Open Books

If you're considering expanding the use of Linux in your organization, this is a must read. Mr. Teter succinctly and accurately notes the pro's and con's of moving into an open-source Linux environment. Using his book as a roadmap saved our company time, pain, and money.

In his book Paradigm Shift, Mark Teter shows corporate executives and IT Directors how to assess their companies and judge whether or not Linux is right for them. He starts the book off with a general road map of Linux, where it has been and where it is heading. Mark believes that most, if not all companies can take advantage of Linux and the Open Source community to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors.

It is clear that Linux has matured and come a long way since its inception. Under the right circumstances, I would have to agree with Mark that a company could simplify their environment and reduce their TCO by switching to Linux. Granted, this switch is not for the faint of heart. If you are coming from a UNIX environment, the switch should be fairly easy. However, if you are attempting to migrate from a Windows environment, it may be a longer road to a full switch. This is where Mark's Seven Keys take hold.

The Seven Keys give you a standard process that will help guide you to a successful migration. These Keys are critical to any IT project but they are especially prudent when making a switch in operating systems. Following these keys from Identifying Business Objectives all the way through to Practicing Process Improvement will ease the transition, but Mark is very honest and speaks truth to potential failures.

This book is an excellent, well-produced source of data and details on coal cars on the Pennsylvania Railroad. It is not, however, a detailed history of coal mining operations served by the P Company. The book will be extremely useful to modelers looking for information on PRR coal cars.

As an avid scratchbuilder, this book offered wonderful insights, diagrams and modeling techniques for reproducing these Hoppers. Though not strictly a book for modelers, I believe that modelers will get the most use out of it.

From the title it would be difficult for most, if not the majority of less culturally sophisticated to appreciate the value contained in these essays on the main components of enlightenment: humanism, and humane treatment, civility and civil communication, compassion, and kindness. Yet all indications of the current state of our social networks, and a great many of our social interactions, personal or impersonal, could benefit from a re-examination of the importance of legitimacy, honesty, cooperation, and redemption. In fact, it may well be golden age for philosophers to introduce updated analysis on both the need for this, and the negligence of society to provide focus upon this very important social and psychological topic as we slide further and further into the "neverland" of returning from the most uncivil, unkind, uncaring terrorism yet known to man, a point where the individual is perceived as useless, and has no value whatsoever. Very timely in view of both foreign events and domestic response and reaction to them, but not necessarily confined to that scope of "reasonable and logical intervention." The society that fails to help itself due to fear, repugnance, and resignation may well be one that cannot be pulled back into optimism and hope. Having taken the first steps upon and along this road, few pathways lead back to comfort and happiness. It is much like entering the world of the insane and finding the door closed and locked behind. The most logical foresight is never to step inside in the first place, but in view of events after 9/11/2001, backtracking is impossible, and before us lies the very rocky road of recovery. Understanding this is merely half the battle, since cooperation and determination of the safe road forward remains elusive. Never begun, the end is not so difficult to imagine. Appreciating the past has little value when the future imagined is closed to hope.

Perspectives On Habermas is an outstanding anthology of 30 essays by established philosophers on the work of the controversial philosopher Jurgen Habermas, who is perhaps the best-known spokesperson for the tradition called Critical Theory. Habermas devoted his life to articulating the defense of the Enlightenment ideals of rationality, humanism, and the limitless possibilities of rational, intellectual discourse. Thought-provoking and highly complex, Perspectives On Habermas is a work especially for those with a vested interest in the study of philosophy, for to weigh and judge the entire depth and breadth of Jurgen Habermas' postulations is a challenging mental task indeed.

Firstly, I've found this volume immensely helpful in studying the philosophy of John Dewey. It features two parts, called "The Structure of Experience" and "The Lived Experience." Both of them feature essays by Dewey and selections from his various books. The former focuses on matters more metaphysical and epistemological in nature, and the latter deals with issues in ethics, esthetics, politics, and pedagogy.

Secondly, please note that, at the time I write this review, clicking "search inside another edition of this book" in fact takes you to another book altogether. This one is a U. of Chicago volume, edited by John McDermott, which contains writings *by* John Dewey. The other is an Open Court volume containing essays *about* John Dewey.

I was a student teacher who taught the IMP curriculum and I wasn't really impressed with the whole experience.

After reading this book, my whole conception of learning changed and I realized that any curriculum based environment is not really Dewey since it seperates the learning from the real world.

I liked this book so much that I had to buy copies for interested friends.

It's wonderful, to me, when you start seeing things for what they are...

Davies and Neil have conspired to bring together a range of professionals in the field of helping Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual clients grow and heal in a queeer positive space.

This book is for all professional helpers who have clients who do not conform to the heterosexual mold and need to be suported in their life choices/circumstances. As opposed to a number of books proporting to be for therapists working with a similar client base, Pink Therapy offers no cures or therapies for the 'affliction' of non-heterosexuality, but recognises the wonder and value of it and offers therapists and clients an understanding of the value of recognising this and building on that value to move forward in life.

A must read for all therapists & counsellors, in particular Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual therapists & counsellors and those with Bisexual, Gay or Lesbian clients.

... I am a straight graduate student in psychology who has spent the last 8 months as a volunteer with a local gay telephone switchboard. I read this book as background for a paper I am writing that attempts to defend adoption by gay/lesbian parents. It covers all the basics - homophobia and its internalization, the coming out process, GLBT relationships, parenting, aging, etc. Each is addressed as a blend of theory with case studies so that the reading is smooth, entertaining and interesting. It is written from a British perspective with an occasional colloquialism, and the appendices are not useful here in the States.

But I am so glad that I read this book. My neurology class convinced me that the etiology of homosexuality is biological. Spong convinced me that the moral condemnation of homosexuality is wrong in "Living in Sin." "Pink Therapy" helped me to feel the pain of those society has rejected, to understand how hard it must be to overcome the temptation toward self-loathing such rejection breeds, and to respect the courage of those who have dared to be what they were made.

In my evangelical past it was often said that we should "love the sinner while hating the sin." I now understand what was wrong with this statement. By presuming to judge my gay brother or my lesbian sister, I am wounding them. With God's help I will do so no longer.

Read this book with an open heart and mind. You might learn more than you ever thought you could.

A book about Christian Spirituality that goes through four editions in eighteen years and remains popular must be "touching hearts" at a deep level. "Praying Our Experiences" by Brother Joseph Schmidt, FSC is such a book. Insightful and clearly written, it avoids the temptation toward academic and theological language while at the same time being a profound presentation on prayer in the Christian tradition. Three things strike me immediately in reading the fourth edition: the expansion from ten chapters to fifteen chapters, more examples of what it means to pray one's experiences, and the author's devotion to St. Therese of Liseaux.
The thesis of the book remains the same: "Praying our experiences is the practice of reflecting on and entering honestly into our everyday experiences in order to become aware of God's Word in them and offer ourselves through them to God." (p. 35)
For this reader the chapter on "Incarnational Prayer" was most meaningful. "The reality of the Word's having become flesh and having lived among us assures us that God is at home in human experience and that our prayer is born from our human experiences." (p. 69)
My single criticism of this fourth edition is the little attention paid to the spirituality of St. John Baptist de La Salle, founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. If any saint was a practitioner of "praying our experiences" De La Salle was that saint.

Reviewed by: Brother Malachy Broderick, FSC
Washington, D.C.

Praying Our Experiences goes to the heart of prayer: connecting who I am here and now with God who creates us, loves us, and calls us to the fullness of life. At first sight so simple, Br. Joseph tells the awful truth so invitingly: each of us falls so short of our potential yet we are still loved and invited. And we need not fear to let go of our pretenses and our plans. God is within and beyond, loving us beyond our capacity, as we honestly and trustingly look into our experiences and discern next steps.

Br. Joseph offers keen insight, practical suggestions and the reassurance of mystics to open ourselves to the richness of our life experiences embraced in the loving mystery of God.

For years, any system administrator running Linux who was worth his paycheck knew that Qmail was the defacto standard for running a mail server (heck, even Yahoo uses it!). Sendmail has always been ripe with security holes and headaches -- something Qmail has went to great lengths to correct. However, the problem has always been there was no easy reference guide to Qmail. You had to be either a Linux-geek, or know someone who was, to get it installed and working correctly!

Now, thanks to O'Reilly, even us non-geeks can get our Qmail systems up and running in no time. This book covers everything you need to know in an easy-to-follow format. From installation, to making the switch from sendmail, even how to tune and setup third-party components with Qmail to help control spam, scan for viruses and run your own mailing list server.

One of the great things about this book is it, for the most part, is not dependent on any particular flavor of Linux. The author does a good job of making it generic enough that you can follow along no matter what distribution you use.

Granted, you will need to know a bit about Linux to use read and fully understand this book. It is geared towards system admistrators and not the end-user of a Qmail system. However, you don't need to be a Linux Guru to understand it -- it has just enough detail to satisfy without overwhelming.

Overall, this is the handbook for Qmail that has been long overdue -- a one-stop technical manual that puts the final touch on Qmail.

Although sendmail is installed in more Internet mail servers than any other Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) it has come under scrutiny for being a large awkward program by today's standards. More and more new MTA servers are moving to a modular program like qmail that has a multitude of smaller programs for each function instead of one huge program that does everything. This allows for greater speed and flexibility. John R. Levine's new book "qmail: Managing Unix-Based Mail Systems" examines the qmail program in depth from installation to configuration to troubleshooting. While qmail is fairly straightforward and you can achieve great results on both small and very large systems, it is a very different way of thinking if you are moving from sendmail and are already familiar with it. The author recognizes this difficulty of changing the way you think and spends a good portion of the beginning of the book detailing qmail and how it works so you understand the "qmail frame of mind". I've never setup a sendmail server and so I did not have the obstacle to overcome but I have setup and configured the postfix MTA which is also a modular type program. With that background the book was a breeze to follow along and I was even able to download a copy and configure it correctly for my system. The coverage was excellent and the installation and configuration information provided all the information I needed to get it up and running. If you are thinking of building a qmail MTA you will find "qmail: Managing Unix-Based Mail Systems" absolutely indispensable and the only reference you need to get it done right the first time.

I never realized how seriously I could be negatively impacting my health just by the way I handled my food. I've read through the book twice, and have since donated it to the bookshelves at the AIDS Support Network of San Luis Obispo County, CA. This book really should be given to each and every HIV-Positive person at no charge by their respective ASO's. Little things can truly have a great impact on our health.

This excellent guide is recipient of the Reviewer's Choice award and is well deserving of it. It details all aspects of nutrition and food safety and shows food is a great tool of preventive medicine in promoting healing of common AIDS-related illness.

becomes more widely spaced after reading this book. I've been watching the different forms the author has been using in recent writings and I've adored the beautiful starkness that is her expression. I would recommend this book if you have a love of poetry that is visual and rhythmic.

The first striking quality of Jennifer Hill Kaucher's book is the enormous sense of control and form; the poems are short, rhythmically and spatially balanced, and made with a skilled and deliberate hand. They are clearly careful works of love. The language here is somehow simultaneously terse and rich, vivid in its structure and cadence.

The content of the poems seems almost expressly aimed at challenging the form; from the first poem ("Chanting Outside of Language") to the last ("Reach"), we become acquainted with a narrator whose primary obsession is to express things that fall just beyond the capacities of the language -- she struggles to balance the physical world (coffee, shellac, houses, laundry) against the literary world (codes and forms) and ultimately longs to transcend both, to be, as in the poem "Asleep," a "traveler [who] leaves her belongings." The counterpoint of content against form leads to poems that shine. This is work that compels, mystifies, and resonates in your bones.

Just spent the last hour journaling, and find that even the simplest questions Laura Wright poses lead to rich and helpful insights. Incorporating guidance from several different spiritual disciplines, she illuminates both the necessity and the joyful promise of the reflective, responsible path in life. Her writing is elegant and crystal clear; her suggestions for meditation are a true pleasure to follow. I am sincerely grateful for the intelligence and learning Laura Wright has so generously poured into this enlightening book. I believe many will feel the same.

I strongly recommend this book.

Extremely insightful, very well written, easily understandable, and most of all - inspiring. Characteristic performance by an excellent author. This beloved author has an amazing level of Attainment in the her spiritual path, clearly is a first rate educator of the practice of journal writing, and happens to be a Yoga teacher as well. (You should see her in person! Wow!)

All this shows clearly in this text which reaches and teaches the reader on so many levels: from fundamental and solid spiritual progress, no matter the reader's religious persuasion, to totally useful methods of using journal writing as a developmental method of character and self discovery.

That last part was the core of the text for me, and it is an excellent teaching tool, successfully getting this lazy person to WANT to write in his journals and to benefit so completely from doing so. It has changed my life. I have two copies of the book along with two journals so one is always with me. No matter the problem or occasion, I am prone now to sit and write and benefit from that.

I can't say strongly enough that no matter WHO you are, you can't walk away from going through this tremendously well expounded text and not be a better, calmer, happier, more insightful person.

A deep bow to this author. Thank you for helping this one's path in life.

HikerBob of El Paso