Hans Reiser arrested [LWN.net]

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 15:04 UTC (Wed) by ernstp (guest, #13694) [Link]

First we all felt sorry for the family, now this is getting complicated. I hope the trial won't take forever so he can be cleared, or not cleared of cource.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 15:27 UTC (Wed) by Alan_Hicks (guest, #20469) [Link]

Best of luck to them all. This is a really terrible situation all around, for Hans, for his wife and her loved ones, and perhaps most of all for their children.

I'd like to remind people that suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and that as tempting as it may be to speculate, speculation at this time will do nothing but harm all the parties involved, the innocent even more than the guilty. So let's just try to let the sheriff do his job, and keep the rumor mill closed.

Hans Reiser arrested: more coverage

Posted Oct 11, 2006 16:01 UTC (Wed) by frazier (guest, #3060) [Link] (3 responses)

Here's some articles. The first is especially interesting:

I have no idea how good of coverage CBS 5 is known for, but this is certainly a tragic (and interesting) case regardless. Hopefully, justice will served.

Hans Reiser arrested: more coverage

Posted Oct 11, 2006 16:28 UTC (Wed) by frazier (guest, #3060) [Link] (1 responses)

The last article listed above also has police interview video (Flash format). Interesting to note that Police:

Believe Hans Reiser acted alone
Believe Nina Reiser's body is in the Bay Area
Are not being specific at this time about evidence collected
Had surveillance on Hans Reiser, sometimes over 24 hour period(s)

Off topic: I like the way they publish the full press conferences online along side their reports.

Hans Reiser arrested: more coverage

Posted Oct 12, 2006 0:37 UTC (Thu) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

Well ya with the history of the ongoing divorce stuff, the lawsuite, the restraining order in the past Nina had against Reiser and all that junk I think it would show a huge failing on the police's not to out and do surveillance and such.

Always when a person dissappears their spouse or other close family member is a prime suspect and given the legal stuff going on it's pretty much a given that they would arrest him (if there is the slightest bit of evidence) and get warrents and such to search his home and other such things.

Not that it makes hime guilty automaticly or anything like that. It's just the sort of thing police have to do in cases like this.

What a shitty situation.

Hans Reiser arrested: more coverage

Posted Oct 12, 2006 19:31 UTC (Thu) by tmk (guest, #40799) [Link]

Evidence revealed:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_...

Found this via Google

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 16:06 UTC (Wed) by DYN_DaTa (guest, #34072) [Link]

At first I thought that it was some kind of joke ...

Auch, o_O.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 16:39 UTC (Wed) by sdenlinger (subscriber, #24239) [Link] (14 responses)

I hope for his sake that Hans is innocent, and I'm sad that this has happened to the Reiser family. If it turns out that Hans did indeed murder his ex-wife, I think the developer community should rename the file system "NinaFS", or some variant.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 16:41 UTC (Wed) by allesfresser (guest, #216) [Link]

You might want to ask her family about that first--in case they don't want to have her name associated with Hans (anymore, at all).

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 16:49 UTC (Wed) by evgeny (subscriber, #774) [Link] (9 responses)

For the sake of $DEITY, please choose a less sensitive and sad topic for trolling...

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 19:02 UTC (Wed) by sdenlinger (subscriber, #24239) [Link] (8 responses)

I'm sorry if I offended you. I did not mean it to be a troll. I merely suggested this as a way to honor Nina, rather than her murderer. I don't use the file system--I didn't intend one way or the other to make a statement about its technical merits.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 20:32 UTC (Wed) by cventers (guest, #31465) [Link] (7 responses)

It might be best for this line of discussion to die.

> I merely suggested this as a way to honor Nina, rather than her
> murderer.

In the United States, we have a very important legal characteristic
called "innocent until proven guilty". Mr. Reiser has been arrested; he
has not been convicted. Referring to him matter-of-factly as a murderer
when virtually no facts of the case are known to the public is a little
bit offensive, and certainly indecent.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 20:59 UTC (Wed) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link]

Read his first post on the subject, it wasn't like he decided that he's guilty or anything...

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 12, 2006 18:58 UTC (Thu) by tmk (guest, #40799) [Link] (4 responses)

> In the United States, we have a very important legal characteristic
called "innocent until proven guilty".

Uh... Could you stop with this dull attempt at trolling?
Not the whole world is the United States, OK? I cannot think of a single legal system where someone is presumed guilty until proven innocent.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 12, 2006 19:05 UTC (Thu) by cventers (guest, #31465) [Link]

> Uh... Could you stop with this dull attempt at trolling?
> Not the whole world is the United States, OK? I cannot think of a
> single legal system where someone is presumed guilty until proven
> innocent.

I didn't say any other part of the world doesn't work this way. Accusing
me of trolling on these grounds smells like a trolling attempt in and of
itself.

Presumption of Guilt

Posted Oct 14, 2006 2:38 UTC (Sat) by zenaan (guest, #3778) [Link] (2 responses)

Presumption of Guilt is widely practiced today in the 'western' nations. Eg. if you are stopped while driving, by police, twice, and on each occasion they allege you are driving without a license, then on the second occasion, their procedure for default consequence is to imprison you, and only release you if you sign a Bail Undertaking promising not to drive.

Whether you sign or not, you are required to accept some form of punishment before conviction. You are presumed to be guilty and must stop living a normal life (normal including driving), until your court case ends.

See http://www.UPMART.org for details

Things are not as free as they might otherwise seem,
Zenaan

Presumption of Guilt

Posted Oct 14, 2006 17:26 UTC (Sat) by kevinbsmith (guest, #4778) [Link] (1 responses)

To save others the pain of struggling through the poorly-written UPMART.org site:

The story is from Australia. The woman was accused of driving a car that was not registered (as opposed to driving without a driver's license). She claims the car was registered at the time. Normally this minor offence would result in a small fine if proven. Because she was unwilling to give up driving until the trial, she was held in jail for almost a year while awaiting trial.

Presumption of Guilt

Posted Oct 15, 2006 9:34 UTC (Sun) by zenaan (guest, #3778) [Link]

When she was released, there still had been no trial. During her entire imprisonment, she had had no trial, and no conviction.

I agree with the principle that, at least in the case of a small matter ('summary offence'), there should be a presumption of innocence, before trial and before conviction has occurred.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 12, 2006 21:25 UTC (Thu) by stijn (guest, #570) [Link]

Make that 'innocent unless proven guilty'. Or is *until* really the common phrase? I'm not in the
mood to squash my curiosity with another pair of Google phrase searches.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 22:31 UTC (Wed) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link] (1 responses)

Maybe it's time to stop this tradition of keeping irrelevant patterns while naming software? Windows -> Lindows, Linspire -> Freespire, Firebird -> Firefox, and now ReiserFS -> NinaFS. In my opinion, it's utterly lame. Why do we need any person's name in the filesystem? What if the investigation comes with something that puts Nina in bad light the day after we rename ReiserFS?

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 12, 2006 4:15 UTC (Thu) by branden (guest, #7029) [Link]

Maybe it's time to stop this tradition of keeping irrelevant patterns while naming software? Windows -> Lindows, Linspire -> Freespire, Firebird -> Firefox, and now ReiserFS -> NinaFS. In my opinion, it's utterly lame.

I support such renaming for a firmly principled reason:

It's easier to type.

NinaFS

Posted Oct 12, 2006 21:18 UTC (Thu) by edmundo (guest, #616) [Link]

Renaming ReiserFS to NinaFS is such an amazingly stupid suggestion, in so many ways, that it ought to qualify for some kind of award.

Or perhaps we should name an award after it: the "NinaFS award" for outstanding crassness.

Seriously, I've seen some stomach-churning mawkishness in my life, but in terms of sheer gut-wrenching, toe-curling embarrassingness this dwarfs everything. In comparison with this, a bus-load of working-class Roman Catholic women being interviewed on live television about their reactions to a recent multiple child murder case would seem like a case of level-headed stoicism.

I suppose that next time that something like that happens I need only google for "NinaFS" to remind myself that it could be worse.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 22:14 UTC (Wed) by pfred1 (guest, #35195) [Link] (9 responses)

[This absolutely tasteless post has been redacted by your editor - the first time we have ever done that.]

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 23:37 UTC (Wed) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link] (1 responses)

I remember seeing a comment in this place, but I don't remember being shocked by it. I mean, it could have been pretty bad, but not bad enough to make me complain to the editor.

It would be better to restore the comment and append a "moderatorial" asking to ignore said comment. Unless the comment abuses the commenting system technically (think page wideners etc) or is outright obscene to the point of making LWN readers hesitate to even look at the comments (think pageloads of profanities, ASCII porn), it's better to keep the original, with a moderatorial if required.

As for "the first time", LWN had whole stories yanked, unless my memory is faulting. The previous story about Nina Reiser's disappearance is nowhere to be found, but I remember it was there.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 12, 2006 13:21 UTC (Thu) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link]

As for "the first time", LWN had whole stories yanked, unless my memory is faulting.

Exercising editorial restraint is different from censuring third party comments, I think. I have never seen censored comments, and there has been some weird stuff over here. It is a pity LWN had to censor this comment, but I trust our editor's criterion -- just this one time :P

The previous story about Nina Reiser's disappearance is nowhere to be found, but I remember it was there.

Some subscribers complained about it; it was merely hearsay at the moment and not relevant to free software.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 12, 2006 4:12 UTC (Thu) by branden (guest, #7029) [Link]

[This absolutely tasteless post has been redacted by your editor - the first time we have ever done that.]

pfred1: You might want to re-post your message to a less serious forum, like Everybody Loves Eric Raymond. The snark, crass, and just plain strange flow like wine over there.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 12, 2006 7:42 UTC (Thu) by opennw (guest, #29001) [Link] (2 responses)

I guess this is "redacting for real", as distinct from the pseudo-redaction strikeout of the LWN comment about Theo de Raadt:

~~Theo is unhappy that the OLPC will be, as he sees it, a closed system for OpenBSD.~~ [Mr. de Raadt has taken exception to the previous sentence, consider it removed].

("Device drivers and non-disclosure agreements", LWN Weekly, Oct 12, 2006.

Cool, degrees of redaction!

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 12, 2006 9:09 UTC (Thu) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link] (1 responses)

There's a distinction between removing comments made by a third party and changing editorial content. The comment about Theo is supposition, and was struck because Theo took exception to it. LWN probably can't /prove/ that Theo cares about OpenBSD on the OLPC so it would be inadvisable for them to ignore his opinion, but on the other hand it might be set a bad precedent to just remove it from the article at his whim, their compromise works for me (though it might not do them much good in a court of law...)

Removing a comment is different, and must be done very sensitively. We of course can't know what it said unless the writer chooses to publish elsewhere, but it is certainly reasonable to remove their text in full if the editors couldn't allow some or all of it to be published on their site, either because it was actionable or for any other reason at their discretion. Much more dangerous to edit, or censor parts of the comment.

I can see why they've been reluctant to do this before, Slashdot enjoys some partial immunity to lawsuits by not having (at least officially) any mechanism for editorial control of user contributed comments. Once you choose to exercise editorial control over some of the user contributed content a court is likely to conclude that you have the same control as the editor of a newspaper and can be sued for anything that appears on your site regardless of whether you actually saw it before it was published.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 13, 2006 3:26 UTC (Fri) by opennw (guest, #29001) [Link]

Thank you for your comment. I admit my comment was a throw-away, and in my book LWN has such an impeccable credibility that I trust what happened was for the best.

> Once you choose to exercise editorial control

That's a difficult one - let a comment stand and be sued, or remove it and be sued?

Comment removal

Posted Oct 12, 2006 15:40 UTC (Thu) by Max.Hyre (subscriber, #1054) [Link] (2 responses)

Remember, LWN's staff makes this the best news site (onany subject) on the Net. Their taste and abilities are so manifest that I accept unhesitatingly that the removal is well justified.

Comment removal

Posted Oct 12, 2006 16:18 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] (1 responses)

I sort of wish it were possible to do the same to the 'OJFS' troll rubbish that's turned up on l-k, but of course that's a slippery slope indeed...

Comment removal

Posted Oct 12, 2006 16:30 UTC (Thu) by mlfowler (guest, #29063) [Link]

Amen. It still amazes me that people can take delight from the suffering of others. What a sad world we do live in.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 11, 2006 22:55 UTC (Wed) by dreadnought (guest, #27222) [Link] (2 responses)

Just goes to show you you can never put your trust in human nature. It will always let you down. For Hans, I hope he is innocent and I hope his ex-wife is ok but if she isnt I hope justice is served.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 12, 2006 10:09 UTC (Thu) by NRArnot (subscriber, #3033) [Link] (1 responses)

Why do people think that just because someone committed a crime, their name should be removed from anything good that they may have accomplished? Especially so when there's no connection between the good work and the crime?

As for human nature, we are all subject to intense emotions, including anger. Statistics show that a person is more likely to be murdered by their spouse or lover than by anyone else. Enough said - innocent until proved guilty is a good rule.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 13, 2006 8:06 UTC (Fri) by ekj (guest, #1524) [Link]

I don't know. I think it's part of the tendency of many people to want to see the world in black and white.

Someone is *either* good *or* bad. Someone is *either* with us *or* with the terrorists.

It makes the world simple, and is therefore prefered by the simpleminded. but it doesn't match reality.

In reality, everyone has done both good and bad. In reality, most people are neither with you or against you. In real life it's ridicolous to claim that everyone (for example) sceptical about the Iraq war is a terrorist-supporter.

We don't know anything yet, other than that Hans has been arrested. But even if he should eventually become convicted, I don't see any reason to discount any of the good stuff he has done.

ReiserFS came into the world largely as the result of the efforts of Hans Reiser (and his company). That is a fact. This fact is not changed in any way by the outcome of this case.

Nina Reiser fund

Posted Oct 11, 2006 22:56 UTC (Wed) by clintonroy (subscriber, #6660) [Link]

There's a fund set up that people might like to contribute to:

http://www.ninareiser.com/

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 12, 2006 6:51 UTC (Thu) by walken (subscriber, #7089) [Link]

This article has more information:

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/15735159.htm

Quite incriminating if this is confirmed... :/

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 13, 2006 4:52 UTC (Fri) by csawtell (guest, #986) [Link] (5 responses)

I just want to say:-

Please, let's not make any more tasteless remarks here. I hope we are all above that. Please go to /. if you cannot restrain yourself.
Let us all pray to our respective Deities, that the law enforcement authorities and courts of law find it within themselves to be honourable and just, and yet to be merciful. To that end, they need to be told that they are being watched from all over the world.
I use and have found the Reiser4 file-system to be as close to exemplary as is possible for computer software. I hope everybody concerned with its creation knows that they have at lest one admiring user - me.
I am very relieved to hear that the NameSys staff are prepared to carry on in the short term. A big thank-you!
Whilst Hans has been arrested, as of now, he has not been found to be guilty, and from what I have read in the press the circumstantial and forensic evidence seems pretty light-weight to me.
There is a pressing need for a defence fund irrespective of Hans' guilt or innocence. I hope to be able to make a modest contribution to it once it's been set up. I hope other people in the F(L)OSS community will also feel so motivated.
Finally, if it is to be renamed, may I suggest simply 'RFS4'? The 'R' standing for both Reiser and Russia.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 13, 2006 16:35 UTC (Fri) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link] (4 responses)

RFS is taken by Remote File System. RFS4 would look like version 4 of RFS.

I would suggest something that encompasses the main distinctive feature of ReiserFS. Is that "dancing trees"? Or maybe nsfs - NameSys filesystem.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 14, 2006 18:27 UTC (Sat) by dirtyepic (guest, #30178) [Link] (3 responses)

how about Reiser4? what in hell's name does the name of a filesystem have to do with the unrelated and alleged actions of it's creator?

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 14, 2006 23:55 UTC (Sat) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link] (2 responses)

How about Hitler4? What in hell's name does the name of a filesystem have to do with the unrelated and alleged actions of the fascist dictator?

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 15, 2006 0:38 UTC (Sun) by dirtyepic (guest, #30178) [Link]

thank you ladies and gentlemen, and good night.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 16, 2006 16:33 UTC (Mon) by rwmj (subscriber, #5474) [Link]

At this point we all have to shout something:

Godwin!

Rich.

Geeks Gone Wild

Posted Oct 16, 2006 1:12 UTC (Mon) by khess (guest, #21687) [Link] (3 responses)

Damn, I am shocked. Did he say anything anti-Semitic when he was arrested?
Maybe his wife is Jewish and he needed to commit a hate crime. Man, I hope he is innocent...this will tarnish the face of Linux for a long time if he isn't. Hey, Hans...if it doesn't fit they must acquit.

Geeks Gone Wild - exactly!

Posted Oct 17, 2006 18:41 UTC (Tue) by tmk (guest, #40799) [Link] (2 responses)

Have you ever seen Hans? Or a photo of him? Look I cannot be 100% sure but even based on a single photo, the first thing that I thought was: Jew. And now that I know he married a Jewish women, well that just reassures this assumption. But even if Hans is now Jewish, sure as hell he is not anti-Semite. Then he wouldn't marry a Jewish women.

Also in one of the stories I read that his mother was at Burning Man while the alledged murder alledgedly happened. Well... I'm not American nor ever been there, but I think Burning Man is not something an anti-Semite or his mother would visit. Quite the contrary.....

Geeks Gone Wild - exactly!

Posted Oct 17, 2006 18:44 UTC (Tue) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link] (1 responses)

Can this conversation end here? Please? This is not the sort of stuff I want to see on LWN...

Geeks Gone Wild - exactly!

Posted Oct 18, 2006 15:10 UTC (Wed) by tmk (guest, #40799) [Link]

Now that I read this again, it's not the kind of convesation I want to be seen participating in, so you're totally right... I just got a little mad. Mazel tov.

Hans Reiser arrested

Posted Oct 19, 2006 16:27 UTC (Thu) by quintesse (guest, #14569) [Link]

Best thing to do is to close this thread, or better yet, delete it.

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in thinking I'd rather have a page filled with "ASCII porn" (see above somewhere) than what I'm reading here now.