Computer Design Books - Page 5

Service-Oriented Architecture: A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services (The Prentice Hall Service-Oriented Computing Series from Thomas Erl)

Thomas Erl

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Design & Architecture
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Networking -> Networks, Protocols & APIs -> LAN

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Advertising for Author's Business 1 out of 5 stars.
21 of 26 people found this review helpful.

I read this book as part of a technical book club at work. The concensus of the group is that there is very little useful information in it. It contains many diagrams and charts that provide little benefit other than to increase the page count. It contains mis-information concerning competing technologies such as CORBA and constantly treats SOA and Web Services as if they are interchangeable terms. Much of the information is superficial. The bright spot in the book was that the large number of nearly identical charts made reading the chapters go very quickly. Finally, the author often seems to be using the book as advertisment for his company. There are much better resources for gaining an understanding of SOA and Web Services. Don't waste you money on this one.

Editorial Review:

As XML becomes an increasingly significant part of the IT mainstream, expert guidance and common-sense strategies are required to avoid the many pitfalls of applying XML incorrectly or allowing it to be used in an uncontrolled manner. This book acts as a knowledge base for issues relating to integration, and provides clear, concise advice on how to best determine the manner and direction XML technology should be positioned and integrated. The book will be one of the first to provide documentation for second-generation Web services technologies (also known as WS-*). The importance of these specifications (which include BPEL, WS-Transaction, WS-Coordination, WS-Security, WS-Policy, and WS-Reliable Messaging) cannot be understated. Major standards organizations and vendors are supporting and developing these standards. ***David Keogh, Program Manager for Enterprise Frameworks and Tools, Microsoft, will provide a front cover quotation for the book.

Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SharePoint 2003 in 10 Minutes (Sams Teach Yourself)

Colin Spence, Michael Noel

Amazon Price: $12.91 List Price: $18.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sams Amazon Marketplace: 62 new & used starting at $1.86

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Quick Overview for Professionals & Nice Reference for End Users 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

What the heck is Sharepoint? We bought this book to help us find out. I've liked many of the SAMS 24-hour and 21-day books, but this is the first 10-minute SAMS that I enjoyed. This book has a 2005 copyright and addresses Sharepoint 2003, the release prceding the current Sharepoint 2007. Since the book is an introduction, it serves well even if you envision a Sharepoint 2007 environment.

As we reengineered our IT resources at our small technology company to run on Microsoft Small Business Server, we almost discarded the built-in Sharepoint-based CompanyWeb intranet. Just in time, we (I and one other experienced administrator/developer) took a closer look by rapidly exploring CompanyWeb using the twenty-five, ten-minute lessons in this book. Wow, we realized we could do so much with Sharepoint to improve our intranet. We quickly invested in four thicker Sharepoint books, but this is the book we will give to end users who are looking for something beyond read-only access to the documents and lists.

We learned that Sharepoint quite simply is a Microsoft server technology with an impressive set of tools for creating, viewing, and editing intranets. (Call them "portals" if they are comprehensive and well designed.) Sharepoint works just fine too for public web sites but so far has been promoted by Microsoft largely as a way to share Office 2003 and Office 2007 documents.

Use of Sharepoint encourages and almost ensures best practices for not just sharing but also collaborating on documents, lists (including contacts), discussions, surveys, links, and many more intranet elements. A wide variety of templates are available from Microsoft and others. Each of these intranet elements is a Sharepoint Web Part. Web Parts are enhanced ASP.Net pages with integrated assemblies of controls. The assemblies have properties and methods that permit easy runtime modification of content, format, and views by end users - in almost the same manner as end users can edit, format, and view Word or Excel documents. Most Sharepoint documents and other items can be automatically maintained in SQL Server databases (with version control and checkout if you need them) so you can say goodbye to huge assortments of poorly organized folders that are typically found in intranets, and this improvement in content management greatly eases an intranet administrator's burden.

Of course developers can build their own web parts using the sophistication of Visual Studio and all the power of the .NET Framework.

Editorial Review:

Sams Teach Yourself SharePoint 2003 in 10 Minutes is the first quick reference book for users of SharePoint 2003. Easy-to-follow instructions for the most common tasks in SharePoint 2003 are the basis of this book, which also provides answers to the most commonly asked questions about using SharePoint 2003. As an end-user, you will learn the basic skills needed to work successfully with a SharePoint Services website, as well as contribute to document libraries and discussion groups. As a site administrator, you will learn fundamental skills needed to effectively manage SharePoint Services site collections. Best of all, it will only take about 10 minutes of your time to do so. Sams Teach Yourself SharePoint 2003 in 10 Minutes will prove to be a worthy investment of your two most valuable commodities: time and money.

Linux Enterprise Cluster: Build a Highly Available Cluster with Commodity Hardware and Free Software

Karl Kopper

List Price: $49.95 By: No Starch Press Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $19.00

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Distributed Databases
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Microprocessors & System Design -> Computer Design
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Parallel Processing Computers

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Linux Enterprise Cluster explains how to take a number of inexpensive computers with limited resources, place them on a normal computer network, and install free software so that the computers act together like one powerful server. This makes it possible to build a very inexpensive and reliable business system for a small business or a large corporation. The book includes information on how to build a high-availability server pair using the Heartbeat package, how to use the Linux Virtual Server load balancing software, how to configure a reliable printing system in a Linux cluster environment, and how to build a job scheduling system in Linux with no single point of failure. The book also includes information on high availability techniques that can be used with or without a cluster, making it helpful for System Administrators even if they are not building a cluster. Anyone interested in deploying Linux in an environment where low cost computer reliability is important will find this book useful. The CD-ROM includes the Linux kernel, ldirectord software, the Mon monitoring package, the Ganglia package, OpenSSH, rsync, SystemImager, Heartbeat, and all the figures and illustrations used in the book.

High Speed Digital Design: A Handbook of Black Magic (Prentice Hall Modern Semiconductor Design Series' Sub Series: PH Signal Integrity Library)

Howard Johnson, Martin Graham

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Circuitry -> Circuit Components
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Microprocessors & System Design -> Computer Design
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Design & Architecture

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Mostly a very solid book 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Great book. BTW, the author lists a LOT of errata on his website, enough to take over an hour to mark up my copy (5th printing). Although it's nice he documents this so well, it's a pain in the rear, so you may want to verify the edition you're buying to avoid this extra effort. On page vi, above ISBN, look for reverse sequence; example: "10 9 8 7" indicates 7th printing (cryptic, I know). Most recent printing is 15th edition (least amount of errata). The book is loaded with equations and diagrams. It would be nice to see more derivations, but at least the equations are there in the text, and in the appendix. I thought a few other reviewers were a bit harsh. The book is not perfect, but nevertheless a great resource. His second book is impressive, but more advanced; this original title is my "workhorse" book. also, check out his website (sigcon.com) for lots of articles and resources.

Editorial Review:

Focuses on a combination of digital and analog circuit theory. Helps engineers who work with digital systems, shorten their product development cycles and fix their latest high-speed design problems. DLC: Digital electronics.

Implementing ITIL Configuration Management

Larry Klosterboer

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> MIS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Software Engineering -> Information Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Microprocessors & System Design -> Computer Design

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Practical, Real-World ITIL Configuration Management–From Start to Finish

The IT Infrastructure Library® (ITIL) places the “best practices” in IT operations at your command. ITIL helps you make better technology choices, manages IT more effectively, and drives greater business value from all your IT investments. The core of ITIL is configuration management: the discipline of identifying, tracking, and controlling your IT environment’s diverse components to gain accurate and timely information for better decision-making.

Now, there’s a practical, start-to-finish guide to ITIL configuration management for every IT leader, manager, and practitioner. ITIL-certified architect and solutions provider Larry Klosterboer helps you establish a clear roadmap for success, customize standard processes to your unique needs, and avoid the pitfalls that stand in your way.

You’ll learn how to plan your implementation, deploy tools and processes, administer ongoing configuration management tasks, refine ITIL information, and leverage it for competitive advantage. Throughout, Klosterboer demystifies ITIL’s jargon, illuminates each technique with real-world advice and examples, and helps you focus on the specific techniques that offer maximum business value in your environment.

Coverage includes

• Assessing your current configuration management maturity and setting goals for improvement
• Gathering and managing requirements to align ITIL with organizational needs
• Describing the schema of your configuration management database (CMDB)
• Identifying, capturing, and organizing configuration data
• Choosing the best tools for your requirements
• Integrating data and processes to create a unified logical CMDB and configuration management service
• Implementing pilot projects to demonstrate the value of configuration management and to test your planning

• Moving from a pilot to wide-scale enterprise deployment
• Defining roles for deployment and ongoing staffing
• Leveraging configuration management information: Reporting and beyond
• Measuring and improving CMDB data accuracy

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xxi

About the Author xxiii

Chapter 1: Overview of Configuration Management 1

Part I: Planning for Configuration Management 17

Chapter 2: Gathering and Analyzing Requirements 19

Chapter 3: Determining Scope, Span, and Granularity 37

Chapter 4: Customizing the Configuration Management Process 55

Chapter 5: Planning for Data Population 67

Chapter 6: Putting Together a Useful Project Plan 85

Part II: Implementing Configuration Management 97

Chapter 7: Choosing the Right Tools 99

Chapter 8: Implementing the Process 117

Chapter 9: Populating the Configuration Management Database 127

Chapter 10: Choosing and Running a Pilot Program 137

Chapter 11: Communication and Enterprise Roll Out 149

Part III: Running an Effective Configuration Management System 161

Chapter 12: Building a Configuration Management Team 163

Chapter 13: The Many Uses for Configuration Information 179

Chapter 14: Measuring and Improving CMDB Accuracy 193

Chapter 15: Improving the Business Value of Configuration Management 207

Index 217

Tagging: People-powered Metadata for the Social Web (Voices That Matter)

Gene Smith

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> Management
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Home Computing -> Internet -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Tagging is a new form of information management that relates to personal organization, info architecture, and online communities 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This was a really good book. It wasn't what I expected it to be. But it was a worthwhile read. I picked it up because I do a fair amount of work writing book reviews and making guides and booklists on Amazon. And Amazon now lets guys like me create tags for the books I review and include in guides and lists. I kind of expected this book would have talked a little bit about the Amazon system of tagging. Nope. But that's OK. It's still a good book. It includes seven chapters and three appendices:

1. What is tagging?
2. The value of tagging
3. Tagging system architecture
4. Tags, metadata, and classical systems
5. Navigation and visualization
6. Interfaces
7. Technical design
A. Case study: social bookmarking
B. Case study: media sharing
C. Case study: personal information management

Tagging is a form of information that is really starting to take root in our computer systems and online systems. I first experienced it back in 1998 when I purchased a copy of Lotus Organizer to use as my Personal Information Manager (PIM) when practicing law. The program allowed me to cross-reference the many lists I had created in its database. I thought it was really cool back then.

I was just getting into creating Web sites in 1998, too. And I found the tagging features in Lotus Organizer enabled me to do with the data in my database what I was doing with my Web pages in my Web sites. Basically tagging is another name for hyperlinking. Nothing more and nothing less. A tag will take you to a new idea, concept, data item, data page, or database. It's a springboard that will take you to information.

This book points out that tagging is a new form of information management as it relates to personal organization, information architecture, and online communities. I suppose my Lotus Organizer program is an example of the first, and Amazon's system is an example of the last. So is it really all that new?

All in all, this book explains the value of tagging. It's a guide to what, how and why to tag. Each chapter ended in a list of bullet points called a Summary. I liked this feature very much since it helped me skim through the book quickly. 5 stars!

Editorial Review:

Tagging is fast becoming one of the primary ways people organize and manage digital information. Tagging complements traditional organizational tools like folders and search on users desktops as well as on the web. These developments mean that tagging has broad implications for information management, information architecture and interface design. And its reach extends beyond these technical domains to our culture at large. We can imagine, for example, the scrapbookers of the future curating their digital photos, emails, ticket stubs and other mementos with tags. This book explains the value of tagging, explores why people tag, how tagging works and when it can be used to improve the user experience. It exposes tagging's superficial simplicity to reveal interesting issues related to usability, information architecture, online community and collective intelligence.

IT Architecture Toolkit (Harris Kern's Enterprise Computing Institute Series)

Jane Carbone

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Skills -> Office Automation
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent how-to book 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This book is rather thin, but very dense. I can't remember reading a book that had so many bullet points and lists. While many books on the subject of Enterprise Architecture focus primarily on discussions, this book omits wordy definitions and usual fluff and "cuts to the chase" on how to analyze company's baseline, synthesize its target state using business drivers, and deliver a roadmap for transitioning to it.

Unlike with many books listed on Amazon.com, it's not currently possible to search inside this book or view its Table of Contents. Therefore, I have decided to list some of the chapter titles below:

Connecting Architecture to the Business
Analyzing the Business Current State
Constructing the Business target State
Analyzing the Target State--Identifying Gaps and Opportunities
Architecture Models
Standards
Establishing Metrics
Presenting the Plan for Buy-in
Compliance and Other Key Processes

The entire book is a template on how to approach an overwhelming task of restructuring a company into a better entity that will enable it to achieve its business goals. Thus I would recommend it to someone who is fairly familiar with the theoretical underpinnings of the subject and is ready to try it in practice. I am sure it will be as helpful to you as it has been helpful to me.

Editorial Review:

Information is the lifeblood of most organizations. In fact, in many cases information is not just critical to the business - it IS the business. Organizations struggling with the fallout from today's economy have a heightened need for enterprise architecture the set of IT plans that describes how all parts of the IT infrastructure need to behave to support the organizations needs. Urgent cost-containment issues, consolidations, productivity pressures and ebusiness integration all demand solutions. This book will help you master the vital skills needed to plan how data is collected, how data should efficiently flow through your organization, and how data is transformed into information can your business can use. Learn from Ms. Carbone's decades of experience and proven approaches to better understand and implement enterprise architecture.

Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond (SEI Series in Software Engineering)

Paul Clements, Felix Bachmann, Len Bass, David Garlan, James Ivers, Reed Little, Robert Nord, Judith Stafford

Amazon Price: $59.99 List Price: $74.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Addison-Wesley Professional Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $48.19

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Design & Architecture

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The only technical documentation book you'll need 5 out of 5 stars.
36 of 39 people found this review helpful.

After reading my colleague's comments I rushed out and purchased this book. I, too, am trained and certified in Information Mapping© and was impressed at how closely the approach in this book is aligned to that method. However, what I like most is the fact that this book can be used as guidance for a wider scope than just documenting software architectures because it shows how to organize your documentation requirements, develop clear documentation and manage the entire process from start to finish.

I also like the clearly articulated and illustrated advice about how to augment text with graphics, and how to select the views and associated graphics to document requirements, specifications and the finished architecture. An example of how this book goes beyond documenting just architectures is a project in which I was engaged two years ago. One of the major deliverables was a set of operations guides. While this is related to architecture with respect to how its used after it's in production, there were no books that fully described how to go about it in a coherent way. Using the advice and techniques in this book I could have greatly improved upon what I did produce. While I cannot change the past, you can be sure that I'll use this book to its fullest the next time I need to write ops guides, especially when it comes to showing component and connector views, and elements and relations.

If you do technical writing either professionally or as a part of your job get this book and keep it nearby. If you read and use the material you're ability to communicate will surely improve, and you'll be able to tailor your documentation to each segment of your audience (business and technical), as well as to clearly communicate information. You'll also learn much about managing the documentation process itself.

Editorial Review:

Helps you decide what information to document and then, with guidelines and examples, shows you how to express an architecture in a form that everyone can understand. An important reference on the shelf of the software architect.

Storage Virtualization: Technologies for Simplifying Data Storage and Management

Tom Clark

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A good summary of storage virtualization 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This book describes the basics of modern storage virtualization at an introductory level. The reader should have a basic technical background but does not need know much about storage. There are fourteen chapters each of which covers one aspect of storage. Topics include: host, server and fabric based virtualization. Additional topics such as various types of file systems as well as protocols such as Fibre, NFS, iscsi are also covered. The main drawback is the lack of details. Each topic is covered in about ~10-15 pages which is barely enough to scratch the surface. Therefore anyone who is seriously interested in a particular topic will have to find other material to really dig in. On the positive side, the presentation is simple enough that the book may be read rather quickly. I would recommend it to anyone who is getting into storage and wants a summary of all the major topics in an easy to read book.

Editorial Review:

Storage virtualization is a new field that has considerable interest forinformation technology managers. There is currently no single work thatprovides an objective, technical explanation of virtualization technologies.This book examines new storage virtualization technologies that automate datastorage processes, including data placement, replication, and back-up. Storagevirtualization is designed to ease storage management by presenting yourstorage network's physical assets in a logical form. Making storage networkseasier to manage can save a company money and make a storage network moreefficient. Storage Virtualization provides a technical overview of howvirtualization applications work and also includes practical case examples fromthe real world. Topics covered include: virtualizing at the host level, fabricbasedvirtualization, virtualization appliances, virtualized file systems,virtualization engines, and virtualized tape back-up.

Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for Java EE Study Guide (Exam 310-051) (Certification Press)

Paul Allen, Joseph Bambara

Amazon Price: $31.49 List Price: $49.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $23.00

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> Exams -> Java
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> Publisher -> Osborne-McGraw-Hill

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Best Fully Integrated Study System Available

With hundreds of practice questions and hands-on exercises, Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for Java EE Study Guide covers what you need to know--and shows you how to prepare--for this challenging exam.

• 100% complete coverage of all official objectives for exam 310-051
• Inside the Exam sections in every chapter highlight key exam topics covered
• Simulated exam questions match the format, tone, topics, and difficulty of the real exam

Covers all the exam topics, including:

Basic Principles of Enterprise Architectures * Object-Oriented Design Using UML * Applicability of JEE Technology * Design Patterns * Legacy Connectivity * EJB and Container Models * Messaging * Internationalization and Localization * Security

CD-ROM includes:

• Complete MasterExam practice testing engine, featuring: One full practice exam: Detailed answers with explanations: Score Report performance assessment tool
• Electronic book for studying on the go
• With free online registration: Bonus downloadable MasterExam practice test