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Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

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Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

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post #296
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW this is highly related to what I think of as the "narrow waist" architectural principle. You may like these articles I wrote: The Internet Was Designed With a Narrow Waist - https://www.oilshell.org/blog/2022/02/diagrams.html The Internet has huge utility because TCP/IP is a narrow waist. It has architectural connections to Ethernet/wireless/... on one end, and HTTP/BitTorrent/... on the other. For the most func…

Yeah, I can see the similarity. Thanks for the links. Also, vaguely related, and a way to achieve this goal of making things composable, is the "everything is an X" pattern: https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/everything-is-an-x-patter...

Yup, the "Everything is an X" link is in the appendix to the second post :)

https://www.oilshell.org/blog/2022/03/backlog-arch.html#wiki...

I call it the Perlis-Thompson Principle, after Perlis:

It's better to have 100 functions on 1 data structure than 10 functions and 10 data structures.

and Thompson:

A program is generally exponentially complicated by the number of notions that it invents for itself. To reduce this complication to a minimum, you have to make the number of notions zero or one, which are two numbers that can be raised to any power without disturbing this concept. Since you cannot achieve much with zero notions, it is my belief that you should base systems on a single notion.

https://www.oilshell.org/blog/2021/08/history-trivia.html

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

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post #175
post #37

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I consider it a Bayesian approach to understanding potential internal drivers. Someone who is not cold and calculating likely has less capacity to completely present the appearance of redemption whereas someone who is calculating has that capacity. So, someone who is demonstrated to be calculating has higher odds of faking a behavior if it is beneficial to them (e.g. leaving prison). It's for him to know, but I don't…

> It's for him to know, but I don't think it's ridiculous for me to question. My reference to ridiculous was to the ridiculousness of my thinking that I have any insight into Reiser's character—a disclaimer at the beginning that I was not presuming to offer any. I was in no way meaning to call you or your statement ridiculous. > I consider it a Bayesian approach to understanding potential internal drivers. Someone wh…

Thank you for the well-reasoned reply, I misunderstood the thrust of your commentary.

> I read this as "the fact that he is calculating makes it less likely that he has changed." But maybe you just meant "the fact that he is calculating means that I require stronger evidence that he has changed"?

That's a fair point. I need to reflect more on that. It is not my place to proclaim absolutely likelihood, you're correct. I think the latter statement is closer to the thrust that I'm getting at. My burden of proof for redemption is higher than a less calculating criminal/crime.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#333

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It warms my heart that almost 20 years later, the same thread is playing out again. >All this has happened before, >and it will happen again.

I don't understand how slashdot can still troll me, I never even made an account on that site. I'll let this go, the hour is getting late.

I will always remember this HN thread.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#334

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Lots of people who do good work have done awful things. I love Oscar Wilde's plays, but he was a paedophile sex tourist. Eric Gill created beautiful stuff, including typefaces most of us probably use or read fairly often, and he sexual abused his children and his dog.

"Pedophile" back then often just meant "gay". In French pedé (pedophile) was the regular way to say "homosexual". Also the age of consent was lower back then, and untold numbers of "normal respectable ethical people" who back then would otherwise condemn Wilde as "pedophile" did marry girls at 14 or so. Before the 20th century basically after 13-14 kids were considered more like short adults than as a special categor…

No. He had sex with boys, and he had sex with boy prostitutes while traveling abroad.

> In fact, the guy he went to prison for being a lover to was 21.

Yes, he had sex with adult men too. Also with adult women too - he was married to one and they had kids.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oscar Wilde's ... was a paedophile sex tourist I've never heard of him being into children, have you a link for this, thanks (also, 'sex tourist'?)

Apparently he went to North Africa and Italy. Plus he was what would be called a rapist today. Mind you, I don't know if this is a reliable source. https://thefederalist.com/2018/09/18/time-left-stop-idolizin... I'm not really a fan of applying modern standards in historical contexts. Times change, but even today the age of consent is 16 in the UK. Condemning him for being 30+ and having sex with 15-16 year old boys…

Even if you accept that, the age difference and the hiring of poor boys as prostitutes makes a difference.

Differences of an year or two in age of consent is one thing and some variation is one thing. The article you link to mentions a 14 year old. How far will you take "it was acceptable in their culture". Child brides in modern Yemen or many other places? Romans being into little boys?

Legal does not mean socially acceptable either. 16 might keep you on the right side of the law here in the UK, but a 40 year old who is found to have had sex with a 16 year old is likely to be badly regarded.

> If we were to apply modern standards, you should be condemning over 1B people around the planet for following the teachings of a 30yo+ guy who married a six year old girl.

A lot of them claim he did not have sex with her until she was much older. I would condemnd them if they had sex with six year olds themselves.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently he went to North Africa and Italy. Plus he was what would be called a rapist today. Mind you, I don't know if this is a reliable source. https://thefederalist.com/2018/09/18/time-left-stop-idolizin... I'm not really a fan of applying modern standards in historical contexts. Times change, but even today the age of consent is 16 in the UK. Condemning him for being 30+ and having sex with 15-16 year old boys…

Even if you accept that, the age difference and the hiring of poor boys as prostitutes makes a difference. Differences of an year or two in age of consent is one thing and some variation is one thing. The article you link to mentions a 14 year old. How far will you take "it was acceptable in their culture". Child brides in modern Yemen or many other places? Romans being into little boys? Legal does not mean socially…

It's complicated.

> and the hiring of poor boys as prostitutes makes a difference

I'd say absolutely yes, that is wrong, but at the time it was not considered so wrong. I understand the age of consent was introduced for girls to stop them being used as prostitutes, and some men at the time were against this legislation. The question is, who defines 'right'?

> Child brides in modern Yemen or many other places

Sadly in their eyes, this is considered acceptable, even good. In our eyes, and mine, it's unacceptable. How do we define 'right' in this context? If we are right then how do we make them understand they are wrong?

Why they do it is simple; it is done in their culture so it is right. I see exactly the same kind of thing appearing here on HN where somebody condemns something they don't like (e.g., https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38981118) because "you're wrong because you're not right", essentially.

> but a 40 year old who is found to have had sex with a 16 year old is likely to be badly regarded

I'm not so sure. Such cases have existed, I remember on TV maybe 25 years ago a woman of 40 who married her husband of 16, it seemed to work and nobody seemed to upset about it. I personally knew of a couple, she was 19 and he was 60 and it was a good relationship while it lasted. I think people would take such age-unequal relationships on their own merits, and that is actually a good thing because otherwise it would just be intolerance.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those things happened after the murder, and don't necessarily preclude a crime of passion. When someone does commit a crime of passion, they don't always just come out and confess as soon as they're clear headed again.

Reisers' own evidence precludes a crime of passion. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/software-guru-ordered-pay...

What part of that article supports your point? The only thing I see there is that he made up multiple different stories to try to explain her absence.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't say heat of the moment, I said emotional state. If someone plots the death of a person who sexually abused their child no one would claim that it being premeditated implies they were not in a heightened emotional state.

That's fair but it would still count as premeditated in a legal sense, but there would be circumstances that would likely weigh in as to the severity.

regardless of legal definitions, I posted responding to what seemed like a belief that the only way to "cross a high bar" is to do so in the moment.

I've given a clear example where that's not the case.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#339
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

He could have likely gotten away with it He had a plea deal offer for not much more than time served so he even had a definite option to a form of getting away with it.

I briefly worked with Hans around 2005. My impression at the time was that he declined the manslaughter plea because he thought he was smarter than everyone around him.

Re: Hans Reiser on ReiserFS deprecation in the Linux kernel

#340
post #323
post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't live in the US but as far as I'm aware they shot a guy who tried to set fire to a bunch of empty ICE vans so direct action against institutions you don't like doesn't seem to be a winning strategy if you're not enough people to stage an armed insurrection. I'm interested if this really is your approach for "being the change you want in the world" though. When you think something could be improved somewhat do…

No, you don't understand. I don't really care about your politics, I care about the ridiculously extreme risk your toxic optimism causes society without there being an ounce of data to support your position. You are asserting that people without a conscience and a proven violent criminal past belong back in general society after some hypothetical rehabilitation program. Further, you are asserting that it is the US pr…

(EDIT: Deleted my original reply because I made the mistake of trying to reply to the text in earnest despite your complete disregard for what I said in all of your replies so far. This is still said in earnest but I won't bother trying to continue the game of talking past each other and instead address the elephant in the room directly.)

> You want these people out of prison and moved right next door to me and my family.

Now, ignoring that this barely even counts as a strawman because it bears so little resemblence to anything I ever said, this also jumps out to me as an interesting point: you're demonstrating a high level of aggression to me as a perceived threat despite nothing you accuse me of saying being what I actually said and you instantly frame it as protecting yourself and "your family".

Reiser was hardly a family man but what led him to murder his victim was her decision to leave him with their children which he also had been neglecting. In other words, he reacted with immense aggression to a perceived threat to "his family" even though it was specifically his (ex-)wife, a threat from within. As I pointed out elsewhere, he still refers to his victim as "my wife", thus clearly re-asserting his framing of his relation to her and her role in "his family" despite her demonstrated wish to end this relationship. Just as murdering her served to establish his authority and control over "his family", her death now continues to be used by him to maintain this fiction despite his status completely removing him from "his family".

I'm not saying you'd kill your wife if she'd try to leave you and take the kids. I'm saying while you're afraid of me because you catastrophize about imagined scenarios I might advocate for, women are afraid because of people who talk like you do.

Intimite partner violence is more widespread than stranger danger. Most sexual abuse happens between acquaintances or in relationships. Most child abuse and child sexual abuse is inflicted by close relatives. The greates predictor for Antisocial Personality Disorderd (ASPD, which is colloquially often called "psychopathy" or "sociopathy", which are themselves not formally defined conditions) is early childhood abuse, sexual abuse and parental emotional neglect and authoritarian overprotection.

I can't change the US penal system. Neither can you. I can point at statistics and research and other countries implementing more humane systems with better or comparable levels of recidividism and lower crime rates and I'm sure you can derail them or shoot them down by appealing to moral outrage and telling me to kill myself in as many words, again (because yes, that's what telling me to surround myself with untreated violent criminals you think are habitual reoffenders after explaining how "my" way of thinking leads to people ending up in a ditch after implied sexual abuse, is).

But what I can do is tell you to treat your children as humans, not inferiors. Their brains don't work right yet and that's fine. They need what humans need and they want to be treated like humans want to be treated. Think of them as you would think of yourself (or your spouse if you already think of them like you think of yourself) after a brain injury and with more limited mobility. You don't want to have arbitrary rules imposed on you that you don't understand and that change seemingly at random. You don't want to be held down or hurt or yelled at, especially when you don't understand why. You want to feel safe, not through displays of violence and threats against others but by being accepted for who you are and held and knowing you won't be hurt. They're your children but only in the sense that they depend on you and your care, not that they owe you anything or that you own them in any sense of the word.

There's so much fear and evilness in the world, let's not bring it into our families, not even under the guise of protection. Learn to let your guard down and genuinely love people. Allow yourself to be human and to see the humanity in others, not just as a hollow phrase. Accept your spouse and your children as genuinely human persons with their own internal lives and desires and accept it when they make choices you disagree with. It's okay to go against your children's wishes when they're too young to understand the bigger picture but let them live their lives and be who they are. Make sure they know they're safe to come back to you when they screw up rather than trying to lock them in figurative cages and trim their wings.

I'm not saying you would kill your spouse if she left you. I'm saying you sound like the person I would be afraid of doing that. Most femicides happen in relationships. Men are rarely well-equipped to handle rejection, especially by intimate partners. Most child abuse happens in families. Life can be stressful and viewing children through the lens of discipline and obedience deeply poisons any chance of a healthy relationship. Most family abuse is carried from one generation to the next. Let's break the cycle, even if the abuse is subtle enough others might dismiss it as "traditional parenting". Keep them safe and be safe for them.

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