Customer Reviews

Newton's Telecom Dictionary, 21st Edition: Covering Telecommunications, Networking, Information Technology, The Internet, Fiber Optics, RFID, Wireless, and VoIP

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been buying Netwon's Telecom Dictionary since it first came out many years ago. This reference text is the gold standard for professionals in the Voice and Data industries. If you work in IT or telephony, I srongly recommend you keep an up to date copy close at hand.

Whenever I can, I try to give copies of Newton's Telecom Dictionary away to students in my TrainingCity.com classes. All of them tell me it's the best part of attending my class!

In reviewing the latest edition, I found numerous new definitions and all sorts of outstanding updates to older items. Once again, you simply cannot go wrong buying this book!

I have been buying regularly updated editions of Newton's Telecom Dictionary for fifteen years now and will continue to do so as long as Harry keeps 'em coming.

I'll admit that once in a while an obscure TLA or FLA (4 and 5 Letter Acronyms) will sneak beneath Harry's radar but it doesn't happen very often. Especially when he is so willing to research tips sent to him by his loyal readers!

I have found this dictionary to be indispensible in my job as a telco engineer. Harry does a great job of defining telco terms and acronyms in plain English and not by using other complex terms and acronyms. This is much more significant than it sounds at first. It is simply impossible for any professional to know every last obscure acronym and term used in this expansive and ever-growing industry over the past 100 years. Harry will help to make sure that you never have to ask anyone else what in the heck their TLA's mean. You will be the Alpha-geek. All others will bow in your presence. Life will be good.

Newton's Telecom Dictionary has one more unique trait. Harry's wry sense of humor has threaded itself into many of the definitions. This is one of those rare tomes that you can sit down with and randomly read for enjoyment. Whenever there is an interesting and/or humorous story behind a telco term, Harry inevitably includes it with the definition. This dictionary can be fun to read! This is especially nice if someone walks into your work space and catches you reading your dictionary. They will never suspect you of goofing off!

-Christopher Erickson
Intrepid Engineer of the Far North

In 2001 I started a finance job with a fortune 500 company, in a position to become the telecom financial analyst manager. I had never worked in this environment and I was given a six month period to become knowledgeable in telecom. I brought to the job my years of accounting, and contract skills but had no idea where to turn for the telecom information. A telecom sustaining engineer suggested "Newton's Telecom Dictionary".

For the first six months at each team meeting and strategic meeting with engineers I carried this invaluable resource. I found the information to be just what I need in an environment of acronyms and strange terms. I had all the skills in accounting and now I had a definitive resource for Telecom terms to help understand and communicate with the industry and our company's engineers.

Soon it became obvious as new technologies surfaced in the industries that my old 17th edition of "Newton's Telecom Dictionary" needed to be replaced. The team of engineers I worked with, who also came to rely on this great resource, would come to my cubical after borrowing the book and started making comments that the new technology was not in the book.

I recently purchased the 22nd edition of "Newton's Telecom Dictionary", and as a part of office humor I gave the 17th edition to one of the engineers that used it the most. He was thankful but wanted to make sure he could still borrow the 22nd edition when ever he needed. I assured him he could. So if your just starting out or and established Telecom person "Newton's Telecom Dictionary" is a must have.

When Judge Green ordered the split up of AT&T so many years ago he couldn't have imagined what he was really unleashing on an unsuspecting world. The whole concept of the Internet, packet switching, Voice Over Internet Protocol and more. Dozens of companies rising and falling depending on the tides of the marketplace.

He also couldn't have imagined the impact on the language. I don't know how many TLA's (Three Letter Acronyms) ; There's BEP's (Back End Processor), and BER's (Bit Error Rate). To be sure, computers seem to always use TLA's, Telcom's seem also to like to use four letters: CORE (Council of REgistors), DVAC (Dedicated Voltage AC).

Whatever they are saying and writing, it's defined here. This is the standard dictionary of the field, published every year in an attempt to keep up with the growing jargon.

Just finished a Computer Information Systems class and very glad I had Newtons. All of my classmates struggled finding simple defintions such as "JAVA", although I was surprised not to find "People Soft" in it. Made the class a lot easier, and made me walk away from the class with my moneys worth.
While www.wikipedia.org just as good (and free), it's not a book is it? Books will be there in 30 years. Where will the ebook in your RAM be in 30 years.

make it this one.

Run across an unfamiliar acronym? Wikipedia can't help? Crack open the Newton's. "Comprehensive" doesn't do it justice.

It's funny, too.

The Newton's Telecom Dictionary, now in its twenty-first edition, is my dear friend. Like all dear friends, I would not exchange it for a dozen others, but its personality quirks have an unparalleled ability to drive me stark-bonkers.

Let us nitpick those quirks first. First, there are some minor typesetting and proof-reading errors (such as missing periods, or a rare incomplete sentence at the end of a definition - see "snickelway"). With a volume of work this large, the punctuation is understandable but the incomplete sentences are bothersome. The second quirk is the editor-in-chief's (Harry Newton) admittedly lackadaisical approach to which proprietary terms and technologies he will define; the dictionary has failed me on one or two occasions when I was researching for a project.

Why, then, is it my old and dear friend? The 960-pages of definitions more than make up for these flaws, and the very lackadaisical approach which prohibits it from ever being truly exhaustive also allows it to shape its focus to the more relevant pieces of technology. It may have missed one or two definitions, but it has always delivered on the fundamentals. There are also countless hidden-gems of geek-slang, market-speak and historical-interest that make idly leafing through this dictionary an inspirational pleasure. (Again, see "snickelway.")

This dictionary has been useful at several points in my career, and I expect that in the future it will remain that old dear friend whom you only occasionally wish to throttle.

This is one of the standard reference texts in telecom. A massive explanation of virtually any term you are likely to encounter in the field. It is a dictionary, not an encyclopedia, so it does not go into any term in any depth.

The book has a piquant attraction. Open a page at random and glance through it. Often there are hilarious words and explanations of these. Revealing a droll wit.

But aside from that, these days you might prefer to use a search engine for look up quick meanings.

This book contains so many industry-specific terms that are applicable to much more than just Telecommunications. You'll even find the odd humorous term sprinkled in there to keep things on the light side. I work in the telecommunications industry, and I have this book on my desk, by my side...Kind of like a small dog that just stares at you with his wet, beady, little eyes - eager to please, and waiting for you to show him the slightest hint of approval.

I bought last years edition, and it was dirt cheap (and still painfully relevant). If you're in IT/Networking/Telecommunications, there really isn't an excuse not to own this.

If you are in the telecom or IT industry or just want to familiarize yourself with terminology and practices relating to both, YOU MUST OWN THIS BOOK! A lot of the definitions are understandably technical but Harry Newton manages to be very informative AND amusing with his casual, down-to-earth writing style.