| | | Windows Internals, Fifth Edition, by Mark E. Russinovich and David A. Solomon with Alex Ionescu Here's a note from author David Solomon about the book's release: Windows Internals, Fifth Edition is finally out! Yes, this edition is later than we wanted, but updating this book to accurately reflect the many changes in the Windows kernel was a monumental effort of detailed investigations. The plethora of changes in the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 core and kernel components are reflected in the book's unprecedented 29.5 percent growth: from 976 pages to a whopping 1,264! Key changes in the system include proactive memory management (Superfetch and its related technologies), mandatory integrity controls (part of the infrastructure for User Account Control), BitLocker full drive encryption, address space load randomization (ASLR), dynamic system address space, and support for virtualization (Hyper-V). Work on the sixth edition, which will cover Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, is already under way. We hope to have it out in the first half of 2010. In the meantime, watch for an upcoming article in TechNet Magazine that will preview the kernel changes. Learn more about Windows Internals, Fifth Edition, by Mark E. Russinovich and David A. Solomon with Alex Ionescu. |
Editors' Picks
For Home and Office Users
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Reviewed by Sandra Haynes, Content Development Manager, Microsoft Learning
Adapted from the Introduction
Project planning has been around longer than any of us can remember; one might speculate that project planning began when groups of people first started living together, making multiple resources available to do the tasks needed to live. That first project manager might have been the one who ultimately became "chief" of the group by demonstrating good management skills in "getting the job done" while best utilizing existing resources and generally making sure that everything that needed to be done got done efficiently. Project management and project managers concern themselves with scheduling, budgeting, managing resources, and tracking and reporting progress.
As we've progressed, project management has become a discipline made up of a variety of tools and techniques that have become "standards" after being proven successful at helping project managers achieve their goals. Initially, tools were manual; project managers made cost calculations using calculators and drew charts and diagrams by hand that represented the way a project would unfold.
Enter the computer age, and tools like Microsoft Office Project 2007 became available to remove much of the mundane work, leaving project managers to focus on the aspects of the project that require decision-making: "If I had more time, what could I accomplish? If I had more people, how much time could I save? And at what cost? How can I monitor how things are going? How can I show management where we are and what we need to do next?" And so on.
Project is a complicated piece of software because it can do lots of things. In addition to calculating project costs and producing the pictures that describe the project, Project can provide information to help project managers answer questions that require decision-making. As is true with any complex piece of software, learning to use Project can seem quite daunting. And just mastering the menus doesn't really mean you've learned how to use it. Project is, in many ways, a "situational" piece of software; you do certain things under certain circumstances. And the things you do are driven by the goal you want to achieve. For example, not everyone assigns resources; there are valid reasons to assign resources and not to assign resources. This book isn't about teaching you everything there is to know about Project; there are other books out there that focus on that. Instead, this book is about fitting Project into the stuff you need to do to manage a project, and about the results Project produces based on your actions. Sure, you'll find "how-to" information in this book, but the focus will be on the results you get when you follow the steps. This book helps you use Project in project management situations. It helps you select actions to take, given a particular set of circumstances. And it shows you the results of those actions, helping you to make the right choices for your situation. Will this book solve all of your problems? No. But in cases where it doesn't, it should help you find the answers you need to make your project a success.
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For Developers
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Reviewed by Rosemary Caperton, Content Project Manager, Microsoft Learning
Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 3 introduces developers to the newest version of Microsoft's innovative technology for building rich Internet applications.
Part I, "Introducing Silverlight 3," takes you through the basics of Silverlight. It looks at what Silverlight is and what tools are used to create and maintain Silverlight experiences, including Microsoft Expression Blend and Microsoft Visual Studio. Part I also looks into the XAML technology and how it uses XML to define the entire user experience, from layout to controls to animation and more. Finally, this part delves into the Silverlight plug-in itself and discusses how it can be used to interface with the browser so that your applications become first-class browser citizens.
Part II, "Programming Silverlight 3," takes you into some more detail on the high-level concepts of Silverlight. It's not an exhaustive reference by any means, but it is designed as a straightforward, no-nonsense introduction to the major things that you'll be doing as a Silverlight developer. You'll take a two-chapter tour of the built-in controls before looking at how easy it is to build your own controls. You'll then look at data, communications, and programming for animation, as well as some of the advanced controls for managing media, ink, and the new DeepZoom and Photosynth components that provide eye-popping presentation of images. The book wraps up with a look at the exciting new Dynamic Languages support in Silverlight.
It's an easy and approachable read, perfect for someone who is curious about Silverlight and wants to dip a toe in the water, or for more experienced Web developers who need to know how to explore this technology.
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