For the techies, the Kubuntu uses Plasma Netbook Shell and it looks a lot more futuristic than the Ubuntu, at least to me and my team. I absolutely love the animations and how the windows behave. Excellent – Very. But, here is a word of caution – as you would have already noticed from the screenshots, it looks quite a lot different from the existing netbook distros, chiefly because all of them use Ubuntu Netbook Edition as their base. So, it will take a day or two in getting used to the KDE+Plasma Environment.

This isn't a book for reading cover to cover. Chances are that some of the hacks you are simply not going to be interested in, but these are most likely going to be balanced by the areas that do interest you. Even if the hacks are not directly useful, there is still plenty to learn and reuse. This is a useful addition to an XML bookshelf for sure.

The books stated target is for modern Linux development, a 2.6.22 kernel, gcc 4.2 and glibc 2.5. Many calls have been standardized by POSIX, and where this is so it are noted in the text, so a large portion of the content is useful on other systems. There is even the occasional mention of non-Linux system calls, the use of which is not encouraged, but shown so you know how they function if you come across them in older code.

The OpenGL SuperBible, is split into three parts, appropriately called the old testament, the new testament, and the apocrypha. Arguably, appendix C, an OpenGL API reference with more than 350 pages, could be considered a fourth part even though it isn't listed as such in the table of contents.

Running Xen started with a thorough-enough explanation of virtualization. Several different approaches to virtualization were compared and contrasted, which should help the reader to understand where Xen resides in the whole domain. This first chapter was a great introduction as it provided just the right amount of information. At no point did I consider the explanations to be short or lacking; nor did I feel overloaded with details. The authors seemed adequately aware that the title of the book was Running Xen, and they stuck to that scope.

If you own a previous edition of Beginning C, should you rush out and buy the new 4th edition? Of course not; only one of the author's relatives would make such a recommendation. But if you are a novice seeking to learn "C" on a C99 compiler, I highly recommend the 4th edition. If you don't have a C99 compiler – I say again – stick with the 3rd edition. Kudos to Ivor for writing a great book!

Each of these recipes refers to a small element or aspect of PHP 5 and the presentations contain a brief overview of the topic, an explanation of how the code elements work, and where the code is applicable in projects. Overall, the book covers the whole range of PHP 5 functionality where each major element of PHP 5 is addressed in a recipe explaining and illuminating relevant code elements. You can easily get information about a specific PHP 5 element by going directly to the section of the book where it appears. Even better, the code snippets are designed to allow one to copy and paste them into your own applications...

The real strength of File System Forensic Analysis lies in Carrier's direct and clear descriptions of the concepts, the completeness of his coverage, and the detail he provides. For example, a number of clear, well-ordered and simple diagrams are peppered throughout the book, explaining everything from allocation algorithms to NTFS alternative data streams. This use of simple diagrams makes the topics more easily understood, so the book's full value can be appreciated. This is the kind of thing that sets a book apart from its peers and makes it a valuable resource for a long time.

Over the past month, I've read four books that I wanted to review for you: Learning Perl Objects, References & Modules, Text Processing in Python, Core PHP Programming, 3rd Ed. and MySQL 2nd Ed.. All of them are good books for the audience each is trying to hit. Take a look below for some more information.

I tend to review books that are interesting to me (no surprise there), but if you'd like me to review a book, let me know, and I'll do my best to put it in my reading pile.

In addition to a short review of each book, I'm also rating them on a scale of 1 to 10. Tens represent something pretty close to life changing, so don't look for them too often.

In the end, however, the variety resulted in a rather impressive and enjoyable book. The coverage of psad, fwsnort, and fwknop were welcomed additions. Each of the central topics were thoroughly explained in an informative, yet engaging manner. Essentially, I did not want to stop reading.

And where the book really shines is in its code examples: short, clear and to the point; the author repeatedly shows how something can be done in Perl 5 code and how it's expected to work in Perl 6. These examples are always clearly labeled "Perl 5" or "Perl 6" in the comments, so that the two can't be confused.

As one of the most important topics in a book related to Linux administration is working from the command line, I was happy to see a sizeable module on the subject here. The authors cover a lot of material. Among other things, you learn how to manipulate files, use various command-line tools, work with text files, track processes and terminate them, etc.

For nearly all of the past quarter century of astonishing growth in email traffic, Sendmail has carried most of that load from source to destination. Sendmail has several younger rivals now, among which Postfix deserves its apparent current rank as second most widely used MTA. PTDG targets everyone who acts as an administrator for Postfix.

I upgraded my Ubuntu VM to 8.10 just for this review (well, not "just" for this review, but mostly). Of course, Sobell's second edition of this "I-weigh-a-ton" tome covers both 8.04 and 8.10, but I run 8.04 on my production machine, so I figure I've got the book covered. Judging by the size of the book though, I'd have to assume that Sobell has it covered as well. But does he? Unlike Godzilla, size doesn't always matter. Let's have a look.

The diagrams are uncluttered and easy to follow for reinforcing the concepts. The index is manageably short but to the point. The best thing going for the book is its relaxed, you-can-do-it tone. However, this is not for everyone, certainly not enough for anyone seeking IT certifications. If you are looking for a conceptual understanding of computer networking to untangle the underlying mystery, read this book.

The book's very useful for anyone involved in or around the software development process: developers, leads, managers, and corner-office types. Corner-office types won't get as much out of the book as those in the trenches, but the Poppendiecks' arguments against overly-constraining process management systems may help high-level managers come to understand that such systems can actually hurt production.

This book is most helpful for the motivated novice or intermediate programmer seeking to improve, and I heartily recommend it. For experienced programmers, however, it's less clear whether this book provides sufficient benefit. The marketing folks at Prentice Hall state that "instead of buying four or five books to work with different shells, all you need is one".