Books for Engineers & Electron Chasers - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: SgtRock
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 17, 2011, 09:33:44 pm
content: Greetings EEVBees:-- I heartedly recommend "The Cyberiad" by Stanislaw Lem. Lem was a Polish Electrician, turned Science Fiction writer. The stories deal with computers, physics, robots etc. All very witty and funny. People with a scientific or engineering bent will particularly enjoy them. See below for the link to the Wiki article:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_CyberiadIf you cannot get it at your library, see the Amazon link below:http://www.amazon.com/Cyberiad-Stanislaw-Lem/dp/0156235501--I promise you will not be dissapointed."Three weeks in the lab will save you a day in the library every time" Stanley Williams, HP LabsBest RegardsClear Ether

author: jakeypoo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2011, 05:12:33 am
content: Oooh I love reading lists.Tech History:-Where Wizards Stay Up Latehttp://www.amazon.ca/Where-Wizards-Stay-Up-Late/dp/0684832674Details the beginnings of the ARPANET. There is some boring policy stuff and the like, but interesting things like UDP/TCP protocol development and it talks about how PDP-1s were converted to be the first gateways and nodes of the network.- iWozhttp://www.amazon.com/iWoz-Computer-Invented-Personal-Co-Founded/dp/0393061434Steve Wozniak is just an interesting character, very much an engineer's engineer. I'm not an Apple person, but I absolutely loved this book. Steve talks a lot about how he came up for the ideas for the Apple I and how he came up with the solutions to the technical problems that allowed Apple to create such a revolutionary personal computer in the days of the Apple II.Sci-Fi :- A Canticle for Leibowitzhttp://www.amazon.com/Canticle-Leibowitz-Bantam-Spectra-Book/dp/0553379267Post-apocalyptic story that deals with many topics. As a techie, I pulled a very interesting narrative from it about the relationship between those of us who work in the background keeping information alive and using it to create, and those who don't understand it and fear progress. The themes are timeless, and can be applied to today's world just as much as the world of 50 years ago when it was written, and that is a mark of great science fiction.

author: Kiriakos-GR
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2011, 11:19:29 am
content: Well yesterday I found this :The Illustrated Dictionary of ElectronicsEighth EditionStan GibiliscoVery interesting book, I though that it will just explain terms, but it is something more than that,it had even schematics, and its like a mini encyclopedia .

author: Lanman
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2011, 06:34:40 pm
content: Thanks for the list.How about "The Cuckoo's Egg" written by Clifford Stoll.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-person_narrativeAlways enjoyed reading this book.Dave

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 18, 2011, 06:53:07 pm
content: Quote from: Kiriakos-GR on September 18, 2011, 11:19:29 amI have this dictionary a very long time now, never use it. It would have been useful if wikipedia was not around and it doesnt provide that extra piece of info for many terms. Not to mention that using two languages to describe thousands of terms is daft.

author: jakeypoo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2011, 09:12:12 pm
content: Yeah, Dave. That is a great read too.And I'll quickly add the two Feynman biblioshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surely_You%27re_Joking,_Mr._Feynman!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Do_You_Care_What_Other_People_Think%3FQuote from: Lanman on September 18, 2011, 06:34:40 pm

author: deephaven
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2011, 12:08:32 pm
content: I found this great UK site for buying secondhand bookshttp://www.abebooks.co.uk/There are quite a lot of technical books people are selling on there at very reasonable prices.

author: david77
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2011, 12:51:37 pm
content: I've always loved Jules Verne's books, like "The Mysterious Island" or "20000 Leagues Under The Sea".They are also available online:http://www.online-literature.com/verne/mysteriousisland/.I've spent hours on that site already.

author: sub
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2011, 01:02:03 pm
content: I'm rather a fan of Hofstadter's GEB:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_BachIt develops enough formal logic to give sketches (nowhere near rigorous, but such is the way of the world) of the proofs of Godel's Incompleteness Theorems and the Halting Theorem. It discusses the mind and artificial intelligence (these are the main theme of the book), but even if you are not interested in those aspects it is still very much worth reading.Even if you care not for anything he talks about, I'd almost say it was worth it just for his extraordinary writing---whenever I read it I find another layer of self-referential humour that I missed the time before.

author: SgtRock
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 19, 2011, 03:31:50 pm
content: Greetings EEVBees:--"Ghost In The Wires" by Kevin Mitnick; Kevin Mitnick is a former "Black Hat" phone and computer hacker, who has "gone straight" and now works as a cyber-security consultant. Over the years he has become a good friend of Steve Wozniak. This books recounts his deeds on both sides of the law.--"Profiles Of The Future" by Arthur C. Clarke; I read this book the year it came out (1962). It made some startling predictions at the time. It predicted that your phone, radio, television, and newspaper would all be combined into one device. It also predicted that the computing power of Univac would someday fit into a matchbox.--"The Emperors New Mind"; by Roger Penrose; Penrose takes the "Artificial Intelligence" zealots to the woodshed. In doing so, he delves into the history of physics, cosmology, mathamatics and lots of other disiplines. Acessible to the layman while still challenging to the professional.--"One Two Three ... Infinity, Facts and Speculations of Science" By George Gamow; First published in 1947 this book is still important and relavent after all these years. Very little in the book has been overcome by events. I highly recommend it."Three weeks in the lab will save you a day in the library every time" Stanley Williams, HP LabsBest RegardsClear Ether

author: Kiriakos-GR
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2011, 08:53:37 pm
content: Quote from: david77 on September 19, 2011, 12:51:37 pmThis was from my first readings too,and the " travel around the world in 80 days" those are classics.But comes second in comparison with the books about the Greek mythology.

author: SgtRock
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 20, 2011, 12:42:01 pm
content: Greetings EEVBees:--Personal taste aside, our friend Kiriakos is correct. Greek mythology is indeed fascinating. Notable are the books by Homer Hadjipapakostandinopoulos. Some historians say that when writing became more common, Homer's last name was excluded to save on papyrus, and parchment. Other historians say that Homer never had a last name. Still other historians say that "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" were not written by Homer at all, but by another Greek of the same name. I any case I highly recommend both books."Three weeks in the lab will save you a day in the library every time" Stanley Williams, HP LabsBest RegardsClear Ether

author: SgtRock
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 21, 2011, 12:11:26 am
content: Greetings EEVBees:--"QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter" by Richard Feynman. The "best mind since Einstein" explains his "dippy" theory that explains everything except Gravitation and the Strong force. This is Feynman's written version of the amazing lectures he gave at University of Auckland, New Zealand, in 1979. You can view the videos of these lectures for free at the below link:http://vega.org.uk/video/subseries/8--To All:Please keep posting your recommended reading for "Engineers & Electron Chasers". I will accumulate, and condense all suggestions (barring the absurd) and make it available to all at at later date. At present I plan on three categories; (1 Reference, (2 History & Biography, (3 Engineering & Science Related (including fiction). Well known SciFi authors will be recommended by last name only, I.E. Verne, Wells, Heinlien, etc.--Our tastes seem to be of a similar nature, I find that so far I have read all the suggested books except two, and I have ordered those.To Jakeypoo:I have ordered a copy of "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" and will report back when I read it, but I am pretty sure that I will not be able to put it down, though. I read "iwoz" when it came out. As I have said before this man is to the personal computer what Farnsworth was to television.--I also read "A Canticle For Leibowitz" when it came out. I think it is a great book, but of course the post apocalyptic premise is weak as usual. The idea that thermonuclear war would eliminate every book and technological artifact, except and electrician's lunchbox, and still leave people alive is, to say the least, absurd. Nonetheless, I highly recommend the book.To All, again:--I particularly need more suggestions in the reference category. I know from seeing it on this forum multiple time that I need to add:"The Art of Electronics" by Paul Horowitz; Unfortunately, I cannot afford to buy a copy of this book at present, so I will try the library and friends."Three weeks in the lab will save you a day in the library every time" Stanley Williams, HP LabsBest RegardsClear Ether

author: Bambur
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2011, 12:08:45 pm
content: I came accross this Intel's Recommended Reading List for Developers --http://www.intel.com/technology/rr/RRlist.pdf.Hope it'll be useful for somebody.