Computers and Internet Books

I'm a prime candidate for using voice over Internet (VOIP), so it was with much interest that I dove into this book. The first few chapters are background information describing VOIP, how it works, and how it is different (and the same) as landline phone service. There is even a comparison of what you might pay in each case.

Since there are a myriad of choices in the VOIP universe I was glad to see a clear (and sometimes humorous) explanation as to what each offers. It helped me select which way to go for my own personal situation. Implementing the information from this book is saving me at least $10 a month initially and perhaps a lot more in the future.

Anyone wanting to adopt VOIP should read Talk is Cheap before deciding which (if any) provider to use.

Now that there are alternatives to using Ma Bell, people are switching (or contemplating it) to broadband phone services. Granted, those on dialup are still out of luck, but some of the services offered provide motivation to get a broadband account. With the proliferation of broadband phone companies, it gets confusing when trying to decide which service is the best, or which one offers the options you need most.

This book explains the services that broadband companies like VONAGE offer, as well as the ones that companies like Skype offer. It also explains (in the first chapter) how internet phones work, as well as an explanation how Voice Over IP works. I also liked the analogy about how innovation over the years has forced traditional phone companies however grudgingly to offer better service. It makes one wonder how they eventually will adapt to VOIP.

There's also a chapter devoted to features that you now pay for that you can get for free using an Internet phone (several of them are the various fees your phone company adds on to your bill), such as call waiting and forwarding. I find it interesting how the phone company manages to slip in various fees as a "cost of doing business."

911 service is also touched upon. Broadband phones will likely have complete 911 service within the next two years, whereas their computer-centric counterparts may not for a few years. It seems to be one drawback to using this type of technology, but one that will likely be ironed out the more popular this technology becomes.

This is a great "consumer guide" to Internet telephony, one that you should buy if you're considering the move to Internet phones.

This book happened to arrive on my doorstep while I was doing my own researching on switching my traditional phone service over to Broadband. I had a lot of questions, and this book does a good job of providing answers to many common questions and technical details behind making the switch.

The author goes into great detail on both telephone-type broadband service (Vonage, one of the author's favorites) and computer-based Softphone systems (Skype, for example). He explains various packages, benefits and technical details behind each. For example, I want to keep my traditional telephones since for some reason my 15-year old, as computer-savy as he is, seems to have this need to "grasp" onto a traditional telephone receiver. Thanks to this book, I now know how to hook-up those phones (directly to the router provided by the broadband provider) and how to make sure that I maintain my current coverage throughout the house (get a base station phone setup with remote stations). I also found out a lot about how the services that are available as they compare to my traditional phone company today, and some of the pitfalls as well -- Fax machines don't work with broadband service without an extra fee from most providers, and my ADT alarm system is going to need to be retrofitted.

If you are curious as to how broaband phones work (and also want a short, but good overview of how traditional phones work) the author starts the book off with going behind the scenes to explain the details. How does my call from my broadband phone reach my mother, who still believes that computers are those strange machines in the basements of banks and other big companies that manage to overcharge her, who still uses a service provided by Ma Bell? How can I live in Missouri, but have a number in Las Vegas? How can I go on a month-long vacation and still receive all my phone calls? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie-Roll pop? Ok, so maybe the author doesn't cover that last one.

About the only gripe I had with this book was the author does a lot of moaning about the traditional phone companies. I am no big fan either, but I still realize they are necessary and will be so for many, many years to come. I also would have liked to seen a little less emphasis given to just Vonage and Skype, though to be fair they are the major market players at this stage in the game.

A good read for those considering making the switch. It's written well and is it times humorous which makes for a very easy read.

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.

Want to say good-bye to your plain old telephone service with the high cost of taxes, add-on fees, and long-distance? Check out James E. Gaskin's book Talk Is Cheap - Switching To Internet Telephones (O'Reilly). I certainly learned quite a bit from this book...

Contents: How Internet Telephone Calls Work; Your Internet Phone; Free Internet Phone Features That You're Paying For Now; Choosing Your Internet Phone Equipment; Vonage And Other Broadband Phone Carriers; Skype And Other Computer-centric Services; 911, Alarms, And Other Outgoing Calls; Tips, Tricks, And Techniques For Advanced Users; Go Wireless; Index

As more and more people switch to broadband internet access, there's an emerging option for telephony services in the home. Using your internet connection (DSL or cable), you can switch to internet telephony, also known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and go all digital. Gaskin does an excellent job in explaining exactly what this is, how it works, and the pros and cons of switching to a service like this. He's a pretty strong advocate of VoIP, so you can pretty much figure out where his bias is going to lie.

The book focuses on two major types of internet telephony: phone-centric and computer-centric. In the phone-centric area (using your phone much like before, but only through an internet service) he uses Vonage as the primary example of what to expect. On the computer-centric side (no telephone, just headphones and speakers attached to your computer), he uses the Skype package as the leader in that area. In this growing technology area, it's impossible to write a book covering every option such that it won't be out of date before it's printed. To Gaskin's credit, he does a good job in covering the current playing field, as well as giving enough detail to figure in new options as they emerge.

Even though you can come away from a book like this thinking all is rosy, that's not quite the case. There are very well documented customer service issues with Vonage, and no player in the field is mature enough to get it right as often as Ma Bell does. Still, if you're an early adopter of technology, this is definitely an area you need to check out. And if you have no exposure to residential VoIP up until now, I'd recommend a copy of this book to get you up to speed quickly.

This is a good book. The design is very approachable, and the writing is quite readable - especially in an age when people would *like* to explore telework, but don't quite know where to begin. From Telework 101 to senior-exec-level concepts, it explains much of what today's teleworker - and even the at-home entrepreneur - needs to launch a fully-functional home office, without losing touch or professional stature with the corporate community.

This book is a "must-read" for all potential, as well as current, teleworkers. It is packed full of tips and techniques for both the telecommuter and his/her employer. From setting up your home office to communicating with others, this book covers it all. I will keep this as a ready-reference. I recommend that all "driven knowledge workers" do the same.

Michael Dziak's book is very thorough, and is a comprehensive guide on telecommuting. The check lists, forms, and practical tips are very usefull. This book offers so much for anyone operating a home office, it is a good investment even if they don't telecommute. I agree with other reviewers this is the desk companion or bible for telecommuters. I highly recommend it.

Telecommuting Success is a great tool for the telecommuter. It is very easy to read and understand and gives tips that will help ensure that if you become a telecommuter you will be allowed to stay one. It shows you how to be successful and get the recognition for your work that you deserve, even if you are out of the office a good portion of the time. This is key to a successful teleworking relationship.

I highly recommend this book for any business that has or is implementing a telework program and would make it required reading for all teleworkers in that program.

I recently reviewed a number of books on telecommuting and distance collaboration for a research center (...) and Dziak's book was the best I found on telecommuting.

While some other books dwell too much on details of home office setup (which this book does cover thoroughly in ch 4) Dziak is by far the most insightful about the real challenges of telecommuting, which are social issues of staying in touch. The book gives prescriptive advice in easily-digestable forms. Dziak is quite fond of top-10 lists, but manages to pack a lot of good content into this somewhat gimmicky format. My most-reference part of the book was his '10 Ways to stay on the corporate radar screen' (p. 181).

This book has a great html and cascading style sheet reference. This alone is worth the $$ the book costs.

This book covers it all, from Perl to ASP to XML and more! Has several very informative and often entertaining examples. I already used one example at work, with a little customization. If you're new to webdev or have been doing it for years, this book is packed with coding gems. A must have for any real web coder!

Bookviews by Alan Caruba, February 2002

Thinking about starting a web site business? Well, the single most complete and authoritative reference available is The Ultimate Web Developer's Sourcebook by Jessica Keyes ... and it runs over 780 pages, is two and a half inches thick, and worth every penny! The author is a noted authority on the science and business of technology and the book has contributions from more than thirty web development experts. It is a one-stop guide and reference that will enhance any existing site and help insure the success of a new one.

I'm pretty new at this business of creating web sites. I think I must have bought 100 books but none of then got me more than a few steps into the process. The Ultimate Web Developer's Sourcebook put me on the right path. I now have a good first site. I'm going to use the advanced portion of the book to provide me with the info I need to add a shopping cart and some animation to the site.

I think that this is a great book.

I looked through the Dummies and Idiots book on this subject but they didn't offer much. What I wanted was a book that could start me out as a novice and then grow with me when I started getting good at it. This is the only book I found that could do all of that.

Once in a while an author appears who stands head and shoulders above most other technical authors. Kevin Wallace is definitely one of that rare breed of authors who has the unique ability to impart substantial technical information in a really accessible manner. I found this book incredibly easy to read, having attempted reading some other books on VOIP and not getting past the 2nd Chapter with most of them.
Even though the book focuses mainly on Cisco's VOIP implementation, the information is put across in such a way that you get a good understanding of VOIP principles in general. The chapter in this book on QOS alone is worth getting the book for, as it explains Cisco QOS in a most lucid and user-friendly way. His anologies are excellent and his occastional injection of humour also makes reading the book a most pleasurable and useful learning experience. If you are a newbie to VOIP, then I can't think of a better book to get your hands on. Highly recommended!

Very Good! Easy reading for anyone. If you have no experience with VoIP this is the book for you. I found it also helped with my CCNA study. Anybody who wants to learn VoIP should begin by reading this book first.

For those who are intending to go for Cisco Certified Voice Professional but don't have much knowledge about Voice, this book would be an excellent introduction to general Cisco Voice Networking.

It introduces you to many expects of voice from ground up without giving too many technical details to the point you can get bored. For voice newbies, this book would be a great companion.

Kevin Wallace's VOICE OVER IP FIRST-STEP joins others in the 'first step' series in providing a basic introduction to IP telephony services. You don't need to be a programmer or even a computer whiz to understand the basics as presented here: whether you're a home user interested in lowering a monthly phone bill or a business person using data networks, chapters provide real-world applications using case studies throughout, no prior IP telephony experience is required to learn the basics here. And networking instructor Kevin Wallace knows how to cover them easily.

The title of this review pretty much summarizes my thoughts about the book. This is an excellent, quick-to-read book that provides all the basic info about VoIP, focusing on Cisco's offerings.

Although I read the book over a couple of days, I believe I put in less than 3 hours to read the entire book cover to cover (over all those days).

The book is very simple to read. The book is ideal for network administrators as well as system/equipment design engineers to quickly introduce themselves to VoIP. The book is also good to understand all the varied VoIP offerings from Cisco and how stuff plugs together to provide an integrated service.

The last chapter of the book goes beyond vanilla-VoIP, by discussing (in brief) Cisco's IPCC and other interesting offerings.

Great book! Read it to quickly and easily understand the fundamentals of VoIP as well Cisco's VoIP equipment.

Received book in record time. It was in new condition as promised. Great Seller and would order from him again.

This is the third in a series of books the author has written. While some of the concepts in e-commmerce are outdated due to the dotcom crash, the architectures, data management and functional aspects are still useful for e-business and e-commerce. The author discusses many of the challenges in managing databases on the web and shows the need for this technology for web data management.

This is an excellent book on e-commerce and databases. However it is somewhat outdated as the book was presumably written during the dotcom boom. Nevertheless many of the ideas are still very useful. I would suggest that the author updates this book to reflect the recent developments.

The book covers a great deal and provdes a broad overview of web data management and e-commerce. It starts with a lot of background material on database systems, the web, data mining, etc. and then focuses on web data management technologies in Part II. Finally it describes how the technologies may be used for e-commerce. I like the writing style of the author, rather casual and takes a building block approach. He sort of tells a story about supporting technologies, web technologies and e-commerce. My one concern is that the book was written during the dotcom boom years. While the technologies are all still valid and useful, although they have advanced quite a lot today, the idea that the web and e-commerce will take over is long gone. At one time we may have thought that we will be doing all of our shopping even buying groceries on the web. But this has still not happened in large scale. Therefore, it may be time to take another look at the ideas and perhaps get another edition out reflecting what is real today. But then one never knows what the future will be. Maybe once the technologies mature and our approach to the web evolves, the dotcom ideas may take off again.

I found this book extremely useful. The author starts with some excellent background material on web data management and then goes into more details on architectures and models for web databases. Finally, she discusses their applications to e-commerce. At times I thought the book was too detailed (e.g., in data management) and at other times I felt that the book ought to have given more details (e.g. in e-commerce). Nevertheless the book emphasizes on web data management and all aspects of this topic. It was very easy to read and as a newcomer to the field I found it very thought provoking. I thought the author explained the security aspects extremely well, partly because she is an expert in database secruity. At times she dwelt more than it was necessary on security as the focus of the book was not on security. I would have liked to have seen more discussions on how specific organizations carry out e-commerce. Since the field is evolving so rapidly I would love to see a follow-on book giving details and examples on e-commerce and the applications of web data management to e-commerce. On the whole an excellent, easy to read book.

I bought this book in 1996, and referenced it again and again. I still find it so useful on web server technology, especially on web security. A worth-while reading.

This book is excellent, if you want to understand the general properties of a Web server. The book explains the basic jobs a Web server can do in simple way so that many people can understand it. The description of the tasks, which will be performed on a Web server, is not too detailed. Excellent is the explanation of the different types, advantages and disadvantages of process concepts which can be used for Web servers. The securtity issues and the chapter about searching on the Internet are also highlights. I recommend this book for everyone who wants an detailed overview on Web servers and related topics.

I thought this was an excellent book. For a newbie interested in learning the details of web infrastructure components, including SSL, this book is a solid choice. I read it a year ago and I still find it a useful reference.

Tired of those IT books that look like help files or manuals dumps? Tired of books based on programs rather than concepts? If your answer is yes, than this book is for you. It is simply the best book about Internet/Web technology ever written, of great importance for anyone thinking of working with the Web. A must read: concepts, explanations, examples, everything as clear as it should be.

A great book for understanding what's happening on the web--essentially a must-read for anyone publishing there to any significant extent.

These guys know what they are talking about. Web services with real life examples and great points such as web services inside the firewall. I greatly recommend this book!

Real life examples, diagrams, easy to read, and is up-to-date - this book is recommended for architects, managers, developers, who would like to get a good understanding of SOAP and XML Web services. This book contains answers to your "what", "why", and "how" questions pertaining to XML Web services. The chapters flow nicely. It also talks about BizTalk and ebXML and how they fit in Web services paradigm. This first volume ends with discussion on more recent Web services standards (WS-****).

Collaboratively written in a light and engaging style, by Brian E. Travis and Mae Ozkan, Web Services Implementation Guide Volume 1: Getting Started is a straightforward and "user friendly" instruction manual that accessibly teaches the reader what web services are and how to take advantage of them. Written especially for systems architects and developers, it describes in direct, friendly language how to automate internal systems, determine integration points, and then reveal integration points as web services. Enhanced with a tutorial on the state of web services standards, real-life examples of web service use, code samples and more, Web Services Implementation Guide Volume 1: Getting Started is an excellent beginning guide for anyone ready to take the first step into capitalizing on the manifold advantages of what the World Wide Web has to offer.

I read the book very easily. It thought me so much about web services, how it evolves and where it is going to. It cleared many questions I had in my mind. I am technically enhanced now! It is fantastic to understand the cool technologies.

This book is one of many new titles on web services (the book's introduction makes the case for using a lowecase-w in "web" services). Most of the books that I have seen cover the world of web services in terms of this or that tool. Java J2EE, Microsoft .NET, IBM Web Services Toolkit, etc.

This book gets beyond a particular implementation of code and talks about the business reasons for implementing web services. This includes planning, automating processes behind the firewall, determining security issues and so forth. This is the only book I have seen that covers such architectural facets.

As a developer, I found the coverage of the technologies very helpful. As my company's chief architect, I found many things to think about in the book.

The book covers the standards (XML, XSD, SOAP, WSDL) in a very accessible way, with witty commentary so it does not get boring. This is quite a feat for such an acronym-rich technology.

I am an amateur when it comes to using any Web design software as well as software that can be as intimidating as PhotoShop. That's why I think Sherry Hutson's book is so good. She is a teacher, and that shows throughout the book. She is able to break everything down into steps that are clearly understandable. Too many of these guides skip just enough steps that you can't follow. Not this book. It has helped to take me from being an amateur to not being afraid to try different things with Photoshop. The index is very helpful, too. I have a question, go to the Index, and invariably find the topic I'm looking for. You can't go wrong with this book even if you have never used Photoshop at all.

Yaah! Finally a book about Photoshop that even a beginner like me can really make sense of. The Web Wizard's Guide to Photoshop has introduced me to the joy of improving the images that I download from my digital camera. My friends and family are delighted with the much improved, innovative, and high quality, images that I am now able to create using this fun, user friendly, program. The clear and simple explanations in this book have encouraged me to move on to the next step. I am now in the process of designing my own web page. What fun!!! If you're interested in improving the way you work with images and/or in trying your hand at designing a website, this is definitely the book for you. If you try it, you most definitely will like it.

mick rasley, Sculptor,silversmith, September 20, 2004,
Breath of fresh air
Well spent $s. It costs more to get film developed today.This book was what actually cured my of 'film',and put me in the world of digital photography(and comfortably too).Glad this book was recommended to me ,and I will for sure pass on the 411.

Sherry Hutson has produced one of the most informative and consise books on Photoshop that I have ever read. It covers all tehniques of a very complex graphics program in an easy to read (and learn) format.

As a former student in many classes taught by Sherry, I can attest to the value of this book (I now design web sites, myself). A definate value for beginners and a strong resource for the expert.

Sherry Hutson obviously knows exactly what we Photoshop beginners are facing and what language to speak... no arrogance in this `how to' masterpiece. I have books on other programs in my bookshelf, as well as on Photoshop, which are about 800 pages and my eyes just gloss over so I've never even tried. When I started this book, though, I just followed step 1 and kept going because it was easy to understand and stuff miraculously started happening.

Although I'm not a website designer, my work requires me to create and maintain the company website along with my other duties. In small companies, the few wear many hats and it's terrifying to create a website when you don't know what you're doing. My nephew recommended the Web Wizard's Guide to Photoshop and I decided to go for the `keep it simple' approach, using the book's "Do's" and "Don'ts." Now feel like I've published a site as appealing as some of the big corporate ones.

Under "Features" on the back jacket of the book, the list reads, "Assumes no Photoshop experience . . .; Progresses in a natural order . . .; Contains extensive reference material, including a Web-Safe Colors chart, keyboard shortcuts, and annotated tool bars . . .; Provides tutorials in each chapter . . .; Uses full-color screen shots, so what you see in the book is exactly what you'll see on the computer screen." I'm usually pretty skeptical at such claims, but it's all true for once.

Don't be afraid. Just get the book and start in. I bet you will be surprised at how quickly, for example, you catch on to working with and correcting pictures, and the different types of image formats and when to use them. I had tried to figure out layers once before, but now I understand exactly what's happening. I've done the exercise on how to make an animation and it's amazing. The eagle actually flies.

This book is straightforward and very much a "fast start for beginners." I'm giving it five stars.

Thanks for sending the book among others that I ordered along with it in good condition, and sooner than I had expected. Its a simple and straightforward book that orients itself around the MacOSX Web Objects application. Good value for money a worth while buy.

Let's cut to the chase. Josh Marker's new WebObjects 5 book rocks the house. Trudging through Apple's WebObjects API documentation can turn ones eyes red and bleary, so where do ya start? Well, I say start with Marker's new gem. pple's WebObjects is a best kept secret as it derives from the brilliance of the geniuses at NeXT, and who knows why Steve Jobs doesn't market WebObjects more aggressively? This book helps get a person (particularly the WebObjects newcomer) to get down and jiggy with WebObjects. The world is not always Microsoft and so don't let Apple's genius scare you. Start out with Marker's book and then go from there. You won't get lost and Marker keeps things easy to understand. The only thing missing from this book with slight disappointment is coverage of WebServices which was introduced by Apple in WebObjects version 5.2. Otherwise, rock and roll!

I ordered this book expecting it to be a more advanced WebObjects book than it actually is. Unfortunately, most of the material covered in the first 11 chapters CAN be gleaned from Apple's documentation accompanied by some experimentation (which I've done over the last year or so). For me, those chapters were a rehash of stuff I knew, although I did pick up some good advice and tips from those chapters.

However, for a Java developer (the book doesn't pretend to teach you Java) who is new to WebObjects, those first 11 chapters are a a godsend, filled with well-written text containing a huge amount of practical advice and illustrated with extensive screenshots. Reading this book and doing the exercises will save you literally dozens if not hundreds of hours of "doing it the hard way."

Chapters 12 and 13, on the other hand, are filled with bits and pieces that are NOT easy (or sometimes possible) to get from the official documentation and can only be learned by finding a more experienced developer to mentor you. For me, these two chapters were worth the price, and for a computer programming book, the price is quite reasonable.

A big thumbs up for this book as an introductory WebObjects tome, and here's to hoping that some publisher will contract Mr. Marker to write a follow-up "Advanced WebObjects for Mac OS X" because I'll be first in line to buy that one.

This is the best beginner WebObjects book ever! Examples are clear, concise and easy to follow. It has made me a believer in this technology.

I'd like to agree with the previous reviewers. This book finally made the progression through WebObjects clear and understandable. Its power is apparent and the gotchas are clearly highlighted as you go through the book. Mr. Marker also wrote the excellent Apple document on WebObjects web applications. (Un)fortunately, the Apple document is only about 100 pages, so this book nicely moves on from it. Technical overview by mmalcolm only lends further credibility to this book. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

A good read. The title is a little misleading, however, because the book also covers wireless without the Web. In other words, peer to peer networks inside buildings, outside buildings, and to the home seem like the most promising aspects of the wireless revolution, as described in this book. As the author states, it's simply a matter of time, not if, wireless will touch every aspect of our lives.

Wireless Web is a refreshing kind of book. I'm tired of books that introuduce a new technology, paint a rosy picture, and then leave the reader dangling three months later. This isn't one of those books. It tells it like it is. Wireless isn't easy. In fact, implementing a Wireless Web solution is nearly at the bleeding edge of what's possible, as the author states. There are traps at every corner, and you'd better know what to expect. In this respect, the Wireless Web provides a map of the "speed bumps" along the way. If you're going to give it a go on the Wireless Web, you'd better have this book or some other roadmap with you.

Having just put down Bergeron's last book, "The Eternal E-Customer", I was interested to see his visionary take on the wireless web. I wasn't disappointed. "The Wireless Web" compellingly captures the multitude of opportunities which the unethering of the Web affords. What I appreciated most about this book (and Bergeron's style as in his previous book) was the practical advice on how any executive can take advantage of these wireless opportunities. Bergeron succinctly explains how a company can embrace this new technology to their competitive advantage. Five stars!

In just a few years the Internet has revolutionized the way we do business. Email, online shopping and digital music downloaded from the Internet are now integral parts of our everyday lives. Technology aware companies have now turned to wireless web for the next big leap in commerce and communication. The race is on for deploying cutting-edge wireless technology.

As a business and technology consultant I am often asked by clients to provide some guidelines on how to proceed in this new and fast moving industry. Is trading stocks using a wireless PDA really a secure transaction and are electronic coupons delivered to customers via cell phones a technical feasible marketing solution? What communications provider should I use when connecting my sales force via WAP based browsers to a wireless CRM solution? And should we look to Europe and Japan for the future in wireless communication, or will it turn out to be another bursting bubble as we have experienced with too many dot.com business ventures?

"The Wireless Web", unlike so many other books covering technology topics, provides an easy to read and well-structured roadmap on how to develop a winning wireless strategy. Bergeron starts off explaining the history of this industry and it's economic drivers and then provides an overview of the current state of technologies, the various systems, protocols and technical standards used in the US and compares them to the more cohesive and further developed Japanese and European technologies. The latter part of the book focuses on the future, introducing the reader to opportunities and potential risks wireless technologies will offer as well as technical and political limitations it will face as this technology matures He closes with a well structured guideline on how to develop a wireless strategy of any scale.

In summary, this book will familiarize the reader with this new and dynamic industry and provide the knowledge required to develop, communicate, and execute a successful wireless strategy. Although written for the non-technical executive, I recommend this book to every one confronted with wireless technologies, the corporate executive implementing a wireless enterprise information portal as well as the cell phone user confronted with evaluating roaming charges, communication protocols and coverage areas when selecting a calling plan. This book definitely deserves a place on the bookshelf of any technologist.

Many people have been impressed by what they have seen of the new wireless services in Europe and Japan. Based on the promise of these offerings, wireless operators have spent billions of dollars for 3G licenses in Europe that will require tens of billions to implement. Based on the amount of money invested and planned for the next few years, it looks like the days of broadband wireless Internet are about to be with us. What should you be doing now? That's the question that this book addresses.

The Wireless Web is the best book I have seen for describing the background of how technology and customer needs are converging to provide new wireless offerings and the potential for new ways to solve problems. About two-thirds of the book is aimed at providing a layperson's description of technology, social, and governmental developments that will influence what will be offered by companies. The remaining third gives you a template for thinking about what these developments mean for your business. For most people now, that decision will relate to when to get involved.

In my consulting practice, it is clear that there are enormous opportunities now to develop intellectual property and new business models that can be implemented immediately. For those who mainly want to use the wireless web as an adjunct to their businesses, on the other hand, you have lots of time.

The best advice in the book is to be sure that you have the business processes in place that will allow you to connect wireless technology to your business when the rest of the infrastructure and equipment are in place.

Basically, wireless Internet connections will become more important as a disruptive technology than the land-wire connected Internet. By always having a device present (whether a cell phone, personal digital assistant, pager, or some new device), individuals will be able to simplify their lives while they are on the go or in any fixed location. As a result, transactions will be transformed. For example, food manufacturers may have to bid for a consumer's business while she or he is walking down the aisles of a supermarket.

For the first time, you will be able to shape the entire consumer or customer experience around what that person prefers. The potential for positive differentiation becomes enormous, as a result.

My main caution to you is that this field is rapidly changing. This information will become out-of-date rapidly. So read the book now if you are going to.

After you have considered some of the ways that the wireless Internet can improve your offerings, I suggest that you go back to the drawing boards to see how much of these changes you can offer now without broadband wireless connections. In this way, the wireless Internet can be a powerful metaphor now for improving your performance.

Be helpful . . . all the time and everywhere!