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Re: [Gnu-arch-users] the way forward


From: James Blackwell
Subject: Re: [Gnu-arch-users] the way forward
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2005 21:02:15 -0400
User-agent: Mutt/1.5.9i

On Wed, Sep 07, 2005 at 03:55:52PM -0700, Thomas Lord wrote:
> I encourage the very bored to read James' essay.   The more jaded will
> find nothing new: it's a mishmash of half-remembered economics and
> weakly presented libertarian sentiment mixed in with some none-too-
> subtle, snide, and indirect slanders against yours truly (or do I
> flatter myself too much in identifying myself as the "you-know-who", the
> bold-faced "any person", the desperate "individual" of whom he speaks).

I agree that there's nothing new there; its basic stuff that anyone
trying to survive in a society like ours is stuff should know.  I don't
know where the libertarian stuff is, however. 

You're almost correct on your latter point. I was motivated to write for
you, though the person I had in mind was someone else. The target that I
wrote for was for the male counterpart of a temporarily homeless couple
named Tom Gilroy and Marie that lived with me for almost a month. Gilroy
has had a bit of bad luck that he's excaberated in dramatic ways that has
essentially . 

> Yes, James, your lack of imagination, absence of intellectualism,
> willingness to cynically defame rather than speak to the issues
> at hand -- these are all familiar have been long noted.  Somebody
> toss that boy a dog treat.

Wuff! Wuff! 

Btw, you're right. My baby brother ended up being the artist of the
family (if you've seen those commercials in which office copier and fax
machines turn into office people, you've seen his work).

I'm glad that you ascribe lack of imagination to the work that I wrote.
That tells me that I'm not making things up! I'll also agree that I'm more
cynical in some areas and less cynical in others.

I'm not not quite sure what to do with the intellectualism comment; later
down I read a compliment from you that my personal essay is similiar to
the ideas that I understand that Ayn Rand also had. That was a bit of
thought that supposedly had quite a effect on business society.

> You may not have noticed but nobody here has attacked capitalism.
> Andrew's comment that "money corrupts" perhaps comes the closest
> but I doubt that even he meant it that way.   We can only hope that
> a gold-star has been pasted next to your name in the rolls of the
> naughty and nice that the VCs and execs in your imagination maintain.

I wonder how many people on the list would be happier if nobody attacked
anything. The channel could focus on just technical issues such as the
development of distributed revision control.  I wonder what the moderator
on this list has said about off topic discussions...

> You may not have noticed that you and yours at Canonical[...]

I'll abstain from this (conflict of interest), other than stand by my word
from last year that I don't work for companies that like to act in evil
ways. 

> Perhaps you are unaware that you and yours stand accused of
> manufacturing, in effect or by intention (who can say), the perception
> that I am difficult to work with.   Presumably you have forgotten
> boasting to me, early on in this mess, about your personal skill
> at manipulating public opinion from your keyboard.

Again, I'll have to recuse myself from this.

Would anyone like to do a study of previous public posts and determine
who's instigated what, when? 

Regarding the last sentence, I'd be happy to see a quote in order to give
a more accurate amplification. I know that I work very hard at motivating
people to work on social efforts (especially free software). I'm not aware
of bragging about manipulating people.

I certainly do put enough effort into getting people to understanding my 
view.


> It's telling that completely absent from your analysis is any 
> response at all to accusations about the technical quality of
> the work you folks have been doing, the longer term implications
> of that, and the implications of the entire affair for the relationship
> between volunteer labor and the FOSS industry.  In the final
> analysis, you'll have a hard time justifying your approaches
> as even rationally self-interested from your owner's perspective.

I'm certain that others are better qualfied to measure the technical
quality of the work than I am. If a issue comes up that 1) I have an
opinion on 2) have experience in and 3) feel comfortable expounding on,
then I'll do so. 

  
> It's fascinating that you have a view of capitalism substantially at 
> odds with that of the wealthy who modulate the bulk of major 
> developments in our industry yet at the same time, a view that 
> well befits a complete tool trying to sell himself to the highest
> bidder and damn the consequences.

I'm glad that you found something fascinating. I don't have a lot of data
about what the views of wealthy people, so I'll take your word for it that
its substantially different.


> There are higher values in life, James, than a vague dedication to
> the writings of Ayn Rand.

Believe it or not, I've never read Ayn Rand, though I'm lightly familiar
with her work from third party sources. A quick google shows the book
still has a bit of impact upon society, so I apparently state something
that is either true, or influential enough to merit study.

The idea certainly isn't mine. I heard from from an old friend a long
while ago in the Navy. At the time I thought he was full of it, but I've
started to see his point that I was able to draw together the pieces that
I wrote of today.


If you'd like to take the essay apart piece by piece and point out which
facts or suppositions are wrong, then I'd be thankful, because then I
could write a better essay.

> There are more lasting ways of doing business, James.

I agree that there's more lasting ways of doing business of capitalism.
Unfortunately, capitalism is the way that most, if not all, industrialized
societies have gone.

I would love, in more ways than I can express, for you to prove some point
of my essay incorrect. Then I could go gallavanting about the world in
bear feet and moon people anyone I dislike without fear of reprocussions.
=)


In the meantime, I think that the essay clearly illuminates the importance
of getting along with others.

> Having set out to be a destructive force to achieve a petty level
> of personal gain, you and yours have succeeded today.   Let's see
> what all our tomorrow's bring.

I respectfully disagree.  I see many creations around that are materially
better off today as compared to a year ago: 

- Gnuarch has had several revisions since Aug '04

- Bazaar has had many revisions in its lifetime that provided gobs of
  interface and bug fix work from its original gnaurch base.

- The supermirror has plugged along throughout and has grown to.. oh,
  about 10 times in size.

- Bazaar-NG is growing by leaps and bounds

- Pyarch has seen quite a bit of work.

In closing, I continue to wish you well. I can only imagine the things
that you'd be able to create and effect under the right circumstances.

If you're able to work things out, with or without any personal growth,
then I'll be thrilled and rest comfortably knowing that the world once
again has Tom Lord as a force to reckon with.

If things don't work out yet, then *keep* trying. Edison made 3,000
attempts at making a lightbulb before he succeeded (incidentally, that
first one he made that works _still burns today_).



-- 
 James Blackwell      |   Life is made of the stuff that hasn't killed
 Tell someone a joke! |   you yet.                       - yours truly
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GnuPG (ID 06357400) AAE4 8C76 58DA 5902 761D  247A 8A55 DA73 0635 7400




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