Contributed by mk/reverse on from the sliced up dead old trees dept.
Alex notified us about a review of ``Secure Architectures with OpenBSD'', written by Brandon Palmer and Jose Nazario. The review reveals that this is a book targeted at the seasoned Unix user:
Though the first four chapters of Secure Architectures with OpenBSD deal with installation and "basic use," this not a book for beginners. If you don't understand the Unix (Minix; Linux) way that things work and don't know (at least) C, stay away. Palmer and Nazario will confuse you.
(Comments are closed)
By Wim (194.78.199.76) wim@kd85.com on http://books.kd85.com
By Anonymous Coward(1) (195.217.242.33) on
I encourge anyone who was thinking of buying the book to not be put off by this review.
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By hob knob etc (202.7.171.23) on
By Hillbilly Johnny Bob Bob Jim Bob (Hob knob jobby Bob Bob) (202.7.171.23) HillbillyJohnnyBobBobJimBob AT openbsd DOT org - yep, seriously on http://www.acidismessingwithmyhead.mil.tv
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By rob (202.7.171.23) on
By Kint (199.243.65.33) on
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By job job (202.7.171.23) on
By Simmoril (162.70.244.40) simmoril@simmoril.com on http://www.simmoril.com/blog/
All of the errors that the review points out are either grammatical, or things that www.acronymfinder.com can answer just as well for you (which is a contradiction, since the reviwer explicitly warns the book will not 'hold your hand', yet he complains the book won't hold his hand through all these 'unknown' acronyms). However, the reviewer fails to point out any fundamental mistakes as in "technical detail xyz in the book is completely false". Have you found any technical details in the book that truly are wrong (and not just quibbles over grammer rules or misspelt words)?
In any event, isn't this what errata pages are for? O'Reilly's books are some of the best computer books I've ever read and they have quite a few errata pages for them. Does that detract from their credibility at all? I personally don't think so.
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By Anonymous Coward (208.252.48.163) on
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By Brad (67.69.154.28) brad at comstyle dot com on
By Simmoril (162.70.244.40) simmoril@simmoril.com on http://www.simmoril.com/blog/
Secondly, proofreading, by and large, is not an automated process. It's done by humans. Humans make mistakes. Humans miss things. You cannot expect to get every single little thing right in a 544 page book. It's just not possible.
The funny part here is that this whole argument, much like your criticism of the book, misses the entire point. Which is that these authors have gone out of their way to write a book that cleanly attempts to introduce users to the intricacies of OpenBSD. There aren't really that many books out there devoted solely to OpenBSD, and these two have given their best efforts to fill that void. If you think that these authors are wrong, or that their grammatical mistakes are THAT heinous, then by all means, please pick up a pen and a piece of paper, and show us how it really should be done.
By krosty (200.114.169.113) kroty@gawab.com on http://candyass.com.ar
the University of California case, we have BSDI (now Wind River),
NetBSD, FreeBSD, BSD/OS, Mac OS X, and OpenBSD.
He names Wind River and BSDI as BSD flavors!! WTF????
BSD/OS was made by BSDI and then bought by Wind River.
It should say "... we have BSDI (now Wind River) BSD/OS, ..."
As you can see, even the reviewer make big mistakes, nobody is perfect.
Both books (Sec. Archs. and Absolute OBSD.) are great!!
By Richard Bejtlich (208.235.153.35) on http://www.taosecurity.com
Richard
TaoSecurity.com
By Chris Walsh (12.159.240.162) on
I am happy to see that it was written by a guy who not only knows UNIX bigtime, but who probably reads more books in a month than I do in a year.
While I disagree with Salus's assertion that knowledge of C is a prerequisite for understanding the book, since I can just about program myself out of a paper bag but could still throughly understand the book, I think he was even-handed overall. Errors of grammar and usage are to be expected from almost any author. The editing and proofreading processes should detect and correct them.
Note to Addison-Wesley: Feel free to contact me if you need someone to
eyeball the galleys on the second edition :^)