The Student's Essential Guide to .NET provides a clear and simple overview of Microsoft's .NET technologies. It is aimed at second and third year undergraduate students and postgraduate students on Computing or Computer Science courses who are required to look at a modern operating system, (Microsoft Windows 9x, Nt 2000 or XP) and to design and code simple or even not so simple examples. The approach is based upon the student's learning the technology of .NET through examples using the supported languages C#, VB and C++. The examples are based on fun, familiar games, and students are encouraged to review reference material to refine their skills on key aspects of the architecture. Review questions and worked examples enhance the learning process and the material is supported by the author's website, which contains extensive ancillary material.

* Student-focused treatment with many examples and exercises, together with solutions
* Integrates the use of .NET with the supported languages C#, VB and C++
* Authors supporting website contains solutions, source code and other extras

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JasperForge.org is the open source development portal for the JasperSoft Business Intelligence Suite, the JasperSoft Business Intelligence solution that delivers comprehensive tools for data access, data integration, analysis, and reporting, including iReport. This definitive, authoritative book covers the following:

• Covers iReport as an intuitive and easy-to-use visual report builder/designer for JasperReports, written in 100% pure Java.
• Shows how users can visually edit complex reports with charts, images, and subreports, as iReport is integrated with leading open source chart libraries for Java
• Demonstrates how the data to print can be retrieved through several methods including multiple JDBC connections, TableModels, JavaBeans, XML, MDX, EJBQL, Hibernate, and so forth

• Understand the iReport and JasperReports installation process and fundamental concepts.
• Build your very first simple report.
• Set up and implement types of datasources including a JDBC connection, a custom datasource, and XML datasources.
• Explore iReport plug-ins.
• Create simple and complex charts.

This book is for business intelligence reporting tool users and developers who have a background primarily in Java and Java EE.

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Software programs are complex, the books that explain them shouldnt be. This thoroughly illustrated, full-color guide explains everything you need to know to get up and running quickly with Adobe Encore DVD 2.0 without any extraneous information or complicated, detailed explanations. The author focuses solely on the key features you will need to start producing and mastering professional-quality DVDs immediately in order to avoid overloading you with too many details. Learn best practices for planning your project, importing video and audio assests, creating professional-looking menus, and adding custom project elements. Abundant illustrations, screenshots, and concise, results-driven text makes this the ultimate guide to getting up and running quickly with Encore DVD.

The Focal Easy Guide Series:
* Start working with new software immediately regardless of your level
* Achieve professional results, learn practical skills from industry experts
* Focused, user-friendly coverage of the key tools you need to know

* Learn all the essentials for DVD creation: project planning, importing assets, timeline creation, transcoding, menu creation, adding custom project elements and more!
* Distills everything you'll need to know without delving into extraneous information and overloading you with too many details
*Abundant full-color screenshots and illustrations bring the instructions to life
*Accompanying website withdownloads and all the lastest software updates can be found at www.focalpress.com/companions/0240520041

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If you need to get to grips fast with creating interactive graphics and animation in Flash - then look no further! Whether you are a new user or a professional, this highly visual book is all you need to get up and running with the latest powerful upgrade - Macromedia Flash 8.

Birgitta Hosea breaks down the software into its main components and offers simple, visual step-by-step instructions to explain the fundamental practical techniques you need to create finished projects. The accessible style and structure lets you dip in and out when working on a project, or work straight through to explore more of the programs capabilities and develop your skills.

Written by a designer for designers The Focal Easy Guide to Macromedia Flash 8 offers a thorough coverage of the basic features of Flash, without going into in-depth coding with ActionScript.

Birgitta Hosea is a motion graphics artist and Course Director of the London Animation Studio at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Her experience ranges from designing moving branding to art directing pop promos and short films.

A Volume in The Focal Easy Guide Series.

The Focal Easy Guide series:
Starting working with new software immediately regardless of your level
Achieve professional results, learn practical skills from industry experts
Focused, user-friendly coverage of the key tools you need to know

*If you need to get up and running fast with creating interactive graphics and animation in Flash - then look no further!
*Offers a thorough coverage of the basic features of Flash, without going into in-depth coding with ActionScript
*Dip in and out of the book when working on a project, or work straight through to explore more of the program's capabilities

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In a constant stream of new ideas, wireless technologies continue to emerge offering a range of capabilities, each affording simplicity and ease-of-use. Such diversity and choice should surely beg the question, are manufacturers using the right technology for the right product?

Developing Practical Wireless Applications will explore this question and, in doing so, will illustrate many of the wireless technologies currently available whilst drawing upon their individual strengths and weaknesses. More specifically, the book will draw your attention to the diverse collection of standardized and proprietary solutions available to manufacturers. As developers and innovators your choices are not restricted to any norm and, as such, a standardized or proprietary solution may afford you greater benefits in realising any product roadmap.

Developing Practical Wireless Applications will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of how each technology works, coupled with an exploration into overlapping, complementary and competing technologies. In establishing this foundation, we will explore wireless applications in their context and address their suitability. In contrast, the book also considers the practicality of a wireless world in an attempt to better understand our audience and specific demographic groups. Coupled with a richer understanding of our consumers, along with our technology make-up we can indeed target wireless products more effectively.

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There is a hidden revolution going on: geography is moving from niche to the mainstream. GIS for Web Developers introduces Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in simple terms and demonstrates hands-on uses. With this book, you’ll explore popular websites like maps.google.com, see the technologies they use, and learn how to create your own. Written with the usual Pragmatic Bookshelf humor and real-world experience, GIS for Web Developers makes geographic programming concepts accessible to the common developer.

This book will demystify GIS and show you how to make GIS work for you. You’ll learn the buzzwords and explore ways to geographically-enable your own applications. GIS is not a fundamentally difficult domain, but there is a barrier to entry because of the industry jargon. This book will show you how to “walk the walk” and “talk the talk” of a geographer. You’ll learn how to find the vast amounts of free geographic data that’s out there and how to bring it all together. Although this data is free, it’s scattered across the web on a variety of different sites, in a variety of incompatible formats. You’ll see how to convert it among several popular formats?including plain text, ESRI Shapefiles, and Geography Markup Language (GML). With this book in hand, you’ll become a real geographic programmer using the Java programming language. You’ll find plenty of working code examples in Java using some of the many GIS-oriented applications and APIs. You’ll be able to:
    * Find free sources of GIS data on the web
    * Browse GIS data using open source desktop viewers
    * Manipulate GIS data programmatically
    * Store and retrieve data using geographically-enabled databases
    * Explore free web toolkits like Google Maps
    * Publish and consume web services using Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) interfaces

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 Silverlight–the hot new web technology based on the powerful WPF graphics platform that ships with Windows Vista–is the web developer's choice for creating cross-platform interactive applications that work in multiple browsers. This one-of-a-kindreference shows you, with full-color illustrations, how to create rich interactive apps with Silverlight.

In these color-filled pages, a crack team of Wrox experts gives you a comprehensive introduction to Silverlight. You'll see the vivid graphics and video images you can achieve. You will learn to use the component languages, tools, and techniques of Silverlight to create applications that enhance the user experience. You'll also discover how to leverage existing technologies, such as JavaScript(r), XAML, ASP.NET, and AJAX, and incorporate them with development tools like Visual Studio(r), Expression(r) Encoder, and Expression Blend. Soon you'll be building everything from basic static pages to Internet applications that integrate rich media and animation.

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Software architecture is an important field of study that is becoming more important and more talked about with every passing day. But, to our knowledge, there exists little practical guidance on how to manage software architecture within a real software development organization from a technical or from a managerial perspective. This book has emerged from our belief that the coupling of the software architecture of a system and its business and organizational context has not been well explored.

Our experience with designing and reviewing large and complex software-intensive systems has led us to recognize the role of business and organization in the design of the system and also in its ultimate success or failure. Systems are built to satisfy an organizationis requirements (or assumed requirements in the case of shrink-wrapped products), and these requirements determine the extent to which a system must meet performance targets, be highly available, interoperate with other systems, or be designed for long lifetimes. These properties of a system are constrained by the systemis software architecture; or, to put it another way, the desire to achieve these properties influences the design choices made by a software architect.

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