Internet Books

I had little knowledge on the subject of AJAX, but this book enlightened me. I could scope out the capabilities of this technology by reading a few key chapters. Now I understand the AJAX used in the enterprise level application I now maintain, plus a lot more. If you're a .NET programmer, I think you'll like the way this material is presented.

Matt and Dan's ASP.NET AJAX book is an excellent one. It is packed with useful content, and contains a lot of great code examples that demonstrate real-world usage examples.

The book covers all of the core ASP.NET AJAX Scenarios:

- Server-Side Controls (UpdatePanel, UpdateProgress, etc)
- Client-side libraries
- Networking Stack
- Application Services
- AJAX Control Toolkit

Matt Gibbs is the development manager of ASP.NET at Microsoft, and led the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 development team - so obviously knows his stuff well. Dan Wahlin is a great trainer and presenter of ASP.NET and ASP.NET AJAX. You are in very good hands with them.

I highly recommend this book.

Very well-organized, easy to follow and provided a great starting point for the ASP.NET AJAX framework. Even if you've been surfing the ASP.NET AJAX documentation you'll still pickup some good tips and information from this book.

I have nearly completed my first tour through the book. It is well-organized, written with considerable clarity, possesses a reasonable number of focused examples, and covers ALL the bases in good depth, including deployment and custom controls. Some very minor deficiencies are a scattered few forward references and a muddling of the details of JSON serialization when accessing web services, but the errata and future printings will hopefully clear these up soon.

Thua I strongly recommend it as the FIRST book to introduce yourself seriously to mainstream AJAX 2.0.

Just got a copy of this new book on ASP.NET AJAX and it looks great. It should be because Matt is the Development Manager for ASP.NET so he deeply understands the product. He has also worked on several other books and I can personally attest to the fact that he can indeed form complete sentences. ;-)
Seriously, this book is straight from the source and contains good, detailed information about the ASP.NET AJAX release that applies equally well today and in Visual Studio 2008

As with all O'Reilly books there's a great intro to the technologies. They take you through how it works, not just how to deploy some code. When you get to the XML-RPC modules, they don't force a solution on you, but give a great tour of what's available and let you pick. For me, the highlight was the intro to Randy J. Ray's RPC::XML modules (he's also one of the authors). I've been fighting with getting the 'system.*' handlers hacked in with other aproaches and it was great to see someone had already figured out such a clean approach. (Which is something since Perl can get reeeaaal ugly!) This book has saved me many days of wasted development.

And yet this book covers every aspect of web service development utilizing perl. As a long time user of the original Frontier::RPC2 module, things have come a long way, and with that greater complexity, the concepts have grown in scope considerably. This IS the book that you want to read if you REALLY want to understand SOAP and XML-RPC. From the XML DTD's to implementation code (either standalone applications or utilizing mod_perl) this book covers everything in between. In all it is a welcome addition to the O'Reilly family of Perl books.

As with all O'Reilly books there's a great intro to the technologies. They take you through how it works, not just how to deploy some code. When you get to the XML-RPC modules, they don't force a solution on you, but give a great tour of what's available and let you pick. For me, the highlight was the intro to Randy J. Ray's RPC::XML modules (he's also one of the authors). I've been fighting with getting the 'system.*' handlers hacked in with other aproaches and it was great to see someone had already figured out such a clean approach. (Which is something since Perl can get reeeaaal ugly!) This book has saved me many days of wasted development.

Some time ago, I purchased a different book: "Programming Web Services With SOAP" (ASIN: 0596000952), and my feeling - and that of many others - is that it was very weak. A decent view from 30,000 feet, but it was not very helpful to a perl developer thrown kicking and screaming into a project requiring XML and the use of SOAP::Lite. "Disappointment" was the best way to describe it.

But *THIS* is the book that the other one should have been - it's fantastic. It is chock-full of real live examples *with code*, the introductory and explanatory material is excellent, and the writing style is simply a joy to read.

In particular, the reference material for SOAP::Lite is very much welcome: it was written by the author of the code.

Five very glowing stars for this book.

Programming Web Services with Perl is principally a book on implementing solutions using XML-RPC and SOAP in Perl. It also covers complementary and alternative standards such as WSDL, UDDI, and REST in some detail. And on the periphery, it finishes with a whirlwind tour of developing message routing, alternative data encoding within XML, security, transactions, workflow, internationalization, service discovery, extension, and management techniques and specifications.

The book assumes the reader will have the knowledge of an intermediate level Perl programmer. I.e., the reader is assumed to have a working knowledge of references, data structures, and object-oriented Perl. On the other hand no previous knowledge of XML, XML-RPC, SOAP or XML related technologies is required.

It should also be mentioned that both of the authors Randy J. Ray and Pavel Kulchenko are also the principle developers of the most popular XML-RPC and SOAP Perl modules: XML::RPC and SOAP::Lite respectively. That said, the book is not a soap box for the authors to tout the merits of their tools.

Rather, it is a practical book which starts with grounding fundamentals. Readers should walk away with a core understanding of XML-RPC and SOAP and not just a particular tool set for working with them. The authors examine the alternative XML-RPC and SOAP tools, illustrate how they are used, and give practical and even handed reasons why their modules should be preferred. Which comes down to issues of features, active development, support, and the amount of work required to code to a particular interface. They then settle down to a comfortable and thorough guide to XML::RPC and SOAP::Lite.

The topics and issues are illustrated throughout using real world web services. For example creating an XML-RPC client for O'Reilly's Meerkat news wire, or a SOAP client to covert use.perl.org's journal stream to RSS. Code is presented to the reader filtered down to highlight each particular issue as it is discussed. This is nice in that it avoids listing slight variations of the same code multiple times, but on the down side it can also leave the reader flipping back and forth to reassemble an example in their head. Full code for each example is provided in the appendices. And all of the example code may be downloaded from O'Reilly at [their web site].

All-in-all, the book is a thorough practical introduction to working with XML-RPC, SOAP and related technologies. When I started reading the book, I was a bit disappointed to see that it only covered XML-RPC and SOAP related services. When I finished, I was impressed with how very much information they'd managed to pack into so few pages.

And yet, I was left wishing there'd been a more through coverage of interoperability issues between other SOAP implementations and things like custom de-serializers. To be honest interoperability and de-serialization are mentioned, and the authors do an excellent job of referring the reader on to sources for continued reading on most other topics.

The book does an admirable job balancing content, length, and information density. Not to mention an excellent job delivering the information that will still be relevant years and not just weeks from the date published. Most of the topics I'd wished to see covered in more depth are those that are still developing and consequently most likely to become quickly dated. In short a well balanced practical guide to applying XML-RPC and SOAP to solve problems.

While at first I thought O'Reilly's new "developer's notebook" series seemed a bit hokey, this book is extremely useful. It's concise and to the point, but full of good examples and information. A plus of the small size is that it's more to-the-point and cheaper than a typical O'Reilly book (which very often seem to ramble on and on about marginally useful information, seemingly in order to justify their $45+ price tags).

This book is the one that should have been written for Java Media Framework, if only that API had ever lived up to its expectations. If you want to add media to your application, and you are using Java, Quicktime is your best bet. However, note that if the Quicktime for Java API doesn't seem very Java-like or object-oriented at first glance, then that's probably because it's not. That is because with Quicktime for Java you are not working with pure Java. Instead, you're invoking a flat C API to create and manipulate C or Pascal data structures using a thin Java wrapper. If you can live with that and you still want to use Quicktime for Java, this book is the essential guide and tutorial you need to get up and running. The book does not waste your time with API printouts or a Java programming language tutorial. Instead, like all books in the Developer's Notebook series, it gets down to business quickly by demonstrating working Java code for a number of useful tasks when working with media.

First, it tutors you on how to set up Quicktime for Java on a Windows machine. This task is more complex than you would think, and this book hits the mark on the subject. Next, it shows you how to play movies and audio files from your Java program. Next, the book tackles the editing of movies from a Java application. This includes topics such as cutting, pasting, going to specific frames of a movie, and "flattening" a movie. In Chapter four, the programmer is introduced to working with Java components and importing and exporting graphics. In chapter five, the user is introduced to working with QuickDraw, the Apple-originated drawing API. This is essential, since QuickDraw is what is used to work with captured images. Thus in this chapter the reader is taught how to transfer data between images and a movie. Next, the art of capturing both video and audio is explored, including capturing audio and video to the same file. The chapter is rounded out with the code for a motion detector. Chapter seven is devoted entirely to audio media. There are particularly timely topics here, such as how to read information from MP3 and from iTunes AAC files, how to provide basic audio controls, and how to build an audio track from raw samples. Similar information is provided in a separate chapter for information specific to video media.The final chapter discusses the effects available in Quicktime for Java, as well as how to add text captions and timecodes to your media.

All in all, I think the Developer Notebook format works well for this subject. At the beginning of each chapter there is an outline of the topics to be covered. For each topic there is a "How Do I Do That?" section that includes a short piece of Java code that performs the specified task. There is also a sample of the output you would expect to see on the screen that should result from executing the code. Next there is a paragraph entitled "What Just Happened?" that explains the code just shown, and finally each topic usually ends with a "What about.." section that answers common questions you may have about extending the code just shown. All code in the book can be downloaded from the book's website at O'Reilly and Associates.

This book is essential reading for anybody who needs to understand how to code with Quicktime for Java, and it is far better than any other publication on the subject that I have encountered. Amazon does not show the table of contents for this book, so I do so for the purpose of completeness:
Chapter 1. GETTING UP AND RUNNING WITH QUICKTIME FOR JAVA
Setting Up QTJ on Windows
Embedding QuickTime in HTML
Preflighting a QTJ Installation
Compiling QTJ Code
Opening and Closing the QuickTime Session
Playing an Audio File from the Command Line
Chapter 2. PLAYING MOVIES
Building a Simple Movie Player
Adding a Controller
Getting a Movie-Playing JComponent
Controlling a Movie Programmatically
Showing a Movie's Current Time
Listening for Movie State-Changes
Moving Frame by Frame
Playing Movies from URLs
Preventing "Tasking" Problems
Chapter 3. EDITING MOVIES
Copying and Pasting
Performing "Low-Level" Edits
Undoing an Edit
Undoing and Redoing Multiple Edits
Saving a Movie to a File
Flattening a Movie
Saving a Movie with Dependencies
Editing Tracks
Chapter 4. WORKING WITH COMPONENTS
Specifying a Component's Type
Exporting Movies
Exporting Movies to Any Installed Format
Importing and Exporting Graphics
Discovering All Installed Components
Chapter 5. WORKING WITH QUICKDRAW
Getting and Saving Picts
Getting a Pict from a Movie
Converting a Movie Image to a Java Image
A Better Movie-to-Java Image Converter
Drawing with Graphics Primitives
Getting a Screen Capture
Matrix-Based Drawing
Compositing Graphics
Chapter 6. CAPTURE
Capturing and Previewing Audio
Selecting Audio Inputs
Capturing Audio to Disk
Capturing Video to Disk
Capturing Audio and Video to the Same File
Making a Motion Detector
Chapter 7. AUDIO MEDIA
Reading Information from MP3 Files
Reading Information from iTunes AAC Files
Providing Basic Audio Controls
Providing a Level Meter
Building an Audio Track from Raw Samples
Chapter 8. VIDEO MEDIA
Combining Video Tracks
Overlaying Video Tracks
Building a Video Track from Raw Samples
Chapter 9. MISCELLANEOUS MEDIA
Creating Captions with Text Media
Creating Links with HREF Tracks
Adding Timecodes
Creating Zero-Source Effects
Creating One-Source Effects (Filters)
Creating Two-Source Effects (Transitions)

This book is great!

This notebook makes all the QuickTime supported formats available to a Java developer. Like all the books in the notebook series, plenty of code, plenty of information to get up and running.

I really liked the information on reading the tag info from MP3s and AAC files, very useful.

Multimedia and Java made simple.

With this type of walkthrough book I usually expect to see just the basic features of the technology explored. This book goes surprisingly in-depth, covering topics like adding effects to playback, transforming movies during playback, overlays, and a wide variety of topics.

All that is crammed into a trim 200 page frame. This is achieved by concentrating mainly on the code, and effectively using a minimum of images. That's a trick given the graphics intensive nature of the topic.

This is not a book for beginners, it's a fast-paced walkthrough for experience developers who want something less referential than the JavaDocs.

With Apple changing QuickTime for Java so anything you made when
use QTJava under MacOSX Java1.3 no longer worked under Java1.4 these required changes to most of your older QTJava code- if you wanted to have your code now run under Java1.4. Apple also moved classes to a new packages so to make the developers nightmare complete. BUT DONT WORRY! This book will show you workarounds for them missing classes (sequence grabbing is back! what a gem). Also covers all your needs as a new developer to the powers of QTJava. Time to make your very own QuickTime player in a few hours! You won't believe the stuff QuickTime can do under the hood. This books covers just more and more stuff as you go though it.

For me this QuickTime for Java book will be sitting next to the older most excellent book from Bill Stewart. I hope all books become as clear and well written as this one from Chris Adamson- top work. Sample code all over the shop; step by step stuff. Cuts to the tasks you will have to tackle without lengthy messing around. Brilliant buy if you want to do cool hardcore design media in java. Or just play a nice sound track in the background of your killer application - maybe u want to make the next video editing studio app, or your own media player, or a streaming server, or a image editor, or or or; you want ta take a ride?

Then again don't buy it! I wont have a job to go to in the morning! :).

As a beginner quilter and novice computer user, I found this book to be well worth sitting up late last night, eagerly devouring the wisdom that Heim and Hansen have compiled. Using simple, concise directions and "down to earth" discussion, they have covered all of the topics that formerly cowed me into believing that I should've lived 100 years ago! Now I'm eager to integrate my love of quilting with the new love of computers and the information superhighway! The yellow pages of web addresses are especially useful to someone located in the wilds of Northern Maine. Often, internet access is my only contact with the outside world! A simple comparision of the available software programs have helped me to narrow my search for the next acquisition - quilting software!

I highly recommend this book to any quilter who has access to a computer. It's loaded with excellent tutorials, clear illustrations, helpful advice, tips, and gorgeous quilts. This book has kick-started my creative juices, and I find I'm referring to it over and over again. It's an amazing reference. Heim and Hansen are quite a team!

I must commend Heim and Hansen for taking such a complex world as computers and reducing it to concepts the average quilter can easily understand and follow. It is also a nice feature that this book encompasses both the PC world and that of the Mac usuers. A goodly portion of the book is dedicated to walking the reader through the processes Gloria Hansen used to design her award winning quilts. This will inspire many who have been daunted by the process. The authors analyze many of the software programs available giving insight to their use in design as only seasoned quilters could. They also discuss so many aspects of printing, scanning and the internet with a wondeful section of Internet Yellow Pages chock full of exceptional web sights from quilters from traditional, through contemporary to art quilters.

This is THE book to integrate the art of Quilting with the skill of the Computer. Judy and Gloria have brought the high tech words into the realm of the everyday person.

Hats OFF for a job Well Done. !!!

Since I bought this book (just several days ago) I have learned more about my computer in general, quilting, drawing and paint programs, and what I want, what I need and where to find it all, oh yes, and how to use it all than in the 4 or so years I have had my computer. I highly recommend this book as a source for all quilters who own computers.

if you are new to business process improvement this book is helpful. it gives a short but to the point descriptions of the previous concepts in this area. and also it does a good job of explaining business process modeling and design. however, the author repeats the same ideas over and over, even same figures. The whole idea could have been explained in 30-40 pages. CD and software (eval. copy) is supports the topic and the content.
3.5 stars would be more precise..

Great book, with excellent practical applicability. Does not get lost in unneccesary theory but focusses on real life applications. Some BP notations are being replaced by more contemporary BPMN developed by BPMI.org. However this book still has its usefulness.

focused, complete and ready to use

related titles, Anupindi et al. (1999) Managing Business Process Flows; Keen & McDonald (2000) The eProcess Edge; Dutton (1999) Society on the Line

Omar El Sawy has succeeded in making Business Process Reengineering concepts and implementation accessible to every business person and student.

Many BPR books tend to bog the reader down with jargon, but El Sawy's book clearly explains BPR concepts, issues, and implementation steps. Implementation is the operative word here: the objective is to get the reader to jump into modeling processes and then optimize/reengineer those processes. The software included in the package is essential for helping one get their arms around a BPR project by "doing". The first part of the book examines the BPR raison d'etre. Concepts and issues are laid out in a very readable fashion. The second section uses the included Holosofx Workflow.BPR software to provide a hands-on experience, from scoping the project through modeling, analyzing, and redesigning a business process. The steps required to create a process model in Workflow.BPR are very well illustrated and presented such that a person unfamiliar with the tool can get functional right away. The final two chapters deal with reengineering supply chains and integration options (e.g. workflow engines, XML) respectively.

Interspersed throughout the book are case studies that further illustrate how BPR projects have been conducted in the real world. Especially interesting for me was the RosettaNet case study, where an industry consortium redesigned the entire process flow for the IT industry.

I highly recommend this book for both novices as well as business professionals. eBusienss is enabling huge changes in how business is conducted, but without a clear methodology for understanding and reengineering processes, much of what could be gained may go unrealized.

As a participant in the world of BPR, I found this book to be very effective in delivering groundbreaking knowledge and concepts of this science. It is presented in a very readable fashion, tailored to both the Business Professionals at all levels, as well as students.

This book does a great job educating the reader on what an e-Business process is and what the concepts entailed are. It also presents a very powerful methodology for redesigning processes to achieve optimization. This is all achieved by presenting unique case studies, and using state-of-the-art process modeling software from Holosofx. Dr. El Sawy teaches you how to use the software in modeling a process, analyzing it, and redesigning it for optimal performance.

I strongly recommend this book to any one who believes in Business Process Management and Business Process Reengineering.

This book, now in its third edition, is a great introduction to library research for undergraduates and upper division high school students who are heading off to college soon. I'm planning on using it in for high school advanced library research course.
The author, a college librarian in British Columbia, gives a step-by-step introduction to the "information fog" and deals with such topics as defining the need for research and refining a topic, using keyword searching and metadata and controlled vocabularies, library catalogs and online databases, general internet research and other research sources.
A strength of the book is the humorous approach which tones down what most other authors seem to take too seriously. In his preface, for example, Badke states: "This book is definitely for you if you are: a university student whose term papers have been patented as a cure for insomnia; a Dilbert of industry who's been told to do a feasibility study on the expansion potential of ice cream bar sales in Nome, Alaska; a simple honest citizen trying to find the truth behind the advertising so that the next car you buy won't be like your last disaster-mobile, the car that made you persona non grata at the automobile association."
I had an earlier edition of this title which I liked also and so when I discovered the 3rd edition had been published I immediately ordered it. The way that the world of research changes continually means that what was once cutting edge is no longer so and having the latest is really important. I was impressed that the book mentions the Amazon Kindle which was only made available last (2007) November.
I reviewed several other similar recently published texts on information literacy but this one definitely is heads and shoulder above them all in terms of usefulness, cost and a light touch to a rather dry subject.

We live in the "information age". Communication on the information highway is fast pace. However, the problem is most of us don't have the map needed to travel that highway and so we have great challenges finding the destination. The material in Dr. Badke's book is the road map to the information highway. This book is the "GPS" to the information highway.

If readers follow this guide, they should be able to access the information needed much quicker and easier. It will save students valuable time as they learn research skills and strategies needed (needed for college and universities assignments). It will also make the research more accurate, as the student learns how to access information written by the best scholars in the field. A small price to pay for a resource is worth so much.

The author writes in an easy to read style. Hint: to get the most benefit out of this resource, take the time to do the practice exercises before getting involved in your actual research. If you do this, it should take you less time to do the actual research for your assignments. Try it. It works.

This update to Badke's previous work on library research is excellent. I teach Language and Research at a Bible college and used to use his first book as required reading for my students. I was so disappointed when it went out of print. Now, this updated version is my new requirement. This book is written with the same humor and simplicity as the first, but with updated information that is a must. Dealing with electronic research is now the norm and Badke explains it very, very well. This is a must have resource for anyone taking on research.

"Research Strategies" is written with humor and in an easy to understand style making this a must have book for anyone wanting to do justice to a research assignment. The author covers the basics of how to develop a good research question; the importance of research strategies - what they are and how to use them; how to take notes and organize a paper. There are numerous examples that illustrate the strategies and most chapters end with study guide questions and ways to practice the concepts as well as assignment suggestions.
As a high school librarian I was excited to find this book and plan to use it a a teaching tool for research.

This book serves as a useful introduction to research techniques and options for the late high school or early-to-mid-level college student beginning research. Badke's writing focuses on finding sources and writing research papers. The writing assumes no current knowledge of conducting research of any kind, so parts may be simplistic for many, but there is a wealth of great research strategies within.

He begins with a look at paper design, and the place from which to begin your research. He then moves to database, periodical and internet searches. He then discusses how to formulate your research into a working topic, and organizing your data.

He writes for people who have never really used a library effectively or used a computer for research. Overall, this is a superb introduction to research that should be read by anyone attempting research.

I am surprised and pleased with this book, covers all the current technologies in use and in development for RBB, in a technical way and also in a commercial and marketing way, that combination result in a very complete and good book, I strongly recommend it

George's writing style is excellent. He merges concepts from broadcast, telephony, data, and video with ease. Although the topic can be quite technical, George's focus is on the basic engineering challenges to solved. Business types will love his economic and market analysis.

I have to thank my friend Paul at Cisco who gave this book to me as a token of our friendship. I enjoy the book's content and author's style of presentation very much. To investors interested in the high tech industry, this book offers a comprehensive view on the latest technology and development which will have profound impact on the outcome of voice, data and vedio delivery infrastructure and market in the future.

This book is very clearly written and a very good reference for anyone in the broadband arena.

The author does a great job of condensing everything to do with broadband while staying on track and not straying from the subject.

Great book.

An excellent summary of the several broadband technologies that are currently searching for a marketplace. This book is notable for it's strong sense of organization and it's consistent level of detail. If you're interested in broadband network technology this book is a good stepping off point for something more technical. If you're trying to learn enough to make a buck by betting on a winning technology, this book will give you the basic understanding of broadband networks that you will need to decipher the steady stream of press releases that are coming from the companies that are betting millions on the broadband marketplace. I liked the book.

We finally have a book that pulls several different IOS security strategies together. So many references prior to this one touch on these topics sporadically but I have yet to find a better resource that covers all the bases as does this one.

The things I like about this book:

So many authors tend to try to spread their subject matter out too wide and take too broad of an approach when writing about network security. Schudel and Smith didn't do that. Instead they focused on specific areas and worked diligently to stay on target. It was very refreshing to read a book that actually didn't wander off on tangential subjects on a regular basis.

As for actual subject matter I was very pleased to find a book that discussed the various "planes" within Cisco IOS. In my opinion Cisco has not been very good about documenting this subject and so this book has cleared up several knowledge gaps I had prior to reading it. All of the bits of information I've heard or read about in the past were pulled together in a clear and concise manner. It was also pleasing to see just the right amount of configuration "shows" rather than pages and pages of them.

I also was very happy that this book was not full of fluff. The authors used just enough background info to convey their message but did not go overboard in non-essential detail. As with any technical reference I prefer thorough and correct information but many times there is just too much description that just gets in the way.

Some reviewers stated that the authors repeated themselves within this book. For me this was not a negative. There are certain topics that I very much need repeated in order to retain it thoroughly and so this was not a problem for me. The repetitious content was neither significant nor time consuming so I consider it to be a positive rather than a negative.

The things I do not like about this book:

This is trivial but I would have much preferred a hardback book rather than a paperback. This is a personal preference of course but hardbacks tend to last longer for me.

That's just yet another great title from Cisco Press!. This book does a great job of logically dividing the overall router security into each logical context by way of describing the router's planes. I also found very elaborate and diverse "Further Reading" towards the end of each chapter very useful. I particularly liked the idea of overall structure and quality of contents in the book which relate to both a casual and an advanced reader!

Book is structured into four Parts;

Part I focuses on laying the foundation for the rest of the book. It achieves this purpose by talking about the Enterprise and SP network fundamentals. This also includes day-in-the-life-of-a-packet through various router switching mechanisms. Chapter 2 re-hashes the network security/threat models but does a nice job of dividing it into various aspects of architectures including various IP VPNs scenarios.

For an advanced reader, this should serve as a nice refresher!

Part II introduces you to real meat of router security, i.e., securing the router planes in both IP and MPLS networks. Authors do a good job of describing the details of each component. Chapters in this section contain working details and IOS configuration snippets to enhance the understanding of various concepts discussed. An advanced user will find all the details given here very useful, and prefer read them cover to cover.

Part III walks you through various case studies to further the concepts explained in the prior chapters. I particularly like the idea of covering both Enterprise and SP case studies. It provides use cases, application examples, and best practices guidelines for the key concepts discussed in the whole book

In Part IV, I very much like the idea of not just copying pasting the headers as-is, rather adding the security implications of each and putting them into its context. Cisco IOS to IOS-XR Security transition is also useful although to mostly SP audience.

This book discusses security as in Router planes for both IP and MPLS VPNs Security. A few times you can notice that authors are repeating themselves.

Overall, I strongly recommend this book to all network security engineers as MPLS (due to its inherent advantages and applications) is gaining momentum not only in the service provider space but also in the enterprise market segment.

Router Security Strategies is a book about protecting ip networks by dividing them into different segments. Network engineers for service providers and larger enterprise networks will benefit most from this manual.

Chapters 1 through 7 are not a cookbook that you can look up sample configurations, but a broad coverage of security concerns. The authors spend these chapters leading the reader to an understanding of how ip traffic can be broken down into different categories, and how to define them as well as the particular vulnerabilities each has.

Schudel and Smith describe a three dimensional way of looking at security. Whereas we may have previously thought of securing each interface in a path, this book explodes this view into a multi-dimensional paradigm of data, control, management, and services. Like parallel universes each must be addressed separately while maintaining a big picture of how each plane can affect the other. The data plane is the actual payload for applications. The control plane indicates protocols that keep the traffic flowing to their destination. The management plane concerns the network administrator's access to the equipment. Special features such as Virtual Private Networks and Quality of Service constitute the services plane.
Chapters 8 and 9 give case studies that include diagrams, numbered line configurations, with documentation.

Appendix B details of each section of IP, TCP, and other protocol packets with vulnerabilities for each part. This is the first time I have seen this type of break down and found it made several aspects of attacks clearer to me. There are several other appendices that cover the IOS XR image and an excellent section on security incident handling that one could use as an outline for their company to use. I give Router Security Strategy 5 stars.

Gregg Schudel's and David Smith's book, "Sec Router Security Strategies: Securing IP Network Traffic Planes (Networking Technology: Security)", provided some of the best layering of security technologies I've read to date. It provides the needed understanding of security concerns and the methods to control them, from the bottom of the stack within the box to the top, deep into the application layers. Because it includes both IT and SP network considerations, I'm able to recommend this to all my consulting engineers.

D. Stewart, Engineering Manager
DeBrick Consulting

Router Security Strategies (RSS) is the sort of Cisco security book I like to read. Some of you were surprised by my three star review of another recent Cisco security book -- LAN Switch Security (LSS). I suggest the authors of that book take a look at RSS as a model for writing a second edition of LSS. RSS is well-organized, very clear, and backed by plenty of actionable command syntax. Were it not for a tendency to unnecessarily repeat and summarize material, I would have rated RSS five stars. Nevertheless, anyone operating Cisco routers would do well to consider how RSS approaches the network security problem.

RSS focuses on ways to protect transit, receive, and exception IP traffic in the data, control, management, and service planes of Enterprise and Service Provider (SP) networks. That one sentence almost summarizes the entire table of contents, where Chs 4-7 cover the four planes, Chs 8 and 9 provide case studies for Enterprise and SP networks, respectively, and Chs 1-3 provide introductory and conceptual material. This is how to write a technical book! Tangential material appears in four appendices, and the authors keep the reader on track through the entire text.

RSS makes a compelling case for network security in a world where applications and Web 2.0 are all the rage. I believe many people who scoff at network security have no real idea of the complexities inherent in modern network infrastructure. Too many application-centric people take it for granted that they can reach whatever Web victim they're attacking; perhaps that is a credit to network engineers who've made their creations just work and not be the center of attention. Should attackers decide to focus on network infrastructure, RSS provides plenty of techniques for defending routers and even some switches. I enjoyed learning more about several uRPF techniques, Flexible Pattern Matching (FPM), Selective Packet Discard, Receive ACLS, Control Plane Policing, Dynamic APR Inspection (DAI), and CLI Views. Many of these methods exist to protect the network itself, not necessarily the endpoints. While the authors do mention a desire to protect hosts, I liked seeing such a focus on defending infrastructure. Perhaps "network security" should be a term transitioned to solely mean protecting network platforms?

I thought Appendix B would be the standard catalog of TCP/IP header diagrams, but I was pleasantly described to see a different approach. App B did depict IP, TCP, UDP, ICMP, IEEE 802.3, and 802.1Q headers, but the authors provide a security implication for each field in these headers. I found that to be original and informative.

I subtracted one star for two aspects of the book which bothered me. First, the authors tend to use the term "threat" in a manner which is not consistent with real threat terminology. For example, p 87 speaks of "the potential threat and impact of a given vulnerability". Threat, impact, and vulnerability are all separate concepts. Ch 2, where such terminology appears, is titled "Threat Models for IP Networks." If you read the chapter it is a catalog of attacks, which sections titled "Resource Exhaustion Attacks", "Spoofing Attacks", and so on. Clearly Ch 2 is "Attack Models for IP Networks".

Second, although the material in RSS is excellent, the authors' tendency to repeat concepts wore me down. It's usually acceptable to begin a section by referencing and/or rephrasing material from an earlier chapter, or at worst farther back in the same chapter. It's simply annoying to be told the same material that appeared in the last paragraph. Any time the reader encounters "as stated in the last section" or similar, the authors should reconsider discussing the concept again. Edits like these wouldn't necessarily shrink the book that much, but the text would not treat the reader as if he or she has too short an attention span to remember what he or she just read.

Despite those two concerns, I still very much enjoyed reading RSS. You will probably get more out of the book if you have MPLS experience, but the authors provide plenty of background anyway. One of the best aspects of RSS is the presentation of extensive IOS syntax for all of the major concepts in the book. The authors do not talk about a technique and then leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine how that idea should be implemented in IOS. Those trying to protect data, control, management, and service IP traffic will be well-served by reading RSS.

Brought the hardcover book on Amazon at a Cheaper price. My daughter loved the book (she also owns the doll). Book was delivered in a timely fashion and was not damaged. Packaging was great and the book came with a surprise free necklace. My child loved it.

I really thought it was awesome. What I really liked about it was that you could really picture in your mind what things would have been like in the Victorian times. Everybody might enjoy it too.

This is a collection of the first six books of the Samantha series. Of course the stories are great on their own, but how cool to have all six books bound together. Why don't they publish these series like this more readily? Can't wait to buy all eight girls' stories in this format.

This is a beautifully illustrated, great story book for young girls. Also good reading for adults as well. I wish this edition had included a Look Into The Past section at the end of the book, instead of the preview of Nellie's book. But the "Welcome To Samantha's World" book fills in the omitted information.

A friend and I compared the Boxed Set of Samantha's 6 stories and this All in One Book and were surprised that this version is lacking the informative "Looking Back" sections that are at the end of each of the 6 stories. The Welcome to Samantha's World book that you can buy separately does include some of the photographs and captions from these "Looking Back" sections. But it was slightly disappointing to see them omitted in this newer editionof the American Girls series. It's a beautiful and convenient book, and the stories are wonderful, but if you really want the nonfiction history included originally, buy them separetely or in the boxed set. It is interesting to note that another girl's (Kit ?) new all-in-one edition did include a Looking Back Section for at least one of the stories...so check before you buy if that part is important to you.

This book is the best! It answered so many of my questions that I had about traveling. This is such a great resource for traveling. It also give tons of useful websites.

The book "Sams Teach Yorself e-Travel Today" was a great way for me to search the web for travel tips. I was able to take what the author has suggested and use it to plan a great vacation. I was a novice about online travel until I read this guide book. I suggest anyone be they novice or seasoned web user to read this before they use the web for Travel tips.

I loved this book! Mr. Orwoll took something which could have been dreadfully boring and made it so interesting I went online immediately after reading it and booked myself a trip! This is a great introduction for those who don't really know anything about the internet and travel, but also serves as an excellent resource for those who think they know everything. Funny anecdotes and comprehensive examples are found in abundance. This is my new resource for internet travel!

This book is the most useful, well-written, easy-to-read book of its type I have ever read. And as the former editor of National Geographic Traveler magazine, I can speak here with a degree of authority. The book is chock full of useful, practical tips on how to get valuable travel planning information via the internet and save money at the same time. A first-rate writer, Mr. Orwoll takes the reader by the hand and navigates through the maze of internet travel information in a way that makes the whole business of electronic travel planning clear and accessible. Not only that, it's also just plain fun to read. This book deserves to make it to the best-seller list. --Richard Busch

The real world is getting smaller but the Internet, we all know, is growing more complex and difficult to navigate. A few years ago we were reading books the size of telephone directories which contained URLs (the addresses of web pages) for the entire Web. Lately a new breed of books has sprouted, which cover one and only one subject in great depth. The difficult part about writing (and reading) many of these books is that the author needs to be a specialist in two fields: not only his own area of expertise, but also his subject in relation to the variegated resources on the Net. Fortunately, Mark Orwoll is a skilled guide in both these realms, and his new book, e-TRAVEL, is as useful and convenient as a credit card. Sams Teach Yourself Today e-Travel: Planning Vacations, Finding Bargains, And Booking Reservations Online is divided into five parts. The first, "Getting Started in e-Travel" is a guided tour of various resources about the Internet, including a savvy section on the essential theme: "Evaluating a Web Site's Accuracy and Validity." Part II, "Planning a Vacation on the Internet", includes a nifty quiz: "What's Your e-Travel type?" Part III explains how to be your own travel agent, and how to use the Internet to find the lowest rates and fares. Part IV discusses your laptop computer, passports, visas, customs, digital photography, organizing your money, and keeping yourself safe. Lastly, you'll find a collection of practical travel-minded websites. Keep in mind, regarding everything related to the Web, that things change quickly. Recently a number of major airlines announced that they would create a super-website for travelers. I couldn't find this site mentioned in the book, but readers who are interested in news like this can keep updated at Orwoll's daily travel advice column. There's an enormous amount of essential information throughout this entertaining guide. Orwoll, the managing editor for "Travel and Leisure Magazine", has been there, done that, and shared the best of his inside tips. And it's all served up in a witty style: Orwoll is as pleasant a traveling companion as you'll encounter anywhere. Sams Teach Yourself Today e-Travel is almost certain to save us time and money, teach us how to explore the world from our computer keyboards, and improve the overall quality and enjoyment of our trips. Paperback, 302 pages,

Michael Pastore, Reviewer