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Face it. Linux may never succeed as a desktop operating system and may have to "settle" for being the king of the server and embedded device markets. But is that such a bad thing? Ironically, the power of a Windows machine is on the command-line, but unless you're a system admin or network guru, that doesn't even occur to you. And absolutely, the power of Linux is in the command-line shell. Why fight the nature of what Linux is? Instead of trying to avoid shell commands, embrace them. "That's where The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction" comes in.

It's been awhile since I've sunk my teeth into a good book review so I'm finally glad to get my appetite back and start consuming Trevor Burnham's "CoffeeScript: Accelerated JavaScript Development" book. I'm actually just as interested in trying out CoffeeScript itself as in having a look at what the book has to offer. Well then, let's get started.

Don't expect a lot of background from this IPv6 book. It assumes that you are well versed in DNS and BIND and don't need a lot of hand holding. In fact, you are expected to know a fair amount about how IPv6 works before beginning to read as well. The "background to IPv6" part of the book is barely a page long, then you launch right into IPv6 forward and reverse mapping.

I understand that O'Reilly is publishing a series of hardcopy and ebooks that sport a rather modest page count in order to get the material to market very quickly. Shelley Powers' HTML5 Media is one of them. Please keep in mind this book isn't intended to teach you everything you want to know about HTML5 but rather, to show web developers how to insert HTML5 media elements into web pages using the new video and audio elements.

It's been around awhile...the Learning Perl book I mean. Now in its sixth edition, this O'Reilly classic is still going strong. But first things first. Who is this book for? You don't find out until the first page of Chapter 1, but it's called "Introduction", so I guess that's OK. Is this book for you? Depends.

Stop! If you are just beginning to learn the Python programming language, do not buy this book! This book was written for intermediate to advanced Python programmers who want to be able to put their hands on the Python standard library of modules. This is not a book that will teach you the first steps in programming in Python.

So there are just billions of JavaScript books on the market and if you are interested in this language, or learning more about this language, you probably own several. Why would you want to buy the Pragmatic version? What sets it apart from the rest of the herd? What does it bring to the table? Good questions. But can Porteneuve's book provide the answers?

I really like this book. It fits my needs perfectly. Let me explain. I use Subversion in my day job as a technical writer for a software company. I use Ubuntu (9.10 Karmic Koala) and connect to the subversion repository via the shell. This is pretty much how the book was written, so all of the commands and tasks really fit my personal situation. Not only that, but the level of complexity (or lack thereof, if you're a total subversion guru) is right at my level.

I became impatient with the history lesson in Chapter 1 and wanted to test drive HTML 5. What's different? What's new? Guess I'll have to work to find out. As the blurb I found at Amazon said of HTML5, It’s not one big thing. It's not a matter of learning a new markup language from scratch, which is both a good and bad thing. In fact, again to quote the author's blurb, “Upgrading” to HTML5 can be as simple as changing your doctype...In HTML5, there is only one doctype: !DOCTYPE html. That's encouraging, but just how easy is it to learn HTML5 and how easily can you learn it from Pilgrim's book? I went in search of the answers.

I've been carrying this book around with me and sampling its wares for a couple of months now, but haven't had the bandwidth to write a review before this. Fear not. The wait is worth it. This is the "twentieth anniversary edition" so I imagine some fanfare went along with the book's release (though I can't swear to it). The question is, why do you want to buy this book? There's a little blurb on the book's back cover that's different than most other blurbs. Most books have quotes of praise from the authors, from readers, and from other people with an investment in the topic, but never (which is to be expected) from the competition. Remember that Prentice Hall publishes this book. Tim O'Reilly (yeah, that Tim O'Reilly) actually touts this book...publicly. It must be something. In fact, it's so good O'Reilly wrote the book's Foreword. Like a number of technical book titles that have gone the distance, UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook has already established itself as a classic. People will buy this book just because they really liked the 3rd edition. But what's new in the 4th edition? I went looking for the answer.

Ubuntu development is rocketing along and so are the various editions of Ubuntu related books. On the surface, the first thing I noticed about the fifth edition of the Prentice Hall book is that it's had a make over. The cover has (finally) lost the brown, "human" theme, once invariably associated with Ubuntu itself, and has taken on a more sleek and polished look. Of course, "never judge a book by its cover". What lurks beneath?

There are a number of classic book series in the world of technical and certification books and certainly the "In a Nutshell" series is among them. The LPI Linux Certification In a Nutshell book has a place of esteem in that realm. Like many classics, this book has multiple editions and as of last month, the third edition was released. It basks in the glow of it's older versions but just what does it have under the hood?

I return to the topic of "learning how to program" every now and again because I haven't found a truly painless way of teaching programming to people who aren't naturally wired for it. I don't know if Processing is the answer, but it sure seems to be in the running. It has the benefit of being an open source program written to appeal to graphic designers who need or want to learn programming. Let me explain.

I was perusing the open source software related news this morning trying to wake up and came across an item at Tech Drive-in called Install New GIMP 2.6.9 in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. I know that GIMP 2.7.0 is the next stable version to be released and understood that it wasn't going to become available until the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011. What's GIMP 2.6.9 have to offer?

Maybe I'm being unfair. After all, I have been having networking problems with my Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) virtual machine running in VMware Workstation 7. Seems to be tied to a DNS problem. The VM doesn't pick up the DNS server IPs from the DHCP server on my network (though it gets an IP just fine). I thought the solution was to point to Google's free DNS servers. Worked for awhile, but then stopped. I tried using the DNS servers on my wee home server and DSL modem device and that worked for awhile too, and then stopped.

I don't think much about copying machines. I just make my copies, print what I need to print, fax what I need to fax, and scan what I need to scan. What I didn't realize is that since about 2002, commercial copying machines have been built with hard drives that store as images everything you have ever copied on your machine.

You may be crying out to the heavens, Good grief! How many HTML and CSS books do we need? If the question were What is the meaning of life? the answer may well be "42", but I'm pretty sure we have more web design books than that already.

Not sure if this is an issue with the Lynx or with the fact that it's a VM (VMware Workstation 7). I've noticed over the past few days that networking's been spotty at best. Web pages take forever to load or the pages don't load and the connection times out. Same for twitter in twittergadget and Gwibber. Tried both the Firefox and Chromium browsers thinking it would make a difference but nada, tostada.

First off, I was amazed by the fact that I could quickly and easily download the ISO for the 32-bit desktop. It was only about 24 hours after the initial release when I gave it a shot, and there were no delays at all. I find torrents obnoxious, so I did the download directly from Ubuntu.com. No muss, no fuss.

If you are into technical reading or writing, you've probably at least heard of informIT.com. Among other publications, they're responsible for the Unleashed series, and their imprints include Cisco Press, IBM Press, Prentice Hall Professional, and QUE Publishing. While you may use books published by Cisco Press without being overly concerned regarding the presence of a parent organization, you may also be unaware that changes are coming.