[LUNI] RMS

[Samir Faci]

Hmmm.. I think he got over his fear of accents.  If I'm not mistaken the
prof who hosted this event was Indian and RMS stayed with him for the few
days he was in Chicago.  He didn't seem to have a problem with that.

He does seem to almost go out of his way to be... a pain.

*shrug* he is what he is in the end.  I'll stick to my penance of using vi
(as he put it) and ignore the church of fsf.  Honestly the most worthwhile
item that seems to be coming out of FSF is it's gpl v.3 lisc.

There is emacs, some people love it, some hate it.  I can't stand it, but
no matter where you stand on that.. Besides the GNU Utils which they've
released a while back.  What has FSF done lately?

Just curious actually, plus it pulls this thread away from RMS bashing as
much fun as that can be.


Samir
PS. okay one last item.  I always think that such a prominent figure
should not be selling trinkets before/after his talk.  I know it's a free
foundation and they need money and all, but it's like Steve Jobs selling
apple t-shirts after giving a talk.  If he really wants to sell the items,
he could easely get the CS dept or the hosting party to setup a stand for
him and have some students sell his items.

> I saw RMS speak at my former job and I could not stand him. It turns my
> stomach when I see an obviously intelligent person who must prove his
> intelligence by putting down others. We arranged a dinner for him and he
> asked the waitress what "interesting" (his word, not mine) non-alcholoic
> drinks she had. She polietly listed soda and other things from the bar.
> When she was done he asked if they had "di-hydrous oxide" (again his
> words). When she replied that she didn't think so, he had himself a good
> laugh and stated: "so you don't serve water then?"
>
> Horrible. I felt so bad for her and I wanted to deck him. My desire to
> not lose my job restrained me from having it out with him on the spot.
>
> During his visit to our office one of our engineers, an immigrant,
> tried to ask a question and RMS dismissed him with: "I can't understand
> what you are saying with that accent, next question." Hmmm a software
> engineer with an accent, a real rare find in these days.
>
>
>
> Ben
>
>
> On Fri, 28 Apr 2006, Larry Garfield wrote:
>
>> I saw RMS speak a few years ago at the University of Chicago, then had
>> dinner
>> with him afterward.  He's very self-righteous about his views, and
>> stubbornly
>> so.  That rubs a lot of people the wrong way, even those who, like me,
>> mostly
>> agree with him.  The FSF VP at the time, Brad Kuhn, was a much nicer
>> guy,
>> both in person and as a speaker.  (I had dinner with him, too.)
>>
>> If you want someone more moderate who is a good speaker, try and see
>> Larry
>> Lessig speak sometime.  There's a very good reason why he gets to argue
>> cases
>> before the Supreme Court.  The man is sharp, professional, persuasive,
>> and
>> much more personable than RMS. :-)  (No, I didn't have dinner with him,
>> but I
>> did talk to him after a lecture once at NU.)
>
> --
> Linux Users Of Northern Illinois - Technical Discussion
> http://luni.org/mailman/listinfo/luni
>


-- 
Samir Faci
samir at esamir.com
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