Praise for Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom «Steve Martin takes a much-needed look at how successful executives read verbal and nonverbal messages, which allows them to quickly understand the subtext of their customers' minds. The best part is that the author shares effective strategies that put more fun into selling and more money into salespeople's pockets.» —Gerhard Gschwandtner Founder and Publisher, Selling Power magazine «Steve Martin's interesting examination of great leaders in history and the parallels he draws between waging a war and waging a sales campaign should be required reading for enterprise salespeople.» —Jay Fulcher, Chief Executive Officer, Agile Software «This powerful book provides real-world strategies you can use to increase sales immediately!» —Brian Tracy, President, Brian Tracy International, author, Getting Rich Your Own Way «Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom goes beyond the traditional description of sales cycles to the heart of selling. It's about the emotional connection with the customer, but also the attack and destruction of the competition.» —Olivier Helleboid, Vice President, Software Operations, Hewlett-Packard «Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom provides field sales generals and sales soldiers with tons of strategy, persuasion techniques, and common-sense approaches to winning the hearts and minds of prospects. This book will add new weapons to your arsenal.» —Tim Kelliher, Senior Vice President, Sales, DHL Global Mail
"Geoff Ingram has met the challenge of presenting the complex process of managing Oracle performance. This book can support every technical person looking to resolve Oracle8i and Oracle9i performance issues." -Aki Ratner, President, Precise Software Solutions Ensuring high-performance and continuous availability of Oracle software is a key focus of database managers. At least a dozen books address the subject of «performance tuning»– that is, how to fine-tune the Oracle database for its greatest processing efficiency. Geoff Ingram argues that this approach simply isn't enough. He believes that performance needs to be addressed right from the design stage, and it needs to cover the entire system–not just the database. High-Performance Oracle is a hands-on book, loaded with tips and techniques for ensuring that the entire Oracle database system runs efficiently and doesn't break down. Written for Oracle developers and DBAs, and covering both Oracle8i and Oracle9i, the book goes beyond traditional performance-tuning books and covers the key techniques for ensuring 24/7 performance and availability of the complete Oracle system. The book provides practical solutions for: * Choosing physical layout for ease of administration and efficient use of space * Managing indexes, including detecting unused indexes and automating rebuilds * SQL and system tuning using the powerful new features in Oracle9i Release 2 * Improving SQL performance without modifying code * Running Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) for performance and availability * Protecting data using Recover Manager (RMAN), and physical and logical standby databases The companion Web site provides the complete source code for examples in the book, updates on techniques, and additional documentation for optimizing your Oracle system.
Praise for THE RIGHT STOCK AT THE RIGHT TIME «It is a fundamentally good time to consider the strategies in this book. Macro-market timing, stock-specific approaches, money management revelations, and intermarket analysis. Even better that it is written by someone who has actually done it himself.» —Lindsay Glass Global Market Timing Specialist, Bloomberg LP «This book delivers a knock-out punch to investor pessimism, with an uppercut of bullishness and hard facts.» —Ray Mercer Former World Heavyweight Champion «The stock market is a major stream of income and Williams clearly shows the best time and stocks to buy.» —Robert Allen, New York Times bestselling financial author and millionaire maker «No other book on the horizon comes close to this one. Larry lets you stand on his shoulders and view the market from the vantage of a master.» —Yale Hirsch Chairman, The Hirsch Organization Inc.
Pow! Radical new methods for reaching jaded, cynical consumers Put simply, when it comes to your business, your new idea, even yourself, this book can be the difference between a «Who cares?» and a «Holy cow!» Business, both big and small, is in desperate need of new ways to inspire bored and cynical consumers who have grown weary of the same old song and dance. In today’s information economy, it doesn’t matter how many people you reach, but how much attention they pay. And the best way to get attention is with the powerful, but largely misunderstood, element of surprise. Pow! Enter Andy Nulman with the art of surprise marketing. An explosive new outlook, surprise marketing solidifies the bond between you and your customers like nothing else, and keeps them coming back for more by providing a continuous flow of what they never expected. Pow! Right Between the Eyes reveals the secrets, theories, and tactics of surprise marketing, and wields outrageous real-world examples (and even more outrageous tools like «The Lubricant to Yes» and «Euphoric Shock») to help expand the boundaries of the extreme and create a bigger bang for bigger profits. On his quest to unlock the secret of why some things knock your socks off and others put you to sleep, Nulman shares insights from director Alfred Hitchcock, designer Philippe Starck, playwright David Mamet, Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane, Harvard psychologists, songwriters, bloggers, and even the inventor of Pirate Booty snack chips. And he shows how today’s smartest companies are winning big with surprises stories like: • How Oprah’s shocking announcement that «Everybody gets a car!» sent her Web site traffic up 800% and helped the Pontiac G6 outsell its competitors by 20% • How Target earns $7 billion a year in free publicity with stunts like a floating temporary store in New York’s Hudson River or putting on a vertical fashion show where acrobat models walked down the side of Rockefeller Center • How Bear Naked Granola reversed the trick-or-treat tradition by sending costumed street teams door-to-door to give away granola samples on Halloween Andy Nulman is a wildly-successful businessman and even wilder public speaker who first learned the power of surprise working with Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, and many other comedians as the cofounder and CEO of the Just For Laughs Festival, the world’s largest comedy event. His book shares hilarious and effective surprise promotions that he himself dreamed up for the event and in his current position as cofounder, President, and CMO of Airborne Mobile, which brings brands like Maxim, Family Guy, and the NFL to the mobile media world. Don’t forget to read the book’s two forewords by the legendary John Cleese and CBS Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson. Surprising choices for a business book? Well…what did you expect?
Efficient market theorists contend that markets are random and thus not predictable. With the publication of Trading Against theCrowd, however, noted author, economist, and professional trader John Summa convincingly shows that investor sentiment can be incorporated into profitable stock and stock market trading systems. In this groundbreaking book, Summa explains how to use popular gauges of crowd psychology, such as put/call ratios, option-implied volatility, short sales, investor surveys, and advisory opinion to trade against, or contrary to, prevailing market sentiment. He also makes compelling arguments against the efficient markets hypothesis with the presentation of his own quantitative weekly bear and bull news-flow intensity indices, which he builds from news scans. This data series, and other popular measures of crowd psychology, are processed through custom indicators that are programmed into profitable trading systems, such as Squeeze Play I & II, Tsunami Sentiment Wave, and the Fourth Estate. Trading Against the Crowd is the first book to provide a comprehensive assessment of investor crowd psychology, offering valuable market timing tools and trading techniques, including: MetaStock and Trade Station system and custom indicator code; comparative statistical studies of CBOE, OEX, and equity-only put/call ratios; straightforward instructions for combining price triggers with sentiment indicators; a practical guide to understanding put/call ratios, short sales, investor surveys, newsletter opinion, and stock market news-flow intensity; how to use LEAP options as trading vehicles to avoid use of stop loss orders; use of put/call ratios for trading the Treasury bond futures market; and test results and evaluation of trading system performance. Many of today’s professional money managers rely on investor sentiment for improved market timing. They know that at extremes of market sentiment, markets tend to be the most predictable.Trading Against the Crowd shows how you can begin to profit from these short- to medium-term sentiment waves generated by the actions of the speculative crowd. Put into practice powerful sentiment data using thoroughly back-tested trading systems, and rise above the herd mentality of the investor crowd, where potentially large profits await.
The first guide to developing user location applications You are walking down a street and suddenly, your cell phone display flashes the news that you are 70 feet from a Starbuck's and that you are entitled to a dollar off your next purchase. You have just witnessed an example of user location services, one of the exciting new generations of cell phone and handheld services. This book describes the architecture and operation of this technology. It also familiarizes readers with the new location services development standard, shows how to programming with GIS, provides GUI design guidelines, and uses real-world examples to teach valuable lessons on how to successfully develop and deploy user location applications for the wireless Web. CD-ROM contains a host of tools for developing positioning and location services.
A comprehensive look at the enormous growth and evolution of distressed debt, corporate bankruptcy, and credit risk default This Third Edition of the most authoritative finance book on the topic updates and expands its discussion of corporate distress and bankruptcy, as well as the related markets dealing with high-yield and distressed debt, and offers state-of-the-art analysis and research on the costs of bankruptcy, credit default prediction, the post-emergence period performance of bankrupt firms, and more.
New edition of one of the most influential books on managing software and hardware testing In this new edition of his top-selling book, Rex Black walks you through the steps necessary to manage rigorous testing programs of hardware and software. The preeminent expert in his field, Mr. Black draws upon years of experience as president of both the International and American Software Testing Qualifications boards to offer this extensive resource of all the standards, methods, and tools you'll need. The book covers core testing concepts and thoroughly examines the best test management practices and tools of leading hardware and software vendors. Step-by-step guidelines and real-world scenarios help you follow all necessary processes and avoid mistakes. Producing high-quality computer hardware and software requires careful, professional testing; Managing the Testing Process, Third Edition explains how to achieve that by following a disciplined set of carefully managed and monitored practices and processes The book covers all standards, methods, and tools you need for projects large and small Presents the business case for testing products and reviews the author's latest test assessments Topics include agile testing methods, risk-based testing, IEEE standards, ISTQB certification, distributed and outsourced testing, and more Over 100 pages of new material and case studies have been added to this new edition If you're responsible for managing testing in the real world, Managing the Testing Process, Third Edition is the valuable reference and guide you need.
Shows power users how to take Windows XP to the next level, focusing on functionality, networking, and overall performance Features to-the-point coverage that skips introductory explanations and focuses instead on the real-world tips and tricks power users need to become more productive Written in a friendly, approachable style by experienced XP author and power user Curt Simmons Topics covered include scripting, managing applications, making the most of digital media, power management, hardware management, the registry and file systems, security, auditing, backup and data storage, system performance, system recovery, Microsoft's popular download XP Power Toys, networking, and wireless
An illustrated business fable that gives you the faith, courage and confidence to win in today's tough economic climate Fear and uncertainty are staples of daily life in today's struggling economy. As bad as things can be, economic downturns also lead to new opportunities. It's easy to worry, give up and let fear paralyze you. However, you have more control than you think you do and how you handle adversity is your choice-and the only choice that matters. In fact, study history and you'll find that a lot of people and organizations made a name for themselves and grew their businesses during recessions and downturns. These successful people and organizations all shared similar characteristics and took similar actions to thrive while others merely tried to survive. You can do the same. In The Shark and the Goldfish, Jon Gordon shares an inspiring fable about Gordy, a pampered goldfish who gets swept out to sea. Desperate for food, Gordy meets a kind shark who teaches him the ultimate lesson-Goldfish wait to be fed. Sharks go find food. Gordy also learns that the difference between a full and empty stomach is our faith, beliefs and actions. In the face of adversity and lean times, this is a business fable that reinforces a proven truth: You can't control the events in your life. But you can control how you respond and in turn this determines the outcome. A business fable that teaches valuable lessons on the importance of working hard, maintaining a locus of control and focusing on positive choices instead of negative voices, Written by Jon Gordon, bestselling author of The Energy Bus and The No Complaining Rule Reveals how change is inevitable-but that you can make it your friend or foe. Provides an action plan filled with tips and strategies to thrive during change and adversity If you're facing tough economic times, The Shark and the Goldfish will motivate you, inspire you, and give you the confidence you need to thrive during changing times.