| Eric's Random Writings |
When I'm not being a hacker, I'm often a writer. Here are some of the screeds I've uttered over the years.
Probably the most popular thing I've written. It's in demand in a lot of different forms, so I've given it its own subsite. Includes Homesteading the Noosphere, The Magic Cauldron, and A Brief History of Hackerdom.
My original February 1998 call to the community, issued immediately after the Netscape breakthrough, to start using the term `open source'. This is the beginning that OSI and the mainstreaming of Linux built on.
And this is what followed, when the chieftains of the hacker tribes met and threw their weight behind "open source".
An essay on Open Source I wrote for the Cyberian Express, a Barnes & Noble newsletter.
I dissect a really bad article in First Monday that billed itself as a "Critique of Pure Raymondism".
After the Quake 1 source was GPLed, John Carmack reported that the release had enabled some cheats. Does this mean open source is a security problem? In this essay, I discuss the security lessons of Quake.
Because some visions are too audacious not to approached with a sence of humor.
A senior Microsoft executive is telling lies in public. In other startling news, the sky is blue and water has been seen flowing downhill.
My talk at AgileCultureCon on culture-hacking and linguistic maps.
Some thoughts on Sam Williams's excellent biography of Richard Stallman.
A transcript of my 15 October 2003 conference call with some big-time Prudential Securities investors. If you're looking for an example of how to do effective advocacy to a business audience, this interview is representative of how I do it.
An essay examining the convergence between open source and agile programming.
At Sun's February 2004 meeting, CEO Scott McNealy said "The open-source model is our friend". This is the open letter I wrote to urge him to demonstrate that.
The biggest obstacle between open-source software and world domination is not Microsoft, it's our own endemic cluelessness about how to design software that won't make nontechnical users run screaming. I ran into a particularly poignant example when I tried to configure CUPS for remote printing. A glitzy GUI interface fails to compensate for some astonishing blunders. There are lessons here for other projects.
A followup to The Luxury of Ignorance: An Open-Source Horror Story in which I discuss the community reaction, develop the concept of the luxury of ignorance further, and call for a sea-change in attitudes towards UI.
I offered the Alexis de Toqueville instutute a private critique of their book on the supposed theft at the heart of the Linux operating system, in the fond hope that they would correct the errors. They didn't. Here it is.
Free Hardware: a Trojan Horse? (2004)
In early 2004 Sun Microsystems and Microsoft started talking up a
vision of the future in which hardware would come free
with
software subscriptions. This essay makes clear why this offer is a
dangerous trap.
Who use the terms "open source" and "free software"? What is their relative frequency on the Web? Among developers? In media? This paper has the answers.
My article on open source development that apppeared in the June-July 2004 issue of Analog magazine. Focuses on some ideas from complexity theory and on connections with the SF tradition.
This paper, written with Rob Landley, explains why 2008 is a deadline for popular Linux acceptance on the desktop, and examines the strategy and tactics necessary to achieve that.
In which I discourse on open-source economixs, net neutrality, and all manner of related things.
A comprehensive essay on the design of GPSD, which I believe has significant lessons for other projects.
My article on building good Linux hardware cheap, written for Linux Journal #36. I was a bit surprised at how popular it proved.
Some book reviews from just before I discovered Python.
Guido van Rossum told me once he thought this article was the single most effective piece of Python evangelism ever. For some years it was the single most popular back article on the LJ website.
This article is a sequel to my 1996 "Building the Perfect Box" article. Where that was a guide to building Linux workstations on the cheap, this examines a slightly different question: What do you build when money is no object? A severely truncated version edited down to about 25% of its length, appeared in the November 2001 Linux Journal.
A technical presentation on Windows-to-Linux end-user migration that is also a cheesy vaudeville routine -- performed at the Winter 2002 LinuxWorld with Rob Landley and Catherine Raymond.
A detailed and in-depth analysis of the so-called evidence of massive code copying that SCO revealed on 18 July 2003.
While working on The Art of Unix Programming, I became aware of a fascinating archeological discovery — the recovery of the lost teachings of an ancient Unix master...
My most recent book, an extended meditation on how to think like a Unix guru.
How some friends and I restored the final version of Colossal Cave Adventure. With more general thoughts about restoring software Old Masters: reasons, goals, best practices.
Most people believe that human beings are uniquily violent animals, natural-born killers. This belief is not only wrong, it prevents clear thinking about the actual causes and mechanisms of violence. In this essay I show that our original sin is not murderousness but obedience
Why does love got to hurt so bad? Or, to put it another way, why aren't humans wired to mate faithfully for life, like swans? An essay in evolutionary psychology.
An essay, originally written for the Extropians list, on why mathematical formal systems are so mysteriously applicable to the real world.
From 1990 to 1992 I wrote and posted to USENET an SF review column which became rather popular. I still get questions about it, so I've made the reviews available on the Web here.
An essay on how readers understand science fiction.
The largest pattern in the history of modern science fiction has been the four failed revolutions against Campbellian hard SF. In this essay I examine the roots of these revolutions and the reasons for their failure.
A few hours after the destruction of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, some friends asked me to speak out against the worst long-term damage it could mean for our country -- not the terrorism itself, but our political reaction to it.
My attempt to distill a lot of post-2001 talking and thinking in the blogosphere into a coherent set of principles and guides to action. A declaration of war on terrorism and the friends of terrorism.
Timothy McVeigh raises moral questions we seem ill-prepared to answer. Perhaps that's why there's a media rush to turn him into a demon?
On August 19, 1934, 90% of the German people -- educated citizens of a modern constitutional democracy -- voted Adolf Hitler dictatorial power over their country. In this essay, I explore the stark and terrible implications of this fact.
My remarks to Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility on the occasion of co-receiving the 1999 Norbert Weiner Award.
An essay on Open Source advocacy, with particular focus on why talking about `freedom' or other kinds of ideals is counterproductive in promoting our values.
An adventure in ethical philosophy; what bearing weapons teaches about the good life. If you are politically correct, this will give you absolute hives. Read it anyway.
I wrote this around 1990 after a particularly outrageous series of newspaper stories. The Philadelphia Inquirer published an edited version as an Op-Ed piece in "Community Voices" on Sunday, February 8 1998.
The DOJ lawsuit against Microsoft seems to have thrown a good many libertarians into confusion. In this essay, I argue that friends of the free market should condemn both antitrust law and Microsoft.
I wrote this in April 1997 for a newsletter called "Editorial Eye" targeted for writers and editors.
A letter to the editor, with some thoughts on why self-conscious art has been such an esthetic disaster area in this century.
They asked questions. I answered them.
Wherein I explain why we don't need the GPL anymore.
Where I lay out the case that the open-source community needs to compromise on proprietary codecs.
Federico Biancuzzi interviews several early members of OSI. I am among them.
My ten-years-on retrospective on how far we've come since 1998.
An Ask Me Anything in which I divagate about languages, sanity in software architecture, my first hardware design, and many other topics.
They wanted to know what I use to get work done. I told them.
...A Bemused Journey into the Heart of the South American Dream. Five days at the intersection of politics and technology in the Third World, and what I found there.
Another travel tale, in which I go to Greenwich on a boat. Many in-jokes for fans of the Aubrey/Maturin novels.
...or, I Left My Heart In Shin-Osaka. An account of my first time in Japan. Chock full of adventure, enlightenment, romance, and even a few photos. I learned a lot -- about exogamy, crazy Zen masters, and where the set designs for Bladerunner came from...
...A Norse is a Norse, of course, of course. My March 2001 trip to Reykjavik; a tale of sagas, glaciers, and dangerous Viking food.
An account of my adventures in Korea, the Land Of Great Barbeque And Beautiful Women.
Thailand was gonna be the witness of the ultimate test of cerebral fitness...
My first tactical-pistol match and what I found there. If you're politically correct you'd better skip this -- it might put you in danger of learning something.
or, How I Learned To Start Worrying And Hate The Bomb. The full version, parts 1 and 2, of my long-distance encounter with Cheyenne Mountain, as posted to comp.risks on 1 April 1992.
Portrait of the Author as a Young Mystic. What I think I've learned about the things we call `religion' and `mysticism', and how I learned it.
Geeks and guns are a natural match. Open-source software is about getting freedom; personal firearms are about keeping it. Besides that, hackers gotta love anything where you get to tinker with complex hardware that makes loud exploding noises. Here's what happened when this stopped being just theory...
This is what happens after you spend a year as a public person...
People jumped to some wild conclusions about “Take My Job, Please!”. Here's the sequel I wrote three days later.
A retrospective on the first 15 years of Linux at LinuxWorld 2006. Plus a look ahead at the next five years.
Now, the full truth of my sinister master plan for world domination can be revealed...
...What Hackers Can Learn From SF Fandom. Science-fiction fans have developed an excellent toolkit of techniques for running effective conventions and shows on a shoestring budget with all-volunteer staff. This document lays out some of the techniques for the use of people running Linux and open-source gatherings.
My contribution to Steve Miller and Sharon Lee's Liaden Universe.
A Star Wars parody.
In which the author marries a language almost nobody has heard of with an orthography almost everyone has forgotten.