If you have not already read it through the MEAP program, you are in for a treat. No matter if you are new to DI or an old rat this book will enlighten you, show you when and when not to use DI, the pit-falls, the tricks, basically everything you need to know to get started or continue your quest.

The book is very rich on extensive examples, not just the often used Hello World-kind, which does not really cut in the real world.

The official web site should be up shortly.

When the printed copy comes out, I will look forward to sit in my favorite chair in my library, with a good cup of coffee and a signed copy – right, Mark? :) – and read it again.

Table of Contents:

Part 1 – Putting Dependency Injection on the map

• A Dependency Injection tasting menu
• A comprehensive example
• DI Containers

Part 2 – DI catalog

• DI patterns
• DI anti-patterns
• DI refactorings

Part 3 – DIY DI

• Object Composition
• Object Lifetime
• Interception

Part 4 – DI Containers

• Castle Windsor
• StructureMap
• String.NET
• Autofac
• Unity
• MEF

Like I have done previously I will try to write up a small review of each, but right now I do not have the bandwidth, so it will have to wait a little.

I can say that I found both books interesting. Howerver, PowerShell and WMI is not the most exciting subject, so this was somewhat difficult to get through. A lot of very good and usefull examples, though, which helped a lot.

Many years ago I did my Master thesis on the mathematical properties of artificial neural networks. I haven’t been working much in this area lately, so it was quite fun to “re-visit” some of the theory and applications used both in ANN and machine learning.

The book is very application oriented and gives some very good and illustrative examples of algorithms which can be used for classification, forecasting or unsupervised learning. It uses Python for all the code examples, but gives very good directions on how to install and use it, so if you are new to Python or have never used it before, this should not hinder you from getting value from the examples.

The author has included a lot of references to background material, enabling the reader to seek more information on areas of specific interest.

One area I find is a little weak is the handling or explanation of the underlying statistics. Machine learning is really just a form of Non-linear optimization and we know when these models are better then OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) or “regular” regression. If a certain set of conditions are met, the OLS estimate is the Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimate, and then we really can’t do any better. What this means is, that machine learning or neural networks or whatever we call it, will only be better if these conditions are not met.

One could fear, that the inexperienced user, would draw conclusions which on first sight would seem correct, but which would actually be wrong, because the underlying model was incorrect or the supplied data did not support it.

This being said, I found the book a very good read and a good introduction to Machine Learning.

RabbitMQ is an efficient, highly scalable, and easy-to-deploy queue that makes handling message traffic virtually effortless.

The book started out with a really nice historical overview of message queues. It then continued to walk through different aspects of Rabbit, giving good examples and real life stories. The prose flows nicely and the authors are quite capable of keeping ones attention.

One importing thing to note: this is a book primarily for the Unix gang. If you have never played around with Unix or Linux and Python you will most likely not be able to run the examples. I only got chapters 1 through 8 and later chapters does promise to introduce java and .NET and look at how to install and run Rabbit on other platforms, but I have not read those chapters yet, so I cannot say how they are.

This said, the book is still very recommendable for those interested in learning more about Rabbit.

As the people who know me are aware, I do enjoy books, and have read my fair share. The “lately” in the above paragraph should therefore be taken literally, except in the few cases where I have come across a very good book within the same genre.

The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov is a classic and it was just as enjoyable as the first time I read it. Alastair Reynolds is also a good scienfiction author. Some time ago I read House of Sun, Pushing Ice and The Prefect, and more recently Chasm City of the Revelation Space-series. I was given Redemption Ark by a good friend, but have had some problems getting a copy of Revelation Space as I would have prefered to read it on my Kindle, and I understand this book should really be read prior to reading Redemption Ark. Unfortunately Revelation Space is not available on the Kindle, making a purchased of a more “physical format” required and I am now looking forward to receiving it one of these days. As a last note, before we leave the science fiction genre, I would like to mention Blindsight by Peter Watts. I was (also) given this book as a gift and I am ever gratefull, as it is one of the best SciFi books I have read, fully comparable to the best of William Gibson (it has been a long time, since we have seen anything worth while from him).

I have always been a fan of detective novels and enjoys a good “whodoneit”. One of my favorite authors is P. D. James and her new book, Talking about Detective Fiction, was not a disapointment, even though it – as the title indicates – talks about what defines a detective novel instead of actually being one. It was fun to get her take on the genre and in addition I got a few titles from the earlier days, I will look forward to reading. Her last novel, The Private Patient, is highly recommendable. Another old favorite is Scott Turow. His latest book, Innocent, is actually a sequal to this very first book Presumed Innocent; yes, it has been made into a decent movie staring Harrison Ford and Bonnie Bedelia, but do yourself the favour and read the book. I must say, that I was slightly dissapointed with Innocent. In my opinion it does not live up to the usual high standard of his other books. An author, whom I just recently got acquainted to, is Val McDermid. She has written several books about Dr. Tony Hill and Carol Jordan. So far I have only read the first one in the series, The Mermaids Singing, and it was excellent. I am looking forward to the next one (The Wire in the Blood) which is already safely stored on my Kindle. Like for the SciFi-books, there is an author which I would like to point out, namely Mark Billingham. His books about Tom Thorne are nerve wrecking and can also be highly recommended.

One type of crime or detective novels that I enjoy is the one set in a historical setting. The books by Ellis Peters about Brother Cadfael comes to mind in this category (A Morbid Taste for Bones is the first) and I think I must have read them all. More recently, however, it is the books by C. J. Sansom about the lawer Matthew Shardlake and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel which have given me many hours of good entertainment. Both happes to be set under Henry VIII in England and both are able to convey how it must have felt to live back then – something I am glad I do not. A more recent setting is the books by Tom Rob Smith. He has so far writte two books taking place in the Soviet Union under Stalin. The first, Child 44, if my favorite, but the second, The Secret Speech, is not to be missed. Like Mr. Sansom and Ms. Mantel, Smith is able to give you the feeling of how it must have been like to live in fear under the reign of Stalin. Don’t read Child 44 if you (already) have problems sleeping.

How many “favorites” of something can you have, before it is not a favorite any more? I am asking because I was next going to mention a book by yet another favorite auther of mine John Irving. Ever since The World According to Garp, first published in 1978, I have been a fan. I love his humor, his plots and his ability to tell stories within the main story line. His latest novel, Last Night in Twisted River, fully lived up to my expectations.

It is very individual whether one likes a book or not. I have in the above given just a few pointers to some of the reads I really enjoyed and hope others may find them amusing/thrilling/moving as well. No classics are amongs them, but sometimes it is like that and I have read my share of Tolstoy, Dickens, Kafka, Camus, Hemingway, Green, …. I have also left out all the excellent Nordic authors I have recently read (Næsbø, Adler-Olsen, Dorph and Pasternak, Roslund and Hellström, Larsson, …).  Should you be interested and do you  have a profile at LinkedIn, I try to keep my readling list up to date. I would be really interested in suggestions of what to read next, so drop me a comment if you have a good reading experience you wish to pass on.

Finally, remember that “A book a day, keeps reality away”

I am using Delicious Library 2 to catalog our books, absolute the best program to catalog your books, movies, music and you name it. It can sync with your iPhone/Touch, so now I will never get in a situation where I have bought the same book twice, because it sounded real nice in the book store, but I could not remember if I had it already – maybe I’m just getting old, but it has actually happened a few times.

I still have a long way to go, but the ever expanding list can always be viewed here (or here if you have an iPhone).