Poor Leo's 2002 computer almanac

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
As the host of TechTV's The Screen Savers, Leo Laporte serves as a jargon-free, results-oriented tech support department for beginner and intermediate computer users everywhere. From security issues to hardware advice, technical definitions, and tips for Mac owners, Laporte covers it all in language designed to clarify all the counterintuitive instructions and procedures so often foisted upon us by software manufacturers. In fact, there is an almost missionary zeal pervading this book. As Laporte writes in his foreword, "When the so-called experts try to explain how to use computers, they often make things worse....They might as well be from another planet." If you can relate to that line, this book is the Rosetta Stone that will translate the hieroglyphs that often pass as instructions into intelligible, everyday discourse.

Here's how this book works. There are 12 chapters, one for each month, and each chapter has at least one tip for every day in the month that it covers; for example, the tip for January 1st is for Mac users who want to adjust the default font on their machines. The tips all fall into certain categories (Protect Yourself, Laporte Support, For Geeks Only, Web Tips, and so on) that are marked with boldface type so that, if you like, you can easily read ahead and get all of the author's Windows techniques or security updates in one lump. In essence, the book is like a giant page-a-day calendar that you can either devour in a single sitting or nibble on slowly throughout the course of a year. I'd recommend the latter: If you keep this book next to your PC and learn one of Laporte's tips every day, you'll be a technology wiz -- or, at the very least, a much less frustrated human being -- by the end of the year. (Sunil Sharma)