BKUMTAIS.RVW   20000308

"Understanding Modern Telecommunications and the Information
Superhighway", Nellist/Gilbert, 0-89006-322-2, U$49.00
%A   John G. Nellist
%A   Elliott M. Gilbert
%C   685 Canton St., Norwood, MA   02062
%D   1999
%G   0-89006-322-2
%I   Artech House/Horizon
%O   U$49.00 800-225-9977 fax: 617-769-6334 artech@artech-house.com
%P   285 p.
%T   "Understanding Modern Telecommunications and the Information
      Superhighway"

I suppose I should have been warned by the fact that the title of the
book uses the dread "Information Superhighway" cliche.  The
introduction implies that this text is aimed at a general audience, so
one assumes that the authors think they are going to be educating the
public in regard to modern telecommunications.  However, it is obvious
that they have only skimmed the surface of what is available.  The
first chapter starts out with a quote from one Charles Duell,
Commissioner of the US Office of Patents in 1899, urging that the
office be abolished since "[e]verything that can be invented, has been
invented."  I imagine that this quote, and those that begin the other
chapters, were taken from a list that has circulated widely on the
Internet: they all seem to be there.  However, if the authors had done
a little more research they would have found that the original piece
makes it obvious that Duell is mocking those who are making this kind
of argument, and, in fact, is taking the contrary position.  This same
level of research appears to be maintained throughout the work.

Chapter one is a brief history of modern telecommunications, or, at
least, that part of it which happened in the US.  Random and
disorganized topics to do with computers and the Internet fill chapter
two.  An equally mixed grab bag of telecom services is in chapter
three.  Fibre and switching optics are touched on in chapter four, but
very poorly.  Chapter five seems to be only a set of maps of undersea
cables.  Satellites are covered in chapter six, but the information is
sometimes odd.  We are told, for example, that "only six cities" in
the world can launch satellites into geostationary orbits.  Aside from
the fact that this does not seem to make sense--I don't know of any
city-states left, let alone those with a space program--a few pages on
this is contradicted by a statement that a sea launch can reach GEO
from anywhere.

Chapter seven lists a number of options for the "last mile" of
connection to the home, along with mentions of some services.  There
is a rough outline of telephone network operations and the major
corporations in chapter eight, along with five paragraphs on the
Internet.  Chapter nine gives us such information about wireless
technology as the "fact" that "TDMA [Time Division Multiple Access] is
a derivative of GSM [Global System for Mobile Communications]." 
Looking to the future, chapter ten recapitulates much of what the book
has already said.  Then chapter eleven does it again in a different
format.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that the illustrations in this
volume are more than normally pointless.  Examples are the sample Web
page with nothing on it, and five pictures of TVs with nothing on
them.  The text is almost equally informative, comprised of the banal
mixed with the erroneous.  I really can't see who would need this
book.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 2000   BKUMTAIS.RVW   20000308