This is indeed one of the few dictionaries that you can read from cover to cover and still have lots of fun. It shows its age but many terms are still in use today. The dictionary reflects the mindset, culture and a short history of the hacking. You can think of it as the perfect companion to Steven Levy's 'Hackers' book. ( )

The Jargon File, on which this book is based, has been the definitive guide to online jargon pretty much since there was an online to create jargon about. You may want another book to spell out acronyms and decipher industry-speak, but if you've been thrown in with a bunch of real geeks for the first time and can't understand what seems to be a language of its own, this book is better than Berlitz.

Even people for whom 'foobar' is not a foreign word will enjoy the essays and jokes in The New Hacker's Dictionary, and there's bound to be a phrase or two you can learn from the nerd subculture down the hall.

[Reviewed 1998-06-05] ( )