6 Apr
2005
6 Apr
'05
4:18 p.m.
> What does it say about me if I have several
hundred books on classic
> computing and not one off that list?
That you have a far more useful library. I've
also got several hundred
Well, more useful for the sort of stuff I do, anyway.
books on classic computing, and only one of them is on
that list.
Personally I'd rather have books that explain how to use or work on the
hardware and software.
Agreed. A lot of the books of history seem to attempt to rewrite said
history :-). Most of the books I have are _now_ on classic computers, but
were on currnet machines when they were written.
For 'history', I've got 'Automatic Digital Computers' by M. V. Wilkes,
which I will not sell at _any_ price (well, it's autographed, OK...).
I've also got some DEC-related book that's amusing for the number of
errors in the photogrpahs. There's a machine -- a PDP-something-or-other
(not an 8 or an 11) with TU55 DECtapes -- that's shown left-right
reversed. A picture of a microVAX is actually a microPDP11 (or vice
versa). One of the 'microVAX chips' is nothing of the sort (I forget what
it is, it's not a CPU at all, though). And so on.
-tony
Zane