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    <title>Topdog.za.net</title>
    <link>http://www.topdog.za.net</link>
    <description>A bored sysadmin</description>
    <pubDate>Fri, 26 Feb 2016 10:06:56 GMT</pubDate>
    <generator>Blogofile</generator>
    <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
    <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
    <item>
      <title>Book Review: Jumpstart NodeJS By Don Nguyen</title>
      <link>http://www.topdog.za.net/2014/02/21/book-review:-jumpstart-nodejs-by-don-nguyen</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 21 Feb 2014 12:30:00 SAST</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Book review]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.topdog.za.net/2014/02/21/book-review:-jumpstart-nodejs-by-don-nguyen</guid>
      <description>Book Review: Jumpstart NodeJS By Don Nguyen</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>"Book Review: Jumpstart NodeJS By Don Nguyen"; Sitepoint</strong></p>
<p><img alt="Book Review: Jumpstart NodeJS By Don Nguyen;" src="/imgs/jump-start-nodejs.gif" /></p>
<p>This introduction to NodeJS is written in basic tutorial style. This enables
you to learn by doing and getting your feet wet.</p>
<p>It starts with an introduction to NodeJS and the surrounding ecosystem as
well as installing the required software.</p>
<p>The next chapters focus on building a sample application in NodeJS using
several of the current technics of application development such as MVC,
realtime web and NoSQL.</p>
<p>The final chapter covers the deployment options available to deploy NodeJS
applications.</p>
<p>All in all it is a good read and will enable you to get started. Unfortunately
only NoSQL persistence is covered, given that most applications still work
better with SQL databases that was a downside for me.</p>
<p>Product page <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780987332103.do">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780987332103.do</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Book Review: Perl One-Liners - 130 Programs That Get Things Done By Peteris Krumins</title>
      <link>http://www.topdog.za.net/2013/12/31/book-review:-perl-one-liners---130-programs-that-get-things-done-by-peteris-krumins</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 31 Dec 2013 12:30:00 SAST</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Book review]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.topdog.za.net/2013/12/31/book-review:-perl-one-liners---130-programs-that-get-things-done-by-peteris-krumins</guid>
      <description>Book Review: Perl One-Liners - 130 Programs That Get Things Done By Peteris Krumins</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>"Perl One-Liners - 130 Programs That Get Things Done By Peteris Krumins"; No Starch Press</strong></p>
<p><img alt="Perl One-Liners - 130 Programs That Get Things Done By Peteris Krumins;" src="/imgs/perl-one-liners.gif" /></p>
<p>Want to stock up on a bag of tricks and snippets to get your work done
quicker, this is the book for you. Either as a system admin or as a
developer you do yourself a great deal of good by reading and grasping
the one liners in this book.</p>
<p>Perl being specifically designed to process text is an invaluable tool
to Unix admins given that everything is a file on Unix.</p>
<p>The book provides 130 solid one lines which will enhance your arsenal
of snippets or get you on the road to creating one.</p>
<p>The one liners are broken down into seven sections: Spacing, Numbering,
Calculations, Arrays and Strings, Text conversion and Substitution,
Selective printing and deletion, Regular expressions. There are two
appendixes which over Perl's special variables and using the one liners
in a Windows world.</p>
<p>Many of these one liners are drop in replacements of the piped commands
with several Unix utilities that you have been using, which allows you
to use a single tool in place of several chained commands.</p>
<p>The presentation style is great as all the one liners are explained and
alternatives presented, in keeping with the Perl idiom <strong>"There is more
than one way to do it"</strong> </p>
<p>Well what are you waiting for go out and get your copy now.</p>
<p>Product page <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9781593275204.do">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9781593275204.do</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Book Review: 21st Century C By Ben Klemens</title>
      <link>http://www.topdog.za.net/2013/09/13/book-review:-21st-century-c-by-ben-klemens</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 13 Sep 2013 07:30:00 SAST</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Book review]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.topdog.za.net/2013/09/13/book-review:-21st-century-c-by-ben-klemens</guid>
      <description>Book Review: 21st Century C By Ben Klemens</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>"21st Century C By Ben Klemens"; O'Reilly Media</strong></p>
<p><img alt="21st Century C By Ben Klemens;" src="/imgs/21st-century-c.gif" /></p>
<p>This intermediate level book provides guidance on new methods of coding
in C as well as identifying the common pitfalls and providing workarounds
to them.</p>
<p>The book is split into two sections on dealing with the ecosystem around
C development and the second the language itself.</p>
<p>This is not a teach you how to write in C book, users are expected to have
a grasp of the language prior to starting out with this book.</p>
<p>The first section covers the development enviroment, issues such as building
as well as linking and packaging of software for wide distribution.</p>
<p>Also covered is version control in a short chapter, this is one of the very
well written parts of the book, the explanation of the Git version management
system in this short chapter puts to shame some of the larger dedicated books
on the market.</p>
<p>A short example of bridging other languages with C is provided in form of a
C based python module.</p>
<p>The second section deals with the new age thinking around using the C language.
And also provides insights in dealing with the know pitfalls of C such as
memory management as well as string handling.</p>
<p>Covered in the second section as well are pointers, OO, Structures as well as
libraries.</p>
<p>The downside for me was that section 2 should have been section 1 as it is
logical to deal with the language first then the ecosystem around it later.</p>
<p>All in all, if you have some C experience of passing knowledge this book will
help improve your pedigree. It is however not a book for the beginner.</p>
<p>Product page <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025108.do">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025108.do</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Book Review: Cloud Architecture Patterns By Bill Wilder</title>
      <link>http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/11/07/book-review:-cloud-architecture-patterns-by-bill-wilder</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 07 Nov 2012 07:11:00 SAST</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Book review]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/11/07/book-review:-cloud-architecture-patterns-by-bill-wilder</guid>
      <description>Book Review: Cloud Architecture Patterns By Bill Wilder</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>"Cloud Architecture Patterns By Bill Wilder"; O'Reilly Media</strong></p>
<p><img alt="Cloud Architecture Patterns By Bill Wilder;" src="/imgs/cloud-architecture-patterns.gif" /></p>
<p>This book is a must read for any one involved in software development
particularly cloud based applications.</p>
<p>The book describes the popular patterns used in development of scalable
applications, coverage is given to the following.</p>
<ul>
<li>Horizontal scaling</li>
<li>Queue centric workflows</li>
<li>Auto scaling</li>
<li>Eventual consistency</li>
<li>Mapreduce</li>
<li>Database sharding</li>
<li>Multitenancy</li>
<li>Busy signal handling</li>
<li>Node failure</li>
<li>Colocation</li>
<li>Valet Key</li>
<li>CDN</li>
<li>Multi site</li>
</ul>
<p>These are the patterns developed and used my most of the large web
properties. The patterns are explained and real world scenarios presented.
Great theoretical presentation of the concepts and ideas. I totally
recommend this to anyone involved in Information technology.</p>
<p>Product page <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920023777.do">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920023777.do</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Book Review: Building a Windows IT Infrastructure in the Cloud</title>
      <link>http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/10/04/book-review:-building-a-windows-it-infrastructure-in-the-cloud</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 04 Oct 2012 07:20:00 SAST</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Book review]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/10/04/book-review:-building-a-windows-it-infrastructure-in-the-cloud</guid>
      <description>Book Review: Building a Windows IT Infrastructure in the Cloud</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>"Building a Windows IT Infrastructure in the Cloud By David Rensin"; O'Reilly Media</strong></p>
<p><img alt="Building a Windows IT Infrastructure in the Cloud By David Rensin;" src="/imgs/building-a-windows-it-infrastructure-in-the-cloud.gif" /></p>
<p>This book does a splendid job in describing the Amazon cloud products that can be used
to provide IT infrastructure in the cloud.</p>
<p>The critical components of IT infrastructure such as DNS, Directory services, Mail, Voice
and Instant messaging are covered.</p>
<p>The author takes you step by step through configuring software and cloud components to 
provide the above services.</p>
<p>The downside is the author makes sweeping factually incorrect statements like he
states that there are no free fully featured IPSEC implementations, and yet projects
like Strongswan exist which have basically implemented very RFC that exists for IPSEC.</p>
<p>The other glaring omission on his part is the connection of the LAN clients to the systems
in the cloud, the VPN setup in the book is a host to host VPN. This basically means you
have IT infrastructure that is marooned in the cloud with no clear way to access it from
a LAN for say domain logon.</p>
<p>If you are investigating moving your infrastructure to the cloud i would recommend you
read it, but note that you will need to do your own homework on how you connect your local
users on the LAN to the systems in the cloud. </p>
<p>Product page <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025993.do">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025993.do</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Book Review: Think Python By Allen B. Downey</title>
      <link>http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/09/19/book-review:-think-python-by-allen-b.-downey</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Sep 2012 07:11:00 SAST</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Book review]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/09/19/book-review:-think-python-by-allen-b.-downey</guid>
      <description>Book Review: Think Python By Allen B. Downey</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>"Think Python By Allen B. Downey"; O'Reilly Media</strong></p>
<p><img alt="Think Python By Allen B. Downey;" src="/imgs/think-python.gif" /></p>
<p>Being an introduction to programming using the Python language this book
strikes a good balance between explaining the programming theory and
translating that into the Python Language.</p>
<p>All the fundamentals of programming are touched on, and there are examples
to illustrate these concepts as well as exercises to get the reader to try
and solve specific problems since programming is all about problem solving.</p>
<p>The downside for me was that all the examples involved some mathematical
concept or formula, not many "real world" examples. Although this is more
of an introduction to programming using the python language, i would think
python specific concepts like modules and the standard library should have
atleast featured even if as appendixes.</p>
<p>All in all, for anyone new to programming this is a great book to start with.</p>
<p>This book begun life as an open source freely available edition so please
support the author by purchasing the dead tree version.</p>
<p>Product page <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025696.do">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025696.do</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Book Review: Practical Computer Vision with SimpleCV By Kurt Demaagd, Anthony Oliver, Nathan Oostendorp, Katherine Scott</title>
      <link>http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/08/24/book-review:-practical-computer-vision-with-simplecv-by-kurt-demaagd--anthony-oliver--nathan-oostendorp--katherine-scott</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Aug 2012 16:11:00 SAST</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Book review]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/08/24/book-review:-practical-computer-vision-with-simplecv-by-kurt-demaagd--anthony-oliver--nathan-oostendorp--katherine-scott</guid>
      <description>Book Review: Practical Computer Vision with SimpleCV By Kurt Demaagd, Anthony Oliver, Nathan Oostendorp, Katherine Scott</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>"Practical Computer Vision with SimpleCV By Kurt Demaagd, Anthony Oliver, Nathan Oostendorp, Katherine Scott"; O'Reilly Media</strong></p>
<p><img alt="Practical Computer Vision with SimpleCV By Kurt Demaagd, Anthony Oliver, Nathan Oostendorp, Katherine Scott;" src="/imgs/simplecv.gif" /></p>
<p>A practical guide to get you started in the field of computer vision, this book
is pitched to a wide range of readers from the basic enthusiast to professionals
seeking to develop applications that use computer vision.</p>
<p>From introducing the concepts behind computer vision to actual practical implementation
of these concepts from the simple to the more complex concepts like tracking of 
moving objects.</p>
<p>All the sample code is written Python using the SimpleCV framework which wraps the
OpenCV, NumPy and SciPy libraries. The examples are well thought out and documented.
The appendices include day to day use cases for the use of computer vision.</p>
<p>Computer vision applications are on the rise, with line checking cars, driverless
cars, number plate recognition, people tracking in the mainstream or on the 
horizon this book is highly recommended to get you started.</p>
<p>I highly recommend you get yourself a copy, even if its just a small thank you
to the authors for the work they put into working on this open source project.</p>
<p>Product page <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920024057.do">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920024057.do</a> </p>]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Book Review: Intermediate Perl, 2nd Edition By Brian d Foy, Tom Phoenix, Randal L. Schwartz</title>
      <link>http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/08/16/book-review:-intermediate-perl--2nd-edition-by-brian-d-foy--tom-phoenix--randal-l.-schwartz</link>
      <pubDate>Thu, 16 Aug 2012 07:07:00 SAST</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Book review]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/08/16/book-review:-intermediate-perl--2nd-edition-by-brian-d-foy--tom-phoenix--randal-l.-schwartz</guid>
      <description>Book Review: Intermediate Perl, 2nd Edition By Brian d Foy, Tom Phoenix, Randal L. Schwartz</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>"Intermediate Perl, 2nd Edition By Brian d Foy, Tom Phoenix, Randal L. Schwartz"; O'Reilly Media</strong></p>
<p><img alt="Intermediate Perl, 2nd Edition By Brian d Foy, Tom Phoenix, Randal L. Schwartz&quot;; O'Reilly Media;" src="/imgs/intermediate-perl.gif" /></p>
<p>Written as the followup to the "Llama book" this book introduces more
advanced concepts of the Perl programming language to take you from
writing simple scripts to larger programs that are split up into
modules as well as contributing such modules to the community via
CPAN.</p>
<p>The concepts covered include modules, references, objects, testing and
contributing to CPAN.</p>
<p>This second edition, brings the language coverage to Perl 5.14 with tit bits
from Perl 5.16. It also introduces two (2) new chapters covering creating
perl distributions as well as an introduction to Moose the Perl OO system.</p>
<p>Coming from 3 veterans of the Perl language, the book is well written and
a great resource for any one wishing to improve their grasp of the language.</p>
<p>This is definitely highly recommended for anyone who uses Perl, even owners
of the first edition will love the second edition.</p>
<p>Product page <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920012689.do">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920012689.do</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
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    <item>
      <title>Book Review: Postgresql up and running By Regina Obe, Leo Hsu</title>
      <link>http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/08/04/book-review:-postgresql-up-and-running-by-regina-obe--leo-hsu</link>
      <pubDate>Sat, 04 Aug 2012 12:07:00 SAST</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Book review]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/08/04/book-review:-postgresql-up-and-running-by-regina-obe--leo-hsu</guid>
      <description>Book Review: Postgresql up and running By Regina Obe, Leo Hsu</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>"Postgresql up and running By Regina Obe, Leo Hsu"; O'Reilly Media</strong></p>
<p><img alt="Postgresql up and running By Regina Obe, Leo Hsu;" src="/imgs/postgresql-up-and-running.gif" /></p>
<p>A quick guide to the PostgreSQL Database for users with prior experience
with other DBMS. The book sets out to highlight the interesting features
in PostgreSQL not present in other DBMS's</p>
<p>The book goes over Obtaining PostgreSQL, Basic Administration, Client tools,
Data types, Constraints and Indexes, PostgreSQL specific SQL, Functions,
Performance tuning and Replication.</p>
<p>The book has a niche in the world of PostgreSQL documentation as it is
concise and reference like in comparison to the volumes of documentation
in the PostgreSQL manuals.</p>
<p>The downside is that the authors keep referencing blog posts and other
external resources instead of explaining them within the book although
this may be problematic for users reading the physical book instead of
the ebook.</p>
<p>Overall it is a good reference book that cuts down on the tons of material
in the official PostgreSQL manual, not for beginners though.</p>
<p>Product page <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025061.do">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025061.do</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Book Review: Introducing Regular Expressions By Michael Fitzgerald</title>
      <link>http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/07/27/book-review:-introducing-regular-expressions-by-michael-fitzgerald</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jul 2012 07:30:00 SAST</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Book review]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.topdog.za.net/2012/07/27/book-review:-introducing-regular-expressions-by-michael-fitzgerald</guid>
      <description>Book Review: Introducing Regular Expressions By Michael Fitzgerald</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>"Introducing Regular Expressions By Michael Fitzgerald" ; O'Reilly Media</strong></p>
<p><img alt="Introducing Regular Expressions By Michael Fitzgerald;" src="/imgs/bkt.gif" /></p>
<p>This book is intended as an introduction to regular expressions for readers who
have no or limited knowledge of regular expressions. It does this particularly
well by addressing all the fundamental concepts of regular expressions and also
provides examples on how these concepts can be used to solve real world problems.</p>
<p>A chapter is devoted to each of the concepts, hands on examples are provided
and references to various tools and languages in which these concepts can be
used. The author makes an effort to introduce the reader to the various tools
even experienced users will find this helpful as i did because by reading the
book i was able to discover new tools like <a href="http://betterthangrep.com">ack</a></p>
<p>For readers new to regular expressions this would be an invaluable resource as
it gets you started on the concepts and also introduces you to the various tools
available as well as provide you with a path to follow to build on the introductory
knowledge it provides. For experienced users it may be a worth while read just to
brush up on concepts and to discover a few new tools that are not already in your
toolbox.</p>
<p>Overall, the book is well written and worth will investment, the only downside
was a few grammatical mistakes, which could through off a beginner as the output
from the commands will not be what is in the book.</p>
<p>Product page <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920012337.do">http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920012337.do</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
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