<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: This book comes with a free computer!
Review: 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"
Rating: 
Summary: An honest 4 star intro to computers ... there are no 5 stars
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Unbeatable introduction to computers.
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book, but the software doesn't work with new computers
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Great book, but the software doesn't work with new computers
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Great concept and well thought out.
Review: 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...
Rating:
Summary: The ghost of the machine
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Beboputer Computer Simulator is incredible!
Review: 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!
<< 1 >>
| 
