Cooper details many of these meta functions to explain his central thesis: programmers need to seriously re-evaluate the many user-hostile concepts deeply embedded within the software development process. Rather than provide users with a straightforward set of options, programmers often pile on the bells and whistles and ignore or de-prioritise lingering bugs. For the average user, increased functionality is a great burden, adding to the recurrent chorus that plays: "computers are hard, mysterious, unwieldy things." (An average user, Cooper asserts, who doesn't think that way or who has memorised all the esoteric commands and now lords it over others, has simply been desensitised by too many years of badly designed software.) Cooper's writing style is often overblown, with a pantheon of cutesy terminology (i.e. "dancing bearware") and insider back-patting. (When presenting software to Bill Gates, he reports that Gates replied: "How did you do that?" to which he writes: "I love stumping Bill!") More seriously, he is also unable to see beyond software development's importance--a sin he accuses programmers of throughout the book. Even with that in mind, the central questions Cooper asks are too important to ignore: Are we making users happier? Are we improving the process by which they get work done? Are we making their work hours more effective? Cooper looks to programmers, business managers and what he calls "interaction designers" to question current assumptions and mindsets. Plainly, he asserts that the goal of computer usage should be "not to make anyone feel stupid." Our distance from that goal reinforces the need to rethink entrenched priorities in software planning. -- Jennifer Buckendorff, Amazon.com

    With jokes, puns, and a rigorous problem solving based approach. You can download all the code samples used in the book from here: http://www.robmiles.com/s/Yellow-Book...

    The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses shows that the same basic principles of psychology that work for board games, card games and athletic games also are the keys to making top-quality video games. Good game design happens when you view your game from many different perspectives, or lenses. While touring through the unusual territory that is game design, this book gives the reader one hundred of these lenses—one hundred sets of insightful questions to ask yourself that will help make your game better. These lenses are gathered from fields as diverse as psychology, architecture, music, visual design, film, software engineering, theme park design, mathematics, writing, puzzle design, and anthropology. Anyone who reads this book will be inspired to become a better game designer—and will understand how to do it.

    His walk through the syntax and semantics of JavaScript is both charming and hugely insightful; reminders of gotchas complement realistic use cases, paced at a comfortable curve. You'll find when you finish the book that you've gained a strong and comprehensive sense of mastery." --Paul Irish, developer advocate, Google Chrome "This is not a book for those looking for shortcuts; rather it is hard-won experience distilled into a guided tour. It's one of the few books on JS that I'll recommend without hesitation." --Alex Russell, TC39 member, software engineer, Google In order to truly master JavaScript, you need to learn how to work effectively with the language's flexible, expressive features and how to avoid its pitfalls. No matter how long you've been writing JavaScript code, Effective JavaScript will help deepen your understanding of this powerful language, so you can build more predictable, reliable, and maintainable programs. Author David Herman, with his years of experience on Ecma's JavaScript standardization committee, illuminates the language's inner workings as never before--helping you take full advantage of JavaScript's expressiveness. Reflecting the latest versions of the JavaScript standard, the book offers well-proven techniques and best practices you'll rely on for years to come. Effective JavaScript is organized around 68 proven approaches for writing better JavaScript, backed by concrete examples. You'll learn how to choose the right programming style for each project, manage unanticipated problems, and work more successfully with every facet of JavaScript programming from data structures to concurrency. Key features include Better ways to use prototype-based object-oriented programming Subtleties and solutions for working with arrays and dictionary objects Precise and practical explanations of JavaScript's functions and variable scoping semantics Useful JavaScript programming patterns and idioms, such as options objects and method chaining In-depth guidance on using JavaScript's unique "run-to-completion" approach to concurrency

    This work deconstructs a series of real-world Web sites. It provides 10 strategies for creating standards-based designs that provide user control - a component of every Web site.

    Designed as a handy resource when you need quick solutions or techniques, the book offers dozens of short, focused pieces of code and hundreds of worked-out examples for programmers of all levels who don't have the time (or expertise) to solve MySQL problems from scratch.The new edition covers MySQL 5.0 and its powerful new features, as well as the older but still widespread MySQL 4.1. One major emphasis of this book is how to use SQL to formulate queries for particular kinds of questions, using the mysql client program included in MySQL distributions. The other major emphasis is how to write programs that interact with the MySQL server through an API. You'll find plenty of examples using several language APIs in multiple scenarios and situations, including the use of Ruby to retrieve and format data. There are also many new examples for using Perl, PHP, Python, and Java as well.Other recipes in the book teach you to:Access data from multiple tables at the same time Use SQL to select, sort, and summarize rows Find matches or mismatches between rows in two tables Determine intervals between dates or times, including age calculations Store images into MySQL and retrieve them for display in web pages Get LOAD DATA to read your data files properly or find which values in the file are invalid Use strict mode to prevent entry of bad data into your database Copy a table or a database to another server Generate sequence numbers to use as unique row identifiers Create database events that execute according to a schedule And a lot moreMySQL Cookbook doesn't attempt to develop full-fledged, complex applications. Instead, it's intended to assist you in developing applications yourself by helping you get past problems that have you stumped.

    Want to impress your coworkers and write the fastest, most efficient, stable code you ever have? Don't reinvent the wheel. Reuse decades of research into battle-tested, highly optimized, and proven techniques available on any Unix system.This book will teach you what you need to know so that you can write your own servers, debug your entire stack when things go awry, and understand how things are working under the hood.http://www.jstorimer.com/products/wor...

    This book provides practical information about how and why the latest version of this markup language will significantly change the way you develop for the Web.HTML5 is still evolving, yet browsers such as Safari, Mozilla, Opera, and Chrome already support many of its features -- and mobile browsers are even farther ahead. HTML5: Up & Running carefully guides you though the important changes in this version with lots of hands-on examples, including markup, graphics, and screenshots. You'll learn how to use HTML5 markup to add video, offline capabilities, and more -- and you'll be able to put that functionality to work right away.Learn new semantic elements, such as,, andMeet Canvas, a 2D drawing surface you can program with JavaScriptEmbed video in your web pages without third-party pluginsUse Geolocation to let web application visitors share their physical locationTake advantage of local storage capacity that goes way beyond cookiesBuild offline web applications that work after network access is disconnectedLearn about several new input types for web formsCreate your own custom vocabularies in HTML5 with microdata

    You'll be guided through the entire process of creating a gorgeous, usable web site by applying the timeless principles of user-centered design.Even if you're short on design skills, with this book you'll be creating your own stunning web sites in no time at all.Throughout, the focus is on simple and practical techniques that anyone can use - you don't need to have gone to art school or have artistic flair to create stunning designs using the methods outlined in this book.The book's full-color layout and large format (8" x 10") make Sexy Web Design a pleasure to read.Master key web interface design principles Design amazing web interfaces from scratch Create beautiful, yet functional, web sites Unleash your artistic talents And much more Who should read this book? Whether you're completely new to web design, a seasoned pro looking for inspiration, or a developer wanting to improve your sites' aesthetics, there's something for everyone here.How? Because instead of trying to cover every possible area of creating a web site, we've focused purely on the design stage; that is, everything that happens before a single line of code is written.However, great design is more than just aesthetics. Long before we open our graphics program of choice, we'll be conducting research, dealing with clients, responding to briefs, sketching out sitemaps, planning information architecture, moving from doodles to diagrams, exploring different ways of interactivity, and building upon design traditions.But ultimately, you'll be finding out how to create web sites that look drop-dead gorgeous.

    In Eloquent Ruby, Russ Olsen helps you write Ruby like true Rubyists do-so you can leverage its immense, surprising power. Olsen draws on years of experience internalizing the Ruby culture and teaching Ruby to other programmers. He guides you to the "Ah Ha!" moments when it suddenly becomes clear why Ruby works the way it does, and how you can take advantage of this language's elegance and expressiveness. Eloquent Ruby starts small, answering tactical questions focused on a single statement, method, test, or bug. You'll learn how to write code that actually looks like Ruby (not Java or C#); why Ruby has so many control structures; how to use strings, expressions, and symbols; and what dynamic typing is really good for. Next, the book addresses bigger questions related to building methods and classes. You'll discover why Ruby classes contain so many tiny methods, when to use operator overloading, and when to avoid it. Olsen explains how to write Ruby code that writes its own code-and why you'll want to. He concludes with powerful project-level features and techniques ranging from gems to Domain Specific Languages. A part of the renowned Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series, Eloquent Ruby will help you "put on your Ruby-colored glasses" and get results that make you a true believer.

    In "The Definitive Guide to Django: Web Development Done Right," Adrian Holovaty, one of Django's creators, and Django lead developer Jacob KaplanMoss show you how they use this framework to create awardwinning web sites. Over the course of three parts, they guide you through the creation of a web application reminiscent of chicagocrime.org.The first part of the book introduces Django fundamentals like installation and configuration. You'll learn about creating the components that power a Django-driven web site. The second part delves into the more sophisticated features of Django, like outputting nonHTML content (such as RSS feeds and PDFs), plus caching and user management. The third part serves as a detailed reference to Django's many configuration options and commands. The book even includes seven appendices for looking up configurations options and commands. In all, this book provides the ultimate tutorial and reference to the popular Django framework. What you'll learnThe first half of this book explains in-depth how to build web applications using Django including the basics of dynamic web pages, the Django templating system interacting with databases, and web forms. The second half of this book discusses higher-level concepts such as caching, security, and how to deploy Django. The appendices form a reference for the commands and configurations available in Django. Who this book is forAnyone who wants to use the powerful Django framework to build dynamic web sites quickly and easily! "

    It gives you hundreds of solutions to real-world problems, with clear explanations and thousands of lines of code you can use in your own projects.From data structures and algorithms, to integration with cutting-edge technologies, the Ruby Cookbook has something for every programmer. Beginners and advanced Rubyists alike will learn how to program with:Strings and numbersArrays and hashesClasses, modules, and namespacesReflection and metaprogrammingXML and HTML processingRuby on Rails (including Ajax integration)DatabasesGraphicsInternet services like email, SSH, and BitTorrentWeb servicesMultitaskingGraphical and terminal interfacesIf you need to write a web application, this book shows you how to get started with Rails. If you're a system administrator who needs to rename thousands of files, you'll see how to use Ruby for this and other everyday tasks. You'll learn how to read and write Excel spreadsheets, classify text with Bayesian filters, and create PDF files. We've even included a few silly tricks that were too cool to leave out, like how to blink the lights on your keyboard.The Ruby Cookbook is the most useful book yet written about Ruby. When you need to solve a problem, don't reinvent the wheel: look it up in the Cookbook.

    This book attempts to capture the engineering wisdom and design philosophy of the UNIX, Linux, and Open Source software development community as it has evolved over the past three decades, and as it is applied today by the most experienced programmers. Eric Raymond offers the next generation of hackers the unique opportunity to learn the connection between UNIX philosophy and practice through careful case studies of the very best UNIX/Linux programs.

    Ready to take JavaScript beyond the browser, explore dynamic languages features and embrace evented programming? Explore the fun, growing repository of Node modules provided by npm. Work with multiple protocols, load-balanced RESTful web services, express, 0MQ, Redis, CouchDB, and more. Develop production-grade Node applications fast. JavaScript is the backbone of the modern web, powering nearly every web app's user interface. Node.js is JavaScript for the server. This book shows you how to develop small, fast, low-profile, useful, networked applications. You'll write asynchronous, non-blocking code using Node's style and patterns. You'll cluster and load balance your services with Node core features and third-party tools. You'll work with many protocols, creating RESTful web services, TCP socket clients and servers, and more. This short book packs a hefty dose of Node.js. You'll test your code's functionality and performance under load. You'll learn important aspects of Node development--from its architecture and core, to its ecosystem of third-party modules. You'll discover how Node pairs a server-side event loop with a JavaScript runtime to produce screaming fast, non-blocking concurrency. Through a series of practical programming domains, you'll use the latest available ECMAScript Harmony features and harness key Node classes such as EventEmitter and Stream. Throughout the book, you'll develop real programs that are small, fast, low-profile, and useful. Get ready to join a smart community that's rapidly advancing the state of the art in web development.What You Need: Latest stable release of Node.js, this book was written with 0.12.x in mind. The 0MQ (ZeroMQ) library, version 3.2 or higher.

    The book is broken into two parts, the first deals with security-related reverse engineering and the second explores the more practical aspects of reverse engineering. In addition, the author explains how to reverse engineer a third-party software library to improve interfacing and how to reverse engineer a competitor's software to build a better product. * The first popular book to show how software reverse engineering can help defend against security threats, speed up development, and unlock the secrets of competitive products * Helps developers plug security holes by demonstrating how hackers exploit reverse engineering techniques to crack copy-protection schemes and identify software targets for viruses and other malware * Offers a primer on advanced reverse-engineering, delving into disassembly-code-level reverse engineering-and explaining how to decipher assembly language