{"id":2581,"date":"2010-09-20T13:00:44","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T17:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=2581"},"modified":"2010-09-20T14:36:46","modified_gmt":"2010-09-20T18:36:46","slug":"terry-pratchett-ascends-to-the-pantheon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=2581","title":{"rendered":"Terry Pratchett ascends to the pantheon, alive!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some years ago, in <a href=\"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=28\">The Delusion of Expertise<\/a>, I wrote about the memorable occasion in 2003 on which some friends and I were able to bestow on author Terry Pratchett the accolade of hacker, recognizing him as what he had always been: one of us.<\/p>\n<p>Now comes the news that as part of his preparations to be formally knighted by the Queen of England, Terry <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/technology\/terry-pratchett-creates-a-sword-with-meteorites\/story-e6frfro0-1225926584339\">made his own sword<\/a> &#8211; smelted the iron, and helped hand-forge it.  Including, as he says, &#8220;several pieces of meteorites \u00e2\u20ac\u201d thunderbolt iron, you see \u00e2\u20ac\u201d highly magical, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to chuck that stuff in whether you believe in it or not&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>To heck with a trivium like knighthood &#8211; with this beautiful hack, Terry  ascends to a different pantheon.  Here&#8217;s what I emailed him:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nThat is take-my-breath-away *awesome*. Even though no actual code is<br \/>\ninvolved, it arguably exceeds the awesomeness even of the guys in<br \/>\nNorway who actually implemented TCP\/IP over carrier pigeons in 2002.<\/p>\n<p>Some instances of ha-ha-only-serious achieve a sublime quality that<br \/>\nwill be praised as long as there are geeks and hackers to remember<br \/>\nthem. I think this is one.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Happens I taught Terry how to shoot pistols that weekend in 2003. I hope his sword is properly balanced for combat use, because this I swear on my honor as a swordsman and a geek: if I ever make it to within travel range of Terry and his sword, I <em>will<\/em> teach him at least the basics of what he needs to know to use it properly.  <\/p>\n<p>Well, unless he already knows.  It never came up when we talked, but he could be a swordsman too. I think I&#8217;m long past being surprised by any brilliant talent Terry exhibits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some years ago, in The Delusion of Expertise, I wrote about the memorable occasion in 2003 on which some friends and I were able to bestow on author Terry Pratchett the accolade of hacker, recognizing him as what he had always been: one of us. Now comes the news that as part of his preparations&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=2581\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Terry Pratchett ascends to the pantheon, alive!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2581"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2586,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2581\/revisions\/2586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}