4 ms·
On a tangent - if you didn't like the Isaacson biography (it's pretty ... lacking ... isn't it?) and you haven't read the stuff on http://www.folklore.org http:
by hoggle 12y ago
On a tangent - if you didn't like the Isaacson biography (it's pretty ... lacking ... isn't it?) and you haven't read the stuff on http://www.folklore.org http://www.folklore.org or the book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_in_The_Valley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_in_The_Valley - go do it, it's intelligently written first hand anecdotes from the beginning of the 80s at Apple.
Let's read up on history - Dan Bricklin certainly has wet my appetite for a book on Digital (even as a Unix guy ;) as well as the origins of VisiCalc and "spreadsheet" programs respectively (IMHO the closest tools non-programmers have to achieve programmer like powers and problem solving satisfaction).
- walterbell 12y agoA few books on computer / computing / internet history: 1953, Faster Than Thought, B.V. Bowden (British 1940s & 50s) https://archive.org/details/FasterThanThought https://archive.org/details/FasterThanThought 1984, The Home Computer Wars (Commodore, Atari, Apple) https://archive.org/details/The_Home_Computer_Wars https://archive.org/details/The_Home_Computer_Wars http://www.amazon.com/The-Home-Computer-Wars-Commodore/dp/0942386752 http://www.amazon.com/The-Home-Computer-Wars-Commodore/dp/09... 1985, History of Computing Technology, Michael Williams (Abacus to IBM360) http://www.amazon.com/History-Computing-Technology-2nd-Edition/dp/0818677392 http://www.amazon.com/History-Computing-Technology-2nd-Editi... 1985, The Great Telecom Meltdown, Fred Goldstein (USA deregulation) http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/TELECOM_Digest_Online2005-1/3458.html http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/TELECOM_Digest_On... 2001, The Universal History of Computing, Georges Ifrah (Egypt to 1970s) http://www.amazon.com/The-Universal-History-Computing-Computer/dp/0471441473 http://www.amazon.com/The-Universal-History-Computing-Comput... 2002, Electronic Brains (UK, US & Ukraine soon after WWII) http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/electronicbrains.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/electronicbrains.shtml http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Brains-Stories-Dawn-Computer/dp/0309096308 http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Brains-Stories-Dawn-Compute... 2008, Geeks Bearing Gifts, Ted Nelson (rants & factoids) http://www.amazon.com/Geeks-Bearing-Gifts-Ted-Nelson/dp/0578004380/ http://www.amazon.com/Geeks-Bearing-Gifts-Ted-Nelson/dp/0578... 2010, Commodore, A Company on the Edge, Brian Bagnall (war stories from 6502 through C64, no Amiga) http://retroasylum.com/commodore-a-company-on-the-edge-review/ http://retroasylum.com/commodore-a-company-on-the-edge-revie... http://www.amazon.com/Commodore-Company-Edge-Brian-Bagnall/dp/0973864966 http://www.amazon.com/Commodore-Company-Edge-Brian-Bagnall/d... 2011, The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945–1976, John Harwood http://www.west86th.bgc.bard.edu/book-reviews/interface-ibm.html http://www.west86th.bgc.bard.edu/book-reviews/interface-ibm....
- hoggle 12y agoThanks for that list - to add to it some lighter, at-the-beach reading as well: 1989, The Cuckoo's Egg (a lot of 80s Unix/Vax anecdotes as well as a great story and lots of good-old hippie culture :) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18154.The_Cuckoo_s_Egg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18154.The_Cuckoo_s_Egg 1996, Accidental Empires (a little frivolous but an enjoyable read nonetheless, focuses on beginnings of MS and Apple) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27652.Accidental_Empires http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27652.Accidental_Empires 1992, Game Over (Nintendo and video game history mostly 80s) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/339584.Game_Over_Press_Start_to_Continue http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/339584.Game_Over_Press_St... 2014, Console Wars (Sega and the video game / computer industry of the 80s and early 90s - somewhat of an answer to "Game Over") http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18505802-console-wars http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18505802-console-wars Less people in this book but it's about computer history, right? Fascinating read, I didn't "finish" it yet - still great to dive into the book now and then: 2010, The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7754526-the-apollo-guidance-computer http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7754526-the-apollo-guidan... --- ~OT: The last book really makes me want to see Notch's 0x10c come to live again as you would have been able to program your own fully emulated ship computer in that game, unfortunately it got canceled. I'm hoping some future No Man's Sky mod will be going in that direction! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0x10c#Gameplay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0x10c#Gameplay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Man%27s_Sky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Man%27s_Sky
- hga 12y agoThe Home Computer Wars is excellent, great insight into Tramiel, his various experiences prior, and how he made Commodore so successful during that period. At this level in this subtree, hoggle's recommendations of Accidental Empires is strong endorsed, if for no other reason than the anecdote about how Intel, by then a very big company in revenues, possibly Fortune 500, was almost killed by a single well intentioned low level employee. Emphasizes how much more fragile tech companies are than old fashioned Fortune 500 companies. The Cuckoo's Egg is a fantastic story in and of itself, about how a starving astrophysics grad student given a temporary sysadmin job went from a less than $1 accounting discrepancy to nailing down a KGB plot. One of the more interesting things is how the always publicity oriented FBI (best known way back when for bank robberies and kidnappings, infamous but easy to solve crimes), under who's remit this sort of counterintelligence was/is, wouldn't give the author the time of day (it didn't meet their $100K lost threshold). His best government contact was a delightfully colorful CIA guy (you'll love his snail mail address), who could only supply advice and connections.
- cafard 12y agoIf Digital means Digital Equipment Corporation, there was a biography of Ken Olsen that came out years ago, The Ultimate Entrepreneur. (I've never read it.) There is a badly formatted interview with Gordon Bell at http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/bell.htm http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/bell.htm, which has a lot about DEC in it.
- hoggle 12y agoDEC, yes :) the book looks very intriguing, much appreciated!
- hga 12y agoIf I remember correctly, this book not only goes into technical details (skim the TOC in the Internet Archive's copy), but included higher level stuff, particularly a superb and universally useful insight into what distinguished the successful '70s minicomputer vendors: they all did an adequate job of everything essential, from hardware to documentation. E.g. I don't think anyone every bought a DEC computer for the quality and/or price/performance of their disk drives (the RK-05 might be an exception), but their disk offerings were at least adequate (modulo a few goofs when they made their own, long after this book was published). Computer Engineering: A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design by C. Gordon Bell, J. Craig Mudge, John E. McNamara, and Kenneth H. Olson (If you're not familiar with the first and last authors, your study of DEC history should fill you in, as cafard notes elsewhere in this thread.) http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Engineering-Hardware-Systems-Design/dp/0932376002/ http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Engineering-Hardware-Systems-... https://archive.org/details/ComputerEngineeringADecViewOfHardwareSystemsDesign https://archive.org/details/ComputerEngineeringADecViewOfHar...
- hoggle 12y agoGreat stuff, thanks a lot!