Government Books - Page 4

The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier

Howard Rheingold

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Not very honest 2 out of 5 stars.
31 of 39 people found this review helpful.

The virtual community is, in reality, at best a bunch of people disagreeing and regularly indulging in shark-like small group attacks. The WELL, of which Howard speaks so much, hounded one of its early members - Blair - to his death by suicide, a matter described, but not really examined with much thoroughness. Yes, he touches on flaming, but does not examine a deeper pattern of common harrasment, particularly of outliers. How Howard himself participated in this type of online gang harassment activity, not understanding the man, Blair, and discounting his claims out of hand is a quite interesting story. He touches on this, and gives an account, which would be acceptable in a personal autobiography. But to leave it where he does in a book purporting to be a seminal piece on virtual community is truly remarkably remiss. Since the record is all there, or was, it could have been given serious consideration.

The conflicting interests, and the commonly irresponsible behavior of people online - viciousness, gratuitous, undeserved nastiness, intellectual dishonesty - looking for targets to vent on is not explored as it should be. This is quite common outside of the world of flaming.

This book is a gloss piece, advertising for something that doesn't really exist as he claims. Howard, while a pleasant guy personally, does not show himself a deep thinker, and may not be much of an observer either. Nor is the author ready, willing or able to take on anything that is likely to upset the herd of which he has become something of a starring member. The story of virtual community is not such a very nice one in many ways.

The underside of the story of virtual community is a story of psychological denial, denial about a great deal. It is a story of in-groups and out-groups, and a good deal more, something which requires an anhtropologists eye, and someone with more nerve.

Go ahead and read this book. But understand that the book itself is evidence of the degree of denial which pervades the "virtual community".

Editorial Review:

An analysis of the Internet notes the many subjects its users can access, predicts its roles for the future, and describes the people behind its substantial development. Reprint. 35,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo. Tour.

The Privacy Advocates: Resisting the Spread of Surveillance

Colin J. Bennett

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Editorial Review:

Today, personal information is captured, processed, and disseminated in a bewildering variety of ways, and through increasingly sophisticated, miniaturized, and distributed technologies: identity cards, biometrics, video surveillance, the use of cookies and spyware by Web sites, data mining and profiling, and many others. In The Privacy Advocates, Colin Bennett analyzes the people and groups around the world who have risen to challenge the most intrusive surveillance practices by both government and corporations. Bennett describes a network of self-identified privacy advocates who have emerged from civil society—without official sanction and with few resources, but surprisingly influential.

A number of high-profile conflicts in recent years have brought this international advocacy movement more sharply into focus. Bennett is the first to examine privacy and surveillance not from a legal, political, or technical perspective but from the viewpoint of these independent activists who have found creative ways to affect policy and practice. Drawing on extensive interviews with key informants in the movement, he examines how they frame the issue and how they organize, who they are, and what strategies they use. He also presents a series of case studies that illustrate how effective their efforts have been, including conflicts over key-escrow encryption (which allows the government to read encrypted messages), online advertising through third-party cookies that track users across different Web sites, and online authentication mechanisms such as the short-lived Microsoft Passport. Finally, Bennett considers how the loose coalitions of the privacy network could develop into a more cohesive international social movement.

Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace

Michelle Slatalla, Joshua Quittner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Masters of Deception 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Great book going behind the scenes of computer hackers in teh late 80's early 90's. It really takes you back to the time. Not overly complex. A fantastic read for anyone with an interest in computer crime or within the "IT" community. Easy enough to read for someone not technicle savy to understand the basics. For $10 USD you cant go wrong.

Journalistic view of one event 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is not a book about hackers; it's a book about some specific hackers who happen to come after much of the action was concluded. Even more than that, it's a book biased toward New York which contains every implied slander of Texas that one can meld into a narrative about hackers. I like the description of MOD, and thought the authors did an excellent job of building up the character of these kids, but find that for the size of this book, it missed an absolute raft of important knowledge. Why do people hack? What, besides damaged egos, makes it thrilling to have forbidden knowledge? How could our society be so incompetent as to leave these giant security holes everywhere? And finally: what was the global hacking culture like, outside of the spacy little land of New York City? The boys from LOD are treated as props and their contributions ignored, which is infuriating to someone who is familiar with the goings-on in the computer underground at that time. Also, technical writing is not difficult, and while this book tries to stay non-technical, I have to ask "why?" There are interesting details which are overlooked and could have been conveyed in English. These authors do a credible job of buildup, but then hype a few incidents into some metaphor for cyberspace, and consequently halve the strength of their book. I would recommend this to people who cannot simply pick up a copy of "2600" magazine or "Phrack" and figure it out for themselves, but not to anyone who cares about the heart, soul or brains of hacker culture.

Editorial Review:

Chronicles the epic cyberspace battle between rival gangs of hackers--the Texas-based ""Legion of Doom"" and New York's ""Masters of Deception""--detailing the groups' exploits and discussing the legal and ethical implications of new computer technology. $35,000 first printing. First serial, Wired. Tour.

God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters

Sarah Posner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Keenly observed and meticulously reported, God's Profits examines the unholy alliance between a new breed of corrupt televangelists and the Republican Party, which is eagerly courting "values voters" in the nation's largest megachurches.

Author Sarah Posner exposes the activities of Kenneth Copeland, John Hagee, Rod Parsley, T.D. Jakes, and other politically connected, skillfully marketed, and increasingly influential religious leaders. Preaching the "prosperity gospel"--the notion that faith and tithing alone can ensure financial security--both in their churches and over the airwaves, these charismatic leaders scam the gullible even as they enjoy unprecedented access to top Bush Administration officials.

Admired by Republican strategists for their antigovernment ideology and authoritarian leadership styles, these televangelists work together to maximize profits; protect themselves legally; influence elections, judicial nominations, and promote their pro-war, apocalyptic ideas.

Blogwars: The New Political Battleground

David D. Perlmutter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Political blogs have grown astronomically in the last half-decade. In just one month in 2005, for example, popular blog DailyKos received more unique visitors than the population of Iowa and New Hampshire combined. But how much political impact do bloggers really have?
In Blogwars, David D. Perlmutter examines this rapidly burgeoning phenomenon, exploring the degree to which blogs influence--or fail to influence--American political life. Challenging the hype, Perlmutter points out that blogs are not that powerful by traditional political measures: while bloggers can offer cogent and convincing arguments and bring before their readers information not readily available elsewhere, they have no financial, moral, social, or cultural leverage to compel readers to engage in any particular political behavior. Indeed, blogs have scored mixed results in their past political crusades. But in the end, Perlmutter argues that blogs, in their wide dissemination of information and opinions, actually serve to improve democracy and enrich political culture. He highlights a number of the particularly noteworthy blogs from the specialty to the superblog-including popular sites such as Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Powerlineblog, Instapundit, and Talking Points Memo--and shows how blogs are becoming part of the tool kit of political professionals, from presidential candidates to advertising consultants. While the political future may be uncertain, it will not be unblogged.
For many Internet users, blogs are the news and editorial sites of record, replacing traditional newspapers, magazines, and television news programs. Blogwars offers the first full examination of this new and controversial force on America's political landscape.

HACKER CRACKDOWN, THE

Bruce Sterling

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 41 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Essential reading on computers, freedom and privacy. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Bruce Sterling of Cyberpunk fame takes a journalistic approach to researching law and disorder on the electronic frontier by examining two specific events in depth : the 1990 Operation Sundevil, a concerted nationwide effort by district attorneys, the Secret Service, the FBI, local authorities and various Telco security to bust and publicize a hacker crackdown; and the resulting trials and creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and rise of the civil libertarians.

The book is divided into four parts: crashing the system, the digital underground, law and order, and the Civil Libertarians. Mr. Sterling does a credible job explaining the telco systems and motivations and actions of the people on both sides of the issue - phone phreaks/hackers and law enforcement/district attorneys without succumbing to a lot of jargon or taking sides.

The book is replete with interesting accounts of Alexander Graham Bell and history of telephony, the origins of the Secret Service and its' early battles with "Boodlers", and the dissemination of the E911 document that came to cause grief to many people.

Reading this in 2006 and beyond will cause a few chuckles at his penchant for describing and drooling over advance systems (I have a real urge to drive down to the storage unit for my Commodore 64 and IBM clone), yet the events of the early hacker sub-culture remain relevant to anyone interested in computers, freedom and privacy.

Editorial Review:

An investigation into the rising tide of electronic crimes probes into the issues and personalities on both sides of the law who are involved in wire fraud, 800-number abuse, and computer break-ins that threaten national security. 50,000 first printing.

SQL Simplified: Learn to Read and Write Structured Query Language

Cecelia L. Allison

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The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control Is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System

Siva Vaidhyanathan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Anarchy for thee, not for me. 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 17 people found this review helpful.

While many academics do tend to "fog" their arguments I think this book by Professor Siva Vaidhyanathan of New York University is a fresh, provocative, and extremely readable discourse on the nature of freedom and control in a world awash with technology that is often over-hyped and under-analyzed. Prof. Vaidhyanathan is a fresh voice analyzing the extremely important issue of, in his words, the "availability and accessibility of the substance of expression and thus the possibility of public discussion and creativity" (185). As a veteran of the culture wars spawned by punk rock's initial social (and later in a watered-down form) commercial success, I have seen the reliance on empty sloganeering and naive calls for anarchy from punks who couldn't organize taking out the trash if they had all week. Prof. Vaidhyanathan rejects simplistic calls for decentralization and anarchy, and instead provides a rich and nuanced historical context for why we should return to what he calls "Civic Republicanism," a return to the idea of public trust and mutual dependency that many Americans have lost sight of in the rather simplistic way most debates have been framed in the battle over public control of information. One of the virtues of Prof. Vaidhyanathan's book is that he does not provide any easy answer or EFF manifestos, just a reliance on the basic responsibility of human beings to engage in meaningful dialogue about the Faustian bargains involved in new technologies. And in an age that promises unparalleled control and unparalleled, resistance, a call for a meaningful and participatory dialogue is a breath of fresh air.

Editorial Review:

The Anarchist in the Library is the first guide to one of the most important cultural and economic battlegrounds of our increasingly plugged-in world. Siva Vaidhyanathan draws the struggle for information that will determine much of the culture and politics of the twenty-first century: anarchy or oligarchy, total freedom vs. complete control. His acclaimed book explores topics from unauthorized fan edits of Star Wars to terrorist organizations’ reliance on “leaderless resistance,” from Napster to Total Information Awareness to flash mobs.

A Practical Guide to Localization (Language International World Directory)

Bert Esselink

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A Practical Guide to Localization was written for translators, localization engineers, testing engineers, desktop publishers, project managers, and anyone else who may be involved in the release of multilingual products. In this second edition, translators can learn more on localizing software, online help, and documentation files, and on the latest translation technology tools. Localization engineers will learn all about developing, engineering and testing software and online help projects. For project managers, there is all the information needed in planning translation or localization projects, finding resources, and ensuring the quality of deliverables. New to this second, fully updated and revised edition are chapters on internationalization, desktop publishing, and software quality assurance.

The book has been designed as both a reference work and a teaching tool.

Bert Esselink has been active in localization for over a decade. After graduating in technical translation and taking university classes in programming and computational linguistics, he worked for several years as software localizer, localization engineer, and technical project manager at International Software Products. In 1996 he joined ALPNET in Amsterdam as localization manager, before taking on the role of globalization manager, developing internal production quality standards. In January 2000 Bert joined Lionbridge to head up their globalization consulting services.

Cities and Complexity: Understanding Cities with Cellular Automata, Agent-Based Models, and Fractals

Michael Batty

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

As urban planning moves from a centralized, top-down approach to a decentralized, bottom-up perspective, our conception of urban systems is changing. In Cities and Complexity, Michael Batty offers a comprehensive view of urban dynamics in the context of complexity theory, presenting models that demonstrate how complexity theory can embrace a myriad of processes and elements that combine into organic wholes. He argues that bottom-up processes—in which the outcomes are always uncertain—can combine with new forms of geometry associated with fractal patterns and chaotic dynamics to provide theories that are applicable to highly complex systems such as cities.

Batty begins with models based on cellular automata (CA), simulating urban dynamics through the local actions of automata. He then introduces agent-based models (ABM), in which agents are mobile and move between locations. These models relate to many scales, from the scale of the street to patterns and structure at the scale of the urban region. Finally, Batty develops applications of all these models to specific urban situations, discussing concepts of criticality, threshold, surprise, novelty, and phase transition in the context of spatial developments. Every theory and model presented in the book is developed through examples that range from the simplified and hypothetical to the actual. Deploying extensive visual, mathematical, and textual material, Cities and Complexity will be read both by urban researchers and by complexity theorists with an interest in new kinds of computational models.

Sample chapters and examples from the book, and other related material, can be found at http://www.complexcity.info.