Here's my top ten works that I consider required reading for geeks & hax0rs - don't worry, only four of them need you to find a physical copy


1 - Anything by William Gibson, especially "Neuromancer" and "Burning Chrome".

2 - "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein.

3 - Sun Tzu's "The Art of War". Try & track down a copy _without_ a whole load of commentaries, forwards, and appendices; if not, ignore them & just read the real meat of it.

4 - Iliad's "User Friendly" strip: http://www.userfriendly.org/

5 - A Brief History of Hackerdom: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/ha...r-history.html

6 - The J-File / New Hackers Dictionary: http://www.jargon.8hz.com/jargon_toc.html

7 - Frank Herbert's "Dune" series


Onto the serious stuff:

8 - The report into the 1996 software failure of the French satellite launcher Ariane 5, flight 501: http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/www_plasma...riane5rep.html

9 - The report into the 1992 software failure of the London ambulance service despatch system (20 fatalities): http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/A.Fink...lascase0.9.pdf (more here: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/A.Finkelstein/las.html).

10 - The report into the 1991 software failure of a Patriot Missile launcher during the first Gulf war (GAO/IMTEC-92-26 "Patriot Missile Defense: Software Problem Led to System Failure at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia") (28 fatalities): http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/gao/im92026.htm

And don't forget to read the book Hackers (the one the movie is based off of, or vice versa. I can't remember. It's early. I'm tired. lay off.) if you want a good laugh. Nothing like hearing them talk about how pimped out their 486 is.

There's also another book that's pretty good, but I can't remember the title our author. I'll get it in time.

All in all, a good list, JE. I'll have to grab a couple of those with my B&N gift certificate.

I'd add some stuff from the "history department":

Douglas Rushkoff's Cyberia
Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown
Neal Stephenson's In the Beginning...Was the Command Line

Being Digital by N.Negroponte
-MF

Don't forget The Hacker Ethic

Alright I've read... the Art of War. That barely even counts. I own the Hackers movie though. Does that give me points or make me lose them? I like the colors you see...

dont remember the title, but it is a autobiography of steven mitnick i think. im gonna double check at the library.

Quote: Originally Posted by DuplexEmotions And don't forget to read the book Hackers (the one the movie is based off of, or vice versa. I can't remember. It's early. I'm tired. lay off.) if you want a good laugh. Nothing like hearing them talk about how pimped out their 486 is. There's also another book that's pretty good, but I can't remember the title our author. I'll get it in time. All in all, a good list, JE. I'll have to grab a couple of those with my B&N gift certificate.

i still love my 486. It rocks even though it can't fold.

Quote: Originally Posted by Spectrum dont remember the title, but it is a autobiography of steven mitnick i think. im gonna double check at the library.

That would be Kevin Mitnick rather than Stephen but yeah, that book (Art of Deception) is rather good.

soz, but yep thats what i meant. its been a long day, so im allowed to have a brain slip.

Quote: Originally Posted by godfoot that book (Art of Deception) is rather good.

Definitely a good read. Speaking of Mitnick, Tsutomu Shimomura's Takedown is also worth a look--to see things from the other perspective. And then there's also Jeff Goodell's The Cyberthief and the Samurai--for a (supposedly) unbiased view, and Jonathan Littman's The Fugitive Game (IMO the best of the bunch).

Yes they are great books as well (I haven't read The Fugitive Game yet though) and interesting reading to say the least.

Hmm, Most gamers would enjoy Masters of Doom. It is a quick and easy read but tells a great story.

I also find that This jargon file, which looks to be the same as the one you have listed, has an easier layout for those that don't want to fiddle with that page.