For-your-information

Readers will not thumb through this book for long before realizing that it covers just about every possible aspect of the Internet. Beginners will learn how to find an Internet Service Provider (ISP), how to install and use the leading Web browsers, e-mail programs, and plug-ins, how to search the Internet, how to send e-mail, how to design Websites, and how to select good domain names and avoiding registering the wrong ones!

McDonnell provides her readers with warnings of some of the pitfalls and dangers of operating online. She warns readers of computer viruses, of how easy it is for rumors to spread online, snooping, privacy, and legal issues. Employees for instance, are advised to think very carefully before composing and sending e-mail correspondence from their computers at work. Parents will learn how to keep their kids safe from online dangers as well.

McDonnell offers a number of valuable resources her readers can access for additional assistance. Many of the chapters include references to other helpful books and Websites. Readers are invited to grab free Web graphics, shareware programs, and loads of tips and advice made available online by others. A directory listing at the back of the book offers access to some of the better sites online today.

McDonnell does a great job opening up the world of the Internet for beginners. This is an excellent guide for anyone to get started with. Adults and children alike will benefit from the instruction offered in this fun, humorous, easy-to-read, and delightful guide. Great for gifts and classroom use!

It is obvious that the authors have throughly researched all the materials necessary to present accurate, unbiased and essential information. The book is well organized, cross-referenced and covers autoimmune disorders from A to Z.

In addition to the book itself, the resources listed in it are priceless!

Even after being a Myasthenia Gravis patient and coping with the disorder for years, I learned more about Myasthenia by reading this book. I also gave my doctor a copy! Those of us with autoimmune disorders should make it priority read!

The interviews with patients were especially helpful and those with health care professionals were excellent. The possibility of a female having an autoimmune disorder is much higher than that of a male, so the book's main focus is on women. However, it is extremely helpful to men, also.

My family and friends now understand much more about my disease. Congratulations to the authors on a much awaited and much needed book.

The W3C guidelines only take you so far. This book gets you to the next level, and helps you start thinking the right way so you can solve new problems that come up in a similar fashion.

Now, if someone would only write a book on making web sites *usable* for people with disabilities (not just accessible), we'd be laughing.

The few other books on web accessibility have only certain strong points, or are overviews lacking concrete direction. Not so with Maximum Accessibility. Slatin & Rush present a comprehensive evaluation of the state of the industry in regard to web accessibility, a summary (perhaps the most comprehensive, yet readable, I've ever found) of U.S. and international law pertaining to accessibility for the disabled, and [perhaps the most compelling parts of the book] personal looks at disabled users' interactions using popular web sites to do everyday tasks. [A side note: congratulations to amazon.com for their willing paricipation in the book (including permission for many screenshots), and for being forthright in admitting when they could do things better for disabled users -- and then doing them. On the contrary: shame on the Salt Lake Winter Olympic Organizing Committee for being made aware of huge problems, admitting they knew about it, then refusing to return the authors' calls after they had promised to work with them, and finally refusing permission to use screenshots from their web site in the book.]

More than just presenting an overview, though, Slatin & Rush delve into the code behind the page presentation (something like Nielsen's "50 Web Pages Deconstructed" -- not surprising, since he wrote the foreward for Maximum Accssibility). They identify problems, explain *why* they are problems, demonstrate ways to fix (or improve) them, or, when things just can't be fixed, offer suggestions on ways to provide equivalent content that is accessible. In short, Maximum Accessibility is "one stop shopping" for improving the accessibility of web sites: from why, to where, to how, the information is in here, it's current, and it represents the best practices of a large segment of the technology industry.

A substantial portion of the population has at least some form of disability. A substantal number of them actively use the web. From a purely profit-driven motive, why would you want to exclude potential customers from your site? From a purely legal point of view, you may be required to provide accessibility, depending on your type of company or organization and the services you provide. From a purely moral standpoint, it's just the right thing to take some very simple steps to ensure your information is available to all. And from an egocentric/pragmatic viewpoint, well-constructed accessible web design generally makes the web experience better for everyone -- including you. Code the way you hope others would code for you -- or for your aging mom, or your disabled brother, or your child with a disability. Maximum Accessibility provides background and reasoning to address all these concerns, as well as practicable, "nuts & bolts" advice on how to fix problems - or code without problems to begin with.

I highly recommend Maximum Accessibility to *all* individuals and organizations involved with web content development, design, and management. It will be money very well spent. If you're in the industry, buy two and give one to your CIO! ;-)

If you or someone you know is new to using a PC this book is well worth having propped up against the monitor for easy reference. If you've been using a computer for a while then it's probably too simple for you, although I call myself an expert and I didn't know that TWAIN stood for "Technology Without An Interesting Name".

It is not as much for those who want to become "do-it-yourself computer gurus" and work on their computers as it is for those who want their computer and Internet connection to work reliably for them. Virtually no technical jargon is used and generally when a computer term is used it is clearly defined or explained.

The title also seems too restrictive. The book covers Internet issues as well as PC issues. "The Healthy PC" is an invaluable reference for both the computer and the Internet, but it is written in such a way as to be worth reading from start to finish as well.

In addition to explanations, definitions, helpful tips and background information, step by step instructions are provided which are fully illustrated with pictures of what the screen will look like at each step of each procedure.

Among the topics covered are ways to maintain and upgrade the computer, optimize performance and reliability of the PC and Internet connection, Internet issues (including safety, security and privacy), and much more.

The author suggests what to do when dealing with threats and annoyances such as viruses, hoaxes, worms, spam, and spyware in addition to e-mail software and firewalls.

We all know that if you look hard enough everything will have its positives and negatives. If I had to nitpick to find a negative, all I could come up with is timeliness, which is out of the author's control when dealing with publciction deadlines.

Reality, especially in the computer industry, changes fast enough that between the time a book is written and the time it is released, some information may become obsolete.

One example is a note on page 80 that states: "There is no alternative method to check your (AOL) email other than using the software provided by AOL or by visiting www.aol.com. As of the writing of this book it is not and has not been, possible to configure any dedicated email program...to work with AOL." That was true until recently when at least two dedicated email programs were released that can handle AOL mail as well as conventional email. Also the author uses AOL 8 rather than AOL 9 when referring to AOL.

Please understand that what was true yesterday may not be true today and what is true today may not be true tomorrow. All any author can do is describe a snapshot in time. The only thing that we know for sure is that everything will change. Possibly the publisher should consider annual updates on either a separate release or subscription basis for books such as this, which provide important information in a rapidly changing environment.

Carey Holzman has done a great job in providing tips, procedures, definitions, explanations, background and peace of mind to a much larger audience than is described on the cover.

How many times have you been reading a "How To" book and said to yourself "Now why didn't I think of that?" If your answer is "never" try reading this book so you can become familiar with the experience.

Don't expect in depth technical jargon that will leave your mind in a clutter. This book is more about taking care of one potential problem, then walking over to see if there is something that can be done about the next. Also don't expect to delve deep into the Windows OS and perform major surgery, instead you will find simple common sense approaches to improving the performance of your PC.