Programming Amazon Web Services

Colophon

The animal on the cover of Programming Amazon Web Services: S3, EC2, SQS, FPS, and SimpleDB is an Atlantic wreckfish (Polyprion americanus). The wreckfish is a deep-water fish that dwells near the bottom of the ocean, where it lives a solitary life in caves and shipwrecks (hence, its common name).

So solitary is the wreckfish that it does not guard its eggs or young. Instead, it spends its time feeding on cephalopods, crustaceans, and other fish it finds near its habitat.

In restaurants and at seafood counters, many people know the wreckfish by another name—the sea bass—although it is just one of several types of fish sold under this name. Catching the wreckfish became popular in the mid-1980s, after fishers discovered a heavy population of wreckfish off the coast of South Carolina.

The fish soon proved to be too popular, however, as in the 1990s, its population declined. Today, deep-sea fisheries manage the population and distribution of the wreckfish so that its numbers remain stable and local habitat remains unharmed.

The cover image is from Wood’s Reptiles, Fishes, Insects, &c. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka, the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed, and the code font is LucasFont’s TheSans Mono Condensed.