The Soul of a New Machine


Tracy Kidder - 1981
    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

The Official Ubuntu Book [With DVD]


Benjamin Mako Hill - 2006
    It's friendly, accessible, and reliable -- all qualities that apply to its official guidebook, too. This book captures the welcoming feel of the Ubuntu community, inviting you to get involved both as user and participant. But it also covers all the techniques you need to succeed happily with Ubuntu: from installation and configuration to "office applications," CD burning to instant messaging, networking to troubleshooting. There are plenty of specific answers: how to make Ubuntu run faster on older computers; better coexistence with Windows; fixes for balky microphones and scroll-wheel mice; tips for recovering lost system passwords, and much more. You'll even find chapters on Kubuntu (Ubuntu preconfigured with the KDE graphical user interface) and Edubuntu (Ubuntu optimized for schools). Plus, instant gratification: This book's DVD contains the full 7.0.4 "Feisty Fawn" distribution. Bill Camarda, from the October 2007 href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/newslet... Only

Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution


Fred Vogelstein - 2013
    At the center of this change are Apple and Google, two companies whose philosophies, leaders, and commercial acumen have steamrolled the competition. In the age of the Android and the iPad, these corporations are locked in a feud that will play out not just in the marketplace but in the courts and on screens around the world.     Fred Vogelstein has reported on this rivalry for more than a decade and has rare access to its major players. In Dogfight, he takes us into the offices and board rooms where company dogma translates into ruthless business; behind outsize personalities like Steve Jobs, Apple’s now-lionized CEO, and Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman; and inside the deals, lawsuits, and allegations that mold the way we communicate. Apple and Google are poaching each other’s employees. They bid up the price of each other’s acquisitions for spite, and they forge alliances with major players like Facebook and Microsoft in pursuit of market dominance.     Dogfight reads like a novel: vivid nonfiction with never-before-heard details. This is more than a story about what devices will replace our phones and laptops. It’s about who will control the content on those devices and where that content will come from—about the future of media in Silicon Valley, New York, and Hollywood.

How to Count (Programming for Mere Mortals, #1)


Steven Frank - 2011
    unsigned numbers- Floating point and fixed point arithmeticThis short, easily understood book will quickly get you thinking like a programmer.

The Nostalgia Nerd's Retro Tech: Computer, Consoles & Games


Peter Leigh - 2018
    Remember what a wild frontier the early days of home gaming were? Manufacturers releasing new consoles at a breakneck pace; developers creating games that kept us up all night, then going bankrupt the next day; and what self-respecting kid didn't beg their parents for an Atari or a Nintendo? This explosion of computers, consoles, and games was genuinely unlike anything the tech world has seen before or since.This thoroughly researched and geeky trip down memory lane pulls together the most entertaining stories from this dynamic era, and brings you the classic tech that should never be forgotten.

The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media and Technology Success of Our Time


David A. Vise - 2005
    The Google Story takes you deep inside the company's wild ride from an idea that struggled for funding in 1998 to a firm that rakes in billions in profits, making Brin and Page the wealthiest young men in America. Based on scrupulous research and extraordinary access to Google, this fast-moving narrative reveals how an unorthodox management style and culture of innovation enabled a search engine to shake up Madison Avenue and Wall Street, scoop up YouTube, and battle Microsoft at every turn. Not afraid of controversy, Google is expanding in Communist China and quietly working on a searchable genetic database, initiatives that test the founders' guiding mantra: DON'T BE EVIL.

In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives


Steven Levy - 2011
    How has Google done it? Veteran technology reporter Steven Levy was granted unprecedented access to the company, and in this revelatory book he takes readers inside Google headquarters—the Googleplex—to show how Google works.While they were still students at Stanford, Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin revolutionized Internet search. They followed this brilliant innovation with another, as two of Google’s earliest employees found a way to do what no one else had: make billions of dollars from Internet advertising. With this cash cow, Google was able to expand dramatically and take on other transformative projects: more efficient data centers, open-source cell phones, free Internet video (YouTube), cloud computing, digitizing books, and much more.The key to Google’s success in all these businesses, Levy reveals, is its engineering mind-set and adoption of such Internet values as speed, openness, experimentation, and risk taking. After its unapologetically elitist approach to hiring, Google pampers its engineers—free food and dry cleaning, on-site doctors and masseuses—and gives them all the resources they need to succeed. Even today, with a workforce of more than 23,000, Larry Page signs off on every hire.But has Google lost its innovative edge? With its newest initiative, social networking, Google is chasing a successful competitor for the first time. Some employees are leaving the company for smaller, nimbler start-ups. Can the company that famously decided not to be evil still compete?No other book has ever turned Google inside out as Levy does with In the Plex.

Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary


Linus Torvalds - 2001
    Then he wrote a groundbreaking operating system and distributed it via the Internet -- for free. Today Torvalds is an international folk hero. And his creation LINUX is used by over 12 million people as well as by companies such as IBM.Now, in a narrative that zips along with the speed of e-mail, Torvalds gives a history of his renegade software while candidly revealing the quirky mind of a genius. The result is an engrossing portrayal of a man with a revolutionary vision, who challenges our values and may change our world.

The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage


Clifford Stoll - 1989
    citizen recognized its ominous potential. Armed with clear evidence of computer espionage, he began a highly personal quest to expose a hidden network of spies that threatened national security. But would the authorities back him up? Cliff Stoll's dramatic firsthand account is "a computer-age detective story, instantly fascinating [and] astonishingly gripping" (Smithsonian). Cliff Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab when a 75-cent accounting error alerted him to the presence of an unauthorized user on his system. The hacker's code name was "Hunter" -- a mysterious invader who managed to break into U.S. computer systems and steal sensitive military and security information. Stoll began a one-man hunt of his own: spying on the spy. It was a dangerous game of deception, broken codes, satellites, and missile bases -- a one-man sting operation that finally gained the attention of the CIA...and ultimately trapped an international spy ring fueled by cash, cocaine, and the KGB.

Microsoft Windows Internals: Microsoft Windows Server(TM) 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 (Pro-Developer)


Mark E. Russinovich - 2004
    This classic guide—fully updated for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000, including 64-bit extensions—describes the architecture and internals of the Windows operating system. You’ll find hands-on experiments you can use to experience Windows internal behavior firsthand, along with advanced troubleshooting information to help you keep your systems running smoothly and efficiently. Whether you’re a developer or a system administrator, you’ll find critical architectural insights that you can quickly apply for better design, debugging, performance, and support.Get in-depth, inside knowledge of the Windows operating system: Understand the key mechanisms that configure and control Windows, including dispatching, startup and shutdown, and the registry Explore the Windows security model, including access, privileges, and auditing Investigate internal system architecture using the kernel debugger and other tools Examine the data structures and algorithms that deal with processes, threads, and jobs Observe how Windows manages virtual and physical memory Understand the operation and format of NTFS, and troubleshoot file system access problems View the Windows networking stack from top to bottom, including mapping, APIs, name resolution, and protocol drivers Troubleshoot boot problems and perform crash analysis

AngularJS: Up and Running: Enhanced Productivity with Structured Web Apps


Shyam Seshadri - 2014
    By the end of the book, you'll understand how to develop a large, maintainable, and performant application with AngularJS.Guided by two engineers who worked on AngularJS at Google, you'll learn the components needed to build data-driven applications, using declarative programming and the Model-view-controller pattern. You'll also learn how to conduct unit tests on each part of your application.Learn how to use controllers for moving data to and from viewsUnderstand when to use AngularJS services instead of controllersCommunicate with the server to store, fetch, and update data asynchronouslyKnow when to use AngularJS filters for converting data and values to different formatsImplement single-page applications, using ngRoute to select views and navigationDive into basic and advanced directives for creating reusable componentsWrite an end-to-end test on a live version of your entire applicationUse best practices, guidelines, and tools throughout the development cycle

I Am Error: The Nintendo Family Computer / Entertainment System Platform


Nathan Altice - 2015
    In the 1987 Nintendo Entertainment System videogame Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, a character famously declared: I AM ERROR. Puzzled players assumed that this cryptic mesage was a programming flaw, but it was actually a clumsy Japanese-English translation of "My Name is Error," a benign programmer's joke. In I AM ERROR Nathan Altice explores the complex material histories of the Nintendo Entertainment System (and its Japanese predecessor, the Family Computer), offering a detailed analysis of its programming and engineering, its expressive affordances, and its cultural significance.Nintendo games were rife with mistranslated texts, but, as Altice explains, Nintendo's translation challenges were not just linguistic but also material, with consequences beyond simple misinterpretation. Emphasizing the technical and material evolution of Nintendo's first cartridge-based platform, Altice describes the development of the Family Computer (or Famicom) and its computational architecture; the "translation" problems faced while adapting the Famicom for the U.S. videogame market as the redesigned Entertainment System; Nintendo's breakthrough console title Super Mario Bros. and its remarkable software innovations; the introduction of Nintendo's short-lived proprietary disk format and the design repercussions on The Legend of Zelda; Nintendo's efforts to extend their console's lifespan through cartridge augmentations; the Famicom's Audio Processing Unit (APU) and its importance for the chiptunes genre; and the emergence of software emulators and the new kinds of play they enabled.

The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World


Pedro Domingos - 2015
    In The Master Algorithm, Pedro Domingos lifts the veil to give us a peek inside the learning machines that power Google, Amazon, and your smartphone. He assembles a blueprint for the future universal learner--the Master Algorithm--and discusses what it will mean for business, science, and society. If data-ism is today's philosophy, this book is its bible.

The Basics of Digital Forensics: The Primer for Getting Started in Digital Forensics


John Sammons - 2011
    This book teaches you how to conduct examinations by explaining what digital forensics is, the methodologies used, key technical concepts and the tools needed to perform examinations. Details on digital forensics for computers, networks, cell phones, GPS, the cloud, and Internet are discussed. Readers will also learn how to collect evidence, document the scene, and recover deleted data. This is the only resource your students need to get a jump-start into digital forensics investigations.This book is organized into 11 chapters. After an introduction to the basics of digital forensics, the book proceeds with a discussion of key technical concepts. Succeeding chapters cover labs and tools; collecting evidence; Windows system artifacts; anti-forensics; Internet and email; network forensics; and mobile device forensics. The book concludes by outlining challenges and concerns associated with digital forensics. PowerPoint lecture slides are also available.This book will be a valuable resource for entry-level digital forensics professionals as well as those in complimentary fields including law enforcement, legal, and general information security.

Tmux 2: Productive Mouse-Free Development


Brian P. Hogan - 2016
    The time you spend context switching between your editor and your consoles eats away at your productivity. Take control of your environment with tmux, a terminal multiplexer that you can tailor to your workflow. With this updated second edition for tmux 2.3, you'll customize, script, and leverage tmux's unique abilities to craft a productive terminal environment that lets you keep your fingers on your keyboard's home row.You have a database console, web server, test runner, and text editor running at the same time, but switching between them and trying to find what you need takes up valuable time and breaks your concentration. By using tmux 2.3, you can improve your productivity and regain your focus. This book will show you how.This second edition includes many features requested by readers, including how to integrate plugins into your workflow, how to integrate tmux with Vim for seamless navigation - oh, and how to use tmux on Windows 10.Use tmux to manage multiple terminal sessions in a single window using only your keyboard. Manage and run programs side by side in panes, and create the perfect development environment with custom scripts so that when you're ready to work, your programs are waiting for you. Manipulate text with tmux's copy and paste buffers, so you can move text around freely between applications. Discover how easy it is to use tmux to collaborate remotely with others, and explore more advanced usage as you manage multiple tmux sessions, add custom scripts into the tmux status line, and integrate tmux with your system.Whether you're an application developer or a system administrator, you'll find many useful tricks and techniques to help you take control of your terminal.