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Stephenson On His Novel In Progress
Nathaniel Wice writes: "The latest newsstand issue of TIME Digital includes a Lev Grossman interview with Neal Stephenson but the full text is online. Lev tries to push Stephenson on how he feels about the sci-fi ghetto, yielding my favorite line: Stephenson says the best-selling Cryptonomicon was 'an experiment... Can you make a Unix systems administrator into a fictional character who people will find compelling?' There's also some hints about his 'related' follow-up, Quicksilver."
The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week." The Unix System Administrator took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to the pocket.
The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you and do anything you want." Again, the Unix System Administrator took the frog out, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket.
Finally, the frog asked, "What's the matter? I've told you that I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a week, and that I'll do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?" The Unix System Administrator said, "Look, I'm an Unix System Administrator. I don't have time for a girlfriend; but a talking frog, now that's cool!"
When you are dancing with wolves, never limp
It's like when JWZ said "Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing."
I have always hated that quote for a bunch reasons:
1) It completely ignores the difference between "free"="libre" and "free"="gratis", which is an important one. More importantly, however...
2) It leads the uncritical observer to conclude that only linux suffers from this problem -- it is just as true that a "retail value $99" piece of closed-source software costs $99 only if your time is worth nothing because...
3) Both closed-source and open-source software alike require upkeep by the user; and in fact, since there often aren't as many bugs, open-source software requires less maintenance. Which is made worse by the fact that...
4) When an open-source program needs maintenance in order to work properly, the solution is usually to fix it directly in the source, in which case the problem is solved permanently and the time spent coding has actually generated something of value that remains with the user thereafter (and usually is given back to the community). In contrast, tending software like Windows is like throwing money into a hole in the ground, since the problem is usually never truly solved and will require an equivalent amount of work in the future. And don't forget that closed-source bugfixes are often charged for and encourage endless upgrade cycles.
I could go on, but hopefully you see the point.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
From the interview:
Vernor Vinge leaps to mind...who else? Surely most of the physicists who've written SF (Brin, Sagan, Benford, et. al.) probably at least cobbled together a few lines of FORTRAN over the years.Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
The pain text version of this posted there is plainful. Go read the full HTML/CSS version here.
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How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
Well, I would take it with a grain of reality. Linux is more difficult for most people out there to understand and work with. It's also his opinion about Linux in a very short, very shallow interview. It's like when JWZ said "Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing." I can't say I totally disagree with that idea. But the issue and intent are always more complex than a sound bite can ever convey.
Bad Mojo
Bad Mojo
"If you can't win by reason, go for volume." -- Calvin
The best quote from the essay is a fictional conversation between a potential user and a member of the Linux faithful...
"The group giving away the free tanks only stays alive because it is staffed by volunteers, who are lined up at the edge of the street with bullhorns, trying to draw customers' attention to this incredible situation. A typical conversation goes something like this:
Hacker with bullhorn: "Save your money! Accept one of our free tanks! It is invulnerable, and can drive across rocks and swamps at ninety miles an hour while getting a hundred miles to the gallon!"
Prospective station wagon buyer: "I know what you say is true...but...er...I don't know how to maintain a tank!"
Bullhorn: "You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either!"
Buyer: "But this dealership has mechanics on staff. If something goes wrong with my station wagon, I can take a day off work, bring it here, and pay them to work on it while I sit in the waiting room for hours, listening to elevator music."
Bullhorn: "But if you accept one of our free tanks we will send volunteers to your house to fix it for free while you sleep!"
Buyer: "Stay away from my house, you freak!"
Bullhorn: "But..."
Buyer: "Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
Priceless... =)
I know this has been posted to previous N.S. threads, but check out this Stephenson article titled "In the Beginning was the Command Line". It gives a little more background on his thought process for a few of the things in this interview.