91–100 of 156 posts
Agree with all posted before. Adding Clifford Stoll, Cuckoo's Egg; white it's not so much a history of computing as a personal history of a geek astronomer catching a hacker, it represents a lot of early computing culture, and I enjoyed it a lot.
Code: the hidden language of computer hardware and software, by Charles Petzold. It's a modern classic (2000). It's less technical and more about the history behind the idea/theories of coding itself. It also explains some basic principles of how computers work, at a high level. Very well written.
I also think it's a great book, but partly because it is technical. Charles is great at explaining how computers actually work with circuit diagrams from the ground up in a way that's articulate, clear, and engaging. I think I learned more from this book than I did in my CS architecture class. The historical context he puts it in helps with clarity since it's easier to understand when you know how each successive ste…
On a side note, people keep recommending masters of doom to me, I definitely need to check it out myself.
The comic itself is pure fiction of a zany cartoon comedy variety.
The writer is obsessed with the actual history, though, to a point where her footnotes sometimes take as much space on the page as comic panels.
It's a glorious thing and provides more insight into who Babbage and Lovelace really were than anything else I've personally read.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thrilling_Adventures_of_...
1. UNIX: A History and a Memoir 2. The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer 3. The idea factory - Bell Land and the great age of American innovation 4. Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age 5. The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution 7. Intel Trinity,The: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Bui…
I read it after seeing a recommendation here, and I've been recommending it ever since. I loved reading the early history of the development of UNIX and all the command line tools we use on a regular basis. The history was wonderful to read, and it made me a little better at the command line as well.
In no particular order: Sunburst and Luminary: an Apollo Memoir https://www.sunburstandluminary.com/SLhome.html The Brain Makers https://www.amazon.com/Brain-Makers-HP-Newquist/dp/067230412... Strategic Computing: DARPA and the Quest for Machine Intelligence https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Computing-Machine-Intellige... The Soul of a New Machine https://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine/dp/B01FCTJCR0 Hackers: Heroes o…
Code: the hidden language of computer hardware and software, by Charles Petzold. It's a modern classic (2000). It's less technical and more about the history behind the idea/theories of coding itself. It also explains some basic principles of how computers work, at a high level. Very well written.
I also think it's a great book, but partly because it is technical. Charles is great at explaining how computers actually work with circuit diagrams from the ground up in a way that's articulate, clear, and engaging. I think I learned more from this book than I did in my CS architecture class. The historical context he puts it in helps with clarity since it's easier to understand when you know how each successive ste…
There's a software-industry version of that book about the startup Ask Computer Software killing it in the MRP business software space with a product called MANMAN. Maybe somebody remembers the title?
It's like reading a long version of one of Paul Graham's essays.
Some of the things it covers:
- Ask's actual relationships with customers. One of them interviews all other existing clients before buying (like 200 companies.)
- the software team dynamics. One "rockstar" polyfills over all the weird OS bugs at the time, so the others can work on the actual application.
Ask eventually acquired Ingres.
The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal It's an extremely well written book, starting from the very beginning at the time of WWII, tracing people, ideas, struggles, and achievements of great milestones in computer history. It's not your typical dry historical material, but somehow the author made it personal through the eyes of key people that influenced important computer…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also think it's a great book, but partly because it is technical. Charles is great at explaining how computers actually work with circuit diagrams from the ground up in a way that's articulate, clear, and engaging. I think I learned more from this book than I did in my CS architecture class. The historical context he puts it in helps with clarity since it's easier to understand when you know how each successive ste…
If you're going to read the Phoenix Project, skip it and go back to Goldratt's 'The Goal'. And take it with a grain of salt.