Ask HN: Best computer history book for curious teenager? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Best computer history book for curious teenager?

17 pointsEcco14 comments

Hi there, I’d like to gift a computer history book to a curious geeky teenager. Ideally, the book would:

- Give some historical context, but focus on explaining how each technology works (e.g. it was invented in the 80s; here’s how a CD stores music)

- Be somewhat up to date (doesn’t stop in the 90s)

- Have many illustrations, including schemas to explain each technology

- Cover computer software, hardware and networking too

View on HN

"The Cukoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage" [1] by Clifford Stoll. The author's first-person account on tracking down a computer hacker as a sysadmin. This 1989 book was definitely influential to me as a teenager; first time close encounter with the idea that the world of computer networks can also be "scary".

@CliffStoll is also on HN. Fond memories; thanks again for writing that book!

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg_(book)

Unix: A History and a Memoir, by Kernighan was a good quick read. It's probably more history than technical information, however the material that's presented is still in use across many unix-based systems. I came away from this book with a much better sense of the ideas behind many of the tools I've used all my life in terminal environments across multiple systems.

https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~bwk/memoir.html

Some recommendations:

- Weaving the Web by Tim Berners-Lee: https://www.amazon.com/Weaving-Web-Original-Ultimate-Destiny...

- Founders at Work: https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Early/...

Good suggestions. Coders at Work might be a good complement.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coders_at_Work

Someone else already mentioned, "Hackers" by Steven Levy, which was great. Levy's "Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything" was also a vey good read (and only $4.99 for Kindle edition!).

https://www.amazon.com/Insanely-Great-Macintosh-Computer-Eve...

And not sure how well it's aged, but I remember "Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date" was a fun, breezy read.

https://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Empires-Silicon-Millions-C...

I can't think of examples that match all your criteria. Some books that do come to mind:

* Linus Torvalds and David Diamond - Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary (2002) A personal account of the history of Linux. Not many technical details nor (any?) illustrations.

* Katie Hafner, Mathew Lyon - Where Wizards stay up Late A history of the internet. Some technical details, but not a lot. Not many diagrams, and it does stop in the 90s. Covers the internet and therefore networking

* Noam Nisan, Shimon Schocken - The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles The Elements of Computing systems Not a lot of history, but does describe how computers work in a bottom up fashion. Includes diagrams. No networking. It is more of a project book because as you can "build along" a computer, starting from nand gates. Covers both hardware and software.

Not a book but Paul Ford's epic (free!) 38,000 word "What is Code?" essay in BusinessWeek's "The Code Issue" (2015) has a dose of history.

https://www.bloomberg.com/company/press/bloomberg-businesswe...

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-co...

Fire in the Valley is the best computer history book I've read. It covers the very early history of the Altair (Hardware) and Bill Gates writing a version of Basic for it (Software). I would say it stops in the 90s since I've only read the first edition but apparently there are two more editions out now that cover events through Steve Jobs death. I think I'm due for a rereading.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1937785769/ref=dp_ob_neva_mob...

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/22/n...

This is the great book, it covers the history of desktop computers

https://www.amazon.com/When-Computing-Got-Personal-Computer/...

Not exactly what you asked for, but check out Doom Guy, it covers a lot of history from the game perspective.

https://romero.com/shop/p/doomguy

Code by Petzold may be of interest. The Innovators by Isaacson Hackers by Steven Levy, if you can find it. An Arduino starter set might be an alternative. Not much history but lots of hands on with an introduction to programming.

Not quite what you're asking for, but if you can find a copy that doesn't break the bank, "Computer Lib/Dream Machines" by Ted Nelson is fascinating stuff.

A new history of modern computing, by Thomas Haigh and Paul E. Ceruzzi, The MIT Press, 2021

Reply on news.ycombinator.com