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All books are first editions,
first printings, cloth bound unless otherwise stated.
Bailey, James. After
Thought: The Computer Challenge to Human Intelligence. New York;
Harper Collins, 1996.
I included this because Bailey brings up a good point: we should
base future computer design on how advanced circuits work and not
on how our brain functions if we want the best computers. Designs
based on human intelligence may be lacking.
Brockman, John. Digerati:
Encounters with the Cyber Elite. San Francisco, Hardwired, 1996
Interviews with some "big thinkers" and "pioneers"
in the Internet.
Ceruzzi, Paul E. A
History of Modern Computing. Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press, 1998
A straightforward and comprehensive account of the electronic digital
computer's first five decades. Good stuff.
Crandall, Richard and
Levich, Marvin. A Network Orange: Logic and Responsibility
in the Computer Age. New York; Springer-Verlag, 1998
A Network Orange provides a compelling argument that the
emergence of computers as an elemental force in our modern society
must be viewed with a skeptical--and sometimes negative--eye. Crandall
and Levich, one a mathematician and a scientist, the other a philosopher
and proponent of the liberal arts, present a balanced viewpoint
of both sides of this phenomenon.
Creiner, Daniel. AI:
The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence.
New York; Basic Books, 1993.
While being technical in some parts this is a very good book on
the people in this search.
Cringley, Robert X. Accidental
Empires; How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle
Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date. Reading, Mass;
Addison-Wesley, 1992
This is the book that started it all for me. A very readable history
of the microcomputer. If Gary Kindal had been home, he might have
been the richest person in the world. This was the basis for a PBS
show, "Triumph of the Nerds".
Davis, Eric. Techgnosis:
Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information. New York;
Harmony Books, 1998
Can information be more important than itself? The myth of "information
overload" can also be called a belief if you give information
too much importance. At what point do we surrender ourselves to
information?
Denning, Peter J. and
Metcalfe, Robert M. Beyond Calculation: The Next Fifty Years
of Computing. New York; Copernicus, 1997
If anyone had a good crystal ball, these two do. Metcalfe especially
has always been in on the next big thing. (Currently he's working
on healthcare and the web.) Now that we have the power in computing
to go beyond the binary, what do we do with it?
Dertouzos, Michael. What
Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives.
New York; Harper Collins, 1997
Head of the Computer Science Department at MIT, Dertouzos looks
into his crystal ball. Pay close attention to the future of the
book.
Dery, Mark. Escape
Velocity: Cyber Culture at the End of the Century. New York;
Grove Press, 1996
Are we destined to talk with Alice in Australia and get to know
everything about her while not knowing the name of the person sitting
at the computer next to us? This writer thinks so.
Dibbell, Julian. My
Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York; Henry
Holt, 1998
Only published in quality paperback.
The writer describes the experience of living in a make-believe
world in cyberspace and how much fun it can be until someone kills
your make-believe self.
Dyson, Esther. Release
2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age. New York; Broadway
Books, 1997
Dyson is one of the "big thinkers" of the Internet. Her
thoughts on what do with it are included. I believe she is currently
working on getting Eastern Europe online.
Freedman, David H. and
Mann, Charles, C. At Large: The Strange Case of the World's Biggest
Internet Invasion. New York; Simon & Schuster, 1997
I am not going to spoil this book for you by describing it any further.
You know enough already. If you buy the book and read it and don't
like it, I will give you twice what you paid for it.
Gates, Bill. The Road
Ahead. New York; Penguin, 1995
Companion interactive CD-ROM unopened.
The head of Microsoft gives his look into the crystal ball. He seems
to need it polished since he missed the coming of the World Wide
Web. In the paperback version, he makes up for this to his credit.
Gilster, Paul. Digital
Literacy. New York; John Wiley & Sons, 1997.
Advanced Readers Copy. Quality Paperback.
Digital literacy is defined as "a way of reading and understanding
information that differs from what we do when we sit down to read
a book or a newspaper." The book's goal is to provide a means
of understanding the information we receive on our computers. After
all, we're living in an era in which "if you can think it,
it can be digitized."
Grove, Andrew S. Only
the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points that Challenge
Every Company and Career. New York; Doubleday, 1996
The head of Intel gives tips on how to be the best.
Guisnel, Jean. Cyberwars:
Espionage on the Internet. New York; Plenum Press, 1997
A good summary of what is happening on the Internet concerning terrorism
of all kinds. As firewalls get better, so do the hackers.
Hills, Daniel. The
Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work.
New York; Basic Books, 1998
How computers simply work, simply put. Once we understand this,
we better understand our relationships with computers.
Hiltzik, Michael. Dealers
of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age. New
York; Harper Collins, 1999
These are the men and women who did it all. From the invention of
the mouse to the GUI (Graphic User Interface), to object-oriented
programming. If Xerox had paid attention to them Bill Gates wouldn't
be the richest man in the world. When Apple sued Microsoft over
the look and feel of Windows, Microsoft's defense was Apple stole
from Xerox PARC, which was true.
Horn, Stacy. Cyberville:
Clicks, Culture, and Creation of an Online Town. New York; Warner
Books, 1998
How communities are created online. They are not like East Lansing.
Hudson, David. Rewired:
A Brief (and Opinionated) Net History. Indianapolis; Macmillan
Technical Publishing, 1997
Hudson talks to some of the key players in the founding of the Internet
who really hate how commercial things seem to be now.
Huff, Chuck, and Finholt,
Thomas. Social Issues in Computing: Putting Computing in its
Place. New York; McGraw-Hill, 1994
A textbook which attempts to keep us from staring at computer screens
all day. Written before the Web was popular it is now outdated,
but historically fun to look at.
Kaufmann, William J.
III, and Smarr, Larry L. Supercomputing & the Transformation
of Science. New York; Scientific American Library, 1993
Basically, where were at in 1993 and how computers where changing
the way science was researched.
Kidder, Tracy. The
Soul of a New Machine. Boston; Atlantic Monthly Press, 1981
First edition, fourth printing. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and
the American Book Award. Tracy Kidder recounts the feverish efforts
of a team of Data General researchers to create a new 32-bit super-minicomputer.
A compelling account of individual sacrifice and human ingenuity.
Kurzweil, Ray. The
Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence.
New York; Viking, 1999
Imagine in 20 years, after the human genome is completely uncovered,
and we have the ability to map the human brain with better imaging
devices. Once the brain is mapped at a subatomic level, can it be
recreated in a machine? Some people think so. And what happens when
these computers with my brain links with your computer brain? Will
I ever forget your name? If I store my brain on a disk, will by
great-great grandkids get to see my memories on a video screen?
What happens to us when we no longer have any secrets?
Leonard, Andrew. Bots:
The Origin of a New Species. San Francisco; Hardwired, 1997
A bot is a program that can go out on the Internet and collect information
for you while you are doing something else. But that is just one
of the things these wonderfully intelligent software programs can
do for you.
Littman, Jonathan. The
Watchman: The Twisted Life and Crimes of Serial Hacker Kevin Poulsen.
Boston; Little, Brown & Co., 1997
Sometimes a computer can be used for good, sometimes for evil. Mr.
Poulsen comes off as just confused.
McCartney, Scott. Eniac:
The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer. New
York; Walker and Co., 1999
McCartney not only deals with the technical aspects of the Eniac
but also the legal hassles of getting the machine recognized as
the first. Really a story of the people involved more than the machine
itself.
Moody, Fred. I Sing
the Body Electric: A Year with Microsoft on the Multimedia Frontier.
New York; Viking, 1995
Microsoft was big on CD-ROMs in the early to mid 1990's. They thought
all information would be transmitted on these disks. This is the
story of how they attempted to corner the market on this. Unfortunately
for Microsoft, the World Wide Web is how most computer users get
information today, but this is a very good look at what might have
been.
Murray, Charles J. The
Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind
the Supercomputer. New York; John Wiley & Sons, 1997
Basically the story of how they did it. Don't try this at home with
some brains on your side.
Negroponte, Nicholas.
Being Digital. New York; Borzoi, 1995
Negroponte's text is mostly a history of media technology rather
than a set of predictions for future technologies. In the beginning,
he describes the evolution of CD-ROMs, multimedia, hypermedia, HDTV
(high-definition television), and more. The section on interfaces
is informative, offering an up-to-date history on visual interfaces,
graphics, virtual reality (VR), holograms, teleconferencing hardware,
the mouse and touch-sensitive interfaces, and speech recognition.
Granted, he was one of founders of MIT's Media Lab, so the book
relies heavily on hardware. In the last chapter he warns of going
too far but in 2000, we are already past the point he didn't think
we'd reach until 2020.
Norman, Donald A. The
Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, The Personal Computer
is so Complex, and Information Appliances are the Solution.
Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press, 1998
I was hoping this would deal with how nanotechnology affects our
lives but instead this work deals mainly with how "thinking
toasters" will change our lives and let corporations communicate
with their products in the markets place, and possibly repair or
improve them without the consumer coming back to the point of purchase.
Quittner, Joshua, and
Slatalla, Michelle. Speeding the Net: The Inside Story of Netscape
and How it Challenged Microsoft. New York; Atlantic Monthly
Press, 1998
Written before AOL and Netscape merged, this book tells the tale
of how Netscape took advantage of Microsoft's missing the "web
thing" and built a business big enough to get the Justice Dept.
involved.
Reid, Robert H. Architects
of the Web: 1000 Days that Built the Future of Business. New
York; John Wiley & Sons, 1997
Story of the some of the people there at the beginning of the commercialization
of the Web. Pay stick attention to the part about Yahoo if you don't
think N.B. Forrest was right when he said, "He who gets there
firstest with the mostest wins."
Robertson, Douglas S.
The New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level of Civilization.
New York; Oxford University Press, 1998
Author feels the next great step will occur because of the communication
possibilities of the computer chip. Looking back at printing, and
how much that changed civilization, he feels the next change will
be much more significant.
Rochlin, Gene I. Trapped
in the Net: The Unanticipated Consequences of Computerization. Princeton;
Princeton University Press, 1997
I used to spend the 20-30 hours a week I'm online, doing something
else. What was it? Rochlin wants us to think about this, and think
hard. Could I go a month without my computer? What does it say about
me if the answer is no.
Seabrook, John. Deeper:
Adventures on the Net. New York; Simon & Schuster, 1997
Quality Paperback - First Tombstone imprint edition 1998.
People create lives online they like better than their lives in
the SCREW (So Called Real World).
Segaller, Stephen. Nerds
2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet. New York; TV Books,
1998.
Companion to the PBS Series of the same name. Deals with the usual
suspects from ARPANET, to BBN, to Vint Cerf. A much better book
along this line is Where the Wizards Stay Up Late. I am still
looking for a good copy of that book. I do recommend the PBS video
however, if you're interested. (Available from PBS Home Video at
www.pbs.org.)
Shasha, Dennis, and Lazere,
Cathy. Out of Their Minds: The Lives and Discoveries of 15 Great
Computer Scientists. New York; Copernicus, 1995
Pretty much what the title says.
Slatalla, Michelle, and
Quittner, Joshua. Masters of Deception: The Gang that Ruled Cyberspace.
New York; Harper Collies, 1995
These guys did it all; hacked into AT&T, collected credit reports
from TRW, etc. Some aspects of the book are kind of technical but
the laypersons I have given this too have liked it.
Slater, Robert. Portraits
in Silicon. Cambridge, Mass.; MIT Press, 1987
First MIT Press quality paperback edition 1989, third printing 1992.
This book is a series of bibliographic essays on the people behind
the computer revolution. The subjects range from hardware builders
to software writers to those that expanded the uses of computers.
Stoll, Clifford. Silicon
Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway. New York;
Doubleday, 1995
Stoll doesn't hate computers, he just thinks they ought to be a
tool like a hammer, not a friend like a beloved pet.
Sudnow, David. Pilgrim
in the Microworld: Eye, Mind, and the Essence of Video Skill.
New York; Warner Books, 1983
Sudnow's kids kill him in video games at the arcade. He later discovers
they are not only playing against him, they are figuring out what
the programmer intended and using that information to beat him.
In the end, they don't play against the game or against him but
with the game against him.
Swisher, Kara. AOL.COM:
How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads, and Made Millions
in the War for the Web. New York; Random House., 1998
Another person who took advantage of Microsoft missing the coming
of the Web. Written before AOL's merger with Time-Warner, a new
edition is planned soon.
Turkle, Sherry. Life
on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York;
Simon & Schuster, 1995
Who are you when you can become anyone you want online; changing
your age, your race, your sex, and the fact that you don't need
any of those things to have an identity online.
Unman, Ellen. Close
to the Machine: Technophilia and its Discontents. San Francisco;
City Lights, 1997
Only published in quality paperback. This is one of the few books
which relates programming from a female perspective. Ullman also
deals very well with the problems which rise when a programmer becomes
a manager of programmers. (Not always, okay ...NEVER a good idea.)
Wallace, Patricia. The
Psychology of the Internet. Cambridge, England; Cambridge University
Press, 1999
A clear, concise, and comprehensive overview of the emotional and
behavioral dimensions of life online. Also, a good summing up of
some work that has gone before.
Wertheim, Margaret. The
Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the
Internet. New York; Norton, 1999
Ever since the online world began, its inhabitants have puzzled
over a fundamental question: What sort of space, exactly, is cyberspace?
Is it just a metaphor, a vivid shorthand for the abstract complexity
of computer networks? Or is it in some sense actually a space that
parallels the one our bodies live in? Wertheim's impressively argued
answer in The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space
from Dante to the Internet is that it is both, and more. Cyberspace,
she claims, at once exposes and fulfills a long-time cultural yearning
for the type of immaterial space, the realm of the soul, that was
written out of the West's cosmological picture when science displaced
medieval theology.
Yourdon, Edward. Rise
and Resurrection of the American Programmer. Upper Saddle River,
New Jersey; Prentice Hall, 1996
In 1992, Yourdon wrote The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer,
warning of impending loss of leadership by American software engineers.
But a great deal has changed in three years, and Yourdon now sees
a complete reversal of many of the trends he previously documented,
as well as new trends such as the WWW, Java, "Good Enough"
Software, and the enormous impact of Microsoft on the world of software
and computing, that together signify the Resurrection American software
engineering. I am still looking for a great, first edition of his
first book.
Zaleski, Jeff. The
Soul of Cyberspace: How New Technology is Changing Our Spiritual
Lives. San Francisco; Harper Collins, 1997
This work explores how the Internet and the World Wide Web have
changed some aspects of religion and faith.
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