The Computer: A History from the 17th Century to Today
Description
Price: $80.00 - $66.34 (as of Jul 24, 2024 01:33:15 UTC – Details)
By: Jens M�ller (Author)
The story of the evolution of machines in…
Reviews
Carol Marie Lamb –
Enjoyed this history book.
This was a gift for my great grandson and he now knows how computers began.
Muri –
Excelente
Buen libro. Llegó impecable. Es grande y pesado
TexasShipAgent –
Excellent
Very high quality (and super large and heavy ) coffee table / heirloom quality book that gives an excellent almost pop art history of the technology that changed the world. Great coffee table book for the discerning nerd 🙂
E. Greblasky –
This is GREAT!
Very well done. Fun to just look at.
Bradley D –
Monstrous tome, great layout… inaccuracy on the first page I opened it to
First off, I’d like to say that this is a massive volume. “Oversized” doesn’t begin to describe it. As is the case with most Taschen books I’ve had the pleasure of perusing, The Computer is chock full of eye-catching photos, illustrations and various ephemera you’d likely never run across in a Google Images search. Odd choice of color for the cover aside, the layout is definitely up to the standard Taschen job well done.Interestingly, though, upon unwrapping and flipping The Computer open, the first page I ended up on had a factual inaccuracy. The beginning section has thumbnails of sorts, representing hallmarks, if you will, of various technological ages, with a date and name underneath. These line the sides of the introduction in the various languages that the book is written in, and are featured prominently. The error in question is very clearly a sprite of Mario from Super Mario Bros, with “Super Mario Bros” written underneath, with “1981” alongside it. Now, Super Mario Brothers did not release until 1985. Perhaps this was referring to the first appearance of Mario in Donkey Kong, which WAS released in 1981. Even so, Mario wasn’t called Mario until 1983, when Mario Bros (no ‘Super’ prefix) was released in arcades. He was called “Jumpman” before that. Also, the sprite is very clearly the Mario from Super Mario Bros 1 for the Famicom/NES. No big deal, right? Unfortunately, a few pages later, I stumbled across another error, this time for the Sega Mega Drive. It lists it as “1990”. The Mega Drive actually released in 1988. As the credited authors are European, I am wont to accept that they perhaps used the European release date, as, customarily, Japanese gaming hardware and software saw a later release date in Europe in the 80s and 90s. However, there are other instances where they got the date on Japanese tech correct, and used the Japanese release year.Now, really, I’m not trying to be pedantic or anything, here. I could really care less if they got two dates of things I know to be different, incorrect. However, what about the stuff in the rest of the book that I’m not as “up” on? Was that as ill-researched? I mean, I’m sure most people aren’t buying this for research material, but if the authors are getting something that you can use a search engine to find in five seconds, wrong, what else is potentially bad info being passed on to the reader? And, at the end of the day, it IS a book that I paid 80 of my actual earth dollars for. If I wanted something factually dodgy with pretty pick-i-chures, I’d go to YouTube or reddit; at least they’re free.But, pretty pictures galore it DOES have, and much like nearly everyone else, I bought this for glossy, hi-res photos of computers and their insidey parts. I definitely recommend this book, if you aren’t obsessive about details that is.Oh, and the last part kinda sucks, imo. It’s kind of a personal preference thing, but I genuinely don’t want to hear about the ice bucket challenge and a bunch of bland crap that happened after plebs got their hands on smartphones. It’s a weird tonal shift, and the last 15 pages or so read more like Time magazine.
Edgar –
El libro se ve excelente, pero requiere un manejo, envio y empaque con cuidado. Lo estoy regresando
C. CHANG –
I got this book as birthday gift for my boyfriend and he absolutely loves it.
Carol Marie Lamb –
Enjoyed this history book.
This was a gift for my great grandson and he now knows how computers began.
Muri –
Excelente
Buen libro. Llegó impecable. Es grande y pesado
TexasShipAgent –
Excellent
Very high quality (and super large and heavy ) coffee table / heirloom quality book that gives an excellent almost pop art history of the technology that changed the world. Great coffee table book for the discerning nerd 🙂
E. Greblasky –
This is GREAT!
Very well done. Fun to just look at.
Bradley D –
Monstrous tome, great layout… inaccuracy on the first page I opened it to
First off, I’d like to say that this is a massive volume. “Oversized” doesn’t begin to describe it. As is the case with most Taschen books I’ve had the pleasure of perusing, The Computer is chock full of eye-catching photos, illustrations and various ephemera you’d likely never run across in a Google Images search. Odd choice of color for the cover aside, the layout is definitely up to the standard Taschen job well done.Interestingly, though, upon unwrapping and flipping The Computer open, the first page I ended up on had a factual inaccuracy. The beginning section has thumbnails of sorts, representing hallmarks, if you will, of various technological ages, with a date and name underneath. These line the sides of the introduction in the various languages that the book is written in, and are featured prominently. The error in question is very clearly a sprite of Mario from Super Mario Bros, with “Super Mario Bros” written underneath, with “1981” alongside it. Now, Super Mario Brothers did not release until 1985. Perhaps this was referring to the first appearance of Mario in Donkey Kong, which WAS released in 1981. Even so, Mario wasn’t called Mario until 1983, when Mario Bros (no ‘Super’ prefix) was released in arcades. He was called “Jumpman” before that. Also, the sprite is very clearly the Mario from Super Mario Bros 1 for the Famicom/NES. No big deal, right? Unfortunately, a few pages later, I stumbled across another error, this time for the Sega Mega Drive. It lists it as “1990”. The Mega Drive actually released in 1988. As the credited authors are European, I am wont to accept that they perhaps used the European release date, as, customarily, Japanese gaming hardware and software saw a later release date in Europe in the 80s and 90s. However, there are other instances where they got the date on Japanese tech correct, and used the Japanese release year.Now, really, I’m not trying to be pedantic or anything, here. I could really care less if they got two dates of things I know to be different, incorrect. However, what about the stuff in the rest of the book that I’m not as “up” on? Was that as ill-researched? I mean, I’m sure most people aren’t buying this for research material, but if the authors are getting something that you can use a search engine to find in five seconds, wrong, what else is potentially bad info being passed on to the reader? And, at the end of the day, it IS a book that I paid 80 of my actual earth dollars for. If I wanted something factually dodgy with pretty pick-i-chures, I’d go to YouTube or reddit; at least they’re free.But, pretty pictures galore it DOES have, and much like nearly everyone else, I bought this for glossy, hi-res photos of computers and their insidey parts. I definitely recommend this book, if you aren’t obsessive about details that is.Oh, and the last part kinda sucks, imo. It’s kind of a personal preference thing, but I genuinely don’t want to hear about the ice bucket challenge and a bunch of bland crap that happened after plebs got their hands on smartphones. It’s a weird tonal shift, and the last 15 pages or so read more like Time magazine.
Edgar –
El libro se ve excelente, pero requiere un manejo, envio y empaque con cuidado. Lo estoy regresando
C. CHANG –
I got this book as birthday gift for my boyfriend and he absolutely loves it.
Tadty –
Big chunky interesting book