Slashback: Hagiography, Oracle, Fusion

Slashback with updates on RMS's biography, PVRs vs. the endangered edifice of Western Civilization, Oracle's funny deal with California, cold fusion and more. Read on for the details! Can't we please have a picture of the winner? obsidianpreacher writes: "Apparently, SETI@Home has just recently released who the winner of the 500 millionth result "contest" is, and posted the news on the SETI@Home site. Too bad it wasn't me (or one of the people who turn in 300 bajillion results per day)."

Even lukewarm fusion would be satisfy me. driggers writes: "I wrote a review of the book "Excess Heat" for /. last year. I thought you might (or might not :) be interested to learn that the U.S. Navy in February 2002 issued Technical Report No. 1862 titled "Thermal and Nuclear Aspects of the Pd/D2O System," Vol. 1 of which summarizes A Decade of Research at Navy Laboratories."

Dr. Frank Gordon, Head, Navigation and Applied Sciences Department, concludes his foreword with the remark, "It is time for the government funding organizations to invest in this research."

If you modify the source you must keep it accurate, like a Mad Lib. An Anonymous Coward writes "I just noticed the biography of Richard M. Stallman, "Free as in Freedom" by Sam Williams is online at oreilly, released under the GNU Free Documentation License."

What vapors rule the modern day Oracle? MarkedMan writes: "The following CNET article outlines Oracle's reply to the State of California's announcement it was canceling a nearly $100 million dollar contract. It should not come as a surprise, as few companies would give up that kind of money without a fight, not to mention the domino effect if they just rolled over. It would be a tacit admission that they ripped off naive customers."

Comments

very brief review of the Stallman biography

[jdbo]

• does it include details about Stallman that weren't otherwise widely known? yes.
  
• does it provide insight into Stallman as a human being, as well as his primary role in pioneering the free software movement, and the relation between these two? yes.
  
• is it respectful of Stallman (who participated in the books partially-self-documented creation) without being fawning towards him, or evasive of his faults? yes.
  
• does it deal with technical issues in a way that is both understandable to the newbie as well as non-insulting to the experienced? yes.
  
• 
  
  I read it (online), and bought a copy. It's a real biography of a real (if unusual) person.
  
  For those who believe that everything must be perfectly bias-free, yes, it does display bias for free software ideals , but that is because it's telling RMS's (suprisingly successful) underdog story, and "triumph against massive odds" reads this way.
  
  A genuinely informative, insightful book - and readable, too.
  

Re:very brief review of the Stallman biography

[Paul Fernhout]

I agree; it's a good read.

I think a key point of the "Free as in Freedom" book was the description of the concept of the GPL as codifying a hacker culture of sharing. Certainly the GPL has been an effective and appropriate response to what Richard Stallman apparently saw as essentially the destruction of the MIT AI Lab (and elsewhere) as an academic home for cooperative sharing and collaborative construction. However, it is unfortunate Sam Williams in the book does not touch on the significance of the Bayh-Dole act of 1980 which perhaps unintentionally helped destroy the university culture of sharing in many other places than the MIT AI lab at about the same time. See an article called 'The Kept University' from the Atlantic Monthly: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/03/press.ht m Perhaps it was not entirely coincidental the AI lab exodus happened shortly after this law was passed (prior to the act there was not as much incentive for universities to withhold information or make special deals with companies directly). In a future edition, relating Richard Stallman's efforts to that larger legal context of the 1980 Bayh-Dole might be interesting (I didn't remember it mentioned and the Bayh-Dole act isn't in the index).

Of course, since the book is under the Gnu Free Documentation License, I guess anyone could make that change -- but then there would need to be somewhere to post updates -- like Savannah?

Re:Isn't the book GPL'ed?

[ainsoph]

I like to call RMS an idealist whose geek factor and high IQ leaves little room for adequate social skills.

If he was not so adament about his values, we would not be where we are today.

I have an old gnome t-shirt from a long while back, it says "GNU/Linux" on it. I think thats pretty cool, but yer right, GNU/Linux doesnt really roll off the toungue easily and sounds kinda awkward.

But maybe the point is for you to explain to new users is how much debt the linux operating system has to the GNU tools, which if it was not for the tireless efforts of Stallman. Well you know. Anyway.

An example would be, I know a group of people who have been using linux pretty exclusivly for about 4 years now. I said to them "Hey, you know RMS, right.."?

blank look.

"Richard Stallman right? RMS?"

More blank.

So I bascially said, hey this guy is pretty much responsible for this computing environment you have been using, and love so dearly. And they said:

"Oh yeah? How so?" All disbelieving like, looking at me like I was a little crazy to suggest that this RMS character I was telling them about had anything to do with Linux.

This is exactly the point I think of what Stallman is saying, as people come along they are going to be less and less in touch with the values, ideas, philosophies and person behind the movement.

Something which, while we may not all love Stallman or whatever, losing touch with his efforts and ideas are a dangerous thing, cos as he said, at the end of "Revolution OS" its all about making the world a better place.