Book recomendations: Google Story, The Tipping Point
Contents
Thanks to sudden memory jump in my iPod (from 4GB Nano 2gen to 8 GB iPod touch) I have enough space to load some books in addition to podcasts. I normally do not like abridged versions, but the weather is getting worse so I do not get enough walking time for full versions. These two were both 3-4 disc long audio books.
The Google Story is interesting if you are into history of computing - because it describes the probably the largest transition in computing history - the evolution of World Wide Web to a platform and the evolution of the company that made the Web actually useful. I still remember how much time did it take in 1997/1998 to find anything relevant when the best way how to do this were directories (in early Yahoo! style) or AltaVista and hours and hours of paging through the irrelevant results. Then in early 1998 my friend Rajeeva (I was working in New Jersey at Merrill Lynch) made me aware of that company with funny empty looking page and strange name Google :). And now, 9 years later the shareprice of GOOG is well over $600 - just unbelievable.
The other book - The tipping point - is one of the "must reads", often quoted on the Web. After listening to it I fully agree - it is an important book. So important that I am going to get a treeware copy of it and re-read it in full and to find out how much damage did the abridgment do. The recording was not as great as the Google story - it was read by the author, which is seldom the best option. True, an author is the person with most complete understanding of the message - but it takes different skills, a professional actor to make the message sound as good as it can. Despite of that, I am glad I listened to it and hope you will as well.
Author Miro Adamy
LastMod 2007-10-16
License (c) 2006-2020 Miro Adamy