How Computers Work: The Evolution of Technology, 10th Edition

Best How Computers Work Guru Mr Ron White
Years ago I started out reading Mr White’s previous How Computers Work books and his approach and illustrations allow me to understand what is going on inside the machine. This book and his original book sit on my reference shelf front and center. With all the technology going on in our everyday lives I find a need to understand how things work will help me be a smarter consumer. If my son asks how a tv gets its picture or what type of video card is best or how are spinning hard drives different from solid state drives, etc. I can answer his questions. I picture Mr White’s illustrations which really enable me to recall and repeat a concept. Don’t be intimidated by the book. You don’t have to read it front to back. You can read it section by section or concept by concept.

A thorough book.
Had some “technical” difficulties. Good on my 27” PC, not so good on my iPad or other devices.

Good start, but some fundamental errors in Part 1 that could confuse novices. Wait for a later printing.
I bought my grandson, a college freshman majoring in informatics, this book as a gift: How Computers Work (10th Ed.) by Ron White, First Printing, Dec. 2014. I pre-ordered it from Amazon back in November, 2014, and it did arrive in time for the holidays.While I applaud the effort and book overall, having owned several editions in the past, there are fundamental errors early in this first printing that could erode reader confidence, since the mistakes are so basic. I imagine this edition was rushed to press prior to the holiday season, and frankly, it shows.Now I must explain to my grandson the mistakes, and apologize.Here’s just a sample of what I’ve found so far in Part 1:1. A table is not a computer, but a tablet such as an iPad is: Page 5, last paragraph: “–mainframe, desktop, table, digital music player, … ” ???2. P. 13, image 3, 4th sentence is not a sentence and doesn’t help the explanation: “Resistance is how the material which the electricity is flowing.” ???3. P. 15, image 5. The image of the rheostat is confusing and makes the opposite point it should. The way it is drawn, it contradicts the text. In fact, as the knob is turned clockwise, the amount of resistance should increase, not decrease as depicted in the image. When the knob in the diagram, as drawn, is turned clockwise, there is MORE resistive wire to travel through. The current out would therefore decrease. And that’s just backwards to how knobs on radios and stereos normally work. Turning clockwise will increase the current out, not decrease it. Duh? See: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+does+a+rheostat+work&espv=2&biw=731&bih=387&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=SzKtVI3mOoOnyQTDz4KoBg&ved=0CDAQsAQ&dpr=1.754. P. 17, image of Mona Lisa is wrong, contradicts text to the left in section 6: The Mona Lisa appears in COLOR. This is NOT a half-tone image, consisting of only black and white dots. The whole example could be improved by showing a contrast between a half-tone (1-bit color) and, say, a 256-bit color image of Mona Lisa. E.g., see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone .5. P. 36, first paragraph. Pages XXX-xxx are referred to. Where are these pages?6. I bought the digital edition also, wondering if the same mistakes are there. Yes, they are. Furthermore, the navigation when scrolling was not working correctly in the latest version of Firefox (34.05) for the Mac (OS X 10.10.1). When I use the left navigation menu, click on Chapter 1, How Waves take the Universe on a Joy Ride, then start scrolling down, the page jumps to the beginning of the book! I can’t even read it, unless I start scrolling from the beginning of the book. Come on now, this is totally unacceptable.So I tried Chrome (Version 39.0.2171.95 (64-bit)). While the navigation works, the first Interaction just came up with an empty black box with a yellow border. It just does NOT work at all (but surprisingly it does in Firefox, and I can add ducks to the waves, if I FIRST scroll from the beginning of the book to get there).7. The interactive animation on Writing Data to RAM (and reading it) is confusing. When getting to Reading data from RAM (in the same interaction), the illustration is simply confusing. How can a capacitor send a current through a transistor that is CLOSED. The circuit is broken between the capacitor and the data line. How can current travel from the capacitor to the data line, if the switch is off? This is not logical. It must be wrong, or I’m missing something here.Overall, this is NOT a good start to the book, and makes me a doubter of the accuracy of some of the content in this first printing/web edition. I’m afraid I cannot recommend this book to others at this time with errors I’ve discovered in the first few dozen pages.I am not a computer novice, having started with programming in FORTRAN on mainframe computers with punched cards. I taught college students how to use computers over 4 decades. More recently, I’ve written interactive Web simulations, tutorials and tests that are widely used.My advice: Wait for a later printing when some of these rather basic and embarrassing errors are fixed in the 10th edition.

Superb Book, a must have!
Well written and second to none illustrations.

Tolles Buch, mit Infos gepacked!

Such an amazing book. I’d say I’ve learned something from every page I’ve read. Its very clear and easy to understand with plenty of pictures all in color. I’ll have to read it again to absorb it all lol.