Tag Archives: Armstrong

Review of Enterprise Data Workflows with Cascading

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Enterprise Data Workflows with CascadingEnterprise Data Workflows with Cascading by Paco Nathan (O’Reilly Media) is a great summarization of using the Cascading API.  Paco spends a sufficient amount of time providing a solid overview of Cascading along with an explanation of related extensions such as Pattern and Lingual. Test cases provided allow a novice user to quickly understand the basics of Cascading though some of the test cases followed along the same flows as the Cascading online documentation site.

Enterprise Data Workflows with Cascading is a great resource for beginning users that need to quickly come up to speed on using Cascading.  The book works the reader through evolutions of exercises such as setting up and loading files into Hadoop to using different types of joins along with finally reaching the point of integration points with the different languages and a larger case study based on the City of Palo Alto Open Data.

I’d recommend Enterprise Data Workflows with Cascading as a good entry point and base work to build upon as the reader gains more experience.

Review: Placing the Suspect Behind the Keyboard: Using Digital Forensics and Investigative Techniques to Identify Cybercrime Suspects

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Placing the Suspect Behind the Keyboard

I wanted to take a look at a computer-based topic not normally in my programming domain and chose Placing the Suspect Behind the Keyboard: Using Digital Forensics and Investigative Techniques to Identify Cybercrime Suspects by Brett Shavers (O’Reilly Media).

As a former police officer, I found some of the discussions around generic evidence preservation to be slightly difficult to stay engaged with.  However, as a whole, Placing the Suspect Behind the Keyboard did not disappoint my desire to see what digital forensics was all about.  After reading this book, the reader should have a solid foundation to start delving into both the investigative and technical areas of a digital forensic investigator.

Placing the Suspect Behind the Keyboard takes the reader though a step-by-step process to ensure that digital investigations and interviews are carried out in a manner that will preserve the integrity of both your evidence and your suspects involvement.  Shavers reminds us throughout the book that it is not just about finding critical evidence on the digital device – but also ensuring that you can place the suspect “behind the keyboard” while those actions were occurring   With excellent references back to sources to keep you on track, Placing the Suspect Behind the Keyboard keeps the reader in line with well-established investigative procedures.  In addition, the Shavers also covers how to appropriately present your evidence to different types of audiences – something that is more challenging than most assume.

I highly recommend this book to a person just getting into digital forensics or that is looking for taking their technical knowledge to the next level.  While not a highly technical book, it is a great introduction into the digital forensics field.

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book as part of the O’Reilly Blogger Program

Review: MongoDB Applied Design Patterns

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MongoDBPatternsMongoDB Applied Design Patterns by Rick Copeland (O’Reilly Media) is another in a series of patterns books that I would highly recommend for the implementer that knows the technology but is trying to discover if a previous solution (via a pattern) has been found for their problem.

As to the reader, MongoDB Applied Design Patterns is not for the MongoDB “Hello World” level implementer.  There is a basic assumption that the reader understands how to implement basic MongoDB solutions and is now ready to implement more advanced solutions using established patterns.  The Use Cases in the second half of the book were probably the most useful for me.  It not only gave me ideas of how to solve certain patterns of problems, but allowed me to explore features of MongoDB that I had not had a chance to explore.

I appreciated that Copeland explored several important topics at the beginning of the book.  For example, he takes time to explain how important it is to MongoDB solutions for optimization to be considered at the beginning of the design vs. afterwards.  Along with those lessons, Copeland provides detailed examples of the “why” instead of leaving the reader to just trust his statements.

I’d highly recommend MongoDB Applied Design Patterns to the implementer that is ready to move beyond the basics and move into highly viable and scalable solutions using MongoDB pattern as their initial template.

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book as part of the O’Reilly Blogger Program