January 2006
Emmett DulaneyAs soon as somebody says "certification", a flood of responses usually follows. Most of the views expressed are typically along these lines:
Is there any value in that?
Are people still doing that?
Isn't that for people who don't have experience?
What's in it for me?
That's just a piece of paper...
Where can I find what's popular and get more information?
Will my employer pay for it?
Emmett DulaneyThink you're ready to whip out the company credit card and register for that certification exam that has caught your eye? Before you do, test your knowledge with this sample exam of questions covering basic to intermediate-level Linux/Unix topics.
Emmett DulaneyThe world of certification is no different from that of any other commodity. When a particular certification becomes “popular”, it is usually because the demand for it in the market is high, and thus a person holding it can earn more money. Others who don’t hold that certification witness this and decide that they should now get it. They study, take the exam(s) and earn the certification, thereby adding to the number of those qualified for job openings.
Peter SalusWhen I put together my IPv6 Addressing anthology in 1999, there were about a half-dozen books describing the "new" protocol. There are now more than 50. This one is very fine.
Cameron Laird and Kathryn SoraizBecause you're compulsive about four-letter names.
Or because you're a refugee from the orphanages of OS/2 or Amiga, who likes the reliability of Unix, but misses a few more friendly faces. Or because you're curious about how good a lightweight language can be after a quarter century of refinement. Or because you have responsibilities that stretch across Windows, OS/400, MVS, Linux, and even rarer operating systems.
Or simply because you want to get work done and are curious about whether Rexx might fit your situation better than the scripting language you're using now. All of these are good reasons to set aside a morning and introduce yourself to the oldest "personal programming language".
Kristy WestphalReal Digital Forensics is a wonderful teaching tool for forensics geeks of all skill levels. For a beginner, the book addresses many types of forensic situations you may encounter, including live response forensics on both Windows and Unix, forensic imaging, online-based forensics, and mobile device analysis. For the advanced user, there is a plethora of cool tools, many of which you may not have heard of before.
Peter LavinThere are inherent dangers in writing a sequel — you've lost the element of surprise and created certain expectations. It's easy to sink into comfortable repetition. Fortunately, that's not the case here — the subtitle, Continuing Evolution, is warranted. This sequel may not have quite so stellar a cast of contributors as its predecessor, but the diversity and number of authors more than makes up for this. There are contributors from Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. Naturally, most have an IT background, but there are also biologists and political and social scientists among them. This variety speaks to the strength and success of open source.
Marcel GagnéThis handy little program sits quietly in the background as you work. Then, at some regularly programmed intervals, it pops up a gentle reminder to take a break.
Ed SchaeferEver notice how people who are really passionate about a topic will tell you everything they know, think they know, or even suspect? I think author Brian Hook is that way concerning cross-platform software development. Hook has an opinion on everything from source code control to operating systems to internationalization.
Reinhard VoglmaierEclipse IDE Pocket Guide is a typical O’Reilly pocket guide that provides a handy reference for anyone navigating the Eclipse menu system.
Cameron LairdA "transition error" led to the delay of this article for more than a year. Although it was originally written early in 2004, its content remains equally accurate and pertinent today. This is typical for Expect — its author, Don Libes, expected it to be imitated and surpassed soon after he first released it at the beginning of the 1990s, but that's never happened. The book he published about it in 1994 remains in print, not because of the interest of antiquarians, but because Expect continues in 2005 to solve the important problems it addresses better than any other tool. Read on, then, and learn how you can make even better use of Expect with a few simple debugging techniques.
Marcel GagnéHow about a nice game of chess? For some, that question will bring back memories of the 1983 movie, WarGames, starring a young Matthew Broderick and the amazing Dabney Coleman. Somehow, it seems that chess games and movies just go together. Don't believe me? Let me give you a few examples. Astronaut Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) plays HAL 9000, another artificial intelligence, in the 1968 classic, "2001: A Space Odyssey". Arthur C. Clarke, the author of "2001", once stated that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," a statement that brings to mind the fantastic game of Wizard chess from the first Harry Potter movie. Speaking of space, in the first Star Wars film (or the fourth depending on your perspective), R2-D2 and Chewbacca play a rather fascinating game inspired by chess with alien monsters on a circular board. There are literally hundreds of movies where somebody plays a game of chess and perhaps even more television shows. Chess appears in books and chess references abound in our everyday speech. "Don't get rooked." "Talks are at a stalemate." "A political checkmate." "We're all pawns."
Chris BrentonThe Gartner Group has reported that from May 2004 through May 2005 1.2 million people have lost an estimated one billion dollars due to phishing attacks, which are attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card details. These estimates are just for the U.S. market, so you can imagine how big this problem has become at the global level. Also, note that we are just starting to see phishing that targets organizations rather than individuals. With this in mind, the problem will only get worse.
Hemant SharmaThe performance of a system is dependent on the I/O, memory, CPU, and network. In most Unix environments, iostat, vmstat, and netstat are the commonly available tools for system reporting. These tools provide live data about the system's memory, disks, and network and enable us to work out the possible problem source. In this article, I will revisit these tools and explain how to use them to maximize your understanding of system activities.
Mihalis TsoukalosWith the release of Mac OS X 10.4 (a.k.a. Tiger), Apple introduced a new feature called Dashboard. Dashboard is like a second layer to the desktop that consists of widgets, which are small, lightweight, task-specific applications. Figure 1 shows my personal Dashboard setup. Dashboard is activated and de-activated and, at the same time, widgets are shown and hidden, respectively. In this article, I will describe the construction of a widget for systems administration purposes.
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