Writing code that handles unexpected errors and still works is really hard. Most of us learn by trial and error. This short book removes the uncertainty. With over 100 pages of content and dozens of working examples, you’ll learn everything from the mechanics of how exceptions work to how to design a robust failure management architecture for your app or library. Whether you are a Ruby novice or a seasoned veteran, Exceptional Ruby will help you write cleaner, more resilient Ruby code.

    You'll be excited to see all the opportunities from your social media growth and presence just from these advanced strategies. Would you like to know more about: The Advance Strategies That The Pros Use. Doubling Your Instagram Followers Understanding Facebook Ad marketing Top Strategies For Growth Monetizing Your Social Media This book breaks training down into easy-to-understand modules. It starts from the very beginning of dog training, so you can get great results - even as a beginner! Download Social Media:Strategies To Mastering Your Brand- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat Scroll to the top and select the "BUY" button for instant download. You’ll be happy you did!

    In Tharoorosaurus, he shares fifty-three examples from his vocabulary: unusual words from every letter of the alphabet. You don't have to be a linguaphile to enjoy the fun facts and interesting anecdotes behind the words! Be ready to impress-and say goodbye to your hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia!

    Ink is so much a part of daily life that we take it for granted, yet its invention was as significant as the wheel. Ink not only recorded culture, it bought political power, divided peoples, and led to murderous rivalries. Ancient letters on a page were revered as divine light, and precious ink recipes were held secret for centuries. And, when it first hit markets not so long ago, the excitement over the disposable ballpoint pen equalled that for a new smartphone--with similar complaints to the manufacturers. Curious about its impact on culture, literature, and the course of history, Ted Bishop sets out to explore the story of ink. From Budapest to Buenos Aires, he traces the lives of the innovators who created the ballpoint pen--revolutionary technology that still requires exact engineering today. Bishop visits a ranch in Utah to meet a master ink-maker who relishes igniting linseed oil to make traditional printers' ink. In China, he learns that ink can be an exquisite object, the subject of poetry, and a means of strengthening (or straining) family bonds. And in the Middle East, he sees the world's oldest Qur'an, stained with the blood of the caliph who was assassinated while reading it. An inquisitive and personal tour around the world, Ink asks us to look more closely at something we see so often that we don't see it at all.

    The techniques he presents in "How to Learn Any Language" will have you speaking, reading, writing and enjoying any foreign language you want to learn - or have to learn - in a surprisingly short time.Without beating your head against verb conjugations or noun declensions, you can follow Farber's principles and glide toward proficiency in your chosen language. His method consist of four ground-breaking but simple concepts hailed by language-teaching professionals:

    What do an Italian cardinal, a Connecticut blacksmith, and a German diplomat have in common with an MIT linguist, a Hungarian translator, and a Scottish church organist? They were all "hyperpolyglots," "language superlearners," or "massive multilinguals." In Babel No More, Michael Erard delves into the lives and minds of these intriguing individuals both past and present and discovers the upper limit of the human ability to learn, speak, and remember languages. Hyperpolyglots - people who, by one definition, can use six or more languages - are fascinating not simply because what they do is out of the ordinary. Rather, their accomplishments serve as a point of reference for the rest of us; in some ways they are what the author calls a gifted neural tribe, absorbing language for reasons, and with methods, that few people would emulate. But they are also marked by simple, if dogged, methods: the most prolific multilingual in history, Cardinal Mezzofanti, used flashcards. Taken together, their pursuits present a natural experiment into the limits and the nature of memory and language. Part scientific detective story, part travelogue, part valentine to anyone who's ever hoped to sprechen or parler something other than a mother tongue, Babel No More takes us all over the world to look at language learning in an entirely new way.

    Whether investigating the asterisk (*) and dagger (†)--which alternately illuminated and skewered heretical verses of the early Bible--or the at sign (@), which languished in obscurity for centuries until rescued by the Internet, Keith Houston draws on myriad sources to chart the life and times of these enigmatic squiggles, both exotic (¶) and everyday (&).From the Library of Alexandria to the halls of Bell Labs, figures as diverse as Charlemagne, Vladimir Nabokov, and George W. Bush cross paths with marks as obscure as the interrobang (‽) and as divisive as the dash (--). Ancient Roman graffiti, Venetian trading shorthand, Cold War double agents, and Madison Avenue round out an ever more diverse set of episodes, characters, and artifacts.Richly illustrated, ranging across time, typographies, and countries, Shady Characters will delight and entertain all who cherish the unpredictable and surprising in the writing life.

    

    Plus, the book is filled with real-world examples - the case studies and snapshots of how best practice companies are achieving success with knowledge management.Praise for The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management is Changing the Way We Do Business"You may think you know knowledge management, but this is new--how knowledge initiatives can incorporate social media, mobile technologies, and learning, for example. This book integrates the new knowledge management with the best of the old, such as communities of practice and measurement. KM still matters, and this book tells you why." --Thomas H. Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor of IT and Management, Babson CollegeOver the last decade, knowledge management has emerged as a key success factor for the modern corporation, driven by tremendous advances in business analytics. This book studies the best practices in knowledge management and how leadership companies are applying them today. --Virginia M. Rometty, Senior Vice President and Group Executive Sales, Marketing and Strategy, IBM"APQC has been on the leading edge of knowledge management for almost two decades. O'Dell and Hubert have captured those best practices and created a road map to transform the way people work. Reap the benefits of their experience." --C. Jackson Grayson, Chairman and Founder, APQC and co-author of If Only We Knew What We Know"The New Edge in Knowledge is a useful how-to manual that takes best practice sharing and organizational capability building to the next level: Web 2.0, social networking, mobility, and communities of practice. National and international examples show how companies can create strategic alignment and systematic management to transfer knowledge rapidly and effectively." --Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor and author of SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social GoodWhat has made our KM program strong is sticking to the fundamentals-- that's exactly what this book outlines. It provides trusted advisor guidance on how any company or organization can take the concrete steps to create and implement a world class KM strategy. --Dan Ranta, Director of Knowledge Sharing, ConocoPhillips"Carla O'Dell and Cindy Hubert have written an amazingly down to earth, useful and practical book on knowledge management and its importance to modern business. Starting with the distinction between information and knowledge, they provide a viewpoint that leaves IT in the dust. Read it to prepare for tomorrow's world!" --A. Gary Shilling, President, A. Gary Shilling & Co., Inc."A practical business approach to knowledge management, this book covers KM's value proposition for any organization, provides proven strategies and approaches to make it work, shares how to measure KM's impact, and illustrates high level knowledge sharing with wonderful case studies. Well done!" --Jane Dysart, Conference Chair, KMWorld & Partner, Dysart & Jones Associates"This book is a tour de force in the field of knowledge management. Read every single page and learn about best practices from the leading firms around the world. All of this and more from the company that leads the way in the field: APQC. I highly recommend it for your bookshelf." --Dr. Nick Bontis, Director, Institute for Intellectual Capital Research"Food for thought from two of the pioneers. Carla O'Dell and Cindy Hubert have been in the trenches with many of the organizations that have succeeded in leveraging KM for business benefit. They recognized early the symbiotic relationship between knowledge flow and work flow and have guided practitioners in the quest to optimize and streamline both." -- Reid Smith, Enterprise Content Management Director, Marathon Oil Company"Carla O'Dell and Cindy Hubert take knowledge management from vague idea to strategic enabler. In so doing, they clear up the not only the whats, but the whys and the hows. This book establishes knowledge management as an organizational discipline. The authors offer a straightforward set of execution steps, coaching readers on how to launch their own knowledge management programs in a deliberate and rigorous way." --Jill Dych�, Partner and Co-Founder, Baseline Consulting; Author of Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth"The authors and APQC have put together an excellent 'how to' manual for Knowledge Management (KM) that can benefit any organization, from those experienced in KM to those just starting. The authors have taken their years of experience and excellence in this field and written a masterful introduction and design manual that incorporates industry best-practices and alerts readers to the pitfalls they are likely to encounter. This book needs to be in the hands of every KM professional and corporate senior leader." --Ralph Soule, a member of the US Navy

    Using the concise, scenario-driven style pioneered in Scott Meyers' best-selling Effective C++, Matt Galloway brings together 52 Objective-C best practices, tips, shortcuts, and realistic code examples that are available nowhere else. Through real-world examples, Galloway uncovers little-known Objective-C quirks, pitfalls, and intricacies that powerfully impact code behavior and performance. You'll learn how to choose the most efficient and effective way to accomplish key tasks when multiple options exist, and how to write code that's easier to understand, maintain, and improve. Galloway goes far beyond the core language, helping you integrate and leverage key Foundation framework classes and modern system libraries, such as Grand Central Dispatch. Coverage includes Optimizing interactions and relationships between Objective-C objects Mastering interface and API design: writing classes that feel "right at home" Using protocols and categories to write maintainable, bug-resistant code Avoiding memory leaks that can still occur even with Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) Writing modular, powerful code with Blocks and Grand Central Dispatch Leveraging differences between Objective-C protocols and multiple inheritance in other languages Improving code by more effectively using arrays, dictionaries, and sets Uncovering surprising power in the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks

    Maybe you've already been published, but your latest effort is stuck in mid-list limbo. Whatever the case may be, author and literary agent Donald Maass can show you how to take your prose to the next level and write a breakout novel - one that rises out of obscurity and hits the best-seller lists.Maass details the elements that all breakout novels share - regardless of genre - then shows you writing techniques that can make your own books stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace.You'll learn to:- establish a powerful and sweeping sense of time and place - weave subplots into the main action for a complex, engrossing story - create larger-than-life characters that step right off the page - explore universal themes that will interest a broad audience of readers - sustain a high degree of narrative tension from start to finish - develop an inspired premise that sets your novel apart from the competitionThen, using examples from the recent works of several best-selling authors - including novelist Anne Perry - Maass illustrates methods for upping the ante in every aspect of your novel writing. You'll capture the eye of an agent, generate publisher interest and lay the foundation for a promising career.

     Did you know that people in Bolivia have a word that means "I was rather too drunk last night and it's all their fault"? That there's no Italian equivalent for the word "blue"? That the Dutch word for skimming stones is "plimpplamppletteren"? This delightful book, which draws on the collective wisdom of more than 254 languages, includes not only those words for which there is no direct counterpart in English ("pana po'o" in Hawaiian means to scratch your head in order to remember something important), but also a frank discussion of exactly how many Eskimo words there are for snow and the longest known palindrome in any language ("saippuakivikauppias"--Finland). And all right, what in fact is "tingo"? In the Pascuense language of Easter Island, it's to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by asking to borrow them. Well, of course it is. Enhanced by its ingenious and irresistible little Schott's Miscellany/Eats Shoots and Leaves package and piquant black-and-white illustrations throughout, The Meaning of Tingo is a heady feast for word lovers of all persuasions. Viva Tingo!

    From outperforming LeBron James on one of the NBA's biggest stages, to mapping out his iconic slam dunk contest win over Dwight Howard, to being named Washington's high school football and basketball Player of the Year, Heart Over Height brings to life a story that personifies perseverance.Beginning with his improbable selection as the New York Knicks' first-round draft pick after only playing basketball full time for two years, and continuing on to his unprecedented three NBA Slam Dunk Championships, Robinson has defied the odds every step of his career; a careerthat many analysts and pundits felt would never happen because in a sport filled with seven-footers, Robinson stands only 5'9" tall.Having just completed his 9th electrifying year in the NBA, Robinson has proven all doubters wrong. Heart Over Height tells the story of the people, places, teams and fans that helped make his rise to stardom possible.

    In business, they are last-name-only disrupters like Jobs, Bezos, and Hastings, and, in politics, they are such transformative figures as Mandela and FDR. They're bold and prophetic and at the same time pragmatic. They don't just promote change--they drive it, and they inspire and mobilize others to do the same.Although these leaders possess innate qualities that make them extraordinary, what truly sets them apart is their ability to turn their visions into action.In this timely and compelling book, Mark W. Johnson, cofounder of Innosight, and Josh Suskewicz, an Innosight partner, lay out a new and innovative approach to developing and executing the visionary ideas that drive breakthrough growth. This approach includes: Developing a mind-set that enables you to look beyond the present Translating your vision into a strategic plan that your team can align around and commit to Instilling visionary thinking into the processes and culture of your whole organization As practical as it is inspiring, Lead from the Future is the guide you and your team need in order to think clearly, creatively, and expansively, and then act decisively about what comes next.

    The Obree Way, A Training Guide for Cyclists is the one stop shop for aspiring cyclists, full of insight and ideas from a legend of cycling Graeme Obree. Graeme has a life time's experience in cycling, working every dimension in his quest to understand how to go faster on a bike.The Obree Way is exactly that, a synopsis of the ideas and thoughts on training from Graeme with a unique insight into the focus and passion he has for his sport. The Obree Way is written to provide a practical guide to cyclists and is ideal for those new or returning to the sport.Written like a novel, The Obree Way is easily readable and covers all the main subject matters necessary to allow readers to make the most from any training time and effort. Psychology, bike set up, breathing, nutrition and more, The Obree Way is a comprehensive guide, a one stop shop minus the jargon to help cyclists get more from their investment in the sport.