Need a book idea?

[NutmegCT]

Just finished reading Dyson's "Turing's Cathedral".

Covers the early days of computing, especially at Princeton's IAS, from the 1930s to around 1970.

To show how the primitive mechanical calculating machines of the 1600s (and before) led to the 13 ton vacuum tube computers of the 1940s and mini-computers of the 1960s and '70s, Dyson gives background material on:

Leibniz (!)
Aydelotte
Barricelli
Bigelow
Vannevar Bush
Turing
Eckert
Mauchly
Flexner
Goedel
Bernetta Miller (now *there's* a story!)
Oppenheimer
William Penn (yep - *the* William Penn)
Hedwig Liebermann Selberg (known better under a different name ...)
Edward Teller
Ulam
von Neumann
Farnsworth, Sarnoff & Zworykin

Leibniz's computing calculator (ca. 1670) was not commercially successful. His explanation: "It was not made for those who sell oil or sardines."

Really good read. And hey - if I can understand it (well, most of it ...) then anyone else can!

Tom M.

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[coldplugs]

Two days ago I read an article (in the Economist, I think) about Leibniz's centuries-old defense of emoticons and emojis(!). I softened my objections to them after reading it.