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This section contains samples of my writing activities over the years.
Millionaires
Unrivalled knowledge on becoming a Millionaire, well actually it's some hints and tips for "Trainee Millionaires".
Canterbury - a Tourist's Guide
When the web was new, the site you are looking at was the second to be established in Kent. I wrote this piece for a site in London who was putting together some UK tourist information. The article is not supposed to be serious and presents a local's view of the history of the town of Canterbury.
On the Design of the UNIX operating System
Written 15 years ago, this view of the History of UNIX was supposed to fiction, but turned out to be close to correct. The article was published in various UNIX newsletters across the world. I thought that it should be revived to mark the first 25 years of UNIX.
The UNIX Cult
This paper was written for the Winter Usenix in 1986. David Tilbrook had arranged a `history of UNIX' day, with speakers on different aspects of what UNIX meant. He asked me to do `the social side'. Like an idiot, I accepted. It was hard to think of a way of illustrating what it all meant without being crass. So, on a long car journey, the idea of the paper was born. I think that some of the jokes did work and there are one or two really good phrases. Take a look.
SunExpert Articles
I became a freelance computing person in 1990, and to my great surprise, found myself working as a regular columnist for two computer magazines. The first, printed in the US, started life as SunExpert, and transmuted into S/W Expert. The second, originating the the UK, EXE was really a magazine aimed at developers using Mr. Gates' products, but whose editors put up with a UNIX columnist. Sadly, both magazines are now dead.

My life as a magazine contributor coincided with the growth of the web, and since I ran one of the earliest Web Sites, it was natural to track the articles I had written on a web page. The magazines themselves started putting the copy online using PDF format and I managed to obtain all the online versions from Sun Expert on its demise, but failed to obtain the EXE ones.

Peter Collinson Last change: 21st November 2018