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 featured on the cover of !%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing & Networks is the hare. A small grazing mammal, hares are generally larger than rabbits, have longer ears, softer fur, and longer, more powerful hindlegs. When chased, hares rely on speed and sudden changes in direction (called "jinking") to elude pursuers. Wide-set eyes give them a wide angle of vision. Primarily nocturnal, they can scent enemies, thump the ground with a hindleg when alarmed, and, in turn, sense the nearby thumping of other startled hares.

Hares occupy open country, and are mainly solitary except during breeding season. The pre-mating antics of the males include bucking, bounding, kicking, and standing on hindlegs to box with one another; thus the saying, "Mad as a March hare." These boisterous exercises can sometimes include a dozen or more participants. The hare's acknowledged reproductive prowess helps compensate for its high rate of predation. UNIX and its attendant programs can be unruly beasts. Nutshell Handbooks help you tame them.

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Edie Freedman designed this cover and the entire UNIX bestiary that appears on other Nutshell Handbooks. The beasts themselves are adapted from 19th-century engravings from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover layout was produced with Quark XPress 3.1 using the ITC Garamond font.

The inside layout was designed by Edie Freedman and was formatted in sqtroff by Lenny Muellner using the ITC Garamond font family. The colophon was written by Michael Kalantarian.