The Nature Of Technology
Brian Arthur
One of my favorite people, thinkers, writers… He is just brilliant and kind as is shown in the language and examples he uses in this book to make it accessible even if that will cost him impression points in some circles.
The Nature of Technology has so much in common w Roger Martin’s The Opposable Mind.
Technology is a set of parts put together in new manners to serve a human purpose. Parts combine to beget more parts… To allow more possible combinations of new technologies (parts)… Ad infinitum most likely.
Who are the “inventors”? In Brian Arthur’s terms: who are the people who figure out new ways to combine parts to serve a human purpose (when often the human purpose isn’t even commonly understood?)… Perhaps by definition they are Roger Martin’s folks who are empowered with integrative thinking: a combination of matery and creativity.
I also enjoy that Brian Arthur speaks of technology as a set of building blocks that can be traced back historically w ancestry as opposed to playing up the “magic” notion that technology is about major leaps that capture wide attention. Wonderfully, “every technology contains the seeds of a problem…”
Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences
Edward Tenner
A very very very useful reminder that technology brings with it unintended consequences that are good to manage… All “technology” is not inherently “good”… Of course, who wants to listen to that!
The Holy Grail of Data Storage Management
Jon William Toigo
a hard core piece that is n longer the holy grail… Ah, time goes on 
A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking
Even with Stephen Hawking’s attempts to make this easy, I didn’t understand much of it at all.
Using Sans and NAS
W. Curtis Preston
The differences between storage area networks and network attached storage explained in, well, almost common english
The Hype About Hydrogen
Joseph Romm
Review of alternative energy options and a balanced view of the obstacles ahead in getting to a hydrogen economy
The Hunt for Zero Point
Nick Cook
Multi-year investigation on the technology behind anti-gravity technology (meaning –> UFOs)
Engines of creation
Eric Drexler
Superb 1986 primer for anyone wanting the basics on nanotechnology