Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Mcitp SQL Server 2005 Database Developer All in One Exam Guide or Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting

MCITP SQL Server 2005 Database Developer All-in-One Exam Guide (Exams 70-431, 70-441 & 70-442)

Author: Darril Gibson

An Exam Guide and a Desktop Reference--All in One!

This comprehensive guide offers complete coverage of the material on all three of the new Microsoft Certified IT Professional exams for SQL Server 2005, which test the ability of certification candidates to design a secure, stable, enterprise SQL Server database solution. Filled with case studies, checklists, technical sidebars, and real-world examples, this book serves as both an exam preparation tool as well as an essential on-the-job reference. The CD-ROM includes practice exam software featuring hundreds of questions, and an electronic book.



Read also Light or Outsmart Diabetes

Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting

Author: Catherine Jamieson

Portraits preserve people


Since the earliest portraits were scratched onto cave walls, we've developed increasingly sophisticated tools for capturing human likenesses. Yet the motivation has changed little -- to freeze a human image as an art form, a means of communication, a piece of personal history. Whether formalized with elaborate settings and lighting or snapped at the beach to hold forever the pure joy in a child's face, portraits preserve people. Today's digital technology offers flexibility, economy, and almost limitless tools for perfecting your images, and these experts help you use it.
* Discover the skills you need to move from serious amateur to professional photographer
* Learn how a snapshot differs from a casual portrait
* Identify what you want your portrait to communicate
* Investigate lighting equipment and how to use it in different scenarios
* Use natural or mixed light to create unique effects
* Explore composition, posing, and handling challenges
* Handle props, backgrounds, color, location shooting, and studio shots
* Work with groups, children, and pets
* Perfect image-editing methods and final-touch processes that produce high-quality, professional images
* Find resources that can help you in setting up your own portrait business



Table of Contents:
Ch. 1Exploring portrait photography3
Ch. 2The tools of the trade19
Ch. 3Lighting primer53
Ch. 4Composing a portrait83
Ch. 5Posing techniques113
Ch. 6The director's chair137
Ch. 7Outdoor portraiture161
Ch. 8Interior existing light portraiture189
Ch. 9Studio portraiture219
Ch. 10The digital darkroom253
Ch. 11Basic image editing275
Ch. 12Finishing touches297

Windows XP Home Edition or Photoshop CS2 All in One Desk Reference For Dummies

Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual

Author: David Pogu

Windows XP Home Edition offers dozens of new features for consumers: an elegant user interface, drag-and-drop CD burning, and powerful ways to view and manage digital photos and music, among other features. With the release of Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows XP now provides better protection against viruses, worms, and malicious hackers. But it still comes without a single page of printed instructions.

Fortunately, the new edition of Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual fills the void. With its wealth of tips, instructions, and expert advice, this comprehensive resource is your ticket to making your time at the computer safer, easier, and more fun. And best of all, it's been updated to include detailed coverage of Service Pack 2.

Written in easy-to-follow, jargon-free language, Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual, Second Edition is perfectly suited for both first-time PC fans and budding power users. And like the rest of the Missing Manual series, it also relies on technical insight, crystal-clear objectivity, and a sense of humor--meaning no one will be left behind.

The book begins with a tour of the Desktop and instructions for customizing the Taskbar and toolbars. It also includes a primer on how to organize files, folders, and windows for maximum efficiency. More advanced chapters explore control panels and built-in applications; walk through configurations like how to set up a PC for Internet use; and address the standard Windows rituals of troubleshooting, installation, and upgrading.

For the height of manageability and control, the book also conveys all the need-to-know information about the security technologies featured in Windows XP SP2, so you can better defend yourself against viruses, worms, and hackers. Readers even receive guidelines and instructions for installing SP2 on their PC, or across a network of computers.

Co-authored by David Pogue, New York Times computer columnist and Missing Manuals creator, this newly updated guide is the friendly, authoritative book that should have been in the box. It's sure to become your preferred guide whenever you sit down to Windows XP.

Library Journal

As the installed base of Microsoft's newest operating system, XP, grows, guides to its use will continue to proliferate (see also Computer Media, LJ 3/1/02). Upgraders with little previous experience will be drawn to 10 Minute Guide, which highlights changes from earlier versions and explains common tasks step by step. Small and leaving no room for background or troubleshooting assistance, this should be purchased in conjunction with more comprehensive guides, such as The Missing Manual. It provides enough background to allow new home users and upgraders to get up and running, while leaving them feeling as if they have a handle on why and how things work. Ample screen shots and sidebars further this process; recommended for all libraries. Headaches, for beginning to intermediate users, focuses on troubleshooting common XP problems and annoyances, like a too-rapid cursor blink rate. Nutshell is a reference for advanced users of home and professional editions, with an alphabetical format that allows quick lookup of functions and features within larger sections (e.g., networking, the registry, etc.). Each is useful and appropriate for larger libraries.'



New interesting book: Head Lice to Dead Lice or Advanced Aromatherapy

Photoshop CS2 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies

Author: Barbara Obermeier

Brace yourself—this For Dummies guide is in full, dazzling color! That way you can see how you can lighten, brighten, blur, sharpen, or even age your digital images with Photoshop CS2. Chances are you have Photoshop CS2 and have explored it enough to know that you need a good guide to make the most of all its capabilities and get up to speed fast. Odds are you’ve experimented with some photos and spent hours tweaking them. Maybe you’re a veteran and used Photoshop CS2 to turn the gray sky to blue in a resort photo or to brighten the CEO’s smile. Maybe you’re a novice and gleefully extracted your ex from old photos and gave yourself a flattering mini-makeover at the same time. Maybe you used it to remove a scratch from a treasured family photo.

Regardless, you probably haven’t scratched the surface. Photoshop CS2 gives you so many options and tools for digital image creation, correction, and enhancement that even experienced pros can discover new techniques and shortcuts. With explanations for working on a PC or a Mac, Photoshop CS2 All-In-One desk Reference For Dummies is your complete resource that:



• Combines nine minibooks: (1) Photoshop Fundamentals (2) Image Essentials (3) Selections (4) Painting, Drawing, and Typing (5) Working with Layers (6) Channels and Masks (7) Filters and Distortions (8) Retouching and Restoration (9) Photoshop and Print

• Has more than 650 pages of tips, techniques, and plain-English explanations

• Is in glorious, full color, with all kinds of photographs and examples

• Has tons of screen shots so you’ll know exactly what tolook for on your screen

• Provides a tear out Cheat Sheet that’s your instant reference for finding your way around Photoshop CS2, accessing the tools palette through shortcuts, and making selections

• Gets you up to speed on the new Adobe Bridge that lets you view, search, and organize your files, edit Camera Raw files, search for and purchase royalty-free stock photography, synchronize color settings, and more

• Introduces you to the 58 tools in the Tools palette, from the Pen to the Eraser… the Spot Healing Brush to the Burn…the Clone Stamp to the Red Eye

• Explains how to work with Vanishing Point—the new feature that lets you edit three dimensionally on a two-dimension image

• Features special Putting-It-Together exercises that walk you through numbered steps to show you how to do various tasks such as getting the red out of eyes, making and fine-tuning a collage, and more; images on the book’s companion Web site let you follow along




Table of Contents:
Bk. IPhotoshop fundamentals7
Ch. 1Examining the Photoshop environment9
Ch. 2Getting to know the tools palette27
Ch. 3Starting, finishing, and getting it on paper39
Ch. 4Viewing and navigating images57
Ch. 5Customizing your workspace and preferences85
Bk. IIImage essentials107
Ch. 1Specifying size and resolution109
Ch. 2Choosing color modes and file formats129
Ch. 3Using and managing color153
Ch. 4Time travel - undoing in Photoshop179
Ch. 5Creating actions for productivity and fun191
Bk. IIISelections205
Ch. 1Making selections207
Ch. 2Creating and working with paths223
Ch. 3Modifying and transforming selections and paths245
Bk. IVPainting, drawing, and typing267
Ch. 1Painting and drawing with Photoshop269
Ch. 2Filling and stroking293
Ch. 3Creating and editing type311
Bk. VWorking with layers341
Ch. 1Creating layers343
Ch. 2Managing layers367
Ch. 3Playing with opacity and blend modes389
Ch. 4Getting jazzy with layer styles and clipping groups405
Ch. 5Working with smart objects429
Bk. VIChannels and masks437
Ch. 1Using channels439
Ch. 2Quick and dirty masking459
Ch. 3Getting exact with advanced masking techniques475
Bk. VIIFilters and distortions493
Ch. 1Making corrections with daily filters495
Ch. 2Applying filters for special occasions511
Ch. 3Distorting with the liquify command535
Bk. VIIIRetouching and restoration549
Ch. 1Enhancing images with adjustments551
Ch. 2Repairing with the focus and toning tools593
Ch. 3Fixing flaws and removing what's not wanted605
Bk. IXPhotoshop and print627
Ch. 1Prepping graphics for print629
Ch. 2Creating contact sheets, picture packages, and more647
Bonus chapters
Bonus Ch. 1Prepping Web graphics
Bonus Ch. 2Slicing and showing Web images
Bonus Ch. 3Other sources of information

Troubleshooting Cisco IP Telephony or SSL and TLS

Troubleshooting Cisco IP Telephony

Author: Paul Giralt

Reveals the methodology you need to resolve complex problems in an IP telephony network

  • Master troubleshooting techniques and methodologies for all parts of a Cisco IP Telephony solution-Cisco CallManager, IP phones, gateways, applications, and more
  • Learn how to investigate and resolve voice quality problems, including delayed audio, choppy or garbled audio, static and noise, one-way or no-way audio, and echo
  • Read about the variety of trouble-shooting tools at your disposal and how and when to use them based on the problem type
  • Discover the potential causes of common problems and how to efficiently troubleshoot them to resolution
  • Learn how to identify and resolve gateway problems by breaking the components into logical groups and following a methodical troubleshooting approach
  • Use best practices recommendations to build a stronger IP telephony deployment and avoid common mistakes

IP telephony represents the future of telecommunications: a converged data and voice infrastructure boasting greater flexibility and more cost-effective scalability than traditional telephony. The ability to troubleshoot an IP telephony environment and the underlying network infrastructure is vitally important, just as it is in any complex system.

Troubleshooting Cisco IP Telephony teaches the troubleshooting skills necessary to identify and resolve problems in an IP telephony solution. This book provides comprehensive coverage of all parts of a Cisco IP Telephony (CIPT) solution, including CallManager, IP phones, gateways, analog devices, database and directory replication, call routing, voice mail,applications, network infrastructure, and more. You'll learn how to read trace files, determine when to turn on tracing and Cisco IOS(r) Software voice debugging, and how to troubleshoot voice quality issues.

Troubleshooting Cisco IP Telephony shows you how to break down problems to find the root cause. Descriptions of each part of the CIPT solution help you understand the functionality of each part of the solution and how each part interacts with other parts of the solution. You'll then learn what steps to take and tools to use to identify and resolve the cause of the problem.



Table of Contents:
Foreword
Introduction
Ch. 1Troubleshooting Methodology and Approach3
Ch. 2IP Telephony Architecture Overview23
Ch. 3Understanding the Troubleshooting Tools37
Ch. 4Skinny Client Registration113
Ch. 5IP Phones139
Ch. 6Voice Gateways169
Ch. 7Voice Quality383
Ch. 8Fax Machines and Modems433
Ch. 9Call Routing459
Ch. 10Call Preservation551
Ch. 11Conference Bridges, Transcoders, and Media Termination Points565
Ch. 12Music on Hold601
Ch. 13Call Admission Control623
Ch. 14Voice Mail655
Ch. 15Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST)707
Ch. 16Applications735
Ch. 17SQL Database Replication793
Ch. 18LDAP Integration and Replication819
App. ACisco IP Telephony Protocol and Codec Information and References849
App. BNANP Call Routing Information857
App. CDecimal to Hexadecimal and Binary Conversion Table881
App. DPerformance Objects and Counters891
Glossary927
Index947

Read also Desperation Entertaining or Pig Perfect

SSL and TLS: Designing and Building Secure Systems

Author: Eric Rescorla

"This is the best book on SSL/TLS. Rescorla knows SSL/TLS as well as anyone and presents it both clearly and completely.... At times, I felt like he's been looking over my shoulder when I designed SSL v3. If network security matters to you, buy this book."
Paul Kocher, Cryptography Research, Inc.
Co-Designer of SSL v3

"Having the right crypto is necessary but not sufficient to having secure communications. If you're using SSL/TLS, you should have SSL and TLS sitting on your shelf right next to Applied Cryptography."
Bruce Schneier, Counterpane Internet Security, Inc.
Author of Applied Cryptography

"Everything you wanted to know about SSL/TLS in one place. It covers the protocols down to the level of packet traces. It covers how to write software that uses SSL/TLS. And it contrasts SSL with other approaches. All this while being technically sound and readable!"
Radia Perlman, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Author of Interconnections

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and its IETF successor, Transport Layer Security (TLS), are the leading Internet security protocols, providing security for e-commerce, web services, and many other network functions. Using SSL/TLS effectively requires a firm grasp of its role in network communications, its security properties, and its performance characteristics. SSL and TLS provides total coverage of the protocols from the bits on the wire up to application programming.

This comprehensive book not only describes how SSL/TLS is supposed to behave but also uses the author's free ssldump diagnostic tool to show the protocols in action. The author covers each protocol feature,first explaining how it works and then illustrating it in a live implementation. This unique presentation bridges the difficult gap between specification and implementation that is a common source of confusion and incompatibility.

In addition to describing the protocols, SSL and TLS delivers the essential details required by security architects, application designers, and software engineers. Use the practical design rules in this book to quickly design fast and secure systems using SSL/TLS. These design rules are illustrated with chapters covering the new IETF standards for HTTP and SMTP over TLS.

Written by an experienced SSL implementor, SSL and TLS contains detailed information on programming SSL applications. The author discusses the common problems faced by implementors and provides complete sample programs illustrating the solutions in both C and Java. The sample programs use the free OpenSSL and PureTLS toolkits so the reader can immediately run the examples.

Electronic Review of Computer Books - Danny Yee

Covering, as it does, pretty much everything about the Secure Sockets Layer in some depth, Eric Rescorla's SSL and TLS: Designing and Building Secure Systems is not for those who only want to get a secure web site up and running quickly. However, the layout makes it easy to browse just those portions that interest you, and to skip unwanted detail, so it can profitably be used by those who are simply curious, as well as by protocol designers, application programmers, and SSL/TLS implementors. (It was nice that Rescorla recognized the "just curious" in the preface.) A basic understanding of TCP/IP is all that's absolutely necessary to get something from SSL and TLS, but following the details requires a solid understanding.

Rescorla begins with a rapid introduction to security and cryptography and a brief history of SSL protocols (TLS or Transport Layer Security is the IETF-endorsed version). Two chapters then describe SSL itself, the first covering server authentication using RSA (the original motivation for SSL and still by far its most common use) and the second covering other algorithms (Kerberos, FORTEZZA) and modes such as client authentication and session resumption.

The remaining chapters cover specialized topics. A chapter on security looks at protecting keys, random-number generation, certificate chain verification, and some of the known attacks on SSL, such as timing cryptanalysis and the "million message attack." A chapter on performance explains the basic problem (cryptography is expensive), then goes into the details of variations with algorithm and mode (and language, with C recommended over Java) and the use of hardware acceleration. There is also a chapter on designing with SSL and one on coding (and Appendix A has 40-odd pages of sample code).

Two chapters consider special issues with running HTTP over SSL (HTTPS) and SMTP over TLS. Issues with HTTP include reference integrity (ensuring the client is talking to server it thinks it's talking to), virtual hosts, proxies, and downgrade attacks. With SMTP, relaying introduces major complications. A final chapter looks at some alternative approaches, most importantly IPsec, Secure HTTP, and S/MIME. This material provides some interesting examples of interaction between complex protocols.

Booknews

A specialist in Internet security, Rescorla explains secure sockets layer and its IETF successor, transport layer security, which are leading Internet security protocols. He discusses their role in network communications, their security properties, and their performance characteristics. He warns that they cannot be treated as a black box to plug systems into, but must be understood quite thoroughly to be used effectively. The bibliography is lightly annotated. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)



Tuesday, January 6, 2009

R Graphics or Control Systems Engineering

R Graphics

Author: Paul Murrell

R is revolutionizing the world of statistical computing. Powerful, flexible, and best of all free, R is now the program of choice for tens of thousands of statisticians. Destined to become an instant classic, R Graphics presents the first complete, authoritative exposition on the R graphical system. Paul Murrell, widely known as the leading expert on R graphics, has developed an in-depth resource that takes nothing for granted and helps both neophyte and seasoned users master the intricacies of R graphics. After an introductory overview of R graphics facilities, the presentation first focuses on the traditional graphics system, showing how to work the traditional functions, describing functions that are available to produce complete plots, and how to customize the details of plots. The second part of the book describes the grid graphics system - a system unique to R and much more powerful than the traditional system. The author, who was integral in the development of the grid system, shows, starting from a blank page, how it can be used to produce graphical scenes. He also describes how to develop new graphical functions that are easy for others to use and build on. Appendices contain a brief introduction to the R system in general and discuss how the traditional and grid graphics systems can be combined. Much of the information presented in this book cannot be found anywhere else. Well ahead of the curve, particularly regarding the grid system, R Graphics will have a major impact on the future direction of statistical graphics development.



Table of Contents:
1An introduction to R graphics1
2Simple usage of traditional graphics25
3Customizing traditional graphics43
4Trellis graphics : the lattice package125
5The grid graphics model149
6The grid graphics object model199
7Developing new graphics functions and objects221
AA brief introduction to R265
BCombining traditional graphics and grid graphics279

Book about: Environmental Management and Business Strategy or African Economic History

Control Systems Engineering

Author: Norman S Nis

The real world awaits you. This book prepares you.

From rockets to robots, control systems play a major role in today's technology. You'll find them in applications in nearly every field--electrical, mechanical, aerospace, biomedical, and chemical engineering. Control systems engineering is a real-world discipline, and you need a text that prepares you to design for that real world.

Control Systems Engineering, now in its Fifth Edition, takes a practical approach to control systems engineering. Presenting clear and complete explanations, the text shows you how to analyze and design feedback control systems that support today's modern technology.

By working with the same physical system in each chapter, the book's progressive case studies give you a realistic view of each stage of the control design process while a combination of qualitative and quantitative explanations provide insight into the design of parameters and system configurations. Best of all, you'll get extensive practice in using MATLAB, Simulink, and the SISO Design Tool--industry standards that you will use in your future career.

You'll find this Fifth Edition especially valuable for these features:
* Case studies that use the same system progressively, chapter after chapter, to show the analysis and design process with clarity are presented.
* Helpful skill-assessment exercises, numerous in-chapter examples, review questions, and problems.
* Tutorials on the latest versions of MATLAB, the Control System Toolbox, Simulink(r), the Symbolic Math Toolbox, and MATLAB's graphical user interface (GUI) tools.
* "What if" experiments that expand your knowledge and skills.
*Companion Web site with computer programs for use with MATLAB, additional appendices, and complete solutions to skill-assessment exercises.
* Illustrations from the book available at wiley.com/college/nise