That’s just priceless.

He probably worries about the temperature of a hotel room because he is so fat, and walking to the door or bathroom may cause him to break out in a sweat, so to prevent that, it needs to be cold! But that’s a guess on my part…

So what, he can’t just eat if he can’t talk with the people PAYING HIM to be there? That’s as rude as answering your cellphone or texting when in the middle of a conversation. Way to show how little you care.

What an anti-social buffoon. Seriously. As for his bull-dookey about bus tickets and the like, the companies have every right to know who is on their vehicles. After all, if something DOES happen accident-wise, they have to know whom to inform about injuries, fatalities, and just plan letting someone know that everything is okay.

When it comes to hotels he needs to be told to shutup and accept what is being paid for him by someone else.

Parrots is just an excuse for him say he can’t come.

E-mail during meals is just rudeness to see who will put up with his bull-dookey.

Buffoon and jerk.

Not really fair (and downvoted!).

This is a stunningly accurate and self-perceptive filter to make sure that the only people who want RMS at a convention (or whatever) are prepared to put up with his noxious personality and absurd needs. You can’t really argue with the logic.

What you can argue with is why anybody would want him in the first place, let alone with this specious bag’o'needs.

Does he have a pension plan? Surely, at some stage, he’s going to need one.

Considering he could pack or purchase a $10 fan in the city he’s giving the talk in sort of makes the room temperature issue moot.

And I reiterate, I’ve never experienced a hotel room that was too hot, and I’m someone who likes it pretty chilly indoors.

RMS obviously suffers from a range of conditions (for example: obsessive compulsive disorder).

He needs help, but since he’s protected from any market forces, he can just act any way he damn pleases and no one can do a thing about it.

This is not uncommon in universities.

And while I think people like him should be placed in special institutions and clearly flagged as mentally handicapped (so as to prevent nonsense like the GNU/religion), currently any given individual and institution must use their own best judgement and avoid the likes of RMS on their own.

—————————————-

Also:
“This is a stunningly accurate and self-perceptive filter to make sure that the only people who want RMS at a convention (or whatever) are prepared to put up with his noxious personality and absurd needs. You can’t really argue with the logic.”

Our good Doctor has nailed it.

Mind you, I’ve upvoted this entry, since this list of conditions is the exact kind of loony, crazy nonsense that constitutes the whole GNU/idiotism that needs to be exposed.

“If you are not paying me a speaking fee, but you are paying for the airline tickets, I must insist that you cover the costs if I have to replace a lost ticket, the fee for changing the ticket if I miss a flight, or any other surprise expenses associated with my travel to and from your location.”

And crucially, that is the one. Ignore the whimsy and the temperature intolerance.

If RMS is not being paid a fee directly, then as far as I am concerned he can levy whatever ludicrous conditions he chooses. Yea, up to and including the theoretical parrot.

Have any of you people actually been dragged half way round the world to fulfil an obligation of some sort? It’s no fun whatsoever, I can tell you; from repeated experience.

So, either they are (stupidly) generous up front, or they are (reasonably) charged on the bottom line.

Seriously, I’d down-vote this one more time if I could. It’s entertaining, but unfortunately Richard is basically correct for once in his life.

Oh I agree that he has the right to place conditions as he sees fit.

No doubt about that.

The conditions themselves however, are crazy, just as he is.

Not the one about the costs though, he’s perfectly reasonable on that account.

Notice however, that this same ability to understand his own costs, leaves him completely, when it comes to the living costs of programmers (and indeed all other intellectual workers).

—-
“If you can find a host for me that has a friendly parrot, I will be very very glad. If you can find someone who has a friendly parrot I can visit with, that will be nice too.”

Is he trying to be “delightfully quirky” or something?
—-

Man, that’s the ugliest Manic Pixie Dream Girl I’ve ever seen!

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ManicPixieDreamGirl

Wowowow… so many TMs here

StallmanMinuteOfHate™ really stands out of course.

He’s taking ur jerbs!!

DemLinuxJerbs™

Oh noes Stallman believes in privacy rights – how evil

HavingPrinciplesIsBad™

Some of this in the comments
FreeSoftwareIsAReligion™

Funny… the Army used to drag me all over, but I never got compensated for inconvenience. RMS has a choice… he can either ask for the money up front, or otherwise take what is offered him in the way of compensation. As is, if his flight is delayed or rerouted, the airline is going to discuss things with the person paying the bill. And since RMS isn’t paying any bills, nor existing on the grid at all, he has nothing to worry about in the way of paying for unforeseen expenses. ;-)

Adam, Stallman hasn’t claimed a single job. But he has invented a way to eek money out of honest developers who sponsor his talks with money they earned writing software.

Good for him.

“If you can find a host for me that has a friendly parrot, I will be very very glad. If you can find someone who has a friendly parrot I can visit with, that will be nice too.”

Is this code talk for “I want a call girl to be in my room when I arrive”?

“Before using a hotel that has central air conditioning, find out what temperature it can actually lower a room to, during the relevant dates.”

Sir, I want the exact temperature you air condition can lower the room temperature too. In Kelvin. You 'll have to factor in ambient and external temperature in your formula.

PS: Just imagine how the loons would act if the boss of AIG or Bernake asked for similar things.

Regarding the parrot thing… I thought you were joking, but apparently not. You may enjoy a read of this:
http://stallman.org/cgi-bin/showpage.cgi?path=/articles/extreme.html&term=parrot&type=norm&case=0

Search for “A parrot once had” and I won’t bother posting the rest because you’ll think I’m taking the piss!

@PLATONICA

If you were refering to my comment, I was obviously joking! Plus, it was supposed to be a code word. But sometimes reality is weirder that the weirdest joke.

PS: If Stallman likes friendly parrots so much, can’t he just buy one? Sure, he 'll have to do some care and feeding (oh no! responsibilities!), but since according to his words it can be a full featured replacement of a woman, he might figure out it’s worth the effort and give it a shot.

no no I thought the parrot bit in the fud was too charged to be true, then I read the page linked to and saw he actually does have a thing for parrots!

That still didn’t make sense did it? I meant that when I read the fud, I thought the Parrot bit was an embelleshment by the author in reference to the Parrot incident I linked, but actually, it turns out he really does stipulate the availability of said avian.

“Funny that he has no issue with airlines requiring his name.“

Talk about double standards. He knows he can‘t impose his demands on airlines, so he swallows having hos name registered. On the other hand, knows he can impose his weird demands on train and bus companies, so he does it. Think of how he swallows having proprietary wifi firmware on a phone, because he knows he can‘t impose his weird demands to the companies who make cellphone components, but he acts like a jerk when Debian puts some proprietary wifi driver in a remote repository, just because he can (we have teh awesome gNewSense).

“A supply of tea with milk and sugar would be nice. If it is tea I
really like, I like it without milk and sugar. With milk and sugar,
any kind of tea is fine. I always bring tea bags with me, so if we
use my tea bags, I will certainly like that tea without milk or sugar.”

lmao

Wow. What a prima donna. he can’t be serious with all these demands.

——
Well, the above was my reaction before I read DrLoser’s comment, but now it makes perfect sense.

I mean, half the things on Stallman’s list also irritate me (being asked what to eat, superfluous hospitality, jumping dogs, etc). I’d love to be able to tell people to stop doing things that annoy me, especially when they think I like them.

The problem, however, is that Stallman absolutely lacks the concept of politeness. People do many things out of politeness, and refusing them is just plain rude. Also, normal people don’t whine about everything that irritates them, and they don’t put them in a list of demands before doing any work (He says that this is his only source of income!).

But then, when you have someone as loud as Stallman, this list serves as a big warning to everyone thinking about hosting one of his lectures. So it’s really thoughtful (hah) of Stallman to take time from his “email answering time” to write it.

Actually, I feel somewhat sorry for him after reading that email. He lives in poverty, his only source of income is speeches, the FSF doesn’t pay him, his constant job is simply responding to email (which he doesn’t get paid for), he refuses to use any sort of technology (a smart phone, especially one with a physical keyboard like Blackberry, would make his “job” much easier), and he hates pretty much everything.

This man needs help. Probably psychological help.

Yeah but most of this could be solved with a little simplification. The document could be cut down to a third by simply insisting on a hotel. I highly doubt anyone considers a couch for their guest speaker suitable accommodations.

Also, I think that if he’s dumb enough to lose his own ticket, he SHOULD pay out of pocket. Making someone pay for your mistake is ridiculous. Not to mention all the tertiary costs and time spent to organize the talk are wasted if he refuses to show up.

“A supply of tea with milk and sugar would be nice. If it is tea I
really like, I like it without milk and sugar. With milk and sugar,
any kind of tea is fine. I always bring tea bags with me, so if we
use my tea bags, I will certainly like that tea without milk or sugar.”

Does he keep those in his trouser pockets?

“This might seem unfair—if a ticket is lost, it could be my fault.
But my income is not large, and I cannot afford to assume this risk
myself if the event offers me no income.”

Meh. That’s perfectly fair. There is also insurance you can buy on tickets these days that would cover most if not all of the expenses related to a missed plane.

“In some places, my hosts act as if my every wish were their command.
By catering to my every whim, in effect they make me a tyrant over
them, which is not a role I like. I start to worry that I might
subject them to great burdens without even realizing. I start being
afraid to express my appreciation of anything, because they would get
it and give it to me at any cost. If it is night, and the stars are
beautiful, I hesitate to say so, lest my hosts feel obligated to try
to get one for me.”

This man is f|_|cking awesome.

IMGX64 and RC:

Yes, he needs psychiatric help, although it’s presumably too late. IMGX64 and Administrator hit the nail on the head when they point out that these are symptoms of somebody who is more or less a functioning autistic. I may actually have to stop being rude about RMS before Queef accuses me of paticularism in the mental illnesses I defend.

And I’ll say one thing for him, he does seem to respond quickly to emails from anywhere at all. Unsurprisingly the response quite often lacks grace, but he does respond.

As a parallel thought to that, I ask you to consider the fact that (at least according to Nick Cohen of the Observer) Noam Chomsky is also very good at responding to emails from anon.

It’s quite endearing in a way. I wonder what else they have in common, apart from being prize Loons?

“It’s quite endearing in a way. I wonder what else they have in common, apart from being prize Loons?”

What do you have against Noam Chomsky? I admit I don’t know much about him personally, but his research in formal language theory was my favorite subject back in university (Actually, the Formal Languages professor talked about Chomsky on pretty much every lecture).

Before that gem about pulling out his computer before dinner:

Dinners:

If you are thinking of setting up a lunch or dinner for me with more
than 4 people total, please consider that as a meeting, and discuss it
with me in advance. Such meals draw on my strength, just like
speeches and interviews. They are not relaxation, they are work.


I expect to do work during my visit, but there is a limit on the
amount of work I can handle each day. So please ask me in advance
about any large planned meal, and expect me to say no if I have a lot
of other work already. If we are having a meal that I did not agree
to as a large meal, and other people ask if they can join, please tell
them no. In both cases, please tell them that I need a chance to
relax after the other work I will have done.

So if the number of people joining him for dinner just happens to exceed 4, it magically becomes a work meeting, w/ all that it entails! Priceless!

How many people are really with the FSF?

“So if the number of people joining him for dinner just happens to exceed 4, it magically becomes a work meeting, w/ all that it entails! Priceless!”

He’s got issues, as we’ve observed before.

If I had to guess, I’d say that noise probably tires him and, of course, social interactions are very stressful to people like him.

......

So he doesn’t like people around him when he’s trying to rest and relax (big surprise).

———————————————-

Let’s repeat it again: Stallman should be in an institution (his whole life); treating him as if he is a normal (albeit a bit strange) person is a mistake, with negative consequences for him and others around him.

“Stallman should be in an institution (his whole life);”

This is why I call you Winbreds fascists. You disagree with someone’s mannerisms and ideas and want to lock them up for it.

Thankfully we don’t live in the 1940s anymore and your fascist fantasies will never happen in the civilized world.

I don’t think he’s crazy, but damn, if he’s not exhibiting all the signs of loneliness brought on by a severe case of Asperger syndrome. I find him annoying, but I found Bill Gates’ “visionary” speeches annoying too.

What I find distressing is that people actually look up to him and treat him with any sort of authority. This would be like being in awe and full of respect for the bully who antagonizes you every day at school. They don’t see him as an angry thug striking out at the world under the guise of freedom and intellectualism.

I just think you don’t understand WHY he supports Free Culture so strongly.

You ought to read this:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/copyright-versus-community.html

Seriously just read it and maybe you’ll understand why so many people are “fanatical” about Free Culture, even if you don’t agree with it.

You really don’t bother to read, do you, Adam? HowWouldYouKnowIfYouHaventTriedIt™?

Yes, we’ve all read that little gem of wisdom. And yes, it’s crap. Or to put it more politely it appears to be the ravings of a loon and is very unlikely to change our opinion.

The irony is that Richard is the very last person to care about a “Community,” as amply demonstrated by his aversion to sitting down to a meal with other people, engaging in coversation, etc.

I wasn’t talking to you DrLoser. I was talking to Administrator. Thanks.

Oh I’ve read it. It reads like a manifest written by a fanatic.

To those of us who don’t subscribe to a doctrine and try to remain pragmatic, this reads like a sports nut claiming that the Yankees are enslaving baseball fans by winning too many games.

Well, speaking as a Red Sox fan …

Actually I have to apologise to Adam: I hadn’t, in fact, read this particular rant. There even seems to be a lot of new stuff in it. I’ll have another go this evening.

What exactly was fanatical about it, administrator?

Adam

You seem to miss a major point about rms. The issue is not merely that he supports 'software freedom’, it’s that he believes that people/corporations should be forced to live under a regime where they can’t declare their work off-limits to others. He’s on record as saying, in interviews, that MS and other proprietary software companies don’t have a right to exist. THAT is the main thing that rubs people the wrong way.

There is no better display of his fanaticism than in the GNU explanation of why they don’t endorse certain 'GNU/Linux’ vendors. In some of the cases, like Debian, even though they separate their 'free’ and 'non-free’ software, they still offer people the option of getting the non-free software, and in the eyes of the FSF, THAT makes them not worth endorsing. Live & let live is unheard of for this guy.

If one visits http://stallman.org , one would get a truer picture of this guy. One who has a greater liking for Col Gadaffi than Steve Jobs.

I challenge you to find a single paragraph in this rant that can’t be reasonably described as “fanatical,” Adam. Just to take one more or less at random:

“Even if we look at named authors only: consider Shakespeare, who borrowed stories from other works only a few decades old, and did them in different ways, and made important works of literature. If today’s copyright law had existed then, that would have been forbidden and those plays wouldn’t have been written.”

If today’s copyright law had existed then, it would have had no such consequence. This is gibbering idiocy in pursuit of a personal vendetta.

Is this really what Stallman thinks of artistic works? The details don’t matter, the characterisation (or colour, or tone, or whatever, don’t matter?

That it’s all just “Green Eggs And Ham” with an occasional change of colour or pig product?

... well, that would certainly explain the crappy software he fronts up for.

But it sounds either fanatical or childish to me; plausibly both.

“If today’s copyright law had existed then, it would have had no such consequence. This is gibbering idiocy in pursuit of a personal vendetta.”

Even if we applied “le droit d’auteur” of the post-Revolution France, which gave playwrights lifetime exclusive rights to their works in theatrical performances and so forth plus 50 years post-mortem for whoever inheriting the exclusivity, that assertion about Shakespeare would still be holding as much water as a bucket with a giant hole in the bottom.

And the bulk of Berne Convention is based on the French law from that period, ya know?

DrLoser,

I asked administrator, not you.

“he believes that people/corporations should be forced to live under a regime where they can’t declare their work off-limits to others.”

http://lwn.net/Articles/463501/

“The FSF would welcome a legal requirement to make all software free
but does not advocate one now. It would be too drastic a change
for the current situation.”

(And no, JoeMonco, I’m not quoting him because I agree with him. I’m quoting him as a point of reference.)

That's just priceless.

I can't believe you care.