A selection of high-tech tomes for summer reading
by
Alan Zisman (c) 2006 First published in
Business
in Vancouver July 18-24, 2006, High Tech Office
column; Issue # 873
“Summer’s here and the time is right for …”
Martha
and the Vandellas claimed it was dancing in the streets. You might not
go that far, but most of us take at least some extra time away from
work. But even on holiday, a lot of us make sure to check our e-mail
regularly and maybe haul along a laptop and try to get a little work
done.
So
while you’re lounging on the beach or lakeside, you may want to make
these books some of your vacation reading and use your holidays to hone
your High Tech Office edge.
Wallace
Wang’s Steal This Computer Book 4.0
(No Starch Press, $38.95) is an
updated look at the people who are out to take over your computers: who
they are, what they can do (and why they do it) and what you can do to
stop them. Newly revised, this edition stays on the cutting edge with
new chapters on social engineering, taking advantage of peer-to-peer
file sharing, manipulating search engines to obtain personal
information and more.
Rare
these days, a real CD is included, packed full of hacking and
anti-hacking tools for Windows, Linux and Mac. Wang doubles as a
standup comic. Perhaps as a result, the book is a surprisingly fun read
on a serious topic.
Windows
XP is found on more BIV reader’s desktops than any other computer
operating system. Despite being five years old, many of us are still at
a loss to smooth over its rough edges and to make it work for us rather
than against us.
Windows
XP Cookbook by Robbie Allen and Preston Gralla (O’Reilly,
$62.95) makes
no claims to be for dummies or idiots. Readers should be comfortable
with their computers but looking for some help in tinkering with XP’s
guts. The authors claim the book, packed full of 325 recipes, is for
“administrators and power users.” Tasks range from turning off annoying
pop-up message balloons and moving your notebook from one network to
another to turning your PC into a jukebox.
Opening
this book at random can be scary; you may hit a page densely packed
with code. Don’t panic, there are multiple solutions for most tasks,
ranging from easy-to-use utilities up to programming-like scripts.
While
not as fun a read as Steal This Computer Book, if you’re hauling your
laptop on your holidays, this book will help you make it more fun to
use.
The
March 2004 Scientific American reported on a psychological study in
which subjects were asked to count the number of passes made by a
basketball team in a one-minute video clip. Midway through the tape, a
gorilla walked across the court; half the subjects failed to notice the
gorilla.
Futurists
Edie Weiner and Arnold Brown suggest that all too often we are
similarly blind to evidence of change. In FutureThink (Prentice Hall,
$34.99) they try to teach readers “how to think clearly in a time of
change,” with practical advice for making business decisions. Topics
covered include getting past the personal and organizational blocks
that keep us from understanding change, stepping back to get a better
view of the big picture, freeing the mind and out-witting
self-defeating and self-fulfilling prophecies.
Their
conclusion: “Question Consensus.” Only by learning to think in ways
that will “sustain and nourish your organization” will you be able to
help yourself and your organization succeed.
Happy summer reading.
