Dave’s Guide to the Best of the Web

    My real job is as a network engineer for Collages.Net Inc. As anyone who works in the industry will know the field of knowledge is vast and the challenges continuous. How does one deal with the continuous expansion of knowledge and challenges? One way is by subscribing to Informit’s Safari Tech Books Online.

Safari is an online bookshelf with hundreds of titles from many of the most renowned publishers (O’Reilly, Addison-Wesley, Sams, Que, Cisco, Microsoft) and authors (Gary McGraw, Michael Miller, Jesse Liberty) in the industry. Topics covered include applied sciences, artificial intelligence, technical certifications (e.g. A+, CCNA, MCSE), computer science, databases, desktop publishing, desktop applications, e-business/e-commerce, enterprise computing, internet, programming, multimedia, networking, and security amongst others.

Here is a quick sampling of the sort of volumes you can expect from Safari:

• Programming Collective Intelligence, Toby Segaran (Artificial Intelligence).
• Cisco ASA, PIX, and FWSM Firewall Handbook by David Hucaby  (Networking/Security).
• Beautiful Code by Andy Oram and Greg Wilson (Computer Science).
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Unleashed by Ray Rankins, & co. (Databases).
• Java in a Nutshell by David Flanagan (Programming).

Okay, those are some pretty technical volumes, but for those just getting started there are some excellent volumes as well. Whether you need to learn basic web design, how to edit multimedia files, it management skills, or any of dozens of areas of expertise - Safari InformIT can help.

It does cost money - but the cost is reasonable. Technical volumes don’t sell many copies (how many people want to read about low-level kernel details?) so authors and publishers have to make up for this lack in readership by increasing the price of volumes. A good technical volume can oftentimes run $50 or more at a traditional bookstore. With Safari InformIT you can read several books at a time for $9.95 per month, or get even more at a higher price. You really can’t argue with the price.

For philosophy students, those interested in philosophy, or those who are forced to learn about philosophy, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy may be a great starting resource. Hosted by the University of Tennessee it was founded by Dr. James Fieser (UTM Department of Philosophy) who currently also serves as a general editor. He is joined in his endeavors by a wide number of philosophy professors in composing and editing the articles such as Dr. Bradley Dowden (California State University), Dr. Ed Grippe (Norwalk Community College), and Dr. Stephen Schneider (Harvard University).

As one can quickly see from the credentials of those who work with and submit to The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, this site maintains high academic standards and would be considered a valid source for most scholarly papers. They only accept materials written either by Professors at institutions of higher learning (e.g. colleges, universities) and on rare occasions from A.B.D. graduate students. All documents are peer-reviewed and edited given a high quality of work.

So what exactly does The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy cover? Well, it is an encyclopedia so it would be difficult to summarize all of its contents. But to briefly sum up, it covers individuals (e.g. Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Cicero, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Thomas Aquinas), concepts (e.g. time, fallacies, and humor), and philosophies (e.g. humanism, middle platonism, and relativism). From simple to complex, the encyclopedia offers in-depth articles written by qualified authorities on philosophical topics and offers additional bibliographies to point students in the right direct for further study. So what are you waiting for? Go read up on Jean-Jacques Rousseau or open theism.

There is a key term currently in use amongst tech-heads, web 2.0. This term is used to mean many things, one of which is its acknowledgment of new technologies in the website design field. Whereas in the past most websites where written in HTML, PHP, or ASP today a new set of languages and technologies have come onto the field. One of these new technologies (okay, so a repackaged, renamed, old technology) is the mashup. A mashup is when someone takes an already existing technology (generally from a large, well-established company) and overlays it with their own data. This data is usually of such a niche character that the big company would not be interested in developing it. One such example of a mashup is BibleMap.org.

BibleMap.org is currently in beta, but already shows tremendous promise. It is a mashup of Google Maps with the Christian Scriptures,* particularly with geographic locations mentioned in those Scriptures. So, if you happen to be reading Acts 18 and see mention of locations like Athens, Corinth, Pontus, Rome, Macedonia, and Achaia - instead of simply glossing over the words without any understanding of how their location affects the story - you can quickly and easily view them using BibleMap.org. The site includes the text of the chapter you are reading in either the King James Version or English Standard Version as well as pictures and dictionary type descriptions of the locations. Clicking on a location in the text will bring up a balloon with additional information about that location on the map.

BibleMap.org is a great way to understand the geography of the Bible…Even if you are only reading it for its historic/literary value. Can one really understand a text without understanding the geography? Think of the difference between saying, “I walked from Albany to New York City” and “I walked from Albany to Santa Fe.” Big difference that can affect the way we read the story, yet we oftentimes overlook these significant hints in the storyline as we read the Bible.

*While it is particularly the Christian Scriptures which are enumerated it may be of interest to those from Jewish and Islamic backgrounds. The Old Testament of Christians is the Scriptures of the Jews and much of the New Testament takes place in the context of Israelite history and in relation to Judaism. Meanwhile, while Islam does not recognize the Bible as holding the same authority as Christians do, they do recognize it as an authority besides the Q’uran.

Project Gutenberg is one of the most prestigious websites on the internet. Founded by Michael Hart in its nebulous form in 1971 it is one of the longest-lived and largest websites on the internet. Project Gutenberg exists to digitize books in order to distribute and preserve them for all time and does so as a free service.

As such, Project Gutenberg is an exciting and vast library of resources for anyone looking for a good read. One can visit their Top 100 Downloads page to see what books and authors are most popular or browse the entirety of the vast collection - currently clocking in at over 20,000 volumes.

All of the volumes on Project Gutenberg are legally placed there, either because their copyright has expired and they are now in the public domain or because the author/publisher has given explicit permission for the book to be published.

So what sort of books can one expect to find on Project Gutenberg? The variety and scope is amazing. Here are a few samples:

• David Eugene Smith. A History of Mathematics.
• Jefferson Davis. The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.
• Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of God.
• Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo.
• Jack London. The Call of the Wild.
• W.E.B. DuBois. The Souls of Black Folk.
• Thomas Henry Huxley. Evolution of Theology: an Anthropological Study.
• Fyodor Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment.
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
• E.A. Wallis Budge. The Babylonian Legends of Creation.
• T.S. Eliot. The Waste Land.
• Jules Verne. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
• H. G. Wells. The War of the Worlds.
• Zane Grey. The Last Trail.
• Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.

Project Gutenberg also includes search functionality which allows you to query their massive tomes to find the rare and obscure. For example, when I was working on GameSecretary.Com, a website of group games, I found several volumes specifically on this subject such as George Orrin Draper’s School, Church, and Homes Games and May C. Hofmann’s Games for Everybody.

If you are looking for a way to help others out, Project Gutenberg is also an excellent project. There are many quick ways to become involved in the process and the time required is determined by the volunteer. Who doesn’t want to help ensure that texts are archived and available for posterity’s sake and our own?

For those looking to read more about the history of Project Gutenberg, a good article was written by Marie Lebert entitled “Project Gutenberg, from 1971 to 2005” and published over at the Net des études françaises.