Blink Monitor » 5-stars

How Wikipedia Works

rleir — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:26:55 +0000

How Wikipedia Works – And How You Can Be A Part of It, Phoebe Ayers, No Starch, 2008

If you contribute articles to Wikipedia you will want to read this. 500 pages.

Rails 3 in a Nutshell

rleir — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:52:27 +0000

Rails 3 in a Nutshell, Cody Fauser, O’Reilly, 2010

A concise introduction to Rails, an overview of commands and configurations, and a guide to the parts of Rails you’ll be using every day. Read the book-in-progress online here. Sorry, it’s not yet at OPL.

Modular Java

rleir — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:27:02 +0000

Modular Java – Creating Flexible Applications with OSGi and Spring, Craig Walls, Pragmatic, 2009

Java programmers will want to read this, particularly if they are working with Eclipse plugins. OSGi is an improvement on Java’s classes and packages. The Pragmatic people explain it all so well. 240 pages.

Cocoa Design Patterns

rleir — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:14:05 +0000

Cocoa Design Patterns, Erik M. Buck, Addison-Wesley, 2010

Mac and iPhone programmers will want to read this. It also applies to the open source GNUstep project, used on Linux and Windows. You need to know Objective C. 400 pages.

Digital Nation

rleir — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:29:57 +0000

Digital Nation, Rachel Dretzin Goodman, PBS, (DVD – 2010)

This video documentary examines the effect of the web on education, whether as an important tool in schools, or as a distraction that impedes learning. American schools are the main focus, but Korea is visited. Koreans learn netiquette in primary school!

Cyber War

rleir — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:58:06 +0000

Cyber War: The next Threat to National Security and What to Do about It, Richard A. Clarke, Ecco, 2010

Here is the state of Internet security, from the viewpoint of the American Security Czar. The Orange cover is appropriate: the book is meant to alarm American voters. The alarm is justified: white-hats worldwide would do well to keep their systems guarded (patched, monitored, firewalled..). But the author needs to distinguish between war and internet security. Military systems that need to be secure from hackers simply should not be connected to the Internet. Likewise with critical infrastructure such as power grid controls. Internet security then has little to do with war, important as it is. 250 pages, hardcover.

Website Owner’s Manual

rleir — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:52:09 +0000

Website Owner’s Manual, Paul Boag, Manning, 2010

This book for managers in charge of a company’s website. It is well written and informal. 250 pages.

Contents:
Chapter 1 The secret to a successful website
Chapter 2 Stress-free planning
Chapter 3 The perfect team
Chapter 4 Differences over design
Chapter 5 Creating killer content
Chapter 6 User-centric design
Chapter 7 Ensuring access for all
Chapter 8 Taking control
Chapter 9 Decoding technobabble
Chapter 10 Driving traffic
Chapter 11 Engaging your visitors
Chapter 12 Planning for the future

Adobe Reader Vuln

rleir — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:57:42 +0000

What a pain it is updating Adobe’s products due to security vulnerabilities! Note that Reader needs to be updated today, and even then you have to worry about something that Adobe claims is not a vuln. You need to disable an option as described here: Clear the check box “Allow opening of non-PDF file attachments with external applications”.

Better still, why not get rid of Adobe Reader and install evince? It works fine, and you can make it the default for PDF’s so it will be invoked automatically when you click a link in your browser.

Harnessing Hibernate

rleir — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:04:59 +0000

Harnessing Hibernate, James Elliott, O’Reilly 2008

Java programmers will want to read this. It is dated, but recent enough to include Java Persistence API (JPA) integration. 350 pages.

Debug It! Find, Repair

rleir — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:30:32 +0000

Debug It! Find, Repair, and Prevent Bugs in your Code, Paul Butcher, Pragmatic, 2009

Programmers will find this book useful, as is any book from Pragmatic. 200 pages.