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Vulnerability Management for Dummies - free ebook offer

My readers have the opportunity to get Vulnerability Management for Dummies for free.  With all the current talks of POODLE, this came along at the right time.  Over 60 pages of entry level information.
Vulnerability Management for Dummies

Vulnerability Management for Dummies  covers a lot of ground quickly
As someone responsible for network security within your organization, you need to understand how to prevent attacks and eliminate network weaknesses that leave your business exposed and at risk.

Vulnerability Management for Dummies
 arms you with the facts and shows you how to implement a successful Vulnerability Management program. Whether your network consists of just a handful of computers or thousands of servers distributed around the world, this 5-part book will help:
  • Explain the critical need for Vulnerability Management (VM)
  • Detail the essential best-practice steps of a successful VM Program
  • Outline the various VM Solutions - including the pros & cons of each
  • Highlight the award-winning QualysGuard VM solution
  • Provide a 10-point checklist for removing vulnerabilities from your key resources
Get you hands on Vulnerability Management for Dummies right now. It is yours free for a limited time.
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    On Thursday, October 23rd, 2014   by Chris Miller        

LEGO Architecture: The Visual Guide - book review

I was able to get an early copy of LEGO Architecture: The Visual Guide by Philip Wilkinson for review. This is quite an impressive coffee table type book.
LEGO Architecture: The Visual Guide


The packaging itself of LEGO Architecture: The Visual Guide let's you know what you are about to experience with this book. At just under 5 pounds in weight and over 200 pages, the book comes slips out of it's own hard case. The pages are heavy weight with black background and white font.  (that is my one complaint I will address later).
Continue Reading here" LEGO Architecture: The Visual Guide - book review" »
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    On Monday, August 25th, 2014   by Chris Miller        

IBM SmartCloud Essentials by Edwin Schouten - book review

I was provided a digital copy of IBM SmartCloud Essentials by Edwin Schouten, Master IT Architect for IBM Global Technology Services, from PacktPub for an online book review.
IBM SmartCloud Essentials by Edwin Schouten

The book, digitally shows 46 navigation sections covering 112 pages, is a great starter for those attempting to enter into the world of using IBM SmartCloud Enterprise.  
Starting with the basics of cloud computing, this guide covers the wide range of cloud components, services, and solutions in the IBM SmartCloud portfolio. Following on from this, you’ll be introduced to the public , Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud service - IBM SmartCloud Enterprise; before peeking into the future of IBM cloud services. Using this book, you will discover the advantage of both traditional enterprise computing and public cloud computing.

Here is what is included and what I thought about the content. The six chapters cover:    Continue Reading here" IBM SmartCloud Essentials by Edwin Schouten - book review" »
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    On Wednesday, February 26th, 2014   by Chris Miller        

Instant IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.3 How-to : Book Review

Instant IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.3 How-to

I had the opportunity to review Instant IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.3 How-to from Packt publishing. I was hoping for a linear book with some great tips. This book could then be leveraged to show cool things to the doubters and on-board new users at a faster pace by showing quick tips.

One immediate concern I had was that this book was based on IBM Notes 8.5.3 and was published after IBM Notes 9 was released.  The public beta was out long enough for IBM Notes 9 to be included in this book. It would have been beneficial to showcase some of the new mail features just as a tease of what can be found in IBM Notes 9.

It is a quick 68 pages written by an IBMer and reviewed by IBMers. There were simple, intermediate and advanced type tips scattered throughout the topics. From the preface:
A mini Lotus Notes User Guide, this book covers best practice, hints, tips, and tricks of
Lotus Notes 8.5.3. As a user, you will find this book to be an invaluable reference for the
8.5.3 Lotus Notes client. This book covers the new features in detail so that you will be able
to take advantage of them.

Some of the tips, like adding a feed have been around for years and are not really deployed anywhere in the real world. It starts with customizing the Homepage of the client.  With the new IBM Notes 9 Discover page that would have been helpful.  I did appreciate they mentioned the Workspace.

There was a brief section on saving emails as .eml files.  I definitely would not have included this in the book as saving loose files of messages defeats the purpose of having a mailfile that is searchable, indexed and sorted.  Message recall was also mentioned (many of you know I hate it with a passion) but it failed to mention this feature may not work unless your administrator has configured and allowed it.

Creating replicas was helpful but having user manually edit notes.ini files was not. I would not recommend a user even knowing that file existed. There were some good tips around calendar cleanup, adding more calendars and color coding. I just wished some sections were better grouped together.

Some other reviews have been done, such as the one on Conxsys.  I think we agree there are some valid tips but the flow and content matter wasn't spot on.

Overall, the book had a good goal but missed the mark that would have me put it in the hands of users as a getting started quick guide. Using words like provisioned widgets meant nothing since the user doesn't understand what that is. Another thing because clear when I showed a normal user the guide.  Their statement was "Lotus sure has a lot of menus and preferences".  While this has nothing to do with the book writing, it definitely showed in the step by step portions.

You can get your own copy of Instant IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.3 How-to right at Amazon

Yes, I was sent a copy from Packt for free to perform the review.  No guarantees are ever given in the type of review.  I just type them out as I go.
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    On Thursday, May 30th, 2013   by Chris Miller        

More Free books!! Private Cloud for Dummies by IBM

Private Cloud for Dummies by IBM

IBM totally gave away all the last batch of Private Cloud for Dummies via my blog offering last time so a new batch is ready! This ebook copy is free for the taking.
Whether public, private, or hybrid, cloud computing is becoming an increasingly integral part of many companies' business and technology strategy. Many companies want to be able to have pools of computing resources based on a self-service model where the company owns and operates those resources. With a private cloud model, these resources are standardized and automated.

Registration is required but it is 74 pages of great knowledge from Judith Hurwitz and Marcia Kaufman.

You can download your free copy of Private Cloud for Dummies by IBM right here.  They all were given away back in June so get yours quick.
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    On Wednesday, December 19th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

Book review: Blades of Winter - a Novel of the Shadowstorm

I took my time reviewing Blades of Winter: A Novel of the Shadowstorm as I read it twice. I will only reference what the author has shared in the excerpt above so I keep with the no spoilers! I am leaving out a ton of names and such that other reviewers included to let you piece it together as you read along.

The main character Alixandra Nico, a stubborn and sarcastic late teen and former world class gymnast (See excerpt from author above). She lives in the same world we do if the super powers as we know them were totally different based on outcomes that could have happened.

The author has created a world of competing spies, believable weapons and drug enhanced abilities (See excerpt form author above). Alixandra fits right into her role in ExtremeOps dragging you into a firefight and letting you know the author has planned a non-stop ride in this book. I can't think of a place I wished the book had picked up pace or I got bored.

The back story as other reviewers have eluded to involves Alixandra's father who was also part of this spy world and had a big influence on how she acts and her drive to take on more than she should. The alternate world was built perfectly by the author to support his plans for how the spies evolved and how the super powers still compete against each other. Her mother plays a key role in the book and was quite funny to me in her balance between a normal mom and one with a daughter in Extreme Ops.

Some reviewers looked for more details about the entire world layout, but I felt that would be too cumbersome and will let the author use Alixandra to explore and develop information about them as more books come out. He would have needed to dedicate quite a bit to give a good feel in one book for how an alternate turn of events changed who controls what region, country and people.

I look forward to the next book to explore more about Shadowstorm, her father's background and what trouble she gets into next somewhere in the world.

Note: This was an Amazon review of Blades of Winter: A Novel of the Shadowstorm and links are affiliate links  Also, if my reviews are helpful please click the magic Yes button on Amazon and let me know.
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    On Wednesday, September 26th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

Limited FREE Copies!! Private Cloud for Dummies by IBM

**** All copies are now gone***

Private Cloud for Dummies (IBM Edition) is a companion to the last IBM ebook I was able to offer to you for free.  However, there is only 20 copies or so available for this one.

Whether public, private, or hybrid, cloud computing is becoming an increasingly integral part of many companies' business and technology strategy. Many companies want to be able to have pools of computing resources based on a self-service model where the company owns and operates those resources. With a private cloud model, these resources are standardized and automated.


You can get your free eBook copy of Private Cloud for Dummies here..  Registration is required but it is 74 pages of great knowledge from Judith Hurwitz and Marcia Kaufman.
Image:Limited FREE Copies!!  Private Cloud for Dummies by IBM

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    On Wednesday, June 13th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

Cloud for Dummies by IBM - Free download ebook

I had the chance to get the new Cloud for Dummies (IBM Midsized Company Limited Edition) compliments of IBM.  It is a quick roadmap helper and looks at the economics and security of working with cloud services.  A quick read you should get your hands on.
Image:Cloud for Dummies by IBM - Free download ebook



The book is ~70 pages in 6 chapters and was written by Judith Hurwitz, Marcia Kaufman and Fern Halper with the assistance of a bunch of IBM names we know.  It stars with why cloud computing should be investigated by your organization and moves into basic technical foundations and economics.  A brief coverage of governance is thrown in.  Each section is short and to the point as most Dummies type books are formatted for easy digestion.



Well I have the ability to make Cloud for Dummies free to download (yes they have a registration form or uses LinkedIn)
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    On Thursday, May 10th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

For $7500 you too can be a Redbook Author


I was intrigued by the offer that came in from IBM to all business partners about Redguide opportunities via the IBM Redbook program.  Apparently you can now write a guide that uses your company solution and have it placed in the free resource site we all love called IBM Redbooks.
Now, for the first time, your company can leverage the IBM Redbooks brand and audience by creating an IBM Redguide publication featuring your solution and how it solves challenges and provides unique business value.

They had me at this point thinking this would be great to build one around a solution that wasn't over the top marketing.  An enhanced whitepaper was my thought.  I was confused they were using the IBM Redbooks branding since that resource was always free and immeasurable in most instances into deep technical knowledge.  Partners and consultants spent months on site writing these deep dives all day.

I then got to the below:

Image:For $7500 you too can be a Redbook Author

So for one year and $7500 USD you can push your solution into the search results of IBM Redbooks.  Do you find value in this as a partner or a devalue in IBM Redbooks?
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    On Thursday, November 3rd, 2011   by Chris Miller        

Book review: Booze and Burn by Charlie Williams


I admittedly was taken aback at the first few pages of Booze and Burn by Charlie Williams.  I did not read the first one where the main character was introduced. We expect an author to follow some normal grammar and flow.  We rank and rate on storyline, character definition and plot.  This book has plenty of character definition, a main plot and some good side ones that build the storyline.  The grammar is where many readers run screaming away.
The author takes you into a one on one conversation with Royston Blake, a head doorman at a local pub.  While some things come slowly to him, and his main focus is booze, cigarettes, occasional women and standing tall in the true sense.  However, Royston Blake wasn't tops in school.  Once I relaxed and followed the conversation you find that he is a well defined, yet simple, character in the book..

The writer has the main character talk straight to you in the book.  You could call them out loud statements, but they are very direct to the reader.  It is all a story he is telling you along the way.  From how he feels at the time, what action he should take, or what he just doesn't understand about what is going on.

There is constant foul language.  It is part of everyone in the town and how they relate.  While some slang terms took me a minute to grasp, after that it became perfectly normal.  Royston finds himself stuck in the middle and ends in trouble, just like the previous book.  Everyone in town knows him by sight and name making moving around difficult for him.  Neighboring towns he can walk to are considered foreign lands he never wants to step foot in.

I say give the book a shot.  Relax our rigid minds and you will find some good dark humor, lots of language challenges and definitely a fair amount of cursing.  But that is what makes Royston as a main character.  He shoots very straight.

Disclosure: The links to Booze and Burn in the article are Amazon affiliate links.
Image:Book review: Booze and Burn by Charlie Williams

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    On Wednesday, July 20th, 2011   by Chris Miller        

Collaboration for Dummies (via IBM) and direct link



IBM has a nice sign-up page where you can get your hands on the ~60 page book titled "Collaboration for Dummies" published by Wiley Publications.  I will have my review up shortly, but I imagine you may want your own copies.
.
Image:Collaboration for Dummies (via IBM) and direct link



I  wanted to give you the direct pdf link to save you the effort in tomorrows newsletter.  You can sign up for the newsletter in the upper right corner of my blogs OR just watch my Twitter stream for the link to tomorrows edition of the newsletter that will have it.
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    On Monday, February 28th, 2011   by Chris Miller        

The must have book from IBM just arrived in time for #ls11


Need I say more?

Image:The must have book from IBM just arrived in time for #ls11
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    On Tuesday, January 25th, 2011   by Chris Miller        

Book Review: IBM Lotus Sametime 8 Essentials - A User’s Guide


I am taking a non-biased approach to the book review, knowing both of the incredible authors Marie "CrashTestChix" Scott and Tom "Duffbert" Duff.  

The book, IBM Lotus Sametime 8 Essentials: A User's Guide is written for users, just as the title suggests.  While some edges of administraiton are hit for purely reference points, they do a great job of telling users to call their Sametime administrators for questions and items beyond the scope of the book.  The book is hefty for a user at 284 pages and $40 USD (at time of writing).  But if you want "soup to nuts" information on the Sametime client in your users hands, this is it.  Even as an administrator you learn quite a few tips and tricks on the UI side you did not know existed.

The screenshots and attention to detail makes it almost a show and tell type scenario for implementing anything the authors discuss and suggest.  Sametime is a large product between chat, communities, external contacts, Advanced, meetings and even integration with the Notes client.  Tom and Marie conquer it all breaking each part into it's own chapter.  They build upon previous chapters well and slowly move the user experience into productivity and not just bells and whistles.  This is what makes their style together work.

Explaining what a community is, who authentication and login works and variations in usernames is beneficial to an end user that will read this.  Something most end users books do not take into account.  I also appreciate how they taught buddy list name lookup and management to get users chatting right away once they are connected.

I honestly wished they had included two things.  One, I hoped that they would have chosen the native Sametime Connect for Blackberry instead of Enterprise Messenger, but that is a personal preference.  Two, that they had touched on the plain text integrated chat that shows in the basic client as numerous enterprises still use this as their chat client due to licensing or running Notes (even 8.x and higher) in Basic mode.

This is the only book on this topic and no other will come close.  They have set the bar high for any end user guide in the Lotus software community.  When they wake up, I hope they prepare for another round of writing.


Disclosure: Packt Publishing sent me a free ebook copy wit no review guarantees and I was a reviewer for a couple chapters (of course those chapters rock too).  The links directly to the book are Amazon affiliate links.
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    On Tuesday, November 9th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

Book Review: Collaboration for Dummies - free eBook from IBM

This book was actually commissioned by IBM to be written.  Hurwitz & Associates do not mention any specific products in the book itself, just provide the basics needed for individuals and companies to understand collaboration.  IBM did provide the subject matter experts to assist and the book itself is only 64 pages long.

It seems you must be an IBM partner to download the book, yet in the questionnaire they ask if you are a business partner.  Wait, it redirects you to outside the IBM domain for the book itself.  IBM is just capturing your information.  After a Google search, the book itself is ready for download on a non-IBM site (Wiley) where it officially sits using Adobe Digital Editions.  The install for Digital Editions took all of 20 seconds, a couple buttons to agree and then a required log in for Adobe or ignore it and don't sync this issue again.  Basically a few minutes of fun.

Some of our IBM Lotus family are listed as contributors like Ed Brill, David Hsu, Don Neely, Brendan Crotty and more.  There are six chapters from 'Rethinking Business  Collaboration" all the way to the ending 'Ready, Set, Go!'  The book follows the standard icons and flow of the other Dummies books and makes for an easy read.  Chapter 2 digs into the meat of why you are reading the book and handles Collaboration 101, as one section is titled.  The section on making the game plan around collaboration asks many of the basic questions that most mid-level managers that are finally exploring this area need to ask and doesn't go way over their head.

Overall, this book hits right where it was designed and keeps it short enough not to lose attention.  It does not dig deep into what is the best product, nor does it answer questions it asks directly.  Instead, it forces the reader to make assumptions and decisions to get the movement of collaboration in their own environment and encourages checking out all the possibilities before choosing what platform you wish to build on.
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    On Tuesday, December 1st, 2009   by Chris Miller        

Book Review: Eccentric Cubicle

I am not quite where to begin with this one. It is labeled as Office Accessories from a Parallel Universe. It is exactly that. Eccentric Cubicle brings it all to a parallel universe for sure!
Ecentric


This is way beyond what any of us would ever build for our desk. My favorite was the Projectile-2-Peer Intercubicle Messaging device. Which in reality was a well defined, through tool tap and die skills, missile launcher for your desk. The idea was to attach your message or put inside a rocket and shoot it to your neighbor. Much like the good old days. But the skills it took to build it were out of this world too.


Let me say the author, Kaden Harris, was fun to read though. His commentary for each project made the text portion enjoyable. Now there is not a lot of text overall in the grand scheme of 370 pages. A lot of the book is images and steps required to do each project.


In all there is 11 chapters starting with an introduction and then right into projects.


  1. Introduction
  2. Active Deskchop - a nice guillotine for cutting anything from pens to carrots at your desk
  3. Ballistamail - the missile launcher
  4. Maple Mike - a desktop golf ball driver
  5. DeskBeam Bass - need to play a bass guitar right on your desk?
  6. The Gynsin Device - a light tube to stimulate the mind iBlow - a bubble machine for your desk. The simplest to make it seemed
  7. Liquid Len Meets Discohead - a mirrored head reflecting light
  8. The Haze-o-Matic 3000 Fog Machine - now who doesn't need fog at their desk?
  9. Hammerhead Live - a mechanical drum machine
  10. Homebrew Wood Finishes

So there you go. If you have woodworking and tool tap and die skills this book rocks. If you are a geek like me that can do simple stuff at home but might cut off a finger, then read and laugh but don't try this at home.

You can grab this book on Amazon right here

I received a comment from Kaden who was quite correct, it is tap and die, not tool and die as I originally placed in the writing.
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    On Thursday, November 8th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Book Review: Hack the Stack: Using Snort and Ethereal to Master the 8 Layers of an Insecure Network

I anticipated the book going more in depth in certain areas, but the overview it provided for each section was a great starter. I do agree with another reviewer that stated it was missing references to certain website links or direction to where to gather more information. This was a downside, mainly in dealing with large technical references such as this book. An index or glossary, noting the pages used and full definitions would have gone a long way.

I did like some of the directions on testing and building of products, scripts or other methods to verify your own environment however. I do realize you can only fit so much detail, but some definition areas needed more explanation that a simple paragraph. I would have looked to eliminate those and expand on others to give the feeling of deeper information.

Now saying all that, I appreciated the adding of the 8th layer that is not mentioned anywhere else. The reading was fairly straightforward and simple for the intermediate level technical administrator. Some of the references are not for the basic entry level, as it jumps right into topics that assume basic knowledge of networks, protocols and even mail and messaging.

I shared this with some staff in the office for reading of particular areas and will be keeping it on the bookshelf (which means it is a keeper)

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    On Tuesday, December 12th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

A magazine complains about Notes calendaring

From Computerworld NZ comes the following:
Last week we detailed our problems with invitations and Notes propensity for deleting them inappropriately.  It seems we're not alone in our loathing.

Now we all know Notes does not just delete your invitations. You have a thing called Preferences for what you want to do with them.  It is called workflow and removing clutter from your inbox.  If I respond to an invite, why wouldn't I want it to add it to my calendar, let the chairman know and then remove it from my inbox in one click?  Do I need a mail message in my inbox to remind me of a calendar entry I already responded to?  Oh wait, they discover their complaint later in the article:
However, another E-Taler, Mac this time, says our invitation problem occurs somewhere between the desk chair and the keyboard.  But he's put us right.

Mac does agree that this might not be the most intuitive place to oput such an option, and that few people need to have it switched off in the first place.  He also, quite pleasantly, points out that Notes is designed with security rather than openness in mind.  He's also offered Notes counseling should it all get too much for us again.


So we know he is referring to user preferences in the mailfile (I had to shrink down the text).  After some careful searching, I found out the origination of his complaint.  He had not turned the preference either way, and the admins did not set any policies to help, so everytime he deleted it from his inbox it removed the entry.

See Notes is a mail-based calendaring product.  Which makes it work so wonderfully well.  It took time for some other vendors to catch up in being able to send invites over the Internet.  A little training and exploration goes a long way in a mail client that you have been using for quite soime time from reading back.

As for the statement that Notes is based on security rather than openness has nothing to do with his issue.  Nor is it a point to address in this posting.  Security and how a calendar invite is handled have no bearing on each other.  Sorry you are secure, let me do exactly what I told you to do in preferences?  Huh?
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    On Wednesday, April 12th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Book Review - Server Load Balancing

I did a new book review on Server Load Balancing by Tony Bourke.  Here is an excerpt:
At the title I was impressed

But after digging into the content I was forced to re-evaluate my first impression. I looked to this book to guide me through numerous pieces and choices of server load balancing on a fair but balanced agenda. What I found was far too much information that was simply digested and reformatted from vendor and free areas.


Interesting read for beginners to get a handle on direction, but it did not offer any definitive answers.

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    On Monday, July 25th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

New article in Network World on e-mail privacy

The article centers around how messaging in the enterprise is not private in any regard and should not be treated as such. This brings up a good point of how each of us in everyday life seem to use the corporate e-mail in a personal matter at some time.  Mainly if the company does not allow you to access outside e-mail systems like Hotmail or Yahoo.

So to limit what people do we implement quotas.  I have stated before and will state again, I have my own opinion on quotas in standard businesses (meaning not huge requirements on storage of all emails sent for some period of time).  When you limit these people they want to turn to trickery like storing more files locally, forwarding to other accounts or even trying to use the public systems for business purposes.  If your enterprise has a 50MB quota limit but the user can get 250MB on Hotmail or 1GB on Gmail, where do you think they will turn?

You can provide space with purge intervals and other measures to ease the burden some.  But an e-mail use policy seems to be the first and best step in making the employee understand that they are using enterprise e-mail; it gives you the right to open, read, search and delete whatever you desire (in terms of corporate policy or a crazy CEO).

Read the article and give your quick opinion.  Just like this was a quick entry.
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    On Thursday, December 30th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Always a treat to get responses from blog posts from the person or product you talk about

So yes, this is one of those times.  I blogged back here on Jul 30th about a new magazine I received.  You can read the post to get what I said, but the author of the article, Melisa, sent a great follow-up email.  She even found my posting through Google which is cool (and I saw the search for her name in my Google history but didn't put two and two together).  I did toss the magazine but went to the webpage for the site to read the article one more time around the points she made in her response.  She pointed out she had some other articles in there also which I know I read but didn't comment on.  They didn't catch my eye like this one did dealing with IM all the time.  I trimmed down some of her response to get her points in one blurb (editor rights huh?)
Actually, their strength lies in their secure file transfer, which is very valuable for folks like me that work in computer forensics. ...just to let you know, if you lost the USB fob, it'd take a mad scientist to be able to crack all three of the authentication pieces needed to make it work.

While I believe her statement about the local security on the FOB, I have no reason or way to doubt it, the loss of that data seems to be the main issue.  One other focus was that all this IS logged on a local FOB and not server-side.  Tracing what files are passed to whom and when seems quite important.  Now I don't know if this product also logs on the server or strictly on the FOB device.  If  it does not log on the server, it sounds like they found a loophole in the NASD and SEC rule on how logging needs to be done.  Back to the loss of the FOB.

Well she sent a nice note and I appreciate that, I will read her other articles on phishing and Cloudmark.

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    On Thursday, August 12th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

I received a debut magazine on messaging today, here is my opinion

Today in the snail mail, I received the first issue of Messaging News, August 2004 edition.  Online they let you download the PDF of this version, which confusingly is dated July 2004 unlike the print one.  But I digress and move on to thoughts.

It was not a large issue, 30 pages plus cover.  Content accounted for 19 of those pages.  But here is the catch.  Of those 19 pages, about 12 or so definitely were like vendor ads.  Not reviews of the vendor product, but like winded ads.

Of special interest to all of us was an article on page 20 titled The Future of Instant Messaging is Safe, Secured, and Self Managed by Melisa Labancz-Bleasdale.  However, it was not about the future, it was about a product from Valadian Corporation called Secure Instant Messenger (SIM).  How it does secure IM, provides high level security, logging, etc etc.  They focus on the fact that SIM uses a removable USB device for mobile workers for higher security by logging to the USB removing all traces from the pc.  Who ever heard of logging on the server instead?  Oh yeah, that Sametime product and a bunch of others do.  Why would I need for NASD compliance to log to a USB device that can be lost or stolen, removing the IM log.  Sounds like a way to get into more trouble to me.  "Hey Bill, I need your USB to verify you didn't share some information.  Oops, I lost it John."

Knowing this is a new magazine with some room to grow, I think they need to define what is a vendor article (Ironport has a big one in there) and what is editorial more.  Let the user know it might read like a giant ad, or that there was actual research done and in the writers opinion this was the best product. I will take that approach also as a writer myself.  But not here is THE solution and by the way, it is only about them.
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    On Friday, July 30th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Book Review: LDAP System Administration

I finished this book, by Gerald Carter, over the weekend while on a flight.  It is not a huge read (under 300 pages) but includes a lot of code pieces and samples of commands.

The book starts with a section on a brief introduction of LDAP before moving in LDAPv3 overview.  OpenLDAP takes two chapters, then a section of chapters on Application Integration.  Letting LDAP replace NIS, integrating with email, Unix and LDAP, LDAP interoperability and LDAP and Perl finish the chapters off.  There are some appendixes that include some of the common Attributes and Objects also.

If you are using Windows and some LDAP application this book does not contain a lot of information for you specific to the OS, but is a great reference for LDAP overall.  Most of the code examples rely on Unix understandings.  The review of access and OpenLDAP applies directly to numerous systems in understanding how rights are applied.

Replication and referrals is a great topic that is covered well for the beginner.  For someone wanting advanced architecture ideas and designs, this chapter does not go deep enough for you.  But I enjoyed it still letting me review and pick up a few items I was unaware of.

LDAP administrators that are just starting out, or even ones that have been doing LDAP for some time and need to secure or expand the directory infrastructure could benefit from this book.
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    On Sunday, July 18th, 2004   by Chris Miller