Picture of a childrens book on my Kobo

Here is what a Junie B. Jones book looks like on the Kobo. I have another picture that does not have the flash showing.

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My Seven Year Old and my Kobo eReader.

So, I have a Kobo ereader that I really like and enjoy the use of. My fifteen year old daughter who is a power reader in my opinon also enjoys my Kobo device over her iPad as a reading device. I assumed this much as she and I are very much alike in many ways. What I was not expecting was how much my seven year old was going to like the Kobo device and how much she was going to using it.
I use my Kobo with the My Media Mall service from my local library. So far she has started reading Alice in So.derland along with some Junie B Jones books. I am very glad to see how well she is using the device. Her favorite parts of the device are the coolness factor of an sink screen. I still see her touch the screen from time to time in amazement. But, the thing that she liked that I was most surprised about was the fact that if you set the device down, drop the device, or anything along those lines you don’t need to worry about losing your place as there are no pages to keep track of. I really enjoyed her response. I hope my Kobo device will provide her with many more hours of enjoyment.

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Cisco Press update PKI Uncovered

 Well, I have done some more reading of the book that was sent to me by Cisco Press. I must say that so far I am finding it a nice read. I am not a security guy by trade. However, I would like to be more involved with security at sometime in my career. So, I know some of the things that the book is talking about but not all. For those of you who did not see my last blog post I am reviewing a book entitled PKI Uncovered which is one of the many fine books offered by Cisco Press.
  The book flows very nicely and has a lot of great illustrations to help the reader understand what the text is attempting to show. I find the illustrations to be great and very helpful at times. Along with the diagrams and illustrations the book shows many examples of what one would see if they were actually looking at a computer screen and running the actions from the text. Again, I find this very helpful when one is reading on the go and does not have a lab with them to try the commands out at that very moment.
   Having the book on the go was one thing that I was most impressed with and that I liked the most about the book. The book is small and friendly in size and appearance while still being packed with a ton of information.  I made a comment to that on my last blog and I still feel the same way. I have some tech books that are just intimidating and un comfortable to read due to size and cover options.  PKI Uncovered is about eight inches tall by about six inches long and about half an inch thick with a very bendable spine making it very comfortable to read and to pack in your bag or to simply carry in hand. The cover is orange and white with an image of a data center with employees talking and looking very relaxed. Again, I like this simple because I have books that just look like they would be  a pain to read. PKI Uncovered finishes up with two hundred and fifty three pages. So the book is not terrible long which is another point that I like in regards to technical books.  PKI Uncovered is broken down into three parts. Labeled and part one, part two and of course part three. within those parts are the chapters. I will break the book down into the parts and the chapters  below so that you will be able to see what the book will be able to offer you as a reader.

Part I Core Concepts:

Chapter 1 Crypto Refresh
Chapter 2 Understanding PKI Building Blocks
Chapter 3 PKI Processes and Procedures
Chapter 4 Troubleshooting

Part II Design and Solutions:

Chapter 5 Generic PKI Designs
Chapter 6 Integration in Large-Scale Site-to-Site VPN Solutions
Chapter 7 Integration in Remote Access VPN Solutions
Chapter 8 Using 802.1X Certificates in Identity-Based Networking
Chapter 9 PKI in Unified Communications

Part III Case Studies:

Chapter 10 Understanding Cisco Virtual Office
Chapter 11 Deploying VPNs with PKI Using Cisco Security Manager

So as one can see the book covers a lot of ground in a very efficient manner. I will not lie this book did talk about things that I have never worked with or encountered before in my career or my studies. While other stuff I had in fact seen or at at least heard about before. Now someone who actually works in the Computer Security field this book would be a great guide to read and to probably carry around as well.

Again here is the information about the book in case you would like to look it up and purchase it.
PKI Uncovered at Cisco Press
IISBN-13: 1-58705-916-2     ISBN-10: 1-58705-916-9  
The book is written by the following team of writers,
Andre Karamanian, CCIE
Srinivas Tenneti, CCIE
Francois Dessart, CCIE

Cisco Press Book Review ---Very Excited!!!!

It was a great day for me yesterday. I received a book in the mail from Cisco Press.
The book is titled PKI Uncovered : Certificate-Based Security Solutions for Next-Generation Networks.
ISBN-13: 1-58705-916-2     ISBN-10: 1-58705-916-9  Available here at Cisco Press.
The book is written by the following team of writers,
Andre Karamanian, CCIE
Srinivas Tenneti, CCIE
Francois Dessart, CCIE

I have read the preface and the first chapter so I can not say to much about the book at this time. However, I would like to comment on a few of the things I have noticed about the book so far that I believe I will like.

1. The book is small and friendly in appearance. I have several Computer field books that give the appearance of a long, slow and hard to read book. You know what I am talking about. You have all seen those books that are hard-covered, 700+ pages, full size and you know that you have to read the whole thing. It is just very intimidating. Another reason why I think I like my e reader.

2. The book appears to have short chapters. I am not sure why I am a fan of this I just am. It is probably due to my statements above in comment #1.

3. Free online access for 45 days through Safari Books Online. I will say I wish an e reader copy for say 30 days also came along. But, the book and the 45 days for free online will do just fine.

I am hoping to blog a bit about the book maybe every three chapters?!?! I am not sure yet.

Stay tuned for more.

Starting a new blog

I used to have a blog called PC Distortion several years ago that I shut down so that I would only have one main blog to focus on. I have decided to start the other blog back up. I will post the information here soon once it is ready. The new blog will be here on Blogger and will have the PC distortion name. That blog will be more of a tech blog and possibly will include some political stuff as well.

My New Kobo eReader

I will go into a better review this weekend regarding my new eReader. I will tell you that I really like the Kobo and I have been looking at these eReaders as a whole for over two years now. I have compared several units and I chose the Kobo for a few reasons
1. Open format using the ePub ebook format. This was very important to me as I wanted to be able to    download books from my local and school library.

2. I wanted an e-ink screen and I wanted a device that only did ereading. I have an iPad and it is just to distracting. I end up doing something else when I really needed to read or wanted to read. Sometimes less is more and that is a BIG statement coming from me.

Those are about the two main reasons. The Kobo is priced right at $99 dollars while also giving you WIFI and an SD slot for expansion. The cost really did not mean that much to me I just really liked the Kobo product. I have tried many and I feel I made the right choice for my needs and wants. Which is what one really needs to consider when set to purchase any item.

I will post some pics soon and will talk about the software and how I manage my device here soon.

I will be blogging more here soon.

I know that when I shut my old blog down and moved to this one I said I would blog everyday. I fell short of that idea but now I hope to be returning to that plan. Also, I am moving towards putting my websites back up. I will try to keep everyone posted as to how all of this is panning out.