Glad to see this comment, as it explains stuff that I couldn't get into in detail in my limited space for the story. Interesting how the slashdotters have seized on this aspect of it. I'd heard the outsider criticism that Y Combinator takes too much for its monetary investment, but I talked to every company in this year's program and a bunch from previous programs and not one person regretted it. To the contrary, everyone seems to enthusiastically endorse the process. As noted, it isn't the money but the advice and connection to investors that matters, as well as an environment where you can focus totally on your product.
The link a year ago was to my column in Newsweek. This current one is to a book excerpt (which references that column and the reaction to it, and the ensuing events) from my just-released tome, "The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness." Hope that clears it up, folks!
Sorry, Mr. Coward, never said that Apple INVENTED the mouse,etc. Just blew them out to the masses. In an ideal world I would have had more room to go into history (aw, hell, people can read INSANELY GREAT and get it!),but I'm pretty happy I got the space to do this story in our post-election enviromment.
BTW, I've gotten about a half dozen emails on this issue and every single one of these know-it-alls tries to tell me Xerox invented the mouse. In fact, the mouse was invented at Doug Englebart's SRI lab in the sixties. Hee-Hawww.
Very perceptive, Booch. Our Web operation, with different deadlines and staff, does not always work in lockstep with the regular issue. The screens in the magazine are the ones I helped out with. We had more time and in the case of Eazel we were lucky enough to have a screen produced for us by Eazel folk on the latest version. (Thanks, guys!)
That's Steven Levy, not Stephen, buddy. Get your spelling straight before you flame!
Re:ESR should send big fat checks to Levy
on
Hackers
·
· Score: 2
There's an interesting tale about this. ESR says that Steele's dictionary was original. This may be, but anyone who has taken a look at the historic Tech Model Railroad Club glossary cannot mistake it as anything but the true ancestor of Hacker's Dictionary. (I should scan it and put in online. Another thing for my four-year-overdue website revamp.)
Also, though I like Eric a lot, I am continually ticked that Hackers Dictionary still criticizes Hackers for mistakes made in the first edition. Newsflash: These were corrected in the first paperback, which came out in 1985. OK, mistakes were made, but Geez, doesn't it make a difference that the vast majority of my readers never saw those errors?
Thanks to all for your great comments. Hackers went out of print (for the first time since its publication in 1984) earlier this year when after years of requests I finally recovered the rights in hopes of getting a more diligent publisher. I immediately sold it to Penguin, which will put it in print once more in January, in conjunction with my new book called Crypto (which tells the story of the crypto revolution in the last 30 years and reads very much like Hackers,I think). If you want Hackers now,go to amazon.uk.co and buy the UK edition (paying heavy freight), or wait till the end of the year and get the US edition. But rest assured, HACKERS is not gone, it's just on a well-deserved vacation, like shrinks take in August.
Steven
Seeing these comments about my work is incredibly gratifying. Hackers was published almost exactly 15 years ago, and was my first book. Writing it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life; I was constantly blown away by the innovative, curious, and wonderfully hands-on people I met. After being immersed in this world, it was clear that I would be writing it for a very long time.
I'm often asked to write a sequel to Hackers. In a sense, much of what I've written since is a followup. Many of the themes, and often some of the same people, appear in my subsequent books, and certainly my magazine journalism. Some of the people in the book I'm currently finishing, Crypto, have more than a bit of the hacker spirit in them (Whit Diffie, etc). And it was great to meet Linus Torvalds when I did an article about Open Source for Newsweek some time ago. It is really terrific that Richard Stallman was far from "the last true hacker" and that the very best of the spirit he represents still blazes brightly.
Slashdot Mirror
Glad to see this comment, as it explains stuff that I couldn't get into in detail in my limited space for the story. Interesting how the slashdotters have seized on this aspect of it. I'd heard the outsider criticism that Y Combinator takes too much for its monetary investment, but I talked to every company in this year's program and a bunch from previous programs and not one person regretted it. To the contrary, everyone seems to enthusiastically endorse the process. As noted, it isn't the money but the advice and connection to investors that matters, as well as an environment where you can focus totally on your product.
The link a year ago was to my column in Newsweek. This current one is to a book excerpt (which references that column and the reaction to it, and the ensuing events) from my just-released tome, "The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness." Hope that clears it up, folks!
Sorry, Mr. Coward, never said that Apple INVENTED the mouse,etc. Just blew them out to the masses. In an ideal world I would have had more room to go into history (aw, hell, people can read INSANELY GREAT and get it!),but I'm pretty happy I got the space to do this story in our post-election enviromment.
BTW, I've gotten about a half dozen emails on this issue and every single one of these know-it-alls tries to tell me Xerox invented the mouse. In fact, the mouse was invented at Doug Englebart's SRI lab in the sixties. Hee-Hawww.
SL
Very perceptive, Booch. Our Web operation, with different deadlines and staff, does not always work in lockstep with the regular issue. The screens in the magazine are the ones I helped out with. We had more time and in the case of Eazel we were lucky enough to have a screen produced for us by Eazel folk on the latest version. (Thanks, guys!)
SL
That's Steven Levy, not Stephen, buddy. Get your spelling straight before you flame!
There's an interesting tale about this. ESR says that Steele's dictionary was original. This may be, but anyone who has taken a look at the historic Tech Model Railroad Club glossary cannot mistake it as anything but the true ancestor of Hacker's Dictionary. (I should scan it and put in online. Another thing for my four-year-overdue website revamp.)
Also, though I like Eric a lot, I am continually ticked that Hackers Dictionary still criticizes Hackers for mistakes made in the first edition. Newsflash: These were corrected in the first paperback, which came out in 1985. OK, mistakes were made, but Geez, doesn't it make a difference that the vast majority of my readers never saw those errors?
Thanks to all for your great comments. Hackers went out of print (for the first time since its publication in 1984) earlier this year when after years of requests I finally recovered the rights in hopes of getting a more diligent publisher. I immediately sold it to Penguin, which will put it in print once more in January, in conjunction with my new book called Crypto (which tells the story of the crypto revolution in the last 30 years and reads very much like Hackers,I think). If you want Hackers now,go to amazon.uk.co and buy the UK edition (paying heavy freight), or wait till the end of the year and get the US edition. But rest assured, HACKERS is not gone, it's just on a well-deserved vacation, like shrinks take in August. Steven
Seeing these comments about my work is incredibly gratifying. Hackers was published almost exactly 15 years ago, and was my first book. Writing it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life; I was constantly blown away by the innovative, curious, and wonderfully hands-on people I met. After being immersed in this world, it was clear that I would be writing it for a very long time.
I'm often asked to write a sequel to Hackers. In a sense, much of what I've written since is a followup. Many of the themes, and often some of the same people, appear in my subsequent books, and certainly my magazine journalism. Some of the people in the book I'm currently finishing, Crypto, have more than a bit of the hacker spirit in them (Whit Diffie, etc). And it was great to meet Linus Torvalds when I did an article about Open Source for Newsweek some time ago. It is really terrific that Richard Stallman was far from "the last true hacker" and that the very best of the spirit he represents still blazes brightly.
Thanks for posting, folks.
Steven Levy