How was a new character supposed to choose a class? How was he supposed to survive? Just one wrong step could mean imminent death.

    More than 250 challenging practice questions have been completely revised to closely model the format, tone, topics, and difficulty of the real exam. An integrated study system based on proven pedagogy, exam coverage includes step-by-step exercises, special Exam Watch notes, On-the-Job elements, and Self Tests with in-depth answer explanations to help reinforce and teach practical skills.Praise for the author:"Finally A Java certification book that explains everything clearly. All you need to pass the exam is in this book."--Solveig Haugland, Technical Trainer and Former Sun Course Developer"Who better to write a Java study guide than Kathy Sierra, the reigning queen of Java instruction? Kathy Sierra has done it again--here is a study guide that almost guarantees you a certification "--James Cubeta, Systems Engineer, SGI"The thing I appreciate most about Kathy is her quest to make us all remember that we are teaching people and not just lecturing about Java. Her passion and desire for the highest quality education that meets the needs of the individual student is positively unparalleled at SunEd. Undoubtedly there are hundreds of students who have benefited from taking Kathy's classes."--Victor Peters, founder Next Step Education & Software Sun Certified Java Instructor"I want to thank Kathy for the EXCELLENT Study Guide. The book is well written, every concept is clearly explained using a real life example, and the book states what you specifically need to know for the exam. The way it's written, you feel that you're in a classroom and someone is actually teaching you the difficult concepts, but not in a dry, formal manner. The questions at the end of the chapters are also REALLY good, and I am sure they will help candidates pass the test. Watch out for this Wickedly Smart book."-Alfred Raouf, Web Solution Developer, Kemety.Net"The Sun Certification exam was certainly no walk in the park but Kathy's material allowed me to not only pass the exam, but Ace it "--Mary Whetsel, Sr. Technology Specialist, Application Strategy and Integration, The St. Paul Companies

    But there’s just one problem: her parents have agreed to marry her off to a two-faced, arrogant Lord. Since everyone but her seems to be blind to his deceit, she decides to concoct a plan to prove his evil ways. But little did she know, when she traveled to London with her family, that she was about to meet an exciting man, capable of stealing her heart. Will she manage to focus on her mission or will she surrender to her feelings?Handsome Lord Ewan Conrad is a man of incredible title and status. Despite his wealth, he’s building an importing and exporting business that sends him traveling around different cities and countries. He’s in it for the adventure, even though gossip swirls around him. But when he returns home in London, he’s struck with the beauty and charm of a young Lady. Will he dare to aim at her heart or will the secrets she seems to carry get him away from her?Soon enough, the heroes are about to find themselves in a whirlwind of gossip, anger and betrayal. Will Charlotte find a way to escape from the terror of the deceitful Lord? And will Ewan and Charlotte find in one another a true soul mate, despite all odds?

    Not any more. Wordpress makes it possible for anyone to create and run a professional looking website.While Wordpress is an amazing tool, the truth is it does have a steep learning curve, even if you have built websites before. Therefore, the goal of this book is to take anyone, even a complete beginner and get them building a professional looking website. I'll hold your hand, step-by-step, all the way. As I was planning this book, I made one decision early on. I wanted to use screenshots of everything, so the reader wasn't left looking for something on their screen that I was describing in text. This book has screenshots. I haven't counted them all, but it must be close to 300. These screenshots will help you find the things I am talking about. They'll help you check your settings and options against the screenshot of mine. No more doubt, no more wondering if you have it correct. Look, compare and move on to the next section.With so many screenshots, you may be worried that the text might be a little on the skimpy side. No need to worry there. I have described in the minutest detail, every step on your journey to a great looking website. In all, this book has over 35,000 words. This book will cut your learning curve associated with WordpressEvery chapter of the book ends with a "Tasks to Complete" section. By completing these tasks, you'll not only become proficient at using Wordpress, you'll become confident & enjoy using Wordpress.

     As someone that has used the Bash shell almost daily for over 15 years, I've accumulated several command line "tricks" that have saved me time and frustration. Bash Command Line Pro Tips is a collection of 10 techniques that you can put to use right away to increase your efficiency at the command line. Here is what you will learn by reading Bash Command Line Pro Tips: Tip 1: Tab Completion Tip 2: Change to the Previous Directory Tip 3: Reuse the Last Item from the Previous Command Line Tip 4: Rerun a Command That Starts with a given String Tip 5: Command Substitution Tip 6: Use a for Loop at the Command Line Tip 7: Rerun the Previous Command with Root Privileges Tip 8: Rerun the Previous Command While Substituting a String Tip 9: Reuse a Word on the Same Command Line Tip 10: Fix Typos and Shorten Lengthy Commands with Aliases Scroll up, click the "Buy Now With 1-Click" button to start leaning these powerful Linux Command Line Tips.

    This title identifies the twelve fundamental design principles for building killer apps. It illustrates these principles with classic stories from history and examples from a range of industries that have successfully developed killer apps.

    Code Craft author Pete Goodliffe presents a collection of useful techniques and approaches to the art and craft of programming that will help boost your career and your well-being.Goodliffe presents sound advice that he's learned in 15 years of professional programming. The book's standalone chapters span the range of a software developer's life--dealing with code, learning the trade, and improving performance--with no language or industry bias. Whether you're a seasoned developer, a neophyte professional, or a hobbyist, you'll find valuable tips in five independent categories:Code-level techniques for crafting lines of code, testing, debugging, and coping with complexityPractices, approaches, and attitudes: keep it simple, collaborate well, reuse, and create malleable codeTactics for learning effectively, behaving ethically, finding challenges, and avoiding stagnationPractical ways to complete things: use the right tools, know what "done" looks like, and seek help from colleaguesHabits for working well with others, and pursuing development as a social activity

    Now, Core JavaServer™ Faces–the #1 guide to JSF–has been thoroughly updated in this second edition, covering the latest feature enhancements, the powerful Ajax development techniques, and open source innovations that make JSF even more valuable. Authors David Geary and Cay Horstmann delve into all facets of JSF 1.2 development, offering systematic best practices for building robust applications, minimizing handcoding, and maximizing productivity. Drawing on unsurpassed insider knowledge of the Java platform, they present solutions, hints, tips, and “how-tos” for writing superior JSF 1.2 production code, even if you’re new to JSF, JavaServer Pages™, or servlets.The second edition’s extensive new coverage includes: JSF 1.2’s improved alignment with the broader Java EE 5 platform; enhancements to the JSF APIs; controlling Web flow with Shale; and using Facelets to replace JSP with XHTML markup. The authors also introduce Ajax development with JSF–from real-time validation and Direct Web Remoting to wrapping Ajax in JSF components and using the popular Ajax4jsf framework.This book will help you Automate low-level details and eliminate unnecessary complexity in server-side development Discover JSF best practices, ranging from effective UI design and style sheets to internationalization Use JSF with Tiles to build consistent, reusable user interfaces Leverage external services such as databases, LDAP directories, authentication/authorization, and Webservices Use JBoss Seam to greatly simplify development of database-backed applications Implement custom components, converters, and validators Master the JSF 1.2 tag libararies, and extend JSF with additional tag libraries Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Getting Started Chapter 2: Managed Beans Chapter 3: Navigation Chapter 4: Standard JSF Tags Chapter 5: Data Tables Chapter 6: Conversion and Validation Chapter 7: Event Handling Chapter 8: Subviews and Tiles Chapter 9: Custom Components, Converters, and Validators Chapter 10: External Services Chapter 11: Ajax Chapter 12: Open Source Chapter 13: How Do I . . . Index

    The rapid maturation of PHP has created a skeptical population of users from more traditional enterprise languages who question the readiness and ability of PHP to scale, as well as a large population of PHP developers without formal computer science backgrounds who have learned through the hands-on experimentation while developing small and midsize applications in PHP. While there are many books on learning PHP and developing small applications with it, there is a serious lack of information on scaling PHP for large-scale, business-critical systems. Schlossnagle's Advanced PHP Programming fills that void, demonstrating that PHP is ready for enterprise Web applications by showing the reader how to develop PHP-based applications for maximum performance, stability, and extensibility.

    Cloud computing is rapidly transitioning from a niche technology embraced by startups and tech-forward companies to the foundation upon which enterprise systems build their future. In order to compete in today’s marketplace, organizations large and small are embracing cloud architectures and practices.

    That’s why I decided to escape my fate as the future Demon Lord and reincarnate into the realm of Ria.My plan? As Luc Vale, the mortal mage, I’ll live out a real life and become an adventurer.But first, I must master this world’s new magic at the Tower Guild Academy. After forming a party with a gorgeous and clumsy woman, I learned that being human is nothing like I imagined.Not only is my new smelly body weaker than I’m used to, I’ve also discovered the… distractions of carnal pleasure. All is going according to plan until a danger emerges that threatens all of Ria. I should be strong enough to vanquish the Tower’s dark secret.As long as no one discovers who I truly am. ~If you like light-hearted romance, quirky humor, and a dash of adventure, this story is for you.Great for anime weebs who enjoy shows like How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord.(Contains unconventional relationships and adult situations.)

    Fueled by significant benefits and an impressive portfolio of real-world applications already in production, Rails is destined to continue making significant inroads in coming years.Each new Rails application showing up on the web adds yet more to the collective wisdom of the Rails development community. Yesterday's best practices yield to today's latest and greatest techniques, as the state of the art is continually refined in kitchens all across the Internet. Indeed, these are times of great progress.At the same time, it's easy to get left behind in the wake of progress. Advanced Rails Recipes keeps you on the cutting edge of Rails development and, more importantly, continues to turn this fast-paced framework to your advantage.Advanced Rails Recipes is filled with pragmatic recipes you'll use on every Rails project. And by taking the code in these recipes and slipping it into your application you'll not only deliver your application quicker, you'll do so with the confidence that it's done right.The book includes contributions from Aaron Batalion, Adam Keys, Adam Wiggins, Andre Lewis, Andrew Kappen, Benjamin Curtis, Ben Smith, Chris Bernard, Chris Haupt, Chris Wanstrath, Cody Fauser, Dan Benjamin, Dan Manges, Daniel Fischer, David Bock, David Chelimsky, David Heinemeier Hansson, Erik Hatcher, Ezra Zygmuntowicz, Geoffrey Grosenbach, Giles Bowkett, Greg Hansen, Gregg Pollack, Hemant Kumar, Hugh Bien, Jamie Orchard-Hays, Jamis Buck, Jared Haworth, Jarkko Laine, Jason LaPier, Jay Fields, John Dewey, Jonathan Dahl, Josep Blanquer, Josh Stephenson, Josh Susser, Kevin Clark, Luke Francl, Mark Bates, Marty Haught, Matthew Bass, Michael Slater, Mike Clark, Mike Hagedorn, Mike Mangino, Mike Naberezny, Mike Subelsky, Nathaniel Talbott, PJ Hyett, Patrick Reagan, Peter Marklund, Pierre-Alexandre Meyer, Rick Olson, Ryan Bates, Scott Barron, Tony Primerano, Val Aleksenko, and Warren Konkel.

    But what if you could have your computer do them for you?In "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python," you'll learn how to use Python to write programs that do in minutes what would take you hours to do by hand no prior programming experience required. Once you've mastered the basics of programming, you'll create Python programs that effortlessly perform useful and impressive feats of automation to: Search for text in a file or across multiple filesCreate, update, move, and rename files and foldersSearch the Web and download online contentUpdate and format data in Excel spreadsheets of any sizeSplit, merge, watermark, and encrypt PDFsSend reminder emails and text notificationsFill out online formsStep-by-step instructions walk you through each program, and practice projects at the end of each chapter challenge you to improve those programs and use your newfound skills to automate similar tasks.Don't spend your time doing work a well-trained monkey could do. Even if you've never written a line of code, you can make your computer do the grunt work. Learn how in "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.""

    His books have been read by over 1,000,000 people and are #1 best-sellers. His book Beginning Ubuntu Linux recently entered its sixth edition, and picked-up a Linux Journal award along the way. Thomas is also the author of Ubuntu Kung Fu. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Get to grips with the Ubuntu command-line with this #1 best-selling and concise guide. "Best buck I've spent yet" — Amazon review.* Readable, accessible and easy to understand;* Learn essential Ubuntu vocational skills, or read just for fun;* Covers Ubuntu commands, syntax, the filesystem, plus advanced techniques;* For ANY version of Linux based on Debian, such as Linux Mint--not just Ubuntu!;* Includes BONUS introduction to Ubuntu chapter, plus a glossary appendix and a guide to reading Linux/Unix documentation.

    In this acclaimed reference work, Martin covers everything from the core aspects of working in Photoshop to advanced techniques for professional results. Subjects covered include organizing a digital workflow, improving creativity, output, automating Photoshop, and using Camera RAW. The style of the book is extremely clear, with real examples, diagrams, illustrations, and step-by-step explanations supporting the text throughout. This is, quite simply, the essential reference for photographers of all levels using Photoshop. All DVD content is now available online at http://booksite.focalpress.com/compan... for kindle and eBook readers. * Learn Photoshop the Martin Evening way! Everything you need to know for superb photographic results using Photoshop CS5 * Accompanying DVD includes the images used in the book, as well as QuickTime movie tutorials that show you how to get results fast * Packed with diagrams, step-by-steps, and over 750 color images