The Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology - Softcover

Walters, E. Garrison

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130194697 ISBN 13: 9780130194695

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2000

Synopsis

The Complete, easy-to-understand guide to IT-now and in the future! Computers, networks, and pervasive computing Hardware, operating systems, and software How networks work: LANs, WANs, and the Internet E-business, the Web, and security

About this title

Review

Lots of circumstances conspired to make information technology what it is today. Business decisions (both wise and foolish), scientific discoveries (both old and recent), marketing campaigns (founded both in truth and otherwise), and plenty of random chance have played parts in defining the industrial, social, and cultural phenomena that personal and business computing have become. The Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology tells the technical, commercial, and social stories behind the electronic computer and related technologies, such as telecommunications and software development. Along the way, author E. Garrison Walters reveals a lot of general knowledge about computers. This book is highly readable. It's essentially a general-interest nonfiction book, and a good one, at that.

As you read this book, you can't avoid picking up the little technical facts that have become part of our culture, particularly its younger parts. What's an embedded operating system? What's object-oriented programming? What is the open-source movement? Walters teaches you enough about these subjects--and the ways in which they fit together--to enable you to speak intelligently about them and perform further research, as your needs require. You'll enjoy this book, regardless of your level of computer expertise or your area of specialization, because you're sure to learn something and enjoy the process. --David Wall

Topics covered: The state of the art in electronic computing, data storage, and data communications, in a historical context. The operations of processors, memory chips, persistent storage devices (e.g., disks), and other hardware subsystems. Software development--including compression, encryption, and the challenges and promise of parallel computing--receives attention. Ditto for network communications infrastructures, protocols, and applications. It's all explained in detail and with style.

From the Back Cover

• The complete, easy-to-understand guide to IT—now and in the future!
• Computers, networks, and pervasive computing
• Hardware, operating systems, and software
• How networks work: LANs, WANs, and the Internet
• E-business, the Web, and security

The guide for ANYONE who needs to understand the key technologies driving today's economy and high tech industries!

You can't afford not to understand the information revolution that's sweeping the world-but who's got time for all the acronyms and hype most technology books give you? The Essential Guide to Computing demystifies the digital society we live in with an intelligent, thorough, and up-to-date explanation of computer, networking, and Internet technologies. It's perfect for smart professionals who want to get up to speed, but don't have computer science or engineering degrees! You'll find up-to-the-minute coverage on all of today's hottest technologies including:

• The evolution of computing: from the room-sized "monoliths" of the 1950s to today's global Internet
• Preview of the next revolution: "pervasive computing"
• Computer hardware: microprocessors, memory, storage, I/O, displays, and architecture
• Windows, Macintosh, UNIX/Linux, DOS, NetWare, Palm: what operating systems do, and how they compare
• Programming languages: from machine language to advanced object-oriented technologies
• Key software applications: databases, spreadsheets, word processing, voice recognition, and beyond
• Microsoft and the software industry: where they stand, where they're headed
• How networks work: LANs, WANs, packet switching, hardware, media, and more
• The Internet, e-commerce, and security
• Enterprise applications: data warehousing, Web-centered development, and groupware

Whether you're a consumer, investor, marketer, or executive, this is your start-to-finish briefing on the information technologies that have changed the world-and the coming technologies that will transform it yet again!

About this edition

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0130194697
• ISBN 13: 9780130194695
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528