Computers

Random Number Generators, Principles and Practices has been written for programmers, hardware engineers, and sophisticated hobbyists interested in understanding random numbers generators and gaining the tools necessary to work with random number generators with confidence and knowledge.

Using an approach that employs clear diagrams and running code examples rather than excessive mathematics, random number related topics such as entropy estimation, entropy extraction, entropy sources, PRNGs, randomness testing, distribution generation, and many others are exposed and demystified.

If you have ever

• Wondered how to test if data is really random
• Needed to measure the randomness of data in real time as it is generated
• Wondered how to get randomness into your programs
• Wondered whether or not a random number generator is trustworthy
• Wanted to be able to choose between random number generator solutions
• Needed to turn uniform random data into a different distribution
• Needed to ensure the random numbers from your computer will work for your cryptographic application
• Wanted to combine more than one random number generator to increase reliability or security
• Wanted to get random numbers in a floating point format
• Needed to verify that a random number generator meets the requirements of a published standard like SP800-90 or AIS 31
• Needed to choose between an LCG, PCG or XorShift algorithm

Then this might be the book for you.

This book provides an overview of modern boot firmware, including the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) and its associated EFI Developer Kit II (EDKII) firmware. The authors have each made significant contributions to developments in these areas. The reader will learn to use the latest developments in UEFI on modern hardware, including open source firmware and open hardware designs. The book begins with an exploration of interfaces exposed to higher-level software and operating systems, and commences to the left of the boot timeline, describing the flow of typical systems, beginning with the machine restart event.

Software engineers working with UEFI will benefit greatly from this book, while specific sections of the book address topics relevant for a general audience: system architects, pre-operating-system application developers, operating system vendors (loader, kernel), independent hardware vendors (such as for plug-in adapters), and developers of end-user applications. As a secondary audience, project technical leaders or managers may be interested in this book to get a feel for what their engineers are doing.

The reader will find:

• An overview of UEFI and underlying Platform Initialization (PI) specifications
• How to create UEFI applications and drivers
• Workflow to design the firmware solution for a modern platform
• Advanced usages of UEFI firmware for security and manageability

Why do businesses continue to use Microsoft’s BizTalk Server as the backbone to integrate line-of-business applications with their trading partners and how do recent changes make it even more effective? With the advent of Azure, we have a unique opportunity to enhance BizTalk functionality including reducing the cost of operations and maintenance. This book offers three solutions for the reader on ways to leverage BizTalk to get more from existing deployments or find ways to modernize the deployment via Azure. Microsoft partners are playing a significant role in enhancing the capabilities of BizTalk and this book includes sections that provide an in-depth review of BizTalk 360 © and the WPC HIPAA DB Toolkit ©. Over the recent past, Web 3.0 has also introduced many new concepts and open source technologies and this book covers ways to leverage these to enhance your BizTalk deployment.

The authors start with a survey of the existing BizTalk Server – its history, patterns, and state of affairs –and go on to provide an in-depth elaboration of three messaging patterns that customers use for BizTalk; the advantages of updating to SQL Server 2016; a review of partner solutions that enhance BizTalk; and BizTalk with Web 3.0 for custom solutions. The book concludes with a comparison of the three viable BizTalk Azure application solutions that will enable you to make the best choice for your business.

IoT Security Issues looks at the burgeoning growth of devices of all kinds controlled over the Internet of all varieties, where product comes first and security second. In this case, security trails badly. This book examines the issues surrounding these problems, vulnerabilities, what can be done to solve the problem, investigating the stack for the roots of the problems and how programming and attention to good security practice can combat the problems today that are a result of lax security processes on the Internet of Things.

This book is for people interested in understanding the vulnerabilities on the Internet of Things, such as programmers who have not yet been focusing on the IoT, security professionals and a wide array of interested hackers and makers. This book assumes little experience or knowledge of the Internet of Things. To fully appreciate the book, limited programming background would be helpful for some of the chapters later in the book, though the basic content is explained.

The author, Alasdair Gilchrist, has spent 25 years as a company director in the fields of IT, Data Communications, Mobile Telecoms and latterly Cloud/SDN/NFV technologies, as a professional technician, support manager, network and security architect. He has project-managed both agile SDLC software development as well as technical network architecture design. He has experience in the deployment and integration of systems in enterprise, cloud, fixed/mobile telecoms, and service provider networks. He is therefore knowledgeable in a wide range of technologies and has written a number of books in related fields.

There are a variety of considerations you'll need to take into account when migrating your solutions to BizTalk 2016. In this book, you'll find detailed information about how to migrate your components "as-is", as well as recompile them with the latest version of Visual Studio. You'll look at ways to improve your components pre-migration, as well as troubleshoot issues within these components. You'll learn how to make intelligent mapping updates, especially with XSLT, and how to simplify your overall architecture. Additionally, working with BizTalk 2016 in an Azure environment and building BizTalk Azure Services are covered.

Readers will look at migrating maps, orchestrations, .NET assemblies, database components, EDI parties and configurations, and other artifacts found in BizTalk solutions. They will also be able to quickly come to an understanding of what will be involved in a migration and what will be required for resourcing and costs associated with a migration. Readers will find information that will cover virtually every aspect of their upgrade to BizTalk 2016, and should come away with a simpler solution once that migration is complete.

With the threats that affect every computer, phone or other device connected to the internet, security has become a responsibility not just for law enforcement authorities or business leaders, but for every individual. Your family, information, property, and business must be protected from cybercriminals in the office, at home, on travel, and in the cloud. Understanding Security Issues provides a solid understanding of the threats, and focuses on useful tips and practices for protecting yourself, all the time, everywhere and anywhere you go.　

This book discusses security awareness issues and how you can take steps to reduce the risk of becoming a victim:

• The threats that face every individual and business, all the time.
• Specific indicators of threats so that you understand when you might be attacked and what to do if they occur.
• The security mindset and good security practices.
• Assets that need to be protected at work and at home.
• Protecting yourself and your business at work.
• Protecting yourself and your family at home.
• Protecting yourself and your assets on travel.

Focusing on the use of the UEFI Shell and its recently released formal specification, this book unlocks a wide range of usage models which can help people best utilize the shell solutions. This text also expands on the obvious intended utilization of the shell and explains how it can be used in various areas such as security, networking, configuration, and other anticipated uses such as manufacturing, diagnostics, etc. Among other topics, Harnessing the UEFI Shell demonstrates how to write Shell scripts, how to write a Shell application, how to use provisioning options and more. Since the Shell is also a UEFI component, the book will make clear how the two things interoperate and how both Shell developers as well as UEFI developers can dip into the other's field to further expand the power of their solutions.

Harnessing the UEFI Shell is authored by the three chairs of the UEFI working sub-teams, Michael Rothman (Intel, chair of the UEFI Configuration and UEFI Shell sub-teams), Vincent Zimmer (Intel, chair of the UEFI networking sub-team and security sub-team), and Tim Lewis (Insyde Software, chair of the UEFI security sub-team). This book is perfect for any OEMs that ship UEFI-based solutions (which is all of the MNCs such as IBM, Dell, HP, Apple, etc.), software developers who are focused on delivering solutions targeted to manufacturing, diagnostics, hobbyists, or stand-alone kiosk environments.

In Synthetic Vision: Using Volume Learning and Visual DNA, a holistic model of the human visual system is developed into a working model in C++, informed by the latest neuroscience, DNN, and computer vision research. The author’s synthetic visual pathway model includes the eye, LGN, visual cortex, and the high level PFC learning centers. The corresponding visual genome model (VGM), begun in 2014, is introduced herein as the basis for a visual genome project analogous to the Human Genome Project funded by the US government. The VGM introduces volume learning principles and Visual DNA (VDNA) taking a multivariate approach beyond deep neural networks. Volume learning is modeled as programmable learning and reasoning agents, providing rich methods for structured agent classification networks. Volume learning incorporates a massive volume of multivariate features in various data space projections, collected into strands of Visual DNA, analogous to human DNA genes. VGM lays a foundation for a visual genome project to sequence VDNA as visual genomes in a public database, using collaborative research to move synthetic vision science forward and enable new applications. Bibliographical references are provided to key neuroscience, computer vision, and deep learning research, which form the basis for the biologically plausible VGM model and the synthetic visual pathway. The book also includes graphical illustrations and C++ API reference materials to enable VGM application programming. Open source code licenses are available for engineers and scientists.

Scott Krig founded Krig Research to provide some of the world's first vision and imaging systems worldwide for military, industry, government, and academic use. Krig has worked for major corporations and startups in the areas of machine learning, computer vision, imaging, graphics, robotics and automation, computer security and cryptography. He has authored international patents in the areas of computer architecture, communications, computer security, digital imaging, and computer vision, and studied at Stanford. Scott Krig is the author of the English/Chinese Springer book Computer Vision Metrics, Survey, Taxonomy and Analysis of Computer Vision, Visual Neuroscience, and Deep Learning, Textbook Edition, as well as other books, articles, and papers.

Quick Boot is designed to give developers a background in the basic architecture and details of a typical boot sequence. More specifically, this book describes the basic initialization sequence that allows developers the freedom to boot an OS without a fully featured system BIOS. Various specifications provide the basics of both the code bases and the standards. This book also provides insights into optimization techniques for more advanced developers. With proper background information, the required specifications on hand, and diligence, many developers can create quality boot solutions using this text.

Pete Dice is Engineering Director of Verifone, where he manages OS Engineering teams in Dublin, Ireland and Riga Latvia. Dice successfully launched Intel® Quark™, Intel's first generation SoC as well as invented the Intel® Galileo™ development board and developed a freemium SW strategy to scale Intel IoT gateway features across product lines. He is also credited with architecting the "Moon Island" software stack and business model.

Learning PowerShell is a custom-built, handcrafted, painstakingly curated book designed to get you from total PowerShell newbie to confident PowerShell user in as little as four weeks. This book assumes no prior knowledge, perfect for non-developers and GUI addicts who recognize that PowerShell is the future but need a good bit of handholding to achieve mastery. It is also a simple guide for the hundreds of thousands of PowerShell users who have not attained the level of PowerShell knowledge that they really need.

With Learning PowerShell at your side, you will see that you don't have to be a developer to use PowerShell and you don't need to be a scripting wizard to derive value from integrating PowerShell into your daily administrative activities. The book is a learning resource that covers every topic worth discussing for a PowerShell beginner, with a depth of explanation unparalleled by any book currently on the market. With this book, you don't have to have a lot of time to learn the language and you can begin applying what you master almost immediately. Even skeptics of PowerShell, and command lines in general, will come away with a renewed sense of respect for the language and ideas on how to put it to use.

For those new to SharePoint Online, as well as those who have worked with previous versions of the SharePoint platform, this guide is intended to give concrete steps to rapidly understand how to configure, develop, and administrate solutions in this new environment.

SharePoint Online Development, Configuration, and Administration puts forth the most efficient way to get up to speed on the platform. This book, packed with value, provides clear, concise information about all of the common portions of SharePoint that you would need to work with – including WebParts, reporting, site management, administration and licensing with O365, and workflows using Microsoft Flow. These tips from a seasoned developer will teach you how to

• Work with Sites, Lists, Permissions, Access, and other core functionality
• Make customizations to the look and feel of SharePoint Online
• Understand Web Part development and deployment
• Develop Microsoft Flow processes for business process automation
• Utilize Reporting functionality available in O365
• Look at the many options for administrating SharePoint components

The 5G Myth explains why the vision of 5G, the next generation in mobile telephony, heralded as a huge advance in global connectivity, is flawed and sets out a better vision for a connected future. It explains why insufficient technological advances and inadequate profitability will be problems in the widespread implementation of 5G. The book advocates a focus on consistent connectivity everywhere rather than fast speeds in city centers.

William Webb looks back at the transitions through previous generations of mobile telephony and shows what simple extrapolations of trends would predict for 5G. He discusses whether the increases in speed and capacity promised by 5G are needed; if the required technology is available; whether a sound business case can be made for the deployment; and asks why, given this, the industry appears so supportive of 5G. He then puts forth the argument in favor of consistent connectivity of around 10Mbits/s everywhere as a more compelling vision and shows how it can be delivered via a mix of 4G and Wi-Fi.

Subscribers to The Economist can access an article featuring this book at

https://www.economist.com/business/2019/08/24/vodafones-search-for-the-g-spot　

With a mixture of theory, examples, and well-integrated figures, Embedded Software for the IoT helps the reader understand the details in the technologies behind the devices used in the Internet of Things. It provides an overview of IoT, parameters of designing an embedded system, and good practice concerning code, version control and defect-tracking needed to build and maintain a connected embedded system.

After presenting a discussion on the history of the internet and the word wide web the book introduces modern CPUs and operating systems. The author then delves into an in-depth view of core IoT domains including:

• Wired and wireless networking
• Digital filters
• Security in embedded and networked systems
• Statistical Process Control for Industry 4.0

This book will benefit software developers moving into the embedded realm as well as developers already working with embedded systems.

A hands-on guide to writing a Message Passing Interface, this book takes the reader on a tour across major MPI implementations, best optimization techniques, application relevant usage hints, and a historical retrospective of the MPI world, all based on a quarter of a century spent inside MPI. Readers will learn to write MPI implementations from scratch, and to design and optimize communication mechanisms using pragmatic subsetting as the guiding principle. Inside the Message Passing Interface also covers MPI quirks and tricks to achieve best performance.

Dr. Alexander Supalov created the Intel Cluster Tools product line, including the Intel MP Library that he designed and led between 2003 and 2015. He invented the common MPICH ABI and also guided Intel efforts in the MPI Forum during the development of the MPI-2.1, MPI-2.2, and MPI-3 standards. Before that, Alexander designed new finite-element mesh-generation methods, contributing to the PARMACS and PARASOL interfaces, and developed the first full MPI-2 and IMPI implementations in the world. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1990, and earned his PhD in applied mathematics at the Institute of Numerical Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1995. Alexander holds 26 patents (more pending worldwide).

As Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 gains ground and businesses adopt this tool, the demand for internal resources who need to understand how to support and maintain it increases. Administering, Configuring, and Maintaining Microsoft Dynamics 365 in the Cloud addresses the needs of those who support Dynamics, discussing numerous real-world scenarios that businesses must deal with when implementing Dynamics 365. Scenarios are presented with simple, fully functional walkthroughs so that non-developers can follow the instructions and learn how to address any issues that need to be resolved.

The variety of concepts discussed in this book include how to:

• Quickly set up and configure users, teams, business units, and security
• Navigate through the system and present data in easy to access dashboards and SSRS reports
• Import data and export data, and migrate data between systems
• Create customized Business Process Flows, Workflows, and Business Rules
• Customize your Dynamics 365 instance with new entities, fields, and JavaScript

• Deploy and manage plugins and solutions

Power BI Data Analysis and Visualization provides a roadmap to vendor choices and highlights why Microsoft’s Power BI is a very viable, cost effective option for data visualization. The book covers the fundamentals and most commonly used features of Power BI, but also includes an in-depth discussion of advanced Power BI features such as natural language queries; embedding Power BI dashboards; and live streaming data. It discusses real solutions to extract data from the ERP application, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and also offers ways to host the Power BI Dashboard as an Azure application, extracting data from popular data sources like Microsoft SQL Server and open-source PostgreSQL.

Authored by Microsoft experts, this book uses real-world coding samples and screenshots to spotlight how to create reports, embed them in a webpage, view them across multiple platforms, and more. Business owners, IT professionals, data scientists, and analysts will benefit from this thorough presentation of Power BI and its functions.

With constantly expanding options such as Azure Data Lake Server (ADLS) and Azure SQL Data Warehouse (ADW), how can developers learn the process and components required to successfully move this data? Quick Start Guide to Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake Server, and Azure Data Warehouse teaches you the basics of moving data between Azure SQL solutions using Azure Data Factory. Discover how to build and deploy each of the components needed to integrate data in the cloud with local SQL databases.

Mark Beckner's step by step instructions on how to build each component, how to test processes and debug, and how to track and audit the movement of data, will help you to build your own solutions instantly and efficiently. This book includes information on configuration, development, and administration of a fully functional solution and outlines all of the components required for moving data from a local SQL instance through to a fully functional data warehouse with facts and dimensions.