April 2, 2014
I usually don’t start with this, but lately I had some time constraints that made me wondering if is right to use so much time reading books. The Wireshark Field Guide Analyzing and Troubleshooting Network Traffic by Robert J. Shimonski is only 149 pages long (if we cut the introduction, indexes, etc. it boils down to 128 pages). This is a really short book and I have really appreciated this fact. Wireshark is a very useful and powerful tool, but many people do not need to know everything about it. If you need to know everything about wireshark, the best option is to download the source and read it, but this is not the case for 99.99% of the people interested in Wireshark.
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February 14, 2014
The Debian Technical Committee questioned which direction they should go concerning which PID1 to use in the last couple of weeks.
Ian Jackson, former Debian Project Leader and currently standing in the Debian Technical Committee, asked to vote on the 5th of February on the matter.
Against Ian’s preference, the result of the vote is that Debian will use systemd as the default PID1.
The result is a very narrow one since it was 4:4 with Upstart.
The victory for systemd happened thanks to the tie-breaking vote of the Technical Committee chair, Bdale Garbee.
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October 16, 2013
A month after the CompTIA Linux+, I decided to do the CompTIA Security+.
As for the Linux+, the Security+ uses on a multiple-choice test.
In this case, I think this kind of exam is a perfect fit since it’s essential that the candidate has and can demonstrate a solid understanding of the theory behind security.
Overall I liked the exam, and I would suggest it to anyone interested in starting a journey in security or wants (or needs) to have a certification that certifies a base knowledge around security.
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September 15, 2013
In August, I passed the CompTIA LX0-101 exam and a couple of days ago the LX0-102 exam.
Together, those two exams allowed me to earn the CompTIA Linux+ certification.
I did not found the two exams too hard, and in fact, I passed both with a considerable margin.
Those two exams are multiple-choice kind of questions.
I would find a scenario-based exam more valuable since it would test actual capabilities.
Still, I understand that for basic knowledge, the multiple-choice option can be a good one.
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May 28, 2013
The API are now becoming more used every day.
Today every major website provides it’s own set of API and often the company websites and services are chosen (or not chosen) based on the availability of API and their design.
In this huge world that is getting bigger every day, RESTful API plays a huge role, in fact a lot of companies are moving their API to RESTful API since it’s easier to use, therefore more attractive for potential clients.
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May 21, 2013
When I opened this book I was impressed on the image/text ratio. Being a Maker Media product, I thought it was somehow similar to the Make magazine. I was very wrong: in the whole book there are less then 10 images/photos.
This is a good thing, if you like to read because allows the author to put way more contents than if he had to put more images and it keeps the file size small (~23Mb).
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May 14, 2013
As you probably know, I usually do not comment the books layout, being more focused on the contents of a book instead of it’s layout.
This time I will start this review speaking about the layout of this book since it’s REALLY peculiar. The Introduction is written in a two-columns layout, very similar to the Science magazine layout. The book itself is written in a single column layout, still with a “Science like” look. What shocked me a little bit about this is the sense of old scientific document that this book has. This is true until you read the first few pages. As soon as you do it, the sense of old scientific document disappears quickly.
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May 7, 2013
The anonymity on the web is probably one of the most debated topics on the web.
Is possible to be completely anonymous? The short answer is no.
This book tries to help the read to improve its anonymity, staying is the “real world”, as the “Practical” world in the title suggests.
In this book you will not find anything that is too complex for an average user.
Whether this is good or bad, depends on you expectations. I’ve took this book the first time with really high expectations and I was really disappointed. When I took it for the second time, with different expectations, I did found the book pretty good.
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April 30, 2013
After few months after the review of CompTIA Security+ Rapid Review, I’m now here to speak about it’s bigger brother: the Training kit.
With its 569 pages, this book is more than twice the length of the Rapid Review one. Even if someone can think that they did a better summary in the Rapid Review one, I have to say that this is not the case for these two books. While the Rapid Review allows you to pass the exam if you already know the certification contents and you only need to evaluate your level and to refresh some contents, the Training Kit will teach you the certification contents.
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April 23, 2013
Hadoop is today a industry-standard software for the Big Data and this book it’s the industry-standard book for Hadoop.
his book is able to bring you from no knowledge about Hadoop and the Big Data to a full knowledge of Hadoop and it’s usage.
The book is split in 16 chapters and 3 appendix for a total of 628 pages of contents. This make ~33 pages for chapter so it’s easy to read and to find what you need. This is very important since - even if it’s possible - it’s rare that this kind of book is read cover-to-cover.
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(Fabio Alessandro Locati|Fale)'s blog