POTS

Pattern on the Stone

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pattern-On-Stone-Computers/dp/046502596X

When I found out The Pattern on the Stone by W. Daniel Hillis was assigned as the text for this class I wasn't the happiest person- I felt like a lot of it would include complex terms and I'd spend a lot of time googling every single word. I'm happy to say I was pleasantly surprised- Daniel Hills is the kind of author who understands that a lot of people who might not have a strong background in computers are going to be reading this book- so he made it a point to avoid technical terms. My favorite thing about this book is the fact that it requires no prerequisite. 

The  most interesting thing I learnt in this book is not exactly a topic- its more about how the author deconstructs what exactly computers are. He uses some unusual but easy to relate to examples like a hydraulic tic tac toe game or using winning strategies to create a game of rock-paper-scissors. 

If there was one thing I'd like to change about this book is to make it more interesting and more of a page turner. Also I felt like the title of this book was a little misleading- I expected Hillis to mention a lot about how computers work and he did but it was very briefly and only for the first two chapters which in my opinion wasn't enough. 

To be completely honest- I've previously read about most of the things Hillis mentioned in this book. I do however like the way it is narrated and how he managed to mention a lot of important topics like parallel computing, analog computers, compression.. etc in a short book. 

This book enabled me to look at the history of computers which previously I didn't care much for. It talked about important figures in the Computing World like Charles Babbage, Eva Loveless.. etc. I now have a deeper appreciation for these icons. I can't exactly say that I can relate to these historical people as times have changed but I certainly understand how much work they put into every contribution they made.

I would recommend this book to a friend along with "Code: Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software" by Charles Petzold. I feel like these two books compliment each other very well. The later goes more in depth of the working mechanism of computers and will make up for what's missing in Pattern on the Stone.