hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr2030.txt

Episode: 2030
Title: HPR2030: Book Review: The Pocket Ref
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2030/hpr2030.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 13:31:21

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This in HPR episode 2030 entitled Book Review, The Pocket Ref.
It is hosted by M1RR Nero R5H4D35 and in about 15 minutes long, the summary is this
in a short review on the Pocket Ref.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by An Honesthost.com.
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HPR15, that's HPR15.
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Hello world, mirror shades here again, allergies and full swing, so it's springtime in
Kentucky, so if my voice is all jacked up sounding and I'm sniffling, I'm sorry, hopefully
the sound quality is a little better now.
I did purchase a decent microphone as opposed to the other piece of junk that I was using.
Invested in a microphone and by invested, I mean I bought the cheapest condenser mic that
I could find, so anyway, I'm going to do a quick review here of the Pocket Ref.
This is a very small book, it's currently in fourth edition, it's by Thomas J. Glover.
You can buy it just about anywhere, you can get it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, I think
Think Geek even sells it.
While there's no blurbs on the cover or anything, I've read that Adam Savage has extolled
the virtues many times of this book.
It's relatively inexpensive little book, it's about eight bucks is I think what I gave
for it, brand new on Amazon, it is designed to fit in, I believe it's designed to fit
in a shirt pocket, you could pretty much fit this in any pocket but it is a little thick.
I will see if I can get a picture of it so you can see for reference, it is a little
bit thicker, it's great to just throw in a bag or a toolbox or something, it's not that
big, it's not very heavy, the pages are very thin, it's designed to be portable, even
if maybe it is a little bit too big to fit inside of a pocket, though it technically
will probably feel a little awkward with it in your pocket.
So why did I buy this?
I got some flack from people I work with for buying this because obviously most of
the stuff in here if you have a smartphone, you could just look it up, I mean you have
Google in your pocket, just Google it.
But there are times when it is nice to have a hard copy reference because even though
it's kind of rare, there are times when maybe you don't have internet access, especially
that will happen in places like Kentucky more often than maybe your mileage may vary on
that, but it is kind of nice to not have to rely on internet access if you don't have
to, just to have something that is kind of a backup.
Something under the sun is in this book.
It's meant to be sort of a broad, general, I don't know what you say, it's a bunch of
reference material that covers a lot of different areas and so it doesn't go extremely in depth
into any one of them and it's meant just to be a reference, it's not meant to be a book
that you read from cover to cover.
There's a lot of convergent tables and a lot of tables that have like for example one
steel bolt and screw grades, types and classes and it's got a whole bunch of, it's a table
just full of ways to identify different types of bolts and screws.
It's actually there's a whole series of these books that are available, the pocket
ref is just one because of its small size, the company that makes it also makes a larger,
it's called the desk ref, so it has, I'm assuming it has a whole bunch of stuff that's not
in the pocket ref, it's meant to be just a book on your shelf or on your desk or when
you need to look stuff like that, it's not meant to be portable but have a lot more information
in it and there's a whole series of these books, I'll try to remember and put the links
in and the show notes but there's the guy who wrote this book or put it together, I don't
know if he's actually the writer or the editor or what but Thomas J. Glover collaborated
with a guy named Richard A. Young and created a book called handyman in your pocket.
But in this specific series there's also the auto ref, the pocket PC ref and the pocket
partner, I'm not really going to go into what, you know, is any of these other books
I'm just putting out there in case it's something you might need or want, obviously the auto
ref is sort of the same thing as the pocket ref but it's focused solely on automotive
mechanics and stuff.
The pocket PC ref is again, it's focused on PC stuff, computers, technology, that sort
of thing and the pocket partner is kind of interesting, it's meant for like law enforcement
I guess firemen and stuff, they actually have different color covers, the auto ref is
kind of a blue green cover, the pocket PC ref is kind of a cream yellow color and the
pocket partner is red.
But what I'm going to do, I'm going to run through real quick some of the chapters here
so you can get an idea of what's in the pocket ref, it's actually before you get to the
table of contents, it actually has a little page in here so it's like this pocket ref belongs
to and you can fill out your name and address and all that junk in case you lose it.
I don't know, in this day and age that might not be wise to do, it's also got a little
table to put personal information in like names of your family, their birthday anniversary
favorite color, sizes of like hat, hips, gloves, chest and seen neck, ring size, I'm supposing
in case you forget your wife's anniversary, it's in there and you have all our sizes
Andy and can get her a gift or something, I don't again, I don't know how many people
want to actually fill that out and this day and age, it may not be wise if you lose it,
that's a lot of personal information that's just out there.
Table of contents, I'm just going to run through and let you know what the table of contents
are, I believe if you go to Amazon, I can actually probably check this but I think if they
don't have it now, I think they used to have a table of contents listed or at the very
least if you open it up, you could look at it but I don't know if they still do, you can
get this from other places besides Amazon, I'm not trying to push Amazon, it's just where
I buy a lot of stuff but you can get it at Barnes and Noble or I think you still has it
and probably hundreds of other places online, wherever your favorite place is to get stuff,
I'm sure you can get the pocket riff.
So the table of contents runs like this, there's preface, personal info, products, trade
names, trade marks and references and then we get into the actual sections of the book,
airing gases, automotive, carpentry and construction, chemistry and physics, computers, constants,
physical, chemical and math, electrical, wire motors, frames, receptacles, electronics
and then the next section is called fasteners and it has several subsections, bolts and threads,
nails, screws and then the next section is first aid, then general information one, general
information two, general science, geology, glue, solvents, paints and finishes, math,
mind, mill and aggregate, money, pipe and fittings, pumps and tanks, rope, cable chains and knots,
steel and metals, surveying and mapping, tools, water, weather and weather safety,
weights and properties of materials, welding, conversion tables, 14 year perpetual calendar
and then the index. So again this isn't something that's like there's a section on welding,
don't expect it to teach you how to weld, it's meant for someone who already knows how to weld
and it's got like little tables in here, rods per pound, welding gases,
hard and soft solder alloys, stuff like that, it's really just reference material
in case maybe it's something you don't do all the time and you just need to check up on it real
quick or you need to know how to measure certain sort of thing or remember what kind of nail
to use for certain project, carpentry project, but like I said it's a lot of this stuff you know
nowadays we are accustomed to being able to just google it, but there is something especially
if you live in an area where you can potentially not have internet access for a while,
it's kind of nice to be able to just pick up a book and there it all is, especially when it's
all in a very small package that way. I wish I had some more, I wish I knew more what
people may would like to know anything from any specific sections,
may find the computer section here because I remember I looked at it and it was a little bit
underwhelming, let's see, 129, we'll flip over there real quick, all right,
so computers, what you'll find in the computer section, just for example this one was a little
bit of a let down, but like I said they have a, if you need something that's specific to computers,
they have an entire pocket PC riff, but anyway in the pocket riffs computer section what you'll
find is a section that describes the conversion for like kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, that sort
of thing, and it has a section of computer ASCII and ALT plus codes, the ASCII codes is just a
table that has the the hex value, the decimal value, the description, the abbreviation, and the
control code for all the ASCII characters, and that's it, and then the sectionions, so you know,
not a lot of, if you were hoping for, you know, a bunch of information on
repairing PCs and all that kind of stuff, it's not really, it's not in there, sorry,
but it does have a lot of other stuff, especially if you're the kind of person that likes,
if you're a do it yourself or, or you like to play around with electronics, or if you're just
the kind of person that likes to take things apart, so it makes them tick, or you know, learning
new skills and stuff, it's very, very handy, has a lot of information, it's worth the buy, it's
eight bucks, you know, it's not going to break the bank, and the only, like I said, my only
sort of gripe with it is, it is pocket size, it will fit in a pocket, but it's a little bit thick,
so I would recommend it, I think it's a great buy, if I wish I had some idea of what
some of you out there might be looking for or wondering about,
you know, the best advice I can give is to check out some of the reviews on it,
the section, I'm just flipping through it here, the section on knots, and stuff is really cool,
I showed you how to make a lot of common knots, that sort of thing I tend to forget,
I'll learn how to make them, and then I'll forget them, because I never use it,
but it's a great thing to have in your toolbox, I used to keep this in my backpack,
but now I've found that I'm just throwing it in my toolbox because it decreases some of the weight
in the bag, but in any rate, if you have any specific questions to it, you know, I've
ever about it, anything in particular you'd like to know about it, that maybe you can't find online,
or something, you know, you can shoot me an email or leave a comment, and I will try to get back
with you and let you know anything specific, it does cover a lot of ground, but it doesn't cover
any one thing particularly deeply, again, it's a lot of tables, believe it or not, it's a lot of
tables, just reference stuff, one of the cooler things I saw in here was the hand signals for
cranking hoist, that's kind of neat, so yeah, and there's a section on chemistry and physics,
it's kind of interesting too, but yeah, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment,
or shoot me an email, I'll try my best to answer your questions, and hopefully I'll talk to you
guys again, I'll see you soon.
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