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My Talk at Microsoft

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Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the witnesses are not to be believed, then he is not spreading lies. Why are we blindly trusting witnesses who were on a billionaire's private island known (now and then) to be used as a sex club? It's just as likely that the witnesses are lying as telling the truth.

We're talking to a brick wall here. There are people who will make every excuse to not have to question the narrative that supports what they already believe, because the second you admit that your heroes may be horrible people you have to also question if you're a horrible person.

Then there are people who refuse to read the source material and apply basic reading comprehension, because they have their own imaginary world in which the sky is green and even their own eyes aren't going to convince them otherwise.

Seriously. Go read the source material.

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Javascript in the browser is practically compiled binary software at this point. You can't realistically inspect or edit 99% of what you're running since it's fully minified and obfuscated. And that's even more the case with WASM.

I'm going to push back on this, at least a bit. Maybe I'm atypical because I work with Javascript a lot, but I don't think it's that hard to read minified JS. Modern browsers have a lot of tools to help with that -- you can set breakpoints on DOM manipulations, you can autoformat the code so it's not just a jumble of text -- you can even pause execution and add custom code to functions that can do additional logging…

Documentation, comments, code layout and file structure are all critical components to any software project. Minimization removes all of that (right?) and I wouldn't consider it to be in "source form" in the spirit the phrase intends.

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#193
post #152
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted for its WTF-factor: > Perhaps his new-found peace with Linux is linked to yoga, a practice he said he has taken up after leaving Microsoft in 2014.

Ballmer practising yoga is not something I would've wanted to picture in my head

I'd imagine him doing a mudra of the chant...

Devvvvvv-ellll-opersssss

:D

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#194
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ballmer practising yoga is not something I would've wanted to picture in my head

It's a new type of yoga where you jump up and down while repeating your mantra. (His is "Developers".)

Most everyone makes fun of that mantra moment, but Ballmer was right, Microsoft has always historically done its best work when it put Developers first. Ballmer wasn't always great at executing a developer-first vision (particularly compared to the modern open source era of Azure/WSL/VS Code/…) [ETA: partly because Ballmer was not himself a developer and needed the reminders], but it's weird to criticize him for shouting about how developers should be the core to what Microsoft builds (and sells).

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're talking to a brick wall here. There are people who will make every excuse to not have to question the narrative that supports what they already believe, because the second you admit that your heroes may be horrible people you have to also question if you're a horrible person.

Then there are people who refuse to read the source material and apply basic reading comprehension, because they have their own imaginary world in which the sky is green and even their own eyes aren't going to convince them otherwise. Seriously. Go read the source material.

What am I writing that's false?

* Minsky went to Jeffrey Epstein's pedo island. * Everyone agrees he was offered a 17 year old girl * Someone else, who was also on pedo island for some reason, says he didn't take the offer, even though they were on pedo island * RMS described the trafficked child as "willing" * RMS has also made public arguments for legalizing pedophilia * People somehow still take RMS seriously

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#196
post #21

> Implement an anonymous internet sales platform that doesn't require Javascript, using GNU Taler (taler.net). That seems like a potentially super important project yet it does not have a wikipedia page. That's abnormal! It was even discussed here in 2017! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15274110

How would a privacy-preserving payment system (like GNU Taler) obviate the need for Javascript?

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then there are people who refuse to read the source material and apply basic reading comprehension, because they have their own imaginary world in which the sky is green and even their own eyes aren't going to convince them otherwise. Seriously. Go read the source material.

What am I writing that's false? * Minsky went to Jeffrey Epstein's pedo island. * Everyone agrees he was offered a 17 year old girl * Someone else, who was also on pedo island for some reason , says he didn't take the offer, even though they were on pedo island * RMS described the trafficked child as "willing" * RMS has also made public arguments for legalizing pedophilia * People somehow still take RMS seriously

> * Minsky went to Jeffrey Epstein's pedo island. * Everyone agrees he was offered a 17 year old girl * Someone else, who was also on pedo island for some reason, says he didn't take the offer, even though they were on pedo island * RMS described the trafficked child as "willing" * RMS has also made public arguments for legalizing pedophilia * People somehow still take RMS seriously

I see one wrong thing and one omission:

- The woman in question did not claim Minsky took the offer either. She only testified that she made the offer. There's an argument here that if Minsky had taken the offer, she would have said so.

- RMS did not describe the trafficked child as "willing". He said she presented herself to Minsky as willing, and suggested she might have been coerced by Epstein. I'll quote RMS here:

"We can imagine many scenarios, but the most plausible scenario is that she presented herself to him as entirely willing. Assuming she was being coerced by Epstein, he would have had every reason to tell her to conceal that from most of his associates."

That RMS said "she was willing" is one of the two biggest lies the news headlines told about the situation (other being that he defended Epstein.)

I do not disagree with the rest of the statements you wrote (as quoted above).

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#198

> I resisted Steve Jobs's snow job in 1989 or 1990; I am no easy mark for those who want me to change my views. Why do people still prop this insufferable person up? Interacting with everyone like an angsty teen is no way for anyone who considers themself a professional to publicly talk. IMO FOSS is where it is today more despite Stallman than because of him. Being an asshole isn't necessarily a sign of being a savan…

SO MUCH THIS.

Yeah, utterly unsurprised that I'm downvoted at HN for agreeing with that sentiment. I

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been a bit confused by this take, because the most likely alternative to having proprietary code in the front-end is to have proprietary code in the back-end. It's not clear to me why I shouldn't tolerate closed-source Javascript that I can nonetheless inspect, archive, and edit on my own machine, but I should tolerate a closed-source SaaS backend that I can't inspect, archive, or edit. Of course propriet…

Javascript in the browser is practically compiled binary software at this point. You can't realistically inspect or edit 99% of what you're running since it's fully minified and obfuscated. And that's even more the case with WASM.

Yeah, but what on earth is the alternative?

Mobile gui's without javascript would be horrendous. On top of that, that's the platform you're minifying for.

I don't minify javascript to hide what's running, I minify it because a 3KB file is a lot less to download than a 12KB file.

So what? You design an entirely new language that: A) Can't be minified (How?) B) Has to be open source C) Can't be obfuscated (virtually impossible to prevent)

I'm sorry, but the stance is kinda dumb.

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What am I writing that's false? * Minsky went to Jeffrey Epstein's pedo island. * Everyone agrees he was offered a 17 year old girl * Someone else, who was also on pedo island for some reason , says he didn't take the offer, even though they were on pedo island * RMS described the trafficked child as "willing" * RMS has also made public arguments for legalizing pedophilia * People somehow still take RMS seriously

> * Minsky went to Jeffrey Epstein's pedo island. * Everyone agrees he was offered a 17 year old girl * Someone else, who was also on pedo island for some reason, says he didn't take the offer, even though they were on pedo island * RMS described the trafficked child as "willing" * RMS has also made public arguments for legalizing pedophilia * People somehow still take RMS seriously I see one wrong thing and one omis…

> RMS did not describe the trafficked child as "willing". He said she presented herself to Minsky as willing...

That unbelievably loose semantics, especially considering this wasn't some random streetwalker at a bar. They were on an billionaire's island with a f'ing sex temple, for god's sake. And, I'll reiterate, this was a child being offered to a 74 year old man.

What I will concede is that RMS is the first person I wouldn't expect to understand any of the unspoken obviousnesses of the situation, such as being able to deduce, in the moment, why a child prostitute would be presenting herself as willing. Regardless, that doesn't cover how he used it at the time to excuse Minsky allegedly sleeping with her, because this supposed witness wasn't openly known. "He may have thought the child was willing" is about the most disgusting excuse imaginable.

But what upsets me most is that people jump to the defense of a 66 year man that does this, as if he shouldn't have learned by now how not to act like this, even with impairments. He has been allowed to be this way, because his horrid behavior is always defended by his fans.

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