RDS permanent ban

[jwaltos]

Scunthorpe problem, interesting. Never heard of it before but encountered it and had to revise my spelling accordingly.
Phonetically, `wear the fox hat` may create similar issues. The quote is from a clip in a Scottish T.V. beer commercial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb0kiiB3O-o

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by Brian-E

Glad to see you find it fun now. We all change, I guess.

I know you have a sense of humour, so I'm gambling that you won't mind my childishness there, LaurV.

No, I didn't change, haha, I feel the same about that edit of my post (and piratification has nothing to do with it, that post was slain, not piratified - well, meantime I stayed longer on the forum and I learned who does those thingies, the person is long forgiven, he paid for it more than I ever expected )

Everybody should live in China for a while! Somehow related, I had a German colleague who was just fresh from the university and quite arrogant, he was a very clever guy, and good in his job, but having this attitude that he is always better, his information is newer, etc, and he was treating local people without much respect, trying to take advantage of them. The type of guy who could sell his mother too, if it brings a profit (he was marketing/sales manager at the time). He was good for the company, and if I would have my own company, I may be willing to employ more guys like that, but he was a kinda nightmare for colleagues. As we didn't bump too much one into another, having different lines of work, we learned to respect each other and admired/envied each-other for the qualities the other one had (yes, he had also a lot of qualities!). Sometimes we drank a beer together. One day he got a job as CEO for a Chinese company in Shanghai, he was always looking for better opportunities and more money. He asked me what to do (because I was "knowing" China, working there at the end of the last century, for few years), and I told him "Take it! Few months in China will help you build a lot of character, and it will help with your pride a lot, too". If you know the "Sammo Lo" tv show, there was a guy there called Portman. Follow his path along the movie and you will get the idea. The same type of guy, including physically (Portman appears in 2 episodes, played by Mike Starr).

My friend still has that job in Shanghai. We met after years, he still has ties to Thailand and he comes to ChiangMai occasionally. But he is a totally different person today, more mature, and more "normal", and every time we meet, but I mean EVERY TIME, he reminds me (I mean verbally, he is effectively saying it every time we meet!) how right I was.

[Brian-E]

The tendency of so many in the West - and I know it's in me too - to consider themselves superior to the rest of the world, is certainly unhelpful and it has wide implications. I couldn't agree more with your message, although I will draw the line at taking your advice literally and moving to China. I don't think China would find me of any use at all.

And thanks for the lesson about the difference between editing and piratification.

[ixfd64]

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, Dr. Silverman is one of the most knowledgeable people in this field, and his insights were invaluable. But at the same time, there is no doubt he was creating a toxic environment.

I also don't like to stick my nose into other people's businesses, but is there an explanation as to why Dr. Silverman is so misanthropic? Autism? Bad upbringing as a child?

[Mark Rose]

A lot of people who are geniuses in their fields suffer a lot of fools. It can be very frustrating for them, dealing with the never-ending barrage of ignorance. I've seen it happen to people across diverse spectra of knowledge. Not everyone has infinite patience. Some handle it better than others. Were there anything I picked up from RDS' posts, it was a sense of exasperation.

[only_human]

If I'm not mistaken, his first or nearly first post was a very blasé or possibly blithe disrespect for some of the projects here in that I think he asked why we weren't all working on the Cunningham Tables instead.

His views on religion and atheism closely align to mine but he stated things more openly and clearly than I generally do.

In addition to his math experiences, he also had personal knowledge of implementation details on RSA crypto matters from the company itself it seemed.

As the moderator of the Soapbox, on one occasion I obscured some swear words in a post of his. My view is that the prissy mangling of a swear word robs it of some of the lash-out satisfaction - and when rephrasing things, people often lower the invective level and also communicate with more than just frontal brain challenge reactions...

Soon after that post, without any other prompting he chose an acronym in lieu of a swear word on the next occasion and furthermore, he had to post an additional time to explain the acronym that he used; so I was more than satisfied that he had put some effort into my desire to maintain a conversational tone that is less likely to morph into personal verbal attacks. I feel that I was on the right path when I modified his post and I wish he had continued his efforts to follow that level of circumscribed speech.

Part of his abrasiveness seemed to be a desire to have these forums of high information quality with low noise but he had a very low threshold of tolerance for new posters. He mentioned Eternal September on one occasion. I feel that it is reasonable for people to have a soft-start to acclimate themselves to the forums so a little recklessness at the beginning is ok.

I'm a bit of a crackpot but he was always polite and helpful to me.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by ixfd64

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, Dr. Silverman is one of the most knowledgeable people in this field, and his insights were invaluable. But at the same time, there is no doubt he was creating a toxic environment.

I also don't like to stick my nose into other people's businesses, but is there an explanation as to why Dr. Silverman is so misanthropic? Autism? Bad upbringing as a child?

Somewhere on the autism spectrum seems like a distinct possibility.

He has posted about the experience of moving from Massachusetts to Houston, TX in the 60s (I think.) I believe that he was in Jr High. He knew the math better than the teacher. This led to an administrator telling his parents that they didn't appreciate "Yankee Jews telling them how to teach math."

As someone who grew up around the same time, and about 30 miles South of where Bob was, I would also just about bet that he got his butt severely beaten at school more than once.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by kladner

Somewhere on the autism spectrum seems like a distinct possibility.

I think it very unlikely that you meant that to be a pejorative statement but not everyone regards ASD as an emotionally neutral term.

RDS once posted here that he thought his ex-wife has Asperger's and in a context where it was quite clearly intended to be pejorative.

One of the brightest and gentlest mathematicians I've ever met has severe Asperger's. No names but several other forum members have met him and should be able to guess immediately to whom I'm referring.

[Brian-E]

Originally Posted by kladner

As someone who grew up around the same time, and about 30 miles South of where Bob was, I would also just about bet that he got his butt severely beaten at school more than once.

Yes. His words on the subject are quite brief, but they indicate to me that he was probably structurally bullied at school for the crime of having a different religion from his peers and teachers. It's not difficult to understand why some people grow up having difficulty getting on with others when they've had this sort of start in life.
http://www.mersenneforum.org/showpost.php?p=239607

And I had firsthand experience of what the South is like. I lived in Houston
for several years where my teachers complained that I was a discipline
problem in class because I kept interrupting with questions. One of them
actually said "I don't know where y'all are from, but down here students
shut up and do as they are told. We don't want smartass Yankee Jews
interrupting our classes with questions". When I first moved to Houston,
in my first day of class the first thing they did was recite the Lord's Prayer.
I did not know it and had no idea what it was. When I asked my parents
about it they protested to the school that I was Jewish and that I was
not required to go along with this prayer service. My parents were told that
I had no choice but to do as everyone else was doing. They told me not
to participate. I was constantly harassed by other students for my non-
particiption. The school admins did nothing.

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by kladner

Somewhere on the autism spectrum seems like a distinct possibility.

everyone has a condition that makes them different than everyone else I don't really see a point in putting a name to it. also if we blame output on input I could name a lot of things growing up that could have contributed to my thoughts on life. having three sisters, getting made fun of for relapsing nephrotic syndrome, getting in a car accident, multiple relatives passing away, being told I had an ASD, living with a relative all my life, being told to look at women almost as objects, being in the same sex ed class as my sister, etc. but truth be told none of that really matters in the long run.

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by only_human

If I'm not mistaken, his first or nearly first post was a very blasé or possibly blithe disrespect for some of the projects here in that I think he asked why we weren't all working on the Cunningham Tables instead.

at least for the cunningham chain of the first kind we can prove that no mersenne exponents can be in the middle ( aka not either end, simply because all that are in the middle are 3 mod 4 and 2p+1 is prime for the first kind chain). so it's not completely off base, and it is something he likes.