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Worth noting that (as far as I know) Stallman was not a paid employee of MIT, certainly not a professor or anything. He had an office because, I believe, Gerry
by geofft 7y ago
Worth noting that (as far as I know) Stallman was not a paid employee of MIT, certainly not a professor or anything. He had an office because, I believe, Gerry Sussman (and probably others) thought he should have an office. He's listed as a "visiting scientist" on CSAIL's page: https://www.csail.mit.edu/person/richard-stallman https://www.csail.mit.edu/person/richard-stallman He's around on the mailing list (mostly to reply to every mention of software with a question about its license and every website with a demand that it work without JavaScript) but he replies with his GNU address. `finger rms@csail.mit.edu` calls him a "Visitor" and says "Project: mail forwarding."
Source: was at MIT a decade ago, was on the CSAIL mailing list until I decided to actually start filtering mail last week (good timing me). Also he somewhat famously left MIT right before starting GNU to ensure MIT wouldn't own the copyrights, and it would be surprising/confusing if he rejoined.
(The cynic in me believes he's resigning because it's far more newsworthy to say "resigned from MIT" instead of "resigned from the FSF," especially given all the news headlines calling him "Famous MIT Computer Scientist," and it also has far less of an impact on his life or his goals than resigning from the FSF would.)
- coolandsmartrr 7y agoA little tangential, but I didn't know there was a utility called `finger`. Is this supposed to be a profile directory envisioned for an Internet back when it was more decentralized?
- JadeNB 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_protocol
- ocschwar 7y agoWow, I'm old
- esotericn 7y ago/CTCP FINGER ocschwar
- ocschwar 7y agoYour comment is the #5 Google suggestion for "CTCP FINGER"
- vichu 7y agoI’m likely not as, but kids in undergrad still “finger”ed people at my school as late as 2016. Can’t say anything about after that though :)
- gadders 7y agoHow else were you supposed to find out about the status of ID games?
- fortran77 7y agoThere was a time when nobody was "NAT"ed and basically every workstation had an Internet Address. I would sit at my office at Olivetti Advanced Technlogy and be able to "finger" people's workstations at Sun, HP, and Adobe and see what they were up to.
- ocschwar 7y agoIn my undergrad years, if the campus police got a panicky parent call, they'd send an officer to the computer club to ask us to finger every host on the campus.
- mindslight 7y agoWe shall not talk about it due to the connotations of its name, but rest assured those responsible have been liquidated.
- shantly 7y agoI'm pretty sure it was intended in the sense of "to finger a suspect" (cf git blame) rather than anything vulgar. I think the tendency to take anything, in nearly any context, that could even maybe be vulgar, as vulgar 100% of the time, is actually relatively recent.
- zrobotics 7y agoHave you ever read Shakespeare's work? Taking things in a vulgar context, especially for humor, is certainly nothing new.
- shantly 7y agoNo I mean just refusing to let any mention of some normal use of a word go without taking it that way. I'm reasonably up on my Shakespeare (LOL "up on" LOL) so I know of the joys of double entendre and innuendo. It just seems like any innocent word or phrase that could be taken that way now must be avoided in a way that it didn't have to be as recently as 2-3 decades ago—which is a source of a good deal of humor for us now, as we mine historical media for things unavoidably funny to the modern, finely-tuned-to-spot-imaginary-sexual-references-in-everything mind, despite (often—not always) the same slang being in use back then.
- zrobotics 7y agoFair point, although I think that is a function of society becoming less formal. For instance, much of the lingo in the trades (historically less formal) is purposely slightly vulgar. For example, first thing that comes to mind is male/female terminology for things like sockets & connectors. The terminology only makes sense if one considers it in a vulgar context, and it isn't a recent usage (I've seen repair manuals from the early 20s that use this terminology). What may make it seem to be changing is that society (or more particularly, white-collar workers & pop culture) has gotten far less formal than it used to be. Even non-tech companies are moving away from suits as required office attire, the only professionals I know personally who still wear suits to the office are lawyers or in the financial industry (which have always had a conservative, slow to change reputation). Edit: typos & formatting
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- fortran77 7y agoWell, then, I guess Gerry Sussmann will have to go next!
- simulacrumparty 7y agohttps://web.archive.org/web/20101112051649/http://www.jeffreyepsteinscience.com/testimonials/ https://web.archive.org/web/20101112051649/http://www.jeffre... "Jeffrey Epstein is one of the most amazing, interesting, and brilliant people that I know.” – Gerald Sussman, Panasonic Professor of Engineering, MIT
- mindslight 7y ago"'Jeffrey Epstein is one of the most amazing, interesting, and brilliant child sex traffickers that I know.' – Gerald Sussman" as quoted by Vice Media.
- geofft 7y ago... yikes.
- thrower123 7y agoThe whole world is going to unravel like Mr Oogie Boogie in the Nightmare Before Christmas by the time all the strings back to Epstein get pulled.
- fortran77 7y agoI don't really think all these "strings" mean too much.
- sitkack 7y agoSo Abelson left Swartz out to dry and Sussman says this !@#!. Lessig tries to put spin on the money as "complicated". While RMS spews some seriously libertarian viewpoints and defends Epstein, that we need to take a nuanced approach. I wouldn't say they were heros, but damn, that any of them even thought that what they were saying would be taken any other way ... is not fathomable.
- brian-armstrong 7y agoSo he was crashing on their couch rent free, and he thanks them by posting crazy screeds on the mailing list? It's not terribly surprising it turned out like this.
- SergeAx 7y agoOr he was lending them his name in exchange for a couch.
- rodgerd 7y agoHis defence of Minsky - that there's nothing wrong with adult men fucking children procured by a child trafficker, because the children like it - was merely the last straw in a long line of obnoxious behaviour, ranging from being angry at people for celebrating having a child, to a spirited enthusiasm for the idea that small children are enthusiastic sexual partners that goes back decades. Moreover, anyone putting in even the smallest effort to look at what's surfaced will see this goes hand-in-hand with sexual harassment of undergrads and "funny but not really" stories of women cultivating plants in their offices because it keeps him away.
- iliketocomplain 7y agoHe never said that there's nothing wrong with it, which means you're lying. Shame on you. (disclaimer: I dislike Stallman a lot anyway, but this is just a typical SJW witch Hunt. Because he did in fact never say it's ok nor defended it.) Edit: typo
- vkou 7y agoHe has, on record, said that he thinks there is nothing wrong with statutory rape 'as long as both parties consent'. I'm not sure he understands the concept of consent.
- wiz21c 7y agoRead this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_rape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_rape (see Romeo and Juliet clause) Stallman being a defender of freedom has, obviously, a very powerful definition of consent ('cos consent is a form of freedom). It's far of ours, and in a dangerous territory. But that doesn't make it wrong.
- jacobwilliamroy 7y ago>Stallman was not a paid employee of MIT, certainly not a professor or anything. He had an office because, I believe, Gerry Sussman thought he should have an office. I will tell my descendants true stories about Richard Stallman, and none of them will believe me.
- jobigoud 7y ago> it also has far less of an impact on his life or his goals than resigning from the FSF would He did resign from the FSF as well. https://www.fsf.org/news/richard-m-stallman-resigns https://www.fsf.org/news/richard-m-stallman-resigns
- enriquto 7y agoThis is a very sad situation. I hope that the FSF does not lose him forever.
- ocschwar 7y agoHe can keep on coding and submitting PRs.
- brirec 7y agoThis is a serious question: has he even contributed anything of substance to the FSF or GNU project within the past decade or two? Has he done much of anything besides give talks scrutinizing non free software?
- pseudalopex 7y agoAdvocacy is a substantial part of what the FSF does.
- dgellow 7y ago> (The cynic in me believes he's resigning because it's far more newsworthy to say "resigned from MIT" instead of "resigned from the FSF," especially given all the news headlines calling him "Famous MIT Computer Scientist," and it also has far less of an impact on his life or his goals than resigning from the FSF would.) If Stallman cared about his reputation or being considered famous his entire life would have been quite different.