Publications and Media Books

Rowe has brought together an excellent collection from the fringes. This book is entertaining and a great starting point for people interested in the idiosyncratic world of e-zines.

The Book of zines, edited by Chip Rowe, is an excellent and entertaining way to be introduced to zines. This book contains sample articles from past and current zines such as Mystery Date, Hitch, Bust, Preparation X, to name a few. There is an interview with the Pillsbury Doughboy, an analysis of Fonzie's relationship with Marion, sex eduction on vinyl, to name a few articles included in this compilation.

It also includes information on ordering zines.

Do NOT read this book. Work on your art, do whatever, but do not read this book. You can scratch you head at why I'm taking on the project you thought you would get, or why I got the prestigious assignment you were sure was yours. It's all about being a professional, and I don't need the competition. In short, this book will teach you what you do not want others to learn.

This is the best "How to" book I've read on comics. Not "How to Draw or Write" but a practical guide to the business side of the industry. Every aspiring pro should read this book. Thank you Ms. Haines

Writing in a clear comprehensive style, the author relates the history of Thebes, giving much detailed information about its tombs and their decoration. She also tells the story of the rediscovery of those tombs and briefly describes the early travelers' journeys to the Theban area. Illustrated with black and white photographs and line drawings, including many unpublished until now, this book is a fascinating and useful source for anyone interested in Ancient Egypt.

Yet again Prof. Manniche manages to poduce an excellent work. This book makes an excellent addition to Musicians and Musical Instruments in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Egyptian Herbal, and Sacred Luxuries. I am anxious to get a copy of Sexual Life in Ancient Egypt. City of the Dead is oriented toward the student or professional archaeologist. There are plenty of interesting facts that would intrigue the armchair historian as well. I recommend this book and all of the other works this author has created.

I found this book to be practical and well written. It had a strong section on IVR, including a good discussion on application generators. CTI was covered, as well as standards and typical business uses. The call center reporting chapter was a little weak but the other chapters on VoIP, telephony implementation, call accounting and security overcame this limitation. Also, I like the author's writing style. He stays focused on the topic and makes good use of the book real estate.

A re-organization in our company placed telecom services under the Administration Department. Not having a technical background, I was a bit concerned about my new operational and technical responsibilities. The world of Communications always seemed so complicated.

I found this book to be right on target. The concepts of CTI, Unified Messaging and especially implementation of telephony systems were clearly explained and logical. An unexpected chapter on cost management was extremely valuable in Operations. This is not a programming book but a very helpful resource to an individual making decisions on CTI/Telephony systems. There are plenty of examples and illustrations from real systems. The best part is that it was written in plain, easy-to-understand English. I tried to read telecommunications books many times but they were so technical they proved to be a great cure for insomnia.

This book covers traditional Telephony basics, security, management tools and even has an outline for an RFP for PBX and Voice Mail systems. It gives a view of tomorrow's technology providing negatives as well as the positives of new technology such as Voice over IP.

The only negative is that I wish the book were a little longer.

This book is a handy feild guide for all communications techs. A must have for all new hires.

This is one of the best organized handbooks that I have run across for telecommunication and IT specialists. It has everything that you would ever need at your fingertips. It covers everything from POTS to broadband, and even delves into video communications. Formulas? This handbook has 'em.... Charts? They're in there... Need to know the exact bandwidth of an OC-192 line? It's just a flip away. Pinouts? It even had a hard to find pinout for a 6MMJ... I looked everywhere for that pinout!

No self-respecting IT or COMM specialist should go anywhere without this in their back pocket... It's only 20bux to boot!

I know I sound like a commercial, but I was THAT impressed with this handbook. I normally never write reviews. This handbook warranted it. It's definately going to make the IT or COMM specialist more productive, as it will save a TON of time in research.

Kudos to Paul Rosenburg, et. al.

The book, "Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen", is the catalog for an exhibition that has just opened. The first two reviews provide perspectives and understanding that are quite different from those offered in the preceding review from Publishers Weekly.

Leah Ollman (LA Times, 11/18/01) comments that, "We want to know the world and have experiences beyond the ordinary. We want to extend our vision beyond its familiar capacity. These are timeless desires, born with the species. They thrive on wonder, ... 'Devices of Wonder' traces those impulses and the technologies designed to act on them during the past 400 years. Full of serious toys, marvelous instruments and art resonant with the theme of discovery, the show [and catalog] track a history of visual thinking, 'from the world in a box to images on a screen,'..."

Speaking of both the exhibition and the catalog, the hard-nosed and insightful reviewer, Christopher Knight (Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2001) remarks that, "The Wunderkabinett is back, their show asserts--bigger, now nearly ubiquitous and considerably more far-reaching than any Baroque prince could ever have dreamed. Today's Wunderkabinett is sitting on your desk at home or in the office, or perhaps it's resting in your briefcase or on your lap." "Looking at wondrous things in a Wunderkabinett becomes the launch pad for the wonders of looking. Sight connects with insight. Mirrors facilitate reflection. Images are themselves ideas. ... Playful and unexpected connections get drawn. ... The show [and the catalog] is filled with these sorts of surprising delights, which can send your mind off in unexpected directions."

...

The book, "Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen", is the catalog for an exhibition that has just opened. The first two reviews provide perspectives and understanding that are quite different from those offered in the preceding review from Publishers Weekly.

Leah Ollman (LA Times, 11/18/01) comments that, "We want to know the world and have experiences beyond the ordinary. We want to extend our vision beyond its familiar capacity. These are timeless desires, born with the species. They thrive on wonder, ... 'Devices of Wonder' traces those impulses and the technologies designed to act on them during the past 400 years. Full of serious toys, marvelous instruments and art resonant with the theme of discovery, the show [and catalog] track a history of visual thinking, 'from the world in a box to images on a screen,'..."

Speaking of both the exhibition and the catalog, the hard-nosed and insightful reviewer, Christopher Knight (Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2001) remarks that, "The Wunderkabinett is back, their show asserts--bigger, now nearly ubiquitous and considerably more far-reaching than any Baroque prince could ever have dreamed. Today's Wunderkabinett is sitting on your desk at home or in the office, or perhaps it's resting in your briefcase or on your lap." "Looking at wondrous things in a Wunderkabinett becomes the launch pad for the wonders of looking. Sight connects with insight. Mirrors facilitate reflection. Images are themselves ideas. ... Playful and unexpected connections get drawn. ... The show [and the catalog] is filled with these sorts of surprising delights, which can send your mind off in unexpected directions." (...)

This book is incredibly valuable to anyone seeking to learn more about environmental and social movement communication. It's one of those rare books that smartly, coherently and comprehensively lays out the state of research on an important subfield of communication studies. It's also written in a way that is accessible to both practitioners and scholars.

From former Vice President Al Gore to Republican consultant Frank Luntz, there is one thing on which we all agree: in order to make a difference in environmental policy and ethics, we need to reflect on and improve the ways we communicate about the environment in the public sphere. This book is a step in that direction. The author of this textbook is not just book smart. J. Robert Cox, a Professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill, also has served in the Sierra Club as the President of the Board of Directors (2000-2001; 1994-96;2007-present) and as a Director (1993-1999; 2000-2006).

I loved this book, and cherish it in my collection. The stunning illustrations, the sympathetic and entertaining characters, the meaningful lessons learned, and the fresh unique voice all add up to make this a perfect children's book. I highly recommend it to everyone, kids and adults alike. Thank you, Mr. Lyon!

I have this book for my baby boy Ben who is 11 months old. He loves looking at the bright, beautiful illustrations. This is a joyful book full of interesting characters and amazing colours that draw adult and child alike into Buzby's world. The pages draw Ben's attention to every corner, he loves to study the details and colours. I enjoy reading the story because it's funny and it's gentle humour is so beguiling. This book has already gotten dog eared from use and I've only had it a few months. I would highly recommend this book, my nephew who is 12 also has this book and loves reading it. This book is really unlike any other children's book I've seen, and I've seen alot. This is a must have!

Well worth the price. Just couldn't put this book down. Harrington illustrates exactly how journalism should be. Every journalist, aspiring or professional, should read this book!

This book demonstrates just how well magazine nonfiction can be. The journalists selected are not particuarly well-known, but they are masters of their craft and present highly enjoyable reads. Susan Orlean might be the best-known of the bunch, just because her most recent book, "The Orchid Thief," was highlighted in the 2002 movie "Adaptation."

For starters, Orlean's piece "The American Male at Age 10" was a fascinating look at today's youth. Each piece is outstanding in its own way, but may I also present as standouts "TV Without Guilt" (a family whose television is on approximately 16 hours a day) and "The Man Who Couldn't Read" (profile of an illiterate millionaire with two college degrees).

As a bonus for those with an interest in feature writing, "Author's Afterwords" has the writers briefly describe the process of finding and executing their ideas. But if you are an aspiring writer or just appreciative of quality writing, this book is a must-read.

Steganography is the hidding of messages in plain sight, it hides a message within another message that looks like a normal message. This is different from Cryptography in which the secret message is converted to what looks like a meaningless jumble of characters.

Example: You mail a letter. It currently takes 37 cents in postage. Instead of using a 37 cent stamp you use stamps of the following values: 9 cents, 2 cents, 3 cents, 1 cent, 9 cents, 4 cents, 9 cents. That's the right amount of postage so the letter goes through. But the letter is meaningless. The message you sent is 9-2-3-1-9-4-9. Perhaps this means September 23, 1949, or perhaps it's comething else that the receiver understands. Or perhaps the message is in the green ink that you used to address the envelope.

When you get to computers you can be far, far more secretive. A movie or audio file can be millions of bytes long. Changing a few bits here or there would be completely undetectable but could incorporate a huge message.

This book is intended to be a guide to law enforcemtn investigators and cyber-forensics. It describes the techniques and the literally dozens of programs that exist (usually free on the web) for hiding messages and several programs for detecting these messages. This is an area that has received little attention in the past and this book does a very good job of bringing this field out into the open.

As a security focused manager the more I learn about steganography, the art of hiding messages, the more concerned I become about its security implications. These techniques allow an individual to use secrecy in communications.

I am sure the book aids the investigator, but it helps a manager understand how secrecy has been used in the past and the present as well. A tremendous amount of research must have gone into the book to be so comprehensive. I was already familiar with S-tools and a few other picture file related techniques, but had never considered slight alterations of the space between letters and had never heard of Civil war quilts. The beginning of the book is packed with technique after technique.

The author, Greg Kipper is to be congratulated for such clear writing especially considering how complex the subject gets.

The publisher, CRC Press, went the extra mile to create a very detailed table of contents so the reader can find what they need fast.

The bottom line, this book is an excellent coverage of the subject and yet they packed it into about 200 pages so it is 100% fluff free.

One concern and one wish. The coverage of tools is a bit spotty, the links to stego tools seem to change rapidly and some of the tools do not even have a link. If you can't find a tool you might try: http://www.stegoarchive.com/ that is what I use. I hope this goes to second edition and if so, my wish is that the author will beef up the detection chapter. Greg does such a great job of showing how stego can and has been used in the real world, I would love more information about how I can protect myself and apply detective controls in my organization's network.