Linus Torvalds on the Google vs Oracle verdict

Re:Linus Torvalds on the Google vs Oracle verdict by kristianc on Thursday May 24, 2012 @12:40AM (#4016833)

>> When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is an idiotic thing to say; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." [1]

HN's own style guide has sound advice for how Linus might shorten his posts to under 140 characters.

[1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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Re:Linus Torvalds on the Google vs Oracle verdict by aptwebapps on Thursday May 24, 2012 @05:41AM (#4017596)

I've never seen him post here. Does he have an account?

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Re:Linus Torvalds on the Google vs Oracle verdict by batista on Thursday May 24, 2012 @02:14PM (#4019731)

This assumes that the "That is an idiotic thing to say;" is unimportant. On the contrary.

1) It gives a lot of pleasure to respond with it to idiotic ideas.

2) It adds emphasis and a sense of proportions to the error, ie. it's not just a simple mistake, it is an idiotic mistake.

3) It (hopefully) shames the perpetrator of the idiotic idea into thinking twice before speaking.

It's not always appropriate, but a lot of times it is just the thing.

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