The release of SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services is the beginning of a new, more accessible era for master data management. Because of price and complexity, most solutions on the market today are geared toward large corporations and require dedicated consulting teams to implement. MDS, a feature of SQL Server Enterprise Edition,...

A 2009 Game Developer Magazine Front Line Award Finalist, this book covers both the theory and practice of game engine software development, bringing together complete coverage of a wide range of topics. The concepts and techniques described are the actual ones used by real game studios like Electronic Arts and Naughty Dog. The examples are...

The need for this project was born of frustration while working towards my PhD. I was investigating optimization algorithms and was implementing a large number of them for a software platform called the Optimization Algorithm Toolkit (OAT)1. Each algorithm required considerable effort to locate the relevant source material (from...

Congratulations on the purchase of your new BlackBerry Storm2. You’re going to be amazed at how versatile this little device is, how many ways you can use it to stay in touch with others, and how many “apps” are available for you to play and work with. You’ll love GPS, texting, adding participants to a phone...

Written in a step-by-step format, this practical guide covers fractions, variables,...

Why did we decide to update this book on ATM once again? Mainly, because the publisher asked us to! Seriously, though, in the fast moving telecommunications industry, a lot has happened since the publication of the last edition in 1998. In case you have been asleep, Internet-based communication is clearly the killer application for...

Every organization, no matter what the business involved, to achieve efficiency needs efficient people working for them. For a long time now, operating systems and applications have represented important tools in the work of these people and organizations. And if we are not capable of providing users with the proper tools, gaining an...

Open Source GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is a growing area with the explosion of Google Maps-based websites and spatially-aware devices and applications. The GIS market is growing rapidly, and as a Python developer you can't afford to be left behind. In today's location-aware world, all commercial Python developers can...

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You are holding the first comprehensive book covering the Oracle Exadata Database Machine. You might be holding this book because of your desire to know more about exactly what this technology can do for you, but you and your fellow readers have come to this place from different starting points. You could be investigating the Exadata...

This book is aimed primarily at application developers with a basic understanding of the C language and object-orientation concepts such as encapsulation and polymorphism. You don’t need to be an expert C coder to follow this book. All you need is a basic understanding of structures, pointers, and functions. That said, you will...

THE RISE OF THE INTERNET, sophisticated computing and communications technologies, and globalization have raised customers’ expectations of powerful “always on” services. A crucial characteristic of these “always on” services is that they are highly available; if the customer cannot get a search result,...