Overview

Close to the Machine has become a cult classic: Ellen Ullman's humane, insightful, and beautifully written memoir explores the ever-complicating intersections between people and technology; the strange ecstasies of programming; the messiness of life and the artful efficiency of code. It is a deeply personal, prescient account of working at the forefront of computing.With a new introduction by Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget.

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9781908968135

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Astonishing...Impossible to put down. --- San Francisco Chronicle <br><br> Close to the Machine may be the best---it's certainly the most human---book to have emerged thus far from the culture of Silicon Valley. Ullman is that rarity, a computer programmer with a poet's feeling for language. ---Laura Miller, Salon <br><br> Part memoir, part techie mantra, part observation on the ever-changing world of computer science...[Ullman is] a strong woman standing up to, and facing down, 'obsolescence' in two different, particularly unforgiving worlds---modern technology and modern society. --- The New York Times Book Review <p><p> Fascinating...Chock-full of delicately profound insights into work, money, love, and the search for a life that matters. --- Newsweek <p><p> Ullman comes with her tech bona fides intact (she is, after all, a seasoned software engineer). But she also comes with novel material....We see the seduction at the heart of programming: embedded in the hijinks and hieroglyphics are the esoteric mysteries of the human mind. --- Wired <br><br> This book is a little masterpiece....I have never read anything like it. ---Andrei Codrescu <br><br> For someone sitting so close to the machine, Ellen Ullman possesses a remarkably wide-angle perspective on the technology culture she inhabits. --- The Village Voice <p>

Author Information

Ellen Ullman's Close to the Machine, a memoir of her time as a software engineer during the early years of the internet revolution, became a cult classic and established her as a writer of considerable talent; with her second book, The Bug, she became an acclaimed and vital novelist; By Blood is her third. She lives in San Francisco.

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