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Computing in the Middle Ages: A View From the Trenches 1955-1983
Computing in the Middle Ages is designed for the lay reader who wishes to understand some of the background of the computer revolution. It provides an easily understood and amusing account of what took place in computer research between the 1950s and the 1980s. The achievements of those days were later exploited by companies like Apple and Microsoft, which brought personal computers to the consciousness of the general public.During that era ... when both the design of computers and expectations about the ways in which they could be used were undergoing dramatic change ... the author was 'in the trenches' where seminal experiments were taking place, first at MIT and later at other universities and research centers. His unassuming story ... a breezy and irreverent memoir enlivened by amusing anecdotes from his professional and personal experience ... gives a human dimension to the otherwise dry and often obscure process of scientific and engineering innovation. Developments are brought to life and explained in terms that can be understood by anyone. Along the way you'll meet a number of memorable characters who, although often overshadowed in the public mind by entrepreneurs, are widely recognized as pioneers in the field of computer research.
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 18, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 25, 2023
Why this book is good… not just good… great… may be a mystery to me for a long time if not forever.
I received the book as a gift and expected it to be a history of early computers. I discovered it is, in fact, a memoir of a computer software engineer. I am not afraid to admit I thought “how could there be a more boring book imaginable!”. But I thought, there will be a few tidbits of interesting history in here and it will be just a lot of work and boring reading to dig them out. Woe is me.
It struck me about a few chapters in… I’m enjoying this… Really enjoying this. I like this guy. I like his story. I shouldn’t, but I do! How can this be so interesting and the story so engaging? … he’s a computer software engineer. It makes no sense that this book is so engaging. I still don’t know what made the book work so well.
The author wrote (ironically as it turns out) in his epilogue … “Now that I've come to the end, I can see that, after all, I have failed to achieve the principal thing I set out to do - to bring you, the reader, inside of the process so that you could feel what it was actually like. It was an impossible goal, of course. One wishes so deeply to communicate at that level - to share the actual experiences that have moved one throughout life. But in the end all one can do is to describe the externals without really penetrating to the heart of the matter.”
But the thing is… its not impossible. He did it. He did exactly what he wished to do. I wish I knew how, but I just know that he did. Thank you Mr. Severo Ornstein.
I received the book as a gift and expected it to be a history of early computers. I discovered it is, in fact, a memoir of a computer software engineer. I am not afraid to admit I thought “how could there be a more boring book imaginable!”. But I thought, there will be a few tidbits of interesting history in here and it will be just a lot of work and boring reading to dig them out. Woe is me.
It struck me about a few chapters in… I’m enjoying this… Really enjoying this. I like this guy. I like his story. I shouldn’t, but I do! How can this be so interesting and the story so engaging? … he’s a computer software engineer. It makes no sense that this book is so engaging. I still don’t know what made the book work so well.
The author wrote (ironically as it turns out) in his epilogue … “Now that I've come to the end, I can see that, after all, I have failed to achieve the principal thing I set out to do - to bring you, the reader, inside of the process so that you could feel what it was actually like. It was an impossible goal, of course. One wishes so deeply to communicate at that level - to share the actual experiences that have moved one throughout life. But in the end all one can do is to describe the externals without really penetrating to the heart of the matter.”
But the thing is… its not impossible. He did it. He did exactly what he wished to do. I wish I knew how, but I just know that he did. Thank you Mr. Severo Ornstein.
November 21, 2010
A real page turned for anyone interested in the history of computers, this books offers both great insights into the developments after WWII and great anecdotes.
That said, the book is let down somewhat by the fact that this is, actually, a personal story, offering only a view of a cross-section of the history it describes with little regard to developments outside its narrow scope.
And yet, or maybe because of that, it's really entertaining and worth a read.
That said, the book is let down somewhat by the fact that this is, actually, a personal story, offering only a view of a cross-section of the history it describes with little regard to developments outside its narrow scope.
And yet, or maybe because of that, it's really entertaining and worth a read.
October 6, 2014
Very nice and slightly opinionated account of the computer culture of the 50s *outside* of MITs crystal palace.
The author is very humble and the whole book has exudes an atmosphere of a more relaxed time when everyone was not out to promote themselves.
That being said, the middle parts of the book were a little slow and some of the personal anecdotes that were thrown in feel forced.
On the overall, a good read.
The author is very humble and the whole book has exudes an atmosphere of a more relaxed time when everyone was not out to promote themselves.
That being said, the middle parts of the book were a little slow and some of the personal anecdotes that were thrown in feel forced.
On the overall, a good read.
March 11, 2011
This is the book to read when you grow tired of computer commerce and yearn to hear about the good old days of computer science, when engineers encountered the fundamental problems of automation and solved them... or didn't solve them, in some cases, but assembled bright crews of interesting thinkers to take a crack at it. This book gave me exactly what I wanted: a personal story of the personal computer before it was ready to hit the shelves.
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June 21, 2019338.76162 O743 2002
February 25, 2015
The book is a very interesting description of the early days of computer science and how sometimes going against the status quo shapes the future. Yet the author isn't a professional writer, making the text a little bit confuse, with constants pauses on the current subject to "tell something else", the book is a pleasant reading, specially for the ones interested in the history of computing. A good thing is that the book goes into the technicalities the right amount to make things comprehensible. All in all, I do recommend the book since I had a very good time reading it.
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October 14, 2008Amazon 2008-10-13.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews