Mr Harel is a nimble and thoughtful guide to some of the darkest recesses of computer theory.

ECONOMIST: Computer science

No wonder we wanted a wall between the developers and the sysadmins, particularly since, in theory, the advent of the personal computer and desktop workstation meant that we could all be responsible for our own machines.

FORBES: DevOps: What It Is And Where It Came From

The papal election resembles how decisions were made in Europe some 700 years ago, before elected monarchies were replaced by hereditary monarchies, says Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, professor of politics at New York University who uses a computer model based on game theory to predict the outcome of elections.

NPR: Arcane Process Encourages Papal Horse Trading

The computational theory of mind, in essence, says that your brain works like a computer.

FORBES: Why Your Brain Isn't A Computer

In theory, this uncertainty should allow a full-sized quantum computer to do lots of calculations in parallel, and thus to solve problems that would take forever or, at least, several billion years on a traditional machine.

ECONOMIST: Quantum computing

In theory, if I leave my computer on, DirecPC will automatically blast down to my computer any one of 26 predefined Web sites and any of 30, 000 newsgroups.

CNN: Satellite access a mixed bag