Dealers of Lightning
Xerox PARC and the dawn of the computer age
by Michael A. Hiltzik · first published 1999
77% recommend22% neutral1% critical
Why HN recommends it
Entertaining, anecdote-rich history of Xerox PARC covering the laser printer, Ethernet, Alto, Smalltalk and the GUI, plus its lab culture; suits anyone curious about how research labs produce breakthroughs.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In the bestselling tradition of The Soul of a New Machine, Dealers of Lightning is a fascinating journey of intellectual creation. In the 1970s and '80s, Xerox Corporation brought together a brain-trust of engineering geniuses, a group of computer eccentrics dubbed PARC. This brilliant group created several monumental innovations that triggered a technological revolution, including the first personal computer, the laser printer, and the graphical interface (one of the main precursors of the Internet), only to see these breakthroughs rejected by the corporation. Yet, instead of giving up, these
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…http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Anniversar... - The Soul of a New Machine: http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-A-New-Machine/dp/0316491977 - Show Stopper! : http://www.amazon.com/Show-Stopper-Breakneck-Generation-Micr... - Dealers of Lightning: http://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer/... - Where Wizards Stay Up Late: http://www.amazon.com/Where-Wizards-Stay-Up-Late/dp/06848326...
on “Ask HN: How to learn about the history of computing?” ↗…http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/... "Molecular Biology of the Cell" - http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Biology-Cell-Bruce-Alberts/d... (different edition, forgive me; free through NCBI, thanks jkimmel!) "Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age" - http://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer/... "The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer"…
on “Sam Altman's Twitter AMA” ↗First published in 1985? For more reading: Fumbling the Future: not all that good; reads like a B-school case study Dealers of Lightning: excellent history Inventing the Future (by me!): what it was actually like to be there in the trenches. Fictionalized, but all facts are accurate. Foreword by David C. Smith, the guy who invented icons.…
on “Xerox PARC’s engineers on how they invented the future and Xerox lost it (1985)” ↗…these were all more interesting IMO: - John Gernter, The Idea Factory - T.R. Reid, The Chip - Stephen Levy, Hackers - Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, Where Wizards Stay Up Late - Michael Hiltzik, Dealers of Lightning - Susan Lammers, Programmers at Work (Actually I read Levy & Lammers a long time ago, but they're both better than SotNM too.) Those were full of themes like patents and broad use of technology, interaction…
on “Windows NT and VMS: The Rest of the Story (1998)” ↗…read the book, though, and the book itself does not contain any references to UFOs. I can wholeheartedly recommend the book, and it’s free to read online!¹ Later books in the same vein like Hackers and Dealers of Lightning are more well-known and seem to be appreciated by many, but this book seems to have been overlooked by most people. 1. https://books.google.com/books?id=6f8VqnZaPQwC&pg=PS1 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos
on “Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?” ↗Taylor had an immense impact both direct and indirect on the nature of computing as we know it today, it's a little sad he's not better known. Dealers of Lightning does a great job detailing his role in it all - https://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer... that along with soul of a new machine really capture the spirit of that 60s/70s generation…
on “Bob Taylor Has Died” ↗I'm currently in the process of reading "Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age,"[0] and I highly recommend it. I've always viewed Xerox as primarily an office printer company, and the fact that they innovated/invented many of the systems…
on “Ask HN: Recommendations on books and documentaries on tech companies/people?” ↗…pushed graphics forwrard The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood https://www.amazon.com/Information-History-Theory-Flood/dp/1... walks through information theory and how we got to the internet Dealers of lightning: https://www.amazon.com/Dealers-of-Lightning-audiobook/dp/B00... how a lot of modenr computing grew out of Xerox
on “Ask HN: Good Books on the History of Technology?” ↗Dealers of Lightning[0] is also pretty fantastic and covers PARC in good detail. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1101290.Dealers_of_Light...
on “Xerox calls off $6.1B sale to Fujifilm” ↗…gripping tale of technology and hacking, The Cuckoo's Egg never fails: https://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espiona... And, as someone reminded me in the thread about Xerox and Fujifilm, Dealers of Lightning tells the story of Xerox PARC, the Alto, Steve Jobs' visit, etc: https://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer...
on “John Carmack: My Steve Jobs Stories” ↗actually, i like "Michael A. Hiltzik’s Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age" (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887309895/) much better than the wizards book. it is quite a long read, but is very good.
on “Who Is This “Licklider” Guy? (2008)” ↗…UNIX: A History and a Memoir 2. The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer 3. The idea factory - Bell Land and the great age of American innovation 4. Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age 5. The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution 7. Intel Trinity,The: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built…
on “Ask HN: Computer Science/History Books?” ↗…different inventions that came out of Bell Labs from its inception through the 1960's. It had some fun factoids like how they selected the wood for the telephone poles. Just an awesome book. Another is Dealers of Lightning, by Michael Hiltzik: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1101290.Dealers_of_Light... Exciting and inspiring like the first, but with a different feel. It's about Xerox PARC and all of their work and…
on “Ask HN: What are some great posts or articles about history of computing?” ↗Dealers of Lightning has an interesting chapter about Pixar's PARC roots in the SuperPaint group. There's also a very good article somewhere on the web (I can't find it now) about the NYIT years; the NYIT lab was a very strange…
on “The Real Story of Pixar” ↗If you like that sort of look back at tech history, and at things that came out from the PARC, I highly recommend "Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age" by Michael Hiltzik. It's a very well-written book with a ton of insights about how a lot of the things we took for granted came to be, from our printers and…
on “Ethernet's Emergence from Xerox PARC” ↗