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Williams, Sam

"Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software"


From a hacker perspective, sitting in a car amidst all
this mess is like listening to a CD rendition of nails
on a chalkboard at full volume.
"Imperfect systems infuriate hackers," observes Steven
Levy, another warning I should have listened to before
climbing into the car with Stallman. "This is one
reason why hackers generally hate driving cars-the
system of randomly programmed red lights and oddly laid
out one-way streets causes delays which are so goddamn
unnecessary [Levy's emphasis] that the impulse is to
rearrange signs, open up traffic-light control boxes .
. . redesign the entire system."See Steven Levy, Hackers (Penguin USA
[paperback],
1984): 40.
More frustrating, however, is the duplicity of our
trusted guide. Instead of searching out a clever
shortcut-as any true hacker would do on instinct-the
driver ahead of us has instead chosen to play along
with the city planners' game. Like Virgil in Dante's
Inferno, our guide is determined to give us the full
guided tour of this hacker hell whether we want it or not.


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