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Linus Torvalds: Pearls before swine
- danh 16y ago"Tove pissed off Warren Beatty by asking his name not just once, but twice" is the funniest thing I've read in quite a while.
- lanstein 16y agoReminds me of when a fanatical Mariners fan friend of mine came across Alex Rodriguez and another player. She promptly went running up to the pair and exclaimed "Oh my God!! Dan Wilson!!!!!"
- aaronbrethorst 16y agoI'm surprised she didn't spit on A-Rod.
- lanstein 16y agoHe was absolutely livid. This was back when he still played for the Mariners, in case that wasn't clear. I would have paid anything to have seen his facial expression.
- ryanisinallofus 16y agoWhich, in the end is why we couldn't keep him. Sigh.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- ryanisinallofus 16y agoOdd down vote. I was just saying he left Seattle, then Texas because he wanted to be in the limelight. Sheesh!
- dschobel 16y agoMust be something about Alex Rodriguez... When the guy showed up at the same country club in Miami my father asked him if he played for the Dolphins...
- rm445 16y agoI think I've fallen into an alternate universe. I could swear Warren Beatty died just after 'Dick Tracy' came out. Who did die at about that time?
- johnswamps 16y agoAdelle Beatty?
- jodrellblank 16y agoPavel Cherenkov, Lewis Mumford, Aaron Copeland, Sammy Davis Jr, Jim Henson, Leonard Bernstein, BF Skinner, Greta Garbo, Roald Dahl ... http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=who+died+in+1990%3F http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=who+died+in+1990%3F
- cafard 16y agoMajor points to her.
- juiceandjuice 16y ago"Hi, I'm Linus" "Nice to meet you Linus. What do you do?" "I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal" "Really?" "People know me." "Well I'm very happy for you." "I'm very important. The internet runs off my software and my apartment smells of rich mahogany."
- bitwize 16y ago"So, are you excited? That movie about you is up for quite a few Oscars!"
- SandB0x 16y ago"Wow, how much does your software cost?"
- lell 16y agoSounds like he doesn't know how to present himself. "So what do you do?" "Have you heard of linux?" I'm SURE they'd say yes, it's in wallmart, even. so, "yeah, that's for computers!" "yeah. i made that. most of the web runs on it too."
- potatolicious 16y agoI'm not sure what crazy world you live in, but if I asked a random person "Have you heard of Linux?" odds are it's "no". The "regular world" is a really long way from the tech industry.
- peregrine 16y agoThis post put a big stupid grin on my face, just imagining him walking around, and nobody knowing who he is. Him being far more influential and more important than most people in the room, and yet having trouble explaining what he does. It sounds like a family reunion trying to remember people names and telling everyone you make web sites for a living.
- jonknee 16y agoThough it's getting easier to explain what he does--Android phones are everywhere these days.
- peregrine 16y agoBut Android is only a small part of why he is influential and important, it is the most visible I suppose.
- moe 16y ago"Well, I've created the operating system that runs about every 5th smartphone". "Well, and some other things".
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jonknee 16y agoIn the US Android is up to about 1/3 of smartphones these days.
- 9ec4c12949a4f3 16y agoAnd that thing that most websites run on. And tons of other infrastructure of the modern world. Yaknow, like that version control system. 2004 Time Magazine's one of the most influential people in the world. Pioneer of FOSS and innovation. But whatever. Computers a boxes full of magic, if you open them it all escapes. My uncle fixes computers and makes html pages too, it's no biggie. :(
- ulf 16y ago"So here's a shout-out to my new BFF's Jon Hamm and DJ." Can someone please make it happen that Linus gets an appearance in Season 5 of Mad Men? He could play an IBM salesman or something like that...
- joezydeco 16y agoGet over to Reddit. They're good at making things like that happen.
- johngalt 16y agoThink of every crucial system running Linux... It seems that this story is backwards. He should be the celebrity, all these idiots were just in front of a camera at some point.
- Splines 16y agoPlease. I agree that our celebrity-focused culture is idiotic, and Linus has accomplished more than most of us ever hope to, but calling actors "idiots" is insulting. Most of them work hard just like we do (some harder), and are quite good at their job. After all, are you not entertained?
- jff 16y agoRemember, it's cool to affect a proud lack of knowledge in many areas ("football, what's that?") but to not know about famous people or things in computing is simply a sin.
- duhprey 16y agoIt would be funny to ask someone who was affecting that something like "Then what have you accomplished?" See I could picture Linus being completely oblivious to celebrity, there's a seriously big deal that he came up with while he was busy not watching popular movies. If the person saying "oh football what's that?" hasn't actually done anything really impressive then what are they doing if too busy to notice pop culture? Just living in a cave and staring at the shadows?!
- derleth 16y ago> what are they doing if too busy to notice pop culture? Just living in a cave and staring at the shadows?! If they're doing that, then they're doing philosophy.
- stcredzero 16y agoOr they're a suburban home dweller with cable and a 50" flatscreen.
- VladRussian 16y agowell, sounds like a progress. Linus, the top-geek, finally got invited there. That means recognition if not from Hollywood circles, yet from a circle near it.
- antirez 16y ago"since geeks in general are seen as the crème de la crème of society". Strange statement, my impression is that geeks don't receive at all enough credits. Every average legal or doctor is a super star compared to a geek at least in Italy. It is also embarrassing for a society to put on the TV screen everybody but not the guy that created software that really is running the internet. Linux and Git are huge.
- alanh 16y agoAnyone remember Blake Ross’ reaction blog post to the Time 100 dinner he was invited to? His website (blakeross.com) has been taken offline and I wasn’t able to quickly find the post via the Wayback Machine.
- blakeross 16y agoHah, didn't expect to see that while reading this thread. The post is here, although it's missing CSS and the images from that evening: http://web.archive.org/web/20060613002629/http://blakeross.com/2006/05/16/a-toast-to-serendipity/ http://web.archive.org/web/20060613002629/http://blakeross.c... Was definitely a crazy night. I enjoyed reading Linus' post.
- alanh 16y agoMind my asking why you took down your site? I know you hadn’t posted much for years, but I always enjoyed your writing.
- blakeross 16y agoBTW, some news from today that's relevant :) http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=748155473273&set=a.583434525373.2180063.205733 http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=748155473273&set=...
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- bitanarch 16y agoThat's a pretty good life actually, not being bothered by people outside of his field constantly.
- ghshephard 16y agoIt just occurred to me that if I'd gone to the "Night before the Oscars" party, Linus would have been the only one I'm 100% certain I would have recognized and been certain about his name.
- staunch 16y agoHello, my name is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce Linux as Leenucks.
- lell 16y agoOh, no wonder no one has heard of it. Oh well, RMS has it harder "I made Ga neeew plus lin ex?"
- kunley 16y agoYou wouldn't believe it but for many of us non-native english speakers, his pronounciation is obvious and sounding naturally, while the "english'ized" one is funny if not ridiculous.. ;)
- xyzzyz 16y agoThat's true, first time I heard it when applying for an internship, I had hard time to understand what the interviewer is talking about. Now I watch more conference videos.
- Natsu 16y agoYou're right. Once I learned about "Latin vowels" a lot of things fell into place in regards to pronouncing foreign names and places. This goes far outside of just the Latin-derived languages. We use the Latin alphabet, after all. So if the language can be written with this alphabet somehow (even if the locals don't usually use it), there's a pretty good chance that you should assume they use the Latin vowels, too. No guarantees, but I've managed to surprise more than a few people by pronouncing things correctly.
- drstrangevibes 16y agohe sounds depressed
- elai 16y agoReally? How?
- mixmax 16y agoI've done stuff that normal people would consider ubercool - doing illegal raves, run one of the hottest bars in Ibiza, throwing parties for the jetset. When seen from the outside it looks amazing - you get to talk to models, you get free booze, get in for free at all the clubs and have sex with models. The thing that nobody tells you is that it's hard work. Most of the actors that go to the oscars aren't there to get drunk or laid, for them it's a chance to talk shop with their colleauges. When James Cameron is talking to Natalie Portman he isn't chatting her up, he's trying to get her to star in his new movie. If, by accident, John Cusack gets drunk at one of the clubs he gets into for free he'll be all over the tabloids and he won't get that next role, so he can't do it. A friend of mine just came back from a tour with a known rock-band. They worked hard from nine in the morning until after midnight six days a week. The last day of the week they just wanted to get home to their families. No screwing around with models, no getting drunk and no clubbing. Just hard work. The rockstar life is mostly something the media makes up. Remember that the grass is always greener on the other side. Or as Brad Pitt once said "Fame's a bitch man"
- moe 16y agorun one of the hottest bars in Ibiza Most of the actors that go to the oscars Sorry, but isn't it a bit of a stretch to compare "running a bar on Ibiza" to "running for the oscars"? Yes, chatting up Natalie Portman may be considered "hard work" by some, but then again... John Cusack gets drunk at one of the clubs he gets into for free he'll be all over the tabloids and he won't get that next role, so he can't do it. What a cruel world where a poor hollywood millionaire can't even get drunk in public.
- roel_v 16y ago"run one of the hottest bars in Ibiza" "Sorry, but isn't it a bit of a stretch to compare "running a bar on Ibiza" to "running for the oscars"?" No. Ibiza is to the European house scene (which is huge) what the Oscars are for movies. Except that the season in Ibiza is several months, of course.
- CWIZO 16y agoI've read Slash's autobiography. It describes his life exactly as one, that is not in the know, would imagine it. That was in the eighties & nineties. Maybe times are different now.
- stcredzero 16y agoI live next door to a celebrity chef. When I met him, he comes up to me, introduces himself like he's running for office, then there's this pause because he's waiting for the typical "regular guy meets celebrity" reaction. "Haven't you heard of me?" Nope sorry. As far as I'm concerned you're just my neighbor who doesn't walk his dog and lets the yard fill up with dog poop. I much prefer attitudes like Annie Lennox, who once said something about how it's nice to do your own laundry for a change.
- systemtrigger 16y agoI met Billy Bob Thornton in a bar in Minneapolis one night. I'd worked a long day and was walking back to my hotel room, when I looked over to my left and saw Billy Bob sitting at a bar with 2 or 3 other people. Well I went in and grabbed a seat right next to him, ordered some food (wish I hadn't, kind of rude) and eavesdropped on his conversation. They were talking about baby names of all things. I knew a joke about baby names, so I nonchalantly told my joke to a guy whom I later learned was Billy Bob's manager, who told Billy Bob that he had to hear my joke. Billy Bob turned toward me with the biggest grin I've ever seen and all I could think was "Don't screw up. He won an Academy Award!" I somehow nailed my joke and Billy Bob shook my hand as he introduced himself, "I'm Billy." I must have said something boring afterwards because Billy politely returned to his previous conversation. That was ok by me, Billy made my week just sharing a moment of his time and being a nice guy. Glad I met him instead of your celebrity chef neighbor.
- kragen 16y agoBilly's a pretty nice guy, whatever his eccentricities. Was his band playing in Minneapolis?
- systemtrigger 16y agoYes he was there promoting an album.
- stcredzero 16y agoWas the ordering food the rudeness or the eavesdropping?
- TROLLING 16y agoHey shouldn't it be Linus's blog? You would only write Linus' blog if you were indicating plural possessive such as indicating that it is the Linus family's blog. Not sure about this one. Could it possibly be that Linus Torvalds made a mistake? I think so.
- nemeth 16y agoEither Linus's or Linus' is acceptable in current English usage. Source: "James's hat (James' hat is also acceptable" http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/621/01/ http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/621/01/
- kbutler 16y agoI just wondered how many of the films that were up for oscars used linux in the production process? (editing, CG, sound, etc.)
- lytfyre 16y agoIf the movie featured any sort of CGI, they most likely used Linux at least for the rendering. Windows licences for your entire render farm are expensive. Autodesk's Maya (A 3D animation modeling and rendering package) is fairly dominant in the movie industry, actually won a full Oscar in 2002, and is entirely tri-platform.
- MrScruff 16y agoProbably none at all for editing and sound, and all of them for visual effects.
- kmfrk 16y agoTo most people, Linus Torvalds is probably "that evil guy on Lost".
- hasenj 16y agoLinus (Lie-ness), not Torvalds
- dctoedt 16y agoWow, Linus sleeps 9 hours a night -- maybe the health gurus are right when they say more sleep makes you more productive.
- synesthesia 16y agoThat's some flawless reasoning.
- stcredzero 16y agoThe maybe saves it.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- shirtless_coder 16y agoI would be in the same boat. I actually like a lot of movies but I am so disinterested in the kind of celebrity idol worship that most are that I don't remember the names of a lot of actors/actresses. I reserve all my idol worshipping for linus
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- billmcneale 16y ago"since geeks in general are seen as the crème de la crème of society" He must be living on a different planet than mine.
- lkozma 16y agoYes, on one that has sarcasm.
- SkyMarshal 16y agoApparently that's the first and only blog post that Linus has given the label 'FULL RETARD'.
- gnosis 16y agoNot that I'm a huge fan of Linus (though I love his operating system), but I'd rather chat with him than anyone else at the Oscars... unless RMS happens to be there.
- wicknicks 16y agoGlad to know this that Linus had a good time. His contribution to software are undoubtedly great. But I don't understand what this article has to do with 'hacking' and why is this the most highly rated 'news' article today.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- ilamparithi 16y agoThe title reminded me of "The Fountainhead" quote. Or is it a common one?