E-Book

Getting Started with Blogging and Google AdSense

2008-12-13T07:51:00.000-08:00

Getting Started with Blogging and Google AdSense
By Joel Comm

There's a lot to be said for Google's Adsense advertising program. There the way they match the ads to the content of your website. That gives you maximum click without annoying your users. There's the flexibility of changing the way the ads look. That makes your ads attract attention without turning your site into a bilboard.

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TOEFL Preparing students for the Computer Based Test

2008-12-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

TOEFL Preparing students for the Computer Based Test

Educational Testing Service (ETS®) is a nonprofit organization committed to the development and administration of testing programs, and the creation of advisory and instructional services. In addition to developing tests, it supplies related services; for example, it scores the tests; records, stores, and reports test results; performs validity and other statistical studies; and undertakes program research.

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL®) is designed to evaluate the English proficiency of people whose native language is not English. TOEFL scores are required for admissions purposes by more than 2,400 colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, and eighty other countries. Because the TOEFL test is independent of any curriculum or teaching method, the proficiency level of any test taker can be compared with that of any other student or group of students regardless of academic background or English training.

Since 1964, TOEFL test has been taken more than 11 million times in over 180 countries. In 1998 TOEFL began its switch to computer. Over the years, many institutions had asked ETS for additional proficiency information, including an estimate of candidates’ productive skills and ability to perform more cognitively challenging tasks. In redesigning the test for computer, the TOEFL program has taken an important first step in that direction. The test consists of four sections: Listening, Structure, Reading, and Writing. Two sections, Listening and Structure, are computer-adaptive, which means questions are tailored to examinees’ proficiency levels. Therefore, students will receive fewer questions that are too easy or too difficult in those sections and candidates’ ability can be estimated more accurately. While the Structure section features the same types of questions used in the paper-based TOEFL test, the Listening and Reading sections feature some new, innovative types of questions in addition to traditional multiple-choice questions.

The Writing section, which assesses the ability to compose a written response to an assigned essay topic, is now a required part of the test.

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Get to the Top on Google

2008-12-12T15:50:00.000-08:00

Get to the Top on Google

Tips and techniques to get your site to the top of the search engine rankings and stay there
by David Viney

Search engine optimization (or SEO for short) is the art of getting your website to the top of the search rankings. Why would you want to get to the top on Google? Well, here is my elevator pitch for why SEO (and this book) could be the best investment you ever make in your website
and your business:

Search engines are the way in which 90% of people locate the internet resources they need and Google has a 75% market share in Europe and North America. The Google brand is now rated as the most powerful in the world and, within three years, the company isexpected to be the largest advertiser (by revenue) in the world. My approach focuses on Google because it’s the most important, but includes tips on other search engines where relevant.
84% of searchers never make it past the bottom of page two of Google and 65% of people never click on paid (or “sponsored”) results. Being at the top of the nonpaid (or “organic”) search results is a make-or-break mission for the modern business in a world ever more dominated by the internet.
Around 15% of all sales in the British economy are now completed online, and price comparison service uSwitch predicts that internet sales will make up 40% of all purchases by the year 2020. The numbers are similar in all the developed countries of the word, including the United States.
In this book I share with you my seven-step approach to search engine optimization and website promotion. This proven methodology is the very same process I use with all my clients (large or small, ranging from Amazon and Microsoft to the smallest high-street store) and contains all the tips and tricks you need to achieve top rankings. The rest is down to you: your effort, vigilance, and determination.
Whether you have a new website or a long-established internet presence, there will be much in this book to challenge your thinking: not just how to promote your business but the very nature of your proposition online. The book is designed to be accessible for the beginner but comprehensive enough for the skilled marketer. You will be guided but not patronized.
Throughout the book I use a case study to illustrate the seven steps. This helps you check your understanding and more readily apply the techniques to your own business. I also throw in six months of free membership to my SEO Expert Forum, so you can ask me questions and get direct help if you are struggling.
I have set out to write the most complete and up-to-date guide to SEO on the market today. Unlike other, earlier books on the subject, this guide covers the emerging fields of Web 2.0 optimization, local search optimization, and the future of search itself (including emerging competitors to Google and alternative search models).

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Ebooks: Word-formation in English

2008-12-07T08:43:00.000-08:00

Ebooks: Word-formation in English
by Ingo Plag

What this book is about and how it can be used The existence of words is usually taken for granted by the speakers of a language. To speak and understand a language means - among many other things - knowing the words of that language. The average speaker knows thousands of words, and new words enter our minds and our language on a daily basis. This book is about words.

More specifically, it deals with the internal structure of complex words, i.e. words that are composed of more than one meaningful element. Take, for example, the very word meaningful, which could be argued to consist of two elements, meaning and -ful, or even three, mean, -ing, and -ful. We will address the question of how such words are related to other words and how the language allows speakers to create new words. For example, meaningful seems to be clearly related to colorful, but perhaps less so to awful or plentiful. And, given that meaningful may be paraphrased as ‘having (a definite) meaning’, and colorful as ‘having (bright or many different) colors’, we could ask whether it is also possible to create the word coffeeful, meaning ‘having coffee’. Under the assumption that language is a rule-governed system, it should be possible to find meaningful answers to such questions.

This area of study is traditionally referred to as word-formation and the present book is mainly concerned with word-formation in one particular language, English. As a textbook for an undergraduate readership it presupposes very little or no prior knowledge of linguistics and introduces and explains linguistic terminology and theoretical apparatus as we go along.

The purpose of the book is to enable the students to engage in (and enjoy!) their own analyses of English (or other languages’) complex words. After having worked with the book, the reader should be familiar with the necessary and most recent methodological tools to obtain relevant data (introspection, electronic text collections, various types of dictionaries, basic psycholinguistic experiments, internet resources), should be able to systematically analyze their data and to relate their findings to theoretical problems and debates. The book is not written in the perspective of a particular theoretical framework and draws on insights from various research traditions.

Word-formation in English can be used as a textbook for a course on wordformation (or the word-formation parts of morphology courses), as a source-book for teachers, for student research projects, as a book for self-study by more advanced students (e.g. for their exam preparation), and as an up-to-date reference concerning selected word-formation processes in English for a more general readership.

For each chapter there are a number of basic and more advanced exercises, which are suitable for in-class work or as students’ homework. The more advanced exercises include proper research tasks, which also give the students the opportunity to use the different methodological tools introduced in the text. Students can control their learning success by comparing their results with the answer key provided at the end of the book. The answer key features two kinds of answers. Basic exercises always receive definite answers, while for the more advanced tasks sometimes no ‘correct’ answers are given. Instead, methodological problems and possible lines of
analysis are discussed. Each chapter is also followed by a list of recommended further readings.

Those who consult the book as a general reference on English word-formation may check author, subject and affix indices and the bibliography in order to quickly find what they need. Chapter 3 introduces most recent developments in research methodology, and short descriptions of individual affixes are located in chapter 4 As every reader knows, English is spoken by hundreds of millions speakers and there exist numerous varieties of English around the world.

The variety that has been taken as a reference for this book is General American English. The reason for this choice is purely practical, it is the variety the author knows best. With regard to most of the phenomena discussed in this book, different varieties of English pattern very much alike. However, especially concerning aspects of pronunciation there are sometimes remarkable, though perhaps minor, differences observable between different varieties. Mostly for reasons of space, but also due to the lack of pertinent studies, these differences will not be discussed here. However, I hope that the book will enable the readers to adapt and relate the findings presented with reference to American English to the variety of English they are most familiar with.

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Ebooks: Reading Comprehension Succes in 20 Minutes a day

2008-12-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

Ebooks: Reading Comprehension Succes in 20 Minutes a day

This book is designed to help you improve your reading comprehension skills by studying 20 minutes a day for 20 days. You’ll start with the basics and move on to more complex reading comprehension and critical thinking strategies. Please note that although each chapter can be an effective skill builder on its own, it is important that you proceed through this book in order, from Lesson 1 through Lesson 20. Each lesson builds on skills and ideas discussed in the previous chapters. As you move through this book and your reading skills develop, the passages you read will increase both in length and in complexity.

The book begins with a pretest, which will allow you to see how well you can answer various kinds of reading comprehension questions now, as you begin. When you finish the book, take the posttest to see how much you’ve improved.

The text is divided into four sections, each focusing on a different group of related reading and thinking strategies.

These strategies will be outlined at the beginning of each section and then reviewed in a special “putting it all together” final lesson.

Each lesson provides several exercises that allow you to practice the skills you learn. To ensure you’re on the right track, each lesson also provides answers and explanations for all of the practice questions. Additionally, you will find practical suggestions in each chapter for how to continue practicing these skills in your daily life.

The most important thing you can do to improve your reading skills is to become an active reader. The following guidelines and suggestions outlined will familiarize you with active reading techniques.Use these techniques as much as possible as you work your way through the lessons in this book.

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Ebooks: NTC’s Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

2008-12-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

Ebooks: NTC’s Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

Third Edition
Richard A. Spears, Ph.D.

The third edition of this dictionary contains more than 800 new expressions.
These comprise the expressions that have appeared in the last few years including many new expressions used in everyday talk on the streets and the college campus. The “Phrase-Finder Index” has been completely revised to make finding the location of new phrasal entries in the dictionary easier. What do we expect of slang in the year 2000 and beyond? Much of the same: sex, scatology, rudeness, and clever wordplay.

This dictionary is a collection of slang and colloquial expressions in frequent use in the United States in the twentieth century. It contains expressions that are familiar to many Americans and other expressions that are used primarily within small groups of people. The entries represent the language of the underworld, the nursery, the college campus, California beaches, urban back streets, and Wall Street. We hear from prisoners, surfers, junkies, Valley Girls, blacks, weight lifters, and just plain folks. Fad words, metaphors, wordplay, and various figures of speech make up the body of the dictionary.

There is no standard test that will decide what is slang or colloquial and what is not. Expressions that are identified as slang are often some type of entertaining wordplay, and they are almost always an alternative way of saying something. Colloquial expressions are usually spoken and are often thought of as being direct, earthy, or quaint. Slang and colloquial expressions come in different forms: single words, compound words, simple phrases, idioms, and complete sentences. Slang is rarely the first choice of careful writers or speakers or anyone attempting to use language for formal, persuasive, or business purposes. Nonetheless, expressions that can be called slang or colloquial make up a major part of American communication in movies, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and informal conversation.

Localized fad words are usually thought to have a short life, but other kinds of slang expressions may spread and last for a long time.

The farther they spread, the longer they will last. If they last long enough, they may become so well known that they become standard English unavoidably. Most such slangy expressions simply join an enormous pool of similar expressions, and they are used until displaced by newer terms. At some point the old ones are put on hold until they are forgotten by everyone or revived by a new generation. Many expressions that hang around for decades will pop up again and again in novels and movies or in sporadic use in the speech of older generations.

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Ebooks: Learning Express®’s TOEFL®

2008-12-06T20:32:00.000-08:00

Ebooks: Learning Express®’s TOEFL®
[Test of English as a Foreign Language™] EXAM SUCCESS
In Only 6 Steps!

Need to take the TOEFL exam? You are not alone. Over 800,000 students take the Test of English as a Foreign Language™ each year. More than 2,000 universities and programs in the United States and Canada use the TOEFL exam to evaluate the English proficiency of applicants who are not native speakers of English. The reason for this is simple: Academic institutions want to be sure that these applicants can read, write, and comprehend spoken English so that they can succeed in the college classroom.

What This Book Is - And Isn’t

Because your score on the TOEFL exam can determine whether or not you are accepted into an academic institution or program, it is important to prepare carefully for the exam.As you have probably noticed, there are dozens of TOEFL exam preparation books available in libraries and bookstores. Most of these books provide you with practice TOEFL exams to help you become familiar with the format of the test. But taking practice TOEFL exams will do little to boost your score if what you really need is to improve your basic English skills.

That’s exactly how this book can help you. The goal of LearningExpress®’s TOEFL® Exam Success is fourfold:

To explain the format of each section of the TOEFL exam.
To offer specific test-taking strategies that you can use on the exam.
To review the basic reading, writing, and listening skills you need to do well on each section.
To provide exercises that help you build the basic skills and practice the test-taking strategies you learn in each section.

Building your English reading, writing, and listening skills is important, of course. But before addressing these specific skill sets, this book takes you through a review of basic study skills and learning strategies. It also helps you prepare a detailed study plan. The stronger your study skills, and the better you understand learning strategies, the more you will get out of each skill-building chapter.

Each skill-building chapter of this book includes several practice exercises, and detailed answers and explanations are provided in Appendix A. Appendix B offers an extensive list of resources to help you further strengthen your basic skills. Chapter 6 provides general information about the TOEFL exam, including notes about registration and scoring.

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Ebooks: TOEFL Exam Essentials

2008-12-06T20:23:00.000-08:00

Ebooks: TOEFL Exam Essentials

LearningExpress

This essential guide to the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam is perfect for studying on the go and tackling the exact kinds of questions tested on your upcoming official exam. Information is presented in an easy-tofollow, straightforward manner so you can find what you need, learn the information, and move on—it’s that simple.

Each chapter covers the essential facts and practice you need to get prepared for your exam, as well as tips on where to go to for more detailed practice and further information. Whether you need to review all parts of the TOEFL exam or just skip ahead to the sections where you need extra practice and review, TOEFL Exam Essentials has just what you need for focused, targeted practice.

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Ebooks: TOEFL Secrets

2008-12-06T19:22:00.000-08:00

Ebooks: TOEFL Secrets

Your Key to TOEFL Success

How to use this manual

We don’t want to waste your time. This manual is fast-paced and fluff-free. We suggest going through it a number of times, trying out its methods on a number of official practice tests.

First, read through the manual completely to get a feel for the content and organization. Read the general success strategies first, and then proceed to the individual test sections. Each tip has been carefully selected for its effectiveness.
Second, read through the manual again, and take notes in the margins and highlight those sections where you may have a particular weakness (we strongly suggest printing the manual out on a high-quality printer).

Third, go through at least one official practice test with the manual at your side and apply the strategies. We believe three practice tests to be the maximum benefit, the first time with all strategies except time (take as much time as you need), the second time with all strategies and time constraints, and a third time without the benefit of the open manual to refer to during the test. See the appendix for the exclusive list of practice test sources we believe to be valuable. Quick tip- there is no greater waste of time than studying practice tests written by anyone other than TOEFL.

Finally, bring the manual with you on test day and study it before the exam begins.

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Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Unleashed

2008-12-04T16:37:00.001-08:00

Ebooks: Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Unleashed

By Michael Noel

It is rare to run into that one product that impresses technical audiences in the way that ISA Server 2004 has managed to. As I prepared to write this book, what surprised me was not ISA's ability to wow and charm Microsoft-centric environments, but its ability to impress the Microsoft-skeptic crowds as well. These are the ones who have been skeptical of anything coming out of Redmond with "Security" in its titlefor good reason in many cases. So, from its release, ISA faced a seemingly insurmountable uphill battle for acceptance, which makes its success even more impressive.

I have had the luxury of working closely with several of the best technologies Microsoft has produced: Active Directory, SQL Server, SharePoint, and Exchange. It therefore takes a powerful product for me to be impressed, and ISA Server 2004 really has done that. ISA functionality is broad, with VPN, reverse proxy, firewall, content caching, and protocol filtering capabilities. Marketing slogans are one thing, but this product really does live up to its billing. I have deployed, administered, and tested ISA Server at organizations of many sizes and functions, from city governments to banks to law firms to technology firms, and have had great success with the product. The breadth and depth of functionality that ISA provides makes my job designing security for these types of environments that much easier.

This book is the result of my experience and the experiences of my colleagues at Convergent Computing in working with ISA Server 2004 Standard and Enterprise versions, in the beta stages and in deployment. I wrote this book to be topical, so that you can easily browse to a particular section and follow easy-to-understand step-by-step scenarios. In addition, if you are looking for a good overview on ISA, the book can be read in sequence to give you a good solid understanding of the higher levels of security and functionality ISA can provide.

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Ebooks: Answers to All TOEFL Essay Questions

2008-12-04T15:57:00.000-08:00

Ebooks: Answers to All TOEFL Essay Questions
by ToeflEssays.com

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Ebooks: Linux Security

2008-12-04T15:03:00.000-08:00

Ebooks: Linux Security

Ramón J. Hontañón

With the advent of the Internet revolution came the ability of hundreds of geographically dispersed software developers to collaborate on projects that would had been inconceivable just years before. It was the fall of 1991, and while the Internet hadn’t yet become the household name that it is today, a global team of talented software junkies was hard at work crafting what would become the most successful public-domain software offering of all time: the Linux operating system. Ten short years after the first 0.x release, the “Volkswagen of operating systems” enjoys an increasingly strong foothold in the workstation marketplace and stands above all other server platforms as one of the most robust, and certainly the most cost-effective, operating systems.

Ironically, the same Internet explosion that helped usher in the development of the Linux operating system is also to blame for the climate of lawlessness that has forced network administrators to re-examine their network security postures. As corporations large and small look to the Internet as a necessary way to conduct business, network managers become instant security experts, and what once was the distant threat of malicious intrusion is now the order of the day.

While there is no such thing as a secure network server, the Linux operating system was designed with a strong focus on security, and its open-source nature allows administrators, developers, and end users to constantly audit it for vulnerabilities. It’s precisely this ability to look “under the hood” that makes Linux the platform of choice in environments where security is just as important as high availability and ironclad stability.

This book concentrates on what it takes to make your Linux servers as secure as possible, and how to ensure that your servers continue to be secure, even in the face of the evermutating array of malicious threats that plague the Internet today. It contains practical, step-by-step advice on how to harden a Linux installation, starting with a “stock” distribution using freely available software tools. The tips and techniques described in this book are equally relevant to installations of one or one thousand Linux servers. The advice that you’ll find here is the result of over ten years of experience that includes Linux systems, large-scale TCP/IP network administration, security consultation, and security product development for a leading Internet service provider.

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Ebooks: English as a global language

2008-12-04T14:47:00.000-08:00

Ebooks: English as a global language

Second edition
by David Crystal

David Crystal, world authority on the English language, presents a lively and factual account of the rise of English as a global language and explores the whys and wherefores of the history, current status and future potential of English as the international language of communication. English has been lauded as the most ‘successful’ language ever, with 1,500 million speakers worldwide; but Crystal avoids taking sides and tells the story in a measured but engaging way, backed by facts and figures. This new edition of his classic book contains extra sections (on subjects including the linguistic features of New Englishes, the future of English as a world language, and the possibility of an English ‘family’ of languages), footnotes and a full bibliography. There are updates throughout. This is a book for anyone of any nationality concerned with English: teachers, students, language professionals, politicians, general readers and anyone with a love of the language.

David Crystal is one of the world’s foremost authorities on language. He is author of the hugely successful Cambridge encyclopedia of language (1987; second edition 1997), Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language (1995), Language death (2000), Language and the Internet (2001) and Shakespeare’s words (2002, with Ben Crystal). An internationally renowned writer, journal editor, lecturer and broadcaster, he received an OBE in 1995for his services to the study and teaching of the English language. His edited books include several editions of The Cambridge encyclopedia (1990–2000) and related publications, Words on words (2000, with Hilary Crystal) and The new Penguin encyclopedia (2002).

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Ebooks: Java Data Access - JDBC, JNDI, and JAXP

2008-12-04T14:25:00.000-08:00

Ebooks: Java Data Access - JDBC, JNDI, and JAXP

By Todd M. Thomas

Chapter 1: Introducing Java Data Access Development

In This Chapter

Understanding how enterprises use and store data
Using the Java technologies for accessing the different enterprise data stores

Now more than ever, Java developers need to understand how to create data− centric applications. Data is an important commodity and organizations now try to capture, store, and analyze all the information they generate. As a result, many different forms of data exist and an equal number of different methods exist to store it. As a Java developer, you will likely face the challenge of writing an application that enables an organization to effectively use its data stored in either a single source or multiple sources.

Your chances of having to build an application that accesses enterprise data increase because Java continues to gain market share as the language of choice for creating server applications and the J2EE platform become increasingly popular. In addition, most server applications require access to data stores for information. As an example, an EJB component may need to update inventory levels in a database or send XML messages to other applications. As a result, your knowing how to access the different data stores is paramount in enterprise development.
However, client applications also need access to enterprise data stores. For example, a human−resources application that tracks employee vacation time must retrieve and store information from a database. In addition, you now have mobile clients that need access to enterprise data stores. Writing data−centric applications for these devices is challenging, as they operate with little memory, minimal processor speeds, limited power supplies, and intermittent network access.

Fortunately, Java provides a robust set of data−access technologies that enables you to access the most common types of enterprise data. Using these same technologies you can create both server−side components and client−side applications. The technologies consist of APIs for accessing databases, naming and directory services, and XML documents.

This chapter introduces the most common types of data enterprises used in their operations, from simple text files to complex specialty databases. This chapter also covers the various Java−based technologies that you can use to access the data stores.

Taking Stock of Enterprise Data Stores

As you know, enterprises rely on data to make business decisions, generate revenue, and run daily operations. For example, managers generate sales forecasts based on historical sales data stored in a data warehouse. Companies also build online stores using live inventory levels that sell directly to their customers. Accounting departments use financial database applications to generate payroll checks and track accounts receivables. These are only a few examples of how enterprises use data.

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E-Books: Webmaster’s Guide to the Wireless Internet

2008-11-29T17:54:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Webmaster’s Guide to the Wireless Internet
Everything You Need to Develop E-Commerce Enabled
Ryan Fife
Wei Meng Lee
Dan A. Olsen Technical Editor

Wireless Web Sites
Step-by-Step Instructions for Authoring a Web Clipping Application
Complete Coverage of ASP.NET’s Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit
Extensions
Master Wireless Security, Including Embedded Security Technology,
Secure Air-Connect Technologies,Mobile Operator Network Security,
and Authentication

Over the past several decades, advances in computing technology have created widespread changes in the way that the world operates and the means by which we deal with information. Computing has revolutionized the way that business is done, bills are accounted for, and how records are stored.The invention of the underlying sets of protocols to enable communication between computers in the early 1970s and the advent of the personal computer in the 1980s, has helped to sow the seeds for the most recent communications revolution—the Internet. In the mid-1990s, as the World Wide Web matured to include graphics and multimedia components and more and more individuals gained access to affordable computers and Internet accounts, the popularity of the Internet exploded and the number of Web sites and people online grew at an exponential rate. Since then, many Web sites have come and gone and use of the Internet is something that many people in the United States take for granted. In the case of individuals whose livelihood is enabled by the Internet, suchas Webmasters, it is something that we cannot live without.

We have also seen, over the past two decades, widespread adoption of mobile devices that are capable of enabling communication. Cellular phones are now being used by millions of individuals worldwide, and, in some areas, mobile phones are more reliable and used more often than land-based telephone communications systems. Recently, many phones and other handheld devices now have the ability to access the Internet and send messages between subscribers.These capabilities often include e-mail and the ability to send and receive data via the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), although not all of these devices can view the type of HTML that has been associated with the World Wide Web of recent years.The advent of ubiquitous mobile Internet computing promises to be another revolution in the ways that human beings interact with each other, manage information, and interact with data applications.This revolution also promises a new landscape in which Webmasters may apply their skills and learn some new ones.

One common characteristic that most handheld wireless devices share, regardless of the device category, is a relative lack of processing power, memory, and display capabilities as compared to a desktop computer.Wireless networks, in addition, feature a mere trickle of bandwidth compared with a modem, let alone a DSL or T1 connection. It is very important to keep these constraints in mind as you build your content and applications.

Furthermore, your wireless users will most likely be accessing your Web site while they are mobile.This fact makes it imperative for you to consider the needs of a mobile user as you consider what types of content you should make available, or what kinds of applications make sense for a mobile user. Also, your user interface should take into account the small viewpoint of the devices that will be accessing your Web site and should also consider the difficulty that often exists with user input on these devices.

Webmaster’s Guide to the Wireless Internet is intended to give you, the Webmaster, the skills and knowledge that you will need to add wireless Internet capability to your existing Web site, to build new wireless applications, and to help you understand the issues, both global and domestic, that exist with deploying wireless Internet solutions.

The primary geographical focus of this book is the United States, but Webmasters in other countries will certainly find the information useful.Webmaster’s Guide to the Wireless Internet is not a lengthy work on the wide variety of protocols that are used to deploy wireless technologies, nor does it focus unnecessarily on the minute details of emerging technologies that are volatile in nature and constantly changing. Rather, it focuses on hands-on examples that will allow you to adapt your existing skills in HTML and server-side scripting to deploy content and applications to a wireless audience using WML,WMLScript, and, in some cases, lean HTML.This book is intended to demystify the wireless landscape and provide you with answers on how to get your wireless Web site up and running quickly.

Chapter 1 covers the basics of what makes up the wireless Internet, and how it contrasts with the World Wide Web.
Chapter 2 covers the basic architecture of the wireless architecture and provides a comprehensive overview of the components of the wireless Internet and how they fit together.
Chapter 3 explains the nuts and bolts of the Wireless Markup Language, the client-side, XML-based markup language that allows devices using the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) to display Internet content.This chapter will give you an understanding of how this language differs from HTML and will give you the skills to start building your own wireless content.
Chapter 4 explains how to add client-side scripting to your WML pages.
WMLScript is loosely based on ECMAScript, which is the language that gave rise to both JavaScript and Jscript. Users familiar with these scripting languages will notice a similar syntax and structure, but the means of deployment will differ. Depending on the market in which you want to deploy your content, you may or may not be able to make much real-world use of WMLScript.
Chapter 5 explains how to install and use the many Software Development Kits (SDKs) supplied by wireless browser programmers and handset manufacturers to provide you with an emulator and debugger to develop your content or application.
Chapter 6 provides an introduction to the proprietary system that allows users of Palm-powered handheld devices to access content located on the Internet.This chapter will give you the information that you will need to start building Web Clipping Applications (WCAs).These special HTML-based applications can be integrated with local applications or interact with Web servers located on the Internet.
Chapter 7 explains the issues surrounding usability on wireless devices.This chapter will help you build effective small-viewpoint navigation and give you some handy tips on how to make your wireless site more user-friendly by working within the constraints of narrow bandwidth and limited user input.
Chapter 8 will give you information and guidelines on how to add wireless capabilities to your existing Web site and choose content that is of interest to mobile users. It also covers how to detect wireless devices and discusses the issues surrounding automated or on-the-fly conversion of your content for wireless users.
Chapter 9 explains how you can use the Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit and Mobile Web Forms to deploy content to a wide variety of devices using the same code. It covers how you can maintain state during a wireless or Web transaction and how you can integrate Microsoft’s ActiveX Data Object (ADO) technology to provide interfaces to your data to many different devices.
Chapter 10 discusses the technology used to provide secure transactions for wireless devices and covers the issues surrounding security as it applies within the wireless landscape. Point-to-point and end-to-end security models and the various pitfalls surrounding both models are discussed.
The wireless revolution, like any revolution, is not without its challenges.The global market for wireless Internet technologies is highly diverse, with different rates of adoption, competing protocols and technologies, and existing infrastructures that are in some cases more economical to use in the short term than building a new global wireless communications architecture. At present in the United States, thereexists a fragmented landscape of telecommunications companies that offer mobile phone service and not all of them are yet capable of offering wireless Internet access (but most are). In Europe, standardized networks and compatible handsets have
enabled the wireless Internet to become popular very quickly. Asia has seen similar growth in the use of the wireless Internet, most notably in Japan with NTT/DoCoMo’s iMode system. Many individuals in these markets find that the wireless Internet is an indispensable part of their lives, while the U.S. market has been slow to adopt the technology.There are many reasons for this, including legacy handsets, widespread Internet access via personal computers, and a telecommunications market that features competing incompatible protocols and technologies.
This book, while comprehensively covering the technologies that already exist on the wireless Internet (and the general principles behind them), does not attempt to address developing technologies that are not yet deployed.There has recently been much speculation and hype about so-called third generation, or 3G networks, which are “just around the corner.” In addition, handset manufacturers have promised many new developments in wireless technology, and, in particular, location-based services.

These dreams, at the time of this writing, are not yet a reality.
However, the wireless Internet is up and running and more subscribers join in every day.The future certainly promises to be interesting, and Webmaster’s Guide to the Wireless Internet holds much value for Webmasters who wish to add the ability to develop wireless-accessible Web sites to their toolkit.The first step to the future begins today, and we can only expect that the number of mobile devices that are capable of accessing the Internet will grow as time progresses. It’s your job to make sure that there is something worthwhile for individuals to access on the wireless Internet, and this book provides the hands-on examples and explanations that will allow you to do so!

—Dan A. Olsen
Technical Editor and Contributor

For Download:

E-Books: Wireless Communications and Networking

2008-11-23T15:56:00.001-08:00

E-Books: Wireless Communications and Networking

Vijay K. Garg

The cellular system employs a different design approach than most commercial radio and television systems use [1,2]. Radio and television systems typically operate at maximum power and with the tallest antennas allowed by the regulatory agency of the country. In the cellular system, the service area is divided into cells. A transmitter is designed to serve an individual cell. The system seeks to make effi cient use of available channels by using low-power transmitters to allow frequency reuse at much smaller distances. Maximizing the number of times each channel can be reused in a given geographic area is the key to an effi cient cellular system design.

During the past three decades, the world has seen signifi cant changes in the telecommunications industry. There have been some remarkable aspects to the rapid growth in wireless communications, as seen by the large expansion in mobile systems. Wireless systems consist of wireless wide-area networks (WWAN) [i.e., cellular systems], wireless local area networks (WLAN) [4], and wireless personal area networks (WPAN) (see Figure 1.1) [17]. The handsets used in all of these systems possess complex functionality, yet they have become small, lowpower consuming devices that are mass produced at a low cost, which has in turn accelerated their widespread use. The recent advancements in Internet technology have increased network traffi c considerably, resulting in a rapid growth of data rates. This phenomenon has also had an impact on mobile systems, resulting in the extraordinary growth of the mobile Internet.

Wireless data offerings are now evolving to suit consumers due to the simple reason that the Internet has become an everyday tool and users demand data mobility. Currently, wireless data represents about 15 to 20% of all air time. While success has been concentrated in vertical markets such as public safety, health care, and transportation, the horizontal market (i.e., consumers) for wireless data is growing. In 2005, more than 20 million people were using wireless e-mail. The Internet has changed user expectations of what data access means. The ability to retrieve information via the Internet has been “an amplifi er of demand” for wireless
data applications.

More than three-fourths of Internet users are also wireless users and a mobile subscriber is four times more likely to use the Internet than a nonsubscriber to mobile services. Such keen interest in both industries is prompting user demand for converged services. With more than a billion Internet users expected by 2008, the potential market for Internet-related wireless data services is quite large.

In this chapter, we discuss briefl y 1G, 2G, 2.5G, and 3G cellular systems and outline the ongoing standard activities in Europe, North America, and Japan.

We also introduce broadband (4G) systems (see Figure 1.2) aimed on integrating WWAN, WLAN, and WPAN. Details of WWAN, WLAN, and WPAN are given in Chapters 15 to 20.

For Download:

E-Books: Networking with Microsoft Windows Vista

2008-11-23T15:19:00.002-08:00

E-Books: Networking with Microsoft Windows Vista
Your Guide to Easy and Secure Windows Vista Networking
Paul McFedries

Only connect! —E. M. Forster

If you have just a single computer in your home or small office, and if you’re the only person who uses that computer, your setup is inherently efficient. You can use the machine whenever you like, and everything you need your applications, your printer, your CD/DVD drive, your Internet connection, and so on—are readily available.

Things become noticeably less efficient if you have to share the computer with other people. For instance, you might have to wait for someone else to finish a task before you can get your own work done, you might need to have separate applications for each person’s requirements, and you might need to set up separate folders to hold each person’s data.

User accounts and fast user switching in Vista ease these problems, but they don’t eliminate them. For example, you still have to twiddle a thumb or two while waiting for another person to complete his work.

A better solution is to increase the number of computers available. Now that machines with fast processors, ample RAM, and massive hard disk space can be had for just a few hundred dollars, a multiple-machine setup is an affordable proposition for most homes. At home, for example, the current trend is to buy a nice system for Mom and Dad to put in their office, while the kids inherit the old machine for their games and homework assignments.

Now you have several computers kicking around the house or office, but they’re all islands unto themselves. If you want to print something using another computer’s printer, you’re forced to copy the file to a memory card or other removable media, walk that media over to the other computer, and then print from there. Similarly, if multiple computers require Internet access, you face the hassle (and expense) of configuring separate connections So now you must take the final step on this road: Connect everything together to create your own small network. This will give you all kinds of benefits:

A printer (or just about any peripheral) that’s attached to one computer can be used by any other computer on the network.
You can transfer files from one computer to another.
Users can access disk drives and folders on network computers as though they were part of their own computer. In particular, you can set up a folder to store common data files, and each user will be able to access these files from the comfort of her machine. (For security, you can restrict access to certain folders and drives.)
You can set up an Internet connection on one device and share that connection with other machines on the network.
You can stream images, music, and videos from one computer to another computer or to a digital media receiver, such as an Xbox 360.
You can set up a wireless portion of your network, which enables you to access other computers and the Internet from just about anywhere in your house or office.

The benefits of a network are clear; but if you’ve been hesitating because you think getting the right equipment and putting it all together seem like complex tasks, you’ve come to the right book. Here, in Networking with Windows Vista, you get a complete beginner’s guide to creating, configuring, administering, and using a small network using Windows Vista computers. This book
includes comprehensive coverage of networking hardware, including both wired and wireless devices. You get handy buyer’s guides that tell you how to make smart choices when purchasing network hardware. Then, when you 2 Networking with Microsoft®Windows Vista™ have your hardware in hand, this book shows you how to put everything together, including installing the devices, laying the cable, and connecting all the pieces.

With your hardware tasks complete, the book switches to the software side and examines Windows Vista networking features. These include the Network and Sharing Center, managing wired and wireless connections, accessing shared network resources, sharing local resources on the network, implementing security, and much more.

How This Book Is Organized

To help give you a sense of the overall structure of the book, the next few sections offer a brief summary of the four main parts of the book.

For Download:

E-Books Microsoft Windows Registry Guide

2008-11-23T07:36:00.000-08:00

E-Books Microsoft Windows Registry Guide

The registry is the heart and soul of Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Server 2003. In my other registry books, I said the same thing about the registry in every version of Windows since Windows 95, and by the time you're finished reading this book, I hope you'll agree. The registry contains the configuration data that makes the operating system work; enables developers to organize configuration data in ways that are impossible using other mechanisms, such as INI files; and is behind just about every feature that you think is great in Windows. More importantly, it enables you to customize Windows in ways that you can't through the user interface.

Windows and every application that runs on Microsoft's latest desktop operating systems do absolutely nothing without consulting the registry first. When you double-click a file, Windows consults the registry to figure out what to do with that file. When you install a device, Windows assigns resources to the device based on information in the registry and then stores the device's configuration in the registry. When you run an application such as Microsoft Office Word 2003, the application looks up your preferences in the registry. If you were to monitor the registry during a normal session, you'd see that it serves up thousands of values within minutes.

In this book, you will learn how to customize the registry, but you must also learn how to maintain it. You must learn how to back up the registry so you can restore it if things go awry. You must also learn the best practices for editing the registry safely.

The registry is an invaluable tool for the IT professional who is deploying, managing, and supporting Windows. Did you know that most policies in Group Policy and system policies are really settings in the registry? Does that give you any ideas? Did you know that scripting registry edits is one of the best ways to deploy settings to users? This book teaches you about policies, scripting, and much more. For example, you will learn how to deploy registry settings during Windows and Microsoft Office 2003 Editions installations. Some deployment problems can be solved only by using the registry, so I describe the most common IT workarounds, too. For example, I show you how to prevent Windows from creating the Microsoft Outlook Express icon on the desktop when a user logs on to the computer for the first time.

For Download:

E-Books: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 A Beginner's Guide

2008-11-23T06:24:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 A Beginner's Guide

There are a couple of reasons why SQL Server, the system that comprises Database Engine, Analysis Services, Reporting Services and Integration Services is the best choice for a broad spectrum of end users and database programmers building business applications:

SQL Server is certainly the best system for Windows operating systems, because of its tight integration (and low pricing). Because the number of installed Windows systems is enormous and still increasing rapidly, SQL Server is a widely used system.
Database Engine, as the relational database system component, is the easiest database system to use. In addition to the well-known user interface, Microsoft offers several different tools to help you create database objects, tune your database applications, and manage system administration tasks.

Generally, SQL Server isn’t only a database system. It is a platform that not only manages structured, semistructured, and unstructured data but also offers comprehensive, integrated operational and analysis software that enables organizations to reliably manage mission-critical information.

Goals of the Book

Microsoft SQL Server 2008: A Beginner’s Guide follows three previous editions that covered SQL Server 7, 2000, and 2005.

Generally, all SQL Server users who want to get a good understanding of this database system and to work successfully with it will find this book very helpful. (If you are a new SQL Server user but understand SQL, read the section “Differences Between SQL and Transact-SQL Syntax” later in this introduction.)

This book addresses users of all components of the SQL Server system. For this reason, it is divided into several parts: users who want to learn more about the relational database component called Database Engine will find the first three parts of the book the most useful. The fourth part of the book is dedicated to business intelligence users who use either Analysis Services or relational extensions concerning BI. The last part of the book provides insight for users who want to use XML data and/or spatial data.

SQL Server 2008 New Features Described in the Book

SQL Server 2008 has a lot of new features, and almost all of them are discussed in this book. For each feature, at least one running example is provided to enable you to understand that feature better. The following table lists the chapters that describe new features and provides a brief summary of the new features introduced in each chapter.

For Download:

E-Books: Microsoft Windows Group Policy Guide

2008-11-23T04:30:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Microsoft Windows Group Policy Guide

Thanks to Karen for keeping me motivated and to Sid for walking on top of my keyboard repeatedly as I tried to work.
_Darren Mar-Elia_
Thanks to my family for being there in the hard times and the good times.
_Derek Melber_
To my wife and children, keeping the dream alive.
_William R. Stanek_

Welcome to the Microsoft® Windows® Group Policy Guide. The Microsoft Windows Group Policy Guide covers the topic of Group Policy—quite possibly the most misunderstood product that Microsoft has ever introduced. Many system administrators, network engineers, and IT managers think of Group Policy as a complex behemoth within Active Directory® that they will never truly understand, and yet Group Policy is widely implemented because its benefits are well-known in areas of security, software distribution, and desktop lockdown. When you’ve widely implemented a product that you don’t understand, you have a real problem and a frustrating experience for everyone involved, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Group Policy is less complex, more configurable, and more manageable than you might have imagined—and step by step, chapter by chapter, you’ll learn why as you read this book.

About This Book

Microsoft Windows Group Policy Guide covers Group Policy administration for Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003, Windows XP Professional, and Windows 2000.

The book is designed for Windows system administrators, network engineers, and anyone else who wants to learn the ins and outs of Group Policy. If you currently support Active Directory or you want to learn more about Group Policy, this book is for you.

This book zeroes in on the essential information that you need to effectively deploy, manage, and troubleshoot Group Policy. To pack in as much information as possible, we’re assuming that you have basic system administration skills and are familiar with Windows Server 2003 network environments. With this in mind, we don’t devote entire chapters to understanding Active Directory, DNS, or Windows Server 2003.

Other books cover those topics in depth and better than we ever could; they include Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Inside Out (Microsoft Press, 2004), Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Administrator’s Companion (Microsoft Press, 2004), and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant (Microsoft Press, 2003). What is this book, then? It is a guide to Group Policy, which explains everything you need to know to successfully deploy, manage, and troubleshoot Group Policy.

For Download:

E-Books: The Celestine Prophecy

2008-11-17T02:50:00.000-08:00

E-Books: The Celestine Prophecy

an Adventure
By James Redfield

For Download:

E-Books: Ubuntu Hacks Tips and Tools for Exploring Using and Tuning Linux

2008-11-16T15:38:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Ubuntu Hacks
Tips and Tools for Exploring Using and Tuning Linux
By Bill Childers, Jonathan Oxer, Kyle Rankin

The Ubuntu distribution simplifies Linux by providing a sensible collection of applications, an easy-to-use package manager, and lots of fine-tuning, which make it possibly the best Linux for desktops and laptops. Readers of both Linux Journal and TUX Magazine confirmed this by voting Ubuntu as the best Linux distribution in each publication's 2005 Readers Choice Awards. None of that simplification, however, makes Ubuntu any less fun if you're a hacker or a power user.

Like all books in the "Hacks" series, Ubuntu Hacks includes 100 quick tips and tricks for all users of all technical levels. Beginners will appreciate the installation advice and tips on getting the most out of the free applications packaged with Ubuntu, while intermediate and advanced readers will learn the ins-and-outs of power management, wireless roaming, 3D video acceleration, server configuration, and much more.

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E-Books: Ubuntu®Linux® TOOLBOX

2008-11-16T15:22:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Ubuntu®Linux® TOOLBOX

1000+ Commands for Ubuntu and Debian Power Users
Christopher Negus
François Caen

The huge, enthusiastic Ubuntu community has swept up thousands and thousands of new Ubuntu Linux users. If you are one of them, you will probably soon find yourself wanting to dig beneath the surface of Ubuntu’s applications and graphical tools. You’ll want to become a power user.

Becoming a power user with any Linux system means being able to work from the command line. Few graphical interfaces will provide you with the options and flexibility you get with commands that address the same features.

Ubuntu Linux Toolbox provides you with more than 1000 specific command lines to help you dig deeply into Linux. Whether you are a systems administrator or desktop user, the book will show you commands to create file systems, troubleshoot networks, lock down security, and dig out almost anything you care to know about your Linux system.

This book’s focus for your Linux command-line journey is Ubuntu, the communitybased Linux distribution sponsored by Canonical Ltd., and the Debian GNU/Linux system on which it is based. Tapping into the skills needed to run those systems can help you to work with your own Linux systems and to learn what you need as a Linux professional.

Ubuntu Takes Linux by Storm

Since its inaugural release in 2004, Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com) has become the most popular and, arguably, best loved of the Linux distributions. From its name, which translates to humanity toward others, to its focus on support for many languages and special needs, Ubuntu has reflected its ideals of spreading free software beyond the standard Linux target markets of geeks and corporate servers.

The Ubuntu project does everything it can to help ease new users into using its Linuxbased Ubuntu operating system. Ubuntu live CDs let a new user try out Ubuntu before installing it. If the user likes Ubuntu, a single click can start an Ubuntu install to hard disk. And because Ubuntu is based on Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu has been able to make massive amounts of software from the Debian software repositories available free to Ubuntu users.

Although it’s true that Ubuntu focuses on ease-of-use desktop systems, that doesn’t mean Ubuntu has no commercial Linux value. In fact, Canonical offers paid enterprisequality support for its systems through its Canonical Global Support Services team (www.ubuntu.com/support/paid). Canonical also offers training courses to help you become an Ubuntu Training Partner (www.ubuntu.com/support/training). In other words, there are professional opportunities for those who learn to operate Ubuntu.

For Download:

E-Books: Beginning Ubuntu LTS Server Administration

2008-11-16T14:58:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Beginning Ubuntu LTS Server Administration

From Novice to Professional
Second Edition
By Sander Van Vugt

Beginning Ubuntu LTS Server Administration: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition provides a complete introduction to Ubuntu Server. I wrote it for people who are new to Ubuntu Server administration but have a solid foundation in IT. The target readers are Windows administrators as well as people who are used to managing other flavors of Linux (or UNIX). It was the goal of this book to give a no-nonsense introduction to working with Ubuntu Server, so it provides all the basics that are needed to get you going. It also includes many useful tips that help you do your work in a more efficient manner.

Many books about Ubuntu are presently available, but you can’t do Ubuntu Server justice by covering both the desktop and the server version in one book. The needs of a server administrator are vastly different from the needs of a desktop administrator. So I chose an approach that makes sense for the server administrator, and all topics are selected and organized to make sense for your day-to-day work as a server administrator.

Who This Book Is For

This book is written for Linux administrators, whether novice or experienced, who are looking for a quick, thorough, and authoritative introduction to daily Ubuntu Server management.

How This Book Is Structured

The book starts by describing Ubuntu Server, with a special focus on storage configuration, which is an especially important concern when dealing with server environments. You’ll then find a quick introduction to driving Ubuntu Server from the command line, in case you haven’t done this before. The third chapter tackles some of the common generic tasks of a server administrator, including managing software packages and configuring a graphical user interface.

Next are chapters about file system management, Ubuntu Server security, managing processes, and the boot procedure. The last chapter, which deals with stand-alone server functionality, explains Bash shell scripting—in fewer than 30 pages, you’ll learn everything you ever need to know about this complex topic.

The second part of the book teaches you all about network services. First, you’ll learn how to configure and troubleshoot a network interface. Next, you’ll read how to set up infrastructure services such as time services, name services, and DHCP. The following chapters discuss managing file services, the Apache web server (including performance tuning hints and a section on virtual hosts), and related packages such as MySQL. Finally, the last chapter provides an overview of the approaches to running virtualization on Ubuntu Server

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E-Books: The OXFORD History of English

2008-11-16T14:34:00.000-08:00

E-Books: The OXFORD History of English

Edited by
Lynda Mugglestone

How can there be a true History, when we see no Man living is able to write truly the History of the last Week?

T. Shadwell, The Squire of Alsatia (1688)

SIR William Belford’s words, spoken in Act II of Thomas Shadwell’s late seventeenth-century play, The Squire of Alsatia, articulate the problems of history with conspicuous ease. As Belford comments to his brother, no history can be complete. Instead, all historical description is based on acts of interpretation, leading to accounts which may, or may not, conXict with those oVered by other tellers and other tales. In this sense, gaps and absences necessarily beset the historian; not all can be known, and a change of perspective inevitably brings new, and diVerent, considerations to the fore. A single true—and all-encompassing—history is an illusion.

These problems are equally pertinent for historians of language for whom the subject is the many-voiced past. Gaps and absences here may be particularly tantalizing; for the remote past of language—the pre-history of English (discussed in the opening chapter of this volume)—not a single record remains and history must be reconstructed, deduced from the patterns of languages which share the same ancestry. Even later, the historical record may be fragmentary;
if the primary form of language is speech, only with the advent of sound recording (and the invention of the phonograph in 1877) do we begin to have a record of the actual voices of the past—and even this evidence is necessarily partial and selective. The majority of speakers through the history of English have left not a single trace to document the words they spoke, or the conversations in which they participated. Even for those who had access to the written word, not all has been preserved (and only in the more recent historical past has access to the written word been extended to all, irrespective of class and gender). The passage of historical time has enacted its own selectivities, to which historians have often added others. In many histories of the language, regional voices rarely feature once a standard variety begins to emerge in the Wfteenth century. Likewise, the history of the language is often mapped through a progression of canonical landmarks—Chaucer, Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson—that marginalize the range of other voices which co-existed (and which, in a variety of ways, might themselves be seen as more rather than less representative of what ‘ordinary’ English speakers were doing at a given point in time).

For these and other reasons, the emphasis throughout the following volume is placed on the construction of ‘a history’ rather than ‘the history’, recognizing that many other pathways could be navigated through the past—and present—ofthe English language. The wider emphasis throughout is, however, placed on the twin images of pluralism and diversity, and on the complex patterns of usage which have served to make up English. While the language of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Johnson does therefore appear (if perhaps more brieXy than in other histories of English), then so too does the language of footmen, mining butties, and missionaries, of telegrams and emails, of trade, exploration, and colonization. The language of thieves and the underworld appears in Chapter 8 on Renaissance English; that of, say, eighteenth-century Jamaican English in Chapter 12. The English of ordinary letters, of diaries, and of private testimony—as in Chapters 7, 9, and 10—frequently takes its place in the attempt to engage with what it was like to use English, in a variety of circumstances, in previous centuries. Examples of usage from Scotland, Norfolk, or from Dorset, Spain, Singapore, and America (amongst others) emphasize the diversity of the speakers who make up ‘the English language’.

Rather than a seamless synecdoche of the history of English with the history of the standard variety, the image of the past that is explored over the course of this volume is therefore one characterized by its heterogeneity, and by the ebb and Xow of a language (and language-varieties) continually on the move. As David Crystal has recently pointed out, ‘For every one person who speaks Standard English, there must be a hundred who do not, and another hundred who speak other varieties as well as the standard. Where is their >>>>

For Download:

The Oracle Hacker's Handbook

2008-11-16T06:40:00.000-08:00

The Oracle Hacker's Handbook
Hacking and Defending Oracle
byDavid Litchfield
John Wiley & Sons 2007

It's terribly important that Oracle get security right, and so far their record has been poor. The Oracle RDBMS has had more critical security vulnerabilities than any other database server product. By critical, I mean those flaws that can be exploited by a remote attacker with no user ID and password and which gives them full control over the database server. To put these critical security vulnerabilities in context, IBM's DB2 has had 1; Informix has had 2; and Microsoft's SQL Server has had 2. Oracle has had 9. That's more than the other database servers put together. In terms of flaws that require a user ID and password but yield full control when exploited, again Oracle outstrips the rest by far. These facts stand in stark contrast to Oracle's marketing campaigns claiming that their product is "unbreakable." When Oracle executives say, "We have the security problem solved. That's what we're good at … ," it makes you wonder what they're talking about. So far the problem is not solved, and complacency should have no home in an organization that develops software that is installed in most governments' networks. This is why it is absolutely critical for Oracle to get it right-national security is at stake.

Oracle's idea of what security means is formed largely on the U.S. Department of Defense's assurance standards. This is why Oracle can state that they "get security." This may have worked 15 years ago, but the security landscape has entirely changed since then. Let me explain further. The Oracle RDBMS was evaluated under the Common Criteria to EAL4-assurance level 4-which is no mean feat. However, the first few versions of Oracle that gained EAL4 had a buffer overflow vulnerability in the authentication mechanism. By passing a long username to the server, a stack-based buffer is overflowed, overwriting program control information, and allowing an attacker to take complete control. How on earth did this get through and how was it missed? The answer is that there is a vast divide between what "standards" security means and what real security means. There is, of course, an important place for standards, but they are not the be all and end all, and Oracle would do well to learn this lesson. Standards imply rules but hackers don't play by the rules.

Perhaps Oracle is beginning to understand, though. By all accounts they have shaken up and improved their coding standards, and have invested in numerous tools to help them develop more secure code; and there is evidence to suggest that things are getting better on the security front. Oracle 10g Release 2 is a dramatic improvement over 10g Release 1. Security holes are still being discovered in 10g Release 2, but nowhere near the numbers that have been found with 10g Release 1. Oracle has also improved their security patch release mechanism. Every quarter, Oracle releases a Critical Patch Update (CPU), and up until July 2006 every CPU was reissued multiple times because of failings and missing fixes and other problems. The July 2006 CPU was different; it was released once-hopefully the start of a trend.

Considering that things are improving, where exactly is Oracle on this journey to "security" utopia-by which I mean a secure product that actually matches the marketing speak? In answering this question, for any vendor, a key pointer is to look at how they respond to security researchers. In the summer of 2006 at the Blackhat Security Briefing, I was on a panel that discussed the issues surrounding the disclosure of security flaws. The panel moderator, Paul Proctor from Gartner, insightfully suggested that "Microsoft is in the acceptance phase. Cisco is slowly moving out of the anger stage and into the acceptance stage. Oracle, on the other hand, is just coming out of the denial stage and into the anger stage."

This is an accurate assessment in my estimation. Like Microsoft a few years ago, when Scott Culp published his "Information Anarchy" paper, Oracle too had their say about security researchers when Mary-Ann Davidson, the Chief Security Officer of Oracle wrote her article "When Security Researchers Become the Problem." The difference between Mary-Ann's article and Scott's paper is that Scott's needed to be said, as it was published at a time when there was information anarchy and not much responsible disclosure going on; it was an attempt at convincing security researchers to work with the vendor. This is why Mary-Ann's article a few years later failed to hit home: The security researchers she disparaged were already working with Oracle to try to help improve their product. Oracle failed to see that they and security researchers were working toward the same goal-a more secure database server. Part of the article discusses security researchers making explicit and implicit threats, such as "Fix it in the next three weeks because I am giving a paper at Black Hat." However, Oracle should understand that a security researcher is under no obligation to inform them that they are going to present a paper; and if they do tell them, Oracle should appreciate the heads up. Such information is a courtesy. Calling this an "implicit threat" is disingenuous and risks alienating the very people best placed to help them secure their product. It would be in the best interests of all for Oracle to get over their anger stage and embrace the acceptance phase.

Enough commentary on Oracle, however, at least for the time being. Let's look at why we need a book that details vulnerabilities in their RDBMS and examines how those flaws are exploited. In short, precisely because it is such a popular database server, it is a prime target for hackers, organized crime, and those involved in espionage, be it industrial or foreign. Therefore, there should be a reliable resource for database and security administrators that shows them how their systems are attacked and where they are vulnerable. This puts them in a position of strength when designing defense strategies and mitigations.

This book is that resource. Yes-such a book is, by nature, paradoxical: intended to aid defense, it arms not only the defender with the information but also the attacker. It is my experience, however, that most attackers already know much of this information already, whereas the defenders don't but should. Yet even today, given all the evidence to the contrary, you hear Oracle "experts" claiming that Oracle is secure, citing as proof that Oracle is "always installed behind a firewall" and that it "runs on Unix." Frankly, these "reasons" have nothing to do with whether Oracle is secure or not. It's as easy to break into an Oracle server running on Linux or Solaris as it is on Windows. A firewall becomes irrelevant as soon as you poke a hole through it to allow your business logic and web applications to connect to the database server-SQL injection is a major problem.

Furthermore, it is a myth that Oracle is always installed behind a firewall. According to the "Database Exposure Survey" I performed in December 2005 and published in June 2006, an estimated 140,000 Oracle database servers are out there accessible on the Internet, compared to 210,000 Microsoft SQL Servers. Given that many of these SQL Servers will be MSDE installs, one wonders what effect Oracle Express will have on the number. Oracle Express was released after the survey. Getting back to the core of the problem, however, there is not nearly enough understanding by those in the Oracle world that their servers are exposed to risk. When you consider that Oracle has committed to releasing a Critical Patch Update every three months until at least July 2007 (at the time of writing), this means that in the interim Oracle database servers are in a critically insecure state. Food for thought, indeed. This is the "why" then. If we are to take responsibility for the security of our own systems, knowing that they are critically insecure, we need to know how they're insecure-only then can we take steps to prevent our systems from being compromised.

I hope that as well as finding this book useful and informative, you have fun reading it. I'm always willing to answer questions so please feel free to ask.

Cheers,

David Litchfield

For Download:

E-Books: J2EE Developer's Handbook

2008-11-16T05:38:00.000-08:00

E-Books: J2EE Developer's Handbook

Paul J. Perrone
Venkata S. R.“Krishna” R. Chaganti
Tom Schwenk

If you can read this writing...you are closer than you think to understanding all the glorious and exciting technology that is embodied by the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE)! ;)

YOU ARE ABOUT TO EMBARK ON AN ODYSSEY that will explore Java- and XML-based enterprise technologies from the ground up that can be used to build just about any application deployable throughout an enterprise that you can imagine ranging from the simple to the complex and from the very functional to the very cool. Accessing data in databases, parsing and manipulating XML data and messages, sending and receiving messages over the most common distributed communication network types, looking up and discovering services on a network or over the Internet, ensuring the integrity and security of applications and data, hosting and deploying applications over the Web, building highly scalable enterprise workhorse applications, and integrating with just about any application and system possible are all discussed by example throughout this book.

Before you delve into the contents of a huge tome such as this one, it is a good idea to first acquire an understanding of the problem you are trying to solve. In this way, you can best ensure that our book is addressing your needs. Furthermore, you should be aware of the topics to be presented that address such problems, to ensure that our book’s material is relevant to your technology interests.This introduction describes the problem being solved by this book, an overview of the topics discussed, the target audience addressed, and our basic approach for presenting the material.

This Is Your Enterprise on Caffeine!

Let’s first acquire a brief overview of the scope and problems being addressed by this book. As with any software architect or developer, we too have been in numerous situations in which tight deadlines must be met and/or the need for a solid software release must be produced. As software development professionals who’ve provided numerous enterprise system solutions and who’ve used the technologies described in this book under the pressure of deadlines and schedules, we share your pain and very much wish we had a book like this at our disposal a long time ago. Of course, such a book must also reflect the current technologies being used to build enterprise systems.We thus consider this book to be an extremely market-driven and technology-driven book directly addressing the needs of enterprise system developers.We begin this section by defining the mission statement and battle cry that have both initiated this book’s effort and that have driven the course of its development along the way.We then specifically address the type of problems we are trying to solve, and describe how information technology and the Java enterprise solution can be infused throughout the veins of an enterprise.

Scope of the Book, Mission Statement, and Battle Cry J2EE Developer’s Handbook provides a comprehensive, cohesive, and practical guide for building scalable, secure, assured, Web-enabled, and distributed enterprise systems with the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE). The technologies presented in this book can be used to rapidly build any enterprise system and integration solution that you can imagine. We describe these enterprise technologies from the ground up, leaving you with a thorough and in-depth understanding of the Java enterprise application stack.

Problem to Be Solved

Enterprise systems encompass those distributed, scalable, multiuser, and business-critical systems that are intimately related to enhancing the productivity of a corporate or organizational enterprise via information technology.We are deep into an information and knowledge technology revolution that has catapulted economies and ways of life far beyond those that even the industrial revolution wrought.A primary engine of automation and productivity enhancement behind this revolution is the enterprise system. More and more, corporations and organizations are tying themselves into a complex informational network in an effort to further enhance the productivity of their operations for competitive and cost-reduction reasons. E-commerce, Internet/Web enabling, businessto-business (B2B) connectivity, enterprise application integration (EAI), and data mining are just a few of the requirements that must be satisfied by enterprise system designs.

This is why effective means for building enterprise systems that address the unique problems and high demand for enterprise software development effectiveness are always being sought by enterprise system development teams. Corporations and organizations more and more look for enterprise-class developers and engineers who can solve a broad range of enterprise system problems. Java enterprise technologies,Web services, and the J2EE provide an approach for more rapidly and effectively building enterprise systems that address the needs for producing enterprise software that is reusable, scalable, distributable, maintainable, secure, reliable, and available.

This Is the Book to Address Your Needs!

This book is partitioned into six major parts and a set of appendixes.The structure of the book and each part’s technologies described are listed here so that you can better understand what to expect from each major part of the book.You can thus tailor how you’ll approach reading the book and perhaps determine those chapters that cover material with which you are already familiar.We also discuss some of the software used and included with the book so that you can more concretely understand the type of enterprise software with which you will come into contact as well as create yourself while using this book. Finally, in this section, we also describe the diagram and notation conventions used within the chapter text.

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E-Books: The Canterville Ghost and Other Stories

2008-11-16T04:23:00.000-08:00

E-Books: The Canterville Ghost and Other Stories

Oscar Wilde
Retold by John Davage
Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

‘Well if you’re happy to share your house with a ghost, that’s all right,’ said Lord Canterville. ‘But please remember that I warned you.’

When the American Ambassador, Hiram B. Otis, buys Canterville Chase from Lord Canterville, people try to warn him that he is doing a dangerous thing. Everyone knows that the large old house is haunted by the famous Canterville Ghost — the ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville, who murdered his wife.

But Mr Otis and his family are not worried about sharing their new home with a ghost.

It is all quite amusing — even when they clean the mysterious bloodstain from the library floor every day and it appears again the next morning!

The ghost becomes more and more unhappy. It is his duty to haunt the house, but the young Otis boys play terrible tricks on him. What can he do? How can he frighten these awful Americans?

The Canterville Ghost is one of three stories in this book. In the second story. Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, Lord Arthur meets the rather unpleasant Mr Podgers at one of Lady Windermere’s parties, and his whole life changes. He was going to marry Sybil Merton, one of the most beautiful girls in London. But now, before he can marry the lovely Sybil, he has to murder someone!

The third story, The Sphinx Without a Secret, is about the secret life of beautiful, mysterious Lady Alroy. She lives in a house in the most expensive part of London, so why does she rent a room in a house in one of the poorer streets? What does she do there?

Who does she meet?

The writer of these stories, Oscar Wilde, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1854. His father was a well-known doctor, and his mother wrote poems.

Wilde went to Trinity College, Dublin, and later studied Latin and Greek at Oxford University. He was a very clever student, but he was also known for his lifestyle. He loved beautiful things, and he filled his rooms with them. He wore unusual clothes and amused people with his clever conversation.

In 1878 he won the Newdigate Prize for his poem, Ravenna. He married a rich Irish woman, Constance Lloyd, in 1884, and they had two sons. Wilde wrote The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) for them.

Wilde’s first book of poems came out in 1881. He wrote many short stories, but also the famous full-length book The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), which was later made into a film. This is the strange and clever story of a man who does not show his age. He stays young and handsome for many years. At the same time, a picture of the man grows old and ugly. Strange things happen when someone loves beauty and the pleasant things in life too much By 1895, Wilde was a very successful writer. Crowds of people went to the theatre to see his plays. These included Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893) and An Ideal Husband (1895).

The plays were popular then, and they are stillpopular today, because Wilde had a great gift for writing clever and amusing conversations. His most famous play is probably The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

It looks at life in an unusual way. Unimportant things are very serious and important things are laughed at.

Wilde spent a lot of his life with the rich and famous people of his time, but suddenly his life changed. He had a very close friend, a man called Alfred Douglas. Douglas’s father was not happy about Wilde’s interest in his son, and the two men began a terrible fight in the law courts. Wilde lost this fight and went to prison for two years. Life in prison was very difficult, and his health suffered.

When Wilde came out of prison, in 1897, he went to live in France. He used the name ‘Sebastian Melmoth’. In France, he wrote a very famous poem called The Ballad of Reading Gaol, about the pain of prison life.

By this time he was poor, and his health was bad. He died in Paris in 1900.

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E-Books: Strangers on a Train

2008-11-16T04:09:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Strangers on a Train

Patricia Highsmith
Retold by Michael Nation
Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

'Guy, I just thought. Oh yes! You murder my father and I'll murder Miriam. The police will never find us. We're strangers, we met on a train and nobody knows we're friends. It's perfect.'
Guy Haines meets Charley Bruno on a train and from that moment his life is never the same again. He tries to forget about Bruno's crazy plan for murder. But Guy is slowly pulled deeper and deeper into a world of madness, lies and death. Two murders follow one after the other — and there is no escape . . .

Patricia Highsmith was born in Texas in America in 1921. She lived in England and France, and finally moved to a village in Switzerland. She was an artist as well as a writer, and liked gardening. She never married, and died in February 1995.

From a very early age Highsmith was interested in people who behaved strangely. When she was sixteen, she decided to become a writer. Strangers on a Train was her first novel. It appeared in 1950 and is still her best-known book.

Highsmith is one of the best crime writers of this century. She said once that she was 'interested in the effect of guilt' on her heroes. Her books and short stories are about her own special world of fear, anger and murder.

Alfred Hitchcock made a film of Strangers on a Train in 1951. He changed the story, but it is still a very exciting and frightening film to watch.

For Download

E-Books: Primary Colors

2008-11-15T23:57:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Primary Colors

Anonymous
Retold by Brent Furnas
Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

I wasn’t sure that I wanted to work for Jack. Still, there was something different about him . . .

Jack Stanton is the governor of a state in the southern USA. He wants to be President, and he wants Henry Burton to help him.

At first, Henry is happy to work with Jack, but he begins to worry when he sees that Stanton will do anything to win . . .

The author of Primary Colors is an American journalist. Although it is a fictional story, the author used his personal knowledge of a real American President to write it. That is why he decided to keep his name a secret. Primary Colors was made into a successful movie, with John Travolta as Governor Stanton.

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E-Books: The Godfather

2008-11-15T07:28:00.000-08:00

E-Books: The Godfather

By Mario Puzo

'My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Luca held a gun to his head and my father told him that if he didn't agree to let Johnny go, Luca would blow his brains out.'

So Michael, youngest son of Don Vito Corleone, introduces his girlfriend Kay to his father's business practice. His father is a gangster, a very important gangster. He is the Godfather of one of the most powerful and richest families in New York. His business is fear and murder. Michael, an innocent college boy, doesn't want anything to do with his father. He's different from the others in his family. All he wants is a quiet, peaceful, honest life with Kay. But this isn't as easy as he thinks. Things happen, and Michael begins to change. He slowly realizes that, at heart, he's a Corleone too. And, if he must, he can be as deadly as the rest . . .

Mario Puzo was born in New York in 1920. He has written many books but The Godfather, which he wrote in 1969, is his most famous. In 1972, it was made into a film by Francis Ford Coppola. Marlon Brando won an Oscar for his performance as Don Vito Corleone. Coppola and Puzo won an Oscar for the best writing of a film. Coppola, born in 1939, was one of Hollywood's most important film-makers in the 1970s.

As well as The Godfather and The Godfather 2 (1974), he made Apocalypse Now (1979), also starring Marlon Brando.

His films during the 1980s were not so popular but, more recently, he has made two successful films: The Godfather 3 (1990) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

Mario Puzo has written several films as well as books. His best-known films are Superman (1978) and Superman 2 (1980).

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E-Books: Gladiator

2008-11-15T07:26:00.001-08:00

E-Books: Gladiator

Adapted from the novel by Dewey Gram
Based on the screenplay by DAVID FRANZONI,JOHN LOGAN and WILLIAM NICHOLSON
Retold by Annette Keen
Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

All eyes turned to the trees. A horseman rode out, toward the Roman army. There was something strange about the way he was riding Maximus was the first to understand . . .
As the horse came closer, the other men could see what had happened. The Roman messenger was tied to his horse. His head had been cut off. Maximus knew now what he had to do. Life was suddenly simple.

General Maximus, Commander of the Roman Army of the North, fights his last battle in the war against Germania. Then, he hopes to return to his farm and his family in Spain.

But there are many serious problems in Rome and Emperor Marcus Aurelius knows he will soon die. Maximus realizes that he must perform another duty for the Emperor before he can go home. He knows it will not be easy, and he is right. Soon he is fighting for his life again, first as a prisoner, then a slave, and finally as a gladiator.

One thought keeps Maximus alive: that he will finally meet and kill the man he hates most—the new Emperor, Commodus.

The book, Gladiator, was written by Dewey Gram. The screenplay by David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson was made into a very successful movie. The movie stars Russell Crowe as Maximus and Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus. British actor Oliver Reed (Proximo) died before the movie was finished, although almost all his scenes had been completed.

On film and on paper, Gladiator is a very exciting story.

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E-Books: Gladiator

2008-11-15T07:10:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Gladiator

Adapted from the novel by Dewey Gram
Based on the screenplay by DAVID FRANZONI,JOHN LOGAN and WILLIAM NICHOLSON
Retold by Annette Keen
Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

E-Books: Three Great Plays of Shakespeare

2008-11-15T06:38:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Three Great Plays of Shakespeare

Retold by Karen Holmes
Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

'And so,' the prince said, 'this dark and cloudy morning has brought a sad peace. There will never be a sadder story than the story of Romeo and Juliet.'

Romeo and Juliet tells the story of two important families in Verona, in Italy. The families hate each other. Romeo, the son of Lord Montague, falls in love with Juliet, the daughter of Lord Capulet. But when people hate each other, everybody around them is affected. The story does not end happily because Romeo and Juliet cannot escape from the war between their families and live happily together. In this play, hate has more power over people's lives than love.

All three stories in this book have sad endings. In each story, the main characters die. They die because they, or others, are weak, greedy or very foolish.

Lord and Lady Macbeth (Macbeth) are greedy, and as a result a lot of people die. Macbeth is also weak. Lady Macbeth says, 'Macbeth is too kind, too gentle. There are things that he must do but he is afraid to do them. I must speak to him, and make him brave.' He becomes a murderer and a cruel king because his wife tells him that he must perform evil acts. By the end of the play, Macbeth does not care about anybody. When his wife dies, he says,' It would be better if she died at another time.'

In the third story, King Lear, the king is an a very old man. His great age makes him weak and foolish. He does not understand the characters of his three daughters, and he believes Goneril and Regan when they say that they love him. He thinks that his youngest daughter, Cordelia, does not love him because she refuses to use such fine words. But Goneril and Regan are greedy
for power and they do not care about their father.

Many of the characters in these stories have a lot of faults but, like real people, they have good qualities and moments of greatness too. Macbeth is a fine army commander. He wins an important war and King Duncan admires him. Lear is a great king. The King of France thinks that he is a good man, and the Earl of Gloucester loves him. Even the Montagues and the Capulets end their quarrel — but too late.

William Shakespeare is the most famous writer of plays in the English language. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, six years after Elizabeth I became Queen of England. He wrote thirty-nine plays; thirty-four of these are still regularly seen on the stage. Many are famous as films too. He also wrote hundreds of poems.

We do not know very much about William Shakespeare's life.

We think that he went to school in Stratford. He married Anne Hathaway in 1582, and they had three children: Suzanna (born in 1583), Hamnet and Judith (born together in 1585).

After that, we know nothing about his life until 1592. He went to London, where he began to write successful plays. He became an important member of a theatre company, which performed at two London theatres: the Globe and the Blackfriars. His plays were given special performances at the courts of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. Shakespeare's success made him a wealthy man, and in 1597 he bought New Place, the largest house in Stratford. We believe that he left London and went back to live at New Place in 1610. He continued to write plays until he died in Stratford in 1616.

We know more about Shakespeare's plays than we know about the writer. For 400 years, people have studied every word that Shakespeare wrote. He wrote amusing plays with happy endings, like A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night. He also wrote historical plays; nine of these are about English kings. The third type were sad and serious plays, like the three stories in this book.

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E-Books: Crime Story Collection

2008-11-15T05:48:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Crime Story Collection

Retold by John and Celia Turvey
Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

This collection contains eight murder stories written by some of the finest British and American mystery writers of the twentieth century. Many, like Colin Dexter and Patricia Highsmith, are best known for their full-length works while others, like Jack Ritchie, specialize in the short story In some of these stories, like Sara Paretsky’s ‘At the Old Swimming Hole’, we follow the action through the eyes of the person who is trying to solve the crime. Other stories are told from the point of view of the criminal; as readers of Patricia Highsmith’s ‘Woodrow Wilson’s Tie’, we share the murderer’s thoughts as well as his actions.

English mystery writer Margery Allingham (1904-66) was born in London.She followed other members of her family into a life of writing, producing her first mystery story in 1927. She also wrote about social history. In ‘Three Is a Lucky Number’ we meet Ronald Torbay, who is making careful preparations for his third murder. But will he succeed?

Born in Kentucky in 1940, Sue Grafton, who now lives in California, has won many prizes for her crime stories. Kinsey Millhone, a strong, intelligent female private detective with a good sense of humour, is the main character in her books and short stories. ‘Full Circle’ takes place in the imaginary town of Santa Teresa in California. It seems that there has been a terrible car accident. But was it really an accident?

British crime writer Simon Brett was born in 1945. After studying at Oxford University, he worked as a producer for BBC radio and London Weekend Television. He haswritten a number of radio and TV plays in addition to his books and short stories. Humphrey Partridge, the main character in ‘How’s Your Mother?’, lives alone with his sick mother. But nobody ever sees her, and when the house burns down she cannot be found. Where has she gone?

Sara Paretsky, born in Iowa in 1947, did a variety of jobs after leaving university before becoming a full-time writer. She has won many prizes for her crime writing and is particularly well known for her stories about V. I. Warshawski, a female private detective. In ‘At the Old Swimming Hole’, a woman is shot. V. I. follows the clues, but who is actually following who?

Patricia Highsmith (1921-95), who also wrote under the name Claire Morgan, was from Texas, although she lived in Europe for much of her later life. Her first book, Strangers on a Train (1950), was very successful and was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock. She too won many writing prizes and two of her stories are included in this collection. ‘Slowly, Slowly in the Wind’ tells the story of an argument between neighbours that gets out of control. In ‘Woodrow Wilson’s Tie’ a young delivery boy visits the waxworks and has a strange idea, but who will believe him?

American short story writer John George Reitci (1922-83) wrote under the name of Jack Ritchie. He was educated in Wisconsin, served in the United States Army, and wrote his best stories in the 1960s and 1970s. These stories have been reprinted many times in collections. A number of unusual detectives appear in his mystery stories; often they are not very good at detective work, and find the right solution by accident. In The Absence of Emily’, Jack and Emily live next door to Emily’s sister, Millicent. When Emily goes away without telling her, Millicent starts to worry. Is it possible that Jack has killed her?

Colin Dexter, born in 1930 in Lincolnshire, England, became a schoolteacher after leaving Cambridge University. He later moved to Oxford where many of his stories, including the Inspector Morse mysteries, take place. Morse works closely with Sergeant Lewis, and the relationship between these two very different men develops with each story. In ‘The Inside Story’, a woman has been murdered. Clues include picture postcards and a crime story written by the dead woman. So who killed her? And why?

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E-Books: As Time Goes

2008-11-15T05:23:00.000-08:00

E-Books: As Time Goes

By Michael Walsh
Retold by John Mahood
Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

On that last December night in 1941, Casablanca airport was dark and full of recent memories. This story begins where the movie, Casablanca, ends. The Moroccan city was, at that time, famous for its visitors. These included criminals, but also people who wanted to escape from the Germans. The lucky ones were able to get documents that allowed them to travel to Lisbon, and from there to America.

Victor Laszlo and his wife, Ilsa, have just left for Lisbon to join the fight for the freedom of Europe. Three men are at the airport.

Rick Blaine is an American club owner. He has had a love affair with Ilsa, and he has just shot a German officer to help her on her way. Sam Waters is an American pianist who works for Rick.

Captain Louis Renault is chief of the French police in Casablanca. Louis's loyalties have often been convenient, but now all three of them are ready, like Victor and Ilsa, to leave Morocco.

This book also tells the story of Ricks past. In New York in the 1930s, he lived in a violent world of guns and gangsters, and there he met Lois, the first love of his life.

Michael Walsh, the writer of As Time Goes By, wrote about music for Time magazine for sixteen years before he became a professor of journalism. As Time Goes By is his second work of fiction. Michael Walsh was interested in the past and the future of the characters in Casablanca, and he tells a very exciting story.

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E-Books: Foundations of ASP.NET AJAX

2008-11-14T15:41:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Foundations of ASP.NET AJAX

By Robin Pars, Laurence Moroney,and John Grieb

AJAX is fast becoming a de facto standard for developing responsive and rich web applications. This evolutionary step in the user experience is being used in more and more web applications from Outlook Web Access to Google maps and beyond.

But how do you write AJAX applications? Not too long ago, you had to be a JavaScript expert and use tools that are not as sophisticated as those used in standard ASP.NET development. As such, it had been difficult and time-consuming to develop, debug, and maintain AJAX applications despite their innate user friendliness. However, as the popularity and use of AJAX web applications rose, so did a number of frameworks designed to ease AJAX development by providing more out-of-the-box functionality. A few of those packages had been somewhat geared toward developers working with ASP.NET.

After a long beta period, in early 2007, Microsoft officially released the ASP.NET AJAX Extensions, which include a set of client- and server-side controls and functionality leveraging some of the existing technologies in ASP.NET. This release also included the ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit, which contains a set of control extenders that offer enhanced UI effects and built-in AJAX capabilities that can be used on a page with very little development effort. With this release, Microsoft brought about major productivity leaps to AJAX development in the world of ASP.NET.

With ASP.NET AJAX, you can easily convert your existing ASP.NET applications to AJAX applications, and you can add sophisticated user interface elements such as drag and drop, networking, and browser compatibility layers, with simple declarative programming (or, if you prefer to use JavaScript, you can do that too).

This book is a primer on this technology. It introduces you to ASP.NET AJAX, explores some of the main features and controls, and takes you into how to build AJAX applications quickly and simply, taking advantage of the IDE productivity offered by Visual Studio.

It’s going to be a fun ride, and by the end of it, you’ll be an expert in Web 2.0 and hungry to start developing for it.

Who This Book Is For

This book is for anyone interested in developing next-generation web application interfaces that make the most of AJAX-style asynchronous functionality. Anyone who has ever coded a web page will understand the latency problems associated with postbacks and arsenal by reading this book.

Some knowledge and prior experience with ASP.NET, C#, or Visual Basic .NET will be helpful to properly understand and follow along with this book.

Prerequisites

You’ll need Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008; any edition is fine. If you are using Visual Studio 2005, you will also need the ASP.NET AJAX Extensions and the ASP.NET AJAX Toolkit, which can be downloaded from http://ajax.asp.net.

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E-Books: The Visual C++ Language for .NET 3.5

2008-11-13T18:07:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Foundations of C++/CLI
The Visual C++ Language for .NET 3.5

Foreword by Brandon Bray

Few things excite me more than thinking about the potential of software. It sounds contrived, but it’s true. To that end, programmer productivity is essential to building great software. It’s easy to look at C++ and begin lauding it for powerful techniques like templates and low-level control, and likewise C++ is vilified for complex preprocessing and loose type safety, among other things. Yet C++ is one of the most productive programming languages on the market.

Early on in the design of C++, a conscious decision was made to make C++ highly compatible with C. That philosophy persisted as the language evolved—existing code matters! When new system technologies like COM appeared, C++ directly supported them without forcing programmers to discard code already written. So, when .NET came about, there was no question
that C++ should enable programmers to leverage value from their existing code while using the .NET Framework.

Of course, the first few attempts at integrating concepts from .NET into C++ proved to be a challenging task. Nevertheless, the first release of “Managed C++” laid the groundwork for what was to come. Customers taught us that syntax matters; a good language is a balance between utility and elegance.

At this point, I started involvement in the project. As the person tasked with writing the specification, it is easy to associate me with the development of C++/CLI. Yet this truly was a collaborative effort that involved intense discussion, experimentation, feedback, iteration, and advocacy from hundreds of people. Developers, testers, customers, book authors, standards advocates, bloggers, and even journalists gave feedback that changed C++/CLI in some way.

The end result is a language that enables developers to maximize their usage of C++ code in existence while giving them the freedom to explore the possibilities of the .NET Framework.

C++/CLI is a language that strengthens the value of both managed and native code. Complexity is still a concern, but I am satisfied that the essential concepts of managed code show through in an elegant manner.

I am excited that you have Gordon’s book in your hands. With it, you will take away incredibly valuable skills. After all, the software you create has the potential to change the world.

Brandon Bray
Senior Program Manager, Microsoft

Foreword to the First Edition

A person standing on the side of a river shouts to someone on the opposite bank: “How do you get to the other side?” The second person replies: “You are on the other side.” -Chris Gosden C++/CLI is a binding of C++ to Microsoft’s .NET programming environment. It integrates ISO C++ with the Unified Type System (UTS) of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI).

It supports both source-level and binary interoperability between native and managed C++. As the Gosden quote suggests, it is how one gets to the other side, regardless of where you happen to be standing. The actual details of how you do this are covered in Gordon’s fine text.

In primitive societies and adolescent fantasy novels, such as The Lord of the Rings (which, along with Remembrance of Things Past, is one of my favorite books), names have a kind of magical aura to them—they need to be handled with extreme care and protected. The same holds true in computer science, apparently—or at least within Microsoft. Although you hold in your hand the first book devoted solely to C++/CLI, I couldn’t for the life of me find any specific reference to C++/CLI in the Visual Studio 2005 release—at least not in the Visual C++ IDE, in order to open a C++/CLI project, or in the “What’s New” section of the documentation. This whole notion of binding C++ to .NET has a sort of fantasy aspect to it that has clung to it since the original Managed Extensions to C++ in the Visual Studio .NET release of 2001. C++/CLI is the noncompatible and more elegant replacement for the Managed Extensions. It is how we program .NET using what the book’s subtitle calls “the Visual C++ Language for .NET.” That’s what Gordon’s book will teach you how to do.

As Gordon states in his introduction, C++/CLI represents an evolution of C++. This does not, of course, imply that C++/CLI is a better language than C++; rather, C++/CLI is better adapted to the current and future computing environment that we work in. If you are a Visual C++ programmer with legacy “native applications” and need to move or extend these applications to .NET, C++/CLI is an essential tool for your survival, and Gordon’s text is an essential first step to mastering this tool.

An aspect of evolution is an increase in structural complexity, and this, too, is reflected in C++/CLI: knowing C++ may or may not be a help in understanding C++/CLI! For example, here is no such thing as a destructor in .NET, so although the syntax resembles that of the native C++ destructor, its behavior is oddly counterintuitive: you simply can’t fully understand its operation by its analogous form. And this is where Gordon’s text becomes invaluable both as a tutorial and a desktop reference. It is for this reason that I highly recommend it.

Stanley B. Lippman

Former Architect, Visual C++

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Hacker Highschool: Complete Table of Contents and Glossary

2008-11-09T23:03:00.000-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:

Complete Table of Contents and Glossary

Glossary

Find more computer term definitions at www.webopedia.com, which provided many of the definitions reproduced here.

Anonymous FTP – A method by which computer files are made available for downloading by the general public
awk – A programming language designed for working with strings.
backdoors – An undocumented way of gaining access to a program, online service or an entire computer system.
Baud – bits per second, used to describe the rate at which computers exchange information.
BIOS – basic input/output system. The built-in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk. On PCs, the BIOS contains all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, disk drives, serial communications, and a number of miscellaneous functions. The BIOS is typically placed in a ROM chip that comes with the computer.
blog (weblogs) – Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual.
Boolean logic – Boolean logic is a form of algebra in which all values are reduced to either TRUE or FALSE. Boolean logic is especially important for computer science because it fits nicely with the binary numbering system, in which each bit has a value of either 1 or 0. Another way of looking at it is that each bit has a value of either TRUE or FALSE.
Boot sector – The first sector of the hard disk where the master boot records resides, which is a small program that is executed when a computer boots up.
cache – Pronounced cash, a special high-speed storage mechanism. It can be either a reserved section of main memory or an independent high-speed storage device. Two types of caching are commonly used in personal computers: memory caching and disk caching.
Client – a program on a local computer that is used to exchange data with a remote computer, see server.
cluster / allocation unit – A group of disk sectors. The operating system assigns a unique number to each cluster and then keeps track of files according to which clusters they use cookies – A message given to a Web browser by a Web server. The browser stores the message in a text file. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
CRC – Cyclical redundancy check.
cyclical redundancy check (CRC) – a common technique for detecting data transmission errors. Transmitted messages are divided into predetermined lengths that are divided by a fixed divisor. According to the calculation, the remainder number is appended onto and sent with the message. When the message is received, the computer recalculates the remainder and compares it to the transmitted remainder. If the numbers do not match, an error is detected.
DHCP – Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) – A technology that allows the simultaneous transmission of voice and high-speed data using traditional telephone lines.
DNS – Domain Name Server.
Domain Name Server (DNS) – A service that translates domain names into IP addresses.
domain names – A name that identifies one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html, the domain name is pcwebopedia.com. Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain (TLD) it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains. For example:

gov - Government agencies
edu - Educational institutions
org - Organizations (nonprofit)
com - Commercial Business
net - Network organizations

Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, every Web server requires a Domain Name System (DNS) server to translate domain names into IP addresses.
DSL – Digital Subscriber Line.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) – A protocol used to allow for the dynamic configuration of networks.
E-mail – A service with allows for the transmission of simple messages across networks.
ethereal – a packet sniffer that records traffic on your computer.
ethernet – A local-area network (LAN) architecture developed by Xerox Corporation in cooperation with DEC and Intel in 1976. It is one of the most widely implemented LAN standards.
file signature – Small 6-byte signature at the start of the file which identifies what kind of file it is.
file transfer protocol (FTP) – Used to allow local computers to download files from remote computers.
filtered (ports) – ports for which a firewall examines the header of a packet that is directed to
that port and determines whether or not to let it through (see open ports).
firewall – A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both.
forums – An online discussion group. Online services and bulletin board services (BBS's) provide a variety of forums, in which participants with common interests can exchange open messages
FTP – File transfer protocol.
GCHQ – Government Communications Headquarters, is an intelligence and security organization in the UK.
grep – Short for global-regular-expression-print, a UNIX utility that allows the user to search one or more files for a specific string of text and outputs all the lines that contain the string. The user also has the option to replace the string with another.
HIDS – a host based intrusion detection. An intrusion detection system.
honeypot – An Internet-attached server that acts as a decoy, luring in potential hackers in order to study their activities and monitor how they are able to break into a system.
http – hypertext transfer protocol
hub – A common connection point for devices in a network. Hubs are commonly used to connect segments of a LAN.
Hypertext – a method of organizing and presenting data that allows the user to easily move between related items.
hypertext transfer protocol (http) – The underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web, HTTP defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands.
IANA – Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.
ICMP – Internet Control Message Protocol.
IM – Instant messaging.
Instant messaging (IM) – a type of communications service that enables you to create a kind of private chat room with another individual in order to communicate in real time over the Internet, analogous to a telephone conversation but using text-based, not voice-based, communication.
interfaces – A boundary across which two independent systems meet and act on or communicate with each other.
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) – An organization working under the auspices of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) that is responsible for assigning new Internet-wide IP addresses.
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) – An extension to the Internet Protocol (IP) defined by RFC 792. ICMP supports packets containing error, control, and informational messages. The PING command, for example, uses ICMP to test an Internet connection.
internet protocol (IP) – IP specifies the format of packets, also called datagrams, and the addressing scheme. Most networks combine IP with a higher-level protocol called Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which establishes a virtual connection between a destination and a source.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) – A service which allows for real-time, text-based communication between Internet users.
Internet Service Provider (ISP) – A company which provides users with access to the Internet
IP – Internet protocol.
IP address – An identifier for a computer in the internet or on a TCP/IP network. The format of an IP address is a 32-bit numeric address written as four numbers separated by periods. Each number can be zero to 255. For example, 61.160.10.240 could be an IP address.
ipconfig – Tool to display information on the active interfaces on a computer.
IRC – Internet Relay Chat.
ISP – Internet Service Provider, a company which provides users with access to the Internet logicbombs – code designed to execute when a specific activity occurs on a network or computer.
loopback – when a computer refers to itself. Loopback address is a special IP number (127.0.0.1) that is designated for the software loopback interface of a machine. The loopback interface has no hardware associated with it, and it is not physically connected to a network.
MAC – Media access control .
MD5 hash – An algorithm used to create digital signatures. It is intended for use with 32 bit machines and is safer than the MD4 algorithm, which has been broken. MD5 is a one-way hash function, meaning that it takes a message and converts it into a fixed string of digits, also called a message digest.
media access control (MAC) – A hardware address that uniquely identifies each node of a network.
Modem – Modulator/Demodulator, a device which translates digital signals into analog signals, and analog signals back into digital signals, allowing computers to communicate with each other through analog telephone lines.
MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) – MS-DOS is an Operating System. Mainly it allows the communication between users and PC hardware, and it also manages available resources, such as memory and CPU usage.
netstat – command which displays the status of a network.
network intrusion detection (NIDS) – Intrusion detection system in which the individual packets flowing through a network are analyzed.
newsgroups – Same as forum, an on-line discussion group.
NIDS – Network intrusion detection.
nmap – a program which conducts a probe of your computer for open ports.
NSA – The National Security Agency is the United States' cryptologic organization. It coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized activities to protect US information systems and produce foreign intelligence information.
open (ports) – ports for which all packets that is directed to that port are allowed through (see filtered ports).
operating system – The underlying program that runs on a computer. Every general-purpose computer must have an operating system to run other programs. Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers. Some Operating Systems are Windows, Linux and UNIX.
P2P – Peer-to-peer.
packet sniffer – A program and/or device that monitors data traveling over a network.
packets – A piece of a message transmitted over a packet-switching network.
password cracking – the process of attempting to determine an unknown password.
peer-to-peer (P2P) – a type of network in which each workstation has equivalent capabilities and responsibilities.
ping – A utility to determine whether a specific IP address is accessible. It works by sending a packet to the specified address and waiting for a reply.
Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) – Used to describe basic, old-fashioned telephone service.
POP – Post Office Protocol, a protocol used to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. Most e-mail applications (sometimes called an e-mail client) use the POP protocol, although some can use the newer IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol).
ports – An interface on a computer to which you can connect a device. Personal computers have various types of ports. Internally, there are several ports for connecting disk drives, display screens, and keyboards. Externally, personal computers have ports for connecting modems, printers, mice, and other peripheral devices.
POTS – Plain old telephone service.
ppp – Point-to-Point Protocol, a method of connecting a computer to the Internet. PPP is more stable than the older SLIP protocol and provides error checking features.
privileged access – A privilege to use computer information in some manner. For example, a user might be granted read access to a file, meaning that the user can read the file but cannot modify or delete it. Most operating systems have several different types of access privileges that can be granted or denied to specific users or groups of users.
protocol – An agreed-upon format for transmitting data between two devices.
RAM (Random Access Memory) – a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly; that is, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes.
rootkits – malware that creates a method to retain access to a machine.
router – A device that forwards data packets along networks. A router is connected to at least two networks, commonly two LANs or WANs or a LAN and its ISP’s network. Routers are located at gateways, the places where two or more networks connect. Routers use headers and forwarding tables to determine the best path for forwarding the packets, and they use protocols such as ICMP to communicate with each other and configure the best route between any two hosts.
routing table – In internet working, the process of moving a packet of data from source to destination. Routing is usually performed by a dedicated device called a router.
sandbox – A security measure in the Java development environment. The sandbox is a set of rules that are used when creating an applet that prevents certain functions when the applet is sent as part of a Web page.
script kiddie – A person who runs hacking tools without knowing how or why they work.
sectors – The smallest unit that can be accessed on a disk.
Secure Shell – A protocol designed as a more secure replacement for telnet.
Server – A program on a remote computer that is used to provide data to a local computer, see client.
Services - Network services allow local computers to exchange information with remote computers.
SMTP – Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol for sending e-mail messages between servers. Most e-mail systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP
social engineering – The act of obtaining or attempting to obtain otherwise secure data by conning an individual into revealing secure information.
spyware – Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge
SSH – Secure Shell, a program to log into another computer over a network, to execute commands in a remote machine, and to move files from one machine to another.
switch – In networks, a device that filters and forwards packets between LAN segments.
TCP – Transmission Control Protocol. Whereas the IP protocol deals only with packets, TCP enables two hosts to establish a connection and exchange streams of data. TCP guarantees delivery of data and also guarantees that packets will be delivered in the same order in which they were sent.
TCP/IP – Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The suite of communications protocols used to connect hosts on the Internet.
tcpdump – a packet sniffer that records traffic on your computer.
Telnet – a protocol that allows a local user to connect to a remote computer and access its resources.
timebombs – code designed to execute at a specific time on a network or computer, for example when the expiration date is reached on a trial software.
topologies – The shape of a local-area network (LAN) or other communications system.
tracert – A utility that traces a packet from your computer to an Internet host, showing how many hops the packet requires to reach the host and how long each hop takes.
tracks – A ring on a disk where data can be written. A typical floppy disk has 80 (doubledensity) or 160 (high-density) tracks. For hard disks, each platter is divided into tracks, and a single track location that cuts through all platters (and both sides of each platter) is called a cylinder. Hard disks have many thousands of cylinders.
trojans – A destructive program that masquerades as a benign application. Unlike viruses, Trojans do not replicate themselves but they can be just as destructive.
Web Browser – a program that allows users to connect to web servers and view the pages stored on them.
Web Server – A computer where web pages are kept to be accessed by other computers.
weblogs (blogs) – Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual.
Whois – An Internet utility that returns information about a domain name or IP address.
World Wide Web (www)– A service for the transmission and presentation of hypertext.
worms – A program or algorithm that replicates itself over a computer network and usually performs malicious actions, such as using up the computer's resources and possibly shutting the system down.
zine – Small, often free magazine, usually produced by hobbyists and amateur journalists.

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Hacker Highschool: Lesson 1 Being a Hacker

2008-11-09T22:55:00.000-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:

Lesson 1 Being a Hacker

1.0 Introduction

Welcome to the Hacker Highschool program! This program is designed to encourage you to be well-rounded and resourceful. The core instruction theme is to harness the hacker curiosity in you and to guide you progressively through your hacker education to help you grow into aresponsible role, capable of determining security and privacy problems and making proper security decisions for yourself.

While there is a thrill to hacking partly because of the illegal nature of computer trespass, we want to show you that it is just as big a thrill to alert others about lapses in security and make them public without worrying about going to jail over it. As a citizen of most countries, it is not only your right, but your responsibility, to report security and privacy leaks to the proper authorities. You do this not because you can, but because many other people can't. You are helping those who can't help themselves. This is what watchdog groups do. This is what you will learn to do.

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Hacker Highschool: Lesson 2 Basic Commands in Linux and windows

2008-11-09T22:20:00.001-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:

Lesson 2 Basic Commands in Linux and windows

2.1. Introduction and Objectives

This lesson introduces commands and basic tools for both Windows and Linux operating systems so that you can become familiar with them. These commands will be used to complete the exercises in the following lessons At the end of this lesson, you should know the following commands:

General Windows and Linux commands
Basic network commands and tools (Ping, Tracert, Netstat, IpConfig, Route)

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Hacker Highschool: Lesson 3 Ports and Protocols

2008-11-09T22:15:00.000-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:
Lesson 3 Ports and Protocols

3.1 Introduction

The text and exercises in this lesson try to impart a basic understanding of the ports and protocols in current use, as well as their relevance within the operating systems, Windows and Linux.

Additionally, you will have the opportunity to become familiar with a number of useful utilities which will allow you to properly understand the network capabilities of your computer system.
At the end of the lesson you should have a basic knowledge of:

the concepts of networks
IP addresses
ports and protocols.

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Hacker Highschool: Lesson 4 Services and Connections

2008-11-09T22:05:00.000-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:
Lesson 4 Services and Connections

4.0 Introduction

The purpose of this lesson is to give you an understanding of some of the basic services which networks use to provide and exchange information, and to discuss some of the methods in which personal computers and local networks connect with the other networks which make up the Internet.

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Hacker Highschool: Lesson 5 System Identification

2008-11-09T21:54:00.001-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:
Lesson 5 System Identification

5.0 Introduction

It is obvious that someone who sits down at the keyboard of your computer can gather information about it, including the operating system and the programs that are running, but it is also possible for someone to use a network connection to gather information about a remote computer. This lesson will describe some of the ways in which that information can be gathered. Knowing how this information is gathered will help you to ensure that your local computer is safe from these activities.

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Hacker Highschool: Lesson 6 Malware

2008-11-09T21:50:00.001-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:

Lesson 6 Malware

6.0 Introduction

“Malware” are programs or parts of programs that have a malicious ( “Mal” ) or unpleasant effect on your computer security. This covers many different terms that you may have heard before, such as “Virus”, “Worm” and “Trojan” and possibly a few that you haven't like “Rootkit”, “Logicbomb” and “Spyware”. This lesson will introduce, define and explain each of these subdivisions of malware, will give you examples, and will explain some of the countermeasures that can be put into place to restrict the problems caused by malware.

6.1 Viruses (Virii)

6.1.1 Introduction

Virus – this is the most common type of malware that people will be aware of. The reason that it is known as a virus, rather than anything else, is historical. The press ran the stories of the first computer virus at the same time as articles concerning the spread of AIDS. At the time, there were simple parallels that could be easily drawn between the two, propagation through interaction with a contaminated party, the reliance on a host and the ultimate “death” of anything infected. This resulted, and still does occasionally, in concerns that people could become “infected” with a computer virus.

6.1.2 Description

Viruses or virii are self-replicating pieces of software that, similar to a biological virus, attach themselves to another program, or, in the case of “macro viruses”, to another file. The virus is only run when the program or the file is run or opened. It is this which differentiates viruses from worms. If the program or file is not accessed in any way, then the virus will not run and will not copy itself further.

There are a number of types of viruses, although, significantly, the most common form today is the macro virus, and others, such as the boot sector virus are now only found “in captivity”.

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Hacker Highschool: Lesson 6 Malware

2008-11-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:

Lesson 6 Malware

Hacker Highschool: Lesson 7 Attack Analysis

2008-11-09T21:35:00.000-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:
Lesson 7 Attack Analysis

7.0 Introduction

There are a lot of programs on your computer that will want to open up network connections. Some of these programs have valid reasons for connecting (your web browser won't work nearly as well without access to a network connection as it will with one), others have been written by people with motives ranging from questionable to criminal. If you want to protect your computer, you'll have to learn how to detect network access, and identify the source and intent. Not every attempt at network access is an attack, but if you don't know how to identify friend from foe, you might as well just leave your door open.

7.1 Netstat and Host Application Firewalls

To be able to identify an attack, you have to know what applications and processes normally run on your computer. Just looking at a graphical interface, whether in Windows or Linux, won't let you see what's going on underneath the surface. Netstat and a firewall can be used to help you identify which programs should be allowed to connect with the network.

7.1.1 Netstat

(netstat is also discussed in section 5.2.3) The netstat command will display the status of the network. Netstat can give you information about what ports are open and the IP addresses that are accessing them, what protocols those ports are using, the state of the port, and information about the process or program using the port.

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Hacker Highschool: Lesson 8 Digital Forensics

2008-11-09T21:27:00.000-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:

Lesson 8 Digital Forensics

8.0 Introduction

Forensics concerns the application of a methodical investigation technique in order to reconstruct a sequence of events. Most people are now familiar with the concept of forensics from TV and films, “CSI ( Crime Scene Investigation )” being one of the most popular. Forensic science was for a long time – and still is really – most associated with Forensic Pathology – finding out how people died. The first recorded description of forensics was on just this subject In 1248, a Chinese book called Hsi DuanYu (the Washing Away of Wrongs) was published. This book describes how to tell if someone has drowned or has been strangled.1 Digital forensics is a bit less messy and a bit less well known. This is the art of recreating what has happened in a digital device. In the past it was restricted to computers only, but now encompasses all digital devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and even GPS2 devices. It has been used to catch murderers, kidnappers, fraudsters, Mafia bosses and many other decidedly unfriendly people.

In this lesson, we are going to cover two aspects of forensics (all computer based I'm afraid – no mobile phone stuff here).

1. What people have been up to on their own computer.
This covers

...the recovery of deleted files.
...elementary decryption.
...searching for certain file types.
...searching for certain phrases.
...looking at interesting areas of the computer.

2. What a remote user has been doing on someone else's computer.
This covers

...reading log files.
...reconstructing actions.
...tracing the source.

This lesson is going to focus on the tools available under Linux. There are tools that are available under Windows, as well as dedicated software and hardware for doing forensics, but with the capability of Linux to mount and understand a large number of alternate operating and file systems, it is the ideal environment for most forensic operations.

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Hacker Highschool: Lesson 9 E-mail Security

2008-11-09T21:21:00.000-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:
Lesson 9 E-mail Security

9.0 Introduction

Everyone uses e-mail. It is the second most used application on the internet next to your web browser. But what you might not realize is that a significant portion of network attacks and compromises originate through e-mail. And with respect to your privacy, misuse of e-mail has the potential to disclose either the contents of your message, or give a spammer information about you. The purpose of this module is to give you information on how e-mail works, safe email usage, e-mail based attacks, and security strategies for e-mail.

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Hacker Highschool: Lesson 10 Web Security and Privacy

2008-11-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:

Lesson 9 E-mail Security

Hacker Highschool: Lesson 10 Web Security and Privacy

2008-11-09T20:57:00.000-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:

Lesson 10 Web Security and Privacy

10.1 Fundamentals of Web Security

What you do on the World Wide Web is your business. Or so you would think. But it's just not true. What you do on the web is about as private and anonymous as where you go when you leave the house. Again, you would think that it's your business and many, including ISECOM, would agree with you. However, consider a private investigator following you around town, writing down what you saw and who you spoke with.

The focus of this lesson is to get you learn how to protect yourself on the web and to do that, you will have to learn where the dangers are.

The World Wide Web works in a very straight-forward manner. Once connected to the Internet through you ISP, you open a browser, tell it a website, and you get that website on your screen. However, the truth is in the details. How does the web really work?

A quick trip to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), those fine folks who make standards for the web, will teach you all you want to know about the web. http://www.w3.org. Even the history of the web: http://www.w3.org/History.html The problem is, will definitions and standards teach you how to be safe? Apparently not. The people who want to hurt you do not necessarily follow the standards.

10.1.1 How the web really works

The steps involved in connecting to the Internet and then to the web are very detailed even if it does seem to be smooth from the user end.

So what happens for real when you just want to get to the ISECOM website? Assuming you are already connected to the internet, here are the steps that occur in order:

You open your browser.
You type in the URL (website name).
Website name saved in History Cache on the hard disk.
Your computer looks up the name of the address to your default DNS server to find the IP address.
Your computer connects to the server at the IP address provided at the default web port of 80 TCP if you used “HTTP://” or 443 TCP if you used “HTTPS://” at the front of the web server name (by the way, if you used HTTPS then there are other steps involved using server certificates which we will not follow in this example).
Your computer requests the page or directory you specified with the default often being “index.htm” if you don't specify anything. But the server decides t's default and not your browser.
The pages are stored in a cache on your harddisk. Even if you tell it to store the information in memory (RAM), there is a good chance it will end up some where on your disk either in a PAGEFILE or in a SWAPFILE.
The browser nearly instantaneously shows you what it has stored. Again, there is a difference between “perceived speed” and “actual speed” of your web surfing which is actually the difference between how fast something is downloaded (actual) and how fast your browser and graphics card can render the page and graphics and show them to you (perceived). Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't end up in your browser cache.

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Hacker Highschool : Lesson 11 Password

2008-11-09T20:39:00.000-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:

Lesson 11 Password

11.0 Introduction

One of the principal characters in The Matrix Reloaded is the Keymaker. The Keymaker is critically important; he is protected by the Matrix and sought by Neo, because he makes and holds the keys to the various parts of the Matrix. The Matrix is a computer generated world; the keys he makes are passwords. Within the movie, he has general passwords, back door passwords and master keys – passwords to everywhere.

Passwords are keys that control access. They let you in and keep others out. They provide information control (passwords on documents); access control (passwords to web pages) and authentication (proving that you are who you say you are).

11.1 Types of Passwords

There are three main types of passwords.

11.1.1 Strings of Characters

At the most basic level, passwords are stings of characters, numbers and symbols. Access to a keyboard or keypad allows entry of these types of passwords. These passwords range from the simplest – such as the three digit codes used on some garage door openers – to the more complicated combinations of characters, numbers and symbols that are recommended for protecting highly confidential information.

11.1.2 Strings of Characters plus a token

The next level in passwords is to require a string of characters, numbers and symbols plus a token of some type. An example of this is the ATM, which requires a card - the token - plus a personal identification number or PIN. This is considered more secure, because if you lack either item, you are denied access.

11.1.3 Biometric Passwords

The third level in passwords is the biometric password. This is the use of non-reproducible biological features, such as fingerprints or facial features to allow access. An example of this is the retinal scan, in which the retina – which is the interior surface of the back of the eye – is photographed. The retina contains a unique pattern of blood vessels that are easily seen and this pattern is compared to a reference. Biometric passwords are the most sophisticated and are considered 'safer' but in reality a password that you 'carry' in your finger or eye is no safer than a strong password that you carry in your head, provided that the software that uses the password is correctly configured.

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Hacker Highschool : Lesson 12 Internet legalities and ethics

2008-11-09T20:27:00.000-08:00

Hacker Highschool Security Awarness for teens:

Lesson 12 Internet legalities and ethics

12.1. Introduction

New technologies, while building a new paradigm that invades every human activity, also influence the dark side of these activities: criminal behavior of individuals and of organized groups.

For this reason, we have reserved the last lesson of HHS to analyze some aspects related to Legality and Ethics, analyzing several behaviors that could end in crimes and the consequences of these crimes.

12.2. Foreign crimes versus local rights

As noted above, the introduction of new technologies can result in the creation of new dark sides of activities: criminal behavior of individuals or organized groups. There are two main characteristics through which Information Technology and Communications (TIC’s) are related to crime:

Technologies can give the possibility of renewing traditional ways of breaking the law. These are illegal activities which traditionally appear in the penal codes, but are now being attempted in new ways. Examples include money laundering and illegal types of pornography.
In addition, because of their own innovation, TIC’s are resulting in the appearance of new types of criminal activities, and because of their nature, these new crimes are in the process of being added to the legislation of several countries. Examples include the distribution of spam and virus attacks.

Another characteristic of the TICs which must be emphasized is their territorial displacement, which affects the general surroundings but without any doubt affects other countries as well.

Previously, areas of 'law' always had a clear territory regarding the judicial authority judging (COMPETENT JURISDICTION) and also regarding the law to be applied in the judging (APPLICABLE LAW). Both concepts are still noticeably geographic. In summary, we can say that the TICs are global and essentially multi-border, while the law and the courts are limited to a specific state or territory.

In addition, this disorientation is even more confusing than it initially appears. Although we are not aware of it, a bidirectional online communication between a user in Barcelona and a Web site hosted in an ISP in California can pass through more than 10 ISPs, hosted in a variety of remote points around the world.

Facing this diversity of addresses and nationalities, it becomes necessary to ask What laws of which country will be applied in case of litigation? Which of the possible countries will be the suitable court to adjudicate the case?

The relatively recent European Council's agreement on cyber-crime was signed in November 2001 in Budapest by almost 30 countries, including the 15 partners of the European Union, the United States, Canada, Japan and South Africa. This agreement intends to restore the TERRITORIAL PRINCIPLE to define competent jurisdiction. The signing of this agreement is the culmination of four years of work that have resulted in a document containing 48 articles that
are organized into four categories:

Infractions against confidentiality
Falsification and computer science fraud
Infractions relative to contents
Violations of intellectual property

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E-Books: Java™ After Hours: 10 Projects You'll Never Do at Work

2008-11-09T16:06:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Java™ After Hours: 10 Projects You'll Never Do at Work
By Steven Holzner

Welcome to Java After Hours: 10 Projects You'll Never Do at Work, the book that lets you kick back and take control of Java. This book is not to be taken too seriouslyit's meant to be fun. So relax; you're in the driver's seat here. This is where you get to make Java do some outrageous things for you.

Why Is This Book Unique?

If you're a programmer, too many of the programming books you've read have probably not been much fun at all. In fact, many of them are grim slogs.

Not this one. This is designed to be the computer book for the rest of us who just want to kick back and get a little enjoyment out of what we do everyday.

That's not to say that the programs you're going to find here aren't powerful and that you can't learn some interesting techniques from themyou can. There's all kinds of cool stuff in here, from creating a multithreaded hockey game to an online chat room, from an Internet-based intercom to a temperature forecaster that draws JPEG images online and sends them to browsers.

There's a lot packed in here, and as the book's author, my hope is that at least some of it will make you take a second look and say, "Cool!"

Who Is This Book For?

This book is for you if you're a Java programmer and you're tired of the usual run-of-the-mill stuff.

This book is also for you if you want to learn some of the techniques involved: sending JPEGs back from a web server, grabbing web pages from Java code, creating drop shadows in Java2D, using online filters, controlling any other program robotically, and more.

About the Book's Code

This book contains 10 projects, along with some minor projects used for illustration purposes (one of these subprojects builds an entire web server you can run from your desktop, given an Internet connection and a fixed IP address, which you probably have if you have a broadband connection).

Here's an overview of the code in this book:

Chapter 1: Aquarium A multithreaded fish-swimming project with fish that swim realistically against a bubbly background.

Chapter 2: Slapshot! A multithreaded hockey game that moves. You play against the computer and set the speed. And when you set the speed in the upper 90s, you've got a good chance of losing.

Chapter 3: The Graphicizer An image-editing and conversion tool. This one lets you read in JPG, PNG, or GIF files and save images in JPG or PNG format. You can work with images pixel by pixel, embossing them, sharpening them, brightening them, blurring them, reducing them, and so on. And you can even undo the most recent change.

Chapter 4: Painter Lets you draw your own images from scratchellipses, rectangles, lines, and so on. You can even draw freehand with the mouse. You can also draw each shape open or filled, using a texture fill, a solid color fill, or a gradient fill. You can draw text. You can give shapes a drop shadow, or make them transparent. You can draw using thin lines or thick lines. You can set the drawing color. And not only can you save your work when done, you can also read in images and work on them, annotating them with text or adding your own graphics.

Chapter 5: The Chat project In this project you create your own private Internet chat room that will keep you in touch with anyone over the Internet. All you need is Internet access and a Java-enabled web server. You can have as many people in your chat room as you like. What they type, you can see, and what you type, they can see. Type all you likeall you're paying for is the local Internet connection.

Chapter 6: WebLogger Log access to your website. This project lets you log users who access your website by access time, authentication type, username (if they've logged in), user IP address, the URL they accessed on your site, their browser type, the milliseconds they were there for, and so on. All without their knowledge.

Chapter 7: The Robot project Another cool one. This project lets you control any other program by remote control; just tell it what to do. You can send text to the other program you're controlling. You can use the Alt and Ctrl keys. You can send tab characters, the Enter key, or the Esc key. You can also use the mousejust enter the screen location (in pixels) where you want the mouse to move to. Then click the mouse, right-click it, or double-click it. You can also take screen captures. Want to automate working with any program? The Robot will do it.

Chapter 8: The Browser project This project lets you create a fully featured browser (subclassing Microsoft Internet Explorer) in your Java applications.

Chapter 9: The Intercom project This project lets two people type across the Internet. You just start up the project, connect with the click of a button, and you've got your own connection: Everything you type into the Intercom, the other use can see, and everything the other user types, you can see. This one is a client/server application and connects directly across the Internet using its own protocolunlike the Chat project, no Java-enabled web server is needed here at all.

Chapter 10: The Forecaster project Displays a four-day temperature forecast for your area, starting with today's high and low temperatures. All you've got to do is to tell the Forecaster your ZIP Code, and it'll give you the forecast by reading its data from the National Weather Service and sending a JPEG image from the server back to the browser.

You can download all the code used throughout this book from the Sams website at http://www.samspublishing.com. Enter this book's ISBN (without the hyphens) in the Search box and click Search. When the book's title is displayed, click the title to go to a page where you can download the code.

For Download:

E-Books: Origami Volanti

2008-11-09T15:39:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Origami Volanti By Eiji Nakamura

Origami da semplice divertimento a scienza vera

For Download:

E-Books: Origami 30 Fold By Fold Project

2008-11-09T15:23:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Origami 30 Fold By Fold Project

For Download:

E-books: 11 Steps to create a successful Web Site

2008-11-08T17:50:00.000-08:00

E-books: 11 Steps to create a successful Web Site

64 Pages of helpful advice and ho to's
planning you web pressence
DIY or Go with a Pro
Making Key Design Decisions
Learning the Code
Optimizing your Site for Search Engines

12 Tips to easy web site construction and making it affordable too!!

For Download:

E-Books: Data Structures and Algorithms in Java

2008-11-08T17:20:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Data Structures and Algorithms in Java

By Mitchell Waite

This introduction tells you briefly

What this book is about
Why it's different
Who might want to read it
What you need to know before you read it
The software and equipment you need to use it
How this book is organized

What This Book Is About

This book is about data structures and algorithms as used in computer programming. Data structures are ways in which data is arranged in your computer's memory (or stored on disk). Algorithms are the procedures a software program uses to manipulate the data in these structures. Almost every computer program, even a simple one, uses data structures and algorithms. For example, consider a program that prints address labels. The program might use an array containing the addresses to be printed, and a simple for loop to step through the array, printing each address.

The array in this example is a data structure, and the for loop, used for sequential access to the array, executes a simple algorithm. For uncomplicated programs with small amounts of data, such a simple approach might be all you need. However, for programs that handle even moderately large amounts of data, or that solve problems that are slightly out of the ordinary, more sophisticated techniques are necessary. Simply knowing the syntax of a computer language such as Java or C++ isn't enough.

This book is about what you need to know after you've learned a programming language.

The material we cover here is typically taught in colleges and universities as a second-year course in computer science, after a student has mastered the fundamentals of programming.

W hat's Different About This Book

There are dozens of books on data structures and algorithms. What's different about this one? Three things:

Our primary goal in writing this book is to make the topics we cover easy to understand.
Demonstration programs called Workshop applets bring to life the topics we cover, showing you step by step, with "moving pictures," how data structures and algorithms work.
The example code is written in Java, which is easier to understand than C, C++, or Pascal, the languages traditionally used to demonstrate computer science topics.

Let's look at these features in more detail.

Easy to Understand

Typical computer science textbooks are full of theory, mathematical formulas, and abstruse examples of computer code. This book, on the other hand, concentrates on simple explanations of techniques that can be applied to real-world problems. We avoid complex proofs and heavy math. There are lots of figures to augment the text.

Many books on data structures and algorithms include considerable material on sofware engineering. Software engineering is a body of study concerned with designing and implementing large and complex software projects.

However, it's our belief that data structures and algorithms are complicated enough without involving this additional discipline, so we have deliberately de-emphasized software engineering in this book. (We'll discuss the relationship of data structures and algorithms to software engineering in Chapter 1," Overview.") Of course we do use an object-oriented approach, and we discuss various aspects of object-oriented design as we go along, including a mini-tutorial on OOP in Chapter 1. Our primary emphasis, however, is on the data structures and algorithms themselves.

Workshop Applets

The CD-ROM that accompanies this book includes demonstration programs, in the form of Java applets, that cover the topics we discuss. These applets, which we call Workshop applets, will run on many computer systems, appletviewers, and Web browsers. (See the readme file on the CD-ROM for more details on compatibility.) The Workshop applets create graphic images that show you in "slow motion" how an algorithm works.

For example, in one Workshop applet, each time you push a button, a bar chart shows you one step in the process of sorting the bars into ascending order. The values of variables used in the sorting algorithm are also shown, so you can see exactly how the computer code works when executing the algorithm. Text displayed in the picture explains what's happening.

Another applet models a binary tree. Arrows move up and down the tree, so you can follow the steps involved in inserting or deleting a node from the tree. There are more than 20 Workshop applets—at least one for every major topic in the book.

These Workshop applets make it far more obvious what a data structure really looks like, or what an algorithm is supposed to do, than a text description ever could. Of course, we provide a text description as well. The combination of Workshop applets, clear text, and illustrations should make things easy.

These Workshop applets are standalone graphics-based programs. You can use them as a learning tool that augments the material in the book. (Note that they're not the same as the example code found in the text of the book, which we'll discuss next.)

Java Example Code

The Java language is easier to understand (and write) than languages such as C and C++. The biggest reason for this is that Java doesn't use pointers. Although it surprises some people, pointers aren't necessary for the creation of complex data structures and algorithms. In fact, eliminating pointers makes such code not only easier to write and to understand, but more secure and less prone to errors as well.

Java is a modern object-oriented language, which means we can use an object-oriented approach for the programming examples. This is important, because object-oriented programming (OOP) offers compelling advantages over the old-fashioned procedural approach, and is quickly supplanting it for serious program development. Don't be alarmed if you aren't familiar with OOP. It's not that hard to understand, especially in a pointer-free environment such as Java. We'll explain the basics of OOP in Chapter 1.

For Download:

E-Books: Advanced CORBA® Programming with C++

2008-11-07T16:09:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Advanced CORBA® Programming with C++
Michi Henning | Steve Vinoski

For years, both of us have been (and still are) teaching CORBA programming with C++ to software engineers all over the world. One of the most frequently asked questions in our courses is, "Where can I find a book that covers all this?" Although many books have been written about CORBA, most of them focus on high-level concepts and do not address the needs of software engineers. Even though CORBA is conceptually simple, the devil lies in the detail. Or, more bluntly, books focusing on high-level concepts are of little use when you must find out why your program is dumping core.

To be sure, there are resources available about CORBA, such as newsgroups, Web pages, and the Object Management Group (OMG) specifications. However, none of them really meets the needs of a programmer who must get the code to work (and preferably by yesterday). We wrote this book so that there would finally be a tutorial and reference that covers CORBA programming with C++ at the level of detail required for real-life software development. (And, of course, we wrote it so that we would have a good answer for our students.)

Writing such a book is a tall order. Explaining the CORBA specification and APIs is one thing, and it's a necessary part of the book. However, knowing the various APIs will not, by itself, make you a competent programmer (only a knowledgeable one). To be competent, you need not only knowledge of the mechanics of the platform but also an understanding of how the different features interact. You must combine them effectively to end up with an application that performs and scales well and is maintainable, extensible, portable, and deployable.

To help you become competent (as opposed to merely knowledgeable), we go beyond the basics in a number of ways. For one thing, we provide advice as to what we consider good (and bad) design, and we make no attempt to hide problems with CORBA (which, like any other complex software system, has its share of wrinkles). Second, we go beyond the APIs by explaining some of CORBA's internal mechanisms. Even though you can use an ORB without knowing what goes on under the hood, it is useful to understand these mechanisms because they have a profound influence on how well (or how poorly) an application will perform. Third, we devote considerable space to a discussion of the merits of various design decisions; typically, when a design provides a gain in one area it also involves a loss in another. Understanding these trade-offs is crucial to building successful applications. And fourth, where appropriate, we make recommendations so that you are not left without guidance.

Inevitably, our approach required us to make value judgments, and, just as inevitably, a number of people will disagree with at least some of the recommendations we make. Whether you agree or disagree with us, you should still profit from our approach: if you agree, you can stick to the advice we give; if you disagree, the discussion will have at least encouraged you to think about the topic and form your own opinion. Either way, you are better off than you would be with a book that just dumps the facts on you without providing the deeper insight required to use them.

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E-Books: Building Websites with XOOPS A step-by-step Tutorial

2008-11-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Building Websites with XOOPS A step-by-step Tutorial
Get your XOOPS website up fast using this easy-to-follow guide
By Steve Atwal

XOOPS is an open-source web content management system, written in PHP. It allows site administrators to easily create dynamic websites with great content and many outstanding features, with a minimum of coding. It's great for creating small to large dynamic community websites, intra-company portals, and much more. It has a large, enthusiastic, and helpful community of users.

If you want to create a powerful, fully-featured website in no time, this book is just for you. This book will help you explore XOOPS, putting you in the picture of what it offers, and how to go about building a site with the system.

You will be introduced to the main components of XOOPS, and learn how to manage them. You will develop the skills and the confidence to manage all types of content on the site, and also understand how users interact with the site. As you find your way round, your own ideas for what you need in your new website will begin to crystallize around what you can see about the capabilities and flexibility of XOOPS.

What This Book Covers

The book begins with an overview of XOOPS, its history, and its community.
Chapter 2 shows you how to set up a local development environment for running XOOPS, and also what needs to be done before you can install XOOPS to have a live, public-facing, website. Once your development environment is set up, the chapter shows you how to get XOOPS installed and working.

Chapter 3 takes you through the basic configuration of your XOOPS installation, to get all the site details correct, and make sure your site is hooked up to a mail server for important notifications Chapter 4 covers many of the administration tasks that you will perform while managing your site. You will see how to manage users and groups, add and activate new modules, add and position blocks, and manage banners and images among other things.

Chapter 5 introduces XOOPS themes, which control the look and feel of your site. You will see what a theme is, and how to install and modify an existing XOOPS theme to customize it to your needs. You will also get started with creating a brand-new XOOPS theme.

There are many modules available for extending the functionality of XOOPS. In Chapter 6, we cover a number of the most popular modules available from the XOOPS website, and explore their installation and use. We will look at modules for tasks like handling news, calendars, creating an image gallery and a forum, and also adding a sitemap to your site to improve its accessibility to search engines.

Chapter 7 demonstrates the use of the IntranetPack, a free package available from www.xoops.org. This package contains some commonly used modules that can be used to put together a company portal. The chapter will walk you through each of these modules to give you a working intranet.

Conventions In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

There are three styles for code. Code words in text are shown as follows: "The header and footer sections can be changed using the main theme.html and style.css files."

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E-Books: Step By Step Microsoft Visual C# 2005

2008-11-07T15:19:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Step By Step Microsoft Visual C# 2005

E-Books: Step By Step Microsoft Visual C# 2008

2008-11-07T14:47:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Step By Step Microsoft Visual C# 2008
By John Sharp

Microsoft Visual C# is a powerful but simple language aimed primarily at developers creating applications by using the Microsoft .NET Framework. It inherits many of the best features of C++ and Microsoft Visual Basic but few of the inconsistencies and anachronisms, resulting in a cleaner and more logical language. With the advent of C# 2.0 in 2005, several important new features were added to the language, including generics, iterators, and anonymous methods. C# 3.0, available as part of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, adds further features, such as extension methods, lambda expressions, and, most famously of all, the Language Integrated Query facility, or LINQ. The development environment provided by Visual Studio 2008 makes these powerful features easy to use, and the many new wizards and enhancements included in Visual Studio 2008 can greatly improve your productivity as a developer.

Who This Book Is For

The aim of this book is to teach you the fundamentals of programming with C# by using Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework version 3.5. You will learn the features of the C# language, and then use them to build applications running on the Microsoft Windows operating system. By the time you complete this book, you will have a thorough understanding of C# and will have used it to build Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications, access Microsoft SQL Server databases, develop ASP.NET Web applications, and build and consume a Windows Communication Foundation service.

Finding Your Best Starting Point in This Book

This book is designed to help you build skills in a number of essential areas. You can use this book if you are new to programming or if you are switching from another programming language such as C, C++, Sun Microsystems Java, or Visual Basic. Use the following table to fi nd your best starting point.

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E-Books: Step By Step Microsoft Visual Basic 2008

2008-11-05T15:35:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Step By Step Microsoft Visual Basic 2008
By Michael Halvorson

I’m really glad that you’ve chosen this book to learn essential Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 programming skills and techniques. Although we’re meeting for the fi rst time in this paragraph, the chances are that we’re not all that different. I work with a computer every day and I spend a lot of time helping friends and colleagues make their lives better (or at least more effi cient!) with new software and related technologies. Over the years, I have learned dozens of computer applications, languages, and tools, and I have a knack for weaving them together to solve real-world business problems. You’re probably the same—the go-to tech person in your offi ce, school, or home—which is why you’re now needing to learn, or upgrade to, Visual Basic 2008—one of the most powerful development tools in use today.

Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Step by Step is a comprehensive introduction to Visual Basic programming using the Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 software. I’ve designed this practical, hands-on tutorial with a variety of skill levels in mind. The result is that new programmers can learn software development fundamentals in the context of useful, real-world applications, and experienced Visual Basic programmers can quickly master the essential tools and programming techniques offered in the Visual Basic 2008 upgrade.

Complementing this comprehensive approach is the book’s structure—4 topically organized parts, 20 chapters, and 53 step-by-step exercises and sample programs. By using this book, you’ll quickly learn how to create professional-quality Visual Basic 2008 applications for the Windows operating system and a variety of Web browsers. You’ll also have fun!

What Is Visual Basic 2008?

Visual Basic 2008 is a development tool that you can use to build software applications that perform useful work and look great within a variety of settings. Using Visual Basic 2008, you can create applications for the Windows operating system, the Web, hand-held devices, and a host of other environments and settings. The most important advantage of Visual Basic is that it has been designed to increase productivity in your daily development work—especially if you need to use information in databases or create solutions for the Internet—but an important additional benefi t is that once you become comfortable with the development environment in Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, you can use the same tools to write programs for Microsoft Visual C++ 2008, Microsoft Visual C# 2008, Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008, and other third-party tools and compilers.

Visual Basic .NET Versions

So how did we get here, anyway? The fi rst version of Visual Basic .NET (Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2002) was released in February 2002. The second release (Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003) was widely available in March 2003. Next came Visual Basic 2005 in late 2005, and after a long period of development and integration work, Microsoft released Visual Basic 2008 in early 2008. Visual Basic 2008 is now so tightly integrated with Visual Studio that it is only available as a component in the Visual Studio 2008 programming suite, which includes Visual C#, Visual C++, Visual Web Developer, and other Microsoft .NET development tools.

Visual Studio 2008 is sold in several different product confi gurations, including Standard Edition, Professional Edition, Team Suite, and Express Edition. I’ve written this book to be compatible with all editions of Visual Basic 2008 and Visual Studio 2008, but especially with the tools and techniques available in Visual Studio Standard Edition and Visual Studio Professional Edition. Although Visual Basic 2008 is similar in many ways to Visual Basic 2005, there are many important differences and improvements, so I recommend that you complete the exercises in this book using the Visual Basic 2008 software.

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E-Books: Step By Step: Microsoft Access 2003

2008-11-05T15:12:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Step By Step: Microsoft Access 2003

Learn at your own pace
Build exactly the skils you need
Practice with real-world examples

Getting to Know Microsoft Access 2003

In this chapter you will learn to:

Understand databases.
Discover what’s special about Access.
Open an existing database.
Explore tables.
Explore queries.
Explore forms.
Explore reports.
Explore other Access objects.
Preview and print Access objects.

Microsoft Office Access 2003 is part of The Microsoft Office System, so the basic interface objects—menus, toolbars, dialog boxes—will be familiar if you have used other Office products or other Microsoft Windows applications. However, Access has more dimensions than most of those programs, so it might seem more complex until you become familiar with it.

This book gives you straightforward instructions for using Access to create databases. It takes you from knowing little or nothing about Access—or, for that matter, about databases—to a level of expertise that will enable you to develop database programs for use by one person or by many.

This chapter introduces you to the concept of a database, explains a little about Access, and takes you on a tour of the program. The database you will use for the tour belongs to The Garden Company, a fictional garden supply and plant store. (You will be working with this database throughout this book.) This tour will give you a firm foundation from which to begin working with Access to create your own databases. After exploring the structure of the GardenCo database, you will look at some of the objects used to store and manipulate the data it contains. Finally, you will preview and print the various Access objects.

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E-Books: The Mammoth Book of HAUNTED HOUSE STORIES

2008-11-04T16:06:00.000-08:00

E-Books: The Mammoth Book of HAUNTED HOUSE STORIES
By Elizabeth Albright and Ray Bradbury
Edited by Peter Haining

This little tale was written to mark Hallowe'en 1999: the last of the twentieth century, but surely not the last to be celebrated. It marks the first appearance in print for eight-year-old Elizabeth and is Ray Bradbury's first collaboration in a career that spans sixty years. Where one writer finished and the other began is a secret - just like the enduring mystery of haunted houses . . .

Once there was a haunted house where ghosts and goblins lived.
Also The Headless Horseman - Ichabod's ghost - and eerie Jack O'Lanterns.
On the night of Hallowe'en, five kids went to the house.
They had never seen it before.
One of the kids said, "Let's go to the door."
Another kid said, "No! It looks like it is haunted."
The kid who wanted to go in said, "Whoever is with me, say 'I' "
No-one said "I" because they were all scared.
The brave kid said, "Fine. I'll go by myself."
So he went to the door. It opened slowly, but no-one was there.
"I'm here" said a voice, "but you can't see me!"
"Who are you?" the kids cried.
"I am the man from that famous poem,
'Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today,
My Gosh, I wish he'd go away.'"
"So you were never here?" the kids cried.
"Never and never will be!" said the voice.
"Nice to meet you!" said the kids.
"Even if we really didn't!" said the voice.
"Goodbye!" said the kids.
"Hello," said the voice.
And the door shut.

For Download:

E-Books: Pro PHP XML and Web Services

2008-11-04T15:33:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Pro PHP XML and Web Services
By Robert Richards

XML and its associated technologies have been around for many years. Although some support has been available, it has not always been easy to work with XML using PHP. This all changed with the release of PHP 5. The inclusion of a variety of XML processors provides a developer with an arsenal of tools to tackle virtually any type of challenge involving XML. PHP 5 also went the extra step with the creation of the SOAP extension, providing native SOAP client and server support and allowing a developer to quickly and easily consume or create Web services.

With all these tools now available, PHP has become a more viable solution to implement applications that involve XML and Web services. The problem is that it is often difficult for a developer to understand how to begin using any of these tools. Not only do you need to understand the APIs of these extensions, but you also need to know which extension to use. On top of all this, you also need to understand the specifications for the different XML technologies.

This book takes a different approach than most on this subject. Pro PHP XML and Web Services provides an in-depth and comprehensive look at not only the tools available with PHP but also the specifications for a variety of XML-based tools. An understanding of the specifications is often critical when developing an XML-based application. After all, a tool is only good as your understanding of what you can do with it. However, the problem with the specifications is that they tend to be overly complex. For this reason, I will explain them in easy-to-understand language and include complete examples. Specifically, I take the concepts from the technical specifications and show how to adapt them to real-world use in PHP by covering the APIs and areas of functionality and showing examples of their usage.

Regardless of whether you are a novice or a more advanced developer in the area of XML, the material presented in this book will get you developing XML-based applications in PHP faster, and it will demonstrate how to maximize your usage of the XML tools now supported in PHP.

Who This Book Is For

This book is for developers of all skill levels looking to use XML in PHP. I explain the XML technologies and PHP extensions in easy-to-understand terms and examples. This will allow developers new to XML or Web services to start coding right away instead of spending countless
hours deciphering the often-cryptic specifications and documentation. Developers already proficient in XML will find techniques and information about interoperability, optimization, and undocumented features of some of the XML-based extensions in order to maximize the effectiveness of an XML or Web service–based application they may be writing.

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E-Books: The Handbook of English Linguistics

2008-11-03T16:02:00.000-08:00

E-Books: The Handbook of English Linguistics
Edited by Bas Aarts and April McMahon

Bas Aars and April McMahon

When you picked up this book you may have been struck by the phrase English Linguistics (EL) on the cover. What is English Linguistics? Is it like other areas of linguistics, on a par with psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, cognitive linguistics, forensic linguistics, or other topics in the Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics series? Or is it perhaps linguistics as practiced in England by the English? In both cases the answer is ‘no.’ We define English Linguistics as a discipline that concerns itself with the study of all aspects of Present-Day English (PDE) from a variety of different angles, both descriptive and theoretical, but with a methodological outlook firmly based on the working practices developed in modern contemporary linguistics. EL arguably includes diachronic studies, though we have chosen not to include papers from this domain in this Handbook, mainly because there is a separate Handbook of the history of English (edited by Ans van Kemenade and Bettelou Los).

The phrase English Linguistics is not a recent one, and can be traced back at least to a number of publications that have it in their titles, e.g. Harold Byron Allen (1966) (ed.) Linguistics and English linguistics: a bibliography (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts), R. C. Alston (1974) (ed.) English linguistics: 1500–1800 (London: The Scolar Press), and John P. Broderick (1975) Modern English linguistics: a structural and transformational grammar (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co.). However, as these titles show, the phrase is either used in a very wide sense, as in Allen’s and Alston’s books, or quite narrowly, as in Broderick’s.

In its present-day sense it is probably the case that the label English Linguistics is used more in Europe than in other parts of the world. In North America there are programs and courses in EL, but, as Bob Stockwell points out to us “I do not believe there exists in North America a field ‘English Linguistics’ that can be administratively defined. By ‘administratively defined’ I mean something like a faculty, a department, an interdepartmental program that is separately budgeted, or an independent research center. The field exists as a concept, as a set of shared research interests.” >>>>>

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E-Books: Speak English Like an American

2008-11-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Speak English Like an American
Learn the idioms 7 expressions that will help you like a native!
Amy Gillett

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E-Books: The Oxford Guide to English Grammar

2008-11-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

E-Books: The Oxford Guide to English Grammar
By John Eastwood

The Oxford Guide to English Grammar is a systematic account of grammatical forms and the way they are used in standard British English today. The emphasis is on meanings and how they govern the choice of grammatical pattern.

The book is thorough in its coverage but pays most attention to points that are of importance to intermediate and advanced learners of English, and to their teachers. It will be found equally suitable for quick reference to details and for the more leisured study of broad grammar topics.

A useful feature of the book is the inclusion of example texts and conversations, many of them authentic, to show how grammar is used in connected writing and in speech.

Language changes all the time. Even though grammar changes more slowly than vocabulary, it is not a set of unalterable rules. There are sometimes disagreements about what is correct English and what is incorrect. 'Incorrect' grammar is often used in informal speech. Does that make it acceptable? Where there is a difference between common usage and opinions about correctness, I have pointed this out.

This information is important for learners. In some situations it may be safer for them to use the form which is traditionally seen as correct. The use of a correct form in an unsuitable context, however, can interfere with understanding just as much as a mistake. To help learners to use language which is appropriate for a given occasion, I have frequently marked usages as formal, informal, literary and so on.

How to use this book

Any user of a reference book of this kind will rely on a full and efficient index, as is provided in the Oxford Guide (pages 404 to 446). In addition, there is a summary at the beginning of each chapter which gives a bird's eye view, with examples, of the grammar covered in the chapter as a whole and gives references to the individual sections which follow.

For Download:

E-Books: FLUENT English

2008-11-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

E-Books: FLUENT English

byBarbara Raifsnider
Edited by Christopher A. Warnasch

Fluent English is a high intermediate-/advanced-level course in English as a second or foreign language. It is designed to meet the needs of the intermediate-level student in vocabulary, grammar, listening comprehension, idiomatic usage, and pronunciation. It offers a great deal of practice in each of these areas, through both written exercises and recorded materials. The language used in this course is realistic and practical, and the situations in each of its twenty lessons offer a cultural context that will be recognizable and relevant to most intermediate-level students of English.

The course is divided into twenty lessons covering a range of topics from small talk and social situations, to telephones and business meetings, to computers, politics, and the Internet. Each lesson offers essential vocabulary related to its topic, as well as important phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions that are typically challenging to the intermediatelevel student. The lessons are divided into ten sections, each of which focuses on a different English language skill:

Say It Clearly! The first section of each lesson is a recorded pronunciation and intonation warm-up. These sections focus on aspects of pronunciation and intonation that are typically challenging for intermediate students of English — consonant clusters, linking, reduced English, challenging sounds, etc.
English at Work. The second section of each lesson features English in realistic contexts, ranging from dialogues to recorded messages to readings. The English at Work section is the cornerstone of each lesson, where the important grammatical structures and vocabulary are demonstrated. These sections are all recorded, giving the student an opportunity to hear and model native speakers.
Build Your Vocabulary. The vocabulary section of each lesson includes certain vocabulary from the English at Work section as well as other general vocabulary related to the topic of the lesson. Each word or expression is defined in simple English, and an example is given to show realistic usage.
English Under the Hood. Each lesson focuses on three important grammatical structures. Explanations are complete and straightforward, and plenty of examples are given to demonstrate each construction in context. Each grammatical point is also followed by a practice drill, giving the student a chance to practice and check comprehension.
Phrasal Verbs. Each lesson includes a list of important and common phrasal verbs centered either on a common base verb, such as take or get, or a particular theme. Each phrasal verb is clearly defined, and examples of usage follow each definition.
Real English. Important idiomatic expressions related to the topic or theme of each lesson are included in the Real English section. This section is in the form of a short paragraph, where idiomatic expressions are used in context. The student should be able to understand the meaning of each expression from context, but each idiom is also defined in an appendix at the back of the book.
Bring it All Together. Each lesson also includes five comprehensive review exercises. The first exercise focuses on the vocabulary from the lesson, the next three focus on the grammar and structure, and the last one focuses on the phrasal verbs introduced in that lesson.
Listen Up! Each lesson includes a recorded listening comprehension exercise. The student is directed to listen to a short article or dialogue on a topic related to the lesson, and then to answer questions written in the book. The Listen Up sections are designed to use both vocabulary and idiomatic expressions related to the theme of the lesson.
Why Do They Do That? Each lesson includes a culture note that explains an aspect of American culture related to the lesson's topic. These aspects of culture range from table manners to home ownership to driving habits to proper behavior while being pulled over for speeding. The culture notes are designed to be both interesting and relevant to the student's experiences.
Answer Key. Each lesson also includes a key to all exercises.

For Download:

E-Books: Advanced English C.A.E

2008-11-02T15:18:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Advanced English C.A.E
Grammar Practice Revised and Updated Richard Walton

Series Editor: Sue O' Connell

For Download:

E-Books: UNIX® Network Programming Volume 1

2008-11-02T14:44:00.000-08:00

E-Books: UNIX® Network Programming Volume 1,
Third Edition: The Sockets Networking API

By W. Richard Stevens, Bill Fenner, Andrew M. Rudoff

"Everyone will want this book because it provides a great mix of practical experience, historical perspective, and a depth of understanding that only comes from being intimately involved in the field. I've already enjoyed and learned from reading this book, and surely you will too."
-Sam Leffler

The classic guide to UNIX networking APIs... now completely updated!

To build today's highly distributed, networked applications and services, you need deep mastery of sockets and other key networking APIs. One book delivers comprehensive, start-to-finish guidance for building robust, high-performance networked systems in any environment: UNIX Network Programming, Volume 1, Third Edition.

Building on the legendary work of W. Richard Stevens, this edition has been fully updated by two leading network programming experts to address today's most crucial standards, implementations, and techniques. New topics include:

POSIX Single UNIX Specification Version 3
IPv6 APIs (including updated guidance on IPv6/IPv4 interoperability)
The new SCTP transport protocol
IPsec-based Key Management Sockets
FreeBSD 4.8/5.1, Red Hat Linux 9.x, Solaris 9, AIX 5.x, HP-UX, and Mac OS X implementations
New network program debugging techniques
Source Specific Multicast API, the key enabler for widespread IP multicast deployment

The authors also update and extend Stevens' definitive coverage of these crucial UNIX networking standards and techniques:

TCP and UDP transport
Sockets: elementary, advanced, routed, and raw
I/O: multiplexing, advanced functions, nonblocking, and signal-driven
Daemons and inetd
UNIX domain protocols
ioctl operations
Broadcasting and multicasting
Threads
Streams
Design: TCP iterative, concurrent, preforked, and prethreaded servers

Since 1990, network programmers have turned to one source for the insights and techniques they need: W. Richard Stevens' UNIX Network Programming. Now, there's an edition specifically designed for today's challenges-and tomorrow's.

For Download:

E-Books: Data Structures & Algorithms in Java

2008-11-02T05:34:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Data Structures & Algorithms in Java

by Robert Lafore

What This Book Is About

This book is about data structures and algorithms as used in computer programming. Data structures are ways in which data is arranged in your computer's memory (or stored on disk). Algorithms are the procedures a software program uses to manipulate the data in these structures.

Almost every computer program, even a simple one, uses data structures and algorithms. For example, consider a program that prints address labels. The program might use an array containing the addresses to be printed, and a simple for loop to step through the array, printing each address.

The array in this example is a data structure, and the for loop, used for sequential access to the array, executes a simple algorithm. For uncomplicated programs with small amounts of data, such a simple approach might be all you need. However, for programs that handle even moderately large amounts of data, or that solve problems that are slightly out of the ordinary, more sophisticated techniques are necessary. Simply knowing the syntax of a computer language such as Java or C++ isn't enough.

This book is about what you need to know after you've learned a programming language. The material we cover here is typically taught in colleges and universities as a second-year course in computer science, after a student has mastered the fundamentals of programming.
W hat's Different About This Book

There are dozens of books on data structures and algorithms. What's different about this one? Three things:

Our primary goal in writing this book is to make the topics we cover easy to understand.
Demonstration programs called Workshop applets bring to life the topics we cover, showing you step by step, with "moving pictures," how data structures and algorithms work.
The example code is written in Java, which is easier to understand than C, C++, or Pascal, the languages traditionally used to demonstrate computer science topics.

For Download:

E-Books: Skype For Dummies

2008-11-02T05:10:00.000-08:00

E-Books: Skype For Dummies
by Loren and Susan Abdulezer and Howard Dammond

I’ll skype you” is quickly replacing, “I’ll email you,” which ousted “I’ll call you.” Before any of these, of course, came “I’ll send a telegram,” which was supplanted by “I’ll write you.” The need to extend face-to-face communication launched industries around distance messaging, and Skype joins this chorus of change with a “voice” that resonates through the Internet.

Skype, however, is not just another way to say hello. Skype combines the power of email, telephony, telegrams, and letters by providing an avenue for text, data, voice, and even video communication. Skype reaches across oceans but has tools to make the experience intimate. You can exchange files as easily as handing someone a piece of paper. You can see eye-to-eye through video conferencing. You can convene a group of friends with ease. Millions of people are discovering all this versatility with Skype. Skype For Dummies makes it easy for you to join them.

About This Book

Skype is simple to download and start using, so why write an entire book about it? There’s much more to Skype than simply calling someone from one PC to another, and Skype For Dummies opens your eyes to the many ways in which you can put Skype to use, with exciting possibilities for both your personal and professional development.

As is true for the world of technology in general, Skype technology is a rapidly moving and dynamically evolving target. So some of the software or gadgets we describe here may have already changed between our writing and your seeing this book in print. But we have tried to capture the spirit of where the technology is headed, and Skype For Dummies is loaded with the
information and ideas you need to get skyping right away.

How to Use This Book

Jump right in anywhere! We’ve designed this book so that you don’t have to read it from front to back; it’s a user-friendly reference tool that you can even start reading at the back if you’re so inclined — you won’t spoil the ending.

For Download:

E-Books: C# Yellow Book

2008-11-02T04:47:00.000-08:00

E-Books: C# Yellow Book by Rob Miles Author

A look at C#

There are literally hundreds of programming languages around, you will need to know at least 3!

We are going to learn a language called C# (pronounced C sharp). If you ever make the mistake of calling the language C hash you will show your ignorance straight away! C# is a very flexible and powerful programming language with an interesting history. It was developed by Microsoft Corporation for a variety of reasons, some technical, some political and others marketing.
C# bears a strong resemblance to the C++ and Java programming languages, having borrowed (or improved) features provided by these languages. The origins of both Java and C++ can be traced back to a language called C, which is a highly dangerous and entertaining language which was invented in the early 1970s. C is famous as the language the UNIX operating system was written in, and was specially designed for this.

Dangerous C

I referred to C as a dangerous language. So what do I mean by that? Consider the chain saw. If I, Rob Miles, want to use a chain saw I will hire one from a shop. As I am not an experienced chain saw user I would expect it to come with lots of built in safety features such as guards and automatic cut outs. These will make me much safer with the thing but will probably limit the usefulness of the tool, i.e. because of all the safety stuff I might not be able to cut down certain kinds of tree. If I was a real lumberjack I would go out and buy a professional chain saw which has no safety features whatsoever but can be used to cut down most anything. If I make a mistake with the professional tool I could quite easily lose my leg, something the amateur machine would not let happen.

In programming terms this means is that C lacks some safety features provided by other programming languages. This makes the language much more flexible. However, if I do something stupid C will not stop me, so I have a much greater chance of crashing the computer with a C program than I do with a safer language.

Safe C#

The C# language attempts to get the best of both worlds in this respect. A C# program can contain managed or unmanaged parts. The managed code is fussed over by the system which runs it. This makes sure that it is hard (but probably not impossible) to crash your computer running managed code. However, all this fussing comes at a price, causing your programs to run more slowly. To get the maximum possible performance, and enable direct access to parts of the underlying computer system, you can mark your programs as unmanaged. An unmanaged program goes faster, but if it crashes it is capable of taking the computer with it. Switching to unmanaged mode is analogous to removing the guard from your new chainsaw because it gets in the way.

C# and Objects

The C# language is object oriented. Objects are an organisational mechanism which let you break your program down into sensible chunks, each of which is in charge of part of the overall system. Object Oriented Design makes large projects much easier to design, test and extend. It also lets you create programs which can have a high degree of reliability and stability. I am very keen on object oriented programming, but I am not going to tell you much about it just yet. This is not because I don't know much about it (honest) but because I believe that there are some very fundamental programming issues which need to be addressed before we make use of objects in our programs. The use of objects is as much about design as programming, and we have to know how to program before we can design larger systems. >>>>>

For Download:

E-Books: SunSystems UNIX Oracle Platforms Manual

2008-10-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

E-Books: SunSystems UNIX Oracle Platforms Manual
Issue 10, November 2004 (based on software version 4.2.6)

This manual covers versions of SunSystems for Oracle 8.1.7.2 and above, or Oracle 9.2.0.3.0 or above, and has been written to assist the system administrator with the installation of SunSystems with an Oracle database. It covers installation on a variety of UNIX-based systems and includes installing and operating GraphicalClient for UNIX.

The appendices contain additional useful information such as: table and filenames, the transfer file layout, and error messages.

Regardless of whether you are installing SunSystems for the first time, or upgrading to the latest version of the software, the installation procedures are the same. The same steps also apply to a demonstration system or a live issue of SunSystems.

Hardware and Software Requirements

This section describes the hardware and software configuration required to run SunSystems.
When the system is operated in multi-user mode, the number of terminals which may be used is subject to the configuration supplied, and any restrictions of the com puter itself. Each screen must be cursor addressable and have a minimum of 25 lines of 80 characters each.

For Download:

E-books: Vampire The Masquerade

2008-10-31T17:57:00.000-07:00

E-Books: Vampire The Masquerade
Ripped by DarkAngell

Accordingly, a vampire who enters a new city is required by höflichkeit to make himself known to its rulers and satisfy them that their rule is not threatened or challenged. To fail in this courtesy is to invite war. No witch-hunter ever pursues his prey so diligently as a Clan or Prince seeks out a strangern ouveau arrivé.

Most rulers, I have said, are content to keep the peace in their Fief and pursue their own arcane ends. But there are exceptions. One is the league of Clans which calls itself the Sabbat, or the Black Hand. Their Fief extends across the eastern half of North America, and they are everything that mortals expect of monstrous vampires.

Reveling in the violent, the perverse and the bestial, they are shunned by their own kind, and woe betide the incautious vampire whom they find in their territory.

Above the Clans stands the Camarilla. All vampires are aware of this league, and all are invited to join. To take an analogy ex mundo vivantis - if a Fief is a regional or national government, then the Camarilla is the League of Nations. To my mind, it is equally effective, but some set great store by its infrequent convocations. Certainly the Elders of the Council are not to be underestimated as individual powers - most are very old and all are very powerful. Primarily it enforces the ancient Traditions, most important among them the Masquerade, so soon enough I may have cause to test its resolve and strength.

The Clans all have their various alliances and oppositions, which shift as often and widely as those of the small countries of the mortal world. I have mentioned the protocols which must be observed when entering a Fief as an outsider. These obligations and structures are no more than protocols, and may be broken from time to time; but there is a stronger bond - stronger even than the ties of blood kinship - whose auctoritas is absolute. It is the mystic tie we call the Oath, or the Blood Bond.

I have touched upon the power of Blood to create new Kindred and Ghouls. Its effect on Kindred is no less powerful. It is said to be the sweetest blood in the world, but it creates a potent bond between donor and drinker. A vampire who drinks another vampire's blood on three separate occasions becomes trapped in a blood kinship as strong as that between Sire and Get; in fact, many Sires force this bond upon their unknowing Get at the time of creation, the better to command their loyalty.

Among the Kindred, the Oath is a most potent bond; to take the Oath is to give over one's mind and heart to another, and a willing Oath is never undertaken lightly. If all else fails and you have no other means of defence against a vampire, use my name - the chance is slender, but if your attacker happens to be Blood Bound to me, then you shall be safe.

For Download:

VERITAS NetBackup™ 6.0 for Oracle System Administrator’s Guide

2008-10-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

E-Books: VERITAS NetBackup™ 6.0 for Oracle System Administrator’s Guide

for UNIX and Linux

Disclaimer

The information contained in this publication is subject to change without notice. VERITAS Software Corporation makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this manual, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. VERITAS Software Corporation shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this manual.

VERITAS Legal Notice

Copyright © 2005 VERITAS Software Corporation. All rights reserved. VERITAS, the VERITAS Logo, and NetBackup are trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Portions of this software are derived from the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm. Copyright 1991-92, RSA Data Security, Inc. Created 1991. All rights reserved.

VERITAS Software Corporation 350 Ellis Street Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Phone 650-527-8000 Fax 650-527-2908 www.veritas.com
Third-Party Copyrights
For a list of third-party copyrights, see the NetBackup Release Notes appendix

For Download:

E-Books: VERITAS NetBackupTM 6.0 System Administrator’s Guide, Volume II

2008-10-31T07:59:00.000-07:00

E-Books: VERITAS NetBackupTM 6.0 System Administrator’s Guide, Volume II
for Windows

Disclaimer

The information contained in this publication is subject to change without notice. VERITAS Software Corporation makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this manual, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. VERITAS Software Corporation shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this manual.
VERITAS Legal Notice

Copyright © 1993-2005 VERITAS Software Corporation. All rights reserved. VERITAS, the VERITAS Logo, and NetBackup are trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Portions of this software are derived from the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm. Copyright 1991-92, RSA Data Security, Inc. Created 1991. All rights reserved.

VERITAS Software Corporation 350 Ellis Street Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Phone 650-527-8000 Fax 650-527-2908 www.veritas.com
Third-Party Copyrights
For a list of third-party copyrights, see the NetBackup Release Notes appendix.

For Download:

E-Books: VERITAS NetBackup™ 6.0

2008-10-31T07:40:00.000-07:00

E-Books: VERITAS NetBackup™ 6.0
Installation Guide
for Windows

Disclaimer

The information contained in this publication is subject to change without notice. VERITAS Software Corporation makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this manual, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. VERITAS Software Corporation shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this manual.

VERITAS Legal Notice

Copyright © 1998-2005 VERITAS Software Corporation. All rights reserved. VERITAS, the VERITAS Logo, and NetBackup are trademarks or registered trademarks of VERITAS Software Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Portions of this software are derived from the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm. Copyright 1991-92, RSA Data Security, Inc. Created 1991. All rights reserved.

VERITAS Software Corporation 350 Ellis Street Mountain View, CA 94043 USA Phone 650-527-8000 Fax 650-527-2908 www.veritas.com

Third-Party Copyrights
For a list of third-party copyrights, see the NetBackup Release Notes appendix.

For Download:

E-Books: System Administration Guide, Volume I

2008-10-31T07:02:00.000-07:00

E-Books: System Administration Guide, Volume I

About This Book

System Administration Guide, Volume I is part of a two-volume set that covers a significant part of the Solaris™ system administration information. It includes both SPARC™ and x86 information and describes how to use the Solstice™ AdminSuite tools to perform some of the system administration tasks.

This book assumes that you have already installed the SunOS 5.5™ operating system and Solstice AdminSuite, and you have set up any networking software that you plan to use. The SunOS 5.x operating system is part of the Solaris 2.x product family, which also includes many utilities and OpenWindows™ Version 3.x. The SunOS 5.x operating system is compliant with AT&T’s System V, Release 4 operating system.

System Administration Guide, Volume I and System Administration Guide, Volume II have replaced the following books previously released with the Solaris operating environment:

Security, Performance, and Accounting Administration
User Accounts, Printers, and Mail Administration
Administration Supplement for Solaris Platforms
Common Administration Tasks
File System Administration
Administration Application Reference Manual
Peripherals Administration

Mail Administration is now covered in the Mail Administration Guide.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is intended for anyone responsible for administering one or more systems running the Solaris 2.x release. To use this book, you should have 1-2 years of UNIX® system administration experience and preferably a Computer Science B.S. degree or equivalent knowledge.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is split into parts that each cover a major system administration topic. Each part contains chapters that provide both overview and task information.

Most of the overview information about a topic is usually described in the beginning chapters of each part, and the other chapters provide step-by-step instructions on system administration tasks that you need to perform. Each set of steps is usually followed by a way to verify that the task was successfully performed and an example of how to perform the task.

Using AnswerBook to Read This Book

If you are reading this book from within the AnswerBook™ online document viewer, you can double-click on any cross reference, represented by text in a box, to quickly access the referenced information. To return to the previous display, click on the Go Back button.

SPARC and x86 Information

This book provides system administration information for both SPARC and x86 systems. Unless otherwise noted, information throughout this book applies to both types of systems. Table P-2 summarizes the differences between the SPARC and x86 system administration tasks.

For Download:

E-Books: UNIX Programmer's Manual

2008-10-31T00:27:00.000-07:00

E-Books: UNIX Programmer's Manual
Seventh Edition, Volume 2A
January, 1979

This volume contains documents which supplement the information contained in Volume 1 of The UNIX† Programmer’s Manual. The documents here are grouped roughly into the areas of basics, editing, language tools, document preparation, and system maintenance. Further general information may be found in the Bell System Technical Journal special issue on UNIX, July-August, 1978.

Many of the documents cited within this volume as Bell Laboratories internal memoranda or Computing Science Technical Reports (CSTR) are also contained here.

These documents contain occasional localisms, typically references to other operating systems like GCOS and IBM. In all cases, such references may be safely ignored by UNIX users.

For Download:

E-Books: BSD UNIX® TOOLBOX

2008-10-30T23:33:00.000-07:00

E-Books: BSD UNIX® TOOLBOX
1000+ Commands for FreeBSD®, OpenBSD, and NetBSD®Power Users
Christopher Negus
François Caen

BSD UNIX Toolbox provides you with more than 1,000 specific command lines to help you become a BSD power user. Whether you are a systems administrator or desktop user, the book will show you commands to create file systems, troubleshoot networks, lock down security, and dig out almost anything you care to know about your BSD system.

This book’s focus for your BSD command line journey is FreeBSD, one of the most popular BSD derivatives in the world. Tapping into the skills needed to run those systems can help you to work with your own BSD systems and to learn what you need as a BSD professional.

Who Should Read This Book

This book is for anyone who wants to access the power of a BSD system as a systems administrator or user. You may be a free and open source software (FOSS) enthusiast, a BSD professional, or possibly a computer professional who is increasingly finding the Windows systems in your data center supplanted by BSD and Linux boxes.

The bottom line is that you want to find quick and efficient ways of getting FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems working at peak performance. Those systems may be a few desktop systems at work, a file and print server at your school, or a home web server that you’re doing just for fun.

In the best case, you should already have some experience with BSD, Linux or other UNIX-like systems. However, if you are a computer professional with skills managing other types of operating systems, such as Windows, you should be able to easily adapt your knowledge to be able to use the specific commands we cover in the book.

For Download:

E-Books: Essentials of Object-Oriented Programming

2008-10-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

E-Books: MSDN Training
Essentials of Object-Oriented Programming
Microsoft

Overview

C# is an object-oriented programming language. In this section, you will learn the terminology and concepts required to create and use classes in C#.

After completing this module, you will be able to:

Define the terms object and class in the context of object-oriented programming.
Define the three core aspects of an object: identity, state, and behavior.
Describe abstraction and how it helps you to create reusable classes that are easy to maintain.
Use encapsulation to combine methods and data in a single class.
Explain the concepts of inheritance and polymorphism.
Create and use classes in C#.

Classes and Objects

The whole structure of C# is based on the object-oriented programming model.
To make the most effective use of C# as a language, you need to understand the nature of object-oriented programming.

In this section, you will learn about the basics of object-oriented programming.
You will examine classes and objects in the context of object-oriented programming. You will then learn the how to apply the concept of abstraction.

What Is a Class?

The root word of classification is class. Forming classes is an act of classification, and it is something that all human beings (not just programmers) do. For example, all cars share common behavior (they can be steered, stopped, and so on) and common attributes (they have four wheels, an engine, and so on).

You use the word car to refer to all of these common behaviors and properties.

Imagine what it would be like if you were not able to classify common behaviors and properties into named concepts! Instead of saying car, you would have to say all the things that car means. Sentences would be long and cumbersome. In fact, communication would probably not be possible at all. As long as everyone agrees what a word means, that is, as long as we all speak the
same language, communication works well—we can express complex but precise ideas in a compact form. We then use these named concepts to form higher-level concepts and to increase the expressive power of communication.

All programming languages can describe common data and common functions.
This ability to describe common features helps to avoid duplication. A key motto in programming is “Don’t repeat yourself.” Duplicate code is troublesome because it is more difficult to maintain. Code that does not repeat itself is easier to maintain, partly because there is just less of it! Object-oriented languages take this concept to the next level by allowing descriptions of classes
(sets of objects) that share structure and behavior. If done properly, this paradigm works extremely well and fits naturally into the way people think and communicate.

Classes are not restricted to classifying concrete objects (such as cars); they can also be used to classify abstract concepts (such as time). However, when you are classifying abstract concepts, the boundaries are less clear, and good design becomes more important.

The only real requirement for a class is that it helps people communicate.
What Is an Object?

The word car means different things in different contexts. Sometimes we use the word car to refer to the general concept of a car: we speak of car as a class, meaning the set of all cars, and do not have a specific car in mind. At other times we use the word car to mean a specific car. Programmers use the term object or instance to refer to a specific car. It is important to understand this difference.

The three characteristics of identity, behavior, and state form a useful way to think about and understand objects.

Identity

Identity is the characteristic that distinguishes one object from all other objects of the same class. For example, imagine that two neighbors own a car of exactlythe same make, model, and color. Despite the obvious similarities, the registration numbers are guaranteed to be unique and are an outward reflection that cars exhibit identity. The law determines that it is necessary to distinguish one car object from another. (How would car insurance work without car identity?)

For Download:

E-Books: Essential Unix (and Linux) for the Oracle DBA

2008-10-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

Architecture of UNIX Systems

E-Books: Essential Unix (and Linux) for the Oracle DBA

UNIX System Structure

Operating system interacts directly with Hardware
Provides common services to programs
Insulating from Hardware
Kernel is treated as an operating system
Programs are independent of the Hardware
Easy to move on different processing environment
Programs should be independent of Hardware

UNIX System Structure

Programs in the upper layer communicate with Kernel using defined set of system calls
System calls instruct the Kernel to do various operations
System calls also exchange the data between Kernel and program
Some Standard programs also fall in this layer i.e. executable files by C compiler
Top most layer is used for other application programs eg. C compiler (CC)

For Download:

E-Books: SAP Basis Installation on UNIX: Oracle Database

2008-10-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

E-Books: SAP Basis Installation on UNIX: Oracle Database

Purpose

This documentation explains how to install the SAP System on a UNIX operating system when your database is Oracle.

Throughout this documentation, the term SAP System is the same as SAP Basis System. Also, SAP stands for SAP Basis in terms such as SAP profile or SAP instance.

You c an install t he following types of standard SAP Systems:

Central system, in which the central ins tance and the database instanceare on sathmee host machine
Standalone database system, in which the central instance and the database ins tance are on different hos t machines

You als o ins tall dialog and gateway instances and additional components . The installation of front ends for the SAP System is described separatelyin the documentaion Installing SAP Frontend Software for PCs.

Read the installation notes before beginning the installation. These notes contain the most recent information regarding the installation, as well as corrections to the installation documentation.

Make sure that you have the most recent ver sion of each no te. You can find the SAP Notes by using SAPNet - R/3 Front end. >>>>>

For Download:

E-Books: Clan Novel: Brujah

2008-10-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

E-Books: Clan Novel: Brujah
By Gherbod Fleming

Thursday, 14 October 1999, 1:47 AM Dockside, U.S.S. Apollo, the Inner Harbor Baltimore, Maryland

He’ll never go for it.

As he walked along the waterfront, Theo had no illusions that his current task was anything but doomed to failure. There was little chance for gain, and presumably much risk of loss.

The feeble breeze blowing in off the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River shared Theo’s lack of enthusiasm. The night was unseasonably warm, but the Brujah archon still wore his heavy leather jacket, as well as the omnipresent black baseball cap.

The Sabbat’s breathing down our necks, and I’m playing diplomat, he thought, shaking his head.

The Inner Harbor area was quiet. The museums, shops, restaurants, the aquarium-all of them catered to the tourist dollar, and tourists generally went to bed early. This "revitalized" part of the city was Prince Garlotte’s pride and joy.

Theo didn’t understand it. He could only take so much "quaint" before he gagged. He preferred other parts of the city, real parts of the city, where real honest-to-God people lived and died. The trickle-down economics of the uptown developers didn’t ever seem to trickle that far. But those real neighborhoods weren’t where the prince and his refined, financier buddies spent their time, so what did they care? They were already the kings of the mountain. They had everything they wanted at the top, and not much was left for anybody else. It didn’t have to be that way. Money and influence were like water — left to themselves, they flowed downhill. Problem was, they never were left to themselves. Some greedy, button-down motherfucker was always building a dam, so the thirsty bastards at the bottom of the hill were left with jack shit.

What the world needed was somebody to bust some fucking dams.

But Theo couldn’t honestly say that he lived up to that philosophy. Not all the time, anyway. Not most of the time. Times like tonight, he felt more like a damned houseboy.

Yes, sir. No, sir. The pisser was that he could run roughshod over Garlotte. Theo could make the prince see things his way—or at least agree to go along. But nothing was ever that simple. Too heavy a hand now caused more problems later. Restraint was the difference between an archon and a thug.

Maybe a thug has the better deal, Theo thought. Bust heads now, ask questions later, if at all. The idea wasn’t completely foreign to an archon’s job description, but it wasn’t the way to go when a prince was involved. Especially a Ventrue prince. The blue bloods were just too damn tight. Too many friends, or if not friends, flunkies, in high places. Threaten a Ventrue and he might give in rather than take a punch, but the next thing you knew, Interpol was on your ass, and your haven was condemned by the local housing authority and bulldozed, and all your credit cards were cancelled. Bad mistake. So on went the kid gloves.

Like I got time for it.

It wouldn’t matter whose feelings were hurt when the Sabbat rolled into town. But Theo played the game anyway.

He stopped about a hundred yards from Garlotte’s boat — Garlotte’s fucking schooner, rather. A sterile reproduction of a nineteenth-century merchant ship. The thing reminded Theo of a slave ship. The period was off by at least several decades, but that was the first thought that came to his mind every time he saw it. Lord knew that Garlotte got his kicks >>>>>

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E-Books: Clan Novel: Ravnos

2008-10-30T02:15:00.000-07:00

E-Books: Clan Novel: Ravnos

Kathleen Ryan

Wednesday, 28 July 1999, 7:54 PM Inside a small space At an unknown location

Khalil Ravana woke to hot, cramped, noisy darkness. As the day’s stupor faded, he became aware of pressure confining him from every direction — of his arms pinned tightly to his sides of legs bent, frozen, and unfeeling — of his neck forced down toward his chest — of toes and twisted hands supporting the weight of his body — of the friction of bare skin on some rough substance — of a hard, unyielding knob thrust uncomfortably against his chin Outside the tiny prison, he could hear thumps and thuds, muffled voices, and a gentle creaking sound. Khalil stretched himself, expanding to fill the last free space available.

The knob in his face ground uncomfortably up his jawline, and he recognized it for what it was: his own left knee. The Ravnos shrank himself down again, trying to feel his hands.

They weren’t tied... they could move, a little....

Suddenly, the gentle creaking stopped. Khalil felt himself come to a halt with it, realizing for the first time that it had been moving him along. He had roughly one second to think on that before his body, and the shell around it, tipped and slid down a long, skidding drop. He seemed to half-fall for an eternity, and the dried-up memory of his stomach complained.

The impact flipped him over. Instead of being hung limbs-downward in his shell, his head was now bottom-most. Jarring, shrieking vibration traveled up through the corner — he was coming to feel that his casket was oblong — and into his ears. Khalil shrugged off the jolt and noise. The shift in position had freed his hands a little more, and he groped eagerly around the confines of his world. There were rounded, bristly, soft protrusions covering the "walls." He pulled on one and the tip of it tore away in his hand. Foam.... He let the little fleck drop and explored further. Farthest from him, in a small clearing of the spongy bumps, he discovered a tiny handle, a metal latch, and a button. He pressed the last, and a soft light came on. A wave of relief poured over him.

He was inside a suit- or guncase, packed comfortably enough in gray eggcrate padding. He wished, fleetingly, that whoever had done the job had had a real trunk or a coffin handy, but considering the hurry his new ally had been in to leave Calcutta, this was first-class travel. Khalil peered up at the latch-yes, it opened from the inside. Hesha Ruhadze’s men were clever. Smuggling corpses from nation to nation — no trouble, apparently. The Setite had gone to sleep at the same time Khalil had — Hesha’s mere retainers, then, were competent to move contraband on a global scale and jury-rig accommodations for unexpected travelers at the last minute. Calcutta to Delhi, Delhi to London, London to Chicago... he added in time for layovers, and decided it was just now turning night in middle America. He nearly laughed out loud. The inexplicable rocking, the long drop, the squealing metal, the heavy noises from without — he must be on the baggage carousel in O’Hare already, bumping around with all the other luggage. Something fell on him from above, and his own case settled onto its edge. Both bottom corners shrieked now, but Khalil relaxed almost cozily in his foam cocoon.

Just a little longer, and one of the old snake’s boys would come pick him up, cart him through Customs safely, and take him out to join "partner" Hesha in some luxurious suite stocked with plenty of blood. Cold blood, Khalil thought wistfully, but free...

Blood...

Khalil was hungry. It went almost without saying. He’d nearly starved to death as an honest gypsy boy in India. He’d been merely hungry and poor after his family died and he turned to thievery. When the shilmulo — the vampire — adopted him, he’d had a month or two of >>>>>

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E-Books: Clan Novel: Tremere

2008-10-30T01:55:00.000-07:00

E-Books: Clan Novel: Tremere

Eric Griffin

Sunday, 18 July 1999, 2:00 AM Manhattan cityscape New York City, New York

Aisling Sturbridge sluiced through the rain-slick streets. The city towered above her on all sides in colossal glyphs of pitted steel and sizzling neon. The jumble of arcane signs and sigils that assaulted her senses seemed haphazard. The city streets were piled high with half-forgotten ambitions rendered in con-crete and raw altitude.

This was the Dragon’s Graveyard — the place where the lumbering juggernauts of unbridled industry came to die. Sturbridge could feel the weight of old bones looming over her.

She ducked through a low archway and found herself in the midst of a vaulted colonnade of jutting ribs. Each of the gently curving monoliths was yellowed and pitted through long exposure to the elements. She absently ran a hand down the nearest ivory pillar. Its surface was encased in a nearly invisible envelope of cool water, tricking over the pocked surface in dozens of miniature fountains, cascades, waterfalls. As if of their own volition, her fingers searched for and traced out the letters of the logo — the sacred name that the faithful had carved into the obelisk all those years ago.

The Plaza.

She smiled at a distant memory, recalling a lobby on the scale of a cathedral, filled with the luminaries of the American aristocracy gliding among peerless marbles. After only a brief contact, her hand fell absently to her side and she moved on.

In the rigors of the hunt, there was little room for nostalgia.

Through careful scrutiny, Sturbridge began to discern that hers was not the only sign of life among the ruins. She was amazed that the castoffs of two hundred years of avarice and ambition were not con-tent to lie still and be dead. All around her, the city clamored heavenwards, clawing its way upward, tram-pling upon its own shoulders in its rush. The glass-walled towers seemed to shift like liquid under her gaze, flowing upward toward some unguessed sea amid the night sky. Experimentally, she put one hand out and broke the mirrored surface of the nearest building.

The tingling was not the expected rush of cool water, but something different — the scurrying of thousands of tiny legs across her skin.

The touch of Sabbat sorcery.

The vision shifted abruptly as the enemy attack erupted all about her. The alien mindscape pulsed like a migraine of flashing red lights. Fire engines emerged from the glaring light and screamed toward the Harlem River where a great funeral pyre tore free from the low-lying tenements. It cracked skywards like a whip. There were figures among the flames. Long, lithe, gibbering figures. They danced the primacy of the flames — the legacy of Heraclitus.

In the beginning, there was the flame. And the flame was with God and the flame was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

Through it all things were made; without it nothing was made that has been made. In it was life and that life was the light of men. The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.

Sturbridge could feel those flames reaching out to embrace her, to engulf her. She >>>>>

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E-Books: Clan Novel: Assamite

2008-10-30T01:35:00.000-07:00

E-Books: Clan Novel: Assamite

Gherbod Fleming

Saturday, 3 July 1999, 3:18 AM (local time) Caves of Ten Thousand Sorrows Near Petra, Jordan

Elijah Ahmed, caliph of Alamut, walked silently through the darkness toward his destiny. His sandals were left miles behind, neatly arranged before the threshold of the caverns. His feet, the soles of which had not felt the fire of sun-scorched desert sands since the first days of the Holy Prophet, did not so much as displace a single pebble or disturb a granule of dust from its resting place upon the sandstone.

Elijah’s mind was quiet. Calming scripture arose from his soul like the cool evening breeze blowing from the north. He, Allah, is One. Allah is He on Whom all depend. He begets not, nor is He begotten, and none is like Him.

The darkness was complete, yet the caliph stepped with surety. Countless passages branched off from the winding tunnel he followed, but Elijah’s deliberate pace did not once slacken.

Never before had he traversed this path, but the twists of the rough-hewn corridors were as familiar to him as the weave of his simple muslin robe. He could not deny that which drew him forward. He could not lose his way.

The passages wound this way and that, seemingly without reason; sharp, spiraling curves that nearly met themselves, broad arcs to the northwest, squared turns to the south, zigs and zags leading tangentially eastward but never directly toward the rising sun. Among the sculptured chaos, however, Elijah Ahmed’s steps carried him always down, always deeper toward the heart of the earth.

He, Allah, is One. Allah is He on Whom all depend. He begets not, nor is He begotten, and none is like Him.

When finally Elijah had taken his last step, he stood not in one of the corridors of the past hours, but in a vast chamber. Darkness opened before him like the void, but not even the absence of light could hide from his eyes the presence of the herald.

It sat upon an arrangement of mammoth stones, an unadorned throne crafted from bedrock.

The herald, too, was unadorned. Its naked, childlike body resembled a sculpture of hard-packed coal, each fissure, each crack in the kiln-hardened surface actually a jagged scar streaking like black lightning across the blackest midnight sky-black except for a crescent and a handful of matching bone-white stars. The crescent moon of this midnight was a necklace of bone that lay draped across the chest of the herald’s perfectly motionless body. The stars were bone as well, though no mere accoutrements; they were the bones of ur-Shulgi, visible where the midnight skin had peeled back or cracked and fallen away; they were the sheaths of the herald’s essence, and his marrow was vengeance.

Thus was the being Elijah Ahmed faced.

Elijah Ahmed, caliph of Alamut, one of the tripartite du’at, looked into the deep emptiness that should have been the herald’s eyes. The sockets were set beneath sharp ridges of bone, >>>>>

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