Ellen Ullman Explained
Ellen Ullman |
Occupation: | programmer |
Nationality: | American |
Genres: | non-fiction, fiction |
Subjects: | --> |
Notablework: | --> |
Spouses: | --> |
Partners: | --> |
Ellen Ullman is an American computer programmer and author. She has written books, articles, and essays that analyze the human side of the world of computer programming.
She has owned a consulting firm and worked as technology commentator for NPR's All Things Considered. Her breakthrough book was non-fiction: Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its Discontents.
Life
Ullman's adoptive father's family included computer scientists and mathematicians who had a major impact on her decision to pursue software engineering, a field for which she did "not have native talent."[1] Ullman earned a B.A. in English at Cornell University in the early 1970s.[2] She began working professionally in 1978 as a programmer of electronic data interchange applications and graphical user interfaces.[3]
She eventually began writing about her experiences as a programmer. From 1994 until 1996, she published articles in Harper's Magazine and in the collections Resisting the Virtual Life and Wired Women.[3] She lives in San Francisco.[4]
Bibliography
Books
- Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its Discontents San Francisco : City Lights Books, 1997.
- Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology New York: MCD, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017.
Novels
- The Bug New York, N.Y. : Talese, 2003.
- By Blood: A Novel New York, N.Y. : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.
Selected articles and essays
- Out of Time: Reflections on the Programming Life (included in the 1995 collection Resisting the Virtual Life,)
- The Myth of Order. The real lesson of Y2K is that software operates just like any natural system: out of control [5]
- The dumbing-down of programming [6] [7]
- How to Be a 'Woman Programmer [8]
- Twilight of the crypto-geeks: Lone-wolf digital libertarians are beginning to abandon their faith in technology uber alles and espouse suspiciously socialist-sounding ideas. [9]
- Geeks Win: A survey of the oddballs who write the codes that make the 21st-century world go round [10]
- The Orphans of Invention [11]
- The Boss in the Machine [12]
- Identity Stolen? Take a Number [13]
- Dennis Ritchie [14]
References
- News: My Secret Life . Ellen Ullman . The New York Times . 1 January 2009 . 24 December 2011 . A23 . 0362-4331 . San Francisco.
- Web site: Women Who Inspire Us . GirlGeeks . 19 February 2011.
- May 1998 . Interview with Ellen Ullman: Of Machines, Methods, and Madness . IEEE Software . Los Alamitos . 15 . 3 . 42–45 . IEEE Computer Society . 0740-7459 . 10.1109/ms.1998.676733 . 916133 .
- Web site: Bugged out . Scott Rosenberg . Salon Magazine . 2003-05-16 . 2017-10-05. (Interview about her novel The Bug.)
- The Myth of Order. The real lesson of Y2K is that software operates just like any natural system: out of control . April 1999 . Wired.
- Web site: The dumbing-down of programming: Rebelling against Microsoft and its wizards, an engineer rediscovers the joys of difficult computing. First of two parts. . 12 May 1998 . Salon.com .
- Web site: The dumbing-down of programming: Part Two: Returning to the source. Once knowledge disappears into code, how do we retrieve it? . 13 May 1998 . Salon.com .
- Web site: How to Be a 'Woman Programmer' . 18 May 2013 . The New York Times.
- Web site: Twilight of the crypto-geeks: Lone-wolf digital libertarians are beginning to abandon their faith in technology uber alles and espouse suspiciously socialist-sounding ideas. . 13 May 2000 . Salon.com.
- News: Geeks Win: A survey of the oddballs who write the codes that make the 21st-century world go round . The New York Times Book Review . BR18 . 0362-4331 . 4 November 2001.
- News: The Orphans of Invention . The New York Times . A33 . San Francisco . 0362-4331 . 22 May 2003.
- News: The Boss in the Machine . The New York Times . A15 . San Francisco . 0362-4331 . 19 February 2005.
- News: Identity Stolen? Take a Number . The New York Times . A17 . San Francisco . 0362-4331 . 17 July 2006.
- Dennis Ritchie, b. 1941 . 25 December 2011 . The New York Times Magazine . 24.
External links