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Eric S. Raymond Survives New Medical Problems (ibiblio.org) 213

Posted by EditorDavid from the improvise-adapt-overcome dept.
For decades Eric S. Raymond has been one of the open source movement's staunchest supporters. He co-founded the Open Source Initiative, and was the author of the influential book The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary .

Tuesday the 61-year-old super-geek posted a dramatic story to his blog: Today I had to -- literally -- crawl from my wife's car to my house. Because I couldn't walk. Life is what happens while you were making other plans. About six months ago I sprained my right ankle in kung fu class. It gave me occasional pain, mostly in cold weather, but I thought it was healing and I could just let it heal. Until about two months ago when I was out with friends on a chilly evening and my ankle folded up under me, just lost the power to support me entirely...

A couple of visits to doctors and an MRI scan later we determined that I had developed one of the more unfortunate possible sequelae of a sprain, a thing called an osteochondral lesion. This is what happens when an area of bone in the load-bearing area of the joint erodes away, so the cartilage above it is no longer supported. If the unsupported cartilage is then damaged, the long-term result can be crippling arthritis of the joint. In my case, it seemed I had gotten lucky. The cartilage seemed undamaged in the MRI images. The indicated procedure is to go in with an arthroscopic probe and squirt synthetic bone into the lesion. Once it hardens it can support the cartilage so it doesn't take additional damage.
Then two weeks ago, while waiting for his scheduled surgery, Raymond collapsed again in his kitchen, leading to an emergency room visit, another MRI, and three head staples where he'd hit his head on a chair leg: Home again home again. It's nice that even at 61 I'm a physically tough person with a high pain threshold and a thick skull who is actually rather difficult to injure -- my school name over at the kung fu kwoon is "The Mighty Oak". And I like that I can be self-reliant and stoic under stress. But thank you, I'd prefer not to have this confirmed by repeated injuries...

I had that surgery about eighteen hours ago. And ended up crawling from my car because none of the medical people talked about or planned for my post-operative problems until after I was out of anesthesia. Pain management was as far as they got... So now it's oh-dark-thirty the next morning, I'm writing this because the anesthesia and the four hours or so of shut-eye after I got home have left me all slept out for the moment, and I've learned from experience that quietly coding or writing until I'm tired enough to sleep again is better for me than tossing and turning.
By Wednesday he'd posted a reassuring update -- that "The post-op pain has stabilized at a level where the occasional Tylenol will handle it nicely." But the Tuesday blog post reminded readers that he'd been scheduled to give the main keynote at South East Linux Fest on June 14th. "Part of the reason this is a public blog post is as my subjunctive apology to everyone who was expecting to see me at SELF, in the all-too-likely event that I can't be there."

Posting stoicly about the details of his recovery -- at one point he writes "Improvise, adapt, overcome!" -- Eric Raymond added one final thought: If you've ever thought that you might join my Patreon feed, now would be a really good time. This... adventure... has blown a $6000 hole in my budget and the expenses aren't over yet. There's that post-op check at minimum, and probably physical therapy afterwards, and that's if all heals well; otherwise it'll be much, much more expensive.
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Eric S. Raymond Survives New Medical Problems More

Eric S. Raymond Survives New Medical Problems

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  • Libertarian expects free money (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cyber-vandal ( 148830 ) on Saturday June 08, 2019 @06:43PM (#58732688) Homepage

    The irony.

    • Ayn Rand and Social Security? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It's not ironic at all, it is however quite hypocritical. All the libertarians I've talked to take full advantage of government services, even if others don't qualify for them, then belittle the rest of us for not living in their Libertarian Paradise. Finding new ways to fleece others of their money is a cornerstone of libertarian philosophy. I would daresay begging for donations qualifies under that, although it would be just as libertarian to not donate because you don't feel the value added by his existe

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Kjella ( 173770 )

      I'm not sure irony is the right word. More like delusion, the idea that the world is keeping score. He's done a lot for the world, when he needs the world he thinks they're ready and willing to return the favor. Except that's not how the world really works, for the most part people ghost you when you're in trouble and only a few true friends stay behind. Theo de Raadt has made some very similar rants about OpenSSL, everybody uses it but none want to actually support it with staff or money. The only people m

      • Theo de Raadt has made some very similar rants about OpenSSL, everybody uses it but none want to actually support it with staff or money.

        Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me I need to donate to OpenBSD.

        • Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me I need to donate to OpenBSD.

          I probably should donate... I don't use OpenBSD, but both OpenSSH and LibreSSL are tools I use all the time.

      • I believe Theo is behind LibreSSL, not OpenSSL - he forked LibreSSL because he has various issues with OpenSSL and (especially) its developers.

        • Theo de Raadt has people issues. Film at 11.

      • Re:Libertarian expects free money (Score:5, Informative)

        by Aighearach ( 97333 ) on Sunday June 09, 2019 @12:57AM (#58733870)

        At the same time, he's been posting hateful shit online lately.

        Maybe he did something good once, or maybe he just wrote a popular book, but he's a fucking sociopath.

        No surprise to see a libertarian who can't pay his bills, and brags about how tough he is as he's released from special care.

        Also no surprise that that sort of person would say, "And I like that I can be self-reliant and stoic under stress." While begging and telling a woe-is-me story. And bragging about kung-fu.

        For people who wonder, who is this Eric S. Raymond guy and what is he about, here are some references:

        https://twitter.com/tqbf/statu... [twitter.com]
        http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=3974... [ibiblio.org]
        https://twitter.com/tqbf/statu... [twitter.com]
        https://twitter.com/tqbf/statu... [twitter.com]
        https://nuclearmonster.com/201... [nuclearmonster.com]

        He's a disgusting, vile, evil man, and his mild suffering is less than he deserves.

        • Even the biggest assholes deserve to live in a healthy, humane society with an excellent (and, of course, free) healthcare system. If they had been brought up in such a society, there's a good chance they wouldn't have become assholes to begin with. The only thing that society has to take care of is to effectively prevent such assholes from becoming a threat for anyone.

          Oh, but thanks for the links which helped complete my picture of Mr. Raymond.

          • Even the biggest assholes deserve to live in a healthy, humane society with an excellent (and, of course, free) healthcare system.

            Sure, I agree, even ESR deserves functional health care whether it's a financial hardship or not. Unfortunately for ESR, and for the rest of us, he's one of the many people who don't believe that. He's always jibber-jabbering about either how minorities are genetically inferior, or how libertarianism is the bestest social theory around. Well, it looks like he's genetically inferior to lots of people whose joints are stronger than his, and the lack of a working health care system (not health insurance system) left him with a fat medical bill.

            • You get in just about as much trouble if you make the case that there are superior minorities. Not naming them, but we know that genetic lines do vary. The question is why? And the answer is always natural selection. Gregory Clark made a case for why the industrial revolution happened when and where it did. http://faculty.econ.ucdavis.ed... [ucdavis.edu]

              The last two paragraphs relate to Japan and China.

              • Gregory Clark made a case for why the industrial revolution happened when and where it did.

                You don't need to invoke genetics to explain why it happened where it happened. It happened there and then because they got out from under the thumb of theocracy.

          • I disagree. I think a person should have to agree that everybody deserves good health care in order to qualify to receive the free health care that should then be available to everybody.

            That's actually the only significant restriction I would place on it! Make a public record of your agreement that everybody deserves good health care. OK you're in.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by DeVilla ( 4563 )

              I disagree. I think a person should have to agree that everybody deserves good health care in order to qualify to receive the free health care that should then be available to everybody.

              And this is why I don't trust government controller health care. What else can disqualify you from receiving health care? Buying the wrong books? Criticizing the wrong politician? Obviously having the wrong opinions can disqualify you. Maybe disqualifying due to religion?

              Something like government controlled health care will be used as a lever. Maybe it will be used first by someone you agree with. But eventually some evil person you disagree with will use it to force you to do something you feel is

              • Exactly, you're scared because when people use words, you substitute different, scary words and you play-act that they said that instead.

                OOOooooooooh, scary!

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Tomy ( 34647 )

          Thanks for posting this. I would have probably been too lazy to lookup proof about this human excrement.

        • Don't know the guy, but just because he has controversial opinions doesn't make him evil and vile, maybe ignorant (in case what he claims is scientifically not true).

          What makes people evil is genuinely treating other people with different and/or controversial opinions, evil. Because sooner or later... these folks will get the pitch forks out, ... and you know. Do what people do. That's why we burned witches, stoned people to death etc... out of a belief that they are evil and vile subhuman enemies of cu

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Plus he alienated a lot of people with some of his rants, especially the stuff about Linus.

    • Free money? Where? All I see is an advertisement for his Patreon, not a Go-Fund-Me page. Based on what I can see he's expecting money to continue to do work that isn't part of some corporate payroll. Do you also consider it "expecting free money" if you derive any income not granted to you by some corporation?

    • Re:Libertarian expects free money (Score:5, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Saturday June 08, 2019 @07:55PM (#58732966) Homepage Journal

      Libertarian is reduced to begging after health care expenses of $6k which would probably cost them $3 in any other developed nation.

      • >"Libertarian is reduced to begging after health care expenses of $6k which would probably cost them $3 in any other developed nation."

        Or $3 here if he decided he chose a different insurance plan (granted, that might be a pretty expensive plan). On my plan (which is certainly nothing special, and has no age component), it would be capped at $5K per year out-of-pocket, period. Oh, and he also didn't have to wait 6 months for probably best-in-world surgery, either.

        Just sayin'

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by epyT-R ( 613989 )

        the copay could be $3, but he would've already paid that $6000 many times over in taxes. so much for 'developed.'

        • the copay could be $3, but he would've already paid that $6000 many times over in taxes. so much for 'developed.'

          And that's the rub. Insurance, all insurance, is the only thing I can think of which you pay for, but will in all likelihood never use. So the tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of dollars taken from you is lost forever. You could have been using that money for something more useful such as food, clothing, or shelter, but instead it's sent down a black hole, never to be seen again.

          If there was a way of getting your money back if you don't use insurance, then things would even out a little bit. Bu

          • And that's the rub. Insurance, all insurance, is the only thing I can think of which you pay for, but will in all likelihood never use.

            Yeah, that's what ESR thought. Now he's begging.

            If there was a way of getting your money back if you don't use insurance, then things would even out a little bit.

            There is. You get to live among healthy people in a nation which is not crippled by poor health care.

            But as it stands now, your money is being used to purchase some C level's third house for which you get no benefit.

            That's because you've been duped into having an argument about insurance when what you should be arguing about is having health care. The ACA is bad legislation because the insurance companies are in the law. That's why the Republicans wrote it that way when it was their idea. Democrats suggested single payer and got shot down immediately, decided that somethin

        • Re:Libertarian expects free money (Score:4, Insightful)

          by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Sunday June 09, 2019 @06:03AM (#58734420)

          I'm sure he's gotten more than $6000 of benefits over his lifetime.

          But here's a fundamental question for you in terms of net benefit. Is it cheaper to
          a) fund a break even system.
          b) fund a break even system with a broker in between who makes a large profit.

          America chose b.

          • You're assuming that government-run health care doesn't make a profit for the government. It does, though it shows up in massive bureaucracy employment and other government power instead of cash.

            • You're assuming that government-run health care doesn't make a profit for the government. It does, though it shows up in massive bureaucracy employment and other government power instead of cash.

              That's not actually a profit (consult your dictionary) but it is a benefit. National health care systems pay less for the same medications than the American insured, because of the buying power of such systems. And I thought employing people was supposed to be a good thing?

              • No, national health care systems pay less than Americans for the same medications because they can get away with it, because the manufacturer can fob off the R&D costs on Americans.

            • You're assuming that government-run health care doesn't make a profit for the government. It does

              No that is just your opinion. In reality no government-run health care system in the world runs at a profit. Mind you since you consider "employment" and "bureaucracy" to be "profit" I'm not surprised you have no idea what you're talking about.

              Now let me restate the question but with a few words changed:
              But here's a fundamental question for you in terms of net employment. Is it more efficient to
              a) fund a single payer system.
              b) fund a system with a multiple payers each bringing in their own overheads at smal

      • Actually, he looked. The treatment he got was not available outside the US.

        See, that's the thing: we get the most advanced medical care in the world, and we have to pay for it. It's not like the money for all of that R&D grows on trees.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by epyT-R ( 613989 )

      He's not expecting it. He's asking. The nice thing about it is that you can always refuse if you can't or don't want to. No one will jail you or worse for not paying your 'fair share.'

    • Re:Libertarian expects free money (Score:5, Insightful)

      by steveha ( 103154 ) on Sunday June 09, 2019 @01:33AM (#58733956) Homepage

      libertarians are all about freedom of choice. There is nothing ironic about saying "if you were thinking about giving me any money on Patreon, now would be a good time to get around to it." A libertarian can ask for donations, but shouldn't try to force people to give them. It would be ironic if he had said "I hope Elizabeth Warren becomes President and institutes single-payer healthcare since I don't want to pay my medical bill." But he didn't he say that.

      Do you understand the difference between voluntary donations via Patreon and taxes? Or are you unclear on the concept?

      Also, most of the people posting in this thread seem to be jumping to an unproven conclusion: that he can't pay his bills. He didn't say that. He said his budget just had $6K chopped out of it without warning. He does various things without charging for them: helping open-source projects convert old source code repos to Git, his work on rewriting NTP to be more secure, etc. I sure hope he has investments and such for his retirement someday. (He famously got a gift of Red Hat stock when Red Hat first went public; that ought to be valuable now if he still has it.). It's very possible that he is trying to live day-to-day on his Patreon and leave all his investments alone, to grow for his retirement.

      • It's very possible that he is trying to live day-to-day on his Patreon and leave all his investments alone, to grow for his retirement.

        He wants to have a future, and fuck everyone else, so he's asking people with less money than he's got to pay his medical bills. That makes him more intelligent than if he had run out of money, but also more of an asshole. He wants other people to run out of money instead.

        • He wants to have a future, and fuck everyone else, so he's asking people with less money than he's got to pay his medical bills.

          Oh, so basically like corporate welfare?

          Where does he ask people who have little money to show him charity? Is it gone from the blog post or are you being dishonest on that claim?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by steveha ( 103154 )

          He wants to have a future, and fuck everyone else

          Could you please cite something ESR wrote that supports this slander? If not, you should apologize for saying it.

          P.S. I consider myself a minarchist libertarian. Does that mean you despise me too, and you are going to tell people I hate everyone and want the poor to suffer?

    • Libertarians are against involuntary transfer of money from one group of people to another via government mandates, particularly in cases where there ain't a common good involved. I'm not a Libertarian myself, but I do know where they come from. Here on /. where AOC might be considered a conservative, Libertarians are equated to Nazis.

      Nobody ever said they were against charity i.e. people voluntarily donating money, in this case, to help Eric defray some or all of his medical expenses. I wish him well

  • Eric is 61!!! Man I feel old. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Man.. I've been using and anonymously contributing to the Linux community since 1992. Man.. I feed old.
    I've read about what Eric has done for Open Source since the Linux Epoch.

  • I'm a little bit puzzled about all of his medical expenses. Doesn't he have health insurance?

    • Re:Health insurance? (Score:5, Funny)

      by slickwillie ( 34689 ) on Saturday June 08, 2019 @07:50PM (#58732946)
      It's open source health insurance.
    • In "first world" America, even most insurance will leave you with expenses that will bankrupt most people if some major happens. You wind up owing thousands instead of tens or hundreds of thousands, but the percentage of people who can cover an unexpected several thousand dollars is very small.

    • American health insurance tends to have lots of small print which entails a big bill if ever actually use it. $6000 sounds like a very small bill for a bunch of hospital visits and tests and a surgery, so he probably does have insurance covering the rest of it.

    • Re:Health insurance? (Score:5, Informative)

      by jtara ( 133429 ) on Saturday June 08, 2019 @08:28PM (#58733074)

      That $6000 I'm sure was just co-pay.

      Health insurance at ESR's age at affordable prices has a hefty deductible and copay.

      U.S. Obamacare (and similar state plans for those with their own) "Bronze" plans are VERY stingy. co-pay I think 30% and yearly out-of-pocket max of $10,000+.

      Gone are the days of premium Blue Cross, etc. coverage that lets you choose any doctor and pays almost everything. I had that growing up and starting out in Detroit, because the auto companies had pays-all policies, and everybody else had to match it.

      I'm a bit older than ESR. My last CaliforniaCare policy whilst consulting was $900/mo and provided pretty minimal coverage. Silver plan. (The levels are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum.) While Obamacare doesn't allow discrimination or pricing based on pre-existing conditions, it sure does price based on age! What? Age isn't a preexisting conditions???!!!

      >$10,000 cost, and what I got out of it that year was the stingy annual checkup that's provided.

      Fortunately, I now have a company policy that I upgraded to the top Platinum policy for about an extra $100/mo out of my pocket. Other than routine checkups, I've needed to use it once. And it was well worth the upgrade. An angry homeless guy knocked me off of a Segway Ninebot (I kid you not...). I wound up paying about $500 total. But the bill paid by the insurance company was more than ESR's $6000, I think north of $10K. Heck, the 2-mile trip to the ER alone was $2000. This was for an ambulance ride, a CAT-scan, and a couple of hours of observation in the ER.

        And one vicodin, which I had to take while the nurse watched to make sure that I took it. Cops were waiting in the lobby, she wasn't sympathetic to my wanting to be cogent when I talked to them.

      (I was lucky there was no concussion, just a BIG lump on the forehead.)

      • Re:Health insurance? (Score:4, Informative)

        by jtara ( 133429 ) on Saturday June 08, 2019 @08:30PM (#58733082)

        I was low on what Bronze plans pay.

        Actuarial value (the average percentage of total cost paid):

        Bronze: 60%
        Silver: 70%
        Gold: 80%
        Platinum: 90%

      • Silver-level PPACA plans in northern CA for a 61-year old (covering approximately 70%) cost $15k/year/person.

      • Gone are the days of premium Blue Cross, etc. coverage that lets you choose any doctor and pays almost everything.

        Yeah, you know why that's gone? Because those plans were subsidized by Blue Shield plans (Blue Cross/Blue Shield being the same company) that didn't let you choose any doctor (there were literally zero doctors in my county accepting new patients when I had Blue Shield) and which pays for almost nothing. If you had one of those plans, your health care was predicated upon your insurer lying to other people, and then giving them a garbage plan that wouldn't cover their needs.

    • No. He's not a full-time employee of anyone.

  • Boo hoo Bozo (Score:3, Interesting)

    by az-saguaro ( 1231754 ) on Saturday June 08, 2019 @07:44PM (#58732924)

    Pardon my insensitivity, but why is this a Slashdot worthy story?

    All I get from this is that some self-serving narcissistic cry baby couldn't handle the pain after surgery.

    There are people out there whose lives are truly challenged or destroyed by the injuries or illness that befall them. Some guy with a blog hurt his poor ankle and now wants everyone to cry boohoo with him, and better yet send some money his way because he is too busy flattering himself to handle his affairs and get health insurance.

    "... And ended up crawling from my car because none of the medical people talked about or planned for my post-operative problems until after I was out of anesthesia. ... " What did this numb-nut expect? Have an operation, have some pain, it's nature's way of reminding you that you survived the operation. The pain only lasts 4-5 days, so get over it (but stupid is forever). There are people with very serious problems that rob them of body parts and vital functions, sometimes sadly even their lives. I work with them every day, and some of the people most unjustly robbed and cheated by nature find a way to smile and rise to the occasion and make the best lemonade they can from the most bitter of lemons. Instead, this butt-tard, who tries to impress you because he does kung fu, has a baby cry because the quite minor surgery he had didn't cater to his very sensitive self. Bung foo. Who buys into this?

    And by the way, why is this Slashdot worthy?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Gavagai80 ( 1275204 )

      ESR, isn't some self-serving narcissistic cry baby, he's our self-serving narcissistic cry baby and always has been. If you don't know him, you don't know open source culture.

      • ESR, isn't some self-serving narcissistic cry baby, he's our self-serving narcissistic cry baby and always has been.

        What? ESR has always been for ESR first, and everyone else last. He even used to claim that he invented the term Open Source, though he relinquished to that claim to Christine Peterson (who is currently lying about it [hyperlogos.org].)

        If you don't know him, you don't know open source culture.

        And if you do know him, you know he's a massive asshole who should be put out to sea on the same raft as James Damore. That is, he makes unsupported, stereotyping claims about underprivileged groups; Then he provides citations he clearly didn't understand, if any. If ESR has problems fund-rai

  • What's up with the "survives"? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ChoGGi ( 522069 ) <<gro.iggohc> <ta> <todhsals>> on Saturday June 08, 2019 @08:18PM (#58733042) Homepage

    How often do people die from ankle surgery?

  • https://news.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
     
    The guy is a total bag.

  • ...is how much he hates RMS.
    • Does he? From what I recall, he was the one who tried to patch things b/w Torvalds and RMS. The reason RMS is hated is both his personality, and after that, his Leftism. At first glance, he seems very reasonable, but start reading his articles more in depth - both on gnu.org as well as stallman.org - and one will see a loony Leftist who makes the entire Democrat field seem centrist

  • ... by open sores?

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