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Node:Bibliography, Previous:Appendix C, Up:Top BibliographyHere are some other books you can read to help you understand the hacker
mindset.
Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden BraidGödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal
Golden Braid This book reads like an intellectual Grand Tour of hacker preoccupations.
Music, mathematical logic, programming, speculations on the nature of
intelligence, biology, and Zen are woven into a brilliant tapestry themed on the
concept of encoded self-reference. The perfect left-brain companion to "Illuminatus".
Illuminatus! This work of alleged fiction is an incredible berserko-surrealist
rollercoaster of world-girdling conspiracies, intelligent dolphins, the fall of
Atlantis, who really killed JFK, sex, drugs, rock'n'roll, and the Cosmic Giggle
Factor. First published in three volumes, but there is now a one-volume trade
paperback, carried by most chain bookstores under SF. The perfect right-brain
companion to Hofstadter's "Gödel, Escher, Bach". See
Eris,
Discordianism,
random numbers,
Church of the SubGenius.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy This `Monty Python in Space' spoof of SF genre traditions has been popular
among hackers ever since the original British radio show. Read it if only to
learn about Vogons (see bogon) and the significance
of the number 42 (see random numbers) --
and why the winningest chess program of 1990 was called `Deep Thought'.
The Tao of Programming This gentle, funny spoof of the "Tao Te Ching" contains much that is
illuminating about the hacker way of thought. "When you have learned to snatch
the error code from the trap frame, it will be time for you to leave."
Hackers Levy's book is at its best in describing the early MIT hackers at the Model
Railroad Club and the early days of the microcomputer revolution. He never
understood Unix or the networks, though, and his enshrinement of Richard
Stallman as "the last true hacker" turns out (thankfully) to have been quite
misleading. Despite being a bit dated and containing some minor errors (many
fixed in the paperback edition), this remains a useful and stimulating book that
captures the feel of several important hacker subcultures.
The Computer Contradictionary This pastiche of Ambrose Bierce's famous work is similar in format to the
Jargon File (and quotes several entries from TNHD-2) but somewhat different in
tone and intent. It is more satirical and less anthropological, and is largely a
product of the author's literate and quirky imagination. For example, it defines
`computer science' as "a study akin to numerology and astrology, but lacking the
precision of the former and the success of the latter" and `implementation' as
"The fruitless struggle by the talented and underpaid to fulfill promises made
by the rich and ignorant"; `flowchart' becomes "to obfuscate a problem with
esoteric cartoons". Revised and expanded from "The Devil's DP Dictionary",
McGraw-Hill 1981, ISBN 0-07-034022-6; that work had some stylistic influence on
TNHD-1.
The Devouring Fungus: Tales from the Computer Age The author of this pioneering compendium knits together a great deal of
computer- and hacker-related folklore with good writing and a few well-chosen
cartoons. She has a keen eye for the human aspects of the lore and is very good
at illuminating the psychology and evolution of hackerdom. Unfortunately, a
number of small errors and awkwardnesses suggest that she didn't have the final
manuscript checked over by a native speaker; the glossary in the back is
particularly embarrassing, and at least one classic tale (the Magic Switch
story, retold here under A Story About Magic
in Appendix A is given in incomplete and badly mangled form. Nevertheless, this
book is a win overall and can be enjoyed by hacker and non-hacker alike.
The Soul of a New Machine This book (a 1982 Pulitzer Prize winner) documents the adventure of the
design of a new Data General computer, the MV-8000 Eagle. It is an amazingly
well-done portrait of the hacker mindset -- although largely the hardware hacker
-- done by a complete outsider. It is a bit thin in spots, but with enough
technical information to be entertaining to the serious hacker while providing
non-technical people a view of what day-to-day life can be like -- the fun, the
excitement, the disasters. During one period, when the microcode and logic were
glitching at the nanosecond level, one of the overworked engineers departed the
company, leaving behind a note on his terminal as his letter of resignation: "I
am going to a commune in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than
a season."
Life with UNIX: a Guide for Everyone The authors of this book set out to tell you all the things about Unix that
tutorials and technical books won't. The result is gossipy, funny, opinionated,
downright weird in spots, and invaluable. Along the way they expose you to
enough of Unix's history, folklore and humor to qualify as a first-class source
for these things. Because so much of today's hackerdom is involved with Unix,
this in turn illuminates many of its in-jokes and preoccupations.
True Names ... and Other Dangers Hacker demigod Richard Stallman used to say that the title story of this book
"expresses the spirit of hacking best". Until the subject of the next entry came
out, it was hard to even nominate another contender. The other stories in this
collection are also fine work by an author who has since won multiple Hugos and
is one of today's very best practitioners of hard SF.
Snow Crash Stephenson's epic, comic cyberpunk novel is deeply knowing about the hacker
psychology and its foibles in a way no other author of fiction has ever even
approached. His imagination, his grasp of the relevant technical details, and
his ability to communicate the excitement of hacking and its results are
astonishing, delightful, and (so far) unsurpassed.
Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier This book gathers narratives about the careers of three notorious crackers
into a clear-eyed but sympathetic portrait of hackerdom's dark side. The
principals are Kevin Mitnick, "Pengo" and "Hagbard" of the Chaos Computer Club,
and Robert T. Morris (see RTM, sense 2) . Markoff and
Hafner focus as much on their psychologies and motivations as on the details of
their exploits, but don't slight the latter. The result is a balanced and
fascinating account, particularly useful when read immediately before or after
Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoos Egg. It is
especially instructive to compare RTM, a true hacker who blundered, with the
sociopathic phone-freak Mitnick and the alienated, drug-addled crackers who made
the Chaos Club notorious. The gulf between wizard
and wannabee has seldom been made more obvious.
Technobabble Barry's book takes a critical and humorous look at the `technobabble' of
acronyms, neologisms, hyperbole, and metaphor spawned by the computer industry.
Though he discusses some of the same mechanisms of jargon formation that occur
in hackish, most of what he chronicles is actually suit-speak -- the obfuscatory
language of press releases, marketroids, and Silicon Valley CEOs rather than the
playful jargon of hackers (most of whom wouldn't be caught dead uttering the
kind of pompous, passive-voiced word salad he deplores).
The Cuckoo's Egg Clifford Stoll's absorbing tale of how he tracked Markus Hess and the Chaos Club cracking ring nicely illustrates the difference between `hacker' and `cracker'. Stoll's portrait of himself, his lady Martha, and his friends at Berkeley and on the Internet paints a marvelously vivid picture of how hackers and the people around them like to live and how they think. #===================== THE JARGON FILE ENDS HERE ====================# |
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