Thursday, July 10, 2008

10 Great Tech Books

There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more.

Morrissey, The Smiths

I love books and "top 10" or "must read" lists, so IEEE Spectrum: 10 Great Tech Books is irresistable.

Which are your favorites?
Which ones were missed?

I've only read two of them: The Design of Everyday Things and The Soul Of A New Machine. The latter one in particular I found enthralling and ample motivation for my college computer architecture design project! Nowadays it must seem like a history book, since it concerns designing DEC-compatible minicomputers. But the thrill of design and hunting down and quashing elusive bugs is timeless.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was looking for a book for my daughter about a month ago when I noticed "The Soul of a New Machine" sitting there on my shelf and pulled it out. I have not read it since senior year in college (prepping for an interview with Data General) but I also found it to be the most interesting book on engineering culture. The technology does not translate (e.g. the missing nand gate), but the culture does. It actually made engineering seem like fun.

A great read for anyone who wants some history and nostalgia mixed with page-turning suspense.

Anonymous said...

"The Design of Everyday Things" is great!!

Although it makes you bitter in life, because you wont be able to stand the pain of experiencing poorly designed products!