Craig Rairdin YouTube review of Computer Engineering for Babies

Craig Rairdin backed us when we first launched our Kickstarter campaign. When he got his book he made a YouTube review. It made us immediately remember why we started this crazy five year project.

Craig is authentic, witty, and as fascinated by the inherent simplicity of logic design as we are. This quote sums him up pretty well “Get yourself a baby, get yourself one of these books, and learn all about logic circuits.” haha

So let’s get straight to it, Here’s the Craig Raidin Computer Engineering for Babies YouTube review.

Craig Rairdin Computer Engineering for Babies YouTube Review | Intro

Hey boys and girls, its Craig and I'm here to share a book review with you

Do you all remember those books that we buy for babies that have cardboard pages and ways that the kids can interact with the book? Well I have one of those here and unfortunately I don't have any little kids around to share it with, so i'm going to share it with you

This is a book called computer engineering for babies and it's one of those interactive cardboard books. It's by Chase Roberts and it's very good.

A WIRE in Computer Engineering

Ok, so here we have a Wire. You can see that the button is connected by a Wire to a lightbulb. And if we push the button, the lightbulb comes on. That's how a wire and a switch and a lightbulb work.

NOT Gate

Next, we have a NOT gate. The way a NOT gate works is that it inverts the signal. So when the button is NOT pushed the light is on, when we push the button the light goes off. That's a NOT gate.

OR Gate

Next, things get a little more complicated. We now have two buttons, this is an OR gate. What do you suppose an OR gate does? Well, an OR gate means that if you push one button OR the other, I bet that lights are gonna come on. Yup, there it is. Or if I push this one it comes on, or I can push both of them and the light comes on. That's an OR gate.

AND Gate

Next up, we have AND. Now, you saw how the OR gate worked. The AND gate must mean that we have to push both buttons at the same time. If this button AND this button are pressed, then the light will come on. So I'm going to push both at the same time, and sure enough, the light comes on. If I just do one of them, it won't work.

Exclusive OR, aka XOR

Alright, things get tricky here. It's eXclusive OR (aka XOR). We saw OR before where you could press one or the other, or both and we'd see the light come on. Exclusive OR, lets see what happens. We push one button, the light comes on, we push the other button, the light comes on. But if we push both buttons at the same time the light does not come on because it's exclusive OR. It has to be one or the other, not both.

A LATCH in Computer Engineering

Alright, and on the last page, you have your final exam. This is a drawing for a latch. And you see that we have an OR gate and an AND gate. We have a NOT, and we have all these wires, and we've learned what all these things do. So the question is, what's gonna happen, when we push the SET button and the reset button, which is the one on top. What's gonna happen in that drawing?

Well I'm not going to spoil the book for you by telling you, you're going to have to figure that out on your own.

Craig Rairdin Computer Engineering for Babies YouTube Review | Outro

And you can get this book and maybe have a baby explain it to you. Computer Engineering for Babies, Chase Roberts. Great little book.

You can get it at ComputerEngineeringforBabies.com, but I got it by backing a Kickstarter campaign.

This book reminds me back in the 70s there was a comedian called Father Guido Sarducci, and one of his bits he would do Five Minute University. He would teach you in 5 minutes everything you would remember 5 years out of college. I took Computer Engineering, it was not for babies, but I took the class when I was in college, and this book pretty much sums up everything I remember about it not, some 40 years later.

So Computer Engineering for Babies. Get yourself a baby, get yourself one of these books, and learn all about logic circuits.

Grab your copy of Computer Engineering for Babies.