Backup Books

Maxine Gadd is one of the best poets in Canada, and yet strangely enough one of the severely underpublished. BACKUP TO BABYLON collects three books by her from the period of 1972 through 1987; I hope there's a followup to give us her more recent poetry, but anyhow this is cause for celebration because this is her first book in 24 years!

Born in England during World War II, Maxine Gadd was the child of Canadian parents both fighting in the Second World War. They brought her back to their country when she was a girl of 6, and she grew up at Vancouver's Dunsmuir Hotel. By the age of 15 or 16 she had discovered poetry, and the Beats, and she made herself at home at Vancouver's very first beat cafe, the Black Spot. Girls wore black stockings, boys wore beards, it was very bohemian. She hitchhiked to North Beach, the beat capital of San Francisco, and lived in Monterey, meanwhile beginning to write some of the most beautiful, energetic, politically savvy, and formally linguistic poetry of the 20th century. I was about to say she is like a Canadian version of Kenneth Rexroth, Joanne Kyger, or Philip Whalen, but the truth is that we don't have aa Maxine Gadd equivalent in the United States. If only we had! We might be a more progressive nation, and our children might be writing much better poetry.

As you can see, her writing makes me a little weak in the knees. "Greenstone," the first book, evokes a stage in late capitalism in which all structures begin to collapse, like the cry of "timber" of all the skyscrapers in the world. From the crevices, a new wilderness begins to creep like kudzu, or the space creatures in Neil Young's AFTER THE GOLD RUSH. The book ends with a theophany, "Maxine Meets Proteus in Gastown," that is one of the essential poems of our day. Gastown = a waterfront district in Vancouver, once dangerous, now a tourist trap. Proteus = the god of change, shapeshifting, the trickster.

"Cabin on the Shore," book 2, is more idyllic, breezy, and yet it's a book of hesitations, stops and starts, retreats and go forwards. There's a poem "In Praise of Bad Things' that entreats, "praise the hawk that steals the heron's fish; praise the heron raising her true harsh cry of protest" etc. "April for Z" cuts a Z across the page like that Mauricio Castellan version of Zorro, and "For the times there are no ones," a long poem that sees the birds picking at Prometheus' liver as an augur of human suffering and solidarity in Nicaragua. So it's pastoral, but with a provocative twist.

Finally the eponymous "Backup to Babylon" returns to the city for good and all, a city like Dhalgren filled with spontaneous kills and celebrations, a city under eiege, a squatters' Vancouver. In this last part Gadd seems so at home in the rhetoric of her line you drink in every word like oxygen, something necessary, nearly without thought. Maybe it's a little transparent? I don't know. Poems like "What" or "Round" seem eerily to have always existed, like the stones rearing up at Stonehenge, and yet they were made by a poet, and her life is what she is dealing from, that and a titanic perspective born of pain and sympathy in equal parts.

God bless New Star Books for bringing out this collection and for doing it so handsomely and with such grace. And hooray for Maxine Gadd! The frontispiece is a photo of the author taken in 1984 I think. I, a man in middle life, would have given five years of my life to have looked that super cool for five minutes!

I came across one of Ms. Ruskin's poems in an anthology called "Honey,Hush". I was so affected by her style and wit that I immediately purchased this book and I'm glad I did. Ruskin manages to draw from her own family life and experiences without being preachy or condesending. I saw myself in many of her poems and although it is a short book, I haven't been able to put it down. Her poems deserve to be read and re-read. Even if you aren't a great fan of poetry I would recommend that you give this one a chance. It's the perfect gift for any young black woman or any person at all with an appreciation for all that our American culture has to offer.

I have just finished this book, and was very impressed with how it opened my eyes to Vista. I have been very discouraged since I purchased my new computer with Vista on it-to the point of considering returning to XP. This book really helped me understand the basics of Vista and how it differs from XP. I have mainly had a hard time adjusting to the new network system that Vista uses, and this book really helped me understand. I would recommend this book to anyone new to Vista. It was very helpful.

If you backup your Oracle database, this book must be in your bookshelf!

My sister gave the kit to my 6 year old daughter and when my son reached the age of 5, they started fighting over the kit! My daughter didn't want him to "waste" her loops! The additional loops created peace and they both get to make as many potholders as they want. That's what all the grandparents, aunts and cousins are getting for Christmas this year. One suggestion - wash the potholder before using it so it will tighten up and you won't get burned.

Transfer to a new PC without using passwords, preferences or even photos with this book/software packages which can help link an old PC's information directly to a new one. A free copy of the CA Desktop DNA Migrator is included along with instructions on transferring data and a Wizard interface which makes such instructions a snap. From migrating data to backing up files, troubleshooting, and handling a network system, SIMPLE COMPUTER TRANSFER AND BACKUP is a manual no computer user should be without.

Ed does a good job of outlining the values of the snub nose revolver. He discusses the simple advantages of this reliable handgun. Methods of carry and tactics are outlined as well. Ed's experience in law enforcement training has given him first-hand experience in extreme close quarter fighting. He has passed these experiences to us by sprinkling them in the book to help prove his training points. My recommendation: read this book, take the NRA firearms training course, read the book again, get a CCW and keep reading this book. The government in many states is too paralized to protect the citizens and it also is too paranoid to allow the citizens to have access to the means to protect themselves. They have lost the moral and ethical standing to deny YOU the right and means to protect YOURSELF. This book is a keeper.

This book was recommended by several people before I purchased it. I thought I had a good grip on my archiving and management system...I was wrong.


This book is a tad dated now but its principles are still standing strong.

I would recommend this to anyone who is making images.





Fashion Photographer David Paul Larson
[...]

This is a must-have book for photographers who are amassing a large collection of photos.

I needed to read it 2 times before getting a feel for how to impliment it.

Great strategies and it has now changed my workflow completely and for the better

Money very well spent (although it cost me many thousands more since I also updated my computer, server, and softward to impliment this)

Regards, Dean

This is a good book. It is very helpful in determining how to organize photographs. It also is a give a good review of Bridge. It would be nice for the book to be up dated to cover CS3.

If you're an amateur or a professional getting into digital photography you need to sit down and read a book like this. Managing your photographs (your "assets") is necessary and it will help you find, print and publish your work.

This book isn't 100% up to date but the book's web site is a nice supplement with active discussions.

Overall, this is a good book that thoroughly covers all the essentials of putting together a system and practices to organize and preserve your photo collection.

On the hardware side, he shows excessively expensive harddrive setups, when 2TB Western Digital MyBooks are dropping under $500. (Such statements are always relative to the date they're made -- 18 months from now that might be 4TB for $400.) I do agree with some comments he makes about RAID not being such a hot idea. The increasing size of individual drives is making the time it takes to reconstruct a failed drive in a RAID configuration reach absurd levels. When it took five or more drives to assemble 1TB, RAID seemed pretty clever. It's time has passed.

On the software side, he pushes Bridge plus iView MediaPro. That may have been the hot setup when the book was published, but Lightroom is gaining converts at a high rate. A 2nd edition revised to center on Lightroom would be good. At the very least, he'd need to explain exactly what Bridge + iView MediaPro can do that Lightroom can't and why it matters. I believe Lightroom alone offers a much less convoluted system then that combination.

Finally, for a book whose entire point is organizing and preserving photos, it has a curious hole. If your photo archive is all of your family's pictures, as opposed to a wedding photography business, how do you ensure it will outlive you? He makes a few remarks about how having things well organized will make it easier for your family, but that's it. Thinking about such things proves I'm getting to be an old fart, but it strikes me as a major omission in a book on this subject.

My criticisms shouldn't detract from my original statement -- it's overall a good book. Even if I don't follow his exact hardware and software recommendations, he made me think through whether my combination was completely sound. I've changed how I was doing some things, and changed some of my ideas about what I plan to do in the future, as a result. It's the best and most thorough book on the subject available to date.

The book is the best I have seem for this operating system. It answers all the questions that are difficult to find in the "help" files on the vista operarong system while in the computer

When I upgraded from the horrible Windows 98 to Windows XP, I purchased David Pogue's Missing Manual for Windows XP and was so glad I did. It was worth every penny because of the amount of information it contained. I didn't have to use it that much but whenever there was any information I did need, it was there inside the book and easy to find.

The same holds true for Mr. Pogue's book on Windows Vista. I initially wasn't crazy about switching to Vista because of the negative comments I had heard about it, plus my own experience using it on other people's computers. My main reason to try it - because I felt like a change. Before I did, however, I purchased this book to be familiar with it before installing. Like the book on XP, this one contains all the information most people would want for using Vista, in a clear, concise, easily understandable and organized format. The writing style is friendly and never a chore to read, there are sections covering every major aspect of Vista, and it is easy enough to find what you want to know.

That said, if you are really into the technical aspects of the program, this book is probably not the best for that; but for the average person who wants a reference book for using the operating system, this is an excellent choice. By the way, I am much more pro-Vista now after having installed it on my own computer (so far no problems whatsoever) than I was with my experiences using it on other people's computers.

I have not used this book extensively to date. It has been helpful in those limited areas that I have consuted. At this point, I am pleased that I purchased the book and believe that it will prove its worth in future use.

Title: Windows Vista: The Missing Manual
First Edition: December 2006
Series: The Missing Manuals
ISBN 10: 0-596-52827-2
ISBN 13: 9780596528270
Pages: 848


Book description from O'Reilly:

"Windows Vista: The Missing Manual offers complete and comprehensive coverage of all five versions of Vista. In his inimitable witty style, New York Times columnist and bestselling author David Pogue illuminates this subject with clear technical insight and hard-nosed objectivity. He explains Vista's features clearly and thoroughly, revealing which work well and which don't. Written for beginners, veteran stand-alone PC users, and those who know their way around a network, this jargon-free guide is the book that should have been in the box!


Windows Vista is Microsoft's most important software release in more than a decade. It offers users an abundance of new and upgraded features that were more than five years in the making: a gorgeous, glass-like visual overhaul; superior searching and organization tools; a multimedia and collaboration suite; and above all, a massive, top-to-bottom security-shield overhaul.


There's scarcely a single feature of the older versions of Windows that hasn't been tweaked, overhauled, or replaced entirely.


But when users first encounter this beautiful new operating system, there's gonna be a whole lotta head-scratchin', starting with trying to figure out which of the five versions of Vista is installed on the PC (Home, Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate).


Thankfully, Windows Vista: The Missing Manual offers coverage of all five versions. Like its predecessors, this book from New York Times columnist, bestselling author, and Missing Manuals creator David Pogue illuminates its subject with technical insight, plenty of wit, and hardnosed objectivity for beginners, veteran standalone PC users, and those who know their way around a network."


This description can hardly start to reveal how good this book is. I did both types of installation: the complete wipe [second] and that other install I will not name. The author claimed the "other install I will not name" would take 5 days, but it only took 4 for me. The performance was not there and I was too research oriented to take his remarks seriously. I thought if the first type of install did not work right, the other would make up for it. The clean install 'might take 15 minutes' according to the author. It took about 4 hours and I still ended up with three partitions and 12 GB of stuff on my hard drive when I was looking for about 4-5GB. Sounds like a book of my own to write someday...


I do love Vista, do not get me wrong. This book really helped me do things I did not think of before I got the Business edition. It would have been very hard to figure out problems that occurred if you were not online to get the Windows version of the fix without this book. It would take at least two computers: the one you are loading with Vista and the other one that is online and searching for fixes.


There are some mistakes in the book, but you can deal with most of them. Page 58, the author means 'translucent' when he writes 'transparent...blurry image...underneath'. Some errors are more troublesome, such as page 350 where 'personal folder==>appdata==>roaming==>etc' does not exist.


This book is worth 5 stars and every penny charged for it, taking everything into account. A balanced point of view is being used by the author in parts of the text. Well done.


I really like Windows Vista: The Missing Manual and find it to be an impressive book and operating system.


Frederick J Eccher Jr
MBA
M.S. Management of Information Systems
A.B. Psychology
B.A. Biology
CIO, Community Partners
President, Board of Directors, Saint Louis Visual Basic Users Group
rick@stlvbug.net

Windows Vista "the missing link" is too technical for me. It assumes the reader has complete mastery of Windows XP which I dont have, so I am not using the book much. I needed more of a cookbook!

Great book discussing all sorts of AD related features you may not use every day. I read this one cover to cover and I continue to reference it at least once or twice a week. I've owned each edition and each one has been better than the previous. Very up to date! Waiting for 4th edition with all the 2008 stuff to come out now.

Not much to say, other than I finished this gem with a wealth of knowledge. You can really just jump around to interesting chapters, or read it cover to cover. This book covers everything from policies, to ADSI, to scripting.

Joe Richards, Robbie Allen and Alistair G. Lowe-Norris' Active Directory, 3rd Edition is also for Windows administrators who may know all to well about the problems it's brought to prior versions of windows. This edition considers the Directory for Windows 2000, 2003 and its updates, considering the overall pros and cons of Active Directory, common tips and traps, and more. Yes, you can use Microsoft's documentation for many similar answers; but here they are arranged in a more logical manner and provide more candid assessments to help users upgrade or understand options.

This is the leading reference for Active Directory but it has been updated to a third edition, so you should get that one.

Not recommended for native speakers of the English language.
When trees == forests and top-level directories are instead 'naming contexts' .... The desirable format would be "This feature, which MS call 'X', is 'Y' plain english", but instead the Y feature will only ever be called X.
This is not a helpful book.