REVIEW: THE INTERNET COMPLETE REFERENCE 2nd EDITION, Harley Hahn Osborne 1995 The INTERNET COMPLETE REFERENCE first and second editions are totally different books. In the three odd years between them there have been so many changes and innovations, particularly with the explosion of the World Wide Web. The new work is definitely not a re-write, but a second volume that takes up pretty much where the first volume leaves off. If you have the first edition - hang onto it and get the new one too! I am happy to see that the second edition is also for people with simple dial-up shell accounts as well as for users with full-blowm systems. Although unix mail was well covered in the first edition, pine and the pico editor are detailed here. I liked THE INTERNET COMPLETE REFERENCE three years ago - it taught me how to us so many things, including mastering the trn newsreader. There is no mention of trn in the index in the new edition. Instead I was pleased to find a chapter on Lynx. I use Lynx every day as a Web browser because, being a text-based creature, its so much faster than Netscape which has to load images. For most of my use, text is just fine. I learned several new tricks about Lynx which makes me happy every time I use them. My friend, who's 56 and has never touched a computer in his life recently asked me to help him "get on the Internet". I gave this some thought - I don't need my phone ringing day and night with the inevitable questions. Anyways, Jimmy's a good friend, so I loaned him the Toshiba T-1000 laptop I found at the MIT Flea for $15.00, made up a diskette with a bare-bones but powerful shareware terminal pgm (chosen because it has excellent VT102 emulation) and a copy of THE INTERNET COMPLETE REFERENCE, 2nd Edition. I spent a few hours at his place in South Boston (a most remarkable place!) and got him started. This was two months ago and since then he's learned how to use the many Internet tools and functions to the point that he is familiar with them and what they can do. This is the reality of the net - anyone can get a computer and modem for literally next to nothing these days and a dial-up shell account with all the goodies for cheap, so there's no real excuse for anyone in or near a major city for not getting on the net. The only thing that may be keeping people from making the move is the intimidation of the unknown. That's where this book comes in. Author Harley Hahn, who has authored more books about the Internet and unix than I can name, has a rare gift. He imparts bits of wisdom with humor and an air of informality that makes it easy to learn something that would otherwise appear diffficult. I an say honestly that I have learned more useful Internet and unix "stuff" from Harley's books than I have from any other single author. %T The Internet Complete Reference 2nd Edition %A Harley Hahn %I Osborne Mcgraw-Hill %C Berkeley California %D 1995 %O 32.95 %G ISBN: 0-07-882138-X %P 836 pages paperbound %K Internet, computer networks, (C) 1996 Michael Crestohl Nahant Massachusetts USA mc@shore.net DISCLAIMER: I have no interest, financial or otherwise, in the success or failure of the book or materials reviewed herewith, nor have I received any compensation (other than a review copy requested by me) from anyone who has. All opinions expressed are strictly my own. Other Internet and Aviation book/software reviews by me can be obtained by anonymous FTP from: x2ftp.oulu.fi in the /pub/books/crestohl directory.