I read and reviewed the original "Hacker's Challenge" in Nov 01, and gave that book four stars. Mike Schiffman and crew have recaptured the magic and published another winner: "Hacker's Challenge 2" (HC2). This is the sort of book that needs to be used when interviewing new hires or promoting technical staff. If the candidate has read the book and knows the answers to the challenges, she at least demonstrates her commitment to learning, as well as an ability to remember what she reads. If she can solve the challenges without having read the book, she shows a higher level of skill. If she has no clue how to respond to the challenges, you can move on to the next candidate.

The majority of HC2 involves three subjects. Challenges 1,3,7, and 16 revolve around wireless insecurities. Challenges 2,5,6,15, and 17 discuss network-based attacks. Solving the mysteries of challenges 4,11,12,14,18, and 19 require log analysis. A few other issues are sprinkled through the text: social engineering (ch. 8), host-based digital forensics (ch. 9), a man-in-the-middle attack against SSH (ch. 13), and a crafty buffer overflow tutorial (ch. 10). None of the material struck me as being exceptionally original, although this accurately reflects the sorts of cases handled by most consultants! I was impressed by the level of explanation offered by challenge 17, where vulnerabilities associated with VLAN 1 were exposed.

HC2 has a few weaknesses. I was sorry to see Peter Lemonjello fired in challenge 5, but he appeared to strike again in challenge 11. Pages 126-8 featured some of the oddest techno-babble in print, offering obscure references to Rabindranath Tagore and condescending dialogue with a tech support staffer. I've given up on seeing Mike Schiffman correctly abbreviate the Air Force Information Warfare Center as "AFIWC" in his biography. His use of "AFWIC" must refer to the UN's AFrican Women In Crisis program and not the talk he gave to the AFIWC in Apr 99!

HC2 is the first must-buy of 2003, but it leaves some room for improvement. Future editions should provide greater details in the solutions, like explanations of the fields in various firewall logs. I'd also like to see the author's names on the challenges, as appeared in the first HC book. The bottom line is that HC2 is a fast read that will entertain, and more importantly, educate.

Yes, Slightly better than the first edition.
However, if you need or like this kind of books give first a try to "Stealing the Network: How to Own the Box" by Ryan Russell, the same idea, but a lot more illustrative and easy to read (still with the same level of very up to date information).
Some extra bucks to spend ?. . . OK, then try both, they complement each other very well.

The second "The Hacker's Challenge" brought with it another sleepless night of fun security reading. 19 attack cases with solutions and mitigation and prevention strategies are described by a team of known expert authors led by Mike Schiffman.

Impressive wireless DoS attack, social engineering penetrations (including one case with no technical penetration whatsoever), mysterious web defacements, SQL injection, DNS tunneling case and router attack inform and educate, just as the first book did. Authors' mildly perverse sense of humor keeps the reader in a good mood. The book begs to be read in one helping (and then reread, as needed)! "The Challenge 2" again covers a wide range of victims and attack methods.

An interesting case asks for writing an exploit and provides a walkthrough for a simple local buffer overflow attack, a novel feature of this edition.

At about scenario 12, things start to heat up and solving the case starts to require some thinking. Harder to crack cases and more sophisticated attackers up the fun level and value of information learned. Just as in the first book, solving the case usually takes some log analysis, some security knowledge and careful reading about character actions and observations.

In addition to technology-astute readers, the book will also satisfy the hard-core security policy fans. Some of the questions asked about the cases involve policy decisions.

As for the book minor blemishes, it suffers a bit from a "sequel syndrome". Namely, since the first book was so amazingly good, it is very hard to beat it and most people will compare it to the first one. Let's say that "The Challenge 2" is almost as good as its predecessor. A couple of scenarios sound somewhat ridiculous (e.g. one on "wireless terrorists"). Another couple is painfully obvious (few people are impressed by a /bin/sh bound to a port in inetd.conf or by a default router password nowadays). In addition, the scenario names often give out a hint that spoils the fun of "cracking" the story ("Freeloader" and some others).

Overall, the book is a must have, both for its educational and entertainment value. The Hacker Challenge books fuse fun storyline, mystery and technical information in one great package, that makes for awesome reading for all technical readers, in security field and beyond. It was clearly a great idea to invent such a "security thriller" book.

Anton Chuvakin, Ph.D., GCIA is a Senior Security Analyst with a major information security company. His areas of infosec expertise include intrusion detection, UNIX security, forensics, honeypots, etc. In his spare time, he maintains his security portal info-secure.org

Intrigued by the listing title with its statement that it comprises "Translations from the Latin" I ordered this book only to find that save for the first selection from St. Jerome (originally written in Latin) all of the selections are indeed translations from the Latin but the Latin translations from which Waddell translates are translations of other authors from the original Greek. The Desert Fathers are much more appropriately presented by Faber & Faber in their series of volumes entitled Philokalia which comes in a three or four volume paperback edition and a one volume abridgement and is translated to English directly from the original Greek. I believe.

These earliest of monks take Christ's admonition "to sell everything and follow Him" to heart. With deep austerity, and prayer they follow a path utterly dedicated to a spiritual life. Despite their austerity, there are at times a surprising expressions of personality, and even community among the solitaire cells and companionship of the monks. There are stories of hermits with lions as companions, of sustainment of a few herbs or palm leaves, of them helping thieves stealing from them, or selling Gospels to help the poor. However these monks are humble in their faith, and a lesson often repeated in these stories is humility and compassion for temptations that they themselves feel. The temptations of women, and even a monks' expression of Pelagia "the harlots" beauty was surprisingly sensuous. It may seem impossible for us to be isolated like this, but we can quest for solitude as abbot Antony said "Who sits in solitude escapes from three wars: hearing, speaking, seeing"

Sayings of the early Christian monastics and stories of their lives of austerity and prayer in the Egyptian deserts have appeared as "flavoring" in books like Norris' Cloister Walk. This sturdy volume gathers up many of these tales and wisdom teachings in a clean, readable translation that also sports an encellent introduction which frames and contextualizes this ancient part of our Christian heritage. Waddell calls her book "a case book of spiritual direction, ironic and wise" (p 24), and indeed it can encourage and inspire the reader today. The abbess Matrona could be speaking to our modern urges and contradictions when she says, "It is better to have many about thee, and to live the solitary life in thy will, than to be alone, and the desire of thy mind be with the crowd" (page 72). If other stories strike the modern ear more harshly ("The abbot Arsenius said, "It sufficeth a monk if he sleep for one hour: that is, if he be a fighter" [p. 74]), they still provide the modern reader with the traditions and cultures that developed shortly after the Christian gospels were written. These stories also formed the backdrop for the moderation and carefulness of St. Benedict's Rule--still being followed by monastic orders like the Benedictines and Trappists today.

First of all, this is NOT an "abridged" edition, with a 24-page booklet. Zondervan confirmed for me that they make only one edition of this CD set, it's not abridged, and it has a 48-page booklet.

This is a useful tool for learning vocabulary. The pronunciation is clear, though the recording volume could be a bit higher/louder, I think. It's the best, if not the only, of its kind of thing out there.

I would have liked to have had him give aorist and/or future forms of verbs where the stem differs from the indicative - e.g.: "ERCOMAI - I come, I go; future: ELEUSOMAI; aorist: HLQON". This is the reason I do not give it four or five stars.

My suggestion for a follow-up CD set would include alphabetically reciting verbs with all their principal parts as found in the New Testament, and if he's really adventuresome, reciting the complete verb conjugation paradigms (regular, liquid, contract, MI verbs, etc.) and noun declension paradigms, and maybe even lists of words related by roots.

Still, despite my personal quibbles with this set, I would recommend that any first-year or second-year NT Greek student get it. Having finished my second year a few years ago, I already had most of these words memorized.

As an intermediate Greek student who struggles with remembering vocabulary, I am very grateful to Jonathan Pennington and Zondervan for producing this tool. There are two CD's in this set, which cover all the words in the New Testament that occur 10 times or more. The accompanying booklet lists those words and their definitions in the order in which they are spoken. The purpose of this tool is to help the Greek student learn the vocabulary of the New Testament.

The benefits of having Greek vocabulary in audio format are generally obvious. First, it is portable and the student is able to take it wherever he goes. In fact the Greek student should never be without his vocabulary and this tool helps greatly to that end. Secondly, it involves more of the senses, which helps in the learning process. For those who learn well through audible learning methods this will be invaluable. Thirdly, the booklet makes this all the more useful for the beginner to read along with the pronunciation. As well it further engages another sense as the vocabulary is listened to.

There are a few disadvantages to this tool, which hopefully would be remedied, in a latter edition. First, the glosses, or definitions, are the bare bones. You only receive about one or two options for a definition. One understands the need to do so with this medium, but it leads to the impression that there is not too much flexibility with the definitions when in actuality there are. It may be helpful to beef up the definitions at least a little bit. Secondly, it would have been more helpful if the definitions followed exactly those given in either Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek or Trenchard's Complete Vocabulary Guide. There is some inconsistency here which if fixed would make this set all the more useful. Lastly, the individual tracks should have been further broken down into approximately 15-20 words instead of 30-40 words. Shorter tracks would allow for quicker repetition and therefore easier memorization.

Overall this is an extremely helpful tool that every beginning and intermediate Greek student should utilize. I only wish I discovered it earlier.

This is, so far as I know, the first CD of koine terms with which one can become more familiar with that type of Biblical Greek. Unfortunately, the words are read in order of decreasing frequency (you know, that tiresome stress on how often a word occurs in the Bible, which is better spent on what the word MEANS). Alphabetical order would make the words easier to remember, practice, use.

Moreover, the definitions given are extremely rudimentary. Then again, for the price, this CD is a BARGAIN just the same, and -- until Pennington or someone else does a better one -- should be purchased.

In fact, I'll buy another one after the holidays! 'Groaning in travail for a more-advanced edition! ('Yes, charge more, who cares, we need a more scholarly treatment -- and include ATTIC usage in Bible too?) Oh boy. Greedy greedy greedy me.

I learned about this book from a review in the "Lands End" catalogue, of all places, and was thrilled by the quality and depth of the prints. I thereupon decided that I had to have the book. However, I was really disappointed. In my opinion, the prints reproduced in the book do not come anywhere close to the quality of the prints in the Lands End catalogue. The prints in the book look washed out and blurred, whereas Lands End prints were sharp, with plenty of detail.

Why is Amazon selling this book at full price

If there was not one line of prose in this book, the photographs would be more than worth the price of the book. We have grown up with images from the movies and television. These photographs portray the real American Indian. I found myself with a lense studying the detail of the clothing, beads and headdresses and eventually transported by the expresses. What were these people thinking as they poised? Are we the readers the ones that are really caught in time?

I started out with this book, which is used by many seminaries. But I now feel that "The Basics of Biblical Greek" by William D. Mounce is a much better book. Mounce has a much better and easier to learn system. He explains many things that are left unsaid by Wenham. The diagrams are better. The software included is great. The book is more readable and enjoyable. But it's always good to have more than one intro to Greek, I just don't think Wenham should be your first, get Mounce instead.

Wenham's classic textbook doubles as a fine grammar for the simpler Koine of biblical Greek. A very well-organized text with an introductory refresher on English Grammar, it is one of the few affordable books on the subject that you will find not only useful but satisfying to boot.

The lack of accents is the only shortcoming of the text, though in fairness accents were absent in the ancient texts.

Fritz Stammberger found the perfect wife in Janice Pennington: pretty, not overly smart, unquestioning, and willing to marry a foreigner about whom she knew very little after a courtship of mere weeks...The perfect wife for a spy. Even before Pennington suspected her husband of a secret life there was plenty suspect about Stammberger. The guy liked to go off and climb big mountains solo, san oxygen, and when he couldn't get a climbing permit he'd enter sensitive, dangerous areas of the world illegally, hiking in through rough, unpatrolled country to bag peaks. This alone would (statistics prove) have guaranteed him a life span shorter than the one he actually lived as a captured spy. Pennington's story is poorly written (she's s spokesmodel, what do you expect?) and she doesn't get it that whatever her husband was up to, whether he was a spy or not it was illegal and he WAS NOT a US citizen--being married to one does not count when it comes to risky rescue and investigations. She barely consults her husband's country for help, preferring to spend years (during which Stammberger was apparently still alive) chasing after US intelligence officers who--obviously--couldn't and weren't required to hand over any information about a German national's activities in dicey area of the world. What is surprising is that Pennington gets any resolution at all--really. She reminds me of Gennifer Flowers--tenacious, if a little dim. A weird story that would be much more palatable if Pennington had gotten a ghost author to help her with her 8th grade prose.

Whenever we look at celebrities, we think of their looks, their clothes, their wealth. We don't think much of them as people. We don't think they have to take out the garbage, do their own taxes, we don't think of them as having or capable of having the same emotions or going through an ordeal that never leaves us--the loss of a loved one and the struggle to rebuild a life. Janice Pennington not only endured this, but also summoned the courage to face the demons that accompany that searing kind of experience and then went on to smile each day as one of "Barker's Beauties" and find true love again. Those of us who have been through a similar experience can read her book and think of her as a kindred spirit, a beacon of hope as we read of her battle to learn the truth behind the death of her first true love, who later became one with her and with her soul. These are the bonds that death truly cannot conquer, for in her story we can read of her determination and her ultimate indominatability as a human being. It is a lesson of bravery we can learn from.

This, like the previous reviewer, is my favorite book by the author. It is enjoyable, but do not expect a "great" book.

Many Regency writers do try to set books outside England, and the few who do often mess up (Clare Darcy is an exception). Megan Daniel's description of Vienna is wonderful, as is her casual mentioning of important personages. She is wonderful at knowing just how much to describe. One is told delicious little details, but she never bores me with excessive information.

The characters are entertaining. Miss Pennington is a lively, lovable, and spirited heroine. However, she is not incredibly sweet, naive, stubborn, and outspoken. She has polish and friendliness. Robin is nice, but he does need the livening up that his socialy adept twin is determined to give him. The other characters are believable and sometimes entertaining.

The basic plot is that Miss Pennington (Georgina) and her widowed diplomat father are going to Vienna for the conference. The light-hearted Earl of Kitteridge and his scholorly twin brother have made a wager and agreed to switch identities. Events proceed from there, complete with balls, horseback rides, masquerades, and a few complications. Enjoy.

I enjoyed it and it is my favorite book by that author. Miss Pennington is refreshing and the twins are very funny. I liked it that most of the book was set in Vienna, as it added a twist. The dialogue was a little stilted, repetitious, and boring at times, especially between Georgia and Robin. The descriptions of clothing and sights are detailed and excellent. Not a great book, but a fun read.

As a boy growing up in Sunderland I was always was aware of the weeds growing amid the rubble of derelict building sites and on visits to my grandparents in the local countryside I would pass the multi-coloured fields replete with cows and sheep. Mostly I remember the many shapes and sizes of butterflies who were very abundant. Forty or so years later on a recent visit I discovered the air being full of the heavy odour of the oil-seed rape who'se colour is like a giant highlighter marked across the land. And few butterflies!

Mark Pennington narrates a tale of a power struggle between those living and working on the land and on the other hand government as well as pressure groups supposedly concerned with the countryside and the Ramblers Association who want to trample the whole of Britain underfoot.

It is a fascinating tale which traces the gradual extinction of individual rights of ownership under both Conservative and Labour governments which extend to almost every aspect of life. Houses cannot be built, fields cannot be sown, trespassers can roam anywhere strewing refuse without challenge. Over all of this presides the distant European Union which has followed disastrous agricultural policies almost since it's inception in the 1950's and continues to do so today.

The English countryside is often portrayed as an unchanging familiar landscape where the natural features have been preserved for the general population over the years. The propaganda of England's pleasant lands is a powerful resonant force in the country. Pennington shows how successive government policies have shaped and changed that countryside over the years and not always in the best possible way. The worst example is the rise and spread of the sitka spruce at the expense of the traditional broadleaf a spread which has decimated the Scottish countryside at the cost of millions to the taxpayer and for little obvious benefit to anyone.

Pennington articulates a strong case for privatisation. Privatisation in the sense of restoring rights to individual farmers and landowners who are often castigated for their errors by the same politicians and pressure groups who have devastated the countryside to such a great extent. Their errors and mistakes pale into insignificance but were contained by their relatively small scales.

British politicians gather votes by campaigning to save the rural post offices or some other relatively slight issue while pursuing policies which cause the biggest impact. After over fifty years you might expect some politicians to realise that the answer is not big overbearing government but small scale individual ownership and accountability. Mark Pennington has done an excellent service in bringing these issues to public scruting.

On a final note I cannot help but state my final observation about the English landscape from my last visit. There were hardly any butterflies!

I have just read Jack Pennington's most recent work, A Comprehennsive Study of the LBH which is more thorough then the Custer Controversy. However, Pennington offers the most thorough analysis of all the testimonies made by the participants and does not fall into the trap of taking the Reno
Court of Inquiry as the bible. Pennington recognizes that a central contingent of the Officers were covering their own failings particular the bitter Benteen who never moved into the support position as designated and he covered himself by deprecating Custer's ability to formulate an attack plan. Reno is a part of the cover up which includes Lt. Wallace the intenerist. Spectacularly, Reno states he never saw or was aware of Custer's gray horse troop marching across the opposite ridge getting into a position for the flanking support attack. Testimony from a number of Reno's men indicate they saw Custer manuvering along the ridge; however, Reno was not inclined to admit such at his inquiry. In Benteen's case he admits to receiving several messages from Custer but never identifies any return messengers sent on his part to notify Custer of his whereabouts or dwadling.
Since Custer's first messengers were killed, Benteen has only to deprecate the intelligence of Trumpter Martin as an "idiot" Itallion and Kanipe as a limited messenger. Pennington theorizes that Custer moved early to his flanking position only to be killed at the Medicine Trail Coulee which caused disorganization of his battalions leading to their destruction. He also builds a case that Reno and Benteen misrepresented the timing of events to cover a much longer time delay in finally moving to support Custer. Part of that misreprepresentation is to misrepresent how far the pack train was behind Benteen. How unfortunate that Martin was not allowed to testify fully and that more enlisted were not allowed to testify at the Reno Court of Inquiry. After reading Pennington, you have the impression that the Inquiry was a Gentlemen's Club affair.

I've bought a few Spawn-related stories in the past, when a favorite Writer was involved, such as Dave Sim, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, etc. With the exception of Frank Miller's Spawn/Batman crossover, and Alan Moore's Violator and Violator/Badrock, they've all stunk. I blame this on the character of Spawn himself, which is truly limited by it's one-dimensionality. Not even the greatest Writers in the field of comics can make him interesting.

Angela's Hunt will be incomprehensible to people who haven't read Spawn #9, also written by Neil Gaiman. It should have been included in the book, as the story makes precious little sense without it. Gaiman, who created the amazing Sandman for DC, has finally done something I didn't love. (First time for everything, I suppose...) The book is only interesting as a historical footnote now, as it was the catalyst for the recently decided Todd McFarlane/Neil Gaiman Lawsuit over the ownership of Angela, Cogliostro, and Medieval Spawn. (Gaiman won, and was granted ownership of the characters, as well as a settlement and residuals from other uses of those characters, including their appearances in the Spawn movie & cartoons.)

Spawn fans ONLY should read this; Gaiman fans should steer clear. You're not missing anything.

After writing mostly Fantasy-influenced stories with throlls, faeries and wizards which worked out good for him, Neil Gaiman takes a risk here with the further creation of a character who later turns out to be one of the most popular members of the cast of a superhero title according to many. I myself take quite some characters over her (Billy Kincaid, Violator, Jason Wynn) but as a character that's supposed to be the perfect opposite of the Hellspawn she's indeed a very satisfying new (at the time) character. Luckily most of the story stages in Heaven and Hell, places Gaiman is familiair with since he explored them many times over already and THAT shows. His writing is being aided by the art of Greg Capullo who I think started here in showing himself to be worthy to take up drawing Spawn after McFarlane. It's obviously NOT the perfected art Capullo shows of later when he gets to draw 'Spawn' yet though, to be honest. I don't have a specific word for it but it's showing that typical "Image-look' that most Image books had in their early days.

About the story: The Angelic warrior Angela is celebrating her 100.000th birthday in her own unique fashion when all of a sudden the Hordes of Heaven come to place her under arrest. She's being put on trial for treason and conspiring with a Hellspawn (See the events in Spawn #9 to see what happened), among other things. It soon becomes clear to most that she's being set up and her friends attempt to help her. In doing so they need to get Spawn from earth and take him to heaven un-noticed to testify for Angela, the woman who once tried to kill him.

This story takes place right after #10 and is really a very good enhancement to the early days of the ongoing Spawn series. In saying that I'm also saying that it's definately NOT for people who haven't been reading the first 10 issues of Spawn, or at least #9 and 10 where the first Spawn/Angela meeting takes place. It explains a lot about some changes Angela went through between #9 and the later issues, which aren't addressed in the Spawn series itself. So when you've been a Spawn reader you must surely get this because it will only make your experience and understanding of Angela better, because it ties up some loose ends. If you haven't you should think about getting Spawn #9 and 10 first (#9,10 + the Angela minies makes a perfectly good stand-alone story without you having to go further into Spawn afterwards), or not get Angela at all. The story won't make sense otherwise.

I thought this comic was great. It has a great story to it and the drawings are exelent. I thought the person who did the color on it did a great job, too.
I usally don't read the Spawn comics, but I thought this one looked interesting so I bought it. I am very happy with it and can read it over and over again.
The cover interested me by its great artwork and detail. I recomend this to fans of Spawn's Angela.