Petryk's Picks
"www.csgnetwork.com"
Reviewed By William Petryk

The best kind of information source is the “one stop” type.  This is where everything that you are looking for can be found in one place without the need to reference links to other web pages.  A site filling this criterion is www.csgnetwork.com provided by the Computer Resource Group.  The stated purpose of this group is “to provide assistance, direction, information and reference material for students, formal or informal, of all ages.”  It is obviously put together by people who are often stereotyped as “geeks.”  It also appears that use of the site was intended for other geeks.  I say this because I found it difficult to navigate and concluded that only people who spend their lives in front of computer screens would tolerate this level of user unfriendliness.  It is also inundated with all sorts of information.  But to find it one will need more patients than the average person possesses.  Hence, my conclusion as to the people who comprise the Computer Resource Group (CRG).

Despite what I have just written that does not mean that this site cannot have important uses.  The exact opposite is true.  A person who refers to this site for financial calculations may find much more.  To begin, when first entering the site it seems to be well laid out and inviting.  There is even a friendly message from the CRG people.  At the top you can click to Calculators and Converters, Award Winning Glossary, or Free Source Code Snippets.  From here on things can become confusing.  Clicking on Calculators and Converters takes you to a list of categories.  Clicking on Financial will take you to still another list.  Should you wish to return to the home page that button is located on the very bottom.  You may have to spend some time scrolling to get there.  Had you instead decided to proceed you will find still more lists. Eventually you will find something that you like, such as a Balance Sheet with Liquidity Calculator.  The calculators, if available, are easy to use and there are many of them. 

The so called Award Winning Glossary is also easy to use and here one can find definitions of many common and obscure terms.  That leaves the Free Source Code Snippets.  Here you really must know what you are going after.  Things like a Radio Burn Test or a Text Box Scroller are not what the average person is familiar with.  Again prepare to meet list after list until you find something interesting.  And again remember to scroll to the bottom to navigate.

Despite some of my negative feelings about this website, I am certain that others will find it to be a resource worth examining.  It contains a lot of data and a person with more time and patience should be able to bookmark a few useful items.