It's challenging--each hand presents a different set of conditions you must figure out and solve. It's very social--you play with a partner and two opponents. And best of all--it's fun. Bridge For Dummies, 2E gives you a step-by-step explanation of the fundamentals of the game in terms you can understand. It walks you through the different aspects of bridge, featuring real-life examples, so that you can feel comfortable with the basics before you ever start to play. And if you're already experienced at the game, you'll discover a wealth of tips and hints that can make you a better player. You'll learn all about:The basics of nontrump play How to play the hand in a trump contract Bidding for fun and profit Taking advantage of advanced bidding techniques Playing a strong defense and keeping score Playing bridge on your computer Playing in bridge clubs and tournaments Where to find other great bridge resources This newly revised edition features an expanded section on playing bridge online, with updated web addresses and other resources, along with new information on the latest bidding techniques. For anyone from novice to pro wanting to learn bridge or learn techniques to improve their game, Bridge For Dummies, 2E makes an ideal partner!

    More than three years in development and subjected to numerous industry reviews, the 85 patterns in this full-color book provide the most successful and proven design techniques to overcoming the most common and critical problems to achieving modern-day SOA. Through numerous examples, individually documented pattern profiles, and over 400 color illustrations, this book provides in-depth coverage of:• Patterns for the design, implementation, and governance of service inventories–collections of services representing individual service portfolios that can be independently modeled, designed, and evolved.• Patterns specific to service-level architecture which pertain to a wide range of design areas, including contract design, security, legacy encapsulation, reliability, scalability, and a variety of implementation and governance issues.• Service composition patterns that address the many aspects associated with combining services into aggregate distributed solutions, including topics such as runtime messaging and message design, inter-service security controls, and transformation.• Compound patterns (such as Enterprise Service Bus and Orchestration) and recommended pattern application sequences that establish foundational processes. The book begins by establishing SOA types that are referenced throughout the patterns and then form the basis of a final chapter that discusses the architectural impact of service-oriented computing in general. These chapters bookend the pattern catalog to provide a clear link between SOA design patterns, the strategic goals of service-oriented computing, different SOA types, and the service-orientation design paradigm.This book series is further supported by a series of resources sites, including soabooks.com, soaspecs.com, soapatterns.org, soamag.com, and soaposters.com.

    Are You Ready To Learn Python Easily? Learning Python Programming in 7 days is possible, although it might not look like it

    It's the expertise you need when your start-up gets an unexpected spike in web traffic, or when a new feature causes your mature application to fail. In this collection of essays and interviews, web veterans such as Theo Schlossnagle, Baron Schwartz, and Alistair Croll offer insights into this evolving field. You'll learn stories from the trenches--from builders of some of the biggest sites on the Web--on what's necessary to help a site thrive.Learn the skills needed in web operations, and why they're gained through experience rather than schoolingUnderstand why it's important to gather metrics from both your application and infrastructureConsider common approaches to database architectures and the pitfalls that come with increasing scaleLearn how to handle the human side of outages and degradationsFind out how one company avoided disaster after a huge traffic delugeDiscover what went wrong after a problem occurs, and how to prevent it from happening againContributors include:John AllspawHeather ChampMichael ChristianRichard CookAlistair CrollPatrick DeboisEric FlorenzanoPaul HammondJustin HuffAdam JacobJacob LoomisMatt MassieBrian MoonAnoop NagwaniSean PowerEric RiesTheo SchlossnagleBaron SchwartzAndrew Shafer

    Are you overwhelmed by the selection of beers available at your local pub or favorite restaurant? Do you know the difference between a lager and an ale? Would you like to try brewing your own beer but are too afraid that you'd blow up the kitchen? Well, fear no more! "Beer For Dummies™ " is your prefect introduction to the world of beer, covering everything from microbrews to homebrewing -- with tips for how to match beer with food, how to pour and store beer properly, and how to enjoy your beer at its fullest! Inside, you'll find barrels of information on how to: Taste beer and evaluate its hops, malt, color, and clarity Decipher beer labels and read a beer menu like a pro Understand the "technical stuff" about beer and homebrewing techniques Recognize the characteristics of ales, lagers, and other beer styles Try beers from all over the world Pour, store, and drink beer from the right kinds of glassware Brew your own beer in the basement or kitchen Locate cool beer festivals, tastings, and events held around the world Join beer clubs or associations and subscribe to beer publications, online forums, and more

    It includes a complete chapter on C++ and an overall organization designed to appeal to the many programmers who view C as a stepping stone to C++ and the object-oriented paradigm. This edition also features an increased emphasis on modules and ADTs, which are essential concepts for creating reusable code and which show how to use header files to tie together a multi-file program. computer science students.

    It gives you hundreds of solutions to real-world problems, with clear explanations and thousands of lines of code you can use in your own projects.From data structures and algorithms, to integration with cutting-edge technologies, the Ruby Cookbook has something for every programmer. Beginners and advanced Rubyists alike will learn how to program with:Strings and numbersArrays and hashesClasses, modules, and namespacesReflection and metaprogrammingXML and HTML processingRuby on Rails (including Ajax integration)DatabasesGraphicsInternet services like email, SSH, and BitTorrentWeb servicesMultitaskingGraphical and terminal interfacesIf you need to write a web application, this book shows you how to get started with Rails. If you're a system administrator who needs to rename thousands of files, you'll see how to use Ruby for this and other everyday tasks. You'll learn how to read and write Excel spreadsheets, classify text with Bayesian filters, and create PDF files. We've even included a few silly tricks that were too cool to leave out, like how to blink the lights on your keyboard.The Ruby Cookbook is the most useful book yet written about Ruby. When you need to solve a problem, don't reinvent the wheel: look it up in the Cookbook.

    Data Science For Dummies is the perfect starting point for IT professionals and students interested in making sense of their organization’s massive data sets and applying their findings to real-world business scenarios. From uncovering rich data sources to managing large amounts of data within hardware and software limitations, ensuring consistency in reporting, merging various data sources, and beyond, you’ll develop the know-how you need to effectively interpret data and tell a story that can be understood by anyone in your organization. Provides a background in data science fundamentals before moving on to working with relational databases and unstructured data and preparing your data for analysis Details different data visualization techniques that can be used to showcase and summarize your data Explains both supervised and unsupervised machine learning, including regression, model validation, and clustering techniques Includes coverage of big data processing tools like MapReduce, Hadoop, Dremel, Storm, and Spark It’s a big, big data world out there – let Data Science For Dummies help you harness its power and gain a competitive edge for your organization.

    This report provides a brief yet comprehensive introduction to Python for engineers, researchers, and data scientists who are already familiar with another programming language.Author Jake VanderPlas, an interdisciplinary research director at the University of Washington, explains Python’s essential syntax and semantics, built-in data types and structures, function definitions, control flow statements, and more, using Python 3 syntax.You’ll explore:- Python syntax basics and running Python codeBasic semantics of Python variables, objects, and operators- Built-in simple types and data structures- Control flow statements for executing code blocks conditionally- Methods for creating and using reusable functionsIterators, list comprehensions, and generators- String manipulation and regular expressions- Python’s standard library and third-party modules- Python’s core data science tools- Recommended resources to help you learn more

    You no longer use HTML and XHTML as design tools, but strictly as ways to define the meaning and structure of web content. And Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are no longer just something interesting to tinker with, but a reliable method for handling all matters of presentation, from fonts and colors to page layout. When you follow the standards, both the site's design and underlying code are much cleaner. But how do you keep all those HTML and XHTML tags and CSS values straight? Jennifer Niederst-Robbins, the author of our definitive guide on standards-compliant design, Web Design in a Nutshell, offers you the perfect little guide when you need answers immediately: HTML and XHTML Pocket Reference. This revised and updated new edition takes the top 20% of vital reference information from her Nutshell book, augments it judiciously, cross-references everything, and organizes it according to the most common needs of web developers. The result is a handy book that offers the bare essentials on web standards in a small, concise format that you can use carry anywhere for quick reference. This guide will literally fit into your back pocket. Inside HTML and XHTML Pocket Reference, you'll find instantly accessible alphabetical listings of every element and attribute in the HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 Recommendations. This is an indispensable reference for any serious web designer, author, or programmer who needs a fast on-the-job resource when working with established web standards.

    

    And it’s still short, profusely illustrated…and best of all–fun to read.If you’ve read it before, you’ll rediscover what made Don’t Make Me Think so essential to Web designers and developers around the world. If you’ve never read it, you’ll see why so many people have said it should be required reading for anyone working on Web sites.

    With a growing and diverse population of internet users out there, the world has definitely become a smaller place. Over 450 million people use the Internet for email correspondence, ecommerce, social networking, research, local and worldwide news reports, and much more. Whether you are just starting out in your online travels or even if you have been online for awhile, The Internet For Dummies, shows you how to do everything better and faster. You'll surf the Web, do research, conduct business transactions, and much more--like a seasoned pro!The Internet For Dummies will walk you through the fundamentals of the Internet, as well as provide more advanced techniques and features to explore once you get your feet on the ground. This resourceful guide will help you:Connect to the Internet and understand the different ways to connect, including wireless, DSL, and cable Set up an e-mail account and communicate through e-mail Explore other communication tools such as Instant Messaging and message boards Use search engines like Yahoo! and Google to browse and research Shop and sell online Investigate online Web communities like blogs and social sites Create your own Web page and handle general Internet housekeeping In this fully updated edition, The Internet for Dummies will help you get the most out of your Internet experience. Written by renowned authors, this book is sure to be valuable to both new users and experienced ones alike.

    Due to their monopoly position in web browsers, and the fact web browsers have spread from PCs to phones, tablets and TVs; their status will continue to grow and grow. Despite their success, many software engineers are apprehensive about JavaScript and HTML. This apprehensiveness is not completely unfounded; both JavaScript and HTML were rushed in their early years, and driven by commercial rather than engineering interests. As a result, many dubious features crept into these languages. Due to backwards compatibility concerns, most of these features still remain. In addition, many software engineers have used these languages without ever learning them. JavaScript and HTML have low barriers to entry, and this, along with their similarity to other languages, led many software engineers to conclude that there really was nothing much to learn. If you have not used JavaScript and HTML for a number of years, or if you are a programmer or software engineer using other languages, you may be surprised at what they now offer. Browser based web applications are now capable of matching or exceeding the sophistication and scale of traditional desktop applications. In order to create complex web applications however, it is essential to learn these languages. This book takes the point of view that once you have a strong grasp of the fundamentals, the details will take care of themselves. It will not present you with long lists of APIs, or intricate details of every attribute, these can be found in reference manuals. It will focus on the details of each language that are fundamental to understanding how they work. This book will guide you through the process of developing a web application using HTML5, Javascript, jQuery and CSS. It contains the following content: 1. An introduction to the HTML5 markup language, and how it differs from HTML4 and XHTML. 2. An introduction to JavaScript, including an in-depth look at its use of objects and functions, along with the design patterns that support the development of robust web applications. 3. An introduction to jQuery selection, traversal, manipulation and events. 4. An in-depth look at the Web storage and IndexedDB APIs for client side data storage. 5. A guide to implementing offline web applications with the Application Cache API. 6. An introduction to the ways JavaScript can interact with the users file-system using the FileReader API. 7. The use of Web Workers in a web application to execute algorithms on background threads. 8. An introduction to AJAX, and the jQuery API supporting AJAX. 9. An introduction to Server Sent Events and Web Sockets. All subjects are introduced in the context of a sample web application. This book is intended for anyone with at least a superficial knowledge of HTML and programming.

    This update to the bestselling first edition dives in to cover the exciting new features of the latest release of the Android mobile platform.Providing in-depth coverage of how to build mobile applications using the next major release of the Android SDK, this invaluable resource takes a hands-on approach to discussing Android with a series of projects, each of which introduces a new feature and highlights techniques and best practices to get the most out of Android.The Android SDK is a powerful, flexible, open source platform for mobile devices Shares helpful techniques and best practices to maximize the capabilities of Android Explains the possibilities of Android through the use of a series of detailed projects Demonstrates how to create real-world mobile applications for Android phones Includes coverage of the latest version of Android Providing concise and compelling examples, Professional Android Application Development is an updated guide aimed at helping you create mobile applications for mobile devices running the latest version of Android.