TechWiseTV

Geek Book Review: Fiber Channel over Ethernet

Storage Networking has been as fun as filling out my 1040 for Uncle Sam every year. At Storage World last week, the FCIA demo'ed a real game changer; Fiber Channel Over Ethernet. This technology is so amazing it is really going to change the way we do things as data geeks. I picked up the book; Data Center Networks and Fiber Channel Ethernet by Silvano Gai to understand this technology better. Silvano Gai is the mac daddy of FCOE. He has over 30 patents and has been a thought leader for nearly 30 years.  Personally, I thought FCOE was just another sucky version of iSCSI (I can not stand iSCSI), man was I wrong. FCOE is a complete update to the entire Ethernet transport. These improvements have been needed for years. I am so glad they are finally here. This is a great book that really walks a data geek like from start to finish in FCOE. I really enjoyed the links to other resources and even packet samples as well. The REALLY cool  part is this book get to the point fast. It is only 100 pages long and it has a fair amount of technical information.  There is a great section on FPMAs and SPMAs. I highly recommend this book to all data folks. Data geeks like me are seeing more and more apps converging on the Ethernet transport. First it was data, then Voice, then Power and now Storage. Engineers today have to be in tune with all the new aspects of our consistently changing career path. Great book! Five out Five Cat6a data grade cables!!!

Jimmy Ray

Geek Book Review: RFID Essentials

I finished the O'Reilly Press book; "RFID Essentials by Bill Glover and Himanshu Bhatt. I have been interested in all the possibilities that RFID opens up in todays world. I picked this up thinking it was an API reference type of guide to writing apps. Mainly because the authors are both hardcore Java dudes at Sun.  You can read Bill's blog here.  This is book is about where RFID has been and where it is going.  This is an excellent book and I very highly recommend this book to folks that are really wanting to get into the meat and tators of RFID. There are many examples of how RFID is used, protocols and middleware for RFID. My favorite section was the appendix A that discussed EPC Indentity Encodings in detail. They have some great tables and examples on how to convert bar codes to epcs to store on a RFID tag. Really good stuff!!!

I highly recommend this book as a excellent reference for RFID. I found this to be a fun and informative read that will certainly go on my ready reference shelf. I rate this five out of five Cat 6a RJ45 cables up!

Geek Book Review: Reversing

This edition of the TechWiseTV Geek Book Review is on the book: "Reversing" by Eldad Eilam. Do you like the show "How it's Made"? Have you read the mag "Make"? Do you look at new technology and are not amazed at what it does but how it does it? You just might be a Reverse Engineer that just needs a primer. If you are the kinda of person that always has questions after learning something new and you believe that for all things there is always a root beginning, then this book is for you. One of the absolute best ways to REALLY learn anything is to put yourself in the developers/prototypers  shoes. But how do you do that? well, you can get hired on as a developer or start reversing. Having done both roles, I can assure that reversing is much more fun by a lonnnnngggggg shot!!!! This book really takes a person from start to finish. Over 500 pages of excellent data and source information. The book presented in a logically format with the legal crap and theory stuff up front in Chapter One and then the specialty chapters follow. Eldad discusses the top tools out there today like IDA Pro (My personal fav) but he also includes a excellent chapter on reversing malware.

Not all geeks are reversers and that is cool. Just like not all IT folks are into server administration. Reversing is an excellent primer to get you in the reversing mind set and the practical tools and skills to get started.

I really liked this book alot. This is a book you read once and refer to many times later on as a ready reference. This book has been promoted from my bookshelf to my reference shelf. I did not want to give my first book review the highest rating to show I am a tough and objectionable reviewer, but who am I kidding! I love this book and highly recommend it to all geeks wanting to take it to the next level.

Technical ability to understand this book: 3 out 5 (5 is the highest)
Code Examples and command sets: Yes
Tools how to use them: Yes
Did I honestly learn new stuff I can put in use right now: Yes
Any management or analysist crap in the book: No

Final Grade: 5 out of 5 Klingon badge thingys