Books on the history of Computers?

[emeraldgirl08]

I have a term paper that is due soon! I need to get at least two or three books I can read or glance through the weekend that is pretty much supported by none other than the experts here

I see that abacus were considered computers??? What?! I thought they were just for teaching kids how to count! or for making annoying clacking noises

Any suggestions?

[RealBlackStuff]

Not really books, but one of the most comprehensive info sources: http://www.hitmill.com/computers/computerhx1.html

[emeraldgirl08]

Thanks RBS!

[BillMorrow]

Not really books, but one of the most comprehensive info sources: http://www.hitmill.com/computers/computerhx1.html

wandering through this site i found at least one inconsistency if not an outright error and another mis-statement..

8088 was not ther first cpu, it was more or less the third or forth..

intel did the 4004, 8008, 8080 and THEN the 8088..
since i never really studied older cpu's than the 8080 there might be some error in the above list of cpu's..


steve jobs was not really a founder of homebrew..
at that time it was a mnishmash of people coming and going..
jobs might have been an early member..
no one was really a founder, member or officer as we were always told by lee felsenstein that there WAS no club..
other noteables of homebrew were gordon french who hosted the peoples computer club in his garage among the live steam model locomotives he built from scratch..
(when he got a divorce he offered one or more of those to me and i regret not buying one!)
jim warren was a leading "member" who went on to found the first west coast computer faire..
which, some years later, he sold to a book publisher..
i guess hes probably still living up in woodside, san mateo county..

we were only a group who met to discuss various aspects of building homebrew computers on whatever surface was uncluttered at home..
for me this meant the living room floor of the rented house i had in palo alto..

i was the least of all members as i tried to absorbe as much as i could without looking like a fool..

[dsvochak]

http://www.questia.com/library/science- ... puters.jsp
http://www.hbingham.com/bookreviews/comphist.htm

[emeraldgirl08]

Thanks for the input Bill and dsvochak.

I found all the links in this thread helpful

Here's a new wallpaper I just had to use to be an glaringly obvious reminder of what I am to do everyday.

[BillMorrow]

as an addendum to my comments IRT homebrew club..

at one meeting at the SLAC auditorium on sand hill road in menlo park both jobs and wozniak appeared and introduced the new apple II to the crowd..

they said they had a table set up in the lobby and we could go and look..

as this new apple II case was their prototype and thus the only one they had we were advised to be careful and not break it..

this new case was one upgrade over the old wood box/case that had been made by my friend bob moody and sold to apple I owners at the byte shop on el camino real in palo alto, which bob managed..

i wonder if any of these sites will ever go on the national register of historic places..