The companion to the documentary series premiering on PBS in November 1998. A romp through the development of the "Information Superhighway" from the people who brought you "Triumph of the Nerds." Nerds 2.0.1 is the first light-hearted but comprehensive account of how the Internet developed from a medium for academic geeks, hackers, and policy wonks into a billion-dollar vehicle for communication and commerce. The brand names Microsoft, Apple, Netscape, Intel, Novell, AOL, 3Com, Java, Sun, Amazon, Yahoo!, and Excite are known worldwide, but for every one of these success stories lie a multitude of wrecked businesses by the side of the road.

Based on four years of research and interviews with the founders of the successful companies who started in their parents' garages with credit card advances and with the venture capitalists who supported them, as well as with the unlucky engineers who missed the patent deadlines and key phone calls, Stephen Segaller tells the human story behind the Internet. From the start of the Pentagon's ARPAnet in the 1960s, through the work of physicist Tim Berners-Lee and a young programmer named Marc Andreessen (who wrote the code for the Internet browser "Mosaic") on to the bazillionaires and their companies today, Nerds is a warm and engaging tale of billionaires rising from the development of a communications medium that one in three Americans uses but nobody owns.

The companion documentary series is hosted by the author of the best-selling Accidental Empires: How The Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date.

Average Customer Review: ( 14 customer reviews )
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Second, the book degenerates in about the last sixth into this hyper rush of adrenaline dealing with the web world since 1992, how fast it is, how quick it all changes, and how venture capitalists played such a role. Maybe that is all true, but the sheer love of computing seems really lost. It is like Segaller is writing an economic history and so it got boring for me. There was no sense of perspective. Sure, the world has sped up since the web became ubiquitous but it will undoutedly settle down again into something more staid and bureaucratic.

Once again, it is a worthwhile book to read, but please don't make it the only one you read on the subject of computer and Internet history!!!!

8 of 9 found the following review helpful:

Not much history or storyFeb 04, 1999

I generally enjoy computer history books because they usually are fun to read and (like any good history book) there is a lot learn. Both of these statements do not apply to Nerds 2.01. The author acknowledges his lack of technical knowledge early on and it hurts his ability to convey this story. Not only does he miss major events completely he glosses over the ones he does mention (TCP/IP maybe gets 1 page in total).

I had trouble coming back to this one and would defintely not recommend it.

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

Better suited to those who saw the seriesAug 08, 2001
By Christopher Nieman
I am a little more than halfway through this book, and having missed the PBS series, I feel I'm at a slight disadvantage. My instinct tells me that this plays far better as a companion to the series rather than on its own. I would also suggest that an alternate subtitle should be "A Brief Oral History of the Internet," because the narrative excels with its treatment of the people involved and their stories. The author is less adept in his breathless technical language and descriptions that will confuse the layman and infuriate the expert.

As a side note, Segaller's many errors regarding simple facts of the U.S. space program did not inspire my confidence in his investigative abilities, especially since Segaller ties the subject together with the very beginnings of ARPAnet.

Additionally, this book is "obsolete" because Segaller uses contemporary analogies to illustrate the significance of the history (he uses dangerous words such as 'now' and 'present,' which automatically date any history book). Nevertheless, I would not want to attempt a history of the Internet, and it is for his daunting task that Segaller deserves recognition.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

Misses much, but still covers muchJan 03, 1999

I'll agree with people who think this book misses many of the major parts of the Internet, but I also think that it really does hit on many of the major "events" of the Internet. It gives a very good way-back history and, come on now, who could write a book describing the 1990's of the Internet? The book would have to be thousands of pages. This book really hits on some good highlights. yeah it covers a lot of Microsoft, but you have to - even if they were dragged online. I found it easy to skip paragraphs at a time, but I couldn't put the book down entirely.

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:

Very good history of computingJun 10, 1999

As noted in previous reviews, the book covers American computer/networking history moreso than the Internet proper. I found the origins of ARPA and the major companies to be fascinating. Certainly the author doesn't go into technical detail into protocols and such, no moreso than a WWII history book has to teach the subject of military strategy. The best thing about the book was the lighthearted style, that did a good job of showing these industry heavyweights as real people.

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