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How to Speak Tech: The Non-Techie’s Guide to Key Technology Concepts
Things you've done online: ordered a pizza, checked the weather, booked a hotel, and reconnected with long-lost friends. Now it's time to find out how these things work. Vinay Trivedi peels back the mystery of the Internet, explains it all in the simplest terms, and gives you the knowledge you need to speak confidently when the subject turns to technology.
This revised second edition of How to Speak Tech consists of two parts: the first spells out the essential terms and technologies of Internet startups to get you up to speed on the jargon you need to know; the second is a primer on the latest tech trends, including the blockchain, augmented and virtual reality, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence.
Neither the Internet nor the top tech trends are beyond anyone, given the right teaching. This book breaks down the major concepts and technologies of a modern app into bite-sized chapters, helping you understand topics that usually are not explained clearly and showing you that it's not rocket science.
So go ahead, grab this book and start to speak tech.
What You'll Learn
Understand the basics of new and established technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR), Internet of Things (IoT), software development, programming languages, databases, and more
Listen intelligently and speak confidently when technologies are brought up in your business
Be confident in your grasp of terms and technologies when setting up your own organization's application
Who This Book Is For
Students who want to understand different technologies relevant to their future careers at startups and established organizations, as well as business and other non-technical professionals who encounter and require an understanding of key technical terms and trends to succeed in their roles
Reviews
"Finally, a book non-techies can use to understand the web technologies that are changing our lives." Paul Bottino, Executive Director, Technology and Entrepreneurship Center, Harvard University
"A great book everyone can use to understand how tech startups work." Rene Reinsberg, Founder, Celo; Former VP of Emerging Products, GoDaddy
"Through the simplicity of his presentation, Vinay shows that the basics of technology can be straightforwardly understood by anyone who puts in the time and effort to learn." Joseph Lassiter, Professor of Management Science, Harvard Business School and Harvard Innovation Lab
This revised second edition of How to Speak Tech consists of two parts: the first spells out the essential terms and technologies of Internet startups to get you up to speed on the jargon you need to know; the second is a primer on the latest tech trends, including the blockchain, augmented and virtual reality, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence.
Neither the Internet nor the top tech trends are beyond anyone, given the right teaching. This book breaks down the major concepts and technologies of a modern app into bite-sized chapters, helping you understand topics that usually are not explained clearly and showing you that it's not rocket science.
So go ahead, grab this book and start to speak tech.
What You'll Learn
Understand the basics of new and established technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR), Internet of Things (IoT), software development, programming languages, databases, and more
Listen intelligently and speak confidently when technologies are brought up in your business
Be confident in your grasp of terms and technologies when setting up your own organization's application
Who This Book Is For
Students who want to understand different technologies relevant to their future careers at startups and established organizations, as well as business and other non-technical professionals who encounter and require an understanding of key technical terms and trends to succeed in their roles
Reviews
"Finally, a book non-techies can use to understand the web technologies that are changing our lives." Paul Bottino, Executive Director, Technology and Entrepreneurship Center, Harvard University
"A great book everyone can use to understand how tech startups work." Rene Reinsberg, Founder, Celo; Former VP of Emerging Products, GoDaddy
"Through the simplicity of his presentation, Vinay shows that the basics of technology can be straightforwardly understood by anyone who puts in the time and effort to learn." Joseph Lassiter, Professor of Management Science, Harvard Business School and Harvard Innovation Lab
196 pages, Paperback
First published December 26, 2013
79 people are currently reading
1339 people want to read
About the author
Vinay Trivedi
13 books18 followersVinay Trivedi works in technology investing with experience at Blackstone Private Equity and SoftBank Vision Fund. He angel invests out of an ESG-oriented pre-seed fund that he co-founded called Freeland Group. His experience also includes product management at Citymapper and Locu, two venture-backed startups in London and Boston, respectively.
Trivedi serves on the Steering Committee of Startup in Residence (STiR), a program spun out of the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation that connects startups with government agencies to develop technology products that address civic challenges. He has also worked with the New York City Mayor’s Office of the CTO on its NYCx Moonshot Challenge Initiative.
Trivedi studied at Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA) and Harvard University (AB Honors in Computer Science), where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and as a John Harvard Scholar, Weissman Scholar, and Detur Book Prize winner. How to Speak Tech was shortlisted and featured at SXSW in 2014, 2015, and 2019.
Trivedi serves on the Steering Committee of Startup in Residence (STiR), a program spun out of the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation that connects startups with government agencies to develop technology products that address civic challenges. He has also worked with the New York City Mayor’s Office of the CTO on its NYCx Moonshot Challenge Initiative.
Trivedi studied at Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA) and Harvard University (AB Honors in Computer Science), where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and as a John Harvard Scholar, Weissman Scholar, and Detur Book Prize winner. How to Speak Tech was shortlisted and featured at SXSW in 2014, 2015, and 2019.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
August 10, 2016
"How to Speak Tech" is a well-written, captivating, and tremendously useful book. The story, the amount of information, and the level at which its told, I believe has met the need in our society to truly understand the basics of technology. This book proves you don't have to be a computer engineer to understand the basics of technology and the role technology has played in all sectors. Highly recommend this book to all!
August 10, 2017
There is a lot of information provided in this book that one needs to ponder on. However, it might be too technical for someone without an IT background despite the fact that it is meant for those with non-techies. This book will be very beneficial to one with a deep interest in pursuing an IT career or involved in IT management positions but with a limited knowledge on tech.
June 30, 2023
Good enough
Notes
Internet
Connect everything to everything: LAN - WAN - WAN Backbone
Regulate traffic - TCP: break into packets, slap on origin/destination, checksum to see packet received without modification. Instructions to put it together. ARPA releases it for free, ensures all machines on internet have same protocol
What and how to send? HTML and HTTP from CERN. HTTP set of rules to GET file from the server, or POST data to alter info on the server.
DNS converts user-friendly URL to computer-friendly IP address to access the resources stored in the server, to see Pic 1, 2 requests: 1 for the HTML page containing text/layout, and 2 for the image file.
Hosting
Strip down computer, accumulate racks of these and rent space to people who want to host websites, moving files to server using FTP.
Mainframes of 50s accessible through ‘the terminal’ - became PCs that accessed decentralized network of servers, the cloud, that can interact over the net. Cloud computing accesses info and software on cloud.
5 characteristics of cloud computing: on-demand self-service, broad range of access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity (in case of breakdown of certain nodes), measurement (storage, bandwidth etc).
3 Service models of CC - SaaS, s/w accessed through browser/API (not installed on your comp), Platform aaS (build your own web-apps, s/w), Infrastructure aaS (AWS).
Programming
Imperative languages (sequence of commands to achieve an objective) - C, Java. Declarative (give objective, leave programming language to achieve it) - SQL. Functional languages (recursion, stored functions instead of stored variables and iteration) - CAML, Haskell. Object-oriented language (store group of variables and functions/methods as an object) - Java, C++. Scripting languages (Python, Ruby) that interface easily with APIs/db’s. Parallel programming languages. Query languages. Markup languages that give structure to documents using tags - HTML, XML.
Front End
Good UX: back-end works, UI is easy to understand, information and interaction design are well thought out.
XML metalanguage like SGML (that was used to create html) which ensures more control over how page is rendered across different devices. Xhtml is the result, but not backward compatible.
Cascading Style Sheets CSS tells browser how to style/position the elements - arranging nested boxes on a screen (content surrounded by boxes of borders, headers, padding, margin).
Javascript adds interactivity. DynamicHTML combines JS interaction with static HTML to make content/structure/style changes to page based on JS actions. Ajax combines css,html,dom,xml - transfers data from server to client so doesn’t need to refresh page with new content based on every small user action.
Databases
4 components: data, hardware, software (DBMS: head of file-management - uses code like sql to access the database controlling for concurrency, redundancy, security, recovery and optimization) and users
3 level/schema architecture: physical (where data is stored), logical/conceptual (how dbms interfaces) and external (user interaction)
4 data-models: Relational (tables: entities in columns). Non-Relational (simple data not related to one another - noSQL), Object-oriented (powerful collection of relationships, separate structure from operations - OQL), Object-relational (best of both worlds)
Big Data - Hadoop’s Map (split function into smaller tasks) and Reduce (combine results into single output)
APIs, Libraries and Open-Source Projects
APIs used (focus on core competence, get access to data, trade-off dependence) or shared (scale clients, build moat of dependency, revenue, usage data, trade-off resources, costs, security).
2 API types: Representational State Transfer (REST) contains an endpoint (URL) and a message (dev ID, desired action - getweather, parameters - today) encoded into the URL and sent to API via HTTP GET; Simple Access Object Protocol (SOAP) send details in XML document, closed envelope rather than open postcard.
Open Source: first all software was with researchers, giving it away for free. Then with IBM who sold hardware and gave software for free. Then s/w became monetized.
SDK - software development kit, released by platform like iOS so you can build apps on it - documentation, integrated dev editors, APIs, libraries, debuggers
Software
Can’t keep all code in single file. 3-tier architecture: database (the model), middle-tier is controllers (progam logic), front-tier the UI. Separation of concerns - devs working independently on each.
Code economy: bundle requirements into functions at an upstream tier.
Version control and conflict: file-locking gives write-access to first person who opens the file so no concurrent edits. Version-merging allows concurrent edits and system then merges. Easy for text (code). FIle-locking for music/art.
Centralized revision control: all code in central server called main repository. Decentralized: devs have local copies of the repo.
S/W Development
Usual waterfall-approach needs too much certainty, instead replaced by iterative and incremental development. Timeboxing answers Parkinsons Law that work expands to fill the time available.
Risk-driven IID - work on the riskiest parts first. Client-driven - customer feedback.
Agile - Individuals and interactions over processes and tools, Working software over comprehensive documentation, Customer collaboration over contract negotiation, Responding to change over following a plan
Debugging and Testing
Computers coded using punch-cards. Grace hopper found a dead-moth in one, hence bug.
6 steps
Track and document
Reproduce
Run Tests: Fix code, test by repeating reproduce-condition in 3 layers: presentation layer (what user sees), functionality layer (controller and model - write smaller progam that interacts with this) and unit layer (break function into smallest units and go one by one)
Interpret test results to find bug origin
Fix locally - run regression to test if all other functionalities still work the same after the fix
Confirmation test and deliver
SEO
PageRank
SEM - Bid and quality
Analytics - ‘Analog’ the first program that analyzed logging files to derive insight. Webtrends - visualization of logged files.
Clickstream data: web logs, beacons, JS tagging, packet sniffing
Web log: server updates log on every request. Activity on cached versions will not be logged. Server-side data collection.
Beacons: images temporarily hidden until you authorize - browser then requests to server, then logged.
JS Tags: Listens and executes code
Sniffer: Middleman between user and server. User -> Sniffer -> Server collects user data. Server -> sniffer -> User collects webpage information
Visualization: click-density and heatmaps.
Performance and Scalability
Improving performance
B.E
FE
Reduce HTTP requests with CSS sprites.
Compression through zipping, minification (deleting whitespace),
Security
First virus 1988 Morris Worm intended to measure size of internet, but became uncontrollable and spread, eating up processing power.
CIA Triad
Confidentiality - noone else sees
Integrity - not tampered with
Availability - Time sensitive and cant be prevented from being read
Mobile
Cross platform vs Native app - dev efficiency, accessibility, exposure
Native code to be compiled. Web can ‘hot reload’.
IoT’s recent rise due to - hardware (chips), networking (faster, cheaper, more reliable connection), big data, cloud tech.
Notes
Internet
Connect everything to everything: LAN - WAN - WAN Backbone
Regulate traffic - TCP: break into packets, slap on origin/destination, checksum to see packet received without modification. Instructions to put it together. ARPA releases it for free, ensures all machines on internet have same protocol
What and how to send? HTML and HTTP from CERN. HTTP set of rules to GET file from the server, or POST data to alter info on the server.
DNS converts user-friendly URL to computer-friendly IP address to access the resources stored in the server, to see Pic 1, 2 requests: 1 for the HTML page containing text/layout, and 2 for the image file.
Hosting
Strip down computer, accumulate racks of these and rent space to people who want to host websites, moving files to server using FTP.
Mainframes of 50s accessible through ‘the terminal’ - became PCs that accessed decentralized network of servers, the cloud, that can interact over the net. Cloud computing accesses info and software on cloud.
5 characteristics of cloud computing: on-demand self-service, broad range of access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity (in case of breakdown of certain nodes), measurement (storage, bandwidth etc).
3 Service models of CC - SaaS, s/w accessed through browser/API (not installed on your comp), Platform aaS (build your own web-apps, s/w), Infrastructure aaS (AWS).
Programming
Imperative languages (sequence of commands to achieve an objective) - C, Java. Declarative (give objective, leave programming language to achieve it) - SQL. Functional languages (recursion, stored functions instead of stored variables and iteration) - CAML, Haskell. Object-oriented language (store group of variables and functions/methods as an object) - Java, C++. Scripting languages (Python, Ruby) that interface easily with APIs/db’s. Parallel programming languages. Query languages. Markup languages that give structure to documents using tags - HTML, XML.
Front End
Good UX: back-end works, UI is easy to understand, information and interaction design are well thought out.
XML metalanguage like SGML (that was used to create html) which ensures more control over how page is rendered across different devices. Xhtml is the result, but not backward compatible.
Cascading Style Sheets CSS tells browser how to style/position the elements - arranging nested boxes on a screen (content surrounded by boxes of borders, headers, padding, margin).
Javascript adds interactivity. DynamicHTML combines JS interaction with static HTML to make content/structure/style changes to page based on JS actions. Ajax combines css,html,dom,xml - transfers data from server to client so doesn’t need to refresh page with new content based on every small user action.
Databases
4 components: data, hardware, software (DBMS: head of file-management - uses code like sql to access the database controlling for concurrency, redundancy, security, recovery and optimization) and users
3 level/schema architecture: physical (where data is stored), logical/conceptual (how dbms interfaces) and external (user interaction)
4 data-models: Relational (tables: entities in columns). Non-Relational (simple data not related to one another - noSQL), Object-oriented (powerful collection of relationships, separate structure from operations - OQL), Object-relational (best of both worlds)
Big Data - Hadoop’s Map (split function into smaller tasks) and Reduce (combine results into single output)
APIs, Libraries and Open-Source Projects
APIs used (focus on core competence, get access to data, trade-off dependence) or shared (scale clients, build moat of dependency, revenue, usage data, trade-off resources, costs, security).
2 API types: Representational State Transfer (REST) contains an endpoint (URL) and a message (dev ID, desired action - getweather, parameters - today) encoded into the URL and sent to API via HTTP GET; Simple Access Object Protocol (SOAP) send details in XML document, closed envelope rather than open postcard.
Open Source: first all software was with researchers, giving it away for free. Then with IBM who sold hardware and gave software for free. Then s/w became monetized.
SDK - software development kit, released by platform like iOS so you can build apps on it - documentation, integrated dev editors, APIs, libraries, debuggers
Software
Can’t keep all code in single file. 3-tier architecture: database (the model), middle-tier is controllers (progam logic), front-tier the UI. Separation of concerns - devs working independently on each.
Code economy: bundle requirements into functions at an upstream tier.
Version control and conflict: file-locking gives write-access to first person who opens the file so no concurrent edits. Version-merging allows concurrent edits and system then merges. Easy for text (code). FIle-locking for music/art.
Centralized revision control: all code in central server called main repository. Decentralized: devs have local copies of the repo.
S/W Development
Usual waterfall-approach needs too much certainty, instead replaced by iterative and incremental development. Timeboxing answers Parkinsons Law that work expands to fill the time available.
Risk-driven IID - work on the riskiest parts first. Client-driven - customer feedback.
Agile - Individuals and interactions over processes and tools, Working software over comprehensive documentation, Customer collaboration over contract negotiation, Responding to change over following a plan
Debugging and Testing
Computers coded using punch-cards. Grace hopper found a dead-moth in one, hence bug.
6 steps
Track and document
Reproduce
Run Tests: Fix code, test by repeating reproduce-condition in 3 layers: presentation layer (what user sees), functionality layer (controller and model - write smaller progam that interacts with this) and unit layer (break function into smallest units and go one by one)
Interpret test results to find bug origin
Fix locally - run regression to test if all other functionalities still work the same after the fix
Confirmation test and deliver
SEO
PageRank
SEM - Bid and quality
Analytics - ‘Analog’ the first program that analyzed logging files to derive insight. Webtrends - visualization of logged files.
Clickstream data: web logs, beacons, JS tagging, packet sniffing
Web log: server updates log on every request. Activity on cached versions will not be logged. Server-side data collection.
Beacons: images temporarily hidden until you authorize - browser then requests to server, then logged.
JS Tags: Listens and executes code
Sniffer: Middleman between user and server. User -> Sniffer -> Server collects user data. Server -> sniffer -> User collects webpage information
Visualization: click-density and heatmaps.
Performance and Scalability
Improving performance
B.E
FE
Reduce HTTP requests with CSS sprites.
Compression through zipping, minification (deleting whitespace),
Security
First virus 1988 Morris Worm intended to measure size of internet, but became uncontrollable and spread, eating up processing power.
CIA Triad
Confidentiality - noone else sees
Integrity - not tampered with
Availability - Time sensitive and cant be prevented from being read
Mobile
Cross platform vs Native app - dev efficiency, accessibility, exposure
Native code to be compiled. Web can ‘hot reload’.
IoT’s recent rise due to - hardware (chips), networking (faster, cheaper, more reliable connection), big data, cloud tech.
October 12, 2021
Awesome book for who is looking to learn more about basic tech in the web applications world.
February 22, 2020
An approachable overview of tech concepts. It provides a little more depth than Swipe to Unlock. For example, it explains the difference between programming languages. I’d recommend starting with Swipe to Unlock and then reading this to cement the knowledge.
January 28, 2022
Książka Vinaya Trivediego jest łatwa do przeczytania i da każdemu zainteresowanemu czytelnikowi podstawową wiedzę na temat technologii internetowych i podstawowych procesów programowania. Można nazwać tę lekturę przewodnikiem po kluczowych koncepcjach technologii. Moim zdaniem to jest świetna baza dla osób, które nie miały wcześniej styczności ze światem Informatyki i technologii, ale też dobrze nadaje się dla tych, którzy posiadają już doświadczenie w owej sferze ii chcą uporządkować dotychczasową wiedzę. Kluczowe przesłanie autora, Vinaya Trivediego, brzmi: technologia może być zrozumiała dla każdego! Rozłożenie omówienia głównych koncepcji technologicznych związanych z funkcjonowaniem nowoczesnego startupu na krótkie rozdziały, pomaga zrozumieć zagadnienia, które nie zawsze bywają oczywiste i pokazuje, że nie są one żadną wiedzą tajemną.
Autor posiada umiejętność upraszczania złożonych pojęć, przedstawia złożone zagadnienia wiedzy technicznej w sposób uporządkowany, przystępny. Na co dzień on jest przedsiębiorcą i inwestorem, który pracuje na styku biznesu i technologii. W swojej pracy wykorzystuje historię startupową jako ramę do wyjaśnienia prostym językiem technologii stojącej za naszymi codziennymi doświadczeniami użytkowników, skutecznych strategii gigantów mediów społecznościowych oraz inspirujące studium przypadku małych startupów. “How to Speak Tech” jest świetnym lekiem na “niepokój techniczny”. Po przeczytaniu byłam pod wielkim wrażeniem zdolności Trivediego do wyjaśniania takich rzeczy jak przetwarzanie w chmurze i bazy danych w tak przystępny sposób, nie omijając przy tym ważnych szczegółów. Ta książka oferuje odpowiedni poziom szczegółowości w świetnie dobranym zakresie, ponieważ pozwala czytelnikom bez technicznego wykształcenia łatwo zorientować się w omawianych zagadnieniach. Uważam, iż jest to świetna książka, ponieważ w naprawdę przystępny sposób pomogła mi zrozumieć podstawy technologii internetowych. Wiem, jednakże, że także posiadające wiedzę techniczną na wyższym poziomie zaawansowania używają tej lektury, szukając odpowiedzi na konkretne pytania. Polecono mi tę lekturę na studiach z zakresu analizy danych. Przeczytałam ją już kilkukrotnie - raz w całości, a później wracałam do poszczególnych działów za każdym razem, gdy miałam problemy lub wątpliwości w trakcie moich zajęć na uczelni.
Moim zdaniem, to źródło jest solidnym wsparciem dla każdego, kto musi zrozumieć żargon techniczny który tutaj wyjaśniony został w terminach niespecjalistycznych. Technologia nie jest już dobrem luksusowym w rękach nielicznych osób. Dzisiaj jest ona natomiast częścią życia każdego z nas, a mówienie o nowoczesności i technologiach nigdy nie było bardziej aktualne. Technologia obejmuje wszystkie narzędzia, maszyny, przybory, broń, instrumenty, domy, odzież, urządzenia komunikacyjne i transportowe oraz umiejętności, dzięki którym je produkujemy i używamy. Dlatego to jest ważne, żeby znać chociażby podstawowe zagadnienia i koncepcje ze świata technologii.
Książka składa się ze wstępu, w którym autor wprowadza takie pojęcia, jak Internet, hosting i chmura. W dalszej części Vinay Trivedi przedstawia wyjaśnia czym są back-end i front-end w programowaniu, prezentuje modele baz danych, tłumaczy, jak mogą być wykorzystywane istniejące API kodu, biblioteki i projekty open-source, jak tworzone jest oprogramowanie. W ostatnich rozdziałach tłumaczone są koncepcje przyciągania i analizowania potrzeb użytkowników, wyjaśnione pojęcia wydajności i skalowalności, bezpieczeństwa, podstaw technologii mobilnych, Internetu rzeczy, sztucznej inteligencji, blockchain oraz wirtualnej i rozszerzonej rzeczywistości.
Podsumowując, mogę stwierdzić, że po zapoznaniu się z tą książką można bez mniejszego problemu zacząć rozmawiać o świecie IT i aktywnie oraz ze zrozumieniem przedmiotu rozmowy uczestniczyć w dowolnej konwersacji związanej z technologią. Gorąco polecam każdemu, kto szuka łatwej do czytania książki, aby odświeżyć swoją wiedzę techniczną! Szczegółowy, lecz swobodny sposób w jaki Trivedi na wyjaśnia złożone pojęcia, takie jak bazy danych, interfejsy API, frameworki front-end i wiele innych, ułatwi każdemu lekturę i zrozumienie aktualnych problemów technicznych.
Antanina Kazhura
Autor posiada umiejętność upraszczania złożonych pojęć, przedstawia złożone zagadnienia wiedzy technicznej w sposób uporządkowany, przystępny. Na co dzień on jest przedsiębiorcą i inwestorem, który pracuje na styku biznesu i technologii. W swojej pracy wykorzystuje historię startupową jako ramę do wyjaśnienia prostym językiem technologii stojącej za naszymi codziennymi doświadczeniami użytkowników, skutecznych strategii gigantów mediów społecznościowych oraz inspirujące studium przypadku małych startupów. “How to Speak Tech” jest świetnym lekiem na “niepokój techniczny”. Po przeczytaniu byłam pod wielkim wrażeniem zdolności Trivediego do wyjaśniania takich rzeczy jak przetwarzanie w chmurze i bazy danych w tak przystępny sposób, nie omijając przy tym ważnych szczegółów. Ta książka oferuje odpowiedni poziom szczegółowości w świetnie dobranym zakresie, ponieważ pozwala czytelnikom bez technicznego wykształcenia łatwo zorientować się w omawianych zagadnieniach. Uważam, iż jest to świetna książka, ponieważ w naprawdę przystępny sposób pomogła mi zrozumieć podstawy technologii internetowych. Wiem, jednakże, że także posiadające wiedzę techniczną na wyższym poziomie zaawansowania używają tej lektury, szukając odpowiedzi na konkretne pytania. Polecono mi tę lekturę na studiach z zakresu analizy danych. Przeczytałam ją już kilkukrotnie - raz w całości, a później wracałam do poszczególnych działów za każdym razem, gdy miałam problemy lub wątpliwości w trakcie moich zajęć na uczelni.
Moim zdaniem, to źródło jest solidnym wsparciem dla każdego, kto musi zrozumieć żargon techniczny który tutaj wyjaśniony został w terminach niespecjalistycznych. Technologia nie jest już dobrem luksusowym w rękach nielicznych osób. Dzisiaj jest ona natomiast częścią życia każdego z nas, a mówienie o nowoczesności i technologiach nigdy nie było bardziej aktualne. Technologia obejmuje wszystkie narzędzia, maszyny, przybory, broń, instrumenty, domy, odzież, urządzenia komunikacyjne i transportowe oraz umiejętności, dzięki którym je produkujemy i używamy. Dlatego to jest ważne, żeby znać chociażby podstawowe zagadnienia i koncepcje ze świata technologii.
Książka składa się ze wstępu, w którym autor wprowadza takie pojęcia, jak Internet, hosting i chmura. W dalszej części Vinay Trivedi przedstawia wyjaśnia czym są back-end i front-end w programowaniu, prezentuje modele baz danych, tłumaczy, jak mogą być wykorzystywane istniejące API kodu, biblioteki i projekty open-source, jak tworzone jest oprogramowanie. W ostatnich rozdziałach tłumaczone są koncepcje przyciągania i analizowania potrzeb użytkowników, wyjaśnione pojęcia wydajności i skalowalności, bezpieczeństwa, podstaw technologii mobilnych, Internetu rzeczy, sztucznej inteligencji, blockchain oraz wirtualnej i rozszerzonej rzeczywistości.
Podsumowując, mogę stwierdzić, że po zapoznaniu się z tą książką można bez mniejszego problemu zacząć rozmawiać o świecie IT i aktywnie oraz ze zrozumieniem przedmiotu rozmowy uczestniczyć w dowolnej konwersacji związanej z technologią. Gorąco polecam każdemu, kto szuka łatwej do czytania książki, aby odświeżyć swoją wiedzę techniczną! Szczegółowy, lecz swobodny sposób w jaki Trivedi na wyjaśnia złożone pojęcia, takie jak bazy danych, interfejsy API, frameworki front-end i wiele innych, ułatwi każdemu lekturę i zrozumienie aktualnych problemów technicznych.
Antanina Kazhura
December 28, 2023
This book is a fantastic find for those of us entering the tech world without a guide. As a project manager shifting from manufacturing to the Telecommunications and Technology industry, this book proved to be very helpful.
After finishing "Swipe to Unlock," I jumped into this read, and it didn't disappoint. Full of information, it did take me some extra time to get through as I often found myself googling for clarifications. Some might say that you could learn everything from this book on YouTube, but if you're starting like me, how would you even know which topics or videos to look for without wasting your time?
Being surrounded by engineers in my teams can be overwhelming, but this book offered starting points for software development concepts, transforming previously confusing work meetings into more familiar ground.
What makes this book stand out is its simplicity. Complicated concepts are explained with clear, non-techie examples. If you're feeling as lost in a tech company as I once did, I wholeheartedly recommend it.
After finishing "Swipe to Unlock," I jumped into this read, and it didn't disappoint. Full of information, it did take me some extra time to get through as I often found myself googling for clarifications. Some might say that you could learn everything from this book on YouTube, but if you're starting like me, how would you even know which topics or videos to look for without wasting your time?
Being surrounded by engineers in my teams can be overwhelming, but this book offered starting points for software development concepts, transforming previously confusing work meetings into more familiar ground.
What makes this book stand out is its simplicity. Complicated concepts are explained with clear, non-techie examples. If you're feeling as lost in a tech company as I once did, I wholeheartedly recommend it.
May 14, 2021
Broad based introduction to how computers work and the software development process. Also has special chapters on Blockchain and AR/VR. Helpful if you’re trying to get smarter on those topics. But you could probably also watch some free YouTube videos and get the same.
June 25, 2022
8/10
Viegls, bet pietiekami detalizēts, pārskats par tehnoloģijām, sākot ar to pirmsākumiem un senākiem terminiem, beidzot ar jaunākajām un tuvākās nākotnes tehnoloģijām. Ievads, kas var kalpot par mudinājumu kādas no IT jomām pētīt padziļināti.
Viegls, bet pietiekami detalizēts, pārskats par tehnoloģijām, sākot ar to pirmsākumiem un senākiem terminiem, beidzot ar jaunākajām un tuvākās nākotnes tehnoloģijām. Ievads, kas var kalpot par mudinājumu kādas no IT jomām pētīt padziļināti.
August 18, 2019
Being an established system Admin/Engineer. This book was way too basic for my taste.
October 29, 2020
The book is really helpful in understanding the bacic terms used in the IT industry.
November 10, 2021
Explains everything from how the internet works to APIs to Blockchain. For me, the AR/VR section was great as I don't have much experience
March 5, 2022
Quite good. Dense and rich in detail (no fluff here) but easy to read and brief.
June 20, 2022
It's good, i highly recommend it for anyone who wants to get basic understanding of tech.
February 3, 2023
Fascinating content on AI and Blockchain
April 19, 2023
Very useful with many brilliant analogies. Can be quite dense, but serves its function well.
August 17, 2023
Easy book to read, would recommend to any Tech recruiters
November 30, 2023
Non-techie here - I learned something!
July 8, 2024
Work read. Informative. Feel better equipped to speak about technology than I was 173 pages ago. Also helped me get a jeopardy question right, so it was worth it!
September 30, 2024
The book is good but it's not for listening on Audible. There are a lot of concepts and information that in audio form are more complex to understand.
August 15, 2023
A decent enough intro to technology basics. Although, I still found myself going onto the ELI5 subreddit to get a plainer and more detailed breakdown of some concepts.
For a crash course in software and web based technology, you could do a lot worse than this short book.
For a crash course in software and web based technology, you could do a lot worse than this short book.
April 1, 2014
You can’t turn around today without reading, hearing (or in this case writing about) Big Data, web applications or Social Media.
If you are an anointed one working in Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley or Silicon “add your local landmark of choice”, understanding technology is like understanding how to breathe - you just do it.
For the rest of us luckily there are books like Vinay Trivedi’s How to Speak Tech. Vinay is clearly a techie, but he also understands that what is taken for granted in some quarters might as well be quantum mechanics in others.
Using the idea of what a non-techie might face when trying to get their company or team to build an internet application from scratch, Vinay walks us uninitiated through everything from front-end development (the stuff we see when we cruise the web), back-end development (how all that goodness comes from servers to our eyeballs) and associated issues like debugging, scalability and internet security.
The book is a quick read and will give any interested reader a basic primer on internet technology and build processes. Although minor grammar and editorial mistakes mar some chapters, the overall usefulness of the book for non-techies cannot be overstated.
I’m glad I read it and I’m sure those looking to get educated on the web would find value as well.
If you are an anointed one working in Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley or Silicon “add your local landmark of choice”, understanding technology is like understanding how to breathe - you just do it.
For the rest of us luckily there are books like Vinay Trivedi’s How to Speak Tech. Vinay is clearly a techie, but he also understands that what is taken for granted in some quarters might as well be quantum mechanics in others.
Using the idea of what a non-techie might face when trying to get their company or team to build an internet application from scratch, Vinay walks us uninitiated through everything from front-end development (the stuff we see when we cruise the web), back-end development (how all that goodness comes from servers to our eyeballs) and associated issues like debugging, scalability and internet security.
The book is a quick read and will give any interested reader a basic primer on internet technology and build processes. Although minor grammar and editorial mistakes mar some chapters, the overall usefulness of the book for non-techies cannot be overstated.
I’m glad I read it and I’m sure those looking to get educated on the web would find value as well.
May 30, 2014
This is a goodreads firstread.
I always hate giving a bad rating on a first read book. I mean, it took time and money to get a book to someone who acted interested in their work. And I did give it a try. For months I read a page or two at a time, and within a few words I would start day dreaming. So finally today I sat down and skimmed the last half of the book. To Trivedi's credit, he did try to "dumb" things down for me. Giving analogies and even graphs that should easily represent what he was tying to explain in laymen's terms. But to no avail. I simply cannot learn computers from a book.
I would say that if you are in an environment that uses the "tech" lingo, and you want to better acquaint yourself with what all the computer guys are talking about, this is your book. I caught on to a few things, and I did learn a thing or two, but not what I should have.
I always hate giving a bad rating on a first read book. I mean, it took time and money to get a book to someone who acted interested in their work. And I did give it a try. For months I read a page or two at a time, and within a few words I would start day dreaming. So finally today I sat down and skimmed the last half of the book. To Trivedi's credit, he did try to "dumb" things down for me. Giving analogies and even graphs that should easily represent what he was tying to explain in laymen's terms. But to no avail. I simply cannot learn computers from a book.
I would say that if you are in an environment that uses the "tech" lingo, and you want to better acquaint yourself with what all the computer guys are talking about, this is your book. I caught on to a few things, and I did learn a thing or two, but not what I should have.
August 25, 2015
This book works really well, until the back end. I could follow most of this, and understand the flow and process, up and until we got into the final publishing and debugging process. Neither seemed horribly difficult, but it just got too short in the explanations from where the book started off. If you've never done tech work but have a reason to understand what is being discussed, I'd say this is worth some of your time.
February 21, 2014
The author attempts to simply the workings of the internet and websites for people without technical training. It does provide good information for those with a grasp of modern communicating via social media but is a little confusing that need it in a CSL [computer as a second language] format. Overall, the work would help understand the internet and creating websites for the non-geek. A good overall tool to begin learning the internet. This was a free review copy from the author.
May 12, 2014
Solid inch deep and a mile wide view of technology in business
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