The term "peer-to-peer" has come to be applied to networks that expect end users to contribute their own files, computing time, or other resources to some shared project. Even more interesting than the systems' technical underpinnings are their socially disruptive potential: in various ways they return content, choice, and control to ordinary users.While this book is mostly about the technical promise of peer-to-peer, we also talk about its exciting social promise. Communities have been forming on the Internet for a long time, but they have been limited by the flat interactive qualities of email and Network newsgroups. People can exchange recommendations and ideas over these media, but have great difficulty commenting on each other's postings, structuring information, performing searches, or creating summaries. If tools provided ways to organize information intelligently, and if each person could serve up his or her own data and retrieve others' data, the possibilities for collaboration would take off. Peer-to-peer technologies along with metadata could enhance almost any group of people who share an interest--technical, cultural, political, medical, you name it.This book presents the goals that drive the developers of the best-known peer-to-peer systems, the problems they've faced, and the technical solutions they've found. Learn here the essentials of peer-to-peer from leaders of the field:
<ul>
<li>
Nelson Minar and Marc Hedlund of target="new"&gt;Popular Power, on a history of peer-to-peer</li>
<li>
Clay Shirky of acceleratorgroup, on where peer-to-peer is likely to be headed</li>
<li>
Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly &amp; Associates, on redefining the public's perceptions</li>
<li>
Dan Bricklin, cocreator of Visicalc, on harvesting information from end-users</li>
<li>
David Anderson of SETI@home, on how SETI@Home created the world's largest computer</li>
<li>
Jeremie Miller of Jabber, on the Internet as a collection of conversations</li>
<li>
Gene Kan of Gnutella and GoneSilent.com, on lessons from Gnutella for peer-to-peer technologies</li>
<li>
Adam Langley of Freenet, on Freenet's present and upcoming architecture</li>
<li>
Alan Brown of Red Rover, on a deliberately low-tech content distribution system</li>
<li>
Marc Waldman, Lorrie Cranor, and Avi Rubin of AT&amp;T Labs, on the Publius project and trust in distributed systems</li>
<li>
Roger Dingledine, Michael J. Freedman, andDavid Molnar of Free Haven, on resource allocation and accountability in distributed systems</li>
<li>
Rael Dornfest of O'Reilly Network and Dan Brickley of ILRT/RDF Web, on metadata</li>
<li>
Theodore Hong of Freenet, on performance</li>
<li>
Richard Lethin of Reputation Technologies, on how reputation can be built online</li>
<li>
Jon Udell ofBYTE and Nimisha Asthagiri andWalter Tuvell of Groove Networks, on security</li>
<li>
Brandon Wiley of Freenet, on gateways between peer-to-peer systems</li>
</ul>You'll find information on the latest and greatest systems as well as upcoming efforts in this book.

Peer-to-Peer: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies

Computers & Technology

Oram, Andy

Computer Science

O'Reilly Media

How do the experts solve difficult problems in software development? In this unique and insightful book, leading computer scientists offer case studies that reveal how they found unusual, carefully designed solutions to high-profile projects. You will be able to look over the shoulder of major coding and design experts to see problems through their eyes. This is not simply another design patterns book, or another software engineering treatise on the right and wrong way to do things. The authors think aloud as they work through their project's architecture, the tradeoffs made in its construction, and when it was important to break rules. Beautiful Code is an opportunity for master coders to tell their story. All author royalties will be donated to Amnesty International. tion.

Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think

Wilson, Greg

In this thought-provoking anthology, today's security experts describe bold and extraordinary methods used to secure computer systems in the face of ever-increasing threats. Beautiful Security features a collection of essays and insightful analyses by leaders such as Ben Edelman, Grant Geyer, John McManus, and a dozen others who have found unusual solutions for writing secure code, designing secure applications, addressing modern challenges such as wireless security and Internet vulnerabilities, and much more. Among the book's wide-ranging topics, you'll learn how new and more aggressive security measures work--and where they will lead us. Topics include: 
<ul>
<li> Rewiring the expectations and assumptions of organizations regarding security 
</li> <li>Security as a design requirement 
</li> <li>Evolution and new projects in Web of Trust 
</li> <li>Legal sanctions to enforce security precautions 
</li> <li>An encryption/hash system for protecting user data 
</li> <li>The criminal economy for stolen information 
</li> <li>Detecting attacks through context </li> </ul>
Go beyond the headlines, hype, and hearsay. With Beautiful Security, you'll delve into the techniques, technology, ethics, and laws at the center of the biggest revolution in the history of network security. It's a useful and far-reaching discussion you can't afford to miss.

Beautiful Security: Leading Security Experts Explain How They Think

Viega, John

Certification

Many claims are made about how certain tools, technologies, and practices improve software development. But which claims are verifiable, and which are merely wishful thinking? In this book, leading thinkers such as Steve McConnell, Barry Boehm, and Barbara Kitchenham offer essays that uncover the truth and unmask myths commonly held among the software development community. Their insights may surprise you.
<ul>
<li>Are some programmers really ten times more productive than others?</li>
<li>Does writing tests first help you develop better code faster?</li>
<li>Can code metrics predict the number of bugs in a piece of software?</li>
<li>Do design patterns actually make better software?</li>
<li>What effect does personality have on pair programming?</li>
<li>What matters more: how far apart people are geographically, or how far apart they are in the org chart?</li>
</ul>
Contributors include:
Jorge Aranda Tom Ball Victor R. Basili Andrew Begel Christian Bird Barry Boehm Marcelo Cataldo Steven Clarke Jason Cohen Robert DeLine Madeline Diep Hakan Erdogmus Michael Godfrey Mark Guzdial Jo E. Hannay Ahmed E. Hassan Israel Herraiz Kim Sebastian Herzig Cory Kapser Barbara Kitchenham Andrew Ko Lucas Layman Steve McConnell Tim Menzies Gail Murphy Nachi Nagappan Thomas J. Ostrand Dewayne Perry Marian Petre Lutz Prechelt Rahul Premraj Forrest Shull Beth Simon Diomidis Spinellis Neil Thomas Walter Tichy Burak Turhan Elaine J. Weyuker Michele A. Whitecraft Laurie Williams Wendy M. Williams Andreas Zeller Thomas Zimmermann

Making Software: What Really Works, and Why We Believe It

Programming

The promise of having control over their environment draws programmers to UNIX. It offers powerful tools for the initiated within an operating system that can be customized and tuned in almost unlimited ways. Programmers use UNIX because it lets them do what they want. And they like to see the source code for the software they work with.So it's no surprise the most popular programming tools on UNIX are free. They're easy to get, easy to customize, and better than many tools put out by vendors. They also offer a great deal of power. And the source code is publicly available.This book and CD combination is a complete package for programmers who are new to UNIX or who would like to make better use of the system. The tools come from Cygnus Support, Inc., and Cyclic Software, companies that provide support for free software. The tools on the CD include:
<ul>
<li>GNU Emacs, the legendary text editor</li>
<li>
gcc, the C and C++ compiler that immediately established itself as the best UNIX compiler for robustness and optimization</li>
<li>GNU libraries (including C++ libraries)</li>
<li>The gdb debugger</li>
<li>RCS, a tool for backing up and maintaining multiple versions of source files</li>
<li>GNU make, the most powerful version of that utility for managing builds</li>
</ul>The book provides an introduction to all these tools for a C programmer. Previous experience with UNIX is not required.The CD-ROM in this book contains binaries for several popular UNIX systems, including Sun SPARC4 running SunOS 4.1.3, Sun SPARC4 running Solaris 2.4, HP 9000/700 running HPUX, IBM RS/6000 running AIX 3, SGI Iris/Indigo running Irix 5.3, and Alpha running Digital UNIX. Complete source code and scripts for configuration, building, and installation are also included.

Programming with GNU Software: Tools from Cygnus Support

Loukides, Mike

Operating Systems