Ask HN: What are good books on Computer History/Lore/Iconic figures in Computing | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are good books on Computer History/Lore/Iconic figures in Computing

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Fantastic book

What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/725789.What_the_Dormouse...

Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34467030-troublemakers

A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32919530-a-mind-at-play

Off the top of my head:

Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine

Dealers of Lightening - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1101290

Cult of the Dead Cow - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/42283862

The Cuckoo's Egg - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg_(book)

The Soul of a New Machine and The Cuckoo's Egg are essential! Can't recommend either highly enough.

Still looking forward to reading Cult of the Dead Cow and Dealers of Lightning. Reading AlbertCory's book now, which appears to cover some of the same ground as "Dealers".

Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe by George Dyson. The brilliance of John von Neumann is on full display, not least his brilliance in gathering amazingly talented people for one of the most ambitious projects ever--the creation of a stored-program computer--and creating the kind of community and sense of purpose that scarcely exists in our current world of commercialized technology.

The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal is a great read. The recent Stripe Press reissue [1] includes some of J.C.R. Licklider's writings at the end, a nice bonus.

[1] https://press.stripe.com/the-dream-machine

Not yet covered by others:

The Code Book, by Simon Singh [History of Cryptography] The Idea Factory, by John Gertner [Bell Labs] The Information, by James Gleick [Shannon and Information Theory. I haven't read the mentioned A Mind at Play on the same subject]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon_File

pretty sure you can find it online in 7 bit ASCII format

1. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy[1]

2. Inventing the Future - Albert Cory[2][3]

3. Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - John Markoff and Katie Hafner[4][5]

4. Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker - Kevin Mitnick[6]

5. Not a book, but definitely consider watching "Halt & Catch Fire"[7] if you haven't seen it yet. It's an amazing show that deals with, loosely speaking, "the history of the computer industry".

6. Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell - Phil Lapsley[8]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Compute...

[2]: https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Future-Albert-Cory/dp/17362...

[3]: Note that AlbertCory is an HN'er! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28059246

[4]: https://www.amazon.com/Cyberpunk-Outlaws-Hackers-Computer-Fr...

[5]: Yes, I'm aware there are substantial question marks concerning the veracity of some of the information in this book, especially as it pertains to Mitnick. Nonetheless, I believe it's worth reading, but also suggest reading other books about Mitnick, including his autobiography, to get the other perspective

[6]: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wires-Adventures-Worlds-Wanted/...

[7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(TV_series...

[8]: https://www.amazon.com/Exploding-Phone-Phil-Lapsley/dp/08021...

"Fire In The Valley" Paul Freiberger & Michael Swaine - McGraw Hill "Forbes Greatest Technology Stories" Jeffrey Young - John Wiley & Sons Also recommend "Dealers of Lightening" and "The Cuckoo's Egg"

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