Business As a Vocation: The Autobiography of Wu Ho-su (Harvard East Asian Legal Studies)

Book Description

Wu Ho-Su (1919-1986) pioneered business ventures ranging from cloth and synthetic fiber industries to department stores and life insurance. This son of a crippled former coolie began as a laborer for a Japanese cloth-importing company in the 1930s, but eventually became a manager and then an independent entrepreneur. Overcoming business obstacles in Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist-ruled Taiwan after 1945, Mr. Wu painstakingly built Shinkong into Taiwan's sixth-largest business enterprise by the 1980s. This account of Wu Ho-Su's life, developed by Mr. Wu working directly with Dr. Huang Chin-shingm of the Academia Sinica, one of Taiwan's most distinguished historians, is instructive for the lessons it offers about both business practices in East Asia and their interplay with Confucian values. The book recounts with graphic examples the changing role of family and other networks in Taiwan's economic "miracle" and in the region more generally. The blend that Mr. Wu evidenced of business acumen and concern for Confucianism, in turn, raises broader questions of the type that scholars and businesspeople have strenuously debated since the time of Max Weber about the compatibility of Confucian norms and modern business practices.

Customer Reviews:

The American dream, Chinese-style.......2006-02-07

This extraordinary tale of success of a low-born man, honestly and against all obstacles, to me reflects how we understand the modern United States to have been created. Mr. Wu built his business on straight-dealing and hard work. His story might be rare, but its the example that we'd all like to follow. In particular, the way in which he adapted Western business practices to the local culture should be read by every entrepeneur looking for ethical profit. The first person narrative reveals the humility and humour of a truly great man.

Book Description

Charles Radbourn won 59 games in 1884, enjoying a season that was, like his life off the field, the stuff of legend. Though he would never again approach that number, still in 11 years he racked up over 300 wins and 4500 innings, mind-blowing numbers that lend his career the air of legend. And yet the facts of his playing seem more credible than the stories of his lifestyle, which included alcohol abuse, womanizing, wild brawling, and, late, the ravages of syphilis. Even his plaque at Cooperstown presents us with an image at least part caricature—cap set forward, mouth open, mustache pricked up at the ends, thick as his nose is long, nearly. Not Charles, but Ol' Hoss.

This is the account of one writer's attempt to discover Old Hoss Radbourn, as we must, after the fact. It is May 1941, and John Trapp is bound for Bloomington, Illinois, to cover for the Chicago Tribune ceremonies honoring the living Clark Griffith and the late Radbourn. On the train, Trapp meets Griffith, who piques his interest in the great pitcher. Trapp pieces together the outrageous story of the 1884 campaign, and eventually crafts the first biography to anchor the details of the Hall of Famer's life in fact.

Customer Reviews:

Not Fact but Very fun to Imagine.......2003-08-16

The legend of Old Hoss Radbourn continues to grow with this book. While little is known of Old Hoss, this book brings to life what he may have been like. It's total speculation but is based upon some fact. If we all like to believe that baseball started in Cooperstown and that the Babe really called his shot, then maybe we'll like to believe that this is an accurate portrayal of Old Hoss. For anyone interested in the life and times of Charles Radbourn this is obviously a must read even though it's mainly speculation. However, this is also a fine peice of literature. It is written more in the style of a novel than of a biography and is just a fun read. Anyone who is into baseball history would surely find this an interesting read.

Book Description

From the ancient Greek symposia to Gertrude Stein's famous Paris gatherings, salons have always been the incubators of provocative-at times even dangerous-ideas: the frontiers of cultural change. People who might elsewhere have been socially ostracized were included in salons, welcomed for their wit, intelligence, charm, and insight. And passionate conversation often led to passionate action.

In 1991 Utne Reader launched a salon renaissance all over North America when it featured a cover story on salons. The response to the article was staggering, leading Utne to organize a National Salon Association that quickly drew over 20,000 members. Conceived and written by the folks at Utne, Salons is the quintessential authority on the subject, demonstrating that joining or starting your own salon is just a living room away.

Salons offers a fascinating history of the salon and supplies all the tools readers need to join or start a group of their own. Variations on the salon theme are explored, from studious book clubs and book circles to creativity salons, and finally online saloning. A closing chapter looks at salons as bedrocks for activism and institutions for keeping social consciousness alive for the long-haul.

Marketing:

?â€¢ Utne Reader will heavily promote Salons in their magazine and website
?â€¢ National print advertising
?â€¢ National publicity
?â€¢ Author events in Minnesota
?â€¢ Co-op available

Jaida n'ha Sandra is a long-time salon-keeper and on staff for two years with Utne Reader. She now teaches Anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. Jon Spayde is a Contributing Editor at Utne Reader and a freelance writer. He developed art-based salons in San Francisco and Minneapolis. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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Customer Reviews:

How to Start Your Own Salon.......2002-07-23

Conversation seems to be a lost art in today's day and age. The salon was born in Europe as a place for writers, artists, politicians, scientists, and lay people to come togethter for discussion. In France, they were known as bureaux d'esprit (offices of wit). In Britain, they were called "penny universities". The salon was the springboard for the French revolution, the encyclopedia, and the Academie. Many famous people such as Oscar Wilde and Napoleon's brother have been members of salons. Salons have been held at old lady's bedsides, in people's homes, in cafes, and in coffee houses all over
Europe and the United States.

This book is a a great "how to" book for anyone interested in starting their own salon. It gives advice on what to do and not to do when starting a salon. It tells how to solicit membership, how to pick topics, and how to keep the ball rolling during conversation. This book is indespensible for anyone wanting to learn more about salons. Most other books just give dry biographical information on the leaders of the salons without giving any details of the actual conversation. This book, however, is well-written and very informative. Now, if only I could get up the nerve to start one!

Average customer rating:
The Joy of Conversation: The Complete Guide to Salons
Jaida Nha Sandra
Manufacturer: Lens Publishing Company, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Relationships | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0965381609

Book Description

Get into the heart of the new movement rediscovering the lost art of conversation. Salons are lively gatherings where people engage in "big talk" -- talk that amuses, challenges, amazes, and is sometimes passionately acted upon. The Joy of Conversation tells you all you need to know about joining salons, organizing them, and energizing them. Also, it provides a fascinating background on great salons in history. This groundbreaking book will inspire you to rediscover the art of conversation in your life.

The Joy of Conversation. The Complete Guide to Salons

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The Joy of Conversation. The Complete Guide to Salons
Jaida N'Ha & the Editors of Utne Reader Sandra
Manufacturer: Utne Reader Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NUUSPY

Customer Reviews:

Need something different, something fun!!!.......2003-11-17

Tired of thinking inside the box? Do you have a need the shake things up a little? Need a good old fashioned laugh? Well this little book of mind benders will do it for you.

If your one of those 1+1=2 people and need a little diversion that will take you into the creative side of your brain this is it. It's fun and makes you think in other directions other than black and white.

I admit I bought this on a whim at the 'Discovery' store. It was at the check out counter beckoning me to pick it up knowing very well I would buy it. I'm such a sucker for checkout counter marketing.

Book Description

Play supergames for the super-smart. These mind-blowing, brain-bending puzzles use a deviously tricky mix of geometry and combinatronics (the different ways objects can be arranged), and emphasize structure, pattern, and color. Everything’s visual and as enticing to the eye as to the wits. Try to solve the Impossible Domino Bridge Problem: at first glance, the top-heavy structure looks as if it would just tumble. But give it some thought and you’ll realize that not only can it be built but that you can build it yourself. Take the Ingenious Tangram Challenge; put together a Stars Puzzle; and Draw, Halve, and Quarter all the rooms in a house into equal-size spaces. There’s illuminating background information on the puzzles’ origins, too.

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MIND-BENDING LATERAL THINKING PUZZLES
Unknown
Manufacturer: LAGOON
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S6LOGK

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MIND-BENDING LATERAL THINKING PUZZLES
S MELHUISH N HOARE
Manufacturer: LAGOON BOOKS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S8FUJK

Mind-Bending Lateral Thinking Puzzles (Mind-Bending Lateral Thinking Puzzles by Des Machale)

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Mind-Bending Lateral Thinking Puzzles (Mind-Bending Lateral Thinking Puzzles by Des Machale)
Des MacHale
Manufacturer: Lagoon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1899712232

Average customer rating:

Mind Bending Lateral Thinking Puzzles
Nick (edited by) Hoare
Manufacturer: Lagoon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000R4NL6E

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Source of Information.......2005-10-14

As a relative amature in the subject of computer viruses, this book was very helpful. With a little background in basic computing, you can easily understand this book. The book starts off simple virus from back in the day, describing the first viruses to appear. The book then goes into detail about the more advanced forms of virus infections and viruses to appear on more modern systems. After reading the book, i came away with a new respect for the art of self replicating code (aka Virus), and the techniques that virus researchers use to develop software to protect your PC from these threats.

A Must-Read on Computer Virus .......2005-08-12

I was wondering in the bookshop trying to find some in-depth books on Computer Virus and Network Security and suddenly I came across this book. In a few pages the book lit up my eyes and the author successfully attracted my attention and I was simply amazed by his solid background and rich knowledge and also his effort in presenting all the materials in an orderly and logical way that has successfully flatten the learning curve for people fresh to the area.
Well, some people may complain that this is a disappointing book in that it hasn't gone far enough to illustrate the necessary virus writing skills and they believe only in this way can one speciallized in virus defense benefit most. Again, this is not the truth as far as I see. If one simply want to write virus by following existing codes he can only gain a narrow horizon by focusing upon one or two popular virus. But as the old idiom goes, you will miss the forest by seeing a tree only. New virus are produced by those high-intelligent poeple everyday and promises to continue to come in the forseeable future. New technologies too, emerge and then disapper with the patch or hot fixes. But as long as you have a comprehensive knowledge of the basic of virus research and defense you will never lose in this battle against virus. I think the author has trying to model his book to be some thing beyond the mere technology collection but to present to us how one might equip himself with the fundamental knowledge of the virus's history, main ideas, or even try to give definition in some places. So this is why the author names his creation to be "Virus research & defense" instead of "virus writing & defense". And as far as I see, his attempt has been a huge success.
And what's more, even for people who are crazy about writing virus this book is not such a disappointment. It incorporate many code snippet into the book and these code has actually reveal the dark side of the virus and one smart enough and with some knowledge in coding will be able to rebuild the complete viruses. Those who complain about the lack of virus writing skills might better try to figure out the reason in themselves. Anyway, there are a lot of sample virus within your easy reach on the internet. So why take the trouble to reproduce it here?
And finally I would like to show my thanks for the great effort Peter has spent on this book. For me this book has brought to me great pleasures and it has helped to orgnize my knowledge about computer virus in a more systematical manner. For those either new to the area or those professionals this is a must read and you shouldn't miss it.

Well written book about analyzing malicious software.........2005-08-10

If you are interested in historical details about viruses/malware, if you are searching for details about various techniques getting used by malicious software and if you are interested how people in the AV industry work... This book is definatly THE reference. Peter, a very competent virus researcher, who is known through his various articles in the Virus Bulletin magazine shows you all the techniques you need to analyse, to detect and to remove malicious software. His technical overview includes the entire history of computer viruses and is written in a very impressive and entertaining style. While I have read many books and articles about exploiting software, he also serves the most understandable definition of exploiting techniques like the classical stack overflow etc. I must say that his style impressed me so much that I read through the book in one day, something normally happening to me when reading thrillers of James Patterson. But this book is so well written, that you can rarely lay it out of your hands. You just want to know where Peter leds to, the next step in the voyage through the malicious world of computer viruses and malware. This book is geared through everybody trying to understanding what's happening in the malicious code polluting the Internet. For me well worth the money I spent on it.

Disappointing.......2005-08-06

The book is very disappointing in that the author does not show explicitly how to create and code viruses. The author explains in the preface that he does not include such code because of its obvious dangers. This reviewer believes however that the more understanding we have of viruses the better we can deal with their threats. We need to understand just what is possible, and this can only be done by creating viruses that may or may not be hazardous to computer systems. The more viruses that we create and then study the more we can guard against their infection. This goes for computer viruses as well as biological ones. Yes, there are dangers involved in doing this, but these dangers are nullified by the tools and artificial immune systems that we create in the process of studying viruses.

The book of course is not without its merits, one of these being the discussion of the history of computer viruses, which the author includes in the first chapter of the book. The designation "computer virus" was done in 1984, at which time a formal mathematical model was created for computer viruses. The author defines a computer virus as being a program that can recursively and explicitly copy a possibly evolved version of itself. This definition he says covers the notion of a `companion virus', which does not necessarily modify the code of other programs.

The author is also very thorough in his treatment of the different viruses and their association with specific computer platforms. In addition, he gives a detailed treatment of how to analyze a computer virus using disassemblers, debuggers, emulators, virtual machines, virus test networks, and unpackers, along with various other tools. Readers will definitely benefit from knowledge of assembly code.

For non-experts in virus research (such as this reviewer) but who have a strong mathematical background, a natural question to ask is whether one could develop a highly sophisticated computer immune system that would be able to detect any kind of computer virus within a reasonable time scale. The author believes that this cannot be accomplished, quoting a result by the mathematician Frederick Cohen (the inventor of the term "computer virus") indicating that such an immune system is not possible. The Cohen proof is not included in the book unfortunately, but a perusal of the literature will reveal that the proof is based, as expected, on the theory of computability and Turing machines. What Cohen showed was that the detection of generic computer viruses is undecidable by showing that if such a procedure existed, it would solve the halting problem for Turing machines.

Given the Cohen result, it is appropriate to ask whether viruses can come in such a wide variety as to make their detection and annihilation unique to the actual virus. In addition, it would appear that after a reasonable amount of time, it would become more difficult for virus writers to come up with `exotic' viruses that elude detection. Have most of the effective or interesting viruses already been invented, and therefore countered, by anti-virus programs? When reading this book one gets the impression that this is the case. However, the author shows that such a judgment would be premature, and he spends a fair amount of time in the book discussing possible future developments in computer viruses, particularly in distributed environments.

Even if virus writers are exhausting the possibilities for effective viruses, they can still find ways of evading the detection programs, using encryption for example. The author discusses several different approaches to the encryption of viruses, all of these having varying degrees of success, depending of course on the resources and knowledge base of the virus analyst. An interesting topic discussed in this connection is the origin of `oligomorphic' viruses, which change their decryptors in new generations. The `polymorphic' viruses, which are the next stage in complexity, are also discussed in this context, these allowing the mutation of their decryptors in possibly millions of different forms. When a virus is able to create new generations of itself that look different, it is called a 'metamorphic' virus. The author gives examples of these, how thay are detected, and the possibility of using them to construct a virus generator able to create new virus mutations on the fly without any human intervention. One of the metamorphic viruses, named W95/Zmist, is described by the author as being one the most complex binary viruses ever created. For that reason it is discussed in detail in the book. This discussion is fascinating reading, and one would have hoped that the source code was supplied in the book in order to allow responsible and curious individuals to create the W95/Zmist virus and study its behavior in real systems under controlled laboratory conditions.

The author does not distinguish between computer worms and viruses, except to say that the former are sometimes distinguished from the latter in the way they infect networks. A worm does not usually need to infect files but can propagate as a standalone program. However, the author gives examples of worms that do propagate by the infection of files. Illicit information gathering is the purpose of most worms, and the author discusses several different techniques that worms use to obtain this information. Particularly interesting to read about are the different techniques that computer worms are used to propagate themselves. One of these involves instant messaging, which because of its popularity will certainly be one that is given more attention by future attackers.

Virus writers will become more creative in the future, and their efforts will no doubt be discussed in future editions of this book. But it is the more subtle approaches that remain undiscovered that are the most devastating to both individuals and businesses. One gets the impression when reading this book that most of the viruses are created by pranksters who gain emotional reinforcement by the success of the exploits. The antivirus defense techniques work in the latter but not the former.

definitive text on antivirus methods.......2005-07-12

Szor's book appears to be the current definitive text on antivirus methods. The breadth of coverage of methods is good. So too is the level of detail.

The book makes you appreciate how hard the task is of finding these darned viruses. In general, you are trying to discern malware intent in an arbitrary file. Where this file is often binary. But, as Szor is careful to explain, there can certainly be source code viruses as well. These could be in Postscript, PDF or scripting files. He also points out that the Microsoft Office data files are really binary programs, that run under the Microsoft Office applications.

The book shows the considerable level of ingenuity on both sides of this struggle. As in how antivirus companies like Symantec often run a suspected virus in an emulator, stepping through the code. But in response, some viruses try to detect if they are being run inside an emulator. How they do this is very crafty and simple. (Shades of the "Matrix"!) It is examples of tactics like this that give the book its worth.

Business Wire : Symantec Press Publishes The Art of Computer Virus Research and Defense''; Behind-the-Scene Look At How Antivirus Research Is ConductedTo Develop Security.

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Business Wire : Symantec Press Publishes The Art of Computer Virus Research and Defense''; Behind-the-Scene Look At How Antivirus Research Is ConductedTo Develop Security.

Manufacturer: Business Wire
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Word count: 644.

Art of Computer Virus Research & Defense

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Art of Computer Virus Research & Defense
Peter Szor
Manufacturer: ADDISON-WESLEY @
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N6B84S

The Art of Computer Virus Research and Defense

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The Art of Computer Virus Research and Defense
Peter Szor
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OU9UE8

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