From the Bookshelf: Sophistication and Simplicity
(subtitle: The Life and Times of the Apple II Computer)
As new books about the computers of the 1980s get published, I've gone ahead and bought some of them, but it may not always be just out of the pure curiosity to know more about some specific subjects than can be found in different corners online. I ordered a book about the original TRS-80 because that was the first computer in my family's home and a book about the Color Computer that followed it because we'd used them for years, but I ordered a book about the Commodore Amiga in some part because it was by someone whose weblog I'd been reading, and this seemed a way to "support" his ongoing history of computer games. When I heard that someone with an online history of the Apple II was converting his web site into a book, I might not have had as much of a compulsion to go and order it as those previous cases. When I happened to walk by the computer bookshelves in the local bookstore and spotted a copy of "Sophistication & Simplicity: The Life and Times of the Apple II Computer," though, it might have been the sense of the book being "ready right to hand" that made me buy it then. I did think it would be interesting to have in permanent form a history of the Apple II computer itself as opposed to the company, as much as the downs and ups there have appealed to writers (but sometimes leave partisans of other computers complaining their favourite models were better, and cheaper anyway), and yet I did wonder about how that larger history might lend a darker tone to parts of the book.
( Further reflections on the book and some ramblings built on it )
As new books about the computers of the 1980s get published, I've gone ahead and bought some of them, but it may not always be just out of the pure curiosity to know more about some specific subjects than can be found in different corners online. I ordered a book about the original TRS-80 because that was the first computer in my family's home and a book about the Color Computer that followed it because we'd used them for years, but I ordered a book about the Commodore Amiga in some part because it was by someone whose weblog I'd been reading, and this seemed a way to "support" his ongoing history of computer games. When I heard that someone with an online history of the Apple II was converting his web site into a book, I might not have had as much of a compulsion to go and order it as those previous cases. When I happened to walk by the computer bookshelves in the local bookstore and spotted a copy of "Sophistication & Simplicity: The Life and Times of the Apple II Computer," though, it might have been the sense of the book being "ready right to hand" that made me buy it then. I did think it would be interesting to have in permanent form a history of the Apple II computer itself as opposed to the company, as much as the downs and ups there have appealed to writers (but sometimes leave partisans of other computers complaining their favourite models were better, and cheaper anyway), and yet I did wonder about how that larger history might lend a darker tone to parts of the book.
( Further reflections on the book and some ramblings built on it )