Inconvenience Store
BOOK REVIEW: Astronomer's Computer Companion
Astronomer's Computer Companion
Jeff Foust & Ron Lafon, 1999, No Starch Press, nostarch.com
Well... the universe is a big place, no doubt about that, but the internet ain't so damn small either.
Jeff and Ron have attempted to corral the incredible wealth and diversity of internet sites relating to astronomy and distill it down into some sort of manageable form that can be shoved between the covers of a book.
They bit off an awful lot, and I'm not sure if it all got properly chewed.
But they get high marks for what they HAVE chewed.
This thing is just LOADED with stuff, from the weather on the planet you're trying to peek at some galaxy through, all the way out to the cosmic background radiation, and no end of stuff in between.
Lotta damn stuff!
Comes with a nifty cd that has a sampler of a whole slew of astronomy-related programs.
But it's more of an encyclopedia than a book.
Don't bother trying to read it through or anything, just leave it on the shelf and hit the index for whatever you're curious about and then wade in as deep as you like.
It gets DEEP.
A lifetime resident (despite having travelled all over the damn place at one time or another) of Central Florida, James MacLaren took a four-year degree in death thrills riding giant waves on the North Shore back in the 70's. Wound up in the inconvenience store following a lay off from the Cape, where he was involved with the construction of the Space Shuttle launch pads, among other things. Father of best son in the world.
