Review of The Other Computer History

[Mutiu Babarinde]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Other Computer History" by Hans Bodmer.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The Other Computer History
Hans Bodmer writes his experiences mainly in Computer Science from 1955 to 2004. The author wished to learn Fine Mechanic and Electrical Apparatus but he had no chance. A company offered him an apprenticeship as a Precision Mechanic. After his training he worked with L M Ericcson Company as a Maintenance Engineer in Sweden. He also joined the Company called Burroughs where he worked as a Programmer for their accounting machines in Zurich. He left Burroughs for Bull Company. They offered him a job as a service technician, but before he could start he must be ready to attend a six-month training on how to repair Card-Puncher, Verificateuse, Trieuse, Card-Mixer and Tabulator.

He proceeded to the Control Data Corporation(C D C) American Company. He was employed as a technician for the Supercomputer and trained in U S A. He studied different types of computers made by C D C. Transistor was used to replace electronic tube with improved memory capacity. Programs were written in ForTran or Assembly language. He was transferred to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin to work in the factory and laboratory where he met Seymour Clay, the designer of supercomputer. He spent roughly seventeen years working on computer hard and software with C D C before he left for PRIME Company.

He was employed by PRIME as a Software Specialist. He studied the PASCAL and Assembly language they used for the operating system. He was chosen as the Analyst of the year to indicate the recognition of his achievements. He left PRIME after they had run down.

He got new job with Swiss Financial Institution. He worked as a telecommunication technician. He installed and maintained cable networks like Token-Ring, Ethernet and Fiber Optic. He also connected complex network with Cisco Router.

I enjoyed reading the book. The author gives a very detailed description of all the machines and places he visited with pictures.

I noticed a few errors in the book. For example, the writer writes eider instead of either on page 127 and on page 134 one instead of on. He also write Cicso instead of Cisco on page 144.

Despite the few errors named above, I would rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. It has been professionally edited.

The best audience of this book would be students, teachers and everybody who loves to know the history of computer.

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The Other Computer History
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[Mutiu Babarinde]

Thank you for the updates.

[goreview03]

Computer science is not an easy topic to explain, especially to someone who does not have the slightest interest in it. Congrats on your review, by the way!