Mark Pilgrim | |
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| Born | (1972-11-24)November 24, 1972 (age 53) |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | Cornell University |
| Occupation(s) | software developer,Technical writer |
| Employer | Brave Software, Inc.[1] |
| Notable work | Dive into * series |
| Website | diveintomark.org (archived) |
Mark Pilgrim is a software developer, writer, and advocate offree software. He authored a popularblog, and has written several books, includingDive into Python, a guide to thePython programming language published under theGNU Free Documentation License. Formerly an accessibility architect in theIBM Emerging Technologies Group,[2] he started working atGoogle in March 2007.[3] In 2018, he moved toBrave.[4][failed verification]
In 1992, while a sophomore atCornell University and a part-time employee of Cornell Information Technologies (CIT), Pilgrim and another student, David Blumenthal, embedded acomputer virus, MBDF, into three games.[5] In February of the same year, Pilgrim, Blumenthal, Randall Johnson, and Eric Sooros uploaded the games from Cornell's Upson Hall computer lab to a public server atStanford University. The four used false mainframe accounts created by Blumenthal, then also a CIT employee.[6] The virus caused disruption to Macintosh computers internationally.[7]
The origin of the virus was first identified by Claris employees in Wales on February 14, and was traced to Stanford, and then further to one of Cornell's mainframes. Cornell's access logs showed the uploads were made from several computers in the lab while Pilgrim was working there.[8] Sooros was granted immunity from prosecution in return for his grand jury testimony against Pilgrim, Johnson, and Blumenthal.[9] Pilgrim and Blumenthal were arrested and initially charged with computer tampering in the second degree, a Class A misdemeanor. The FBI investigated to determine if federal charges were warranted, though no additional charges were filed.[10] After facing disciplinary hearings, none of the four implicated continued as Cornell students.[9]
In September 1992, Pilgrim and Blumenthal pled guilty and were later sentenced to 520 hours of community service, forfeiture of seized computer equipment, and payment of nearly $2,500 in restitution to Cornell and other affected parties. Johnson pled guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to 450 hours of community service.[11]
Pilgrim's bookDive into Python is a teach-by-example guide to the paradigms of programming inPython and modern software development techniques. It assumes some preexisting knowledge of programming, although not necessarily in Python. The first edition was published in 2004 (ISBN 1-59059-356-1), and a 2009 second edition (ISBN 9781430224150) covers Python 3. Both are available online as well as in print.[12][13]
Much of the book consists of example programs with annotations and explanatory text, and it generally describes how to modify an example to serve new purposes. One early example program reads through a directory ofMP3 files and lists the header information, such as artist, album, etc. Other topics covered includeobject oriented programming,documentation,unit testing, and accessing and parsingHTML andXML.
Pilgrim has also written a monthly columnDive into XML forO'Reilly's XML.com.
Pilgrim contributed to a number of open source works including
Pilgrim was a vocal critic ofCreative Commons licensing, which he believed needlessly cluttered the licensing environment of open source software.[15][failed verification]
From 4 October 2011, Mark Pilgrim's various websites (diveintomark.org, Dive into HTML5, Dive into Accessibility, Dive into Greasemonkey, Dive into Python, etc.) returned HTTP status410 Gone.[16] He also deleted his Twitter, Reddit, Google+ and GitHub accounts.[17][18] On 5 October 2011Jason Scott tweeted that Pilgrim himself was "alive/annoyed we called the police".[19] Commenting on the event, a writer forThe Economist wrote that the concern showed for Pilgrim's well-being demonstrated that "the internet, often mocked as impersonal and uncaring, can be quite the reverse."[16]
Both Pilgrim's actions in October 2011 andwhy the lucky stiff's similar disappearance in August 2009 have been described as "infosuicide".[20][21]
The incident was reminiscent of Pilgrim's 2004 hiatus from blogging, which lasted approximately 18 months. In 2004, rather than deleting his content, he posted a short entry entitled "Every Exit" in which he said, "It’s time for me to find a new hobby. Preferably one that doesn’t involve angle brackets. Or computers. Or electricity."[22]
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