Create complete 3D games using Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express and this hands-on guide. Written by experienced game developers, Microsoft XNA Game Studio Creator’s Guide details the fundamentals of great game programming and offers detailed examples.

Inside, you’ll learn to program a game engine, write shader code, create and animate 3D models, and add fluid motion and special effects. You’ll also find out how to launch ballistics, add realistic scenery and terrain, and integrate lighting and textures. Step-by-step tutorials on underlying C# code and explanations of vector and matrix techniques are included.

It is nearly impossible today to write enterprise software without the use of one or more relational databases. Granted, there are cases when the data is transient and not stored in a database, but for the most part, software needs to consume and manipulate data in a database. It sounds easy, but there are hundreds of ways to connect software systems to databases and thousands of people who think they have the skeleton key for data access layers. Pro LINQ Object Relational Mapping in C# 2008 explains an efficient, repeatable way to apply industry design patterns to build scalable object–oriented data access layers.

From the creators of the #1 TOEFL course…TOEFL® iBT Exam is Kaplan’s comprehensive guide to preparing for the TOEFL Internet-Based Test. This bestseller includes a CD with both an audio and iBT component, Kaplan’s exclusive test-taking strategies, and in-depth practice and review for every section of the TOEFL. TOEFL® iBT Exam is the most realistic preparation available for the exam.

Ever since Visual Basic was merged into .NET, it’s become the core language for creating business applications with Windows. The latest version, VB 2008, is even more useful — and provides even more incentive for migrating from VB 6. All it lacks is a good book on how to harness its power. Programming Visual Basic 2008 fills the void.

Written in a lively and engaging style by a developer who’s grown up with Visual Basic, including both VB 6 and VB .NET, this hands-on guide addresses the core topics of the new VB, from basic to complex, with plenty of code examples. Programming Visual Basic 2008 also examines .NET programming from the application level with a chapter-by-chapter plan for developing, documenting, and deploying a full data-driven application. You learn, step-by-step, how to build and deploy a library management system, complete with patron, inventory, and barcode support.

Scripted GUI Testing with Ruby is a practical, quick-moving tutorial based on real life, and real-world GUI applications. Right out of the gate you’ll start working with code to drive a desktop GUI. You’ll discover the kinds of gotchas and edge cases that don’t exist in simple, toy programs. As you add more tests, you’ll learn how to organize your test code and write lucid examples. The result is a series of “smoke tests” team will run on Continuous Integration servers.

Windows Vista - Customization Manual

This book will help you customize Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system. This book is really easy to follow. Check mintywhite.com for more information.

The main focus of Pro Web 2.0 Application Development with GWT is a case study of a real Web 2.0 application called ToCollege.net.
What you’ll learn:

* You’ll take a full tour of a modern Web 2.0 startup’s codebase. That’s 15,000 lines of source code that includes everything from Google Gears integration to Acegi OpenID, Lucene full–text search, and Google Maps, all of it integrated with GWT 1.5.
* Leveraging this book’s available source code, you’ll see the nitty–gritty details of how to merge a modern Web 2.0 application stack including Hibernate, Spring, Spring MVC 2.5, SiteMesh, and Freemarker together.
* You’ll see how to wire GWT into an industry standard Maven build environment, which will help you get up to speed quickly and avoid configuration headaches.
* The great pitfall of many Ajax applications is they’re mostly opaque to search engines. You’ll see the ToCollege.net solution to this thorny problem.
* Protection from XSS and XSRF attacks is beyond the scope of simple GWT tutorials, but they are a real concern for a site like ToCollege.net. The book will cover the ToCollege.net security architecture in detail.

Have a Google Maps mashup that you’d like to expose to millions of users on maps.google.com? New to the mapping craze, but have an idea for a killer map–based application? Want to learn how to create GeoRSS and KML feeds with your geotagged content, exposing your customer to new ways of exploring and navigating your content?

After reading Python: Create - Modify – Reuse, you will be able to use Python efficiently to create robust, real-world applications and useful, streamlined scripts that are easy to maintain and enhance. Jump into practical Python development after a brief primer on this object-oriented, interactive programming language and learn from project examples in each chapter. Find applications that access databases, take advantage of web technologies, and facilitate network communications and explore advanced topics like accessing operating system resources, writing scripts that are easy to read and maintain, and debugging and testing.

This integrated learning solution teaches all the Oracle PL/SQL skills you need, hands-on, through real-world labs, extensive examples, exercises, and projects! Completely updated for Oracle 11g, Oracle PL/SQL by Example, Fourth Edition covers all the fundamentals, from PL/SQL syntax and program control through packages and Oracle 11g’s significantly improved triggers.

One step at a time, you’ll walk through every key task, discovering the most important PL/SQL programming techniques on your own. Building on your hands-on learning, the authors share solutions that offer deeper insights and proven best practices. End-of-chapter projects bring together all the techniques you’ve learned, strengthening your understanding through real-world practice.