Software Craftsmanship or Inside Cisco

Software Craftsmanship: The New Imperative

Author: Pete McBreen

better applications.

Today’s software development projects are often based on the traditional software engineering model, which was created to develop large-scale defense projects. Projects that use this antiquated industrial model tend to take longer, promise more, and deliver less.

As the demand for software has exploded, the software engineering establishment has attempted to adapt to the changing times with short training programs that teach the syntax of coding languages. But writing code is no longer the hard part of development; the hard part is figuring out what to write. This kind of know-how demands a skilled craftsman, not someone who knows only how to pass a certification course.

Software Craftsmanship presents an alternative—a craft model that focuses on the people involved in commercial software development. This book illustrates that it is imperative to turn from the technology-for-its-own-sake model to one that is grounded in delivering value to customers. The author, Pete McBreen, presents a method to nurture mastery in the programmer, develop creative collaboration in small developer teams, and enhance communications with the customer. The end result—skilled developers who can create, extend, and enhance robust applications.

This book addresses the following topics, among others:

Understanding customer requirements

Identifying when a project may go off track

Selecting software craftsmen for a particular project

Designing goals for application development

Managing software craftsmen

Software Craftsmanship is written forprogrammers who want to become exceptional at their craft and for the project manager who wants to hire them.

Table of Contents:

	Foreword
	Preface
Pt. 1	Questioning Software Engineering	1
1	Understanding Software Engineering	3
2	The Problems with Software Engineering	11
3	Understanding Software Development	17
4	Finding a Better Metaphor Than Software Engineering	25
Pt. 2	Software Craftsmanship	31
5	Putting People Back into Software Development	33
6	Craftsmanship Is the Opposite of Licensing	37
Pt. 3	Implications of Software Craftsmanship	45
7	How Craftsmanship Affects the Users of Systems	47
8	Customers Have a Different Relationship with Craftsmen	55
9	Managing Craftsmen	69
10	Becoming a Software Craftsman	79
11	Mastering the Craft	85
12	Apprentice Developers	93
13	Journeymen Developers	105
Pt. 4	Repositioning Software Engineering	109
14	Software Engineering Projects	111
15	Hazards of the Software Engineering Metaphor	117
16	Learning from Software Engineering	131
Pt. 5	What to Do on Monday Morning	139
17	Experience - The Best Indicator of Project Success	141
18	Design for Testing and Maintenance	155
19	Perpetual Learning	171
	Epilogue	179
	Acknowledgments	181
	Index	183

Look this: Texturing Modeling or Case Studies in Knowledge Management

Inside Cisco: The Real Story of Sustained M&A Growth

Author: Ed Paulson

An insider reveals the core strategies behind Cisco's phenomenal success

Most savvy business observers agree that the major component in Cisco's phenomenal growth has been their unwavering commitment to expanding their product line through aggressive acquisitions. Since 1995, the "New Goliath," as Cisco is known throughout the business and finance communities, has acquired more than sixty companies. In this groundbreaking book, a Silicon Valley veteran, Ed Paulson, uses his strong connections to Cisco's management to reveal the M&A gospel according to Cisco.

Paulson explores how Cisco has used acquisitions to stay ahead of its competitors, analyzes their strategies and proven methods for incorporating new companies seamlessly, positively, and profitably. Paulson reveals the centerpiece of Cisco's acquisition strategy-one that is company-focused, culturally compatible, and retains staff. He examines how Cisco executives determine if a target company is compatible with Cisco's corporate culture and strategic outlook and describes the extraordinary lengths to which these executives will go to gain the loyalty of acquired people. This book details the Cisco methodology and illustrates how it can be applied to companies across industries.

Ed Paulson (Chicago, IL) is President of Technology and Communications, Inc., a business and technology consulting firm and a visiting professor at DePaul University's School for New Training. He is a Silicon Valley veteran with more than two decades of experience and the author of numerous business and technology books, most recently, The Technology M&A Guidebook (Wiley:0-471-36010-4).

Publishers Weekly

Once the gold-plated standard for how to succeed on the Internet, Cisco Systems has since lost some of its luster. But even though the company's stock price has dropped, Paulson (The Technology M&A Guidebook) makes a convincing case for still using Cisco as a model for how other companies can manage their M&A (merger and acquisition) growth. For one, Cisco buys companies not just when it is trying to expand or protect itself against potential competitors, but rather "as an integral part of its system," thus looking ahead for future growth. Indeed, Cisco's acquisitions have been prolific, and the author explains who the company targets for acquisitions and why. Unlike many acquirers, Cisco tries to retain most of the personnel during an acquisition, and Paulson shows how that makes good sense. According to Cisco CEO John Chambers, "If you pay $500,000 to $2 million per person... and you lose 30 to 40 percent of those people in the first two years, you've made a terrible decision." Paulson shows most of Cisco's major acquisitions and the buying price per employee, which is appropriate for a book on M&A's, of course, but he is too meandering to offer specific, helpful information. Those interested in refining their company's M&A strategies won't find too much here to help them; Paulson makes a great case why Cisco is good at what it does, but aphorisms like "[Cisco] listens closely to its customers" are less than effective. Such lines suggest that the book is targeted more at a general business audience, but how many of those readers actually need advice on how to buy companies? (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Texturing Modeling or Case Studies in Knowledge Management

Texturing & Modeling: A Procedural Approach

Author:

This latest edition is thoroughly expanded and revised to include new material on L-systems, particle systems, scene graphs, cloud modeling, and noise improvements, and all-new chapters devoted to real-time issues, cellular texturing, geometric instancing, texture atlases, and virtual universes. In addition, the code provided in each chapter and on the accompanying Web site has been updated to the latest standard. Readers will appreciate the addition of many more magnificent sample images, considering this edition's most visible improvement: printed in full-color throughout.

Table of Contents:

New interesting textbook: The Nature and Determinants of Disclosure Adequacy or Multinational Business Finance

Case Studies in Knowledge Management

Author: Jennex

Case Studies in Knowledge Management provides case-based lessons learned from several examples of actual applications of knowledge management in a variety of organizational and global settings. A variety of KM issues are explored, including issues associated with building a KMS, organizational culture and its effect on knowledge capture, sharing, re-use, strategy, and implementation of KM initiatives and a KMS.

Send or ASP ADO and XML Complete

Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home

Author: David Shipley

When should you email, and when should you call, fax, or just show up?

What is the crucial—and most often overlooked—line in an email?

What is the best strategy when you send (in anger or error) a potentially career-ending electronic bombshell?

Enter Send. Whether you email just a little or never stop, use a desktop or a handheld, here, at last, is an authoritative and delightful book that shows how to write the perfect email—at work, at school, or anywhere. Send also points out the numerous (but not always obvious) times when email can be the worst option and might land you in hot water (or even jail!).

The secret is, of course, to think before you click. Send is nothing short of a survival guide for the digital age—wise, brimming with good humor, and filled with helpful lessons from the authors’ own email experiences (and mistakes). In short: absolutely e-ssential.

The New York Times - Dave Barry

E-mail, for all its efficiency, often fails to achieve its intended result; a vague or carelessly worded message can cause major problems — personal, legal and financial — for senders and receivers. Helping you avoid these problems is the goal of "Send," an informative, entertaining, thorough and thoughtful book. The authors are media veterans — David Shipley is deputy editorial page editor of The New York Times; Will Schwalbe is editor in chief of Hyperion Books — with extensive, and not always positive, experience sending and receiving e-mail. They summarize their essential message in two rules: "Think before you send" and "Send e-mail you would like to receive."

Publishers Weekly

From this essential guidebook's opening sentence—"Bad things can happen on email"—Shipley and Schwalbe make all too clear what can go wrong. E-mail's ubiquity, with casual and formal correspondence jumbled in the same inbox, makes misunderstandings common; e-mail's inexpressive, text-only format doesn't help. Given its brief history, there's no established etiquette for usage, which is why this primer is so valuable. It promises the reader hope of becoming more efficient and less annoying, reducing danger of a career-ending blunder. Brisk, practical and witty, the book aims to improve the reader's skills as sender and recipient: devising effective subject lines and exploring "the politics of the cc"; how to steer clear of legal issues; and how to recognize different types of attachments. Using real-life examples from flame wars and awkward exchanges (including their own), Shipley and Schwalbe (op-ed editor of the New York Timesand Hyperion Books' editor-in-chief) explain why people so often say "incredibly stupid things" in their outgoing messages. "Email has a tendency to encourage the lesser angels of our nature," they note. They also offer "seven big reasons to love email," along with quick guides to instant messaging and e-mail technology, all the while urging us to "think before [we] send." (Apr.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-In a snappy and easy manner, the authors provide a brief history of email, explain why people love it, review reasons for using it, and describe times when it should be avoided-for love letters, documents to be archived, and confidential correspondence. There are discussions on writing emails (essentially six types), subject lines, the use of contractions, font type and size, color, openings, and sign-offs. For readers who have ever sent an email and instantly regretted it, wondered about legality issues or whether or not that deleted email will stay deleted, or what information is hidden in an email's header, this guide provides the answers.-Joanne Ligamari, Rio Linda School District, Sacramento, CA

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

What People Are Saying

“Send is an easy to read primer, full of practical tips for every emailer.” 
—Bob Eckert, Charman and CEO, Mattel, Inc.

“Send can help any of us send emails that build better business relationships and get better results.”
—Spencer Johnson, M.D., author of Who Moved My Cheese?

“It should not have taken until 2007 for someone to write the definitive tome on email. Send is to email what The Elements of Style is to writing. Thank God it’s here at last. (BCC: David Shipley and Will Schwalbe)”
—Guy Kawasaki, author of The Art of the Start

“This is just the book I’ve been waiting for.”
—Bill Bryson

“A fascinating, entertaining, and, above all, informative look at email—and how it changed the way we communicate with one another. What Strunk and White is to style, this book is to email. It’s a terrific read. I highly recommend it.”
—Charles Osgood

“The Internet has finally found its Emily Post. If after you’ve read this you fail to change your emailing habits, you’re doomed. Read it or weep.”
—Michael Lewis, author of The Blind Side and Moneyball

New interesting book: The Taste for Ethics or Edible France

ASP, ADO, and XML Complete

Author: Sybex Inc

ASP, ADO, and XML Complete is a one-of-a-kind computer book--valuable both for its extensive content and its low price. This book contains a wealth of vital information for any developer in need of a complete reference to the most essential technologies used for Web programming on the Windows platform.
ASP, ADO, and XML Complete not only covers the fundamentals of scripting and ASP but it also highlights database development with ADO and SQL Server, client-side scripting, building your own components, using XML with ASP, implementing e-commerce with Microsoft BizTalk server, and building your own online store.
ASP, ADO, and XML Complete introduces you to the work of some of Sybex's finest authors, so you'll know where to turn when you want to learn even more about key Web development topics.

Table of Contents:

Introduction.

Part i Programming Essentials.

Chapter 1: The Microsoft Toolset.

Chapter 2: Visual Basic and the Web.

Chapter 3: Web Applications and ASP.

Chapter 4: Introduction to VBScript.

Chapter 5: Introduction to JScript.

Part ii: Beginning ASP.

Chapter 6: IIS Applications.

Chapter 7: Introduction to ASP Applications.

Chapter 8: Building ASP Applications.

Chapter 9: State Maintenance in ASP Applications.

Chapter 10: Sample Application.

Part iii: Database Development.

Chapter 11: Database Access: Architectures and Technologies.

Chapter 12: Basic Concepts of Relational Databases.

Chapter 13: Introduction to Relational Databases and SQL.

Chapter 14: Exploring Data from Visual Basic.

Chapter 15: ADO 2.5 for Web Developers.

Part iv: Advanced ASP and WebClasses.

Chapter 16: Client-Side Scripting.

Chapter 17: Building Your Own Components.

Chapter 18: Planning Applications.

Part v: XML.

Chapter 19: Using XML/XSL with ASP.

Chapter 20: XML and ASP.

Chapter 21: XML and MS Databases.

Chapter 22: E-Commerce with MS BizTalk.

Part vi: Building Real-World Web Applications.

Chapter 23: Building the User Interface.

Chapter 24: Making a Basket Case.

Chapter 25: On Sale.

Chapter 26: Discussion Forums.

Index.

Network Security or UNIX Network Programming Volume 2

Network Security: A Hacker's Perspective

Author: Thomson Course Technology Staff

Virtually every organization is reliant on its computer system, and when hackers infiltrate, the consequences can be grave-halts in productivity, sensitive information stolen, assets at risk. Network Security: A Hacker's Perspective, Second Edition will help you step into the minds of computer criminals so that you can predict their moves and stop them before they strike. Written for anyone with some networking experience, this completely updated edition of the bestseller covers the most serious network-related security threats, vulnerabilities, and loopholes related to most major platforms, including Windows, UNIX, and Novell. Using a hands-on approach and numerous real-life case studies, the book identifies the tools, techniques, and methods that criminals use to break into networks for espionage and malicious purposes, with tips for prevention, as well as countermeasures you can take in the event the hackers strike first. In addition to providing information on the significant advancements in the field of security, attacks, and network reconnaissance, this latest edition provides a completely new section on input validation attacks, password cracking, buffer overflows, Trojan attacks, and much, much more. A companion Web site offers all the tools, scripts, and code discussed in the book.

Table of Contents:

Ch. 1	Preparing the attack	1
Ch. 2	Gathering information for the attack	99
Ch. 3	Executing the attack	223
Ch. 4	Secure protocols, encryption algorithms, and file security	327
App. A	Well-known port numbers	375
App. B	Country codes	379
App. C	Trojan port numbers	385
App. D	Protocol numbers list	393

New interesting book: Professional Cooking Study Guide or Hand Book of Practical Cookery for Ladies and Professional Cooks

UNIX Network Programming, Volume 2: Interprocess Communications

Author: W Richard Stevens

Don't miss the rest of the series!

• Vol. 1, Networking APIs: Sockets and XTI
• Vol. 3, Applications (forthcoming)

The only guide to UNIX(r) interprocess communications you'll ever need!

Well-implemented interprocess communications (IPC) are key to the performance of virtually every non-trivial UNIX program. In UNIX Network Programming, Volume 2, Second Edition, legendary UNIX expert W. Richard Stevens presents a comprehensive guide to every form of IPC, including message passing, synchronization, shared memory, and Remote Procedure Calls (RPC).

Stevens begins with a basic introduction to IPC and the problems it is intended to solve. Step-by-step you'll learn how to maximize both System V IPC and the new Posix standards, which offer dramatic improvements in convenience and performance. You'll find extensive coverage of Pthreads, with many examples reflecting multiple threads instead of multiple processes. Along the way, you'll master every current IPC technique and technology, including:

• Pipes and FIFOs.
• Posix and System V Message Queues
• Mutexes and Condition Variables
• Read-Write Locks
• Record Locking
• Posix and System V Semaphores
• Posix and System V Shared Memory
• Solaris Doors and Sun RPC
• Performance Measurements of IPC Techniques

If you've read Stevens' best-selling first edition of UNIX Network Programming, this book expands its IPC coverage by a factor of five! You won't just learn about IPC "from the outside." You'll actually create implementations of Posix message queues, read-write locks, and semaphores, gaining anin-depth understanding of these capabilities you simply can't get anywhere else.

The book contains extensive new source code-all carefully optimized and available on the Web. You'll even find a complete guide to measuring IPC performance with message passing bandwidth and latency programs, and thread and process synchronization programs.

The better you understand IPC, the better your UNIX software will run. One book contains all you need to know: UNIX Network Programming, Volume 2, Second Edition.

Learning in Real Time or Exploiting Software

Learning in Real Time: Synchronous Teaching and Learning Online

Author: Jonathan E Finkelstein

Learning in Real Time is a concise and practical resource for education professionals teaching live and online or those wanting to humanize and improve interaction in their online courses by adding a synchronous learning component. The book offers keen insight into the world of synchronous learning tools, guides instructors in evaluating how and when to use them, and illustrates how educators can develop their own strategies and styles in implementing such tools to improve online learning.

Books about: Barbarians at the Gate or The PMP Exam

Exploiting Software: How to Break Code

Author: Greg Hoglund

Exploiting Software is filled with the tools, concepts, and knowledge necessary to break software.

Table of Contents:

	Attack Patterns
	Foreword
	Preface
	Acknowledgments
1	Software - The Root of the Problem	1
2	Attack Patterns	37
3	Reverse Engineering and Program Understanding	71
4	Exploiting Server Software	147
5	Exploiting Client Software	201
6	Crafting (Malicious) Input	233
7	Buffer Overflow	277
8	Rootkits	367
	References	449
	Index	453