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Computer Science Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Computer Science
Spectrum and Network Measurements
Published in Hardcover by Prentice Hall (1991-02)
Author: Robert A. Witte
List price: $61.00
Used price: $42.24

Average review score:

Excellent "manual" for the working man
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-09-12
If you find yourself working in an RF-related field but don't have much of an "elmer" to "show you the ropes," get this book! It takes the theory you learned in school about distortion, modulation, impedance mismatches, etc. and ties them all together with practical examples of why you care (e.g., from IP2 or IP3 it's trivial to estimate harmonic power levels) -- and oftentimes some historical explanations of why common standards/techniques are the way they are when, given contemporary technology, it's no longer obvious.

I like the level of math used in this book... if you haven't gone through the "hard core" RF classes in school, they're enough to motivate the results without getting bogged down in lengthy derivations, whereas if you go through all the math in school, you'll find many "old friends" that have been somewhat simplified to keep the analysis only complicated enough to obtain useful results. (E.g., there's little point 99.9% of the time worrying about distortions models above say, 3rd order.)

I had this book on my shelf for several years before I had a chance to sit down, crack it open, and prepare myself for a dry (albeit useful, based on prior recommendations) tome. I was pleasantly surprised to find just how readable the book is -- Witte is a gifted author, being able to clearly explain sometimes-complicated topics.

Great book for the engineer who works in the frequency domain
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-03
This book is a must-read for the engineer who needs to better understand the theory and basics of spectrum and network analysis. The nice thing is that the author starts off with detailed theory of the measurements; but with just enough math to properly ground the reader with the measurement basics. The concepts are easy to grasp and the examples are plentiful. Detailed usage of spectrum analyzers and network analyzers follow with many examples of how to make specific measurements. This is the ideal book for the beginner or advanced engineer who needs to measure in the frequency domain. Highly recommended.

Excellent. Concepts explained with minimum math.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-20

This book was a joy to read. When I recommended it to co-workers who have been working with lab equipment for years, they still found it very useful and immediately bought it. It is amazing how the author can simplify the concepts and with minimum math explain the essence of various lab measurements. Every EE should understand every page of material covered in this book! In some sections the book might have benefited from more rigor and sometimes it's a little sloppy, but for a short introduction to the subject it's hard to beat this book.

This is a repeat of an old review under the name "A reader"

Excellent. Concepts explained with minimum math.
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 1999-10-23
This book was a joy to read. When I recommended it to co-workers who have been working with lab equipment for years, they still found it very useful and immediately bought it. It is amazing how the author can simplify the concepts and with minimum math explain the essence of various lab measurements. Every EE should understand every page of material covered in this book! In some sections the book might have benefited from more rigor and sometimes it's a little sloppy, but for a short introduction to the subject it's hard to beat this book.

Excellent coverage of spectrum/network analysis
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2002-03-31
This book does a fine job of explaining the theory behind spectral analysis and relating it to real measurements. The book connects mainstream electrical engineering concepts such as Fourier analysis, distortion and modulation to practical results. There is enough math, but not too much. It is good to see this classic book back in print.

Computer Science
SPSS for Windows Step by Step: A Simple Guide and Reference, 10.0 Update (3rd Edition)
Published in Paperback by Allyn & Bacon (2001-01-01)
Authors: Darren George and Paul Mallery
List price: $50.00
New price: $13.87
Used price: $0.79

Average review score:

By far the best beginner's SPSS reference
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-05-22
If you are as clueless about SPSS as I am, you must buy this book. It has clear, concise instructions in language a layman can understand. If you want a more advanced manual because you already know the basics, you may want to look elsewhere (Tabachnik & Fidel's book would be the next step up from this one). This would be a great textbook for a Statistics course at either the undergrad or graduate levels. It also explains each type of statistic clearly with great examples. It covers t tests, ANOVAs, regression, and much more. It was great for me to be able to review the statistic I was going to use to ensure that I understood it.

Dummy-Proof!
Helpful Votes: 15 out of 15 total.
Review Date: 2002-06-02
If you want to go from a stupid to savvy about statistics, this is the book for you. No jargon, no obtuse references, just simple explanations and directions. I secretly credit this book with getting me through my Ph.D. Also,Darren George's willingness to answer questions and offer help via e-mail was invaluable. This book makes things so clear, that I am now able to explain statistics to others -- something that once would have seemed as likely as inventing a calorie-free shake. A must for any researcher in the social sciences.

Great Book for dissertation reference! SPSS for Windows
Helpful Votes: 27 out of 27 total.
Review Date: 2001-04-27
I am a grad student working on my dissertation. I searched everywhere for an excellent and simple SPSS book. I was lost until I found yours. I have some of the others listed in the category; they are missing the step by step examples. I knew what I wanted to do, but did not know how to put into SPSS. They examples are CLEAR. There is even information about the statistics, so if you are unsure about assumptions for the type of test, you can check. Simple instructions and EXAMPLES FOR THE SCREEN. I love it.Thanks for putting together an excellent reference tool.

This book is essential
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2002-08-01
The book is extremely well written and is essential reading for anyone who wants to learn SPSS. It has great coverage of all major SPSS procedures except survival analysis. I highly recommend it!

A comment from the Author
Helpful Votes: 42 out of 43 total.
Review Date: 2001-05-30
Paul Mallery (my co-author) and I have gone to excruciating efforts, particularly on the first 16 chapters of this book, to create a tool that makes SPSS absolutely clear to the beginner. In the final 12 chapters our book explores more complex statistical procedures (log-linear models, factor analysis, discriminant analysis, multi-dimensional scaling, and others) in the identical format as the earlier chapters.

The comments by the individuals from Iowa and Minnesota reflect the many e-mails we have received on this book from, literally, all over the world. While we routinely recommend that anyone who uses the book first take a course in statistics, for anyone with reasonable math aptitude, the first 16 chapters should be understandable without ANY statistical background. If you are looking for a book that is comprehensive yet ultimately understandable for fundamental statistical procedures (data entry, data manipulation, frequencies, descriptives, chi-squares, t-tests, correlations, ANOVAs, simple linear and multiple regression analysis, graphs) but includes excellent coverage on the more advanced procedures we suggest that this book was made for you.

We, the authors, welcome your comments. These are considered carefully as we create new editions of the book.

Computer Science
Surviving Security: How to Integrate the Process, and Technology
Published in Paperback by Sams (2001-07-10)
Authors: Amanda Andress and Mandy Andress
List price: $39.99
New price: $6.77
Used price: $0.47

Average review score:

Mandatory Book For The Security Professional
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 2001-11-22
I have been an information assurance professional for over 40-years. This is the only book that ties it all together and provides so many additonal bonuses that you cannot go wrong for the price.

What I found best about the book:
1. Great price for all the pertinent and up-to-date information, including references and URL's,
2. Complete, concise, focused; no wandering down memory lane,
3. A great study reference guide in preparation for the CISSP examination (I used it, I took the exam, I am now certified as an Information System Security Professional),
4. The book will be a solid reference for years to come,
5. The author knows her subject and presents it in such a logical manner that it is impossible not to grasp the concepts presented.
6. Can use the author's web site for this book so that you maintain your currency (who else offers this?),
7. If your on the security profession career path this book is mandatory, and
8. Where in the hell (heck) was this book 10-15 years ago.

Security explained in a concise, easy-to-read fashion
Helpful Votes: 11 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2001-07-18
I am the network manager at a mid-size Chicago company and have been tasked with the job of developing a formal security infrastructure for our organization. I have read many of Mandy's InfoWorld articles and eagerly awaited the release of this book. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. Surviving Security is a great resource for understanding the components of a security infrastructure, how they fit together, and how to analyze and select the best approach for your environment. She covers all the basics (security policies, firewalls, IDS, remote access, OS hardening, network architecture, etc.)

In addition, there's a great chapter on authentication techniques. She also discusses the issues most people forget or do not really think about until it is too late: keeping up-to-date with patches, monitoring systems and logs, creating incident response teams, developing secure applications, etc. Most sections have "For More Information" boxes that give resources (books, websites, etc.) where you can go for more detailed information. I thought these were a great feature. She provides insightful information and commentary based on her experiences and then refers you to places where you can find more information. This book does not try to be all things for all people.

The companion website is a great way to keep the content up-to-date. As long as the author keeps the information and links current, this will be a good resource for security information. The product reviews give an independent, third-party opinion that is sometimes hard to find.

For those looking to develop a complete security infrastructure, this is the book to read. Surviving Security gives you an excellent "big picture" look at security that I have found lacking in other security books I have looked at.

Great for someone needing thorough intro info sec
Helpful Votes: 17 out of 18 total.
Review Date: 2001-08-15
Surviving Security is a really good book for someone needing a thorough introduction to information security.

The book covers all of the most important security technologies and processes. After completing the book, the reader will come out with a good understanding the components of an information systems security infrastructure.

All of the chapters contain loads of valuable information. Two extremely valuable sections are (Page 358) �Sample Audit Checklist� and (Page 399) �Assessing Your Needs�.

The Sample Audit Checklist contains over 30 pages of technology items that require security. Assessing Your Needs details all of the items required for an effective incident response team....

For those people needing an effective and easily readable reference about computer security, Surviving Security is an excellent resource.

Broad coverage of how to implement security
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-01-26
Thousands of years ago, a geometry teacher informed his royal subject and student that there was no royal road or shortcut to the understanding of geometry. That statement also holds true for computer system security. Like the steps in a geometric proof, any shortcut taken in security has the potential for invalidating the entire structure. Furthermore, developing a sound security policy requires that many of our deeply held social and legal attitudes be set aside.
In the American legal structure, any person is entitled to the presumption of innocence until their guilt is proven. However, to create and maintain an adequate computer security policy, everyone must be assumed untrustworthy until it has been proven otherwise. This creates an enormous potential for hard feelings, leading some to bypass the controls as a form of protest. Sound security policies also erects barriers that often reduce the efficiency of everyone accessing the system, creating an ongoing dent in the company bottom line. With all of this social, technical and economic baggage, it would appear that constructing an effective security system would be impossible. While constructing an impenetrable system is impossible, one can always reach a best possible level, and you see how to do it in this book.
All of the problems in computer security, from the initial meeting to regular audits are covered in this book. As the title implies, the emphasis is on the integration of the many parts that interact to build a secure system. Knowledge of human psychology is important, as the users must be treated with an iron fist wrapped inside a fuzzy velvet glove. The coverage is thorough in the broad sense, but shallow in the depth sense. This is not a criticism, just a statement of fact. Each section has links to resources that provide the depth of explanation that may be needed.
Security puts another level of complexity on top of the very difficult task of writing software that works. In the past, getting software to work took priority over getting it to work in a secure manner. Those days are gone and it is very difficult to conceive of any scenario where that will change. No one knows when it occurred, but several years ago, the cost of paying for security fell below the cost of repairing the damage caused by lax security practices. To get on the right side of this critical curve, read this book and follow the advice.

So much great Info
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2002-04-04
One of the few technology books that is actually under-priced based on the value you'll get from it. Content is very good and it's an easy read. You don't have to already be a security wiz to understand. There is also some unique treatment to process issues that I haven't seen elsewhere... Highly recommended.

Computer Science
Switch-Mode Power Supplies Spice Simulations and Practical Designs
Published in Hardcover by McGraw-Hill Professional (2008-01-14)
Author: Christophe P. Basso
List price: $99.95
New price: $75.39
Used price: $82.17

Average review score:

Excellent reference for the novice and experienced professional.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-02
This book should be in the library of anyone involved with DC-DC converters. The book covers the theory of converters and the SPICE applications are very helpful. I used the Top Spice demo to simulate the buck converter and was quickly running simulations.

One of the BEST
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-18
This book is a must have for the power supply designer! I own about every book written on the subject, and this ranks with the top 5. I feel that it is especially valuable to the reader who has studied the subject reading other top books in the field.

A practic simulation book
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-21
Each simulation problem is well resolved with examples and a brief of theory is also included in each. Very good for Spice users but not to much useful for others simulation package users.

Observation
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-18
Once in a while a book comes along that covers a subject in such detail and yet is chocked with examples that are easy to prove and use by students and designers in the field as this one. It is evident that Mr. Basso went to great lengths to make sure that users of different spice software platforms were included by supplying a CD with models and demos for all the major platforms. I don't know of another offering that deals with closing the feedback loop in the detail as this book does. I think any serious graduate program should consider including this book as a text. Money and time well spent; it is my second reference for serious SMPS work.

Charles Denton
Custom Engineering

Best of the Best
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-10
Christophe Basso worked very hard giving years of his life to produce the best Switch-Mode Power Supply book available, by far. I have a large collection of books on SMPS and although many are very good books, they are not nearly as complete or practical as Basso's book. He derives all his equations and then shows many real world example designs from start to finish. In my opinion and the opinion of many power electronics professionals and power electronics college students, the averaged switch model is the easiest to create and most intuitive to understand and use. Basso has digested the best information from the best references and then creatively enhanced many models and invented new SPICE models/sub-circuits you need for large and small signal analysis and simulations with the SPICE of your choice. His knowledge of creating analog behavioral models (ABM) that perform just like the real components or circuit functions, is amazing. He created ABM PWMs from individual ABM components. Everything he creates, he verifies. You buy this book at a bargain price and get a CD with all the models/sub-circuits you need to check your existing designs and start new designs with the highest confidence. Once you look at his ABMs, you will want to create some of your own because it is so much fun. In a short time, I've used his models/sub-circuits and his techniques with PSPICE to identify lack of or no phase margin in Switch-Mode Power Supplies for a huge corporation. I have many more power supplies to analyze/simulate and several new ones to design.

I've worked as a power electronics engineer for many years and I'm so thankful to Christophe Basso for working so hard and smart to produce the best Switch-Mode Power Supply book ever written. Very thorough and very practical. Get this book and apply Basso's knowledge, techniques, and SPICE models/sub-circuits to your designs and you will never have another unstable Switch-Mode or Linear Power Supply.

Computer Science
Synthesis of Arithmetic Circuits: FPGA, ASIC and Embedded Systems
Published in Hardcover by Wiley-Interscience (2006-03-10)
Authors: Jean-Pierre Deschamps, Gery J.A. Bioul, and Gustavo D. Sutter
List price: $132.50
New price: $83.08
Used price: $83.07

Average review score:

Beyond multiplication and MAC
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-13
That's an exciting and useful book in all synthesis manner: almost no gate-level circuits inside, as in modern EDA tools it don't need to.

A lot of algorithms (eg. log, sin, sqr...) which is beyond fast adders or one-cycle multipliers that can be easily found in many DSP hardware books. In fact, we make and sells a DSP state-machine chips in almost a million pcs that certain arithmetic circuit blocks is inspired by the book.

Original
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-06-07
This book is quite original in its presentation. The selection of implementations is of interest.
The theoretical foundations are sound and presented in a well organized way.
The applications cope with the actual technology: especially in what concerns programmable devices.
It is a good book for advanced students and a must have tool for the professional designer.

Innovative
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-06-07
The presentation of arithmetic theory and applications is innovative. Some of the topics are inedited; they present new approaches for both algorithmic and implementation aspects. It is a very interesting reference book for what refer to computer arithmetic in general and special purpose arithmetic circuit in particular.

Innovative
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-06-06
In the part dedicated to general algorithms, very interesting new presentations or generalizations, made this work attractive at the theoretical point of view. Extensions of booth algorithms and generalizations to base B operation make the work innovative at the mathematical point of view. At the implementation level there is very good and innovative ideas towards special applications in FPGA (mainly Xilinx oriented). It would have been desirable to cope with some other technology, but the book may be considered self containing anyway.

Meets many needs
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2007-08-09
There's a lot to like here. It goes over all the low-level stuff you could hope for, including creative number system, carry-lookahead, Booth encodings, and SRT division. It addresses some of the needs of crypto people, with discussion of finite-field arithmetic. It even gives enough intro to residue number systems for the desperate developer to gain a toehold - 10,000 digit addition or subtraction can be done in a few-digit time, as long as the expense of getting into and out of RNS are amortized.

That's all good for someone who can't trust their synthesis tools for good carry chains, or for someone headed way into the weirdness. The ranges where I live get distressingly little attention. If you need a dot product of two vectors, this will do a great job on the multiply and add steps as long as you can work out all the pipelining implications for yourself, but those were never the problem - it's the parallelism (how many multiplies can you run? how deep is your adder tree? or do you have something better?). It's the memory bottleneck (what do you mean you read "a word" from memory? I want 100). It's the numbers that number-crunchers use, i.e. IEEE 754, which get a moment of mention at the beginning and at the end. Those start turning strange with NaNs, signed zeroes, and denorms, then go totally off the rails when things like Intel (not always IEEE) compliance arise from the deep.

This could be a good text for a mid-level practitioner or student, fluent with logic design but blissfully ignorant of numerical analysis. If that's your trajectory, you'll spend some amount of time where this book lives. Then you'll advance, and it will no longer serve you. That's not a criticism, since every level has its own needs, but the prospective buyer should weigh needs to be met against needs that this meets. Not all readers will find a match.

-- wiredweird

Computer Science
Tech Ref
Published in Paperback by Sequoia Pub (2004-09-01)
Author: Thomas J. Glover; Millie M. Young
List price: $29.95
New price: $19.66
Used price: $7.88

Average review score:

Unsurpassed Knowledge Of Computers
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 1998-10-16
This book has a great knowledge of all things computer related, DOS, WIndows, Hardware, and more.

Great Computer Knowledge
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 1998-10-16
It is an awesome resource for all people who work with computers. It has great DOS, Windows and hardware information, and more. It is like a bible to me.

Good, could easily be better.
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2001-09-07
While this is a very good reference, it leaves a lot of room for disappointment. Perhaps its time to replace the resistor color code tables with summaries of the IEEE and ITU standards, certainly something more needed in the 2001 world of PCs. When was the last time anyone changed a resistor in a PC other than at the component manufacturer site? And it doesn't yet contain a power supply wire color code, which would be far more useful than resistor codes. There is info on Win98 but not on Win2K or ME (or even NT). The processor and socket list is hopelessly out of date. Fixed disk drive lists are way behind the times with only the most minimal information to help keep the confusing IDE/SCSI/EIDE PIO 1/2/3/4/5 ATA33/66/100/133 drive, BIOS, MB chipset and cable standards straight.
This is a good book for troubleshooting, repairing and maintaining the older PC, but it is not even treading water well in a world of P4 or Thunderbird processors, multi-gigabyte drives or 400Mhz RIMM memory. Still, I have to give it four stars (would be 4.5 if Amazon allowed) because there simply is nothing better out there except keeping file folders full of manufacturer specs, white papers and web page printouts.

It's GREAT!!!
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 1999-06-01
I am a 14 year old and have usued this book to help me build everything from forts to computers, it's GREAT and I would recommend it to everyone!

A must have for everyone!
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2000-06-26
When I first open this book I thought I was looking at an larger copy of the Pocket PCREF, after reading through it I found that while most of the information included is exactly like the Pocket version there is was more information included.

Large in size and over 875 pages, this reference book includes everything in the Pocket PCREF plus a very extensive glossary, printer control codes and a much larger pc phone directory. Overall a much better value that the Pocket PCREF book.

The material covered is broken down into categories and each category is covered well. The authors take a great deal of time in making sure the information presented is accurate and well documented. For the money this might be the one to have on your desk.

While this book won't fit in your back pocket, it will fit very nicely in a briefcase. An excellent value for the dollar. You might find similar books on the market, but you'll be hard pressed to find any one better. Well Done Sequoia Publishing.

Computer Science
Traitor (2099)
Published in Library Binding by Rebound by Sagebrush (2000-09)
Author: John Peel
List price: $13.00
Used price: $11.75

Average review score:

SWEET BOOK!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-25
THIS WAS A SWEET BOOK! . Must read. 2 thumbsup. THRILLING. I recomend you read the first two books and the last who knows how many after that!

GREATEST ONE
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-11
I don't have much to say about this book accept that it is AWSOME and a MUST HAVE if you like this series or John Peel, the author. I haven't read the 5th book - MELTDOWN - yet but out of the first four i think this one is the best. I look forward to reading MELTDOWN and can't wait to read other books by John Peel.

traitor (2099,3)
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2000-02-22
this was a great book in john peels (fear the year 2099) series. I dont think this was the best bok in the series. But it still was a great book

the third and most thrilling of them all
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2000-01-20
I just finnished reading this book. I loved the first two so I decides to try this one out. I was amased that this author can write so many good books. This book is his most thrilling and cool yet. I got this book from my teacher at school in first period. I kept reading this book through homeroom 1st period 2ed period 3ed period till finaly my teacher told me to put it away. Lucky for me she did not take it away. At lunch all I could do was read this book. I complettly forgott to eat lunch. Tristan has the most exciting adventure in this book than in any of the other one I have read. He team up with Genia and they try to break out of the "Ice" do they make it?how do they make it? Read this wonderfull book to find out.

2099 #3: Traitor
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2000-12-24
Tristan has been wrongly accused of setting loose the deadly Doomsday virus. Now he's in Ice -- the only prison in the world, in the cold and treacherous Antarctica. Surprisingly, a punk rebel girl named Genia, is in nearly the same situation as Tristan. She makes several shocking discoveries about herself in Ice, and storms into action trying to escape. The two may not be friends , but they realize if they're going to get out, they're goinig to have to be on the same side. Can the impossible be possible?

Computer Science
The UML Profile for Framework Architectures
Published in Paperback by Addison-Wesley Professional (2001-12-12)
Authors: Marcus Fontoura, Wolfgang Pree, and Bernhard Rumpe
List price: $46.99
New price: $19.38
Used price: $6.91

Average review score:

Good in lots of ways
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2004-04-26
First, it's a very clear example of how to extend UML within its own rules for extension. Other authors need more than raw UML gives, so start adding cruft any way they want - wrong! UML was meant to be extended and has explicit points at which extension is allowed. This shows extension as it's meant to be done.

Second, it is a worthwhile application area. Frameworks have been around for years, important all out of proportion to the relativley small number of them and relatively small number of framework developers. Framework development deserves attention as a specific discipline, and it's good to see this kind of attention being paid. The authors have chosen parts of well known design patterns for examples, keeping the ideas readable and understandable.

Best, it doesn't try to pull the entire UML standard into the discussion. To tell the truth, if I printed out the whole set of UML standards documents, I'm not sure I'd be able to lift the pile. This uses a well-chosen subset of the standard, but still lets the afficionado use as much more of the standard as desired.

Still, it's just notation. It's a set of tags for making statements about frameworks. The book doesn't really go into the design of frameworks. Framework design appears to be a premise, something the reader already understands well - perhaps not a good assumption.

The real problem with this notation, though, is that it is barely useable without tool support. It's based on sets of tags, which refine other tags (using something like inheritance), which refine yet other tags. Looking at tag A, though, there is no way to know that it refines tag B. Nothing about the tag indicates its family tree of inheritance, or even where to look for the information. Also, the UML extension mechanism for tags appears not to have dealt with global uniqueness at all. Nothing prevents me and you from coming up with the same tag names independently, then causing collisions for our common customer. XML deals with global uniqueness fairly well. If XML conventions are compatible with UML, they should be used - if not, UML needs to create conventions.

On the whole, this is interesting and informative. It's nearly impossible to put to practical use without significant automation, however, and that automation is not available to me.

Great book!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2002-03-08
This book gives a fairly good insight for expanding the concept of UML designs and notations for more practical framework approaches.

Worthwhile to study...
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2002-03-02
This is a excellent book, since it provides good examples in how using patterns, frameworks and UML in practice.

Great book if you are into Frameworks, UML, Design Patterns,
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2002-02-28
This is a great book! It gives a good insight into Design Patterns, Framework, Components and UML. It is especially useful as it provides a good and practical explanation while combining these concepts.
I have always been into Design Patterns, Framework, Components and UML. Although still missing some points when mixing these concepts. This book definitely provides a good clarification as it goes further into these OO concepts.
In a whole, it's a book worth studying carefully.

An useful and amusing book
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2002-03-16
Whenever I read about a new UML profile for something, I wonder whether it will be really useful and also usable. Well, the UML-F profile presented in this book, happens to be both -- useful and usable, for framework developers and users, but also for people interested in frameworks, patterns and OO in general.
It is a very good, easy-to-read book (contents and style):
the authors grasp the reader's attention from the very beginning, with motivating examples and good explanations.

Computer Science
Understanding Voice over IP Security (Artech House Telecommunications Library)
Published in Hardcover by Artech House Publishers (2006-03-31)
Authors: Alan B. Johnston and David M. Piscitello
List price: $115.00
New price: $79.00
Used price: $114.28

Average review score:

In depth, theoretical, but really security
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-29
This is a really good, but theoretical, in depth book on the fairly new subject of VoIP security. It is in places deep technical - not the kind of how-to-approach-the-problem type of book, but really describing in detail how things work. The reason why I picked this book was twofold. One, it really focuses on VoIP *security* - as opposed to many books on the subject that handle security or VoIP, with only one or two chapters on VoIP + security. Two, it is in-depth and detailed.

Concerning the `in-depth' part, clearly it is. The style is dense, compact, almost academic. No pages of listings or screenshots - just a factual approach: I personally hate those 800 odd pages manuals full of listings, too large font, giving the impression the author is getting paid by the page...

The objective of the book is to give a clear insight in `how it works'. It is clear that Mr. Johnston is a protocol oriented person, and quite a few things are explained and approached from that perspective. It will clearly help you in designing and architecturing a VoIP deployment, but remains theoretical. Do not expect being able to actually configure an Asterisk or other vendor product. But do expect to have a clear view on what matters and what does not, from a technical perspective. In my view, it targets solution designers, VoIP architects, to some extent the technically oriented CSO, but not so much the engineer.

Chapters 9 and 10, Signaling and Media security are really tough reading: I had to go about 2 to 3 times through them! It's not that they are not well written, but the subject is really complex, and, given the style of the book, these chapters go in quite some detail. They are followed by two interesting chapters on PSTN Gateways and Identity handling. One thing I'm missing is a chapter on Session Border Controllers - possibly these are really too new, and the authors didn't want to venture into something so new it may change and obsolete the book too quickly.

Overall, the book is well edited, with no irritating typos - as we see in too many books today. It is compact and easy to handle. Each chapter contains plenty of references to related publications: what you'd expect from any serious college textbook.

The good:
- Dense, concise, precise, detailed, complete
- Product independent - a theoretical book
- Good, no-frills publishing with no pointless screenshots and the like

The not so good
- Some parts are really hard to follow
- Nothing on Session Border Controllers, but that seems to be the only missing point.

Outstanding VOIP Security book
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-09-02
As a CTO of a software technology company in the middle of a VOIP project, I found this book invaluable in our research. There are very few books/guides/articles that talk about VOIP security and I believe this is huge thing to consider as you launch a VOIP network in your facilities or work with the protocols. The other book I read was not nearly as technical or complete and some issues defied standard communications standards which I believe were inaccurate.

I can see from the writing that the authors bring complementary knowledge to the table. One being a data/internet security
expert who considers voice "yet another stream of data to protect" and this agnosticism is IMO a good thing because it brings voice into the IT security realm in many enterprises. The other author is a voice and VOIP standards expert so he is able to call attention to the voice and voice protocol specific issues.

The book utilizes many easy to read real world scenarios that lighten the material and distinguish it from being just a reference book on protocols and standards. These scenarios often incorporate well laid out diagrams and pictures that really help you understand what's happening.

If you are investigating or implementing VOIP networks, I definitely recommend you get this book and read it cover to cover.

An excellent summary of security issues - not just for VoIP
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-04-26
I picked up this book because I needed to know a few specific things about the security of VoIP systems, and discovered that it's not only a good source of information about VoIP security - it's a good source of information about IP network security in general. We're moving all these applications to IP/Internet, and we need to know what that means for security at the IP/Internet level, not just for voice but for all of the other applications. Putting Alan Johnston, with his expertise in SIP and VoIP, with Dave Piscitello, who is an expert in security, has produced a major win. "VoIP folks" and "security folks" will both want to read this book.

A detailed overview of VOIP and security
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2006-05-22
VOIP - the next big thing in network communication? Or a security disaster in progress? My money's on the latter, so I was happy to be able to read through this book. It has a lot of useful background material on security and security technology, and then ties it into VOIP and the current implementations of the VOIP suite. The authors don't exactly come out and say it but the situation for VOIP looks a bit grim - security kludged on as an afterthought largely by layering atop TLS and the non-existent non-functioning public key infrastructure.

I found the book to be interesting an informative, and will recommend it as a reference to any of my friends who are so unfortunate as to have to deal with securing VOIP.

mjr.

Comprehensive and in-depth book!
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-27
Now, VOIP security has been talked about for a few years; it started even before organizations started to deploy VOIP in greater numbers. Many folks like to say that "VOIP security is a disaster," but usually they don't explain how or why.

Dave Piscitello does. In his excellent book ""Understanding Voice over IP Security" he provides excellent coverage of both VOIP technology basics as well as internet security fundamentals (which are admittedly more useful to the security beginners) Then he fuses the above information into a comprehensive coverage of VOIP security issues, from protocols to call fraud.

VOIP and NAT? Security analysis of SIP protocol? VOIP and honeypots? PSTN gateway security? Public VOIP vs private VOIP? Is VOIP spam inevitable? Yes, all those and much much more are covered in the book.

On the negative side, I had to skip through some of the security basics (yes, even a castle metaphor is there ...), but I am conscious of the fact that such content is indeed useful to people with networking background. At the same time, some of the esoterica of phone networks was completely new to me and thus exciting to read.

I enjoyed the book; I liked that it is written to be useful to both security folks - who need to learn about VOIP - and network folks - who often need to acquire better security education.

Dr Anton Chuvakin, GCIA, GCIH, GCFA [...] is a recognized security expert and book author. His current role is a Director of Product Management with LogLogic, a log management and intelligence company. A frequent conference speaker, he also represents the company at various security meetings and standards organizations. He is an author of a book "Security Warrior" and a contributor to "Know Your Enemy II", "Information Security Management Handbook", "Hacker's Challenge 3" and the upcoming book on PCI. In his spare time he maintains his security portal [...] and several blogs.

Computer Science
Using Microsoft Access XP: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians (How-To-Do-It Manuals for Libraries, No. 120) (How to Do It Manuals for Librarians)
Published in Paperback by Neal-Schuman Publishers (2002-09-24)
Authors: E. Sonny Butler and Timothy R. Napier
List price: $65.00
New price: $60.85
Used price: $36.48

Average review score:

Using Microsoft Access XP: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librari
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2003-01-19
The book is excellent. I used it and understood it very easily. I would recommend it for anyone desiring to learn Microsoft Access.

Using Microsoft Access XP: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librari
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-12-21
Enjoyed using this book a lot! I would reccomend this book to all of my friends and neighbors.

Using Microsoft Access XP: A How To Manual for Librarians
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-12-21
Great book for a novice or one with more experience. Answered many of my questions quickly and easily. Highly recommended.

Using Microsoft Access XP
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-11-12
Great book for MS Access XP. Well written.

Using Microsoft Access XP: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librari
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-10-31
Well written with excellent illustrations. Easy to follow and excellent for anyone learning Access.


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