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Accerlerated Silverlight 2.

Silverlight, a cross-platform common language runtime (CLR), is a new technology from Microsoft for building rich interactive and connected applications for the Web. This tutorial shows how to get started building applications using Silverlight. Chapters cover topics including XAML, creating user interfaces, working with data and media, animation, security, and packaging and deploying Silverlight applications. The book concludes with a case study of the design and development of an application (an interactive map of a university campus) that uses many aspects of Silverlight to provide features such as images, video, control templating, and data binding. Readers should be familiar with .NET and developing on the .NET platform using C#, but familiarity with the Windows Presentation Foundation is not necessary. Scanlon is a Microsoft consultant. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Beginning PHP and MySQL; from novice to professional, 3d ed.

This reference for new and seasoned PHP and MySQL developers offers insight into the PHP programming language and MySQL database server, and how they can be used together to create database-driven web applications. The book begins with an overview of PHP's capabilities, then covers PHP concepts, such as variables, datatypes, string manipulation, and user interaction. Later chapters cover MySQL's key features, storage engines and data types, administration utilities, and security features. Updated to introduce new features found in the PHP 6 release, this third edition contains a new chapter devoted to creating multilingual web sites, and a new chapter on using the Zend Framework. Gilmore is a developer and consultant. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Creating cool MINDSTORMS NXT robots.

The book's young author made news in 2007 when he built a Lego robot that can solve a 3x3 Rubik's Cube in less than a minute. Here, he instructs users of the combined building kit and software Lego Mindstorms NXT on the construction and programming of eight types of robots. Illustrations are abundant, and the text is appropriate for beginning programmers. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Foundations of Mac OS X Leopard security.

The substantial body of advice in this book teaches home and professional network administrators to build a secure server for a network of Macs using Mac OS X. Chapters address different needs for different network settings and tackle the specific topics of: types of security attacks, network traffic protection, setup of the Mac OS X firewall, wireless network security, file services, web site security, remote connectivity, intrusion detection and protection, backup and fault tolerance, and forensics, among others. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

PHP objects, patterns, and practice, 2d ed.

This tutorial begins with an overview of PHP's object oriented features, introducing key topics such as class declaration and property encapsulation, and also covering advanced topics like exception handling and object cloning. The next part of the book, devoted to design patterns, shows how to implement enterprise and database patterns in PHP applications. The last part of the book introduces utilities for documenting, managing, testing, and building PHP applications, such as Phing, PHPUnit2, and PEAR. This second edition features updated code examples, and offers updated and expanded material on design patterns and integration tools. There is also a new chapter on testing with PHPUnit. Zandstra is a web programmer and consultant. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Practical reporting with Ruby and Rails.

This tutorial covers fundamentals of reporting with Ruby, with chapters on data access from different sources, data analysis, graphing, and presenting graphs on the desktop and the Web. It provides specific, real-life examples of useful reports, such as monitoring eBay auctions, tracking sales performance with SugarCRM, and conducting Google AdWords campaigns. B&w screen shots and code are included. Readers are assumed to have some knowledge of Ruby and Rails, as well as access to a computer with Ruby, RubyGems, Rails, and MySQL installed. Berube is a Ruby developer and trainer. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Practical Web 2.0 applications with PHP.

Zervaas, an Australian web developer, offers this tutorial on using PHP for Web 2.0 applications for intermediate to expert PHP programmers who are fairly fluent in HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Adopting a complete-start-to-finish approach, the author explains how to develop Web 2.0 applications that employ Ajax to allow syndication of web content using RSS, and how to add wikis, blogs and tags to the results. Instructions are also given on how to manage third-party applications and libraries such as PHP 5.2.3, Apache 2.2, MySQL5 and Smarty Template Engine 2.6.18. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Pro full-text search in SQL Server 2008.

This instructional guide to the SQL Server 2008 Integrated Full-Text Search (iFTS) is designed for developers and programmers who need to streamline database searches and improve access to each index. Coles, a Microsoft MPV, has written several books on SQL programming in the past, and he and Cotter (server MVP, SQL) provide step- by-step instructions and code samples for developing capabilities such as basic and advanced queries, multilingual searches, client applications, indexing LOB and BLOB data and developing stoplists and thesauruses. Appendices include a glossary, a database for iFTS books and vector-space searches. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Pro PHP; patterns, frameworks, testing and more.

This advanced tutorial begins with a look at advanced object-oriented programming, including abstract classes, static members, and exceptions, before going on to cover test-drive development, documentation standards, and proven ways to build and deploy applications. Next, the book examines two powerful components: the reflection API and Standard PHP Library. The Zend Framework for Model- View-Controller development is covered in depth, with material on the architecture, workflow, and components found in team-driven professional development. The book finishes with a section on advanced Web 2.0 programming. Chapter summaries are included. Readers should have a solid understanding of HTTP and PHP. McArthur is an open source developer. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Pro sync framework.

Singh, a consultant for Neudesic, and Kanjilal, IT professional and lead architect, provide detailed instructions on how to install and configure Microsoft's Sync Framework. It also outlines how the Sync Framework functions and available providers. It also offers a comprehensive explanation of how to build and customize purpose-built synchronization providers. The manual includes numerous screen captures and examples. It also includes Sync Framework library references. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Pro Web 2.0 mashups; remixing data and Web services.

Yee, who teaches at UC Berkeley, introduces several techniques for combining content from more than one web site into an integrated experience, such as the popular Housingmaps.com. Assuming familiarity with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP, the examples illustrate the possibilities of recombining information with Flickr, del.icio.us, Google Maps, Technorati, and Amazon. Web Services APIs are compared to geocoder.us, Amazon ECS, Yahoo! Maps, Programmableweb.com, YouTube, GData, and Ajax widgets. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Troubleshooting Oracle performance.

This book offers a systematic approach to addressing poor performance of applications based on Oracle, and explains how the database engine processes SQL statements. Sections cover foundations, identification of performance problems, the query optimizer, and optimization. An appendix lists files used throughout the book, gives links for downloading them, and describes the test environment. The book is for performance analysts, application developers, and database administrators. No specific knowledge of optimization is required; however, readers are expected to have a working knowledge of the Oracle database engine and to be proficient in SQL. Antognini is an Oracle consultant. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

WPF recipes in C# 2008; a problem-solution approach.

The 211 recipes in this cookbook provide code for building WPF applications in C# 2008, arranging elements in the user interface, working with documents and files, drawing graphics, animating properties and objects, and integrating video and audio into an application. Each recipe explains how the solution works and assumes previous knowledge of C# 2008. Two of the authors work for SmithBayes. A companion e-book is also available. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)