Product Description

This book traces the history of Hackers, from clunky computer card punching machines to the inner secrets of what would become the internet. With groundbreaking profiles of Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, MIT railroad club and more; the shapers of the digital revolution.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97725 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

About the Author
Chief Technology writer at 'Newsweek' and a regular contributer to numerous publications including 'Macworld' and 'Wired'. Author of CRYPTO.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic History of Computing
A hack: a neat or smart way of fixing or implementing something. This definition was in use in MIT in the late fifties in the MIT Tech Railroad Club where young engineers would devise ways of controlling their large model layout. Also in MIT were some of the first large computers and these young men (pretty exclusively so) were drawn to these behemoths like bugs to a flame. Hours were spent writing and debugging code. It wasn't easy going at the start as some of these machines had no i/o devices such as monitors, but these young men were bitten by the bug and became devoted to the cause.

The first section of the book describes the rise of the original computer hacker, and the Hacker Ethos that came with it. Software was free to all, and if you make an improvement to someone elses code, you were welcome to do so. But these young people were a priviledged few as hacking was limited to those with access to these college machines.

In the second part of the book, based mainly in the seventies, we see hacking being applied to hardware and the creation of the first home computers. The first was the Altair, which had no keyboard, but spread like wildfire. People spent ages writing programs for it and explored all it's possibilities. It's here that we meet Bill Gates, a young programmer asked to write a BASIC compiler for the machine. The hacker ethos of software being free for all didn't sit well with Mr. Gates and he wrote a letter to a popular computing magazine at the time, explaining that since he wrote the code, wasn't he entitled to some payment. Mr Gates doesn't really appear again, but that small glimpse of him seems so true.

At this time a club for computing afficionados, the Homebrew club came into existence and here many of the best and brightest would converse for ages, swapping ideas and experience. Among them was Steve Wozniak, who would create the first Apple and truly bring computing to the masses.

The third section of the book moves back to software, and the companies that sprang up in the eighties to provide games and utilities for the home computer user. In this section, the abandonment of the hacker ethos becomes clear. Companies, such as Sierra, were founded by hackers, but in order to grow and develop, something had to be left behind, and one such thing was the belief in free software.

This is a great book covering three influential sections of computing history. The descriptions of the people involved are highly captivating and it is hard to put this book down. If you remember the first apples, ataris and the apple mac, and how glamorous and liberating they were at the time, this book fills you in on all the details that went into constructing these revolutionary machines, and how they were shaped by the people behind them. If you have any interest at all in computing history, then this is a must read book.

A classic , the history of modern computing
If your into computing then this book is a "must read". As much as is possible it turns the rather boring subject of computing history into a good read. It describes all the periods , people and moments from computing history in detail and gives the reasoning ( dare is say - logic ) behind how we ended up with computing as it is today.

The only gripe that could be aimed at this book is that it is completely US orientated. To read this book without any prior knowledge would leave you with the impression that the computer "revolution" started and remains the sole property of the US.

Whilst in a lot of cases this is true , particularly in the area of hardware , the author did take a rather blinkered view when he covered the subject of computer games which doesn't do justice to the UK gaming companies who were ( and still are ) every bit as important as our US cousins.

The bottom line though is that its a brilliant book , one i would recommend to anyone who is nerdy enough to want to know the history of modern day computing.

A must read!
I have to agree with the previous reviewer. This is an absolute brilliant book and once I started reading I literally could not put it down and so far I have not encountered this feeling with any other book. I have also re-read it several times and whilst computer nerds will it enjoy it the most I can recommend it to anyone with even the minimal of interest in computers. PS If you are a nerd buy two! One 'good' copy and one you can just keep reading and lend out to friends.