Internet Books

This is the book that should have been released BEFORE the 5 ITIL v3 volumes hit the market - however, after having gone through the 5 core volumes all buyers do now need this condensed overview as well for a quick grasp of the big picture of ITIL LCM

This book is the book ITIL 3 needed. The five core books may prove to be an excellent reference - time will tell - but they are hardly accessible. There was no user-friendly way to get your arms around ITIL until Sharon Taylor produced this introduction. Some people think it explains some concepts better than the core books do. Certainly it attempts to make Service Strategy accessible to mere mortals which is no mean feat.

But before you buy this book, consider buying Passing Your ITIL Foundation Certificate - The Official Study Guide (not available on Amazon yet, but it will be). It is the same size, half the price, and covers much the same territory, only even MORE lightly. And of course it includes sample exam questions to check whether you are actually getting the hang of it or not.

The book is 238 pages long, but removing index, acronyms and glossary is just 170 pages. However there is a good reason for considering this book. At the end of the book there are about 21 pages devoted to explain the "ITIL Service Management Model", a lot of workflow diagrams that takes the reader through the practices, processes and activities. For example there is a nice workflow diagram called "creating a service". I haven't found SOME of those diagrams in the V3 books, I mean the other 5 books. That's why I consider this a very valuable book.
The writting style is very concise and sometimes informal, easy reading for the ITIL newcomers. Do not expect a detailed process description of everything. Overall it is the perfect starting point before investing in the whole V3 book set.

This book is the perfect introduction to understand the concept proposed in ITIL v3. It explains each one of the stage of the service lifecycle as well as their processes and functions. If you are looking for concise information on ITIL v3, start with this book.

Not ready to read the full V3 lifecycle? Then I strongly recommend this book. A great overview of V3 with sufficient explanations, diagrams, process charts and descriptions to satisfy most curiosities and illustrate the differences (improvements?) from V2. Easy read and less textbookish than the other V3 books. Start here before reading the core texts to help ease into the detailed specifics and complexities contained within each book. It also serves as a convenient quick reference for those desiring to travel light.

Its a shame this book is now hard to get. I had to track it down in a crisis. This book for me achieved no small feat. I was able to refactor an app based on Core J2EE patterns. That book, while explaining the patterns in this book, is vague. I really spent a lot of time on the Core book. For those types this book will be appreciated that much more.

This book is about code - about %90 of the pages have source. Perhaps the first book I ever seen that has compilable, working code. Also, I think the examples and interfaces in this book are much better than the Core book.

In short, if you have the core patterns book and are stuck, this indeed could be exactly what you need. I would say you could skip that book and start with this one.

I've read a lot of patterns books. Most didn't really help. Some got me to the point of asking new questions. This book, and "design patterns explained", are in my view indispensable classics. They left me with a clear understanding of what I was trying to learn.

One negative point: I read the comparison between "service to worker" and "dispatcher view" several times and I still don't get what they are trying to say. This is one of the few places in the book where there is no code, and it probably could have helped me here. To be fair, it does have some nice sequence diagrams but its seems lacking compared to the rest of the book.

This book is really excellent. It contains the Core J2EE
patterns and theserverside.com patterns (in <Patterns>>) and explain you the relationship between them. It
contains lots of demonstrable code.

Web tier patterns can be used as template for web tier for
any j2ee project; persistence framework explained the
Data Access Object and Value object in the clearest way;
it always contains security patterns and integration
patterns, which are not discussed too much in other books
as <>. This book is the perfect companion
for the J2EE Core Patterns book and <>,
and even wider than them.

This book presents patterns inside frameworks, so you can
easily see how it is used in real life. This book uses UML
in a very elegant way so it's also useful to learn UML
in J2EE.

A must for J2EE lovers.

Daniel

SCJP, SCJD, SCWCD, SCJEA and IBM Certified XML Developer.

Definitely a good, simple, clear introduction to J2EE design patterns, this book has the advantage of presenting example code in the form of little applications instead of just snippets and lacks all the 'mystical yadda yadda" that pattern books often employ to make their simple content pass for rocket science. I have been somewhat disappointed by the security chapter which is basically just an overview of the J2EE standard security model. Also, being a book "practice oriented" I would have loved to see details on the deployment of the source code presented. Overall a 3 and 1/2 star book that gets a little bonus for being simple and practical.
Previous knowledge of design patterns in general would certainly help you to get the most from this text. For a simple,clear, no bs introduction I recommend Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design
by Alan Shalloway, James R. Trott.

THE book to understand and use J2EE patterns effectively! Excellent concept introduction to begin with, to tide over the pattern non-gurus, comparison with established OO design patterns to ones mostly used in the J2EE community including ones on theserverside.com, plenty of demonstrable code some of which found their way into our deployed apps, great emphasis on patterns applied to specific layers of an application like persistence, web, security, performance etc. Great insight into usually tricky integration topics.

The web tier chapter details patterns that could be used for request processing with session management, view manipulation, validation and security. The persistence framework chapter was perfect for our implementation with its data access layer strategy based on DAOs and value objects, though we would have liked to see some transaction management patterns. The scalability and performance concerns have been closely investigated, as have all security designs like single-access, check-point and role patterns. A working example targeted for a leading app server could have proved useful here, though there is plenty of code available for download. After all is said and done, the chapter on integration where everything comes together nicely, scores top marks for topics not usually found in other books.
An excellent addition to anyone's J2EE repertoire.

From the number of reviews on this site(just 3)it appears that this book is not getting the attention it deserves!

This book starts where "Core J2EE Patterns" ends. Instead of being one more book on patterns catalog and snippet code, it plucks related patterns and weaves them into a framework. This framework-oriented approach starts with the simple but pertinent observation that standard J2EE patterns like Service-to-Worker and Dispatcher View can be reinterpreted as micro-frameworks and continues throughout the rest of the book. For example, chapter 3 combines 3 patterns( DAO, VO, Service Locater)together to lay the foundation of a persistence framework.

Another positive aspect of this book is that it devotes complete chapters to security and integration patterns.Of late, integration patterns have become important enough to merit a web site of their own ( integrationpatterns.com ) and it is quite hard to find other good references on security patterns.

Thus this book has a lot of new things and perspectives to offer and deserves more attention than it seems to be getting.

Finally a criticism : This book mentions other books by name and ISBN numbers without mentioning the author(s) of the books. This is the first time in my life I have seen such a practice. This is definitely a bad practice and an antipattern and a cruelty to poor authors who deserve to be mentioned by name.

Words cannot express how happy I am to be able to write a review for Jeff Duntemann's new book. I have "known" Jeff since around the early 1980's. Unfortunately, Jeff and I are both old enough to remember when correspondence outside of your office took place via snail mail and the most popular Internet tools of the time were Archie, Veronica and Gopher.

The things that I like the most about Jeff's books (and I have several of them) are twofold. First, when he writes on a topic he covers the given topic in-depth. With him, no stone is left unturned. Second, his writing style is such that he makes you feel as though you are sitting across the coffee table from him having a discussion while enjoying a cup of java or a glass of good (single barrel) Tennessee sour mash whiskey. His latest project does not disappoint!

If you are thinking of getting WLAN access for your home or small office, this book is for you. If you already have WLAN access at your home or small office and are interested in tweaking; tuning or expanding it, this book is for you. If you are mechanically inclined and want some WLAN projects to work on, this book is for you. If you are interested in wardriving, warchalking, setting up a hotspot or creating a captive portal, this book is for you. And (if you are like me) if you work with this technology for a living and want to pick up some pieces of technology that you were not aware of, this book is for you.

It is all there in the book and, once again, Jeff has done a great job of explaining it and making it all crystal clear. As I look around my office I have more than 30 books on wireless/WLAN technology. This book has now moved to the top of my list. Thanks Jeff and keep them coming!

If computer networking or security is NOT your day job, but you are interested in, or have already setup a home/small-business WiFi network, BUY THIS BOOK!

This is the "...for Dummies" for WiFi, except it does not insult the intelligence like other introductory titles. The writing style is approachable, humorous and flows well. It assumes no prior networking knowledge, and takes us through the historic evolution to present-day WiFi.

It is accurate, covers security risks & responses and the captures the overall excitement in the "homebrew" & wardriving communities. (Excellent coverage of custom antenna's, theory & practice)

If you are an MCSE or CNE looking to certify for some sort of WiFi test - this is probably not the book for you.

... but if you are a home-user, small business owner or general "radio-tinkerer" excited by the potential of WiFi - BUY THIS BOOK!

I was given this book as a gift of appreciation for contributing news items to Netstumbler.com. I highly recommend this book for beginners interested in further understanding their home network or extending its range and having fun with Wi-Fi.

The first part of the book is an introduction to Wi-Fi and its applications. The second part of the book shows you how to hook up a network in your home. The third part covers the theoretical and practical details of security. The fourth part deals with extending the range of your laptop and some of the secrets behind wardriving.

I liked the tin can bandwidth extender project section. It's just what you need in order to fire that over-priced cable or DSL connection and get your broadband service from one of the thousands of nearby Starbucks. The wardriving section shows you how to find access points from your car.

This is a great book and it's clear the person writing wrote it because they love Wi-Fi and what it represents. Wi-Fi can be two things, it can be just another networking tech, or it can a lot more. It can be something to tinker with, a technology to burrow into and learn a lot more about, and it creates all sorts of new cool things you can do. Duntemann clearly sees it as the latter, a technology that opens up entire new worlds and geeky fun things to do. This book covers how to wardrive, how to build your own antennas, and more. At the same time he doesn't skimp on the 101 stuff either, taking the time to explain everything to even a n00b like myself.

If you're a net admin trying to learn more get this book.

If you're a power-user who wants to get the most out of Wi-Fi get this book.

If you're into Wi-Fi and know lots of stuff you should still get this book.

What more can I say? This book is for the beginner and for the master.

Also I've looked at the other books out there. A couple of them are pretty good too, but unlike some of them the fact that Duntemann is truly into this tech and not just writing about it shows through more than most of the others.

I just recently came across this book because a friend suggested I get it. I've been using wi-fi for a little over a year now and I bought a number if the books that were published over the past year--big disapointment there. I was super gald to find this book because most of the other books were very academic and didn't really offer much.

What I like about this book is that it is very hands-on. And man this author can really write. This is one of the best technical books I have ever read. If I were a tech writer I'd really want to take lessons from this author.

The best part about the book is the hands-on projects and the chapter on War Driving. The Wi-fi reception in my house (I live in an older house) isn't great so I've been messing around with some of the projects in the book to improve my reception. The discussion of attennas is really first rate. I wish that I had more technical books that were written this well.

-Peter

Read this book, pass this test.

As far as being a reference for this information without regard to the certification, I like it.

It is well written and makes sense. I have several other certifications (MCSE NTv3.51 '97 through CCIE '00 and CCVP '06) and this book works as well or better than the books I had for those certifications.

If you don't mind an electronic copy, the PDF of this book has been made available without cost on Juniper's web site.

It is very suitable book for JNCIS candidates. You need deep network knowledge before read it. JNCIA study guide is a good supplement. To pass an exam own hands-on experience with JN routers is very helpful.

This book does a good job of explaining the different networking topics in a simple and clear manner. The topics covered in the book are comprehensive and more than sufficient to prepare the reader for the JNCIS test.

The book also has enough details to serve as a useful networking reference guide for readers who has already passed the JNCIS exam.

I got this book after I had already passed my JNCIS, but I still find it very valuable. I used it to help strengthen my understanding of JUNOS and the networking topics I was weak in. This book is a great supplement to the JUNOS reference materials available online which so often tell you vaguely what a command does, but don't give you any context for why you might need to use it. It provides good examples and gives good descriptions of what is going on and shows how to verify behavior with the CLI. I like to carry the CD with my laptop for reference.

The book assumes that the reader has at least a JNCIA level of experience, so it skips most of the introductory topics such as CLI and hardware architecture covered in the JNCIA guide. Although I think that a person could pass the JNCIS if they just studied this book very well, it would be much easier if they have some basic knowledge and experience with Juniper M and T series routers (at least at the "JNCIA level").

Comprehensive, clear and accurate coverage of all areas of the JNCIS exam. Complicated subjects are discussed in depth, with explanatory diagrams and sample configurations.

Topics range from a demonstration of how OSPF calculates routes, with a sideline discussion of the new standard Graceful Restart to splitting multicast traffic onto different links than unicast traffic in a network that carries both types of traffic.

There is coverage of items that seem to often come up in Juniper study discussions, such as the differences between Martini and Compella layer 2 VPNs, for example, as well as example scenarios and sample configurations that show you how to get them working in your lab or in real life.

If you want to do some serious studying, and are willing to put the time and effort in, this book will help you pass the JNCIS exam.

A java nut is defined as someone who worships the community developed JSRs. This book brings the ultra-boring standard to life with quite a bit of humor thrown in. For a veteran servlet/JSP developer, this is indeed a perfect starting point for portlets. However, you do need to know about servlets to understand phrases such as "...like a servlet, a portlet lives peacefully in a war file..." on page 2. It gets better as you read and I simply could not put this book down (a rarity among all programming books). It comrehensively answers the question "I know all there is to know about jsp, now how do I code portlets?".

I do have some suggestions for improvememts though (although I suspect the author will hate this). Basically, I think there is much more to portal development than the JSR-168 (soon to be obsolete or augmented by a new JSR). The standard is silent on practical aspects of portal development like themes, layouts and the all important content management systems (CMS) needed for large sites (in fact, anything to do with a database persistence or system state and, well, data is missing in the JSR-168). Portal vendors, even the "reference implementation" Pluto, therefore need much more than the JSR-168 to deliver the required developer functionality...this virtually guarantees that any "pure" JSR-168 portlet you write will need to be tweaked somewhat depending on which portal framework you will deploy into. Conversely, if you are using a commercial vendor CMS to create a portal, you need to know zilch about JSR-168. You will need to figure out the database level housekeeping details by yourself (or pay the vendor to teach you...no free lunch even with the open source guys). So, beyond the simplest toy portlets, albeit a solid exposition of the JSR, you will need more than this book to get really going (mostly understanding your framework and container etc...especially to master themes, layouts and CMS).

Finally, thanks to Amazon, I was able to order this book directly from the author (pulpjava). In addition sending me the latest edition of this book for no charge, he even sent me a free book on java exams...THANKS!

A friend of mine attended his class. He said this author is great, he explains things clearly and seems really understand students' need. He knows where students may get confused and he spends more time explain on them. He said he felt the teacher know what questions students may ask. Before student asks, the auther explains.

So I guess a good teacher can write good books because he knows how to explain. I think I am right. I have read another porlet book and very disappointed. After I read this one, I really understand how to work on portlet development.

Like in college, professors good at doing research may not be good at teaching, because they never figure out why students do not understand this kind of simple things (These professors are too smart). Teaching is a skill. This author is really good at teaching, so he is good at writing a book to teach reader.

This book gives you exactly what you need if you're new to the Portlet API. It goes over all of the classes of the JSR168 API, with lots of explaination of how portlets work, and simple, but relevant examples, that make it very easy to understand how, why, and what is going on inside of a portlet.

The book starts off with the basics of PortletRequest and PortletResponse programming, and moves quickly at a good pace into deeper and deeper subjects, such as PortletPreferences, PortletSession and Validators.

The book covers everything in the Portlet API, is easy to read, and makes many of the advanced topics very easy to understand. The author makes learning portlet development simple easy, which is perfect, because so many other books make it so convoluted and hard.

If you're doing portlet development, you've got to have this book on your bookshelf, if not right next to your keyboard.

The author has done a beautiful job in writing a clear and concise text on portlet programming for the JSR-168 spec. I've taken plenty of training on portal/portlet development and applied it minimally. Reading through this text summarized and CLARIFIED all of what went on in class, and made it much easier to comprehend. The quizzes at the end of the chapters are great checkpoints to boot. I've been very happy with the series of books Mr McKenzie has put out. They are engaging and invaluable to me as a java/web programmer.

I knew nothing about portals and portlets until I picked up this book. It really is an easy and enjoyable read and easy to follow and understand. I recommend this book to any one who would like to battle the IT world of Java and portlets. Another great thing is, if you really don't understand something you can go to the web sites and watch the free tutorials the author has online, and no offence, but if you don't understand it after reading the book and watching the tutorials then maybe portal is not best for you. :)

Steve Fishman's "Karaoke Nation" is an underrated and relatively undiscovered gem. It covers Fishman's attempted transition from journalist to entrepreneur, intermingled with essay-like takes by Fishman on business today. Those pieces feature some trenchant (and funny) observations on the likes of Fast Company, Tom (the spitter) Peters, The Brand Called You and other late-90s business phenomena.

Where the book really excels is in Fishman's recounting of his attempts to breathe life into Karaoke Nation concept. What I love is his recounting of the interactions between himself and advisors/partners-to-be Steve Reynolds (aptly called "Consigliere" thoughout the book by Fishman), web guru Peter Clemente and Oddcast CEO Adi Sideman. It's really fabulous writing. Hopefully, these three are happy with the way they've been depicted. I think Fishman has drawn each of them in a very positive light.

Other high points include meetings with hip hop entrepreneurs Russell Simmons and Chuck D. Fishman has a real ear and eye for what his readers want to hear out of those interactions.

I do take exception to the comment by another reviewer saying "of course the business failed." Not true. What did happen is that the entire Internet craze got pulled out from under Fishman and his circle (they tried to bring this live in the 1999 - 2000 timeframe). And, Fishman does have a completed product he can point to...see karaoke.oddcast.com for a licensed version of the technology. You can actually go there and record a karaoked version of 'The Tide Is High' and a small number of other tunes. It's pretty slick technology. Fishman got his vision into a product. He can hold his head pretty high.

I loved this book. Steve Fishman offers the reader two great stories in one: his own sometimes hysterical, sometimes bittersweet story of trying to become an internet entrepreneur and all the characters he meets along the way; and the story, the history, really, of American business ethic and practices - from Ben Franklin's principles through the dotcom dreamers and schemers.
Fishman has a wry sense of humor and you will laugh out loud at his encounters with all those who participate in the e-business romp, from his dry cleaner who also sells missiles online, to his colorful partners, to the distractible Israeli commando in pink bathrobe and wooly slippers.
It's no secret or surprise that journalist Fishman fails at business; but, lucky for us, he took lots of notes and turned the experience into a great read!

I was in a friends house yesterday and picked up his copy of kareoke nation. It took me thirty minutes to put it down and we missed our lunch reservation but it was worth it. I can't wait till my copy comes and I can go back to reading it.

Definately a must for people who are interested in wit, modern culture, and a whimsical look at fortunes folly.

I f you love adventure this is the book for you. Steve Fishman has the ability to turn a conversation at a cocktail party into a high wire act of observation. His meeting with Russell Simmons as well as his encounter with his missile selling dry cleaner are hilarious and deeply revealing about the nature of the business culture in this country. I've long been a fan of Mr. Fishman's writing in NY magazine and this book confirms his status as one of the leading reporters on our time.

The most redeeming factor about "Karaoke Nation" is that the concept, which reads like something Bill & Ted would have thought up, fails so miserably. Instead of another IPO story, what we get is a nonevent that proves that even during the nutty Internet boom VC's could occasionally be trusted to filter out unworthy projects.

Fishman, who spends almost a quarter of the book glorifying the 70's granola-flaky ideals that defined his sense of self at Brown University, makes a connection that the weird turned pro sometime during the 90's and things like research, development and execution just didn't matter to business anymore - all it took was an Idea, and Passion.

Unfortunately, Fishman has trouble even on these two counts. The Idea, after throwing away some amusingly low-caliber concepts like a "Hi-Five" dummy arm for lonely sports enthusiasts (don't ask) stumbles out of a bar with a vague concept having something to do with Karaoke (duh) and the Internet (because there's no manufacturing involved, so it sounds easy.) Through his journalistic connections, he ends up partnering with a couple folks who have enough experience to at least fake their way through their Power Point presentations and hype things up to some interesting audiences along the way.

The Passion part proves to be hard as well, partly because Fishman's exercising some truly new mental muscles here, and partly because it becomes increasingly obvious that he's the weak link in the chain. Ultimately, being the "Idea Man" isn't enough to keep his partners from deserting him, and Edison's "1% inspiration, 99% perspiration" success ratio holds true.

The downer for me is that Fishman should have read Tracey Kidder's "The Soul of a New Machine" before writing this book. As I mentioned, while 25% of the book is spent glorifying the marvels of EST, he totally missed out on the fact that the foosball-in-the-office sleep-on-the-floor cult of New Technology office life didn't spring from this; it evolved out of mid-1970's microcomputer engineering culture run amok. Fishman has nothing but disdain for programmers, tech workers, and anybody who actually has to develop things; he is, after all, an Idea Man and seems them as the logical extension of 1950's Organization Man. Even when OddCast provides Karaoke Nation's only saving grace in hacking up a quick demo, Fishman seems ungrateful; the fact that his shred of a non-idea ends up being bought out by his tech partner for a pittance seems poetic justice indeed.

And just in case you're wondering, the Million Dollars didn't happen, although Fishman did mange to find find a little bit of Glamour and Fulfillment along the way.

I am currently a student enrolled in the ECOT High School and I when I discovered this book I was excited to read it. I quickly bought myself a copy and couldn't put it down!! I think that more ECOT students need to read this book--it will really open your eyes and show you just how much work went into starting this school. ECOT has been wonderful for me because of my medical situation and I think this book made me appreciate it even more. I would definitely recommend it to anyone!!! Please read this book--it is definitely worth it!!

This is a great 'behind the scenes' look at one man's struggle to establish the nation's first public e-school. Sadly enough, many of the struggles the author faced stem from resistance posed by the educational establishment and its drive for self-preservation. While one might glibly assume a profit motive, the book reveals to us how the author's personal experiences drove him to beat the odds and make ECOT a reality. Rather than a money-making scheme, ECOT emerges as a labor of love.

One wonderful feature that maintained my interest was the student case history featured at the beginning of each chapter. These testimonials from successful ECOT graduates paint a wide and varied portrait of today's American students and the challenges they face. From school violence to teen pregnancy, lack of motivation, family illness and the demands of work, we get a firsthand account of the issues these students face and how the availability of publicly funded home e-schooling allowed them to cross the educational finish line.

Being one of the students featured in the book, I was thrilled when I first found out about the book. Upon reading it, I finally realizd how moch sweat and back breaking work went into ECOT. It truely has revolutionized the way that anyone will go to school. I enjoyed the time that I spent there, and can't wait until the day that it appears around the world.

I thought from the get-go, the book was mainly about Mr. Lager's approach to starting a school of this caliber, and I was right. From an idea to reality, this book really details what really went into making ECOT anything but an idea on a drawing board. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the future of schooling as we know it for one reason. It's here, alive and well and ready to go.

Bill Lager has truly changed the way I think about education. No more finger pointing, he has taken responsibility that the traditional education system can't - or won't. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in alternative forms of education for K-12 and for those who don't believe that online education can work. Lager has proven it can, and will - for a long time to come.

This was a great book; I really enjoyed reading it. More than anything, I loved reading the stories about the students whom were apart of the first e-classroom. This book proves a very important lesson; if you work hard and believe fully in what you are working at, anything is possible.

Thank you to Michael Busby for writing this book! I've had many reference books in the past and found them more frustrating than helpful. Not with this book! It is the only book right by my computer so I may refer to it as much as I need. I recommend it highly to anyone who needs help with searches.

This very well written book is a must for anybody wanting to learn more about Google. It goes beyond Google's Help section to provide all the pertinent information you need in a very organized way. Eliminate your search frustration and save time. The search challenge and search examples are great.

Michael Busby's new Book Learn Google helped me to catch on quickly to the fundamentals of Google that go beyond the simple "type in key words" searching. I found the writing very clear and concise, not filled with technical clutter, and the examples in latter parts of the book are easy to follow and enlightening in terms of the more advanced Google search features such as using the phone book, something not found easily in other references.

I found Learn Google to be very helpful in search techniques.
The use of examples makes this a terrific tool for the beginner as well as those who feel that they are beyond intoductory help books. Using the techniques described eliminates the frustration that results in many of us "giving up" on a search. The author makes it an enjoyable learning experience with search games.

I'm a research junkie -- have been almost all my life. My entrance essay for law school was about my various research projects. It worked -- I graduated from Harvard Law School in 1986.

Mr. Busby's book provided a critical guide to Google, showing much more independence of thought than "Google for Dummies" and "How to Do Everything with Google." His approach to the subject included technical information that I found much more user friendly than "Google Hacks" and "A Pocket Guide to Google."

I appreciated the tips on ancillary search issues including such topics as firewalls, Zone Alarm and Mcafee Visual Trace. I also appreciated the way he experimented with different search techniques to see what Google would let you do. It encouraged me to be brave when googling.

I definitely enjoyed the humor, including the last page of the Internet. The Search Challenge was great fun and I learned numerous search techniques from taking the challenge.

Learn Google is undoubtedly the best Google book on the market.

The 'Linux Networking Cookbook' is a wonderful addition for any admin or developer that is using exactly what the title of this book states: Linux Networking. With over 600 pages of content spread over 250-300 pages of helpful recipes, this is a welcome addition to a Linux admin's bookshelf.

Easy to recommend, hard to live without for this niche audience.

***** RECOMMENDED

I have gone through the entire book and I feel ready to transition from the familiar MS world of Server 2003/8 to Linux. The tips and tricks contained in the book will enable me to do all the things I want to do with my servers and desktops.

Fantastic book.

If you want to leverage your existing Linux admin and configuration skill, you should have one of this. Even if you don't dirty your hand with it, it gives you the scope of work and resources require when you are proposing to your boss or your customers. It will make you boss happy.

I bought this book because I enjoyed the Linux Cookbook book that Carla also wrote. This book is formatted much the same. I don't have to read pages and pages of discussion just to find what I need. It's a handy reference.

Network stuff can be complicated. Thanks to this book, I'm better at it.

I only hope that Carla is working on the next "cookbook"!! 8-)

This cookbook gets quickly down to business with an amazing breadth of useful networking information. I've found it to be an excellent guide for hands on learning of networking with Linux

The book only asks that you have a basic understanding of working from the command line. Where applicable the instructions for various solutions are given for Fedora and Debian.

The most valuable parts for me thus far are how to access machines remotely and this applies to working on your linux box remotely and working with windows machines remotely from a linux machine. As networks become increasingly mixed with unix/linux and windows - this book is going to be more and more relevant and useful in that area.

The amazon price makes this useful collection of knowledge a really great deal.

In this work, Rebecca Herold deftly lays out a framework that is easy to follow and comprehensive. She has skilfully managed to compile material that would otherwise take a significant amount of research, time and work to collect, and has created tools for the reader that are easily modified and transferred to any industry and indeed any country.

Ms. Herold consistently produces high quality written information centered around current and often complex subjects. The kernel of what she offers is the rare ability to present these topics as easy to understand and enjoyable to read.

As I live and work in Canada I was concerned that this book may be too centered on American laws and methodologies. I could not have been further off the mark. The methodology meticulously laid out by Ms. Herold could be applied in any country on the planet and ensure that whoever is following its plan is successful in their delivery.

In my 17+ years in Information engineering, security and education I have only kept a handful of texts on my bookshelf. This will be one of them.

If your organization is considering a security or privacy awareness program, this book will pay for itself many times over. I am not aware of any other resource that includes this much material about the art and science of awareness and training. Although this book is over 500 pages long, I found it easy to jump to specific chapters to get just the information I needed. The main chapters cover every aspect of program development including: planning, establishing a business case, budgeting, selling management, audience selection, material design and development, implementation, and measurement. Chapter 10 alone - which maps over 50 different awareness topics to various job roles - should save an organization thousands of dollars in program planning. And don't overlook the Appendices. Almost every sample form and worksheet you would need is available as an appendix. The assessment questionnaires alone should save dozens of hours of development. Definitely one of best security awareness investments your organization will ever make.

I am not a friend nor acquaintance of Ms. Herold. I believe this is a good book on Awareness Training and would recommend it to professionals in that field and to security professionals contemplating an awareness training program. I believe the book has especially good material on Legal and Regulatory requirements for training. However, it is too long at 515 pages. For a training program, the best bet is to collaborate with corporate training departments; security awareness training is no different from all the other types of awareness training. There is no point in security professionals reinventing the wheel on training methods. A collaborative approach will yield faster results than reading and understanding everything that is in this book.

The author introduces her book very eloquently: "I wrote this book to provide a starting point and an all-in-one resource for information security and privacy education practitioners. I incorporated much of the information and knowledge I obtained while working on my MA in computer science and education as applicable to providing education to adult learners. Additionally, I included the same type of information that I've used and found helpful over the years when creating awareness and training programs ... My goal was to provide a more comprehensive resource of everything involved with managing an information security and privacy training and awareness program than I had been able to find - a reference for practitioners to go to when implementing any part of their education program and get ideas that will help them be successful with their own program."

The entire `lifecycle' of a security awareness program is covered from program design (e.g. why awareness is important, legal and regulatory requirements and even `how not to do it') through program delivery and execution (getting started, gaining executive sponsorship and budget, topics to cover, methods of delivery/communications and motivational techniques, incorporating awareness into job responsibilities etc.) to program management (hints about planning, controlling and reporting progress) and program review (how to check that your program remains on-track and effective).

The book may appear overwhelming to someone just starting out on their information security and privacy awareness although it is not compulsory to read the entire book cover-to-cover in one sitting (tempting though that may be!). The chapter on `Getting started' is recommended reading, with details of how to identify key contacts, review the organization's existing approach to awareness and training, and a handy road-map that would serve as a good high level project plan. For more experienced information security professionals, and especially those considering or tasked with `doing awareness', this book is a must-read. Even seasoned security awareness practitioners would likely learn new things from this book, at least I did and suspect my copy will become well-thumbed in the months and years ahead.

The coverage is reasonably even throughout with plenty of meaty content in every section. The writing style is engaging, quite easy to read yet at the same time stimulating and thought provoking. The book is crammed full of good ideas, not just theoretical concepts but solid practical advice that can be put to use immediately. It really is hard to think of any way the book could have been better - praise indeed if you have read any of my reviews of other security awareness books.

This really *is* the definitive guide - a wonderful book for practitioners in our field, one I'm happy to recommend unreservedly.

I'll begin by saying that I have two broad comments about Ms. Herold's new book, Managing an Information Security and Privacy Awareness and Training Program. First, it may be the definitive book on the topic and seems to have enough meat to be the definitive book on the practice of information security in general. It approaches the profession in the right way: people-oriented. That is rare and important. Second, I actually read it from cover to cover - a rare thing for me. Professional books usually find their ways to my reference library and are used mostly for that purpose, not for general reading.

In the over twenty years I have been in the information security profession I have seen a lot of approaches to managing the security of organizational information. There is one common thread that ties all of those approaches together. The successful ones address the people who use and manage that information. Technology simply is a collection of tools to assist the information assurance manager with the task. It has been said that there are management solutions to technical problems but no technical issues to management problems. Ms. Herold addresses this homily head-on and does it with style, personality and skill.

Her experience shows as does the commentary from two icons in our profession, Donn Parker and Hal Tipton. If you have any questions about whether you should buy this book, read their comments in the Preface and Forward.

I have known Becky for many years and I respect her skill, experience and ability to present important issues clearly, concisely and understandably. Her latest book does all that and more.

If I was told that I was moving to a new office and could take only two boxes of books with me from my library, I would fill both with technical books but I would leave space for the only two general books on information assurance I will ever need. One is "The Computer Security Handbook" edited by my good friend and long-time colleague Dr. Mich Kabay. The other would have to be "Managing an Information Security and Privacy Awareness and Training Program". It would take more than the two boxes to cover technical issues in security, but I could put Mich's and Becky's books in my brief case. Then I would have the perfect security library.

This book is highly recommended for any information assurance professional (or aspiring professional), manager with information assurance responsibilities, or training coordinator. I'm sure there are others who need this new offering as well, but Amazon only allows so much space for these reviews. I also will be highly recommend this book to our students in the MSIA program at Norwich.

Peter R. Stephenson, PhD, CISSP, CISM, FICAF
Associate Program Director, MSIA
Norwich University