Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: How To Play WMV (thread drift -slaveryware)

[Bob Young]

Richard Fish wrote:
> On 9/29/06, Bob Young <BYoung@××××××××××.com> wrote:
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: richard.j.fish@×××××.com [mailto:richard.j.fish@×××××.com]On
>> > On 9/29/06, Bob Young <BYoung@××××××××××.com> wrote:
>> > > it's true from Duncan's perspective because that's the way it
>> *feels* to
>> > > him. In the end that's just feel good rationalization and total
>> > bullshit.
>> >
>> > Ok, so now you are saying that Duncan's opinion is wrong.  You don't
>> > respect Duncan's opinion, but you expect us to respect yours?  I call
>> > hypocrite.
>>
>> Nice strawman, I've never said, or implied that I didn't respect
>> Duncan's
>> opinion. In fact just the opposite, I've specifically told him that I
>> believe he has thought a lot about this, and that I believe he is
>> sincere.
>
> Then I apologize.  I gathered that "total bullshit" was in reference
> to Duncan's beliefs.
>
No, I've always thought Duncan was sincere, and that he had given this a 
great deal of thought.. The total bullshit remark was my disdain for the 
practice (by some people) of  advocating that no one should necessarily 
have to support their opinions and the terms they use to express them 
with real logic and evidence, in effect saying that anything goes, and 
it's all okay as long as it's "what you feel," I think that's 
intellectually bankrupt.

>> When was the last time that you personally submitted a *patch* for
>> some open
>> source app/utility/driver?
>
> Not really relevant to this discussion, but:
>
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.devel/39777
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.devel/40207
>
>> Another example: It would take me a very long time to fix a problem
>> with a
>> SCSI driver, compared to someone who works on SCSI drivers regularly.
>> Would
>> *you* want to pay for the many extra hours of troubleshooting due to my
>> inexperience with <fill in blank> type of code?
>
> Well the alsa patches above did take me dozens of hours to figure out.
> Much of that was figuring out how the alsa driver worked, studying
> the Intel HDA specification, and fiddling with own hardware.  So yes,
> it can take an amazing amount of time.
>
> The point is, anybody _can_ do it, if they are willing to invest the
> time and effort into it.  It is very very much like learning a foreign
> language.  I don't speak German...so I am totally dependant upon a
> translator if I want to communicate with someone who speaks only
> German.  But should I not be able to find a translator willing to work
> for what I am willing to pay, I always have the option of learning to
> speak German myself.
I suppose it comes down how one values being technically correct versus 
what actually happens in the real world. Personally I tend to be more 
practical, but certainly the world needs people who stick to the exact 
letter of the law, as we do of course need some accountants and lawyers.

That being said, I can't resist making the tangential and totally off 
topic comment that I think America  in general, has gone waaaaay too far 
toward the *exact letter of the law* side. Zero tolerance, mandatory 
sentences,  and just the general "climate" of the society has removed so 
much of the decision making and discretion that was available in the 
past. It has been removed at all levels of government, everybody from 
grade school principles, to circuit court judges, have almost no choice 
in how to handle the situations and cases that come before them.. Thus 
we are in a society where: a student is suspended for giving another 
student aspirin, a 19 yr old is a registered sex offender for having 
consensual sex with his 16yr old girlfriend, and you can be sent to 
prison for life for stealing a slice of pizza.. I hope the pendulum 
starts to swing the other way, and at least some of this madness gets 
reversed, but to be honest, I'm not very optimistic.

>
>> All code is not the same, and software engineers are not all
>> interchangeable.
>
> Heh, try telling that to management at ${mycompany}! ;-P
>
Are you kidding, it has taken me years to explain just some of it to my 
wife [:-)

-- 
Regards
Bob Young
-- 
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