Non Fiction Book Reviews #59

RULES OF THE NET:

ONLINE OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR HUMAN BEINGS

by Thomas Mandel & Gerard Van der Leun

Welcome to the Internet where you can get information, love, money, or just connected that will make you heart content. Now that you're on the Internet you'll face the real challenge, becoming a part of Net culture and meeting our fellow users face on. Rules of the Net covers the customs, the protocol, and the unwritten laws that make up the Net's social contract. the creation of the Internet was actually an afterthought, it arose form the excess communications capacity in the Department of Defense's DARPA network (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). the military had ARPANET network, and the academic world had BITNET (Because It's Time Network), but with the coming of the World Wide Web all changed. Today it is estimated that between 35 million and 45 million people worldwide have access to the Net. The Net is awash with information and is becoming an extremely large public library, post office, and discussion forum, which has made governments and big businesses very upset! The best way to learn about the Net is to study books about the Net, both fiction and non-fiction, authors such as William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Vernor Vinge, Bruce Sterling, Steve Levy, and Clifford Stoll. Remember that it is always rush hour somewhere on the Net, all networks go down one time or another, don't be upset if you don't get an immediate response to your e-mail because others have a life even if you don't, and nothing on the Net is ever really private. Do throw away the manuals, since the manuals are written in an language no one knows, the best way to learn is by doing. One important lesson is: "Save early, save often." Don't flame in you don't want to be flamed and treat others like you would want to be treated. Learn the etiquette of e-mail and so much more that will make the Net more understandable.

THE EMPEROR'S VIRTUAL CLOTHES:

THE NAKED TRUTH ABOUT INTERNET CULTURE

by Dinty W. Moore

It is the "next big thing" and it is happening today. So are you wired? Are you plugged in? Do you have an e-mail address? Must you be? Should you want to be? Are you willing to be part of the new electronic culture that's supposedly sweeping the world? So is the Internet the Next Big Thing, or is it the Emperor's New Clothes? What makes the Internet so fascinating is how quickly it grew in such a short time. Unlike the other technologies that took longer to be embraced, the Internet went from military and academic use in the 1960s to the full commercial and public use in the 1990s. Why? One reason is the access to instantaneous communications such as e-mail, electronic mailing lists, and the trading of files by modem. This seems to be a fulfillment of the New Age "one planet, one people" revolution. It is no small wonder that governments fear this as evidenced by events that took place in Russia, China, and Bosnia. E-mail has always been a popular use of the Internet. Not only can you converse with friends and family faster and cheaper than by mails or by phones, but you can kindle or re-kindle relationships. Which, has, in some cases, led to both marriages and divorces. Gaming has always been popular o the Internet. Where else can you play bridge with people you couldn't meet f2f? And then there are MUD (Multi-User Dungeon), MOO (MUD/Object Oriented), and MUSH. These games are enjoyable for the instant gratification and social interaction, cold they be addictive? It depends on who you talk too. but for all the promise that the Internet holds, there is a lot of hype. And this hype is pushed by the media, businesses, and governments. So is the Internet useful? As this book goes into this question, it should be remembered that any tool can be useful and harmful.

CASTING THE NET:

FROM ARPANET TO INTERNET

by Peter H. Salus

On September 10, 1994 the 25th anniversary of the Arpanet was celebrated. It all started with four sites being UCLA, UCSB, the Stanford Research Institute, and the University of Utah. In twenty-five years there were 30 million users all over the world with predications of 400 million by the year 2000. How it happened and who the people were is a story that is chronicled in this book. In 1940 George Stibitz demonstrated remote calculation via a teletype at Dartmouth connected to a machine in Manhattan. A distance of about 230 miles. In 1945 Vannevar Bush published "As We May Think" in The Atlantic Monthly mentioning communication via computer as well as many other things. In 1957 the Eisenhower Administration created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) within the Defensive Department in response to the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union. Paul Baran and several colleagues at the RAND Corporation proposed a network sufficiently decentralized that could survive the lose of connections in the event of a nuclear war. In 1969 the first ARPANET mode was installed at UCLA and by the end of the year there was four modes installed in the western United States. In October 1972 the ARPANET gave its first public demonstration in Washington, D.C.. In 1974 ethernet was invented at Xerox PARC and the first TCP/IP paper was published. ARPANET was split in two networks in 1983 and by 1989 the ARPANET was shut down. In 1992 the World Wide Web (WWW) was invented by Tim Berners-Lee and others at CERN. By 1994 American Online (AOL) was connected to the Internet and MCI offered IP service. What does the future hold for the Internet? Could 400 million users by the year 2000 be conservative? Probably. With the explosion of the Internet in the last twenty-five years, anything is possible and worth speculating about it. A good history lesson.

VOICES FROM THE NET

by Clay Sharky

The Internet is becoming the fastest growing community around. It is a community that encompasses the world and is rapidly a unique and fascinating culture complete with all the benefits and problems of everyday society. Clay Sharky presents a tour of the communities of the Net... Where and how they were formed and how they have made the Internet the phenomenon it is today. Echo (East Coast Hang Out) was created by Stacy Horn in March of 1990. Best known for its variety of f2fs, a New York based BBS that is a true virtual community that is centrally organized and focused. Echo has several thousand subscribers and traffics hundreds of new posts every day. Usenet is a vast uncontrolled sprawl that spans all over the world. Topics range from the Civil War to Star Trek, and unlike Echo has no central authority and is home to a much larger population. Is the net a place of anarchy? the net allows anonymity that can allow a flowering of real discussion between people of widely different backgrounds. But these discussions are generally limited to groups of people already inclined to tolerance. And them there is flaming which is merely taking a different point-of-view, no matter how strongly. One of the most popular muses of the Internet is e-mail. Unlike snail mail, e-mail, or electronic mail, is a fast, convenient way to send messages to those you want to get a hold of in a more efficient manner. IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is the way to engage in real time communications with as many as you choose. Real time chats can produce a sense of community with words relayed as fast as then Net will allow. the Internet holds much hope allowing people all around the world to interact and communicate in a way never before thought of.

CYBERGRRL!:

A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO THE WORLD WIDE WEB

by Aliza Sherman

Learning about the Internet and the World Wide Web is too hard, is too expensive, doesn't offer you nothing personally or professionally, then Aliza Sherman will change your mind in this book. Cybergrrl uses language free of technical jargon to answer your most perplexing questions. Cybergrrl will open you mind to the possibilities that going online can bring you at your job, in you home, and in your life. Show you how easy it is to get online and how to get the most out of being there. The Internet is a loose, worldwide network of computers serving up databases of information to the public via servers. the Internet was first developed to allow military and government agencies to communicate and exchange information and is now accessible to the general public. In this book you will learn about the endless possibilities that await you on the Internet, and the tools that exist for you to use, and how the Internet can change your life. E-mail, short for electronic mail, is the most popular tool on the Internet. E-mail is almost instant communication that is a unique cross between a telephone call and a letter and can be sent and received any time of the day or night. Along with being fast, e-mail is a very affordable way to communicated with anyone anywhere in the world usually for the cost of a local call. Great for family, friends, and businesses. the World Wide Web is a multimedia , interactive version of the Internet with the databases of information that are not only filled with text files but also with graphics files and audio and video files. In there you can view and create web pages that can bring you an incredible scope of information. Aliza Sherman demonstrates that the web isn't any longer an old-boys network and that all can enjoy the wonders of the World Wide Web!

Copyright (c) 1999 by MatrixZine (matrixzine@aol.com). All rights reserved. These reviews many be freely distributed with proper attribution. Copies may be printed for non-commercial use. Redistribution, publication, or archiving of these reviews on any other terms require my consent.