Re:Ask HN: What are good books on Computer History/Lore/Icon...
by mitchbob on Thursday February 01, 2024 @02:48PM
(#39220369)
Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe by George Dyson. The brilliance of John von Neumann is on full display, not least his brilliance in gathering amazingly talented people for one of the most ambitious projects ever--the creation of a stored-program computer--and creating the kind of community and sense of purpose that scarcely exists in our current world of commercialized technology.
Re:Ask HN: What are good books on Computer History/Lore/Icon...
by mindcrime on Thursday February 01, 2024 @02:30PM
(#39220127)
The Soul of a New Machine and The Cuckoo's Egg are essential! Can't recommend either highly enough.
Still looking forward to reading Cult of the Dead Cow and Dealers of Lightning. Reading AlbertCory's book now, which appears to cover some of the same ground as "Dealers".
Re:Ask HN: What are good books on Computer History/Lore/Icon...
by mitchbob on Thursday February 01, 2024 @02:33PM
(#39220167)
The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal is a great read. The recent Stripe Press reissue [1] includes some of J.C.R. Licklider's writings at the end, a nice bonus.
Re:Ask HN: What are good books on Computer History/Lore/Icon...
by mindcrime on Thursday February 01, 2024 @02:16PM
(#39219942)
1. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy[1]
2. Inventing the Future - Albert Cory[2][3]
3. Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - John Markoff and Katie Hafner[4][5]
4. Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker - Kevin Mitnick[6]
5. Not a book, but definitely consider watching "Halt & Catch Fire"[7] if you haven't seen it yet. It's an amazing show that deals with, loosely speaking, "the history of the computer industry".
6. Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell - Phil Lapsley[8]
[5]: Yes, I'm aware there are substantial question marks concerning the veracity of some of the information in this book, especially as it pertains to Mitnick. Nonetheless, I believe it's worth reading, but also suggest reading other books about Mitnick, including his autobiography, to get the other perspective
Re:Ask HN: What are good books on Computer History/Lore/Icon...
by helph67 on Thursday February 01, 2024 @03:21PM
(#39220885)
"Fire In The Valley" Paul Freiberger & Michael Swaine - McGraw Hill
"Forbes Greatest Technology Stories" Jeffrey Young - John Wiley & Sons
Also recommend "Dealers of Lightening" and "The Cuckoo's Egg"
Re:Ask HN: What are good books on Computer History/Lore/Icon...
by 0xBDB on Thursday February 01, 2024 @07:59PM
(#39223638)
Not yet covered by others:
The Code Book, by Simon Singh [History of Cryptography]
The Idea Factory, by John Gertner [Bell Labs]
The Information, by James Gleick [Shannon and Information Theory. I haven't read the mentioned A Mind at Play on the same subject]
What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/725789.What_the_Dormouse...
Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34467030-troublemakers
A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32919530-a-mind-at-play
Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine
Dealers of Lightening - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1101290
Cult of the Dead Cow - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/42283862
The Cuckoo's Egg - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg_(book)
Still looking forward to reading Cult of the Dead Cow and Dealers of Lightning. Reading AlbertCory's book now, which appears to cover some of the same ground as "Dealers".
[1] https://press.stripe.com/the-dream-machine
pretty sure you can find it online in 7 bit ASCII format
2. Inventing the Future - Albert Cory[2][3]
3. Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - John Markoff and Katie Hafner[4][5]
4. Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker - Kevin Mitnick[6]
5. Not a book, but definitely consider watching "Halt & Catch Fire"[7] if you haven't seen it yet. It's an amazing show that deals with, loosely speaking, "the history of the computer industry".
6. Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell - Phil Lapsley[8]
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Compute...
[2]: https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Future-Albert-Cory/dp/17362...
[3]: Note that AlbertCory is an HN'er! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28059246
[4]: https://www.amazon.com/Cyberpunk-Outlaws-Hackers-Computer-Fr...
[5]: Yes, I'm aware there are substantial question marks concerning the veracity of some of the information in this book, especially as it pertains to Mitnick. Nonetheless, I believe it's worth reading, but also suggest reading other books about Mitnick, including his autobiography, to get the other perspective
[6]: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wires-Adventures-Worlds-Wanted/...
[7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(TV_series...
[8]: https://www.amazon.com/Exploding-Phone-Phil-Lapsley/dp/08021...
The Code Book, by Simon Singh [History of Cryptography] The Idea Factory, by John Gertner [Bell Labs] The Information, by James Gleick [Shannon and Information Theory. I haven't read the mentioned A Mind at Play on the same subject]