W. Richard Stevens Passes On 266
Tybstar writes "Looks like W. Richard Stevens has passed on, according to this Deja article. The poster of that article is listed in the credits of UNIX Network Programming, and the book mentions his place of work.
" Thanks to mpearce, we have a link to an obituary. It's weird to think that just yesterday I almost bought one of his books...
Farewell Mr. Stevens... (Score:1)
Maybe in tribute, we can all pour a Jolt (or caffeinated beverage of choice) on the sidewalk in his honor.
Re:I noticed something too. (Score:1)
Kohala.com as a permanent tribute to Stevens? (Score:1)
I wonder if Richard Steven's family would agree to keep his wonderful Kohala [kohala.com] website permanently open as a tribute?
Re:Oh, shit. (Score:1)
You are soooo stupid (Score:1)
Only you would be dumb enough to actually stick to strict syntax w/ a /. sig. I know a single char is an int (0x4d is the ASCII value for "M", which you apparently didn't know). I KNOW this won't really work. But you get the general idea. This is where that "imagination" (Geez. A man is (apparently) dead, and we're arguing over which one of us is stupider. Get a life.
You are soooo stupid (previous got messed up) (Score:1)
Only you would be dumb enough to actually stick to strict syntax w/ a /. sig. I know a single char is an int (0x4d is the ASCII value for "M", which you apparently didn't know). I KNOW this won't really work. But you get the general idea. This is where that "imagination" (<- look! a string! this _would_ be a pointer) thing I spoke of comes into play. Unfortunately, spending too much time coding has killed yours.
Geez. A man is (apparently) dead, and we're arguing over which one of us is stupider. Get a life.
Anti-Anti-Perl-Bigot-Bigots (Score:2)
There's a reason you're hiding being an Anonymous Coward shield.
Being an elitist zealot may impress your mad-hacker-script-kiddie friends on IRC, but a point comes at which you have to realize a person for their humanity and not their superfluous opinions on technology.
The guy wasn't fond of Perl -- it wasn't like he was encouraging slave-labor in Indonesia or funding slave-trading and supplying nuclear arms to third-world nations.
The open-source movement, if nothing else, is an effort to recognize the value of differing opinions, needs, thoughts, and the strength of humanity -- so show some.
---
icq:2057699
seumas.com
Earth to AC (Score:1)
One thing this pile of posts shows... (Score:1)
You know a person is beloved when...
Speculation that his death might be a hoax emerges.
Iconoclasts start pissing on them right away.
Our microcephalic AC's have actually heartened me this day. They bolster Stevens' greatness all the more.
I will, however keep an eye out for him at my local 7-11. Ya just never know...
Re:I hate that euphemism... (Score:1)
Stevens' books are the best (Score:1)
among technical authors.
I hate that euphemism... (Score:2)
Nick
From his Preface (sort of a Eulogy) (Score:5)
I produced camera-ready copy of the book (PostScript), which was then typeset for the final book. The formatting system used was James Clark's wonderful groff package, on a SparcStation running Solaris 2.6. (Reports of troff's death are greatly exagerated.) I typed in all 138,897 words using the vi editor, created the 72 illustrations using the gpic program (using many of Gary Wright's macros), produced the 35 tables using the gtbl program, performed all the indexing (using a set of awk scripts written by Jon Bentley and Brian Kernighan), and did the final page layout. Dave Hanson's loom program, the GNU indent program, and some scripts by Gary Wright were used to include the 8,046 lines of C source code in the book.
I just had a big smile on my face after I first read this. Stevens was Unix to the very core.
his books were the best (Score:1)
My condolences to his family. Through his books he made a deep contribution to the future of the Internet.
Sigh (Score:1)
copy of Unix Network Programming and was looking at his TCP/IP book just the other day.
John Casey
p.s. I can't but help feel people are now going to list all the books they own that he wrote
No, ban. (Score:1)
We've lost a giant... (Score:1)
Regardless of what he thought about Linux and/or Perl, he was a very influential person on the Linux/*BSD scene, even though he was not an actual Linux/*BSD coder - his books have taught a lot of 'real' techies much of what they know about system calls and networking. Ya' don't see writers like him everyday, or every year.
The torch isn't going to be passed for a long time, folks.
-Chad,
Rather disusted by a lot of the posts, even some which weren't lowered to -1.
Get a grip (Score:1)
Re:No flowers for anti-Perl bigots (Score:1)
Re: This may be a good thing (Score:1)
Yeesh!
-awc
Way to go! (Score:2)
And I'm glad you've made some of the highest-ranked AC posts ever. That really makes you a good person. Or, more likely, you really know how to suckup to the moderators. Congratulations.
His books were highly sought after - says it all. (Score:1)
Chris Morgan
Re:The military? Yeah, right. (Score:1)
Could it be true that people become computer geeks because they are antisocial? Some of these postings certainly suggest it.
More than likely it's that there are assholes in any cross section of the population and this guy is one of them.
W. Richard Stevens will be missed ... (Score:1)
discussion group. I've received some very
useful responses from him.
I've met him once in Boston, about 6 years ago.
He gave a presentation on IPv6 with an emphasis
on programming perspective. It was very
informative.
As I'm writing this message, two of his books -
TCP/IP illustrated, and Unix network programming
sit on my desk.
News of his death simply blew my mind.
Re:A hoax? (Score:1)
------
Re:Kohala (Score:1)
"I just wish I'd written and thanked him a long time ago. RIP."
Very sad news. Stevens put a lot of himself into his books -- read
Prentice-Hall's interview with him, linked on his site. Stevens talks
about how he writes his books, and what his ideals are in that respect.
I took the opportunity to express my appreciation while visiting his
site recently; I'm glad I did.
***********************************************
From: rstevens@kohala.com (W. Richard Stevens)
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 01:13:45 -0700
[In your message of Aug 31, 8:06pm you write:]
> The bottom line is that your books are in my experience the best
> available -- I'm thinking of APUE, TCPIP Illustrated (v1 is all I've
> read of it), and UNP (I see v2 is out now -- I'll order it tomorrow!) I
> thoroughly enjoy reading your books; it's sort of a geek communion.
Many, many thanks.
Rich Stevens
***********************************************
Just one thing to say (Score:2)
Stevens and Slashdot (Score:1)
knack for getting tough technical points across
in easy to understand language. His books have
been a big help to me over the years and I own
a ton of them. They are worth every penny I paid
for them. I think the computer industry just lost
a wonderful teacher today.
You'll be missed..
As for slashdot... WTF is going on with this
place lately??? Anyone notice over the past few
weeks that the number of A$$holes has increased
10 fold? This article is about a great mans death
and you F%ckheads have to consume over 100 posts
bashing each other back and forth? "Suck my dick,
Fuck you, No Fuck you" etc..etc..etc.
I can live with the first post morons..
And even tolerate the occassional wacko. But
recently its exploded. IF YOU DONT HAVE ANYTHING
CONSTRUCTIVE TO ADD, STOP TYPING PLEASE! Your
wasting all our bytes. Dam.. I gotta change my
preferences... sheesh
Flame all ya want.. I am sure ya will..
Anyway.. Mr. Stevens you will be missed by many of
us.
Malice95
Re:Hated his work (Score:1)
Re:Just noticed something (Score:1)
Re:Good bye, Rich. Good riddance, Slashdot. (Score:1)
That was, indeed, a refreshing reprive from the flame-fodder that usually pollutes this site. You speak with both eloquence and truth, and I lament only not having said these things before you. Thank you, sir.
From a Sun Microsystems bug report (#4102680):
What a low life wanders here.. (Score:1)
Re: This may be a good thing (Score:1)
Great Loss (Score:1)
--
Insanity Takes Its Toll. Please Have Exact Change
What a sad, pitiful mess we all are (Score:1)
As long as our community speaks out with such depravity and immaturity, even such a small minority, it will not receive respect many of us desire, and have worked for. The events last week with Unisys (a company whose policies many of us, rightly, disagree with), and many other times, here on Slashdot, the usenet, the web, and in other forums will continue to harm us. Until we choose to grow up and cease our continues flaming, we will not achieve our goals. Grow up people, this is not a religion, this is not a war. This is about debating our ideals and achieving our goals in a mature, productive, fashion. Instead of sending filthy, offensive emails to everyone you don't agree with, sit down, pick a project, and get to work on it. Or start a project of your own to address a need or shortcoming in Linux, or something you think would be pretty cool. That is what RMS, Linux, ESR, and the rest have been fighting for. That is what we all, I hope, believe in.
Re:We've lost a giant... (Score:1)
Re:What a sad, pitiful mess we all are (Score:1)
I never knew.... (Score:1)
reach two major dreams of my life- be a networking
specialist and be a pilot.
RIP, great man, shine your light upon the
coming generations.
Re:How I'll remember him (Score:1)
Good bye Richard, I hope you are at peace. The world will grieve your loss and the contributions you might have made.
sri
Imagine that.. (Score:1)
Its just a nut in the tree (Score:2)
This is like someone showing up at a funeral and spitting on the grave while others who wish to look at the contributions of a person. Its distracting and makes me think about what could make a person so detatched.
Re:From his Preface (sort of a Eulogy) (Score:3)
TCP/IP Illustrated came out. We both attended
University of Michigan and both used the MTS
in the early 70's.
Here's a piece of the email convo to demonstrate
just the kind of guy Rick was...
> As a troff die-hard myself (I'm the author of the JetRoff
> laserjet backend for ditroff), this raised my curiosity
> to a such a level that I had to write. You use troff
> so well in this book that I wonder, would it be possible
> to get the actual troff, tbl, pic, whatever source for
> say the first couple of chapters, just for my own
> personal education and gratification? I'd love to see
> how camera ready troff is written for an actual book.
Hi. I've seen your name for years in the troff newsgroups. Didn't
you used to be in New Jersey?
Here's a shar file for Chapters 2 and 3, along with their pic files.
I also use lots of shell scripts and awk programs to automate things.
For example, the automatic numbering of figures and the like is done
using awk. Rather than try to explain what it all does, take a look
and just ask questions if you have any. I use the -ms macros, with
numerous additions of my own, and a little tinkering. Troff comments
"foo" are where I put in page breaks at the end--I normally put in
each page break by hand when doing the page layout. All the
macros are also index entries that I put in by hand at the end.
Naturally, please don't redistribute these files at all. Also, thanks
for the kind words about the book--glad you enjoy it and find it useful.
Rich Stevens
Good bye, Rich. Good riddance, Slashdot. (Score:5)
Rich was always gentleman: pleasant, helpful, and courteous. Despite his fame and his skill, no prima donna was he. He was never bitter nor spiteful, never arrogant nor condescending. His humor and his insights inspired many of us, and not merely in our programming.
In the last few years that I came to know Rich a bit better as we shared a meal at random conferences scattered about the globe, I was always impressed by his irrepentantly positive attitude. Whatever the tale he told, whether a personal one relating to his children or his delightful rediscovery of the piano, a professional one related to programming and computers, or simply some incidental anecdote, that tale he presented with a childlike delight and glee. Rich displayed a perpetually positive attitude rare in a man even half his age. He was uplifting merely to be around.
Never was I so honored as on that day when Rich lamented not bringing his Perl Cookbook with him so he could get my autograph on it. I was deeply touched and completely surprised. Rich is acknowledged in the credits for his indirect help in preparing that book from our discussions of troff and systems programming matters. Despite his good taste and obvious skill, he had been for some time using Perl for various daily jobs. It's true that Rich had minor issues with Perl's cleanliness, but these were subsumed by the practical concerns of simply getting a job done easily and quickly. In short, it worked and he used it, and he was thankful it saved him time. The very things that the HTML crowd find hardest with Perl -- its Unix roots and proclivities -- Rich found immediately familiar and obvious. I am proud that I had ever so small a part in helping out a man who had tremendously helped me and thousands of others.
It is with nothing less than complete shock and surpassing shame that I have read here what so many insensitive malcontents have cruelly and unjustly scrawled. Doubtless these are the same twisted perverts who torture kittens and kick pregnant mothers, a sickness upon this medium and this planet. I hope these sociopaths find help soon, or at least remove themselves from the company of men and the gene pool.
Forget not this one inescapable fact: that where Rich has gone, so too inexorably goes each and every one of you walking shadows, and tragically sooner than you dare fathom. May you be remembered in the same measure as have you remembered those who preceded you down that lonesome path to dusty death.
It does not take a particularly compassionate and sensitive person to be sickened and hurt by these inexpressibly horrible postings. It takes nothing but a decent and caring human being, the sort of which we seem to have so few of these days--and today, to our loss, one fewer.
Re:It's more than that (Score:1)
I think people need to step back somewhat from the perspective-draining provincialism that has been seen here on the various postings. I'll admit to complete ignorance of this man's positive or negative attributes. I never even heard of him till I read this. I didn't know ANYTHING about him, only that he was techical enough to have Rob place an announcement of his death on
I think that people need to realize that there are a few sacred cows that transcend CS, that affect us all due to our greater abstraction than IT, *humanity*. Don't get me wrong. I'm a die-hard techie, as my parents will, to their chagrin, vouch for. I spend far too much time at my computer, the one I saved for 6 months to buy. But I still recognize the power of greater things than CS, let alone Linux or KDE or any of the other 65 kazillion CS things I like or don't like.
Notably:
Religion - by definiton (or at least by the definition of my religion (christianity)) religion supercedes *everything*.
The Search For Knowledge - exemplified perfectly by the
and, last but not least:
Humanity - For any kind of exchange or enriching experience, the participants must, at pain of waste of their own time and that of others, hold to the basic tenets of respect and kindness. Very simple values that have been simeaultaneusly trumpeted and rejected by many of the world. I am continually apalled by the lack of my fellow teenagers respect for *anything*. The gifted (yet shortsighted) of these tend to cry wolf, very perceptively and rightly, at all the various injustices of the day, and wax nostalgic about how kindness is going down the drain.
It pains me to see such myopic tendancies that surround my daily life pollute my _escape_ from such pettiness, the usually clearheaded tech culture.
Take a step back, look at the greater things you sacrifice when you fight over meaningless things.
Micah McCurdy
Re:From his Preface (sort of a Eulogy) (Score:2)
Someone once asked me to document how to use one of my kluge programs. I told him that it would take me as much time to write the documentation in troff as it took me write the program. My ability to write concise and proper test is pathetic. To have to go in an edit the test is difficult.
Thank you for your reply. As I initially stated, I feel even worse after reading your reply and some of the other posts on this story.
Re:If Bill Gates died I'd go piss on his grave. (Score:1)
Put aside any dislike for MS you may have, but how could anyone be that twisted?
I don't like Microsoft or it's products. I don't hate them, or even Gates for that matter, and if he were to die tomorrow, I wouldn't celebrate. The death of anyone is a sad affair.
It amazes me how callious and disgusting people can be.
Re:On moderation (Score:1)
OK, it probably does perpetuate the problem to get into conversation with these people, but if they persist in posting irrespective of the amount of activity they cause, then we have gained nothing by ignoring them. We have certainly lost something, however - anyone reading the message will see unworthy material going uncontested, and will think they we, the
This thread does demonstrate the basic effectiveness of moderation; reading with the threshold at 1, didn't see any of the material causing the furore.
his final works? (Score:1)
Last time I talked to him (at SANS last year) he was working on an update to Advanced Unix Programming and expected it to be done and released around the beginning of the year 2000. I wonder if it was close enough to done that the editor can patch it together and release it. I am sure that it has all sorts of wonderful knowlege in it.
-ben
Re:It's more than that (Score:1)
Directly under the story is your preferences bar (with your moderation level, how comments should be listed, etc). There is a "reply" button on the right of this bar. That replies to the story.
It confused me too, at first, since it's a different interface than the reply to comments hyperlink, which is much more numerous, of course
It's more than that (Score:3)
It's not just the need to inject Linux into every single topic that's annoying. What's troubling (and disheartening for people concerned with the current state of humanity) is the huge number of attitudes expressed at Slashdot with attitudes like:
I honestly do believe that there's a relatively high number of people here that have damaged psyches and could use some mental help. Stuff like this makes me think of Jon Katz's Hellmouth series and wonder if these people suffered abuse when they were younger which turned them into such despicable human beings. No matter how much it might seem like a short-term fix, cutting down other people instead of improving yourself will never give you the peace that you seek.
This site can be an entertaining read, but when you look at the big picture, it can be one of the most depressing sites on the web.
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
Re: (Score:1)
De Mortibus Nihil Dicit Bonum (Score:1)
Zontar The Mindless,
Re:Someone please IP ban this 'i hate stevens' dud (Score:1)
Re:farewell and goodbye (Score:1)
His children (Score:1)
Irreplaceable (Score:2)
I've had hours to think about it now, and I'm even more depressed by his death than before. So I went to his homepage and dug around some. His FAQ [kohala.com] is interesting. My favorite excerpt:
Surf around some more and you find out he loved to ski (he used to have a GIF of an old ski pass on his home page), he was a pilot, got his Ph.D while working a full time job at Kitt Peak observatory, has lived in Zambia, Utah, New Mexico, Virginia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Georgia, California, Arizona, Connecticut, and South Africa.
And among all the people who understood Unix systems programming and networking in 1988, this was the guy who had the courage to actually sit down and start writing his first book, Unix Network Programming. Just think of all the people who didn't write that book. He was a unique mix of talented engineer,programmer, and author. It's really no suprise that nobody beat him to writing APUE and his TCP/IP series.
And you thought Linus was unique.
Richard Stevens is NOT anti-Linux (Score:1)
Re:"Programming Perl" leaves all those in the dust (Score:1)
Close personal friend or not, judging by the following quote I don't think Tom shares your opinion:
'Unix Networking Programming and the three-volume TCP/IP Illustrated by W. Richard Stevens are indispensable for the serious socket programmer...'
- Perl Cookbook p.603
His books are cited a couple of other places as well (I'm too lazy to refer to all of them). Additionally I see in Advanced Perl Programming that the reader is referred to two of his books each in at least two chapters (again, too lazy).
I think this indicates how the people who matter in the Perl community (that is, those who are actually Perl hackers) regard W. Richard Stevens, whatever he might of thought of Perl. It might be a good idea to follow their example.
Chris
Attn: 'Anonymous Coward' and 'i hate stevens' (Score:1)
Go to hell. You are not contributing to this discussion at all, and I seriously hope his family has not seen what you are saying. You are not being funny, and if brains were leather, you couldn't saddle a flea.
Not liking Perl or Linux does not demand a death sentence. Both are far from perfect. You would probably justify your comments under "free speech", yet you condemn this man (which you are not) for what he said.
Just crawl back into whatever dark, smelly hole you came out of and die, 'K?
Re:The military? Yeah, right. (Score:1)
Wow...... (Score:1)
Gonna miss you, dude.
Mister programmer
I got my hammer
Gonna smash my smash my radio
Java servlets are cool (Score:1)
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Cynicism and disenchantment (Score:1)
Why are you cynical, disenchanted and jaded?
Why, for that matter, are so many people, especially on Slashdot ?
Is this just a technology industry thing?
I have a hard time understanding the deep seated bitterness that underlies many people's attitudes. Perhaps I'm just too much of an optimist.
I am crying (Score:1)
Very Sad (Score:1)
OT = 1;
I don't want to start another pro/con thread on the need for or want of the AC option, but perhaps its time to reconsider the whole issue. Many of the postings here are obviously a sick joke. And, considering the context, depressing to say the least.
Sure, I could set my threshold above the noise, but then some of the occasional interesting off-topic notes would be missed.
Sad...very sad.
My Thoughts (Score:1)
Re:Newspaper Notice (Score:2)
W. Richard Stevens (Score:2)
In 1993 I was writing some networking applications software for RS-6000's at a large IT shop. I was, like almost everyone else in the industry, working from W. Richard Steven's excellent "Unix Network Programming." I was testing code examples from that book and found (to my mild concern) that Steven's code to run-time detect whether you were on a system V or a BSD style system (for signal handling) was returning true for both cases on the version of AIX I was on.
I was pretty sure that AIX wasn't so deviant that such standard stuff as is found in that book would not work, but I'm certainly not too proud to seek expert advice. I hopped on over to USENET (web? What web?) and posted a question basically asking if Stevens' code would work on AIX. Later that day I got an e-mail from Stevens himself with details on what works, what doesn't and why (almost all of it worked, BTW). In 1993 the 'net wasn't quite the sea of raging lunatics that it is today, but even then USENET was full of loudmouthed know-nothings. That Stevens would take the time to review newsgroups and help out an indivdual questioner says something about the man.
His contribution to the modern net is difficult to overstate. I would venture that almost every serious developer of Internet applications (esp. those who were here before the explosion of the WWW) learned his or her trade from Stevens (and Comer, and a handful of others). Whatever he thought of Linux and Perl, or about NAFTA or any other damned thing, he was a knowledgeable and generous man. Such a man is worth ten thousand foul-mouthed AC's. Shame on you.
Re:What a sad, pitiful mess we all are (Score:1)
To Rob, Hemos, and everyone who runs Slashdot: Please, review the current situation. This is getting well out of hand.
Farewell Mr. Stevens (Score:1)
I learned a lot from his book, UNIX Network Programming. I still have it on my desk and pick it up from time to time. Since I probably won't be going to his service, this is my only chance to say goodbye to him. So thanks for everyting Mr. Stevens.
Re:A blanket apology, and a plea (Score:1)
Folks, as a community, we need to sit back and look at this. This person joins the ranks of the sad people who rampantly attack Windows users, who send offensive emails to companies, and generally degrade the overall image of Linux. We're doing ourselves no good by ignoring these actions.
A bad day for slashdot indeed (Score:1)
A great loss for society (Score:1)
Assuming that his death is real (and not some sick hoax), this truley is a great loss for programmers, and ultimately society, everywhere.
Re:moderators? (Score:1)
Asshole!
Thank you for saying that so well (Score:1)
I was with people who work in net-related stuff, and they are people I respect. As soon as they heard the news, they were truly upset. This was someone they all knew and valued. I value their estimation of the man far more than I value anonymous cowards (and no, creating a stupid account name does not absolve you from being an anonymous coward).
I second the motion. (Score:1)
Liked his work (Score:1)
Re:If Bill Gates died I'd go piss on his grave. (Score:1)
The fact that someone doesn't care about the lives of others, that's pretty damn sick!
Come on (Score:1)
I think that those that are bitchin' about bad
posts are doing so prematurely. I mean come on
this place (slashdot) is just a slice of society
and there are bastards here as there are elsewhere
come on guys, you are seasoned enough to know who are trolls and who are not so lets stay serious. A very important man is lost but your
mention/reply of the trolls are not good, so stay
real!
-haffi
:( (Score:1)
Goodbye, Mr. Stevens.
You need a spanking... (Score:1)
Shortly after this story was posted, I thought I'd just hang around
Stevens.. (Score:1)
As for the troll, it is not a huge tragedy that someone is going around saying not-nice things about Stevens. It is just an occasion for liberal use of moderation. So before getting angry and "never using
Why there are Scores... (Score:1)
Re:Get a grip (Score:1)
Then again you're probably too self-absorbed and immature to have much heart-felt compassion, so why should I waste my time giving you the attention you seek by making such comments?
Re:I hate that euphemism... (Score:1)
Canons of Conduct (Score:1)
- As a representative of the Linux community, participate in mailing list and newsgroup discussions in a professional manner.
- Refrain from name-calling and use of vulgar language. Consider yourself a member of a virtual corporation with Mr.Torvalds as your Chief Executive Officer. Your words will either enhance or degrade the image the reader has of the Linux community.
- Avoid hyperbole and unsubstantiated claims at all costs. It's unprofessional and will result in unproductive discussions.
- A thoughtful, well-reasoned response to a posting will not only provide insight for your readers, but will also increase their respect for your knowledge and abilities.
- Don't bite if offered flame-bait. Too many threads degenerate into a ``My O/S is better than your O/S'' argument. Let's accurately describe the capabilities of Linux and leave it at that.
- Always remember that if you insult or are disrespectful to someone, their negative experience may be shared with many others. If you do offend someone, please try to make amends.
- Focus on what Linux has to offer. There is no need to bash the competition. Linux is a good, solid product that stands on its own.
- Respect the use of other operating systems. While Linux is a wonderful platform, it does not meet everyone's needs.
- Refer to another product by its proper name. There's nothing to be gained by attempting to ridicule a company or its products by using ``creative spelling''. If we expect respect for Linux, we must respect other products.
- Give credit where credit is due. Linux is just the kernel. Without the efforts of people involved with the GNU project, MIT, Berkeley and others too numerous to mention, the Linux kernel would not be very useful to most people.
- Don't insist that Linux is the only answer for a particular application. Just as the Linux community cherishes the freedom that Linux provides them, Linux only solutions would deprive others of their freedom.
- There will be cases where Linux is not the answer. Be the first to recognize this and offer another solution.
Linux Advocacy mini-HOWTOSo shape up or ship out!
Embarrassed
belbo
On moderation (Score:2)
Hello. This, like many other comments here, is meta-discussion, and thus not really on topic. I wish there was a better place for it, but I cannot think of any. Pardon.
I don't find the several derogatory messages appearing here a disastrous problem. Practically all of them have been moderated down, and I must commend the moderators for such prompt action. Everyone is aware, hopefully, that at threshold -1 you do get to see utter crap. This time there is more of it, mostly because of a few persistent flamebaiters. However, as always, you get what you ask for, if you don't want to see the worst of the worst, keep your threshold higher. The moderation system works, in my opinion, remarkably well in general.
However, please, people, do not feed the flames by replying to completely obvious trolls. Trust the moderators to do their job. Flaming flamers is just a waste of mutual resources, most notably reading time.
I suspect that starting IP banning would not be worthwhile. It would open yet another can of worms about censorship, and IP banning is not a foolproof protection against misbehaving individuals in any case. Like I said, I find the current moderation system doing its job commendably well. The only problem that I see that the comments on this story have revealed is that people who really see effort to abuse the system may overwhelm, or at least overload the moderators, and it must be frustrating for them. I cannot really see an obvious way to remedy the situation.
There is one thing that I actually am worried about, though, perhaps reflecting the frustration of the moderators. There seem to be several comments that have been moderated down, that I for one really don't see deserving it. Please, moderators, remember that you should only consider the topicality, language, and information content of a comment, not the opinions it expresses.
In addition to the hordes of (quite appropriately downmoderated) comments mainly concerned with bodily fluids, there are some comments which merely criticize the late Mr. Stevens and point out that something good may, in their opinion, result from his demise. I find it most unsettling to see posts such as these, not blatantly offensive and quite topical, moderated down. Yes, the dead should be respected, because it's unfair to abuse someone who cannot defend himself. But that doesn't mean that one should suddenly only start saying positive things about the dead. People have a right to their opinions unbiased by their subject's death, and as long as they are expressed with dignity, and are topical, I see no reason to moderate them down, even if the moderators are offended by them.
Like some comments have already pointed out, had Bill Gates died, it's doubtful that comments remarking that his demise might be positive for Linux would get moderated down. As a more extreme example, consider the phrases "Good riddance, Hitler", and "Good riddance, Stevens", uttered right after the deaths of the respective individuals. If you are to be impartial, you should moderate both the same way.
Actually, I cannot help being reminded of the Daria episode "The Misery Chick" [simplenet.com] where a local celebrity dies, and Daria, being the only one criticizing him after his death, gets shunned by everyone. I wouldn't like to compare Slashdot readership to the students of Lawndale High...
Lauri Alanko
la@iki.fi [mailto]
PS. I wouldn't be at all surprised if JonKatz were to write a piece about this story, and all this discussion that followed, and again try to psychoanalyze the readership of slashdot..
Re:I hate that euphemism... (Score:2)
His work didn't die, but will be with us forever. Its not "dead," but immortalized.
Eulogy from a humble student (Score:4)
Simply put, you're the one guy in the world in whose presence I would have been in awe of. I wouldn't bother asking for Michael Jordan's autograph, didn't shed a tear for JFK Jr., and couldn't care less about shaking the hand of a U.S. President, but it would have been a great honor just to say "hi" to you in person.
Your work served as the foundation of my own work, and many others as well. The most influential book in my life so far has been Unix Network Programming -- without it, I simply would have done what most college students do and simply go to class just to get it over with. Your work inspired me to do something outside the realm of the classroom and filled my head with ideas and dreams, and for that I can't thank you enough.
Your obituary [azstarnet.com] cites you as a "noted author of computer books", but your books weren't simply "computer books" nor "programming books", nor were you simply an author. Your works stand as great works of computer science.
We will miss you, W. Richard Stevens, and we regret that you were taken from us when surely you had 20 more years of knowledge yet to bestow upon us.
Sincerely,
Mike Gleason
NcFTP Software
Re:Get a grip (Score:2)
Okay.. Inside back cover of "Unix Network Programming, Volume I [amazon.com]":
He seemed pretty open-minded to me..
How I'll remember him (Score:3)
I learned more from Rich than from all my CS professors combined. Over lunch one day at a conference, I chatted with him about his plans for starting TCP/IP Illustrated all over again, rewriting it for IPv6. I remember being excited about these updates, and telling all my friends about them, even though they wouldn't be out for years.
It breaks my heart to think that these, and all the other good works that mind was capable of producing, will never come.
Goodbye... (Score:2)
His art more expensive now? (Score:2)
Kohala (Score:2)
His home page is here [kohala.com], and reading it is to find out what a truly great guy he was. My favorite is his recipe [kohala.com] for chocolate chip cookies, which are harder to make than a bug free threaded tcp/ip stack.
His books were the best. Well written with the best exercises of any books out there. I think the reason he obviously put so much thought into the exercises at the end of chapters was because he knew that's where readers did most of their learning. Unlike other fine books like Knuth's, his books actually got used, reread, and handed around to be used again. He accomplished better than any author I can name exactly what he sought to do--teach.
I just wish I'd written and thanked him a long time ago. RIP.
Social Skills and Compassion (Score:2)
What was the response by one such person hiding behind an AC shield? "Don't send flowers or donate to a charity in the bigot's name. If you want to help humanity -- code a GTK IRC client".
I'm astonished that the same community that so fiercely argues for freedom and fairness also witnessed a strong chorus of "But what has he done for [insert your favorite cause] lately?"
I'm as jaded, disenchanted and cynical as the next person. Probably more. But the death of a good man who is remembered fondly by his colleagues and readers is a time to keep your mouth shut about some gripe you have with his philosophy. Each of us feel pain and fear death. Underneath our beliefs, causes and actions, we all share those two primal aspects of life. If we can not sympathize and feel compassion for someone who is suffering great pain or has died, then we can never feel compassion. Compassion isn't an honorable thing. It is a basic trait of mankind that separates us from gorillas and slugs.
I'd like to think that the shallow comments made in Slashdot were by those of us who have spent our entire lives in front of our monitors and in our bedrooms or dens hidden away from society, because anyone who has a healthy composition of civility, humanity, and sociable skills could not possibly be so thoughtless. There is a time for personal opinion and debate and a time to practice the art of knowing when to shut up and be a graceful man.
Real men fight on level playing fields -- they don't kick someone while they're down.
Thankfully, the same person who tought me Perl and has his own chunk of shelf-space next to my desk also gave some depth to the man so many articles of harpooned. I encourage everyone who displayed their ignorance and carelessness to re-read Tom's post and then visit Richard's website.
Yesterday it was Postel. Today it was Stevens. Tomorrow, it could be your favorite geek.
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icq:2057699
seumas.com
Re:may be a good thing, sorry to say (Score:3)
> Stevens was a noted anti-Linux, anti-Perl bigot
> who happened to be a high profile author of some
> very good Unix books. This event signifies the
> passing of the torch to the GNU generation.
I'm speachless, and that doesn't happen very often. I was going to let this slide, but I just fscking can't.
<RANT mode=REALLYFUCKINGPISSED>
It's not a fscking crime not to like Linux, or Perl. It's a matter of opinion, and the last time I checked, the GNU movement is all about giving people a little empowerment, and more choice.
The contribution of Stevens' books to the computing community has been enormous. There are so few good technical books available, and his are among the best technical books I have ever read.
How much code in the world is better because the author(s) of that code read and applied some of these books?
Now a lot of that code is in commercial software, but vast, incalculable KLOCs of Free Software/Open Source have benefitted from Stevens' insights. This man has advanced the Free Software community by leaps and bounds, without maintaining a single program (that I know of.)
One of the biggest weaknesses in the computer industry (and the Free Software movement is no exception) is the shitty documentation and books. Any author that reliably comes out with well written, concise, insightful, and experienced books deserves to be sainted IMNSHFO.
I'm a sysadmin by trade. I don't fscking care if you run GNU/Linux or *BSD or SCO or Ultrix or NT or VMS or NetWare, if you're crazy enough to maintain computers for a living, you need all the decent documentation that you can get, and TCP/IP Illustrated has helped fsckloads of people understand the subtle interactions of the various protocols that make the 'net work.
In conclusion, if I thought you were reprentative of the GNU generation, then I would probably toast my fscking Linux and FreeBSD partitions and put NT back on, you selfish, short sighted, ungrateful punk.
</RANT>
In Lieu Of Flowers . . . (Score:3)
Habitat for Humanity, 2950 E. 22nd Street, Tucson, AZ 85713
You have to love this comment, "Please wear colorful clothing to the service; Richard loved colors."
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icq:2057699
seumas.com
Re:Get a grip (Score:2)
And in addition, the day that anyone in "The GNU Generation" writes a book as trenchant, concise, and informative as "Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment," is the day that someone can start making noise about the torch being passed.
Regards,
JFB
Newspaper Notice (Score:3)
Bullshit (Score:2)