What Just Happened: A Chronicle from the Information Frontier

This would have been a great read some years ago, but the information age has progressed so rapidly that it is now largely outdated. Come back in twenty years and it will be interesting as a chronicle of the early years; now it is just old news.

Probably a fine read in 2000, or listen in 2002. Do not waste your time in 2011, as I groaned too often through the first half of the book about the claimed novelty of word processing font innovations or PDAs - while listening to the book on my 2011 I-Pad. I did not listen to the end (something I have done on only one other occasion), and don't regret it at all.

I picked up "What Just Happened" as I recognized Gleick as the author of "Chaos". If I read "What Just Happened" first, I would hadn't read "Chaos". :-(

Simply put as the other reviewers have said, it is out of date. The last essay is 2000 or 2001 so I was surprised when I saw that it had been released in 2005.

I've been using the 'net since 1991 and I enjoyed someone else's perspective for what was happening as the rest of America discovered the 'net in the mid-90's. In his latter essays, I was just waiting for him to finish his essay as he was just plain wrong.

I might be recommended to a 'net newbie that might be interested in some historical background. Otherwise, would not. I would bet that most Audible listeners whom use Audible, i.e., the recordings aren't selected and downloaded by someone else, are beyond "What Just Happened".

A collection of dated essays on this thoughts about technology. Good in too many ways for historical trivia only.