A Primer for Beginning Authors: What You Don't Know That You Don't Know Review

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(More customer reviews)While I wish I'd been given much of the candid, honest and caring advice this book offers back when I began my author journey, I have found I still very much enjoy this book. When I'm getting a little down, I can pick this up and be reminded why I love what I do.

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This plain-speaking, step-by-step book covers the various components involved in writing a novel, getting it published and marketing the finished product: what beginning authors don't know that they don't know. Written from experience by an author who started her career from scratch.

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Snort 2.1 Intrusion Detection, Second Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)Syngress published "Snort 2.0" in Mar 03, and I gave it a four star review in Jul 03. Excerpts from that review appear on the back cover and first page of "Snort 2.1," published only 14 months later. I still think "Snort 2.1" is overall the best Snort book available, but I was disappointed by signs of rushed production and lack of coverage of key Snort features.
The table of contents for "Snort 2.1" is deceiving, as it is almost exactly the same as "Snort 2.0." However, the new book is almost 200 pages larger than its predecessor, with many internal modifications. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 12 and 13 are either completely new or substantially new. Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 are either partial rewrites or have some material added or dropped. Despite all of this work, "Snort 2.1" fails to spend time on key subjects, which I will mention during a chapter-by-chapter examination of the book.
First, I recommend skipping ch 1. Aside from some general IDS advice, it is haphazard and contributes nothing to the core Snort discussion. Ch 2 is a quick overview of Snort capabilities, and should have been the lead chapter. Ch 3 describes Snort installation, but suffers apparently swapped figures (3.1 and 3.2) and a wrong figure (3.5). Ch 3 is still a nice upgrade from its counterpart in "Snort 2.0," which gave hints for deploying Snort on Red Hat Linux 8.0. The new ch 3 covers Linux, OpenBSD, and Windows.
Ch 4, "Inner Workings," is one of the reasons "Snort 2.1" has an advantage over the competition. It's tough to go wrong when Snort's developers describe the tool's operation. Still, signs of rough editing appear on p. 170 and 191, and the "-a cmg" switch should be "-A cmg".
Ch 5 covers rules, and is a big disappointment. For most users, rules are the primary means to customize Snort. Like "Snort 2.0," ch 5 fails to help readers with some of the more important new Snort rule options, like byte_test, byte_jump, distance, and within (available since 2.0.rc1 in Mar 03). Ch 5 implies on p. 145 that running Snort with -v is a good idea, despite every other recommendation in the book that verbose mode is a performance killer. Also, the IP "sec" option mentioned on p. 205 is not "IPSec" -- see RFC 791. Overall, ch 5 spends too much time restating rule information found in Snort's manual, and not enough time on features available even in Snort 2.0.
Ch 6's discussion of preprocessors is a solid chapter, with new material on Snort's flow module, http_inspect, and perfmonitor. The telnet preprocessor section is one of the better examples of a "code walkthrough," where the author shows code while explaining what it does.
Ch 7 is really showing its age. "Snort 2.0" was behind the times when it said "Unified logs are the future of Snort reporting," and "Snort 2.1" makes the same mistake. Barnyard, a means to read unified logs, was available in Sep 01! Ch 7 also misses the boat on XML output, calling it "our favorite and relatively new logging format" on p. 322. The XML plug-in spo_xml wasn't even part of snort-2.0.0, never mind snort-2.1.0. Basic research would have revealed Joe McAlerney's announcement of Silicon Defense's snort-idmef XML plug-in in Jun 01, followed by Sandro Poppi's assumption of the project in Aug 03. A mention of Barnyard's "XML formatting capabilities" appears in ch 7 on p. 322, yet Barnyard does not offer this natively.
I was happy to see Sguil addressed in ch 8, but sad to see Sguil's use of session and full content data not appreciated for its true worth. Ch 9 does a good job describing Oinkmaster and gives sound advice on avoiding the "not any" rule negation problem. Ch 10 covers really old testing tools like Sneeze, whose stateless operation cannot fool stream4's stateful inspection.
Ch 11, explaining Barnyard, is clearly the book's shining moment. This is the reason I read "Snort 2.1": Barnyard's author, Andrew Baker, describes Barnyard's history, the format of unified logs, and how best to use his contribution to Snort. Bravo. Ch 12 was also very good, using case studies to compare three different "active response" choices. Ch 13 was new but not exceptionally helpful.
I would enjoy seeing three improvements in the third edition. First, thoroughly scrub the book for old information. Watch out for people writing about "Cerebus" or http_decode or offerings from Silicon Defense, whose Web site disappeared in early 2004. Second, tell people to read the excellent Snort manual before reading the book. There's no need to address topics well-covered in the manual, like all of the IP- and TCP-based rule options. Third, ditch the existing rules chapter in favor of two new ones, one explaining principles via existing rules, and one showing advanced rule development.
I still recommend buying this book, but you might guide your reading choices by the comments in this review.

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Called "the leader in the Snort IDS book arms race" by Richard Bejtlich, top Amazon reviewer, this brand-new edition of the best-selling Snort book covers all the latest features of a major upgrade to the product and includes a bonus DVD with Snort 2.1 and other utilities.Written by the same lead engineers of the Snort Development team, this will be the first book available on the major upgrade from Snort 2 to Snort 2.1 (in this community, major upgrades are noted by .x and not by full number upgrades as in 2.0 to 3.0). Readers will be given invaluable insight into the code base of Snort, and in depth tutorials of complex installation, configuration, and troubleshooting scenarios. Snort has three primary uses: as a straight packet sniffer, a packet logger, or as a full-blown network intrusion detection system. It can perform protocol analysis, content searching/matching and can be used to detect a variety of attacks and probes. Snort uses a flexible rules language to describe traffic that it should collect or pass, a detection engine that utilizes a modular plug-in architecture, and a real-time alerting capability. A CD containing the latest version of Snort as well as other up-to-date Open Source security utilities will accompany the book.Snort is a powerful Network Intrusion Detection System that can provide enterprise wide sensors to protect your computer assets from both internal and external attack. * Completly updated and comprehensive coverage of snort 2.1* Includes free CD with all the latest popular plug-ins* Provides step-by-step instruction for installing, configuring and troubleshooting

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How To Write Winning Non-Fiction: The Complete Writing and Publishing Handbook for Non-Fiction Authors Review

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(More customer reviews)Most of us fancy having a go at writing a book at some point in our lives, and most of us fail. With Suzan St. Maur's "How to write winning non-fiction" there are no excuses any more. Suzan takes us through every aspect of writing in a way that enables us to overcome all the hurdles and avoid the pitfalls. She motivates us as we go and even breaks down the most daunting aspects (such as getting the book published) into managable and achievable steps. Moreover, the book is a damn good read. Suzan engages the reader's attention from page one and using a range of entertaining and humourous anecdotes she illustrates every point in a way that makes it both memorable and amusing. Strongly recommended.

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A Non-Fiction Writing Coach in Your Pocket...Getting published is now easier than ever but the fundamental things that distinguish winning non-fiction from the pulp have never been more important. If you're serious about writing a high-quality non-fiction book, getting it published and making it commercially successful then this book treats you to a masterclass that covers all you need to know about creating, crafting, writing and pitching your next bestseller.When you read this book you will learn...1. What every non-fiction book needs to be successful2. How to get a good idea and how to turn it into a winning idea3. Why so many books get started but not finished4. How to plan your book so writing it is fast, painless and easy5. Alternative publishing options and when you should pursue them6. How to pitch your book to mainstream publishers7. What happens from proposal to acceptance, to contract and beyond8. How to devise a winning title for your non-fiction book9. The mechanics for writing a book and meeting your obligations10. When to get in outside help and how to find itUsing real-life pitches, proposals, reviewer feedback, extensive links and even an entire sample contract, Suzan delivers in straight, honest terms what you need to do to succeed.

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Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is perfect for people who want to understand more about information technology and don't want to read something long or technical to learn it. The authors do a superb job taking the reader through how major technologies function (computers, the internet, cell phones, etc.), how they are shaping our lives, and what impacts they have on our laws and society. Amazing stories are woven throughout it, making it readable and fun for techies and non-techies alike. At the end of the book, you'll have a new understanding of the things we take for granted - and what possibilities and threats they pose. You'll also be light years ahead of most other people - who themselves will need to come up to speed in the coming years. A great read!

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"If you want to understand the future before it happens, you'll love this book. If you want to change the future before it happens to you, this book is required reading."–Reed Hundt, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission "There is no simpler or clearer statement of the radical change that digital technologies will bring, nor any book that better prepares one for thinking about the next steps."–Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law School and Author of Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace"Blown to Bits will blow you away. In highly accessible and always fun prose, it explores all the nooks and crannies of the digital universe, exploring not only how this exploding space works but also what it means."–Debora Spar, President of Barnard College, Author of Ruling the Waves and The Baby Business"This is a wonderful book–probably the best since Hal Varian and Carl Schultz wrote Digital Rules. The authors are engineers, not economists. The result is a long, friendly talk with the genie, out of the lamp, and willing to help you avoid making the traditional mistake with that all-important third wish."–David Warsh, Author of Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations"Blown to Bits is one of the clearest expositions I've seen of the social and political issues arising from the Internet. Its remarkably clear explanations of how the Net actually works lets the hot air out of some seemingly endless debates. You've made explaining this stuff look easy. Congratulations!"–David Weinberger, Coauthor of The Cluetrain Manifesto and Author of Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder."Blown to Bits is a timely, important, and very readable take on how information is produced and consumed today, and more important, on the approaching sea change in the way that we as a society deal with the consequences."–Craig Silverstein, Director of Technology, Google, Inc."This book gives an overview of the kinds of issues confronting society as we become increasingly dependent on the Internet and the World Wide Web. Every informed citizen should read this book and then form their own opinion on these and related issues. And after reading this book you will rethink how (and even whether) you use the Web to form your opinions…"–James S. Miller, Senior Director for Technology Policy and Strategy, Microsoft Corporation"Most writing about the digital world comes from techies writing about technical matter for other techies or from pundits whose turn of phrase greatly exceeds their technical knowledge. In Blown to Bits, experts in computer science address authoritatively the practical issues in which we all have keen interest."–Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Author of Multiple Intelligences and Changing Minds"Regardless of your experience with computers, Blown to Bits provides a uniquely entertaining and informative perspective from the computing industry's greatest minds.A fascinating, insightful and entertaining book that helps you understand computers and their impact on the world in a whole new way. This is a rare book that explains the impact of the digital explosion in a way that everyone can understand and, at the same time, challenges experts to think in new ways."–Anne Margulies, Assistant Secretary for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts"Blown to Bits is fun and fundamental. What a pleasure to see real teachers offering such excellent framework for students in a digital age to explore and understand their digital environment, code and law, starting with the insight of Claude Shannon. I look forward to you teaching in an open online school."–Professor Charles Nesson, Harvard Law School, Founder, Berkman Center for Internet and Society"To many of us, computers and the Internet are magic. We make stuff, send stuff, receive stuff, and buy stuff. It's all pointing, clicking, copying, and pasting. But it's all mysterious. This book explains in clear and comprehensive terms how all this gear on my desk works and why we should pay close attention to these revolutionary changes in our lives. It's a brilliant and necessary work for consumers, citizens, and students of all ages."–Siva Vaidhyanathan, cultural historian and media scholar at the University of Virginia and author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity"The world has turned into the proverbial elephant and we the blind men. The old and the young among us risk being controlled by, rather than in control of, events and technologies. Blown to Bits is a remarkable and essential Rosetta Stone for beginning to figure out how all of the pieces of the new world we have just begun to enter–law, technology, culture, information–are going to fit together. Will life explode with new possibilities, or contract under pressure of new horrors? The precipice is both exhilarating and frightening. Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen, and Harry Lewis, together, have ably managed to describe the elephant. Readers of this compact book describing the beginning stages of a vast human adventure will be one jump ahead, for they will have a framework on which to hang new pieces that will continue to appear with remarkable speed. To say that this is a 'must read' sounds trite, but, this time, it's absolutely true."–Harvey Silverglate, criminal defense and civil liberties lawyer and writerEvery day, billions of photographs, news stories, songs, X-rays, TV shows, phone calls, and emails are being scattered around the world as sequences of zeroes and ones: bits. We can't escape this explosion of digital information and few of us want to–the benefits are too seductive. The technology has enabled unprecedented innovation, collaboration, entertainment, and democratic participation.But the same engineering marvels are shattering centuries-old assumptions about privacy, identity, free expression, and personal control as more and more details of our lives are captured as digital data.Can you control who sees all that personal information about you? Can email be truly confidential, when nothing seems to be private? Shouldn't the Internet be censored the way radio and TV are? Is it really a federal crime to download music? When you use Google or Yahoo! to search for something, how do they decide which sites to show you? Do you still have free speech in the digital world? Do you have a voice in shaping government or corporate policies about any of this?Blown to Bits offers provocative answers to these questions and tells intriguing real-life stories. This book is a wake-up call to the human consequences of the digital explosion.Preface xiiiChapter 1: Digital Explosion: Why Is It Happening, and What Is at Stake? 1Chapter 2: Naked in the Sunlight: Privacy Lost, Privacy Abandoned 19Chapter 3: Ghosts in the Machine: Secrets and Surprises of Electronic Documents 73Chapter 4: Needles in the Haystack: Google and Other Brokers in the Bits Bazaar 109Chapter 5: Secret Bits: How Codes Became Unbreakable 161Chapter 6: Balance Toppled: Who Owns the Bits? 195Chapter 7: You Can't Say That on the Internet: Guarding the Frontiers of Digital Expression 229Chapter 8: Bits in the Air: Old Metaphors, New Technologies, and Free Speech 259Conclusion: After the Explosion 295Appendix: The Internet as System and Spirit 301Endnotes 317Index 347

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Making $40,000 Per Month In Extra Income: A Step-By-Step Guide In Building Wealth Through Various Income Streams Review

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(More customer reviews)Hands down the most useless amazon purchase I have ever made. I'd give it a negative star, if that was possible. It's one thing to give uber-generic and bland information, but multiple grammatical errors throughout as well? Come on. save your money!

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Whether you're stuck in the corporate rat race, working at home, slaving for your boss, student, or just one with a curious mind for earning $40,000 per month, this guide is for you! In this volatile market, we need to diversify our income streams. Inside, you will find 10 proven supplemental income generating methods that ANYONE can implement.This book will provide examples and profile individuals who have already achieved financial success through these methods. The chapters will show you how to setup each income stream with ease and resourceful websites to ensure you have no difficulty at each step.As an exclusive bonus, this book includes a technique on how you can obtain up to 40,000 frequent flyer miles, how you can save up to 50% on airfare and hotel or even FREE accommodations when you travel, and how to save money on your credit card debt.

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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Research Methods Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this book AFTER completing my masters, and this book is a great tool that provides step-by-step information through conducting a research project. In addition, it would be a excellent companion tool for any research methods course. If you are a college student, this book is a "must have" for your personal collegiate reference library.

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A guide worth looking into...for students of all kinds. Applicable to any field of study, this guide takes the novice researcher step- by-step through the process of extensive, credible research. From choosing a topic to presenting the information, this guide is full of tips on how to tell good sources from bad, evaluate information, and use it to support an original thesis.

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The Essential J.R.R. Tolkien Sourcebook: A Fan's Guide to Middle-Earth and Beyond Review

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(More customer reviews)George Beahm's new book takes a long overdue look at the world of JRR Tolkien: not the world of Middle Earth itself, but rather the extraordinary industry which has grown up around the writer's creation. Upon perusing this book the Tolkien fan, both expert and novice, will find a wealth of information regarding just how much is available to them. Beahm provides clear and concise reviews of all manner of Tolkien books, art, games, DVDs, collectibles and merchandise; and provides details of various rare editions which the true fan may want to track down.
All this is backed up with in-depth interviews with the best of the Tolkien artists, including Michael Whelan, Tim Kirk and Colleen Doran. Indeed, Doran provides a host of new drawings especially for this book - and magnificent they are too!
For the Tolkien fan wondering where to go next, this book is a must.

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Breaking new ground, this is a must have for any Tolkien fan seeking to learn more about the reclusive professor from Oxford who reluctantly became a celebrity because of his "hobbit-forming" books. It is a comprehensive reference work long awaited by the millions of Tolkien fans throughout the world who have bought 100 million copies of his books, in more than 40 languages. This book will also be especially appealing to the millions of new fans-moviegoers-turned-readers-who have rushed from theaters to bookstores worldwide to seek more information about Tolkien and his work. Profusely illustrated, it features one hundred photographs and drawings from noted fantasy artist Colleen Doran, plus art portfolios by Tolkien calendar artist Tim Kirk, and cover artist Donato Giancola. Chock-full of sidebars, quotes, and short interviews, this guide to Middle-earth and beyond will be an indispensable addition to any Tolkien collection.

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Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir Review

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(More customer reviews)In one of the opening essays of his autobiographical collection _Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir_, Ander Monson, reflecting on the memoir as a genre, writes, "Very occasionally these individual stories are so striking, conscious, and/or artful that they create a heightened interest: they compel us, they cast that spell over our nighttime hours" (15). Monson's book is likely to do just that for the reader. In essay after essay, he not only explores his own experiences but interrogates the form of the personal essay itself, the "blurred boundaries" (to borrow a phrase from film theorist Bill Nichols) between _non-_ and _fiction_. He strikes a balance between self-aware genre exploration and more open, familiar first-person address, so that one never feels left out of the conversation, even as Monson experiments. Some of these essays originally appeared individually, but I was struck by how coherently they work in the order they're presented, so that unlikely motifs occur--who would have guessed that the world's largest ball of paint could accrue so many meanings (like the object itself, an effect not lost on Monson)? This is a beautiful book, and I would encourage readers interested in the memoir form to read it.

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An adventurous exploration of the "I" in American culture, by the author of Neck Deep and Other PredicamentsMe. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. In contemporary America, land of tell-all memoirs and endless reality television, what kind of person denies the opportunity to present himself in his own voice, to lead with "I"? How many layers of a life can be peeled back before the self vanishes? In this provocative, witty series of meditations, Ander Monson faces down the idea of memoir, grappling with the lure of selfinterest and self-presentation. While setting out to describe the experience of serving as head juror at the trial of Michael Antwone Jordan, he can't help veering off into an examination of his own transgressions, inadvertent and otherwise. He scrutinizes his private experience of the public funeral ceremony for Gerald R. Ford. He considers his addiction to chemically concocted Doritos and disappointment in the plain, natural corn chip, and finds that the manufactured, considered form, at least in snacks, is ultimately a more rewarding experience than the "truth." So why is America so crazy about accurately confessional memoirs?With Vanishing Point, Monson delivers on the promise shown in Neck Deep, which introduced his winning voice and ability to redefine the essay and "puts most memoirs to shame" (Time Out Chicago).

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Start & Run a Personal History Business: Get Paid to Research Family Ancestry and Write Memoirs (Start and Run a...) Review

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(More customer reviews)I just finished reading Jennifer Campbell's impressive how-to book "Start and Run a Personal History Business" published by Self-Counsel Press. Wow! What a fantastic resource, and a "must buy" for anyone just starting out or considering a career change to this burgeoning field. It's really terrific--organized, interesting, informative, well-written, clear, highly useful and quite engaging. As one who likes to "read everything published" on a subject before jumping in, I would go so far to say that this book will go a long way to giving you the confidence and the tools to actually get up and running sooner rather than later.
Jennifer has an accessible and happy voice as she walks you through each step of the business, marketing and implementation processes of the relatively new profession of personal historians. Her use of examples and samples are enormously satisfying, (I particularly liked the inclusion of an interview "as recorded," and how it might read after the editor had applied his/her deft hand,) and she anticipates the concerns and unseen pitfalls that might weigh heavily for the newcomer. Don't let fear of the unknown dampen your enthusiasm for starting a new venture- Jennifer covers so much ground that you will feel amply prepared and armed with the tools to be a success. Honestly, I couldn't come up with a single thing that she didn't at least touch upon, and she obviously speaks from experience. She also sounds like she loves what she does!
While clearly this book is targeted to people new to the field, it would get ample use in the seasoned personal historian's library as well. Jennifer offers sage advice for providing top-notch customer service, managing your time and pricing yourself correctly in the marketplace. This is one business expense that will pay for itself in no time.


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Anyone can start a personal history business to meet the demands of communities, families, and even corporations to record and preserve the stories they want remembered. The preservation of memories was recently noted by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times as a profitable business opportunity, and appeals to a broad range of people. This practical guide covers every stage of business development including how to actually do the work, starting up, education and training, marketing and expansion, and a step-by-step guide for new personal historians to produce a first project.

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