I think it was Hugh who recommended this book. I’m greatful as it was an excellent read and definitely didn’t make me duck over to eBay to buy an Intel 4004 chip set to play with. The book uses the backdrop of our current struggles to retain supremacy in high tech manufacturing versus an ambitious…
Tag: computing_history
Cult of the Dead Cow
A very readable history of the early US hacking scene, including the roots of Def Con and Blackhat security conferences. The book is filled with a cast of characters many of whose names and exploits I recognize — although I’ve only met one or two in person. The book is definitely US-centric in it’s coverage…
Unix: a history and a memoir
It was a bit surprising to me that Brian Kernighan self-published a book about Unix history with Kindle Direct publishing, but given how many other books he’s published he must have his reasons for not using traditional channels for this one. The book is an engaging read, with quotes which still seem timely today popping…
The Mythical Man-Month
I expect everyone (well, almost everyone) involved in some way in software engineering has heard of this book. I decided that it was time to finally read it, largely prompted by this excellent blog post by apenwarr which discusses second systems effect among other things. Now, you can buy this book for a surprisingly large…