A lot of WSE, not so much SOA.
346343
Don't let the title of this book fool you. It's mostly about WSE. You will find some useful SOA techniques here but you will not find much how and why, tradeoffs, etc. that you would really expect to find in a more generic SOA title. The SOA that you get out of this book is all based around WSE.

If you are new to WSE then this book will serve you quite well. It goes into a lot of detail about how to set things up to get a WSE server and client running. It also outlines the WS-* specs that WSE is built on pretty well, although you will need much more information about the WS-* specs if you really want to understand them well.

If you are a WSE veteran that has been through all the lousy WSE documentation and have Google'd up all you can about WSE, then this book will be nothing more than a review and maybe a reference for you.

The book is laid out fairly well. Most of the how-tos are step by step guides to implementing the code. These how-tos can get a little tedious because sometimes they are just a reiteration of some fairly obvious code. The author's style is easy to follow and he ties the ideas and themes together. One fairly obvious omission from the chapters on security is how expertly WSE uses the policy documents to provide security without writing a lot of the manual WSE security code. Security and policy interaction is probably the least understood part of WSE. A solid chapter on how WSE uses the policy documents to set up security would have made this book invaluable.
1950268
It made the costs of a low trust situation very apparent. There are a lot of best practices that come up.
As a read, parts moved slowly. There's a lot of biography included.
2227952
There were some really interesting start ups such as Trip Advisor . Some companies as well that have since gone bankrupt, bought out or whatever. All the examples were internet, software or technology related.

Maybe being an aussie I thought you could have some non-tech start ups based on a service or even property business.
2618931
Good place to start if you're clueless. A bit old school though, as business models seem to take precedence these days
260933
I love Barry Greenstein, but in a rush to fill the need in the marketplace this book was hastily published at the height of the new poker craze. (I don't actually know this, but this is how it seems to me.)

Apparently Greenstein was invited to write a single chapter in someone else's book. He did a lot of writing and felt that it was enough for a book. However it would have been a small book (though perhaps a good one.) However the publishers seem to have wanted better sales by fattening it up and adding lots of stock photography of gambling and casino images. These images often have little to no relationship with the editorial content on opposing pages.

Barry, you can do better than this. You have a good book inside of you, but this isn't it.
483278
Since there are many positive reviews this book must appeal to some people, to me it seems like a very fragmented approach and re-hash of a lot of well known investment fundamentals.  It also obviously is touting hedge funds.  It is also talking up fund of funds, which in the case of hedge funds puts the fees into pretty astronomical territory.  I generally enjoy John Mauldin and his column, but for Mauldin to recommend this book is somewhat suspect.  Serious investors can find better books than this.
254505
The author of this book is a myopic Nix evangelist.

In the real world there are many reasons for Nix and Windows to Co-exist in a variety of relationships. There is also strong argument that Microsoft's semi-propriety file sharing protocol is better than NFS, regardless of one's feelings on that argument Windows supports the MS protocol and only recently can you download support for NFS without paying additional licensing fees to MS or a third party vendor, and this free support for NFS is only for WinXP and 2000/2003 Server. In any multiplatform environment the protocol of choice is going to be the MS protocol, and the way Nix implements it is through SAMBA and the heroic reverse engineering efforts of the SAMBA team.
The reality of SAMBA is that it is a reverse engineered product with a very limited budget. For those of us coming from the MS side, SAMBA is a bear to administer. My dominant view of reality is different from the author -- the author presumes Nix on the Server Side and Windows on the Desktop, with any Microsoft Servers as an unwanted nuisance. My view is of either very mixed environments (which may also have a strong Mac presence) or of Windows dominated environments where Nix makes its entrance because of either being better suited to some specific task or allowing some significant licensing fees to be avoided.
The choice and structure of the examples was pretty much chosen in light of the author's bias and lacked the full depth that could have been reached by also working examples from a Windows centric view.
An issue that I have found inadequately addressed all around is that in Server 2003 Microsoft introduced new "security features" which pretty much break interoperability with SAMBA. One of the important goals of Samba 3 was to fix what Microsoft broke, the author gave only one useful example of making Samba 3 work with Server 2003. The author omitted how to disable those features which make interoperability with Samba difficult. And there are many reasons to choose having an easier time making things work over the enhanced security provided by the new features, if only as a temporary measure to reach a point  where things work while resolving the issues that prevent it from working in the more secure configuration.
4057178
This research advocates focus of asset allocation on best performing sector, largely through use of index ETFs. The author appears to be mesmerized by science metaphors, casting doubt on his credibility, although he's probably right about a fundamental change shifting the paradigm away from buy and hold. There is good history but little help on implementation. Despite downplaying MPT and EMH, this looks too much like a variation on market timing.  With slight reservation, I don't think this is very useful.
4320023
I was hoping to get a lot of insight into some of the specific R12 features, but found only a couple of questions that addressed the new functionality.  The remainder of the questions seemed to be generic General Ledger, regardless of version.
566482
The title for my review essentially sums it up, so I will use this space to instead talk about what I see as a fault in this book, and that is the perceived emphasis that you cannot be a successful trader.

While it is difficult if not impossible for large institutional investment firms to do better than the market on a consistent basis, swing trading has proven to be very for successful for some. While daytrading, as far as I am concerned, remains an unrewarding activity for the time and effort you put in, swing trading is relatively simple assuming you have a fair grasp of the market and you follow news.

Using the recent (and current) media and investor blitz of Google as an example, anyone who could see the forest instead of the trees would have noticed how outlets who generally do not focus on the market did. All the network news shows talked about it, and it's generally pretty rare for them to talk about any IPOs.

From the perspective of day traders, and even people on Wall Street, this did not signify anything special. For people who watch for these kind of things, it was surprising to see an IPO get such publicity.

The swing traders, unlike those on Wall Street and day traders who cannot see the forest through the trees, probably made a ton of money off of Google, as well as on other 'trends.'

Ugg boots is a fine example. Had you invested in Deckers, the company that markets the product, when you saw it becoming a 'trend' and something all the celebrities had to have, you probably would have made a pretty penny.

Now while this investment strategy isn't for everyone, and i'm not saying all your money should go to a style like this at all, it is proof that you can make quite a bit off the market in the short-term.

That said, the implication that large short term gains cannot be made is my ONLY criticism of this book. And in reality, this book is for long term investing, so I should not expect Mr. Bernstein to delve further into the issue.

If your kids are interested in investing, give this to them. The chart for "Young Yvonne"'s investment path should be photocopied and pasted on the wall of every dorm in every college in North America.

There is simply no more complete book in existence explaining safe, long term investment strategy, and explaining the basics of the stock market.

I wish I read this book when I was 15. Don't make your kids wish they had as well.
656729
The purpose of this book is not to teach you the technical aspects of security in Active Directory, rather to teach you best security practices in use and deployment of this technology.  The 70-298 exam should be one of the last you on the MCSE track.  Microsoft assumes that you have already taken your workstation and core 4 exams by the time you get to this one.

That said, the book is helpful but not comprehensive, in helping you prepare for this exam from a CONCEPTUAL, not technical perspective.
4796514
I bought this as a S/W engineer implementing an IrDA stack

Not much content is allocated to the inner workings of a IrDA stack.

Excessive content is spent on the IrDA physical layer which, to a large extent, is dictated by commercial IrDA compliant LEDs.

What is missing are message sequence charts and explanations for the typical establishment of a IrLMP/IrTTY connection.

Also, what would be useful is a real stack dump with notes of which fields are changed as the connection is established.

Fine to begin with but after analysing a real stack dump you are quickly taken past what is offered.
1113061
struck me as pretty basic. This book can be useful for basic planning. And, based on what I am seeing in the world markets and economy now (aug 2011), I think I will review this book and put more of its ideas into practice. I'm sick of losing money, esp when I lose MORE than the market. I'm not totally convinced that global diversification (only PART of his suggested approach) will help much in the globally connected economy, but it is probably more advisable than being mostly in US securities, which is my current situation (regretably).
2253260
This book provides a good overview of security tools.  It could help readers get started by explaining security concepts and stepping the reader through installation of useful tools.  (The book includes a CD containing the utilities covered in the text.)  It doesn't however, give good coverage to interpreting the results of scans and monitoring.

About 1/4 to 1/3 of the book is wasted on appendices of readily available information.  GPL and BSD licenses, well-known port numbers, and a huge list of Nessus plug-ins.  The space might have been better utilized by providing coverage of virus scanners or even common application alternatives that are more resistant to attack.  On the positive side, the information is there so you won't need to look for it on the Web.

I like the fact that the book covers utilities for both Linux and Windows.  And the fact that the utilities are free and Open Source, of course.  Just using one of the utilities covered in the book would save you many times the cost of the book.

I learned a few new tricks from this book even though I was already familiar with many of the utilities and concepts.
4340920
Experienced SEs will find a few interesting refresher but, shouldn't expect to agree with everything in this introductory to a few simple rules for SEs
334716
As a corn farmer, oil and gas producer, copper-silver-gold miner, with too much exposure to the bond and equities markets I needed more escape options than I found in the last chapter. The author has a bit more work to do for the fifth star from me.
655723
Julia Angwins Dragnet Nation serves as a review and check on the current state of surveillance. From corporations to advertisers to state actors, surveillance is a strong business. Angwin takes a broad look at how organizations surveil, analyze, profit, and target us. Unfortunately, much of this book is a starter guide. If you've read about privacy and security before, you'll recognize all the interviewees, software, and tips.

One unique angle begins with the development of a threat model. The author sets out to reduce her own online presence and increase her privacy. She describes building a threat model as a method for identifying adversaries. Essentially, this involves an analysis of your weaknesses and strengths that leave you vulnerable to penetration. Likewise, Angwin follows in the footsteps of a famed privacy and security expert, J.J. Luna. That individual describes some of the most important steps to creating a private life. As a reader, I thought this was one of the strongest points in the book: that she would continually interview the best crypto-privacy experts in the world.

She brings up a serious problem within the open-source movement. Developers run out of money and/or interest, and the open-source software often goes unmaintained. To counteract, or at least support those trying, Angwin decides to give money to those maintaining open-source software. I thought this was an inventive, educational, and important message to readers.

It bothered me how challenging she seemed to be about every privacy solution. As a journalist in this field, I would've thought she had experience and expertise with these technologies. There was a particularly strange section on passwords, too. When shes creating a safe, larger entropy password, she doesnt seem to understand that even if a password could be cracked in 7 hours, the hacker would need to have access to the encrypted, hashed file -- not something that major websites just hand out to hackers. Cracking software will automatically get blocked on major sites, and as such, a hacker wouldnt even make it through the requisite time to hack the password.

Dragnet Nation doesn't adequately explain the fundamental gap between state actors (e.g., FBI, CIA, and NSA) or private companies such as Google and Facebook. I don't think this book is alone in missing the gap, though. Writers and journalists are doing a good job when it comes to privacy conversations, but they don't frequently differentiate the goals of each organization. The NSA wants to collect it all to analyze your data to see if you're a threat (that threat varies across governments and could be used for questionable screening/practices). With a private corporation, they likely are interested in collecting data to better advertise and market to you. Theyre looking to make a bigger profit for their shareholders -- not calculate your threat matrix.

Angwin's overall suggestion -- greater transparency in government and private corporations -- is exactly what America needs right now. While I did not find her tips and tricks to be particularly helpful (and perhaps already dated), her overarching messages and further light on problematic surveillance was insightful and important. Worth a read, but I might recommend Glenn Greenwald's book, No Place To Hide, for more expert advice and knowledge.