Re: ? -- JSH related

From: Tim Peters (tim.one_at_comcast.net)
Date: 10/22/04 

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 21:04:58 -0400

[Tim Peters, reveals that he's a computer geek -- but someone
 else already unearthed this dirty truth!]

[David C. Ullrich]
> You guys must finally have that big snake thing working right, given
> the time you've been spending around here lately... heh.

Python development is a long-time love and hobby, but I don't get paid for
it. I have given some of my Py-time to Usenet lately. I'll enter therapy
voluntarily.

Python 2.4 beta 1 was recently released. Thanks to Trevor Perrin, bigint
integer exponentiation got a nice speed boost. Thanks to that, I now have a
Python program that takes any integer n > 1 as input, and outputs three
integers x, y and z all >= 1 such that x**n + y**n not only doesn't equal
z**n, it's provably not even notably close. Obviously a short proof of FLT
follows, or I'm not the most overwhelming intellectual force in mathematical
history.

[E. Xavier]
>>> Fourth, he wasn't successful in ending or affecting Dr. Ullrich's job,
>>> was he?

>> Sad to say, poor Dr. Ullrich has been unemployed as a result since 2002,
>> and posts now from an illegally jacked-in laptop at the bottom of a
>> dumpster >behind the University of Oklahoma's football stadium. Oops!
>> I'm afraid I channelled one of JSH's dreams there <wink>. Seriously, by
>> all credible accounts, David wasn't tangibly injured in any way.

> Which, lest anyone miss an important point here, doesn't mean that
> his behavior was apppropriate or in fact anything less then
> despicable: (i) People _can_ get in trouble on account of totally
> bogus charges of racism (ii) there's still a lot of honest, nasty
> vile racism out there - whining about the sort of thing JSH is
> whining about here can't do actual victims much good,
> crying-wolf-wise.

This part of the story would be sooooo much easier if we were all 10 years
old. Then when he called you a lapdog, and you declined to call him
anything, it would have been forgotten by both sides within a day. As is, I
do doubt that your university's administration, or your state's Attorney
General, are more inclined to dismiss charges of racism due to anything
James did. I mean, really. While I don't know what he said to them, "the
facts" of this case are laughably transparent. So while there may be some
possible world in which this specific case has deep moral implications, I'm
inclined to stick to "no tangible injury" in this world.

Of course it's despicable to cry to employers about things said on Usenet.
But I hope you'll forgive me if I can't stop laughing anyway, because in
this case JSH was feigning offense at something you *didn't* say. "Teacher!
Teacher! Davey didn't call me a poo-poo face!" LOL -- it's just too silly
for me to take seriously. I appreciate that it's not as funny to you. But
still <wink>.