Getting started with Kinect for Windows SDK Programming

In this article by Abhijit Jana, the author of Kinect for Windows SDK Programming Guide , introduces us to the Kinect for Windows SDK. It is a toolkit for developing applications for Kinect devices. Developing applications using Kinect SDK is fairly easy and straightforward. The SDK provides an interface to interact with Kinect via system drivers. The SDK includes drivers for the Kinect sensor, which interact with the device, and the OS and APIs interact with the device through program. Overall, the SDK provides an opportunity to the developers to build an application using either managed code (C# and VB.NET) or unmanaged code (C++) using Visual Studio 2010 or higher versions, running on Windows 7 or Windows 8. This article will explain the following aspects of Kinect SDK:

• Understanding the system requirements

• The evolutionary journey of Kinect for Windows SDK

• Installing and verifying the installed components

• Troubleshooting tips and tricks

• Exploring the installed components of SDK

• A quick lap around different features of Kinect for Windows SDK

• The Coding4fun toolkit

Let's look at them one by one.

Getting started with Bacula

The author of the book Network Backup with Bacula How-To, Eugene Pankov, explains how to set up the simplest Bacula Director and Bacula Storage installations and how the bconsole utility can be used to monitor and interact with daemons through this article.

Types of services in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 already provides a number of services out-of-the-box. These services together with additional services that can be developed can be divided into three types. Each of the service types has its own characteristics and a different approach to create them.

This article by Klaas Deforche and Kenny Saelen authors of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Services discusses about these services in detail.

Rich Internet Application (RIA) – Canvas

This article created by Dushyant Kanungo, the author of Instant Migration to HTML5 and CSS3 How-to gives a brief introduction of the interactive Rich Internet Application platform with HTML5 and CSS3. We will discuss a few basic possible applications of Canvas in routine websites.

Installing Arch Linux using the official ISO

Arch Linux is a very flexible distribution and this article by Ike Devolder, author of Arch Linux Environment Setup How-to will guide you to the point where you can get a basic system in place. From there on you can go in any direction you want. A simple server, a full-blown desktop system with all the bells and whistles. In the end, Arch Linux is always what you make of it.

These days the installation of Arch Linux might look like a work of insanity, as there is no installer available in the official media, just a guideline to follow. The installation without an installer is as easy as it can be. For experienced users, installing without an installer is even more convenient. The newest ISOs require that you have your machine connected to the Internet, as there are no longer packages available on the installation media.

Using PVR with Raspbmc

Low-cost and high-performing, with a massively diverse range of uses and applications, the Raspberry Pi is set to revolutionize the way we think about computing and programming. Using it as a media center allows everyone to have a low-cost device that is always on and attached to their TV.

In this article by Sam Nazarko, the author of Raspberry Pi Media Center, we'll look at the following topics:

• What PVR allows us to do

• The different types of PVR setups that Raspbmc supports

• How to set up Raspbmc to take advantage of PVR

Cross-premise Connectivity

In this article by Erez Ben-Ari and Bala Natarajan, the authors of Windows Server 2012 Unified Remote Access Planning and Deployment, Cross-premise connectivity (also known as cloud connectivity) is the ability to establish secure connection between two sites. It could be between a head office and a branch office or from an office to a cloud data center. Before we go into the details of cross-premise connectivity let us take a moment and talk about the connectivity challenges that an enterprise faces. In this article, we are going to talk about what cross-premise connectivity is, why it is needed, and how to go about establishing it.

The topics we will discuss are as follows:

• Evolving remote access challenges

• Migration to dynamic cloud

• The needs of modern data centers

• Dynamic cloud access with URA

• Adding a cloud location using Site-to-Site

• Basic setup of cross-premise connectivity

• Configuration steps