January 11, 2006

The Unix-Haters Handbook

Although this classic, edited by Simson Garfinkel et al., is out of print, one of my office-mates left his copy lying about. It is also available in full online, courtesy Microsoft: http://research.microsoft.com/~daniel/unix-haters.html.

Perusing this book brings to mind the old witticism: "Two of the most famous products of Berkeley are LSD and Unix. I don't think that this is a coincidence."

Posted by salim at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

In which we wish you a happy birthday

Albert Hofmann turns 100 today.
Most famous, perhaps, for the colourful bicycle ride he experienced after administering his synthesized hallucinogen to himself, he also fits in well to the words and sentiments of REM's song "Man on the Moon": "Albert Hofmann / on a bicycle ride / yeah yeah yeah yeah / Albert Hofmann is the chemist of shrooms / (etc) / now Albert did you ride along this street (etc) ..."

I have a very handsome edition of his memoir, "LSD: My Problem Child", which is readily available online.

Posted by salim at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)