The year is 2020: Corporations control everything. In the name of domination, these sprawling organizations have recruited their own military forces to fight clandestine battles against one another---a war fought in the boardrooms and won in the shadows, with the public none the wiser. Ex--bounty hunter Joanna Dark has unwillingly seen the front lines of this war. Her run-in with dataDyne, the world's most powerful hypercorporation, has left her with a wound that only vengeance can heal. Daniel Carrington, the charismatic founder of the Carrington Institute, has been locked in an ongoing war with dataDyne for years and sees Joanna's deadly skills as the key to victory over their mutual enemy. But Joanna is young and lost, unable to accept her abilities as virtues or fully trust Carrington's intentions. But when an explosive secret is unearthed---one that could finally bring down the threat of dataDyne once and for all---Joanna finds herself thrust back into the fight, one that brings her face to face with her past . . . and the forces shaping her future.

Continuing the epic storyline featured in the Xbox 360* game Perfect Dark Zero*, this novel is the first of three books featuring Joanna Dark, who infiltrates the shadowy, mysterious world of hypercorporations at war.

The war between dataDyne and the Carrington Institute is heating up. Carrington offices around the globe are being systematically targeted and destroyed by unknown forces, and the casualties are mounting, and more importantly profits are dwindling. Joanna Dark, fresh from her first mission--Codenamed INITIAL VECTOR-- and now operating as a full-fledged secret agent for the Carrington Institute, is assigned to hunt down and destroy those responsible for the attacks. But her search for the faceless enemy leads her not just into another bloody battle with hypercorp dataDyne--but headlong into a global conspiracy that's been shaping the world for decades. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Joanna Dark Never Misses. Neither Should You... ·Founded in 1997, Cold FuZion Studios (CFZ) is an IP Development and Visual Arts & Design Studio that handles many Intellectual Properties as well as their development. Currently, we have studios in New York, Pennsylvania, and California that each operates independently from one another. CFZ excels in the areas of Cinematic & Comic Storyboarding, Character & Concept Designs, Sculpting, Live & 3D Modeling, Photography, Music, Animation (Production and Design), Creative Script Writing, Logo - Graphic & Web Design and Development, Color Rendering, and complete Product Packaging. CFZ’s current client list includes giants such as Microsoft & Lucas Films to Video Game Developers like Activision Inc. No matter the size or budget of the project, Cold FuZion Studios prides itself on delivering a professional product, on time and with competitive biding along with the highest quality possible. ·Eric S. Trautmann is content developer for Microsoft’s Franchise Development Group, where he writes and edits story bibles for a variety of Xbox and PC game properties. He has contributed dialogue and web content for a variety of Microsoft games, including MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, Allegiance, Crimson Skies, and Halo. He is the author of “The Art of Halo: Creating A Digital World” (along with Frank O’Connor) and edited and contributed to theCrimson Skiesfiction anthology (both published by Del Rey). He resides on the Pacific coast of Washington

An exciting new era of Star Wars history is about to begin--as fantasy and science fiction's most acclaimed authors propel the legendary epic into the next millennium, introducing us to a rich cast of characters that features old favorites--Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia Organa Solo--along with the next generation of Jedi and never-before seen creatures, droids, and deadly agents of darkness. In Vector Prime, the launch novel for this thrilling new saga, New York Times bestselling author R. A. Salvatore takes the Star Wars universe to previously unscaled heights of action and imagination, expanding the beloved story of a galaxy far, far away . . . Twenty-one years have passed since the heroes of the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Death Star, breaking the power of the Emperor. Since then, the New Republic has valiantly struggled to maintain peace and prosperity among the peoples of the galaxy. But unrest has begun to spread; tensions erupt in outbreaks of rebellion that, if unchecked, threaten to destroy the Republic's tenuous reign. Into this volatile atmosphere comes Nom Anor, a charismatic firebrand who heats passions to the boiling point, sowing seeds of dissent for his own dark motives. In an effort to avert a catastrophic civil war, Leia travels with her daughter Jaina, her sister-in-law Mara Jade Skywalker, and the loyal protocol droid C-3PO, to conduct face-to-face diplomatic negotiations with Nom Anor. But he proves resistant to Leia's entreaties--and, far more inexplicably, within the Force, where a being should be, was . . . blank space. Meanwhile, Luke is plagued by reports of rogue Jedi Knights who are taking the law into their own hands. And so he wrestles with a dilemma: Should he attempt, in this climate of mistrust, to reestablish the legendary Jedi Council? As the Jedi and the Republic focus on internal struggles, a new threat surfaces, unnoticed, beyond the farthest reaches of the Outer Rim. An enemy appears from outside known space, bearing weapons and technology unlike anything New Republic scientists have ever seen. Suddenly Luke, Mara, Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca--along with the Solo children--are thrust again into battle, to defend the freedom so many have fought and died for. But this time, all their courage, sacrifice, and even the power of the Force itself may not be enough. . . . Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!

Attention, designers, it’s time to get serious about your creative process. For too long you’ve allowed yourself to go soft, relying on your software to do all of your creative work at the expense of your craftsmanship. This book will NOT show you how to use every tool and feature in Adobe Illustrator. This book WILL, however, teach you the importance of drawing out your ideas, analyzing the shapes, and then methodically building them precisely in vector form using the techniques explained in this book. In Vector Basic Training, Second Edition acclaimed illustrative designer Von Glitschka takes you through his systematic process for creating the kind of precise vector graphics that separate the pros from the mere toolers. Along the way, he’ll whip your drawing skills into shape and show you how to create elegant curves and precise anchor points for your designs. In addition to new illustrative examples throughout the book, this edition includes an all-new chapter on how to apply color and detail to your illustrations using tried-and-true methods that you’ll use over and over again. You’ll also get access to over seven hours of all-new HD video tutorials and source files so you can follow along with Von as he walks you through his entire process. Whether you’re creating illustrations in Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer, CorelDRAW, or even Inkscape, you’ll be able to use Von’s techniques to establish a successful creative process for crafting consistently precise illustrations every single time you pick you up your pen, stylus, or mouse. In Vector Basic Training, Second Edition, you’ll learn: The tools and shortcuts that make up a design pro’s creative arsenal How to use “The Clockwork Method” to create accurate curves every time When and where to set just the right number of anchor points for any design How to build shapes quickly using basic Illustrator tools and plug-ins Techniques for art directing yourself to get the results you desire Fundamental methods for applying color and detail to your illustrations

The Book of R is a comprehensive, beginner-friendly guide to R, the world’s most popular programming language for statistical analysis. Even if you have no programming experience and little more than a grounding in the basics of mathematics, you’ll find everything you need to begin using R effectively for statistical analysis. You’ll start with the basics, like how to handle data and write simple programs, before moving on to more advanced topics, like producing statistical summaries of your data and performing statistical tests and modeling. You’ll even learn how to create impressive data visualizations with R’s basic graphics tools and contributed packages, like ggplot2 and ggvis, as well as interactive 3D visualizations using the rgl package. Dozens of hands-on exercises (with downloadable solutions) take you from theory to practice, as you learn: –The fundamentals of programming in R, including how to write data frames, create functions, and use variables, statements, and loops –Statistical concepts like exploratory data analysis, probabilities, hypothesis tests, and regression modeling, and how to execute them in R –How to access R’s thousands of functions, libraries, and data sets –How to draw valid and useful conclusions from your data –How to create publication-quality graphics of your results Combining detailed explanations with real-world examples and exercises, this book will provide you with a solid understanding of both statistics and the depth of R’s functionality. Make The Book of R your doorway into the growing world of data analysis.

Examines the history and phenomenal success of video games, and argues that the popular games are on the way to becoming a legitimate art form, much in the same way movies did a century earlier.

Class-tested and coherent, this textbook teaches classical and web information retrieval, including web search and the related areas of text classification and text clustering from basic concepts. It gives an up-to-date treatment of all aspects of the design and implementation of systems for gathering, indexing, and searching documents; methods for evaluating systems; and an introduction to the use of machine learning methods on text collections. All the important ideas are explained using examples and figures, making it perfect for introductory courses in information retrieval for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in computer science. Based on feedback from extensive classroom experience, the book has been carefully structured in order to make teaching more natural and effective. Slides and additional exercises (with solutions for lecturers) are also available through the book's supporting website to help course instructors prepare their lectures.

New York Times bestselling author Michael A. Stackpole continues The New Jedi Order epic with Dark Tide II: Ruin, a thrilling Star Wars adventure in which the Jedi Knights must fight their most treacherous battle—against an unrelenting evil intent on devouring the galaxy. . . . The alien Yuuzhan Vong have launched an attack on the worlds of the Outer Rim. They are merciless, without regard for life—and they stand utterly outside the Force. Their ever-changing tactics stump the New Republic military. Even the Jedi, once the greatest guardians of peace in the galaxy, are rendered helpless by this impervious foe—and their solidarity has begun to unravel. While Luke struggles to keep the Jedi together, Knights Jacen Solo and Corran Horn set off on a reconnaissance mission to the planet Garqi, an occupied world. There, at last, they uncover a secret that might be used to undermine the enemy—if only they can stay alive long enough to use it! Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!