CompTIA A+ Certification Practice Exams (Exams 220-701 & 220-702) (Certification Press) Review

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(More customer reviews)First off, if you're planning to use this as a primary reference for your A+ exam...DON'T. There are errors in the material. Second, if you're one of those who is able to memorize questions and answers and recall them at will, this book won't help you at all, because the CompTIA exam questions are NOT those in this book. Having said that, if you pair it up with a Meyers or Lammle text and use it for review, it will do its job, which is to prepare you for the actual CompTIA examinations. Yes, I know, the Meyers and Lammle books have their own practice tests included on their CDROMs. If you're at all uncertain about how well you've studied, pay the extra money and buy this book, and take the practice tests it provides.
As to the actual practice tests, both those on the included CDROM and from the authors' Web site, you may find them more difficult than the actual CompTIA exams. This is a good thing, because if you are able to pass the practice tests, you're likely to score well on the CompTIA exams. An example? I squeaked out a 76% on the two Practical Applications practice tests from the book and Web site, and then after studying the suggested "weak" areas, scored 850 on the CompTIA exam.
In short, if you're not comfortable with your knowledge and abilities, pick this up and try the tests to see where you need to build yourself up. If you ARE, pick it up anyway and see if you know what you think you know.

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Security Administrator Street Smarts: A Real World Guide to CompTIA Security+ Skills Review

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(More customer reviews)Not an Exam Cram type of book, this book is aimed at giving newcomers to the security field a solid background and understanding of what the job entails. Only incidentally does this book follow the CompTIA Security+ certificate examination (Exam #SY0-101) recommendations and thus provide a dual purpose.
The book is organized into tenphases or major sections. Each phase then has a series of Tasks to be performed. The first phase is entitled 'The Grunt Work of Security.' In it you start by making a security assessment of your network. By phase 10 you have completed hardening, securing the storage, set up user accounts, protected against virus and other malware attacks and more. In phase 10 you study troubleshooting.
I found the book to be easy reading, and the phase/task approach worked well for me. It provides a well needed break in the reading. And let's face it, reading about security is a lot less exciting than reading about Harry Potter.

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A step-by-step guide to the tasks involved in security administration
If you aspire to a career in security administration, one of your greatest challenges will be gaining hands-on experience. This book takes you through the most common security admin tasks step by step, showing you the way around many of the roadblocks you can expect on the job. It offers a variety of scenarios in each phase of the security administrator's job, giving you the confidence of first-hand experience.
In addition, this is an ideal complement to the brand-new, bestselling CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, 5th Edition or the CompTIA Security+ Deluxe Study Guide, 2nd Edition, the latest offerings from Sybex for CompTIA's Security+ SY0-301 exam.
Targets security administrators who confront a wide assortment of challenging tasks and those seeking a career in security administration who are hampered by a lack of actual experience
Walks you through a variety of common tasks, demonstrating step by step how to perform them and how to circumvent roadblocks you may encounter
Features tasks that are arranged according to four phases of the security administrator's role: designing a secure network, creating and implementing standard security policies, identifying insecure systems in an existing environment, and training both onsite and remote users
Ideal hands-on for those preparing for CompTIA's Security+ exam (SY0-301)

This comprehensive workbook provides the next best thing to intensive on-the-job training for security professionals.

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Flames in the Field: The Story of Four SOE Agents in Occupied France Review

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(More customer reviews)Flames in the Field is a searing account of the heroic efforts of British and French resistance fighters during World War II. Rita Kramer manages to combine both historical detail and subtle character studies in a story that has suspenseful and surprising twists. Although the book is meticulously researched, it reads more like a spy novel that you can't put down. I recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about the unsung heroes who helped to vanquish the Nazis; the under-reported role of women in that courageous mission and the political machinations that turned heroes into pawns in a larger game plan. This book is exciting to read and an important contribution to uncovering the hidden story behind the Allied victory.

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The true story of women agents of the secret World War II Special Operations Executive, mandated by Winston Churchill to "set Europe ablaze" by organizing resistance in occupied Europe during the prelude to D Day. Intrigue and heroism, adventure and betrayal figure in this account of British-led efforts to defeat the Nazis in wartime France, based on extensive research in records, documents, letters and memoirs, and the author's interviews with surviving agents and officials. Despite sporadic defeat and betrayal, SOE leaders managed to delay the arrival of German reinforcements to the Normandy beachhead, contributing to the eventual Allied victory. Details of the operations of SOE recounted here remained secret for decades after the war, finally revealing the human cost of the reconnaissance and sabotage efforts that helped to shorten the conflict.

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American Empire: The Victorious Opposition Review

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(More customer reviews)The echoes of war loom over a divided North American continent in Harry Turtledove's American Empire: The Victorious Opposition, the third book in the middle trilogy of books. Starting with The Great War saga, Turtledove has told a tale of alternate history, with the Confederacy having won the Civil War and still being around in the early 1900s. The American Empire trilogy has told the story of the inter-war years, and Turtledove's ideas are fascinating. Unfortunately, the writing doesn't keep up with it.
Harry Turtledove really confuses me sometimes. I love the concept of this series and I love what he's doing with it. The idea of a Confederacy taking part in World War I and the rise of a Hitler-like figure in the downtrodden South that sparks World War II is fascinating. However, the way he writes just annoys me. His constant repetition (he uses the same metaphors over and over) and his need to introduce his characters every time we see them in the book are just grating. We know that Abner Dowling served under Custer during the First World War and that Dowling didn't like him. Even if we hadn't read the previous books, we got that the first time Turtledove introduces Dowling in this book. We don't need to get it again the next time, and the time after that. It's like Turtledove thinks that his readers don't have the attention span to keep all of his characters straight. While that may be a valid point (previous books have had a lot of viewpoint characters), Turtledove has actually toned that down in this one, having only a few characters act as main ones. Others are introduced as some of the previous ones die off, keeping the cast to a manageable level.
This brings up another point as well. Turtledove is not afraid to kill off some of his characters, so it's nice that you don't quite know who's going to survive and who's going to live. However, some of the characters' fates are so obvious that it felt really boring, just waiting for the inevitable end to the storyline. Some of these characters we have been following for six books now, so it seemed a shame that their deaths were so telegraphed. Even when they weren't telegraphed, they seemed very perfunctory. Two of the characters just die off with no real ending to their ongoing story, which bristled. We've been waiting six books for the payoff to their story, expecting some sort of comeuppance or resolution, but nothing happens. The character just dies and that's it. End of story. I was not amused. Turtledove also spends time developing his next set of characters who will carry the next series, with the sons and daughters of our well-known characters finally getting their time on stage so we can get to know them.
Another fault with the book is one I had with the Blood & Iron as well. Too much of the history is a pale imitation of what really occurred in history. Some of it is unavoidable. The blacks in the Confederacy are the Jews from our real history (brought to life in a very chilling scene late in the book). The United States is Britain as it led up to the war (though at least Turtledove avoids having the President make a speech about "peace in our time"). However, Turtledove doesn't make it different enough to be as interesting. Kentucky, a state that the USA has controlled since the war, is the Rhineland, even down to the Confederacy moving in troops when they promised to keep it demilitarized for twenty-five years. While all the events in the book inevitably led to the conclusion we all know about (World War II), the events themselves should have been at least slightly different. That's what made The Center Cannot Hold more interesting. Different events occurred, surprising the reader even as we know where it will ultimately lead.
With all of this wrong with the book, how were the characters? Just like other Turtledove books, they were hit or miss. Some of them are interesting (Chester Martin and his attempt to unionize the construction industry in California really has me wondering where Turtledove is going with this one, which is a good thing), while others are bland and boring (Nellie Jacobs has to be one of the most worthless characters I've ever read about). Others are intriguing just because of who they represent in real history (Featherston, Clarence Potter). Overall, Turtledove does a passable job.
One good thing about the book, however, is the mood. As the book reaches its conclusion and war looms on the horizon, there's a palpable sense of fear and resignation that, because of Featherston, war is unavoidable. The United States has finally drawn a line that he can't cross, and when he does (just like in real life), the inevitable conflagration occurs, leading us into the next series. The tension is very well done, making the ending much better than the rest of the book.
The Victorious Opposition is a triumph of concept over prose, and I think that's why I can't read any other series by Turtledove. The concept of this entire series has kept me hooked for six books, when other, better-written books have turned me off and forced me to give them up. If you are a fan of alternate history and can get past the wretched prose and obvious characters, then give this book a try. If you are not in that select group of people, then give it a miss.
David Roy

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Secrets of Question Based Selling: How the Most Powerful Tool in Business Can Double Your Sales Results Review

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(More customer reviews)This is perhaps the best all-around sales book I have ever read. While other books point out much needed information, or say the same thing with a different perspective that is sometimes necessary to understand a point, this book should be THE starting point for any sales professional. This book has helped me greatly in my success as a sale professional. It is a sales book, a persuasion book, and a psychology book all rolled into one. Everyone seems to try to start people off with "You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar" by Sandler, but this book is everything that book is and then some.
Where are the differences? Other books take an elementary strategy to the sales process. First you prospect, then you get the appointment, then you interview the customer, then you give your presentation, then you handle objections, then you close, close, close! I have even heard one person ask what the point of "step 1" is....and his answer was to get to "step 2". while this is somewhat useful to understand, it doesn't help you DO it, it doesn't tell you what to do and how to do it, and it's little more than an outline.
Secrets of Questions Based Selling gets down to the nitty-gritty. He brings things to the table that you may never think about if you don't read this book. He talks about how people interact, how they need to ad value, how they mismatch, how different types of questions serve different purposes- some are solely for the benefit of the person doing the questioning and ad no value to the person answering (i.e.- What CRM product are you currently using in your company?), while others provide more value to the customer (How many customers do you think you are losing because you do not have voicemail and people are hanging up?), etc.
I have read A LOT of books on sales, and I keep finding pieces of this book in all of the other works. High Trust Selling, Sandler's work, Selling with NLP, SPIN selling, etc. They may build on things differently, but this book IS the foundation.
So, as yourself these questions:
1. Am I EVER going to read a sales book? (If so, this should be the first one)
2. Have I been reading sales books, but haven't read this one yet? (If so, this should be the next one you read)
3. Have I been reading sales books, but haven't quite found a useful one yet? (See #2, and this will be a useful book- if you learn it)
Overall, this is a GREAT book that provides a GREAT foundation to your sales knowledge. However, always keep in mind that you have to use what you learn (which means you have to LEARN it first), and that you can't hit a baseball by reading a book. Use the books to learn the mechanics, but then get up and swing the bat a few times, and then get out and hit the ball!

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Applied Data Communications: A Business-Oriented Approach Review

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(More customer reviews)I just finished a course on data communications at a local college. Since I knew absolutely nothing about the topic. I had nowhere to go but up. Mr Goldman's book is very readable and is chock filled with charts, checkoff lists and such that I will use when I get into the IT field. His objective to get the reader to think in terms of applying the material rather than memorizing it. He suceeds. Does he have any other related works out there? I'll buy them.

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* Provides frameworks and methodology for solving problems as technology continues to advance* Starts with the overall business problem, and then shows how technology can solve the problem* Provides an in-depth applied understanding of the technology covered and is targeted to the IT employees who actually build the networks* Business-oriented, problem-solving approach, including real business case studies stressing the business impact of data communications

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Managers, Can You Hear Me Now?: Hard-Hitting Lessons on How to Get Real Results Review

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(More customer reviews)Denny F. Strigl, former CEO and president of Verizon Wireless, is a no-holds-barred type of guy. Writing with performance consultant Frank Swiatek, Strigl offers straight-shooting advice for managers and those who aspire to the role. The authors lay out exactly what's required of you every day to become a great manager. They present no sweeping concepts or grand theories, and little here will surprise you. Nevertheless, the authors outline the proper activities, behaviors and characteristics of a quality manager. getAbstract recommends this simple yet savvy book to any manager or manager-in-training.

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Very Truly Yours, Nikola Tesla Review

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(More customer reviews)Very informative as to the way Tesla expressed himself concerning his works, he was a very eloquent speaker as well as an electrical genius.

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Nikola Tesla was a man of letters. He wrote many letters to the editors of the magazines and newspapers of his day. These letters give a fascinating glimpse into the mind of an eccentric genius. Collected here for the first time are more than forty of Nikola Tesla's letters. The subject matter ranges widely, as Tesla was interested in almost everything. In these letters he responds to Marconi and Edison, gives his thoughts on the wars of his day, corrects inconsistencies in news reports, and much much more. Nikola Tesla has been called the most important man of the 20th Century. Without Tesla's ground-breaking work we' d all be sitting in the dark without even a radio to listen to.

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CCNA Exam Prep (Exam 640-802) (2nd Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been through ALL the CCNA books out there -- from Lammle's CCNA book to all the various CCNA study guides and so on -- and this one book by Jeremy Cioara is the absolute best available.
The cover of this book looks generic and nondescript, but Cioara has an ability to not only communicate in an amazingly down-to-earth, plain English way that is incredible. Also, he not only is easy and engaging to read, but -- *gasp* -- he actually gets his facts straight!
If you've been through the official CCNA books, you probably think that you have no choice but just to memorize a lot of things without hope of ever getting a simple, commonsense explanation for them, but you would be wrong in that assumption, because Cioara actually explains the things you assumed no one could ever explain.
Get this book -- you'll be glad you did.

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Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of Cyber-Terrorism Review

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(More customer reviews)Verton's book is full of hyperbole, repetition, unsupported statements, and contradictions. It is poorly written, poorly organized, and poorly edited. His "research" consists mostly of quoting his own magazine articles (29 times) and the magazine he writes for (16 times). By comparison, he quotes from only three books. Example of hyperbole: In commmenting on a admittedly fictional scenario called Dark Winter, the author claims that, "entire communities and cities could be rendered as helpless as those affected by the Black Death of the 14th century, a bubonic plague that killed one third of Europe's population." Yet, he fails to support that claim with any evidence or even a reference to the report on the exercise.
He repeats the same story about an al Qaeda interview with an Italian journalist in his introduction and again at p. 98. He writes nearly the same sentence about radical terrorists living in the U.S. once in the main text on p. 5 and again in a footnote on the same page. He tells a story about the Ptech company at p. 111 and again at p. 223-25, and uses nearly the identical paragraph in each. Where is the editing to catch these duplications?
Worse yet, his uses the Ptech story to draw two contradictory conclusions. In the first telling, he says that Ptech is an example of al Qaeda using American companies as fronts for terrorist financing. He claims that "evidence was uncovered" to show this connection. Yet, two pages later, he asserts that the FBI has been "unsuccessful in finding any evidence linking Ptech to terrorism financing." Then in the second telling of the Ptech story, he uses it as an example of how the War on Terrorism has turned into a "virtual witch-hunt," using a "scorched-earth strategy" [more hyperbole] that has "left many innocent casualties in its wake." The reader is left confused whether Ptech serves as an example of al Qaeda using American companies as fronts for terrorist financing, or an example of the War on Terrorism spoiling the reputation of innocent American enterprises.
Even his definition of cyber-terrorism is contradicted by his own material. He defines cyber-terrorism as either the use of cyber-tools to destroy critical infrastructure, or traditional terrorism that has a destructive effect on electronic and Internet infrastructure. See Introduction at xx. But in his appendix, he quotes the FBI definition of cyber-terrorism, which is narrower--the use of cyber-tools to shut down or destroy critical national infrastructures.
From his overly broad definition of cyber-terrorism, the author strays into three fictional scenarios of terrorism that seem to be the centerpiece of his book. They are supposed to scare us into thinking that cyber-terrorism can really happen. But if they are fictional, how can they alarm us? And, even as fiction, none of them even fits the FBI's definition of cyber-terrorism. The first, Black Ice, starts with a ice storm, not a cyber-attack. The second, Blue Cascades, was described vaguely as "a cyber system failure ... caused by a prolonged power outage." The third, Dark Winter, was a smallpox outbreak.
Many years ago, a famous fast food restaurant ran an ad that said, "where's the beef?" After reading this book, I have to ask, "where's the cyber-attack?"

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The first book to define the clear and present danger posed by a cyber-terrorist attack on the U.S. computer- and network-dependent infrastructure. The pages are packed with interviews from members of terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, as well as key insiders involved in planning and executing the U.S. plan for the defense of cyberspace, including Tom Ridge, James Gilmore, CIA and NSA officials--and even al-Qaeda supporters. Internet security expert Dan Verton investigates how cyber-terrorism could occur, what the global and financial implications are, the impact this is having and will continue to have on privacy and civil liberties, and how to prepare and prevent against cyber-terrorism.

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Return Engagement (Settling Accounts Trilogy, Book 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)First of all, I really like the plot of this series of books by Harry Turtledove. He is very imaginative in fashioning the alternative history following a Confederate victory in the Civil War. I also like his plot device of showing all events through the eyes of a large and diverse cast of characters.
But... BUT... the author continues to annoy the heck out of me with his tendency to repeat, repeat, and repeat again the characteristics and motivations of each of the characters. Ditto factual elements, such as the streets and sidewalks in black neighborhoods being in bad shape. It's as if he thinks we have forgotten what we read 50 pages previously. His editor should have clued him in a long time ago that this was not only unnecessary, but also a turn-off for readers. I would guess that over 95% of the people reading this book have read at least some of the previous books as well. We already know (to pick one of the most obvious examples) that Sam Carsten gets sunburned easily. It's probably been mentioned 60 times since Carsten's character arrived in the series. Mention these things ONCE per book, please!
Another annoyance: a character will make a rather mundane and obvious observation about the war -- such as a comment about the enemy's strategy -- and other characters will act like he's a military genius for thinking of something so profound. I don't know why that bothers me, but it does.
I notice I'm not the only one bothered by Mr. Turtledove's stylistic quirts. I hope he will read the reviews here on Amazon and give them serious consideration as he writes the next two books (which I'll certainly devour in any case). He did, indeed, seem to respond to criticism that the sex scenes in an earlier book were an embarrassingly bad idea, since he hasn't repeated the mistake in recent books of the series.
A few requests for the author:
- I really am interested in learning what's happening in the rest of the world. Please provide more than just the smallest of crumbs.
- How about a Mormon character that we can follow?
- How about a Confederate enlisted man?
Despite the annoyances, I love the books. And this one was among the best of the series so far.

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Discovering Computers 2009: Complete (Shelly Cashman) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the first review I've written on Amazon, or anywhere else for that matter, but Discovering Computers 2009 Complete is so unbelievably bad that I had to say something, hopefully helping some poor soul from using this so-called text as a source of information. I am using this as a textbook in a required course in a community college, and am only through chapter 5 so it is possible that all of the inaccuracies and just plain wrong information will suddenly no longer be manifest in later chapters, but I'm not counting on it.
I have been a PC user since the original IBM PC, and have delved into much of the technology involved over the years, so I am at the very least familiar with most of the subject matter. I don't claim to be an expert by any stretch, but I do have my strengths and it is this prior familiarity that permits me to evaluate the text's accuracy. Also consider that this is a book that is supposed to teach those with little or no experience with computers beyond perhaps some very basics, so misleading or unclear statements can be just as damaging to such readers as the outright incorrect statements.
OK, I just opened to a page... this one's not a biggie, but I'll start here. "Today, AMD is the leading manufacturer of Intel-compatible processors, which have an internal design similar to Intel processors..." I think that Intel would like to know about that! The architecture is not similar at all, and remember that we are talking about a college level text here. The very next paragraph: "Originally, Apple computers used only an IBM processor or a Motorola processor..." No, originally Apple used a MOS Technology 6502 processor; the Mac used Motorola and then IBM processors. Nothing critical here, so I'll move on.
At the end of chapter 4: The Components of the System Unit is a page entitled Keeping Your Computer Clean, in which the book suggests using "small attachments on your house vacuum" on the "wires, chips, adapter cards, and fan blades."!!! Even if the user is wearing an antistatic wristband -which the text recommends but makes no mention of how to ground- a house vacuum should NEVER be used on such electronically sensitive parts, as the static electricity generated by the dust flowing through the tube will very efficiently zap those chips and adapter cards. Additionally, they instruct the user to unplug the computer from everything, not necessarily a bad thing, but make no mention of grounding the case or at the very least placing it on a grounded anti-static mat. BAD BAD BAD!
Under the topic of Digital Cameras, a sidebar states that a "digital zoom digitally alters the pixels at the center of the CCD..." If it had said that it only uses the pixel data from the central areas of the CCD it would have been somewhat better, but as it stands the reader is led to believe that the CCD is somehow altered. The text attempts to explain image resolution and pixel density, delving into ppi(pixels per inch), which should almost never be mentioned in the same sentence as image resolution and pixel density. Again from the text: "For example, a 2304x1728 (pronounced 2304 by 1728) ppi camera has 2,304 pixels per vertical inch and 1,728 pixels per horizontal inch." This is just plain wrong in both a fundamental and conceptual way, and exemplifies how the entire book seems to have been authored by someone who does not understand much of the subject matter, and has simply performed a few Internet searches on the topic and then cut-and-pasted his way into a text. If you do not understand why the above sentence is wrong then how would you know it was when you read it in the text. It is not a particularly difficult concept but is misunderstood by the general public (Pixel density, ppi, dpi, etc.).
I have other studying to do, or I could spend the rest of the semester picking this waste of a tree apart. If you have any choice in the matter of selecting a book with which to learn about computers and the technology, please please please do not buy this one. I have nothing to gain what so ever by trashing this one, but I can tell you that it is very aggravating to have to memorize 'facts' that I know without question are wrong, simply to pass an exam.
Speaking of exams, you should see (not!) some of the 'edutainment' the publisher has on the associated 'learning' Web site; neither 'edu' nor 'taining'. I will say this though: I did learn to capitalize Web and Internet.

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iPad: The Missing Manual Review

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(More customer reviews)The extensive features in Apple's newest creation, the "magical" iPad, deserve this new book in The Missing Manual series. In addition to its paperback version, iPad: The Missing Manual is available from the publisher, O'Reilly, in four different electronic media versions including ePub. This reviewer downloaded the ePub version to the iPad in order to read it there while exploring the very device it described.
A veteran author of books in The Missing Manual series, Biersdorfer, a New York Times tech columnist, provides clear, detailed explanations and helpful illustrations of the iPad's many features in a very readable, often entertaining way.
Experienced Apple users and iPhone users will find much of the text very elementary (e.g., "Turn the iPad On and Off" and "Find the Home Button," in Chapter One). The five chapters devoted to the multi-media iPod functions of the iPad, music, videos, audiobooks, podcasts, photos and the newest addition, books, will be very helpful to those who come to the iPad without any prior experience with Apple products. But for those who have used a Mac, an iPod or an iPhone even for a short time, they seem superfluous. Not only do all these Apple devices have an easy and intuitive user interface, but also they are similar.
Justifiably, an entire chapter is devoted to the newest feature on any Apple device, books. Helpful sections on how to find books in the new iBookstore and elsewhere, ways to make the reading experience pleasant (changing font size, searching within a book, using bookmarks, etc.) are included in Chapter 8.
Owners who rely on the iPad as a productivity tool will welcome the chapters on email, the internet, and the iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote). There are many useful explanations and tips such as "all the programs in the iWork suite can export files as PDF documents [and] can export files in their native iWork formats...[but] although Pages can export to the native Microsoft Word .doc format, Numbers and Keynote can't export their contents as Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint files. Yet, anyway." Important information to know--and not obvious.
A very helpful feature of the ebook version of iPad: The Missing Manual is that tapping on any entry in the Table of Contents and/or the Index takes the reader immediately to that precise point in the book.
iPad: The Missing Manual will be most valuable to those with little or no previous Apple device experience. Nonetheless, even those who have used Apple products for years will find insights and tidbits that make using the iPad a more productive and pleasurable experience.

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Apple's iPad is the perfect personal media center. It lets you search the Web with WiFi, helps you stay in touch with its built-in email application, and allows you to read books, magazines, and newspapers in full color. You can also play games, listen to music, watch videos, view photos, and create documents, layouts, and slideshows with iPad's iWork suite. With iPad: The Missing Manual, learning how to use this new device is a snap. The clear step-by-step instructions, undocumented shortcuts, workarounds, and lots of practical timesaving advice help you learn each feature and application -- presented with the renowned Missing Manual wit and easy-to-read format. Learn how to shop in the iPad's integrated, custom-designed bookstore Use its full-color, large-screen eBook and ePeriodical reader Create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with the iWork "lite" productivity suite Use iTunes to organize and manage media files Get connected to the Web with built-in WiFi and the Safari browser Orient yourself with the iPad's GPS and map technologies Locate and download custom-built games Use the iPad's built in email, calendar, and contact applications Run any and all iPhone apps on the iPad View Pictures on Your iPad By J. D. Biersdorfer To see the pictures you synced from your computer, tap the Photos icon on the iPad's Home screen. Then tap the Photos button at the top of the screen to see your pictures in thumbnail view, filling the iPad screen in a grid. If you chose to copy over specific photo albums, tap the name of the album you want to look at. Mac syncers can also tap the Events, Faces, or Places button to see photos sorted in those categories, as page xx explains. On the thumbnails screen, you can do several things:
Tap a photo thumbnail to see it full-size on the iPad screen.
Double-tap an open photo to magnify it.
Spread and pinch your fingers on-screen (those fancy moves described in Chapter 2) to zoom in and out of a photo. Drag your finger around on-screen to pan through a zoomed-in photo.
Flick your finger horizontally across the screen in either direction to scroll through your pictures at high speeds. You can show off your vacation photos really fast this way (your friends will thank you).
Rotate the iPad to have horizontal photos fill the width of the screen or to have vertical photos fill its height.
With a photo open, tap the iPad's glass to display a strip of itsy-bitsy thumbnails of all the photos in the current album at the bottom of the screen. Tap or slide to a thumbnail to jump to a particular picture.

When you tap the ^ icon in the menu bar, you can set a photo as wallpaper, assign a picture to your iPad's Contact's program, send a pic to MobileMe, or start a photo slideshow. To get back to your library, tap the Photos or album-name button at the top of the screen.
Email Photos If you want to share your photographic joy, you can email one or a bunch of pictures right from the Photos program:
One photo. To email the photo currently on-screen, tap the iPad's glass to make the photo controls appear, and then tap the ^ icon in the upper-right corner. Tap the Email Photo button. The mail program attaches the photo to a new message, ready for you to address.
Multiple photos. To email a bunch of pictures at once, tap open the album containing the photos. Tap the ^ icon in the top-right corner and then tap the pictures you want to send (blue checkmarks appear in the corner of the thumbnails to show you've selected them). Tap the Email button to attach them to a new message. If you have a draft message in progress, tap the Copy button, then switch to the mail program, open your message, and hold down your finger until the Paste button appears. Tap it to paste in the pictures.
Delete Photos You have two ways to delete photos from your iPad. If you synced photo albums from iTunes, connect the iPad to the computer, open iTunes, hit the Photos tab, and turn off the checkboxes by those albums. Click Apply and then Sync to 'unsync," or remove, those pix from the iPad's gallery.
If you have pictures in your Saved Photos album you want to ditch, you can delete a currently open picture by tapping the T icon and then tapping the Delete Photo button. To delete multiple pictures from the Saved Photos thumbnail view, tap the ^ icon, then tap the unwanted pictures to assign the Blue Checkmarks of Selection. Tap the small red Delete button on the top-left side of the menu bar. There's a blue Cancel button on the other side of the menu bar if you change your mind.

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The CEH Prep Guide: The Comprehensive Guide to Certified Ethical Hacking Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought Krutz's first book on CISSP prep and found it to be very readable and made difficult concepts more easily understood, at least enough for me to pass my CISSP certification. So far I'm 40% into this text and the same formula is holding true. A good aid for prepping for the CEH.

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The Certified Ethical Hacker program began in 2003 and ensures that IT professionals apply security principles in the context of their daily job scope
Presents critical information on footprinting, scanning, enumeration, system hacking, trojans and backdoors, sniffers, denial of service, social engineering, session hijacking, hacking Web servers, and more
Discusses key areas such as Web application vulnerabilities, Web-based password cracking techniques, SQL injection, wireless hacking, viruses and worms, physical security, and Linux hacking
Contains a CD-ROM that enables readers to prepare for the CEH exam by taking practice tests

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Practical Packet Analysis: Using Wireshark to Solve Real-World Network Problems Review

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(More customer reviews)To use "American Idol" lingo, you've already read reviews by Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul. It's time for the truth from Simon Cowell -- Practical Packet Analysis (PPA) is a disaster. I am not biased against books for beginners; see my five star review of Computer Networking by Jeanna Matthews. I am not biased against author Chris Sanders; he seems like a nice guy who is trying to write a helpful book. I am not a misguided newbie; I've written three books involving traffic analysis. I did not skim the book; I read all of it on a flight from San Jose to Washington Dulles. I do not dislike publisher No Starch; I just wrote a five star review for Designing BSD Rootkits by Joseph Kong.
PPA is written for beginners, or at least it should be intended for beginners givens its subject matter. It appears the author is also a beginner, or worse, someone who has not learned fundamental networking concepts. This situation results in a book that will mislead readers who are not equipped to recognize the numerous technical and conceptual problems in the text. This review will highlight several to make my point. These are not all of the problems in the book.
p 21: This is painfully wrong on multiple levels: "When one computer needs to send data to another, it sends an ARP request to the switch it is connected to. The switch then sends an ARP broadcast packet to all of the computers connected to it... The switch now has a route established to that destination computer... This newly obtained information is stored in the switch's ARP cache so that the switch does not have to send a new ARP broadcast every time it needs to send data to a computer." This misconception is aggravated on p 62 in the discussion of ARP.
p 65, Figure 6-5: The TCP three way handshake is not SYN - ACK - SYN.
p 78, Figure 7-3: The TCP three way handshake is not SYN - ACK - ACK.
p 79: Packet 5 is not "the packet that was lost and is now being retransmitted." Packet 2 is.
p 80: There is no "ICMP type 0, code 1 packet."
p 85: This boggles the mind: "Immediately after that ARP packet, we see a bunch of NetBIOS traffic... If that other IP address wasn't a sign that something is wrong, then all of this NetBIOS traffic definitely is. NetBIOS is an older protocol that is typically only used as a backup when TCP/IP isn't working. The appearance of NetBIOS traffic here means that since Beth's computer was unable to successfully connect to the Internet with TCP/IP, it reverted back to NetBIOS as an alternate means of communication -- but that also failed. (Anytime you see NetBIOS on your network, it is often a good sign that something is not quite right.)"
p 85: This "troubleshooting" example highlights the different default gateways for Barry and Beth as being the "biggest anomaly" causing Beth's computer to not work. The author ignores the fact that Barry and Beth have computers with the same MAC addresses.
p 89: Traces recorded at a client and server are compared. The author says "The two capture files look amazingly similar; in fact, the only difference between the two files is that the source and destination addresses on the SYN packets have been switched around." Good grief.
p 106: Another "troubleshooting" scenario wonders if a "slow network" problem is related to the fact that tracerouting out from a host fails to produce a response from the router. However, the traceroute continues past the router, so connectivity exists (missed by the author). He says "we know our problem lies with our network's internal router because we were never able to receive an ICMP response from it. Routers are very complicated devices, so we aren't going to delve into the semantics of exactly what is wrong with the router."
pp 107-8: Yet another "troubleshooting" issue wonders why seemingly "double packets" are seen while sniffing on a host. The author wonders if "misconfigured port mirroring" could be the problem, ignoring his statement that the trace was collected on the host in question. He doesn't notice that each "double packet" has a unique MAC address pairing, i.e., packet 1 involves 00:d0:59:aa:af:80 > 00:01:96:3c:3f:54 and packet 2 involves 00:01:96:3c:3f:a8 > 00:20:78:e1:5a:80. Assuming 00:d0:59:aa:af:80 is the only MAC address for the troubled host, there is no way this machine could see traffic "bouncing back" -- the destination MAC address for the dupe packet is 00:20:78:e1:5a:80.
p 110: Another "troubleshooting" example fails to recognize that packets 1-18 and 29 are part of one unique TCP session, and 19-28 are an entirely different session. Packet 29's RST ACK is not an "acknowledgement" of the RST in packet 28; besides not being an actual protocol mechanism, those packets are from different sessions anyway!
p 112: "More ominously, most of the traffic is being sent with the TCP PSH flag on, which forces a receiving computer to skip its buffer and push that traffic straight through, ahead of any other traffic. That is almost always a bad sign." It's a bad sign when you don't know what you're talking about, apparently.
p 129: "Display filters make it easy to search for traffic such as DCEPRC (sic), NetBIOS, or ICMP, which should not be seen under normal circumstances." I guess Windows networks never use at least DCERPC regularly?
This book should not have been published. The author should sit down with Interconnections, 2nd Ed by Radia Perlman, Troubleshooting Campus Networks by Priscilla Oppenheimer/Joseph Bardwell, and The Internet and its Protocols by Adrian Farrel, and learn how networks operate. Then he should have Gerald Combs REALLY provide a technical edit of PPA, since it's clear Mr Combs probably skimmed this book without catching the issues noted above.
The only positives I can say for PPA is that, like other No Starch books, it's form factor and readability is excellent. The diagrams are clear (albeit often misunderstood) and the obvious typos are few. As far as learning anything, the mention of "Expert Infos" on p 100 was nice.

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Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security Review

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(More customer reviews)I've read plenty of infosec related books in the past, but none that do exactly what this one sets out to do - to take information security and apply it solely to a specific industry. The book starts by introducing the two fields - electric grids and information security. It then slowly brings the two disciplines together as it discusses the threats, vulnerabilities, and risks associated with smart grid technologies and devices. It is a very current book, discussing technologies that are currently available and in use and systems and largely ignoring the theoretical technologies which may or may not eventually exist. For example when discussing smart grid devices and social networking, something which I initially dismissed with a "pffft - who would ever do that?", they give actual live examples of locations and technologies (like the tweet-a-watt) that are distributing electricity usage information via social networking sites.
One of the things that surprised me the most about this book is that it's aimed simultaneously at the enterprise and the consumer. There are sections which talk about consumer electronics, and provide consumers safety tips, and there are sections which talk about enterprise web applications and other enterprise related systems.
The seasoned security professional will not learn a lot of new information about security here, but they will see it applied to a specific domain they may not have thought of before. The consumer interested in the security and privacy implications of smart grid technologies will get a great introduction to security. The employee of an electric company will also see an introduction to security that is highly relevant and meaningful to their industry. Overall while the focus is narrow, if it is appropriate to you, this is certainly a good book.

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"The first step in securing the Smart Grid is to fully understand the threat landscape. This book provides both a timely and relevant overview of the subject - a must-read for anyone responsible for securing the grid as well as consumers looking to implement the technology!."-- Dr. Patrick Engebretson, Assistant Professor of Computer Security, Dakota State University.

"Easy to read and full of valuable information, this book provides a wide-eyed view of our future and the security challenges we will be facing in our day-to-day lives. Exploring everything from home systems to large-scale power plants, this is a must-read for everyone in our technological society."-- Thomas Wilhelm, ISSMP, CISSP, SCSECA, SCNA, SCSA, IEM, IAM

Smart Grids are the future of energy. By creating networks from power plant to home, utility companies will be able to regulate power consumption making sure that consumers are receiving the amount that is needed, no more or less. While this new use of networking technology and unique applications such as smart meters will help to conserve energy it also opens up a pipeline, that was regulated manually, into the computer world of interconnected networks. The infrastructure that is being built will need to have robust security as an attack on this network could create chaos to tens of thousands of power consumers, stop a utility company in its tracks, or be used in a cyberwar.

Securing the Smart Grid takes a look at grid security today, how it is developing and being deployed into now over 10 million households in the US alone. Direct attacks to smart meters as well as attacks via the networks will be detailed along with suggestions for defense against them. A framework for how security should be implemented throughout this growing system will be included directing security consultants, and system and network architects on how to keep the grid strong against attackers big and small.

Details how old and new hacking techniques can be used against the grid and how to defend against them
Discusses current security initiatives and how they fall short of what is needed
Find out how hackers can use the new infrastructure against itself

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The Basics of Information Security: Understanding the Fundamentals of InfoSec in Theory and Practice Review

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(More customer reviews)Are you a beginning security professional; as well as, a network and system administrator? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Jason Andress, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that can be used to develop a better understanding of how to protect information assets and defend against attacks; as well as, how to apply these concepts practically.
Andress, begins by covering some of the most basic concepts of information security. In addition, the author covers the security principles of identification and authentication. He then discusses the use of authorization and access control. The author then, discusses the use of auditing and accountability. He continues by discussing the use of cryptography. In addition, the author covers operational security. He then discusses physical security.
The author then shows you how to protect networks from a variety of different angles. Then, he explores hardening as one of the primary tools for securing the operating system and the steps that might be taken to do so. Finally, he shows you different ways in which to secure applications.
This most excellent book, provides the reader with a basic knowledge of information security in both theoretical and practical aspects. Perhaps more importantly, the concepts discussed in this book can be used to drive security projects and policies, in order to mitigate some of the issues discussed.

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