Laptops–call them notebooks, portable computers, or whatever else you like–are tightly engineered items. It's hard to get all the required components to obey stringent performance and power-management requirements, and still fit into a small case. The job usually requires a custom motherboard and other specialized components, and so the laptop owner who wants to upgrade his or her machine faces a much more difficult task than the owner of a desktop machine with a similar wish. One can swap out the hard drive, add more RAM, and make tweaks in software, but almost everything else requires the addition of external components, which kind of defeat the purpose of a laptop. That's the message the reader takes away from Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing Laptops. It's not Mueller's fault that such computers are hard to do much with, and that your best upgrade procedure is often a visit to an auction site. (more…)

Be a part of the best-selling Upgrading and Repairing series with the latest edition of the flagship book, Upgrading and Repairing PCs. Author Scott Mueller has taught thousands in his seminars and millions through his books, videos and articles. Since 1988, everyon from PC technicians and students to hobbyists, have turned to Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs books for help with computer problems. Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 17th Edition includes new and updated content covering the latest processors, motherboards, memory, and more, including a fully-loaded DVD with new video and reference material. (more…)

SQL Server Integration Services is groundbreaking. It exists for both the DBA and the developer, as well as that new role SSIS has created between the two—the data artisan.

Pro SQL Server 2005 Integration Services contains everything you could ever hope to know about this exciting new development from Microsoft: developer insight, Microsoft group manager–level access, personal experience of using the technology in the real–world, and fine–grained analysis. If you want to rapidly gain knowledge and context from your data, Microsoft’s latest and greatest interpretation of Enterprise Application Integration, SQL Server Integration Services, is for you. As part of the extensive SQL Server suite, Integration Services is a more serious and expandable interpretation of the integration paradigm than previously available. At once both simple to use yet incredibly complex, it goes far beyond being a reimagining and reengineering of DTS, and its all presented in a familiar Visual Studio context. It’s Agile, it’s service-oriented, it’s everything to everyone.

Written for the developer, the DBA, and the data artisan, Pro SQL Server 2005 Integration Services will show you how to develop and deploy enterprise SSIS solutions in multibillion–item environments. Its everything SSIS, explained for everyone!

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Backed by a tireless development community, PHP has been a model of language evolution over its 10+ year history. Borne from a contract developer’s pet project, these days you’ll find PHP powering many of the world’s largest web sites, including Yahoo!, Digg, EA Games, and Lycos.

PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice, Second Edition shows you how to meld the power of PHP with the sound enterprise development techniques embraced by professional programmers. Going well beyond the basics of object-oriented development, you’ll learn about advanced topics such as working with static methods and properties, abstract classes, interfaces, design patterns, exception handling, and more. You’ll also be exposed to key tools such as PEAR, CVS, Phing, and phpDocumentor.

• Write solid, maintainable code by embracing object-oriented techniques and design patterns.
• Create detailed, versatile documentation using the powerful phpDocumentor automated documentation system.
• Gain new flexibility during the development process by managing your code within a CVS repository and using the Phing build system.
• Capitalize upon the quality code of others by using the PEAR package management solution.

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The GCC Book is a comprehensive tutorial and guide to using the newest version of GCC, the "GNU Compiler Collection". GCC is quite simply the most used and most powerful tool for programmers on the planet. It goes beyond just command line invocations and teaches you how to use GCC to improve the quality of your code (with debugging, code profiling, and test code coverage) and how to integrate other GNU development tools, such as libtool, automake, and autoconf, into your GCC-based development projects.
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• Provides a complete command reference and explains how to use the info online help system
• Covers material not covered in other texts: profiling, test coverage, and how to build and install GCC on a variety of operating system and hardware platforms
• Explains how to build and install GCC on Linux, UNIX, and Windows systems, whether you have an existing GCC or not

The Definitive Guide to GCC is a comprehensive tutorial and guide to using the newest version of GCC, the “Gnue Compiler Collection.” GCC is quite simply the most used and most powerful tool for programmers on the planet. It goes beyond just command line invocations and teaches you how to use GCC to improve the quality of your code (with debugging, code profiling, and test code coverage) and how to integrate other GNU development tools, such as libtool, automake, and autoconf, into your GCC-based development projects.

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Spring has made a remarkable rise since its conception in 2002. Users find Spring the ideal framework to build their applications in J2EE environments. Beginning Spring 2 is the first and only Spring-authorized book that takes you through the first steps of using Spring, and requires no prior J2EE experience. It discusses relevant integrated technologies that you should be aware of, and illustrates how Spring makes using them easier.

The book teaches the correct usage of Spring in applications, and lowers the learning curve on J2EE standards. It covers useful features of Spring without delving too far into complicated features. The authors take advantage of less complex alternatives whenever possible, and shows how Spring can make you more productive in complicated environments where J2EE technologies need to be applied. The book covers the complete Spring web tools portfolio and deals with persistence and transaction management. It also introduces 3-tier application design and how to test these designs.

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EDI is one of the next big waves in connected systems, as business becomes more dependent on working with partners, suppliers, and other organizations in a streamlined way. Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 offers an efficient, integrated way to deploy EDI solutions, and with Pro EDI in BizTalk Server 2006 R2: Electronic Document Interchange Solutions, you’ll see how EDI can be used in your business and how best to get it set up with BizTalk. With a cursory read of this book, management-level resources will be able to quickly determine the complexity of a BizTalk EDI implementation and the level of resources that will need to be made available. The developer will get an in-depth understanding of EDI and a detailed step-by-step approach to building and deploying projects.

This book’s unique approach sees an EDI project from end to end, through inception, into development, and finally through deployment. With this practical guide, you can set up and deliver a BizTalk 2006–driven EDI solution without getting caught up in the complexity of non-EDI items in BizTalk.

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Cisco® Security Monitoring, Analysis, and Response System (MARS) is a next-generation Security Threat Mitigation system (STM). Cisco Security MARS receives raw network and security data and performs correlation and investigation of host and network information to provide you with actionable intelligence. This easy-to-use family of threat mitigation appliances enables you to centralize, detect, mitigate, and report on priority threats by leveraging the network and security devices already deployed in a network, even if the devices are from multiple vendors. 

Security Monitoring with Cisco Security MARS helps you plan a MARS deployment and learn the installation and administration tasks you can expect to face. Additionally, this book teaches you how to use the advanced features of the product, such as the custom parser, Network Admission Control (NAC), and global controller operations. Through the use of real-world deployment examples, this book leads you through all the steps necessary for proper design and sizing, installation and troubleshooting, forensic analysis of security events, report creation and archiving, and integration of the appliance with Cisco and third-party vulnerability assessment tools.

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