Introducing RMS-Lint

Shlomi Fish writes "There's a new tool called RMS-Lint that aims to check and correct documents for their compliance with correspondence rules from Richard Stallman. If you plan on sending RMS an E-mail, you may actually need it."

I used to work with Richard Stallman

[Anonymous Coward]

He is a very intelligent and interesting person. But in addition to his horrific body odor, he has a real nasty habit of picking his nose in public and eating the booger, This is really disgusting to watch!

Full List of April Fools Web Sites

[Urgo]

For a full updated list of sites pulling april fools jokes see here [urgo.org]

Some of the latest enteries:
livejournal.com [livejournal.com] - on userinfo pages, "Friend"/"Friend Of" -> "Stalking"/"Stalked By"
www.gpf-comics.com [gpf-comics.com] - Comic mirrored.
smh.com.au [smh.com.au] - Yum-cha trolleys with "L" plates
www.clutchfans.com [clutchfans.com] - Patrick Ewing returning to NBA
www.freeciv.org [freeciv.org] - Freeciv ANSI client
www.rav4world.com [rav4world.com] - Closed? Should have announced that TOMORROW!
www.retrocrush.com [retrocrush.com] - Nude pics of Jaclyn Smith
westcoaster.net [westcoaster.net] - Roller coaster site turned into teen girl site
www.meowpawjects.com [meowpawjects.com] - Sock people forced webmaster to take website down.
miceage.com [miceage.com] - Disney merges with Walmart
www.badgerbadgerbadger.com [badgerbadgerbadger.com] - Badgers replaces with zombies
skepdic.com [skepdic.com] - Skeptic's Dictionary closing
fool.com [fool.com] - Buffett buys Krispy Cream
launch.com [launch.com] - Britney Spears & Jason Alexander To Renew Wedding Vows
MetaFilter.com [metafilter.com] - Turned in to a Wiki for the day
www.ddrkc.com [ddrkc.com] - owner sold site to a user that is unpopular
brownpau.com [brownpau.com] - March for Web Standards
www.beyondunreal.com [beyondunreal.com] - ut2k4 production suspended
globetechnology.com [globetechnology.com] - Microsoft Solitaire
www.modernwiccan.com [modernwiccan.com] - Randomized Color Scheme
bbs.fuckedcompany.com [fuckedcompany.com] - Site shutting down
www.diary-x.com [diary-x.com] - looks like diaryland!
theprp.com [theprp.com] - Music site to "Previously Ridden Ponies"
mpx200.org [mpx200.org] - Pocket PC with 2Gb system memory/Smart Drunk Pocket PC application
www.macosxhints.com [macosxhints.com] - triple G5 Powermacs
www.slyfx.com [slyfx.com] - AOL buys slyfx
palminfocenter.com [palminfocenter.com] - Palms for toddlers.
www.carniola.org [carniola.org] - fake news story
eikenes.alvestrand.no [alvestrand.no] - Considering porn spam to be in a separate dialect to everything else
defunctgames.com [defunctgames.com] - Pimps At Sea fox xbox

and homestarrunner.com...

[VValdo]

...is pulling a prank [homestarrunner.com]. (Be sure to try thoraxcorp's site too.)

W

I don't get it

[geekoid]

why do the people who dislike the April Fools /. bother to post? Jeez, do they think this is their personal site designed to cater to them?

I mean, go away.

Text of the Article

[Shlomi Fish]

Here's the text of the article to relieve the stress from the site. Slashdot operators: please link to it from the feature.

Introducing the RMS-Lint

Introduction

A new tool aims to revolutionize the way people communicate with the famous free software evangelist Richard M. Stallman, (also known by his initials - "RMS"). Its project leader Shlomi Fish has more to say of it:

"RMS-Lint is called RMS-Lint because like most lints it warns on many things that are obviously not errors, because there's a chance that they are. RMS-Lint is an interactive speller that runs over the document word by word with a sophisticated look-ahead and look-behind and warns the user over any word or combination of words that may irritate Stallman, or otherwise will be frowned upon by him."

RMS-Lint's Rules

In accordance to the Free Software Foundation's list of words to avoid [gnu.org] and other documents available on the FSF Site [fsf.org], the following rules are recognized by RMS-Lint:

• Warns on every use of the term "Linux" not preceded by "GNU/". This is due to the fact that Stallman advocates using "GNU/Linux" instead of just "Linux" to refer to the entire operating system. It especially warns on "the Linux kernel" (because the kernel part is redundant as Linux is just the kernel).

  Legitimate use of the term "Linux" to refer to just the kernel are also warned about, but can be overridden.

• Warns on every use of the term "open source" and even the word "open". Replacements are "free software", "free", "revealed", "viewable", and the bootload of synonyms from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary" [m-w.com]. Also warns on the terms "closed-source" or "closed".

• Warns on every use of the term "free" for fear it may be used to imply costlessness. As for legitimate uses of the term ("free as in free speech"), it should be noted that being a lint, RMS-Lint attempts to cover every possible error, not just the ones that actually are such. Replacements are "liberal", "libre", "costless", "gratis", and you also have an option to ignore it.

• Warns on every use of the term "pirate" or "piracy". It is our belief that when talking to Dr. Stallman, people won't usually wish to talk about the sea-faring robbers, but instead on illegitimate copying of one form of media or another. Thus, RMS-Lint warns on every such use and suggests the alternatives of "illegal copier/copying", or "bucanneer".

• Warns on every use of "Intellectual Proprety" or "IP" (a common short form of it). The developers of RMS-Lint realize that IP can also mean the "Internet Protocol" (as in "IP address", "my IP is '192.168.1.1'"), but we believe that when corresponding to RMS, such use will be relatively uncommon, and does not justify risking mentioning "intellectual property" to him.

• And much, much more...

Opinions on RMS-Lint

Eric S. Raymond [catb.org], a long time friend of Stallman, and the chief leader of the open source movement, expressed a great deal of content from the availability of this tool. "I've been waiting for such a thing all my life. Communicating with Richard has become more and more difficult, and RMS-Lint can easily make it much better."

Raymond's long time collaborator Bruce Perens [perens.com] also expressed happiness that RMS-Lint has become available. "Modern-day open source enthusiasts find it more and more difficult to communicate with Richard Stallman due to his terminological whims. RMS-Lint is just the tool that can help them validate their E-mails for RMS' correctness."

Meanwhile, Richard Stallman himself expressed dismay from this project: "RMS-Lint is an unsatisfying symptomatic cure for a big problem.