Sunday, June 29, 2008

Start your preparation here for Cisco's new CCENT entry-level networking certification, your entry point into Cisco's popular CCNA certification track. This comprehensive study guide from leading Cisco authority Todd Lammle thoroughly prepares you for the Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices, Part 1 exam (640-822) and the start of a career, with pages of exam essentials, real-world scenarios, and hands-on exercises. Topics include the operation of data networks, how to implement both switched and routed networks, and much more.

Effective Java (2nd Edition)

Are you looking for a deeper understanding of the Java™ programming language so that you can write code that is clearer, more correct, more robust, and more reusable? Look no further! Effective Java™, Second Edition, brings together seventy-eight indispensable programmer’s rules of thumb: working, best-practice solutions for the programming challenges you encounter every day.

This highly anticipated new edition of the classic, Jolt Award-winning work has been thoroughly updated to cover Java SE 5 and Java SE 6 features introduced since the first edition. Bloch explores new design patterns and language idioms, showing you how to make the most of features ranging from generics to enums, annotations to autoboxing.

Each chapter in the book consists of several “items” presented in the form of a short, standalone essay that provides specific advice, insight into Java platform subtleties, and outstanding code examples. The comprehensive descriptions and explanations for each item illuminate what to do, what not to do, and why.

Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) with Ajax

AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) is Adobe’s open-source technology that lets Web developers and programmers create Rich Internet Applications that run outside of any Web browser. This Visual QuickPro Guide teaches everything you need to know to begin creating applications that combine the rich experience of a traditional desktop application with the power and reach of the Internet. The book uses a visual, step-by-step approach and covers all the fundamental AIR concepts, without the fluff, confusing segues, and technical jargon that bog down so many other computer books. Author Larry Ullman has a well-earned reputation for writing books that are accessible, easy-to-follow, and, above all, useful. This book focuses solely on developing AIR applications using HTML and JavaScript, although formal knowledge of JavaScript is not required.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Zenoss Core Network and System Monitoring

For system administrators, network engineers, and security analysts, it is essential to keep a track of network traffic. At some point it will be necessary to read the network traffic directly instead of monitoring application level details. Network security audits, debug of network configurations, and usage patterns analyzing can all require network traffic monitoring. This task can be achieved by using network monitoring software, or network sniffers, that sniff the traffic and display it on your computer on the network.

Zenoss is an enterprise network and systems management application written in Python/Zope that provides an integrated product for monitoring availability, performance, events and configuration across layers and across platforms. Zenoss provides an AJAX-enabled web interface that allows system administrators to monitor availability, inventory/configuration, performance, and events. Whether you monitor five devices or a thousand devices, Zenoss provides a scalable solution for you.


This book will show you how to work with Zenoss and effectively adapt Zenoss for a System and Network monitoring. Starting with the Zenoss basics, it requires no existing systems management knowledge, and whether or not you can recite MIB trees and OIDs from memory is irrelevant. Advanced users will be able to identify ways in which they can customize the system to do more, while less advanced users will appreciate the ease of use Zenoss provides.

Blender 3D Architecture, Buildings, and Scenery

This book will show you how to create realistic architectural models in Blender. Blender is an open-source 3D animation program released as free software. It can be used for modeling, texturing, skinning, animating, and so on. It runs on all the important operating systems (including Windows, Mac, and Linux).

You can create natural scenery, landscapes, plants, various weather conditions, environmental factors, building materials such as wood, metal, brick, and more. You will also learn how to add people to different scenes as well as other objects to an already existing photograph or a video making it easier to increase its realism.

You will see how to use the final models to create simpler scenes for use in 3D games, where real-time rendering is necessary. You will also see how to use them to create the sets for animated movies.

Adapting to Web Standards: CSS and Ajax for Big Sites

After learning the language of design, how does one effectively use standards-based technologies to create visually strong Web sites? The full-color Professional Web Standards Design and Development gives developers a peek into the process of the best designers in the world through the work of high profile, real-world Web sites that made them famous. The book focuses on deconstructing these top-tier large-scale sites with particular attention given to deconstructing CSS.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Professional Refactoring in Visual Basic

In this one-of-a-kind book, Microsoft MVP Danijel Arsenovski shows you how to utilize the power of refactoring to improve the design of your existing code and become more efficient and productive. He provides you with a hands-on approach so you'll quickly learn how to manage and modify your code with refactoring tools and features. You'll also discover how to perform unit testing, refactoring to patterns, and refactoring to upgrade legacy Visual Basic code.

As you progress through the chapters, you'll build a prototype application from scratch. You'll then utilize refactoring techniques to transform the code into a properly designed, enterprise-level application. Arsenovski walks you step-by-step through each process while offering expert coding tips. You'll then be able to apply this information to real situations that arise as a result of company expansion, policy changes, or similar business decisions.

PHP and MySQL: Create - Modify - Reuse

* Step-by-step instructions walk readers through real-world applications
* Packed with ready-to-use projects for PHP and MySQL, this book guides readers through several real-world projects that are complete, tested, and ready to be implemented, so that readers can learn by doing
* Clearly explains to readers all aspects of design, such as portability, design flow, and integration, and shows them how to properly secure their applications for real-world implementation
* Authored by a PHP expert who is in tune with common tasks and the various problems faced by developers in everyday circumstances
* Application topics include user management, Web forums, and an image gallery
* Although PHP and MySQL can each be used independently, when they are used together, they open up dynamic options for Web site development

Adobe AIR: Create - Modify - Reuse

Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) revolutionizes the way Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) are deployed. AIR supports two primary technologies, Flash and HTML/Ajax, in order to make desktop development something that every web developer can do. This book shows you how to set up a practical development environment and then walks you through eleven fully implemented AIR applications with source code that you can use as they currently exist or customize.

Each project begins by providing a discussion of architecture and design, followed by code implementation. You'll get hands-on knowledge of AIR application design and development that you can then use to build dynamic RIAs.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Deploying Rails Applications: A Step-by-Step Guide

First you'll learn how to build out your shared, virtual, or dedicated host. Then, you'll see how to build your applications for production and deploy them with one step, every time. Deploying Rails Applications will take you from a simple shared host through a highly scalable clustered and balanced setup with Nginx.

See how to tell whether you've bought enough firepower, and learn how to optimize your Rails projects applications in a systemic, rational way. Take advantage of advanced caching techniques, and become and expert with the latest servers in Nginx and Mongrel. Don't worry. You'll get a dose of Apache too.

Not only will you learn how to configure your production environment, you'll also see how to monitor it with free, automated tools that can restart your servers when the memory use gets too high for comfort. You'll see how to take a performance baseline, profile for bottlenecks, and solve the most common performance problems you're likely to see.

Sams Teach Yourself Visual C# 2008 in 24 Hours

Learn how to...

* Use the powerful design environment of Visual Studio 2008
* Design a feature-rich interface using components such as tree views and tabs
* Create robust applications using modern error handling
* Draw fast graphics using GDI+
* Build a database application using ADO.NET
* Distribute a Visual C# 2008 application

Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 24 Hours

In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, you will learn professional techniques to design and build efficient databases and query them to extract useful information. Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson builds on the previous one, allowing you to learn the essentials of ANSI SQL from the ground up.

Example code demonstrates the authors’ professional techniques, while exercises written for MySQL offer the reader hands-on learning with an open-source database. Included are advanced techniques for using views, managing transactions, database administration, and extending SQL.

Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common SQL tasks.

Q&As, Quizzes, and Exercises at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge.

Notes and Tips point out shortcuts and solutions.

New terms are clearly defined and explained.

Practical WPF Graphics Programming

The Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a next generation graphics platform that is part of .NET 3.0 and .NET 3.5. It allows you to build advanced user interfaces that incorporate documents, media, 2D and 3D graphics, animations, and web-like characteristics. "Practical WPF Graphics Programming" provides all the tools you need to develop professional graphics applications using WPF and C#. This book will be useful for WPF and C# programmers of all skill levels. It provides a complete and comprehensive explanation of the WPF graphics capability, and pays special attention to the details of code implementation. The book shows you how to create a variety of graphics ranging from simple 2D shapes to complex 3D surfaces and interactive 3D models. It includes over 120 code examples, which cover broad array of topics on WPF graphics programming. You will learn how to create a full range of 2D and 3D graphics applications and how to implement custom 3D geometries and shapes that can be reused in your WPF projects.

Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible

* Covering the most popular Linux shells (such as bash, ash, tcsh, ksh, korn, and zsh), this reference shows how to use commands to create scripts within each shell and demonstrates practical applications for shell scripts (including retrieving information from Web sites and sending automated reports via e-mail)
* For each shell, the author discusses the commands available and explains how to use these commands to create scripts that can automate common functions and reports
* Guides administrators through advanced projects for using shell scripts in real-world applications and features advanced topics such as using a database and Web programming

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3

In Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3, authors Stephanie Sullivan and Greg Rewis demonstrate how to use Dreamweaver CS3 and CSS together to create highly individualized, standards-based layouts. Through hands-on projects with visuals, the book gives readers an in-depth understanding of Dreamweaver's 32 CSS-based layouts (new in Dreamweaver CS3) and their application, enabling every user of Dreamweaver to learn CSS effectively and easily.

OCP Oracle Database 11g: New Features for Administrators Exam Guide

Prepare for the Oracle Certified Professional Oracle Database 11g New Features for Administrators exam with help from this exclusive Oracle Press guide. In each chapter, you'll find challenging exercises, practice questions, a two-minute drill, and a chapter summary to highlight what you've learned. This authoritative guide will help you pass the test, and serve as your essential on-the-job reference. Get complete coverage of all OCP objectives for exam 1Z0-050, including:

* Installation and upgrades
* Partitioning and storage
* Intelligent infrastructure
* Diagnostics and fault management
* Performance
* Oracle Recovery Manager and Oracle Flashback
* Security
* Oracle SQL Performance Analyzer
* SQL plan management
* Automatic SQL tuning

PHP 5 CMS Framework Development

If you're developing a content management system in PHP 5, there are times when you simply have to roll-your-own, for whatever reason. In those situations, this book will be invaluable. If you're looking for an inside guide to putting together the working framework of a flexible, robust content management system in PHP 5, this book is f or you. As a former development team leader on the renowned Mambo open-source content management system, author Martin Brampton offers unique insight and practical guidance into the problem of building an architecture for a content management system. Following the scene-setting first chapter, each chapter in the book tackles a different aspect of developing the author's new Aliro PHP 5 CMS framework, with: . A concise statement of the problem . Discussion of the important design issues and problems faced . Creation of the framework solution The framework is built on a strongly object-oriented architecture throughout, including adherence to MVC principles, and you will learn how to create classes for handling such things as menus, modules, components, sessions, and user tracking. Administration and security issues are discussed as an integral part of the design and implementation of framework features. The final chapter discusses the key issues that affect a wide range of specific content handlers and explores a practical example in detail. You will learn about: . The general characteristics of systems to create websites . Effective coding and object architectures to fully exploit PHP 5 . A foundation for database processing to ease further development . Technical functions such as handling sessions, caches, errors, XML, mail, and files . Management of website users . Flexible, practical deployment of role based access control . Internationalization . Handling extensibility beyond the basic framework . General concepts of menus without prior commitments to detail . Delivery and presentation of different kinds of user-oriented content Approach The book includes extensive discussion of the design issues, and how to overcome them in the framework. Each chapter of the book focuses on a particular requirement of the framework. The book will not present the total code for the framework, showing only the parts that raise critical design or implementation issues. For these, detailed explanation is given, leaving the less problematic parts to the code download itself.

Nintendo Wii Flash Game Creator's Guide

Whip up awesome Wii games using Flash and ActionScript. Nintendo Wii Flash Game Creator's Guide lays out each next-generation technique alongside real-world examples and cut-and-paste code samples. Learn how to design exciting Flash animations, create cool characters, simulate realistic motion, and use the Wii remote control in innovative ways. Plus, you'll get the latest tricks for supercharging your games and tips for distributing them on the Web.

Advanced Rails Recipes: 84 New Ways to Build Stunning Rails Apps

Ruby on Rails continues to build up a tremendous head of steam. 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.

Friday, June 20, 2008

The Essential Guide to Flex 3

Flex 3 is the next generation of a technology that revolutionized web applications. It is the next evolutionary step of Flash, which has grown from a web animation medium to a powerful enterprise web design and development platform. With nearly 98% of all web browsers, and a growing number of mobile devices, running Flash Player, a knowledge of Flex is indispensible for any serious web developer.

This book will show you how to create powerful Rich Internet Applications using Flex 3. After learning how to install and becoming familiar with the basics of the Flex Builder 3 software, you will explore in depth how the Flash scripting language, ActionScript 3.0, interacts with Flex's powerful XML-like design language: MXML.

You'll learn how to construct your applications using layout and navigation containers, and how to move between various states using transitions. There is coverage of how best to plan your applications and use the Model-View-Controller pattern to keep various aspects of development separated and ease creation of potentially complicated projects.

Rich Internet Applications rely on data, and this book shows how to bring data from various sources into your Flex application and check its integrity, and how best to display and interact with it.


Going farther, applications built for the Flash platform can now exist and function beyond the traditional confines of the web browser. Adobe AIR allows you to take your applications to the desktop, and this book shows how to reapply your Flex skills to take advantage of this new environment.

The Essential Guide to Flex 3 takes you through all the powerful features of Flex using a series of stand-alone, practical exercises. The skills acquired throughout the book are then brought together in the form of a full-featured case study application showcasing essential techniques that can easily be applied to your own Flex applications.

Silverlight 2 Visual Essentials

Silverlight is a lightweight browser plug–in that frees your code from the traditional confines of the browser. It is a rules–changing, groundbreaking technology that allows you to run rich client applications right inside the browser. Even more impressively, it is able to host true .NET applications in non–Microsoft browsers (like Firefox) and on non–Microsoft platforms (like Mac OS X).

Silverlight is still new and evolving fast, and you need a reliable guidebook to make sense of it.

LINQ for Visual C# 2008

Every C# programmer needs to learn about LINQ (Language–lIntegrated Query), Microsoft’s breakthrough technology for simplifying and unifying data access from any data source. With LINQ you can write more elegant and flexible code not just to access databases and files but to manipulate data structures and XML.

This book is a short yet comprehensive guide to the major features of LINQ and the significant enhancements introduced with .NET 3.5. There is no better source for getting a head–start on the future of these technologies than this book.

Facelets Essentials: Guide to JavaServer Faces View Definition Framework

Facelets is a templating language developed from the ground up with JavaServer Faces in mind. Created in response to the many concerns involving JSP when building JavaServer Faces views, Facelets steps outside of the JSP specification and provides a highly performant, JSF–centric view technology. Facelets top properties, templating, reuse, and ease of development, allows it to help making JSF a technology suitable for large–scale projects. One of the first things a developer using Facelets finds is that it immediately leads to a reduction in UI code.

Facelets Essentials, the first book on Facelets, introduces you to its importance, architecture, and relationship to JSF and the Apache MyFaces web framework. Learn to create your first application using the power and flexibility Facelets offers. Then, master and apply its basic and advanced features including Unified Expression Language, templating and reuse, custom tag development, and more.

Accelerated SQL Server 2008

The expert tuition and approach to rapid learning in Accelerated SQL Server 2008, one of the first SQL Server 2008 books available, will enable SQL Server and other database professionals to make the leap to the latest release of Microsoft’s flagship database management system quickly. Take full advantage of the new features of SQL Server 2008, know what tools are available, and quickly realize the power and ease of use that SQL Server 2008 has to offer.

* Lightning–quick introduction to SQL Server 2008
* Written by top experts in the field
* Provides a solid grounding in key features and technologies

Monday, June 16, 2008

Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 2008 in 24 Hours: Complete Starter Kit


In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, you will be up and running with Visual Basic 2008. Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson builds upon a real-world foundation forged in both technology and business matters, allowing you to learn the essentials of Visual Basic 2008 from the ground up. Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common questions, issues, and tasks. The Q&A section, quizzes, and exercises help you build and test your knowledge.

By the Way notes present interesting pieces of information. Did You Know? tips offer advice or teach an easier way to do something. Watch Out! cautions advise you about potential problems and help you steer clear of disaster.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Adobe Photoshop CS3: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks

Book Description

Photoshop®: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks provides adventurous Photoshop users with a visual reference on how to use the bells and whistles found in the latest version of Photoshop. Broken out in 10 chapters, with 10 tasks per chapter, Photoshop®: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks covers 100 cool and useful tips and tricks that can be performed in the newest release of Photoshop. Full-color screen shots and numbered, step-by-step instructions show you how to take their Photoshop skills to new heights. Order the latest edition today and make your pictures pop.