Infinite Exposure by Roland Hughes
On the road to a bleaker future, is there still a chance to get it right?
This work of fiction uses historical information and relevant news stories to draw a line from post 9/11 through the off-shoring of IT jobs and the largest terrorist strike the free world has ever known to the resulting nuclear war.
By the year 2012 the U.S. will no longer be a world power. The world will have seen many countries deploy nuclear weapons. Anarchy will reign in many parts of the world and electricity will be considered a luxury nearly everywhere.
That, however, is not the interesting part of the story. How we got there is a far more interesting tale indeed. Follow the story from post 9/11 to where it all went bad and see if you can find a way out, not just for yourself, but for everyone.
Read Infinite Exposure, Roland Hughes' new work of fiction: a stark portrayal of a world gone wrong.
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Review For “Infinite Exposure’:
Roland Hughes’s Preface in his book “Infinite Exposure” begins with “This book is a work of fiction. It uses many historical events, news articles, and company names to build a time line necessary for projection forward. Without using many of these actual names and quotes, it would be difficult to build the sense of realism that gives credibility to the outcome. There is no slander or malice intended. Indeed this book is intended to be a wakeup call for both an industry and a country.” (p.7) Reading through the book, I found Hughes’s writing to indeed be very close to reality. The occurrences in the book mimic existing situations in the world and the resulting consequences are not desirable by any means.
The basic premise of Hughes’s book is how developing data centers and sending IT jobs overseas is detrimental to the future of the world. The result of this cost-cutting measure is the biggest al-Qaeda attack in history, and nuclear war. As anyone who has ever called for technical support on a computer or other product knows, overseas centers are a current and prevalent fact of life. I could go on for pages and pages about what I think about overseas support centers but this is not the place for that. However, Hughes’s fictional account of what the resulting effects of this money-saving action could be is a frighteningly realistic possibility.
On the title page it is stated that, “The book is meant to be a warning of what very well may happen if policies, laws, and business directions are not changed quickly.” I think that this book would be a relevant read to anyone who has ever pondered what the effects of sending jobs offshore may be and to those that have fears about the future of the world.
Hughes does a great job of presenting a detailed account of just how everything may unfortunately play out. The writing is interesting and will definitely get the reader’s attention and open their eyes to changes that need to be made. For those that are up-todate on current events, the scenarios presented in the book will hit all too close to home.
Hopefully the events that occur in the fictional “Infinite Exposure” will not become a reality in the not-too-distant future.
Reviewed by Kam Aures of RebeccasReads
Genre: Fiction
Book Purchase Link
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Follow the story from post 9/11 to where it all went bad and see if you can
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Read Infinite Exposure, Roland Hughes' new work of fiction: a stark portrayal
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Please Visit Roland Hughes Author’s Page At Books In Sync
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| The Minimum You Need To Know - by Roland Hughes |
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Books for Real Programmers
The Minimum You Need to Know book series gives computer programmers
the OpenVMS development and Logic skills needed to get the job done in
less time and with fewer hassles.
The series is authored by Roland Hughes, a seasoned veteran who passes along information about:
Ø What works
Ø What doesn’t and Why
These books give IT people the information we actually need rather than the information the magazines say we need.
Special Features:
Ø Tons of free code to use
Ø No hype - You'll get the good, the bad, and the ugly
Ø Only the Truth - OpenVMS is the most powerful and stable OS ever
Ø Everything you need to start building real business apps on OpenVMS
Ø Free CD-ROM
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The Minimum You Need to Know About Logic to Work in IT – by Roland Hughes
Learn the skills which are completely non-existent in today's college courses.
Logic simply isn't taught anymore, Pascal is taught in what was the logic class - if they have any class at all devoted to it. The result of such a curriculum is that new college grads are simply unemployable in today's market.
This book is designed to correct that problem.
What You'll Learn from the Book
- The fundamentals of flowcharting
- The fundamentals of pseudocode
- The Leaping Lynn search algorithm
- Insertion Sort concept and usage
Reviews
"This particular book, one of three in the series, isn't about writing actual programs but about laying down the foundation in logic. The writer covers flowcharting, pseudocoding, logic, application design, problem solving, program logic, application logic, systems design logic, the importance of specification writing, interesting historical insights (the writer brings TWO DECADES of experience in the industry), why logic enables you to become an accomplished programmer, data types, searching and sorting, ordering, relational databases, Surviving The Fire, career tips, and more."
ETA Online Review
"Hughes’ familiar style permeates the book. His wit and humor make for interesting reading of what could be bone dry material. His decades of experience shine through, leaving readers thankful and wishing he were a college professor at their local university."
Heather Froeschl, Book Review Journal
"Your books are well written and I've just ordered a copy of this one for my department. Thanks for your efforts."
Neil Rieck, Developer
Along with the basics of flowcharting and pseudocode, “The Minimum You Need to Know about Logic to Work in IT” provides a basic understanding of fundamental data types, common sorts and searches, the importance of decision order, linked lists, using a hash, and the basics of relational databases. It’s chapter on ‘Knowing What Questions to Ask’ provides a glimpse into the situations IT professionals may encounter and the importance of asking questions, understanding what the user requires, and most importantly ensuring that what they are asking for is legal!
Regan Windsor for Reader Views (8/07)
Special Features: Exercises with answers and comprehensive index
PUBLISHER: Logikal Solutions
AUTHORS: Roland Hughes
Pages: 154 pp
ISBN: 0-9770866-2-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-9770866-2-7
Format: Softcover, Perfect binding, 7 in. x 9 in.
Retail price: $18.00
Instructors may also obtain a zip file of exercises and aswers for classroom discussion by contacting the author.
Available at:
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The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an Open VMS Application Developer – by Roland Hughes
Special Features: CD-ROM included, chapter assignments, exercises with answers, comprehensive index, and tons of useful code
On Dr. Dobb's list of recommended reading for developers
http://drdobbs.com/tools/232500396?pgno=6
Download CD Contents
http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com/first_dec_book_sources.zip
Pages: 795 pp
ISBN: 0-97708660-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-9770866-0-3
Format: Softcover, Perfect binding, 7 in. x 9 in.
Retail price: $90.00
Available from:
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For years now the question has been surfacing in the OpenVMS community "Where are the pimply faced kids?" The other situation which seems to continually occur is a developer of one language suddenly finding themselves having to modify or maintain an application written in a language completely foreign to them.
This book was a year long effort to answer both of those questions. It also should help those to work on a good platform. Once the rudimentaries of logging in, symbols, logicals and the various editors are handled this book takes the reader on a journey of development using the most common tools encountered on the OpenVMS platform and one new tool making headway.
A single sample application (a lottery tracking system) is developed using FMS and RMS indexed files in each of the covered languages. (BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL and C/C++). The reader is exposed on how to use CDD, CMS and MMS with these languages as well.
A CD-ROM is included which contains the source, MMS and command files developed through the course of the book. Once RMS has been covered with all of the languages the same application using MySQL with C and FMS is covered. This breaks readers into the use of relational databases if they are not currently familiar with the concept. Rounding out the technical portion of the book is the same application using RDB with FMS. While source code is provided for all of the language implementations only FORTRAN and COBOL are actually covered in the text.
It is the hope of the author that this book will prove a useful reference on the desk of every OpenVMS developer. The inclusion of MySQL should benefit both those unfamiliar with relational technology and those platform veterans interested in playing with MySQL for the first time.
There are two main intents of this book...
- Allow developers who know at least one of the covered languages on another platform to quickly come up to speed on the OpenVMS platform.
- Assist current OpenVMS developers finding themselves having to work with a differentlanguage on this platform.
Tips from the Book
- The /SPECIFICATION qualifier of the SORT command lets you identify a text file which contains a plethora of power. You can define named fields, named keys, named test conditions, inclusion criteria, omission criteria. In a batch job stream, you typically have a lead program which creates the sort specification file (if you need to do record selection that varies from run to run), execute the sort command, then write your follow-up program to process the sorted data. This is a much more acceptable approach than writing one massive executable which will run for hours without creating many entries in the log file. Most developers I run into don’t know a lot about the sort specification file, so we are going to cover it in the COBOL chapter.
- A reference is a “special” object. There is a reason we covered COBOL prior to covering C, and references are it. You better have read that chapter. When we discussed the linkage section in COBOL, we discussed how COBOL doesn’t really pass parameters unless it is forced to pass them. The linkage section creates reference points back into the caller’s working-storage section. These references allow your called module to use those values just like they were your very own, but they aren’t. The reason most COBOL programmers don’t even know there is a GIVING clause on the procedure division is because they know the linkage section operates via references (unless you tell it not to). When you alter the values of items passed by reference you are actually altering the values in the caller.
Reviews:
"DO NOT begin any new database projects without first reading chapter 13 (MySQL) and chapter 14 (Oracle-RDB) of this book. Hint: while you can acquire MySQL for free, and it may have a place for some small applications, it may cost you more in the long run."
Neil Rieck, OpenVMS Application Developer
"Hands-on programming throughout the book provides a highly effective learning tool, and the best practices, advice, and knowledge transfer from the author gives the reader the unique feeling that they are sitting down next to a mentor, being coached through the tricks of the trade!"
Regan Windsor, Reader Views
"I had it shipped to the Netherlands for the price of $96. It arrived within a week of the order date. Worth every dollar (euro). "
Wilm Boerhout
"Highly recommended for OpenVMS programmers (especially those new to OpenVMS who need a good bootstrap). At the very minimum, a copy of this book should be purchased as an "office resource" in every location where OpenVMS developers work."
Neil Rieck, OpenVMS Application Developer
"Amazing. This is a truly astonishing work and a MUST for everybody who is starting with application developing, be it on VMS or not (I can not tell for others as I am starting myself). It is not a book where you will find many theories about abstract topics but one displaying everything you need to know by means of examples, explaining each example's important parts in-depth. You really feel the experience of the author throughout the text! This is a book I'd try to take with me if my house was burning down."
Thierry Dussuet, OpenVMS Student
Ian Miller, OpenVMS.Org - OpenVMS News and Information
Reprinted from: http://www.openvms.org/stories.php?story=06/04/02/4453076
After I got over the surprise of seeing a new book on OpenVMS Software Development I wondered at the title - this is an 800 page book with a CD! The book is intended for people who are familiar with programming on another platform and are faced with maintaining an application on VMS written using classic OpenVMS software tools. Perhaps a better title would be “What a person unfamiliar with OpenVMS should know to maintain an OpenVMS application”.
Hughes describes uses of: the MMS and CMS tools from the widely used DECSET OpenVMS software development toolkit; CDD; FMS; the RDB and MySQL databases. He also mentions other tools often found in the OpenVMS application development environment such as VMSMAIL, PHONE etc. Parts of OpenVMS which will be unfamiliar to a person transferring from another platform, such as logical names and DCL symbols, are introduced as they will often be encountered when maintaining an application on OpenVMS.
The book is based around a single application which is developed in each of DEC BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, C and C++ using a variety of tools. Full source code is provided on the CD. By repeatedly implementing the same thing in different languages the programmer familiar with one language can learn about another. The presented code is not suitable for a production environment but is intended to illustrate something being described in the text. For example the error handling is not always fully implemented except when Hughes wishes to describe dealing
with errors.
Hughes describes building the application and typical ways of organizing the development environment and highlights common pitfalls for programmers coming from other platforms. The book is written in American English and in a casual style. Although it is easy to read some people who are not native English speakers may not recognize some of the colloquial terms used. I don’t think this will significantly hinder understanding.
Hughes has opinions about how things should be done and is not afraid to state them! Personally I find an opinionated book easier to engage with because there is something to argue or agree with. The final chapter is Hughes opinion on the state of the IT Industry.
The key to appreciating this book its specific focus. I think the target audience will find this a useful resource to sit alongside the OpenVMS Documentation. However the material is also useful for an OpenVMS developer faced with an application in a different programming language to the one they usually use.
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The Minimum You Need to Know About Java on OpenVMS-Volume 1 – by Roland Hughes
Special Features: CD-ROM included, chapter assignments, exercises with answers, comprehensive index, and tons of useful code
Pages: 352 pp
ISBN: 0-9770866-1-5
Format: Softcover, Perfect binding, 7 in. x 9 in.
Retail price: $45.00
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Discover what is required to write real business applications on OpenVMS using Java. Java on OpenVMS covers the ugly side of Java, the Java Native Interface, so readers can more easily develop back end applications.
Requested by the industry as a follow-up to The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer. Learn how to store Java source in CMS and use MMS for builds
Use Java to replace existing OpenVMS applications which use FMS,RMS, and/or RDB
Tips from the Book Everything is a class….almost.
Passing by reference isn’t what you think it is, no matter what the other books tell you. JNI_ABORT means you want to free your local copy without copying back to the Java environment. JNI_COMMIT means you want to copy back to Java and keep your local copy.
Naturally, 0 means you want to copy back to Java and free your local copy. Isn’t that just too obvious?
Date handling in Java is somewhat littered with land mines. Java provides you with a Date class, then tells you not to use it. When you use the classes that are supposed to replace the now depreciated Date class, you are forced to use Date objects. Use a Date object in your code where it will actually get a name and the compiler will flag a warning.
Reviews
"Hughes confronts the biggest setbacks of working with Java and what you need to do to work through them."
Regan Windsor, Reader Views
"The exercises, assignments and teasers are designed to keep you wide awake - and in the process you'll be well on your way to dealing with the many challenges and dangers you'll come across in the real world."
ETA Online Review
“An Essential Manual For Application Developers. I highly recommend the book as an asset to computer programmers and those entering the IT field.”
Tracy Roberts, Write Field Services Reviewer
“I've attended two college semesters of Java programming ("Java I" and "Java II") but wished I had read this book before listening to sermons from purveyors of the Java cult. This book provides a wonderful reality-check. In the Introduction he relays a tongue-in-cheek description of how corporate IT decisions are made. I am now sure he has figured out a way to bug my office telephone line.”
Neil Rieck, OpenVMS Application Developer
"When looking for sage advice on IT, go to the guru, Roland Hughes."
Heather Froeschl, Book Review Journal
But as Fred Brooks observed in his IT classic, The Mythical Man-month, the root of the problem is not just rising costs, but something inherent in the evolving nature of the information revolution. As the amount of data available rises faster than the ability to process it, programming tasks become ever more challenging. As a result, even as hardware costs are dropping, many software costs continue to rise. To cut costs, many projects start cheap, and are forced to add staff later when problems emerge. Unfortunately, the addition of people to a software project late in the process actually makes things worse. In a similar vein, Hughes suggests that IT management, by looking for a silver bullet, is ignoring the roots of the problem by only seeking short-term cost-cutting solutions. Silver bullets are often advertised, but do they really exist? Hughes clearly feels that in the end, quick fixes and short term cost cutting measures are penny wise and pound foolish. In the final section of the book,
“Ruminations,” Hughes engages in a colorful and educational rant about the state of the IT industry and the programmers that work in it, offering useful advice and insight that will be valued by novice and veteran programmers alike. Bravo, Mr. Hughes! Any IT professional using VMS should have this book on his/her shelf, and the “prequel” and sequel as well.
Rod Clark, http:/www.bookreview.com.
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The Minimum You Need to Know About Mono and Qt – by Roland Hughes
Pages: 289pp
ISBN-13: 978-0-9823580-7-8 paperback
ISBN-13: 978-0-9823580-8-5 ebook
Format: PDF, 7 in. x 9 in.
Retail price: $45 paperback and $38 ebook
Download source code
http://logikalsolutions.com/themin/mono_qt_sources.zip
Available at:
http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com
EPUB Available From:
The Qt application framework is quickly taking over all software development environments and being adapted for use by all modern programming languages from C++ to Java to Python and Mono. This book teaches you how to utilize Qt with Mono (the Open Source version of C#). Mono development, once associated strictly with the Gnome desktop, is now migrating to the Qt platform just like the K desktop (KDE) did years ago. Ubuntu has been pushing this migration with their Unity front end and OpenSuse (one of the biggest Mono development shops) isn't far behind. Even veteran C++ Qt developers will find this book useful for its in-depth chapter on report creation. Generation of pretty, or even column aligned reports has been the major stumbling block of the Qt environment since its creation. New tools and some major tricks have come are way and they are covered here, along with the pitfalls placed in our path by an inexcusable change to the Linux printing environment.
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The Minimum You Need to Know About Service Oriented Architecture – by Roland Hughes
Special Features: CD included, Exercises with answers and comprehensive index
Pages: 370 pp
ISBN: 0-9770866-6-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-9770866-6-5
Format: Softcover, Perfect binding, 7 in. x 9 in.
Retail price: $45.00
2008 Best Book Award Winner USA Book News
http://www.usabooknews.com/bestbooksawards2008.html
Category: Business: Technology/Computers/Internet
2009 Eric Hoffer Award Finalist
http://webeasysearch.com/search/search.cgi?q="The+Minimum+You+Need+to+Know+About+Service+Oriented+Architecture"
Available for ordering through:
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This is not your typical, dime-a-dozen SOA book. Whereas many other books focus on the front-end of SOA, this book focuses on the backend. This is the book that tells developers how to actually connect to the Heritage data silo/application that other books just draw a box around and say, "Connect somehow."This book addresses that problem.
The first five chapters of this book provides an eye-opening overview for Management. The remaining seven chapters are for programmers.
What You'll Learn from the Book
- Port FMS-based business applications to Intranet or Internet applications using ACMS
- ACMS fundamentals
- How to connect to the Heritage data silo/application
- Service Oriented Architecture principles
Reviews
"With clearly defined examples and many diagrams and flow charts, this 370-page volume even has a source code CD. From a technical aspect, I could not have found a more detailed explanation of ACMS and the innovative methods explained by Mr. Hughes. I gave “The Minimum You Need to Know (About Service Oriented Architecture)” my highest rating of A+ and recommend it to all the software geeks that could use more information on this subject."
William Phenn, Reader Reviews
"A precise overview of do-it-yourself SOA."
Kirkus Discoveries
"I haven’t done anything with SOA (yet), have little experience with Java but enough to dislike it in normal life, and none with ACMS. Still, with this book, I am confident I can create a well designed, well behaving and well working service on OpenVMS."
Willem Grooters
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An Interview With The Author, Roland Hughes: Interviewer Unknown
Q: Why did you become an author?
A: I’ve always enjoyed solving IT problems. Writing books about problems or techniques used in IT gives me another avenue to solve problems.
Q: What kind of impact do you hope your writing will have in general or on readers?
A: That OpenVMS will finally get the recognition it deserves. That somewhere, someone just starting out in IT will find the information they need to either have a rewarding career in IT, or choose a different career while there is still time.
Q: What is your greatest challenge as a writer?
A: Finding topics of sufficient interest to write about. One must avoid writing about anything the major publishing houses are writing about. Those places crank out oatmeal for the masses. Sadly, there is at most, one book on IT topics published each year worth buying, yet hundreds, if not thousands, of titles are cranked out by the major publishing houses. A major publishing house would have split a book like “The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer” into at least 9 books, all of which so watered down they would be useless.
Q: What are your interests?
A: Writing is a hobby. My profession is software consulting on the OpenVMS platform. When I’m not doing either of those I enjoy being back on the family farm, restoring my house, and drilling water wells
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Visitors To Books In Sync Have Voted For The February
2012 Visitor’s Choice Award Recipient
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Books In Sync Award Recipient Will Be Featured In The
Spring 2012 Issue Of Books In Sync Cold Coffee (Hard Copy) Magazine.
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Visitor’s Choice Contest Form Below!
This Vote Will Not Be Processed Unless Everything On The Form Is Completed.
Thank You For Your Support Of This Author!
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