A mega-cool reference on computers!

5/10/2006 12:40 PM EDT

This little scamp has been Alan's baby for more that 25 years now. Every time he runs across a new computer related term or concept, he starts researching it until he fully understands it (which often involves calling anyone he knows at all hours of the day or night – I speak from experience on this – and then he writes it up with lots of graphics.

One particularly cool aspect of this is his custom-designed user interface. Way before the web and documents containing hyperlinks became the norm, Alan's interface fully supported this concept. If you're reading an article and you see an unfamiliar term, simply clicking on that word will take you straight to the corresponding entry. You can also use a "Back" button, view a history of your travels (and click on any items in that history), and so forth.

Alan claims that his encyclopedia is the leading provider of computer definitions on the Web; for example, his content is available on many prestigious sites such as TechWeb and PCMag.com. With more than 20,000 entries, this little rapscallion will keep you busy for ages. You can download a free demo or you can search for terms online at the Computer Desktop Encyclopedia website. But be careful, because you can lose yourself for hours...

Questions? Comments? Feel free to email me – Clive "Max" Maxfield – at max@techbites.com). And, of course, if you haven't already done so, don't forget to Sign Up for our weekly Programmable Logic DesignLine Newsletter.