Web Books

Excellent job.

Good primmer with a lot of meat in a very fast moving arena.

* Very informative
* Easy to read
* A good understanding of PPCs
* Not too long (in my opinion)

Titles in the Dummies series range from very, very bad to very, very good. "Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing for Dummies" is definitely very, very good. Peter Kent also wrote "Search Engine Optimization for Dummies" which is also very, very good and should be read before "Pay Per Click".

"Pay Per Click" shows off Kent's talent for leading the reader step-by-step through some moderately complex territory. Kent writes in a clear and concise style, without a condescending attitude and, happily, without corny jokes. He walks through the concept of pay per click advertising, calculating ROI, selecting and bidding on keywords, creating landing pages (a very important concept), finding the right words for your ads (a very tricky) concept and then the pluses and minuses of the various services.

Kent truly does cover the waterfront of pay per click advertising. If you're looking for a highly readable and information introduction to the subject, this is it.

Jerry

I thought this book was very helpful. I had started a new job with no knowledge of PPC and found this to help me understand the basics.

This book does exactly what it should. It explains in clear, simple language how pay per click works, and how you should go about using it. Kent has no ax to grind. He explains why pay per click is a really lousy idea for some businesses, a really good idea for others and how to tell the difference. Before wasting thousands of dollars on a blundering Goggle campaign, read Kent and do it right the first time.

This is without a doubt one of the best books I've ever purchased. Not only is the subject covered in great detail, but the best kept 'secret' of this book is that the first 71 pages is a wonderful guide to digital cameras & digital photography in general. I'm sure I will be referring to this book often as I photograph jewelry & collectibles and so should you. Now stop reading this and go buy it already!

A very useful book. Well presented information. Covers many different types of materials to be photographed. Includes discussion about camera use first, in general. Would have liked more about photographing large sculptures. Overall, very good.

It's good to finally have a book to teach me more of digital photography and my arts. Very useful.

This is a wonderful book for those who wish to photograph their work in the most professional way possible. Mr. Meltzer takes you gently by the hand, assumes you are starting from scratch and gives an outline of the various types of digital cameras, how they work and compares them to film cameras -- all in an easily understood way. He then goes on to talk about other equipment, lighting, a bit of colour theory and different methods of photographing. If you need help photographing your art, this is the book to buy!

I'm very happy with this book. It's just what I needed to improve the photos that I take of my work. There is a lot of information, and It's written in words that anyone could understand. Illustrations further help to clarify the material.

As a long time users of PhotoImpact, I thought I knew nearly all of the tricks this amazing software had to offer. PhotoImpact 6 Wizardry quickly disabused me of this idea. From the first chapter, this old dog began learning new tricks.

The book is written with the new and intermediate user in mind, but is also a valuable resource for the power user as well. Stephanie Baker-Thomas shares her astounding familiarity with PhotoImpact 6 in an easy to understand style that is most refreshing for a software book. Her explanations of the tools, controls and their functions are well written and provide much information not offered in the Ulead users manual.

The author provides an impressive collection of practical hands on exercises to teach users important techniques they will use in many many future projects. These exercises were well chosen to easily and logically move the user to higher levels of competency, while managing to keep it fun.

PhotoImpact 6 Wizardry isn't intended to be "area specific". It is not a photo restoration hand book and it doesn't delve into heavy imaging or channel manipulation theory. It does provide the user with a stable platform of knowledge from which to successfully begin and extend their journey into the fascinating world of image creation.

My best recommendation is to simply admit to incorporating many of the tips, tricks, shortcuts and techniques found in this book, into my own daily use of PhotoImpact.

Whether you are a newbie or not this is a must have book. Stephanie explains how to use tools very effectively. Even if you think you know all there is to know about PI, you might change your mind once you get this book. This book is full of great tutorial that demonstrate just how each tool is used. You won't be disappointed!!

I have just finished reading the training manual and user guide PhotoImpact 6 Wizardry. Let me just say, that the book truly lives up to the title. This is Dr. Stephanie Baker-Thomas' 3rd book on PhotoImpact, and it is her most ambitious title yet. Between the covers of the book are a host of tips, techniques, and active learning exercises that will have you caught in a spell. The author has a style which breaks down the walls of complex processes and makes them very easy to understand. Before long, you'll be hooked.

Who is it for? The PhotoImpact novice to intermediate user, though far more experienced users may benefit from the insights the book provides. Bear in mind that Wizardry is not a replacement for hard work and experimentation with the program. However, even a novice will be able to develop fine looking graphics or web pages using the software's inherent capabilities and the sorcery in this book. Readers will learn techniques they can apply to their own ideas, but the process will enhance their digital capabilities, as well as their self confidence. That alone is worth the price, in my opinion.

To summarize, I found PI 6 Wizardry to be an easy to follow, well defined tour of the vast array of tools and tricks hidden within the bits and bytes of this marvelous software. Readers of the book will find themselves working with an ever expanding notion that, "If I can THINK it, I can DO it." That is true of the software and the book. I highly recommend both.

A couple of weeks ago, I received my copy of PhotoImpact 6.0 Wizardry and having purchased Stephanie Baker-Thomas's other books on PhotoImpact, I knew I was in for a treat. Little did I realize just how much of a treat.

This book is just awesome in terms of content and an absolute must for any owner of this wonderful graphics software. Not only does it contain all the technical information you're ever likely to need, Stephanie has generously provided "Active Learning Exercises", which elevate this book from "manual" status to a wonderful learning tool and a darned good read...something you don't normally find in books of this genre.

I have been using PhotoImpact for about five years now and pretty much know how to make it sing but with "Wizardry" now on my desk, the whole choir has come to town!!!

It is without doubt, her best book to date and the only PI reference book you'll ever need.

This is a great book, but then I wouldn't expect anything less from Stephanie. Her books on previous versions of Photo Impact have been great as well, but this one is the best so far in my opinion.

The book takes you "by the hand" so to speak and walks you through how to use most of the frequently used functions in Photo Impact. But the best part of it is that YOU get to apply what you've read about in the exercises at the end of each section.

Photo Impact isn't a difficult program to learn to use in the first place, but this book brings a lot of things together far more quickly that you could probably pick them up on your own unless you've had prior experience with photo Impact programs or photo imaging software in general. I guess what I'm saying here is that even someone fairly new to didgital imaging and Photo Impact could get through this book without becoming totally lost.

My only complaint is that all the pictures, examples, etc. are in black and white. I'm a firm believer that books relating to didgital imaging have at least some to most if not all the pictures, examples, etc. in color.

Other than that, this is a good buy and a good read.

Mr. Bassiri definitely has an excellent grasp of the Netscape Server architecture. After reading this book, I have gained a better understanding of the Netscape server inner workings. I found the chapters on WAI very helpful! I would definitely recommend this to anyone developing applications for the Netscape platform.

My only complaint is that some of the sections are too wordy and redundant.

I thought I knew a lot before I read this book. I was just fooling my self..... Must own book if you work with NES.

Just got my copy of this book and it is great. Wish Netscape provided such accurate and detailed information in their books. Mr. Bassiri seems to know what he is writing about. He seems to write from experience instead of reading Netscape manuals and rehashing the old story. Appendix A and B are really helpful. They included a complete list of server configuration settings. The NSAPI tutorial is the best around and the WAI section provides a true programmer's review of this API. This book is packed full of information. If you want to know how the Netscape server works and program applications for it, you should definitely buy this book.

If you administer or develop for Netscape servers, you will benefit from this book. Administrators: the knowledge you gain from this book will allow you to modify the config files to do correctly what the Server Manager sometimes doesn't do properly, and configure features that simply cannot be administered from the Server Manager. Developers and Architects: Having read this book, you will know what options you have, and be more easily able to decide which architecture is best for your application -- and you'll be able to code it. In addition, your understanding of the key concepts will allow you to grasp quickly how external but related technologies (like Forte's Web Enterprise) work. Well-written, detailed and comprehensive; highly recommended.

Easy to read, I delved in and finished it in 2 workdays without falling asleep. The info is clear and the examples great. Two suggestions: more examples, and greater focus on what the non-threadsafe functions are. He lists NSAPI funcs and says to use 'em (util_sprintf() for instance) but doesn't mention if strlen or other functions are threadsafe. Also, the time function - I can't get a compile using time funcs that don't have a local time_t or timeb structure (instead of pointers to system structures). That should be noted. Otherwise, totally required book and excellent for beginners to get into it.

The book is easy to understand. There are plenty of examples and the exercise help reinforce what you learnt. The two negatives are: it's not XSLT 2.0 and the printing and binding of the book is poor. It is still a good way to learn XSLT. It would be great to have a study group guide.

Some PROs and CONs...

Pros:
Topic flows very well. Author was able to explain each topic without asking reader to refer to upcoming forward chapters. Best part of this book are the examples. They are relevant and short and sweet enough to understand. Best of all, there are lots of examples. The author doesn't just slap them on the page and tell you to figure it out yourself. The author walks the reader thru them.

Cons:
Some areas reads like a technical manual.. causing me to reread sentences over and again. But that said, the book still comes across as tutorial friendly (You figure that out.).

Comparisons:
I rate the book 5 stars. I own Beginnning XSLT 2.0 by Tennison, XSLT 2.0 by Kay, and Mastering XSLT by White. My opinion is that XSLT in 21 days is the best book to get you to learn it the quickest because of the author's superb examples.

If you know absolutely nothing about XSLT, this is the book for you. Very straightforward. I got through the first week (7 chapters) in about a day. You could easily read and understand most of the content in this book in less than a few days. Great for anyone wanting to pick up the language quickly. For advanced users, this is probably not your book.

This book works. It does, however, assume that you have a meaningful level of computer proficiency. This is probably a safe assumption for anyone intending to go spelunking in XML files and performing transformations on same.

To complete the book's lessons, you'll need to download and install one of the free XSLT parsing engines listed in the book. Alternatively, I used the jEdit free text browser and its associated XSLT plugin to run the examples.

I don't believe in assigning five stars, or I would have for this book.

Best book to start out with XSLT;
quickly takes you to the point where you can put knowledge from the book to work;

ALSO - it is very easy to follow the Book on the road BECAUSE it explains exactly what each line of code in examples does;

Very thourough analysis and not much mumbo-jambo (as in xslt for dummmies book)

Have been using code from this book with great success, extending the functionality of SSJS objects (SuperFile, SuperMail)--until now (SuperClient). SuperClient can't seem to see the [client] object in an iPlanet WebServer 4.1 environment. So, digging around in vendor supplied documentation for that version, we find [customClient]. The description of this [customClient] object is very similar to [SuperClient]. Now, while merging the functionality of the two, the book continues to be a wonderful asset.

iPlanet Web Server, Enterprise Edition Server-Side JavaScript Guide (v4.1)* March 2000 (p140 ff) Creating a Custom [client] Object

EXTRACT: Properties of the predefined [client] object can have only string values. To extend the [client] object with a custom object include the following line at the beginning of pages that require it: [var customClient = getCustomClient();] If this is NOT the first page that requests the object you get an existing object, otherwise a new one is created.

I have been using and referring this book to development teams for the past year. An excellent tutorial and reference point for people exposing the power of Server-side JavaScript.

The book was very good with the best history of JavaScript (server and client-side) I have ever read. However, nobody in the professional world will start a project today in SSJS, the language is extinct. Only legacy web applications will be using this and there are so many better server-side languages available now.

I have scanned this book, and true to what the other reviewers have said, this book looks excellent. I like that SSJS seems to separate the business stuff from the presentation stuff (HTML) unlike ColdFusion and ASP's. How many people are using SSJS?

If any one wanted to learn good SSJS programming techniques, this is the best buy. Authors not only have real stuff but they explained in a much better way than anyother about SSJS concepts with wonderful, real life examples. Ofcourse, you shoud know about javascript fundamentals (core javascript) before you read this book and authors are very specific about the content of the book and their target is only for users of SSJS

A very broad book on design, the content is insightful and thorough. The best part of this book is the timeline. I was especially inspired by the last entry. Why is the letter "i" upside down on the cover?

quite possibly the finest book i have ever been in the preface of

TYPE IN USE by Alex White transcends the trendy DTP "how-to" bookshelf with the real story on how to craft truly fine pages of typography! The first edition was the top selection for publication designers in The Designers' Bookshelf of The Design Center, but has been out of print for more than two years. Now this important work is back, and the editors at graphic-design.com agree -- Type In Use is the essential book for anyone who wants to really understand how to make typography do what it's supposed to do! . . . Alex writes: "Our job [as designers] is to compose elements to make them maximally interesting and comprehensible. 'Maximally interesting' does NOT mean 'Hey, Wow! Pop! Zoom!' It means revealing the content of the story instantly and efficiently." . . . Type In Use will train you how to accomplish that goal. You'll know where to put type on the page, and how to put it there. But unlike any other book in the past 25 years... Type In Use will tell you WHY! If your goal is persuasive, successful publishing, don't wait for this one to go out of print too... just click up there and buy it NOW. You will be very glad you did.

As a newbie to typography, I found "Type in Use" to be an excellent introduction to the field. It's written in a clear and concise manner; though it's straightforward and easy to understand, I didn't feel as though the information was watered down, either.

At least half of the book consists of pictorial examples, which serve to illustrate the principles laid forth in the text. There's also a good deal of "white space," which demonstrates White's ability to practice what he preaches. As a result, the book isn't too heavy on actual text. Nonetheless, White has an envious ability to express himself succinctly, efficiently, and in as few words as possible - so the lack of actual reading doesn't pose a problem.

The book's divided into twelve chapters, with one each focusing on the following topics: text; headlines; subheads; breakouts; captions; department headings; covers; contents; bylines and bios; folios and font lines; web typography; and the history of type. White begins each chapter with a discussion of the fundamentals, and then turns to real-life examples to help illustrate his points. A short paragraph accompanies each picture, and all are arranged in an organized, pleasing manner.

I only have two issues with "Type in Use." The text which sits alongside the examples is printed in red as opposed to black (black is the color of the introductory text). I'm not sure if my copy of the book was flawed, or if this is a universal problem, but the red type on some pages appeared to be smudged and smeared, making it difficult to read. Even on those pages without blemishes, I found that the red type strained my eyes; there's just so much red that it becomes distracting.

Also, I was happy to see that White included a chapter on Web typography, but I would have been happier had the discussion been more in-depth. The final chapter, "The History of Type in Use," was wholly unnecessary and didn't contribute much to the overall discourse; White's readers would have been better served had be omitted chapter 12 and extended his discussion of the Internet. I realize that the book was written in 1992 and revised in 1999 - and six years may as well be six eons in "tech time" - but the Web chapter struck me as very out-of-date. For example, I had to smirk when he announced that Photoshop 5.0 had recently introduced "significant improvements" in the area of type; I don't think I even know anyone who's using a version earlier than 7.0! He also appeared to be agreeable to Flash animation, which today is so overused and abused that it has become the bane of web design.

Nonetheless, I would most definitely recommend "Type in Use" to both novices and experienced typographers alike.

- Kelly Garbato

Author, ePublisher, Web Mistress
Peedee Publishing / Hot Dog!, LLC

As a web designer, I always found adding typographical elements to my layout to be the hardest part. I would create a great looking page only to ruin it with a weak looking headline or inappropriately selected font settings.

I've looked for a good book to teach me typographical basics and decided to try Type In Use, even though it is geared toward print.

I have to say I've been extremely satisfied with my choice and have noticed a great improvement in my designs. The greatest proof of the change in me is how I began to look at the design of the book itself differently, analyzing it and seeing how Alex White practices what he preaches.

In each chapter, Alex begins by explaining a different part of the printed page and then showing and analyzing real world examples. There are chapters about text, headlines, subheads, breakouts, captions, department headings and more. This may sound a bit boring (devoting an entire chapter to captions?) but Alex manages to keep it all very readable with plenty of inspiring examples.

I've found this book to also be a great source of inspiration to my work after I finished reading it and I come back to it whenever working with any kind of type, online or offline.

The only weak point I found in this book is the chapter about Web Typography. I don't know if Alex aimed this chapter at people with no web experience at all or at web designers who want to learn typography on the web but he failed either way. The entire chapter in nothing more then a series of facts (some of them plain wrong) about writing HTML, designing sites, file formats, etc. Feel free to skip this chapter, the rest is gold.

It delivers how to know user's thoughts and express it in effective way to others. And also remind me a lot of thing I know already but I forgot while working.Good for someone who interested in user experience design.

It is clearly one of the best books on webdesign, a compulsory one on any IA's or IxD's bookshelf.


What I liked:
- the insights this book gives you are instantly actionable, it is really a step-by-step guide
- the authors discuss the topics that are relevant to persona creation (and take it literally, there is great information on survey design, how to segment results, what sources to use to find a photo for your persona, etc.)
- you will find good real world examples
- the book shows multiple approaches based on different needs and constraints
- the copywriting is also outstanding, no nonsense and easy to digest

What I didn't like:
I am trying hard but really can't think of anything :)

This book has got to be one of the most comprehensive on the topic of personas available. Between the detailed types of personas and processes on when and how to use them, it's almost overwhelming in scope for such a relatively small book.

The power of this book is the amount of experience the authors have in the subject. Where other books may make a cursory review of personas and how to apply them, this one makes clear delineations of the two types it describes (qualitative and quantitative) and how/when they should be used and their limitations. Examples and discussions of successful projects as well as when "personas are taken too far" distill a lot of practical experience.

This book is for the serious UI/usability designer/developer. Though it is not so technical as to be over the heads of executives, managers and stakeholders, once past the first chapter the details are likely to be more than most will need.

When companies want to skimp in a development process, whether that be for a web application, a desktop application, a content management implementation, a usability project, or a documentation set, the first thing they'll cut (if they even thought of it at all) is doing persona development. They'll say it's not important, or that it will get captured in the scenarios (if they do those), or in the use cases - and that's if they do the types of use cases that capture user experience, not the type that simply talk about database interactions. In their book, The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web, Steve Mulder and Ziv Yaar dispel all those naive notions and show how personas set a sound foundation on which to build. Skipping this step means building on what is likely an unstable foundation - and from the world of bricks and mortar, we know the steep costs associated with shoring up buildings with badly-constructed underpinnings. A great book with concrete suggestions for practitioners.

This comprehensive guide approaches user experience research like never before, and is well-written, easy-to-read, and quite user friendly. It provides real-world examples of how user research is done in just enough detail that it can both inform an executive of the role of usability research as well as introduce methodology for persona creation to someone starting out in user experience design.

"You are not the user."

As an interaction designer and information architect for the past 12 years, I have been most drawn towards books that go far beyond principles and theory to ones I can actually extract from and use their contents for the praxis of the craft, rather than just reading descriptions of a process. This is a great book that is a blueprint to follow to get it right. It defines the entire user research and persona creation process and offers insightful case studies from successful companies that Mulder and Yaar worked with like Vista Print.

The use of personas has become an increasingly popular technique being used by the interaction design community to address user needs. Introduced into the mainstream in 1999 in The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, personas have gained momentum in both the software and website design communities, but still faces hurdles.

What are the benefits of personas?

A key aspect to any practitioner responsible for bringing real user centered design to an organization's product design process, being able to evangelize the importance of user research and persona creation is absolutely key. Many interaction designers understand the importance of persona creation, but lack the arguments to persuade management to both fund user research and persona creation, and to incorporate real users into the design process. This is where the book is particular important - selling proper user research and persona creation to upper management constrained by resources and deadlines.

According to Mulder and Yaar, personas bring many benefits, including these:
* Users' goals, behaviors and attitudes become a common point of focus for the team. (They keep repeating this mantra until I found myself chanting it in the shower)
* The team can concentrate on designing for a manageable set of personas knowing that they represent the needs of many users.
* By always asking, "Would Will use this?" the team can avoid the trap of building what users ask for rather than what they will actually use, or the problem which is far more pernicious - building features that a product champion thinks are important.
* Design efforts can be prioritized based on the personas.
* Disagreements over design decisions can be sorted out by referring back to the personas.
* Designs can be constantly evaluated against the personas, getting better designs into usability testing.

What is a persona anyway??

A persona is a fictional person that the team creates to reflect what is know about one of the key audience groups (sometimes that knowledge is gained from interviews, focus groups, or surveys). Typically, a team creates two or more personas to represent different user segments, while identifying a few key archetypes as the primary personas.

Helpful persona profiles include demographic information, levels of computer expertise, descriptions of the personas' needs for the particular site in development, and the goals and tasks they would have in mind when using the site.

The User Is Always Right takes you through each step of persona creation, including tips for conducting qualitative user research, new ways to apply quantitative research (such as surveys) to persona creation, various methods for generating persona segmentation, and proven techniques for making personas realistic. You'll also learn how to use personas effectively, from directing overall business strategy and prioritizing features and content to making detailed decisions about information architecture, content, and design.

What characteristics are included in a persona?

Some of the information Mulder and Yaar say a persona usually includes:
* a name and picture
* demographics (age, education, ethnicity, family status)
* job title and major responsibilities
* goals and tasks in relation to your product/web site/application
* environment (physical, social, technological)
* a quote that sums up what matters most to the persona with relevance for your site
* A narrative that brings the persona to life

The User Is Always Right is an entertaining and clearly written book that is also filled with great insight into the process, both qualitative, and quantitative, of creating user personas based on real research and how that can help interaction designers, product designers, and other user experience professionals make more usable and useful software. There are also extensive samples and examples throughout the book of real personas, actual user research data, and analysis spreadsheets. These give a very clear idea of how the recommended approaches work in practice.

For the first time (as far as I'm aware), this brings together two very different approaches: qualitative research based on interviews and observation; and quantitative research based on surveys and usage data. The authors' overall methodology provides real answers on when to use field research, when to conduct surveys, and how to combine the two sets of results. The end product are personas that have much greater rigueur and impact.

In summary, this is a must-have book for people tackling the design of complex sites, applications or devices, or for user-centered designers seeking more rigorous methodologies when creating personas. I cannot recommend this book too highly.

I Thought I know how to work with Photoshop, but after I read this book I discovered that I didn't. This book was extermely helpful to me in building web site graphics, and has introudced me to many different techniques that I used in to build the effects that I need in short time; Everyone was amazed, and so was I. Most of the Books has very boring and useless Intrduction, this book doesn't. It was very useful to me ( I confess I was about to skip the first two chapters , but the writer urged the readers not to).

Although this book is useful, I was able to get all the techniques it offered in less that three days !

If you know your way well in Photoshop, don't buy this book. If you are a confused designer; you see these amazing designs and wonder How did they do it ?, then buy this book, and the best of luck.

I've been using Photoshop for years, but only recently for web graphics. This book totally opened my eyes to things I never knew it could do! I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get more out of Photoshop. It's written clearly, even though it has too many typos, and gets right to the point.

This book is simply great for an amateur photoshop 5 user. I know what I'm doing, but I wouldn't consider my a pro. However, with the aid of this book, I can create graphics for my web site just like a professional. This book is invaluable as a learning tool and as a reference.

I have only scratched the surface of Photoshop. The directions in this book are very clear, and easy to follow. Even for me who jumped right into the middle of the book. It's set up in a logical learning sequence and covers EVERYTHING for someone wanting to use Photoshop for their webpages. I admit, it was an impulse buy for me, but it has been worth every cent.

I Thought I know how to work with Photoshop, but after I read this book I discovered that I didn't. This book was extermely helpful to me in building web site graphics, and has introudced me to many different techniques that I used in to build the effects that I need in short time; Everyone was amazed, and so was I.

Most of the Books has very boring and useless Intrduction, this book doesn't. It was very useful to me ( I confess I was about to skip the first two chapters , but the writer urged the readers not to).

Although this book is useful, I was able to get all the techniques it offered in less that three days !

If you know your way well in Photoshop, don't buy this book. If you are a confused designer; you see these amazing designs and wonder How did they do it ?, then buy this book, and the best of luck.

Protocol and practice.... unlike 21 days in HTML, the authors teach me something big...

This is a fabulous book, technically competent, well-written, easy to read and well-organized. It comprehensively covers all the tech-weenie needs to know about clients, proxies, servers, HTTP, and a bunch more without drowning you in math or killing you softly with a gazillion irrelevant details. I found the last chapter, the "Research Perspectives," to be particularly up-to-date and useful. There is a ton of information about HTTP floating around out there. Figuratively speaking, Rexford and Krishnamurthy have taken as their input the coal and produced as their output this diamond.

You've built a B2C or B2B web service. You get great response time from your office, but there are times when your customers across the country report poor performance.

This book with help you understand the entire path between browser and web server and how Internet latency and intermediaries like Proxy servers add to transaction delay. This is the only source that I've seen that a) Defines HTTP 1.1 and b) describes the relationship between HTTP and the TCP/IP protocol stack, making recommendations on how to tune the stack to reduce the effect of latency.

You'll learn that many of TCP's flow control mechanisms were designed for FTP, Telnet and Rlogin and some default settings are not optimized, or even appropriate for HTTP.

This is so totally readable and comprehensive in its scope, that it was an absolute delight. This one is a keeper and a re-read if you need to understand what the word "web" or "data" means.

...but it is very thorough.