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Summary: It's really in beautiful, full color!
Review: Hi! I'm Ron White, author of How Computers Work 6th Edition. If you look at Amazon's really helpful "Look Inside" feature, please keep this in mind: Timothy Edward Downs' beautiful illustrations are really in full, gorgeous color. I don't know what happened to the color in the Look Inside, but believe me -- and why would I lie? -- the art work is dazzling!
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Summary: The greatest book for newcomers
Review: First of all, I have to say that this book is only for beginners and upper-beginners in computer hardware. If you are a proffesional, don't spend time on this option....The book is designed well. The CD is also very interesting. I strongly suggest this book to beginners!...
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Summary: It's a great textbook
Review: It is a picture book for computer geek wannabes. The illustrations provide some wonderful representations for many things that are otherwise blackboxes. My students love it.
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Summary: technical info for many audiences
Review: As a designer, I appreciate the accurate and meaningful illustrations throughout this book. As a computer geek, I appreciate how in-depth and current the 6th edition is. This is a fantastic book that a hardcore hardware pro would enjoy, and my mother could read just as easily. Impressive.
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Summary: The Most Incredible Book Ever Written For PC Enthusiasts!!
Review: Ron White really did a good job on writing the millenium edition book of "How Computers Work". The book starts off with the history of computers, and even includes a section on the Internet. I'm one of those people that is totally into Technology, and I'm really impressed by this book. I was happy to see two pages about how palm PC's work, because I own one, and always wondered how they work. Computers are starting to play a more & more important part in the world today. I really suggest anyone who has used a computer before to read it. I got interested in this book when I started wondering: "Man, these machines can do so much, just how complex are their insides???" So, I think you should all read this book if you are into computer or want to just learn how they work.
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Summary: The Most Incredible Book Ever Written For PC Enthusiasts!!!
Review: Ron White really did a good job on writing the millenium edition book of "How Computers Work". The book starts off with the history of computers, and even includes a section on the Internet. I'm one of those people that is totally into Technology, and I'm really impressed by this book. I was happy to see two pages about how palm PC's work, because I own one, and always wondered how they work. Computers are starting to play a more & more important part in the world today. I really suggest anyone who has used a computer before to read it. I got interested in this book when I started wondering: "Man, these machines can do so much, just how complex are their insides???" So, I think you should all read this book if you are into computer or want to just learn how they work.
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Summary: A good book, but stretched a bit thin
Review: I thought that this was a pretty good book. The author made it very easy to understand a lot of the basic concepts. This book is targeted for the beginner and I would recommend it to beginners. I thought that the author could have cut a few things out. I was not particularly interested in how Palm Computers work. I also thought that the author could have excluded the part about the Internet. There is a separate book on how the internet works. Overall, I thought that it was a fairly decent book for people who want to have a basic understanding of computers.
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Summary: excellent for the novice or pro
Review: I have been fixing computers both personally and professionally for a few years. I have had to explain over and over why computers do this and that, with this book it made my life a lot easier. it's written with the average person in mind, no computer jargon to loose you and explains everything thoroughly. I work with dos, windows, vi, all sorts of apps and system configurations and I still learned stuff with this book. I like it so much I'm sending it to my mom for mothers day.
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Summary: Excellent book for the rest of us
Review: This book is not for the computer science or electronics student; it's for technology-challenged people like me who want to understand how the thing that is coming to dominate our lives works, without having to understand quantum physics or even trigonometry. The author explains how information is transferred, manipulated and stored in the computer, what happens when you send it to the printer, how the printer, mouse, modem, even the floppy and CD drives on your computer work, in a clear, lucid fashion. Even more unbelievably, he does not sound pompous at any point in the book. The illustrations deserve a graphics award; you can literally follow an arrow through the guts of your computer (marvelously illustrated), as the information you enter travels a path from the keyboard to its final destination, with explanations of each point along the trip. This was the best part of the book for me. Most frightening, you will actually Understand it! No, the book does not contain closeups of actual circuitboards or individual microchips, but that is not the point, which is to explain the theory and practical workings of a computer. There are thousands of more technical electronics books on computers available for the serious computer science student. This book is for the rest of us, and may inspire going onto a slightly more technical treatise on the subject without feeling like it is an unknowable mystery. This is the best book possible to take the fear/mystery out of computers to reveal them to be the simple (yes, simple) tools they are, and people serious about learning about computers will be able to go onto a more technical book without fear.
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Summary: A GREAT resource for novices AND geeks, alike.
Review: An impressive book in that both the novice as well as computer geeks can gain helpful insight. Each topic is divided into two parts; a broad overview followed by an in-depth explanation. After working with computers for ten years, I wouldn't be able to describe HOW hard drives store and retrieve data let alone a DVD (I can now!) The pictures are clear and concise and the write-ups, informative and logical. The section on the internet alone is worth the price of the book, the bonus is the CD ROM which is a very nice audio/visual presentation.
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