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From: upstill@ucbvax.ARPA (Steve Upstill)
Newsgroups: net.movies,net.books
Subject: Re: Recommended Computer Books
Message-ID: <3855@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 17-Dec-84 20:00:52 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.3855
Posted: Mon Dec 17 20:00:52 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Dec-84 07:14:15 EST
References: <66@decwrl.UUCP>
Reply-To: upstill@ucbvax.UUCP (Steve upstill)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 19
Xref: watmath net.movies:5269 net.books:1105
Summary: 

Try "The Whole Earth Software Catalog".  Stewart Brand, et al, have
been computer advocates for some time, and now here they are acting
as Consumer Reports for hardware and software.  The orientation is
aligned with that of the Whole Earth Catalog: pointing out tools of 
use in giving individuals more control and power over their lives.
If that sounds too airy for you, let me just say that as an advanced
academic computist, I found the book very hard to put down, simply
as a view on the world of consumer software.  There is a lot of
information here, and the reviews have it that it is a great intro
for novices.  BTW, the book costs $18, but for about $1 more, you
can get the book AND a years subscription to The Whole Earth Review,
successor to the mutually-defunct CoEvolution Quarterly and Whole
Earth Software Review.  The first issue, one third of which consists
of articles under the heading "Computers As Poison", is worth the
price of admission alone; I have rarely read such eloquent arguments
for suspicion of computers.

Steve Upstill