Your Complete Guide to Foreclosure Profits: How to Buy and Sell Foreclosure Real Estate

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Your Complete Guide to Foreclosure Profits: How to Buy and Sell Foreclosure Real Estate
Ted Thomas
Manufacturer: New Growth Financial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Public Finance | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Investments | Real Estate | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0962370134

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Adventures and short stories starring Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, and other standard Disney characters.

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Some great moments, but better as a DVD/CD collection

Funny, I roared with laughter all the way through this book

Funny, nostalgic, but not really "complete"

I'm still waiting for Cook to live up to the hype

Genius

Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Complete Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Cooking | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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Beyond the Fringe

What's Left: Best of

Ad Nauseam

Come Again

Beyond The Fringe (1961 Original London Cast)

ASIN: 031231891X

Book Description

To his many friends as well as his legion of fans, Peter Cook was quite simply the funniest man ever. His unique gifts and the way he led the transformation of British comedy (from music hall to perverse absurdity) and his clear comic influence on Monty Python's Flying Circus and every show since, has been much written about. But never before has there been a collection of Cook's own writings.

Tragically, I Was an Only Twin gathers the treasures of Cook's comic career, from school and university via Beyond the Fringe alongside Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore, to his sureal, satirical journalism for Private Eye. It includes his monologues, the cream of his irreverent essays, and highlights from his much celebrated partnerships with Dudley Moore as Pete & Dud and Derek & Clive. Illustrated with his own drawings, this is the first, the only, and certainly the definitive collection of the transformative genius of comedy that was Peter Cook.

Customer Reviews:

Some great moments, but better as a DVD/CD collection.......2007-03-21

I suppose this book is a bit like Peter Cook - ultimately it promised so much more than it delivered. For a start, why call it `complete' when overtly it's a selection? A good, representative selection, sure, but not even an attempt at being complete. Secondly, in an important sense it's ill-conceived. Much of Cook's comedic effect was based on his delivery: a set of audio recordings would be a big improvement; a video collection is really what makes sense. The scripts are funny, occasionally hilarious - but they're only a poor reflection of why Cook was so popular. It's not like, say, Sophocles, where we're left with fragments and can only imagine the whole: many of Cook's performances were for the camera. Why limit yourself to transcriptions? Why? Maybe because like me you had access to the book but not the films, shows and albums. But if I was deliberately seeking out Cook material, I'd start by looking for what was available on DVD.

This is not a biography, but there are brief biographical introductions to various phases of Cook's output. His life is less than inspiring but, something like a car accident, it's hard to look away. (Some of my musings here will be coloured by having seen a bioflick of his life more recently than having read the book. Rather than interspersing events in his life with footage of actual performances, the film used doppelganger actors to carefully copy `Pete `n Dud'. The film did more effectively convey his prototypical public school/Oxford uni stream of consciousness surreal pants-wettingly funny verbosity. It included the nice line something like, "Whereas other people breathe, Peter talks," and it seems that in Oxford days Cook's mind raced in barely controllable flights of fantasy and wit). The biographical snippets are helpful and interesting - if somewhat apologetic: the author seems keenly aware of the huge drop in quantity and (generally) quality of his work. The myth of Cook has him plummet from being a Mozart of comedy, effortlessly improvising lines that seasoned professional writers could only dream of - to being a dull, lazy, acerbic git who sat at home watching a lot of bad TV. Along the way his wit morphed from enchanting and ebullient through bitter and superlatively offensive to obscurely introspective.

Sure Cook deserves his trailblazer status - Monty Python (is Eric the half-a-bee some sort of tribute?), Steven Fry, Rowan Atkinson, a host of comedians have knelt at his robe - and he delivered following generations from the restrictions of formula music hall traditions (Spike Milligan aside). However after the most incandescent beginnings Cook's riches to rags experience seems to have taken a heavy toll. To his credit he didn't tart himself around endlessly replaying the couple of big hits from his glory days, but the muse seems to have largely flown. Later he has brilliant moments, but they are too few and far between to be called a career: his 1968 article about getting punched at a football game, for example, is a conscious attempt to amuse that fails - whereas I suspect in his Oxford days he couldn't have helped being funny if given a random topic with half the comic potential. Some would say that the pairing with Dudley Moore was inspired, and doubtless they chimed at times, but I'm not so sure that it took Cook to a better professional place. Still, maybe it wouldn't have mattered who he was or wasn't partnered with.

Enough of this ill-informed psychological analysis, I was talking about the book, wasn't I. In print, for me some of the El Wisty monologues worked best - one of the few places I found myself regularly laughing out loud (although I still would rather have heard them). Several articles were originally for print anyway, such as the eccentrically lurid tales of `The Seductive Brethren'. I suppose it's also helpful to know I'm not missing out on some vast treasure trove of comic gold - I've got a good impression of what is available in the surprisingly small Cook archive, most of which would be better viewed than read.

Funny, I roared with laughter all the way through this book.......2005-04-22

Sad to see sort of so-so appraisals of Cook's work. In film he was often a genius too, I think of "The Wrong Box" (where, in fact, it's Peter Sellers that comes off a bit lame) or his brilliant portrayal of the psychotic British PM in "Whoops, Apocalypse!" I remember him explaining to his cabinet--deadpan-- that British industry is suffering because of sabotage by pixies. (Michael Moore should have watched that film before directing Canadian Bacon, he might have learned a few things like political satire sometimes needs to be existential to ring true, it shouldn't always be just witch hunting). Anyway, that role alone should have made Cook's reputation. I can't imagine how anyone could not have found him funny in "Bedazzled" as his was the ultimate portrayal of the banality of evil--Satan being "bad" by scratching up people's record albums.

Cook, unfortunately for us, not him, was one of the all-time great practitioners of the art of silliness and the absurd. That sort of stuff requires something special of an audience, a willingness to not try to "find meaning" in humor. We're a literal society these days, we take ourselves a tad too seriously, our humor is a bit self conscious and often it's just cruelty or mockery--the lowest forms. (A friend once commented on how funny her friends were and I told her no, all they did was ridicule and tear each other down. She thought about that and replied "Wow, you're right") Steve Oedekerk, creator of the wonderfully funny film "Kung Pow" complained how he had to seemingly justify everything he was doing in the film. Much of it was just pure wackiness, you simply can't explain or justify it. If you need the reasons why you can't explain it explained to you then you're lost, you'll never understand. It's a higher level of understanding and you'll need to go study with Buddhists or something. They know all the good jokes anyway.

I just watched a great WC Fields flick, "International House." Someone asks Fields where he's going to sleep and he replies "On my left side, with my mouth open...wide open." The day people stop laughing at joyous absurdities like that (Most these days would seek a double-entendre or something equally dumb in that)is the day I pack up and move to Tibet.

This is a wonderful book and it's sitting here remaindered for $5.98 in a few cases. Cook's writing reminds me of Robert Benchley's--he was another gentle absurdist who, fifty years ago, was a household name and a familiar face in the cinema. That's back when non-linear weirdness could be found in Bugs Bunny cartoons and for a while even in the funny papers with Krazy Kat. Many of the best writers of his generation considered him to be the funniest man alive too and he may well have been. All his books are out of print except for a small collection. This is also sad beyond reckoning.

Honestly I don't see the shift in humor to be simply a matter of taste or trends. Not "getting" Peter Cook means dropping humor down a fair number of notches to the general level of the Scary Movie series, lets say, and that's mostly unsophisticated toilet stuff you could diagram on a blackboard.

When a whole civilization finally dumbs down bigtime nobody ever really notices or cares much. That's actually how it happens, people stop caring. In about 50 years museums will be discarding things like abstract expressionist art because everyone, no exceptions, then will think" my kid could do that." They'll no longer be able to discern the vast gulf that exists between kid scribblings and de Kooning. To primitives high levels of complexity and organization are just "noise." Everyone will find it irrelevant, boring, or laughable, and that's happening all around you with your culture right now. Much art only survives because it has an astronomical assigned dollar value. In the future you won't be able to find a Peter Cook book to save your life.

Funny, nostalgic, but not really "complete".......2005-02-13

It is typical of Peter Cook that he should be simultaneously neglected and overrated. Most people, even in Britain, probably remember little or nothing of him - but those who do form the most idolatrous of fan-clubs. The Stephen Fry quote on this book's cover, "The funniest man who ever drew breath" is a typical example. Cook's tragedy was that his humour was most effective by far in a roomful of people; slightly diluted on the stage, it lost something more on TV, and I could not help but notice that I ploughed my way through this 400-page book with frequent smiles but only an occasional laugh. His attempts to break into films were actually embarrassing, as a viewing of the original "Bedazzled" will confirm.

As William Cook points out in his perceptive Introduction, "Cook was a miniaturist. His speciality was a conversation of only several minutes duration. His quick-fire creativity didn't lend itself to longer, more structured genres". Consequently, his best work was done in cooperation with others. For instance, although Cook wrote about two-thirds of the script for "Beyond the Fringe", the result would not have been nearly as entertaining without the contributions of Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore. Like a powerful spirit, Cook's wit was potent - but perhaps best when diluted even slightly.

This book is a fine collection of Cook's work, together with a good deal of information about his life. It is, however, far from "complete", although approaching this goal more closely in the later years when Cook's output was much reduced. It makes a great companion to Harry Thompson's biography of the great man.

I'm still waiting for Cook to live up to the hype.......2004-09-13

Clive James said: "In an hour of casual talk he spilled out enough wit and perception---in him the two things were uncommonly near allied---to keep anybody else going for a whole television series. That was the cruel fact which so few of his obituarists, even at their most laudatory, could bring themselves to face: he wasn't just a genius, he had the genius's impatience with the whole idea of doing something *again*. He reinvented an art form, exhausted its possibilities, and just left it."

After all the pious testimony about Cook's genius, I was hoping this book would convince me of it. It didn't. Most of Cook's newspaper writings are submediocre. And the intermittent brilliance of his interview improvisations is just that---intermittent. William Cook's essay is a masterpiece. It's just a shame that Peter Cook was a lazy wastrel who failed to live up to his potential.

Genius.......2004-07-14

Peter Cook is beyond description, so genius will have to do. This book, while imperfect and incomplete, is the best argument yet for his canonization. Buy it, read it again and again. My only beef (and it's a small one) is there no Bedazzled script.

The Complete Peter Cook (Tragically I was an Only Twin)

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The Complete Peter Cook (Tragically I was an Only Twin)
William Cook , and Peter Cook
Manufacturer: Century
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000PCGRZ0

Product Description

"Tragically I was an Only Twin" is a selection of British humorist Peter Cook's comic career, from "Beyond the Fringe," the satirical magazine "Private Eye," his routines with Dudley Moore, and later material. Much of it is very hard to find in the UK, where the book was published, let alone in the US. 350 pages.

TRAGICALLY I WAS AN ONLY TWIN, THE COMPLETE PETER COOK

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TRAGICALLY I WAS AN ONLY TWIN, THE COMPLETE PETER COOK
WILLIAM COOK
Manufacturer: ARROW
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000SE0QKC

Book Description

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Getting It All Together (Wee Pals)

Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HB0DQI

Product Description

From the cover of the book: "It's an Integrated Laugh Fest...more rificulous doings of those Color-ful cartoon kids..."

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Putting It All Together: Pal Video

Manufacturer: Alfred Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Customer Reviews:

I recommend the excellent movie instead.......2007-01-22

Walton spends a lot of pages arguing against the views of detractors. His own account of the abduction is brief and sounds like a Jules Verne story. He presents dialogue among his logging friends that occurred while he was away: he never explains how he would have known what they said. Whether he had a ghost writer is never mentioned, either to acknowledge that or rule it out, although it would be helpful for us to know if this logger, despite some college, just happened to write well or had the help of a professional. He seems more concerned that people doubted him than in focusing on what was apparently the fact for him that an alien contact occurred and what that means for all of us.

The movie and the book relies heavily on the polygraph claims. But a polygraph lack scientific verification, as I understand it, for lie detection. Would someone answering questions about something he may regard as a harmless fantasy have produced the kind of signs of anxiety a polygraph measures?

A fictionalized account of an actual abduction.......2005-11-09

While the account given by Travis Walton is undoubtaby accurate, the book itself shirks on actual facts of the abduction. I was shown a copy of the abducton chapters of this book during one of my own abductions aboard a ship out of Tau Ceti 5, by one of the aliens who was on the crew that abducted Travis. He told me that Travis was a real cut-up, which was fun at first but after five days the crew couldn't stand his practical jokes anymore and so returned him to Earth. It was bad enough that Travis never did master the skill necessary to use the zero-gee toilets, but the final straw was when he tried to take part in an examination AS ONE OF THE RESEARCHERS! Mzzrych, the researcher who explained all this to me, said that they had a harder time getting Travis to leave the ship than they did abducting him. Possibly Travis decided to leave the slapstick details out of this otherwise serious account, which would explain why only two chapters were devoted to the abduction.

It originally had us all going.... but its a hoax!.......2003-10-09

In its day, this book about an alien abduction experience, was something of a shocker. In a nutshell, a group of young men working as lumberjacks drive home one evening only to be stopped in their tracks by a glowing object in the sky. They get out of their vehicle, Travis Walton gets beamed up, the rest flee. Back in the town, and without Travis, they have to explain his disappearance. People start suspecting that one of them killed Travis and so a missing persons/possible homicide investigation gets underway. The men are given a polygraph test - they pass, and so they seem to be telling the truth about Travis and the UFO.

Then Travis turns up five days later and doesn't look the best. He tells a story about an alien abduction and he becomes a national celebrity. It certainly makes quite an interesting read. A 22-year-old forestry worker goes missing, six witnesses passing a lie detector test, say that he was last seen with a huge UFO, later he turns up to tell the tale. For years this encounter was heralded as one of the most important accounts ever of a UFO abduction and it certainly had me fooled too. I was a firm believer, no doubt about it, Travis Walton had indeed been abducted by aliens and had enough witnesses to prove it.

You must read this book, but please note that a lot of new information had since come to light which has debunked the entire story. I refer to the articles "Profitable Nightmare of a Very Unreal Kind" by Jeff Wells (from The Age, Melbourne, Australia, 6 January 1979), "Ground Saucer Watch" Memo on the Walton Incident and "Fire in the Sky" -- The Walton Travesty by Anson Kennedy which can be found on the internet. Basically the lie detector tests where botched and Travis even failed a number of them. The person who conducted these tests was paid to never talk about them again, but he did. When you couple this with the facts that the Walton's have a UFO history and their original statements in the missing persons case are somewhat suspect because his family said that he would "turn up" because "UFOs are good" without expressing any emotion of loss and the refusal of the family and Travis to talk to anyone who doubted their story ended up with numerous researchers/reporters/investigators simply walking away from the case. The Waltons sold their story to the National Enquirer and it is not the same as how the events actually occurred. So basically the book is good and believable until you do a little more research and find that the story has been twisted and the participants in the story did indeed fail numerous polygraph tests. So it just goes to show how a little more checking out here and there can make all the difference when drawing your conclusions.

Alien Abduction?.......2002-11-20

Along with Betty and Barney Hill's story, the Rozwell incident, and the Area 51-Bob Lazar stuff Travis Walton's intriquing experience makes for some pupil-dilating, pulse-quickening occult reading. If it's science fiction, it leaves "2001", "Star Wars", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Hangar 18" and all the rest of them in the dust. If it's not...what is it? Did Travis tap into another level of reality? Or did he expose himself to a *natural* phenomena which electrocuted him, and caused him to wander around the Arizona woods in a semi-conscious state where his dream chemistry took over his brain for awhile?
Travis uses alot of space (printed page space, that is) to try to convince us that although he has a definite history of risk-taking and has a super inquisitive mind, he does not have the fertile imagination or the inclination to cook up such a story. He dispenses plenty of sentences in a defensive stance against the criticisms of folks such as Philip Klass, the noted UFO debunker. The final chapter is a tedious counterpoint to Klass' summation of the situation as...bunk.
The most interesting is Chapter 8, "The Aliens". It is absolutely fascinating; finely written. But it is revealed that these details originated in a question and answer hypnosis session.
That transcript, along with the actual interviews with his friends who claim they all witnessed the mysterious object's effect on Travis, is also not provided, and this technique (used effectively in Fuller's "The Interrupted Journey") makes up in riveting "realism" what it loses in literary quality.
On one TV documentary about fifteen years ago Walton came across as a very down-to-earth (pause) individual who sincerely wants the world to know that *something* happened to him in '75, and he's got many witnesses to that fact. He conveyed his message briefly and convincingly. Here we have a 170-page book running at 370 pages!
By the way, the color artwork is attractive.

Disappointing.......2002-08-26

First of all the abduction in the movie is nothing like the book, what was that about. The most interesting part of the book was of course the abduction but only two short chapters are about the abduction. The rest of the book was quite boring. There was no dialog with the extraterrestrials, we didn't find out that the hell they wanted, no message, no nothing. Your better off watching the movie and reading the two short chapters in the book about the abduction. Very intersting if the story really is true but you don't find out too much in this book.

Fire in the Sky: The Walton Experience; the Best Documented Case of Alien Abduction Ever Recorded

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Fire in the Sky: The Walton Experience; the Best Documented Case of Alien Abduction Ever Recorded
Travis Walton
Manufacturer: Marlowe & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JC4R94

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Absolutely Essential!

Player Character Record Sheets (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons accessory REF2)
Harold Johnson
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0880380470

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely Essential!.......2000-04-27

That pretty much sums up this book. It contains the characterdescription sheets that you record your character's info on. You canrecord your stats, skills, spells, equipment, background and experience. The background area at the top really adds detail to your character, and can also remind you how to roleplay your character correctly... BUY IT!

Book Description

FreeBSD and OpenBSD are increasingly gaining traction in educational institutions, non-profits, and corporations worldwide because they provide significant security advantages over Linux. Although a lot can be said for the robustness, clean organization, and stability of the BSD operating systems, security is one of the main reasons system administrators use these two platforms. There are plenty of books to help you get a FreeBSD or OpenBSD system off the ground, and all of them touch on security to some extent, usually dedicating a chapter to the subject. But, as security is commonly named as the key concern for today's system administrators, a single chapter on the subject can't provide the depth of information you need to keep your systems secure. FreeBSD and OpenBSD are rife with security "building blocks" that you can put to use, and Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security shows you how. Both operating systems have kernel options and filesystem features that go well beyond traditional Unix permissions and controls. This power and flexibility is valuable, but the colossal range of possibilities need to be tackled one step at a time. This book walks you through the installation of a hardened operating system, the installation and configuration of critical services, and ongoing maintenance of your FreeBSD and OpenBSD systems. Using an application-specific approach that builds on your existing knowledge, the book provides sound technical information on FreeBSD and Open-BSD security with plenty of real-world examples to help you configure and deploy a secure system. By imparting a solid technical foundation as well as practical know-how, it enables administrators to push their server's security to the next level. Even administrators in other environments--like Linux and Solaris--can find useful paradigms to emulate. Written by security professionals with two decades of operating system experience, Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security features broad and deep explanations of how how to secure your most critical systems. Where other books on BSD systems help you achieve functionality, this book will help you more thoroughly secure your deployments.

Customer Reviews:

Lots of sound information, but not what I hoped to read.......2006-08-20

Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security (MFAOS) more or less delivers on its subtitle: "Building, securing, and maintaining BSD systems." The book is chock full of absolutely sound administration advice from three experts with plenty of operational experience. I am also thrilled whenever I find a new BSD title on bookshelves. However, I believe a second edition of this book should be radically altered to better deliver value to the reader.

Note: I am in a somewhat awkward position as I write this review, since I know one of the authors as a fellow local security professional. I've spoken at a conference he organizes and I even have all three authors' signatures on my copy of MFAOS! Still, I hope they will consider incorporating my ideas when O'Reilly asks for a second edition.

First, I think MFAOS:2E should address FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD. It's appropriate to read a book only about ONE of the BSDs, or all three of the BSDs. It's odd to cover FreeBSD and OpenBSD but not NetBSD. I think DragonFly BSD's miniscule userbase puts it on the fringe, and Mac OS X is not BSD.

Second, the authors should rigorously concentrate on covering BSD-specific administration and security issues. I do not need to read about generic security issues in Ch 1, or standard DNS/Mail/Web attacks in Chs 5/6/7. I definitely did not need YASD (Yet Another Snort Doc) in Ch 9 -- especially when ACID is explained as the console of choice. (BASE replaced ACID in Sep 04). I do not need the advice on incident response and forensics found in Ch 11. MFAOS should be a more of a BSD book and less of a security book.

Removing all of this generic material in a second edition would provide room to focus on BSD-specific material not found elsewhere. For example, Dru Lavigne's briefer, older, all-BSD book BSD Hacks gives more information on FreeBSD's Mandatory Access Controls than MFAOS -- and MFAOS is a BSD security book. I would have liked more details on building FreeBSD jails, especially with respect to creating a local package builder.

While reading MFAOS, I frequently felt the authors did not provide enough details on the subjects I felt were different from multi-platform Unix books. For example, why write five pages on Nagios in Ch 4 if that information really isn't enough to do anything useful?

It seemed the authors assumed many of their brief discussions of useful behavior was sufficient for the reader. In reality, I probably wouldn't be reading the book if I could get by on the information provided; I'd be implementing on my own. For example, the authors devote 3 1/2 pages in Ch 4 to using CVS to track changes to configuration files. While not BSD-specific, this is the sort of good practice not frequently covered elsewhere. Yet, when I hoped for more advanced discussions I see the phrase "beyond the scope of this book" on p 136.

I was disappointed that Qmail was ignored in Ch 6, even though Djbdns was addressed in Ch 5. Furthermore, when the authors repeatedly admit that Dan Berstein's software isn't well documented, they should recognize that as an opportunity! Say less on Apache, BIND, etc., and cover the lesser-known but potentially more secure alternatives.

I rate this book highly (four stars) because it's full of good advice. For example, I liked recommendations on using flags, secure levels, and similar topics in Ch 2. I liked the two-tiered Web server architecture in Ch 7, as well as comparisons of IPFW and Pf in Ch 8. You won't find me disagreeing with the authors of this book -- except when they configure Snort to log directly to a database. (Ouch -- that has been bad advice since Barnyard was released in Dec 02.)

A second edition should also keep in mind the binary upgrade and patching tools available since FreeBSD 5.x -- updating via source isn't necessary for many admins these days. Also, if they insist on demonstrating how to set up well-documented servers (DNS/Web/Mail), try picking one app and one BSD. Then thoroughly document setting up the entire system, from install to deployment. Consider providing templates, especially for automated and repeatable installations. Tie them to standards like CISecurity if possible. That would be exceptional.

I wish the authors had directed their talents toward BSD-specific quirks and less on topics covered elsewhere. This is still a solid BSD book, but I would be very glad to see MFAOS:2E take this advice to heart.

Well researched, illustrated and written.......2005-06-24

Another tight O'Reilly work. The text is tight. The illustrations are simple but effective. And the authors obviously know there stuff and have done a thorough job documenting it.

It's an easy read that will help you far more than the crummy Unix documentation. A good introduction as well as a long term resource.

Wonderful book, just missing one thing..........2005-06-12

I was really hoping to see a chapter on systrace or other advanced host-based security tools (HIPS and other kernel utils). All in all, the book is a nice addition to any security library. The basic ideas of risk management and confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA), are covered throughout the book. I would say this is a good reference to use in addition to the man pages for both operating systems.

Good read and a solid approach to security.......2005-06-09

If you are looking at implementing one of the BSD distributions of Linux and want to secure your installation this book is an excellent choice. The authors cover the basic security that applies to all Linux distributions such as filesystem security and creating a sandbox, and then follows up with security options specific to BSD. The chapters cover installation, secure administration, creating a secure DNS server, secure mail servers (including Sendmail, Postfix, and qmail), secure web server, firewalls, intrusion detection, system auditing and incident response, and some forensics. However, the forensics information provides a decent overview without being detailed enough to be very useful.

The authors do a really good job of explaining not only how to do various tasks but also the reasoning behind it and how it works to resolve specific problems. I like the fact that the authors don't do this in a piecemeal approach but provide a pathway to get to the system hardened before heading off into the specifics of harding particular services link DNS and Sendmail. They actually have a step by step procedure starting from a fresh install. This alone makes this one of the better books on hardening FreeBSD and OpenBSD. Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security is highly recommended.

Congrats on a much needed *BSD security book.......2005-05-16

O'Reilly
Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security
By Yanek Korff, Paco Hope, Bruce Potter
First Edition March 2005
ISBN: 0-596-00626-8
464 pages, $49.95 US
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mfreeopenbsd/

This book has been long awaited as the *BSD community has been lacking the number of security geared books compared to the Linux and Windows communities. I found that this book is almost the equal of "Linux Server Security", but for OpenBSD and FreeBSD. With OpenBSD being said to be one of the most secure operating systems, you would think there would be more books about the security other than the normal online documentation.
I'm glad O'Reilly finally put out this book as it covers a broad area of security within OpenBSD and FreeBSD.

This covers *BSD basics, initial install and hardening of the specific OS, security practices, running secure servers (DNS, Mail, Web), firewall, intrusion detection, system audits, incident response, and forensics. This is a broad coverage of security, but I wish on some of the specifics they would have went into detail discussing.

Some points I wish were added in detail was coverage on OpenNTPD's security and/or atleast mentioning that it is contained within OpenBSD. Another would be more coverage of Qmail on FreeBSD/OpenBSD as there really wasn't much more than a mention of Qmail and basic information. Compared to the details given to Sendmail and Postfix, Qmail info was really slacking. The last point I would like to mention that I found lacking was possibly a more in-depth guide to CARP and what it's capable of doing. The main thing dealing with CARP that I would have liked to see would be about load balancing firewalls using CARP and PFSYNC.

Other than these few minor lacking areas, I found this book to be great addition to other security books based around general Linux and BSD servers. I almost wish this book would have waited a little while longer before releasing or hope they plan an update soon as OpenBSD 3.7 is scheduled for release on May 19th and this book mainly just covers versions 3.5/3.6 for OpenBSD. Along with the new version of OpenBSD releasing, FreeBSD 5.4 was released not long after this book was published.

Even lacking the parts that it does, I enjoyed reading the sections about DJBDNS comparison to BIND with details of the specifics. On top of this, there is enough information to get anyone with general *nix knowledge going with a OpenBSD/FreeBSD firewall or secure server. By no means is this book the answer to first time OpenBSD/FreeBSD system administrators to learn the basics from, but seems to be more geared for those atleast somewhat familiar with the *BSD feel of things and aware of what's going on inside their machine. In the beginning of the book it mentions this book was written "by system administrators for system administrators". For someone just getting started with OpenBSD I'd recommend this book, but also would recommend picking up Absolute OpenBSD (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1886411999/) for more coverage of the basics. Otherwise, it will be difficult picking up on what they are saying in this book. Also, on the FreeBSD side of things I'd recommend Absolute BSD (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/1886411743/index.html) or The Complete FreeBSD (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cfreebsd/index.html). If your new to *BSD this book will help but a book to compliment it will help even more. Atleast once you learn the basics, you will get a detailed bit of information on securing your new *BSD box.

I believe the writers met their goal of creating a book to solely cover the security features of OpenBSD and FreeBSD aswell as the types of servers run on those platforms. I'm glad this book arrived and look forward to seeing if they release a 2nd edition that is updated and possibly covers the parts that seem to be missing or lacking in detail. Congrats to O'Reilly and the writers.

Lloyd Randall
Pensacola Linux User's Group

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