Kevin Free

An anonymous reader writes: "Surely many of you will remember that before there was ever a cry to 'Free Dimitry Sklyarov', Free Kevin Mitnick was the call of many. He was convicted on 'hacking' charges, though many on the Internet found the charges and trial to be unfair. He was freed in January 2000, but not allowed to touch a computer or log onto the Internet until January 20, 2003. See the story at CNN or read some background info at freekevin.com. "

Comments

Re:Free Kevin?

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Twirlip my man, you remind me of that guy on Usenet in the old days who would always appear whenever his name was mentioned.

Kibo?

I am not Kibo.

Except you appear whenever there's a chance to push your anti-FSF agenda.

It's not so much that I have an anti-FSF agenda as I think that the people who accept what the FSF is saying aren't thinking clearly, and they need to be struck once or twice about the head and shoulders with the perspective baton.

If I have a message, it can only be this: Thou shalt not think so highly of thyself.

Well, also this: Blessed art those who stand above us, for they shall be called lightning rods.

Also: Blessed art the extremists, for they shall make the rest of us look moderate by comparison.

Actually, I guess I have a bunch of messages. Oh, well. We'll see how it turns out.

Re:Well...

[Twirlip of the Mists]

The President should get the same respect any human being gets, no more, no less -- and that means that when he does something stupid, we have every right to make use of that for both serious criticism and offhand jokes.

It's important to distinguish between the office of President of the United States and the man who holds that office at any given time.

When you shake hands with the President, you're shaking hands with Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and all the others, great and not as great, who have held that title and that office. While, as you so rightly point out, we should not forget that the President is merely a man, first among equals, neither should we forget that he is also the President.

The Barber is applying his little whisk broom to Bob's
waistcoat while WW pulls out his purse to make payment.

ENGLISH BOB contd.
Why, if you were to point a pistol
at a King or a Queen, sir, I can
assure you your hand would shake
as though palsied...

BARBER
(looking at Bob's
pistols)
I wouldn't point no pistol at
nobody, sir.

ENGLISH BOB
(putting on his frock
coat over his guns)
A wise policy. But if you did,
I can assure you, the sight of
royalty would cause you to
dismiss all thoughts of bloodshed
and stand... in awe.
(pause)
Whereas, a president... I mean,
why not shoot a president?

Kinds of Free

[Gerry Gleason]

Aren't you mixing metaphors a bit here? I don't see much difference in the use of "free" in "free as a bird" vs "free Willy", accept that "free Willy" has a number of association beyond the movie (as pointed out in a nearby comment).

Of course, until we have a real AI personality, this send of free isn't appropriate to thinking about software, while the other two are. Are you incapable of making this distinction, or just being deliberately dense?

I do like the idea of adding more kinds of free to the mix, as well as poking some fun at those who take themselves too seriously, but I think it needs a little work to actually be funny.

Re:So where's the story here?

[khuber]

I think editors should delete troll posts.

The moderated boards I read have higher signal/noise than slashdot. I think a lot of intelligent people are gone or don't participate in the dicussions here. Slashdot point moderation does not work very well.

-Kevin