RMS to work in "Gates Building"? 127
robin sent us a link to
an article that says that
Richard Stallman might soon be
working in the
Gates building at MIT. Bill is donating $20e6 to the
CS Labs, and the new building is expected to be named after him.
The FSF started in the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, and RMS still works there. "
Ted Turner (Score:1)
Excuse me? (Score:1)
BTW, this building is not only computer science. They're gonna have at least Philosophy, Linguistics and Psychology there, too.
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By my calculations, (Score:1)
$10G / $50K = 200K. And $20M / 200K = $100. So that's about like one of us giving $100 to some charitable cause, dollar for dollar.
Of course, if you factor in diminishing marginal utility, it's more like one of us dropping a dollar in the Salvation Army bucket.
If I had BG's money, I'd be buying up the last remaining old-growth forests in North America, and donating them to the Nature Conservancy.
Cheap bastard!
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Donation == Investment for Microsoft (Score:1)
What have you done?
>What has Stallman done to put MIT on the map? Did emacs really have any brilliantly pioneering ideas that weren't stolen from TECO, QED, em, TSO EDIT, EVE, EDT, WPS, or any of the many editors that IBM put out?
Would anyone have known that MIT is a place where free and open develeopment and research had taken place had RMS not worked so hard to re-popularize the idea? I daresay many would not have cared. I'm not saying that such free and open development wasn't going on at the height of the proprietary idea's time; I'm saying that RMS gave some direction and focus for alot of folks. This is my understanding.
I'm not saying that emacs itself was any more brilliant than any of the other tools available - what I'm saying is that it is free and open.
Donation == Investment for Microsoft (Score:1)
The free and open development DOES have alot to do with software engineering. When person or group A makes a breakthrough or ingenious design... person or group B can use said breakthrough or ingenious design to produce another breakthrough or ingenious design that is then shared with others - the benefits could and sometimes do takie on a geometrical progression in evolution of product.
This is the free and open development fostered by Richard M. Stallman AND, in the same basic light, Linus Torvalds, Eric Raymond, Bruce Perens, OSI, SPI, FSF etc... etc... ad infinitum.
Since we have gotten seriously off-topic... I'll reiterate my original point: Microsoft made an investment that they'll reap by stripping MIT of it's talent in favor of Microsoft Research.
Clarification (Score:1)
That's why I said, "did much" and not "did it all".
The group at MIT did much to expand the boundaries of Computer Science. Most of them left for profitable jobs in proprietary shops (doesn't mean they ceased to contribute) while RMS wanted to foster the philosophy that had developed at MIT to the world at large. The MIT group was a microcosm of what eventually became the Free Software/OpenSource/UNIX/etc Community. RMS was a very important player in promoting the idea of non-proprietary development and research - some would say the principal player.
>There first? _Definitely_ not. Try to keep your hero-worship within the bounds we call "reality".
Who drew the boundaries? RMS was part of the so-called "hacker culture", at MIT, that you mention and as such was there and active before Gates ever made his mark on MIT. I would consider RMS a hero - yes. I respect him for his philosophy, hard work and dedication over the years.
Please... don't read more into my words than is actually there.
Everyone's a cheap bastard... (Score:1)
I'll have a minus-one, please!
Thanks! :)
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Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
spanish/portuguese (Score:1)
lot of similarities. I think the same
happens with the scandinavian languages.
Tipically a portuguese can read spanish and
a spaniard could read portuguese, if really
motivated.
Almost all the words are different, but
we normally can guess the meaning, because
they look/sound similar.
./ is loosing speed :) (Score:1)
./ is loosing speed :) (Score:1)
Perspective... (Score:1)
Gates is a cheap bastard.
symptom (Score:1)
symptom of a larger problem." Or roughly
thereabout. He probably wouldn't like it if the
building was named after Ellison or Jobs either.
Darned if anyone will know what the name is. (Score:1)
Amazing that I've been out of there for 12 years now and I'm still working practically within funnelator range...
Given where it is, it will probably be numbered in the low 40's or so. Heaven help us if it's numbered 42.
Name already taken - not Gates building (Score:1)
Or, for short, `The RMS Center for Computer, Information and Intelligence Sciences'....
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W.A.S.T.E.
GNU/Gates (Score:1)
Don't worry, RMS will just insist that everyone in the press refer to it as the GNU/Gates building.
Slashdot Stadium (Score:1)
corporate name, if you think about it..but if
they did do something like that, Harry Carry,
Jack Brickhouse, and all of the old time Cubbies
would be spinning in their graves..and Cubs fans
would be beating the doors of WGN down..(that might
also happen if they dare consider tearing it down..)
RMS works in the MIT AI Lab, not Lab for CS (Score:1)
I don't know if the same building houses both, though.
Darned if anyone will know what the name is. (Score:1)
Now, LCS is housed in NE43... in a couple of years, it will be housed in Building 32 (or something). Maybe it'll be named the Stata Complex,or the Gates building, or whatever, but Gates and Stata will be the only people who will remember that.
Me? I'm in building E15... I think it's the Wiesner Center or something...
-Dean
MIT buildings are always referred to by number. (Score:1)
Quite possibly (Score:1)
RMS's job (Score:1)
Didn't he quit when he started the GNU project and made a living by selling emacs? (before FSF started to get that money) When did he go back there then?
heh, i can see the MIT "hacks" now (Score:1)
It's ruining my life already! (Score:1)
Hmmm, I'm getting hungry...
That'd be nice if it were true (Score:1)
Considering that Duke's endowment is about 1/10 of Harvard's, and significantly smaller than many other schools with similar academic ambitions (i.e., it is smaller than any of the Ivies) the school is investing serious time and effort in kissing Bill and Melissa's butts. She's even been named a "young trustee" in recognition of her "accomplishments in the technology field." So far, though, no payoff.
~tieguy
comments got nuked? (Score:1)
spanish/portuguese (Score:1)
just following in the footsteps of Knuth (Score:1)
Excuse me? (Score:1)
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
heh, i can see the MIT "hacks" now (Score:1)
building name suggestion (Score:1)
Well, he'll die *eventually*. Why wait until the last minute?
No, silly... (Score:1)
we didn't wait that long (Score:1)
Building Name (Score:1)
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
RMS would salute the building every day. (Score:1)
we didn't wait that long (Score:1)
"First you put my new office in the Gates building, THEN you support the FSF with an 'OPEN SOURCE' bake sale?! You people are sick!"
Big Deal (Score:1)
You're either in one dead captialists' mausoleum or anothers.
Bastards, etc... (Score:1)
PS -
Total worth (Score:1)
Just wish I could name a building now.
~afniv
"Man könnte froh sein, wenn die Luft so rein wäre wie das Bier"
Or Coors.... (Score:1)
~afniv
"Man könnte froh sein, wenn die Luft so rein wäre wie das Bier"
Whoops - wrong link (Score:1)
http://www.varsity.cam.ac.uk/VarsityOnline/Online
Ted Turner (Score:1)
It was rather strange/amusing to drive by a ranch in the south west US and see the TNT symbol over the entrance gate.
RMS's job (Score:1)
Michael
The III in Bill Gates name is for World War III (Score:1)
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However . . . (Score:1)
But hey, OTOH, it could become the greatest hack magnet ever since the Great Dome }:-)
Irony and Disgust (Score:1)
So in a perverse way, Mr. Bill deserves some credit for today's computer *industry*. But he deserves none for the state of computer *science*.
Mostly he deserves to be flogged.
Perspective... (Score:1)
WG III (Score:1)
I wonder if billga~1 did this on purpose (Score:1)
It should be interesting to see what RMS does (if in fact the building is renamed Gates Center for Computer Science or something similar). I'm pretty sure his work with the FSF doesn't depend on him having an office at MIT, though whatever else he does might.
Finally, if prep.ai.mit.edu goes down, or tsx-11.mit.edu switches to an NT server and dumps its Linux collection, you know what happened
come on... (Score:1)
is everything BG does a sinister plan to discredit Linux or in this case 'brainwash' defenseless MIT graduates into working for Microsoft? You know, I heard that (spread the word) tomorrow (April 15) BG is going to give a WHOLE bunch of money to (just like we thought) the GOVERNMENT! I guess he's at it again!
For gosh sakes, he donating money to a SCHOOL!
Are you expecting a college graduate to be swayed by a name on a building? And to those saying $20M is a drop in the bucket to BG...sheesh; I guess you people will never be happy with ANYTHING the guy does...why not $40M, why not $1B? Why not letting the guy decide where his money goes and how much of it goes there? If I donated twenty-freaking-million dollars somewhere and heard complaints, I can guarantee they won't be getting any more!
Install vmware and run Linux inside NT (Score:1)
--
Michael Dillon - E-mail: michael@memra.com
Gates National University to open in Illinois (Score:1)
Wednesday April 14 9:08 AM CT
Gates National University to open in Illinois
By STEVE SILVERBERG MS Press Writer
Springfield, IL (MSP) - Mayor Brad Ballmer announced today that construction will commence next month on a new university complex to be called Gates National University (GNU). The privately run institution will initially be funded by a donation of $700 million donation from Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: MSFT [yahoo.com]) and will benefit from a trust fund established by Mr. Gates known as the Open Source for Education. Microsoft will announce appointments to the GNU Board of Governors later this week in a press conference to be held at Microsoft's Silicon Valley headquarters.
--
Michael Dillon - E-mail: michael@memra.com
$20M is nothing. Gates gave $1B to Duke last year! (Score:1)
History repeats itself (Score:1)
I hope our offspring in a couple of hundred years will keep these names as nice practical jokes and have a good laugh.
So which one of them is supposed to be offended? (Score:1)
Not quite what it seems (Score:1)
Donation == Investment for Microsoft (Score:1)
By my calculations, (Score:1)
so that is 9.5G/15K = ~633K
20M/633K =~ $31.00 though like I said thats an over estimate
Donation == Investment for Microsoft (Score:1)
MS world denomination through univs? (Score:1)
software projects can't be undertaken in "university-type" environs...
At USC, MS Research "donated" machines for grad
student rooms... the rider being that nothing
but NT crash on them: we can't even partition them! And MIT and Stanford of course....
And the lucre.
amit
The obvious answer: (Score:1)
Geez, I mean wasn't the coke machine on the net invented at MIT?
not entirely true (Score:1)
it's not a huge problem; everyone here calls buildings by their numbers anyway. now LCS and the AI Lab will just be in 32 and not NE43. putting your name on a building here is a waste of money.
-krog
we didn't wait that long (Score:1)
-krog
heh, i can see the MIT "hacks" now (Score:1)
Check out the "LCS honor roll"! (Score:1)
"The capsule, an over-sized, 150-pound lead sculpture of a paper bag, was designed by architect Frank Gehry. The LCS honor roll includes Daniel Bricklin and Robert Frankston, for their spreadsheet project in 1979, Tim Berners-Lee for his 1989 creation of the World Wide Web, Robert Metcalfe for his 1973 invention of Ethernet, Robert Scheifler and James Gettys for their development of the X-Windows system in 1983, and more than 50 others -- including Gates for his 1975 authoring of Altair Basic."
Donation == Investment for Microsoft (Score:1)
I make no comments vis-a-vis my attitude to him, by the way, just an observation.
Not much (Score:1)
Most of the building is funded by the Strata's anyways; only one tower is called "The Gates Building," although that won't last long around here.
That seems what a lot of people will do: call it by its former (or another) name.
Drat (Score:1)
TeslaCoil
I wonder if billga~1 did this on purpose (Score:1)
Donation == Investment for Microsoft (Score:1)
Did much? Certainly, but let's not forget the many others who were involved in incubating the "hacker culture" there.
There first? _Definitely_ not. Try to keep your hero-worship within the bounds we call "reality".
The Bill Gates Center for Marketing Tactics :) (Score:1)
I was just pointing out that we should be thanking Mr. Gates for contributing to a center for knowledge quite unlike his investment in Microsoft Corporation instead of assuming that he will be forcing more MS crap down the throats of academia.
After all, who do you think knows more than we do just how bad off Microsoft is? Steve Jobs? Larry Ellison? Scott McNealy? Steve Case?
Would you trust *your* company to an OS containing enough code for any five other OS's? If you would, you're a fool (and I mean that in the nicest sense of the word).
;) -m
The Bill Gates Center for Marketing Tactics :) (Score:1)
Allow me to be the first to congratulate you, Mr. Gates, on the excellent decision to *finally* do something useful with your money.
We proponents of freedom of computing need not worry for our future when we have such generous benefactors such as yourself.
Big Deal (Score:1)
At some risk I would like to know the thoughts of the readership on that other computer school CMU. An alternative program(scholarships not buildings) at an alternative school might be positive.
As a disclosure, yes I am an alumus of C-MU
heh, i can see the MIT "hacks" now (Score:1)
Naming of buildings at schools (Score:1)
Donation == Investment for Microsoft (Score:2)
It gives them a tax write-off and it is an investment in a school that will probably be stripped of it's talent in favor of Microsoft Research.
Money well spent from B. Gates' point of view I'd say.
As for RMS... who knows? I've been told by the man himself that he doesn't like his name associated with things that are diametrically opposed to his philosophy. However, he was there first and did much to put MIT on the map for Software Engineering. At any rate, RMS can write his own ticket and work just about anywhere he wants and for whatever price he may choose. Cygnus?
This nearly happened at Cambridge UK (Score:2)
The academics in this department declined stating they were not going to name any building the "Gates Building" because they did not want to encourage/endorse that particular approach to programming around here. Microsoft are attempting to build offices over here in future, (to try to recruit a few clever graduates) but the consensus over here is that MS isn't that popular, especially as a career. (especially as the main nightclub in town might be closed to allow for the the new MS-Cambridge extension). (See this link [cam.ac.uk] for related news)
Irony and Disgust (Score:2)
MIT is considered one of the top engineering and computer science schools in the world. It is supposed to stand for technological innovation and engineering brilliance. The culture is that of valuing technology on its own merits; may the best technology win.
Bill Gates is about the triumph of marketing over superiority; of deception over honest competition; of forcing success by leveraging might & muscle rather than innovation and ingenuity. In essence, Bill Gates represents everything that the MIT LCS is not about, and indeed he runs directly contrary to what it stands for.
As an MIT alumn, I am very saddened to think that MIT has allowed this to happen. I guess I can understand how difficult it must be to turn down $20 million, but the vast irony of the source of the funds contrasted to what the LCS represents cannot be underestimated.
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Excuse me? (Score:2)
The name of the new building will be the Stata Complex...the Stata family is donating much more than Mr. Gates, and the way I understand it, there will be a WING named after Billy. Not a building.
From yesterday's copy of The Tech (MIT's main newspaper):
"...At the event, LCS directory Michael L. Dertouzos announced a major gift by Gates towards the Stata complex, the future house of LCS
"MIT has known about Gates's intention to donate for over a year, and the name is still the Stata Complex. Gates donated $20 million. The Statas donated $25 million. Billy gets a wing, the Statas get a building. Hehe. I love it. Yay MIT.