Packt Publishing celebrates their 2000th title with an exclusive offer - We've got IT covered!

Posting for a great promotion from Packt Publishing.

Know more about the promo here: bit.ly/1j26nPN

#Packt2k

Known for their extensive range of pragmatic IT ebooks, Packt Publishing are celebrating their 2000th book title `Learning Dart’– they want their customers to celebrate too.
To mark this milestone Packt Publishing will launch a ‘Buy One Get One Free’ offer across all eBooks on March 18th – for a limited period only.

`Learning Dart’ was selected as a title and published by Packt earlier this year. As a project that aims to revolutionise a language as crucial as JavaScript, Dart is a great example of an emerging technology which aims to support the community and their requirement for constant improvement. The content itself explains how to develop apps using Dart and HTML5 in a model-driven and fast-paced approach, enabling developers to build more complex and high-performing web apps.

David Maclean, Managing Director explains `It’s not by chance that this book is our 2000th title. Our customers and community drive demand and it is our job to ensure that whatever they’re working on, Packt provides practical help and support.

At Packt we understand that sometimes our customers want to learn a new programming language pretty much from scratch, with little knowledge of similar language concepts. Other times our customers know a related language fairly well and therefore want a fast-paced primer that brings them up to a competent professional level quickly.

That’s what makes Packt different: all our books are specifically commissioned by category experts, based on intensive research of the technology and the key tasks.’

Since 2004, Packt Publishing has been providing practical IT-related information that enables everyone to learn and develop their IT knowledge, from novice to expert.
Packt is one of the most prolific and fast-growing tech book publishers in the world.

Originally focused on open source software, Packt contributes back into the community paying a royalty on relevant books directly to open source projects. These projects have received over $400,000 as part of Packt’s Open Source Royalty Scheme to date.

Their books focus on practicality, recognising that readers are ultimately concerned with getting the job done.

Packt’s digitally-focused business model allows them to quickly publish up-to-date books in very specific areas across a range of key categories – web development, game development, big data, application development, and more. Their commitment to providing a comprehensive range of titles has seen Packt publish 1054% more titles in 2013 than in 2006.

Erol Staveley, Publisher, says `Recent research shows that 88% of our customers are very satisfied with the service knowing that we offer a wide breadth of titles in a timely manner, and owing to the quality of service that they receive 94% of customers are willing to recommend Packt to friends and family. It’s great that we’ve hit such a significant milestone, and we want to continue delivering this fantastic content to our customers.’

Here are some of the best titles across Packt's main categories - but Buy One, Get One Free will apply across all 2000 titles:

• Web Development

• Big Data & Cloud

• Game Development

• App Development

Princess Mononoke (1997)

Hayao Miyazaki, the guy accredited with having so many animated hits. Studio Ghibli, the production studio responsible for releasing Miyazaki's work to the public. Disney, the company that opened the "animation epic" door for lazy readers. Princess Mononoke is without a doubt one of their best.

Well, what can I say, it was a great movie.

The first time I watched it when I was in High School I remember my reaction was "woah". Not "WOAH!" or "whoaaaaaaaaahh.", just "whoa" - plain and simple awe.

While some of you "cartoons are for kids"-people may scoff at anything animation, you better take another look. This movie has won 30 awards with critical acclaim from several Film Organizations- even winning the award for best Picture in the 21st Japanese Academy Awards. A far cry from your regular movie blockbuster which mostly rely on starpower and hype rather than a great meaningful story. Which means this isn't just your run-of-the-mill Saturday Morning Cartoon.

As is standard with Miyazaki's work with Ghibli, this film paints an elaborate fantasy world which is somewhat familiar but different. Close to home but still taking us on a fantasy journey. What I love about his work is the balance. It has enough of everything - action, drama, comedy, and even a little romance.

The story revolves around Ashitaka, a prince of the Emishi clan, and San, a human girl raised by wolves.

Ashitaka bravely defends his village from a Demon-Boar the size of a small bus but gets inflicted with a curse on his right arm in the process. He sets out to find a cure for his condition and stumbles upon an ongoing conflict between the Gods of the Forest (giant beasts) and the people in a small village called Iron Town. This town, with it's leader Lady Eboshi, wants to mine iron ore from the mountains but in order to do so has to clear the forests of trees. So naturally, this makes the forest gods angry. The situation is made even more complicated with interests of the emperor in taking over Iron Town, a strange monk called Jugo, and the clash between different tribes on how they should deal with the humans as boudaries are crossed and tempers rise.

Essentially this movie focuses around the conflict between man's progress and taking care of nature - a topic often tackled in films (Avatar, Fern Gully, Wall-E, The Day After Tomorrow, etc.). But in this film, nature is given a symbolic fighting force of it's own. Some of which are a clan of Giant Wolves, an army of Giant Boars, an Ape clan which takes care of planting trees, and a Spirit of the Forest which is able to control Life and Death itself.

This struggle, even in real life, has always been a battle fought with blood and tears. This is not lost on the movie. A lot of severed limbs, beheadings, and blood is shown. It's very action packed with several scenes with sword-play, gun-fighting, and explosions. But at the same time, there are several scenes which focuses on the beauty of nature.

Will man decimate nature for his own gain? Will nature destroy man to preserve order? Will the conflict be resolved in peace? This film definitely has a message but it's up to you to decide what it is. i didn't get it the first time I watched it. Hopefully not everyone is as thick-headed as I was. hehe. And if you are, just google it. There are tons of discussions on the meaning of the movie

Wrath of the Titans (2012)

The god powers in Wrath of the Titans, and actually most movies, are the amputated versions of the original concepts created in the books and comics. But for the purpose of story I guess it's important.

But if you're meticulous about these details like me (and a lot of other geeks out there), THESE THINGS MATTER!!! :D

Imagine that Zeus is "King" of the gods and he relies on prayer for power. -.- Heck, if he has eons of experience with humans he can just do the "Black and White" thing and create miracles or disasters. Those are the two basic methods for creating belief - fear and wonderment.

There's no rule saying that they can't show themselves to humans (unlike other gods). So theoretically he can just become giant Mega-Zeus and scare the bejeezus out of his followers and reduce them to slaves.

Cronus is a titan with intense amazing Cosmic GALACTIC POWER with the namesake of TIME ITSELF!!! Then he's shown to be a walking Volcano Throwing Lava here and there. meh. Story.. it's all about the story. It's just funky if you know the BACKstory. :p READ THE DAMNED BACKSTORY!!