Software Diagnostics Library

Finally release dates are set for the following two books:

DebugWare: The Art and Craft of Writing Troubleshooting and Debugging Tools

• Author: Kapildev Ramlal, Dmitry Vostokov
• Paperback: 256 pages (*)
• ISBN-13: 978-0-9558328-3-3
• Publisher: Opentask (15 Nov 2008)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24

Windows® Crash Dump Analysis

• Author: Dmitry Vostokov
• Paperback: 512 pages (*)
• ISBN-13: 978-0-9558328-2-6
• Publisher: Opentask (01 Dec 2008)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24

The latter book will be shorter than planned initially and will contain references to Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume I and Volume II.

(*) subject to change

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Self-publishing process is so fascinating and I feel designing and implementing something between software and hardware despite all necessary hard work. Modern print on demand technology allows to see incremental versions of the book in print. Here is the draft cover and table of contents for previously announced Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 1:

Table of Contents

I decided not to use banal digits and geometrical figures for the book cover and make something original although it might not be exactly the same as you see it now

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Tons of PPTs based on Windows Internals book and David Solomon Expert Seminars. All can be found here:

The Windows Operating Systems Internals Curriculum Resource Kit

Lots of other materials including Windows Core Architecture by Dave Probert can be found here too:

Academic Resource Center - Operating Systems

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Previously announced volume is available in trade paperback and hardcover versions at the nominal price to cover manufacturing costs:

Small print (paperback)

Small print (hardcover)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

I started these new series to debunk widespread myths about software technical support. The first one is: 

Technical support engineers can’t and don’t write code (myth). Technical support engineers do write code and sometimes fairly advanced one (fact).

There is a prevalent view of a technical support engineer spending all the time on the phone as a shield from introvert software engineers who hate customers. This is not true. There are usually several layers of support from very basic ones requiring only customer communication and foreign language skills to very advanced problem identification and troubleshooting skills that requires a thousand page knowledge from Windows Internals book. My point here is that advanced troubleshooting requires tools that sometimes don’t exist and this prompts support engineers to develop their own. Sometimes it is easy to query information from the customer environment and/or fix the problem on the spot by writing a tool or a script. And this is pure unconstrained development limited only by individual imagination, skills and complexity of the task.

The weak form of this myth is the view of a support engineer using only Visual Basic or its scripting variant.

What do you think about this? The idea of these series came from the following book that I’m reading at the moment:

Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering (Agile Software Development)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

It is very easy to become a publisher nowadays. Much easier than I thought. I registered myself as a publisher under the name of OpenTask which is my registered business name in Ireland. I also got the list of ISBN numbers and therefore can announce product details for the first volume of Memory Dump Analysis Anthology series:

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 1

• Paperback: 720 pages (*)
• ISBN-13: 978-0-9558328-0-2

• Hardcover: 720 pages (*)
• ISBN-13: 978-0-9558328-1-9

• Author: Dmitry Vostokov
• Publisher: Opentask (15 Apr 2008)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24

(*) subject to change 

PDF file will be available for download too.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

As promised here is the first monthly summary of my Literate Scientist blog:

• The Nonlinear Universe: Chaos, Emergence, Life
• The Nature and Growth of Modern Mathematics
• The Comprehensible Cosmos
• All the Mathematics You Missed
• Causal Models
• Fooled by Randomness
• Comprehensive Mathematics for Computer Scientists
• Theory of Nothing

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Now the third volume is ready. Here is PDF file for free download:

Windows Server 2003™ x86 Complete Memory Dump

Surprisingly it is almost twice less in the number of pages than the first volume for Vista x86.  

Printed versions are available for purchase at the nominal price to cover manufacturing costs:

The second edition will contain annotations and comments.

Large print (paperback)

Small print (paperback)

Small print (hardcover)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Component identification is one of the main goals of post-mortem memory dump analysis and troubleshooting process in general. Using the definition of components as units of deployment and 3rd-party composition taken from Clemens Szyperski’s seminal book discussing component software in general and COM, CORBA, Java and .NET in particular (highly recommended book)

Component Software: Beyond Object-Oriented Programming (2nd Edition)

I would say that CBDT is centered around component isolation and replacement.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Based on success with Reference Stack Traces for 32-bit Vista I created the similar reference volume for Vista x64. Here is PDF file for free download:

Windows Vista™ x64 Complete Memory Dump

Printed version is available for purchase at the nominal price to cover manufacturing costs:

Large print (paperback)

The second edition will contain annotations and comments.

More volumes to come for other OS versions. I created the separate page to list all current and forthcoming volumes:

Reference Stack Traces

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

We need to know normal thread stacks when looking at Stack Trace Collection from kernel and complete memory dumps and trying to spot anomalies. In order to fill this gap I just published the reference stack traces and other information form my Vista x86 running on Mac Mini with Apple Boot Camp. Some additional processes like explorer.exe and iexplore.exe were launched in order to include their user space stack traces commonly found in crash dumps. Here is PDF file for free download:

Windows Vista™ x86 Complete Memory Dump

The second edition will contain more information and comments. Soon I’m planning to release additional volumes for Vista x64 and other OS versions.

Printed version is available for purchase at the nominal price to cover manufacturing costs:

Large print (paperback)

This is actually my first complete book

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Finally I can pre-order this 1232 page 5th edition! Looking forward to seeing it in the post.

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

I read all previous editions as the part of my knowledge read ahead cache. Here is my short review of the previous 4th edition.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Being committed to writing several books brings the question about the proper writing and publishing process beyond page-a-day time management. Borrowed from software engineering I decided to use iterative and incremental process to finish previously announced Windows® Crash Dump Analysis book. The first iteration will result in this working title:

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume I

This is revised, expanded, commented and cross-referenced 500 page volume of selected blog posts and other useful information. Details will be announced soon so stay tuned. Russian translation is also planned.

The abbreviation “MDAA” actually sounds funny in Russian. Similar to “Hmmm”  :-)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

I have published the sample chapter from “Windows® Crash Dump Analysis” book. I have decided that it should be a short introduction to the scripting language from Debugging Tools for Windows package. If you know some C-style language like C, C++, Java or C# then the mapping between it and scripting facilities is pretty straightforward. You can download the chapter from this link:

Sample Chapter

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

I’m reading a book now about global conspiracy to educate myself about various such theories and just for fun. There are Matrix-style conspiracy theories where we are like computer programs. Looking from crash dump analysis and debugging perspective I thought about this: can a process detect its own past crash dumps? Obviously yes, if the code was written with such intention. If the code was written without such intention but is complex enough to generate additional code or reuse the existing one to train itself in such procedure then it can detect past crash dumps too. You see where I’m heading now If we can see our past crash dumps then this will be the proof that we live in a Matrix-type world. The link to the book I’m reading now is below and I promise to write a review when I finish it.

Yet another thought - are there any secret software engineering societies (SSES)? Can we see patterns in memory dumps linking to alien code?

The David Icke Guide to the Global Conspiracy

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

As a voracious reader (half of my book collection) I always wanted to share my book search results (I spend some time researching books on Amazon). Finally I opened my 3rd blog where I intend to review books written by literate scientists that I have read and which are not quite related to crash dump analysis and debugging domain:

http://www.literatescientist.com/

Happy New Year and Happy Reading in 2008  :-)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

I’ve been slowly accumulating blog posts about various troubleshooting tools for my next book in a row with a working title:

DebugWare: The Art and Craft of Writing Troubleshooting and Debugging Tools

Details will be announced later together with supporting website which is under construction. This book will be about architecture, design and implementation of troubleshooting tools for software technical support.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

Found the following book which is an interesting read to see crash dump analysis from a different operating system architecture perspective but on the same Intel / AMD platform:

http://www.genunix.org/gen/crashdump/book.pdf

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org - 

Scheduled to be updated with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 details:

Windows® Internals, Fifth Edition

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org - 

Excellent read to refine general problem solving skills towards simplicity, understand broad applicability of modeling and just for fun:

Simpleology: The Simple Science of Getting What You Want

Now I’m going to have a simple lunch and read this simple book. What about the rating? Of course, it is simple too! Maximum! 1 star in my simple zero-one binary rating system - worth (1) or not worth (0) to read.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -