Software Books

Let me join the chorus here, this is a really well written book. The focus on free and current software tools (Stanti's Editor especially) makes following along easy. It may be a testament to the ease of use when it comes to python in general (just beware your use of the tab key!), but I had no problems getting the results described and learned buckets as a result.

If you're new to game programming (or even programming in general) Andy Harris' book is certainly a great place to start. I am by no means an "expert" in the programming field, in fact, I only picked up programming again for the first time in about 10 years. Python is a very powerful, user-friendly environment to program in and coupled with what you'll learn in this book, you have the tools and potential to become almost an expert in no time. Game programming is a great place to start if you're looking to pick up programming in general.

"Game Programming: The L Line" is very excellently and comprehensively written. In my opinion, Harris has made a very useful guide to game programming and I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have!

For someone who has never coded a game before, and who perhaps is also new to the entire field of programming, this can be daunting. Commercial games are usually coded in C++. Which is quite an intricate language, especially for the neophyte. Harris furnishes a plausible alternative, where the scripting language Python is used to teach an introductory course in game programming.

You do need some earlier exposure to Python. Though if you still feel awkward in it, you can use this book for the extra reason of gaining experience in Python. Harris explains that there is an open source Python gaming site, that offers the eponymous pygame. You download and install this on your machine. It gives a simple, very bare bones Integrated Development Environment for game coding. If you have used more general purpose IDEs, like Microsoft's Visual Studio, then you can certainly learn pygame. It is much smaller.

Within pygame, you can code small games. Yes, small. But the pedagogy is important. The games elucidated in the text have properties common to many, much larger games. As in how to write event driven code, for example. Or drawing geometric figures on the screen. And using sprites.

The flavour of the games is like those games of the early 80s. Or the current games for cellphones.

Don't judge this book by it's cover! For some reason,
this book is part of a series of Wiley books, and they
all have the same cover.

This is a book about learning how to program computer
games using the Python programming language and the
PyGame package. PyGame is a Python wrapper around the
SDL library. This book offers step-by-step tutorials
that introduce game programming with complete Python
programs. All the programs work on several platforms:
MS-Windows, Mac, and GNU/Linux. Chapters 1-3 introduce
the Python programming language. Starting with Chapter
4, you begin to learn about graphics programming. In
Chapter 6 the programs begin to use OOP/classes. Then,
in Chapter 7, you begin to learn how to make 2D games
with sprites, sound FX, and keyboard and mouse control.
Game programming is a fun way to learn how to program
a computer, and Python with PyGame makes it relatively
easy as well.

This book has detailed information on creating graphics
and sounds for your games, using free, open source
third-party tools that are available on all platforms.
The GIMP is used for graphics, and Audacirty is used
for sounds. So unlike many other game programming books
which require expensive third-party programs in order
to make games, ALL the programs in this book are free.

The book has an easy-going, conversational style of writing
that makes it seem that the author is looking over your
shoulder, helping you to learn game programming. I'm really
glad I bought this book. It is worth many times its cover
price considering the amount of information it contains.

Things I like about this book:
1. Easy to read and understand with step-by-step tutorials.
2. Helpful reference tables throughout the book.
3. Complete example game programs.
4. All the third-party programs required are free and open.
5. Source code and extra appendices available for download.

Happy Programming!

Andy Harris did a great job on this book. I sponsor a computer programming club for high school students and this book is the best at getting to actual game creation. The first three chapters go over basics of programming, but then graphics and pygame are used early and well.

This book is a bargain at 570 truly helpful pages.

I'm not a graphic artist, and I don't have time or the desire to read a mammoth tome on image manipulation. What I want is a book that will teach me the basics of GIMP in as little time as possible. This is that book. With this book I was able to get up to speed with most of the basic functions in just a couple of days. This is the best GIMP book I have seen for beginners. My only complaint is that most of the illustrations are in black & white, and the sections on color manipulation, etc. would probably be a little easier to follow with color illustrations. I plan to read the author's book on CorelDRAW in the near future

This is an extremely complete guide to the Gimp. Everything you can do in PhotoShop, you can do in the Gimp -- and more! (Plus, the price of the software is right!) Phyllis Davis' book tells how to do anything you might want to do, with easy step by step examples. It is well illustrated. Perhaps the best part is the full color gallery section, showing Gimp art from around the world. If you want to learn to use the Gimp, I highly recommend this book. (Heck, you could learn stuff about PhotoShop from it while you're at it. Phyllis Davis is a wonderful writer, and explains computer graphic concepts and tools very clearly.) If you are just curious about all the fuss about the Gimp (Gnu means images!) check it out, too!

I agree with previous reviewers that this book provides easy-to-follow instructions for learning GIMP. I used it recently to help me devise lesson plans for a 5-week class for children ranging from 8-15 years old! Having it with me to consult during class boosted my confidence, since I had never used GIMP before teaching the class! My only additional comment is that I quickly discovered that GIMP, which is continuously being revised, has new and different features which are not covered in this book. Fortunately, the online manual fills these gaps. Still, I think this book was a good purchase, and I do recommend it to GIMP newbies.

At the time of this writing, this is easily the best introduction to the GIMP. It covers about 90% of the material in the GIMP for Linux Bible, but the explanations are more concise. I would recommend the other book only if you need coverage of scripting, which this Quickstart doesn't really have.

This book is *so* easy to use. There are pictures with each step and instructions that are really easy to follow.

This little gem is insightful, profound, and funny.

Each page relates a scripture to contemporary quotes or cultural ideas. I love to browse it, and it often leaves me meditating on the topic covered. Other pages make me laugh my head off. Easy to carry and enjoy when traveling or waiting somewhere. Also quite useful to provoke interest in a topical study.

The scriptures lead us to the higher Christian life-real meat here-without preaching or someone elses interpretion. Great for the office, attache case, or waiting in airport terminals.

Powerful, fun, and inspires. Applicable to all denominatins and ages. I think this will make a fantastic gift ror any occasion, for both Christians and non-Christians. This is an undiscovered gem. You must check it out.

Thanks for considering my review-if it influences you to purchase the book, I would love to hear feedback! One of the best (if not the best) devotional I have ever found. Also highly recommend the devotionals in this series for teens and kids.

This little gem is insightful, profound, and funny.

Each page relates a scripture to contemporary quotes or cultural ideas. I love to browse it, and it often leaves me meditating on the topic covered. Other pages make me laugh my head off. Easy to carry and enjoy when traveling or waiting somewhere. Also quite useful to provoke interest in a topical study.

The scriptures lead us to the higher Christian life-real meat here-without preaching or someone elses interpretion. Great for the office, attache case, or waiting in airport terminals.

Powerful, fun, and inspires. Applicable to all denominatins and ages. I think this will make a fantastic gift ror any occasion, for both Christians and non-Christians. This is an undiscovered gem. You must check it out.

Thanks for considering my review-if it influences you to purchase the book, I would love to hear feedback! One of the best (if not the best) devotional I have ever found. Also highly recommend the devotionals in this series for teens and kids.

This little gem is insightful, profound, and funny.

Each page relates a scripture to contemporary quotes or cultural ideas. I love to browse it, and it often leaves me meditating on the topic covered. Other pages make me laugh my head off. Easy to carry and enjoy when traveling or waiting somewhere. Also quite useful to provoke interest in a topical study.

The scriptures lead us to the higher Christian life-real meat here-without preaching or someone elses interpretion. Great for the office, attache case, or waiting in airport terminals.

Powerful, fun, and inspires. Applicable to all denominatins and ages. I think this will make a fantastic gift ror any occasion, for both Christians and non-Christians. This is an undiscovered gem. You must check it out.

Thanks for considering my review-if it influences you to purchase the book, I would love to hear feedback! One of the best (if not the best) devotional I have ever found. Also highly recommend the devotionals in this series for teens and kids.

This little gem is insightful, profound, and funny.

Each page relates a scripture to contemporary quotes or cultural ideas. I love to browse it, and it often leaves me meditating on the topic covered. Other pages make me laugh my head off. Easy to carry and enjoy when traveling or waiting somewhere. Also quite useful to provoke interest in a topical study.

The scriptures lead us to the higher Christian life-real meat here-without preaching or someone elses interpretion. Great for the office, attache case, or waiting in airport terminals.

Powerful, fun, and inspires. Applicable to all denominatins and ages. I think this will make a fantastic gift ror any occasion, for both Christians and non-Christians. This is an undiscovered gem. You must check it out.

Thanks for considering my review-if it influences you to purchase the book, I would love to hear feedback! One of the best (if not the best) devotional I have ever found. Also highly recommend the devotionals in this series for teens and kids.

This little gem is insightful, profound, and funny.

Each page relates a scripture to contemporary quotes or cultural ideas. I love to browse it, and it often leaves me meditating on the topic covered. Other pages make me laugh my head off. Easy to carry and enjoy when traveling or waiting somewhere. Also quite useful to provoke interest in a topical study.

The scriptures lead us to the higher Christian life-real meat here-without preaching or someone elses interpretion. Great for the office, attache case, or waiting in airport terminals.

Powerful, fun, and inspires-one of the best (if not the best) devotional I have ever found. Also highly recommend the devotionals in this series for teens and kids.

I bought this book at full price when I saw it (not through Amazon - though I wished I'd waited) because I needed a book that would explain the ins and outs of wireless data in an enterprise. This is an excellent guide to thinking through the processes needed to establish a new wireless network. Although I would not recommend it as a sole resource, it does provide the person considering wireless a series of case studies, questions, and definitions that are quite useful. I found out about this book in an add in back of my new Newton's Telecomm Dictionary, which is a MUST for all telecomm folks.

Going Wi-Fi: A Practical Guide To Planning And Building An 802.11 Network is a straightforward manual by information technology and Internet/Intranet expert Janice Reynolds for installing a "Wi-Fi" wireless network, whether within an existing corporate network or starting from scratch. An overview of "Wi-Fi" history; an introduction to its technology; and a "walk through" of the individual steps to get started, Going Wi-FI also addresses such critically important concerns as security issues, antenna positioning, troubleshooting, and more. Packed from cover to cover with a richly detailed and "user friendly" text, Going Wi-Fi is an indispensable how-to resource for understanding and implementing Wi-Fi technology at home, in the workplace, or at school.

This large book (with small type) covers everything about WiFi, from the theory behind the underlying technology to the way it can be used in both private wireless networks and public "hot spots." It is probably the widest-ranging book on the subject.

Imagine a world where you can communicate with anyone, anywhere, and at any time without interruption. This is the world of wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) that is coming of age. Author Janice Reynolds has done an outstanding job of presenting this wonderful technology at our doorstep.

Reynolds begins by defining what Wi-Fi really is. She then goes on to explain the benefits of Wi-Fi with regards to its freedom and mobility. According to Reynolds, "Wi-Fi use is experiencing an explosive growth." She maintains that the "successful, long-term development of the Wi-Fi industry is contingent upon the availability of spectrum for its expansion." Next, the author covers signal modulation, whereby data is superimposed on or encoded onto a carrier signal wave by means of a process, which is referred to as modulation. Then, she explains why and how all of this is happening; and, how important it is to understand a bit about Wi-Fi's technology, its standards, history, and even its future. Next, the author explains why wireless LAN's foundation is built upon wired technology. Then, Reynolds examines why WLAN deployments are growing by leaps and bounds. Next, she looks at wirelessly bridging, through the use of Wi-Fi technology to provide a perfect way to connect two buildings. Then, the author gives you a valuable insight and practical knowledge of the different aspects of wireless networking technology, some general issues that each Wi-Fi flavor presents, and awareness of specific problems that may arise during implementation of the various Wi-Fi technologies. Next, Reynolds looks at how the WISP industry encompasses all businesses (for-profit and non-profit) that operate under new, although varied, business models with a common theme: providing publicly available Internet access via Wi-Fi technology. Then, she will help you determine what is best for your wireless networking environment. Next, the author provides a quick tutorial on antennae in a WLAN environment. Finally, Reynolds looks at Wi-Fi's open future.

With the preceding in mind, the author does an excellent job of making Wi-Fi an outstanding candidate for building out mainstream data networks not only in the developed world, but also in emerging markets, such as Africa, India, and China, where cost is a very important factor. Finally, with a Wi-Fi-enabled wireless infrastructure serving as the cornerstone, it is now possible for many areas of the world to leapfrog over more developed nations into a high-speed environment.

I'm a technology consultant for a Wi-Fi company, so I'm interested in books that go beyond how to set up a nice network in your home or connect to the hotspot at your local café.

I've researched quite a few books and while many offer insights into Wi-Fi, this is finally a book that offers the depth and coverage that I need.

The book covers the entire spectrum of information (pardon the pun) from the history of Wi-Fi down to the gritty details of just what a radio signal looks like, how antennae function, the nuts and bolts of the various standards, and what it really takes to roll out a secured hotspot for the home, the local café, or the business enterprise.

I especially enjoyed the insights into the entrepreneurial aspects of Wi-Fi. The book covers various business models, how the market was segmented at the time of writing, and who the players were.

The only drawback is that as a hot technology, the landscape is changing quickly. I did find that the book was dated in several areas just because it is already a few years old, and the market is changing quickly.

I do consider this a must-have on the shelf of anyone who either works with Wi-Fi or is managing projects that involve Wi-Fi, and especially those companies tapping into delivery of Wi-Fi solutions as a business model.

Graphic Design Portfolio Builder is a good supplemental book for designers and beginning students. I wrote supplemental because this book does not comprehensively cover the features of Photoshop and Illustrator software (and it wasn't suppose to) but to help beginners you get familiar with the software and up and running.

The book is very colorful, well laid out and full of useful information. What is comphrehensive is that it covers all aspects of what designers or artists would face and be challenged at work or in classrooms. Each lesson is written by an professional designers and artists with years of experience and I highly enjoyed reading the chapters so far.

The projects in the book are fairly challenging and somewhat time consuming which is good since it makes you explore the software to its full potential if you're feeling ambious.

For inspirations, I recommend you checkout other students work in the book or on their website. It really challenges you to come up with your best work and experiment with different ideas and creative concepts.

PROS:
Easy reading... lots of hands on pratice, which is also worded in an easy to understand language... Comes with a FREE membership to basically a webgroup website, but if you choose to take advantage of the service, the very authors of the book will critique and help you develop your projects, VERY HELPFUL/VERY COOL

CONS:
You have to have photoshop and illustrator in order to take advantage of this product

This book was so very helpful in aiding my desire to build a portfolio! It helped me learn more about Photoshop and Illustrator - plus gave me assignments that were reviewed and critiqued by a very helpful and polite instructor. This is more than just a book it is a full class at a book rate! I would recommend it to anyone looking for this type of work or just to improve what they already know.

[...] The company is centered around on line training in the general area of graphics design. ==This book is designed to go with one of their courses. The goal of this course is to help you create a portfolio of your work. It has a series of projects where you download various components of a project, then you do the project and post your results back on-line. A Sessions instructor will then give you a short critique of your work so you will have specific person to person contact that lets you know how you are progressing. This is kind of like working as a designer and having the client look at what you've done.

As you might well guess from the sub-title, these projects are oriented to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. This is not exactly a beginners course in these software package. You should have at least some beginning understanding of how to use these packages. The concentration hers is on improving your design skills, not on the details of the software.

Having taught graphic design for the last 13years, I am always looking for material to use as a reference or even text in my classes. This book gives many ideas on projects that students can use to create a quality looking portfolio for that first job interview. Even though I am constantly encouraging my students to go beyond the simple text assignment, many do not. This book my just give them that spark to do just that.

This volume is a needed manual for the health care provider. The general information on disease processes are invaluable. Everything needed for charting up through ICD9 coding for insurance is covered. A must have volume!

This book is essential in todays 15 min appt times to aid in quick workups of problems, speedy diagnosis and treatment of the problem.

it is a handy book . Gives practical points in different titles. good book for quick reference.

The entire "5 minute consult" series is incredible. Easy to use and up to date ... you can't ask for much more than that in today's chaotic health care arena. Thanks to Lippincott for publishing such a necessary yet accurate product.

Soy medico de Familia y el tiempo en la consulta medica en muy valioso pues veo muchos pacientes en el dia. El "Griffiths 5 Minute" me soluciono este inconveniente para mi y mis colegas pues es muy facil de encontrar lo que busco y define mi conducta frente a los problemas e inquietudes de mis pacientes. EXCELENTE!

This is the only book I've found that makes programming Word understandable. The biggest stumbling block to programming in Word is not knowing what the terms are. I was very frustrated (as a programmer for 20+years) because there was no place to find what the elements were in a consistent fashion. Woody's book solved this! Projects that would take days (head scratching to figure out how to find what I needed)are now done in minutes. Only one problem with the book: WE NEED A WORD 97 VERSION!!!

This book is a must-have for anyone who REALLY knows Word back and forth and wants to tap into its power. It's NOT for people who use Word casually and/or only use its word-processing tool.

The only problems I have with this are as follows: The book was published in '94 and is very dated; people who don't know BASIC will have some trouble with learning WordBasic, which is the underlying program language of Word; and also the fact that 3.5" floppy in the back is IMPOSSIBLE to get out! It had to use sharp scissors and use them carefully.

However, if you don't have a problem with my above complaints, and you know Word inside and out, BUY THIS BOOK

As a professional software support technician specializing in Microsoft Office products, I've found Woody Leonhard's HACKER'S GUIDE TO WORD FOR WINDOWS (2nd Ed.) to be the single best book on Microsoft Word--period. While on the surface it is a guide to the WordBasic language, what it really is, is a look inside Microsoft Word, letting you see the nuts and bolts, the cogs and wheels--and the not-so-occasional glitch. My personal copy, sitting beside my pc as I type, is very battered and dog-eared, testimony to the hard use it has received over the past year. I can recommend it without reservation to anyone using Word, writing WordBasic macros, or just plain interested in what makes a word-processing program tick

This is quite possibly the single most useful computer book I have ever bought. My company bought the original first edition after I read the rave reviews in Byte and PC-Week. I was not disappointed.

The book paid for itself within two days. I solved nagging problems which had plagued my users for months, if not years.

This book is both an astonishingly good reference book (look up a problem in the index, and you'll likely find it points you to a page with step-by-step instructions on how to fix your exact problem) and one of the most entertaining books I've ever read. On any subject.

Woody is hilarious and irreverent. He makes what could have been dreadfully dry material into a very informative, VERY entertaining read.

I loved this book so much, I personally bought the second edition when it became available and I have recommended it to everyone I know who needs to support Word for a living

My experience with this book shows Amazon's strength. Having read the other reviews, I purchased this book, and found that it more than fulfilled my expectations. It has a simple way of doing pseudo-hypertext with Word. It tells what works, what doesn't, and what work-arounds to use to get Word to work for you.

Without Amazon.com, I would never have found this excellent resource among the dozens of books on Word and WordBasic. Highly recommended.

Adobe Illustrator is a highly regarded professional software for creating digital artwork. Over the years Illustrator's capabilities have been closely identified with print publishing, where the application's high quality precise vector line-art can be scaled up or down in size and not change its resolution. It turns out there's far more uses for Illustrator than just print work. Adobe has been steadily adding features in its last three versions that make Illustrator a very valuable tool for creating Web graphics.

"The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques", by author Steve Kurth, focuses on many features that Adobe has bestowed to its latest version of Illustrator. What the book does very well is elaborate on important Web graphics features that Adobe sparingly describes in its Illustrator CS users manual, or omits all together.

Prior to reading "The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques" I've been creating navigation buttons, banners, and most other Web page visual components in PhotoShop. If I've needed to slice a graphic or create a button roll-over effect, I have relied on PhotoShop's integrated companion ImageReady. Thanks to this book I'm now much better informed about what Illustrator CS can offer, and it's going to change the way I create Web graphics.

I wouldn't recommend this book for the person who hasn't spent some time using Adobe Illustrator. The author attempts to address many of the application's basic features in the first two chapters. However, it's not going to be adequate for beginners, although users already experienced with Macromedia FreeHand or CorelDraw may find these two chapters quite useful for understanding and adapting their acquired knowledge into effectively using Illustrator CS.

Chapter Three begins explaining what makes Illustrator CS such a great tool for creating Web graphics. The author, Steve Kurth, has more than 10 years experience as a graphics professional. His "how-to's" with Illustrator CS are peppered with explanations of time-saving techniques for increasing workflow productivity when creating Web graphics with Adobe Illustrator. This is particularly the case in chapters five and six "Preparing The Work Environment" and "Preparing Single Graphics".

In Chapter Eight, "Creating Complete Pages", Steve Kurth explains and shows (with sample screen shots) how an entire Web page can be an Illustrator graphic sliced into sections that lessen the apparent wait of screen loading for dial-up users. He also explains how links can be created with specific bits of HTML code embedded into Illustrator Web graphics. Additionally, there are good explanations and examples throughout the chapter explaining how important Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) embedded code can be for precise placement and alignment of graphics in a Web page (better than HTML code instructions), and for creating fancy functional items such as drop-down menus.

With Adobe having given Illustrator CS 3-D graphics creation abilities, the possibilities for making sophisticated Web animations are exciting. Chapter Nine provides some easy-to-follow examples that certainly fueled a number of animation ideas I will be trying. Sequential frames created in Illustrator layers can be exported as a series of GIF graphics, or they can be exported to Macromedia Flash, Adobe AfterEffects or LiveMotion to create quick-loading vector graphics animations.

Chapter Ten is devoted to explaining the features, advantages, and the hopes for the Scaled Vector Graphics (SVG) format. Similar to SWF Flash files, SVG is also a quick-loading vector format that displays well in Web browsers-as long as you have the free plug-in that must be downloaded from Adobe and installed. Unlike the proprietary Flash format, SVG is an open standard. The descriptions given of SVG makes it seem considerably more versatile for website designers than SWF. The Flash plug-in, however, was introduced well before SVG and now enjoys a much larger market share. SVG's ultimate success (and survival) may hinge on developers writing future versions of Web browsers that will natively display the SVG format the way they currently support JPEG, GIF, and PNG.

"The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques" is a treasure of information. If you use Illustrator and have not moved up to CS (v. 11), the book will likely motivate an upgrade.

Tom Shackle is a freelance media professional and a member of the Alaskan Apple Users Group

I hardly ever buy books on software because they are all hard to read and follow. This book intrigued me because I am coming from an extensive print background trying to venture into web design. Who knew the program that I use on a daily basis had such web design power? This book is awesome, it's set up in a clear, easy to follow way and the author is extremely knowledgable in the ways of Illustrator. Pick up this book now!

This book was a real eye opener for me. I love Illustrator, and I've been using it for many years, but never realized it has such practical application for web design. Steve Kurth gives practical examples of ways to make your workflow more productive, and his technical expertise in Illustrator is unsurpassed.

Kurth presents a comprehensive training course in the efficient use of Illustrator and aspects that especially apply to web creation. The "Save for Web Reference" gave an excellent overview of file formats and optimizing for web.

Some features were new to me, such as exporting to CSS layers for creating motion animation and more complex design effects. Pixel dimensions when transferring art to GoLive and Dreamweaver was a very useful reference. I found the detailed color discussion most informative.

In the section on creating browser templates. Steve Kurth walks us through constructing an Illustrator template for creating a full web page, something I had never thought of doing before.

All in all, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fully and efficiently using Illustrator to design for web. It will definitely increase your production knowledge.

The Hidden Power Of Illustrator CS Web Graphics Techniques by Illustrator CS software expert Steve Kurth is a "do-it-yourself" guidebook for tapping into the depths of Adobe Illustrator's graphics capabilities with respect to an effective and attractive website presentation. Express instructions, screenshots, tutorials for advanced web tools, instructions for building one's own page, and so much more utilizing Illustrator CS software fill the pages of this resourceful and easy-to-follow instructional from cover to cover.

I got this book even though I already know Illustrator. I am a print designer and I wanted to learn web stuff, too. There was plenty of that, and current stuff too. A lot of books on web graphics were written 4 years ago and a lot has changed. This book was up-todate and pertintent. It was complete and easy-to -read.

The part that came as a surprise is that I learned a lot I didn't know about Illustrator in general while reading it. I was surprised at that. I especially liked the animation section. A good book for any Illustrator user.

Before reading Roger's book I was pretty sure I had a solid understanding of Honeypots, how they work, how they should be deployed, etc. I can honestly say that I still learned a lot from this book. Recommended for beginner to advanced user. The examples are great and very specific. Running a honeypot in a windows environment definately benefits many of my clients because they are unsure how to properly secure a *nix machine. This book showed me step-by-step how to set-up a fully functional Windows Honeypot that anyone can administer. Thanks for the great info Mr. Grimes, can't wait to read the next book.

I have been recently doing research on honeypots/nets and having read through Know Your Enemy(honeynet project) and Tracking Hackers(Lance Spitzner). Both were full of great information but this book really lays out the what it takes to have a succeful honeypot and gives step by step instructions on how to set up a few different types. Its easy to read for a beginner, and easy to follow. It's also the only good guide to honeypots on the Windows side, and as a bonus all of the tools and information are current, as it was published this year(2005).

Honeypots are an exciting technology with tremendous potential for the security community. However, one of their limitations has been they have primarily been Unix based. Roger does an outstanding job of addressing this issue, bringing them into the Windows community.

Grimes has a valid gripe. Honeypots have risen to prominence as an aggressive anti-cracker method. So that, for example, the well known Honeynet Project has been running for several years, with good results. But the bulk of these honeypot efforts has been in unix machines. If you run a network of Microsoft boxes, there is a dearth of comprehensive documentation, until this book came along.

It is written for the Microsoft sysadmin who wants to establish a honeypot that is state of the art. This could be one or more machines on her network. Grimes gives detailed instructions. Most importantly, for the honeyd program. Two chapters are devoted to its installation and running.

But even aside from whether you end up running a honeypot, the book has value. It explains network traffic analysis and various tools that aid in this, such as Snort or Ethereal. With or without a honeypot, you'll need more than a passing acquaintance with traffic analysis, and the book can aid in this.

Review by Lou Vega of the Greater Charleston .NET User Group

This book provides immediate and useful information whether you have previous experience with Honeypots or hadn't even heard of one until you picked up the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever been interested in network and systems security as it pertains to a Microsoft Windows environment, especially in light of the fact that most previous books and articles with information about Honeypots were geared toward *nix systems.

Those who have no previous experience with Honeypots and would like a background lesson can jump right into Chapters 1 and 2 which should give them a fair basic understanding of what's involved. Those persons who want to get right to work...start browsing between chapters 3 and 8 for hands on information including screenshots and installation/configuration information. Later chapters cover more advanced information concerning the monitoring and analysis of the traffic captured using your Honeypot.

The author doesn't leave you stranded with just setting up a Honeypot either. The chapters on Network Analysis, Honeypot Monitoring and alerting, and Honeypot data analysis give you a chance to begin to make real use of the Honeypot and the data gathered while using it. The walkthroughs for setting these analysis and monitoring tools seem easy enough and the author makes good use of available open source tools out there for those who don't have the budget for some of the commercial applications available.

An added bonus for any networking security person is the wealth of information concerning how to harden a Windows Server, common ports used in malware and numerous configuration demonstrations make this a handy book to keep as a general security reference.

This book will make a fine addition to any IT professional's reference collection.

I don't even have an iMac yet. I purchased this book to learn more about them and I did. It answered all of my questions completely and opened my eyes to a number of abilities the iMac has that I hadn't realized.

I have had my Indigo iMac for 1 1/2 years now. I bought
several beginner books, being a computer 'newbie'.
This book is so fantastic (it's big), but even if you don't
have time to read it cover-to-cover, you can jump into
any section you want to learn about, and you will never
feel frustrated learning to use the computer. It is fantastic,
everything concise, clear, and above all the MOST
comprehensive iMac manual I have found! A must have,
just amazing. It's got it all!

This book goes into great detail about both the iMac hardware and the software programs included with it. It is very well written, with easy-to-follow instructions and explanations as well as lots of illustrations and screen shots. The index is comprehensive and helpful. This book covers all iMac models up to the most current iMac DV, and has very useful explanations of and instructions for using System 9. It also functions as a very good manual for AppleWorks and other software. I bought this book for my 73-year-old father, who has never used a computer before, and I recommend it for everyone who is buying an iMac for the first time.

I bought this book 2 days after purchasing my IMac, and boy was it helpful! It takes you through all the steps you need to REALLY get your machine up and running! This is a must have for people who are new to the Mac and work on PCs mostly.

Just as the title says this book provides you with instructions on how to do virtually everything with your iMac (hey, somebody can probably think of a useful iMac job it does'nt address). "Todd" starts off with setup and goes from there, even presenting options in peripherals (external drives), and software (utilities). This book is basic enough to be understood by a new iMac user and goes far enough to probably help a "techie". I initially bought this book to help me get to know the machine before it was delivered--now I keep my copy next to my iMac for reference.