A
book by
Douglas Coupland.
First published 1995,
although Chapter 1 appeared (in a modified form) in Wired magazine, January 1994.
The story is simple; a group of friends living in a geek house break away from steady-but-dull jobs in Microsoft to form their own exciting new start-up company. The narration is given in the form of the diary of a tester named Dan. It contains some great pages where Dan allows 'his computer's subconscious' to take over. (Any of these pages are practically art, and would look great photocopied and pinned up in your Veal-fattening Pen by the way.) Examples:
Stop Being Carbon
Mom...
Dad...
I'm okay. I am not being starved, or beaten, or unnecessarily frightened
I am Bill's machine.
Pull the wires from the wall
Pages 104 and 105 are written entirely in binary.
RainDropUp was kind enough to dig out the decoded version:
I heart Lisa Computers
This is my computer.
There are many like it,
but this one is mine.
My computer is my best friend.
It is my life.
I must master it,
as I must master my life.
Without me,
my computer is useless.
Without my computer,
I am useless.
I must use my computer true.
I must compute faster than my enemy who is trying to kill me.
I must outcompute him before he outcomputes me.
I will.
Before God, I swear this creed.
My computer and myself are defenders of this country.
We are masters of our enemy.
We are the savioury of my life.
So be it until there is no enemy,
but peace.
Amen.
Tinned peaches
Yttrium
San Fran