Down and Dirty: Hollywood's Exploitation Filmmakers and Their Movies

Book Description

Exploitation filmmaking has seen it all. Russ Meyer, John Waters, Andy Milligan, Doris Wishman, and many others are covered. "Classic" films such as The Immortal Mr. Teas, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Nude on the Moon are examined. Production techniques and innovations are also discussed.

Customer Reviews:

Poorly written, and with misinformation to boot.......2002-07-21

With sections no longer that a few pages, "Down and Dirty" reads like a 5 grade book report. The subjects are presented in a "First he did this, then he did that" manner with little insight added. While it may be a good and light introduction to the genre, it certainly has no depth beyond that.

Most infuriating is the misinformation of several of the lesser known people. Occupations, chronologies, and sometimes even names are wrongly presented.

This book is obviously written by a fan of the films. But he is no historian.

Not a dream come true but still great fun!.......1999-10-09

DOWN AND DIRTY is a light, simple, entertaining introduction to the insane world of exploitation. This book focusses on some of exploitation's best loved directors including HG Lewis (BLOOD FEAST), Russ Meyer (FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!), Dwain Esper (MARIHUANA-THE DEVIL'S WEED) and plenty more. The book tells some facts that many film buffs all ready know but it stalks about some very underrated directors such as Andy Milligan who made period dramas for under $20, 000.

Customer Reviews:

Save your money.......1999-11-10

Ugh. What a turkey. There's nothing worth having here: The rotes are uninteresting and uninspiring, the information on Mage-ly Seattle is silly and unbalanced and that leaves the information on the "signature characters" used in the examples in the rule books. Surely there's a better way to spend your money.

Book Description

Shell scripting skills never go out of style. It's the shell that unlocks the real potential of Unix. Shell scripting is essential for Unix users and system administrators-a way to quickly harness and customize the full power of any Unix system. With shell scripts, you can combine the fundamental Unix text and file processing commands to crunch data and automate repetitive tasks. But beneath this simple promise lies a treacherous ocean of variations in Unix commands and standards. Classic Shell Scripting is written to help you reliably navigate these tricky waters. Writing shell scripts requires more than just a knowledge of the shell language, it also requires familiarity with the individual Unix programs: why each one is there, how to use them by themselves, and in combination with the other programs. The authors are intimately familiar with the tips and tricks that can be used to create excellent scripts, as well as the traps that can make your best effort a bad shell script. With Classic Shell Scripting you'll avoid hours of wasted effort. You'll learn not only write useful shell scripts, but how to do it properly and portably. The ability to program and customize the shell quickly, reliably, and portably to get the best out of any individual system is an important skill for anyone operating and maintaining Unix or Linux systems. Classic Shell Scripting gives you everything you need to master these essential skills.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book to learn the basics.......2007-03-13

I've scrolled through lots of books, there is so much information out there, but this book has a tendency to keep it simple and to the point. It has good illustrative examples that not only are useful but also serve as a good practice guide.

A good intro on Unix shell scripting and the problems it solves.......2007-02-16

The purpose of this handy little book is to help someone who is working with Unix through the labyrinth of tools available and learn how and when to use them. It is important to note what is mentioned in the preface - "Throughout this book, we use the term Unix to mean not only commercial variants of the original Unix system, such as Solaris, Mac OS X, and HP-UX, but also the freely available workalike systems, such as GNU/Linux and the various BSD systems: BSD/OS, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD." I quote the book because the word "Unix" is about as descriptive as the word "car". The intended audience is anyone who is computer literate, already knows how to program, and is regularly faced with diverse problems in the workplace that must be solved with Unix tools. This book should give you a taste of which tool to turn to and when.

This book can be divided basically into two halves. The first half is a tutorial on writing Unix scripts. The book starts with a brief history of the Unix language and the philosophy behind Unix tools. Slowly, each chapter builds up your skill at script writing. You are shown how to differentiate between shells, how to work with text extensively, how to use loops, pipelines, variables, and decision statements, and how to work with files. There are detailed example scripts at every step along the way. By the end of chapter seven, you should know enough about basic shell scripting to be dangerous.

Starting in chapter 8, you are showed more application-related information. First, Chapter 8 shows and discusses some ready-made scripts for some tasks for which there is no out-of-the-box Unix solution. Some of the handy solutions shown are for path searching and automating software builds. Chapter 9 is a crash course on awk, and is aptly named. It is just enough to be dangerous. You learn how to solve common text processing problems with awk, but you'll need more resources to be really knowledgable. Chapter 10 explains the usage of common commands for listing files, modifying their timestamps, creating temporary files, finding files in a directory hierarchy, applying commands to a list of files, determining the amount of filesystem space used, and comparing files. Next there are two applied chapters showing you how to merge several databases and how to perform spellchecking by using scripting. Chapter 13 changes the subject a bit and talks about the concept of processes in Unix and how you can use their statistics to accomplish a number of monitoring and control tasks. Chapter 14 talks about problems you may run into if you try to take advantage of shell-language extensions, while Chapter 15 addresses the issue of writing secure scripts to the extent it is possible to do so. Writing man pages, and the basics of the Unix filesystem are the subjects of the last two chapters of the book.

I would say it is a good modern introduction to the subject of shell scripting and Unix tools and how to use them. It doesn't dive deeply into any particular topic, but it will get you started by broadly introducing you to the problems most Unix script writers and system admins face regularly and how to get started solving those problems. I highly recommend it for that purpose.

Nice overview of Bourne/sh scripting.......2006-11-17

This book provides a nice overview of the Bourne/sh shell's commands. I wish there were more examples with complete scripts. Korn shell users might want to consider "Korn Shell: Programs for Your Survival at Work" by Larry L. Smith. Bash users might want to consider "Bash Shell: Essential Programs for Your Survival at Work" by Larry L. Smith. Some of the examples in Randal K. Michael's "Mastering UNIX Shell Scripting" are also helpful.

Okay.......2006-03-12

I would say this is a pretty good book that covers it's subject very well, buti didn't use it much because i had also bought Unix in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition, which covered the basics and differences between the shells briefly, which was all i needed at the time. but i looked through this and read some stuff that helped and it is a good book if you plan on doing extended shell scripting. it was just a little more than i actually needed

Practical and useful .......2005-09-20

Great book. The emphasis is nicely split between actually using the shell itself and the whole supporting cast of unix tools (sed, awk, cut, join, sort etc.) The idea of carefully crafting solutions using the unix toolbox mindset is key. I also like the fact he doesn't try to teach to multiple shells, but first tries to emphasize portability by sticking mainly to a POSIX standard, and only later adds info about non standard shell topics. If I could only have one book on shell scripting, this would be it. The best description is 'Practical'.

Learning the bash Shell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))

Average customer rating:

Mediocre material lacking truly useful examples
Good chapter on debugging.
Strong, gently-paced intro
Good introduction and reference resource
Essential linux skills.

Learning the bash Shell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))
Cameron Newham
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596009658

Book Description

O'Reilly's bestselling book on Linux's bash shell is at it again. Now that Linux is an established player both as a server and on the desktop Learning the bash Shell has been updated and refreshed to account for all the latest changes. Indeed, this third edition serves as the most valuable guide yet to the bash shell. As any good programmer knows, the first thing users of the Linux operating system come face to face with is the shell the UNIX term for a user interface to the system. In other words, it's what lets you communicate with the computer via the keyboard and display. Mastering the bash shell might sound fairly simple but it isn't. In truth, there are many complexities that need careful explanation, which is just what Learning the bash Shell provides. If you are new to shell programming, the book provides an excellent introduction, covering everything from the most basic to the most advanced features. And if you've been writing shell scripts for years, it offers a great way to find out what the new shell offers. Learning the bash Shell is also full of practical examples of shell commands and programs that will make everyday use of Linux that much easier. With this book, programmers will learn:

How to install bash as your login shell
The basics of interactive shell use, including UNIX file and directory structures, standard I/O, and background jobs
Command line editing, history substitution, and key bindings
How to customize your shell environment without programming
The nuts and bolts of basic shell programming, flow control structures, command-line options and typed variables
Process handling, from job control to processes, coroutines and subshells
Debugging techniques, such as trace and verbose modes
Techniques for implementing system-wide shell customization and features related to system security

Customer Reviews:

Mediocre material lacking truly useful examples.......2007-06-07

This book has many drawbacks: its structure is deficient, the division of the material is sometimes outright confusing, the content lacks rigor and clarity, the examples are badly chosen and there is an overall lack of unity and consistence throughout the book.

Despite its many drawbacks, "Learning the Bash Shell" is still a useful book, simply because there are not that many alternatives. Moreover, the subject itself (i.e. the Bash shell, the Unix OS or both) is inconsistent and confusing.

Good chapter on debugging........2006-11-17

Good chapter on debugging. Good overview of the Bash shell, but I wish it had more examples. For a book with lots of examples, you might want to consider "Bash Shell: Essential Programs for Your Survival at Work" by Larry L. Smith.

Strong, gently-paced intro.......2006-10-24

The bash shell is now the most common and featureful command shell in the Unix world. It's full capability certainly isn't obvious to a beginner facing a command prompt, but is well worth exploring. This book is a great place for the novice to start. The first chapter addresses the most fundamental question: just what is a command shell?

The ideal reader already knows at least the names of the emacs and vi editors. That much helps understand the many features and two distinct feature sets available for command line editing. I consider fancy command line editing over-rated for fluent typists, but it's there in the second chapter for all who want it and anyone can benefit from at least a little knowledge of it. After that successive chapters pull the reader deeper into the bash feature set: aliases and shell variables, scripting and shell programming, and debugging when the shell programs or functions go awry.

Since this book is aimed at the novice, Newham and Rosenblatt skip lightly over a few of the more advanced subjects. For example, exceptions and trap handling get only cursory treatment, since they get into deep weirdness very fast. The authors are honest about this shallow treatment, though, and give enough information for a novice to recognize the basics and look them up in more advanced references.

This is nicely organized for the self-taught student. As a result, it's not laid out as a programmer's reference manual - anyone who wants that kind of reference just isn't looking at the right book. For its intended reader, though, it's a great book. It gets readers off to a fast start, and lets them decide just how much they want to bite off at a time. I recommned it very highly.

//wiredweird

Good introduction and reference resource.......2005-10-02

This is a useful introduction to the Bash shell used in unix, linux, and other *nix type operating systems. It takes you from a very basic introduction into deeper concepts including shell scripting and customization. Highly recommended for the niche market it is intended to reach. I found it clear, useful and detailed without being dull.

Essential linux skills........2005-07-23

This book (2nd. ed.) shows how bash shell programming exploits special capabilities of linux and unix. Shell programming manages other, more specialized, programs. So understanding the shell is essential to fully exploiting multitasking environments like linux.

This book comfortably covers a complex topic. As software evolves, these skills apply to the TCL shell and the Z shell, too. I am eager to get started on the 3rd. edition of this book.

Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora

Average customer rating:

Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux & Fedora, Fourth Edition
Perfect for what I was looking for...
Can't rate because it did not meet my needs
End-user level introduction to Linux
Good intro to Fedora

Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora
Bill McCarty
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 059600589X

Book Description

The GNU/Linux® success story is well known. Firmly established as a high-performance operating system, its worldwide installations are increasing at phenomenal rates. Much of this success has been on the server side, but more and more PC users are turning to Linux on the desktop, as well. For those grounded in Microsoft Windows® or Apple Macintosh® graphical interfaces, the first look at a powerful Unix-style operating system can be daunting. This book provides a clear, no-nonsense introduction to the popular Red Hat® distribution of Linux. It takes you through installation and shows you the key parts of the system, always with an eye toward what can go wrong and what you need to know to get over the humps. Linux is known as a secure environment and a good platform to run a web server. These topics are among the many covered in this book. But did you know you can also burn CDs, sync a PalmPilot™, and edit slideshow presentations with powerful tools on Linux? Those topics are covered here, too. Red Hat currently provides two distributions, both documented in this book. The first is their commercial, subscription-based product, called Red Hat Enterprise Linux and also available through retail channels as Red Hat Professional Workstation. The second is the freely distributed Fedora distribution. The Publisher's Edition of Fedora is included in this book on two disks. New in this edition are installation instructions for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora, package updating for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora, information on the GRUB bootloader, and the CUPS printer system. Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora tells you how to:

Prepare your system for installing Linux
Install and configure Linux and the two popular desktop environments, GNOME and KDE.
Run the most popular productivity tools on Linux: mailers, web browsers, OpenOffice, and Evolution.
Obtain and set up software through the Red Hat Package Manager (RPM)
Set up a Linux system for networking, either on your local area network (LAN), or via a dialup connection to the Internet.
Use the system-administration tools included with Red Hat, GNOME, and KDE, including such valuable utilities as Samba file-sharing and the Apache web server.
Understand and write shell scripts so you can peek under the hood and extend the power of Linux.

Customer Reviews:

Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux & Fedora, Fourth Edition.......2005-07-12

I found this book to be very readable and a good way of getting up to speed on Linux. The book: (i) guides you how to load Fedora onto your computer, (ii) describes how Linux works, and (iii) discusses Linux applications, networking and scripts. The author also touches on the Red Hat Enterprise version of Linux throughout the text. The Linux installation section is well written with plenty of screen shots showing the various screens during installation. The other sections are also very readable. The book comes with a couple of CDs containing Fedora Core1. A reader may wish to download a more recent version (Fedora 4 is available at the time this review was written). This book is a good springboard in getting into the Linux world with Fedora; however I think that a person will want to supplement this book with a reference on Linux (such as Linux in a Nutshell) in order to get a more detailed coverage on topics.

Perfect for what I was looking for..........2004-10-04

In my quest to learn Linux, I've been working through the book Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux & Fedora by Bill McCarty (O'Reilly). This is exactly what I was looking for in a learning guide.

Chapter list: Why Run Linux?; Preparing to Install Linux; Installing Linux; How Linux Works; Using the GNOME and KDE Desktops; Using Linux Applications; Conquering the bash Shell; Installing Software Using the RPM Package Manager; Configuring and Administering Linux; Connecting to the Internet; Setting Up Network Services; Advanced Shell Usage and Shell Scripts; Linux Directory Tree; Principal Linux Files; Managing the Boot Process; Linux Command Quick Reference; Index

This book concentrates more on the desktop and graphical interface aspect of running Linux, which is exactly what I was looking for. While this book won't tell you everything you need to know about any specific subject (like shell programming or networking), it covers more than enough to get you up and running with a complete Linux setup. Using this volume, I've been able to get a full desktop and server setup going with little effort or trouble. By following the rest of the book, I'll gain a solid base of knowledge of Linux, and then I'll be ready to move on to more detailed learning.

Perfect level of coverage for where I'm at, and enough detail to get me up and running quickly... I like it.

Can't rate because it did not meet my needs.......2004-09-27

I wanted a book that could help me with fedora in TEXT MODE. This book looked great and obviously, books from Oreilly are always good so I bought it.

This book is absolutely NOT a good book to learn Fedora in TEXT MODE because the book is about graphic mode and it wasn't said somewhere. It's all about GNOME and KDE.

Be sure you use the graphic mode before buying!

End-user level introduction to Linux.......2004-08-10

From the title I would have suspected something about building scalable Linux servers for web applications. Turns out the book is nothing like that. It's a ground up introduction to Linux from the end-user perspective. It starts in Windows with prepping a system for Linux installation, works through the installation (replete with lots of screenshots), then goes into the basics of window managers and Linux Office-style applications. The last few chapters go into some depth on working in the shell and shell scripting, but it's pretty light.

This is a solid introduction to end-user level Linux that should be suitable for anyone who is reasonably technical (no need to be a programmer). The only reason I give it four stars instead of five is because of the reliance on numerous screenshots, which isn't the best way to explain things, and is not the quality that I expect from O'Reilly.

Good intro to Fedora.......2004-06-25

My recommendation is, this is a good book for a Linux novice or someone starting with Fedora for the first time.
Those with experience, will probably want to pass on this book. Its not likely you'll pick up anything new
(I didn't). (For those unfamiliar with what Red Hat has done with the split out of Fedora; think of
Fedora Core 1 as Red Hat Linux 9.1 or 10; if Red Hat had continued the product line.)

This book focuses on the "NEW" Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora Core 1 Linux user. The book is a relatively
easy read. Bill McCarty writes a clear and well organized book. From a novice's perspective, the author gives
you, what you need to get Fedora installed, running and usable. The author does a good job of pointing
the reader at additional information sources on each topic. The book is short, less than 300 pages.
This is nice compared to some of the other 1,000 page plus Linux novice tomes; which try to be a "how to get
started" book and a "general reference" all at they same time; except they don't do either well. Linux should
be friendly, not scary. First timers shouldn't have to read a Encyclopedia to get started in Linux. I agree
with the author's choice of brevity for his book.

One suggestion to the author, would be to include output examples with the CLI (Command Line Interface) examples.
He does it with the GUIs, so why not with the CLIs???

I bought the book because "Red Hat Enterprise" (RHE) was in the title. I was disappointed in the fact there wasn't
more detail about RHE. In retrospect, anyone doing RHE, is probably an experienced Linux person working for a
company, where RHE is deployed and may even have had formal training on RHE. So why would they need this book?

My bona fides; I've been using been using various flavors of Unix for an embarrassing long time, Red Hat Linux
for 8 yrs (from release RH 3.0.3 to 9) and I have been running Fedora Core for about 5 months now.

Average customer rating:
Learning the Bash Shell : Unix Shell Programming : 2nd Ed. Revised and Updated
Cameron Newham and Bill Rosenblatt
Manufacturer: O'reilly
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: B000K65ZCM

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