Books In Sync

Infinite Exposure

by Roland Hughes

On the road to a bleaker future, is there still a chance to get it right?

This work of fiction uses historical information and relevant news stories to draw a line from post 9/11 through the off-shoring of IT jobs and the largest terrorist strike the free world has ever known to the resulting nuclear war.

By the year 2012 the U.S. will no longer be a world power.  The world will have seen many countries deploy nuclear weapons.  Anarchy will reign in many parts of the world and electricity will be considered a luxury nearly everywhere.

That, however, is not the interesting part of the story.  How we got there is a far more interesting tale indeed.  Follow the story from post 9/11 to where it all went bad and see if you can find a way out, not just for yourself, but for everyone.

Read Infinite Exposure, Roland Hughes' new work of fiction: a stark portrayal of a world gone wrong.

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Review For “Infinite Exposure’:

Roland Hughes’s Preface in his book “Infinite Exposure” begins with “This book is a work of fiction. It uses many historical events, news articles, and company names to build a time line necessary for projection forward. Without using many of these actual names and quotes, it would be difficult to build the sense of realism that gives credibility to the outcome. There is no slander or malice intended. Indeed this book is intended to be a wakeup call for both an industry and a country.” (p.7) Reading through the book, I found Hughes’s writing to indeed be very close to reality. The occurrences in the book mimic existing situations in the world and the resulting consequences are not desirable by any means.

The basic premise of Hughes’s book is how developing data centers and sending IT jobs overseas is detrimental to the future of the world. The result of this cost-cutting measure is the biggest al-Qaeda attack in history, and nuclear war. As anyone who has ever called for technical support on a computer or other product knows, overseas centers are a current and prevalent fact of life. I could go on for pages and pages about what I think about overseas support centers but this is not the place for that. However, Hughes’s fictional account of what the resulting effects of this money-saving action could be is a frighteningly realistic possibility.

On the title page it is stated that, “The book is meant to be a warning of what very well may happen if policies, laws, and business directions are not changed quickly.” I think that this book would be a relevant read to anyone who has ever pondered what the effects of sending jobs offshore may be and to those that have fears about the future of the world.

Hughes does a great job of presenting a detailed account of just how everything may unfortunately play out. The writing is interesting and will definitely get the reader’s attention and open their eyes to changes that need to be made. For those that are up-todate on current events, the scenarios presented in the book will hit all too close to home.

Hopefully the events that occur in the fictional “Infinite Exposure” will not become a reality in the not-too-distant future.

Reviewed by Kam Aures of RebeccasReads

Genre: Fiction

Book Purchase Link

http://www.infiniteexposure.biz/

Books for Real Programmers

The Minimum You Need to Know book series gives computer programmers

the OpenVMS development and Logic skills needed to get the job done in

less time and with fewer hassles.

The series is authored by Roland Hughes, a seasoned veteran who passes along information about:

Ø     What works

Ø     What doesn’t and Why

These books give IT people the information we actually need rather than the information the magazines say we need.

Special Features:

Ø     Tons of free code to use

Ø     No hype - You'll get the good, the bad, and the ugly

Ø     Only the Truth - OpenVMS is the most powerful and stable OS ever

Ø     Everything you need to start building real business apps on OpenVMS

Ø     Free CD-ROM

The Minimum You Need to Know About Service Oriented Architecture

by Roland Hughes

This book will show you how to port FMS-based business applications to Intranet or Internet  applications using ACMS.

Ø     ACMS fundamentals

Ø     How to connect to the Heritage data silo/application

Ø     Service Oriented Architecture principles

About Service Oriented Architecture: This is not your typical, dime-a-dozen SOA book.

Whereas many other books focus on the front-end of SOA, this book focuses on the backend.  This is the book that tells developers how to actually connect to the Heritage data silo/application that other books just draw a box around and say, "Connect somehow."

This book addresses that problem. The first five chapters of this book provide an eye-opening overview for Management. The remaining seven chapters are for programmers.

What You'll Learn from the Book:

■Port FMS-based business applications to Intranet or Internet applications using ACMS

■ACMS fundamentals

■How to connect to the Heritage data silo/application

■Service Oriented Architecture principles

Genre: Computers/Technical

Book Purchase Link

http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com/service_oriented_architecture_book.html

The Minimum You Need to Know About Logic to Work in IT

by Roland Hughes

This book covers the fundamentals of problem solving from the programming perspective.

Ø     Learn the tools of flowcharting and pseudo code

Ø     Ways to go about problem solving

Ø     The correct questions to ask and the design constraints to be considered are all covered

About Logic to Work in IT

Learn the skills which are completely non-existent in today's college courses.

Logic simply isn't taught anymore, Pascal is taught in what was the logic class - if they have any class at all devoted to it.  The result of such a curriculum is that new college grads are simply unemployable in today's market.

This book is designed to correct that problem.

■What You'll Learn from the Book

■The fundamentals of flowcharting

■The fundamentals of pseudo code

■The Leaping Lynn search algorithm

■Insertion Sort concept and usage

Genre: Computers/Technical

Book Purchase Link

http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com/logic_in_IT_book.html

The Minimum You Need to Know About Java on OpenVMS Volume 1

by Roland Hughes

The Minimum You Need to Know About Java on OpenVMS, Volume 1

Discover what is required to write real business applications on OpenVMS using Java.

Java on

OpenVMS covers the ugly side of Java, the Java Native Interface, so readers can more easily develop back end applications.

• Requested by the industry as a follow-up to The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an

OpenVMS Application Developer

• Learn how to store Java source in CMS and use MMS for builds

• Use Java to replace existing OpenVMS applications which use FMS, RMS, and/or RDB

   bout Java on OpenVMS, Vol. 1

Discover what is required to write real business applications on OpenVMS using Java. Java on OpenVMS covers the ugly side of Java, the Java Native Interface, so readers can more easily develop back end applications.

• Requested by the industry as a follow-up to The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an

OpenVMS Application Developer

• Learn how to store Java source in CMS and use MMS for builds

• Use Java to replace existing OpenVMS applications which use FMS,RMS, and/or RDB

Tips from the Book

Everything is a class….almost.

Passing by reference isn’t what you think it is, no matter what the other books tell you. JNI_ABORT means you want to free your local copy without copying back to the Java environment. JNI_COMMIT means you want to copy back to Java and keep your local copy. Naturally, 0 means you want to copy back to Java and free your local copy. Isn’t that just obvious?

Date handling in Java is somewhat littered with land mines. Java provides you with a Date class, and then tells you not to use it. When you use the classes that are supposed to replace the now depreciated Date class, you are forced to use Date objects. Use a Date object in your code where it will actually get a name and the compiler will flag a warning.

Genre: Computers/Technical

Book Purchase Link

http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com/about_java_on_openvms.html

The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer

by Roland Hughes

The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer

This book allows programmers who know at least one programming language to quickly excel on the

OpenVMS platform - the most powerful and stable computer operating system ever created.

• First book published in over a decade on OpenVMS Application development

• Provides a deep understanding of how to develop OpenVMS applications

• Assists programmers with using different programming languages on OpenVMS

Be an OpenVMS Application Developer

There are two main intents of this book...

1) Allow developers who know at least one of the covered languages on another platform to quickly come up to speed on the OpenVMS platform

2) Assist current OpenVMS developers finding themselves having to work with a   different language on this platform.

Tips from the Book

The /SPECIFICATION qualifier of the SORT command lets you identify a text file which contains a plethora of power. You can define named fields, named keys, named test conditions, inclusion criteria, and omission criteria. In a batch job stream, you typically have a lead program which creates the sort specification file (if you need to do record selection that varies from run to run), execute the sort command, and then write your follow-up program to process the sorted data. This is a much more acceptable approach than writing one massive executable which will run for hours without creating many entries in the log file. Most developers I run into don’t know a lot about the sort specification file, so we are going to cover it in the COBOL chapter.

A reference is a “special” object. There is a reason we covered COBOL prior to covering C, and references are it. You better have read that chapter. When we discussed the linkage section in COBOL, we discussed how COBOL doesn’t really pass parameters unless it is forced to pass them. The linkage section creates reference points back into the caller’s working-storage section. These references allow your called module to use those values just like they were your very own, but they aren’t. The reason most COBOL programmers don’t even know there is a GIVING clause on the procedure division is because they know the linkage section operates via references (unless you tell it not to).

When you alter the values of items passed by reference you are actually altering the values in the caller.

Genre: Computers/Technical

Book Purchase Link

http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com/openvms_application_developer_book.htm

An Interview With The Author, Roland Hughes: Interviewer Unknown

Q: Why did you become an author?

A: I’ve always enjoyed solving IT problems. Writing books about problems or techniques used in IT gives me another avenue to solve problems.

Q: What kind of impact do you hope your writing will have in general or on readers?

A: That OpenVMS will finally get the recognition it deserves. That somewhere, someone just starting out in IT will find the information they need to either have a rewarding career in IT, or choose a different career while there is still time.

Q: What is your greatest challenge as a writer?

A: Finding topics of sufficient interest to write about. One must avoid writing about anything the major publishing houses are writing about. Those places crank out oatmeal for the masses. Sadly, there is at most, one book on IT topics published each year worth buying, yet hundreds, if not thousands, of titles are cranked out by the major publishing houses. A major publishing house would have split a book like “The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer” into at least 9 books, all of which so watered down they would be useless.

Q: What are your interests?

Order Details:

The Minimum You Need to Know About Service Oriented Architecture

Special Features: CD included, Exercises with answers and comprehensive index

Pages: 370 pp

ISBN: 0-9770866-6-6

ISBN-13: 978-0-9770866-6-5

Format: Soft Cover

Perfect binding, 7 in. x 9 in.

Retail price: $45.00

Available for ordering through:

Books on St. Louis

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The Minimum You Need to Know About Logic to Work in IT

Special Features: Exercises with answers and comprehensive index

Pages: 154 pp

ISBN: 0-9770866-2-3

ISBN-13: 978-0-9770866-2-7

Format: Soft Cover

Perfect binding, 7 in. x 9 in.

Retail price: $18.00

Available for ordering through:

Island Computers

Books on St. Louis

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The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer

Special Features: CD-ROM included, chapter assignments, exercises with answers, comprehensive index, and tons of useful code.

Pages: 795 pp

ISBN: 0-97708660-7

Format: Soft Cover

Perfect binding, 7 in. x 9 in.

Retail price: $90.00

Available for ordering through:

Island Computers

Books on St. Louis

Barnes & Noble

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The Minimum You Need to Know About Java on OpenVMS, Volume 1

Special Features: CD-ROM included, chapter assignments, exercises with answers, comprehensive index, and tons of useful code.

Pages: 352 pp

ISBN: 0-9770866-1-5

Format: Soft Cover

Perfect binding, 7 in. x 9 in.

Retail price: $45.00

Available for ordering through:

Island Computers

Books on St. Louis

Barnes & Noble

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Distribution of Books from The Minimum You Need to Know Series is handled by: Big River Distribution, St. Louis, MO