BKLIVLHT.RVW   950425
 
"Living At Light Speed", Goodman, 1994, 0-679-43934-X, U$21.00/C$28.95/UK#19.49
%A   Danny Goodman
%C   201 E. 50th St., 31st Floor, New York, NY   10022
%D   1994
%G   0-679-43934-X
%I   Random House
%O   U$21.00/C$28.95/UK#19.49 212-751-2600 800-733-3000 800-726-0600
%O   abiggert@randomhouse.com 74261,2352 fax: 212-967-7292 (Nolan/Lehr)
%P   244
%T   "Living At Light Speed"
 
Goodman, in the Preface, inveighs against the sensational, incomplete, and
misleading accounts of the "Information Superhighway" in the popular media. 
Then, in the first paragraph of chapter one, he states that if you could hear
digital signals you would somehow have an understanding of this coming
technology.  I've often listened to digital signals.  They sound like
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (on CD-ROM), nothing (the speeds of modern computers
render even the hiss of interference inaudibly above the range of human
hearing), or static (when listening in on modem "conversations").  While it may
be fun (my wife has determined that the negotiation of a V.32bis/V.42bis modem
calling a V.32 modem with LAP-M error correction and non-MNP data compression
exactly reproduces the opening phrase of the song "Misty"), it doesn't tell you
anything about advanced communications technology, or its impact on society.
 
This book does provide a broad overview of the myriad technologies which might
(no one knows what will) make up the Information Superhighway.  It is more
objective, and less prone to hyperbole and cant, than others I've reviewed in
this general area.
 
Note, however, that it is lacking in analytical rigour, research (Pareto.  The
80/20 rule is the "Pareto Principle".  You're welcome.), and even a basic
familiarity with the common technologies.  The Internet is introduced with
references to the military and governmental impetus for the ARPAnet project. 
Goodman then goes on to describe Usenet news, ignoring the fact that news is
not, strictly speaking, an Internet application, and Usenet was never part of
any government plan.  A continued insistence on the lack of a "single" highway
indicates that Goodman has no grasp of the concept of layered architectures.
 
The jacket blurbs and the accompanying letter I received ("press materials"?)
promote the book as a layman's guide.  Fair enough.  They would doubtless
downplay the technical errors on that basis.  Conceptual mistakes of this depth
and scope, however, must seriously undermine the value of the book as a whole. 
You *will* find more here than in Time or Newsweek.  But not much more.
 
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995   BKLIVLHT.RVW   950425

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