While his previous two works, "From the Ground Up: A Study of the Use of Prepositions in The Dramatic Works of Nikolai Gogal," and "Metamorphosis," were both gloriously academic and even enjoyable, Mark M. Anderson scores with his newest! (Although I did find his insect to human thing interesting.) "Kafka's Clothes..." gives us an indepth view into the wardrobe of this guy Franz Kafka. I particularly enjoyed the long descriptions of his Wednesday sweater, an article of clothing that echoes vaguely of the modern day sweater-vest. The guy, Franz Kafka, wore a lot of neutrals, mostly like tweed and wool. Anderson gives wonderful insight into the sock drawer not only of the guy but of the time. Engaging. Brilliant? Also, not to be missed is chapter four's retelling of "The Pied Piper." I had no idea that the guy playing the flute was blonde. Who knew?

This book is wonder and a treasure trove of musical ideas from around the planet. For example, how many music historians are aware of how the Native Amercians used song to identify each of their tribes?
Mr. Titon has provided very interesting facts about music making from many world cultures. He has also produced a 3 CD sound compilation of musical examples for this book that is indispensible.
If you're tired of today's bland market of music that has sadly squashed historical music making of any kind, this book is an excellent journey into the world's most basic roots of song and music.

Before I say how much I like this book, I'll confess I have not read it cover-to-cover, as I have the 3rd Edition and it is over 1800 pages. But it is a refreshing change from other texts on the same subject written by folks who think MS products are infallible.

Why did I get this book? I'm not an IT person, but I write a lot of code... mainly for PHP/MySQL-based web sites that usually run Unix-based systems using Apache servers. When offered the challenge of designing a huge web-based application for my employer's intranet, I accepted, but only later found out I had to run my scripts on a Windows 2000 Server. And to make it worse, I would not be allowed to administer the server... only our IT department staff was allowed admin rights to it. And if that wasn't bad enough, no one on our IT staff knew how to run Win 2K Server. Yet they expected me to have all the answers for them. This book has given me the answers.

Now, don't get this book if you are looking for guidance on running PHP/MySQL on Win 2K... no no no. There's plenty of information on the net for that. What I'm talking about is the stuff like Active Directory, or DSN, or SMTP... things that I needed to know to get all our users up and running with the correct permissions to specific directories, databases, email, etc. Its a good introduction to the topics to familiarize yourself with the terminology. If you need advanced coverage on a topic, you may need to get other resources. But this has been a great starting point for me.

One point I want to re-emphasise... before I bought this book, I bought another book on MS IIS 5.0 which just about made me sick to my stomach. The other author was some kind of pro-MS zealot and laced the book with lots of sugary-sweet praise for MS. But not Minasi. I was impressed with his balanced perspective and his mix of both compliments and criticisms.

Anyway, I recommend this to people who know little to nothing about Windows 2000 Server.

Mark Minasi's book is a great all-in-one primer for learning Windows 2000. I recently received my MCSE for NT4.0 and wanted to learn Windows 2000 Server. I obtained the evaluation copy of Windows 2000 Advanced Server forn Microsoft to install on my home network. I had no documentation for it and bought a copy of Mastering Windows 2000 Server to get me up to speed. Mark's book got me going in no time flat. Windows 2000 is a WHOLE lot different than NT4.0 in many ways. Chapter 1 goes through what Microsoft was trying to achieve and what is new. Active Directory of course is the biggest change. Mark explains it very well from the point of view of a beginner and a experienced NT4.0 user in chapter 2. Other major changes well explained in the book are plug and play, dynamic dns, distributed file system, disk quotas, remote installation services, cleint side caching, group policy objects, encryped file system, disk mounting, software installation, and Kerberos authentication to name a few! Mark's writing style is very enjoyable - not boring like a lot of technical books. He does not hesitate to be critical of Windows 2000 where it deserves it. He goes into good depth on TCP/IP with two substantial chapters. Windows 2000 counts heavily on dns which is dynamic and integrated with Active Directory. In native mode (all Windows 2000) you do not need wins or netbios! The book does a good job of pointing out what can and can't be done in native versus mixed mode. Organizational units and group policies are well explained which are big part of Active Directory and a very important concept of Windows 2000. Chapter 4 was especially enjoyable as Mark started off asking Where Are They Now! - referring to where the heck did they move the Network Contol Panel, etc. Us NT4.0 users will find that chapter very helpful as it explains how to do routine NT4.0 tasks in Windows 2000 including the new Microsoft Management Console (mmc). Security has been beefed up big time in Windows 2000. In various chapters this is well covered explaining Kerberos, encrypted file system, and group policy security settings. Mark also explains how to use Windows 98/95 and NT4.0 clients in a Windows 2000 Network. Chapter 20 on tuning and monitoring has a great overview of the network browsing system (you know - master browsers and browse lists) that is helpful in determining why network neighborhood acts as it does. Mark also passes along a lot of helpful tips that he has learned in his experience with Windows 2000 that you probably will not find in Microsoft Press books.As much as I like the book it certainly is not and did not intend to be all encompassing of Windows 2000. The Microsoft Server Resource kit is over 7000 pages! However Mark's book is packed with 1500 pages of most useful info and may be all the majority of Windows 2000 Server users ever need. There are a lot of books that focus on individual topics of Windows 2000. For instance the O'reilly book on Active directory is great. You also might want to get a book focusing on Windows 2000 security - there is just so much more than in NT4.0 with Kerberos, EFS, L2TP, IPSEC, registry settings, and packet filtering . However Mark Minasi's Mastering Windows 2000 Server is always the first book I grab and is kept in arms reach.

As an owner of a computer consulting firm and a past professor of computer sciences at the college level, my experience has taught me that Mark Minasi is one of the premier experts on Microsoft operating systems and problems. My first experience with one of his books was after actually trying to do roaming user profiles in Microsoft Windows NT and finding that out of five books I consulted only Mark Minasi's was accurate and complete. The others were written from Microsoft White Papers which had an error and the authors had obviously not actually set up the profiles because it was impossible given their instructions. Since then I always look for Mark Minasi's books first and have always found the most through and useful information in them. This book is no exception.

In Mastering Windows 2000 Server he covers all the topics that you need to understand and setup a system. Topics covered include DNS, Active Directory, security (internal, remote, file level, etc.), heterogenous networks, the MMC, TCP/IP, IIS, RAS, Software Installation and dozens of other areas. His treatment of each area is thorough and written in a style that most readers with a basic understanding of computers can easily understand. It is not a book that is specifically pointed toward passing one of the MCSE exams but is much more useful than those books that teach you how to spit out Microsoft answers. Instead it actually gives you the foundation and knowledge to actually work with the system and resolve real world problems, something that most exam focused books do not generally provide.

This book should be on the bookshelf of any administrator who is working in a Windows 2000 Server environment or anyone who wants to understand the system. While my company has several technical books on the 2000 Operating System, Mark Minasi's are always the most consulted. The other books are in such good condition that they could be sold again as new.... but not Mastering Windows 2000 Server by Mark Minasi. It is simply the most complete, accurate and understandable book on Windows 2000 Server on the market.

This is an excellent set of personal reminiscences from some of the Jews who escaped Nazi Germany from the early 1930s up to beginning of the 1940s. The stories are so incredibly vivid. What really struck me was the incredible difficulties they faced - the perverse Nazi bureaucracy, friends who turned their back, the loss of both material goods and the psychological loss of family and friends in Germany, and what happened when they fled Europe . This book doesn't stop at the end of the WW2 - it examines the impact of exile, and the cost of making new lives in countries when all you escaped with was your life. Any person interested in background reading on WW2, and a vivid picture of what it was really like for the Jews, would find this a worthwhile book.