Hans Reiser and the "Geek Defense" Strategy

[audiovoodoo]

I thought some of the geeks down here might be interested in this one:

"In the courtroom where Hans Reiser is on trial for murder, [the evidence] might appear to indicate guilty knowledge. But his attorneys cast it as evidence of an innocence peculiar to Hans, a computer programmer so immersed in the folds of his own intellect that he had no idea how complicit he was making himself appear. 'Being too intelligent can be a sort of curse,' defense counsel William Du Bois said. 'All this weird conduct can be explained by him, but he's the only one who can do it. People who are commonly known as computer geeks are so into the field.'"

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/02/23/2218256.shtml

 

[surrealdeal]

I don't think 'not being aware of your surroundings' counts as intelligence. If anything, being intelligent would make you more aware of your surroundings. Guy's got a bad case of OCD.

 

[audiovoodoo]

It also looks like he might actually be innocent. What is it with Linux and the high number of sexual deviants?

** Heads off to the dungeon to whip the slave **

 

[surrealdeal]

clearly, ballin'

http://www.bristolchaos.co.uk/archive/0203/ball/PenguinSuit.JPG

 

[MU_Engineer]

It also looks like he might actually be innocent. What is it with Linux and the high number of sexual deviants?

I thought the stereotypical Linux user couldn't be a sexual deviant as you have to have sex to be a sexual deviant.

 

[Zorak]

It also looks like he might actually be innocent. What is it with Linux and the high number of sexual deviants?

Heh, well I'm inclined to agree with MU_Engineer, but I wonder what makes you say that audiovoodoo? I haven't exactly seen any relevant statistics on the internet (or anywhere else) that support this claim. If anything, I figure there would be about the same proportion of deviants in the linux community as there are in the technophile community. Anyways, since i only just glossed over the details of this case, I hope that justice is served (if he is guilty, go to jail, else let him go w/o damage to his character).

-Zorak

 

[audiovoodoo]

We worship RMS and Linus.. what more do you need to know? I still remember alt.sex.unix and guess it must have left its mark :/ Actually I was sure I'd read something about Hans being into all sorts of stuff but I might have been somewhat drunk at the time and got that all wrong...

 

[Zorak]

OK! Maybe i really should not have asked... 😉 Anyways, I wouldn't say that I worship RMS or Linus, although I do appreciate the work they are doing.

-Zorak

PS: In retrospect, I suppose I asked for evidence because I figured it was an unfounded claim; I now stand corrected (and somewhat afraid ).

edit: damn muscle memory made me type "linux" instead of "linus"

 

[audiovoodoo]

It was the bloke that Nina was seeing that was well into his BDSM and who confessed in a Wired interview to having killed 8 people. I'm the last person to judge people by their private lives and if being whipped with SCSI cables is your thing then feel free.

I just think Hans might want to mention that the lover of his wife was into it... and maybe the 'fessing up to killing folks bit... you know it just might be connected to his wife or something.

 

[Zorak]

So based on what I had read, the judge or maybe the prosecutor actually forbade the defense from talking about that claim that his friend had made about previously killing 8 people. Which is probably why that hasn't come into play.

 

[audiovoodoo]

Yup. Now then can we make a conspiracy theory where M$ have paid off the judge to throw the trial so they can finally get WinFS out the door and make it look good? Just wait, this time next week RMS will be charged with terrorist offences and the developers of ZFS will all be caught in a drugs ring. [/I read it on the onion or something 😛]