ESR Finally Gets His Wish
May 22, 2006 6:45 PM Subscribe
A long-awaited but sadly unspecific death threat. Four long years after he revealed that his secret knowledge made him a prime target for terrorists (but of course he was more than capable of defending himself) -- after four long years he received one single solitary death threat from somebody using a Yahoo mail address in Iran.
Sadly, it's not even a specific death threat. It's "we have your address" and "YOU WILLBE KILLED" repeated several times. You could threaten anybody, for any reason, with that kind of note. I feel sorry for esr; after waiting four years for someone to realize how dangerous he was, he gets this lame-ass form-letter death threat. For all we can tell from the note, they may be angered by his sex tips for geeks site. Maybe they tried the tips and struck out.
Sadly, it's not even a specific death threat. It's "we have your address" and "YOU WILLBE KILLED" repeated several times. You could threaten anybody, for any reason, with that kind of note. I feel sorry for esr; after waiting four years for someone to realize how dangerous he was, he gets this lame-ass form-letter death threat. For all we can tell from the note, they may be angered by his sex tips for geeks site. Maybe they tried the tips and struck out.
This post was deleted for the following reason: meh
Yeah, who is this dude? Anyone important, or someone who just wishes he were important?
posted by borkingchikapa at 6:53 PM on May 22, 2006
posted by borkingchikapa at 6:53 PM on May 22, 2006
ESR is a free-loving gun-lovin' code-lovin' american icon. A really obnoxious one.
posted by phrontist at 6:55 PM on May 22, 2006
posted by phrontist at 6:55 PM on May 22, 2006
Funnily enough, I don't read many weblogs by (from a quick scan of a few posts) pompous gun-toting bigots - is this bloke a big cheese in those circles? Or, what CunningLinguist said...
posted by jack_mo at 6:58 PM on May 22, 2006
posted by jack_mo at 6:58 PM on May 22, 2006
That's about the most sorry death threat ever. And why would he get a threat? That 'revealed' link is pretty empty.
posted by puke & cry at 7:05 PM on May 22, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by puke & cry at 7:05 PM on May 22, 2006 [1 favorite]
Stupid terrorist....They forgot to attach the anthrax.gif.
posted by daninnj at 7:11 PM on May 22, 2006
posted by daninnj at 7:11 PM on May 22, 2006
esr reminds me of Paris Hilton without the looks, money, or intellectual rigor. Also entertaining: esr's greatest flame.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 7:12 PM on May 22, 2006
posted by IshmaelGraves at 7:12 PM on May 22, 2006
ESR is the ODB of OSDN. HTH. HAND.
posted by Smart Dalek at 7:16 PM on May 22, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by Smart Dalek at 7:16 PM on May 22, 2006 [1 favorite]
+ 
Controversial opinions he has attempted to defend include that African-Americans are responsible for a disproportionate percentage of crimes because they have lower IQs [8]
Wow, really? I always considered him a douche but god-damn.
posted by delmoi at 7:18 PM on May 22, 2006
Wow, really? I always considered him a douche but god-damn.
posted by delmoi at 7:18 PM on May 22, 2006
ufo ceiling cat doesn't make threats. robot leg nutjob will be exterminated.
posted by Jeremy at 7:18 PM on May 22, 2006 [1 favorite]
esr reminds me of Paris Hilton without the looks, money, or intellectual rigor. Also entertaining: esr's greatest flame.
Hahah.
posted by Paris Hilton at 7:20 PM on May 22, 2006
Hahah.
posted by Paris Hilton at 7:20 PM on May 22, 2006
Until now, I'd only read one comment by ESR, back in '99 on Slashdot when he announced that he was worth over $30 million due to the IPO of VA-Linux:
http://lwn.net/1999/1216/a/esr-rich.html
posted by justkevin at 7:23 PM on May 22, 2006
http://lwn.net/1999/1216/a/esr-rich.html
posted by justkevin at 7:23 PM on May 22, 2006
Funny how the word "controversial " has become the euphemism of choice for describing good old-fashioned bigots and assholes.
posted by 2sheets at 7:25 PM on May 22, 2006
posted by 2sheets at 7:25 PM on May 22, 2006
Yeah, "Surprised by Wealth" is a classic. My favorite paragraph:
Ironically enough, one result of my getting rich is that I will probably start charging for speaking appearances, now that nobody can plausibly accuse me of doing it for the money. I won't charge open-source user groups or schools, but I will cheerfully extract a per diem from all the business conferences that keep wanting me to to boost their box office. Charging a price for my time will separate the expensive conferences that attract powerful people from the marginal events where the hacker community would get less leverage from my presence.
Btw, does anyone know what VA Linux's stock turned out to be worth when his six month lockout ended in June 2000?
posted by Armitage Shanks at 7:27 PM on May 22, 2006
Ironically enough, one result of my getting rich is that I will probably start charging for speaking appearances, now that nobody can plausibly accuse me of doing it for the money. I won't charge open-source user groups or schools, but I will cheerfully extract a per diem from all the business conferences that keep wanting me to to boost their box office. Charging a price for my time will separate the expensive conferences that attract powerful people from the marginal events where the hacker community would get less leverage from my presence.
Btw, does anyone know what VA Linux's stock turned out to be worth when his six month lockout ended in June 2000?
posted by Armitage Shanks at 7:27 PM on May 22, 2006
Until now, I'd only read one comment by ESR, back in '99 on Slashdot when he announced that he was worth over $30 million due to the IPO of VA-Linux:
He might have been "worth" 30 million, but it's unlikely he saw over a million from it:
posted by delmoi at 7:29 PM on May 22, 2006
He might have been "worth" 30 million, but it's unlikely he saw over a million from it:
posted by delmoi at 7:29 PM on May 22, 2006
Well, I had no idea who this guy was before this, now I think he's a douchebag.
posted by puke & cry at 7:32 PM on May 22, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by puke & cry at 7:32 PM on May 22, 2006 [1 favorite]
If you look up self-aggrandizing in the dictionary there's a tiny picture of esr. If you look up self-aggrandizing on wikipedia it used to have a tiny picture of esr. Raymond changed it though, he felt the picture was too small and didn't show his best side. The article text also failed to mention that he invented self-aggrandizing.
I suppose it is a threat and should be dealt with appropriately, kind of like gradeschool arguments that end with "I'm going to kill you". The only acceptable response when I was in grade school was to go to the principal after blowing him away with the Casul 454 you kept in your Adidas gym bag (see, I'm too old to have worn a backpack to school except for those canvas ones but your personal protection weapon would totally fall out if you were running late and had to jog to school)
posted by substrate at 7:34 PM on May 22, 2006
I suppose it is a threat and should be dealt with appropriately, kind of like gradeschool arguments that end with "I'm going to kill you". The only acceptable response when I was in grade school was to go to the principal after blowing him away with the Casul 454 you kept in your Adidas gym bag (see, I'm too old to have worn a backpack to school except for those canvas ones but your personal protection weapon would totally fall out if you were running late and had to jog to school)
posted by substrate at 7:34 PM on May 22, 2006
Looking at this chart it had a slight correction after its IPO, but has been fairly steady for the past few years.
posted by justkevin at 7:34 PM on May 22, 2006
posted by justkevin at 7:34 PM on May 22, 2006
I dunno; it looks like if he liquidated it all in June 2000, he could have cleared at least $5m.
posted by mr_roboto at 7:35 PM on May 22, 2006
posted by mr_roboto at 7:35 PM on May 22, 2006
As someone said on slashdot (owned by VA systems) the entire company had the anual income of a "medium sized gas station". (a few million a year).
posted by delmoi at 7:36 PM on May 22, 2006
posted by delmoi at 7:36 PM on May 22, 2006
Who is this lame...
Oh! Hi! UFO Ceiling Cat returns with blooming deathrays and that incorrigable, irresistable widdle face of doom! I am beholding the joy!
Burn him with death rays, ceiling cat! Burn him!
posted by loquacious at 7:36 PM on May 22, 2006
Oh! Hi! UFO Ceiling Cat returns with blooming deathrays and that incorrigable, irresistable widdle face of doom! I am beholding the joy!
Burn him with death rays, ceiling cat! Burn him!
posted by loquacious at 7:36 PM on May 22, 2006
So the entire purpose of this post is to bash on one guy?
I'm sure you're all completely superior to Mr. Raymond in every conceivable way, but did the rest of us really need to know that?
Why on earth does this rate a FPP?
posted by Malor at 7:37 PM on May 22, 2006
I'm sure you're all completely superior to Mr. Raymond in every conceivable way, but did the rest of us really need to know that?
Why on earth does this rate a FPP?
posted by Malor at 7:37 PM on May 22, 2006
Oh and in the spirit of ESR himself, this sentence is an uncalled-for and slightly inappropriate mention of The Cathedral and the Bazaar.
Is that an Farsi word?
posted by mr_roboto at 7:38 PM on May 22, 2006
Is that an Farsi word?
posted by mr_roboto at 7:38 PM on May 22, 2006
So the entire purpose of this post is to bash on one guy?
Nooooo ... One guy and his shambling, world-devouring ego.
Duh.
posted by mph at 7:41 PM on May 22, 2006 [1 favorite]
Nooooo ... One guy and his shambling, world-devouring ego.
Duh.
posted by mph at 7:41 PM on May 22, 2006 [1 favorite]
By the time Raymond could legally sell his VA Linux shares in June 2000, they had plunged $31 million in value to a still-impressive $5.5 million.So says rcade.
However, insider trading reports show no transactions in his name. Raymond kept all 150,000 of his open source tulip bulbs through April 2002, his last month on the VA Linux board.
Thanks to the dot-com bust -- fed in large part by big-hype, no-hope companies like VA Linux, the worth of Raymond's shares had dropped to $195,000, a loss of more than $5 million. Yet today he continues to be in demand for technology investment advice and serves on the Merrill Lynch Technology Advisory Board.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 7:45 PM on May 22, 2006
Metafilter: So the entire purpose of this post is to bash on one guy?
posted by Mr. Six at 7:53 PM on May 22, 2006
posted by Mr. Six at 7:53 PM on May 22, 2006
I'm sure you're all completely superior to Mr. Raymond in every conceivable way, but did the rest of us really need to know that?
ESR is (or at least, used to be) a major figure in the open-source movement. His book, The Cathedral and the Bazaar helped to convince netscape to open-source navigator, which really did kickoff public awareness of the movement. I can't stand the guy myself; he really is a narcissist. But his writings and his personality (and his feud with the once-and-future-king of hackers, rms) have been geek conversation fodder for years. A humorous update on his increasingly desperate attempts to remain famous (see also his hilariously confrontational response to a generic recruitment letter from microsoft) is worthy of interest to a sizable minority of mefi's population, I think.
posted by gsteff at 7:56 PM on May 22, 2006
ESR is (or at least, used to be) a major figure in the open-source movement. His book, The Cathedral and the Bazaar helped to convince netscape to open-source navigator, which really did kickoff public awareness of the movement. I can't stand the guy myself; he really is a narcissist. But his writings and his personality (and his feud with the once-and-future-king of hackers, rms) have been geek conversation fodder for years. A humorous update on his increasingly desperate attempts to remain famous (see also his hilariously confrontational response to a generic recruitment letter from microsoft) is worthy of interest to a sizable minority of mefi's population, I think.
posted by gsteff at 7:56 PM on May 22, 2006
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posted by CunningLinguist at 6:51 PM on May 22, 2006