the methods to create a strong defense mechanism for your system In Detail Starting with the basics of wireless networking and its associated risks, we will guide you through the stages of creating a penetration testing lab with wireless access and preparing your wireless penetration testing machine. This book will guide you through configuring hardware and virtual network devices, filling the lab network with applications and security solutions, and making it look and work like a real enterprise network. The resulting lab protected with WPA-Enterprise will let you practice most of the attack techniques used in penetration testing projects. Along with a review of penetration testing frameworks, this book is also a detailed manual on preparing a platform for wireless penetration testing. By the end of this book, you will be at the point when you can practice, and research without worrying about your lab environment for every task. Style and approach This is an easy-to-follow guide full of hands-on examples and recipes. Each topic is explained thoroughly and supplies you with the necessary configuration settings. You can pick the recipes you want to follow depending on the task you need to perform.

Over 100 recipes to help you solve the most common problems faced by Android Developers today About This Book Find the answers to your common Android programming problems, from set up to security, to help you deliver better applications, faster Uncover the latest features of Android Marshmallow to make your applications stand out Get up to speed with Android Studio 1.4 - the first Android Studio based on the IntelliJ IDE from JetBrains Who This Book Is For If you are new to Android development and want to take a hands-on approach to learning the framework, or if you are an experienced developer in need of clear working code to solve the many challenges in Android development, you can benefit from this book. Either way, this is a resource you’ll want to keep at your desk for a quick reference to solve new problems as you tackle more challenging projects. What You Will Learn Along with Marshmallow, get hands-on working with Google’s new Android Studio IDE Develop applications using the latest Android framework while maintaining backward-compatibility with the support library Master Android programming best practices from the recipes Create exciting and engaging applications using knowledge gained from recipes on graphics, animations, and multimedia Work through succinct steps on specifics that will help you complete your project faster Keep your app responsive (and prevent ANRs) with examples on the AsynchTask class Utilize Google Speech Recognition APIs for your app. Make use of Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) to create Push Notifications for your users Get a better understanding of the Android framework through detailed explanations In Detail The Android OS has the largest installation base of any operating system in the world; there has never been a better time to learn Android development to write your own applications, or to make your own contributions to the open source community! This “cookbook” will make it easy for you to jump to a topic of interest and get what you need to implement the feature in your own application. If you are new to Android and learn best by “doing,” then this book will provide many topics of interest. Starting with the basics of Android development, we move on to more advanced concepts, and we’ll guide you through common tasks developers struggle to solve. The first few chapters cover the basics including Activities, Layouts, Widgets, and the Menu. From there, we cover fragments and data storage (including SQLite), device sensors, the camera, and GPS. Then we move on more advanced topics such as graphics and animation (including OpenGL), multi-threading with AsyncTask, and Internet functionality with Volley. We’ll also demonstrate Google Maps and Google Cloud Messaging (also known as Push Notifications) using the Google API Library. Finally, we’ll take a look at several online services designed especially for Android development. Take your application big-time with full Internet web services without having to become a server admin by leveraging the power of Backend as a Service (BaaS) providers. Style and approach This book progresses from the fundamentals of Android Development to more advanced concepts, with recipes to solve the most common problems faced by developers. This cookbook makes it easy to jump to specific topics of interest, where you’ll find simple steps to implement the solution and get a clear explanation of how it works.

Build and customize a wide range of powerful Unity AI systems with over 70 hands-on recipes and techniques About This Book Empower your agent with decision making capabilities using advanced minimaxing and Negamaxing techniques Discover how AI can be applied to a wide range of games to make them more interactive. Instigate vision and hearing abilities in your agent through collider based and graph based systems Who This Book Is For This book is intended for those who already have a basic knowledge of Unity and are eager to get more tools under their belt to solve AI and gameplay-related problems. What You Will Learn Use techniques such as A*and A*mbush to empower your agents with path finding capabilities. Create a representation of the world and make agents navigate it Construct decision-making systems to make the agents take different actions Make different agents coordinate actions and create the illusion of technical behavior Simulate senses and apply them in an awareness system Design and implement AI in board games such as Tic-Tac-Toe and Checkers Implement efficient prediction mechanism in your agents with algorithms such as N-Gram predictor and na?ve Bayes classifier Understand and analyze how the influence maps work. In Detail Unity 5 comes fully packaged with a toolbox of powerful features to help game and app developers create and implement powerful game AI. Leveraging these tools via Unity’s API or built-in features allows limitless possibilities when it comes to creating your game’s worlds and characters. This practical Cookbook covers both essential and niche techniques to help you be able to do that and more. This Cookbook is engineered as your one-stop reference to take your game AI programming to the next level. Get to grips with the essential building blocks of working with an agent, programming movement and navigation in a game environment, and improving your agent's decision making and coordination mechanisms - all through hands-on examples using easily customizable techniques. Discover how to emulate vision and hearing capabilities for your agent, for natural and humanlike AI behaviour, and improve them with the help of graphs. Empower your AI with decision-making functions through programming simple board games such as Tic-Tac-Toe and Checkers, and orchestrate agent coordination to get your AIs working together as one. Style and approach This recipe-based guide will take you through implementing various AI algorithms. Each topic is explained and placed among other related techniques, sometimes building on the knowledge from previous chapters. There are also references to more technical books and papers, so you can dig deeper if you want to.

A handy guide that covers the most essential topics for Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification in an easy-to-understand format About This Book Get to grips with the fundamentals of Force.com to pass the certification exam with flying colors Create Force.com applications, automate business processes, and manage data operations to be a successful Salesforce.com Certified Force.com app builder A step-by-step guide that covers the most essential topics for the Platform App Builder Certification in an easy-to-understand format Who This Book Is For Salesforce beginners who need to prepare for the Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification exam will benefit from this book. This book is ideal for developers and admins who are new to Salesforce CRM and the Force.com platform. It is recommended that users have some basic programming knowledge and are familiar with salesforce. By the end of the book, you will be ready to appear for the exam and develop various applications on the cloud platform. What You Will Learn Learn the basics of the force.com cloud platform Learn to build objects that align with your business Understand the process of building an application on force.com platform Kick-start your certification journey in basic- easy-to-follow guide Focus on important topics that help you accomplish your certification goals Learn to secure your application with the Salesforce security model Manipulate and process large amount of data using the data tools Prepare for the exam with sample mock questions In Detail The Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder exam is for individuals who want to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in designing, building, and implementing custom applications using the declarative customization capabilities of Force.com. This book will build a strong foundation in Force.com to prepare you for the platform app builder certification exam. It will guide you through designing the interface while introducing the Lightning Process Builder. Next, we will implement business logic using various point and click features of Force.com. We will learn to manage data and create reports and dashboards. We will then learn to administer the force.com application by configuring the object-level, field-level, and record-level security. By the end of this book, you will be completely equipped to take the Platform App Builder certification exam. Style and approach Simple and to-the-point examples that can be tried out in your developer org. A practical book for professionals who want to take the Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification exam. Sample questions for every topic in an exam pattern to help you prepare better, and tips to get things started. Full of screen-shots, diagrams, and clear step-by-step instructions that cover the entire syllabus for the exam.

Perform cloud-based machine learning and deep learning using Amazon Web Services such as SageMaker, Lex, Comprehend, Translate, and Polly Key Features * Explore popular machine learning and deep learning services with their underlying algorithms * Discover readily available artificial intelligence(AI) APIs on AWS like Vision and Language Services * Design robust architectures to enable experimentation, extensibility, and maintainability of AI apps Book Description From data wrangling through to translating text, you can accomplish this and more with the artificial intelligence and machine learning services available on AWS. With this book, you’ll work through hands-on exercises and learn to use these services to solve real-world problems. You’ll even design, develop, monitor, and maintain machine and deep learning models on AWS. The book starts with an introduction to AI and its applications in different industries, along with an overview of AWS artificial intelligence and machine learning services. You’ll then get to grips with detecting and translating text with Amazon Rekognition and Amazon Translate. The book will assist you in performing speech-to-text with Amazon Transcribe and Amazon Polly. Later, you’ll discover the use of Amazon Comprehend for extracting information from text, and Amazon Lex for building voice chatbots. You will also understand the key capabilities of Amazon SageMaker such as wrangling big data, discovering topics in text collections, and classifying images. Finally, you’ll cover sales forecasting with deep learning and autoregression, before exploring the importance of a feedback loop in machine learning. By the end of this book, you will have the skills you need to implement AI in AWS through hands-on exercises that cover all aspects of the ML model life cycle. What you will learn * Gain useful insights into different machine and deep learning models * Build and deploy robust deep learning systems to production * Train machine and deep learning models with diverse infrastructure specifications * Scale AI apps without dealing with the complexity of managing the underlying infrastructure * Monitor and Manage AI experiments efficiently * Create AI apps using AWS pre-trained AI services Who this book is for This book is for data scientists, machine learning developers, deep learning researchers, and artificial intelligence enthusiasts who want to harness the power of AWS to implement powerful artificial intelligence solutions. A basic understanding of machine learning concepts is expected.

Unleash the true power of JavaScript by mastering Object-Oriented programming principles and patterns About This Book Covering all the new Object-Oriented features introduced in ES6, this book shows you how to build large-scale web apps Build apps that promote scalability, maintainability, and reusability Learn popular Object-Oriented programming (OOP) principles and design patterns to build robust apps Implement Object-Oriented concepts in a wide range of front-end architectures Who This Book Is For This book is ideal for you if you are a JavaScript developers who wants to gain expertise in OOP with JavaScript to improve your web development skills and build professional quality web applications. What You Will Learn Master JavaScript's OOP features, including the one's provided by ES6 specification Identify and apply the most common design patterns such as Singleton, Factory, Observer, Model-View-Controller, and Mediator Patterns Understand the SOLID principles and their benefits Use the acquired OOP knowledge to build robust and maintainable code Design applications using a modular architecture based on SOLID principles In Detail ECMAScript 6 introduces several new Object-Oriented features that drastically change the way developers structure their projects. Web developers now have some advanced OOP functionality at their disposal to build large-scale applications in JavaScript. With this book, we'll provide you with a comprehensive overview of OOP principles in JavaScript and how they can be implemented to build sophisticated web applications. Kicking off with a subtle refresher on objects, we'll show you how easy it is to define objects with the new ES6 classes. From there, we'll fly you through some essential OOP principles, forming a base for you to get hands-on with encapsulation. You'll get to work with the different methods of inheritance and we'll show you how to avoid using inheritance with Duck Typing. From there, we'll move on to some advanced patterns for object creation and you'll get a strong idea of how to use interesting patterns to present data to users and to bind data. We'll use the famous promises to work with asynchronous processes and will give you some tips on how to organize your code effectively. You'll find out how to create robust code using SOLID principles and finally, we'll show you how to clearly define the goals of your application architecture to get better, smarter, and more effective coding. This book is your one-way ticket to becoming a JavaScript Jedi who can be counted on to deliver flexible and maintainable code. Style and approach This comprehensive guide on advanced OOP principles and patterns in JavaScript is packed with real-world use cases, and shows you how to implement advanced OOP features to build sophisticated web applications that promote scalability and reusability.

Explore the power of PostCSS to write highly performing, modular, and modern CSS code for your web pages About This Book Incorporate cutting-edge styles in your web pages with PostCSS Simplify the process of writing CSS to a great extent using PostCSS shortcuts, fallbacks, and pack plugins This in-depth, step-by-step guide will help you master PostCSS, to create amazing and responsive web designs Who This Book Is For This book is ideal for web developers and designers who are comfortable with HTML5 and CSS and now want to master PostCSS for web design. Web designers who have been using SASS or Less and now want to adopt PostCSS would also find this book useful. What You Will Learn Add mixin and variable support to PostCSS along with conditional support Explore the different ways of nesting code such as BEM and standard nesting within PostCSS Optimize media queries built with PostCSS to get the best performance Add dynamic styling elements such as images, fonts, grids, and SVG and retina support using existing preprocessors as well as PostCSS Get familiar with using plugins, and extend PostCSS with the API Build a fully working custom preprocessor and test it on different sites such as WordPress Write a custom syntax in PostCSS while still using pre-built syntaxes such as Less, SASS, or Stylus Provide support for future CSS such as CSS4 using current CSS3 classes In Detail PostCSS is a tool that has quickly emerged as the future of existing preprocessors such as SASS and Less, mainly because of its power, speed, and ease of use. This comprehensive guide offers in-depth guidance on incorporating cutting-edge styles into your web page and at the same time maintaining the performance and maintainability of your code. The book will show how you can take advantage of PostCSS to simplify the entire process of stylesheet authoring. It covers various techniques to add dynamic and modern styling features to your web pages. As the book progresses, you will learn how to make CSS code more maintainable by taking advantage of the modular architecture of PostCSS. By the end of this book, you would have mastered the art of adding modern CSS effects to web pages by authoring high performing, maintainable stylesheets. Style and approach This comprehensive book provides in-depth guidance on how to build a PostCSS powered responsive site from scratch. Following a step-by-step approach, you will learn how to add modern styles to web pages. It also contains several tips and best practices on how you can optimize your sites by writing high performing code in PostCSS.

Modularize your JavaScript code for better readability, greater maintainability, and enhanced testability About This Book Design and build fully modular, modern JavaScript applications using modular design concepts Improve code portability, maintainability, and integrity while creating highly scalable and responsive web applications Implement your own loosely coupled code blocks that can power highly maintainable and powerful applications in a flexible and highly responsive modular architecture Who This Book Is For If you are an intermediate to advanced JavaScript developer who has experience of writing JavaScript code but probably not in a modular, portable manner, or you are looking to develop enterprise level JavaScript applications, then this book is for you. A basic understanding of JavaScript concepts such as OOP, prototypal inheritance, and closures is expected. What You Will Learn Understand the important concepts of OOP in JavaScript, such as scope, objects, inheritance, event delegation, and more Find out how the module design pattern is used in OOP in JavaScript Design and augment modules using both tight augmentation and loose augmentation Extend the capabilities of modules by creating sub-modules using techniques such as cloning and inheritance Move from isolated module pieces to a cohesive, well integrated application modules that can interact and work together without being tightly coupled See how SandBoxing is used to create a medium for all the modules to talk to each other as well as to the core Use the concepts of modular application design to handle dependencies and load modules asynchronously Become familiar with AMD and CommonJS utilities and discover what the future of JavaScript holds for modular programming and architecture In Detail Programming in the modular manner is always encouraged for bigger systems—it is easier to achieve scalability with modular programming. Even JavaScript developers are now interested in building programs in a modular pattern. Modules help people who aren’t yet familiar with code to find what they are looking for and also makes it easier for programmers to keep things that are related close together. Designing and implementing applications in a modular manner is highly encouraged and desirable in both simple and enterprise level applications. This book covers some real-life examples of modules and how we can translate that into our world of programming and application design. After getting an overview of JavaScript object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts and their practical usage, you should be able to write your own object definitions using the module pattern. You will then learn to design and augment modules and will explore the concepts of cloning, inheritance, sub-modules, and code extensibility. You will also learn about SandBoxing, application design, and architecture based on modular design concepts. Become familiar with AMD and CommonJS utilities. By the end of the book, you will be able to build spectacular modular applications in JavaScript. Style and approach This in-depth step-by-step guide will teach you modular programming with JavaScript. Starting from the basics, it will cover advanced modular patterns that can be used in sophisticated JavaScript applications.

Solve challenging data science problems by mastering cutting-edge machine learning techniques in Python About This Book Resolve complex machine learning problems and explore deep learning Learn to use Python code for implementing a range of machine learning algorithms and techniques A practical tutorial that tackles real-world computing problems through a rigorous and effective approach Who This Book Is For This title is for Python developers and analysts or data scientists who are looking to add to their existing skills by accessing some of the most powerful recent trends in data science. If you’ve ever considered building your own image or text-tagging solution, or of entering a Kaggle contest for instance, this book is for you! Prior experience of Python and grounding in some of the core concepts of machine learning would be helpful. What You Will Learn Compete with top data scientists by gaining a practical and theoretical understanding of cutting-edge deep learning algorithms Apply your new found skills to solve real problems, through clearly-explained code for every technique and test Automate large sets of complex data and overcome time-consuming practical challenges Improve the accuracy of models and your existing input data using powerful feature engineering techniques Use multiple learning techniques together to improve the consistency of results Understand the hidden structure of datasets using a range of unsupervised techniques Gain insight into how the experts solve challenging data problems with an effective, iterative, and validation-focused approach Improve the effectiveness of your deep learning models further by using powerful ensembling techniques to strap multiple models together In Detail Designed to take you on a guided tour of the most relevant and powerful machine learning techniques in use today by top data scientists, this book is just what you need to push your Python algorithms to maximum potential. Clear examples and detailed code samples demonstrate deep learning techniques, semi-supervised learning, and more - all whilst working with real-world applications that include image, music, text, and financial data. The machine learning techniques covered in this book are at the forefront of commercial practice. They are applicable now for the first time in contexts such as image recognition, NLP and web search, computational creativity, and commercial/financial data modeling. Deep Learning algorithms and ensembles of models are in use by data scientists at top tech and digital companies, but the skills needed to apply them successfully, while in high demand, are still scarce. This book is designed to take the reader on a guided tour of the most relevant and powerful machine learning techniques. Clear de*ions of how techniques work and detailed code examples demonstrate deep learning techniques, semi-supervised learning and more, in real world applications. We will also learn about NumPy and Theano. By this end of this book, you will learn a set of advanced Machine Learning techniques and acquire a broad set of powerful skills in the area of feature selection & feature engineering. Style and approach This book focuses on clarifying the theory and code behind complex algorithms to make them practical, useable, and well-understood. Each topic is described with real-world applications, providing both broad contextual coverage and detailed guidance.

Discover an all in one handbook to developing immersive and cross-platform Android games About This Book Practical tips and tricks to develop powerful Android games Learn to successfully implement microtransactions and monitor the performance of your game once it’s out live. Integrate Google’s DIY VR tool and Google Cardboard into your games to join in on the VR revolution Who This Book Is For This book is ideal for any game developer, with prior knowledge of developing games in Android. A good understanding of game development and a basic knowledge on Android platform application development and JAVA/C++ will be appreciated. What You Will Learn Learn the prospects of Android in Game Development Understand the Android architecture and explore platform limitation and variations Explore the various approaches for Game Development using Android Learn about the common mistakes and possible solutions on Android Game Development Discover the top Cross Platform Game Engines and port games on different android platform Optimize memory and performance of your game. Familiarize yourself with different ways to earn money from Android Games In Detail Gaming in android is an already established market and growing each day. Previously games were made for specific platforms, but this is the time of cross platform gaming with social connectivity. It requires vision of polishing, design and must follow user behavior. This book would help developers to predict and create scopes of improvement according to user behavior. You will begin with the guidelines and rules of game development on the Android platform followed by a brief de*ion about the current variants of Android devices available. Next you will walk through the various tools available to develop any Android games and learn how to choose the most appropriate tools for a specific purpose. You will then learn JAVA game coding standard and style upon the Android SDK. Later, you would focus on creation, maintenance of Game Loop using Android SDK, common mistakes in game development and the solutions to avoid them to improve performance. We will deep dive into Shaders and learn how to optimize memory and performance for an Android Game before moving on to another important topic, testing and debugging Android Games followed by an overview about Virtual Reality and how to integrate them into Android games. Want to program a different wayInside you’ll also learn Android game Development using C++ and OpenGL. Finally you would walk through the required tools to polish and finalize the game and possible integration of any third party tools or SDKs in order to monetize your game when it’s one the market! Style and approach The book follows a handbook approach, focused on current and future game development trend from every possible aspect including monetization and sustainability in the market.