[Tutor] command line

[Erik Price]

On Monday, April 1, 2002, at 11:23  PM, Kirby Urner wrote:

> By the way, I've been meaning to promote what I consider an
> excellent background essay on all this:  'In the Beginning Was
> the Command Line' by Neal Stephenson, a good writer.  He
> covers a lot of recent history, and without obnoxiously
> getting on a narrow-perspective soap box.

Almost three years ago to the day, I first read this essay.  I was in my 
second-to-last year of my undergrad, with the grades and ambition to 
head off to graduate school to pursue my quest of being a professional 
student (cultural studies) for the rest of my life.  Although I had used 
computers all my life, I didn't really know anything about them.

Infectious, that essay took root in my mind and didn't let go -- because 
of that essay, I never ended up going to grad school, I started learning 
Linux, and decided I wanted to become a web developer.

There are few objects in our lives that we can point to and say "this 
had a profound and life-changing effect on me", but for me that essay is 
one of them.


Erik