Colophon

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 image on the cover of Security Warrior is a group of Sumo wrestlers. Sumo is the traditional national sport of Japan. An origin myth about Japan tells how the god Take-Mikazuchi won dominion over the Japanese islands in a Sumo match. Since then, Sumo wrestling has been an integral part of ancient religious ceremonies and was an important entertainment for the Imperial Court in the 1600s, when it became a professional sport. Sumo is one of the oldest martial arts; Judo and Jujitsu derive throws and techniques from Sumo wrestling. It continues to gain international popularity.

Before a match, the athletes march in procession around the ring wearing heavy ceremonial skirts embroidered with their symbols. Their hair is traditionally worn in a topknot (theoretically to protect their heads in a fall). Salt and sake is placed at the center of the ring to purify it, and the match is blessed by a priest. The contest pits two fighters, clad in thick silk belts, against each other in a ring ( dohyo ). Their object is to force an opponent out of the ring, or force him to touch the ground with any part of his body (the soles of the feet don't count). As with any challenging sport, Sumo wrestling involves strict focus and mental toughness. The competitors begin bouts by trying to intimidate their opponents: stomping their feet and staring each other down. Then they use different body throws, shoving, slapping, and tripping to push their opponent off-balance . Hair-pulling, punching , kicking, and gouging are not allowed. The bouts are brief and intense , often no more than a few seconds. It's unusual for a bout to last two or three minutes.

There are six Grand Sumo tournaments ( basho ) a year. The athletes, who live and train together, are ranked by merit: winners gain acclaim and financial rewards, and losers drop in rank. The pinnacle of Sumo wrestling is the Grand Champion, or Yokozuna . Once a wrestler reaches this rank, it cannot be taken away.

Colleen Gorman was the production editor and copyeditor for Security Warrior . Rachel Wheeler was the proofreader. Mary Brady, Jamie Peppard, and Mary Agner provided production support. Emily Quill and Sarah Sherman provided quality control. John Bickelhaupt wrote the index.

Emma Colby designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Men Pictorial Archive. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Julie Hawks to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was written by Colleen Gorman.

The online edition of this book was created by the Safari production group (John Chodacki, Becki Maisch, and Madeleine Newell) using a set of Frame-to-XML conversion and cleanup tools written and maintained by Erik Ray, Benn Salter, John Chodacki, and Jeff Liggett.