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Technical Audio Books - Where Are The Good Ones?

Posted by Cliff on from the stuff-to-listen-to dept.

Gverig asks: "Are any good audio (CD) books for developers, engineers or just geeks. These can be lectures on programming concepts, introductions to systems, best practices, ethics, or even funny stories ala Dilbert. What audio books do you have that help you sharpen your technical skills and improve yourself as a professional?"

9 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Audio Books Online by NaNO2x · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well for some legal audio books that you can download, I have found http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/ which isn't the best but it does have some good stuff, I would love to know any other good free audiobook sites. But If you want to then there are always torrents for audiobooks. I'm sure there are many things out there and hopefully most of the good stuff is free.

    --
    Utinam me logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant.
  2. University of Washington's presentations by Will+Sargent · · Score: 4, Informative

    My biggest technical find (although video rather than audio) has to be the University of Washington's CSE Colloquia. These are videos of presentations done in the University, and they are pure content gold. Given by people who know exactly what they're doing, and a focus on real technical complexity rather than hype.

    http://www.uwtv.org/programs/displayseries.asp?col lid=485

    1. Re:University of Washington's presentations by St.+Arbirix · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I suppose if you're going that way with it you should mention MIT's OpenCourseware at ocw.mit.edu. They got me through linear algebra (when I was too cool to go to class).

      --
      Direct away from face when opening.
  3. Quantum Mechanics on Tape! by GuyMannDude · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've been trying to save time by learning Quantum during my daily commute. It's tough going:

    "The time-dependent one-dimensional Schrödinger equation is given by i hbar partial psi over partial t equals minus h squared over 2 m times partial squared psi over partial x squared plus V of x times psi of x and t where i is the imaginary unit, psi is the time-dependent wavefunction, and V(x) is the potential. However, the equation can be separated into temporal and spatial parts using separation of variables to obtain..."

    Yeah, that drive is extra-special fun now.

    GMD

    --
    watch this
  4. IT Conversations by FLEB · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.itconversations.com/ is about the best I've found along these lines.

    Keep an eye on Podcasts. Most of the technical shows I've found on there are just a gloss-over, but something good has to come around sooner or later.

    --
    Information wants to be free.
    Entertainment wants to be paid.
    You just want to be cheap.
  5. Not as effective... by palndrumm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Audio books aren't anywhere near as effective for technical books as for other genres. The main trouble with converting technical books to audio is that they often use diagrams and tables to explain and illustrate things, which is kinda hard to do with an audio book.

  6. Podcast.. by SteveX · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's not a book, but it's a fairly technical podcast, something there don't seem to be a lot of. Geared to developers.

    http://www.codesermon.org/

  7. Podcasts by Noksagt · · Score: 4, Informative
    As others have mentioned, Podcasts are the way to go. Here are good ones:There are, of course, many other programs I haven't been able to listen to yet. Learn of others at ipodder.org or the various other podcast directories that have sprung up.
  8. Feynman Lectures. All of them. by Noksagt · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hopefully most geeks know of the late, great physicist, Richard Feynman. In addition to coming up with QED, helping to make the A-bomb, winning a nobel prize, and figuring out why the Challenger blew-up, he gave lectures to college freshmen on physics. They're great. The books are often suggested texts, but it is a treat to hear them in his voice. I bought mine on audio-tape and pain-stakingly recorded them on my PC to dump onto CDs. Thankfully, official CDs have started to trickle out.

    Vol 1-2 are on Quantum Mechanics. 3-4 covers crystal structure, electricity, and magnetism. 5-6 goes through energy, motion, kinetics, and heat. 7-8 does classical and relativistic mechanics (and gravity and a bit more electromagnetism). More should be coming. I think they are up to volume 20 of the tape sets. Each volume has about six chapters from the books. I think there are 129 chapters all-told.