CURRENT MISSION

To write Free Software

ABOUT ME

I am a free software developer and have been officially blessed by St. Ignucious. I have sworn to the oath of writing free software for the goodness of all mankind, and am known to be occasionally holy (though not celibate).

PHILOSOPHY

This is from Orson Scott Card's "Speaker for the Dead":

A great rabbi stands teaching in the marketplace. It happens that a husband finds proof that morning of his wife's adultry, and a mob carries her to the marketplace to stone her to death.

The rabbi walks forward and stands beside the woman. Out of respect for him, the mob forbears, and waits with the stones heavy in their hands. "Is there anyone here," he says to them, "who has not desired another man's wife, another woman's husband?"

They murmer and say, "We all know the desire. But, Rabbi, none of us has acted on it."

The rabbi says, "Then kneel down and give thanks that God made you strong." He takes the woman by the hand and leads her out of the market. Just before he lets her go, he whispers to her, "Tell the lord magistrate who saved his mistress. Then he'll know I'm his loyal servant."

So the woman lives, because the community is too corrupt to protect itself from disorder.

Another rabbi, another city. He goes to her and stops the mob, as in the other story, and says, "Which of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone."

The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of their own individual sins. Someday, they think, I may be like this woman, and I'll hope for forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her the way I wish to be treated.

As they open their hands and let the stones fall to the ground, the rabbi picks up one of the fallen stones, lifts it high over the woman's head, and throws it straight down with all his might. It crushes her skull and dashes her brains onto the cobblestones.

"Nor am I without sin," he says to the people. "But if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead, and our city with it."

So the women died because her community was too rigid to endure her deviance.

The famous version of this story is noteworthy because it is so startingly rare in our experience. Most communities lurch between decay and rigor mortis, and when they veer too far, they die.

Only one rabbi dared to expect of us such a perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation. So, of course, we killed him.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Couch surfed with Nabil, Ashley, Kristin in Cambodia. Bloody awesome experience!

Showed Audrey and Eve the sights in KL. Looking forward to hosting them if they ever end up in Malaysia again.

Hosted Richard Matthew Stallman (yes, *the* rms) back in 2005.
Hosted the Australian dude in July 2008
Hosted Nita from Indonesia in September 2008
Hosted Yusuke Koizumi from Japan in September 2008
Hosted Peter and Anastasia from Russia in September 2008
Hosted Louise and Kahi from Hawaii in October 2008
Hosted Sujai from UK in November 2008
Hosted Maria from Russia in February 2009
Hosted Louise and Kahi in February 2009
Hosted Allaina Wilson from US in March 2009
Hosted Matt from Quebec in May 2009
Hosted Johanne and Cesar from Canada/Argentina in July 2009
Hosted Pradeepto from India in October 2009
Hosted Walter Heck from Netherlands in October 2009
Hosted Elena and Florean from Germany/Britain/Greece in March 2010
Hosted Anna from Sweden in March 2010
Hosted Shilpa from US in May 2010

Interests

I love reading. Everything from politics to science fiction, horror to fantasy, economics to comedy. If you are a fellow bookworm, drop me an email and perhaps we could swap books. A list of books I have on my bookshelf: http://ditesh.gathani.org/books.php

My second love is fairly new - political science.

The third love are the free *NIX systems. There you go, that's the hardcore geek in me coming out. There is beauty in *NIX systems and after a decade of using such systems, I can still revel in the feeling of elegance and charm that hides behind every esoteric command and within every technical rule.

Possible new love - rockclimbing! And running!

• writing
• books
• beauty
• running
• politics
• reading
• economics
• law
• political science
• science
• software

Music, Movies, and Books

A list of books: http://ditesh.gathani.org/books.php

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, China, France, India, Japan, Laos, Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Malaysia

•