Ronald J. Leach – författare

Practical Guidance on the Efficient Development of High-Quality SoftwareIntroduction to Software Engineering, Second Edition equips students with the fundamentals to prepare them for satisfying careers as software engineers regardless of future changes in the field, even if the changes are unpredictable or disruptive in nature. Retaining the same organization as its predecessor, this second edition adds considerable material on open source and agile development models.The text helps students understand software development techniques and processes at a reasonably sophisticated level. Students acquire practical experience through team software projects. Throughout much of the book, a relatively large project is used to teach about the requirements, design, and coding of software. In addition, a continuing case study of an agile software development project offers a complete picture of how a successful agile project can work.The book covers each major phase of the software development life cycle, from developing software requirements to software maintenance. It also discusses project management and explains how to read software engineering literature. Three appendices describe software patents, command-line arguments, and flowcharts.

This book is an updated edition of the previous McGraw-Hill edition, which was an essential guide to successful reuse across the entire software life cycle. It explains in depth the fundamentals, economics, and metrics of software reuse. The bottom line is good news for designers of complex systems: Systematic software reuse can succeed, even if the underlying technology is changing rapidly.Software reuse has been called the central technical concept of object-oriented design. This book covers reuse in object-oriented systems, but goes far beyond in its coverage of complex systems – the type that may evolve into "e;systems of systems."e;Important new material has been added to this edition on the changed state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice of software reuse, on product-line architectures, on the economics of reuse, on the maintenance of COTS-based systems. A case study using DoDAF (The Department of Defense Architectural Framework) in system design has been included to show some new thinking about reuse and some attributes of large-scale components of very large systems.After an introduction to basics, the book shows you how to:1. Access reuse and disadvantages for your systems.2. Understand and use domain analysis.3. Estimate total costs, including maintenance, using life-cycle-based models.4. Organize and manage reuse libraries.5. Certify software components that have been created at any phase of the software life cycle your organization uses.6. Implement systematic reuse using COTS (commercial, off-the-shelf) components and other existing software.The book includes several models and reengineering checklists, as well as important case studies. These models and checklists help anyone faced with the problem of whether to build, buy, reuse, or reengineer any software component, system, or subsystem of reasonable complexity. Such components, subsystems, and systems often fit into the new paradigms of service-oriented architectures (SOA) and software-as-a-service (SaAS).Software Reuse: Methods, Models, Costs emphasizes the cost efficient development of high-quality software systems in changing technology environments. Our primary example of domain analysis, which is the analysis of software into potentially reusable artifacts, often at a higher level than simply source code modules, is the assessment of possibilities for reuse in the Linux kernel.There are eight chapters in Software Reuse: Methods, Models, Costs: What is Software Reuse?, Techniques (which included domain analysis), Reuse Libraries, Certification of Reusable Software Components, The Economics of Software Reuse, Reengineering, Case Studies, and Tools For Software Reuse.

This book, originally published in 1999, describes what could have happened during the era of the famous Y2K hysteria, when computers and communications devices would have had to function when four digits were needed to use the current date instead of the two digits that were commonly used in many systems. Of course, none of the expected disasters happened and none of the Y2K terrorist plots did happen either. Or did they? Certainly the vulnerabilities of the Hoover Dam and some NASA spacecraft control centers have been fixed, but the fixes were largely the result of general security measures taken after September 11, 2001.This book tells the story of Y2K vulnerabilities from a retrospective viewpoint. According to Steven Musil of Cnet, the same type of problems occurred to a number of web servers, including Gawker, StumbleUpon, Yelp, FourSquare, and LinkedIn, when a single leap second was added to the Coordinated Universal Time. Although the scale of these problems is much smaller than Y2K, some parts of the problem are still with us.In case the leap second problem occurs again, or timing of messages on UNIX servers get corrupted in 2038, or the world ends in December, 2012, the author's favorite recipe for Shrimp with Sizzling Rice Soup has been included at the end of this book. Enjoy!

Do you know how to protect your vital identity information when you use computers for your banking, credit card transactions, and everyday purchases? What about when you are using email, web surfing, texting, or social networking? You'll learn about these in Twelve Steps to Avoid Identity Theft.What do all these companies, organizations, and people have in common?• Heartland• RBS Worldpay• Citizens Financial Group Inc• Hannaford Brothers Co• TJX Companies Inc• Marshalls• TJ Maxx• CardSystems Solutions• The U.S. Internal Revenue Service• Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve• Wyndam Worldwide Corporation (Wyndam hotels)• Zappos• Sony's online accounts for Play Station users• Verisign• LinkedInThe sad answer is that all of them have suffered well-publicized recent successful attacks from identity thieves. Many of these attacks involved thieves obtaining access to confidential financial information from thousands, and in some cases, millions, of customers.How can you protect yourselves from this crime? In this book we describe 12 1/2 suggestions that can strongly reduce, or even eliminate, the likelihood of you being an identity theft victim. Why 12 1/2 steps? Because twelve of the steps are ones that you can begin to take right away, and the other will require you to do some additional work reading up on this vital topic.Here are the twelve and a half simple steps to help avoid identity theft:1. Strip to a bare minimum2. Don't Pameiob3. Be strong4. Watch for zombies5. Watch for vampires6. Free is too costly7. Don't give too much credit8. Surf safely9. Gullible's travels10. Don't give it up if you don't have to11. Just the FAX, please12. Be shrewd and shred12 ½. Get more informationThis short, easy-to-understand book, intended for the general, non-specialist reader, will tell you what to do and what to avoid when going to a bank, pharmacy, or doctor; shopping in person; traveling; or using any kind of electronic commerce. You'll learn about the most common security weaknesses of modern banking and e-commerce software and when to avoid using certain software systems, the tell-tale signs of potentially insecure transmission of your data, and how to avoid the dangerous practice of "e;Pameiob."e; You'll learn how you have to protect yourself from the kinds of identity theft that can occur even if YOU never do any online shopping.This book is a brief, easy-to-understand guide that is dedicated to keeping your assets and identity safe while navigating this dangerous world. The book is based on the author's experiences as a long-term identity theft consultant and lecturer and computer scientist.Want more detailed information on identity theft? Then "e;Identity Theft in the Cyber Age"e; is the book for you.

The motivation for this book is that while writing two books on identity theft, I was struck by how some of the modern-day scams had counterparts in the Bible. A re-reading of the Bible reinforced this impression.The original intention was to write three, or perhaps four, books, examining cases of identity theft in the Old testament, New Testament, the Apocrypha, and, eventually, the Qu'ran. After finishing the analysis of the King James Bible (the primary biblical text used herein), and seeing how much of the material that was necessary to include in this book required, it was decided to combine the first three books into one and to leave the analysis of the Qu'ran to an author more versed in its content.Several public domain online versions of bibles were used in this work. All can be found at either gutenberg.org or archive.org. The primary versions used were The King James Bible, The Douay Rheims Catholic Bible, and The Deuterocanonical Books of the Bible. The biblical text has not been changed from the versions found, but has been reformatted to meet the requirements of modern eBook readers.In this book we will present the stories in the Bible that, at least in my opinion, can be considered by a modern reader to involve some form of the crime of identity theft. I invite you, the readers, to comment on my selections in their reviews of this book.No allegorical stories have been included in this book.

The headline was dreadful from a consumer's perspective. Data from all Target stores had been criminally hacked, and essential information on forty million credit and debit cards was stolen in November and December of 2013. There are reports of angry consumers calling Target's customer service and demanding help. The merchant is the wrong place to call, just as it was pointless to call T. J. Maxx when the data contained on sixty million of their customer's cards were illegally obtained by criminal hackers.This easy-to-understand book is the fourth in the Identity Theft series. It is intended for the general, non-specialist reader, provides a set of overall strategies and specific actions you should take if you are the victim of identity theft.There are three appendices. The first appendix contains contact information for the Federal Trade Commission, the three major credit reporting agencies, many US banks, many consumer protection organizations, and a few of the more established companies that specialize in identity theft protection and recovery. The second appendix contains a checklist for protecting yourself from identity theft. Appendix three also contains a checklist; this one is used to aid you in recovering from identity theft if you are a victim.Ron Leach's lectures on identity theft have been attended by more than 3,500 people. Many more have heard him on closed-circuit television. This experience, and his long experience as a professor of computer science make him uniquely qualified to write this book, the fourth in AfterMath's Identity Theft Series.

I have been a cruise lecturer for many years, with my wife and I traveling all over the world at the expense of cruise lines. "e;Confessions of a Cruise Lecturer"e; is based on my experiences.Here's what you will learn from this book:What cruise lines are looking forBooking agencies and what they expectPassing the test - How to get approved to even be considered as a cruise lecturerHow to write a proposal to be a lecturer on a particular cruiseHow to prepare your lecturesWhat are the special techniques you need to lecture on the unique cruise ship environmentWhat you need to bring with youInteracting with fellow passengers and cruise staffWhat the cruise lines expect from youHow to manage your cruise lecturing careerHappy (and free) cruising!

The main characters in our story, Jay Allan Scripps and Rowena Moore, have connected after many years after a mysterious accident. He is hiding from his past, while she leads a reclusive existence. They are motivated by a perhaps misguided need to improve their world. Their unique use of guns forms helps save lives in a neglected area of the city."e;Baltimore Blue and Freddie Gray"e; is a work of fiction set in Baltimore during the eventful time of the demonstrations and riots after the funeral of Freddie Gray in April, 2015. The riots destroyed stores and buildings and other economic disasters affected tax revenues, increasing the pressure on the already strapped city budget.Not surprisingly, the national and international coverage also affected the housing market in Baltimore, and perhaps more importantly, the city's reputation. Earlier that month, I had a conversation with a clerk in a shop in Belgrade, Serbia where he asked me where I was from and asked me about crime and violence in Baltimore. All he knew about Baltimore he learned from the television shows, Homicide and The Wire. Wonder what our conversation might be like if it took place now.The riots also caused the downfall of a rising political star, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who later announced that she would not run for re-election. She was head of the national Council of Mayors and clearly headed for higher office.The book also contains an account of the fascinating legal issues raised by the trials of six police officers and whether they can be forced to testify in each other's trials. Stay tuned for updates as the six interconnected trials progress.

Practical Guidance on the Efficient Development of High-Quality SoftwareIntroduction to Software Engineering, Second Edition equips students with the fundamentals to prepare them for satisfying careers as software engineers regardless of future changes in the field, even if the changes are unpredictable or disruptive in nature. Retaining the same organization as its predecessor, this second edition adds considerable material on open source and agile development models.The text helps students understand software development techniques and processes at a reasonably sophisticated level. Students acquire practical experience through team software projects. Throughout much of the book, a relatively large project is used to teach about the requirements, design, and coding of software. In addition, a continuing case study of an agile software development project offers a complete picture of how a successful agile project can work.The book covers each major phase of the software development life cycle, from developing software requirements to software maintenance. It also discusses project management and explains how to read software engineering literature. Three appendices describe software patents, command-line arguments, and flowcharts.

This book, originally published in 1999, describes what could have happened during the era of the famous Y2K hysteria, when computers and communications devices would have had to function when four digits were needed to use the current date instead of the two digits that were commonly used in many systems.  Of course, none of the expected disasters happened and none of the Y2K terrorist plots really.  Or did they?  Certainly the vulnerabilities of the Hoover Dam and some NASA spacecraft control centers have been fixed, but the fixes were largely the result of general security measures taken after September 11, 2001.This book tells the story of Y2K vulnerabilities from a retrospective viewpoint.  According to Steven Musil of Cnet, the same type of problems occurred to a number of web servers, including Gawker, StumbleUpon, Yelp, FourSquare, and LinkedIn, when a single leap second was added to the Coordinated Universal Time.  Although the scale of these problems is much smaller than Y2K, some parts of the problem are still with us.In case the leap second problem occurs again, or timing of messages on UNIX servers get corrupted in 2038, or the world ends in December, 2012, the author's favorite recipe for Shrimp with Sizzling Rice Soup has been included at the end of this book.  Enjoy!

This updated edition of Software Reuse: Methods, Models, Costs is an essential guide to successful systematic, life cycle-based reuse.  It explains in depth the fundamentals, economics, and metrics of reuse and shows how it can succeed, even in rapidly changing technology environments.   This book emphasizes the type of complex systems that may evolve into "e;systems of systems."e;Important material has been added on the changed state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice of software reuse, on product-line architectures, on reuse economics, and maintenance of COTS-based systems.

Practical Guidance on the Efficient Development of High-Quality SoftwareIntroduction to Software Engineering, Second Edition equips students with the fundamentals to prepare them for satisfying careers as software engineers regardless of future changes in the field, even if the changes are unpredictable or disruptive in nature. Retaining the same organization as its predecessor, this second edition adds considerable material on open source and agile development models.The text helps students understand software development techniques and processes at a reasonably sophisticated level. Students acquire practical experience through team software projects. Throughout much of the book, a relatively large project is used to teach about the requirements, design, and coding of software. In addition, a continuing case study of an agile software development project offers a complete picture of how a successful agile project can work.The book covers each major phase of the software development life cycle, from developing software requirements to software maintenance. It also discusses project management and explains how to read software engineering literature. Three appendices describe software patents, command-line arguments, and flowcharts.

Practical Guidance on the Efficient Development of High-Quality SoftwareIntroduction to Software Engineering, Second Edition equips students with the fundamentals to prepare them for satisfying careers as software engineers regardless of future changes in the field, even if the changes are unpredictable or disruptive in nature. Retaining the same organization as its predecessor, this second edition adds considerable material on open source and agile development models.The text helps students understand software development techniques and processes at a reasonably sophisticated level. Students acquire practical experience through team software projects. Throughout much of the book, a relatively large project is used to teach about the requirements, design, and coding of software. In addition, a continuing case study of an agile software development project offers a complete picture of how a successful agile project can work.The book covers each major phase of the software development life cycle, from developing software requirements to software maintenance. It also discusses project management and explains how to read software engineering literature. Three appendices describe software patents, command-line arguments, and flowcharts.

User Guide to Microfilm and Microfiche is intended for anyone who is just that, a user of these technologies. This inexpensive guide will help anyone learn the best way to read microfilm and microfiche data, and to help preserve these somewhat fragile media.  The author is a long-time Computer Science professor with considerable experience with multiple digitization projects for numerous organizations. He first used microfilm professionally and 1961 and has continued to find microfilm useful throughout his professional and private life. The companion volume, Digitizing Microfilm and Microfiche is intended for anyone who has to deal with the economics and technologies of digitization.

This book delivers what the title states: It describes the 101 most important UNIX and Linux commands and system calls.  The book bridges the gap between on-line tutorials and manual pages on one hand, and books of 1,000 pages or more that explore the nuances of many shell commands in exhaustive detail.  While most of these sources provide excellent information, they do not really solve the plight of the novice user, nor do they fully answer the questions that more experienced, and even expert, users often have.  Much of the complexity of UNIX and Linux, and much of the difficulty faced by users is caused by the extremely large and rich set of shell commands, many of which have a very large set of allowable options that, while useful in certain circumstances, often provide more frustration than help because of their complexity.  Many UNIX and Linux system calls are also complex, and have interactions that can be rather difficult for many programmers. The many variants of UNIX cause additional difficulties.  Even Linux has multiple variants: there are often subtle differences in the Linux implementations by Red Hat (Fedora), Ubuntu, SUSE, and Debian.  For example, one of my recent senior students had a major project that required using a particular "e;Linux"e; software application containing a particular language's character set and grammar.  The software would not work (indeed, it would not even install properly) on three of the most common Linux implementations! Our approach is to focus on a smaller set of commands and system calls – the ones that are most important.  For each of these, only the most useful of the many options are described. As a professor, I taught operating systems in general, and UNIX in particular, for over twenty-five years.  As the author of the book Advanced Topics in UNIX, which was selected as a main selection on UNIX by the Newbridge Book Club, and Advanced Topics in UNIX, Second Edition (available electronically on this ebook platform), I had to make choices in what I presented and how I presented it.  Finally, as an analyst/consultant on many different applications in multiple UNIX and Linux systems, I had to make choices based on the quality of the source code, and on its performance and maintainability. I am confident that I have made the correct choices in selecting which of the many shell commands, system calls and options to discuss in this book and at what level they should be discussed.  I hope you agree.

Even in this digital age, many libraries and small archives often use microfilm and microfiche to display important information.  There are many types of devices for reading these media, and many ways to use and, unfortunately, misuse these technologies.  Librarians and archivists are well-aware of the problems and, if they haven't done so already, are almost certainly considering digitization with its obvious advantages.  Yet, there are many pitfalls.  Digitizing Microfilm and Microfiche is intended for anyone who has to deal with the economics and technologies of a digitization project.  The author, Ronald J. Leach, recently retired from a long-time career as a Computer Science professor, and has had considerable experience with multiple digitization projects for numerous organizations with a variety of systems. He had also worked on microfilm quality assessment for a government agency. Paperback and hardback copies of this short book may be kept as a reference for those libraries and archives that use microfilm and microfiche.  These libraries and archives could also use digital editions of the same book on their local internal websites. The companion volume, User Guide to Microfilm and Microfiche, is intended for anyone who is just that, a user of these technologies.

\Managing an estate after the death of a loved one is hard. It is especially hard if there are no paper records. This book, based on the author's experience, shows how to do this. Specific items discussed include:Setting up the estateBecoming the Administrator/Personal RepresentativeTax records and tax reportingGetting into the deceased person's computerGaining access to existing bank brokerage and treasury accountsFinding missing fundsCreating business records from scratchSocial SecurityNavigating the privacy policies of many tech companiesPlanningLeaving a digital legacyOnly minimal computer literacy is needed to understand this book.

The main characters in our story, Jay Allan Scripps and Rowena Moore, have connected after many years after a mysterious accident.  He is hiding from his past, while she leads a reclusive existence.  They are motivated by a perhaps misguided need to improve their world.  Their unique use of guns forms helps save lives in a neglected area of the city."e;Baltimore Blue and Freddie Gray"e; is a work of fiction set in Baltimore during the eventful time of the demonstrations and riots after the funeral of Freddie Gray in April, 2015.  The riots destroyed stores and buildings and other economic disasters affected tax revenues, increasing the pressure on the already strapped city budget.Not surprisingly, the national and international coverage also affected the housing market in Baltimore, and perhaps more importantly, the city's reputation.  Earlier that month, I had a conversation with a clerk in a shop in Belgrade, Serbia where he asked me where I was from and asked me about crime and violence in Baltimore.  All he knew about Baltimore he learned from the television shows, Homicide and The Wire.  Wonder what our conversation might be like if it took place now.The riots also caused the downfall of a rising political star, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who later announced that she would not run for re-election.  She was head of the national Council of Mayors and clearly headed for higher office.The book also contains an account of the fascinating legal issues raised by the trials of six police officers and whether they can be forced to testify in each other's trials. Stay tuned for updates as the six interconnected trials progress.

Since Gettysburg, the Civil war was going well for the Union, with successes throughout the south and west. Abraham Lincoln still feared the inventiveness of  Robert E. Lee. Lee, in fact, had developed a plan to get an army past the Union blockade of the Chesapeake Bay and attack Washington and Baltimore, thereby changing the outcome of the Civil War.Lincoln makes use of the connections of his sometimes ally, sometimes adversary, Frederick Douglass to arrange a partnership with Chesapeake Bay Pilot Zachariah Clark to thwart what they thought was Lee's potential plan. Douglass and Clark had lived near one another near the Baltimore waterfront where they both worked.Each side in the conflict was forced to develop its own spy network and espionage strategies almost from scratch. Both sides needed new strategies and tactics, since nearly all the officers on both sides had received the same training at one of the two service academies at West Point and Annapolis. Almost none of the officers and ordinary soldiers had any experience fighting a war against an opponent who was well-equipped and well-trained. Each side had to devise new ways to attack the other. Spies were everywhere.Lurking in the background is John Wilkes Booth who devised three separate plots, one of them involving international partners, to remove President Lincoln from office either by kidnapping or by assassination.

Confused or concerned about AI? Artificial intelligence is already causing massive upheavals in the job market for seekers of their first jobs and for experienced workers as well. Massive investments are being made, even in companies who are laying off experienced workers. States are asked to build, or at least allow to be built, multiple data farms which will greatly increase energy and water costs for everyone, and will probably cause water shortages affecting agriculture and the ability to put out fires. There will be construction jobs for building the data farms, but the data farms are probably going to be operated by tiny staffs. Is AI worth it? In particular, is it worth it to you and your community?This short book is intended for the reader who wants to answer those questions based on facts, rather than just by hype. It will provide you with the ability to answer intelligently and determine if you should invest, divest, or vote differently.This book, written by a long-time computer scientist, educator, author, and administrator, aims to reach as wide an audience as is possible, given the importance of this topic. Every chapter after the introduction begins with a paragraph or two describing the main points of the chapter, allowing a reader uninterested in technical details to skip to the next chapter. Each chapter also lists some search words you can use for further reading.The book is not intended to be a guide to use any particular AI product. e'll discuss some previous AI and computer chip successes and failures, to help guide our discussion. No mathematical or programming knowledge is required.

Years ago, when investigating the area from Monaco to nearby Eze, I saw a sign for a long-destroyed Templar fort on a steep hill some 2,000 feet above the port of Monaco cuddled in the French Riviera. The fort could protect the harbor from pirates by using rocks in well-aimed catapults. I wondered how Monaco could have avoided major destruction or annexation by the surrounding country of France or other European powers and what the relation to the Templars was. After many years, I discovered that solving this mystery required expanding the investigation to how microstates like Monaco could have survived.This book focuses on what happened to the Templar's huge wealth after the massive coordinated raids ordered by the king of France and the Pope. The Templars clearly had learned that raids were coming and had moved much, but not all, of their transportable wealth. As an example, the main Templar office and repository in Paris, known as the Paris fortress, was found to be empty when it was raided by the king's soldiers.We use techniques of money tracing, modern communications systems, geopolitical analysis, interactive maps, and techniques of "e;big history"e; to discover connections to many hitherto unsuspected places where some of that missing wealth had been taken. Underlying themes include the difficulties that small countries have when surrounded by powerful enemies, and the tendency of conquerors to remove all signs, especially religious ones, of the countries they conquered. Unlike many books and articles about the Templars, we show the details of the methods and analyses used to support our conclusions, so that the careful reader can verify them.What did all the existing microstates have in common? Powerful neighbors, proximity to large Templar installations, and hereditary rulers who had huge amounts of hidden wealth that seemed to have been obtained sometime after the coordinated raids on Templar property. Their rulers are among the richest men in the world. They found hidden Templar wealth!

Confused or concerned about AI? Artificial intelligence is already causing massive upheavals in the job market for seekers of their first jobs and for experienced workers as well. Massive investments are being made, even in companies who are laying off experienced workers. States are asked to build, or at least allow to be built, multiple data farms which will greatly increase energy and water costs for everyone, and will probably cause water shortages affecting agriculture and the ability to put out fires. There will be construction jobs for building the data farms, but the data farms are probably going to be operated by tiny staffs. Is AI worth it? In particular, is it worth it to you and your community?This short book is intended for the reader who wants to answer those questions based on facts, rather than just by hype. It will provide you with the ability to answer intelligently and determine if you should invest, divest, or vote differently.This book, written by a long-time computer scientist, educator, author, and administrator, aims to reach as wide an audience as is possible, given the importance of this topic. Every chapter after the introduction begins with a paragraph or two describing the main points of the chapter, allowing a reader uninterested in technical details to skip to the next chapter. Each chapter also lists some search words you can use for further reading.The book is not intended to be a guide to use any particular AI product. We'll discuss some previous AI and computer chip successes and failures, to help guide our discussion. No mathematical or programming knowledge is required.