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chromatic is back with a mini-compendium of introductory Linux texts -- and yes, they have the famously protected "Dummies" trademark. Don't scoff at the nature of these books, though; the skill of translating the arcana of any computer topic (and boy are they all arcane to the uninitiated!) into language that mom, kids and the guy down the street can understand is not a common one. If you don't know what a root prompt (or an editor) is, or why you might want one, it's hard to do much else with your system.

[SuSE, Corel Open-, Red Hat] Linux for Dummies author Jon Hall and [Jay Migliaccio, Nicholas Wells, himself] pages 384 publisher IDG Books rating 7.5 reviewer chromatic ISBN (see each) summary A collection of distribution-specific books aimed at beginning users, and which might make a good brush-up for advanced users.

You've decided to take the plunge -- there's an unused computer in the corner, you're looking for a way to fill that new 20 GB hard drive, or you've gone all out with a shiny new machine and Windows tax be darned! It's time to figure out this Linux thing. How do you start? If your local computer guru blanches at the thought of a command line, or if you have that stubborn "I'll figure it out if I have to stay up all night" streak that characterizes so many successful hackers, perhaps a book will come in handy.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be taking a look at a handful of randomly selected texts from various publishers. Their scopes and intended audiences range from nascent beginner to somewhat experienced existing user. Some walk you through installation and some expect you already know what to do right after you log in. They all purport to be your guide to the sometimes confusing, occasionally maddening, and even often rewarding world of Linux. Which one, if any, is right for you? Hopefully we'll answer that question.

Linux ... for Dummies? This week, our books come from IDG's popular "Dummies" series (but we'll skip the obvious question begging). These three books are fundamentally the same, undoubtedly due to the venerable maddog's presence as common author. Generic Linux information appears almost verbatim, and some chapters differ only in phrasing. Some information is rearranged, and the chapter on using X is different among the three (two focus on KDE, one on GNOME). A description of one book will give you a general idea of the other two. Of course, there's distribution specific information, specifically relating to installation and certain administration tasks.

Why would you buy these books? They provide detailed installation instructions and supply recent CDs of the titular distributions. They also provide decent -- if basic -- introductions to simple commands and standard tasks. The installation chapters have sufficient detail to walk nearly anyone through the process, including dual-booting techniques, tips on discovering hardware information in Windows, selecting the desired packages, and creating sane partitions. (With 5 chapters devoted to navigating the shiny installers, the only thing preventing success is hardware failure or sunspots.) If you follow the directions, you'll have a decently-equipped workstation capable of accessing the Internet through a modem.

Once your new Linux system is installed, what can you do? There's a tutorial on command-line basics, discussing the Unix file system and basic file commands. You'll meet the bash shell, with pipes and job controls and even a little shell programming. The vi editor also gets a bit of explanation -- follow the instructions and you'll know enough to edit files. (Pull out the command reference card from the front of the book just in case you forget :wq.)

It's on to X, after that. Here the books diverge again. After explaning the basics of X and whichever Desktop Environment the distribution prefers, the authors describe a few common tasks and programs and leave you to explore. Some basic system administration tasks get the spotlight -- file maintenance, adding a new disk, or installing software. (Don't expect to pull down $90,000/year on an entry-level SysAdmin job after this section. The SuSE and Caldera books do discuss building a new kernel, though.)

Appendixes include hardware compatibility lists and a description of the Linux man page format.

title SuSE Linux for Dummies [ISBN: 0764506811] publisher IDG Books Included Stuff SuSE 6.2 CD-ROM Intended Audience Linux newcomers who aren't afraid to install it themselves. Little prior computing experience necessary. Scope Installation and basic introduction to Linux. Technical Correctness No glaring errors. Writing style Highly informal. May be too verbose for more technical readers. Other Focuses on KDE, where applicable. System administration tasks take place with YaST, SuSE's homebrew tool.

There's not a lot of space given to common applications beyond Netscape and vi. A quick tour of KDE will probably give users enough confidence to plumb the depths of the KDE menus themselves, but the "What Now?" feature might bite after closing the back cover.

title Caldera OpenLinux for Dummies [ISBN 076450679X] publisher IDG Books Included Stuff OpenLinux 2.3 CD-ROM Intended Audience same Scope same Technical Correctness same Writing style Highly informal, even a bit chatty. Other Focuses on KDE. System administration tasks use COAS (the Caldera Open Administration System).

This book has more information on exploring and customizing KDE, but also doesn't go into detail on user applications. (Even mentioning something like KOffice, AbiWord, or StarOffice would have been nice.)

title RedHat Linux for Dummies [ISBN 0764506633] publisher IDG Books Included Stuff RedHat Linux 6.1 and complete source on CD-ROMs. Intended Audience same Scope A bit more information than the other two books, mostly on Linux applications. Technical Correctness same Writing style Rather informal, though less so than the other two books. Other Focuses on GNOME. Uses Linuxconf to perform system administration.

It would appear that Paul Sery rewrote large portions of his book. While maddog's anecdotes in the other two are from the first person, the corresponding sections are in the third person perspective. Whatever the explanation, there's between 20 and 30 extra pages of information in here (including RPM and ipchains basics). There's more time spent exploring the shell and command line before diving into a tour of X applications, too, like Applixware and Wine. I preferred this book over the other two due to the extra information and the better organization of topics.

Conclusion:

Someone who's already used to the Dummies series, is comfortable with the idea of installing Linux for herself, and wants a hand to hold through the process would enjoy these books. The knowledge imparted by these books -- giving extremely detailed installation instructions (follow the screenshots) but leaving a user with basic shell knowledge and some idea of how to navigate KDE or GNOME menus -- probably needs a supplement. I'm not sure enough information is presented to allow nascent hackers to figure things out for themselves. Still, for the intended audience, you get an introduction and the CDs in a convenient package.

You can purchase these books at Fatbrain: Take your pick from [SuSE Linux, Caldera OpenLinux, Red Hat Linux] For Dummies.

chromatic is back with a mini-compendium of introductory Linux texts -- and yes, they have the famously protected "Dummies" trademark. Don't scoff at the nature of these books, though; the skill of translating the arcana of any computer topic (and boy are they all arcane to the uninitiated!) into language that mom, kids and the guy down the street can understand is not a common one. If you don't know what a root prompt (or an editor) is, or why you might want one, it's hard to do much else with your system.

[SuSE, Corel Open-, Red Hat] Linux for Dummies author Jon Hall and [Jay Migliaccio, Nicholas Wells, himself] pages 384 publisher IDG Books rating 7.5 reviewer chromatic ISBN (see each) summary A collection of distribution-specific books aimed at beginning users, and which might make a good brush-up for advanced users.

You've decided to take the plunge -- there's an unused computer in the corner, you're looking for a way to fill that new 20 GB hard drive, or you've gone all out with a shiny new machine and Windows tax be darned! It's time to figure out this Linux thing. How do you start? If your local computer guru blanches at the thought of a command line, or if you have that stubborn "I'll figure it out if I have to stay up all night" streak that characterizes so many successful hackers, perhaps a book will come in handy.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be taking a look at a handful of randomly selected texts from various publishers. Their scopes and intended audiences range from nascent beginner to somewhat experienced existing user. Some walk you through installation and some expect you already know what to do right after you log in. They all purport to be your guide to the sometimes confusing, occasionally maddening, and even often rewarding world of Linux. Which one, if any, is right for you? Hopefully we'll answer that question.

Linux ... for Dummies? This week, our books come from IDG's popular "Dummies" series (but we'll skip the obvious question begging). These three books are fundamentally the same, undoubtedly due to the venerable maddog's presence as common author. Generic Linux information appears almost verbatim, and some chapters differ only in phrasing. Some information is rearranged, and the chapter on using X is different among the three (two focus on KDE, one on GNOME). A description of one book will give you a general idea of the other two. Of course, there's distribution specific information, specifically relating to installation and certain administration tasks.

Why would you buy these books? They provide detailed installation instructions and supply recent CDs of the titular distributions. They also provide decent -- if basic -- introductions to simple commands and standard tasks. The installation chapters have sufficient detail to walk nearly anyone through the process, including dual-booting techniques, tips on discovering hardware information in Windows, selecting the desired packages, and creating sane partitions. (With 5 chapters devoted to navigating the shiny installers, the only thing preventing success is hardware failure or sunspots.) If you follow the directions, you'll have a decently-equipped workstation capable of accessing the Internet through a modem.

Once your new Linux system is installed, what can you do? There's a tutorial on command-line basics, discussing the Unix file system and basic file commands. You'll meet the bash shell, with pipes and job controls and even a little shell programming. The vi editor also gets a bit of explanation -- follow the instructions and you'll know enough to edit files. (Pull out the command reference card from the front of the book just in case you forget :wq.)

It's on to X, after that. Here the books diverge again. After explaning the basics of X and whichever Desktop Environment the distribution prefers, the authors describe a few common tasks and programs and leave you to explore. Some basic system administration tasks get the spotlight -- file maintenance, adding a new disk, or installing software. (Don't expect to pull down $90,000/year on an entry-level SysAdmin job after this section. The SuSE and Caldera books do discuss building a new kernel, though.)

Appendixes include hardware compatibility lists and a description of the Linux man page format.

title SuSE Linux for Dummies [ISBN: 0764506811] publisher IDG Books Included Stuff SuSE 6.2 CD-ROM Intended Audience Linux newcomers who aren't afraid to install it themselves. Little prior computing experience necessary. Scope Installation and basic introduction to Linux. Technical Correctness No glaring errors. Writing style Highly informal. May be too verbose for more technical readers. Other Focuses on KDE, where applicable. System administration tasks take place with YaST, SuSE's homebrew tool.

There's not a lot of space given to common applications beyond Netscape and vi. A quick tour of KDE will probably give users enough confidence to plumb the depths of the KDE menus themselves, but the "What Now?" feature might bite after closing the back cover.

title Caldera OpenLinux for Dummies [ISBN 076450679X] publisher IDG Books Included Stuff OpenLinux 2.3 CD-ROM Intended Audience same Scope same Technical Correctness same Writing style Highly informal, even a bit chatty. Other Focuses on KDE. System administration tasks use COAS (the Caldera Open Administration System).

This book has more information on exploring and customizing KDE, but also doesn't go into detail on user applications. (Even mentioning something like KOffice, AbiWord, or StarOffice would have been nice.)

title RedHat Linux for Dummies [ISBN 0764506633] publisher IDG Books Included Stuff RedHat Linux 6.1 and complete source on CD-ROMs. Intended Audience same Scope A bit more information than the other two books, mostly on Linux applications. Technical Correctness same Writing style Rather informal, though less so than the other two books. Other Focuses on GNOME. Uses Linuxconf to perform system administration.

It would appear that Paul Sery rewrote large portions of his book. While maddog's anecdotes in the other two are from the first person, the corresponding sections are in the third person perspective. Whatever the explanation, there's between 20 and 30 extra pages of information in here (including RPM and ipchains basics). There's more time spent exploring the shell and command line before diving into a tour of X applications, too, like Applixware and Wine. I preferred this book over the other two due to the extra information and the better organization of topics.

Conclusion:

Someone who's already used to the Dummies series, is comfortable with the idea of installing Linux for herself, and wants a hand to hold through the process would enjoy these books. The knowledge imparted by these books -- giving extremely detailed installation instructions (follow the screenshots) but leaving a user with basic shell knowledge and some idea of how to navigate KDE or GNOME menus -- probably needs a supplement. I'm not sure enough information is presented to allow nascent hackers to figure things out for themselves. Still, for the intended audience, you get an introduction and the CDs in a convenient package.

You can purchase these books at Fatbrain: Take your pick from [SuSE Linux, Caldera OpenLinux, Red Hat Linux] For Dummies.

chromatic is back with a mini-compendium of introductory Linux texts -- and yes, they have the famously protected "Dummies" trademark. Don't scoff at the nature of these books, though; the skill of translating the arcana of any computer topic (and boy are they all arcane to the uninitiated!) into language that mom, kids and the guy down the street can understand is not a common one. If you don't know what a root prompt (or an editor) is, or why you might want one, it's hard to do much else with your system.

[SuSE, Corel Open-, Red Hat] Linux for Dummies author Jon Hall and [Jay Migliaccio, Nicholas Wells, himself] pages 384 publisher IDG Books rating 7.5 reviewer chromatic ISBN (see each) summary A collection of distribution-specific books aimed at beginning users, and which might make a good brush-up for advanced users.

You've decided to take the plunge -- there's an unused computer in the corner, you're looking for a way to fill that new 20 GB hard drive, or you've gone all out with a shiny new machine and Windows tax be darned! It's time to figure out this Linux thing. How do you start? If your local computer guru blanches at the thought of a command line, or if you have that stubborn "I'll figure it out if I have to stay up all night" streak that characterizes so many successful hackers, perhaps a book will come in handy.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be taking a look at a handful of randomly selected texts from various publishers. Their scopes and intended audiences range from nascent beginner to somewhat experienced existing user. Some walk you through installation and some expect you already know what to do right after you log in. They all purport to be your guide to the sometimes confusing, occasionally maddening, and even often rewarding world of Linux. Which one, if any, is right for you? Hopefully we'll answer that question.

Linux ... for Dummies? This week, our books come from IDG's popular "Dummies" series (but we'll skip the obvious question begging). These three books are fundamentally the same, undoubtedly due to the venerable maddog's presence as common author. Generic Linux information appears almost verbatim, and some chapters differ only in phrasing. Some information is rearranged, and the chapter on using X is different among the three (two focus on KDE, one on GNOME). A description of one book will give you a general idea of the other two. Of course, there's distribution specific information, specifically relating to installation and certain administration tasks.

Why would you buy these books? They provide detailed installation instructions and supply recent CDs of the titular distributions. They also provide decent -- if basic -- introductions to simple commands and standard tasks. The installation chapters have sufficient detail to walk nearly anyone through the process, including dual-booting techniques, tips on discovering hardware information in Windows, selecting the desired packages, and creating sane partitions. (With 5 chapters devoted to navigating the shiny installers, the only thing preventing success is hardware failure or sunspots.) If you follow the directions, you'll have a decently-equipped workstation capable of accessing the Internet through a modem.

Once your new Linux system is installed, what can you do? There's a tutorial on command-line basics, discussing the Unix file system and basic file commands. You'll meet the bash shell, with pipes and job controls and even a little shell programming. The vi editor also gets a bit of explanation -- follow the instructions and you'll know enough to edit files. (Pull out the command reference card from the front of the book just in case you forget :wq.)

It's on to X, after that. Here the books diverge again. After explaning the basics of X and whichever Desktop Environment the distribution prefers, the authors describe a few common tasks and programs and leave you to explore. Some basic system administration tasks get the spotlight -- file maintenance, adding a new disk, or installing software. (Don't expect to pull down $90,000/year on an entry-level SysAdmin job after this section. The SuSE and Caldera books do discuss building a new kernel, though.)

Appendixes include hardware compatibility lists and a description of the Linux man page format.

title SuSE Linux for Dummies [ISBN: 0764506811] publisher IDG Books Included Stuff SuSE 6.2 CD-ROM Intended Audience Linux newcomers who aren't afraid to install it themselves. Little prior computing experience necessary. Scope Installation and basic introduction to Linux. Technical Correctness No glaring errors. Writing style Highly informal. May be too verbose for more technical readers. Other Focuses on KDE, where applicable. System administration tasks take place with YaST, SuSE's homebrew tool.

There's not a lot of space given to common applications beyond Netscape and vi. A quick tour of KDE will probably give users enough confidence to plumb the depths of the KDE menus themselves, but the "What Now?" feature might bite after closing the back cover.

title Caldera OpenLinux for Dummies [ISBN 076450679X] publisher IDG Books Included Stuff OpenLinux 2.3 CD-ROM Intended Audience same Scope same Technical Correctness same Writing style Highly informal, even a bit chatty. Other Focuses on KDE. System administration tasks use COAS (the Caldera Open Administration System).

This book has more information on exploring and customizing KDE, but also doesn't go into detail on user applications. (Even mentioning something like KOffice, AbiWord, or StarOffice would have been nice.)

title RedHat Linux for Dummies [ISBN 0764506633] publisher IDG Books Included Stuff RedHat Linux 6.1 and complete source on CD-ROMs. Intended Audience same Scope A bit more information than the other two books, mostly on Linux applications. Technical Correctness same Writing style Rather informal, though less so than the other two books. Other Focuses on GNOME. Uses Linuxconf to perform system administration.

It would appear that Paul Sery rewrote large portions of his book. While maddog's anecdotes in the other two are from the first person, the corresponding sections are in the third person perspective. Whatever the explanation, there's between 20 and 30 extra pages of information in here (including RPM and ipchains basics). There's more time spent exploring the shell and command line before diving into a tour of X applications, too, like Applixware and Wine. I preferred this book over the other two due to the extra information and the better organization of topics.

Conclusion:

Someone who's already used to the Dummies series, is comfortable with the idea of installing Linux for herself, and wants a hand to hold through the process would enjoy these books. The knowledge imparted by these books -- giving extremely detailed installation instructions (follow the screenshots) but leaving a user with basic shell knowledge and some idea of how to navigate KDE or GNOME menus -- probably needs a supplement. I'm not sure enough information is presented to allow nascent hackers to figure things out for themselves. Still, for the intended audience, you get an introduction and the CDs in a convenient package.

You can purchase these books at Fatbrain: Take your pick from [SuSE Linux, Caldera OpenLinux, Red Hat Linux] For Dummies.

chromatic is back with a mini-compendium of introductory Linux texts -- and yes, they have the famously protected "Dummies" trademark. Don't scoff at the nature of these books, though; the skill of translating the arcana of any computer topic (and boy are they all arcane to the uninitiated!) into language that mom, kids and the guy down the street can understand is not a common one. If you don't know what a root prompt (or an editor) is, or why you might want one, it's hard to do much else with your system.

[SuSE, Corel Open-, Red Hat] Linux for Dummies author Jon Hall and [Jay Migliaccio, Nicholas Wells, himself] pages 384 publisher IDG Books rating 7.5 reviewer chromatic ISBN (see each) summary A collection of distribution-specific books aimed at beginning users, and which might make a good brush-up for advanced users.

You've decided to take the plunge -- there's an unused computer in the corner, you're looking for a way to fill that new 20 GB hard drive, or you've gone all out with a shiny new machine and Windows tax be darned! It's time to figure out this Linux thing. How do you start? If your local computer guru blanches at the thought of a command line, or if you have that stubborn "I'll figure it out if I have to stay up all night" streak that characterizes so many successful hackers, perhaps a book will come in handy.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be taking a look at a handful of randomly selected texts from various publishers. Their scopes and intended audiences range from nascent beginner to somewhat experienced existing user. Some walk you through installation and some expect you already know what to do right after you log in. They all purport to be your guide to the sometimes confusing, occasionally maddening, and even often rewarding world of Linux. Which one, if any, is right for you? Hopefully we'll answer that question.

Linux ... for Dummies? This week, our books come from IDG's popular "Dummies" series (but we'll skip the obvious question begging). These three books are fundamentally the same, undoubtedly due to the venerable maddog's presence as common author. Generic Linux information appears almost verbatim, and some chapters differ only in phrasing. Some information is rearranged, and the chapter on using X is different among the three (two focus on KDE, one on GNOME). A description of one book will give you a general idea of the other two. Of course, there's distribution specific information, specifically relating to installation and certain administration tasks.

Why would you buy these books? They provide detailed installation instructions and supply recent CDs of the titular distributions. They also provide decent -- if basic -- introductions to simple commands and standard tasks. The installation chapters have sufficient detail to walk nearly anyone through the process, including dual-booting techniques, tips on discovering hardware information in Windows, selecting the desired packages, and creating sane partitions. (With 5 chapters devoted to navigating the shiny installers, the only thing preventing success is hardware failure or sunspots.) If you follow the directions, you'll have a decently-equipped workstation capable of accessing the Internet through a modem.

Once your new Linux system is installed, what can you do? There's a tutorial on command-line basics, discussing the Unix file system and basic file commands. You'll meet the bash shell, with pipes and job controls and even a little shell programming. The vi editor also gets a bit of explanation -- follow the instructions and you'll know enough to edit files. (Pull out the command reference card from the front of the book just in case you forget :wq.)

It's on to X, after that. Here the books diverge again. After explaning the basics of X and whichever Desktop Environment the distribution prefers, the authors describe a few common tasks and programs and leave you to explore. Some basic system administration tasks get the spotlight -- file maintenance, adding a new disk, or installing software. (Don't expect to pull down $90,000/year on an entry-level SysAdmin job after this section. The SuSE and Caldera books do discuss building a new kernel, though.)

Appendixes include hardware compatibility lists and a description of the Linux man page format.

title SuSE Linux for Dummies [ISBN: 0764506811] publisher IDG Books Included Stuff SuSE 6.2 CD-ROM Intended Audience Linux newcomers who aren't afraid to install it themselves. Little prior computing experience necessary. Scope Installation and basic introduction to Linux. Technical Correctness No glaring errors. Writing style Highly informal. May be too verbose for more technical readers. Other Focuses on KDE, where applicable. System administration tasks take place with YaST, SuSE's homebrew tool.

There's not a lot of space given to common applications beyond Netscape and vi. A quick tour of KDE will probably give users enough confidence to plumb the depths of the KDE menus themselves, but the "What Now?" feature might bite after closing the back cover.

title Caldera OpenLinux for Dummies [ISBN 076450679X] publisher IDG Books Included Stuff OpenLinux 2.3 CD-ROM Intended Audience same Scope same Technical Correctness same Writing style Highly informal, even a bit chatty. Other Focuses on KDE. System administration tasks use COAS (the Caldera Open Administration System).

This book has more information on exploring and customizing KDE, but also doesn't go into detail on user applications. (Even mentioning something like KOffice, AbiWord, or StarOffice would have been nice.)

title RedHat Linux for Dummies [ISBN 0764506633] publisher IDG Books Included Stuff RedHat Linux 6.1 and complete source on CD-ROMs. Intended Audience same Scope A bit more information than the other two books, mostly on Linux applications. Technical Correctness same Writing style Rather informal, though less so than the other two books. Other Focuses on GNOME. Uses Linuxconf to perform system administration.

It would appear that Paul Sery rewrote large portions of his book. While maddog's anecdotes in the other two are from the first person, the corresponding sections are in the third person perspective. Whatever the explanation, there's between 20 and 30 extra pages of information in here (including RPM and ipchains basics). There's more time spent exploring the shell and command line before diving into a tour of X applications, too, like Applixware and Wine. I preferred this book over the other two due to the extra information and the better organization of topics.

Conclusion:

Someone who's already used to the Dummies series, is comfortable with the idea of installing Linux for herself, and wants a hand to hold through the process would enjoy these books. The knowledge imparted by these books -- giving extremely detailed installation instructions (follow the screenshots) but leaving a user with basic shell knowledge and some idea of how to navigate KDE or GNOME menus -- probably needs a supplement. I'm not sure enough information is presented to allow nascent hackers to figure things out for themselves. Still, for the intended audience, you get an introduction and the CDs in a convenient package.

You can purchase these books at Fatbrain: Take your pick from [SuSE Linux, Caldera OpenLinux, Red Hat Linux] For Dummies.

Adam Brate, Slashdot reader, sent us a review of Cyberselfish: Technolibertarianism, a book which takes a look at the "cyber" culture, and what it means. It sounds interesting, although perhaps a bit off-base - comment below if you've read it. Cyberselfish author Pulina Borsook pages 256 publisher PublicAffairs, 05/2000 rating 8/10 reviewer Adam Brate ISBN 1891620789 summary A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech I heard about Cyberselfish when driving around Vermont Memorial Day weekend from used bookstore to used bookstore. The NPR station was broadcasting an interview with Cyberselfish author Paulina Borsook, a writer who worked for Wired during its glory years. I was put off by the book's wretched title, but engrossed by the subject: the powerful undercurrent of libertarianism that flows through high-tech circles. I have been astounded but not amazed at the deeply adolescent and peevish libertarian attitudes that so many techies cling to, from gun worship to fear of governmental Internet regulation. Listening to Borsook speak intelligently and cogently about technolibertarianism made me want her book very much.

This month I garnered a copy of Cyberselfish, and I'm still appalled with the title (which comes from an eponymous essay for Mother Jones she wrote in July 1996, when such cyberlanguage wasn't so cybertrite). Cyberselfish is a book-length essay, in fact a somewhat thinly edited series of linked essays. There's a rush of immediacy and wit; for a random example, "Polyamory is the preferred term of art; it's gender-neutral, where polygamy and polyandry are not, and allows for all persuasions of partner choice (gay/straight/bi/it depends)." With the freshness and informality comes flaws. There is too much repeated material in the book. It's clear that essays written at different times have been cobbled together. Reading the book straight through is like reading some multi-volume series straight through, in which the characters and history are rehashed at the beginning of each book.

Cyberselfish looks at a few specific examples of technolibertarianism in depth: Bionomics, cypherpunks, Wired magazine, and Silicon Valley's impressive lack of philanthropy. Each time Borsook exposes the compassionless, fearful, posturing, politically myopic core, without dismissing the good aspects of the high-tech culture and individuals. For example, she thinks fighting for privacy rights is good, but obsessing about it and descending into rabid, paranoid ranting on alt.cypherpunks is scary. She moves smoothly from the historical to the academic to the personal, deliberately exposing her own frailities and biases while she examines those of others.

To give a deeper example of the content of Cyberselfish, Bionomics is the use of biological (and particularly Darwinian) metaphors to describe economic processes, as popularized by Michael Rothschild (Bionomics: Economy as Ecosystem) and then the The Bionomics Institute (TBI). Borsook convincingly points out through both empirical observation and reasoned analysis that Bionomics boils down to economic libertarianism, where government involvement is wrong and the most cut-throat, efficient and entrepeneurial businesses are the best. Ecological metaphors are used in Bionomics only when they're useful and sexy: The ecosystem of Hawaii was used as a metaphor for the fragility of protected industries. Under Bionomics logic, Hawaii's beautiful, lush, peaceful ecosystem is to be derided. Bionomics uses metaphors to draw syllogistic conclusions. Doing that can be powerfully convincing but amounts to hand-waving and emotional appeals. Borsook cuts through the smoke and mirrors.

After a few years, the Bionomics Institute conferences were (literally) taken over by the Cato Institute, the premier libertarian think tank in the nation. The annual Bionomics conterences began in 1993. The 1997 conference was the Cato/Bionomics Conference; 1998, the "Annual Cato Institute/Forbes ASAP Conference on Technology and Society." TBI morphed into software-startup Maxager, which intends to offer Bionomical tools to companies. Borsook wonders what meaning can be ascribed to the success or the failure of the company. If Maxager fails, is it because it wasn't Bionomically good enough, or just because of the many uncontrollable factors that cause the vast majority of startups to fail? If it succeeds, does it validate Bionomics, or just the good connections the founder has with Silicon Valley venture capitalists?

The other chapters are just as interesting. Cyberselfish sharply describes all the archetypes of the technolibertarians, from the neo-hippie polyandric Burning Man attendee to the Lexus-driving, 100-hour-a-week, plugged-in entrepeneur with a sprawling bungalow in Santa Clara county.

One of the most crystalline passages in the book describes Eric Raymond's leaking of the Halloween Document, written by Microsoft program manager Vinod Valloppillil. The two clearly have vast ideological differences, the open-source cowboy and the Evil Empire functionary, but they're both hard-core libertarians, an entirely unreported fact. In Borsook's words, "It was rather like discovering that both a liberal and a conservative senator had both acquired their law degrees from Yale: no news here."

As I said before, the book is somewhat haphazardly put together, and nearly every sentence is to some degree contentious; even someone who agrees with her basic position will find reason to quibble. Cyberselfish doesn't come near to answering all the questions it raises. Borsook doesn't really tackle the paradox that "libertarians celebrate the cult of the individual" but Open Source celebrates the collective. What does it mean to be an Open Source libertarian?

I personally think it's somewhat unfair to attack those flaws, as they're inexorably part of Cyberselfish's loose, immediate, opinionated, and conversational style. It's kind of like how Slashdot's open forums allow for a review like this and the inevitable "hot grits" responses.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

You want to code all day (or as long as you can stand), whether from home or in an office environment that suits you, with the right soda in the fridge, and friendly coworkers to ask questions when the going gets tough. You want a job in a field that will keep you interested for more than the first orientation meeting, and one that lets your skills be useful -- right down to your favorite programming language. Gavin Bong contributed this review of Programming Interview Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job, a book designed to lead interviewees for programming positions into the jobs they want.

Programming Interview Exposed author John Mongan and Noah Suojanen pages 272 publisher John Wiley & Sons rating 8/10 reviewer Gavin Bong ISBN 0471383562 summary A book to help developers achieve success in their technical interviews.

Introduction

Many people consider an interview a Kafkaesque experience, where all your skills (technical and social) come under the microscope. My toughest interview was one where I sat in a conference room faced with five hungry interviewers and "How many lines of code have you written in your career?" was considered small talk.

The promise

This book will not teach you how to handle small talk, but still may do wonders for you in your next interview. The author's promise, that reads: "If you work on learning to solve not just the specific problem we present, but the types of problems, you'll be able to handle anything they throw at you," is certainly ambitious, but they've succeeded admirably in my opinion.

General overview of book

Chapters 1 and 11 are short and sweet, but impart important lessons on how to negotiate offers, preparing for open-ended questions like "What are your career goals?" and generally convincing the employer that you can fit into their culture. Appendix A's coverage of writing technical resumes is brief but sufficient. Their bottom-line message is: craft a resume to sell your skills; don't write an autobiography.

The rest of the book comprises a review of common programming questions you may face, as well as a selection of puzzles that appear regularly in technical interviews.

The secrets summarized

The authors' secrets to technical interview success can be summarized as follows:

1. Make sure you master the programming language that the job asks for.
2. Practice solving problems and study heuristic methods.
3. Master common data structures like linked lists, strings, trees & graphs.
4. Be conversant in programming paradigms like recursion and Big O notation. And depending on the area of expertise that the interviewer is looking for, brush up on topics like concurrency, networking and database concepts.

Let's dissect these bullet points one by one

(1) The authors expect the interviewee to master every feature of the language that the job calls for, including the quirky and obscure ones. Personally, I think that knowing the core elements plus the specific features that the employer is looking for is more than enough. For example, in the Java paradigm; multithreading would be considered core, while knowing JNDI would be a speciality. But take note that an interview is not something you study for. It's not like a certification exam. You certainly need a couple of projects using that language under your belt to be absolutely prepared.

In interviews where you can choose the programming language, the authors caution against using lesser languages like Javascript or Visual Basic. But my opinion is that -- if it's used appropriately, and within the bounds of the job description -- any of these should be fine.

(2) G. Polya once said "Experience in solving problems and experience in watching other people solving problems must be the basis on which heuristic is built." The authors have kept to this spirit and included a generous number of challenging puzzles to exercise your brain. This is no coincidence, as both authors graduated from Stanford, where Polya once taught. Solutions are provided, but more importantly they've also included descriptions of the thought processes that underlies them. And by the way, the types of puzzles listed here probably wouldn't be out of place in a MENSA exam or the U.S. Computing Olympiad.

The authors also offer practical suggestions on how to solve problems, such as "Think out loud by explaining what you're doing," and "If you're stuck, consider looking at a specific/general example of the problem."

(3) The book offers one full chapter on linked lists. The author is justified in this, as linked lists can be operated upon by a multitude of operations. And each operation can usually be coded with a minimal number of lines of code. Ignore this advice at your peril.

(4) From experience, the authors have found that if you don't put down a particular skill in your resume; questions on those topics will not generally arise. So by setting the right expectations; you'll be able to get through the interview with fewer tangled nerves. But general programming knowledge questions like "What does it mean to be a 32 bit OS?" or "What is the difference between C++ and Java?" should be expected. Chapter 10 offers a healthy sample of them.

Weakness

One of the strengths of this book is that it focuses fully on the topic at hand which is "programming interviews" and never gets sidetracked. However it does have its weaknesses, in that there's very little mention of the high possibility of questions on component programming models (EJB,COM/COM+,CORBA). I think component-based software development (using off-the-shelf components) is the future of our industry (whether open or closed source) and companies are not interested in creating software from scratch. Also missing from the book is any mention of localization or internationalization of software.

Is it worth buying?

At 272 pages, this book can easily be skimmed in one sitting. But its value will not be apparent until you start solving the included problems/puzzles yourself and understanding the pattern of interview questions. This book is not a magic bullet that will guarantee you success in every technical interview, but having a rough estimate of what you will face is certainly better than being surprised.

Who is the target audience?

This book is especially relevant to recent computer science graduates who are just entering the industry. It may also be useful to technical recruiters and software managers (who assume the role of interviewers) who want to get some insights into the interview processes used by other companies. It might not be appropriate for people from other technical disciplines like system administrators or DBAs. Seasoned programmers may still get some benefit from the book although you've probably had first-hand experience with most of the questions/problems posed in the book.

Table of contents

• Chapter 1: The Job Application Process
• Chapter 2: Approaches to Programming Problems
• Chapter 3: Linked Lists
• Chapter 4: Trees and Graphs
• Chapter 5: Arrays and Strings
• Chapter 6: Recursion
• Chapter 7: Other Programming Topics
• Chapter 8: Counting, Measuring and Ordering Puzzles
• Chapter 9: Graphical and Spatial Puzzles
• Chapter 10: Knowledge Based Questions
• Chapter 11: Non-Technical Questions
• Appendix A: Resumes

Purchase this book at FatBrain.

You want to code all day (or as long as you can stand), whether from home or in an office environment that suits you, with the right soda in the fridge, and friendly coworkers to ask questions when the going gets tough. You want a job in a field that will keep you interested for more than the first orientation meeting, and one that lets your skills be useful -- right down to your favorite programming language. Gavin Bong contributed this review of Programming Interview Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job, a book designed to lead interviewees for programming positions into the jobs they want.

Programming Interview Exposed author John Mongan and Noah Suojanen pages 272 publisher John Wiley & Sons rating 8/10 reviewer Gavin Bong ISBN 0471383562 summary A book to help developers achieve success in their technical interviews.

Introduction

Many people consider an interview a Kafkaesque experience, where all your skills (technical and social) come under the microscope. My toughest interview was one where I sat in a conference room faced with five hungry interviewers and "How many lines of code have you written in your career?" was considered small talk.

The promise

This book will not teach you how to handle small talk, but still may do wonders for you in your next interview. The author's promise, that reads: "If you work on learning to solve not just the specific problem we present, but the types of problems, you'll be able to handle anything they throw at you," is certainly ambitious, but they've succeeded admirably in my opinion.

General overview of book

Chapters 1 and 11 are short and sweet, but impart important lessons on how to negotiate offers, preparing for open-ended questions like "What are your career goals?" and generally convincing the employer that you can fit into their culture. Appendix A's coverage of writing technical resumes is brief but sufficient. Their bottom-line message is: craft a resume to sell your skills; don't write an autobiography.

The rest of the book comprises a review of common programming questions you may face, as well as a selection of puzzles that appear regularly in technical interviews.

The secrets summarized

The authors' secrets to technical interview success can be summarized as follows:

1. Make sure you master the programming language that the job asks for.
2. Practice solving problems and study heuristic methods.
3. Master common data structures like linked lists, strings, trees & graphs.
4. Be conversant in programming paradigms like recursion and Big O notation. And depending on the area of expertise that the interviewer is looking for, brush up on topics like concurrency, networking and database concepts.

Let's dissect these bullet points one by one

(1) The authors expect the interviewee to master every feature of the language that the job calls for, including the quirky and obscure ones. Personally, I think that knowing the core elements plus the specific features that the employer is looking for is more than enough. For example, in the Java paradigm; multithreading would be considered core, while knowing JNDI would be a speciality. But take note that an interview is not something you study for. It's not like a certification exam. You certainly need a couple of projects using that language under your belt to be absolutely prepared.

In interviews where you can choose the programming language, the authors caution against using lesser languages like Javascript or Visual Basic. But my opinion is that -- if it's used appropriately, and within the bounds of the job description -- any of these should be fine.

(2) G. Polya once said "Experience in solving problems and experience in watching other people solving problems must be the basis on which heuristic is built." The authors have kept to this spirit and included a generous number of challenging puzzles to exercise your brain. This is no coincidence, as both authors graduated from Stanford, where Polya once taught. Solutions are provided, but more importantly they've also included descriptions of the thought processes that underlies them. And by the way, the types of puzzles listed here probably wouldn't be out of place in a MENSA exam or the U.S. Computing Olympiad.

The authors also offer practical suggestions on how to solve problems, such as "Think out loud by explaining what you're doing," and "If you're stuck, consider looking at a specific/general example of the problem."

(3) The book offers one full chapter on linked lists. The author is justified in this, as linked lists can be operated upon by a multitude of operations. And each operation can usually be coded with a minimal number of lines of code. Ignore this advice at your peril.

(4) From experience, the authors have found that if you don't put down a particular skill in your resume; questions on those topics will not generally arise. So by setting the right expectations; you'll be able to get through the interview with fewer tangled nerves. But general programming knowledge questions like "What does it mean to be a 32 bit OS?" or "What is the difference between C++ and Java?" should be expected. Chapter 10 offers a healthy sample of them.

Weakness

One of the strengths of this book is that it focuses fully on the topic at hand which is "programming interviews" and never gets sidetracked. However it does have its weaknesses, in that there's very little mention of the high possibility of questions on component programming models (EJB,COM/COM+,CORBA). I think component-based software development (using off-the-shelf components) is the future of our industry (whether open or closed source) and companies are not interested in creating software from scratch. Also missing from the book is any mention of localization or internationalization of software.

Is it worth buying?

At 272 pages, this book can easily be skimmed in one sitting. But its value will not be apparent until you start solving the included problems/puzzles yourself and understanding the pattern of interview questions. This book is not a magic bullet that will guarantee you success in every technical interview, but having a rough estimate of what you will face is certainly better than being surprised.

Who is the target audience?

This book is especially relevant to recent computer science graduates who are just entering the industry. It may also be useful to technical recruiters and software managers (who assume the role of interviewers) who want to get some insights into the interview processes used by other companies. It might not be appropriate for people from other technical disciplines like system administrators or DBAs. Seasoned programmers may still get some benefit from the book although you've probably had first-hand experience with most of the questions/problems posed in the book.

Table of contents

• Chapter 1: The Job Application Process
• Chapter 2: Approaches to Programming Problems
• Chapter 3: Linked Lists
• Chapter 4: Trees and Graphs
• Chapter 5: Arrays and Strings
• Chapter 6: Recursion
• Chapter 7: Other Programming Topics
• Chapter 8: Counting, Measuring and Ordering Puzzles
• Chapter 9: Graphical and Spatial Puzzles
• Chapter 10: Knowledge Based Questions
• Chapter 11: Non-Technical Questions
• Appendix A: Resumes

Purchase this book at FatBrain.

The tech culture is becoming a elitist society with no coherent political values, poorly prepared to deal with real politicians, who pass real laws like the DMCA. "How could they take my Napster away?" lamented one recent e-mailer. A new book by journalist Paulina Borsook takes an even sharper look at techno-narcissism and hostility. The tech culture, she says, is at times self-centered and selfish.

In Borsook's Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through The Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech, published by Public Affairs, Borsook takes aim at the Social Darwinism of the tech culture, at its lack of empathy for human beings -- especially the technologically primitive and impaired. In this world she finds much hostility and paranoia, a world of "testosterone-poisoned guys with chips on their shoulders and too much time on their hands." Ouch.

She has a point, and it's hard to write for Slashdot and not wince at the above description. This is a narcissistic civilization with a mean streak, fat and lazy and arrogant from years of uninterrupted opportunity, innovation and peace, thriving from years of neglect by unknowing and entrenched institutions. Values and political systems are often forged in turmoil and difficulty, but people who've grown up in and around technology have seen an almost unbroken stretch of growth, innovation and prosperity. Jefferson wrote that in times of peace and prosperity, there is little need for politics. Not surprisingly, this techno-civilization has little interest in the political systems that still dominate society, so it radically underestimates their power and has an inflated sense of its own.

Having known only one reality, the young and techno-savvy can't quite imagine any other. But the political systems that dominate society have a keen interest in them, as a host of new laws, regulations and legal initiatives are already demonstrating, from the FBI's mail-sniffing program "Carnivore" to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

As a social grouping -- despite the handful of protestors who made their way to Seattle and struggle to form public interest groups online and off -- this culture has by and large rolled over for greedy megacorporations in exchange for full employment and technological capital. That makes it a vulnerable society too, unprepared for the assaults just around the corner. "How could they take my Napster away?" as that e-mail wailed. "Who did it? Where did they come from?"

As a culture, it mistakes mechanical skills -- like programming an operating system -- with technological knowledge and power. It tolerates an alarming amount of hostility and abuse, both of which make any political communications -- at least those in public -- nearly impossible.

If it has any common ideology, it honors innovation, economics and freedom -- the freedom to speak openly and to be prosperous. In fact, prosperity and the acquisition of technology have become this society's hallmark; it doesn't really have any other principles.

The techno-young correctly grasp that many of the country's seminal institutions -- politics, journalism, education -- have failed them and the larger society. But nobody seems to have given much thought to what might replace them, or to how they might defend themselves against increasingly encroachments from the off-line world.

Since this particularly gifted society created its social revolution quite apart from politics, education, even most adults, it has no sense of history and little memory, which creates another point of vulnerability; to be ignorant of the past is to be defenseless against the future. The techno-world eschews even the most marginal understanding of the tortured history of technology, the awareness that periods of technological advancement are always followed by periods of fear and retrenchment.

From the Greeks to the the Enlightenment philosophers to Thomas Jefferson to Albert Einstein, some of the world's greatest thinkers have argued that to have knowledge is to struggle to understand the relationship between what you know and what you do. If they're right, we're in trouble. We have no common agenda. We stand for nothing. We take actions based on tiny nodes of specialized information. Granted an unprecented opportunity to speak, we have not bothered to learn how to listen. Our freedom to speak out becomes illusory when most of us are shouting into a void, because nobody really cares what we say. Meanwhile, the real social and political agendas are being set by older people with little knowledge of technology, working out of l9th century institutions corrupted by corporate money.

That leaves the average citizen -- the prime user of technology -- caught in an intolerable position, between a technological elite moving rapidly past them on the one hand, and an ignorant power structure making foolish laws and uncomprehending responses on the other. As a society, we have no means of grasping the bigger picture, the purpose being the things we do, the moral rationale for the way we live and work.

In 1159, a philosopher-noble named John of Salisbury helped revive the then- dormant notion of individualism. He challenged his society to achieve self-scrutiny and understanding. "Who," he asked, "is more contemptible than he who scorns knowledge of himself?"

It's a great question. Liberalism and conservatism have been discredited, Libertarianism seems rigid and stagnant. In fact, conventional political ideologies seem far too narrow and inflexible for these times. Individualism seemed the right idea for John of Salisbury's time, and it might be even more relevant to ours, given that it fits the Net ethos like a glove, from the hackers to the cypherpunks to the open source progrmmers. And it's the only possible antidote to life in country evolving steady towards a corporate rather than democratic republic.

Technology has become the world's most interesting and ascending social force. No ideology -- with the possible exception of corporatism -- is stronger or spreading more rapidly. The frequently idealistic generation that designed the Internet -a diverse collection of engineers, cyber-gurus, philosophers, programmers,nerds, geeks, communalists and free-thinkers -- is yielding power and influence to the inhabitants of the Second Generation Internet, the first generation to grow up with networked computing. This new techno-generation takes for granted startling realities -- the ready availability of much of the archived information and entertainment in the world.

This techno-elite, taking sophisticated knowledge of technology for granted, has lost touch with the vast numbers of people in the world -- the elderly, the poor, foreign-born -- who don't share their skills and confidence. "Anybody can get an encrypted e-mail program," JOEB7 e-mailed me last week. "Why all the whining about privacy?"

JOEB7 doesn't seem to know that the vast majority of people have never even heard of encrypted e-mail programs, let alone used them. Such people dominate the most powerful and vital subculture in the world, but have no coherent political values beyond a nearly universal contempt for the one in place.

We think the individual's primary responsibility is to speak freely and become prosperous. Neither of those are small or inconsequential things, but as a cultural or social philosophy, they ring hollow. They promote cynicism, hostility, alienation, superiority, and most of all, they leave this culture vulnerable to better organized and powerful elites -- media, Congress, corporations. This may be inevitable, but it's worrisome.

We hear political truth daily -- we are vaguely conscious of threats to privacy, the looming menace of genetic and other technologies, poorly made, unnecessary and overpriced technology, challenges to the environment, human dignity, etc. -- but don't much want to deal with them. People worried about these issues are derided -- in this techno-culture as crackpots and extremists. We either laugh at them or dismiss them.

Democracy and freedom aren't about prosperity. You can be poor and quite free. Democracy is about the legitimacy of the individual, whose voice and vote should count for more than any other single interest or group. Technology can either be the vehicle through which those voices are re-democratized, or it can provide the tools through which corporatism can generate even more money.

This is an intensely political choice -- a decision -- even if many of the people most involved have no idea they are making it every day of their lives.

This book is available at FatBrain.

The tech culture is becoming a elitist society with no coherent political values, poorly prepared to deal with real politicians, who pass real laws like the DMCA. "How could they take my Napster away?" lamented one recent e-mailer. A new book by journalist Paulina Borsook takes an even sharper look at techno-narcissism and hostility. The tech culture, she says, is at times self-centered and selfish.

In Borsook's Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through The Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech, published by Public Affairs, Borsook takes aim at the Social Darwinism of the tech culture, at its lack of empathy for human beings -- especially the technologically primitive and impaired. In this world she finds much hostility and paranoia, a world of "testosterone-poisoned guys with chips on their shoulders and too much time on their hands." Ouch.

She has a point, and it's hard to write for Slashdot and not wince at the above description. This is a narcissistic civilization with a mean streak, fat and lazy and arrogant from years of uninterrupted opportunity, innovation and peace, thriving from years of neglect by unknowing and entrenched institutions. Values and political systems are often forged in turmoil and difficulty, but people who've grown up in and around technology have seen an almost unbroken stretch of growth, innovation and prosperity. Jefferson wrote that in times of peace and prosperity, there is little need for politics. Not surprisingly, this techno-civilization has little interest in the political systems that still dominate society, so it radically underestimates their power and has an inflated sense of its own.

Having known only one reality, the young and techno-savvy can't quite imagine any other. But the political systems that dominate society have a keen interest in them, as a host of new laws, regulations and legal initiatives are already demonstrating, from the FBI's mail-sniffing program "Carnivore" to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

As a social grouping -- despite the handful of protestors who made their way to Seattle and struggle to form public interest groups online and off -- this culture has by and large rolled over for greedy megacorporations in exchange for full employment and technological capital. That makes it a vulnerable society too, unprepared for the assaults just around the corner. "How could they take my Napster away?" as that e-mail wailed. "Who did it? Where did they come from?"

As a culture, it mistakes mechanical skills -- like programming an operating system -- with technological knowledge and power. It tolerates an alarming amount of hostility and abuse, both of which make any political communications -- at least those in public -- nearly impossible.

If it has any common ideology, it honors innovation, economics and freedom -- the freedom to speak openly and to be prosperous. In fact, prosperity and the acquisition of technology have become this society's hallmark; it doesn't really have any other principles.

The techno-young correctly grasp that many of the country's seminal institutions -- politics, journalism, education -- have failed them and the larger society. But nobody seems to have given much thought to what might replace them, or to how they might defend themselves against increasingly encroachments from the off-line world.

Since this particularly gifted society created its social revolution quite apart from politics, education, even most adults, it has no sense of history and little memory, which creates another point of vulnerability; to be ignorant of the past is to be defenseless against the future. The techno-world eschews even the most marginal understanding of the tortured history of technology, the awareness that periods of technological advancement are always followed by periods of fear and retrenchment.

From the Greeks to the the Enlightenment philosophers to Thomas Jefferson to Albert Einstein, some of the world's greatest thinkers have argued that to have knowledge is to struggle to understand the relationship between what you know and what you do. If they're right, we're in trouble. We have no common agenda. We stand for nothing. We take actions based on tiny nodes of specialized information. Granted an unprecented opportunity to speak, we have not bothered to learn how to listen. Our freedom to speak out becomes illusory when most of us are shouting into a void, because nobody really cares what we say. Meanwhile, the real social and political agendas are being set by older people with little knowledge of technology, working out of l9th century institutions corrupted by corporate money.

That leaves the average citizen -- the prime user of technology -- caught in an intolerable position, between a technological elite moving rapidly past them on the one hand, and an ignorant power structure making foolish laws and uncomprehending responses on the other. As a society, we have no means of grasping the bigger picture, the purpose being the things we do, the moral rationale for the way we live and work.

In 1159, a philosopher-noble named John of Salisbury helped revive the then- dormant notion of individualism. He challenged his society to achieve self-scrutiny and understanding. "Who," he asked, "is more contemptible than he who scorns knowledge of himself?"

It's a great question. Liberalism and conservatism have been discredited, Libertarianism seems rigid and stagnant. In fact, conventional political ideologies seem far too narrow and inflexible for these times. Individualism seemed the right idea for John of Salisbury's time, and it might be even more relevant to ours, given that it fits the Net ethos like a glove, from the hackers to the cypherpunks to the open source progrmmers. And it's the only possible antidote to life in country evolving steady towards a corporate rather than democratic republic.

Technology has become the world's most interesting and ascending social force. No ideology -- with the possible exception of corporatism -- is stronger or spreading more rapidly. The frequently idealistic generation that designed the Internet -a diverse collection of engineers, cyber-gurus, philosophers, programmers,nerds, geeks, communalists and free-thinkers -- is yielding power and influence to the inhabitants of the Second Generation Internet, the first generation to grow up with networked computing. This new techno-generation takes for granted startling realities -- the ready availability of much of the archived information and entertainment in the world.

This techno-elite, taking sophisticated knowledge of technology for granted, has lost touch with the vast numbers of people in the world -- the elderly, the poor, foreign-born -- who don't share their skills and confidence. "Anybody can get an encrypted e-mail program," JOEB7 e-mailed me last week. "Why all the whining about privacy?"

JOEB7 doesn't seem to know that the vast majority of people have never even heard of encrypted e-mail programs, let alone used them. Such people dominate the most powerful and vital subculture in the world, but have no coherent political values beyond a nearly universal contempt for the one in place.

We think the individual's primary responsibility is to speak freely and become prosperous. Neither of those are small or inconsequential things, but as a cultural or social philosophy, they ring hollow. They promote cynicism, hostility, alienation, superiority, and most of all, they leave this culture vulnerable to better organized and powerful elites -- media, Congress, corporations. This may be inevitable, but it's worrisome.

We hear political truth daily -- we are vaguely conscious of threats to privacy, the looming menace of genetic and other technologies, poorly made, unnecessary and overpriced technology, challenges to the environment, human dignity, etc. -- but don't much want to deal with them. People worried about these issues are derided -- in this techno-culture as crackpots and extremists. We either laugh at them or dismiss them.

Democracy and freedom aren't about prosperity. You can be poor and quite free. Democracy is about the legitimacy of the individual, whose voice and vote should count for more than any other single interest or group. Technology can either be the vehicle through which those voices are re-democratized, or it can provide the tools through which corporatism can generate even more money.

This is an intensely political choice -- a decision -- even if many of the people most involved have no idea they are making it every day of their lives.

This book is available at FatBrain.

Jason Bennett took a look at the triply-authored Java Modeling in Color with UML. What he came away with ... well, that's for you to find out, but computer book writers everywhere ought to be grateful that Slashdot book reviewers are not granted the power of the emperor's thumb.

Java Modeling in Color with UML author Peter Coad, Eric Lefebvre, and Jeff De Luca pages 218 publisher Prentice Hall rating Far belo reviewer Jason Bennett ISBN 0-13-011510-X summary Peter Coad's attempt to integrate another dimension to modeling

Background Back in my wild college days (ok, so maybe they weren't that wild ...), my introduction to object-think and object-speak came through two main conduits: Smalltalk, and Peter Coad. His Object-Oriented Programming helped teach me how to think natively in objects, and gave me my share of vending-machine problems. When I learned that he had come out with a new book, I knew I had to get it and see how his views had developed in the era of Java and UML. This was not what I had in mind. The Scenario

This book is mainly divided into three parts. Part one is composed of chapter 1, where the authors describe the concept of modeling with color. It's an excellent idea, really, color coding class design to distinguish the parts the objects play. Color coding has the advantage of adding another dimension of information to a diagram without clogging the diagram with more words. The chapter also includes a discussion of the "domain-neutral component," the fitting together of archetypes into standard patterns. This is the basis for part two, comprised of chapters 2-5. Part two is basically a series of object models strung together with a bit of text to describe each of them. Various views of the model, including UML activity diagrams, are shown. Finally, part three is composed of chapter 6, where the authors describe the concept of Feature-Driven Development, that is developing software in narrow slivers, thus maximizing deliverables and customer satisfaction.

What's Bad?

A dangerous question to ask about this book. I approached this book looking for something that would teach me about patterns, what they do, some examples, and ways to use them in my work. What I got was a pattern dictionary with no instruction in their use. Since I get paid to design and write Java, and since I have some formal training in OO, I like to think that I have some sort of clue about this stuff. Unfortunately, this book still didn't make any sense to me, and still didn't seem useful at all. Why do I want 20 pages of manufacturing models? How did they come about? Why would I want to do it that way? How else could I do it? What the heck is going on with this model? It's like trying to expand your vocabulary by reading the dictionary, with no example sentences to guide you.

The other parts are mildly interesting, but not special in and of themselves. The color idea is nice, if you design like Coad. If you don't, I have to wonder how usful they would be. Feature-driven development has been expressed in other ways before, but this book does not address a major problem with the concept: how can you develop narrowly when you need a broad backing for the application? In other words, it's all well and good to get one feature out at a time, but if you have to write half the middle-tier and all the back-end for that one feature, have you really bought yourself anything? I don't mean to settle the debate here, only point out that an entire book could be written on that concept (and in the case of Extreme Programming, has been), and one chapter does not do it justice. In many ways, it seems tacked on.

What's Good?

Well, as I said, the first and last chapters have some promise. If you read the comments on Fatbrain and Amazon, the opinions seem to be strongly divided. People either love or hate this book. If you need these models, and can intuit a lot from the diagrams, this book could be very useful to you. If you're anything less than an expert, though, I doubt what you will be able to get much from this book.

So What's In It For Me?

I'm currently ordering Applying UML and Patterns, as that has been highly recommended to me as an intro patterns book. I'll let you know how that turns out. I do believe in the pattern concept, as that is exactly how the other engineering disciplines work. I truly hope we can make it work for software engineering.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• About the Authors

1. Archetypes, Color, and the Domain-Neutral Component
2. Make of Buy
3. Sell
4. Relate
5. Coordinate and Support
6. Feature-Driven Development

• Appendix A: Archetypes in Color
• Appendix B: Modeling Tips
• Appendix C: Notation
• Index

This book is available at Fatbrain.

In his copious free time, Jason Bennett must do other things, but for now he's managed to pound out yet another book review, this time of Gene Kranz' Failure Is Not An Option, about as straight-from-the-horse's-mouth as a book about NASA can be. Kranz is an interesting storyteller, and he certainly doesn't lack for material -- he helped send people to the moon!

Failure Is Not An Option author Gene Kranz pages 415 publisher Simon & Schuster rating 9 reviewer Jason Bennett ISBN 0-7432-0079-9 summary The story of the early days of NASA from its most famous flight director.

The Scenario

Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship "United States of America." Their 10-year mission: to explore strange new satellites; to seek out new knowledge and new challenges; to boldly go where no human has gone before.

Ok, ok, so it's a little trite. Nevertheless, this is the story of the men (and women) who lived John Kennedy's dream of space exploration and conquered the moon. Gene Kranz, for those who didn't see Apollo 13, was one of NASA's main flight controllers. His story extends well before that fateful mission, of course, to the very beginning of the space program. Gene takes us from his days of joining the program through the early Mercury and Gemini missions and on to the moon landing and the end of the Apollo program. Along the way a fascinating story emerges of a team closely united in a common purpose, such as has rarely been seen. That statement might seen overly melodramatic, but the race to the moon, in front of the entire world, remains unique in human history. The details we learn along the way give an amazing amount of insight into the inner workings of the space program: many missions came closer to disaster than I had realized; the loss of Apollo 1 and NASA's subsequent recovery serve as an interesting counterpoint to the post-Challenger era; the aimlessness of NASA after the moon landings that has continued to this day. Krantz' story is a fascinating and inspiring account of a true team that worked tirelessly to reach the unreachable.

What's Good?

I think I've covered that. :-) Gene has a unique perspective and position from which to tell this story, and he does an excellent job. When he didn't remember or witness an event, he went back to his former colleagues at NASA to fill in the details. The storytelling is coherent and understandable. This isn't an engineering book, so there isn't a lot of technical gibberish thrown in. This is, above all, a book about people, and about an organizational effort that any software project would do well to emulate.

What's Bad?

Gene isn't a professional author, and it shows through in places. The cuts and flashbacks are not always in the best places, and sometimes distract the reader from the overall story. The main problem, however, is that the cast of characters is enormous and ever-shifting. A character listing would have been a nice addition, as I had trouble keeping everyone (and their nicknames) straight at times. Neither of these problems was major, though.

I would like to see Gene's perspective on the post-Apollo era. He does editorialize on this at the end, but I would love to see how he handled the post-Challenger time from his management position, and what he tried to do to jump-start NASA. It would be another excellent read.

So What's In It For Me?

It's a cool story, dangit! What more do you want? :-)

Table of Contents

1. The Four-Inch Flight
2. "Liftoff; the Clock is Running
3. "God Speed, John Glenn"
4. The Brotherhood
5. The Making of a Rocket Man
6. Gemini -- The Twins
7. White Flight
8. The Spirit of 76
9. The Angry Alligator
10. A Fire on the Pad
11. Out of the Ashes
12. The X Mission
13. The Christmas Story
14. 1969 -- The Year of Apollo
15. SimSup Wins the Final Round
16. We Copy You Down, Eagle
17. "What the Hell Was That?"
18. The Age of Aquarius
19. Coming Home
20. Shepard's Return
21. What Do You Do After the Moon?
22. The Last Liftoff

• Epilogue
• Where They Are
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix: Foundations of Mission Control
• Glossary of Terms
• Index

Buy this book at Fatbrain.

Reviewer Michael Huang contributed this thoughtful review of Robert J. Sawyer's Calculating God, a SF book that explores philosophical and theological ground as well as the frontiers of technology and space travel. Whether or not you have a preconceived answer to the central question the characters grapple with, Calculating God may cause you to consider your arguments in a new light.

Calculating God author Robert J. Sawyer pages 336 publisher St. Martin's Press rating 8 reviewer Michael Huang ISBN 0-312-86713-1 summary Systems of philosophy and belief clash when alien civilizations visit Earth and encounter scientist Thomas Jericho, while an apocalyptic explosion threatens to settle the argument.

The Scenario

In a nutshell, Calculating God is the story of paleontologist Thomas Jericho's encounter with two alien species which visit earth, and which reveal that the cataclysmic events that shaped Earth's evolution (meteor impact, mass extinctions, etc.) all happened simultaneously on their home planets as well. Both aliens have come to the conclusion that the universe is intelligently designed to support life, and that God the Creator is the direct cause of all these cataclysms. Those shattering events, they believe, led to the development of intelligence. Jericho, an atheist, is forced to come to grips with the aliens' undoubtedly superior scientific knowledge and their theistic conclusions at the same time he is diagnosed with cancer which the aliens are unable to cure despite their technology. Meanwhile, the imminent death of a nearby star threatens to wipe out all life on Earth and all the aliens' home-worlds in a supernova. Will it take a miracle to save them all, or is this a divinely ordered cataclysm?

What's Bad?

Most of the touchy issues concerning evolution and intelligent design were handled very fairly. However, I still believe that the two extreme fundamentalists (from Arkansas, no less) are caricatures and stereotypes rather than genuine religious extremists. Being a somewhat liberal evangelical Christian, I personally know quite a few people who can be fairly characterized as religious extremists -- and they definitely would not take the actions that the book's characters take. So the subplot concerning them is weak.

I was also somewhat put off by the breezy, colloquial writing style, which included numerous pop-culture references. While this style made the book fun and easy to read, it will also date this book considerably in the years to come, and books with ideas of the high caliber presented here ought not to date themselves so quickly. Other religiously themed SF books, like Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Walter M. Miller Jr.'s A Canticle For Leibowitz will stand better through time than this novel, filled with Twilight Zone, South Park, and Star Trek references. That's a shame. Sawyer has a unique take on these issues, and this book ought to stand for a long time to come as a great contribution to both SF and the intelligent-design debate.

Neither of these flaws takes too much away from the enjoyment of the book, however.

What's Good?

Plenty. First and foremost, this book is a novel of ideas, and the ideas are potentially explosive. Sawyer handles them fairly, though those committed to a naturalistic viewpoint may think he concedes too much to the intelligent design side, while young-earth creationists and others will not like his somewhat unorthodox views of what the Creator is like. He explains arguments on both sides very clearly and completely, usually through the debates that Thomas Jericho (the unbeliever) and Hollus (the alien believer) constantly have over the existence of God. Those of you who are interested in the arguments developed in the book would do well to check out not only Dawkins and Gould but also Michael Behe, whom I believe is the main source for the intelligent-design material; Sawyer even cites his book by name inside the novel.

This book would be boring, however, if it contained nothing more than debates between two characters about science and religion, which is why Sawyer adds a personal, tragic element to the story in the form of Thomas's terminal lung cancer, contracted from breathing in dust during his paleontological studies. The ideas he debates about God, the meaning of life, and morality thus take on a brutally personal dimension and are not merely abstract mind-games; one chapter that describes his anguish over his impending death is particularly convincing (though the mood does spill over into sheer melodrama at times). Thomas has a wife and a young adopted son, and to leave them behind in death is almost more than he can bear. What happens to his beliefs and his outlook in life by the novel's end is probably the most realistic outcome I've seen in books of this sort. (No, I'm not telling you what it is. It's a major spoiler ...)

So What's In It For Me?

This book, though it is by one of Canada's foremost science fiction writers (Sawyer also wrote the Hugo-nominated novel Factoring Humanity) with impeccable hard SF credentials, is sure to cause some controversy here on Slashdot -- but you should read it as an example of how even explosive issues can be handled in a civil, fair and enlightening way. This book may not be destined to be a classic of the genre, but it still stands a chance to help Sawyer finally earn his well-deserved Hugo.

Purchase this book at Fatbrain.

Reviewer Michael Huang contributed this thoughtful review of Robert J. Sawyer's Calculating God, a SF book that explores philosophical and theological ground as well as the frontiers of technology and space travel. Whether or not you have a preconceived answer to the central question the characters grapple with, Calculating God may cause you to consider your arguments in a new light.

Calculating God author Robert J. Sawyer pages 336 publisher St. Martin's Press rating 8 reviewer Michael Huang ISBN 0-312-86713-1 summary Systems of philosophy and belief clash when alien civilizations visit Earth and encounter scientist Thomas Jericho, while an apocalyptic explosion threatens to settle the argument.

The Scenario

In a nutshell, Calculating God is the story of paleontologist Thomas Jericho's encounter with two alien species which visit earth, and which reveal that the cataclysmic events that shaped Earth's evolution (meteor impact, mass extinctions, etc.) all happened simultaneously on their home planets as well. Both aliens have come to the conclusion that the universe is intelligently designed to support life, and that God the Creator is the direct cause of all these cataclysms. Those shattering events, they believe, led to the development of intelligence. Jericho, an atheist, is forced to come to grips with the aliens' undoubtedly superior scientific knowledge and their theistic conclusions at the same time he is diagnosed with cancer which the aliens are unable to cure despite their technology. Meanwhile, the imminent death of a nearby star threatens to wipe out all life on Earth and all the aliens' home-worlds in a supernova. Will it take a miracle to save them all, or is this a divinely ordered cataclysm?

What's Bad?

Most of the touchy issues concerning evolution and intelligent design were handled very fairly. However, I still believe that the two extreme fundamentalists (from Arkansas, no less) are caricatures and stereotypes rather than genuine religious extremists. Being a somewhat liberal evangelical Christian, I personally know quite a few people who can be fairly characterized as religious extremists -- and they definitely would not take the actions that the book's characters take. So the subplot concerning them is weak.

I was also somewhat put off by the breezy, colloquial writing style, which included numerous pop-culture references. While this style made the book fun and easy to read, it will also date this book considerably in the years to come, and books with ideas of the high caliber presented here ought not to date themselves so quickly. Other religiously themed SF books, like Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Walter M. Miller Jr.'s A Canticle For Leibowitz will stand better through time than this novel, filled with Twilight Zone, South Park, and Star Trek references. That's a shame. Sawyer has a unique take on these issues, and this book ought to stand for a long time to come as a great contribution to both SF and the intelligent-design debate.

Neither of these flaws takes too much away from the enjoyment of the book, however.

What's Good?

Plenty. First and foremost, this book is a novel of ideas, and the ideas are potentially explosive. Sawyer handles them fairly, though those committed to a naturalistic viewpoint may think he concedes too much to the intelligent design side, while young-earth creationists and others will not like his somewhat unorthodox views of what the Creator is like. He explains arguments on both sides very clearly and completely, usually through the debates that Thomas Jericho (the unbeliever) and Hollus (the alien believer) constantly have over the existence of God. Those of you who are interested in the arguments developed in the book would do well to check out not only Dawkins and Gould but also Michael Behe, whom I believe is the main source for the intelligent-design material; Sawyer even cites his book by name inside the novel.

This book would be boring, however, if it contained nothing more than debates between two characters about science and religion, which is why Sawyer adds a personal, tragic element to the story in the form of Thomas's terminal lung cancer, contracted from breathing in dust during his paleontological studies. The ideas he debates about God, the meaning of life, and morality thus take on a brutally personal dimension and are not merely abstract mind-games; one chapter that describes his anguish over his impending death is particularly convincing (though the mood does spill over into sheer melodrama at times). Thomas has a wife and a young adopted son, and to leave them behind in death is almost more than he can bear. What happens to his beliefs and his outlook in life by the novel's end is probably the most realistic outcome I've seen in books of this sort. (No, I'm not telling you what it is. It's a major spoiler ...)

So What's In It For Me?

This book, though it is by one of Canada's foremost science fiction writers (Sawyer also wrote the Hugo-nominated novel Factoring Humanity) with impeccable hard SF credentials, is sure to cause some controversy here on Slashdot -- but you should read it as an example of how even explosive issues can be handled in a civil, fair and enlightening way. This book may not be destined to be a classic of the genre, but it still stands a chance to help Sawyer finally earn his well-deserved Hugo.

Purchase this book at Fatbrain.

The reason computers -- never mind programming -- are so obscure to most people is a learning curve which appears dangerously steep stands between the ordinary user (who knows how to use a mouse, and which button turns on the monitor) and writing even "Hello, World." Prolific reviewer chromatic reviews here Who's Afraid of C++?, a book intended to flatten that curve.

Who's Afraid of C++? author Steve Heller pages 486 publisher AP Professional rating 8 reviewer chromatic ISBN 0-12-339-97-4 summary In his unique approach, Steve Heller presents programming concepts and information as a conversation between teacher and student.

The Scoop Breaking with traditional lecture-on-paper format, Heller demystifies computers, programming, and C++ for absolute beginners. That's right -- he recruited a full-fledged novice user, capable of little more than e-mail and word processing, and turned her into a decent programmer while reviewing this book. (She became Mrs. Heller shortly after that.) Any computer owner with time, the ability to follow directions, and the willingness to learn could also become a programmer.

The resulting text is more of a collaboration, or a commentary. Steve, the author, presents his information and then Susan, the novice, interrupts to ask questions. The big gamble is that her questions are the same that the average reader would ask. It largely pays off, only occasionally belaboring a point. (To be fair, it could also be called 'reinforcing a point.')

What's to Like? Heller's writing is informal, but precise. Some might find it chatty, but beginners will find it more comforting than raw technical prose. His flow of topics makes sense (and does not copy the "Chapter two is everything to know about types, and chapter three is all about flow control" scheme other introductory teaching books steal from K&R). Little prior knowledge is necessary. Before actually programming, the book explores raw hardware, answering such questions as "What happens when you execute a program?", "What's a register and why is cache important?", and "How does source code turn into a running program?"

Chapters tend to explain only one issue in detail -- how to use functions, for example, or the basics of a class. Heller states his objectives up front, and sticks closely to them. Each chapter has two sets of exercises, one in the middle and the other at the end. Answers follow, along with more dialogue. It's not enough simply having one correct bit of code, without someone to explain why it is correct, and why some common answers aren't complete. This decision pays off.

Though discussing weighty technical matters, there's a sense of general friendliness. With well-chosen metaphors (datatypes are kinda like odometers), occasionally goofy examples (a pumpkin-weighing-contest control program), and plenty of conversations when things get heavy, C++ isn't so scary after all. Credit Susan for much of this. If you find yourself thinking along the same lines as you study, you'll make it.

What's to Consider? The book covers about half of a reasonably paced introductory Computer Science course. It also predates the ANSI standard and the STL, though a fair treatment of the latter would easily double the size. Readers who finish the book and the exercises will be fully capable of producing their own useful programs, but will need additional information on common libraries, algorithms, and more object-oriented programming. They'll also have avoided some of the traps awaiting the unwary novice, as Heller practices a fairly tight methodology.

More technical readers already familiar with programming and at least one C-based language might find the pace slow and the extra explanations unnecessary. Heller's target audience is definitely the neophyte, not the experienced developer. The latter might question the subject matter covered. Why build a vector class instead of using C-style arrays? Why not C-style strings? I suspect the author is more concerned with helping his students avoid the kind of pitfalls C++ was designed to work around. It may not be the traditional approach, but it's valid and it will produce decent programmers, who can learn C++ on its own merits.

The Summary Steve Heller's pulled off quite a feat -- producing a book that assumes very little, yet produces people who understand programming. There's not as much information presented as in a "Learn the Language in X days/weeks/hours" book, but it's more accessible and better geared to a true beginner. For a gentle and effective introduction to programming and C++, give this book a try.

The CD-ROM contains complete source code of all program listings, as well as the excellent DJGPP compiler (yes, it's for DOS).

Read this book online at www.steveheller.com or purchase it at Fatbrain.

Table of Contents

1. Prologue
2. Hardware Fundamentals
3. Basics of Programming
4. More Basics
5. Functional Literacy
6. Taking Inventory
7. Stringing Along
8. Down the Garden Path

1. Tying Up Loose Ends

The reason computers -- never mind programming -- are so obscure to most people is a learning curve which appears dangerously steep stands between the ordinary user (who knows how to use a mouse, and which button turns on the monitor) and writing even "Hello, World." Prolific reviewer chromatic reviews here Who's Afraid of C++?, a book intended to flatten that curve.

Who's Afraid of C++? author Steve Heller pages 486 publisher AP Professional rating 8 reviewer chromatic ISBN 0-12-339-97-4 summary In his unique approach, Steve Heller presents programming concepts and information as a conversation between teacher and student.

The Scoop Breaking with traditional lecture-on-paper format, Heller demystifies computers, programming, and C++ for absolute beginners. That's right -- he recruited a full-fledged novice user, capable of little more than e-mail and word processing, and turned her into a decent programmer while reviewing this book. (She became Mrs. Heller shortly after that.) Any computer owner with time, the ability to follow directions, and the willingness to learn could also become a programmer.

The resulting text is more of a collaboration, or a commentary. Steve, the author, presents his information and then Susan, the novice, interrupts to ask questions. The big gamble is that her questions are the same that the average reader would ask. It largely pays off, only occasionally belaboring a point. (To be fair, it could also be called 'reinforcing a point.')

What's to Like? Heller's writing is informal, but precise. Some might find it chatty, but beginners will find it more comforting than raw technical prose. His flow of topics makes sense (and does not copy the "Chapter two is everything to know about types, and chapter three is all about flow control" scheme other introductory teaching books steal from K&R). Little prior knowledge is necessary. Before actually programming, the book explores raw hardware, answering such questions as "What happens when you execute a program?", "What's a register and why is cache important?", and "How does source code turn into a running program?"

Chapters tend to explain only one issue in detail -- how to use functions, for example, or the basics of a class. Heller states his objectives up front, and sticks closely to them. Each chapter has two sets of exercises, one in the middle and the other at the end. Answers follow, along with more dialogue. It's not enough simply having one correct bit of code, without someone to explain why it is correct, and why some common answers aren't complete. This decision pays off.

Though discussing weighty technical matters, there's a sense of general friendliness. With well-chosen metaphors (datatypes are kinda like odometers), occasionally goofy examples (a pumpkin-weighing-contest control program), and plenty of conversations when things get heavy, C++ isn't so scary after all. Credit Susan for much of this. If you find yourself thinking along the same lines as you study, you'll make it.

What's to Consider? The book covers about half of a reasonably paced introductory Computer Science course. It also predates the ANSI standard and the STL, though a fair treatment of the latter would easily double the size. Readers who finish the book and the exercises will be fully capable of producing their own useful programs, but will need additional information on common libraries, algorithms, and more object-oriented programming. They'll also have avoided some of the traps awaiting the unwary novice, as Heller practices a fairly tight methodology.

More technical readers already familiar with programming and at least one C-based language might find the pace slow and the extra explanations unnecessary. Heller's target audience is definitely the neophyte, not the experienced developer. The latter might question the subject matter covered. Why build a vector class instead of using C-style arrays? Why not C-style strings? I suspect the author is more concerned with helping his students avoid the kind of pitfalls C++ was designed to work around. It may not be the traditional approach, but it's valid and it will produce decent programmers, who can learn C++ on its own merits.

The Summary Steve Heller's pulled off quite a feat -- producing a book that assumes very little, yet produces people who understand programming. There's not as much information presented as in a "Learn the Language in X days/weeks/hours" book, but it's more accessible and better geared to a true beginner. For a gentle and effective introduction to programming and C++, give this book a try.

The CD-ROM contains complete source code of all program listings, as well as the excellent DJGPP compiler (yes, it's for DOS).

Read this book online at www.steveheller.com or purchase it at Fatbrain.

Table of Contents

1. Prologue
2. Hardware Fundamentals
3. Basics of Programming
4. More Basics
5. Functional Literacy
6. Taking Inventory
7. Stringing Along
8. Down the Garden Path

1. Tying Up Loose Ends

Quick - how many brand names or logos are visible on the outside of your clothing? Your computer equipment? Have you ever noticed a Red Hat bumper sticker? Warren A. Layton sent us an interesting review of No Logo which will have you examining your surroundings for just such signs. Depending on your bent, you may also be reminded of the character Francisco d'Anconia in Atlas Shrugged when he declares "The coats-of-arms of our day are to be found on billboards and in the ads of popular magazines."

No Logo: Taking Aim At The Brand Bullies author Naomi Klein pages 490 publisher Knopf (Canada), Picador USA (US), Flamingo (UK) rating 9 reviewer Warren A. Layton ISBN 0-312-20343-8 summary The author takes on the The Big Brands from many different angles.This goes beyond just buying "sweatshop-free" clothes to such issues as reclaiming public space and attacking corporate manipulation.

The Scenario

At first glance, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies may seem like the same-old rant against Nike. Upon reading the introduction, I realized that this was something more powerful and more interesting. The author picks apart the nature of these brand bullies to give us a better understanding of their mentality, what they hope to achieve and what exactly they're doing to accomplish all their goals. Obviously, some names will come up quite often (such as Nike, Disney, The Gap, Wal-Mart, Starbucks and Microsoft, just to name a few). However, she doesn't just stop at "Nike is bad because of the sweatshop labor practices" - she analyzes the company's marketing strategies, its sponsorship deals, its "charity" work and its influence in the classroom. Klein takes a look at each scenario from many different angles and backs up each of her observations with a multitude of examples and real world experiences.

The book is divided into four sections: 'No Space,' 'No Choice,' 'No Jobs' and 'No Logo.' 'No Space' is about the cluttering of our public spaces with ads; 'No Choice' describes different tactics used by big-name brands to drive independent retailers out of business; 'No Jobs' takes aim at sweatshop labour but with the corporations' "Brand, not products!" mentality in mind (it also includes details of Klein's trip to an Export Processing Zone just south of Manila); finally, 'No Logo' documents the global movement against branding and many of the organizations and people behind the revolt. It is also noted that while globalization is considered by many to be Pure Evil (tm), it has allowed this movement against multinational corporations to spread across the globe much more quickly and efficiently.

What's Bad?

To be honest, there is very little that I didn't like about this book. However, there was one little thing that I did notice, but it was not detrimental to my reading enjoyment.

Although my opinion is obviously biased, I was disappointed that there was no mention of Free Software or some other not-for-profit projects that benefit everyone. I find that many of the corporate ties within the Free Software community are very much along the lines of Klein's notion of an ideal balance between corporations and communities. It should be noted, however, that the most recent example in the book is dated June 1999, so it's possible that the word "Linux" hadn't reached Klein's ears by that time (except for some of the IPO hype).

When Klein starts talking about rebellious movements across North America, Europe and beyond, I was hoping for something like Free Software. In other words, I wanted to read about some sort of alternative that is being offered by these anti-brand revolutionaries. What I found were Adbusters that go around defacing billboards and ravers that take over downtown streets for day-long parties. I'm not disputing the message that these movements began with; they both are tools that are being used to reclaim some of the public space. In the end, though, that's all they are: tools. They can be easily used for the wrong reasons by the wrong people. Fortunately, Klein is quick to point this out and doesn't shy away from pointing out both good and bad aspects of each.

What's Good?

Klein's fluid writing style really shines throughout this book and her arguments are sharp and well targeted. The result is a a text that holds together extremely well. Even when Klein seems to be going off on a tangent, she is really just taking a different perspective on the issue of branding. Dividing the book into four sections also allows for great reading, because both author and reader can focus on a specific issue in each part. This encapsulation is almost flawless; Klein manages to tackle each individual chapter with different arguments without ever losing sight of her primary goal.

Another impressive aspect of this book is the sheer number of examples that Klein discusses. Each chapter is packed with examples that support her claims, with each one being examined quite thoroughly. The amount of research that went into this book is nothing short of phenomenal (although there is no shortage of corporate horror stories these days). Klein's interviews with workers in the Cavite export processing zone vividly illustrate the difference between what we see in stores and what happens behind the scenes. None of this is news to us: we have all read about Nike's sweatshop labour practices. However, this book digs further to attempt to uncover the true motivations behind these practices and how they are still possible despite the public's disapproval.

I found that each section contained one exceptional chapter. In 'No Space,' "The Branding of Learning" (chapter 4) is simply wonderful, especially for people still in school (like myself). You'll read about grade school kids making Nike sneakers as "an educational experience" and a 19-year-old student being suspended for wearing a Pepsi shirt on "Coke Day." In 'No Choice,' "Corporate Censorship" (chapter 8) should be of interest to most Slashdot readers. Much of this probably won't be as shocking to you, but it's really pleasant to read it from somone on "the outside" that truly gets it. In "No Jobs," "The Discarded Factory" (chapter 9) offers the same old shocking facts about sweatshop labour with a fresh perspective which only makes the situation seem worse. The whole "No Logo" section is wonderful, with the exceptions stated above in "What's Bad?"

So What's In It For Me?

If you have been paying close attention to the big brands and some of their dubious business practices, much of the examples won't be news to you. Some of the events that are described have already been covered by investigative TV reports such as 20/20 and Dateline as well as many major magazines. However, I still think you would enjoy the points that Klein raises and how she ties everything together into a well thought-out package.

If you are like me and you're not as familiar with these events, this book is a must read. It will guide you through some of the events surrounding Nike, Disney, The Gap and other multinationals throughout the past decade and let you know where we stand today. Students should especially like "No Space," especially with the commercialisation on campus and in the classroom.

For more information, I suggest that you take a look at the following Web sites:

• nologo.org: The official site with lots of links to organizations mentioned in the book.
• http://www.nikebiz.com/labor/nologo_let.shtml: Nike's response to No Logo (dated March 8th 2000)

Table of Contents

1. No Space - New Branded World
2. No Space - The Brand Expands: How the Logo Grabbed Center Stage
3. No Space - Alt.Everything: The Youth Market and the Marketing of Cool
4. No Space - The Branding of Learning: Ads in Schools and Universities
5. No Space - Patiarchy Gets Funky: The Triumph of Identity Marketing
6. No Choice - Brand Bombing: Franchises in the Age of the Superbrand
7. No Choice - Mergers and Synergy: The Creation of Commercial Utopias
8. No Choice - Corporate Censorship: Barricading the Branded Village
9. No Jobs - The Discarded Factory: Degraded Production in the Age of the Superbrand
10. No Jobs - Threats and Temps: From Working for Nothing to "Free Agent Nation"
11. No Jobs - Breeding Disloyalty: What Goes Around, Comes Around
12. No Logo - Culture Jamming: Ads Under Attack
13. No Logo - Reclaim the Streets
14. No Logo - Bad Moon Rising: The New Anticoporate Activism
15. No Logo - The Brand Boomerang: The Tactics of Brand-Based Campaigns
16. No Logo - A Tale of Three Logos: The Swoosh, the Shell and the Arches
17. No Logo - Local Foreign Policy: Students and Communities Join the Fray
18. No Logo - Beyond the Brand: The Limits of Brand-Based Politics
19. Conclusion - Consumerism Versus Citizenship: The Fight for Global Commons

Purchase this book at Fatbrain.

localman writes: "In an ongoing legacy of tormenting Web site owners, Mattel Inc. is threatening legal action against my wife and I for planning to make a non-business all-girl video game clan site entitled thebarbies.com. Apparently they have a long history of censoring people. I've put up a page about the dispute, but what else can an individual do against a corporation?" Write a story? Seriously -- this is a standard trademark domain dispute, it's happened many times and will continue to happen -- maybe someone should write an FAQ for legitimate domain holders who get The Letter.

In the book world, new and good are not exclusively linked. Classic books may get short shrift, but that doesn't mean they're not worth sampling. Even -- or especially -- in the world of SciFi, for a book to be worth reading 25 years later is an impressive feat. In that spririt, Duncan Lawie brings you another retrospective book review, this time of Bob Shaw's Orbitsville. Orbitsville author Bob Shaw pages 190 publisher Pocket Books (out of print) rating 8 reviewer Duncan Lawie ISBN 0671698168 summary Classic science fiction sense of wonder with an enlightened investigation of the effects of discovery.

Bob Shaw grew up in Northern Ireland and rose from the ranks of fan fiction in the 1950s. His varied career began with structural engineering and aircraft design. As writing became a more significant part of his career, he moved into industrial public relations and journalism. Orbitsville was published in 1975, the year that Shaw finally became a full-time writer. It was later sequelised -- Orbitsville Departure -- and finally became a trilogy with the publication of Orbitsville Judgement in 1990. This review is of the original stand-alone novel but it is worth noting that the second book suffers the common problem of sequels which attempt to reopen the original closure, while the third novel is an excellent conclusion to the story, reinvigorating the themes of both foregoing novels. His other work shows similar creative approaches to ideas from science and a tendency to rework earlier themes, with his characterisation skills becoming stronger as his career continued.

Orbitsville is set in a new Elizabethan Age, and it soon becomes clear that this Elizabeth is a tyrant. She is the president of a monopolistic company which controls interstellar exploration and owns the ships capable of reaching Earth's only extra-solar colony. The novel's protagonist, Garamond, is the captain of one of her faster-than-light "flickerwings," but is soon fleeing her empire in the hope of reaching an almost-mythical refuge. The conveniently discovered system, which soon becomes known as Orbitsville, is utterly unlike anything previously thought possible: a massive Dyson sphere completely enclosing a sun in a shell only centimetres thick. The internal surface area - greater than that of 625 million Earths -- is a vast land of grass-covered hills and valleys which seems perfect for colonisation. It was constructed using methods incomprehensible to its human discoverers and the only access port is surrounded by the remnants of alien fleets.

With a constrictive human society and an mysterious yet invaluable resource under the nominal control of a refugee, the book has the tension and potential to go in any direction. Shaw has difficulty balancing the desire to go exploring in the vast volume of Orbitsville with the need to investigate its human consequences. Garamond is forced to apply all his wit to playing an unfamiliar political game against a resourceful and experienced opponent, and is repeatedly thrown off balance by Elizabeth's manoeuvres. At the same time, he wants to be in the midst of every revelation about Orbitsville. The sphere itself is a classic science fiction 'sense of wonder' trope, perceptible but apparently indefinable. The idea was not new when the book was written -- it invites comparison with Larry Niven's Ringworld -- but the author's attention to physical detail brings an inconceivably large object into telling focus. The novel is strengthened further by going beyond this engineering approach to consider the potential this discovery has to affect the entire human race.

The author's primary concerns in this work are the "big dumb object" and its grand effects. As a result, the characterisation is efficient rather than elaborate -- the personal actions of individuals sometimes seem to follow the requirements of the plot rather than flowing from the nature of the characters. Nevertheless, the large-scale repercussions of strategic decisions by both Garamond and Elizabeth are beautifully played out. The gradual definition of Orbitsville is also well told and the direction of the plot is cleverly perturbed by information gleaned about the structure. Orbitsville is an excellent example of the New Wave approach to classic science fiction, reviving familiar ideas through greater sophistication and new perspectives.

Orbitsville may be out of print, but harrass Fatbrain enough and perhaps they'll demand another printing.

In a powerful new book on the conflict in Kosovo, author Michael Ignatieff asks not only whether virtual war is moral, but whether it can work. Precision violence, he warns, is now at the disposal of a risk-averse culture, unwilling to sacrifice and determined to stay out of harm's way. A compelling and convincing look at more (in this case, tragic) unthinking use of technology. (Read More) Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond author Michael Ignatieff pages 246 publisher Metropolitan Books rating 9/10 reviewer Jon Katz ISBN 0-8050-6490-7 summary Why Virtual Wars don't work

When it comes to war, writes author Michael Ignatieff, virtual reality is seductive. We see ourselves as noble warriors and our enemies as despicable tyrants. We deploy our sophisticated weaponry -- in our minds itself the hallmark of a superior civilization -- against one-dimensional villains fighting with clubs and spears. We see war as a surgical scalpel and not a bloodstained sword. In so doing we mis-describe ourselves and the instruments of death. "We need," he writes, "to stay away from such fables of self-righteous invulnerability. Only then can we get our hands dirty. Only then can we do what is right."

In recent years, Americans have made it clear they don't want to get their hands dirty, and there isn't anything close to a consensus of what is right. Believing their technology to be superior and infalliable, they are happy to let it do their fighting for them.

Part of the sometimes horrific history of the 20th century is that technology is no good or worse than the moral character of the people using it. The idea of the Virtual War is a uniquely American contribution to this chilling history.

The philosopher Paul Kahn has argued that 'riskless warfare in pursuit of human rights' is a moral contradiction, since the idea behind human rights is that all life is of equal value. So called "risk-free warfare" presumes that our lives matter more than those we are intervening to save.

This idea is underscored in this devastatingly-documented attack on the lack of reason, moral foundation, clear goals or concrete results behind the recent conflict in Bosnia, an American-conceived Virtual War fought primarily by by hi-tech weaponry rather than people. The war was meticulously designed not only to force the Serbs out of Kosovar, but perhaps equally important, to be politically palatable to the American public. Thus the idea of the Virtual War, a conflict in which our technology would supplant the warrior willing to die on our behalf. In the Virtual War, machines do all of the fighting and bleeding for us. Except, of course, for their hapless targets.

Ignatieff (a frequent contributor to the New Yorker and producer of an award-winning TV series on natonalism) was present in the Balkans before, during and after the Bosnian conflict, writes clearly and with laser-like authority and confidence. He zeroes in on American techno-hubris, the idea that a handful of people running computer consoles in distant bases can wage or win a complex military victory, even in the most complex of conflicts.

He reminds us that the victory in Kosova was, to say the least, ambiguous. Far fewer Serb soldiers and equipment were killed in the Virtual Combat than we were led to believe. Although the Serbs did eventually withdraw, in part because of our relentless bombing of civilian targets far from the battlefield, and NATO troops entered Kosovo in their wake, there was no Serb surrender. Nothing was resolved. No legal or other agreements to resolve the conflict have been negotiated or ratified.

On a smaller but still bloody scale, the conflict continues today and is, in fact, worsening. The tanks NATO generals assured us had been destroyed mysteriously emerged from the brush and rumbled back home. Serbia is rebuilding its infrastructure.

"Why do virtual wars end so ambiguously?" asks Ignatieff: "Nations impose unconditional surrender on their enemies only when they have suffered some harm -- death of their citizens, loss of their territory -- which seems to require a fight to the death. Wars fought in the name of the human rights of other nation's national minorities are bound to be self-limiting. We fight for victory and unconditional surrender only when we are fighting for ourselves."

The political and military leaders who planned the Virtual War in Kosovo clearly grasped this idea from the first, even though the American public was never directly told. Missiles and smart bombs assaulted what pilots and data-interpreters hundreds, even thousands of miles away, believed were tanks, troop carriers and gun emplacements. Only a handful of NATO troops, mostly Americans, were involved, and the only casualties they suffered during the conflict were accidental, not in combat. Many of the casualties were civilians killed indirectly by technicians hundreds of miles away who often had no idea anybody had been killed.

"Virtual Wars" is a brilliant exercise both in journalism and moral reasoning. It's also yet another parable and warning about the unthinking American fascination with technology as an all-encompassing, infallible means to and end. Ignatieff documents that the technology used in this Virtual War was much less effective than we were led to believe during the fighting. In any case, he foresees, the American monopoly on this machinery will inevitably end, and it will soon be available to other countries and political groups. We are, he cautions, setting an awful precedent -- it's all right to unleash fearful weapons on unseen targets if you do so in the name of human rights.

The Virtual War was more or less invented in the Persian Gulf when transfixed Americans were hypnotized by the laser-guided video bomb flights and explosions released every night for the evening news. Here was a savvy, spin-conceived conflict if ever there was one: an unequivocally bad dictator pummeled by thousands of superbly-armed American soldiers who suffered few casualties and were led by a General as good with sound bites as he was with a field map. Years later, some people still puzzle why Saddam is still in charge, why the core of his army is intact, why many of the people who were encouraged by the United States to challenge him have been slaughtered, why he is rearming. But that is less riveting than the notion of the Virtual War, and the video on the evening news.

If "Virtual War" has a flaw, it may be in failing to take account the influence of modern media on the shaping of military conflicts. The U.S. military left Vietnam convinced they were undermined as much by grisly TV footage shown at home as by the North Vietnamese. Since that war, the military has taken extraordinary pains to make sure that they control the footage that makes it to the evening news. If they can't always win on the battlefied, they've sure conquered the mainstream media, desperate for such graphic, riveting footage. Consider the TV images from Vietnam to Iraq: mangled American bodies to imploding Iraqi radar stations and warehouses. But that's a minor oversight This a terrific book, richly documented, written in a spare and accessible way, and profoundly persuasive.

Ignatieff asks the right questions. Is it moral to kill others when we refuse to make any sacrifices ourselves? Can a "Virtual War" fought by machines controlled from great distances, really conquer countries, resolve conflicts, and promote lasting settlements?

Can any country like the U.S. muster the determination and will -- evident in all of its previous wars up until Vietnam -- to do whatever it takes to win even as our leaders concede the conflict --thus the principle -- isn't worth any any substantial material or human cost to us?

The Kosovo operation, writes Ignatieff, is the paradigm of this paradoxical form of warfare: where technological omnipotence is vested in the hands of risk-averse political cultures. "Precision violence is now at the disposal of a risk-adverse culture, unconvinced by the language of military sacrifice, skeptical about the costs of foreign adventures and determined to keep out of harm's way."

Purchase this book at Fatbrain.

Matthew Miller recently went through the RH300 training course, as well as the RHCE Certification Exam. He was kind enough to write an overview and give us his opinions on both of them, as well as his opinions on the relevance and quality of the training and the exam. Certification has been discussed extensively with regards to Linux, and here's a big scoop of food for thought.

The following was written by Slashdot Reader Matthew Miller

I'm fortunate enough to work at a place that realizes the importance of keeping employees educated and up-to-date. Since my largest current project is Linux-related, and based on Red Hat's distribution in specific, we thought it'd be worthwhile to send me to Red Hat for their RH300 course. I'm pretty familiar with Linux, but I'm a long way from knowing everything, and it's always interesting to learn what the vendor thinks are the most important parts of their product. We chose RH300 because it's the highest-level systems administration class currently offered. It's also the one linked to the RHCE exam, which was an added bonus, but learning was my main goal, not getting the certification. This is my report on the experience -- hopefully, it will help you decide if this is a good choice for you, either as a sysadmin or as an employer.

The Training Center

This course is not only available directly from Red Hat, but also from various partner organizations, including Global Knowledge, which has a training center here in Boston. However, we decided that if we were going to go to the expense of sending me, I might as well go directly to Red Hat, to increase the chances of getting a good instructor, and to insure adequate access to resources. We've had experiences in the past with third-party instructors who didn't know much beyond what was written in the materials. Of course, I don't know that this would be the case with Global Knowledge's version of RH300 -- perhaps someone else can comment on any experience they've had there.

So, it was off to the Red Hat headquarters in Durham, NC. Incidentally, I stayed in the Residence Inn there -- it was on Red Hat's site as being nearby. They didn't mention that it was on the other side of a major highway, with no provision for pedestrians to get across. Moral: stay at one of the closer hotels, or else get a car. Anyway, the RH building is very nice -- much bigger than I expected. (I suppose the IPO cash is going to good use.) Of course, as students, we weren't shown much of it -- no tour, and we weren't introduced to any of the celebrity employees. (Fair enough -- with several classes coming through every week, they'd never get anything done.) The people I did meet seemed pretty cool, and in general I got the impression that it's a fun place to work.

The classroom was about as I expected -- projection screen up front, rows of decent-enough small-brand Celeron-based systems (one per student). The machines were on a private network -- reasonable for the course, but unfortunately there was no provision for Internet access, which at the least would have been nice to have when I finished labs early.

We did have access to a breakroom with free soft drinks / juice and various snack items. This is also where the lunches were served -- to my surprise, these were quite good, and there were even decent non-meat choices.

The Teacher

The instructor was very knowledgeable -- not necessarily a complete guru, but he knew his stuff, including the "why" behind the course material. He was able to present the material in a good way, and was good at answering questions. I think the decision to go to Red Hat directly was wise; unlike a third-party consultant, he had some idea of what was going on inside of Red Hat and of their potential future plans. For example, during the section on the printing subsystem, he mentioned that they're considering a replacement for LPR in future releases -- perhaps LPRng or even CUPS. It's unlikely that someone from a different company would have had access to that kind of information.

Other Students

The other students in the course had a wide range of skills and backgrounds. I think that everyone probably met the listed better than pico. However, I could tell that some people were struggling. The instructor mentioned that the pass rate for the exam is about 65%, and I wouldn't be surprised if our class came out at that level or worse. It's not that anyone was stupid -- just that some people were out of their depth. On the other end of the spectrum, there were some people who were over-qualified: a few highly experienced sysadmins, and some folks from IBM taking the class because they are soon going to teach it.

The Course

The course was generally similar to the outline found on Red Hat's site, although I think the online information is a bit out of date. (Notice that the Web page makes reference to ipfwadm instead of ipchains or netfilter.) The eight units had slightly different names, and covered slightly different information. In the most drastic example, Unit 8, listed on the Web site as "Systems Administration and Security II", has turned into "Routers, Firewalls, Clusters and Troubleshooting". Some of the information listed in the online Unit 8 was moved into Unit 7, and some of it (cops, for instance) wasn't talked about at all. Hopefully, the online info will be updated soon.

Overall, the class went into less depth than I was hoping. Some of this was due to limitations of the lab setup -- it's a bit difficult to experiment with RAID in any meaningful way when you've only got one IDE hard drive, and obviously impossible to set up a cluster on one machine (short of running VMware). Other things where just plain introductory -- the section on the kernel, for example, focused on the steps required to build and install a new kernel, rather than being an in-depth discussion of tunable parameters. The part about Apache was similar; I was hoping to hear "You've all configured Apache before; here's things you should be aware of when you need it to do such-and-such", but the most advanced we got was setting up a virtual host. Building RPMs from source was mentioned briefly, but there was no information given on important and largely undocumented topics like --buildpolicy.

That's not to say I didn't learn anything -- the section on LVS / Piranha was enlightening even without hands-on experience, and I appreciated the part about quotas, which isn't something I've worked with much. And, I learned a large number of tiny things which add up to making the experience worthwhile to me. RPM can now do globbing over ftp! Portmap uses tcp_wrappers, but doesn't do reverse name lookups, so be sure to use IP addresses instead of names. RH Linux provides a little script called "service" that lets one avoid the tedium of typing /etc/rc.d/init.d/servicename all the time. And so on....

The "300" designation is a bit misleading. This isn't really what I'd consider an upper-level course -- it's more along the lines of SysAdmin 101. Overall, I think this class is probably worthwhile to someone with a good RH Linux background who hasn't done any systems administration. In fact, I'd even recommend it to people in that situation. On the other hand, if you've been a Linux sysadmin for a while, you'll probably be bored most of the time. It might be valuable to experienced Unix sysadmins who haven't dealt with Linux much (or even Linux admins who haven't used Red Hat Linux), but the course wasn't particularly taught from that angle and there are probably better options.

The Exam

Since I signed a confidentiality agreement, I can't talk about specific details of the test, but I will address the exam in general terms. It's a day-long three part process, with each part being worth 1/3 of the total. To pass, your overall score must be at least 80%, and you can't do worse than 50% on any one part.

One of the sections is a typical multiple-choice test, but the other two are lab based. I was quite impressed with the hands-on tests -- they are certainly what makes the RHCE meaningful. I'm not aware of any other sysadmin certifications that work this way.

For one of the lab tests, students are given a several-page specification, and must install and configure Red Hat Linux and several network services. This wasn't particularly difficult, and shouldn't be for anyone with much experience. For me, the hardest part was resisting the temptation to go beyond the spec -- since I finished the given requirements with plenty of spare time, I considered installing and setting up additional services in a way that would fit in with the listed goals. But, I decided that it'd be better to leave well-enough alone -- there's no concept of extra credit.

The other hands-on test is the cool and exciting one. Students are given preconfigured setups which are broken in some way, and given a task that must be completed. The system's problem doesn't necessarily relate directly to the task, but does interfere with it. The test-taker must find out what's wrong and correct the error. (Reinstalling packages is not allowed.) Being able to list the steps taken and to repeat the fix is important, but ultimately the test is scored on a works / doesn't work basis. One the examiner verifies that the problem is fixed, he or she wipes the system and provides another broken config.

This problem-solving section directly tests skills important to being a sysadmin in the real world; if someone has trouble with these, they're probably not ready for a systems administration job. Of course, just passing this test doesn't guarantee good problem solving skills (let alone all the other needed abilities), but it does seem a genuinely valuable indicator.

I've only two complaints with this part of the test. First, I'd make it a much larger section -- at least 50% -- and I'd increase the number of problems given so that there'd be a better sample size. The various challenges are assigned at random, and some are easier than others, and each tests knowledge of different parts of the system. The way it's done isn't bad, but it wouldn't hurt to have a lot more of it. Second, I'd give each student two computers, and make more of the problems network-related. This has logistical and cost issues (especially in places other than Red Hat's own training centers), but since many of the problems faced in the real world have to do with the way systems interact, I feel it'd be worth it.

The Exam Separated From The Course

You may have noticed that I seem a lot more excited by the exam than by the course itself. I think both are valuable, but they seemed aimed at slightly different levels. The course definitely can serve as a good review for the exam, but if you need the course, you won't do well on the test. If you're tight on cash and the certification seems valuable to you or to your employer, going straight to the exam would be reasonable. (Make sure you take a look at Red Hat's test prep page.) On the other hand, if you need to be quickly brought up to speed on the basic knowledge required of a RH Linux sysadmin, it might make sense to take this course without worrying about the test. Since RH300 is equivalent to RH033 + RH133 + RH253, this could be a much more intensive and time-efficient option.

Red Hat-Specificness

It's probably obvious, but bears mentioning anyway: this is a Red Hat Linux course and certification, not a general Linux one. I found this to be true both explicitly and implicitly. The instructor was good about saying "This is the Red Hat way of doing things -- it's possibly different on other distributions." (I found the increase-the-whole-pie attitude to be common to all of the RH employees I talked to.) There were also quite a few things that were just assumed. If you take the exam without knowing a lot about Red Hat Linux in particular, you're likely to have trouble.

This doesn't make the certification meaningless for organizations running other distributions -- many of the skills and knowledge required for the test (especially the problem solving part) are generally applicable anywhere. In fact, due to the lab-based testing process, I have more respect for this exam than I might for a multiple-choice test covering more distributions. I think this issue is a one-way sort of thing: the RHCE exam requires knowledge of Red Hat Linux, but anyone who can pass it shouldn't have much trouble picking up other flavors.

Stuff

Ok, the Web page promises that they'll give Red Hat promotional items to course participants. Yeah, well, they can do better on this front. Not even a t-shirt! C'mon, everyone gives t-shirts. Vendor shirts are a staple of my wardrobe! All we got was a mousepad, some stickers, and a baseball cap. (No chance of getting a red fedora.) Oh, and of course an official copy of the CD (with the 180 days of support). Many people in the class were surprised to learn that Red Hat doesn't sell anything from their offices -- you can't buy copies of the distro or additional merchandise. They've got a lot of students coming through there, so it seems like this could be a decent (even if relatively small) revenue stream.

A Bit About Study Guides

Before I went, I flipped through RHCE Exam Cram , the sole study guide I found at the local bookstore. Someone in the class actually purchased it and brought it with them, and I got a chance to read more of it then. I wasn't really impressed. The book was especially concerned with what it called "trick questions", and indeed its sample questions were sometimes a bit confusing -- and often poorly worded. After taking the test, I can say that this seems mostly to be a problem with the book, not something encountered on the actual exam, which was mostly straightforward and fair.

There are RHCE study guides, but I wouldn't recommend spending any money on any of them. As the course instructor told us: if you're going to pass, you'll do so even if you don't have a guide. And if you're going to fail, the guide won't be much help.

Conclusion

I think the RH300 course and RHCE certification can be valuable to both employers and individuals. The course provides a nice quick overview of the basics needed to move, for example, from being a systems operator to being an admin. I wouldn't think of it as either a requirement for the test or as something that can make someone not ready suddenly have the skills required for the exam. Since the exam is hands-on and lab based, those abilities can only come from real world experience. Looking at that from the other direction: this is exactly what makes the RHCE worth anything. While it's not a total statement on someone's talent, being able to pass is a strong indicator that they have the basic skills for a systems administration job. If I were making hiring decisions, I wouldn't make the RHCE a requirement, but I would have more confidence in applicants who have it.

Back from his stint in juvenile detention, it's hemos with a review of John F. Sundman's technothriller Acts of the Apostles. And you don't even have to buy it until you're hooked. (Read more to find out why.) Acts of the Apostles author John F. Sundman pages 400 publisher Rosalita Associates rating 8/10 reviewer hemos ISBN 192975213X summary Fast-paced, impossible-odds story with a grasp of modern technology. The path that Acts of the Apostles took to get to me is an interesting path to start with -- and that should have been an indication to me what the book would be like.

Rob noticed this guy at April's Geek Pride Festival in Boston. The guy in question was obviously trying to reach Rob and talk to him, but was having a hard time getting there. (CT:I think John and I suffer from the same problem: We're both pretty shy, and this was a really crowded place) When he did finally reach Rob, he gave him the book, asking him to read it -- or pass it on to me for reading.

That's very similar to the opening of the book, in which the book's protagonist has a computer disk dumped into his world, after enduring some interesting testing times. From there, the thriller develops ranging the world, encompassing favorites like nanotechnology gone bad, mind control, multinational corporate intrigue, computer chip design, seances, and running from the law.

The book is purportedly about Gulf War Syndrome and its causes, but that's only the starting point: The plot itself is believable, for a thriller. I've described it to friends as "What Tom Clancy would write if he were smart." The plot devices, the characters and topics are all very familiar to the geek audience, and it's quite refreshing to read a book that understands the mindset its audience will have.

There a few drawbacks to the book -- as the author's bio states, this is Sundman's first book, and that is readily apparent. While it's well written, there are sections of the book that feel stilted and artificial, and portions of the dialogue feel unnatural. But in light of it being a first novel, I think these are forgivable. Lastly, the story line suffers from some too-familar devices, including the overused theme of an evil multinational corporation as bogeyman.

I salute the publisher and author for their decision to put the first 13 chapters online. Acts of the Apostles comprises 7 "books" with 62 total chapters, so the online chapters give you a very good feeling for the book. I will also say that the writing and story get better as the plot unfolds, something worth keeping in mind while reading the initial section of the book. One of the more amusing parts of the book's Web site is the section regarding John's travels. I would imagine he's quite a guy.

Summary: Good book. It's easy to pick up after being away from for a while, but good enough that you'll want to read it straight through. Support small publishing and purchase this book from fatbrain. With summer coming up, and a bit more free time, this is a good book to keep around to read during kernel compiles.

You can also grab the book from Softpro.

Maureen F. McHugh grew up in Ohio and has lived in both New York and China. She returned to her home state to write science fiction which has received a multitude of nominations and awards. Her fourth novel is due out shortly. China Mountain Zhang was McHugh's first novel and seems to epitomize the idea of writing about what you know. It is an expansion of two previously published short stories, one becoming the primary narrative and the other being used in counterpoint. Thanks to Duncan Lawie for reviewing this fine book. China Mountain Zhang author Maureen F. McHugh pages 310 publisher Tom Doherty Associates (Tor) (1993) rating 7.5 reviewer Duncan Lawie ISBN 0312860986 summary Solid world building and a Chinese perspective combined into an original and interesting work.

The future Earth of China Mountain Zhang is dominated by Chinese communism. Nations in the communist sphere -- including the former USA -- are subject to a hierarchy which puts Chinese citizens, and China itself, ahead of all else. Even those who look Chinese get preferential treatment. The protagonist, Zhang, looks fully Chinese but this is partly a result of genetic adjustment. He takes advantage of this lie, but fears the revelation of his impure bloodline. He is also homosexual, and this is an additional source of paranoia on his part. In mainland China, homosexuality is a capital offense but, like the free market economy, it is tolerated in the United States.

Zhang is a negative character, inherently ill at ease with himself, reactive and self destructive. His story is a search for self belief. The opening chapters have a grey outlook on New York under the communist regime, imbued with the gloom of Zhang's self denial. The following section, set in Northern Canada, transforms the novel into a book with hope. The key point is a powerful, elegiac passage in which Zhang is confronted by the Arctic Winter. Here in the blank wastes and the long night he must also face himself. The rest of the book explores the repercussions on Zhang's life of these events.

This primary narrative is intercut with the counterpoint of other perspectives. At first, these apparently unconnected threads make the shape of the novel more difficult to determine, though they are loosely tied into the main story as the novel progresses. These "sidebars," set in New York and on Mars, offer additional context, helping to create a more rounded picture of the world in which the story takes place. It is here that the shape of America's future history is outlined: global warming and a new great depression signalled the end for the capitalist state, while integration into the communist perspective recapitulated the early brutalities of Communist China.

Too often the feeling of impending doom collapses into the most likely unpleasant reality. This fits with the underlying study of a depressive episode, but the story of Zhang's coming to terms with himself and the resulting changes in his character is neatly told. McHugh has an excellent command of mood and of language. The conflation of the original short stories is a little uneasy, though not so much that the twin sources are obvious. The inclusion of Chinese and Spanish effectively reinforces the non-Anglo background of most of the novel. This complex context seems more fully realized than many other science fiction attempts in recent years. By comparison, she colours the tropes of Martian colonisation and global warming with a light brush, allowing the echoes to be heard from many other novels without conscious borrowing. The unusual perspectives can make this a difficult work to access but China Mountain Zhang is well worth that effort.

purchase this book at fatbrain.

Irrational Exuberance -- a provocative, even scary new book by Yale economist Robert J. Shiller -- is sending shock waves through Wall Street. Shiller argues that the techno-fueled stock-market boom is based on emotion, rumor, pyschology and herd instincts (like excitement about the Net), rather than on any rational facts or data -- and that it can't last. In fact, he writes, technology may be driving the market mad. If he's right, the market has to fall, and technology companies will be among those most significantly affected. (Read More).

The conventional wisdom has it that technology is only good news for the American economy: Productivity and profits are rising. Investors, newly empowered by digitally-acquired information and transactional software tools, are enthusiastically pumping capital into companies they think will grow in value. And lots of these investors believe that the likeliest stocks to increase in value are technology companies. The tide of easily-available information allows them to feel well-informed and well-prepared, and reduces their fears of overpaying.

"Because knowledge once gained is irreversible," Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told economists in a recent speech, "so too are the lowered risk premiums."

But in Irrational Exuberance, published by Princeton University Press, Shiller argues that stock markets are being driven by psychology and emotion -- in particular by an "irrational exuberance" fueled not by information but by impulse, herd behavior, dinner party chatter, intuition, media hype, fear of being cut out -- everything, in fact, but reason. Thus, he explains, there is a growing unease about the alleged, techno-driven Long Boom underway in American markets.

By historical standards, Shiller says, the U.S. stock market has rocketed to astonishing high levels. But if the history of high market valuations is any guide, the public may be profoundly disappointed with the market performance in the years to come.

This isn't just an economic issue for profit-hungry stock trawlers. How the market is valued affects the economic, political and social policies questions of society at large (and affects technology industries in particular). If a stock's value is exaggerated or climbs artificially high, then the country may invest too much money in business start-ups and too little in infrastructure, research, education, and other forms of "human capital." Thus if people lose faith in the market's future, they may associate that disappointment with technology.

The explosive growth of the Net and Web in the second half of the 90's has affected how Americans view the economy in general, and markets in particular, writes Shiller.

The Mosaic browser first became available to the public in l994. That date more or less marks the beginning of the Web, but only a few people had access to it. Large numbers of Web users didn't appear until l997, marking the very same years when the NASDAQ stock price index took off, tripling to the beginning of 2000, and price-ratio earnings entered unprecedently high territory. Net technology, writes Shiller, is unusual because it's a source of entertainment and preoccupation for so many people. It conveys, he argues, the sense of a changed future, of mastery of the world, which makes it plausible for people to assume that it also had profound economic importance.

"But we may question what impact the Internet and the computer revolution should have on the valuation of existing corporations," writes Shiller. "New technology will always have an impact on the market, but should it really raise the value of existing companies, given that those existing companies do not have a monopoly on the new technology?" The notion that existing companies will benefit from the Net revolution is belied, he argues, by the stories of E*Trade.com, Amazon.com and other upstarts, who didn't even exist a few years ago. What matters for a stock market boom isn't the reality of the Internet, but rather the "public impression" that the revolution creates.

This is a risky way to approach markets, he argues.

It also distorts the way people -- especially Americans -- view technology. The fixation on technology as force for wealth and economic growth is yet another distraction from the growing list of critical technological issues -- corporatization of technology, genetics, nano-technology, bio-tech, AI, supercomputing -- and other issues and concerns that are rarely discussed in mainstream media or political forums.

Shiller cautions that we might also become complacent in maintaining savings, improving the Social Security system or providing other social safety nets. We might also lose the opportunity to use our improving financial status to create slutions to real risks many Americans face -- to their homes, schools, cities and livelihoods.

This irrational exuberance (and its resulting complacency) is not only driven by the national obsession with computing technology, but affects the future of technology in a particularly direct way. The Internet, for all the hype, is still in primitive, nascent form. Some of the new technologies computing may spawn -- genetic research, nano-technology, bio-tech, supercomputing, AI -- will require vast amounts of capital that only a healthy stock market environment can generate. The collapse of this market, or doubts that it will grow and prosper, could have a devastating impact on the development of these new technologies.

Shiller warns in his book that a long boom may not be in the cards. By l999, he writes, the Dow Jones industrial average had more than tripled in five years. But personal income and gross domestic product each rose less than 30%, and almost half that increase was due to inflation. Corporate profits rose less than 30%. The size of the stock market's gains, he therefore cautions, may be unwarranted and unlikely to persist.

The mainstream media, as usual, has been far from helpful, lurching from one hysteria -- sex and thievery online -- to another -- dot.com investment hype. When it comes to grasping the impact of technology on society, the public has from the first stirrings of the Internet, pretty much been left on its own. One of the conclusions it has reached is that anybody with a computer and a modem can be a savvy, well-informed and ultimately profitable investor. This idea is at the core of the "irrational exuberance" Shiller is writing about. It it's true, we're in for many good and prosperous years, at least in terms of the economy. If it's not, and this feeling is illusory ...

Contemporary technology has, without a doubt, challenged historic ideas of how the economy works. Computing in particular is not only changing commerce, but revolutionizing access to markets by individual market investors, thus changing the markets themselves. The atmosphere surrounding technology is super-heated. It seems that half the country is buying tech stocks, the other feeling as if it should and could. E-trading has been in part responsible for the explosive growth in Americans use of the Net in the past two years, and also in the expectations of many Americans that technology is synonymous with growth and wealth.

Most of the current generation of technology leaders and workers has never really known recession, depression, or even much in the way of serious reversal. Unless people begin to invest in diverse and different ways, that could change, says Shiller.

He pleads for the expansion of the number and variety of securities and markets for them, to allow people to protect themselves against major economic risks. He favors new "macro-markets" that would include markets for long-term claims on national incomes for the world's major countries, and for truly diversified global portfolios, instead of limiting investors to securities that are claims on corporate profits, as is the case now.

"A doctor in Des Moines could take a short position in medical incomes and a short position in expensive Des Moines single-family homes," writes Shiller, "therefore effectively insuring against risks to both sustenance and shelter. At the same time, the doctor could buy securities linked to incomes around the world and to real estate around the world." These macro-markets would be bigger than current markets and far more diverse in the risks they present to people.

Irrational exuberance seems the right term for the atmosphere surrounding tech-driven markets. Millions of Americans are now using the Net to break open access to markets, even as they've driven prices up, they have clearly exposed themselves and their futures to risk.

It's almost impossible to pick up a newspaper or magazine without seeing more hype about the techno-boom and the wealth it's generating. This is dangerous, Shiller warns; it's a serious mistake for political and business leaders to acquiesce in such high stock valuations. It thus follows that it's not a good idea for the rest of us either.

"All of our plans for the future, as individuals and as a society, hinge on our perceived wealth," he warns, "and those plans can be thrown into disarray if much of that wealth evaporates tomorrow."

If you want, you can purchase this book at fatbrain.com.

Duncan Lawie has returned with a review of Star Maker, a science fiction novel written by Olaf Stapledon. Part science fiction, part philosphical text, it's worth checking out. Originally published in 1968, it was re-printed last summer, making it available again for the first time in a long time. Star Maker author Olaf Stapledon pages 270 publisher Peter Smith Publishing (06/1999, orig. 1968) rating 8/10 reviewer Duncan Lawie ISBN 0844629952 summary A complex philosophical novel filled with enduring images spiralling from the human to the universal scale.

Olaf Stapledon was a British writer and philosopher whose first science fiction was published in 1930. Much of his writing concerns the concept of "true community" and his belief that humanity, as it currently exists, has no real capacity for a genuine understanding of truth. This places him far outside of the pulp mainstream of science fiction in his period. His emphasis on social comment rather than action and his use of science fictional processes to advance philosophical discourse instead continues the strand of "scientific romance" by then established in the British literary tradition.

Star Maker, first published in 1937, is generally considered Stapledon's best work. From the first the book displays its lyricism despite the mundane early subject of the suburbs after sunset. In these quiet homes, the possible existence of a genuine relationship between two people is explored in a first attempt to illuminate the concept of true community. Placed in conflict with such an ideal is the immensity of the world and the apparent impossibility of any human having a true relationship with all people. From these eminently recognizable circumstances the narrator quickly extends his viewpoint to consider the world and its multitudes before coming to the suggestion that all this is insignificant in the face of the universe.

Having touched upon his main themes, Stapledon expands his focus. The next section is a clearly written account of an alien race with which the narrator comes into contact. The successes and failures of that alien society become an implicit counterpoint to human experience, though the narrator cannot help rounding this out with a number of more explicit comparisons before moving on to describe countless further societies. These descriptive passages are powerful examples of the richness of Stapledon's imagination. Many of the ideas summed up in a few brief pages could have been developed into full chapters or novels of their own. In fact, the narrator repeatedly states that he "has not space to describe" details of many of the events he witnesses. The text also contains repeated comments on how little the narrator has retained of the events and situations experienced. Whilst this is at times frustrating, it is clear that Stapledon has greater things in mind than simple description of the fantastic diversity of the universe.

As each level of his story becomes clear, the themes of community, hope and futility are played out in a grand spiral of ever escalating scales of action. After several iterations, the process seems clear and the book looks likely to become tedious. Instead the very rate of magnification is itself transformed to a whole new scale. As the book reaches universal immensity, early heights become trivialities against the ineffable activities of increasingly sane, immortal beings, though hope and failure are still a vital impetus. The end point of intelligent life is approached and revelation - of sorts - is achieved in a final ecstasy.

The resultant novel is rather dry, infinitely high minded and focused on a philosophy which requires the best from each of us without necessarily offering any reward. However, the ideas are endlessly fascinating and many of the passages are profoundly satisfying reading. The book's use of repetition in theme and punctuated revelation allow complex ideas to be absorbed without conscious effort. Star Maker is a novel which deserves savouring and rewards careful reading.

Purchase this book from fatbrain.

FarHat wrote to us about an article currently running on CNN regarding the long-term prospects of Microsoft and Linux. One of the launch points is the persistent rumors of Microsoft porting Office to Linux, as well as Neal Stephenson's In the Beginning was the Command Line. Fun read, overall.

Duncan Lawie, resident science fiction reviewer and world traveler has sent a review of Iain (M) Banks' Inversions. The book itself is a good story, but also has a very interesting writing style. Form and function - what a novel idea. *grin* Inversions author Iain M Banks pages ~400 publisher Pocket Books, 02/2000 rating 8/10 reviewer Duncan Lawie ISBN 0671036688 summary A novel of interlocking narratives which combines formal methods and informal prose into a strong story.

Iain (M.) Banks is one of the more famous split personalities in recent publishing history. He has written ten non-genre novels as Ian Banks and produced eight books of science fiction as Iain M. Banks. His first novel was published in 1984. Reviews of his "literary" works have occasionally suggested a merging of the two streams of his career but this ignores the significant fantastic and science fiction elements present even in his early "mainstream" novels. His "science fiction" has been more clearly defined, with the majority of these works being shaped by the galaxy-spanning civilization known as the Culture.

Inversions, the latest novel by Iain M. Banks, is set in a post medieval world. It is a time after the end of empire, with a new model of devolved power emerging from the chaos. There are two narratives, intercut chapter by chapter and covering the same period but set in the capitals of different countries. The main subjects of the narratives are strangers to the society in which they live but have each made themselves indispensable to the leaders of their nations. One has become the personal bodyguard of the Protector, the leader of a revolution which has overthrown a hereditary monarchy and brought new power to the merchant classes. The other is the king's personal doctor, who has reached that position through her inordinate skill despite being both a foreigner and a woman. This has given each stranger the potential to influence without political office, and their stories reflect the story of their chosen country.

This novel could have been published in the black and white cover of a "mainstream" Ian Banks novel and would still have retained much of its value. However, as a work by Iain M. Banks there are significant resonances with the rest of his science fiction oeuvre. In this light the major inversion of the novel is that the tale of external interference with a developing civilisation is told from the viewpoint of the affected society rather than from the technological standpoint of Banks' previous novels. It does this by using narrators indigenous to the world and limited in their understanding of events. The book is largely successful in this use of fallible narrators and viewed from this angle the tales of mythical lands quickly decode to everyday life in a more advanced society.

Inversions is equally successful in the exposition of its themes. It is a book about change, catching societies at the cusp of advance and displaying alternative approaches. The story of nations is counterpointed by that of individuals and it is the telling of their stories which provides an avenue for understanding the lessons Banks is offering in this book. The resultant novel has a very formal format, being balanced between personal and national viewpoints and with each of the two stories providing a partial key to the other. This produces a roman a clef with the option of further keys through familiarity with Banks' other science fiction. In this context, the mapping of personal development to that of a culture is striking. There is a full involvement with the lives and emotions of the central characters which gives a rounded understanding of these protagonists. Their interests and struggles offer sufficient insight into the larger story of nations to be able to infer a long span of the history of this world from the events of a short period. The combination of formalized style for the novel and the writer's informality work well together. The writing flows easily and the story rapidly draws the reader in. Inversions is an interesting alternate in Banks' science fiction, both for its viewpoint and its formal framework, and as such has much to offer.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

Duncan Lawie has sent a review of John Wyndham's The Chrysalids. It's known by its alternate title Re-birth. One of the most popular science fiction authors in the British Commonwealth in the 1950s and 1960s, Wyndham looks at the nature of humanity. The Chrysalids (aka Re-birth) author John Wyndham pages 200 publisher Caroll & Graf, 11/1993 rating 9/10 reviewer Duncan Lawie ISBN 0786700416 summary An excellent novel investigating the nature of humanity, set in a blighted Earth fearful of deviation from the righteous path.

John Wyndham was probably the most widely read science fiction author in the British Commonwealth in the 1950s and 1960s. This was largely due to his being publicised outside the genre and for his attention to the interests and attitudes of a wide audience unfamiliar with science fiction tropes. The first half of his career - before the Second World War - was undistinguished. He wrote under a number of names, usually variations on John Beynon Harris, but settled on Wyndham when he returned to writing after the war. At this time he developed a type of science fiction often referred to as "cosy catastrophe", where disaster strikes and the world is plunged into chaos which the protagonists must survive so that they can begin to rebuild.

The Chrysalids is an example of Wyndham at the height of his powers. It is set centuries after Tribulation ended the world as we know it. The population of Labrador seeks to rebuild the society of the Old People with the aid of the Bible and writings from the time of Tribulation which codify the Image of Man. Any being which does not match the True Image is `hateful in the sight of God' and must be destroyed as an abomination or exiled from human society. This position extends to all known flora and fauna and is enforced by government inspectors. It quickly becomes apparent that this is an attempt to keep the genetic stock pure after a massive nuclear war. The book's narrator, though outwardly normal, has an ability along with a number of others to "think together". As the book opens, he has no real awareness that he is any different from anyone else. As he grows older he comes to the realisation that the memorised lines from the Sunday service have a real relationship to the world around him and his place in it. He has the good fortune of an uncle who offers him advice that fires the instinct for caution into active self preservation. Gradually, events put the group under suspicion and they face significant trials with scant possibility of survival.

The Chrysalids is skilfully written, displaying the increasing danger and frustration for a hidden community of telepaths in a society which prizes normalcy above all else. Their striving for "averageness" despite an ability which allows them insight far beyond their fellows and in the face of widespread communal fear of the different strikes a chord with generation after generation of reader. There is also clear advocacy for change in this novel. While accepting that any creature will fight to preserve itself and its type, there is an emphasis on the importance of change as the only means of improvement and a belief that evolution has no ultimate end point. This leads to the thesis that it is inherently right that humanity give way to those who come after us. This Darwinian perspective may seem reasonable in the long view but the book draws into renewed sharpness questions which have been debated for decades.

The final pages are almost overwhelmed by Wyndham's need to state his position clearly, but the novel does regain equilibrium. As a whole, the book achieves considerable complexity of idea and action whilst maintaining straightforward language. The story progresses primarily through character development, which allows a natural flow and shape in the plot. It is a book which rarely pulls its punches and this is a contributing factor to its continued success and validity almost 50 years after its original publication. The Chrysalids is a tight, well developed novel from a master of a peculiarly English style of science fiction.

Pick this book up at Fatbrain.

Zortoaster wrote a review of a book that might be of interest to folks around here:" In lieu of the Norwegian police's crackdown on 16-year-old hacker Jon Johansen, who broke the DVD copying protection, Paul A. Taylor's book Hackers raises a series of interesting questions about crackers and cracking. The book scores high on content but lacks somewhat in presentation. He manages to spell out issues that are often only implicit in the computer security debate, and is able to paint a multi-faceted picture of the hacker, represented by the cracker, community setting it apart from the very black and white, good or bad, presentation of hackers in the mass media." Hackers author Paul A. Taylor pages 224 publisher Routledge, London: 09/1999 rating 7/10 reviewer Zortoaster ISBN 0415180724 summary In lieu of the Norwegian police's crackdown on 16 -year-old hacker Jon Johansen who broke the DVD copying protection, Paul A. Taylor's book Hackers raises a series of interesting questions about crackers and cracking. The book scores high on content but lacks somewhat in presentation. Hackers and hacking

Hackers starts out with a discussion on the hacker, what he (as is pointed out in the book, the hacker is almost always a 'he') does, and why he does what he does. Somewhat sadly, although fairly well-founded, is Taylor's choice of terminology. He chooses to consistently address the cracker as hacker. A hacker is not a cracker, but a cracker is always a hacker (put in more technical terms: the cracker is a subset of the hacker class -- think object orientation here), which is a point Taylor seems to willfully ignore. That he chooses to use the terminology in this manner is rather sad because it puts an ugly stain on the respectability of the hackers -- those of us who not meddling in computer break-ins or other dubious activities, but merely hack code to produce cool software. Throughout the rest of this review I will be using the term cracker to refer to Taylor's hackers, and hacker when referring to real hackers

However, since crackers are a subset of hackers, much of Taylor's discussion on the hack and hacking is applicable to the hacker community at large. This is one of the things that makes Hackers an interesting read. For a newcomer to the hacker community Taylor's discussion on the 'hack' is quite enlightening. Even for oldtimers his discussion may shed some new light on the hack. Contrary to existing material on the matter, like the Jargon File, Taylor is the first to spell out the criteria implicit in earlier treatises on the hack: 1) simplicity, 2) mastery, and 3) illicitness [as in 'against the rules', reviewers comment] (p.15). This latter criteria is in its use of the 'illicitness' term only applicable to the cracking activity. In a sense it is applicable to hacking as well. Then in the shape of 'against the rules'. We are not neccessarily talking against the rules of justice, but against what the system's rules say is possible. In that sense, calling the third criteria illicitness hints at somewhat dubious activities, but is in fact not. It is an important element in the regular hack (if such thing as a regular hack does exist), too.

Taylor manages to view the hacker community from a fresh angle. Being a sociology researcher his angle is quite different from that represented by for instance Eric S. Raymond or Gisle Hannemyr. One drawback is that Taylor draws on Steven Levy's overly romanticized hacker ethics as presented in Levy's book of 1984: Hackers. It is time someone tried looking somewhat deeper into the hacker psychology to realize that while Levy's five tenets may to a certain degree represent attitudes within the hacker community, it is not, contrary to what Levy proposes, an ethos by which hackers live and die (apart from this, though, Levy's book is highly enjoyable and recommended reading). I'm also having some problems accepting the psychosexual theories on hacking that Taylor proposes. They seem a bit far fetched to me. It's been a while since everybody agreed that Freud's psycho-therapy was kind of overly sex-fixated.

Taylor addresses a largely ignored issue in hacker literature, that of the gender question. Why are there next to no female hackers? He addresses the point through looking at societal factors, by explaining how the community is a masculine environemnt -- the new wild west, so to say -- and the fact that electronic communication creates misogynity through its anonymity. At the end of the chapter it is a bit hard to grasp what Taylor's point is, though (see Presentation for more).

Another issue thoroughly treated is the question of hacker motivation. What drives the hacker to hack? Taylor's background within sociology is again helpful, as he regards the issue from a fresh perspective. Hacker motivation has previously been treated by Eric Raymond in his essay Homesteading the Noosphere . Taylor's angle is to compare academic theories on hacker motivation with the the reasons the hackers' themselves give. From the discrepancy between these two angles he lists four reasons for hacking: obsession, curiosity, boredom, and the feeling of power. If not directly contradicting Raymond's view -- that hackers hack simply to gain peer esteem and status within the community -- Taylor gives Raymond's view a more multi-faceted hue. He goes beneath the drive for esteem, trying to address the reasons why anyone would need to gain esteem from their peers. As such, Taylor manages to add something new to a discussion that has been on the brink of going stale.

Issues on computer security and cracking

Taylor's main focus on crackers is how society at large is to deal with them. Are crackers to be treated as criminal masterminds plotting to bring the world to its knees, or simply misguided kids trying to do something exciting with their computer knowledge? Several views are drawn up, with Taylor quoting representatives of each view without really making any kind of judgment himself as to the better way of handling crackers. It is an exercise in how difficult the question truly is.

A number of other quite intriguing cracker/computer security issues are spelled out by Taylor, as well. Issues include who is to blame when a computer system has been cracked? The system administrator for not maintaining sufficient security or the cracker for breaking into a system to which he doesn't have legal access? Should anti-cracking laws be targeted at stopping all kinds of illegal computer use, or are there degrees to the crime being committed? Is printing your personal CV on the company's printers even though it is explicitly forbidden to use company equipment for personal use to be treated as a computer crime equal to that of breaking into a banking system and tampering with the data?

Taylor also questions the computer security companies' motivations (and rightly so, one might add). Are they simply running a protection racket like that of the mafia, using cracking and virus alerts to scare their customers into investing in expensive counter-measure software? Or are they avenging angels siding with the innocent, the not particularly compu-fluent masses? Using the dichotomy of the computer security industry vs. the crackers, Taylor raises the issue of whether good computer security can only be achieved through knowing the enemy, the crackers. Can crackers and computer security consultants work together in a symbiosis, or are they eternal enemies never to be reconciliated?

Another issue dealt with is how crackers are to be handled. Should their acts be punished in the harshest way, or should they be helped into redirecting their activities into more useful terms? The question is whether the cracker is to be treated as a nuisance or as an asset. Taylor treats this issue quite thoroughly referring from the parliamentary discussion in Britain. He also discusses in what ways legislation can prevent cracking. He shows how little the law enforcement agencies know about cracking and how they employed overkill (refer to the Norwegian police's recent raid on the hacker who broke the DVD encryption).

Presentation

However intriguing the book might be it is presented in a very unorderly and weird way. The pages are filled with rather long quotations from various e-mails, books, interviews, etc. I gather the intention is to present the reader with the direct opinions of the book's "main characters," giving us in a way a first person view of the matter. The idea is nice, but the effect is that it ruins the fluidity of the text, making the book somewhat hard to follow. Also: it is at times quite difficult to grasp what message Taylor is trying to convey when he is expressing himself through the extracts of other people's opinions. Quotes are OK, but when, without exaggeration, 50% of the average page is taken up by quotations it is a little bit too much of the good stuff.

Having said that, the book is very structured, each chapter building nicely on previous chapters. The conclusion at the end of almost all chapters helps clarify Taylor's opinions a bit, which is nice. Still, it does not weigh up for the confusion created by the excessive use of quotations.

Conclusion

Taylor succeeds with explaining the relationship between crackers and the computer security industry, presenting the matter in a more multifaceted way than that of the mass media. The book is a definite must for those wanting an introduction to the social sides of computer security. However, I find it rather amazing that a book written in 1999 seems to totally ignore the writings of Eric Raymond, as these are probably the best works on how hackers view their own culture. Despite this, I believe Hackers might prove an interesting read even for the hardcore hacker, if only as an alternative look at our own culture.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

jblackman wrote to us with a review of Full Moon. Rather than a more normal book review here, Full Moon is actually a collection of some of the best photographs taken of the Moon over the several decades. It also includes an original essay from Andrew Chaikin, as well. Click below to learn more. Full Moon author Michael Light pages 244 publisher Knopf Publishing rating 8/10 reviewer jblackman ISBN 0375406344 summary A pictorial story of the Moon. One of the many great successes of the Apollo Program is the photographic record it left to posterity. Over the course of 11 missions and six moon landings, astronauts took over 32,000 still photographs. Out of those 32,000 pictures, a few of them have become iconic, trancending their documentarian roots and embedding themselves in the collective conscious. Many of the rest have languished in NASA vaults, unknown for the most part.

In Full Moon, Michael Light weaves 129 of these forgotten treasures into a composite moon shot that captures the magnitude -- and the majesty -- of what might be humanity's grandest achievement.

Light follows the course of a hypothetical mission, from the flames and fury of lift-off to the triumphant return to earth. In between are images of a shrinking homeworld, a moon growing ever-larger in size, magnificent lunar vistas, and a vertiginous series of spacewalk photographs.

Full Moon is a triumph, and its status as a space photography tour de force is due to two major factors. Obviously, Light was solely responsible for the selection and arrangement of the photos, and his artistic judgment is what gives this book much of its impact. For example, one of the shots is of perhaps a square foot of nondescript lunar soil. Immediately after it is a picture of the exact same terrain, but this time marked by a human footprint. Even more evocative is the image of a family snapshot, wrapped in plastic, lying on the surface of the moon: a momento left by one of the men who walked there. The picture of a mighty Saturn booster, hurtling toward the heavens, framed by a dark navy sky is (currently) not one of the photographic icons of the Apollo Program, but after seeing it, you'll certainly think that it should be. The sheer breadth of the human exploratory effort is made apparent in gatefold panorama shots of the moon's surface -- and that's even before that little metallic glint catches your eye, and you realize that speck in the dust is the LEM, and this particular picture was taken untold miles away from it.

Light has done a marvelous job of choosing photographs to put on display. Of course, his feat was entirely dependent on the men who were actually there. The astronauts sent to the moon were chosen based on wide variety of criteria, but photographic prowess might as well have been one of them judging by the quality of the pictures they brought back. More than once, a moonscape might seem to possess an almost unreal clarity, as though it were a render. To be sure, an airless environment will do wonders for visibility, but the astronauts and their cameras were also just that good. In addition, the clarity of the prints benefit from an entirely new transfer from the NASA master negatives; most of the pictures seen so far have been third- or fourth-generation copies.

Any issues I had with Full Moon are merely matters of personal preference. I would have liked to see a few pictures from the development and assembly of the spacecraft, or maybe a couple pictures that emphasized the massive human effort that made this program a success. However, their absence does not detract at all from the book as a whole, and a case can easily be made, in fact, as to why they should not have been included. Some might find fault with the spacewalk pictures, as they were culled from the Gemini archives, rather than being true shots from Apollo. To me, though, their origin made not a bit of difference. They were wonderfully composed shots that only enhanced Light's mission to the moon.

Full Moon is capped off with an original essay from Andrew Chaikin (author of A Man On The Moon), notes and comments from Michael Light, and a thumbnailed index to the photographs in the book.

Full Moon is definitely skewed more toward artistic perspectives than scientific. However, I have absolutely no qualms in recommending it to anyone with the slightest interest in either the space program or photography. The purchase of this book is not an insignificant investment, but it is just that: an investment. You'll keep coming back to it, to get one more glimpse of our civilization at its very best.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

Justin Harvey has written a review of The Pragmatic Programmer, a work famous for helping programmers develop their skills. Click below to learn more. The Pragmatic Programmer author Hunt, Andrew / Thomas, David pages 320 publisher Addison-Wesley, 10/1999 rating 9/10 reviewer Justin Harvey ISBN 0-201-61622-X summary This book describes how to be an efficient and productive programmer. The Scenario

The Pragmatic Programmer is a great view into what it takes to be a master at software engineering in this day and age. While the book has code examples in C, C++ and Java, if your primary language happens to be another, don't count this book out. You'll find it equally beneficial because the authors really focus on the core skills and methods of software engineering. This book is the K&R for methodology.

What's Bad?

TPP covers a lot about what we programmers love to hate: process, planning, documentation and requirements. However, don't skip over these parts. While we'd rather be reading about the different methods of code reuse or prototyping, it is important to take the time (and concentration) to read through these sections because they are integral to becoming a master at software development. Truthfully, the only bad thing about this book is that it has a very soft cover, it's too floppy for my taste.

What's Good?

If you're expecting this to be another Practice of Programming (Kernighan, Pike) you're in for a surprise. The book does have code examples, but it's just not about indenting or variable naming, it's about coding principles, methodology, philosophy, communication and practices.

Contrary to how it may sound, the book is actually very enjoyable to read and is full of interesting quotes, jokes and anecdotes. It is far from a dry, boring textbook.

So What's In It For Me?

If you do development in any language, this book is for you. Whether you're just starting out trying your hand at Java or are a Perl guru, there is always something more to learn. This book really stresses professional growth and suggests taking a different look at the way you're doing development today. If you can absorb 10% of this book, your work and code will improve. Following the tips and advice in this book will earn you the respect (or at least a tip of the hat) from fellow programmers as well as improve the relationships you have with vendors, product managers and management.

Not just for journeymen.... So you're an experienced programmer with 20 years under your belt and you think you know all there is to know about software engineering. Pick up this book and you'll find at least one helpful insight or process which will change your outlook on the way you do business. That's one of the great things about this book, whether you're a journeyman or a master, you'll discover something new. A plethora of idioms, catch phrases and buzzwords. The book has a lot of idioms, catch phrases and buzzwords that you might have heard from a team member and wondered what the hell they're talking about. The authors spend a good amount of time carefully explaining each of these concepts and how it relates to our coding. Here are just a few, let's see how many you know:

• Orthogonal
• Decoupling (Temporal and Modular)
• Laws of Demeter
• Design By Contract
• Metaprogramming
• Tracer Bullets Programs

Read the book, pick up a few of these phrases and impress your team members while confusing script kiddies. X is better than Y We've heard it a thousand times, X is better than Y. If it's not emacs is better than vi, it's C vs C++ or it's Linux vs Microsoft. I like this book because it's very programming language and operating system agnostic. TPP does have examples in different languages but it goes far beyond choosing a side, it has a more practical view of "right tool, for the right job". Not only do they try to emphasize the right tool, but also looking at the way you're programming today in a different light. They suggest things like: if you're a UNIX geek with your editor and makefiles, try using an IDE. If you're a Windows programmer, try using a UNIX machine or command line interface to the tools. They go more in depth suggesting various strategies encouraging growth. Humor Value And last, but not least, the book has a lot of funny quotes from famous people, stories of foolish and funny programming errors, and amusing tip boxes sprinkled throughout each chapter. Some of my favorites tips from the book

• Tip #11: Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY)
• Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system.

• Tip #15: Use Tracer Bullets to Find the Target
• Tracer bullets let you home in on your target by trying things and seeing how close they land.

• Tip #20: Keep Knowledge in Plain Text
• Plain text won't become obsolete. It helps leverage your work and simplifies debugging and test.

This one isn't a tip, but it has a whole section devoted to it: The Law of Demeter for Functions:

An object's method should call only methods belonging to:

• Itself
• Objects it creates
• Component Objets

In closing

I read a lot of software engineering books, both technical and about methodology, and I would recommend this book to be on every programmer's shelf, right next to the K&R, and Practice of Programming. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

justharv jbharvey@foobarbaz.com

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

Table of Contents

1. A PRAGMATIC PHILOSOPHY
2. A PRAGMATIC APPROACH
3. THE BASIC TOOLS
4. PRAGMATIC PARANOIA
5. BEND OR BREAK
6. WHILE YOU ARE CODING
7. BEFORE THE PROJECT
8. PRAGMATIC PROJECTS
9. APPENDICES

For a thousand years, philosophers, scientists and theologians have struggled over the nature of ultimate reality. Why are we here? What is human consciousness? Can quantum physics, Zen philosophy and subjective experience connect the dots between God, matter and the nature of life? A physicist has written a dense, strange and haunting book that says yes, and wonders where the Gods have all gone. The Physics of Consciousness author Evan Harris Walker pages 368 publisher Perseus Books rating 8/10 reviewer Jon Katz ISBN 0-7382-0234-7 summary A look at the quantum mind and the meaning of life

Here's some questions to mull in front of the screen: Why are we here? Where have the Gods all gone?

Harvard entomologist James Wilson wrote in the late l970's that no species, including the human one, has any real purpose beyond the imperatives created by its particular genetic history.

Individual species, he wrote, may have tremendous potential for material and mental progress, but at the core they lack any direction beyond that in which their genetic and molecular architecture steer them.

Wilson believes the human mind is constructed in a way that locks it onto this pre-ordained track and forces it to make choices on a purely biological basis.

His notion is part of one of the oldest feuds in philosophy, science and the humanities - is there really free will, or are conscience and consciousness merely byproducts of electricity, impulses, genes and molecules?

The essence of Wilson's argument is that the brain exists because it promises the survival and multiplication of the genes that direct its assembly. The human mind, then, is a device for survival and reproduction, with reason just one of the techniques used to achieve that goal. All other functions of human consciousness - creativity, anger, exploration, adventure - exist either in support of this goal, or are inconsequential.

Despite all the advances in biological science and genetics, physical reality remains mysterious - even to physicists - because of what Wilson called the "extreme improbability" that it was constructed to be understood by the human mind.

"We can reverse that insight," wrote Wilson, "to note with still greater force that the intellect was not constructed to understand atoms or even to understand itself but to promote the survival of humans, and the genes of humans."

The reflective person thus knows that his life is in some incomprehensible manner guided through biological ontogeny, a more or less fixed order of life stages. With all the drive, wit, love, pride, anger, hope and anxiety that characterize the species, he will in the end be certain of only one thing: helping to perpetuate the cycle that created him. Almost everything else is up in the air, one theory as good as another.

This is heavy stuff, increasingly brought into focus by technological and scientific revolutions - artificial intelligence, nano-technology, genetic research - that might tell us whether Wilson is on-target.

If he's right, the dilemma is enormous: we have no particular place to go as a species. We lack a common or universal goal beyond our pre-determined biological nature.

In the next century, it's possible that humankind can conquer technology, stabilize politics, solve the ongoing crises in energy, poverty and materials, avert nuclear and other war, and begin to control reproduction. That would bring the world a stable eco-system for the first time.

But what then?

If this dilemma holds any interest for you, try reading "The Physics of Consciousness, The Quantum Mind and the Meaning of Life," by Evan Harris Walker, physicist and director of the Walker Cancer Institute.

For more than a thousand years, writes Walker in this complex and haunting book, philosophers, scientists and theologians have battled furiously to explain the phenomenon of human consciousness, believed to be unique among the world's species.

What is it? Where does it come from? What is its purpose?

The answer, says Walker, is in quantum and Newtonian physics. Using "Bell's Theorem" - the notion that one particle can instantly influence the behavior of another, Walker unveils his notions of the intricacies of electron tunneling in the brain.

He also undertakes a mystical, profoundly geeky meditation on spirituality, consciousness and quantum physics, three disciplines not traditionally linked to one another.

"We want to ask, is there a God? Does my life have meaning and purpose? Science, we are told, says that even to ask about God is beyond its scope." But this, Walker argues, is not true. Either there is no such thing as God, or science - which embodies our ability to reason - must be able to frame the question and provide us with the answers.

Walker takes us on an amazing journey into what he calls the "engines of the mind," from membranes of nerve cells which maintain electric fields, to the synapse, the junction between neurons, the site of what he calls "quantum choice" a major intersection of human consciousness.

Quantum physics and mechanics create a mechanical picture of consciousness, Walker says, "consciousness arising out of the very observer-dependent processes that go on in the brain as they do in the laboratories of physicists, in the hearts of atoms, and in the cores of stars." With an observer in the brain, this consciousness selects the things that happen in the external world.

Out of this arises a picture of what the fabric of reality is.

Walker's highly personal search for the meaning of life began half a century ago when the woman he loved died of leukemia. He set out find out what human beings really are and what, if anything, remains when the tissues of the brain and body have ceased their functions. Surprisingly, he looked to physics, not religion or spirituality for some answers, and ended up wedding science to original notions of God.

"A universe that has only matter cannot have consciousness and cannot have will," he concludes. "The picture painted to explain the material world, orderly but without God, has failed to work." Einstein, writes Walker, could see "the print of God's hand" on creation exteding to the edges of the cosmos, but he failed to see us there, he failed to see the implications of mind for physics, and he failed to see anything but the shadow of God." Walker sees all those things.

Warning: This isn't an easy book to read. It's dense, painful and centered heavily around Zen meditations and physics as the key to life, meaning and consciousness. But Walker asks a few of the biggest questions that there are, and shows us how in the right hands and sensibilities, quantum physics can relate very powerfully to much more than science.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

Chromatic, already a reviewing fixture and well-known AfterY2k junkie, has sent us a quick review of the latest book in Tad Williams' Otherland series. This book is Otherland: River of Blue Fire, which is the book after Otherland: City of Golden Shadow. Click below to learn more. Otherland: River of Blue Fire author Tad Williams pages 675 publisher Daw, 09/1999 rating 9/10 reviewer chromaticsummary ISBN 0886778441 summary Tad Williams explores global conspiracies surrounding a perfectly realized virtual world in the continuation of his Otherland saga.

At the end of Otherland: City of Golden Shadow, Tad Williams had dumped most of his protagonists into the convincing virtual reality known as the Otherland. In this playground for the rich, the reclusive, and the powerful, the small band was shocked to learn that it was trapped. It would be only a matter of time before the shadowy Grail Brotherhood, masters of Otherland, could discover the intrusion and act to protect their secrets.

Frightened and confused, the party's only chance for survival is to follow the quasi-metaphorical river that flows through each simulation, connecting the private domains of each member of the Brotherhood. It's a quest that will take them through a land of giant insects, Venice, Ancient Egypt, a twisted Kansas under invasion from decaying Oz, and other exotic, imaginary locations.

The real world is packed with intrigue too, as the forces opposing the Brotherhood (both knowingly and unknowingly) plan and plot and move their pieces into position. Reality and Otherland start to feed off of each other as dark secrets come to light and the Grail project enters its final stages.

As fits the second book in this series of four, some mysteries are solved and many more are discovered. Plotwise, the motivations of and divisions within the Grail Brotherhood are explored, and partial explanations of sleeping sickness are given. True to Williams' plot-twisting style, these bring up new questions. On the whole, there is less action than in the previous book, but more plot.

While there's still a lot of action, it's divided between five major groups of characters and settings (the latter given a very loose interpretation) and at least five other, minor threads. Consequently, even in a book of nearly 700 pages, four chapters may separate sequential events. This can be frustrating, as the most intriguing character receives the least attention. (In the introduction, Williams promises his fans that he will try to avoid the sort of cliffhanger ending that the first book had. To his credit, a plot diagram of River of Blue Fire would fit the traditional form much more closely than one of City of Golden Shadow.)

Williams fans may notice themes also present his "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" series, which itself expanded on ideas present in his debut work Tailchaser's Song. You'll find ancient conspiracies, shady deals with unknown forces, enlightened groups of scholars working in the background, and the question of responsibility. It's refreshing to see him choose a less-than-superhuman antagonist (though the Heliopolis simulation and the Other may turn out to be more important -- and less "human" -- in the end).

Philosophical and literary analysis aside, is it entertaining? Quite so! The mixture of enigma and revelation, imagination and technical whiz-bang makes a very satisfying texture. For a thoughtful, less-dystopian-than-cyberpunk but still epic take on virtual reality, identity, and conspiracy, check out the Otherland.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

New reviewer Jayakrishnan Nair has brought with him a review of Addison-Welsey/Sun's Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines. There's a lot of work being done in Java right now - make sure that it looks correct. The book covers everything from basic controls, keyboard navigation, tables, toolbars, treeviews to the JFC and effective ways to use the JFC components. Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines author Sun Microsystems, Inc. pages 230 publisher Addison Wesley, 06/1999 rating 9/10 reviewer Jayakrishnan Nair (jayakrishnan@netscape.net) ISBN 0201615851 summary This book is a must for people involved in creating userinterfaces for Java applications and applets using the Java Foundation Classes. The guidelines presented in this book will allow for the design of applications with consistent appearance and behavior. With a large number of non-technical users using computers regularly in their lives, ease of use and consistent look and feel have become very important in the design of an application. Products designed without concern for the overall experience of the user will become extinct. A badly designed application sticks out like a sore thumb, whereas an application that is pretty and powerful creates loyal users. Adhering to standards creates applications that look familiar to a new user.

Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines is a very practical book meant for the UI Designer as well as people involved in the design process. The large number of examples is supplemented with about 170 screen shots. Java Look and Feel guidelines for consistent appearance, cross-platform delivery guidelines, internationalization guidelines and implementation tips are mentioned in the appropriate sections and are marked by special icons. A list of books and Web sites on related topics like human interface design, accessibility, internationalization, etc., are given.

Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines is divided into three parts--Overview, Fundamental Java Application Design and The Components of the Java Foundation Classes. This book uses the word "application" to refer to both Java standalone applications and applets.

The Overview part gives a quick visual tour of the Java Look and Feel. The Java Foundation Classes are introduced and the major JFC User Interface Components are visually presented with cross-references to the pages where they are described in detail.

Internationalization allows for the development of applications that are independent of the countries or the language of the users. Such applications allow for the easy customization of the software for a particular region, thus creating a global market. The application may also have to interact with assistive technologies like screen readers, speech recognition systems and Braille terminals. The second part of the book Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines begins by giving guidelines on these two topics.

Given an empty panel, how do you start placing components on it? How much spacing do you need between a label and a textfield? The answers to these questions are given by guiding you through a step-by-step example where a simple dialog box is created using design grids. Colors, Fonts, text and layout of the elements are what create the mood of the applications. The chapter on Visual Design explains how to use these to increase the user confidence and comfort with your application.

The application that is designed for one platform may eventually run on other platforms and display systems with different capabilities. The chapter on Application Graphics gives guidelines in designing icons and buttons and using cross platform color so that the quality of graphics is not affected. Effective use of splash screens, login screens and about boxes to enhance the corporate identity is also discussed.

Part III: The Components of the Java Foundation Classes takes a look at each component of the JFC in detail. This will be the section that will be the most used in the book. Each component behavior is explained and tips regarding implementation and look and feel are given. The Appendix gives the keyboard operations available for JFC components for navigation.

An HTML version of the complete book is available at http://java.sun.com/products/jlf/dg/index.htm for those of you who like to browse the book before buying. The book does not provide code samples for any of the examples shown. Since the book is very specific one about JFC, such examples provided in the appendix or the Web site would have provided a starting point for programmers. Maybe this will come in the later editions.

Other platforms have their own books setting the guidelines. The timely publication of this well structured book has provided Java developers with an unparalleled resource for reference with its comprehensive set of guidelines. This book along with The JFC Swing Tutorial is a must on every developer's physical desktop.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

Duncan Lawie, our in-house science fiction book reviewer has returned from Christmas, this time with a look at Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End. With the recent appearances of Clarke in AfterY2k, I'm almost afraid to put anything up by him *grin*. Nonetheless, click below to read more about this somewhat flawed novel. Childhood's End author Arthur C. Clarke pages 200 publisher Pan, 1953/1990 rating 7/10 reviewer Duncan Lawie ISBN 0345347951 summary Alien visitation leads to transformation of the human race in a novel. Arthur C. Clarke has become an "elder figure" in this age of the Western World: each pronouncement he makes on the future is widely reported; he is generally credited with the invention of the communications satellite; he was knighted in 1998; there is a British science fiction award named after him. His career in science fiction has lasted 50 years and many of his novels are considered classics of the field. His early work has a distinctly different flavour to that of his American contemporaries whilst 2001:A Space Odyssey propelled his career to a whole new level.

Childhood's End was Clarke's fourth novel and is one of the books on which his career is founded. It was originally published in 1953 and republished with an introduction and a radically altered first chapter in 1990. It is a novel of visitation by aliens and the vast changes in humanity which result. Of course, many science fiction stories of every vintage could be summarised identically. Clarke displays his awareness of this early in the book when he outlines many of the alternative paths the novel could take and dismisses these possibilities. The story told is profound in comparison with much of the science fiction which had come before. However, the preconceptions which the modern reader is likely to have of this author will jar with the tale told. The original edition states that "the opinions expressed in this book are not those of the author". From reading his new introduction, it would appear that Clarke's subsequent development has distanced him from an even larger proportion of those opinions.

The first chapter discusses the coming of the aliens. The original version posits a space race between the Soviets and America entering the final stages of take off for the moon when alien spaceships appear in the sky. At the time of publication, the setting is clearly twenty years in the future. Because it is also clearly now in our past, Clarke has updated this with a prelude involving Russian and American co-operation for a Mars mission. The subsequent story is unchanged. Having read the original version, I feel that the new-grafted root might make the story even more dated in it's handling of emotion and interrelation between the sexes. However, perhaps these simply form part of the story environment for a reader unfettered by knowledge of the book's antiquity.

After the scene-setting arrival, events skip forward several years to describe the consolidation of the new order. The alien Overlords put backbone into the United Nations and bring about a genuine world government with widespread peace and prosperity despite fears regarding the nature of the aliens, who refuse to reveal themselves. This is followed by a time where humanity, under guidance, transforms the planet into a utopia. The populace of this new era is faced with the question of what to do next. The answers offered by the Overlords are as unpalatable as the physical form of the aliens would have been at the time of their arrival.

The structure of the novel reaches this point without faltering greatly. However, the requirement for continued human narrative is fractured by Einsteinian physics and by the paranormal. The author's desire to escape from the confines of Earth and offer a greater perspective complicate the story but offer intimations of the future awaiting the human race. This future is developed through paranormal mechanisms and disappears into realms undescribable, providing a lyricism at odds with much of the rest of the novel. The characters are often stilted and rather formal. Even in the worst extreme, their emotional life is considerably less interesting than their intellectual activity. The book almost overflows with ideas, making it "archealogically" interesting: it's influence can be sifted from much work of subsequent generations, from 'V' to The X Files. . This contributes to the reading experience but it is not a gripping book. Childhood's End will be worthwhile principally to those interested in the history of science fiction and the development of one of it's leading authors.

Unofficial Arthur C. Clarke homepage: http://www.lsi.usp.br/~bianchi/clarke/

You can purchase this book at fatbrain.

James Scott reviewed Mary Doria Russell's book The Sparrow. Though the plot features interstellar travel and first contact with an alien race, it is not strictly a science fiction novel - it's been summarized as "A comic, tragic, category-defying exploration of the human condition." Click below to learn more. The Sparrow author Mary Doria Russell pages 405 publisher Ballantine Books, October 1997 rating 9/10 reviewer James Scott ISBN 0-449-91255-8 summary A comic, tragic, category-defying exploration of the human condition

The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell's first novel, is not easily labeled. Though the plot features interstellar travel and first contact with an alien race, it is not strictly a science fiction novel. Many of the characters are members of a religious order (the Society of Jesus), but the book never assumes a pious or moralistic tone. The story ultimately reveals immense suffering, but it also sparkles with wit and word play. Fortunately, what Ellington said of music (there's only two kinds: good and bad) is also true of books. Whatever category of novel The Sparrow may fit into, it is certainly a good book.

The first part of the novel introduces two story lines, and the narrative shifts between these stories until the very end of the novel. The first story is set in early 21st century Puerto Rico. Jimmy Quinn, a young radio astronomer at the Arecibo array, detects signals originating from a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. Upon analyzing these transmissions, Quinn hears music of an obviously non-human variety. He first shares this discovery with his friends, including a Jesuit priest named Emilio Sandoz. Sandoz immediately proposes mounting an expedition to Alpha Centauri. He quickly convinces his Jesuit superiors to sponsor the adventure, populating the crew with both priests and lay people. They find their way to Alpha Centauri aboard a dugout asteroid powered by a mass driver, where they discover the planet Rakhat, populated by two sentient species.

The second thread, a courtroom drama of sorts, features the Jesuit hearing into the events of the expedition to Rakhat. In late 2059, Sandoz has returned to Earth alone, physically and emotionally shattered. He is preceded by bizarre allegations of murder and prostitution, transmitted by a UN-sponsored followup expedition to Rakhat. The Jesuit order is desperate to dispel this mounting scandal and nurses Sandoz back to health so that he may tell his story. With calculated and sometimes sadistic effort, the Father General of the Society of Jesus flattens Sandoz' defenses and forces him to describe the horrible truth of his experience on Rakhat.

As a science fiction novel, The Sparrow breaks very little new ground. The reader will find no startling new technological or social ideas here, though Russell does a fine job of constructing two distinct alien races. The real value of this book is its exploration of spiritual matters. The the first few months on Rakhat go so well that even the agnostic and atheistic members of the crew begin to think that God might be watching over them. Nonetheless the mission ends in disaster, with most of the crew dead. Sandoz, who despite his priestly vows never developed a personal relationship with God, survives to ponder the implications. What kind of God would abuse human faith in such a callous manner?

In contrast with the weighty nature of its central issues, this book is quite an enjoyable read. This is due in part to the author's liberal application of humor. Russell has created a handful of genuinely funny characters who deliver one-liners and make smooth pop-culture references with frequent grace. She also takes pains to create real emotion in the religious figures, including imperfect faith and sexual attraction. This adds up to an engaging collection of people who draw the reader into the story. When it comes time to pay the piper, we know enough about them to truly appreciate the turmoil they endure.

The Sparrow is definitely worth a few hours of your time. It doesn't map any new sci-fi territory, but it will provoke you to examine your spiritual world-view. Fortunately Russell offers no pat, hollow answers in this book. Instead she offers a painful and wonderful look at what it means to exist. She gets it right: it's hard to be human no matter what planet you're on.

Purchase this at fatbrain.

Matthew Devost submitted a book review of Peter M. Black's Informatica 1.0. The book is an interesting one, and is sort of a collection of some of the coolest people, projects and resources around. Informatica 1.0: Access to the Best Tools for Masteringthe Info author Peter M. Black pages 398 publisher Random House, 09/1999 rating ? reviewer Matthew Devost ISBN 0-375-70637-2 (inclu summary Informatica is a fun and enlightening read and should appeal to a very broad audience, including the Slashdot community. Peter Black has scoured the net and the psyche of the scientific and geek communities to identify and document some of the coolest products, resources and initiatives in existence. When Peter first told me about this book project he described it as "The Whole Earth Catalog, 30 years later, without chemical toilets and backpacking gear". I was pleasantly surprised to discover that he exceeded his expectations. Informatica is an interesting and fun compendium of geek gadgets and resources.

The appeal of Informatica is not solely in the uniqueness of the items and concepts covered, but in the way they blend together to provide an extensive overview of the information age. The author doesn't focus exclusively on the bleeding edge, but rather weaves old and new together to provide the framework required to understand the historical and future implications of technology.

In addition, Peter has assembled relevant essays and other information that provide useful insights you wouldn't normally encounter. For example, on the pages that discuss FM radios, the book includes tables that list the frequencies used, expected signal ranges and an essay entitled "Creating the Motorola TalkAbout Two-Way Radio" by Frank Tyneski who actually designed them!

The layout of the book is intuitive and each page includes a useful sidebar providing an item description, date it was developed, price range, key features, recommended ages, obsolescence, and URL. While the layout allows for front-to-back reading, the book is best consumed in random order or used as a reference by making use of its table of contents or extensive index.

Most of the reviews are provided in the first person, adding an element of insightfulness and wit that book readers are not ordinarily subjected to. As a resident of Washington, D.C. I found Peter's review of Cloak and Dagger Books to be very entertaining and it provided a valuable pointer to replace a unique resource.
?Back in the eighties there was a wonderfully peculiar bookstore called the National Intelligence Book Center. It was hidden on the sixth floor of a non-descript building on K Street in Washington, D.C. You had to check your stuff (weapons? censors?) in lockers at the door and be buzzed in by someone who looked at you from behind bulletproof glass. It was weird, but it felt like it was for real. In the early nineties, the NIBC closed down?.now the best resource for these sorts of things is the Cloak and Dagger Bookstore"

The book is divided into five sections on hardware, sources, software, plasticware and paperware. Some sections are better developed than others. For example, the sections on hardware and sources are excellent, while the section on plasticware is lacking in both substance and insight. The listing below identifies a few of the items from each section that I found to be interesting:

HARDWARE:
Highly Portable Astronomical Telescope (pg. 8)
Pocket Thermo-Anemometer (pg. 19)
Sony VAIO (pg. 41)
Lego Mindstorms (pg. 48)
Sampling of Electronic Cars (pg. 54)
Empeg Linux-Powered Car Radio (pg. 63)
Suncatcher Solar Panel:Portable Power Source for Portable Devices (pg. 71)
Palm Pilot (pg. 75)

SOURCES:
www.howstuffworks.com (pg. 84)
The Obsolete Computer Museum (pg. 95)
National Cryptologic Museum and Web Site (pg. 102)
Tree of Life:Global Net-Based Distributed Database on Life (pg. 109)
The GPS Information Web Site (pg. 138)
Cloak and Dagger Books (pg. 142)
The Cathedral and the Bazaar (pg. 144)
The Coca Cola Formula (pg. 173)
The Slinky Physics Web Site (pg. 193)
Internet Mapping Project (pg. 211)
Slashdot (pg. 222)

SOFTWARE:
Digital Planetarium (pg. 240)
Enigma Cipher Simulator (pg. 246)
Truster:Software for Determining the Truth (pg. 256)

PLASTICWARE:
Powers of Ten VHS (pg. 265)

PAPERWARE:
The American Black Chamber (early crypto) (pg. 285)
The Puzzle Palace (pg. 286)
The Number Devil:A Mathematical Adventure (pg. 305)
A Spy's London: A Walk Book of 136 Sites in Central London Relating to Spies, Spycatchers, and Subversives (pg. 315)
Undercover Washington: Touring the Sites Where Infamous Spies Lived, Worked and Loved (pg. 320)
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (pg. 339)
Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century (pg. 378)

The book also serves as a useful time capsule for the turn of the Millennium. It documents current state of the art technologies that should make for interesting reading and reminiscing in twenty years or so. Some versions of the book also include a CDROM and there is a companion web site.

The author is the president of a software company in California and is known for his ability to track and understand new technologies. He was a contributor to Wired magazine during its first year of existence and was also one of the first multimedia publishers to provide content on DVD. Peter is an avid collector of eclectic knowledge and "cool" resources.He is notorious for carrying a small index card in his pocket on which he constantly notes new discoveries mined from casual conversations. In addition, he queried half a dozen friends in the industry and asked them to contribute items for inclusion in the book.

Informatica is a fun and enlightening read and should appeal to a very broad audience, including the Slashdot community.

Purchase this at fatbrain.

Jim Bumgardner took it upon himself to review two of the major Legos Mindstorms books out on the market. The first, O'Reilly's The Unofficial Guide to LEGO MINDSTORMS Robots, has been reviewed here before, but this review adds a comparsion to the second book. The second is from Apress Press, and is titled Dave Baum's Definitive Guide to LEGO Mindstorms (Technology In Action). Click below to learn how to use your Mindstorms more effectively. The Unofficial Guide to LEGO MINDSTORMS Robots & Dave Baum's De author Jonathan B. Knudsen & Dave Baum pages 266 publisher O'Reilly & Apress rating 8/10 reviewer Jim Bumgardner ISBN 1-56592-692-7 & 1-89 summary A broader overview of the Lego Mindstorms world, with coverage of alternativefirmware and building your own sensors. & An in-depth look at building and programming Lego Mindstorms Robots, witha particular emphasis on robot design and NQC programming. An Embarrassment of Lego (books) As you know, this year's best holiday gift for the important geek in your life is a Lego Mindstorms Robotic Invention System (RIS). Through strategic use of heavy-handed hinting, I managed to get my loved ones to purchase one for me a few weeks ago for my birthday. I've been obsessed with the thing ever since, and recently picked up copies of the two available books on the subject, which I'll compare for you below. Knudsen's book was reviewed here recently, while Baum's has not.

Since Robotics involves a lot of different disciplines, these books are going to have a pretty varied audience. In my case, I'm a longtime programmer and (extremely) novice robot builder who couldn't properly handle a soldering iron if my life depended on it. I'm not particularly interested in the chapters on the ins and outs of the C language, but very interested in things like gear ratios and sensing algorithms, which I never learned in school. The mileage you'll get out of these books will vary, depending on your background.

In the comparitive sections below, Knudsen's book (and Knudsen himself) will be referred to as K, while Baum's book (and Baum himself) will be referred to as B.

Cover First let's get the important stuff out of the way... K's cover is prettier, having a picture of a cute bunny wobot. It's an O'Reilly book after all.

Length B is 34 pages longer, but K uses a smaller font. I suspect B is a bit longer, but not by much.

Value Both are 25 bucks retail, and cheaper online (typically 20 bucks). B comes with a CD-ROM. K doesn't. The CD contains all the sample code, a copy of NQC and related utilities, some demos and a QuickTime movie showing the assembly of one of the simpler robots (tankbot). With the exception of the sample code, the CD-ROM is kind of superfluous.

Illustrations K uses photos, which have been tweaked in Photoshop to remove the backgrounds. B uses computer-generated models rendered in isometric projection (also known as "2 1/2 D" -- similar to what you see in the Lego Constructopedia). Both books' images are reproduced in B&W and suffer for it. It's particular hard to see (and count) the holes in black beams, for example.

B's illustrations are definitely clearer than K's, primarily due to the use of computer graphics. The isometric projection definitely helps in figuring out how pieces fit together. K's illustrations have helpful lists of pieces and arrows showing where they go, however there are problems due to poor constrast and fuzziness, as well as distortions introduced by the camera's perspective. Despite these problems, I managed to get even his most complex bot, Minerva, assembled relatively quickly.

Breadth and Depth In general, K has more breadth, while B has more depth. K's book includes more introductory material about robotics (e.g. "What is a Robot?"), while B jumps right into installation instructoins, assuming you know that stuff already (e.g. "Robotics is nothing new"). K covers a lot of ground, including various available software packages, such as pbForth and LegOS, while B sticks to RCX code and NQC. K also gets into some interesting topics not found in B such as Subsumption Architecture and building your own sensors. On the other hand, B gets much more in depth into specific programming and modelling issues. There are a lot more examples of algorithms for handling touch and light sensors, and discussion of specific problems that might arise and how to deal with them. B's line following algorithms are different, taking advantage of the percieved "gray area" on the edge of the black line, using upper and lower feedback limits, while K uses a "zig-zag" approach with a single threshhold value (when I implemented them, I found K's approach to be more effective - the "gray area" approach requires more minute adjustments). B also has good coverage of the strengths and weaknesses of the different mindstorm kits and parts.

Programming B coverage of algorithms is generally better, particular in his detailed handling of touch and light sensor issues. K has a nice example of Rodney Brooks' subsumption architecture, written in NQC.

B, being the author of NQC, makes NQC programming an intregal part of his book. Every program is shown in both RCX Code and NQC versions (although the RCX Code version is often seriously crippled (as needs be). Nonetheless, B appears to have more success in getting RCX Code to do useful things than K, who pretty much gives up on RCX Code after a couple of chapters. A personal note: I found RCX Code to be a general pain in the ass. Personally I'm not all that convinced that it is a better alternative for the novices it is aimed at. Especially when you have to go though such contortions to to get it to do such useful things. Is mouse pushing really all that simpler than typing?

Design Both books cover design reasonably well. I'd give the slight edge to B, who has a good design chapter before going into the specifics of building individual robots. The chapter not only covers some of the things covered in Fred Martin's "Art of Lego Design" paper, but also covers the use of Pulleys and Ratchets. K tends to weave similar design lessons directly into the chapters on specific bots. There are design issues in both books not covered by the other. B's discussion of stresses in bumpers is quite good. K has some nice examples of directional transmissions (which don't necessarily use the differential).

Robot Models Both writers' basic robots, are simpler and more utilitarian than their Lego counterparts from the RIS's Constructopedia, which tend to be a bit more fanciful (although K uses the all important wings parts for Minerva). Both books start with a basic tread robot which make ideal learning tools for learning to program with touch and light sensors. K's robot is geared down right away (for more power and lower speed). B doesn't gear down until the reduced speed is needed (for line following). B's book has designs and programs for 14 different robots, some mobile, some not. K only has 4 robots (all mobile robots). Both of these numbers are misleadingly high, since some of the bots are quite similar. Some of B's more advanced bots require extra parts not included in the RIS kit. In some cases, the extra parts are needed to explain an interesting concept, like rack and pinion steering. B includes some designs for some interesting non-mobile robots, such as a brick sorter and a vending machine, which reads lego "punch cards". Both books' final robot is an armed robot - apparently the holy grail of many robot designers (there's one depicted on the cover of the RIS kit which I'm guessing can't be built with the stock parts). B's robot, RoboArm, requires an extra motor and bricks. K's robot, Minerva, manages to do a lot of stuff using all stock parts from a single 1.0 RIS kit (he accomplishes this via a directional transmission and an ingenious one-motor grabber arm borrowed from Ben Williamson). When I built this model using my 1.5 kit (which has a slightly different allotment of pieces), I found I was missing a couple bevel gears needed to complete the model (I borrowed some old style "thin" bevel gears from my daughter's Lego bucket, but they're very flimsy). This bot certainly accomplishes a lot with relatively spare resources, although it is perhaps pushing the envelope too far, as the "arm" assembly tends to require frequent attention, as the author notes. I found it useful to test more advanced designs with a spare 9V battery box I had left over from an old Technic kit. You can also use your computer as a remote, for this purpose.

Online References K's online references are more thorough. Both books have the most important URL, of course, which is www.lugnet.com - the center of the online Lego universe.

Timeliness B, a little later to press, includes coverage of RIS 1.5, and differences between RIS 1.5 and 1.0 (they are relatively minor).

Writing Style K tends to wax a bit more eloquently. I like his prose better. B is a bit less philosophical and tends to dive right into discussions of procedures and problems. This has its merits too, as he devotes a little more time to the nitty gritty.

Conclusions In some ways, these books are a little bit superfluous. The whole point, it seems, of the Lego Mindstorms kits is to learn by doing - by playing with them. Also, a lot of the material in the books, such as coverage of NQC, LegOS and other software packages, can be easily found on the net. Nonetheless, I found myself compelled to suck up both books, and I'm sure I will ultimately use some of the tips and tricks I've learned from both.

The two books complement each other very well, and if you have the interest and the bucks, I would spring for both. Knudsen's book provides a broader overview of the Lego Mindstorm's world and robotics in general, while Baum provides a lot of valuable technical information on solving specific problems. Purchase The Unofficial Guide at fatbrain or grab Dave Baum's at from fatbrain as well.

Table of Contents (Baum)

• Preface
• Introduction
• History

• Part I-Building Fundamentals
  • Chapter 1 - Mechanics
  • Chapter 2 - Motors
  • Chapter 3 - Sensors
  • Chapter 4 - Basic Vehicles
• Part II-Programming Fundamentals
  • Chapter 5 -NQC
  • Chapter 6 - Robolab
  • Chapter 7 - Sequenced Operations
  • Chapter 8 - Event Based Programming
  • Chapter 9 - Making Decisions
  • Chapter 10 - Using Feedback
  • Chapter 11 - Data Logging
  • Chapter 12 - Using more than one RCX
  • Chapter 13 - Advanced Programming
• Part III-Robots
  • Chapter 14 - Garbage Truck
  • Chapter 15 - Copy Machine
  • Chapter 16 - Vending Machine (or ATM)
  • Chapter 17 - Robot Tag
  • Chapter 18 - Elevator
  • Chapter 19 - Brick Sorter
  • Chapter 20 - Electric Train Controller
  • Chapter 21 - Stair Climbing/Walking
  • Chapter 22 - Multiple-RCX Robot
  • Appendices
    • Appendix A. Other Resources
    • Appendix B. On-line Resources
    • Appendix C. Robolab Development Environment
    • Appendix D. Lego CyberMaster product
  Table of Contents (Knudsen)
  • Preface
    
  1. Welcome to MINDSTORMS
     • What Is a Robot?
     • Mobile Robots
     • What Is MINDSTORMS?
     • What Now?
     • Online Resources
  2. Hank, the Bumper Tank
     • About the Building Instructions
     • Building Instructions
     • A Simple Program
     • Wheels
     • Bumpers and Feelers
     • Gears
     • Multitasking
     • Online Resources
  3. Trusty, a Line Follower
     • Building Instructions
     • Some Tricky Programming
     • The Light Sensor
     • Idler Wheels
     • Using Two Light Sensors
     • Online Resources
  4. Not Quite C
     • A Quick Start
     • RCX Software Architecture
     • NQC Overview
     • Trusty Revisited
     • Online Resources
  5. Minerva, a Robot with an Arm
     • Building Instructions
     • Programming
     • Directional Transmission
     • Pulleys
     • Mechanical Design
     • Two Sensors, One Input
     • Where Am I?
     • Online Resources
  6. pbFORTH
     • Replacement Firmware
     • pbFORTH Overview
     • About Forth
     • pbFORTH Words
     • An Expensive Thermometer
     • Minerva Revisited
     • Debugging
     • Online Resources
  7. A Remote Control for Minerva
     • Two Heads Are Better Than One
     • The Allure of Telerobotics
     • Building Instructions
     • Programming the Remote Control
     • Programming Minerva
     • Online Resources
  8. Using Spirit:ocx with Visual Basic
     • You May Already Have Visual Basic
     • About Spirit:ocx
     • Calling Spirit:ocx Functions
     • Immediate and Delayed Gratif ication
     • Programs, Tasks, and Subroutines
     • Tips
     • Retrieving the Datalog
     • Online Resources
  9. RoboTag, a Game for Two Robots
     • Building Instructions
     • Subsumption Architecture
     • Online Resources
  10. legOS
      • About legOS
      • Development Tools
      • Hello, legOS
      • Function Reference
      • New Brains for Hank
      • Development Tips
      • Online Resources
  11. Make Your Own Sensors
      • Mounting
      • Passive Sensors
      • Powered Sensors
      • Touch Multiplexer
      • Other Neat Ideas
      • What About Actuators?
      • Online Resources
  • A: Finding Parts and Programming Environments
    
  • B: A pbFORTH Downloader
    
  • C: Future Directions
    

Jim Bumgardner took it upon himself to review two of the major Legos Mindstorms books out on the market. The first, O'Reilly's The Unofficial Guide to LEGO MINDSTORMS Robots, has been reviewed here before, but this review adds a comparsion to the second book. The second is from Apress Press, and is titled Dave Baum's Definitive Guide to LEGO Mindstorms (Technology In Action). Click below to learn how to use your Mindstorms more effectively. The Unofficial Guide to LEGO MINDSTORMS Robots & Dave Baum's De author Jonathan B. Knudsen & Dave Baum pages 266 publisher O'Reilly & Apress rating 8/10 reviewer Jim Bumgardner ISBN 1-56592-692-7 & 1-89 summary A broader overview of the Lego Mindstorms world, with coverage of alternativefirmware and building your own sensors. & An in-depth look at building and programming Lego Mindstorms Robots, witha particular emphasis on robot design and NQC programming. An Embarrassment of Lego (books) As you know, this year's best holiday gift for the important geek in your life is a Lego Mindstorms Robotic Invention System (RIS). Through strategic use of heavy-handed hinting, I managed to get my loved ones to purchase one for me a few weeks ago for my birthday. I've been obsessed with the thing ever since, and recently picked up copies of the two available books on the subject, which I'll compare for you below. Knudsen's book was reviewed here recently, while Baum's has not.

Since Robotics involves a lot of different disciplines, these books are going to have a pretty varied audience. In my case, I'm a longtime programmer and (extremely) novice robot builder who couldn't properly handle a soldering iron if my life depended on it. I'm not particularly interested in the chapters on the ins and outs of the C language, but very interested in things like gear ratios and sensing algorithms, which I never learned in school. The mileage you'll get out of these books will vary, depending on your background.

In the comparitive sections below, Knudsen's book (and Knudsen himself) will be referred to as K, while Baum's book (and Baum himself) will be referred to as B.

Cover First let's get the important stuff out of the way... K's cover is prettier, having a picture of a cute bunny wobot. It's an O'Reilly book after all.

Length B is 34 pages longer, but K uses a smaller font. I suspect B is a bit longer, but not by much.

Value Both are 25 bucks retail, and cheaper online (typically 20 bucks). B comes with a CD-ROM. K doesn't. The CD contains all the sample code, a copy of NQC and related utilities, some demos and a QuickTime movie showing the assembly of one of the simpler robots (tankbot). With the exception of the sample code, the CD-ROM is kind of superfluous.

Illustrations K uses photos, which have been tweaked in Photoshop to remove the backgrounds. B uses computer-generated models rendered in isometric projection (also known as "2 1/2 D" -- similar to what you see in the Lego Constructopedia). Both books' images are reproduced in B&W and suffer for it. It's particular hard to see (and count) the holes in black beams, for example.

B's illustrations are definitely clearer than K's, primarily due to the use of computer graphics. The isometric projection definitely helps in figuring out how pieces fit together. K's illustrations have helpful lists of pieces and arrows showing where they go, however there are problems due to poor constrast and fuzziness, as well as distortions introduced by the camera's perspective. Despite these problems, I managed to get even his most complex bot, Minerva, assembled relatively quickly.

Breadth and Depth In general, K has more breadth, while B has more depth. K's book includes more introductory material about robotics (e.g. "What is a Robot?"), while B jumps right into installation instructoins, assuming you know that stuff already (e.g. "Robotics is nothing new"). K covers a lot of ground, including various available software packages, such as pbForth and LegOS, while B sticks to RCX code and NQC. K also gets into some interesting topics not found in B such as Subsumption Architecture and building your own sensors. On the other hand, B gets much more in depth into specific programming and modelling issues. There are a lot more examples of algorithms for handling touch and light sensors, and discussion of specific problems that might arise and how to deal with them. B's line following algorithms are different, taking advantage of the percieved "gray area" on the edge of the black line, using upper and lower feedback limits, while K uses a "zig-zag" approach with a single threshhold value (when I implemented them, I found K's approach to be more effective - the "gray area" approach requires more minute adjustments). B also has good coverage of the strengths and weaknesses of the different mindstorm kits and parts.

Programming B coverage of algorithms is generally better, particular in his detailed handling of touch and light sensor issues. K has a nice example of Rodney Brooks' subsumption architecture, written in NQC.

B, being the author of NQC, makes NQC programming an intregal part of his book. Every program is shown in both RCX Code and NQC versions (although the RCX Code version is often seriously crippled (as needs be). Nonetheless, B appears to have more success in getting RCX Code to do useful things than K, who pretty much gives up on RCX Code after a couple of chapters. A personal note: I found RCX Code to be a general pain in the ass. Personally I'm not all that convinced that it is a better alternative for the novices it is aimed at. Especially when you have to go though such contortions to to get it to do such useful things. Is mouse pushing really all that simpler than typing?

Design Both books cover design reasonably well. I'd give the slight edge to B, who has a good design chapter before going into the specifics of building individual robots. The chapter not only covers some of the things covered in Fred Martin's "Art of Lego Design" paper, but also covers the use of Pulleys and Ratchets. K tends to weave similar design lessons directly into the chapters on specific bots. There are design issues in both books not covered by the other. B's discussion of stresses in bumpers is quite good. K has some nice examples of directional transmissions (which don't necessarily use the differential).

Robot Models Both writers' basic robots, are simpler and more utilitarian than their Lego counterparts from the RIS's Constructopedia, which tend to be a bit more fanciful (although K uses the all important wings parts for Minerva). Both books start with a basic tread robot which make ideal learning tools for learning to program with touch and light sensors. K's robot is geared down right away (for more power and lower speed). B doesn't gear down until the reduced speed is needed (for line following). B's book has designs and programs for 14 different robots, some mobile, some not. K only has 4 robots (all mobile robots). Both of these numbers are misleadingly high, since some of the bots are quite similar. Some of B's more advanced bots require extra parts not included in the RIS kit. In some cases, the extra parts are needed to explain an interesting concept, like rack and pinion steering. B includes some designs for some interesting non-mobile robots, such as a brick sorter and a vending machine, which reads lego "punch cards". Both books' final robot is an armed robot - apparently the holy grail of many robot designers (there's one depicted on the cover of the RIS kit which I'm guessing can't be built with the stock parts). B's robot, RoboArm, requires an extra motor and bricks. K's robot, Minerva, manages to do a lot of stuff using all stock parts from a single 1.0 RIS kit (he accomplishes this via a directional transmission and an ingenious one-motor grabber arm borrowed from Ben Williamson). When I built this model using my 1.5 kit (which has a slightly different allotment of pieces), I found I was missing a couple bevel gears needed to complete the model (I borrowed some old style "thin" bevel gears from my daughter's Lego bucket, but they're very flimsy). This bot certainly accomplishes a lot with relatively spare resources, although it is perhaps pushing the envelope too far, as the "arm" assembly tends to require frequent attention, as the author notes. I found it useful to test more advanced designs with a spare 9V battery box I had left over from an old Technic kit. You can also use your computer as a remote, for this purpose.

Online References K's online references are more thorough. Both books have the most important URL, of course, which is www.lugnet.com - the center of the online Lego universe.

Timeliness B, a little later to press, includes coverage of RIS 1.5, and differences between RIS 1.5 and 1.0 (they are relatively minor).

Writing Style K tends to wax a bit more eloquently. I like his prose better. B is a bit less philosophical and tends to dive right into discussions of procedures and problems. This has its merits too, as he devotes a little more time to the nitty gritty.

Conclusions In some ways, these books are a little bit superfluous. The whole point, it seems, of the Lego Mindstorms kits is to learn by doing - by playing with them. Also, a lot of the material in the books, such as coverage of NQC, LegOS and other software packages, can be easily found on the net. Nonetheless, I found myself compelled to suck up both books, and I'm sure I will ultimately use some of the tips and tricks I've learned from both.

The two books complement each other very well, and if you have the interest and the bucks, I would spring for both. Knudsen's book provides a broader overview of the Lego Mindstorm's world and robotics in general, while Baum provides a lot of valuable technical information on solving specific problems. Purchase The Unofficial Guide at fatbrain or grab Dave Baum's at from fatbrain as well.

Table of Contents (Baum)

• Preface
• Introduction
• History

• Part I-Building Fundamentals
  • Chapter 1 - Mechanics
  • Chapter 2 - Motors
  • Chapter 3 - Sensors
  • Chapter 4 - Basic Vehicles
• Part II-Programming Fundamentals
  • Chapter 5 -NQC
  • Chapter 6 - Robolab
  • Chapter 7 - Sequenced Operations
  • Chapter 8 - Event Based Programming
  • Chapter 9 - Making Decisions
  • Chapter 10 - Using Feedback
  • Chapter 11 - Data Logging
  • Chapter 12 - Using more than one RCX
  • Chapter 13 - Advanced Programming
• Part III-Robots
  • Chapter 14 - Garbage Truck
  • Chapter 15 - Copy Machine
  • Chapter 16 - Vending Machine (or ATM)
  • Chapter 17 - Robot Tag
  • Chapter 18 - Elevator
  • Chapter 19 - Brick Sorter
  • Chapter 20 - Electric Train Controller
  • Chapter 21 - Stair Climbing/Walking
  • Chapter 22 - Multiple-RCX Robot
  • Appendices
    • Appendix A. Other Resources
    • Appendix B. On-line Resources
    • Appendix C. Robolab Development Environment
    • Appendix D. Lego CyberMaster product
  Table of Contents (Knudsen)
  • Preface
    
  1. Welcome to MINDSTORMS
     • What Is a Robot?
     • Mobile Robots
     • What Is MINDSTORMS?
     • What Now?
     • Online Resources
  2. Hank, the Bumper Tank
     • About the Building Instructions
     • Building Instructions
     • A Simple Program
     • Wheels
     • Bumpers and Feelers
     • Gears
     • Multitasking
     • Online Resources
  3. Trusty, a Line Follower
     • Building Instructions
     • Some Tricky Programming
     • The Light Sensor
     • Idler Wheels
     • Using Two Light Sensors
     • Online Resources
  4. Not Quite C
     • A Quick Start
     • RCX Software Architecture
     • NQC Overview
     • Trusty Revisited
     • Online Resources
  5. Minerva, a Robot with an Arm
     • Building Instructions
     • Programming
     • Directional Transmission
     • Pulleys
     • Mechanical Design
     • Two Sensors, One Input
     • Where Am I?
     • Online Resources
  6. pbFORTH
     • Replacement Firmware
     • pbFORTH Overview
     • About Forth
     • pbFORTH Words
     • An Expensive Thermometer
     • Minerva Revisited
     • Debugging
     • Online Resources
  7. A Remote Control for Minerva
     • Two Heads Are Better Than One
     • The Allure of Telerobotics
     • Building Instructions
     • Programming the Remote Control
     • Programming Minerva
     • Online Resources
  8. Using Spirit:ocx with Visual Basic
     • You May Already Have Visual Basic
     • About Spirit:ocx
     • Calling Spirit:ocx Functions
     • Immediate and Delayed Gratif ication
     • Programs, Tasks, and Subroutines
     • Tips
     • Retrieving the Datalog
     • Online Resources
  9. RoboTag, a Game for Two Robots
     • Building Instructions
     • Subsumption Architecture
     • Online Resources
  10. legOS
      • About legOS
      • Development Tools
      • Hello, legOS
      • Function Reference
      • New Brains for Hank
      • Development Tips
      • Online Resources
  11. Make Your Own Sensors
      • Mounting
      • Passive Sensors
      • Powered Sensors
      • Touch Multiplexer
      • Other Neat Ideas
      • What About Actuators?
      • Online Resources
  • A: Finding Parts and Programming Environments
    
  • B: A pbFORTH Downloader
    
  • C: Future Directions
    

CACL, oh he of the great name, has given us a nice review of Gates of Fire. Gates of Fire is historical fiction set during the Greek Golden Age, historically accurate, with stomach-wrenching battle scenes. Click below to learn more if the thought of being a Spartan gives you great joy. Gates of Fire author Steven Pressfield pages 442 publisher Bantam Books, 10/1999 rating 9/10 reviewer CACL ISBN 0553580531 summary An adrenalin rush that makes you want to be a Spartan The Scenario

In 480 BC, The Persian Empire under Xerxes sent two million men into the Greek peninsula intending to incorporate the territory into their ever expanding realm. 300 Spartans, trained since childhood that the only thing worth being was a warrior, met the Persians at Thermopylae with only a handful of allies. The place was carefully chosen so that the Spartans could not be surrounded and just swept from the field. They still lost. They went into it knowing they never had a chance, but they managed to kill hundreds of thousands of the enemy, and buy time for the rest of Greece to rally and drive the Persians out of Europe. This battle is consistently rated in the top five most influential of all time. The Spartans literally managed to save western civilization as we know it.

Steven Pressfield manages to weave a convincing narrative told through a squire of the Spartans, who narrates his story to Xerxes after the Spartan defeat at Thermopylae. Xerxes wants to know what it is about the Spartans that made them stand the field, and is worried about what 5,000 Spartans could do when only 300 nearly beat his best army. The squire, Xeo, was the guy who carried your extra spears into battle, and would pull your dead body out if things went poorly. Telling the story through him rather than a Spartan allows Pressfield to keep a distance from the inner working of the Spartan mindset that allowed him to reveal that world view one piece at a time.

What emerges is a story that is sure to make your testosterone pump up a few levels. Not that women cannot enjoy this story. The female characters in the story are, if anything, tougher than their Spartan husbands. This is also not a tale of gratuitous physical violence, despite the subject matter. War is hell, and Pressfield spends alot of time discussing why that is, and what sorts of courage it takes for a man to go into it again and again, and the courage a woman has in watching him go.

What's Bad?

The biggest thing that is bad is that Spartans are now a cheesey mascot for the Michigan State sports teams. But still, this book does have it's weak points. The beginning is slow to build, but once you get through the first chapter, you're in clear water. I also found some of the personal details surrounding the life of the protagonist to be gratuitous, and not meaningfully enhancing the story itself.

The book can also be brutal. An early scene involves a boy who receives a beating, but rather than cry out and admit weakness, he allows himself to be beaten to death. The battle descriptions are also pretty rough, but no more than what they really would have been at the time. It's not these are bad features of the book, just something you may want to know if you have a weak stomach.

What's Good?

Pressfield has done his research. His acknowledgments at the end of the book cite some historians, including John Keegan, who are the best alive today. He's also done his own reading of ancient texts and historians, allowing him to paint a picture of ancient Hellenistic society that is fresh and accurate. You will really stop thinking of the classics as boring when you finish reading this book. The details of everything, from the set up of a Spartan farmhouse, to the lush detail on hoplite battle practices, in this book are well researched and rich.

Also, there is a lot of thought behind this book. The Spartans are not mindless fighters, they have deep rooted philosophies that Pressfield tries to project. The nature of courage is discussed intelligently and at length. The idea of polis, those things that make a city more than a group of bricks, is discussed in a better way than a hundred pompous community building papers I've read lately. This book deserves its status on the bestseller list.

So What's In It For Me?

"Although extraordinary valor was displayed by the entire corps of Spartans and Thespians, yet bravest of all was declared the Spartan Dienekes. It is said that on the eve of battle, he was told by a native of Trachis that the Persian archers were so numerous that, when they fired their volleys, the mass of arrows blocked out the sun. Dienekes, however, quite undaunted by this prospect, remarked with a laugh, 'Good. Then we'll have our battle in the shade.'" Herodotus, The Histories

You will get a glimpse into a life you will probably never have, of men the type you will never meet and leadership that you will never see. You will look at your own arms and imagine them clad in bronze armor and carrying a spear in defense of your people. You will look at your friends and wonder how they would fare at your side shielding you against maddened attackers. You will be, for only a passing moment, a Spartan.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

Well, with Christmas just around the corner, I'd like to thank Joe Mahoney for sending us a review of Can Reindeer Fly - The Science of Christmas, known in the States as The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey. It's an amusing little piece - and just in time for holiday shopping, I offer this blatant plug: Jon Katz' new book Geeks is ready for pre-order at ThinkGeek. It's really good, even though it's dedicated to two bozos who run this site. *grin* Can Reindeer Fly - The Science of Christmas author Roger Highfield pages 294 publisher Metro Books, 11/1998 rating 8/10 reviewer Joe Mahoney ISBN 0316366110 summary A fascinating discussion of the mechanics of Christmas magic The Scenario Can Reindeer Fly is a book about the culture, science, technologies and traditions that contribute to the Christmas season. Dr Highfield is a respected author and scientist who has written a well researched book that will appeal to a wide variety of people.

What's Good? If you liked the various 'Science of Star Trek' books and websites, you will probably enjoy this book. Dr Highfield covers almost every area of modern day science - from genetics to quantum theory to dieting to explain or theorize about many of the different aspects of Christmas. Christmas in different cultures is discussed too, with chapters on food and gift giving around the world. I really enjoyed Dr Highfield's approach. Rather than trying to disprove theories and legends, he tries to use every scientific tool available to see if something could be done - this is especially true in a chapter on the virgin birth of Jesus. Unfortunatley, Dr Highfield wasn't able to conclude that Santa Claus employs warp powered reindeer to boot it round the earth on Christmas eve :- What's Bad? This probably isn't an issue for most slashdot readers, but I found there was a definite Northern Hemisphere bias. Several chapters take it for granted that Christmas will be celebrated in the middle of Winter. Where I live, Dec 25 is usually a hot summer day and rather than building a snowman after a huge turky dinner, I am more likely to lie in the sun after a huge BBQ. It's not a big issue and it doesn't really detract from the text in any way.

So What's In It For Me? ThereÕs really something for everyone in 'Can Reindeer Fly'. If you want to know about the origins of the Christmas tree and other traditions there are several chapters to keep you happy. Interested in astronomy? A chapter on the Bethlehem star is what you're after. Science geeks will be interested in chapters on Snow and the tech involved to get a sleigh to travel to the hopes of every good little boy and girl. Dieticians will be interested in the chapter on Santa's diet and genetics.

Purchase this boook at fatbrain.

Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgements
2. Introduction: Christmas and the Scientist
3. 1. The Bethlehem Star
4. 2. Miracle
5. 3. Santa and Those Reindeer
6. 4. Gluttony; Santa's Genetics
7. 5. The flame and the Tree
8. 6. Giving and Shopping
9. 7. Snow
10. 8. Festive Fare
11. 9. Christmas Spirit
12. 10. Christmas Blues and Seasonal Moods
13. 11. Santa's Science
14. 12 Christmas 2020
15. Appendix The Formula for Christmas Day
16. Glossary
17. Bibliography
18. Index

While I've been sitting on this for a little while, chromatic has been patient. Yes, it's his review of Kent Beck's Extreme Programming Explained. The publisher is Addison-Wesley, and the book is for all those people out there who need to do programming but don't have time to do the engineering phase. Interesting book - click thru to read more. Extreme Programming Explained author Kent Beck pages 179 publisher Addison Wesley, 09/1999 rating 7/10 reviewer chromatic ISBN 0201616416 summary Extreme Programming Explained explains the virtues of the Extreme Programmer and shows you how to develop them.

The Hook

Want to write better code? How about working less overtime, getting along with your team better, meeting customer demands more quickly and accurately, spending less money, and having more fun?

Extreme Programming may be for you.

Be prepared to make some adjustments and sacrifices. Individual code ownership? Gone. Programming for the future? Slow down, cowboy. Working on your own? Grab a partner and dance.

What's the Scoop?

Extreme Programming is a way to improve software development by focusing on what really matters. If it will cost you $50,000 to implement a feature now that may not be used for two years, and it will cost you $55,000 to implement it in two years, hold off. If running test suites is good, write tests for every significant piece of the system. If multiple pairs of eyes make bugs shallower, program in pairs. If you enjoy meeting deadlines (and not working your fingers to the bone every night for weeks to do so), make shorter deadlines.

It sounds simple, even deceptively so. It may also set your teeth on edge at first.

Imagine that your customer has the time and the manpower to send a representative to sit with your programming team. He is actively involved in the design, writing 'stories' about how the system works for the end users. Every morning and afternoon, your programmers meet to decide which tasks to tackle, and they pair off, sharing one computer between them. One person codes and the other watches, and they switch off as necessary.

With every change to the system, the previous tests are rerun until they work perfectly, and new tests are added to test new functionality. Changes are not commited until all tests run successfully.

Releases are started early (six months, for a big programming project) and continue quickly after that (every couple of months). With a customer sitting in with the programmers, feedback can be instantaneous. The initial investment pays off quickly, while expenses are spread out over a greater period of time.

With no one owning a particular section of code, and with everyone working with different partners from day to day, everyone should have a good overview of the system as a whole. This can lead to better programming, from less bugs to very quick refactoring. New programmers can also be brought in and up to speed much more quickly.

What's to Like?

The book is clear and readable -- even funny. Chapters are short and to the point. Beck uses the metaphor of driving to bring his point across. (Driving is not about pointing in the right direction and maintaining that course, it's about making slight corrections all of the time.)

The bibliography is a great place to find some classic works (including books by Brooks and Knuth and even the movie 'The Princess Bride' -- no, really!).

Extreme Programming itself has a lot of promise. Some of the principles (programming for today, releasing early and often, peer review, community code ownership) fit in pretty well with open source/free software. Some of the other ones would be nice to see....

What Might Annoy You?

It's not clear where Extreme Programming fails. To the author's credit, he mentions this and gives some guidelines, but the choice and the implementation ultimately rest with the managers and bean counters. There will be some resistance at first, but Beck's enthusiasm is infectious and his clarity of explanation might be enough to overcome it.

The Wrapup

If you're a member of or a manager of a moderate programming team, you ought to read this book. It will go nicely on the shelf next to "The Mythical-Man Month". If you're curious about new ways to look at programming (especially in a group), you'll want to pick it up.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

Table of Contents

1. The Problem
   1. Risk: The Basic Problem
   2. A Development Episode
   3. Economics of Software Development
   4. Four Variables
   5. Cost of Change
   6. Learning to Drive
   7. Four Values
   8. Basic Principles
   9. Back to Basics
2. The Solution
   1. Quick Overview
   2. How Could This Work?
   3. Management Strategy
   4. Facilities Strategy
   5. Splitting Business and Technical Responsibility
   6. Planning Strategy
   7. Development Strategy
   8. Design Strategy
   9. Testing Strategy
3. Implementing XP
   1. Adopting XP
   2. Retrofitting XP
   3. Lifecycle of an Ideal XP Project
   4. Roles for People
   5. 20-80 Rule
   6. What Makes XP Hard
   7. When You Shouldn't Try XP
   8. XP at Work
   9. Conclusion

chromatic has returned with yet another review. For this time around, he's taken a look at O'Reilly's Practical Internet Groupware. As you would imagine, the book focuses on using software to better enable groups to work together. Jon Udell, the author, does a great job of exploring how to use technology to better work together. Practical Internet Groupware author Jon Udell pages 497 publisher O'Reilly, 10/1999 rating 8/10 reviewer chromatic ISBN 1565925378 summary A detailed discussion of how and why to connect your users and customers to information and to each other using common Internet protocols and applications. Problem Space Successfully managing the flow of information depends answering a few questions. How do people communicate? How do they find information? How can businesses provide information links between their employees and customers?

Even if you do provide them with tools to collaborate and to manage data more efficiently, how can you ensure that they will use them? What will the future of business and personal computing look like?

The Solution Practical Internet Groupware argues that we already have the blocks we need to build rich communication tools -- open Internet protocols, ubiquitous web browsers, e-mail clients, and newsgroup readers, and quick and dirty scripting languages. By understanding and applying the various technologies appropriately, you can not only reduce the burden of creating, aggregating, and retrieving data, but also enhance its availability and utility. What's Good? Take the word 'Practical' very seriously. While the bulk of the programming examples are Perl, there's JavaScript, VB, Java, and XML thrown in the mix. Udell also stresses working within your existing environment -- whether that means activating the NNTP server included with IIS 4.0 on an NT server or installing INN on the Linux box in the corner. He's also very pragmatic. While XML is poised to be a much cleaner tool, its still-limited availability means that the book spends time presenting solutions which work in the here-and-now heterogenous quick and dirty landscape. Of course, there's also information about shiny new (and mature-but-not-yet-widespread) standards such as LDAP.

Also, Udell's experience in the field of collaboration includes years developing and polishing groupware solutions at Byte magazine. Clearly, he has a passion for the subject as well as a deep understanding of the issues involved. Both shine through in his writing.

Through the pages, Udell develops a handful of interesting and useful applications. One is a Docbase system, which blends together a newsgroup, a database, and a web site with indexed searching, various levels of access, and data entry capabilities. Another grabs content from various web sites and merges it into a consistent whole.

The most interesting project in the whole book is something called Distributed HTTP. It's a Perl-based web server that actually runs on client machines. It's easily extensible (with Perl), supporting authentication, modular database access, and replication with other servers. It's really a clever piece of work. (Just imagine remote data entry from field technicians equipped with laptops, or browsing reports from other locations, and that's the tip of the iceberg.)

What's Not So Good? Like most trailblazing works, the biggest frustration is realizing that there are great ideas here that few people have realized yet. As such, expect to be one part cheerleader, one part trainer, one part pariah, and one part referee if you're implementing things. Also, if you're not somewhat familiar with common Internet protocols such as HTTP, NNTP, and SMTP, or with the concepts and execution of HTML and XML, or with general Perl, you'll have to play catchup through the later chapters. Summary It's hard not to believe that Practical Internet Groupware is a year ahead of the curve -- Udell's approach to technology and the seamless integration of various information stores is a tempting vision. If you're directing rivulets data, get this book, let your boss read the first section, and then set about transforming the way you do business. If you're interested in where the Internet and business are headed, get this book.

The cover animals are seals and sea lions.

Table of Contents

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

1. Using Internet Groupware
2. 1. The Conferencing Dimension
   2. Public Online Communities
   3. Intranet Collaboration with NNTP and HTML
   4. Information Management Strategies for Groupware Users
3. Groupware Docbases
4. 1. Docbases as Groupware Applications
   2. Docbase Input Techniques
   3. Docbase Navigation
   4. Organizing Search Results
5. Groupware Applications and Services
6. 1. Conferencing Applications
   2. Groupware Servlets
   3. Membership Services
   4. Authentication and Authorization Techniques
   5. Deploying NNTP Discussion Servers
7. Advanced Internet Groupware
8. 1. Automating Internet Components
   2. Distributed HTTP
   3. Epilogue
9. Appendixes
10. 1. Software Developed for this Book
    2. Internet RFCs: A Groupware Perspective

handorf writes "Joseph Heller, the author of the famous Catch-22 (which, as far as I'm concerned, is about working at my company) died Sunday. The obituary is on CNN. " The man was a genius. Coupled with losses like Burroughs and Ginsburg, the American literary body has been taking a beating over the last decade, so let's remember who we've still got left.

We've got another science fiction review today, this time of Sean McMullen's Souls in the Great Machine. The book is about a post-apocalyptic future with the re-birth of technology - click below to learn more if you want this book in your stocking this year. Souls in the Great Machine author Sean McMullen pages 448 publisher Tor, 06/1999 rating 8/10 reviewer Sviluppo Lavoro ISBN 0-312-87055-8 summary The rebirth of technology in a world 2000 years after a global apocalypse and a new dark age. The Scenario The novel takes place in Australia about 2000 years in the future, following a great catastrophe (which takes place about 100-200 years from the present). This catastrophe created a period of global drop in temperature known as Greatwinter. There are no electrical devices, due to the presence of orbiting satellites (known as Wanderers) that pass over periodically and EMP the hell out of any device using electricity. Thus, the technology of the civilization is limited to clockwork and human powered machines (there are various religious sanctions against the use of steam power--a leftover fear of global warming and its consequences, which are believed by the people to have caused the eventual Greatwinter). It is the latter category that brings out the most impressive feature of the novel, the Calculor. The main librarian of the city of Rochester creates an analog computer using human prisoners as components. They work together as a giant processor to perform the functions of a computer. In fact, the prisoners are referred to as FUNCTION 9, MULTIPLIER 342, etc. The librarian, Zavora, is using the Calculor to try to predict the coming of a second Greatwinter, which does not appear to have resulted from internal causes on earth but rather an exterior force. The discovery and investigation of this force is quite fascinating. There is also a force on land known as the Call, which lures people to the southeast and eventually into the ocean. This may seem like fantasy fiction, but if you stay with the novel a rational explanation is offered. Although I was turned off by that particular plot device in the beginning, it is a unique idea, especially once it is fully understood. In the meantime, you have plenty of blood and action supplied by a large war and plenty of small duels (the preferred method of justice), and a healthy sprinkling of sex and drinking (mainly supplied by the Han Solo character John Glasken).

What's Bad? The novel does a poor job of getting you hooked at the beginning. It takes a little while to get to the plot, and itÕs also difficult to see how the novel is going to deal with such issues as nanotechnology and genetic engineering when youÕre wading through pages of medieval technology and society. But there are wonderful rewards for readers who stick with it. Also, I found the dueling to be impractical for continual conflict resolution, as it would end up with a lot of dead people and a few dictators who happened to be good with a pistol. But this isnÕt a particularly enlightened society.

What's Good? The variety of subjects covered in a novel this size without being an epic. The writing style is excellent, and doesnÕt put you to sleep or give you the whole picture all at once. IÕve never read anything else by him, but apparently heÕs fairly well received in Australia. (Any comments from readers in Oz?) The numerous positive aspects of this novel are covered in more thorough detail in the following paragraph...

So What's In It For Me? The range of issues is immense. Nanotechnology and genetic engineering are presented not as cure-alls or as the cause of all of the worldÕs problems, but as part of technology as a whole, which can be used for good or evil. There are also ingenious solutions to communication in a non-electronic world, and the use of encryption as part of that communication. The human computer system is an intriguing thought experiment, and I would love to see smaller scale versions tried out in math classrooms and computer science classes. Imagine a lecture on networking in which students carry pieces of paper back and forth and groups of students process the information or send it on to the next group, depending on where that particular packet is needed... But I digress. Something that springs up on you is the excellent treatment of women in the novel. Women hold many important positions in the main civilization featured in the novel, and are the holders of most of the important information. The main character is an incredibly complex woman whose motives are not completely understood until the very end. McMullen manages to accomplish this without putting the women on some sort of goddess-pedestal or making men into unthinking troglodytes. The novel also covers issues of religion, where language and science would go given 2000 years of isolation and no modern technology, and the never-say-never tenacity of the human race to pull itself up through a second Renaissance. It appears as though there will be some other novels to follow this one, so it should be a good series to read.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

John Regehr sent us an excellent review of Mastering Algorithims with Perl, another O'Reilly & Associates effort. Written by Jon Orwant, Jarkko Hietaniemi, and John Macdonald, this is a book designed to take your Perl to a new level of wizardery. Mastering Algo author Jon Orwant, Jarkko Hietaniemi, and John Macdonald pages 704 publisher O'Reilly, 08/1999 rating 8/10 reviewer John Regehr ISBN 1-56592-398-7 summary The intended audience is programmers who don't have a background incomputer science, who know at least some Perl. However, experiencedprogrammers who don't know Perl should have no trouble picking up thebasics of the language with this book and a copy of ProgrammingPerl. In The New Hacker's Dictionary under "superprogrammer," we read that "productivity can vary from one programmer to another by three orders of magnitude." I would argue that at least one of these factors of ten comes from the ability to quickly recognize what algorithms should be used to solve different parts of a problem and to find or write implementations of those algorithms that will result in an efficient program, given the available time and the characteristics of the problem. This ability is developed through experience and by understanding the highlights of the large body of algorithms and analysis of algorithms that has been developed to solve problems that occur over and over again in computer programs.

Mastering Algorithms with Perl is designed to provide the necessary background. It's structured like a traditional algorithms textbook: after describing some basic and advanced data structures (linked lists, trees, heaps, etc.), it has chapters about searching, sorting, sets, matrices, graphs, strings, and some related topics. After the introduction and discussion of data structures, the chapters are relatively independent and could be read in any order. The authors provide plenty of cross-references as well as pointers to books that describe individual subjects in more detail.

The intended audience is programmers who don't have a background in computer science, who know at least some Perl. However, experienced programmers who don't know Perl should have no trouble picking up the basics of the language with this book and a copy of Programming Perl. Also, computer scientists can often use a review of algorithms, and the CPAN pointers are very useful. So, I would go so far as to say that this book would enrich any programmer's bookshelf. A stringent test of the merit of a new technical book is to ask if it adds some value, given the best existing books in its area? I think that Mastering Algorithms with Perl definitely does. It is a well-written introduction to algorithms that is more accessible, practical, and entertaining than standard algorithm books. It leverages off of the strengths of a powerful language and a large base of reusable code.

The rest of this review will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Mastering Algorithms with Perl in more depth. The central issue that I will consider is why the reader might or might not prefer an algorithms book that concentrates on a single language, as opposed to a general algorithms book. I will try to be up-front about my biases: as a computer scientist, I consider this book to be a compromise between an algorithms book and a how-to manual. This compromise makes it much more useful to Perl programmers, but it sometimes causes the algorithms content to be too watered down.

It is traditional in algorithms books to describe algorithms in pseudocode, which often superficially resembles Pascal. The difference between pseudocode and real code is that pseudocode is not compilable - it ignores implementation details that are not helpful to understanding a particular example. This is considered to be an advantage: without the clutter, the core of the algorithm is easier to see and understand. At the beginning of the book the authors make the point that the Perl code for a binary search is actually shorter than the corresponding pseudocode. And it's true! The advantage of the Perl program is that we have a readable description of the algorithm, and it's executable too. (Unfortunately, it's often nontrivial to convert pseudocode into real source code - the devil is in the details.) The binary search example is slightly misleading, however, because in this case a native Perl data structure (the array) matches the semantics of the problem extremely well, leading to a clear and concise implementation. Later in the book, particularly in the chapter on graphs, we see examples where Perl's built-in data structures are less well suited to the problems. The executable Perl code for graph operations are much longer than the corresponding pseudocode, and are often so syntactically cluttered that they are difficult to read. Is this a flaw in the book or in Perl? No - it's a consequence of giving examples in runnable code instead of pseudocode. Is the tradeoff worth it? Probably, but it depends on what you're trying to get out of the book.

Another consequence of basing an algorithms book on a real language is that the authors can point readers to existing implementations of the algorithms, in CPAN. It's hard to overstate how big of a win this is. Perl is a powerful language to begin with, but it becomes far more powerful when programmers are able to take advantage of the large body of existing code modules. An unfortunate side effect of the fact that the book talks about specific versions of Perl and about specific CPAN packages is that this information will become outdated much more quickly than the algorithms will. Unless the Perl language and CPAN are exceptionally stable in the future, I would not expect most of this information to be valid for more than a few years - hopefully a new version of the book will be available before this one becomes too out of date.

Because the book provides executable code for the algorithms, it's possible to evaluate the performance of the example code (which is available at the O'Reilly site). The authors benchmark a number of the algorithms that they present, and compare the results. This is a nice change from the discussion of asymptotic running times found in traditional algorithm books, which generally ignore the constant factors that often make the difference between an algorithm being useful in practice or not.

The design and analysis of algorithms is a highly mathematical discipline. A sophisticated set of tools has been developed to evaluate the tradeoffs between various algorithms: How efficiently do they use memory and processor cycles? What is the best, average, and worst case running time of various operations? How does the algorithm scale as the size of the input grows? As it turns out, programmers need to understand a few of these formalisms, particularly the "big O" notation for describing asymptotic running time. I think that Mastering Algorithms with Perl uses theory in just the right way: as an aid to programmers' intuition about algorithms, rather than beating us over the head with formulae and proofs. That said, I think there is one area of theory that this book should have spent more time on: NP completeness. NP-complete problems are solvable, but are believed to be inherently hard: no efficient algorithm has been discovered to solve them. There are a wide variety of NP-complete problems, and they do come up in practice. For programmers, the important thing is first to recognize that an NP-complete problem has been encountered, and that it cannot be solved exactly except in small instances. Then, a heuristic that comes up with a good enough approximation of the solution needs to be found and implemented. This is a practical and well-studied part of algorithm design, and in a 650-page book I would expect more than a page or two to be devoted to it.

Several chapters of Mastering Algorithms with Perl are too shallow to be considered good introductions to the associated areas of algorithms. For example, the chapter on matrices only shows code for some of the more trivial matrix operations; for complex tasks, it tells the reader how to use PDL - the Perl Data Language. Although PDL looks like a useful and powerful package, readers should not confuse knowing how to use it with understanding matrix algorithms. In other words, the matrix chapter is too much of a how-to manual. Other chapters such as the ones on searching and sorting are excellent and avoid falling into this trap. Algorithms is a huge area, and it can't all be covered well in 650 pages. The later chapters are a lot of fun to read, but some of them should probably have been scrapped in favor of more depth in core areas.

In conclusion, this is a well-written, useful book. Viewed as a Perl book it's superb; it complements the strengths of Programming Perl and The Perl Cookbook, and I think most or all Perl programmers would benefit from having a copy. Viewed as a computer science book, it has made a number of compromises in order to focus on a specific language; this is not necessarily a problem but it is something that readers should be aware of.

Acknowledgments: Thanks to Tom Christiansen, Dave Coppit, Bill Pearson, and Jamie Raymond for helpful comments on previous drafts of this review.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

Lawrence Lessig - the name may be familiar from the Microsoft trial - has written an excellent book, which I've taken my time reviewing because I felt I had to read it twice to grasp the full import. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace covers the real future of your liberties on the internet, and it is not a happy book. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace author Lawrence Lessig pages 297 publisher Basic Books rating 10/10 reviewer Michael Sims ISBN 0-465-03912-X summary A gloomy look at the forces which shape the internet.

Slashdot isn't the first to review this book. Declan McCullagh (Wired), Andy Oram, and Carl Kaplan (NY Times) have all taken a look at it, he's been interviewed, there's an audio debate (mp3 format) between Lessig and McCullagh, and at least a couple of other places have all mentioned it and it is, at this writing, 134 on Amazon.com's best-seller list. I was privileged enough to receive a review copy of the book some time ago, but my review has been delayed because the book is too deep to easily sum up. It's a book about law, and about policy, and about the internet, which doesn't require any grounding in any of the above, but it seems like it would be appropriate for people at almost any level of knowledge - if you know more, you'll get deeper insights, and if you know less, you'll get the basics. A fractal book, in other words. An almost philosophical work, disguised as a law book.

To start with, Lessig's book is a counter to John Perry Barlow's Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. Barlow had a good idea, a good goal, but he was totally and completely wrong about how to achieve it, and his declaration and the mindset it embodies has and will do great harm to the future of civil liberties on the internet.

Cyberspace is not and has never been independent of real life, or of government. What it has been is a place where the rules of real life were hard to enforce. That doesn't mean that the rules don't exist - just that it has been hard to make people obey them. The problem for people, like me, who like this state of affairs, this lack of enforcement, is that there's no reason cyberspace has to remain in its current state.

Cyberspace wasn't designed to enforce real-world rules. Such enforcement wasn't built in to the code that runs the internet, was consciously avoided in the early internet designs, and therefore regulators have been working in an environment unfriendly to them. Copying of digital works is easy. Transmitting and receiving content, even forbidden content, is easy. Etc.

But just because it was designed that way once, does not mean that it need be that way in the future. There are tremendous forces (business and government) that would prefer an internet which is friendly and cooperative to regulators. The people building the internet of tomorrow are not professors and geeks, they're CEO's and to a lesser extent, bureaucrats. If the architecture of the internet is "adjusted" to favor regulation instead of disfavor it - and the current internet builders all have reasons to favor regulability - regulating behavior on the internet is not impossible, it's trivial. Lessig has a short chapter on "is-ism", the belief that just because something is, so must it always be. Applied to the internet, this is "We are free, and will always be so." Wrong, wrong! The internet is totally man-made, and what man has made, man can change.

It is hard for me (or Lessig) to emphasize this point too much: the people who claim that we should keep our hands off the internet are completely playing into the hands of government and business. While the net-libertarians have buried their heads in the sand, the net is being changed, constantly, to favor regulation by business and by government.

Lessig takes a look at the infrastructure of the internet and how it is changing for the worse. There's another terrible flaw in thinking about the internet, which runs roughly: "whatever restrictions are placed, someone of technical competence can get around them". This is not true, not if the architecture is designed to support those restrictions rather than oppose them.

The internet, says Lessig, is about to "flip" from "unregulable" to "totally regulable". When that occurs (neither Lessig nor I think there's an "If" involved), who will be regulating the place? Currently corporations, with guidance from government - guidance coming in the form of regulations like CALEA, which make demands not on individuals, but on the code. Once the code is altered to be conducive to regulation, regulation follows naturally.

Lessig makes a great point about open source software. Closed source code which incorporates regulation (censorware is the easiest example, but there are many others) means that the people who are regulated can't even tell exactly what regulation is occuring. When the source code is available, you can at least tell exactly what you can and cannot do, or exactly how your privacy is being infringed. Open source code is inherently less suited to enforcing regulation on users.

I can't do justice to the book without rewriting it. Lessig is deeply skeptical about the ability of the U.S. government to initiate policies which promote, rather than denigrate, the civil liberties we have come to take for granted in cyberspace. Government is busy selling off our freedom to corporations through mechanisms such as ICANN. But no one else is going to do it - and with a government actively hostile to liberties or even one that adopts a hands-off approach, freedom in cyberspace is headed downhill at a tremendous pace.

I recommend this book to almost anyone who cares about the future of the internet. It's well-written - he's a good teacher. It's got some awesome examples - like how Communist Vietnam is more effectively libertarian than the U.S., because it doesn't have the infrastructure of control that we do. It is a scholarly work, but the footnotes are pushed off to the end - they alone are worth the price of the book to a serious student, but someone looking to just read can skip them without problems. It's a deep and thus far unmatched view of what will shape the net of tomorrow, the most inspiring book I've read this year.

Some of Lessig's other papers and articles are available on his home page. The book has a promotional website as well, available at code-is-law.org or what-declan-doesnt-get.com.

Pick this book up at fatbrain.com.

Thanks to Arjen for sending a review of O'Reilly's Perl CD Bookshelf. The bookshelf is a collection of O'Reilly's well-known Perl books, complete with searchable information. Perl CD Bookshelf author Multiple Authors pages 406 publisher O'Reilly, 08/1999 rating 8/10 reviewer Arjen Laarhoven, Murphy Software ISBN 1565924622 summary This CD is a very handy collection of a number of well-knownO'Reilly Perl books. If you work on Perl-related stuff on various sites, a CD with the content of 6 books is much easier on your backto carry around with you. Overview This is kind of a weird review. Sort of a meta-review if you like. O'Reilly's Perl CD Bookshelf is a CD with 6 of O'Reilly's Perl books on them, in HTML format. To enable searching of the complete contents of the CD, a Java-based search engine is included, as are a number of Java Runtime Environments for various platforms.

I didn't read all 6 books on the CD 'cover to cover'. In my opinion, books in electronic form don't really lend themselves for relaxed reading. But as reference material, it's more appealing to carry around a single CD than lugging around almost 3200 pages in book form.

What's in it for me? Lots. Most importantly: the complete contents of the following books in HTML format:

• Perl in a Nutshell (review)
• Perl Cookbook (review)
• Learning Perl
• Learning Perl on Win32 Systems
• Programming Perl (review)
• Advanced Perl Programming (review)

Each book has its own index, but a master index spanning all 6 books is also provided.

With this much information, you want to be able to search for a nugget of information hidden somewhere in the equivalent of almost 3200 bookpages of information. Perl runs on a variety of platforms, so this CD contains a (proprietary) Java-based search engine. This engine supports a number of basic search capabilities, like wildcards and boolean operators. The engine isn't very sophisticated, and I don't use it much, as I generally know where to look for specific things, and the master index is very complete.

The search engine requires installation of a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) if you don't already have a JRE or a JDK (Java Development Kit). The Windows users have it easy; put in the CD and the search engine and a browser with the CD homepage start automagically. The Windows JRE is installed automatically. UNIX/Linux users have to do some handywork to install a JRE if they don't have installed one already. Binary JRE's for the following platforms are provided:

• FreeBSD 2.2.* with a.out binary format
• FreeBSD 3.* with ELF binary format
• HP-UX 10.20
• HP-UX 11
• Linux with glibc
• Older JRE for Linux with glibc (try if the other glibc JRE doesn't work)
• Solaris
• SunOS 4.1.3

JRE's for other platforms, like AIX, Digital UNIX (Tru64) and SCO are not on the CD because of license issues. Information about where to get a JRE for these platforms is provided on the page about UNIX JRE installation instructions.

I had some problems with installing the Linux JRE on my Debian GNU/Linux system, but after some headscratching and trying another package it worked well. The documentation on installing and using the JRE's and the search engine on the various platform is sparse, but sufficient for most cases.

What's good? The size and price. For about $54 (price at Amazon) you get 6 books which would add up to about $138 at only a fraction of the weight. Quite a bargain, if you ask me.

With the CD comes a dead-tree version of Perl in a Nutshell (or the other way around :-), so for that ``I know what I want to do, but what where the details again?'' questions, you can just reach to your bookshelf which is very handy. For in-depth discussions and explanations, you can refer to the content on the CD.

What's bad? Hmm. Tough one. IMHO, only some small details. The JRE installation for UNIX can be a bit hairy for novice UNIX/Linux users. Paper books read more easily than computer screens (but that's not O'Reilly's fault). The limited and proprietary search engine (maybe O'Reilly should have included a search CGI (written in Perl ;-) for those of us who run a Webserver on their systems). Conclusion If you're a programmer which works on different client sites, this is great replacement for a stack of good Perl books. For a reasonable price, you get a truckload of information on a handy portable medium. Links to Web pages related to The Perl CD Bookshelf

• O'Reilly's page on The Perl CD Bookshelf

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

Our master reviewer of science fiction and fantasy fare, Duncan Lawie has returned. His choice of topic is a favorite book of mine, A Canticle for Leibowitz, a post-Apocalyptical book by Walter M. Miller, Jr. If you've read, join in the discussion, and if you haven't consider this a must-read. A Canticle for Leibowitz author Walter M. Miller, Jr. pages ? publisher Bantam rating 9/10 reviewer Duncan Lawie ISBN 0553379267 summary A powerful and thought provoking study of human nature in a wellconstructed future history.

Walter M. Miller, Jr wrote most of his science fiction in the 1950s. His work was influential in its treatment of character and for the complexity of his approach to standard science fiction themes. He converted to Catholicism in the 1940s and his faith had a direct bearing on much of his output. His short stories have been collected into a number of volumes but he is remembered principally today for the one novel published in his lifetime, A Canticle for Leibowitz, and, to a lesser extent, its sequel, Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman.

It is indicative of the nature of science fiction in the 1950s that so much of what was published in novel form had a previous life in the monthly magazines. A Canticle for Leibowitz is no exception to this, being a collation of three separately published novellas covering a long period in the future of humanity. This results in a book that could be described as a condensed trilogy. It is perhaps best read in that manner, with a pause for contemplation between sections separated in original publication by a couple of years and in setting by six centuries. Such a reading is aided by the lyrical drawing away from detail as each part concludes.

The story is of the slow rise of a new civilisation from the ashes of our own, which was ended by the Flame Deluge and the Age of Simplification. Leibowitz was a "booklegger" from this time who was martyred as he attempted to save knowledge from the mob which believed that all learning led to the hubris of Mutually Assured Destruction. The plot is centred on the abbey of a monastic order which honours Leibowitz and treasures the material he and his accomplices saved. As the story opens, this material is more religious relic than literal knowledge. Too much of the foundation of twentieth century culture has been ripped away for the remnant to be understood in a superstitious age. Despite this the Order believes that a time will come again for such work to be understood and so it keeps the holy duty of preservation. The later parts of the story carry through the grand historical process of building a new civilisation.

However, this is not so much a dynastic saga as the illumination of history through a series of vignettes. The characters spring fully formed into print. Their past lives are barely sketched but their hopes and fears are individual and realistic. As the world around them changes, the monks must each confront in their own lives the nature and execution of their duty to God and its relationship with duty to man. The central theme of pride and humility is played out repeatedly but in such different ways that new insight is gained on each iteration.

Whilst the monks of the abbey are restricted to a normal span of years, Miller manages a powerful continuity of presence in the abbey itself. It is filled with the words and ideas of centuries of Christianity. It evokes the belief in eternity of the medieval church builders and echoes the timeless feeling often experienced in any truly old building. Miller also recalls characters from earlier periods in the story through the artefacts and ideas they leave behind them. Partly as a product of this, the tone darkens through the course of the book. The weight of history increases with the rate of progress, along with an increasing fear that humanity may not have learned the lessons of its past.

For most modern readers the book itself almost becomes its own metaphor. It is littered with learning which has lost much of its currency in recent generations. As a result, it tends to represent the books sealed in barrels by the bookleggers of the next age - many of us could use a guide to interpret the Hebrew lettering or Church Latin. Despite this flavour of the arcane, it addresses fundamental questions of our relationship with knowledge and technology. A Canticle for Lebowitz is a well rounded and thought provoking book. Its concepts and conclusions are as relevant today as when it was written.

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

Shortly after their IPO, Red Hat's Bob Young had a book published, written by he and Wendy Goldman Rohm (who, I should add, I had a drink with at @ ALS, and is a very nice woman) about Red Hat, and what Linux is trying to do. Click below to get the full story - and thanks to Malcolm Tredinnick for his indepth review. Under The Radar author Robert Young and Wendy Goldman Rohm pages 197 publisher The Coriolis Group, 1999 rating 7/10 reviewer Malcolm Tredinnick ISBN 1576105067 summary A summary, designed for an outsider The Scenario

This book is subtitled How Red Hat changed the software business - and took Microsoft by surprise. However, that is a slightly misleading statement about the contents. More accurately, this book is a series of stories about both Red Hat and the Open Source/free software movement in general (and Linux in particular) woven together very naturally to make an interesting tale.

The book starts out at the point when Red Hat were trying to secure some venture capital in the early months of 1998. This naturally leads to a recounting of meetings with Benchmark Capital (a Silicon Valley venture capital firm), Intel and Netscape. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 cover this story quite naturally, giving an introduction to the concept of free (as in speech not beer) software along the way. This is not the story of how everything went swimmingly and was done over a cup of coffee. There are accounts of how the VC firms tried to push Intel out of the deal and then how Netscape stepped in and was willing to compromise. Chapter 4, in particular, covers (in a few brief pages) how first IBM, then Dell and Compaq courted companies offering services such as Red Hat (OK .. the actual chronology may have been different, but that's the order they're presented in the book).

Chapters 5 and 6 are basically all about Netscape. Beginning with accounts of executive level meetings at the companies where the decision to release the source code was first discussed, we are led through the whole saga up to the present day. This includes a very coherent discussion about licensing issues and the proprietary software that was already in the Netscape code. What we have here is a layman's account of why it is taking so long for Mozilla to walk out the door.

There then follows two densely packed chapters about various figures in the Open Source world. It is only at this point that Linus Torvald's is mentioned in more than passing. We don't get an account of Linux from day one, rather an insight into how Linux and Linus operate today. For example, there is little on Linus' days as a student at the University of Finland writing Linux, but quite a lot about his current work porting Linux to Intel's Merced chip (and for those seeking information about Transmeta, there is a big secret contained herein: Linus' office measures 10 foot by 10 foot and has a window). Capsule introductions to figures like Eric Allman (Mr. Sendmail), Larry Wall (Perl) and Bruce Behlendorf (Apache) are given, along with slightly longer passages on Eric Raymond and Richard Stallman. Nearly a whole chapter is devoted to Larry McVoy (formerly of Sun and SGI) and his Open Source advocacy.

Chapter 9 is a short introduction to Linux in "other products", such as disk drives and video recorders. It gives a very good idea of why such ideas are both possible and practical, but is mostly of a hypothetical nature, since nothing like this has quite hit the mainstream yet. This is followed by another "once was hypothetical, now is real" theme: Gnome. We get a run through of current work in making Linux a little more end-user friendly and the usual capsule introductions to various key figures (can you give an introduction to Miguel de Icaza in three paragraphs? Bob Young does).

Under the Radar concludes with a chapter on the recent IPO (this is an up to date book) - quite effectively conveying Young's distaste (I gathered) for the whole process, if not the concept. Anybody who was upset at Red Hat's slightly confusing attempts to offer shares to those who had contributed software would do well to at least read this chapter. Here we have a clear explanation of what was involved from Red Hat's end and what Young thought went wrong. There is also an appendix explaining the whole IPO concept for the non-financial wizards amongst us, which I found quite useful.

Having now peformed my duty of showing you the contents from a height of 10,000 metres, let me now give my impressions of how well this content was actually conveyed (with apologies to Clint Eastwood)...

The Good ...

Bob Young is obviously a man who loves and deeply understands the concept of open sourced code. This comes across on almost every page of the book where he stops telling stories and starts explaining the philosophy behind various companies' actions. Probably half the book is an advanced sales pitch on the advantages of the Open Source movement. He is also, obviously, very well plugged in to other companies attempts at introducing such ideas into their own work practices. So we are told a lot of stories of "real world" applications of free software. And these stories and philosophising will provide interest for readers at all levels.

If you were a person who had not heard of Open Source software, except maybe in passing and was wondering what the whole Linux thing was about, this would be quite a good introduction (except for a couple of problems I mention below). Statements such as "...the world naturally assumes that software is written by commercial companies to end up on the shelves of CompUSA and other software retailers. But, in fact, most software is written by professionals in order to solve their organizations' internal computing needs." (p.16) go a long way towards explaining why anybody would want to tinker with source code (or contemplate giving it away).

On the other hand, if you have any interest in the various debates going on with regards to the different forms of licenses available within the community, there is food for thought here. There is one of the best descriptions of the "viral" nature of the GPL license (and its advantages and disadvantages in different situations) that I have read beginning on page 77. Earlier in the book, the authors point out the motivation behind the original BSD license and the X Consortium's licencse. These are not technical discussion of legalities and sub-clauses; rather they are a look at the motivations behind each license and where they are useful and deficient. I came away with a real feeling for the agonising that must have gone one at Netscape prior to the creation of the Netscape Public License (and the subsequent Mozilla Public License). In fact, the whole account of Netscape's freeing of it's source code was fascinating (and relatively unknown to me - I knew the result, but hadn't heard about the deliberations leading up to it).

For those with an interest in financial machinations, this book is peppered with accounts of Red Hat's search for funding over the last couple of years. The initial chapters covering their first round of funding is consistent with what I understand of many startup companies' experiences. The final chapter on the recent IPO is interesting for its "insider" viewpoint on something that many Slashdot readers would have followed closely as it happened. Of particular interest were passages like "We did consider what Microsoft could do to use, as an exercise. For example, a week before our IPO was to register, what if Microsoft were to fund a bunch of little developers to sue us claiming ownership of some piece of code we were shipping." (p.165) To think of something this scary with an impending IPO would certainly cause me to lose a lot of sleep!

There is also a nice summary of the various business models a company basing itself around open source software might use: Support sellers, widget frosting, accessorizing, service enablors, brand licensing, sell it - free it and software franchising (the names used by Netscape salesman Frank Hecker - see p.78).

... the Bad ...

Oh dear ... where to begin? It is difficult to pin down the intended audience of this book. On the whole, this is not a bad thing; as I mentioned above, it will appeal to many. However, in quite a few cases, this lack of focus will leave readers confused or annoyed. For example, if you were in the category of readers who was looking for an introduction to Open Source, you would possibly be hard pressed to actually say what Red Hat's business was by the end of the book. The information is in there, but you sort of have to read between the lines a bit. At least, that was my feeling and I knew what I was looking for (and simply trying to confirm it was there). I'm not sure what impression a complete newcomer to this field would get about Red Hat.

Similarly, at one point there is a discussion of the push to get the 2.2 version of the kernel out the door and the schedule that Linus has proposed for version 2.4. However, at no point in all the discussions about how so many people contribute effectively to the kernel is the situation with the "stable" and "developers" (2.1, 2.3, etc) versions of the kernel even mentioned. If I was plugging software that was continually being developed, I would try to emphasise how current and future developments are avoiding breaking earlier releases by operating on an entirely seperate code tree. This may seem like an unnecessary delve into technicalities, but it would appear to have fit with the story.

My main criticism of this text is that it seems a bit superficial and even incomplete in some parts. This is partly forgivable, since Young mentions in his foreword that it is not meant to be a comprehensive account. Nevertheless, we often get to a point that most people would consider to have succesfully introduced a story and then ... nothing! It just stops. Next topic, please. One prime example is an account of a meeting at Larry McVoy's place (p.119) which was meant to help settle a potential dispute between Linus and David Miller. Miller apparently felt that some of his (good) patches to the 2.1 kernels were being rejected by Linus and he was "dropping them on the floor as he got overloaded." Great! Now we get to see how this was resolved and the lessons that were learnt (you might think). Wrong. Now we get to have a whole chapter extolling the virtues of Larry McVoy. We are given a one paragraph summary of the conclusion to the problem (David Miller became the collector of Sparc related patches and forwards them to Linus). However, there are many such examples of temporary differences within the Linux community (one only has to browse the kernel-developers archives to see this) and a few more examples and their succesful resolutions would have brought home the point. As it went, McVoy ended up getting more space than Linus.

While on this subject (Larry McVoy), there is a little inconsistency here. McVoy's BitKeeper source code management software is mentioned more or less in passing as a good idea. However, in a later chapter, Young points out that the real problem with the KDE was the slightly less than open Qt license. Since BitKeeper suffers from a similar sort of problem (note, "similar", not "identical"), is Young guilty of glossing over something here (since KDE is more or less a competitor to Gnome, which Red Hat has put its weight behind, the drawback of KDE is mentioned)? I'm not sure.

... and the Ugly.

Under the Radar was obviously produced in a hurry. The last page of the main text talks about events that happened on August 11, 1999, yet I was able to purchase a copy of this book in my local (not particularly large) bookstore in Sydney, Australia on October 31. Even allowing for the fact that most things would have been already written by then, this is a quick turnaround time. And it shows, sadly.

There are many simple typographical mistakes in the text. For example, Young talks about the rush to get the 2.1 kernel out the door (p.119). I assume he means the 2.2 kernel, since 2.1 was a development series of kernels. Similarly, the Qt library is called the Q+ library (p.140). Not big errors, but ones that should have been picked up by an editor with greater knowledge of the subject matter (dare one say, O'Reilly?). Slightly more annoying is the nine and half pages of sans serif font (pp.74-83). At various points this font is used to indicate email extracts, however in this case it is just gratuitous (and mistaken). It is not my intention to conduct a page by page post-mortem on the production of this book, but there are similar errors throughout the book.

A couple of errors of another variety are possibly a result of how the book was produced. I hope the authors will forgive me if I am completely mistaken, but here is my guess of how this book was written: Bob Young sits down on a number of ocassions with Wendy Goldman Rohm and starts talking. From what I understand, he is an excellent talker and salesman (I have never heard him speak). Goldman Rohm would then tape these chats. Young would also provide his co-author with copies of relevant emails and introductions to others in the business that were present at various meetings, etc. Finally (and I'm still guessing here), Young would follow up his talks with some email to Goldman Rohm including points that he had forgotten to mention or ideas that he had subsequently had. From her end, Goldman Rohm would pull everything together into a nice narrative, conduct interviews with other key players (Linus Torvalds, etc) and basically fill out the text. Given that this scenario is even slightly accurate, something got lost in the process. It was not always the case that the background research was done (and included) that should have been. As I mentioned above, some topics came across as decidedly incomplete.

Lest I get accused of spouting unfounded accusations, some examples: the three infamous Mindcraft studies are mentioned. The first one is covered in some detail, including a couple of technical details and reports on how the fiasco was uncovered (Yay! Slashdot gets mentioned). The second study is mentioned in about one sentence and the third, public, one is also mentioned. Unfortunately, no conclusion about the third study is drawn and the results are not mentioned at all. Since these studies were mentioned not in the context of Microsoft-bashing (of which, thankfully, there is little without foundation), but as an example of how the Linux community rose above it and benefitted from the experience, there was ample opportunity (and need?) to draw some conclusions.

Or take the case of Andrea Arkangeli, an active contributor to the kernel. The point is made that he is one of the people Linus includes amongst his top tier of kernel developers (together with Alan Cox, David Miller, Ingo Molnar, Steven Tweedy and Ted T'so). Further, the great advantage of the internet as a devlopment environment is espoused (Linus and Andrea have never met). But to then quote Linus as saying "I think he's from somewhere in Europe"(p.117) and not actually track down the answer seens a bit careless to me (another example of an interesting tidbit that remains unresolved).

Conclusion

This is a nice book to own just for the ability to be able to lend it to friends. As I hope I indicated above, it does an excellent job of explaining the whole "community" aspect in simple, non-patronising terms. It is also a nice, relaxing read. However, the more technically interested readers will probably find themselves frustrated by the lack of details and incompleteness at some points. Waiting for the cheaper softcover version may be a good idea here.

For those looking for a business oriented discussion of Red Hat the company, this is probably not the right book. Bob Young did much better job of that in his submission to Open Sources - Voices from the Open Source Revolution , published earlier this year by O'Reilly and Associates.

To purchase this book, head over fatbrain

SEGV has continued his tradition of excellent reviews with an examination of Jon L. Bentley's Programming Pearls (Second Edition), recently released by Addison-Welsey. One of the classics of programming, the new version continues the first edition's heritage of excellence. Click below to read more. Programming Pearls (Second Edition) author Jon L. Bentley pages 239 publisher Addison-Wesley, 10/1999 rating 10/10 reviewer SEGV ISBN 0-201-65788-0 summary A classic revised.

Choice and Precious

One definition of pearl is something "very choice or precious." Like the programming pearls it describes, Bentley's collection of essays has itself transcended the ordinary to achieve pearl status.

Originally published in Bentley's "Programming Pearls" column in Communications of the ACM, these fascinating essays were collected and revised in book form in 1986. Now revised 14 years later, this material has definitely stood the test of time. The first edition remains #2 on McConnell's Code Complete Reading List, and is listed favourably in an article on Great Books in Computer Science.

A Sense of Wonder

It was directly because of McConnell's Code Complete reading list that I, a few years ago, purchased and read Programming Pearls and its sequel, More Programming Pearls. Despite McConnell's effusive praise and corroboration from a colleague, I was not fully prepared for the experience.

I say experience, because that's what it was. It reminded me of reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland [1] or Godel, Escher, Bach [2] (perhaps not coincidentally, also on the above list of great books in computer science). It filled me with a sense of wonder that is difficult to describe. It confirmed my love for computer science.

I believe that I am not alone in this regard.

What's New?

Twelve of the thirteen columns in the first edition have been edited substantially for this edition, and three new columns have been added. The new columns are on the topics of testing & debugging & timing, set representations, and string problems. This new edition is about 25 percent longer.

Although the first edition had been getting a little long in the tooth, the revisions once again place the essays in the modern world. Discussions of performance take into account modern hardware, caches, and instruction-level parallelism. Modern languages (C++, Java) are compared and contrasted where appropriate. Modern books (such as McConnell's Code Complete and Musser & Saini's STL Tutorial and Reference Guide [3]) are referenced and recommended.

Like Meeting an Old Friend

Re-reading this book was like meeting an old friend. Notwithstanding the major revisions, it has changed in subtle ways. Some anecdotes have been updated, some material reorganized. But it's still the same book. All of the energy and fun remains, youthful as ever.

I'm pleased to see that Bentley is still happy working at Bell Labs / AT&T / Lucent. Perhaps that's why this book is so great. There's a lot of intelligent people working there, and they put out some fine books. Bentley produces a Markov text generator in column 15, and compares it favourably to his colleagues' (Kernighan and Pike) version in the recent book The Practice of Programming [4].

Supporting Material

I must say that the supporting web site for this book (URL below) is excellent. It has all the information on why this book was updated, along with exactly what was revised. There the curious reader will find excerpts from columns, some problems and their solutions, and many other parts of the book available online.

All of the source code is available and free for use. Relevant web sites are linked and annotated. I love the Java applet that demonstrates sorting algorithms (source available!). Bentley even provides some overhead transparencies for use in teaching.

Recommendation

This is a no-brainer. I've always recommended reading this classic, and even re-reading it. The second edition is merely an excuse to purchase and (re-)read a revised copy. The time spent is well worth it. (Remember, only one column per sitting!)

I also recommend scrounging a copy of the sequel, which is out of print [5].

Purchase this book at fatbrain.

Links

Programming Pearls (Second Edition) Official Site

Programming Pearls (Second Edition) at Addison-Wesley

Programming Pearls (First Edition) at Addison-Wesley

More Programming Pearls: Confessions of a Coder at Addison-Wesley

Table of Contents

Part I: Preliminaries
1. Cracking the Oyster
2. Aha! Algorithms
3. Data Structures Programs
4. Writing Correct Programs
5. A Small Matter of Programming
Part II: Performance
6. Perspective on Performance
7. The Back of the Envelope
8. Algorithm Design Techniques
9. Code Tuning
10. Squeezing Space
Part III: The Product
11. Sorting
12. A Sample Problem
13. Searching
14. Heaps
15. Strings of Pearls
Epilog to the First Edition
Epilog to the Second Edition
Appendix 1: A Catalog of Algorithms
Appendix 2: An Estimation Quiz
Appendix 3: Cost Models for Time and Space
Appendix 4: Rules for Code Tuning
Appendix 5: C++ Classes for Searching
Hints for Selected Problems
Solutions for Selected Problems
Index

Notes

[1] Why do people (book sellers, web sites, bibliographies, etc.) insist on incorrectly calling this book Alice in Wonderland? It's not just for kids; Lewis Carroll was a mathematician, and it abounds in metaphor, puzzles, hidden treats. Read it. Accept only the John Tenniel illustrations!

[2] Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is subtitled A Metaphorical Fugue on Minds and Machines in the Spirit of Lewis Carroll. It was reviewed on Slashdot: Godel, Escher, Bach (Review).

[3] However, use this book instead: Austern's Generic Programming and the STL.

[4] I reviewed this book for Slashdot: The Practice of Programming (Review).

[5] Why? I don't understand why some classics go out of print. I'm still trying to find copies of Artificial Life II, On Numbers and Games, Computation: Finite and Infinite Machines, and a host of others.