Rating: 
Summary: Recommended, especially for wistful technology folk
Review: This book is an interesting mix of moody introspection and reflections about being a systems developer: Jean Rhys meets Esther Dyson. While I found some of Ullman's ideas about technology a bit sophomoric, others are deadly accurate. For instance, she tellingly contrasts Web user passivity to the way even the humble spreadsheet and word processor require that users personalize them with input. She comes across as curious, honest, fiercely self-absorbed. Well written throughout.
Rating: 
Summary: Close to Ullman
Review: This books smack's of insincerity. Whereas some readers might think Ullman's insights into technoculture enlightening, to me the dialog and characters seemed unnatural and manipulated. And I work in the industry. And much of it seems self-aggrandizing, as in "...just then some blessed instinct took over, a subliminal skill still there after all those years of reading code. Something surfaced, miraculously out of the murk. 'Here it is... here's what you're looking for.'" In the end, this is a book about Ellen Ullman, not about technoculture.
Rating: 
Summary: By a geek for the geeks
Review: This is a beautiful book, written by someone who not only understands how to work computers, but understands how the computer is working on her -- the seduction of the machine, the impact it has on her life, and the compromises she has to make around her choices. The basic problem is that this book is probably completely incomprehensible to anyone who doesn't see computers in the same way. Ullman's commentary is all about the same subject: not about computers, but about people, and the kinds of people who are attracted and subverted by technology. If you're not a geek, you'll probably be mystified. If you are, you'll be riveted. This is probably the same reason why I fall asleep reading the New Yorker, only in reverse.
Rating:
Summary: "Problems being exploited, then commended"
Review: Ullman makes a mockery of human existence in her book "Close to the Machine." Ullman characterizes the human race as a dependent, weak minded, constituency of Dr. Frankensteins, who have created a "monster they can't handle." Through her own personal experiences with the computer, and with love, Ullman represents the ultimately "robotic-human" she feels we have turned into. Ullman laughs in the face of a society she sees as crumbling in the wake of computers. Ullman, by her own, admission is a part of this crumbling mass. The apathetic tendencies of the modern day, computerized, moron Ullman characterizes, are evident in the number of people who view this as a "good book," not as a warning.
Rating:
Summary: Good depth of field, psychology
Review: Ullman's book was incredibly different from anything I've read before. Ullman proves to be as talented at writing as she is with her computing work. The psychology and portrayal of human relations is extremely insightful. Her descriptions of her lifestyle, career, the work itself, the short-lived personal relations with her collegues, are well-written and honest, yet harrowing. As a female student of the sciences, what technology has made her turned me off once and for all from the field of computer science as a career choice. Yet "Close to the Machine" is still an absorbing read.
Rating:
Summary: faceless programmers come to life
Review: Women who have something sly and penetrating to say about a mid-level working life in the American systems society are a rarity.That's clearly why this clever book got thumbs up from the people who promote the value-added virtue of cyberspace.But," Close to the Machine " is also a valuable historical rarity. It sketches the journey of a mid-50s woman from a belief in American-style communism to a contemporary life servicing the wealth-creation businesses of venture capitalism.If you want to get a keen woman's take on an era in which trade unionism collapsed to be replaced by "outsourcing" and network computer systems that embrace everyone, read this book.The male version has yet to see the light of day.
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