Apply the principles of Scrum, one of the most popular agile programming methods, to software project management—and focus your team on delivering real business value. Author Ken Schwaber, a leader in the agile process movement and a co-creator of Scrum, brings his vast expertise to helping you guide the product and software development process more effectively and efficiently. Help eliminate the ambiguity into which so many software projects are borne, where vision and planning documents are essentially thrown over the wall to developers. This high-level reference describes how to use Scrum to manage complex technology projects in detail, combining expert insights with examples and case studies based on Scrum. Emphasizing practice over theory, this book explores every aspect of using Scrum, focusing on driving projects for maximum return on investment.

Cryptographic techniques have applications far beyond the obvious uses of encoding and decoding information. For Internet developers who need to know about capabilities, such as digital signatures, that depend on cryptographic techniques, there's no better overview than Applied Cryptography, the definitive book on the subject. Bruce Schneier covers general classes of cryptographic protocols and then specific techniques, detailing the inner workings of real-world cryptographic algorithms including the Data Encryption Standard and RSA public-key cryptosystems. The book includes source-code listings and extensive advice on the practical aspects of cryptography implementation, such as the importance of generating truly random numbers and of keeping keys secure.

Aimed at Windows Web developers of all levels, ASP.NET Unleashed provides a truly example-packed tutorial on beginning through advanced topics in ASP.NET programming. This mammoth text is never dense, and its clear sample code and ordering of topics will make it a strong choice for learning ASP.NET inside and out.

Dedicated to the principle that more is more, and weighing in at over 1,400 pages, this title covers all the bases in the new ASP.NET. Though it's comprehensive, the author takes care to present the basics of programming first. Early sections cover the basics of building Web pages with built-in ASP.NET Web controls. Only later on does the text range farther afield. Standout sections on mobile devices will let you work with today's wireless devices using both WAP and specialized HTML on the Pocket PC platform. Coverage on the extensive support for databases in ADO.NET and bound controls marks this book's practical focus on the basics. Material on tapping the powers of Microsoft SQL Server and the Indexing Service for providing full-text searches in Web sites is a notable standout here.

Later chapters look at basics of the much-advertised Web services, but also discuss ways to extend security and data sharing. Advanced bells and whistles are illustrated with a Web service to export pattern matching across Web sites—a worthwhile example. More advanced topics round out this book, including a tutorial on .NET APIs for common functions like the file system, strings, and regular expressions. A later section on combining ASP.NET with Microsoft Message Queue Server to provide asynchronous messaging will extend the range of your applications.

Final sections illustrate key concepts using a job site and an online store. And the last few pages in this 1,400-page tome are devoted to a handy reference for ASP.NET server-side controls, which is sure to be a useful feature.

Few titles combine so many useful examples, and the choice and ordering of material here makes this a book that will benefit two distinct audiences: those brand-new to ASP.NET and those who want to extend the basics with new capabilities using Web services and other high-end whistles and bells. There's a pleasing amount of white space in the text, which is dominated by dozens and dozens of clear examples rather than long-winded explanations, making this title ideal for those who like to learn new programming techniques through examples. —Richard Dragan

Beginning Mac OS X Programming

Every Mac OS X system comes with all the essentials required for programming: free development tools, resources, and utilities. However, finding the place to begin may be challenging, especially if you have no prior development knowledge. This comprehensive guide offers you an ideal starting point to writing programs on Mac OS X, with coverage of the latest release - 1.4 "Tiger."

With its hands-on approach, the book examines a particular element and then presents step-by-step instructions that walk you through how to use that element when programming. You'll quickly learn how to efficiently start writing programs on Mac OS X using languages such as C, Objective-C(r), and AppleScript(r), technologies such as Carbon(r) and Cocoa(r), and other Unix tools. In addition, you'll discover techniques for incorporating the languages in order to create seamless applications. All the while, you can follow along on your own system so that you'll be prepared to apply your new Mac OS X skills to real-world projects.

What you will learn from this bookThe major role the new Xcode plays in streamlining Mac OS X developmentThe process for designing a graphical user interface on Mac OS X that conforms to Apple's guidelinesHow to write programs in the C and Objective-C programming languagesThe various scripting languages available on the Mac OS X system and what tasks each one is best suited to performHow to write shell scripts that interact with pre-installed command-line tools

Who this book is for

This book is for novice programmers who want to get started writing programs that run on Mac OS X. Experienced programmers who are new to the Mac will also find this book to be a useful overview of the Mac development environment.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice is the most exhaustive overview of computer graphics techniques available. This textbook's 21 chapters cover graphics hardware, user interface software, rendering and a host of other subjects. Assuming a solid background in computer science or a related field, Computer Graphics gives example programs in C and provides exercises at the end of each chapter to test your knowledge of the material. The guide has more than 100 beautiful, four-colour photographs that illustrate important topics and algorithms, such as ray tracing and bump maps, and also inspire you to acquire the skills necessary to produce them. Encyclopaedic in its coverage, the book has a good table of contents so that you can immediately turn to information on the z-Buffer algorithm or the chapter on animation. —Jake Bond

This excellent guide to 3D Studio MAX covers everything that new, intermediate, and advanced users need to master the high-end 3-D modeling and animation package from Kinetix. Introductory chapters present the central concepts of the package—such as object-oriented behavior, parametric objects, modifiers, space warps, material mapping, and plug-ins—and help you learn how to work in 3-D space. The authors also provide design theory on color, light, composition, perspective, animation, storyboards, and project planning. Next, offering both explanations of features and lots of hands-on instruction, the authors cover modeling, working with materials and maps, lighting, using camera angles, creating animations, rendering, and compositing. The projects in the book range from simple objects to complete scenes. A companion CD-ROM offers 3D Studio MAX files, plug-ins, models, textures, audio clips, and images that you use as you work through the book's projects. When you're ready to move on to more projects, check out Volume II: Advanced Modeling and Materials and Volume III: Animation.