Book Review: ENIAC, the triumphs and tragedies of the world's first computer / Scott McCartney.

History of computing is full of unsung geniuses and hard work put on by so many people who are not given enough credit for their work. Eckert and Mauchly are these 2 great inventors of the first electronic computer who were not given enough credit for the invention of computer. This book claims that the computer scientist: John von Neumann stole away the credit for a lot of the ideas (especially the memory device) from the ENIAC team. History is kind to those who articulated and popularized an idea rather than the original minds who conceived an idea. The book also vividly illustrates how many of the inventions, especially those as complex as a computer do not occur out of the blue, but they are the result of a long tradition and history of ideas proposed around them and happen when various other conditions become favorable and the right people with prepared minds happen to be at the right place to take advantage of all those favorable factors to push the invention out. Also once an invention comes into being, it gathers momentum of its own and soon enough the envelope gets pushed so far ahead that the original invention appears so far removed and ancient. ENIAC is a fitting example of that where a light switch has more computing power than the 30 ton ENIAC.