Outside of the accounting and finance departments, not many business people are interested in the finer points of financial reports. But every manager must have a thorough understanding of what their finance and accounting staffs do, why they do it, and what these reports really mean.

This indispensable book demystifies the role that accounting and finance play in a corporation and demonstrates how financial decisions are manifestations of company goals. The author's crystal-clear examples show how managers can connect corporate financial information directly to their own strategies and actions. To demonstrate these connections, the author covers such essential topics as:

* Balance sheets and income/cash flow statements * Reading and understanding annual reports * Fixed-cost and variable-cost issues * Financial analysis, budgeting and forecasting.

(more…)

A comprehensive guide that lets you play the options game with confidence
Due to the uncontrollable elements associated with options, many traders find themselves without practical strategies for specific situations. The Option Trader's Guide to Probability, Volatility, and Timing offers traders a variety of strategies to trade options intelligently and confidently in any given situation. With detail and objectivity, this book sets forth risk assessment guidelines, explains risk curve analysis, discusses exit methods, and uncovers some of the biggest mistakes options traders make. The Option Trader's Guide provides readers with strategies for trading options as well as expert advice on when to implement those strategies.

(more…)

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) have traditionally been used to transport only data, but are now being used to carry voice traffic as well as provided new combined voice and data services. Voice over WLANs also offers more flexibility than wired networks (changes to a WLAN dont require changes to installed wiring) and greater capacity than wired networks. This book provides a solid overview of voice over WLANs/VoIP (voice over internet protocol) technology, including voice coding, packet loss, delay and jitter, and echo control. It shows how to combine both WLAN and VoIP technology to create effective voice over WLAN systems.

* Gives complete details on integrating voice and data services on WLANs, including wide area networks
* Explores quality of service (QoS) and security issues
* Step-by-step descriptions of how to plan and implement voice over WLAN networks

(more…)

I am green with envy for the newest generation of SAS programmers because I wish that I had had this book in front of me 20 years ago when I first started with SAS! Art s book gives a perspective on the REPORT procedure as no other user has done before by ingeniously intertwining his extensive knowledge of PROC REPORT with the experiences and unique approaches of over 100 PROC REPORT power users. His simple approach will give even the most novice SAS user the necessary tools to get started with PROC REPORT, and his nicely flowing buildup to PROC REPORT s more complex usability makes this book a jewel for the entire SAS community. Art s PROC REPORT book has, without a doubt, given all SAS users THE POWER TO KNOW(R)! –Rick Mitchell, Senior Systems Analyst, Westat.

(more…)

Integration of applications within a business and between different businesses is becoming more and more important. The needs for up-to-date information that is accessible from almost everywhere and developing e-business solutions — particularly business to business — require that developers find solutions for integrating diverse, heterogeneous applications, developed in different architectures and programming languages and on different platforms. They have to do this quickly and cost effectively, but still preserve the architecture and deliver robust solutions that are maintainable over time.

Integration is a difficult task. This book focuses on the SOA approach to integration of existing (legacy) applications and newly developed solutions, using modern technologies, particularly web services, XML, ESB, and BPEL. The book shows how to define SOA for integration, what integration patterns to use, which technologies to use, and how to best integrate existing applications with modern e-business solutions. It also shows how to develop web services and BPEL processes, and how to process and manage XML documents from the JEE and .NET platforms. Finally, it also explains how to integrate both platforms using web services and ESBs.

(more…)