Rating: 
Summary: Unfortunately based on incorrect information
Review: This book, as well as the many tales of the ENIAC, are factually incorrect. This was even proven by a federal judge in the state of Minnesota.On October 19, 1973, US Federal Judge Earl R. Larson signed his decision following a lengthy court trial which declared the ENIAC patent of Mauchly and Eckert invalid and named Atanasoff the inventor of the electronic digital computer -- the Atanasoff-Berry Computer or the ABC. Mr. McCartney does a great job of ignoring the facts that were proven in the case,and instead believes the hearsay, and tarnished depositions that were later recanted.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthy Effort, but Not the definitive work on subject
Review: This is a book that needed to be written, and Scott has made it clear that John Mauchly and Pres Eckert did invent and build the first electronic computer. He does describe in rational details the betrayal of John and Pres by Herman Goldstine and John von Neuamnn. Both deserve a place in the history of the development of computers, but their ambitions overreached their accomplishments. Herman saw the value of their idea for an electronic computer and did sell the idea to Aberdeen to back it and pay for it. Penn professors wanted nothing to do with what they felt to a man would be a failure. Johnny von Neumann never even heard of it until its design was frozen and the machine was nearly built. Although he was a consultant to Aberdeen, nobody told him about ENIAC because its backers also felt it would probably flop. Herman informed him of it on a railroad platform and invited him to come see it. Von Newmann was immediately captivated by it. When told meetings were already underway for a successor machine called the EDVAC (Electronic Digital Automatic Computer) he asked to join them. They met every couple of weeks. One time, von Neumann said he wouldn't be at the next meeting because he was also a consultant to Los Alamos and was needed there. One day, Goldstine came in with what appeared to be minutes of the EDVAC meetings sent back by von Neumann. EDVAC was a classified project and Herman was the security officer. Pres and John were not allowed to publish articles on either the ENIAC or EDVAC, but Herman managed to distribute von Neumann's notes widely in government and university circles. Von Neumann's note gave scant recognition to Pres or Joihn or anybody, thus the paper appeared ro be a product of von Newmann's fertile mind. Thus, the mistaken belief that von Neumann invented the stored program computer. EDVAC used a stored program. Imagine, when Pres and John applied for an EDVAC patent, they found that ambitious duo of Johnny and Herman had already applied. When confronted with this duplicity, von Neumann said he did it to ensure that the EDVAC patent would be in the public domain and not be used for commercial purposes. You bet. Scott struggles hard on the Atanasoff saga. Atanasoff never claimed he invented the computer and nobody ever heard of him until Honeywell dug him up to keep from paying royalties on the ENIAC patent. Much is made of John Mauchly's memory of his association with Atanasoff as recorded at different times. John suffered from a disease called Heriditary Hemoragic Talengetasin (HHT) which causes lesions to be formed in the brain and holes in the lungs. One of the interviews was taken shortly after he had had an episode and had been very ill in the hospital. It is no wonder he couldn't remember incidentrs then that he could remember when he was in better health. Now, to what is really wrong with the book. Scott did not grasp the environment in which events took place. Like a college term paper he relies on what has already been written and he has picked up errors from earlier books written by Nancy Stern. He is weak technically and can neither resist or recognize idiotic statements. Such as, BINAC had 512 bits of memory when in fact, it had 512 30-bit words of memory He didn't think it was impossible to program the trajectory of a Snark missle in 512 bits of menmory. He says the ENIAC was very personal and one could snuggle up to it. AsS one of the first ENIAC programmers, I state categorically, "That is idiotic." Also, he quotes me as though I had something to do with EDVAC. I had nothing to do with EDVAC. The quotes about Pres are accurate, but they were from the time when i worked with Pres on the design of a backup machine for the first UNIVAC. Pres was afraid the mercury delay line memory might not work so Art Gehring and I under Pres's direction did the logical design of a UNIVAC backup machine that used electrostatic memory. It was microcoded. It was never built. The mercury delay line memory worked. He also uses a description I gave of meetings a group of us had with von Neumann when we turned the ENIAC into a stored program computer. Scot claims the EDVAC meetings were held with the group sitting theater style listening to von Neumann lectured. When Hell freezes over could such meetings have taken place. Pres would never have allowed anyone to take over his meetings on his project. Scott calls Mauchly a journeyman physicist. What the Hell does that mean? Also, he says Mauchly couldn't keep up with von Neumann. I worked with both. Both were brilliant: von Neumann was studiedly gracious, Mauchly was laid back and thoughtful. I could talk about anything with Mauchly. I didn't know von Neumann as well, but I'm sure he also could discuss almost any subject. Scott takes the position that the judge in the ENIAC patent trial played god and punished Sperry Univac for signing an exclusive cross licensing agreement with IBM. The statute of limitations had run out for fining them for restraint of trade. What he could do was take away the patent so the company couldn't benefit by it. At that time, the computer industry consisted of IBM and the seven dwarves (CDC, Burroughs, Honeywell, NCR, UNIVAC, RCA, & Digital Equipment). The judge may have felt that the dwarves couldn't survive if they had to pay heavy patent royalties. By far, his worst treatment is that of the BINAC. The BINAC ran for 44 hours without a failure (2 machines ran in tandem and checked each other) in Philadelphia. During the demonstration, a sound system was hooked up to one of the outputs and played music as the numbers being calculated changed. As a joke, one of the engineers rolled out an egg to show it could calculate, play music and even lay eggs. Lighten up Scoot, it was a joke the BINAC didn't really lay an egg. This was the McCarthy ersa and the cold war era. Northrop, who financed BINAC, was run by the missle boys who were paranoid, Eckert-Mauchly's security status was being questioned (probably someone who had something to gain by the company's problem wrote a convenient letter to the right security agency), electronics was mistrusted, and no one knew what it took to keep a computer installation going. Northrop dismantled the BINAC, threw it into crates and shipped it to Californis. A young engineer, who had just graduated from college was hired and taken to a hangar where parts were scattered all over the floor. It was the BINAC and he was told to put it together. The BINAC didn't lay an egg. Those who managed it did. I say it was the first stored program computer. That 44-hour test was run in April, 1949. I'm glad this book was written.
Rating:
Summary: Unfortunately based on incorrect information
Review: This is a brief, enjoyable history of possibly the first programmable, electronic computer (Colossus has its fans, but is less well known). It tells how Mauchly and Eckert together created something truly new in the world - something that, today, we could hardly live without. The historical research is good, the writing is very readable, and the inventors' prescience is almost beyond credibility. That is the first half of the book, a worthy but ordinary piece of the history of computing. The book's second half is where its true value lies. The second half is filled with grasping incompetents, great men at their pettiest, conspiracy, and bizarre workings of so-called justice. It's about Mauchly and Eckert's trust in the people around them, and in trust violated. It's about the engineer and the scientist, a little naive, trying to hold their own in a world that wants to take it from them. It's about the ugly part of creativity's contact with greed for reputation and commercial success. It's scary. This book was suggested to me by a startup entrepeneur, someone who clearly identified with the two inventors. Not much has changed since Mauchly and Eckert's time, except that the legal attacks are more likley and more rapacious. I'm not sure how to read this suggestion. It warns against real dangers of personality politics, but doesn't show any way to defend against those dangers. It's a good book. I take parts of it very much to heart. Even if the story has no personal meaning for you, it's still a vivid bit of history, it talks about events within living memory, and it shows part of the twnety-first century's origin. I recommend it to any citizen of the modern world.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: Very interesting book. You would think it would be somewhat boring or dry, but I actually had a tough time putting it down until I was done with it. I would highly recommend it if you're into computers, history, and geek stuff. =)
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