Pro Hadoop (Expert's Voice in Open Source) Review

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Pro Hadoop (Expert's Voice in Open Source) ReviewThe reason why I say this book's still a Good Buy is because Jason Venner has used Hadoop in several scenarios, and this book contains a lot of practical and time-saving tips on what mistakes to avoid or how to troubleshoot problems, making it an especially good book for Hadoop newbies. His materials on Testing and Debugging MapReduce Applications are also a value-add.
Chapter One provides detailed instructions on how to install Hadoop and how to run a test to verify that everything went fine. The author mentions that Hadoop 0.19 works best with Sun's JDK 1.6 and that although Hadoop will work on Windows with Cygwin installed, you have to be careful when specifying file paths.
Chapters Two and Three introduce basic concepts pertaining to MapReduce Jobs and Multimachine Clusters, respectively, and how "master" and "slave" nodes are configured. Chapter Four teaches you how to install, configure, and troubleshoot Hadoop Distributed File System.
Chapters Five and Six provide tutorials on the different types of inputs and outputs that a Hadoop MapReduce job can handle, and how to tune MapReduce jobs.
Chapter Seven is an excellent tutorial on how to unit test and debug MapReduce jobs, while Chapter Eight discusses more advanced MapReduce techniques for addressing more complex application requirements.
Chapter Nine walks you through the evolution of a (somewhat boring) real-world application, discussing rationales behind design changes, etc. Chapter 10 provides a few descriptive paragraphs each for various projects related to Hadoop (e.g., Pig, HBase, Mahout, ZooKeeper,etc). Finally, Appendix A is a detailed discussion of the JobConf API, JobConf being the object that controls information relating to a MapReduce job.Pro Hadoop (Expert's Voice in Open Source) OverviewIt's a very safe bet that cloud computing interest increases and in fact, a near certainty. A recent estimate from Merrill Lynch suggested a $95 billion annual market by 2013. Hadoop is at the center of cloud computing: it is one of the most searched-for, documented, and prevalent form of cloud computing data access, and even in its pre-final form is already rich enough to support a consulting business model. Anyone wishing to investigate an enterprise-level cloud computing solution will need a Hadoop book to at least investigate the possibilities.Hadoop is one of the tools that's driving today's developers to build tomorrow's Software as a Service (SaaS)-based and driven Internet applications, invested in by Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and more. With Hadoop, developers can build tomorrow's data centers, or the next 'Microsoft Office" or 'Google Apps" - applications that are fully hosted on the Web, not the desktop - and much more.Pro Hadoop will be the first to market with a professional guide and reference to getting up to speed with using, developing and working with Hadoop, an open source Java-based cloud computing framework and platform backed by Yahoo. This book will likely time with Hadoop 1.0 release in June 2009, also around JavaOne, the world's largest Java conference at around 15,000 attendees on average.

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Collective Intelligence in Action Review

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Collective Intelligence in Action ReviewI was recently asked by the publisher to review Collective Intelligence in Action. The author is Satnam Alag, a Bay area engineer with a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Alag is VP of NextBio, a specialized search engine.
The first chapter is free and so is the source code used in the book.
The book is for Java developers who want to implement "Collective Intelligence" applications in Java. It tells us about extracting and applying data from blogs, wikis and social network applications. I am not one to praise, but this book succeeds brilliantly. If you are a Java engineer and work with Web technologies, you must get this book. It covers topics such as computing similarity measures using vector models, Nai've Bayes Classifiers, inverse document frequency (idf), Machine Learning (using the Weka API), building a crawler with regular expressions, collaborative filtering (with links to open source tools), and so on.
Even if you do not work with Java, if you care for high-end Web applications, this book is for you. It reminds me of Lyon's Java¿ Digital Signal Processing book. It offers the gist of what academia knows, but focuses on what people (engineers and researchers) do in practise.
The book is not meant for academia however. There are references, but no theorem.
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.
Further reading. A competing book is Programming Collective Intelligence: Building Smart Web 2.0 Applications by Toby Segaran. It uses Python instead of Java.Collective Intelligence in Action Overview
There's a great deal of wisdom in a crowd, but how do you listen to a thousand people talking at once? Identifying the wants, needs, and knowledge of internet users can be like listening to a mob.

In the Web 2.0 era, leveraging the collective power of user contributions, interactions, and feedback is the key to market dominance. A new category of powerful programming techniques lets you discover the patterns, inter-relationships, and individual profiles-the collective intelligence--locked in the data people leave behind as they surf websites, post blogs, and interact with other users.

Collective Intelligence in Action is a hands-on guidebook for implementing collective intelligence concepts using Java. It is the first Java-based book to emphasize the underlying algorithms and technical implementation of vital data gathering and mining techniques like analyzing trends, discovering relationships, and making predictions. It provides a pragmatic approach to personalization by combining content-based analysis with collaborative approaches.

This book is for Java developers implementing Collective Intelligence in real, high-use applications. Following a running example in which you harvest and use information from blogs, you learn to develop software that you can embed in your own applications. The code examples are immediately reusable and give the Java developer a working collective intelligence toolkit.

Along the way, you work with, a number of APIs and open-source toolkits including text analysis and search using Lucene, web-crawling using Nutch, and applying machine learning algorithms using WEKA and the Java Data Mining (JDM) standard.


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An Introduction to Search Engines and Web Navigation Review

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An Introduction to Search Engines and Web Navigation ReviewThe first chapters of the book provide an extensive introduction to search engines and navigation. No formal prerequisites are required; any Web enthusiast will enjoy reading the book. These chapters comprise of background and history of the Web, navigation and searching, search engine architecture and different types of search engines. In addition to the basics, additional topics covered are navigation (aka surfing), the interplay between search and navigation, Web data mining, personalization, the mobile web, social networks, collaborative filtering and Weblogs (aka Blogs).
The book goes far beyond simple searching and navigation; it provides a comprehensive overview of the current research fronts in areas related to Web search engines and navigation.
The text is highly readable with a large number of illustrations and examples. It can serve as an excellent textbook both for an introductory and a more advanced course of Web search and navigation. Each chapter starts with a listing of objectives and ends with a set of exercises relevant to the topics covered in the chapter. Students will especially benefit from the non-technical descriptions and clear explanations of the concepts.
The book is also a great reference source for researchers and IT professionals: it includes 410 references to articles, and 202 references to Web pages and resources. I highly recommend the book.
An Introduction to Search Engines and Web Navigation OverviewThis book is a second edition, updated and expanded toexplain the technologies that help us find information on the web. Search engines and web navigation tools have become ubiquitous in our day to day use of the web as an information source, a tool for commercial transactions and a social computing tool. Moreover, through the mobile web we have access to the web's services when we are on the move. This book demystifies the tools that we use when interacting with the web, and gives the reader a detailed overview of where we are and where we are going in terms of search engine and web navigation technologies.

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Internet Searches for Vetting, Investigations, and Open-Source Intelligence Review

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Internet Searches for Vetting, Investigations, and Open-Source Intelligence ReviewI have been a private investigator for more than 25 years. When I started in this business computers were scarce and the Internet had not yet been commercialized. Everything was done with a pencil and telephone. I have a lot of experience so it is hard for me to find books that are useful. I buy books hoping to learn one or two new things. Edward J. Appel, a retired FBI agent is the author. His company has done work for me so I knew the quality of his work and assumed his book would be at the same level as his investigative efforts. I wasn't disappointed.
The book is 320 pages and broken into 4 sections. Appel begins with a chapter about behavior and technology which orients the investigator/analyst on the growth and use of the Internet. He discusses the usefulness of the Internet as an investigative tool and the transformations the Internet is making through social and technological advances. Along with the benefits for investigators comes the darker side of the web, and Appel examines its criminal exploitation.
The first section provides a great introduction and is geared toward corporate investigators and security personnel tasked with monitoring IT systems, vetting employees and guarding company intellectual property. In Section 2 Appel outlines legal and policy issues related to using information from the Internet in investigations. He identifies liability and privacy issues and laws addressing these concerns such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act. He also dedicates a chapter to litigation, defamation, and invasion of privacy torts.
Appel develops a framework for preparation and planning of successful Internet research. He covers basic information about search engines, metasearch engines, social networking sites and search terms.
I found the chapters Automation of Searching and Internet Intelligence Reporting to be the most enlightening. Reducing time spent searching and analyzing information, seems like a no-brainer. But I would bet the number of investigators who have looked for automated solutions to their collection efforts is small. The Internet Intelligence Reporting section recommends the format and organization of a report as well as what to include and how to cite sources.
Internet Searches for Vetting, Investigations, and Open-Source Intelligence, like many trade publications, is on the pricey side. However it delivers with content and is an easy read. It met my criteria for a successful investigations book because I learned much more than two new things.
Internet Searches for Vetting, Investigations, and Open-Source Intelligence OverviewIn the information age, it is critical that we understand the implications and exposure of the activities and data documented on the Internet. Improved efficiencies and the added capabilities of instant communication, high-speed connectivity to browsers, search engines, websites, databases, indexing, searching and analytical applications have made information technology (IT) and the Internet a vital issued for public and private enterprises. The downside is that this increased level of complexity and vulnerability presents a daunting challenge for enterprise and personal security.Internet Searches for Vetting, Investigations, and Open-Source Intelligence provides an understanding of the implications of the activities and data documented by individuals on the Internet. It delineates a much-needed framework for the responsible collection and use of the Internet for intelligence, investigation, vetting, and open-source information. This book makes a compelling case for action as well as reviews relevant laws, regulations, and rulings as they pertain to Internet crimes, misbehaviors, and individuals' privacy. Exploring technologies such as social media and aggregate information services, the author outlines the techniques and skills that can be used to leverage the capabilities of networked systems on the Internet and find critically important data to complete an up-to-date picture of people, employees, entities, and their activities. Outlining appropriate adoption of legal, policy, and procedural principles-and emphasizing the careful and appropriate use of Internet searching within the law-the book includes coverage of cases, privacy issues, and solutions for common problems encountered in Internet searching practice and information usage, from internal and external threats. The book is a valuable resource on how to utilize open-source, online sources to gather important information and screen and vet employees, prospective employees, corporate partners, and vendors.

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Mining the Social Web: Analyzing Data from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Other Social Media Sites Review

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Mining the Social Web: Analyzing Data from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Other Social Media Sites ReviewMining the Social Web does a great job of introducing a wide variety of techniques and wealth of resources for exploring freely available social data and personal information. If you are willing to spend the time tinkering with the examples, the book is pure fun. It offers a nice compliment to Segaran's Programming Collective Intelligence: Building Smart Web 2.0 Applications. The two books overlap but where they do offer different perspectives and explanations of common techniques (e.g., TF-IDF, cosine similarity, Jaccard index). If you are well-versed in data mining the web you may find much of the discussion familiar. If you have only been casually engaged to date, your toolbox will fill quickly.
In order to work with the book's examples related to LinkedIn and Facebook you really need to have a robust collection of connections. In terms of the source code itself, most of it worked as is. I wasn't able to install the Buzz library which limited my interaction with material in chapter 7 and opted to not get involved with the LinkedIn or Facebook but found the discussions around them easy to follow. By far my favorite chapter in the book was chapter 8, "Blogs et al.: Natural Language Processing (and Beyond)..." It was quite fascinating and caused my reading list to grow considerably.Mining the Social Web: Analyzing Data from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Other Social Media Sites Overview
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn generate a tremendous amount of valuable social data, but how can you find out who's making connections with social media, what they're talking about, or where they're located? This concise and practical book shows you how to answer these questions and more. You'll learn how to combine social web data, analysis techniques, and visualization to help you find what you've been looking for in the social haystack, as well as useful information you didn't know existed.

Each standalone chapter introduces techniques for mining data in different areas of the social Web, including blogs and email. All you need to get started is a programming background and a willingness to learn basic Python tools.

Get a straightforward synopsis of the social web landscape
Use adaptable scripts on GitHub to harvest data from social network APIs such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
Learn how to employ easy-to-use Python tools to slice and dice the data you collect
Explore social connections in microformats with the XHTML Friends Network
Apply advanced mining techniques such as TF-IDF, cosine similarity, collocation analysis, document summarization, and clique detection
Build interactive visualizations with web technologies based upon HTML5 and JavaScript toolkits

"Let Matthew Russell serve as your guide to working with social data sets old (email, blogs) and new (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook). Mining the Social Web is a natural successor to Programming Collective Intelligence: a practical, hands-on approach to hacking on data from the social Web with Python." --Jeff Hammerbacher, Chief Scientist, Cloudera

"A rich, compact, useful, practical introduction to a galaxy of tools, techniques, and theories for exploring structured and unstructured data." --Alex Martelli, Senior Staff Engineer, Google


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Building Research Tools with Google For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) Review

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Building Research Tools with Google For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) ReviewI'm a webmaster, and I use Google everyday - both in connection with my sites, and also to research all kinds of things. This book will have you building research tools that extend Google. But more important, it will you teach about how to research, what is Google and what is not, how Google works, how to evaluate the credibility of what you find, and much more. If you teach someone to fish, you feed them for life. This book will help you research for life. It's the best book about Google I've read, and believe me I've read a few. If Google touches your life, get this book.Building Research Tools with Google For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) OverviewGoogle—a funny name for a fabulous tool. You've already used it to look up all sorts of information on the Web almost instantly. Now what if you could use its amazing abilities to turbo-charge your research on a grand scale?
Building Research Tools With Google For Dummies can help you do just that. In plain English, it shows you easy ways to:
Ask Google exactly what you want to know
Determine whether what you need can actually be found through Google, and where to look if the answer is "no"
Improve your research results
Present your findings in a way that makes sense
Write your own specialized search applications—if you want to

To get the most from Google, you need to understand Google. Building Research Tools With Google For Dummies explains how Google works and how you can build more effective queries (hint: it's a lot more than just using the "Advanced Search" techniques!) It even shows you how to think like a researcher and how to package the results of your research so it means something to your audience. You'll be able to:
Understand Google research techniques and use the custom search-related syntax
Recognize Google's strengths—and limitations
Target your search by using Google operators
Use Google to research photos, or even an entire industry
Improve the effectiveness of your results by understanding Google's comparative methodology
Build custom tools using WDSL and Web Services

You don't have to become a programmer to use Google, but if you know a little about software development and want to explore new, more focused search techniques, Building Research Tools With Google For Dummies has a section just for you. It introduces you to the Google API, shows you how to download a developer key, and leads you through building a C# .Net Google application. On the companion Web site, you'll find the source code and software discussed in the book as well as links to lots of other resources for researchers. Before you know it, you'll be Googling your way to research success!

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Google Hacks: Tips & Tools for Finding and Using the World's Information Review

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Google Hacks: Tips & Tools for Finding and Using the World's Information ReviewFew of today's web-savvy would contest Google's superiority among search engines. Behind the austere and simple interface lies a wealth of information just waiting to be tapped. Until now however, tapping all that information and power would likely require scanning dozens of websites hunting down tips for making the most out of Google. Fortunately, Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest and their colleagues have done most of the legwork for us in O'Reilly's Google Hacks.
Google Hacks is another in O'Reilly's Hacks series, "Industrial Strength Tips and Tools". In this case, 100 recipes for just about every imaginable use for Google. O'Reilly uses the term 'hack' in a positive way, meaning a clever technical feat or trick, as opposed to the negative connotation associated with those blackhats who break into computer systems for fun and for profit. Each "hack" is a stand-alone recipe demonstrating some aspect of using Google to find just what you're looking for. Most hacks also contain cross-references to other relevant hacks in the book, so you really don't have to read it from cover to cover. You could start with whatever interests you, and go from there.
The book is divided into several chapters, each of which contains several hacks. The first few chapters are targeted at the general end-user, describing in detail all of the various syntaxes you can use when searching with Google, as well as introducing the various topical collections (U.S. government, Linux, Mac, etc.), and other tools (Google Groups, Google News, etc.,) available. The authors are careful to point out where the various syntax pieces are incompatible, and which syntax features are available with which services. Also covered are various tools you can use to (legally) 'scrape' Google search results for further analysis. These chapters will be useful for just about anyone who uses Google. Some of the material (such as directly manipulating URLS to tweak search results and custom HTML forms) may be beyond the reach of some newbies. A general understanding of URLs, HTML and CGI scripting will be helpful in making use of most of the book.
The next few chapters are targeted more to developers and propeller-heads, describing the Google Web Service API, as well as providing dozens of scripts (mostly in Perl) for manipulating Google's index via its XML interface. Newbies and the casual user might find all this a bit overwhelming, but anyone with a Perl interpreter could potentially use these scripts to their advantage. One chapter also provides examples of using the API in various other languages including PHP, Java, Python, C#/.NET, and VB.NET. There are enough examples here of using the API in various fashions to get anyone with a sense of programming plenty of starting off points for whatever project they may imagine with Google's wealth of information.
The next to last chapter involves a handful of pranks, games, other oddities you can do with Google. Fool your friends with 0-result searches, let Google write poetry or a recipe for you. Draw pictures with Google Groups, or see just how good you are at Google-Whacking. This is the chapter for all of you who have way too much time on your hands ;-).
The last chapter in the book is targeted towards webmasters and offers several tips not only on getting your website well-placed in Google's search rankings, but also general help on getting traffic to your site in the first place. The authors also discuss strategies for using Google's AdWords system to the advantage of your business.
Overall, the book is very readable, and easy to move through (well, for a geek anyways). Each hack is self-contained, and can be read in a few minutes. Read it near your computer, as you'll likely be wanting to try some of these hacks out as you read them. As for its usefulness, I'm already using things I learned in the book on a regular basis to my daily advantage. However, if you're not more than a casual user of Google, all the scripts and API-speak might be overkill for your needs. The first few and last chapters probably justify the Amazon price for most users, however.
The book isn't perfect, though. I did find a few typographical errors scattered through the text, but they weren't prevalent enough to be too distracting. Also, with coverage of such a moving target as a major Internet property like Google, there will likely be links and even certain hacks that may not work, and features that change with time. Finally, the idea of narrowing down your search results to a manageable number surfaces often. In my opinion, what's important is not so much how many search results are found, but rather, whether or not Google can get me what I'm looking for within the first page or two of results, which it usually does, and which is why I use Google in the first place. The real value of the book shows itself on those occasions where Google doesn't necessarily get you where you want to be on the first shot.
In summary, true to its cover graphic, Google Hacks will provide you with a large number of tools to get the most out of Google, whether for serious research, casual browsing, procrastination activities, or just plain old fun.Google Hacks: Tips & Tools for Finding and Using the World's Information Overview

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