Comment by parfe | Hacker News Reader

Comment by parfe | Hacker News Reader

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tl;dr summary

1) I was a popular guy in school. Ridiculously popular.

2) Although I was popular (even if I didn't hang out with the other kids), I am still a good guy because I hung around the weird kid in school. He still acted weird, but I was a good guy so I stuck it out.

3) Did I mention he never stopped being weird? Did I mention I was popular even though I didn't hang out with all the other people?

4) I was popular in high school so I fully expected to be popular on the Internet. I blazed a path and these people didn't even care, or like me! Editors note: Note the lack of introspection. Perhaps they don't like you despite the path you blazed (or claim to have blazed)?

5) I released my life's work under the GPL and the internet ganged up on me for it. Even strangers in real life picked on me. Why aren't I still popular?

6) Kottle highlighted a single odd entry in RMS's rider which made me ill. I'll defend RMS by saying "YEAH, so he's weird!"

errata: Winer went to a high school which had recess.

This is so over the top that I can't decide if it's a deliberate troll or not. But if you really think this kind of ridicule and lashing out is an appropriate response to a blog post about needless ridicule then... well, I don't know. Shame on you I guess. This is just sad.

Not every application of the written word needs to be documenting an event or opinion. This post isn't a good summary of what Winer wrote. It is, however, good reading.

Winer can be a little annoying from time to time. This post harps on that particular aspect of Winer without saying, "you know, Dave Winer annoys me." If you read through it, you laugh a bit, and think "yeah, this post sounds like it's about RMS but it's really about Winer", and that's interesting insight. parfe could have said exactly that, but why use one line to say what you literally mean when you can convey that message and entertain at the same time?

actually, i was pretty shocked when i read kottke's post. the parrot thing was supremely reasonable - it wasn't even remotely prima donnaish, despite the parallels kottke tried to draw. all it said was "i like parrots; if there is someone around who has a parrot i can visit, that would be nice". he even emphasised the fact that people should not go out and buy parrots just to keep him happy, and explained (gently!) exactly why that would be a bad idea. whichever way i slice it, i can see nothing more in that post than kottke picking on stallman simply because he's an easy target.

Winer could write a blog post criticizing the treatment of RMS without, say, whinging about Winer's hard lot in life. Since Winer made himself unnecessarily central to the blog post, it opens him up to criticism on those grounds distinct from any discussion of rms or people's behavior towards rms.

And though I pay virtually no attention to Winer, a cursory googling finds a trail of bad feelings and nasty behavior (lawsuits over $5k and handshake deals, nasty personal disputes, etc). So it's not unreasonable to suggest people in glass houses should keep their mouths shut.

I thought that recess part was weird too. Bronx Science had recess? There were seven future Nobel Prize-winning physicists pondering the universe on those teeter totters.

Do high schools in the United States not generally have recess? Classes all morning, then lunch, then classes all afternoon?

Aside from anything else, recess is a much-needed coffee break for the teachers.

That is correct.

Teachers have a "planning period" typically where they get 1 full class period off.

Up until now I just assumed all schools had both recess and lunch. It is required in Australia.

Your summary has a very sarcastic tone, just saying.

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