Computer: A History Of The Information Machine, Second Edition (The Sloan Technology Series)


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	Computer: A History Of The Information Machine, Second Edition (The Sloan Technology Series)
	Author: Martin Campbell-Kelly Published: 2004-08-13
	List price: $41.00 Our price: $35.07	Usually ships in 24 hours As of: March 13th, 2010 03:32:03 PM

Customer comments on this selection. Seeing the Forest Thru the Trees Our memories are short. We take for granted the Internet, emails and blogs - but these things are still quite new. So much of what we read today about computer technology is slanted in the form of hype, written by journalists and company advertisers. I really enjoyed this book, because it is history book, giving a proper perspective of the development of computers and the industry as a whole. What is particularly interesting is how the driving force behind computer innovations has changed. Originally, computers were invented as a means to solve ballistics equations. Then IBM took control of the industry changing the driving force into business applications. Today, a significant portion of computer usage is for communication and entertainment purposes. I highly recommend this book, because it gives the reader a proper perspective of where all this stuff came from. Today we look back with 20/20 vision, as though the inventors of computers had a clear plan - but that wasn't the case. Computers evolved, based on many tried and failed attempts. Great received my book sooner than expected and in good conditions just as described and even better Computer: A History of the Information Machine These comments are based on the 1st edition, published in 1996. This book is an excellent overview of the history of the computer, from its precursors, to its invention, to the first personal computers, and to the inception of the World Wide Web upon the backbone of the Internet. It is an overview, a first look: not in any sense whatsoever is it a detailed study of the development of the computer. It is a comfortable place to begin and does not pretend to be anything else. A Century of Computer History in 300 Pages Campbell-Kelly and Aspray tackled an impossible problem and they did a credible job. They wrote a readable historic narrative spanning more than 100 years, including the major developments leading to the creation of the first programmable electronic computers in the mid 20th century and the subsequent 50 years of development leading to personal computers and the Internet explosion. This book capably captures much of the flavor of the developing industry and it's not as dry as one Amazon reviewer might have you think. It isn't larded with a ton of esoteric technical specifications that merely bore the casual reader. I read the first edition and it contained a few blatant technical errors. Mistaking the 32-bit Motorola 68000 microprocessor, circa 1979, for the 8-bit Motorola 6800 microprocessor, circa 1975, and misidentifying the 6502 microprocessor vendor MOS Technology as MOSTEK (two completely different companies) are two errors that I recall seeing. I hope these errors are corrected in the newer second edition. On the whole, I liked this historical overview very much. Note that this books serves as an excellent handbook and guide to the computers and other artifacts on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Although the book was written before the current museum was established, its chapters closely parallel the historic timeline formed by the museum's aisles of computing artifacts, from the early mechanical calculators and punched-card machines through ENIAC, SAGE, and onwards to the personal computer. Many of the developments discussed in the book, spanning hundreds of years of work, are on display in the museum. Well-written and quite comprehensive This book is a very well-written history of the essential phases of how computing and computers developed into what dominates today. It shows not only the "Museum" aspects of the inventions but gives also good deal of information about the settings of the situations in which the developments took place. One slight drawback might be some missing focal points to the European part of the history.
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