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Good books for building computer knowledge foundation

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04-13-2011 , 04:28 PM

alittleanarchy95

journeyman

Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 228

I have an extremely basic understanding of computers. I can use them fairly well to do whatever I need, but I have no idea what is going on behind the scenes. My knowledge doesn't extend at all beyond actually using applications (word, excel, internet, etc.). What are some good books/websites/blogs to get a solid foundation in computers. I'm talking things as basic making my computer run more smoothly, locating wasted/unused resources, etc.

As an aside, I'm starting a CS degree and have done some programming. I've done well enough at it simply because I understand what I'm being taught about specific steps.

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04-13-2011 , 10:17 PM

CPFB

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 7,212

Code Complete

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04-14-2011 , 01:35 AM

Neil S

King of the sidebar

Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 19,647

Applied Cryptography

It sounds like a small niche but the concepts matter pretty often these days.

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04-14-2011 , 09:43 AM

splashpot

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 8,203

If you need a new computer, I would do the research needed to build your own desktop. It's pretty easy to do and will teach you what the parts do and how they all fit together.

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04-14-2011 , 10:54 AM

jjshabado

Carpal Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 22,732

For what you want to know it sounds like the internet will be a better resource than a book.

I'd start with specific things you want to do to your computer (improve security, remove spyware, remove unused programs, improve hardware performance, ...) and google for how to do that. There are tons of forums/resources available online that will help with specific problems like that.

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04-14-2011 , 12:20 PM

wellju

BSOD and racetrack Ninja

Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 5,247

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596806408/

Should be a very beginner friendly book that covers a lot of topics. As you don't really know what to search for, this is like a documentation of search terms.

Just skimming a books table of contents and go from there and google it is also a place to start.

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04-14-2011 , 03:19 PM

ChazDazzle

adept

Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 947

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjshabado

For what you want to know it sounds like the internet will be a better resource than a book.

This. I've bought maybe 8 programming books over the last 2-3 years thinking they'd be useful and I haven't even cracked the spine on one of them.

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04-14-2011 , 07:23 PM

jukofyork

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Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 11,749

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChazDazzle

This. I've bought maybe 8 programming books over the last 2-3 years thinking they'd be useful and I haven't even cracked the spine on one of them.

Hehe +1.

Looking at my bookshelfs, you can definitely tell which my "pre-web" books are!

Juk

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