EddieM
July 20th 05, 03:20 PM
<ring ring ring>
Susan: Hello?
Roy: Hello, is Arnold there please.
Susan: Can I ask who’s calling?
Roy: Yes, it’s a friend in England.
Susan: I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.
Roy: Sorry, it’s Roy. In England.
Susan: Can you hold for just a moment.
Roy: Certainly. Can you tell him it’s important, please?
[pause]
Arnold: Hello?
Roy: Hello, Arnold?
Arnold: Yes?
Roy: Yes, it’s Roy, in England.
Arnold: Who am I speaking to?
Roy: It’s Roy, in England.
Arnold: Ray England?
Roy: Roy. England.
Arnold: Roy England.
Roy: Yes. You know, THE Roy. Devil Roy.
Arnold: Oh, Roy Briggs.
Roy: Yes.
Arnold: Is England your real name?
Roy: <laughs> I live in England.
Arnold: Well. OK.
Roy: <laughs> You get that much? … Look, RAO is getting ridiculous, I think,
isn’t it?
Arnold: What?
Roy: RAO is getting ridiculous.
Arnold: Well, I suspect there’s been too much technical content for the likes
of you.
Roy: I don’t want to argue with you, Arny. I was hoping to perhaps … uh… come
up with a truce or something. I …
Arnold: It’s real simple. Stop your insults, stop your lies, stop your
harassment, and things will be better.
Roy: Is that it?
Arnold: Well, let’s put it this way. Once upon a time, somebody named Middius
decided that they were going to scorch the earth in RAO because they didn’t
like the way the place was. It seems to be working.
[pause]
Roy: I don’t agree it’s that simple though, Arny.
Arnold: I don’t think you know the history of the situation. You weren’t
there.
Roy: I think … I think there’s wrongdoing on all sides, and I’m going to stop
calling it as I see it, because I’ve been quite—
Arnold: [louder] You call it you see it? [agitated]
Roy: uh-huh.
Arnold: That would be a hoot. [pause] Am I supposed to deduce from that that
everything you’ve said until now is a lie?
Roy: Some people have forged into friendship perhaps because of their dislike
of other people, namely you. I’ll be blunt with you—
Arnold: Oh, don’t spare me anything. Of course there’s lots of people who find
solace in each other’s arms because I’ve basically shown what idiots they are.
Publicly. They stuck their nose out. I banged it. That’s what I do. You know
why I do it?
Roy: Why?
Arnold: It goes all the back to scorched earth. Somebody else set the rules
for the game; I’ve simply been playing by them for about two years.
Roy: Is that what you really think?
Arnold: It’s not a matter of what I think. If I were to put forth the effort,
I could show you the quotes from dejanews where it all went down.
[pause]
Roy: [sighs]
Arnold: You know, ignorance is a powerful thing, and I think you’ve got a
monumental dose of it. This whole thing started almost three years ago. Where
the hell were you?
Roy: I wasn’t around then.
Arnold: Well, that’s your fault. People who don’t know history are condemned
to repeat it. Somebody made that up, right? And that’s about what’s been
happening. I mean… this is a, this is a gigantic hoot. Something happened
about three years ago. A course was set. All kinds of people came in and said,
I’ve got a grand idea. I’m going to fix this. [laughs] I can give you the list
of names of people who thought they were going to do it. The consequence of
all of the above are, the place gets worse and worse. However, every once in a
while, we have a break for it, and we actually get some content. Right now, in
the last week or so, we’ve actually had some content. But … you know … how
long will that last?
Roy: Can I ask you an honest question then, Arny?
Arnold: Sure. I’ve always given you honest answers unless I put a smiley after
them.
Roy: Well, you put a smiley after pretty much everything, so … [laughs]
Arnold: [angry] Bull****. Bull****. BULL-****! That’s a lie.
Roy: Sorry?
Arnold: BULL-****! You know, you are such an ass. You are such a powerful ass.
You see everything through a microscopic little hole. No history, no
background, no understanding of how things come, and suddenly you think you’re
going to be Mr. Fixit. This is a hoot.
Roy: I … I can’t say I things quite that way.
Arnold: Of course you don’t see things that way. My goodness!
Roy: Well, Arnold, I’m trying to make amends with you here.
Arnold: Well, I’m telling you that making amends with me is painfully simple.
I’ve told you how to make amends with me many times.
Roy: Yeh, but this is a very one-sided thing. I’m asking—
Arnold: Sure it’s a one-sided thing. You screw with my wife, you screw with my
family, you screw with my life. You do everything you can to embarrass and
humiliate me. You dedicate a Web site to me…
Roy: I though you liked—
Arnold: … and on and on and on.
Roy: I though you liked—
Arnold: Very one-sided.
Roy: I though you liked—
Arnold: He throws the blvts….
Roy: I though you liked the Web site.
Arnold: Ah… I liked it at one point in time. Obviously, all this… all this Web
site is is you working out your frustrations. Good for you. I’m glad for you.
It’s not doing anybody else any good.
Roy: A lot of people go to that Web site now. They think it’s funny.
Arnold: Well, I think you gave the answer to that coming in the door. You said
people form friendships because of their mutual dislike for somebody else. So,
you’ve collected a lot of people who dislike certain people.
Roy: Namely you.
Arnold: Well, not — ha! That Web site is probably less than 10% me at this
particular point in time.
Roy: Well…
Arnold: And I’m not complaining, I’m just observing. What happens is, Roy
Briggs’ **** list gets longer and longer and longer. But one of these days you’re
going to real—you’re going to figure it out. Hate doesn’t work.
Roy: I don’t hate you, Arny.
Arnold: Well, uh…. Let’s put it this way: You do … you do a darn fine job of
making a fictional representation of it if that’s really the case.
Roy: I’m trying to… um, I mean, for any kind of thing to work—
Arnold: Well, it’s real simple.
Roy: Um, okay, you’re laying down conditions for me. You’re laying down the
law.
Arnold: I’m not … It’s not … It’s not… It’s not a rule. It’s an observation.
Roy: OK. Well, can you hear my observation, and perhaps we can, perhaps we can
start—
Arnold: Well, your observations are so biased, they’re irrelevant to reality.
Roy: So are yours. I mean, yours are biased from your point of view, mine are
biased from my point of view—
Arnold: NO! My views have a historical basis that you’re ignorant of. And you
sit here, you know, like I say, this is… this is a hoot. You weren’t there
when this all went down. You don’t know a thing about it. And you say, “Ah! I’m
going to …. I’m going to fix everything.” And all you’ve managed to do is
repeat history and maybe make things a little bit worse.
Roy: Oh. Well, that isn’t … that isn’t my intention, and—
Arnold: Well, but that’s what you’ve accomplished, Roy. And the thing about it
is, anybody who looked at your methodologies … I mean, have you ever
negotiated anything in your life?
Roy: Oh, yes.
Arnold: Is this how you negotiate with people?
Roy: Of course not.
Arnold: Well then, why don’t you look at what you know about how to negotiate
with people, and apply it?
Roy: This is what I’m trying to do now. I’m trying—
Arnold: Well, I think that, uh, the first thing that you do, if you want to
negotiate with somebody, you should quit dumping garbage on their lawn.
Roy: Well, the first thing you when you’re trying to negotiate with something
is you have a two-way dialog with them, and you—
Arnold: No, the first thing you do with anybody who’s reasonable, is you quit
dumping garbage on their lawn. As long as you’re dumping garbage on their
lawn, as soon as they see you on their property, they’re going to kick your
ass. Right?
Roy: Sure.
Arnold: Well, I’m glad to see you’ve got the brains of a three-year-old. Now
let’s work on a six-year-old. And stop dumping the ****ing garbage. You
understand me?
[pause]
Roy: I think so.
Arnold: Well? I mean, it’s very simple, Roy. If you want RAO to be a place
where people have a dialog, you know, about audio, and their love for music,
you quit dumping garbage on the—on the place. It’s painfully simple. I can’t
imagine this has eluded you for more than a millisecond. I mean, I think you’ve
figured out by now that dumping garbage doesn’t work. That’s why you called
me. And I’m here to tell you: You’re right, Roy. Dumping garbage doesn’t
work.[pause] This whole thing occurred because somebody decided they’re going
to dump garbage.
Roy: But isn’t, um… isn’t religion uh, I mean, isn’t Christianity a lot about
forgiveness? I mean, I consider myself a forgiving person. I do forgive people
for what they’ve done. These things happened a long time ago—
Arnold: Well, let’s put it this way. There’s all kinds of people in this world
that go around and say, “Forgive me.” And in the final analysis, what
everybody learns is that there’s, it’s very easy … you know… you can forgive a
person in an abstract sense. And sure, great. But the point is, is the person
comes around and does the same thing the next day, they’re stroking you, man.
It was a lie. And, uh, my particular situation is, is that, um, you know, if
somebody is halfway decent with me for any amount of time, I’ll be halfway
decent with them. And in your particular case, I’ve tried to be very helpful
to you in the face of a steady stream of insults. And, uh, you know, you, uh,
unilaterally decide to go back on the warpath. Well, that’s a choice you get
to make. I mean, you talk about forgiveness. How much forgiveness does it take
for me to actually give you some help on a project you’re working on while you’re
trying to embarrass and humiliate me every way you can. Now you know that’s
happened. And you say, well, Christianity is about forgiveness. OK, the olive
branch was extended, the olive branch was beaten, olive branch was urinated
on, **** was rubbed on it. There are more olive branches, but my God man, you
know… [snorts]
Roy: mmm.
Arnold: What do you want? I think you, the best you could hope for is a
reasonable treatment. And a reasonable treatment means that if you do that to
somebody, you know, what can I say?
Roy: Do you actually, um…. Do you not accept any responsibility for what’s
happened on RAO?
Arnold: I believe I’m on the record as saying I accept responsibility for a
certain portion of what’s happened on RAO, and anybody who says otherwise has
got just a rotten historical perspective and no knowledge of things that I’ve
said.
Roy: You did lie about me though, Arny. You said that I had rung you up and
given abuse to your daughter, and I never even spoke to her.
Arnold: You did. You didn’t know it. You thought it was my wife.
Roy: But I didn’t give her abuse. I didn’t… I didn’t say anything to her. All
I asked for was you.
Arnold: Well, let’s put it this way. The abuse… She perceived abuse, since she
was very upset. Did I ask her what happened? No. Was she upset? Yes. Did she
have a very low level of respect for you based on her conversation with you?
Yes.
Roy: Yeah, but I didn’t—
Arnold: You know, abuse takes many forms. You don’t have to sit and spout a
blue streak at somebody to abuse them.
Roy: No, but all … all I said to her was, Is Arny there? That’s all I said—
Arnold: No! Well, let’s put it this way: You managed to do it in such a
fashion that she perceived it as being abuse. And that’s good enough for me. I
love my daughter. After all, my daughter does not do to me what you do to me.
Roy: Does your wife think I abused her just now? Because I asked her, just
now, is Arnold there, in exactly the same way I asked her the first itme.
Arnold: [sighs] Um… I don’t know what my wife’s current state of mind is. But
she recognized you for who you are, I think. And of course that makes her very
wary, because she knows some of the things you said about her in public.
[pause ]And I think you really ought to think about that, Roy. You know, I’ve
alluded to this before. And that is, my uh, my… uh… I’m sitting in front of my
Internet terminal right now. It’s sitting in what amounts to be my family
room. It’s a 20-inch terminal. Anybody who wants to can come up behind it and
read it. When I’m not working on it, sometimes I walk away from it with posts
showing. So whatever I happen to be reading at the time, people can read. This
includes my wife and this includes my daughter. Go figure.
Roy: You threatened to … You threatened to, um, report Jeff Adams to his
employer.
Arnold: I did not.
Roy: You threatened him in email. He posted on RAO that you threatened him in
email that you were going to report him to his employer.
Arnold: I am completely unaware of that, of him saying that, and I’m surely
unaware of actually doing such a thing.
Roy: hm. So that’s … that’s pretty bad form.
Arnold: I … I … I would say it is bad form. What I would say for sure is,
other people have uh, definitely done such a thing. JJ has definitely been the
recipient of that from Middius and also from, uh, one other creep. But no, I
haven’t re— I haven’t, no, I have never done such a thing to Jeff Adams. I
mean, there may be something that he perceived that way. There may be some
words that he’s… that have been construed that way. But let me assure you,
that’s not where I’m coming from. That’s not what I do. And if you think I’ve
done that, I don’t know why you would think that.
Roy: Jeff Adams seemed like a very—
Arnold: I don’t know — I don’t know that Jeff Adams has actually said such a
thing.
Roy: Jeff Adams seemed like a very honest kind of guy, and he’s obviously
religious.
Arnold: I’m just saying, I don’t … I’m not aware that Jeff has said such a
thing.
Roy: I’m sure … I’m sure it’s on dejanews.
Arnold: I think… I think… I think that your memory is acting up. Because
number one, uh, it’s not a thing I would do. I mean, it’s just like Fred be,
who claims that, uh, Ferstler and I sent him pornography. Do you think for a
second that Ferstler and I would even bother to do that, even if we’d stoop to
thinking about doing that?
Roy: I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know you very well, do I. I don’t know what
you give of yourself on the newsgroup.
Arnold: Well, I… I… well, let’s put it this way. You already figured out that
the persona on the newsgroup is a function of a long and rather unhappy
history on the newsgroup. Well, let’s put it this way. The closest thing I’ve
ever done to sending anybody pornography is sending a subjectivist a technical
paper. You know what I’m saying?
Roy: Hm.
Arnold: I don’t give a **** about pornography. It’s … As I told Atkinson, I
have a life. I have stuff to do. I don’t screw with that ****.
Roy: Why don’t you buy a decent newsreader, by the way?
Arnold: I’ve explained that.
Roy: I don’t recall your answer, apart from something you—
Arnold: Well, as you know, I’m a software person. Therefore, in order to
undertand the software my clients use, I try to use the software my clients
use. The overwhelming majority of my clients use Outlook Express.
Roy: Are you not actually capable—
Arnold: Huh?
Roy: Are you not actually capable of using other software besides Outlook
Express as well?
Arnold: Um… Let’s put it this way. I have a life, and as far as the issue of
reformatting, go through the list. You know, do you have the capability of
finding out what newsreader people are actually using to make their posts?
Roy: Yes, Agent is about the best newsreader and it—
Arnold: No, I didn’t ask that question. I said, do you have the capability of
finding out what newsreader people are using to make their posts?
Roy: Agent is about the best newsreader and it allows you to—
Arnold: I didn’t—that isn’t what I said.
Roy: I was just adding something in. Agent is about the best newsreader and
you can see what people are posting—where people are posting from and what
newsreader they’re using.
Arnold: OK, so why don’t you go through a list of posts on a typical newsgroup
and find out what most people post with.
Roy: A lot of people post using Outlook Express. But that doesn’t—
Arnold: Most people post using Outlook Express. So why in the world are you
complaining about the fact that I use Outlook Express?
Roy: I’m not. I—I complain because you’re… you’ve set Outlook Express up, but
it doesn’t quote people properly. It chops all their quotes up into bits.
Arnold: Well, uh, you know, uh, it’s a very simple story. In order to post
onto RAHE, your posts have to be under 70 bytes wide.
Roy: Right.
Arnold: So—
Roy: 70 bytes?
Arnold: 70 characters.
Roy: Well, you can do that with Agent. You can do that with any newsreader.
Arnold: Well, if you set—let’s put it this way. If you set up Outlook Express
so it creates posts that are 70 bytes wide, uh…… for RAHE, guess how wide
they are for, uh…… RAO? [pause] But again, this is a absolutely bogus, stupid
issue.
Roy: But most people manage to make their Internet posts look presentable and
look nice. And you, supposedly being into computers and into software—
Arnold: Uh, Roy, do you want to talk to me about serious issues, or do you
want to whine?
Roy: I’m not whining, I’m just asking you a simple question.
Arnold: No, I’m … This is a WHINE! I’ve explained to you why I use Outlook
Express. If you want, you know… Are you interested in just, you know, bitching
at me, or are you interested in actually making some kind of peace with me?
Roy: I’m interested in making peace with you, as I said at the beginning.
Arnold: Well, if you’re interested in making peace with me, like I said, item
number one: Quit throwing garbage on my lawn.
Roy: What kind of garbage? What don’t you like?
Arnold: I… Let’s put it this way: I would … uh… If I was a god of RAO, RAO
would contain … um… Well, RAO would become that ideal… um… moderated/not
moderated newsgroup that everybody wishes it would become. That’s what would
happen to RAO. No personal attacks…. Uh… very limited off-topic content.
Bascially, people talking about audio.
Roy: When you call things, you say things that are obviously incorrect….
Arnold: Give me an example of something I said that’s obviously incorrect.
Roy: All amplifiers of low THD sound the same.
Arnold: Uh… That is a false claim. And, uh, as to the conditions for
amplifiers sounding the same as, you know, goes way beyond that. THD isn’t
even on the list.
Roy: So what are you saying makes amplifiers sound the same then? Are you
saying a lot of amplifiers could sound different?
Arnold: [giggles, then falsettoes] I can’t believe this! How many times have I
said some amplifiers sound the same, some amplifiers sound different? That’s
reality.
Susan: Hello?
Roy: Hello, is Arnold there please.
Susan: Can I ask who’s calling?
Roy: Yes, it’s a friend in England.
Susan: I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.
Roy: Sorry, it’s Roy. In England.
Susan: Can you hold for just a moment.
Roy: Certainly. Can you tell him it’s important, please?
[pause]
Arnold: Hello?
Roy: Hello, Arnold?
Arnold: Yes?
Roy: Yes, it’s Roy, in England.
Arnold: Who am I speaking to?
Roy: It’s Roy, in England.
Arnold: Ray England?
Roy: Roy. England.
Arnold: Roy England.
Roy: Yes. You know, THE Roy. Devil Roy.
Arnold: Oh, Roy Briggs.
Roy: Yes.
Arnold: Is England your real name?
Roy: <laughs> I live in England.
Arnold: Well. OK.
Roy: <laughs> You get that much? … Look, RAO is getting ridiculous, I think,
isn’t it?
Arnold: What?
Roy: RAO is getting ridiculous.
Arnold: Well, I suspect there’s been too much technical content for the likes
of you.
Roy: I don’t want to argue with you, Arny. I was hoping to perhaps … uh… come
up with a truce or something. I …
Arnold: It’s real simple. Stop your insults, stop your lies, stop your
harassment, and things will be better.
Roy: Is that it?
Arnold: Well, let’s put it this way. Once upon a time, somebody named Middius
decided that they were going to scorch the earth in RAO because they didn’t
like the way the place was. It seems to be working.
[pause]
Roy: I don’t agree it’s that simple though, Arny.
Arnold: I don’t think you know the history of the situation. You weren’t
there.
Roy: I think … I think there’s wrongdoing on all sides, and I’m going to stop
calling it as I see it, because I’ve been quite—
Arnold: [louder] You call it you see it? [agitated]
Roy: uh-huh.
Arnold: That would be a hoot. [pause] Am I supposed to deduce from that that
everything you’ve said until now is a lie?
Roy: Some people have forged into friendship perhaps because of their dislike
of other people, namely you. I’ll be blunt with you—
Arnold: Oh, don’t spare me anything. Of course there’s lots of people who find
solace in each other’s arms because I’ve basically shown what idiots they are.
Publicly. They stuck their nose out. I banged it. That’s what I do. You know
why I do it?
Roy: Why?
Arnold: It goes all the back to scorched earth. Somebody else set the rules
for the game; I’ve simply been playing by them for about two years.
Roy: Is that what you really think?
Arnold: It’s not a matter of what I think. If I were to put forth the effort,
I could show you the quotes from dejanews where it all went down.
[pause]
Roy: [sighs]
Arnold: You know, ignorance is a powerful thing, and I think you’ve got a
monumental dose of it. This whole thing started almost three years ago. Where
the hell were you?
Roy: I wasn’t around then.
Arnold: Well, that’s your fault. People who don’t know history are condemned
to repeat it. Somebody made that up, right? And that’s about what’s been
happening. I mean… this is a, this is a gigantic hoot. Something happened
about three years ago. A course was set. All kinds of people came in and said,
I’ve got a grand idea. I’m going to fix this. [laughs] I can give you the list
of names of people who thought they were going to do it. The consequence of
all of the above are, the place gets worse and worse. However, every once in a
while, we have a break for it, and we actually get some content. Right now, in
the last week or so, we’ve actually had some content. But … you know … how
long will that last?
Roy: Can I ask you an honest question then, Arny?
Arnold: Sure. I’ve always given you honest answers unless I put a smiley after
them.
Roy: Well, you put a smiley after pretty much everything, so … [laughs]
Arnold: [angry] Bull****. Bull****. BULL-****! That’s a lie.
Roy: Sorry?
Arnold: BULL-****! You know, you are such an ass. You are such a powerful ass.
You see everything through a microscopic little hole. No history, no
background, no understanding of how things come, and suddenly you think you’re
going to be Mr. Fixit. This is a hoot.
Roy: I … I can’t say I things quite that way.
Arnold: Of course you don’t see things that way. My goodness!
Roy: Well, Arnold, I’m trying to make amends with you here.
Arnold: Well, I’m telling you that making amends with me is painfully simple.
I’ve told you how to make amends with me many times.
Roy: Yeh, but this is a very one-sided thing. I’m asking—
Arnold: Sure it’s a one-sided thing. You screw with my wife, you screw with my
family, you screw with my life. You do everything you can to embarrass and
humiliate me. You dedicate a Web site to me…
Roy: I though you liked—
Arnold: … and on and on and on.
Roy: I though you liked—
Arnold: Very one-sided.
Roy: I though you liked—
Arnold: He throws the blvts….
Roy: I though you liked the Web site.
Arnold: Ah… I liked it at one point in time. Obviously, all this… all this Web
site is is you working out your frustrations. Good for you. I’m glad for you.
It’s not doing anybody else any good.
Roy: A lot of people go to that Web site now. They think it’s funny.
Arnold: Well, I think you gave the answer to that coming in the door. You said
people form friendships because of their mutual dislike for somebody else. So,
you’ve collected a lot of people who dislike certain people.
Roy: Namely you.
Arnold: Well, not — ha! That Web site is probably less than 10% me at this
particular point in time.
Roy: Well…
Arnold: And I’m not complaining, I’m just observing. What happens is, Roy
Briggs’ **** list gets longer and longer and longer. But one of these days you’re
going to real—you’re going to figure it out. Hate doesn’t work.
Roy: I don’t hate you, Arny.
Arnold: Well, uh…. Let’s put it this way: You do … you do a darn fine job of
making a fictional representation of it if that’s really the case.
Roy: I’m trying to… um, I mean, for any kind of thing to work—
Arnold: Well, it’s real simple.
Roy: Um, okay, you’re laying down conditions for me. You’re laying down the
law.
Arnold: I’m not … It’s not … It’s not… It’s not a rule. It’s an observation.
Roy: OK. Well, can you hear my observation, and perhaps we can, perhaps we can
start—
Arnold: Well, your observations are so biased, they’re irrelevant to reality.
Roy: So are yours. I mean, yours are biased from your point of view, mine are
biased from my point of view—
Arnold: NO! My views have a historical basis that you’re ignorant of. And you
sit here, you know, like I say, this is… this is a hoot. You weren’t there
when this all went down. You don’t know a thing about it. And you say, “Ah! I’m
going to …. I’m going to fix everything.” And all you’ve managed to do is
repeat history and maybe make things a little bit worse.
Roy: Oh. Well, that isn’t … that isn’t my intention, and—
Arnold: Well, but that’s what you’ve accomplished, Roy. And the thing about it
is, anybody who looked at your methodologies … I mean, have you ever
negotiated anything in your life?
Roy: Oh, yes.
Arnold: Is this how you negotiate with people?
Roy: Of course not.
Arnold: Well then, why don’t you look at what you know about how to negotiate
with people, and apply it?
Roy: This is what I’m trying to do now. I’m trying—
Arnold: Well, I think that, uh, the first thing that you do, if you want to
negotiate with somebody, you should quit dumping garbage on their lawn.
Roy: Well, the first thing you when you’re trying to negotiate with something
is you have a two-way dialog with them, and you—
Arnold: No, the first thing you do with anybody who’s reasonable, is you quit
dumping garbage on their lawn. As long as you’re dumping garbage on their
lawn, as soon as they see you on their property, they’re going to kick your
ass. Right?
Roy: Sure.
Arnold: Well, I’m glad to see you’ve got the brains of a three-year-old. Now
let’s work on a six-year-old. And stop dumping the ****ing garbage. You
understand me?
[pause]
Roy: I think so.
Arnold: Well? I mean, it’s very simple, Roy. If you want RAO to be a place
where people have a dialog, you know, about audio, and their love for music,
you quit dumping garbage on the—on the place. It’s painfully simple. I can’t
imagine this has eluded you for more than a millisecond. I mean, I think you’ve
figured out by now that dumping garbage doesn’t work. That’s why you called
me. And I’m here to tell you: You’re right, Roy. Dumping garbage doesn’t
work.[pause] This whole thing occurred because somebody decided they’re going
to dump garbage.
Roy: But isn’t, um… isn’t religion uh, I mean, isn’t Christianity a lot about
forgiveness? I mean, I consider myself a forgiving person. I do forgive people
for what they’ve done. These things happened a long time ago—
Arnold: Well, let’s put it this way. There’s all kinds of people in this world
that go around and say, “Forgive me.” And in the final analysis, what
everybody learns is that there’s, it’s very easy … you know… you can forgive a
person in an abstract sense. And sure, great. But the point is, is the person
comes around and does the same thing the next day, they’re stroking you, man.
It was a lie. And, uh, my particular situation is, is that, um, you know, if
somebody is halfway decent with me for any amount of time, I’ll be halfway
decent with them. And in your particular case, I’ve tried to be very helpful
to you in the face of a steady stream of insults. And, uh, you know, you, uh,
unilaterally decide to go back on the warpath. Well, that’s a choice you get
to make. I mean, you talk about forgiveness. How much forgiveness does it take
for me to actually give you some help on a project you’re working on while you’re
trying to embarrass and humiliate me every way you can. Now you know that’s
happened. And you say, well, Christianity is about forgiveness. OK, the olive
branch was extended, the olive branch was beaten, olive branch was urinated
on, **** was rubbed on it. There are more olive branches, but my God man, you
know… [snorts]
Roy: mmm.
Arnold: What do you want? I think you, the best you could hope for is a
reasonable treatment. And a reasonable treatment means that if you do that to
somebody, you know, what can I say?
Roy: Do you actually, um…. Do you not accept any responsibility for what’s
happened on RAO?
Arnold: I believe I’m on the record as saying I accept responsibility for a
certain portion of what’s happened on RAO, and anybody who says otherwise has
got just a rotten historical perspective and no knowledge of things that I’ve
said.
Roy: You did lie about me though, Arny. You said that I had rung you up and
given abuse to your daughter, and I never even spoke to her.
Arnold: You did. You didn’t know it. You thought it was my wife.
Roy: But I didn’t give her abuse. I didn’t… I didn’t say anything to her. All
I asked for was you.
Arnold: Well, let’s put it this way. The abuse… She perceived abuse, since she
was very upset. Did I ask her what happened? No. Was she upset? Yes. Did she
have a very low level of respect for you based on her conversation with you?
Yes.
Roy: Yeah, but I didn’t—
Arnold: You know, abuse takes many forms. You don’t have to sit and spout a
blue streak at somebody to abuse them.
Roy: No, but all … all I said to her was, Is Arny there? That’s all I said—
Arnold: No! Well, let’s put it this way: You managed to do it in such a
fashion that she perceived it as being abuse. And that’s good enough for me. I
love my daughter. After all, my daughter does not do to me what you do to me.
Roy: Does your wife think I abused her just now? Because I asked her, just
now, is Arnold there, in exactly the same way I asked her the first itme.
Arnold: [sighs] Um… I don’t know what my wife’s current state of mind is. But
she recognized you for who you are, I think. And of course that makes her very
wary, because she knows some of the things you said about her in public.
[pause ]And I think you really ought to think about that, Roy. You know, I’ve
alluded to this before. And that is, my uh, my… uh… I’m sitting in front of my
Internet terminal right now. It’s sitting in what amounts to be my family
room. It’s a 20-inch terminal. Anybody who wants to can come up behind it and
read it. When I’m not working on it, sometimes I walk away from it with posts
showing. So whatever I happen to be reading at the time, people can read. This
includes my wife and this includes my daughter. Go figure.
Roy: You threatened to … You threatened to, um, report Jeff Adams to his
employer.
Arnold: I did not.
Roy: You threatened him in email. He posted on RAO that you threatened him in
email that you were going to report him to his employer.
Arnold: I am completely unaware of that, of him saying that, and I’m surely
unaware of actually doing such a thing.
Roy: hm. So that’s … that’s pretty bad form.
Arnold: I … I … I would say it is bad form. What I would say for sure is,
other people have uh, definitely done such a thing. JJ has definitely been the
recipient of that from Middius and also from, uh, one other creep. But no, I
haven’t re— I haven’t, no, I have never done such a thing to Jeff Adams. I
mean, there may be something that he perceived that way. There may be some
words that he’s… that have been construed that way. But let me assure you,
that’s not where I’m coming from. That’s not what I do. And if you think I’ve
done that, I don’t know why you would think that.
Roy: Jeff Adams seemed like a very—
Arnold: I don’t know — I don’t know that Jeff Adams has actually said such a
thing.
Roy: Jeff Adams seemed like a very honest kind of guy, and he’s obviously
religious.
Arnold: I’m just saying, I don’t … I’m not aware that Jeff has said such a
thing.
Roy: I’m sure … I’m sure it’s on dejanews.
Arnold: I think… I think… I think that your memory is acting up. Because
number one, uh, it’s not a thing I would do. I mean, it’s just like Fred be,
who claims that, uh, Ferstler and I sent him pornography. Do you think for a
second that Ferstler and I would even bother to do that, even if we’d stoop to
thinking about doing that?
Roy: I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know you very well, do I. I don’t know what
you give of yourself on the newsgroup.
Arnold: Well, I… I… well, let’s put it this way. You already figured out that
the persona on the newsgroup is a function of a long and rather unhappy
history on the newsgroup. Well, let’s put it this way. The closest thing I’ve
ever done to sending anybody pornography is sending a subjectivist a technical
paper. You know what I’m saying?
Roy: Hm.
Arnold: I don’t give a **** about pornography. It’s … As I told Atkinson, I
have a life. I have stuff to do. I don’t screw with that ****.
Roy: Why don’t you buy a decent newsreader, by the way?
Arnold: I’ve explained that.
Roy: I don’t recall your answer, apart from something you—
Arnold: Well, as you know, I’m a software person. Therefore, in order to
undertand the software my clients use, I try to use the software my clients
use. The overwhelming majority of my clients use Outlook Express.
Roy: Are you not actually capable—
Arnold: Huh?
Roy: Are you not actually capable of using other software besides Outlook
Express as well?
Arnold: Um… Let’s put it this way. I have a life, and as far as the issue of
reformatting, go through the list. You know, do you have the capability of
finding out what newsreader people are actually using to make their posts?
Roy: Yes, Agent is about the best newsreader and it—
Arnold: No, I didn’t ask that question. I said, do you have the capability of
finding out what newsreader people are using to make their posts?
Roy: Agent is about the best newsreader and it allows you to—
Arnold: I didn’t—that isn’t what I said.
Roy: I was just adding something in. Agent is about the best newsreader and
you can see what people are posting—where people are posting from and what
newsreader they’re using.
Arnold: OK, so why don’t you go through a list of posts on a typical newsgroup
and find out what most people post with.
Roy: A lot of people post using Outlook Express. But that doesn’t—
Arnold: Most people post using Outlook Express. So why in the world are you
complaining about the fact that I use Outlook Express?
Roy: I’m not. I—I complain because you’re… you’ve set Outlook Express up, but
it doesn’t quote people properly. It chops all their quotes up into bits.
Arnold: Well, uh, you know, uh, it’s a very simple story. In order to post
onto RAHE, your posts have to be under 70 bytes wide.
Roy: Right.
Arnold: So—
Roy: 70 bytes?
Arnold: 70 characters.
Roy: Well, you can do that with Agent. You can do that with any newsreader.
Arnold: Well, if you set—let’s put it this way. If you set up Outlook Express
so it creates posts that are 70 bytes wide, uh…… for RAHE, guess how wide
they are for, uh…… RAO? [pause] But again, this is a absolutely bogus, stupid
issue.
Roy: But most people manage to make their Internet posts look presentable and
look nice. And you, supposedly being into computers and into software—
Arnold: Uh, Roy, do you want to talk to me about serious issues, or do you
want to whine?
Roy: I’m not whining, I’m just asking you a simple question.
Arnold: No, I’m … This is a WHINE! I’ve explained to you why I use Outlook
Express. If you want, you know… Are you interested in just, you know, bitching
at me, or are you interested in actually making some kind of peace with me?
Roy: I’m interested in making peace with you, as I said at the beginning.
Arnold: Well, if you’re interested in making peace with me, like I said, item
number one: Quit throwing garbage on my lawn.
Roy: What kind of garbage? What don’t you like?
Arnold: I… Let’s put it this way: I would … uh… If I was a god of RAO, RAO
would contain … um… Well, RAO would become that ideal… um… moderated/not
moderated newsgroup that everybody wishes it would become. That’s what would
happen to RAO. No personal attacks…. Uh… very limited off-topic content.
Bascially, people talking about audio.
Roy: When you call things, you say things that are obviously incorrect….
Arnold: Give me an example of something I said that’s obviously incorrect.
Roy: All amplifiers of low THD sound the same.
Arnold: Uh… That is a false claim. And, uh, as to the conditions for
amplifiers sounding the same as, you know, goes way beyond that. THD isn’t
even on the list.
Roy: So what are you saying makes amplifiers sound the same then? Are you
saying a lot of amplifiers could sound different?
Arnold: [giggles, then falsettoes] I can’t believe this! How many times have I
said some amplifiers sound the same, some amplifiers sound different? That’s
reality.