I came across Robert Jones' "Internet Forensics" published by O'Reilly. Despite its low page count (~200 pages), this book is a masterpiece, which provides plenty of very valuable and pragmatic information about computer security and how one can protect herself against scams and contribute to make the Internet cleaner.

My 9-horseshoes review follows (also available at Javaranch.com):

Over the past ten years, the Internet has become an increasingly vital part of our socio-economic ecosystem. As a result, it would not be conceivable to live without it anymore or to switch it off altogether. On the dark side, it is undeniable that the massive use of the Internet also brings its load of troubles that too often rotten the lives of many online users and businesses.

Committed to supporting the fight against the countless illnesses that plague the modern Internet, Robert Jones has contributed a great book called "Internet Forensics". As its title implies, this book delves into the most intimate details of the Internet and aims at raising the readers awareness regarding the many dangers of the Internet and to provide them with the necessary tools to prevent and fight against those dangers. Jones first introduces the design of DNS and IP addresses in order to explain how to dissect a spam network. He goes on analyzing the anatomy of emails and the SMTP protocol. He also describes the countless techniques used by spammers and phishers and how one can protect herself against them. The book also enumerates many techniques for analyzing web sites, web servers and log files and flushing out their malevolent authors. The book finishes by providing some patterns of activity and two real-world case studies that show in a very comprehensive way how to proceed for dismantling spam networks.

I would advise this book to any person who carries out activities on the Internet and for whom privacy and personal integrity is of paramount importance. Of course, the techniques explained in this book require the reader to show some interest in computer security and to have a working knowledge of UNIX or Linux and programming.

O'Reilly sent me a review copy of Bruce Tate's "Beyond Java" which I really enjoyed reading even though it might appear to be kind of scary to people who are a little too religious about Java.

My 9-horseshoes review follows (also available at Javaranch.com):

Since the inception of computer science, programming languages have come and gone at varying paces. Over the past ten years, Java has become one of the most popular programming languages on earth, but this trend will inexorably decline and eventually fade out sometimes. Quoting the author, "It's definitely not a question of if but when". Worded differently, all programming languages are born equal and make no exceptions as far as the theory of evolution is concerned.

In "Beyond Java", the message the author seeks to convey is not that Java is bad, too limited or that it will disappear next year. Instead, by dissecting a couple of established facts under his microscope, the author clearly shows that Java's reign will eventually end even though the language is still on the rise today. It's worth mentioning that this book is definitely not the result of some cheap crystal gazing exercise as the author bases his predictions and forecasts on his concrete real-world experience and on input gathered from the most famous Java gurus on the planet (Richard Monson-Haefel, Jason Hunter, James Duncan Davidson, to name a few). Aiming at a constructive attitude, the author enumerates and explains the characteristics and the features that the next leading programming language should provide according to him.

On a more concrete level, the author points out the major shortcomings of Java (static typing, general purpose semantics, etc.) that will very likely contribute to make the language become a second choice in face of its more dynamic competitors, such as Ruby. Using the later as a reference, the author explains how he managed to attain an unprecedented level of productivity when migrating a database-backed web application written in Java to the Ruby on Rails framework.

If you firmly believe that everything has a begin and an end, then you should give this book a try as it provides a good deal of useful information and much appreciated hints that will let you prepare yourself to the inexorable transition from Java to THE next language.