Backup Books

Just got back from the book store and spent a bit reading this book. It's actually quite good. McBath makes the assumption that you are a DBA. Not someone who reads Gartner reports and goes to meetings.

I've become accustomed to a wide variety of lame backup and recovery books. A good example is Anil Desai's... long on planning, but short on how to actually do the work. In his book, backups don't actually start till chapter 6! Easily 2/3 of the book is fluff.

For example, Desai talks about log shipping-- 5 pages. McBath has a whole chapter on it in a how-to format. BOL doesn't cover it in depth, and where it does, it's wrong (ie. sp_change_primary_role example is wrong on fail over). SQL Server Resource Kit has a whole chapter on it, but not one example of how to implement. Long on theory, short on getting it done-- typical of MS Press books.

The book covers just about all the methods for backing up and recovery using standard tools. It also covers using DBCC to recovery data. Then it expands out into rebuilding your stuff from scratch and reloading it (ex. I lost my master database and here's what I got to do).

McBath's book tells you what breaks along the way and how to fix it. Anyone who's had to rebuild master and got in that infinite loop problem knows the hard way. McBath tells you about the problem *BEFORE* you hit it and how to work around it. The Desai book doesn't even tell you how to properly bring the SQL Server into single user.

This is also the only book out there... including Delaney's... that actually flow charts the sequence of events on how a backup and recovery actually work internally. LSN's, GAM Pages, etc... That way you get the theory as well as the practical I-got-to-get-my-job-done stuff.

The section on DBCCs is the first place I've seen where it's pretty much explained well. Delaney's book is also great here, but McBath put's it in context for recovery of data. The straight dope is here. It's dialed in right.

Another interesting point was he shows you the output of the scripts. That way you can see what it's supposed to do *BEFORE* you do it on your box. By doing this, he's also showing you that the scripts have been tested and run, too.

What I liked most was that it used the GUI and T-SQL scripts. This is great cause most people use a GUI which you can't script in SQL Agent, etc...

What's also cool is the Mohan/Narang paper as the appendix. Mohan outlined the ARIES Write Ahead Log (WAL) protocol recovery mechanism that SQL Server is premised upon. I wish there was more intro to it here. It's just tacked on the back. But this is just gold.

Stuff missing that would be cool: Covering third party tools like Legato. In a major data center, they are mandatory.

Finally a book for SQL Server that rivals Oracle Press's long standing tome on Backup and Recovery by Velpuri.

McBath's book is non-stop backup and recovery issues from beginning to end.

If you do any SQL Server administration where your boss cares about the data contained therein, TRUST ME, READ THIS BOOK THOROUGHLY BEFORE you are in a position of responsibilty. Had I never read this book before I inherited my DBA responsibilities, I doubt I'd be employed right now. This book could not be easier to read, have better examples or provide better insights. Even though I went through a MOC training course and the teacher was great, one week isn't long enough for everything to sink in. Thank goodness there are guys like Mr. McBride to fill in the remaining gap.

I could not say enough good things about this book...mainly becuase I still have a good job because of it.

If your database is important to your boss, this book is a MUST!!!!!!!!!!!

Frank McBath has successfully filled a gap in the reference book section with this complete guide to SQL Server 2000 Backup and Recovery. With its in-depth content and real world examples, McBath's book provides a comprehensive look at everything you will need to know about SQL Server backup and recovery. He highlights common problems and provides practical workarounds. One of the great things about this book is that it is not so general that you would be hard-pressed to find useful examples. McBath gives you the commentary, the code and the specific content that you can use at work. This is definitely the kind of book that every SQL Server DBA should have!

Author calls it concise monograph that covers a wide variety of backup and recovery issues with plenty of examples. Well, concerning backup section there are more examples in Books on Line. No backup options are explained (i.e. You would use this option to do this particular thing). Absolutely NO scenarios are given. Only a few basic backup statements without any explanation what to run before and after backup. There is an interesting script "Monitoring the Completion of a Backup" - almost 3 pages of code but there is no download option so it is up to the reader to type it in. What a waste of time. Author often makes a point how bad backup and restore practices are in places he did the consulting for. I think they are no better or worse than the books we have to learn from.

McBath's book highlights common problems and provides practical workarounds for Backup/restore
The Book shows some very cool tricks that make it possible to recover data that's lost due to media
failures. It also covers data recovery tricks by using indexes. It continues about explaining what
to do when you need to rebuild your machine from scratch. Common problems are discussed and workarounds
given. The book is full of examples and tips and tricks from REAL consulting, not rehashing a manual
or Books on line. These tips give the book even more value.

What I liked most was that it describes using the GUI and T-SQL scripts. A GUI is nice but to really
hit the nail one should automate this and script it.
This is THE Backup/Restore book each SQL-Server DBA must have in his bag. READ it BEFORE disasater
happens. One can never be preperaed enough for situations like this.

Last but not least there's an appendix with the Mohan/Narang paper This paper outlines
the ARIES Write Ahead Log protocol recovery mechanism that SQL Server uses.

Finally book that explains it all. Very simple, easy to read/understand. Backup commands in various operating systems VMS, Windows NT, UNIX, VMS, Physical, logical backups and useful backup scripts. Author has done excellent job explaining backup/recovery using Oracle Enterprise Manager 2.1 against Oracle 8i database. Very good examples on using Oracle Console/Oracle Management Server. This book is very new and has already one of my favorite book among other Oracle press books I have in my library. Oracle Enterprise Manager is available on OTN Network for download ...

Well written, informative, accurate. The coverage of recovery internals is excellent. The only book in the bibliography of Oracle's "Oracle 8i Data Server Internals" seminars.

This book does an excellent job in helping both the experinced and the novice learn about the Oracle Backup and Recovery features. It saved me a lot of time and money (didn't have to hire that consultant). Excellent explination of features and actually gives sound advice.

The first five chapters of this book have good technical information, but could be better if expressed more clearly. Forget that! The other five chapters have great technical information and got through to me very well. Chapter 10 is a set of 22 valuable "case studies" in which the authors simulate a set of failures they say are representative of DBAs' most common problems. For each, they explain the right DBA reactions; sometimes they explain other reactions and why those are aren't as useful. Good connections with Oracle. Strong technical credibility. Great explanations in the second half. Valuable!

I found Computer Storage: a Manager's Guide to be a really useful book, that fills a niche in the business computing book market.

I really enjoyed this book, because it is well written. Phil Haylor is able to take some very complex issues and explain them in easy to understand terms.

This book makes a refreshing change, when so many of the business books in the marketplace seem to be theoretical business manuals or case study books. It is great to find a book that describes the real challenges faced by today's businesses of all sizes, in terms of data storage. It is well presented, with the use of a chapter synopsis at the beginning of the book, and chapter summaries at the end of each section being a real bonus, in terms of highlighting the key points raised through each chapter.

This book is an essential read for executives who have an influence on their company's technology infrastructure.

Haylor offers a management level briefing on the various types of computer storage currently available. He writes from the perspective of both a technical background and of knowing what a non-technical manager seeks in understanding. So the language of the text thankfully minimises jargon. Enough is given so that you can appreciate the background behind common industry terms like fibre channel or hierarchical storage management.

More to the point, you can grasp the essence of the storage methods. So that you can usefully plan deployments and draw up budgets. Or understand those presented to you by your subordinates.

The book is written to be used in colleges but is very useful for junior dba. The book walk you through the oracle B & R step-by-step. By the time you finish the book and do all the assignments you come out with a lot of information. I will definitely recommend this book to someone who is trying to learn Oracle BR and especially the oracle magic tool "Recovery Manager, RMAN".

I give 5 stars.

This book is good if you have a good instructor who can help you in doing the practices.

If you try to study the book by yourself, preparing to get a lot of headache.

For example: In chapter 7: Performing backup Operations with Recovery Manager.

I try to do backup using RMAN-Enterprise Manager.

I stucked. The backup failed so many times. The error is: VNI-2015

I tried to get help from internet, reading so many articles about how to solve VNI-2015.

Many explanations, but all of them don't work.

Lastly, I remember METALINK from Oracle.

The problem is: METALINK is just for certain people. Not everyone can access Metalink. Lucky me, my Professor give me his user name/password for us to do research in Metalink.

Finally, I got the correct answer from Metalink to solve the problem of VNI-2015.

In conclusion: You need to have a good instructor OR you will stuck forever

I am a student of Dr. Morris-Murphy at Valencia Community College in Orlando Florida and currently studing under the Doctor as I prepare for the last of my Oracle DBA certification exams.
This, her second book matches the style of her presentation of Oracle Backup & Recovery in class; clear, precise and simple to understand. Each of the 15 chapters contains Hands On Assignments for students to get realtime experience on recover and backup of lost information.
After using this book during her class I highly recommend that DBA's and DBD's or students studying Oracle9i who are preparing for the certification exam and should have this book sitting next to their Sybex Backup & Recovery book.
Because SQL/Plus and Backup & Recovery are the two hardest aspects of Oracle to grasp these two books by Dr Murphy are a must, I recommend very strongly that anybody who is in the field of Oracle9i or Oracle19Gg should place a copy of both books on their shelf for reference

I really connected with Shanice, a biracial chick living in a mostly white town, who is faced with the possibility that her friends like her only because she acts "white." Don't worry! Friendship prevails! Barb Huff paints wonderful characters in this series. I'm just in love with all of them. Most real characters in Christian fiction.

The Backup Singer focuses on Shanice Stevenson, a teenager in a small Ohio town who sings backup for a talented garage band. Things are going well for Shanice; she has a great group of friends, a loving family who surrounds her, and the band is starting to get some gigs. Her cousin Tawny, who lives in Detroit, is also coming for the summer. Shanice and Tawny have always gotten along like sisters, until now.
Shanice is biracial while Tawny is black. Her cousin's taunts plant doubts in Shanice's mind and her internal struggle about who she is and where she fits in flows over into her relationships with her friends and her family. As her struggle deepens, she begins to withdrawal from her closest friends. Will she sever the ties altogether or realize true friendship reaches past your looks and into your soul?

Are you a systems administrator? If you are, then this book is for you. Authors Dave Kleiman, Laura Hunter, Mahesh Satyanarayana, Kimon Andreou, Nancy G Altholz, Lawrence Abrams, Darren Windham, Tony Bradley and Brian Barber, have done an outstanding job of writing a book about the Winternals and Sysinternal tools in real-world situations that administrators can and will face on a daily basis.

Kleiman, Hunter, Satyanarayana, Andreou, Altholz, Abrams, Windham, Bradley and Barber, begin by showing you how to use Process Explorer and Autoruns to spot and eliminate malware autostarts, services, drivers, and processes. Then, the authors describe in detail, the tools developed by Sysinternals to illustrate this sort of advanced information and explain how to use them. Next, they show you how to use Sysinternals tools to monitor active sessions on a computer and how to discover which processes are accessing which resources. They also show you a better way to manage disk and file fragmentation on your volumes. The authors then continue by examining the data recovery tools made available to you by the Winternals team. Then, they show you how to make sense of the infamous Blue Screen of Death. Next, the authors show you how to monitor active socket connections. They also examine a few tools provided by the Winternals group that any software developer would find useful. The authors continue by discussing the available source code. Then, they cover topics ranging from advanced system optimization, to options available in a multiboot system with various versions of Windows, to data recovery for NT. Finally, the authors show you how to use screensaver with a perverted twist to it.

This most excellent book will show you how to bring dead systems back to life through the use of Winternals. Perhaps more importantly, Winternals software is capable of doing much more than that!

I starting looking at Winternals shortly after Microsoft acquired the Winternals company. I almost didn't read the book, because I do not use the commercial Winternals tools. When I saw the book covered tools available from Sysinternals, I decided to concentrate on information relevant to me. I'm glad I did -- Winternals is a remarkably helpful book.

The most surprising aspect of Winternals is the focus on malware detection and removal. I expected the book to basically explain the tools and their options. I did not imagine the authors would provide multiple examples of fighting malware with Sysinternals utilities. Some of the discussion of kernel-mode rootkit removal is a little naive and outdated, given recent advances in the field. However, I really liked seeing more-or-less real-world examples of proper tool usage.

My concerns with Winternals are the same ones I usually express when I read a book by multiple authors: internal redundancy. Ten authors and one technical editor wrote Winternals. As a result, the Windows registry is "introduced" several times in the book. The same goes for popular tools like FileMon, RegMon, and PsList. Removing these redundancies is the job of the lead author or editor. Since Winternals seems to feature neither party, the book is internally redundant.

In some cases I felt introductory material wasn't necessary. For example, I didn't need ot read about DNS and Whois in Ch 8. I imagine most people reading Winternals already know how those protocols work.

Minor problems include appearances of odd text formatting and some screenshots being too small to really decipher. I didn't see many obvious typos, although the mention of "Syng set" on p 334 should say "SYN sent."

Despite these issues, I liked reading Winternals. Windows-centric security analysts, incident responders, and desktop engineers who are beginning to use Sysinternals and Winternals tools will find this book invaluable.

I got a new computer with Vista. What a mess, never could get anything done with it. Went back to XP and got the book "Windows XP Pro The Missing Manual" This is definately one great book. If you want to learn and know all about Windows XP this is the book. Like the title says it should have been in the box. Maybe some day Microsoft will get with it and include good manuals in there products.

Worth the money. For the casual user seeking to become a power user. You can find all this info on the net but not this concise and well laid out. Anything not in this book you can find on the net as well.

The very latest from David Pogue's eponymous publishing house [and O'Reilly]. The book goes into myriad useful tips on best using Microsoft's XP Professional. A very stable operating system, unlike some earlier efforts by Microsoft. Replete with attractive consumer level utilities. The book does go into system type aids, like showing the full power of the start menu, taskbar and control panel. All to the good. But somewhat prosaic.

I suspect what is more germane to most users are things like getting onto the Internet and all that that implies. The authors go into explaining how to get the most out of Internet Explorer. And setting up your email and doing instant messaging. For many of us, browsing and email will take up much of our usage, with chat perhaps a close third. The reality is that the computer's power is often as a connection to the greater world. Which is why though these chapters are only a fraction of the book, you may want to head here first and read slowly. Understanding them may be the most productive part of the book for you.

The title is right! This is the book that should have been included in the basic box with XP Pro. It is set at just the right level for the average user trying to come up to speed on a new operating system. While the basic user interface is more or less the same as the previous windows operating systems, the underlying code structure is based on NT rather than the older DOS/Windows.

This book isn't for system administrators or advanced readers. It's aimed at the average user who wants to master the machine well enough to get down to work or to look up something without having to call for support. It is basically crystal-clear, jargon-free (well, computers are still the subject, how about nearly jargon-free).

This edition is up to date to include Service Pack 2, which changed a number of screens and philosophies in the security area.

After a few minutes of reading and in front of the PC, I was able to understand many of the new features in XP Pro. This book should have been included with the software. I considered myself as a fairly competent PC user, but the book unlocked all the items that you cannot find using the "Help" function in XP Pro. At least it seems that way to me! I highly recommend this purchase for ALL PC users.

This book did not favor any one Linux OS over another (good). Most Linux configuration was via commandline (which most will advocate in a Unix environment) and direct editing of conf files. Each chapter has a great balance of common practices, breaking down the common config parameters, then implementing. Overall, a great reference.

This is a very good book on the topic. The author knows what he is talking about, he doesn't skip anything and explains almost everything that should be explained. Although there are some typos and small errors in the book, they are corrected in the errata. Accessible, thorough, well written, well organized, well supported. Definitely worth the money.

Linux in a Windows World by Roderick Smith (O'Reilly) is an excellent aid for anyone trying to work in a heterogeneous environment. It is targeted at administrators who would like to add the flexibility, security and stability of Linux to existing Windows networks. While primarily focused on integrating Linux servers in the enterprise, to add functionality or replace Windows servers, Smith also addresses the addition of Linux workstations and thin clients to a Windows network.

The text begins with a brief discussion of the available options for leveraging Linux in a Windows-dominated environment and when and where such applications are appropriate and effective.
Smith walks you through Samba file and print sharing, authentication with LDAP, Kerberos, NT domains, followed by remote access methods, and a medley of additional server applications for mail, backups and network management. I found the format very accessible; simple and clear enough for those new to Linux, but with sufficient detail to get up-and-running with a basic configuration.

The tone was refreshingly objective. Windows and Linux options were presented in an even-handed way, absent was the Windows bashing that frequently enters Linux literature. I was somewhat disappointed that the book spent so much time on increasingly obsolete NT Domains and so little with Active Directory, but it is understandable as the proprietary nature of Windows necessitates a lag time in the development of interoperable open source technologies.

Overall I found Linux in a Windows World to be an excellent resource for mixed networks. I would consider it a must read for anyone thinking about adding Linux to their Windows network. It covers all the bases, giving the reader an overview of the available options before delving into the most common solutions. I personally found it useful in configuring several servers in my all-Linux network.

This book has well developed details on Linux client configuration for Linux only solutions with some small Windows tidbits thrown in. Given that the scope of this book should be "Linux in a Windows World", I expected more material on connecting Linux to modern Windows infrastructure, especially Active Directory. What coverage that was offered on Windows, e.g. some chapters dedicated to SAMBA, was mostly focused on 10-year older Windows NT era of technologies. I will delve in to some topics to illustrate this.

In Kerberos (Chapter 9), more than 80% of the coverage is about Linux Kerberos solutions and client configuration. There is a measly 2 pages out of 30 on Windows client configuration. In one area (page 216), the author states that Kerberos to Kerberos cross-realm trust to Active Directory would beyond the scope of this book, but I seem to recall that this information took up roughly 5 pages of text in Kerberos, The Definitive Guide by Jason Garman. There is zero coverage on how to configure Linux to use Active Directory KDC, which is something done in about two pages from the same aforementioned book. I'm wondering where's the "Windows World" involved in this as overall coverage is again for Linux to Linux.

For the topic of LDAP (Chapter 8), the coverage is again about configuring Linux clients to use OpenLDAP for authentication. Even within the scope of Linux-to-Linux the information was limited (there's less than adequate coverage about how lack of caching can cause serious problems, or how to use things like SASL for Kerberized authentication of LDAP). There is no mention of using Active Directory LDAP in this chapter for Linux clients. There was some coverage of Windows client configuration through pGina. However, I would prefer to see Windows solutions as this is suppose to be about a "Windows World" book, but get Linux-to-Linux solutions and with pGina, a Windows-to-Linux solution.

On the topic of DNS and DHCP (Chapter 15), only Linux solutions are covered, so there is no information on using Linux with Windows DHCP and DNS backends. In the scope of Linux DHCP, the information is very limited, and there is no information on how to assign IP addresses based on computer names, which is a feature that even Windows DHCP doesn't support. Windows clients spit out names with an appended "0" character to the DHCP server, which could be use for further configuration of services. In the scope of Linux DNS, there is no information about features needed in BIND to make it interoperable with Windows Active Directory, or even Linux Kerberos solutions for that matter. One needs Dynamic DNS, support for SRV records, and in particular for Active Direcotry, one needs support for underscore characters "_", which I heard is a compile time option for BIND9. Additionally, Microsoft has a proprietary WINS record for legacy support that is not supported by BIND. Both Microsoft certification publications and "DNS and BIND" by Albitz and Liu (O'Reilly) offer solution scenarios for this. None of this important essential information was presented, as the predominant focus appears to be Linux-to-Linux.

On the topic of NTP services (Chapter 15), the information is applicable for older Windows 9X/ME/NT systems that used a NetBIOS to locate a non-NTP service from Windows NT. In Windows XP/2003 that is so ancient history and Windows has full support for NTP client and services through the w32tm command. This is completely absent from from the presentation and details on this topic. Also surprising is no mention of why time sychronization is vital to either any Kerberos solutions, including Active Directory; any clients authentication to a Kerberos KDC should sychronize to the clock on that same server, or else users will not be able to log on if their clocks are more than 5 minutes off.

When covering mail technologies (Chapter 13), most of the documentation is an overview of mail technology and a exploration of Linux solutions with sendmail and postfix, which is very good presentation of those technologies. Microsoft Excahnge Server gets an honorable mention of less than 2 pages out of 51 pages. I would have appreciated more scenarios on how to integrate Exchange including for a variety of technologies, and would also have been interested in Windows clients that would hook into Linux solutions. There's no mention that that modern versions of Exchange are dependent on Active Directory -- something of a headache for Linux admins, but important consideration for planning the infrastructure. The Windows interoperability in this area like other chapters was quite lacking.

There are four chapters in Part II "Sharing Files and Printers" dedicated to SAMBA and related technologies like CUPS integration. The coverage here is predominantly focused on 10-year old Windows NT era technologies. One chapter is even dedicated to NetBIOS Network, something even Windows admins wish would have never existed. I don't know but I would hope that interoperability would cover modern technologies that are at least applicable within the last three years (after all, Windows 2003 is about 3 years old now). There only mention of Active Directory, and NONE of the richness found in where Linux boxes can be added to Active Directory domain, authenticate through ActiveDirectory via windbindd (with support for caching), and Windows account sid (security id) to user id (uid) and group id (gid) mapping with LDAP Unix schema support with either SFU 3.5 or AD4Unix in Active Directory (( NOTE: This can be done through SAMBA 3.0.20 and above, but authors haven't a clue )). The interoperability here is for historical network scenarios that is well covered in existing published (and online free) books. I would expect that a book written in this time would offer appicable Windows interoperability.

In the scope of printing through CUPS (Chapter 4), there's no mention that I can tell of Windows support for IPP, the same technology that CUPS uses. Linux clients can connect directly to Windows IPP printer without even touching SAMBA (just have to use port 80 in the URL as Microsoft implemented their solution before the RFC was finalized). Some redeeming qualities of this section was how to do free PDF-Gernation printer share on Linux, and also how to implement Microsoft RPC facility (through SAMBA) for auto-insstallation of printer drivers on Windows clients.

Overall, given that the focus is predominantly Linux for Linux solutions, this book maybe should be called "Linux in a Linux World". If you need an overview of Linux technologies and solutions, then this is a decent book, but if you want modern real-world details on interoperability to Windows, then there are far better books in this space.

Working several years as a certified Windows Administrator, I find it strange to have a complete chapter soley dedicated to the topic of NetBIOS. Who uses NetBIOS? I looked further into the book, and the all SAMBA material seems to be a rehash older and overdocumented SAMBA 2.0 docs...

I looked at another section and it seems that Windows NT 4 time was covered (maybe accidently through author's misunderstanding of Windows time?) and w32time service. The later uses the NTP time standard, while older Windows NT 4 time relies on NetBIOS... Hmmm... Maybe that's the reason for a NetBIOS chapter.

I was hoping for something more to deal with Active Directory and modern systems, but learn interoperability to stuff you can only buy at the swap-meet or flea-market.

I didn't cover any other chapters, as they seem to focus on Linux-to-Linux interoperability. Yes, I know, but it is true, Windows coverage in the other sections is less than 5% - 10%.

So bottom line, most of book is Linux with honoroble mention here and there of Windows, the chapters fully focused on Windows interoperability are rehash of SAMBA 2.0 and how to hook into end-of-life Windows NT 4. And you get a whole chapter on NetBIOS? Shall we *cough* look for other books?

This is the old version. Seek out .MAC with iWeb Second Edition instead if you have a newer MAC

Despite the fact that I have been using .Mac for yesrs, this book has taught me a ton that I simply did not know. I never knew that there was this much to this program. This one is very solid and helpful.

Owen O'Meara

Title: Inside .Mac
Author: Chuck Toporek
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, 2004, $19.95
ISBN: 0-596-00501-6

Reviewed by: Curt Blanchard, Tucson Macintosh Users Group

I've had a dot-Mac account for a couple of years now and although I use it for many things, I haven't really taken advantage of it the way I could have. This is part sloth, but it's also because a dot-Mac account has features that I guarantee you'll never figure out on your own. With the new O'Reilly book, Inside .Mac by Chuck Toporek, you're going to find out how impressive dot-Mac really is! This isn't fluffy, light reading, it's 350 pages dense with information, that begin with a basic explanation, then take you straight through the dot-Mac's rich feature-set, module by module.

Toporek is quite thorough considering the amount of material there is to cover. There are lots of useful screenshots - sometimes unnecessarily too many, and in a few instances I found it frustrating to locate answers to specific questions even with help from the index. The only other nit is that it's pretty dry reading - no manual will ever be considered "light Summer reading", but other authors are a little better at keeping the reader engaged by lightening up from time to time.

This book could almost be divided in two; volume one would be a slim Getting Started guide and the second volume could deal with the deeper, more technical subjects. The two are fully blended throughout this book which may intimidate the casual user. I'm a better informed dot-Mac user after having read this book and recommend it to those who want to expand their knowledge.

If $99.00 per year for a dot-Mac account seems steep, read this book and you'll realize you get a lot for your money. It works out to only $8.25 per month.

--Curt Blanchard
Tucson Macintosh Users Group

Inside .Mac Making the Most of Your .Mac Membership - Book Review
John Nemerovski
Columnist, The Nemo Memo, Book Bytes
Thursday, 04/21/05

Inside .Mac Making the Most of Your .Mac Membership
by Chuck Toporek
O'Reilly Media
ISBN 0-596-00501-6, 360 pages
$19.95 US, $28.95 CN

Here we have one of the best-researched and most well written books ever reviewed by MyMac.com's Book Bytes. Author Chuck Toporek immersed himself in this topic so we readers and subscribers can take advantage of his endless energy and expertise. If I attempted to create a book such as this one, working every waking moment for over six months, I could not approach the breadth and depth of coverage Chuck provides. By now you probably realize that Book Bytes considers Inside .Mac - Making the Most of Your .Mac Membership to be is as good as it gets. Congratulations and thanks to Chuck and O'Reilly Media.

If you or someone you know has an active .Mac membership, please give us your thoughts on the service in our Article Discussion area below. This review deals with a book, not an account, and we value your personal comments.

I spent a long afternoon reading this volume cover to cover, and I was surprised and impressed with all the .Mac features offered by Apple. Most users take advantage of one or two of the components within .Mac, notably email and Backup or iDisk, and people are missing out on several others that add value to the annual fee.

Inside .Mac takes readers slowly and patiently from "Setting Up Your .Mac Account" on a comprehensive, detailed journey all the way through "Using Virex" and "Using iSync with .Mac" to "Blogging with iBlog" and ".Mac's Keyboard Shortcuts." Have you encountered the "Common iDisk Error Codes," or have a need to install the iDisk utility for Windows XP? Now's your chance, with Chuck as your time-tested tutor.

Turning to pages at random, we encounter:

* IMAP Versus POP - Which Is Best for Me? (discussing hidden ways to access your .Mac email)

* Blogging with iBlog (a third-party application Chuck recommends for integrating your account with a user-friendly blog)

* From GIF to JPEG in a Jiffy (explaining why JPEG is the only type of picture compatible with .Mac's slide publishing software, and how easily you can create JPEGs)

* Virus Scanning from the Terminal (if this appeals to you, I applaud your geek factor)

and dozens greater and lesser techniques and tips.

Screen shots are plentiful, all in '. At $20 US, the price of Inside .Mac is so loaded with reference and tutorial info that author and his publication team must have done this book as a labor of love, because I don't think the title is a bestseller. I hope I'm wrong, and I'll be using it on my daily rounds as a private computer tutor, urging my clients to find Chuck instead of Nemo when they need help with any aspect of .Mac.

The text is divided into four major parts, with the first dedicated to .Mac service particulars, email accounts, and iDisk; the second addresses Virex and Backup utilities; the third (now for some fun!) covers "Building a .Mac HomePage," the aforementioned iBlog, plus iSync, Slide Shows, and iCards; and, finally, an appendix containing .Mac's keyboard shortcuts and the error codes and Windows material mentioned above. Writing is clean and personal, like a long conversation with the most intelligent, articulate person you've ever met.

How else is an intrepid .Mac subscriber able to acquire the necessary instructions to do everything possible with the membership and its features? Not possible, says Nemo, wishing I had an extra couple of hours each day to dig deeper into Apple's .Mac service. Inside .Mac: Making the Most of Your .Mac Membership is such outstanding value and so high in useful content that it's at the top of our highest Book Bytes rating, 5 out of 5. If you are a .Mac member or plan to become one, run don't walk to your favorite independent or online bookseller to purchase this title.

I do not like the way the book is written (frankly). Maybe it's just me, but I like things explained better. I understand everything he is saying and he does give you a step by step list of how to do things, but he DOES NOT tell you the purpose of each of the features of .Mac, which to me is essential. It's almost as if he thinks we already understand what to do with each of the components of membership. He gives absolutely NO examples of what you'd use these things for and all he really would have had to do would've been include a couple paragraphs about it. As I read it's hard for me to follow along because he excludes essential information relevant to .Mac and the use thereof.

I have just finished reading the book. In fact, I've read it twice. I've made my 14 adn 12 year old daughters read it. It not only lays down the basics of a short barrel revolver, but persoanl awareness and survivablity. I'm not a military or active cop. I'm a armed civillian, with more than just the basic training of weapons and tactics.

First of all, the author layed out the book very well. It flowed from subject to subject nicely. Enough "war stories" in to keep the reader interested and to show why a snubbie in this or that situation worked or would have worked better. Not Monday morning quarterbacking, just some good critical thinking.

Second the author lays out, to the reader, what the reader should be looking for in weapon and personal awareness training. And no book is going to replace personal training, be it from big name schools for the local range. The author has gathered several real life examples and gives a great layout of what a regular person can do, if faced with a serious threat. The author does state that alot of the reason these regular folks survived is due to their mindset of wanting to survive. And no amount of training and class time is going to help you there. And during research, the author found no "prfessionally" trained gun fighters or big name instructed victims, just plain old folks who read, watched, or was shown how to work the revolver or weapon. And, its a snubbie, so there isn't alot of "cool" drills you can do with it. The author suggest upclose to contact range shooting and unarmed protection practice. Sorry if this makes the range drill masters mad and wanting more. Simple is , simple does.

Third, the author is open minded about the snub nosed revolver and lays out its pluses and minuses. He goes over smaller calibers vs larger ones, 38 vs 357, and 5 shots vs 6 shots. As far as holsters, ammo, and other gunnie stuff, the author touches base and theses and gives the reader other venues to follow if the short list isn't enough. But truefully, its a snubbie, and there isn't much you can do with it except shoot it, carry it in a holster, and clean it. Sometimes I think that is why the snubbie gets shunned by "serious" shooters, not enough add ons.

Even if you don't have a short barrel revolver, you can get your money's worth out of the information on personal awareness and what to do in a carjacking or kidknapping.

Jerry

Good book with lots of anecdotes about the author's time as a CIA paramilitary handgun trainer. The thing about hanguns that a lot of people forget is that if you have to use a handgun for defensive purposes, it will be within 5 feet, and will be over within 3 seconds (on average). Thus, having a gun and getting it into the fight fast is critical, not whether or not you can hit a bullseye at 25 meters, or fire off 17 rounds in a row. Also, the thing most people forget is that during a confrontation, if the bad guy grabs your autopistol, you might not be able to fire it again, because the slide can stick. With a revolver, you don't have to worry about that. If the bad guy gets his hand on your gun, it is much harder to render the gun ineffective.

The info in this book outstanding. I have read on and been to a number of classes on the use of revolvers. But the things covered in this book were not covered or received very little attention there. This book is a must have if you use the small ones. When I started this book,I had read over half before I could put it down.

This is a consise and educated argument for the use of the snub in today's world. The new version has more great information and I would highly recommend it, even if you already have the first edition. If you are a true student of handgun self defense, buy this book !!!

"Some things endure because they do what they do better than anything that can be designed to replace them. And so it is with the short-barreled revolver." So says Ed Lovette on page 15 of THE SNUBBY REVOLVER, and I think he's exactly right.

For most civilian purposes, revolvers, though they may not be as sexy or cool as tricked-out autoloaders, are superior in practical terms. And for concealed carry, it's very hard to beat a good snubby -- it's simple to use and very reliable; when concealed, its rounded, irregular outline generally doesn't 'print' through clothing as much as an auto; and, to me one of the best advantages over an automatic is that you can leave a revolver fully loaded indefinitely and not worry about any spring fatigue (which can be a problem with autopistol magazines, no matter how high their quality, if you leave em loaded long enough.) For all those reasons, I'm a snubby sixgun fan and was delighted to find a book devoted to them. I found a lot of good information and pointers here (I really liked the stuff on knives as supplements to the snubby), and overall the book was an enjoyable, fast read. The author seems to know his stuff, with a background that includes Special Forces, law enforcement, and the CIA.

All that said, I'll agree with some of the criticisms of this book: while the parts focused on snubbies were good, there was a lot of space devoted to 'defensive mindset' matters, which, while certainly important, I thought would've been more appropriate in another book. (Ed Lovette even tells you that he co-authored a book on that very subject; why he doesn't just refer you to that, rather than reprinting chunks of it in this book, is beyond me.) And I'll agree that sometimes there are too many short anecdotes, some of which are kind of served up a la carte without a lot of analysis and explanation of their point.

But I still think this is a worthwhile book for anyone who carries a concealed weapon or is considering doing so. And I for one appreciated the fact that the author did NOT fill up the book with a bunch of ballistics charts and tables and tiresome lists of makes, models, and specs, as so many 'gunwriters' seem to love doing. I'll take practical real-world advice from an experienced person over the theories of armchair ballistics theorists any day.