Breaking Smart - Season 1


Venkatesh G. Rao - 2015
    Season 1, comprising 20 essays totaling approximately 30,000 words, is written by Venkatesh Rao and illustrated by Grace Witherell. This inaugural season is an in-depth exploration of Marc Andreessen’s observation that “software is eating the world.”

Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs


Ken Kocienda - 2018
    Creative Selection recounts the life of one of the few who worked behind the scenes, a highly-respected software engineer who worked in the final years the Steve Jobs era--the Golden Age of Apple.Ken Kocienda offers an inside look at Apple's creative process. For fifteen years, he was on the ground floor of the company as a specialist, directly responsible for experimenting with novel user interface concepts and writing powerful, easy-to-use software for products including the iPhone, the iPad, and the Safari web browser. His stories explain the symbiotic relationship between software and product development for those who have never dreamed of programming a computer, and reveal what it was like to work on the cutting edge of technology at one of the world's most admired companies.Kocienda shares moments of struggle and success, crisis and collaboration, illuminating each with lessons learned over his Apple career. He introduces the essential elements of innovation--inspiration, collaboration, craft, diligence, decisiveness, taste, and empathy--and uses these as a lens through which to understand productive work culture.An insider's tale of creativity and innovation at Apple, Creative Selection shows readers how a small group of people developed an evolutionary design model, and how they used this methodology to make groundbreaking and intuitive software which countless millions use every day.

Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days


Jessica Livingston - 2001
    These people are celebrities now. What was it like when they were just a couple friends with an idea? Founders like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail) tell you in their own words about their surprising and often very funny discoveries as they learned how to build a company.Where did they get the ideas that made them rich? How did they convince investors to back them? What went wrong, and how did they recover?Nearly all technical people have thought of one day starting or working for a startup. For them, this book is the closest you can come to being a fly on the wall at a successful startup, to learn how it's done.But ultimately these interviews are required reading for anyone who wants to understand business, because startups are business reduced to its essence. The reason their founders become rich is that startups do what businesses do--create value--more intensively than almost any other part of the economy. How? What are the secrets that make successful startups so insanely productive? Read this book, and let the founders themselves tell you.

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire


James Wallace - 1992
    Part entrepreneur, part enfant terrible, Gates has become the most powerful -- and feared -- player in the computer industry, and arguably the richest man in America. In Hard Drive, investigative reporters Wallace and Erickson follow Gates from his days as an unkempt thirteen-year-old computer hacker to his present-day status as a ruthless billionaire CEO. More than simply a "revenge of the nerds" story though, this is a balanced analysis of a business triumph, and a stunningly driven personality. The authors have spoken to everyone who knows anything about Bill Gates and Microsoft -- from childhood friends to employees and business rivals who reveal the heights, and limits, of his wizardry. From Gates's singular accomplishments to his equally extraordinary brattiness, arrogance, and hostility (the atmosphere is so intense at Microsoft that stressed-out programmers have been known to ease the tension of their eighty-hour workweeks by exploding homemade bombs), this is a uniquely revealing glimpse of the person who has emerged as the undisputed king of a notoriously brutal industry.

System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot


Mehran Sahami - 2021
    A forward-thinking manifesto from three Stanford professors—experts who have worked at ground zero of the tech revolution for decades—which reveals how big tech’s obsession with optimization and efficiency has sacrificed fundamental human values and outlines steps we can take to change course, renew our democracy, and save ourselves.

Django for Beginners: Learn web development with Django 2.0


William S. Vincent - 2018
    Proceed step-by-step through five progressively more complex web applications: from a "Hello World" app all the way to a robust Newspaper app with a custom user model, complete user authentication flow, foreign key relationships, and more. Learn current best practices around class-based views, templates, urls, user authentication, testing, and deployment. The material is up-to-date with the latest versions of both Django (2.0) and Python (3.6). TABLE OF CONTENTS: * Introduction * Chapter 1: Initial Setup * Chapter 2: Hello World app * Chapter 3: Pages app * Chapter 4: Message Board app * Chapter 5: Blog app * Chapter 6: Forms * Chapter 7: User Accounts * Chapter 8: Custom User Model * Chapter 9: User Authentication * Chapter 10: Bootstrap * Chapter 11: Password Change and Reset * Chapter 12: Email * Chapter 13: Newspaper app * Chapter 14: Permissions and Authorizations * Chapter 15: Comments * Conclusion

Principles of Information Security


Michael E. Whitman - 2002
    Principles of Information Security, Third Edition builds on internationally recognized standards and bodies of knowledge to provide the knowledge and skills that information systems students need for their future roles as business decision-makers. Coverage includes key knowledge areas of the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), as well as risk management, cryptography, physical security, and more. The third edition has retained the real-world examples and scenarios that made previous editions so successful, but has updated the content to reflect technology's latest capabilities and trends. With this emphasis on currency and comprehensive coverage, readers can feel confident that they are using a standards-based, content-driven resource to prepare them for their work in the field.

Googled: The End of the World as We Know It


Ken Auletta - 2009
    This is a ride on the Google wave, and the fullest account of how it formed and crashed into traditional media businesses. With unprecedented access to Google's founders and executives, as well as to those in media who are struggling to keep their heads above water, Ken Auletta reveals how the industry is being disrupted and redefined.Auletta goes inside Google's closed-door meetings, introducing Google's notoriously private founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as those who work with - and against - them. In Googled, the reader discovers the 'secret sauce' of the company's success and why the worlds of 'new' and 'old' media often communicate as if residents of different planets. It may send chills down traditionalists' spines, but it's a crucial roadmap to the future of media business: the Google story may well be the canary in the coal mine.Googled is candid, objective and authoritative. Crucially, it's not just a history or reportage: it's ahead of the curve and unlike any other Google books, which tend to have been near-histories, somewhat starstruck, now out of date or which fail to look at the full synthesis of business and technology.

Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time


Titus Winters - 2020
    With this book, you'll get a candid and insightful look at how software is constructed and maintained by some of the world's leading practitioners.Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck, and Hyrum K. Wright, software engineers and a technical writer at Google, reframe how software engineering is practiced and taught: from an emphasis on programming to an emphasis on software engineering, which roughly translates to programming over time.You'll learn:Fundamental differences between software engineering and programmingHow an organization effectively manages a living codebase and efficiently responds to inevitable changeWhy culture (and recognizing it) is important, and how processes, practices, and tools come into play

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions


Brian Christian - 2016
    What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? How much messiness should we accept? What balance of new activities and familiar favorites is the most fulfilling? These may seem like uniquely human quandaries, but they are not: computers, too, face the same constraints, so computer scientists have been grappling with their version of such issues for decades. And the solutions they've found have much to teach us.In a dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, acclaimed author Brian Christian and cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths show how the algorithms used by computers can also untangle very human questions. They explain how to have better hunches and when to leave things to chance, how to deal with overwhelming choices and how best to connect with others. From finding a spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing one's inbox to understanding the workings of memory, Algorithms to Live By transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living.

Steal This Computer Book 4.0 – What They Won′t Tell You About the Internet 4e


Wallace Wang - 2006
    It is an unabashed look at the dark side of the Net--the stuff many other books gloss over. It's hard-edged, wisecracking, and often quite cynical as it pours over the reality of online scams, illegal activities, and simple annoyances. Wang's stated goal is to open the reader's eyes about what's really there. He shows what's being done, how it's being done, and how to avoid problems or even strike back. He begins with a chapter about the news media, and his message is that no source is to be trusted completely. He examines issues important to Internet users: the cost of getting computerized (with tips on how to find the real bargains), who is using the Internet as a source of hate information, and how your privacy can be invaded and protected. He shows you the secrets of malicious hackers and others and how some of them attack computer systems without the ethical mindset typical of the original, idealistic hackers. Wang shows you how you can set up your defenses against such an onslaught, discussing how to protect yourself and your kids from online stalkers and how online con games work. Wang never claims that the Internet is the electronic den of darkness that the pop media make it out to be. But he makes it clear that something this big has its lowlights--it's own "net noir." His messages are "know your enemy" and "be careful who you trust," an ideology verified by the examples he provides. --Elizabeth Lewis This offbeat, non-technical book examines what hackers do, how they do it, and how readers can protect themselves. Informative, irreverent, and entertaining, the completely revised fourth edition of Steal This Computer Book contains new chapters that discuss the hacker mentality, lock picking, exploiting P2P file sharing networks, and how people manipulate search engines and pop-up ads. Includes a CD with hundreds of megabytes of hack

The Little Elixir & OTP Guidebook


Benjamin Tan Wei Hao - 2015
    It combines the productivity and expressivity of Ruby with the concurrency and fault-tolerance of Erlang. Elixir makes full use of Erlang's powerful OTP library, which many developers consider the source of Erlang's greatness, so you can have mature, professional-quality functionality right out of the gate. Elixir's support for functional programming makes it a great choice for highly distributed event-driven applications like IoT systems.The Little Elixir & OTP Guidebook gets you started programming applications with Elixir and OTP. You begin with a quick overview of the Elixir language syntax, along with just enough functional programming to use it effectively. Then, you'll dive straight into OTP and learn how it helps you build scalable, fault-tolerant and distributed applications through several fun examples. Come rediscover the joy of programming with Elixir and remember how it feels like to be a beginner again.

Steve Jobs


Walter Isaacson - 2011
    Based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years--as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues--Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Isaacson's portrait touched millions of readers. At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering. Although Jobs cooperated with the author, he asked for no control over what was written. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. He himself spoke candidly about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues offer an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values. Steve Jobs is the inspiration for the movie of the same name starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels, directed by Danny Boyle with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.

The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide: How to Learn Programming Languages Quickly, Ace Your Programming Interview, and Land Your Software Developer Dream Job


John Z. Sonmez - 2017
    As John invested in these skills his career took off, and he became a highly paid, highly sought-after developer and consultant. Today John helps more than 1.4 million programmers every year to increase their income by developing this unique blend of skills. "If you're a developer, green or a veteran, you owe it to yourself to read The Complete Software Developers Career Guide." - Jason Down, Platform Developer, Ontario, Canada What You Will Learn in This Book How to systematically find and fill the gaps in your technical knowledge so you can face any new challenge with confidence Should you take contract work - or hold out for a salaried position? Which will earn you more, what the tradeoffs are, and how your personality should sway your choice Should you learn JavaScript, C#, Python, C++? How to decide which programming language you should master first Ever notice how every job ever posted requires "3-5 years of experience," which you don't have? Simple solution for this frustrating chicken-and-egg problem that allows you to build legitimate job experience while you learn to code Is earning a computer science degree a necessity - or a total waste of time? How to get a college degree with maximum credibility and minimum debt Coding bootcampssome are great, some are complete scams. How to tell the difference so you don't find yourself cheated out of $10,000 Interviewer tells you, "Dress code is casual around here - the development team wears flipflops." What should you wear? How do you deal with a boss who's a micromanager. Plus how helping your manager with his goals can make you the MVP of your team The technical skills that every professional developer must have - but no one teaches you (most developers are missing some critical pieces, they don't teach this stuff in college, you're expected to just "know" this) An inside look at the recruiting industry. What that "friendly" recruiter really wants from you, how they get paid, and how to avoid getting pigeonholed into a job you'll hate Who Should Read This Book Entry-Level Developers This book will show you how to ensure you have the technical skills your future boss is looking for, create a resume that leaps off a hiring manager's desk, and escape the "no work experience" trap. Mid-Career Developers You'll see how to find and fill in gaps in your technical knowledge, position yourself as the one team member your boss can't live without, and turn those dreaded annual reviews into chance to make an iron-clad case for your salary bump. Senior Developers This book will show you how to become a specialist who can command above-market wages, how building a name for yourself can make opportunities come to you, and how to decide whether consulting or entrepreneurship are paths you should pursue.

Programmers at Work: Interviews With 19 Programmers Who Shaped the Computer Industry (Tempus)


Susan Lammers - 1986
    A classic title on the PC revolution originally published in 1986. Featuring Bill Gates, Andy Hertzfeld, Charles Simonyi, Ray Ozzie, Michael Hawley and many more.