Twilight on the Bay: The Excursion Boat Empire of B.B. Wills

Customer Reviews:

Sometimes the best ideas come to you by accident.......2001-01-10

That certainly was the case with B.B. Wills. After graduating college in the early 1920's, he sought his fortune in Florida real estate boom. When that boom turned to bust in 1926, he went back home to Maryland. Luckily, because he was working primarily as an agent rather than as an investor, he lost little in Florida.

Scratching around for the next entrepreneurial idea, he decided to buy some land along the Potomac in southern Maryland, near his birthplace, and develop it into a small-scale amusement park and picnic venue. He quickly learned that many of his potential customers in Washington, D.C. were prevented from reaching his park either because the inadequate highways of the day made the journey too arduous, or simply because most of them did not own cars. Eventually, in 1934 he bought and refurbished an ancient Hudson River excursion boat (built in 1880!), rechristened it the "Potomac" and used it to ferry customers from Washington to his park.

Soon, Wills noticed that he was earning much more from fares on the "Potomac" than from admissions at his park. This lead him to close the park, sell the land and concentrate fully on excursion boats: day trips, dinner and dancing cruises, etc. He would expand his interests to include ferry service across the Chesapeake from Baltimore to the Eastern Shore (this was long before a bridge was built over the bay), ferry service to the Statue of Liberty, Hudson River cruises and service across Boston Harbor. He even briefly ran boats from various Gulf of Mexico ports and in other venues. Prior to purchasing the "Potomac," he had no knowledge of ships or navigation.

Always looking for an angle, he also took advantage of legal technicalities to run a casino boat in the Chesapeake for a time. During World War II he got around fuel rationing by successfully arguing that his excursion boats on the Potomac also provided some vital transportation links, given that there were no bridges across the river's lower reaches then. A true bargain hunter, not once did ever have a boat built for him; he always bought and refurbished older boats. The venerable "Potomac" was 68 years old when it was retired in 1948. By the 1960's, interest in excursion boats was waning, so he shut down his remaining boating ventures and redeployed most of his capital to real estate development in the Washington, D.C. area. He died in 1986, aged 89.

If the name of B.B. Wills is unfamiliar, it should be. Even at the apex of his career, he was content to keep a very low profile. Not one of his boats ever bore either the Wills surname or the first name of any member of his family. He had no interest in being a celebrity, just in making a buck relatively quietly. He became wealthy, but not extravagantly so. The antithesis of Donald Trump, if you will.

Perhaps accordingly, this book strictly deals with Wills the businessman. We learn very little about him as an individual, except through his business dealings. He was never bashful about asking to renegotiate a deal. When a car rental company tried to collect daily charges for a long-overdue car (a careless employee had damaged it and then left it in an obscure corner of the boat line's property for months), he countered with a demand for storage fees. It's hard to escape the conclusion that his work indeed was his life, and that he could be a tough cookie. Similarly, his family is treated in only the most cursory fashion. The Willses were an old-line tobacco-growing southern Maryland family, B.B.'s grandfather was a doctor and a friend of the ill-fated Dr. Samuel Mudd, B.B.'s father was involved in a variety of business pursuits, and B.B. was the only southerner in his college class at Holy Cross in Massachusetts (the Willses were Catholic; so were the Mudds, by the way). Apart from a family photo, little is said of his wife and children. This is a business history, straight up.

The book is an easy read; I polished it off in just over 2 hours. It should appeal to those who would enjoy a case study in entrepreneurship, or who have an affinity for maritime history in general or excursion boats in particular, especially those on the lines that Wills ran.

Book Description

The book is an inspiring story of a young black football player, from a family of 15 children, Isaac Bruce makes it from the football fields of Ft. Lauderdale, FL to catch the winning touchdown pass in Super Bowl XXXIV.

His belief in God and his family will inspire all who read it.

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Introduction to Raymond Chandler's Unknown Thriller:The Screenplay of Playback
Robert B. Parker
Manufacturer: Mysterious Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GLI8TI

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Raymond Chandler's Unknown Thriller: The Screenplay of Playback
Raymond Chandler
Manufacturer: Mysterious Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Screenplays | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Hardcover | Chandler, Raymond | ( C ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
20th Century | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0892961287

Average customer rating:

Competent, but not the best way to enjoy Chandler

The Screenplay of Playback (Chandler's Unknown Thriller) Intro by Robert B. Parker
Raymond Chandler
Manufacturer: Mysterious Press, New York,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVBW48

Customer Reviews:

Competent, but not the best way to enjoy Chandler.......2007-04-05

Well, I'm a fan, and I saw this movie script as a hardback languishing in a second-hand book bin. It's got several of his calling cards: troubled gorgeous female love interest; laconic detective (although this time a cop); a bad guy who isn't all bad. You can see it's written for film: the climax, for example, revolves around a suspenseful air/sea chase that - being that this is merely a script - is entirely left to our imagination.

I think it could have made an OK film, perhaps a good one with the right cast and director. As a read understandably it's in a different league to his dedicated novels. Where he really soars in a novel though is in his descriptions - the way he sets a mood, or describes a character or scene, but for a film this is largely up to the skills of the crew. As a fan I suppose I was disappointed - not because the script was bad, but because that vehicle largely suppresses the distinctive aspects of what I enjoy in reading Chandler.

By the way, one thing that did stand out as a cultural change was the way that pashing a girl without her consent was seen as romantic (as opposed to sexual harassment). Also amusing that some minor characters are denigrated because they only give attention to the heroine because she's a babe, yet the hero's affection is supposed to be authentic and deep the moment he spies her across a crowded room. Movie conventions - there's so little time, what can you do?

Unknown Thriller The Screenplay of Playback

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Unknown Thriller The Screenplay of Playback
Raymond Chandler
Manufacturer: New York: The Mysterious Press, 1985
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Customer Reviews:

Great Look Into the Glory Years of The Playboy Mansion.......2007-01-05

Much like the TV show "Playboy After Dark" this book gives one a real look into the glory days of the Playboy Lifestyle and specifically the Playboy Mansion. Although more of a coffee table book, the pictures and even the plans to the "original" bachelor pad that Hefner planned to build, are also included. The pictures and the memories included in this book are facinating.

A very wierd book.......2002-08-25

Inside the Playboy Mansion starts out really great. Shows the lifestyle most young bachelors want for themselves by showing how Hef entertained at his Chicago mansion in the 60s. Lots of socializing with very important figures of the day plus all the beautiful women these young men would want. As the book progresses throughout the decades(that's how "Inside" is divided), it's starts looking like a very uninspiringly put together society page from a newspaper. Ho-hum pictures with Hefner and celebrities. Don't get me wrong, the book also has some great shots of the most important playmates ever, especially Barbi Benton which was possibly the cutest playmate ever.

However, the thing that bothered me the most about "Inside" was the last part, were Hefner marries Kimberly Conrad and they have two boys. Totally wierd. All the baby & family pictures just didn't fit. I mean, its starts out as this great sexy book and then it turns into a freaking family album, COME ON!

An execellent journey of the famed Playboy Mansion.......2000-08-21

This is such an interesting book both in photographs and the stories behind each of the Chicago and "Hollywood" mansions that Hef has lived in. From the early 1960's where the food and the women were abundant listening to the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and even Frank Sinatra, the Chicago Playboy Mansion was definitely the social scene of the early-mid 1960's and 1970's. Even the Playboy Bunny's had special rooms upstairs in the mansion where they paid rent to live (although very inexpensive rent due to the genorosity of Hef). Now the Playboy Mansion West is the social scene in the 1990's. The heyday's of the 1960's 1970's and 1990's (the 1980s were a down period for the mansion, also Hef was married to Kimberly Conrad so the 1980's were a quiet time at the Mansion) are shown in excellent photographic detail, and yes Hef rightly so, is the spotlight and focus of this book since he is the creator not only of Playboy Magazine but also the Playboy lifestyle.

From Chicago Hef moved to California and started the Playboy Mansion West (still the place to go for Hollywood's elite) and every Playboy fans fantasy is to visit the mansion and meet Hef himself. From the Grotto to the movie room each room gives a glimpse of what a tour would be like and what it would also be like to live there. The party's, the movie nights, and even the petting zoo are shown. This book is a result of many fans of Hef and Playboy asking him what his everyday life is like behind the scene's at the mansion.

I congratulate Hugh M. Hefner for starting the vision of Playboy, which not only showcases beautiful women from around the world, but also gives them the opportunity to take that experience and make it an opportunity. Alot of feminists and people may not agree with Hef's philosophy and lifestyle, but that is what makes Playboy great. The Playboy forum and letter's to the editor gives people and readers of Playboy Magazine a chance to voice their opinion if to agree or disagree, Hef believes in the right for people to make their own choice and express it. That is one of the purposes of Playboy, the freedom to express yourself, as long as it does not hurt or damage others.

Thank you Hef for allowing your fans to appreciate the scenes of the Playboy Mansion and what has happened there over the years, (what I wouldnt give to go to a Midsummer's Night Dream Party or to Hefs movie nights!) This is a great book to all fans of Playboy and the immortal Hugh M. Hefner.

Figures of 20th century: Hugh Hefner.......2000-04-28

Truely one of the great masterworks of the late 20th century. In years to come will be an essential classic for the whole family. Many interesting pictures.

How Much "Hef" Can You Take?.......1999-02-03

This big, candy-colored book suffers from so much merciless knee-bending to the great lord of the manor--Hef, Hef, Hef--as if he were some sort of god. (And you just thought he published dirty books.) Indeed, you begin to think the main activity at the mansions must have been butt-kissing. This book was penned by longtime Playboy staffer Gretchen Edgren, with Playboy's full cooperation, so don't expect any details on the very real toll this silly, hedonistic life ultimately had on some of the participants. What's most amusing is that Hugh Hefner seems the anomaly in his own surroundings, a small, unglamorous, goofy looking guy surrounded by A-list celebrities and tantalizing vixens. He seems plucked out of a James Thurber short story, a Walter Mitty, transported from his accounting cubicle to a life of carnal overkill. One outtake photo included actually shows Hefner's large , exposed behind in the famed grotto. Also, interestingly, is a very unflattering photo of Kimberley Hefner, the Playmate For A Lifetime, who is now estranged from her husband. A most rosy postcard from Chicago and Holmby Hills.

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Monsters, few Aliens

Xenoforms (A Dark Matter(tm) Accessory)
J. D. Wiker
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Role Playing & Fantasy | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Arms & Equipment Guide (Alternity Sci-Fi Roleplaying, Dark Matter Setting)

Dark Matter (Alternity Sci-Fi Roleplaying, Dark Matter Setting, Modern)

ASIN: 0786916486
Release Date: 2000-10-01

Customer Reviews:

Monsters, few Aliens.......2001-01-08

In all, Xenoforms, is a good book for those running a Dark Matter campaign. It holds a wide assortment of paranormal monsters with detailed descriptions and even suggested plot hooks.

Primarily I would say it holds "monsters" including demons, werewolves, frogmen and the like, but it also has some excellent sections on extradimensional and extraphysical xenoforms that can add a lot into a very modern, computerized world as well.

My only real complaint is the lack of truly "alien" creatures, but this need not be a large part of a Dark Matter campaign.

Only if you are looking to add in significant extraterestrial creatures would I advise against buying this book. Otherwise, I think it's a good buy.

Book Description

Contact management software (CRM) like ACT! are extremely valuable tools that can save you time and money. ACT! is easy to set up and takes little time to create a database, however, it is also a little bit more complex to understand than ordinary software.

ACT! 2006 For Dummies is the friendly new guide to the latest version of ACT! This straightforward, plain-English book shows you the fun and easy way to consolidate, view, and edit all contacts from your company and your life. Providing you with a general overview of ACT! and the basics, you will have the tools you need to:

Add, duplicate, and delete contacts
Remodel and customize lists and tabs
Perform contact searches
Work with ACT! notes and histories
Schedule your activities
Share, design, and merge your reports
Create contact fields
Customize your layout
Maintain and back up databases
Administer your database
Integrate ACT! with Microsoft
Take advantage of exciting opportunities
Work with ACT! Premium on the Web

Packed with both ACT! 2006 and ACT! Premium features for the Web as well as tips for making ACT! work better for you, this is the ultimate reference to cleaning up your ACT and reaching your life and business’ full potential!

Customer Reviews:

A little too basic.......2006-11-03

ACT 2006 is a great book if you are new to ACT and have an IT department to handle the techie stuff.

It's well written. It just didn't go into near enough detail for me.

Book Description

Since the mid-nineteenth century, the U.S. courts have attempted, in a series of landmark cases, to resolve bitter conflicts over an individual's right to bodily autonomy. In this introductory volume, Lynne Curry draws on close readings of U.S. Supreme Court and other twentieth-century legal decisions, supporting case materials, public health records, and legal and medical theories to trace the ways in which the courts' rulings have shaped the development of such controversial issues as mandatory vaccination, abortion and the right to die.

An extensive collection of important documents is provided, along with a glossary of key people, events, and concepts; a chronology; a table of cases cited; an annotated bibliography; and a comprehensive index.

Amazon.com

On the night of December 3, 1984, a cyanide cloud drifted over the streets of Bhopal, India, set loose by a leak in a nearby chemical plant. When the deadly fog lifted untold numbers of the city's residents--perhaps as many as 30,000, by some accounts--lay dead, while half a million others were injured. Dominique Lapierre, a French journalist and longtime champion of India's poor, joins with Spanish writer Javier Moro to recount the terrors of that night, about which the whole truth may never be known. The deaths are but one part of the authors' long, sometimes elaborate tale, which relates how the industrial conglomerate Union Carbide had come to build its vast chemical complex at Bhopal, one meant to be a glory of technology and, ironically, to save thousands of lives brought low by insect-wrought starvation. There are few villains but many heroes in the authors' account, which explores the margins at which good intentions conflict with the profit motive, at which cost-cutting omissions yield horrifically unintended consequences. It all makes for a thoughtful and disturbing book. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

Why did it happen: GREED!.......2004-12-17

Five Past Midnight in Bhopal: The Epic Story of the World's Deadliest Industrial Disaster, Dominique Lapierre and Javier Moro - The gas leak in Bhopal in the winter of 1984 claimed 3,787 lives. That's the official count; unofficial estimates range from 20,000 dead and half a million suffering from the after-effects of inhaling a noxious gas. Why did the tragedy happen? Simple: greed. Union Carbide, in a zeal to supply more pesticide than could be used in the subcontinent, built a plant to produce the pesticide locally. When the Indian droughts and distribution problems conspired to reduce their revenues, UC did what any western corporation does with pride: reduce costs. In this case, costs were reduced by allowing the safety systems of the plant to atrophy. The air-conditioner which should have maintained a regulating temprature was shut down; the flare which would normally have burned off the excess gas was extinguished; the pipes which would have shunted the execss gas to other tanks were left to rust; the employees who should be monitoring the saftey functions of the plant were let go. After all, UC thought, a plant that was not producing any pesticide could not turn into an environment disaster. They were wrong.
Due to a series of unfortunate occurences, gas pressure built up in the tanks causing it to escape, with deadly results. Since UC had not seen fit to provide information on the composition of the gas (Methyl isocynate, or MIC) to the local government, no effective antidote could be used by the hospitals when affected people started to arrive. By the morning of December 3, 1984, thousands were dead.
The name Bhopal is synonymous with the disaster that occurred there 20 years ago. To this date, no criminal proceedings have been held to hold UC responsible (UC was bought out by Dow Chemicals in 2000, and no longer exists as an independent company; Dow absolves all responsibility of the disaster). UC settled with the Indian government on a sum of US $470 million. After 20 years, about US $300 million are still with the Indian government awaiting disbursements to people who are no longer alive, or even if they are alive, are dying a slow and painful death. The Indian government, maybe out of inertia, or maybe out of the mistaken belief that future multi-nationals may not invest in India if UC is charged with criminal neglect, has not done anything to prosecute UC. UC, for its part, blames the accident on a disgruntled employee! The CEO of UC, Warren Anderson, lives in anonymity in the US; he is a wanted person in India. Thousands of lives have been lost and millions affected, all brushed aside by a UC statement that distills these enormous losses to a "per share loss of 0.43 cents!"
This is a great book, written in the same style that Dominique Lapierre uses for "Freedom At Midnight". 2/3 of the book is devoted to glimpses in the lives of the people who were the hardest hit by the gas leak; the remaining 1/3 is devoted to the actual leak. This book should be a must read for all multi-nationals that espouse to exploit the cheap third world labor market. It is a telling fact that when smaller amounts of gas leaks in UC plants occurred in the US, one of the affected women went to college to get a degree in environment issues and armed with it, battled UC in the courts (and prevailed). The affected people in Bhopal did not have such a chance, nor can they even comprehend this as a way of battling corporations. India has a long way to go before it considers itself a first world country. For more information, see Union Carbide's official site on the Bhopal Disaster (http://www.bhopal.com), and a non- government organization site (http://www.bhopal.org), which to me is far more believable than UC's site.

A FASCINATING READ.......2004-07-15

A great and interesting read .. Beautiful coverage and master story telling

Marginal prose reveals powerful, enraging story.......2004-06-14

When a cruise missile destroys a target, there is a certain level of responsibility on Raytheon, the manufacturer. That type of corporate complicity though, is subservient to the lion's share of the blame which would go to the government that uses the cruise missile. In the case of Union Carbide, no such opportunities to share the blame exist. The deaths of up to 30,000 people lie directly at the door of the company as has been made clear in several books, Five Past Midnight in Bhopal being the most recent.

It is unfortunate that the massacre perpetrated in Bhopal is given only a marginal telling here. The story is fairly compelling and it does have a creeping sense of doom as ones reads it. Often times though, the authors drop into cliché and melodrama. Many of the people in the book are revealed as one-dimensional, polarizing the guilty and innocent. If the victims of the crime were thugs of some sort, their characters should remain irrelevant. The same should go for those who are largely decent people, painting them as angelic does nothing to further the quest for justice against Union Carbide (since absorbed by Rhône-Poulenc and Dow Chemical). It's merely an attempt to tug at the heartstrings of the reader, of whom only the most imbecilic or callous would fail to identify with the victim and convict the perpetrator. That is not to say that the authors should not have tried to give the victims names and personalities, only that the way it is done here is often times unbearable. When it does come through though, it's effective. Drawing a depth of character that allows the reader to focus on what exactly the cost is going to be to these people, one can feel a bit of personal loss with the victims. The other main flaw that comes to mind is one that might have been identified by one of the blurbs on the back cover. In the book A Perfect Storm, Sebastian Junger gives thoughts, actions and motives (even dialogue) to people after all communication from them had been cut off. This was done despite the fact there is absolutely zero reason to think that any of it happened or that the characters were even alive at that point. Passing such tripe off as nonfiction is repulsive. When there is some evidence that might help recreate the last moments of people, as in Bhopal where the bodies of the killed were available at the time, there can be a limited amount of reasonable supposition. In the case of Five Past Midnight in Bhopal, this reviewer thinks the authors stretched a bit beyond reasonable credulity. Nevertheless, when all is said and done, the authors have recounted a piece of history and found to put the blame where most others have as well. Perhaps the melodrama and angel-raising could have been cut a bit to provide a better glimpse about the struggle for justice in the time since the mass-killing but that decision belongs to the authors, not to me.

Reliable estimates put the total number of fatalities from the gassing of Bhopal higher than the number of Kurds gassed at Halabja by Saddam Hussein in one of his more famous crimes. The mens rea is clear for both crimes, one through direct malice, and one through reckless behavior that reasonable people could expect to lead to death. This is well established using Union Carbide's own materials. The safety reports convict the company on their own yet, justice is conspicuously absent to the people of Bhopal, with the complicity of the American government and the offensive lack or personal responsibility on the part of the Warren Anderson and the others chiefs of Union Carbide. Five Past Midnight in Bhopal gives a good account of the events and the behavior that lead up to the worst industrial catastrophe in history, it unfortunately does so with marginal storytelling ability and prose.

So We Never Forget.......2003-03-03

Rarely I start a book and can not put it down until the very last page. Being a avid reader of various topics for many years, Five Past Midnight at Bhopal was one such book, that made me stay till two in the morning, unable to put it down.
I faintly remember the incident at Bhopal, having been fairly young at the time to take in all the details, or appreciate the human tragedy that has occured, so I did not hesitate to buy this book as soon as it was published, being previously unfamilair with the works of Lapierre and Moro.
What makes this book so powerful is its unflinching humanity. Some of the thousands of victims that died that night, suddenly were alive with a history, and the authors with obvious sympathy, transform wretched, destitute, outcast people into heroes..their lives, joys, aspirations, optimism in the face of impossible odds is a wonderful triumph of the human spirit, regardless of how many gods it worships.
The moment when one of these people gets the first TV set, to the amazement of all the slum dwellers, is very touching and powerful..When the wedding preparations are made, and the joy of the parents borrowing money from a usurer to make it the most beautiful day of their daughter's life, is full of dignity..In short, the authors succeed on one level, to pay hommage to people that are forgotten in their own country and certainly in the world.
Yet the whole book is about the tragedy of the factory, and although I believe that the incident was partly caused by the cost cutting of Union Carbide,partly because of the inefficiency, and lack of training of the employees..(I did not join the authors in their apparent anti globalization undertones), the effect and devastation was mind boggling.
Yet why this book works beautifully, is simply because the authors have presented us with the lives of many characters, and when the tragedy strikes, we care enough about these people to turn every page in anticipation to know their fate.
It also reads like a thriller, escalating tension up until the fateful moment..
I did not finish the book accusing anyone, it is a tragic accident, rather I had a great feeling about how great the human spirit can be, the notion of selfless sacrifice coming alive.
If anything, I think the proceeds of this book will help some of the victims, which will make it an essential buy.

great book.......2003-01-14

Reading this book on a plane back from India, I admired the way the author was able to blend in the texture of the city and all the different forces at work: from people struggling for their daily existence to the enthusiastic engineers who built the plant .

From cursory knowledge of the incident, I always thought that Union Carbide skimped when building the plant--not installing adequate safety measures, etc. I also had read carbide literature which blames the accident on sabotage, tea breaks, and other nonsense.

Lapierre gives a balanced view and shows how the plant, which was initially closely monitored, was allowed to deteriorate in order to save costs.

What makes the book worth reading is the people--especially the heroism of people during the night of the tragedy, amazing. Definitely worth reading.

Average customer rating:
Five Past Midnight In Bhopal - The Epic Story Of The World's Deadliest Industrial Disaster
Dominique; Moro, Javier; Translated from the French by Spink, Kathryn Lapierre
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IX2SSQ

Average customer rating:
Five past Midnight in Bhopal. (Reviews).(Book Review): An article from: OnEarth
William K. Tabb
Manufacturer: Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008FKEYE
Release Date: 2005-07-30

Book Description

This digital document is an article from OnEarth, published by Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. on September 22, 2002. The length of the article is 1609 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Five past Midnight in Bhopal. (Reviews).(Book Review)
Author: William K. Tabb
Publication: OnEarth (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2002
Publisher: Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
Volume: 24 Issue: 3 Page: 37(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Back in the good 'ol days...

On the Outside Looking In.

Inaccurate, unengaging, and wildly libelous

Excellent history lesson...

True entertainment

CYBERPUNK: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier, Revised
Katie Hafner
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Hacking | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
Security | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Reference | Subjects | Books
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The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick

ASIN: 0684818620

Amazon.com

A classic look into cracker subculture, Cyberpunk tells the stories of notorious hackers Kevin Mitnick, Robert T. Morris, and the Chaos Computer Club. Like Where Wizards Stay Up Late, the book Hafner co-wrote on the origins of the Internet, Cyberpunk is informative, well-written, and entertaining. The story of Morris, who became infamous for unleashing a crippling worm that brought the Internet to a grinding standstill, is still as relevant and ominous today as it was at the time. The space devoted to Mitnick is a must-read companion to either Takedown or The Fugitive Game. Many of the stories surrounding the Dark Side Hacker, such as the story of his Norad break-in, are called into question in Cyberpunk, making this book a good launching pad for many different accounts of the Mitnick legend. The portrait of the two members of the Chaos Computer Club is a memorable look into the minds of the younger generation of computer hackers. Before you check out any book of this genre, read Cyberpunk.

Book Description

Using the exploits of three international hackers, Cyberpunk provides a fascinating tour of a bizarre subculture populated by outlaws who penetrate even the most sensitive computer networks and wreak havoc on the information they find -- everything from bank accounts to military secrets. In a book filled with as much adventure as any Ludlum novel, the authors show what motivates these young hackers to access systems, how they learn to break in, and how little can be done to stop them.

Customer Reviews:

Back in the good 'ol days..........2005-12-23

I have read this book a number of times over the years (I picked it up when it first came out) and have always enjoyed reading it. Even though it does only scratch the surface of the hacker culture, it's definitely an entertaining read. I know that I've heard that many of the things that were written in here (especially about Kevin Mitnick) have been termed libelous and untrue by some people. I can't vouch for what's fact and what's not in this book. I can only say that it does give a good idea what hacking was like in the good 'ol days.
If you like this book, you might want to try Steven Levy's book "Hackers", which really (I think) gives you a better understanding of the spirit of most hackers, and covers the history of hacking from the early days of MIT, up until now. Cyberpunk doesn't, but it's still definitely worth reading if you enjoy a good story.

On the Outside Looking In........2003-01-14

Although Markoff is an exceptional writer and the book is both easy to read and entertaining, the content is presented as factual when the truth is that these guys definitely wrote the book with only part of the whole story at their disposal. One of the main "cyberpunks" depicted in the book is Kevin Mitnick, who claims that he has never even met John Markoff. How can the book fairly and accurately speak to the topic of hacking during the early days of the Internet revolution when they never did any investigations with real "hackers"? The story is told only from a law enforcement point-of-view. I am sure that the Rodney King story is told differently by King than the LAPD. Same goes for this case.

Like many works today that seem to be written for financial reasons, it seems very one-sided and sensational.

Inaccurate, unengaging, and wildly libelous.......2002-07-07

First off, John Markoff does NOT tell an unbiased story, especially regarding the Mitnick case. Kevin Mitnick, preferring to keep a low profile, has not promoted his own story, and as a result he has had his name slandered by mediawhores like Markoff. Markoff traveled extensively with Tsutomu Shimomura, the security expert who eventually (and with much government aid) apprehended Mitnick. It is quite clear whose side he is on as he repeatedly demonizes Mitnick as a fat, malicious, juvenile person with no self-control and no respect for anyone else. This typecasting is quite understandable though, once you know that Markoff has a share in the Miramax movie Takedown that details Mitnick's capture. Nobody wants to see such unfair treatment happen to a real, sympathetic person. (Takedown, incidentally, is more slanderous than Cyberpunk and from which the real Kevin Mitnick, whom it is based on, is not getting a dime).

But apart from my distaste for Markoff, this book still failed to be a interesting read. I enjoy reading about the early history of hacking, etc, so I bought it with high hopes. The only reason I didn't put it down was because it was my only reading material on a six hour bus trip. The Internet revolution was fascinating and the people involved in it were interesting, dynamic people. But to hear Markoff tell it, everyone was petty, whining, insecure, and one-dimensional, with no other motivation than to cause trouble for others. He hasn't got a gift for writing novels with well-rounded and interesting characters that the reader can actually sympathize with and care about.

Excellent history lesson..........2002-04-25

The tales in this book are old ones now. Mitnick's escapades continued on to more infamous heights than this book, as the new epilogue explains. Having grown up working with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) computers, the descriptions of Mitnick's hacking on PDP-11 and VAX systems was like a dark-side of my high school days. Having worked at Radio Shack just after graduating college, I knew a lot of "phreakers" who worshipped the people mentioned in the book.

I teach classes for computer professionals in UNIX. One of the courses is a 2-day class in unix security, and the "Morris worm" is one of the case studies we discuss. We don't go into too much detail in the class on the subject, and I usually recommend this book for those who want to go further.

The other reason I recommend this book to students in my class is the story (in Kevin's section) of Susan Thunder. The concept of "social engineering" is one that transcends computer model, operating system version, etc. Many computer types just don't understand it, in the same way they don't understand office politics. If you fall into this category, or if you have an interest in the social side of hacking/cracking/phreaking, Hafner and Markoff do an excellent job of presenting these concepts.

True entertainment.......2002-02-07

I bought this book because I was interested in human aspects of these stories (RTM especially), more than the technical side. I found it very satisfying, and more. I could have not imagined it is so detailed and even ... entertaining.

Reading this book I've felt again that nice atmosphere I first met while reading the superlative Cliff Stoll's "The Cuckoo's Egg". Indeed, those of you who have luckily read it too, will find Stoll himself here in an important role in the chapter about RTM...

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