Books for/about - open

Mac OS X : The Missing Manual, Tiger Ed (Missing Manual)

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Authors: David Pogue

ISBN: 0596009410
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Summary: Another Pogue Winner
The Missing Manual Tiger by David Pogue

Just the Appendixes C and D make this book worth the price...They tell Mac (Appendix C) and Windows (D) folks where things are in Tiger versus their previous operating system.

It covers the new features in detail: Spotlight - what's the keyboard shortcut to open spotlight; how to search when you only know part of a word (usable also in text edit). He explains how to set preferences, how to keep certain items private, changing sort order, etc. Then he goes on to explain how to use the Find command (you can do much more detailed searching using Find).

Dashboard is another new Tiger feature that is covered in great detail. Dashboard is triggered by pushing the F12 key, but I have a laptop and F12 is the eject key, However by holding down the Fn key AND F12 I can open Dashboard. Did you know that you can refresh widgets by holding command and clicking R, open more than one copy of a widget and open the widget bar with the command = keystroke? Each of the 14 standard widgets are described in detail. He mentions a shareware program that will let you have a widget open while you're using another program. Do you share your computer? Learn how and where to install widgets so they're available to everyone, or just to you!

Another major item Apple features in Tiger is Automator. This lets you build a series of actions just by dragging tiles in the right order. Remember AppleScript that let you build instructions for a repetitive task? This is a simpler version. For the average user, one of the more useful actions might be in Safari to get text from a web page, or make a list of all the URLs from a web page, or the combine PDF files.

Security has been improved. Don't know what a firewall is, let alone how to configure it? Pogue explains this is layman's terms. Don't know what the Root account is? Don't mess with it, but understand it and learn how to activate/deactivate it ( it comes on page 455. Need to understand permissions and be sure they're set correctly -he has pages of data on how to do this. During a download, when Tiger says "this contains an application, do you want to continue?" you can expand that box to see what program it refers to, thus preventing spyware from being downloaded. In addition, if you are installing, it will also ask for permission. In addition to the Secure Empty Trash, Disk Utillity can super erase ALL free disk space. Don't want the people who share your computer to see where you've been surfing (make that present a surprise), turn on Private Browsing in the Safari menu before you begin.

Since this book is over 800 pages, I can't review all of it for you. However, I find it an INDISPENSIBLE Macintosh tool. I always find the answer I need his Pogue's books!

Summary: Buy This Book Now
Wow. What a wonderful book. I had no idea of the full power of my iMac G5 I bought a few months ago until reading this book. It's like getting a whole new computer. 'The Missing Manual' is a perfect name. Apple has created a truly marvelous operating system with Mac OS X Tiger, but doesn't tell you how to use all its incredible features. Stumbling around on my own before buying this book easily convinced me of the superiority of the Mac over my old PC, but this book really puts the icing on the cake. Buy this book! You will be amazed at what your Mac can really do.

Summary: Basic but thorough
This is really too basic for me, I'd have liked something that related how to do things on a Mac that I already know how to do on Windows. For most readers though, should be great.

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Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul: Stories to Open the Hearts and Rekindle the Spirit of Educators

Publisher: HCI
Authors: Jack Canfield Mark Victor Hansen

ISBN: 1558749780
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Summary: Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul
This book is a delight for those of us who teach or have taught the children of America...I was fortunate to have a story published in this edition and am proud to be a retired educator who served 39 years in the classroom and am still tutoring two days a week!

Summary: Something for the Heart.
I purchased this book after I felt led to go back to school to get my teaching certification. I was struggling with my decision and was looking for something to provide some hope and perhaps a little inspiration. CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE TEACHER'S SOUL gave me a little of that. The book is filled with all kinds of stories and ancedotes all having to do with teaching and education. Some are humorous and some are uplifting and a few are both. Since purchasing this book, I have learned that teaching is indeed a noble profession. However, it's nice to have this book around to help remind me of that every now and again when things get rough. Carpe diem.

Summary: My Teachers. My Friends
Teachers have always held a special place in my heart, from my first teachers in nursery school till the present day. This book is great for those who have had a special teacher in their lives, teachers who have been mentors and friends. Get this book, and even better, share it with that special teacher.

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	A Game of Thrones: D20-Based Open Gaming RPG (Sword & Scorcery) Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Authors: Michelle Lyons Mark C. MacKinnon
ISBN: 1588469425 List Price: $49.95 Amazon Price: $32.97 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: Reviews: Summary:

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PostgreSQL (2nd Edition)

Publisher: Sams
Authors: Korry Douglas

ISBN: 0672327562
List Price: $49.99
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Summary: PostgreSQL
I bought the 1st edition almost a year ago. The book is perfect reference for me as a seldom database and SQL developer. Compared to Oracle books this one is clear and concise: I've found everything I've been looking for in perfectly complete and understandable form. Haven't read everything in it yet, though, but I believe no part will disappoint me.

Summary: PostgreSQL
I thought the book was well written and documented all the information that would get you started in dealing with Postgres and SQL coding. A good book for someone starting out with Postgres and SQL.

Summary: Worthless and largely inferior to the official documentation
I bought this book expecting to find a complete reference covering all aspects of daily operation of Postgresql. Instead I found a pile of worthless and incoherent chapters, covering anything and everything, from basic sql syntax to interfaces with several different languages, none of them covered deeply enough to be of any use. Worst of all, the index is totally unusable. Don't buy it, I'm sure there are much better books. You'll learn much more reading Pg's docs on their site.

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Through Painted Deserts : Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road

Publisher: Nelson Books
Authors: Donald Miller

ISBN: 0785209824
List Price: $13.99
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Summary: Hooray....Good Book
This book starts out a little bit slow. There is not a whole lot of God talk for most of the book, and for about the frist three quarters of the book I didn't really know why i was reading it. Somewhere about 175 pages into it though i realized how much i had been thinking about what i was reading, and i realized that i was becoming more content with what i have, and it really helped my urge to just buy things that i just think i need.

This book has helped me have more confidence that life is not about possetions. This is a beautiful story of the simple life that i believe all of us want deep down. A life full of simplicity, friendship, and joy. Plus he's pretty stinking funny.

However, i would not recomend this book if you are differnt from your average American. Meaning, you don't want the latest ipod, a new car, don't really want or need the computer your on, then you probably do not need to read this. I know for myself this book helped me to not feel so addicted to having stuff. Anyway, i'd just say read and enjoy!

Summary: The Grand Canyon, visions of eggs over easy with a flour tortilla, and a Volkswagon van!
Sometimes you hear the cruel, yet funny comment about when a person comes to Christ, it's AFTER they've sung 28 verses of "Just As I Am". I know when I've heard it said like that, a laugh usually resounds through the crowd of people you happen to be with. That's either because it's the same old story, or because people have heard it one too many times. But every so often, the right person just might sing "Just As I Am", and you can't believe it is the same song, because it is sung so beautifully. That's how this played out for me. You hear stories of roadtrips, but they wear thin after a time, and unless the right person tells the story, you kind of think, "Who cares?" But along comes Donald Miller and he makes an ordinary road trip, from Texas to Oregon into a pretty neat read.

And so, you spend a few days on the road, eating beans and rice. The Volkswagon breaks down every so often. You run into some interesting adventures. Don and Paul, two friends, traveling. One thing that strikes me is that they never do it alone, they are with each other the whole time. You come across crazy things, such as Don putting chewing gum over the dash where the check engine light is blazing. You feel the triumph of visiting the Grand Canyon, and the simple celebration of it with a bowl of Raisin Bran with ice cold milk. The simple joy of living life. The thought of just having "eggs over easy with a flour tortilla," as the Lyle Lovett songs speaks of.

Donald Miller speaks of truely living life, not just getting through it. It reminded me in some spots of a Gary Paulsen read. If you've ever read Paulsen, you can't compare too many writers to him. But this had it's moments, and that was worth something, at least 4 stars to me! So, take this pilgrimage for yourself, and get through the bumpy spots. You'll be glad you took the ride!

Summary: TPD -- A refreshing jaunt through the life of a pre-Blue Like Jazz Donald Miller
An excellent, quick read. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't necessarily expecting apologetics from Don in this one -- based on my other reads at the moment (Jim Wallis, Francis Schaeffer), Don's musings provided a simple, relaxing commentary on the very events that shaped his, dare I say, revelatory style of candid writing. Instead of clamoring at the front doorstep of Borders, like a Harry Potter fanatic, for Don's next novel, I plan on leisurely strolling in, picking up a copy on sale, and relaxing in my living room with a glass of wine in hand. I reckon that's just how he would want me to delve into his next story of hope, heartache, faith, love, and honesty.

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	Irresistible Evangelism: Natural Ways to Open Others to Jesus Publisher: Group Publishing Authors: Steve Sjogren Dave Ping Doug Pollack
ISBN: 0764426265 List Price: $17.99 Amazon Price: $12.23 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: Irresistible Evangelism: Natural Ways..... Absolutely the best book ever written on individual evangelism. Very concise and easy to follow. Filled with helps and ideas in presenting the Gospel. Excellent book. Summary: Evangelism in a post-modern world This book gives you nothing new or radical. It simply shares, with great stories and illustrations, the fact that evangelism involves loving people where they are, not dragging them to where you would like them to be. This book takes seriously the fact that no two people are in the same place in their spiritual journey and that each person comes to a relationship with God by a unique path. As evangelists, we are not answer-givers or persuaders, but merely witnesses to what God has done in our own lives. Sometimes we may be called upon to pray with a person as they make a commitment to Jesus Christ, but only when they are led by the Holy Spirit to that point. The book begins with brutal honesty. Evangelism as it has been practiced most often in our culture has probably driven more people away from God than it has brought to God. We still suffer from the "Gospel Blimp" mentality in most of our churches and wring our hands in bewilderment when no one responds or worse, no one takes us seriously. It confronts us with the seven deadly sins of evangelism (which made me fall on my knees screaming "mea culpa!" more than once). Then the three authors gently begin to put us back together by helping us to understand that we can repent and even recover from these sins, and with a little Biblical understanding we can actually be "effective" witnesses for the gospel of Jesus Christ in this strange place we live in called the Post-modern World. Also, if you are using this book to teach discipleship or evangelism in your churches, the golf club analogies makes far more sense than some of the other models that have made their appearance from time to time. For me, this is the best book of its kind. I highly recommend it to churches serious about evangelism. Summary: A balanced approach to evangelism Steve Sjogren has written extensively on his experiences with Servant Evangelism, a style he characterizes as "High grace, low risk." In this book, Irresistible Evangelism, he teams up with Dave Ping and Doug Pollock to consider the broader picture of evangelism, showing how servant evangelism can fit into the total evangelistic ministry of the church. The authors recognize that many have set out to do evangelism - from a variety of motives - but have often found their work unproductive In fact, many of the things Christians do in their attempt to evangelize lead people away from Jesus rather than toward him. They identify 7 "deadly sins" in particular: � Scheming - Using slick marketing and "bait and switch" methods to bring people to Jesus � Scalp Hunting - Out for numbers; highly impersonal � Screaming - Self-righteously afflicting people with the gospel � Selling Jesus as if He's a Juicer - Jesus as a fix-it man for life's every difficulty � Stalking - Giving people no space; suffocating them with the blessing of your witness � Sermonizing - Offering all the answers before you hear any questions � Spectating - So paralyzed by fear you do nothing If these are practices to avoid, what ought we to do? First, we ought to have a better understanding of what evangelism is. When I teach on the subject I teach that evangelism has three components: (1) What we say; (2) What we do; (3) Who we are - and each of these three components needs to be done by Christians as individuals as well as in groups. The authors say something similar. As they put it, "True evangelism is not merely proclaiming a message of good news; it is becoming a living representative of God's heart toward people." That is very well put. As a consequence of this understanding of evangelism, they emphasize that it is something we do not merely with designated unbelievers, but with everyone we encounter. God want to use us to help all people move closer to Him. Once we understand evangelism as God's action through us, what next? The authors suggest that discover each person's "spiritual address." They identify four levels of needs: Physical, Emotional/Relational, Directional, and Spiritual. We all have these needs, but respond differently to messages and actions addressed to each, depending on the situation. They observe that, "we subconsciously evaluate whether what's being communicated connects to any of our basic needs. If it doesn't, we will choose to turn away and ignore it. If it does connect, we'll begin to turn toward it and give it more attention. Once we begin turning toward the message and have started to understand it somewhat, the second set of choices kicks in. Based on a largely intuitive appraisal of the potential threats involved, we'll choose either to begin to embrace or to reject the message." We usually only let these needs-meeting messages into our lives when we trust the messenger. Obviously, therefore, one of our primary needs as witnesses is to prove ourselves safe and trustworthy people. Over the next several chapters Sjogren et al. address four methods to address these four kinds of needs: � Active Kindness (Servant Evangelism) - meets physical needs of people, showing them God's love in a practical way. Evangelists working at this stage need to avoid an instrumentalist approach: I'll love you if you respond to my love. Rather, true servant evangelism is done "with no strings attached;" it's offered freely. Does Servant Evangelism "work?" We pragmatic Americans always want to know if something works; too often we decide whether something is true, good, or to be done solely on the basis of whether it works. Sjogren's Cincinnati church provides strong evidence that Servant Evangelism is a factor in reaching people for Jesus. He says, however, that it doesn't work quickly. A church needs to keep at it at least a year before assessing effectiveness. He has three further suggestions for using it in the church: (1) Keep it simple so more people can participate; (2) Do it regularly - treat it as an ordinary part of the Christian life; (3) Be friendly - count the relational aspects as essential to the process. � Active Friendship - Learning to pay attention to people and engage with them; the varieties of Friendship evangelism come in here. Take time to get into their lives and discover what matters to them. If you find that they're sinners - with sinful desires and motivations - don't reject them. Seek to understand them and love them where they're at. Let friendship - loving them as Jesus would - be your main agenda item. � Active Wondering - Creatively looking at the message of Jesus and connecting it with people's lives. Apologetics fits in here, and can be mistakenly standardized in a one-size-fits-all approach. The key method they advise in this part of the process is asking open-ended questions (they provide 99 sample questions) probing their understanding of life in a non-threatening, non-judgmental way. � Active Sharing - Helping people discover the "how to" of becoming a follower of Jesus; an essential part of evangelism, but too often the only focus of training in evangelism. In their chapter on this part of the process, they look at how the sharing process works in different kinds of relationships. The final chapter of their book, "An Arsonist's Guide to Evangelism," presents 5 "fuelish" ways to "ignite ordinary church members with a passion for introducing their family, friends, neighbors, and complete strangers into life-changing relationships with Jesus Christ." These five "fuels" include: Kindness, Fun, Generosity, Humility, and Prayer & Worship. At the same time we need to remove the "asbestos" items from the church: Fear, the idea that evangelism is something only for the experts, apathy and self-centeredness. If you're looking for help in developing a well-balanced approach to evangelism in your church, this book would be worth considering. Summary:

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	OSPF and IS-IS : Choosing an IGP for Large-Scale Networks Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional Authors: Jeff Doyle
ISBN: 0321168798 List Price: $54.99 Amazon Price: $34.64 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: Reviews: Summary:

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Linux in a Nutshell (Linux in a Nutshell)

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Authors: Ellen Siever Aaron Weber Stephen Figgins Robert Love Arnold Robbins

ISBN: 0596009305
List Price: $44.95
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Summary: VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE
Do you need quick access to information on a wide range of tools? Well, you're in luck! Authors Ellen Siever, Aaron Weber, Stephen Figgins, Robert Love and Arnold Robbins, have done an outstanding job of writing the fifth edition of a book about Linux. This is a freely available clone of the Unix operating system whose uses range from embedded systems and PDAs to corporate servers, web servers, and massive clusters that perform some of the world's most difficult computations.

Siever, Weber, Figgins, Love and Robbins begin by explaining Linux's strengths and the key aspects of working with Linux, and lay out the scope of this book. Next, the authors introduce TCP/IP networking and the Linux commands used for system administration and network management. Then, they present a reference listing of hundreds of the most important shell commands available on Linux. The authors continue by covering the commands used to control booting on Linux and dual-booting, particularly LILO, GRUB, and initrd. In addition, the authors next explain the apt series of commands that manage updating and installation on Debian, and the RPM system used by Red Hat/Fedora, Novell/SUSE, and several other distributions of Linux. They also document the default command-line interpreter on Linux, Bash, and another popular interpreter, ksh. Next, the authors introduce regular expressions and explain how different tools interpret these powerful tools for searching and text processing. Then, they provide reference information on Emacs, a text editor and full-featured development environment. The authors continue by describing the classic vi editor that is the most popular text-manipulation tool on Linux. In addition, the authors then describe the Stream editor that is useful for processing files in standardized ways. They also document another valuable tool for processing text files, the GNU version of awk that is the default on Linux systems. Next, the authors provide the background for understanding CVS and Subversion, which are valuable tools for tracking changes to files and projects. Then, they provide a description of a popular source code management and version-control tool. Finally, they describe what is generally considered the next generation of CVS.

With the preceding in mind, the authors have also done an excellent job of writing a quick reference guide for the basic commands and features of the Linux operating system. So, at the end of the day, with this book, you'll know what you want to do and how to do it with the correct command or option!

Summary: An excellent refresh of a classic Linux text.
Linux in a Nutshell, now in it's fifth edition, is one of the classic works of Linux documentation. Much has changed with Linux in the two years since the fourth edition was published, and Linux in a Nutshell reflects those changes with several major changes to the book, while keeping the parts that worked from previous editions.

What's new?

Linux in an Nutshell has grown since the early days of the first edition, not the least of which is the number of pages the book comprises of (924 pages). Linux in an Nutshell reflects the constantly evolving and morphing changes that comprise the Linux distributions of today. Both GNOME and KDE are radically different from their 2003 versions, so the authors wisely decided to remove those chapters from this edition. They also removed the chapter dealing with FVWM. (I've never understood why GUIs are documented in a Linux book anyways, as the GUI is the component most succeptible to change.) TCSH is no longer covered in this edition, favoring expanded coverage of both bash and ksh. Reflecting the changing needs of revision control in the Linux community, the authors also decided to drop the chapter on RCS in favor of a new chapter on Subversion. Not all changes involve deletions, though. The chapter for package management now includes yum and up2date (both methods for keeping a Linux machine updated from a remote repository), as well as updates for the newer versions of RPM and apt. Many of the commands have also been updated to reflect new functionality (one useful command I found as a result of this book is diff3, which compares three different files at the same time), while others have been removed because they're not generally useful (imake, anyone? :) ).

What's good?

Linux in a Nutshell is quite simply an excellent reference for useful commands in Linux. The layout makes it easy to find a command in a hurry. The command descriptions are informative, and the command line options are well balanced to provide just the right amount of information without overloading the reader with useless functionality. The specialized chapters for vi, Emacs, sed, awk, bash/ksh, CVS and Subversion go into more depth than the other commands, and give an excellent insight into the methods, capabilities, and pitfalls of each of these commands.

What's the verdict?

If you're currently using an older edition of Linux in a Nutshell, it's time to upgrade. Linux in a Nutshell remains true to the original spirit of the Nutshell series, while expanding to reflect the realities of the current Linux distributions. Beginners and experts alike will find this book informative, useful, and well-thumbed. It's a difficult task to take Linux and distill it into under a thousand pages, but the authors have once again risen to the task to make a reference that everyone will enjoy using.

Summary: Linux in a Nutshell --- A must keep for Linux Professional and newbies
One week ago i got this book Linux in a Nutshell. I started reading it night after finishing my dinner. i was greatly impressed by the author approach at the matter covered. its a great reference book
for all linux professional and for beginers too . The way author
has explained complicated Unix commands and terms its a great help
for newbies.
While working i too forgot some linux commands especially while
working over sed awk and emacs but know i can turn on some pages
and get back to my machine without wasting time on google.
I do recommend all linux professionals to include this book
in their library

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