HIR Issue 5: Informative Resources
by Asmodian X and Axon
From now on, every issue or two, we'll be throwing in some truly wonderful resources to get information. Axon and Asmodian X will work on this section.
Our goal is simple: tell you guys what all is out there to get really awesome info. We'll include book references, internet URL's, and all sorts of other resources. Some of them can be used to find stuff out about other things besides computers ad telephones and the like. Here we go!
To find information on books, magazines, etc...
Johnson County (Kansas) Public library resources:
Web Based Stuff:
- Search for books by Subject/Author/Title/Call Number: http://jclnt2.jcl.lib.ks.us:8088
- Search for magazine articles (Lots of full-text articles online!) http://www.searchbank.com/searchbank/jcl_cen
- Click on "Proceed" button.
- Click on "Gen'l Reference Ctr Gold" link.
- Use a subject or keyword search.
This will get a lot of info, and get it fast. Sometimes it's almost as handy as "grepping" a 10-year-old pile of magazines.
Terminal Based Stuff:
- You can get the exact same information above through a telnet session if you like. I prefer this method. If you use netscape or IE, type: telnet://jclnt2.jcl.lib.ks.us:5655 If you use unix, type: telnet jclnt2.jcl.lib.ks.us 5655 If you use something else, try to get your telnet client to open up jclnt2.jcl.lib.ks.us on port 5655 instead of port 23. Just the way it goes. It's vt-100 and menu driven. Supports the "attached-to-ansi" printing, if your term program does...
Web-Pages that are LOADED with information
Internet Request For Comments (RFC) Archive (And other fun info)
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/
This is THE source of information for those of you who like to study protocols. All sorts of other stuff is included in the rfc's (such as certain standards, and technical explainations). Overall, it's a bunch of information (mostly related to the Internet) that's been around for ages. There are even a few rfc's authored by Bob Metcalfe himself! There are tons of obsolete RFC's (Many RFC's contain a message at the beginning that states "Obsoletes RFC 822". Sometimes an RFC obsoletes multiple other RFC's). If you have good bandwidth, check out the RFC Index (and if you have balls, print it!). It contains a basic list of what each RFC covers, the author, and the date of submission. There are many places to find the RFC's, but the url I gave (At Ohio State University) tends to stay current. There are plenty of new RFC's each month usually. Visit the site often.
Mailing Lists
BUGTRAQ
Many hackers, software distributors, programmers, and just plain psychos are subscribed to bugtraq. In short, subscribing to bugtraq will let you in on bugs and patches for various programs and circumstances on almost any platform. To get on:
o Send an e-mail from your account to listserv@netspace.org Leave the subject of the e-mail blank, and in the message body, include:
SUBSCRIBE BUGTRAQ <your name>
Rootshell
Rootshell is an entirely unix-focused security group. They have a website (with quite an archive) as well as a mailing list.
This is THE list to get on if you're into unix security and bugs.
To get on rootshell:
- Go to their website at www.rootshell.com for great files and info (exploits/patches/texts).
- Get on their mailing list: Send mail from your account to majordomo@rootshell.com Leave subject blank, and leave the following text in the body:
subscribe announce
Books, mags, etc.
Books!
UNIX For Dummies
(Unix)
This book is really what you want if you're just trying to get used to unix. If you look at it as an introduction to unix, it's a lengthy one. Goes into detail on quite a few things, but if you're really not much of a unix dummy, take a look at the next books.
- Author: John R. Levine & Margaret Levine Young
- Pages: 392
- ISBN: 0-7645-0130-5
- Publisher: IDG Books
- Publisher URL: http://www.idg.com (do a search for UNIX)
- Price: About $20
- Level: As long as you know how to get an account on a UNIX machine, and nothing else, that's all that matters.
Learning the Korn Shell
Learning the BASH Shell
(Unix)
Axon has a lot of interaction with the Korn Shell, since he spends a large portion of his time telnetted into an AIX box (which uses Korn for its default shell).
If you want to really learn how to create some of the most awe-inspiring scripts, this is the only way to go. For you who prefer linux, I would highly recommend Learning the BASH shell. Both of these books are published by O'Reilly & Associates, which produces some of the best computer-related books around. These guys don't produce "Dummies" books. They're truly hardcore, but not difficult to understand. (Their team of technical writers must be phenomenal)
- Title: Learning the Korn Shell
- Author: Bill Rosenblatt
- Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
- Official book web URL: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/korn/ (This page offers online purchase of book for about $30)
- ISBN 1-56592-054-6
- 363 pages.
- Title: Learning the BASH Shell, Second Edition
- Author: Cameron Newham & Bill Rosenblatt
- Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates.
- Official book web URL: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/bash2/ (This page offers online purchase of the book for about $30)
- ISBN: 1-56592-374-2
- 336 Pages.
- Recommended: go to O'Reilly's page at www.oreilly.com to see some of the best computer related books.
- Level: Should have some working knowledge of UNIX first. This book goes REALLY in-depth about shell scripts and various commands. If you are less advanced, look at O'Reilly's page under UNIX. Try "Learning the UNIX operating system".
