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Hughesville, PA, USA – Michael Badger recently wrote Zenoss Core 3.x Network and System Monitoring, a step-by-step guide to configuring, using, and adapting Zenoss Core 3.0 to your monitoring environment. The book, published by Packt Publishing, builds upon and updates an earlier Zenoss Core book.

Zenoss Core is an open source IT monitoring platform that makes it easy for businesses to proactively monitor their networks, computer systems, and web sites. Zenoss Core 3.x Network and System Monitoring shows readers the monitoring basics: adding devices, monitoring for availability and performance, processing events, and reviewing reports.

The book dives into more advanced customizations, such as custom device reports, external event handling (for example, syslog server, zensendevent, and Windows Event Logs), and custom monitoring templates using SNMP, Nagios, and Cacti data sources.

Zenoss Core supports both Nagios and Cacti plugins. In the book, Badger includes an example of a Nagios-style plugin and shows readers where to get a Cacti-compatible plugin. Using the Nagios plugin example, readers will learn how to create, package, and distribute a ZenPack. In Zenoss Core, ZenPacks are modules that add monitoring functionality.

Badger shows readers how to explore and find objects in Zenoss Core’s data model using zendmd, an interactive Python shell. Using the zendmd shell helps administrators effectively write event transformations and custom device reports.

Michael Badger is technical communications professional and a Packt Publishing author of three computer books. Zenoss Core 3.x Network and Systems Monitoring is his second Zenoss Core book. He also published Scratch 1.4 Beginner’s Guide.

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In Zenoss Core, ZenPacks are modules that add monitoring functionality.

I’ve been heads down for the last few months cranking out an update to my first Zenoss Core book. The update is naturally built on version 3.0.  This version will be better written, cover more customizations, and make you a happier Zenoss admin.

Learn more about the pending Zenoss 3.0 book release. I promise it will be the best Zenoss book out there.

This is chapter 7, Games of Fortune, from the book Scratch 1.4: Beginner’s Guide.

In Scratch it is easy to create projects that
incorporate dynamic information using variables. However, variables
have a limitation; they store only one value at a time. Sometimes, we
want a variable to store multiple values.

Welcome to lists. In Scratch, a list allows us to associate one list
(a variable) with multiple items or values in much the same way we
create a list before going to the grocery store. In this article, we will take a trip to the fortune-teller to demonstrate lists, and you’ll learn how to:

• Store and retrieve information in lists
• Add and remove items from the lists
• Keep track of items in a list by using a counter
• Identify intervals using the mod block
• Use if/else control blocks to make decisions

Fortune-teller

Most of us enjoy a good circus, carnival, or
county fair. There’s fun, food, and fortunes. Aah, yes, what would a
fair be without the fortune-teller’s tent? By the end of this article,
you’ll know everything you need to spin your fortunes and amaze your
friends with your wisdom.

Before we start the first exercise,
create a new project and add two sprites. The first sprite will be the
seeker. The second sprite will be the teller. Choose any sprites you
want. My seeker will be a clam and my teller will be a snowman. If you
want to add a background, go ahead.

Time for action – create a list of questions

In
order to have a successful fortune-telling, we need two things: a
question and an answer. Let’s start by defining some questions and
answers:

1. Select the seeker from the list of sprites.
2. From the Variables palette, click the Make a list button.
3. In the list name dialog box, type questions and select For this sprite only.
4. Click OK to create the list. Several new blocks display in the Variables palette, and an empty block titled seeker questions displays on the stage.
   
5. Let’s think about a couple of questions we may be tempted to ask, such as the following:
   • Will my hair fall out?
   • How many children will I have?
6. Let’s add our proposed questions to the questions list. Click the plus sign located in the bottom-left corner of the seeker questions box (on the stage) to display a text input field. Type Will my hair fall out?
7. Press the plus sign again and enter the second question: How many children will I have? We now have two questions in our list.To automatically add the next item in the list, press enter.
8. Let’s add a say for 2 secs block to the scripts area of the seeker sprite so that we can start the dialog.
9. From the Variables palette, drag the item of questions block to the input value of the say for 2 secs block.
10. Double-click on the block and the seeker asks, “Will my hair fall out?“
11. Change the value on the item block to last and double-click the block again. This time the seeker asks, “How many children will I have?“

What just happened?

I’m
certain you could come up with a hundred different questions to ask a
fortune-teller. Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance to ask more
questions later.

Did you notice that the new list we created
behaved a lot like a variable? We were able to make the questions list
private; we don’t want our teller to peek at our questions, after all.
Also, the list became visible on the screen allowing us to edit the
contents.

The most notable difference is that we added more than
one item, and each item corresponds to a number. We essentially created
a numbered list.

If you work with other programming languages, then you might refer to lists as arrays.

Because the seeker’s questions were contained in a list, we used the item block to provide special instructions to the     say
block in order to ask the question. The first value of the item block
was position, which defaulted to one. The second value was the name of
the list, which defaulted to questions.

In contrast, if we used a variable to store a question, we would only need to supply the name of the variable to the say block.

Purchase the book from Amazon, using my affiliate link or continue reading the rest of this scratch tutorial at scratchguide.com.

A lot of people click through from the Zenoss blog looking for a post I made a few years ago about compiling Zenoss Core for OS X. I removed that post in a website refresh, mostly because it’s not a relevant post anymore and the instructions “mostly” worked.

The Zenoss team distributes Mac installers these days; you should check them out.

On May 22, I helped facilitate a hands-on Scratch workshop with a group of young, talented Scratch programmers at the OLPC Learning Club Scratch Day in Arlington, VA.

Here are some pictures courtesy of Mike Lee.

With the release of the first Zenoss 3.0 beta, it’s time to think about updating my book Zenoss Core Network and System Monitoring from Packt Publishing. Actually, I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but now it’s time to take action.

Before I give my publisher an expected finish date, I thought I would take an opportunity to solicit feedback from the current pool of Zenoss Core users. So, what say you:

• If you were writing a book about Zenoss, what you include?
• What topics do you wish the current Admin guide covered or covered in more detail?
• As you were learning Zenoss for the first time, what were your pain points?

For example, I plan to devote a chapter to website monitoring via synthetic transactions because that’s my itch.

I’ll entertain any ideas you have, so send them my way via the comments or my contact form. Don’t forget to include links to forum threads or other information to support your suggestion.

Simple Invoices provides freelancers, non-profits, and small business a user-friendly way to bill customers and track invoices. It’s an application for people who don’t want the hassle of larger accounting programs, such as GNU Cash, Quicken, or Quickbooks.

Simple Invoices provides an alternative to bulky accounting programs and the haphazard system of managing individual files by providing an intuitive web-based invoicing system. Because it’s open source project, you enjoy free access to your software and your invoicing data.

As a freelancer I have one primitive motive. I want to do work and get paid. Getting paid means I need to generate invoices and keep track of them. I’ve tried to manage my invoices via spreadsheets and documents, but keeping track of my payments in a series of disconnected files is a fragile and inefficient process. Simple Invoices provides a solution to this.

Read the rest of this article at packtpub.com.

Hughesville, PA – Technology writer Michael Badger recently presented “Programming for the Young and the Young at Heart” at regional technology conferences in Pennsylvania and Ohio. In his talk, Michael demonstrated the Scratch programming language to a diverse audience of teachers, parents, and users.

The seventh annual Ohio LinuxFest was held in Columbus, OH on September 25 – 27, 2009. The second annual Central Pennsylvania Open Source Conference was held in Harrisburg, PA on October 17, 2009.Both conferences featured talks, tutorials, and exhibits in support of open source software and community-based software.

Scratch is a computer programming language that enables kids as young as eight years old to create games, interactive stories, animated art, and multimedia projects by stacking color-coded blocks together. Scratch is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. See scratch.mit.edu.

In his talk Michael promoted Scratch as a tool to help increase the digital literacy of students because the environment encourages creative thinking, problem solving, and programming. He demonstrated some simple programming concepts using Scratch and showcased Scratch’s ability to connect to external devices, including webcams and sensor boards.

The external devices allow students to inject real-world events and stimuli into their Scratch projects. For example the webcam easily imports photo snapshots, and the sensor board captures sound, light, button clicks, slider position, and electrical resistance.

Michael is the author of the book Scratch 1.4 Beginner’s Guide from Packt Publishing, a comprehensive Scratch programming tutorial for teachers and parents.

I recently took a few moments to reflect on the writing process and answer some questions from my publisher.

Here are some excerpts:

Packt: How did you find the overall experience of writing your book for Packt?
Michael:Writing is a somewhat lonely proposition, but I enjoyed the time alone with my thoughts, the Scratch cat, and stack of blocks. This loneliness doesn’t last forever and when I opened my box of newly printed books; it was almost akin to watching the birth of my son Cameron.

Packt: Our authors usually have full-time jobs whilst writing for us. Was this the case for you and how did you approach managing your time?
Michael: I estimate that I spent between 10 and 20 hours a week writing this book, which includes all the non-writing time, such as research, project planning, and editing. I feel smarter for not having spent that time drowning in reality television.

Read the rest of the interview at the Packt Authors web site.

HUGHESVILLE, PA – Michael Badger’s latest book, Scratch 1.4 Beginner’s Guide, offers teachers, parents, and new programmers a project-based introduction to the Scratch computer programming language. Scratch is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab as an educational tool to stimulate 21^st Century Learning skills among children as young as eight years old by teaching them how to design, analyze, collaborate and create computer programs.

Scratch features color-coded palette of blocks that can be stacked on top of one another to create games, interactive art, animated stories, and multimedia projects. The blocks create a sequence of commands called scripts that provide direction to a cast of characters known as sprites. The sprites tell their story on the Scratch stage.

In his book, Badger shows readers how to create several projects, including an animated birthday card, a remake of the classic Pong® game, and a graphing example inspired by the folktale One Grain of Rice. Each project example includes step-by-step instructions, a discussion of the concepts and an opportunity to experiment.

The projects in the book can be re-used and remixed by teachers and parents to create assignments for their students and children. All projects can be downloaded from the book’s companion web site. In addition, Scratch bundles dozens of projects under a Creative Commons license, which grants users the right to create and distribute derivative works.

The Scratch community at http://scratch.mit.edu provides a moderated, child friendly environment where Scratchers of all ages can share their projects and get feedback about their work.

Though Scratch has a primary audience of 8–16 year olds, it is being used in college-level computer science classes as an introductory programming language. Scratch eliminates the biggest obstacle to novice programmers, syntax errors.

Michael Badger is a technical communicator and computer book author for Packt Publishing who is helping his readers stay one step ahead of their students. He also wrote Zenoss Core Network and System Monitoring, a guide to setting up enterprise IT management software. For more information visit www.badgerfiles.com.

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