Get Free Printed Copies Of The Book - Version Control By Example

Eric Sink the founder of SourceGear - a company that has developed a slew of products revolving around Version Control has published his book named - "Version Control by Example".

And guess what, he is offering a printed copy of the book for free to whoever asks for it.
Read more »

5 Linux Tutorials For Beginners

Here are 5 useful Linux tutorials for beginners / resources which will help newbies get their feet wet in Linux.

1. Complete, concise history of Linux.
2. Learn BASH shell scripting in 10 Seconds.
3. Free technical books to learn Linux.
4. Package management for new Debian users - A concise guide.
5. Package management for Red Hat users (a bit aged)

Hope you like these 5 useful tutorials / resources on Linux.

Google Releases A Free, Interactive Book On Browsers and The Web

Google, in its pursuit of bringing awareness about Internet among the masses has executed a unique project in the form of an interactive book on web browsers and the Internet.
Read more »

How to self publish your own book

If you have decided to write a book, then you must be wondering about the different publishing options at your disposal. In most cases, you typically approach a publishing house with your idea of the book. However, there is an interesting alternative, which is to self-publish your book.
Read more »

Free Online Book : Google Wave - Learn How to Use it.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave is book authored by Gina Trapani (Lifehacker fame) and Adam Pash. This book is freely available for reading online. The book is divided into 8 comprehensive chapters and 2 appendices. A very good book on Google Wave indeed.

Bookmark the link for future reference and read the free online book to get to know Google Wave inside-out. "The Complete Guide to Google Wave" book will be available in PDF and print sometime next year.

Now if only someone will send me a Google Wave invite.....

Free Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference

Ubuntu neophytes and gurus alike have cause to rejoice. Here is a gem of a deal - a free ebook on Ubuntu authored by none other than Kier Thomas. The book is divided into seven chapters spanning 170 pages. And it contain a wealth of information right from an introduction to Ubuntu, to installing and configuring it on your machine, coming to grips with the desktop, a lucid explanation of the various system administration tasks you should carry out to maintain your system, and of course the security aspects of Ubuntu which is dealt with in the seventh chapter of this book.

This is a wonderful book which is sure to be a ready pocket reference to all Linux users running Ubuntu on their machine. And true to Keir's class, the language is lucid and to the point. The sapient advice he belts out in this book to many of the common problems faced by Ubuntu users puts this book on a singular level of its own.

While the author has been gracious in providing the ebook as a free download, the real value of this book lies in buying a print edition of the book. As owing to its pocket size (8 x 5.2 x 0.4), it is ideal to carry the book where ever you go without much hassle. You can order a print copy of this book from Amazon for a nominal price of $9.94.

A collection of free books to help you learn Linux

If you are a new Linux user and wish for some direction in understanding Linux, then help is at hand. Unlike a few years ago when a Linux newbie had to solely rely on viewing the man pages or reading the manuals from tldp.org to understand the different facets of Linux, things are much different now. Thanks to the ever growing popularity of Linux, there are a plethora of books, manuals and howtos which make life much easier for a Linux enthusiast. It has also helped that Linux has continued to become easier to configure and use during this time.

Daily Artisan has put together a very good collection of links to free Linux books available on the net. The books span the gamut of Linux Installation, beginner guides, Security, System administration, Programming, Migration, Linux Kernel and of course books specific to particular Linux distributions such as Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian and so on.

A valuable resource worth bookmarking. Read the article at Daily Artisan.

The fundamental laws of human stupidity

I spent half a day figuring how to answer the stupidest email I've ever received. This mail was sent to me by a person I'd been discussing with hours at least three times, and the subject was always the same: covered and hidden below a shelter of slight modifications, the goal this person wanted to accomplish was basically that I said he was right. But right about what?

Let's see. I usually don't spend my precious spare time quarreling with a person I met at most twice in my life, talking about a discussion he had with a friend of mine. Unfortunately, my "education" sort of... obliged me to sit and listen to him, even if he was wounding my friend's privacy. After illustrating my (pretty detached) point of view from the subject, which I'm no way involved with, he sent me a long email. The beginning of the mail was:

"I hope this mail will change your basic ideas about the subject. I think you're wrong."

Well, whether I'm right or wrong it's my problem, and I find pretty "unkind" trying to change my opinions, because this violates the basic assumption of human communication: communicating! I'm not interested to a three-hours one-way "communication", I would rather call it a monologue. A monologue about something which annoys me most.

Fortunately, Carlo Maria Cipolla came to my mind and solved all of my problems. My anger wouldn't let me focus about the biggest problem of all, which unfortunately can't be solved: I was (trying to) communicate with a stupid person. Carlo Maria Cipolla, an eclectic economist, published a collection of essays titled "Allegro ma non troppo". In one of them, "The fundamental laws of human stupidity", Cipolla explores the nature of stupidity. It's a funny and enlightening read, I would suggest this book to every(non-stupid)body.

According to Cipolla, these are the five fundamental laws of stupidity:

1. Always and inevitably each of us underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
2. The probability that a given person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic possessed by that person.
3. A person is stupid if they cause damage to another person or group of people without experiencing personal gain, or even worse causing damage to themselves in the process.
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people; they constantly forget that at any time anywhere, and in any circumstance, dealing with or associating themselves with stupid individuals invariably constitutes a costly error.
5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person there is.

Thanks to the fourth law, and because of the golden first law, I recognized the costly error I was going to make! I moved the suffered email draft to the trash, and went out for a beer with a (non-stupid)friend.

Free Software Sticker Book - free download

Are you looking for that exact sticker to stick on your machine, on your car's windshield or anywhere you fancy, in order to proclaim to the world that you support GNU Free software ? Then look no further because a group of three people have compiled a book featuring hundreds of stickers of various hues and shapes and which is made available for free download as a PDF document.

So all you have to do is to download the book and print out your favorite sticker from the lot. And then you are ready to advertise your personal preferences as far as computing is concerned. For all you know, you might even be able to persuade people close to you to try out the Free software in the process. Here is a screenshot of a subset of the collection of stickers you will find in this very beautifully compiled book.

Fig: A sample of the variety of stickers you will find in this book.

You can download the book of stickers from the following link.