TELECOMMUNICATIONS
A rich narrative broken into eight chapters covering different periods, beginning in 1843 (when Ada Lovelace wrote an account of Charles Babbage’s design for a programmable computing machine) through to the end of 2004, arranged by year.
Abstract
3. CHRONOLOGY edited by Hilary W. Poole and Christos J. P. Moschovitis (215 pp., statistics, resources, glossary, bibliography, index) provides a rich narrative broken into eight chapters covering different periods. Beginning in 1843 (when Ada Lovelace wrote an account of Charles Babbage’s design for a programmable computing machine) through to the end of 2004. The two-column format is then arranged by year, interspersed with boxed features of events and developments to highlight a given year. Put another way–these are not just short paragraphs, but are really narrative essays on the developments included. The editors recognize that, as the majority of what is included here dates only over the past handful of decades, they are dancing with danger as we lack much perspective over the events, trends, or concerns of the time. Still, the volume (and the set) make for very interesting reading—a great reference source. (Chris Sterling)