Finding Relevant Information
By ai-depot | June 30, 2002
Books & Tutorials
Books
Books are my preferred way of finding information, as they almost always contain the information in a relevant form. Since the author has put a lot of time into compiling his work into a single book, you can expect it to be self-contained and thorough.
Still having the mentality of a poor student, I still flinch at the idea of spending a few pounds/dollars on a good book when I could spend hours browsing the web instead. I’m slowly getting out of this attitude, and it’s for the best. A well-chosen book is worth its weight in gold. It’ll save you valuable time in the short term, saving you from hours of browsing, but it’ll also remain a valuable reference for the future.
No amount of free web-based information can usually compete with your average book. Since the book was published, you can be almost assured that the author knows what he is talking about, unlike most amateur web-sites, where you have to take everything with a pinch of salt. (That doesn’t apply to this site ;)
However, keep in mind that not all books are suited to you. Some might be inadequate for everybody (making them a complete failure), and some might target a level of maths that is too high for you. Always read the cover, you can do so online and in the bookstore. This will give you an idea who is targeted by the book, and what the basic pre-requisites are.
Don’t use the back-cover to judge the quality of the book!! The publishers are selling it to you, and just like any other advertising campaign, it can contain its fair share of myths. Read unbiased online reviews, ask some experts in the fields via forums. This will usually help you not make mistakes when investing in a book.
I personally get my books from Amazon, as the local book stores do not have the range available there. But it’s really up to you!
Tutorials
There are many online tutorials out there. Some are good, some are difficult, and some are misleading. It is often difficult to pick the right ones out. Especially if you’re just starting in a field, some erroneous information can really impede your future progress. Obviously, if you read them all, you’ll get the feel for what’s correct and what’s not.
Try and read tutorials based on the recommendation of other sites. Bookmark collections are useful for this. Find tutorials that are rated highly in online Directories (such as DMOZ). Still, finding relevant tutorials can be difficult, and that’s where speed browsing comes in.
Speed Browsing
There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with Internet Explorer or Netscape, but you can take your surfing efficiency to its limits by using Opera (http://www.opera.com/). Opera is a browser with an amazingly designed interface, very intuitive and fast! Fast not particularly in the raw downloading speed, that’s more of a modem issue. Fast with regards to maximising your time spent online. Opera may take a small amount of time to get used to, but has many interesting features that you will thoroughly miss when you move back to your old browser.
Things that make Opera the fastest browser:
- Fully MDI interface
Everything is in one window, and you don’t end up with a cluttered task bar. I’ve easily dealt with sessions of over 32 different web pages open simultaneously. - Open in window underneath
A simple Shift+Ctrl+Click will follow a link in another window, without disturbing you! It gets loaded in the background until it is fully ready. - Select next loaded page
Once you have sent your documents to load in the background, Shift+Tab will display the fist page loaded. - Mouse gestures
Simple combinations of click and drag can achieve complex operations without having to move to the toolbar, or type complex commands.
For browsing search engine results, this is ideal. Shift+Ctrl+Click many interesting pages to load in the background, and Shift+Tab to the first loaded. This avoids having to wait for slow pages, and saves valuable time.
Communities
It’s good to find out about the local community for a specific topic, so you can ask around for tips on books, and other resources. These people will be able to tell you what exactly you are looking for, given a description of your problem.
Communities include newsgroups, forums and mailing lists. There are usually documents called FAQ (frequently asked questions) with each of these, so take a look through that first. Your questions may already have been answered.
Tags: none
Category: essay |
