RE: BOOKS: The Physics of Information Technology

From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Wed Nov 14 2001 - 07:26:53 MST


Robert J. Bradbury wrote,
> Slashdot is covering a recent release of a book that may
> interest some of the "real scientists" on the list
> (that lets me off the hook)...
>
> The Physics of Information Technology
> Neil Gershenfeld
> Canbridge University Press
>
> http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/09/18/1918234

Actually, I don't expect "real scientists" to be interested in this book
either. It might look esoteric or advanced to someone outside the field,
but any computer engineer major or EE should know all this stuff in their
freshman year. The table of contents covers basic storage, interference,
electromagnetic fields, electromagnetic waves, circuits, data transmission,
antennas, optics, imaging, semiconductors, fiber optics, magnetic storage,
coding, transducers, etc. With the exception of the final chapter which
mentions quantum computing, this is just Hardware 101 for how computers
work. Anybody who wants to build their own PC from scratch needs to know
this stuff. This seems to be a university textbook aimed at the
introductory year, and not a research book aimed at scientists.

--
Harvey Newstrom <www.HarveyNewstrom.com>
Principal Security Consultant, Newstaff Inc. <www.Newstaff.com>
Board of Directors, Extropy Institute <www.Extropy.org>
Cofounder, Pro-Act <www.ProgressAction.org>



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