Yet another perfect "get started" book from Packt

After deciding to do a significant overhaul of a web site I've worked on since 1998 (including my first development of a Wordpress plugin), it seemed that the time was perfect to get the new stuff (and the old stuff I was retaining) into source control. Although JetBrain's PHPStorm made it so I could leverage GitHub with only my general understanding of source control, I wanted a better grasp of its features (and Git's potentials). Thus, I opened up this book...

If you are looking for a comprehensive reference for all Git's features, files, and so on...Ravishankar Somasundaram's "Git: Version Control for Everyone" isn't for you. If however, like me, you want to be able to quickly become proficient with Git's basic commands and actions with a good understanding of what is going on...then this will be a perfect resource. (Now, don't get me wrong, Somasundaram does some deeper dives into aspects of Git.)

This book is a quick read, Somasundaram has a warm writing style, and when you reach the end you'll know a lot more than when you began. Want to get started (and much more) with Git? Buy "Git: Version Control for Everyone."

Two final notes. First, I did receive a review Kindle copy of the book. Second, yes my reviews of Packt books so far have been positive...but that's not because I get review copies...it is because they've all been very good. That's why I generally look to Packt when I want to learn something new.

P.S.  You can see a copy of this review and buy the book here on Amazon.com.

UPDATED: Going to Read "Twitter Bootstrap Web Development How-To"

I'm looking forward to reading a review copy of "Twitter Bootstrap Web Development How-To." I used Bootstrap once for a proof-of-concept, and now I'm going to use it "for real" with a non-profit I help out.  I have found when I need to learn something from scratch (or basically from scratch), Packt books are almost perfect...

More to follow (I will review it once I'm done.)

12/29/2012 – And now I'm done. :-)

My review of this book can be summarized with: "Boy I wish I had this when I first used Twitter's Bootstrap library." In what is a surprisingly comprehensive brief introduction to this popular tool, David Cochran assumes nothing of the reader except an interest in learning. What brevity causes it to lack in coverage is made up for by helpful pointers to online documentation. As someone who has spent over a decade and a half dabbling in web development, I consider this short work a must-have.

"Chicago Cubs deny season ticket renewals to alleged resellers"

From TicketNews:

"In a move being described as a means to ensure fans are the ones purchasing and using their season tickets, the Chicago Cubs have announced that the club will be revoking nearly 1,000 season tickets from about 40 customers following allegations that those individuals were scalping their tickets."

Personally I applaud teams and venues that do this. No matter what the resellers tell you, they aren't innocently just acting as a service to folks who no longer can use their tickets. Yes, some of the sellers who provide them inventory fit that bill, but resellers live off scalpers...

Not to mention, I personally know some of the ticketing folk at the Cubs...and they are really good people.

YouTube's Trained Monkeys Dispatched :-)

I'll give YouTube credit for giving me this as an error message this morning (trying to play a video from my favorite's playlist):

When I tried again, I got a rather sad Google robot...

Further attempts then, repeatedly, got a more boring result:

This reminds me of the when I was trained in IBM's HACMP system (High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing) and we learned about a signal a server that was taking over would send to the failing one if the failing one started trying to come back up: DYGSP. It was actually a very important signal, so what did the acronym represent? Die you gravy-sucking pig. :-)

Let us nerds have our fun, whether it be Apache error pages or naming AIX (IBM's UNIX flavor) signals :-)

The Proper Way to Handle the Visiting Team

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this :-)

From "FLORIDA HOCKEY TEAM MOCKS VISITORS WITH GIRLY BANNER" in Venues Today.

“The visitors are the visitors, and we don’t want them to feel welcome here,” said Chris Palin, vice president of sales and marketing for the Florida Everblades and Germain Arena. “That’s how you create home ice advantage.”

I know that I should be a Manchester Monarchs fan, but if I ever start following minor-league hockey, the Florida Everblades may be my team! 

The H.P. Lovecraft Institute of Software Design

If you are a nerd, especially a programming one, you gotta visit this:

The H.P. Lovecraft Institute of Software Design

Bonus points if you've actually read some H.P. Lovecraft...

How Redbox Got into Ticketing

Interesting article about how a chance meeting on an airplane got Redbox into ticketing:

"Sparkart: How A Digital Agency Helped Redbox Get Into The Ticketing Business"

Moral of the story? Networking does matter, even if someone seems outside your industry.

I'm still very happy Redbox is getting into the industry.