BKEFFEML.RVW   971129

"Effective E-Mail: Clearly Explained", Bradley Shimmin, 1997,
0-12-640060-1, U$39.95/C$55.95
%A   Bradley Shimmin bshimmin@ultranet.com bshimmin@stearns.com
%C   525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, CA   92101-4495
%D   1997
%G   0-12-640060-1
%I   Academic Press/Academic Press Professional/Harcourt Brace
%O   U$39.95/C$55.95 619-231-0926 800-321-5068 fax: 619-699-6380
%P   292 p. + CD-ROM
%T   "Effective E-Mail: Clearly Explained"

While Web traffic continues to grow with ever larger graphics, sound,
and video files being flung to all corners of the world, and despite
dancing banners that delight the hearts of the hard core gaming crowd,
the "don't you dare take away my access" killer app of the net is
still email.  And there are a large number of people who could use it
more effectively.

Shimmin's definition of "effective" might differ from that of some
other people.  The book takes a rather technical look at email,
although not one that is beyond the grasp of an intelligent and
dedicated reader.  Still, he does tend to throw the reader in at the
deep end, starting off an explanation of the concepts of email with a
dissection of a full header.

Shimmin seems to be OK with redefining many other terms, and even
concepts.  Chapter two supposedly deals with file formats.  Of course,
this is intended to refer to file attachments that you may receive
with email.  The book assumes that the reader is using a mail agent
that will automatically deal with encoding: not always the case.  He
does overview graphics, sound, and movie file formats, and notes a few
programs that can be used to deal with them.  In some cases, though,
it is assumed that the user will access the files through a Web
browser.  (In which case, one wonders why Shimmin does not simply
assume the use of one of the later versions of Web browsers to deal
with mail, and deal with pretty much all aspects of decoding and
playing.)  "Text file" is also redefined to include documents which
contain non-printable  material such as proprietary word processor
formats.  (He also has interesting ideas about how .CHK files are
created.)

Archiving and compression is looked at briefly in chapter three.  On
the one hand, the formats listed tend to be only the most common.  On
the other, there are some listed that Shimmin admits you are unlikely
to see in your lifetime.  The biggest problem, though, is that the
text looks only at archival formats specific to the platform under
which they are most popular.  Most users need help on those formats
from other platforms they do not deal with on a regular basis.

In a sense, chapters two to four are backwards.  It is only in the
last that the book deals with the base encoding formats such as
BinHex, uuencode, or base64.  The chapter does make a quick nod to
cross-platform difficulties: the recommended utility does deal with
all three encoding styles.  However, it only runs on Windows.

Chapter five starts out by saying that the previous material has dealt
with the most frustrating and difficult parts of email.  Then it goes
on to look at SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), POP (Post Office
Protocol), IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), and error
messages.  Chapter six looks at various aspects of non-standard email
systems, including a revisit of encoding formats.  Eventually getting
around to practical search tools for finding people on the net,
chapter seven starts by discussing LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol) and X.500.  Although chapter eight portrays itself as
dealing with "high octane" email, it discusses some fairly basic
issues of configuration and mail management.  Chapter nine talks about
various problem areas, such as netiquette and viruses.  At times it is
difficult to determine whether or not Shimmin is recommending that
users pursue courses of vengeance, and there isn't a really strong
warning that such activity could get them into trouble.  The suggested
activities in the section on viruses aren't bad, although the
implications of some of the background explanations are a little odd. 
Encryption concepts aren't covered terribly well in chapter eleven,
but it does provide a good guide for getting and using Zimmermann's
PGP program.  Chapter eleven looks at a few non-email technologies. 
An appendix provides contact information for a variety of email tools
and information resources.

Overall, the book provides a good deal of interesting and potentially
useful information.  The level of presentation is suitable to the
novice, or non-technical, user, and also to the intermediate user who
has been dealing with email for some time, but only at a basic level. 
The organization, and sometimes presentation, of the material could
use some work, though.  There are also a number of topics that could
help people be more effective in email usage that don't make it into
the book.  Mailing lists, netiquette, and the multiplicity of mail
agents are three subjects that do get mentioned, but deserve a larger
place.

For those new to email, or wanting to advance in some areas, this book
does have useful information.  You will have to dig for it, and
remember not to trust everything you read.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997   BKEFFEML.RVW   971129