E314J: Literature and Computer Programming (Fall 2006)
C:Who Programs the Programmer?
Who gets to tell the story of the hacker? Who has programmed the programmer? There’s the hacker you see coming out of the courtroom in shackles. There’s the hacker that gets banned from the internet. There’s the hacker that almost accidentally starts WW III, a la Matthew Broderick in War Games. But none of these really get us to the real hacker. Steven Levy and others argue that today’s connotations of the word “hacker” efface the true meaning of the word. Written in 1986, Loyd Blankenship’s Hacker Manifesto describes the “true” hacker:
“Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.”
We’ll address numerous questions in this class, including: Who gets to tell the story of the computer programmer, the problem solver, the coder? Has this story been told fairly? Has it been told completely? How could one tell some counter-stories/counter-histories of the hacker? How do representations of the hacker character in literature and popular culture contribute to hacker culture? Do hackers thrive on this image, or do they disregard it altogether?
This course will take on these questions and many more in an attempt to understand representations of the computer programming community. We will begin from the assumption that literature, culture, and stories matter just as much as the code that sits behind/underneath/inside your operating system. Representations of the hacker and the “computer geek” do important work in constructing images and categories. Our job will be to compile these stories. That is, we’ll compile narratives the way a computer program is “compiled” – we’ll decode and recode the narratives of the computer programmer.
Policy Statement
Unique #: 34440
Instructor: Jim Brown
Meeting Place: FAC 7
Time: T/Th 9:30-11am
Office Hours: T/Th 11-12:30 (PAR 102)
Email: jimbrown[at]mail[dot]utexas[dot]edu
Website: http://instructors.cwrl.utexas.edu/jbrown/309k_spring06
Required Texts (available at The Co-op)
Transmission by Hari Kunzru
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
Additional Requirements
- Access to a computer and printer
- An e-mail account that you check daily
Coursework
We will doing fair amount of reading and writing in this class. I will expect you to have read the assigned readings and be ready to discuss them. I reserve the right to give quizzes on the reading, but I really don't want to do this. Please plan to do a good bit of fun reading in this class.
This is a Substantial Writing Component class, so you will also do good bit of writing. You will write two 3 page papers, one 4-6 page paper, multiple wiki entries, and LRO materials. Class meetings will be devoted to various activities, including writing workshops, student presentations, and class discussions. Regular attendance and participation are essential to success in this class.
Attendance
My hope is that you are taking this class because it is interesting to you. For this reason, I would also hope that you want to attend class on a regular basis. You should attend class daily, arrive on time, do assigned reading and writing, and participate in all in-class editing, revising, and discussion sessions. I will take attendance daily by passing around a sign-in sheet. If you arrive after the sign-in sheet has gone around the room, you will be considered absent. Please keep in mind that the grading criteria for this class includes language about attendance. When you argue for your grade at the midterm and the final, attendance will be a factor. Notify me beforehand of your participation in official athletic events or observance of religious holidays. Save absences for when you are sick or have a personal emergency. If you find that an unavoidable problem prevents you from attending class, please discuss the problem with me.
Grades
Grades in this course will be determined by use of the Learning Record Online (LRO), a system which requires students to compile a portfolio of work at the midterm and at the end of the semester. These portfolios present a selection of your work, both formal and informal, plus ongoing observations about your learning, plus an analysis of your work development across five dimensions of learning:
1) Confidence and independence
2) Knowledge and understanding
3) Skills and strategies
4) Use of prior and emerging experience
5) Reflectiveness.
You will also discuss your development in terms of the major strands of work in this course:
1) Understand and apply literary analysis to a wide range of texts
2) Analyze, apply, and formulate theories about the work of narratives in culture
3) Develop and refine writing and revision skills
Late Assignments and Drafts
All assignments, including drafts, must be turned in on the due date at the beginning of the class period. You will turn in papers by uploading them to the course website. You are responsible for turning in assignments regardless of whether you attend class on the due date. I will not accept late coursework.
Format of Final Papers
Rough drafts and final drafts of all papers must be typewritten. The first page of your paper must include the following information: your name, my name, course number and unique number, date, and paper title. Double space the lines and use 1 inch margins all the way around the text (this is typically the default setting in programs like Microsoft Word.) Unless you are told otherwise, your papers should be in MLA format.
Technology Policy
We will use technology frequently in this class. Although I am assuming that you have some basic knowledge of computers, such as how to use the keyboard and mouse, and how to use the web and check e-mail, most things will be explained in class. If you don’t understand what we are doing, please ask for help. If you are familiar with the technology we are using please be patient and lend a helping hand to your classmates.
Course Website and Email
You should check your email daily. Class announcements and assignments may be distributed through email. The course website will also have important information about assignments and policies, please visit this site regularly. The course site should be a helpful tool for you, so feel free to make suggestions about anything you feel should be included.
Computer Use and Availability
Computers are available to you in the CWRL open lab (PAR 102), the Student Microcomputer Facility (SMF) on the second floor of the Flawn Academic Center (FAC).
Intellectual Property
All material submitted to this website and to the class wiki is published under a Creative Commons license (see the lower right-hand corner of this page). This means that your work and mine have "some rights reserved." See the details of the Creative Commons license for what kinds of reuse of our work is allowed. Creative Commons is not a replacement for copyright, it is a something that is coupled with copyright that allows authors to determine how their work will be reused. Creative Commons also doesn't replace the University plagiarism policy. You should abide by University policies on scholastic honesty.
Just as i expect others to use or reuse our work according the rules of our Creative Commons license, I will expect you to attribute your sources when writing for this class. In this class, we will be talking about how programmers collaborate on texts and how ideas of intellectual property are different for hackers/programmers. We will also talk about the difference between hackers (people who like to use computers for creative things) and crackers (people who use computers to steal stuff). Don't be a cracker.
Students With Disabilities
The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic adjustments for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, 471-4641 TDD.
Course Overview
Course Calendar
The course calendar is available via Google Calendar. If you use google calendar you can subscribe to the E314J calendar by searching for it in public calendars. Otherwise, you can view the web version of the Google calendar or a text version.
Unit Structure:
Each unit will lead off with a “mechanism text.” This gives the class a shared set of terms with which we will approach the texts in that unit. As a class, we will read a novel for each unit and in-class discussions will be spent on how to apply the mechanism for a given unit to the novel that we are reading (for instance, in Unit 1 we will deal with issues of representation in Transmission). At the end of each unit, students will analyze a text based upon the mechanism we’ve been discussing (for instance, in Unit 1 students will write about a text in terms of representation).
Writing Assignments:
1) We will have a class wiki. Students will write wiki entries about terms or concepts in the novels that they find interesting and/or confusing. Students are responsible for two wiki entries per week.
2) 4-6 page writing assignment for Unit 1 (submitted twice)
3) 3 page writing assignments for Units 2 and 3 (submitted twice)
4) Learning Record Materials
Unit 1
Representations: Portraying Computer Programmers
Mechanism text:
“Representation” by W.J.T. Mitchell (from Lentricchia and McLaughlin)
Novel:
Transmission by Hari Kunzru
Other Texts:
War Games (film)
Video Clips of “Nick Burns” SNL Sketch
Video Clips of The IT Crowd
Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary by Linus Torvalds (excerpt)
Central Questions:
What do cultural texts do?
What do they represent?
How does a literary text relate to reality?
What kinds of stories do we tell about programmers?
Paper Assignment:
4-6 page analysis of a text in terms of representation
Paper 1
English 314J
Fall 2006
Jim Brown
Due Dates
Paper 1-1: 9/26
Paper 1-2: 10/10
Paper 1
Representations: Portraying Computer Programmers
In our first unit, we’ve been discussing issues of representation as they relate to Hari Kunzru’s Transmission. For your first paper, you will be writing a 4-6 page paper comparing Kunzru’s novel to some narratives about “real” hackers. It should be fairly clear at this point why I’ve included some quotation marks around the word “real.” As we’ve been discussing, representations are not confined to literature or film or television. Even an autobiographical text is a representation. As W.J.T. Mitchell writes in our first reading: “Every representation exacts some cost, in the form of lost immediacy, presence, or truth, in the form of a gap between intention and realization, original and copy” (21). It is with this idea in mind that you will approach paper 1.
For this assignment, you will choose one of the texts below to compare to Transmission. These texts are non-fiction and they are written by or about “real life” hackers like Linus Torvalds, Kevin Mitnick, Steve Jobs, and others. Browse through these texts and decide which is most interesting to you. Upon deciding which text you’d like to compare, choose a section of that text that you will focus on. You will most likely also have to choose a shorter section of Transmission to focus on. Because this is a 4-6 page paper, you won’t be able to cover the entire novel, but this doesn’t mean you have to confine yourself to one section of the text. For instance, you may choose to make an argument about the Chris character in Transmission, and this might require you to jump around in the text a bit. Regardless of what you choose, you must confine your analysis to some smaller portion of the novel.
Your paper will be a comparison of the different representations of the hacker/programmer/geek. How do the representations in the text you’ve chosen compare to Kunzru’s? Think about some of the ways that Mitchell talks about representation in our “mechanism text” – can you apply some of Mitchell’s question to your two texts? Here are some questions that might guide your analysis:
-Who is representing the programmer in these texts and why is this important? This would be along the lines of the “Maker” side of Mitchell’s diagram. This might mean talking about the authors of these texts and how they choose to tell their story – for instance, how does Linus Torvalds represent his childhood and how does this relate to Arjun’s story? But it could also mean talking about how the characters within the texts create representations. For instance, how are Arjun’s representations of himself different than Lena’s interpretation of him? How do media representations of Arjun play out in the text? What power do they have?
-How do the audiences differ for these texts and how does that play in to how the programmer is represented in them? This would be along the lines of the “Beholder” section of Mitchell’s diagram.
-How is the non-fictional text you are analyzing like a fictional one? How is Kunzru’s text like a non-fictional text? How distinct is the line between these two types of texts and is this line important? Why or why not?
-Mitchell speaks of the “conventions” of a Hollywood Western – “shoot-outs, wide open spaces, cowboys, Indians” (14). What conventions can you trace through the texts that you are looking at?
These are just some questions to get you started – this is by no means an exhaustive list. Regardless of how you approach this paper, keep in mind that the main goal of this paper is to get you thinking about how representations work, how they differ, how they’re similar, and why they’re important. Remember that you’re forming an argument about these two texts, so it is important to note the differences and similarities between these texts while also noting why those differences/similarities are important.
Paper Format
Your paper should be 4-6 pages and in MLA format. Consult an MLA style guide and ensure that your heading, margins, and citations are in MLA style.
Goals of the Assignment
While I will not be grading papers, I will be making comments on both your first and second submissions, and as I make these comments I will be focusing on whether or not you have addressed the goals of the assignment:
-To understand the concept of representation and why it’s important
-To make an argument comparing two texts and explaining why that argument is important
-To apply the methods and strategies we have talked about in class
-To trace the similarities, differences between representations in fiction and non-fiction and note why these relationships matter
Possible Texts (if you wish to use something not on this list, please check with me):
Brockman, John. Digerati : encounters with the cyber elite. 1st ed. San Francisco: HardWired : Distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West, 1996.
Butcher, Lee. Accidental millionaire : the rise and fall of Steve Jobs at Apple Computer. 1st ed. New York: Paragon House, 1988.
Graham, Paul. Hackers & painters : big ideas from the computer age. 1st ed. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly, 2004.
Kushner, David. Masters of Doom : how two guys created an empire and transformed pop culture. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 2003.
Lammers, Susan M. Programmers at work : interviews with 19 programmers who shaped the computer industry. Redmond, WA: Tempus Books of Microsoft Press, 1989.
Lohr, Steve. Go to : the story of the math majors, bridge players, engineers, chess wizards, maverick scientists, and iconoclasts, the programmers who created the software revolution. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2001.
Mitnick, Kevin D., and William L. Simon. The art of intrusion : the real stories behind the exploits of hackers, intruders, & deceivers. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley, 2005.
Raymond, Eric S. The cathedral and the bazaar : musings on Linux and Open Source by an accidental revolutionary. Rev. ed. Beijing ; Cambridge, Mass.: O'Reilly, 2001.
Sivakumar, N. Dude, Did I Steal Your Job? Debugging Indian Programmers. Bridgewater, NJ: Divine Tree, 2004.
Stallman, Richard M. Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman. Boston, MA: GNU Press, 2002.
Stephenson, Neal. In the beginning ...was the command line. New York: Avon Books, 1999.
Torvalds, Linus, and David Diamond. Just for fun : the story of an accidental revolutionary. 1st ed. New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2001.
Ullman, Ellen. Close to the machine : technophilia and its discontents : a memoir. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1997.
Wade, Mary Dodson. Ada Byron Lovelace : the lady and the computer. A people in focus book. 1st ed. New York, 1994.
Unit 2
Subculture: Cyberpunks and Hackers
Mechanism Texts:
Subculture by Dick Hebdige (excerpt)
Novel:
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Other Texts:
Hackers (film)
“Cyberpunk” by Bruce Bethke
The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling
Various Hacker Manifestos
Various Issues of Phrack
Central Questions:
Why are subcultures significant?
What are the relationships between subcultures and cultures at large?
Paper Assignment:
4-6 page Analysis of cyberpunk/hacker subcultural artifact.
Paper 2
English 314J
Fall 2006
Jim Brown
Due Dates
10/19: Description of artifact (post to forum)
10/24: Paper Proposal (post to forum)
10/31: Paper 2-1 Due
11/9: Paper 2-2 Due
Paper 2: Subcultural artifacts
Our mechanism text for this unit was Dick Hebdige's discussion of subculture in Subculture: The Meaning of Style. In that book, Hebdige reads punk subculture by looking closely at its artifacts - punk music, zines, clothing, etc. He also discusses how subculture appropriates certain artifacts (to use them in different ways than they were intended) and how culture at-large appropriates subcultural artifacts via the "commodity form" and "ideological form" of appropriation (see the reading again for a more detailed discussion of these terms).
In this unit, we've been looking at Neuromancer. This text was taken up by a certain segment of the hacker community as an important (some might say canonical) text. It has also been studied by literary critics and has received some acclaim outside of the hacker community. In this way, we can see how the book moved between a subculture and culture at-large - and how the meanings of the novel may have shifted as it moved between communities.
In this paper, you'll be choosing an artifact to study in ways similar to Hebdige and Sarah Brouillette (in her article "Corporate Publishing and Canonization.") By tracing the various meanings and histories of your artifact, you'll tell us how it was taken up in different communities. You'll also explain the various meanings your artifact had to different groups of people.
Paper Format
Your paper should be 4-6 pages and in MLA format. Consult an MLA style guide and ensure that your heading, margins, and citations are in MLA style.
Goals of the Assignment
While I will not be grading papers, I will be making comments on both your first and second submissions, and as I make these comments I will be focusing on whether or not you have addressed the goals of the assignment:
-Choosing an appropriate artifact - one that tells us something about a hacker subculture and about culture at-large
-Application of the theories of culture and subculture discussed in class
-Close analysis of your artifact from multiple angles
-An answer to the "So what?" question - what does such analysis tell us about subcultures and culture at-large?
Unit 3
Writing: Narrative as Code and Code as Narrative
Mechanism text:
"Narrative" by J. Hillis Miller (from Lentricchia and McLaughlin)
Novel:
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
Other Texts:
The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric Raymond
Code Reading (excerpt)
The Psychology of Computer Programming (excerpt)
The Mythical Man-Month (excerpt)
Central Questions:
How is coding like writing?
How is programming like storytelling?
What kinds of stories do programmers tell each other?
Assignments:
2-3 page close reading paper
MySpace Presentations
English 314J
Fall 2006
Jim Brown
Due Date
Thursday, December 7
Your final assignment for this class is to present the Myspace page that you've created. You will have 5 minutes to present your Microserfs Myspace pages. During these presentations, you can show us some of the different ways you've created an online identity for your character. You may also want to talk about things that, given more time, you would have done to the page.
In addition to this information, you must present at least one portion of your page that demonstrates our three different unit concepts. Here's how you'll do this:
1) Discuss your page in terms of representation. How is your character represented? What expected representations of a computer programmer does your page either conform to or disrupt? How does your page work, in terms of Mitchell's discussion of representation?
2) What subcultures might your character be a part of? What subcultural references does your page make, and how might those references be read differently by those within the subculture and those outside of the subculture? How could you discuss your page in terms of Hebdige's discussion of subculture?
3) Provide a brief close reading of your own page. What part of this text might be a candidate for a close reading? What kind of quirk or strange moment does it contain? What might we make of that quirk?
You may want to glance back at the Mitchell, Hebdige, and Miller readings to jog your memory about each unit. Also, you only have 5 minutes for this presentation (we need to make sure everyone has enough time to present). So, as you prepare, please keep this time constraint in mind. This is not the most formal presentation, but it will require preparation and organization.
As always, I won't be "grading" these presentations in the traditional sense. However, I will be taking notes and looking for evidence of the following:
1) The presentation is organized and shows evidence of thoughtful preparation
2) Your ability to apply the concepts we've talked about in each of our three units.
3) Evidence of a thoughtfully developed Myspace page.
Paper 3: Close Reading
English 314J
Fall 2006
Jim Brown
Due Dates
11/30: Paper 3-1 due
12/5: Paper 3-2 due
Paper 3: Close Reading
Our reading of Microserfs has been driven by a more formalistic approach to literature than our previous two units. We've been practicing some close reading to see how texts work, how language works, and what we can learn when we really zoom in on text.
For your third paper, you'll be writing a short (2-3 page) close reading paper. The paper will focus on a section of Microserfs. Our in-class exercise with a short section of Transmission should have given you a starting point for this paper. Also, refer to the close reading hand-out that we looked at in class as you choose what sections of the text to look at and begin to formulate your argument.
Remember that after you've zoomed in on one section of the text, you may want to zoom out and make connections with other portions of the text. The hand-out gives you some different approaches for picking a section of the text (I've attached an electronic copy at the bottom of this page, but you must be logged in to download it).
Paper Format
Your paper should be 2-3 pages and in MLA format. Consult an MLA style guide and ensure that your heading, margins, and citations are in MLA style.
Goals of the Assignment
While I will not be grading papers, I will be making comments on both your first and second submissions, and as I make these comments I will be focusing on whether or not you have addressed the goals of the assignment:
-First and foremost: your paper must make an argument about the text. Explain what you've found and why it is important.
-A thoughtful application of close reading methods covered in class (and on the hand-out).
-An attempt to understand how language and narrative work in the portion of the text you've chosen. In other words, what is interesting about the portion of the book you've chosen?
-An attempt to put the things you've found in your short section of text into context. This would answer the question: How do your findings fit with the larger concepts at work in the novel?
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 close reading handout.doc | 27 KB |
Course Calendar
Thu Aug 31, 2006
Syllabus, course intro, course website, LRO
Tue Sep 5, 2006
Read: Learning Record FAQ | Write: LRO Questions | In Class: Discuss LRO, representations of programmers
Thu Sep 7, 2006
Read: Mitchell “Representation” |Write: Wiki entry | In Class: Discuss Mitchell reading, wiki entries
Tue Sep 12, 2006
Read: Transmission 1-79 | Write: wiki entry | In Class: Discuss wiki entries and reading
Thu Sep 14, 2006
Read: Transmission 80-121 | Write: wiki entry | In Class: Discuss wiki entries, reading, and Paper 1
Fri Sep 15, 2006
LRO Part A Due by 1:00pm
Tue Sep 19, 2006
Read: Transmission 122-215 | Write: wiki entry, choose text for paper 1 and begin to take notes about it | In Class: Discuss wiki entries, reading, and texts for Paper 1
Thu Sep 21, 2006
Read: Transmission 216-276 | Write: wiki entry | In Class: Discuss wiki entries, reading, and Paper 1
Tue Sep 26, 2006
Write: Wiki Entry | In Class: watch War Games and discuss
Thu Sep 28, 2006
Write: Paper 1-1 Due | In Class: revision workshop in pairs
Tue Oct 3, 2006
Read: Hebdige | Write: wiki entry, finish written peer review | In Class: Discuss wiki entries, subcultures, and Hebdige
Thu Oct 5, 2006
Read: Neuromancer 1-98 | Write: wiki entry | In class: Discuss wiki entries and reading
Tue Oct 10, 2006
Write: Paper 1-2 Due | In Class: Bug visits class
Thu Oct 12, 2006
Read: Neuromancer 99-156 | Write: forum post | In Class: Discuss forum posts, reading, possible artifacts
Tue Oct 17, 2006
Read: Brouillette; Neuromancer 157-186 | Write: forum post | In Class: discuss reading, Paper 2, and LRO
Thu Oct 19, 2006
Read: Neuromancer 186-230 | Write: forum post - describe your artifact | In Class: Discuss artifacts, reading, and LRO
Fri Oct 20, 2006
Midterm LRO due by 5:00pm
Tue Oct 24, 2006
Read: 230-271 | Write: Post Paper Proposal to Forum | In class: Discuss reading and paper proposals
Thu Oct 26, 2006
Write: Draft of paper | In Class: revision workshop
Tue Oct 31, 2006
Write: Paper 2-1 Due | In Class: peer review
Thu Nov 2, 2006
Read: Miller | Write: add at least 5 things to wiki outline | In Class: Discuss wiki entries and reading.
Tue Nov 7, 2006
Don't forget to Vote! | Read: Microserfs 1-106 | Write: forum post | In Class: Discuss forum posts, reading, and close reading methods
Thu Nov 9, 2006
Write: Paper 2-2 Due | In Class: continue discussion of Microserfs, discuss close reading
Tue Nov 14, 2006
Read: Microserfs 107-222 | Write: forum post | In Class: Discuss forum posts, reading, and Paper 3
Thu Nov 16, 2006
Read: Microserfs 223-318 | Write: forum post | In Class: Discuss forum posts, reading, and Paper 3
Tue Nov 21, 2006
Read: Microserfs 223-318 Write: forum post In Class: Discuss forum posts, reading, and Paper 3
Thu Nov 23, 2006
No Class - Thanksgiving
Tue Nov 28, 2006
In Class: Reality Check, Discuss Paper 3, watch portion of Pirates of Silicon Valley
Thu Nov 30, 2006
Write: Paper 3 Draft | In Class: Paper 3 revision workshop
Tue Dec 5, 2006
Write: Paper 3 Due | In Class: Course evaluations
Thu Dec 7, 2006
In Class: MySpace page presentations
Sun Dec 10, 2006
12pm
Final LRO Due
Course Bibliography
This is a bibliography that you might want to consult as you work on your papers or other projects for this class. It contains texts that we'll cover in this class, but it also contains texts that we may not discuss.
Bethke, Bruce. "Cyberpunk!" 1980. (October 1, 2000). http://project.cyberpunk.ru/lib/cyberpunk/
Brockman, John. Digerati : encounters with the cyber elite. 1st ed. San Francisco: HardWired : Distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West, 1996.
Butcher, Lee. Accidental millionaire : the rise and fall of Steve Jobs at Apple Computer. 1st ed. New York: Paragon House, 1988.
Copyright Collection (Library of Congress). Pirates of Silicon Valley. 1999.
Coupland, Douglas. Microserfs. 1st ed. New York: ReganBooks, 1995.
"Cult of the Dead Cow". http://www.cultdeadcow.com/
Gates, Bill, and Collins Hemingway. Business @ the speed of thought : using a digital nervous system. New York, NY: Warner Books, 1999.
Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books, 1984.
Graham, Paul. Hackers & painters : big ideas from the computer age. 1st ed. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly, 2004.
Himanen, Pekka. The hacker ethic, and the spirit of the information age. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 2001.
Kevorkian, Martin. Color monitors : the black face of technology in America. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2005.
Kunzru, Hari. Transmission. New York: Dutton, 2004.
Kushner, David. Masters of Doom : how two guys created an empire and transformed pop culture. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 2003.
Lammers, Susan M. Programmers at work : interviews with 19 programmers who shaped the computer industry. Redmond, WA: Tempus Books of Microsoft Press, 1989.
LC Purchase Collection (Library of Congress). Tron. United States
United States: Buena Vista Distribution Co. Walt Disney Home Video., 1982.
LC Purchase Collection (Library of Congress). Wargames. United States
United States: United Artists CBS/Fox Video, 1983.
Levy, Steven. Hackers : heroes of the computer revolution. [Updated afterword] ed. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 1994.
Lohr, Steve. Go to : the story of the math majors, bridge players, engineers, chess wizards, maverick scientists, and iconoclasts, the programmers who created the software revolution. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2001.
Mitnick, Kevin D., and William L. Simon. The art of intrusion : the real stories behind the exploits of hackers, intruders, & deceivers. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley, 2005.
"Phrack.org". http://www.phrack.org/
Raymond, Eric S. The cathedral and the bazaar : musings on Linux and Open Source by an accidental revolutionary. Rev. ed. Beijing ; Cambridge, Mass.: O'Reilly, 2001.
Sivakumar, N. Dude, Did I Steal Your Job? Debugging Indian Programmers. Bridgewater, NJ: Divine Tree, 2004.
Softley, Iain, et al. "Hackers." United States: MGM/UA Distribution Company, 1995. 11 reels of 11 on 6 (ca. 9450 ft.).
Stallman, Richard M. Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman. Boston, MA: GNU Press, 2002.
Stephenson, Neal. In the beginning ...was the command line. New York: Avon Books, 1999.
http://artlung.com/smorgasborg/C_R_Y_P_T_O_N_O_M_I_C_O_N.shtml
Stephenson, Neal. Snow crash. New York: Bantam Books, 1992.
Sterling, Bruce. The zenith angle. 1st ed. New York: Del Rey, 2004.
Thomas, Douglas. Hacker culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
Torvalds, Linus, and David Diamond. Just for fun : the story of an accidental revolutionary. 1st ed. New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2001.
Updike, John. Villages. 1st ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 2004.
Ullman, Ellen. Close to the machine : technophilia and its discontents : a memoir. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1997.
Wade, Mary Dodson. Ada Byron Lovelace : the lady and the computer. A people in focus book. 1st ed. New York, 1994.
Ward, Mark. "Key hacker magazine faces closure." BBC News, 2005.
Wark, McKenzie. A hacker manifesto. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Weinberg, Gerald M. The psychology of computer programming. Silver anniversary ed. New York: Dorset House Pub., 1998.