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Linus Torvalds: Pearls before swine

torvalds-family.blogspot.com

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Re: Linus Torvalds: Pearls before swine

#91

Post by kierank »

peregrine wrote: post #5

This post put a big stupid grin on my face, just imagining him walking around, and nobody knowing who he is. Him being far more influential and more important than most people in the room, and yet having trouble explaining what he does. It sounds like a family reunion trying to remember people names and telling everyone you make web sites for a living.

Him being far more influential and more important than most people in the room, and yet having trouble explaining what he does.

That's not true. There were many people in that room who were critical parts of multibillion dollar franchises. So critical that if that person fell ill the franchise would have to stop. If Linus fell ill Linux would continue relatively unchanged.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Pearls before swine

#92

Post by rtaycher »

antirez wrote: post #14

"since geeks in general are seen as the crème de la crème of society". Strange statement, my impression is that geeks don't receive at all enough credits. Every average legal or doctor is a super star compared to a geek at least in Italy. It is also embarrassing for a society to put on the TV screen everybody but not the guy that created software that really is running the internet. Linux and Git are huge.

I guess programmers seem more geeky? Lawyers and Doctors can be geeks too.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Pearls before swine

#93

Post by mbesto »

mixmax wrote: post #37

I've done stuff that normal people would consider ubercool - doing illegal raves, run one of the hottest bars in Ibiza, throwing parties for the jetset. When seen from the outside it looks amazing - you get to talk to models, you get free booze, get in for free at all the clubs and have sex with models. The thing that nobody tells you is that it's hard work. Most of the actors that go to the oscars aren't there to ge…

I was a rather highly paid consultant at a young age with zero debt to my name out of school. Therefore, I was fortunate enough at the age of 22-24 to be able to afford random lavish vacations (Cannes, Prague, Miami, Vegas, etc) and lived in Germany and NYC for some time. I would do the whole "bottle and models" type gig every once in awhile, although barely part of my regular routine. There is something about being a geek in those settings that is, hmmmmm, I don't know, rewarding?

Re: Linus Torvalds: Pearls before swine

#95

Post by pyre »

kierank wrote: post #91
peregrine wrote: post #5

This post put a big stupid grin on my face, just imagining him walking around, and nobody knowing who he is. Him being far more influential and more important than most people in the room, and yet having trouble explaining what he does. It sounds like a family reunion trying to remember people names and telling everyone you make web sites for a living.

Him being far more influential and more important than most people in the room, and yet having trouble explaining what he does. That's not true. There were many people in that room who were critical parts of multibillion dollar franchises. So critical that if that person fell ill the franchise would have to stop. If Linus fell ill Linux would continue relatively unchanged.

  > If Linus fell ill Linux would continue relatively unchanged.
Linux development on the other hand... Linus is still the Steve Jobs of the Linux kernel world, so far as I understand it.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Pearls before swine

#96

Post by route66 »

dalore wrote: post #57
mixmax wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only comment based on my own observations, but I see two explanations: 1) Slash is an outlier. I'm sure there are rockstars and actors that spend most of their time doing drugs and chatting up models. There are probably people like this in all fields of life. 2) His public persona is greatly enhanced by writing an autobiography that portrays him as true rock'n roll. It's great marketing. The truth is probaly so…

Isn't a rockstar by definition an outlier?

That's the marketing.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Pearls before swine

#97

Post by xyzzyz »

kunley wrote: post #66
staunch wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello, my name is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce Linux as Leenucks.

You wouldn't believe it but for many of us non-native english speakers, his pronounciation is obvious and sounding naturally, while the "english'ized" one is funny if not ridiculous.. ;)

That's true, first time I heard it when applying for an internship, I had hard time to understand what the interviewer is talking about. Now I watch more conference videos.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Pearls before swine

#98

Post by Natsu »

kunley wrote: post #66
staunch wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello, my name is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce Linux as Leenucks.

You wouldn't believe it but for many of us non-native english speakers, his pronounciation is obvious and sounding naturally, while the "english'ized" one is funny if not ridiculous.. ;)

You're right. Once I learned about "Latin vowels" a lot of things fell into place in regards to pronouncing foreign names and places.

This goes far outside of just the Latin-derived languages. We use the Latin alphabet, after all. So if the language can be written with this alphabet somehow (even if the locals don't usually use it), there's a pretty good chance that you should assume they use the Latin vowels, too.

No guarantees, but I've managed to surprise more than a few people by pronouncing things correctly.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Pearls before swine

#99

Post by bad_user »

peregrine wrote: post #5

This post put a big stupid grin on my face, just imagining him walking around, and nobody knowing who he is. Him being far more influential and more important than most people in the room, and yet having trouble explaining what he does. It sounds like a family reunion trying to remember people names and telling everyone you make web sites for a living.

       imagining him walking around, and nobody knowing who he is
Consider this was the Oscar; imagine the same thing happening to an actor walking around at a Linux conference.

      Him being far more influential and more important than 
      most people in the room
Out of all people, I would think that geeks / hackers can recognize the importance of art for society. If anything I wish more Natalie Portmans were around; as soon enough we'll end up like in Idiocracy with people watching 90 mins of a big ass farting.

So stop with the condescending attitude, please.

Re: Linus Torvalds: Pearls before swine

#100

Post by ryanisinallofus »

lanstein wrote: post #28
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised she didn't spit on A-Rod.

He was absolutely livid. This was back when he still played for the Mariners, in case that wasn't clear. I would have paid anything to have seen his facial expression.

Which, in the end is why we couldn't keep him. Sigh.
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