Buy "20 GOTO 10"

This book is fantastic. If you lived through the microcomputer revolution of the 1970’s and 1980’s it will refresh a lot of memories. If not, it will give you a wonderful glimpse into that time. It’s packed with facts and stories you didn’t know you cared about until you read them.

Some of the articles are tiny, some span several pages. All of them are uniquely identified by a “line number” and each has references to other related stories. You can follow a path through the text and reach a happy ending, or just an ending. Or you can do what I do, which is dive into the text and just read stuff I fancy.

The printing is small, but that just leaves more room for detail. You should buy and read this if you have any interest in computers and where they came from. And if you have no interest, buy it anyway and learn even more. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Rob in Foyles

Yesterday while we were in London we went to Foyles bookstore. I’ve always liked the place. The café is wonderful. And I now like it even more because they had two of my books in their computing section. But you’d better hurry. They didn’t seem to have many copies left….

Begin to Code books in a Humble Bundle

Humble Bundles are awesome. You can use them to get low cost collections of software, games and books. And I’m very pleased to report that my “Begin to Code” books are in the one of their latest bundles: “Learn to Program 2025”. You can get my C#, Python and JavaScript books at fantastic reductions.. There are lots of other interesting looking titles too. Well worth a look.

Read "The Midnight Library" by Matt Haig

Every now and then I read a book and think “Other folks might like to read this”. Much more rarely I’ll read a book and think “Everyone should read this”. The Midnight Library is in the second category. Its a beautifully written story about a place where people can experience all the different possibilities thrown up by their lives. But it is also about what constitutes the best kind of life and how a person can look at their options and weigh them up in a constructive and uplifting way. Yep. You really should read this. I think it is a book I’ll be going back to at regular intervals just to enjoy the writings and the feelings that they conjure up. Very strongly recommended.

Another superhero science book is coming..

You know that scene in the movie, the one where the leader starts assembling the team for another battle for the survival of humanity or whatever. Well, it’s happening again. I’ve just had the call from Mark Lorch who’s getting the Science of Superheroes gang back together to write another book.

This time we are going to be taking on the task of writing about the science of super villains. I made the point to Mark that I reckon most of the evil uses of computers have already been discovered and used in real life, but I’m still game to have a go.

Incidentally (book plug alert) you can still get hold of the first publication here. You’ll find me right at the back, I wrote the final chapter, hopefully on the basis that the editors thought you should always leave them wanting more…..

Absurd scientific advice is good reading

This book is a fun read. There’s some really nice science in with the absurd questions, along with the quirky illustrations that Randall Munroe is so good at. I got it at a very good price. And mine is signed too.

A long time ago I wondered about getting a blowlamp and selling singed copies of my books.

C# Exam Guide has Gone to Print. Yay!

Exam Ref 70-483 Programming in C#

By Rob Miles

After a lot of writing, and even some last minute editing during my holidays, my latest book has now gone to the printers. 

Gosh, I sound just like a real author.....

Ada's Rocks

Ada's is one of my favourite places on the planet. Lots of interesting stuff, great food and a fantastic atmosphere. We had tea there today. 

They even have a copy of my book in stock. Awesome.

I'm writing a new book

Exam Ref 70-483 Programming in C#

By Rob Miles

Last year I wrote a book about Python. This year I'm doing another about C#. It's an exam text for the 70-483 Programming in C# Microsoft Certified Professional exam. 

The Amazon site says, rather optimistically, that the book will be in the shops at the end of April this year. I'm fairly sure that it will be a little bit later than that.

But it will be well worth waiting for. 

Buy this Arduino Book

If you're looking for a book about the Arduino that is stunning value for money, just head out to your local newsagents and track down a copy of the latest Teach In from Everyday and Practical Electronics (or EPE). It provides an excellent introduction to the Arduino device and then, as a bonus, adds a bunch of chapters about PIC development and some other good stuff.

Like all of the EPE publications, this is well written, technically accurate and laid out in an easy to read manner. And you even get a CD-ROM with lots of useful stuff on it too. 

Full Disclosure: Many years ago I helped Ian and Tony to write a Teach-In for the magazine. It's nice to see that Ian is still writing for them, there's a lovely piece from him about state machines in the back of this very publication. 

A must-buy in my opinion.

C# Yellow Book in Bulgarian

Hot on the heels of the Korean translation, I've just heard from Dimitar Minchev that he's completed the translation of the book into Bulgarian.

You can find the text here.

Thanks so much to Dimitar for his awesome effort.

C# Yellow Book - Korean Version

I love, love, love this cover. It's far better than anything I've come up with. It's for the Korean version of my C# Yellow Book. It's been out for a while, but today was the first time I managed to find it on the internets. You can get it from here. I'd love to have a copy, I'm going to see if someone can send me one.

The Hardware Hacker

I first came across Andrew "bunnie" Huang when I had a Chumby.  I used to read the Chumby blog and he made some excellent posts about the ins and outs of dodgy SD cards. He's got a fantastic perspective on the business of making stuff, with special emphasis on how things get done in China.

He's written a book all about this, which I'm really keen to get a copy of. You can get a taste of the content on the book site, which seems to have a different chapter from the book each day.  I've read a couple and really enjoyed them.

If you have any kind of interest in how things are made, or if you have ever fancied having something made in Shenzen you should have a read of this book.

"Soul of a New Machine" now on Kindle

The Soul of a New Machine

By Tracy Kidder

One reason why I liked Ada's so much is that they had a computer book club and their next meeting was going to discuss "The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder. 

It is one of my all time favourite books. 

It's supposed to be about building a computer, but really its about people. It's about management, ego and human interaction. Along with a good dollop of how computers work. 

It was written a while back, but still holds lessons for anyone who wants to get thing done. I lent my printed copy to someone (no idea who) a while back and I didn't fancy buying another paper copy. What I wanted was a Kindle version I can carry around on my phone. 

And now I've got one. Amazon have just released the electronic version. If you are in any way serious about computers or management you should read this book. Oh, and it also holds some lessons about how to write a compelling story. A fantastic read.

Begin to Code with C# takes shape

Begin to Code with C#

By Rob Miles

<shameless plug>
We've been working feverishly on the chapters for Begin to Code with C# over the last few weeks. It's been going well, and it's lovely to see the actual book itself take shape. 

It should be in the shops in early autumn, but there's nothing stopping you pre-ordering a copy now...
</shameless plug>

Begin to Code with C# is coming soon

Oooh. Get your orders in now. 

Begin to Code with C#

By Rob Miles

C# Yellow Book in Korean

The C# Yellow Book is going worldwide, which is wonderful. I've just agreed to the publication of a Korean version. I got an email a while back from an agent and we a presently drawing up the contracts to get it translated and into the shops.

I've only been to Korea once, I spent a week or so in Seoul as part of the 2007 Imagine Cup World Finals. It is a wonderful place. I'd go back there in a heartbeat.

I really hope I can get hold of a printed copy when it is ready. I'd love to be able to point at it on the bookshelf and say "I wrote that....".

If you are happy with an English version you can get a copy, along with a complete undergraduate course, from here:

http://www.csharpcourse.com/

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: Buy it

This is a completely brilliant book. The illustrations are fantastic and the research that backs up the content is exemplary. The book starts with the tragic and true story of Ada, Countess of Lovelace and her involvement with Charles Babbage, a 19th century inventor obsessed with the idea of using machines to perform mathematical calculations.

Ada has a background story that you really couldn't make up and the tale of how a poet's daughter became the first person on the planet to really think about what a computer could do is a compelling one.

Once the facts have been dealt with the action moves on into a parallel "Pocket Universe" where Lovelace and Babbage have built their huge steam-powered "Difference Engine" and are using it to solve mysteries and fight crime.

There are even jokes about cheese.

The narrative is littered with historical quotes and insights into maths and computing theory and gives a great introduction to what computers are about and where they came from. At the back you find get a series of appendices that supply plenty of historical context and by the end you really feel for the characters, in both their real and imagined forms.

Everyone should buy this book. It's just wonderful.

The Tragedy Series: Secret Lobster Claws and Other Misfortunes

This is a fantastic book. It offers over 500 hand drawn vignettes rendered in a brilliant steampunk style and offering puns, whimsy, wit and of course tragedy.

You can see the drawings for free on Tumblr but I really wanted a book of them. Which is nice because one has just been published. Great gift, especially if you buy it for yourself.

Updating the C# Yellow Book

Yesterday I got an email from Amazon telling me that readers had spotted some spelling errors in the Kindle edition of the C# Programming Yellow book. They are quite right. The errors crept in when I used the Amazon system to convert the word file into an eBook. They've been bugging me for a while.

Not that the errors have stopped my book becoming a best seller......

Anyhoo, I've decided to fix these pesky errors once and for all. I'm doing a new conversion of the text, moving it by hand from Word to HTML, and thence to Kindle.

Lots of things about the layout of the first version of the book didn't translate well into eBook format, hopefully the updated version of the text will be easier to read. It should be out in a week or so, once I've reformatted the text and tidied it up.

There's also some shiny new content that I've added to bring things up to date.