WEB SITES: There are a variety of web sites that are particularly apposite for this course. Here are some of the most relevant.
Slashdot, "News for Nerds", is the best single source for breaking technical news stories, many of which are highly relevant to COS 109. The accompanying reader comments range from insightful (occasionally) through sophomoric (often) to crude and puerile (all too frequently); you can skip them, but you should skim the main page almost every day.
Legal issues from Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Chilling Effects.
Technology news from Google, Cnet, and The Register.
Wikipedia, the free and very useful online encyclopedia.
TALKS: Several talks given on campus over the past few years bear directly on this course, including "Rip, Mix, Burn, Sue: Technology, Politics, and the Fight to Control Digital Media," by Ed Felten (of Princeton's CS department, Oct 12, 2004), "The Creative Commons," by Larry Lessig (Stanford law school, Feb 20, 2003), "Barricelli's Universe: Digital Computing in Princeton, 1945-1958," by George Dyson (Oct 5, 2004), and (advertisement:) "D is for Digital", my Freshman Assembly lecture for the class of 2007 (Sept 7, 2003). These talks, along with many others, are archived here and here.
BOOKS: These are books that I have found worth reading as background, or for alternate views, or just because they were interesting. No particular order.
How to Lie with Statistics, Darrell Huff, Norton, 1954 (reissued in 1993). A wonderful little book that will immunize you for a lifetime against statistical chicanery and meaningless numerical presentations. Some of its insights show up in one of the labs. If you read nothing else from this course, read this one. A modern attempt to improve on the classic is Damned Lies and Statistics by Joel Best; it's not bad but I like Huff much better. I also liked Chances Are... Adventures in Probability, by Michael and Ellen Kaplan (Viking, 2006), an excellent book on probability, statistics, and their role in just about everything. Very well written, very clear, good stories and ilustrations.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences, John Allen Paulos, Vintage, 1990. An important topic, some good examples, ultimately unsatisfying because the author gets too interested in mathematical cuteness, but still well worth skimming. Paulos has written several other books in the same vein.
The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers, Tom Standage. Walker & Co, 1998, also available in paperback. Fascinating story of the development and spread of a new technology and its effects in society; the parallels with today's Internet are many.
ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer, Scott McCartney, Walker & Company, 1999. Compact description of the invention of the first stored program computer (not invented by von Neumann, a case made fairly compellingly by the author). Surprisingly, he omits any mention of the work of Konrad Zuse in Germany. Babbage's work is well covered in The Difference Engine by Doron Swade; it also relates the construction of one of Babbage's machines in 1991.
It's hard to write well on software, especially for a non-technical audience. One good attempt, once you get past its title, is Go to: The Story of the Math Majors, Bridge Players, Engineers, Chess Wizards, Scientists and Iconoclasts who were the Hero Programmers of the Software Revolution, Steve Lohr, Basic Books, 2001. I can attest to the author's careful fact-checking.
The Bug, Ellen Ullman, Doubleday, 2003, is by far the best fiction work about programmers and programming that I have read. It's almost like a detective story in places, and the technical denouement is totally believable and satisfying to a programmer. The story is quite good too.
The World is Flat -- A Brief History of the 21st Century, Thomas L Friedman, 2006. A very good book about how digital communications and computing power are moving all kinds of information services off shore, much to India, and manufacturing to China. Technology is leveling the playing field, so people who work harder and better are doing better.
Pride Before the Fall: The Trials of Bill Gates and the End of the Microsoft Era, John Heilemann, HarperCollins, 2001. Compelling description of the Microsoft vs. Dept of Justice case up to 2000.
Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World, Bruce Schneier, Wiley, 2000. A long litany of scary stories about security and privacy threats and breaches, quite accessible to the non-specialist. In the end, there's too much complaining and not enough explanation and assessment. But well worth reading. So is his newer Beyond Fear, which is more about sensible responses to things like terrorism.
Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems, Ross J. Anderson, Wiley, 2002. I prefer this to Schneier. Occasionally more technical, but most parts will be accessible to anyone. The bottom line? Security is exceptionally hard, and many of the problems are people problems (which is also Schneier's conclusion).
Larry Lessig is an important and influential figure in intellectual property law, and his books on the topic are well worth reading: Free Culture (2004) or Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (2000).