The Internet For Dummies

Just too late with too little. It was really helpful 10-12 years ago

got it

great book for people that aren't very familiar with the internet and all its workings.

360 pages of all the facts you'll need about the Web, e-mail, service providers, and search engines. An encyclopedia of the easy to locate information you'll need to surf like an "expert." Provides a complete table of contents and an index of more than 2,200 entries. Topics range from The Net at Home and Work, Your Kids, Web TV and Shopping, to Your First Home Page, Mail, Messages, Chats, and Swiping Files from the Net. Written in the fun, but informative style of the "Dummies" series. At $ 15.95 you'll find a wealth of information to help you. I keep this book on my desk and refer to it often. My two sons are systems analysts and programmers, but I find the things I need faster in this book, than trying to understand what the boys are saying with their technical jargon ! After they answer my question, I still look it up in the book so I can understand the "practical" steps I need to take to get what I want.

Probably the hardest books to review are those that have the potential to be the very best and just don't make the grade. The authors have impressive backgrounds in the subject. The "For Dummies" series offers the potential for superior editorial guidance. Yet I felt that this book fell substantially short. Although many subjects were covered in depth the book consistently left me wondering "where's the beef?" For example many topics were often covered in just a perfunctory way leaving me thinking "I need more information on this subject just to begin the subject." Two examples of this are the coverage of downloading software off the WWW and ICQ. What if the authors would have not told their continual little cutsey jokes and puns and supplied more information? What if the publisher had not left so much unprinted space on each page and supplied more text? Perhaps then they would have delivered a superior book. As it is it is just mediocre.

It is an almost 90 minutes clear audiotape recorded in 1995 describing all these terms dealing with the web, internet. It start with definition and description (www, homepage) a new way for communication, it open a network of networking. Brief details about history of development. Requirement for usage: computer, and greatly details the advantages and disadvantages of each provider. Also talk about the huge benefit such as looking for college, or even education online. On the other end talk about inappropriate content of internet and different methods for parental control, and touch on the "addicted to". Also give few details about etiquette: do not flame, SPAM.Despite being 1995 information. But most of them will hold true and correct for many years, and I found them very informative despite being familiar with majority of them, but it was fun to get an idea about what internet was in 1996, and get helpful advices about different provider and security. I rated four stars only due to 1996, had I heard it then it deserves five stars easily.

I hope, almost everyone has heard of the "For Dummies" books. The series' direct method and clear (sometimes playful and fun) language make learning easy. It is also a well-known computer book series in Russia. "The Internet For Dummies" is the chance to find out in a simple, clear and fun guide which takes the horror out of meeting the Internet for the first time.As a computer writer, I am always delighted to discover new great book that makes understanding the computer. Many so-called Internet books are nothing more than printed collections of Web addresses. "The Internet For Dummies" is a guide designed just for newbies. Authors do an exceptional job of explaining a large number of Internet terms. You'll also find here a lot of tips for optimizing your browser for speed, building your first Web page, managing e-mail, subscribing to mailing lists, and go shopping on-line. "The Internet for Dummies" is a great start to learning the Internet.

The Editor has done an excellent job of reviewing, as usual, and I just want to add a few details. Levine has a Ph.D. in computer science from Yale, and Young also has a Degree from Yale. You generally cannot go wrong with a mathematics, physics, or computer science book from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, etc. The ability to translate difficult concepts into ordinary English for all people requires Creative Genius of the highest order. See my reviews of some of the Schaum's Outlines and Scientific American for more on this, and some of my other mathematics and physics book reviews discuss it too. Translating in these fields requires moving from quantitative to qualitative or verbal language, and it often helps inspire the expert as much as the reader with new ideas. Levine et al are experts at summarizing, alphabetizing, isolating the core concepts, isolating errors and counterexamples, all of them key skills in translating into ordinary English.

Gave to friend who is new to computers.