Slashdot Mirror
How We Got Here - Stuff To Read
A reader writes:"Ever wonder why Michael Faraday, steam engines, Ezra Cornell, the Van de Beurses family and the Edison Effect were so important to today's computer business. Andy Kessler has a free download of a PDF of his new book, How We Got Here: A Slightly Irreverent History of Technology and Markets. It's a James Burke-style connect-the-dots of events and people from 1642 to this morning. Kessler's site takes you through a "poor man's DRM" process to get your very own PDF." Yeah, yeah - DRM. But the PDF/book is worth reading for understanding the history to tech. Speaking of good things to read, I also read this little ditty Not Proud, which was good. It's stuff from NotProud.com collected in dead tree form.
Ever wonder why Michael Faraday, steam engines, Ezra Cornell, the Van de Beurses family and the Edison Effect were so important to today's computer business.
Is that a question, or a command?
we ripped off the British
I probably use mailinator more than my regular e-mail, great free anonymous e-mail receiving service.
My (Anonymous Coward) copy went to slashdot@mailinator.com, if anyone is interested....
I have to admit, I Like the idea of offering a free download of the book. For this, I have no problem providing my email, at least some company gets a clue as to how to market. If I have to clean junkmail out of my mailbox, at least give me something tangible, like a PDF :)
Heck, with Gmail you can use one just for junk, like the one I publish here. :)
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
This is a paradox we're stuck in. On one hand, we have Darwin's theory. On the other hand, we have the controvery over the Intelligent Design movement. Now you're telling me that we have to give our e-mail address, just to find out the rest??? The world is still round, right?
We all dance, we all sing.
-The Streets
Kudos to the guy for offering it for free. Even if he signs me up for spam and I have to delete a hundred useless messages, 100 deletions x 1 sec/deletion x wage of 0.5c/sec > probable price of paper book.
I myself will be signing up to read it.
I don't know how accurate all of the info in this PDF is, but is seems interesting and informative. It is written in a very readable style and gives you some background on the history of some tech inovation. Not bad, use an email already flodded with junk we all have those...
Onward to the Aether Sphere!
A "ditty" is a short song, like a jingle.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
How on earth does NotProud.com possibly relate to the topic of the book?!
The editor's comments imply that there is DRM on the PDF. On the contrary, there is no DRM. To quote the last pages of the book:
your file is not crippled with any Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions.
You are free to print copies of our books for yourself, copy the PDF file onto your laptop, your
desktop, your cell phone or your PDA, and pretty much enjoy our book any way you
likejust as you would an ordinary paperback book.
As for the book, I just finished re-reading it about an hour ago (coincidence!). Having read his first two books, I expected much of the same from this book. Unfortunately, I found the first few chapters to read more like a history book (not terribly exciting). I did find the last chapter to be interesting.
Also noticed a few passages cut and paste from previous books.
That being said, the book is entirely true to its name - it tells of how we got here. For those who want to know where we are going, you might be a little disappointed.
I'd say, given the circumstances, one hour is a very optimistic estimate!
we couldn't measure capacitance.
Actually I'm old enough to barely remember when they were called 'condensors'.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I've purchased a handful of ebooks from the Pragmatic Programmers. Their books do not employ any DRM whatsoever. Not even a so called "poor man's" DRM. When you purchase an ebook, all they do is personalize it with your information in it. That's all they're doing here.
From their FAQ (emphasis added by me):
Are the PDF files restricted?
There is no copy protection or functionality restrictions in the PDF files. You may view or print them for personal use as you see fit.
You may not give your PDF version to other people. For your protection, the PDF file you order is personalized with your name and other identifying information.
You can buy multiple licenses of a PDF file for your team or organization, in which case the PDF will be stamped with the number of allowed licenses. We'll only send you one, so as to conserve everyone's bandwidth.
It's not DRM to ask for an email address.
((Lifetime of useless messages)^(exponential rate of spam) x 1 sec) >> a couple of reads of a paperback.
So they watermark it apparently. That's still not DRM. You can print the file out. You can copy it all you want, but you are not allowed to give it to other people.
There's no technical restriction on giving it to other people. It's just made so that if you violate the copyright, they can catch you more easily.
NO. Honestly. Do you ever wonder how important water is for drinking?
So you cannot circulate the copy, or you will get caught (unless you used a hotmail email addy, of course).
James Burke presented a BBC series (and a subsequent dead-tree version which can be hard to find) back in the early '80s called "Connections" tracing the evolution of technology.
Very well done, and definitely worth hunting out.
I read one of Kessler's previous books (Running Money) and found that he was an extremely clueless investor who just happened to get lucky. He started up a hedge fund in '95 or with a 5 year time horizon (so it closed right at the peak of the market in 2000). You could have picked practically any stock and done outstanding if you would have been in the market for those five years. He even admits one of the companies that made him the most money was out of pure luck.
The books are fairly interesting if you want to see how people actually operate. But, if you want to learn something I'd steer clear. He's one of the many people who mistake luck for skill.
Gee - how did our predecessors ever accomplish anything without the magic of CMM, RUP, and/or UML.
:-)
Tristan Yates
Thanks for the DRM warning. I have dial-up at home and high speed at work. DRM simply means I can't download the book on my lunch break and take it home for later reading.
I don't have the time to read it at work. I guess the users of sneakernet are simply locked out of this work. What's the point of offering it for free if you can't read it?
The truth shall set you free!
ok, if people complain about DRM and people using *.doc formats and everything, why do people also use PDF? You aren't supposed to be able to make a PDF without buying Acrobat, it isn't open source (that I know of), and even if it were, I have to download acrobat just to view it. Why can't people just use an HTML based format so I can view the stuff I get from the web directly in my browser without opening a different program to do so? The people who bitch about DRM are very picky. When something is free to view (but not to create... unless you want to use Adobe's online PDF maker, which is really annoying) you all bow graciously. But when Microsoft doesn't want to open their format, you guys start to cry. I see it as the same thing, and it seems like most of this community decides to play along. PLEASE STOP PUTTING STUFF IN PDF FORMAT! Or at least have an HTML version as well :/
-SaNo
I love Ruby.
/.ers getting their copies.
Unfortunately, it appears to be falling down under
Never thought I would ever read about the van der Beurse family on a foreign site, let alone Slashdot. ... all had houses (like an embassy/hotel) in the city centre.
For years I lived right across from their building in Bruges, Belgium.
It amazes me because when I told tourists (foreign and domestic) about them nobody had ever heard of them, while they have giving their name to the stock exchange.
Beurs is the Dutch name for stock exchange, but also for fair,... It's the same in French and German. It all originates in the fortheenth century when Bruges was a major European trade hub.
The Italians (from Venice and Genua), Basks, English,
The van der Beurses had two inns where traders used to gather to hear the latest and do business, change their currency or buy merchandise and/or businesses
(legal and commercial advise were on hand at the inn).
found on p.13 - Edison did NOT invent the 'tri-valve or triode', which the brif implies.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
http://media.pragprog.com/STksl039cbjk7893gf78sdf7 g80ee.html
let's see if they get suspicious about 100 or so clicks...
I bet the pragmatic and mailinator servers are good friends now :)
Does anyone know what Ezra Cornell did? I am curious but I really don't want to download the PDF.
If you have directv, there is an extra channel called History International (at least there was a few months ago). I don't have the dish anymore, but I bet it's still showing.
The "Get PDF" button which was there a while ago...became a 403.
And now the item is no longer available.
Get off my lawn.
In the 90s, he had this column in Scientific American that was really informative and entertaining. It also sought connection between people and events that brought us what we have in terms of inventions, technology, ...etc.
Here are previews of some examples:
Here also has an informative web site Knowledge Web.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
/.ers... ATTACK!!! I have felt a great disturbance in the net. It's as if a million nerds clicked a link at once and were refused. "Ship To: We're sorry, this item is currently unavailable. Our hosting provider, Verio.com, has disabled our fulfillment system. "
. . . gone.
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
so your mailinator link was super useful. Thanks! What's the point of DRM'ing stuff if the additional load it creates on your server means that no one can get a copy at all?
Sorry to say but due to high volume, Verio.com, the world's largest hosting provider has disabled our fulfillment system without notice.
But don't worry, it's not gone permanently. We will be offering this PDF again as soon as we can. Keep an eye out on our website at pragmaticprogrammer.com or just sign up for our low-volume announcement newsletter and we'll let you know when and when where we can offer it again.
thanks for your support.
The load must have been too much. You can no longer get the PDF. We're sorry, this item is currently unavailable. Our hosting provider, Verio.com, has disabled our fulfillment system. Hopefully it will be available at some later date.
The forces that are holding us back from the next generation of technology are not (though important) our sciences, or our education level, or RnD ... IMHO the main thing holding us back are overbearing intellectual property laws, and over intrusive government in general. Our government simply hasn't caught up to the intellectual level of our sciences.
The first theing we need to do is get rid of copyright and patent monopolies, and drasticly reduce paperwork and tax requirements for individuals and businesses, and making it so that people and commodities can go freely from country to country and work without restriction or inteference. Yeah, I know some people are going to hate that, and others who don't get it are going to call that "too extreme." But that attitude is exactly why the US simply is going to have a bumpy ride into the information age. Too many people just don't get it and aren't willing to let go of the old ways that just don't work.
I just downloaded it here
If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
How did he know what would happen this morning when he published the book?
thanks,
And he has already made a huge mistake saying Pascal invented probability because he was a gambler.
Pascal was almost too strongly **not** a gambler. It was a gambler's request that made him think about it, though.
If that's the kind of fact-checking the book has, it's going to be right mostly by coincidence.
Also, the tone of the first part (the "I have been blah blah blah" piece) is extremely annoying. Let's hope it picks up a little, at least.
Cheers mate, thanks for the direct link, it seems like the whole thingy has been slashdotted into vapour. But let's play it fair: give'm some emailaddresses so at least they have somewhere to mail their possible spam to.
Time to get reading now, I guess.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
since when has it been cool to post these in the story?
o urceid=39391960&isbn=0689877978 n quiry.asp?sourceid=00393919608443593340&ISBN=06898 77978&bfdate=05-02-2005+13:47:41 ) ..thats going to be a fat chunk of change when the story is through.
http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=2181&s
(links to http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnI
-ashot
Written in a easy conversational style, but full of gross over simplification. .
e.g check page 19, he makes it sound like the first methods of working iron were introduced by the British in the 15th century. Um hello, iron working techniques have been around since quite a few centuries B.C. This type of stuff makes me take this book with a grain of salt.
Well it's easy to reject DRM when you aren't interested in the D. If you're going to take a stand against it, you have to do it even when you'd like to have what's being restricted.
Note: I am not commenting on DRM itself. Just pointing out that "yeah yeah DRM, but it's good so who cares!" is not a consistent position.
The site now reads: /. We've disabled email entry and for today only, you can download a generic PDF of the book. Enjoy.
VERIO has been spooked by high traffic from
I knew that powers of slashdot userbase are great but to disable DRM just by clicking a link that is really neat. I only hope the link-clicking method won't be now banned under DMCA.
People who like this sort of sig will find this the sort of sig they like.
There was Dr. Jacob Bronowski
http://www.drbronowski.com/
The Ascent of Man, et al.
From the site "5/2/05 VERIO HAS BEEN SPOOKED BY HIGH TRAFFIC FROM /. (ISN'T THAT THEIR BUSINESS?) WE'VE DISABLED EMAIL ENTRY AND FOR TODAY ONLY, YOU CAN DOWNLOAD A GENERIC PDF OF THE BOOK. ENJOY."
You can get to the download here
I love cross story posting ;)
Biotechnology....
I want a bread machine that rarely needs anything more then an egg and water.
Raw genetically modified seed.
The wheat plant looks more like algae and only grows in unnatural conditions.
Enough flour is make at any one time for 3 loaves of bread. The rest is stored as seed (as dry power) in the bread machine (make it beep or do something that looks important). The seed grows and processed inside the machine.
The 2 important parts is food producing plants looking like algae and growing in unnatural conditions. Might be a cool way of getting some collaboration from biotechnology companies/tech companies/and pharma.
I read the book today and thoroughly enjoyed it.