Want to know what books Vicki Boykis recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Vicki Boykis's favorite book recommendations of all time.
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The performance of software systems is dramatically affected by how well software designers understand the basic hardware technologies at work in a system. Similarly, hardware designers must understand the far-reaching effects their design decisions have on software applications. For readers in either category, this classic introduction to the field provides a look deep into the computer. It demonstrates the relationships between the software and hardware and focuses on the foundational concepts that are the basis for current computer design. more The performance of software systems is dramatically affected by how well software designers understand the basic hardware technologies at work in a system. Similarly, hardware designers must understand the far-reaching effects their design decisions have on software applications. For readers in either category, this classic introduction to the field provides a look deep into the computer. It demonstrates the relationships between the software and hardware and focuses on the foundational concepts that are the basis for current computer design. less 
Vicki BoykisThis is a textbook that covers how computers work from the ground up. It includes hardware, software, and operating systems. It’s a really thick book, but also a really good one! This is the book I’d recommend reading if you missed out on a formal computer science education. (Source)
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Services like social networks, web analytics, and intelligent e-commerce often need to manage data at a scale too big for a traditional database. As scale and demand increase, so does Complexity. Fortunately, scalability and simplicity are not mutually exclusive—rather than using some trendy technology, a different approach is needed. Big data systems use many machines working in parallel to store and process data, which introduces fundamental challenges unfamiliar to most developers.
Big Data shows how to build these systems using an architecture that takes advantage of... more Services like social networks, web analytics, and intelligent e-commerce often need to manage data at a scale too big for a traditional database. As scale and demand increase, so does Complexity. Fortunately, scalability and simplicity are not mutually exclusive—rather than using some trendy technology, a different approach is needed. Big data systems use many machines working in parallel to store and process data, which introduces fundamental challenges unfamiliar to most developers.
Big Data shows how to build these systems using an architecture that takes advantage of clustered hardware along with new tools designed specifically to capture and analyze web-scale data. It describes a scalable, easy to understand approach to big data systems that can be built and run by a small team. Following a realistic example, this book guides readers through the theory of big data systems, how to use them in practice, and how to deploy and operate them once they're built.
Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book. less Vicki BoykisThis book remains a great read if you want to understand how modern data architecture works, and especially distributed data systems. (Source)
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Master Python and become a programmer -- even if you never thought you could! This breakthrough book and CD can help practically anyone get started in programming. It's called "The Hard Way," but it's really quite simple. What's "hard" is this: it requires discipline, practice, and persistence. Zed A. Shaw teaches the Python programming language through a series of 52 brilliantly-crafted exercises -- all formatted consistently, and none longer than two pages (including "extra credit"). Just read each exercise, type in its sample code precisely (no copy-and-paste!), and make the programs run.... more Master Python and become a programmer -- even if you never thought you could! This breakthrough book and CD can help practically anyone get started in programming. It's called "The Hard Way," but it's really quite simple. What's "hard" is this: it requires discipline, practice, and persistence. Zed A. Shaw teaches the Python programming language through a series of 52 brilliantly-crafted exercises -- all formatted consistently, and none longer than two pages (including "extra credit"). Just read each exercise, type in its sample code precisely (no copy-and-paste!), and make the programs run. As you read, type, fix your mistakes, and watch the results, you'll learn how software works, how programming works, what good programs look like, and how to read, write, and see code. You'll discover how to spot crucial differences that fundamentally affect program behavior, and you'll learn everything you need to know about Python logic, input/output, variables, and functions. Above all, you'll learn the attention to detail that is indispensable to successful programming (and so much else in life). At first, yes, it can be difficult. But it gets easier. And Shaw offers plenty of extra guidance and insight through 5+ full hours of teaching video on the accompanying CD. As Shaw's thousands of online readers and fans will attest, the moment will come when you just "get it" -- and that moment feels great. Nothing important comes without discipline, practice, and persistence. But, with Learn Python the Hard Way, readers who bring those qualities to programming will master it -- and they will reap the rewards, both personally and in their careers. less Vicki BoykisHe goes through all of the building blocks that you need to master Python. It’s been updated for Python 3, which is very important as well. It’s very practical and down to earth, with about 50 to 60 exercises, and it’s written in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming and that really allows you to go through all of them. (Source)
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Peter Seibel interviews 16 of the most interesting computer programmers alive today in Coders at Work, offering a brand-new companion volume to Apress’s highly acclaimed best-seller Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston. As the words "at work" suggest, Peter Seibel focuses on how his interviewees tackle the day–to–day work of programming, while revealing much more, like how they became great programmers, how they recognize programming talent in others, and what kinds of problems they find most interesting.
Hundreds of people have suggested names of programmers to interview on the... more Peter Seibel interviews 16 of the most interesting computer programmers alive today in Coders at Work, offering a brand-new companion volume to Apress’s highly acclaimed best-seller Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston. As the words "at work" suggest, Peter Seibel focuses on how his interviewees tackle the day–to–day work of programming, while revealing much more, like how they became great programmers, how they recognize programming talent in others, and what kinds of problems they find most interesting.
Hundreds of people have suggested names of programmers to interview on the Coders at Work web site: http://www.codersatwork.com. The complete list was 284 names. Having digested everyone’s feedback, we selected 16 folks who’ve been kind enough to agree to be interviewed:
- Frances Allen: Pioneer in optimizing compilers, first woman to win the Turing Award (2006) and first female IBM fellow
- Joe Armstrong: Inventor of Erlang
- Joshua Bloch: Author of the Java collections framework, now at Google
- Bernie Cosell: One of the main software guys behind the original ARPANET IMPs and a master debugger
- Douglas Crockford: JSON founder, JavaScript architect at Yahoo!
- L. Peter Deutsch: Author of Ghostscript, implementer of Smalltalk-80 at Xerox PARC and Lisp 1.5 on PDP-1
- Brendan Eich: Inventor of JavaScript, CTO of the Mozilla Corporation
- Brad Fitzpatrick: Writer of LiveJournal, OpenID, memcached, and Perlbal
- Dan Ingalls: Smalltalk implementor and designer
- Simon Peyton Jones: Coinventor of Haskell and lead designer of Glasgow Haskell Compiler
- Donald Knuth: Author of The Art of Computer Programming and creator of TeX
- Peter Norvig: Director of Research at Google and author of the standard text on AI
- Guy Steele: Coinventor of Scheme and part of the Common Lisp Gang of Five, currently working on Fortress
- Ken Thompson: Inventor of UNIX
- Jamie Zawinski: Author of XEmacs and early Netscape/Mozilla hacker
What you’ll learn:
How the best programmers in the world do their job
Who is this book for?
Programmers interested in the point of view of leaders in the field. Programmers looking for approaches that work for some of these outstanding programmers. less 
Santiago BasultoFounders at Work and Coders at Work are really good ones too. They’re filled with interesting and inspiring stories. (Source)
Vicki BoykisIt’s about how those people got into programming and how they think about it. It’s a very conversational book that really helps you to learn the culture of this industry you’re coming into, and some of its terminology. (Source)
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In April 1956, a refitted oil tanker carried fifty-eight shipping containers from Newark to Houston. From that modest beginning, container shipping developed into a huge industry that made the boom in global trade possible. "The Box" tells the dramatic story of the container's creation, the decade of struggle before it was widely adopted, and the sweeping economic consequences of the sharp fall in transportation costs that containerization brought about.
Published on the fiftieth anniversary of the first container voyage, this is the first comprehensive history of the shipping... more
In April 1956, a refitted oil tanker carried fifty-eight shipping containers from Newark to Houston. From that modest beginning, container shipping developed into a huge industry that made the boom in global trade possible. "The Box" tells the dramatic story of the container's creation, the decade of struggle before it was widely adopted, and the sweeping economic consequences of the sharp fall in transportation costs that containerization brought about.
Published on the fiftieth anniversary of the first container voyage, this is the first comprehensive history of the shipping container. It recounts how the drive and imagination of an iconoclastic entrepreneur, Malcom McLean, turned containerization from an impractical idea into a massive industry that slashed the cost of transporting goods around the world and made the boom in global trade possible.
But the container didn't just happen. Its adoption required huge sums of money, both from private investors and from ports that aspired to be on the leading edge of a new technology. It required years of high-stakes bargaining with two of the titans of organized labor, Harry Bridges and Teddy Gleason, as well as delicate negotiations on standards that made it possible for almost any container to travel on any truck or train or ship. Ultimately, it took McLean's success in supplying U.S. forces in Vietnam to persuade the world of the container's potential.
Drawing on previously neglected sources, economist Marc Levinson shows how the container transformed economic geography, devastating traditional ports such as New York and London and fueling the growth of previously obscure ones, such as Oakland. By making shipping so cheap that industry could locate factories far from its customers, the container paved the way for Asia to become the world's workshop and brought consumers a previously unimaginable variety of low-cost products from around the globe.
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Bill GatesI picked this one up after seeing it on a Wall Street Journal list of good books for investors. It was first published in 1954, but it doesn’t feel dated (aside from a few anachronistic examples—it has been a long time since bread cost 5 cents a loaf in the United States). In fact, I’d say it’s more relevant than ever. One chapter shows you how visuals can be used to exaggerate trends and give... (Source)
Tobi LütkeWe all live in Malcolm’s world because the shipping container has been hugely influential in history. (Source)
Jason ZweigThis is a terrific introduction to critical thinking about statistics, for people who haven’t taken a class in statistics. (Source)
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