Software Diagnostics Library

In the past two hours I noticed visitors from this URL:

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=AAPL

Checked it and found that my previous post with secondary bugcheck callback data from my Mac Mini running Windows Vista hit complex RSS feed triggers. I saved the picture of this historic moment. Click on it to enlarge:

Has anyone studied the influence of crash dumps on stock market volatility and crashes? Perhaps there is some similarity between OS thread exceptions and share price trends and it is possible to metaphorically map crash dump analysis patterns to finance domain like I’m doing for Project Failure Analysis.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

I’m very proud to announce that it is finally available in both paperback and hardback. Why have I made available both editions? Because I personally prefer hardcover books. You can order the book today and it will be printed in 3-5 days (paperback) or 5-10 days (hardcover) and sent to you:

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 1

Note: although listed on Amazon and other online bookstores it is not immediately available at these stores at the moment due to the late submission. I apologize for this. However, I expect that in a few weeks pre-orders taken there will be eventually fulfilled. In the mean time, if you want the book now, you can use the link above.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

To avoid controversial pictures I decided to put an image of TestDefaultDebugger crash dump generated by Dump2Picture:

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

I’ve posted the final Table of Contents and additional information for the soon-to-be-published book:

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 1

Note that the proposed back cover image is the picture of a 1Gb complete physical memory dump generated by Dump2Picture:

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

I posted a job ad on the portal:

Citrix Escalation Engineer (Dublin, Ireland)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

The last year presentation has been updated and now available in both HTML and PDF formats:

Selected Citrix Troubleshooting and Debugging Tools (HTML)

Selected Citrix Troubleshooting and Debugging Tools (PDF)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Born out of 2008 April Fool’s joke (although I was thinking about it long before) the idea is to have a general framework and associated IDE for analysis activities for various tools that produce logs. Similar to planned GUI Monitor integrating WindowHistory, MesageHistory and ScreenHistory tools but also including Debugger Log Analyzer, Debugging Notebooks, various memory and trace log visualization subsystems. It also has the working title UTF (Unified Tools Framework).

Seems I’m very easy on inceptions All this will be covered in great detail in the forthcoming book which I tirelessly advertise:

DebugWare: The Art and Craft of Writing Troubleshooting Tools

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

This looks really cool:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devstudio/default.mspx 

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

I was very busy this month with the forthcoming Memory Dump Analysis Anthology Volume 1 plus I had a business trip to Redmond and therefore I really didn’t have enough time to contribute well to other my blogs. Nevertheless I finished reading Incompleteness book during my transatlantic flights, started reading two others and here is the small update:

LiterateScientist Blog:

Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel

The Philosophers Toolkit

ManagementBits Blog:

The Science of Career Promotions

Management Bit and Tip 0×200

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

This is an attempt to revive the forum closed a year ago due to the lack of interest during that time. Now the number of visitors has increased by an order of magnitude and I get more and more requests to help with crash dump analysis but I cannot guarantee immediate response. Therefore I upgraded and reopened Crash Dump Analysis and Debugging Forum and encourage using it. In order to prevent spammers gaining access any new registration has to be approved by me (usually in less than 24 hours).

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

It may appear that I have announced too many titles but they all fall into the well-defined publishing roadmap (excluding a couple of publishing digressions like Debugware book):

This is a high level illustration of global incremental and iterative parts of IIPP (Iterative and Incremental Publishing Process) that I coined some months earlier. More about local iterative and incremental parts in one of my next posts. 

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

This is planned for publication after Windows® Crash Dump Analysis book. Preliminary information is:

• Title: Advanced Windows® Crash Dump Analysis
• Paperback: 512 pages (*)
• ISBN-13: 978-0-9558328-8-8
• Author: Dmitry Vostokov
• Publisher: Opentask (01 Dec 2009)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24

(*) subject to change

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Microsoft is looking for 5 Windows Internals SME to help them with their special project. Details can be found on CPR Team blog:

Wanted: Windows Internals subject matter experts

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Although the first volume has not been published yet (scheduled for 15th of April, 2008) the planning for the second volume has already begun. Preliminary information is:

• Title: Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 2
• Paperback: 512 pages (*)
• ISBN-13: 978-0-9558328-7-1
• Author: Dmitry Vostokov
• Publisher: Opentask (01 Oct 2008)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24

Hardcover version is also planned. PDF version will be available for download too.

(*) subject to change

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Main site www.dumpanalysis.org has undergone the small “redesign” to become more like the blog BSOD theme. Enjoy

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Why do we need yet another book about device drivers? There are couple of reasons here:

1. Old books are more about developing the narrow range of legacy drivers than troubleshooting and debugging them.

2. New books shift towards WDF and ignore legacy drivers.

3. Windows Internals book is too big and something lightweight is desperately needed.

4. No published driver books use UML as communication device and discuss driver developement as software factory.

5. Existing books mostly view device drivers as hardware device drivers.

I started collecting and organizing information about Windows drivers 2 years ago and published a few selected materials so you can get an approximate flavour of what is expected in the forthcoming book scheduled for the next year:

UML and Device Drivers

• Title:  Windows Device Drivers: An Introduction
• Author: Dmitry Vostokov
• Paperback: 128 pages
• ISBN-13: 978-0-9558328-4-0
• Publisher: Opentask (15 Apr 2009)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

This is a forthcoming reference book for technical support and escalation engineers troubleshooting and debugging complex software issues. The book is also invaluable for software maintenance and development engineers debugging unmanaged, managed and native code.

• Title: Windows® Debugging Notebook: Essential Concepts, WinDbg Commands and Tools
• Author: Dmitry Vostokov
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• ISBN-13: 978-0-9558328-5-7
• Publisher: Opentask (1 September 2008)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

This is a forthcoming book about .NET debugging seen in a wider context than .NET runtime environment (CLR). There is the whole new generation of .NET software developers, designers and architects thinking in terms of managed code and associated concepts. However CLR runs in unmanaged environment which finally interfaces with native code. Therefore understanding unmanaged and native code is vital for successful debugging of real customer problems. Preliminary information is:

• Title: Unmanaged Code: Escaping the Matrix of .NET
• Author: Dmitry Vostokov
• Paperback: 512 pages (*)
• ISBN-13: 978-0-9558328-6-4
• Publisher: Opentask (1 Feb 2009)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24

(*) subject to change

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Thanks to everyone responded online and privately to proposed draft covers for forthcoming MDAA volumes. As some commented the original one looks good on the shelf so the final decision will be made when I print both variants for comparison. Supporters of the original cover proposed the following modification:

Also there will be surprise on the back cover of the book

PS. I decided to read couple of books about book design and manufacturing to get clearer picture about the whole process.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

My colleagues and friends have been divided (50-50) over the opinion which draft cover is better (some polishing is required for both of them):

1. Original Draft Cover
2. New Draft Cover

Your comments are much appreciated (you can just respond with the numbers 1 or 2 corresponding to cover links above). You can really influence the cover of the book!

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -