Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 9th Jul 2009 12:09 UTC
During the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit, Richard M. Stallman of the Free Software Foundation (and the Superfluous Introduction Award goes to...) gave a keynote speech. Said keynote speech raised a few eyebrows in the Free software community because of a number of questionable remarks regarding women in technology. David "Lefty" Schlesinger, member of the GNOME Advisory Board and active in the mobile open source community, took issue with RMS' remarks and decided to call him out on it. The response he got was... Less than satisfying.
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RE[4]: What an utter non-issue - huge difference
by FreddyAV on Thu 9th Jul 2009 15:02
in reply to "RE[3]: What an utter non-issue - huge difference"
Member since:2009-07-09
RE[4]: What an utter non-issue - huge difference
by Bill Shooter of Bul on Thu 9th Jul 2009 15:14
in reply to "RE[3]: What an utter non-issue - huge difference"
Member since:2006-07-14
If it's no big deal for Stallman, why can't he go "my bad.. bad joke.. sorry for that" and move on? Jokes fail but a good speaker will accept that for what it is, not get evasive and defensive.
You don't understand what Stallman means when he says " Its no big deal" He means that other people shouldn't be offended. He does think its a valid, funny joke. And thus, he's not going to apologize.
My own opinion is that they are both wrong. Stallman isn't very funny. The whole bit is a long running inside joke, and thus not funny to the people who didn't create it. And viewed from the outside, with out an understanding of Stallman and the joke, it could be mildly offensive to people. But, if those same people were to spend a little time familiarizing themselves with the joke, they should understand that it was not meant to be offensive.
Its like a much less funny version of the "Spring Time for Hitler" sketch from "The Producers". Not meant to be offensive, but could really be offensive.
RE[5]: What an utter non-issue - huge difference
by jabbotts on Thu 9th Jul 2009 16:36
in reply to "RE[4]: What an utter non-issue - huge difference"
Member since:2007-09-06
I'd agree that both are responsible. Stallman's "no big deal" feels more like a dismissive brushoff. On the other hand, there is pointing out where offense may have been given though not intended and there's going overboard. We'll see how long this cycles around the discussions I guess.
In terms of the joke itself, even as an inside joke it's not wise to share in such a public forum. It's like a guy wearing a "virginity can be cured" shirt when it seems funny in high school then finding it in his shirt drawer once grown up with his own children. That type of joke has a very limited life span.
I know much of the comedy that sustained me before University is not remotely funny now and that's having known the joke's history and intent in deep detail. My previously mention of Dice Clay.. I used to be able to recite word for word and see the humor while remaining detached enough to not take personal offense. Now.. it's just simply not funny. The jokes have outlived there humor and just feel sad when repeated now.
Anyhow.. not worth going overboard with on either topic.
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
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Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
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Stallman and Carlin are not remotely in the same league. I can't think of a single Carlin commentary that was gender specific. Stallman has a big brain for technology but is not comparable to the satirical artistry of Carlin. Neither in terms of content or delivery. It's more like Stallman having a Andrew Dice Clay moment; poor delivery and poor choice of content.
If it's no big deal for Stallman, why can't he go "my bad.. bad joke.. sorry for that" and move on? Jokes fail but a good speaker will accept that for what it is, not get evasive and defensive.
Put simply, self deprecating jokes are one thing but when it involves any third party, a joke will be constructive not actively or passively hostile.