COMPUTER

Secrets of Computer Espionage You and your computer face a dizzying array of security threats, writes tech consultant Joel McNamara. Competitors, cops, crooks and even disgruntled kin would love a peek at your hard drive. But don???t hyperventilate just yet. If you calmly analyze the desirability and vulnerability of your secrets, you can figure out how to protect yourself. McNamara???s prose is surprisingly clear given the degree of difficulty of his topic, and he offers a number of useful sidebars, charts and examples from inside the tech business to juice up his instructional tome. getAbstract.com suggests this practical book to managers charged with protecting corporate data, and to people who are unsure just how safe their computers are.

The Pixar Touch This copiously researched, vivid account covers the rise of one of the world???s most successful entertainment companies. Experienced journalist David A. Price fills Pixar???s history with implied lessons about patience in management and running a creative company, but he doesn???t seem much interested in writing a how-to business book, so he sticks to the historic narrative and draws few conclusions. Notably, Price, whose education is in computer science and law, writes more energetically about (and finds more drama in) the origins of computer graphics and the occasional lawsuits Pixar endured than in the harrowing high-wire act it goes through to make each movie ??? a struggle Pixar???s Ed Catmull and others have discussed and written about often. getAbstract reports that the early parts of the story are the most colorful and dramatic, though the book is an entertaining read and a fascinating business case study all the way through.

The Design of Everyday Things Dome-headed engineering professors call it ???human factors engineering,??? ???interaction design??? or ???usability engineering,??? but the purpose of this strangely-named discipline is far simpler than these appellations suggest: to make everyday items do what users expect them to do. Donald Norman has been thinking about usability issues longer than almost anyone and has insights commensurate with his experience. Norman knows how both people and machines work (he has degrees in psychology and engineering). More importantly, he knows how to bridge the gulf between the human mind and the devices the mind wants to use, from toasters to telephones to teapots. In this classic, he provides a few simple precepts and many wonderful examples showing how to design the most important component of any technology ??? the user???s experience. While some of Norman???s examples are a little long in the tooth (he discusses VCRs, not DVDs), getAbstract finds that the principles he describes in this friendly book are still sprightly almost 20 years after their initial publication.

In the Company of Giants Rama Dev Jager and Rafael Ortiz present an excellent series of 16 interviews with the digital world???s most successful leaders: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, T.J. Rodgers, Gordon Eubanks, Steve Case, Scott Cook, Sandy Kurtzig, John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Michael Dell, Charles Wang, Andy Grove, Trip Hawkins, Ed McCracken, Ken Olsen, and Bill Hewlett. Each interview begins with a brief history of how each person founded a company and produced groundbreaking change in the digital industry. These pioneers answer many probing questions about their achievements, visions for the future of electronic technology, and tips for success. Their interview responses are highly informative and engaging. The book is thoughtfully written and well edited. Although much of its advice will be familiar to experienced marketers, managers, and executives, getAbstract recommends it to them because of the useful and interesting inside look at the techniques and insights these industry leaders employed to such successful results.

Minds, Machines, and the Multiverse If you???re the type of reader who loves to devour an entire book on a rainy day, you???d better wait for a Noah-size deluge before tackling Minds, Machines, and the Multiverse. Wet or dry, you will marvel at author Julian Brown???s encyclopedic knowledge. He uses charts, graphs and the occasional equation to try to make the inscrutable plain. However, unless reversibility, the Fredkin Gate and the von Neumann machine mean something to you, the essence of Brown???s narrative may elude you, beyond rough translation. He explains the possibility that the notion of alternative universes can be used to create a quantum computer that would be far more powerful than any computer heretofore. Brown persistently reveals possibilities that seem like dreams. getAbstract.com recommends his book to those who strive for news heights of techie theory or who think of physics as a hobby. Though fascinating, it may leave mere mortals feeling uncertain and somewhat overwhelmed.

Hacking Exposed You might expect a massive book about computer hacking to be tedious reading, but - surprise - this one is actually fun. You???ll be impressed by the quality of the writing and the clarity with which the authors explain complicated matters. Why have these clever writers gone public with information on how to hack into computers? They figure that hackers learn how to penetrate systems anyway. It???s the network administrators and other professionals that need to understand hacking to protect their own vulnerabilities. The book, which is detailed almost to a fault, explains how to defend and attack specific programs, Web sites, voicemail, firewalls and even individual Internet users. getAbstract recommends this as an essential reference for businesspeople who want to know why system administrators always look twitchy. It???s also a good tool for any computer professional whose day - or career - might be ruined by a single moment of system weakness.