I’m pleased to announce that OpenTask has submitted the book Dumps, Bugs and Debugging Forensics: The Adventures of Dr. Debugalov for printing and here is the link to TOC:
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
DLL is also a recursive acronym for DLL List Landscape. OpenTask is going to publish soon the new full color book:
Title: DLL List Landscape: The Art from Computer Memory Space
ISBN-13: 978-1-906717-36-0
More details will be announced tomorrow.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
I continued thinking about bugteria in memory dumps all the day yesterday and came to the conclusion that the study of crash dump analysis patterns needs its own name and the obvious choice was Bugteriology:
Bugteriology is the study of crash dump analysis patterns (bugteria). Its main subject is identification, classification and characterization of such patterns found in memory dumps (bugterial species).
I registered a domain for this purpose, www.bugteriology.com, currently pointing to crash dump analysis and debugging portal but I want to think through this idea and perhaps make it a subdomain of dumpanalysis.org with a page for easy online pattern classification and make it also an online supplement to forthcoming encyclopedia of crash dump analysis patterns.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
Yesterday was one of those days when I was in a good mood thinking about bugs. Suddenly a thought stroke me about the similar sounding words bacterium and bugterium (perhaps because I’m currently reading a theoretical biology book, Essays on Life Itself). I admit that it might be sounding the same only for a non-native English ear though. So the new definition was born:
Bugterium (pl. bugteria) - an instance of a memory dump analysis pattern found in a crash (memory, core) dump file.
Why a bugterium and not a cdarium? The motivation (with a hindsight) lies in the complexity of debugging (and life forms). While a bug is a complex thing (and a beast) and it takes sometimes days or weeks to chase and fix (kill) the one, a bugterium (bacterium) is of relatively smaller complexity and can be easily identified and dealt with by component removal or upgrade (massively killed). From software support perspective remember this bugtation No.14:
Crash dump analysis ”is anticipated with” joy, “performed with” eagerness, “and bragged about forever.”
Although the perceived simplicity of crash dump analysis is deceptive (bugtation No.2):
“It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious” crash.
Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World
Finally taking advantage of the momentum, I registered yesterday www.bugterium.com which is currently pointing to the portal but in the future I plan to put a nicely formatted memory dump analysis classification page with easy navigation controls. Stay tuned! 
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
Paperback edition of Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 2 is finally available on Amazon
Listmania! Crash Dump Analysis and Debugging
Hardcover edition will be available on Amazon and B&N in 2-3 weeks.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
I’ve just passed 5 year mark in my Citrix career and I say those years were really exciting! Incidentally at the same time, on 14th of October 2003 I started doing true memory dump analysis in WinDbg-sense of it despite the fact that I’d been doing debugging since 1987 and encountered the first symbolic assembly language debugger on PDP-11 RSX-11M Russian clone in 1988. Also 5 years ago I made my transition from software engineering world to software technical support and started my journey to become a manager.
I’ve put a timeline on a portal accessible from the main page or from the following link:
http://www.dumpanalysis.org/Timeline
The timeline will help me in the future to write my memoirs (Crash Dump: A Software Engineering Autobiography, ISBN: 978-1906717193).
Finally, to record the glorious Citrixofication of the world by various Citrixware, Opentask decided to publish a book where I plan to be an editor of various contributors and probably write a chapter or two myself:
Discovering Citrixware (ISBN: 978-1906717278)
It is not about troubleshooting but more in a sense of discovery. More details will be announced later.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
“Everything is memory dump.”
I’m very excited to announce that Volume 2 is available in paperback, hardcover and digital editions:
Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 2
In one or two weeks paperback edition should also appear on Amazon and other bookstores. Amazon hardcover edition is planned to be available by the end of October.
I’m often asked when Volume 3 is available and I currently plan to release it in October - November, 2009. In the mean time I’m planning to concentrate on other publishing projects.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
New cartoon and a word “bugxorcist” from Narasimha Vedala (click on it to enlarge):
Bugs At The Gate
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
First, a definition for a new word that I coined today:
Bugtation
noun
Date: 21st century
1. a modified quotation showing relation to debugging and troubleshooting
This is the first bugtation I would like to introduce and it is related to heisenbugs:
“There’s no such thing as” heisenbug;
“And what to us seems merest accident
Springs from the deepest source of” computation.Friedrich Schiller, Early Dramas
Deviations from original quotations are highlighted in blue. Welcome to the new literary art!
Note: if you notice any bugs in bugtations please let me know…
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
New cartoon from Narasimha Vedala provides insight into the new ideology (click on it to enlarge):
Dawn of Debugism
Here I repeat 10 debugging commandments in scripture:
1. Thou shalt not underestimate bugs
2. Thou shalt walk the stack with thy colleagues
3. Thou shalt strive not to corrupt thine memory heap
4. Thou shalt share thine debugging knowledge
5. Thou shalt not overflow the buffer
6. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s dump
7. Thou shalt not reverse engineer for profit
8. Thou shalt not attach debugger to thy neighbor’s wife
9. Thou shalt not commit adultery with bugs
10. Thou shalt not shalt thou to me
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -