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Tubes: A Journey To The Center Of The Internet (2012)

by Andrew Blum(Favorite Author)

3.45 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0061994936 (ISBN13: 9780061994937)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Ecco

review 1: I liked a lot of this, but learned little. There are big gaps in what Blum chooses to explain in detail and what he glosses, and for me I would have preferred a deeper dive. I did take away some new insights about how the internet's "geography" is driven by some similarities to urban geographies and where it differs, and his way of thinking about the physicality of the net is a refreshing perspective. It's a well-written fast read, but doesn't hold a candle to my touchstone for the technical explication genre, which is still, after all these years,Tracy Kidders' Soul of a New Machine.
review 2: Anyone interested in the internet but who does not have any network engineering experience should read Tubes. The focus on the physicality of the internet is something n... moreot discussed in any other book I've read. Yet while I learned new things, Tubes felt repetitive. It would have made a fantastic 40 page article but it felt too sparse for a 200-something page book. As Andrew Blum travels from internet exchange to internet exchange, observations are repeated from chapter to chapter without any apparent reason other than to take up space. I would tell a friend to read to Tubes, but I'd recommend it for skimming. less

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