The CPU meter shows the problem. One core is running at 100 percent, but all the other cores are idle. Your application is CPU-bound, but you are using only a fraction of the computing power of your multicore system. What next?

The answer, in a nutshell, is parallel programming. Where you once would have written the kind of sequential code that is familiar to all programmers, you now find that this no longer meets your performance goals. To use your systemпїЅs CPU resources efficiently, you need to split your application into pieces that can run at the same time. This is easier said than done. Parallel programming has a reputation for being the domain of experts and a minefield of subtle, hard-to-reproduce software defects.

Everyone seems to have a favorite story about a parallel program that did not behave as expected because of a mysterious bug. These stories should inspire a healthy respect for the difficulty of the problems you face in writing your own parallel programs. Fortunately, help has arrived. Microsoft Visual StudioпїЅ 2010 introduces a new programming model for parallelism that significantly simplifies the job. Behind the scenes are supporting libraries with sophisticated algorithms that dynamically distribute computations on multicore architectures. Proven design patterns are another source of help. A Guide to Parallel Programming introduces you to the most important and frequently used patterns of parallel programming and gives executable code samples for them, using the Task Parallel Library (TPL) and Parallel LINQ (PLINQ).

DiRT Showdown is a brand new dive in and drive adrenaline rush of speed, style and destruction from the creators of the multi-award winning DiRT series. Players jump into a new world of arcade racing with pick up and play controls, speeding, tricking and smashing their way to `Showdown' finals to compete against rivals in front of thousands of fans in a vibrant festival atmosphere.

Storyline: In the early 1970s during the Cold War, the head of British Intelligence, Control, resigns after an operation in Budapest, Hungary goes badly wrong. It transpires that Control believed one of four senior figures in the service was in fact a Russian agent - a mole - and the Hungary operation was an attempt to identify which of them it was. Smiley had been forced into retirement by the departure of Control, but is asked by a senior government figure to investigate a story told to him by a rogue agent, Ricky Tarr, that there was a mole. Smiley considers that the failure of the Hungary operation and the continuing success of Operation Witchcraft (an apparent source of significant Soviet intelligence) confirms this, and takes up the task of finding him. Through the efforts of Peter Guillam, Smiley obtains information that eventually leads him to Jim Prideaux, the agent at the heart of the Hungary fiasco...

Storyline: In the near future, cloning is now technically advanced, but human cloning is still illegal. Adam Gibson (Schwarzenegger) returns home after working with his friend Hank Morgan (Rapaport), only to find a clone of himself with his family. Before he has chance to find out the truth, he is attacked by a group who want him dead. Adam must escape and find out the truth from the creator of the clones, Michael Drucker (Goldwyn). Adam knows for sure you couldn't have been cloned, but isn't ready for what he's about to hear.

Harry’s client, Colin Danes, is accused of raping and murdering his ex-girlfriend, but when the jury finds him “not guilty,” the victim’s brother and father snap, holding the courtroom hostage and demanding a retrial at gunpoint. Meanwhile, Tommy and Phoebe attempt to establish communication with Harry and Adam inside the volatile courtroom. Elsewhere, an old friend of Cassie’s desperately needs her help after he and his brother get into a major car accident.

Storyline: Pup, a bamboo shark, discovers egg sacs while playing around the ocean with his friends. When he sees human poachers stealing the eggs from his reef, Pup makes it his mission to save his family. As he leaves the sea and enters the beautiful, yet dangerous, world of humans he'll prove he isn't too small to save his family.

Taught by Vancouver-based colorist Lorne Miess, Digital Colour Theory introduces you to the fundamentals of light and colour when applied to film and television industries. Understanding how to make your images look as photorealistic as possible is the premise for this course. Standard theories of additive and subtractive colour models will be discussed with examples from various media and software packages such as Final Cut Pro and Photoshop.