This
month I look at the dangers of trusting information
on the Web, a guidebook to troubleshoot your
PC problems, secrets of non-super searchers,
and the latest Internet communications mechanism—blogging.
edited by Anne P. Mintz
ISBN: 0-910965-60-9
Published: 2002
Pages: 275 pp.; softcover
Price: $24.95
Available from: CyberAge
Books, Information Today, Inc., 143 Old Marlton
Pike, Medford, NJ 08055-8750;
609/654-6266; www.infotoday.com
Sometimes it seems there is more misinformation
than reliable information available over
the Internet, and the process of determining
the validity of found data takes longer than
the search itself. This book, edited by Forbes'
Anne Mintz, helps by providing examples of
different types of misinformation, most of
it intentional, and then also providing resources
to determine validity or to follow up on
a particular type of question.
Each of the 11 chapters is written by a
different information industry expert, including
such luminaries as Paul Piper on Web hoaxes,
Susan Detwiler on medical misinformation,
Helene Kassler on corporate misinformation,
Stephen Arnold on privacy, Carol Ebbinghouse
on charity scams and on legal information,
LaJean Humphries on Web site evaluation,
Susan Feldman on Web search engine biases,
and Liz Liddy on how search engines work.
Thus, the quality and style of the writing
varies a bit, but most of the chapters are
very good.
I particularly like the fact that after
giving examples of the problems of misinformation
in each chapter, the authors then devote
a significant portion of the text to resources
for validation, countermeasures, and further
action. Although many of the examples should
be obvious (although they wouldn't be a problem
if they were obvious to everyone), there
are several tales of misinformation that
come very close to being true, and therefore
prove much harder to identify as false.
Most of the authors include URLs within
the chapter and have references listed at
the end of their chapter, with selected resources
listed by chapter in the Webliography at
the end of the book. The Webliography is
a good idea, as the chapters cannot provide
all the details you need if you are following
up on a problem. However, it is not clear
how resources were selected for the Webliography,
and those resources included are not necessarily
the most helpful for a given chapter. For
instance, under medical misinformation, HotBot,
Google, and AltaVista are listed. Also, there
is no mention of an online listing of resources.
Overall, this book does a good job of presenting
the breadth and variety of misinformation
that abounds on the Net. If everyone would
read it, perhaps there would be less of a
problem.
PC Help Desk in a Book:
The Do-It-Yourself Guide to PC Troubleshooting
and Repair
by Mark Edward Soper
ISBN: 0-7897-2756-0
Published: 2003
Pages: 555 pp.; softcover
Price: $29.99
Available from: QUE,
201 West 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290;
317/581-3500; www.quepublishing.com
Who hasn't been totally frustrated by a
computer or program that refuses to function
as expected? Even if you have a technical
support department, chances are, they are
a resource of last resort. No matter what
your situation, this book will help you to
become more familiar with your PC, while
making diagnosing and fixing the problems
easier. Its author, Mark Edward Soper, is
president of Select Systems and Associates,
Inc., a technical writing and training organization,
an A+ Certified hardware technician, a Microsoft
Certified Professional, and the author of
several books and numerous technical periodical
articles.
I won't pretend that all sections of this
book are easy to understand, but as these
kinds of books go, this is better than most.
I particularly like the fact that the focus
is troubleshooting—helping you to identify
what is causing the problem, rather than
just providing explanations of PC components.
In fact, the first 80 pages of the book are
charts and flowcharts to help you diagnose
your problem and refer you to the corresponding
pages in the book that address potential
solutions.
The book is divided into 11 different sections,
covering Windows installations, Internet
connections, storage devices, input devices,
printers, multimedia, network connections,
memory problems, processors, power supplies,
and software applications. Each section easily
stands alone, so you only have to read the
pages pertaining to your particular problem,
although there are plenty of cross-references
in case you need more details about other
components. There is an appendix on the philosophy
and basic procedures for troubleshooting,
which will definitely help you in isolating
a problem.
Even if you still want to rely on your
tech support people, I recommend that you
buy and use this book. You will make their
job easier by learning what symptoms to report
and maybe even by fixing some of the easier
things yourself.
by Loraine Page, edited
by Reva Basch
ISBN: 0-910965-58-7
Published: 2002
Pages: 216 pp.; softcover
Price: $24.95
Available from:
CyberAge Books, Information Today, Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford,
NJ 08055-8750; 609/654-6266; www.infotoday.com
This ninth book in the Super Searcher series
is a little different—most of the contributors
are not actually super searchers in the traditional
sense. They are writers and may, indeed,
be more skilled at searching than their colleagues,
but probably less so than most information
professionals. However, this gives a unique
perspective to the series—almost like
talking to end-users!
An eclectic bunch of 14 writers was interviewed
for this book by Link-Up editor Loraine
Page, covering such areas as screen and script
writing, crime novels, science and technology
news, general non-fiction, religion and social
issues, romance, and poetry. What links these
disparate fields together is a universal
need for background information. All of the
authors used the Internet and e-mail, but
in varying degrees. And not a one felt that
the Internet could completely replace traditional
online and print resources.
The sources cited are all listed in the
appendix and are also available on the super
searchers Web site [www.infotoday.com/supersearchers/ssas.htm].
These range from online reference works such
as dictionaries and encyclopedias to online
discussion lists to writers' forums to business
and news sources, to trivia and fact-verification
sites. Interestingly, Google was not the
only search engine mentioned. It seems each
author has their favorite one or two engines,
with little overlap in the preferences.
There are many interesting Internet resources
mentioned in this book. My favorites are
the Rectal Foreign Bodies Web site and the
cliché finding sites, but there are
many more serious sites as well. Although
many will be familiar to any informational
professional, there will always be at least
a few new ones. However, I think the most
useful aspect of this book is the opportunity
to get into the mind of a different kind
of searcher.
Essential Blogging
by Cory Doctorow, Rael
Dornfest, J. Scott Johnson, Shelley Powers,
Benjamin Trott, and Mena G. Trott
ISBN: 0-596-00388-9
Published: 2002
Pages: 244 pp.; softcover
Price: $29.95
Available from: O'Reilly & Associates,
Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North,
Sebastopol, CA 95472; 800/998-9938;
www.oreilly.com
In the information industry, everyone eventually
becomes an aggregator, and blogging is an
easy way for librarians to jump on the aggregation
bandwagon. In case you aren't familiar with
blogging, the term comes from Weblog, and
is a process of communicating with short
posts on any type of topics, usually in reverse
chronological order. Examples include news
headlines with personal commentary attached
or simply posts of new Web sites of interest
with descriptions. According to this book,
there are hundreds of thousands of blogs
available, along with several varieties of
software packages to help you automate and
simplify the process.
This book is designed for anyone who wants
to get started in blogging. After a short
introduction, the authors focus on software
and services to get you up and blogging in
no time. Blogs are hosted on a Web server.
You can choose to edit your blog in real
time through software provided by the hosting
service, or via a desktop client, and then
upload the files when ready. The authors
do a good job of explaining the benefits
and disadvantages of each and provide descriptions
of a number of freeware or shareware desktop
clients and hosting services.
Most of the book focuses on demonstrating
the use of the different blogging systems.
You learn the basics early on. Each subsequent
chapter introduces a more sophisticated system.
You can easily choose the one that matches
your comfort level, download the software
or connect to the host, and follow the detailed
instructions and screen shots to get your
first blog up in minutes.
The last chapter provides words of advice
from a wide variety of experienced bloggers.
These are fun to read, as well as informative.
If there is any topic about which you want
to share you perceptions and wisdom with
the world, start a blog. Just remember that
it may be addictive. |
