Derek Bodner’s Blog

Today during the Phillies game (a 5-2 win), in between batters, I heard a standing ovation. Turns out they were cheering the scoreboard, as the Nationals took the lead vs. the Mets. Earlier in the day I had read on a MY Mets message board that they had started a Tomahawk Chop in NY the previous night. That’s beautiful. You gotta love this time of the year as a baseball fan.

I just wish the Phillies weren’t in a race with all these west coast teams. It’s been weeks since I’ve gotten a good nights sleep!

Last week Richard Stallman had a lengthy interview over at PC World, which covered many topics. Among those, obviously, was the GPLv3 license, which brought the interviewer to ask about Linus’s stance on GPLv2 being more suitable for the Linux kernel. After taking a moment to bring up the Open Source/Free Software debate, he ends his response with:

However, if you don’t want to lose your freedom, you had better not follow him (Linus).

This is what drives me nuts about Stallman. I don’t disagree with most of his points. I think what he has devoted his life to is honorable, and has done a considerable deal for the computing world. And he has done it at great cost to his own personal well-being. It’s not what he says, but the manner of which he says it. There’s a slight twinge of “if you’re not with us, you’re against us”. He could have taken the moment to have a lengthy discussion on how GPLv3 helps users and developers avoid pitfalls that GPLv2 overlooked, and why Linus should release the kernel under the new license. But instead he delves into an antagonistic rhetoric that IMO doesn’t convince people as much as he could. Idealism’s great, but when it comes off as “I know what’s right, follow me, if not you’re wrong” the voice can be lost.

In the past few days, I’ve found myself incredibly torn with the comments made by Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. I do certainly agree that there is racism in this world. What I don’t agree with is that (the majority) if his critics critisize him because he’s black.

It’s probably easiest to go over some of what he said.

“But they [white quarterbacks] don’t get criticized as much as we do. They don’t. I pass for 300 yards. Our teams wins by seven. [They say,] ‘He could have made this throw. They would have scored if he did this.’

That, Donovan, is not racism. People who say that are not racist. They are not saying that because you’re African American. People are saying that because you’re a quarterback. You don’t think that happens to white quarterbacks? For proof of it happening in this town, look back at Ron Jaworski, who received ten times as much criticism as Donovan did during his tenure. Need a contemporary example? Ask Rex Grossman if fans withhold criticizing him because they’re winning. This is a tough town to start with, which becomes even more demanding because the Eagles haven’t won a championship in nearly half a century. Top that off with playing a position that is universally criticized if you don’t win the big one, and the criticism isn’t surprising. Think Dan Marino didn’t get unfairly criticized because he didn’t win a Super Bowl? Think John Elway didn’t get heat before winning his? Peyton Manning?

That comment’s just wrong. Those are criticisms that come with the position, and really don’t go away until you win a Super Bowl, regardless of your success.

While defending himself this past week he goes on to say:

They (white quarterbacks) probably have not been told that they should have scrambled more

Donovan, the reason people are telling you to scramble is because YOU’RE GOOD AT IT! People are not telling you that you should scramble more because you’re black, but because it’s a weapon that makes you better. I don’t think many people are telling Byron Leftwich he should scramble more because he’s black. Since he came into the league, Donovan has always seemed to look at scrambling as a bad thing because it makes him a “black quarterback”. No. It improves you as a quarterback. Donovan’s fear of racism has limited one of his strengths, and that’s why people get upset.

I don’t think people disagree with McNabb’s assertion that he faces more (and different) criticism than white quarterbacks. I don’t think people disagree that racism still exists, or that there’s not progress to be made. I think what they take exception to (and at least what I take exception to) is the example he gave in the HBO interview. Specifically, the quote about going out, throwing for 300 yards, winning by seven, and saying “we could have scored more had he done…”.

That’s the example he gave, or at least the example HBO chose to show. And that does happen to every quarterback who has failed to win the big one. There are superior QB’s to McNabb (Marino, Elway until he won, Manning until he won) who have received unfair criticism because of the position they play. The specific example McNabb gave IS something all QB’s go through. It’s the nature of the beast.

Had Donovan said “I walk out of the stadium, and I hear people tell me I’m too dumb to play QB”, there wouldn’t be nearly this reaction. In fact, I think people of all color would empathize with that. But that’s not what was aired in the interview. The reaction does not prove that racism is an issue (that’s proven through other acts), it proves that people don’t like to be painted as racist because they criticized a QB. It was Donovan’s example, not his message, that got people upset.

I can’t help but sit here and be amused by the situation. Surely I feel bad for some of the honest workers that are will lose their job as a result of this. They don’t deserve that. But I can’t say I see an sympathy for Darl McBride or any other officers of The SCO Group. From SCO:

“The revenue from this business has been declining over the last several years, primarily as a result of increased competition from alternative operating systems, particularly Linux, and from the negative publicity of the SCO litigation.

“We believe the inclusion of Unix code and derivative works in Linux has been a contributor to the decline in our Unix business because users of Linux generally do not pay for the operating system itself, but pay for services and maintenance.

“The Linux operating system competes directly with our OpenServer and UnixWare products and has taken significant market share from these products”

So let’s see if we get this straight. SCO makes a claim that Linux is stealing its code. They then never back up that claim. Make frivolous lawsuits based around that claim. Still never provide any of the infringing code. And then place the blame on the demise on the company around the bad publicity that they themselves generated?

Oh, that’s rich.

Poor SCO. There’s viable competition. Heaven forbid.

Then, they complain about the success of Linux? When they themselves offered a once successful Linux distribution? Would they have even been in this position if it wasn’t for the success of Linux?

Hey Darl. Just like we said to Microsoft. SHOW US THE CODE. You have failed to do so, and you have failed because you based the entire existence of your company around these lawsuits. I don’t expect someone to actually take responsibility for what they do, but at least quit your whining about it.

Honestly, I don’t think they ever expected to win. It wouldn’t surprise me if when they started the lawsuit threats they knew they had no shot. Considering SCO’s financial position at the time they very well may have been hoping for IBM to buy them out to make the threat go away (or at the very least, settle out of court). They rolled the dice, tried to blackmail the competition. It didn’t work. Now please, leave quietly.

Link: ZDNet

Where the Cardinals used 11 pitchers (not counting ones who pitch hit and pitch ran).

Where Cole Hamels and Brett Myers (the Phillies top two pitchers entering the year) gave up 4 runs in 5 innings, but Durbin, Geary, Romero, Gordon, Mesa and Condrey combined for 9 scoreless innings.

Where Jayson Werth came within 1 triple of hitting as many in one game (2) as he did in his best season (3).

Where Clay Condrey came in and got the save, Jose Mesa the win, and Rod Barajas the game winning hit.

The game lasted 5 hours and 4 minutes.

I wonder what the odds in Vegas were of that happening.

SCO has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy [tuxrocks.com, PDF]. I’m absolutely stunned. With their great products, great customer support, and rabid following, I would have thought that they were in good financial standing.

*grin*

Only downer is it’s Chapter 11, not Chapter 7. Hopefully this just delays the inevitable.

It’s become a running joke in the FOSS community that every year will be “the year of the Linux desktop”. Well, this will not be the year of the Linux desktop. Linux is not yet ready to take a major jump up and gain market share in the Desktop computing market. But that doesn’t mean the improvements made in the Linux Desktop haven’t been a great success (including ATI’s announcement of Open Source drivers), and that we’re not getting closer to Linux being a viable desktop environment.
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Tonight on a late-night talk show, a presidential candidate (I’m trying to be as ambiguous as possible) officially declared his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. His site is hosted at my former employer. While I no longer work there, it’s still fun to see something you worked on/with get that kind of exposure. I remember deploying a few of his servers back in the spring, and it did provide a little bit of a rush.

Granted, I still don’t think I’d vote for him, but it was fun watching the announcement nonetheless.