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My ancestors (parents and grandparents) are a naturally inquisitive people. Any attempt to teach them things about computers may only leave them more confused and full of questions.

You are about to undertake a Herculean task in that you are now required to omit certain things which we may all know. I think your strategy should concentrate on figuring out how simply you can describe something without causing more confusion and questions.

I would suggest analyzing The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay because he does a good job at using simple illustrations and brought me up to speed on a lot of engineering ideas when I was only in fifth grade. I would try to mimic him and use his level of detail as a template into what the common person is ready to ingest.

Perhaps you should also change your strategy from "What do I include?" to "Where do I draw the line?" Start with a computer and describe the monitor, mouse, keyboard, box, printer, etc. in a high level. These are the obvious things you see. Then you can take and chapter by chapter explain each component down to as much detail as you want to. I would then have a chapter on communications and the internet that doesn't go all the way down to protocols.

Allow me to illustrate what kind of people you should aim this book at in this telephone call between me and my mother:

Me: Ok, tell me what the screen says now.
Mom: It's blue.
Me: What do you mean "it's blue"? What does it say?
Mom: It says, "9F D8 34 7B ..."
Me: Um, that's ok, ma, I don't speak hex.
Mom: "... FA 25 3C A2 ..."

One more thing, I shudder at the possibility of the history of computers being taught to my parents. This is more information that isn't really pertinent to what a layperson needs to know about computers. I would suggest delving into this as little as possible but historical facts always make reading interesting if you want to include little side notes.

As with most projects undertaken--keep it simple, stupid!

You had grey boxes? Back in my day we had a conglomeration of gears and cogs. Instructions were fed in on paper tape. WE didn't have your newfangled dialup! We used a mammoth-powered catapult and funnel system! In the blistering cold (of the ice age)! Up hill both ways! And we loved it.

Tell that to kids these days, and they'll never believe you.

PS Extinction is surely hyperbole no?

Not really. Entire branches of expression have been driven to extinction (or at least legal limbo and extreme obscurity) by restrictive copyright laws.

For example, look at the amazing breadth of derivative works based on recent and current books, movies and songs, which build on the ideas that the original works have generated and let us examine them from angles which the original authors may not have considered, and from hundreds of fresh and different viewpoints.

Oh, wait. That's called fanfiction, it's technically illegal (*definitely* illegal if you try to make money from it), and regarded very dubiously by the mainstream (yes, I know most of it is crap; most of any art on the internet is).

Copyright law has crushed the derivative work, and most people don't care - because they have bought into the myth that derivative works are "not creative", "just ripping off the original author", etc. So it's OK, they don't deserve protection.

Think of a book that's been published within the last 50 years. Any book. You will not be legally allowed to publish a derivative work of that book as long as you live. You will die before the copyright expires. Maybe the book will be in the public domain in time for your grandchildren to be able to produce art based on it - if they care enough. How inspired are you to comment on the topical issues of the early 1900s?

Sure, if you're lucky, maybe a copyright holder will allow you to publish a derivative work - if they like it, and usually only if they were specifically looking to extend their franchise. If, however, your work is a scathing refutation of the original author's opinions, or a long-dead author's estate is just being contrary, good luck with that. The law is on their side.

See the legal battle over The Wind Done Gone for a recent example. They only won because the work was deemed to be a "parody".

>but still way too fake to actually convince it that it's real

I don't think photorealism was the goal here. Anyone who has read the book to their children will recognize that the animation style attempts to emulate the author/illustrator's style.

I didn't find any good examples with a quick google, but Amazon's listing does have one of those 'look inside' deals.

Might I humbly suggest starting out with just those items that were pulled OUT of the public domain by the Bono act.

There exist no such works. Unlike the mid-1990s copyright term extension in Europe, which restored copyright to authors of works whose copyright had expired, the Bono Act preserved the public domain status of works first published on or before 1922 and all other works that had entered the public domain in the United States on or before 1997. Adding works as they enter the last 20 years of U.S. copyright is the closest that I can do.

IRC Gone With the Wind was one such. Someone had started a re-make when it fell into the public domain, then Bono act pulled it back out.

The Wind Done Gone was intended as a parody under the fair use rules (17 USC 107), and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit found as such, vacating the initial injunction against publication. It had nothing to do with copyright expiration.

Not to mention it's straight out theft of public property for private use when the public has ALREADY paid the agreed price for it.

One may interpret the Supreme Court decision in Eldred v. Ashcroft to mean that the citizens of the United States who were adults at the time (which I was not) "agreed" to increase such price after the fact when they ELECTED representatives and senators who enacted the Bono Act.

uh. No. I'd be really surprised to hear that the Little Red Book sold 900 million copies, especially when Mao's "People's Revolution" arguably resulted in the deaths of more people than Hitler and Stalin put together, many of starvation: I doubt they had the disposable income to go out and purchase the Chairman's Little Red Book.

But since you asked, per Houghton Mifflin Lord of the Rings has sold over 50 million copys world-wide, which would put it in your Top Ten of all time, right about the same place as Dr. Spock's book.

#5 (The World Almanac) and #4 (The Guiness Book of World Record) are updated annually, and the numbers reflect an aggregation of annual editions. Don't count.

That *still* puts it in 4th place behind the following:
#1 - The Bible.
#2 - The American Spelling Book (Noah Webster) - A book published in 1783 that was "the preferred English textbook in schools throughout 19th Century America"
#3 - The McGuffy Reader - Published in 1836."During the 19th century, 80% of all American schoolchildren used them."

I also don't think textbooks are a fair comparison: if we include the titles above, then we should also include the Yellow Pages, which I'm sure have printed more copies worldwide since they were first introduced then even the Bible.

Therefore, I hold to my earlier assertion: #2.

But you'd be eliminating an important source of psychedelic chemicals

Well, yeah, they're supposed to, but it doesn't work that way anymore. It's the "Gold Rule" - those with the gold make the rules.

Don't believe me? Ask Alice Randall, author of The Wind Done Gone , a work which was not at all likely to be confused with Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, but was a legitimate parody. Unfortunately, part of the parody was deconstructing the romanticized view of the antebellum South that was such an intrinsic part of the older work, and showing the blatant racism behind it, infuriating the Mitchell family that still holds the copyrights, so they sued.

The courts, as is usual when big money is involved, threw out the right of Fair Use, and sided with the Mitchell trusts.

Moral of the story? In today's "justice" system, you're not likely to lose money betting that corporate interests will trump fair use rights.

I didn't know "Beowulf" was another name for Curious George"!

This George is a few years older but WAY smarter.

I saw the preview for this book a few months ago in Houghton Mifflin's catalog. I'm glad that you reviewed the book, it gives me a good reason to use that half off discount we get being employees for Houghton. Here is a link to the Houghton Mifflin catalog.


I should get a bonus for publicizing my company