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mjg59Edit: About two months after this was written, Intel committed to a large scale diversity initiative. Actions speak louder than words, and this was an effective repudiation of the behaviour described below. I've happily worked on Intel-related issues since then.
A lot of the kernel work I've ended up doing has involved dealing with bugs on Intel-based systems - figuring out interactions between their hardware and firmware, reverse engineering features that they refuse to document, improving their power management support, handling platform integration stuff for their GPUs and so on. Some of this I've been paid for, but a bunch has been unpaid work in my spare time[1].
Recently, as part of the anti-women #GamerGate campaign[2], a set of awful humans convinced Intel to terminate an advertising campaign because the site hosting the campaign had dared to suggest that the sexism present throughout the gaming industry might be a problem. Despite being awful humans, it is absolutely their right to request that a company choose to spend its money in a different way. And despite it being a dreadful decision, Intel is obviously entitled to spend their money as they wish. But I'm also free to spend my unpaid spare time as I wish, and I no longer wish to spend it doing unpaid work to enable an abhorrently-behaving company to sell more hardware. I won't be working on any Intel-specific bugs. I won't be reverse engineering any Intel-based features[3]. If the backlight on your laptop with an Intel GPU doesn't work, the number of fucks I'll be giving will fail to register on even the most sensitive measuring device.
On the plus side, this is probably going to significantly reduce my gin consumption.
[1] In the spirit of full disclosure: in some cases this has resulted in me being sent laptops in order to figure stuff out, and I was not always asked to return those laptops. My current laptop was purchased by me.
[2] I appreciate that there are some people involved in this campaign who earnestly believe that they are working to improve the state of professional ethics in games media. That is a worthy goal! But you're allying yourself to a cause that disproportionately attacks women while ignoring almost every other conflict of interest in the industry. If this is what you care about, find a new way to do it - and perhaps deal with the rather more obvious cases involving giant corporations, rather than obsessing over indie developers.
For avoidance of doubt, any comments arguing this point will be replaced with the phrase "Fart fart fart".
[3] Except for the purposes of finding entertaining security bugs
A lot of the kernel work I've ended up doing has involved dealing with bugs on Intel-based systems - figuring out interactions between their hardware and firmware, reverse engineering features that they refuse to document, improving their power management support, handling platform integration stuff for their GPUs and so on. Some of this I've been paid for, but a bunch has been unpaid work in my spare time[1].
Recently, as part of the anti-women #GamerGate campaign[2], a set of awful humans convinced Intel to terminate an advertising campaign because the site hosting the campaign had dared to suggest that the sexism present throughout the gaming industry might be a problem. Despite being awful humans, it is absolutely their right to request that a company choose to spend its money in a different way. And despite it being a dreadful decision, Intel is obviously entitled to spend their money as they wish. But I'm also free to spend my unpaid spare time as I wish, and I no longer wish to spend it doing unpaid work to enable an abhorrently-behaving company to sell more hardware. I won't be working on any Intel-specific bugs. I won't be reverse engineering any Intel-based features[3]. If the backlight on your laptop with an Intel GPU doesn't work, the number of fucks I'll be giving will fail to register on even the most sensitive measuring device.
On the plus side, this is probably going to significantly reduce my gin consumption.
[1] In the spirit of full disclosure: in some cases this has resulted in me being sent laptops in order to figure stuff out, and I was not always asked to return those laptops. My current laptop was purchased by me.
[2] I appreciate that there are some people involved in this campaign who earnestly believe that they are working to improve the state of professional ethics in games media. That is a worthy goal! But you're allying yourself to a cause that disproportionately attacks women while ignoring almost every other conflict of interest in the industry. If this is what you care about, find a new way to do it - and perhaps deal with the rather more obvious cases involving giant corporations, rather than obsessing over indie developers.
For avoidance of doubt, any comments arguing this point will be replaced with the phrase "Fart fart fart".
[3] Except for the purposes of finding entertaining security bugs
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no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 05:08 pm (UTC)Re: Misdirected hate.
Date: 2014-10-02 05:13 pm (UTC)"Fart fart fart fart"
and as such has been screened for irrelevance.
Re: Stay classy.
Date: 2014-10-02 05:19 pm (UTC)"Fart fart fart"
and as such has been screened for irrelevance.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 05:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 05:38 pm (UTC)Actions have consequences
Date: 2014-10-02 05:40 pm (UTC)Your liver will be happy :-)
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Date: 2014-10-02 05:59 pm (UTC)I'm also curious as to whether you have brought your disinterest in continuing work for Intel to them directly. It would have a large impact if you did, I'm sure.
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Date: 2014-10-02 06:01 pm (UTC)I haven't seen the actual content of the mails and "complaints" sent to Intel. Considering the overall approach taken by the GamerGate instigators, I could easily imagine them painting a very different picture from reality.
Re: пръдльо
Date: 2014-10-02 06:01 pm (UTC)"Fart fart fart fart"
and as such has been screened for irrelevance.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 06:02 pm (UTC)"Fart fart fart fart"
and as such has been screened for irrelevance.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 06:03 pm (UTC)"Fart fart fart fart"
and as such has been screened for irrelevance.
Sad news indeed...
Date: 2014-10-02 06:05 pm (UTC)As a user, i feel like we had a great loss today.
Bu then again, as a fellow programmer, you are doing the right thing. Intel became a company full of bad ideas and decisions lately. I was aways a big fan, but it's been kind of a rough ride.
Anyways, wish you the best man, and, on another plus side, more time to work on other open source software. Keep it up bro!
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Date: 2014-10-02 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 06:19 pm (UTC)Intel doesn't deserve praise for their cowardice. What we're seeing here is precedent for any group of children terrorizing a major company into doing their bidding.
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Date: 2014-10-02 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 07:03 pm (UTC)Matthew is probably the best kernel developer out there when it comes to platform support and crazy firmware bugs.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 07:08 pm (UTC)