Game Engine Architecture


Jason Gregory - 2009
    The concepts and techniques described are the actual ones used by real game studios like Electronic Arts and Naughty Dog. The examples are often grounded in specific technologies, but the discussion extends way beyond any particular engine or API. The references and citations make it a great jumping off point for those who wish to dig deeper into any particular aspect of the game development process.Intended as the text for a college level series in game programming, this book can also be used by amateur software engineers, hobbyists, self-taught game programmers, and existing members of the game industry. Junior game engineers can use it to solidify their understanding of game technology and engine architecture. Even senior engineers who specialize in one particular field of game development can benefit from the bigger picture presented in these pages.

In the Beginning...Was the Command Line


Neal Stephenson - 1999
    And considering that the "one man" is Neal Stephenson, "the hacker Hemingway" (Newsweek) -- acclaimed novelist, pragmatist, seer, nerd-friendly philosopher, and nationally bestselling author of groundbreaking literary works (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc., etc.) -- the word is well worth hearing. Mostly well-reasoned examination and partial rant, Stephenson's In the Beginning... was the Command Line is a thoughtful, irreverent, hilarious treatise on the cyber-culture past and present; on operating system tyrannies and downloaded popular revolutions; on the Internet, Disney World, Big Bangs, not to mention the meaning of life itself.

Professor Frisby's Mostly Adequate Guide to Functional Programming


Brian Lonsdorf
    We'll use the world's most popular functional programming language: JavaScript. Some may feel this is a poor choice as it's against the grain of the current culture which, at the moment, feels predominately imperative. However, I believe it is the best way to learn FP for several reasons:You likely use it every day at work.This makes it possible to practice and apply your acquired knowledge each day on real world programs rather than pet projects on nights and weekends in an esoteric FP language.We don't have to learn everything up front to start writing programs.In a pure functional language, you cannot log a variable or read a DOM node without using monads. Here we can cheat a little as we learn to purify our codebase. It's also easier to get started in this language since it's mixed paradigm and you can fall back on your current practices while there are gaps in your knowledge.The language is fully capable of writing top notch functional code.We have all the features we need to mimic a language like Scala or Haskell with the help of a tiny library or two. Object-oriented programming currently dominates the industry, but it's clearly awkward in JavaScript. It's akin to camping off of a highway or tap dancing in galoshes. We have to bind all over the place lest this change out from under us, we don't have classes[^Yet], we have various work arounds for the quirky behavior when the new keyword is forgotten, private members are only available via closures. To a lot of us, FP feels more natural anyways.That said, typed functional languages will, without a doubt, be the best place to code in the style presented by this book. JavaScript will be our means of learning a paradigm, where you apply it is up to you. Luckily, the interfaces are mathematical and, as such, ubiquitous. You'll find yourself at home with swiftz, scalaz, haskell, purescript, and other mathematically inclined environments.

Python Machine Learning


Sebastian Raschka - 2015
    We are living in an age where data comes in abundance, and thanks to the self-learning algorithms from the field of machine learning, we can turn this data into knowledge. Automated speech recognition on our smart phones, web search engines, e-mail spam filters, the recommendation systems of our favorite movie streaming services – machine learning makes it all possible.Thanks to the many powerful open-source libraries that have been developed in recent years, machine learning is now right at our fingertips. Python provides the perfect environment to build machine learning systems productively.This book will teach you the fundamentals of machine learning and how to utilize these in real-world applications using Python. Step-by-step, you will expand your skill set with the best practices for transforming raw data into useful information, developing learning algorithms efficiently, and evaluating results.You will discover the different problem categories that machine learning can solve and explore how to classify objects, predict continuous outcomes with regression analysis, and find hidden structures in data via clustering. You will build your own machine learning system for sentiment analysis and finally, learn how to embed your model into a web app to share with the world

Introducing Ethereum and Solidity: Foundations of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Programming for Beginners


Chris Dannen - 2017
    Blockchain protocols are taking the world by storm, and the Ethereum project, with its Turing-complete scripting language Solidity, has rapidly become a front-runner. This book presents the blockchain phenomenon in context; then situates Ethereum in a world pioneered by Bitcoin.See why professionals and non-professionals alike are honing their skills in smart contract patterns and distributed application development. You'll review the fundamentals of programming and networking, alongside its introduction to the new discipline of crypto-economics. You'll then deploy smart contracts of your own, and learn how they can serve as a back-end for JavaScript and HTML applications on the Web.Many Solidity tutorials out there today have the same flaw: they are written for "advanced" JavaScript developers who want to transfer their skills to a blockchain environment. Introducing Ethereum and Solidity is accessible to technology professionals and enthusiasts of all levels. You'll find exciting sample code that can move forward real world assets in both the academic and the corporate arenas. Find out now why this book is a powerful gateway for creative technologists of all types, from concept to deployment.What You'll LearnSee how Ethereum (and other cryptocurrencies) workCompare distributed apps (dapps) to web appsWrite Ethereum smart contracts in Solidity Connect Ethereum smart contracts to your HTML/CSS/JavaScript web applicationsDeploy your own dapp, coin, and blockchainWork with basic and intermediate smart contractsWho This Book Is For Anyone who is curious about Ethereum or has some familiarity with computer science Product managers, CTOs, and experienced JavaScript programmersExperts will find the advanced sample projects in this book rewarding because of the power of Solidity

Thinking in CSS


Aravind Shenoy - 2014
    Instead of wandering through loads of theory, we will understand CSS more practically so that we can design a webpage using CSS. We have used Notepad for the examples in this book. Alternatively, you can also use Notepad++ or any advanced editor. All that you need to do is copy the code and paste it into Notepad. Upon execution, you will get the output as depicted in the screenshots. Screenshots are provided for each sample code. Coding gets better with practice. The examples in this book are compatible with almost every browser. Instead of using the verbatim code, you can modify the code and see the change in the output, thereby understanding the subtle nuances of CSS. By the end of the book, with practice, you can achieve better things and get more acquainted with CSS.