New Turing Omnibus (New Turning Omnibus : 66 Excursions in Computer Science) Revised Edition

by A.K. Dewdney (Author)

51 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0716782711

ISBN-10: 0716782715

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This text provides a broad introduction to the realm of computers. Updated and expanded, "The New Turing Omnibus" offers 66 concise articles on the major points of interest in computer science theory, technology and applications. New for this edition are: updated information on algorithms, detecting primes, noncomputable functions, and self-replicating computers - plus completely new sections on the Mandelbrot set, genetic algorithms, the Newton-Raphson Method, neural networks that learn, DOS systems for personal computers, and computer viruses.

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Editorial Reviews

Series: New Turning Omnibus : 66 Excursions in Computer Science
Paperback: 455 pages
Publisher: W H Freeman & Co (Sd); Revised edition (April 1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0716782715
ISBN-13: 978-0716782711
Product Dimensions: 1 x 6.5 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Customer Reviews: 30 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,984,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #101345 in Computers & Technology (Books)
- #42844 in Mathematics (Books)
- #536055 in Textbooks

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Customer reviews

5 star		59%
4 star		16%
3 star		7%
2 star		13%
1 star		5%

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Sean Head

This is the best bathroom reading book I've ever found

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is the best bathroom reading book I've ever found. Even after a tech heavy high school career and 4 years of CS in college, no one thought I needed to know physical heuristics to NP algorithms or 10 lines of code needed to display a fractal, etc.

Really love this book, highly recommended. Some essays are easy and can be casually cruised through in 5 minutes, others are very tech heavy and you'll need external research books to be able to get through the barely explained equations (esp. Art of Computer Programming), but they are all very interesting to learn about.

8 people found this helpful

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Gary Sprandel

From 6 to 666 hours to understand

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2004

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

What you get out of the book depends upon how much you want to put into in. A reader of this book, could decide to just understand the general ideas, follow the detailed mathematics, or perhaps program on a computer (for example sorting routines, hashing and the like). Each of the excursions is well covered, sometimes witty, but at times I got bogged-down in the symbols. The chapter on "analog computation" coming in the middle of a book was a welcome relief presenting ideas of sorting, shortest path and minimum trees using spaghetti and strings without mathematics (and would be a good chapter to give to non-computer science friends if they ever make the mistake of asking you what sort of problems you think about). The chapter on neural networks, I thought was also clear. There are also some of the classic computer science problems presented such as the Tower of Hanoi, or "A man ponders how to ferry a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage across of river".

The 66 excursions cover a lot of ground, but often return to Turing machines, finite-state machines, and NP-completeness problems. I might have enjoyed more on algorithm analysis, computer languages, and game analysis. Additionally there are new topics since this 1992 publication, such as quantum computing, Bioinformatics, Internet related topics on virus and encrypting, and a raft of social questions including privacy. I hope the "Turing omnibus" refuels for another update.

21 people found this helpful

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glasshopper

66 Concise, Witty Excursions in Computer Science...

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

If, as according to A. K. Dewdney, "W. Rouse Bell (was) the great English writer on mathematical recreations" then
Dewdney is the greatest Canadian writer.
Period.

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Jason Gauci

Fantastic book, a must read for any Computer Science student

Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2009

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

If you are interested in Computer Science, reading this book is like watching a "Best Of" from your favorite TV show. It has a a 3-5 page headline on 66 different topics (with references, a must-have for academics) written so that anyone can understand the general idea without any background in the area being described.

2 people found this helpful

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david martin

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Excellent book. Covers math and computer science concepts in a practical and fun way.

One person found this helpful

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Mr Peter E Young

I love it

Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

An excellent book by a man who knows his subject.

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Daylight ReviewsTop Contributor: Arduino

Little cohesion, random thoughts no real level (advanced or novice)

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

There are some interesting tidbits here, but you have to wade through a lot to get to them. Also, it is obvious the book is just a bunch of articles pasted together, and there is not rhyme nor reason as to their order. I found some interesting algorithms, but the writing itself and explanations are bland and at times quite confusing to me who has worked as a software developer in the IT industry for 20 years. Many of these also feel outdated. If it were cleaned up, updated and explanations made more clear then the book might be worth the money, until then, try Code by Charles Petzold, you'll get a lot more from that book.

4 people found this helpful

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Tom Emerson

A lot of promise, but disappointing delivery

Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book has a lot of promise, and the premise is a good one: providing capsule overviews of 66 different areas of Computer Science. Unfortunately the delivery ends up disappointing.

I was hoping for short, but complete, overview of a number of topics. Something I could share with my teenagers to try and spark an interest in computer science (given that when I was their age to use a computer you had no choice but to dive in and understand how the machine worked, so it was a giant puzzle which begged to be solved). However, to keep the subject count high and the page count within reason, it feels like some necessary detail was left out, making it much harder to fully grasp or appreciate the content of each chapter.

For example, Chapter 3 (Systems of Logic) starts off easily enough but quickly jumps off to complete bases, relying on the reader to fill in gaps that they may be unable to do without having more information available. Figure 3.1, "Structure of the complete bases" would benefit from more exposition. Certainly my 14 year old had trouble making sense of the diagram.

In rereading the author's introduction, it is clear that he does not intend this book to stand on its own. I feel, however, that it would be more useful for autodidacts to pull ten or so of the excursions and add more sites to the remainder.

4 people found this helpful

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Aran

NOT for beginners

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

For some reason, this is the big name when high school students or other beginners ask for recommended computer science reading. It is absolutely nonsensical to say that this is a book for beginners. Anyone who says that is so far advanced in the field of computing they've forgotten what a beginner is. I was told to read this a few years ago when I graduated high school as it would be impressive to tell universities about it. I believe I am at least of average intelligence and don't struggle to grasp new concepts, but this is an impossibly inaccessible book for a beginner. It takes very little time explaining things that are assumed as basic knowledge, and very quickly devolves into masses of indecipherable symbols.

Now that I've finished a computer science university degree, I can say that I'd have a somewhat easier time reading this, but would still find it incredibly dense and difficult to understand every detail.

Oh, and of course it does absolutely nothing to make the field of computer science feel interesting, which is an obvious prerequisite for a beginner's book.

2 stars because it is impressively detailed and wide ranging, and I'm sure it's enjoyable reading for some theoretical computer scientists who want the field summarised in one book. But if you're a true beginner interested in computers, 0 stars - avoid like the plague.

11 people found this helpful

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Livid

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2018

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There is NOTHING worse than a book with exercises and no solutions. I will obviously just assume I got all the answers right then...

Questions can't teach anything at all if you have know way of knowing if you got them right or wrong!

£20 just to be irritated by mystery questions.

One person found this helpful

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Amanda G

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2016

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Great gift for a budding mathematician about to go to Oxford

One person found this helpful

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Celeste Calocane

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 31, 2015

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Very good.

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B. Elliston

... at the building blocks for computer science and a great foundation for those studying computation and logic at degree ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 29, 2014

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A fresh look at the building blocks for computer science and a great foundation for those studying computation and logic at degree level.

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Sorin-Alexandru Danciu

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2015

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Briliant

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Oliver G.

Gutes Buch um Informatikwissen aufzufrischen

Reviewed in Germany on May 18, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Das Buch gibt einen sehr guten Überblick über die Themen die in einem Informatik Studium behandelt werden. Es eignet sich aber nur um einen Überblick zu bekommen bzw. um alte Kenntnisse aus dem Studium wieder aufzufrischen. Für einen Informatik Nerd macht es sich gut im Bücherregal.

Der Druck ist leider nicht besonders gut.

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Peter Salvi

Both for enthusiasts and professionals

Reviewed in Germany on August 6, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a collection of 66 topics, ranging from formal languages and algorithms to computer vision and cryptography. There is even a description on how to build a minimal computer. Each chapter is only a few pages, just long enough to spark your interest, recommend some relevant books, and present some problems to think about.
Sadly, this Holt Paperbacks edition contains quite a lot of misprints. Still, it's a wonderful book.

One person found this helpful

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a_m_7

Great introduction

Reviewed in Germany on June 10, 2003

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book offers you a great introduction in some quite interesting fields of computer science. You needn't be an expert, but you should have heard of some technical terms in order to ease the comprehension. All in all one can say that this book gives you a good review. If you want to deepen special fields, you should make use of the references given at the end of each chapter. "Unfortunately" there are no solutions for the problems you are confronted with. This book should also be recommended because of the good educational background in terms of computer science it provides.

4 people found this helpful

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Emma

A great book but perhaps not for complete beginners

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 2, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Very good book which covers many areas in Computer Science. It's very clear and easy to understand with a friendly tone which makes it more enjoyable to read. There are lots of diagrams and examples too.

The only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is because I'm a complete beginner to Computer Science and sometimes the exercises which follow each chapter seem to be a leap from the surrounding text. The book does say in it's preface that it is suitable for beginners but I think you may need some underlying knowledge (or maybe even another source to accompany this) if you are new to the subject and want to get the most out of this book.

It is however incredibly comprehensive and once I start my course at university I'm sure it will become invaluable.

7 people found this helpful

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Beslmeisl Franz

Entspricht inhaltlich den Erwartungen

Reviewed in Germany on August 4, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Viele Themen werden kurz und knackig dargestellt; oft, aber nicht immer gut verständlich.
Der Druck ist nicht schön, sieht aus wie sehr alter Tintenstrahler; ausgefranste Buchstaben.
Das Cover ist von schlechter Qualität, die Bindung aber stabil.

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Amudhan Shankar Narayanan

Good quality

Reviewed in India on July 25, 2018

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Item in very good quality

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Kevin Lee

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on March 31, 2018

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Good!

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Lighter

It has a great amount of detail but this is in no way ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

It has a great amount of detail but this is in no way a book for beginners which was a disappointment.

2 people found this helpful

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Mrs A.P. Clifford

lovely book, prompt service thanks

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 13, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

purchased for my son who is considering computer science as a degree, This book was recommended pre reading for this degree

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New Turing Omnibus (New Turning Omnibus : 66 Excursions in Computer Science) Revised Edition

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