Long before blogging became an Internet sport, the Dweebspeak Primer was speaking out against the duplicity and collusion of the trade press, the illegal activities of Microsoft's monopoly, the joys of multitasking, SMP, elevator-writes, hacking, and other demonstrations of la joie de la vie dweebique.

The DSP began as a column in Austin's Tech Connected magazine in 1993. The magazine folded, reappeared under a different name, then folded again. The DSP survived first as a printed monthly newsletter, then as a website <http://www.pjprimer.com/>, which was launched in 1996.

One man's strongly held and strongly expressed opinions -- often raging against the machine -- began to be noticed. IBM picked up the column on Warp's Internet Access Kit in 1994 and republished it in their IBM Personal Systems Magazine. The legendary zine phrack picked up my coverage of HoHoCon 94 and republished it in one of their volumes. The UK Manchester Guardian printed it as well.

Two Microsoft employees threatened to sue me if I wrote about their behavior online, so I not only wrote the story, I mailed each of them a personal copy. PC Week's famed Spencer F. Katt referred to me as a cult leader. And a German/Swiss TV station flew a crew over to record an interview with me about computer crime.

Even with all that notoriety, the DSP never made a dime. Not directly, anyway. But because it was noticed, it changed my life. I no longer tote that code, for example. Today I enjoy a comfortable life today getting paid for what I once did at my own expense.

Nicholas Petreley offered me an opportunity to write for LinuxWorld.com when he launched the site in 1998. Today, almost seven years later, I'm still happily writing about Linux and open source -- with an occasional rant against the machine -- at NewsForge.com and Linux.com.

These few columns are the best of what's left of DSP history from 1993 to 1998. In some cases, the date of publication noted in the contents is only a guess. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed putting them together.

By the way, if you are an old subscriber to the DSP, and still have a copy of a column not included here, please be so kind as to email me a copy.

Joe Barr 
http://www.pjprimer.com/