Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

Post by prodigal_erik » Mon, Apr 25, 2011, 4:41 AM UTC

angus77 wrote: post #181

_b8r0 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only speak of personal experience (and having spent time with RMS twice in total, several years apart that's not a lot). My experience of him was that publicly he wants people to value free software, but it's a means to an end. I don't actually have a problem with about 60% of what he has to say on the matter. Open source software fuels innovation and as long as people can still fund further innovation I'm happ…

"If I want to release my software under a BSD licence, it's not free software because RMS doesn't think it is." I thought the FSF had publicly stated that BSD licenses were compatible with the GPL, and thus "Free" software. I wouldn't be surprised if rms wished the software were more free (in his sense of the word), but I don't recall him ever saying it wasn't free.

Post by prodigal_erik » Mon, Apr 25, 2011, 5:01 AM UTC

Joeri wrote: post #147

rbanffy wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I think the intelligence agencies were just incompetent to identify the proper threat, perhaps for lack of an adequately warped imagination (911 was a game changer in the rules of plane highjacking - nobody ever used a passenger plane as a missile before), I don't think anyone allowed it to happen on purpose. However, the president and his associates certainly saw the opportunity and ran with it. The damage don…

"911 was a game changer in the rules of plane highjacking - nobody ever used a passenger plane as a missile before" True for civilian planes, but it stretches the imagination a little too far that the US military could discount planes as missiles, given the precedent of pearl harbor.

Post by 3am » Mon, Apr 25, 2011, 6:02 AM UTC

cgray4 wrote: post #157

3am wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other people who have honorary doctorates: Bill Cosby, Bob Hope, and Oprah. (edit: and Bob Barker, Tim Allen... obviously, RMS has accomplished more than many PhDs, but you shouldn't refer to a holder of an honorary doctorate as "Dr.")

Bill Cosby has earned a doctorate in education along with his honorary doctorates.

Post by vacri » Mon, Apr 25, 2011, 6:54 AM UTC

cgray4 wrote: post #54

roadnottaken wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the same wikipedia article: 1996: Honorary doctorate from Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology [85] 2001: Honorary doctorate, from the University of Glasgow [89] 2003: Honorary doctorate, from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel [91] 2004: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad Nacional de Salta. [92] 2007: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad de Los Angeles de Chimbote. 2007: Honorary doctorate, from the Uni…

I don't think an honorary doctorate entitles one to be referred to as Dr. In fact, most people with doctorates that I know would rather not be referred to as Dr. In the case of this article, it seems like the author is trying to be overly-formal in the manner of a Keith Olbermann rant.

Post by wil2k » Mon, Apr 25, 2011, 10:38 AM UTC

singular wrote: post #46

patrickaljord wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If he thinks u.s goverment is to blame for 9/11, no matter how saying it in a lecture seems childish, he will say it. By the way he doesn't believe that. Last time I read about his opinion on the subject he said that proofs were lacking on both sides (truther and non-truther) but that it was probably the work of religious fundamentalists (either christians or muslims).

To be honest, if he believes that 'proofs are lacking on both sides' then I've just lost quite a significant amount of respect for the man. If the 'truthers' are correct then many hundreds, if not thousands, of people decided to conspire to murder thousands of innocent civilians and, somehow, managed to prevent any leaking of this whatsoever. On this basis alone, the idea that 9/11 was a conspiracy is insane, before…