Computer bookstores in GTA

[Peter Hiscocks]

One important point about books vs the Internet as a source of information.
Books (and some other forms of communication, such as journals and
conference proceedings) have some sort of peer review, which prevents some
totally wrong-headed ideas from finding their way into print. There is no
such quality control on the Internet: anyone can post anything.

At one point, one of my students obtained a circuit from the Internet for a
stepper motor driver. I advised him that it wouldn't work and indeed, that
proved to be the case. (One of the joys of teaching is occasionally being
proven right.)

That said, the quality of information on the internet (where I have been
able to verify it, in my own specialty of electronics) is surprisingly good
and in some cases amazingly comprehensive and complete. However, one has to
view it in the same way one would view a self-published manuscript.

Peter




On Sun, Aug 14, 2005 at 05:01:38PM -0400, Henry Spencer wrote:
> On Sun, 14 Aug 2005, Zbigniew Koziol wrote:
> > ...But I have no doubts that sitting 
> > behind the monitor almost all the time is probably like to be exposed to 
> > X-rays at least a few times during the year...
> 
> There is data on X-ray exposure from monitors going back over half a
> century.  (People working in TV production spent their days looking
> closely at monitors well before there were computers involved.)  As I
> noted in an earlier posting, X-ray emissions from monitors have long
> been regulated and tested for.
> 
> > ...Not mentioning demage that computer usage does to our 
> > psychic and interpersonal relations with these who do not care much 
> > about computers or the Internet...
> 
> Years ago, I had the pleasure of attending a talk by Grace Hopper; she was
> generally very optimistic about the effects of the spread of computers. 
> In the Q&A at the end, somebody asked her about the "depersonalizing"
> effects of computer communication.  She smiled and said:  "you know, I can
> remember when they said that about telephones". 
> 
> > P.s.: I am reading a lot of books but when going to my work, on subway 
> > or busses. These though are not technical books ;) When I am at home, I 
> > use the Internet only...
> 
> You're missing a lot.  There are still many things not online.
> 
>                                                           Henry Spencer
>                                                        henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org
> 
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
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-- 
Peter D. Hiscocks                         	   
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering    
Ryerson University,                    
350 Victoria Street,
Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada

Phone:   (416) 979-5000 Ext 6109
Fax:     (416) 979-5280
Email:   phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org
URL:     http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~phiscock
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
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