Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: One Digital Day : How the Microchip is Changing Our World by Rick Smolan ISBN: 0-8129-3031-2 Publisher: Crown Business Pub. Date: 28 April, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Now that the hype is gone...
Comment: Released as the Internet boom was accelerating upwards, One Digital Day now seems like a work from another era. Picking it up today, one can't help but think it rather irrelevant, and one can't help but think of the shattered California economy that is the remnant of the corporate hubris of the boom times. Still, it is a very nice book to look at, which is the whole point of course. A wag has put up a parody web site at anotherdigitalday-dot-com.
Rating: 5
Summary: One Digital Day "optically elegant, a feast for the eyes."
Comment: It's been said a picture is worth a thousand words. If that's true, then perhaps the 200 photographs in ONE DIGITAL DAY: HOW THE MICROCHIP IS CHANGING OUR WORLD by Rick Smolan are worth millions of microchips.
In 24 hours, Smolan's team of the world's best photojournalists canvassed the world and captured pictures and accompanying stories which illustrate just how one little microchip -- something that didn't exist 30 years ago -- has changed, influenced and altered our world. In so doing, the invention of the tiny microchip has succeeded in bringing the globe to us inside our homes and offices.
In the introduction, Michael Malone gives us a rundown on the microchip and how it is moving closer and closer to "the center of our lives." Malone estimates close to 15 billion microchips are currently in use.
Malone reminds us that, even though we might not have a PC in our home, should the microchips we use daily be stricken from our lives, we would be dumbfounded. Quite simply, we take their existence in our lives for granted in many ways.
Got a microwave? A telephone? A television for watching that Sunday football game? How about that streetlight outside? Without the microchip, your car wouldn't even start, writes Malone. Pretty amazing for a "tiny square of silicon the size of a fingernail," indeed.
What's it all about, Alfie? For all its wonder, the microchip is made up of metal, fire, crystal and water. During manufacturing, Malone notes a single speck of dust can mean disaster. In fact, he writes, the water used to rinse the surfaces of finished chips is more pure than water used for open heart surgery!
Past the fascinating introduction, readers will find a graphic photograph of just how many microchip-related items we could find in our homes if we tried. One family's home in San Anselmo, California is emptied, literally on the front lawn, and featured in a two-page layout with the home in the background and various
possessions, appliances and electronics, etc. are displayed on the lawn.
From Hong Kong, China to Bristol, Connecticut or from Rostov, Russia to Memphis, Tennessee, it doesn't really matter which country you choose or even what city or town -- you'd be hard-pressed to find a spot that the microchip hasn't touched.
In bold, dashing fashion, DIGITAL DAY takes the reader on a virtual tour For instance, in Tokyo, Japan we discover there is a word for computer-crazed youths who can't get enough of technology: otaku. One photo features an otaku by the name of Masakazu Kobayashi, who clearly has his cyberlife wired to the max. His microchip-driven bounty includes not one PC, but seven networked PCs, six video game systems, a palmtop, a laptop, and a motherlode of peripherals to boot. Instead of having a room littered with comic books, magazines, CDs and other youth-driven materials,Kobayashi's room reeks of technology run amok. But microchips and PCs aren't all for fun or convenience -- sometimes those thin slivered devices can mean the difference between life and death. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, DIGITAL DAY photos introduce the reader to new helmets worn by the city's firefighters. These helmets, equipped with small digital video screens and infrared sensors, actually allow firefighters to see through smoke. When searching for victims amid smoke, unbearable heat and soaring flames, these helmets can mean saving lives instead of searching frantically in near-blinding conditions. Worlds away, in South Africa, readers are captured in a surreal moment as a cheetah is scanned for identification purposes. Yes, scanners aren't just for groceries and department store purchases anymore! More poignant, yet just as thrilling, is the photograph taken on Father's Day, 1997, of a young mother and her child making a video conference connection with the husband/father, a jubilant Army lieutenant stationed in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Whether in the field of sports, business, science, health, or in your own backyard (situated in Bangor or Bangalore), this book makes clear through stunning, meticulous photographs,how microchips and technology coexist peacefully and practically amid our daily routine. At the end of DIGITAL DAY, readers will find a bonus in the section which introduces each of the book's photographers and offers a biography for each. It's rewarding not only to see the magnificent photos they've taken, it's equally as rewarding to read about the person, the artist, behind the photograph. DIGITAL DAY is more than a dormant coffee table book. It's a book you'll find yourself going back to over and over -- and taking to work to show your friends. It's crisp, fresh, hip, blazing with color and vibrancy as this 24-hour microchip-laden tale is recounted for the reader. If you're looking for a classy addition to your book collection that mixes modern tech with classic photography, DIGITAL DAY is the book for you. The information and pictorial displays housed within make for a virtual feast that's fascinating, optically elegant and intellectually easy to digest. Rating: 5 Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
Summary: From Kirkus Reviews
Comment: From Kirkus: The ubiquitous microchip is celebrated in some 200 color photographs, taken in the course of one day (July 11, 1997) by approximately 100 photojournalists scattered around the globe. While we may take it for granted that the microprocessor has infiltrated and altered almost every element of life having to do with technology, it's still startling to see how pervasive its influence is. A portrait of Thai monks gathered `round a computer to study the teachings of the Buddha, of a Chinese sailor steering his junk and blithely chatting on a cellular telephone, or of a group of rural South African pensioners lining up at a computer that will identify them by their fingerprints before issuing a monthly check are likely to surprise even a jaded technophile. Much of the book, however, focuses on the specific ways in which the microchip is expanding life's possibilities, with a heavy stress on how microchip-driven technology is helping to cure disease and enhance the lives of those with a variety of disabilities. The upbeat message throughout is hardly surprising, given that the project was sponsored by the Intel Corporation. Still, as a primer on cutting edge work in health, the environment, And other sciences, and as a vivid tour of the world's obsession with all things technological, One Digital Day is breezily effective. (First serial to Fortune, CNN TV special) -Kirkus Reviews END