Hans Reiser Arrested On Suspicion of Murder 1651
Many readers wrote about the arrest today of Hans Reiser, author of ReiserFS, by Oakland, CA police on suspicion of murdering his estranged wife. From the San Francisco Chronicle: "Hans Reiser, 42, was taken into custody at 11 a.m., hours after Oakland police and FBI technicians searched his home in the Oakland hills. His estranged wife, Nina Reiser, 31, has been missing since Sept. 3, when she dropped off the couple's son and daughter at his home on the 6900 block of Exeter Drive... Police made the arrest based on circumstantial evidence and have not found Nina Reiser's body, [Hans Reiser's attorney] Du Bois said. 'I have no idea what the circumstantial evidence is,' he said. 'When I hear what the evidence is against him, I'll make a decision as to whether he'll talk to them.'" kimvette writes, "While the disappearance (and possible murder) of his wife is tragic, Linux users will wonder where this will leave Reiser 4. If Reiser is found guilty, will Novell or IBM pick up the pieces and finish up Reiser 4 for inclusion in the kernel or is this the end of the Reiser filesystem project? Will there be any future for the Reiser filesystem, and if Hans is found guilty and the project is continued, will the project be renamed to avoid notoriety?"
That really sucks (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Informative)
Read this for another side of the story:
http://cbs5.com/localwire/localfsnews/bcn/2006/09
There are some other strange aspects to all this, the wife may have been having an affair, but (at least in UK) often divorce lawyers encourage clients to do a 'kitchen-sink' approach to try and wrest custody of the children, so her affair and his domestic violence are both suspect until we get more info.
It will all come out if there is a body, or the wife turns up in Russia.
Re:That really sucks (Score:4, Interesting)
You know, even murderers can be rehabilitated. I've met a guy who killed his wife. He spend 8 years in prison and now he's out being a productive member of society. So long as he has a community of support, he won't commit another.
Re:That really sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
You can't know that. Being he only served 8 years, I imagine it was a crime of passion, rather than a premeditated act. I don't know what set him off the first time, but what's to say he won't react exactly the same way if he's ever put into that situation (or a similar situation) again?
Re:That really sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
A couple of extra comments for everyone to think about:
- Most people who murder someone will probably spend the rest of their life fucked up in the head. They have created their own punishment, living every day with the guilt.
- Think about the _very_worst_thing_ you have ever done. Do you think you should be judged for the rest of your life on that one thing?
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
Jesus H. Christ, can we PUH-LEASE leave this damned stupid argument behind once and for freaking all. SOME murderers, I am sure, feel guilty, but to state that MOST killers are wracked by guilt goes way, way, way beyond what evidence has repeatedly shown. Prisons are full of unrepentent murderers, as are the streets.
In other words, a healthy percentage of killers don't care for one second what they've done. There are various reasons for this, but look around before assuming that "most" murderers are just good people who have done something bad. The world is full of assholes who are assholes just for the sake of being assholes, and there are countless examples of this extending into the realm of murder.
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Informative)
Here's a lot of reading material [crimelibrary.com]. Some more [peacecorpsonline.org]. A little more [serve.com]. And to top things off here's another article [findarticles.com].
Are there plenty of people who feel remorse for killing people if it was a crime of passion or one that they didn't truly want to do but felt compelled to anyways? Sure. But it goes both ways, and there are plenty of people who quite honestly are so deranged that they don't feel any remorse for what they've done. A peer-reviewed scientific study showing that most killers aren't wracked with guilt? I doubt anyone has the time or inclination to play Search-Engine-Monkey for you. Go ahead and get evidence your evidence before you start demanding it from other people. There are plenty of cases where the fact of the matter is that these killers are remorseless, you only have to know an inkling about psychology to understand that. In fact, plenty of these murderers feel justified fully in their actions.
Listen to elucido, he's trying to help you understand the situation. Most people who kill do it because they have serious problems.
Since you asked (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't let the gravity of the accusations prevent you from running the classic experiment with this. Ask a 5 or a 6 year old child to kill his brother/sister/pet/... (Be prepared for the situation that he might actually try to do it). You will obviously need to stop the interaction between the "killer" and his "victim" shortly after. Then ask the kid what happened. Why it did/did not do what you asked. You will be very surprised by the answers.
Child soldiers are a very clear illustration of what can happen if a child's conscience is badly trained. These children are trained to kill at an age of 5 or 6 (12 at the most) and they kill. They don't stop, they don't pause. They don't think they've done anything wrong.
Lots of people think this is related to the motivations of terrorists, where violent religious conviction takes precedence over rationality.
Re:Do some research on psychology of psychopaths. (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, that isn't to say there aren't violent psychopathic criminals. Most serial killers, and violent sex offenders who target adult women, would qualify. And it is true that they are extremely hard to rehabilitate (some would say impossible). But they aren't the only ones behind bars. In fact, I'm not even convinced they represent a signifigant fraction of violent criminals - the numbers I've seen vary wildly, which suggest to me that nobody knows how many of them exist with any certainty.
To give them as an example of the futility of rehabilitation is utterly ridiculous. It's like taking a rabid dog as a typical example of what most strays are like.
The "average" person is quite capable of murder, given the right incentive, or the right lapse in judgement. Most "crimes of passion" would qualify. Do you really think somebody who, to give an example, kills their wife after catching her in bed with another person is automatically psycho? Granted a psychopath put in that position is more likely to commit violence than an average person, but that doesn't make the average person incapable of murder, it merely makes him statistically less likely to commit it.
To presume all who commit crimes are suffering from mental illness, or are in some way less human, is a common error. We wish to distance ourselves from those we consider evil, by claiming that we could never do such a thing. But make no mistake; this is denial, plain and simple.
That's not to say that there aren't criminal psychopaths in the world; rather it is to admit that average, mentally healthy people, under the right conditions, can do things we as a society consider monsterous. For every psycho killing people at random, there are a dozen "average" people killing for revenge, for profit, for ideology, or for any number of other reasons.
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
If your sentence is "life" then yes. I do think our system needs revamped in that a person who served their FULL sentence (not on parole / probation) honorably should, after a short time (say 5 years), have that issue expunged from their record. It is IMO unfair to continue to punish a person for things they did 20-30 years ago.
Let me give you a true story that I think is tragic. I have a co-worker that was convicted of felony possession in Florida 25 years ago. He served his entire sentence without ever looking at another drug and in fact is so anti-drug today it is nauseating. The reason he is anti-drug isn't because of the drugs but because of his experiences to this day of the conviction and continued punishment. He applied for a job at one of the counties in my state that is identical to the one he holds now that he has been doing for 6 years. They dug up that 25 year old conviction because it was the only distinguishing detail between him and the other person applying for the job. Guess who got the job. He is also barred from participating in elections because of it. His conviction happened in another state 25 years ago and he is barred from elections in this state!
Having said that, if you have not served your full sentence honorably, then you still owe that to society as deemed by the courts. OTOH, if you did serve your time then you should be allowed to move on.
B.
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That really sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
I call Bullshit.. (Score:5, Insightful)
People are complex. There brains are complex. Sometimes there is no amount of love and support that can turn a guy around.
Secondly..Prison is the worst rehabilitation... Constant contact with other violent people usually is a negative influence.
Lastly, your logic is horrible. I'll use your line of argument in another situation:
I know a smoker who is 95 years old, therefore smoking is safe.
??? Well--Are you ready to say, "point conceded?"
Re:That really sucks (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Funny)
That case was an aberration.
Almost every executed criminal since then as stayed dead.
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
He probably would, of course. When a tragic event like that happens to a family, most of them would lose objectivity and be filled with regret, remorse, and hatred. That's why we need sane, objective people who have the capacity to see things clearly making these kinds of decisions, instead of bitter, reactionary victims.
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
And of course this is a real problem in the EU where the death sentence is illegal because of a variety of treaties. Revenge killings are commonplace and
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
They went further than that... (Score:5, Interesting)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006
I can't preach to anyone here about hate and revenge myself, due to my past reactions to things, but what those Amish people did really impressed me. Any members of the phoney religions of peace on here(you christians, muslims, jews, etc...) might want to take some notes from the Amish. I realize they are a christian sect, but their EXAMPLE spoke to me louder than the millions of words I've heard come from christians(or the other two "religions of peace"). If all religions did their preaching that way, they'd make the world a better place, instead of the shithole they seem bent on turning it into in the name of their "faith".
Re:They went further than that... (Score:5, Insightful)
The Amish merely walked the walk instead of just talking the talk. I don't think any religion can point to all or even a simple majority of its adherents and say, truthfully, that "Those people live according to their beliefs." Nearly all religions (and, without trying to write a book on the subject, I have to say that Christianity is the most severe in this regard) require more, for lack of a better word, "goodness" from its followers than any human being can deliver. Even the Amish realize this and allow their younglings to taste the world before making an informed decision to adhere to the practices of the community for life. Their system works well for them and illustrates what Christianity *should* be. I don't mean the physical trappings, the dress, the low-tech, the separation. I mean the state of the spirit and how adherence to spiritual principles provides certain guidance even when the bad old world busts in and murders your family members.
Inner peace like that comes at what, to a non-adherent, seems to be a very high price. Whether it is or isn't and whether it should be paid is a decision for each individual. It's too bad that most people never consciously make that decision and instead choose to pursue what they think of as "life," only to find that when that life throws them a curve they don't have the principled, spirit-based skills needed to handle the situation.
The Amish are different in that regard. In Slashdot parlance, the Amish have mad skillz. :-)
Re:Execution is *not* murder (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, those things are murder also. You've merely been conditioned to believe they are not
Wrong. Words have common meanings, definitions. We could not communicate otherwise. "Murder" is a word used to describe a specific type of killing, shown below. You seem to be confusing a subjective moral opinion with the accepted definition of a word. Merely believing that all forms of killing are immoral does not allow you to change the definition of a word.
murder
n.
1. The unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/murder [reference.com]
"Murder is an illegal killing, the preceding are legal."
No, they are not. Circumstance is used to determine if punishment may be waived. Killing is always illegal. Proceeding with prosecution is at the whim of the State. Your State makes available the definitions of all crimes, read up on them.
Actually I've had an administration of justice class that covered where the use of deadly force was legal. I believe state statutes authorize the use of deadly force when executing a death warrant, in self defense, during the suppression of a riot,
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, we can fix that. Hans' computer will be running XP, and the development environment...MS VS Pro. He'll beg for the chair!
Just joking, I wouldn't even do that to MS execs.
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Funny)
They'd probably learn to live with it. If anyone is afraid of getting "the chair" it's microsoft execs.
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
But I can tell you one thing, if I were Hans Reiser, possibly wrongfully arrested and I came back to
unbelievable.
Have a heart. Let's hope she's only missing, not dead, and that if she is dead Hans didn't do it so his kids will have at least one parent to share the loss with, rather than one to miss and one to learn to hate.
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That really sucks (Score:5, Funny)
Unbelievable (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Insightful)
But honestly, how many people would think that even if it wasn't posted on the front page?
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably a lot of people. But, what's wrong with that? It's natural for people to think of how an event will affect them.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean, besides being crass, it's also obvious -- so why point it out? Sure, we all naturally wonder what might happen to the software, but is it worth actually discussing?
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Unbelievable-Hit by a bus. (Score:5, Funny)
If he is found guilty, the name of the filesystem will have to be changed, too. Otherwise it will fall into obscurity along with MansonFS, OswaldFS and the great-but-forgotten object-based, journalling OJSimpsonFS.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure we can, its called having children. My life is only important to myself, my family, and perhaps a small circle of friends. Outside that, the greater mass of humanity doesn't give a flying fuck about me, you, or anyone else.
especially since that's the only reason it's here (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:especially since that's the only reason it's he (Score:4, Funny)
Long ramble short? Within a week or two no executive is going to remember who this Reiser guy is, let alone that his filesystem may be powering their systems... and that's ASSUMING someone points them to this news article and they make the connection in the first place.
That's actually the problem (Score:4, Interesting)
I've seen people actually take such stupid decisions as "let's use a single-user database and just copy the database file on the department's file server", in that case MS Visual Fox Pro for a reason as stupid as "Visual Fox Pro is more visual than Java". Once the nice MS salesman showed them some dragging and dropping buttons around (and, as everyone knows, there's nothing else to programming an app than dragging and dropping the buttons on forms), any other considerations like concurrent access, transactions, available tools and libraries, etc, went right over their head.
So the danger is precisely that at some point a nice salesman shop drops by and goes "whoa, you guys run SuSE? Did you know they paid a convicted murderer to develop their filesystem? Every time you save your powerpoint presentations on that file server, you have an innocent's blood on your hands, not to mention all over your neatly formatted presentation. Now if you upgraded to Vista Super-Professional Snake-Oil Edition, you'd show your support for the Bill and Melinda Gates Charity and be _much_ more fashionable among your peers."
Re:especially since that's the only reason it's he (Score:5, Funny)
However, having said that, it might in fact be a plus to describe it as a killer filesystem...
*ducks*
it's like ... the opposite of trust (Score:5, Funny)
I know, Microsoft have paid the police to do this, to discredit a Linux FS?
Totally, dude. Like, this one time, Micro$uxx paid this chick to be this like hardcore open-source dude's girlfriend, and like, she made him chili with peanuts in it, which he like would like totally have died if he ate it? Way of the world, man *massssssivvvee toooooke* way of the fuckin' world.
Re:it's like ... the opposite of trust (Score:5, Funny)
Re:it's like ... the opposite of trust (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:4, Interesting)
*I* had a relationship with him long before he was born. I can only guess, now, at how intimate the relationship must be for the mother whose own body has been shared with the child.
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Interesting)
Extreme stress can do it.
Every person has a breaking point. Not everyone breaks in the same manner, but eventually everyone will break.
I know that financial problems and a dissolving marriage are huge source of stress. Who knows what else he is dealing with? (who knows if he even did it)
You ain't seen tacky yet... (Score:5, Funny)
There. How's that for tasteless?
Re:You ain't seen tacky yet... (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it really funny? No. But horrible situations are sometimes relieved by nervous titters of black humor.
Re:You ain't seen tacky yet... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:You ain't seen tacky yet... (Score:5, Insightful)
What a load of sanctimonius bullshit.
Tell that to Leno next time he cracks a 9/11 joke.
Or Letterman next time he cracks an Iraqi occupation joke.
Or the SNL writers next time they do an Abu Graib skit.
People here are on slashdot are no different from people everywhere else.
Reiser 4 (Score:4, Funny)
This brings up an interesting line of questioning (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This brings up an interesting line of questioni (Score:5, Informative)
In the case of ReiserFS, the code doesn't get into the mainline kernel without it being reviewed by enough people that there is some hope of maintainability in the absence of one key person.
The problem comes in when no one else wants to maintain a piece of code, but then that's why people pay Red Hat or SuSE cash for their otherwise freely distributable distributions.
SUSE dev proposes ext3 as default fs over reiserfs (Score:5, Informative)
Note that it's not "dropping support for reiserfs", it's "not using reiserfs as default". You're still free to use ext3/reiserfs/xfs if you know they perform well for your workload.
Re:This brings up an interesting line of questioni (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This brings up an interesting line of questioni (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually no.
I can not maintain the code.
Even if I had the skills, I don't have the time. And I can't afford to pay someone who can. So no - I can NOT maintain the code if it is intimately tied to a single developer. To suggest that I can is as farcical as suggesting that OSS is more secure because many eyes are critiquing the code - when in actual practice very few eyes are involved in most of the code on sourceforge etc.
Re:This brings up an interesting line of questioni (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think there is any need to be pedantic here. Can you afford to run closed source applications knowing that the vendor could drop support? From a risk assessment standpoint, is it better to have access to the source code even if you could not personally do anything with it? At the very least, if the program is worth something to you, you have the option to drop some spare change into a bounty [opensourcexperts.com] to have your problem fixed. And if the program is worth nothing to you, what difference does it make if it doesn't work for you?
Re:This brings up an interesting line of questioni (Score:5, Insightful)
Compared to a closed source project that relies so heavily on a single person, the open source project is a much safer bet.
Are concerns like this valid or is the community able to pick up where someone left off with minimal interruption to clients?
You should very much take those considerations into account. With open source, you have two advantages compared to the same project when it's closed: (1) you know who the project relies on, and (2) it is clear under what conditions the project can be continued.
Re:This brings up an interesting line of questioni (Score:5, Interesting)
A coworker of mine uses an indicator he calls the "bus factor" to determine the likelihood of discontinued support for a particular tool or library.
The "bus factor" is simply defined as "the number of people who have to be hit by a bus before the fundamental understanding of the underlying codebase is lost."
Jason Haas and linux powerpc-slashdot temperment (Score:5, Interesting)
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/03/24
Interesting to note the different temperment of slashdot articles 6 years ago. No jokes..
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
i hope she is alright (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:i hope she is alright (Score:5, Insightful)
I know that sounds cold, but unless you personally know the Reisiers, I don't think anyone really does. There are hundreds of people murdered each day. There are hundreds killed in tragic car accidents each day. Do you feel pity for each and every one of them? No.
The only reason why this is on Slashdot is because of the ReiserFS. And because of that, it would be silly to not speculate on the ReiserFS future. Unless you just want 250 posts of people saying "Oh, that's terrible!"
Posted as anon for obvious reasons..
Re:i hope she is alright (Score:5, Interesting)
One does not preclude the other.
Re:i hope she is alright (Score:4, Insightful)
Reiser4 already renamed (Score:5, Funny)
Okay, so I'm not a good person.
Re:Reiser4 already renamed (Score:5, Funny)
Hans kept a journal.
(Sorry everybody...)
Re:Reiser4 already renamed (Score:5, Funny)
Just remember! (Score:5, Insightful)
Really!
Well, that's what they tell us, anyway.
Re:Just remember! (Score:5, Insightful)
Special website (Score:5, Informative)
Groceries? (Score:4, Interesting)
Just my $0.02
This isn't meant to be funny or insensitive (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This isn't meant to be funny or insensitive (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This isn't meant to be funny or insensitive (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, wait...
I'm not really sure what to think here. (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know much about him (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm extrapolating greatly here, but if he's a common geek-type, perhaps she left or ran away because he was paying too much attention to work and not the relationship - though that doesn't explain leaving the child behind. There's a comment from her divorce lawyer, so I'm assuming they were breaking up, and there is mention of physical abuse (though in divorce cases it isn't uncommon to have such accusations).
What about Hans himself, had he filed a missing-persons report? Why and how are they preventing his lawyer from reaching him? Innocent until proven guilty, but I would like to know more of the history on this.
Re:I don't know much about him (Score:5, Informative)
Uh, hows that now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Du Bois complained today that police had not allowed him to meet with his client after the arrest. He said investigators were keeping Reiser in isolation.
Did the whole "everybody is an Enemy Combatant if we say so" thing start already and no one told me? What exactly is this "isolation" where you can't contact your laywer?
Re:Uh, hows that now? (Score:4, Informative)
Did the whole "everybody is an Enemy Combatant if we say so" thing start already and no one told me? What exactly is this "isolation" where you can't contact your laywer?
Until and unless he's formally charged (indicted), the right to an attorney doesn't actually attach, except as has been judicially constructed/interpreted. For light reading on the topic: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/am endment06/11.html#1 [findlaw.com] If he hasn't been arraigned yet (and it sounds like he hasn't), he doesn't technically have a right to counsel yet. (The 'custodial interrogation' right to counsel, Miranda et seq., says that an interogatee, upon clear demand for the assistance of counsel, either be provided with assistance of counsel or that interrogation stop until and unless the party under custodial arrest voluntarily reinitiates contact with his interrogators. It doesn't mean the attorney automatically gets access to the guy.)
He lost his kids due to 'secret information' (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh, and also... (Score:5, Informative)
I dont see how the story works: she drops the kids at his house, she goes shopping, and then..how does he end up killing her? He has the kids with him..at home..she's on the road. When does he have the opportunity to kill her?
For More Info (Score:4, Informative)
http://cbs5.com/localwire/localfsnews/bcn/2006/09/ 13/n/HeadlineNews/HOME-SEARCHED/resources_bcn_html [cbs5.com]
Possibly relevant Hans Reiser mail list post (Score:4, Informative)
Hans Reiser:
Well, I am going to try being honest and see what happens.
I am more than 170k in debt, and Namesys is doing badly fiscally. A
technical great success being stabilized now, but then there is my
ongoing fiscal disaster. Once again, we are missing payroll. My wife
is divorcing me in part because I keep going deeper into debt, and I
thank her for divorcing me now rather than later. Unfortunately she is
making the divorce messy enough to keep me from pulling Namesys out of
the fiscal tailspin by consuming all my time with things like proving I
am not making the fantastic amounts of money she claims I am. I hope
next month is better."
Others
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=reiserfs&m=108353
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=reiserfs&m=984246
Innocent unless proven guilty (Score:5, Insightful)
This doesn't change what I think of Hans Reiser at all. If he's convicted of murder, that's different, but nothing like that has happened. A husband is a natural suspect in such a case. I hope that his wife is OK, but I have no reason to believe that Hans is responsible.
When I was in highschool, our principal was accused of sexual misconduct due to some activities that allegedly took place with a student. This shocking accusation made the news, and all the parents were horrified. But very few people went to the actual trial, and when the man was acquitted it did not make the news. Give everyone their chance and let the legal system do its job.
Didn't see this coming...what now for Linux? (Score:4, Insightful)
This is certainly a disaster for everyone involved.
Immunity? (Score:5, Funny)
Smart and Cockey (Score:5, Interesting)
before you rush to judgement... (Score:5, Insightful)
Luckily, he had good enough luck/lawyer/whatever that he remained free. I was at a cafe near the base one time and I heard a couple of deputies/cops discussing the case. Their take? They knew it was him, they just couldn't get enough evidence together to convict.
Fast forward a year later, they found the guy that really did it.
Moral of the story--if she's sleeping around, her husband is likely not the only person she's pissed off. Oh, and cop "instinct" is why we need very picky, painstakingly applied laws about collection and use of evidence.
Just as a side note about their upcoming divorce.. (Score:5, Informative)
The Reisers were married in 1999 and frequently traveled to Russia, where she was born. They separated in May 2004.
Just long enough to get her green card [us-immigration.com]
Nina Reiser filed for divorce three months later, citing irreconcilable differences and saying their children "hardly know their father" because he was out of the country on business for most of the year, according to court records.
"Verbal statements made in court" BECOMES "Court Transcript" BECOMES "Court Records". There is not anything here saying whether or not it was proven or not.
Nina Reiser was granted a temporary restraining order against her husband in December 2004 after she reported that he had pushed her and was abusive to her. A year later, she agreed not to seek a permanent order.
Temporary Restraining Orders [google.com] are easy to get, and hard to keep. In a divorce, one of the favorite tactics (of both sides) is to file for a TRO. Usually these get thrown out of court some months later. Judges typically grant TROs because nobody wants to be the judge who denied a TRO against an abusive spouse. But most of the time, TROs are just stupid games that people play.
Hans Reiser was accused earlier this year of failing to pay medical and child-care expenses as ordered by a judge, records show. He pleaded not guilty Aug. 25 to a civil contempt charge and was scheduled for trial in October.
Again, it is very easy to "accuse" somebody. One of the games spouses play is to not send bills to the other spouse, and then file a civil suit against them for "failure to pay". This is usually yet another game in custody and visitation battles.
Not that I am defending this guy, but the "evidence" in the article that he was a "bad man", just isn't any evidence at all.
Godwin's Law (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So if he's guilty (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So if he's guilty (Score:5, Funny)
Better than supporting Microsoft.
[kidding! kidding!]
Re:So if he's guilty (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sad. (Score:5, Insightful)
When somebody gets accused of something we can all agree is unequivocally bad, like murdering the mother of his children, my reaction is "let justice take its course." This seems fair to me, especially when we have no idea what the evidence is against him. Lots of people get accused of lots of crimes all the time and I don't generally donate money to their legal defense unless I think the law under which they are being prosecuted is terribly unjust.
Re:Sad. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know if it's all that sad... I'd never really heard anything of the guy before this, other than his name attached to his FS, and the wikipedia article was rather sparse, so I google'd around to get an idea of who he is.
You call for sympathy for the man, but as far as I can tell from this interview [osuosl.org], and a few random forum threads around the internet, he seems like a really smart and clever, well-educated guy, a really good programmer, but kind of an arrogant douche. I mean, he talks about how he hates homework and wishes you could just study and then discuss to prove your knowledge, but then he stresses the importance of code review and benchmarking (which seem, to me, the "homework" of programming tasks) and belittles his own employees for not doing it well enough.
I'm not trying to flame the guy out or anything. Like I said, I knew nothing about him before my last 15 minutes of searching, but from what I saw in that little sliver (and I know that doesn't provice me a fully developed mental image of the man) it seems like he might deserve some of the jokes.
I'd say if you have sympathy or money to donate - give it to the kids.
And watch, I bet I get bad karma for just trying to point out that it seems (to the untrained eye) that he might have bad karma.
Re:C'mon, Slashdot (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Somewhat off topic: the kids (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course you're absolutely right, but Slashdot is not the appropriate place to discuss what will happen to Hans Reiser's children. It is the appropriate place to discuss what will happen to Hans Reiser's filesystem. You're more than welcome to do both, of course, but please don't complain about the latter here.