John,
I don't know The Novel Computer but will look out for it.
I too am very interested in a lexicon. Obviously there are lots of books
about computing and the internet but I'd love to find a book or a site with
the history of the words included.
The nearest I have got so far are these two:
http://www.webopedia.com which includes interesting snippets like the
history of the @ sign
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2002/HistoryofAtSign.asp
And this history discussion list Community Memory
http://memex.org/community-memory.html is very interesting because you can
pose questions to the list and someone somewhere may have worked on that
actual problem 50 years ago. It did seem to grind to a halt last year though
so I'm not sure what's happening there.
And then of course there is Wikipedia... http://www.wikipedia.org/ the
accumulated wisdom of many.
Can anyone else point to more links or books on this subject?
Best
sue
> From: "J.J.Mulroy" <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 08:36:44 +0200
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: [WDL] wdl
>
> Books about Digital Life
>
> Apart from Deep Thought, the only fictional machine to affect me strangely
> was The Novel Computer, from the French by one Robert Escarpit. This would
> have been the eighties or earlier and is, no doubt, long since out of print.
> Inevitably, his machine was programmed to write best-sellers, probably in
> Lisp as Delphi was not available then. His day may yet come, when we can
> then all go home. Until then ...
>
> Groups inevitably generate private languages. How, for example, could the
> Potteries have been run without slip, biscuit, sagger-maker's bottom
> knocker? Just wish there were somewhere a Lexicon.
>
> John
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