books

Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels and John S. Quarterman. Addison-Wesley Longman, 1996, .

Describes the design and implementation of the BSD operating system - previously known as the Berkeley version of UNIX. DLC: UNIX (Computer file).

This book has been mentioned in the following pages of the Jargon File: daemon book.

Karla Jennings. Norton. Copyright © 1990. .

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.

This book has been mentioned in the following pages of the Jargon File: A Story About ‘Magic’, Bibliography.

Scott Adams. Harper Collins, Reprint edition (June 4, 1997) .

Adams worked in a cubicle at Pacific Bell for nine years. From there he went on to pen the wildly popular cartoon Dilbert, which appears in over 700 newspapers. He is also the author of six Dilbert books and an electronic Dilbert newsletter. The Dilbert Principle asserts that the most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management. -- Library Journal.

This book has been mentioned in the following pages of the Jargon File: Dilbert.

Douglas Adams. Pocket Books. Copyright © 1981. .

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’.

This book has been mentioned in the following pages of the Jargon File: random numbers, Bibliography.

Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. DTP. .

(Originally in three volumes: The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, and Leviathan).

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.

This book has been mentioned in the following pages of the Jargon File: Discordianism, Bibliography.