High Dynamic Range photography is the process of taking several pictures of a scene at various exposures, then merging them into one file. So the entire photo can look crisp and detailed, from highlights to midtones to shadows—and photographers needn’t sacrifice any part of their image. And the best way to master this exciting technology is with this thorough, easy-to-follow, and visually spectacular guide. No other title does justice to these cutting-edge techniques, which actually take the viewer into worlds far beyond normal photography—sometimes even beyond normal human perception. Ferrell McCollough, a widely respected photographer, pushes the boundaries and inspires others to pursue their artistic vision, too. The amazing results simply can’t be achieved any other way.

    Fortunately, David Pogue is back, with the humor and expertise that have made this the #1 bestselling Mac book for eight years straight. You get all the answers with jargon-free introductions to:Big-ticket changes. A 64-bit overhaul. Faster everything. A rewritten Finder. Microsoft Exchange compatibility. All-new QuickTime Player. If Apple wrote it, this book covers it.Snow Leopard Spots. This book demystifies the hundreds of smaller enhancements, too, in all 50 programs that come with the Mac: Safari, Mail, iChat, Preview, Time Machine.Shortcuts. This must be the tippiest, trickiest Mac book ever written. Undocumented surprises await on every page.Power usage. Security, networking, build-your-own Services, file sharing with Windows, even Mac OS X's Unix chassis-this one witty, expert guide makes it all crystal clear.

    Big Blue, as the company is known, tends to rely for its success on magical thinking but that magic ran out a long time ago. The company got in trouble back in the 1990s and had to hire for the first time an outside CEO, Lou Gerstner, to save the day. Gerstner pushed IBM into services with spectacular results but this hurt the company, too. As services have became commoditized IBM could only compete by offshoring the work and quality suffered. The other negative impact of Gerstner was his compensation which was for the first time in IBM history very high. Only the Watson family had become rich running IBM with later CEOs like John Opel and John Akers living comfortable lives with lots of perks, but they never got BIG RICH. That changed with Gerstner. Sam Palmisano an IBM lifer followed Gerstner as CEO and followed, too, the Gerstner playbook. Palmisano retired three years ago with a retirement package worth $241 million, replaced by IBM's first woman CEO, Ginni Rometty, who certainly expects a comparable golden parachute. In order to achieve these numbers, though, IBM has essentially sacrificed both its customers and employees. In order to have ever growing earnings per share the company has cut labor to the bone, off-shored everything it can, dropped quality, deliberately underbid contracts to win them then not performed. IBM's acquisition policy is one of buying companies to get their sales then cutting costs to the bone and under-delivering. This and share buybacks have kept earnings growing until this house of cards recently began to fall. Ginni Rometty, who will end up taking the fall for Palmisano's flawed strategy, has stated a very specific earnings goal for 2015 that she will destroy the company to achieve if she must. This book how IBM fell from grace, where it is headed, and what specifically can be done to save the company before it is too late.

    You'll find complete coverage of all exam objectives, including key topics such as project planning, execution, delivery, closure, and others. CompTIA's Project+ is the foundation-level professional exam in the complex world of project management; certified project managers often choose to go on and obtain their Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications as well Provides complete coverage of all exam objectives for CompTIA's first update to the Project+ exam in six years Covers project planning, execution, delivery, change, control, communication, and closure Demonstrates and reinforces exam preparation with practical examples and real-word scenarios Includes a CD with Sybex test engine, practice exams, electronic flashcards, and a PDF of the book Approach the new Project+ exam with confidence with this in-depth study guide! Reviews

    Focusing on the business implications of Internet of Things (IoT), this book describes the sheer impact, spread, and opportunities arising every day, and how business leaders can implement IoT today to realize tangible business advantages. The discussion delves into IoT from a business, strategy and organizational standpoint, and includes use-cases that illustrate the ripple effect that this latest disruption brings; you'll learn how to fashion a viable IoT plan that works with your organization's strategy and direction, and how to implement that strategy successfully by integrating IoT into your organization tomorrow. For business managers, the biggest question surrounding the Internet of Things is what to do with it. This book examines the way IoT is being used today—and will be used in the future—to help you craft a robust plan for your organization. Grasp the depth and breadth of the Internet of Things Create a secure IoT recipe that aligns with your company's strategy Capitalize on advances while avoiding disruption from others Leverage the technical, organizational, and social impact of IoT In the past five years, the Internet of Things has become the new frontier of technology that has everyone talking. It seems that almost every week a major vendor announces a new IoT strategy or division; is your company missing the boat? Learn where IoT fits into your organization, and how to turn disruption into profit with the expert guidance in Building the Internet of Things.

    It’s the latest in a long line of “Are you cool enough to use me?” programming languages, APIs, and toolkits. In that sense, it lands squarely in the tradition of Rails, and Ajax, and Hadoop, and even to some degree iPhone programming and HTML5.Dig a little deeper, and you’ll hear that Node.js (or, as it’s more briefly called by many, simply “Node”) is a server-side solution for JavaScript, and in particular, for receiving and responding to HTTP requests. If that doesn’t completely boggle your mind, by the time the conversation heats up with discussion of ports, sockets, and threads, you’ll tend to glaze over. Is this really JavaScript? In fact, why in the world would anyone want to run JavaScript outside of a browser, let alone the server?The good news is that you’re hearing (and thinking) about the right things. Node really is concerned with network programming and server-side request/response processing. The bad news is that like Rails, Ajax, and Hadoop before it, there’s precious little clear information available. There will be, in time — as there now is for these other “cool” frameworks that have matured — but why wait for a book or tutorial when you might be able to use Node today, and dramatically improve the maintainability.

    The book begins by explaining what makes MongoDB unique and describing its ideal use cases. A series of tutorials designed for MongoDB mastery then leads into detailed examples for leveraging MongoDB in e-commerce, social networking, analytics, and other common applications.About the TechnologyBig data can mean big headaches. MongoDB is a document-oriented database designed to be flexible, scalable, and very fast, even with big data loads. It's built for high availability, supports rich, dynamic schemas, and lets you easily distribute data across multiple servers.About this BookMongoDB in Action introduces you to MongoDB and the document-oriented database model. This perfectly paced book provides both the big picture you'll need as a developer and enough low-level detail to satisfy a system engineer. Numerous examples will help you develop confidence in the crucial area of data modeling. You'll also love the deep explanations of each feature, including replication, auto-sharding, and deploymentThis book is written for developers. No MongoDB or NoSQL experience required.Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.What's InsideIndexes, queries, and standard DB operations Map-reduce for custom aggregations and reporting Schema design patterns Deploying for scale and high availabilityTable of ContentsPART 1 GETTING STARTED A database for the modern web MongoDB through the JavaScript shell Writing programs using MongoDB PART 2 APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT IN MONGODB Document-oriented data Queries and aggregation Updates, atomic operations, and deletes PART 3 MONGODB MASTERY Indexing and query optimization Replication Sharding Deployment and administration

    Star Schema: The Complete Reference offers in-depth coverage of design principles and their underlying rationales. Organized around design concepts and illustrated with detailed examples, this is a step-by-step guidebook for beginners and a comprehensive resource for experts.This all-inclusive volume begins with dimensional design fundamentals and shows how they fit into diverse data warehouse architectures, including those of W.H. Inmon and Ralph Kimball. The book progresses through a series of advanced techniques that help you address real-world complexity, maximize performance, and adapt to the requirements of BI and ETL software products. You are furnished with design tasks and deliverables that can be incorporated into any project, regardless of architecture or methodology.Master the fundamentals of star schema design and slow change processingIdentify situations that call for multiple stars or cubesEnsure compatibility across subject areas as your data warehouse growsAccommodate repeating attributes, recursive hierarchies, and poor data qualitySupport conflicting requirements for historic dataHandle variation within a business process and correlation of disparate activitiesBoost performance using derived schemas and aggregatesLearn when it's appropriate to adjust designs for BI and ETL tools

    A pocket-sized overview of roles, artifacts and the sprint cycle, adapted from the bestseller The Elements of Scrum by Chris Sims & Hillary Louise Johnson

    There can be so much information available that you can't even decide where to start. Or worse, you start down the path of learning and quickly discover too many concepts, commands, and nuances that aren't explained. This kind of experience is frustrating and leaves you with more questions than answers.Python Programming for Beginners doesn't make any assumptions about your background or knowledge of Python or computer programming. You need no prior knowledge to benefit from this book. You will be guided step by step using a logical and systematic approach. As new concepts, commands, or jargon are encountered they are explained in plain language, making it easy for anyone to understand. Here is what you will learn by reading Python Programming for Beginners: When to use Python 2 and when to use Python 3. How to install Python on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Screenshots included. How to prepare your computer for programming in Python. The various ways to run a Python program on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Suggested text editors and integrated development environments to use when coding in Python. How to work with various data types including strings, lists, tuples, dictionaries, booleans, and more. What variables are and when to use them. How to perform mathematical operations using Python. How to capture input from a user. Ways to control the flow of your programs. The importance of white space in Python. How to organize your Python programs -- Learn what goes where. What modules are, when you should use them, and how to create your own. How to define and use functions. Important built-in Python functions that you'll use often. How to read from and write to files. The difference between binary and text files. Various ways of getting help and find Python documentation. Much more... Every single code example in the book is available to download, providing you with all the Python code you need at your fingertips! Scroll up, click the Buy Now With 1 Click button and get started learning Python today!

    That’s why Facebook, Google, and Microsoft invented gradual static type layers for their dynamically typed JavaScript and Python code. This practical book shows you how one such type layer, TypeScript, is unique among them: it makes programming fun with its powerful static type system.If you’re a programmer with intermediate JavaScript experience, author Boris Cherny will teach you how to master the TypeScript language. You’ll understand how TypeScript can help you eliminate bugs in your code and enable you to scale your code across more engineers than you could before.In this book, you’ll: Start with the basics: Learn about TypeScript’s different types and type operators, including what they’re for and how they’re used Explore advanced topics: Understand TypeScript’s sophisticated type system, including how to safely handle errors and build asynchronous programs Dive in hands-on: Use TypeScript with your favorite frontend and backend frameworks, migrate your existing JavaScript project to TypeScript, and run your TypeScript application in production

    Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, Google's change in policy is symptomatic of the most significant shift to take place on the Web in recent years - the rise of personalization. In this groundbreaking investigation of the new hidden Web, Pariser uncovers how this growing trend threatens to control how we consume and share information as a society-and reveals what we can do about it.Though the phenomenon has gone largely undetected until now, personalized filters are sweeping the Web, creating individual universes of information for each of us. Facebook - the primary news source for an increasing number of Americans - prioritizes the links it believes will appeal to you so that if you are a liberal, you can expect to see only progressive links. Even an old-media bastion like "The Washington Post" devotes the top of its home page to a news feed with the links your Facebook friends are sharing. Behind the scenes a burgeoning industry of data companies is tracking your personal information to sell to advertisers, from your political leanings to the color you painted your living room to the hiking boots you just browsed on Zappos.In a personalized world, we will increasingly be typed and fed only news that is pleasant, familiar, and confirms our beliefs - and because these filters are invisible, we won't know what is being hidden from us. Our past interests will determine what we are exposed to in the future, leaving less room for the unexpected encounters that spark creativity, innovation, and the democratic exchange of ideas.While we all worry that the Internet is eroding privacy or shrinking our attention spans, Pariser uncovers a more pernicious and far-reaching trend on the Internet and shows how we can - and must - change course. With vivid detail and remarkable scope, The Filter Bubble reveals how personalization undermines the Internet's original purpose as an open platform for the spread of ideas and could leave us all in an isolated, echoing world.

    With Java 5.0, you'll not only find substantial changes in the platform, but to the language itself-something that developers of Java took five years to complete. The main goal of Java 5.0 is to make it easier for you to develop safe, powerful code, but none of these improvements makes Java any easier to learn, even if you've programmed with Java for years. And that means our bestselling hands-on tutorial takes on even greater significance."Learning Java" is the most widely sought introduction to the programming language that's changed the way we think about computing. Our updated third edition takes an objective, no-nonsense approach to the new features in Java 5.0, some of which are drastically different from the way things were done in any previous versions. The most essential change is the addition of "generics," a feature that allows developers to write, test, and deploy code once, and then reuse the code again and again for different data types. The beauty of generics is that more problems will be caught during development, and "Learning Java" will show you exactly how it's done.Java 5.0 also adds more than 1,000 new classes to the Java library. That means 1,000 new things you can do without having to program it in yourself. That's a huge change. With our book's practical examples, you'll come up to speed quickly on this and other new features such as loops and threads. The new edition also includes an introduction to Eclipse, the open source IDE that is growing in popularity. "Learning Java," 3rd Edition addresses all of the important uses of Java, such as web applications, servlets, and XML that are increasingly driving enterprise applications.

    Until now. This practical guide provides the first comprehensive overview of software architecture's many aspects. You'll examine architectural characteristics, architectural patterns, component determination, diagramming and presenting architecture, evolutionary architecture, and many other topics.Authors Neal Ford and Mark Richards help you learn through examples in a variety of popular programming languages, such as Java, C#, JavaScript, and others. You'll focus on architecture principles with examples that apply across all technology stacks.

    This book provides the design strategy and tactics you need to integrate game mechanics into any kind of consumer-facing website or mobile app. Learn how to use core game concepts, design patterns, and meaningful code samples to a create fun and captivating social environment.Whether you're an executive, developer, producer, or product specialist, Gamification by Design will show you how game mechanics can help you build customer loyalty.Discover the motivational framework game designers use to segment and engage consumersUnderstand core game mechanics such as points, badges, levels, challenges, and leaderboardsEngage your consumers with reward structures, positive reinforcement, and feedback loopsCombine game mechanics with social interaction for activities such as collecting, gifting, heroism, and statusDive into case studies on Nike and Yahoo!, and analyze interactions at Google, Facebook, and ZyngaGet the architecture and code to gamify a basic consumer site, and learn how to use mainstream gamification APIs from Badgeville"Turning applications into games is a huge trend. This book does a great job of identifying the core lasting principals you need to inspire your users to visit again and again." —Adam Loving Freelance Social Game Developer and founder of Twibes Twitter Groups