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Auto Accident at SANE Conference Kills One
Several people have submitted news from SANE 2004 that a car crash involving several Free Software developers has killed one and injured two others. Richard Stallman was in the car earlier but apparently had been dropped off prior to the accident.
My deepest sympathy to the family and friends of the loved one they lost.
Car accident details
There have been a bunch of rumours about a car accident involving some free software folks today. Since there seems to be no central place for all information I am trying to gather all information here.
If you have any other information please drop me an email at wichert@wiggy.net
All mentioned times are in CEST (UTC +0200).
-
There has been a car accident returning from a trip to bring Richard
Stallman (RMS) from
SANE 2004 to Paris.
(confirmed by several sources)
-
they collided with a truck which merged onto their lane while
driving in fog (unconfirmed)
-
Exact time of the accident is unknown. It was on the
morning of September 30th before 09:00.
-
Richard Stallman was dropped off in Paris and no longer in the car
(confirmed by Rop and Richard).
-
At the time of the accident Hans Bakker (mclightje),
Edwin Hermans (madeddie), and
Sebastian S. (webmind) were in the car. (confirmed).
-
The car belongs to Rop Gonggrijp, who lent it to the travelers.
RMS was staying with Rop during SANE. (confirmed by Rop)
-
Hans Bakker (photo,
homepage)
did not survive the crash. (confirmed by girlfriend)
-
Edwin Hermans has a broken hip and has been transfered to a different
hospital for surgery. Sebastian is (or was by now) in surgery for
broken bones but is not in critical condition.
Bad information-
This Yahoo
France accident report is from another accident which occured
later and the car was traveling in the wrong direction
Press..and the first 3 posts I see are jokes about it.
I'd like to send condolences to Mr. Bakker's family and friends for their loss, and hope the others recover quickly.
Now post a story I can make fun of, quick!!!
Shit. I know one of those guys. It's messed up to read something like that on /.
Condolances to the family and friends of the individual killed. Good luck on a quick recovery to the injured individuals.
/. crowd that needs to try making a joke out of it (Gates/MS jokes), try and imagine if the individual who died was your father, or brother. If you can still make a joke about it, you're sick.
It's always sad when people die, but when they're connected to you in some way (even an abstract way), it hits a little harder. Any Christians (or other faiths, for that matter) should say a quick prayer for everyone involved.
As for the
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
Yesterday I was demonstrating on the dam square in Amsterdam with some of the people involved. I want to express my deepest respect...
http://www.wiggy.net.nyud.net:8090/tmp/accident/
It's really very sad and depressing to find that the first ten or fifteen comments of this article (yes, I browse at -1 level) are all offtopic and attempts at first post.
My deepest sympathies to the family of that person killed.
There have been a bunch of rumours about a car accident involving
some free software folks today. Since there seems to be no central place
for all information I am trying to gather all information here.
If you have any other information please drop me an email
at wichert at wiggy dot net
All mentioned times are in CEST (UTC +0200).
* There has been a car accident returning from a trip to bring Richard
Stallman (RMS) from
SANE 2004 to Paris.
(confirmed by several sources)
* they collided with a truck which merged onto their lane while
driving in fog (unconfirmed)
* Exact time of the accident is unknown. It was on the
morning of September 30th before 09:00.
* Richard Stallman was dropped off in Paris and no longer in the car
(confirmed by Rop and Richard).
* At the time of the accident Hans Bakker (mclightje),
Edwin Hermans (madeddie), and
Sebastian S. (webmind) were in the car. (confirmed).
* The car belongs to Rop Gonggrijp, who lent it to the travelers.
RMS was staying with Rop during SANE. (confirmed by Rop)
* Hans Bakker (photo,
homepage)
did not survive the crash. (confirmed by girlfriend)
* Edwin Hermans has a broken hip and has been transfered to a different
Translation:hospital for surgery. Sebastian is (or was by now) in surgery for
broken bones but is not in critical condition.
* This appears to be the traffic report for the accident, as taken
infotraffic.
One shall speak only if what one has to say is more beautiful than silence
Never put RMS & Alan Cox & Linus in the very same car/plane or even building (just for sure ;-))). If you are paranoid it doesn't mean they aren't after you.
P.S.
Deepest condolences...
Please do not make any snarky comments about RMS getting out of the car before the accident. Regardless of your personal feelings, a person escaping potential serious injury or death should not be joke fodder - contrary to the first several posts.
Condolences to the family of the deceased.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
It's always tough to lose someone so young. May you find some peace in this time of sorrow.
Of course you should have heard about .
But anyway, this article isn't about him. Someone of our community just passed away, and we mourn him as one of us.
Seriously. Someone is dead. Two others are injured.
THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY???
Wake up, go outside, and maybe you'll realise that this isn't the kind of thing to joke about.
And whoever modded the parent funny is fucked up.
Also, John E. Mack was killed earlier this week after being hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street on foot.
Slashdot has a strange focus on issues of free software, an accident that killed one developer and could have potentially killed one of the founding fathers of the movement (Stallman aka Mr. GNU, Mr. GPL) makes it news. Even though Slashdot isn't generally an obituary site, I'd like to question why the person would have to be "important" for you to mourn them, a man with a girlfriend and a family passed away tragically. Do you need to know anymore to feel a pang of sorrow? Does he have to be a celebrity to make it important?
Sorry for the moral/ethical tirade, but maybe it'll give the moderators of this post and the poster himself something to think about.
What a terrible loss. My deepest sympathies to the bereaved family, and hope the survivors return to health quickly.
This is a time to think about how much all of the wonderful work in the free software world is based on the unselfish actions of precious individuals. Perhaps someone would like to post an accepted, confirmed email or physical address for people to send condolences or offers of assistance.
One question to slashdot, I did not see anything yet about drinking and driving. So maybe the "turn down a glass department" byline is, while a good idea in general when you are the driver, in this case perhaps inappropriate.
Matthew Rosin
http://images.google.com.au/images?q=Richard%20Sta llman&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab= wi
http://www.stallman.org/
Richard Stallman
founded the GNU Project in 1984. He is the principal or initial author of GNU Emacs, the GNU C Compiler, the GNU Debugger GDB and parts of other packages. He is the President of the Free Software Foundation (FSF).
Knowing hans since 1999 this is a real shock :( Condoleances to everybody who knew him :(
We'll miss you!
-- Cliff Albert
In 1980 I remember my computer science professor saying his profession was the safest in the world - since no Professor of Computer Science in history had ever died. I believe it was true at the time.
In addition to the other responses you'll get, please check out this thread. You'll notice that a handful of the posts are from people that knew these individuals, or had been around them within the past few days.
There's a good chance that 1 slashdot account will never be used again, which is a sad thing for us all. Not to mention that the individual that died wasn't just a member of the community, he was a contributor... something that makes him stand apart from most of us.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
For those of us who hold onto our faith dearly, a simple prayer.
"God, I ask you bless and comfort those who are grieving in this time of loss. I ask you bless the Bakker family, and be with the those who have lost a good friend. Allow the loved ones to seek closure for Mr. Bakker. In Jesus name, amen"
http://www.freebsd.org
Thank you! You are one of the only people so far who has actually answered my question. Now it makes more sense to me why this was posted and why so many people are upset. Thank you for answering my question in the spirit in which it was asked and not jumping on me.
The report says that the accident occured after dropping off Richard, this trip was specifically to bring him to Paris. I know in his place, I'd be blaming myself, that's my nature.
For what it's worth : It wasn't your fault Mr. Stallman, so don't blame yourself. And my sympathies to the families involved.
BTW, does anyone know whether they were wearing seatbelts? Just just curious.
At 11:32 CEST i read a message on IRC from a friend that our buddy Madeddie was taken into a hospital in France. At that time i though it was a sick/silly joke, to realize 4 hours later that it wasn't a joke and that one of a fellow IRC regular was involved in the accident and died. I only hope that Madeddie and Webmind both are ok and back home soon. Madeddie, if you read this ... BETERSCHAP!
My condoleances to Hans Bakker's family and gf.
Seriously. Someone is dead. Two others are injured.
/.
People die every day. Seriously. Many of them children. Many of them after living lives of such desperate poverty that most of us cannot even imagine it except in vague abstract terms.
In my mind crocodile tears over people who you do not know, and whom you only care about because they're linked to a famous person are far more patronising and -frankly- downright insulting to the very real, very person suffering and grief that they are going through than if I had made a beowulf cluster of first post jokes about how the OSS movment will start wearing tin-foil hats and start looking for MS-assasins behind every grassy knoll.
Their suffering is real.
But your outrage is contrived and your "grief" is a grief of convience.
If Dick Stallman's name wasn't linked to this; no-one would give a shit --and that's the only reason this is on
I didn't know Hans well but we hung around in the same IRC-channel. My deepest sympathy goes out to the family and friends that suffered from this tragic loss.
Also a get well soon for the other guys in the car...
/(bb|[^b]{2})/
Hans Bakker was the organizer of several NE2000 camps. Ne2000 is a yearly event where about 200 people show up with their tents/campers/caravans and plug into the network, it's a fairly open source oriented happening. I've seen and spoken Hans around there although I wasn't a close friend of him or anything. He has also participated in several open source projects.
The people involved in this car accident are all from the same fairly big group of "young" open source fans in The Netherlands that keep contact with each other over IRC and also IRL. Therefore I'm not surprised that this story was submitted by several readers. I hope this explains why it is important, I know I was shocked and saddened by the loss.
I hate these kinds of comments. Something bad happens and someone points at something slightly relevant but totally random thing that could with great effort be interpreted as... well... dunno what you'd call it.
Is the ad there because of it being related to an auto accident, or because it's about Free Software?
- These characters were randomly selected.
This is Slashdot - we well know the power of distributed community. Accidents like this are very costly ordeals, typically even with insurance. Can someone with the ability to make disbursement to these individuals (and the family of Mr. Bakker) set up accounts via PayPal (many mixed opinions, I know) or bank local to their residences for contributions and post the details?
Any spoon would be too big.
I'm not meaning to sound cold hearted but yesterday alone 30 Iraqi's died, a US soldier was killed, and 50 civilians were injured in a single set of blasts. That didn't make slashdot. My wife's grandmother passed 2 months ago. A friend of mine's father died this summer. And just a few weeks ago a friend was diagnosed with Leukemia. Nothing on Slashdot about them nor do I expect there to be.
These are all great tradgedies but if everybody was going to mourn every death that was barely tangental to their lives we'd never do anything but mourn. All due sympath to the family of the deceased but this is 'Slashdot News' because RMS was almost one of the guys.
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
I never met Hans, however, after hearing this I browsed his website. It feels like going into someones house after they've died. Very sad. You know that that "under connstruction" banner will stay there forever.. I hope archive.org will pick up the site before the ISP drops it in the coming months (if they do... who knows who's hosting the site).
I knew Hans, the guy who died in the accident. I was very shocked, I met him only recently, and I just discovered that there was a picture of me on his site. Last time I spoke he told me he wanted to join geekcorps or something similar, to do something useful for the world. It pains me that that won't happen.
Thanks for WAN, thanks for NE2000, thanks for your company on all LAN parties we shared, and your company in the Beiaard. And not to forget, IRC.
Rest in peace.
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
Oh fuck off, it's one thing to say you don't cry over every single death that occurs, it's completely different when people are making jokes, stupid ass jokes at that, and acting like jackasses over it
Join the TWIT army now!
He was a part of our community. Even though I didn't know him, I still take offense at the fact that you say things like that. /. is irrelevant, death is not something to be treated trivially.
How the story got onto
So many people die every day in tragic circumstances that bear no comparison to this like sudan. I felt more pain over this than I did over sudan, and I don't even know what project this guy was involved with.
Somehow, a man whose life was somewhat more similar to mine (ok, judging from his site we have vastly different personalities) than a sudanese victim has more impact on me. If anyone with a psychology background would help explain why this is I'd like to know why.
Photos.
It's a good question, and I think the answer lies in how much of your life was tied up in the life of the other person.
." .....
For some insight into this you might want to read this extract of chapter 21 of "The Little Prince"
"What does that mean--tame?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties."
"To establish ties?"
"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . .
if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . . "
The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time. "Please--tame me!" he said.
You can read more at http://students.washington.edu/yana/LP.htm or various other locations shown by google
blog.sam.liddicott.com
This is what I love about the OSS community; it's a community! People drive each other from and to places, stay at each others', and when something unfortunate like this happens you truly feel that it's a community where people care about their own.
Here's what I feel we need to do; we need to put up a fund (donations) and a website to commemorate the OSS community members, and part (if not the vast majority of it, deservedly) of the mission/website fund ought keep their personal homepages and accounts on notable community portals (e.g. slashdot) alive, and be linked to from the website. Hans' personal homepage should **never** disappear due to lack of payment or activity, and it should not be left to his family members, hit by grief and possible loss of income, to do ensure that. Possibly too, condolences may be posted to one list that can be sent to his surviving folks. OSS members make personal sacrifices to be active members of the community and it'd be a nice tough to let their family members, who have likely been compromized financially by the opporutnity cost of their breadwinner being an active OSS member, ought to be let known that many many others care and are thankful for their contribution, whether it was code, logistical (hey, driving RMS is a big deal!), or even in spirit and enthausiasm.
What a fitting tribute to someone who was a big part of our community... on the day of his death, we slashdot Hans' personal web space.
"Our funds have never taken part in toxic or death spiral convertible financings of any sort" -BayStar's managing partne
Even better: click to: Donate $10
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
First of all my condolenses to their family.
What's up with open source and accidents? I'm thinking it's all because of the community spirit. These are people that are part of a global community. They are a part of everyone who uses Free Software and Open Source stuff. They are a part of the world, always believing in keeping things Free and Open to everyone. This affects everyone who believes in the same ideals.
Whereas if someone died in Microsoft, those who would know about it would be those close to that person, and those in Microsoft. They would hurt the most. There are probably a few Microsoft people who have been killed, but have only affected those in the company and immediate family.
I'm not trying to say anything against Microsoft here. I'm just saying since Free Software coders are a worldwide bunch, it will be news to the entire worldwide bunch, not a limited corner of a country. It's news like this that saddens me, but also shows that we're part of a group that encompasses the entire world.
I hope I put all those words correctly and not offend anyone.
There would be much rejoicing. NEXT!
Un-news
It's a lovely poem, by Eden Philpotts. I think it makes a very appropriate dept.
GHOSTIES AT THE WEDDING.
Turn down a glass afore his place;
Draw up the dog-eared chair;
For though we shall not see his face,
I think he will be here
Our wedding day to share.
Turn up the glass where she would be
And put a red rose there.
Her quick, grey eyes we cannot see,
But weren't they everywhere,
And shall not they be here?
Though them old blids are in the grave
And their good light's gone out,
We'd sooner their kind ghosties have
Than all the living rout
As will be there no doubt.
For some are dead as cannot die.
Some flown as cannot flee.
You still do fancy 'em near by.
'Tis so with him and she,
At any rate to we.
"The Milliard Gargantubrain? A mere abacus - mention it not."
FYI: I have been in contact with Loic.
However, with all of the SUV bashing you see on this site, it should be mentioned that they are the safest vehicles on the road.
Really? I've heard a lot of people come off a lot worse after colliding with them than they would with a normal car.
So next time you see someone bashing an SUV for gas mileage, just remember the person who died today.
And remember all the people who are being killed by pollutants.
The only person an SUV is safer for is the driver. And that's assuming you discount the increased risk of actually being involved in an accident. The stopping distance in the things suck, and so does the steering. The safest cars are those that can avoid accidents.
Get a minivan, which has all the claimed benefits of an SUV, better fuel efficiency, and is safer.
Just look at the number of reactions here from people who knew him. I've seen at least five. Although I myself was wondering too whether this story would make it to SlashDot (I've heard about it all day already), I now know that it's good that someone posted it...
This is Slashdot news because a sizable fraction of the Slashdot community is aware of, or has benefited from, these people's work. RMS being almost one of the guys is of interest to some, but even if he had been uninvolved I suppect this would have made the cut.
However, with all of the SUV bashing you see on this site, it should be mentioned that they are the safest vehicles on the road.
Bullshit.
While it's true that if you are in a huge SUV and hit a car, the SUV will come off better, the overall safety picture is not good for SUV drivers.
The additional mass also has downsides. In single vehicle accidents it's better to have less mass as there is less energy to dissipate. According to the NHTSA, single vehicle accidents accounted for only 18% of crashes, but 44% of fatalities.
Larger vehicles have longer stopping distances, increasing the likelyhood of a crash.
Also figures from the NHSTA show that SUV fatality rates are 11% higher than cars.
According to those statistics, the safest vehicles are minivans, with a fatality rate of 2.76 per billion miles travelled, 2nd were large cars, with a rate of 3.3 fatalities per billion miles. The largest SUV's came in 3rd with 3.79 fatalities per billion miles
time to adjust your review mirror methinks
But it's ok, as the Slashdot story states that Stallman wasn't killed. It's a sad world when a story tells me who wasn't killed and not who was (killed or injured). It's obvious that the poster thinks Stallman living is more important than someone dying. Shame on you!
fame != importance
I'm hoping that at least one of my friends or family can find the courage and heart to make a joke. Mind you, it should be made at the appropriate time. At the only funeral we went to, we talked a lot about my friend's life, and made quips about how "Adults Only Video" would probably go bankrupt without his business. He would have appreciated the joke... we made much the same remarks when he was with us.
Now, for people who don't really know the deceased to make such comments, it just isn't appropriate. It also depends on the character of the person involved in the tragedy. A joke should bring light smiles and help offer some balm to the wounds of those affected, not simply be the attention-seeking acts of immaturity we unfortunately tend to see online.
Here in Europe you usually don't need to pay for medical bills, unless you decide to use a private medical center. This is why every worker pays some taxes to their goverment.
To state that "Richard Stallman was in the car earlier but apparently had been dropped off prior to the accident" is so incredibly RUDE and DISTASTEFUL and INSULTING, especially when the names of the dead and injured are left out. To even insinuate that we are all so lucky that Stallman wasn't hurt even tho these nameless folks got pasted infuriates me to no end. Heaps of SHAME and DISHONOR to the poster "michael" for his horrid thoughtlessness.
...has definitely lowered the discourse on Slashdot. 90% of the people who post just want to get modded to +5 funny. It would probably be better to retire the Funny modifier for a couple weeks so people can practice posting useful comments.
We're quick to jump into camps here. There are the "ha ha, man fall down and die" nervous humor camp. Then there's the "don't make fun of death" camp. Still another camp comes in next to say "lighten up, people are coping in different ways"
Not many clue in to this pattern, even as they help to shape it. Go look at the stories from 9/11. Same threads, different (in some cases) posters. Slashdot is a COMMUNITY of people, not a uniform voice. I see people on all sides of every controversy here deriding the "slashdotters" or "slashbots" or whatever term they can think of. But, if you're posting here, THAT'S YOU you're talking about (hi, I'm in camp #4, good to meet you).
Some of us are flamers and trolls. Some of us are the innapropriate joke-makers. Some of us are suits with pointy hair. Some of us are late-night coders. And today, one of us is no more. If you're a regular, come in, sit down and have a drink. We'll toast the honored dead, maybe share a story or two, and the guy over in the corner will spout an embarassingly rude comment every few minutes. I just hope that when my time comes, he thinks of something really funny to say about me, and that (behind the masks of indignation), my friends smile just a little bit and remember me....
Peace and long life.
Whew, you had me going there for a minute.
Tens of thousands of people die daily to starvation, accidents and so forth.
Do you cry for each one? I doubt you do - don't act like a hypocrite.
And do you crack wise at every one? That's what the poster was talking about after all. There was no false grief, just asking why some people can't have the decency to show some minimal measure of respect.
I don't think you know what hypocrisy really is.
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
If a person's mindstream ceases when he or she dies, then anything you do after that moment has no relevance to that person - it can't offend them, because they no longer have the capacity to be offended. If it does not, then praying for that person may be beneficial, whether or not they would have approved of it in life.
:')
The problem with exhorting people to prayer in a public forum like this is that (1) it's pointless, and (2) some people who are still alive here find it offensive. It's pointless because if we think that prayer will help, and we have the capacity to do a sincere prayer on behalf of Hans, then we will do it whether or not we are exhorted.
It's offensive to some people for a variety of reasons - I will say for myself that I used to be offended by overt mentions of Christianity because I felt very judged by people who had blind faith and felt that I was defective because I didn't have the capacity to have blind faith. It doesn't offend me anymore, because I understand the problem better, but I think it's worth being understanding toward those who do have this problem, and examining ones' own actions to see if one is doing anything that would tend to engender this sort of feeling.
The job of a religious practitioner is to succeed in his or her practice, and it is through this that they may help others - any activity that projects one's religious beliefs outward is very risky, and needs to be undertaken with great seriousness, and probably not on a forum as public as slashdot.
This is not to say that you should shut up entirely, but I do urge you to consider your audience!
When someone as prominent and as much an annoyance to the coporate capitalist power structure as Richard Stallman has a nearly fatal accident we SHOULD start asking if there is a conspiracy to murder him.
F %2Fwww.debian.org%2FNews%2F2004%2F20040515&langpai r=de%7Cen&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&prev=%2Flanguage_too ls = 31&contentid=1110&page=1
The free software movement is in the crosshairs. Why do you think software patents have become such an issue recently? Did SCO come up with the idea of its copyright attack on Linux on its own all of a sudden? Some investor immediately gave it the cash infusion it needed to persue the lawsuit, recall (BayStar etc.) Was it SCO, by itself, that got the De Toqueville Institute to issue an article questioning the originality of Linux? In fact a lot of "think tanks" have been piling on the free software movement.
Free software is a loose cannon, the normal mechanisms that keep sources of consumer products and innovation from stepping on the toes of governments and governments' interests don't work with free software.
How happy do you think the United States is that free software has given China and countries like it an operating system which is guaranteed free of any CIA / NSA backdoors?
For christs sakes, how fucking naive do you have to be, of course they are going to start killing leaders of the free software movement.
I hope RMS isn't himself so naive and starts taking precautions (for all the good that will do him if the CIA wants him dead).
Some other highly suspicious accidents:
Microbiologists http://www.rense.com/general20/mic.htm
Free software authors (google translation from German) http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2
Alan Gibbs, founder of TruVote (electronic voting machines) http://conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid
I believe the tradition is that a glass used to remember a lost friend may never again be used for a lesser purpose. It is placed upside-down, so it cannot be refilled.
The phrase is used in many places, among them, Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the 10th-century Persian poetry of Omar Khaiyyam.
The Russian tradition of smashing a shot glass after a toast stems from the same source
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
The last thing he saw was broken Windows...
First, let me say that your post re: religious comments within this story's thread was about the fairest of those objecting to such comments.
With that said, I'd like to respond to your comment.
It seems as though you're suggesting that anyone who may have certain beliefs should feel almost _obligated_ to think twice before publically asking for those of the _same_faith_ to participate in something like a prayer, only because someone who may "over-hear" their request are not comfortable with their own beliefs and/or confusions. After all, if you're not of the same faith, I'd argue you weren't part of the audience since the comment was directed towards those of the same faith. Yes, it's a public forum, but the post was directed towards Chrisitans, or those of similar faith, praying for the deceased and the surviving loved ones. Should he/she have bit their tongue before posting such a comment in a public forum? Of course not, it's a public forum. If you get offended by the mere mention of religion, even if it's not directed towards you, I doubt a public forum is where you should be until you come to grips with your own beliefs.
I also want to mention that I'm agnostic.
"I have no special gift, I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein
Troll -1, Here I Come!
Reading 100's of strangers passing their respect to yet somebody they've never met dieing gives me a funny feeling.
How many people die each day? And of those, how many lead sorrowfull lives, filled with pain and suffering? How many of you pay a thought to them, and of those of you who do, are you willing to take a large dent in your own wealth to help them? Are you willing to spare your own time?
Its a common fact that people really don't care about strangers, but this shirade of caring when the opportunity arises makes me want to puke.
(To those who knew the victims, apologies for ranting, this was certainly not directed at you)
"" How about taking the safety labels off everything, and let the stupidity-problem solve itself? """
Dear All, please be aware of the initiative of the
h e condolences: http://www.condoleance.nl/registers/register_3254. html
Dutch irc community regarding the tragic accident of Hans Bakker.
I am Posting on their behalf. Also note the following urls
the text below: http://www.xs4all.nl/~mariekek/hans-im-eng.txt
t
Please direct to the ppl mentioned in the announcement for any further information.
Dear All,
Today 30 september we received the sad news of Hans Bakker's
(for the most of us known as McLightje) tragic accident in
the northern part of France in which he lost his life.
More information can be found at http://www.wiggy.net/tmp/accident/
In order to pay a proper tribute to our dear friend we
(Wiggy, JohnR and Tatsel) are organizing a fund to have
an obituary placed in one of the Dutch newspapers or otherwise.
Every action from our side will be done in close co-operation
and approval of Hans' family and relatives.
If you want to contribute please send an e-mail to the
address below IM.Hans.Bakker@gmail.com for further information
on how to contribute to Hans' tribute.
Thank you all in advance for your support.
Wiggy, JohnR and Tatsel
PS As you are all aware of McLightje's activities, please distribute this
e-mail to anyone you think Hans was involved with.
you can post condolences to Hans and his family and friends on this site.
This wikipedia page has already gone up for Hans. So if anyone can find out about his biography and post something up as a lasting memorial to the guy, then please do so. Thanks
I saw this accident scene this morning. Driving back from Paris to Brussels, there was a large traffic jam which took about 20 minutes to get through. The accident occured just after a rest stop, just after the point where the rest stop traffic merges back into the autoroute. Since its where I usually stop for a rest about an hour north of Paris, I can imagine they either stopped for a rest and were merging back onto the autoroute, or else they got caught in a bunch of trucks scooting around someone merging slowly. Lots of accidents happen at the far end of rest areas. It was pretty foggy this morning, its that season.
There was quite a bit of heavy equipment on the scene, a mobile crane on the slip road, and a bucket-crane truck with a dump truck picking up what was left of the one truck's load, it looked like scrap metal. There was the cab and remnants of a trailer, very shredded, on flatbed trucks on the slip road. There was obviously a fire, since parts of the guard rail were burned, and the asphalt was scorched. There were some Pompiers (firefighters) and about a dozen Gendarmes from the B.E.A (Bureau d'Enquetes Accidents) standing around, but they had obviously finished all of their report gathering by 10:30 AM when I passed.
I know Rop, and I've probably met the others at various linux/hac-tic/2600/CCC/EC patent protest events. My heart goes out to the families and loved ones of those involved, and here is wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured. This accident affects all of us in the techie, hacker-in-the-good-sense-of-the-word, and linux scenes here in Europe. Lets remember Hans for the good things he accomplished in his life.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on