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Val's experience is disturbing
Val's experience is disturbing
Posted Mar 27, 2008 1:11 UTC (Thu) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648)Parent article: Quotes of the week
I think I preferred it when people just stared blankly when I told them what I do.
Reading the rest of his blog entry, I'm somewhat concerned over what impact the Reiser murder trial will have on the general public's perception of Linux. We Linux users/hackers persevered through a huge lawsuit (SCO) and lots of Microsoft FUD tactics over the past several years, but presenting an image to the average joe that Linux users and developers aren't a bunch of psychopathic nerds or murderers seems to be the next challenge.
I somewhat blame the media covering the Reiser trial for this - it seems most articles I read about the trial start out by saying, "Linux programmer Hans Reiser..."
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Val's experience is disturbing
Posted Mar 27, 2008 1:27 UTC (Thu) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link]
"her" blog entry...
Ouch
Posted Mar 27, 2008 1:41 UTC (Thu) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648) [Link]
Ooh, I screwed that one up. Thanks for the correction, and my sincerest apologies to Val!
Val's experience is disturbing
Posted Mar 27, 2008 11:30 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
It's time to link to Val's real home page again, isn't it ;}}}(that was the most impressive, and funniest, test of the disturbing way in which people's ideas are valued less merely because they happen to be female that I've ever seen.)
I'm confused...
Posted Mar 27, 2008 13:12 UTC (Thu) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648) [Link]
Okay, now I'm confused. I really don't want to offend Val or otherwise say anything offensive or inappropriate. I kind of remember a discussion on LWN a year or two ago, about Val and Val's gender identity, which got out of hand. Lots of hurtful and insensitive comments flying around. But, PLEASE let's not revisit that ordeal.
That being said, I don't care about Val's gender identity or sex - Val certainly contributes to the Linux community with Val's blog, and Val's latest entry seems to indicate that the public has an unclear or distorted perception of Linux (and its community).
Granted, Hans Reiser's recent histrionics on the stand (causing the judge to chuckle, etc.) likely makes him relatively more newsworthy in the San Francisco Bay area - in other words, people are perhaps more likely to recognize Reiser's name (or have the associated thought/idea of Linux pop into their memories) during casual conversation (as Val's property manager's reaction would seem to indicate).
I'm confused...
Posted Mar 28, 2008 3:23 UTC (Fri) by xanni (subscriber, #361) [Link]
I had a brain blip and referred to her as "Valerie Whatsername" during a session at LCA this year, only to discover that she was sitting two seats away... now that's embarrassing. The funny thing is that you'd think I couldn't possibly forget her surname, because I'm a huge fan of the late Jim Henson (no relation)!
Val's experience is disturbing
Posted Mar 27, 2008 21:13 UTC (Thu) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link]
Sorry, who is it that is thought to be valuing ideas differently based on whether somebody's female?
Gender values
Posted Mar 27, 2008 23:35 UTC (Thu) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648) [Link]
Watch the movie Tootsie (starring Dustin Hoffman) sometime.
That may be an unfair comparison; paid soap opera acting is a wildly different career than volunteer (or paid) operating system kernel developer. Whereas Dustin Hoffman's character dressed in drag in order to get an acting job, Val's motivation may have been to shatter any myths (perceived or not) that women are any less capable at kernel hacking than men.
Gender values
Posted Mar 28, 2008 21:29 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
IIRC (fading memory of stuff over a year old) that was exactly her point.
Val's experience is disturbing
Posted Mar 27, 2008 3:11 UTC (Thu) by leoc (subscriber, #39773) [Link]
I'm not sure it's very widespread outside of Wired. A quick google news search of "linux reiser" reveals that it is mostly Wired stories listing him as "Linux guru Hans Reiser".
Yeah, I just noticed that also
Posted Mar 27, 2008 3:24 UTC (Thu) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648) [Link]
Agreed... Now that I think of it, the preponderance of online articles I read about the Reiser trial are coming from Wired.com. Perhaps I'm getting an unbalanced account of it all...
Val's experience is disturbing
Posted Mar 28, 2008 10:38 UTC (Fri) by dvdeug (subscriber, #10998) [Link]
Eh. I think the public believes that murderers are random and unpredictable, coming out of all sorts of social groups. The court cases of OJ Simpson and the publicity around Chris Benoit didn't really hurt football or wrestling.