Computers Audiobooks | Science & Technology

The high-tech industry has given rise to a pioneering group of entrepreneurs and executives. Armed with groundbreaking management approaches, members of this visionary group are changing the way companies are run. Having helped their own organizations survive and thrive, they offer invaluable lessons for executives and managers in all industries.

Karen Southwick (Author), Sneha Mathan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Perfect Enough: Carly Fiorina and the Transformation of the Legendary HP Company

Fresh from her triumph at Lucent, Carly Fiorina took command of Hewlett-Packard in July 1999. Suddenly a woman was running one of the largest technology companies on earth, venturing farther than anyone else dared into traditional men's territory. This wasn't just the engineer's realm of bits and bytes, this was the guys' world of beer blasts, rolled-up shirt sleeves, and deer-hunting trips to the founders' ranch. Perfect Enough is the definitive account of her daredevil bid to remake HP with a record-shattering $20 billion acquisition of archrival Compaq Computer. It is a story with unexpected heroes, courage in the face of disaster, and a struggle so fierce that it could only be settled in a courtroom showdown. Not since the late 1980s, when Wall Street operatives battled over the fate of RJR Nabisco, has a takeover drama so decisively moved beyond the business pages and become an enduring passage in American History. Looming in the background for the entire story are the ghosts of Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett. The two men will forever be American heroes; they founded Hewlett-Packard in a Palo Alto garage during the Great Depression and built it into what was widely known as "the best outfit on earth." Some of the book's most searingly emotional scenes come when Carly Fiorina and Bill Hewlett's oldest son, Walter, fight to the point of exhaustion about which of them is truly the rightful heir to the founders' legacy. In Perfect Enough, Anders draws on unparalleled access to Hewlett-Packard insiders and board members, including dissident Walter Hewlett, to write about a takeover battle that rocked Wall Street, stunned the computer industry, and is still being digested today. It is a spellbinding chronicle of hope, ambition, betrayal, despair, and family pride.

George Anders (Author), Rick Adamson (Narrator)

Audiobook

In Liar’s Poker barbarians seized control of the bond markets. In The New New Thing some guys from Silicon Valley redefined the American economy. Now, with his knowing eye and wicked pen, Michael Lewis reveals how the Internet boom has encouraged great change in the way we live, work, and think. He finds that we are in the midst of one of the greatest revolutions in the history of the world, and the Internet is a weapon in the hands of revolutionaries. The old priesthoods-lawyers, investment gurus, professionals in general-have been toppled. The amateur, or individual, is king: fourteen-year-old children manipulate the stock market; nineteen-year-old take down the music industry; and wrestlers get elected to public office. Deep, unseen forces seek to undermine all forms of collectivism, from the mass market to the family. Where does it all lead? And will we like where we end up?

Michael Lewis (Author), Michael Lewis (Narrator)

Audiobook

Microsoft First Generation: The Success Secrets of the Visionaries Who Launched a Technology Empire

This is a story with all the ingredients of a modern legend, representing nothing less than the proverbial American Dream-writ extra-large. It is a story of hard work, brilliance, and extraordinary commitment, featuring the story's original cast members, who could not possibly have foreseen the unprecedented success that awaited them: the forging of a technology empire that would change the world forever. What began as a modest start-up partnership only twenty-five years ago has already surpassed all the giants of contemporary capitalism. How did Microsoft achieve all of this in so short a time? Cheryl Tsang steps inside the famous culture of loyalty, the storied "maniacal work ethic," and the hardcore world of reckless risk-taking to reveal, once and for all, exactly what makes Microsoft tick.

Cheryl Tsang (Author), Mary Woods (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Age of Spiritual Machines

Ray Kurzweil is the inventor of the most innovative and compelling technology of our era, an international authority on artificial intelligence, and one of our greatest living visionaries. Now he offers a framework for envisioning the twenty-first century--an age in which the marriage of human sensitivity and artificial intelligence fundamentally alters and improves the way we live. Kurzweil's prophetic blueprint for the future takes us through the advances that inexorably result in computers exceeding the memory capacity and computational ability of the human brain by the year 2020 (with human-level capabilities not far behind); in relationships with automated personalities who will be our teachers, companions, and lovers; and in information fed straight into our brains along direct neural pathways. Optimistic and challenging, thought-provoking and engaging, The Age of Spiritual Machines is the ultimate guide on our road into the next century.

Ray Kurzweil (Author), Alan Sklar (Narrator)

Audiobook

Computers Audiobooks in Science & Technology