Review of The Other Computer History
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Swabra Salim
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- Latest Review: The Other Computer History by Hans Bodmer
Review of The Other Computer History
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Other Computer History" by Hans Bodmer.]
The Other Computer History is a non-fiction book by Hans Bodmer. Hans uses a story of a so called 'He' to explain the history of the computer, the softwares it uses and the programming languages. He, began his professional life in 1955 where he joined a company training FEAMs (Fine Mechanic and Electrical Apparatus Mechanic) where he offered his apprenticeship as a precision mechanic. He got inspiration from a colleague who told him he would work at one of the emerging companies that built data.
After the apprenticeship he joined Swiss Air Force and had to go for military training and was also a data transmission device mechanic. He was called for another job in Stockholm,Sweden at the LN Ericsson Company. His work was to assemble fairly complicated mechanical desktop calculators which had ten keys. He got another job in Zurich as a programmer. He went for several trainings which gave him a wide range of programming experiences. He also learned of FORTRAN programming language which forced him to learn English. His journey continued and got an opportunity to work at CERN with the CDC Supercomputer and here together with his colleagues were able to come up with better storage devices.In 1981 the Supercomputers were getting extinct and gave way to the Super-Minis. In 1993 - 2004 his last assignment for the computer to be fully ready was to find a stable network connection. Basically, the author wanted the reader to understand the process on the evolution of the computer, its programming languages, the operating systems and the stability of network.
What I liked about the book is the fact that the author gave the full meanings of all abbreviations he used. For example, FORTRAN (Formula Translation), CDC (Control Data Corporation), SNA (Systems Networks Architecture). He also used well labelled pictures to illustrate the different machines he was talking about. This made it easy for me to picture what exactly was being described. Not forgetting that Hans also quoted a few scientists for example a quote from Mark Twain "Don't separate yourself from your illusions. When they are all gone you will exist, but you will cease to live."
The book had a few errors and mistakes. The author added a lot of German and French dialect in his dialogues. Although he translated them, I felt this made the book boring, having to read both the dialects and translation.
Due to the few errors mentioned earlier, I give the book The Other Computer History a rating of 3 out of 4 stars.
I recommend this book to anyone who would love to know more about how the computer evolved from being a big heavy machine to a now portable machine and everything it entails.
******
The Other Computer History
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The Other Computer History is a non-fiction book by Hans Bodmer. Hans uses a story of a so called 'He' to explain the history of the computer, the softwares it uses and the programming languages. He, began his professional life in 1955 where he joined a company training FEAMs (Fine Mechanic and Electrical Apparatus Mechanic) where he offered his apprenticeship as a precision mechanic. He got inspiration from a colleague who told him he would work at one of the emerging companies that built data.
After the apprenticeship he joined Swiss Air Force and had to go for military training and was also a data transmission device mechanic. He was called for another job in Stockholm,Sweden at the LN Ericsson Company. His work was to assemble fairly complicated mechanical desktop calculators which had ten keys. He got another job in Zurich as a programmer. He went for several trainings which gave him a wide range of programming experiences. He also learned of FORTRAN programming language which forced him to learn English. His journey continued and got an opportunity to work at CERN with the CDC Supercomputer and here together with his colleagues were able to come up with better storage devices.In 1981 the Supercomputers were getting extinct and gave way to the Super-Minis. In 1993 - 2004 his last assignment for the computer to be fully ready was to find a stable network connection. Basically, the author wanted the reader to understand the process on the evolution of the computer, its programming languages, the operating systems and the stability of network.
What I liked about the book is the fact that the author gave the full meanings of all abbreviations he used. For example, FORTRAN (Formula Translation), CDC (Control Data Corporation), SNA (Systems Networks Architecture). He also used well labelled pictures to illustrate the different machines he was talking about. This made it easy for me to picture what exactly was being described. Not forgetting that Hans also quoted a few scientists for example a quote from Mark Twain "Don't separate yourself from your illusions. When they are all gone you will exist, but you will cease to live."
The book had a few errors and mistakes. The author added a lot of German and French dialect in his dialogues. Although he translated them, I felt this made the book boring, having to read both the dialects and translation.
Due to the few errors mentioned earlier, I give the book The Other Computer History a rating of 3 out of 4 stars.
I recommend this book to anyone who would love to know more about how the computer evolved from being a big heavy machine to a now portable machine and everything it entails.
******
The Other Computer History
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The Other Computer History by Hans Bodmer
