It’s axiomatic to state that people fear what they do not understand, and this is especially true when it comes to technology. However, despite their prevalence, computers remain shrouded in mystery, and many users feel apprehensive when interacting with them. Smartphones have only exacerbated the issue. Indeed, most users of these devices leverage only a small fraction of the power they hold in their hands.
How Things Work: The Computer Science Edition is a roadmap for readers who want to overcome their technophobia and harness the full power of everyday technology. Beginning with the basics, the book demystifies the mysterious world of computer science, explains its fundamental concepts in simple terms, and answers the questions many users feel too intimidated to ask.
By the end of the book, readers will understand how computers and smart devices function and, more important, how they can make these devices work for them. To complete the picture, the book also introduces readers to the darker side of modern technology: security and privacy concerns, identity theft, and threats from the Dark Web.
1. Computers Are Everywhere
2. A Brief History of Computing
3. Digitization
4. What Is a Computer?
5. Internal Hardware Components
6. Hardware—External Components
7. Networking: The Art of Communication
8. Software: The Elusive Enigma
9. Software: Operating Systems
10. Software Architecture and Design
11. Software: How It’s Built
12. Putting It All Together
13. Security and Privacy
Biography
Charles F. Bowman is a respected Senior Software Architect serving numerous prestigious clients, including the New York Stock Exchange and the United States Patent Office. He has taught both graduate and undergraduate computer science courses at St. John’s University, the City University of New York, and St. Thomas Aquinas College.
Mr. Bowman has published several books, including Algorithms and Data Structures: An Approach in C (Harcourt Brace/Oxford University Press); Objectifying Motif (Cambridge University Press/SIGs Books); Wisdom of the Gurus (Cambridge University Press/SIGs Books); and Broadway: The Complete Internet Architecture (Addison/Wesley).
Mr. Bowman has served as Editor-in-Chief for The X Journal, UNIX Developer, and CORBA Development; and Series Editor for the Managing Object Technology book series of Cambridge University Press/SIGs Books. He is also a regular contributor to many respected journals and magazines. (A complete list of publications is available upon request.)
A graduate of New York’s prestigious Brooklyn Technical High School, Mr. Bowman holds a BS degree in Computer Science from St. John’s University and an MS degree in Computer Science from New York University.
"Software architect Bowman offers a general primer on broad swaths of computer science that sheds light on the deep inner workings of the computers people interact with every day…This book could be instructive for all who depend on computers to do their jobs and are curious about how the devices work on more-technical levels. Undergraduate students and those working in IT or tech fields who have deeply specialized knowledge but would like to explore areas with which they are unfamiliar will prize this book."
--K. J. Whitehair, independent scholar
Highly recommended, October 2022 Issue of CHOICE
