Product Description: From handheld smart phones to vast scientific simulators, computers are developing at ever-increasing speed. In The Computer, uber-technogeek Mark Frauenfelder traces the evolution of this vital machine from its earliest roots through its exciting application in code-breaking during the Second World War, and from its initial use in the workplace and home to its current status as a ubiquitous—and increasingly portable—part of twenty-first century existence...read more

Product Description: How the Computer Changed History examines the development of the computer, how it works, and how it has become a standard machine used in businesses, homes, and industries. Features include essential facts, a glossary, selected bibliography, websites, source notes, and an index, plus a timeline and maps, charts, and diagrams...read more

Product Description: Computer technology has come a long way from the machines that took hours to do even simple tasks. The history of computing is full of computers that were the size of a room and did very little. Years of technological developments have helped turn those giant machines into tiny machines that put the world at our fingertips, but it certainly wasnt easy...read more

Product Description: Students will be fascinated by stories of technological innovation in the world of computer technology; as well as, the family tree of inventions that have shaped history and society. Twelve spreads profile the most influential technology, introducing major players, turning points, and impacts on society today...read more

Product Description: Today's post secondary students tend to be highly connected. They engage with a variety of technologies in a typical day, including text messaging, e-mail, and social networking. Our Digital World: Introduction to Computing combines online activities and textbook resources to create an innovative hybrid learning product that appeals to contemporary students who want to do rather than only read...read more

Blending strong narrative history and a fascinating look at the interface of business and technology, Computer: A History of the Information Machine traces the dramatic story of the invention of the computer. More than just the tale of a tool created by scientists to crunch numbers, this book suggests a richer story behind the computer’s creation, one that shows how business and government were the first to explore the unlimited potential of the machine as an information processor. Not surprisingly, at the heart of the business story is IBM. A story of old-fashioned entreprenuership in symbiotic relationship with scientific know-how, it begins way back when ”computers” were people who did the computational work of scientists, and Charles Babbage attempted in vain to mechanize the process. But it also shows how entrepreneurs like Herman Hollerith, seeing a business opportunity in a machine that could mechanically tabulate the U.S. census, created a punched-card tabulator that became the technology that created IBM.The authors show how ENIAC, the first fully electronic computer, emerged out of the wartime need of the military for computers that performed at lightning speed and did not need human intervention at any stage of the process. Most interesting is the story of how the computer began to reshape broad segments of our society when the PC enabled new modes of computing that liberated people from dependence on room-sized, enormously expensive mainframe computers. Filled with lively insights—many about the world of computing in the 1990s, such as the strategy behind Microsoft Windows—as well as a discussion of the rise and creation of the World Wide Web, here is a book no one who owns or uses a computer will want to miss.