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