Two Prereviews

Two publishers were kind enough to send new books last week. I plan to read and review both early next year. The first is Apress' Beginning C, 4th Ed by Ivor Horton. What, learn C? I don't expect or plan to become any C wizard by reading this and a few other books. Rather, I'd like to be able to understand code I come across, or perhaps make small modifications to otherwise useful programs. Any original programming I plan for 2007, I expect to use Python. Second is Syngress' FISMA Certification & Accreditation Handbook by Laura Taylor. Talk about moving from something useful (C) to something not (FISMA). Still, this seems like the only book on the subject, and FISMA is always a big discussion item at my local beltway bandit ISSA meetings. I hope this book will let me better understand the FISMA racket and why it's a waste of money. Of course, the book will not use those terms, but I will report what I find when I review it early next year.