Active Books

Will Intrusion Prevention and Active Response help you in purchasing your next IPS system? Yes and no. Yes, because it will provide you with a really good insight about what IPS' are about, where they will help, where they will fail, and where they will make things worse.
But you'll have a hard time if you're not technically savvy, if you don't master at least the basics of TCP/IP, network and application security, Linux, and even C and Assembler up to a certain extent. It is not written for managers trying to decide what commercial product to choose and purchase.

Be prepared for some in depth, geek stuff. The build-up and organization is logical and obvious. A good and detailed first four chapters explain why you should go for IPS', what they are, what they will do and what they will not. This `introduction' is followed by 3 chapters (about 170 pp.) detailing, with all technical details, examples, code samples and such, what attacks an inline IPS may thwart, how these attacks work. This part is really in depth, and in some points is a very good complement to the mandatory reading of Hacking Exposed. In particular, I really liked Chapter 6, were the inner workings of a buffer overflow are explained. Then again, be prepared to drill down to the stack pointers, processor registers and all that good stuff. After all, exploiting buffer overflows is not obvious, and so is the understanding of what they are. But the authors manage to explain the actual workings of a buffer overflow, starting from such concepts as process and memory management, the stack pointers - and use a practical example so you can try this at home.
One may want to read it twice, though...
The book concludes with two chapters about Open Source IPS, and Evasion Techniques.

Recommended reading? Yes, definitely for anyone with a good technical basis, wondering what IPS' really are about.

Pros:
- In depth, no blah blah, no big screenshots, no page filling
- Good layout, easily readable large font
- Full of practical examples, code sample, and how-to's. You'll want a Linux box around to try this stuff out
- All chapters end with a summary (normal), but also a checklist (a kind of bulleted complement of the summary), a `solutions fast track', not about solutions (see cons) but rather another topic by topic review. Then comes the commented list of URLs mentioned in the chapter - good to review things and dig further, and a FAQ, giving practical answers to those questions you're still wondering about.
- Not commercial - the whole discussion is based on Snort, Netfilter, and zillions of readily available hacking tools and Linux add-ons

Cons:
- Syngress probably hired some marketing guy who felt it was absolutely necessary to include all sorts of buzzwords and frills: chapters are `Solutions'. This book is about explaining and understanding, not about solutions. Little checked marks, the Syngress URL on every page, `Notes from the Underground' boxes. Underground? Yeah, that must sound cool... All rather pointless and distracting. Minus one star for this.
- Nothing about commercial products. Everything is based on Open Source. While that makes it easy to test things out, most readers would still appreciate an additional chapter covering some pros and cons of the major products out there. Even when it comes to compare them to Snort.

All in all, great job, great book, interesting but at times demanding reading. Next recommended reading? Snort 2.1 Intrusion Detection, from Syngress as well.

Intrusion Prevention and Active Response (IPAR) is a welcome departure from many books covering intrusion prevention and detection. The authors clearly distinguish between intrusion detection systems (IDS) and intrusion prevention systems (IPS), a distinction often conflated in media, training manuals and other educational material. The level of presentation is well suited for someone familiar with security principles, techniques and methods. If you are new to Linux, then you will probably need supporting materials to get through the more complex chapters. IPAR covers several key areas of IPS. Though many chapters focus on network and data link layers, the section on protecting your system through host-based IPS can be used on a wide number of systems. Too many IPS/IDS books focus only on perimeter security and fail to address what can be done at the host level. With the increase use of WAN, VPN and other applications, the perimeter is dissipating, making host security increasingly important.

The section on host IPS touches on a number of items with a rather detailed treatment of buffer overflows. Although I find reading source code in a book painfully boring, this detailed treatment of buffer overflows is welcomed. If you go through this section carefully, you will have a very good understanding of why buffer overflows are often exploited and more importantly how they can be defeated with tools like PaX and StackGuard. There is a brief treatment of hardened OS's and SELinux. Personally, I think the SELinux treatment was a bit light, especially as SELinux is now standard for Fedora Core 3 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. Few books touch on SELinux, so a more expanded treatment of it here would have been welcomed. Nonetheless, the section on host based IPS is recommended to any server owner, especially those that lease or co-locate equipment that is in a network environment which they cannot control.

Chapter 7 focuses on application layer IPS controls. The best part of this chapter is a good review of common web application attacks such as cross-site scripting, form field manipulation, and SQL injection. These types of attacks are frequent entry points for hackers. The chapter also includes information on tools like ModSecurity, IIS Lockdown and others that can be used to protect your applications.

The remaining chapters provide background IPS information and details on how to protect the network layer. If you are a network manager, these chapters are a good starting point to IPS theory and practice. The last chapter provides brief accounts about deploying various open source tools, such as fwsnort, SnortSAM, LIDS, PSAD, and PortSentry. The inclusion of these tools is great but I think most will find that the treatment is too brief to provide a full-scale implementation. The authors point you in the right direction and get you started but you will need to rely on another resource if you plan to deploy many of these solutions.

Intrusion Prevention and Active Response is very good for anyone looking to secure their hosts and/or network. Some sections can become a bit tedious at times as they include packet captures, traces, and other highly detailed and technical information. I am not sure that showing a page full of a packet capture is too beneficial. I would rather see this replaced with CD-ROM that can simulate such events. Aside from this caveat, the treatment and background information on IPS is very strong.

I recommend this book to anyone considering deploying IPS systems or simply want to learn more about the differences between intrusion detection and intrusion prevention. As one of the few books focusing strictly on IPS, I think any security manager or system administrator can find some useful tidbits inside.

As malware and cracking become more potent, so too have the countermeasures. Hitherto, IDS have been popular, to detect such incursions into your network. But sterner tactics have evolved. An IDS is essentially passive. This book explores the concept of an Intrusion Prevention System.

The strongest configuration is to put an IPS inline. So that it sits between the Internet and your computers. It parses the network traffic at any or all of the 5 layers, from data link to application. In its most intensive incarnation, it can analyse application layer data and modify these before passing them on. Plus, of course, it can block suspects attack messages, even in a zero-day mode.

The discussion is fairly technical. A good prior knowledge of UDP and TCP is needed to make sense of much of the text.

The book is also careful to warn of the pitfalls of using an IPS, especially inline. False positives and negatives. It is very hard to correctly find all the attacks. That is, to be able to implement a robust rule set to remove attacks from the traffic.

This book was really helpful! Our company really needed a solution for a prevention/response system. We already had an IDS system but needed something for the attacks. Once our company was under attack we had no way of stopping it. This book really helped us to make an intelligent decision and the company went with the Interceptor.NET from Network Intercept. They were found on www.networkintercept.com. This book explains all about how these kind of systems work and was really knowledgeable. Highly recommend!

The June, 2003, report from Gartner on the death of IDS set off a lot of security industry activity. Everyone was busy trying to either defend the IDS product space, reposition their products as IPS devices, or trying to dismiss the Gartner position. Many security engineers had to suddenly evaluate the IPS products on the market and make purchase and deployment decisions, as well. However, there's been a lack of understanding of this marketspace for some time. If you've been curious about this technology, you may want to look at Intrusion Prevention and Active Response: Deploying Network and Host IPS to help you understand these solutions.

It would have been relatively easy to write a book that simply covered one facet of the IPS product space, such as network IPS systems. However, the authors have chosen to try and write a comprehensive overview of the tools currently available for both the network and the host, as well as ways in which they can be attacked and the scenarios they work in. While the book focuses on open source tools, including the Snort IPS extensions, the techniques apply to closed source, commercial tools as well.

In general I found Intrusion Prevention to be a decent first book on the subject, although a bit unfocused in its delivery. At times it seems to try and bite off more than it can chew, or go off on a tangent for too long (such as the many pages of nmap options), but in general the book does a fair job of delivering its promise. Through it you'll get a good overview of many of the technologies present in the IPS marketspace and what they offer. If you're up to it, you'll even learn a few ways to test the tools and weed out the snake oil vendors.

The book is heavy on actual system output and configuration examples. I like the explicit packet captures and snort rules, I think they go a long way towards illustrating the premise of an IPS system. As is somewhat common with Syngress press books, the formatting is a bit off at times (sometimes it's too wide or slips over the page boundary at the wrong time), but if you can work past that you're rewarded with a useful example.

For host-based IPS solutions, the book covers a number of approaches that aren't always evident as IPS techniques. Various stack protection mechanisms, including LD_PRELOAD techniques like Libsafe, GCC modifications such as StackGuard, and kernel modifications like LIDS, PaX, RBAC and GrSecurity are all described.

By now you can see that the book is pretty Linux and open source centric. This isn't too bad at all, since the basic functionality is present in most of the commercial tools, as well. These can include inline network data modification and reactions or application integrity checking tools. The open source versions, while they sometimes have fewer features, are excellent representatives of this technology.

The book really comes together in chapter 8, 'Deploying Open Source IPS Solutions.' Several vulnerable systems are set up, deployed in a fictitious network, and protected through a variety of IPS solutions which work together to create a layered security model. If the network can detect the attack, it's dropped or modified to remove the offending bits. If the malicious data gets through to the host, the host-level IPS tools remediate the problem. All in all a nice example chapter.

The discussion on how to evade IPS devices was a bit lacking, unfortunately. It seems squeezed in, and doesn't have the same level of detail as other chapters on similar topics. Detailed descriptions of the layer 3, 4 and application layer obfuscation techniques would have been useful to help explain this complex topic.

Before you begin thinking that the authors are entirely gung-ho on IPS technologies, they spend a long time discussing how they can be fooled and how they are fundamentally prone to false positives. This tempered stance is valuable, and they recommend that you take a limited set of functionality from your IDS system and make it reactive in your IPS.

There are only a couple of books that cover IPS technologies to any significant degree, and this appears to be the only one solely devoted to discussing IPS approaches for both the host and network. To that end, the authors have done a pretty good job of introducing the reader to what an IPS can give them, how to evaluate it, and what to expect in the real world. While the book itself has some production and layout problems, the material is worthwhile and will give the reader much-needed advice.

This is a highly detailed book on RV Electrical Systems. If you are a little bit of a tec head this book may be for you.

This publication provides a good overall view. Unfortunately for my situation it did not address my power converter problem. Like most publications out there it concentrates more on the self contained RV or what I would call a Motor Home not the towable. I suspect this is due in part to the commonality of parts and variations in dealer provided options. It dosen't really explain how to test the converter/charger so for DIY it falls short.

This will teach most (non-electrician by trade) people many useful things that will make their trips more enjoyable.(reduce operator error).

The book is wonderful and easy to follow with good illustrations and photographs. It covers pretty much the gammut of electrical items found on an RV -- way more than I will probably need, but its good to know it's all there. The book was purchased used and the description stated in excellent condition, but when it arrived, it was not what I would call excellent -- dog eared pages and warped pages- like the top end of the pages had gotten wet. It is still very readable and usable, but I strongly disagree with the booksellers rating of its quality.

Bought book to help plan an RV electrical system upgrade and it more than met my expectations. Found the book fairly easy to understand with a wealth of specific information about the "whys" and "wherefores" of wire, fuses, circuits, batteries, battery charging, electrical loads, etc. Author also includes a wealth of technical info for tech types who want greater detail.

I read this books about a year aand a half go, and thought at the time it introduced some really good techniques for manaaging a portfolio. One would need a linear algebra and statictical background to fully unserstand it, and access to some expensive software and data bases to implement it.

However, I now think the techniques depend on reasonably stable fincial markets, and after the emerginging crises starting in the summer of 2007, I have decided not to prusue this farther.

There is important information in this book but most of us need to see numerical examples to reinforce theoretical concepts. This book really comes up short in this area. It provides some discussion with the formulas/equations it presents but is very incomplete in terms of worked out examples. Yes, including worked out examples might might mean a book three times as long, but the book would then be many, many times more useful to practitioners.

As it currently stands the book can only benefit the super-genius-theoretical types who do not need to see examples to understand OR someone who ALREADY really understands the concepts.

The book rather frequently presents variables or constants without explicitly defining them for the reader (it assumes we know what they mean from the accompanying discussion).

The book gives exercises, but without answers what good are these?

The one thing the book does is make you realize there is a lot you do not know. You can find ideas in portfolio management that exist by reading this book but if you are at all like me you are going to have to look elsewhere for the answers. I have had better luck with Google searches for stuff like Style Analysis.

The book shows how smart the authors are: they know stuff that must of us do not. Unfortunately this is the feeling I get as I read sections of their book. They intend to keep it this way. Bottom line: the book fails to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

If you work for one of the top alpha quant shops (Barclays, Goldman, etc.), this text is a the proverbial must read. These are the guys that essentially invented quantitative finance in its modern form, building upon the [only somewhat applicable] concepts of Sharpe and Rosenberg and demonstrating how they can be harnassed to drive alpha. Anybody who has given this text a poor review obviously doesn't work in quantitative finance (chances are they're merely stock-pickers). If you want to understand how to drive alpha and beat the market, this text goes a lot further than explaining the simple concepts of information ratio and tracking error; instead, this book touches on the beauty of multi-factor models and covariance risk management.

I know many have this book and have never read it. Others read this book but never really understand it. However, if you can read it and understand it, it can offer a powerful tool for how to allocate capital. It actually is the basis for most indexing and quantitative methodologies. When applied to fundemental approaches to investment it can be quite powerful.

Sadly, though not enough money managers embrace what this book is trying to say with regards to risk and return.

Excellent book for whom is looking for a practical approach that at the same time is presented through a rigorous mathematical methodology. The book is absolutely superior over the academic textbooks that usually limit themselves to CAPM and efficient market theory. Grinold and Kahn go much forward and at the same time had managed to clearly and meticulously show the CAPM model, its limitations and the more sophisticated tools developed from it. Beside of showing the active way of managing a portfolio, the serious mathematical presentations through which the different theories such as CAPM are described are very convincing of how difficult it could be to beat the market.

So far I have only read 2 chapters (as required for a class), but found them very informative. The authors summed up the situation accurately in my mind concerning the political vs. educational viewpoint of assessment. This book is also well written and easy to read. I look forwrd to reading more.

This book is essential to recognizing that if we want to prepare our kids for the world they will actually live in we must teach in a way that prepares them for that world. The requirement in teaching and learning today is to produce thinking students who can read and write and compute while discriminating between fact and fiction; students who can seek new vistas of solutions and ask questions that offer new possibilities! Our world demands not rote facts and content but how to use knowledge to evaluate new insights, directions and solutions. It all begins in the classrooms with teachers who inspire students. Sadly, there are still many classrooms that are teacher directed with passive learners. The book offers specific strategies that when increased can re-engage, motivate and inspire our students today. I believe eager, motivated and inspired students is essential for our world's future!

Book was delivered on time. I would purchase from seller again. Thank you very much.

As a high-school English teacher, I am personally fed up with the growing mob of self-appointed gurus and "experts" who are attempting to usurp the intellectual authority of teachers, instill professional groupthink, and intimidate teachers and parents alike with their "research-based" snake oil. BEST PRACTICE is a polemic masquerading as accepted professional doctrine. The authors denounce E.D. Hirsch and his Cultural Literacy program as mere commercialism, as if they themselves aren't engaged in the same act of self-promotion and greed with this book. They deplore standardized testing as "heartless" and "authoritarian," yet conveniently ignore what spawned it in the first place. The fact is that both Hirsch and the testing craze wouldn't exist if there were not a significant public demand for them, and that demand exists largely because of the disgraceful, time-proven results of progressive education.

Example: This 2005 edition of BEST PRACTICE continues to laud the 1989 reforms in math education (read: Connected Math) set forth by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, yet within the last two months the NCTM issued headline-making changes in its recommendations to math teachers, effectively retracting its pro-CMP policy in favor of a more traditional approach. Again, this happened because schools and parents recognized the harm wrought by ten years of CMP and its "student-centered" philosophy. Alas, they didn't see it in time to prevent a decade's worth of damage. Why? Because they were sold a bill of goods by the American education establishment, which abandoned substantive learning ages ago in favor of shallow pop-psychology, fad-chasing, and sophism.

I can attest to the failure of Whole Language, another gimmick foisted on America's children in the name of cutting-edge reform. Today's high-school juniors and seniors were first taught to read and write in the mid-1990s, during Whole Language's heyday, and it shows: their writing suffers from rampant spelling and syntax errors, and many students have trouble comprehending what were once standard high-school-level texts like The Scarlet Letter. Worse, they are easily frustrated and resentful for having any reading material outside their narrow self-interest assigned to them, no doubt because the student-centered movement has made them complacent and, ironically, disinterested in reading about cultures, time periods, and experiences unlike their own.

The authors present the standards proposed by numerous education think-tanks and associations as if they were above reproach. The NCTM example alone proves they're not; and as Diane Ravitch notes in her book The Language Police, the 1996 NCTE-IRA standards for teaching English were so bad the Clinton Administration temporarily withdrew funding for the project before it was published. The NCTE in particular is as much a political association as a professional one; it does not welcome or tolerate dissenting views, and it therefore does not speak for all, or even a majority of, the nation's English teachers.

There is nothing wrong with classical teaching. I'll take rote-memorization, seat work, and lecturing over the "experiential," "active," "hands-on learning" drivel so ardently promoted by today's education apostates. It gets results, and it doesn't have to be boring, either, not if it's taught by someone who cares about students and knows their subject-matter thoroughly. Zemelman et al know this, which is why they are so contemptuous of anything remotely traditional occurring in the nation's classrooms; where would their careers be if traditional teaching methods were widely validated over the new nonsense? It's also the reason why they obfuscate their assertions with pseudo-scientific studies--all of which are as vulnerable to selective interpretation and flakiness as is medical research--not to mention pseudo-scientific language. To my mind, manipulative jargon like "constructivist learning" and "triangulated assessment" does more to reveal the dishonest agenda and desperate aspirations of today's educrats than it does to legitimize their authority.

Teachers--i.e. working classroom teachers, not theorists and pedagogues--should do what works best for them and their students. The more we submit to crass opportunists and smug politicos, the more we give up our intellectual integrity in favor of "research-based" gimmickry, the more our entire profession suffers.

Great stuff for Reading teachers, and the Elementary classroom in general!

Well written, great detail, well worth having before you start building- read it twice for a solid background.

The guide has some very excellent information on creating a plug and molding a canoe. We found it to be a very good resource when making a copy of one of our designs.

The use of common materials to create a high quality canoe is insightful, inexpensive and the directions are easy to follow. Concepts are explained well, with plenty of pictures and should make the process easy to replicate.

Overall this book is very well done and a valuable guide for anyone wanting to build their own boat.

This is an interesting book. I liked reading about how to make a male mold. It definitely is for builders who want a light boat and are not really concerned with looks. I am not sure that the costs are as low as the author writes though so shop around carefully for Kevlar because this is very expensive material. Check to make sure that you are not sacrificing a few pounds for hundred of dollars more in materials. Glued lapstrake plywood building and cedar strip can be very light, beautiful looking boats too at fairly low costs if you build yourself. Make sure you check out all options.
After reading the book, I realized this method of building would be too expensive for me (due to Kevlar costs).

This book was an excellent guide to building a composite canoe (or anything like it). I read it and got started with no previous experience. It answered every question that came up and I didn't run into anything I didn't expect. I would suggest this book to anyone who wants a guide to doing this sort of composite work.

I was in the market to purchase a kevlar canoe when I stumbled across this book. This book does such a good job of explaining how to build your own Kevlar canoe, that I gave up the search for a new one and decided to build my own. This book lets the reader know that with some very simple techniques, almost anyone can build a Kevlar canoe. I am currently in the middle of my project and I have been very happy with the level of detail provided in this book.

This is a great over all book about the boat and how to use it properly. The diagrams and information are written so that the average person can easily understand what the author is saying.

This book covers a lot of basics, but was not well-updated since its original publication. Too much irrelevant information on how to rig the old version of the Laser is included, and there are too many very dated interviews. Its hard to sort out whats new and pertinent and what's old and to be ignored.

Excellent book, it covers all the aspects of the laser sailing, with a clear and in deep terms. One of the best parts are the interviews, that brings to me a wider vision through a lot points of view from many laser sailors.

Great book to give a lot of detail and enthusiasm regarding laser sailing. Saves a lot of trial and error. Interviews with champion laser sailers are great.

If you want a book to help you help you understand how to sail a laser, this isn't it!

As well as being very dated (it seems all the photos were taken in the 70's) subjects as vital as tacking is explained in four bullet points, with no photos.

This is a great book, very well organized with great in-depth analysis and practical tips. For design engineers, analogue or digital, it's a must have book.
Also, I recommend "Introduction of Modern Network Synthesis" by M. E. Van Valkenburg as a companion book.

The book has lost a lot, since the previous version by Van Valkenburg (this edition was rewritten after his death). Although there is additional material, the book is no longer enjoyable reading. Important entries are entirely missing from the index. The paper used has a fluorescent glow! This causes eyestrain when reading the book.

Excellent book if you like electronics and are familiar with freqeucny analysis from say a controls perspective. Having dual concentrations in controls and electronics. I found this book to be very useful. Breakdown of problems aren't really present but you'll just have to design things in stages and combine them. You'll see when you get the book. Highly informative for designing analog filters (including multi order active filters) that could be comparable to some low-mid end dsp filters.

This is a good book. It has everything you need on filter design with all the clear explanation and design examples. Strange thing is he uses dB/octave instead of dB/decade. I also feel that the people who wrote the previous comments should concentrate on the fundamentals to do design rather than relying on a computer to do the job. Who needs Matlab? ;-)

Not only a great book on analog filtering but also on analog electronics. It explores the op amp bandwidth limitations and how to take this into account to make accurate predictions on real filters. The fundamental theory of filter design is discussed at an introductory level, excellent starting point for more advanced readings. I stongly recommend this book for a first undergraduate course in the subject.

This is a decent book, but it needs to be purchased before you buy an RV. We didn't need the first half because we had already purchased ours when we got the book.

I recommend this book for all who are considering joining the RV culture and those just starting out. It provides the basic 'get started' information you need and more. It's a quick, easy, and motivating read. Enjoy!

Before we purchased our first RV, I ordered and read this book. Just full of detailed, easy to understand, and necessary information. When we met with the sellers, I was able to grasp the basics of the many functions and systems of our new home on wheels and sound half way intelligent. Much of the information in the book was repeated to me by the experienced RV'ers.

There are instructions on how to use a shower faucet in this book. Specifically, how to pull up the diverter knob to make the shower nozzle produce water. Like what you do in your home bathroom every day. And instructions on how to use an ATM machine. I kid you not.
In its defense, it does give a general overview of black and grey water tanks and basics about hitches and the types of RVs that exist and I'm sure the authors meant well. But there are some really dumbed-down instructions about ordinary things you already know about. Its almost insulting. There are much better books out there that dont assume you are mentally challenged!

Very helpful and easy reading. Also purchase the RVer's Bible (by Kim & Sunny Baker) if you want to really be prepared with your RV!

I liked that the book started out recommending you thank four people a day. That's a good goal, to form a habit of thanking people. She gives lists of special words to jazz up your thank you notes. The book also has sentences ready to insert in your notes. There are lots of sample notes for various occasions.
Most of it seems rather routine, but it may be a life-saver to a new bride faced with umpteen thank you notes to write for all the gifts.
Beyond the standard, social thank yous, it shows sample thank you notes for members of your family. I like the idea of writing a note telling them why they are special in our life.
She made one suggestion that irked me, to start a thank you chain letter. There's a ton of those on the internet and most people find them pretty annoying. Otherwise, the book had good ideas, although none really exceptional. It's just handy to have it all together.

I really liked the concept of helping the reader express heartfelt thanks to the people in his/her life. Personally, the authors' suggestions are a little too cheesy for my tastes and I don't see myself actually doing them. The book did make me think of ways that would be a little more reflective of my personal style, though.

Bought this book recently and was slightly disappointed mainly b/c many of her ideas seem a bit cheesy. A few sugestions even made me wonder if I'd look like a total dork for doing what she recommended. If you lean towards sappy this is your book but for those who aren't, don't waste your money.

Very helpful in writing all different kinds of thank you notes, or just how to say thanks in general.

I have a hard time thinking of things to say. This didnt really make it better. It is a nice idea and has some nice examples but it didnt really help me think of ways to say thank you to certain things like a group.

This text is poorly written and unclear. It fails to define variables, sometimes, and contains a few typos. It is also the only text to learn this stuff. It's a "must be done."

This book is an update of a classic from the 70's with material on galactic centers added. It is just good physical astronomy and has the spectroscopic concepts for observations of very distant objects.
The diagrams are updated from the older version as well.
More extensive indexes and other new material make it also a good long term reference book.

Para mi la astonomia no tenia sentido, hasta que conoci al Osterbrock. El, cambio mi vida. Desde ese momento no me desprendo de las NP.

Para mi la astonomia no tenia sentido, hasta que conoci al Osterbrock. El, cambio mi vida. Desde ese momento no me desprendo de las NP.

Perhaps it was just the professor, but I could never get into this book. I think its hopelessly boring, and like alot of graduate textbooks in astro, it has a TERRIBLE index. You can't find anything you need in terms of numbers or equations with the index, you must read the book cover to cover to know where something is.

It also has way too many numbers scattered in tables, and you must read the chapter to know what assumptions were made when he calculated those numbers. Our entire class had such a difficult time with homework using this book that I doubt any of us would give a good review of the book.

My own research is in AGN, and for the most part he does OK in explaining them but he can confuse you in comparing them.