This book might help. (I haven't read it, I just remember seeing it and putting it on my Amazon wish-list for a mythical time when I'm off work for long enough that reading code recreationally seems like a good idea.)
The Apollo Guidance Compute: Architecture and Operation is an excellent explanation of how the AGC functioned. Highly recomended. For those of you at university, your institution's library probably has access to the PDFs through Springer Link.
Linus wrote a book called Just for fun about this whole thing. It's a pretty nice read if you like Linus' style of storytelling.
Actually, this would be the book:
The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation
It's actually really good, but holy COW is it dense and technical.
> Jobs took the idea and did the groundwork, bill gates copied from the prototype jobs had lent him and the rest is history.
This is not entirely accurate. Jobs like to say he invented the idea of a graphical interface with windowing, but the reality is that he stole the idea from Xerox. He certainly improved what Xerox was doing, but he still stole it. Same with the iPod. He took someone elses idea and improved it. Here is another one - Microsoft actually had tablets way before the iPad. I recall testing them out in the late 90's. They failed because they hardware was too bulky. So yet another claim by Jobs is incorrect. I will grant that he was instrumental in furthering smart phone, music services and perhaps video streaming services, but he is not the innovator that many people claim he is.
Read his biography - he was an asshole, he took credit for the work of many other people, he was childishly vindictive and definitely accelerated his own death.
If anyone is interested I did a talk on the evolution of the checkout at an e-commerce meet-up and while researching tracked it down to here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Dormouse-Said-Counterculture-Personal/dp/0143036769 Page 109 starting at line 8
I liked The Innovators by Walter Isaacson. It goes into non-internet subjects but the reader can skip those chapters if s/he isn't interested. When you put the other chapters together, you have the history of the Internet.
https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Hackers-Geniuses-Created-Revolution/dp/1476708703
I’d highly recommend the book “The Innovators” by Walter Isaacson.
Click link below for amazon description of book.
It's a quote from Doug McIlroy describing the unix philosophy. He was one of the Bell Labs team in the early unix days along with KEN, DMR, BWK, et al. He may even have been the department head in 1207 when Ken and Dennis started mucking around with that old PDP-7. I'm nearly certain her was the a department head eventually. There's a bunch of good books on the subject including BWK's recent memoir-y book which I recently read myself and quite enjoyed.
If you are curious about his (and Steves) motivation I recommend the book Hackers . I agree some people acquire wealth to compensate for tiny ****s, but there are other reasons
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution is an overview of the history of computer science and the Digital Revolution. It was written by Walter Isaacson, and published in 2014 by Simon & Schuster.
The book summarizes the contributions of several innovators who have made pivotal breakthroughs in computer technology and its applications—from the world's first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, and Alan Turing's work in artificial intelligence, through the Information Age of the present.
https://lmgtfy.app/?q=sealioning
Third time now you have asked for a very stupid and easily answerable question so I would say you are sealioning hard.
I know you won't read a single word of it but putting the link here for any poor sod who actually is interested and is reading this;
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1441908765
Physical controls and the computing power necessary to fly, was way too heavy to fit on the Apollo missions, especially with the extra weight of life support. The manned spacecraft were all still piloted by the ground crew just like all the previously unmanned missions were.
That's all the fish you get buddy.
One less-known, but nevertheless good autobiographical novel would be Just for Fun by Linus Torvalds, where he describes the process of creating Linux https://www.amazon.com/Just-Fun-Story-Accidental-Revolutionary/dp/0066620732
This is not as directly applicable to day-to-day development as the other great suggestions here, but I really enjoyed this history of Unix by Brian Kernighan. Its easily digestible and a really interesting picture of how Unix grew, and some of the culture in Bell Labs at the time.
https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/dp/1695978552
>The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation, Frank O'Brien:
>
>Internal and external systems of units
>
>Mission programs in the AGC maintain their internal measurement system in metric,recognizing its importance as the standard notation in science. Crews, however, desired English units in all the displays.
AGC = Apollo Guidance Computer, the thing which was integral part of the moon landing.
I recommend reading Linus Torvalds’ book. He wrote his own open source kernel (LINUX) to function similarly to UNIX. It is still open source and separate from Unix but shared a ton of characteristics with Unix so software/application work on both platforms. Since they are similar, they are often referred to as *nix.
Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary https://www.amazon.com/dp/0066620732/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_Y3HA7Z1Q76TXM5YHPNX8
I wouldn’t say Apple winged it but it was a remarkable do or die moment. According to the book they worked out a path in which the demo could work without crashing. One mistake in what order to do it would have crashed the phone. Instead of one of the biggest wows in tech history we would have had something completely different. Think Steve Ballmer.
Also remember that this is in August and the phones go on sale six months later.
https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537
If you'd like a good article that explains both the hardware and software of the lunar lander, and also describes a bit about an epic hack NASA had to pull off to ensure Apollo 14 was able to land correctly, I worked with Apollo Guidance Computer historian & expert Frank O'Brien (this guy) to produce this article:
A deep dive into the Apollo Guidance Computer, and the hack that saved Apollo 14
The Innovators by Walter Isaacson. It's a history of how we go to where we are now with computers. The Audio book version is very easy to listen to and follow.
https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Hackers-Geniuses-Created-Revolution/dp/1476708703
Hell yeah, I'm halfway through Countdown to Zero Day. Stuxnet is nuts.
Get the book <u>Countdown to Zero Day</u>. It's basically a start to finish examination of Stuxnet, Flame, etc. that were targeted @ Iran's nuclear enrichment. Fantastic read.
>I'm not really into people using my language as the replacement, but I would rather that the language that underpins everything is one I can look up to rather than down upon.
>
>C looks like something put together as a joke, or a student project thrown together over a weekend. (Here are some observations about C; I've listed only things that my language fixes.)
This statement just feels rude, arrogant or both really. I recently read https://www.amazon.com/dp/1695978552 which is an interesting story around how Unix and C in general come about. The tools those guys gave the world, including C, (sure right place, right time) really underpin so much of the world these days. Remember if you look at a tree its easy to trace from the leaf to the trunk, but harder to-do the reverse.
This isn't to say is perfect; far from it. But - and here's the key - there isn't a perfect language , because we're all different.
You think your language is superior because the issues you've highlighted are the ones you don't like - but maybe other don't care?
For example, I don't care about '=' vs ':=' where as some people will fight to the death over it. (or ';' or no ';', since I prefer ';' but its only a preference.)
How C became popular is well documented - and even the creators state they didn't realise how popular it would be. Problem is, if you think there's one language to rule them all, you end up using tools like C for huge scale programs, of which its much less suited to. Java/C# are generally better choices for the masses these days.
My conclusion, is that you like your language, because you are you, and fair play, since most of us don't create our own language to the point we can use them only. But some of us will still like C, warts and all.
I suppose we can't all right such clean code as: var s ichar := (args[i]|args[i]|"NULL")
The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder was a book that I read when I was a small child. (Er.. I had eclectic tastes.) It goes through the details of engineering a machine back in 1980, which is a time when a whole lot more about computer architecture was in flux than it is today, so you get to see a lot of different ideas fleshed out and explored. Not quite an alternate history of computing, but you can see hints of it around the edges.
I expect he means Unix: a History and a memoir. https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/dp/1695978552/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=unix+a+history+and+a+memoir&qid=1605569339&sprefix=unix+a+&sr=8-1
Well, you're right. However, being a amazon affiliate is a conflict of interest for me.
This is how I got the link. I went to amazon, I searched for "what the dormouse said", I clicked on the link to the book and I copied that link. It should be the same. I'll do it now.
Im thinking the qid is some sort of session tracker.
I went here to see how affiliates get credit and the parameter "TAG" has to be in the URL
notice, my link does not have that parameter so nobody gets credit from any sale of the book. I just wanted to share the book with people, I'm surprised people accuse me of trying to profit (not that there is anything wrong with that in "capitalism"), but nobody gets money here from any sale except amazon.
The Innovators by Walter Isaacson is a fun and informative read, but it only profiles a handful of contributors to the field.
​
Additionally, Amazon has an entire category of books that fit your description. Cheers!
I loved how the first half of Zetter’s book was written like a mystery. Researchers keep revealing more and more zero days and realizing how many millions of dollars had to go into this mystery virus with no clear purpose.
If anyone else who’s reading this is interested, here’s the book
I'd suggest reading UNIX: A History and a Memoir and at least the first chapter of The UNIX Programming Environment.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1695978552?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share https://www.amazon.com/dp/9332550255?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Also highly recommend all of Walter Issacson’s biographies on Jobs, Ben Franklin, Da Vinci,,Einstein, and the Digital evolution biography “innovators “ which covers history of all things digital from Ada Lovelace to Google. https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Hackers-Geniuses-Created-Revolution/dp/1476708703
<em>The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution</em> by Walter Isaacson is a story of the various people who created the computer and the internet.