Connect Your Amiga! A Guide to the Internet, LANs, BBSs and Online Services by Dale L. Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing, 1994
A Review of the book
by Merrill Callaway
Dale L. Larson is a former software engineer in the Commodore Amiga Networking Group. He was one of the principle authors of the SANA-II Network Device Driver Standard, and also worked on AS225 and the original Envoy specification documents. This is his first book, and it is an important reference if you have a need or desire to connect your Amiga to a BBS, a LAN, or an on-line service of some type. It is an excellent value at $24.95.
The book assumes you know little if anything about networking, faxing or BBSs, but veterans will appreciate the wealth of reference material and hardware/software product information included. The book is a very readable combination of: glossary, clearly defining all the jargon so glibly bandied about by insiders; tutorial, enumerating the steps necessary to get connected to a net; reference, providing technical specifications and essential information including general descriptions of how things work; software/hardware review, evaluating specific products you may need and where to get them; and resource guide, providing contact information (telephone numbers, addresses and email) for numerous BBSs and on-line services, as well as Amiga vendors. There is also a bibliography.
Connect Your Amiga! (ISBN 1-885876-02-5) has 256 pages, divided into five major sections: I. The Networks, II. Amiga Telecommunications, III. Amiga LANs, IV. Amiga Internet, and V. Security, Privacy and More. There are five Appendices as well: A. Choosing Providers, B. Amiga Vendors, C. Recommended Reading, D. Questions and Answers, and E. Amiga Envoy Manual. Although terms are defined throughout the book, there is also a Glossary after the Appendices. The book ($24.95) is available from Amiga dealers (if you know any who are left!) or direct from Intangible Assets Manufacturing, 828 Ormond Ave., Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604. email:info@iam.com, tel: +1 610 853 4406, fax: +1 610 853 3733.
The writing style is clear, humorous, and slightly subversive. In addition to the necessary information there are hidden meanings and puns that make for fun reading. Make sure to read carefully the fine print on the verso page, including the part in bogus latin!
A successful how-to book is one that reaches out to include beginners, yet causes all its readers to grow by challenging them. In other words a technical book should not get stuck in one groove either for beginners or experts. Although books strictly for beginners get boring very fast, more commonly we find technical books (particularly on programming) that permanently eliminate many readers by having a huge first step in their learning curve. Usually it is undefined jargon that causes the most discouragement. The main reason to really like Connect Your Amiga! is the clear and painless way Dale Larson explains the jargon surrounding his subject. You need never again feel like an idiot when your networked buddies speak of SANA-II, TCP/IP, UUENCODE, bandwidth/latency, FTP, LHA, and so on. The Table of Contents may look like alphabet soup but when you turn to the page indicated, Dale explains very clearly what it is, why you use it and how it works in your Amiga. Unlike most engineers, Dale Larson spares us, the mere users of networks, the excruciating details of the low level technology and computer science. He instinctively knows where to write, "You do not have to understand this to use this." Connect Your Amiga! is clearly a user's and not a developer's book. Reading from Larson's bibliography will satisfy the most detailed curiosity, however.
The Table of Contents spans six pages, so it would be impossible to cover all of it in a brief review. Typically, a subject, say LANs, is introduced generally in Part I The Networks. There, subjects such as the physical connection, device drivers, protocol software, and network applications give the reader a working knowledge of LANs. Then in Part III Amiga LANs, Amiga-specific hardware and software are evaluated to enable you to make a decision as to what your system should use. The attention to practical details is refreshing. All too often technical books discuss no specific products, and are of real value only to a theoretician. Larson strikes a good balance between general theory (e.g. he explains how faxes work) and the practical (e.g. he gives advice about how to pick a really private password for a BBS). His experience, his intelligence and his love for the Amiga show through on every page. Larson's only important omission is the lack of specific information about networking Amigas with other platforms, such a Macs and IBMs. This is a book that I have been wanting for a long time. I even tried to get my friends who "cruise the boards" to write down what they know, so I could publish the information myself. They never did, but I am happy to say that Dale L. Larson wrote and published the very book I had in mind. I highly recommend Connect Your Amiga! to anyone interested in travelling the "Information Superhighway" in their Amiga.
