David Farley

Continuous Delivery shows how tocreate fully automated, repeatable, and reliable processes for rapidly moving changes through build, deploy, test, and release. Using these techniques, software organizations are getting critical fixes and other new releases into production in hours - sometimes evenminutes - evenin large projects with complex code bases. Jez Humble and David Farley begin by presenting the high-level principles and practices required to succeed with regular, repeatable, low-risk releases. Next, they introduce the "deployment pipeline," an automated process for managing all changes, from check-in to release. Finally, they discuss the "ecosystem" needed to support deployment pipelines, from infrastructure to data management and governance. The authors introduce many state-of-the-art techniques, including in-production monitoring and tracing, dependency management, and the use of virtualization. For each, they review key issues, demonstrate how to mitigate risks, and identify best practices. Coverage includes · Overcoming "anti-patterns" that slow down releases and reduce quality · Automating all facets of configuration management and testing · Implementing deployment pipelines at team and organizational levels · Scripting highly-effective automated build and deployment processes · Triggering automated processes whenever a change is made · Automating acceptance testing, from analysis to implementation · Testing capacity and other non-functional requirements · Utilizing continuous deployment, rollbacks, and zero-downtime releases · Managing infrastructure, data, components, dependencies, and versions · Navigating risk management, compliance, and other obstacles Whether you're a developer, architect, tester, or manager, this book will help you move from idea to release faster than ever - so you can deliver far more value, far more rapidly. (Bookline)… (mer)

Interesting subject, but this book merely delivers what the title promises: a sketch of one individual's rather inept attempts to discover the fate of the holy prepuce, mainly by talking to a colourful range of characters in the Italian village where it resided until recent times. The author notes his own limitations in Italian and history, but his wandering narrative suggests a foreigner's lazy ignorance and easy lampooning of other cultures, past and present. I didn't find this account very interesting or informed as a travelogue, or particularly amusing -- bemusement is the best I can muster.… (mer)

Interesting. Snapshots around the world. It's divided into three sections, based on geographical sections - europe, asia and the americans.

There are a wealth of underground locations so this only covers a few highlights, mostly with the feeling the author has personally visited them, there are a few notes for visitors. However it also means there are a few notable absences, when you know the areas involved. For instance the london underground is featured, but there is no mention of the abandoned stations which are visitable and would be of greater interest to tourists specialising in underground locales.

It's well illustrated with photos on every double page the highlights of the attractions. There were two prinigning blemishes in this copy, but oteherwise it's of high quality with heavy paper reproducing the images crisply and brightly. Within each area there are several key attractions and then shorter summaries of a few similar locations that might also be interesting. Most of the locations are man-made either completely excavated or substantially adapted in the nature of temples and the like. There are a lot of religious/church based cellars and shrines. Very few fully natural features get a look in, even when they are adapted for tourist access without requiring any specialist equipment or training. None of the world's showcaves feature, and some of these are among the great natural wonders oft he world. For a book specialising in subterranean features this seems a curious omission. Hence none of the locations are also particularly deep, frequently less than 100 ft. It is an American curiosity that all the units are imperial without metric equivalents being offered at all.… (mer)