Google's Android operating system for phones is definitely a moving target. During the production of this book's first version, the latest Android version available on a cutting-edge phone jumped from 1.6 to 2.2. In that time, too, phones made by HTC and Motorola became exceedingly popular, and modified versions of the Android...

In response to the success of the first edition of Foundation Game Design with Flash, Rex van der Spuy has revised and updated all the code to meet current programming best practices, and the focus is now on accurate ActionScript 3.0, regardless of the IDE that you use.

We’ve all sneaked the...

When Android was first introduced by Google and the Open Handset Alliance, my first thought was of how awesome it would be to have a free open-source application environment for the growing smart phone revolution. The harsh reality hit when I tried to apply my rusty programming skills to the Java and Android software development kit (SDK)....

It is appropriate that I first acknowledge my appreciation to Professor Leo Grigsby for inviting me to prepare the chapter on power transformers for the first edition (2001) of his now very popular Electric Power Engineering Handbook. From this evolved the recognition that two chapters from the 2001 Handbook, those for (1) substations...

There was a time when people believed that the stars were bonfires lit by other tribes in the sky, that the universe was a flat plate resting on the shell of a giant turtle, and that the Earth, according to the Greek astronomer Ptolemy, was at the center of the universe. From the most remote of times, people have been curious...

Quick, grab a seat. The show is about to begin, and it is full of a wonderfully mischievous cast of characters you do not want to miss. They call them “pixels,” magical spirits brought to life by digital mayhem and transported by light. They are the muses of the digital artist, the star performers on the Photoshop stage, and...

Maybe you love your iPhone or iPod and are curious about other Apple products. Maybe you’ve had one virus scare too many and are fed up with Windows. Maybe the daunting prospect of upgrading to Windows 7 has made you open to other possibilities. Maybe you’re a Mac fan who wants to show a friend how easy and productive Macs...

The Foundry’s Nuke is fast becoming the industry leader in compositing software for film and TV. Virtually all the leading visual effects studios—ILM, Digital Domain, Weta Digital, MPC, Framestore, The Mill, and Sony Pictures Imageworks—now use Nuke as their main compositing tool. This is not surprising, as Nuke offers...

Welcome to Computer Science Made Simple, a novice’s guide to one of the most important fields today. I wrote this book with several kinds of readers in mind. For the person curious about how computers work and what the computer terms used in magazine advertisements mean, this book will provide the answers. For those considering...