A must-read introductory text for beginners

...and those who only ever learned high-level programming languages and do not understand their own machine. I recently discovered this book and it opened my eyes to how blind I have been. It gently guides a person that has just learned the essentials of programming from logic gates to hardware architecture to machine language to assembly to writing a barebone OS, virtual machine, and a high-level programming language.

The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles by Noam Nisan and Shimon Schocken

Google talk video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7654043762021156507#

Before compiling the source code on your computer, read this Readme.txt file. You will need a Java compiler such as the one found in the JDK (Java Development Kit) which can be downloaded freely from many sites including http://www.javasoft.com/.