Desicritics Category: BizTech: Innovation

Book Review: Nagios - 2nd Edition

Ganadeva Bandyopadhyay — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:52:39 EST

The book comes across as a wonderful companion for utilizing Nagios- an open source system and network monitoring tool. There are twenty six chapters covering a lot of depth and variety with respect to Nagios.

There are five main sections in the book, viz. Source code to a running installation, In more detail,The web interface and other ways to visualize Nagios data, Special applications and Development. Some of the more unusual topics worth mentioning is the configuration for external notification via SMS and via email, monitoring room temperature and humidity, monitoring SAP systems via plug-in check_sap.sh and via SAP's own monitoring system CCMS and monitoring oracle database with oracle instant client.

The chapters are very concise and readable especially for the system, network or other infrastructure administrator already hard-pressed for time. One of the important facets of this book is that although there is an attempt to present the useful information, it also motivates the reader to go further and explore based on the suggestions and hints that is provided in the book.

To summarize, a highly recommended book for interesting and very useful topics in present-day IT infrastructure.

Python for Unix and Linux System Administration

Ganadeva Bandyopadhyay — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:54:02 EST

In addition to a very noticeable acknowledgments section, here is a book for system administrators trying out a new language to reduce their difficult and sometimes repetitive tasks. In fourteen chapters the authors have tried to do a commendable job for presenting Python as a language that could be used with little bit of learning.

Among the system administration tasks that are tackled via Python in this book, there are chapters dedicated to documentation and reporting, networking, handling data, SNMP, package management and building GUI s among others. One of the important additional tasks i.e. backup and restore seems to have not got the attention it deserves from the system administration perspective. This is true in spite of the newer scenarios where there is separate role of storage administrator as a specialist within system administration is coming up in most organizations and setup handling the massive growth in data storage and maintenance requirements.

While the examples presented are useful, there are some variations that could have made the book a more useful read. For example, in the example 5-9 about connecting to an SSH server and remotely executing a command, the password seems to be required in clear text. One variation could be an answer to the question “Would it be possible to use encrypted password so the script can be read and run by any less privileged user?” Another thing about the discussions is a frequent reference to books for further reading within the text. While it is a good idea, sometimes the list of books of further reading could have been given at the end of each chapter.

All in all, the book is giving a clear idea for using Python as a tool for system administration. Further reading and experimentation is definitely recommended to the readers after going through this book. Absence of major discussion on backup and recovery scripting is a big gap within the book of this nature.

Book Review: The Way We Will Be 50 Years From Today

BangaloreGuy — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:56:27 EDT

Firstly, congratulations to the editor and to the authors. Writing a book about the future, especially a compilation of essays on what the future might hold from 60 brilliant minds is usually something that comes up from a governmental organization - carrying out the same in a private space is commendable. One wishes more such endeavours are undertaken!

The preview for the book was interesting enough. There was mention of Nobel Peace Winners writing about wars - not just any wars, but nuclear wars. There were mentions about forced marriages amongst other things!
Whoa! I wanted to review it already!

There's always this lingering taste of a "slip betwixt cup and the lip", and in this case, it kind of seemed true, on starting with the book. But then, I discovered that this book's like a hamburger, almost. The starting and ending parts are (almost) plain, boring and somewhat poorly written (relatively). Its the essays in the middle that provide the taste, and some of the more compelling reading.

If you're going to read the book, I suggest that you dump the first 30 pages or so, and you might want to consider a similar number to dump at the last too - they're just a conundrum of blase writing, wishing for horses, and some stupid Utopian dreams mixed with some serious over the top thinking - "you're not allowed to marry X 'cos your gene pool's bad". Hello?? Someone miss the Stallone movie? (Demolition Man)

So, almost a quarter of the book's plain bad. There, I said it. Bad. Oh but, don't run off, the rest of the book makes up for it. There are a few essays that really should be the only ones they should have published - and boy, they're good.

Some pieces like that of Craig Newmark, founder of "Craig's list", are a joy to read - funny, witty, and a peekaboo at the future. Some like the Internet co-founders' piece on how humans will transcend their, what he calls "biological barriers" are marvellous - its been lucidly written, backed up by facts known currently - and it doesn't go Utopian, or look at the glass being half-full, but points perceptively to a future.

The prescriptions/predictions written by these authors - the "meat" in this hamburger of a book, are marvellous - because they deal with our present, and project from there to the future. They're all futurologists - to extend the term, slightly. Very clear cut cases made for embracing the new technologies that will help feed the world, feed the growing economies' appetite for energy with energy from sources that will not damage the world. There are cases made that describe how and why the environment can be saved - rainforests in the amazon etc., - quite a few with sound logic, facts and examples to buttress their future projections.

In fact, I would think any responsible government of a large country would want to do a similar thingy - but make it large enough to pull government policy out of it. In fact, for India - a country which has been rather slow to change - except in the greed with which natural resources are being plundered - this sort of a book, or a study would be a wonderful way to set-up for the future.

Book Review: Refactoring SQL Applications

Ganadeva Bandyopadhyay — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:26:28 EDT

Refactoring SQL Applications is a book on a useful subject for database and tuning specialists and other IT personnel frequently tasked with unruly SQL applications hogging precious resources which can be better utilized.

Besides discussing and providing tips and techniques to improve SQL application re-engineering on all important fronts, the utility of book would is in that most of the exercises have MySQL, Oracle and SQL Server approaches. The discussion does allude to specific examples for one of the three databases as per the concept being sought to clarify.

The topics discussed include possible implications of the auto-commit mode in JDBC, appropriate use of joins and indexes, detecting and correcting parsing issues and transaction management and basic tips to run trace on queries and analyzing them among others.

One of the possibly advanced concepts for this subject is in refactoring flows and databases using effective parallelism and physical and logical database changes to improve the performance. The must read portion of this book undoubtedly would be the eight chapter which compacts and distills the wisdom of the discussions into a set of tasks that can be performed when a SQL application is coming up for refactoring.

One of the undeniably useful tips that the author concludes by, is to avoid an over-reliance on wizards and advisors and be ready for the frequently iterative nature of performance improvement techniques.

To summarize, the book is a must have for the database practitioners and IT specialists working in this field. It would have been interesting to know what tips and techniques that the author would have suggested for improving the performance on the critical Oracle RAC clustered setups.

Book Review: Building Embedded Linux Systems

Ganadeva Bandyopadhyay — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:44:08 EDT

Building Embedded Linux Systemsis a comprehensive reference for the topics it seeks to cover. There is a largely successful attempt made to cover topics across the entire spectrum of embedded Linux systems right up to the development of the RT Patch which can be applied to a Linux kernel and the kernel rebuilt to have facilities similar to real time operating systems.

Some of the important subjects in the book revolve around root file system content - explaining how to build a root file system with some intricacies, storage device manipulation, root file system setup within the embedded system's storage device, setting up boot loader among the available options and setting up networking services based on software packages. There is additional discussion for the topics covering real time Linux variants.

One of the interesting discussions is about handling software upgrades. There is the file system requirements and also the possibilities to be considered for fail-safe software upgrades. There is a step by step procedure for implementing this facility using an example system layout. Other interesting discussions includes enabling remote administration with SNMP for the embedded device mostly as an SNMP agent and the common pitfall made by novice embedded Linux system builders while using Telnet service to neglect some configuration detail related to ptys.

The examples and guidelines given are reader-friendly, the text is clear enough for immediate application of the concepts. Considering the breadth,depth and lucid manner of discussion of the topics, the book is a must have as a reference for the technologists working in this field.

Book Review: The Art of Debugging

Ganadeva Bandyopadhyay — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:56:03 EDT

One of the frequently overlooked parts of many a computer engineering syllabus, namely debugging, is the topic of discussion for this book. The subject is addressed focusing on the usage of three debugging tools GDB, DDD and Eclipse with a more or less heavy reliance on Gnu Project Debugger(GDB) developed by Richard Stallman.

While GDB uses the command line syntax, DDD offers a GUI front end and Eclipse is an IDE for debugging working on top of GDB or some other debugger.
Starting from some basics of debugging and the three basic mechanisms for pausing, viz. breakpoint, watchpoint and catchpoint, the authors have discussed the topics such as inspecting and setting variables, debugging program crashes, debugging in multiple activities context such as client/server network programs,threaded code, etc. as well as special topics such as programs unable to compile and debugging curses programs.

There is also a discussion for making best use of text editors, compilers and other features in the debugging context. The book concludes with suggestions for using GDB/DDD/Eclipse for languages such as Java, Perl and Python.

Most of the examples are in line with the theory and bring out the concepts clearly. There is the repeated comparison of usage of the three debugging tools for the same example so the reader can draw their own conclusions and grow on their own favorite debugging tool. Some of the more interesting intricacies are occurring in the chapter where program crashes and the client server program debugging is discussed.

While the examples in this book are extensive, one of the useful additions to this book could be a list of unsolved and debuggable code for further practice. This could bring out a few more expert debuggers from the readers of this book. All in all, a good book in an area where interest is difficult to inculcate due to widely dispersed documentation.

Chandrayaan-I - Not A Waste of Money and Resources

thunga — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:52:13 EDT

Critics say that the "Chandrayaan Mission was a waste of money and resources". In a country like India, the money and resources could have been better used in development activities which would increased the livelihood of so many people lying below the poverty line.

Please say "aye" if you are naive enough to buy this argument. This logic is very similar to that used by our once-charming politicians to promote khadi industries when modern industrialization would have added more value to the country and the people around it. Sir M. Vishveswariah added more to irrigation by building the dams in Karnataka than if the money had been spent on giving seeds to the farmers. There is an inherent lack of understanding amongst the people in India about the use and potential of technology to improve the well being of the people. The media instead of educating through clear thinking and bringing in rationale to decisions, have taken the sidelines to just report opposing views of any issue without stating the merits or demerits of either side.

This article will be heavily biased towards the advantages that India is going to obtain through the Chandrayaan mission. I would love the hear arguments against the same!

Through the Chandrayaan mission, there will be two kinds of distinct advantages. The first being the technology transfer and increase in the utility of technology and the other being the political cultural shift the country vis a vis other countries in the region and the world.

The Technology utility advantage would be the value added by the technology to the economy and the people. The experiments done on the moon for its soil and other chemicals would improve chemical research in the country and might lead to breakthrough ideas in chemical industry which will improve the livelihoods of so many people. This is not just relevant to the chemical industry but also to other allied industries from physics, software, materials to half of the things that are used by the people of India.

The technological transfer advantage is the amount of money or other value add obtained by sharing this technology with other countries. It is the same as technological utility advantage but obtained by exchange of information and technology instead of promotion of technology internally.

Political-Cultural Shift advantage to India

As we know only 3 countries have the capability to do space walk and less than 10 countries have been able to launch their own satellites. Space has been a very important criteria in terms of signaling the strength of a country from the 1960s when the USA wanted to show its power against the USSR. It will hopefully give more brownie points to India which will influence others to heed to the words of the Indians.

Three cheers to the people behind the mission. Special cheers to Mylswamy Annadurai and Madhavan Nair. We should celebrate this event as a very important step in not just the progress of science research but in the economy of India. Eagerly awaiting for the 48 hours to pass to hear more good news :)

Book Review: Intellectual Property and Open Source

Ganadeva Bandyopadhyay — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:39:37 EDT

The topic of Intellectual Property and Open Source does have a wide ranging audience for itself. With the seeming explosion of software engineering applications driven by web and e-commerce, this maybe a good book for grasping the finer legal details. The primary focus of the legal terms in this book are with respect to the U.S. Legal framework and sometime with European variants.

The author has discussed topics such as patent document, patent system,copyright,trademarks,open source etc and tried to give the relevant examples for each discussion. The book is spread across 14 chapters covering major topics of interest and appendices A through M for examples of various licenses as well as a sample proprietary information agreement(PIA).

The first chapter is a must read as it clears a lot of ground for clearing misconceptions and giving foundation knowledge for detailed tech-legal discussion that follows in the rest of the book. For example the term “Intellectual Property” is divided into four primary systems:

Patents
Copyrights
Trademarks and
Trade secrets.

One of the primary motivations for all the legal framework around Intellectual Property seems to be a balance between giving incentive for new useful information and the advance of the society by having growth in public domain knowledge.

There is the interesting comparison of a patent document with pattern-matching code such as regular expressions. One of the better examples for the discussion of patent documents is the example of destroying a patent by RSA Corporation. This was done for the RSA patent 4,405,829 “Cryptographic Communications System And Method” covering public-key cryptography so that it came into public domain two weeks earlier.

For South Asians and Indians especially, one of the interesting topics is the comparison of India's nuclear policy and Red Hat's patent policy to bring out some policy aspects of the patent system .

To summarize, the book is as good a reference or as a read to fit an Intellectual Property within the appropriate legal framework. The book gives a common meeting point for the people working at forefront of Intellectual Property development or wanting to have a clear understanding of the legal safeguards and terminologies in Intellectual Property and Open Source. The most memorable part of the book, arguably would be the disclaimer part of the preface.

Book Review: Website Optimization

Ganadeva Bandyopadhyay — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:52:12 EDT

Undoubtedly the focus of Website Optimization is on converting website viewer into customer by having a set of best practices. In the age where legendary search engine like Google has grown into a verb in English, the book is a must read for the web technologist.

The book covers lot of ground in useful topics such as search engine optimization, pay per click optimization, conversion rate optimization, etc. across two main divisions of search engine marketing optimization and web performance optimization.

The book is packed with useful real-life experiences .More importantly even concepts where the author has learned through hard way have not been left out. The example for this appears in the topic 'Hurl harmful outlinks', part of the discussion on natural search engine optimization. The author learnt this tip when his client had low rankings on Google in spite of intensive promotion over six months.

There is list of tips given for optimizing CSS, Ajax and javascript. There is also discussion on client side and server side techniques for increasing the performance. Among the server side methods discussed, include optimizing parallel downloads using multiple domains, caching frequently used objects, using HTTP compression,etc. On client side techniques include loading javascript on demand, caching off-site resources locally,etc.

One of the important concluding discussions is on website optimization metrics and measuring them. Some of the website success metrics include unique visitors, Average time on site(ATOS) and length of visit, pages per visit, bounce rate,etc. The second part is the search engine marketing metrics to improve website PR campaigns and conversion rate optimization efforts. The web performance metrics give the important numbers about load times.

Apple Loses Its Innovation Edge

Aaman Lamba — Tue, 9 Sep 2008 14:52:39 EDT

Steve Jobs belied the rumours of his demise and released an array of Fall season ensembles in his Let's Rock! event in San Francisco. Unfortunately, there wasn't that much to offer, and left the faithful yearning for the traditional 'one more thing', besides sending Apple stock price (AAPL) down over 3%.

When Steve Jobs introduced the original iPod to the world on October 23, 2001, not long after another fateful day, he proclaimed, "With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again!" He could not have been more right. The music industry has gone from a lingering distaste for online music delivery to serving up 8,500,000 songs on iTunes, and the iPod still holds 73% market share.

Yet after the iPod and its many iterations, there really hasn't been that much zing. Every innovation has seemed incremental, almost something that should have been there in the first place, and we are still locked into the scenic walled garden of iTunes. The iPhone, for all its hype, brought little revolution to the mobile marketplace - carriers still rule the roost in every country where the iPhone is available, and people still over-pay for more features than they typically use in any given week.

Today could have been different. We are used to expecting wonderful things from the last icon of technology. We would not have been surprised if he had sprung a time travel machine on us (the iTime?). The yearning for good news in a rather bad year perhaps raised expectations beyond what the ivory towers could purvey.

Yet, we perhaps knew there was little great news in store. The rumors that had leaked were not hinting at any large rabbits hidden away in the hat. Even more disquietingly, they were not stamped down like errant knaves from the castle bearing news of the queen's infidelity.

We got 120 GB iPods, a slimmer eco-friendly Nano, earbuds, the 'funnest' iPod Touch ever - lots of games and the 2.1 software update for the iPhone. The big news of the evening was the Genius function, which auto-recommends songs based on your selection, either in your library on in the iTunes Store. That's a neat feature, but not very different from what Amazon has had all these years, and one is surprised it wasn't already built in.

Jack Johnson wrapped up the evening, and while that might be a nice touch, it smacked of half-hearted innovation, like there was no sparkle left in the wand, or perhaps they need a new star. One hopes Mr. Jobs has many years of creative life ahead, yet, a company cannot be dependent on a single icon. Microsoft seems to be making the post-Gates transition well enough, and while it might be too soon to tell, there is no clear succession defined at Apple.

Robert X. Cringely's proclamations aside, the synergy between Disney, Pixar, and Apple has not yet materialized into any grand design. The iPod may continue to outsell the competition, and the iPhone draw admiring eyes (though not many buyers, at least in India), but without a steady stream of ground-breaking innovations, Apple can all too easily slip back into the shadows of the tech-media space it occupied for many years in the first twilight of Steve Jobs.