In Turing’s Cathedral, George Dyson focuses on a small group of men and women, led by John von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, who built one of the first computers to realize Alan Turing’s vision of a Universal Machine. Their work would break the distinction between numbers that mean things and numbers that do things—and our universe would never be the same. Using five kilobytes of memory (the amount allocated to displaying the cursor on a computer desktop of today), they achieved unprecedented success in both weather prediction and nuclear weapons design, while tackling, in their spare time, problems ranging from the evolution of viruses to the evolution of stars. Dyson’s account, both historic and prophetic, sheds important new light on how the digital universe exploded in the aftermath of World War II. The proliferation of both codes and machines was paralleled by two historic developments: the decoding of self-replicating sequences in biology and the invention of the hydrogen bomb. It’s no coincidence that the most destructive and the most constructive of human inventions appeared at exactly the same time.  How did code take over the world? In retracing how Alan Turing’s one-dimensional model became John von Neumann’s two-dimensional implementation, Turing’s Cathedral offers a series of provocative suggestions as to where the digital universe, now fully three-dimensional, may be heading next.

    The author, Ken Williams, founded Sierra On-Line Sierra with his wife Roberta who went on to create many of the company's best selling games. Sierra grew from just Ken and Roberta to over one thousand employees and a fan base that still exists today, despite the fact that the company was torn apart by criminal activities, scandal and corruption that resulted in jail sentences and the collapse of Sierra. This is the behind-the-scenes story of the rise and fall, as it could only be told by the ultimate insider.

    Over the past few years, incremental developments in core engineering practices for software development have created the foundations for rethinking how architecture changes over time, along with ways to protect important architectural characteristics as it evolves. This practical guide ties those parts together with a new way to think about architecture and time.

    The British games industry would go on to create such hits as Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto, our innovation and imagination the envy of the world, our programmers the most sought after talent in the fastest growing entertainment medium in history.And it all started here.Welcome to the Speccy Nation.Join veteran games journalist and author Dan Whitehead on a journey through fifty games that helped to define the golden age of British gaming. From the timeless classics to unlikely cult favourites, and even the games so eccentric they could only have come from Britain in the 1980s.Part nostalgic look at the past, and part critical eye on the present and future, Speccy Nation is essential reading for all retro gaming enthusiasts.Includes a foreword by Your Sinclair's Phil "Snouty" South.

    This is the undisputed go-to guide to Rust, written by two members of the Rust core team, with feedback and contributions from 42 members of the community. The book assumes that you’ve written code in another programming language but makes no assumptions about which one, meaning the material is accessible and useful to developers from a wide variety of programming backgrounds.Known by the Rust community as "The Book," The Rust Programming Language includes concept chapters, where you’ll learn about a particular aspect of Rust, and project chapters, where you’ll apply what you’ve learned so far to build small programs.The Book opens with a quick hands-on project to introduce the basics then explores key concepts in depth, such as ownership, the type system, error handling, and fearless concurrency. Next come detailed explanations of Rust-oriented perspectives on topics like pattern matching, iterators, and smart pointers, with concrete examples and exercises--taking you from theory to practice.The Rust Programming Language will show you how to: Grasp important concepts unique to Rust like ownership, borrowing, and lifetimes Use Cargo, Rust’s built-in package manager, to build and maintain your code, including downloading and building dependencies Effectively use Rust’s zero-cost abstractions and employ your ownYou’ll learn to develop reliable code that’s speed and memory efficient, while avoiding the infamous and arcane programming pitfalls common at the systems level. When you need to dive down into lower-level control, this guide will show you how without taking on the customary risk of crashes or security holes and without requiring you to learn the fine points of a fickle toolchain.You’ll also learn how to create command line programs, build single- and multithreaded web servers, and much more.The Rust Programming Language fully embraces Rust’s potential to empower its users. This friendly and approachable guide will help you build not only your knowledge of Rust but also your ability to program with confidence in a wider variety of domains.

    Named one of the greatest minds of the 20th century by Time, Tim Berners-Lee is responsible for one of that century's most important advancements: the world wide web.  Now, this low-profile genius - who never personally profited from his invention - offers a compelling portrait of his invention.  He reveals the Web's origins and the creation of the now ubiquitous http and www acronyms and shares his views on such critical issues as censorship, privacy, the increasing power of software companies, and the need to find the ideal balance between commercial and social forces.  He offers insights into the true nature of the Web, showing readers how to use it to its fullest advantage.  And he presents his own plan for the Web's future, calling for the active support and participation of programmers, computer manufacturers, and social organizations to manage and maintain this valuable resource so that it can remain a powerful force for social change and an outlet for individual creativity.

    Journalist Geoff Keighley was granted unprecedented “fly on the wall” access to Valve over the past three years to create this story. From the hush-hush Portal prequel that was shelved to the last minute scramble to complete the game’s story, The Final Hours of Portal 2 is a gripping and dramatic story. Please note the Kindle version does not include as many photos or the videos that are available in the iPad version.

    Tracy Kidder got a preview of this world in the late 1970s when he observed the engineers of Data General design and build a new 32-bit minicomputer in just one year. His thoughtful, prescient book, The Soul of a New Machine, tells stories of 35-year-old "veteran" engineers hiring recent college graduates and encouraging them to work harder and faster on complex and difficult projects, exploiting the youngsters' ignorance of normal scheduling processes while engendering a new kind of work ethic.These days, we are used to the "total commitment" philosophy of managing technical creation, but Kidder was surprised and even a little alarmed at the obsessions and compulsions he found. From in-house political struggles to workers being permitted to tease management to marathon 24-hour work sessions, The Soul of a New Machine explores concepts that already seem familiar, even old-hat, less than 20 years later. Kidder plainly admires his subjects; while he admits to hopeless confusion about their work, he finds their dedication heroic. The reader wonders, though, what will become of it all, now and in the future. —Rob Lightner

    Revolution in the Valley traces this vision back to its earliest roots: the hallways and backrooms of Apple, where the groundbreaking Macintosh computer was born. The book traces the development of the Macintosh, from its inception as an underground skunkworks project in 1979 to its triumphant introduction in 1984 and beyond.The stories in "Revolution in the Valley" come on extremely good authority. That's because author Andy Hertzfeld was a core member of the team that built the Macintosh system software, and a key creator of the Mac's radically new user interface software. One of the chosen few who worked with the mercurial Steve Jobs, you might call him the ultimate insider.When "Revolution in the Valley" begins, Hertzfeld is working on Apple's first attempt at a low-cost, consumer-oriented computer: the Apple II. He sees that Steve Jobs is luring some of the company's most brilliant innovators to work on a tiny research effort the Macintosh. Hertzfeld manages to make his way onto the Macintosh research team, and the rest is history.Through lavish illustrations, period photos, and Hertzfeld's vivid first-hand accounts, Revolution in the Valley reveals what it was like to be there at the birth of the personal computer revolution. The story comes to life through the book's portrait of the talented and often eccentric characters who made up the Macintosh team. Now, over 20 years later, millions of people are benefiting from the technical achievements of this determined and brilliant group of people.

    Brian Kernighan was a member of the original group of Unix developers, the creator of several fundamental Unix programs, and the co-author of classic books like "The C Programming Language" and "The Unix Programming Environment."

    But instead of spending hours and hours trying to develop your own answers, now you can find out how the pros do it! Game Programming Gems is a hands-on, comprehensive resource packed with a variety of game programming algorithms written by experts from the game industry and edited by Mark DeLoura, former software engineering lead for Nintendo of America, Inc. and now the newly appointed editor-in-chief of Game Developer magazine. From animation and artificial intelligence to Z-buffering, lighting calculations, weather effects, curved surfaces, mutliple layer Internet gaming, to music and sound effects, all of the major techniques needed to develop a competitive game engine are covered. Game Programming Gems is written in a style accessible to individuals with a range of expertise levels. All of the source code for each algorithm is included and can be used by advanced programmers immediately. For aspiring programmers, there is a detailed tutorial to work through before attempting the code, and suggestions for possible modifications and optimizations are included as well.

    What started as a game of Pong, with little blips dancing across a computer screen, has evolved into a multi-billion-dollar industry that is changing the future, making inroads into virtually all aspects of our culture.Who are the minds behind this revolution? How did it happen? Where is it headed? In Smartbomb, journalists Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby take the reader behind the scenes at gaming conventions, into powerhouse think tanks where new games are created, into the thick of the competition at cyberathlete tournaments, and into the homes of gamers for whom playing a role in a virtual world has assumed more relevance and reality than life in the real world.

    Vivid photos capture these historically important machinesincluding the Eniac, Crays 13, Apple I and IIwhile authoritative text profiles each, telling the stories of their innovations and peculiarities. Thirty-five machines are profiled in over 100 extraordinary color photographs, making Core Memory a surprising addition to the library of photography collectors and the ultimate geek-chic gift.

    An RPG for the Super NES that flopped when it first arrived to the U.S., EarthBound grew in fan support and critical acclaim over the years, eventually becoming the All-Time Favorite Game of thousands, among them author Ken Baumann.Featuring a heartfelt foreword from the game's North American localization director, Marcus Lindblom, Baumann's EarthBound is a joyful tornado of history, criticism, and memoir.Baumann explores the game’s unlikely origins, its brilliant creator, its madcap plot, its marketing failure, its cult rise from the ashes, and its intersections with Japanese and American culture, all the while reflecting back on the author's own journey into the terrifying and hilarious world of adults.

    Accidental Empires is the trenchant, vastly readable history of that industry, focusing as much on the astoundingly odd personalities at its core—Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mitch Kapor, etc. and the hacker culture they spawned as it does on the remarkable technology they created. Cringely reveals the manias and foibles of these men (they are always men) with deadpan hilarity and cogently demonstrates how their neuroses have shaped the computer business. But Cringely gives us much more than high-tech voyeurism and insider gossip. From the birth of the transistor to the mid-life crisis of the computer industry, he spins a sweeping, uniquely American saga of creativity and ego that is at once uproarious, shocking and inspiring.