Books

Books : reviews

Jack B. Rochester, John Gantz.
The Naked Computer: a layperson's almanac of computer lore, wizardy, personalities, memorabilia, world records, mind blowers and tomfoolery.
Arlington Books. 1983

The Naked Computer is the perfect antidote to all the serious computer handbooks telling you everything you ever wanted to know about computers but never dared to ask. Filled with hundreds of computer records, trivia, anecdotes, odd events, interesting personalities, and technical marvels of computerland, past and present, The Naked Computer gathers information about computers from the abacus to the Apple and presents it in a lively and irreverent style that draws in the reader, and keeps him flipping through the pages.

Did you know that Panasonic has a factory making vacuum cleaners staffed entirely by computerized robots, which operates 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week in total darkness? Or that the fastest computer printer can print 224-page book in 30 seconds, and its primary use is printing junk mail? Or that the largest known prime number has 13,395 digits—it was discovered by a computer but nobody knows for what it can be used?

The Naked Computer is a big, lively, funny and entertaining collection of data on computers and computer people including some of the strangest lists you are ever likely to find: the biggest failures in computer companies; movies featuring computerized robots (complete with a critical commentary); the largest computer crimes.

Filled with photographs, drawing and cartoons of all kinds, The Naked Computer is the complete source book of computer notables, wierd facts, world records and believe-it-or-nots.