Mastering OpenLDAP: Configuring, Securing and Integrating Directory Services

In Detail

This book is the ideal introduction to using OpenLDAP for Application Developers and will also benefit System Administrators running OpenLDAP. It prepares the reader to build a directory using OpenLDAP, and then employ this directory in the context of the network, taking a practical approach that emphasizes how to get things done. On occasion, it delves into theoretical aspects of LDAP, but only where understanding the theory helps to answer practical questions. The reader requires no knowledge of OpenLDAP, but even readers already familiar with the technology will find new things and techniques.

This book is organized into three major sections: the first section covers the basics of LDAP directory services and the OpenLDAP server; the second focuses on building directory services with OpenLDAP; in the third section of the book, we look at how OpenLDAP is integrated with other applications and services on the network. This book not only demystifies OpenLDAP, but gives System Administrators and Application Developers a solid understanding of how to make use of OpenLDAP's directory services.

The OpenLDAP directory server is a mature product that has been around (in one form or another) since 1995. It is an open-source server that provides network clients with directory services. All major Linux distributions include the OpenLDAP server, and many major applications, both open-source and proprietary, are directory aware and can make use of the services provided by OpenLDAP.

The OpenLDAP directory server can be used to store organizational information in a centralized location, and make this information available to authorized applications. Client applications connect to OpenLDAP using the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and can then search the directory and (if they have appropriate access) modify and manipulate records.

LDAP servers are most frequently used to provide network-based authentication services for users; but there are many other uses for an LDAP server, including using the directory as an address book, a DNS database, an organizational tool, or even as a network object store for applications.

Qmail Quickstarter: Install, Set Up and Run your own Email Server

This book is a quick starter for people who want to set up a mail server using qmail. It also discusses advanced features, like hosting multiple domains, in detail. By bringing together material that might take days to find online it will be a real timesaver for Sysadmins.


In Detail


This book starts with setting up a qmail server and takes you through virtualization, filtering, and other advanced features like hosting multiple domains, mailing lists, and SSL Encryption. Finally, it discusses the log files and how to make qmail work faster.

Qmail is a secure, reliable, efficient, simple message transfer agent. It is designed for typical Internet-connected UNIX hosts. Qmail is the second most common SMTP server on the Internet, and has by far the fastest growth of any SMTP server. Qmail's straight-paper-path philosophy guarantees that a message, once accepted into the system, will never be lost. Qmail also optionally supports maildir, a new, super-reliable user mailbox format.

Serial Port Complete

Editorial Reviews
Review
"If you've ever looked for serial port examples online, you've probably become very frustrated. . . . The examples here won't frustrate you." —About.com: Visual Basic



"Whether your interest is hardware or software and whether you work with PCs, embedded systems, or both, you’ll find useful guidance in this book." —EDN



“About as complete a reference as you’ll find on serial communications.” —Embedded Systems Programming on the first edition


“A very practical book.” —Nuts & Volts on the first edition


"If you plan to use a serial port in any sort of application, buy this book." —Test & Measurement World on the first edition


"It's not just the how, it's the why that's explained. The emphasis of the book is on doing something useful." —TechBookReport.com



"As complete a reference as you'll find on serial communications using RS-232 and RS-485." —The Embedded Muse


Product Description
PC COM ports, USB virtual COM ports, and ports in embedded systems are all addressed in this updated guide to programming, interfacing, and using serial ports. Topics include using .NET’s SerialPort class for COM-port communications on PCs; upgrading existing RS-232 designs to USB or wireless networks; and creating serial networks of embedded systems and PCs. Example circuits and code provide a quick start to projects. Installation and maintenance staff will also find tips for ensuring reliable operation and problem tracking.

Original book link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido...

Network Security Assessment, 2nd Edition

Author: Chris McNab
Format: Paperback, 504 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 2nd edition (November 1, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0596510306
ISBN-13: 978-0596510305

Review by James Pyles
December 21, 2007

The beginning of the text on the back cover of this book says, "How secure is your network? The best way to find out is to attack it." How many people test how secure their home or car is by trying to break into them? Would you try to break into your aunt's place to test her security and when (hopefully) caught, say you were just trying to make sure she was safe? Ok, it doesn't seem to make sense when considered at that level, but in terms of the security of your network environment, people pay good money to companies so they'll take their best shot at breaking in.

In that sense, it seems Chris McNab might be shooting himself in the foot by publishing this book. After all, he is the technical director for a London-based company that actually performs "penetration testing" for clients to ferret out any security vulnerabilities. Then again, since I have this book in my hands and live in the American northwest, I guess he won't be losing business he would never have gotten in the first place.

McNab wrote this book as a vendor-neutral resource which means (ideally) that he treats all vendors equally. If you run your web servers using Microsoft IIS or Apache, this book has something for both platforms. The same goes whether your database services are provided by Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, or Oracle. If your goal is to "know your network", you've come to the right place.

Actually, the front matter seems to contradict what I just said since the book's audience is assumed to be "familiar with IP and administering Unix-based operating systems, such as Linux and Solaris". I checked and no mention was made of other operating systems, particularly Windows. What this part of the book goes on to say (in brief) is that you'd better know networking before learning network security testing.

It would seem that while the main thrust of the content addresses "Unix-based" operating systems, some things "Microsoft" are also addressed as I previously mentioned. All is not lost if you are responsible for network security in a Microsoft shop (on the other hand, supplementing this material with more Microsoft-centric resources would certainly help).

Object-Oriented Programming with PHP5

This book will help you to understand the core object-oriented programming concepts with PHP. PHP is one of the most popular languages for web application development, and PHP5 supports OOP very well. This book will help you to master core OOP features in PHP as well as advanced Topics like Design Patterns including Model-View-Controller (MVC), and Unit Testing. It includes suggestions to help you to write good code. Moreover this book provides comprehensive documentation and working examples on the Standard PHP Library (SPL), which are hard to find elsewhere. It will really help you to leverage PHP’s OOP features to write manageable applications with ease.


In Detail


Some basic objected-oriented features were added to PHP3; with PHP5 full support for object-oriented programming was added to PHP. Object-oriented programming was basically introduced to ease the development process as well as reduce the time of development by reducing the amount of code needed. OOP can greatly improve the performance of a properly planned and designed program.

This book covers all the general concepts of OOP then shows you how to make use of OOP in PHP5, with the aid of an ample number of examples.

Learning Ruby

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
You don't have to know everything about a car to drive one, and you don't need to know everything about Ruby to start programming with it. Written for both experienced and new programmers alike, Learning Ruby is a just-get-in-and-drive book -- a hands-on tutorial that offers lots of Ruby programs and lets you know how and why they work, just enough to get you rolling down the road.

Interest in Ruby stems from the popularity of Rails, the web development framework that's attracting new devotees and refugees from Java and PHP. But there are plenty of other uses for this versatile language. The best way to learn is to just try the code! You'll find examples on nearly every page of this book that you can imitate and hack. Briefly, this book:

* Outlines many of the most important features of Ruby
* Demonstrates how to use conditionals, and how to manipulate strings in Ruby. Includes a section on regular expressions
* Describes how to use operators, basic math, functions from the Math module, rational numbers, etc.
* Talks you through Ruby arrays, and demonstrates hashes in detail
* Explains how to process files with Ruby
* Discusses Ruby classes and modules (mixins) in detail, including a brief introduction to object-oriented programming (OOP)
* Introduces processing XML, the Tk toolkit, RubyGems, reflection, RDoc, embedded Ruby, metaprogramming, exception handling, and other topics
* Acquaints you with some of the essentials of Rails, and includes a short Rails tutorial.

Each chapter concludes with a set of review questions, and appendices provide you with a glossary of terms related to Ruby programming, plus reference material from the book in one convenient location. If you want to take Ruby out for a drive, Learning Ruby holds the keys.

About the Author
Michael Fitzgerald describes Ruby as "my favorite language so far" and is working regularly with Ruby and the Rails framework. He has written over 150 Ruby programs for testing and demonstration, and has been developing a library of sample Ruby code. He is the author of Learning XSLT and XML Hacks, and co-author on the XML Pocket Reference.

Original book link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido...

Design Accessible Web Sites

Author: Jeremy Sydik
Format: Paperback, 328 pages
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf (November 5, 2007)
ISBN-10: 1934356026
ISBN-13: 978-1934356029

Review by James Pyles
December 21, 2007

Ok, so you are a web designer and you want to enhance the usability of your websites across different browser and operating system platforms. You've got your work cut out for you. In the "bad old days", all you really had to write for was Internet Explorer running on Windows. Sure, there were other operating systems and other browsers, but so few compared to what Microsoft was offering that you didn't really have to worry. Lest you think that the landscape has changed just in terms of Mac/Safari and Linux/Firefox, think again.

I don't mean that you have to consider just other PC based browsers such as Opera or you have to take combinations such as Konquerer/Linux or Firefox/Windows in mind. There's a whole new world out there in terms of mobile computing so sites have to be built to be viewable in very small interfaces (as well as still usable under "traditional" circumstances). Also, if you plan to have anyone with perceptional disabilities access your sites, you need to take that into consideration.

Along comes Design Accessible Web Sites by Jeremy Sydik. It takes the approach that you really need to think about what you want a website to do and how it is to be accessed before you type the first html tag. The theme is "principles before guidelines" and the result should be "justice for all". By "justice", I mean that the web should be accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of device-type, operating system, browser, or any physical limitations. Why? "It's the right thing to do", according to the author. Beyond that, there are actual legal considerations involved, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). I suppose if you're just developing a little site to post your family vacation photos, it doesn't really matter but if you are designing a web portal for a multinational corporation, you'll need to be aware of how to cross all your "T's" and dot all your "I's" or consider yourself out of a job.

As a matter of fact, Chapter 3 is called "A Brief Introduction to Disabilities" and addresses not just visual, but auditory and processing impairments among others. Yes, the whole book is about access...making your sites accessible across the board, or at least across as much of it as possible. Don't worry about html, css, javascript, and so on. You'll need to know all that before tackling this subject and reading this book. Sydik didn't write it for beginners and if you need it, you're not a beginner.

Fortunately, the book takes what could potentially have been a very dry subject and makes it quite interesting. I know that sounds bad but then "accessiblity" isn't always the "sexiest" aspect to web design. Sydik uses his writing style as well as his considerable experience in both computer science and cognitive psychology to present a unique perspective on this classic design issue and present it in an interesting and fun way. In an ideal sense, learning should be fun. Many times it's not, usually due to how the information is presented more than the information itself. This book teaches a topic all serious web designers should be well versed in and lets you enjoy the learning at the same time.

36 key tips are presented in 10 chapters but the book (including the Introduction) has a total of 18 chapters, so it's more than just a collection of handy tips on how to create accessible sites. Sydik goes into considerable depth in terms of technology as well as accessibility so Java developers will have something to chew on as well. It's not just a matter of "dumbing down" websites so that they present "large text-only" formats. Remember, it's not just visual accessibility you're dealing with. The subject is highly complex. The technologies are also complex and you have to provide not only text but images, video, flash, and more to all users on all platforms. Impossible? To find the answer to that question, you'll have to buy the book (or hope that it's available to be checked out at your local library).

No CD comes with the book and beyond the publisher's website, there's no accompanying site to access and view illustrations of the author's work (which is too bad...one picture and all...). I really would have enjoyed seeing some sample sites built by Sydik showing how the principles, guidelines, and tips all play out on the web. The last page of the last chapter does provide a list of sites about how to implement best practices, so there are some supplementary materials available. One of them is an accessibility forum so you can join with other like-minded developers and share ideas and issues.

Whoever you are and whoever you design websites for, if web developing is more than a hobby to you, getting a copy of Design Accessible Web Sites, reading it and studying it should be in your future. While you're doing that, just remember Sydik's statement on the last page..."have fun".

Original book link: http://www.tech-unity.com/forums...

jQuery Reference Guide

In this book, the creators of the popular jQuery learning resource, learningquery.com, share their knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm to bring you a comprehensive reference to the popular JavaScript library.


In Detail

jQuery is a powerful, yet easy-to-use JavaScript library that helps web developers and designers add dynamic, interactive elements to their sites, smoothing out browser inconsistencies and greatly reducing development time. In this book, the creators of the popular jQuery learning resource, learningquery.com, share their knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm to bring you a comprehensive reference to the popular JavaScript library.

This book offers an organized menu of every jQuery method, function, and selector. Each method and function is introduced with a summary of its syntax and a list of its parameters and return value, followed by a discussion, with examples where applicable, to assist in getting the most out of jQuery and avoiding the pitfalls commonly associated with JavaScript and other client-side languages.

If you're already familiar with JavaScript programming, this book will help you dive right into advanced jQuery concepts. You'll be able to experiment on your own, trusting the pages of this book to provide information on the intricacies of the library, where and when you need it. If you're still hungry for more, the book shows you how to cook up your own extensions with jQuery's elegant plug-in architecture.

This book is a companion to Learning jQuery: Better Interaction Design and Web Development with Simple JavaScript Techniques.
Learning jQuery begins with a tutorial to jQuery, followed by an examination of common, real-world client-side problems, and solutions for each of them, making it an invaluable resource for answers to all your jQuery questions.

jQuery Reference Guide digs deeper into the library, taking you through the syntax specifications and following up with a detailed discussion. You'll discover the untapped possibilities that jQuery makes available, and hone your skills as you return to this guide time and again.