Software Diagnostics Library

Monthly summary of my Literate Scientist blog:

The Third Reich: A New History

Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching

Discrete Mathematics 

This month was very busy for me as a publisher, an editor and a writer and I didn’t have much time to read. Hope in December I write more book reviews. 

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Following the release of WinDbg: A Reference Poster and Learning Cards the following book is planned for Windows (GDB), Linux and FreeBSD users:

• Title: GDB and KDB Debuggers:
  A Reference Poster and Learning Cards
• Author: Gonçalo Gomes
• Publisher: Opentask (1 April 2009)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 28.0 x 21.6
• ISBN-13: 978-1-906717-39-1
• Paperback: 16 pages

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Due to some technical difficulties the release of WinDbg: A Reference Poster and Learning Cards has been delayed by 2 weeks. Now I got a proof copy and approved the book distribution on Amazon, B&N and other bookshops worldwide. Hope you will enjoy it and find it useful.

The similar book for GDB will be announced soon.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

As one of the new initiatives for the Year of Debugging  DumpAnalysis Portal will publish bimonthly full color 16 page publication called:

Debugged! MZ/PE: MagaZine for/from Practicing Engineers
The only serial publication dedicated entirely to Windows® debugging

The first issue is planned for March, 2009 and will have ISBN-13: 978-1-906717-38-4. If it goes well I’m planning to have ISSN number assigned to it too. More details will be announced soon.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org - 

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:

Table of Contents

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org - 

I was thinking about the universal character of debugging for quite some time and finally the following bugtation provided an inspiration for a new book title to be published during the Year of Debugging:

Title: Breaking the Bug: Debugging as a Natural Phenomenon
ISBN-13: 978-1906717377

More product details will be announced later.

Actually I believe in the mystical nature of various debugging numbers and sequences. For example, the ISBN number of this book ends in 377 which is the octal base equivalent of 0n255 or 0xFF.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org - 

“Breaking the” Bug: Debugging “as a Natural Phenomenon”

Daniel Clement Dennett, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Here are product details and covers for previously announced DLL List Landscape book:

• Title: DLL List Landscape: The Art from Computer Memory Space
• Author: Dmitry Vostokov
• Publisher: Opentask (15 December 2008)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 21.6
• ISBN-13: 978-1-906717-36-0
• Paperback: 16 pages

Front cover:

Back cover:

- 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 -

Got this book yesterday in the post and started reading. Table of contents is amazing for its practical depth and breadth. If you want me to provide a review in a language of concurrency  (I’m reading many books in parallel) I would simply say one word:

Priority!

It simply means priority reading for any Windows software developer and maintainer. Invaluable for any engineer debugging complex software problems and analyzing Windows crash dumps. Simply because Microsoft OS and CLR developers use all this concurrent stuff and best practices described in the book so it is vital to be able recognize them in memory dumps. After reading this book you also get priority boost in your understanding of process and thread dynamics and your ability to plan, architect, design and implement concurrent applications and services.

Concurrent Programming on Windows (Microsoft .NET Development Series)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Previously announced my old Resume and CV as a book was submitted to print and distribution worldwide this morning.

It features UML statechart diagrams on the following front cover I designed myself:

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

A book can serve the role of CV but this weekend another idea got into my mind is to publish my old pre-Citrix times CV (1987 - 2003) as a book and as an example of a guy with CV-writing obsession like I had 5 - 8 years ago:

• Title: Resume and CV: As a Book
• Paperback: 16 pages
• Publisher: Opentask (01 Dec 2008)
• ISBN-13: 978-1-906717-34-6

Soon it should appear on Amazon and bookshops around the world. Now when someone asks me to send a CV I can send them a link to buy it.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

OpenTask, a publisher of my books, is about to release a notebook for bloggers. For details please visit the page:

Idea: Blogger’s Notebook

I found it indispensable to keep track of my own blog post ideas in a hardcopy format, work on several blog transformations into books and simultaneously keep track of work and home-related tasks.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Because of large book density on my table disasters are inevitable. And it happened a month ago. I spilled coffee. One bottom level book sank like Titanic. The book on top of it which I was browsing at that moment survived heavily damaged: 

Recently I noticed that spilled coffee left a mark on one book side. It is clearly visible ”1“ on the picture above.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org - 

OpenTask, a publisher of my books, is about to release a notebook for small and self-publishers. It’s title is Title itself. For details please visit the page:

Title: Book Publisher’s Notebook

I found it indispensable to keep track of my own book titles and their book data in a hardcopy format.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

A number of writers expressed their wishes to be a co-author of the forthcoming SF novel Googol Dump. I have selected Dun Bugmons for his name sounding like Dún Laoghaire where I live nearby by walking distance in Monkstown and his surname accidentally reminding me of Bug Monitors. Please join me in congratulating Dun Bugmons!

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Suddenly the course of my publishing activities bended a little to produce a DIY poster and learning cards to be published soon. Here are the product details:

Annotation:
WinDbg is a powerful debugger from Microsoft Debugging Tools for Windows. It has more than 350 commands that can be used in different debugging scenarios. The cover of this book is a poster featuring crash dump analysis checklist and common patterns seen in memory dumps and live debugging sessions. Inside the book you can find ready to cut learning cards with commands and their descriptions coloured according to their use for crash dump or live debugging sessions and user, kernel or complete memory dumps. Tossing cards can create unexpected connections between commands and help to learn them more quickly. Uncut pages can also serve as birds eye view to WinDbg debugging capabilities. More than 350 WinDbg commands including meta-commands and extensions are included.

• Title: WinDbg: A Reference Poster and Learning Cards
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov
• Publisher: Opentask (20 November 2008)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 28.0 x 21.6
• ISBN-13: 978-1-906717-29-2
• Paperback: 20 pages

Book Excerpt

Front cover:

Back cover:

After you take inside pages out you are left with a cover that you can use as a crash dump analysis checklist and patterns poster:

I also plan to update this book on a yearly basis. 

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Science fiction books are among my favourite. I used to read lots of them (in Russian) during my school and university years. Also I started reading science fiction in English 8 years ago upon my arrival to Ireland and one of Asimov’s books about Foundation was my first English fiction book fully read from cover to cover. Now I want to write something fictional related to memory dump analysis and the notion of 3-dimensional memory dumps is a fascinating idea to exploit:

Googol Dump - a 3D memory dump where the 3rd dimension is a time arrow of computational 2D memory snapshots.

Note: one googol is 10¹⁰⁰ and this number of bits is sufficient enough to record the full history of memory snapshots for 64-bit, 128-bit, 256-bit and even 1024-bit computers running thousands of years.

The novel is planned to be published next year (ISBN: 978-1906717322) and is written from the perspective of a debugger.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Monthly summary of my Management Bits and Tips blog:

• Rhetorical Question Disorder
• Management Bit and Tip 0×1000
• Fine Collection of Management Antipatterns

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Previously announced book Crash Dump Analysis for System Administrators and Support Engineers (Windows Edition) has got its draft cover featuring WinDbg  output from a kernel memory dump forced by Citrix SystemDump tool.

Front:

Back:

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -