Eric Halfbee


Book Description

Eric Halfbee is a nine-year-old boy from a little place called Boggle Street. He lives with his mum, dad, and annoying – I mean, lovely – sister, Jessica. Eric and Jessica love nothing more than trying to get their dad out of his shed, and eating their mother’s latest, questionable, attempts at cooking . . . not. Despite his family’s quirks, Eric’s life has been pretty normal . . . until now. When an elf appears, called Loki, Eric and Jessica’s lives are turned upside down. Ellyon – a world of laughter, jiggery-pokery and a bit of mischief – is under attack from the formidable Ghillie Dhu. The Light Elves and the Dark Elves are finally confronting each other, and only Eric can help them achieve peace. But Eric, as a human, must tread carefully: Ellyon is a strange place and the dangers are real. Join Eric and Jessica on their amazing adventures, over four books, as they travel through the magical world of Ellyon, take on the villainous Ghillie Dhu, and make startling discoveries about different worlds and about themselves. Expect to learn some astonishing things, and lots of laughter along the way!




The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English


Book Description

Booklist Top of the List Reference Source The heir and successor to Eric Partridge's brilliant magnum opus, The Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, this two-volume New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is the definitive record of post WWII slang. Containing over 60,000 entries, this new edition of the authoritative work on slang details the slang and unconventional English of the English-speaking world since 1945, and through the first decade of the new millennium, with the same thorough, intense, and lively scholarship that characterized Partridge's own work. Unique, exciting and, at times, hilariously shocking, key features include: unprecedented coverage of World English, with equal prominence given to American and British English slang, and entries included from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, South Africa, Ireland, and the Caribbean emphasis on post-World War II slang and unconventional English published sources given for each entry, often including an early or significant example of the term’s use in print. hundreds of thousands of citations from popular literature, newspapers, magazines, movies, and songs illustrating usage of the headwords dating information for each headword in the tradition of Partridge, commentary on the term’s origins and meaning New to this edition: A new preface noting slang trends of the last five years Over 1,000 new entries from the US, UK and Australia New terms from the language of social networking Many entries now revised to include new dating, new citations from written sources and new glosses The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is a spectacular resource infused with humour and learning – it’s rude, it’s delightful, and it’s a prize for anyone with a love of language.







Programming with Python


Book Description

This book offers practical applications and code to help users get up to speed with this innovative programming language. By providing recipes of Python programs and scripts, users are able to get their programs running faster with less hassle. CD features Python code, programs and full a text version of the book.




Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years


Book Description

A perceptive and funny chronicle, these diaries are a rich portrait of how Monty Python emerged and triumphed.




Prehistoric Australasia


Book Description

For most of the past 300 million years, the world’s continents were interlinked as the supercontinents Pangaea and then Gondwana. Around 50 million years ago, Australia tore itself free from Antarctica to become the huge, splendidly isolated island it is today. Over time, its creatures began to evolve in ways not seen anywhere else on Earth, with tree-climbing crocodiles, gigantic venomous lizards, walking omnivorous bats and flesh-eating kangaroos roaming the continent. Prehistoric Australasia: Visions of Evolution and Extinction presents some of the most extraordinary creatures the world has ever seen – all unique to Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand and their surrounding islands. Over 100 meticulously painted panoramas by palaeoartist Peter Schouten are accompanied by descriptions of the unique environments and features of these animals, written by four of Australia’s foremost palaeontologists. This book explores the nature and timing of extinction events in the Southern Hemisphere, considers whether some of these losses might be able to be reversed, and how we can use the fossil record to help save today’s critically endangered species. Through stunning artwork and fascinating text, Prehistoric Australasia brings this globally unique transformation over time to glorious, colourful life.




Diaries 1969–1979


Book Description

The amazingly insightful, funny and brilliant record of Michael Palin's prime years as a member of the famed comedic group, Monty Python. Michael Palin has kept a diary since newly married in the late 1960s. This volume of his diaries reveals how Python emerged and triumphed, how he, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, the two Terrys---Jones and Gilliam---and Eric Idle came together and changed the face of British comedy. But this is but only part of Palin's story. Here is his growing family, his home in a north London Victorian terrace, which grows as he buys the house next door and then a second at the bottom of the garden; here, too, is his solo effort---as an actor, in Three Men in a Boat, his writing endeavours (often in partnership with Terry Jones) that produces Ripping Yarns and even a pantomime. Meanwhile Monty Python refuses to go away: the hugely successful movies that follow the TV (his account of the making of both The Holy Grail and the Life of Brian movies are page-turners), the at times extraordinary goings-on of the many powerful personalities who coalesced to form the Python team, the fight to prevent an American TV network from bleeping out the best jokes on U.S. transmission, and much more---all this makes for funny and riveting reading. The birth and childhood of his three children, his father's growing disability, learning to cope as a young man with celebrity, his friendship with George Harrison, and all the trials of a peripatetic life are also essential ingredients of these diaries. A perceptive and funny chronicle, the diaries are a rich portrait of a fascinating period. "A wealth of fascinating stuff about Monty Python." ---The Independent (UK)




The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: A-I


Book Description

Entry includes attestations of the head word's or phrase's usage, usually in the form of a quotation. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).




Pro SQL Server Relational Database Design and Implementation


Book Description

Learn effective and scalable database design techniques in a SQL Server 2016 and higher environment. This book is revised to cover in-memory online transaction processing, temporal data storage, row-level security, durability enhancements, and other design-related features that are new or changed in SQL Server 2016. Designing an effective and scalable database using SQL Server is a task requiring skills that have been around for forty years coupled with technology that is constantly changing. Pro SQL Server Relational Database Design and Implementation covers everything from design logic that business users will understand, all the way to the physical implementation of design in a SQL Server database. Grounded in best practices and a solid understanding of the underlying theory, Louis Davidson shows how to "get it right" in SQL Server database design and lay a solid groundwork for the future use of valuable business data. The pace of change in relational database management systems has been tremendous these past few years. Whereas in the past it was enough to think about optimizing data residing on spinning hard drives, today one also must consider solid-state storage as well as data that are constantly held in memory and never written to disk at all except as a backup. Furthermore, there is a trend toward hybrid cloud and on-premise database configurations as well a move toward preconfigured appliances. Pro SQL Server Relational Database Design and Implementation guides in the understanding of these massive changes and in their application toward sound database design. Gives a solid foundation in best practices and relational theory Covers the latest implementation features in SQL Server 2016 Helps you master in-memory OLTP and use it effectively Takes you from conceptual design to an effective, physical implementation What You Will Learn Develop conceptual models of client data using interviews and client documentation Recognize and apply common database design patterns Normalize data models to enhance scalability and the long term use of valuable data Translate conceptual models into high–performing SQL Server databases Secure and protect data integrity as part of meeting regulatory requirements Create effective indexing to speed query performance Who This Book Is For Programmers and database administrators of all types who want to use SQL Server to store data. The book is especially useful to those wanting to learn the very latest design features in SQL Server 2016, features that include an improved approach to in-memory OLTP, durability enhancements, temporal data support, and more. Chapters on fundamental concepts, the language of database modeling, SQL implementation, and of course, the normalization process, lay a solid groundwork for readers who are just entering the field of database design. More advanced chapters serve the seasoned veteran by tackling the very latest in physical implementation features that SQL Server has to offer. The book has been carefully revised to cover all the design-related features that are new in SQL Server 2016.