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Richard Stallman’s rider

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Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#41

Post by VonGuard »

you need to know what I dislike:

   avocado
   eggplant, usually (there are occasional exceptions)
   hot pepper
   olives
   liver (even in trace quantities)
   stomach and intestine; other organ meats
   cooked tuna
   oysters
   egg yolk, if the taste is noticeable, except when boiled completely hard
   many strong cheeses, especially those with green fungus
   desserts that contain fruit or liqueur flavors
   sour fruits, such as grapefruit and many oranges
   beer
   coffee (though weak coffee flavor can be good in desserts)
   the taste of alcohol (so I don't drink anything stronger than wine)

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#42

Post by hugh3 »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #29
runjake wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if the message was posted to the list to criticize Stallman or whatever. And I was thinking the same thing as you, until I got down to the second half of the rider. Spoiler: it involves cats, parrots, hygiene, social awkwardness, and just about every other minute little detail. The sheer length of the piece might also be considered a turnoff.

An allergy to cats and a phobia of dogs seems like a perfectly acceptable thing to list in a rider.

That's reasonable, yes. The two paragraphs on the subject of parrots, however, seem rather unnecessary.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#43

Post by rglullis »

jessriedel wrote: post #27
luigi wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Verbose means excessively wordy. I think you mean succinct.

"Verbose" is definitely the wrong word if he's defending this contract. Not sure I would call it "succict"; maybe "thorough" or "explicit".

Comprehensive.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#44

Post by dhechols »

Mr. Stallman is neither nice in manner or smell. His ideas, while visionary at times, are not pragmatic. He is his own worst enemy. Perhaps, however, it takes an unfriendly, smelly man to trumpet the ideas of freedom in the digital age. I'm ok with that.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#45

Post by 0x12 »

joshaidan wrote: post #37
0x12 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you do remember the talk and you are still willing to promote it, so from his point of view that's mission accomplished.

You see, that's the problem. His mission was to promote free software, instead of the mission the university hired him for: sending the graduates off on their next journey.

You don't hire a missionary with a vision to pat yourself or your audience on the back.

That's like expecting Sylvester Stallone to do higher mathematics or Mother Theresa to do an arms deal for you.

Some people are what they are and their environment/audience will have to accept them as they are.

The problem lies squarely with the person that hired him, the abstract of the speeches listed should have adequately explained what they were going to get. That's exactly what that rider exists for in the first place, to avoid misunderstandings like that.

I highly doubt if RMS could even tailor his speech to the occasion, he must know it by heart by now except for the Q&A part.

What I found interesting on reading the 'rider' is that he still refers to the GNU operating system as though it is in daily use. I've yet to see a HURD based system do anything useful in production but half the world wide web seems to run on Linux these days. Of course linux is 'merely a kernel'.

But if you write free software the you also give away the right to name that software, after all, a fork is under no obligation to be named after the parent. So RMS holding on to insisting to call Linux GNU/Linux looks to be against the self-imposed freedoms.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#46

Post by joshaidan »

joshaidan wrote: post #30

My funniest memory of Richard Stallman is once he was invited to give the commencement speech at my local university, Lakehead University. He was pretty oblivious to the fact he was at a graduation, and not at any point in his speech did he address the students and their future. All he talked about was free software, how copyright was bad, and that the university should be using free software. Most of the students we…

Okay, I found the speech on YouTube, it's in three parts and it's over 30 minutes long:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbsifBoI_0E Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APb1tNxvGMY Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukQURxJ2QYc

If you're looking for a quick laugh, listen to part 2 where he starts off going on a rant about how the university is using Windows Media Player to stream the convocation and forces users to use Windows. He tells the audience to "throw Windows out of the computer, or the computer out the Window." He did get a lot of cheers for that remark though.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#48

Post by nobody3141 »

mjs wrote: post #16

This is wonderful, in so many different ways. I've read quite a bit of the FSF material--which is invariably specific, clear and verbose--and it's interesting to read material in the same style, but about a completely different topic. For example, under "Hospitality": "In some places, my hosts act as if my every wish were their command. By catering to my every whim, in effect they make me a tyrant over them, which is…

Ever visited an Arabic country?

Whatever an American might think, this is THE major problem - not terrorism - but being 'hospitalitied' to death!

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#49

Post by joshaidan »

mistermann wrote: post #36
joshaidan wrote: post #30

My funniest memory of Richard Stallman is once he was invited to give the commencement speech at my local university, Lakehead University. He was pretty oblivious to the fact he was at a graduation, and not at any point in his speech did he address the students and their future. All he talked about was free software, how copyright was bad, and that the university should be using free software. Most of the students we…

I'd definitely like to see that!!

See my comment above... I posted link to the speech on YouTube.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#50

Post by psawaya »

sgt wrote: post #2

To be completely honest, after what he wrote about Steve Jobs' death, I don't feel like paying much attention to RMS anymore.

"You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things."
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