Over the last several years, fiscal discipline has really dominated the industry. Both consumers and businesses expect far more from their communications providers than they did just a few years ago. Offering simple telephone dial tone and an Internet connection are not going to be enough for success. At the same time, however, service providers want to continue to reduce their operational costs. As a result, one of the main challenges telecommunications companies now face is to find ways to cost effectively bring innovative services to their customers. These drivers are why most providers are working on transitioning their disparate legacy networks to one, unified, converged network infrastructure based on IP combined with Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). MPLS is a technology that translates various other telecommunications protocols, such as ATM or frame relay, so they can run over an IP-based network. By eliminating their multiple networks, service providers are greatly reducing their operational costs. And by moving to an IP/MPLS network, they can mix and match all communications types—voice, data, and video—into any service their customers might want.

We believe the CRS-1 will dramatically affect carriers and their capability to successfully transition to this new era in communications. Carriers worldwide are embracing convergence and almost unanimously agree that IP/MPLS is the foundation for their new infrastructures. The CRS-1 provides carriers the means to consolidate their networks in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. Nothing on the market can match it in terms of scalability, reliability, and flexibility. It is a system that our service provider customers will be able to base their businesses on. And I firmly believe that carriers that deploy the CRS-1 will gain profound competitive advantage over their competition through operational efficiencies and service flexibility. As we like to point out, when service providers work with Cisco, they are not just working with a network equipment maker but, rather, a business partner.

This is the first book of peer-reviewed, edited papers that examines the broad subject of the minerals industry in relation to sustainable development. The book takes a proactive, positivist, and solution-oriented approach, while not shying away from identifying the real problems that mining raises in respect to social and economic development, environmental impact, and human development in general.

CCNP TSHOOT 642-832 Official Certification Guide is a best-of-breed Cisco® exam study guide that focuses specifically on the objectives for the CCNP® TSHOOT exam. Senior instructor and best-selling author Kevin Wallace shares preparation hints and test-taking tips, helping you identify areas of weakness and improve both your conceptual knowledge and hands-on skills. Material is presented in a concise manner, focusing on increasing your understanding and retention of exam topics.

CCNP TSHOOT 642-832 Official Certification Guide presents you with an organized test preparation routine through the use of proven series elements and techniques. “Do I Know This Already?” quizzes open each chapter and enable you to decide how much time you need to spend on each section. Exam topic lists make referencing easy. Chapter-ending Exam Preparation Tasks sections help drill you on key concepts you must know thoroughly.

The companion CD-ROM contains a powerful testing engine that enables you to focus on individual topic areas or take complete, timed exams. The assessment engine also tracks your performance and provides feedback on a module-by-module basis, laying out a complete study plan for review.

Well regarded for its level of detail, assessment features, and challenging review questions and exercises, this official study guide helps you master the concepts and techniques that will enable you to succeed on the exam the first time.

CCNP TSHOOT 642-832 Official Certification Guide is part of a recommended learning path from Cisco that includes simulation and hands-on training from authorized Cisco Learning Partners and self-study products from Cisco Press. To find out more about instructor-led training, e-learning, and hands-on instruction offered by authorized Cisco Learning Partners worldwide, please visit www.cisco.com/go/authorizedtraining.

Kevin Wallace, CCIE® No. 7945, is a certified Cisco instructor who holds multiple Cisco certifications including CCSP®, CCVP®, CCNP®, and CCDP®, in addition to multiple security and voice specializations. With Cisco experience dating back to 1989 (beginning with a Cisco AGS+ running Cisco IOS 7.x), Kevin has been a network design specialist for the Walt Disney World Resort, a senior technical instructor for SkillSoft/Thomson NETg/KnowledgeNet, and a network manager for Eastern Kentucky University.

This volume is part of the Official Certification Guide Series from Cisco Press. Books in this series provide officially developed exam preparation materials that offer assessment, review, and practice to help Cisco Career Certification candidates identify weaknesses, concentrate their study efforts, and enhance their confidence as exam day nears.

Ruby has built an enormous following of developers attracted by its intuitiveness, flexibility, and simplicity. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s .NET has grown and matured into a platform of unparalleled power. IronRuby brings them together, enabling developers to write elegant, efficient Ruby code that seamlessly integrates with .NET objects and leverages .NET’s full capabilities. Now, in IronRuby Unleashed, one of IronRuby’s most respected early adopters demonstrates how to write outstanding production software with the brand new IronRuby 1.0.

Writing for both Ruby and .NET developers, Shay Friedman covers every facet of IronRuby programming. Friedman begins by explaining how IronRuby leverages the new Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) libraries to run atop the .NET Framework and access its resources. Next, he presents an in-depth IronRuby tutorial that ranges from basic syntax and object-oriented programming techniques through advanced concepts. Building on this foundation, you’ll learn how to make the most of a broad spectrum of .NET platform features.

IronRuby Unleashed thoroughly illuminates the use of IronRuby and .NET with today’s most powerful frameworks and technologies, including WPF, ASP.NET MVC, Ruby on Rails, and Silverlight. You’ll also find detailed coverage of unit testing, as well as cutting-edge techniques for extending IronRuby with C# or VB.NET.

Detailed information on how to...

• Install IronRuby and choose the right development environment for your needs
• Master IronRuby syntax, methods, blocks, classes, modules, libraries, and more
• Write code that takes advantage of IronRuby’s dynamic and metaprogramming features
• Utilize .NET services and frameworks to write more powerful Ruby code than ever before
• Incorporate efficient data access into your IronRuby applications
• Use IronRuby to build Windows software with both WinForms and WPF
• Rapidly build high-quality Web applications with IronRuby and Ruby on Rails
• Create rich Web 2.0 applications with IronRuby and Microsoft Silverlight
• Test .NET code with Ruby’s leading unit testing frameworks
• Run IronRuby code from other .NET code, and create .NET code libraries that fit well with IronRuby code

A fascinating journey into the mind-bending world of prime numbers

Cicadas of the genus Magicicada appear once every 7, 13, or 17 years. Is it just a coincidence that these are all prime numbers? How do twin primes differ from cousin primes, and what on earth (or in the mind of a mathematician) could be sexy about prime numbers? What did Albert Wilansky find so fascinating about his brother-in-law's phone number?

Mathematicians have been asking questions about prime numbers for more than twenty-five centuries, and every answer seems to generate a new rash of questions. In Prime Numbers: The Most Mysterious Figures in Math, you'll meet the world's most gifted mathematicians, from Pythagoras and Euclid to Fermat, Gauss, and Erd?o?s, and you'll discover a host of unique insights and inventive conjectures that have both enlarged our understanding and deepened the mystique of prime numbers. This comprehensive, A-to-Z guide covers everything you ever wanted to know--and much more that you never suspected--about prime numbers, including:
* The unproven Riemann hypothesis and the power of the zeta function
* The "Primes is in P" algorithm
* The sieve of Eratosthenes of Cyrene
* Fermat and Fibonacci numbers
* The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search
* And much, much more

Infusing new products into a company or organization’s product is imperative for the growth of that organization. In addition, New Product Development (NPD) does not necessarily happen in one place over a defined period of time. NPD is most often distributed in both space and time across a wide range of entities. Therefore, distributed information technology systems play a large role in developing new product lines.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: A Research Agenda provides definition and research parameters that further theoretical concepts and insights on the application of IT in product development and innovation activities in business enterprises. More specifically, the book serves the following objectives: Provides a review of the existing literature on the intersection of IT and NPD and begin to sketch out an integrative framework that can form a foundation for continuing research on the area, introduces new theoretical perspectives by drawing and integrating from different functional business disciplines: information systems, technology management, innovation management, operations, and organizational behavior, offers viewpoints from industry on key trends in IT-enabled product development and the implication of these trends for future research in the area.

This is a high-impact area for IT and there is considerable interest in the implementation methods of NPD across the functional areas of business.

The aim of the book is to be a reference book in automotive technology, as far as automotive chassis (i.e. everything that is inside a vehicle except the engine and the body) is concerned. The book is a result of a decade of work heavily sponsored by the FIAT group (who supplied material, together with other automotive companies, and sponsored the work). The first volume deals with the design of automotive components and the second volume treats the various aspects of the design of a vehicle as a system.