10 ms·

I highly recommend reading the book “Where Wizards Stay Up Late”, which covers much of the history that this article touches upon. Great book. https://www.amaz

by kuhhk 8y ago

I highly recommend reading the book “Where Wizards Stay Up Late”, which covers much of the history that this article touches upon. Great book. https://www.amazon.com/Where-Wizards-Stay-Up-Late/dp/0684832674 https://www.amazon.com/Where-Wizards-Stay-Up-Late/dp/0684832...

teh_klev 8y ago
In addition I'd also recommend "Casting the Net" by Peter H Salus: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Casting-Net-ARPANET-INTERNET-Systems/dp/0201876744/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Casting-Net-ARPANET-INTERNET-System... I have both books (each now over 20 years old), but I think "Casting the Net" is a slightly more rigorous and somewhat less "journalisty" history with a better collection of diagrams and scribbles by the key figures involved.
- dangoldin 8y ago
  And don't forget "The Dream Machine" (https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Machine-Licklider-Revolution-Computing/dp/0670899763 https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Machine-Licklider-Revolution-Co...). It's not solely about the internet but does an awesome job covering the rise of the PC industry and the launch of the internet.
  - m-app 8y ago
    I'm just about finishing the Stripe Press re-release. It's an amazing collection of stories in a beautiful book. Can highly recommend it.
newnewpdro 8y ago
This book is mediocre at best, first time I had trouble getting past the first half of a book in ages.
- ghaff 8y ago
  If you're going to be that critical of something, you should probably offer some reasons. Personally, I've read the book and remember it as being a decent history if not a particular page turner.
  - newnewpdro 8y ago
    The pages dragged on and on, it could have been half the length it was and lost nothing of value. I find the topic interesting and was looking forward to reading this book based on other HN comments, but it was not written in a way that I find engaging at all. Edit: the intention of my comment is to prevent another user like myself from being disappointed if they have better things to read. Reading is a time-consuming process, I'm rather annoyed when I bother to read a book that leaves me feeling like I've wasted a significant amount of time with little to show for it. Based on another comment here, I'd recommend giving Casting the Net a read instead.
    - FPGAhacker 8y ago
      With regards to your edit, I feel the same way.
    - chiefalchemist 8y ago
      On one hand, I hear you and agree. On the other hand, 95% of the non-fiction I read usually feels like it could be half as long. Yeah. You're wasting half your time. But the question always remains: which half? ;)
      - ghaff 8y ago
        Some of it is economics. You can't really publish a standard book that's less than 200-300 pages. It's also the case that a lot of "filler" does add to the readability and general intellectual heft of a book; the reader's digest form really wouldn't have as big an impact.
        njarboe 8y ago
ddoran 8y ago
Looks great,I am about to order. From the intro on Amazon: "Twenty-five years ago, it didn't exist. Today <1998!> 20 million people worldwide are surfing the Net."
pacificmint 8y ago
It's been years since I read that book, but the one thing that surprised me the most was how much the phone companies didn't believe in packet switching. They thought anything that wasn't connection oriented was nonsense. The internet basically grew in spite of the established telcos, not thru them. Around the same time as the book, Wired had an article "Netheads vs Bellheads" [1] which covers the same tension. It's interesting to read an article from a time when it was accepted knowledge that ATM was the future of the internet, and it was newsworthy that a few heretics thought otherwise. [1] https://www.wired.com/1996/10/atm-3/ https://www.wired.com/1996/10/atm-3/
- emmelaich 8y ago
  For those wondering what a reference to an "IPhone" is doing in a story from 1996 -- it's referring to the Infogear/Cisco/Linksys IPhone; a VOIP product. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_iPhone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_iPhone
- myself248 8y ago
  > phone companies didn't believe in packet switching. Sure didn't. It's a terrible way to treat voice calls, and as far as the phone company was concerned, voice was the only thing. Data could ride a voice-grade connection just fine, but voice suffered badly when "statistically multiplexed", a term used (oft derisively) to refer to packetization. This is still true, by the way. Radio studios still use ISDN links to other studios, because they have fixed latency and incredibly low jitter. Customers have gotten used to the latency of digital mobile phones, but some of us still remember the truly simultaneous conversation of a landline or analog cellphone. (I remember the rollout of digital, and the... and the con.... go ahead.... no, you go ahead... okay, the confusion as people were just learning to converse with a delay on the line.) It just turned out that cheaper capacity was more important. ATM was always a dead-end, though. I think a lot of people knew that even as it was being deployed. If you're packetizing anyway, you might as well throw QoS right out the window and embrace nondeterminism wholeheartedly. It's cheaper, and that writing was already on the wall. Quality had been the mantra for the first hundred years of the Bell system, but deregulation and competition allowed the almighty dollar to prevail over every other concern. Enjoy the jitter!
0898 8y ago
Lovely description: "Twenty five years ago, it didn't exist. Today, twenty million people worldwide are surfing the Net".

by kuhhk 8y ago

teh_klev 8y ago

In addition I'd also recommend "Casting the Net" by Peter H Salus: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Casting-Net-ARPANET-INTERNET-Systems/dp/0201876744/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Casting-Net-ARPANET-INTERNET-System... I have both books (each now over 20 years old), but I think "Casting the Net" is a slightly more rigorous and somewhat less "journalisty" history with a better collection of diagrams and scribbles by the key figures involved.

dangoldin 8y ago
And don't forget "The Dream Machine" (https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Machine-Licklider-Revolution-Computing/dp/0670899763 https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Machine-Licklider-Revolution-Co...). It's not solely about the internet but does an awesome job covering the rise of the PC industry and the launch of the internet.
- m-app 8y ago
  I'm just about finishing the Stripe Press re-release. It's an amazing collection of stories in a beautiful book. Can highly recommend it.

newnewpdro 8y ago

This book is mediocre at best, first time I had trouble getting past the first half of a book in ages.

ghaff 8y ago
If you're going to be that critical of something, you should probably offer some reasons. Personally, I've read the book and remember it as being a decent history if not a particular page turner.
- newnewpdro 8y ago
  The pages dragged on and on, it could have been half the length it was and lost nothing of value. I find the topic interesting and was looking forward to reading this book based on other HN comments, but it was not written in a way that I find engaging at all. Edit: the intention of my comment is to prevent another user like myself from being disappointed if they have better things to read. Reading is a time-consuming process, I'm rather annoyed when I bother to read a book that leaves me feeling like I've wasted a significant amount of time with little to show for it. Based on another comment here, I'd recommend giving Casting the Net a read instead.
  - FPGAhacker 8y ago
    With regards to your edit, I feel the same way.
  - chiefalchemist 8y ago
    On one hand, I hear you and agree. On the other hand, 95% of the non-fiction I read usually feels like it could be half as long. Yeah. You're wasting half your time. But the question always remains: which half? ;)
    - ghaff 8y ago
      Some of it is economics. You can't really publish a standard book that's less than 200-300 pages. It's also the case that a lot of "filler" does add to the readability and general intellectual heft of a book; the reader's digest form really wouldn't have as big an impact.
      - njarboe 8y ago

ddoran 8y ago

Looks great,I am about to order. From the intro on Amazon: "Twenty-five years ago, it didn't exist. Today <1998!> 20 million people worldwide are surfing the Net."

pacificmint 8y ago

It's been years since I read that book, but the one thing that surprised me the most was how much the phone companies didn't believe in packet switching. They thought anything that wasn't connection oriented was nonsense. The internet basically grew in spite of the established telcos, not thru them. Around the same time as the book, Wired had an article "Netheads vs Bellheads" [1] which covers the same tension. It's interesting to read an article from a time when it was accepted knowledge that ATM was the future of the internet, and it was newsworthy that a few heretics thought otherwise. [1] https://www.wired.com/1996/10/atm-3/ https://www.wired.com/1996/10/atm-3/

emmelaich 8y ago
For those wondering what a reference to an "IPhone" is doing in a story from 1996 -- it's referring to the Infogear/Cisco/Linksys IPhone; a VOIP product. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_iPhone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_iPhone
myself248 8y ago
> phone companies didn't believe in packet switching. Sure didn't. It's a terrible way to treat voice calls, and as far as the phone company was concerned, voice was the only thing. Data could ride a voice-grade connection just fine, but voice suffered badly when "statistically multiplexed", a term used (oft derisively) to refer to packetization. This is still true, by the way. Radio studios still use ISDN links to other studios, because they have fixed latency and incredibly low jitter. Customers have gotten used to the latency of digital mobile phones, but some of us still remember the truly simultaneous conversation of a landline or analog cellphone. (I remember the rollout of digital, and the... and the con.... go ahead.... no, you go ahead... okay, the confusion as people were just learning to converse with a delay on the line.) It just turned out that cheaper capacity was more important. ATM was always a dead-end, though. I think a lot of people knew that even as it was being deployed. If you're packetizing anyway, you might as well throw QoS right out the window and embrace nondeterminism wholeheartedly. It's cheaper, and that writing was already on the wall. Quality had been the mantra for the first hundred years of the Bell system, but deregulation and competition allowed the almighty dollar to prevail over every other concern. Enjoy the jitter!

0898 8y ago

Lovely description: "Twenty five years ago, it didn't exist. Today, twenty million people worldwide are surfing the Net".