I found a web site, http://freebooks.homelinux.org/ that lists free e-books on Linux. There are quite a few gems on this list, albeit some are a little out-dated. The web site has become so popular that the site administrator had to put a limit on it: you can only download at most 10 e-books per day.
For example, you can download this free e-book published by O'Reilly, http://freebooks.homelinux.org/download.php?OS.Linux.Server.Hacks.OReilly.pdf.pdf. It contains 100 hacks/tips for Linux system administrators. Just last week, I started reading Volume 2 of this book (not free) and found it to be very helpful. I was overjoyed when I discovered that Volume 1 is being offered as a free book. It did not disappoint me.
I reviewed a book earlier titled "My Job Went to India." The premise is basically I.T. jobs in the West are being outsourced to the more cost-effective regions of the world such as India. According to the book, all is not LOST for the Western developers because there are certain inherent core values and competencies that our brothers in the East don't share.
Two weeks later, this BBC news article talked about the reverse phenomenon: "India attracts Western tech talent." A certain I.T. company in Bangalore, India has been hiring hundreds of Americans (& Britons) to work in India.
The article claimed that some Indian companies are now "not afraid to poach the best talent from their international competitors, matching their salaries and perks in India." In addition, "the competition is good for Indian companies and workers. .... Indians will only benefit by interacting with foreign skills."
I wonder what the author of "My Job Went to India" would say in response to this early sign of a reverse "trend". Can we still depend on our inherent core values and competencies in the West to keep our jobs safe?
We should keep an eye out while this all unfolds.
I have been a regular reader of slashdot (http://slashdot.org). Slashdot is arguably the premium web newscast for geeks. It features links to web page articles that are submitted by readers and hand-picked by the slashdot editors. "Being slashdotted" is a term coined to describe the effect of being featured on slashdot, specifically referring to the enormous and sudden web traffic attracted to your site. The extra web traffic can cripple the web server if you are not well prepared for it.
Lately, my interest in reading slashdot is waning. The bottom line is that I don't find that many articles on slashdot which are of interest to me. I now find the articles to be a little bit too "sensational", and not enough "bread-and-better", "hard-core" technology HOW-TOs.
So, I started to look for an alternative news source. I found digg.com
Digg.com has a different editorial policy than slashdot. On slashdot, a "handful" of editors decide which articles go on the web site. Digg is a more democratic system: all articles get on the web site, and the readers vote on how far up it will go (is it "front page" material?) You can digg it (vote for it), or bury it (vote against it).
Granted, hand-picked articles (aka slashdot) will streamline and keep the # of articles down. If you find your interests are similar to the editors, that is perfect. With digg, you have access to more articles, and if you don't want to spend that much time, you can always head to the "most popular" articles list on the front page.
For a more detailed analysis of the dynamics behind digging, click here.
From a publisher perspective (say, as the publisher of this weblog), will digg.com increase my readership?
You bet cha!
As an experiment, I put a Digg It button on my earlier blog entries which I think are still of value today. It increased the number of page impressions on my site about 100 times the first day, and about 30 times the second day. That is the dream of a blogger, isn't it? So, digging is here to stay for me.
And of course, if you like this article or any of my earlier ones, digg it.
