brian d foy
brian d foy是一个多产的Perl培训师和作家,他主办了“The Perl Review”,通过教育、咨询、代码审查等等帮助人们使用和了解Perl。他经常在Perl会议上发表演说。他是《Learning Perl》、《Intermediate Perl》和《Effective Perl Programming》的合作者,另外还单独著有《Mastering Perl》。1998年到2009年期间,他任职于Stonehenge Consulting Services担任讲师和作者。从他成为一个物理学研究生开始就是一个Perl用户,另外从他拥有自己的第一台计算机开始就是一个顽固的Mac用户。他成立了第一个Perl用户组(New York Perl Mongers),另外还创建了非盈利的Perl Mongers公司,帮助建立了全世界200多个Perl用户组。他维护着核心Perl文档的perlfaq部分,另外还维护着CPAN上的很多模块以及一些独立的脚本。
The animals on the cover of Mastering Perl are a vicuna (Vicugna vicugna)mother and her young. vicu?a are found in the central Andes Mountains of South America, at altitudes of 4,000 to 5,500 meters. For centuries, the vicuna has been treasured for its coat of soft,insulating hair that produces some of the finest and rarest wool on Earth.
vicuna yarns and fabrics can fetch up to $3,000 per yard.
vicunas held a special place among ancient Incan societies. Incans believed that the animal was the reincarnation of a beautiful maiden who had received a coat of gold as a reward for succumbing to the advances of a decrepit and homely king.
Every four years, Incans would hold a chacu, a hunt to trap thousands of vicunas,shear their coats,and release them back to the wild. Incan law forbade the killing of vicunas, and only members of royalty were allowed to wear garments made from the animal's coat.
Unregulated hunting of vicunas led to the animal being placed on the endangered species list in 1974. By that time, their number had dwindled to 6,000. However,close regulation, particularly by the government of Peru, has led to the vicuna's resurgence,and today the number is over 120,000. The chacu is now sanctioned and regulated by the Peruvian government, and a portion of the profits is returned to villagers in the Andes.