16 ms·
Richard Stallman Collapses At Barcelona Conference
- tree_of_item 14y agoShit. I hope he's okay, it's difficult to tell what happened through the lens of Google Translate. Anyone have more information?
- kzar 14y agoApparently he's OK http://www.fsf.org/news/richard-stallman-speech-in-barcelona-canceled http://www.fsf.org/news/richard-stallman-speech-in-barcelona...
- drewmclellan 14y agoGlad he's okay. Let's hope the hospital doesn't offer him breakfast.
- rbanffy 14y agoIf the server feels unhappy with the extra https traffic, the http://www.fsf.org/news/richard-stallman-speech-in-barcelona-canceled http://www.fsf.org/news/richard-stallman-speech-in-barcelona... link works OK.
- andos 14y agoMy Spanish is rusty, but the article says that: - Stallman felt ill halfway through a lecture he was offering in Barcelona, probably due to a blood pressure spike; - he asked the staff for medical assistance; - meanwhile, he continued the lecture with some difficulty, but in a good mood; - the lecture was suspended when the ambulance arrived, and was eventually cancelled; - after being attended by the medical staff, he was well enough to walk out of the building; - no further details on his health.
- Nrsolis 14y agoOf course, the big question is whether the firmware in the EKG machine was open or not.
- carols10cents 14y agoI seriously wonder if medical care done by proprietary devices with proprietary software is something that he would object to!
- narag 14y agoYour Spanish is not so rusty after all :-)
- hluska 14y agoMy Spanish is equally rusty, but this (English language) article seems to have conveyed the main points: http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/276638/fsf-president-stallman-falls-ill-conference http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/276638/fsf-pres...
- skeletonjelly 14y agoWhat's ambiguous about him falling ill due to a "power surge"?
- firichapo 14y agoI just wanted to add that at no point does the article mentions that he collapsed. Looks like he suffered an increase in blood pressure and decided to call it of. A doctor was contacted and he was able to walk away by his own means.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- andrewcooke 14y agothat's how i read it too, but there's a photo of him on a stretcher being carried to an ambulance. i think maybe the article is wrong?
- squidbot 14y agoGoogle's translation made the article a bit more amusing: "The president of the Free Software Foundation has begun to feel ill, apparently due to a power surge" He needs better line filtering I'd guess!
- rev_null 14y agoHe must've been wearing his "power tie".
- jsavimbi 14y ago> Richard Stallman: "Rajoy nos quiere matar a todos" RMS: "Rajoy (Spain's president) wants to kill us all." Well there you go, Richard.
- dholowiski 14y agoThat's pretty much classic RMS.
- jsavimbi 14y agoWell, at least he just has some blood pressure that needs tending to. Even though I mostly disagree with the man's politics, I must say that it takes a smart prick to make a contextually accurate and funny joke in a foreign language at an indecisive moment like that.
- brlewis 14y agoFor context, see the commment from me_myselft http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3955287 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3955287
- adrianb 14y agoPresident? I think you mean prime minister.
- jsavimbi 14y agoNo, I did not mean prime minister. In Spain, the head of state is the monarch and the head of the elected government is known as the "Presidente del Gobierno", or president of the government. Although a counterpart can be found in other parliamentarian systems such as the prime minister in the UK, the Spanish president of government is not primus inter pares but the undisputed head of the government.
- hk_kh 14y agoFor those not getting in which context could be a confusion between the words president and prime minister, here's a wikipedia entry[1] [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Spain#Official_title http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Spain#Officia...
- me_myselft 14y agoHi, I am from Barcelona, and I was there. Stallman is a great man. I dont know what happened at the end, but when we were in the talk the organizers told us that the talk is suspended because Stallman was not well. The medical service arrive 20 minutes after Stallman ask for attention. This delay was used by him to say: "Son los recortes, Rajoy nos quiere matar a todos", meaning: The delay is because of the cuts in the spanish health systems, Rajoy (the president) want to kill us". :-).
- planetguy 14y agoWow, if only he were in the United States where you don't have to rely on the Government for medical care...
- Tloewald 14y ago...can't rely on the government for healthcare...
- me_myselft 14y agoYes, but in US you have to have a lot of money for receiving a very basic and fundamental human right: medical care...
- ryanhuff 14y agoInflammatory statement, and not true. I happen to know doctors in the US who do not refuse care for those who cannot pay.
- malkia 14y agoI happen to know doctors in the US who would refuse to take care for those who cannot pay.
- jdminhbg 14y agoI wasn't going to respond to this to avoid prolonging this burgeoning off-topic health care flamewar, but I figured that in the name of cross-cultural understanding, I'd correct you: Hospitals in the US are obligated to treat any emergency patient regardless of whether they can pay.
- me_myselft 14y agoHere, there is a picture when he was in the ambulance: https://p.twimg.com/AsjR-wCCEAEVxLa.jpg https://p.twimg.com/AsjR-wCCEAEVxLa.jpg
- Cribstopper 14y agoHere's my original post of the picture from Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Cribstopper/status/200641059389313024/photo/1 https://twitter.com/#!/Cribstopper/status/200641059389313024...
- jonknee 14y agoIronic that the only way I was able to read that article was through non-free software (Google Translate). Hope he's OK.
- jacoplane 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apertium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apertium Kindly funded by the Spanish government :)
- brudgers 14y agoI was surprised at how much of it I understood...a foundation in Latin, and years of watching soccer on Spanish networks I guess.
- conradfr 14y agoSpanish has its specification open :)
- hub_ 14y agoNope. You could learn Spanish and understand it. It is not like the content is encoded in a proprietary or patent encumbered format.
- tobiasbischoff 14y agoi will not make a parrot joke here. i will not make a parrot joke here. i will not make a parrot joke here. ..
- ceejayoz 14y agoMaybe Microsoft tried the "Surprise! You were actually using Vista!" trick on him.
- raganwald 14y agoSocial/Moral question: Is it acceptable to wish Mr. Stallman well in light of allegations that he has advocated for truly awful practices? e.g. Dutch pedophiles have formed a political party to campaign for legalization. I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. http://stallman.org/archives/2006-may-aug.html http://stallman.org/archives/2006-may-aug.html
- mhartl 14y agoBeing skeptical of a claim isn't the same as advocacy.
- raganwald 14y agoI agree with that, but I also know that we all make choices about which things we defend either directly or indirectly. Lawyers defend clients regardless of the repugnance of the allegations because it serves the greater good. Those of us who are not lawyers have the luxury of picking and choosing our battles. I can’t read the man’s mind, but I do know that he has made a choice to discuss the subject and a choice to poke holes in an argument made by one side of the subject, and the choice to leave that comment right there without any attempt at balance or qualification.
- rbanffy 14y ago> Those of us who are not lawyers have the luxury of picking and choosing our battles. Sadly, no. I wish we could just relax and have faith on the preservation of such basic rights as free speech, but, unfortunately, this is not the case. It's all too easy to condemn someone for having an opinion we consider dangerous and to suppress their right to state it. We all must learn to live in a world where some people disagree with us in very fundamental ways, because, if we don't, we'll end up living in a world we'd rather not.
- jsprinkles 14y agoBold comment. Privately, I was disappointed that he was fine after reading the news; I suspect that you're not alone in your views based on that and I had a similar moral debate internally. I'm proud of you for lending your username on HN to remind everybody how truly awful of a person he can be, but I fear that even your clout cannot save this comment from people that love him.
- patrickaljord 14y agoHe's ok http://www.fsf.org/news/richard-stallman-speech-in-barcelona-canceled http://www.fsf.org/news/richard-stallman-speech-in-barcelona...
- tomrod 14y agoThanks for letting us know. I really like rms, even if I don't agree with his every position. Here's to hoping he gets into good health soon.
- hkmurakami 14y agoRMS is controversial, extreme, and perhaps even crazy. But it's scary to imagine a world without the counterpoint that RMS singularly embodies. In a way, he evokes images of the Dalai Lama: In (metaphorical) exile, regarded as a heretic from many, and revered as a guiding beacon by others.
- Produce 14y agoOne step ahead of the curve and you're a genius. Two steps and you're crazy. Three and you're dangerous. RMS#2
- mibbitier 14y agoActually, I believe he's behind the curve. There was a time when some of the things he talks about mattered (1980s), and that time has long gone. The general public don't buy "computers" to tinker with any more. They buy them just like they buy a toaster. As an appliance to use. The software or hardware it runs is irrelevant. All that matters is the user experience, and if it fulfils the purpose - does it make good toast.
- wisty 14y agoThe point he makes is that in the long term, getting locked into a single vendor isn't worth a slightly better user experience.
- mandreko 14y agoDid he choke on the toenail this time?
- ch0wda 14y agoTIL: Richard Stallman has a heart.
- kprobst 14y agoOne of these days it's going to be for real and I wonder how many of his fans will be enraged when someone says something like "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone".
- billpatrianakos 14y agoAll of them. It's been my experience that Stallman fans refuse to deal with even fair criticism of him. That aside, I hope no one says that about him or anyone else ever. I have a lot of problems with Stallman and his ideology but when he dies I hope we can all take the high road. We may think it's the man we don't like but it's really his actions and beliefs we have a problem with and when a well respected public figure like him dies it's just common decency not spit on his grave like that. When someone dies you should get past all the negativity you hold for a person and remember their humanity. To some he may have been an asshole in life but in death we're reminded that the deceased had family they loved, hopes and dreams, and changed people's lives in a small way just by having lived and interacted with others. I was one of the people who was outraged by what he said when Steve Jobs died but I'll forgive it when Stallmam goes because of what I just said earlier. Let's hope he's alright and take the high road. By the way, "he did not, for example, have a heart attack". Really? There are no confirmed details but he definitely didn't have a heart attack? Well are there confirmed details or not? If he didn't have a heart attack then there's at least one confirmed detail, right? Why the need to clarify that one point? I'm not saying its a lie but whenever someone tells me "I don't know what happened but I know this one thing didnt happen" they're either guessing or hiding something.
- lwhi 14y agoIt amazes me that Stallman is viewed in this way. Steve Jobs was undeniably an asshole to many .. and Steve Jobs' fans refuse to deal with even fair criticism of him. There's a strange warped perspective at play.
- billpatrianakos 14y agoYou're missing the point and rushing to defend someone I'm not trying to insult. I never said or implied Jobs fans aren't the same. The point is that when someone dies or has something bad happen to them saying something like "I'm not glad he's dead but I'm glad he's gone" is like spitting on their grave and in such times we should remember that they were human like you or me and forget our petty grievances out of respect. When someone like Stallman dies it reminds us of our own mortality as would anyone's death. I'd hope no one was a dick about it "because Stallman said this and that about Jobs after he died" or "because he promoted some awful ideology" or something like that. I don't even like Stallman but when someone has a health crisis or dies you don't celebrate it no matter who they are. It's just common decency. Don't make this a Stallmam V. Whoever comparison.
- benihana 14y agoThis presents an interesting situation. Is Stallman okay with being hooked up to medical computers even though they may not be running free software? What about the privacy issues involved in being checked into a hospital?
- tjr 14y agohttp://www.stallman.org/articles/asked_to_lie.html http://www.stallman.org/articles/asked_to_lie.html
- sp332 14y agoInteresting. A similar thing happened to me at college: I had to sign that I would abide by a license agreement that was not actually available for me to read. I signed the paper, because it was MS software and I figured it was probably the usual EULA junk. A few weeks later, I was told that the college was possibly in violation of their agreement with MS because of my behavior! I went to the office and was scolded for buying more than one copy. I told them I had no idea, since I was never shown the agreement. They said, "Oh, we don't really show that to people. But you need to abide by it, we could be in big trouble if you don't!"
- zackzackzack 14y agoIf it were anyone but Stallman, I would have thought you were being an ass about the situation. But realistically, I could see that being a concern for him and his ethics. I hope he doesn't die on principle quite yet though. There aren't too many FOSS clinics AFAIK.
- bostonpete 14y agoI don't see how it would realistically be a concern for him. That's like saying he wouldn't be willing to get on a plane or drive a car b/c they use closed source software...
- craigvn 14y ago
- ginko 14y agoI'm really beginning to worry about rms's health. I recently saw a tv interview of him on russia today where he seemed to have put on a lot of weight. I hope he doesn't overexert himself.
- tranzparency 14y agoWhat's strange is Wikipedia shows him as deceased. First sentence says: Richard Matthew Stallman (16 March 1953 – 10 May 2012), often shortened to rms,[1] was an American software freedom activist and computer programmer.
- recoiledsnake 14y agoWikipedia had him as expired briefly, had to do a double take. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Stallman&oldid=491869423 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Stallman&#...
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- chj 14y agoi don't like all he's promoting, but hope he will get well soon. Bless!
- etfb 14y ago"Stallman, conocido por sus excentricidades..." The wonderful thing about having a smattering of French and Latin is that I can recognise "damned with faint praise" even in a language I don't know. (Hint for the mono-lingual: http://translate.google.com/#auto|en|Stallman%2C%20conocido%20por%20sus%20excentricidades http://translate.google.com/#auto|en|Stallman%2C%20conocido%...)
- giis 14y agoGet well soon,RMS.
- robwgibbons 14y ago"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated"