2 comments about CNE for NetWare 6 Study Guide (Novell Press).

1. Novell continues to update and expand its network management software, and this book reflects the latest 2004-5 version, Netware 6. It is aimed primarily at those sysadmins who, for professional reasons, need to obtain a Novell certification. This being Version 6, you can see in the bulk of the book that Novell has built out a tremendous amount of material.
   
   Clarke divides the book into several parts. The first describes an installation and maintenance of Version 6, assuming that you have no earlier versions installed. Another part of his book covers what he terms more advanced management issues. One of these being the migration from Versions 4 or 5. A practical consideration in the marketplace. So the exam requires this knowledge.
   
   But perhaps the most interesting and difficult section is that on eDirectory design and implementation. It talks about the layout of an entire network, and how to distribute resources in it, in a robust fashion. As well as guarding against attacks. You may find this section to have far more subjective issues than the earlier sections. Yet, arguably, this is where you can develop the most expert knowledge and increase your value.



2. As with every other IT professional I know, I have difficulty finding the time to read every technical book that I would like, and have a fast growing backlog of material to read. Because of this, I expect the material I read to be succinct and on topic. I had a need to obtain my CNE credential due to its relevance to my present job assignment, and since this is Novell's official study guide, I opted to use this book for study... Needless to say, I was disappointed.
   
   While providing bare minimal coverage of each certification objective, I found that the book could probably be reduced by 1/2 and be just as effective. Scattered throughout the book are brainteasers that have absolutely no relevance to the study material. Additionally there is a long dissertation on the author's fictitious organization ACME and its business practices that I doubt anyone who has purchased this book has even thought of reading. Finally each chapter has lead-in and summary paragraphs with commentary that made me feel embarrassed for the author.
   
   Please Mr. Clarke, leave the commentary, brainteasers and other non-essentials out of your study guides. I appreciate you trying to make these topics interesting, but I feel there are better ways.

4 comments about Writing UNIX Device Drivers.

1. This book is a priceless collection in the shelf of a Device Driver writer. Whether you are writing device drivers or just want to know more about them this is the book to read. The easy-to-understand language and style adopted by the author is also an added benefit to the reader.



2. If nothing else, the thoroughness of the example code makes this book worth the cost. The variety of exampe types (nic, ram-based fs, etc) make it all the better.



3. What I'm appreciating about this book is the simplicity and the vigor of the writing. It's *really* easy to make this topic sound really complicated. Pajari's approach lays out as few issues at one time as possible, then adds gradually to the mix. The early parts are not taxing, but the pace does pick up.

   In teaching the subject, I often find it difficult to slow students down, and get them to confine their questions to one problem domain at a time. Device drivers have to fit into the kernel subsystem and communicate with a device through interrupts; there are LOTS of side questions people can dream up.

   This book gave me a few insights into containing the discussions and forestall all that anxiety. Well worth the wait to get the book.




4. This book is written in a very approachable style that starts off with a very simple software-only character driver and builds up to more complicated hardware combinations. The code fragments are C code of course, but are preceded where necessary by pseudocode to give a better idea of the underlying algorithm. Complete code is given for the drivers, but this book is not really about programming as such. It probably tells you more about hardware than most programmers ever wanted to know, unless they were asked to write a device driver- which this book presumes you are. The book is biased towards IBM PC interfacing (8250 UART, LPT1, etc) but not exclusively. More importantly the principles remain the same and the author always seeks to explain things and make you think about what is happening. Furthermore the book is based on Unix version 3 (SVR3) with particular reference to SCO Unix, with only the last chapter introducing the principles of SVR4. However streams are treated more thoroughly with separate chapters on a loop-back driver and a rewrite of the terminal driver for COM1. After a general explanation, the book is divided into chapters covering individual drivers in increasing levels of complexity. There are character drivers for a test data generator, an A/D converter, a line printer, a more complicated test data generator, a raw disk driver, and a tape driver. Block drivers cover a test data generator, RAM disk, and SCSI disk. There is a terminal driver for COM1 and streams drivers for a loop-back driver and COM1. Finally, there is a chapter on installation and one on Zen and Driver Writing. The installation chapter refers you to your system manual for specific details, but explains how device installation is meant to work. The Zen chapter is general philosophy on when to write a driver and problems in debugging. Of particular note is the assertion that it is easy to write drivers provided that you have "..a mind unbound to conventional hang-ups about determinism, causal theory, logic, and the expectation that any piece of hardware will work the way its designers described." There have been more recent books on writing device drivers for various flavors of Unix, but none is as instructive and detailed as this book. You may need an additional text on device drivers for the particular flavor of Unix you are working with, but this book is still essential.

No comments about Operating Systems (Lab Manual).

No comments about Electronic Guide to Macintosh Human Interface Design (ATL).

2 comments about Inside Ole 2: The Fast Track to Building Powerful Object-Oriented Applications/Book and 2 Disks (Microsoft Press Programming Series).

1. This book is big and heavy. I tear it into parts so I can carry it to work on daily bases. If one don't want its copy, pls send to me. I would appreciate a second copy of the book.

   It is the best book because you can't reach com nervona without it..not even essential com. One must read it several times during different stage of understanding. It is lengthy by detail and author's style. It is dificult to understand. But it provide insight that no other books ever touched. This is not a book to teach you COm/OLE. It is a reference or an encyclopedia. However, just like ARM and "The C programming language", the reference you have to read cover to cover... eventually...




2. If you really want to understand COM you would read this book. I was impressed by the elegance of the example code. The book basically illustrates it's concepts throught the iterative development of 2 examples. Most of the other books I have looked at that attempt to explain COM are fluff.

   It's too bad the book is out of print. I don't know how people will understand COM without it.

   Hopefully, Kraig can get it up one more time for COM+

3 comments about The UNIX Operating System (Wiley Professional Computing).

1. A very well written book for the beginners trying to understand Unix. Much better than many other Unix books competing for the same audience.



2. This book is good for the "newbie" to the UNIX OS. It explains concepts very clearly starting from the simple ones and goes onto the more complicated concepts. Ive given 4 stars since it lacks the quality on the SED chapter - v. little material and v. complicated too. Need to use simpler examples in the beginning. OTW, its an excellent beginners book.



3. Don't let the 1994 publish date scare you away. This book is pretty good. One of the few books that isn't filled with Linux hype/fluff. Looks pretty SunOS/Solaris based as far as screen shots. But covers 4.3BSD. The examples are clear and concise.

No comments about Operating System Concepts 8th Edition Binder Ready Version.

No comments about Novell's Guide to Managing Small Netware Networks.

No comments about AXIOM: The Scientific Computation System.

1 comments about Understanding Netware (Sams Understanding Series).

1. This book is packed with descriptions of the LAN hardware, software, wiring, and concepts. There is a list of vendors. And the subjects include

   · An overview of the IBM PC and Local area Networks

   · The basics of a Local area Network

   · Gateways

   · The IBM PC Network and Token Ring Network

   · Novell's Local area network Systems

   · 3Com's Local Area Networks

   · AT&T's STARLAN and ISN

   · Corvus's Local Area Network

   · Other Networks and Pseudo Networks

   · A guide to Networkable Software

   · Local Area Network Selection and Management