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Looking for a novel with programmer... r/o

 
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I'm looking for a novel that has programming as one of its main components. I loved:

The Bug
Hackers
Soul of a New Machine
Showstopper
The Second Coming of Steven Jobs

Looking for new fun reading material for my next scuba diving vacation. You've got to relax while you off-gas.

Any recommendations from my programmer friends on Java Ranch?
 
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I enjoyed The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll. Not a novel, but a true story about his unintentional encounters with hacking.

-j-
 
Robin Clark
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Yes, I loved the Cuckoo's Egg too! I forgot to list that one.
 
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The Soul Of A New Machine was recommended reading on a Business Systems Analysis course in the 1990's.
 
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a book about programming?! What a novel idea!
 
Jeff Langr
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Interface, by "Stephen Bury" (Neal Stephenson), is somewhat entertaining, but not great. It's about a political candidate who gets a chip implanted in his brain; he's fed real-time data on reactions of the public to his speeches. Odd. Not about programming, really.

-j-
 
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Dont you ever feel the need to just forget about computers??

..Sod reading about them... read some lightweight violence.. get into Wilbur Smith and find yourself in an African adventure and you wont even have to THINK about computers for you're entire holiday! *BLISS*
 
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Originally posted by Robin Clark:
I'm looking for a novel that has programming as one of its main components.
......

Any recommendations from my programmer friends on Java Ranch?



Programming book during vacation ?? . Try reading the Java Language Specification by Bill Joy and Co.
 
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Check out The Wiz Biz and the rest of that series by Rick Cook
 
Robin Clark
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I ordered two of these on Amazon. This is particularly interesting to me because my maiden name is Zumwalt. This is a very uncommon name and I am surprised to see that the character in the book has this name. I wonder how the author came to assign this name to the character? Could it be that he knows of me and what a fabulous computer programmer I am?
 
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Am I the only person here who has read "Prey"?

We got to see genetic engineers do their stuff in "Jurasic Park" and "Prey" is for software developers. INTENSE!

And how often does a pudgy geek get to save the world?!
 
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Anybody else remember The Adolescence or P1? It was mainframe stuff - typewriter terminals for goodness sake - kind of a neat AI premise, enjoyed the first half, devolved into car chases & gun fights. There was a really horrible TV movie set in high school.
 
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How about a traditional steamy, frothy romance novel in which the tall, dark, sexy man is a computer programmer? Which ones have you seen?
 
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I read a novel recently that has programming/programmers as the main theme: "Transmission" (I think) was the name. I enjoyed it quite a lot. The protagonist is an Indian programmer brought to the US with promises of fame, fortune, and "surfer girlfriends". It's entertaining and interesting. Near the beginning, he mentions walking into the house where he'll be staying, and remarks on all the "O'Reilly technical books" laying around.

It's fun.

There's another one called "Death Match" that is about a computer dating service, and what happens when something goes wrong with the software program doing the matchmaking...

cheers,
Kathy
 
Robin Clark
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Hi Kathy! I'm in the process of downloading "Death Match" from audible. My husband and I just finished listening to "Skinny Dip" by Carl Hiassin and we are ready for a new audio book. I couldn't find "Transmission", but it sounds good too.

Thanks for the recommendations!
 
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The Nine Billion Names of God was a short story written by Arthur C Clarke
 
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Steven Gould is a programmer who has written a fair amount of science fiction. Somewhere in the mid-90's (94-95?) he started on a novel based on programmers. I read a draft that was circulating on the internet at the time and it wasn't bad. Can't remember the working title, don't know if it was ever published.
 
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