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The tools, or hacks in this book reveal techniques that go well beyond basic management tasks found in most handbooks. Hacks range from those that deal with general administration to more esoteric hacks in the areas of network deployment, patch management, performance, security, and backup and recovery. No matter which Windows Server you use--NT, IIS, 2000, or 2003--Windows Server Hacks will put the knowledge and expertise of veteran system administrators to work for you.


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With revolutionary technology, Google Earth now lets computer users zoom through space to specific sites all over the world. Mapping is also making great strides in the law enforcement world, where geographic information systems (GIS) have been replacing pin maps. Systems such as New York City’s COMPSTAT have been highly successful in mapping and depicting virtually any combination of crime/arrest locations, crime hot spots, and other information in real time.

While not specifically written for law enforcement, Web Mapping Illustrated is a valuable guide for those who are interested in using maps and other GIS tools. The Internet hosts many open-source mapping tools, making the creation and publishing of online maps much easier and more effective.

Web Mapping Illustrated is written for those wishing to avoid expensive commercial software mapping systems and instead use open-source and other free tools. The book details the use of free mapping software and tools such as MapServer, GDAL, OpenEV, and PostGIS. It also explains how to find, collect, understand, use, and share various mapping data sources.

All 14 chapters are well written and organized, progressing from the basics to the publication of sophisticated interactive Web maps. Fittingly, the book makes effective use of numerous full-color maps and software screenshots.

Standing on its own, the book merits five stars. As a book for security professionals, it gets four stars—a testament to solid material that happens not to directly focus on security applications.

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 is "Getting acquainted with basic hacking techniques", and takes up about 80% of the book. Part 2 is titled "Ways of making software analysis difficult".

Both parts treat the static approach (disassembling) separately from the dynamic (debugging). By far the largest chapter in the book is "Identifying key structures of high level languages"; most of this consists of commented disassemblies of programs.

The book is completely Windows specific. The author sticks to the major tools: IDA Pro, Soft Ice, and although he covers Borland and Watcom compilers, most of the examples are from Microsoft Visual C/C++ 6. The gcc compiler is mentioned briefly.

I was disappointed that the material seems at times rather dated. For example, he uses IDA Pro version 4.1X (before the integrated debugger), some of the examples are of 16-bit code, and so on. No version of Windows after Windows 2000 is mentioned.

Kaspersky has good coverage of Virtual Function tables, operator new and delete, the various calling conventions, and so on. I was really hoping he'd have the structure for Windows message maps, since these are such a good starting point, but I haven't found any reference to it. The index (at the back of the book) is hopeless, just two pages, I'm afraid this is a pet hate of mine. There is a 12 page "how to" index, but you have to think the same way as the author in order to use it effectively.

There is good material here, but to me it lacked any real depth.

Hardening Windows is an intermediate to advanced guide to implementing
preventative security measures for the Windows operating system, and the
only book that covers NT, 2000, XP, and 2003. System administrators know
the Internet is a hostile environment. They can't tell when a hacker will
attempt to gain access to the SQL server, but they can bet that there
will be an attempt soon. Since the operating system is vital to a
computer's functioning, and since it's the only layer between the
machine's available resources and its users, it's critical that the OS

Hardening is this process of protecting a system against unknown threats.
System administrators harden against that which they think could be a
threat. This book is designed to provide a quick and easy checklist-style
reference to the steps system administrators need to take to anticipate
those attacks and compromises and to harden Windows NT, 2000, XP, and
Server 2003 against them.

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AI Game Engine Programming provides game developers with the tools and wisdom necessary to create modern game AI engines. It takes programmers from theory to actual game development, with usable code frameworks designed to go beyond merely detailing how a technique might be used. In addition, it surveys the capabilities of the different techniques used. In addition, it surveys the capabilities of the different techniques used in some current AI engines, and covers common pitfalls, design considerations, and optimizations. If you're having difficulty determining which techniques to use, or looking for working code best suited to a particular game, you'll find the answers here. You'll also find a clean, usable interface for a variety of game AI techniques with an emphasis on primary decision-making paradigms.

The book provides insightful coverage of a variety of subjects important to AI engine development, and ties them together masterfully to form an indispensable reference. Part I provides an overall look at game AI, covers the basic terminology used in the book, reviews underlying concepts of game AI, and dissects the parts of a game AI engine. Part II covers specific game genres (RPG, TRS, FTPS, Shooter, Sports, Racing, Strategy, Adventure, Fighting, Platform, and miscellaneous) and explains how they use different AU paradigms. It also covers the move common solutions to the problems posed by each genre. Some of the problems include, dealing with direct AI and human interactions, using scripting languages appropriately, and general intelligence/entertainment balancing. Part III provides the actual code implementations for the basic AI techniques such as finite state machines, fuzzy state machines, message board systems, scripted systems, and location-based information systems. And, Part IV covers the move advanced techniques, including genetic algorithms, neural networks, artificial life, planning algorithms, and decision trees. The book concludes with Part V, which looks at "real game AI development." The areas covered here focus on how distributed AI works as an overall paradigm that can help with the organization of any AI engine. There is also coverage of common AI development, debugging and tuning, and the future of AI.

After reading this book you'll have traveled through most of the huge landscape of knowledge that a game AI programmer faces, and you'll be prepared to master it!

Features

• Provides a detailed guide for programmers interested in creating an AI Engine for any game genre
• Breaks down AI elements and solutions by genre, and provides concrete examples from popular games
• Includes code implementations for both basic and complex AI techniques
• Provides suggestions for how the AI systems discussed can be extended or optimized for space, speed, and other limitations
• Explains distributed AI as a paradigm that can help with the organization of almost any AI engine

Java servlets offer a fast, powerful, portable replacement for CGI scripts. Java Servlet Programming covers everything you need to know to write effective servlets. Topics include: serving dynamic Web content, maintaining state information, session tracking, database connectivity using JDBC, and applet-servlet communication.

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