Reading about Stallman's reaction to this makes me wonder about his mental stability. "Punching himself in the head"? And cursing? Now, cursing I can understand but the picture painted in the story makes it look like Stallman was throwing a tantrum, screaming obscenities, punching himself in the head and then crying. We all knew he was an eccentric fellow but when you're punching yourself in the head, in public no less, you have to wonder what else is going on there. Losing a bag with such important items in it would put anyone in a pretty upset state. Putting aside who we're talking about I think a reaction like that definitely deviates from the norm to the point of maybe crossing the line from eccentricity to instability.
Rms has his bag stolen in Argentina
71–80 of 124 posts
Re: Rms has his bag stolen in Argentina
#72> Despite his controversial views on a variety of topics, his evangelism work all over the world is a true inspiration for countless people I disagree, I think his evangelism is dangerous and offensive. He goes around telling programmers that they should give their code for free and he belittles anyone who doesn't follow his advice.
Except he doesn't actually care if you charge for your code. All he cares about are the rights of the consumer. Now, supporting these rights does make it somewhat more difficult to charge for your software, but it clearly isn't impossible: there are companies built around free software. Moreover, if everyone provided free software, it would actually be easier to charge money for it because you wouldn't have to compete with proprietary software and drm.
Re: Rms has his bag stolen in Argentina
#73> Despite his controversial views on a variety of topics, his evangelism work all over the world is a true inspiration for countless people I disagree, I think his evangelism is dangerous and offensive. He goes around telling programmers that they should give their code for free and he belittles anyone who doesn't follow his advice.
Let's not rehash that discussion in this thread. Let's imagine the article did not contain the line you quoted, but was neutral about the views of RMS.
Re: Rms has his bag stolen in Argentina
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some people may use it that way but that doesn't make it right. The baseball example is a figure of speech, not a description of an actual crime. This was a real crime.
I'm pretty sure peoples' use of the word is the definition of how it is used.
I think that's fine in general. However, in this case, "robbery" is basically being used as a technical legal term describing a particular crime. It's a little bit like calling every laptop a macbook (except there's no trademarks involved).
Re: Rms has his bag stolen in Argentina
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some people may use it that way but that doesn't make it right. The baseball example is a figure of speech, not a description of an actual crime. This was a real crime.
I'm pretty sure peoples' use of the word is the definition of how it is used.
The words have a specific technical meaning in this case, so it's important to use them correctly. A robbery and a simple theft are treated very differently under the law. Prescriptive grammar is the only way to go when you're dealing with a technical system built out of ordinary language, like law or programming.
Re: Rms has his bag stolen in Argentina
#76Most of us have cloud backups like Mozy or Carbonite, or keep our documents in the cloud with tools like Google Docs, iCloud, or Zoho. To us, losing a laptop is an inconvenience... but not a cause for canceling future engagements. But RMS is different. He's ethically opposed to the "cloud," calling it a "trap." That is his prerogative. But you can't cry when you lose your data!!
Could you explain how to pass through immigration using a passport stored in the cloud?
Well why not?
A serious question: what's the advantage of physical identity cards over digitally-signed documents + two-factor?
Re: Rms has his bag stolen in Argentina
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Decency? We're adults, we respect him like other humans and we can handle the real story. At least we should have the decency to.
You're right on your last point however the way he initially reacted didn't add anything to the story. It was the nervous reaction of a man who realized the trip he had spent days organizing was being called off because of one individual. Having personally met RMS and knowing other persons that have the same type of condition, I would say that those people need some respect in the way they handle emotions and other s…
Whoah, wait, what condition? I wasn't aware that Stallman had any condition that would cause him to react that way. I even just posted a comment that touches on that topic. I hope I didn't just sound like a jerk picking on someone with a mental/emotional disorder I didn't know about.
Re: Rms has his bag stolen in Argentina
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also agree with the troll and it really does look like that was deliberate trolling. But really, it made sense anyway. You're not allowed to criticize Stallman on HN. I found that out the hard way. It's frowned upon even more than criticizing Steve Jobs (both before and after his passing). But since you brought this up I'd also like to add that I question how this got to the front page. I mean, yeah it sucks and I…
I've criticized both RMS and Jobs on HN. People upvoted me for it. The quality of your arguments matters a lot in those and similar cases because people are more inclined to downvote for a poor argument where they would otherwise let it slide.
Exactly, thanks. Plus, HN is not a FOSS advocacy board. Most here are working with FOSS building proprietary products.
Re: Rms has his bag stolen in Argentina
#79Reading about Stallman's reaction to this makes me wonder about his mental stability. "Punching himself in the head"? And cursing? Now, cursing I can understand but the picture painted in the story makes it look like Stallman was throwing a tantrum, screaming obscenities, punching himself in the head and then crying. We all knew he was an eccentric fellow but when you're punching yourself in the head, in public no le…
Running the risk of being an armchair psychologist, I think it's pretty well established that RMS likely falls somewhere on the autism spectrum, or at least has some sort of behavioral condition that leads to behavior like this, as well as his documented social quirks.
Which is to say that I think he's probably mentally stable, but a bit strange by everyday standards.
Re: Rms has his bag stolen in Argentina
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like I wrote, he enjoys the ritual of interacting with the audience after the talk. I think most people at this point stop looking at their stuff for a minute.
Like the other guy wrote. He had his passport in the bag. The number one rule of traveling: your passport is your life. There are things in that should not be somebody else's task. Edit: you guys might be right about the troll thing. I'm terribly confused now as I must confess I agree with a troll..
I traveled overseas for 3 straight years long ago, and with the exception of when I had my own locked apartment, I kept my passport physically on my body at all times. The comment above about developed countries is provocative. I know very little about Argentina, but I believe in the 1930's it was considered on par with European countries and North America in terms of development.