This is a great book. I rarely give a book 5 stars, but this one has earned it.

The author's technical and standards body background is a tremendous help in helping the reader sort out the substance from the hype. This book covers XML and cryptography basics, DTDs, XML Schema, XML digital signatures and encryption, and SOAP.

I like the author's comparisons of XML with other encoding schemes, particularly ASN.1 DER which is prevalent in the security standards world.

Also helpful are the author's "soapbox" comments, which handily dispel the notion that you should accept all parts of a standard as the absolute truth and the final word. For example, "X.500 identities are baroque hierarchical names in which each level of the hierarchy consists of an arbitrary, unordered set of attribute-value pairs. They are just one of the complexities and false assumptions (such as the assumption that everyone would allow themselves to be listed in one global public directory, including companies listing all their employees) that doomed the X.500 Directory as originally conceived". I love it!

You'd be hard pressed to go wrong with this book.

Suppose you have XML data that you want to regularly
send to Bob, across the Internet. But it is of a
confidential nature, so you don't want to send it as
plaintext. Well, you can try using low level
encryptions, like SSL or TLS. But these don't give any
authentication, ie. Bob can't tell that you actually
sent them. Also, once Bob gets the messages, they are
all in plaintext, so he can't easily protect these
against others, if he is on a multiuser computer.

One answer is to incorporate encryption into XML, by
defining cryptographic standards that sit atop XML,
and generate XML documents with encrypted data. These
let you and Bob use powerful XML-based routines like
XPath, XLink and XPointer. Plus, you can now do things
like append your digital signature to your plaintext
file, encrypt the combination with Bob's public key,
and get a resultant XML document that you can send
Bob. Upon receipt, he can decrypt it and verify that
you are the author, all the while dealing with XML
documents.

This book explains the emerging XML standards that
make this possible. They discuss at a high level the
various cryptographic algorithms, like AES [Advanced
Encryption Standard], Diffie-Hellman and MD5. Little
mathematics is needed, as they leave the mechanics of
the algorithms to other books. Instead, they describe
the XML infrastructure that uses these.

The book has a necessarily comprehensive description
of canonicalisation; which refers to the rewriting of
an XML document in a standard form, prior to
encryption. Otherwise two semantically identical
documents would give different ciphertexts, which is
confusing.

If you have been wondering if you should encrypt your
XML documents, and how to do so, this book may clarify
many issues.

In researching business requirements for enterprise web services, it soon became obvious that XML security would be an important issue.

I happened across this book, with a seemingly simple format and am impressed with the information it provides, the progression of information, and how well I was able to understand and comprehend the concepts detailed.

After reading serveral books on XML in general, I would recommend this book to anyone just wanting to learn XML concepts.

I wish more technical books gave me the same feeling of usefulness that this one gave me.

As they say in the movie industry... "An enthusiastic thumbs up"

Castle Keep is an excellent story set during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. A detachment of American soldiers is sent to guard a Belgian castle that is owned by a count and his young wife. Led by Major Falconer, a one-eyed Navajo Indian, the men live a life separate from the war as they occupy the castle. The rest of the men include a musician, an art historian, a writer, a baker, an ex-reverend, a cowboy, another Indian, and just a regular old sergeant. There are truly funny scenes in the book that have you laughing out loud, most noticably during the incident with Lt Amberjack and Sergeant Rossi as they try to destroy a Volkswagen. The period of rest the soldiers have is broken by the German attack in the Ardennes. While much of the book is very humorous, the battle scenes are very stirring and emotional.

This book might not be for everyone, but many people will enjoy this kind of off the wall humor. Sometimes it seems that Eastlake just tried to make the oddest thing imaginable work in his story. Also check out the movie of the same name starring Burt Lancaster and Peter Falk. The movie stays very true to the novel and is well worth a watch. Check out Castle Keep for a very enjoyable World War II comedy/adventure!

Story about a group of American soldiers charged with the responsibility of guarding a castle overlooking an important crossroad. Must read for people who appreciate the Catch22 type humour.

If Jim Jarmusch ever decides to do a war film, this is what he should base it on. This is a wonderfully odd, comic and moving account of war as pure absurdity. The writing is tons better than Heller in Catch-22, the most obvious comparison. Set in Belgium, a group of American soldiers are given the assignment of holding a castle against the on-coming German front. Their leader is a one-eyed American Indian who is boffing the niece/daughter/wife of the castle's duke. The rest of the soldiers make-up a classic American cultural cross-section: another Indian, a black, a cowboy, a baker, and an art historian. The story is told in chapters from the POVs of the various characters, like Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Lot's of hilarious dialogue. Thank god Dalkey Archive re-issued this work in their American Literature Series.

I have and keep a number of copies to provide to friends and students. I am so glad to see another release. If you enjoy reading historical treatises or are just an art ecclectic, this book is for you. Covering major schools of thought regarding painting from the Southern and Northern renaissance to contemporary practises (of the 1850's), this book covers one overlooked component of sucessful painting- namely method.
The steps necessary of how to consider building a painting are detailed. We all know of additive and subtractive color methods, but how about the most powerful? The dynamic method! Most colleges are telling students about "glazes", which is a poor illustration and obvious that the the entire process is not well understood nor adequately experienced by the professor of "glazes". This book blows away the semantic myth of direct painting as currently understood with the unrealized potential of lead white, veiling with white, "hot" underpaintings, typical pigment mixtures and a wealth of history.
I found my first used copy almost 30 years ago and have found it to be the an indispensable tool for the artist who "seeks further light" from an original source without the meddling of art supply manufactures, convenience influenced art education, and those terrified of heavy metals. If you have the courage to look, read and the iniative to comprehend, the info is invaluable. Take notes as read, for the ideas are simple yet profound in their power and applications. This is not just "a substitute token".

Eastlake traces the use of drying oils and resins from the early Greeks through the perfection of these substances for use as mediums by the brothers Van Eyck. He discusses preparation of materials, execution, and technical difficulties faced in the use of an oil vehicle. This work will make you rethink everything you know about oil painting. A must read for the serious painter.

This classic treatise on the painting methods of western art's great masters is an indispensible resource for the artist and connossieur. The current crop of "how-to" books that have taught artists for most of the 20th century look pathetically infantile after reading just a few pages of Sir Charles' book. Eastlake's readers were not ignorant hobbyists, but fellow scholars and masters of the art of oil painting. This volume is what it says it is -- a book of secrets. While you may be a master (not by the 20th century definition), you may not be privy to the secrets of Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Velazquez, etc. If only modern books explaining art materials and techniques would treat today's reader as one possessing a few "secrets" of his or her own, maybe western art would still be building on the legacy of the great schools and masters instead of trying to jump-start a nearly dead tradition. More than being a "must-read", this book is a "must-have.&quo

The Bamboo Bed was published in 1969. Eastlakes vision of the Vietnam war is dominated by its absurdity. These two facts intertwine to support my summary that the book is the mother of all Vietnam war fiction.

Eastlake, a WWII vet, went to Vietnam and published some dispatches from there for The Nation magazine. His vision of the war as an absurdity long ago became a cliche in fiction and movies, but in 69 it was a revelation.

That alone hardly makes the book great, or even worth reading. What makes it so is wonderful prose and wonderful characters.

I love most of Eastlake's work but I am aware that his (what I call) over the top style is unbearable to some or at least disqualifies his work from being mentioned in the same phrase as literature. I of course disagree. The Bamboo Bed is a landmark of modern American fiction.

An incredible writer, so far ahead of most contemporary novelists, and yet he lies forgotten. This book will last beyond literature.

This book is available as a part of "Lyric of the Circle Heart: The Bowman Family Trilogy", published in 1996. Three Eastlake novels, "Go in Beauty", "The Bronc People", and "Portrait of an Artist with Twenty-six Horses" comprise the trilogy. *****

This is the best book available on IOTP version 1 and ECML. The IETF working group in charge of these protocols is the TRADE working group. See it's charter page at ....

Donald, Author

This is the book to buy if you've ever floated through the Rio Grande Gorge near Taos and, as you passed beneath the John Dunn Bridge, someone on your trip asked, "who exactly was John Dunn?" As a river guide you have full authority (and some would argue a professional obligation) to make up whatever answer you like, but I've found it helpful to occasionally sprinkle facts among the many assertions I've made to trusting passengers over the years. This slim volume, only 163 pages, is full of wonderful information about the life of John Dunn for whom that bridge is named, as well as northern New Mexico from the late 1800's through 1953, the year Mr. Dunn died. By reading this book you will be well prepared for passengers' questions and, as a bonus, you'll glimpse a lifestyle that predates most of us. For me the few early photos of the Rio Grande, all from pre-boating years, and the building of the John Dunn Bridge are alone worth the price of the book. The regional history and the life of John Dunn are exquisite bonuses.

John Dunn apparently was an irascible and only sporadically honest fellow, the sort of individual whose life story is fun to read about. His is not an exception. You'll learn about his early years in Texas, his later life in New Mexico, and the various legal and not-so-legal enterprises in which he was engaged throughout. I don't think I would have liked being around John Dunn, but I did enjoy reading about his adventures. I suspect you will too.

Moving from a country primitive home to a 1890's Victorian home that needed restoration in every single room, this book was my bible! Charles Eastlake (credited with wonderful Eastlake style)explains how, why and where to do every room from the screens to the windows to the walls to the floors. His simple diagrams and easy to read explanations made restoring much easier. With still a few rooms to finish, the book never leaves my bedside table (which, of course, is Eastlake style!)

Charles Eastlake, (who is credited, innacurately, with the "Eastlake" style of architecture and furniture design) wrote a serialized guide to interior design concepts and theory. He's very opinionated about the evils of modern (c. 1880-90) architecture. I found this to be an enjoyable read, and got some great ideas about the decoration of several rooms in my 1903 Victorian house.

Certainly a good book covering a wide variety of disasters in the 20th century. Not all were high in death toll but were high in rolling stock losses or caused major headaches for railroad users. Four types of disasters are mentioned here, Collisions, Natural disasters, Structural failure and human error. Hope you like it!!

Portrait of an Artist With Twenty Six Horses is an excellent read if you enjoy non-traditional, non-linear fiction. There is something happening linearly in the book - a young man is dying and coming to grips with his death - but within that loose framework Eastlake ranges far and wide, among various episodes and incidents in the man's short life. Eastlake is digging for the poetic, subjective meaning of the episodes, what they were to the man as they unfolded but which he couldn't have known at the time. It is a young man understanding for the first time that he did not understand, which makes his accounts sad, beautiful and funny. The book is funny throughout, even as the man gets closer to death, and Eastlake manages to sustain both the humour and the unfolding death without one undercutting the other. He manages to intertwine them without cliche or any such "heart-warming" blunting of death. Beautiful book. Excellent dialogue. Set on the New Mexican portion of the Navajo Reservation.