Why have developers at places like Facebook and Twitter increasingly turned to graph databases to manage their highly connected big data? The short answer is that graphs offer superior speed and flexibility to get the job done. It's time you added skills in graph databases to your toolkit. In Practical Neo4j, database expert Greg Jordan guides you through the background and basics of graph databases and gets you quickly up and running with Neo4j, the most prominent graph database on the market today. Jordan walks you through the data modeling stages for projects such as social networks, recommendation engines, and geo-based applications. The book also dives into the configuration steps as well as the language options used to create your Neo4j-backed applications. Neo4j runs some of the largest connected datasets in the world, and developing with it offers you a fast, proven NoSQL database option. Besides those working for social media, database, and networking companies of all sizes, academics and researchers will find Neo4j a powerful research tool that can help connect large sets of diverse data and provide insights that would otherwise remain hidden. Using Practical Neo4j, you will learn how to harness that power and create elegant solutions that address complex data problems. This book: Explains the basics of graph databases Demonstrates how to configure and maintain Neo4j Shows how to import data into Neo4j from a variety of sources Provides a working example of a Neo4j-based application using an array of language of options including Java, .Net, PHP, Python, Spring, and Ruby As you'll discover, Neo4j offers a blend of simplicity and speed while allowing data relationships to maintain first-class status. That's one reason among many that such a wide range of industries and fields have turned to graph databases to analyze deep, dense relationships. After reading this book, you'll have a potent, elegant tool you can use to develop projects profitably and improve your career options.

Over the course of a forty-year career in the worlds of law, sports, business, and politics, Ron Shapiro has worked with and advised an incredible variety of people. What he's found is that the secret ingredient for getting into the winner's circle is simply the discipline of methodical preparation: that old-school, step-by-step way of having all your ducks in a row, whether you are an executive getting ready to do a deal or make a speech; a pitcher studying the traits of opposing hitters and keeping a meticulous notebook of their strengths and weaknesses; an international trade negotiator who knows all about the issues and the people on the other side before sitting down at the table; or a surgeon who rehearses like a classical musician.
Deep down, you know you should do it. But how often do you wing it and fly by the seat of your pants because "Gosh, I don't have time . . . I've done this before . . . I know what I'm doing"? It is obvious that you have to get ready for whatever game you're playing, but all too frequently methodical preparation is the missing ingredient in today's world of instant analysis, easy access to information, and glibness that sounds good at first but is unconnected with the reality at hand.
In "Dare to Prepare," successful people such as wine guru Robert Parker, investment legend Bill Miller, pianist Leon Fleisher, Goldman Sachs partner Lisa Fontenelli, broadcaster Bob Costas, firefighter Ann Marie Tierney, New York Mets manager Willie Randolph, and many others share the way they apply discipline in preparing for career-changing games, deals, meetings, and interviews. Cal Ripken Jr. played thousands of games in the major leagues but prepared for each like it was his first. NPR host Liane Hansen has interviewed countless people but approaches each interview with the same meticulous research time and time again.
Make sure there are no slips "twixt cup and lip" as you get ready for your next personal or professional challenge by daring to prepare.

"From the Hardcover edition."

"Willie Mays Aikens: Safe at Home is far too complex to be regarded as just a baseball book. Gregory Jordan is a master storyteller, expertly weaving a narrative that is both fascinating and disturbing while ever mindful of the human spirit." —Tom Verducci, senior writer at Sports Illustrated From World Series hero to prison inmate, Willie Mays Aikens' story is one of tragedy, belief, and the ultimate comeback Willie Mays Aikens was ascendant in the 1980s, establishing himself as one of the top sluggers in Major League Baseball as a member of the Kansas City Royals, alongside George Brett and Hal McRae. But a promising career quickly turned disastrous when he fell into drug abuse and was ultimately sentenced to 20 years in prison, a reflection of the era's harsh federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine and a criminal legal system intent on punishment rather than rehabilitation. Safe at Home is an intimate portrait of a tortured player and a redemption story for the ages. Through extensive interviews with Alkens himself, his family, friends, teammates, cellmates, and dealers, Gregory Jordan has woven this comeback tale with compassion and unique intensity. Readers will gain unvarnished insight into Aikens' impoverished childhood in a slow-to-desegregate South Carolina town, the rollicking Kansas City Royals' locker room, the go-go drug culture of America in the 80s, prison life at Leavenworth, and the grace and stability Aikens has found as a coach and mentor.