Where Wizards Stay Up Late : The Origins of the Internet

Rating:
Summary: Great Reading...!
Review: I enjoyed reading this book, especially the section concening BBN's development team that created the IMP (Interface Message Processor). I also wish I could meet and talk to one of the software developers Will Crowthers. This book is excellent on reporting the hardware and software grut work it took to build and establish what is now known today as the internet. I would like to thank the authors for providing this information.

Rating:
Summary: A fun and educational book for all internet users
Review: I enjoyed this book tremendously. The authors capture the mood and history extremely well, and manage to make the reader feel like they are there watching the ARPAnet unfold right in front of them. The book is thoroughly researched, and provides just enough technical information that the lay person can follow. It's been especially fun learning the origins of the internet conventions, such as the @ sign and emoticons, that we take for granted in our daily use. A must read for any regular user of the internet who wishes to understand it a little better.

Rating:
Summary: Good book on the history of the Internet
Review: I first learned about computer networks in college in my (what else?) Computer Networks class as part of my Computer Science degree. This book dovetailed well with the technical knowledge I learned from Andrew Tanenbaum's COMPUTER NETWORKS book.

This book is easily readable to the layman; it doesn't get bogged down too much on the technical parts of networks or the Internet. One poignant point is J.C.R Licklider's dream that a network would allow people to be able to communicate so much more faster that retrieving information and communicating their views would influence the government. To some extent, Licklider's vision was correct (the ultimate test will be China's attempt to control the flow of information on the Internet).

The book also reveals some colossal failures, like AT&T's blindness to the opportunities that the Internet offered or when BBN did not go into the router business because they did not see an emerging market. And some amusing stories are told but some of these are a bit distracting to the main thrust of the book.

It's a good book though, and very well researched.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most interesting books I've ever read!
Review: I knew what it was about and I honestly didn't think anyone could make an interesting, even exciting book out of this subject. I couldn't put it down. Spending most of my career in the data processing world; I could relate to much that was discussed in the book. I found the description of the personalities (especially Licklider) involved in the creation of the 'net, to be the glue that held the story together.I also liked the way the authors explained many of the technical issues, some of which I did not understand before reading the book. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in a good story about technological invention

Rating:
Summary: I'm recommending this book and another
Review: I read this book while writing the latest edition of my "Encyclopedia of Networking." This is a great read, along with "Casting the Net" by Peter Salus. If you're interested, I've posted my reviews under the Salus book.

Rating:
Summary: A great history of the internet from its beginnings in the 6
Review: I received this book as a christmas present this year(thanks mom and dad and to Anirvan who recommended it to me) A great history of the internet from its beginnings in the 60's until about 1994. My only complaint about this book is that it doesn't go far enough. There is no discussion of the creation of the www or web browsers. They are only mentioned in passing at the end.

Rating:
Summary: Good Book.
Review: I'm a software engineer who has recently become interested in the history of computing. I thought this book was well written. The personalities of the primary players in the invention of the computer network are brought to life. It's interesting to see how little has changed with programmer personalities since the early days. The development of the ARPAnet is covered in good detail. The chapters dealing with the subsequent evolution of the ARPAnet into the Internet and the growth of the Internet are less detailed but still interesting. It had the right blend of technical detail and human detail to make me happy, but I suspect less technical people might find parts of it boring.

Rating:
Summary: Great intro. to the Internet,
Review: I'm reading a series of technology-history books at the moment, this one, 'The Triumph of Ethernet' and 'how the Web was born'. This is definitely the place to start - a clear, fast paced tale of the various characters behind networked computers in late 1960's and 70's. Essentially this book describes the origin of human computer interfacing which became networking theory in the North East United States in the late 1950's and '60s.
The first computer network was called ARPANET, an outcome of inspired technology-development policy from ARPA -the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a part of the Defense Dept. The story is laid out chronologically without too much techspeak, and brings up a number of questions.
One question that seemed clearer to me at the end of the book was that ARPANET was the first mover towards internetworked computers, but from the story it is clear that it was a series of hardware computers which acted as 'routers' of information and that the heartbeat of the internet, as we have come to know it, is the communications protocol [called TCP/IP, specified by Vint Cerf, among others] which allowed the various messages to be interpreted by the different computers. TCP/IP and Cerf are almost incidental to this book, which is a pity.
Other topics covered are the initiation and development of E-mail and how the non-hierarchical, informal communications process among academics came to be the spirit of communications in the internet as a whole - something which is not altogether obvious from its origins in the Defense Dept. For me, the other big revelation was the speed of the adoption of the internet (even in days before the World Wide Web) and how the originators of the ARPANET were happy to allow it to be made obsolete by technological development. No one mentioned in this book seemed to want to (or know how to) commericialize the technology which they were working so feverishly to implement.
For those of a technical persuasion there are plenty of references to the various papers which moved the various technologies forward. This book is a great first taste for those who want to dip into the subject, gives a realistic description of the 'wizards' who had the weird and wacky ideas which we now rely on , and the text includes enough 'beef' to indicate how to dig deeper into the detail.

Rating:
Summary: Great intro. to the Internet,
Review: I'm reading a series of technology-history books at the moment, this one, `The Triumph of Ethernet' and `how the Web was born'. This is definitely the place to start - a clear, fast paced tale of the various characters behind networked computers in late 1960's and 70's. Essentially this book describes the origin of human computer interfacing which became networking theory in the North East United States in the late 1950's and `60s.
The first computer network was called ARPANET, an outcome of inspired technology-development policy from ARPA -the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a part of the Defense Dept. The story is laid out chronologically without too much techspeak, and brings up a number of questions.
One question that seemed clearer to me at the end of the book was that ARPANET was the first mover towards internetworked computers, but from the story it is clear that it was a series of hardware computers which acted as `routers' of information and that the heartbeat of the internet, as we have come to know it, is the communications protocol [called TCP/IP, specified by Vint Cerf, among others] which allowed the various messages to be interpreted by the different computers. TCP/IP and Cerf are almost incidental to this book, which is a pity.
Other topics covered are the initiation and development of E-mail and how the non-hierarchical, informal communications process among academics came to be the spirit of communications in the internet as a whole - something which is not altogether obvious from its origins in the Defense Dept. For me, the other big revelation was the speed of the adoption of the internet (even in days before the World Wide Web) and how the originators of the ARPANET were happy to allow it to be made obsolete by technological development. No one mentioned in this book seemed to want to (or know how to) commericialize the technology which they were working so feverishly to implement.
For those of a technical persuasion there are plenty of references to the various papers which moved the various technologies forward. This book is a great first taste for those who want to dip into the subject, gives a realistic description of the `wizards' who had the weird and wacky ideas which we now rely on , and the text includes enough `beef' to indicate how to dig deeper into the detail.

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: If you need something to help you fall asleep, this is the book for you. Boring and very dry.