Fun_People Archive
26 Mar
Hacker Tarot cards.

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 96 01:07:49 -0800
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Hacker Tarot cards.

Forwarded-by: Keith Bostic <bostic@bsdi.com>
Forwarded-by: Roman Gollent <roman@portal.stwing.upenn.edu>

                        HACKER TAROT CARDS.

0. The FOOL: a manager using a SPARCStation 413,1432 to run a screensaver.

1. The MAGICIAN: a hacker with a Mac, a Pentium box, a Sparc, and a Cray
on the table in front of him --- all running the same program with the
same GUI.  An infinity sign is over his head.

2. The HIGH PRIESTESS: a woman holding the Documentation, closed and
concealed.  The crescent moon is showing on an Indigo behind her.

3. The EMPEROR: Steve Jobs sitting on a NeXT cube, holding an optical disk
vertically in his hand.

4. The EMPRESS: A secretary with a NeXT Machine.

5. The HIEROPHANT: Bill Gates with two flunkies kneeling before him, their
faces averted, offering him floppy disks.  He wears a laptop computer on
his head.

6. The LOVERS: a PowerMAC and an IBM Power PC exchanging software as an
angel bathed in glory regards them.

7. The CHARIOT: A man in a chariot, hurtling up an exponential curve,
drawn by the twin sphinxes of Technology (black) and Culture (white).

8. STRENGTH: A woman holding the entire design and implementation of
Microsoft Excel in her mind as she corrects the final error.  An infinity
sign is over her head.

9. The HERMIT: An old hacker, white-bearded, burns the midnight oil; its
Star-of-David flame illuminates his keyboard.

10. The WHEEL OF FORTUNE: A rotating wheel.  Cray is on the side going
down, despite its good technology; Smalltalk is opposite it, and C++ is
sitting on top.  Four winged beings -- a mouse, a turtle, a dog-cow, and a
human -- look on.

11. JUSTICE.  A cold-faced woman holds a calculator in one hand and a
delete- key in the other.

12. The HANGED MAN: A programmer is tied by his ankle to a cable duct.
His phase is completely shifted: he awakens at sunset, he sleeps at dawn.
His monitor is reverse-video.  He programs on, flawlessly, oblivious to
his circumstances.

13. DEATH: A skeleton wielding a scythe surveys a field, on which are
scattered PDP-11s, Apple ]['s, IBM 360/91's, Xerox Alto's, and many other
machines.

14. TEMPERANCE: An angel stands with one foot on her chair and one on the
floor, as she copies files from one disk to another.  A cursor blinks from
her chest.

15. The DEVIL: The goat-headed Lord of the Pit stands on a pile of Windows
manuals, holding an inverted torch in one hand.  Two humans, male and
female, are in chains at his feet.

16. The TOWER: An ivory tower is struck by a bolt of lightning.  Two robed
figures, denied tenure, are hurtled to the ground.

17. The STAR: A Mac is running its `warp' screen saver, in a transient
fragile moment of peace.

18. The MOON: A wolf and a jackal are typing at two PC's.  A crayfish
crawls out of a pool, offering suggestions that may ultimately prove
deadly.  The moon shines through a window.

19. The SUN: A naked child riding a winged rocking horse programs clever
applications on a high-quality workstation.

20. JUDGEMENT: An angel blows a trumpet; all over the net, web pages
arise, to be rated Cool or not.

21. The WORLD: A woman dances on the clouds, unclothed, unencumbered, in a
ring of clouds, a 3-d mouse in each hand.  The four winged beings from the
Wheel of Fortune surround her.

© 1996 Peter Langston