Tag: Books

A Trojan Horse Was Shipped To My Kindle And I Don’t Want To Remove It!

Mark Russinovich’s new book, Trojan Horse, is now available.

It’s two years post-Zero Day, and former government analyst Jeff Aiken is reaping the rewards for crippling al-Qaida’s attack on the computer infrastructure of the Western world.  His cyber – security company is flourishing, and his relationship with Daryl Haugen intensifies when she becomes a part of his team.

But the West is under the East’s greatest threat yet. The Stuxnet virus that successfully subverted Iran’s nuclear defense program for years is being rapidly identified and defeated, and Stuxnet’s creators are stressed to develop a successor.  As Jeff and Daryl struggle to stay together, they’re summoned to disarm the attack of a revolutionary, invisible trojan that alters data without leaving a trace.  As the trojan penetrates Western intelligence, the terrifying truth about Iran is revealed, and Jeff and Daryl find themselves running a desperate race against time to reverse it – while the fate of both East and West hangs in the balance.

I won’t get a chance to read it for a while; I have a chapter due for the new Hyper-V book.

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New EBook by Mark Russinovich

Another gem turned up on my Amazon suggestions a while back and I got a notification overnight that my Kindle reader was updated:

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Operation Desolation: The Case of the Anonymous Bank Defacement is a new 64 pages ebook by Mark Russinovich available on Amazon.com for the Kindle. The price is $0.99.  It’s showing as pre-order but I got a delivery notification last night. The books is described as:

A thought-provoking new story from the acclaimed author of Zero Day. Challenging Anonymous is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. But the CEO of a major investment firm has done just that, and now cyber security expert Jeff Aiken has to try to protect the company from its leader’s mistakes. The timing couldn’t be worse, as Jeff is scheduled to appear at a conference that has invited an Anonymous representative as well. And Jeff’s about to discover that the hacker outfit plans to bring their fight offline–and into the real world.

Kind of interesting (accidental) timing considering the morons who made headlines last week for trademarking the Anonymous logo and slogan in France.

Note that there is another Russinovich full length novel coming soon called Trojan Horse: A Novel.

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Book: Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez

I decided to take tonight off from writing due to fatigue so I was screwing around on my Build slate PC and found a news story that caught my attention in one of the apps.  It appears that the US Navy is working on drone technology that promises a “pilotless future”:

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“Holy crap!” I thought.  I’ve been reading about this stuff in Daniel Suarez’s new book, Kill Decision. I raved about his past two books, Daemon and Freedom ™.  He manages to do something that we techies think is impossible; he writes believable tech thrillers.  There is no clicking on magical Pi symbols, there is no Matrix (well … there is … sort of . in those two books).

Several months ago the the new book, Kill Decision, appeared on Amazon as a pre-order.  I clicked, and a few weeks ago I got an email to say that it was downloaded to my Kindle – I love that!

Kill Decision isn’t a sequel to the other two books. It’s a whole new thread, in a world where drones are being used by the enemy.  I’ll say no more, but if you’ve read the previous books then you know there will be tech, it will be believable, and the plot will be interesting. 

I’m reading it at night when I go to bed, and I’m about 60% of the way through, enjoying it greatly.  I wasn’t going to mention it until I’d finished, but I was watching Windows Weekly and Paul Thurrott mentioned that he was enjoying reading it on his vacation.

Read this book, and then go back and read about the US Navy X-47B.  Sca-ary!

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Book – Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Installation And Configuration Guide

Patrick beat me to it, but the timing is appropriate given the RTM announcements of earlier today:

This is the project that I’ve teased. This is the cover to a new Hyper-V book, Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Installation And Configuration Guide.  Let’s call this post the Developer Preview, seeing as I don’t have an Amazon or Wiley page to link for you Smile

The authors are:

  • Me, obviously, a Virtual Machine (aka Hyper-V) MVP
  • Patrick Lownds (HP UK, Virtual Machine MVP), and past co-author on Mastering Hyper-V Deployment and Microsoft Private Cloud Computing. Patrick works this stuff for a living in big sites around Europe.
  • Michel Luescher (Microsoft Consulting Services Switzerland), who I worked with on the site from hell, and I came to respect his knowledge/skill. He’s new to writing books in English but he has a lot to share.
  • Damian Flynn (Lionbridge Ireland, Datacenter & Cloud MVP), past co-author on Microsoft Private Cloud Computing.

Wait … a cloud MVP?  Yeah … this is a cloud operating system after all, and I wanted to get the best man for the job involved.  If you get the chance to talk to Damian or hear him present, you’ll understand.

When we got together to talk over who would be the technical editor, there was an instant unanimous choice. He’s not on the cover, but I guarantee his influence will be there when you eventually read this book.  Hans Vredevoort (technical reviewer of Mastering Hyper-V Deployment and co-author of Microsoft Private Cloud Computing)  is already making this a better book, and that was evident in the amount of changes I made to my first chapter after his review.

Here’s what you’ll get: deep down, how it works, how to use it, how to tune it, how to troubleshoot it, and all the very best and latest information we can give you with the real world firmly in centre state.  This is going to be the deepest technical guide we can make.  Oh yeah: PowerShell is everywhere.

How deep and how technical?  I’ve written 2 of my chapters and I’ve gone way over the allocated pages.  I’m writing the second chapter now.  I’m about 60% done and it’s already gone over the page count before I get to the practical stuff.

I’ll put it to you this way: I’m going to have court orders against me because I’m chasing people all over the place with questions. The front matter will end up being 50 pages long because we’ll have to credit so many people.

The writing started around 6 weeks ago. We wanted to wait for (a) at least RC code and (b) until we had as much information as possible, without waiting until next year to start. Because of this, expect the book very early next year.  I know, some will want it quicker, but it takes time to write, edit, review, and all that stuff; this book isn’t a series of blog posts where mistakes are made or only have the information is given.

So watch this space for more news!

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Got My Paperback Copies of Microsoft Private Cloud Computing

After a 2 week snafu by the local An Post office in my town and me being abroad, I finally gotten my copies of Microsoft Private Cloud Computing this morning.

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This is the point when you can finally say “it’s finished”.  Now on to other things …

Microsoft Private Cloud Computing Available In Paperback

Last Sunday Wiley released the electronic version of Microsoft Private Cloud Computing in Amazon Kindle, and other formats such as iTunes. 

Oddly enough, the paper version is usually released before the digital ones.  I know that sounds backwards but it has always been my experience.  I can confirm that the paper editions are actually available.  There seems to have been an issue with distribution so Amazon still don’t have stock but should have soon.

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Microsoft Private Cloud Computing Book Is Available On Kindle

If you want to learn how to use System Center 2012 to build and manage the fabrics of your private cloud then you can go to Amazon and buy Microsoft Private Cloud Computing.  It’s available on Kindle now … even before any of the authors have seen the finished product Smile

Microsoft Private Cloud Computing Book Nearing The Stores

I just saw this tweet by Damian Flynn, regarding the book Microsoft Private Cloud Computing (Sybex, 2012):

#MsftPrivateCloud And it is done, that final edits have being submitted and the printer takes ownership tomorrow!

Hans, Patrick and Damian did in incredible amount of work on this book.  In fact, Damian went the extra mile *twice* (or was it three times? Smile) to make sure the reader got the very best and latest information on this solution (it’s hard writing a book on something before it RTMs).  Gentlemen, I salute you!

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Amazon has a date of July 3rd posted.  That’s not always accurate.  And yes, there will be ebook versions, such as Kindle.  Don’t ask me when – you’ll know before I do.

Announcing the Microsoft Private Cloud Computing Book

Considering that Microsoft has just started their Microsoft Private Cloud/System Center 2012 campaign with their “transforming IT” production, it was thought that this was the perfect time to announce a new book, Microsoft Private Cloud Computing:

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“Written by a team of expert authors who are MVPs and leaders in their respective fields, this one-of-a-kind book is an essential resource for IT administrators who are responsible for implementing and managing a cloud infrastructure. You’ll quickly learn how cloud computing offers significant cost savings while also providing new levels of speed and agility. Serving as a how-to guide, Microsoft Private Cloud Computing walks you through building a secure, internal cloud and delivering it as a service to your company suing Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012.

  • Discusses fabric management with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)2012
  • Examines how to provide network and storage with VMM 2012
  • Looks at the VMM library configuration
  • Discusses private cloud and cloud service management with Microsoft App Controller

Microsoft Private Cloud Computing is a must-have comprehensive resource that covers all aspects of implementing a private cloud”.

And just who are these “expert authors”.  Let me introduce them to you:

There’s a long story behind the book.  It started out with one concept that was talked over initially via email and a chat.  Then when we started to get to grips with the concept … well … everything took a left turn at Dundalk and went a different direction.  The size and complexity of the project literally blew up as we figured out what we really needed to write about.  That’s when we needed to add more expertise … and boy did we do that in style! 

Credit where credit’s due, after the initial concept development and planning, I stepped back a wee bit and took care of the intro chapters.  I had a l-o-n-g period of writing in 2010 and I wanted to take a break from it in 2011.  The meat of this book has been written by Patrick, Damian, and Hans.  Technical reviewing is being handled by Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP, Kristian Nese (@KristianNese), helped by the fact that he has already published a book called Cloud Computing in Norwegian.

FYI, the cover that’s available now is a preliminary artwork … hence my cloning out the author listing. It will be updated to reflect the work done by Hans, Damian, and Patrick.

It is estimated that Microsoft Private Cloud Computing will be available on May 22nd, 2012.  And yes, I would expect there to be ebook editions – just don’t ask me when.

Mastering Hyper-V Deployment For Sale in Redmond

Nathan Winters, one of the authors behind Mastering Lync Server 2010, tweeted me last night to let me know that my Hyper-V book, Mastering Hyper-V Deployment, is for sale in the company store at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, WA, USA.  I guess I’m officially successful now Winking smile  At least it’s beside all the Cloud and Azure books and not in the bargain bin Smile

Nathan had the “pleasure” of being my roommate at MVP Summit 2010 when I first saw the book in a shop in nearby Bellevue.  Yes, I did go back a second time to admire the view.

Thanks Nathan!

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