The fastest way to grasp Telecommunication basics!
351887
I am a VLSI designer working mostly on telecom ICs (voice codecs etc.).  I found this book very focussed and extremely readable for those with some basic DSP background.  I think it is ideal for all those engineers out there who are well versed in DSP and VLSI but not in telecoms.
1362207
With today's networking and telephony technology evolving at lightening speed, staying on top of all the terms and acronyms and their meanings can be an impossible task.  That's why I bought the Telecom Desktop Reference by A.T. Bell. It is packed with precise definitions of the latest terms and doesn't try to cover ever term known to man for every industry. It just covers telecom and just the terms you need to know.
2883595
Joe Pecar has done it again with the second edition, and surpassing his excellent first edition of McGraw-Hill's best selling Telecommunications Factbook.  And, just in time.  I work in the Militarily Critical Technologies Program and have practically worn out my copy of the first edition.  The new edition is written in the same straight forward layman's language, so you don't have to have an advanced degree in engineering to understand it.  I particularly like his diagrams; for example, the overview figure illustrating packet data network IP transport alternatives and the illustration of the taxonomy of data services.  The acronym list and the glossary alone are worth the price of the book.
Landgrave T. Smith, Jr. Chairman, Information Security Technologies Working Group 23 January 2001
3540056
I had struggled a lot with YouTube tutorials and bad course literature and still didn't fully understand 1:st, 2:nd 3:rd normal form, different kind of joins etc. This book made everything so obvious, I understood everything instantly when I read it! A pedagogical masterpiece!
68297
Although targeted toward LabVIEW users, Jeff's explanations of Internet protocols and concepts would be invaluable to anyone trying to get a basic grasp of Internet technology.  His easy-going writing style breaks heavy  content into manageable doses and his "peppered in" humor makes  those doses even easier to take. As a technical writer and webmaster, I  consider this book a "must have" for my library.
3149767
It doesn't matter if you're new to Linux/UNIX or if you've been using it for awhile, this book delves into the mysteries behind DNS and BIND and puts the right information in simple, easy to understand format at your  fingertips! So easy to follow, I had my basic DNS up and running in a few  hours and tweaked to maximum efficiency in a few days! If you're planning  on setting up and running a DNS server or if you just need to run it for  your internal network this book explains it all! Buy it now... you won't  regret it! Kudos to Paul for such a wonderful peice of work!
1121514
After 3+ years of iPhone use, and plenty of time with my original iPhone 4, now 4S, I'm finding out plenty of things I didn't know about my phone. David Pogue and his team have produced another clear, easy-to-follow manual that is actually fun to read.  Pages are laid out in the usual Missing Manual style - clear text, simple conventions that show keystrokes, and clear screenshots.

I've got the pages littered with&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Avery-Flags-0-5-Inch-22569/dp/B004VJSEZ4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Avery Flags, 0.5 Inch (22569)</a>, and I keep making little "aha" noises as I'm reading, even more delighted that I upgraded to the 4S this fall. My plan is to continue implementing the changes (such as adding shortcuts) after each chapter or two, following the trail of flags and highlighting.

I have no idea how the author does his research, but the information he comes up with is instructive to the newcomer, and dazzling to the power user.  David Pogue helps you turn your iPhone into the amazing tool it was designed to be. Back when I had a Palm, then a Treo, I'd buy an assortment of these guidebooks - for Dummies, Illustrated, How to do Everything - but now I just get the Missing Manual, knowing it'll be a fun weekend of reading and technology.
1092154
This is such a great book for ANYBODY who has no prior knowledge to podcasting, such as myself.

1.  Easy to Read: Yes I know this is a book about technology, but still I never really enjoy reading complicated sciences and technologies. They simply scare me and deprive my passion to put it in action. Davids book does an excellent job to keep the technologies accurate, simple and easy to understand. With an engineering background, he really understands the technologies and explains complicated things in small pieces. The book also flows in a logical way: started from equipments to recording to editing. Basically covered anything you need to know to make your first production. The sense of humor in this book really makes this book stands out as an interesting technology book!

2.  Easy to Execute: After reading this book, I knew clearly how to produce a Podcast: I know where should I record it, what do I need to purchase to record it, and how exactly I should record it. Davids book seems to read my mind and answered all the questions I had! For all the equipment, David not only listed pros and cons of the mainstream ones but also made his recommendations, which saved me a lot of troubles to make my own decision as a new podcaster. For editing piece, David provided the recommended tools and software AND the step by step instructions on how to use them.

3.  The Online Course!: The accompanying online course was a bomb, and also FREE with purchase of this book! The videos made the content even easier to understand. Unlike most of the video courses which would put me straight to sleep, David's online courses are interesting with real world demonstrations. For instance, David did a great job explaining the differences on how environment and equipment impact to the quality of the recorded sounds, and in the online course he showed how the sound would actually be different. (Spoiler Alert: You will hear David rapping across the videos :))

I received a free copy of this book for review and really learned a lot about Podcast Technology. I would recommend this book to anybody who wants to produce a professional podcast or who wants to add Podcaster after his/her name!
3944357
An extremely easy and really fast-to-read book that gives you the basics in a contundent way! I started reading expecting to know this principles. I finished it willing to apply tis in almost every single project I`m working on right now. Good brief.
1850308
i spent 2 hours reading this book from a shop's bookshelves, and i can start imagine how i can design an app or game right after that. and i can even imagine how my codes will be structured and written. amazingly easy to understand. great for beginners. however, there's one aspect which i do not quite understand--it is about the networking(every sent packet is done through placed calls or sms?, or can it be done as infrared/bluetooth. i hope you can include this as addendum to a reprint of this book.
4465481
I started out my telecommunications profession as a cable puller for voice and data networking. I found this book to be simply the best for this subject matter. I used to have two copies of this book, one at my desk and  one in my toolbox with me. I often referred to the book when talking  projects with IT managers. It helped me and them with cabling. One of my  last jobs as a senior field technicians was with a major bank and our  company got the bid on the stipulation that we give the IT manager my worn  copy of the book.
Those days are long gone but I still have this book. I  highly recommend it to you and it is still current in subject! Get this  book!
4794541
There are many books which seek to explain PC and Unix-based networking to the novice, but this volume has at least two significant advantages over every other introductory networking tutorial I have seen in print. First, it employs the excellent, visual and cognitively-planned pedagogy of the Head-First series which has been perfected and scientifically tuned by experts in technology and education (YOU WILL LEARN WHAT THE BOOK PROMISES!).  Secondly, unlike other networking texts which teach you pull down menu's and network interfaces which will only work in one particular operating system and one particular version of hardware this book teaches the underlying principles, protocols and packet configurations which will work with any hardware connected to the Internet. This book emphasizes both the foundations of modern computer network architecture and the low-level building blocks and technologies which will allow you to plan implement and debug any modern network.  The instruction covers command-line utilities (not pull-down GUI menu's), underlying protocols and bit patterns (including how the network appears on an oscilloscope, logic probe or multimeter), and how to install and splice CAT-5 and optical cables.  You will not be baffled by any proprietary product or network configuration which you encounter in the future.  This book teaches the underlying principles of modern computer networking and teaches them well.

--Ira Laefsky
4681276
Stu's book was an easy read. I found that Stu does an excellent job of breaking very technical terms and subjects down into bite-sized, easy-to-understand nuggets of knowledge. Stu uses everyday analogies so anyone with interest can get a grasp on the technical side of amateur radio. And though the Technician level of knowledge is just the first tier, Stu's book erases the intimidation one feels when approaching the knowledge required to pass the Technician's Amateur Radio Exam. Highly recommend Stu's book and the accompanying website materials, hamradioschool.com, to anyone who wants to not only study for the Technician's exam, but get a great foundation to build their amateur radio experience upon.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone studying for the Technician's exam. And if Stu creates a General License Course, it will be a definite purchase for me.

Check out hamradioschool.com for a taste of the easy-to-understand materials Stu has culled and created to accompany this book.
4857069
With Internet Telephony gathering acceptance and converts daily many people are trying to figure out what service will work best for them and the differences between the various offerings.  With a straight-forward analysis of Internet telephony as compared to traditional phone lines and the various options available, this book is well done and very informative.  I happen to use one of the services mentioned in the book and found the author's review of it right on the mark.  He provided an excellent discussion of the differences between a broadband phone-centric service and a computer-centric service as well as the offerings of specific vendors.  If you are thinking about making the move to Internet telephony this book will provide you with sufficient background information to determine if it would be useful for your needs as well as how to shop intelligently for the appropriate product.  Although the information also applies to small businesses this book is aimed squarely at the home market.  Written in a very non-technical style Talk is Cheap is easy to read and understand and suggested for anyone interested in learning about the subject.
3191613
I just finished reading this book and overall found it to be very informative. It covers a general overview of everything from the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to telecommunications around the world. Landline, wireless, and internet are all covered along with the technologies that make them work. With that being said, this book will NOT make you an expert in telephony or any specific area of telecommunications. It is however, a great start.
The one problem I had with the book was numerous grammatical errors. I found that in some cases I had to mentally disassemble and rebuild a sentence to understand what was trying to be said.
I would (and have) recommend this book to a coworker and/or friend getting started with telecommunications.
557116
This book was suprisingly useful. I bought it to understand how to connect Flash to XML server back ends, but it quickly taught me much more that I was not expecting. The true value of this book is teaching how to use Actionscript 1.0 to make Flash Clients talk to servers with the fastest, leanest possible code (Not necessarily XML.)

The author does a great job of teaching how to make reusable, tiny, elegantly structured modules to build a trivia game. The lessons in here should be required reading for any Flash Actionscript programmer BEFORE they can use any fat Actionscript 2.0 components.  By reading this book, you can avoid torturing your users with the "Loading Forever" progress bars which result from using Flash without understanding it's elegant, fast loading, optimized roots.
1217426
Fantastically perfect for today's user.  I became an instant expert.even with all I already knew.

I've been teaching computers for 40 years (NYC Wall St./Midtown international legal firms) and with all the changes in today's world,  you some times forget the basics and get confused with all the knowledge about how it's supposed to work.  Angela's direct, simple and workshop approach helps you re hone your computer skills and easily add-on today's new issues, concerns, features and hot topics - like security and job seeking and virus protection.  I teach seniors as well as new users and I will have them all get this book.  .Why?  Because Angela takes the most complicated subjects from Excel, the operating system, research and creating your professional profile and makes them simple.  Angela laid her book out in a way where I was shocked about all that I'd forgotten that I used to know.  I was able to retest myself and confirm my importance to details and I found her facts full of integrity.  For instance, while it may be true you can do things on applications that it wasn't meant to be, it doesn't make it right and when  you get up to a certain level, you'll run in to problems and I find with my students bad habits are almost impossible for them to break.

Therefore, everybody should have this book because it's a way to eliminate self-induced limitations as the years pass.  They need it.  We can't live without computers today and I need speed and accessibility.  I have found other books confusing, hard to navigate and inaccurate.  Angela's book is clear, concise, precise, accurate and it's every basic you need to know before you go on in your own direction.  Make sure you've got the basics right.  That's what impressed me the most.  This is the basics done right. Starting with Angela's book, anybody from a child to a senior can do anything they want on their own computer and be independent while participating in the global marketplace.  It was a refreshing blessing to devour this book - after 40 years in computers!  Thank you Angela.  I truly believe his book should be in every school and library in this nation.  When you work with it and check it out, you'll see what I mean.  Thank you for creating this book Angela.  Sincerely,