Presents the history of computers, investigates what computers can and cannot do, explores how they work, and explains how to operate a computer and write programs. Includes puzzles, activities, and mini-mysteries.

Pioneering software engineer Capers Jones has written the first and only definitive history of the entire software engineering industry. Drawing on his extraordinary vantage point as a leading practitioner for several decades, Jones reviews the entire history of IT and software engineering, assesses its impact on society, and previews its future. One decade at a time, Jones assesses emerging trends and companies, winners and losers, new technologies, methods, tools, languages, productivity/quality benchmarks, challenges, risks, professional societies, and more. He quantifies both beneficial and harmful software inventions; accurately estimates the size of both the US and global software industries; and takes on "unexplained mysteries" such as why and how programming languages gain and lose popularity.

Poor quality continues to bedevil large-scale development projects, but few software leaders and practitioners know how to measure quality, select quality best practices, or cost-justify their usage. In The Economics of Software Quality, leading software quality experts Capers Jones and Jitendra Subramanyam show how to systematically measure the economic impact of quality and how to use this information to deliver far more business value. Using empirical data from hundreds of software organizations, Jones and Subramanyam show how integrated inspection, static analysis, and testing can achieve defect removal rates exceeding 95 percent. They offer innovative guidance for predicting and measuring defects and quality; choosing defect prevention, pre-test defect removal, and testing methods; and optimizing post-release defect reporting and repair. This book will help you Prove that improved software quality translates into strongly positive ROI and greatly reduced TCO Drive better results from current investments in debugging and prevention Use quality techniques to stay on schedule and on budget Avoid "hazardous" metrics that lead to poor decisions Important note: The audio and video content included with this enhanced eBook can be viewed only using iBooks on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.

An interesting and varied collection of stories, written by acknowledged masters of suspense, intrigue and the bizarre whose imaginations have been inspired by the possibilities inherent in new technology of computers. In some of these stories, computers have a self willed life of their own; in others they are "abused" and made to commit crimes and other treacherous acts often chilling and sometimes amusing. Crime and computer buffs, science fiction fans or readers who want a "good read" will all find something in this anthology.