[SIGCIS-Members] Isaacson's book

[PeterEckstein at comcast.net]

On the interview, let me add: 

Good: Recognizing that Atanasoff did not really invent the first "computer". 

Bad: Saying that JVA worked alone, when in fact Clifford Berry did much of the engineering.  He was the "B" in the retrospectively named "ABC." 


Good: giving precedence to ENIAC and to some extent Colossus. 

Rather bad: Never mentioning (that I heard, could be wrong) either Eckert or Mauchly by name. 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Koblentz, Evan" <evan at snarc.net> 
To: "Haigh, Thomas" <thaigh at computer.org>, "Computer, SIG" <members at sigcis.org> 
Sent: Monday, October 6, 2014 4:02:48 PM 
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Isaacson's book 

I heard Isaacson on NPR just now. 

Good: Realistic treatment to Al Gore's contributions to the Internet. 

Neutral: Power users today only learn software, not hardware, unlike in his transistor kit youth. (No mention of the present "maker" trend.) 

Bad: Personal computing was invented in the Bay Area and Altair was the first one. 

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