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Ask HN: What's the best computer science book you've read recently?

• grillisalaatti 10y ago
  Not new, but "Hacking - The Art of Exploitation".
  • jsgoller1 10y ago
    This is a great book for introducing infosec!
  • keyle 10y ago
    Hah yes, I have it in a box somewhere. Great detailed book, highly recommend.
• Eridrus 10y ago
  I tend to get most of my CS content from papers & web pages, but Sutton & Barto's Reinforcement Learning book is pretty good: https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~sutton/book/the-book-2nd.html https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~sutton/book/the-book-2nd.htm...
• jackyinger 10y ago
  A New Science - Wolfram Maybe stretching outside the typical, but I have a weakness for cellular automata. Also, I've vowed never to buy another Oriely book or similar book ever. Online docs are free and stay up to date.
  • throwaway7645 10y ago
    The book is basically a scam and panned. He talks about automata like it was new and he invented it. I strongly suggest you read the Amazon reviews.
    • sitkack 10y ago
      On the plus side it is full of pretty pictures, has a massive number of pages which can be used to press leaves or flowers, heat in the winter and a door stop in the summer to encourage airflow. There really isn't a bad quality about this book. Oh, and super cheap on the used market.
      • jackyinger 10y ago
        Haha! :) Touché!
      • JoachimS 10y ago
        Got mine for about 10 USD. page/price ratio is quite impressive.
    • jackyinger 10y ago
      I can form my own opinion thanks. At least he doesn't have his head up his ass the may Mandelbrot did. And on top of it all he generated a great deal of original work.
      • ebneter 10y ago
        > At least he doesn't have his head up his ass the may Mandelbrot did I see you've never met Stephen.
      • throwaway7645 10y ago
        Wolfram is known to be super arrogant. Granted, he has accomplished a lot as a business man and is probably almost twice as intelligent as me, but there are probably more useful books out there.
  • spacehacker 10y ago
    It is also available online for free: http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline/toc.html http://www.wolframscience.com/nksonline/toc.html
  • mbrodersen 10y ago
    This one is a waste of time. Nothing new expanded to (what feels like) thousands of pages.
    • bainsfather 10y ago
      I read the whole book 15 years ago. It was a waste of time and money. The only new thing I found was a Turing Machine with (iirc) 1 less tape - the whole book could have been reduced to a 4 page paper, as far as new work is concerned.
• deepnotderp 10y ago
  Does ai count as CS? If so, I'd like to nominate the Deep Learning Book
  • sitkack 10y ago
    I nominate it with a link http://www.deeplearningbook.org/ http://www.deeplearningbook.org/
• spraak 10y ago
  Has anyone read "The Impostor Handbook"[0]? What do you think of it? [0] https://bigmachine.io/products/the-imposters-handbook/ https://bigmachine.io/products/the-imposters-handbook/ Edit: I'm not connected to the book.
  • chrisseaton 10y ago
    I think it's well intentioned and the author seems like someone who has put a lot of work into something they think is important, but it contains some terrible technical misunderstandings, and that's a real shame as I cringe thinking about a developer without a CS degree who's read this book to make themselves more confident in interviews repeating some of the stuff in it. https://github.com/imposters-handbook/feedback/issues/50 https://github.com/imposters-handbook/feedback/issues/50
  • 013 10y ago
    A HN discussion on the book: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12351660 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12351660
• petithug 10y ago
  A List of Successes That Can Change the World: Essays Dedicated to Philip Wadler on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3319309358 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3319309358
• cygned 10y ago
  "Structure and interpretation of computer programs" Definitely recommended.
  • ZephyrP 10y ago
    I finished it up a few months ago and I cannot recommend it enough. The real soul of SICP is in it's exercises however. It asks you to build on your own prior work in inventive ways, challenging you to solve the exercises correctly, but also to do so in a maintainable way. I wrote up some supplementary material to make the experience smoother for a practicing programmer: High-level requirements of the chapter subprojects, Pitfalls and paradigms embedded in some of the footnotes, Answers to (nearly) all exercises, a testing framework for Chapter 4 interpreter (including the JIT compiler), a GUI for running Chapter 5 virtual machine here: https://github.com/zv/SICP-guile https://github.com/zv/SICP-guile
    • apenney 10y ago
      The one thing I really wish I had was a comprehensive test suite for all the exercises. They are (obviously) hard to solve and there's no other way to see if you were right but to check the solution. It's a huge flaw in most CS books, feedback without hand feeding you the answers.
      • inimino 10y ago
        I disagree with this pretty strongly, actually. The best skill you can get from SICP-level exercises is looking at the code and being completely confident that you understand it and that it is correct. The best way to use them is to write the code without running it, and once you are sure, review it with someone else to find out if you were right. This breaks down a bit around chapters four and five where you are plugging in parts of a larger code base, and the accidental complexity starts to dominate.
        • DennisP 10y ago
          Reviewing with someone else can be a challenge for self-study; that's the step a test suite would replace. Of course someone could use the test suite to just make changes semi-randomly until it works, but there's no reason it has to be used that way.
• jonbaer 10y ago
  The Master Algorithm by Pedro Domingos
• _doky 10y ago
  I still haven't read anything better than Code by Charles Petzold [1] and it's not even close. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319 https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softw...
  • faceyspacey 10y ago
    It is a fantastic book. It doesn't take u into typical algorithms (at least that I recall), but rather it explains as intuitively as possible how a computer is built up from flip flops and binary logic to assembly, intermediate language and on to full-on compilation of a useable language. Basically beginner programmers can acquire a broad understanding of the foundation the programs you're building are built on by reading this book. It reads more like a non-fiction expose than a programming language tutorial book, which is to say, given its subject, it's an easy read you can do on the couch. Depending on your skill and knowledge level, there may be a few sections you have to re-read several times until you understand it, but you won't feel as though you need to go over to your computer chair and try something to fully grasp it. If you can do basic arithmetic, you can get through this book. That seems to be the hidden premise. That computers are easy and should be easy to understand. This book is a testament of that. Though I'm sure some will find this doesn't go deep enough. But the point is: learning so generally will create many entry points for you to follow up on in your journey into programming and computer science. It will clear up many things and essentially make the path seem less scary and out of reach. This book achieves that really well. High level programmers will come away feeling far less insecure about their lack of knowledge of the underpinnings of whatever it is they are developing. I know I did. I can't say enough about this book. It's the real deal. I'm sure those with a computer science degree might have more to say (that is they likely think it's a cursory overview), but I think for everyone else it's a computer science degree in a book you can read in one or two weeks. At least half the degree. For the second half, I recommend Algorithms In A Nutshell. And done! Go back to programming your high level JavaScript react app and get on with your life. On a side note: it's my opinion that theory first is the wrong way. Application first, theory as needed is the right approach. Otherwise it's like learning music theory before u know u even like to play music. U might not even like being a programmer or be natural at it. And if u spend 4 years studying theory first, u will have spent a lot of time to discover what u could have in like a month. In addition, it can suck the joy and fun out of the exploration of programming and computer science. It's natural and fun to learn as u dive into real problems. Everything u can learn is on the internet. It's very rewarding and often faster to learn things when you are learning it to attain a specific goal. The theory u do learn seems to make much more sense in the face of some goal you are trying to apply it to. In short over ur computing career u can learn the same stuff far faster and far more enjoyably if you do so paired with actual problems. But that said sometimes u do gotta step back and allocate time for fundamentals, even if u have no specific problem they are related to. However you will know when it's time to brush up on algorithms, or finally learn how the computer works below your day to day level of abstraction. Just know that a larger and larger percentage of us programmers went the applied route, rather than the computer science theory first + formal education route. It's probably the majority of programmers at this point in time. In short u r not alone learning this as u go. Learn to enjoy that early on and save yourself from the pain of insecurity of not knowing everything. This is an exploration and investigation, and perhaps you will make some discoveries nobody else has been able to make, and far before u have mastered and understood everything there is to know about he computer. Perhaps that's it's biggest selling point--you don't have to know everything before you can contribute to the computer world! So enjoy your pursuits in programming, knowing in your unique exploration at any time u may come up with something highly novel and valuable.
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• DearVolt 10y ago
  Engineering a Compiler 2nd Ed by Cooper & Torczon I used it to supplement my prescribed compiler construction textbook and it's incredibly useful! Also surprisingly easy to read compared to some texts with a very math-heavy approach.
  • temporary_art 10y ago
    Fun fact: these two are married and the cutest couple. They walk to Rice's Coffeehouse almost daily together talking about whatever it is compiler professors talk about.
  • marai2 10y ago
    This book was my greatest buy ever! I once went to Fry's electronics to their book section - my expectation was to find only popular books there, when lo and behold, I see this book on compilers. I turn it over to look at the price tag, thinking I'll have to shell out something like $80 for the book and to my shock and surprise the tag says,... wait for it... $0.01 That's right one cent! At first I think this is some kind of prank and somebody peeled off a price sticker from some discounted stale candy or something and stuck it on this book. I'm of half a mind to see if I can buy slip this book by the store checker and have them just scan the one cent price tag and not to a double take. But my concsience gets the better of me and I walk up to a store clerk point out the one cent price tag and ask them to do a real price check so I can find out the fair price. The clerk looks up the book in his computer and says, nope that is the correct price in their system! So I bought "Engineering a Compiler 2nd Ed. By Cooper & Torczon" for $0.01! My greatest book buy ever!
    • DearVolt 10y ago
      Wow, that's awesome! I picked up mine second hand at a textbook distributor for the equivalent of about $30. For anyone interested in other books on compiler construction, I would recommend these: - "The Basics of Compiler Design" by Torben Mogensen - "Modern Compiler Implementation in C" by Andrew Appel (ML and Java versions available too) - "Modern Compiler Design" by Grune, Bal et al. The Dragon Book is obviously infamous for this topic, but I would recommend covering at least two slightly more basic texts before taking it on.
• aduffy 10y ago
  The Algorithm Design Manual by Skiena. Each section contains a story of some situation he was in where he faced a problem which he solved by applying one of various algo techniques (DP, divide and conquer, etc.). After reading CLRS for a class, it was nice to see how some of the most common textbook algorithms have been applied by a notable computer scientist.
  • mgrouchy 10y ago
    This is a great book. I love the approach, it really helps with one of the main problems with using algorithms or design patterns even and that is problem identification. There are a bunch of problems that are way easier to solve if you recognize the solution exists in dynamic programming for example, but if you don't they become very hard.
  • resist_futility 10y ago
    The book definitely reaches a good balance that other algorithms books don't have. It makes you want to keep reading.
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  • eternalcode 10y ago
    Such a nice book. My personal preference is to use CLRS for reference and Skiena for people want a quick introduction to algorithms.
    • Apocryphon 10y ago
      It's kinda hilarious in that. CLRS is the gold standard recommended introductory text for algorithms, but it's so dense and over-stuffed that it's overkill, so better for reference. Skiena has a lot of stuff you don't need, but is comparably more succinct and light to read.
  • dominotw 10y ago
    prepping for google interview?
• kartD 10y ago
  Grokking algorithms. Great book, especially for someone like me who doesn't deal too much with this stuff (as an embedded systems engineer). Grokking functional programming and deep learning seem awesome as well, but I haven't finished either so take my recommendation with a pinch of salt.
• johnbender 10y ago
  Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists Note, you have to be willing to put the time in, especially if your linear algebra is rusty or (like me) you have only a passing familiarity with complex numbers. With that in mind, it's almost entirely self-contained and you can immediately start to make connections with classical computing if you're familiar with automata. I've been interested in learning about quantum computing for a few years now and this book finally got me going. https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Computing-Computer-Scientists-Yanofsky/dp/0521879965 https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Computing-Computer-Scientists... [update] As an aside it's a really great excuse to try out one of the many computer algebra systems out there. I gave Mathematica a trial for fun since I'd already used SageMath in the past.
  • richtersand 10y ago
    John Bender!!! :-P
  • fvargas 10y ago
    Leonard Susskind's "Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum" as well as Nielsen & Chuang's "Quantum Computation and Quantum Information" are also fantastic resources. I've got both sitting here on my desk :)
• mmaunder 10y ago
  Best for what?
• jsgoller1 10y ago
  I've been reading _The Practice of Programming_ (Pike, Kernighan) lately; it's mainly geared towards Java and C/C++ programmers, but even as a DevOps engineer I'm finding a lot of it useful. https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Programming-Addison-Wesley-Professional-Computing/dp/020161586X https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Programming-Addison-Wesley-P...
• cottonseed 10y ago
  Lately I've been reading Network Algorithmics. Awesome book. https://www.amazon.com/Network-Algorithmics-Interdisciplinary-Designing-Networking/dp/0120884771 https://www.amazon.com/Network-Algorithmics-Interdisciplinar...
  • tptacek 10y ago
    This book blew my head off when it first came out (I used to work in the space). Highly recommend.
  • sgrossman 10y ago
    Indeed! This book is likely to be 100x more interesting than your local college's undergrad networks course. The dozen or so principles Varghese lays out for writing fast networking code is reason enough to pick it up. The writing is very approachable, too. Reminds me more of the early network operator books than a CS text.
  • bogomipz 10y ago
    Wow this is a unique book! Just skimming I see Bloom filters, tries, routing protocols, sequential logic and DDOS all in same book. This looks great. Thanks for sharing.
• vram22 10y ago
  More about programming than computer science, but it does talk a lot about and show some custom algorithms (it's more about programming-in-the-small, though it does talk about some big picture too), also it is old and out of print (last I checked), but I thought it was really good when I bought and read it, so mentioning it: Writing Efficient Programs Also has a great bunch of "war stories" about performance tuning in real-life, including one in which people, IIRC, improve the performance of quicksort on a supercomputer by 1 million times or some such, by working on tuning as well as architecture and algorithms at several levels of the stack, from the hardware on upwards. by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Bentley_(computer_scientist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Bentley_(computer_scientis... Edited to change Wikipedia URL to more specific one.
  • Pamar 10y ago
    Despite its age, I think it is still very worthwhile, just like Programming Pearls.
    • vram22 10y ago
      Yes, and the same goes for More Programming Pearls - all 3 by Bentley (for those who don't know).
  • dgquintas 10y ago
    It seems an earlier related draft (s/Programs/Code) is available at http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3435&context=compsci http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3435&c...
    • vram22 10y ago
      Cool, thanks. Will check it out.
  • dfan 10y ago
    When I started coding for a living in the early 1990s (in an environment where efficiency was paramount), Writing Efficient Programs was gold. I still have it, and I'm glad that to see that it's still valued.
• jagger27 10y ago
  Like others in this thread, this is more (only, in fact) about programming but I found The Go Programming Language to be an absolutely perfect introduction to Go with fantastic examples and succinct prose. It's beautifully typeset as well, which doesn't hurt. http://www.gopl.io http://www.gopl.io ISBN: 978-0134190440
  • sherlockgopher 10y ago
    I found this to be helpful for learning basics of web development, https://github.com/thewhitetulip/web-dev-golang-anti-textbook https://github.com/thewhitetulip/web-dev-golang-anti-textboo...
    • spraak 10y ago
      Thank you! I live the idea of an anti textbook :)
  • laxentasken 10y ago
    I've been planning to get into GO this spring, would this be a good start? Or is there a possibility that it goes out of date?
    • insertnickname 10y ago
      It will still be relevant for years to come.
• tpetricek 10y ago
  A Science of Operations by Mark Priestley (http://www.springer.com/gb/book/9781848825543 http://www.springer.com/gb/book/9781848825543) This is cheating a bit, because the book is history of computer science rather than computer science, but I think anyone interested in programming should read it. We often think about history of computing (and what it teaches us) in a retrospective way (we see all the amazing totally revolutionary things that happened), but it turns out that if you look deeper, there is often a lot more continuity behind key ideas (and we just think it was a revolution, because we only know a little about the actual history). This book goes into detail for a number of major developments in (early) programming and it makes you think about possible alternatives. It was one of the books that inspired me to write this essay: http://tomasp.net/blog/2016/thinking-unthinkable/ http://tomasp.net/blog/2016/thinking-unthinkable/
  • jhbadger 10y ago
    Along these lines, "A Life out of Sequence: A Data Driven History of Bioinformatics" (http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo16744390.html http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo1674439...) If you you work in bioinformatics it is weird how little history the average bioinformatician knows (the field only really dates back to the late 1960s). People may know things like PAM matrices, but not Margaret Dayhoff who created them (not to mention the standard amino acid codes used today).
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• spdegabrielle 10y ago
  GEB
  • kabdib 10y ago
    It's a fun read. 30+ years since I last read it, I'll have to bump it up on The Pile :-)
    • ardivekar 10y ago
      Reading GEB always makes me feel like such a philistine.
      • lllllll 10y ago
        haha, I'm reading it now - finally after many years - and I can absolutely relate to the feeling you describe. I decided that I won't be hard on myself for not understanding it all at the first read. Still quite enjoying it so far (1/3rd read). Additionally I also decided that I don't have to finish it unless I feel like ( specially considering it's 800pages).
        • pouta 10y ago
          You just read and re-read it over and over and still find something interesting
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• adamnemecek 10y ago
  I'll give you a couple. Note that some of these are rehashes of my earlier comments. # Elements of Programming https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Programming-Alexander-Stepanov/dp/032163537X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=akhn-20&linkId=c9a5aee4d1e5663b112138e6a6831e39 https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Programming-Alexander-Stepan... This book proposes how to write C++-ish code in a mathematical way that makes all your code terse. In this talk, Sean Parent, at that time working on Adobe Photoshop, estimated that the PS codebase could be reduced from 3,000,000 LOC to 30,000 LOC (=100x!!) if they followed ideas from the book https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4moyKUHApq4&t=39m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4moyKUHApq4&t=39m30s Another point of his is that the explosion of written code we are seeing isn't sustainable and that so much of this code is algorithms or data structures with overlapping functionalities. As the codebases grow, and these functionalities diverge even further, pulling the reigns in on the chaos becomes gradually impossible. Bjarne Stroustrup (aka the C++ OG) gave this book five stars on Amazon (in what is his one and only Amazon product review lol). This style might become dominant because it's only really possible in modern successors of C++ such as Swift or Rust, not so much in C++ itself. https://smile.amazon.com/review/R1MG7U1LR7FK6/ https://smile.amazon.com/review/R1MG7U1LR7FK6/ # Grammar of graphics https://www.amazon.com/Grammar-Graphics-Statistics-Computing/dp/0387245448/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1483833551&sr=8-1&keywords=grammar+of+graphics&sa-no-redirect=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=akhn-20&linkId=a24987cf311b4d463e558953a02aabeb https://www.amazon.com/Grammar-Graphics-Statistics-Computing... This book changed my perception of creativity, aesthetics and mathematics and their relationships. Fundamentally, the book provides all the diverse tools to give you confidence that your graphics are mathematically sound and visually pleasing. After reading this, Tufte just doesn't cut it anymore. It's such a weird book because it talks about topics as disparate Bayesian rule, OOP, color theory, SQL, chaotic models of time (lolwut), style-sheet language design and a bjillion other topics but always somehow all of these are very relevant. It's like if Bret Victor was a book, a tour de force of polymathical insanity. The book is in full color and it has some of the nicest looking and most instructive graphics I've ever seen even for things that I understand, such as Central Limit Theorem. It makes sense the the best graphics would be in the book written by the guy who wrote a book on how to do visualizations mathematically. The book is also interesting if you are doing any sort of UI interfaces, because UI interfaces are definitely just a subset of graphical visualizations. # Scala for Machine Learning https://www.amazon.com/Scala-Machine-Learning-Patrick-Nicolas/dp/1783558741/ref=as_li_ss_tl?sa-no-redirect=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=akhn-20&linkId=f79b946c3b993086bf6e1c6d5baba530 https://www.amazon.com/Scala-Machine-Learning-Patrick-Nicola... This book almost never gets mentioned but it's a superb intro to machine learning if you dig types, scalable back-ends or JVM. It’s the only ML book that I’ve seen that contains the word monad so if you sometimes get a hankering for some monading (esp. in the context of ML pipelines), look no further. Discusses setup of actual large scale ML pipelines using modern concurrency primitives such as actors using the Akka framework. # Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn and TensorFlow: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques for Building Intelligent Systems https://www.amazon.com/Hands-Machine-Learning-Scikit-Learn-TensorFlow/dp/1491962291/ref=as_li_ss_tl?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484524457&sr=1-4&keywords=tensorflow&linkCode=ll1&tag=akhn-20&linkId=3defd0415456891a643c1f469d3d25fc https://www.amazon.com/Hands-Machine-Learning-Scikit-Learn-T... Not released yet but I've been reading the drafts and it's a nice intro to machine learning using modern ML frameworks, TensorFlow and Scikit-Learn. # Basic Category Theory for Computer Scientists https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262660717/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=akhn-20&linkId=8c3134b0b0f77535181ab284c307e862 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262660717/ref=as_li_ss_tl... Not done with the book but despite it's age, hands down best intro to category theory if you care about it only for CS purposes as it tries to show how to apply the concepts. Very concise (~70 pages). # Markov Logic: An Interface Layer for Artificial Intelligence https://www.amazon.com/Markov-Logic-Interface-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/1598296922/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1484525312&sr=8-1&keywords=markov+logic&linkCode=ll1&tag=akhn-20&linkId=fac3a76632e543c1fc43138177ca15b1 https://www.amazon.com/Markov-Logic-Interface-Artificial-Int... Have you ever wondered what's the relationship between machine learning and logic? If so look no further. # Machine Learning: A Probabilistic Perspective (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning series) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262018020/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=akhn-20&linkId=a4d27cbb764ec79ea34ddaf4e51dcf41 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262018020/ref=as_li_ss_tl... Exhaustive overview of the entire field of machine learning. It's engaging and full of graphics. # Deep Learning https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262035618/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=akhn-20&linkId=0767299f472486a6688d7d5df831d691 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262035618/ref=as_li_ss_tl... http://www.deeplearningbook.org/ http://www.deeplearningbook.org/ You probably have heard about this whole "deep learning" meme. This book is a pretty self-contained intro into the state of the art of deep learning. # Designing for Scalability with Erlang/OTP: Implement Robust, Fault-Tolerant Systems https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Scalability-Erlang-OTP-Fault-Tolerant/dp/1449320732/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8KVM0G4T0EQR2C9XH2F9&sa-no-redirect=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=akhn-20&linkId=253570acccdf384b260c433265747d3e https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Scalability-Erlang-OTP-Faul... Even though this is an Erlang book (I don't really know Erlang), 1/3 of the book is devoted to designing scalable and robust distributed systems in a general setting which I found the book worth it on it's own. # Practical Foundations for Programming Languages https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1107150302/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=akhn-20&linkId=47e57e2ea9b3e926b5ffdc940c4f3ae7 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1107150302/ref=as_li_ss_tl... Not much to say, probably THE book on programming language theory. # A First Course in Network Theory https://www.amazon.com/First-Course-Network-Theory/dp/0198726465/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1484523709&sr=8-1&keywords=network+theory&linkCode=ll1&tag=akhn-20&linkId=22c763111aba8c33d26e931eb49964c8 https://www.amazon.com/First-Course-Network-Theory/dp/019872... Up until recently I didn't know the difference between graphs and networks. But look at me now, I still don't but at least I have a book on it.
• edko 10y ago
  Type-driven development with Idris (https://www.manning.com/books/type-driven-development-with-idris https://www.manning.com/books/type-driven-development-with-i...). It was a real eye-opener of what types can do.
  • nickpeterson 10y ago
    I've been looking at this but I don't really know Haskell (just f#). In your opinion is it worth trying before knowing a Haskell? I'm mostly interested because I wish to learn f-star as well, which also has dependent types.
    • edko 10y ago
      I don't know Haskell either, but the book starts from scratch. It can be followed with no problem.
• ninrud7 10y ago
  I agree that if you plan to stay with a cheater don't try to find any information. However, in my case I needed it in my state in order to file for a divorce and come out of the relationship. You can't just say I think courts want proof or you end up spending a lot of time and money to fight it out! Finding out was hard, but I was relieved that I wasn't crazy and it's making my divorce go a lot smoother. He would never confess; therefore, I did the best thing for me...find out, no doubt, move on!!!contact hotcyberlord@gmail.com.. or text his phone +15402277725 he's a professional and will surely help you out,tell him from Ninah
• ninrud7 10y ago
  I agree that if you plan to stay with a cheater don't try to find any information. However, in my case I needed it in my state in order to file for a divorce and come out of the relationship. You can't just say I think courts want proof or you end up spending a lot of time and money to fight it out! Finding out was hard, but I was relieved that I wasn't crazy and it's making my divorce go a lot smoother. He would never confess; therefore, I did the best thing for me...find out, no doubt, move on!!!contact hotcyberlord@gmail.com.. or text his phone +15402277725 he's a professional and will surely help you out,tell him from Ninah
• awesp 10y ago
  Write You A Scheme, Version 2. https://www.wespiser.com/writings/wyas/home.html https://www.wespiser.com/writings/wyas/home.html. A tutorial on how to write a production ready implementation of scheme using Haskell. Contributors welcome
• blain_the_train 10y ago
  > This book will help you navigate the diverse and fast-changing landscape of technologies for storing and processing data. We compare a broad variety of tools and approaches, so that you can see the strengths and weaknesses of each, and decide what’s best for your application. http://dataintensive.net/ http://dataintensive.net/
• amirbehzad 10y ago
  Book: Star Schema, The Complete Reference, by Christopher Adamson. One of the best technical books ever written. https://www.amazon.com/Schema-Complete-Reference-Christopher-Adamson/dp/0071744320 https://www.amazon.com/Schema-Complete-Reference-Christopher... Article: Thinking Clearly about Performance, Cary Millsap (Method R Corporation) http://method-r.com/papers?download=44:thinking-clearly-(paper) http://method-r.com/papers?download=44:thinking-clearly-(pap...
• rough 10y ago
  Has anyone read Probability and Computing: Randomized Algorithms and Probabilistic Analysis by Michael Mitzenmacher, Eli Upfal[0]? If so, how difficult are the exercises? Aside from doing problems I like to read solutions and analyze them to learn better style, new techniques/ideas. Are there any books like this one, but with solutions? Thanks. [0] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521835402/ref=s9_simh_gw_g14_i5_r?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=KTK543K9T7G6W2Q4YHA5&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=a6aaf593-1ba4-4f4e-bdcc-0febe090b8ed&pf_rd_i=desktop https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521835402/ref=s9_simh_gw_...
• deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
• pbhowmic 10y ago
  The Art of Multiprocessor Programming by Shavit & Herlihy. Recommend topping it off with the lecture delivered at Microsoft Research (https://youtu.be/nrUszqrlvi8 https://youtu.be/nrUszqrlvi8)
  • DearVolt 10y ago
    This is an excellent book! It was my prescribed textbook for an undergrad concurrent systems course. It's very "proofy" but explains a large amount of important concepts quite well. The book is divided into two sections: Principles and Practice. The former introduces basic terminology, concepts and common mistakes. The latter is where it gets interesting and introduces real-world problems like cache coherence traffic. The language used in the book is Java but the concepts can be applied to practically any language that supports concurrency. Highly recommended!
• jrbedard 10y ago
  Deep Learning (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning series) by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, Aaron Courville Came out in November 2016. Split in 3 parts: Part I: Applied Math and Machine Learning Basics (Linear Algebra, Probability and Information Theory, Numerical computation) Part II: Deep Networks: Modern Practices (Deep Feedforward Networks, Regularization, CNNs, RNNs, Practical Methodology & Applications) Part III: Deep Learning Research (Linear Factor Models, Autoencoders, Representation Learning, Structured Probabilistic Models, Monte Carlo Methods, Inference, Partition Function, Deep Generative Models) https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Learning-Adaptive-Computation-Machine/dp/0262035618 https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Learning-Adaptive-Computation-Ma...
  • m-i-l 10y ago
    Also available at http://www.deeplearningbook.org/ http://www.deeplearningbook.org/ .
• DubiousPusher 10y ago
  The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles by Noam Nisan and Shimon Schocken Basically it has you hands on work through the basics of every concept active in a modern computer save for networks and web. You use software tools provided with the book to design memory, ALUs, intepreters, VMs, compilers Operating Systems and applications. Available as a free online class at http://www.nand2tetris.org http://www.nand2tetris.org
  • Dangeranger 10y ago
    Working through the class on Coursera now, and it's a lot of fun. https://www.coursera.org/learn/build-a-computer https://www.coursera.org/learn/build-a-computer
    • petra 10y ago
      I wonder if, in that same spirit, it's possible to make building, together , a complex microcontroller , a fun project ?
      • Graziano_M 10y ago
        That classes basically builds a microcontroller. It's Harvard Architecture with a split iROM and dRAM. Simple ALU, 16 bit CPU. You'd need one hell of a bread board to physically build it, though.
      • Dangeranger 10y ago
        Well there is the FAP80 now. https://github.com/dekuNukem/fap80 https://github.com/dekuNukem/fap80 https://dekunukem.wordpress.com/ https://dekunukem.wordpress.com/
  • dvirsky 10y ago
    10 years in my to-read pile and going strong.
    • pestaa 10y ago
• webmaven 10y ago
  The Plausibility of Life by Kirschner & Gerhart OK, this is an oddball one, in that a book on Evo Devo is pretty far from CS, but reading it completely changed how I look at software architecture, protocols, formats, programming languages, and a whole range of other CS-related topics. Superficially, it is what it says on the tin: an examination of the mechanisms by which life manages to evolve at all, that keep most mutations from being immediately lethal, and instead have a decent chance of producing (potentially) useful variations. But under the hood, I've found it extremely interesting how and why so many aspects of the living world are resilient and even antifragile, and there is are lot of useful ideas and concepts to mine beyond relatively superficial biomimicry like genetic algorithms, neural networks, or even "design for failure" approaches for software and services. Read it, and you won't think about "Worse is Better", "Bus Numbers", or Chaos-Monkeys the same way ever again. http://yalebooks.com/book/9780300108651/plausibility-life http://yalebooks.com/book/9780300108651/plausibility-life
  • div0 10y ago
    This book influenced me tremendously. It explains how can random process (e.g. genetic mutation) builds highly non-random structures (e.g. the human eye). Recently I was using American Fuzzy Lop (http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/ http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/) to find bugs in my software, and was able to appreciate the surprising effectiveness of the "random" strategy it employs to discover structures in the program. For example, AFL could construct a valid JPEG using randomized input: https://lcamtuf.blogspot.com/2014/11/pulling-jpegs-out-of-thin-air.html https://lcamtuf.blogspot.com/2014/11/pulling-jpegs-out-of-th....
    • webmaven 10y ago
      Hey thanks for the link, that jpeg example is really quite cool. One of the things that I gained from the book was a bit better "feel" for getting the right granularity/modularity in order to facilitate evolvability (as in the chunks I might want to swap out for another implementation, while leaving others in place), as a separate concern from maintainability. BTW, I've noticed is that the "order blindly emerging from chaos" theme keeps popping up in fiction by writers like Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow, and Charles Stross (all favorites of mine).
• nextos 10y ago
  CTM. Could be labelled as SICP's sequel.
  • e12e 10y ago
    I'm assuming that's:? https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/concepts-techniques-and-models-computer-programming https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/concepts-techniques-and-model...
    • nextos 10y ago
      Yes, apologies for the acronym without definition.
  • kristianp 10y ago
    Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/concepts-techniques-and-models-computer-programming https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/concepts-techniques-and-model...
• johntran 10y ago
  The Mythical Man-Month. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month It was written 40 years ago, but it is still relevant to today. Its so important to think about how to build effective engineering teams.
  • ereyes01 10y ago
    One of the most important books ever written on software engineering practice. Author Frederick Brooks won the Turing Award for this book and for his work on IBM's System/360 (the main example project used in the book). http://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/brooks_1002187.cfm http://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/brooks_1002187.cfm
  • jhildings 10y ago
    This is one of the books I hear about every year and people always find useful and not outdated. Time for a read I guess
  • olau 10y ago
    If you read that and like it, try The Design of Design by Fred Brooks, in which he talks about on a high level how the design process works; good teachings about the flaws of the waterfall model.
  • amai 10y ago
    Another classic is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Projects_and_Teams https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Project... "It is the one thing every software manager needs to read... not just once, but once a year." (Joel Spolsky)
  • bbraasch 10y ago
    Everything I needed to know about taking on software projects. "Prepare to throw one away". The insights from reading this book years ago certainly helped me navigate project management as a rescue guy. By the time I was hired, the failing project was already part way through the experience that Brooks' book is based on, and he was writing the OS!!! He writes about the origin of the svc (supervisor call) in OS360. They needed a way to keep track of them as they were popping up from all over, so they made a list, and you added yours to it, then other groups could check the list before they wrote another version of the same function.
• Dangeranger 10y ago
  Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby (POODR) by Sandi Metz http://www.poodr.com/ http://www.poodr.com/
• ktRolster 10y ago
  Zero Bugs and Program Faster, I'd say. Here's a brief reflection: https://www.opinionatedgeek.com/Blog/2016/11/23/zero-bugs-and-program-faster-by-kate-thompson https://www.opinionatedgeek.com/Blog/2016/11/23/zero-bugs-an...
• lamchob 10y ago
  Structured Parallel Programming: Patterns for Efficient Computation by von Michael McCool, James Reinders, Arch D. Robison It introduces some important parallel patters, explains what makes them tick and how to make them efficient. The book makes a strong case for using parallel frameworks, namely TBB and Cilk+ to create general and portable solutions. There's also a set of slide available, - http://ipcc.cs.uoregon.edu/curriculum.html http://ipcc.cs.uoregon.edu/curriculum.html
• derstander 10y ago
  I haven't re-read it in its entirety, but I always enjoy picking up Sipser's "Introduction to the Theory of Computation" and reading through one or another of the chapters and playing with things in my head or on paper.
• housel 10y ago
  John Day's Patterns in Network Architecture is a highly opinionated book (by someone who was around for the development of the Internet and OSI standards), and one that provided a radically new perspective on networking and network protocols that I have found useful over the past year.
• kol 10y ago
  "The Annotated Turing" by Charles Petzold: https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Turing-Through-Historic-Computability/dp/0470229055 https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Turing-Through-Historic-Com...
  • pliftkl 10y ago
    This is one of the more fascinating books that I've read recently. The commentary makes the paper itself very accessible. I rather enjoyed the direct reproduction of the paper itself (with typos!) in the book, and the near line by line commentary at points. It's not the way that I would want to be taught about Turing machines, but it's amazing to see them articulated for the first time.
  • henrik_w 10y ago
    On my "to read" list, but haven't read it yet. However, I started watching these screencasts on Turing Machines and Lambda Calculus (examples in Python), and they are fantastic: https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts/catalog/introduction-to-computation https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts/catalog/intro... Also, I found this blog post good: "Tech Book Face Off: Gödel, Escher, Bach Vs. The Annotated Turing" http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.se/2016/01/tech-book-face-off-godel-escher-bach-vs.html http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.se/2016/01/tech-book-face-off-...
  • mindfulgeek 10y ago
    I was very happily surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.
• codesushi42 10y ago
  Good Math: A Geek's Guide to the Beauty of Numbers, Logic, and Computation https://www.amazon.com/Good-Math-Computation-Pragmatic-Programmers/dp/1937785335/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484554405&sr=8-1&keywords=good+math https://www.amazon.com/Good-Math-Computation-Pragmatic-Progr... A great review of college math and CS. The book goes over FOPL, Set theory, Turing machines and lambda calculus among other things. A fun read!
• JotForm 10y ago
  Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach is a great read!
  • signa11 10y ago
    actually, i found the "Paradigms Of AI Programming" by peter-norvig to be waay better.
• daw___ 10y ago
  Internetworking with TCP/IP by Dr. Douglas Comer.
• henrythewasp 10y ago
  Understanding Computation: From Simple Machines to Impossible Programs by Tom Stuart https://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Computation-Machines-Impossible-Programs/dp/1449329276/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Computation-Machines-... Not finished it yet, but it's a joy to read and explains fundamental concepts of things like parsers, interpreters and Lambda Calculus using minimal Ruby syntax.
• abhinav7786 10y ago
  cpp by yashwant kanetkar
• abhinav7786 10y ago
  cpp by yashwant kanetkar
• swalta 10y ago
  I recommend the MOOC and book for Nature in Code - evolutionary dynamics in Javascript https://www.edx.org/course/nature-code-biology-javascript-epflx-nic1-0x https://www.edx.org/course/nature-code-biology-javascript-ep...
• weavie 10y ago
  If you are into operating systems: The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System https://www.amazon.co.uk/Design-Implementation-FreeBSD-Operating-System/dp/0321968972 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Design-Implementation-FreeBSD-Opera...
  • cperciva 10y ago
    Seconded. After being a FreeBSD developer for a dozen years some people might expect me to know everything this book covers, but in fact I pulled it out just last month to help me understand how some details of how the VFS layer and the NFS client worked.
    • weavie 10y ago
      I would be very impressed if anyone (human) could keep that whole book in their head!
• malios 10y ago
  Leaving this comment here so I can return later.
  • curiousgal 10y ago
    You can save the story either by upvoting it or by clicking on the favorite button.
    • malios 10y ago
      Oh didn't know this. Thanks.
• jpfr 10y ago
  The source code and commentary of xv6, a simple Unix-like teaching operating system. By far the best book on operating systems I have encountered so far. https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2012/xv6.html https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2012/xv6.html (The alternative is learning PDP-11 assembler and reading the original Unix v6 sources with Lion's commentary.)
• nsm 10y ago
  Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppman. He does a great job of distilling storage systems to concepts and discussing conceptual trade offs instead of focusing on particular storage products. Plenty of footnotes to relevant research papers too.
• elorant 10y ago
  C# in depth by John Skeet. This could easily be one of the best computer related books i've ever read. The amazing thing is that is shows with code examples how the language progressed from one version to the next. I've never read anything similar in computer literature. It gave me a deep understanding of the language and all its caveats.
• simon_acca 10y ago
  Quantum Computing Since Democritus by Scott Aaronson. A brilliant MIT professor's reflections on the intersection between computer science, physics and philosophy. Here are the lecture notes and book: http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/ http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/ I also very much recommend the author's blog: http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/ http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/
  • reckoner2 10y ago
    This would be my recommendation as well. It is closer to a textbook, than say a popular science book, but is still a very fun, engaging, and at times pretty funny read. Similarly to books like GEB, it really exposed me to a whole range of fascinating ideas and topics that I am now interested in.
  • bogomipz 10y ago
    I second this, although I am not finished with it, I can say it is a very interesting read. Thanks for the link to the author's site which has lecture notes, I didn't know this existed. The lecture notes are easy going an have a good sense of humor, such as the following: "It's a shame that, after proving his Completeness Theorem, Gödel never really did anything else of note. [Pause for comic effect] " Cheers.
• rodrigocoelho 10y ago
  I read Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming by Jeffrey Richter a few years ago and felt that that's how technical books shold be written. I felt happy every time I got to read it. https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft%C2%AE-Framework-Programming-Developer-Reference/dp/0735614229 https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft%C2%AE-Framework-Programming...
• elcct 10y ago
  Modern C++ Programming with Test-Driven Development https://pragprog.com/book/lotdd/modern-c-programming-with-test-driven-development https://pragprog.com/book/lotdd/modern-c-programming-with-te... Awesome even if you don't want to do any C++
• ripitrust 10y ago
  SICP I read it twice and it is still a gem
• medgetable 10y ago
  I'd highly recommend The Phoenix Project: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0988262509/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_pxmFybEE46277 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0988262509/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_pxm... The story they've wrapped around the shift to Agile for this company was extremely entertaining and kept me coming back to read more! Plus it has some very good thought exercises to take with you to your own job :)
  • krschultz 10y ago
    I didn't love this book, it was OK. It's heavily based off The Goal, and I thought that book was a bit better. I think if you have a certain dysfunction in your team AND the mandate to fix it, then The Phoenix Project is a must read. For everyone else it's kind of a waste.
• myst 10y ago
  The C Programming Language I've been reading it for the third time and I'm still impressed by just how good the book is.
• mindcrime 10y ago
  Recently? And actually finished as opposed to skimming or working through parts of? Code by Charles Petzold. Of the ones that I haven't finished, but have at least looked at, I think I'd say: Machine Learning for Hackers by Drew Conway and John Myles White and The Master Algorithm by Pedro Domingos
• jonmb 10y ago
  Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions An interesting mix of computer science and psychology. Just started on this one recently. Highly recommended by a colleague. Seems great so far.
  • reckoner2 10y ago
    Just a head's up: for someone well versed in computer science the first two thirds of this book can be pretty dull. The majority of the time is spent explaining first year CS topics in layman's terms. After that it picked up a bit with, for example, showing how randomized algorithms can apply to types of decision making in real life. I still think it is better suited for those with little to no CS knowledge.
  • dvcc 10y ago
    I'll take the counter-point on this one. I picked it up after it was mentioned in the YC's Summer Reading List; however, I found it to be a tire to finish. The reasons and explanations given seem to touch around a technical, but not too technical approach to algorithms. Getting stuck in a place that probably just leaves both audiences a bit unhappy. For instance, there is a chapter that mentions that the optimal stopping point is ~37%. There is never any mention about how the 37% number is found. Of course, I could look it up but I could just as well look up the optimal stopping problem. Aside from that, the examples come across as contrived and inapplicable. Sure merge sorting your socks sounds great, but I still will never do it!
  • steego 10y ago
    I just finished that not long ago. It's an interesting read because it places an emphasis on the value on simple and statistically effect algorithms that can be executed by humans with relatively low cognitive overload. Many of the algorithms and ideas are familiar, but the novelty here is how one can map these CS lessons to improve performance on the human OS and human network.
• SomeStupidPoint 10y ago
  Not a book, but it's a 70 page paper that changed (substantially) the way I thought about computing systems: Non-Abelian Anyons and Topological Quantum Computation. The gist is a model of computation based on knotting the worldlines of a certain kind of particle (well, particle/anti-parricle pairs) and measuring properties of the knots/links. It's also the theory behind Microsoft's effort to build a quantum computer. Highly recommend at least reading the non-technical sections (ie, everything but section 3 and appendix A). Copy of paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/0707.1889 https://arxiv.org/abs/0707.1889
• ardivekar 10y ago
  I really like Introduction To Statistical Learning with Applications in R, by Daniela Witten, Gareth James, Robert Tibshirani, and Trevor Hastie. It's the easiest book I've found to get into machine learning without any formal statistics training.
  • rcavezza 10y ago
    And it's free online http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/ISLR%20First%20Printing.pdf http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/ISLR%20First%20Printing.p...
• henrik_w 10y ago
  The Effective Engineer by Edmond Lau. Not CS, more SW dev, but it is fairly new and I thought it was very good: https://henrikwarne.com/2017/01/15/book-review-the-effective-engineer/ https://henrikwarne.com/2017/01/15/book-review-the-effective...
  • muralimadhu 10y ago
    Second this. Much newer than some of the other books listed here, but a great read nevertheless
  • TheCowboy 10y ago
    I only had a chance to read part of the book (around the first 25% at most), but I found a lot of the ideas to be applicable to all forms of work. The ideas were well-explained and didn't require a software background. I intend to pick up a copy when I have the cashflow for it.
• letientai299 10y ago
  Programming in Scala by Martin Odersky, Lex Spoon, and Bill Venners. Beside a good introduction into Scala, that book also teach me the principles in computer programing. It's worth read again several times.
• amai 10y ago
  I'm not sure if that counts as computer science book, but this book was a pleasant surprise: Butcher: Seven Concurrency Models in Seven Weeks
• progrocks9 10y ago
  The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond. It's inspiring for embrace Open Source collaboration and also very useful for manage projects. In Guy Kawasaki's quote "The most important book about technology today, with implications that go far beyond programming"
  • vram22 10y ago
    >The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond Had reddit :) That reminds me about the book: Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution: http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/opensources/book/ http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/opensources/book/ It is free to read at the above link. I had read many of the chapters some years ago. Pretty interesting stuff. It consists of multiple chapters, each written by different well-known people associated with prominent projects from the open source movement, at a time when it was relatively new (1999). The paragraphs that I remember the most from it are from this chapter: Future of Cygnus Solutions An Entrepreneur's Account Michael Tiemann (Cygnus Solutions was a company which initially ported and improved GCC and its toolchain to multiple Unix platforms, and made a business out of it, before open source was a gleam in many people's eyes. They did well and were acquired by Red Hat some years later.) Here are the paragraphs: [ Again, a quote from the GNU Manifesto: There is nothing wrong with wanting pay for work, or seeking to maximize one's income, as long as one does not use means that are destructive. But the means customary in the field of software today are based on destruction. Extracting money from users of a program by restricting their use of it is destructive because the restrictions reduce the amount and the ways that the program can be used. This reduces the amount of wealth that humanity derives from the program. When there is a deliberate choice to restrict, the harmful consequences are deliberate destruction. The reason a good citizen does not use such destructive means to become wealthier is that, if everyone did so, we would all become poorer from the mutual destructiveness. Heavy stuff, but the GNU Manifesto is ultimately a rational document. It dissects the nature of software, the nature of programming, the great tradition of academic learning, and concludes that regardless of the monetary consequences, there are ethical and moral imperatives to freely share information that was freely shared with you. I reached a different conclusion, one which Stallman and I have often argued, which was that the freedom to use, distribute, and modify software will prevail against any model that attempts to limit that freedom. It will prevail not for ethical reasons, but for competitive, market-driven reasons. At first I tried to make my argument the way that Stallman made his: on the merits. I would explain how freedom to share would lead to greater innovation at lower cost, greater economies of scale through more open standards, etc., and people would universally respond "It's a great idea, but it will never work, because nobody is going to pay money for free software." After two years of polishing my rhetoric, refining my arguments, and delivering my messages to people who paid for me to fly all over the world, I never got farther than "It's a great idea, but . . .," when I had my second insight: if everybody thinks it's a great idea, it probably is, and if nobody thinks it will work, I'll have no competition! -F = -ma Isaac Newton You'll never see a physics textbook introduce Newton's law in this way, but mathematically speaking, it is just as valid as "F = ma". The point of this observation is that if you are careful about what assumptions you turn upside down, you can maintain the validity of your equations, though your result may look surprising. I believed that the model of providing commercial support for open-source software was something that looked impossible because people were so excited about the minus signs that they forgot to count and cancel them. An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo There was one final (and deeply hypothetical) question I had to answer before I was ready to drop out of the Ph.D. program at Stanford and start a company. Suppose that instead of being nearly broke, I had enough money to buy out any proprietary technology for the purposes of creating a business around that technology. I thought about Sun's technology. I thought about Digital's technology. I thought about other technology that I knew about. How long did I think I could make that business successful before somebody else who built their business around GNU would wipe me out? Would I even be able to recover my initial investment? When I realized how unattractive the position to compete with open-source software was, I knew it was an idea whose time had come. The difference between theory and practice tends to be very small in theory, but in practice it is very large indeed. Anonymous In this section, I will detail the theory behind the Open Source business model, and ways in which we attempted to make this theory practical. We begin with a few famous observations: ] And here is the full chapter by Tiemann: http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/opensources/book/tiemans.html http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/opensources/book/tiemans.htm...
• evbacher 10y ago
  D is for Digital: What a well-informed person should know about computers and communications, by Brian Kernighan.
• chris_wot 10y ago
  I'm reading Type Inheritance & Relational Theory by C.J. Date.
• oever 10y ago
  "Semantic web for the working ontologist" by Dean Allemang and Jim Hendler. A very clear book that learns you to think about integrating data semantically. Make sure to by the second (or later) edition. http://workingontologist.org/ http://workingontologist.org/
• devenvdev 10y ago
  I was surprised that no one mentioned this one: http://ricardogeek.com/docs/clean_code.pdf http://ricardogeek.com/docs/clean_code.pdf Robert C. Martin - Clean Code
  • grzm 10y ago
    Please don't post links to illegal downloads. Flagged.
    • tu7001 10y ago
      What is illegal download?
      • grzm 10y ago
        From the linked material: Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. I see no indication that the site is affiliated with Pearson or Bob Martin or that they have permission to redistribute the PDF. It's much more likely they're hosting it without permission, and therefore illegally.
• coverclock 10y ago
  It's very rare for me to read a technical book cover to cover. I recently read IPv6 FUNDAMENTALS by Graziani (Cisco), but that was more an act of desperation. The best CS-related book I've ever read was probably MEASURING AND MANAGING PERFORMANCE IN ORGANIZATIONS by Robert Austin. It completely changed the way I see the world, both professional and personally. Austin uses agency theory, an application of game theory, to show how incentives in an information economy drive dysfunction into organizations because not all metrics of behavior can be adequately or economically measured. This is extremely applicable to, for example, incentive programs in high tech organizations. At the time he wrote it, Austin was working on his Ph.D. in (I dimly recall) operations research at Carnegie Mellon while working as an executive in IT for Ford Motor Company Europe. Now he's on the tenured faculty at Harvard Business School.
• nialv7 10y ago
  Introduction to the Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser. Constructing Turing Machines is real fun.
• pcvarmint 10y ago
  Not new, but How To Solve It: Modern Heuristics by Michalewicz & Fogel, is a classic.
• tu7001 10y ago
  http://interactivepython.org/runestone/static/pythonds/index.html http://interactivepython.org/runestone/static/pythonds/index..., truly great read, especially if one learning python.
• jakub_g 10y ago
  High Performance Browser Networking by Ilya Grigorik Available also online for free at https://hpbn.co/ https://hpbn.co/ Lots of great insights about how TCP/IP, 3G etc work and how it affects the performance of websites
• samirm 10y ago
  Network Security Through Data Analysis http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028444.do http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028444.do
• nojvek 10y ago
  What if - by Randall Monroe. It's not a computer science book but has lots of great questions and answers to what if questions. He answers with pretty pictures and funny explanations. I learnt a lot about what I don't know Being able to do rough math off the head, thinking critically and out of the box. Also the book smells good. Most of the time I read certain books because they smell good.