O'Reilly Media | Browse Blogs by Tag

Blogs

Tags > review

Top Log FAIL

By Anton Chuvakin
October 29, 2009

A recent Wal-Mart intrusion story inspired me to summarize the most egregious, reckless, painful, negligent, sad, idiotic examples of failures with logs and logging - "Top Log FAIL." I am pretty sure that esteemed readers of SysAdmin Blog would never,...

Review: Kerchoonz K-box Portable Speaker

By David Battino
October 6, 2009

Does this iPod-size, battery-powered vibration speaker with the gooey bottom really deliver amazing bass? Gel, yes!

Chapter-by-chapter coverage of Masterminds of Programming

By Andy Oram
September 24, 2009

Programmer Taran Rampersad planned all along to write a review of Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages--but his reading impressed him so much he ended up writing a review for each chapter.

Review: "Scaling Lean & Agile Development", by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde

By Ed Willis
August 18, 2009

I've managed a group that ran software projects using Scrum but also provided Scrum support to the wider R&D organization by developing Scrum templates and procedures, developing and delivering Scrum training and providing coaching and mentoring for groups taking their first steps down the Scrum path. So, to be honest, I pretty much figured I had Scrum licked. Then I read "Scaling Agile & Lean Development" by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde. I'd yet to scratch the surface of lean and so the excellent treatment lean gets in this book was expected to be new to me, but it was pretty embarrassing how much I learned about Scrum and agile development along the way. If anything it left me feeling a bit of an agile fraud. In the introduction to "Modern C++ Design" by Andrei Alexandrescu, Herb Sutter talks about how reading Alexandrescu's work made him realize that his understanding of C++ templates was still at the "container of T" level while Alexandrescu's work opened his mind to the vast possibilities offered by C++'s generics. This book leaves me feeling similarly abut agile methods. The book presents a great treatment of agile and lean development methods, places them in the context of queuing theory and lean thinking and provides a road map for configuring the organization in what will be a novel manner for most of us but a manner which has led Toyota and others to remarkable improvements in efficiency, employee satisfaction and responsiveness to market needs. If you're an agile practitioner and proponent, go get this book - you'll be glad you did. Note that a companion volume, "Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development" is due out soon also.

Review of "Beautiful Security" Book

By Anton Chuvakin
June 22, 2009

"Beautiful Security" from O'Reilly, which I just finished reading, is truly an awesome book. Now, I will probably have a high opinion of my own chapter ("Beautiful Log Handling") since it took some work (eh... and one near-complete rewrite) to...

O'Reilly Week in Review for June 1st, 2009

By James Turner
June 3, 2009

This week, we have a chat with John Viega, co-editor of Beautiful Security, the latest book in O'Reilly's "Beautiful" series, about what makes security beautiful, as well as what steps consumers and enterprises need to take to be secure these...

Nikola Tesla--The Man Who Lit Up the World - An Excerpt from The Geek Atlas

By Sara Peyton
May 28, 2009

The history of science is all around us, if you know where to look. And if you're a traveler who loves science, you'll definitely want to check out at a timely new resource from O'Reilly, The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science & Technology Come Alive ($29.99), by John Graham-Cumming. Arriving just in time for summer vacation planning, this unique travelers' guide covers 128 interesting destinations around the globe where major breakthroughs in science, mathematics, or technology occurred--or are happening now. Read about the Tesla Museum, in Belgrade, Serbia in this excerpt from The Geek Atlas now.

O'Reilly Week in Review for May 25th, 2009

By James Turner
May 26, 2009

This week, we talk to Damien Stolarz, author of iPhone Hacks, about how hackable the iPhone really is. We also chat with Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene about Beautiful Teams.

O'Reilly Week in Review for May 4th, 2009

By James Turner
May 6, 2009

This week, we talk to Tim O'Reilly about how Twitter has dealt with the Swine Flu panic, Make publisher Dale Dougherty about the new interest in the Maker culture, and our usual podcast quiz question....

O'Reilly Week in Review for April 20th, 2009

By James Turner
April 22, 2009

This week, we have an extended conversation with Googler Andy Hertzfeld about his latest Google Labs creation, the News Timeline. And, as usual, the O'Reilly Podquiz, that can win you a free O'Reilly Book....

O'Reilly Week in Review for April 13th, 2009

By James Turner
April 15, 2009

This week, we have interviews from Yahoo! and MIT, both previewing talks at Where 2.0. There's also a new podquiz, this week dealing with Microsoft's poor sense of direction, literally......

O'Reilly Week in Review for April 6th, 2009

By James Turner
April 8, 2009

This week, we hear from two of the speakers who will be talking at Where 2.0, one on alternative means of sensing our environment, one on telling stories through mobile devices. There's also the answer to last week's quiz, and...

O'Reilly Week in Review for March 29th, 2009

By James Turner
April 1, 2009

This week, we talk to Eric Gunderson about opening up access to government data, and the mashups you can create once you do. Editor Andy Oram discusses what open Cloud Computing might look like. And, of course, we have last...

O'Reilly Week in Review for March 23rd, 2009

By James Turner
March 25, 2009

This week's podcast features a chat with Brady Forrest, who organizes conferences for O'Reilly, about the upcoming Where conference, and what's happening with geo-aware technology in general. Brian Aker, MySQL guy for Sun, talks about the possibility of MySQL becoming...

O'Reilly Week in Review for March 9nd, 2009

By James Turner
March 10, 2009

This week's show features a followup with Andrew 'bunnie' Huang about factory conditions in China, the O'Reilly editors talk about jailbreaking iPhones, and this week's podquiz, your chance to win a free O'Reilly book....

O'Reilly Week in Review for March 2nd, 2009

By James Turner
March 4, 2009

This time around on Week in Review, the Gang of Editors discusses the shrinking IT salary landscape, we hear an excerpt of an interview about the Terry Childs cybercrime case, and there's a new chance to score a free book...

No Need for Weed. Or, Misadventures in Google Book Search

By Allen Noren
March 3, 2009

We all know that Google is known for their ground breaking software, their keen ability to mine the collective intelligence of users and deep data sets to deliver just the right bit of information one needs at a point in...

O'Reilly Week in Review for February 23rd, 2009

By James Turner
February 25, 2009

This week, the O'Reilly editors discuss how the new stimulus package may effect the alternative energy industry, we hear an excerpt of an interview with virologist Dr. Nathan Wolfe, and get a new patent-related podquiz question to puzzle over....

O'Reilly Week in Review for February 16th, 2009

By James Turner
February 17, 2009

This week's podcast includes a roundtable discussion by the editors of Microsoft's new retail initiative, excerpts of an interview with Andrew "bunnie" Huang about product design in China, as well as the weekly podquiz, your chance to score a free...

O'Reilly Week in Review for February 9th, 2009

By James Turner
February 11, 2009

This week's podcast features a round table discussion by some of the O'Reilly editors of how the Obama administration is making use of the Internet, an excerpt of an interview with LCD display maven Mary Lou Jepsen, and the weekly...

O'Reilly Week in Review for February 2nd, 2009

By James Turner
February 4, 2009

This week's podcast features tip on using Mercurial, an update from Matthew Russell on his Building Community book, the answer to last week's quiz and a fresh new FSF-related quiz question....

O'Reilly Week in Review for January 26, 2009

By James Turner
January 28, 2009

This week's podcast has excerpts from interviews with Craig Newmark of Craigslist and Linux Device Driver Guru Greg-Kroah Hartman. There's also a audio tour of the O'Reilly web site, and a new podquiz that can score you a book from...

O'Reilly Week in Review for January 19, 2009

By James Turner
January 21, 2009

This week's podcast has interviews with SF writers William Hunt and Lawrence Watt Evans, commentary on the technological thrust of the new Obama administration, and the weekly quiz....

O'Reilly Week in Review for January 12, 2008

By James Turner
January 14, 2009

This week's Podcast has tech tips from two O'Reilly authors. You'll learn about a nifty replacement for 'grep', and how to keep Wordpress up to date using Subversion. There's also a new quiz, your chance to win a free O'Reilly...

O'Reilly Week in Review for Jan 5th, 2009

By James Turner
January 6, 2009

This week's podcast has a commentary from editor Kurt Cagle on the potential opportunities that this year could bring, a conversation with Tim O'Reilly about ways the SEC could leverage search technology, the answer to last week's quiz and a...

O'Reilly Week in Review for December 22, 2008

By James Turner
December 23, 2008

This week's podcast looks back at an interview we ran with physics rapper Katherine McAlpline in the fall, as well as announcing our first podcast quiz winner, and the new quiz question, that can win you your choice of any in print O'Reilly book.

O'Reilly Week in Review for Dec 15th, 2008

By James Turner
December 17, 2008

This week's (delayed) podcast includes excepts of interviews with Dr. Joshua Wurman about storm chasing and Professor Rich Gordon about the adoption of the web by traditional print media. There's also a new quiz question (your chance to win free O'Reilly books!)

The Best of O'Reilly - Now Available in Podcast Form

By James Turner
December 8, 2008

This week's episode includes excerpts of interviews with our JRuby authors and climatologist Andrew Weaver, as well as news of the SCO lawsuit and this week's quiz question. Now, for your listening pleasure, we present "O'Reilly Week in Review", a roundup of the best content from the site, as well as good-natured pokes at the industry and a trivia quiz that can score you your choice of books from the vast O'Reilly catalog.

Slackware 12.1 - The Newest Version of the Oldest Surviving Linux Distribution

By Caitlyn Martin
August 14, 2008

Slackware has a well earned reputation for reliability, stability, and performance. It may also be the least user friendly major Linux distribution on the planet short of building Linux From Scratch.

Vector Linux SOHO 5.9 Deluxe -- Not Just For The Office

By Caitlyn Martin
August 14, 2008

You get all the reliability and stability of Slackware, better performance than vanilla Slack (at least on my hardware) and the features and most of the conveniences users of distributions touted as user friendly have come to expect.

Social Networking and the Flock of Canadian Loonies

By Kurt Cagle
August 14, 2008

Flock 2.0 (http://www.flock.com) is a comparatively new browser, based upon Mozilla Firefox, that was designed from the ground up as a Social Networking "application". Designed to cover the major domains within that field - blogging, media manipulation, search, syndication and social community interaction - Flock represents a novel approach of using the browser in a dedicated fashion as both the vehicle and the gateway for devotees of social networking services.

Portable Audio Recorder Comparison Chart

By David Battino
May 30, 2008

Wondering which handheld digital audio recorder to buy? Guitarist and recording engineer Mark Nelson just compiled this helpful comparison chart based on his detailed reviews. Mark is one of the few people on the planet to have used each of the top recorders extensively, recording everything from Hawaiian surf to wild coyotes, so he has an especially deep perspective. As...

"Ultra High Quality" Voice Recorder Review Underway

By David Battino
March 4, 2008

After several years of daily jostling in my pocket, my Olympus WS-200S stereo voice recorder started distorting in one channel. So I cracked open the case and discovered this scary dust-bunny invasion. Perhaps it was shorting out the mic? Grabbing an old toothbrush, I flicked off most of the linty debris. But then, with a sickening snap, I accidentally severed...

Sony PCM-D50 Recorder Review is Underway

By David Battino
December 15, 2007

Sony just unveiled an affordable version of its $2,000 ultimate handheld recorder, and we just got our review unit. Which features do you want us to scrutinize?

1 to 34 of 34