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REVIEW: "PC Fear Factor", Alan Luber
From: InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 00:24:56 -0600 (CST)
Forwarded from: "Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rslade () sprint ca> BKPCFRFC.RVW 20021219 "PC Fear Factor", Alan Luber, 2003, 0-7897-2825-7, U$24.99/C$38.99/UK#17.99 %A Alan Luber www.alanluber.com %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 2003 %G 0-7897-2825-7 %I Macmillan Computer Publishing (MCP) %O U$24.99/C$38.99/UK#17.99 800-858-7674 info () mcp com %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789728257/robsladesinterne %P 362 p. %T "PC Fear Factor: The Ultimate PC Disaster Prevention Guide" The introduction states that the book is aimed at non-technical users, but doesn't further refine the purpose beyond saying that bad things happen to computers. We are also told that a system administrator is really a risk manager (which may come as a surprise to a number of sysadmins), and that if you read this book you will never have to worry about computer disasters again. Even after reading chapter one I am not sure what the "root of all computer disasters" is, although I suppose that there is a fair chance that he means hard drives. There is a lot of irrelevant detail about the physical operations of drives, and Luber also is obviously confused between old hard drive crashes (caused when the heads physically contacted the platter, which was spinning at high speed) and modern "crashes," generally caused by bad pointers or other data errors. In chapter two, Luber recommends, with opinions, but not much in the way of proof or backup, a bunch of software. Chapter three offers us more opinions, this time about buying a PC. Setting up a new PC is covered in chapter four. Most of chapter five prints documentation for a couple of antivirus programs and a firewall. A decent discussion of backup strategy, and more documentation of a backup program, is in chapter six. A manual for another backup program is in chapter seven. Restoring a backup comes in chapter eight. Chapter nine advises on maintenance. Some hoary old myths about risky activities (using shareware, for example) are recycled in chapter ten. In one sense, Luber is right. If you keep your data backed up, you will be able to recover from pretty much any kind of disaster. On the other hand, I have said that in one sentence, and the book is over 300 pages long. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2002 BKPCFRFC.RVW 20021219 -- ====================== rslade () vcn bc ca rslade () sprint ca slade () victoria tc ca p1 () canada com Find book info victoria.tc.ca/techrev/ or sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade/ Upcoming (ISC)^2 CISSP CBK review seminars (+1-888-333-4458): March 31, 2003 Indianapolis, IN - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomo () attrition org with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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