Regulation of Securities: SEC Compliance and Practice is a useful handbook on securities compliance for public companies. The Second Edition adds a new chapter on going private transactions, and seems to expand and update the previous material fairly extensively.

The book is not an academic treatise. There are no lengthy footnotes, and no theoretical discussions about what the securities laws might be or should be. Rather, the book answers real-world questions in a straightforward manner, gives contextual background, provides illustrative examples, and points you to the most relevant primary sources if further information is required.

There are 12 chapters:

1. Introduction to securities regulation (including a section on EDGAR)

2. Periodic reporting under Sections 13(a) and 15(d)

3. Reporting of beneficial ownership under Sections 13(d) and 13(g)

4. Insider reporting under Section 16(a)

5. Short-swing trading and exemptions under Section 16(b)

6. Tender offer disclosure requirements

7. Proxy solicitations under Section 14(a)

8. Securities fraud under Rule 10b-5

9. Use of electronic media

10. Selling restricted and control securities under Rule 144

11. Private resales to institutional investors under Rule 144A

12. Going private transactions under Rule 13e-3.

This is a good book to consider for any corporate governance library.

I would give this book high marks as a thorough but very readable guide to complying with SEC rules and regulations on a day-to-day basis for public corporations, corporate insiders and their counsel.
I actually like the question and answer format, which makes it fairly easy to find the exact information you are looking for. The index and tables are also well done. The other nice feature is that the book not only gives the rules and how to comply with them (for example, periodic reporting, Rule 144, short-swing profits, insider trading, etc.) but also the rationale behind the rules and historical background.
Overall, a good investment and a five-star rating.

I've read this book a couple times, and each time it's just a little more interesting. This is for anybody who wants to know what computers of the past were like, and the people that worked with them. Suggested reading for any computer savvy individual.

I respect the courage of the book's author, who went out of his way to provide challenges to his fourth grade students. As well written as the book was, I did not find the book useful to me, an urban teacher of a fourth grade class of lower income students. The book merely left me frustrated that people like Levy are taking their mostly priveledged students on educational journeys filled with enrichment, while many of us are dealing with poverty, racism, and illeteracy in our classrooms.

An excellent and highly entertaining book. The classroom stories are wonderful: creative and humorous. I've had great success with several of Levy's ideas in my own classroom.

Steven Levy paints a vivid picture of his magical classroom in all its glory. Wonderful stories, curriculum ideas, and a refreshing educational philosophy. This book is great reading for anyone, and a must have for teachers.

This book serves as a good introduction to the work many individuals are doing not only in Artificial Life but also in fields related to Artificial Life. If you want an indepth examination then you will probably have to find items written by the individual scientists, but this is enough to get your feet wet and thus allow you to focus your search. If you are interested in these topics I would suggest you also look at Complexity Science and the similar books there like "Complexity" by Waldrop and "Out of Control" by Kelly, though many times the anecdotes in these three stories are very similiar Waldrop and Kelly look more at Santa Fe Institute. Finally though I haven't read the reprint version of this book, the original book seems very gloomy in terms of its attitude on Artificial Life. Levy seems to think that Artificial Life will be created but the entire last chapter seems to indicate he thinks it will be bad. Anyway it's a good book overall especially if you know nothing about the subject. If you know something then it provides a good examination to a lot of different techniques and you can easily learn something you didn't know before.

I read this more than three years ago, before I started my undergraduate studies. I knew I was going to study computer science, but after reading this book I knew I would forever be drawn to the multidisciplinary fields of biology and computer science. From the question of the origin of life to intelligence, the book convinced me that a new approach is needed to solve these old mysteries.

It's not a masterpiece of literature, but it was interesting enough to forever change my research career.

This book is a quick read and a great introduction to artificial life. It combines something of the science, the personalities and the history of this field. For general readers with some technical sophistication it affords an opportunity to broaden one's horizons without too much of a mathematical stretch; for computer scientists who are thinking of their own research it can give a general idea of some of the accomplishments in the field and a place to start delving into the original research papers. Read it and enjoy the future!

If you're considering reading Hackers, by Steven Levy you're either a hacker wannabe, or maybe the real deal looking for a trip down random-access memory lane. Either way, Hackers is a well-written narrative version of the history of "hacking" - that is, figuring out how to make computers perform tasks, often by simple trial and error; from the early days at MIT in the late 50's through the microcomputer revolution in the eighties. Not only is it well-written and organized, it gives you just enough technical data to increase your understanding of the hackers' achievements, and doesn't drown you in jargon.

I read this as research for a writing project; I use computers, I like computers, but by the end of the book I was wrapped up in a world of people who are consumed by the curiosity of what a computer is capable of. All the of real people that Levy writes about are interesting and vibrant in their own peculiar ways. And all the description of ingenuity and innovation in the sake of a good hack really gets you inspired.

I'm sure there are people who will take issue with Levy's selective coverage of the machines covered, debatably skewed emphasis on the bookish quality of the MIT group versus the crazy, do-it-yourselfers at Stanford, etc., and all of the people covered are not shown in a uniform light. But if you love computers, and would like to read about some really interesting people who accomplish some pretty amazing things, then this is a book for you.

I am a senior engineer for network security operations, who when nine years old in 1980 started computing on a Timex-Sinclair ZX-80. I probably first heard the term "hacker" when "War Games" was released in 1983. I read Steven's book because it is an early but enlightening account (first published in 1984) of the Hacker Ethic.

Consider: in a closed, self-policed environment, like the computer labs of the 1960s and early 1970s, freely sharing information makes sense. In an open, under-policed environment, like the modern Internet, deviants abuse the Hacker Ethic. Well-intentioned "white hats" may explore the phone system purely to understand its operation, but evil-minded "black hats" abuse the same knowledge to make free long distance calls. Does this mean information should be confined? No -- full disclosure is still the best way to counter black hat activity.

Steven lays the groundwork for these thoughts, and serves up gems from hacker history. His 1970s quote from Popular Electronics editor Les Solomon is the earliest reference I know linking hacking to kung fu: "The computer is...an art form. It's the ultimate martial art." Steven also shares tales of Sierra On-Line, Apple Corp., Homebrew Computer Club, the Altair, and even Bill Gates' 1975 rant against software piracy.

"Hackers" will make you appreciate your unlimited access to the machine on which you're reading this review. Hackers of the 1960s and 1970s would have given their first born child to possess the power and availability of modern PCs; now we take PCs for granted, like indoor plumbing or refrigeration!

Those who lived the early days of PCs will enjoy Steven's trip down memory lane. Those who are younger will discover the true meaning of the word "hacker" -- one who promotes access, freedom, decentralization, meritocracy, art, and joy through computers.

steven levy truly does a great job writing about computers from its beginnings as the domain of a very few select, perhaps nerdy, but extremely intelligent group of students and non-students at MIT to the explosion of personal computers in the 1980s. the book ends at 1984 (when it was first published), so it does not go into the internet boom, but up until that point it provides an extensive and also entertaining view of what was going on and who was making it all happen.

i highly recommend this book to everyone that wants to know the beginnings of our technology-driven society, whether you are technical minded or not. don't be discouraged by the talk of machines you may never have heard of or programming languages and hardware terms you're not familiar with -- these are important to the story, no doubt, but levy explains everything clearly from where the term 'hackers' orignated to why IBM 'hulking giants' were so disdained to what chip does what. and the main story being told is not in the machinery itself, but in the people.

the book reads like fiction. from the middle school genius kids who were openly accepted into the MIT hackers groups, to the cocky 19-year-old named bill gates who refused to share his code openly the way everyone else was doing with each other at the time, and to the 20-something millionaires of the gaming revolution in the 1980s, levy shows us what was happening but also gives us insight into what made these people who they were.

levy has done his research. with facts from extensive interviews, re-interviews, newspaper articles and other resources, he's managed to put together not just a story about the birth and 'growing up' of personal computing, but also show us the human spirit of these geniuses and artists. if you are at all interested in 'hacking' (whether computer-based or otherwise) this book will doubtless inspire you to spend sleepless nights working on your creations knowing that amazing things can happen when you put your mind to it.

as a woman, i'm only sorry that there weren't more women hackers to admire and look up to among all the men, but then, that's not a flaw of the book so much as a sad truth of history.

this book may be out of print, but it is not outdated, and well worth searching through a few used bookstores to find a copy. borrow mine if you must :)

I have no doubt that the material contained in this book is as factual as the writer portrays. I did find it difficult to keep up with the changes in time, setting and circumstances of the characters. Perhaps the writer feels that this is a way of sustaining the suspense, but I found it distracting. Overall, I was interested in this man who was recently brought back to the US to stand trial for the murder of his girlfriend. I did learn a lot about him and that is good background for what will inevitably be Court TV material soon. It might have been helpful to the reader to have a psychiatrist's view of Holly and why she did not leave Ira when she was obviouly drawn to another man. I almost gave up on this book before reading the "secret" revealed in the last chapters. Good account of Ira Einhorn who was evil before he killed Holly.

Hard to believe that I was about 5 years old in a suburb of Philadelphia when Holly Maddux's body was found in a trunk in Ira Einhorn's apartment . . . even harder to believe is that he managed to escape and has been living in France for all these years. This book is fabulous . . . I was totally engrossed in it from page 1. Being from the Philadelphia area, I was somewhat familiar with the case, but reading this book opened up so much more to me about Holly, her family, and this monster, Ira Einhorn. He was a small-town nobody, the founder of Earth Day who thought the world revolved around him. What a shame that Holly got involved with him and could have been so naive and easily fooled. The pictures are disturbing -- she was such a beautiful girl, and Ira such a fat, disgusting, ragged-looking oaf. It does not seem to make sense. Then again, it shows how manipulative and sneaky Ira really was.

Even though I knew how the book was going to end, I actually found myself applauding Holly as she began to discover her strengths and pull away from Ira and resolutely decide to remove herself from his life. What if she had been able to do that? How wonderful (for everyone) if that had happened . . . but Ira would not let anyone leave him. He considered Holly to be his possession, and was not about to let anyone get away from him so easily. It amazes me that he was able to escape detection for so long, and that his friends and acquaintances actually trusted and believed his stories . . . even after Holly's body was found. How does one explain that? A body is found in your apartment and you expect everyone to believe you had nothing to do with it? That there was a conspiracy against Ira Einhorn? Get real! Ira was a nobody -- no one would waste their time conspiring against him. The book was fascinating and frightening at the same time. Much better than the TV movie about the case (which, I admit, sparked my interest and convinced me to buy this book). I recommend it to anyone who is at all intrigued by the case, or anyone who is a fan of the true-crime genre. It is a page-turner, a tale that will sicken and sadden you all at once. Unfortunately, it is a story without a resolution, since Einhorn is still in France and has not been brought to justice -- and that will make you seethe with anger.

This book is far more than a whodunit. It is a wonderful history of the politics and pop-culture of the 1960s and 1970s and it provides in-depth character analyses of all of the central players. This one really puts "The Age of Aquarius" in perspective! Was the Unicorn a murderer or framed by secret operatives? The revelations in the last chapters provided an unequivocal answer for me.

This book is an entertaining account of many of the people and episodes involved in making cryptography and cryptanalysis a respectable and important topic of work for scientists and engineers not affiliated with any government agency. The incidents recounted that I happen to know about personally are well and accurately described here. But there are a couple of gaps.

First, some of the key players "on the outside" are not mentioned; this may well be because most of those who aren't mentioned by now are "insiders." But this results in some of this book being a bit misleading. For example, serious work on cryptanalysis by outsiders, including one piece of work that Admiral Inman, when head of NSA, described as "the most brilliant piece of civilian cryptanalysis since World War II", was already going on by the late 1970s; this had serious national security implications, and helps to explain why NSA was so ambivalent about "outsiders" engaging in *any* crypto research. Overall, although NSA goofed badly several times, I think they managed to keep a more balanced view on the issue than I might have expected. The fact that Levy doesn't mention some of the key "outsider" work suggests to me that he may not have talked with (or at least didn't gain the confidence of) such people as Cipher Deavours and David Kahn, who could have given him perspective on the "outsider" work that he doesn't discuss.

Secondly, I infer that he was unable to get any of the NSA side of the story from NSA itself. This is a pity. It's presumably not Levy's fault; NSA only talks to people it decides to talk to, and then says only what it decides needs to be said. I assume that Levy tried to get information from NSA and failed; I don't know. But if NSA stonewalled Levy, it's because he didn't make the right contacts to get in touch with somebody who would have been willing to talk with him about NSA's viewpoint on various issues Levy discusses that are not sensitive in NSA's view. That extra information would have helped make Levy's book clearer and more complete. In spite of this, Levy is quite fair to NSA, which speaks well of his thoughtfulness and balance.

So, overall I regard this as a good book, well worth reading, provided one keeps in mind that it's not the complete story.

This book is a contribution to the History of crypto and computing, assuming that this history changes very much our everyday life even if we are not into computer field.
It focus on the story of the people who opened the crypto Pandora's box, allowing todays e-business long before the word was even invented. It starts with Whit Diffie (Diffie-Hellman) in the late 60's, through Rivest, Shamir and Adleman (RSA) and ends with Zimmerman (Pgp) and Helsingius (remailer). It also follows other conributors to crypto and business people (eg. : from RSA, Lotus) as well as some politicians and people involved at the NSA.
The author describes the oppositions between the pro-crypto-for-everyone and the US government, the government self-contradictions and oppositions with the tech firms. This includes facts about the NSA, the Clipper Chip issue, the patents problems, etc. These are always seen from the viewpoint of the different people who where involved at that time.
It is easy to read and does not need any technical or maths background. If focuses on the people. It does not discuss the subject : it tells us the story.
If you are looking for a book about crypto in order to understand "how it works", forget this book. If you want to understand how people with one obsession can change the world, just read it.
The author manages suspens very well, from the beginning to the end. This book is hard to close : you really want to get to the next page.
So why not 5 stars ? Because I think this book could have been perfect with just a few diagrams showing the crypto algorithm (eg. : differences between Diffie-Hellman and RSA are not clear). Ok... ok... I give 5 stars only to books which change my life. This one is exciting, informative and well written, but not to that point.

This is a book about people, very bright idealistic and forward looking people based principally in the beginning at MIT and Stanford. It tells how their ideas and struggles with NSA over a period of several decades unleashed the genie of strong encryption from government shackles. The pages are based on a distillation of extensive personal interviews by the author of the prime movers in the new cryptography conducted over a period of several years. The account is chronological and gives a real sense of the actors as people including their doubts, fears, exhalted moments, business failures, victories. It deftly intertwines explanations of the underlying principles of cryptography as the concepts arise in the flow of the work. Reading the book you feel like you are in the meeting, or the place or the dilemma as the tale unfolds. The author always strives for balance and you hear both sides of the debates, disagreements, and controversies that arise. This is a very timely book, well-written, nicely paced, and readable without any special technical background. You can really get a sense of the main characters as they lead their daily lives as well as the importance of their work to society and the evolution of web commerce. The author clearly had the trust and support of the players. Highly Recommended.

I bought my first computer, a Macintosh, in 1984. I had wanted a computer for years, watching friends with envy at their Commodore 64s, Radio Shack Color Computers, and wonderful Apple IIs. When the Macintosh was introduced in 1984, I had to have it. It was the computer built "for the rest of us." Never mind that I could have had everything I needed in a computer--word processing program, a few games--for $$$, as soon as I sat down in front of the Macintosh, my life changed. The Macintosh, and the entire graphical user interface concept, was truly "insanely great," as Steven Levy quotes Steve Jobs, former chairman of Apple Computers. In his new book, Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything, Levy reveals how and why the Macintosh had such an impact on the world.

Although the Macintosh debuted in 1984, the seeds of its design had been planted as early as 1945. In a post-war statement, Vannevar Bush, then the director of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, wrote an essay in which he contended that the next step of technology should be the way we collect and process information. Having seen the early use of computers in the war, Bush realized the awesome potential of high-speed information management, but also knew that progress would have to be made in the interface if ever information management could be useful. Levy follows the chain that links Bush to Alan Kay, who proposed the Dynabook, a forerunner of today's PDA technology, to the developers at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center who developed the first graphical user interface (GUI). Nearby, a small team of dedicated programmers were working on the low-cost hardware that became teamed with the new GUI concept that became the Macintosh.

Much has been written about the originality of the GUI concept, and more than one lawsuit has been fought over it. Levy attempts to go beyond the simple desktop metaphor and explain why it was the particular Macintosh implementation of the concept that changed the way people viewed computers. Xerox's researchers were quite happy just to discover "how" to do things; it was Jef Raskin, Steve Jobs, Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfield, and the rest of the Macintosh team that were driven to give GUI to the people. The concept alone didn't change the world of computing--it was the concept, in a reasonably priced computer, with a "killer application" that showed just how intuitive the concept could be that made things happen. Early Macintosh adoptees like myself thought it was the "What You See is What You Get" word processing and graphic programs that would make everyone see the light. It took Aldus' PageMaker to break the publishing barrier for the "rest of us" to wake up to the possibilities.

The Macintosh implementation had (and has) its problems, which Levy does not gloss over. The initial Macintosh, that computer that I bought in 1984, was released underpowered (128k RAM), without enough storage space (it only had a single floppy drive capable of holding 400k), and crippled in expandability (it was a "closed" system without expansion slots). Apple knew this upon its release, but "real programmers ship," as Jobs is quoted saying, and the Macintosh had to be out the door in 1984. Apple quickly followed the 128k Macintosh with an upgrade to 512k and a 800k disk drive, then with new models including a Macintosh with slots.

The author, Steven Levy, is perhaps best known in the field for his first book, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Levy's position as an industry journalist kept him in the midst of the impact of the Macintosh, with access to Jobs, John Sculley, Jean Louis Gasse, Bill Gates, Aldus' president Paul Brainerd, and almost every member of the Macintosh development team. This chronicle of the development of the Macintosh is part history, part evaluation of the hits and misses, the politics and relationships, of all these people. Every implementation of the GUI interface as seen in the Macintosh was deeply argued, as was its cost, hardware, and "look." Levy shows you that a product such as Macintosh, which is usually attributed to a few people, is actually the culmination of the development team, and also their forerunners, including the Xerox team, and their competitors, most notably Microsoft and IBM.

Today, the GUI concept is ever present. My original Macintosh (which I fondly call the MacAntique), after being upgraded once, has been passed to my niece and nephew (who, to be entirely truthful, play more with their father's Mac II than with the antique), and I replaced it four years ago with an IBM-PC clone that runs today's most popular GUI, Microsoft Windows (the defection was a result of economics--I couldn't afford a new Macintosh). The last command-line holdout, UNIX, is battering down the hatches in defense against the migration of the GUI in the form of the WWW, Java, and its ilk. The Macintosh revolution is twelve, and shows no signs of dying anytime soon. For those who want to understand the early shots--computerdom's equivalent's of the Boston Tea Party and the shot that was heard round the world--Levy's book is a good primer.

Insanely Great by Steven Levy is about the history of the best personal computer company out there, Apple--how it came to be, what were its obstacles and its triumphs, and how it changed the world and the way people think. Levy sometimes gets lost in the details, making one confused about the importance of what he talks about. Also he used the phrase "dent in the universe" one too many times. However, his book reveals much about Apple, and he often points out its mistakes. This does not make the book boring, which would happen if he only praised the company. Also his writing style is very easy to read, he does not overdo it with advanced vocabulary. And finally the book further expanded my love for Apple, and their product, the Macintosh computer. I recomend this book to any Apple fan, or simply to anyone that is curious about the company. Long live Apple!

Steven Levy's "Insanely Great", chronicles the development of the Apple Macintosh computer. From its early conception as one man's vision of the future to its fine-tuning. Levy is pretty detailed through the step by step developments of the Macintosh, but does not get too technical as to get a everyday person lost in a bunch of computer jargon. I recommend this book to those interested in how computers went from DOS prompts to the Microsoft Windows and Mac visual interfaces we are familiar with today.