Walter Isaacson's 'The Innovators' Charts the History of Computing and the Internet

[slicecom]

Looks like Walter Isaacson can't stop riding the "Steve Jobs gravy train". How many more Steve Jobs related books does he have planned?

Why can't he let him rest in peace?

The best part is this book is credited to "Walter Isaacson Author of STEVE JOBS" on the cover.

 

[Darth.Titan]

Looks like Walter Isaacson can't stop riding the "Steve Jobs gravy train". How many more Steve Jobs related books does he have planned?

Why can't he let him rest in peace?

If you'd read the article, you'd note that Steve Jobs and Apple play a minor role in this book about the history of computers and the Internet. Perhaps you'd prefer Jobs' contributions to the subject be omitted?

Isaacson can hardly be accused of what you're implying.

 

[subsonix]

I would question that..... you are talking about American companies only there mate, you do realise the internet is an International Network right?

Not to down play the importance of the web, but it's an application protocol on top of TCP/IP which can be traced back to ARPA, Vint Cerf and a relatively small team.

 

[rsocal]

If you'd read the article, you'd note that Steve Jobs and Apple play a minor role in this book about the history of computers and the Internet. Perhaps you'd prefer Jobs' contributions to the subject be omitted?

Isaacson can hardly be accused of what you're implying.

+1

 

[aaronvan]

There's still a dearth of woman and people of color in tech companies.

Really? India comes to mind.

 

[yaxomoxay]

I would question that..... you are talking about American companies only there mate, you do realise the internet is an International Network right?

And I would question that the impact of the internet is less then the telephone, IMO it's had a far bigger impact. It's enabled you make a comment on here for one.

He didn't even name Antonio Meucci.

"if Meucci had been able to pay the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after 1874, no patent could have been issued to Bell." (US House of Representatives Resolution 269)

 

[iSee]

This is going to be bashed hard here judging from the Steve Jobs book.

I don't think that was a good book. Well, I mean the writing. It seemed to be well researched and factual. But the writing seemed weak. I though he probably should have attempted to put the events of Steve's life in the context of other otger things happening in the world--especially the world of tech--but he didn't. In the end it amounted mostly to a litany of events... This happened, then this happened, here's an unconnected anecdote, this happened, that happened, here's another anecdote that adds nothing, ...

Hardly the guy I'd look to for this kind of book.

 

[designaholic]

Looks like Walter Isaacson can't stop riding the "Steve Jobs gravy train". How many more Steve Jobs related books does he have planned?

Why can't he let him rest in peace?

First paragraph of the article, which you clearly didn't read...

More than a decade ago, Walter Isaacson began working on a book to highlight the history of computers and the Internet, but the project was sidelined in early 2009 when he took on the task of writing Steve Jobs' authorized biography.

 

[aaronvan]

I wonder if Dan Bricklin gets his well-deserved props?

 

[dumastudetto]

Walter Isaacson writing another book about the tech industry. My head goes back to the two part Hypercritical podcast (The Wrong Guy) John Siracusa did dissecting the Steve Jobs book. I don't think I'll be buying this book.

 

[Heb1228]

How many chapters does it take to tell the full story of Al Gore's contribution?

 

[mdelvecchio]

I hope he remembered to include Al Gore as the father of the internet.

he discussed him on his NPR radio segment today. he gave credit where credit was due -- that Gore sponsored a bill to help ensure the internet was for everybody, not just government. which is all he ever claimed. but you knew that.

----------

Looks like Walter Isaacson can't stop riding the "Steve Jobs gravy train". How many more Steve Jobs related books does he have planned?

Why can't he let him rest in peace?

try reading the article next time. this was his project before jobs.

----------

Walter Isaacson writing another book about the tech industry. My head goes back to the two part Hypercritical podcast (The Wrong Guy) John Siracusa did dissecting the Steve Jobs book. I don't think I'll be buying this book.

i think they were being...hypercritical. the bio was a bio about Jobs' life, not a how-to manual for being a great CEO. those questions won't be answered by a biography. i thought the book was fine.

 

[iBlazed]

This is a complete different subject and, I believe Ada Lovelace is mentioned as one of the early pioneers.

Any relation to Linda Lovelace?

 

[begemotik228]

Am I the only one here who actually liked his Jobs book? Best biography I've ever read.

 

[hspace]

If you'd read the article, you'd note that Steve Jobs and Apple play a minor role in this book about the history of computers and the Internet. Perhaps you'd prefer Jobs' contributions to the subject be omitted?

Isaacson can hardly be accused of what you're implying.

No, I read the article. But Isaacson simply couldn't resist putting both a picture of Steve Jobs on the cover *AND* and "author of STEVE JOBS". One? Sure... Both? Now it starts to look a little like he holding on to the gravy train. Do you understand now?

 

[Keirasplace]

Not to down play the importance of the web, but it's an application protocol on top of TCP/IP which can be traced back to ARPA, Vint Cerf and a relatively small team.

TCPIP is a much more important thing than the WWW. The WWW was basically an application of hypercards (popular in the late 1980s) with network based resources (not just local). So, WWW was a logical extension of existing concepts.

I actually used WWW (based on that crappy implementation, WWW would have gone nowhere!!).

WWW propagation to the masses went :

www (horrible, just good enough as proof of concept)
- 1991 or 1992
Lynx (very good, that one really spread www use to tech community, universities) before images were widespread in web pages.
I used Lynx a lot until late 1995 (because it was much faster to use when on very slow modem connections than anything else out there and web site were text heavy).
- 1993
Mosaic (first stab at graphical interface, pretty buggy as I recall). Didn't like it.
- Late 1994
Netscape, well WOW, now you had the WEB (then Web went BOOM! into t he real world).

Created my first web site in late 1993. Didn't take long , few minutes in vi.

 

[Naimfan]

I would question that..... you are talking about American companies only there mate, you do realise the internet is an International Network right?

And I would question that the impact of the internet is less then the telephone, IMO it's had a far bigger impact. It's enabled you make a comment on here for one.

You realize the internet is not a monolithic "International Network," [sic] correct?

I'd suggest you read a history of what we commonly call the "internet." Why is the fact that much of the underlying work and technology from the US bothersome to you?

Once you've read a history of the internet, you'll have a better understanding of why the telephone and the AT&T telephone network represent a more significant advance that had more of an impact on humanity. The internet simply represents an expansion of what the telephone and associated network began.

 

[apolloa]

Not to down play the importance of the web, but it's an application protocol on top of TCP/IP which can be traced back to ARPA, Vint Cerf and a relatively small team.

You realize the internet is not a monolithic "International Network," [sic] correct?

I'd suggest you read a history of what we commonly call the "internet." Why is the fact that much of the underlying work and technology from the US bothersome to you?

Once you've read a history of the internet, you'll have a better understanding of why the telephone and the AT&T telephone network represent a more significant advance that had more of an impact on humanity. The internet simply represents an expansion of what the telephone and associated network began.

Well that's ONE theory amongst many others..

Also I do believe I never said it bothers me that America invented something, I would suggest you are reading far more into my comment there then intended.

Also one of its meanings is interconnected networks, as in separate networks connected together with a standard protocol:

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/Internet

 

[shamino]

I think Tim Berners-Lee and his team have done more then anyone else to change the entire world. Unbelievable just how much the World Wide Web has changed everybody's lives.

Well, the Web was certainly a key invention, but hardly the only critical invention.

Jon Postel, Vint Cerf, and countless others working on the ARPANET (some for ARPA and some separate from it) in the 60's and 70's probably had a much bigger impact. Let's face it - who today uses any networking technology other than TCP/IP? Look at what became of ARCNET, Novell NetWare, AppleTalk and NetBIOS? Every network technology other than IP is either dead or has been re-engineered to work as an application over IP. I think that's quite an incredible fact to realize.

And then let's not forget all the groundbreaking UI research at SRI and Xerox which led directly to the development of all modern GUI systems, Mac, Windows, OS/2, X11 and many others.

There were tons of critical inventions over the decades that led to the computing world we have today. I think that's the point of Isaacson's book.

Go to a high school or even a junior high school and ask who wants to go into IT fields and my bet is that a lower percentage of women and people of color raise their hands. Unfortunately, people start self-discriminating at very young ages or are stereotyped into roles by their parents.

Unfortunately, a very low percentage of Americans are interested in this (compared to people from China, Japan and India, who are very keen to learn technology.)

When you've got both Hollywood and kids' parents teaching children that it's not cool to be a "geek" and that they should strive to be athletes, actors and musicians instead of scientists and engineers, you get entire generations that actively refuse to enter the fields that are so critical to shaping the future. You also get generations that end up learning the hard way that trying to work in celebrity-dominated fields isn't going to put food on the table, forcing them to go back to school and learn all these skills while simultaneously paying a mortgage and supporting a family.

 

[IJ Reilly]

If you'd read the article, you'd note that Steve Jobs and Apple play a minor role in this book about the history of computers and the Internet. Perhaps you'd prefer Jobs' contributions to the subject be omitted?

Isaacson can hardly be accused of what you're implying.

No, but he is guilty of making the painstaking effort required to research and write a book, a process that no doubt the detractors know well.

----------

No, I read the article. But Isaacson simply couldn't resist putting both a picture of Steve Jobs on the cover *AND* and "author of STEVE JOBS". One? Sure... Both? Now it starts to look a little like he holding on to the gravy train. Do you understand now?

Yes, we understand that you are slicing baloney very thinly.

 

[bradkrischel]

No, I read the article. But Isaacson simply couldn't resist putting both a picture of Steve Jobs on the cover *AND* and "author of STEVE JOBS". One? Sure... Both? Now it starts to look a little like he holding on to the gravy train. Do you understand now?

So Steve Jobs' picture shouldn't be in the cover of a book about the history of computing and the internet? Why WOULDN'T he include the fact that he also wrote a best selling biography that ties in closely with this book?

 

[Oilbrnr]

His writing is the most effective sleep aid I've ever taken...

 

[IJ Reilly]

So Steve Jobs' picture shouldn't be in the cover of a book about the history of computing and the internet? Why WOULDN'T he include the fact that he also wrote a best selling biography that ties in closely with this book?

Publishers decide these things, not authors. So the entire question is ludicrous.

 

[v654321]

Hope it's in the same style as Hackers by Steven Levy. Loved that one.

 

[apolloa]

Well, the Web was certainly a key invention, but hardly the only critical invention.

Jon Postel, Vint Cerf, and countless others working on the ARPANET (some for ARPA and some separate from it) in the 60's and 70's probably had a much bigger impact. Let's face it - who today uses any networking technology other than TCP/IP? Look at what became of ARCNET, Novell NetWare, AppleTalk and NetBIOS? Every network technology other than IP is either dead or has been re-engineered to work as an application over IP. I think that's quite an incredible fact to realize.

And then let's not forget all the groundbreaking UI research at SRI and Xerox which led directly to the development of all modern GUI systems, Mac, Windows, OS/2, X11 and many others.

There were tons of critical inventions over the decades that led to the computing world we have today. I think that's the point of Isaacson's book.
Unfortunately, a very low percentage of Americans are interested in this (compared to people from China, Japan and India, who are very keen to learn technology.).

I'm not suggesting otherwise, I only posted my opinion on who I think has changed the world through computers, that doesn't make any of the other advances and inventions any less credible.

Although Tim is commonly accepted as inventing the world wide web, he still had a team behind him and CERN too in some aspects:

http://webfoundation.org/about/vision/history-of-the-web/

It is a shame however that it seems governments are unable to decide who should control the internet or how to police it, but then it does hide terrorism and peodaphiles and extreme pirating, and hacking too.