Rating:  - EXCELLENT!!!!
I wanted to learn where the Internet/internet came from and associated technologies/standards, etc. This book is superb!
I read this concurrently with the nerds 2.0.1 videos and it was nice to put faces to names though the book does have some photos. The last 3 or 4 chapters in particular really sum up the formation of the internet as the first several chapters are really only about ARPA and the ARPAnet; which inspires everything that is to come.
Overall, this is one of the most complete and easily read books I have come across. The reader who only elected to rate this book 1-star certainly isn't in to computers/Internet or too young to appreciate the history of how their cell phone works, their email works, or why their friends can upload comments for his MySpace page.
If you want to get a whirlwind education in why we are where we are with the Information/Internet revolution then this is the book to read.
Rating:  - A good look into the past
Where Wizards Stay Up Late is a good look at the politics, and background that have become the Internet we use today. Contrary to popular belief, Al Gore did not start the Internet. In fact, the book uses the word 'internetting' to refer to an international work group designed to help computers all over the world connect to each other in the mid-late 1970s.
The book goes in depth and covers all of the interesting bits that concern the creation of the ARPANET.
Rating: - Those who can't learn from the history are doomed to repeat it
The book is good view on the origins of the Internet and in particularly it gives insights into the hardship of working with guilded way of protectionism done by the Telecommunication entities. It shows how the Internet has always been tried to bind into the semantics of Telephones and Telecommunications and how this has always spelled disaster to the further development.
Rating: - A Competent Account
Where Wizards Stay Up Late is a competent, if slightly dry, account of the development of the ARPANET. I live for this kind of stuff, but Hafner fails to ever really engage me in the story - I found that I was plowing through the text as opposed to devouring it. As a history text, though, I was impressed with the even-handed, no-hype account.
Too regularly do authors of computer history suffer from hero-worship and "religious" dogma - their personal opinions coloring the story, till its credibility is at best strained (if not broken). Hafner does not fall into this trap - if she worships anyone or holds any personal religious leanings, none of it shows in the account. The writing is clear and technical without being unreadable by a layperson. Overall, there is a lot to recommend this book.
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, I found the story to be dry and frequently bogged down. Hafner may actually have overdone the evenhandedness of the account - I felt little passion for the subject, and consequently was not drawn into the text. At the end, I felt more knowledgable about the subject, but not any more interested. A good historical account, but a less-than-enjoyable read.
Rating:  - Good book for those only mildly techy
Great history without being so technical that it gets dry. Recommend for anyone that has an interest in how we got to this point in the revolution of the internet but isnt so techy that you know how to code html by hand!
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