Customer Reviews

Loose Wire: A Personal Guide to Making Technology Work For You

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Jeremy Wagstaff writes a terrific technology column for the Wall St Journal. This book is a compilation of some of these columns. Jeremy has an ability to explain things clearly without technical jargon. He faces tech problems like you and I and offers common sense solutions recommending products along the way. Perhaps because he works from Indonesia he offers a fresh perspective by looking at products available from around the world and problems that average non-techies face. He makes difficult subjects much easier to understand and writes in a breezy, flowing manner that makes his columns so popular. Highly recommended.

I'm a fan of Jeremy Wagstaff's writing, enoying both his articles in the Wall Street Journal and the postings at his blog. He brings a dry wit and an appealing, common sense perspective to the job of writing about technology.

This book is a compendium of his articles from the past few years. It's organized in four sections, devoted to "getting stuff done" (email, productivity tools and back-up advice), "getting connected" (WiFi, mobile phones and VoIP), "getting what you need" (browsers, blogs and RSS) and "getting out of trouble" (viruses, spam and credit card fraud). There's also an entertaining "Lexicon for Luddites," with some suggested terms for the modern age. "Wantage," for example, is defined as the shortfall between your present computer's capacity and that required to run the program you just bought.

It's an entertaining and informative read for anyone who's not getting all they could from their tools. Which to be honest, is just about everybody. Consider it highly recommended.