Acknowledgments
If it weren’t for the wonderful people at No Starch Press, this book would still be just another good idea floating around the publishing industry. The most important person involved in the creation of this book is William Pollock, who provided guidance for the book and gently nursed it from a rough idea to a completed manuscript. Three other extremely important people are Patricia Witkin, Raven Alder, and Elizabeth Campbell, all of whom worked tirelessly to ensure that the manuscript was as complete and error-free as possible. Thanks also to Riley Hoffman, who laid out the pages you see here.
Many hackers deserve credit for their work that directly or indirectly influenced this book. While I have never met many of these people, their books, text files, websites, and software creations have helped influence my thoughts about the “underground” aspect of the computer industry.
Additional thanks go to Steve Schirripa (who appears in HBO’s hit show The Sopranos) and Don Learned for giving me my break in performing at the Riviera Comedy Club (www.rivierahotel.com) in Las Vegas. Also a big thanks go out to all the stand-up comedians I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years, including Dobie Maxwell, Judy Tenuta, Larry Omaha, Darrell Joyce, Kip Addotta, Bob Zany, Gerry Bednob, Patrick DeGuire, and Doug James.
More thanks go to Roger Feeny at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase (www.aacomedy.com), Joe Jarred at Funniez Comedy Club, Mark Ridley at the Comedy Castle (www.comedycastle.com), and Russ Rivas at Laffs Comedy Club (www.laffscomedy.com) for running the best comedy clubs in the country.
Final thanks go to stand-up comedians Barry Crimmins, Jimmy Tingle, George Carlin, and Will Durst for their delightfully insightful humor that reveals the truth while making you laugh at the same time. If you want to know what’s really happening with our governments, foreign policies, and world leaders, listen to these four comedians. I guarantee you’ll learn more about world news, politicians, and international politics from their stand-up comedy acts than you ever could from Newsweek, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the CBS Evening News, or CNN.
People get mad at me for these views [anti–American government opinions]. They say, “If you don’t like this country, why don’t you get out of it?” And I say, “Because I don’t want to be victimized by its foreign policy.”
I predict that with military enrollment down the US military will actively start to seek out gay recruits.
I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.
Q. Why are there no Democrats on Star Trek?
A. Because it’s set in the future.