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Richard Stallman’s rider

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Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#131

Post by pjscott »

pmattos wrote: post #8
runjake wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if the message was posted to the list to criticize Stallman or whatever. And I was thinking the same thing as you, until I got down to the second half of the rider. Spoiler: it involves cats, parrots, hygiene, social awkwardness, and just about every other minute little detail. The sheer length of the piece might also be considered a turnoff.

Yep, it gets scary... Tip: never use the word breakfast near him.

Alternate interpretation: he has had overly solicitous people fret over why he's not eating breakfast, and would rather simply put the topic out of everyone's minds. He comes off as a solidly decent person in the rest of this letter; losing his composure at the mention of breakfast seems out of character.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#132

Post by cdcarter »

Anechoic wrote: post #62

I've helped to organize large conferences in the past, and right now I'm organizing a reception to honor some prominent Boston-area acousticians. Given those experiences, I would absolutely love to have this kind of a rider for honorees and speakers. It removes a lot of guesswork in planning large events and would make things go smoothly. Sure, some of the statements in the rider might seem odd, demanding or even irr…

Agreed, I started reading it thinking I'd be very frustrated afterward, but this has the right amount of detail and no requests that are too unreasonable for a venue to handle. The event sponsor may have to deal with some of the more tricky ones, but I really wouldn't mind executing this rider. Especially compared to some of the ones I've seen.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#133

Post by Anechoic »

cdcarter wrote: post #132
Anechoic wrote: post #62

I've helped to organize large conferences in the past, and right now I'm organizing a reception to honor some prominent Boston-area acousticians. Given those experiences, I would absolutely love to have this kind of a rider for honorees and speakers. It removes a lot of guesswork in planning large events and would make things go smoothly. Sure, some of the statements in the rider might seem odd, demanding or even irr…

Agreed, I started reading it thinking I'd be very frustrated afterward, but this has the right amount of detail and no requests that are too unreasonable for a venue to handle. The event sponsor may have to deal with some of the more tricky ones, but I really wouldn't mind executing this rider. Especially compared to some of the ones I've seen.

Actually I think that some of those details are unreasonable, but at least (as an event planner) I would rather know that up front rather than finding out midway through the planning process and it being to late to find another speaker.

Put it another way - if I had invited RMS and he sent that rider, I'd probably say "no thanks, we'll find someone else" but at least it would be at an early enough point that there would be time to find someone else.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#134

Post by rfergie »

keithpeter wrote: post #107
mef wrote: post #31

"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/

That was mentioned on his interview on 'the setup'. I wondered at the time how he finds Web pages of interest. Suggestions by e-mail?

I once wasted some of rms's time by emailing him to ask if using Google went against his principles.

He was polite enough to reply to me and say that it was ok.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#135

Post by runjake »

anothermachine wrote: post #91
runjake wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never read GNU's Linux FAQ that I can remember, but this section is interesting in light of the GNU kernel's history: Question: Isn't writing the kernel most of the work in an operating system? Answer: No, many components take a lot of work. If I recall correctly, work on the GNU kernel began in the mid-80's (HURD in 1990?). I'll leave the correlation to the reader.

Linux was a good kernel that was better than what GNU had at the time, and it was compatible (technically/legally) with the rest of GNU, so it deprecated Hurd. Sure, if enough folks wanted to, they good finish Hurd. But what's the point? They should go work on Linux.

Hurd isn't deprecated in the eyes of GNU. So far as I'm aware, they still desire a kernel under the GNU name.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#136

Post by Udo »

dhechols wrote: post #44

Mr. Stallman is neither nice in manner or smell. His ideas, while visionary at times, are not pragmatic. He is his own worst enemy. Perhaps, however, it takes an unfriendly, smelly man to trumpet the ideas of freedom in the digital age. I'm ok with that.

I thought about voting that down or not. Instead I'm just going to comment. This smell thing is really uncalled for, isn't it. I must admit that I always admired what he does, but - maybe like you - I have come to the conclusion that this guy is probably not a nice person. Probably.

Also, he kind of comes across as a one-trick pony. He literally can only think about one single issue. I believe when he thinks about the entire universe, he just looks at free and proprietary software and he's done. There is nothing else. Yes, maybe that's what it takes. Maybe visionaries can't be nice. Maybe successful people have to be assholes. Then again, I hope not.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#137

Post by brider »

jsavimbi wrote: post #78
0x12 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a guess, then you'll mail your daemon to fetch the page, to be mailed back by the daemon?

Only after I find a trustworthy wi-fi connection that'll allow proxy-less SSH.

This entire comments thread has a higher than expected level of subtle/downplayed humor. I appreciate subtle humor, but I don't know if Hacker News is the place for it.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#138

Post by eliasmacpherson »

Portmanager wrote: post #19

RMS is quite unkempt, his feet stink like a hobo. In general he has a retarded way of dealing with people, not a nice person to be in touch with. Just my 2 cents. PS: I did not mention his philosophy, neithe if his ideas are wrong. I just said he's got a bad personal hygiene and that he is has a retarded way of dealing with people, here are some quotes: http://edward.oconnor.cx/2005/04/rms It is plain wrong to offer…

I think your poor English isn't sufficient to understand the dark humour at play in the post.

The foreword from Edward O'Connor might just as well be rewritten: "In which I consider the latest example of my own utter lack of humour." I love his casual Asperger's syndrome diagnosis. Then Edward goes on to write authoritative posts on empathy, on hypocrisy, and on overpopulation.

As it says on top of his homepage: Edward O'Connor is a web standards developer in San Francisco, CA.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#139

Post by [deleted] »

deadcyclo wrote: post #93
joshaidan wrote: post #30

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…

You can't blame that on Stallman. He has always been completely clear and up front about what he will and will not speak about. And he always agrees on the topic ahead of time with who ever is arranging the event. In other words. Who ever arranged this graduation obviously did a horrible job, and is the person you should blame.

[deleted]

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#140

Post by maximusprime »

deadcyclo wrote: post #93
joshaidan wrote: post #30

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…

You can't blame that on Stallman. He has always been completely clear and up front about what he will and will not speak about. And he always agrees on the topic ahead of time with who ever is arranging the event. In other words. Who ever arranged this graduation obviously did a horrible job, and is the person you should blame.

I think it's fair to assume most people have basic "people" skills, humility, manners etc. Unfortunately that isn't the case with Stallman. He's an obsessive fundamentalist only concerned with one topic.
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