Re: ? -- JSH related

From: David C. Ullrich (ullrich_at_math.okstate.edu)
Date: 10/22/04 

Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 06:54:27 -0500

On 22 Oct 2004 03:26:40 -0700, jstevh@msn.com (James Harris) wrote:

>[...]
>
>The real story is that, yes, I naively and arrogantly thought I could
>find a short and hopefully simple proof of some great problem, and I
>spent a lot of time on FLT and spherical packing.

Uh, you didn't just think you could find such a thing, you
insisted you _had_ found it. Over and over, dismissing anyone
who disputed your claims with nothing but insults.

>Unfortunately, Usenet was not the place to talk about such efforts.
>
>I didn't matter that I said I was an amateur. It didn't matter that I
>admitted my mistakes

Admitted your mistakes? Yes, you often admitted something was
wrong a year or so after it was pointed out. Each time coming
up with a new version, and _each_ time, no matter _how_ many
versions had turned out to be wrong, insisting that the _current_
version was correct, and that anyone who claimed otherwise
was simply lying.

>or said it was mostly just a lark. The people
>here wanted to control my postings, and when I wouldn't be controlled
>they got vicious in ever more creative ways.
>
>They are vicious.
>
>At the end of the day, what I've done is talk about various math
>ideas, sure often arrogantly, at times with claims that turned out to
>be wrong

And never with claims that turned out to be right.

>--which I'd admit when I figured it out.

Guffaw. Your "figuring it out" amounted to finally agreeing
that an explanation of an error was correct, after it had
been repeated a few hundred times.

>In response--on a supposedly *public* forum--I've been hounded for
>years by people calling me crazy, idiot, fool, loon, and those are the
>nice names.
>
>Race was brought into it by David Ullrich, and when I complained to
>his school, as he is a math professor at Oklahoma State University, I
>got called racial slurs.

The people who were calling you bad names (which of course most of
us agreed was a bad thing) were doing that before this incident.

>When I finally got a result accepted at a math journal which claims to
>do peer review, sci.math'ers gang emailed to get it yanked.

Nope. Nobody said it should be yanked - there's universal agreement
here that withdrawing the paper was not what the journal should have
done - they lose any credibility they may have had when they did that.

People _did_ inform the editor that the paper was ludicrously wrong.

>And they still stalk my postings.

A truly bizarre notion of "stalk" - reading things that you post
in public forums.

>The warning to others out there is that Usenet is a place where people
>can come after you, and they will. And it won't just stay on Usenet
>necessarily, as clearly posters here have been trying to find out
>personal information about me, like where I work, and live.

Back when you were contacting OSU every few days I _asked_ you
who _your_ employer was. I still don't know why you've never
answered that question. (Someone else _did_ do some sleuthing
and _posted_ an answer, which I ignored - wasn't interested
unless the information came from you. Who _is_ your employer,
by the way?)

You really don't realize how hilarious this warning is,
coming from _you_? I guess not.

>And you have the case of Erik Max Francis with his webpage, still up
>there as it appears he wishes to keep it up indefinitely, and ***
>Winter with his copyright violations.
>
>The lesson is clear: post on Usenet at your own risk, and don't be
>surprised at what happens, how energetic people may be in coming after
>you, how long they may keep at it, and what lengths they may go to to
>try and take you out, if you don't obey what *they* think is the
>proper behavior.
>
>Usenet is now a place where gangs of posters routinely interfere in
>other people's lives, and then blame that person.

What utter bull. Exactly how has anyone here tried to interfere
with your life, in a way that's even _remotely_ comparable to
the way that you _have_ interfered in mine? (Or tried to, in
your usual impotent way.)

>James Harris

************************

David C. Ullrich

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