
Free Classic Books by MIT Press on Archive.org - akaralar
http://www.openculture.com/2017/08/free-you-can-now-read-classic-books-by-mit-press-on-archive-org.html
======
mrbill
I wonder how they define "classics" \- two of my cherished titles from MIT
Press are "IBM's Early Computers" (1985) and "IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems"
(1991).

They're examples of what I consider "The Perfect Computer Book".

[https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/ibms-early-
computers](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/ibms-early-computers)

[https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/ibms-360-and-
early-370-system...](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/ibms-360-and-
early-370-systems)

~~~
jackfoxy
I started my career coding System 370 assembler. I'm curious as to what
constitutes your perfect computer book.

~~~
mrbill
Depth of information, organization, etc. I wish there were more books like
these covering other platforms - like one about DEC's minicomputers, another
covering Cray, etc.

Plus they're nice and thick, without a third of it being indexes and
footnotes.

~~~
criddell
Have you read Tracy Kidder's book _Soul of a New Machine_? If so, what did you
think?

I read it five or six years ago and I loved it.

~~~
mrbill
Yes, I read it in the mid-80s and loved it, and own multiple copies. Steven
Levy's _Hackers_ is a similarly good book.

I found out years later that one of the moderators on a discussion site I
frequent is Tom West's daughter, and I sold her a laptop at one point.. Isn't
it weird how "small" the world can be?

------
torstenvl
Direct link:
[https://archive.org/details/mitpress?sort=-downloads](https://archive.org/details/mitpress?sort=-downloads)

~~~
ZeroGravitas
There's about 4 times as many books with this link:

[https://archive.org/search.php?query=publisher%3A%22MIT+Pres...](https://archive.org/search.php?query=publisher%3A%22MIT+Press%22)

I'm not 100% sure what the difference is, I just noticed that one book I'd
been able to borrow didn't show up on your list:

[https://archive.org/details/turtlegeometry00haro](https://archive.org/details/turtlegeometry00haro)

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gtramont
Hard not to think of Aaron Swartz when reading something like this…

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WalterBright
What does it mean, "This item is restricted":

[https://archive.org/details/aircraftenginesg00kerr_0](https://archive.org/details/aircraftenginesg00kerr_0)

~~~
Jtsummers
From the article:

    
    
      “Together with MIT Press, we will enable the patrons of every
      library that owns one of these books to borrow it online–one
      copy at a time.”
    

Looks like Archive.org will be hosting it, but you'll have to go through a
library to access it. It's an improvement, but not freeing the books entirely.

EDIT: I can't figure out a pattern. I can check out some, but not others with
no discernible pattern. No connection to a library, just my Archive.org
account.

~~~
executesorder66
How do you "borrow something online" ?

If I download a file from a server, I am sent a copy of the file. They only
way I can "borrow" something online, is if they sent me a copy of the file,
and then deleted their copy after I received my copy. Then we have to follow
the same process in reverse when I "return" the file.

~~~
Jtsummers
I didn't try downloading. Presumably some sort of DRM on that. I was reading
the book through some web-based interface. When borrowed, it gave me 14 days
access to it. Then it'd be automatically returned and I'd have to get in line
to borrow it again to continue reading.

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spraak
Which computer science books should I watch out for? I am a software developer
but without a CS degree and I'd like to learn more CS fundamentals.

~~~
snakeanus
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - 2nd Edition

Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming

And the books in the "The Little Schemer" series.

I would also suggest "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach" but this is
not from MIT Press.

~~~
MrMorden
MIT Press has published SICP online for free for years.

[https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-
text/book/book.html](https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html)

~~~
snakeanus
Under CC-SA nonetheless. In fact, Hal Abelson (one of the authors of SICP) was
also one of the founders of Creative Commons. Moreover the other author
(Gerald J. Sussman) is in the board of directors of the FSF.

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drallison
Making classic MIT books available for free is only a tiny part of the many
important things Archive.org is doing. The GOOD WORKS of the Archive is worthy
of your financial support.
[https://archive.org/donate/](https://archive.org/donate/) to support the
cause.

Explore the website, [http://archive.org](http://archive.org), and discover
the amazing collection.

~~~
snakeanus
Archive.org is one of the greatest sites in the world right now. The only
negative thing that I have to say about it is the retroactive removal of sites
that have a anti-bot stance on robots.txt (even if it does not ban archive.org
specifically). I would understand if they did not crawl sites that had such a
robots.txt but I find the retroactive removal a dangerous policy.

~~~
ghaff
It's unfortunate but they operate in a sufficiently grey area of law that they
really need to bend over backwards to comply with the wishes of someone who
owns or may own the content. I don't particularly like it either but I
understand why they feel it's a prudent policy.

~~~
Torwald
If internet access is a human right, which I believe the UN said it is? Well,
then we could have special laws for internet archival? Much like we have laws
that prevent the destruction of historical sites. It's not that anybody is
making a quick buck at the expense of somebody else.

