"...The principle engine of software development is the work and creativity of hackers. What induces them to strive and invent is a climate of liberty that leaves them in control of their own software. [...] To trust the hacker, to have faith in the hacker, is one of the elements of a value system that favours development.

If you are aspiring to be a hacker or a Unix/Linux guru, then you have probably read some of Eric S. Raymond's writings like 'The New Hacker's Dictionary' and 'The Art of Unix Programming'. You may have also visited his website and read some of his articles there.

In the beginning was... hacker culture and free Internet software. They existed as outsiders. They were really known by few. But some knew of them and an idea started to grow... it was first only in one person's mind, then two, then it spread to the hacker culture and further into the business world.

"...The goal of the Hacker Space Festival is to bring together people from many cultural and technological backgrounds and from different Hacker Spaces and Autonomous zones in France and Europe (and from beyond, if they can attend) to share and show what's going on..." -- via http://artlibre.org/archives/news/315

«As an American and native English-speaker myself, I have previously been reluctant to suggest this, lest it be taken as a sort of cultural imperialism.

ESR: "These are people (mainly adolescent males) who get a kick out of breaking into computers and phreaking the phone system. Real hackers call these people ‘crackers’ and want nothing to do with them.

"Before the word “hacker” was wrongly associated with vandalistic script kiddies and mischievous virus writers, it was used to describe an underground culture. This underground culture was made up of professional engineers and basement tinkerers obsessed with improving computer technology through unconventional, simple, yet brilliant tricks.

"It’s that time of the year again, when you take a look at your life, decide what parts of it suck and then make a proclamation of change. Sure most resolutions don’t work out and resolutions probably aren’t the best way to make a lasting change in your life anyway. But even you don’t stick to your resolutions, they at least make you think about the things that need improving.

On this day in 2004, i made a post with the subject line “3… 2… 1.0!” to announce the release of libs11n, which had been in heavy development for almost 18 months at that time. A year and a day later, 1 January 2005, 1.2.0 was released.

And this New Year's Ever i'm releasing a hacker.