The Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology (Essential Guide Series) [Paperback]

E. Garrison Walters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0130194697 | ISBN-13: 978-0130194695

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

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com 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!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR (August 11, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130194697
• ISBN-13: 978-0130194695
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #334,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #73 in Books > Computers & Technology > Business & Culture > Biographies

More About the Author

Garrison Walters has lived and traveled extensively in central and southeastern Europe. A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Walters has studied most of the languages of the area and mastered a few but is currently fluent only in Old High Bureaucratic. His comprehensive history of the region, The Other Europe, has been in print for over twenty years and is used as a text at many universities. Walters, who has worked as an academic administrator, has a long background in the Korean martial art of taekwondo. His Essential Guide to Computing has been praised as a "tour de force." Writing continues to be Walters' principal preoccupation and he has recently published two thrillers: Killing Justice (2010) and The Transylvania Connection, (Dailey-Swan, 2009). Walters resides in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great coverage of the IT field, December 6, 2002

By 

Ananth "booklovermpls" (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology (Essential Guide Series) (Paperback)

There is a great breadth of information presented in a very lucid fashion. The material is easy to understand, and the author adds a great sense of humor.
However, with the rapid advancements in technology, the book is a bit dated. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a gain a great breadth of knowledge in the field of Information technology, in a short period of time.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A REMARKABLE FIND !, March 13, 2002

By 

"marre68" (Dayton, OH, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology (Essential Guide Series) (Paperback)

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO COMPUTING is simply an extraordinary achievement. It reflects a breadth of knowledge and clarity of presentation that is remarkable. It makes every effort to distill knowledge about computers and computing in an easy, reader-friendly, memorable way. For computer users everywhere -- in organizations, schools, colleges and universities, and individuals -- this volume gives multiple ways of getting to know more about computing in its fast changing environment. First, you get to know the foundations of how computers and computing works in practical, everyday language. Second, you get a reference book that explains key terms, key workings, and key interconnections among the parts.

The most noteworthy aspect of the book is its superb coherence in presenting vast amounts of computing knowledge arranged in for easy understanding. Information and explanations in one chapter are referenced in subsequent ones, never failing to explain connections among them, with a view to present an overall picture of how computers and computing works.

Each chapter highlights technical terms related to computing and information technology, provides an overview of specific aspects as for example "An Overview of How Storage Works" (Chapter 2, p.40), and highlights in grey explanations of widely used terms such as "Disks From a User's Perspective" (p. 56). Each chapter also ends with a summary list of questions that focus on self-evaluating one's grasp of the chapter's contents.

E. Garrison Walters' book will continue to enrich the understanding of all who enjoy working with computers at work or for pleasure. I wish this book had been available to guide me in computing long before I found it, and, that I had written it ! It is a remarkable achievement!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Computer 101: It Doesn't Get Much Better Than This, September 9, 2000

By 

MUTiger (Columbia, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology (Essential Guide Series) (Paperback)

Finally, an IT book for the rest of us. Walters is lucid, concise, engaging, informative, and funny, and manages to do so without insulting your intelligence. He lays out the contours of the development of the computer industry, its successes, its failures, and why, and most importantly, what that means for the the computer systems and software that are available in the market. For me, computer literate, but no computer engineer, the Essential Guide to Comuting helped me determine what kind of computer configuration (memory, chip speed, graphic card, video card, etc.,)best met my needs. I highly recommend EGC.