Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.wpost From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: PERSONAL COMPUTING=Computer Books Are at the Top of Holiday Gift Lists=By T.R. Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 04:35:15 EST Message-ID: <34.1992Nov2.043515@AmeriCast.com> PERSONAL COMPUTING=Computer Books Are at the Top of Holiday Gift Lists=By T.R. Reid=Washington Post Staff Writer= Hard to believe, but the calendar on my Windows desktop says it's November already. And the "To Do" list on the calendar says it's time to start buying Christmas presents for all the PC junk- ies on my shopping list. But what to buy? Most software is too expensive, and the predict- able stuff like a box of blank disks is too boring. One approach to this perennial dilemma is to give books about computers. They usually cost less than $20, and there are so many choices - the local software store has almost as many books as software pro- grams - that you can find something for everybody. The plethora of books isn't surprising, because it's not at all uncommon for a single popular program to spawn 10 guide books. The latest version of the MS-DOS operating system, DOS 5.0, for example, has practically created a whole new industry of books written about the upgrade. Any halfway serious DOS user - that is, a person who actually uses some of the commands that come with the operating system - would benefit from "PC World DOS 5 Complete Handbook" by John Socha and Clint Hicks. This book is full of valuable information, but the best part is a 250-page section that explains in great detail each DOS command. The ex- planations go way beyond what's available in the user manuals that come with DOS. The handbook also includes examples of the kind of "autoexec.bat" and "config.sys" files that will get the best per- formance out of various types of computers. If you don't want to take the time to learn what these files are all about, you can just copy the examples. They work quite well. The flaw with this book is the price; it's $35 and bookstores generally don't discount as much as software stores do. A cheaper and simpler alternative is a new book with the rather patronizing title "DOS for Dummies," by Dan Gookin. This $17 volume was written for true beginners. It answers all those ques- tions you were afraid to ask because they would make you look stupid, such as which way is up when you put a disk in the com- puter, and whether you should turn on the computer before the monitor or vice versa (answer: It doesn't matter.)< The book also has basic guides to using some well-known application pro- grams, including dBase, WordPerfect and ProComm Plus, and a sim- ple introduction to Windows. It makes a nice gift for somebody who is going to receive a computer for the first time. Another good choice for anybody just getting started is a dic- tionary of computer terms. In this genre, the best choice is a paperback volume called "Que's Computer User's Dictionary," by Bryan Pfaffenberger ($10). It offers clear and surprisingly com- plete explanations of terms, companies and software titles. It's particularly strong on desktop publishing terminology, which can be difficult even for accomplished computer tekkies, because pub- lishing software uses a lot of jargon from the printing trade, such as "font metric" and "Zapf Chancery." If you're giving to a real hacker type - somebody who wants to get into programming - you might choose instead "The HarperCol- lins Dictionary of Computer Terms" by Ian R. Sinclair ($11). This book is much less valuable for ordinary computer users than the Que dictionary, but it is stronger on technical programming terms. If you know somebody who really wants to dig deep into personal computing, you might think about a couple of books by Aubrey Pil- grim, an engineer who argues that the best way to obtain a PC is to buy the parts from mail-order houses and build the thing yourself. That's the thesis of Pilgrim's "Build Your Own IBM Com- patible and Save a Bundle." ($20). The book really tells you how to do that, and even if you don't go to the trouble of building a computer from scratch, which actually won't save you much in these days of price wars, it can give you lots of information about the parts of your PC. Pilgrim has a second book out called "Upgrade Your IBM Compati- ble and Save a Bundle" ($20), which provides some useful informa- tion if you're thinking of buying a new mother board, memory board or hard disk for your PC. Finally, any computer user will find lots of useful tips in "Dan Gookin's PC Hotline" ($15). The best thing in this book is the chapter on how to set up an "Emergency Boot Disk." This is a floppy disk you can use in case of a hard disk crash. "Hard Disk Crash," one of the most fearsome phrases in comput- ing, refers to the occasional accident in which your PC suddenly can't find the hard disk, meaning it won't start and you can't get to any of the programs or files on your disk. Yes, this can happen - either because of a mistake on your part or a mechanical breakdown. When it does, you'll be happy if you had the foresight to set up one floppy as your "Emergency Boot Disk" beforehand. Gookin's book shows how to do that.<02:29 11-02C9999----- Copyright 1992, The Washington Post. This story is from the Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar- chived or redistributed. For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor- poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)