Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive Historical Overview
Review: A graduate course in a book! A tour through historical theories, accounts, and events that made up the development of the modern computer and the Net. Far more extensive than just the story of Kicklider, a historical overview of many of the minds at that time and the events that converged to form the new informaton era.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive Historical Overview
Review: A graduate course in a book! A tour through historical theories, accounts, and events that made up the development of the modern computer and the Net. Far more extensive than just the story of Kicklider, a historical overview of many of the minds at that time and the events that converged to form the new informaton era.
Rating:
Summary: Best History of Computer Science
Review: Everyone has heard about the amazing ideas and systems from Xerox PARC, but few realize that this lab was was the culmination of JCR Licklider's vision of personal, interactive computing, not its birthplace. Licklider provided the vision and impetus to form the ARPA-funded core of computer science research, which lead to Douglas Englebart's windows and mice, Xerox PARC's innovations, and the Internet. The next time that you hear someone saying that government can't do anything well, give them a copy of this book.This book is a fascinating, well-written exposition of Licklider's life and work, and even more interestingly, the birth of computer science in the United States. I've never before seen this story as a continuous whole, as opposed to a collection of independent breakthroughs. It is a fascinating narrative, and this is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you Mitchell Waldrop
Review: For all of us who knew Licklider, were inspired by him, and hold him with fond affection in our memories, thank you Mitchell Waldrop for this very special book. It is an excellent account of the history of computing, containing a wealth of individual recollections and factual material not found elsewhere. What makes the book sparkle is the way it brings Lick back to life, according him a humanity and warmth that describe him perfectly. The reminiscences of his wife, Louise, deserve particular mention. They are honest, revealing, and very touching. Computing is a field in which credit is constantly debated, fiercely contested, and must always be taken with a grain of salt. Where Waldrop scores a bull's-eye is in portraying Licklider, whatever the direct chain of his influence may or may not have been, as the personification of personal computing and the Internet. Lick was a wellspring of enthusiasm and ideas, the kind that over time run deep and true. His administrative shortcomings may have exasperated colleagues at times -- and Waldrop does not shy away from telling that part of the story -- but we need little encouragement to accept these frailties as just one more indication of what was surely a rare combination of humanness, brilliance, and charm.
Rating:
Summary: Where it all came from
Review: For anyone interested in why computers and the net are the way they are today, this entertaining and well-written account is essential. Using Licklider as the fulcrum, it covers the origins of computer science, interactive computing, and the internetworked PC world we live with today in a very personal way. It provides an insight into how these ideas evolved and how the personalities behind them animated that evolution. It is admittedly a very MIT/ARPA centric history, but given that's where many of these ideas had their genesis, it does a good job of covering a large amount of the territory of modern computing history. The one question the book leaves unanswered is why the field has not evolved further in the last twenty years. After all, as Waldrop demonstrates, the seeds of what we take for granted today were demonstrably in place 20-25 years ago.
Rating:
Summary: Where it all came from
Review: For anyone interested in why computers and the net are the way they are today, this entertaining and well-written account is essential. Using Licklider as the fulcrum, it covers the origins of computer science, interactive computing, and the internetworked PC world we live with today in a very personal way. It provides an insight into how these ideas evolved and how the personalities behind them animated that evolution. It is admittedly a very MIT/ARPA centric history, but given that's where many of these ideas had their genesis, it does a good job of covering a large amount of the territory of modern computing history. The one question the book leaves unanswered is why the field has not evolved further in the last twenty years. After all, as Waldrop demonstrates, the seeds of what we take for granted today were demonstrably in place 20-25 years ago.
Rating:
Summary: M. Mitchell Waldrop's, The Dream Machine
Review: I read every page as quickly as my reading time permitted. It is excellent and covers the history of the Internet and associated matters, written around Licklider's thoughts and philsophy from start to today. But it is far more than a story about Licklider. It covers sketchs of the contributions of John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, J. Presper Eckert, John Mauchly, Claude Shannon and a dozen others. Then it takes up Licklider's fruitful stay at Bolt Beranek & Newman, Inc., followed by his service for ARPA and how he spread time sharing across the country by government financing. His long story about Project MAC at MIT which grew from ARPA contracts is highly informative. ARPA's moneys helped bring to fame some of the best known names in computer technology today. An ARPA contract led to the building of the ARPANET by BBN (after Lick returned to MIT), which when the ARPANET adopted the TCP/IP protocol, signaled the birth of the Internet. I was intrigued by the history of computer developments at Xerox's PARC Laboratory and how a "blind" management can kill a group's great innovations. The book ends with Licklider becoming an elder brother to Lick's Kids at MIT, his 70th birthday party, and his last days. This book is a must if you are interested in the growth of networking and computer usage as told around the life of a great man.
Rating:
Summary: M. Mitchell Waldrop's, The Dream Machine
Review: I read every page as quickly as my reading time permitted. It is excellent and covers the history of the Internet and associated matters, written around Licklider's thoughts and philsophy from start to today. But it is far more than a story about Licklider. It covers sketchs of the contributions of John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, J. Presper Eckert, John Mauchly, Claude Shannon and a dozen others. Then it takes up Licklider's fruitful stay at Bolt Beranek & Newman, Inc., followed by his service for ARPA and how he spread time sharing across the country by government financing. His long story about Project MAC at MIT which grew from ARPA contracts is highly informative. ARPA's moneys helped bring to fame some of the best known names in computer technology today. An ARPA contract led to the building of the ARPANET by BBN (after Lick returned to MIT), which when the ARPANET adopted the TCP/IP protocol, signaled the birth of the Internet. I was intrigued by the history of computer developments at Xerox's PARC Laboratory and how a "blind" management can kill a group's great innovations. The book ends with Licklider becoming an elder brother to Lick's Kids at MIT, his 70th birthday party, and his last days. This book is a must if you are interested in the growth of networking and computer usage as told around the life of a great man.
Rating:
Summary: Must read & reference as origins of modern computing & net
Review: I was a ms reviewer of this complete, but very readable book based on JCR Licklider's vision of interactive and networked computing. It covers almost 50 years of computing. Why most of us need a copy:
It presents an accurate and quite complete history of the research and ideas that include timesharing, personal computing, graphics, Internet, etc. I use it to check my memory on various facts. The book is well written = easy and pleasant reading.
Rating:
Summary: Must read & reference as origins of modern computing & net
Review: I was a ms reviewer of this complete, but very readable book based on JCR Licklider's vision of interactive and networked computing. It covers almost 50 years of computing. Why most of us need a copy:
It presents an accurate and quite complete history of the research and ideas that include timesharing, personal computing, graphics, Internet, etc. I use it to check my memory on various facts. The book is well written = easy and pleasant reading.
|
