ESR Gets Job Offer From Microsoft 642
epsalon writes "Eric S. Raymond, the well known Open Source Evangelist, recently received a job offer from Microsoft, that he strongly refused. Is this another attempt to lure Open Source figures or just ignorance?" From his post: "I called [the Microsoft HR rep], who told me my name had been passed to him by his research team. I indicated to him that I thought somebody was probably having a little joke at his expense, and promised him an email reply."
Interesting (Score:3, Funny)
Is slashdot a celebrity gossip site for geeks now or something?
Your New Job, ESR... (Score:4, Funny)
ESR: I can't do that?
MS: Can't handle the isolation?
ESR: No, I have to sound off every now and then or people will forget about me!
MS: Well... that's what were actually shooting for.
Poor choice of graphic (Score:3, Funny)
ACCEPT (Score:4, Funny)
1) Your office filetypes are made public
2) Your publicises the OS system server calls.
3) Stop funding biased reports.
4) Hey, while your at it: open-source Windows OS (all of them)...
Microsoft looking for help? (Score:3, Funny)
and (Score:3, Funny)
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Oblig ref. (Score:2, Funny)
I remeber this episode! ESR takes the job after Microsft offers to give ESR's son a "real life" and wipe everyone's memory.
Sashclode (Score:5, Funny)
Apparently he was also going to put in "and Slashdot begins using CSS", but took it out at the last minute.
How insulting (Score:5, Funny)
"I'd thank you for your offer of employment at Microsoft, except that it indicates that either you or your research team (or both) couldn't get a clue if it were pounded into you with baseball bats. What were you going to do with the rest of your afternoon, offer jobs to Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds?"
Right, because we all know ESR is on the same level with those two guys because he's responsible for uh... What exactly did he do?
Obligatory "Everboby loves Eric Raymond": http://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/archive/show-them- the-code [geekz.co.uk]
Well done ESR (Score:5, Funny)
Handled very incompetently (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well Known ? (Score:4, Funny)
Full of himself... (Score:5, Funny)
"WHAT? You don't know me? Why, I am famous. Yes I am so, so famous! You must be an idiot if you don't know my name! Why I am your worse nightmare! I said that in a very famous online flame war! I am the famous open source guy! I am up there with Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds. You have heard of them, but you never head of me? But I am famous! Your an idiot if you don't know who I am!"
What a pompous ass!
Can't we get some open source advocates with charisma? Maybe we could all pitch in and hire an out of work TV actor to be our open source spokesperson, instead of the usual juvenile socially disaffected geeks.
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, but you might not be quite so polite if the White Pride Party offered you a job, with insinuations that you'd be "just perfect" for the party.
Oh wait, that was your example
*duck*
Re:Job offer? (Score:5, Funny)
Two years ago you would have been right. But with the downhill bent that Slashdot has been on lately, this story is not only newsworthy, but will be duped sometime later today.
Re:Poor choice of graphic (Score:4, Funny)
But then the base of the totem pole wouldn't have had the proper footing.
Ba-dum-ching!
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:3, Funny)
oh and i love this part:
and talked IBM and Wall Street and the Fortune 500 into buying in
i'm sorry... but this is just ridiculous.
yeah... ESR: get over yourself... sheesh... i get those kinds of emails 3 or 4 times a day. they aren't job offers.
*wonders if ESR jerks off to Revolution OS [imdb.com]*-- eeewww... sorry about that dreadful image
hand in hand (Score:1, Funny)
it would skew the odds the wrong way (Score:4, Funny)
Clippy
Outlook Express
Why would you want to make ESR more qualified to create products like those?
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
Glad to hear those crazy kids are back together.
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:5, Funny)
Johnson, take a look at this! (Score:5, Funny)
MS Exec: "Dear Lord, this guy is full of the worst concoction of bullshit and self-importance I've ever seen. We have to get him a position in marketing."
Re:Dinner time (Score:3, Funny)
My mind automatically replaced "a woman" with "Bill Gates" in that last sentence...
Please excuse me while I attempt to remove my brain with my fingernails.
Re:Full of himself... (Score:5, Funny)
Sure, but they'll only have a 10 or 11 in wisdom and intelligence...
Re:could be a trend (Score:2, Funny)
Him: ProTools is great! You can apply plugins to tracks, as many as you want.
Me: Yep, me too!
Him: I have a really nice reverb plugin, compression, delay, distortion, lo-fi stuff, etc.
Me: Me too. Hundreds of them!
Him: You can slide tracks fwd/backward in time w/ ProTools!
Me: I can too!
Him: Mine is actually ProTools LT (or LE, whatever), so it only cost me $5,000 (plus the $6K for the Mac G5, of course)!
Me: Mine was free and runs on a $2K punk-ass PC running Linux!
Him: d00d, WTF?
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Your New Job, ESR... (Score:5, Funny)
He flipped out and KILLED a dude ... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Handled very incompetently (Score:3, Funny)
Judging his response he did...
Re:ESR Offer (Score:2, Funny)
Marry me?
Re:ESR Offer (Score:2, Funny)
You really should really think carefully before using that "G" word... soon, there'll be 10 or so posts under here asking you to marry them.
Me? I'm just gonna ask for a date.
Suggestion for email reply (Score:2, Funny)
I'd be more than happy to discuss potential job opportunities within Microsoft Corporation, but to simplify matters I'd appreciate it if you would take the time to answer a few questions beforehand:
1) Have you ever talked with a programmer not employed at Microsoft before? If so; how long ago, what was their name and where (tech fair, campus recruiting, etc.) did you speak?
2) Will Microsoft be prepared to change it's present policy, and start shipping working software in any of the following categories: OS Software, Office Software, Development Software, Home & Personal Software (including games), Educational Software? Please indicate any preferences as well.
3) If I accept employment, will I be allowed complete anonymity and deniability regarding my employment at the company, and, on terminating my employment prematurely due to subpoenaed or volontary testimony before a U.S. district or federal court, will I be guaranteed priority status in the FBI Witness Protection Program at company expense?
4) Has the company performed any gross violations of law or common business ethics, including, but not limited to: Wilfull abuse of monopoly, intentionally degrading the quality or reliability of the companys products in order to force customers to otherwise unneccessary upgrades, or creating compatibility conflicts in OS software in order to cripple superior competing products, in the past 12 months? (other than all such acts presently publicly known and upheld in ruling by U.S. district or federal court)
5) If I accept a position, what severance pay will I receive as compensation for the social stigma and damage to my professional reputation incurred by my accepting employment at Microsoft?
Please respond by either email to my address, spam@esr.ibiblio.org or telephone,(999) 999-9999. I can be reached weekdays during 10:14AM - 10:15PM, Nepal Time zone. Please leave a voicemail message at all other times.
Look forward to hearing from you soon.
Eric S. Raymond
Re:Full of himself... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Full of himself... (Score:2, Funny)
I would've just told them to go fuck themselves but not everybody is as well spoken as me.
Meanwhile, in Steve Balmer's office ... (Score:5, Funny)
Steve Balmer: "Please tell me you didn't try to recruit Eric Raymond."
Mike Walters: "It was Eric Raymond."
Steve Balmer does his Bobby Knight imitation.
A joke? (Score:3, Funny)
And a pretty funny one, too! If all it takes to get Eric's knickers in a knot is getting a form letter from a company recuiter (which he calls a "job offer"--makes you wonder how inflated the rest of his claims are!), then this is much too easy!
I suspect he'll start getting lots of calls from every fast-food joint and Starbucks around the country! And he'll be equally mad that *they've* never heard of him!