Hey #bookstodon, what's your most exciting vintage computer book?

Anything computer-y goes: programming, video games, fiction, manuals, hacking, (sub)cultures, networking, etc.

#retrocomputing #retrogaming #infosec #programming

@pixelambacht probably my Whole Earth Catalog, which predates PCs but has a lot of tech stuff.

Or (ugh) I guess my early Wireds are now vintage

@pixelambacht The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner featuring, among other things, the original network worm! Had I not encountered that book at an impressionable age, I might never have entered this field at all.

@corbet Oh thanks, sounds interesting!

@pixelambacht I have a reprint of Computer Lib, this thing from 1974 taught me that many of computer-society and computer-culture problems that we have today existed before Home Computers were a thing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Lib/Dream_Machines

You know what, it's a great time to go and re-read some of it.

@pixelambacht A bit aggressive but essential

@retrotechshop @pixelambacht I have that one, too! There was a mini genre of sci fi-ish authors writing books about microcomputers when they were new. I think Crichton wrote one, too. And someone else. (Sorry, away from my library now.)

@pixelambacht A bit more “typesetting” and a bit less “computer” but still quite up your alley, I would think: https://archive.org/details/FundamentalsOfModernPhotoComposition

@onpaperwings fyi recently I scanned a few more Seybold books. They are on Internet Archive in the usual place. They are all a variation on the same theme, but maybe you’ll find some more interesting nuggets in there.

Should be 3 new books in total and maybe also a paper.

@nina_kali_nina Oh wow that sounds like a fantastic book! I see huge prices for it on ebay, It's on the wish list for when I come across it for a fair price, this is my jam!

@pixelambacht protip: the reprint from 1989 should be far more affordable than 74/75 versions

@mwichary @pixelambacht I love that genre. I feel like it contains prophesies. Here's the one by Michael Crichton you mentioned.

@retrotechshop @pixelambacht Yes!

@pixelambacht This, about the development of the Ericsson AXE digital telephone exchange