Electronic computers are arguably the greatest invention of the 20th century. They are the enablers for many of the technologies that the developed world now relies upon and their impact on society cannot be overestimated. The story of their creation is a fascinating one. It begins with the earliest efforts to mechanise calculation in the 17th century and is interwoven with many of the great advances in engineering, mathematics and the physical sciences which have taken place over the 400 years since.
In 2003 I began researching and writing a book on the history of the computer purely as a hobby. None of the available books on the subject gave me the information I wanted so I decided to try to find it myself. The book was finally published in eBook format in 2015, after 11 years and more than 230,000 words of effort. A print version was published in 2017. I created this web site and blog to generate feedback during the writing of the book. As well as regular posts relating to the history of the computer, the site also includes the first chapter of the book as a freely downloadable file in PDF format.
The Story of the Computer 
Precisely what I was looking for, thankyou for putting up.
Hello!I want to translate your book The Story if the Robot into Chinese as my thesis. First, I will translate the selected chapters into Chinese, then, I will put some of the translated phrases into the thesis as example sentences to study the problems I encountered in the translation process and propose solutions. Therefore, I would like to ask for your permission. It would be appreciated if you could kindly help check on whether the book has been translated into Chinese and check on the availability of the Chinese rights (simplified Chinese language) of this book.
I declare that the results of the translation are limited to the writing of the thesis and will not be used for other commercial purposes.
Hi,
Thank you for your interest in my work. Unfortunately I am unable to grant the permission you request as, although the Story of the Robot is self-published and I currently retain all rights to it, I am in the process of contacting publishers of non-fiction books with a view to having it republished by a traditional publisher. This would require me to transfer the rights to the publisher and having any prior agreements might make this process more difficult.
Sorry I couldn’t be of help on this occasion and good luck with your thesis!
Stephen.