This is one of the books that inspired me to write about computer programming. When I was young, I learned all sorts of amazing things from this book. Then, when I grew up, all of these things were more-or-less locked away from even developers. Randall Hyde made me realize that they things that were labelled "too hard" were merely "poorly explained". Instead of dumbing everything down, we should help people learn the real things that are happening within the computer.
This book helped me to learn about computers in a very deep way. It is probably totally useless now, but when I originally read it, it was inspiring.
I was also extremely pleased that the author at one time posted a review of *my* programming book! Sadly, that review is now lost to history, but I still am heartened by it.