This book starts off by defining the Open Source Movement and the General Public License. It then moves on to everything else...
As a newbie (2 months of using the free download of Mandrake 8.1 after doing the free online course...and 5 months of basic networking skills), I found this book an excellent read. It covered almost everything I needed to know to secure my network at home (I don't use windows anymore), and gave me confidence enough to want to apply for Network Administration somewhere.
CD included, you get tricks for locking down your system, or your whole network even, and the apps to help you do it (the entire book is in HTML on the CD, too!) I recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn linux, or anyone wanting to learn linux security.
I took half a star because it mainly refers to Red Hat Linux over others, and another half because I could see how a college professor might want a much more technical manual over this textbook style guide. Great book!

Follow simple step by step procedures to hardening your linux system, i was able to read the meat of this book in a 4 hour airplane flight. Easily install and configure Linux, firewalls, etc.

Hack Proofing Linux does the following very accurately:

1. It shows you how to deploy IPsec using FreeSWAN.
2. Readers learn detailed information about how to configure packet filters and proxy servers.
3. Although many theoretical references exist, few resources have practical advice concerning how to implement Kerberos. Before publication of this book, no authors had the common sense to show all of the steps necessary for a practical implementation. Other references either omitted steps or simply remained on a general level. I've never seen a book that does such as good job on this, in such a handy way.
4. After reading this book, you will have more than enough accurate information to scan systems for vulnerabilities, and you will also be able to accurately map and manage networks. For those who need more explanation, all they have to do is implement the tools as described, and they can then actually learn by doing. Seeing as how most of these people can't even buy or read the book all the way through, no matter they are impatient with a practical approach.
5. The book focuses on the pliability of Linux. Do you want to use a Linux server as a firewall? Read this book. Do you want to use it to audit systems? Read this book. Do you want to use Linux to securely centralize authentication? Read this book. Even though this book doesn't appear to be popular to people in Texas who don't understand that a mount point can be any directory on a Linux system, or who don't realize that Xinetd is a defacto standard, this California professor thinks it does an
excellent job.

this newly edited book presents a comprehensive oveeview of the field of chronic diseases with epidemiology and their control.

The author presents a 'complete' portrait of former heavyweight champion of the world, Gentlemen James J. Corbett. It's a 'warts and all' portrayl, telling the reader about the 'Gentlemens' dark side, and about his charming side. His writing about the Corbett family and Jim's upbringing is very interesting. The desriptions of Corbett's classic fights, with the likes of 'Peter Jackson, Bob Fitzsimmons, and James J. Jeffries' are told in a entertaining and informative way. He even delves into Corbett's married life, a part of his life that was not always pretty, but presents it in a fair and even handed way. Concluding, if your a boxing buff or just someone curious about a legend named 'Corbett' you will certainly find something rewarding in this fasinating biography..

This is a really good book, which reads very well and once started it is difficult to leave down. The content is satisfactory alhough somewhat lacking in a few areas. It does not require a lot of prior knowledge which is of particular benefit to the beginner. One problem is that some areas are only dealt with on a rather superficial level which can be somewhat frustrating and requires other books to be used. However the details of the book are sufficient to achieve a pass in any undergraduae medical course. The layout and illustrations are fine, rather unremarkable. All in All a good investment for the average student. For those who have a greater interest in the subject a mor detaild text would be advised

A really good book, but almost too tragic. It still contains typical Donleavy wit, great characters, and the usual Irish, drunken, sexy fun, but this time the tragic love story brings the book down and makes it a bit too depressing.

Classic Hogan! This is a must read for all Hogan fans. Adding the mystery of an investigation to the normal "far out" views of the world, Hogan has proven he is the master of sci-fi. You must add this book to your collection.

This is a very helpful, brief introduction (145 pages total)to "Ulysses." Neither a critical interpretation of the entire book, nor a lexicography to the allusions contained in words and phrases, the author provides brief, easily understood chapters dealing with some of the major themes and literary devises used in "Ulysses." Eight chapters: 1. Historical context. 2. The importance of the work. 3. Critical reception. 4. Arrangements of reality. 5. A comedy of errors. 6. Dublin alligators. 7. An epic of two races. 8. Reading in "Ulysses."

Also contains a useful 14 page appendix which briefly outlines the basic plot of each "Ulysses" chapter, notes, index, and bibliography. The author is a professor of English and director of the graduate program in English at the University of Miami.

James P. Hogan's best works have always been about science and scientists exploring the universe, finding out how it ticks, and being surprised not so much by what they find as by the byproducts of what they find. In this story, a machine which can send signals back in time is invented, and the rest of the story revolves around three key questions: "Exactly how does it work?", "What does it mean about the way the universe works?", and finally, "How do we use it wisely?"

Hogan's characters quickly became friends, and I got thoroughly caught up in their quest for answers, some of which, as you would expect, are kept secret until right up to the very end, which includes one of the most gorgeous juxtapositions of "Surprise!" with "Of course!" I've ever read. This one was more than worth the time spent reading it.

Thrice Upon a Time is not a book to read if you're not ready to be totally absorbed. The author allows the reader to imagine the consequences of altering the entire universe by changing one small event in the past. The reader will quickly become lost in the story-line as well as the characters. This book is excellent if you're prepared to do some thinking. I highly recommend it.

One of the things I like about James P. Hogan's fiction is that it's so largely idea-driven. He makes plausible projections from present-day science and uses them as the basis for a story (which generally includes the story of the discovery of the scientific principles at issue).

This is one of my favorites. In it, Hogan explores a mind-blowingly cool scientific concept: what if it were possible for information to travel from the future to the past?

"Classic" SF treatments of time-travel themes leave something to be desired -- even Robert A. Heinlein's fine short story "By His Bootstraps," which depends for its success on several narrative tricks that work in the story but aren't very realistic elsewhere. (The protagonist has to relive the same series of events several times, from different points of view, without really being able to _make decisions_ as this happens.) Others allow the possibility of changing the past but allege that _actually_ changing it would somehow make the universe go blooey. A few allow the past actually to be changed but don't explain how it's possible (in particular ducking the obvious paradoxes).

So Hogan started from scratch and tried to provide a plausible scientific basis for his own tale. And what he came up with was a way that information from the future _can_ change the past -- with, let's say, _very_ interesting consequences for his characters, including a host of brand new moral problems and hard choices. As I suggested above, the story is (like most "hard" SF) fundamentally idea-driven rather than character-driven, but Hogan's characters are believable and interesting all the same.

If you enjoy this sort of thing, you'll also want to read his later novel _Paths To Otherwhere_ for exploration of the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics. And check out _The Proteus Operation_ for yet another fascinating twist on the time-travel/changing-the-past theme.

Unlike a lot of other reviews, I found the first 30 pages a little boring, and the rest of the story great. The beginning of the book is excellent, then the character development of the humans occurs, and I found it hard to get through. Then once the robots are in the picture, I found it very exciting to the last page. I have read this general story line of the evolution of machines before, just not in this way. I found it very good. I liked the robot dialogue. I found myself enjoying the robot characters, and the primitive culture they had. The feelings of robots evolving over millions of years is neat, as is the origin of the robots on Titan. There seemed to be a lot of negative reviews of this book, with the beginning being all they liked. I liked the very beginning too, but most of the rest of the book did not let me down. It gets trivial at times, and the rescue of certain characters at the last minute occurs. All in all though, I did not find it a waste of time to read at all. In fact, I think it may be one of the most enjoyable reads I ever had.

This book begins with prologue, and what a great prologue it is! And that is, I think, this book's biggest problem. The prologue is very enthralling and captivating, and sets up the rest of the story very well. But after that, no matter how good the rest of the book was, it would seem a little disappointing compared to the prologue. It seems that Hogan peaked a little too early.

So, what's all the fuss about? The prologue begins by describing an alien automated spaceship who's main job is to find planets with lots of natural resources, build automated factories to exploit the planets, and send various products back to the alien home world. It does this by building lots of little robots, who build the factories, and then go on to build more factories. Those factories build more robots, and so on and so on, until the planet is fully automated, and is sending loads of stuff back home. So far, so good.

Then the spaceship, on its way to another planet, gets damaged in a super nova. It is now virtually blind, and its instructions badly damaged. The first planet it comes across is the moon Titan, in our solar system, a million years ago. So the ship starts building factories, which in turn start building robots....and to make a long story short, the robots develop in peculiar ways, and start developing strange characteristics, such as predation, reproductive behaviours, and survival instincts...

Cut to a million years later, and we find ourselves on earth, in the middle of the preparations for a Mars shot, with lots of politicking going on, and with a scurrilous shyster of a fake psychic getting in on the space trip (supposedly to do experiments), along with a scientist who's out to discredit him (he knows he's a fake, but he just can't prove it!). So, off they go to Mars, along with a nice big military contingent. But then...! They get re-routed to Titan. A passing Voyager type explorer has just sent back some funny looking pictures of what's taking place on the surface, and our heroes are sent to have a look.

The rest of the story is spent examining the robot culture which has developed in the million years since we last saw them, how they interact with the humans, how this amazing development affects all the politicking still going on between the humans, how relations between various factions of robots are affected, power plays, robot religion (very medieval), etc. etc. Actually, it gets quite interesting, and Hogan's attention to technical detail and his ability to think of small but important details (especially from the robots perspective) is quite good.

A lot of the action takes place between the robots themselves, with the arrival of the humans as a kind of backdrop, which is a nice feature of this book (at least not everything revolves around the humans!). The robots are shown to have a quite complex culture, with their own goodies and baddies, just as the humans do. Some of the robot characters are quite likeable, and you can find yourself growing attached to them (always a good sign if, after you've finished a book, you start missing the characters!).

I won't give too much more away about the story, but suffice to say that there's plenty of intrigue going on to keep you interested. On the downside, the writing (apart from that great prologue!) is not as snappy as it could be, and the plot gets a bit complicated for me (a danger in any book where there are lots of characters all interacting with each other). By the end, it is a bit of a struggle to keep going, but is, I think, worth it to see what happens. This was, I believe, Hogan's first book, and you can tell from the lack of polish in the style.

Overall, though, this is an interesting book, about an interesting subject. There's plenty of stuff going on to keep you interested, and the robot culture is enjoyable to learn about. While the writing style isn't great, that good beginning, and the fascinating interaction of robot and human make up for all that. This is well worth a read, and if you like it, there's plenty more by Hogan out there to keep you happy!

Reading the prologue was like witnessing the birth of the human race. This book takes the question of Darwinism versus Creationism and through a unique perspective -- that of a race of robots on Titan -- gives both sides something to think about. And even if you're not into not into the heavier issues, the evident renaissance metaphor is extremely effective (and the source of amusement when humans arrive on the scene).

"A comic masterpiece" The Nation. No, it wasn't the least bit funny.
When I saw that this book came out in 1965, it struck me that it's main character represents all the worst characteristics of that era- self-centered, irresponsible to the point of being dangerous to his family and anyone he comes in contact with.
Not funny. Who cares if it was "well-written?" If Hitler had written his memoirs, and they were "well-written", should we care?

(Two-and-half-stars) There are moments in Donleavy's "Ginger Man" where his prose sings. The last chapter is absolutely beautiful. Too bad it is not representative of the rest of the book. I have no quibbles with the morality (or immorality) of Sebastian Dangerfield; great literature shouldn't be judged according to its moral content, anyways, in my opinion. My problem is with what I perceive as a lack of any point or purpose in the narrative. Donleavy does a fine job of parroting James Joyce's style, but the freshness, ingenuity, and underlying human compassion that makes "Ulysses" such a wonderful novel are severely lacking here. Dangerfield is pathetic, just pathetic. I felt no compassion for him. Donleavy does not attempt to draw his character as anything more than a lazy, womanizing drunk. The humor inherent in his situation and character is fully mined in the first few chapter. That leaves 250+ pages of rambling stream-of-conscious prose which adds little or nothing to the character or the story. So the book is well-written. Fine. But in the words of the Burger King lady, "Where's the beef?"

John Donleavy's "The Ginger Man" is an engaging, sometimes funny and often infuriating novel. Well written in its way it tells the story of the dissolute, self absorbed life of Sebastian Dangerfield, an American expat in Ireland.

I didn't find much comedy in Ginger Man although there are some perfect lines within it. One especially comical line is in response to the nature of morals and Catholicism, to paraphrase: Jesus is a good idea but they're killing him with publicity. Ginger Man also contains some- for the time- graphic scenes of sexuality that resulted in its being banned in the US for some years.

There isn't a lot that I found funny in the way Dangerfield approached his family or other women. He's generally drunk, on the prowl and out of money. But JP Donleavy is a good writer and there is something in his style and the story that keeps the reader engaged. I guess it's similar to watching a train wreck, you're sorry it had to happen but you can't take your eyes off of it.

I did enjoy Ginger Man but was at a loss to figure out why there really wasn't much in the way of resolution. If you're looking for a story of redemption or a Saul on the road to Damascus epiphany from the main character you'll be disappointed. Perhaps that was Donleavy's intent, that sometimes there isn't resolution.

All in all The Ginger Man is a well-written and engaging story which will delight some readers and disappoint those looking for a morality tale.