Found in 10 comments on Hacker News
topherjaynes · 2023-07-05 · Original thread
Have you looked for online courses? Here are a few of the books I'd go through around computers, but are you thinking more extensive history of "technology?" Like how we've grown from printing press as innovation?

Soul of a New Machine is a great non-fiction but reads like a fiction account of trying to overtake the Vax by building one of the first 32-bit machines https://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0316...

A Biography of the Pixel https://www.amazon.com/Biography-Pixel-Leonardo-Alvy-Smith/d... great overview of the innovation and math that pushed graphics forwrard

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood https://www.amazon.com/Information-History-Theory-Flood/dp/1... walks through information theory and how we got to the internet

Dealers of lightning: https://www.amazon.com/Dealers-of-Lightning-audiobook/dp/B00... how a lot of modenr computing grew out of Xerox

wkschwartz · 2022-06-05 · Original thread
James Gleick‘s “Chaos”[0] (history of chaos theory) and “The Information”[1] (history of information theory) are so beautifully and artfully written you might forget they’re technical. As close as (history of) science writing comes to poetry.

A lot drier but top marks for clarity: “Linear Algebra Done Right” by Axler.[2] It got me through both undergraduate and PhD math degrees. When something was confusing in a lecture or another textbook, I could always return to Axler for the most direct path from ignorance to understanding.

[0]: https://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Making-Science-James-Gleick/dp/... [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Information-History-Theory-Flood/dp/1... [2]: https://linear.axler.net/

beltsazar · 2021-12-24 · Original thread
Hands down, the most fascinating book I read in 2021 (and I will have read for a long time!) is "The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood" by James Gleick: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1400096235

Those who have a computer science background will almost definitely love the book. It connects many dots that are previously seemingly unrelated. My jaw dropped for literally every few pages of most chapters.

rottc0dd · 2020-10-26 · Original thread
I have not read any extensive studies of his work, but I have section regarding him in "The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood" [0], super cool. It is also a nice book overall IMHO.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Information-History-Theory-Flood/dp/1...

oldbuzzard · 2016-11-20 · Original thread
Gleick's "The Information" and Dyson's "Turing's Cathedral" would be 2 other good pop sci books on the origins of CS.

https://www.amazon.com/Information-History-Theory-Flood/dp/1...

https://www.amazon.com/Turings-Cathedral-Origins-Digital-Uni...

lowlygod · 2015-09-04 · Original thread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBbVbqRvqTM

This is a nice short video about her. And I read a bit more about her in this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Information-History-Theory-Flood/d...

sitruc · 2015-07-07 · Original thread
To echo everyone; Hackers is a great book. Steven Levy books are both compelling reads and content rich. Crypto and In the plex both have their place as well. http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&field... I would also say "The Information" by James Gleick. It is a page turner with some neat concepts. Which is not so easy to do. http://www.amazon.ca/Information-History-Theory-Flood/dp/140...
taylorbuley · 2014-07-09 · Original thread
The embedded short on Claude Shannon is very good and highly reccommended https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq1-Iq9Vm28

A good book on the subject is Gleick's The Information http://www.amazon.com/The-Information-History-Theory-Flood/d...

dbarlett · 2013-12-29 · Original thread
Seconding Dream Machine. Three more:

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood http://www.amazon.com/The-Information-History-Theory-Flood/d...

Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe http://www.amazon.com/Turings-Cathedral-Origins-Digital-Univ...

Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today's Computers http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Algorithms-That-Changed-Future/dp...

27182818284 · 2013-12-16 · Original thread
The Information A History, A Theory, A Flood. is the book that I wanted to write and then I found out it existed and the author did a better job than I probably could have.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Information-History-Theory-Flood/d...

Secrets of a JavaScript Ninja I enjoyed. Nothing that was like "ZOMG!" but it did help me think better about my JS code. http://www.manning.com/resig/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Tartt Has a new book out I haven't read, yet, but her other books have been great. especially http://www.amazon.com/The-Secret-History-Donna-Tartt/dp/1400...

Then neither a tutorial nor book, but pretty helpful: Bookmarking the comments of people like Paul Graham. Since he usually makes insightful comments on interesting articles, it works as a sorta hackish "Best Of" link https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=pg

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