Customer Reviews

Bebop Bytes Back: An Unconventional Guide to Computers

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With most computer books, I hit what I call: "The Chapter 3 Syndrome". That is, the books start off, nice and easy, with the author explaining everything very nicely; but by Chapter 3, the author decides that he is bored with all the hand-holding and takes a conceptual leap right over your head! Whoosh!

The Bebop books are not like that at all. The authors have really done an amazing job, carefully explaining complex concepts, and building on them in a methodical way that is extremely conducive to learning. I actually feel as though I have a "Mentor" looking over my shoulder, guiding me through unknown territory. Also, their sense of humor is great! I find myself chuckling over the various little one-liners that are interspersed throughout the text. They are a welcome relief to what could otherwise be a dry and somber subject matter. Plus, the Multimedia presentations are professional quality!

If you are interested in learning computers at the digital logic level, the microprogramming level, the conventional machine level, and the assembly language level, but would rather have fun doing it, then this book is for you!

This is a book that comes with its own 'Virtual Computer'. Running under Windows 95 and supplied on CD-ROM, the "Beboputer" is a really fun way to learn the intimate details of how computers work. A software version if the "Home Computer kits" of the mid seventies, the Beboputer is a computer that you build and program yourself.

The accompanying text, like the companion book, "Bebop to the Boolean Boogie", is written in the authors' inimitable style, which means you can read it for fun, and learn a lot along the way. The book is well organised into easily managed chapters combined with quizzes and Labs, seeming difficult concepts are well explained, and there's a sprinkling of "interesting" facts, like the sock color of choice for Viking Warriors, and a few cheesy jokes. Even a glance through the index entries makes you want to delve into the text. For example under 'W' we have Wagon Wheels; Walnuts, jet propelled; wetware; Winston Churchill; World, WarII; World, Wide Web; Wurstle-Grinder Mark 4! You just have to look these up to find what they have to do with computers.

Also on the CD-ROM is more than 200Mb of multimedia graphics ranging from archive video to the author's hilarious introductions.

You can download Beboputer software from the authors' website at http://ro.com/~bebopbb/byteback.htm.

Oh, I almost forgot, Appendix J contains a recipe for "The Best Clam Chowder in the World"

This book takes you down memory lane with a review of the origins of the personal computer. Along the way, it explains simply and thoroughly (this is not a contradiction) how each component works, and gives you the opportunity to tinker around with it on a virtual machine. With absolutely no technical experience, I got inside a simple computer and learnt a lot.

A very nice and hilarious introduction to computers. With the included virtual computer, you can learn quite a bit! (No pun intended). This book also includes interesting historical anecdotes. Find out what computers really do! (Not much, just move bytes about...). Enjoy!

If you've ever wanted to know what happens inside the annoying beige box on your desk, this is a really good way to find out. If you've got some computer background and you want to pick up some interesting stuff about where these things came from, this is also a darned good read.

The book on its own is neat enough, but there is a CD thrown in which is at least as good. You are provided with a simulation of a computer which you can play with on your PC (Windows 95 only). This computer can be given programs to run and you can watch what happens. This is a *lot* more fun than it sounds. There are also some good multimedia excursions into this and that, and the whole thing is carried off with a great deal of panache (and awful jokes).

I teach computing to undergraduate students. I am going to use Bebop on my next course. I am expecting my students to enjoy it

I loved the book, and was looking forward to trying the exercises using the software, only to find out that my PC with Windows 98 wouldn't run the stuff! How very disappointing. I tried to go to the website listed in the book, and it didn't appear to be up! Did it move or something? If the software was functional and worked as advertised, (and I have no reason to doubt that it would,) I would have rated this at least a 4, and possibly even a 5!

This is 1) a very good, very solid introduction to computer architecture, 2) humorous to the point of anarchy (yes, it comes with recipe for clam chowder), and 3) one of my favorite books about computers -- or anything else for that matter. Most computer books are horrible: main ideas are intimated or alluded to instead of stated, examples are confused with ideas and the ideas are left unsaid, tortured sentence constructions glue logically disjointed paragraphs together, and the job of grinding out the actual text is farmed out to flunki-- er, "copy editors" who have no direct knowledge of the topic. Yeah, I'm looking at *you* Cisco Press.

Not so with this book. Funny and brutally succinct.

On the downside, the software that it comes with may be showing its age; I think it was meant to run on Windows 95. I'm sure it works just fine in Wine. The chowder is pretty good too.

Bebop Bytes Back is one of the funniest books I've read. It's also one of the best technical books I know of. This book shows how a computer--the Beboputer--works. The CD-ROM included provides you with interactive labs and a simulator for the Beboputer, which you can program in machine code or assembly language. You will learn some pretty difficult things as you go along; the book doesn't skirt around the more technical parts. You'll also learn history, and oh so many other things!

As the authors say, this is a mega-cool book; it's lots of fun, and is technical enough to satisfy the most serious budding programmers.

The software is probably under-rated. The combination of text and the beboputer software make this an excellent teaching tool focusing on fundamentals of microprocessor systems. It is amazingly complete and offers an extensive "hands-on" approach to presenting a wide range of microprocessor related concepts. This would be a valuable book to consider for Instructors covering these topics at a Community College level. (Perhaps even at a University level) Full credit to the authors.

The book is written well and does not require a Ph.D in computer science to understand (thank God/Allah/Bhagwan e.t.c) and yet delivers very valuable and crucial information to wanna be computer scientists and veterans alike... It is also an excellent introduction for people who want to dabble in the field of micrcontrollers/microprocessor design. A job well done I must say...