This volume about words, and the extraordinary human capacity to store and retrieve them. We hold effortlessly at least 50,000 of them in our minds, the majority of which can be summoned in a split second. No computer has yet come anywhere near simulating the complexities of the internal word-store.
Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the term "computer" referred to the people who did scientific calculations by hand. These workers were neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances, might have become scientists in their own right. When Computers Were Human represents the first in-depth account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the history of science and technology. Beginning with the story of his own grandmother, who was trained as a human computer, David Alan Grier provides a poignant introduction to the wider world of women and men who did the hard computational labor of science. His grandmother's casual remark, "I wish I'd used my calculus," hinted at a career deferred and an education forgotten, a secret life unappreciated; like many highly educated women of her generation, she studied to become a human computer because nothing else would offer her a place in the scientific world. The book begins with the return of Halley's comet in 1758 and the effort of three French astronomers to compute its orbit. It ends four cycles later, with a UNIVAC electronic computer projecting the 1986 orbit. In between, Grier tells us about the surveyors of the French Revolution, describes the calculating machines of Charles Babbage, and guides the reader through the Great Depression to marvel at the giant computing room of the Works Progress Administration. When Computers Were Human is the sad but lyrical story of workers who gladly did the hard labor of research calculation in the hope that they might be part of the scientific community. In the end, they were rewarded by a new electronic machine that took the place and the name of those who were, once, the computers.
The book has absolutely everything you need to know word-for-word to get certified in NALS. It comes from more of a nursing perspective so little details like how to operate the jackson-reiss and anatomy of the airway will be extremely redunant for respiratory therapists.The DVD-ROM included in the book is improved over the last one. For the visual learner, this is most helpful. The DVD-ROM includes, computer generated images, scenarios, and the book quizzes as well. An excellent adjunct to the book, that can be used as a stand-alone review.
Added by: Maria | Karma: 3098.81 | Periodicals | 20 August 2008
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Content:
* Annual Humor Issue
* Laugh! Our 50 funniest stories. Plus best jokes from Stephen Colbert,Debra Messing, and more
* 13 things your computer guy won't tell you.
* Election'08: Who's best for our future?
Added by: Maria | Karma: 3098.81 | Other | 20 July 2008
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A fun and easy way to learn about computers!
"The Cartoon Guide to the Computer" by Larry Gonick is another of his informative cartoons about different subjects. This book was originally titled "The Cartoon Guide to Computer Science", and was published in 1983. So much has happened in the world of computers since 1983, that this book has become very dated. This book still works as a history of Computers, but the parts of the book which focus more on the current state of computers is no longer relevant, nor was it when the book was published again in 1991 by HarperPerennial.
The areas that are well done include the history of the subject and related subjects, the overview of how computers work, the sections on logic and binary numbers.
The text includes some humor, and some history. But it clearly explains the basics of information theory, and logical operations.
