21 Jul
1999
21 Jul
'99
3:34 p.m.
Hi Gary and all,
At 11:38 PM 7/21/99 -0700, Gary wrote:
I also managed to locate the companion "Arithmetic
Operations..." which
is a fascinating book for describing 1957 technologies. Definitely
recommend these to anyone interested in tube and very early solid state
computers.
I found it interesting that this book is the ONLY book I have that
includes Edmund Berkeley's "Giant Brains" in it's bibliography.
"Brains"
is *definitely* a book to add to your library, as well.
Yes, I noticed that reference as well, but haven't found it yet.
Easy on the
hardware descriptions, but Berkeley was visionary in
fortelling the
day-to-day uses of computers, writing when computers were mostly relays
and the *really advanced* computers had tubes.
BTW, A.B.E. is an association of small book sellers, not a seller itself.
But their network seems to be extended to a lot of small bookstores. Your
actual purchase is transacted with a specific member bookstore. Consequently
you get to search the shelves of some really neat stores - the kind that
would have old dusty books such as the above. And the prices are usually
very fair. I've not bought through bookfinder, but I suspect A.B.E. is
similar, judging by the look of their web pages.
www.bookfinder.com is a collection of several book seller networks and
includes www.abebooks.com.
-Dave