CAPSULE COMMENTS

September 6, 2007

New Computer Books

The following items can found at Rodman Public Library or through the Library’s web site at www.rodmanlibrary.com.

MYTHBUSTERS: THE EXPLOSIVE TRUTH BEHIND 30 OF THE MOST PERPLEXING URBAN LEGENDS OF ALL TIME by Keith and Kent Zimmerman with Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage, and Peter Rees

Most of us can probably think of several different urban legends and have spent some amount of time wondering if the myth is true. This book summarizes 30 popular urban legends that Hyneman and Savage tested on the hit Discovery Channel show, MythBusters. For each urban legend, the myth is explained, a testing plan is ingeniously created, the experiment is conducted, the results are presented, the myth status is updated and the scientific principle is explained. If you like science, enjoy creating things or just find urban legends intriguing, this book is a must read. Find out if running in the rain keeps you drier than walking, whether a Chevy Impala with a rocket booster reached 300mph before going airborne and crashing, or if throwing a penny off the Empire State building could cause a pedestrian fatality.

HOW TO WOW WITH PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 5 by Jack Davis, Mike McHugh, Wayne Rankin with Brie Gyncild

Photoshop Elements is a very useful and relatively inexpensive piece of software that helps you manipulate photographs. The Photoshop Elements beginner will like the first chapter, Photoshop Elements Essentials, as it guides the reader through the basics needed to use Photoshop Elements. The basics are very important as Photoshop Elements can at times be difficult for the beginner to use. The enclosed companion CD contains before and after example files, which allows the beginner to complete the work on their own computer. Experienced users will like the specific chapters that instruct the reader step-by-step in photo optimizing, retouching, and enhancing. Even if you know how to use Photoshop Elements, you may want to look at Chapter 5, Creative Projects. This chapter instructs the reader in making unique projects such as creating painless tattoos, custom wrapping paper and making stamps.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY FOR DUMMIES by Julie Adair King

If digital photography is intriguing to you but you need to know the basics, this book should be very helpful. Basics such as how a digital camera works to choosing a digital camera are explained so that someone new to digital photography can understand. King also takes the mystery out of changing camera settings so you can get the best shot. Once the photographs are taken, she explains what can be done with them and how to get the images off the camera. Her digital photography tricks are extremely helpful. In case there are not enough things to do with you digital photographs, you might want to look at her other new book, Digital Photo Projects for Dummies.

NETWORKING FOR DUMMIES by Doug Lowe

This book is for anyone wanting to know networking basics. Lowe walks the reader through such topics as building a network from scratch, choosing the correct hardware, optimizing the network, securing it, and managing it.