The Future of ReiserFS

lisah writes "With the announcement of Hans Reiser's arrest this week, many people have been wondering what this will mean for his company, Namesys, and the future of his filesystem work. According to a report at Linux.com, employees at Namesys are circling their wagons and plan to continue working on the project 'in the short term.' One employee admits, 'we are rather shaken and stressed at the moment, although I cannot say we didn't see it coming.'"

You know maybe...

[ellem]

maybe she should have been so enamored with GFS. How about that? Huh? How about she just stop talking about how great Google's File System is FOR ONE MINUTE? Did anyone think bout that?

In other news...

[Dystopian Rebel]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reminded corporate customers that the Open Source model is dangerous to their business.

"I squirt a picture to you, you squirt multimedia back to me," said Ballmer. "Sure, boom boom boom, we can do that and we ~do~ do that. In fact, no one squirts better than we do. But with Open Source, you don't know whose rights you are violating when you squirt.

And worse, open-source programmers tend to have police records. I'm just sayin'."

Re:In other news...

[clickclickdrone]

>no one squirts better than we do
The thought of Balmer saying that just makes me shudder and not in a good way.

Re:

[pixr99]

There's a good way to shudder?

Absolutely. Allow me to introduce you to the "O Face [urbandictionary.com]."

OS Developers arrested

[uneek]

Hi:

This makes me wonder how many other primary authors of open source projects have been arrested in the past and how this has affected their projects?

Uneek

Re:OS Developers arrested

[Pharmboy]

This makes me wonder why they didn't put a link to info about his arrest in the article. Not everyone knew this, and it is just sloppy of the editors to NOT include a link to give a bit of context about the arrest.

I found info here [geekzone.co.nz], here [arstechnica.com], and here [nbc11.com]

Re:

[rsidd]

This makes me wonder why they didn't put a link to info about his arrest in the article.

The link does contain info, as well as further links.

it is just sloppy of the editors to NOT include a link

Slashdot is sloppy; if you want examples you can find plenty. But, on this occasion, the sloppiness is on the reader's part.

I found info here, here, and here

You could have found more and better info by just typing "reiser" into Google News.

Re:

[Mike89]

Was it too much for you to even glance at the title of the ONLY Related Story - you know, right below the summary?

Re:OS Developers arrested

[$1uck]

Doesn't this highlight another positive for OS? No seriously, so the lead developer is arrested/killed/in a coma. This means the project *is* not dead, someone somewhere can pick up where he/she left off. If it was closed source, and the lead developer was more than just a cog in a large corporation, who could/would pick up the slack? The source code could conceivably being floating in legal limbo until the affairs are settled. Or am I just being myopic?

Re:

[jalefkowit]

If you're curious, why limit the inquiry to just open source projects? Surely you'd be concerned if the primary developer of a commercial product you depend on was arrested on the same charge, right?

This actually brings up one of the strongest points in favor of open source -- even if Hans Reiser never walks free again, if there's enough people who find value in his work they can pick it up themselves and continue moving it forward. If ReiserFS was a commercial product, that wouldn't be possible.

Finally, Linux has its killer app.

[Anonymous Coward]

And Netcraft confirms it.

Problems for Namesys?

[NekoXP]

"I do not think that just being arrested will affect anything so long as Hans is not actually convicted," says Oleg Drokin, the former release manager at Namesys. "If he is convicted, that might cause problems for Namesys [because] it is operated solely by Hans."

I don't understand. If the guy who runs the company goes away usually it's fairly easy process (albeit longwinded and boring) to get a new general manager, CEO or whatever. Namesys isn't a public company, so they could name their Thanksgiving turkey the CEO. The problem might be, if Hans acted as accountant etc. and did some funny number crunching that is going to drive them into the dirt; of course that would add to Hans' problems, too, if they were ever revealed :D

Is Hans really that important to ReiserFS? Isn't this the whole beauty of GPL code, that there are thousands of people out there who can pick his work up without even involving him, Namesys etc., and continue the 'legacy'?

Re:Problems for Namesys?

[jimicus]

Depends how large the company was and how big a role the CEO has in running it.

In larger companies, the CEO generally plays golf most of the time.

In smaller companies, it's quite common for the CEO to be designing the products in great detail, and many a promising open source project has withered for lack of a leader - though I can't see that happening in the case of ReiserFS because it's too big and important.

Re:

[swv3752]

Hans is that important to Namesys and Namesys is the only group really working on ReiserFS. It is possible for some other group to pick up the project, but Hans aggravated alot of other developers, so...

Re:

[Rambo]

I don't understand. If the guy who runs the company goes away usually it's fairly easy process (albeit longwinded and boring) to get a new general manager, CEO or whatever.

If the company is founded as a sole proprietorship and the owner/proprietor disappears things can be very difficult. I was part of a company that started that way and once they got big enough they had to register as a corporation to avoid having the company dissolved if something happened to the owner. I'm unclear on why

Re:

[ball-lightning]

so they could name their Thanksgiving turkey the CEO.


I think that's the problem, there IS no they. Without Reiser, there is no one with the authority to name a ceo, or even pay the bills.

Of course, he could always name someone to take over, but I don't think anyone at the current company can...

Re:

[revery]

Is Hans really that important to ReiserFS? Isn't this the whole beauty of GPL code, that there are thousands of people out there who can pick his work up without even involving him, Namesys etc., and continue the 'legacy'?

I think Hans might very well be just that important to ReiserFS. I've worked at companies where if a certain person died or decided that they didn't want to work there any longer, it would be very hard to replace them.

There are some tasks wherein the set of people who are both qualified an

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Problems for Namesys?

[novus ordo]

I think what he means is that it is Hans Reiser's company. You can't just take someone else's company and let someone else run it without the owner's consent. Calling him important is an understatement. Read this [osuosl.org] interview if you would like to know how important. As for letting someone else run the company...hah I can't even describe the irony. Here's the rundown [cbs5.com]: Basically he got this guy named Sean Sturgeon run his finances "1999 through 2002 and had access to and control over deposits, withdrawals and funds at the Patelco Credit Union."

Reiser said Sturgeon "worked with my wife Nina Reiser and eventually drugged her with ecstasy and seduced her." Reiser alleged, "He then engaged in Bondage, Domination, Sadism and Masochism techniques and continued to redrug her repeatedly over time." He said Sturgeon engaged in those techniques "in an effort to show that he was a better man than I and to convince my wife Nina to conspire with him to steal the Namesys Inc. company assets." He said Sturgeon engaged in those techniques "in an effort to show that he was a better man than I and to convince my wife Nina to conspire with him to steal the Namesys Inc. company assets." Reiser alleged that, "Sean has threatened to have me beaten up by some of his associates in illegal activities and that he would hurt me, my mother or my children if he did not get what he wanted." He also accused Sturgeon of engaging in extortion by threatening to make calls to the Internal Revenue Service to report him and his mother. In addition, Reiser alleged that Sturgeon wrote into a contract that Reiser must participate in "Death Yoga," which he said has the purpose of "slowing down one's heart to the point of death."

You think he might have second thoughts on letting someone else run the business? Just maybe?

Re:

[Omnifarious]

Wow. Either Hans is much nuttier than I thought (I thought he was just a bit of an egotist) or he managed to get into business with someone who was really awful. That story is on the edge of nutty, but it's just plausible enough to not be completely dismissable.

"Death Yoga" is a little out there though. I've seen references to the idea, but it seems a bit much for someone to demand that a business partner commit suicide in a particularly weird and unusual (and possibly impossible) way. Claiming it seem

Re:

[Omnifarious]

My conclusion is that Hans Reiser is likely a paranoid schizophrenic.

First he insists that his business associate was doing all this stuff with his wife behind his back, alleging a secret conspiracy. But, it turns out that his wife had a boyfriend who wasn't this business associate. The rational behavior for his wife would be to make the secret relationship public knowledge after the divorce, not to start a new publicly acknowledged relationship.

Hans contends that the relationship continued with his bus

Re:Problems for Namesys?

[nuzak]

You mean your contract doesn't have a death yoga clause? I thought those were pretty much standard.

Damn, I gotta go talk to a lawyer.

Even if not guilty

[L-s-L69]

The loss of his wife is likely to have a profound impact upon his work and any future development. I can only hope the community and the other developers are able to step up and carry on the work.

Re:Even if not guilty

[QuantumG]

his ex-wife.. who's contribution to his work was to claim that he was earning money that he wasn't paying her to raise their children, when actually he was $100k in debt (yeah, couldn't see that coming "let's make a filesystem!" "let's give it away for free!" how could you lose money on that?!) This is one of the reasons why the cops didn't mind arresting him. He really does look like he wouldn't mind seeing her dead.

Then again, who doesn't feel that way about their ex-wife.. except, ya know, those few freaks who part on good terms and have each other over for dinner with their new partners. *shudder*

Some Related Reading

[RAMMS+EIN]

I've been reading a bit, trying to get a handle on what's been happening and what may be next for the people involved in this (I trust the filesystem will be fine). Here are the most interesting parts of what I've read:

AUTHORITIES SEARCH HOME OF MISSING WOMAN'S HUSBAND [cbs5.com]

ATTORNEY: HANS REISER 'DISTRUSTFUL' OF OAKLAND POLICE [cbs5.com]

UPDATE: POLICE CHARGE HANS REISER WITH MURDER [cbs5.com]

Missing woman's blood found in husband's house [mercurynews.com]

All in all, it's very disturbing. I get the impression at least one of the people involved in this is completely insane.

Re:Some Related Reading

[jackbird]

Wow, completely insane doesn't even begin to describe it. My favorite line:

"In addition, Reiser alleged that Sturgeon wrote into a contract that Reiser must participate in 'Death Yoga,' which he said has the purpose of 'slowing down one's heart to the point of death.'"

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

About the company

[joaommp]

The company and the project should continue to run. A persons "personal life" should not be an excuse until the moment he/she is being missed in the project beyond reasonable.

This was posted under "Hardware"?

[david_g17]

what? are people hardware or something?

I think the most shocking thing about this is

[le0p]

that a Filesystem designer actually had a wife.

Re:

[maxwell demon]

A file system designer should know best how to give her a good fsck.

Efficiency gains

[InterruptDescriptorT]

If he did kill his wife, which is nowhere near certain, and then subsequently chopped up the body, I bet the pieces are of manageable size and spread evenly throughout a wooded area for easy, order-N retrieval...

Re:Efficiency gains

[anno1a]

Clearly you haven't studied how reiserfs (3 at least) works. It doesn't use block sizes, it puts the data as compact as possible and uses a tree to figure out exactly where it is. This is obviously important if the police is ever to have a chance at finding the body. He'll probably have an algorithm at home, such that if they find one piece, they can find the rest following that. :)

Great

[rbarreira]

However, Lyamin expresses the cautious hope that the case will go the "way we hope it will go."

I read this sentence like 3 times, each of them failing to get any information from it. Can someone help me?

Reiser Sent to Userland Jail

[Prototerm]

Anyone else see the irony here?

Dear Slashdot

[scotch]

Please do not follow this story. The last thing we need it periodic stories over the next year as the trial progress with fighting and uninformed commentary from the peanut gallery on criminal matters. It will be like having our our own little scott peterson case, which I'm sure we can all agree, would be a big fucking waste of time for everyone.

Thank you.

Dear Slashdot Reader

[RAMMS+EIN]

Please do not follow this story. The last thing we need is periodic comments over the next year as the trial progresses from readers who aren't interested in the matter and feel a need to bother other readers with that sentiment. It is not like anyone is forced to read these threads, which I'm sure we can all agree, would be a big fucking waste of time for everyone.

Thank you.

Saw it coming

[Davorama]

For those who don't live out here the 'saw it coming' part *should* have been refering to the month long drama that has preceded this. Reiser going in to talk to police repeatedly, then refusing to cooperate, camera crews chasing him around, interview with his (or her?) mother. It's the full three ring treatment really but I don't know that it's gone into full circus mode nationally yet.

who are these people?

[minus_273]

to put faces to names
hans reiser [idiom.com]
nina reiser [ninareiser.com]

Re:We saw it coming??

[MartinG]

Nobody knows if he did kill his wife.

I assume they meant that they saw his arrest coming. (Since when wives disappear, husbands routinely get arrested or at the very least intensively questioned by police)

Re:

[Tony Hoyle]

No they don't routinely get arrested. To arrest someone you have to have evidence - this means the police have evidence that he *did* kill his wife. They're only now trying to get a confession or enough to convince a jury.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

The alternate hypothosis is they have no idea what happened and are hoping for a confession.

The circumstances surrounding her disappearance are so strange that I wouldn't assume anything.

Re:We saw it coming??

[Rumagent]

this means the police have evidence that he *did* kill his wife

Or think they do. Or hope they do. Or just don't care if they do. The police is not exactly an organization which is known for its infallibility.

Re:We saw it coming??

[Anonymous Coward]

The police is not exactly an organization which is known for its infallibility.

Man, isn't that the truth - they totally sucked after Sting left...

Re:

[EastCoastSurfer]

At least they made an arrest. Where I live, if you're a cop you can kill someone and get away with it. Just check my sig.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You sure about that? The US government is big enough now (*) to detain innocent people indefinitely without due process. As we speak, there are hundreds (thousands?) of people sitting in jail who haven't been formally charged with anything. I don't know the first thing about this particular case, but it seems pretty clear to me that due process is gone.

(*) This isn't the result of terrorism or any one particular event; it is simply the inevitable consequence of government expanding its power year after year

Re:

[Rob Kaper]

The US government of today dwarfs the US government of 100 years ago, both in revenue and power over the people, but only a fraction of that growth was achieved pre-Bush or post-9/11.

So the ballpart was achieved in few months during Bush that were prior to 9/11? I take it you meant post-Bush (in which case I agree) or pre-9/11 (in which case I don't).. which is it?

Re:

[mfrank]

The big change came during the Civil War. Before the war started, the Federal government employed about 80,000 civilians. Of those, 50,000 worked for the Post Office.

Re:

[selfsealingstembolt]

Ever heard of Guantanamo Bay?

Re:

[Maxo-Texas]

Oh please.

While I didn't vote for Bush, I'm fairly conservative, against terrorism, agree many of the people there are scum.

However, on his dancing around the torture issue, it is clear that we are torturing people somewhere in the world if not there. As an *American* that really pisses me off- we are supposed to the be the shining light on the hill.

Likewise, there is *pretty clear* evidence that a lot of innocent people got swept up in guantanamo (up to 10%) and their lives have been destroyed and when th

Re:

[killjoe]

"While I didn't vote for Bush, I'm fairly conservative, against terrorism, agree many of the people there are scum."

The thing that bothers me most is that people are willing to accept that "many" of the people there are scum. How do you know? Honestly how does anybody know unless they are trusting the president 100%. He is the only arbiter, he points to a picture or a list of people, utters the phrase "bad men" and it's a done deal. No courts, no trials, no evidence, no nothing. The president says so and th

Guantanomo is a fig leaf

[A nonymous Coward]

distinction between enemy combatants sincerely interested in attacking a foreign country, and someone who is either a citizen or resident alien

Would that the Bushies could! There have been, I believe, two US citizens in Guantanomo, and Bush has made it crystal clear that he thinks he has the power to send US citizens there without being hindered by the courts or Congress or even common decency. Independent reports suggest that most of the Guantanomo prisoners are innocents picked up either because they ha

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Will you wake up and grasp the distinction between enemy combatants sincerely interested in attacking a foreign country, and someone who is either a citizen or resident alien (I presume) of the US?

There is no fucking difference.

Both citizens and non-citizens, even enemy combatants, are human beings.

The Bill of Rights is supposed to be a partial list of rights which are supposed to be accorded to all humans.

If you are willing to compromise your principles in certain situations, you don't have principles.

Re:We saw it coming??

[T.E.D.]

To arrest someone you have to have evidence

No you don't. Police can arrest anyone at any time. They do have to eventually charge you with something or release you (at least sometimes they do. The principle is Habeas corpus [wikipedia.org], which our government has spent the last 5 years undermining).

I can understand why you'd want to think this way. People like to believe that anyone the government goes after must have somehow deserved it. Its a shame that reality doesn't allways work that way.

Probable Cause

[westlake]

To arrest someone you have to have evidence
No you don't. Police can arrest anyone at any time.

As as mattter of law, this is simply not true.

"PROBABLE CAUSE - A reasonable belief that a person has committed a crime. The test the court...employs to determine whether probable cause existed for purposes of arrest is whether facts and circumstances within the officer's knowledge are sufficient to warrant a prudent person to believe a suspect has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. U.S. v. Puerta, 982 F.2d 1297, 1300 (9th Cir. 1992)." Legal Definition of Probable Cause [lectlaw.com]

Re:

[ScrewMaster]

I keep wondering when they'll start arguing that providing "moral support" is sufficient, and at what point (if any) the American people will decide that they've had enough, and whether or not it'll be soon enough.

People generally ignore potential consequences that can only theoretically happen to them. Look how many people continue to smoke ("yes yes, I know it causes cancer but my Uncle Dudley smoked a thousand packs a day and lived to be a hundred and seventy so it won't happen to me") when they absol

Re:

[Inhibit]

Just like they didn't hold Bernie S. (old 2600 site [2600.com]) without bail or hearing for suspicion of selling drugs because he was selling radio crystals. Right?

Oh. And they managed to top it off by throwing him on the stand while he was very ill and unable to defend himself. Obviously everyone simply "gets what's coming to them". Best to let that whole "burden of proof" and "innocent until *found* guilty" thing just slide.

Plus he's a fairly nice guy. Which makes it even worse.

"I didn't kill my wife!"

[BeeBeard]

Well no, Hans Reiser didn't do it. A one-armed man sent by a pharmaceutical company did it.

Re:

[dknj]

Poor moderators don't get the Harrison Ford, Fugative [imdb.com] reference :(

But considering half of slashdot is under the age of 17, I'm not surprised. Anyway, I would have marked you funny

Re:

[stuntpope]

I guess the pharmaceutical company reference tied it to the movie remake, I'm sure young slashdotters wouldn't get the 1960's TV show "The Fugitive" [imdb.com] reference.

Re:"I didn't kill my wife!"

[JustOK]

...but I thought Hans shot first?

Re:

[Henry V .009]

There was a news story that Reiser was a suspect several weeks ago.

In the office meeting 3 weeks ago, we joked about the advantages of switching to Reiser FS, now that Reiser was going to jail. He'll have plenty of time to work on it, after all.

Re:

[jobsagoodun]

Didn't AOL PUBLISH [slashdot.org] this a few months ago?

Re:We saw it coming??

[Koroviev]

He meant the arrest. This is the full quotation:

Yes, we are rather shaked and stressed at moment, altough I can not say, we didn't seen it coming. I, personally, really like how US police acted exactly like their russian counterpart: e.g. sitting on their ass for whole month, waiting, so they can declare person officially missing and then just press charges against whoever looks most vulnerable. Well, probably I am wrong. Time will show.

Re:

[Just Some Guy]

What a jackass! What were they supposed to do - arrest him before she was officially declared missing? And although I have no information about the supposed crime, wouldn't an estranged husband almost automatically be the most likely suspect in her disappearance?

I don't have anything against Reiser. However, while this has to be incredibly frustrating for him (assuming he truly is innocent), I don't see what police course of action would have been more justified.

Re:We saw it coming??

[Speare]

I think the "We saw it coming" quote was not in reference to the actual crime, but in the downwardly spiralling finances the group knew about. I hadn't even seen anything about this story until the LAST slashdot article, and someone linked some public emails that showed that the group was quite aware that doom was approaching.

Re:We saw it coming??

[Aethedor]

Why doesn't the police use Hans' Journal to recover his lost wife?

Re:As expected

[MartinG]

Hans probably murdered his wife

Not sure if I'm feeding a troll here, but the man has BEEN ARRESTED! That is all!

If you have any evidence that he killed his wife, be sure to let us know. (and let the police know of course)

Re:As expected

[_xeno_]

And now that he's been arrested, the police have described some of their evidence against him [mercurynews.com]. They found her blood in his house and in his car.

We don't know if he did it - yet - but we know more than enough to say that it's most probable that he did. It is, of course, possible he didn't, and we all hope that Nina will be found alive somewhere, but the most probable outcome is that Hans Reiser has, in fact, murdered Nina.

Re:As expected

[denebian devil]

They forgot to mention the most important piece of evidence in their arsenal: They reviewed the AOL search records that were released and identified record #456365 as likely to belong to Reiser, and noted many suspicious searches such as "I hate Nina Reiser" and "how to kill Nina Reiser without getting caught".

The most offensive part of this evidence of course is that Hans Reiser uses AOL Search....

Re:As expected

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have any evidence that he killed his wife, be sure to let us know. (and let the police know of course)

Oh, you mean like the blood splatters that were found in HIS car that has been confirmed as HER blood?
And the fact that the rear seats are missing from said car?
And the fact that he actively attempted to hide the car from police?
And the fact that he had books on how law enforcement handles homicide investigations?

Now, it could be the case that his wife had a nose bleed or had suffered a paper cut while riding with Hans, and it could be true that the whole hiding the car things was a misunderstanding (or fearing that the missing rear seat would look bad, he actually did try to hide it in panic), and it could be true that he purchased the books knowing that he would be a likely suspect so he wanted to know what was coming. However, the above taken with other observations about his behaviour does not paint a rosey picture. Sure, he is innocent until proven guilty, but there is at least enough evidence so far to strongly implicate him. It's not one of these "heck, we have no evidence and no clue, so lets just arrest the husband" deals.

Re:As expected

[DagdaMor]

All of which is Circumstantial Evidence, and a bit flimsy to prosecute on when no one has found a body yet.

Re:

[gellenburg]

Tell that to Scott Peterson.

But wait, he *did* kill his wife, didn't he?

At least a Jury said so.

But *he* was tried on circumstantial evidence, too.

Re:As expected

[KutuluWare]

You've been watching way too much CSI if you think this evidence isn't enough to take a case to trial. Not every murder case ends with the forensic investigators finding a tiny shard of a unique knife mande only once in history by the accused's next door neighbor which is metallically linked to the handle of a knife found in a dumpster with the accused fingerprints on it nearby some ashes that have remnants of the victims DNS embedded in the one tooth that survived the burning process etcetcetcetc.

In many situations, the blood in his car *by itself* would be enough for a DA to decide to try the case. People often place way too much import on the idea of "circumstantial evidence"... it's still evidence. Given enough of it, a good prosecutor can employ a strategy of diminishing probabilities: one single piece of evidence may only narrow down the potential suspect list to a few thousand... but each additional piece of evidence narrows the field further and further until the number of people which fit *all* of the evidence is increasingly small, and the likelihood that someone other than the accused is guilty becomes very small.

As for not having a body, that is certainly a problem when attempting to prove murder (it's one more reasonable doubt the defense can introduce).. but again, the presence of blood, especially if there turns out to be a large quantity of it, has been used many times in the past to infer murder in the absence of a body.

--K

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[Ledgem]

... with the accused fingerprints on it nearby some ashes that have remnants of the victims DNS embedded in the one tooth that survived the burning process etcetcetcetc.

e360, you have no chance of murdering Spamhaus and getting away with it - the police can find remnants of the DNS now!

Re:

[freeze128]

You've been watching way too much CSI if you think this evidence isn't enough to take a case to trial. Not every murder case ends with the forensic investigators finding a tiny shard of a unique knife mande only once in history by the accused's next door neighbor which is metallically linked to the handle of a knife found in a dumpster with the accused fingerprints on it nearby some ashes that have remnants of the victims DNS embedded in the one tooth that survived the burning process etcetcetcetc.

I would s

Re:As expected

[A beautiful mind]

Investigators have also recovered books on how police investigate homicides, which were obtained by Hans Reiser a few days after his wife's Sept. 3 disappearance, the sources said.

I don't know a lot about the other stuff, but this seems to be on HIS side, rather than against him. He acted like I would act, like a geek would act imo in this respect. To put it into geek terminology, he read the HOWTO after he discovered a bug. This would rather point into the direction he didn't knowingly create the bug in the first place.

My point is, if you'd want to kill your wife, you'd obtain these books BEFORE you kill your wife, study them thoroughly for a long time and then despose them. Hans Reiser is not stupid. Of course it is all possible that if she were murdered by him, it was an impulse murder. Who knows. We have no evidence and facts.

Re:

[phiwum]

Oh, you mean like the blood splatters that were found in HIS car that has been confirmed as HER blood?
And the fact that the rear seats are missing from said car?
And the fact that he actively attempted to hide the car from police?
And the fact that he had books on how law enforcement handles homicide investigations?


The first three facts are pretty incriminating, but the books are horrible evidence.

His wife was missing. They were in the process of a messy divorce. Even if he w

Re:

[whoda]

Currently, I own a car that:

Has spots of my wife's blood in it. I know this, because she's a diabetic and occasionally she gets drops of blood in weird places.
The front AND back seats are missing because the car is being renovated.
The car is 2 states away from me, under a tarp, I suppose you could say it is "hidden from local police".

I sure hope my wife comes home tonight from her job, or I'll probably get picked up for her murder in the not too distant future.

Re:

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

I've been arrested 5 times and sucessfully prosecuted twice. So my correlation is that arrest doesn't lead to prosecution.

You clearly don't understand the meaning of the word correlation. 2 out of 5 is an extremely high correlation.

Re:They saw a murder coming?

[MartinG]

The way I read it, they saw an arrest coming.

Re:Who cares?

[Lord Bitman]

Yeah, I know; but, http://www.mugshots.org/misc/bill-gates.html [mugshots.org]

Re:

[ettlz]

Wearing that shirt, alone, should be an arrestable offense.

Re:

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

He must have been stoned or something, because judging by that enormous goofy grin, he is having waaay too much fun for someone who had just been arrested.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Ever considered that this investigation has been going on for well over a month?

If he was the only real suspect they had, and they had no reason to assume that he hadn't done it, why wouldn't they arrest him? "We saw it coming" refers to him being arrested, not to him (possibly) killing his wife.

Re:

[oyenstikker]

After the disappearence of his wife, they saw the arrest coming. (If your estranged wife disappeared you would be the number one suspect.) He did not say that he saw him killing his wife coming, or that he even thinks he did it.

Re:

[orangesquid]

I think what the employee meant was that *after* his wife went missing, it was obvious that he would be suspected of something, since he was the last to see her, IIRC. "see it coming" -- "it" wasn't Mr. Reiser murdering his wife -- "it" was Mr. Reiser being arrested given that his wife had disappeared.

Last months media coverage

[btarval]

Oh please. The reason why it's not a surprise is probably because lots of people knew about the situation beforehand. This has even been mentioned on some Linux mailing lists already, so it's really no surprise if you've been following this.

Here's a link to some of the media coverage from last month:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id= 4558883 [go.com]

Re:

[rjstanford]

He might have been rich as Bill Gates, and he still should have been a suspect.

Oh, absolutely. But most suspects don't get arrested. Suspects against whom the prosecution feels that it has enough evidence to make a strong case get arrested. Being an estranged spouse isn't usually, in and of itself, damning evidence in a murder trial. Prosecutors don't generally play the "let's just arrest everyone we can think of and see which case will stick," method.

Re:

[chrismcdirty]

But that's how they do it on Law & Order and CSI! Are you telling me TV has been lying to me all these years?

Re:

[epiphani]

After reading the article, the context isnt quite clear. I dont think the speaker was saying "I cant say I didn't expect Hans to kill his wife." We should probably avoid assuming as much.

Re:

[jimicus]

Hans' wife has been missing for some time.

In these cases, spouses and ex-spouses are always the first suspects.

Regardless of whether or not Hans has done anything wrong (and the public have no evidence either way), it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that unless convincing evidence to the contrary turned up, he'd be arrested.

More than just a shred of evidence in this case...

[everphilski]

they found blood in his car [mercurynews.com]

Re:

[JPMH]

You're right. The press in the UK are very limited in how they can report before and during criminal cases -- the journalists must take extreme care to avoid any "substantial risk" that the fairness of a jury could be "seriously prejudiced" as a result. Otherwise the judge can find them guilty of contempt of court, and send them to jail. So pre-trial reports on UK cases tend to be quite limited, both as to facts and even more so as to speculation, and presented in extreme neutral language.

On the other ha

Re:

[Spokehedz]

Yes. It's called "A Trial by Public Jury" and you can bet your ass that the police in this stupid country leverage this to every benefit they can get from it.

In the US, you are tried by a jury of your 'peers'... Which is hardly the case. A nuclear scientist can be tried by janitors and bus drivers--but more likely, it's by anybody stupid enough not to be able to get out of jury duty.

Re:

[NDPTAL85]

Here in the US we just think its good public policy to have the police declare WHY they have charged someone with a crime BEFORE the trial instead of AFTERWARDS so that if anyone knows anything they can come forward DURING the trial to reveal the truth. And make no mistake, US police do withhold certain details from the public so they can verify that certain people who "confess" aren't just making it up. But from the way you describe the UK criminal justice system the police can just arrest anyone they want

Re:Life outside of coding

[iBod]

I think there's truth there.

Working intensly on one single thing (esp. software) just fucks your brain eventually.

Your partner, kids, family and friends should be the biggest kick in your life, not some stupid pile of fucking code.

I used to be really proud to be a software designer, thinking software apps were a big boon to mankind. The more I look around me, the more I think that computer tech (and particularly the web) is isolating and dehumanising us all.

Re:Life outside of coding

[fumblebruschi]

Working intensly on one single thing (esp. software) just fucks your brain eventually. I don't agree. I think you're confusing cause and effect; that is, I think some people are drawn to occupations or hobbies where they focus intensely on one subject, because that's what appeals to them. Your partner, kids, family and friends should be the biggest kick in your life, not some stupid pile of fucking code. Why? I see this sentiment a lot on /., and as far as I'm concerned statements like this are just another way of saying "Everyone should do what *I* think is right instead of following their own inclinations."

Re:

[SanityInAnarchy]

Just because he may work on a project of personal interest to you doesn't mean that he makes a "productive contribution to society".

Don't people in prison generally have at least some free time? Time to keep a journal, or write a book? Or read a book?

What about letters?

ReiserFS isn't as valuable as a human life. If it were, how many free murders would Linus be allowed to commit?

This is not the point.

Contrary to popular belief, no healthy programmer spends 100% of their free time coding. They go out for