Book picks similar to
iPad For Dummies by Edward C. Baig


non-fiction
for-dummies
computers
reference

Working with UNIX Processes


Jesse Storimer - 2011
    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...

Pro C# 2010 and the .NET 4 Platform


Andrew Troelsen - 2009
    As expected, .NET 4 brings a wealth of new APIs to the base class libraries and several new syntactical constructs to C#. For example, it is now possible to create C# methods that support optional and named arguments. As well, you are able to resolve types completely at runtime using the new dynamic keyword. As far as APIs are concerned, this edition of Pro C# 2010 and the .NET 4 Platform will cover a number of new details, including:• the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR)• the Task Parallel Library (TPL, including PLINQ)• the ADO.NET Entity Framework (as well as LINQ to EF)• expanded coverage of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) API• improved support for COM interopIf you're checking out this book for the first time, understand that it targets experienced software professionals and students of computer science—so please don't expect three chapters devoted to "variable scope" here! The mission of this text is to provide you with a rock-solid foundation in the C# programming language (including a full discussion of OOP) and the critical aspects of the .NET 4 platform.Once you digest the information presented in the book you hold in your hands, you'll be in a perfect position to apply this knowledge to your specific programming assignments, and you'll be well-equipped to explore the .NET universe on your own terms.Andrew TroelsenMicrosoft MVP, Visual Developer—Visual C#; Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT)

Learn Python The Hard Way


Zed A. Shaw - 2010
    The title says it is the hard way to learn to writecode but it’s actually not. It’s the “hard” way only in that it’s the way people used to teach things. In this book youwill do something incredibly simple that all programmers actually do to learn a language: 1. Go through each exercise. 2. Type in each sample exactly. 3. Make it run.That’s it. This will be very difficult at first, but stick with it. If you go through this book, and do each exercise for1-2 hours a night, then you’ll have a good foundation for moving on to another book. You might not really learn“programming” from this book, but you will learn the foundation skills you need to start learning the language.This book’s job is to teach you the three most basic essential skills that a beginning programmer needs to know:Reading And Writing, Attention To Detail, Spotting Differences.

Who Owns the Future?


Jaron Lanier - 2013
    Who Owns the Future? is his visionary reckoning with the most urgent economic and social trend of our age: the poisonous concentration of money and power in our digital networks.Lanier has predicted how technology will transform our humanity for decades, and his insight has never been more urgently needed. He shows how Siren Servers, which exploit big data and the free sharing of information, led our economy into recession, imperiled personal privacy, and hollowed out the middle class. The networks that define our world—including social media, financial institutions, and intelligence agencies—now threaten to destroy it.But there is an alternative. In this provocative, poetic, and deeply humane book, Lanier charts a path toward a brighter future: an information economy that rewards ordinary people for what they do and share on the web.

Programming Arduino Getting Started with Sketches


Simon Monk - 2011
    No prior programming experience is required! The downloadable sample programs featured in the book can be used as-is or modified to suit your purposes. Understand Arduino hardware fundamentals Install the software, power it up, and upload your first sketch Learn C language basics Write functions in Arduino sketches Structure data using arrays and strings Use Arduino's digital and analog inputs and outputs in your programs Work with the Standard Arduino Library Write sketches that can store data Program LCD displays Use an Ethernet shield to enable Arduino to function as a web server Write your own Arduino librariesIn December 2011, Arduino 1.0 was released. This changed a few things that have caused two of the sketches in this book to break. The change that has caused trouble is that the classes 'Server' and 'Client' have been renamed to 'EthernetServer' and 'EthernetClient' respectively. To fix this: Edit sketches 10-01 and 10-02 to replace all occurrences of the word 'Server' with 'EthernetServer' and all occurrences of 'Client' with 'EthernetClient'. Alternatively, you can download the modified sketches for 10-01 and 10-02 from here: http: //www.arduinobook.com/arduino-1-0Make Great Stuff! TAB, an imprint of McGraw-Hill Professional, is a leading publisher of DIY technology books for makers, hackers, and electronics hobbyists.

Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life Among the Stars


Lee Billings - 2013
    But soon, Earth's isolation could come to an end. Over the past two decades, astronomers have discovered thousands of planets orbiting other stars. Some of these exoplanets may be mirror images of our own world. And more are being found all the time.Yet as the pace of discovery quickens, an answer to the universe's greatest riddle still remains just out of reach: Is the great silence and emptiness of the cosmos a sign that we and our world are somehow singular, special, and profoundly alone, or does it just mean that we’re looking for life in all the wrong places? As star-gazing scientists come closer to learning the truth, their insights are proving ever more crucial to understanding life’s intricate mysteries and possibilities right here on Earth.Science journalist Lee Billings explores the past and future of the "exoplanet boom" through in-depth reporting and interviews with the astronomers andplanetary scientists at its forefront. He recounts the stories behind their world-changing discoveries and captures the pivotal moments that drove them forward in their historic search for the first habitable planets beyond our solar system. Billings brings readers close to a wide range of fascinating characters, such as:FRANK DRAKE, a pioneer who has used the world’s greatest radio telescopes to conduct the first searches for extraterrestrial intelligence and to transmit a message to the stars so powerful that it briefly outshone our Sun.JIM KASTING, a mild-mannered former NASA scientist whose research into the Earth’s atmosphere and climate reveals the deepest foundations of life on our planet, foretells the end of life on Earth in the distant future, and guides the planet hunters in their search for alien life.SARA SEAGER, a visionary and iron-willed MIT professor who dreams of escaping the solar system and building the giant space telescopes required to discover and study life-bearing planets around hundreds of the Sun’s neighboring stars.Through these and other captivating tales, Billings traces the triumphs, tragedies, and betrayals of the extraordinary men and women seeking life among the stars. In spite of insufficient funding, clashing opinions, and the failings of some of our world’s most prominent and powerful scientific organizations, these planet hunters will not rest until they find the meaning of life in the infinite depths of space. Billings emphasizes that the heroic quest for other Earth-like planets is not only a scientific pursuit, but also a reflection of our own culture’s timeless hopes and fears.

Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data


Charles Wheelan - 2012
    How can we catch schools that cheat on standardized tests? How does Netflix know which movies you’ll like? What is causing the rising incidence of autism? As best-selling author Charles Wheelan shows us in Naked Statistics, the right data and a few well-chosen statistical tools can help us answer these questions and more.For those who slept through Stats 101, this book is a lifesaver. Wheelan strips away the arcane and technical details and focuses on the underlying intuition that drives statistical analysis. He clarifies key concepts such as inference, correlation, and regression analysis, reveals how biased or careless parties can manipulate or misrepresent data, and shows us how brilliant and creative researchers are exploiting the valuable data from natural experiments to tackle thorny questions.And in Wheelan’s trademark style, there’s not a dull page in sight. You’ll encounter clever Schlitz Beer marketers leveraging basic probability, an International Sausage Festival illuminating the tenets of the central limit theorem, and a head-scratching choice from the famous game show Let’s Make a Deal—and you’ll come away with insights each time. With the wit, accessibility, and sheer fun that turned Naked Economics into a bestseller, Wheelan defies the odds yet again by bringing another essential, formerly unglamorous discipline to life.

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012


Ross Mistry - 2012
    This book is for anyone who has an interest in SQL Server 2012 and wants to understand its capabilities, including database administrators, application developers, and technical decision makers.

Python for Data Analysis


Wes McKinney - 2011
    It is also a practical, modern introduction to scientific computing in Python, tailored for data-intensive applications. This is a book about the parts of the Python language and libraries you'll need to effectively solve a broad set of data analysis problems. This book is not an exposition on analytical methods using Python as the implementation language.Written by Wes McKinney, the main author of the pandas library, this hands-on book is packed with practical cases studies. It's ideal for analysts new to Python and for Python programmers new to scientific computing.Use the IPython interactive shell as your primary development environmentLearn basic and advanced NumPy (Numerical Python) featuresGet started with data analysis tools in the pandas libraryUse high-performance tools to load, clean, transform, merge, and reshape dataCreate scatter plots and static or interactive visualizations with matplotlibApply the pandas groupby facility to slice, dice, and summarize datasetsMeasure data by points in time, whether it's specific instances, fixed periods, or intervalsLearn how to solve problems in web analytics, social sciences, finance, and economics, through detailed examples

Professional WordPress: Design and Development


Brad Williams - 2010
    As the most popular blogging and content management platform available today, WordPress is a powerful tool. This exciting book goes beyond the basics and delves into the heart of the WordPress system, offering overviews of the functional aspects of WordPress as well as plug-in and theme development. What is covered in this book?WordPress as a Content Management System Hosting Options Installing WordPress Files Database Configuration Dashboard Widgets Customizing the Dashboard Creating and Managing Content Categorizing Your Content Working with Media Comments and Discussion Working with Users Managing, Adding, Upgrading, and Using the Theme Editor Working with Widgets Adding and Managing New Plugins Configuring WordPress Exploring the Code Configuring Key Files wp-config.php file Advanced wp-config Options What's in the Core? WordPress Codex and Resources Understanding and customizing the Loop Building A Custom Query Complex Database Operations Dealing With Errors Direct Database Manipulation Building Your Own Taxonomies Plugin Packaging Create a Dashboard Widget Creating a Plugin Example Publish to the Plugin Directory Installing a Theme Creating Your Own Theme How and When to Use Custom Page Templates How to Use Custom Page Templates Pushing Content from WordPress to Other Sites Usability and Usability Testing Getting Your Site Found How Web Standards Get Your Data Discovered Load Balancing Your WordPress Site Securing Your WordPress Site Using WordPress in the Enterprise Is WordPress Right for Your Enterprise? and much more!

Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe


George Dyson - 2012
    In Turing’s Cathedral, George Dyson focuses on a small group of men and women, led by John von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, who built one of the first computers to realize Alan Turing’s vision of a Universal Machine. Their work would break the distinction between numbers that mean things and numbers that do things—and our universe would never be the same. Using five kilobytes of memory (the amount allocated to displaying the cursor on a computer desktop of today), they achieved unprecedented success in both weather prediction and nuclear weapons design, while tackling, in their spare time, problems ranging from the evolution of viruses to the evolution of stars. Dyson’s account, both historic and prophetic, sheds important new light on how the digital universe exploded in the aftermath of World War II. The proliferation of both codes and machines was paralleled by two historic developments: the decoding of self-replicating sequences in biology and the invention of the hydrogen bomb. It’s no coincidence that the most destructive and the most constructive of human inventions appeared at exactly the same time.  How did code take over the world? In retracing how Alan Turing’s one-dimensional model became John von Neumann’s two-dimensional implementation, Turing’s Cathedral offers a series of provocative suggestions as to where the digital universe, now fully three-dimensional, may be heading next.

Sexy Web Design


Elliott Jay Stocks - 2008
    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.

Ubuntu Linux Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for Ubuntu and Debian Power Users


Christopher Negus - 2007
    Try out more than 1,000 commands to find and get software, monitor system health and security, and access network resources. Then, apply the skills you learn from this book to use and administer desktops and servers running Ubuntu, Debian, and KNOPPIX or any other Linux distribution.

Malware Analyst's Cookbook and DVD: Tools and Techniques for Fighting Malicious Code


Michael Hale Ligh - 2010
    Security professionals will find plenty of solutions in this book to the problems posed by viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spyware, rootkits, adware, and other invasive software. Written by well-known malware experts, this guide reveals solutions to numerous problems and includes a DVD of custom programs and tools that illustrate the concepts, enhancing your skills. Security professionals face a constant battle against malicious software; this practical manual will improve your analytical capabilities and provide dozens of valuable and innovative solutions Covers classifying malware, packing and unpacking, dynamic malware analysis, decoding and decrypting, rootkit detection, memory forensics, open source malware research, and much more Includes generous amounts of source code in C, Python, and Perl to extend your favorite tools or build new ones, and custom programs on the DVD to demonstrate the solutions Malware Analyst's Cookbook is indispensible to IT security administrators, incident responders, forensic analysts, and malware researchers.

WordPress For Dummies


Lisa Sabin-Wilson - 2007
    Unlike other blog hosts, WordPress gives you the ability to create a blog that is tailored to your own tastes and needs. Sure, the codes, tags, and terminology can seem a little intimidating at first, but WordPress for Dummies breaks it all down to show you just how intuitive, friendly, and extensible the software really is. This easy-to-follow guide shows you how to:Sign up for a free WordPress account Set up and use a hosted blog with WordPress.com Install and set up the WordPress.Org and WordPress.MU software for single- and multi-user versions Find great themes, plugins, and consultants that will help you achieve JUST the kind of blog you want Use tags to work with WordPress templates Combat challenges with comments, trackback spam, and "splogs" Add special technologies to your blog, such as RSS feed, podcasting, vlogging, and photoblogging Find online support, tips, and resources for WordPress software Whether you want to keep family and friends updated on your latest adventures, post pictures of your new puppy, or communicate your passion with millions of readers worldwide, WordPress for Dummies is your passport to creating the kind of blog that will keep your visitors coming back for more!