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| Original Title: | Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution |
| ISBN: | 0141000511 (ISBN13: 9780141000510) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Steven Levy
Paperback | Pages: 464 pages Rating: 4.14 | 6926 Users | 391 Reviews
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| Title | : | Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution |
| Author | : | Steven Levy |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 464 pages |
| Published | : | January 1st 2001 by Penguin Books (first published 1984) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. History. Science. Technology. Computer Science. Computers. Programming |
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A mere fifteen years ago, computer nerds were seen as marginal weirdos, outsiders whose world would never resonate with the mainstream. That was before one pioneering work documented the underground computer revolution that was about to change our world forever. With groundbreaking profiles of Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club, and more, Steven Levy's Hackers brilliantly captured a seminal moment when the risk-takers and explorers were poised to conquer twentieth-century America's last great frontier. And in the Internet age, the hacker ethic-first espoused here-is alive and well.Rating Out Of Books Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
Ratings: 4.14 From 6926 Users | 391 ReviewsCriticize Out Of Books Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
I'm still sort of processing this book a week later. All the status updates I posted are notes I wrote on paper while I was reading, alas I ran out of scraps while sick in bed, somewhere around pg 350. (the goodreads entry says this has more pages than the copy I have, btw.)Note: this is a really long and somewhat rambling review.A few themes stick out, notably West coast vs East coast. No, seriously. The first section is all MIT hackers, the other two are west coast focused (hippie hackers and* Hacker Ethic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_...) is different from the black hat hacker stereotype.* History by decades of what meant to be a hacker, includes some parts of icons like Bill Gates, Stye Wozniak, and John Draper.* Overview of computer evolution and birth of new industries such as Gaming.
This book is a brilliant breakdown of the different generation of hackers. It was fascinating to read about these legendary hackers and how their inquisitiveness and passion led them do the unthinkable.While you read the book, you realize how less we have achieved in AI considering the concept dated back more than 60 years ago. What we call open source today was what the first generation of hackers truly lived by. Code was freely accessible through paper tapes left in the drawers of the lab to
I confess I couldn't finish it!
This was somewhat mediocre. The book started ok, with the AI lab in MIT and the hackers there, but then got into some stuff which has nothing to do with hacking in any form, and the focus on Sierra On-line is unjustified.All things considered, not a useful book beyond the first 100-150 pages.
I loved this book. It is a documentary about various aspects of computing. The first part is utterly excellent. It is about the birth of the "hacker ethic" around the DEC PDP machine in the MIT AI Lab. It is very funny and very inspiring. Some of the people in that section of the book have disappeared into obscurity, so the book is amazing for capturing this lost part of tech history. The second part is about the personal computer revolution. It covers the Altair machine, the Apple I / II and
F'n awesome, obviously. Everyone should have read this by now, or by several years ago rather.
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