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Ask HN: What are some great posts or articles about history of computing?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some great posts or articles about history of computing?

#42

Post by geocrasher »

I am pretty proud of this piece that I wrote on my employers blog. It started out as training material to help newbies understand why email is so broken. It took tons of research, and goes way back to pre-ARPANET days. It's a high level, for sure, but goes deeper than most high level writings do:

https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/how-email-became-an-important...

Re: Ask HN: What are some great posts or articles about history of computing?

#43

Post by random_moonwalk »

AlphaWeaver wrote: post #16

Wow, can't believe nobody has mentioned the classic, _Hackers_, by Steven Levy. Another book I found interesting, but is focused more on the early history of Silicon Valley as a whole, not just computing, is _Valley of Genius_, by Adam Fisher.

Valley of Genius is a fun way to become acquainted with some of the Valley's history (for those who haven't read it, it's an oral history comprised of interview snippets from a bunch of key pioneers and people who were at the right place at the right time).

Re: Ask HN: What are some great posts or articles about history of computing?

#44

Post by tehjoker »

geocrasher wrote: post #42

I am pretty proud of this piece that I wrote on my employers blog. It started out as training material to help newbies understand why email is so broken. It took tons of research, and goes way back to pre-ARPANET days. It's a high level, for sure, but goes deeper than most high level writings do: https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/how-email-became-an-important...

I didn't know that story about the DEC salesman. That was neat, thank you!

Re: Ask HN: What are some great posts or articles about history of computing?

#47

Post by geocrasher »

tehjoker wrote: post #44
geocrasher wrote: post #42

I am pretty proud of this piece that I wrote on my employers blog. It started out as training material to help newbies understand why email is so broken. It took tons of research, and goes way back to pre-ARPANET days. It's a high level, for sure, but goes deeper than most high level writings do: https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/how-email-became-an-important...

I didn't know that story about the DEC salesman. That was neat, thank you!

I'm so glad you enjoyed it :)

Re: Ask HN: What are some great posts or articles about history of computing?

#50

Post by pfarrell »

Top of my head, here are some books on specific histories I enjoyed. All old, but there are timeless nuggets in them.

Soul of a new machine, previously mentioned. Where I first learned about mushroom management.

Just for Fun: the story of an accidental revolutionary [0] was fun bio on Torvalds from 2001

The Mythical Man Month [1] offers some insight into the management and thinking that went into OS/360

Masters of Doom [2]: offers an enjoyable history of the shareware years and the rise of id software

The multicians site [3]: is a collaborative history of Multics, one the most influential operating systems.

The Mother of All Demos [4]: even better than Steve Jobs keynotes

Steve Jobs iPhone introduction [5]: I’m not a huge fan of Mr Jobs, but this is one of the best presentations ever. It’s not history, per se, but very interesting through our eyes.

0: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/160171.Just_for_Fun

1: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13629.The_Mythical_Man_M...

2: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222146.Masters_of_Doom

3: https://multicians.org/

4: https://youtu.be/yJDv-zdhzMY

5: https://youtu.be/vN4U5FqrOdQ

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