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.
Open Source and Hacker Anthropology:
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 web page.
A followup to The Cathedral
and the Bazaar in which I analyze the property and ownership
customs of the open-source culture.
The third paper in the series. This one is about economics, game
theory, and business models.
An outline of the history of the hacker culture, revised and expanded
to go in the ``Cathedral and Bazaar'' essay collection.
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.
Technical Writings:
My article on building good Linux hardware cheap, written for Linux
Journal #36. I was a bit surprised at how popular it proved.
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.
My next book in progress, an extended medidation on how to think like
a Unix guru. Portions of the manuscript will be posted here for
public review and comment, because it's an attempt to distil the
traditional wisdom of the Unix wizards and the wizards need to be
involved.
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.
Science
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.
Opinion and Ideas:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Been There, Done That...
...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.
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.
Unclassifiable Weirdness:
...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 the 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.
Poetry
I have a separate page of poetry.
Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>