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> Richard Stallman, the fervently committed founder of the free software movement, is discussing the term “libertarian,” when he stops talking abruptly and says
by catacombs 8y ago
> Richard Stallman, the fervently committed founder of the free software movement, is discussing the term “libertarian,” when he stops talking abruptly and says, “Hello?”
> I tell him I’m still listening, but he explains that the confused greeting wasn’t intended for me. Instead, he says a man’s voice – neither mine nor an echo of his – had just cut in with one word: “liberty.”
> “Does that sort of thing happen a lot?” I ask. I hadn’t heard anything.
> “Yes,” he says. “It wasn’t a voice I recognize.” He added, “It could be … ”
> Then a quick burst of static made his next words inaudible.
> It was a strange incident, but apparently not a new experience for Stallman, whose emails urge any NSA or FBI agents reading to “follow Snowden’s example” and blow the whistle.
Uh... What happened here?
- roywiggins 8y agoI've had cross-talk happen while on a cellphone. It cut over to another voice saying "... three months!..."- it sounded like an ad. But it wasn't audible on the other end and the conversation wasn't interrupted. Never did work out what happened there.
- belltaco 8y agoWhat are the odds of a random crosstalk saying 'liberty' ?
- stickfigure 8y agoThe question you should be asking is: What are the odds that some random vocal sound might be interpreted as "liberty" by a human brain that is primed by talking about that subject? Odds seem pretty good to me.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoBy Richard Stallman’s brain likely increase the odds somewhat.
- seba_dos1 8y agoWhere? In the US?
- roywiggins 8y agoUSA, maybe 5 years ago.
- ridgeguy 8y agoI telconf weekly with a client in Singapore. The topic is litigation that's critically important to an industry none of you thinks about more than every year or so, if that. Every call (2 years now) has been subject to intrusion by snippets of voice unrelated to our call. I don't have this issue with telconfs (on the same topic) within continental USA. Have not done research on the matter. I get that given a choice between causation arising from malevolence or stupidity, I should choose the latter. But sometimes I wonder.
- im3w1l 8y agoEavesdropper that is so incompetent that they don't mute themselves?
- sometimesijust 8y agoMore likely that the most popular regional telconf software has a bug that dumps an uncleared buffer into the wrong call on some edge case.
- chrisseaton 8y agoI thought it was a rhetorical device Stallman was using to make a point (badly)?