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[citation needed]
"I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance devices. They all enable the phone system to record where the user goes, and many (perhaps all) can be remotely converted into listening devices." [citation needed]
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I refuse to own a tie" is a fact, not an opinion. Much of the following discussion is an opinion. He's not a "minimalist", he is a freedom activist. He believes ties impinge on freedom. The passenger does not run the train software. The train owner can choose what kind of software they want to use. RMS's trains (of which he has none) do not run non-free software. RMS has thought deeply through these issues for decad…
> RMS has thought deeply through these issues for decades, you aren't going to discredit him with 5 minutes of snark. But he has weird personal hygiene. Certainly that invalidates one or two of his moral/philosophical points! /s
I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance devices. They all enable the phone system to record where the user goes, and many (perhaps all) can be remotely converted into listening devices. I find this hard to believe. Wouldn't the extra battery usage make it obvious, especially on Android devices that can track this as well as network usage at a very low level? Or is there some kind of h…
Dude is so strange. I mean seriously, who knows that much about that many kinds of esoteric music? It's like he wants to be contrary to the rest of the population on purpose.
"Dude, check out this awesome new Death Metal band I found!"
"Dude, that's not Death, that's lame melo-death."
"Nah dude, this is ambient drone death!"
"There's no such thing as ambient drone death."
"There totally is, haven't you heard of $FOO?" (where $FOO is some random Finnish band that recorded one EP in a shack in some guy's backyard, using gear that nobody has ever heard of, musicians that nobody has ever heard of, a producer nobody has ever heard of, and only release the album as ogg vorbis files transferred onto 8-track tapes)
(Some other guy comes along) "Oh, that band... no, they're not ambient drone death, they're avant garde post-moral melo-death-core"
(Yet another guy comes along) "That's not avant garde post-moral melo-death-core, it's avant garde drone viking noise metal."
(everybody sane) "Aaargggghhhhh"
("that guy") "Yeah, they're totally tr00 kvlt, dudes. Let's go sacrifice a goat."
I'm sure devout fans of Trance, Country, Jazz, Classical and all sorts of other kinds of music likewise get into some pretty esoteric knowledge, when viewed from outside their sphere.
Dude is so strange. I mean seriously, who knows that much about that many kinds of esoteric music? It's like he wants to be contrary to the rest of the population on purpose.
Also, he is 60 years old, so developing such a broad taste of music is not even a huge effort!
Thats not _that_ unusual.
Also, folk music is not esoteric.
I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance devices. They all enable the phone system to record where the user goes, and many (perhaps all) can be remotely converted into listening devices. I find this hard to believe. Wouldn't the extra battery usage make it obvious, especially on Android devices that can track this as well as network usage at a very low level? Or is there some kind of h…
Dunno about listening devices, but certainly tracking devices: Remember this from a few years back - http://www.zeit.de/datenschutz/malte-spitz-vorratsdaten - a guy retrieved all information his telco had on him under some kind of freedom of information laws, and he threw it all up online. Someone then took the data, mashed it up with his public tweets/posts and made this cool interactive map/visualisation showing ex…
The comments here, are for the most part, incredibly disappointing. I don't understand the point of bashing a guy, however public, for merely stating his preferences: I'm sure people could find some of everyone's preferences equally curious. Whatever the intent in submitting this to Hacker News was, it's turning into pointless bullying and should probably just be killed.
> When I wait for my baggage in an airport, I always do one of these two. And I notice the people around me, feeling anxious and getting nothing done. What a waste.
Even with the benefit of the doubt that he didn't mean this as snarky( I do not know RMS personally, so I cannot judge too much), he imposes his lifestyle decisions (working all the time) as a sort of absolute truth.
>None of my shirts carry messages (such as words or symbols). That practice strikes me as lacking dignity, so I won't wear clothing with symbols, not even for causes I support. This is not a matter of ethical disapproval, so I don't mind selling hats and shirts with free software slogans on behalf of the FSF; but I choose not to wear them myself.
I get not wanting to have messages on your shirt. Loads of people are like that. But to simultaneously say that it lacks dignity but then act as if this isn't a value judgement is a bit contrarian.
I think this is more one of those things that are more annoying than somehow "fundamentally" wrong but the fact that he "doesn't mind" using other people's cell phones or rewards cards is reminiscent of a lot of annoying people I've known in my life.
Your personal preferences stop being immune from criticism when they end up imposing things on others.
I admire the man for being willing to do that. Best way to learn a language is to actually use it. I'd say it'd require courage, but I don't know if courage is a quantity in RMS, he seems to just do what he wants.
I am not aware of how bad his French was at the time though. I guess majorly inconveniencing those around him is not as important to him (something that seems to be recurring in these sorts of discussions about RMS).
Genius or not, is he a misanthrope? Yes, he has a splendid list of cool things he's done, and he's a luminary. But why compile a list of things that basically says, "I generally don't like people, the things most people do or have, or the silly rituals most people enjoy." I can respect his opinions, but he comes across as very condescending... That said, I do admire how much of a diehard he is about his beliefs. Not…