Reference Web Sites

February 11, 2003

 

 

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Personal Resources. 2

Professional Organizations. 2

Personal Certifications. 4

Federal Government Information. 5

Standards. 7

Military Standards. 7

Standards Sources. 8

Key Industry and International Standards. 9

Management, Process Improvement, and Metrics. 10

Program Management and Process Improvement 10

Process Capability Maturity Models. 10

Measurement and Metrics. 11

Programming and Internet 12

Programming. 12

UML and Patterns Reference Books. 12

Ada Standards. 13

Internet Resources. 13

Vendors. 14

Database, CASE, and ERP Vendors. 14

Math and CAD Vendors. 15

General Software Companies. 15

Hardware and Software Resellers. 16

Documents. 17

Bookstores. 17

Publishers. 17

Publications. 18

Structured Documents (SGML and XML) 19

Other Topics. 20

History of Computing. 20

Music. 20

Miscellaneous. 22

 


Personal Resources

Professional Organizations

Organization

Description

AAAS - American Association for the Advancement of Science

Focuses on basic research and education in a wide range of sciences, and helping to set research policy.

ACM – The Association for Computing Machinery

Main research-oriented body for computer technology and methodologies.

AIAA - American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Organization for aerospace engineers, rocket and jet propulsion scientists, etc.

AIChE - American Institute of Chemical Engineers

Society for chemists and chemical engineers.

AITP - Association of Information Technology Professionals

 

AOM - The Association of Management

Includes the International Association of Management

ASA - American Statistical Association

 

ASIS - American Society for Information Science

 

ASME - American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Main standards body for any kind of mechanical components.

ASQ - American Society for Quality

Society for quality engineers and managers, including
ISO 9000 experts.

CMI - Contract Management Institute

 

ETC – Eastern Technology Council

A regional (Delaware valley) corporate networking organization

HWG - The HTML Writers Guild

Society for people who compose web pages.

ICM - The Institute of Configuration Management

 

IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Main standards body for everything electrical or computer-related.

IEEE-CS - IEEE Computer Society

Primary professional organization for software engineers, other than the ACM.

IEEE-SA - IEEE Standards Association

To get involved in defining IEEE standards.

IFIP - International Federation for Information Processing

 

IFPUG - International Function Point User's Group

 

INCOSE - International Council on Systems Engineering

Society for systems engineering.

IOM – Institute of Medicine

Congressional advisory board for medical issues.

ISA - Instrumentation, Systems, Automation

Society for automated control systems and related instrumentation.

ISEE - International Society of Explosives Engineers

Society for explosives engineers – for mining, demolition, manufacturing, etc.

ISOC - The Internet Society

Focuses on policy, standards, and getting emerging countries on the Internet.

IWA - International Webmasters Association

Society for people who manage web pages.

NAE - National Academy of Engineering

Congressional advisory board for engineering issues

NAS - National Academy of Sciences

Congressional advisory board for scientific research

NCMA - National Contract Management Association

 

NDIA - National Defense Industrial Association

Originally for ordnance engineers when called the ADPA, has become a defense industry advocacy group.

NRC – National Research Council

Supports and coordinates work by the IOM, NAE, and NAS.

NSPE - National Society of Professional Engineers

Organization for registered professional engineers – mainly civil, mechanical, etc.

SAE - Society of Automotive Engineers

Main standards body for any powered vehicle.

SPIE — The International Society for Optical Engineers

Society for physics, optics, and related fields.

TCSE - Technical Council on Software Engineering

 

W3C - The World Wide Web Consortium

Industry body for agreeing on Internet standards

WWISA – The Worldwide Institute of Software Architects, Inc.

The first group specifically for software architects.

 


Personal Certifications

Certification

Certifications cover:

A+ and Network+ Certifications, etc.

computer technology (CompTIA)

Certified Software Development Professional

software developers (IEEE)

Cisco professional certifications

network design and administration.

CIW

web development, security, and administration.

Macromedia Certified Professional

website and software development.

Microsoft

software development, system or database
administration, end user office skills, etc.

Novell

network administration (NetWare).

Oracle

database development and administration.

Project Management Institute (PMI)

project and program management.

Quality

quality engineer, auditor, manager, etc. (ASQ)

 


Federal Government Information

Source
Description

1998 CIA World Factbook

Summary data for every country and territory on Earth.  More recent editions available from the GPO bookstore.

Code of Federal Regulations and US Government Manual

Downloadable from the National Archives and Records Administration. ‘CFR’ as in ’14 CFR 68’ refers to section 68 of title 14 in the CFR.

Federal Acquisition Regulations

Rules for doing business with the government.

Federal Bulletin Board

Yes, there were a few bulletin boards still around. Link dead Feb 2003.

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)

Languages and protocols which are approved for federal use.

Fedworld

A federal web site search tool owned by the Dept of Commerce and the NTIS. (predates firstgov.gov)

FirstGov

A great place to search only within Federal or State web sites.

General Accounting Office (GAO) reports

The GAO checks on all spending by Congress, so any Federal program might come under their scrutiny.

GAO special reports

Many handbooks and guides appear as ‘special reports’.

GAO reports on
Information Technology

IT-specific reports

Government Printing Office (GPO)

Print everything official, from comsumer publications to statistical data.

National Academy of Engineering (NAE)

Computer and Information Science publications

National Technical Information Service (NTIS)

Publisher of technical reports from all over the government.

NIST Software Quality Group

Wide range of publications – metrics, process improvement, quality, formal methods, etc.

OFPP Contract Management Best Practices

Contract management wisdom from the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP)

OSD Quality Management Office

OSD = Office of the Secretary of Defense

Statistical Abstract of the USA

You want numbers?  We got numbers!

United States Code

The USC are all laws passed by the House of Representatives.

US Federal Government Standards and Regulatory Information Sites

Source for downloading or ordering ANSI standards.

DoD Software Information Clearinghouse

Combined web site for the The Data and Analysis Center for Software (DACS) and the Defense Software Collaborators (DSC)

Government/Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP)

A program to exchange information about all life cycle phases and aspects of research.

Guidelines for Successful Acquisition and Management of Software Intensive Systems

A big blue book capturing lessons learned by the Air Force.

 


Standards

Military Standards

Source

Description

Air Force and DoD Publications

A wide range of links for mil standards.

Continuous Acquisition and Logistics Support (CALS)

Links for CALS and Joint Technical Architecture (JTA) standards.

Defense Acquisition Deskbook

Now called the AT&L Knowledge Sharing System (AKSS), is a major collection of DOD and Military standards and handbooks, available on CD-ROM.

Defense Standardization Program

Trying to get the defense services to play nicely with each other through the use of common standards.

DOD Electronic Publications

Primary source for DOD directives, instructions, and manuals.

DOD Index of Specifications and Standards (DODISS)

The master index of Dept of Defense specs and standards.

DOD Single Stock Point (DODSSP)

Local (Philly) DOD publishing center; mostly refers to DODISS and Assist.

MILitary and DOD (Dept. of Defense) standards

More sources for defense standards, including DODSSP and Assist links.

MILitary drawing practices

Index of Defense Supply Center Columbus (DSCC) Mil Specs & Drawings

Military standards and drawing practices

Picatinny Arsenal’s Quality Evaluation & Safety Team standards, including drawing practices

Navy training acquisition guide

From Navy Training Systems Division in Orlando, FL

 


Standards Sources

Organization

Description

ANSI

The US representative to ISO

ANSI Standards Catalog

Can download standards (for a fee).

ASSIST database of military standards

Can download any available DOD or MILitary standard, or Data Item Descriptions (DID) for free. Requires free registration, but well worth the effort.

Dept of Energy (DOE) Technical Standards

Lots of good handbooks on the basic sciences, causal
(root cause) analysis, safety, and many other topics.

FAA National Airspace System (NAS) Architecture

Overview of the structure of the US air traffic control, navigation, and air communication systems.

Global Engineering Documents

Commercial vendor of national and international standards. Official retailer of industry, ISO and ANSI standards.

Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA)

GEIA helps the government develop technically sound policies. Committees G-34 and G-47 are most helpful. GEIA is part of the EIA.

Graphics-related standards

A page of links for various graphics formats and standards.

IEEE Standards Association

Home of working groups for various computer technology standards

IEEE Standards Catalog

Search engine for draft and approved IEEE standards.

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

 (ISO isn’t an acronym – think of Greek prefix for ‘one’.)
ISO is the highest standards authority for 146 countries

ISO Catalogue

Can’t buy directly from ISO; see ANSI or Global for that.

National CAD Standard

A standard for engineering drawings.

NCSC Rainbow Series Library

National Computer Security Center (NCSC) computer security guidelines

NSSN

An ANSI affiliate offering ISO and non-ISO global standards

Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA)

Famous (?) for the DO-178B standard (see below), the
RTCA develops avionics (aviation electronics) standards.

 


Key Industry and International Standards

Standard

Description

Source, Cost

ANSI/EIA 632-1998

Processes for Engineering a System

Global, $136

EIA/IS-731

Systems Engineering Capability Model and
Appraisal Method (supports ANSI/EIA 632)

Free from here; or
$286 from Global 

IEEE stds

Software Engineering standards (1999) – updated Spring 2003

IEEE, $260 (4 volumes)

ISO 14000

Environmental Management (Compendium)

Global, $235

ISO 15288 2002

System Life Cycle Processes

Global, $117

ISO 9000:2000

Quality Management (Compendium)

Global, $250

ISO Handbook

Statistical Methods for Quality Control

Global, $365 (2 volumes)

ISO/IEC 12207:1995

Information Technology - Software Life Cycle Processes

Part of IEEE Software Engineering set;
else $270 from Global

ISO/IEC TR
15504 1998

Information technology - Software process assessment (SPICE model)

Global, 8 parts totaling $852

RTCA DO178

Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification

Global, $180

Plus all of the CMM types… See also www.12207.com and www.15288.com

 


Management, Process Improvement, and Metrics

Program Management and Process Improvement

Site

Description

14 Points for Management

Condensation of the 14 Points for Management by W. Edwards Deming

COCOMO Project Estimation Model

Project estimation tool

Navy SW Engineering Program Office (SEPO) CMM documents

Click on "Processes by CMM KPA for downloading". Great templates for plans and procedures.

SEIR - Software Engineering Information Repository

“A forum for the contribution and exchange of information concerning software engineering improvement activities.

Software Engineering Body of Knowledge

Guide to key topics of software engineering

SPMN - Software Program Manager's Network

Great guidebooks on lessons learned for project, risk, and configuration management, testing, etc.

STSC - Software Technology Support Center 

The Air Force’s lead organization for capturing software process improvement and systems engineering knowledge.

The Frameworks Quagmire

Discussion of software life cycle standards (DOD-STD-2167a, MIL-STD-498, ISO 12207, etc.)

The Software Productivity Consortium

A government, industry, and academia partnership focusing on systems engineering and software process improvement.

 

Process Capability Maturity Models

Model

Description

Bootstrap Institute

A European software process maturity model, like the SEI CMM.

FAA Integrated CMM (FAA-iCMM)

The first integrated CMM, simpler in structure than the SEI CMMI.

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)

A national standard for accreditation of health care facilities (hospitals, labs, nursing homes, etc.).

National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)

Process maturity standard for HMO's

National Quality Program

Better known as the Malcolm Baldrige Award

Software Engineering Institute (SEI)

A software research institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

SEI Integrated CMM (CMMI)

The dominant software development process model.

SEI documents index

Get this!  Or look for the [PDF] link here.

Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination (SPICE)

Later became ISO 15504. This is a model for deciding whether your process model is good.

PWC Summit [no hyperlink]

The PWC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) Summit-D methodology
is a proprietary process management method.

Trillium Model

A process model for the telecommunications industry, developed by Bell Canada.

 

Measurement and Metrics

Site

Description

Balanced Scorecard Institute

Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a method of mapping measurements to the business objectives they support.

Financial performance measures

 

Practical Software Measurement (PSM)

PSM is a defense-sponsored organization devoted to finding better ways of conducting and presenting project measurements.

SEI Software Engineering Measurement and Analysis (SEMA)

A portion of the SEI devoted to measurement research. Mentions the GQ(I)M report from 1996, and the statistical process control text by Florac and Carlton.

Statistical information

 

Statistical Reference Datasets Project

How to test the correctness of statistical software, by comparing results to known test cases.

Statistical resources

A page of links identified by Clay Helberg, including math software links.

 


Programming and Internet

Programming

Site

Description

Real-time Programming

Realtime Encyclopedia

Real-Time for the Real World

General Programming

How To Write Unmaintainable Code

sucky software at NASA

Linux

The Linux Documentation Project or here

The Linux Kernel – where to find the latest version

Linux Online – a great general info page for Linux

SuSE – my favorite Linux distribution vendor

Linux Headquarters – Also mentions latest code versions

Linux Journal - magazine

Linux Resources

O'Reilly Open Source References

Object-oriented Programming, UML, and Patterns

Use Cases – Alistair Cockburn’s definitive thoughts

OO Numerics – scientific computing in OO languages

The Code Project – source code samples

Object Management Group – creators of UML and CORBA

UML – Home of the Unified Modeling Language, including its standard

UML Resource Center – at Rational software

Patterns Home Page - OO programming patterns

Ada

Ada Information Clearinghouse

SigAda – an ACM special interest group

Ada Power

Public Ada Library

Software Engineering tools – several are Ada-based

Revised Ada Reference Manual

UML and Patterns Reference Books

·        Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design, Craig Larman, 2nd Ed., Hardcover, 656 pp. ISBN: 0130925691, Prentice Hall PTR, July 2001

·        The Unified Modeling Language User Guide, Grady Booch, Jim Rumbaugh, Ivar Jacobson,  Paperback, 512 pp., ISBN: 0201571684, Addison-Wesley Longman, Inc., October 1998

·        UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language, Martin Fowler, With Kendall Scott (Foreword by Grady Booch), Paperback, 2nd ed., 185 pp. ISBN: 020165783X, Addison-Wesley Longman, Inc., October 1999

·        Design Patterns CD, Erich Gamma et al, Addison-Wesley, ISBN: 0201634988, 1997

Ada Standards

·        ISO/IEC 8652, "Information Technology - Programming Languages - Ada," 1995.

·        ISO/IEC 15291, "Information Technology - Programming Languages - Ada Semantic Interface Specification (ASIS)," 1999.

·        ISO/IEC 18009 "Information Technology - Programming Languages - Ada: Conformity Assessment of a Language Processor," 1999

 

Internet Resources

Site

Description

Anybrowser Campaign

How to keep web pages from being IE- or Netscape-specific.

Babel project

Internationalization of the Internet.

IETF - Internet Engineering Task Force

They do research on new possible standards for use on the Internet.

Internet FAQ Consortium

Frequently Asked Questions for newsgroups.

Internet RFC's

RFC = Request For Comments, some of which become standards for Internet protocols.  Or try this link.

Last page of the Internet

 

The Correct Time

There really is a government site to tell the time, “time.gov”.

Time

Navy site for official time.

Web Pages That Suck

Ad for book of the same name; has great examples of what NOT to do.

World Wide Web Consortium

Focus on WWW common issues.

 


Vendors

Database, CASE, and ERP Vendors

Type

Vendor

Database

4th Dimension – powerful Mac and PC-based relational database

Computer Associates International

DB2

Informix – data management software

InterSystems Corp. (Cache)

Oracle

SAS Institute

Sybase

Computer Aided Software
Engineering (CASE) Tools

Excel Software (no, not Microsoft Excel)

Rational Software (Clearcase, Rose, Apex)

Sterling Software (formerly Cayenne Software, bought out by CA)

True Software (Aide-de-Camp CM tool, bought out by McCabe)

Visible Systems Corp.

Marcam – rapid prototyping tools

Metrowerks – Mac, PC, and embedded programming
environments (a division of Motorola)

Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) systems

Baan

Computer Associates International

Datalogix – Datavision

Geac – Canadian-based ERP solution

J.D. Edwards – Customer Relations Management

Lawson Software

Star Information Technology – Onyx

Peoplesoft

SAP

Siebel Systems

Tivoli – integrated system management, now owned by IBM

 


Math and CAD Vendors

Type

Vendor

Math, Statistics, & Graphics

Dataxiom (statistical SW)

Guide to Available Mathematical Software by NIST

JMP (statistical discovery software)

Kaleidagraph (plotting)

Waterloo Maple (symbolic math)

Mathematica (symbolic math, programming, and graphics)

Mathsoft (Mathcad)

Matlab (matrix-based)

SigmaPlot (plotting)

SPSS (statistics)

Statistica

NCSS Statistical Software & Data Analysis Software

TK Solver (symbolic math)

Computer Aided Design (CAD)

Autocad

Dassault Systemes – Catia, SolidWorks

Microstation – main competitor to AutoCAD

Visio (spiffy drawing program, bought by Microsoft)

General Software Companies

Site

Description

Adobe

Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, etc.

Corel

WordPerfect, CorelDraw, etc.

Lotus

Notes, Domino, cc:Mail; (owned by IBM)

Macromedia

Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc.

Microsoft

Windows, Office, Project, Visio, Visual Studio, etc.

Symantec Corp.

Norton utilities, Ghost, Anti-Virus, SystemWorks, etc.


Hardware and Software Resellers

Site

Description

Cary Prague Books and Software

MS Access books

Cole Parmer

Technical books and software

Component Source

Where to buy COTS software components

MicroWarehouse

Also Mac and Data Comm Warehouses

Newark Electronics

General electronics, and embedded programming tools
(e.g. for use with
Metrowerks CodeWarrior)

PC Today

Search engine for prices on PC parts

PC/Mac Connection

 

Processor.com

New and used servers and workstations, and parts for them

Programmer's Paradise, Inc.

 

Softmart

Mostly focus on government and academic sales


Documents

Bookstores

Store

Description

Amazon.com

Books, music, and other nouns

Barnes and Noble

 

Books Online

Various book clubs

Borders Books

Was devoured by Amazon

Half.com and eBay

Online auction sites, good for finding used books

Powell's

An independent bookstore

Textbooks.com

Inhaled by Barnes and Noble.

Publishers

Publisher

Description

Lists of publishers

Two good sources of publisher web sites

Academic Press

Now part of Elsevier Science.

Addison-Wesley & Benjamin Cummings

 

Baltzer Science Publishers

Now part of Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Butterworth-Heinemann

ISO 9000 books

Cambridge University Press

 

Cisco Press

 

Dorset House Publishing

Software engineering and management

Elsevier Science

 

IEEE Computer Society Press

Computer science, anyone?

International Technical Support Organization

IBM Redbook publications

Thomson Corp.

Autodesk publications, Westlaw, and many more.

John Wiley & Sons

 

Kluwer Academic Publishers

Wide range of science and education books

Jones and Bartlett Publishers

Health, math, and computer science publications

Maximum Press

IBM and web marketing books

McGraw Hill Professional Bookstore

 

Microsoft Press

 

MIT Press

 

Morgan Kaufmann Publishers

“Publications in computer science, engineering,
and information technology”

National Academies Press

Serve the National Academies – the IOM, NAE,
and NAS. (See Professional Organizations list.)

NIST software quality group publications

 

O'Reilly publishers

Computer-related technology books

Peer-to-Peer Communications, Inc

Mostly hardcore computer science, with some
humor books too.

Perseus Books

Wide range of topics – business, science, health, etc.

Prentice Hall PTR

Business, computers, and engineering publications

Project Gutenberg

Publish free text versions of classic books and
historic documents.

Springer Science Online

Business, math, and mostly science publications

Publications

Publication

Description

"news@sei interactive"

SEI online publication.

Communications of the ACM

Main publication of the ACM.

Control Magazine

Focus on process control

Crosstalk

The Journal of Defense Software Engineering. Free publication – many articles apply to any software-related project

eeTimes

One of the better free trade publications – good info on computer hardware and software developments.

IEEE Software

Publication of the IEEE Computer Society’s software engineering community.

IEEE Spectrum

Main publication of the IEEE.

InfoWorld

A better IT trade publication

Insight

Army metrics newsletter

NASA Tech Briefs

Engineering Design and Manufacturing focus.  Use Priority Code R600-8

 


Structured Documents (SGML and XML)

Site

Description

Robin Cover's SGML/XML Page

A classic info page for SGML and XML

XML home pages (dot Org and dot Com)

Great places to start for XML info

OASIS – Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards

Define and promote structured document standards

Docbook

Book about Docbook

Docbook is a document structure used for technical documentation, e.g. for Linux and other open source projects

Steve Pepper’s Whirlwind Guide to SGML Tools and Vendors

Link dead as of Feb 2003 – look for revival.

Ghostview and Ghostscript

PostScript file viewer – can also use Adobe Acrobat.

 


Other Topics

History of Computing

Site

Description

IEEE History of Computing Timeline

IEEE has a special interest group devoted to the history of computing.

Great Microprocessors of the Past and Present

 

Historical Computer Society

 

Classic Computing Web Sites

Page of links for historic computers, especially Apple variants

The Hello World! Page

In 204 different programming languages

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

In 487 different programming languages

Programming Language List

About 2350 of them!

Music

Type

Site and Description

Music software (editing, notation, recording, and education)

Ars Nova – Practica Musica education program

Bias – Peak audio editing

Cakewalk- SONAR and various Loopy programs

Coda –Finale notation SW

Dolby – sound effects, surround sound

EMagic – Logic audio recording software

MiBaC = “music instruction by a computer”

Opcode

Steinberg –Cubase

Syntrillium – Cool Edit

Digital music hardware

Apogee – signal processing, UV22 compression

Boston Acoustics – speakers

Carver – amps

Cedar – audio restoration processors

Cubase.com – chat about Cubase

Denon – receivers

Digidesign – ProTools

Echo – professional grade sound cards and recording hardware

Edirol – Roland’s digital music hardware division

Kurzweil – digital pianos

Midiman – MIDI interfaces; also M-audio products

MOTU – Mark of the Unicorn; Digital Performer

PreSonus – audio processing, preamps, EQ

Rane – pro audio gear (preamps, etc.)

Shure - mics

Music retail sales

8th Street

Aabaca

AudioMidi – educational pricing

Mars Music – gone out of business

Musician’s Friend

Sam Ash

Sheet music

Hal Leonard Online

PDQ Bach

Theodore Presser

Sheet Music Plus – online retailer of sheet music

Publications

AudioREVIEW -

Computer Music – based in the UK

Harmony Central – lots of product reviews

Sound on Sound magazine

 


Miscellaneous

Type

Site and Description

Weather

National Weather Service

Weather Underground

WPVI weather (channel 6)

National Hurricane Center

Shareware

Tucows (PC)

Tucows (Mac)

Download.com

Emergency Services

FEMA - Community Emergency Response Teams

FCC – Amateur Radio Service

Red Cross – Camden County