Originally written in 1984, Fire in the Valley is an excellent synopsis of the beginnings of the computer industry, the devices, the people, and the egos that drive Silicon Valley in it’s early days. The book is filled with details about the early computers, the hobbyists, and the fledging corporations (often three guys in a basement) that were building a mega-industry seemingly overnight. While filled with details, the book flows well and reads quickly thanks to generally lucid prose. The authors do a good job of conveying the enthusiasm and idealism of those times and interviewed many of the key participants including Steve Jobs and Bill Gates for their perspective on those days. This version of the book brings the story essentially up to date, documenting the rise of the World Wide Web and the various wars over browsers that eventually got Microsoft into trouble. If you like computers pick this up. If you like historical books about great periods of history (and don’t kid yourself, the rise of the personal computer and the world wide web qualify) pick this up. If you want to know why the machine you currently have is designed the way it is pick this up, it’s an enjoyable read.

Competent overview but no depth, This breezy read lightly covers the evolution of the personal computer mostly from the introduction of Altair until Steve Jobs’ departure from Apple Computer. Covering as many people, machines and companies as possible the authors don’t have time for a in-depth look at anything. The result seems like a 400 plus page newspaper or magazine article.

http://www.fireinthevalley.com/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071358927/ref=ase_fireinthevalleth/002-1102286-1579203?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=fireinthevalleth

本书旨在试图打破如今普遍存在于众多公司的不具创造力的传统思维模式，这些公司十分努力，拥有高素质的员工和高质量的产品，但它们的经营方式却让我想起足球比赛，足球在赛场上踢来踢去仅仅为了维持比赛的进行，就像是两个队以0：0结局收场，整个过程没有任何速度上的变化，没有激情，甚至没有要赢球的信心。

这本书的一个建设性的目的，是想为正在奋斗前行的公司提供更加具有推动力的动态方法。并非某种研究成果的总结，而是关于态度和理念的阐述，是关于从根本上决定一个公司的优势和劣势的理念,是关于决定一个公司必须如何去行动和组织自己的理念。

丹麦人的商业读本和美国人写的风格不同,由译本快速翻阅,内容不甚了了,有些无味,除品牌建设外,无"实质"内容,全是"精神"层面.

 well written, easy to read with examples, and quite innovative - but the more experienced pratitioner or well read academic will probably be familiar with much of the ideas presented.

 This book will appeal to those who prefer the visualisation of models and concepts alongside short examples, and the format will be particularly liked by those whom have followed an MBA degree or similar training. Main stream academics looking for well researched material may be a little disappointed, for by the authors own admission this book is "a constructive attempt to show another, more dynamic way, for companies to move forward. This book is not about research results, but about attitudes". The center has received feedback from many practitioners and managers tackling live corporate branding projects whom seem to like this book, and it is a fairly easy and somewhat innovative read for non-specialists or general managers, but perhaps less so for the well practiced or academic experts in the field.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0273643800/qid=1150986432/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/002-1102286-1579203?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

 本来因为要看碟,于是先选择了阅读.看上去文字是浅白易懂的,至少比Harry Potter里怪名词好让人明白,结果发现除了日本人名的奇怪英文外,读了将近一半,一直都是个小女孩的独白.Arthur Golden这个西洋鬼子学上了琐碎的东洋娘娘腔,讲来讲去就那么一点事,看来连观碟的兴致也闷闷而无.

看了下西洋鬼子的书评,评价甚高,估计都是些对东方全无概念的偷窥者,想从这样一本小说里来体验比魔幻世界更奇特的经历.暂且以小人之心堵君子之腹,等哪天读完下半部再继续.看来读完还不知何年何月.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400096898/qid=1150982646/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-1102286-1579203?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Amazon.com is probably the most cited online business of all times, and it will certainly be the case for the next ten years or so. Therefore, this little yellow paperback book is a must-read for those who do not know that the "e" at the beginning of e-commerce does not stand for "easy". Indeed, similar to its counterparts, Amazon.com was also born in a garage and then became an e-commerce giant in less than five years. This extraordinary story also proves that the industry clock-speed of e-commerce markets is really high, as demonstrated by Haim Mendelson in his novel book "Survival of the Smartest".

In his book, Robert Spector starts the history of Amazon.com from where it all began-the garage, and takes the reader smoothly to where it stands now-the peak. After reading this book, the reader learns about the customer-centric view of this company, the advantages of the so-called "get big fast strategy" in e-commerce, and finally why profit should not be the first priority of an online company during its initial years of operation.

More than 4 years after the dotcom crash, we should be getting some perspective on internet companies. Perhaps most fundamentally, what does it take to build a highly profitable internet company? Which companies are still overvalued? Are they 50% overvalued, 10x overvalued or what? Sadly, books offering such wisdom do not seem to be around. There are plenty of books about the disasters, but much more interesting would be an analysis of the handful of successes or maybe-successes.
In the absence of such a work, this is respectable. It is well-written and carefully researched. It was finished in 2000, when things were starting to fall, but still had a long way to go. So you had to be unusually perceptive to see things clearly. Spector does seem to have seen most of the issues, he just does not push them far enough.
There is much fascinating detail and much to learn, although you sometimes have to read between the lines. For example, Amazon’s software should be an engineering case study in the difference between effective and efficient. It was incredibly inefficient, because the original designers (by their own admission, according to Spector) knew nothing about the finer points of relational databases, but it was effective - it rarely went down. Since Amazon was able to raise money on absurdly favourable terms, the fact that poor software design gave a huge hardware bill maybe did not matter much.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0066620422/sr=8-1/qid=1147075790/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-0139341-3723008?%5Fencoding=UTF8

David Cohen argues that far from being influenced by logical, rational considerations, stock markets are driven by deep-seated emotions such as fear, greed, panic and the herd instinct.

Written in a jargon-free style, this book contains fascinating case histories on companies and individuals and includes an amusing psychological quiz which will help you to understand your own attitude to risk and therefore guide you when making investment decisions.

Essential reading for anyone with an interest in how markets actually work.

• A fun, topical read
• Contains a psychological quiz to test attitude towards risk
• Includes a useful glossary of psychological and investment terms