Internet & World Wide Web
The Rough Guide, Angus
J. Kennedy, Rough Guides,
£5 sterling.
FOR those who think the Rough Guide TV series would have been better named the "glib guide" this book is a pleasant surprise. Its pocket size (smaller than a Sportster modem) makes it look puny next to the hefty volumes, used for most Net guides, but it packs in a surprising amount.
It comes in two parts a readable but bare bones account of the basics (connecting a modem, getting an account, what the Internet is) and secondly a listing of sites, services and software which takes up over half the book. It's arguable that no site listing on paper is worth the proverbial paper - being out of date before it has been published. But this one is wide ranging enough to offer at least one or two ideas to any hardened surfer.
Reviews of particular sites are lighthearted, sometimes flippant, and make a useful antidote to the portentousness of some information about the global information wotsit. The illustrations are basic to the point where they are recognisable to those who have seen them before but cannot convey much to a newcomer.
Far from being the last word (the listing of British/Irish access providers misses most of the Irish ones, for example) this is still a decent introductory book and good value for money.
The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog for Windows 95, Ed Krol & Paula Ferguson, O'Reilly & Associates, £18.50 sterling.
KROL'S original 1992 WIUGC (Whole Internet ... etc) won a loyal following as the first comprehensive account of what it was all about as well as giving detailed information on getting the best out of the Net. Its main drawback was a strong bias towards the Unix based systems through which many users got access at the time.
This new edition corrects that problem - but with the danger of creating another, a fixation on Windows 95 and its Internet access tools. By definition, users shouldn't need a button by button explanation of a Windows program - the help files should take care of that. The reader is urged to try out alternatives to Microsoft's Net access programs, but there are regular references back to Win 95.
These are only irritations, however, in an excellent book. The writing is lively and doesn't fall into the tedium of many books aimed at beginners. ("I am going to hammer this information into your head fact by fact like so many nails.") Its explanations are models of clarity, but don't skimp on the complexities and details either. The coverage of Internet facilities is comprehensive.
It can be strongly recommended for Net newbies, but those who go on to become experienced (or even expert) users will still find themselves going back to it regularly. If you buy only one Internet book this is the one.
Internet Made Easy, Roelf Sluman, International Thornson, £16.95 sterling.
THE subtitle gives this book's greatest strength (and weakness): "A guide to the Internet for CompuServe members". For years CompuServe operated as an online gentlemen's club - more private, secure and regulated than the rough and tumble Internet - and smug with it.
Eventually, user demand forced it to open up gateways to the Internet: first for e mail, then for newsgroups, then for full access to the World Wide Web. Only in the last few months has it allowed users to set up their own Web pages and to get more person friendly usernames than the traditional "12345.678" subscriber number.
There have been growing pains, including the German censorship case (Computimes last week) and the fact that the Compuserve client software CIM, can access only some Internet services. Using the Web requires separate dialler and client programs supplied free by CompuServe.
Sluman's book aims to make up for another of the problems: poor information from CompuServe on the new facilities. This it does quite well, explaining the different types of connection to CompuServe and how they interact. Its main problem is that in trying to cover too much explanations of some of the broader topics become perfunctory. The included disks contain CompuServe access software.
Internet FAQs, Margaret
Levine Young & John R.
Levine, IDG Books, £18.99 sterling.
WHAT the FAQ is an FAQ?
"Frequently asked questions" files contain answers to the most common questions on a subject area. They are widely used on the Net to stop the 10,001st entrant to a discussion asking the same questions as the previous 10,000. Is this a good way to do a book?
Only if you can find the questions you want answered and the answers are good.
Can I and are they?
Probably and yes, they are.
What sort of questions are covered?
Everything from the general ("Who owns the Internet?") to the very mundane (how to unencode a file in Win Code click by click). There is a lot of information here, the only problem is finding it.
Is this very difficult?
Not really. The index is good, and failing this you can read the chapter relating to your question. ,Starting at the beginning and wading through the book to the end, however, is hard going. It's much more reference than reading material.
The Official PGP User's Guide, Philip R. Zimmermann, MIT Press, £13.50 sterling.
THE freeware program Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is seen as the best encryption system the individual who wants to safeguard the secrecy and integrity of information sent over public networks like the Internet. Among those who think highly of it are the US Customs, who spend two years trying to indict Zimmermann, who wrote the program, on a charge of exporting munitions without a licence. (Yes, strong encryption is a "munition" to the Customs.)
Despite the export ban, PGP is available all over the world for all sorts of computers and has become a de facto standard. This book explains clearly what public key encryption is, how it works and what the political and social issues surrounding encryption are. It also, of course, gives examples of the commands, like how to sign a message with your private key and encrypt it with the recipient's public key and save it as ASCII text for transmission by e mail.
The information, right down to the laconic style, is largely the same as the excellent online manual distributed (free) with the PGP program. So why buy the book? Either you want a squeezed tree copy to read in bed. Or you don't have the program but want to read up on the encryption issue. Or you want to send some royalties the way of Zimmermann, who has gained no money and lots of grief from a program that he wrote for the rest of us to use.
Memovoc 2 for the Psion3a (share ware, £10).
AS the handheld computer market becomes more competitive and crowded one strong advantage of the Psion Series 3 is the number of programs available for it. Commercial and shareware, they range from bar code reading to pilot's logbooks to yacht navigation.
Among them is one written by Dubliner David Joyce which draws on another of the Psion's competitive advantages - digital sound recording. The Psion has a built in microphone and speaker, but the supplied sound software makes it so awkward to record and play back sounds that few people would use it regularly.
Memovoc-2 overcomes this with a neat, logical way to record and play back voice memos. When you're in too much of a hurry to tap out a note on the tiny keyboard you can speak a memo into the Psion then sort, rename and organise the voice memos later. Alarms can also be set for memos. One very clever feature allows for voice activated, hands free recording. With this enabled the computer can be closed and left waiting for a loud, sustained sound to trigger recording.
There are clear menu and help screens which make it easy to use. Overall, it's a well finished program that adds considerably to the usefulness of the Psion.