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May I suggest Hackers by Steven Levy [0]. It was a phenomenal and inspirational read for me. Having born during the turn of the century, I'd missed the evolutio
by myth_buster 12y ago
May I suggest Hackers by Steven Levy [0]. It was a phenomenal and inspirational read for me. Having born during the turn of the century, I'd missed the evolution of computers and programming. This book helped me fill that gap.
Incidentally, Hackers was what I read after I read Masters of Doom. Here's a quote from Masters of Doom:
"
Overnight, it seemed, Carmack was in a strange house, with a strange family and going to a strange school, a junior high with no gifted program or computer’s. He’d never felt so alone. Then one day he realized he wasn’t. The book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution was a revelation.
"
Edit:
Donald Knuth heartily recommends it too[1].
[0] http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Anniversary-Edition/dp/1449388396 http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Anniversar...
[1] http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/retd.html http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/retd.html
- archagon 12y agoI wish there was an audiobook for this! The only one I could find was made using speech synthesis.
- RunningWild 12y agoThere is, read by Whil Wheaton. Whether the 2nd part is good or bad, is another matter : http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/B008KGXM6A http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Cultu...
- archagon 12y agoOh yeah, sorry, I meant Hackers. The Masters of Doom audiobook was really good!
- fossuser 12y agoI thought Hackers was great - you might also like two other of Levy's books: In the Plex (which follows Google's history) and Crypto (which is especially relevant today). Some people find his style dry, but I've found it direct and really interesting (probably because I'm already interested in the material anyway).
- myth_buster 12y agoThanks, will check them out. I too like that he doesn't spice things up to read like a novel and a bit less hand waving when it comes to technicals.
- leoc 12y agoCrypto is even better than Hackers, I think. I think Google was expecting In the Plex to valorise its subject as much as Hackers or his Macintosh book Insanely Great (Levy is an old-fashioned Mac loyalist) did theirs, but Levy seems to have come away with a visceral distrust of Google.
- steven 12y agoThanks! Now that I know that my book opened Carmack's mind, I can take credit for Doom and even some stuff in Oculus Rift!