The Internet for Scientists and Engineers:
Online Tools and Resources
by
Brian J. Thomas
SPIE Optical Engineering Press
a publication of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Bellingham, Washington
1998
This book provides an introduction to internet methods and resources, with a particular focus on web-based services for scientists and engineers. This book begins with a simplified introduction to the internet, including information about how to get on line and use email. It includes information for both Windows and Mac users.
Because the book was written for scientists and engineers, there is quite a bit of discussion about accessing university and government sites, including information about using FTP and some of the basic UNIX commands. They also outline some of the common email shorthand (such as IMHO, for in my humble opinion) and some common emoticons (emotional icons) (such as :-) to indicate a smile). Don't we all love to be experienced users and use this kind insider stuff?
The authors also spend considerable time discussing lesser-known issues such as remote login using telnet, Gopher, and FTP. File and file formats are also discussed, along with some explanation about how to use UNIX commands related to files. As more and more universities convert their Gopher files for web delivery, these chapters will lose their value for scientists. But for now, there is still a surprising amount of information in these older formats out there at various government and university sites.
Probably the most useful part of the book is in the chapters that focus on online databases of information. The authors have done a good job of locating both university and commercial information sources. They are described in some detail. Almost 250 pages are committed to detailed listings of internet resources. They include:
aeronautics and aerospace
agricultural science
artificial intelligence
astronomy and astrophysics
biology and biotechnology
chemistry
computer science
electronics and electrical engineering
energy
engineering
geology and geophysics
imagining technologies
linguistics and natural language
mathematics
medicine
meteorology
oceanography
optics
physics
security
virtual reality
The book also includes a number of useful appendices including:
An introduction to TCP/IP
SLIP and PPP
Personal Computer Basics
This book also has an excellent glossary, index, and bibliography.
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