[NMLUG] Thoughts on the Reiser incident

[sbrowne at ix.netcom.com (Steve Browne)]

The road to good programming is paved with hell. The code now in
worldwide use may have sprung from a harrowing life.

I am reminded of what I know of the story of Phil Katz. WHO? Maybe you
remember from the days of DOS and Windows 95 a neat file compression
utitlity called PKZip, which later was adopted to zip-this and
zip-that and bzip and bzip2 in Linux.

Phil Katz was found dead in a motel room surrounded with empty vodka
bottles; he had drunk himself to death. I never looked into the
details but I think the mere reason that others were copying his
software was not a motivation for suicide.

Then there is Al Bundy of Brooklyn, New York, who coined the term
"warez". But another time; I don't want to depress you too much at one
sitting.

Someone should write a book...

Steve
Stephen B. Browne
sbrowne at ix.netcom.com
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
                          - Walt Disney