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Title: A Field Guide to Roadside Technology
ISBN: 1556526091
Author:
Ed Sobey
Publicate Date: 2006-06-01
Publish: 2006-06-01
List Price: $14.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $8.77
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $6.45
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.21
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| Customer Review: |
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1: An OK book, but limited
I loved the information shared in this book. Yes, I admit I do look out the window as I'm driving and try to "figure out what that is." Such is the excitement of my life. This guidebook addresses a lot of the things I was clueless about and confirmed many of the others that I thought I knew.
Too bad that the book isn't more comprehensive. Some of the items discussed seemed to have been picked arbitrarily while some others have been ommitted.
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2: Lo-tech
Technology is everywhere in the man-made world and this little field guide should have been a useful item to have in the outdoors, it even has rounded corner pages so they won't get dog-eared when you stuff the book into the pocket of your LL Bean Penobscot Parka. Plenty of information, too, with each item nicely divided into five sections: Behaviour, Habitat, How it works, Unique characteristics and Interesting facts but I was disappointed with the book because one of the key elements, the photos, are really inadequate.
A clue to this is the front and back cover with nine color photos that are repeated inside but in black and white where they just look dull and grey. Printed in a fairly coarse screen doesn't help either. Also many of them are plainly too small even though there is plenty of page space. The choice of objects seems rather arbitrary also: page thirty-four describes a car exhaust plume, page seventy-one a storm drain cover or a gas station pump on page 114. Strangely airports get only these objects: VOR station, De-icing boot, Pitot tube, Vortex generator and Ground power unit. What happened to runway markers and approach lights or airport beacons, wind socks, localizer antennas for cockpit landing systems for instance?
The subject matter is such that there are few book dealing with technology in this way and Ed Sobey's attempt does invite comparison with Brian Hayes quite stunning Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape. This a is a large beautifully printed book with every photo in color, all with detailed captions, plenty of sidebars and it's very comprehensive. There is not too much to do with the look of technology that is not in Hayes book.
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3: quick explanations of common roadside devices
This little book is best suited for a casual, recreational read. When you are wondering about the various electronic and electromechanical gadgets seen by the roadside. Some might be on posts, while others might be perched on tops of buildings.
Sobey explains in non-technical terms what those devices do. Like the various forms that satellite dishes can take. Or, say, cellphone towers. So many of us use cellphones these days, but pay little attention to the infrastructure needed to make them work.
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