Do You like book Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet (1998)?
The story of the various interlocking aspects of the internet isn't readily understood by the average user of its technologies. In fact, it would probably be safe to assume that most users believe that the origins of the internet came about in the late 1990s. Even with the often misrepresented quote from then-Presidential candidate Al Gore, the underlying technologies that comprise the internet remain a solid mystery to the typical internet denizen. "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" provides a wide-arching overview of where the technologies of packet-switching and TCP/IP came from, as well as that of the collaborative mainstay of business today - Electronic Mail. Furthermore, the book chronicles how the Internet of today evolved from a collaborative research tool (ARPANET) under the control of a small office in the Pentagon (ARPA, and then DARPA) into the commercial entity it has become today. Stripped of a lot of the technical concepts, Hafner and Lyon bring the compelling story of the pioneers of this wonderful collaborative communications tool that has come to be so fully integrated into our daily lives today. The last two chapters -- "Email" and "A Rocket on Our Hands" -- as well as the final Epilogue make the effort of reading the entire storyline worthwhile. I gladly set this book next to "Fire in the Valley" and "What the Dormouse Said" as excellent historical treatises on the developments during the pioneering phases of today's technological revolution. Very well worth the read.
—Tommy /|\
History of computer networks and the internet, including:- The founding of ARPA, spurred partially by the USSR's launch of Sputnik- The shift from batch-processing machines (punchcards, multi-day delay on getting the output of your program) to time-sharing (multiple users logged into a system via interactive terminal)- The invention of packet-switching networks (vs circuit switching, the standard at the time)- The creation of the IMP network interface (a refrigerator-sized computer) and first four nodes of the ARPAnet- Email, the killer feature / product-market fit for computer networking- The emergence of the RFC ("request for comments") for community-developed network standards- The invention of TCP/IP as an "internet" (meaning, linking several networks together) protocol- The invention of Ethernet and proliferation of local area networksGood stuff if you care about the topic area. Unfortunately it was a slog to read, perhaps because there are no big/central/story-worthy personalities in this history.Furthermore, the authors tend toward awkward phrasing. One example is in the title: "Where the wizards stay up late" is a strange turn of phrase.
—Adam Wiggins
I got turned onto this book because I read an article rebutting the central premise of a Wall Street Journal article about how private enterprise rather than government investment in basic research brought around the Internet. This book was cited as a definitive book about the beginnings of the Internet, so I gave it a spin.The first thing to understand is that this book is about the very basics of the creation of the Internet, the connections across networks. It only describes the initial connections of ARPANET in great detail and then some about the development of TCP/IP and Ethernet. The World Wide Web, domain names, and browsers get exactly 1 mention in the epilogue.Of that part, the book does a decent job of describing the creators and the technological difficulties and obstacles in creating the Internet. There are some flow problems and I had difficulty keeping in my head the important dates of the Internet. The first part of the book deals with the growth of ARPANET, then it transitions to a part about email (which covers over some of the same period), then TCP/IP and Ethernet (which again covers over the same time). The early 1970's was an explosion in the Internet technology and a lot was happening concurrently so it's difficult to keep the dates and what was going on all in my mind. A timeline would have greatly helped or a better breakdown of the subject material.The book was written in 1995 on the 25th anniversary of the beginnings of ARPANET, so it's not informed about how much the Internet has spread. Imagine an Internet when Facebook, Youtube, and Google didn't exist and that's the environment that this book was written in. Additionally, the subject isn't particularly exciting and the book itself is pretty dry. However, for people interested in the beginnings of the Internet, this is good read.FAQ: The Government funded the beginning and encouraged the growth of the Internet. And no, it was not for maintaining communications during a nuclear war.
—Michael