Industry/Specialty

Recommended Books

Comments

Computer Documentation

Dictionary of Computer and Internet Terms, Douglas Downing.

Desktop Publishing

Looking Good in Print, Roger Parker (June 2003 is latest edition)

Excellent guide to visual effectiveness of the page and the spread.  Blurb says it has sold 250,000 copies in various editions since 1993. 

Visual Thinking, Rudolph Arnheim (U California P, 1989).  First edition was 1969.  Powells.com has the latest edition pretty cheap.

Publisher’s blurb: “He shows that even the fundamental processes of vision involve mechanisms typical of reasoning, and he describes problem-solving in the arts as well as imagery in the thought-models of science.”

Electronics Design Automation

Bebop to the Boolean Boogie (An Unconventional Guide to Electronics), Clive "Max" Maxfield (2^nd ed. Newnew, 2002).

Local author, much esteemed.

Powells.com has several copies of this. 

This explains fundamental electronic concepts and also the way in which electronic components like integrated circuits are made, all presented in a very accessible way intended for a non-technical audience. Throughout the text are notes on how to pronounce abbreviations, plus a huge glossary (some people say that the book is worth the price for the glossary alone). It’s filled with lots of useful nuggets of information and tidbits of trivia.

EDA: Where Electronics Begin, Clive "Max" Maxfield

Available from www.techbites.com

Very high-level introduction to a wide range of EDA tools intended for a totally non-technical audience.

Proposal-Writing

Proposal Writing, The Art of Friendly and Winning Persuasion,  Williams S. Pfeiffer and Charles H. Keller, Jr., Prentice Hall, 2000

Science Writing

Speaking of Science: Notable Quotes on Science, Engineering, and the Environment, Jon Fripp  (LLH Technology Publishing)


 

Fripp is a civil engineer.  Max Maxfield recommends this book.

The Timetables of Science, Alexander Hellemans and Bryan Bunch (Simon & Schuster, 1988)
 

This details a chronology of the most important people and events in  the history of science, all the dates you need for discoveries in  Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Mathematics,  Medicine, Physics, and Technology

Telecommunications

Newton's Telecom Dictionary

Especially useful for defining acronyms.