101–110 of 292 posts
"I usually decline to participate in "open source" or "Linux" events. See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html for why it is incorrect to refer to the operating system as "Linux"." Ah, this never gets old. Also, using Pepsi to keep awake. Are all riders this god damn picky? It wouldn't surprise me. I imagine there is a great amount of antagonism between performers/speakers/etc and the venues.
My funniest memory of Richard Stallman is once he was invited to give the commencement speech at my local university, Lakehead University. He was pretty oblivious to the fact he was at a graduation, and not at any point in his speech did he address the students and their future. All he talked about was free software, how copyright was bad, and that the university should be using free software. Most of the students we…
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RMS is a delightful man (I've had the pleasure of interviewing him at length in person), and his demands are completely in line with his philosophies. His dedication to free and open-source ideals, if impractical, is also inspiring and rare. Saying he has "a retarded way of dealing with people" is perhaps too general. I myself found him enchanting and enlightening in our interactions. Maybe you just didn't like the w…
> open-source ideals, You didn't read the part of the rider about "open source".
All of his demands are either directly related to his health or the moral causes that he champions. He is specific and verbose. Some of these things might seem strange to people who are younger than 50 years old, and aren't flown around the world to give hundreds of talks. I think that this demonstrates the value of a clear and verbose contract.
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You don't hire a missionary with a vision to pat yourself or your audience on the back. That's like expecting Sylvester Stallone to do higher mathematics or Mother Theresa to do an arms deal for you. Some people are what they are and their environment/audience will have to accept them as they are. The problem lies squarely with the person that hired him, the abstract of the speeches listed should have adequately expl…
> What I found interesting on reading the 'rider' is that he still refers to the GNU operating system as though it is in daily use. I've yet to see a HURD based system do anything useful in production but half the world wide web seems to run on Linux these days. Of course linux is 'merely a kernel'. Considering that glib, libc, gcc, emacs, the vast majority of the Unix utilities, bash, grub, autoconf, make, readline,…
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> What I found interesting on reading the 'rider' is that he still refers to the GNU operating system as though it is in daily use. I've yet to see a HURD based system do anything useful in production but half the world wide web seems to run on Linux these days. Of course linux is 'merely a kernel'. Considering that glib, libc, gcc, emacs, the vast majority of the Unix utilities, bash, grub, autoconf, make, readline,…
I think I have more KDE code on my computer than GNU code. Both are undeniably useful, but no one is insisting on calling it KDE/Linux.
Linux is still useful without KDE, but the functionality provided by GNU is critical and would require a large effort to replace.
"I do NOT use browsers, I use the SSH protocol. If the network requires a proxy for SSH, I probably can't use it at all." I wondered if this applied to all net usage or just email, turns out he never uses a web browser, ever. If he needs the contents of a web page, he emails a daemon which wgets the page and emails it back to him: http://lwn.net/Articles/262570/
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I am willing to bet that that particular paragraph was added after someone bought a parrot just for him.
Right. Which wouldn't have happened, if he hadn't already added in the first paragraph about how he really likes parrots and would be "very very glad" to stay with someone who owns one.
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I had a parrot once. I have the following to say: Parrots should never be physically confined, either by cages or (god forbid!) chains. If they like you, they will hang around you on their own accord. After a while they seem to regard some humans as family. Mine would follow my mom around like a dog. As far as I know, they do not surf wind drafts, but they do require exercise. Therefore, you should have an open space…
How do they feel about breakfast?
This is wonderful, in so many different ways. I've read quite a bit of the FSF material--which is invariably specific, clear and verbose--and it's interesting to read material in the same style, but about a completely different topic. For example, under "Hospitality": "In some places, my hosts act as if my every wish were their command. By catering to my every whim, in effect they make me a tyrant over them, which is…
Ever visited an Arabic country? Whatever an American might think, this is THE major problem - not terrorism - but being 'hospitalitied' to death!