6.0260 Announcing: Lost & Stolen Books; Internet Guide (2/111)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 30 Sep 1992 20:43:58 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0260. Wednesday, 30 Sep 1992.


(1) Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 15:14:01 -0400 (42 lines)
From: "Daniel Traister" <traister@a1.relay.upenn.edu>
Subject: Inquiry re missing books

(2) Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 08:59:15 MST (69 lines)
From: Dan Lester <ALILESTE@IDBSU>
Subject: Book review

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 15:14:01 -0400
From: "Daniel Traister" <traister@a1.relay.upenn.edu>
Subject: Inquiry re missing books


At the request of Special Agent Robert Bazin, Federal Bureau of Inves-
tigation, I am asking for information on MISSING copies of:

Isaac Newton, *Philosophia naturalis principia* . . .
[with commentary by Thomas Le Seur and Francis Jacquier]
Geneva: Barrillot & Filii, 1739 [vol. 1], 1740 [vol. 2]

These two (of three) volumes turned up in the wake of Mr. Stuart Adelman,
after his arrest; he has pled guilty to interstate transportation of stolen
property in regard to theft of materials from The Folger Shakespeare
Library. Agent Bazin is trying to establish who owns these two volumes.

He is also concerned to establish ownership of a copy of volume 5 (only) of
a 9-volume set that was found at Folger after Mr. Adelman's departure; it
is not, however, Folger property:

Mme. de Lussan, *Histoire et regne de Charles VI* . . .
Paris 1753.

We have not seen the Lussan. The Newton volumes, however, are contempor-
aneously bound in mottled calf, with gilt spines and red and gold leather
labels, marbled endpapers, and red edges. They have old paper labels for
their pressmarks (no longer visible) at the base of their spines.

Agent Bazin can be reached, IF you have information about copies of these
books you KNOW to missing, at the Philadelphia FBI office: 215 829 2742
(or general exchange 2700). If you prefer, you can contact me at one of
the addresses below (but I will NOT BE HERE until Monday of next week).

Thank you for whatever help you can provide.

Daniel Traister, Curator of Special Collections
Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
215 898 7088 (phone); 215 898 0559 (fax)
traister@a1.relay.upenn.edu@in (e-mail)

(2) --------------------------------------------------------------76----
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 08:59:15 MST
From: Dan Lester <ALILESTE@IDBSU>
Subject: Book review


A number of guides to the Internet have been published recently, and others
have been announced for the near future. As of this writing there is
a new, undisputed champion that is available at a reasonable price.

Yesterday FedEx delivered our copy of Ed Krol's _The Whole Internet
User's Guide & Catalog_ direct from the publisher, O'Reilly & Associates,
Inc. This latest publication in their renowned Nutshell Handbook series
is worth every penny of the $24.95 list price. The ISBN is 1-56592-025-2.
O'Reilly can be reached at 103 Morris St, Ste. A, Sebastopol, CA 95472,
or 800-998-9938.

Many are familiar with the Nutshell Handbooks that O'Reilly has published,
mostly for the Unix and X Window environments. This book is a high
quality paperback of 376 pages that is printed on acid-free paper (not that
it will need to last that long, considering the rate of change of the
Internet). Those not familiar with O'Reilly's publications will be
familiar with Krol's RFC 1118, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet,"
which this new book updates and obsoletes.

To indicate how comprehensive and current the book is, I'll take the
liberty of listing the chapter titles:

1. What is this book about?
2. What is the Internet?
3. How the Internet works.
4. What's allowed on the Internet?
5. Remote login.
6. Moving files: FTP
7. Electronic mail
8. Network News
9. Finding software [all about Archie]
10. Finding someone
11. Tunneling through the Internet: Gopher
12. Searching Indexed databases: WAIS
13. Hypertext spanning the Internet: WWW
14. Other applications [fax, chatting, games, etc.]
15. Dealing with problems [error msgs, dealing with operations folks, etc.]

There are also appendices covering resources on the nets, how to get
connected, international connectivity, acceptable use, and other matters.
The glossary is adequate, but does not try to compare to the _The New
Hacker's Dictionary_. The index is very good.

In conclusion, I recommend this very highly. Although there are many
other competing works out there, this one covers almost everything anyone
could want to know, is well written for both the novice and the experienced
user, and is available now at a very reasonable price. All who are
reading this review should have a copy on their desk, and a copy in
their public, academic, or special library for reference by other potential
users.

Obligatory disclaimer: I do not know the author and have no business or
other connections with the author or publisher. I'm just a very happy
consumer.

dan

*****************************************************************************
* Dan Lester Bitnet: alileste@idbsu *
* Associate University Librarian Internet: alileste@idbsu.idbsu.edu *
* Boise State University *
* Boise, Idaho 83725 BSU and I have a deal: I don't speak *
* 208-385-1234 for them and they don't speak for me. *
*****************************************************************************