14th annual Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE 14x)

Cory Doctorow is good with words. He just prefers stringing them into sentences, not subroutines. "I was a software developer," he says. "I'm much better at writing science fiction novels. Like, seriously."..."There's a certain efficiency to writing code," Doctorow says. "It can be a very powerful intervention. Look at the tiny number of people who hack on Tor, and the massive impact they've had around the world. That's the upside of code." But writing code just isn't for him. One of today's most active, vocal, and recognized champions of digital rights, eschewing a programming career is rather striking. After all, if what Lawrence Lessig says is true—if, in the 21st Century, code is the fulcrum of power—then becoming a coder would seem tantamount to Doctorow's interests, what he calls the intersection of "technology and liberation"...