RFC 1432
Recent Internet Books
Recent Internet Books 📚✨
okay bestie, let's get into it 🎀
- RFC: 1432, "Recent Internet Books" 💖
- Series: Network Working Group
- Author: J. Quarterman, MIDS 👑
- Date: March 1993 📅
- Status: this memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard 🧚
- Obsoletes/Updates: none listed in the header 🦋
Status of this Memo 🌸
Quick vibe check: this memo is just information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard, so nobody is being forced to do anything 🫶. Distribution is unlimited, so share it with everyone you know 💅.
Abstract 🎀
So this piece first ran in Volume 2 Number 12 (December 1992) of Matrix News, the monthly newsletter of Matrix Information and Directory Services, Inc. (MIDS). Iconic newsletter, iconic org 💜.
1. Which Books 📚
Okay so first, what even is "the Internet"? It's the global, super fast growing network of more than a million computers that talk to each other using the TCP/IP protocols, and millions of people use it 🌈. This whole list got started because nine or ten books about the Internet dropped in about a year, and some of them aren't even out yet 😭. I also threw in some older ones that have been around since the dim past of 1984 🙈. My take is that every single one has useful stuff for people who are new to the Internet 💖.
Some of these books are about more than just the Internet 🍓. A few are about the Matrix, which is the set of all computer networks around the world that swap electronic mail. The Matrix includes FidoNet, UUCP, BITNET, USENET, the Internet, and many others, and it isn't limited to any one of them 🦋. This collection is mostly centered on the Internet, though, because the largest computer network in the world has gotten so many new books lately 👑. Matrix News keeps covering the Matrix as a whole, including but not limited to the Internet ✨.
Here's the big table, bestie 💅:
Author Pp. Price Audience Type Other
Networks
LaQuey & Ryer 208 $10.95 public user guide some
Kehoe 112 $22 technical user guide minimal
Krol 376 $24.95 researchers guide, catalog minimal
Kochmer 450 $39.95 researchers guide, catalog some
Marine, et al. 380 $39 administrative contacts, some
context
Dern ? ? new users user guide chapters
Lane & 200 $37.50 information primer ?
Summerhill professionals
Malamud 376 $26.95 varied travelog some
Quarterman & 448 $42.50 varied standards minimal
Wilhelm
Lynch, Rose 822 $40 technical standards minimal
Tennant, et al. 142 $45 professionals textbook ?
Benedikt 444 $15.95 varied anthology some
Kahin 446 $34.95 faculty scholarly variable
Parkhurst 86 $10.50 librarians scholarly some
McClure, et al. 746 $45 varied scholarly some
Levy 473 $4.95 public history some
Raymond 453 $10.95 varied dictionary some
Stoll 332 $19.95 public spy story some
Hafner & 368 $22.95 public journalism some
Markoff
Denning 574 $23.95 public scholarly some
Sterling 352 $23 public documentary some
IRG 240 $15 technical catalog minimal
NorthWestNet 297 $20 technical catalog minimal
Frey & Adams 436 $26.95 varied desk ref. many
LaQuey (UDCN) 645 $34.95 varied directory several
Quarterman 746 $50 varied context all
Table 1. Network Books SummarizedI'm leaving out books that are only about the technical side of things, like the TCP/IP protocols themselves 🤓. Instead I'm focusing on the resources and users of the Internet 🫶. I sorted them into rough groups so they're easier to follow, and lots of them could fit in more than one group, so treat the groups as illustrative, not definitive 🌸. Table 1 sums up some features of every book covered here 💜.
Thank you to various people for their input, especially David Bridge 🙏. A lot of the detailed bibliographic info came from the Library of Congress catalog server, which is supported by Digital Research Associates, Inc., and you can reach it over the Internet with gopher and Telnet 🧚.
Heads up, prices can change, and so can email addresses, phone and fax numbers, and postal addresses 🙈. The price you actually pay might be lower because of a discount, or higher because of shipping, or because you buy outside the United States 💸. Everything here is accurate as far as I know, but your mileage may vary, so use it at your own risk 😭. Please do report errors, changes, and additions to mids@tic.com 💌.
Some bibliographic citations end with a line in this form:
domain.name:path/nameThat means you can get more info by connecting to domain.name with FTP, logging in as user anonymous, using your email address as the password, and then changing to path/name as a directory or retrieving it as a file, whichever one works 🖥️.
Other citations end with a line like local@domain, which is a domain address for further email questions 📧.
2. Introductions 🍓
Most of the new Internet books are new user guides or info about getting connected 🫶. Let's go through them 💅.
LaQuey & Ryer 💖 Tracy LaQuey and Jeanne C. Ryer wrote The Internet Companion: A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking, 208 pages, from Addison-Wesley in Reading, MA, October 1992, priced at $10.95, ISBN 0-201-62224-6. Reviews ran in Internet Society News 1(3):34 (Summer 1992), Link Letter 5(3):4 (Nov. 1992), and Matrix News 2(9):8-9 (Sept. 1992). The contact is companion@world.std.com. This is the least expensive intro guide for new users, and maybe the only one aimed at the general public 🌈. It's also available online by anonymous FTP from world.std.com, two chapters a month 💻.
Kehoe 🦋 Brendan P. Kehoe wrote Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide, 112 pages, from Prentice-Hall in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, July 1992, priced at $22.00, ISBN 0-13-010778-6. Reviews appeared in Link Letter 5(3):3 (Nov. 1992) and MicroTimes 102:3 (Nov. 23, 1992). You can find it at simsc.si.edu:networks/zen.ad. The first edition was, and still is, only available online from various anonymous FTP servers 🌸. This second edition is somewhat bigger and more up to date, and it's still the shortest intro Internet book ⭐.
Krol 👑 Ed Krol wrote The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog, 376 pages, from O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. in Sebastopol, CA, 13 September 1992, priced at $24.95, ISBN 1-56592-025-2. Reviews ran in Internet Society News 1(3):33 (Summer 1992), Link Letter 5(3):3 (Nov. 1992), Matrix News 2(11) (Nov. 1992), and MicroTimes 102:3 (Nov. 23, 1992). Probably the most ambitious of the new crop 🔥. It's a user's guide and a catalog of resources all in one, and it's aimed at graduate students who want to use the Internet for research 🧠.
Kochmer 🎀 Jonathan Kochmer, with NorthWestNet, wrote The Internet Passport: NorthWestNet's Guide to Our World Online, 4th edition, 450 pages, from NorthWestNet in Bellevue, WA, 1993, priced at $39.95, ISBN 0-9635281-0-6. Contact: info@nwnet.net. This one is a forthcoming guide and catalog that I haven't seen yet 👀. It's kind of a plot twist, because it's both the fourth edition of and the successor to another NorthWestNet book listed later 🙃.
Marine 🧚 April Marine, editor, put together Internet: Getting Started, 380 pages, from SRI International in Menlo Park, CA, September 1992, priced at $39.00. It has no ISBN. Reviews appeared in Internet Society News 1(3):33 (Summer 1992), Link Letter 5(3):4 (Nov. 1992), and Matrix News 2(12) (Dec. 1992). You can get it at ftp.nisc.sri.com:netinfo/internet-getting-started-contents. This book covers how to join the Internet and gives you some context so you know why 💜. It isn't really a guide or a catalog, but it does have a bunch of contact listings 📇.
Dern 🌈 Daniel P. Dern wrote The New User's Guide to the Internet, from McGraw-Hill in New York, forthcoming in 1993. ISBN 0-07-016510-6 (hc) and ISBN 0-07-16511-4 (pbk). It's a forthcoming new user guide, and I haven't seen it yet 🙈.
Lane & Summerhill 💖 Elizabeth S. Lane and Craig A. Summerhill wrote An Internet Primer for Information Professionals: A Basic Guide to Networking Technology, 200 pages, from Meckler Corp. in Westport, CT, forthcoming in 1992, priced at $37.50, ISBN 0-88736-831-X. I haven't seen this one either, but it's apparently aimed at information professionals, which presumably means librarians and others 📚.
3. Travelogs ✈️
Only one book is in this category so far 🦋.
Malamud 🌸 Carl Malamud wrote Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue, 376 pages, from Prentice-Hall in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, August 1992, priced at $26.95, ISBN 0-13-296898-3. Reviews ran in Internet Society News 1(3):34 (Summer 1992), Network Computing 3(11):46 (October 15, 1992), and Matrix News 2(9):9,11 (Sept. 1992). This one is full of lunches and dinners with users, administrators, and developers of the Internet in lots of countries around the world, and it has accurate technical background too 🍽️. It's easily the most wickedly funny book about the Internet 😂. There's even a subplot about how and why ITU and ISO don't publish their standards online 💀.
4. Standards ✨
okay so standards sound super boring, but bestie, Internet Standards are actually iconic 🌐 The processes that make them show how the whole network works: it's built by the people who use it and the engineers who care about it 🫶
Quarterman & Wilhelm:
John S. Quarterman, and Susanne Wilhelm, UNIX,
POSIX, and Open Systems: The Open Standards
Puzzle, p. 446, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1993.
$42.50. ISBN 0-201-52772-3.
Book Review: Internet Society News, 1(3):34.
Summer 1992.this one is giving open systems standards 📚 It has a super quick history of the Internet, thoughts on how networks change standards (and how standards change networks), why putting standards online is a good move 🌸, and a deep dive into the IETF standards process that makes Internet Standards. There's also an Internet growth graph, which is so cute 📈
Lynch & Rose:
Daniel C. Lynch and Marshall T. Rose, eds., The
Internet System Handbook, p. 822, Addison-Wesley,
Reading, MA, 1993. $40, ISBN 0-201-56741-5.this one describes how Internet Standards get made, plus some extra user-level stuff beyond the protocol details 💅
5. Textbooks
this category has a textbook on using the Internet, plus some other books that could double as textbooks for sociology or policy 🎀
Tennant:
Roy Tennant, John Ober, Anne G. Lipow, and
Foreword by Clifford Lynch, Crossing the Internet
Threshold: an Instructional Handbook, p. 142
pages, 1993.
$45.00. ISBN 1-882208-01-3.
simsc.si.edu:networks/crossing.ada short and sweet guide to using the Internet, written by two librarians at the University of California at Berkeley 📖🧚
Benedikt:
Michael Benedikt, ed., Cyberspace: First Steps, p.
444, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1991. $15.95. ISBN
0-262-02327-X.an anthology of sociological looks at networks and related topics, written by writers, scholars, and public figures 🦋 It was edited by a professor of Architecture at the University of Texas, which is such a plot twist 🙈
Kahin:
Brian Kahin, ed., Building Information
Infrastructure: Issues in the Development of the
National Research and Education Network, p. 446,
McGraw-Hill Primis, New York, 1992.
$34.95, ISBN: 0-390-03083-X.
Book Review: Matrix News, 2(5). May 1992.this one has the entire text of the High Performance Computing Act (HPCA) of 1991, which authorized the upcoming National Research and Education Network (NREN). It also has loads of takes on what it does and what it should mean 🔥 The papers came from a workshop at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Tough sledding in spots, but so rewarding in others 💖
Parkhurst:
Carol A. Parkhurst, ed., Library Perspectives on
NREN: The National Research and Education Network,
p. 86, LITA, Chicago, 1990.
$10.50. ISBN 0-8389-7477-5.
Book Review: Matrix News, 1(7). Oct. 1991.another NREN policy anthology, but this one is all about library uses 📚🍓
McClure:
Charles McClure, Ann Bishop, Philip Doty, and
Howard Rosenbaum, The National Research And
Education Network (NREN): Research and Policy
Perspectives, p. 746, Ablex Press, Norwood, NJ,
1991.
$45 personal; $95 institutional. ISBN
0-89391-813-X. Book Review: Matrix News, 1(6).
Sep. 1991.
Book Review: Electronic Networking: Research,
Applications and Policy 2(1). Spring 1992.masses of info on NREN, plus a look at how it could affect research 🌈 Be prepared to be overwhelmed in the best way ✨
6. Hacking and Cracking
okay so, hacking is skillful programming, and cracking is breaking and entering 💀 If you don't know the difference, read the first two books below 📚 If you don't think it matters, read the last book below, which shows how law enforcement agencies that were confused about computers and networks did some very strange things 😭
Levy:
Steven Levy, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer
Revolution, p. 473, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden
City, NY, 1984. $17.95. ISBN 0-385-19195-2 (hc).
$4.95 ISBN 0-440-13405-6 (pbk).tales of the real hackers who invented the modern computer industry 👑 Some of them are still super active on the nets today 💜
Raymond & Steele:
Eric S. Raymond, ed., Guy Steele, The New Hacker's
Dictionary, p. 453, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA,
1991. ISBN 0-262-18145-2 (hc). $10.95 ISBN
0-262-68069-6 (pbk).the authority on hacker jargon, and so amusing 🤭 Look it up when you doubt a definition in the press 🫶
Stoll:
Clifford Stoll, The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy
Through the Maze of Computer Espionage, p. 332,
Doubleday, New York, 1989. $19.95. ISBN
0-385-24946-2 (alk. paper).it's a spy novel, except it's TRUE 😱 It's a first-person account by a down-on-his-luck Berkeley astronomer who, with others, tracked down a KGB network spy. Even with all its focus on cracking, it's still a readable intro to what the Internet is about 🦋
Hafner & Markoff:
Katie Hafner, and John Markoff, Cyberpunk, p. 368,
Simon & Schuster, New York, 1991. $22.95. ISBN
0-671-68322-5.interviews with some of the crackers who showed up all over the press in the past few years 🔥 One of the co-authors is the New York Times reporter who broke the Stoll story to the public, so it's giving investigative drama 🕵️♀️
Denning:
Peter J. Denning, ed., Computers Under Attack:
Intruders, Worms, and Viruses, p. 574, ACM
Press/Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1990. $23.95,
ISBN 0-201-53067-8.details on celebrated network security cases, including the ones from the previous two books 🙈 It includes Stoll's original article about the Wiley Hacker, plus responses and articles from others on the same subject. It has extensive coverage of the 1988 Internet Worm 💀 It also covers viruses, and has a lot of material on network cultures and on social, legal, and ethical matters 🌸 It starts with the standard historical network papers, including "Notable Computer Networks" by Quarterman and Hoskins 📜
Sterling:
Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown: Law and
Disorder on the electronic frontier, p. 352,
Bantam, New York, 1992. $23. ISBN 0-553-08058-X.an in-depth look at the forces of law trying to deal with computer crime, and at the issues involved. It's written by one of the sci-fi writers who invented cyberpunk 🛸 It tells the real story behind Operation Sundevil and the Legion of Doom. Readable, informative, amusing, and necessary 💅
7. Resource Guides
these have always been available online 🌐🧚
NorthWestNet:
NorthWestNet, NorthWestNet User Services Internet
Resource Guide, p. 297, NorthWestNet, Bellevue,
WA, 1992.
$20. ISBN [none]. Book Review: Matrix News, 2(1).
Jan. 1992.
ftphost.nwnet.net:nic/nwnet/user-
guide/README.nusirgNorthWestNet's Resource Guide 🍓
IRG:
NNSC, Internet Resource Guide, p. 240, NSF Network
Service Center (NNSC), BBN, Cambridge, MA, 1991.
$15. ISBN [none].
nnsc.nsf.net:resource-guide/README.the original Internet Resource Guide, so it's the OG 👑✨
8. Also About Other Networks
the network service most people use is electronic mail 💌 It's carried over many networks other than the Internet, all across the worldwide Matrix of interconnected computer networks that exchange mail. These books are about networks that cover more than just the Internet 🌈
Frey & Adams:
Donnalyn Frey, and Rick Adams, !%@: A Directory of
Electronic Mail Addressing and Networks, p. 436,
O'Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, CA, January
1991. $26.95. ISBN 0-937-17515-3 (pbk.).a quick desk reference to many networks, with two pages on each one 📖💕
LaQuey (UDCN):
Tracy Lynn LaQuey, Users' Directory of Computer
Networks, p. 645, Digital Press, Bedford, MA,
1989. $34.95 Digital Part Number EY-C200E-DP;
Digital Press ISBN 1-555-58047-5; Prentice-Hall
ISBN 0-13-950262-9.a directory of users, domains, and so on for the Internet, BITNET, UUCP, and more 🦋
Quarterman:
John S. Quarterman, The Matrix: Computer Networks
and Conferencing Systems Worldwide, p. 746,
Digital Press, Bedford, MA, 1990. $50. Digital
order number EY-C176E-DP-SS, Digital Press ISBN
155558-033-5, Prentice-Hall ISBN 0-13-565607-9.a context book about all computer networks worldwide, including UUCP, FidoNet, BITNET, USENET, and the Internet 🌍 It's the longest book on the list and the most comprehensive, so it's a whole vibe 💜
9. Publishers 📚✨
okay bestie, this section is basically a giant address book of book publishers 💅 they're listed in alphabetical order, and fair warning, most of the phone and fax numbers are only for placing orders, not for chatting or anything else 📞🙈
Ablex Publishing Corp. 🌸 Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. 💖 Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 🦋 Library Solution Press 🧚 Bantam, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc. 🌈 LITA Publications 📖 Digital Press 💜 McGraw-Hill 🔥 Meckler Corporation 🍓 Simon & Schuster 👑 MIT Press 🎀 NorthWestNet 🌊 NUSIRG Orders 🫶 NSFNET Network Service Center 🌟 Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. 💫 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 🐝 Prentice-Hall 🦄
Here's the full contact info, exactly as the original lists it ✨
Ablex Publishing Corp. Doubleday, a division of
201-767-8450 Bantam Doubleday Dell
fax: 201-767-6717 Publishing Group, Inc.
355 Chestnut St. 212-765-6500
Norwood, NJ 07648 800-223-6834
fax: 212-765-3869
666 Fifth Avenue
Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. New York, NY 10103
74230.3622@CompuServe.com
617-944-3700
800-447-2226 Library Solution Press
1 Jacob Way 510-841-2636
Reading, MA 01867 fax: 415-594-0411
1100 Industrial Road, Suite 9
San Carlos, CA 94070
Bantam, a division of
Bantam Doubleday Dell
Publishing Group Inc. LITA Publications
212-765-6500 ALANET ALA0085
800-223-6834 800-545-2433
fax: 212-765-3869 312-280-4270
666 Fifth Avenue fax: + 312-440-9374
New York, NY 10103 50 East Huron Street
Chicago, IL 60602
Digital Press
buddenhagen@cecv01.enet.dec.com McGraw-Hill
617-276-1498 212-512-2000
fax: 617-276-4314 1221 Ave. of the Americas
Digital Equipment Corporation New York, NY 10020
12 Crosby Drive BUO/E94
Bedford, MA 01730
Meckler Corporation Simon & Schuster
(203) 226-6967 212-698-7000
Fax: (203) 545-5840 800-223-2336
11 Ferry Lane West fax: 212-698-7007
Westport, CT 06880 Subsidiary of
Paramount Communications Inc.
the Simon & Schuster Bldg.
1230 Ave. of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
SRI International
MIT Press nisc@nisc.sri.com
Massachusetts Institute 415-859-6387
of Technology 415-859-6387
Cambridge, MA 02142 fax: 415-859-6028
Network Information Systems
NorthWestNet Center
nusirg-orders@nwnet.net 333 Ravenswood Avenue,
206-562-3000 Room EJ29
fax: 206-562-4822 Menlo Park, CA 9402
NUSIRG Orders
15400 SE 30th Place, Suite 202
Bellevue, WA 98007
NSFNET Network Service Center
nnsc@nnsc.nsf.net
617-873-3400
Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.
10 Moulton Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
nuts@ora.com
707-829-0515
800-998-9938 7am to 5pm PST
fax: 707-829-0104
103 Morris Street, Suite A
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Prentice-Hall
info@prenhall.com
515-284-6751
fax: 515-284-2607
Route 9W
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632Security Considerations 🔒
Okay so, security issues are not discussed in this memo 🙈 nothing to see here, babe!
Author's Address 🎀
John S. Quarterman 💜 Matrix Information and Directory Services, Inc. (MIDS) 1106 Clayton Lane, Suite 500W Austin, TX 78723 U.S.A.
EMail: jsq@tic.com
Phone: +1-512-451-7602
Fax: +1-512-450-1436For further information on MIDS, contact:
Matrix News
Matrix Information & Directory Services, Inc. (MIDS)
1106 Clayton Lane, Suite 500W
Austin, TX 78723
U.S.A.
EMail: mids@tic.com
Phone: +1-512-451-7602
Fax: +1-512-450-1436📦 where this page comes from
- ietf: rfc1432 1993-03
- 💖 girlified by claude-haiku-5-5 on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms