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(More customer reviews)This is the first review I've written on Amazon, or anywhere else for that matter, but Discovering Computers 2009 Complete is so unbelievably bad that I had to say something, hopefully helping some poor soul from using this so-called text as a source of information. I am using this as a textbook in a required course in a community college, and am only through chapter 5 so it is possible that all of the inaccuracies and just plain wrong information will suddenly no longer be manifest in later chapters, but I'm not counting on it.
I have been a PC user since the original IBM PC, and have delved into much of the technology involved over the years, so I am at the very least familiar with most of the subject matter. I don't claim to be an expert by any stretch, but I do have my strengths and it is this prior familiarity that permits me to evaluate the text's accuracy. Also consider that this is a book that is supposed to teach those with little or no experience with computers beyond perhaps some very basics, so misleading or unclear statements can be just as damaging to such readers as the outright incorrect statements.
OK, I just opened to a page... this one's not a biggie, but I'll start here. "Today, AMD is the leading manufacturer of Intel-compatible processors, which have an internal design similar to Intel processors..." I think that Intel would like to know about that! The architecture is not similar at all, and remember that we are talking about a college level text here. The very next paragraph: "Originally, Apple computers used only an IBM processor or a Motorola processor..." No, originally Apple used a MOS Technology 6502 processor; the Mac used Motorola and then IBM processors. Nothing critical here, so I'll move on.
At the end of chapter 4: The Components of the System Unit is a page entitled Keeping Your Computer Clean, in which the book suggests using "small attachments on your house vacuum" on the "wires, chips, adapter cards, and fan blades."!!! Even if the user is wearing an antistatic wristband -which the text recommends but makes no mention of how to ground- a house vacuum should NEVER be used on such electronically sensitive parts, as the static electricity generated by the dust flowing through the tube will very efficiently zap those chips and adapter cards. Additionally, they instruct the user to unplug the computer from everything, not necessarily a bad thing, but make no mention of grounding the case or at the very least placing it on a grounded anti-static mat. BAD BAD BAD!
Under the topic of Digital Cameras, a sidebar states that a "digital zoom digitally alters the pixels at the center of the CCD..." If it had said that it only uses the pixel data from the central areas of the CCD it would have been somewhat better, but as it stands the reader is led to believe that the CCD is somehow altered. The text attempts to explain image resolution and pixel density, delving into ppi(pixels per inch), which should almost never be mentioned in the same sentence as image resolution and pixel density. Again from the text: "For example, a 2304x1728 (pronounced 2304 by 1728) ppi camera has 2,304 pixels per vertical inch and 1,728 pixels per horizontal inch." This is just plain wrong in both a fundamental and conceptual way, and exemplifies how the entire book seems to have been authored by someone who does not understand much of the subject matter, and has simply performed a few Internet searches on the topic and then cut-and-pasted his way into a text. If you do not understand why the above sentence is wrong then how would you know it was when you read it in the text. It is not a particularly difficult concept but is misunderstood by the general public (Pixel density, ppi, dpi, etc.).
I have other studying to do, or I could spend the rest of the semester picking this waste of a tree apart. If you have any choice in the matter of selecting a book with which to learn about computers and the technology, please please please do not buy this one. I have nothing to gain what so ever by trashing this one, but I can tell you that it is very aggravating to have to memorize 'facts' that I know without question are wrong, simply to pass an exam.
Speaking of exams, you should see (not!) some of the 'edutainment' the publisher has on the associated 'learning' Web site; neither 'edu' nor 'taining'. I will say this though: I did learn to capitalize Web and Internet.
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Discovering Computers 2009: Complete (Shelly Cashman)
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