BKDGTDTC.RVW 950125 "Dvorak's Guide to Desktop Telecommunications", Dvorak/Anis, 1990, 0-07-881668- 8, U$34.95 %A John C. Dvorak %A Nick Anis %C 300 Water Street, Whitby, Ontario L1N 9B6 %D 1990 %G 0-07-881668-8 %I McGraw-Hill/Ryerson/Osborne %O U$34.95 905-430-5000 fax: 905-430-5020 lkissing@osborne.mhs.compuserve.com %T "Dvorak's Guide to Desktop Telecommunications" This book is *full* of surprises. Given the number of people who recommended that I review it, I had expected a more up-to-date work. This *revised* (from "Dvorak's Guide to PC Telecommunications") version is dated 1990. Which means it's dated. Actually, even for *1990*, it's dated. The "acknowledgements" reads like a telephone book. A lot of people put a lot of info into the book. Unfortunately, a lot of them covered the same ground. Over and over. Again. From these original submissions, the book does not seem to be edited as much as concatenated. The material does not seem to have been organized into any kind of order, either. Modem installation starts in chapter two, but some of the information on COM ports waits for chapter twenty-three. The material is very uneven as to quality. Chapter twenty-four has an excellent section on what to look for in file transfer protocols. Unfortunately, it is in the second half of the chapter. The first half has already delivered the usual hackneyed opinions about specific protocols: errant ones, into the bargain. The linking and introductory material is sometimes painfully verbose, and pages go by without solid information. (The virus chapter? Ahem. Well, yes. I *do* have to say that, aside from the ridiculous definitions of "bombs" and "worms", and Richard Levin's promoting of his own program, it is not bad at all.) As usual, the preface promises to help you get started with a modem. It simply does not deliver. The reader will, by the time the book is finished, be familiar with terms and concepts, but not the practical details of how to get it to work. Well, some details, perhaps. Much time is spent describing how to put a "card" into the computer. But there is no advice on how to diagnose errors with speed, parity or word length (all fairly easy to recognize). The chapters on Macintosh, Amiga, UNIX and OS/2 are mere tokens. There is much more that is missing from this tome, as well. (The *only* mention of the Internet is as an email gateway between Compuserve and Usenet.) There are some individual goodies buried in here, but, to be honest, I can't think of any group to recommend it to, even considering some of the other poor works on the market. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKDGTDTC.RVW 950125 ============== Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | My infected haiku Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | Jerusalem has added Research into rslade@cue.bc.ca | more Jerusalem User p1@CyberStore.ca | Security Canada V7K 2G6 | - virus haiku