If you mention the names Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Bill Gates to a random group of people on the street they'll probably know exactly who you're talking about. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak invented the personal computer, and Bill Gates created software for personal computers. Everybody knows that. The three of them revolutionized the entire computer industry. However, if you were to mention the names Presper Eckert and John Mauchly to that same group of people, you'd probably get a few raised eyebrows and a pointed Who? But the two of them actually started the whole computer industry! So why doesn't anybody know who they are?Who are those guys, and why don't we automatically think of them when we talk computers is answered in Scott McCartney's fabulous book, ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer The author explains how Eckert and Mauchly came up with the hair-brained idea of an electronic computer in the first place; how they painstakingly built both ENIAC and UNIVAC from the ground up, and, then, how the very industry they had created turned viciously against them and drove the two real inventors of the electronic computer out of the public consciousness and into deep oblivion.Anybody who is fascinated by scientific cut throat will find this story absorbing, informative and even a little frightening. It's a literal road map of what not to do with your revolutionary idea. It should definitely be required reading for all aspiring inventors. I give the book 000001 bits.