As software becomes more and more complex, it is more and more important to structure it well. Wellstructured software is easy to write, easy to debug, and provides a collection of modules that can be reused to reduce future programming costs. Conventional languages place conceptual limits on the way problems can be modularized. Functional languages push those limits back. Writing large software systems that work is difficult and expensive. Maintaining those systems is even more difficult and expensive. Functional programming languages, such as Haskell, can make it easier and cheaper.

Haskell is an advanced purely functional programming language. The product of more than twenty years of cutting edge research, it allows rapid development ofrobust, concise, correct software. With strong support for integration with other languages, builtin concurrency and parallelism, debuggers, profilers, rich libraries and an active community, Haskell makes it easier to produce flexible, maintainable highquality software.

Queues serve as a major scheduling device in computer networks, both at the network level and at the application level. A fundamental and important property of a queue service discipline is its fairness. Recent empirical studies show fairness in queues to be highly important to queueing customers in practical scenarios. The objective of this tutorial is to discuss the issue of queue fairness and its dilemmas, and to review the research conducted on this subject. We discuss the fundamental principles related to queue fairness in the perspective of the relevant applications, with some emphasis on computer communications networks. This is conducted in the context of the recent research in this area and the queueing related fairness measures which have been proposed in recent years. We describe, discuss and compare their properties, and evaluate their relevance to the various practical applications.

Queues serve as a major building block in computer networks and are used to schedule and prioritize tasks both at the network level and at the application level. With the advances of the Internet more and more services move from the “physical world” into the “network controlled” world and require the use of computer and communications controlled queues. Examples include file servers used for the download of music, video, games and other applications, and call-centers.

Cloud computing is a buzzword and umbrella term applied to several nascent trends in the turbulent landscape of information technology. Computing in the “cloud” alludes to ubiquitous and inexhaustible on-demand IT resources accessible through the Internet. Practically every new Internet-based service from Gmail to Amazon Web Services to Microsoft Online Services to even Facebook have been labeled “cloud” offerings, either officially or externally.

Although cloud computing has garnered significant interest, factors such as unclear terminology, non-existent product “paper launches”, and opportunistic marketing have led to a significant lack of clarity surrounding discussions of cloud computing technology and products. The need for clarity is well-recognized within the industry and by industry observers. Perhaps more importantly, due to the relative infancy of the industry, currently-available product offerings are not standardized. Neither providers nor potential consumers really know what a “good” cloud computing product offering should look like and what classes of products are appropriate. Consequently, products are not easily comparable.

I wrote the first OS X Guide back in April of 2001, and it ran about 12 pages; this version, at well over 70 pages, is basically completely new from the ground up. The Solutions Guidebook is not intended as a step-by-step primer for using OS X. To get the most from this guide, you should already have spent some time becoming familiar with the system. If you are brand new to using OS X, there are some links in the Online Resources section that provide excellent “getting started” advice. Read those, spend some time with your machine, and then revisit this guide.

In general, if you read a hint and it seems to be too difficult for your current level of OS X knowledge, mark it and return after you’re more comfortable with the system. No need rushing into a hint that you’re not fully ready to implement yet. Although 99% of the hints in this document are completely harmless, a few could potentially cause system damage if implemented incorrectly.