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What To Expect From This Book:

This book aims to serve both experienced and inexperienced gardeners. Gardening is the #1 hobby in America today. An increasing number of homeowners are no longer satisfied with planting a flat of purple petunias and retiring to the deck with a cold beer. For some, gardening has become a competitive sport. If you are a gardener who would pursue to the ends of the earth a rare Texas native snowbell (Styrax youngae), which can only be found in the wild in a few remote sites in Mexico, I've got your source.

I'm fairly certain that the majority of people who will read this book truly enjoy their gardens, but have limited time to spend. Even homeowners who only mow the lawn to keep the neighbors from complaining should find resources within these pages. I've laced the text with timesaving ideas and, hopefully, introduce you to products to make every aspect of gardening easier and more rewarding.

Good overall design is another matter. You can consign plant mistakes to a compost pile, but a drainage problem, a misplaced patio or an ugly retaining wall won't simply go away. As a landscape architect, I promise my clients that I'll save them money in the long run by preventing costly mistakes. It only seems fair that I should share the same information with readers.

We hope you'll take the time to read the text that precedes the source lists throughout the book. In Chapter One, we've included a brief history of gardening to help you choose your "garden style". Then we discuss the physiography of Texas and divide the state into twelve distinct gardening regions. We think it is folly to attempt to garden without a complete understanding of the soils, climate and native vegetation of your region. Further, we believe that gardeners hold a large responsibility for maintaining the unique diversity of each region.

In organizing a book as comprehensive as this, the first question we asked was, "Where do we begin?" After much deliberation, we decided to begin with North and East Texas, which includes three very different garden regions: Cross Timbers & Grand Prairie (including Ft Worth); Trinity Blacklands (including Dallas); and the Piney Woods (including Tyler and Nacogdoches). Next, we work our way clockwise, along the Gulf Coast, which incorporates: Coastal Prairies & Marshes (including Houston); Coastal Bend (including Corpus Christi and Padre Island); and the Valley (from Brownsville to McAllen). Then we go back up through Central Texas: Rio Grande Plain (including San Antonio and Laredo); Central Prairies & Savannas (including Waco and Bryan/College Station); and the Hill Country (including Austin). Finally we cover West Texas: Red Rolling Plains (Wichita Falls, Abilene and San Angelo); High Plains (Amarillo, Lubbock and Midland); and the Trans-Pecos (including El Paso).

In Chapter Two, we've provided the names and addresses of places to look for design inspiration. We've also provided reading lists, as well as some other important sources of information to expand your gardening knowledge. In Chapter Three, we stress Master-Planning. Then we discuss the walls, walkways, fences and "follies", garden structures, and lighting that are as important to landscape design as plants. And, we list resources for the materials that go into the "landscape."

Before getting into plants, Chapter Four takes up sound gardening practices. We're dwelling heavily on the topic of conservation. We've shared practical ways of improving the soil, feeding plants and coping with pests in the most environmentally sensitive manner. The good news is that these techniques can result in reduced garden maintenance. The sources for plants begin in Chapter Five. Before we get into one-stop shopping at the state's great garden centers, we provide basic information about choosing the plants for your garden. For beginners and "old hands" alike, garden centers offer the widest range of products and services.

Specialty nurseries appear in Chapters Six and Eight. Chapter Six is devoted to "naturescaping", the most important new trend in gardening today. The chapter includes discussions on Texas natives, backyard wildlife habitats, wildflower meadows and drought-resistant plants. Water conservation has been a "hot" issue in environmental circles for years.

Chapter Seven addresses the more sophisticated levels of planting design and lists specialized sources for flowering shrubs, perennials, bulbs, herbs and other edible plants. Chapter Eight is all about special plants for special places. These are the water gardens, the hanging baskets, tropical plants and "living sculptures" that are used to embellish our gardens, patios and interiors. Few gardeners are aware of the small nurseries in Texas that grow specialized, sometimes rare, plant materials. Many began as backyard hobbies and remain labors of love.

Chapter Nine deals with garden furniture and Chapter Ten addresses the decorative accessories that make a garden both livable and memorable. Basically, the book is arranged in the order in which the work of a landscape architect progresses: planning; constructing and conserving; planning; and embellishing the garden.

In the appendices, you'll find a list of landscape architect firms that are known for their residential designs. Mail-order Shopping Tips contains 25 helpful hints for anyone who has ever perused a plant catalog. We've also included a Glossary that defines words you will encounter in this book and in catalogs. The Geographical Index may help you discover some nearby sources you didn't know existed. It should be especially useful on your travels through Texas.

In perusing the library for books on Texas gardening, I came across this title. I almost didn't include it in my stash. Upon flipping through the pages, there weren't any "purdy" pictures. Boy am I glad I brought it home! I started putting a sticky note on the pages I wanted to photocopy and ended up putting one on every other page--that's a lot of sticky notes! So I had to buy it! This book is not only an up to date resource list for Texas by region or city, but has an information header in each category. This is invaluable. Sounds like a "resource" book would be pretty dry--but it's not. It's fun and well written and will go with me in my car always here in San Antonio and thru out Texas. My only regret is that it is a special order with 4-6 week delivery. Don't know why since it was published in 1999.

It's one stop shopping for golf courses in NY. Organized geographically, it provides easy access to a listing of local public and private golf courses.

Knowing that the authors are golfers who have personnally visited all of the courses, assures me of a golfers perspective.

I keep one copy in my car and one at home. It has been extremely helpful in locating and reviewing golf courses for where ever I am in New York. A must have.

Everyone thinks that since I once lived in New York I know exactly where to find the best of everything in the Big Apple. What they don't understand is that Manhattan is a very dynamic, big city. What was hot when I lived there may not even exist today. But now I have the Grownup's Guide as my cheat sheet. It's been an invaluable reference when I've returned with my three daughters (presently kindergarten through middle school). The friends I've recommended it to love that it allows them to be surgically precise in planning their excursions. This saves a great deal of wear and tear when shopping with kids. This book helps make shopping in Manhattan fun, instead of the exhausting drag it can be when you can't find what you need.

I hate to shop...and I live in California, not Manhattan. But I've got relative's kids, friend's kids, work associate's kids, and other miscellaneous kids living in Manhattan that I have to shop for. This book's got it all! It's a veritable goldmine of information about all things children related. If it's available in Manhattan and it pertains to children, it's probably identified in here, along with store addresses, telephone numbers, web sites, indicia of pricing and quality, etc. These 2 woman who authored this book must love to shop. Thankfully, someone does. I say, 'Thank you Diane and Lisa!'

Christina Schaefer's "Guide To Naturalization Records Of The United States" is nicely arranges all repositories of naturalization records by state, county, and city. Systematically organized by type of records held, dates of coverage, locations of original and microfilm records in their holdings, these repositories can be methodically accessed by even the most novice of genealogists. The "Guide To Naturalization Records Of The United States" also pinpoint federal court records in all National Archives facilities and identifies all information that is available on microfilm either through the National Archives or through the Family History Library System. Also included are records available on microfilm through other facilities as well. Enhanced with a history of naturalization and citizenship, an appendix on Native American tribal citizenship records, the records of Japanese and Chinese Americans, and records of internment of American citizens by the federal government, "Guide To Naturalization Records Of The United States" is a core addition to any professional genealogy reference collection and of great assistance to anyone's quest to identify and record their own family history with respect to the American citizenship of their forebears.

Christina Schaefer's "Guide To Naturalization Records Of The United States" is nicely arranges all repositories of naturalization records by state, county, and city. Systematically organized by type of records held, dates of coverage, locations of original and microfilm records in their holdings, these repositories can be methodically accessed by even the most novice of genealogists. The "Guide To Naturalization Records Of The United States" also pinpoint federal court records in all National Archives facilities and identifies all information that is available on microfilm either through the National Archives or through the Family History Library System. Also included are records available on microfilm through other facilities as well. Enhanced with a history of naturalization and citizenship, an appendix on Native American tribal citizenship records, the records of Japanese and Chinese Americans, and records of internment of American citizens by the federal government, "Guide To Naturalization Records Of The United States" is a core addition to any professional genealogy reference collection and of great assistance to anyone's quest to identify and record their own family history with respect to the American citizenship of their forebears.

In this book David Endler and Mark Collier have pulled together a vast wealth of material about hacking VoIP networks at every possible level. More than this, they have also created new value in the form of software test tools, which they have published on an accompanying website. It really is a must-have reference book for anyone working in VoIP.

Chapter 1 talks about Google hacking, or in other words, using the Internet to find out things about a target network. They show that Google can be a crucial tool in finding out what type of hardware and software you use in your VoIP networks, and in some cases will give vital clues even about how to login to the management systems of your network from the Internet. If this doesn't scare the bejesus out of you, then proceed on to further chapters about more VoIP-specific issues.

Chapters 2 and 3 detail the kind of tools a hacker might use to scan your network and enumerate all the devices, i.e. build their own map of how your network is laid out, right down to the telephone numbers and MAC addresses of desktop phones. Chapter 4 talks about Denial-of-Service, and the kind of attack resources that hackers might use to cripple a telephony network.

Chapter 5 is on VoIP eavesdropping, talking about some existing tools that can be used for this (Oreka, Wireshark and the unpleasantly named vomit), and as in the earlier chapters, some suggestions on how to defend against such a type of threat. Chapter 6 goes further to explain how a VoIP man-in-the-middle attack might be mounted, giving the possibility not just to listen, but to modify, replace or remix the audio stream.

Chapters 7, 8, 9 talk about specific platform threats, namely to Cisco Unified CallManager, Avaya Communication Manager and the Asterisk PBX. The vendors have added their own comment to these chapters, at the request of the authors. Chapter 10 takes in Softphones, including Google Talk, Gizmo, Yahoo and of course the ever popular Skype.

Chapter 11 describes VoIP fuzzing, or in other words, testing protocol stacks for flaws, so this is useful for those developing VoIP systems and applications. Chapter 12 talks about disruption of networks using flooding techniques and chapter 13 talks about Signaling and Media Manipulation.

The final section of the book is entitled Social Threats, and talks about SPAM over Internet Telephony (SPIT) in Chapter 14, followed by Voice Phishing in Chapter 15. Neither of these threats are in frequent use yet, but their use is certain to increase in the future, so this is a good moment to get to grips with what this means.

This is a highly technical book, but for managers responsible for IT security but not immersed in the details I would say this: buy the book, and read the case studies. There are five sections to the book, and each starts with a short case study. Invest 20 minutes in reading these, and you will start to get an appreciation for how important VoIP Security will be in the future. Then pass the book on to your hands-on security guy and tell him to read it from cover to cover.

Hacking Exposed: VoIP (HE:V) is the sort of HE book I like. It's fashionable to think HE books are only suitable for script kiddies who run tools they don't understand against vulnerable services they don't recognize. I like HE books because the good ones explain a technology from a security standpoint, how to exploit it, and how to defend it. I thought HE:V did well in all three areas, even featuring original research and experiments to document and validate the authors' claims.

HE:V is a real eye-opener for those of us who don't perform VoIP pen testing or assessments. It's important to remember that the original HE books were written by Foundstone consultants who put their work experience in book form. HE books that continue this tradition tend to be successful, and HE:V is no exception. Good HE books also introduce a wide variety of tools and techniques to exploit weaknesses in targets, and HE:V also delivers in this respect. HE:V also extends attacks beyond what most people recognize. For example, everyone probably knows about low-level exploitation of VoIP traffic for call interception and manipulation. However, chapter 6 discusses application-level interception.

HE:V goes the extra mile by introducing tools written by the authors specifically to implement attacks. In at least one case the authors also provide a packet capture (for the Skinny protocol) which I particularly appreciate. HE:V also looks ahead to attacks that are appearing but not yet prevalent, like telephony spam and voice phishing. Taken together, all of these features result in a great book. You should already be familiar with the common enumeration and exploitation methods found in HE 5th Ed, because the HE:V authors wisely avoid repeating material in other books (thank you).

If you want to understand VoIP, how to attack it, and how to defend it, I highly recommend reading HE:V. The book is clear, thorough, and written by experts.

Excellent resource. No other such comprehensive reviews of human tissue sources exist. The authors did an excellent job putting together a consice, easy to read manual. Should be on every biomedical researchers desk.

An excellent read. Very complete and concise. Ground breaking material

This resource guide is comprehensive and chock full of great information. I was looking for an acupuncturist in my area, and I found several organizations that can assist me in HealthInform's Resource Guide. I am very impressed with this body of work and I would recommend it to professionals and lay persons alike.

This book contains something about every discipline of alternative healthcare. If you want to know about acupuncture or qi gong or homeopathy or so many other things you can find the resources in here. I did.

This is one of the essential tools to have if you are trying to get in the film business. It is one of my recommended readings that I use for my seminar, HOW TO GET AND SUCCEED IN THE FILM BUSINESS. It has the most updated list of production companies and agencies. I tell all of my students that it is a must buy.[...]

Very useful if you are "in the biz" and need to know more about representation. You will get a great deal by buying the distribution book with it. If you are a writer/director/producer, it is good to have that extra book on hand.

I was riveted from the first page until the very last few pages that were left blank for "notes."

This is the de-facto Hollywood "it" guide listing anyone that has ever been a remote fringe player with one very minor film credit to Brian "Any-Other-Good-Books-For-Me-Graydon" Grazer of Imagine Entertainment.

I must confess, I often wonderered how half these people pay their rent on a monthly basis when you look at their credits.

If you're a writer, actor, director, cinematographer, producer, editor, essentially any hollywood job that ends with an "r" then you'll want to buy a copy of this book to to know whom to avoid.

From the Publisher:
We are extremely proud to be presenting our 50th edition-a milestone worth noting. From emerging filmmakers to industry professionals, the Hollywood Creative Directory has been the definitive guide for navigating the complicated maze of Hollywood for over 15 years. If you are looking to sell or option a script or property to Hollywood, this directory is a must.

This insiders guide to the insiders is the most comprehensive up-to-date directory, listing names, numbers, addresses and current titles of entertainment professionals from the film and television industry. The Hollywood Creative Directory can be found on the desks of the most powerful people in Hollywood - used by major studios, networks, agents, directors, producers, writers, actors, production companies as well as colleges, universities, and aspiring filmmakers.

"The Hollywood Creative Directory is a mainstay in the entertainment business. So authoritative is this directory, that in 1992 when the Internal Revenue Service was investigating tax abuse in the entertainment industry, they purchased a copy to use as a guide for their operations."
-American Reference Books Annual, 2003

"The Hollywood Creative Directory is a mainstay in the entertainment business. So authoritative is this directory, that in 1992 when the Internal Revenue Service was investigating tax abuse in the entertainment industry, they purchased a copy to use as a guide for their operations."
-American Reference Books Annual, 2003

Now in its 51st edition, the Hollywood Creative Directory certainly lives up to its rubric as the "phone book to Hollywood." (Another fitting slogan might be "everything you always wanted to know about contacting everyone you always wanted to know.") The main section lists film and television companies throughout the United States, including street and email addresses, phone and FAX numbers, and the names of top executives. It also provides recent credits for each company, as well as projects that are in pre-production and development. Another section gives similar information, with expanded staff data, for many network television shows and those of a few other channels like HBO and the Cartoon Network. Data are also provided for all the state film commissions and for agencies from Actor's Equity to the Writer's Guild. It is updated three times a year.
Although essential to those in the entertainment industry, the Hollywood Creative Directory will be useful to other readers as well. --Library Journal, 2004