Software Diagnostics Library

I was trying hard to name the music style or genre related to memory dumps and computer memory (physical and virtual). The problem is that in this area of electronic and electroacoustic music most good names were already taken. Some candidates that came to my mind were just MUSIC (My User Space IC) or IRQL Music. Finally I decided to name it simply: Memory Space Music. Stay tuned to future samples dug out from memory spaces.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

IMM, The Intelligent Memory Movement borrows the following Intel meta-opcode for its slogan:

NoIndirection: MOV OPERAND, IMM ; Memory first, Being second

Please assemble and join me in the direction of this movement!

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

The second issue of the magazine was put into production today and should be available after one or two weeks on Amazon, B&N and other booksellers worldwide.

Title: Debugged! MZ/PE: Modeling Software Defects
Authors: Konstantin Chebotarev, Kapildev Ramlal, Dmitry Vostokov
ISBN: 1906717680
ISBN-13: 978-1906717681
Annotation: Welcome to the second issue of Debugged! MZ/PE magazine! It brings fault injection into new light and features articles discussing software defect construction via DLL injection, modeling CPU spikes and runaway exception processing. This issue also includes a memory dump analysis certification voucher. Back cover features WinDbg breakpoint and tracing command summary for easy desk reference. - Dmitry Vostokov - Editor-in-Chief

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Finally I adopted the following process for book reviews:

1. Start reading a book.

2. After sometime put an initial reveiw on this blog.

3. Iteratively and incrementally revise it during read. For example, add additional bits as soon as I discover something good or bad worth mentioning in the book review.

4. When the book is finished put its review blog post into a category: From Cover To Cover.

5. Put the review on Amazon and mark this appropriately by putting its blog post into another category: Reviewed on Amazon.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

- Dmitry Vostokov @ Memory Religion Portal -

Finally I reused component-like frame previously belonged to an MCSD certificate displayed at Programming Research office where I worked 6-7 years ago (books in a row there are all about C++):

Old Frame

Today I dug it from dusty corners of my apartment and inserted a page 1152 snapshot as promised:

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

- Dmitry Vostokov @ Memory Religion Portal -

Got it in the post yesterday shipped via courier from Amazon:

Windows® Internals: Including Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, Fifth Edition (PRO-Developer)

I originally expected it to be a paperback book but as a publisher myself I welcome the final MS Press decision to make it a hardcover. It is more solid. I plan to read it from cover to cover again, starting from tomorrow. I would like to thank authors for including the reference to www.dumpanalysis.org in the conclusion part of the last chapter 14 dedicated to crash dump analysis. This came as a nice surprise for me and I’m going to install a special plaque in the office and put its picture later on my blog.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Monthly summary of my Literate Scientist blog:

Philosophy: The Basics 

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

A History of Russia

Religion: The Basics

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Monthly summary of my Management Bits and Tips blog:

Local Workplace Guides

On Management Amnesia

Hidden Transcripts

Management Bit and Tip 0×8000

Downfloored or Upfloored? 

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

I recently started posting book reviews on Amazon and re-posting them from my blogs. Previously I didn’t do that because I thought that Amazon acquired exclusive rights for submitted reviews but I wanted to include my selected reviews in my own books and on my own websites. Recently I read its small print and found that Amazon rights are non-exclusive. Of course, I take advantage and promote my blogs in book reviews that have the following form:

Review text …

Thanks,
Dmitry Vostokov
Founder of …
[Editor-in-Chief of …]

Software engineering book reviews point to DumpAnalysis Portal and Software Generalist blog, science, history and general non-fiction book reviews point to Literate Scientist blog, management book reviews point to Management Bits and Tips blog. I found already that people Google these blogs to find out who’s that guy and the number of visitors to my other blogs has doubled.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Following the success of Windows Debugging: Practical Foundations the following title will be published this summer:

Windows Device Drivers: Practical Foundations (ISBN: 978-0955832840)

Table of contents will be posted later.

Other planned titles:

X64 Windows Debugging: Practical Foundations (ISBN: 978-1906717568) 

Windows Multithreading: Practical Foundations (ISBN: 978-1906717742)

 Like Windows Debugging book, these forthcoming titles are based on my seminars. 

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

The following group has been created on Facebook:

DATA (Dump Analysis + Trace Analysis)

Please don’t hesitate to join and spread news about it

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

This is the main topic of the forthcoming next issue of Debugged MZ/PE magazine. The most close term is called “fault injection” but I rediscovered it as a “software defect construction”, “software defect simulation” or “software defect modeling”. The latter term is also used to refer to construction of mathematical models related to software product quality and corresponding statistics but “modeling software defects” seems appropriate subtitle for the magazine front cover picture… Software defect construction is more general term than fault injection. The latter is used for testing but we want to simulate bugs and abnormal system conditions to study debugging and memory dump analysis techniques or to build reproduction environments. I actually recently found and bought the used copy of this book:

Software Fault Injection: Inoculating Programs Against Errors

and plan to write my own book with the following working title later:

Software Defect Construction: Simulation and Modeling of Software Bugs (ISBN: 978-1906717759)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

“A personal touch in Certification”

Dmitry Vostokov,
Founding Director of
Memory Analysis and Debugging Institute

More details on the previously announced MDA certification. Every certificate will have a separate unique ISBN number and available in bookshops and libraries worldwide. Of course, this comes at a price and it will be announced later. An example of a certificate as a book will be available by the end of July:

Memory Dump Analysis Certificate 0×1 (ISBN: 978-1906717766)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -  

I was reading General Chemistry book on the way to my office today and found a nice basic chemical formula representation for processes in memory. In this nomenclature, the class of modules developed by a particular vendor constitutes an ”element”. For example, M is for Microsoft modules, C is for Citrix modules, etc. Individual modules of particular elements are similar to “atoms” and denoted as numbers in subscript. For example, net.exe command running in a typical Citrix terminal services environment has the following loaded modules where I highlighted Citrix modules in blue and Microsoft modules in red:

0:000> lm1m
net
wdmaudhook
tzhook
twnhook
scardhook
mmhook
mfaphook
cxinjime
CtxSbxHook
MPR
NETAPI32
Secur32
USER32
msvcrt
GDI32
RPCRT4
kernel32
ADVAPI32
MSVCR71
ntdll

Therefore the formula is this:

M₁₂C₈.

I put the element of the main process module first in such formulae.

The formula for IE process from the following case study:

M₁₂₆A₅U

where A is for Adobe modules and U is for an unknown module that needs identification, see Unknown Component pattern.  

These formulas can useful to highlight various hooksware components and distinguish memory dumps generated after eliminating modules for troubleshooting and debugging purposes. It also forms the basis for one of many classificatory schemes for the purposes of micro- and macro-taxonomy of software discussed in the forthcoming book: 

The Variety of Software: The Richness of Computation (ISBN: 978-1906717544) 

In the forthcoming parts I’m also going to discuss the structural formulas as well, similar to the ones used in organic chemistry. 

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

DumpAnalysis.org acquires TraceAnalysis.org to complete computer DATA artifact analysis. The domain currently points to Dump Analysis Portal page but this might change in the future.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

The number of blog visits (excluding portal main page and other my blogs) was about 15,000 - 16,000 by the end of the last year and then it dropped to 13,000. I explain this as the fact that 5% - 10% of engineers were no longer interested in crash dumps and debugging due to layoffs. This month I see the number of visits exceeds 14,000 and this surely makes me more optimistic about the prospect of economic recovery:

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

I was delighted to know that my books in paperback editions will be available in minutes via Espresso Book Machine: Source. You can read more about this ATM book machine from its inventor:

http://www.ondemandbooks.com/home.htm

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Monthly summary of my Literate Scientist blog (last month focus was mostly on physics):

Ideas That Matter

Linear Algebra Demystified

The 10,000 Year Explosion

Homework for Grown-ups

Einstein’s Mistakes

Relativity Demystified

Quantum Mechanics Demystified

30,000 Years of Art

Quantum Field Theory Demystified

Quantum Field Theory I

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -