The Raspberry Pi is a powerful, low-cost, credit-card sized computer, which lends itself perfectly as the controller of a sophisticated home security system. Using the available on-board interfaces, the Raspberry Pi can be expanded to allow the connection of a virtually infinite number of security sensors and devices. The Raspberry Pi has the processing power and interfaces available to build a…
In this chapter, we will cover the major components that almost all alarm systems have in common. By the end of the chapter you will realize that the so-called high tech alarm systems and access control systems are not really as complicated as some would like you to believe. That said, let's get started. Every alarm system in the world does two and only two basic things. • It monitors the wor…
In the social and behavioral sciences, statistics serve two general purposes. First, they can be used to describe what happened in a particular study (descriptive statistics). Second, they can be used to help draw conclu- sions about what those results mean in some broader context (inferential statistics). The main question in inferential statistics is whether a result, finding, or observation …
Boost.Asio is a complex library, making networking quite simple. Building it is easy. It's done quite a good job at avoiding use of macros; it's got a few macros to turn options on/off, but there's only quite a few you need to worry about. Boost.Asio allows for both synchronous and asynchronous programming. They are very different; you should choose one way or the other as early as possible,…
This is the least fun—but nevertheless critical—part of the book, where we walk through setting up an environ- ment in which to write and test Python. We are going to do a crash course in setting up a Kali Linux virtual machine (VM) and installing a nice IDE so that you have everything you need to develop code. By the end of this chapter, you should be ready to tackle the exer- cises and co…
Microsoft officially announced SQL Server 2008, codenamed Katmai, at the first Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) conference in May 2007. I suppose I had the same reaction as many others — ‘‘Already?’’ SQL Server 2005 had only been released a year and a half earlier, and I started to wonder if it was too soon. I can’t tell you why I thought that. I also knew that it wasn’t unu…
Currently, computer networking has already become ubiquitous, the number of diverse devices is increasing constantly, as are also their capabilities, the range of applications and network-based services is expanding, and user expectations are rapidly evolving. This is the context in which the authors set the scene for this net- work programming book in its introductory chapter. The past decade…
APIs are becoming increasingly popular for exposing business functionalities to the rest of the world. According to an infographic published by Layer 7, 86.5% of organizations will have an API program in place in the next five years. Of those, 43.2% already have one. APIs are also the foundation of building communication channels in the Internet of Things (IoT). From motor vehicles to kitchen …
The aim of this book is to provide an introductory treatment of time series econometrics that builds upon the basic statistical and regression techniques contained in my Analysing Economic Data: A Concise Introduction.1 It is written from the perspective that the econometric analysis of economic and financial time series is of key importance to both students and practitioners of economics and s…
“The suspense was killing me. I just had to read it straight through!” Although these responses to our book would be gratifying, it’s doubtful that any book on digital security will ever garner this type of reaction. Digital security is the computer equivalent of disaster insurance. Few people care very much about it or give it much thought, and everyone hates paying for it … until a ca…
One of the many experiences I value from my time participating in the 802.11 working group is the ability to compare the “outside” view of a technology with the “inside” view of people in the engine room sweating to make it work. From the outside, wireless LANs have seen a steady progression in speeds from a megabit in the late 1990s to a gigabit with the first release of 802.11ac in 20…
It is a sad fact that much of the world is dominated by short-term thinking. And an in-depth look at the numerous problems that humanity now faces often reveals that the downside of allowing individuals or groups to do whatever they want (without considering future consequences) usually results in all of us paying dearly for it. Equally as true is that an increasing number of people and their…
Recently, the number of social networking sites is rapidly increasing, and the number of users joining these sites is dramatically increasing as well. This paper aims at comprehensively comparing three social networking sites, and provides an in-depth analysis. We compare three of the most popular social networking sites, i.e., Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Specifically, we evaluate those soci…
Mobile Online Social Networks (mOSNs) have recently grown in popularity. With the ubiquitous use of mo- bile devices and a rapid shift of technology and access to OSNs, it is important to examine the impact of mobile OSNs from a privacy standpoint. We present a taxonomy of ways to study privacy leakage and report on the cur- rent status of known leakages. We find that all mOSNs in our study ex…
If you were in a state of cryogenic suspension for the past two decades and suddenly awoke, you would find yourself inundated with information coming from the use of cellular phones, personal computers connected to the Internet, tablets, digital music players, e-book readers, high-definition televisions, digital cameras, and a variety of other digital gadgets that have entered common households…
Welcome to Wireless Home Networking For Dummies. Wireless network- ing for personal computers is not really a new idea; it’s been around for at least five years. The emergence of an industry standard, however, has caused the use of wireless networking technology to explode. One of the most appealing things about the current crop of wireless network- ing equipment is the ease with which you c…