

The Ladybird Book of Computers: old but brilliant - jgrahamc
http://www.pointlessmuseum.com/computer/default.html

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bdfh42
Absolutely the finest introduction to computers ever written. I seem to have
lost touch with my copy but it always had a place on my shelf when I was an IT
manager - it was great to lend to people who needed an introduction they could
absorb in just a (very) few minutes.

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tdavis
What amazes me more than anything is that we've gone from no computers to
computers in everything -- _in less than a single lifetime!_ That truly is
incredible.

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jgrahamc
Interesting to compare the 1971 and 1979 pages describing the future of
computers: <http://www.pointlessmuseum.com/computer/027.html>

One has microcircuits with 10s of components, 8 years later there's the
microprocessor with thousands.

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PaulAJ
What amazes me is how accurate and detailed this book is, given that it was
intended for children. It reads like it was written by a computer expert
helped by a children's writer, rather than the other way around.

Too many books for children are written by a specialist in writing childrens'
books, rather than someone who knows what they are writing about. The writer
gets a half baked idea of what the book is about, and then even that gets
dumbed down in the name of accessability.

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petercooper
I owned the 1979 edition of this. While I had already been fiddling with
computers for a few years before I'd read it, this book and its awesome
illustrations (for the time) really helped me "get it."

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sspencer
I just ordered one on abebooks - hard to resist at only a dollar plus
shipping!

I always liked those books when I was younger. I wish 7 year old sspencer had
encountered this particular one...

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axod
I still have a copy of this :) The ladybird books were just great at this sort
of thing.

