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RMS lifestyle

stallman.org

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Re: RMS lifestyle

#81

Post by ekr »

reedlaw wrote: post #40
timcederman wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For phones to function they have to talk to cellular towers continuously. You can triangulate a location based on the chatter. Phone companies also keep detailed logs.

What about being made into listening devices? That would require turning on the microphone and transmitting the signal without the user noticing. Is that possible?

All your data (conversations, text messages etc) goes through the network, and those network operators can easily access it. It's just the same with ISPs though.

I don't know if that's what he meant by 'listening devices'. In any way, a lot of these statements make a lot of sense for many citizens in different parts of the world (China etc), where there's a corrupt government and a suppressed freedom of speech. For an US citizen I suppose they may be exaggerated. But I share many of his views, and he obviously deserves a lot more respect than some people show towards him.

EDIT. And of course, if it's running non-free software the cell phone can easily be made to transmit microphone data without the user noticing.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#83

Post by gonvaled »

[deleted] wrote: post #82

[deleted]

What is wrong about that sentence? The scientific method has to do with falsifiable theories. Religion is not falsifiable. On scientific grounds alone, religion has no place.

You can believe there is a god, or that there isn't. Both beliefs have nothing to do with science - and neither with atheism.

The atheist takes this proposition to the last consequence: "I do not believe" (either on the existence, or on the non-existence). That is, the matter is of no particular interest.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#84

Post by pmarin »

gohrt wrote: post #50
IvyMike wrote: post #2

It annoys me how willing he is to push the externalities of his decisions onto other people. ("I won't carry a cell phone, but fortunately everyone else does and I can just mooch off of them"). It's like that friend who won't own a car but sure as hell will mooch a ride. This reminds me of a story my friend told me. Back in the early 90's(?) my friend had his lunch eaten by RMS, several times. I don't think it was ma…

Huh. I thought he had a free-libre cell phone at some point. Anyway, one can buy a throwaway cell phone in cash, and power it down when not in use, I thought. Like drug dealers do. Still surveillable, but no more than any borrowed phone.

Anyway, one can buy a throwaway cell phone in cash

you can not do it in many countries like Spain where you have to provide your ID (because of terrorism).

Re: RMS lifestyle

#85

Post by laureny »

Stallman on Harry Potter:

> I don't say you shouldn't read these books. That I leave to the author. I only urge you not to pay for them.

Quite the upstanding citizen.

His justification for this is even more bizarre, he accuses JK Rowling of something hypothetical:

> Suppose that the mistakenly sold Harry Potter books had been ebooks: then instead of ordering her fans not to read her books, Rowling could have ordered them erased.

and then demanding she apologizes for something she never did:

> I think we should forgive Rowling (or her publisher) when she (or it) > Recognizes that this injunction was wrong. > Promises not to do anything like it again.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#86

Post by [deleted] »

gonvaled wrote: post #83
[deleted] wrote: post #82

[deleted]

What is wrong about that sentence? The scientific method has to do with falsifiable theories. Religion is not falsifiable. On scientific grounds alone, religion has no place. You can believe there is a god, or that there isn't. Both beliefs have nothing to do with science - and neither with atheism. The atheist takes this proposition to the last consequence: "I do not believe" (either on the existence, or on the non-…

[deleted]

Re: RMS lifestyle

#87

Post by hoodoof »

I found his linked article on why he has not had a family to be rather sad. A very bleak outlook on the attainability of love and happiness.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#88

Post by Xcelerate »

Since this is a thread about his personal preferences, I will add my personal commentary of them.

He seems to hold very strong opinions about certain things, but it appears (at least to me) that not a lot of thought went into forming these. Some are just arbitrary ("Not all my shirts are red or purple, but many are. I like those colors.") and some are just wrong ("I am an Atheist, for scientific reasons").

He's a very interesting fellow though (obviously a genius in his work) and has contributed a lot to the free software movement. It's nice to see what he's up to lately.

[gonvaled replied to me below; and my reply here]

I'm not commenting on his belief (or lack thereof), simply from whence it came. I make that comment regardless of the fact that I am either a theist or an atheist. My research consists of developing QFT/QM numerically for simulation, so I can say there is no law of nature that supports his statement that atheism stems from any scientific reason. Dirac's equation? Nope. Creation-annihilation operators? Nope. Did I miss an equation somewhere? Science explains how nature works and provides predictive capacity; that's it. Do you disagree with that?

Furthermore, I didn't list any criticism of Richard (as I have none); in fact I gave him two compliments: "genius" and "he's interesting and I like following what he's up to".

Re: RMS lifestyle

#90

Post by jmgao »

> In general, in any area of art or sensation, there are many ways for something to be good, and they cannot be compared and ordered

>Indian classical music (I tend to enjoy Carnatic more than Hindustani)

what

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