Packard Reviews

It is ironic that the advent of the computer promised to dramatically reduce paper usage; today's 1,000-page-plus computer-security tomes have probably single-handedly deforested whole regions of the earth. A happy exception to this trend of titanic texts is Halting the Hacker. Which is relatively concise yet highly informative.

It provides a good overview of core information security issues and concepts. It takes a big-picture approach to information systems security, not bogging down the reader in arcane minutiae.

Halting the Hacker delves into more intricate details and includes a CD-ROM with many security tools.

Overall, it is valuable for anyone needing to know about information systems security without sacrificing a forest in the process.

This isn't a heavily technical book. Unlike many of the other security books I've reviewed, this isn't full of tcpdump traces and the like. It is, however, a really excellent overview of security that can introduce a system administrator or a general manager to the subject.

There are actually a very few pages that deal with things like disabling unused services, but that's just 14 pages from a 337 page work, and those are really more illustrative than specific. Instead, this covers the who, the how and the why of hackers, the legal climate, and includes examples of actual incidents.

Perhaps a good indication of the target audience is the Glossary, which includes definitions for "back door", "client/server", "Kerberos", "newsgroup" and "Trojan horse".

If you are looking for programmer level information, this isn't what you want. On the other hand, this is much more technical and focused than something you might read in Newsweek or your Sunday newspaper.

Recommended for business owners and managers who need to understand computer security even though others may actually implement it, or as a base introduction for technical people with no previous exposure.

This new expanded edition of Halting the Hacker came out in 2002 and is nearly double the size of the original edition. It takes the insight of how hackers attack systems from Pipkin's first edition and delves into the details of how to protect your Unix and Linux systems.

Real-life stories about hackers and companies who were hacked are sprinkled throughout the book making it an easy read for anyone, not just techies. The tools discussed (and which come with it on the included CD-ROM) makes it a valuable resource for everyone who deals with Unix/Linux systems.

Highly recommended!

take me 15min to browse thru the bok and I pratically didn't learn anything new. If you are new to PC and want to burn your first CD, you may learn more by just tinkering with the software you already got. This book does not go into any detail on the stucture of the file format, TOC or anything. It touches many topics and then go to the next. Read the help file or manual on your burning software and that's pretty much what this book is about. Here's some examples: HFS (file format): "short for Hierarchical File System. This is the file system used on the Mac. Although it's being slowly phased out, HFS is still important in the mac world." What kind of crap is this!? There are a couple of paragraphs on mixed mode disc and then it give tons of reason NOT to use it.
On top of all these, this book is outdated, EasyCD and Toast are old versions and it did not really say anything about VCD or DVD, stick with the help files in your burning software!

I give this book 4 stars. It has everything you need to know to install and record music CDS. I also learned more about making data CDS in this book than anything else I've read yet. A good pick.

I just finished reading Hewlett-Packard's OFFICIAL RECORDABLE CD HANDBOOK written by Mark L. Chambers. I received an HP CD-RW drive (8200i) and tried to learn how to operate it on my own. I promptly ruined 4 new R-W disks. After reading the HANDBOOK, I now have backed up all my files, my operating system and working on a family album. This book certainly improved my learning curve and allowed me to "get right to it" after only several hours of reading. My thanks to HP and Mr. Chambers for this helpful book.

I was given this book when I started a new job as a systems administrator. I am new to the computer field, therefore I don't have a huge understanding of certain aspects of computers and their operations. If you don't have years of computer, system administration, experience on a different platform, don't buy this book. This book is for experienced administrators who get the lingo. If you are a person like me who needs a thorough walk through, i.e. first do this, second, etc., then don't buy this book. It is for experienced admins who need to quickly look up something that was forgotten. NOT FOR "TRUE" BEGINNERS!

If you're using HP-UX 10.x, then this is one of the better books that's out there. It's a good reference for a medium-level SysAdmin with a few HP 9000 servers to keep up with, but beginners and experienced SysAdmins can benefit from Jay Shah' clear and concise style here. There are a number of times that I've used it (let's see... when you 'tar' a file, you use the... uh... er... now which switch was that?) as a quick reference for one or another of those commands that we all know but forgot a particular command at the moment. Good, basic coverage of TCP/IP topics as well.

If your primary HP-UX environment is 11.x, then you may wish to consider another book, but for all those still using HP-UX 10.x or earlier versions, this is a gem. I just wish that Mr. Shah would update it to include the newer versions!

I'm a Sys Admin for a large corporation and I think this book is WELL worth the money. It is clearly and concisely written, and has the best section on NFS mounting that I have ever read. This book is NOT for beginners, but is rather helpful for those of intermediate to advanced HPUX skill levels. Overall, a great read...and a reasonable price too!

When I came across this book on Amazon.com, before it was available, I was very excited. As a computer maintenance technician whose knowledge is rather slack in the area of printers, I was very happy to see what I thought was a brand new book on printer maintenance coming out. Other books on the subject that I have browsed at Amazon seem to be rather dated: 1996 or even earlier. And the fact that it was Hewlett-Packard was gravy -- just about all of the printers under my care are HP models. What could be better than an HP printer handbook?

So you can imagine my dismay when the book finally became available and I got to read the above spiel from the author. Not what I had in mind at all. Gee, a whole book devoted to choosing a printer -- just what the world needs. I recently got a chance to take a look at this book at a local bookstore and it was even sadder than I imagined. When is someone finally going to write an updated printer MAINTENANCE book?

Most of the books that I have looked at in bookstores on printers have been full of technical jargon and very little information that I needed. With a little bit of reading, this book finally answered many of my questions and gave me ideas on what to do with my new Epson inkjet. It leads you step by step through most common chores too.

I needed a printer for my first computer system, and this book told me all about what to look for during my visits to the stores. There's plenty of information here and my kids are trying out the crafts. It is a very complete book and I rate it four stars. I have bought several computer books to help me with Windows and my new Pentium 2 and this was the easiest to understand and had the most answers. I will recommend it to my friends and family, the author did a good job.

this is a book based on the barbie dolls. Two friends are in gymnastics, then one friend stops being loyal to the other and gets a new friend at gymnastics class. Wiull they make up?

"A Day With the Dinosaurs" was a good, but not agreat dinosaur book. My favorite part was when the boy found thedinosaur egg, brought it to the fossil site, and the egg hatched. Ithought the part where the boy's friend said that the dinosaur bones were chicken bones was disappointing.

I love HP/UX and I love HP hardware. HP/UX is a neat UNIX version that has a lot of great features and is rock solid, and HP hardware is built like the proverbial brick outhouse. The problem is that despite the quality of their OS and hardware the documentation for HP systems hoovers the tool. The Poniatowski book is a prime example of this, I suppose that this book is marginally better than having no documentation at all and if I were trapped on a desert island and knew nothing about UNIX I could use this book to set up a rudimentary HP/UX system and I could then use the pages for something more useful such as starting fires or wiping my bum. So what are the problems with this book. Well let's list them in no particular order. 1) An entire chapter is devoted to bourne shell programming. Why? There are better books out there that will teach you shell programming. 2) An entire chapter is devoted to teaching you how to program in csh. Quite frankly I'm embarassed to admit that I used to use csh and was horrified when I was forced to use sh. But therapy, and beatings from more seasoned administrators, cured me and now I can't imagine why I would want to do any systems administration task in csh or use it as my login shell. Quite frankly teaching someone how to perform systems administration tasks with csh is like teaching someone how to perform first aid with leeches and bloodletting. 3) Hundreds of pages in this book are reprints of man pages. I suppose that this might be useful if I were sitting around and playing Trivial Pursuit one night and one of the topics was "Obscure HP/UX command switches" and I wasn't near a terminal, but other than that it's quite useless. If I need man pages I can go online and type "man " and UNIX will give me all of the information I need. Why reprint this unless you are trying to pad your book? 4) A lot of the pages are reprints of screen shots, OK, you need some, but this is excessive, again, more padding. If you need HP documentation see if you can lay hands on the manuals that HP educational services hands out with their courses. They are quite full featured and have exercises that you can work your way through to learn the system. If you need more generalized UNIX documentation purchase the red or purple books and a copy of UNIX Power Tools, that would be money far better spent than buying this book.

With its reprinted man page filler, screen shots of the ridiculous SAM GUI, and introduction to shell scripting, this book might be useful for the most junior of systems administrators. For those of us who already know what a subnet mask is, however, it leaves quite a lot to be desired.

The author never really seems to go into great detail as to the 'why' of things. This might have something to do with the fact that the author has written very little original content for this book - again, it's almost all man pages and screen shots.

This book receives two stars rather than just one, because it could conceivably be useful for someone who's never administered a Unix system before. Otherwise, I would recommend avoiding this book altogether.

This book is an excellent companion to the HP Manual: "Installing HP-UX 11.0 and Updating HP-UX 10.x to 11.0. This manual is normally printed from the HP-UX 11.0 CDROM. I've used it in setting up a number of HP-UX 11.0 systems to clarify a number of installation items. Like his treatment of the Advanced Menu installation items that are used during installation.

Author exhibits a great attitude which is reflected in the the writing of his book. "You are going to have a great time setting up your HP-UX system(s). I know you are, because I have set up hundreds and hundreds of systems and my customers always enjoy it."

The book seems redundant in parts but his goal is for you to get "the common denominator of HP-UX system administration knowledge that applies to all systems." The additional inserted "man" pages relieve the tedium of bring up the man screen on the monitor. You do get a little tired of sometimes 8 to 10 hrs a day looking in man pages on the screen. It is a well known physical/psychology fact that you read a printed page better and faster than the tube. Especially when you have to go back and forth.

The scripts are easy to use and convert to your installation practices. Some of the customization feature tips described are very thoughtful. I understand that the author is going to put these scripts on a web site or in a CDROM in the near feature.

Nevertheless, typing them in is a good way to learn or refresh your memory of UNIX techniques. The review of shell programming is also good if you need a refresher course and don't have a lot of time.

The description of HP Performance tools when you need them is very handy. None of us really have enough time to research all the features and he make them very easy to use.

His description and uses of the UNIX directory structures is good enough to explain to your upper management when you want to modify or add to these. I can't remember where else I've seen such a nice job.

I can't do justice to the book and it's features. Once you get used to it, you'll be reaching for it when you need help on HP systems.

The book stated a purpose, but didnt' follow through, and floundered in several areas. Neural networking seemed weak. The whole thing seemed disjointed like it was written by more than one person or pulled from several books and was being pushed out the door to make the author look knowledgeable (guruesque). It did not seem the purpose was to help the reader. Pompous. Whatever happened to volume II? I've read much better books by Inmon that seemed to have a better grasp of the overall picture of data warehousing, it's purpose and increasing complexity.

Personally, I think the book is a worthless bunch of...crud that was obviously written by more that one person causing a distinct lack of cohesion. I don't think there is an original thought in the book. The author seems pious in his presentation.

I've teach Data Warehousing for a local University and have reviewed several data warehouseing books. This one describes Data Warehousing, the process of planning, building and implementing a DW that is well versed and understood easily. I have adopted this book for my course because it is very concise in its descriptions and easily read.

There is no doubt that Marty is one of the most renowned experts in the world of HPUX...so for me, this book was VERY disappointing considering it's price. If you want all the information in this book plus more information, then buy the HPUX System Administration Handbook & Toolkit also by Marty P. You'll get nearly 300 more pages of text (which covers almost all of what is in the "How to" book) plus free software and other goodies. I bought both the handbook & toolkit as well as the "how to" book. If I had it to do over again, I would have just bought the Handbook and Toolkit.

HP ships "HP-UX System Administration Tasks" with each machine or copy of the OS. It is a FAR better book than Marty's. This is a weak introduction to sysadmin at best, and has been done better by many others. (Nemeth et al. for instance)

Don't waste your money.

This book left much to be desired. It lacked detail, words were misspelled, left out, or not the correct word for the application. The book was incomplete.

This book is barely worth the paper it was printed on. First of all, it for HP Vee version 5.0. If you're looking for something to cover the newer Agilent 6.0 release, this is not it. The author does not go into Vee's sometimes quirky file handling (eg places where you need quotes and double slashes'\\' in the path), he gives extremely generic instrument control examples and no serial port command examples. Need to know how to print off test data sheets? This book won't tell you. Need to know what the EOL ON or EOL OFF means in an instrument transaction? Don't look in the book. After reading the book, I came away with the feeling it was more of a high priced sales brochure of what Vee can do rather than a reference guide to Vee programming.

I'm ticked off and I hav'nt even started the book! For the price of this book the publisher could have at least included the evaluation software CD. There are 341 pages counting overview and checklists in each chapter. There are 45 more pages in Appendux B: "Additional Lab Exercises". Since these exercises are added on the end of the book, I would expect them to be more complex than those within the previous chapters. An apple counting program is not my Idea of a program that I could use in test equipment instrumentation. OK thats it. I'm done grouching and off to download the software.

As claimed by the author, this book is really the "fastest and easiest way" to learn HP VEE. Perhaps, the software itself is easy to use. For more advanced topics, consult the VEE product documentation. Note that the new VEE has built-in MATLAB scripts and signal processing toolbox which are not covered in the third edition. But the book already provides a solid foundation to explore other new features of the software including MATLAB functions. My students manage to build test and measurement application less than a week when using VEE in conjunction with this book!