Ok, I grew up with an apple two plus 48k with a special sound card that maxed that baby out to 64k. I needed a key to start it and a vent to the outside for the fumes. I taught myself how to program it, and got a decent knowledge as to how a computer was thinking at any given moment, thus making it easy to diagnose problems. I have a good mind for computerthink but am grossly behind on pc’s. I mean, i can do alot of things but dont really know the reason. I dont understand the registry or the internet, how to do a trace router and diagnose whether my latest 3d game performance can be improved with a better graphics card or more ram. I don;t need a “The cpu is like the brain of your computer” but i don’t want Professor Frink’s guide to programming directly in ones and zeros. I don’t need an idiot’s guide - more like a smart but uninformed guide to all things pc. A little about windows, once again, not what i can do with it but rather how it works, a little about how memory works, and a little about the internet and what graphics cards do. Any suggestions? If you need more info about the kind of book/s im looking for just reply with a question. Thanks ahead of time. KC
I’ve got the address for a website that would probably be along the lines of what you’re looking for, but it’s at home. I’ll post it this evening.
In general the O’Reilley books are very good. At least for specifics like languages, OSs etc. I’m not sure if they have any ‘Computers in a nutshell’ book, but it wouldn’t surprise me…
I had a quick look and on of their titles is Optimizing Windows for Games, Graphics and Multimedia. Is that what you’re looking for?
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- I have not seen any single book that covers all the subjects you mentioned in any meaningful way. My two cents anyway:
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- The first thing to decide is if you want to learn info for operation or info for programming. These will not be the same books: I can write a C++ program to open and display an MS Word document, but I don’t know how to use one-tenth of all the features MS Word has.
- Either way, I would suggest investigating the “teach yourself”-type-books, they are written clearly and are written as stand-alone references. They are also usually cheaper than the monster computer books, $20-$30 as compared to $50-$60. Some of them are good but many are lame, so try to get a look at them first before buying if you can. - MC
The Complete Illustrated Guide to PC Hardware can be found at two locations, http://www.karbosguide.com and http://www.mkdata.dk/click/.
What you need:
Free registration required. I used a fake name to avoid their spams, I had no problems. Lots of free online books on programming, networking, OS topics, etc. It’s a gold mine.