Computing Recent Picks
November 2008
The underlined title links will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.
505 unbelievably stupid Web p@ges, by Dan Crowley.
"Presents a directory of unusual and eccentric Web sites which cover such topics as the flat earth liberation front, fighting stickmen, an ugly toy contest, misfortune cookies, and American spy cows.
When sheep feel glad that they can't use computers, this is why. 505 Unbelievably Stupid Webpages reveals the Internet's weirdest, funniest and overall dumbest websites. With more than 25,000 copies sold this new edition is completely updated and revised to include the most bizarre websites to emerge in the last few years." (Amazon)
Web design : interactive & games, edited by Julius Wiedemann. (2008)
"This book describes the web's best interactive sites. With its origins tied to the invention of the hyperlink, the web is defined by interaction. In the internet's early days, interaction consisted on clicking links to be taken to different pages. Today, with broadband, flash, video, sound, and online games, this concept has been taken to another level. From news sites and blogs to commercial and public awareness sites, interactivity is the key to the internet experience. This book showcases about 100 examples of work from the world's best digital agencies - such as Greenpeace, Volkswagen, and Nike - demonstrating the most innovative uses of interactivity on the web today. More bang for your buck! '...a fast-food, high-energy fix on the topic at hand' - "The New York Times Book Review"." (Amazon)
Taking your iPod touch to the max, by Erica Sadun. (2008)
"Fast and fun to read, Taking Your iPod Touch to the Max gives you all the tips and techniques you could ever think of to make the most of your Apple iPod Touch. Erica Sadun is an expert at hacking devices to discover undocumented tricks, and this book reveals everything and more about the functionality of the iPod Touch. But before that, Sadun will give you the best, most efficient, and fun to read introduction to the basics of using the iPod Touch that you will ever find." (Amazon)
The blogging revolution, by Antony Loewenstein. (2008)
"In many countries, internet censorship has become one of the key human rights issues of the twenty-first century. Best-selling author Antony Loewenstein conducts a searching examination of the ways the internet is threatening the rule of some of the planet's most repressive governments, including in countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba, Egypt and Syria. With first-hand investigative reporting, Loewenstein discovers the ways that Western multinationals are assisting the restriction of information in these countries, how bloggers are leading the charge for change and how, thanks to the web, we in the West now have a unique insight into cultures at once radically different from and yet distinctly similar to our own." (Amazon)
The future of the Internet and how to stop it, by Jonathan Zittrain.
"This extraordinary book explains the engine that has catapulted the Internet from backwater to ubiquity - and reveals that it is sputtering precisely because of its runaway success. With the unwitting help of its users, the generative Internet is on a path to a lockdown, ending its cycle of innovation - and facilitating unsettling new kinds of control. IPods, iPhones, Xboxes, and TiVos represent the first wave of Internet-centered products that can’t be easily modified by anyone except their vendors or selected partners. These “tethered appliances” have already been used in remarkable but little-known ways: car GPS systems have been reconfigured at the demand of law enforcement to eavesdrop on the occupants at all times, and digital video recorders have been ordered to self-destruct thanks to a lawsuit against the manufacturer thousands of miles away. New Web 2.0 platforms like Google mash-ups and Facebook are rightly touted - but their applications can be similarly monitored and eliminated from a central source. As tethered appliances and applications eclipse the PC, the very nature of the Internet - its “generativity,” or innovative character - is at risk. The Internet’s current trajectory is one of lost opportunity. Its salvation, Zittrain argues, lies in the hands of its millions of users. Drawing on generative technologies like Wikipedia that have so far survived their own successes, this book shows how to develop new technologies and social structures that allow users to work creatively and collaboratively, participate in solutions, and become true “netizens”." (Amazon)
Painting the Web, by Shelley Powers.
"Do you think that only professionals with expensive tools and years of experience can work with web graphics? This guide tosses that notion into the trash bin. "Painting the Web" is the first comprehensive book on web graphics to come along in years, and author Shelley Powers demonstrates how readers of any level can take advantage of the graphics and animation capabilities built into today's powerful browsers. She covers GIFs, JPEGs, and PNGs, raster and vector graphics, CSS, Ajax effects, the canvas objects, SVG, geographical applications, and more - everything that designers (and non-designers) use to literally paint the Web. More importantly, Shelley's own love of web graphics shines through in every example. Not only can you master the many different techniques, you also can have fun doing it." (Amazon)
Secrets of the iPod and iTunes, by Christopher Breen.
Connecting the clouds : the Internet in New Zealand, by Keith Newman.
Creating web sites bible, by Philip Crowder with David A. Crowder.
How to do everything : Facebook applications, by Jesse Feiler.
Read the latest computer magazine issues online for free!
Here is a link to an article from November PC World - from the EBSCO database, part of mygateway.info. The link will take you to the full-text of the magazine, once you have entered your library card details.
PC World "10 Things We Hate About iTunes." PC World; Nov2008, Vol. 26 Issue 11, p41-42.
Check your card I New fiction, DVD and cd lists I How to place a reserve I Borrowing I Contact us
