1. Computer History Books (that are worth reading)By
Rusty Keele

2. About Me Full time programmer Why this talk?
No particular order to the presentation of the books
I enjoy reading about the history of personal computing, I lived through a lot of it, thought I'd share some of the good books I've discovered

3. Audience Participation
I've read most of these books, but not all of them
If you've read any of these books, feel free to give your thoughts about it
These slides will be available for download

4. Many Ways to Get These Books
Library
Electronic versions
Some are freely available online
Online libraries
Safari Online Books
Kindle, Google Books, iTunes
Used Copies
eBay
Amazon
You don't have to buy new, dead-tree versions of these books!

6. Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer
by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine
1st edition in 1984
Revised 3rd edition in 2014
About: The first personal computers, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, IBM, computer culture
Talks about the development and history of:
Altair 880 computer
Homebrew computer club in Silicon valley
Software companies,
computer magazines
computer shows and retailers
Jobs and Woz
Bill Gates
IBM, Compaq and the clones
Some great stories of the early years of the personal computer
Basis for 1999 made for TV movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley"

8. Commodore: A Company on the Edge
by Brian Bagnall
2nd edition in 2010
About: MOS Technologies, processor, Commodore computers, company culture
Talks about:
MOS Technologies and the 6502 processor
Jack Tramiel, the found of Commodore Business Machines
Commodore's early days selling typewriters and hand-held calculators
The development and history of the Pet, Vic-20 and Commodore 64 and the ones that came later (128, +4, etc.)
The company culture at Commodore, and the high employee turnover rate
Designing and marketing Commodore computers
The pressure for industry trade shows
Intentional problems with the 1541 disk drive

10. The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
by Cliff Stoll
1st edition in 1989
About: How a 75¢ billing error led to the 10 month search for and capture of a German hacker selling information to the KGB!
Talks about:
In the mid 1980s Cliff Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab
A 75-cent accounting error alerted him to the presence of an unauthorized user on his system
The hacker was an invader from Germany who managed to break into U.S. computer systems and steal sensitive military and security information
Stoll began a one-man hunt of his own: spying on the spy and setting up an elaborate honey pot to trap the hacker
His one-man sting operation finally gained the attention of the CIA
They ultimately discovered and trapped an international spy ring fueled by cash, cocaine, and the KGB

12. Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic
by Brad King and John Borland
1st edition in 2003
About: Richard Garriott and the Ultima series of adventure games, and John Carmack, John Romera and Doom
Talks about:
Richard Garriott
Dungeons & Dragons lead to a desire for computer role playing games
The Ultima series - especially the unique play of Ultima IV (where a player's moral actions affected the game)
Early networked RPG games and how they gave users anonymity and freedom to explore
id Software company,
started by 4 people in including the 2 programmers John Carmack and John Romero
Doom and the first person shooter genre of computer games
Quake - first to have online multiplayer mode

14. Open: How Compaq Ended IBM's PC Domination and Helped Invent Modern Computing
by Rod Canion
1st edition in 2013
About: How 3 former Texas Instruments engineers created the first 100% IBM compatible computer, and launched the PC clone era.
Talks about:
Three ex-Texas Instruments managers founded Compaq in 1982
Legally reverse-engineered a 100% IBM compatible system
Created the Compaq Portable computer
In 1982 there was no software standardization, so every brand of personal computer required its own unique application software
Compaq lead the charge for ISA: industry standard architecture - and brought other PC vendors in
How IBM responded with the PS/2 and OS/2 - and we know how that turned out!

16. Programmers at Work: Interviews With 19 Programmers Who Shaped the Computer Industry
by Susan Lammers
1st edition in 1989
About: Interviews with programmers of famous computer software of the 1980s – including Bill Gates, Dan Bricklin (VisiCalc) and Gary Kildall (CP/M)
Talks about:
Interviews with some of the 1980s most famous and influential programmers
How they came up with products, how they like to write code, what they think of the software and computer industries
Dan Bricklin - VisiCalc
Bill Gates - MS Basic and MS DOS
Wayne Ratcliff – dBASE (created a database to help him win his office football pool, by processing the stats of each game!)
Gary Kildall - CP/M operating system
Mitch Kapor - Lotus 1-2-3
John Warnock - PostScript, PDF and Adobe Founder (Native of SLC, and U of U graduate!)

18. Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software
by Sam Williams
1st edition in 2002
About: A biography of RMS – brilliant programmer and eccentric defender of free software!
Read for free online!
Talks about:
Richard Stallman
brilliant coder and hacker at MIT
eccentric personality and iron will
the last of the old time hackers
The hacker culture of the 1970s (sharing software, aversion to central authority and corporations)
The GNU Project and The Free Software Foundation
GPL (GNU General Public License) and Copyleft

20. Almost Perfect by W. E. Peterson 1st edition in 1994
About: The history of WordPerfect as told by one of its first executives.
Read for free online!
Talks about:
Written by W E Pete Peterson - one of the first WordPerfect employees, worked for 11 years, basically ran the business side of the company the last few years
History of the development of the WP Word Processor
Bruce Bastian and Alan Ashton
How the company and product grew and competed with heavyweights like WordStar and MS Word
Talks about a lot of places in Orem, and the Utah culture (influenced by LDS church, aversion to debt)

22. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
by Steven Levy
1st edition in 1984
25th Anniversary edition in 2010
About: The people and events that defined the hacker culture of the 1970s and 1980s.
Talks about:
Tech Model Railroad club at MIT
Phreakers – figured out how to use tones to route long distance calls for free
The Hacker Ethic (
Access to computers—and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works—should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-on Imperative!
All information should be free.
Mistrust authority—promote decentralization.
Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race or position.
You can create art and beauty on a computer.
Computers can change your life for the better.)
Spacewar! game on the PDP-1
Ricky Greenblat - a hacker who wrote a chess program that beat a human
Altair 8800, Homebrew Computer Club, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak
West Coast Computer Faire
Online games and hacker

24. Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made
by Andy Hertzfeld
1st edition in 2011
About: One of the co-creators relates the development of the Apple Macintosh.
(From Wikipedia entry for this book)
by Andy Hertzfeld, one of the core members of the Macintosh development team
about the birth of the Apple Macintosh personal computer
The author was a core member of the team that built the Macintosh system software and the chief creator of the Mac's radical new user interface software
The book is a collection of anecdotes tracing the development of the Macintosh from a secret project in 1979 through its "triumphant introduction" in 1984
These anecdotes were originally published on the author's Folklore.org web site - which you can still read online for free

25. Discussion
Any other books that you would recommend?

26. The End rusty.keele@gmail.com Slides at c64sets.com/slides
Questions or comments?