| Book Review: BGP
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) has been elevated to the protocol-de-jour in many circles. Wanting to understand the topic in depth, I turned to a book with a title simple enough to imply that it was a comprehensive reference on the topic. I was not disappointed.
December 2002 Book Review: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Second Edition
Although during the past year or so, we've seen a number of Web sites close shop and disappear, we've also seen those sites
that survived grow larger and more complex. Several years ago, it was accepted that Web sites could be somewhat clunky
and amateurish; today, however, the competion demands more.
December 2002 Book Review: UNIX Administration: A Comprehensive Sourcebook for Effective Syste
One of the goals of Unix was to be a universal operating system. While Unix has achieved a level of ubiquitousness unparalleled in information systems, the fact remains that with hundreds of different flavors of Unix, getting a handle on the operating system is no easy feat.
December 2002 Book Review: Red Hat Linux Security and Optimization
A doctrine of the open source movement is that although the software is free, you have to pay for the support and documentation. While anyone can go to ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/ and get the Red Hat Linux software for free, books on Linux or other open source topics will cost the reader money. But for readers who are willing to shell out $50 for a book about Linux security, Red Hat Linux Security and Optimization is a good overview on the core concepts of Linux security and how to secure, optimize, and harden Red Hat.
December 2002 Book Review: Absolute BSD
Ted Nolan reviews Absolute BSD: The Ultimate Guide to FreeBSD by Michael Lucas.
November 2002 Book Review: The Book of SAX
Laird reviews The Book of SAX, published by No Starch Press.
November 2002 Book Review: Perl for Web Site Management
If there's a Perl niche that O'Reilly hasn't yet covered, I'm not sure what it would be. Perl for Web Site Management is a recent Perl title from O'Reilly, aimed at giving would-be Webmasters a full arsenal to help manage Web sites.
November 2002 Book Review: Network Security with OpenSSL
The latest addition to O'Reilly's "must-have" references is Network Security with OpenSSL. The book covers pretty much all you'd ever need to know about using OpenSSL in your programs.
October 2002 Book Review: Universal Command Guide
If there is one book the administrator of a mixed network needs on his shelf, it is Hungry Minds’ Universal Command Guide for Operating Systems. Surprisingly, that is my claim, and not theirs. In a world full of marketing and advertising, this book could easily qualify for the best book to quietly take its place on the bookstore shelf in a long time – what they would call a “sleeper” in the movie world.
October 2002 Book Review: The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security
Kevin Mitnick says "the term 'social engineering' is widely used within the computer security community to describe the techniques hackers use to deceive a trusted computer user within a company into revealing sensitive information, or trick an unsuspecting mark into performing actions that create a security hole for them to slip through." It's suitable that Mitnick, once vilified for his cracking exploits, has written a book about the human element of social engineering — that most subtle of information security threats.
October 2002 Review: A New Kind of Science
August 2002 Linux and Windows 2000 Integration Toolkit: A Complete Resource
How complete is this "complete resource"? Find out in Dulaney's review.
August 2002 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide
July 2002 Samba Book Roundup
July 2002 Web Services Essentials
June 2002 Essential Checkpoint Firewall-1
June 2002 Performance Monitoring
June 2002 Book Review: XML Security Books
Ben Rothke reviews two new XML security books.
October 2002 Book Review: Learning Unix for Mac OS X
O'Reilly's Learning Unix for Mac OS X is the first book (that I'm aware of, anyway) out there to help the Mac faithful get a grip on Unix. It's a smallish tome that won't scare off folks who are used to pointing and clicking (with only one button!) their way through life.
September 2002 Book Review: Desktop Witness — The Do's & Don'ts of Personal Computer Security
It used to be said that the most secure computer was one that was powered off. But with dial-up technology that can remotely start up a computer, such an approach is no longer sufficient. The old approaches must be modified to deal with the current computer security threats; and with that, Desktop Witness — The Do's & Don'ts of Personal Computer Security attempts to enable the reader do the unthinkable — both use their personal computer, and have security and privacy.
September 2002 Book Review: Web Programming in Python: Techniques for Integrating Linux, Apache
Is Web Programming In Python: Techniques for Integrating Linux, Apache, and MySQL by George K. Thiruvathukal, Thomas W. Christopher, and John P. Shafaee, for you?
Perhaps. It's neither so perfect (like anything written by Donald Knuth, for example) that everyone should have a copy, nor so flawed as to be worthless. This book has quite a distinctive character. As I explain below, its fitness for you depends a great deal on what you're after in a book.
September 2002 Wireless Security Essentials: Defending Mobile Systems from Data Piracy
Writing a book on wireless security is like writing a book on safe skydiving — if you want the safety and security, just don’t do it. Hard-wired (cabled) networks have been around for decades and they are still for the most part insecure. Wireless networking (focusing on 802.11), which has been around for only a few years, is clearly an insecure technology. With that, there is currently not a lot to write about when it comes to effective wireless security.
Wireless Security Essentials: Defending Mobile Systems from Data Piracy confirms that there is little to say on this topic because although it is 345 pages in length, only about 75 pages deal with wireless security. Of those 75 pages (pages 135 – 207), about 15 pages discuss vendor products.
August 2002 Web Performance Tuning, 2nd Edition
The latest edition of Web Performance Tuning features significant updates and expanded content. Read Emmett's review to find out if the new edition is truly brilliant, just OK, or something less.
June 2002 Zope Book Roundup
Zonker checks out offerings from No Starch Press and New Riders to see who's got the dope on Zope.
June 2002 HIPAA Book Roundup
Rothke presents six of the most useful HIPAA resource books to help you gain an understanding of the topic and how it may affect your organization.
May 2002 Essential SNMP
Emmett confesses, "I can toss out acronyms likes MIBS, RMON, and NMS with the best of them, but if pushed into a corner, I wouldn't be able to hide the holes in my understanding of SNMP." Find out if Essential SNMP is enough to fill those knowledge gaps.
May 2002 Apache Roundup
"Bertolt Brecht wrote a classic play called 'The Good Person of Szechwan,' in which three gods roam about trying to find one -- just one -- any one -- good person. I felt like one of those gods as I roamed about the bookstore trying to find one -- just one -- good book about administering Apache on a Linux server..."
May 2002 Dot.con and dot.bomb
Dot.con provides a retrospective glimpse of the dot.com bubble, whereas dot.bomb chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of a specific internet company, Value America. Check out Rothke's review to see how these two books stack up.
May 2002 IP Routing
Most network administrators know something about routing, but many feel they don't know enough about it. The purpose of the newly published IP Routing is to fill the knowledge gaps that administrators may have.
April 2002 Introduction to Expert Systems
Expert systems can be loosely defined as computer programs that apply human expertise in solving problems. This book focuses on how expert systems are implemented and should interest anyone who'd like to see how AI works "under the hood."
April 2002 Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software
Rothke reports on a new release from O'Reilly & Associates: the mesmerizing biography of Richard Stallman, one of the most influential people in computer science.
March 2002 Web Security, Privacy & Commerce, 2nd Edition
Web security, privacy, and commerce have changed radically in the last five years. Rothke checks out a much-needed 2nd edition from computer security veterans Simson Garfinkel and Gene Spafford.
March 2002 Beyond Our Control? Confronting the Limits of Our Legal System in the Age of Cyb
Rothke notes that, although most of us aren't lawyers, the topics in this book -- cyber-security, consumer fraud, free speech rights, intellectual property rights, file-sharing programs, and more -- are worth reading about.
February 2002 Hacker's Challenge: Test Your Incident Response Skills Using 20 Scenarios
Are you up for a good mystery, cloaked in the guise of an incident report scenario? This book contains 20 incident report scenarios, complete with elements of deception, intrigue, false identity, forensics, complexity, and mitigation. A sample solution is provided for each scenario.
February 2002 Solaris 8 Security
Rothke discovers a resource that won't waste your time or your money -- or a lot of trees.
February 2002 T1: A Survival Guide
Durham checks out a survival guide that's intended to make life easier for T1 systems administrators.
January 2002 Managing IMAP
Managing IMAP is a collection of useful information for those faced with the tasks of IMAP server administration, troubleshooting, and system design.
January 2002 Writing Information Security Policies
In many ways, an information security policy is like dietary fiber: we all agree that it is necessary and beneficial, but only a handful of people take action to obtain it. Rothke explains while investigating this title from New Riders.
January 2002 CSS -- The Definitive Guide
Today's newest browsers support most of CSS1, and the specs for CSS2 are already out. Nonetheless, this book has a lot to offer.
January 2002 Incident Response
Rothke checks out a book that's designed to help you know what to expect -- and what to do -- when the inevitable occurs.
January 2002 Linux Web Server CD Bookshelf
Holman reviews O'Reilly's latest CD compilation.
January 2002 DocBook: The Definitive Guide
This is by no means a beginner's guide to DocBook, and it would be a steep learning curve for readers with no previous experience with the various markup languages (SGML, HTML, or XML). Although Walsh and Muellner do present SGML and XML, I recommend that anyone who is not familiar with these languages get a good introduction from another source before diving into this book.
December 2001 Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the Underground
Fresh Styles for Web Designers offers alternatives to the unnecessarily bland, print-oriented design that exists on the Web today. Author Curt Cloninger acknowledges the Web as a unique communications medium and advocates designing for the Web, such as it is.
December 2001 Linux Device Drivers
If you're a casual Linux user, I suggest that you run with Godspeed from this title and never look back. On the other hand, if you are a developer immersed in the bowels of the Linux kernel version 2.4, this is one book you’ll likely read until it's ragged. If you fall between the two ends of the spectrum, you’ll find this book intriguing and enlightening, in many ways.
November 2001 Ethernet: The Definitive Guide
If you've been occupied with networking for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly acquired a lot of information about Ethernet. O’Reilly’s Ethernet: The Definitive Guide, however, brings to light just how little the average administrator actually knows about it.
November 2001 Counter Hack: A Step-by-Step Guide to Computer Attacks and Effective Defenses
Recent security books have dealt exclusively with point security issues such as Windows NT security, Cisco router security, and TCP/IP security. Although point security is necessary, it does not provide the necessary level of security unless the varied points are integrated.
November 2001 Server Load Balancing
Don't be fooled by its brevity; this book is packed with concise information on Layer 4 and 5 network-based load balancing.
October 2001 Web Application Development with PHP 4.0
Zonker finds something for new and old programmers alike in this book by Tobias Ratschiller and Till Gerken.
October 2001 MySQL: Building User Interfaces
Ever thought of using MySQL and GTK+ for bulding custom apps? Zonker reviews this recent offering from New Riders.
October 2001 Exim: The Mail Transfer Agent
This book covers everything you've ever wanted to know about Exim, and probably quite a few things that you didn't know you wanted to know (but will be glad to find out).
September 2001 Instant Perl Modules
Graham uncovers a book designed to promote and support the reuse of Perl modules.
September 2001 The Linux Cookbook
"Webmaster Randy" offers a sample taste of The Linux Cookbook by chef...er, author Michael Stutz.
September 2001 Programming Linux Games
If the thought of Linux and games together really gets your motor running, check out this book on building game engines with Linux.
September 2001 Real World Linux Security: Intrusion Prevention, Detection, and Recovery
Information security adversaries are at your door. It's only a matter of time before network attacks occur. It is within this framework that Bob Toxen presents Real World Linux Security, a superb overview of how to comprehensively secure a Linux system.
August 2001 The Joy of Linux
Take two Linux-lovers and 10 years of shared experiences in the Linux community. Add a little Nitrozac and Snaggy. Shake it all up, intersperse with innuendo, and you've got The Joy of Linux.
August 2001 CERT Guide to System and Network Security Practices
If your mother were involved with information security, she would tell you to read this book. Listen to her.
August 2001 Effective awk Programming
Effective awk Programming provides a thorough look at the uses of awk. It covers the important details while being easy to follow.
August 2001 Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary
One cannot help feeling some delight about the refreshing unlikeliness of the story of Linus Torvalds.
July 2001 Incident Response -- Investigating Computer Crime
Zonker checks out a book on investigating computer crime.
July 2001 DNS and BIND -- Help for System Administrators 4th Edition
Zonker reviews the latest edition of DNS and BIND -- a book sys admins have been swearing by for years.
July 2001 Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems
Rothke reviews Ross Anderson's treatise on security design and engineering.
July 2001 Networking Linux: A Practical Guide to TCP/IP
Zonker reviews a basic guide for new Linux network admins.
June 2001 Maximum Security, 3rd Edition
Rothke reviews the latest edition of this popular book.
June 2001 Policy Routing Using Linux
Marsh's book is well suited for experienced admins or those who are already familiar with routing.
June 2001 The Humane Interface--New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems
In his book, Jef Raskin describes fundamental flaws in current interface design practices and offers solutions for improvement. Reviewer Ken Barnes says Raskins' ideas are gold. "They are ideas of the best sort -- those that inspire imaginative controversy."
June 2001 Hacking Linux Exposed: Linux Security Secrets & Solutions
November 0003 Swarm Intelligence
November 0003 Extreme Programming Explained--Embrace Change
November 0003 Planning for PKI: Best Practices Guide for Deploying Public Key Infrastructure
April 2001 Book Review Millennial Perspectives in Computer Science
November 0003 Book Review SSH, the Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide
November 0003 Book Review Network Printing Book Review
November 0003 Book Review Network Security Essentials
November 0003 Book Review Hacking Exposed
November 0003 Book Review Web Accessibility for People with Disabilities
November 0003 Book Review Steal This Computer Book 2
November 0003 Book32
Tony Bourke discusses implementation, traffic flow, and security issues related to a NAT-based SLB network architecture.
October 2001 |
