Where Wizards Stay Up Late
The Origins of the Internet
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Where Wizards Stay Up Late
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Narrated by:
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Mark Douglas Nelson
About this listen
Twenty-five years ago, it didn't exist. Today, 20 million people worldwide are surfing the Net. Where Wizards Stay Up Late is the exciting story of the pioneers responsible for creating the most talked about, most influential, and most far-reaching communications breakthrough since the invention of the telephone.
In the 1960s, when computers where regarded as mere giant calculators, J.C.R. Licklider at MIT saw them as the ultimate communications devices. With Defense Department funds, he and a band of visionary computer whizzes began work on a nationwide, interlocking network of computers. Taking listeners behind the scenes, Where Wizards Stay Up Late captures the hard work, genius, and happy accidents of their daring, stunningly successful venture.
©1996 Katie Hafner (P)2012 Katie HafnerListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
No Better Time tells of a young, driven mathematical genius who wrote a set of algorithms that would create a faster, better Internet. It's the story of a beautiful friendship between a loud, irreverent student and his soft-spoken MIT professor, of a husband and father who spent years struggling to make ends meet only to become a billionaire almost overnight with the success of Akamai Technologies, the Internet content delivery network he cofounded with his mentor.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
An Overlooked Hero of 9-11
- By Jean on 05-27-16
-
Thinking Machines
- The Quest for Artificial Intelligence - and Where It's Taking Us Next
- By: Luke Dormehl
- Narrated by: Gus Brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 61
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 52
When most of us think about artificial intelligence, our minds go straight to cyborgs, robots, and sci-fi thrillers where machines take over the world. But the truth is that artificial intelligence is already among us. It exists in our smartphones, fitness trackers, and refrigerators that tell us when the milk will expire. In some ways the future people dreamed of at the World's Fair in the 1960s is already here. We're teaching our machines how to think like humans, and they're learning at an incredible rate.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
Mostly platitudes with no depth
- By Gary on 03-24-17
By: Luke Dormehl
-
The Department of Mad Scientists
- Inside DARPA, the Path-Breaking Government Agency You've Never Heard Of
- By: Michael Belfiore
- Narrated by: Michael Belfiore
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 170
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 90
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 92
The first-ever inside look at DARPA - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - the maverick and controversial group whose futuristic work has had amazing civilian and military applications, from the Internet to GPS to driverless cars
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
meh
- By Patrick on 12-22-09
By: Michael Belfiore
-
Group Genius
- The Creative Power of Collaboration
- By: Keith Sawyer
- Narrated by: Jonathan Marosz
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 80
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
In this authoritative and fascinating new audiobook, Keith Sawyer, a psychologist at Washington University, tears down some of the most popular myths about creativity and erects new principles in their place. He reveals that creativity is always collaborative: even when you're alone. Sawyer's audiobook is filled with compelling stories about the inventions that changed our world.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Worth reading
- By Glenn on 12-29-10
By: Keith Sawyer
-
Whiplash
- How to Survive Our Faster Future
- By: Joi Ito, Jeff Howe
- Narrated by: James Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 366
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 309
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 309
Today, not only is everything digital getting faster, cheaper, and smaller at an exponential rate, we also have the Internet. When these two revolutions - one in technology and the other in communications - joined, an explosive force was unleashed that changed the very nature of innovation. And with any change, we have seen many strategic blunders and extraordinary learning curves along the way.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Just general advice on how to survive
- By A. Yoshida on 09-01-17
By: Joi Ito, and others
-
Exploding the Phone
- The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell
- By: Phil Lapsley
- Narrated by: Johann North
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 327
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 289
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 290
Before smartphones, back even before the Internet and personal computer, a misfit group of technophiles, blind teenagers, hippies, and outlaws figured out how to hack the world’s largest machine: the telephone system. Starting with Alexander Graham Bell’s revolutionary "harmonic telegraph", by the middle of the 20th century the phone system had grown into something extraordinary, a web of cutting-edge switching machines and human operators that linked together millions of people like never before. But the network had a billion-dollar flaw, and once people discovered it, things would never be the same.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Story along with Great Technical Research
- By Elsa Braun on 04-25-16
By: Phil Lapsley
-
Countdown to Zero Day
- Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon
- By: Kim Zetter
- Narrated by: Joe Ochman
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,355
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,053
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,049
The virus now known as Stuxnet was unlike any other piece of malware built before: Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it proved that a piece of code could escape the digital realm and wreak actual, physical destruction—in this case, on an Iranian nuclear facility.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazingly detailed, sober and above all, damning
- By Greg on 11-22-14
By: Kim Zetter
-
Crypto
- How the Code Rebels Beat the Government - Saving Privacy in the Digital Age
- By: Steven Levy
- Narrated by: Rich Miller
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
If you've ever made a secure purchase with your credit card over the internet, then you have seen cryptography, or "crypto", in action. From Stephen Levy - the author who made "hackers" a household word - comes this account of a revolution that is already affecting every citizen in the 21st century. Crypto tells the inside story of how a group of "crypto rebels" - nerds and visionaries turned freedom fighters - teamed up with corporate interests to beat Big Brother and ensure our privacy on the internet.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Wish it could be updated today
- By Chip L. on 05-22-21
By: Steven Levy
-
Autonomy
- The Quest to Build the Driverless Car—and How It Will Reshape Our World
- By: Lawrence D. Burns, Christopher Shulgan
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 272
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 240
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 239
In Autonomy, former GM executive and current advisor to the Google Self-Driving Car project Lawrence Burns offers a sweeping history of the race to make the driverless car a reality. In the past decade, Silicon Valley companies like Google, Tesla and Uber have positioned themselves to revolutionize the way we move around by developing driverless vehicles while traditional auto companies like General Motors, Ford, and Daimler have been fighting back by partnering by with new tech start-ups.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Easy listen, non-technical perspective
- By James S. on 09-14-18
By: Lawrence D. Burns, and others
-
Automate This
- How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World
- By: Christopher Steiner
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,483
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,268
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,263
It used to be that to diagnose an illness, interpret legal documents, analyze foreign policy, or write a newspaper article you needed a human being with specific skills - and maybe an advanced degree or two. These days, high-level tasks are increasingly being handled by algorithms that can do precise work not only with speed but also with nuance. These "bots" started with human programming and logic, but now their reach extends beyond what their creators ever expected.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
good start, book runs out of sustenace
- By RealTruth on 02-15-13
-
A Mind at Play
- How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
- By: Rob Goodman, Jimmy Soni
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 522
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 445
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 445
Claude Shannon was a tinkerer, a playful wunderkind, a groundbreaking polymath, and a digital pioneer whose insights made the Information Age possible. He constructed fire-breathing trumpets and customized unicycles, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots, but he also wrote the seminal text of the Digital Revolution. That work allowed scientists to measure and manipulate information as objectively as any physical object. His work gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I wanted more information about Information Theory
- By Bonny on 05-08-18
By: Rob Goodman, and others
-
Losing the Signal
- The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry
- By: Jacquie McNish, Sean Silcoff
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 872
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 757
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 756
Losing the Signal is a riveting story of a company that toppled global giants before succumbing to the ruthlessly competitive forces of Silicon Valley. This is not a conventional tale of modern business failure by fraud and greed. The rise and fall of BlackBerry reveals the dangerous speed at which innovators race along the information superhighway.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating
- By Gerardo A Dada on 09-05-15
By: Jacquie McNish, and others
-
Joy, Inc.
- How We Built a Workplace People Love
- By: Richard Sheridan
- Narrated by: Tim Andres Pabon
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 308
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 275
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 269
Joy, Inc. offers an inside look at how Sheridan and Menlo created a joyful culture, and shows how any organization can follow their methods for a more passionate team and sustainable, profitable results. Sheridan also shows how to run smarter meetings and build cultural training into your hiring process. Joy, Inc. offers an inspirational blueprint for listeners in any field who want a committed, energizing atmosphere at work - leading to sustainable business results.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Hey Menlo.
- By Stacey Colón on 03-25-16
By: Richard Sheridan
-
Data-ism
- The Revolution Transforming Decision Making, Consumer Behavior, and Almost Everything Else
- By: Steve Lohr
- Narrated by: Steve Lohr
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 117
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 100
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 97
Coal, iron ore, and oil were the key productive assets that fueled the Industrial Revolution. Today data is the vital raw material of the information economy. The explosive abundance of this digital asset, more than doubling every two years, is creating a new world of opportunity and challenge. Data-ism is about this next phase, in which vast, Internet-scale data sets are used for discovery and prediction in virtually every field. It is a journey across this emerging world with people, illuminating narrative examples, and insights.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
More business case than serious analysis
- By Godfried Gubbels on 06-03-15
By: Steve Lohr
-
The Filter Bubble
- What the Internet Is Hiding from You
- By: Eli Pariser
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 309
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 255
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 251
In December 2009, Google began customizing its search results for each user. Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, Google's change in policy is symptomatic of the most significant shift to take place on the Web in recent years: the rise of personalization.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Now in the top 3 best books I've ever read
- By Brian Esserlieu on 05-26-11
By: Eli Pariser
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- By: M. Mitchell Waldrop
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- Length: 27 hrs and 16 mins
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 126
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Behind every great revolution is a vision, and behind perhaps the greatest revolution of our time, personal computing, is the vision of J.C.R. Licklider. In a simultaneously compelling personal narrative and comprehensive historical exposition, Waldrop tells the story of the man who not only instigated the work that led to the internet, but also shifted our understanding of what computers were and could be.
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3 out of 5 stars
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5 out of 5 stars
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Audio quality is bad, story is awe inducing
- By David Phillips on 01-14-15
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Fire in the Valley
- The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer
- By: Michael Swaine, Paul Freiberger
- Narrated by: Don Azevedo
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In the 1970s, while their contemporaries were protesting the computer as a tool of dehumanization and oppression, a motley collection of college dropouts, hippies, and electronics fanatics were engaged in something much more subversive. Obsessed with the idea of getting computer power into their own hands, they launched from their garages a hobbyist movement that grew into an industry, and ultimately a social and technological revolution.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Burying the Lede
- By Dubi on 02-01-19
By: Michael Swaine, and others
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The Soul of a New Machine
- By: Tracy Kidder
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 654
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 565
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 564
Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder memorably recorded the drama, comedy, and excitement of one company's efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market. What has not changed is the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the go-for-broke approach to business that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Reading this book changed my life
- By Timothy Knox on 08-12-16
By: Tracy Kidder
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Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
- 25th Anniversary Edition
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- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,949
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Steven Levy's classic book traces the exploits of the computer revolution's original hackers - those brilliant and eccentric nerds from the late 1950s through the early '80s who took risks, bent the rules, and pushed the world in a radical new direction. With updated material from noteworthy hackers such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Stallman, and Steve Wozniak, Hackers is a fascinating story that begins in early computer research labs and leads to the first home computers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Remember Why You Got Into Computing
- By Dan Collins on 07-01-16
By: Steven Levy
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How the Internet Happened
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,342
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The Internet was never intended for you, opines Brian McCullough in this lively narrative of an era that utterly transformed everything we thought we knew about technology. In How the Internet Happened, he chronicles the whole fascinating story for the first time, beginning in a dusty Illinois basement in 1993, when a group of college kids set off a once-in-an-epoch revolution with what would become the first "dotcom".
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3 out of 5 stars
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Critically empty history
- By Keith on 12-19-20
By: Brian McCullough
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The Dream Machine
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 157
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Story5 out of 5 stars 126
Behind every great revolution is a vision, and behind perhaps the greatest revolution of our time, personal computing, is the vision of J.C.R. Licklider. In a simultaneously compelling personal narrative and comprehensive historical exposition, Waldrop tells the story of the man who not only instigated the work that led to the internet, but also shifted our understanding of what computers were and could be.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Biographies, not technical
- By D. Garber on 01-16-20
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Dealers of Lightning
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- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 312
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 194
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 192
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5 out of 5 stars
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Audio quality is bad, story is awe inducing
- By David Phillips on 01-14-15
By: Michael Hiltzik
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Fire in the Valley
- The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer
- By: Michael Swaine, Paul Freiberger
- Narrated by: Don Azevedo
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 145
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 126
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 126
In the 1970s, while their contemporaries were protesting the computer as a tool of dehumanization and oppression, a motley collection of college dropouts, hippies, and electronics fanatics were engaged in something much more subversive. Obsessed with the idea of getting computer power into their own hands, they launched from their garages a hobbyist movement that grew into an industry, and ultimately a social and technological revolution.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Burying the Lede
- By Dubi on 02-01-19
By: Michael Swaine, and others
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The Soul of a New Machine
- By: Tracy Kidder
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 654
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 565
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 564
Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder memorably recorded the drama, comedy, and excitement of one company's efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market. What has not changed is the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the go-for-broke approach to business that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Reading this book changed my life
- By Timothy Knox on 08-12-16
By: Tracy Kidder
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Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
- 25th Anniversary Edition
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- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,949
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,724
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,720
Steven Levy's classic book traces the exploits of the computer revolution's original hackers - those brilliant and eccentric nerds from the late 1950s through the early '80s who took risks, bent the rules, and pushed the world in a radical new direction. With updated material from noteworthy hackers such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Stallman, and Steve Wozniak, Hackers is a fascinating story that begins in early computer research labs and leads to the first home computers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Remember Why You Got Into Computing
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,342
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3 out of 5 stars
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Critically empty history
- By Keith on 12-19-20
By: Brian McCullough
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The Friendly Orange Glow
- The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture
- By: Brian Dear
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 21 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 116
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 107
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 107
At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn't even born, a group of visionary engineers and designers - some of them only high school students - in the late 1960s and 1970s created a computer system called PLATO, which was not only years but light-years ahead in experimenting with how people would learn, engage, communicate, and play through connected computers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Memory lane for the cyberist.
- By Robert C. Hickcox on 08-08-18
By: Brian Dear
-
Once upon Atari
- How I Made History by Killing an Industry
- By: Howard Scott Warshaw
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 71
Once upon Atari is an intimate view into the dramatic rise and fall of the early video game industry, and how it shaped the life of one of its key players. This book offers eye-opening details and insights delivered in a creative style that mirrors the industry it reveals. An innovative work from one of the industry’s original innovators.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Awesome
- By Aaron Valdes on 07-22-23
-
The Idea Factory
- Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
- By: Jon Gertner
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,011
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 844
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 845
In The Idea Factory, New York Times Magazine writer Jon Gertner reveals how Bell Labs served as an incubator for scientific innovation from the 1920s through the1980s. In its heyday, Bell Labs boasted nearly 15,000 employees, 1200 of whom held PhDs and 13 of whom won Nobel Prizes. Thriving in a work environment that embraced new ideas, Bell Labs scientists introduced concepts that still propel many of today’s most exciting technologies.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Great story -- horrible pauses
- By Rodney on 01-29-13
By: Jon Gertner
-
In the Plex
- How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
- By: Steven Levy
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,259
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,129
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,139
Few companies in history have ever been as successful and as admired as Google, the company that has transformed the Internet and become an indispensable part of our lives. How has Google done it? Veteran technology reporter Steven Levy was granted unprecedented access to the company, and in this revelatory book he takes listeners inside Google headquarters - the Googleplex - to explain how Google works.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Just ok for me
- By Everyday Mom on 04-23-11
By: Steven Levy
-
The Victorian Internet
- The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers
- By: Tom Standage
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 229
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 194
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 194
The Victorian Internet tells the colorful story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it, from eighteenth-century French scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet to Samuel F. B. Morse and Thomas Edison. The electric telegraph nullified distance and shrank the world quicker and further than ever before or since, and its story mirrors and predicts that of the Internet in numerous ways.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Very nice audiobook
- By David on 05-23-16
By: Tom Standage
-
The Innovators
- How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,112
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,062
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,041
Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovators is Walter Isaacson’s revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail?
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4 out of 5 stars
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A History of the Ancient Geeks
- By Mark on 10-21-14
By: Walter Isaacson
-
A Mind at Play
- How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
- By: Rob Goodman, Jimmy Soni
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 522
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 445
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 445
Claude Shannon was a tinkerer, a playful wunderkind, a groundbreaking polymath, and a digital pioneer whose insights made the Information Age possible. He constructed fire-breathing trumpets and customized unicycles, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots, but he also wrote the seminal text of the Digital Revolution. That work allowed scientists to measure and manipulate information as objectively as any physical object. His work gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I wanted more information about Information Theory
- By Bonny on 05-08-18
By: Rob Goodman, and others
-
The Chip
- How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution
- By: T.R. Reid
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
Barely 50 years ago a computer was a gargantuan, vastly expensive thing that only a handful of scientists had ever seen. The world's brightest engineers were stymied in their quest to make these machines small and affordable until the solution finally came from two ingenious young Americans. Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce hit upon the stunning discovery that would make possible the silicon microchip, a work that would ultimately earn Kilby the Nobel Prize for physics in 2000.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Great narration, sloppy writing
- By Constantly Learning on 10-06-22
By: T.R. Reid
-
Turing's Cathedral
- The Origins of the Digital Universe
- By: George Dyson
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 397
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 333
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Story4 out of 5 stars 335
In the 1940s and '50s, a group of eccentric geniuses - led by John von Neumann - gathered at the newly created Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Their joint project was the realization of the theoretical universal machine, an idea that had been put forth by mathematician Alan Turing. This group of brilliant engineers worked in isolation, almost entirely independent from industry and the traditional academic community. But because they relied exclusively on government funding, the government wanted its share of the results....
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1 out of 5 stars
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Needed an editor
- By Monte Johnston on 03-12-12
By: George Dyson
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The Cuckoo's Egg
- Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
- By: Cliff Stoll
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,665
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,378
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,373
Before the internet became widely known as a global tool for terrorists, one perceptive US citizen recognized its ominous potential. Armed with clear evidence of computer espionage, he began a highly personal quest to expose a hidden network of spies that threatened national security. But would the authorities back him up? Cliff Stoll's dramatic firsthand account is "a computer-age detective story, instantly fascinating [and] astonishingly gripping" - Smithsonian.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A story that stands the test of time
- By Todd on 08-11-20
By: Cliff Stoll
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The Code
- Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America
- By: Margaret O'Mara
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 19 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 238
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 206
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 205
Long before Margaret O'Mara became one of our most consequential historians of the American-led digital revolution, she worked in the White House of Bill Clinton and Al Gore in the earliest days of the commercial Internet. There, she saw firsthand how deeply intertwined Silicon Valley was with the federal government - and always had been - and how shallow the common understanding of the secrets of the Valley's success actually was.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Mostly good, but also irrating
- By Rodney on 12-20-20
By: Margaret O'Mara
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The Big Score
- The Billion-Dollar Story of Silicon Valley
- By: Michael S. Malone
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 20 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 22
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 21
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 21
Over the past five decades, the tech industry has grown into one of the most important sectors of the global economy, and Silicon Valley - replete with sprawling office parks, sky-high rents, and countless self-made millionaires - is home to many of its key players. But the origins of Silicon Valley and the tech sector are much humbler. At a time when tech companies’ influence continues to grow, The Big Score chronicles how they began.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Worthwhile and engaging.
- By Materialsguy on 05-12-23
What listeners say about Where Wizards Stay Up Late
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Dan Collins
- 07-12-17
Love From a Techie
This book will appeal to technically versed people who are interested not only in the history of the internet but also in the inner-workings of networks and how the various protocols of the internet (TCP, TCP/IP, FTP, SMTP, etc) came into existence.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- rbn12
- 01-02-19
Okay
The book goes deep on the early days, but not so much on the resulting internet. I was expecting a little more.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 05-27-23
Good story, but too long
Could have cut at least 4 chapters. Reads like a treatise. Voice was very dry.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Nels
- 12-11-17
Boring
Interesting topic, but everything could have been said in half the length. I did learn quite a bit, but it was a struggle to finish the book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ralph Freaster
- 08-22-22
Everything you always wanted to know...
Everything you always wanted to know about ARPANET and the creation of the internet --plus the other 85%. WWSUL should be in every computer history buff's collection. (On the other hand, if this area of computing isn't of particular interest for you, try Isaacson's books instead.) Good nerd stuff!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- R. Mckinstry
- 09-15-19
Birth of the Internet
I am embarrassed to say that I first learned of th ARPA net during an interview at Data General in 1984. DARPA, ARPA, Ethernet, internet, packer switching, TCP/IP. It’s all in this fine historical account.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- jermdw
- 05-10-16
great book<br />
great book, the unsung heroes of the internet. no detail left out. must read for anyone wanting to know more about the internet
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jennifer Haager
- 05-14-15
Very technical
It is basically a history book with a lot of names and dates. I feel more educated having listened to it but it was tough to get through.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sam Motes
- 10-19-13
They gave birth to the web
Tells the tale of the pioneering engineers at DARPA who built the technology the morphed into the World Wide Web. Rejected as pure academics that didn't understand how things really worked by the phone companies and other. They had to believe in their abilities, passions, and put in insane hours to transform the world.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Peter Rollins
- 08-22-14
A must read!!!
What other book might you compare Where Wizards Stay Up Late to and why?
The also excellent 'A History of the Internet and the Digital Future' by Johnny Ryan covers similar material, but has a much wider focus, whereas Wizards focuses in much more depth on the early period specifically.
Any additional comments?
The definitive book on the creation and early history of the Internet.
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