Slashdot Mirror

Jakub's Mastering Git book discusses briefly that git is less a version control system in itself and more a tool for building version control systems.

Alternative user interfaces like Zit, Cogit and Yap show that there is some merit to this view.

Git's content-addressable data store with locally computable global identifiers can form the basis of a generic storage engine. Microsoft has created what appears to be another file system out of git. There are many other filesystem implementations.

The git wrapper and workflows used by the Linux project can be seen as just the demonstration of one implementation. Collaboration and hosting sites like GitHub and GitLab show that you can turn a git repository into a project management tool. People have even built code review tools out of git (Critic, git-issues, etc.)

I wonder if Microsoft could implement something like etckeeper for the registry? (It would be nice to be able to run git blame after corruption by some vendor's installer.)

I do find it odd that Microsoft is switching to git so the team can put Windows into a single, giant repository while trying to modularize the product. One would think that the prior Perforce based system would have suited the modularization goal. That was forcing multiple repositories on the developers to meet the scale of the codebase. Perhaps the intent is to centralize then reorganize and break out into logical modules again? (It could be a control freak VCS team that is jumping at the chance to become the gatekeepers.)

The article does mention that "the company wanted to develop a single engineering system ('1ES'), spanning not just version control, but bug tracking, building, and more, that could span the entire company. " This makes the next version of Team Foundation Server sound a lot like GitHub Enterprise from Microsoft. Should Microsoft offer this 1ES environment for sale? It could certainly add a twist to the corporate on-premise or could-based git hosting market.

I failed in my original post to plug my books about OpenVPN:

* Mastering OpenVPN: https://www.packtpub.com/netwo...
* Troubleshooting OpenVPN: https://www.packtpub.com/netwo...

I failed in my original post to plug my books about OpenVPN:

* Mastering OpenVPN: https://www.packtpub.com/netwo...
* Troubleshooting OpenVPN: https://www.packtpub.com/netwo...

Downloaded El Capitan last night, haven't pushed the button yet. Manage to use my Macbook Pro in place of the shitty Dell laptop corporate IT pushes on me. This makes Outlook fairly mandatory, but I can use RDP to a Windows machine to resolve it. Better I know now.

Surprisingly, I've been a fan of MS Office, and have been tickled that Microsoft has offered such great support on the Mac platform. I feel they've (finally) adopted the, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" crowd. This is great, and I use MS product on my Macs and pay for valid licenses on Windows VMs for when it's needed (Required Windows to write a book (shameless plug here: https://www.packtpub.com/netwo...). Please, Microsoft, keep up the cross-OS/platform support.

Publisher's website link for more information: http://www.packtpub.com/extend...

sorry guys I forgot to add a link to the publisher's website: http://www.packtpub.com/citrix-xenapp-performance-essentials/book

http://www.packtpub.com/puppet-3-beginners-guide/book

(Currently) $23 USD for the eBook, and $45 USD for the Print + eBook access, and no Amazon-Kindle-DRM. (But you can still get it in a .mobi format for your Kindle, in addition to ePub and PDF)

• Let's take a look at the other Slashdot reviews about Packt books about Drupal. This Slashdot Packt Drupal Book review is by Trevor James, who (surprise surprise) is an author who publishes through Packt Publishing.
• And another Packt Drupal book review from Trevor
• This other one is from Michael J. Ross again.
• And another Packt Drupal book review from Michael J. Ross
• And another by Michael
• And yet another by Michael
• Or how about this Slashdot book review on Drupal from Packt by J. Ayen Green, who happens to be the author and his books are published through (surprise surprise) Packt Publishing
• Well, well, look at this one. A Drupal Packt Book Review from Trevor James to J. Ayen Green.
• And yet another one from Trevor to Green

• Let's take a look at the other Slashdot reviews about Packt books about Drupal. This Slashdot Packt Drupal Book review is by Trevor James, who (surprise surprise) is an author who publishes through Packt Publishing.
• And another Packt Drupal book review from Trevor
• This other one is from Michael J. Ross again.
• And another Packt Drupal book review from Michael J. Ross
• And another by Michael
• And yet another by Michael
• Or how about this Slashdot book review on Drupal from Packt by J. Ayen Green, who happens to be the author and his books are published through (surprise surprise) Packt Publishing
• Well, well, look at this one. A Drupal Packt Book Review from Trevor James to J. Ayen Green.
• And yet another one from Trevor to Green

Are you sure they are from India? Looking at their careers page, they seem to be based in Birmingham.

This just in: Untrue statement discovered on internet!!

This also just in: Untrue statement discovered in advertising copy!!

The only good thing I can say about Packt is that they pay book royalties to open source projects. Other than that, yeah, don't buy from them.

Looking at the author's bio on Pact's web site: http://www.packtpub.com/authors/profiles/emily-h-halili it would appear that English may not be her first language, and given that she's worn 6 different IT hats in 12 years, she's obviously not spent enough time doing any one thing to become an expert at anything. And now she's a consultant, which affirms the old saying "those who cannot do, teach".

Are you sure they are from India? Looking at their careers page, they seem to be based in Birmingham.

No need, this guy clearly also works for Packt: https://www.packtpub.com/authors/profiles/trevor-james

They dont even try and hide the shilling anymore. Slashdot editors should be ashamed.

It is available as an e-book here . US$30.59

Another e-book on the subject (I've started reading it and liked it, but didn't get around to finishing it yet) is Hello Android.

One thing I like about The Pragmatic Bookshelf is that they deliver directly to your Kindle. They are also DRM-free (Packt says they are too).

If you don't think you'll need this book for over 2 months, you may want to get a subscription to access *all* books Packt has published. As a side benefit, there's a couple hundred other books you get access to too.

Thanks to Joshua for the nice review here. There are actually a few more samples from the book than just the one chapter; here's a full list of them:

• Database Hardware - sample chapter PDF
• Reliable Controller Disk Setup - see also Reliable Writes
• Balacing Hardware Spending
• Server Configuration Tuning - see also Tuning Your PostgreSQL Server
• UNIX Monitoring Tools for PostgreSQL
• PostgreSQL Tips and Tricks

In addition to this one and the customer reviews at Amazon, there have been two other reviews by notable PostgreSQL contributors: Buy this book, now and PostgreSQL 9 High Performance Book Review.

As alluded to in the intro, the book tries to cover PostgreSQL versions from 8.1 though 9.0, with a long listing of what has changed between each version to help you figure out what material does and doesn't apply. So most of the advice applies even if you're running an older version. There is also a companion volume to this one of sorts also available, PostgreSQL 9 Admin Cookbook, that was written at the same time and coordinated such that there's little overlap between the two titles. That one focuses more on common day to day administration challenges, less on the theory.

Thanks to Joshua for the nice review here. There are actually a few more samples from the book than just the one chapter; here's a full list of them:

• Database Hardware - sample chapter PDF
• Reliable Controller Disk Setup - see also Reliable Writes
• Balacing Hardware Spending
• Server Configuration Tuning - see also Tuning Your PostgreSQL Server
• UNIX Monitoring Tools for PostgreSQL
• PostgreSQL Tips and Tricks

In addition to this one and the customer reviews at Amazon, there have been two other reviews by notable PostgreSQL contributors: Buy this book, now and PostgreSQL 9 High Performance Book Review.

As alluded to in the intro, the book tries to cover PostgreSQL versions from 8.1 though 9.0, with a long listing of what has changed between each version to help you figure out what material does and doesn't apply. So most of the advice applies even if you're running an older version. There is also a companion volume to this one of sorts also available, PostgreSQL 9 Admin Cookbook, that was written at the same time and coordinated such that there's little overlap between the two titles. That one focuses more on common day to day administration challenges, less on the theory.

Thanks to Joshua for the nice review here. There are actually a few more samples from the book than just the one chapter; here's a full list of them:

• Database Hardware - sample chapter PDF
• Reliable Controller Disk Setup - see also Reliable Writes
• Balacing Hardware Spending
• Server Configuration Tuning - see also Tuning Your PostgreSQL Server
• UNIX Monitoring Tools for PostgreSQL
• PostgreSQL Tips and Tricks

In addition to this one and the customer reviews at Amazon, there have been two other reviews by notable PostgreSQL contributors: Buy this book, now and PostgreSQL 9 High Performance Book Review.

As alluded to in the intro, the book tries to cover PostgreSQL versions from 8.1 though 9.0, with a long listing of what has changed between each version to help you figure out what material does and doesn't apply. So most of the advice applies even if you're running an older version. There is also a companion volume to this one of sorts also available, PostgreSQL 9 Admin Cookbook, that was written at the same time and coordinated such that there's little overlap between the two titles. That one focuses more on common day to day administration challenges, less on the theory.

Thanks to Joshua for the nice review here. There are actually a few more samples from the book than just the one chapter; here's a full list of them:

• Database Hardware - sample chapter PDF
• Reliable Controller Disk Setup - see also Reliable Writes
• Balacing Hardware Spending
• Server Configuration Tuning - see also Tuning Your PostgreSQL Server
• UNIX Monitoring Tools for PostgreSQL
• PostgreSQL Tips and Tricks

In addition to this one and the customer reviews at Amazon, there have been two other reviews by notable PostgreSQL contributors: Buy this book, now and PostgreSQL 9 High Performance Book Review.

As alluded to in the intro, the book tries to cover PostgreSQL versions from 8.1 though 9.0, with a long listing of what has changed between each version to help you figure out what material does and doesn't apply. So most of the advice applies even if you're running an older version. There is also a companion volume to this one of sorts also available, PostgreSQL 9 Admin Cookbook, that was written at the same time and coordinated such that there's little overlap between the two titles. That one focuses more on common day to day administration challenges, less on the theory.

Thanks to Joshua for the nice review here. There are actually a few more samples from the book than just the one chapter; here's a full list of them:

• Database Hardware - sample chapter PDF
• Reliable Controller Disk Setup - see also Reliable Writes
• Balacing Hardware Spending
• Server Configuration Tuning - see also Tuning Your PostgreSQL Server
• UNIX Monitoring Tools for PostgreSQL
• PostgreSQL Tips and Tricks

In addition to this one and the customer reviews at Amazon, there have been two other reviews by notable PostgreSQL contributors: Buy this book, now and PostgreSQL 9 High Performance Book Review.

As alluded to in the intro, the book tries to cover PostgreSQL versions from 8.1 though 9.0, with a long listing of what has changed between each version to help you figure out what material does and doesn't apply. So most of the advice applies even if you're running an older version. There is also a companion volume to this one of sorts also available, PostgreSQL 9 Admin Cookbook, that was written at the same time and coordinated such that there's little overlap between the two titles. That one focuses more on common day to day administration challenges, less on the theory.

Thanks to Joshua for the nice review here. There are actually a few more samples from the book than just the one chapter; here's a full list of them:

• Database Hardware - sample chapter PDF
• Reliable Controller Disk Setup - see also Reliable Writes
• Balacing Hardware Spending
• Server Configuration Tuning - see also Tuning Your PostgreSQL Server
• UNIX Monitoring Tools for PostgreSQL
• PostgreSQL Tips and Tricks

In addition to this one and the customer reviews at Amazon, there have been two other reviews by notable PostgreSQL contributors: Buy this book, now and PostgreSQL 9 High Performance Book Review.

As alluded to in the intro, the book tries to cover PostgreSQL versions from 8.1 though 9.0, with a long listing of what has changed between each version to help you figure out what material does and doesn't apply. So most of the advice applies even if you're running an older version. There is also a companion volume to this one of sorts also available, PostgreSQL 9 Admin Cookbook, that was written at the same time and coordinated such that there's little overlap between the two titles. That one focuses more on common day to day administration challenges, less on the theory.

Thanks to Joshua for the nice review here. There are actually a few more samples from the book than just the one chapter; here's a full list of them:

• Database Hardware - sample chapter PDF
• Reliable Controller Disk Setup - see also Reliable Writes
• Balacing Hardware Spending
• Server Configuration Tuning - see also Tuning Your PostgreSQL Server
• UNIX Monitoring Tools for PostgreSQL
• PostgreSQL Tips and Tricks

In addition to this one and the customer reviews at Amazon, there have been two other reviews by notable PostgreSQL contributors: Buy this book, now and PostgreSQL 9 High Performance Book Review.

As alluded to in the intro, the book tries to cover PostgreSQL versions from 8.1 though 9.0, with a long listing of what has changed between each version to help you figure out what material does and doesn't apply. So most of the advice applies even if you're running an older version. There is also a companion volume to this one of sorts also available, PostgreSQL 9 Admin Cookbook, that was written at the same time and coordinated such that there's little overlap between the two titles. That one focuses more on common day to day administration challenges, less on the theory.

>You CAN make a book cover using random artwork with a large font, but you'd be surprised how many people can screw that up, too.
Agreed.

>And if you screw it up, it'll make people think the contents of your book are amateurish, too, and nobody will read it.

Maybe you could just print the title in normal font (like old-style theses).

The thing is, though, for people who have a modicum of Word ability, just totally copying something like:
https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/2268OS_MockupCover_0.jpg
is within their grasp.

$100 a month is an extreme low-ball estimate on doing it inexpensively. In all likelihood, the hosting costs alone exceed it, without considering the costs of design of materials or maintaining content.

Which... well, you know... the author of a book will spend as much as they need to spend on hosting. The author of a book on Blender is not expected to be a Web design expert, capable of performing graphical design and all HTML coding for their book's website.

Anyways, the only way the hosting will cost less, is in an aggregate environment, where the author's requirements may not even be met.

Two possible aggregate environments exist... the specific one... pages provided by the publisher or a third-party that provides 'book pages' to many authors.

In this case, the publisher usually takes a cut of the book, price, as they do anyways... part of that can be attributed to the hosting cost. In any case, the author's other expenses still need to be met, after the publisher gets their cut, for the price to be high enough.

The other way of doing it "cheaply", is the author trying to host the web site on their DSL service they purchase for personal use... (LOL).

Or finding a cut-rate $12/month shared hosting provider that lobs thousands of sites on the same server, and trying to piece together the site theirselves, using templates, and no help from a professional.

In that case, they wind up with a poorly designed web site, that may have performance issues due to other users' activity, or cutthroat bandwidth or disk caps, and might not do the best job of selling books.

Not to mention also security risks, potentially a lack of proper admin monitoring of their web site, and lack of proper automated backups on the server, with disaster recovery by the hosting provider, in case their equipment fails.

You get what you pay for. If you want to make sure you sell and profit, it's worth paying a reasonable price for hosting, if you actually think your book will sell.

If it adds a few $$ to the per unit price tag, that's totally reasonable.

Why not take the book in the article as an example? Look at its web site

As you can see, there is a web page hosted by the publisher.

Now the expenses the publisher incurs to present this web site includes: servers, bandwidth, electricity, employees to maintain these things, and employees to develop and maintain the site.

A technical book like this one has a useful lifetime of 2 or 3 years at most, before it's outdated, and obsolete (needs to be updated at new costs).

So you can fairly divide all one-time fees by the total number of months the book is expected to sell, to get a pro-rata per-month approximation.

Anyways... having materials prepared for the web site definitely costs money.

Implementation of e-commerce systems to allow purchase online also requires money.

Securing those systems, performing backups, and maintenance also costs money.

Packt Publishing (and probably other publishing houses) already do this by asking reviewers on famous product-related sites to review in exchange for a free copy.

This book was great when it came out. Over a year ago. Strange to get such a late review of a book. Fortunately a lot of things are still accurate, and Drupal 6 has been the main release during this entire time, but sheesh. The contributed modules have improved a lot since then.

As far as Drupal itself goes, it's great. Yesterday my boss asked me to put together a secure site where a select group of people could discuss the upcoming budget cuts. The site needed to be attractive, secure, support single signon (integrating with our existing directory), restricted to one group of users, allow optional anonymity of posters (after authentication), and allow users to subscribe to threads.

Starting from scratch, I had it all done in an hour an twenty minutes with Drupal (plus the hidden author, subscriptions, pubcookie, pubcookie site access, secure pages, and views modules).

There seems to be a great deal of frustration and outright ignorance about how Drupal works in the postings above. If you want to be able to wield a complex weapon like Drupal, try the following resources.

For examples on how to create common types of sites using popular, well-supported modules: Using Drupal, O'Reilly

If you're a designer working with Drupal and want to understand how to work with it: Front End Drupal, Prentice Hall

If you're a coder and want to know how Drupal works internally: Pro Drupal Development, Apress

If you're not a book reader but like watching videos, pretty much anything put out by Lullabot

If you're not a coder or designer but a power user who has to deal with Drupal's admittedly byzantine administrative interface: Drupal 6 Content Administration

Haven't used them, but I didn't a mention in the few responses I checked. Open Source books, reasonably priced. Check out: http://authors.packtpub.com/

Look for online specials. Packt recently offered an awesome deal: 5 books for $99 with no shipping and free PDF versions which are DRM free. No, it doesn't help with the existing books in your library but for new ones it pays to look around.

This is a good book (which I have) that walks you though building a complex multi-part Joomla component. All the code works and is non-trivial. My only complaint is how LeBlanc deals with interacting with the core Joomla classes. Joomla recommends building components with classes that extend the core classes, while LeBlanc does not do it this way, he builds his own functions outside that structure. But if you're looking for a great learning tool that doesn't dumb down the subject and has copious code samples, this is it. A more general reference that is also comprehensive is Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and Framework Development, by James Kennard, same publisher.

WARNING: LeBlanc has a previous edition of this book, same title, which is WAY WAY WAY out of date, but still on sale at Amazon and the publisher Web site. You have been warned...

Much better with hands-on, practical walkthroughs than any others out there.

Check out this one. I found that it filled in the gaps left by the online handbook quite nicely. I also like that the publisher funnels some of their profits back in to the projects their books cover.

As you seem to be seeking a reputation as some kind of authority on PHP, might I suggest you adopt a more considered approach, and use less intemperate language?

It's not clear that you actually know what spaghetti code is. I was already writing structured code when Djikstra's seminal article "Goto consider harmful" was first published.

Many Aliro classes exist in their own files, others are logically grouped. This is an implementation and convenience issue. A whole chapter of my book discusses the complex questions to do with XHTML generation.

Only three lines of Aliro code exist outside classes and functions, and the latter are used only where it is inescapable. By and large, the core classes are tightly logically focussed, such as aliroSession which, amazingly, deals with sessions. Not all of the code in Aliro is at the same level of development - it is a practical project that has a history and antecedents.

Your own published views suggest that you are in danger of embracing a too technical conception of OO that undermines the benefits. And I think you place too much reliance on the widely misunderstood notion of patterns. I give reasons for my view in my book, rather than just making arrogant assertions.

Incidentally, I find it hard to take seriously a PHP expert who can write a line like:
if($feedContent && !empty($feedContent)):

I'm interested in constructive discussion, even if it is critical of my published work. But this isn't remotely constructive, nor even well informed.

You can get this as an eBook in PDF form for $20.39 from http://www.packtpub.com./
Thanks to Clifford M. Bryant Jr. who added that comment to the first review on Amazon. (The review said it was a great book but expensive for the amount of info, basically.)

Well, actually... there is a Perl MVC book on Catalyst:

http://www.packtpub.com/catalyst-perl-web-application/book

It's much better than the Rails books though :)

Interesting articles:

http://www.packtpub.com/article/GoboLinux-An-Interview-with-Lucas-Villa
http://www.linux.com/articles/60133

You can get it at 10% off and free delivery worldwide at Packt's web site:

http://www.packtpub.com/ipcop/book

You can get an ebook version there cheaper too... $26.99.

Cheers

David Barnes
Packt Publishing

The summary made it sound as if this is a bounty for producing an OSS CMS according to some criteria. But reading the award rules, this is just a popularity contest. Nominate one CMS which you think should win some money for doing nothing and the rest is up to Packt.

This article sheds a little more light on their Open Source usage. Google turned up a few references to De Bortoli rolling out Linux terminals across the business (Dec. 2004).

Shameless Self-Promotion: If you're a programmer who needs to write a user manual, the book reviewed here sounds like a great fit. But if you need to write a training course for the application you've created, check out my book, User Training for Busy Programmers. It gives you step-by-step instructions for developing an instructor-led software class. It takes a practical, condensed approach for when you don't have time to learn training theory.

what about this one?

http://www.packtpub.com/book/plone