Articles, Essays


A New Lease On Life, DC City Paper September 2003. Why I'm a Real Estate dropout.
Odd Jobs, Rhode Island Monthly, January 2002. Survey of unusual occupations in the smallest state. (Here's the original magazine layout.)
The Elements of Style: UNIX as Literature, Performance Computing, September 1998. Cult Unix piece. Probably the most popular geek piece I've written.
Howl.com, Salon.com, March 2000. Anticommercial rant, with apologies to Allen Ginsberg. (This one got around quite a bit, finding its way to a couple of university syllabi and a screenplay. Oh, and check out Bob Martin's clever treatment.)
Martin Luther, Meet Linus Torvalds, Salon.com, November 1998. Historical perspective on Linux. Made a lot of Richard Stallman fans hopping mad.
Silicon Valley, Inc., San Jose Mercury, April 1998. Ruminations on demise of Silicon Valley.

Holy Pastry, Salon.com, March 2000. Off-kilter essay on doughnuts and metaphysics. Here's my original vision – wackier and more colorful.
Finding a Way, The Surfer's Journal, August 1999. Text version. Quixotic call for a more humane surf culture.
Open Source Over There, O'Reilly.com, February 1999. Exploring European Open Source trends.
Whence the Source, O'Reilly.com, March 1999. Open Source ontology piece.

Hello, Are You Human?, Salon.com, August 2000. Cocktail hour inversion of the Turing test.
The Digital Gold Rush (Book review of “The Nudist on the Late Shift"), The Wall Street Journal, August 1999. Page scan of same, complete with WSJ cartoon.
, Rough draft of a rumination on Hollywood and copyright, September 2004.
It's a Bubble, All Right (Book review of "Irrational Exuberance"), Salon.com, May 2000.
Should Your Boss Know About Those Visits to the Shrink? (Book review of "Database Nation"), Salon.com, February 2000.
The Essence of Geekdom (Book review of "Geeks"), Salon.com, February 2000
Last Train to Cluesville (Book review of "The Cluetrain Manifesto"), Salon.com, January 2000.
Legends in Their Own Minds (Book review of "High Stakes, No Prisoners", and "Renegades of The Empire"), Salon.com, December 1999.
The Internet Illusion (Book review of "The Control Revolution"), Salon.com, November 1999.
Everyman's E-Commerce (Book review of "StrikingItRich.com"), Salon.com, November 1999.
A Tournament of Apes (Book review of "The Gorilla Game"), Salon.com, September 1999.
The Archaeology of Secrets (Book review of "The Code Book"), commissioned by Salon.com but unpublished, 1999.
E*Scatology, unpublished draft, December 2000. Why the New Economy was the real millennial cult.
Of Greed, Technolibertarianism and Geek Omnipotence (Interview with Paulina Borsook), Salon.com, May 2000. Made Libertarians hopping mad.
An Undying Affection, O'Reilly.com, February 1999. Valentine's Day homage to Unix.
Pink Slips and Ham, Dr. Seuss/Dot.bomb eulogy at the South by Southwest Film Festival “Roast the Net” event, March 2001.
Notes on the Second Open Source Summit, Slashdot, June 1999. Biased report on Open Source summit meeting.
Perl and the Crystal Ball, O'Reilly.com, January, 1999. Perl at the Federal Reserve.
Dissolving Boundaries with Qt, O'Reilly.com, April 1999. Profile of Open Source developer.
Slouching Towards Y2K
, from “Geek Astrology” column, December 1999.
The Age of Aquarius?, from “Geek Astrology” column, January 2000.
Cosmic Interrupt, from “Geek Astrology” column, February 2000.
Algorithm and Blues, from “Geek Astrology” column, March 2000.
Conflicting Signs, from “Geek Astrology” column, April 2000.
Randomized Thoughts, from “Geek Astrology” column, May 2000.