Refactoring is gaining momentum amongst the object oriented programming community. It can transform the internal dynamics of applications and has the capacity to transform bad code into good code. This book offers an introduction to refactoring.
A "good boy" will do anything for vengeance when a gang rite kills his twin sister. Will Lucas win, or follow his sister Silver into the darkness? After a hideous car wreck, Lucas wakes from a coma to find that his world is gutted. Not only is his beloved twin sister, Silver, gone forever, but Lucas is broken in body and spirit. He will never be a college athlete, and is robbed of what he now realizes was the most important bond of his life. Although they weren't identical twins, Lucas and Silver shared a bond so fierce it defied reason, and was nearly supernatural. After her death, that bond seems to endure when Lucas sees Silver everywhere he turns. Either he's crazy, or Silver is trying to tell him something about the California gang initiation they stumbled into that cost Silver her life. Lucas is bent on revenge, turning on Raymond, Silver's former boyfriend; the one Lucas never wanted her to date. He forms a posse of vigilantes to take out the gangsters responsible for Silver's death, but he risks not only his own life, but the love of the new girl on his block, who knows more about Lucas and Silver than can be accounted for by mere chance.
Some stories have to be told. It took these unique characters to bring such a tale to life.Spencer Helms and a squirrel named Dell develop a magical telepathic way of communicating. Spencer, an only child, was born with a malady, which caused him to be unable to speak. As a result of Spencer's problem, his parents decided to school him at home. Along the way, Spencer discovers he has a natural talent as a sketch artist. This will prove to have profound consequences.The story takes place between the politically turbulent years of 1962 and 1963. Together, Spencer and Dell's world is filled with the unexpected life experiences of their neighbors, as well as the dramatic events occurring historically, some of which are very disturbing.Although this is not a children's book, readers, from teens to grandparents, will be taken in by the story's compelling, dramatic events. This novel is a must-read for the detective in all of us. If you enjoy a good mystery with a surprise ending, this book is for you.
"Psmith, Journalist" is a delightful comedic novel written by the renowned British Author P. G. Wodehouse. Set in the early 20th century, this story follows the adventures of the charming and also eccentric character, Rupert Psmith. With an amusing blend of wit and other one satire, Wodehouse takes readers on a lighthearted journey into the world of journalism. The plot unfolds as Psmith, bored with his current employment, decides to seek excitement and a fresh start by joining the editorial staff of the "Cosy Moments" magazine. His clever and other one unconventional approach to reporting quickly sets him apart, and he soon finds himself embroiled in a series of humorous escapades. From interviewing a cricket-playing bishop to investigating a scandalous slum landlord, Psmith's unorthodox methods lead to hilariously unpredictable situations. Wodehouse's trademark wit shines throughout the novel, and his keen observations of human nature create a colorful and also memorable cast of characters. Psmith's suave demeanor, combined with his uncanny ability to find himself at the center of peculiar circumstances, makes him a captivating protagonist.
Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.