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Ken Brown Responds to His Critics
An anonymous reader writes "Yes, I know it's getting boring by now, but the truth must be told... the latest Unix celebrity to come forward and criticise Ken Brown/ADTI is Unix pioneer Dennis Ritchie. The gist is that Brown is claiming an 'extensive interview' with Ritchie but this was actually limited to a single email exchange and a follow-up call from one of Brown's lackeys checking one or two facts." Reader markrages writes "Ken Brown (of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution) replies to his critics. Dr. Tanenbaum is an 'animated, but tense individual about the topic of rights and attribution'. The GNU/Linux naming issue also makes an appearance."
A village is out there, crying, like baby jesus, because it's idiot ran away...please send him back.
Ken Brown was recently offered a position at the Jason Blair Institute for Fabrication and Fraud. Officially duties include making up interview transcripts and inventing names for alleged contributers.
It's more like internationally laughed at for approving anything that shows up on its doorstep and not even checking its own database for conflicts.
Well, I don't disagree that the United States is the home of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
I'm a little iffy on the "...internationally respected agency..." part, though
Karma: Chameleon - mostly influenced by bad '80s New Wave music
I shall go and tell the indestructible man that someone plans to murder him.
Please... noone visit the AdTI website... we wouldn't want Mr Brown to think that his web site is being attacked again, would we? :)
But as soon as we DO find the sharpest knife, I can guarantee you we'll make sure it gets to him. >:)
But there is another kind of evil that we must fear most... and that is the indifference of good men.
Loser, Idiot, Nobody.
Don't you mean "Lose, Idiot, Noone"?
Karma: Non-Heinous
1. Observe thousands of geeks rage-filled reaction to SCO Linux IP claims. 2. Write poorly-researched, inflammatory book claiming Linus the Chosen One did not, in fact write the Linux kernel. 3. Thousands and thousands and thousands of pissed-off Linux zealots buy said book, in order to debunk it, burn it, sit it on the shelf and laugh at it, whatever... 4. Profit!!! I think the author probably saw an exploitable reaction in the Linux community and wrote this book in order to, um, exploit it... I wonder if the same strategy would work in other formats? I could write a book called "Eating Puppies", do the talk show circuit, and as long as I was not shot or something, the book would sell a million copies! I'm a genius! *starts typing up first draft*
Styrofoam IS biodegradable, you're just impatient!
Kind of like /. ;-)
Check out this, though:
Yet Tanenbaum vehemently insists that Torvalds wrote Linux from scratch, which means from a blank computer screen to most people. No books, no resources, no notes...
So, what he's apparently claiming is that Linux is stolen code because Linus used BOOKS when he wrote it.
All true hackers were born with knowledge of C. Anyone who had to read a book about it is a thief.
I've heard about "Apple" computers, but never "Orange" computers. Or are they painting computers in bright colors now?
Perhaps, just perhaps, this would lead to more critical examination of the 'studies' coming out of all of the think tanks....
Nah, they'd just say it proved once again the liberal bias in the media...
f1rst p4t3nt!
When it comes to a choice between trying to reason with a liar and defending our ability to feed our children, we'll take the children every time.
Thank God somebody is thinking about the children!!!
Anything worth doing is worth doing badly -- G.K. Chesterton
How's about we coin a new term: "kenbrown". Usage:
kenbrown, n.: a person with no real idea of what he or she is talking about. Kenbrowns usually have ulterior motives and are fond of using quotes out of context. Eg. "The kenbrown just kept droning on and on, I couldn't talk any sense into him."
kenbrown, adj.: lacking scruples, misinformative, dishonest to the point of absurdity. Eg. "The marketing speech was totally kenbrown."
My favorite guote of all:
However, building a product that starts with the accomplishment of others and announcing it as completely your own work product, is not invention, nor is it innovation. Innovation can only work properly if innovators properly credit the work of others, especially if the innovator has decided to introduce the product into the marketplace for commercial gain.
So are they saying that Bill Gates has a problem?
So who is going to step forward and write a book, of researched FACTS to counteract this work of FICTION?
Facts? Facts? Have you gone daft?!? What this situation calls for is not facts. What we need is truckloads of corporate grade bullshit. While I believe the last thing we should do is attempt to directly refute anything Ken Brown has said (that's a land war in Asia), we should be creating vacuous Powerpoint presentations (OpenOffice exports quite nicely to that format) backed by acres of specious logical fallacies showing exactly why Open Source will bring about the second coming of the 1950's.
Emotionally, I agree with you - I'm a computer scientist, perhaps like yourself, and like most of the people here. Granted, we are concerned with the rational processing and presentation of information, and the facts certainly are vastly in support of the economic benefits of FLOSS. But consider our target audience - rational people have small place in the US government. If this were India and we had an economist as a Prime Minister, maybe, but here? Facts are the last thing we need.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
Yet Tanenbaum vehemently insists that Torvalds wrote Linux from scratch, which means from a blank computer screen to most people. No books, no resources, no notes -- certainly not a line of source code to borrow from, or to be tempted to borrow from.
He has a point there, Linus would to have at least copy from the first kernel which was created by God.
What you think a bunch a computer scientists created a kernel without ever seeing a kernel before? That is of course impossible.
I like this quote from Brown: ...
:-)
Another problem with Tanenbaum's logic
OK, so he's reputable enough to quote for your study..
However, he has flawed logic, so you can't trust what he says...
er.. um..
This reply has upped my cynicism level up a notch.
Professor Tanenbaum did not convince AdTI that Linus Torvalds wrote the Linux kernel from scratch. We are sorry if this has caused any inconvenience to Professor Tanenbaum or anyone else.
This statment leads to only 3 possible conclusions:
1) Tanenbaum, a well respected professor, is for some odd reason lying covering up for Linux saying it didn't copy Minix when it really did. Perhaps as part of some global conspiracy by communist hippies who want to share useful, functional software with the world.
2) Ken Brown is more knowledgable about Operating Systems than Tanenbaum is and knows more about Minix than the creator of minix
3) Brown is talking out of his ass to make an impossible case for the benefit of a monopoly who think's it is it's god-given right to keep over 90% of the OS market. Of course, the government ought to protect that right, after all, a free market is communist and encourages terroism, doesn't it?
Ridiculous.
Tanenbaum: This is not a copy of my work.
Ken: No, you're misinformed. It is.
Tanenbaum: (In disbelief) Uh, excuse me?
at some point, many, many years ago, say 40, a hand-written kernel was booted that was written in assembler.
Correct.
Not once.
Many times.
Most of 'em lost in the dust of history.
You haven't lived until you've keypunched EBCDIC machine language into an IPL deck.
does this wreak of Bill Gates (self-proclaimed computer scientist/architect since the famed days when he made a name for charging to use his code versus his colleagues who gave it away) jealous of Linus Torvalds for being more technically sound, literate and a better professional keynote speaker?
I mean Bill always could whip out the programming card against Steve Jobs, but of course knew when to keep his manhood in his pants by comparison to Steve's charisma, wit, naturally engaging public speaking abilities, and generally excellent tastes in all things aesthetic. So now comes a man who can be coined the UberGeek for the programming world, that even women will think is cool and I don't think William's ego can handle it.
Paying third party propaganda publications to write about the credentials and origins of Linux all in an attempt instead of producing an innovative product to keep ahead of the curve sure sounds like it can only come from one Institution.
Who here has seen the early 1980's gang movie titled, "Warriors?" If not the entire premise is about one gang shooting the appointed voice of all the gangs and then blaming it on the Warriors, in hopes to later lay claim and control of all the gangs. Bill reminds me of that runt with the beer bottles connected to the ends of his fingers, hunched over saying, "Warriors... Come out and playyyyaaaay."
SCO reminds me of the Baseball Team that goes running around in their "official outfits" thumping on weaker gangs until it gets its own bats used against itself.
Linus gets to play the role of the Warrior that gets blamed for all that is wrong within the code of gangs.
The Federal Government is exactly like the citizens of New York during this movie, ABSENT.
Don't forget that all this code is stolen from corporations like IBM. Billions of dollars of IP were stolen from IBM and given over to Linux. IBM stole that IP from itself and then gave it to Linux.
It's exactly like when my sister bought me a birthday gift at CompUSA, and then stole it from herself and handed it to me at my birthday party. She paid for it, so clearly it's her property, and since it's in my posession now, I'm holding stolen property. This makes me a thief and my sister an accessory to theft.
" No, the best way to prepare is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating system."
- Bill Gates, from "Programmers at Work" by Microsoft Press.
You reading this, Mr Brown?
455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
In related news, AdTI announces more shocking research results. "After our discovery of the hybrid source nature of Linux we extended our research into other fields," an AdTI spokesperson said. He continued: "In the beginning we were just curious whether hybrid source concepts could be found in other fields as well. But soon we learned that the entire history of mankind would have taken a different turn, had hybrid source not been allowed to spread for so many years." While only excerpts of AdTI's upcoming book have been published yet, one can see the big picture already.
The shocking findings of AdTI include:
Where would mankind stand today if there had been appropriate protection of intellectual assets throughout history? The AdTI spokesperson refused to comment on this question, emphasizing that AdTI is doing sound research, not writing science fiction. However, their results give "clear indication that hybrid source is linked to war, murder, and terrorism. For instance, Adolf Hitler impossibly could have invented mass murder and world war from scratch, and Osama bin Laden is not the inventor of terrorism."
http://erichsieht.wordpress.com/category/english/
It looked like this:
Subject: Linux
Text:
Heh.
Shallow end Deep end Mr. Brown
I I I
I I I
V V V
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\oooooooooooo
Sure, it may not be the most constructive criticism he receives, but at least it's got pretty pictures on it. I'm sure he can enjoy visual art just like a normally developed individual.
His article was quite amusing in the way it tried to twist the words of the 'contributors', but fortunately it's sadly apparent even to a non-initiated person.
Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
So I think it's absolutely absurd for Brown to argue he is the "author" of his own "book". Clearly he just copied from more original work, perhaps the Whitewater stories, or maybe he went further, back to the "journalist" who "exposed" the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
"Linux is a leprosy"
I thought Linux was a cancer? Apparently the medicinal sciences are still in their infancy.
Adti has examined the pyramids in Egypt and has not found anyone in Egypt, or in fact anywhere in the world that can provide a clear explanation of how a society without power tools and machinery could build the pyramids.
Further study has shown an uncanny parallel between those pyramids in Egypt and various modern structures whose designs and construction techniques are clearly documented. These pyramids all required the used of computers and the best power tools and machinery modern society has to offer.
To quote adti's Brown, "Clearly these copies in Eygpt are illegal copies of these modern builder, obviously produced by time traveling extraterrestrials. While many people dismiss our conconclusions, we have talked extensively to many people who have been abducted by aliens or have seen so called UFOs."
Brown continues, "Yes, many have argued that the reports have more mundane explanations, but we will not limit our reports to those who insist that scientific methods provide no support for our conclusions. But to dismiss extraterrestrials would seriously limit the opportunity for profit to just the Earth."