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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:

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

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.

Homesteading the Noosphere

A followup to The Cathedral and the Bazaar in which I analyze the property and ownership customs of the open-source culture.

The Magic Cauldron

The third paper in the series. This one is about economics, game theory, and business models.

A Brief History of Hackerdom

An outline of the history of the hacker culture, revised and expanded to go in the ``Cathedral and Bazaar'' essay collection.

Keeping an Open Mind

An essay on Open Source I wrote for the Cyberian Express, a Barnes & Noble newsletter.

Response to Nikolai Bezroukov

I dissect a really bad article in First Monday that billed itself as a "Critique of Pure Raymondism".

The Case of the Quake Cheats

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:

Building The Perfect Box

My article on building good Linux hardware cheap, written for Linux Journal #36. I was a bit surprised at how popular it proved.

The Ultimate Linux Box 2001

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.

The Art Of Unix Programming

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.

(NEW!)

DRAG.NET

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

The Biology of Human Promiscuity

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. (NEW!)

The Utility of Mathematics

An essay, originally written for the Extropians list, on why mathematical formal systems are so mysteriously applicable to the real world.

Opinion and Ideas:

Decentralism Against Terrorism

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.

Collateral Damage: Reflections on Timothy McVeigh

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?

Why I Am An Anarchist

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.

On Socially Responsible Programming

My remarks to Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility on the occasion of co-receiving the 1999 Norbert Weiner Award.

Shut Up And Show Them The Code

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.

Ethics from the Barrel of a Gun

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.

Whatever became of "Civil Rights"?

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.

Why Libertarians Should Not Love Bill Gates

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.

Raymond's Reviews

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.

Five Myths Of New Media

I wrote this in April 1997 for a newsletter called "Editorial Eye" targeted for writers and editors.

Why "High Art" is in Deep Trouble

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...

Fear and Loathing in Caracas

...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.

The Adventure of the Cutty Sark

Another travel tale, in which I go to Greenwich on a boat. Many in-jokes for fans of the Aubrey/Maturin novels.

Blue Skies, No Sushi

...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...

Icelandic Showerheads Rule!

...A Norse is a Norse, of course, of course. My March 2001 trip to Reykjavik; a tale of sagas, glaciers, and dangerous Viking food. (NEW!)

In Deepest Kimchi

An account of my adventures in Korea, the Land Of Great Barbeque And Beautiful Women.

Eric Goes IPSCC

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.

War Games II

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.

Dancing With The Gods

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.

The ``Geeks With Guns'' Chronicles

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...

Take My Job, Please!

This is what happens after you spend a year as a public person...

Understand My Job, Please!

People jumped to some wild conclusions about ``Take My Job, Please!''. Here's the sequel I wrote three days later.

Unclassifiable Weirdness:

Conventions at Light Speed

...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.

The Nerligig Papers

My contribution to the Steve Miller and Sharon Lee's Liaden Universe.

Unix Wars

A Star Wars parody.

la tenguar: a Romantic Orthography for Lojban

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.
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Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>