Book Review: Hadoop Operations

Book Review:  Hadoop Operations by Eric Sammer: Publisher- O'Reilly: ISBN- 13: 978-1449327057




Hadoop Operations by Eric Sammer is marvelous book which explains almost each bit of information is very lucid manner. AS name suggests, book is for operations guys - How data is ingested and replicated, or how MapReduce "finds" the most suitable
node to run parts of job, or what the cost and performance advantages are of adopting the shared-nothing, commodity hardware model recommended for Hadoop cluster, etc.

 

This book is for Operations guys/Administrators and as good supporting material to developers.

 

 

Disclaimer: I did not get paid to review this book, and I do not stand to gain anything if you buy the book. I have no relationship with the publisher or the author. I got electronic format of book from publisher for review.

Further reading: There are several books on similar topic. Hadoop Operations and ClusterManagement Cookbook and Hadoop Cluster Deployment.

One can get more information about book and related topics from:

 

1. Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hadoop-Operations-Eric-Sammer/dp/1449327052
2. Publisher -- Oreilly http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025085.do

 

What Are Self-Organising Teams? - My Views

InfoQ is publishing a series of articles on Self Organizing teams by Sigi Kaltenecker  & Peter Hundermark. This is three part series. First part is titled as “What Are Self-Organising Teams?”.  This is one of the finest I have ever encountered. But I have my own doubts about the details provided in the article.

1.       Article quotes Richard Hackman & Authority Matrix published in 2001-02. Is Authority Matrix granular enough? Consider a simple example. The third element on the horizontal axis of Authority Matrix is “Self designing teams”. If we closely scrutinize this element we will notice that it can be broken into two only by varying one factor – Selection of the members for the team. This authority may be within the team or may rest with outside authority (Think of hiring contractors, outsourcing, offshoring, etc.). I am sure you can think of more factors. In my view instead to limiting human/team behavior in a few boxes, it should be represented as some type of continuum.

2.       Article talks about all the advantages of Self Organizing teams but fails to highlight the dangers of Groupthink. Two recent examples of Groupthinks in self-organizing teams are– Indian Judicial appointments by Collegium and Bush Administration.  If there are pit falls in self-governing teams, there should be proper checks and balances in place.

Book Review: Backbone.js Blueprints

Book Review:  Backbone.js Blueprints by Andrew Burgess : Publisher- Packt: ISBN- 13: 978-1783286997

Backbone.js Blueprints is written keeping its reader in mind. Examples in the book are fantastic. Author has explained concepts in lucid manner and supported by examples. This book is excellent for beginners to intermediate readers.

The chapters are well crafted, in increasing order of complexity with digestible examples. Though it will be good if reader has some prelim info about Backbone.js before starting reading the book.

Nevertheless, book is well written and easy to digest.

Disclaimer: I did not get paid to review this book, and I do not stand to gain anything if you buy the book. I have no relationship with the publisher or the author. I got electronic format of book from publisher for review.

One can get more information about book and related topics from:

1. Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Backbone-js-Blueprints-Andrew-Burgess/dp/1783286997
2. Publisher -- https://www.packtpub.com/web-development/backbonejs-blueprints