So how did he go from hapless office worker and serial failure to the creator of Dilbert, one of the world’s most famous syndicated comic strips, in just a few years? In How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Adams shares the strategy he has used since he was a teen to invite failure in, to embrace it, then pick its pocket. No career guide can offer advice for success that works for everyone. As Adams explains, your best bet is to study the ways of others who made it big and try to glean some tricks and strategies that make sense for you. Adams pulls back the covers on his own unusual life and shares what he learned for turning one failure after another into something good and lasting. Adams reveals that he failed at just about everything he’s tried, including his corporate career, his inventions, his investments, and his two restaurants. But there’s a lot to learn from his personal story, and a lot of humor along the way. While it’s hard for anyone to recover from a personal or professional failure, Adams discovered some unlikely truths that helped to propel him forward. For instance:• Goals are for losers. Systems are for winners.• "Passion" is bull. What you need is personal energy.• A combination of mediocre skills can make you surprisingly valuable.• You can manage your odds in a way that makes you look lucky to others.

    Less inventory. The highest quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer. In factories around the globe, Toyota consistently raises the bar for manufacturing, product development, and process excellence. The result is an amazing business success story: steadily taking market share from price-cutting competitors, earning far more profit than any other automaker, and winning the praise of business leaders worldwide.The Toyota Way reveals the management principles behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability. Dr. Jeffrey Liker, a renowned authority on Toyota's Lean methods, explains how you can adopt these principles--known as the "Toyota Production System" or "Lean Production"--to improve the speed of your business processes, improve product and service quality, and cut costs, no matter what your industry.Drawing on his extensive research on Toyota, Dr. Liker shares his insights into the foundational principles at work in the Toyota culture. He explains how the Toyota Production System evolved as a new paradigm of manufacturing excellence, transforming businesses across industries. You'll learn how Toyota fosters employee involvement at all levels, discover the difference between traditional process improvement and Toyota's Lean improvement, and learn why companies often think they are Lean--but aren't.

    The consequences of this gathering may be enormous. In this new ebook, experts Patrick J. Michaels and Paul C. Knappenberger assess the issues sure to drive the debate before, during, and after the Paris meeting.

    It's Tuesday morning and on his drive into the office, Bill gets a call from the CEO. The company's new IT initiative, code named Phoenix Project, is critical to the future of Parts Unlimited, but the project is massively over budget and very late. The CEO wants Bill to report directly to him and fix the mess in ninety days or else Bill's entire department will be outsourced. With the help of a prospective board member and his mysterious philosophy of The Three Ways, Bill starts to see that IT work has more in common with manufacturing plant work than he ever imagined. With the clock ticking, Bill must organize work flow streamline interdepartmental communications, and effectively serve the other business functions at Parts Unlimited. In a fast-paced and entertaining style, three luminaries of the DevOps movement deliver a story that anyone who works in IT will recognize. Readers will not only learn how to improve their own IT organizations, they'll never view IT the same way again.

    As the industry standard for platform-independent reusable business components, EJB has just become Sun Microsystem's latest developer certification. Whether you want to be certifiable or just want to learn the technology inside and out, Head First EJB will get you there in the least painful way. And with the greatest understanding.You'll learn not just what the technology is, but more importantly, why it is, and what it is and isn't good for. You'll learn tricks and tips for EJB development, along with tricks and tips for passing this latest, very challenging Sun Certified Business Component Developer (SCBCD) exam. You'll learn how to think like a server. You'll learn how to think like a bean. And because this is a Head First book, you'll learn how to think about thinking.Co-author Kathy Sierra was one of Sun's first employees to teach brave, early adopter customers how to use EJB. She has the scars. But besides dragging you deep into EJB technology, Kathy and Bert will see you through your certification exam, if you decide to go for it. And nobody knows the certification like they do - they're co-developers of Sun's actual exam!As the second book in the Head First series, Head First EJB follows up the number one best-selling Java book in the US, Head First Java. Find out why reviewers are calling it a revolution in learning tough technical topics, and why Sun Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy says, "Java technology is everywhere...if you develop software and haven't learned Java, it's definitely time to dive in "Head First."And with Head First book, you don't even have to feel guilty about having fun while you're learning; it's all part of the learning theory. If the latest research in cognitive science, education, and neurobiology suggested that boring, dry, and excruciatingly painful was the best way to learn, we'd have done it. Thankfully, it's been shown that your brain has a sense of style, a sense of humour, and a darn good sense of what it likes and dislikes.In Head First EJB, you'll learn all about:Component-based and role-based development The architecture of EJB, distributed programming with RMI Developing and Deploying an EJB application The Client View of a Session and Entity bean The Session Bean Lifecycle and Component Contract The Entity bean Lifecycle and Component Contract Container-managed Persistence (CMP) Container-managed Relationships (CMR) EJB-QL Transactions Security EJB Exceptions The Deployment Descriptor The Enterprise Bean Environment in JNDI Programming Restrictions and PortabilityThe book includes over 200 mock exam questions that match the tone, style, difficulty, and topics on the real SCBCD exam. See why Kathy and Bert are responsible for thousands of successful exam-passers--"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"Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates are two of the few people in the world who can make complicated things seem damn simple, and as if that isn't enough, they can make boring things seem interesting." --Paul Wheaton, The Trail Boss, javaranch.com"Who better to write a Java study guide than Kathy Sierra, reigning queen of Java instruction? Kathy Sierra has done it again. Here is a study guide that almost guarantees you a certification!" --James Cubetta, Systems Engineer, SGI

    Once you have thoroughly covered the basics, the book returns to each concept to cover more advanced examples and techniques. This book is for web designers who want to create interactive elements for their designs, and for developers who want to create the best user interface for their web applications. Basic JavaScript programming and knowledge of HTML and CSS is required. No knowledge of jQuery is assumed, nor is experience with any other JavaScript libraries.

     Test-Driven JavaScript Development is a complete, best-practice guide to agile JavaScript testing and quality assurance with the test-driven development (TDD) methodology. Leading agile JavaScript developer Christian Johansen covers all aspects of applying state-of-the-art automated testing in JavaScript environments, walking readers through the entire development lifecycle, from project launch to application deployment, and beyond.Using real-life examples driven by unit tests, Johansen shows how to use TDD to gain greater confidence in your code base, so you can fearlessly refactor and build more robust, maintainable, and reliable JavaScript code at lower cost. Throughout, he addresses crucial issues ranging from code design to performance optimization, offering realistic solutions for developers, QA specialists, and testers.Coverage includes - Understanding automated testing and TDD - Building effective automated testing workflows - Testing code for both browsers and servers (using Node.js) - Using TDD to build cleaner APIs, better modularized code, and more robust software - Writing testable code - Using test stubs and mocks to test units in isolation - Continuously improving code through refactoring - Walking through the construction and automated testing of fully functional softwareThe accompanying Web site, tddjs.com, contains all of the book's code listings and additional resources.

    It draws on your authentic nature to win with people rather than trying to impress them.This book is a practical guide to:• Communicating effectively• Mastering the art of saying No• Building genuine relationships• Learning effective listening skills• Cultivating people skills for the digital ageWhether meeting people personally or over a video call, this book prepares you to influence people and make a memorable impact in every situation.

    The authors identify 10 qualities, attributes, and skills that help to explain Lincoln's effectiveness, despite seemingly insurmountable odds:1. Implementing and sustaining a mission and vision with focused and profound clarity2. Communicating ideas effectively with precise and straightforward language3. Building a diverse and competent team to successfully address the mission4. Engendering trust, loyalty, and respect through humility, humor, and personal example5. Leading and serving with emotional intelligence and empathy6. Exercising situational competence and responding appropriately to implement effective change7. Rising beyond personal and professional trials through tenacity, persistence, resilience, and courage8. Exercising purposeful visibility9. Demonstrating personal growth and enhanced competence as a lifetime learner, willing to reflect on and expand ideas10. Believing that hope can become a realityChapters devoted to each element explore the historical record of Lincoln's life and actions, then discuss the implications for modern educators. End-of-chapter exercises provide a structure for reflection, analysis of current behaviors, and guidance for future work, so that readers can create their own path to success--inspired by the example of one of the greatest leaders of all time.

    This supplement will cater to the requirements of students by covering all important topics of Laplace transformation, Matrices, Numerical Methods. Further enhanced is its usability by inclusion of chapter end questions in sync with student needs. Table of contents: 1. Basic Concepts 2. An Introduction to Modeling and Qualitative Methods 3. Classification of First-Order Differential Equations 4. Separable First-Order Differential Equations 5. Exact First-order Differential Equations 6. Linear First-Order Differential Equations 7. Applications of First-Order Differential Equations 8. Linear Differential Equations: Theory of Solutions 9. Second-Order Linear Homogeneous Differential Equations with Constant Coefficients 10. nth-Order Linear Homogeneous Differential Equations with Constant Coefficients 11. The Method of Undetermined Coefficients 12. Variation of Parameters 13. Initial-Value Problems for Linear Differential Equations 14. Applications of Second-Order Linear Differential Equations 15. Matrices 16. eAt 17. Reduction of Linear Differential Equations to a System of First-Order Equations 18. Existence and Uniqueness of Solutions 19. Graphical and Numerical Methods for Solving First-Order Differential Equations 20. Further Numerical Methods for Solving First-Order Differential Equations 21. Numerical Methods for Solving Second-Order Differential Equations Via Systems 22. The Laplace Transform 23. Inverse Laplace Transforms 24. Convolutions and the Unit Step Function 25. Solutions of Linear Differential Equations with Constant Coefficients by Laplace Transforms 26. Solutions of Linear?Systems by Laplace Transforms 27. Solutions of Linear Differential Equations with Constant Coefficients by Matrix Methods 28. Power Series Solutions of Linear Differential Equations with Variable Coefficients 29. Special Functions 30. Series Solutions N

    Controlling a class isn't something that comes naturally to everyone - but it can be learned.This no-nonsense guide tells teachers what the teacher training didn't, and offers instant strategies for dealing with the most common, and extreme, classroom scenarios.Using his experiences of teaching in inner-city schools, as Behaviour Guru on the TES advice forum and working as a nightclub bouncer, Tom Bennett helps teachers, old and new, to assert their authority in the classroom.

    Digital technologies—with hardware, software, and networks at their core—will in the near future diagnose diseases more accurately than doctors can, apply enormous data sets to transform retailing, and accomplish many tasks once considered uniquely human.In The Second Machine Age MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee—two thinkers at the forefront of their field—reveal the forces driving the reinvention of our lives and our economy. As the full impact of digital technologies is felt, we will realize immense bounty in the form of dazzling personal technology, advanced infrastructure, and near-boundless access to the cultural items that enrich our lives.Amid this bounty will also be wrenching change. Professions of all kinds—from lawyers to truck drivers—will be forever upended. Companies will be forced to transform or die. Recent economic indicators reflect this shift: fewer people are working, and wages are falling even as productivity and profits soar.Drawing on years of research and up-to-the-minute trends, Brynjolfsson and McAfee identify the best strategies for survival and offer a new path to prosperity. These include revamping education so that it prepares people for the next economy instead of the last one, designing new collaborations that pair brute processing power with human ingenuity, and embracing policies that make sense in a radically transformed landscape.A fundamentally optimistic book, The Second Machine Age alters how we think about issues of technological, societal, and economic progress.

    Mainstream agile approaches that are indeed suitable for small projects require significant tailoring for larger, complex enterprise projects. In "Disciplined Agile Delivery," Scott W. Ambler and Mark Lines introduce IBM's breakthrough Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) process framework, which describes how to do this tailoring. DAD applies a more disciplined approach to agile development by acknowledging and dealing with the realities and complexities of a portfolio of interdependent program initiatives. Ambler and Lines show how to extend Scrum with supplementary agile and lean strategies from Agile Modeling (AM), Extreme Programming (XP), Kanban, Unified Process (UP), and other proven methods to provide a hybrid approach that is adaptable to your organization's unique needs. They candidly describe what practices work best, why they work, what the trade-offs are, and when to consider alternatives, all within the context of your situation. "Disciplined Agile Delivery "addresses agile practices across the entire lifecycle, from requirements, architecture, and development to delivery and governance. The authors show how these best-practice techniques fit together in an end-to-end process for successfully delivering large, complex systems--from project initiation through delivery. Coverage includesScaling agile for mission-critical enterprise endeavorsAvoiding mistakes that drive poorly run agile projects to chaosEffectively initiating an agile projectTransitioning as an individual to agileIncrementally building consumable solutionsDeploying agile solutions into complex production environmentsLeveraging DevOps, architecture, and other enterprise disciplinesAdapting your governance strategy for agile projects Based on facts, research, and extensive experience, this book will be an indispensable resource for every enterprise software leader and practitioner--whether they're seeking to optimize their existing agile/Scrum process or improve the agility of an iterative process.

    As traffic volume and data demands increase, these applications become more complicated and brittle, exposing risks and compromising availability. This practical guide shows IT, devops, and system reliability managers how to prevent an application from becoming slow, inconsistent, or downright unavailable as it grows.Scaling isn't just about handling more users; it's also about managing risk and ensuring availability. Author Lee Atchison provides basic techniques for building applications that can handle huge quantities of traffic, data, and demand without affecting the quality your customers expect.In five parts, this book explores:Availability: learn techniques for building highly available applications, and for tracking and improving availability going forwardRisk management: identify, mitigate, and manage risks in your application, test your recovery/disaster plans, and build out systems that contain fewer risksServices and microservices: understand the value of services for building complicated applications that need to operate at higher scaleScaling applications: assign services to specific teams, label the criticalness of each service, and devise failure scenarios and recovery plansCloud services: understand the structure of cloud-based services, resource allocation, and service distribution

    He is also an obsessive gamer who has spent untold hours in front of his various video game consoles, playing titles such as Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, BioShock, and Oblivion for, literally, days. If you are reading this flap copy, the same thing can probably be said of you, or of someone you know. Until recently, Bissell was somewhat reluctant to admit to his passion for games. In this, he is not alone. Millions of adults spend hours every week playing video games, and the industry itself now reliably outearns Hollywood. But the wider culture seems to regard video games as, at best, well designed if mindless entertainment. Extra Lives is an impassioned defense of this assailed and misunderstood art form. Bissell argues that we are in a golden age of gaming—but he also believes games could be even better. He offers a fascinating and often hilarious critique of the ways video games dazzle and, just as often, frustrate. Along the way, we get firsthand portraits of some of the best minds (Jonathan Blow, Clint Hocking, Cliff Bleszinski, Peter Molyneux) at work in video game design today, as well as a shattering and deeply moving final chapter that describes, in searing detail, Bissell’s descent into the world of Grand Theft Auto IV, a game whose themes mirror his own increasingly self-destructive compulsions. Blending memoir, criticism, and first-rate reportage, Extra Lives is like no other book on the subject ever published. Whether you love video games, loathe video games, or are merely curious about why they are becoming the dominant popular art form of our time, Extra Lives is required reading.