Spidering Hacks

This book "takes you to the next level in Internet data retrieval by showing you how to create and deploy spiders and scrapers to retrieve and work with information from you favorite sites and data sources"--Back cover.

Baseball Hacks isn't your typical baseball book--it's a book about how to watch, research, and understand baseball. It's an instruction manual for the free baseball databases. It's a cookbook for baseball research. Every part of this book is designed to teach baseball fans how to do something. In short, it's a how-to book--one that will increase your enjoyment and knowledge of the game. So much of the way baseball is played today hinges upon interpreting statistical data. Players are acquired based on their performance in statistical categories that ownership deems most important. Managers make in-game decisions based not on instincts, but on probability - how a particular batter might fare against left-handedpitching, for instance. The goal of this unique book is to show fans all the baseball-related stuff that they can do for free (or close to free). Just as open source projects have made great software freely available, collaborative projects such as Retrosheet and Baseball DataBank have made great data freely available. You can use these data sources to research your favorite players, win your fantasy league, or appreciate the game of baseball even more than you do now. Baseball Hacks shows how easy it is to get data, process it, and use it to truly understand baseball. The book lists a number of sources for current and historical baseball data, and explains how to load it into a database for analysis. It then introduces several powerful statistical tools for understanding data and forecasting results. For the uninitiated baseball fan, author Joseph Adler walks readers through the core statistical categories for hitters (batting average, on-base percentage, etc.), pitchers (earned run average, strikeout-to-walk ratio, etc.), and fielders (putouts, errors, etc.). He then extrapolates upon these numbers to examine more advanced data groups like career averages, team stats, season-by-season comparisons, and more. Whether you're a mathematician, scientist, or season-ticket holder to your favorite team, Baseball Hacks is sure to have something for you. Advance praise for Baseball Hacks: "Baseball Hacks is the best book ever written for understanding and practicing baseball analytics. A must-read for baseball professionals and enthusiasts alike." -- Ari Kaplan, database consultant to the Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres, and Baltimore Orioles "The game was born in the 19th century, but the passion for its analysis continues to grow into the 21st. In Baseball Hacks, Joe Adler not only demonstrates thatthe latest data-mining technologies have useful application to the study of baseball statistics, he also teaches the reader how to do the analysis himself, arming the dedicated baseball fan with tools to take his understanding of the game to a higher level." -- Mark E. Johnson, Ph.D., Founder, SportMetrika, Inc. and Baseball Analyst for the 2004 St. Louis Cardinals

Everyone knows that Google lets you search billions of web pages. But few people realize that Google also gives you hundreds of cool ways to organize and play with information. Since we released the last edition of this bestselling book, Google has added many new features and services to its expanding universe: Google Earth, Google Talk, Google Maps, Google Blog Search, Video Search, Music Search, Google Base, Google Reader, and Google Desktop among them. We've found ways to get these new services to do even more. The expanded third edition of Google Hacks is a brand-new and infinitely more useful book for this powerful search engine. You'll not only find dozens of hacks for the new Google services, but plenty of updated tips, tricks and scripts for hacking the old ones. Now you can make a Google Earth movie, visualize your web site traffic with Google Analytics, post pictures to your blog with Picasa, or access Gmail in your favorite email client. Industrial strength and real-world tested, this new collection enables you to mine a ton of information within Google's reach. And have a lot of fun while doing it: Search Google over IM with a Google Talk bot Build a customized Google Map and add it to your own web site Cover your searching tracks and take back your browsing privacy Turn any Google query into an RSS feed that you can monitor in Google Reader or the newsreader of your choice Keep tabs on blogs in new, useful ways Turn Gmail into an external hard drive for Windows, Mac, or Linux Beef up your web pages with search, ads, news feeds, and more Program Google with the Google API and language of your choice For those of you concerned about Google as an emerging Big Brother, this new edition also offers advice and concrete tips for protecting your privacy. Get into the world of Google and bend it to your will!

"Dives headfirst into getting the most out of Google: finding rather than just searching, performing useful tasks to get a job done and using the Google API to automate complicated or repetitive tasks." - cover.

This is a practical guide that distills years of ingenious XML hacking into a complete set of tips, tricks and tools for those who want to leverage the untapped power of XML. It includes many real-world projects that illustrate how to define, create, read and manipulate XML documents.

Firefox Hacks is ideal for power users who want to take full advantage of Firefox from Mozilla, the next-generation web browser that is rapidly subverting Internet Explorer's once-dominant audience. It's also the first book that specifically dedicates itself to this technology.Firefox is winning such widespread approval for a number of reasons, including the fact that it lets users browse faster and more efficiently. Perhaps its most appealing strength, though, is its increased security something that is covered in great detail in Firefox Hacks.Clearly the web browser of the future, Firefox includes most of the features that browser users are familiar with, along with several new features, such as a bookmarks toolbar and tabbed pages that allow users to quickly switch among several web sites.Firefox Hacks offers all the valuable tips and tools you need to maximize the effectiveness of this hot web application. It's all covered, including how to customize its deployment, appearance, features, and functionality. You'll even learn how to install, use, and alter extensions and plug-ins. Aimed at clever people who may or may not be capable of basic programming tasks, this convenient resource describes 100 techniques for 100 strategies that effectively exploit Firefox.Or, put another way, readers of every stripe will find all the user-friendly tips, tools, and tricks they need to make a productive switch to Firefox. With Firefox Hacks, a superior and safer browsing experience is truly only pages away.The latest in O'Reilly's celebrated Hacks series, Firefox Hacks smartly complements other web-application titles such as Google Hacks and PayPal Hacks.

Podcasting does for Internet audio listeners what TiVo does for television viewers--it puts you in charge of when you enjoy a program. Podcasting is a web-based broadcast medium that sends audio content (most commonly in the MP3 format) directly to an iPod or other digital audio player. You subscribe to audio feeds, receive new files automatically, and listen to them at your convenience. As you can imagine, podcasting is taking the "blogsphere" by storm. A podcast is a professional-quality Internet radio broadcast, and like blogging and HTML before it, this revolutionary new way of publishing to the Internet has become the new outlet for personal expression. If you've got Internet access and a copy of Podcasting Hacks, you can find out just how easy it is to listen to and create your own Internet audio programs. With Podcasting Hacks, Jack Herrington, a software engineer with 20 years of experience developing applications using a diverse set of languages and tools, delivers the ultimate how-to of podcasting for anyone looking to get the most out of this hot new medium. Since August 2004 (the month that iPodder.com editor Adam Curry considers the start of podcasting), audio blogging has exploded. Podcasts cover every conceivable topic, including sex, relationships, technology, religion, home brewing, recreational drugs, rock 'n roll, food, entertainment, politics, and much more. There were podcasts from the Democratic National Convention in Fall 2004, and some programs on Air America and NPR are also podcasts. Podcasting Hacks offers expert tips and tools for blogging out loud--for transmitting (and receiving) audio content worldwide with ease. This groundbreaking volume covers both entry-level and advanced topics perfect for aspiring and experienced podcasters. Herrington shows you how to get started, create quality sound, use the right software, develop a great show, distribute a podcast, and build an audience. More advanced topics include audio editing, podcasting on the go, and even videocasting.

Aimed at avid and/or highly skilled video gamers, 'Gaming Hacks' offers a guide to pushing the limits of video game software and hardware using the creative exploits of the gaming gurus.