Neal Stephenson, author of “Snow Crash”, “Cryptonomicon”, and the recent 3-part tome “The Baroque Cycle” has been interviewed on Slashdot. Neal has long been my favorite author because of his vivid and intelligent writing. He’s often long-winded, but never boring. For instance in Cryptonomicon he devotes 5 pages on how a character eats his Cap’N Crunch cereal every morning.
Having a programming background, Neal fits right in with the Slashdot crowd, and his answers are candid and well thought out. For a taste of his nerdery, download his article “In the beginning was the command line”:http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html. Note that his novels aren’t as technical as this essay, so don’t be scared off by it. His novels are extremely well written, often funny, and always interesting.
