Trapped in the Net

"This is a major work of synthesis and insight that will prove invaluable not only to scholars and students but also to policymakers, large-system designers, and others concerned with the role of computers in society. Rochlin has mastered an amazingly broad body of literature, grasped its deeper implications, and presented his results in a highly readable form, well peppered with anecdote and narrative. He has also, and most importantly, hit upon the most important characteristic of the society-wide electronics infrastructures now being put into place: that such systems are socio-technical in nature and cannot be understood as mere hardware and/or software."--Paul N. Edwards, Author of The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse

Voice mail. E-mail. Bar codes. Desktops. Laptops. Networks. The Web. In this exciting book, Gene Rochlin takes a closer look at how these familiar and pervasive productions of computerization have become embedded in all our lives, forcing us to narrow the scope of our choices, our modes of control, and our experiences with the real world. Drawing on fascinating narratives from fields that range from military command, air traffic control, and international fund transfers to library cataloging and supermarket checkouts, Rochlin shows that we are rapidly making irreversible and at times harmful changes in our business, social, and personal lives to comply with the formalities and restrictions of information systems.

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Peachpit Photoshop LAB Color

There are no bad originals, only bad Photoshop operators,” you know best-selling author Dan Margulis is serious about exposing people to the magic of Photoshop. Nowhere is that magic more apparent than in its LAB color processing capabilities, which can make even the subtle canyon colors of rock, sand, and dirt come to vivid life. However, you may be wary of taming the complex beast. Here’s your guide! In these pages, Dan shows that you can derive enormous benefits from just a few simple tools and techniques. He also demonstrates that you can take these techniques as far as you wish, employing the power-user features he describes in later chapters. Starting with canyons and progressing to faces, you will see just how quickly you can begin improving your images by following the “recipes” included here. Each chapter includes a sidebar with review questions and exercises as well as a “Closer Look” section that examines some of the principles behind the techniques.

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Cara Mudah Mengatasi Masalah Statistik dan Rancangan Percobaan dengan SPSS 12

Statistik telah terbukti sangat bermanfaat dalam kehidupan manusia. Banyak keputusan
yang diambil menggunakan data statistik. Sayangnya perhitungan statistik seringkali cukup
rumit dan melelahkan. Untungnya, saat ini telah banyak perangkat lunak statistik yang
beredar. SPSS telah dikenal sebagai salah satu aplikasi statistik yang paling banyak
digunakan. Hingga saat ini, SPSS telah mencapai rilis ke-12.
Buku ini akan membahas tentang penggunaan SPSS 12 untuk memecahkan masalahmasalah
statistik. Isinya disajikan dalam bahasa yang sederhana dan to the point. Pokok
bahasan dalam buku ini mencakup Uji t, Chi Square, Korelasi, Regresi, Rancangan
Percobaan (RANCOB), dan Uji Validitas-Reliabilitas. Buku yang membahas RANCOB
masing sangat jarang sehingga buku ini dapat sangat membantu Anda. Buku ini juga
memuat bahasan mengenai uji validitas dan reliabilitas instrumen yang biasanya digunakan
untuk menguji kelayakan kueioner.
Dalam buku ini Anda juga akan menemukan teori-teori dasar mengenai statistik sehingga
dapat memudahkan Anda untuk memahami dan menginterpretasi masalah statistik.

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Unix Unleashed

Unix Unleashed, Third Edition is written with the power user and system administrator in mind. This book will help the reader understand the nuances of the major Unix variants including SVR4, HP-UX, Solaris, AIX, BSD, IRIX, SunOS, and Linux. It will help the reader decide which Unix shell works best for their particular situation. Other topics such as Kernel Configuration, Networking, User Administration, and File Management are covered extensively for the administrator who wants a variety of options to choose from for best performance. The book also provides in-depth coverage of configuring and optimizing mail, DNS, HTTP and other services many companies deploy across their intranet and on the Internet.

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XML Bible, Gold Edition

The
emergence of XML is having an enormous impact on Web development, and
scaling the learning curve of this new technology is a priority for
many developers. The XML Bible offers a superb introduction to the
subject and the groundwork to understand XML's future developments.

Author
Elliotte Rusty Harold uses a patient, step-by-step discussion that
clearly points out the potential of XML without boring his readership
with tons of SGML spec-speak. Harold opens quickly with a "Hello World"
example to get the reader coding early, and follows that with a simple
but powerful example of XML's data management benefits--presenting
baseball statistics. Once you've coded your first XML documents, you'll
be hooked on the technology and motivated to learn about the more
sophisticated topics.

Style sheet languages are covered
comprehensively to illustrate the presentation possibilities and
pitfalls. An unusually long list of real-life XML applications also
shows how XML is already being used, and there is in-depth coverage of
the Resource Description Framework, Channel Definition Format, and
Vector Markup Language. The book wraps up with a section that helps you
design your own XML application from scratch.

Topics covered:
XML background, example XML applications, type definitions (DTDs),
style languages, Xlinks, Xpointers, Namespaces, application planning,
and XML 1.0 specification

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Adapting to Web Standards CSS and Ajax for Big Sites

After
learning the language of design, how does one effectively use
standards-based technologies to create visually strong Web sites? The
full-color Professional Web Standards Design and Development gives
developers a peek into the process of the best designers in the world
through the work of high profile, real-world Web sites that made them
famous. The book focuses on deconstructing these top-tier large-scale
sites with particular attention given to deconstructing CSS.

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Learning Joomla! Extension Development: Creating Modules, Components, and Plugins with PHP

If
you're a PHP programmer eager to create extensions for Joomla!, this
book is for you. Written for Joomla! 1.5, it gets you coding your first
extensions as quickly as possible, and adds features that will make
your work look professional! The world's hottest open-source content
management system, Joomla! won the 2006 Open Source CMS Prize. Already
feature packed, it is also extremely extensible, allowing multiple
complex applications to be cleanly integrated, inheriting the look and
feel of one Joomla! site, with only one database, template, and core to
maintain. This practical tutorial is based around the development of
example extensions to create, find, promote, and cross-link restaurant
reviews. Each chapter is a step-by-step walkthrough, covering modules,
components, and plugins as well as configuration and packaging for
distribution. Readers need basic PHP skills and familiarity with the
general operation of Joomla! but do not need experience of developing
Joomla! extensions.

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Expert Systems: Principles and Programming, 3ed

This book combines coverage of expert systems theory with coverage of practical applications using CLIPS, an expert systems shell widely used in government, industry, and education. The result is a self-contained book and CD-ROM package for computer science, engineering, and CIS/MIS students and professionals that provides the conceptual background and programming tools needed to understand and implement expert systems.

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Web Publishing with Acrobat/PDF

Although the World Wide Web is enjoying enormous growth rates, many Web publishers have discovered that HTML is not up to the requirements of modern corporate communication. For them, Adobe Acrobat offers a wealth of design possibilities. The close integration of Acrobat in the World Wide Web unites the structural advantages of HTML with the comprehensive layout possibilities of Portable Document Format (PDF). On the basis of practical examples and numerous tricks, this book describes how to produce PDF documents efficiently. Numerous tips on integrating Acrobat into CGI, JavaScript, VBScript, Active Server Pages, search engines, and so on make the book a mine of information for all designers and administrators of Web sites.

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Smart camera can read penguin 'fingerprints' Movie Camera

You may think penguins all look the same, but a computer system on a South African island knows better. It can identify individual birds from subtle differences in their plumage.

The technology could help researchers monitor threatened populations without using more invasive methods that can distress or harm the birds.

There were 1 million African penguins at the beginning of the 20th century, but that number has plummeted to around 170,000.

Studying the remaining penguins is important to conserve the population, but the usual practice of tagging flippers with metal bands can reduce breeding performance and human contact stresses penguins.

Tilo Burghardt and Peter Barham, both at the University of Bristol, UK, think their remote camera system is the answer.

The camera can identify individuals from the unique black chest markings on each bird and is currently being tested on the 20,000 African penguins on Robben Island, South Africa (see video, right).
Bird spotter

The camera is hidden at ground level on a path the penguins use to reach the sea each day. Footage is sent to a computer running software that is able to identify individual penguins by looking for the distinctive black spots on the African penguins' chests.

If a bird is not in full view it abandons the ID attempt, but when the chest is clearly visible the software generates a 2D map of the black plumage spots and compares this with a database of stored maps.

If a match is found the bird can be identified, if there are no matches the new map is added to the database. The software has been designed take into account the way a penguin's spots can change subtly as the bird breathes and moves.

To ensure that penguins with similar markings were not confused by the system, it was calibrated by analysing the variation in how one bird's pattern can appear on camera, and the variation between different birds' patterns.
Flighty nature

"The identification rate is now about 98% accurate with very few false positives," says Burghardt, adding that once installed the system is ignored by the penguins.

"You don't realise how much you can affect the birds just by going to within 100 metres of them," adds Barham.

The camera system could be used to track the overall population, because over the course of a month the computer should snap every bird that uses a path at least once.

It should also be possible to track behaviour of individual birds, for example the way male and female birds share chick guarding and fishing trips. Barham even thinks it possible to judge how much a bird has eaten by the way its stomach contents stretches its spots.
Problem plumage

Katie Dugger at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, US, likes the idea. "I think it shows great promise for penguin species that have distinctive markings," she says, adding that not all penguins are identifiable in this way.

But Jaume Forcada at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK, says exhaustive trials will be needed to verify its accuracy.

"My experience working with whales, dolphins and seals is that of all natural marks, [plumage] patterns are the most difficult to match," he says. "In many cases a slight change in angle between penguin orientation and camera lens can make a difference."

Could nuclear warheads go off 'like popcorn'?

YOU might think nuclear weapons have been carefully designed not to go off by accident. Yet more than 1700 of them have design flaws that could conceivably cause multiple warheads to explode one after another - an effect known as "popcorning" - according to a UK Ministry of Defence safety manual.

A typical Trident nuclear missile contains from three to six warheads, and a US submarine might carry up to 24 missiles. Weapons builders aim to prevent accidental explosions of warheads by designing them to be "single-point safe". This means that a sudden knock at a single point - say if it were dropped from a crane while being unloaded from a submarine - should not detonate the plutonium core.

However, a nuclear-weapons safety manual drawn up by the MoD's internal nuclear-weapons regulator argues that this standard single-point design might not be enough to prevent popcorning. The document was declassified last month.

The manual says that warheads should be capable of resisting multiple simultaneous impacts. This "would contribute to the prevention of popcorning and should be a design objective".

It also recommends replacing the highly sensitive explosive that surrounds the warheads' plutonium cores. A single knock may not detonate the core, but could set off this explosive. Less-sensitive explosives are available, but they are heavier and bulkier than those currently in use, so the warheads would have to be redesigned.

The effects of a popcorning accident would be dire. According to the manual, in the worst-case scenario, people a kilometre away would receive a radiation dose of 100 sieverts - that's 16 times the lethal dose. The seriousness of the accident would depend on the pattern of warhead explosions, though.

The US government's National Nuclear Security Administration agrees that redesigning warheads to resist multiple impacts and switching to less-sensitive explosives would "enhance" safety. But it stresses that the current warheads "were, are and continue to be assessed as safe". A spokeswoman for the MoD told New Scientist that although it is "a theoretical possibility", popcorning is "a scenario that is not credible". Any risk is mitigated by the way in which missiles are handled, transported and stored, she says.

Some nuclear-weapons specialists, however, say an accident could still happen. Philip Coyle from the Center for Defense Information, an independent think tank in Washington DC, points out that people sometimes forget safety procedures. He cites the example of last August, when nuclear weapons were unknowingly flown from North Dakota to Louisiana.

Stefan Michalowski, a senior scientist at the OECD in Paris, France, who researched warhead safety at Stanford University in California in the 1990s, is concerned about the risks of an extreme event such as a firefight with direct gunshots. "The explosion of a boatload of missiles in a port would be an unimaginable catastrophe," he says. "It's a very, very scary thought."

Weapons Technology - Keep up with the latest innovations in our cutting edge special report.

Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer's Guide to SEO

Search
engine optimization (SEO) is not only the job of the marketing
department. It must be considered from a web site's inception and
throughout its lifetime by you, the web site developer. Making changes
to the architecture of a web site and modifying presentation techniques
can dramatically increase search engine rankings and traffic levels.

Written
for the PHP developer or tech-savvy marketer, this unique reference
provides techniques for creating and maintaining web sites optimized
for search engines. You'll discover how to facilitate the indexing of
your site, as well as how to leverage specific technologies and
services for site promotion. You will understand the role of web site
architecture in search engine optimization and explore various topics
therein. Knowing this will help you to develop a site that achieves
great search engine rankings. Finally, you'll apply this knowledge by
creating a sample e-commerce catalog and an optimized WordPress blog.

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Pro SQL Server 2008 XML

Knowledge
and ability to apply XML are de rigueur in today¡¯s world, and SQL
Server developers and administrators are no exception to that rule. Pro
SQL Server 2008 XML is your key to unlocking the powerful XML feature
set first introduced in SQL Server 2005 and since refined in SQL Server
2008. Author Michael Coles shows how to store XML using SQL Server¡¯s
built¨Cin XML data type. Learn to query and manipulate XML data using
standard technologies such as XQuery and XSLT. No SQL Server database
professional can afford to be without knowledge of the XML feature set.
Pro SQL Server 2008 XML delivers on the knowledge that you need to
remain competitive in your career.

• Shows how to store, query, and manipulate XML documents in SQL Server
• Provides step¨Cby¨Cstep examples showing best practices and advanced features
• Accurately discusses how SQL Server¡¯s XML feature set stacks up against the ISO XML standards
  

What you¡¯ll learn

• Store XML documents using SQL Server¡¯s built¨Cin XML data type.
• Query those stored documents using SQL/XML and XQuery.
• Manipulate and transform XML using XSLT and XPath.
• Understand how SQL Server¡¯s XML support compares to the ISO XML standards.
• Create SOAP endpoints for use in web services applications.
• Create primary and secondary XML indexes to improve performance of XML queries

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Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver

In
Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3, authors Stephanie Sullivan and Greg
Rewis demonstrate how to use Dreamweaver CS3 and CSS together to create
highly individualized, standards-based layouts. Through hands-on
projects with visuals, the book gives readers an in-depth understanding
of Dreamweaver's 32 CSS-based layouts (new in Dreamweaver CS3) and
their application, enabling every user of Dreamweaver to learn CSS
effectively and easily.

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How Personal and Internet Security Works

How Personal and Internet Security Works illustrates in vivid detail the many dangers faced by those who use the Internet to send or receive email, surf the Web, conduct personal business, use a credit card, or even travel to airports and how those dangers can be solved. You'll also get detailed explanations of Internet privacy issues such as spyware, phishing, identity theft, data mining, biometrics, and security cameras, as well as Homeland Security issues such as airport scanning and terrorist screening.

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FTG_The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook

A guide for anyone who makes use of the Internet for research, including librarians, teachers, students, business researchers, and writers, this book details what serious users have to know to fully take advantage of Internet search tools and resources. Newsgroups, image resources, and reference resources are covered, as are the major tools-search engines, directories, and portals-and strategies needed to access these resources. For those with little to moderate searching experience, friendly, easy-to-follow guidelines to the world of Internet research are provided. For experienced searchers, new perspectives on content and techniques are discussed.

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The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet

"Few
false ideas have more firmly gripped the minds of so many intelligent
men than the one that, if they just tried, they could invent a cipher
that no one could break," writes David Kahn in this massive (almost
1,200 pages) volume. Most of The Codebreakers focuses on the
20th century, especially World War II. But its reach is long. Kahn
traces cryptology's origins to the advent of writing. It seems that as
soon as people learned how to record their thoughts, they tried to
figure out ways of keeping them hidden. Kahn covers everything from the
theory of ciphering to the search for "messages" from outer space. He
concludes with a few thoughts about encryption on the Internet.

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Policing The Internet

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Broadband Wireless Communications Business: An Introduction to the Costs and Benefits of New Technologies

With
the emergence of broadband wireless communication systems, new business
opportunities have appeared for operators, content provides, and
manufacturers.

Broadband wireless communications technologies
promise the freedom of constant access to the Internet at high speeds,
without the limitation of connection cables. Broadband Wireless
Communications Business provides comprehensive coverage of the present
status and future evolution of these technologies, giving vital
practical cost and benefit advice on design, construction and
implementation. The author focuses on the costs associated with network
design and operation, examining resources, maintenance and billing
considerations in terms of Quality of Service provisioning. The future
of 4G is explained, with enhancing technologies, cellular design
topologies and ad-hoc technologies all covered in-depth. This book will
enable the reader to make key business decisions: how to evaluate a
technology, which to use, how to combine several technologies to reach
a target market, how to differentiate from competitors and how to take
advantage of future possible enhancements.

Broadband Wireless Communications Business:
*
Defines the unique technical features of the new broadband wireless
communications systems and explains what these mean for operator and
manufacturer businesses.
* Offers a complete guide to all current access technologies, associated standards, and duplex modes.
* Provides advice on key business cost and benefit issues.
*
Addresses wireless technology from the point of view of numerous market
sectors: public mobile systems, hot spot coverage, personal area
networks, and multi-user shared usage of resources, etc.

This
text is essential for decision makers and industry key players
responsible for the design, development, implementation and management
of wireless telecommunications systems. Researchers specializing in the
field of wireless technology and graduate students on
telecommunications courses will also find it an excellent guide to the
topic.

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Internet Security: A Jumpstart for Systems Administrators and IT Managers

Internet Security incorporates not only the technology needed to support a solid security strategy but also those policies and processes that must be incorporated in order for that strategy to work.New methods of breaking into corporate networks are resulting in major losses. This book provides the latest information on how to guard against attacks and informs the IT manager of the products that can detect and prevent break-ins. Crucial concepts such as authentication and encryption are explained, enabling the reader to understand when and where these technologies will be useful. Due to the authors' experiences in helping corporations develop secure networks, they are able to include the newest methods for protecting corporate data.¡¤Shield data from both the internal and external intruder¡¤Discover products that can detect and prevent these break-ins ¡¤Protect against major losses with the latest incident handling procedures for detecting and recovering data from new viruses¡¤Get details of a full security business review from performing the security risk analysis to justifying security expenditures based on your company's business needs

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Internet Security: Cryptographic Principles, Algorithms and Protocols

Cryptography
is the key to securing the Internet. If every communication network
were to use a secure system based on encryption, then viruses, worms
and hackers would have a very hard time. Unfortunately, this scenario
does not reflect the reality of the Internet world today. However, with
security issues becoming more and more important internationally,
engineers of the future will be required to design tougher, safer
systems. This book takes a long-term view. It is not a 'how-to'
implementation guide for today's practitioners. It is a training text
for the engineers of the future. Features: Detailed discussion of block
cipher design principles, including coverage of IDEA, RC5, RC6, Triple
DES and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Information on hash
functions and message digests, including the latest protocols for
digital signature, authentication and key-sharing HMAC. Expanded
coverage of public-key encryption/signature algorithms, including
Diffie-Hellman secret key exchange, RSA, ElGamal, Schnorr, DSA and
Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). Profiles for Public Key
Infrastructure (PKI) <> Complete and detailed guides to the
entire TCP/IP protocol suite IPsec for network-layer security PGP and
S/MIME for e-mail security SSL/TLS for transport-layer security.
Firewalls for trusted systems SET security protocols used in the smart
card. As well as providing an in-depth introduction to relevant
cryptographic principles, algorithms and protocols, Internet Security
links them to the technologies in use on the Internet today.
State-of-the-art analyses of IETF standards plus summaries and
explanations of RFC documents, numerous examples and a list of
frequently used acronyms make this book a comprehensive and valuable
reference for students, researchers and professional engineers alike -
anyone engaged in the long-term development of secure systems.

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