Networked Life: 20 Questions and Answers

by Mung Chiang

How does Google sell ad space and rank webpages? How does Netflix recommend movies and Amazon rank products? How can you influence people on Facebook and Twitter and can you really reach anyone in six steps? Why doesn't the Internet collapse under congestion and does it have an Achilles' heel? Why are you charged per gigabyte for mobile data and how can Skype and BitTorrent be free? How are cloud services so scalable and why is WiFi slower at hotspots than at home? Driven by twenty real-world questions about our networked lives, this book explores the technology behind the multi-trillion dollar Internet and wireless industries. Providing easily understandable answers for the casually curious, alongside detailed explanations for those looking for in-depth discussion, this thought-provoking book is essential reading for students in engineering, science and economics, for network industry professionals and anyone curious about how technological and social networks really work.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

488 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2012

Reviews

[Lynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This rating is for my ability to get information from the book. Networked Life is intended for Electrical Engineering students in their Junior/Senior undergraduate year. I am not the most math minded person and this is a true textbook with detailed information. I received this book as a freebie and thought it was a more lay person's book about questions and answers about the Internet. I did read through the book but it was mainly for math students. The professor Mung Chang from Princeton University has his course online at iTunes U and on YouTube. It is called Networks:Friends, Money, and Bytes. This textbook corresponds with the course.