With the many upgraded features, C# is more expressive than ever. However, an in depth understanding is required to get the most out of the language.C# in Depth, Second Edition is a thoroughly revised, up-to-date book that covers the new features of C# 4 as well as Code Contracts. In it, you'll see the subtleties of C# programming in action, learning how to work with high-value features that you'll be glad to have in your toolkit. The book helps readers avoid hidden pitfalls of C# programming by understanding "behind the scenes" issues.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.

    It’s easy and fun with this practical, hands-on introduction. Author Scott Murray teaches you the fundamental concepts and methods of D3, a JavaScript library that lets you express data visually in a web browser. Along the way, you’ll expand your web programming skills, using tools such as HTML and JavaScript.This step-by-step guide is ideal whether you’re a designer or visual artist with no programming experience, a reporter exploring the new frontier of data journalism, or anyone who wants to visualize and share data.Learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and SVG basicsDynamically generate web page elements from your data—and choose visual encoding rules to style themCreate bar charts, scatter plots, pie charts, stacked bar charts, and force-directed layoutsUse smooth, animated transitions to show changes in your dataIntroduce interactivity to help users explore data through different viewsCreate customized geographic maps with dataExplore hands-on with downloadable code and over 100 examples

    Here is a complete library of dimensional modeling techniques-- the most comprehensive collection ever written. Greatly expanded to cover both basic and advanced techniques for optimizing data warehouse design, this second edition to Ralph Kimball's classic guide is more than sixty percent updated.The authors begin with fundamental design recommendations and gradually progress step-by-step through increasingly complex scenarios. Clear-cut guidelines for designing dimensional models are illustrated using real-world data warehouse case studies drawn from a variety of business application areas and industries, including:* Retail sales and e-commerce* Inventory management* Procurement* Order management* Customer relationship management (CRM)* Human resources management* Accounting* Financial services* Telecommunications and utilities* Education* Transportation* Health care and insuranceBy the end of the book, you will have mastered the full range of powerful techniques for designing dimensional databases that are easy to understand and provide fast query response. You will also learn how to create an architected framework that integrates the distributed data warehouse using standardized dimensions and facts.This book is also available as part of the Kimball's Data Warehouse Toolkit Classics Box Set (ISBN: 9780470479575) with the following 3 books:The Data Warehouse Toolkit, 2nd Edition (9780471200246)The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit, 2nd Edition (9780470149775)The Data Warehouse ETL Toolkit (9780764567575)

    Master Python Programming with a unique Hands-On Project Have you always wanted to learn computer programming but are afraid it'll be too difficult for you? Or perhaps you know other programming languages but are interested in learning the Python language fast? This book is for you. You no longer have to waste your time and money learning Python from lengthy books, expensive online courses or complicated Python tutorials. What this book offers... Python for Beginners Complex concepts are broken down into simple steps to ensure that you can easily master the Python language even if you have never coded before. Carefully Chosen Python Examples Examples are carefully chosen to illustrate all concepts. In addition, the output for all examples are provided immediately so you do not have to wait till you have access to your computer to test the examples. Careful selection of topics Topics are carefully selected to give you a broad exposure to Python, while not overwhelming you with information overload. These topics include object-oriented programming concepts, error handling techniques, file handling techniques and more. Learn The Python Programming Language Fast Concepts are presented in a "to-the-point" style to cater to the busy individual. With this book, you can learn Python in just one day and start coding immediately. How is this book different... The best way to learn Python is by doing. This book includes a complete project at the end of the book that requires the application of all the concepts taught previously. Working through the project will not only give you an immense sense of achievement, it"ll also help you retain the knowledge and master the language. Are you ready to dip your toes into the exciting world of Python coding? This book is for you. With the first edition of this book being a #1 best-selling programming ebook on Amazon for more than a year, you can rest assured that this new and improved edition is the perfect book for you to learn the Python programming language fast. Click the BUY button and download it now. What you'll learn: - What is Python? - What software you need to code and run Python programs? - What are variables? - What are the common data types in Python? - What are Lists and Tuples? - How to format strings - How to accept user inputs and display outputs - How to control the flow of program with loops - How to handle errors and exceptions - What are functions and modules? - How to define your own functions and modules - How to work with external files - What are objects and classes - How to write your own class - What is inheritance - What are properties - What is name mangling .. and more... Finally, you'll be guided through a hands-on project that requires the application of all the topics covered. Click the BUY button and download the book now to start learning Python. Learn it fast and learn it well. Tags: ------------ Python, Object-oriented Python, Python course, Python book, learning Python, Python language, Python examples, Python tutorials, Python programming language, Python coding, Pyth

    To grow professionally, you also need soft skills and effective learning techniques. Honing those skills is what this book is all about. Authors Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye have cataloged dozens of behavior patterns to help you perfect essential aspects of your craft. Compiled from years of research, many interviews, and feedback from O'Reilly's online forum, these patterns address difficult situations that programmers, administrators, and DBAs face every day. And it's not just about financial success. Apprenticeship Patterns also approaches software development as a means to personal fulfillment. Discover how this book can help you make the best of both your life and your career. Solutions to some common obstacles that this book explores in-depth include:Burned out at work? "Nurture Your Passion" by finding a pet project to rediscover the joy of problem solving.Feeling overwhelmed by new information? Re-explore familiar territory by building something you've built before, then use "Retreat into Competence" to move forward again.Stuck in your learning? Seek a team of experienced and talented developers with whom you can "Be the Worst" for a while. "Brilliant stuff! Reading this book was like being in a time machine that pulled me back to those key learning moments in my career as a professional software developer and, instead of having to learn best practices the hard way, I had a guru sitting on my shoulder guiding me every step towards master craftsmanship. I'll certainly be recommending this book to clients. I wish I had this book 14 years ago!" -Russ Miles, CEO, OpenCredo

    At long last you'll be united with the programming language you've been longing for: Clojure!As a Lisp-style functional programming language, Clojure lets you write robust and elegant code, and because it runs on the Java Virtual Machine, you can take advantage of the vast Java ecosystem. Clojure for the Brave and True offers a "dessert-first" approach: you'll start playing with real programs immediately, as you steadily acclimate to the abstract but powerful features of Lisp and functional programming. Inside you'll find an offbeat, practical guide to Clojure, filled with quirky sample programs that catch cheese thieves and track glittery vampires.Learn how to: Wield Clojure's core functions Use Emacs for Clojure development Write macros to modify Clojure itself Use Clojure's tools to simplify concurrency and parallel programmingClojure for the Brave and True assumes no prior experience with Clojure, the Java Virtual Machine, or functional programming. Are you ready, brave reader, to meet your true destiny? Grab your best pair of parentheses—you're about to embark on an epic journey into the world of Clojure!

    They are now standard features in a wide range of languages and popular tools, including Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, VB.NET and C# (and any language using the .NET Framework), PHP, and MySQL.If you don't use regular expressions yet, you will discover in this book a whole new world of mastery over your data. If you already use them, you'll appreciate this book's unprecedented detail and breadth of coverage. If you think you know all you need to know about regularexpressions, this book is a stunning eye-opener.As this book shows, a command of regular expressions is an invaluable skill. Regular expressions allow you to code complex and subtle text processing that you never imagined could be automated. Regular expressions can save you time and aggravation. They can be used to craft elegant solutions to a wide range of problems. Once you've mastered regular expressions, they'll become an invaluable part of your toolkit. You will wonder how you ever got by without them.Yet despite their wide availability, flexibility, and unparalleled power, regular expressions are frequently underutilized. Yet what is power in the hands of an expert can be fraught with peril for the unwary. Mastering Regular Expressions will help you navigate the minefield to becoming an expert and help you optimize your use of regular expressions.Mastering Regular Expressions, Third Edition, now includes a full chapter devoted to PHP and its powerful and expressive suite of regular expression functions, in addition to enhanced PHP coverage in the central "core" chapters. Furthermore, this edition has been updated throughout to reflect advances in other languages, including expanded in-depth coverage of Sun's java.util.regex package, which has emerged as the standard Java regex implementation.Topics include:A comparison of features among different versions of many languages and toolsHow the regular expression engine worksOptimization (major savings available here!)Matching just what you want, but not what you don't wantSections and chapters on individual languagesWritten in the lucid, entertaining tone that makes a complex, dry topic become crystal-clear to programmers, and sprinkled with solutions to complex real-world problems, Mastering Regular Expressions, Third Edition offers a wealth information that you can put to immediateuse.Reviews of this new edition and the second edition: "There isn't a better (or more useful) book available on regular expressions."--Zak Greant, Managing Director, eZ Systems"A real tour-de-force of a book which not only covers the mechanics of regexes in extraordinary detail but also talks about efficiency and the use of regexes in Perl, Java, and .NET...If you use regular expressions as part of your professional work (even if you already have a good book on whatever language you're programming in) I would strongly recommend this book to you."--Dr. Chris Brown, Linux Format"The author does an outstanding job leading the reader from regexnovice to master. The book is extremely easy to read and chock full ofuseful and relevant examples...Regular expressions are valuable toolsthat every developer should have in their toolbox. Mastering RegularExpressions is the definitive guide to the subject, and an outstandingresource that belongs on every programmer's bookshelf. Ten out of TenHorseshoes."--Jason Menard, Java Ranch

    With it, you'll learn how to write Python programs that work with large collections of unstructured text. You'll access richly annotated datasets using a comprehensive range of linguistic data structures, and you'll understand the main algorithms for analyzing the content and structure of written communication.Packed with examples and exercises, Natural Language Processing with Python will help you: Extract information from unstructured text, either to guess the topic or identify "named entities" Analyze linguistic structure in text, including parsing and semantic analysis Access popular linguistic databases, including WordNet and treebanks Integrate techniques drawn from fields as diverse as linguistics and artificial intelligenceThis book will help you gain practical skills in natural language processing using the Python programming language and the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) open source library. If you're interested in developing web applications, analyzing multilingual news sources, or documenting endangered languages -- or if you're simply curious to have a programmer's perspective on how human language works -- you'll find Natural Language Processing with Python both fascinating and immensely useful.

    Whether you're building the next killer app, investing in a startup, or simply curious about the technology, this practical book is essential reading.Bitcoin, the first successful decentralized digital currency, is still in its infancy and it's already spawned a multi-billion dollar global economy. This economy is open to anyone with the knowledge and passion to participate. Mastering Bitcoin provides you with the knowledge you need (passion not included).This book includes:A broad introduction to bitcoin--ideal for non-technical users, investors, and business executivesAn explanation of the technical foundations of bitcoin and cryptographic currencies for developers, engineers, and software and systems architectsDetails of the bitcoin decentralized network, peer-to-peer architecture, transaction lifecycle, and security principlesOffshoots of the bitcoin and blockchain inventions, including alternative chains, currencies, and applicationsUser stories, analogies, examples, and code snippets illustrating key technical concepts

    Internet and World Wide Web How to Program, 4e introduces students with little or no programming experience to the exciting world of Web-Based applications. The book has been substantially revised to reflect today's Web 2.0 rich Internet application-development methodologies. A comprehensive book that teaches the fundamentals needed to program on the Internet, this text provides in-depth coverage of introductory programmming principles, various markup languages (XHTML, Dynamic HTML and XML), several scripting languages (JavaScript, PHP, Ruby/Ruby on Rails and Perl); AJAX, web services, Web Servers (IIS and Apache) and relational databases (MySQL/Apache Derby/Java DB) -- all the skills and tools needed to create dynamic Web-based applications. The text contains comprehensive introductions to ASP.NET 2.0 and JavaServer Faces (JSF). Hundreds of live-code examples of real applications throughout the book available for download allow readers to run the applications and see and hear the outputs.The book provides instruction on building Ajax-enabled rich Internet applications that enhance the presentation of online content and give web applications the look and feel of desktop applications. The chapter on Web 2.0 and Internet business exposes readers to a wide range of other topics associated with Web 2.0 applications and businesses After mastering the material in this book, students will be well prepared to build real-world, industrial strength, Web-based applications.

    Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including: • Are our musical preferences shaped in utero? • Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music? • What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain’s response to music? • Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure?This Is Your Brain on Music explores cultures in which singing is considered an essential human function, patients who have a rare disorder that prevents them from making sense of music, and scientists studying why two people may not have the same definition of pitch. At every turn, this provocative work unlocks deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession.

    Their discussion ranges from the history of the field's intellectual foundations to the most recent developments and applications.Reinforcement learning, one of the most active research areas in artificial intelligence, is a computational approach to learning whereby an agent tries to maximize the total amount of reward it receives when interacting with a complex, uncertain environment. In Reinforcement Learning, Richard Sutton and Andrew Barto provide a clear and simple account of the key ideas and algorithms of reinforcement learning. Their discussion ranges from the history of the field's intellectual foundations to the most recent developments and applications. The only necessary mathematical background is familiarity with elementary concepts of probability.The book is divided into three parts. Part I defines the reinforcement learning problem in terms of Markov decision processes. Part II provides basic solution methods: dynamic programming, Monte Carlo methods, and temporal-difference learning. Part III presents a unified view of the solution methods and incorporates artificial neural networks, eligibility traces, and planning; the two final chapters present case studies and consider the future of reinforcement learning.

    The manner in which computers are now able to mimic human thinking is rapidly exceeding human capabilities in everything from chess to picking the winner of a song contest. In the age of machine learning, computers do not strictly need to receive an ‘input command’ to perform a task, but rather ‘input data’. From the input of data they are able to form their own decisions and take actions virtually as a human would. But as a machine, can consider many more scenarios and execute calculations to solve complex problems. This is the element that excites companies and budding machine learning engineers the most. The ability to solve complex problems never before attempted. This is also perhaps one reason why you are looking at purchasing this book, to gain a beginner's introduction to machine learning. This book provides a plain English introduction to the following topics: - Artificial Intelligence - Big Data - Downloading Free Datasets - Regression - Support Vector Machine Algorithms - Deep Learning/Neural Networks - Data Reduction - Clustering - Association Analysis - Decision Trees - Recommenders - Machine Learning Careers This book has recently been updated following feedback from readers. Version II now includes: - New Chapter: Decision Trees - Cleanup of minor errors

    The authors have taken the mystery out of complex queries and explained principles and techniques with such clarity that a "Mere Mortal" will indeed be empowered to perform the superhuman. Do not walk past this book "--Graham Mandeno, Database Consultant""SQL Queries for Mere Mortals" provides a step-by-step, easy-to-read introduction to writing SQL queries. It includes hundreds of examples with detailed explanations. This book provides the tools you need to understand, modify, and create SQL queries"--Keith W. Hare, Convenor, ISO/IEC JTC1 SC32 WG3--the International SQL Standards Committee"I learned SQL primarily from the first edition of this book, and I am pleased to see a second edition of this book so that others can continue to benefit from its organized presentation of the language. Starting from how to design your tables so that SQL can be effective (a common problem for database beginners), and then continuing through the various aspects of SQL construction and capabilities, the reader can become a moderate expert upon completing the book and its samples. Learning how to convert a question in English into a meaningful SQL statement will greatly facilitate your mastery of the language. Numerous examples from real life will help you visualize how to use SQL to answer the questions about the data in your database. Just one of the "watch out for this trap" items will save you more than the cost of the book when you avoid that problem when writing your queries. I highly recommend this book if you want to tap the full potential of your database."--Kenneth D. Snell, Ph.D., Database Designer/Programmer"I don't think they do this in public schools any more, and it is a shame, but do you remember in the seventh and eighth grades when you learned to diagram a sentence? Those of you who do may no longer remember how you did it, but all of you do write better sentences because of it. John Viescas and Mike Hernandez must have remembered because they take everyday English queries and literally translate them into SQL. This is an important book for all database designers. It takes the complexity of mathematical Set Theory and of First Order Predicate Logic, as outlined in E. F. Codd's original treatise on relational database design, and makes it easy for anyone to understand. If you want an elementary- through intermediate-level course on SQL, this is the one book that is a requirement, no matter how many others you buy."--Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP"Even in this day of wizards and code generators, successful database developers still require a sound knowledge of Structured Query Language (SQL, the standard language for communicating with most database systems). In this book, John and Mike do a marvelous job of making what's usually a dry and difficult subject come alive, presenting the material with humor in a logical manner, with plenty of relevant examples. I would say that this book should feature prominently in the collection on the bookshelf of all serious developers, except that I'm sure it'll get so much use that it won't spend much time on the shelf "-- Doug Steele, Microsoft Access Developer and author"Over the last several decades, SQL has evolved from a language known only to computer specialists to a widely used international standard of the computer industry. The number of new applications deployed each year using SQL now totals in the millions. If you are accessing corporate information from the Internet or from an internal network, you are probably using SQL. This new edition of "SQL Queries for Mere Mortals" helps new users learn the foundations of SQL queries, and is an essential reference guide for intermediate and advanced users.The accompanying CD contains five sample databases used for the example queries throughout the book in four different formats: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and later, Microsoft Access 2000 and later, MySQL version 5.0 and later, and SQL scripts that can be used with most other implementations of the language.

    However, these activities can be viewed as two facets of the same field, and together they have undergone substantial development over the past ten years. In particular, Bayesian methods have grown from a specialist niche to become mainstream, while graphical models have emerged as a general framework for describing and applying probabilistic models. Also, the practical applicability of Bayesian methods has been greatly enhanced through the development of a range of approximate inference algorithms such as variational Bayes and expectation propagation. Similarly, new models based on kernels have had a significant impact on both algorithms and applications. This new textbook reflects these recent developments while providing a comprehensive introduction to the fields of pattern recognition and machine learning. It is aimed at advanced undergraduates or first-year PhD students, as well as researchers and practitioners, and assumes no previous knowledge of pattern recognition or machine learning concepts. Knowledge of multivariate calculus and basic linear algebra is required, and some familiarity with probabilities would be helpful though not essential as the book includes a self-contained introduction to basic probability theory.