- Schneider, Ben Ross, Jr. Travels in Computerland. Reading,
MA: Addison-Wesley, 1974. ISBN 0-201-06737-4.
- It's been almost thirty years since I first
read this delightful little book, which is now sadly out
of print. It's well worth the effort of tracking down a
used copy. You can generally find one in readable condition
for a reasonable price through the link above or through
abebooks.com.
If you're too young to have experienced the
mainframe computer era, here's an illuminating and entertaining view
of just how difficult it was to accomplish anything back then; for
those of us who endured the iron age of computing, it is a superb
antidote to nostalgia. The insights into organising and managing a
decentralised, multidisciplinary project under budget and deadline
constraints in an era of technological change are as valid today as
they were in the 1970s. The glimpse of the embryonic Internet on
pages 241–242 is a gem.
April 2003 