Linux is better than Windows.

This book is well-written, thorough, and practical rather than academic. I particularly found the chapter on securing network services to be helpful, and was able to identify some potential security problems on the systems I support as a result of information provided in that chapter.

This book is incredibly thorough, and up to date. For example, Red Hat Linux 7 has just come out, and does now has xinetd as a replacement for inetd. Well, you guessed it, this book has about 27 pages on xinetd!

Want info on ipchains? This book has at least 50 pages on the subject!

I could go on and on about this book it is so good!

This book is written by experienced people, not just an author who was assigned another book to write.

You will not regret buying this book!

Fantastic book. Pithy style, very readable, no fluff, excellent as a reference. Anyone coming to Java from C++ should get this book. About the only thing I would do to improve it would be to have at least a short chapter on database access.

This is one of the first books I bought to get an understanding of Java and how it is comprable to what I already know of C/C++. This book is the perfect starting point, giving every comprable declaration to C/C++. Kudos to the authors, can't wait for a more up-to-date version though.

Even though this is one of my oldest Java books I keep going back to it. I wish it would be updated for the new Event model and swing however. The coverage of the 1.0 JDK is very good and I still go back to the gridbag description and examples when I get confused.

My Great-Aunt introduced me to many things - astronomy, biology, and origami. This was in her personal library and when I'd visit we would always pull it out and make at least one of the figures in the book. She had already managed to do nearly every figure but she was patient and I would try my best to keep up. When she died, I looked for the book but it had mysteriously disappeared. I saw that it was back in print and I snatched a copy up right away. This is the best folding book that I have ever run across. It has models that range from the very simple to the VERY difficult. You can fold out of this book for a lifetime and never fail to learn something or see something new. A great book... grab it while you can and fold your heart out!

The book which launch my interest in origami in the late 60s. If not for the discovery of this book, my interest in origami would have been lost.

The models are still very fresh even for the origamist of today. There is a very good range from traditional models, simple models to the intermediate stage. An excellent first introduction to origami.

It contains works of experts who are not around today. Among my favourites are those by Ligia Montoya. Simple but extremely effective.

Nowadays origami experts tend to concentrate on details making folding the models extremely difficult for a beginner. I prefer to concentrate on representing the subject just right with just the sufficient details to differentiate the model and avoiding the complexity of folding it.

There are also models with sufficient difficulty to challenge the slightly more experienced.

A must for all enthusiasts.

Rejoice, origami lovers of the world: Harbin's "Secrets of Origami" is back on the shelves. One of the first of my 40+ origami books, the old, battered, early 70s hardcover still holds a place of honor on my shelf. This is one of the best origami books EVER published. For the beginner, it opens the door to a wonderful array of simple to complex models, for the advanced folder, it provides a survey of the best Western folding from that formative period of 1960s. Fred Rohm, Adolfo Cerceda, Ligia Montoya - these are names that must NEVER fade from the annals of origami. Buy this book. Use this book. Treasure this book. Very few like this have been printed before or since.

I bought this book after reading about it in my yoga magazine thinking I could really use a good book of poems to ponder and this book is terrific. The poems really will quiet your mind. I love that such a wide array of authors are represented - from Rumi to Dogen to Emily Dickenson to Walt Whitman. A great collection. Glad I bought it.

One of the most inspiring collections or sacred poetry ever compiled. The translations are perfect. The sensual/spiritual quality of the words can transport you into altered states. Beautiful. Al Link - 4 Freedoms Tantra

Much like Mitchell's Tao Te Ching this selection of poerty from various spiritual traditions is a joy to read and a nice tool for reflection and meditation. Zazen On The Mountain by Li Po has become my favorite poem and this work has been helpful to me in many ways. The Enlightened Heart is a lovely book and a great companion to his Tao Te Ching. Thumbs up for Mitchell's work as editor.

As someone who purchased this book on a lark, then continued to buy it for all my gift-giving needs - including a wedding shower only a couple of weeks ago - as well as to use it periodically with fantastic results, I feel compelled to rave about it to anyone interested.

The recipes are easy to follow, the helpful advice and recipe cross references are just that, helpful, and the humourous introductions are truly enticing. This book intends to grab the reader by the collar, send him or her straight into the kitchen regardless of experience or trepidation and produce a delicious, mouthwatering, "you'll be everyone's best friend" dish every time.

What strikes me as invaluable about Cook Something and what separates it from all the other really good cookbooks on the shelf is the fact that it is a great collection of sound, tested recipes. It lists every single modern, homey, comfort food you would ever want in a well-rounded repertoire. For instance, the pancake recipe is the best. There is no reason to use any other. The light and flaky pastry crust has become my secret weapon and I use it everywhere, from tarts, to quiches, to pot pies, to dessert pizzas. You'll want to make each recipe as you read it, if only because you'll want to eat each dish that is listed. If you're nervous, stick to the recipe measurements. If you're daring, mix and match according to taste. The creamy mustard sauce is listed with salmon, but it works just as well with monkfish, scallops and pork loin. In any case, use this book as a reference guide, from checking the ideal temperature for roasting chicken to which ingredients go into hummus. Each recipe works well, so you'll not only build your culinary confidence but you'll be inspired to share your cooking with your friends.

Run, don't walk, to pick up your copy!

This is a really great cookbook for people who don't have the time to search out exotic ingredients or spend hours over the stove. Well laid out, fantastic food, and great hints and suggestions. I've been successful with every recipe that I tried from the book and have gotten rave reviews!

I bought this book because of the simple terminology and ease of navigation. I am new to cooking and felt this was the right book for me. And it was! The combination of simple, great recipes, lots of information for new cooks, and great photos makes this book a definite winner. It's fresh, cool, and hip. If you want to have FUN while cooking, get this book. You won't regret it.

If you are trying to learn how to use ASP.NET to create Web Forms, you will find several books that are a good place to start. But when you try to implement Web Controls like the Repeater, Data List, and Data Grid (the book mainly covers these three topics in detail), you will find that most of these books don't go very deep. In fact, they just touch the basics. This book is the only exception we found.

What are these three Web Controls? Imagine a typical website where someone wants to search a database through a browser interface, like a book database. They search for ASP.NET books and the browser displays the 30 books on the subject, 10 rows to a page. The user also needs to select only a few of these books to narrow down the list and then maybe place an order for 3 of the final list. This involves using Web Controls that can accomplish this. In this particular case, the favored Web Control may be the Data Grid due to its inherent support of pagination (where the results are split into multiple pages with 10 rows to a page or whatever number of rows you want per page). That's what you need these Web Controls for.

Once you are far enough into using ASP.NET to create dynamic database driven websites, you will need an in-depth introduction to these three very important Web Controls - Repeater, Data List, and Data Grid. That's where this book comes in. It does an excellent job of going into the intricacies of these three Web Controls. As a beginner, you absolutely need this book to go to the next level in website development.

But this book has some limitations. Even though it is great to use the book and get to the next level of website development as a beginner, you will quickly run into problems. When you try to create a real live website that is complex and destined for production, you will find that this book is not adequate.

Simple example - let's use the above example of accessing a book database through a browser. As mentioned, you will most likely need to use the Data Grid Web Control to display rows of data in the browser for your user to take some action on this data. It is normal to expect many rows to be displayed in the browser with a whole column full of check boxes that the user can select to narrow down the selection. And click on some button to take a specific action like buy the books that are checked. So the question for you as a web designer would be - how do I insert this extra column of checkboxes with the rows full of data? And how do I link the buy action associated with the button click to the Data Grid that is indirectly connected to the database that needs to be updated?

Well, the Data Grid Web Control only has Select, Edit (Update & Cancel), and Hyperlink, as choices when creating the control using a tool like Visual Studio. To insert a column full of check boxes, you need to write a custom control (based on CheckBoxList) that integrates neatly into the Data Grid Web Control supported by ASP.NET. And you need to write the event handlers that respond on the application side when people click on the buy buttons next to the check boxes. The hard part being the event handlers you write need to connect the check boxes and the buy action the user wants to initiate.

The book spends a few pages towards the end of book explaining how you could accomplish something like what is described above. At this point, it becomes a theoretical text book with very little direction on how to practically implement it. It would have been wonderful if the book finished the excellent job it started by having another 50 pages covering these topics that are absolutely essential.

Unfortunately, there are almost no other books in the market that reach the level of depth on Web Controls that this book reaches. So you can almost forget about trying to find a book that goes deeper addressing the issues above. There IS one book that actually publishes all the code you need to get to this next level but lacks in explanation. There have been complaints that the code in the book doesn't work. We realized that in many cases, the code doesn't work because of problems on the Visual Studio side of things and when we found some workarounds to overcome the VS.NET problems, we were able to make most of the code in this book work. That book is 'ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook' by The ASP Alliance. So if you get to the Intermediate/Advanced level in using ASP.NET, you can use these two books to figure out how to accomplish the desired results.

Right now, there isn't much out there that you can readily use to accomplish your website goals. Even though there are a ton of books published, they don't adequately address the practical issues. But the next release of ASP.NET is believed to change al this. So we'll keep our fingers crossed till then. In the meanwhile, good luck with your own real world .NET implementations and we hope that the results of our experiences we shared in this review are helpful.

I just want to say that I have gathered quite a few programming books, and several on ASP.Net. This is definately up there in my list of top books I have bought. If you do, or want to do, ASP.Net development, you have to buy this book.

You want to learn how to page data in the datagrid? The author gives multiple ways to do it. You want to know when to use the data list or data repeater control? He breaks it down for you and tells you why and how. You want to fully customize these controls to get a unique look and acurate display of your data? This book helps there too.

I just can't say enough good stuff about it, and I highly recommend it. I like that it doesn't go off into all the other subjects as normal ASP.Net books do. It takes a subject (data controls) and does it best.

Buy it, you won't be sorry.

A must have book for anyone responsible for developing asp.net data-centric web applications. The book provides concise, yet in-depth details about the diverse functionality of the three major web data control objects: DataGrid, DataList, and Repeater, and when to use each within a given web application.

Moreover, with numerous, step-by-step hands-on examples, this book is not only a great reference, but also a fantastic teaching tool. A terrific book for asp.net developers at all development levels.

Job has a sudden change of fortune, he losses his health, wealth, family, and status. He addresses the question "Why?" Four human counselors --Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar-- (Elihu is not present in this translation) are unable to provide the insight Job desperately needs. It remains to Jehovah to address Job and let him know that he must trust in the goodness and power of God in adversity by enlarging his concept of God. Job is perhaps the earliest book of the Bible, author unknown. Set in the period of the patriarchs, the main character is a Gentile. Oddly enough, he has been personified as the virtue of patience, contrary to the Biblical Job who is angry to the point of blasphemy, and rightly demands justice.

This beautiful translation into English, directly from Hebrew, is to be praised for its sound, strong, energetic poetry and more so for its scholarly introduction. Mitchell's interpretation of the book of Job is not one of spiritual acquiescence, of capitulation to an unjust, superior force, but of a great poem of moral outrage, a Nietzchean protest. In it, Job embodies Everyman and grieves for all human misery, and acquiescence at the end of the poem is a result of spiritual transformation, a surrender into the light, the acceptance of a reality that transcends human understanding.

. . . even though I'd like to deduct a star for its omissions.

As with so much of Stephen Mitchell's work, it's easy to pick on him for what he's decided to leave out. Here, his translation of Job omits the hymn in praise of Wisdom and the speech (in fact the entire presence) of the young man Elihu. I tend to disagree with his reasons for skipping them. But having read his translation for nearly a decade now, I have to admit we don't miss them much.

His work has been described as "muscular," and that's a very apt term. Not only in Job's own language (from his "God damn the day I was born" to his closing near-silence after his experience of God) but in the voices of all the characters -- and most especially in the speech of the Voice from the Whirlwind -- Mitchell's meaty, pounding, pulse-quickening poetry just cries out to be read aloud.

And as always, I have nothing but praise for Mitchell's gift of "listening" his way into a text and saying what it "wants" to say. In particular, his translation of the final lines has a wee surprise in store for anyone who hasn't already read it. (He disagrees with the usual repent-in-dust-and-ashes version and offers a denouement more fitting to the cosmic scope of Job's subject matter.)

Moreover, all this and much else is discussed in a fine introduction that -- in my opinion as a longtime reader of Mitchell -- may well be his finest published commentary to date.

Essentially, he deals with the so-called "problem of evil" by simply dissolving it. The God of Mitchell and of Mitchell's Job is not a feckless little half-deity who shares his cosmic powers with a demonic arch-enemy and sometimes loses; this God, like the God of the Torah itself (and incidentally of Calvinist Christianity, at which Mitchell takes a couple of not-altogether-responsible swipes), is the only Power there is. Ultimately God just _does_ everything that happens, because what's the alternative? "Don't you know that there _is_ nobody else in here?"

As I suggested, there are a handful of half-hearted jabs at traditional (usually Christian) religion, but for the most part it should be possible for a theologically conservative reader simply to read around them. (This is a nice contrast with Mitchell's Jesus book, which -- to the mind of this non-Christian reviewer -- seems to be brimming with anti-Christian "spiritual oneupmanship.")

So it's not only a fine translation that properly recognizes Job's central theme of spiritual transformation, but a universally valuable commentary into the bargain. If you haven't read any of Mitchell's other work, this is a great place to start. And if you _have_ read some of Mitchell's other work, do get around to this one. It's probably his best.

I first read the Book of Job in the New King James translation. That was a truly amazing event--I felt that somehow I had experienced what Job had, and that I was learned the same painful lessons that Job had. Great poems can do that.

I'm sure if I had read this version, it would have had the same effect.

Job essentially worships an idol. He worships an orderly God who runs an orderly, boring universe where the good get rewarded and the evil get punished. The real God shows him that things are a bit different. The universe is not simple, it is a grand, messy explosion of beauty where frail, innocent humans often get trampled. Is it just in a way that would conform to human standards of justice? God basically says, "Who cares, look at it."

Thus, a translator/poet has a tough job. In a few pages, he or she has to show the reader God's glorious universe. No easy task (except for G.M. Hopkins).

Mitchell gets it done with short "muscular" phrasing, reminscient of the way Lombardo treats the Iliad. I.e., Job ch 3 reads something like "Damn the day I was born/Blot out the sun of that day . . ." Along the way Mitchell eliminates some of the "interpolations" and "corruptions" that scholars have found were not part of the original text. And I don't think this detracts from either the beauty or the meaning of the poem.

I would have added a more detailed introduction however. If I may recommend a book, please also take a look at The Bitterness of Job: A Philosophical Reading, by John T. Wilcox. If you read these two together along with an orthodox translation like the JPS (mentioned in another review) or the NRSV, I think you will have a good grasp of this text from a wide variety of viewpoints, secular and religious. You can't get too much Job. As Victor Hugo said, "If I had to save one piece of literature in the world, I'd save Job."

Very good book! Having been diagnosed with Cervical cancer, I found it encouraging to know that there are many cancer survivors out there.

After my diagnosis with breast cancer five years ago at age 28,this book was part of my salvation. Reading stories of otherssurvival helped me to realize that cancer is beatable. I now recommend this book to other cancer patients.

"Malignant", to hear this word when you or someone you love is diagnosed brings feelings of despair, fear and abandonment. The "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series gives you bits of humanity and makes you feel hopeful, trusting and accepting. The stories, poems and essays are put together to give to us encouragement. I myself am a 5 year survivor of stage 2 breast cancer and find the pages filled with new beginnings.

This is a damn good book. Not as egghead as most books about Old Saxon, however, you still need to know English on a college level. Most books on Old English are written for people with English majors and minors in French, German, and Latin.
This book is better than most, but it is no Old English For Dummies. It is one of the better books though.
Buy it! Wyatt Kaldenberg

Mitchell and Robinson's 'A Guide to Old English' is exactly what it claims to be: it smooths the path before the would-be reader of Old English and points out both the obstacles and the areas of interest along the way. It guides the reader through the highways and byways of Old English, and allows him to rapidly gain a reading knowledge of Old English, and some understanding of the workings of the language. Its goal is acquaintance with the tools necessary to decode actual Old English texts, rather than mastery of the language, insofar as composition is a topic omitted altogether. No attempt is made to train the reader to produce Old English.

This guide is not a language textbook in the usual sense of the word. It does not progressively present points of grammar and lists of vocabulary, followed by relevant exercises and translations. Instead, it comprises two parts. The first gives a fairly detailed overview of the grammar and historical context of Old English, whilst the second contains prose and verse texts, accompanied by copious notes, for the reader to attempt. The focus of the first part is not so much the acquisition of paradigms and rules as familiarisation with the general structure of Old English. The section on syntax, very important in Old English, is remarkably comprehensive. The collection of texts in the second part is, in my opinion, well chosen, and representative of the breath of texts in Old English, without dismissing the most famous texts. One particularly useful feature of the guide is its glossary, which contains every word found in the readings, and, for every occurrence of a word in the texts, its part is indicated in the glossary. This simplifies the task of deciphering a text enormously, and obviates the necessity for a separate dictionary.

This sixth edition is not greatly different to the previous editions: minor errors have been corrected, a few small additions on minor points of grammar have been made. The most important change is perhaps the addition of a few texts, e.g., the well-known 'Wulf and Eadwacer', but, all in all, the previous editions were already excellent, and there is no cogent reason to purchase this edition if a previous one is already on hand.

In short, then, Mitchell and Robinson have produced a remarkably usable guide to Old English that is at once instructive and interesting. One could do much worse than to acquire this work if rapid acquisition of reading ability in Old English is desired. As noted by a previous review, the book is not really suited to philologists seeking to understand the history and evolution of English and its place within the Germanic languages. As far as I can tell, this is its single greatest shortcoming, but it doesn't detract much from its purpose. I would heartily recommend this book as an introduction to Old English.

I've personally never read this book (I'll give it 5 stars for being about old english), but I must respond to another's entry here:

from sweet's second anglo-saxon reader, oxford university press- "Neorxenawanges" (or specifically "neorxnawang") means paradise.. from the root of the old teutonic sea deity 'niord', a god of peace. there; now you dont have to buy this book ;-)

"The Hunting of the Snark" is a brilliant nonsense-poem. Yet Gardner has seen fit to put pretentious, geeky, ...pedantic annotations all over it. Now I like nonsense, but the vulgarly rational "sense" of some of these annotations irritates me. Do we really need to know that the word "BOMB" begins and ends with B (thereby relating it to the Boojum) and that OM is the Hindu name of God??? Do we really need to know of a political cartoon in which Kruschev says "BOO", and does Gardner have to tell us that he was trying to say Boojum??

Annotations should be done in the manner of Gardner's own annotations of Alice in Wonderland. Now those were annotations that made *sense*. Annotations that simply explained out of date concepts, gave relevant details from Carroll's own life, or obscure humour. That's all! That is what annotations should be like.

The pedantic geekery of these annotations remind me of the...games of Star Trek fanatics (or Sherlock Holmes fanatics).

The poem is brilliant, though; and the illustrations were funny, before the annotations over-analysed them.

Lewis Carroll is brilliant in this piece. First of all the poetical music is perfect, absolutely perfect, and yet the words don't mean much. Many of these words are not even to be found in any dictionary. Be it only for the music, this piece is astonishingly good. But the piece has a meaning. I will not enter the numerical value of the numbers used in the poem : 3, 42, 6, 7, 20, 10, 992, 8, and I am inclined to say etc because some are more or less hidden here and there in the lines. Hunting for these numbers is like hunting for the snark, an illusion. But the general meaning of the poem is a great allegory to social and political life. A society, any society gives itself an aim, a target, a purpose and everyone is running after it without even knowing what it is. What is important in society is not what you are running after or striving for, but only the running and the striving. Lewis Carroll is thus extremely modern in this total lack of illusions about society, social life and politics : just wave a flag of any kind, or anything that can be used as a flag and can be waved, in front of the noses of people and they will run after it or run in the direction it indicates. They love roadsigns and social life is a set of roadsigns telling you where to go. Everyone goes there, except of course the roadsigns themselves who never go in the direction they indicate. Lewis Carroll is thus the first post-modern poet of the twenty-first century. He just lived a little bit too early.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

I am a fan of Lewis Carroll, but somehow was unaware of the existence of an edition of "The Hunting of the Snark" with annotations. As someone who tremendously enjoys Martin Gardner's "Annotated Alice," I heartily recommend this book to like-minded readers. Gardner's annotations and introduction set the stage for the reader, putting the composition of the poem in its proper context in Victorian England, and in Lewis Carroll's life. And as with "Annotated Alice" the annotations are fascinating and amusing in their own right. "The Hunting of the Snark" is one of Carroll's lesser-appreciated (or at least lesser-known) works, and this paperback is an excellent introduction.

I noticed some confusion in the Amazon listings for this book, so let me clarify that the edition with Gardner's annotations is the paperback, and for illustrations it contains reproductions of Henry Holiday's original woodcuts from the 1800's. There are only eight pictures, and these are in old-fashioned style which may turn off some modern readers. This edition does not contain the illustrations - listed in the review of the hardcover editions - by Jonathan Dixon, nor the illustrations by Mervyn Peake also listed as available in hardcover from Amazon.

To Snark fans, though, I would unhesitatingly recommend both those editions as well. Dixon's is little-known, but excellent, the most profusely illustrated Snark, with pictures on every page in lush, gorgeously detailed and humorous pen and ink. It may still be available through the website of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, who published it in a small edition. Peake's drawings are also in beautiful black and white, and capture his own rather dark, quirky "Gormenghast" take on the poem. (A good companion, too, to the recently released editions of "Alice" with Peake's drawings.)