English-language learners—and American Anglophiles practicing their imitation of James Bond—will delight in the news that the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary is now in app form. This latest version of the dictionary, “the classic guide to accurate, contemporary pronunciation for British and American English”, is published jointly by Cambridge University Press, the world's oldest publisher, and Paragon Software Group. This dictionary app for Android, iOS and Mac OS X users is based on the classic version of Daniel Jones' guide to contemporary pronunciation for British and American English and is designed to meet the needs of English language learners striving to perfect their pronunciation of even the most challenging words, such as “though” and “hono(u)r”, personal names, company names, technology and science definitions, and more. The app version contains a variety of features that aid learning (such as a Flash Card Quiz), search and navigation (such as full-text search) and convenience (no Internet connection required).
Visual effects solutions developer Imagineer Systems Ltd. says that it has made its mark on such films as The Hobbit, Black Swan, Transformers and the Harry Potter series. The latest release in Imagineer's creativity toolkit is mocha Pro 4, the company's updated standalone software utility optimized for visual effects and post-production challenges. Key existing mocha Pro features include a rock-solid planar motion tracking engine, advanced roto tools, 3-D camera solver, stereoscopic 3-D support, calibration of lens distortion, stabilization module and insert module. New features found in version 4 include new advanced tools for stereoscopic 3-D, customizable keyboard shortcuts, Adobe Premiere support, Python scripting, improved format support and more.
In its new on-line game Game of Hacks, Checkmarx allows developers to have fun while honing their security skills and understanding of the hacker's perspective. In the game, developers and security professionals test their application hacking skills, improve their code security know-how and facilitate better security practices in hope of reducing the amount of vulnerabilities in their applications. Available for desktop, tablet and mobile, Game of Hacks presents developers with vulnerable pieces of code and challenges them to identify the application layer vulnerability as quickly as possible. It even has a two-player mode allowing head-to-head competition. Players analyze vulnerabilities including SQL injection, XSS, log forgery, path traversal, parameter tampering and others in myriad programming languages. Additionally, developers can add their own questions and vulnerable code to the game in any programming language highlighting any vulnerabilities, growing the game's scope as more users join.
Python trainers Laura Cassell and Alan Gauld targeted their new book Python Projects at the Python programmer with basic skills who is ready to start building real projects. Programmers who know the Python syntax and lay of the land, but who still may be intimidated by larger, more complex projects, will find this book useful. Python Projects provides a walk-through of the basic setup for an application and the building and packaging for a library, and explains in detail the functionalities related to the projects. Topics include maximizing the power of the standard library modules; finding and utilizing third-party libraries; creating, packaging and reusing libraries within and across projects; building multilayered functionality, including networks, data and user interfaces; and using development environments like virtualenv, pip and more. Publisher Wrox says that Python developers looking to apply their skills to real-world challenges will find a goldmine of information and expert insight in Python Projects.
The CleverView for TCP/IP on Linux solution from AES addresses the challenge in cloud-based data centers that an ever-greater amount of traffic is between servers, preferably Linux-based ones, of course. CleverView is a performance and availability monitoring solution for Linux, UNIX and System z that has added new features in its latest v2.3 release. Concurrently, AES released an updated CLEVER Mobile for Linux so that enterprise knowledge workers can access server performance and availability details from their mobile devices. The most noteworthy highlight of CleverView v2.3 is the SMF Host Utility that integrates Linux/UNIX-monitored metrics with z/OS SMF records, expanding enterprise insight into performance and availability. Also noteworthy is the real-time notification of problems leading to increased Linux and UNIX service availability, regardless of the hardware platform on which Linux or UNIX resides.
Paul Schuytema's new book The Web Wargame Toolkit walks readers through the process of crafting an old-school, turn-based wargame in PHP utilizing the CodeIgniter application framework. More generally, this is a soup-to-nuts how-to book for those interested in crafting Web game applications utilizing a basic LAMP system. The wargame project serves as an exciting context for PHP programmers looking to gain more in-depth application coding experience. Those with an interest in game development will learn the coding skills to support design decisions as they create the game project. The book assumes at least a beginning level of PHP coding experience, though no previous CodeIgniter or game development experience is required. Other features of the book-DVD set include full database design for game data structures, a flexible game map system, a complete overview of a simple CRUD system and complete, modifiable source code for the game.
The updated Wolfram SystemModeler 4 is an easy-to-use, next-generation modeling and simulation environment for cyber-physical systems. SystemModeler enables users to draw on a large selection of built-in and expandable modeling libraries to build industrial-strength, multidomain models of a complete system. Wolfram is also well known for the complementary Mathematica application, which provides a fully integrated environment for analyzing, understanding and quickly iterating system designs. The new SystemModeler 4 vastly expands support for modeling libraries, adds standardized deployment of models to other simulation tools and deepens integration with Mathematica. Other key new features include a library store with verified model libraries, improved modeling features, model creation support from Mathematica, as well as improved workflow in the integration with Mathematica, a new documentation center and support for our beloved Linux OS.
CacheGuard Technologies Ltd.'s motto is “Web security made affordable”. The company puts its motto into action with products like CacheGuard OS, an integrated security solution designed to manage Web traffic that is based on a custom-hardened version of Linux. The latest “next-generation” release is CacheGuard OS NG v1. The company calls CacheGuard OS a powerful, turn-key solution that allows companies to protect and optimize Web traffic traversing their Web infrastructure. Customers can utilize CacheGuard OS as an appliance or turn their own hardware into a powerful Web Gateway Appliance. CacheGuard OS integrates numerous Web security and optimization technologies in a single functional network device. Technologies like proxy, IP firewall, bandwidth shaping, caching, HTTP compression, URL filtering, Web application firewall and Web malware filtering are all integrated into a unique operating system.
