C as deep blasphemy

[spinoza1111]

Curiously appropriate, since the use of the Internet has spread
oversimplified and Fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, and
replaced the earlier and liberating syncretism in which worshipers saw
good in other religions, and did not slay in the name of their
religion.

Likewise, the Internet has spread a Fundamentalist view of C
consisting of a series of shibboleths which people like Rosenau here
repeat whenever they let him post from Nazi camp, the worship of self-
appointed *ayatollahs* and *imams* such as Seebach who as it turned
out are products not of computer science programs in universities but
of corporate *madrassahs*, the violent rage of their half-educated
*taliban*, and the systematic persecution of *kafirs*, *feringhee*,
and العربيه such as Schildt.

But at least the followers of Islam are stand up guys who resist
oppression by the West and worship God. What's especially obscene
about what goes on in clc and clcm, since the brutality, intolerance
and destruction is in service of man's silly ideas and the graven idol
of the damn computer.


After long years of blasphemy of God in God's name,
Man discover'd a new and novel form of shame:
The worship of plastic and the worship of glass
The destruction of reputation by the meanest ass.

 

[John Bode]

Curiously appropriate, since the use of the Internet has spread
oversimplified and Fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, and
replaced the earlier and liberating syncretism in which worshipers saw
good in other religions, and did not slay in the name of their
religion.

Likewise, the Internet has spread a Fundamentalist view of C
consisting of a series of shibboleths which people like Rosenau here
repeat whenever they let him post from Nazi camp, the worship of self-
appointed *ayatollahs* and *imams* such as Seebach who as it turned
out are products not of computer science programs in universities but
of corporate *madrassahs*, the violent rage of their half-educated
*taliban*, and the systematic persecution of *kafirs*, *feringhee*,
and العربيه such as Schildt.

But at least the followers of Islam are stand up guys who resist
oppression by the West and worship God. What's especially obscene
about what goes on in clc and clcm, since the brutality, intolerance
and destruction is in service of man's silly ideas and the graven idol
of the damn computer.

After long years of blasphemy of God in God's name,
Man discover'd a new and novel form of shame:
The worship of plastic and the worship of glass
The destruction of reputation by the meanest ass.

Edward, I say this out of genuine concern -- see a doctor. Soon.
Something is wrong with you. Your obsession with certain members of
this newsgroup borders on...no, strike that, it *is* unhealthy.
You've far exceeded S**** N**** with the "C as a religion" nonsense,
which I frankly thought was impossible.

This is not meant to be a casual "you're nuts" dismissal; your
behavior is genuinely worrisome to me, and seems to be deteriorating
over time. Nobody sane gets this worked up over a goddamned
programming language.

 

[spinoza1111]

Edward, I say this out of genuine concern -- see a doctor.  Soon.
Something is wrong with you.  Your obsession with certain members of
this newsgroup borders on...no, strike that, it *is* unhealthy.
You've far exceeded S**** N**** with the "C as a religion" nonsense,
which I frankly thought was impossible.

This is not meant to be a casual "you're nuts" dismissal; your
behavior is genuinely worrisome to me, and seems to be deteriorating
over time.  Nobody sane gets this worked up over a goddamned
programming language.

Please do not do amateur psychology over Google Groups. Responsible
psychologists use behavior and not beliefs over technical matters as
markers of illness because Soviet psychologists defined a false
category of "functioning neurosis" in the 1970s in order to be able to
treat dissidents as mental patients. This was defined as having a
psychological disorder strictly because the subject publishes views,
while holding down a job (and often, like Natan Scharansky, a
dissident computer programmer who later became an Israeli foreign
minister, performed their jobs better than the apparatchiks, which
alongside the dissident views caused the investigation).

Psychologists use behavior (holding down a job, paying taxes, rent
etc.) in addition to cognition for the very good reason that
psychologists are narrowly educated. If a mathematician is brought to
them and starts talking apparent nonsense about number theory, they
don't medicate him UNLESS he also is (let's say) homeless: an actual
"danger to himself or others" because of verifiable dysfunction.
That's because the psychologist doesn't know number theory.

Indeed, I was personally familiar as you may know with John "A
Beautiful Mind" Nash who very occasionally exhibited strange behavior
when I was employed by Princeton as a programmer between 1987 and
1992; I'm one of the sources for the book. He'd often work late at
night at Fine Hall, the mathematics building, and leave strange
equations on blackboards which few people, and no psychologists, were
able to decipher.

Had he not had permission to do from the University through the good
offices of his former colleagues, this would have been, possibly,
symptomatic behavior. In fact, one of his sons, who also manifested
psychological symptoms, was asked politely not to use Princeton
workstations by my former supervisor: but Nash Sr had full permission
to be on campus, and as he migrated to the computer center he grew
even less "symptomatic".

I hold a job, pay rent and taxes, and wrote a book for Apress on a
computer topic, which I think gives me the right to post here without
people (who simply fail to have been as widely read as I) harassing me
with silly charges of mental disturbance, especially in the defense,
it appears, of truly pathological liars such as Richard "Nilges isn't
on comp.risks" Heathfield.

In this post, I am drawing what I consider a possible parallel in the
ways a fundamentalist Islam spreads using the Internet (something
that's been documented: cf. Malise Ruthven: Fundamentalism: A Very
Brief Introduction, OUP 2007) and the way in which one possible
interpretation of a complex technical and social phenomenon (the C
programming language and its actual use by programmers) has gone viral
and damaged reputations needlessly. Since the technical apparatus is
the same, it stands to reason that a central interpretation of C might
be learned by rote without thought, and parallel tendencies to
intolerance and the politics of personal destruction, with Schildt
being our Rushdie.

If you are qualified to discuss this issue I welcome your thoughts.
However, even a psychologist would need to know, as I have shown,
behavior to avoid an unethical, Soviet-style diagnosis, and I doubt
you have psychological qualifications. Instead, I think any number of
disturbing films in which the plucky but inarticulate hero, such as
Harrison Ford or Jodie Foster, confronts the overly grammatical and
learned Darth Vader or Hannibal Lecter, form your source material.

I suggest this is not enough.

 

[spinoza1111]

Edward, I say this out of genuine concern -- see a doctor.  Soon.
Something is wrong with you.  Your obsession with certain members of
this newsgroup borders on...no, strike that, it *is* unhealthy.
You've far exceeded S**** N**** with the "C as a religion" nonsense,
which I frankly thought was impossible.

This is not meant to be a casual "you're nuts" dismissal; your
behavior is genuinely worrisome to me, and seems to be deteriorating
over time.  Nobody sane gets this worked up over a goddamned
programming language.

That's not true if Seebach and Feather are sane. They got so worked up
over trivia that they became in psychologically verifiable term a
danger to others, namely Schildt. It does not matter what main returns
as long as the OS host can handle it, and most can: it only matters
when the code is ported to a poorly written host. Yet any number of
followers of Seebach and Feather babble about this all the time.

I think Seebach and Feather are sane. In fact, the problem in this
group is not the occasional nutbar. It is that competence challenged
programmers do evil things here, such as lie about Schildt and me. And
I agree that it's silly to get worked up over a programming language.
I'm chewing the carpet about malicious damage to reputations by
unqualified people.

 

[Seebs]

Edward, I say this out of genuine concern -- see a doctor. Soon.
Something is wrong with you. Your obsession with certain members of
this newsgroup borders on...no, strike that, it *is* unhealthy.
You've far exceeded S**** N**** with the "C as a religion" nonsense,
which I frankly thought was impossible.

Seconded. I have been deleting your (Edward's) messages unread because
they are, in the words of the crank.net people, "illucid".

This is not meant to be a casual "you're nuts" dismissal; your
behavior is genuinely worrisome to me, and seems to be deteriorating
over time. Nobody sane gets this worked up over a goddamned
programming language.

Or a review of a book that's been out of print for over a decade.

Seriously, this is not sane behavior. I don't mean "insane" in the
sense of "I strongly disagree". There are plenty of sane people with
whom I disagree strongly. I don't get along well at all with Jacob
Navia, I don't agree with him at all about a lot of what C should be
like -- but he's sane, he has arguments for his positions, and the
arguments are basically lucid.

Seriously, this level of obsession, coupled with the random digressions
into politics and religion, is pretty fucking weird. I would personally
say schizotypal, but I'm not a doctor or anything -- my degree in
psychology is just an undergraduate degree. But still, dude. You
are not well. You are responding to things which are entirely in your
head, and I will also echo the assertion that your behavior and lucidty
are visibly deteriorating.

Go see a doctor. Seriously.

And yeah, if you come back having talked to a professional therapist
with a proper psych degree about your concerns about international
conspiracies against Schildt and their promotion of corporatism and
all that, and the therapist tells you that you're right and we're
wrong, I'll be super happy. But I honestly do not think that a remotely
plausible outcome. You are obssessive and becoming less and less
coherent.

-s

 

[spinoza1111]

Seconded.  I have been deleting your (Edward's) messages unread because
they are, in the words of the crank.net people, "illucid".

That's the problem, isn't it. You've been commenting based on second
hand accounts of what I post. This is irrational and would be a point
against you in a civil libel case. It is of a piece with the
carelessness with which you harmed Schildt ("the 'heap' is a DOS
term").

Or a review of a book that's been out of print for over a decade.

No, it's in a fourth edition which you have also attacked. Please get
your facts straight.

Seriously, this is not sane behavior.  I don't mean "insane" in the
sense of "I strongly disagree".  There are plenty of sane people with
whom I disagree strongly.  I don't get along well at all with Jacob
Navia, I don't agree with him at all about a lot of what C should be
like -- but he's sane, he has arguments for his positions, and the
arguments are basically lucid.

Seriously, this level of obsession, coupled with the random digressions
into politics and religion, is pretty fucking weird.  I would personally
say schizotypal, but I'm not a doctor or anything -- my degree in

Nor are you qualified in comp sci.

psychology is just an undergraduate degree.  But still, dude.  You
are not well.  You are responding to things which are entirely in your

Literally false. The Schildt situation is a reality according to the
information I've received.

The problem is that many young men are unconscious of their darkness
and do malicious damage, as you have done to Schildt's reputation,
without being aware of it.

head, and I will also echo the assertion that your behavior and lucidty
are visibly deteriorating.

Go see a doctor.  Seriously.

And yeah, if you come back having talked to a professional therapist
with a proper psych degree about your concerns about international
conspiracies against Schildt and their promotion of corporatism and
all that, and the therapist tells you that you're right and we're
wrong, I'll be super happy.  But I honestly do not think that a remotely
plausible outcome.  You are obssessive and becoming less and less
coherent.

I see a professional therapist from time to time primarily for life
coaching and have done so since I worked at Princeton. I describe
these Internet postings and she feels they are healthy.