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Category: General

Forum Code of Conduct Updated

The Ubuntu Forums’ Code of Conduct has received minor adjustments many times over the years, usually without notice. Most changes have either been trivial or additions to encode long standing forum culture.

Yesterday, after many weeks of discussion and rewriting, a new version of the Forum Code of Conduct was posted. There are no real changes to the substance, but how we express the content is significantly improved.

Major changes include lengthening the Introduction to include all the major points and distilling the rest to two sections, one for General Policy and one for Posting Tips.

We think the community will find the updated version clearer and more efficiently expressed.

You can read the Forum Code of Conduct here.

Linux Identity’s Linux Starter Kit

I have an article about Ubuntu’s Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW) in Linux Identity’s Linux Starter Kit for Linux Beginners. The magazine is available from Barnes & Noble, Borders, and other outlets.

Oath of Non-Allegiance

From Alistar Cockburn’s site:

I promise not to exclude from consideration any idea based on its source, but to consider ideas across schools and heritages in order to find the ones that best suit the current situation.

私は、現在の状況に一番適したアイディアを探すために、どんなアイディアもその発信元によって排除することなく、流派や派閥(schools and heritages)を超えて議論することを約束する。

Eu prometo não desconsiderar nenhuma ideia baseada em sua origem, mas considerar ideias vindas de todas as escolas e tradições com o objetivo de encontrar aquelas que melhor se encaixem em cada situação.

אני מבטיח לא לדחות אף רעיון על פי מקורו, אלא לבחון רעיונות לרוחב סקלות ומורשות שונות על מנת למצוא את אלו המתאימים ביותר למצב הנוכחי

اتعهد بعدم استبعاد أي فكرة من النظر على أساس مصدرها ، و النظر في الأفكار من المدارس الأخرى و الخبرات السابقة من أجل العثور على تلك التي تناسب الوضع الراهن.

Je promet de n’exclure aucune idée sur la base de sa source mais de donner toute la considération nécessaire aux idées de toutes les écoles ou lignes de pensées afin de trouver celle qui est la mieux adaptée à une situation donnée.

Eid der Nicht-Treuepflicht: Ich verspreche, eine Idee nie nur aufgrund Ihrer Herkunft zu verwerfen, sondern Ideen aus jeder Denkschule und Kultur in Erwägung zu ziehen, um die beste Lösung für die aktuelle Situation zu finden.

Prometo no excluir de consideración ninguna idea en base a su origen, sino considerarlas todas sin importar la escuela o la línea de pensamiento de donde provengan, para encontrar aquellas que mejor se ajusten una situación específica.

The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology

It has been a while since I have reviewed a manga book. This is one of several atypical educational books that use graphic art to help teach difficult concepts or illustrate the action. This is another wonderful entry in the “Manga Guide to…” series that I have been reviewing.

The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology follows the actions of a two students who failed their molecular biology class and have to take a special summer course. The story line is enjoyable and eases the reader’s entry into the topic rather than being a distraction.

The book covers all the main questions and topics you would expect: what is a cell, what are the common parts of a cell, how do cells combine to make various organisms, what are proteins and how do they function within a cell, what is DNA and what are genes and how do they work to express the information coded in them? My favorite part was chapter 5 which focuses on potential applications for everything discussed earlier and theorizes what the future may hold in the field.

I work in a software project that is helping biologists do research, including helping process the vast amounts of data that comes from genetic sequencing. As a result, I have become familiar with most of the content this book presents. I believe the book is accurate and it is clear. The story created to assist with that presentation is enjoyable as well. I have a seven year old daughter that is reading the book with great interest. Some of the science is above her grade level, but her attention remains fixed on the art and the story and she is absorbing some of it as she reads.

Overall, I would say the book is a success and recommend it without reservation.

Disclosure: I was given my copy of this book by the publisher as a review copy.

Nginx HTTP Server

I started using Nginx as my primary web server a little over 18 months ago. At the time, I was using an underpowered server with low memory, and I wanted to replace Apache with something lighter. Even though I still love Apache for its power, configurability, and contributions to the open source world, there are times when other options are called for.

Nginx is an http server written in Russia intended for high traffic websites with a mind toward network scalability. It also works great as a lightweight replacement for Apache on my little server with 256MB RAM and one processor (that has since been upgraded, but I didn’t switch back). Even the day I had a post on the front page of of a popular social networking website, my little server withstood the onslaught without crashing.

The hard part of making the switch was finding documentation. As Nginx was birthed in Russia, I presume good documentation may be found in Russian, but since I don’t know the language that doesn’t help me. Finding documentation in English was a chore. Simple things were available at the main Nginx website and wiki (which have also grown and improved over time), but I had a difficult time finding detailed information about specific things I needed, such as translating Apache 301 rewrite rules into a format that would work in Nginx so that I could continue to use WordPress with pretty URLs.

Nginx HTTP Server is the first English book I have seen that compiles quality documentation and instruction for using Nginx. The information is current, detailed, and clear.

Some of the topics in the book seem to me to be a bit odd. There is a whole chapter dedicated to basic Linux shell commands and administration. Perhaps this will be useful for some, but I would imagine most people interested in Nginx will already know the topic. The second chapter discusses downloading source code, configuring, and installing the traditional way along with writing up a SysV init script for the service. I think that is good information to include. Strangely missing is information about installing Nginx from Linux distribution repositories, which is far easier, especially for the presumed newbies who needed the first chapter on shell commands.

The real value of this book is in chapters 3 – 8. Here we dive deep into configuration options, file syntax, modules, variables  and more. We learn how to set up PHP and Python with Nginx, which will make hosting most popular website software like WordPress, vBulletin, or anything built with Django fairly simple. Also discussed are similar methods of enabling other languages and platforms like Perl or Ruby on Rails.

The last two chapters are great for people coming over from Apache. One discusses how to use Nginx as a front end proxy to speed up a website running Apache. The other discusses how to make a full switch. Both include great comparisons and honest discussions of the strengths and differences between Apache and Nginx, including some good advice about when one may be a better choice than the other.

I have a lot of good things to say about this book, and I’m glad it exists. It will remain on my shelf as a useful reference for specific modules and configuration details that are not committed to memory. Comparing its contents to what I already know of Nginx, I believe the book to be technically accurate and current.

The book does have one glaring weakness, though. The quality of the writing is inconsistent. Most of the time, the text is adequately clear and communicates well. However, there is an annoying tendency throughout the book toward awkward grammar and odd phrasing, perhaps as often as one occurrence every two or three pages. This tells me two things: the book was probably written by someone who is not a native English speaker, which is not a big deal at all, and that the copy editing and proofreading was weak, which is a major failing. The initial cringe-worthy portion occurs in the very first paragraph of the Preface:

…for the past few month the same reports reveal the rise of a new competitor: Nginx, a lightweight HTTP server originating from Russia–pronounced “engine X”. There have been many interrogations surrounding the pronounced newborn. Why has the blogosphere become so effervescent about it?

Packt Publishing generally releases books on technology that are current and contain accurate information. The company focuses their efforts on very narrow, niche topics that they alone offer, and I like that. They also have a disappointing habit of being filled with this sort of writing. This book is no exception. Since, like many of their offerings, this is the only book on a topic that is interesting and useful to a specific group of people, I can’t help but recommend that people using or wanting to use Nginx take a look at the book. Still, I would love to see the language of their books rise to the level of their technical content. This would allow me a clearer conscience in recommending their products.
Disclosures: I was given my copy of Nginx HTTP Server free by Packt Publishing as a review copy. I am also a professional writer for a software project and have written for magazines, websites, and books for both O’Reilly Media and Pearson Education (both Prentice-Hall and Sams).

VMware Cookbook – Only $9.99

My book has been chosen for the Ebook deal of the day on the O’Reilly website for August 10, 2010.

VMware Cookbook – Only $9.99. Use code DDVMC

Interviewed by SearchEnterpriseLinux.com

I was recently interviewed by Ryan Arsenault, the Assistant Site Editor for SearchEnterpriseLinux.com for a feature on their website discussing the new fifth edition of The Official Ubuntu Book. You may read that interview here.

A Foreigner’s Reception

I wrote a short article for Talk Morocco about the ups and downs of living as a foreigner in Morocco. Talk Morocco is a website dedicated to discussions related to Morocco, its people, society and culture.

Interviewing the Authors of Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook

Not long ago I had the privilege of interviewing the authors of what I consider to be the best book for learning systems administration with Unix or Linux from a large, enterprise perspective.  This book is unusual in another way: it was published by Prentice-Hall and the forward was written by one of their competitors, Tim O’Reilly, the founder and head of O’Reilly Media. That says something.

My interview with the authors appeared today on InformIT’s website. Take a look.