Böcker utgivna av APress

Cyber Operations walks you through all the processes to set up, defend, and attack computer networks. This book focuses on networks and real attacks, offers extensive coverage of offensive and defensive techniques, and is supported by a rich collection of exercises and resources.You'll learn how to configure your network from the ground up, starting by setting up your virtual test environment with basics like DNS and active directory, through common network services, and ending with complex web applications involving web servers and backend databases.Key defensive techniques are integrated throughout the exposition. You will develop situational awareness of your network and will build a complete defensive infrastructure-including log servers, network firewalls, web application firewalls, and intrusion detection systems.Of course, you cannot truly understand how to defend a network if you do not know how to attack it, so you will attack your test systems in a variety of ways beginning with elementary attacks against browsers and culminating with a case study of the compromise of a defended e-commerce site.The author, who has coached his university's cyber defense team three times to the finals of the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, provides a practical, hands-on approach to cyber security.

In Beginning Big Data with Power BI and Excel 2013, you will learn to solve business problems by tapping the power of Microsoft's Excel and Power BI to import data from NoSQL and SQL databases and other sources, create relational data models, and analyze business problems through sophisticated dashboards and data-driven maps.While Beginning Big Data with Power BI and Excel 2013 covers prominent tools such as Hadoop and the NoSQL databases, it recognizes that most small and medium-sized businesses don't have the Big Data processing needs of a Netflix, Target, or Facebook. Instead, it shows how to import data and use the self-service analytics available in Excel with Power BI. As you'll see through the book's numerous case examples, these tools-which you already know how to use-can perform many of the same functions as the higher-end Apache tools many people believe are required to carry out in Big Data projects.Through instruction, insight, advice, and case studies, Beginning Big Data with Power BI and Excel 2013 will show you how to:Import and mash up data from web pages, SQL and NoSQL databases, the Azure Marketplace and other sources.Tap into the analytical power of PivotTables and PivotCharts and develop relational data models to track trends and make predictions based on a wide range of data.Understand basic statistics and use Excel with PowerBI to do sophisticated statistical analysis-including identifying trends and correlations.Use SQL within Excel to do sophisticated queries across multiple tables, including NoSQL databases.Create complex formulas to solve real-world business problems using Data Analysis Expressions (DAX).

Learn to deploy and support Hyper-V, building on what you know about VMware's vSphere. Whether you're looking to run both hypervisors in parallel or migrate completely, Hyper-V for VMware Administrators has everything you need to get started.The book begins with an overview of Hyper-V basics, including common management tasks such as creating a virtual machine and building a virtual network. You'll learn how to deploy a failover cluster to protect against the risk of Hyper-V becoming a single point of failure, and how to make virtual machines fault tolerant. System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) is the preferred tool for managing large Hyper-V deployments, so you'll get to know this next and how it differs from VMware's vCenter solution, as well as how to manage a mixed environment including both vSphere and Hyper-V deployments.Like any server migration, a virtual server migration requires careful planning to ensure success. You'll find information here on the specifics of migrating from vSphere to Hyper-V, planning for down time, IP address differences, performance considerations, and more. For migrations to Hyper-V, SCVMM is once again the preferred tool, but you'll also be introduced to some of the excellent free tools available. One easily overlooked aspect of the migration process is the way in which it impacts your backup and recovery strategy. Knowing the best practices here can help you protect your Hyper-V environment. The book also covers how to monitor and maintain your Hyper-V environment once it's up and running, using features like Cluster-Aware Updating, automated live migrations, and availability sets. The concluding chapter shows you how to take advantage of the efficiencies provided by virtual machine libraries and templates.Approach Hyper-V with confidence, and the knowledge that you've planned for success, with Hyper-V for VMware Administrators.

Interested in iPhone and iPad apps development? Want to learn more? Whether you are a relative newcomer to iPhone and iPad or iOS development or an old hand looking to expand your horizons, we have the perfect Swift-flavored book for you. The update to the bestselling More iPhone Development by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche, More iPhone Development with Swift digs deeper into the new Apple Swift programming language and iOS 8 SDK, explaining complex concepts and techniques in the same friendly, easy-to-follow style you’ve come to expect. More iPhone Development with Swift covers topics like Swift, Core Data, peer-to-peer networking using Multipeer Connectivity, working with data from the web, MapKit, in-application e-mail, Camera Live-Previews integration, Barcode scanning, Face recognition and more. All the concepts and APIs are clearly presented with code snippets you can customize and use, as you like, in your own apps. You’ll journey through coverage of concurrent programming and some advanced techniques for debugging your applications.

The Internet has brought a huge difference in the way we develop and use software appli- tions. Applications are becoming more and more distributed, connecting heterogeneous systems. With such a radical change, the role of XML is highly significant. XML has already established itself as a standard way of data encoding and transfer. No wonder that Microsoft's .NET Framework provides such a strong support for XML. Data access, raw parsing, configu- tion, code documentation, and web services are some of the examples where .NET harnesses the power and flexibility of XML. The .NET Framework comes with a plethora of classes that allow you to work with XML data. This book demystifies XML and allied technologies. Reading and writing XML data, using DOM, ADO.NET integration with XML, SQL Server XML features, applying XSLT style sheets, SOAP, web services, and configuration systems are some of the topics that this book explores in detail. Real-world examples scattered throughout the book will help you understand the pr- tical use of the topic under consideration. The book will also act as a handy reference when developers go on the job.

If you’re a Java developer already versed in Ajax-style programming, and you want to take your knowledge to the next level, then this is the book for you. Practical Ajax Projects with Java Technology provides the ultimate learn-by-example experience, featuring seven complete example applications for you to learn from and then adapt for use in your own projects. During each application, the author will lead you through the planning, design, and implementation stages.The book begins with a few quick chapters to recap Ajax basics and build up a complete development environment, and then moves on to the applications. The seven applications are diverse: an auto-complete application, an Ajax game, a two-way chat application, a webmail client, an RSS aggregator, an online calendaring/scheduling system, and a Flickr-style photo gallery application. Technologies covered include Apache, Ant, Ajax Tags, Struts, Prototype, DWR, Dojo, and more. Overall, this book will save you countless hours of development time, and help further your Java Ajax knowledge!

Be among the first to capture an early look at the libraries of Java SE 6, aka Mustang. While J2SE 5.0 is just now starting to become regularly adopted, Java 6 Platform Revealed takes a look at the next release of the Standard Edition platform to come from Sun.New editions of the platform don’t happen that frequently, but when they do, there is a lot to learn about quickly. If you want to come up to speed on the feature set as quickly as possible, Java 6 Platform Revealed will place you well ahead of the pack. You’ll find 10 chapters of how to use the JSR implementations and library improvements that are now a part of Mustang. You’ll learn about the scripting features of AWT and Swing, like splash screens, system tray access, and table sorting and filtering and lots more. What you won’t find in Java 6 Platform Revealed is a "e;getting started with Java"e; tutorial. Come prepared with a good working knowledge of Java 5 platform for best results.Not only will you see what's in Java's future, but you’ll learn how to actually use many of the new features of the platform quickly.

The SME marketplace is by far the least supported of all businesses with regards to Information Technology. These guys are not home users (of which there is an extremely lucrative and supportive publishing industry) and they are not enterprise customers - when I say 'enterprise', I mean in the way a large scale company might be - who have a dedicated set of 'expert' publishing companies diligently publishing professional guides for every single piece of I.T. conceivably used. The problem for the typical SME is money is scarce. In many ways they are as affected by cash-flow as the home user, but unlike home users, the requirements their business places upon technology is much greater: networks needs to be running all the time, they need to understand how to 'fix' problems quickly, configuration of critical systems is essential, system and data security is paramount, backup and restore habits need to be rigorous - all at a very affordable cost.This is where this book comes in. It gives a no-nonsense insight into exactly what you need to do with Microsoft's Small Business Server, making it easy for the SME owner to set up and configure a fully operational IT infrastructure with no hassle.

.NET 2.0 for Delphi Programmers explores .NET from a Delphi programmers viewpoint, and it is ideal for Delphi programmers moving to .NET. It presents the core concepts of the .NET world in terms you are familiar with. This book will help you with Delphi for .NET as well as C#.Apress publishes migration books for both Visual Basic 6 and C++ programmers moving to .NET. Consider this the Delphi installment of Apress migration books! There is ample coverage of C# as well as Delphi for .NET inside this edition.

Rockford Lhotka started writing his Business Objects books in 1996, and over the years, he's become one of the world's foremost authorities on building distributed object-oriented systems. This second edition of his industry-standard VB .NET Business Objects book not only addresses changes in .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005, but also reflects substantial enhancements and improvements to the CSLA .NET Framework and how it can be used to create enterprise-level .NET applications.Expert VB 2005 Business Objects takes you from an opening discussion of logical architectures to detailed n-tier deployment options using the CSLA .NET Framework. Rockford provides enough understanding and detail for you to take this approach to your own projects, as many developers have already done.Rockford travels the world discussing his ideas with other developers at professional conferences and local user groups, but you can benefit from his expertise anytime with this book. There are many solutions to developing distributed applications; why not learn about them from an expert with a universally accepted and respected framework?

This book covers two important aspects of the software life cycle: build and deployment. The coverage of these crucial topics is only half the attraction of this book, though. The other half is the technologies covered: MSBuild and ClickOnce. What Is MSBuild? Previously the build process that Visual Studio followed was basically a black box and was d- ficult to customize. With the arrival of Visual Studio 2005 and .NET 2.0 comes the arrival of the Microsoft Build Engine, otherwise known as MSBuild. MSBuild is the utility that Visual Studio uses to build your managed (C#, VB .NET, and J#) projects. MSBuild is an XML-based build engine and a tool that has been developed with customizability and extensibility in mind from its conception. By using MSBuild, you can change how your projects are built, creating customi- tions to fit your needs. With the advent of MSBuild, you no longer have to rely on third-party tools to handle the custom aspects of building your application. In addition, not only is this approach supported by Microsoft, but it is completely integrated with Visual Studio. If you need to tweak the settings for the C# compiler or how resources are generated, you now have this ability. The entire build process is open, and you can customize it in any way necessary. With other third-party tools this is simply unachievable.

If you develop, test, or manage .NET software, you will find .NET Test Automation Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach very useful. The book presents practical techniques for writing lightweight software test automation in a .NET environment and covers API testing thoroughly. It also discusses lightweight, custom Windows application user interface automation and teaches you low-level web application user interface automation. Additional material covers SQL stored procedure testing techniques.The examples in this book have been successfully used in seminars and teaching environments where they have proven highly effective for students who are learning intermediate-level .NET programming. You’ll come away from the book knowing how to write production-quality combination and permutation methods.

I feel fortunate to be part of the 3D world at a time when it appears that the real world is c- pletely embracing our work. My long-time friend Brian Zajac started in the 3D business a long time ago, when a typical workstation cost $100,000, and a simple animation that today would take only minutes to render took weeks. He gave up 3D and turned his sights to a career in web design where he wouldn't have to wait so long to see the fruits of his labor. Many architectural visualization c- panies struggled to survive these early days of 3D, when the software lacked the quality that many clients demanded, and the cost of equipment was a great a burden to manage. But just like the c- version from hand-drawn architectural blueprints to computer-aided drafting in the 90s, 3D visu- izations have gained the necessary backing to make our work the standard-before long it will be the norm. Now anyone with enough drive and desire can start a 3D visualization business from their own home with just a single computer. With new developments in chip technology on the horizon, such as the much anticipated Cell chip, the near future promises even greater power for all of us to build better scenes and render them in a fraction of the time it takes today.

Way back when Mario was still a mere twinkling in Miyamoto's eye, I was the proud owner of a state-of-the-art Commodore 64 microcomputer. It came with a game development s- tem called "e;The Quill,"e; which allowed anyone to create their own text-based adventure games. It may have been incredibly crude, but it suddenly put at my fingertips the thrill of enterta- ing my nearest and dearest by devising "e;interactive challenges"e; of my own. Unfortunately, I knew little about game design, and rather than easing my players into a new and alien world, I treated them as opponents that had to be defeated before they could reach the end. Their sp- its crushed, they left, never to return . . . It took me years of playing a variety of good (and bad) games to eventually learn how to treat the player to the game-playing experience that their investment of time and money deserved. It took just hours of reading this book to wish I'd had its invaluable guidelines and the accompanying Game Maker tool to help me take my own first steps into game devel- ment all those years ago.

Languages like C#, VB .NET, and Delphi include built-in support for events, and these events become very powerful when they connect the objects and components of a system. Events make it possible for such parts to interact without any coupling. And the resulting parts can be developed and tested individuallywhich keeps the code clean and simple.Component-based development (CBD) is an extension of object-oriented programming. CBD does away with the language and vendor-specific limitations of OOP, makes software reuse more practical and accelerates the development process. Event-based programming is the next logical step in CBD, and makes components more reusable due to their decoupled nature. But event-based systems are easier to develop, which means they’re cheaper and more reliable than traditional OOP or CBD systems.This book teaches you how to develop software based on parts that interact primarily through an event mechanism. You’ll learn how to use events in many different situations, to solve recurring development problems without coupling. The book introduces Signal Wiring Diagram, a novel form of software diagram similar to the circuit diagrams used by hardware designers. The book concludes with a series of case studies, incorporating all featured concepts. In a nutshell, you’ll want to pick up a copy of this book because it How to use an event-based paradigm to reduce or completely eliminate coupling between classes and components Describes components, including coordinators, workers, builders, binders, and routers Three complete case studies that model concepts being used to design small, medium, and large systems

Mobile Media API is a low-footprint and versatile API that enables you to create multimedia applications in Java-enabled phones. With this API, it is possible to add and control audio-, video-, and image-based media to MIDlets from different sources.Pro Java ME MMAPI explores this API in great detail. This book explains the APIs architecture and covers how this architecture sits with the Mobile Independent Device Profile (MIDP). The book also shows you how to best use the multimedia capabilities of a Java-enabled phone.This book includes detailed examples that cover the necessary basics, like audio playback and tone generation, to advanced issues, like synchronized media playback, video capture, and live radio stream. The book incorporates a mobile phone to model these examples, in addition to the Java Wireless Toolkit emulators. This is the first all-in-one reference for creating multimedia applications in Java-enabled phones using the MMAPI. Covers MMAPI thoroughly. Features real-world examples based on an actual phone—including a video blogging case study.

.NET represents a new and improved way of developing software for the Windows platform. Given the chance, you’d probably rewrite all of your existing code in the newer managed code environment that .NET provides. But it is difficult or impossible to throw out all existing legacy code and start over when a new technology arrives. Instead, you need to find a way to move forward with new .NET development while reusing existing pieces of tested, working code. You need a way to interoperate with the existing code until you have a chance to finally rewrite all of it in .NET.The only recipe-style book on the subject, .NET 2.0 Interoperability Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach guides Windows developers who are transitioning from native Windows code to .NET managed code..NET tools will allow you to interoperate with existing code. But finding the appropriate tool for the task at hand can sometimes be a frustrating experience. So this book will guide you past myriad infrequently used interop options to focus on those youll use most often.

Rockford Lhotka started writing his Business Objects books in 1996, and over the years, he’s become one of the world’s foremost authorities on building distributed object-oriented systems. His industry-standard VB .NET Business Objects book not only addresses changes in .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005, but also reflects substantial enhancements and improvements to the CSLA .NET Framework and how it can be used to create enterprise-level .NET applications.Expert C# 2005 Business Objects is for developers who want to see Lhotka's ideas applied in the C# idiom. The book takes you from an opening discussion of logical architectures to detailed n-tier deployment options using the CSLA .NET Framework.The depth of Rockford's thinking now influences developers across language boundaries. With this book, you can learn directly from the expert whose framework has become universally accepted and respected.

Beginning POJOs introduces you to open source lightweight web development using Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs) and the tools and frameworks that enable this. Tier by tier, this book guides you through the construction of complex but lightweight enterprise Java-based web applications. Such applications are centered around several major open source lightweight frameworks, including Spring, Hibernate, Tapestry, and JBoss (including the new lightweight JBoss Seam).Additional support comes from the most successful and prevalent open-source tools: Eclipse and Ant, and the increasingly popular TestNG. This book is ideal if you’re new to open source and lightweight Java. You’ll learn how to build a complete enterprise Java-based web application from scratch, and how to integrate the different open source frameworks to achieve this goal. You’ll also learn techniques for rapidly developing such applications.NOTE: The source code files to accompany this book are now hosted at https://github.com/bsbodden/techconf.

Excel Pivot Tables Recipe Book: A Problem-Solution Approach is for anyone who uses Excel frequently. This book follows a problem-solution format that covers the entire breadth of situations you might encounter when working with PivotTables—from planning and creating, to formatting and extracting data, to maximizing performance and troubleshooting. The author presents tips and techniques in this collection of recipes that cannot be found in Excel's Help section, and she carefully explains the most confusing features of PivotTables.All chapters have been organized into a collection of recipes that take you step-by-step from the problem you are experiencing to the solution you are aiming for. There’s no fuss to this book, only clear and precise information to help you assess your situationwhether common or uniqueand solve your problem. The book includes real-world examples of complex PivotTables, as well as numerous PivotTable programming examples.

Java has been a part of developers' vocabularies since 1995. At first it was thought of as being a nice, neat little language that could do some amazing things for the Internet. However, the language soon matured, and it still kept its simple approach. Developers started to realize the awesome power of a clean uncluttered alternative to C/C++. It wasn't long before visionaries in the industry discovered that Java could be further extended into an "e;enterprise"e; language. Thus J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) was born. This has also matured into a solid base for running three-tier, web-based, enterprise systems. If anyone doubts the industrial strength of these systems, there are now a wealth of bl- chip corporations using J2EE. They use IBM WebSphere and other enterprise systems to create very large, robust, and "e;externalized"e; systems. The dot-com boom may have adjusted itself somewhat, but it is by no means gone. The statement that the Gartner group made a few years ago, that corporations would have to externalize their data or lose out to competitors that have, is still very valid. Can you imagine working with a bank that did not offer online banking? They wouldn't survive for very long if their competitors were all "e;webified"e;! So, in 2001, one of the most innovative ERP companies, SAP, saw an opportunity to bring Java into its development environment.

Pro PHP XML and Web Services is the authoritative guide to using the XML features of PHP 5 and PHP 6. No other book covers XML and Web Services in PHP as deeply as this title. The first four chapters introduce the core concepts of XML required for proficiency, and will bring you up to speed on the terminology and key concepts you need to proceed with the rest of the book. Next, the book explores utilizing XML and Web Services with PHP5. Topics include DOM, SimpleXML, SAX, xmlReader, XSLT, RDF, RSS, WDDX, XML-RPC, REST, SOAP, and UDDI.Author Robert Richards, a major contributor to the PHP XML codebase, is a leading expert in the PHP community. In this book, Richards covers all topics in depth, blending theory with practical examples. You’ll find case studies for the most popular web services like Amazon, Google, eBay, and Yahoo. The book also covers XML capabilities, demonstrated through informative examples, in the PEAR libraries.

JDBC Metadata, MySQL, and Oracle Recipes is the only book that focuses on metadata or annotation-based code recipes for JDBC API for use with Oracle and MySQL. It continues where the authors other book, JDBC Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach, leaves off.This edition is also a Java EE 5-compliant book, perfect for lightweight Java database development. And it provides cut-and-paste code templates that can be immediately customized and applied in each developer's application development.

Pro JSF and Ajax shows you how to leverage the full potential of JavaServer Faces (JSF) and Ajax. This is not an entry-level tutorial, but a book about building Ajax-enabled JSF components for sophisticated, enterprise-level rich Internet applications. Written by JSF experts and verified by established community figures including Adam Winer (member of the JSF Expert Group, Java Champion), Kito D. Mann (JSFCentral.com and JSF in Action), and Matthias Weendorf (MyFaces), this JSF 5-compatible book provides reliable and groundbreaking JSF components to help you exploit the power of JSF in your Java web applications.This book provides a blueprint for building custom JSF user interface components and shows how to leverage the best browser technologies, such as Ajax, Mozilla XUL and Microsoft HTC, to deliver rich Internet applications.This book covers standard best practices for behavioral and renderer-specific component classes, renderers, events and event listeners, and JSP tag handlers for each. It also covers advanced techniques such as dynamic content type negotiation, JAR-based resource delivery, and dynamic render kit selection.Foreword"e;Does the world really and truly need another JavaServer Faces book?I was fairly well convinced the answer could only be a resounding 'no!' After all, there’s a good half dozen books out in stores today, by a whole host of web luminaries, and I’ve even personally helped as a technical reviewer on half of those. So what more could really be said on the subject?But when I thought about this a bit more, it became clear that all of these books only go so far. They’ll show you how to use what JSF gives you out of the box, throw you a bone for writing your own components and renderers, maybe even a bit more. But none that I’ve seen get to the heart of why JSF is really and truly cool and important technology; they make JSF look like YAMVCF (Yet Another Model-View-Controller Framework) for HTML—more powerful here and there, easier to use in many places, a bit harder to use in others, but really nothing major. And certainly nothing that takes us beyond the dull basics of building ordinary-looking web applications.This book goes a lot further. It’ll cover the basics, of course, and show you how to build components, but then it keeps going: on to AJAX, on to HTC, on to XUL—and how you can wrap this alphabet soup up underneath the heart of JSF, its component model, and how you can leverage it to finally develop web applications that don’t need radical re-architecting every time the winds of client technologies blow in a different direction. Along the way, you’ll learn a wide array of open source toolkits that make web magic practical even when you're not a Javascript guru.So, heck, I’m convinced. The world does need another JSF book."e;—Adam Winer, Architect, ADF Faces, JSF Expert Group Member, and Java Champion. (From the Foreword)

A Tester's Guide to .NET Programming focuses solely on applied programming techniques for testers. You will learn how to write simple automated tests, enabling you to test tools and utilities. You will also learn about the important concepts driving modern programming today, like multitier applications and object-oriented programming. More businesses are adopting .NET technologies, and this book will equip you to assess software robustness and performance.Whether you’re an experienced programmer who's unfamiliar with testing concepts, or you’re an experienced tester versed in VB .NET and C#, the included real-world tips and example code will help you start your projects. Also included are review questions and hands-on exercises to help you retain knowledge. Additionally, the book features examples and quick language tutorials for both C# and VB .NET.

An open source project backed by years of continual development, ImageMagick supports over 90 image formats and can perform impressive operations such as creating images from scratch, changing colors, stretching, rotating, and overlaying images, and overlaying text on images. Whether you use ImageMagick to manage the family photos or to embark on a job involving millions of images, this book will provide you with the knowledge to manage your images with ease.The Definitive Guide to ImageMagick explains all of these capabilities and more in a practical, learn-by-example fashion. You’ll get comfortable using ImageMagick for any image-processing task. Through the books coverage of the ImageMagick interfaces for C, Perl, PHP, and Ruby, you’ll learn how to incorporate ImageMagick features into a variety of applications.

In the first edition of this book, I said .NET is the future. I need to correct that-C++/CLI is the future. Microsoft seems to have a set pattern when it comes to releasing their products. It takes them three versions to come out with a superior and polished product. Well, true to form, even though they call it .NET 2.0, this is version three and, to put it bluntly, Microsoft has hit the nail on the head once again. Don't get me wrong; C# and Visual Basic .NET are still great development languages (and version three is as well), but neither have the flexibility or the pedal-to-the-metal power of C++/CLI. With .NET 2.0's version of C++/CLI, you no longer have a forced kludge of .NET concepts and C++. Instead, C++/CLI is now a true implementation of the C++ language from which you can implement .NET applications. If you're one of the legions of established C++ developers out there, this is a godsend, as you no longer have to learn a completely new language to get the benefits of .NET.

The second edition of WiMax Operator's Manual includes most of the material from the first edition, plus new discussions of * The ultra-high-speed mobile telephone standard, HSDPA * Ultrawideband (UWB) * Changes to DSL technologies * Mobile voice * Mobile entertainment * New backup systems The new edition also reflects the changes that have occurred in the industry over the last year and half, including the emergence of prestandards wireless broadband equipment with fully developed mobile capabilities, significant alterations in the competitive landscape, and the opening of valuable new spectrum for broadband wireless operators. Public broadband wireless data networks represent a truly disruptive technology, one that promises to break the monopolistic and oligopolistic status quo that still represents the norm in high-speed access today. Products that would enable such networks have existed for a number of years and in fact have been deployed in thousands of commercial systems throughout the world, but the lack of standards, the limited production volumes, and the consequent high prices have prevented the full potential of wireless broadband from being realized. Now, with the coming of a widely accepted industry standard, IEEE 802.16, and the introduction of microchips based on that standard by leading semiconductor companies, wi- less broadband public networks are becoming mainstream.

Pro Apache Ant is ideal for Java developers who need to use the leading open source build tool out there for development and project management. It is organized around chronological tasks instead of alphabetical functions, using a sample application throughout the set-up, from calling database scripts to unit testing.Practical examples are used at every stage and each task includes a concrete example. The configuration files are XML based, so there’s no need for you to write shell commands. Each task is run by an object that implements a particular task interface. And if you really need to execute a shell command, Ant has a task that allows different commands based on the operating system.

Notes on Style I admit I was a programmer before I started building robots. So my perspective may be so- what skewed in the direction of a programmer. However, I also didn't want this book to be from a purely software engineering perspective. I wanted to keep the text balanced between robotics and programming and not get too cute with either discipline, though from time to time I'm afraid I may have indulged myself. Who Should Read This Book If you want off-the-shelf robot components, free software, and development tools, this is the book for you. You can download all the software-it's GPL (General Public License) or Apache License-and you can purchase the components from your favorite robot supplier and/or hobby shop. The following sections outline the experience you should have to get the most out of the book. Your Programming/Java Experience I could say that you should have a good understanding of object-oriented techniques and Java before getting started with this book, but if you're like most roboticists, you'll likely learn as you go, and by following the various examples I've included within these pages.