Customer Reviews

How Macs Work (How It Works Series (Emeryville, Calif.).)

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

 

 

This is an excellent book that needs updating. Design is very good and explanations are clear. Essential topics such as the PowerPC G3 and G4, "Velocity Engine", AirPort, Firewire, DVD, Mac OS X, are not covered. Wait for a new edition.

This book is userfriendly with BIG illustrations and little in-depth information. It covers the basic of hw and sw on the mac, but doesn't really tell you anything about mac specific hw if you have knowledge of pc hw already. I was looking for extensive information on the layout of the powermac but that is not to be found here, only includes a light sketch of the ppc 601 and ppc 604. This book would be ideal, I think, for the computerillustrator who knows nothing about his machine. Or children maybe. I'd say it's kind of weird because it mixes more complicated details with some very basic stuff, all kept in an appearently easy to understand graphic design. The rating is given on this background, if I didn't know nothing about computer hw I'd probably give this bok a higher rating.

As an instructor of computer graphics for designers I give very high marks to this publication. Great images, captions and text. For introductory students all is approachable and the gamut of material is broad enough to go on helping outside of the classroom when it comes time to configure their own work stations. Understanding how it all works helps and helps again when trouble shooting. This publication is too old now (1996) so I hope Ziff Davis is listening in!

For people who don't have technical backgrounds, this book presents the inner workings of the Macintosh in straight-forward language and beautiful color illustrations. It explains technical concepts and gives you an idea of what is going on inside the box. It's very similar to "How Computers Work," but more Mac-like.

As a technology educator, I can not give a book about computers a good review when it is more than five years old. This book is about Macs, but predates the iMac.

If you want to learn how computers work, get something newer.