Review by John K.
on 2020-03-10
Product: 1449344216 I’m quite impressed by this short, easy-to-read book by O’Reilly Press. In one book you have everything you need to learn how to make the most of the Raspberry Pi for programming hobby projects. Chapter one describes the Raspberry Pi hardware; chapter two provides a basic introduction to Linux, the operating system of choice for the Raspberry Pi; chapter three introduces Python, a popular, powerful, easy-to-use programming language that works well with Linux; and the remainder of the book covers Scratch (a graphical programming environment), integrating Arduino microcontrollers, using the general-purpose input/output pins; and presents sample projects: building a security camera-type project using a USB Webcam, and building a box that can display weather information on a TV.
Review by John M. Burt
on 2020-03-10
Product: 0307711544 Cory Doctorow clearly intended for this book to be more than just entertainment, and even more than just a polemic against the security state we have been living with since Osama bin Laden gave Washington the excuse they had been waiting for. It’s not written as a manual for how to hack computers – that would 1) expose Doctorow to criminal liability and 2) be obsolete in no time (for all I know, even the XBox Universal and ParanoidLinux software he made up are obsolete by now) – but it gives you examples of what a hacker does and why an honorable person might become one (I love the bit early on where our hero commits a series of crimes, small and serious, but cringes away from doing something that would inconvenience his school librarian, comparing it with a really vile act like tearing pages out of a book).
Review by John Matlock
on 2020-03-10
Product: 0201308215 This is an almost beginners book on programming at the Linux operating system level. It is not a book on C itself, but you could probably use it as one. It’s real emphasis is on the system call, shared library, file handling level. That is, how to interface directly to the operating system itself to get it to perform what you need it to do. The bookis aimed at three audiences: C programmers who need to know how to get to the Linux operating system, Unix programmers who need to make the transition to Linux (no they’re not the same), Linux programmers who need to move upwards in their understanding of the operating system.
Review by John Matlock
on 2020-03-10
Product: 0471752827 I know, I know! I should have at least tried Linux by now. But I hadn’t. Then I found this book. Among all of the books on Linux at the book store, this one said, here’s seven different distributions of Linux that you can install. Furthermore, in Chapter 4 it had 35 pages describing the different distributions. Why, for instance, would I want to install Xandros, Mandriva or SuSE instead of the Fedora (Red Hat) core.
Review by John Matlock
on 2020-03-10
Product: How Linux Works This is the second Linux book you should buy. First you need something a bit simpler to get the of off the ground (or off the CD perhaps). Perhaps the ‘Linux For Non-Geeks’ which even includes a distribution of the latest Fedora (RedHat) core. But by the time you are getting ready to actually make the system do something, then you need this book. The sub-title is ‘What every Superuser should know.
Review by John Matlock
on 2020-03-10
Product: 013143697X Yes, another Java book. And this time it is specifically about developing applications on Java to run on Linux. What, Java is supposedly write once - run many so that it will work on just about any platform. OK, when you are developing something it often turns out that you do something specific that makes it rather tied to a particular platform. And if you are starting out on the development of a business application today, you’re likely to at least think about doing it on Linux.
Review by John Matlock
on 2020-03-10
Product: 1584503718 This book fits into an interesting and often neglected spot between the operating system (Linux) and the programming language ©. There are lots of books on both C and Linux. This one ties the two areas together. The C language is a general language with applications on many operating systems. Linux, of course is one operating system that can use C. Inbetween the two lie the areas of taking the raw language and turning the code into an application that can actually be of use to someone.
Review by John Matlock
on 2020-03-10
Product: 1592007287 With some 18 million users, mostly handling server functions, Linux has become one of the major operating systems used in the world. Originally it found its biggest use in web servers, mail servers and the like. In recent years it has grown into supercomputer clusters, increased scientific/engineering use, and lately increased use as office workstations. In the installation sections, Fedora is used as the example of a distribution to install.
Review by John Matlock
on 2020-03-10
Product: 0201187604 This new seventh edition of the book has been brought up to date to include recent developments in operating systems such as Windows XP and the new small footprint operating systems that work in hand held devices such as the Palm and in cell phones. In addition the text now corresponds to the suggestions from Computing Curricula 2001 for teaching operating systems. Most of the book is on general purpose operating systems such as Linux and those from Microsoft.
Review by John Matlock
on 2020-03-10
Product: 0131448536 Cluster supercomputers became originated when NASA had a need for another supercomputer but no budge to buy one. The particular tasks that they needed to perform tended to have a lot of parallelism. That is, they could benefit by having a bunch of systems work on small tasks and then bring the results together. An example of an ideal parallel application is provessing seismic data. Basically you have the signals to process from a bunch of sensors and each data stream is independent of the other until the end of the process.