The Internet for Dummies Quick Reference, 6th edition

Read a
sample chapter
(may load
slowly)

By John R. Levine, Arnold Reinhold and Margaret Levine Young.
February 2000, 210 pages, US$12.99. C$19.99, £11.99, ISBN 0-7645-0675-7.

The most important thing about the Internet for Dummies Quick Reference, 6th edition, is its amazing plastic ring binding. At last, an Internet reference that'll lay flat on your desk. Other books about the Internet have plenty of useful info, but you have to learn to type with one hand while holding them open with the other. This can seriously increase your stress level and has actually been shown to increase bad cholesterol levels in laboratory rats by 20 points.

Ok, our content is pretty good too. We've crammed a lot of up-to-date information into 210 pages. We try to explain the stuff you really need to know, while leaving out the gobbledygook. We write for you, someone who wants to use and enjoy the Internet, not to become an expert in arcane computer jargon.

The material is carefully organized and well indexed and features an extensive Glossary. We do our best to write clearly and the hard-nosed editors at IDG nail us on every ambiguity. You will have to put up with our warped sense of humor, tho.

We think this is the perfect book to take along in your Road Warrior Kit along with your Internet-equipped laptop, palm top, or brain insert. The book is small, light and thorough, and the lay flat binding is perfect for airline tray tables. Take a few extras to give to friends and business contacts as well.

Corrections

• Our publisher is pretty good about correcting errors each time they reprint the book, so in your copy many of these corrections may already have been made.
• For readers of older editions please note that our e-mail address is idqr6@gurus.com and our Web address is http://net.gurus.com
• Page 107 Macintosh users (using MacOS 9 or later) can get 20 MB of free online disk space from Apple. Visit http://www.apple.com and click on the iTools page. Apple's iTools also offers free e-mail and Web page space.
• Page 154: The U.S. Government has relaxed its export regulations regarding mass market cryptography and PGP is now available for international export from http://www.pgp.com

Glossary

• DeCSS: A controversial program that breaks the encryption used in DVDs, allowing them to be played on Linux computers. For more information on this hot new music format see http://www.opendvd.org/.

New Stuff

• Check out our favorite Web links.