Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

ftp.mfek.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 472 posts

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#41

Post by dekhn »

sph wrote: post #19

I think about Hans Reiser pretty often, incidentally, because there is a quote from him I read as a teenager that stuck with me. "The utility of an operating system is proportional to the number of connections possible between its components, than it is to the number of those components." — Hans Reiser (from http://web.archive.org/web/20040126210110/http://unununium.o... ) It's hard to reconcile good things a person…

Isn't that a restating of Metcalfe's law? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law

[EDIT: I have misunderstood Metcalfe's Law for over 20 years, assuming that "connections" meant edges in the following quote. Metcalfe intended to mean that the value of the network grows as the square of the number of nodes because "connections" here aren't edges, they're fully reachable pairs of nodes. Thanks, again, HN, for helping me through that]

> The financial value or influence of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n2).

Generally speaking, "the value of a graph is proportional to the square of the number of edges"

rabbit hole: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locally_linear_graph

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#42

Post by jonathankoren »

dale_glass wrote: post #17
iaw wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect many are aware of this but for those uninformed: Reiser committed premeditated murder of his (ex?)wife Nina around 2006 and hid her body so well they could not find her. He made his children think either that their mother abandoned them. He had thought without a body he could not be charged and convicted. I believe he waited until it was apparent he would lose the trial and then plead down so that they coul…

He was far less of a mastermind than he fancied himself at the time. If I recall, he bought a book on murder investigations and a socket set after his wife's disappearance (which was easily tracked back to him), removed car seats (blood) from his car, and willingly testified in court that it was his manly dream to sleep in the car, or something along these lines. He could have likely gotten away with it if he kept hi…

I will always remember the Slashdot comment that said that removing the passenger seat of your car so you could sleep in your car was a reasonable thing to do, and everyone saying it was suspicious was a hater. (Bro. A car floor isn’t even flat.)

I think it was my first experience with absolute egregious fanboism.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#44

Post by masklinn »

hollerith wrote: post #29
foxyv wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Redemption requires that a person change and provide restitution. What Reiser did wasn't a stupid mistake, it was a calculated action that he took. His only mistake was getting caught. He didn't accidentally kill someone, or do so in the heat of a unique moment in his life. He decided that he could make his life easier by killing someone else and did so with no intention of facing the consequences of his actions. Whi…

Since the prosecutor's office offered him a sentence of 3 years if he'd lead investigators to where he buried the body, the burden is on you IMHO to support your assertion because obviously if the informed professionals in the prosecutor's office thought it was a pre-planned murder they wouldn't've been that lenient. (In the US, pre-planned murders are routinely punished by life in prison without parole; California m…

What sentence of 3 years are you talking about? The judge offered (and prosecutors agreed to) a plea guilty of second-degree murder (down from the first degree murder he was convicted of) if he revealed the location of the body and gave closure to her Nina’s children and family.

He got 15 to life, the maximum for second-degree murder, and his first request for parole was rejected so he’s doing at least 20 for now.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#45

Post by eatbitseveryday »

mariusor wrote: post #2

I don't know if ending another human's life leaves any possibility of redemption for a person, but reading this I still empathize with the sense of loss and powerlessness that emanate from this letter.

> ending another human's life leaves any possibility of redemption for a person

You realize the volunteer soldiers that enter a battle to kill other humans also fall under this scope? Yet in many countries we celebrate their return and service, despite what they may have done.

I agree these are not quite the same thing, in how a deed is carried out, but the end result is in fact the same.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#46

Post by sph »

dekhn wrote: post #41
sph wrote: post #19

I think about Hans Reiser pretty often, incidentally, because there is a quote from him I read as a teenager that stuck with me. "The utility of an operating system is proportional to the number of connections possible between its components, than it is to the number of those components." — Hans Reiser (from http://web.archive.org/web/20040126210110/http://unununium.o... ) It's hard to reconcile good things a person…

Isn't that a restating of Metcalfe's law? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law [EDIT: I have misunderstood Metcalfe's Law for over 20 years, assuming that "connections" meant edges in the following quote. Metcalfe intended to mean that the value of the network grows as the square of the number of nodes because "connections" here aren't edges, they're fully reachable pairs of nodes. Thanks, again, HN, for he…

It did sound something that could be applied to much more than the niche of OS design. The focus is to make the connections between things composable, rather than adding a lot of subsystems. Think UNIX or Lego bricks.

Thanks for those links, I did not know Metcalfe's law, but it expresses a similar concept in a much more succinct way.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#47

Post by themerone »

shzhdbi09gv8ioi wrote: post #28
themerone wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drunk driving is a stupid thing people do. Murder is an act of evil.

Only if you believe in evil. I'm not christian so I don't see the world like that. He killed his s/o, like what 15 years ago now? People change and deserves a second chance.

Evil is not a religious concept.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#48

Post by TomK32 »

themerone wrote: post #20
Aloha wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking in general terms, not to the specifics of Hans Reiser's crimes - I dont see why it wouldn't allow for redemption, people do stupid things and get blinded easily.

Drunk driving is a stupid thing people do. Murder is an act of evil.

I don't understand and can't accept why crimes committed while drunk get you a lesser punishment than a crime committed while sober.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#49

Post by lern_too_spel »

iknowstuff wrote: post #33
iaw wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple paragraphs below on the wiki: > As of 2020, Reiser was housed at the Correctional Training Facility near Soledad, California, with a tentative parole eligibility date of August 2027 after parole was denied in 2022.

How does he end up imprisoned 4 years longer than his sentencing indicated?

15 years to life means his sentence is life with a possibility of parole after 15 years if the parole board thinks it would be better for society that he's out of prison. The parole board did not think so at 15 years. He'll get more chances in the future.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#50

Post by RobotToaster »

dale_glass wrote: post #17
iaw wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect many are aware of this but for those uninformed: Reiser committed premeditated murder of his (ex?)wife Nina around 2006 and hid her body so well they could not find her. He made his children think either that their mother abandoned them. He had thought without a body he could not be charged and convicted. I believe he waited until it was apparent he would lose the trial and then plead down so that they coul…

He was far less of a mastermind than he fancied himself at the time. If I recall, he bought a book on murder investigations and a socket set after his wife's disappearance (which was easily tracked back to him), removed car seats (blood) from his car, and willingly testified in court that it was his manly dream to sleep in the car, or something along these lines. He could have likely gotten away with it if he kept hi…

Makes you wonder how many people do actually get away with it.
Post reply on HN