eBook While your other half might be perusing the latest bonk buster on the beach this summer, you might want something that's not going to leave you wriggling with embarrassment and wishing you’d packed a bigger towel.

Well, you'll be pleased to hear that El Reg has collected our entire output of our This Old Box strand and shoehorned it into two handy new ebooks.

We've been running This Old Box for over five years, during which time we've pulled apart everything from the Bondi Blue iMac, the Commodore SX-64 and the first truly portable computer - otherwise known as the control system for an early 1960s nuke.

That’s because at The Register we know the old stuff can be just as interesting and easily as informative as the new stuff. Opening up the first IBM PC reminds us how this is an industry that has always been built on compromise and using what's to hand, while examining an early arcade game like Computer Space demonstrates exactly how far you can get without an actual CPU.

So, we've pulled together all of these pieces into two separate volumes. This first one – available here – covers everything from Cray supercomputers to the first PC, and everything else in between.

So don't waste your money on yet another Jackie Collins or buy something that you've read David Cameron plans to bring to Tuscany. Just pony up £2.01/ $1.99, and you can be the coolest nerd on the beach. Just make sure you’ve brought your towel.

You can get it right here in a variety of formats.

We also have a few other gems for your delectation including:

• A Short History of Virtualisation
• The Life and Times of Steven Paul Jobs
• A year-long course of BOFH
• Happy Birthday Intel 4004
• The Best of The Reg 2011

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