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 appearing on the cover of Windows NT Event Logging is a North American beaver (Castor canadensis), a large, nocturnal, primarily aquatic rodent found throughout most of North America, excluding the southernmost areas. Beavers grow up to 35-40 inches in length and weigh from 30-60 pounds. Like all rodents, beavers' teeth grow continually, so they must be trimmed by gnawing on bark, wood, or other material. Their diet consists of wood, bark, buds, roots, and underwater vegetation; beavers, unlike mammals, have the ability to digest cellulose. Both sexes have waterproof, dark brown fur, webbed hind feet, and a scaly, horizontally flat, broad tail; it is difficult to distinguish between males and females. They can remain submerged for minutes at a time.

Beavers mature sexually at around 2-3 years old; they form monogamous pairs, and, after a gestation period of about three months, produce fully furred, toothed, and open-eyed young (known as kits) in litters of around four. The offspring stay with their parents for one or two years, frequently assisting with successive litters as well as the usual food gathering, and then form their own families. Their lifespan ranges from 10-20 years. Beavers are territorial and attempt to scare off perceived threats with loud slaps of their broad tails on the surface of the water.

Emerging at dusk, beavers build highly complex and intelligently engineered dams to block the flow of water in the streams and rivers in which they live. They live in colonies of up to eight beavers in large, warm lodges made of sticks, mud, and rocks, with underwater entrances. Beavers travel great distances for food, if necessary, and will also build intricate canal systems in order to float food back to their lodge. In the winter, they mostly stay in or near the lodge, under the ice, having stockpiled food and body fat in advance.

Their effect on the environment is both positive and negative; while their lumberjack activities create habitats for many other animals and plant life, they also tend to destroy one pond or former stream and then, as it fills up with silt, move on to another. Once endangered by overzealous trapping, beavers are now widespread and common in many areas. Their greatest threat today is the expansion of human civilization and habitat destruction. Jane Ellin was the production editor of Windows NT Event Logging. Ellie Maden was the copyeditor; Seth Maislin wrote the index; Sheryl Avruch, Claire Cloutier LeBlanc, and Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary provided quality control; and Sebastian Banker, Kimo Carter, and Trisha Manoni provided production support.

Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book, using an original illustration purchased in Paris from a kiosk on the Seine in the Fall of 1997 (illustrator unknown); Hanna Dyer designed the CD label. The cover layout was produced with QuarkXPress 3.32 using the ITC Garamond font. Whenever possible, our books use either RepKover(TM), a durable and flexible lay-flat binding, or Otabind(TM). If the page count exceeds the maximum bulk possible for this type of binding, perfect binding is used.

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 Adobe Photoshop 4 by Robert Romano. This colophon was written by Nancy Kotary.