135 - Colophon

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	Oracle Security By William Heney, Marlene Theriault
	Table of Contents

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Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.

The animal on the cover of Oracle Security is a tarantula, one of a family ( Theraphosidae ) of hairy spiders, which includes many species-over 30 known species (such as the trap-door spider) are found in the United States alone (mostly in the South and Southwest). Tarantulas are more common in tropical or subtropical areas; they generally live in holes in the ground or under stones, but are occasionally found in human dwellings, under leaves , or in trees. Species vary in size and appearance, with the largest having a leg span of about nine inches. Most species eat large insects such as beetles, but some prey on small reptiles . Some tarantulas live up to 20 years ; females live much longer than males. The tarantula can also survive for very long periods without food or water.

The tarantula's vicious, deadly reputation is undeserved ; the bite of most species, while about as painful as a bee sting, contains venom that is relatively harmless to humans . Tarantulas are actually shy and nocturnal: they rarely bite people. Another defense is to use one of their four sets of legs to fling hairs from the abdomen at perceived threats. Tarantulas often appear sluggish , but can move quickly when necessary.

Tarantulas molt their skins several times a year until they reach maturity at about three years of age; after this time, they molt about twice a year. The molting process frequently restores lost limbs . The legs of the tarantula each end in two claws, used to climb walls and rocks; the legs rely on blood pressure to function.

Various tarantula species are kept by many people as pets. The name is thought to have come from the Italian town Taranto. Popular wisdom held that the only cure for tarantula bites (tarantism) was a folk dance called the tarantella .

Ellie Fountain Maden was the production editor for Oracle Security and performed the copyedit. Seth Maislin wrote the index. Ellie Cutler proofread the book, and Sheryl Avruch, John Files, and Claire Cloutier LeBlanc performed quality checks.

Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book, using a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover layout was produced with Quark XPress 3.32 using the ITC Garamond font.

The inside layout was designed by Nancy Priest and implemented in FrameMaker 5.5 by Mike Sierra. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book. The illustrations that appear in the book were created in Macromedia FreeHand 8 and Adobe Photoshop 5 by Robert Romano. This colophon was written by Nancy Kotary.

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