Since the enormous number of new features made available with MySQL release 5.0, MySQL has been gaining steam as a viable alternative to database behemoths like Oracle and IBM DB2. MySQL users now have the ability to extend MySQL with new SQL commands, optimize query execution, and embed MySQL within low-resource environments like embedded devices and kiosks.

Expert MySQL, by Dr. Charles A. Bell, is the first book to examine these opportunities in detail, showing you how to wield maximum control over this powerful open source database. Youll learn how to create your own custom storage handlers, ensuring maximum flexibility and speed within your specialized applications. Youll also gain valuable insight into MySQLs architecture and learn how to tweak its behavior through custom changes to the source code.

This book is for web developers wanting to master two of the most promising recent developments in
the field: Ajax and Ruby on Rails. By the end of this book, you'll be equipped with the knowledge to
build richly interactive web applications with Rails.

ajax on rails

You might think more than enough design books exist in the programming world already. In fact, there are so many that it makes sense to ask why you would read yet another. Is there really a need for yet another design book? In fact, there is a greater need than ever before, and Practical API Design: Confessions of a Java Framework Architect fills that need!

• Teaches you how to write an API that will stand the test of Time
• Written by the designer of the NetBeans API at Sun
• Based on best practices, scalability, and API design patterns

What you’ll learn

• What an API is and what the theories are behind good API design
• When and why to build an API
• API design patterns applicable to all programming languages, especially modern, object–oriented languages
• How to optimize and test APIs

Who is this book for?

This book is recommended to every API architect who prefers a bit more engineering design over a purely artistic one.

Android Essentials is a no–frills, no–nonsense, code–centric run through the guts of application development on Google’s Mobile OS. This book uses the development of a sample application to work through topics, focusing on giving developers the essential tools and examples required to make viable commercial applications work. Covering the entirety of the Android catalog in less than 150 pages is simply impossible. Instead, this book focuses on just four main topics: the application life cycle and OS integration, user interface, location–based services, and networking.

• Thorough, complete, and useful work on the nuts and bolts of applicatio development in Android
• Example driven and practically minded
• A tool for hobbyists and professionals who want to create production–quality applications

What you’ll learn

• Understand how an Android application functions and communicates with the handset that hosts it.
• Comprehend the complexities of timers, services, and multimedia playback.
• Create and display a rich mix of custom–rendered screens and tailored Android widgets.
• Understand how location–based services are becoming more and more important in the mobile world.
• See how to use Google’s powerful Map tool.
• Explore the intricacies of network connectivity in the mobile world.

Who is this book for

This book is for professional software engineers looking to move their ideas and applications into the mobile space with Android. The author assumes the reader has a passable understanding of Java. They should be able to write classes and handle basic inheritance structures. This book also targets hobbyist developers looking to negotiate the complex minefield of mobile software.

Microsoft’s DirectX is a powerful set of application programming interfaces used for multimedia application development. The latest version offers increased performance, better usability, and more power to create the next generation of interactive entertainment products that rival anything seen in the past. This revision of the best-selling Advanced 3-D Game Programming Using DirectX 7.0 focuses on the new features of DirectX 8.0, providing plenty of code to help readers understand how to create computer games using this advanced multimedia application development platform.

Among the topics discussed are: * Lighting and shading schemes * Networking and multithreading * Texture mapping * Scene management

Along with several sample applications that target specific algorithms, full source code is provided for a client-server networked 3-D first-person game that demonstrates many of the techniques discussed in the book. This gives readers the opportunity to develop their own code easily, basing it upon the technology discussed in the book.

Photography is a complex craft. Some excel at the technical side of image-making, focusing perfectly on the subject, releasing the shutter at just the right moment and making exposures with the precise amount of light. Others are artists and storytellers, capturing a fleeting moment in time which inspires a viewer to gaze upon an image and ponder its meaning. The best photographers are masters of both.

In this highly visual, informative new book, Angela Faris Belt discusses the four crucial elements of photography that are essential for successful technical and conceptual image-making:

the photographic frame and its borders
quality of focus as determined by the aperture or lens
shutter speeds and their effects in relation to time and motion
the physical media used to create the aggregate image

Step-by-step guidance including informative screen shots, traditional darkroom and Photoshop techniques, suggested exercises, and before and after images help both film and digital photographers improve their skills, learn new techniques, and better understand their craft. More than 300 stunning, full color images and portfolios featuring the work of over 40 prestigious artists provide visual inspiration as well as a gorgeous collection of artwork for photography enthusiasts.

Smart web developers will tell you that the sooner you detect your code mistakes, the quicker you can fix them, and the less the project will cost in the long run. Well, the most efficient way to detect your mistakes in PHP is with PHPUnit, an open source framework that automates unit testing by running a battery of tests as you go. The benefits of PHPUnit are significant:

• a reduction in the effort required to frequently test code
• fewer overall defects
• added confidence in your code
• improved relations with your open source teammates

The only problem with this popular testing tool was its lack of documentation-until now, that is. For this, O'Reilly went right to the source, as Sebastian Bergmann, the author of PHPUnit Pocket Guide, also happens to be PHPUnit's creator. This little book brings together hard-to-remember information, syntax, and rules for working with PHPUnit. It also delivers the insight and sage advice that can only come from the technology's creator. Coverage of testing under agile methodologies and Extreme Programming (XP) is also included.

The latest in O'Reilly's series of handy Pocket Guides, this quick-reference book puts all the answers are right at your fingertips. It's an invaluable companion for anyone interested in testing the PHP code they write for web applications.

FreeBSD and OpenBSD are increasingly gaining traction in educational institutions, non-profits, and corporations worldwide because they provide significant security advantages over Linux. Although a lot can be said for the robustness, clean organization, and stability of the BSD operating systems, security is one of the main reasons system administrators use these two platforms.

There are plenty of books to help you get a FreeBSD or OpenBSD system off the ground, and all of them touch on security to some extent, usually dedicating a chapter to the subject. But, as security is commonly named as the key concern for today's system administrators, a single chapter on the subject can't provide the depth of information you need to keep your systems secure.

FreeBSD and OpenBSD are rife with security "building blocks" that you can put to use, and Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security shows you how. Both operating systems have kernel options and filesystem features that go well beyond traditional Unix permissions and controls. This power and flexibility is valuable, but the colossal range of possibilities need to be tackled one step at a time. This book walks you through the installation of a hardened operating system, the installation and configuration of critical services, and ongoing maintenance of your FreeBSD and OpenBSD systems.

Using an application-specific approach that builds on your existing knowledge, the book provides sound technical information on FreeBSD and Open-BSD security with plenty of real-world examples to help you configure and deploy a secure system. By imparting a solid technical foundation as well as practical know-how, it enables administrators to push their server's security to the next level. Even administrators in other environments--like Linux and Solaris--can find useful paradigms to emulate.

Written by security professionals with two decades of operating system experience, Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security features broad and deep explanations of how how to secure your most critical systems. Where other books on BSD systems help you achieve functionality, this book will help you more thoroughly secure your deployments.

Written by popular author and .NET expert Jesse Liberty, this thoroughly updated tutorial for beginning to intermediate programmers covers the latest release of Microsoft's popular C# language (C# 3.0) and the newest .NET platform for developing Windows and web applications. Our bestselling Programming C# 3.0, now in its fifth edition, is a world-class tutorial that goes well beyond the documentation otherwise available. Liberty doesn't just teach C#; he tells the complete story of the C# language and how it integrates with all of .NET programming, so that you can get started creating professional quality web and Windows applications. This book: Provides a comprehensive tutorial in C# and .NET programming that also serves as a useful reference you'll want by your side while you're working Covers all of the new features of the language, thoroughly integrated into every chapter, rather than tacked on at the end Provides insight into best practices and insight into real world programming by a professional programmer who worked with C# as an independent contractor for nearly a decade before joining Microsoft as a Senior Program Manager Every chapter in this book has been totally revised, and the entire book has been reorganized to respond to the significant changes in the language Full coverage, from the ground up of LINQ (Language Integrated Query) and other C# 3.0 language innovations to speed up development tasks Explains how to use C# in creating Web Applications as well as Windows Applications, using both the new Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and the older WinForms technology This new edition of Programming C# 3.0 is for working programmers who want to develop proficiency inMicrosoft's most important language. No prior .NET experience is required for you to get started. There's no time like the present to work with C# -- and no book like this one to teach you everything you need to know. Special note to VB6 and Java programmers: if you've decided to transition to .NET, this book will take you there.

If you have some programming experience and are ready to venture into Linux programming, this updated edition of the bestselling entry-level book takes you there. New to this edition are chapters on MySQL^® access and administration; programming GNOME^TM and KDE^TM; and Linux standards for portable applications. Coverage of kernel programming, device drivers, CVS, grep, and GUI development environments has expanded.

The authors guide you step by step, using construction of a CD database application to give you hands-on experience as you progress from the basic to the complex.

You’ll start with fundamental concepts like writing Linux programs in C. You’ll learn basic system calls, file I/O, interprocess communication, and shell programming. You’ll become skilled with the toolkits and libraries for working with user interfaces. The book starts with the basics, explaining how to compile and run your first program. First, each concept is explained to give you a solid understanding of the material. Practical examples are then presented, so you see how to apply the knowledge in real applications.

This book is a guide to FreeBSD for network administrators; therefore it does not cover basic installation and configuration of FreeBSD, but is about using FreeBSD to build, secure, and maintain networks. After introducing the basic tools for monitoring the performance and security of the system the book moves on to cover using jails-FreeBSD virtual environments-to secure your network. Then it shows how to overcome the different bottlenecks that you may meet depending on the services you are running by tweaking different parameters to maintain a high performance from your FreeBSD server. Next it covers using the ifconfig utility to configure interfaces with different layer protocols and about connectivity testing and debugging tools. After covering using User PPP or Kernel PPP for Point-to-Point Protocol network configuration it explains basic IP forwarding in FreeBSD and the use of the built-in routing daemons, routed and route6d, which support RIPv1, RIPv2, RIPng, and RDISC. Next it covers the OpenOSPFD and OpenBGPD daemons that you can install to run OSPF and BGP on your host. Then it covers setup and configuration of IPFW and PF, and finally looks at some important internet services and how to set them up on your FreeBSD server

The Ubuntu distribution simplifies Linux by providing a sensible collection of applications, an easy-to-use package manager, and lots of fine-tuning, which make it possibly the best Linux for desktops and laptops. Readers of both Linux Journal and TUX Magazine confirmed this by voting Ubuntu as the best Linux distribution in each publication's 2005 Readers Choice Awards. None of that simplification, however, makes Ubuntu any less fun if you're a hacker or a power user.

Like all books in the "Hacks" series,Ubuntu Hacks includes 100 quick tips and tricks for all users of all technical levels. Beginners will appreciate the installation advice and tips on getting the most out of the free applications packaged with Ubuntu, while intermediate and advanced readers will learn the ins-and-outs of power management, wireless roaming, 3D video acceleration, server configuration, and much more.