16 ms·
How Richard Stallman Browses the Internet
- joubert 16y agothat's just crazy
- rokhayakebe 16y agoThat could actually work if you were trying to read articles. Other than that, I am not sure I would like to do it t
- w1ntermute 16y agoHe also likes to pick stuff off of his feet and eat it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25UeVXrEHQ
- hackermom 16y agoAbsolutely repulsive. I'm sure I'll get a down-vote by the RMS Zealot Society because of saying that. add.: I wonder if the down-voting is because of the "RMS Z S" remark, or because of the implied crowd of down-voters apparently thinks eating things off of ones own feet is acceptable when it's RMS doing it - I honestly don't know what to think.
- lelele 16y agoThat's a fake video. Can't you see that?
- alec 16y agoIt seems like once a day there's a well-received front-page article on time management, avoid distractions, multitasking, and all that. He claims that his method is a "very efficient use of [his] time". I don't see this as any different.
- jcl 16y agoNo crazier than Donald Knuth: http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html Or all the people who self-impose IP blocks against popular timewasting sites. Or people who have "noprocrast" enabled on HN. We are not logical creatures, but we cope.
- dimitar 16y agoDK: "Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things." Most of the time I like to be on top of things and I use email, IM, the web. Its not a distraction, because it is important for me to see whats happening around me. So, horses for courses :-)
- wizard_2 16y agoI turned noprocrast on, on a lark. I was obsessively distracting myself from a project that was too important to me to start and I figured it couldn't hurt. (Can't do poorly if you don't do at all.) Its been on for about 2 weeks now and I love it, most of the time I had taken to reading HN when I wanted to be doing other stuff. Now I read HN when I want to read HN (chrome's privacy mode is an easy work around) instead of when I'm avoiding other stuff.
- commieneko 16y agoI don't actually know why he does this, but if I had as high a profile, and was as politically active as RMS, I might consider such measures if for no other reason than security. I imagine hacking his system would be a real feather in certain caps. Then again, he may just be nuts... ---- (I don't really think he's nuts. Toleration of eccentricity is a sign of a high level of civilization.
- blumer 16y agoI ... I can't tell if he's serious ...
- smokinn 16y agoHe is. I've seen him do it.
- tjr 16y agoI suspect he is. In every email conversation I've had with him since 1998, I get this auto-reply (or something like it; it has likely morphed somewhat over the years): I am not on vacation, but I am at the end of a long time delay. I am located somewhere on Earth, but as far as responding to email is concerned, I appear to be well outside the solar system. After your message arrives at gnu.org, I will collect it in my next batch of incoming mail, some time within the following 24 hours. I will spend much of the following day reading that batch of mail and will come across your message at some point. If I can write a response for it immediately, the response will go out in the next outgoing batch--typically around 24 hours after I collected your message, but occasionally sooner or later than that. As a result, you should expect a minimum delay of between 24 and 48 hours in seeing any response to your mail to me. If you are having a conversation with me, please keep in mind that each message you receive from me is probably a response to the mail you sent 24 to 48 hours earlier, and any subsequent mail you sent has not yet been seen by me.
- zephjc 16y agoMight as well just write by post
- tomhogans 16y agoNot feasible. The software used in the mail sorting machines is not open source.
- w1ntermute 16y agoNeither is a lot of the software used by the network hardware of the internet's backbone, but that hasn't stopped RMS from using the internet.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- rokhayakebe 16y agoOn a couple of occasions I surfed a site from my gmail account. Very nice/different experience. I am not sure how this happened. I tried to do it again but it wouldn't work. I would love it if I could browse HN from my email just as I do on the site itself.
- jackchristopher 16y agoWell, Paul has a similar "quirk". He uses two PCs. Everyone's seen this by now: http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html Also Linus disliked using Google's net connection for his Git talk. Here's one relevant excerpt: When I am here (Google) I cannot read my e-mails because my e-mail goes onto my machine and the only way I can get into that machine is when I am physically on that network. So maybe I am a cuckoo, maybe I am a bit crazy, and I care about security more than most people do. https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/LinusTalk200705Transcript https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/LinusTalk200705Transcr... In another part he was about to demonstrates a kernel diff, but stops when he realized he's disconnected from Google's net. Here's the talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8 One of my favorites; a classic. And I don't even do software.
- ZeroGravitas 16y agoSounds like Instapaper.
- dnsworks 16y agoReading the title alone was enough to expect a bit of paranoid schizophrenia to pop through.
- dnsworks 16y agoOver the past 12 hours I've watched the rating on this comment go from 0 to -2 to +3 back to -1 Apparently we're divided on how we view Mr. Stallman.
- JustinSeriously 16y agoI love the message that prompted this: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.misc/134756 I don't understand "send mail to try to find the message the URL refers to". How do you browse the web? It's like peering into the entrance of the rabbit hole.
- mnemonicsloth 16y agohttp://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/ http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/ This isn't the half of it: What hardware are you using? I am using a Lemote Yeelong, a netbook with a Loongson chip and a 9-inch display. This is my only computer, and I use it all the time. I chose it because I can run it with 100% free software even at the BIOS level.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- lsb 16y agoWhy isn't he mad he doesn't have the chip wiring diagrams? I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm just wondering, at what point should a FOSS enthusiast be content not to have the source?
- fleitz 16y agoI think thats an individual choice dependent on how you allocate scarce and valuable resources. For some open source is a moral imperative that must be upheld at any cost. For others it's a nice to have. It's a bit like self-reliance, for some it's important to sacrifice more wealth to increase their self-reliance, in the end it's really what aspect(s) of your life you want to maximize. The issue with wiring diagrams is that most don't have a chip fab in their basement so the benefit they receive from having wiring diagrams is mostly intangible. I think for most people it's far more important to have a CPU that executes a popular ISA (ie. x86) than to have wiring diagrams. Similarly, most users receive intangible benefits from having access to the kernel source, as they will never modify it. I suppose if you had access to a chip fab and needed to modify your CPU design frequently it would be important.
- alain94040 16y ago[slightly rephrased] The issue with source code is that most don't compile their OS so the benefit they receive from having source code is mostly intangible. I think for most people it's far more important to have a CPU that executes a popular OS (ie. Windows) than to have source code. Similarly, most users receive intangible benefits from having access to the wiring diagrams, as they will never modify it. I have long argued that software and hardware are the same from a source code perspective. Have you ever looked at the source code for a CPU? I have (many CPUs: ARM, Intel, and more). It's just code like if/else statements and assignments. Just like C (plus the extreme concurrency). Manufacturing? Yes, it's an issue. In theory, I could wave the FPGA argument, although it's not a practical solution.
- ComputerGuru 16y agoRMS doesn't browse the internet. He has his own version of the internet that's made up of sites that give the user complete rights to fork, reuse, recycle, or modify the product without any previous permission. Anything else is illegal, a scourge to tech, and must die. (I'm willing to "spend the karma points" on this one)
- einarvollset 16y agoHA HA HA HA.. Oh my god I just snorted coffee out of my nose and onto my keyboard because of that. You just made my day. (ditto on the karma points)
- alnayyir 16y agoThe commentary wasn't contributing to the conversation and doesn't fit the tone the community seeks here. Playful/rude banter is fine, but this isn't the place for it. Try not to encourage this kind of mindlessness. P.S. I'm a BSD supporter, so this isn't a matter of 'factions', I just have a vested interest in preserving the culture here. Thank you for your cooperation.
- einarvollset 16y agoOh please - get of your high horse. A simple down vote would have conveyed that, no need to get all high and mighty on me.
- alnayyir 16y agoThis isn't Reddit, nobody cares about your vitriol. Take this nonconstructive commentary elsewhere please.
- KERMIT 16y agoPlease take your anti-Reddit vitriol elsewhere.
- Mathnerd314 16y agoAnd I submit this months ago... clearly, title is everything.
- miri 16y agoNot sure if it is a contributing factor, but it was also posted on Reddit a day ago. But title probably helps if you want to catch eyes :)
- maw 16y agoIf you frequently travel to places where connectivity is spotty or expensive, or if you're under heavy time constraints, doing that sort of thing is far from unreasonable. In fact, if you're travelling often, regardless of what the connectivity's like at your destinations, it's probably a good way to get some use out of time in planes.
- wwortiz 16y agoI suggest reading some of the other responses higher up in that thread if you want to see what RMS thought of openbsd at the time, I say thought as I don't know if his view has changed. A quick summary is that RMS does not recommend openbsd because the ports tree contains links to non-free software and because these links are there openbsd is recommending non-free software. Sometimes his ideals seem to just do more harm than good for free software and even though I do respect that he is so willing to follow his ideals to the letter he is eccentric enough to hurt a following.
- protomyth 16y agoThe funny part of the whole thread is that ports are not installed by the OpenBSD installer. You actually have to install it yourself. I wonder how many people would be taken to be trollin' if not for their previous reputation.
- wwortiz 16y agoAt some point in the thread RMS moves on to say that he would support it if openbsd did not link to getting the ports tree and did not host it with the rest of their things, but when you read the whole thing it seems that RMS likes to change his opinion as he receives more information. Such as his comment that started an entire outrage was that openbsd contained non-free software, then his opening argument about non-free firmware blobs, and then onto the ports tree urls. Edit: from Theo de Raadt http://article.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.misc/134986 http://article.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.misc/134986
- ra88it 16y ago>> but when you read the whole thing it seems that RMS likes to change his opinion as he receives more information. Seems like a good trait to have.
- protomyth 16y agoYou should gather information before forming an opinion, particularly if you intend to chastise people for their behavior or practices.
- gokhan 16y agoWhenever I read a story on RMS, something he said or done, it's always about something beyond the comfort level I can imagine. I wonder if he refuses to drive because of the closed source on-board computer. I wonder how he feels about the flight control system of the Boeing when he's flying. I deeply respect him for his dedication but find him lunaticly extreme in almost all the cases.
- donaq 16y agoHe sets an unrealistically high standard that others can fall short of but still be somewhere good. Not everyone can be a superhero (to borrow Steve Yegge's description of RMS), but just knowing that they exist can inspire ordinary people to behave better. Free software is not as important to me as it is to RMS, but it would be even less important if I didn't find him inspiring.
- varjag 16y ago> I wonder if he refuses to drive because of the closed source on-board computer. He doesn't own a car.
- jdietrich 16y agoI think a lot of us have forgotten that once upon a time, computers were considered thinking machines, not just glorified internet teletypes. Computers were world-changing machines long before we joined them all together. Given what RMS does all day and what seems to matter to him, this seems perfectly rational to me. Consider how old the GNU tools are, or how long some of them go between revisions. I don't think Stallman needs or wants to keep up with things in real time. I think Stallman is like Tolkien's Ents - he isn't slow, he's just operating on a different timescale to the rest of us. It's the same sort of logic behind Tim Ferriss not answering his phone or Don Knuth doing his email in six-month batches - if you create enough latency in your connection to the world, you bring everyone else to your pace and avoid having to worry about minutiae. It's amazing how many problems resolve themselves when given sufficient neglect.
- jessep 16y agoI have two friends who correspond with Tim Ferriss via email. Both say he gets back within 5 minutes every time.
- jdietrich 16y agoSomebody got back to them, but unless they're really important or know him really well, it probably wasn't Tim: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/01/21/the-holy-grail-how-to-outsource-the-inbox-and-never-check-email-again/ http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/01/21/the-holy-gra...
- klochner 16y agoLet's be real here. Tim wrote a fun book with great suggestions to offload a lot of your own work, but he's also a master of PR that works his ass off.
- ellyagg 16y agoFrom my favorite president: If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you. - Calvin Coolidge
- hackermom 16y agoPoor man.
- waxpancake 16y agoI wasn't sure if he was joking or not, so interviewed him back in 2008. Here's the complete text of the interview. (I should've used the VERBOSE command.) Q: I'm fascinated with a message I read about how you read the web with a wget demon. Could you elaborate on it? A: It is a program that runs wget and mails me back the result. Q: Do you then convert the HTML to plain text and read it by email, or do you load the retrieved file in a browser? (If so, which browser?) A: I can do either one. Q: Finally, is it free software, or something that you'd be willing to release? A: I did not write it, but our sysadmins say it is kludgy. Original entry: http://waxy.org/2008/01/personal_ads_of/ http://waxy.org/2008/01/personal_ads_of/
- papachito 16y agoStallman travels a lot, South America, Asia and in these conditions the only way to get internet is to go to a net cafe where they only run windows XP full of virus with IE6. It is a really slow, frustrating and annoying experience, believe me. More than once I wished I had exactly that, a daemon that would download all my stuff so I could get them on my laptop and get the hell out of those net cafe asap. So yes, what Stallman is doing here is not political, it's actually a great, useful hack that unfortunately always gets quoted out of context. It's actually the best way to surf the web when you're travelling in those countries.
- Shorel 16y agoThree years ago, sure. But now he can get one of those 3G USB modems and change the simcard in each country. I don't think he is hacking the network or whatever. He is hacking his time, and his attention, and that's more like meta-thinking.
- KERMIT 16y agoHis daemon solution actually sounds simpler, and much cheaper...
- papachito 16y agoRMS doesn't use cellphones 3G/GSM for privacy reasons.
- AngryParsley 16y agoIf that's the case, can't he use a 3G card but just send all his data over a VPN/ssh tunnel/ssl proxy/whatever?
- kragen 16y agoNo, that doesn't help.
- 16y ago
- Shorel 16y agoHowever, that method is not getting him lots of girlfriends.
- againstyou 16y agothis is a good example of productivity probably this is the reason that he is going to release GNU HURD soon! http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html (this is a joke guys, he is going to release HURD soon since 1990)
- pronoiac 16y agoIf you follow his lead, you could have your own personal Wayback Machine, as indexed & searchable as you want. That strikes me as somewhat nifty.
- unclebob 16y agoTo each their own, I guess.
- sliverstorm 16y agoI hate to imagine what it'd be like to browse a forum like that. Of course, I imagine RMS doesn't browse any forums. It seems Craigslist is an example of about the most browsing you could really do, as it's only ever 1 link deep (if you form your own search URL's). Only problem there is time is always a factor on Craigslist. Well, that and Craigslist probably isn't open source. (I don't know the man very well. Would he refuse to use something like Craigslist if the code is private?)
- jacquesm 16y agoCraigslist is interesting because it functions in spite of the fact that it is technologically unsophisticated. I can't imagine that there would be earth shattering trade secrets in it.
- wicknicks 16y agoI often wondered why Linux did not start a UX revolution. I suppose attitudes like Stallman's is the root cause, where attitude is given to "be-like-historical-me" rather than "lets-move-towards-the-future-together".
- dmm 16y agoYou have the source. You have the toolchain. If you want something different make it or pay someone to make it. Stallman made something that suited him and was nice enough to share it. Other than criticize the attitudes of others, what have you done?
- scscsc 16y agoI do not think it's a matter of connection speed. This way of "browsing" is not "browsing" -- you're just getting what you want. It's really about efficiency (in the sense of not wasting your time).
- franck 16y agoThe Internet and the Web are not synonymous. I'm surprised that this title doesn't seem to bother anyone on a site like HN.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]